//------------------------------// // Act II: Separation Anxiety // Story: Human Nature // by Blank Page //------------------------------// We didn’t talk much as we navigated through the dark corridor, Twilight and I.  The air was cold and still.  With the light of her spell, I could see each breath hang in the air as it escaped me.  Our footsteps echoed endlessly down the hall, teasing my fear that we weren’t truly alone down here.  It didn’t ease my nerves that we could only see a few yards ahead of us.  I stole a glance back and saw the shadows greedily reclaiming the path behind us at the edge of her light. Black as pitch in both directions.  A narrow passage with a ceiling low enough that my hair could bristle it.  I never thought I could be claustrophobic until now. “So…” Twilight whispered, but in this strangling silence, it might as well have been a shout.  “What is your home like?” “We’re not doing this,” I deadpanned. “I…  Doing what?” she asked, all too innocently. I bit back a groan.  “This.  Small talk.  Between us.  It isn’t happening.  Your friends have been trying to get me to talk to you since I moved into Ponyville, and if you thought that was going to start just because we’ve been buried alive, you got another thing coming.” “Hunter, that isn’t fair.” “Fair?” I scoffed incredulously.  “Life isn’t fair, Twilight.  Some people get to live a normal life with their friends, graduate from school, get a job.  Others get hunted by a unicorn in a world that doesn’t make any sense.  You work with the cards you’re dealt.” “But I—” “There’s another door,” I cut her off.  Whatever Twilight had left to say came out as a defeated sigh.  The door was slowly creeping into the light along the left wall.  It was the sixth one we had come across in this seemingly unending hallway.  Hopefully, our luck would change with it. We stopped in front of it, and I reached down for the handle.  Unlike most of the others, it budged in, if only barely so.  It felt like something was catching it on the base.  After two more experimental shoves, I sucked in a deep breath and braced myself.  My body twisted so that the bottom of my foot faced the door, and with a sharp exhale, I kicked at the handle with all the energy I had. With a deafening boom, it gave way.  I buckled over my now stiff right leg and hissed away the pain.  My fist beat against my thigh as I tried to push the pain somewhere else.  After a brief moment, I was able to stand again, and I took my first steps into the room. “Ugh, it smells like something died in here,” I gagged. “What can you see?” My eyes blinked in the dim light, but it was hard to make shapes when everything was in shades of purple and black.  “Not much; a big table, some shelves, some fancy tapestry in the back.  Gah, what is that smell?”  I tried in vain to plug my nose to stop the stench, but the scent still lingered.  “Forget it; it’s a dead-end here anyways,” I growled. I took a step back and turned around, only to walk face-first into a floating ball of light. “Sunnova— Ow!” It felt like someone drove a needle into my skull where I ran into it.  The hallway went dark, and I stumbled forward blindly, only to trip through the door frame and fall to the cold stone floor.  It felt like someone had run my brain through a blender.  The only thing I could make sense of was the jarring pain that blanketed my body. “Oh my gosh.  Hunter, I am so sorry!”  Purple light flooded the hallway once again.  Twilight found me on the ground and hurried to my side.  I scrambled away until my back hit the other wall.  “I-I didn’t mean to do that, I swear,” she promised.  “Just let me see it.  I can try to help—” “Just get off of me!”  I shoved her away, hard enough that she hit the opposite wall.  Her spell broke again, and the hallway was plunged into darkness. As I sat in the dark, I couldn’t hear her over the sound of my own labored breathing.  My fingers were busy trying to massage the pain out of my head.  I couldn’t even see them before my face as they worked.  Eventually, the pain faded, but the deafening silence remained.  The air was still. “I was just trying to help,” Twilight said quietly. “Well, stop trying,” I grumbled.  “You only make things worse.” “Hunter, how many times do I have to say that I’m sorry?” “This isn’t something you can tack a band-aid on with ‘sorry’ and expect everything to be better,” I pointed out. “Then what could I do to make it up to you?”  Somewhere in front of me, I heard her move.  “There has to be something.” “No, there doesn’t.  I’m allowed to be mad at you and your friends after everything you did, alright?”  My voice was rising.  The hallway carried my words, reiterating my point over and over again.  The cold was quick to sap away at the heat coming from my face.  I took in a breath and leaned back against the wall.  “There isn’t anything you can do,” I finally said, quieter. I heard her shuffle again.  After a while, she finally spoke up.  “I guess we should get going then, shouldn’t we?”  She cast her spell again, banishing the darkness with purple light.  Across from me, I could finally see her.  She wiped away the wet streaks around her eyes and sniffled, trying not to look me in the eye.  I shook my head and glanced away, and the chill in the air found its way into my veins. Down the hall, just past the edge of the light, a pair of full moons glinted back. I pawed blindly at the floor around me as I kept my eyes pinned on them.  My spear.  Where was my spear? “Hunter, what are you doing?” “Not now, Twilight; I need my—”  I tore my eyes away for a second, found the spear, and grabbed it as I scrambled back to my feet.  The eyes were gone. “Hunter?” she asked again hesitantly. I couldn’t look away from the darkness.  I couldn’t so much as blink.  My ears strained to hear something, anything.  I held the spear low, angling it slightly upward and towards the shadows as my body took an impulsive step back. “The light,” I stammered, barely breaking a whisper.  “Make… Make it brighter.” She stood up and stared at me with wide eyes, following my gaze back down the hallway.  As she took a few cautious steps towards me, the light of her spell began to grow.  Inch by inch, the shadows were pressed back.  The doorframe slowly crept into view, and we saw the beast hiding behind it. Though they appeared glazed, there was no mistaking those yellow eyes as it stared at us.  Its jaw was slacked open, allowing a paper-thin tongue to loll out the side as its head twitched back and forth. Twilight and I didn’t speak a word, and the silence was filled with a heavy, strangled wheeze coming out of the timberwolf.  It grew louder.  Not quite a growl, but a low, hungry groan.  Only too late did I realize the sound it was trying to make.  I rushed forward, trying to cut it off, but its voice raised louder still as I closed the distance.  Between the stone walls, its deafening howl sounded more like a dying scream.  With my momentum, I drove the spear into its cheek and pulled it out into the hallway. It was so light, like throwing a doll.  Its wails were cut off with a gurgle, but that sound was still ringing in my ears.  I planted my foot on its head and pried out the spear.  Now that its body was out in the light, we were able to get our first good look at it.  Its body was thin as a frame; its wooden legs could have been mistaken for bones, if timberwolves still had them.  That stench from before reached its way back into my head, and I stumbled back, gagging. A heavy thump echoed down the hallway to us, followed quickly by another.  I took a few wary steps back to Twilight as it continued, keeping my eyes pinned on the shadows from where we came.  Beneath the noise, I could barely hear the all too familiar call of the timberwolves, like branches scraping across the stone walls to reach us. “We need to move,” I said quickly.  “Now.” I turned on my heels and broke into a sprint, and Twilight was quick to follow.  We couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of us as we ran.  Twilight’s spell seemed to be struggling to keep up, lagging just barely behind as it tried to stay between us.  It felt like running in a nightmare.  Only the occasional passing door broke the illusion that we weren’t making any headway. “Do you think that lock we made will hold?” Twilight asked. “I don’t know.” “What are we going to do if this tunnel leads to a dead end?” “I don’t know.” Far behind us, we heard a heavy crash, and the following rabid calls of the wolves seemed impossibly close.  Twilight was trying to slow herself down so I could keep up, and I could tell it was taking all her willpower to stay only just ahead of me with every frightened glance she cast back. Just as I thought there truly was no end to this tunnel, the walls and ceilings disappeared with the shadows, and we had to scramble to a stop before tripping over knee-high rails guarding a pit.  We were on a balcony with two paths stretching to our left and right.  The other side of the railing led to what looked like a bottomless pit, but glancing up, I could see the light of the stars from a collapsed ceiling.   “What… What is this place?” Twilight panted. I looked across the pit, and in the starlight, I could just barely make out the shapes of the other side of the cavernous room.  It was a large, cubic chamber.  We were two floors down, just as we knew, and a second glance further down the pit showed many more levels stretching down into the darkness.  Behind us, the calling wolves reminded us of the present danger.  I took off running to the left. “We can’t wait here,” I called after her.  “Come on; bring your light!” She broke into a gallop after me, and in no time, she was back at my side.  “Don’t you know where we are yet?” she asked. Twilight was running between me and the wall, and with her spell flying above her, I caught glimpses behind her.  Iron bars were evenly spaced across the wall, sealing off multiple cramped cells on the other side.  That putrid stench of rot was back again.  It was getting harder to breath in between my pants. “I’m not sure,” I coughed.  “But the exit has to be somewhere up top, right?” Part of the floor above us had collapsed onto our runway.  I skirted around the edge, and Twilight quickly hopped over the rubble.  We reached the first corner of the square and broke right. “That makes sense,” she admitted.  “But nothing else about this night has so far.  How do we get to it?” I shook my head.  “I’m not sure.  There should be stairs around here somewhere.” The howling calls of the timberwolves were only growing louder.  By the time we had reached the second corner, there still was no sight of a way back up.  I stole a glance back at the far side of the room from where we came.  In the starlight, I could just barely see the hallway we spent so much time lost in.  Figures were spilling out of its shadows.  I caught glimpses of glowing yellow eyes. The pack of timberwolves split in both directions.  I had to hope that the stairs would be on this stretch, otherwise we would be cornered.  And against that many wolves, I didn’t know how long I would last. “Hunter, come on!” I didn’t realize I had stopped moving.  Twilight didn’t share my hesitation, and both she and her light were quickly moving down the path.  Shadows began creeping around me, and my body lurched into motion after her. Our salvation soon came into the light.  Two sets of stairs lined the wall on our left, one going up and the other going down.  Twilight didn’t need to ask which path we were taking.  She vaulted up the steps, pausing halfway and turning back as she waited for me.  But as I caught up, I realized that her restless eyes weren’t pinned on me.  Her lips parted, trying to make words.  I couldn’t hear whatever she said over the rabid barks from the wolves, but I knew I didn’t have to. I planted my foot on the first step and turned around, and I saw the charging pack just behind me. The lead wolf pounced.  I barely had enough time to ready my spear, and it intercepted the wolf at its chest.  The force shoved me back, causing the blunt end of the spear to strike the steps behind me.  Even though it was skewered through the ribs, the wolf was still barking, its jaws were still snapping, trying to take another piece of me.  It was heavier than the one before, much stronger, too.  I found that I didn’t have the strength to move it, and a frantic glance past it showed more charging into Twilight’s light. “Hunter, no!” The spell flickered out, and the darkness swallowed me whole.  The only lights I could make out were from the wolves’ sickly eyes.  I closed my own and braced myself.  I didn’t want to see them when the end came, and in that moment, I was so certain it was seconds away. Between the wolves’ rabid cries came a series of heavy thumps.  The teeth never came.  The only thing that convinced me that I hadn’t died on the spot was the weight of the timberwolf still pinned on my spear.  Through the deafening heartbeat in my ears, Twilight called my name again, and I peeked open an eye. The world around us was covered in a bright film of purple.  Twilight and I were motionless in the magical bubble she created over the staircase, until the spear in my death grip shifted with the weight of the wolf above me, reminding me of the present danger. Twilight shouted something again, something that came in smudged through my dulling senses.  It took all of my energy to focus on the wolf’s ever snapping jaws as it sank lower and lower on my spear.  My left hand danced around my waist, searching for that familiar and much needed weight.  As my fingers brushed against frigid metal, I knew I had found my prize.  I pulled my hatchet out by its head, readjusted my grip, and connected it to the side of the wolf’s head.  Its jaw unhinged at the point of impact.  I pulled the tool out and threw it against the head once more, striking slightly higher.  Suddenly, I could feel the weight go limp as its eyes began to dull, and with a twist of my body beneath it, it fell over to the side. My head laid against the sapping cold of the stone steps.  With each pant, I could see by breath hang tauntingly in the air before disappearing, the precious heat leaking from my body.  My heart beat a frantic cadence between my ears, and as much as I strained to listen, I couldn't hear another sound. Something touched my shoulder with a gentle pull.  With another spike from my heart, I twisted back with my hatchet at the ready.  Twilight recoiled back, but even after I dropped my guard again, that look in her eyes never faded. “Are you okay?” she asked.  A formality at this point.  One look at my face seemed to be enough of an answer, but I still gave one with a shake of my head.  I glanced back down the stairs and found the rest of the pack glaring patiently on the other side of Twilight’s barrier.  I blinked, hoping that their lips peeled back into hungry grins was just part of my exhausted imagination. “Hunter, we need to talk,” Twilight pressed, pulling for my attention again.  “I… I can’t keep this spell up forever.  I mean…”  She glanced nervously down to the wolves and back to me.  “I can keep it up for a while, but… what am I supposed to do after that?  I don’t know how to help you.  Not against that,” she said, nodding downstairs.  “I could stop some of them in time, but the others?  If you were anypony else, I could just teleport us away, or at very least help you with my magic.”  She paused, expecting me to say something.  Words couldn’t form for me, though, and I found my gaze drag down to the steps beneath her. “Hunter, talk to me.  What can I do to help you?” My body felt numb.  I took in a shaky breath and shook my head.  “Just keep it up,” I finally wheezed.  “Let me…  Let me think for a bit.” She didn’t say anything as I laid my head back down against the steps.  The adrenaline wore off long ago, and moving anything was proving to take more energy than I could muster.  Maybe if I closed my eyes, the pain that wrapped me in a blanket would slowly slip away. My wishful thinking only seemed to invite more to my growing list of pains as an ache formed in the back of my head, and a distant voice spoke out.  Strange, how after all your reluctance you still ended up in this castle, isn’t it?  Some things must be destined. I grimaced.  Go away. If only you had listened to Our advice, you could have been here with far less company. Is this all you came back for? I asked.  To gloat that you were right all along and watch me die? Why would We want you to die, Hunter? it cooed.  After all the effort We spent to help you survive this long? In spite of its tone, I didn’t feel any relaxed.  In fact, my heart was only pounding louder and louder.  A film of cold sweat clung my clothes tightly against my skin.  I rolled over to my hands and knees on the stairs. “Hunter?” Twilight asked worriedly.  “What’s wrong?” “Shut up,” I hissed.  I wasn’t sure who I meant it for.  My hand reached to wipe the sweat from my brow.  The fog escaping my mouth was growing thicker. Humans are built to survive, it reminded me.  It’s in your blood.  Along with a few other useful tricks. I could feel my gaze being pulled up by strings to the top of the stairs.  It was barred off by Twilight’s barrier, but an inkling of a memory trickled into my mind, one of a stormy night so long ago.  I clambered up to my unsteady feet, taking a few shuffling steps to make sure I had my balance.  My fingers fumbled for the zipper of my jacket, and once it was open, I shimmied the jacket off and tied its arms tightly around my waist.  The air was cold against my already clammy skin.  I glanced down to my left wrist and the soiled gauze wrapped around it.  The tips of my fingers felt too numb to undo it, and with a grunt, I brought it up to my teeth and started biting and tugging. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked again.  “Did you come up with something?” “Something,” I growled through clenched teeth.  My canines tore through, just enough for my fingers to squeeze in and begin tearing the rest of it off.  I bit back a wince as scabbed blood peeled away and tried not to stare at the sight it left behind.  “Just keep your shield up.  I think I can slip through.” “How?” I reached down and picked up my hatchet, looking back to her bewildered eyes.  “Me and magic don’t mix, remember?  It’s about time I did something useful with that little fact.” I trudged up the stairs, each step feeling like it took all my strength.  Far below, the pack began to growl a warning.  I tried to tune it out as I scrubbed the soiled side of the bandage against the blade of my hatchet. The top of the bubble came just before the end of the stairs.  My hair brushed against the magical ceiling as I stopped, and an unnatural shiver shot down my spine.  The used bandage fell out of my hand, and I could feel something warm slowly trickling down the edge of my palm.  I raised my left hand and pressed against the barrier. It had an uncomfortable warmth to it as it pushed back against me.  Between the pressure came faint sizzles and sharp pops like grease in a hot pan.  My skin crawled and my mind reeled.  A nauseating scent wafted down from the light smoke and purple sparks, and I finally pulled my hand away.  An outline of my palm remained, tracing all the way to my little finger.  It ate away at the barrier briefly before stopping.  I placed my hand next to the small hole it made, sucked in a breath, and swung my hatchet up with all my strength. It cut through the barrier like it was made of butter.  I paused after seeing the head on the other side.  The handle was lodged in the sliver of a hole that it made, but just like my palmprint, that hole was slowly growing, too.  Cracks webbed out of the point of impact.  I felt a smile tug at the corner of my lips.  I was going to make it out. Renewed with a fresh feeling of hope, I began to work faster.  The blade got caught against the barrier as I tried to pull it back in, but with a few forceful tugs, it sank back inside.  Tiny, broken shards fell in with it, sparking and fizzling until disappearing before falling on me.  I drove the hatchet through again and again, cutting more and more holes and tearing sections out until I was confident that I could push through. As Twilight tried to sustain the barrier, I noticed the parts I was cutting away were slowly stitching themselves back together.  The blade of the hatchet was meeting more resistance with each new swing, too.  But with one last swing, the jagged circle I had cut into the barrier was complete.  The inner section, now a spider web of fractures, caved in and shattered over my body like thin glass.  The hole wasn’t quite a tight fit, but with the rate it was repairing itself, I couldn’t afford to waste any more time. Stuffing my hatchet between the sleeves around my waist, I began to clamber out of the rugged hole.  My less than graceful escape whipped the wolves into a frenzy, and outside of Twilight’s dome, their calls were louder than ever.  I crawled up to the top of the stairs and turned back to Twilight, who stared back at me with expectant eyes. “I’m gonna find the exit,” I panted.  “Hold them back as long as you can.” She hesitated, but quickly gave a brisk nod.  Behind her, the wolves were trying to find any form of purchase to get around her spell.  “I’ll try my best.  Hurry!” As the hole closed between us, I shuffled up to my feet.  A couple staggering steps sent me shoulder first into the wall next to me.  The beating cadence between my ears was persistent, and beneath it, a small voice urged me on.  I rolled against the wall to my back and tried to make sense of the shapes before me. Without Twilight’s illuminating spell, it was difficult to focus on anything.  The moonlight that leaked in from above offered a few answers.  The floor I had found myself on was the same as the one left behind.  I looked to the right, and on the other side of the stairs I had climbed, just a few paces away, was another set ascending to the next level.  At the end wasn’t another floor that stretched across, but a single, small platform.  Perhaps that was where my escape awaited. I pushed myself off the wall and to the next set of stairs.  The world tilted as I did, and I waited for it to level out before taking the first step.  The small guard rail that ran up with me wasn’t designed for the safety of humans.  One misstep would send me tripping over the edge, and I didn’t want to dwell on how long the drop might be if I missed the floor beneath on the way back down. I climbed slowly, though my heartbeat and the chilling calls of the wolves reminded me of the urgency.  The steps beneath me might as well had been invisible in the darkness.  I held out a cautious hand just in case.  My only guidance was the silhouette of the top, creeping ever so sluggishly into view.  I thought I could see the edge of a doorway in the shadows.  My heart leapt in my chest, only to drop with the rest of my body in the next second. My left foot found a hole halfway up the stairs and plummeted through.  My body crashed forward, and the only thing to cushion the fall was my outstretched hand.  Beneath me, the wolves chattered excitedly. “Hunter?” Twilight called up anxiously.  “What was that?  Are you okay?” “I’m fine,” I lied with a grunt.  The fall had rattled my body with a fresh, jarring ache.  Staying on my hands and knee, I carefully pulled my leg out of the hole it found and rested it against the solid steps.  I reached out with my hands, feeling for more holes as I crawled up the rest of the stairs.  Escape was so close.  I couldn’t afford any more surprises. The top was dimly lit by the moonlight but well enough to see the stone beneath me.  There weren’t any holes up here, but my hands patted around just to be certain before grabbing the small guard rail and pulling the rest of me to my feet.  I was on a small, rounded platform that overlooked the pit.  No walkways stretched around from here; only a single, wooden door stood behind me. I took a few staggering steps towards it and reached for the low handle; an old iron ring more fit to be a knocker.  As I pulled, it didn’t budge.  A curse hissed through my teeth, and I tried again.  Still no luck.  There wasn’t a key anywhere in sight.  To think after all of this, my escape was cut off by a locked, wooden door in a decrepit castle. With an aggravated grunt, I reeled my foot back and struck it with all the energy I had left.  It groaned, as if to boast against me.  A defeated sigh heaved out of me, and I turned around and rested my back against the door, looking up to the sky.  Was this really how it ended? Against my weight, the door began to budge.  I sucked in a startled breath as it fully gave way, causing me to fall backwards into a large, empty hallway.  My dazed eyes darted around the new area, trying to make sense of the new environment.  As they fell on the door, now resting lazily on its hinges in the hallway, a quick snort escaped me, and my face cracked into what felt like the first smile all night. “Hunter?” “I found the exit!” I called back.  With a grunt, I rolled back to my hands and knees and slowly stood back up.  “I’m in a hallway.  I think I know how to get back to the foyer from here.” There was a moment of hesitation.  “Okay.  I…  Give me a moment.  I think I can make it.  Get ready to close the door.” I nodded, though she couldn’t see it, and braced myself against the door.  There was a sound like crackling static, followed by a thunderous pop like cannon shot, and hoofbeats echoed in the chamber as Twilight began racing upstairs. My fingers drummed against the door, matching the cadence of her hoofbeats as she climbed.  My leg started bouncing on the ball of its foot.  The outraged cries of the wolves were overwhelming.  If they managed to catch Twilight before she made it to the door, there wouldn’t be much stopping them from getting to me next. Twilight reached the top of the stairs, and I braced myself for the next part.  As she ran through the door, the first flash of yellow eyes came into the moonlight.  I slammed the door shut and threw my weight against it.  Another weight threw itself on the other side. My body nearly bounced from the impact.  On the other side, the wolves were relentless.  I dug my heels into the floor as a tidal wave of force raged on the other side.  Twilight sprang into action, planting her forelegs against the door and pushing with all she had.  It was quickly apparent that it was an uphill struggle, though. “Don’t suppose you have another spell to—  Gah!”  A timberwolf managed to slide its face through the doorway after another strong push.  I pulled out my hatchet and drove the blade into its snarling muzzle, and with a sharp whimper, the wolf withdrew.  “Can you lock it?!” “I’m already trying!” I turned my head and saw her concentrating on the door.  Her horn was glowing, and familiar glyphs began to show on the door.  “Just hold it still for a few more seconds so it can set.” Another push from the other side.  My heel slipped, and I fell to my rear, keeping my back braced against the door.  “No promises!” “Just about… and… good!” Twilight pushed herself off the door and took a few steps back into the hallway.  Behind me, the force stopped, though I could still hear the wolves trying to claw through on the other side.  I rolled away from the floor and tucked my arms and legs beneath me, trying to find the strength to stand.  It felt like all of it was spent trying to hold the door. “That will hold long enough,” Twilight panted.  “At least until they remember the way they came in.  Do you need any help?” I looked up and saw her extended hoof.  My mouth opened and closed after failing to find words.  With a shaky hand, I reached out and grabbed the door handle, using it to pull myself up.  Twilight’s hoof slowly retracted as she looked away. “Do you know where we are now?” she asked.  “Anything familiar?” My eyes scanned the hallway, for what little help it did.  All of them looked the same, with few variations between.  Judging by the direction we went since the ballroom, though, I had a decent guess.  I lifted a finger to the right and sucked in a breath. “That way.  It should lead to the foyer.”  I pushed myself off the wall I was leaning against.  My head felt light, and no amount of movement could stretch the stiffness out of my legs.  All the same, I started to jog.  “Come on, let’s not leave the other two waiting.” I tried to keep my focus as we ran through the corridors, but long blinks caused segments to disappear with the consciousness I was struggling to hold on to.  The edges of my mind began to blur as I chased the unicorn through the winding maze.  Hadn’t I been here before, long ago in a dream?  As the world twisted along an axis, it was harder to tell whether or not I had stumbled into it again. You could have prevented this, the shadows reminded me as I passed.  I struggled to keep my footing as the ground tilted beneath my feet.  My shoulder crashed into the wall between the windows that released the cold, guiding moonlight.  The shadows wrapped around me and whispered in my ear. You could have been safe.  You could have been home.  Why didn’t you listen to Us? Another slow blink.  The unicorn disappeared.  My heart spiked, and I tried to push myself away from the muck that was enveloping my mind.  Where did she go? Was it simply out of spite?  Did you feel like you were somehow wronged? I could hear the ragged pants of wolves behind me.  Had they already broken through?  I turned at the bend, forcing my eyes to stay open, fearful of what would happen if I slipped again. You couldn’t have made it this far on your own.  Isn’t that why you first turned to Us?  Who else was there for you?  Who else gave you direction? A name was burning in my head, trying desperately to drown out the rest of my wild thoughts.  I had to find her, wherever she ran off.  I had to wake up from this nightmare. I burst into the foyer, blind from the numbing headache, and called out. “Lyra?” “Hunter?” My heart nearly leapt out of my chest, and then I turned and saw the unicorn it wasn’t.  Twilight trotted across the room. “What happened?  You were right behind me a moment ago,” she explained.  “I was just about to go back looking for you.” My eyes were fixated on her as I tried to make sense of everything.  The fog started to lift from my mind, pulling away the headache until all I was left with was my bodily pains.  I cast a glance down the hallway I escaped.  The last minute felt like a haze, blinked away from all the piling exhaustion.  I squinted my eyes, as if I left the answer somewhere behind me, but all that I saw were shadows. “I… I guess I had to catch my breath,” I panted.  My gaze fluttered around the foyer.  For the first time, I noticed just how cold and empty this castle felt.  “Come on,” I said softly.  “I don’t ever want to see this place again.” The front doors of the foyer were left wide open, courtesy of Applejack and Fluttershy, we presumed.  We stepped out into the night.  The bridge was still out, and a cursory glance on both sides didn’t show any other way across. “Which way do you think they went?” I asked, looking down to her.  She was studying the dirt path to the bridge closely in the moonlight. Twilight looked up to me, and as her shadow shifted, I saw what had caught her attention:  a thin line gouged into the earth, with an arrow head pointing right. “This way,” she said definitively, trotting in the same direction. I followed after her with a slow limp.  She was cautious to not leave me too far behind this time, although there was still an air of urgency about her as she trotted around the old castle grounds.  The moon was inching ever closer to the horizon, causing the shadows to stretch.  There still was no hint of the sun to the east.  The night wasn’t finished yet, and the thought made my gut drop like a rock. The wild grass by the edge of the castle was difficult to wade through.  I imagined it was only worse for Twilight; it was up to my knees.  As we rounded the corner of the castle walls, the source of our troubles came into light.  A fallen tree closed the gap of the trench.  It wasn’t too far away either, meaning Applejack and Fluttershy surely must have found and crossed it. It looked like it was uprooted and knocked over.  The branches and leaves on its top made a natural wall, shielding most of it from sight.  On the other side, its roots reached up to the moonlight.  Further past that, I thought I saw movement.  Were the others waiting for us? A lone figure climbed up on the trunk, tall and spindly. Twilight hissed next to me.  “Hunter, get down!” I had already dropped before she finished her warning.  The grass did little to cushion my landing as I fell next to her, but it provided ample cover.  Twilight’s eyes were pinned ahead.  I reached out a hand and peeled away a layer of grass until I could see him between the blades. “Please tell me that isn’t who I think it is,” I whispered urgently.  My heart spiked as he disappeared behind the canopy of the fallen tree.  “I thought the Princess was taking care of him.” “He must have slipped away,” Twilight tried to explain.  “Did you see how he was moving, though?” My eyes broke away from the tree as I turned to Twilight.  With the shade of the tall grass, it was difficult to see her.  “I was a little distracted by who it was.  What did you see?” Her eyes were pinned forward as her body laid tense, like she was ready to bolt.  In the shadows, I could see her head shake ever so slightly.  “Wait until he’s back in the open again.  I want to make sure I saw it right.” I tried to take in a shaky breath and looked back to the tree.  The tension in the air was suffocating, but after a few more seconds, Thorn emerged from behind the wall of branches.  As I studied him, I discovered what Twilight was talking about. He was walking with a limp.  His right foreleg appeared shriveled, more so than usual, and he held it closer to his chest as he walked with his other three. “He’s hurt,” Twilight said aloud.  “That must’ve been Princess Luna‘s—” She cut herself off with a squeak as Thorn looked our way.  I tried to fight off the shiver racing up my spine, fearful that he would see it, if he hadn’t already heard us.  Only one of his eyes glowed that sickly yellow against his silhouette as he continued to stare.  A second passed.  Another. Thorn finally tore his gaze away, and I allowed myself to gasp in a small breath.  He continued to limp across the tiny field to the castle wall.  I struggled to follow him with my eyes through the blades of grass.  He never turned to the front door and instead found a crack in the wall large enough for him to slither through.  We stayed still in the grass for a moment longer, just to be sure. Twilight was first to move.  She stood to peek her head over the grass, and I reached out and pulled her back down. “Stay low,” I whispered.  I made the motion with my hand and pointed towards the fallen tree. With a subtle nod, she started to crawl through the grass.  I followed as closely as I could.  The tree seemed impossibly far away.  Every inch we covered felt like a yard and took just as much effort as I struggled to crawl, but the work eventually paid off.  The tall grass was growing sparse the closer we drew to the rocky edge.  Our exit was still a few yards away, with nothing but open rocks between us and the cover of the branches. Twilight and I shared a look.  We hadn’t been spotted yet.  Maybe our luck would hold out just a little bit longer.  I swallowed the lump in my throat and tucked my legs beneath me.  I rose a fist, extended three fingers, and counted down, and we broke into a sprint. For such a short distance, it felt incredibly long.  The moon felt like a spotlight beaming down on us for all to see.  All I could think about were the wolves’ hungry eyes glaring at my back, but I didn’t check out of fear that my thoughts were true.  When we stopped behind the tree’s thick branches, I doubled over and fell to my knees, panting until the paranoia dissolved. Twilight clambered to the top of the tree trunk as I struggled back to me feet.  She took a few wobbly steps across the trench before looking at me expectantly. “What’s the matter?” I grunted as I hefted myself up with her.  “No fancy magic tricks to get across this time?” “I’m not leaving you by yourself this time,” she explained.  “I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you now.” “Well, I’d hate to make you feel sorry.”  My sarcasm earned an unamused look for her as I carefully stood up. “Look, the night’s almost over with,” she huffed.  “Once we find Applejack and Fluttershy, we’ll go back to Ponyville, and I can leave you with Nurse Redheart.” “That might be the best plan I’ve heard all night.”  I held out my arms to maintain my balance and took my first step forward. Peeling my eyes away from the coming trench, I looked up to Twilight.  “What about the missing ponies?” “I’ll find them,” she said adamantly.  “Once we drop you off, Applejack, Fluttershy, and I are going to find Rarity at the hospital, and we’re coming back to the Everfree Forest to find Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, along with everypony else Thorn took.  It was a mistake bringing you out here to begin with.” “What’s that supposed to—”  I cut myself off with a sucking breath as my foot misstepped.  My arm cartwheeled wildly until I regained my balance.  Twilight turned back to look at the cause of the noise, and I was thankful she missed the display. “You’ve been through enough tonight as it is, Hunter,” she said as she continued forward.  “Nurse Redheart was right; you should have stayed in Ponyville while my friends and I took care of this.  Now we’re worse off than when we started.”  She reached the other side of the trench and hopped off to solid ground, waiting patiently for me to join her.  “Nopony knows where Princess Luna and her guards are, we’re all the way at the Ancient Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest, we still don’t know where the missing ponies are…” I hopped off the trunk and landed with a grunt, and with a couple heavy blinks, I sat back down on the fallen tree to relieve my weight. “And you can barely move without straining yourself,” Twilight added. “Well, when you put it that way…”  My voice trailed off, and I shook my head.  “Screw it, I’m not in the mood to make jokes.”  My hands pushed against the trunk to help me back to my feet, and I cast a cursory glance across the forest.  “We still need to find Applejack and Fluttershy first.  Any idea where they are?” “They have to be nearby,” she reasoned.  “They said they would wait for us, right?” “Thorn might’ve scared them off,” I pointed out.  Or worse, if he saw them.  I didn’t want to dwell on the thought, though.  I moved around Twilight, passed the upturned roots of the tree, and searched harder through the dark foliage.  “Maybe they’re hiding.” Twilight called out in a hushed tone, “Applejack?  Fluttershy?”  The silence that returned was deafening.  The unicorn shook her head and tried again, a little louder this time.  “Applejack, Fluttershy, it’s me!  Where are you?  It’s safe to come out.  Thorn went to the castle.” She paused for a moment, as if something had dawned on her, and her next urgent question was directed to me.  “You don’t think they’re still in the castle, do you?” I almost didn’t hear her.  My eyes were fixed on a strange shape nearly hidden at the edge of the trail.  I crouched over it, and my hand gingerly reached for it.  “I… I don’t think so.”  The words had a difficult time squeezing past the lump growing in my throat as I picked it up.  “Can you make another light?” There was a moment of hesitation when Twilight picked up on the tremor in my voice.  She quickly covered the distance, conjuring a purple light as she stood next to me, and I got my first good look at the object in my hand. A witch’s hat, the same one Applejack was wearing tonight.  The farmer wasn’t anywhere in sight, though.  Twilight became a special kind of pale, one I imagined that I wasn’t too far from either.  We shared a look, and I knew we both understood what it meant.  I was the first to put it into words. “I don’t think they managed to sneak past Thorn.” Twilight tore her eyes away and began searching through the nearby bushes. A fresh panic chipped away at the edge of her voice as she called out for her friends again, loud enough for the whole forest to hear.  The hat fell out of my hand and back onto the trail.  I didn’t tell her to stop.  If I opened my mouth, there was no guarantee that the string of curses running rampant in my head wouldn’t slip out first. With Twilight’s light still floating above, I searched across the trail for any hint to what truly happened.  Prints were stamped into the dirt, about the shape of hooves.  Fresh earth was dug up by a few shallow scrapes made by claws.  I couldn’t make much sense of it, but now there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that they had run into the timberwolves. At the edge of the light, another object caught my eye.  As Twilight moved, and her light with her, I only caught an occasional glimpse, but that familiar shade of yellow made me hope it wasn’t what I thought it was.  I carefully pushed myself up and slowly shambled further down the trail. I bent over and plucked it from the dirt when I reached it.  A shiver coursed through me as I held it against the light.  My body felt colder than the biting air around it.  In my hand, my fingers twirled a bright yellow feather, speckled with fresh, red droplets.  I swallowed the lump in my throat and finally called out, “Twilight!” The unicorn came bursting out of the bushes and galloped up to me.  A single look told me that she still hadn’t found any sign of them.  Given what I had found, I was almost glad for the fact.  Her eyes fell on the feather in my hand, and she took a staggered step back. “Oh, no,” she whispered.  “Oh my gosh, no.  I—”  She shook her head, trying to get her thoughts in order.  “We never should have split up.  We should have stayed together, like we always did.  What was I thinking?” “I think they’ve been taken somewhere,” I tried to explain.  “I mean, if they’re still…”  Don’t think about it.  “I’ve never seen Thorn alone before.  Maybe he…  Maybe he had other timberwolves with him when they ran into him.  I-I mean, he was hurt anyway.  Maybe he had them taken somewhere while he kept searching for me.  I just… I don’t know.  I’m not a tracker even on a good day.  I’m just not sure if—” “Hunter, let go.” I blinked, not even realizing that the feather was tugging away from my hand.  My grip on it released, and it floated over to Twilight.  The mare sat on her haunches and ran a hoof through her mane as she inspected it. “I-I think I know a spell for this.”  As she spoke, the feather began to glow brightly.  “I’ve been researching certain magic over the last few days,” she explained.  “Magic based on returning objects from where they came.  A lot of it came up as dead ends, but I think this one—  No, I know this one can help us now at least.” The light flashed and quickly died out, like a spent bulb.  All that was left on the feather was a faint, purple outline like dim neon.  It started to gently float between us, drifting towards me. Twilight gave a relieved nod.  “There.  That should lead us back to Fluttershy… but…” I moved to the side as the feather passed.  “But what?” Her eyes followed the feather.  “It’s not going to Ponyville, Hunter.” “And?” “And I don’t know how you’re even standing right now!” she exclaimed.  “You look horrible, Hunter.  I can’t guarantee your safety, I’m going to cast another spell that will lead you back into town.  All you need to do is follow it, and you’ll be safe.” “Unbelievable.” “Hey, where are you going?!” “I’m following the feather!” I shouted back.  “I’m not going to sit around safe and sound in the town hall worrying if they’re okay, and I know you wouldn’t either.” With a frustrated grunt, she took off after me, quickly reaching my side as I walked and glaring daggers at me.  “Hunter, I won’t be able to forgive myself if anything more happens to you tonight,” she snapped.  “And I know Applejack and Fluttershy feel the same.  I know you’re not going to do it for me, but at least think about them.” “I am thinking about them, Twilight, but they’re my friends, too.”  We came to an abrupt stop.  The feather didn’t share the courtesy as it continued to slowly drift deeper into the forest.  “And if you’re so worried about feeling guilty over me getting hurt, then you better stay close to me, because all the magic in the world can’t help you stop me right now.” A strained second passed.  Twilight heaved a sigh, and her stern composure finally broke.  “Fine,” she grunted as she cantered after the feather.  “But this better not be some… sick, twisted way at getting back at me for everything.” Without her attention on me, I could feel my face fall slack.  A quiet gasp for breath gave me enough energy to start limping after her.  “It’s not,” I grumbled.  “I’m just trying to be a good friend for once.”