The Land Before Hooves

by Moon Flame


Chapter 6. Light Horn

Ducky could still see the image of the glowing horn in front of her eyes. The light faded as they adjusted to the darkness of the cave again. She walked up to the strange lavender creature that had created it, her feets splashing against the wet cave floor. Duckys' hoarse voice echoed inside the cave.

“Light Horn? Are you okay Light Horn?”

Ducky laid her claws on the creatures tummy. The creature had some kind of hair coat for skin. It startled Ducky. She gasped and backed away. It almost felt like a giant rodent. Ducky knew the feeling of hair because she had a rat friend currently living in The Land Of Mists, but Duckys' mind only circulated around a dark realization right now.

“Light Horn?” Duckys voice trembled.

Ducky nudged the colorful creature in the belly. The creature didn’t move. Ducky felt her heart drop down to her feet, to emotional to notice that Twilight was still breathing weakly through her mouth.

Is she...?

Ducky breathed heavily. She whispered.

“Light Horn. Oh Light Horn, why are’t you moving Light Horn?”

Ducky looked silently at the seemingly unmoving pile of lavender coat. Her eyes filled with tears. She snorted.

“Because you are dead Light Horn. Yes you are, yep, yep, yep.”

Ducky wailed her eyes around. There was a weak light entering the cave from above. As the sun moved the light came closer to Light Horns body. This seemed like as perfect spot as any Ducky thought and started gathering stones.

After preparations had been made Ducky went down on her knees. The light had now reached Light Horns body, the pink star on her flank glistening in its wake. Ducky lowered her flat head and spoke softly.

“Oh Light Horn. Why did you leave us Light Horn?” Ducky snorted. “Why did you leave your friends and family behind, wherever they may be? They are surely going to miss you now when you’re gone, yep, yep, yep.”

It made Ducky even sadder to think that the family of Light Horn didn’t know that their daughter was dead. Hopefully they would find this cave and discover the truth via her setup.

Ducky spent a long time beside Light Horn, shedding tears in intervals. Eventually she stood up. She turned around and walked away, leaving Light Horns body at the hands of the great circle of life.

As Ducky left the cave behind her she was greeted with the daylight patching through the treetops above. But now another question occurred to her.

But how are you going to find this cave, family of Light Horn?

The answer didn’t take long for Ducky to find. She started gathering twigs.

After Ducky had made the final preparations she walked away from the cave. Her thoughts circulated around Light Horn. Even though she never knew her she couldn’t help but feel like she did in a way. It was like part of Ducky lived in a different reality, a reality were she and Light Horn had been friends for a long time. The thought that she only truly lived that reality for a couple of minutes before Light Horn died somehow brought her even closer to her. Ducky guessed that old saying was true after all - We don’t know what we have until its gone - And by the sound of the sobbing ahead it appeared as someone else had the same thought. The crying seemed to come from behind the bushes. Ducky approached slowly. She pulled apart the leaves.

Apple Jack though she heard rustling in the bushes behind her. A sharptooth was her first thought. She hoped that it was. She hoped that the sharptooth would jump on her and let her join her friend Twilight in death. The world around her were blurry with tears. Her sobbing made the small glimpse she had of it bounce constantly.

Ducky watched with curious eyes at the strange light brown creature that seemed to have some kind of yellow waterfall on her head. Ducky could hear that it was a female, but why was she crying? Slowly, Ducky approached the yellow waterfall. She reached out her hand.

Apple Jacks brain spun around in circles. Why did she had to be in such a hurry back there? Why didn’t she look behind her and made sure that Twilight actually followed her? It was only after she discovered that she wasn't that Apple Jack and the others had heard the sharptooths roar and the sound of its teeth slamming against something. From that moment Apple Jack had felt a heavy stone lying inside her belly, making it ache constantly. She felt something nudging her hoof. She found no strength to bother.

Ducky took away her hand as the sobbing light brown creature didn’t seem to react to her presence. Ducky was getting ready to walk away and leave the creature alone when something inside her told her to just be herself.

“Hello.” Ducky greeted cheerfully.

Apple Jack kept on sobbing, her face turned to the ground.

“I said, hello.” Ducky tried again.

Apple Jack still didn’t answer. Ducky made a long gasp.

“Woaaaaa... Maybe you cannot talk yet, haaa, haaa?” Ducky dragged out the ‘a’ in a ‘how are you?’ manner while looking at Apple Jack.

Apple Jack managed to gain control of her sobbing. She turned her head and looked into the eyes of the strange flat-mouthed creature. It was big, curious, unbeknownst and innocent eyes. Apple Jack felt herself fall into those eyes. Somehow it didn’t matter who the creature was, all that mattered was that those eyes saw her who she really was.

“h...h..Its all my fault.” Apple Jack sobbed.

“What’s your fault?” Ducky asked.

“h...h..Everything.” Apple Jacks eyes closed, her tears pouring down over her cheeks. Ducky jumped up in front of Apple Jack.

“So ‘Everything’ is your fault?” She asked curiously.

“...h...h...yes.”

“So then i owe ‘everything’ i have to you? My toes, my fingers, my hands, my mouth, my legs, my...?

Ducky went on about everything that she had. Apple Jack felt her mood rise slightly, but her memory herself turning away from Twilight still held her down.

“I miss h..h..her so much.” She sobbed.

“Miss who?” Ducky asked and stopped jumping.

“Twilight.”

“Who is Twilight?” Ducky asked. Apple Jack didn’t answer. She continued with a broken voice.

“What am i going to tell Celestia? What I'm i going to tell Spike?”

Ducky suddenly lit up.

“Spike?! I know a Spike. He’s my brother. He is a spiketail, not a swimmer like me.” Ducky made swimming motion with her arms. She then lowered her head in sadness. “He left my family to be with his own kind, but i don't judge him, no, no, no, he will always be my brother. Yes, he will, yep, yep, yep.”

When Apple Jack heard the green creature tell her about her brother she felt her sobbing stop. She snorted. She wiped the tears with her hoof. Ducky continued.

“Life can be so cruel sometimes. Sometimes the ones that we love gets taken away from us, like my friend Light Horn. Yep, that was her name.”

Apple Jack felt calmer the further the green creature spouted.

“It is sad that we barely got to know each other, me and Light Horn. One minute she was there and then, the next, she was aaaaaal gone.” Ducky sat down next to Apple Jack. She laid her hand on her hoof. “But i’ll always remember her. Her shining horn with her eyes and her smile and her colorful coat.”

Apple Jack saw an image of Twilight paint itself in front of her. It made Apple Jack dreamy, so dreamy that she failed to ask the creature who Light Horn was. Apple Jack joined in, going through memory lane.

“She were so kind Twili, and nerdy. A real book worm granted, but a finer princess must really be searched for to find. She always put everyone else before herself, she even helped me with my farmer chores now and then, despite her not really being cut out for hard work.”

Apple Jack felt better talking about who Twilight as a pony. Ducky had similar feelings.

“Soooo beautiful hair, Light Horn had. Covered in red streaks like the morning sky. She really lit up the darkness when it was hard to see, yep, yep, yep.

“Her lavender wings spread so wide.” Apple Jack continued. “And that cutie mark of hers, she really stood out in the crowd...”

Ducky and Apple Jack kept on talking about their respective friend. Meanwhile, inside the cave, somepony was about to become two ponies at once without knowing so.

Twilight moaned and opened her eyes. She took a deep breath, feeling the wet cave air smear inside her throat. She wailed her eyes around. She didn’t realize it yet, but from now on the questions would only pile up.

Why were there stone towers placed all around her? Why was there a flower placed on one of them? Where was that green creature that she had seen earlier? Had she been a dream? Twilight felt the confusion slide against her brain. She moaned again. She rose up on her hooves and started walking toward the light ahead, hoping to also shed light on the situation.

As Twilight exited the cave her confounded eyes immediately festered on some kind of wooden statue. The statue had four thin twigs as legs, a slightly thicker twig as body, woven together reed as a head and a pine needle sticking out of it. Is the pine needle supposed to be a horn? It looked like the poor thing was being impaled in the face. Twilight thought she heard voices ahead.

Good, finally one is going to get some answers. Twilight thought to herself.

Back behind the bushes the memories kept on flowing.

“She were so good with school fillies Twilight, she always had something to say that would cheer those small apples up and make them bloom like harvest season.” Apple Jack recalled dreamily.

“...She was so full of life Light Horn. So cheerful, so kind, so...” Ducky gasped, her eyes widened and sparkled up in joy. “...so alive. YOU’RE ALIVE!”

Apple Jack threw her eyes in the same direction as Ducky. She felt that stone inside her tummy drop to the ground. Her pony face lit up like the morning sun.

“TWILIGHT!” - “LIGHT HORN!” Both Apple Jack and Ducky shouted happily at the same time, the names blurring into TWIGHTHORN in the air.

“Heh?” Twilight blurted, her mouth bent in confusion.

Before Twilight had time to ask any questions she felt Apple Jacks hooves wrap hard around her. The green creature climbed up on Apple Jacks back and hugged around Twilights mane.

Twilight stared bewildered into the air. Inside, she did feel happy for Apple Jack and whoever the green creature was, but she had a feeling that she had missed something.