Despair…
A breeze ran through the trees, making them whisper about the cool autumn that was slowly approaching. The leaves were already starting to fall and a soft crunching came from every step that Strong Heart took. The running of the leaves was going to happen next week and he was glad that he got to see the trees still covered in leafy fire. Strong Heart’s light and dark brown striped mane was tussled back and forth by the wind as he strolled through the forest. He enjoyed these almost surreal afternoons when the sunlight would dance through the branches creating a kaleidoscope of colors on the ground.
It made him feel like he was looking at a moving painting.
Being a young colt, he wasn’t working the long days that his father did. After school he would run back to his house as fast as his legs could carry him so that he could get his battle armor. Or as close to battle armor as he could get. For now, cardboard and duct tape would have do.
Usually his friends would beat him back to the fort and have their defenses already set up, and he would have to carefully find a new path to sneak into their bunker. This was easier said than done, as the fort was an old shed out in the middle of a grass field near Ponyville. But what he did have that the rest of his friends didn’t was the color of his coat.
At first he hated his coat, simply because it was different than his classmates. When winter wrap up ended, most of his classmates would stop wearing scarves and hats. Strong Heart on the other hand would get a whole new coat color. Usually only earth ponies could get this type of coat but some Pegasi had been known to acquire this sporadic gene every once and a while. Most ponies thought that it was a trait that came from long ago when Earth ponies were hunted by timber wolves and chimeras and needed to blend in to the surroundings. Strong Heart’s coat would change color from a darker brown in the summer to a pure white in the winter, and then reversing back in the spring. It was fall and Strong Hearts coat was a light brown; the exact same color as the tall grass that surrounded the fort. This would lead to some very interesting encounters on any normal battle day, but today had not been normal.
Strong Heart snuck up behind the shed on the south side, quietly laughing to himself. It had taken the better part of an hour to get around to here without alerting his friends and he was not about to waste it. They wouldn’t expect him to come from this side because it had no cover. Or so they thought.
This would be too easy.
Without being detected, he leapt up onto the windowsill, with his cardboard sword and shield in hoof, and was about to pounce. But what he saw in the fort made him gasp and immediately fall out of the shed. Before he even hit the ground he curled up into a tight ball fearing the worst.
No one was in or around the shed. His first thought was that they had seen him, they had snuck around, and when he was going to charge in, they were going to tackle him. When the lack of warm furry bodies landing on top of him registered in his brain, he chanced a peek out of one eye. Seeing that the coast was clear for now, he decided to sneak around to the other side. When this proved to be the same situation but without the falling, he jumped inside and bellowed his signature war cry.
“Got you now, ya yellow bellied snot sniffers!”
There was no response except for the whistling of the cooling breeze.
After spinning around and looking under the table to make sure they weren’t hiding, Strong Heart sat down and tried to think of where they would be. He absentmindedly inspected a small pile of black dust near the window where Lead Hoof normally would keep a lookout. It caught his eye because it was the blackest soot he had ever seen. It almost looked as if it absorbed the light near it, casting a shadow all the way around the small pile. Strong Heart jumped as a floorboard creaked behind him. His sword completely forgotten on the hardwood floor, Strong Heart spun around to meet any threat as he hide behind his shield. The brown colt trembled as the partially cracked door slammed shut again as the wind pulled it closed.
“Guys you can come out nooowww….”
Again, nobody replied…. Except for the door.
He ran over and latched it shut after it banged a third time. He was almost hyperventilating now. He was really creeped out now and almost decided to run out of there in fear. But he steeled himself thinking, “What would Rainbow Dash do?”. Being part of the Rainbow Dash fan club meant that he thought she was the coolest, most awesome Pegasus in Equestria. But what he liked most out of the club was that he got to see her fearlessness up-close whenever she practiced her stunts for the group. Strong Heart had sometimes thought about her whenever he got scared and it would usually help him be brave. He admitted he wasn’t as crazy about her as the club captain, Scootaloo, but he certainly thought Rainbow Dash was the most awesome and fearless pony in Ponyville.
The slightly more relaxed colt took a deep breath and looked around the room, spotting a piece of paper on top of the table that he had missed in the frontal assault. As he walked up towards it, he saw that it was very crumpled and had a little of the same black soot on it. Strong Heart flattened the paper out and slowly read the message written in a hurried, messy script.
We went to bridge in forest meet us there.
-Lead Hoof
Strong Heart felt a little strange that he didn’t know his friend was this bad at grammar. Lead Hoof had always done worse than Strong Heart in writing, but he didn’t know it was that bad.
He took off at a nice walking pace after remembering to pick up his cardboard sword. But he hadn’t seen the soot had vanished from both the floor and note.
Strong Heart tripped over a small exposed tree root after zoning out trying to remember why he thought the note was strange. Picking himself up, he noticed a nice bruise on his rump from falling off the windowsill. He smiled thinking maybe Scoots will like it. He kinda liked her, but only as friends! He would never admit to himself that he had a crush on her.
He continued walking along through the leaves until the bridge was finally in site. It was an old bridge that he would travel across sometimes to visit his grandmother. He was interested in why his friends had picked this particular spot, especially since it was so far away from Ponyville. Seeing no one on top of the bridge, he thought that they had hid underneath it. He slid down the bank on the side of the bridge, dislodging small chunks of earth and rocks into the stream. Strong Heart suddenly felt very cold. It was a kind of cold that reached into his bones and stuck needles into them. It almost felt… Unnatural.
The sun was lower in the sky now and the bank under the bridge was hard to see.
“Hey guys, I’m here!”
There was a deathly silence, as if even the wind had stopped to listen. It was still freezing though and possibly getting colder.
“G-g-guys! St-st-stop! You are f-f-freaking me out!” Strong Heart struggled to talk against the chilling air.
“Hey ss.. SSStronggg hh..HHeeaaarrrt….. Come closssser…” the shadow whispered. It sounded like Lead Hoof but he sounded almost…. distorted…
“I can’t really see you guys! Where are you?” Strong Heart’s body was getting goose bumps, but he didn’t couldn't tell if it was because he was cold or because he was terrified. He took a small step forward, raising his shield and sword.
The shadow was almost blindingly black, if there even was such a thing. It was impossibly dark, and it seemed to morph from one unidentifiable shape to another.
“cloossssSSSssssserrrr…”
“guys?” Strong Heart was ready to tear out of there at a moments notice. With sweat starting to bead on his forehead and shivering from the cold, he took a smaller step forward.
“…..despair…..” It was so quiet that Strong Heart barely heard it a noise. He stepped forward a little more, gazing deep into the darkness, trying to hear what it said.
“Guys?” Strong Heart felt almost like he was drawn towards the darkness, but he was completely and utterly petrified.
“….despair….” It sounded louder than the last and he finally thought he understood what it was saying, and it chilled his very soul
Strong Heart tried to run away, tried to call back to his friends. But he couldn’t move. He realized that he was being pulled into the darkness.
He screamed.
Nobody responded…