//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Back to the present 
// Story: A voice in the dark 
// by EmberLight 
//------------------------------//

"...and that was the last thing I remembered before I woke up- and everyone was gone. You know, I've never actually thought back on it but I never found out what happened to the family... I just- forgot about them," I laughed, a hollow laugh. I never did and I probably never will find out whether they got away or if they didn't.

"I'm sure they're fine," Chaio said. "They always manage to find some way out."

"I know, I'm not worried anymore," I replied.

"...Fyre, you're blue," Chaio pointed out.

"Oh... I forgot about that."

While me and Chaio had been talking- sorry, Chaio and me had been talking, Shimmering Cloud was sitting beside us, on my bed, muttering away to herself comletely missing what me and Chaio were talking about. Did I forget to mention that we're in my room? At the moment, her muttering was becoming louder until she finally looked up and exclaimed-

"YOU'RE A HALF-LING?!"

I blushes and scratched the back of my head, before answering with, "Ummm, yeah... I might have left that out. From what I've been told most ponies from the outside don't really take kindly to changelings, or hybrids. Sorry?"

"AND YOU WERE FRIENDS WITH SOMEONE WHO ATE MEAT!?"

"Wait what? Who?!" Both me and the tiny draqonequis asked. From what we knew, no-one I used to be friends with ate other animals... Although-

"...Niether of you know that dragons eat meat?"

When I thought back on it, it made sense. None of the adults would tell us what it was and Violet did seem very protective of her food. Honestly though, I'm not that disturbed by it- is that bad?

"And also, if that all happened seven years ago, then wouldn't you have been seven?"

"Ah... Well, I don't really understand it either, but after everyone vanished I stopped ageing. I kept count of the days, but when I noticed that I wasn't getting any older, I decided to just leave my age at what it was... Now that you mention it, I don't suppose that makes sense does it?" I asked, getting a shake of the head from Shimmer.

"Well... That's all my questions... Although, if you're a half-ling, then does that mean...?"

"Mean what?"

"Nope, never mind! Everything's fine!"

Shimmer was being odd, but I didn't really bother about it at the time. Normal things were boring, odd things were fun.

"Wait, no I just thought of another question! Chaio, what actually happened to you?"

"Oh... Well, I was just sitting in a tree-"

"-kissing heather." I added, I found it fun to be able to tease Chaio, it had been so boring all on my own. Chaio responded by blushing and continuing as though I hadn't interrupted.

"-and then just out of nowhere, this big black cloud just appeared around me... My hooves and arms were turned to crystal and I was practically a statue... Then everything went dark, I couldn't tell where I was, and it was so boring. I was stuck there for ages, now I know it was seven whole years! Till finally- there was a huge outburst of chaos energy and I was able to break free! Then I could see properly, I was in one of the natural caves in the forest. I started walking back to the cave system, and I saw you walking shimmer back to the caves!" Chaio had been saying all this at rocket pace, and once he had finished he took in a huge breath.

"But that was yesterday, why didn't you talk to us till now?" I asked.

"Because, you two were being adorable, and I didn't want to interrupt."

That was nice of him, although I'm slightly concerned about his mental health, since you know. Being locked in place as a statue for seven years, that has to have driven him some kind of mad. Then again, draqoneqi have always been crazy, they don't make sense. After all, they do embody chaos.

Of course, me and Shimmer were both blushing- although for me my entire body turned pink- as well as shying away from the conversation.

"If what happened to me happened to the others though, that means they've all been trapped as crystals too. For seven whole years, and since none of them are draqoneqi, they'll probably have all gone mad."

"Wait, you mean that they might all be alive?!" I asked, having gotten over the embarrassment and my coat returned to its normal shade of red.

"I've already checked and there are at least sixteen sentient creatures this deep in the forest, only thirteen though, that are between the ages of 11 and 15, that'll be us and our friends."

"Well lets go find them then! They can't be that far, after all the everfree forest isn't that big!"

Both me and Chaio stared at Shimmer, not believing what we just heard. There was a three second pause before Shimmer responded with "What?" as her answer.

"...You do know that it would take over nineteen days to get from one side to the other, right?" I asked Shimmer, whose eyes widened in disbelief.

"No... That can't be right, before I got here it only took me an hour to fly over it!"

"The everfree forest is home to chaos- it could take just an hour to fly over it, but to walk through it could change drastically, it plays with your mind- makes things not add up. And keep in mind- nineteen days was the fastest anyone's managed to get through it," Chaio replied.

"Well, we could start searching tomorrow, first though, the sun berry roast will probably be done by now, I'll go get it," I volunteered. As I stood up and walked out of the room, the Ivy lit up to guide me along.

While I was on my way to the kitchen, I started thinking about where everyone would sleep, we can't all share my bed- that would be awkward. We'd have to rebuild the other rooms, which would be nearly impossible since they had all caved in. I suppose we could all sleep in the garden, it's pretty large and the grass acts like a really comfy pillow. Anyway, we'd sort that out later- right now was sun berry time!

...I really hope I never say that ever again.