Chain of Dreams

by Hippocrene Artifex

Chapter 8: Home's Gone

Deep within the cave, Shade trotted until she reached the end and took a sharp turn to the right. The candles were lit to illuminate the interior; it was basically a giant burrow in the rock formation, but Shade never saw it that way. Off to her left was the ‘bedroom’; a fresh pile of grasses used as bedding marked the area where she would sleep with her mother. Just to the right of that was the ‘living room’; marked by the picture frames, ones that her mother had made herself, sitting atop of a couple boulders carved into stands. Directly in front of them were makeshift cushions of grasses to mark the entirety of the living space.

Set squarely in the center of it all was what she knew as the ‘dining room’; the hoof-carved, lacquered oak table sat just as pristine as the day her mother carved the thing herself. She always wondered where she had learnt such a wide repertoire of skills to craft such things to make their humble, little hovel into a cozier household.

Now that she thought about it, Shade had never really thought to ask, a small pang of regret catching her by surprise. At the moment, she came back from her little stupor to check the rest of the lodgings, feeling quite disconcerted that her mother had yet to show herself since she arrived, Purple Shade digressed as her attention was brought to the far right wall of the cave where the ‘kitchen’ was.

In that one moment, the cave felt a lot colder than it should have; Shade had to double-take just to make sure she was not dreaming. There, lying just above the water basin was her mother’s favorite lime-green headband. The mere sight of that headband laying there all by itself caused greater alarms to sound in her head than the ones she had earlier that day. A mere gaudy trinket to anypony else; the headband was an exquisite possession that her mother cherished. That was what left a glaring fact that Shade repeated her mind: She’d never leave the cave without her headband. So why was it that she was nowhere to be found when the headband was still there?

“Mother?” Shade called out, her voice almost hitching, “Mother!” But no reply came to either of her pleas. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t making any sense. She tried to fight back tears as she cried again, this time loud enough for her voice to reverberate off the cave’s interior. “Mom, where are you?!...MOM?!”

--o0o--

In the meantime, outside in the woods, Gold had just found another piece of a changeling’s iridescent wing wedged in the dirt. She didn’t like the looks of this, she was absolutely sure that the pieces of the wings belonged to a changeling. She needed only look at the thing to hear the errant drone of the flying menaces and their ominous, chittering laughter.

Gold looked toward the cave where her companion had so casually waltzed into. For all she knew, the changelings had already been here, or even worse, they were still there. Gold had to warn the other mare, but just glancing in the general direction of the cavern sent an icy chill down her spine that prevented such action. She would most likely have to shout from the mouth of the cave to draw Shade out to meet her, but just before she could build up the courage to move closer to the cave opening, a hollow echo came from the dark abyss.

“Mom, where are you?!...MOM?!”

With that terrified call, Purple Shade burst from the darkness looking as if she had just witnessed the invasion of Ponyville all over again. Gold tried to approach her and calm her, but the midnight mare merely sidestepped her and dashed about in a frenzied, somewhat vain search for what Gold suspected was lost as well.

There was a lime green headband firmly clenched in her teeth, but that did not lessen the note of distress in Shades voice as she cried, “Mom! Mom, where are you?!”

It was the most desperate, heart-wrenching plea that Gold had ever heard in her life. In many ways, she could relate more than well-enough to the anguish the mare before her felt. It was like watching Shade witness the events that unfolded herself once again... having no way to prevent it even now.

With a heavy heart and the knowledge that it was only a matter of time before harsh reality asserted itself against the grieving mare, Gold did the only thing she could do. “Shade...”

But Shade shunned the call to her and persisted in her forlorn search. Gold took a few steps closer to the mare until she blocked her path and looked deeply into her eyes, “Shade, I know this is difficult right now but y-”

But Purple Shade pushed past the pale yellow pegasus, cutting her off as she desperately tried to hold at bay the onslaught of sorrow, “No, don’t say that! S-she’s here! She’s just getting more water from the river.” But she only sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anything.

Gold, on the other hoof was not about to let this self-inducing anguish continue. “Listen to me, Shade,” Gold reasserted herself, “I know you don’t want to believe it, Shade, but I... think your mother might already be beyond our reach. Look!” Gold had already brought forth the pieces of iridescent wings and carapace-like armor that she had been carrying, “I found these scattered around, along with a bunch of hoofprints dug into the ground...”

Shade’s eyes welled up, a shaky hoof reaching out to the evidence gathered against her hopes.

Gold could already see her words sinking within the mare’s heart in the tears that she shed, so she amended, “I’m sorry, Shade.”

The walls came down with these simple words. Every kindling of hope was extinguished and all that remained was a weeping mare burying her muzzle into the only welcoming hooves for miles. Gold could only offer soothing tones to calm her devastation as she wept like a foal. She could not judge her for falling apart at such a stressful time. Indeed how could she do anything apart from sympathize with the distressed mare’s plight; her mother, and possibly her only relative, was now in the hooves of creatures so vile that they made Nightmare Moon’s revival look mundane.

But Purple Shade was not only crying over her loss; she seemed quite adamant on blaming herself for everything that took place in the course of this infamous day. She spoke between her gasps and sobs, “It-it’s all my f-fault. If-if I were here, I could have- I could have...”

For the second time in this day, Gold was forced to be the strong one. It was not by any means uncommon for her as she was a mother, for a great part of a mother’s duty was to take the sad and quivering hearts of her children right into hers when she, herself, wanted to surrender to the despair like what had engulfed her since the loss of her village, home, and children on this fateful day and cry until her eyes dried.

So it was Gold, with a steely tone to her voice that she adopted to hide the troubled myriad of emotions swirling within her, spoke firmly, “Shade, it’s not your fault.”

“Yes it is! I could have saved her, if I was here-” persisted Purple Shade stubbornly, but her words were cut by Gold’s.

“If you were here, you would probably be in the hooves of the changelings right now! You and your mother would be lost together in what horrible fate she suffers now!”

“B-but what if that’s not true...What if I was here and saved her?” Shade persisted, though feebly this time, as if the events of this day finally caught up and took their toll upon her body.

Yet, at her question, Gold held her breath. Similar words had passed through her mind as she left Ponyville to escape with a complete stranger: What if she had made the decision to remain in the town? Would she have been able to escape with her family and maybe even save others as well? Would she have been captured had she stayed? Or for that matter; where would this mare be had it not been for Gold Star?

She would have been spirited away like all others, Gold thought to herself.

Gold Star’s tearful eyes closed as these simple words passed through her mind. Saving Purple Shade was the hardest decision that she had ever faced in her life, and she knew she would never be able to live with it unless she was able to make it count for something. She had wondered ever since the attack, as she bolted from Ponyville with Purple Shade fast on her heels, if anypony would save her children just as she had saved somepony else’s child.

In the time that Gold Star was having her mental debate, Purple Shade had been staring up into the other mare’s face, waiting for her answer. The great pause did not bode confidence, and Gold caught the deteriorating flicker of the final hope left in the young mare’s eyes, but she would not let that final glow of hope fade away into the darkness because of her.

Walking to sit right next to Shade, Gold placed one wing around her shoulders and spoke in her gentlest voice, “Shade... I believe this is fate’s way of telling us that this is our second chance at setting things right. Our survival might only seem like a stroke of luck, but we did survive. We need to make this count for something. Had we stayed in Ponyville, or had you stayed here with your mother, we might not be here right now. I promise that we will save our families, we have to. Do you know why?”

“Why, Miss Gold?” Asked Shade with a sniff.

And, with her most winning smile, one that defeated the stubbornness of any foal that ever came before her, Gold answered, “Simply because we have nothing else to lose.” With a light hearted chuckle, Gold got up, and chided, “Oh, and in the future, just call me ‘Gold’ like all my friends do. There is no need for formalities between us now.”

Shade sniffed, but she also gave Gold a watery smile in return; accepting the terms of the new friendship that solidified between them.

It had been a hard and exhausting evening for both of them. Old wounds still so fresh had been reopened, and now they would have to face a new challenge: coming up with their next move. In all honesty, they wanted nothing more than to just quit and find a relatively peaceful shelter, but they could not risk remaining quite so near to a place that had just been attacked and robbed of its one inhabitant. What was more is that there was no telling if the changelings were still around, searching the area for more victims, so both mares agreed to leave the place that was Shade’s home.

Just as they started to move and re-enter the forest, Shade yelled, “Wait!”

At the shout, Gold nearly jumped into the air in fright. When she realized that it was not something dangerous, she gave Shade such a withering stare that made Shade smile sheepishly and flash white teeth in apology.

“Sorry. Let me just go get something quick.”

And before Gold had time to argue against the other pegasus’ decision, she disappeared into the cave. Once again, Gold cringed slightly at having to watch the young mare delve back into the less-than-homely looking home.

Gold waited, her heart starting to reach a faster tempo with each passing second. As much as she wanted to go in to make sure her companion was faring well, her deadlocking-fear would not allow it. In the end, she was forced to wait in solitude for the time being, however excruciatingly painful it was. She shuffled back and forth on her hooves, hoping that every shadow that flickered beyond the cave’s entrance was Shade and not some inexplicable evil waiting to ambush her just as it had many years ago.

Gold Star shook her head; she was edgy as it is without the added memories to magnify her plight, yet one minute passed and then another. Two went by, then five, and still no sign of Shade from deep within the bowels of dark cavern. Gold bit down hard on her lower lip; she did not like how long it was taking, but just before she could start screaming at the top of her lungs, as if on cue, there was the dark coated pegasus mare emerging from the cave with no discernible injuries, not even a scratch. Gold let a breath she had not realized she had been holding and trotted over to the other mare with only a trace of annoyance in her tone.

“Thank goodness you’re alright. What took you so long?” Gold Star demanded.

Shade flushed with embarrassment and mumbled apologetically, “I was getting a few supplies.” She showed off a somewhat-worn saddle bag she had securely draped over her back before speaking on, “Mother always keeps a few saddlebags packed with essentials after the last few ponies that ended up here got lost in the woods.”

Carefully unclasping the front buckle on the bag, Shade sifted through its contents until she retrieved what she was looking for and took it out to show Gold. There was a hoof-drawn map of the area, a compass, a set of fire-starting tools, a hefty length of rope, and a dozen pieces of fresh fruit.

“She always used to tell me, in her silent way, that the woods were like a maze to the wingless.” Shade mirthlessly chuckled at her own joke as she gazed fondly at the trace of her mother’s hoof, “Mom always marked out Ponyville and a few well known landmarks so travelers to find easily on the map."

Turning her head at Shade’s, Gold spoke gently, "She sounds like a wonderful and caring pony."

"She was the first pony who cared about me for who I am.” Shade nodded, nearly crying again as she started to stuff the supplies back into the saddlebag with precision. Gold stood amazed at how the small satchel-like bag could fit so much, but while Shade was hard in her work, Gold caught the faint glimmer of something lime-green before disappearing behind the rope and food. She now knew exactly why the saddlebag was so important, and not so much for the supplies themselves. She held herself against objecting to the extra load; she could only guess how valuable it was for Shade to keep a token of farewell from the one home she had with the mother whom she might never see for a long time... If ever.

As Shade rose and swung the saddle bag across her back, she avoided Gold’s gentle gaze so as not to show the troubled thoughts that still haunted her, but Gold proved such a perceptive companion as she walked in front and gently instructed as she entered the darkness of the forest’s canopy.

“Come on, Shade. We need to get to a safer place”

“But where to?” Purple Shade asked. She had her head slightly lowered and stretched forward while her star-reflecting eyes looked up to Gold Star.

Gold suggested, “To Canterlot. I have been mulling over this for a while. It’s a few hours run to the East and I just want to make sure…”

At the silence, Shade saw a troubled look within Gold’s star, so she voiced the suspicion that was growing within her as well, “Do you think that the changelings... reached Canterlot?”

Much too quickly, Gold responded with a shaken chuckle, “No, they couldn’t manage to take control of it several years ago. Besides, it would be safer there with the princesses and all. Come, We have a long way ahead of us.”

Shade saw the doubt written clearly upon Gold’s features, but she decided to drop the discussion. She only had hope, after all; that, and the company of the mare who now led her away from her beloved home into the wilderness of the forest.