I take a deep breath before I mentally prep myself, putting a hoof on my chest; slowly exhaling and extending my foreleg out, letting out all my worries. I gaze out at the land of Equestria, from the balcony, glancing at some key landmarks as far as my eyes can see from where I'm standing.
"Okay, I can do this... First to Ponyville, then to Canterlot, then up to Cloudsdale, then shoot WAY over to Manehatten, after that is Applewood, a quick jump to The Everfree Forest, WAY up to Yakyakistan, then all the way down south to the Badlands, and finally right back here to The Crystal Empire," I say to myself out loud.
I inhale "Okay...," I say with an exhale. I continue to take deep breaths before I start to build up my magic into my horn, making it glow a bright yellow soothing glow. I reach over to put my hoof on the stopwatch that's sitting on the railing of the balcony.
"...Let's Do This!" That said I swiftly start the stopwatch and Immediately vanished. I then reappear standing on top of Twilight's Castle in Ponyville as my first stop. I gaze around for a half a second to confirm that I've made it and I throw a quick hoof-pump into the air before vanishing again. I then appear in Canterlot right in front of Princess Twilight while she sits on her throne. She gazes at me in a bit of a surprise for a moment then she smiles at me.
"Hi Twilight!" I say with an innocent smile.
"Well, Hello again Flurry Hea-"
"Gotta Go! Bye!" I interrupt before I poof away.
"Okay, Flurry, have fun!" She says after I leave. Or at least I think that's what she would say. This is not the first time I've done this. Next, I appear over Cloudsdale. Shortly after appearing, a pegasus pony almost flies into me as they were trying to get by. I barely manage to fly out of the way before the dude flies into me. as he passes me however he almost crashes into a cloud house. I bring my hooves to cover my mouth and my body tenses as I watch him almost crash.
"Oh! Sorry!" I shout to him before my horn glows again and I poof away.
Appearing in Manehatten, on top of one of the buildings, I look down at the streets below as everypony down their goes about their daily commute. I give a small chuckle before teleporting away again. I land myself right on top of the Applewood sign. I gaze around at my surroundings before I get ready to teleport once more but folks are quick to notice my presence from down below. Tourists from below start to say things like 'Is that Flurry Heart? Yes it is!!!' before they start taking pictures. I look down and give a smile for the cameras, but then I immediately teleport away. I would stay for the fans but I'm currently on a timer. I reappear within the Everfree Forest. I gaze around to confirm my location and then I see a Timberwolf growling at me. Not long after that It goes in for the pounce.
"Ahh!!!" I scarcely let out. Tensing my body up before instinctively poofing away. "Brrrrrrrr!" I shiver as I arrive just outside of Yakyakistan. I proceed to cover myself with my forelegs to try to protect me from the weather. In fact, it's so cold that my teeth begin chattering already.
"Look! It is daughter of Crystal Princess!" says a nearby yak. I give a soft wave and a smile while freezing my flank off.
"Hhh--i t-there f-f-f-folks!" I say while I continue to shiver.
"Come to visit, Daughter of Princess?" One of them asks.
"No, S-s-orry! Not today! M-m-maybe next time! Gotta go! Bye!" I teleport away shortly after. I then arrive at the badlands way down south of Equestria. I take a moment to confirm my location as well as take in the heat after being in a cold environment before poofing again. Finally, I come back to the empire, and I reach out quickly and slam a hoof down to stop the timer.
"Time!" I shout out, almost breaking the timer when I hit it. I check the time on it and give a smile, clenching my hoof in success.
"Yes!!! 15 seconds! Much better! Granted, I know I coulda done better if I didn't run into quite a few issues but no biggy! I'm getting much better." I say to myself happily. I then reset the timer and set it down, preparing to go again.
"Let's see if I can do it in 10 seconds, that'll be fun to tell Rainbow about," I take a deep breath to gather my magic again and--"Flurry Heart? Sweetie?"--get stopped by the voice of my mom before I could start again. I turn around to face her with a smile.
"Yes, Mom? What is it?"
"Just checking on you Sweetheart. Having fun?" Princess Cadance Explained.
"Yeah! I'm doing amazing! As always, of course! Hehe!" I brag with a wide smile that swept across my face.
"I'm sure you are. You are my daughter after all," she says with a funny smug grin on her face.
"Hehe, way to make this into a compliment about yourself, mom," I jokingly say.
She puts a hoof to her lips, and gives a soft giggle. "Oh, you know I believe you're amazing, Flurry. Keep doing what you're doing!" she said with an honest smile and puts her hoof to my shoulder. I get all embarrassed and just chuckle.
"Eheh, Thanks, Mom!" I happily hug her.
"How well did you do this time?"
I lean back to look at her eyes "15 Seconds!"
"That's wonderful! You're absolutely amazing. Like I said; keep it up!" she nuzzles the top of my head softly. I smile in response to her nuzzles.
"I'm going to give it another go. Wanna time me?" I ask.
"Why don't you take a break right now? You've been training hard since nine in the morning and it's already about three o'clock. I feel it's time you relax for a bit before getting back into it." She looked at me with a sincere look.
"But, I gotta keep going. I need to get better at honing my skills! Plus, didn't you just tell me to 'Keep It Up' Hmmm?" I say as another smile swept across my face.
"Hehehe, I know, but even hard workers like you and I need a break from time to time and you definitely deserve it"
"Hmmm, I don't know.. I'm not sure now's the right time to-"
"There will be ice cream if you come with me," Cadance Says with that same smug look.
"You know of my weakness, mother...," I reply in a deep tone whilst squinting my eyes at her. After a short moment we both exchange some laughter. "Heheh, Alrighty! Let's go then!"
She turns around to lead the way back inside and through the halls of the Crystal Empire.
"So, how's dad? What's he up to?" I ask.
"Oh, he's just fine. He's actually just wrapping up his usual routine morning-to-afternoon patrol with some of the other guards. Not that there's much need for patrols since hardly anything ever happens here. Then again, better safe then sorry, am I right?" She replies.
"Yeah, sounds like you and I aren't the only ones working hard, huh?"
"That's right. We all do our part here to make sure the empire is safe"
"And right now everything is going just fine right?"
"Of course! Nothing gets past Shining. He's made that very clear," She smiles.
"That's good. So... no danger of any kind?"
Cadance glances back at me with a questioning gaze, continuing to walk as her gaze persists. "How come you're so eager to know?"
"I'm just.. curious" I say as I turn my head away from her gaze.
"Hmmm," She turns here attention forward once more. "You wanna help out anypony who's in any sort of trouble, don't you?" She grins as she continues leading the way.
"Well, yeah, of course I do. I'd love to help dad sometime but he doesn't let me"
"He has his reasons. He worries about you a lot"
"More than you?"
Cadance chuckles. "Of course more than I do. I know for a fact you can handle yourself and so does he. But he just can't help himself when ever it comes to worrying about you. It just shows that he loves you very much and he wants to keep you, me, and this empire safe"
"Sounds like he's a little over protective if you ask me, heheh," I smile.
Cadance glances over her shoulder back to me once more with a smile for a brief moment. "Well, can you blame him? When you have something you care about most deeply to heart, as well as a wonderful home, you simply must do all you can to protect it"
"That, we can all agree on"
"Indeed we can and we all do," Not long after, we arrive at the kitchen. Once there, she opens the freezer and gets the tub of ice cream out while I go fetch the scoop.
"How about we go eat this in the throne room? Sound good, Flurry?" Cadance asks.
"Sounds just fine to me, mom" I reply.
We scoop out our ice cream into a little bowl for us to share as well as get ourselves a pair of spoons to eat it with. She then put the ice cream container back in the freezer and we head to the throne room. Once we arrive we approach her throne and she takes a seat upon it while I sit beside her. We soon start eating our ice cream. We filled the bowl with delicious vanilla ice cream, our favorite. As we eat she turns to me to speak.
"You know, I'm so happy that you're taking such initiative to train so hard. You know I'm proud of you, right?"
I look at her with a spoonful of ice cream in my mouth. I swallow the ice cream and take the spoon from my mouth to reply.
"Thanks! I have loads of fun with it. Especially when-"
"But... I wanted to ask you; When was the last time you did anything else other than honing your skills?" Finishing her sentence.
I swallow another spoonful of ice cream "Huh?"
"You know, going out and doing some other fun activities. Maybe hang out with some friends?"
"Uhm... I honestly can't remember," I say as I take in another spoonful of ice cream.
"Hmm. That's because it's been too long since you've done something else," She looks at me with a smirk.
I give a soft sigh. "I've just been too busy with magic is all"
"That's just it, Flurry. I feel you've been training a bit too much lately. Maybe you should take a break from it all for just a little bit, don't you think? I mean, you've been getting up at the crack dawn just about every morning just to practice. You even skip breakfast sometimes"
"S-Sorry, Mom," I bow my head with a sad expression while holding a spoonful of ice cream in my mouth.
"Oh, don't be sorry, sweetie. I'm not saying that pushing yourself like this is such a bad thing. All I'm saying is that maybe you could tone it down just a little. You're gifted and you're strong enough as it is, so you can relax for a little while"
"Huh, I guess you're right"
"Believe me when I say that I would NEVER want you to stop improving yourself. I just want you to have time for other things. For example; Spending time with a friend or two and maybe make new ones. Perhaps you'll even find somepony who shares a similar interests in conducting their magic in efforts to improve," Mom says while twirling her spoon on her hoof effortlessly.
"That sounds nice!" I smile at the thought.
"See? I've already piqued your interests, haven't I?"
"Hmm, yeah. I can honestly say you're right about that... but-"
"No 'buts'. Eat your ice cream," she firmly but politely claims. We both take another scoop of ice cream and eat it.
"I want you to do something for me, Flurry. If that's okay with you"
"What's that?" I say while giving her a look of wonder.
"Whenever you get some free time, which is just about everyday, I want you to go out and find other ponies out there and make some new friends, mingle about, but most importantly, have fun"
"Hmm?" I raise an eyebrow at her whilst having a spoonful of ice cream in my mouth.
"You need another pastime other than training in combat and magic. So, I feel having more friends to hangout with may be just perfect for you," Cadance explains with a smile.
I sit here thinking about her words and start to consider them.
"Trust me on this, Flurry. I know what I'm talking about"
I give a sigh "I guess so," I say with a sad tone as I put another spoonful of ice cream in my mouth and swallow it.
"Oh, cheer up my little Flurry, I'm not asking for much. At least consider it. For me?"
I gaze about the room for a second while I think. After taking a moment to think, I look back at her. "Okay... but at the moment, is it really necessary to make more friends right now. I mean I understand the importance of friendship and making friends. Believe me I do, but do I really have to do it now?"
Cadance smiles and gives a brief chuckle at my words. "Hehehe, you know the way you said that reminds me of another mare who was just like you back then who said that she didn't really feel like it was necessary to have friends, but when she finally did it turned out to be the best decision of her life. Sound like anypony we know?"
"Are you saying I sound exactly like Twilight?" I scoff.
"Yes, and that's not a bad thing. Twilight went to go make friends so long ago and look at where she is now! Soon, something like that will happen to you"
"Woah... Are you sure?"
"I know for sure that it will," She says with the most honest to Twilight smile on her face.
I look down, taking in her words for a moment longer, letting them sink in. I look back at her and gaze into her eyes with a wide, determined smile.
"Alright, I'll give it a shot. I promise!"
"That's the spirit, My Little Flurry Heart," She says while bringing a hoof up to brush along my mane. "If there's anypony that understands the true importance of making friends, it's you," Cadance smiles brightly while gazing deeply into my eyes.
"Heh! Thanks mom. That means a lot!" I say softly, feeling heart warmed by her statement.
"You're very much welcome, sweetie"
I think to myself for a moment, looking off to the side. I look back to my mom's eyes. "Hey mom?"
"Yes, Flurry?"
"Before I get into all that...," My expression changes to that of an innocent child's face. You know, the one where you make to try to get your parents to give you what you want? The face you make with the little puppy eyes? That's the one. I make that face at her.
"After this... can we go to the stadium and train together? Just for little while? Please? Then I'll go look for some friends and find some other activities to do! Pleeeeeease?" My eyes sparkle as I puppy eye her.
She lets out a soft sigh then smiles. "Oh... you know I can't say 'no' to that face.... So stop cheating!" We both exchange brief laughter.
"Hahah, Alright. We can train in the stadium for a little while"
My face lights up with excitement as I practically jump off the throne and almost caused our ice cream to fall.
"Yes!!!!" I shout. loudly I might add. After that, we continued to eat our ice cream. I take in a few more spoonfulls of ice cream quickly as I'm eager to get to training with mom.
"Mmm, remember, don't eat too fast or you'll get a-"
"MMMMGGGGRRAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" I Yell.
"Brainfreeze...," Cadance sighs.
I fall on my back and start to roll about on the floor, gripping my head while from the brain freeze. Shortly after, my brainfreeze subsides and we finish up our ice cream. This time I eat more slowly as I don't want to get another brainfreeze. After we finish up, we head down to the Crystal Empire Stadium where my mother and I usually have our magic training sessions. We reach the field of the stadium where we begin to take our normal positions a bit a ways from each other which is at least ten feet apart.
"Okay, we're here. Now what would you like to brush up on, sweetie?" Cadance asks.
"I'd like to continue training with crystal magic"
"Ah, a wonderful choice as always. Let me know when you're ready and we can begin"
My horn begins to glow a bright golden yellow and I take a deep breath. "Ready," I say confidently.
"Right then, let see if you can still handle yourself just as well as last time," She says with a grin forming on her face while her horn begins to glow a bright cyan. Shortly after, many crystal spikes begin to magically form floating around her.
"Still remember how to do this?" She asks
"Of course I do," I say while beginning to conjure up some crystals myself that float around me as well.
"Good, now let's brush up on defense. THINK FAST!" She suddenly launches all of her crystals towards my direction. My eyes widen and I quickly shift the crystals I formed to pierce into the ground in front of me. Quickly they enlarge upwards and form a crystal wall to block off the oncoming projectiles. Her crystals hit the wall and break into pieces.
"Good job, sweetie. You're pretty quick," Cadance says with a smile. I peak around the wall to look her way.
"You could at least give me a better warning!" I shout over.
"Oh? But you said you were ready, Hmhm"
"Yeah yeah.."
"Now then, back too it!" Cadance's horn glows and she suddenly fires a cyan beam at the wall. I quickly duck behind the wall to take cover. The force of the blast begins to cause the wall to crack. Cadance continues to press the beam against the wall until it completely breaks apart. Before the wall breaks I teleport away leaving Cadance still focused on my last position. After her beam comes to an end she quickly notices my disappearance. I appear behind her and shoot out crystals in return towards her. Cadance glances over her shoulder as her horn glows once again. A cyan barrier forms around her body like a bubble and the crystals I fired break into pieces upon impacting the shield. Noticeably, one of the crystals manages to put a crack on Cadance's barrier. Cadance's eyes focuses on the crack upon it. In that instance of the formation of the crack, Cadance's expression turns to that of surprised. Shortly after said moment she just gives a small smile.
"Very good," She says while dispersing her barrier. "Now dodge these," Cadance quickly forms more crystals, much larger ones, and begins to launch them at me. I quickly jump out of the way and continue to do so with each crystal she launches. Some crystals I manage to cleanly avoid while very few just barely graze me. I land quite the few paces away from Cadance's left side and keep a firm stance when I do. I glance up at her once the crystals stop being launched. She forms one more sharp, small crystal, small enough to fit in her hoof as she grips it. She then chucks it at me and I quickly jerk my head aside, letting it fly past me.
"Good, Sweetie! Now then, show me the barrier I taught you"
"I'll try..," I reply, though unsure about how to go about performing the action she wants. I haven't really had much practice in casting my mother's barrier as much as she has. Then again, this is why I'm here. I quickly form a yellow shield barrier around myself. I feel that it lacks strength but I try to keep it upheld. Cadance quickly fires another one of her magical emission beams at my shield. At the very moment of impact, most of the shield cracks. I quickly retaliate by adding a bit more of my magic into the shield. The only way I am going to learn to perfect my mothers barrier is to be put through this test that will truly push me. My magic begins to work as the shield's cracks begin to fade and the color of the barrier begin to flicker and fade between yellow and cyan.
"Grrrghh.." I grunt.
"Easy, Flurry. Focus," she calmly claims.
"I can... do it!" I say through my gritted teeth.
"I Know," She softly says as she adds a tad more power to her emission blast, thus causing more cracks to formulate around my barrier.
I know Cadance is holding back her magic to prevent my shield from completely bursting but this is strenuous enough as it is. I can only imagine if she wasn't holding back. She lets off firing her beam and stands up straight to gaze at me with a smile. I look up at her while by barrier continues to flicker and fade between colors. After realizing her beam had stopped I undo my shield. I take a moment to breathe while giving a smile of success at Cadance. Then I notice her horn is still glowing. I gaze more observantly at her and I can clearly tell she isn't looking directly at me. The realization quickly hits me as my eyes widen. I quickly form a gauntlet like crystal casing around my right hoof and sharply turn around to punch the returning crystal Cadance had thrown earlier out of the air, smashing it to pieces. I let out a slight battle cry upon impact. Cadance gives another brief, proud smile.
"Haha! Almost got me, mom! But not today!" I confidently say while glancing back at her.
"I knew you would be able to handle that little trick. It's getting harder and harder to get past your senses. What with how strong and smart you're becoming"
"Hehehe. Thanks mom. Now, what's next?" I say before I teleport a few feet in front of her.
"Next, I feel we should do some blast training"
"Alright!" I eagerly chant.
"Now go far back and wait for my go... and remember if things start to get a little dicey, move out of the way quickly. Got that, Flurry?"
"Loud and clear!" I hop back a great distance away from Cadance and wait for her go-a-head. Her horn begins to glow once more and she shouts over to me. "Fire away!" Just then she blasts a large, bright cyan blast towards my direction. Quickly, I fire a large yellow blast to retaliate. Shortly after, our beams collide with each other, creating a rumbling shockwave. We both hold our magical beams against each others to see if one of us could overpower the other's blast. Slowly I begin to increase the power and force behind my blast which causes Cadance's beam to push back towards her.
"Hehehe," Chuckles Cadance before beginning to putting more force into her blast.
"Surely you can do better than that, sweetie!"
"Oh yeah? Then how's this for 'better'?" I unleash a large burst of magic within my blast to push more against Cadance's blast. The sheer power of my blast is enough to nearly outmatch hers as her own beam pushes back closer and closer to her horn. Cadance begins to struggle and even starts to break a sweat. I smile, confidently as I continue to hold this force. I can feel her struggle as the form of her beam begins to lose its stability. I think to myself that I will be victorious if I keep up this amount of power. Cadance grins, stands more firmly to strength her stance, and unleashes a more formidable power behind her blast. My eyes widen as my beam practically retreats closer to me in attempts to get away from her blast. I stagger in my place, legs wobble, and I start to break a sweat myself. Realizing that my mother was just playing me on, her beam inches closer and closer to me. I refuse to give in so easily however. I begin to strengthen my stance in order to plant my hooves firmly to the ground. I grit my teeth once I pick myself back up and channel more of my magical strength in my attempt to retaliate.
"Remember, Flurry!" Cadance shouts over. I look up towards her direction.
"If this is too much.. just move out of the way... There's no shame in doing so, sweetie. You've done amazing work already!" I just smirk at her words.
"Heheh, Nice try mom! But you oughta know me by now! I'm not one to DO THAT!" Mid-sentence, I unleash even more immense power into my final push, causing my blast to quickly push Cadance's beam back once more. Cadance slides backwards across the ground where she stands, causing some dirt to be torn away from the ground beneath her hooves.
She takes a moment to breathe and regain her composure after almost losing her balance by my surprise final push. Our beams meet once more in the center just like when we started. I grin confidently once more, quite pleased at myself for being able to push back such a strong blast. Cadance and I stand firmly in our places as we continue to hold our blasts still. Cadance just stands there with a smile on her face as she retains her hold on her beam.
"Hehehe," I chuckle. "C'mon! you're hardly makin' me break a sweat, mom!" There's no response from Cadance. She continues to stand there with a smile while gazing past the clashing beams to look my way. We feel a shift in power but it's not coming from either of us. I take a moment to glance at the center where our attacks are clashing. I quickly notice sparks emitting from the point of clash. Our expressions quickly turn to that of worry.
"Uh oh," I simply utter.
The spot where our attacks are clashing sparks more violently and a sphere like source of energy within the center takes shape and begins to expand pretty quickly. We quickly realize what is about to happen. We both simultaneously conclude our blasts and I teleport to the top of the stadium's rim while Cadance jumps back as far away from the center as she could. The last bit of our magic collides at the center and what follows is a bright explosion that erupts and a rumbling shockwave spans throughout the field. The shockwave continues top spread out quite the massive distance and even begins to cause a great deal of the empire itself to shake. Soon after everything settles, a rainfall of magical particles begin to shower the stadium's field. I gaze down at the stadium as the rainfall of magic sprinkle down, giving a soft giggle after taking in what had happened.
"That was cool," I say with an excited smile.
I teleport back down to the field and proceed to walk through the magical rainfall. Cadance begins her approach back towards the center while dusting off particles from her mane.
"Perhaps we overdid it a just a teensy bit," Cadance chuckles.
"Maybe, but hey... These sparkles look pretty cool!"
"That they are, Flurry," She smiles.
We spend a short moment gazing at the falling sparkles. Not long after this we begin to hear hoof steps approaching. I gaze past Cadance's shoulder to find Shining Armor approaching us with a smile.
"Dad!"
"Ahhh, no wonder the empire had an unexpected tremor. It's just two of my favorite mare's having fun!"
"Hmhm, What brings you out here, honey?" Cadance questions with a smile.
"Well, aside from what just happened, I wanted to check up on you girls to see how's it goin'"
"We're fine, dad. Just doing a bit of practice. Not a big deal"
"Heheh, Alrighty then. Hey, while I'm here, how's about I join you two?"
"Didn't you just get done with patrol?" Cadance asks.
"Oh, what? I can't have a little fun with you both? Trust me, I still got plenty of energy left. Plus, I'm never too tired to spend time with either of you," Shining says with a smile.
"Hmhm," Cadance gives a subtle blush.
"Sounds good dad!" I eagerly reply while my eyes widen with excitement.
"Awesome, but if I'm going to be joining you we're going to need to tone it down just a bit. Wouldn't want to scare the residence. Though, I'm sure all that shaking startled them up a bit already"
"Yeah . . . ," I bring a hoof to rub the back of my head and my ears perk down for a moment.
"Oh, don't feel bad. You were just havin' fun, right? So it's all good! Now c'mon, Let's have a little fun together"
"Alright, What shall we do next?" Cadance Questions as I turn my head for a moment to ponder on the possibilities. As I put my hoof to my chin to think I begin thinking of ways to test out abilities in a speed test. My ears perk up as I get the idea to get my trusty stopwatch from the balcony.
"I have an idea! I just need to get my stopwatch"
"Well alright then, hurry and get it. I'm interested in seeing what you've got in store, Flurry," He proceeds to ruffle my mane while giving a brief chuckle. I gently shift out of the way of his hoof to get it away from my mane.
"Ease up on my mane, dad," I pout as I reach my hooves up to re-adjust my mane to its normal shape.
"Hehe, Sorry, but I can't help it sometimes," He says with a smug look. I begin to trot my way towards the exit.
"I'm also interested to see what you've got packin', honey," Shining says to Cadance with a sly smile.
Cadance turns to Shining with an embarrassed blushing smile "Stop!" chuckling through her words.
Shining chuckles softly "Hurry back!" dad shouts as I trot away.
Heeding his words, I teleport myself right back to the balcony and reach out for my stopwatch. I turn away from the balcony after picking it up and almost teleport back immediately. I stop myself and look back out at the view overlooking the land. I get the idea to give one more go at the time trial course for my teleportation.
"Hmmmm, I'm sure they can wait 10 seconds longer," I say to myself.
I set the timer on the railing again, take a few deep breaths, and hit start. Immediately I poof away to begin my usual destinations. Starting at Ponyville, then Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Manehatten, and Applewood. Once I arrive at The Everfree Forest I take a moment to confirm my location again as well as making sure there are no timberwolves to jump at me. Right as I'm about to poof away I sense something off.
"Whoa, what's that?" I ask.
I feel an odd tingle that lingers from my horn and slowly it begins to slither its way down my head. Soon after, this tingle reaches my back, my focus on the time trial has now been fixated entirely on this odd tingle. I start gazing around in suspicion of everything around me but nothing of interest was in sight. Just a bunch of creepy looking trees and bushes.
"What in the hay?" I question.
Seeing as whatever is going on with this strange anomaly has already interrupted my training, I start to turn my body to get a better look around me. As I turn I sense the lingering feeling redirect, trailing itself to my chest. I bring my hoof up to clutch at my chest and shift my gaze to it. I tense for a brief moment, expecting some sort of pain but this strange feeling does not seem to be hurting. I shift my gaze in front of me and stare into the dark opening between the crooked trees. I get the sense of a presence somewhere in the direction I am now gazing upon. I begin to feel drawn towards this presence and slowly I step closer to the path.
"Okay? This is getting weird. I never felt something like this before. I should probably just go," I quietly say to myself.
I suddenly feel the tension of this feeling spike which causes me to tense for a brief moment. Not even a second after the sudden rise in this unsettling feeling, it diminishes, feeling very faint.
"Well, then again I've never felt something like this before so I guess I better check it out," I proceed cautiously into the forest further towards the general direction of where I sense this rather peculiar disturbance. As I move down the path further, my sense of unease grows more and more prevalent. It becomes more intense as I inch closer but then it suddenly changes.
"Huh? Wh.. What happened?" I say as I gaze around as the feeling vanishes for a brief moment. I pick up on the trail again, but it appears to be coming from a different direction. I turn to it and start following it again, but this time quickening my pace. As I progress further, this disturbance grew more intense. Then, I come across some broken sticks and tree bark on the ground, but I quickly realize that this is no ordinary pile of wood. These are pieces left over from defeated timberwolves.
"Timberwolf parts? Something's up," I say in a more serious manner.
My first thought is maybe somepony out here is hunting timberwolves or something along the lines of that. The disturbance suddenly vanishes again and I grow more desperate to find the source. I sense it once more but it appears to be even further away so I proceed towards the direction of it at a much quicker speed. I start at a light but quick trot to pursue. I consider my current pace acceptable to keep up with the pace of it. However, it seems to only get further away, my trot turned into a jog. I get incredibly close now but I stop as I almost trip over another fallen timberwolf. Although, this time the pieces of the timberwolf appears to be different. Parts of the wooden pieces have some sort of black char on it as if it had been burnt.
"What's this?" I bend down to inspect the black patches on the wood. Then I notice the black stuff on it started moving slightly.
"Woah!" I quickly jerk back, worried of it being alive or something.
I then notice that the marks on it looks more like some strange form of dark magic rather than a burn mark. I use my magic to pick up a stick and begin to poke at the marks, scraping away black substance from the wood. I lift up the stick to bring the top closer to me to examine it better. the substance on the stick's end appears hazy and it even starts giving off this dark purple-y mist. The texture of the substance appears sleek and it even gives off faint glimmers of light as the sun shines upon it.
"Woah. What kind of gunk is this stuff?" I gaze in interest at this peculiar yet pretty looking substance.
"Well now I know that these timberwolves were attacked by somepony with magic. If you would even call this 'magic', but this stuff does have a strange magic-y feel to it so it has to be. " I start rubbing my chin for a moment, but as I stand here to ponder, something jumps out of a nearby bush and lands in front of me. "Ahh!" I shout, nearly losing my balance and falling. Catching myself, I gaze at what had jumped out at me. What stands before is a small critter that appears to be gazing right at me with glowing purple eyes. It has no pupils, just bright purple eyes that look like gemstones.
"What are you?" I ask. I examine it further and notice its full black coat which appears to be made of fur. It has a poofy tail and has a pair of long ears. "Are you . . . a bunny?" I say as my eyes widen at the realization of what this creature is before me. It just sits there, staring at me while making a few faint squeaks.
"I've never seen a type of bunny rabbit like this before . . . What happened to you little fella?" I ask. "I mean, not that you could answer right? Hehe . . . Can you?" It continues to stare, occasionally twitching its nose. I slowly begin to reach my hoof out at the bunny. The strange bunny turns its head and just hops off in the direction it looked towards.
"W... Wait! . . . Okay, something is definitely wrong here," I gaze towards the direction the bunny hopped towards. I can feel now that the source of this strange anomaly is in that same direction. In that instance I realize that my sense of the source is getting further away by the second. I drop the stick I had been magically holding and run towards the direction of the source.
This time, as I get closer I begin to feel a chill run down my spine. The chilling feeling grows more prominent as I race closer to the source. I feel I have no time to lose so I quickly shrug off the chills and press forward. I feel the source just up a head beyond some trees but then it vanishes yet again. I charge a head with a full on sprint towards it as I feel I'm going to lose it if I don't catch where it went, let alone find out what it is. I then jump way a head past the trees and over some bushes and land just on the other side, landing right where I felt the magic was last at. Sadly, to no avail as there is nothing here.
"Aww! What? Where did it go?!" I was standing in a bit of an open field within the forest. There was nothing much around me except a few rocks and a stream of water nearby. I start to walk around the area to investigate.
"Hmm, it couldn't have gone far... it has to be around here somewhere... whatever or whoever it is"
I start to turn over a few stones by searching all around and even start literally turning over stones. Sadly, I found nothing. Nothing seems out of place. My ears perk down as I start to feel I lost whatever it was that I was after. I did not want to give up though, as this really caught my interest.
"I gotta find out what's going on here," I say out loud to myself.
I desperately try looking around one more time and even try using my magic to sense anypony nearby.
"Hmmm, nothing yet..," I say softly to myself as I gaze around.
I then feel something appear to my magical senses.
"Huh? I found something! Coming from... behind me?" I turn around and as I do I start to hear loud growling. My eyes widen as I quickly realize that this isn't anything close to resembling the magic I'm looking for. I fully turn to find an enormous timberwolf emerge from the woods and looks directly at me. It's sharp fangs bare at the sight of me. The timberwolf gazes at me with the fiercest look a woodland creature could ever give. Its size is much bigger than normal timberwolves and it is much bigger than most of the trees around. I look up at it and take a few steps back.
"W-woah... e-easy boy! Just take a deep breath now..," I put my hooves up to try to gesture it to try to calm it down.
It roars loudly at me and its roar has quite the force to blow a gust of wind which slightly pushes me back.
"Nrgh! Down boy! Please!" I try to plead with it as I didn't want to get hurt by it. Suddenly, It raises a paw and swipes at me, hitting me directly and causing me to fly back and land on my back.
"Argh! Nrgh.. ooow... that...... is not okay," I say through my grit teeth. I lie flat on my back trying to recover from the pain of the strike it delivered to me. It growls at me and begins to step closer.
"Oh ho.. you're going to get it now," I say as I slowly push myself off the ground. I glare at the timberwolf and prepare myself to fight it. My horn gives off a yellow glow as I ready it to blast it to pieces.
"Alright.. C'mon you big puppy.. I've got a bone for ya!" I wittingly say as I take aim and wait for the right moment to fire. It roars once more before charging directly at me.
"Get Down.." Utters a voice from behind me.
"Huh?"
I blink out of my focus and quickly turn to the voice only to find some sort of magical beam heading right towards me. I tense and quickly duck for the magic beam to fly right over me. I turn my head to look forward at the timberwolf. It lunges at me only for the magical beam to hit it directly. The magic casted having an appearance that of dark lightning of some sort. The display being rather elegant before my eyes. The timberwolf then bursts into pieces after being struck by the beam and all of its pieces just dropped to the ground. I stand back up and continue to gaze at the defeated timberwolf. I start to turn back around to face the one who defeated it.
"Woah... Thanks for the save" I exhale. "Huh?..Wh..," I gaze out to where the being would be standing but there is nopony there to be seen.
"W...Wait! Where did you go? I wanna thank you!" I say while gazing around.
"You're very much welcome... but you should get out of here... It's too dangerous," The voice utters again from an unknown location.
"Hang on, I can handle myself...," I explained.
"Regardless, this is no place for the likes of you... So please leave this place before more show up"
I try to locate where this voice was coming from, although it sounds like their voice is projecting from all around me. I turn my body around a few times, glancing around trying to find them as well as using my magic to sense them. This voice sounds masculine so It must be a stallion talking.
"C'mon out, no need to be shy or whatevs..," I say softly
"I'm afraid I cannot do that..," The voice speaks out in slightly louder tone.
A certain thought comes to mind and I look back at the remains of the timberwolf and to my surprise I see that same black markings on the remains. I quickly turn back to speak out to them again.
"Hey Wait! You're the source of all that strange magic I've been sensing! C'mon out! I wanna meet you!" I shout.
There was a moment of silence before I quickly grow impatient. "Oh C'mon! Please? I wanna meet you! Your magic is interesting!"
"Like I said... I'm not coming out. Don't make me repeat myself again," The mysterious voice says in a heavier tone.
Me, not taking no for an answer, I decide to add more power to my sensing abilities. Somehow I'm able to find him right off the bat so maybe he's doing something to hide his own magic which could explain why I'm having trouble tracking him. I knew that if given a bit more time I could locate him. So, I decide to press more to get him to come out to buy me time.
"What's the big deal? I only want to meet the one who just saved me," I claim.
"That isn't necessary... Please be on your way and I'll be on mine.."
"Why? Are you hiding something?... I... promise I won't tell anypony"
"There's nothing else for me to say... I'm going to be on my way now.. Do Not Follow Me"
Right then, I locate exactly where he is standing. I turn and face a large tree just ahead of me. He's likely standing right behind it and I begin to approach.
"Stop... Approaching..," He says more heavily.
I quickly stop in my tracks. I take a moment to question how he knew I was approaching.
"L-Look... I'm not leaving 'til I know who you are!" I stomp the ground lightly, instating my decision to be final.
"That's unfortunate...," as he says this I start to feel a bit uneasy. Like the sense of dread starts getting to me. Something is trying to keep me at bay.
"...Because I do not wish for you to see me... so I say this one last time with dear concern for your own safety... I'm going to leave... and you are to not follow me... For if you are to follow me...," I grit my teeth, slowly becoming angry at his words.
"I Will Have No Choice But To Make You Leave..."
[Chapter 1 End]