Tales of Midnight: The Colony

by NA_SolarEclipse

Chapter Four: The Wilderness

“Midnight.”

“It’s time to wake up.”

“You’re not dead anymore.”

My eyes shot open and I violently coughed up more sea water than I thought was possible. After catching my breath and pulling myself to my hooves, I looked around for the voices I’d heard. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shaking a bit, either from the cold feeling that being damp brings or just out of fear. “H-hello?” I asked the empty clearing I woke up in. Giving the place a few circling looks, I found that I was alone. Surrounded by strange looking willow trees.

I had no idea where to go, I was completely at a loss for direction. “Is any pony there?” I called out, hoping for an answer. None came however. I sat down and thought for a moment. Wasn’t I underwater the last time I checked? I looked around myself and listened, only silence. If I was anywhere as close to the ocean as I should have been, I would hear it. That was concerning.

I picked a direction to walk in and started a quick trot. I wasn’t going to get anywhere by simply sitting in that clearing, but as I left it I had the harrowing feeling that I would never see it again.

SMACK! I fell to my haunches, rubbing my forehead in slight pain. Apparently I didn’t see that tree either. I let out an aggravated sigh. Last place I had my glasses was on Warner’s ship the Silver Sapphire.

Wait, no it wasn’t! I remembered the bag on my back and pulled it off to look inside. Then I remembered what else was inside.

The three black books that Warner stuffed in here were still there. A chill ran up my spine as I reached past them with my hoof in search of my glasses. Hopefully they had survived the crash. I did crash didn’t I? That’s what happened wasn’t it? I didn’t remember anything but being flung off board and failing to swim.

Frustrated with my inability to find my glasses, I turned the bag upside down to pour its contents over the grassy soil I sat on. Our came the three books, and with a few good shakes my glasses as well. A warm feeling of joy overcame me at the sight of my tacky little reading glasses, but it was quickly squelched. The left lens was cracked almost down the middle. I wanted to cry for a moment, but after putting them on I found that they still functioned much the same. Happy again.

Then I looked to the black books laying in the dirt. I should just leave them here, better yet bury them. No pony would ever have to see them again and they could do no wrong. There were evil after all….right?

I picked them up in my hooves and stared at them in the canopy filtered light of the sun. I looked around the trees and plants that surrounded me, and a frightening thought crept over me. I was probably alone out here, in a foreign land. I had no idea where I was, or if I could ever find any type of help at all. I could die out here at the claws of some predator or crazy zebras, this was zebra land after all.

What if I needed them? What if the only thing that could keep me alive was powerful dark magic? What if there was a spell in one of these that could protect me?

As these questions swirled through my head, I heard a growling off in the distance. In a rush, I picked up the backpack and stuffed the black books back inside. I could burn them later with Warner, if I could find him. There wasn’t any time to sit and think about leaving these dangerous spell around for some animal or zebra to find.

I slung the backpack on again and tightened the straps so it wouldn’t fall off. Finding the direction I was heading again, I headed out at a quick trot to avoid being followed. I only looked back occasionally to make sure no wild dogs or wolves were after me.

After a few minutes of trotting, I found myself looking out over a vast plain. Mostly it was flat planes aside from the hill I was standing on. Forests of closely grouped trees dotted the flat planes, as if they were trying to make a point to hide dangerous animals. There was a mountain off in the distance, prevailing over most of what I saw. Tall, yellow grass dominated almost every inch of open land. I would have to be careful of things hiding in it.
I started forward, descending a slight decline to flatter land ahead. The occasional high blade of grass tickled my nose, but it wasn’t anything to complain about. Once I had reached flat land, I noticed some gazelle traveling in a pack to the distance on my right. If only I had a pack to travel in, I felt rather exposed on the flat planes. After more forward trotting, I noticed something about the grass I was standing on. It was lower than what I had just exited, meaning this was used as a trail at some time. If there was a trail, there was a camp of some kind at the end of it. More likely than not, it would lead me to zebra but I wasn’t going to be picky. Any kind of companionship was good at a time like this.

With uplifted spirits, I set off toward the left. Whatever direction it actually could be was a mystery. I just went with my gut feeling that this lead somewhere important. Hopefully it would end up somewhere soon. For a pony who had just coughed up what felt like gallons of water, I was parched. I prayed for a river or clean water source as I quickened my pace.

I continued along the path until it simply ended. I sat and looked around for where it might signify, but saw nothing. “Well damn.” I cursed at the grass. “Why don’t you keep going?” I kicked at some of the grass in spite, though I’m sure it would fare well after my attack.

I had effectively wasted what I could suspect were the last two hours following this trail, and had nothing to show from it except being thirstier than when I started. “Well whatever.” I huffed, and continued in the direction the trail should. That’ll show that grass for not telling me where to go, I’ll just go my own direction.

After feeling rather proud of myself for a few moments of trotting, I had a realization. I had let grass tell me where to go for the past two hours.

Trying to ignore the shame, I continued onward. It looked like there was some trees ahead, so at least it would be cooler under the canopy. I stopped for a moment and looked at the yellowing shade of the sky. It was going to get dark soon, and I would be easy prey in the night for something like a jungle cat that could see in the dark. So I had to get something to start a fire and make a livable campsite for the night.

Or I could use that night vision spell and easily navigate the night without being detected as easily with my own light source. It would be much safer and…I was letting the magic do the thinking for me. I promised I would never use that spell unless it was an emergency, even if this kind of was. No! I wasn’t going to use black magic unless my life was in danger, even if it sort of was at all times here.

“Damn it!” I cursed unnecessarily loud. I quickly trotted into the small forest in front of me, deciding to make a camp instead of use that spell. Very un-unicorn of me. I stowed that thought as I made my way deeper into the trees.

My ears twitched as I heard something whispering softly. It wasn’t like the voices I heard earlier or on Warner’s ship, it was a sound like….water! I rushed toward the sound, bypassing trees and crunching twigs under my hooves. What I found was beautiful. It was a small mountain in a clearing that let loose a somewhat small waterfall into a round lake feeding to a river off to the right. “Oh yes!” I squealed as I rushed to the water’s edge and literally stuck my face in the cool refreshing water.

You never realized how good water tasted until you went without it for a good, long while. It may as well have been the drink of the gods to me at the moment, because I couldn’t get enough of it. After drinking probably more water than I coughed up earlier, I stared at the mare reflected on the slightly calm water surface.

My blue eyes seemed uncertain and worried, my deep purple coat was a bit frazzled. Still nothing to complain about though. Miraculously, my dark blue mane was exactly as it was: a tight pony tail angled upward to keep it off my neck. Inspection of my tail revealed that it too was mostly the same and somewhat well maintained. I adjusted my glasses to not obscure my vision, mostly liking the reflection I saw. “Well, at least I don’t look like I’ve drowned.” I said to myself. Maybe I should stop talking to myself, couldn’t be good for the brain.

Finished drinking delicious water and admiring myself in the water mirror, I turned my thoughts to the next task at hoof: making camp. I was lucky enough to find this small mountain, so I could put that to use. I trotted over towards the side of the rocky mountainside and smiled at what I saw behind the waterfall. There was a small cove behind it that I could use as a place to sleep and stay warm. I found myself surprised at the latter consideration I had. It was getting cold rather quickly out here, and fire would be good to keep me warm. There were several twigs and branches I could use near the trees, but they would need to be tended and I would need a lot of them. To stay warm through the night I needed some logs or something substantial like that.

“Alright Midnight, how to cut down a tree?” I trotted over to on such tree near the mountain and stared at my woody adversary. It wasn’t very tall, so cutting it down and making a few burnable logs out of it would be fairly easy if not simply time consuming. I just needed something to cut it down with. I wasn’t blessed with earth pony strength, so kicking it down wasn’t an option. I trotted back to the rocky mountain side with an idea.

Picking out two particularly sharp rocks, I made my way back to my selected victim. “I’m sorry I need to do this.” I consoled the tree as I started chopping at its somewhat thin base with the sharp rocks in my magical aura. After a few chops, I looked at my magic work and frowned. This was going to take a bit longer that I thought.

After losing count of how many times I hit this stupid tree at least three times, I had several moderately sized logs to make a fire with and keep myself warm. Yay. It would feel like more of an accomplishment if the sky above me wasn’t orange from the setting of the sun. I stuffed a few of them in my backpack and held the others in a field of levitation magic. I jumped a few rocky outcroppings towards the cove under the waterfall and jumped inside.

It was spacious enough considering it was just going to be me in here, so I pulled out the rest of the victory logs and put them down. I needed some dry grass and sticks to actually start this fire, so I jumped back to the rocky outcroppings from the mountain and back to the lakeside. The grass and branches weren’t hard to gather, just a matter of pulling at the grass hard enough with magic and stuffing branches in a backpack.

Satisfied with my twiggy bounty, I made my way back to my personal little cove. Unloading my grass and sticks on the rock floor, I went to work building a fire. Bed of grass with a little twig house on top, it really would be nice for a foals’ doll to sleep in. I smiled at my construction and took the two sharp rocks from earlier. I could try rubbing two twigs together to get friction to start a fire, or I could get a spark. I used my telekinesis spell to bang the two rocks together a few times. Unfortunately these rocks were being difficult. Several attempts later, and I got what I was looking for. A single spark flew off the two rocks, landing on the dry grass. I smiled excitedly and softly blew on the baby fire. It quickly spread over the grass, and to the twigs. I pulled one of my victory logs onto the small blaze and hoped I wouldn’t smother it, but the flames crept over the top of the log and spread from the base. Success!

I quickly constructed a log cone and watched them slowly catch fire. Fully satisfied with my accomplishment, I sat up next to the fire. It was so warm, perhaps even a little reassuring. If a city mare like me could put her wits together and build a fire, surely I could survive long enough to find this Colony I was sentenced to in the first place right?

I smiled and basked in the warmth of my fire. It was nice, until I found myself opening the backpack and looking at the black books Warner gave me to burn. I could do it right now, I could burn them. I had a fire after all, I built it with my wits and two sharp rocks that could now hardly pass as gravel. But why was it that I couldn’t bring myself to throw them in? Instead, to my horror, I found myself saying one thing. “A peek couldn’t hurt.” I opened the first book of the stack and looked at the words on the first page.

Except, they weren’t words. Letters and characters were there, but they made no sense! Worse though, they were moving on the page. They marched across the page in neat little rows like an unorganized army. I squinted my eyes and adjusted my glasses to make head or tails of it.

“Need some help?” My neck shot up, looking around for the source of the whisper I had heard. There was nothing here but me, my fire, and the books though. “I’m not there Midnight, I’m in here.”

I looked down at the book in front of me and gave it a concerned look. “In…the book?” I asked insanely.

Worse, it responded. “Yes, I’m in here. Always been here Midnight, always will.” A chill ran down my spine, despite the warmth of my fire.

“Why are you talking? You’re a book.” I deadpanned, obviously going crazy.

“I’m not the book, I’m in the book. A lost spirit, simply trying to help. You looked like you needed some help reading these words. Do you?” The voice was little more than a whisper, yet I heard it in my ears loud enough to not strain my senses to hear it.

“I just wanted to take a look actually. I never saw what these things looked like, and was just curious. I’ll be closing you now.”

I started to close the book. “Wait!” The voice pleaded. To my own disgust, I complied. “I can help you!”

I opened the first page fully again. “I don’t need help book, I already built a fire myself. With a little searching, I’m going to find what I need tomorrow and I’ll be able to go from there. I don’t need you or your help.”

“If you didn’t need my help, you would have left all of us in the dirt.”

I considered that for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I think that you felt like you knew you wouldn’t be able to survive without us, so you brought us anyway. You feel, at some level, like we can help you survive. Right?” The voice was sounding more sure of itself the more it talked.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Maybe I just wanted to burn you when I had the chance so no pony or thing could get a hold of you again. What say you to that? Hmm?” I had it now.

“If that were the case, you would have used us as fuel instead of those logs you cut from a tree.”

It had a point. “Alright, maybe you’re right there. But why should I trust you? These books contain nothing but black magic. Black magic can be nothing but trouble from my experience.”

The voice whispered a scoff, if that was possible. “Of come now, there’s an easy explanation for that. Whoever taught you that particular spell simply didn’t use the correct caution. Spells of this caliber need to be…considered, and practiced to be used correctly. Downsides only occur when things are rushed. Rushing that I know you will do if you try to understand this book on your own. Let me help you Midnight.”

I gave the book an uncertain look, and caved. “Fine.” The voice started to form a sentence. “But under one condition.” I interrupted.

After a few moments, the voice finally responded. “What’s that exactly?”

I smiled. “Tell me how you know my name.”

Seconds passed, consolidating into a minute or so before I got an answer. “You said your name to yourself earlier when you asked how you were going to cut down a tree.”

Damn it, it was right. I kind of did. “Alright, I’ll take that.” I focused on the book. “Now how exactly can you help me?”

The voice chuckled a quiet laugh. “Well, I can’t tell you. It’s something that I have to show you. You just have to ask for my help. Be specific though, things can…go wrong if you aren’t specific.”

I contemplated throwing the book into the fire, but decided against it. “Alright. Um. Black book, please share with me your secrets so that I may better understand your contents and perform said contents.” I announced to the book.

“I can work with that.” Suddenly, a large black mouth sprouted from the book. I backed away from it but it opened up, revealing rows of sharp red teeth. Before I could run, they closed down around me and everything was plunged into a cold darkness. I couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, and couldn’t hear. Everything was black as I lost all sense of being.

My eyes shot open, looking around in absolute terror. Everything around me was…wrong. I was out standing on that grassy plain I had looked down at before, but the grass was an unhealthy shade of grey. There was of course, the mountain like I had seen before. However, it too was an unsettling dark grey that seemed sick for rocks and the trees upon it. It was just like the plains and hills I had seen earlier, just grey and dead. Nothing moved, not even the grass in the wind as there was no wind.

“Welcome Midnight.” I spun around to see the source of the voice behind me, to see a pony. She was relatively normal given where we were: yellow coat, and a fiery red mane. She was somewhat familiar and foreign at the same time. There was something else strange though. Her eyes were completely black. There was no iris or pupil, just an empty blackness.

“Um. Hi.” I stared into her black eyes, they seemed to consume all thought and feeling when I did. There were just her eyes, nothing else.

“Don’t, you won’t wake up if you stare into them too long.” I promptly avoided her gaze. “As you can probably suspect, none of this is real. Simply an image of your memory. I thought that maybe we could talk here better than whispering through a book.” Her voice seemed to echo across the grey plains, with a low growling tone in the back of her words. Almost like she was holding back anger and hatred strong enough to burn this entire field.

So this was the source of the voice in the book? “Oh, I see. Why is it that I needed to ask for your help anyway? Surely I could understand those characters eventually if I learned what they meant.”

She gave an unearthly chuckle. It was…unsettling. “Quite simply Midnight, you wouldn’t.” Great. That made me feel good about my ability to learn. “You see what you call ‘black magic’, is simply a different variety of magic. Only difference is that it is of a higher caliber and strength. With this ‘black magic’, you could do the job of fifteen unicorns focusing intently with a simple thought of the spell. It is….efficient to say the least.”

No kidding. This really did sound like powerful magic. “Alright, but why is it that all I ever hear about black magic is that it causes pain and terror?”

“Oh Midnight, that is simply the words of those who fail to comprehend that their jealousy manifests into fear and contempt. Ask any pony who has used such powerful spells, and they will tell you that it is powerful and….versatile.” I had to suspect that this yellow mare was avoiding the whole truth.

“Well, alright. Um, can I leave? I’m having second thoughts about this whole ‘powerful magic thing.’ I think I’ll be just fine-”

“Silly Midnight, you just don’t know what you want yet.” I tried to move away from this yellow mare, but my hooves wouldn’t comply. I found myself staring into her eyes, no matter how much I wanted to look away from the two black abysses that stared back. “You don’t know it yet, but you are meant for great things. Things of which, you will need our help.”

“Who is this ‘us’ you keep referring to?” I pleaded, making as much effort as I could to run away. I simply stayed put though.

“You will find out very soon Midnight. You will find out and you will know.” Thanks for restating the same thought. “But for now, I give you....a gift.”

This didn’t sound good. “What do you mean?”

“A flame to burn your greatest adversaries. The light to show all the way to death. Release for those that need to let go of their lives. Speak its name and you will know ‘Inferno’, me.” The yellow mare opened her mouth wide and let out a cloud of sinister, red smoke. I wanted to shy away from it and avoid breathing it in, but I couldn’t. All I could do was watch myself breathe the red smoke like it was oxygen. “Now, the knowledge has been passed. The writ is complete. Speak my name Midnight. Speak my name and it will burn, it will all burn.”

I fought myself, tried with every ounce of my will, to stay quiet. But I couldn’t stop myself. “Inferno.” I coughed out.

Just like that, the grass around me burst into a wall of flame three ponies tall. Its orange blazes settled into the grey grass and became a sea of flames. All that was burned by the orange flames turned to an unnatural red ash that seemed to gleam in the light of the flames. When it all died down, there was nothing but ashes for at least a hundred feet in every direction around me. A few seconds passed, and the ash turned to a more normal blackish grey.

I should have been terrified, I just watched fire burn a huge section of grass. But I wasn’t. No, I wasn’t scared. I was elated. I found myself smiling at the loss of life around me. It was beautiful really.

“Now you understand Midnight.” The yellow mare, Inferno, brought my attention away from the ruin around us and back to her. “But with such power, there is always a price.”

I frowned at her. “But you said-”

“There is always a price Midnight. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. May you bear this curse better than I.” Inferno started to dissipate into a wind that suddenly blew behind her. “Control it Midnight. Don’t become the very fuel for the Inferno you cast. Focus on your target. Remember who you are Midnight. Don’t let it control you.” Her last words echoed on the empty grey ash field. She was gone, nothing but specks blown away.

I wanted to cry. I hated her and missed her. I needed her and never wanted to see her again. “Why? Why did you do this?” I called out into the emptiness, but there was no answer. I was alone.

I laid down on the barren ground below me and cried. Why was I feeling this way? Was this some kind of joke or trick? I never cried, not since…. Warner.

As soon as I thought of his name, the ashes began to swirl away into blackness. I tried to get up and run away from the abyss, but my body didn’t comply. I simply sat there and allowed myself to be swallowed up by darkness and accepted the loss of feeling that crept over me.

My eyes shot open to the small campfire I had built the night before dying before me in a small fit of flying sparks and ashes. I couldn’t breathe, no I was coughing. I was coughing up red smoke. It was painful, and burned me from my lungs to my nostrils and mouth. After choking for a good minute or so, I suddenly stopped. Was that a dream? I looked to the black book I had read, but there was something wrong.

The pages were empty. Where unreadable characters had once been was simply blank pages. “What? Where did the letters go?” I asked aloud, as if any pony or thing could hear me. Well there was the other two books, but I didn’t want anything else to do with them for the time being.

I struggled to get to my hooves, but my body argued with me. I ached as if I had been running for hours, but all I had done was wake up from a nightmare that may or may not have been real. In the end I won and managed to get up, but I still hurt.

I closed the now blank magic book and put it into the bag with the others, and hoisted said bag onto my back. I stamped at the pitiful pile of ashes and stay sparks that was my fire, as if I really needed to. I didn’t think that waterfall caves stone was particularly in danger of catching fire and burning to the ground. Satisfied with my preparations to leave, I jumped the outcropping stones to the lake shore.

I looked up to the sky and smiled a bit. It was morning, and that meant that it was a new day. A new day meant that I had succeeded in surviving the night, even if I was dreaming or having a nightmare most of that night.

I made my way through the trees back to the trail that I had been following, and trotted a ways before I realized that I had left the trail long before the previous day. Oh yeah, I showed that trail. Still meant that I had no sense of direction to go though. I gave the plains a look around, trying to make an executive decision. Off to the right was that prevailing mountain, could be dangerous or safe, more collections of trees ahead of me, and on my left was a trail of smoke billowing in the air. Smoke meant that there was a campfire! I rushed towards it as fast as I could, certainly whoever had built a fire would be civilized enough for conversation right?

The smoke originated behind more trees, but that wasn’t a problem for me. I slowed my pace a bit to not bump into too many of them, making it rather easy to weave between the woods. Between some of the trees, I saw the flickering of firelight. I was getting closer!

Zip! “Whaa?!” Suddenly my hooves were pulled out from under me, and were pulled up towards the trees. I hit my head on the ground on my way up, disorienting my vision quite a bit and causing my glasses to fall to the ground that was now a good few feet away from my head.

I hung there upside down for a few moments, my thoughts still swimming from what had just happened. Was this magic? Did some pony set up a magical trap to make me hover here? I tried to crane my neck up enough to look at my hooves, but it just made the blood rush to my head all that much quicker. “Ugh…some pony help me. Hello?” I groaned out, feeling the sickeningly familiar sense of unconsciousness creeping over me. The trees started fading to an eerie dark color, and I saw some roughly pony-shaped beings approaching around me. “Hello? Please help me.” I muttered to the pony shaped things. One got close to me, maybe to talk? “Could you help me down please?” I pleaded.

“Ni nini hii??” A gruff, accented voice grumbled as if asking a question. “Unasemaje?”

“What?” I asked, confused. That just earned me a sharp poke in the neck, causing me to lose sense of feeling and everything to fade to black.

“Midnight. Wake up.”

“There’s no time for napping now, princess.”

I awoke once again to whispering voices, had to be those damned black books sitting in my back pack. I flittered my eyes open to find cone-shaped tents around me, and an open fire before me. Well, this was the fire I saw earlier. I looked to my side to see the back pack sitting on its side, well at least it was still around for what it was worth. I started move to retrieve it, but I couldn’t. I looked down at the ropes restraining me. Panic set in as I struggled against them to no avail. I was tied against what felt like a wooden post in an uncomfortable sitting up position, completely making my struggles useless.

I heard a sort of horn that sounded throughout the camp, I couldn’t discern what exactly it was but it sounded nothing like the brass instruments that I had grown up around. This horn was followed by a steady beat that sounded like…drums? As the beat grew faster, I saw…things surround me. They had massive wooden faces, some with large grassy manes and some with large red-ringed eyes with no iris. The panic turned to fear as I lost count of the wooden beasts.

“Greetings, Shadow-Walker.” Understandable language? With a feminine voice? “We know who you are, and where you come from.” One of the wooden faced beasts approached me, getting dangerously close to my nearsighted handicap but it stopped before it got blurry.

“What are you things? Please don’t hurt me.” I had my priorities straight. Insult them before begging for your life Midnight, very nice.

“Your kind calls us zebra.” The one that approached me took off her wooden face and stared at me with blue eyes of her own. Now that the mask was gone, I saw that these were in fact zebra. They had white bodies with black stripes and this one in particular had a small Mohawk, but a long twisted braid that fell down the length of her neck. “We have roamed these plains mostly undisturbed, but now you have come here. You and those other manipulators that cling to the shoreline like some they will be saved. As for bringing about harm to you, it will not hurt for long.”

Okay, that didn’t sound good at all. “What do you mean those others that cling to the shoreline?” That had to be The Colony, my one good chance at surviving if they didn’t outright kill me.

The zebra mare gave me a smug look. “As if you don’t know, for all we know you sent them here Shadow-Walker.”

“There’s that word again, Shadow-Walker, what do you mean?” I had to keep this going at a nice, calm level for long enough to think of something.

“Really? Do you not even know what you are?” I gave her a shrug, as restrained as I was. “Those books.” She pointed at the back pack with the black books in them. “Those books and their spells make you what you are. Clearly you are new to the shadows, but they will draw you in. You will think that nothing else can be done lest you give in and read your black magic.” She seemed to get angrier about the whole black magic thing the more she talked about it. “We will kill you now while you still have a soul Shadow-Walker. It is merciful compared to what we know will come.”

Of course they were going to kill me, why didn’t I see that coming? “Hold on now, before you do that. Can you explain why you know how to speak the same language as me? I didn’t know that zebra could speak equestrian.” I still hadn’t come up with a plan, and those other zebras were getting spears out.

The zebra mare chucked a bit. I had no idea that unicorns were so funny to them. “If it makes you feel better, sure I’ll tell you.” Good, more time to think. “There was once a missionary from your lands, one without a horn. We had no way of understanding him, so I was chosen to learn your language to communicate with him. After a few months, I became able to speak well enough to understand his purpose for coming here. He wanted to make the world a better place by spreading his religion of the sun and the moon, but there was no place for him among us. So we let him go, to wonder wherever he might end up. He found it as us letting him achieve higher understanding, but we simply didn’t want anything to do with his nonsense.”

Well, that didn’t really give me the time that I wanted. I still didn’t have any sort of idea what I could do to get out of here alive.

“Midnight.”

“Don’t just sit there.” My eyes darted to the side, at the back pack, while the zebra mare went on about how their religion was more accurate than the missionary’s. “We can help you Midnight.” I didn’t have time to read another book, or the ability to, given the current circumstance.

But I did already know one black magic spell, one that could help me escape. I just didn’t want it to come to that. “Now Shadow-Walker, do you have any last words before we set your soul free?” The zebra mare brought my attention back to her by a spear held to my neck. A little bit of pressure broke the skin and caused a little trickle of blood to flow down on her spear head.

I took a deep breath, and smiled to the zebras. “Just one.” My horn glowed an unsettling black glow. “Inferno.” With that word, many of the zebra’s masks burst into flame. Along with the ropes restraining me and some of the cone-tents that I had seen earlier. Distracted by the fire, the zebra mare removed the spear from my neck and ran to her companions. Now with nothing stopping me, I got to my hooves as quick as I could and grabbed the back pack.

“Get the savages! Strike them down!” An angry voice yelled from my right. I looked over to see several unicorns charging at the distracted zebras with spears of their own and crude wooden armor. “Don’t let any of them get away! I don’t want any free survivors this time.” The source of the voice was a stout orange unicorn with a short, blond mane and tail. He seemed to be the one in charge of the new arrivals.

The zebras, not prepared for the assault, were easily taken down by the magically wielded spears of the unicorn invaders. Any attacks the zebras fought back with were useless against even the crude wooden armor that most of the unicorns wore. I could only sit in silence as this fight ruined the absolute beauty of the flames and ashes around me. NO! What I did was horrible and was nothing but self-defense! Right?

“Now aren’t ya glad you had help now lass?” Warner? I turned around, hopes high that he was doing something weird again and was right behind me. But he wasn’t. All I saw was the wooden post that I was tied to before I cast the spell. But his voice was so vivid, how could he not be here?

“You, by the post!” I didn’t even look up from my staring at the post, I was still thinking. “Prisoner! I swear, if you don’t move your ass and get over here I’m going to kill you myself!” Wait a second. Sharpe? I turned my head to the red, wooden clad unicorn yelling at me from a small distance to my left. “Come on! We’re going!”

“Alright, I’m going!” I ran to Sharpe, but he didn’t wait up for me. He started off in the direction we were heading, leading me towards the trees. Trees that were close to the quickly spreading fire that I had started. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, weaving between tree trunks as carefully as I could while running for my life. But I kicked something on the ground, something made of glass. I looked back and saw my glasses that had dropped earlier. “Yes!” I put them on quickly and followed after Sharpe once more.

Once out of the shade of the trees, I slowed my pace and stopped next to Sharpe. I had to catch my breath a bit, so I hung my head down. “Sharpe! How did you survive the crash? Who are those other unicorns? Why are you helping me?” Again, always good with the order of questions Midnight. Always.

“Sharpe? I hate to disappoint, but I am not him” I looked up at the unicorn and stepped back a bit. That wasn’t Sharpe at all. He had a dark red mane, and a brown coat. His eyes were brown too but he looked just as sour as Sharpe, if not more sour. “I mean, I used to have a brother named Sharped but that was a long time ago. Have you met him?”

“Uh. Um.” I was at a loss for words. I was certain that I saw Sharpe back there. I was certain that I heard Warner. So certain back there, and here I had nothing. “Y-yes, I have met him. He uh, he seems nice I guess.” Really Midnight?

“Okay, whatever. Sorry for calling you a prisoner, they kind of did have you as a prisoner for a while. You are some kind of lucky girl! If we weren’t planning to charge in and that fire hadn’t miraculously started, you would have been zebra chow for sure.”

I looked away from the broadly built stallion. “Yeah. Some kind of lucky.” I looked back to him. “Are you from the Colony?”

“Yeah, ‘sentenced to a fate worse than death.’ But I’m still alive, so are the rest of us. So either those damned unicorns under that silly Platinum’s rule didn’t expect as much from us, or we are just great enough to thrive in a place like this.” He seemed quite proud of himself for that. A lot coming from a guy wearing armor made out of wood. “Why are you here? Some kind of missionary sent to save these savages or something?”

I thought about lying to him. Maybe things could go better if he didn’t know that I was sentenced to the Colony as well. But I couldn’t stop myself. “No. Actually I was sentenced to the Colony as well.” The brown stallion looked down at me critically. “What?”

“Well, just that I didn’t expect a mare like you to get sentenced to the Colony. Not exactly the best of places for some pony delicate like a flower.” He chuckled a little at his own words.

“Hey! I was doing just fine on my own before.”

For whatever reason, this elected even more laughter. “Really? You were doing just fine on your own back there hmm?”

“Yeah, I had it under control.” I said indignant.

The brown stallion turned around and walked a few paces, then turned back to me. “Alright. What was your plan?” I didn’t answer. “Nothing? No plan out here will get you killed girl. So either you start thinking quick, or you do your best to get off this forsaken continent. It’s no place for you.” He started trotting off to the right, not even looking back to me.

“Hey wait!” I trotted after him and matched his pace. “Alright, you made your point. Thanks a lot for helping me back there. Since I’ve been sentenced to the Colony too, you think I could come with you?” Great, now I was begging for help. Really the independent image I was trying to put forth.

“I don’t know, not for me to decide.” He gave me a side gaze, noticeably looking down at me. “What do you have to offer aside from being zebra bait?”

I huffed a little, but kept my frustration in check. “Well, I-uh. Hmm.” We continued trotting in silence for a moment. Several times, I had something like ‘magical powers beyond comprehension’, or ‘the ability to cause wildfires that I cannot control’. Nothing that really seemed believable or even useful. Was I really so boring? “Um, I got pretty close to killing Princess Platinum. Does that count for anything?”

Another laugh from this nameless brown stallion. Maybe I should become a court jester or something if I was apparently so funny. “Really now? You, the mare that was about to be eaten by zebras, were close to killing Princess Platinum?” The disbelief was rife in his voice.

“Yeah, I was. I would have succeeded too, but I trusted some pony and everything fell apart. Years of planning were ruined, and I went from speaker of the council to a criminal in the matter of a day. It wasn’t how that was supposed to end at all. Then again, maybe Platinum is just destined to stay on the throne for a while longer.” Reminding myself that a lifetime of planning falling apart before me was a great way to make me feel like a failure.

“Wait, you were speaker of the council?” Well, at least it wasn’t a fit of laughter this time.

“Yeah, I had everything nice and planned out. I rose up from a servant, to council member, and to speaker of the council. It was going so well, but Clover the Clever found me out. So now I’m here.” I stopped and looked back, the brown stallion had stopped a few paces ago and I hadn’t even noticed. “You alright?”

“Alright girl, you’ve got me interested.” He started his trot again. “I want to hear about this more, details you know? But not here, let’s get you set up. Any pony with the gall to try and kill the Princess has a place among the ponies of the Colony.” He caught up with me and we started off again. “Come on, I’ll take you there. I’m sure that Captain Courageous is already making his way back with the rest of the brutes. I think they’d all like to know about the mare that got close to finally shutting up that dumb broad Platinum.”

Well, I guess all it takes to get respect is attempted murder. Cool. “Sounds like a plan. By the way, what’s your name? I’d like to at least know who this heroic stallion who saved me is.” I did my best at the whole ‘princess’ thing, but I figuratively fell on my face.

“Hah! Oh you certainly aren’t the type that usually gets sent here.” Well, at least I was still funny. “Edgeworth the second, at your service. But call me Edge, or I’ll gut you. No pony uses my family name. Got it?”

Right, don’t call him the name he just told me. Instead, just a simpler one. “Got it, I’m Midnight Star.” We continued trotting away from the sun, making it much easier on my eyes than direct sunlight.

“It’ll be a while. Colony’s on the coast, next to a beach. So keep up girl.” Edge spoke up, quickening his pace a little. I matched his pace, not wanting to fall behind.

It may not have been the best of starts, but I was finally going to reach the closest thing to civilization I could find here. Sure it was a bit bumpy and dangerous, but I never expected it to be easy. Sure I was going to have to make a good first impression on several ponies that I didn’t know and would probably like to kill or rape me, but it could be worse. Furthermore, if they were anything like Edge it couldn’t be all that bad. Either way, I was going to find a herd at last. Suck on that gazelles.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to Klei entertainment as their game Don't Starve really got me going on this chapter. I love the game very much ;D
Otherwise! Moving the story right along in the usual sassy manner of miss Midnight Star.
Hope you enjoy