An extremely confused grey pony found himself stuck in the midst of a battle.
He had woken up and banged his head on the top of the crate he had been placed in. With a bit of effort he was able to kick his way out of the crate, only to find that he was surrounded by many other crates in a dark hull. There was a low buzzing from somewhere as if a motor was running, and he had the feeling that he was at a higher altitude than he ought to be.
It was only when the storm guards began hopping out of the air blimps that the grey pony managed to find his way out without being noticed. But the scene before him had not helped. Everywhere, he saw the monstrous creatures smashing up decorations and grabbing at the brightest colored ponies he had ever seen. He couldn’t tell where he was, but he just wanted to get away.
After a few minutes he managed to make it into an alley. He took one leap over a pile of old cider crates and launched himself into a lumpy mess of discarded junk in a corner. It was noisy, but not noisier than the chaos going on out there.
He wanted to take a moment to collect his thoughts. But every time he tried to think of what he was doing in that crate or where he was before that, nothing came to mind.
He couldn’t remember what those beasts were, or if he should even know what they were. He heard the shouts from the ponies around the streets. Seemed like nopony understood anything except that the princesses were gone, the brave defenders of Equestria were being chased down, and that anypony else was being rounded up. For what reason, he didn’t know, but he didn’t want to know.
He did happen to think of one word. It repeated itself endlessly in his head but it made no sense. He was about to place it on the tip of his tongue when he was distracted by a large cart flying into the opposite wall from where he hid. It brought his attention back to the outside.
Everywhere he looked he saw more scattered ponies, more monstrous beasts rounding them into cages. He didn’t know if he could take on their monstrous staffs and claws, but hiding in the garbage was not the most flattering image he could think of himself in.
From where he was, he could get a good partial view into the nearby street. He could just barely see one purple and yellow unicorn creeping around behind somepony’s fence. She seemed to be looking for somepony, or some opportunity for escape. He was in the middle of trying to figure it out when the crate beneath him began to wobble...
*** *** *** *** *** ***
Starry tried at first to get as far away from the main square as she could, but she didn’t want to leave her friends behind. It didn’t take long before Starry was able to locate her two pals in the cages nearest the soda shop. They both had slightly flushed cheeks and were singing somewhat in tune to the song they had written. She took a quick peek around to see where all the storm guards were and noticed that, while some were still rounding up ponies, a good hoofful of them were starting to patrol the already caged ones.
Suddenly, two started making their way right in her direction. She could feel half of her body starting to run away but the other half didn’t want to budge. It was too much of a shock.
They were almost on her when a grey blur landed in front of her and faced off the two, making them stop in their tracks. Being a bit taller than her, his hair blocked her view of the scene. She crept around closer to the alley nearest her friends’ cages and watched as the scene unfolded.
The two guards were being joined by some of their companions, who circled about the grey pony in the center. His eyes were now locked onto the first two.
In a few quick grey blurs, the guards were knocked on the floor and dizzy. The grey pony was a bit surprised himself, like he didn’t know where his own energy had come from.
Starry wasn’t sure either. She took a moment to run over to her friends in their cages and try at the locks, but the cages were made out of a magic proof metal she had never seen before. Her friends didn’t seem to mind. They were both too out of it to make coherent words, but the sounds they made got on Starry’s nerves.
“Oh, will you two ever just shut up for once!” Starry snapped. When she turned around she saw the grey pony still fighting off more and more storm guards. He happened to catch a glimpse of her after one swooping kick at a guard and yelled “Go!” And before she knew what she was doing she was bolting down the alley with the grey pony dashing after her and a squad of storm guards yelling off in the distance.
They couldn’t stop running until they were out of Canterlot. Starry’s heart was beating up in her ears and her skull felt like it was detached from her body. Her throat was intensely dry and cold. She felt a bit at a loss on how to help her friends, and she was about to cry until she remembered the grey pony that helped her escape. She looked back toward him.
The grey pony looked like he wasn’t too bothered about the run-it didn’t seem to phase him too much. Although, he started looking around him as if he was unsure of where he was.
Starry had never seen a pony edgier than him, other than that Commander Tempest. He was also wearing a similar uniform to that one, which she hadn’t thought about until now. But on top of that, he had the most hideous scars running along his front right hoof that made her wince just looking at them. She figured he might be working with the Storm King, and if so, she wanted to keep an eye on him. Also, she wasn’t sure how a pony could even be that edgy.
He started walking a little hesitatingly toward the train tracks. Starry took one last look at the airships above Canterlot with a small wish that she could find a way to rescue her friends before turning back to him to say:
“Thanks for saving me back there.”
He paused and glanced back at her.
“That was nothing. Those guys were pretty pathetic.” What he didn’t want to say was that he only ended up there because a crate fell and launched him out onto the street very much against his will.
Starry’s eyes widened in surprise and she started pawing at the ground, unsure of what to say now. Those guards had seemed anything but pathetic but she wasn’t going to argue. The grey pony kept staring down the train tracks like he wasn’t sure if he should follow them before he began muttering under his breath. Starry began leaning in closer to hear but couldn’t make out a word.
“I guess I’ll be leaving then?” she asked.
“You won’t be able to make it out there. You’d be a lot safer if we traveled together.” He didn’t want to admit that he didn’t actually know where he was going, other than for that word that kept spinning in his mind. He didn’t know if it was a place, or what he was supposed to do if he got there. But he figured that having a pony native to this area would be a helpful guide. He may not remember who he was, but he knew he wasn’t going to directly ask for help from a silly looking pony.
“That is true that we’d probably be safer, but-,” Starry piped up. She didn’t want it to come off as harsh, but to herself she thought, I’m a pretty good metalsmith and a lot of the spells could probably be used against those guards if I chose to. She sent off a few tiny sparks and even managed to strike down a tiny weed that had grown up next to the track.
The grey pony nodded without looking at it and continued staring down the track one minute and then at the sky as if he could read the clouds and come up with a map.
“We’re going to have to leave the track, it would be too easy for them to follow us that way,” he finally said and trotted back to where Starry was.
“If we start making our way through this forest we’ll be able to use it to cover our tracks. Those goons wouldn’t be able to come through there without crashing and bumbling around, and when they do, we’ll be a step ahead and aware of their presence.”
With a somewhat reluctant nod, Starry began to trot after the grey pony as he started trotting off toward the trees. The forest seemed a bit darker up close and the vines and bramble looked a bit rougher than Starry would have liked. The grey pony didn’t want to admit it was a little offputting to him, too. He hesitated almost unnoticeably and turned back toward her.
“If you’re so good at those light bursts you do, by all means, mares first!”
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When they first got into the forest, Starry started asking the grey pony where they thought they were going to go, and if he’d help her get her friends free, and at least what his name was. But all she got was an affirmation that he knew where he could go for help and that they’d be back there soon enough, before he fell back to muttering and ignoring her again.
They had been traveling for a while in silence before they felt they were far enough from the guards, the chaos, and destruction going on at the capital.
The grey pony walked a few feet ahead of her, leading the way, but he kept getting caught in some of the brambles and it started looking more comical than painful. Starry was about to laugh at the sight when she ran into a star spider and its family. She quickly inhaled before tiptoeing around them as they lifted up tiny arms menacingly toward her.
She looked up and saw that they had built a small web in the lowest branch of the tree and it had gotten ruined by a bunch of vines that had been moved during Starry and the grey pony’s tramp through the forest. It didn’t look like it would easily be remade.
Starry looked at the presumably angry faces of the star spiders again before she reached up and started searching for a hole in the tree. She thought she wouldn’t find one for a minute, until her hoof felt a small indent two branches above the one they had been at. She felt around and broke off some of the decayed bark and wood until there was a decent sized hole in the tree. With a levitation spell she gently tugged the remnants of the web free and placed it as well as she could in the hole.
“There, now when you remake your web it won’t be out in the open where it could get so easily destroyed. And you’ll still get plenty of bugs to eat!” she added, as she could already see some insects flying around the oozing sap of the tree. The star spiders climbed back up to see the work she did and began to make themselves right at home.
With a smile she began walking forward again. When she looked back at the grey pony he was already letting a winding vine start tangling itself around his front hoof as he reached for the next tree to pull himself by.
A bit of magic streaked past him and cut the vine away so suddenly he fell forward. He jumped up and shook himself off before continuing to struggle through yet another vine.
“You might be pretty edgy but you’re not edgy enough to cut through those yourself,” Starry said behind him. He continued trudging on, so Starry added, “So is that your name then? Edgy?”
At this he looked back at her as if to correct her, but found he didn’t have an answer.
So he kept struggling.
Starry was tired of waiting behind him and she decided to take matters into her own hooves.
Edgy had been wearing a bright metal badge on the front of his uniform. She didn’t think he’d mind too much to lose it if it’d help their cause. Her horn began to glow as she levitated it off his front with her magic and started molding it into a small knife. Soon she was using it to cut away at the vines two, five, ten feet ahead of them.
Edgy, as he might as well be called, looked a bit stunned before he continued trotting ahead as if it didn’t happen.
This continued for the next hour until they finally made it onto an actual path cutting perpendicular to their own. It was wide enough for two pony carts to travel side by side and looked pretty well worn. They started heading down the way that wasn’t going back toward Canterlot.
“So where exactly are we going, Edgy?” Starry asked and came up alongside him. She felt she needed to ask again, just to make sure he hadn’t forgotten.
“I have an idea of a place we can hide out in. I know it is a little bit farther away from here but I think we can make it before nightfall. Or, at least, I know I could. And ‘Edgy’ is not my name.”
“Okay. Well, what is the place called then, Edgypony?” Starry added.
Edgy winced for a moment and looked like he was about to fall over. Starry noticed a pair of star spiders creeping along near where his hoof had been. They seemed to be frantically hopping around something.
There, right inside Edgy’s indented hoofprint, was a small baby star spider.
Both Edgy and Starry were shocked still for a second, both unsure and waiting to see a breath, a twitch, anything to prove that the baby had survived. Its parents continued to frantically walk around the baby before finally launching themselves toward Edgy again.
Edgy didn’t know exactly where to turn to, and Starry was still petrified by the thought of the baby that she sat down while Edgy started backing up toward the middle of the path.
“Wait!” Starry screamed out.
Edgy came to a halt and the two star spiders took the chance to give him one last jab. “Ouch!”
Starry had levitated the baby spider right in front of his parents and they could see him slowly lifting his legs and beginning to stand up on the ground before them. The two star spiders began rejoicing before hurrying their son back into the thick forest.
“Poor spiders, their child could have ended up way worse,” Starry said, if only to make the situation a little less awkward. Edgy wasn’t up for talking. And the somewhat silent trek through the forest had just turned into the even quieter trek on the dirt path.
In another hour, the path suddenly came to a halt at a vine covered wall and a huge stone double door. Edgy and Starry both tried to peer into the forest for the end of the wall, but not only was it squarely in front of the path but it went on for what seemed like a mile. They gave each other a look before Edgy gave the door a knock.
It had a dull sound, and there didn’t seem to be anything waiting on the other side to answer. So he knocked on the door again.
Before they could say anything, a thousand star spiders had begun creeping downward from the vines above them. They came down the wall in a swarm and some had carried two large woven nets which they threw and scooped up the ponies with, dragging them back up the wall. The ponies struggled but found that the webs were made out of something stronger than regular star spider silk. Starry started trying to cut through it with the knife but several of the star spiders knocked it out of her magic aura and it fell on the ground. She could see the spiders claiming it for themselves down below just as she and Edgy were dragged inside.
Starry and Edgy ended up in a large nest within the wall. Star spiders were everywhere and only left a small empty area for the two entangled ponies to be placed in. Both ponies were a bit anxious to know what would happen to them, but the spiders didn’t appear entirely interested in them. Most of the spiders were beginning to scurry off into the far corner of the cavern, which was too dark to see.
Starry didn’t want to get in trouble and use her magic, knowing whatever spell she cast would anger the spiders into a certain attack before she could manage to get out of here. Edgy seemed unsure of what to do. But both squinted a bit as they heard creaking wheels coming toward them.
The sight was ridiculous. There on an old bird’s nest sat the royal star spider family. Each member had an intensely tiny crown on their head. The nest sat on an old red wagon that was pulled by teams of star spiders from around the nest. These seemed to be the fattest of all the star spiders in the cavern.
The star spiders on the edges of the cavern looked toward Edgy and Starry and started creating massive webs. They could see their lives flashing before their eyes, which didn’t take too long for Edgy.
“You know what would be great? If somepony here had the magical power to rip things to shreds. You know, but of course, we totally don’t have anypony with powers here. Or! even if we had a knife, that’d be so awesome,” Edgy muttered.
Starry started looking around at the star spiders, “yeah, well, I just don’t want to end up hurting any.”
“Great, so when we die and go off into wherever, we can tell them we were a noble sacrifice so that a million irritated, ugly bugs could live for another day or two. Perfect.”
Starry’s horn began to glow in spite of herself and sparks started appearing. Wherever they landed on the nets the nets began melting away. The star spiders stopped everything they were doing and began to scatter. Several of the sparks began landing on the buff ones dragging the wagon, and they began screaming in agony before running in all different directions, upsetting the wagon and the nest and the royal family themselves.
As soon as the nets started evaporating, Starry and Edgy got back up onto their hooves and began running toward the exit. They could see the edge of the wall and a crack into the outside world and they both took a leap.
A few of the star spiders were still wandering around the edges, but they didn’t want to get anywhere near the sparks that continued to shoot up in their direction.
With a thud the two ponies crashed onto the ground below.
Edgy dusted his uniform off a bit and started walking back down the dirt path.
“See? It wasn’t that hard now was it?”
Starry looked back toward the wall. It seemed like there were millions of beady eyes gleaming behind the wall of vines. She had to turn away. She didn’t want to go too much further with the thought that she had somehow caused so much chaos and pain back there. It terrified her.
“I know they wanted to eat us, I just can’t stand the thought I couldn’t get us out without whatever that was that I did,” she admitted.
Edgy stopped for a second and turned back toward her.
“If it’ll keep you from moping for the rest of the trip, at least the only ones you hurt were on accident,” Edgy said and saw the surprise on Starry’s face. She didn’t think he’d try to cheer her up, though in truth he just really wanted to make sure she would start moving again.
“You saved us,” he muttered, too low for her to hear, before beginning to walk down the path again.
Starry started to cheer up a bit. It wasn’t like they weren’t kind to the two families they met before, after all, and she actually did do the least damage possible in their escape.
This time, they would have to cut through the other side of the forest, which was less dense and seemed to be easier to travel, with actual paths running through it and the occasional clearing.
[Bestiary Note: The common star spider is an easygoing and harmless creature that you’ll see around the Everfree Forest on occasion. The genus of star spider seen here is from a wild strain of the gene that had managed to isolate itself in this region. Please don’t take this out on your local star spiders. Thank you!]