The Thing from Whitetail Woods

by Revenant Wings


Chapter 10 - The Ancient One of Whitetail

Revenant Wings thought he was still unconscious.

When he opened his eyes, for a long time there was nothing but blackness and a ringing in his ears. But the more he lay there, among the mud and the leaves and the grass, the more he could see a pale, ghostly light shining down on him and the more the ringing subsided until he could only hear the sound of millions of insects.

The forest at night was eerily still around him. He moved his head and found it would listen to him just enough to survey his surroundings. He was in a clearing in the woods and broken branches lay scattered around him. Large bushes surrounded the edges to the point where he could see no easy way out of the clearing and the forest around him became no more than the shadows of trees beyond the walls of the clearing.

He was still splayed out where he landed, his hooves at his sides and his wings sort of haphazardly stretched in various directions. He tried moving them and the pain nearly made him fall unconscious again, but he managed to tuck them to his sides and determined they were merely sore and not dislocated. Now sure that his wings were okay, he grunted and tried to move his legs.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you.”

The voice was deep, reverberating, and deathly calm. Revenant Wings looked around as best as he could, trying to find the source. But he stayed right where he was and didn’t move his legs or his torso any; the voice meant business and Revenant wasn’t sure how much danger he was in.

“What are you?”

“What am I?” The voice laughed and Revenant could see a shadow shifting about just outside the edge of the clearing. It looked like a pony leaning against a tree nearby. “What am I, indeed? I deign no light to shine on me. I hide in the dark, or else fear judgment from your kind. I am not foe, yet they would put me in the same category as he merely because we look the same. They deny who I am by focusing on what I am.”

It sounded like a male the more Revenant listened. And it seemed open to conversation. “Then... who are you?”

“Others would ask out of politeness, but you… despite your fear, your curiosity is genuine. Very well, but you know who I am despite your lack of recognition so far. I don’t blame you. I did tell you to blame it on merely being a dream, an illusion of ssssleep, after all.”

Revenant Wings felt his breath leave him as the pony turned around and slithered towards the edge of the clearing. A pair of golden eyes with slits like cat’s eyes shone from the darkness and emerged on the body of a blue stallion with a mane so dark a gray it was nearly black. But from the waist down he had no pony legs nor tail, for the thing that emerged from the shadow had the tail of a giant snake, larger even than Mirage’s coils, with brilliant azure scales and large black spots that shone almost purple in the moonlight and a silver underbelly.

A second lamia... Revenant gasped with recognition. “You were outside my house, and outside the bed and breakfast after… after the other one attacked me.”

“He remembers!” The lamia sounded... excited? Revenant couldn’t tell, the lamia’s tail just kept coming out from the bushes and the voice now sounded like it was behind him but he couldn’t move his head that far to see. “I applaud you; most others wouldn’t have remembered. Of course, you’ve been eating those berriessss, haven’t you? And drinking the juice that comes from them?”

Confusion at the strangeness of the situation replaced fear. “You know… you know about vaccinium sammohana?”

“Know?” The lamia crossed in front of Revenant’s view again, this time a clear expression of pride on its face. “I discovered them. One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, as a matter of fact. We lamias are rare, but we can live for a rather long time. And they even honored me by putting my name on them!” The lamia let out a mournful sigh, now behind Revenant again, who tensed in surprise at the sudden noise. “Alassss… at least four generations have come and gone, and who I am is now forgotten.”

Revenant Wings picked through his brain, somewhat unnerved by the lamia constantly circling him, the azure scales with their dark black spots going by in an endless loop. “...’Sammohana’?” he asked.

“Sammohan, to be precise.” He said, placing the accent on the second syllable, as he passed in front of Revenant again and laughed. “What scares the pony?” he asked playfully. “Certainly not me, I hope.”

Revenant had to shake off his surprise. “Admittedly so. You speak rather eloquently, yet there are certain things I must question about you.”

Instead of continuing to circle him, Sammohan did a fancy loop and rested his head in his hooves on a pile of coils in front of Revenant, staring him down; it was only when he blinked that Revenant remembered he was still part pony. “Go ahead; assssk away. It has been long since I talked with another pony and I am sssstarved for conversation.”

The cordial talk of the other pony unnerved Revenant Wings even more, making him wonder if the lamia realized the situation of Revenant being weakened enough to be totally at his mercy. He summoned up all the courage he could muster. “You wished to not be categorized the same as the other. And yet… how do I know you aren’t merely trying to lower my guard and do the same to me as Mirage did to Garnet?”

“Oh ho ho, my dear young friend...” Sammohan leaned in a little bit closer and curled his lips up in a wide smile. Revenant shivered where he lay and felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. “...you haven’t told me your name yet. I cannot properly addresssss you without a name.”

Did he tell him? The lamia sounded smart and Revenant guessed that any answer that displeased him – blatantly wrong answers or straight-out refusal – could get him hurt more than he already was. “...Revenant Wings,” he finally managed to sputter out.

“Well, Revenant, let me ask you this in turn: you see what lies before you, do you not?”

The lamia suddenly rose up over Revenant and his face became obscured in shadow except for the piercing yellow eyes that glared down at him.

“Thirty-five feet of scalessss enough to crush bone, speed to rival your own, fluidity of motion and agility that surpasses any of your kind, and words… powerful, powerful wordssss and magic that can make you do as I please.”

Before Revenant could scream out in horror, the lamia returned to resting on his coils at almost eye-level with the pegasus again and resumed a playful tone. “And yet here we sit, talking… rather pleasantly, given the circumstances.”

Revenant Wings once again mustered up the courage to speak; at least the coils weren’t constantly shifting anymore, but there was the thought that they did surround the clearing completely. “But what is the difference between friendly behavior and a beguiling facade? And how can I tell which you are showing me?”

Sammohan smiled pridefully at Revenant. “Now you’re asking the real question. How are you supposed to know which one I am? I am acting rather cordially, I haven’t once sssspoken to you threateningly, and I have technically answered whatever question you’ve asked me so far. But what separates me from the other? There is one question you can ask that can differentiate between the two.”

Only one question came to mind: the one Revenant had not asked yet. “Why did you tell me not to move? Am I in danger?”

“First of all, I did not tell you not to move; I merely suggested that you didn’t. But secondly, I heard your impact and it sounded like you fell on the left side of your body. Thussss, bearing the brunt of the damage, your left shoulder and back leg are likely broken.”

Revenant did not want to believe him. His first thought was to flap his wings and fly away. He prepared himself to push off...

...and was promptly greeted by a shock of pain that coursed through his body when trying to even move his back leg. Revenant winced in pain and inhaled sharply through his teeth, buckling over even as he lay in the dirt with a loud groan.

“I tried to warn you,” Sammohan said lazily.

Revenant Wings decided to trust the lamia for the time being. His legs were quite clearly broken and he hadn’t made any attempts at attacking him. Besides, there could be more information to pry. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down again. “...you have no malicious intent?”

“I believe that was a new question as opposed to answering the question I gave, but the answer is correct. I do not wish to harm you, Revenant Wingssss.”

The lamia said his name with an almost loving caress of the tongue which confused Revenant yet again. But the confusion quickly turned to fear as a fire came into the yellow eyes and a rather un-snakelike growl came into Sammohan’s voice.

“Nor do I wish to do what that monster has been doing to your kind.”

Revenant shivered again and fought against his flight instinct; he was clearly too damaged to move. “Y-you... he... Mirage... a monster?”

Quick as a flash, Sammohan’s face was inches from Revenant’s own, glaring angrily. “Do you know what a Changeling is?”

Revenant’s entire body tensed as he searched his memory again. “They’re bug-like creatures that can shapeshift to look like any other pony,” he said quickly. “They turn into a pony, then use that form to get close to someone they love before feeding on that energy.”

Sammohan nodded and backed away, but not very far; Revenant could not see much farther than the lamia himself. “Much is similar in the process from Changelings to lamias. But while Changelings are masters of subtlety, a lamia forgoes that. We bite, and through our bite we drain magic from others. But so long as we keep draining magic… we can keep going as though in our prime.”

“...how old are you, then?”

Sammohan backed off towards his pile of coils again; Revenant jumped slightly as he brought the end of his tail over to Revenant and gave him an odd little stroke of the cheek. “I believe this year is one hundred and sssseventy-four.”

Revenant leaned his head away from the end of Sammohan’s tail. “Then if you say you are not like him, where are you draining your magic from?”

“An excellent, informed question. The Everfree is a veritable hive of magic and food. I need not drain a pony, not when the magic contained in ponies is rather insignificant compared to the magic required to consssstruct and keep alive the things that dwell in there.”

“...does Mirage know that at all?”

Sammohan pushed his tail underneath Revenant’s chin such that he could look at the lamia, once more glaring angrily at him. “This is what separates us. I know and utilize it. It’s why, until recently, you’d never heard from me before. But he, whatever he calls himself, does not care. He hunts and drains ponies like it’s sport! PAH!” he suddenly shouted. “No proper lamia would think of such a thing! We have the brain of a pony, we ought to think like one!”

Revenant found his breathing was shaky and he tried to speak, to respond, but nothing more than a mild squeak came out.

Sammohan gently put Revenant’s head back on the ground and calmed down again. “But Mirage, or whatever you call him, was born in the Everfree, born of dark magic corrupting a pony who went in there to die, and has become twisted by his own dark thoughts.”

“...but... three days every time they’re gone?” Revenant sputtered.

“He likes toying with you. And what better way than to induct and re-induct?”

“Re-induct? You mean... like repeatedly hypnotizing them?”

Despite the glare, Sammohan gave a proud smile. “You catch on fast. A pony cannot go for three days without food or water. It severely inhibits them on all fronts. So he has chosen a place where he can provide that.”

“So... he makes them not want to leave him.”

“Not quite. He hides them away in the hills, a place with fresh grass and clean water. He makes them afraid if they are too far from him. Subtle fears, but effective ones; those he wants close he keeps close, but everyone else is frightened away by rumors of monsters and strange dark creatures. They trust him, but fear me.”

“...are you doing the opposite with me?” Revenant asked.

“Whether I am, I’ll leave up to you. But you already know he’s a problem. I’m just giving you more information.”

“Valuable information, at that.” There was now no other course of option. Revenant gulped. “But there’s a slight problem: how am I to get out and use this information? I mean, all things considered, I’m stuck here with my broken legs.”

Sammohan’s gaze softened. “That is what I’ve been trying to do. But you are tensssse and do not trust me. I do not wish for you to get hurt more by flailing around when I merely want to help.”

Revenant looked hesitantly at the azure lamia. “...what must you do?”

“The easiest way to transport you is to wrap you in my coilssss. Done properly, I can keep your body steady and limbs from moving too much. I dare not risk Ponyville proper, but I can take you to within sight of Fluttershy’s hut.”

Revenant did not like the sound of that at all. But, with two legs broken and unable to get to proper care on his own – Mirage had flung him quite a long ways away – he had no other choice. “I… If it’s what you must do, then do it.”

“I’m afraid it will be a slow process,” Sammohan said.

“I don’t care. I need to get out. I need to tell my commanding officer, especially if Garnet is now missing and held by Mirage, too.”

“Very well. Hold sssstill... and do not be afraid...”

That didn’t matter. Revenant went frozen from the feel of the cold, smooth scales touching his back legs. Gently as possible, Sammohan’s tail crept underneath the legs and propped them up, then slowly began to curl up around his back legs, pinning them together and keeping them perfectly straight.

Revenant watched in mild fascination as the coil gently curled around his legs and slipped back under them. Sammohan was being rather tender and careful with his legs and slithered around to Revenant’s back to watch his handiwork. But the longer Revenant watched and the more coils slipped around him, the more he began to see it as something else.

...what have I done!? He’s got me the same as Mirage has Garnet! “Sammohan?” he asked, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

Sammohan looked over towards Revenant Wings. “What is it?” he asked, concerned. “Are they too tight?”

“N-No... I just... I’m beginning to think... I really don’t like this idea.”

“It’s the easiest way to get you back,” Sammohan insisted.

“I just... why don’t we... can’t we just... OH GOD, I’M GOING TO GET EATEN! OH, DAMN IT ALL TO TARTARUS, WHY DID I HAVE TO TRUST YOU!? WHY DID I HAVE TO GET MYSELF FLUNG OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!? SOMEPONY, ANYPONY, HELP ME!!

Revenant closed his eyes and started crying. Not just crying, but bawling and sniffling and coughing and wheezing. All his years in the Guard had not prepared him for this, and nor was he entirely content to think that his last memories would be of sliding down a snake’s gullet.

When Revenant Wings opened his eyes again to try calling out, he noticed that Sammohan was leaning over him. Their eyes met, Sammohan’s golden slits to Revenant’s large blue pupils, and Revenant could see a concerned look in Sammohan’s face. Revenant’s eyes opened wide, terrified and shaking but unable to conjure up enough strength even to continue crying. It occurred to Revenant that Sammohan wasn’t moving anymore.

Sammohan closed his eyes. “I’m afraid it must be done.”

He opened his eyes again.

Sapphire. That was the first thing Revenant saw. Not the gold of his usual eyes, but a pair of twin sapphires hovering over him. Revenant gasped.

But slowly, the eyes started to shift. Now there came a trace of gold, slowly moving around the eye in lazy circles. Next a trace of green, slowly spinning around and occasionally intertwining with the gold. A patch of silver appeared like the moon at night and joined the others swirling and twisting around.

“Relaxssss...” Sammohan hissed.

Revenant didn’t know if he’d call his current position ‘relaxing’ or even ‘relaxed’, but he certainly wasn’t crying anymore. He guessed his current inability to move was either complete fear paralysis or he was imagining things.

Listen, pay attention, and relaxssss for me... I’m here to keep you safe, little pony...

Gold, green, silver, blue... more little strands came and intermingled in Sammohan’s eyes. The colors swirled and shifted and changed and rotated... Revenant didn’t know what to stare at. He was most attracted to the blue or the silver, but then the gold or the green would shine and he would start to follow them, only to have his attention shift back to the silver or blue.

Slow your breath and calm your mind... let my wordssss your thoughts entwine...

There was something... oddly beautiful about the eyes. Something told Revenant that wasn’t what he should be thinking, but the shifting shapes and colors fascinated him. His fear slowly began to melt away and his breathing relaxed from near hyper-ventilating to panicked but somewhat in control, like an adrenaline rush.

"This is hypnosis, but do not weep... think of yourself just falling assssleep...

Hypn- THAT’S WHAT MIRAGE DID. NO. And yet the words were just so smooth, so fluid, so calming...

Safe and sound and warm in your bed... let my coilssss be a pillow for your sleepy head...

Revenant opened his mouth to protest but the warmest feelings came over him and he could not speak a word. He could feel Sammohan’s tail begin to curl around him again and this time he didn’t tense up. He was too focused on the swirling, shifting colors in front of him, the way they languidly and lazily spiraled around.

Don’t be afraid of the coils and rings... they’re here to relax you, Revenant Wingssss...

He began to breathe to the rhythm of the swirling colors. Sammohan raised his head up above him and began to sway back and forth like a pendulum and he followed weakly along. The rhythmic chanting and swaying felt soothing and calming as Sammohan’s tail gently curled around his waist. Something still egged the back of his mind, but it no longer caused him any deep anxiety.

“Sa... sam...” His tongue felt thick and heavy. “Sammohan...”

Let your body relaxssss and go limp at my touch... your eyes feel so heavy, you needed this so much...

He... needed this? But of course he did; he’d been there so late into the night, and injured, too. Of course he could rel- NO. This was still a lamia, and he still needed to watch what he was doing. He kept looking at Sammohan’s colorful, beautiful, swirling eyes because he needed to keep tabs on him; and he kept watching the slow, rhythmic, mesmerizing sway because he needed to see what he would do next. And he kept letting the coils wrap up around him, now pinning his front hooves to his sides, because... because...

Losssst in the power of my entrancing gaze... All else muddled in this sleep-addled haze...

...he forgot.

My voice-

OH. Because my hooves don’t hurt anymore! He’s wrapping them like a splint and bandage! ...that’s neat.

My voice is a lullaby, a calm, gentle crooning... my eyes make you tranquil, the colors so soothing...

Sammohan now had his coils up and around Revenant’s neck. But it wasn’t so tight he couldn’t breathe, just enough that his hooves couldn’t move. He couldn’t fidget all that much, for that matter, the space was just tight enough for him to sit comfortably and relax without being in danger of falling out.

Not that he wanted to move, anyways. He was quite calm and content here, even a little sleepy. He felt Sammohan’s coils slowly shift and bring him upright; the motion felt like a massage and he blessed the fact that his legs were comfortable and the lamia tender and caring. And through it all, his eyes never left the swirling colors in Sammohan’s own.

Nothing to scare and nothing to fear... close your eyessss, for I will be here...

Had Revenant been able to look at his own eyes, he would have seen his pupils were shrunk to not more than pinpricks and his eyes mimicked Sammohan’s own. His eyelids began to droop and he struggled to keep staring deep into Sammohan’s eyes. He felt tired, so very tired, and wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and sleep...

Slip ssssoftly into gentle sleep... tonight the watch I shall keep...

Sammohan’s gentle, kindly words wrapped around him as much as his coils and he tried desperately to keep listening despite the invitation to sleep. He was intensely fascinated by the whole process and wanted beyond want to remember the warm, sleepy, languid feelings he had during it. He never felt calmer, more relaxed, more content in his life, and for once in the past few weeks he felt no fear.

Know when you’re here, you’re safe and sound... when you’re with me, no stress shall be found...

His breathing was like he was already asleep but he didn’t dare close his eyes without Sammohan’s permission. Not because the lamia would likely punish him for it, simply because it felt rude to do so. And besides; he would take in as many of the colors as he could.

Sammohan’s silky soft words and cool, smooth coils were one of the few thoughts dominating his brain and he felt somewhat guilty about it. But the guilt was soon washed away in the shifting eyes that constantly changed and held his attention and the mesmerizing voice that kept winding around, slow and without end, like his first glimpse of the azure scales.

You’ll soon be home and safe again, my young friend... but close your eyes and resssst until then...

Revenant Wings felt his eyelids become so heavy he could barely hold them open anymore and longed to close his eyes and sleep without care. He couldn’t even feel his legs anymore, much less remembered that they were broken, and any and all panic – even about Mirage or the simple existence of lamias so close to Ponyville – was gone. All that was left was the soothing voice, the almost tranquilizing coils, and the enchanting eyes that burned into his mind.

Despite most thought being pushed away amidst the chanting and the colors and the coils, there was something he noticed. He had not drank a vial of the berry juice before going off to face Mirage and yet fought his magic off with ease. But his body put up rather little resistance to Sammohan’s power and he had few qualms about falling into his spell. He wondered if it had anything to do with Sammohan ingratiating himself with the conversation beforehoof.

“So close your eyessss, dear Revenant... and sleep, sssleep, sssssleep...”

Revenant Wings’ eyes slowly closed and he drifted off into a deep, relaxed, peaceful sleep.

The colors soon faded out of Sammohan’s eyes until only the bright gold remained once more. He looked up and noticed the moon was beginning to fade but the sun had not yet come up and no light shone down. Carefully, quietly, he shifted the sleeping Revenant Wings until he was sure he had a good grip on him and carefully maneuvered off into the underbrush of the Whitetail Woods.


When Revenant Wings awoke, he was lying on the ground again but his scenery had changed significantly. It was very early morning, so early the sun had just started to come up over the horizon. Instead of being in a clearing deep in the woods, he found himself almost within sight of Fluttershy’s little house in the hill. He started to try to get up and go home.

“Not yet,” came the voice of Sammohan from somewhere nearby. “You are still injured, after all.”

Revenant looked around and found Sammohan reclining with his back against a tree not too far away. The area he was lying in was covered in bushes, and Revenant knew without asking that it would be very difficult for anyone to find his trail in such thick underbrush. He smiled at Revenant.

“How are you?” he asked.

Revenant yawned a little. “How long was I asleep for?”

“I’d guess a good six hourssss,” Sammohan replied. His smile became a little more playful. “Probably the best six hours of sleep you’ve gotten in your life.”

Revenant Wings was not only surprised by remembering the hypnosis rather clearly but the fact that his brain seemed to be all in one piece afterwards. No memory missing, no memory altered, and even a slight confusion towards the lamia remained untainted. “How long have I been on the ground for?” he asked.

“About ten minutes,” Sammohan said soothingly. “That’s rather normal. Deep as you were, it takes time to release naturally from hypnosissss. Don’t worry, the fact that you woke up means it only took that long for you to regain full mental functioning after you left my coils.”

Revenant Wings stared off into what he could see of the sunrise through the brush at the edge of the Whitetail Woods. “I should apologize,” he said. “For my fear. You’ve made good on your word bringing me back here safely and in one piece. I should thank you instead of assuming the worst, as I’m sure I did a few times last night.”

“I do not blame you,” Sammohan said kindly. He smiled tenderly at Revenant. “Mirage has been sowing these rumors that, while unfair to me, are justifiable. Who wouldn’t be afraid when facing the unknown? And, considering you’ve known me for less than twelve hours while you’ve been hearing about and seeing the effects of Mirage for weeks, your preconceived notions will be a little hard to break, with or without convincing.”

Revenant Wings nodded and turned to face Sammohan. “I want to meet with you again. I want to talk some more. About Mirage. About you.”

Sammohan’s smile faded. “I... I’d rather not. I should stick close to the Everfree Forest, just in case the ponies from the village see me and think me the monster that’s been stealing them away.”

“I have the weekends off. I can come to you. Please. We fight against a common enemy. If we could team up against Mirage, perhaps we can expose him or defeat him and bring justice to your own name.”

Sammohan closed his eyes quietly in thought.

Revenant Wings averted his eyes. “I mean, if you don’t want to, that’s fine. But... I would feel bad for judging you like I did then not having the chance to really make it up to you.”
Sammohan was quiet for a long time.
The sun rose a little more. There was suddenly the shouting of guards in the distance, and Revenant decided it was about time he went. He looked over to Sammohan, who had opened his eyes again but had yet to speak.

“Well, they’ll probably find me soon. Well, you since you’re sticking out of the trees. I guess this is goodbye, then.” He looked Sammohan in the eye. “Thank you.”

Sammohan smiled. “A week from now,” he said. “Where the Everfree meets the Whitetail. I will be waiting by the lone birch tree. There’s a path there, but it’s small and you might get lost. I will come and get you, and bring you back. That is, if you’re out from the hospital.”

Revenant Wings smiled. “A week, then. I’ll try.”

Sammohan smiled again and ducked down below the underbrush. There was the slightest rustling of leaves and then he was gone.

The guards came with a stretcher following a songbird of Fluttershy’s, and Revenant Wings shouted at them to direct them to his specific position. They were surprised that he showed neither blood nor severe open wounds, and both helped to load him on without damaging his legs too much. As they carted him to the Ponyville Hospital, Revenant looked back at the Whitetail Woods, then forwards as they trekked through Ponyville, and a smile came on his face.

Lamia versus lamia... things have gotten a little more interesting.