Story 9 Followup: The Long Overdue · 9:43am Feb 6th, 2016
Well, it's been over a week since I finished posting Dark Matter. I've been recuperating from the brutal release schedule and, among other things, been working on the next and final entry in the Savage Skies series. I still don't have a title worked out for it. It's going to be much more lighthearted with plenty of WAFF. There's going to be a timeskip of a few years between the end of this story and the beginning the next one, as "nothing of significance" is going to happen for the time being.
By and large, the story is going to focus more closely on Dawn and Scootaloo than most of the other characters, though I will be tying up their plots in one form or another. Since it's meant to be shorter than this last one, I hope that I'll have it finished before too long, but don't expect me to hold to any stated timetable. That never seems to work, probably one of the reasons I'd never function as a professional author.
However, in the interest of tiding you over, here is a brief sample from the upcoming story.
Carrot Top breathed in deeply as she trotted down the path. The morning air in Whitetail Woods was fragrant with the smells of trees, flowers, and other sundry vegetation. In the mid-summer, the air was warm, with just the faintest chill left over from the night; perfect for a light morning jog. Her pace was brisk, but fairly slow as she followed the paths that ran through the woods. These were the less-used paths, narrower and less worn than the ones used for the Running of the Leaves in autumn. They wound out farther from Ponyville, deeper into the woods, where the sounds of birds and other animals were even more prevalent as they gathered in the areas less frequented by ponies.
This had been Carrot Top's morning routine for years since moving to Ponyville to open up her carrot farm near the Apple Family's orchards. For years, she had enjoyed a sort of friendly rivalry with the Apples, though comparing carrots and apples was like...well...comparing apples and oranges. There wasn't any real competition besides the gentle ribbing she and Applejack engaged in every once and a while. She'd even had an eye on Big Macintosh before he and Ditzy had made their relationship official.
Now was a time for quiet contemplation and a little exercise to help get her blood moving and fully wake up. She enjoyed the peace and the quiet of the woods in the time before more ponies made their way in over the course of the day.
The quiet...
Carrot Top hesitated, her steps faltering. Now that she thought about it, it was a little too quiet right now. The air should have been filled with the sounds of birdsong and small creatures moving through the underbrush. But that was suspiciously absent right now. In fact, the only sound she heard was the faint rustling of leaves as the wind moved through them.
Carrot Top slowed down a little bit more, listening more intently. What she heard at that moment sent chills down her spine. She picked up a faint sound as her pace slowed. The sound of steps. For just a second, she heard the sound of an extra set of steps before whatever it was slowed down a beat behind her to match her pace, the sound blending in with that of her own steps. Carrot Top came to an abrupt halt. This time, she heard the sound even more clearly, the sound of something else walking, a sound coming from right behind her. She heard exactly one extra step when she stopped, then the noise of whatever was shadowing her vanished as well. Whirling around, Carrot Top searched the woods behind her intently, looking for whatever the noise's source was. However, she only saw trees.
Frowning, Carrot Top turned and resumed her jog, picking back up to her usual pace as she made her way along the paths. She trotted for a few minutes before halting suddenly, her ears perked up as she listened intently.
There!
Her eyes went wide as she heard it even more clearly this time. Whatever was following her had been thrown off by her sudden stop and continued for three more steps before the noise vanished. Again, Carrot Top spun around, searching for the source of the noise, but saw nothing but trees.
"H-hello?" she called out, her eyes searching for any sign of her shadower. Nopony or nothing responded to her. All was silent.
Trembling now, Carrot Top once again resumed her jog, this time picking up her pace a little more, moving more quickly down the paths, already taking a more direct route back to Ponyville than she usually did. After a few more minutes, she again stopped abruptly, spinning in place to try and catch her pursuer in the act.
Whoever, or whatever, it was was a bit more canny than that. Carrot Top couldn't see anything. But she still heard those steps. Again, another set of steps before her stalker ceased to move. Carrot Top's blood was like ice in her veins, her whole body shaking as she tried to figure out what to do.
It wasn't merely the strangeness of the sound. She got the distinct feeling that whatever was following her was up to no good. She didn't want to hang around to find out what its plan was once it got tired with just following her. Turning back around, Carrot Top broke into a gallop, racing for home as fast as she could manage. Though her legs ached and her lungs burned, she didn't stop until she was well out of the woods. Coming to a halt, she spun around and looked at the line of trees a fair distance behind her.
She stood, panting for breath, looking for any sign of the thing, for she was definitely sure it was a thing, that had been following her. Despite being winded, she held her breath, trying force down the thunder in her ears that was the sound of her own heart hammering in her chest. Her ears perked upright as she listened intently for the slightest trace of sound from pursuing steps...
...
...
...
Nothing.
Carrot Top's breath exploded out of her in a relieved whoosh and she resumed panting, slumping to the ground, feeling tired and drained. Her body quaked and trembled as she thought about what had just happened. Though she'd never seen anything and nothing had happened to her, she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd just escaped a horrible, painful death. What was that?
I'm also working on a oneshot that I intend to tag onto the end of Dark Matter. It will be another entry in the A Knight's Tale series, featuring none other than our favorite ice-mage, Arcana Lulamoon as we get a look at the job he had for Celestia up north.
I have plans for another oneshot featuring the Knights, this one centering around Sunset Shimmer and her new, Great and Powerful, apprentice as they investigate a small town on the edges of Equestria, a town run by a strange mare by the name of Starlight Glimmer.
See you soon folks.
More Knight Tales? Awesome.
Timeskip? Intriguing.
Morning jogs? Cardio.
this sounds vary interesting and intriguing at the same time.
WAFF? I'm sorry, but I can't quite put my finger on what that means....
If you can make a more compelling story behind Starlight's motivation for cutie mark eradication, I'm all in...
And the next fic, I would so pay to see Fluttershy confront the biological family of Dawn
For what you commented of the next story... Why not use that as a title? "The Long Overdue"
Would love a perlin side story.
SO EXCITED
Hype. Hype. Hype.
Romance.