//------------------------------//
// Terrified 
// Story: Hoof Steps in the Dark 
// by Fuzzyfurvert 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 5


The slope away from the lake wasn’t very steep, but no sooner was Twilight under the canopy of the surrounding forest than she was stumbling and tripping with every step.  Her weary hooves rebelliously seeking out ever crook of roots, or cleave of rocks to catch and drop into.  The branches above her clawed at her mane and the sky equally, the remaining unfallen leaves blocking the light from the moon high overhead.

The mists rolling in from the water passed her, throwing a haze over what she could see, and adding a haunting quality to her panting and the snapping of the dry underbrush.  It turned every tree and rock into a phantom that seemed to leap out at her with every move she made.  Twilight scrambled deeper into the trees until her lungs ached more than her wings and legs and she collapsed at the base of a towering, mushroom covered stump.

“What have...you done?”

Twilight jumped, the voice came from everywhere around her, bouncing off the ground and trees.  It was cold, almost emotionless, as if the question was rhetorical.  She squinted, scanning the dark mists for anything to latch onto, but nothing moved.  The trees around her aloof sentinels, silent and still.  Pressing herself against the wood, Twilight took a deep breath and fired up her horn with a simple light spell.  It was the same one she’d used in the ruined Castle of the Sisters earlier, balls of light bright as a lantern forming and floating around her head.

Even with the added light, Twilight could still only make out the first layer of forest around her.  “What is this thing?  What does it want?”  With a mental command she sent the little balls of light out around her darting through the conifers and throwing shadows with each tree and shrub they passed.  The mist glittered with each wisp but otherwise ate up all the illumination in just a few yards.  Outside her own ragged breathing and hammering heart, nothing moved.  The forest was deathly still.

Twilight sat there, ears perked up and twitching back and forth, her eye wide as saucers.  She searched.  She watched for movement, listened for the snapping of a twig or crunch of leaves that would telegraph her pursuer’s location.  Time moved at a crawl while her body continued to add it the growing list of complaints.  The ground was wet and cold, soaking through her tail.  The mossy stump was rough, jabbing her back and flank in a dozen places.  Her wings were on fire from her aerial stunt over the pond and were being crushed between her body and the dead tree she sheltered against.  Muscles were numb or aching.  She was starting to shiver more than the deepening chill called for.

I can’t stay out here like this.  Twilight turned her head slowly, still scanning the area.  I’m going to be in real trouble if I go into shock.  I need to find shelter...is Zecora’s hut this direction?  Twilight shook her head, dismissing the thought.  Zecora’s hut was well into the Everfree, back towards the Castle where all of this had started.  There was no way she’d make that trip in this condition.  Flight felt out of the question.  She wasn’t strong enough to manage a teleport of any length.  Walking was highly suspect at this point, even if she disregarded the fact that it was dark.  Plus I don’t want to lead...whatever this thing is...back to anypony else.

The forest remained still.

Twilight took a deep breath and held it for a second, willing her pulse to slow.  She pushed off the stump with one hoof, the effort to lift herself back to a standing position forcing all the air out of her in a pained grunt.  She teetered there in place, finding her balance and calling back her conjured points of light to hover around her in a loose halo.  “P-please...let there be a cabin or shack nearby.”  She took a shaky step forward, a rueful grin splitting her muzzle.  “This...this would be the part...of the movie where Applejack would start ranting about dumb mares in horror stories.  Sorry to...disappoint, AJ, but I need a place to rest.  It’s not like I’m being chased by the Headless Horse.”

The next step was shaky, but the one that followed was a bit more firm.  Every plod of hoof on the bed of leaves and forest floor helped steady her.  Her heartbeat was still going like a jackhammer and everything ached, but she had a goal.  She had a mental checklist and every step was one more box ticked off.  First was getting herself moving, but carefully this time.  Next was finding shelter and seeing to aches that felt worst.  Then figure out what was chasing her.  The defeat it, probably.  Twilight shook her head.  Thinking that far ahead was making her feel fuzzy and lightheaded.  She didn’t much favor her chances of fighting either.  It would be better, she reasoned, to simply last out until daylight.  Then she could find her way to either her friends or the princesses.  Something to give her a leg up on something shadowy and ethereal.

Twilight stopped, or at least stumbled to a halt in the forest undergrowth.  A break in the canopy above allowed moonlight in to light her way, but it also allowed her to see gathering clouds that were threatening to steal what little additional illumination the moon provided.  As she watched the slow moving clouds, mesmerized but the slow undulating mass, something fell from the sky and hit her right in the eye, forcing her to blink away sudden tears.

“Wh-what the?”  Twilight sputtered, taking a half step back, but when she looked again, it became clear.  “Snow?  Snow?  It’s not even winter yet!  What in Celestia’s name is going on here?”

There was a sharp crack off to the left in the fog shrouded undergrowth.  A branch snapped like some heavy hoof had come down and Twilight jumped, kicking uncoordinatedly.  She hit the forest floor in an ungraceful gallop, diving out of the silvery cold moonlight and snow into the darker bush.  The wane light from her wisps did nothing to show her anything resembling a path and she dodged—poorly—around each tree as it came up, scraping bark and moss off with each pass.

“What have you done?”

The voice was right behind her ear, the breath colder than the surrounding air.  Twilight yelped and moved faster, banking off an oak tree like a pony shaped billiard ball.  “What?  What are you talking about?!”

“This is all your fault, Twilight Sparkle!”

“No it isn’t!  I don’t know what you mean!”  Another tree loomed out of the mists, larger than the others with low hanging branches.  Twilight ducked, prancing to the side but she took a slap to the face as she ran head first into a clump of leaves still holding on.  Roots, thicker than the branches reached up and hit her in the ankle and sent her flying in an uncontrolled tumble.  She croaked, choking on the clingy leaf fibers and came to a bone crunching halt several yards later in a ravine carved in the forest where some other massive tree had once stood.

Twilight spat out the leaves in her mouth and looked back over her shoulder.  Above her the tree she’d tripped over hung dangerously out over the ravine blotting out even the cloudy sky.  Her wisp lights, reaching the end of the mana her spell held were starting to sputter like candles at the end of the wick.  As she watched, hoarfrost formed on the exposed roots like some twinkling crystalline wood rot, and right in the middle of one massive root a hoof print appeared.  Then another on the root below it.  Then another.  One by one the hoof prints appeared with the casual pace of a predator combined with the grace of a princess descending stairs at one of Canterlot’s galas.

“You did this.  Cast me...into deeper darkness than even I knew.  You did it all without a thought to how I might feel about that...didn’t you?”  The voice followed the encroaching frost and was colder still.  It sounded hollow and broken, far away and muted, as if it came from some other place than the forest around them.  “I wonder...do you even think of that moment?  Is it a memory that keeps you up at night?  Does it...infect your dreams?  Or is it swept...away under the rug like unwanted filth?  Is it a non-entity in your life?  Something nopony remembers...but the history books?”

Twilight didn’t answer.  She kicked, twisting back around to dig her hooves into the dirt and loamy earth of her little ravine and pull herself away from that approaching darkness.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  The leaves and brush parted, leading her deeper into the furrow past more grasping roots and stones.  As the last of her light died, but not before it revealed a void, a hole in the walls of soil piling up on either side of her.  Twilight didn’t care what could be lurking there, she dove in head first, the hiss of frost and ethereal words behind her.