//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 — Shade // Story: Letters // by Pathos14489 //------------------------------// I’d been wandering for a long time now. By now, I would’ve thought I’d of found a town already. But… Just forest. Not even any clearings. I sighed, reaching and wiping my face with the pit of my foreleg, the hoof of it covered in mud and muck. “Hellooo? I called again, my voice quiet and distant, desperate for any sort of contact. But no pony answered this time either. Though I still heard the howling responses of distant timber wolves or the growls of nearer creatures that could, more–than–likely, tear me limb from limb. I winced and hurried on, hoping that whatever it was, that it’s horrible at tracking a pony. Then I saw it, something spectacular and amazing in the distance. A small woodland town. The flickering, pale orange lights hinting at hanging lanterns giving it’s location away.         I started to be happy until I realized how tired I was and settled for an up beat song to hum while vaguely smiling. I could already smell a yummy daffodil salad, or even a sandwich. Maybe even a pizza! Oh! Oh! Or— I tripped onto my face. I groaned, pulling myself up to my barrel slowly. I opened my eyes and blinked. Then I shook my head and blinked a few more times. Well, it wasn’t exactly a town. More of a cabin. “Hel...lo...?” I croaked, my throat dry and crusty. I coughed, swallowing whatever saliva I could find in my mouth a couple times. “Hello?!” I quickly stood to my hooves, then in quite the opposite fashion laid back down in agony of my aching legs. “Ughh… Ow… Eck…” I muttered, curling into a small ball of ache-y legs and growling tummies. I relaxed a little, before trying again and slowly making my way over to the cabin. I inspected the door, slightly suspicious as various horror novel scenarios filled my mind, before shrugging away those blatant stereotypes and knocking. After several moments of me staring at the door and dreading knocking again, I was about to try again when the door opened slowly. I opened my mouth a little and squeaked nervously. “H-Hello?” I coughed  and scratched the back of my head with my icky hoof before giggling nervously. “Ah… Yes. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m a princess. You may not recognize me because I’m sorta… younger than I should be, but--” The door opened wider, revealing a sickly yellow stallion, his hair sorta orange but not really. “He leaned down and inspected the filly, eyeing her hooves to face.” I arched an eyebrow nervously as he started narrating what he was doing in third person. We stayed like that for a while, him looking up and down slowly, before he remarked something absolutely brilliant. “Pretty face.” I blinked for a moment before grinning widely, “Riiiight! Well, uh, I think I hear my...” I stared with an awkward grin, my eyes shifting left to right as I thought for any sort of excuse, “Mom calling! Yes! So I should like...” I started inching backwards. “He didn’t like that,” The stallion started stalking towards me slowly, his eyes bulging but the pupils like pinpricks. “He started to follow her with slow, calculated, careful steps.” I chose this moment to bolt. Turning in place, I started running. But my earlier exhaustion was only momentarily forgotten, my legs seeming to turn into jelly as I slowed down with each step away from the stallion. “She ran and he chased” I licked my lips nervously, before ducking into a bush. I panted as quietly as I could, wishing with all my might that I could stop wheezing for one minute so he could pass by without hearing probably the loudest filly on Equuis. “He peeked into the wheezing bush, wandering eyes finding his prize.” I felt my blood run cold–...Erm... Colder because I was already freezing. I turned towards the origin of the stallion's voice, and came muzzle to muzzle with him. “Eyes.” «♦» I wasn’t quite sure where I was as my eyes opened, I didn’t even quite recall falling asleep. But I wasn’t comfortable, or any better fed for that matter. I glanced around without moving, gauging the situation before taking action. With this, I came to the most astute and amazing conclusion of this decade. It was dark. Very, very dark. At this point I shifted around as best as I could and found that my hooves were bound. I struggled against my bindings lightly, not wanting to waste too much strength and also because I felt completely horrible, flopping around softly to look behind me. I spotted a light source, it looked like it was coming from a keyhole from across the room. I glanced down at my bound hooves, not seeing anything honestly, and back at the door before attempting to inchworm to it. I scooched like no other filly in the history of history had scooched across the floor. Pushing with my lower body, and pulling with my upper as I dragged myself across the floor to the door. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was planning to do when I got there. Bang my head against it? Pray to Celestia it wasn’t locked or properly shut? And then what? Inch across the forest I presumed I was still in to civilisation? In all honesty, this wasn’t the most well thought out plan I’d had. Eventually I bumped my head against the door, “Ow…” I muttered quietly from pure instinct. Instantly I regretted that as I heard hoofsteps approaching the door. The door thunked into my head, soliciting another quiet ouch from me as it pushed me none-too-gently across the floor, ruining part of the hard work I’d put into getting there. I huffed as it stopped, rolling over to at least see who it was. I felt my heartbeat stutter, which was odd considering about how improbable that was considering my body was likely too young at the moment to be in danger of a heart condition. Light beamed through the door, almost blinding me as it silhouetted a unicorn figure. “Shhhh…” The silhouette leaned towards me, lighting angling to a unicorn stallion’s face. He shushed me, his eyes wide and bloodshot. I dumbly nodded out of pure terror, my mouth hanging slightly. I did not want to get on his bad side when I was tied up like this. Or at least when I didn’t have access to my magic. Or at all for that matter. He nodded back with a small, crooked smile and closed the door. I let out the breathe I kinda figured I was holding--luckily I was and I was glad I betted for cliche. I scooched backwards, wiggling around and inchworming back towards where I was. After I got back there, I huffed, rolling onto my back and biting at whatever it was tying my hooves together. I retched, gag reflex forcing my mouth away from whatever in Tartarus it was. I coughed quietly, looking around blindly in the pitch black room before biting the bullet and forcing my teeth back into the binding. «♦» After some time of biting the rancid fabric, I gave up, feeling only slightly more nauseous. I sighed, relaxing against the cool ground a bit. I closed my eyes imagining the feeling of my magic pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. My magic, if only I had a little of that, I could get out of… A little. I only need a tiny amount. I furrowed my brow, my eyes travelling absently up to where I think my horn was. Everypony, whether they’re stallions and mares, Earth Pony, Pegasi or Unicorn, even fillies and colts, had at least a little magic in them. Which, while not necessarily accessible to them under normal circumstances, this wasn’t a normal circumstance. I was an alicorn, the literal manifestation of a goddess in mortal form! Like something as feeble as mother nature and safety features of a fillies body were going to stop me. I mean, statistically, on average a princess breaks the law of biology more often than an average pony, so this should work. I shifted around, trying to get comfortable before I tried to tell anatomy to take a metaphorical hike. I pulled a deep breath, and let it out as I focused. The words, mnemonics to help remember the steps of the spells, the numbers, calculating the physics. Then, after the steps, the figurative fuel: magic. I tried to pull from where it should be, but, as expected, it wasn’t there. I had to look elsewhere, somewhere… Somewhere I wouldn’t normally have access to as a unicorn filly. Wings. Pegasus wings aren’t capable of flight on normal occasions, with the rare exception of Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance. But even most foals can fly, meaning that they have access to that reservoir far sooner than unicorn foals. So with a little tinkering and prodding… I pulled at the pegasus magic, holding it in my heart. While I doubted that I could transmorph the magic to work with my horn, perhaps I could warp it into something I could use. With a couple changes to my formulas, maybe… My focus, and the magic I’d pulled from the reservior, were disrupted and lost respectively as the door at the top of the stairs slammed open. I glanced to the light, wincing as it burned my eyes. I saw the shush-y stallion from earlier, staring with the same wide eyes and nightmare-inducing smile. He nodded to me again, his horn lighting in a strange yellow and my binds doing the same. I tried to siphon magic from his, but winced as a headache throbbed below my horn, as though saying that I had done something incredibly stupid. The clothes, or whatever it was, tying my hooves together fell to the floor softly, and I stood up, stretching lightly. “Thank you, you wouldn’t believe how uncomfortab-” “Shhhh.” I stared at him as he shushed me again and gestured I follow. I sighed, following him into the light. «♦» “Life throws challenges and every challenge comes with rainbows and lights to conquer it.” —Amit Ray