The clash of the night gods roared overhead as their light streamed down into the world below. A heavy dread of dark clouds and thick moisture blanketed the large school as an ocean was poured over their heads. Ponies rushed to their rooms as they tried to avoid the assault from above.
The school was quiet as the air was clogged with a thick sense of anguish and worry. Classes were in session, but every student seemed to feel the sense of danger that had taken place.
The rest of the students seemed more or less fine, apart from being in near shock from their experience. They sat in chairs in the waiting room of the ponyville hospital as they all thought about their injured friend.
Sandbar laid on a bed of white cloth and light padding. He laid unconscious with a three-inch deep gash in his leg. His head was wrapped with bandages that covered one of his eyes. The nurse watched over him as she tended to his wombs.
Ocellus sat in the corner as she watched her friends participate in the ancient ways of the politicians: screaming and throwing accusations as they threw logic aside.
“He told you that it was a bad idea!” Gallus screamed.
“I’m not the one who wanted to go there, alright!” Smolder roared back.
“Yona didn’t want to go,” The Yak cried.
“Well, you didn’t have to go you know.” Smolder snapped.
“She was just trying to be a good friend,” Cozy interjected.
“Shut up Cozy!” Smolder growled. “This wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t tell us about that stupid place!”
“Me?” Cozy whimpered.
“Yes, you.”
“Hey,” Gallus roared back. “This isn’t her fault, it’s yours.”
“How’s it my fault?”
“You’re the one who just had to prove yourself.”
“You all wanted to see it just as much as me,” Smolder defended. “I’m not the one who’s wrong here.”
Ocellus lowered her head as she shut off her ears from the world. Her head droned on with thoughts and suspicion. She too thought about how things could get to that point. She thought about who really was the one to blame for what had happened. She shook her head to ease the crippling battle that took place inside of her.
She looked up to see the group continuing their assault on one another. She was even shocked to see little old Cozy joining the blame game. Her attention was stolen from the hippogriff in the corner who sat staring at the ground. The once cheerful silly outgoing hippogriff now had a grizzly look into space in front of her as if she were an animal at slaughter. The changeling shrugged off the notion as she too was in shock.
Ocellus looked back to the ground as she took in a deep breath. Her eyes slowly crept open as they became heavier. Each blink seemed to cause her vision to dissipate more and more. Soon the world was no more than a blur of colors and rays of light. Her head lowered as her energy seemed to drain from her body. Soon heavy darkness came upon her that stole her consciousness away. She was a mear corps sitting in a chair. Her breath steadied to a near stop as her muscles slowly froze in place.
Almost as quickly as the darkness came, it was sent away with a single scream. Ocellus jumped as her eyes shot open. The scream echoed in her head: it was a familiar scream. She looked around as her breath matched the panicked rhythm of her heart. It was the scream she heard in the house; she could never forget it.
Her attention was once more stolen away as she saw Twilight walking towards the group. Their war raged on even as the alicorn stood above them. She watched as Twilight stood and observed the battle for a few moments.
“Excuse me!” Twilight shouted. “This isn’t the time or place to be fighting.”
The group coward before the alicorn and ceased fire at each other. Gallus and Smolder dropped to the ground as they both stared each other down.
“How is he?” Gallus growled not looking away from the dragon.
“He’ll be okay,” Twilight gasped as she saw the tension between the group. “He’s just going to need to rest for a while and won’t probably be out of here any time soon.”
Cozy, Gallus and Smolder all sighed in relief.
“Now then,” Twilight said as she cleared her throat. “I would like to ask all of you about what in Equestria happened?” Her voice was concerned yet strict; a notion that most hadn’t seen.
“Well we didn’t do it,” Gallus snapped.
“I didn’t say you did it,” Twilight struck back, still in her strict tone. “I asked what happened?”
“Gee Twilight,” Cozy sighed in her usual sweet voice. “We really don’t know. It was far too dark for any of us to truly make out ....” Cozy froze as she stared down at the ground.
“Dark?” Twilight gasped. “What were all of you doing out by yourself in the middle of the night?”
Ocellus sighed as she saw Cozy, Gallus, and Smolder exchanging glances just waiting for one of them to come up with a lame excuse. She then glanced over to Silver Stream who remained lifeless in her chair. Her eyes were dead and showed no concern for anything around her.
“Was it supposed to be a joke or something?” Twilight’s firm voice rattled the room.
“No,” Smolder pleaded. “We just wanted to do a little project."
Twilight raised a brow at them, knowing there was more than they wanted to let on.
"We may or may had gone to house in the EverFree Forest to see if some stupid story was true...” Smolder quickly finished.
Twilight looked at them in disbelief and gasped. “What?! Why would you go to the EverFree Forest of all places in the middle of the night when you know very well you would get in trouble?”
“We didn’t think something was going to attack us,” Gallus scoffed.
“It's an old house surrounded by wilderness,” Twilight shot back. “There’s going to be dangerous things.”
There was a long moment of silence as none of them knew what to say about what happened. Their eyes went to the floor, ashamed.
“We’re sorry, okay.”
Twilight signed spoke more empathy this time. “I appreciate it but I'm afraid sorry won't cut it right now. Your friend got hurt because of your carelessness.” Twilight stopped to look at the group's response.
Gallus clawed the ground as he tried to avoid eye contact, Cozy’s head was lumped over as tears filled her eyes, and Smolder just looked annoyed.
"So what are we going to do then?"
"I don't know," Gallus whispered to himself.
"Well for one thing, since all of you snuck off on your own little field trip, I think it's only fair that all of you take a week to think about it."
"What?" Gallus gasped as he raised his head.
"I'll let you stay here for the night so you can be by Sandbar but in the morning I want all of you back at the school and none of you are allowed to leave the school for a week."
What?!" Yona cried out.
"You can't do that!" Smolder defended.
"Actually, according to the agreement I made with all of your parents and guardians, I can," Twilight assured them; her voice back to being firm. "And if they have a problem with it, I'm sure after explaining my reasons for it, they would also understand if you all choose to take it there."
None of them said anything.
"Good," Twilight said after a moment. "Then I will accept to see you all in my office in the morning before class starts. Now if you excuse me, I must speak with Sandbar's parents."
Yona and Cozy Glow only nodded as Twilight trotted away from the group.
Ocellus flinched at the remark as if it had pulled her back to realization. She looked forward to her friends who argued back against their punishment, but then her attention was once more stolen away. She looked over to Silver Stream who still was frozen with her gaze to the floor. It was then that she got an awful feeling creeping down her spine. She turned down a darkened hall that had only a flickering light for illumination.
Her breath quickened as she could hear the steady sound of a wheezing breath. She could feel eyes locked onto her from the darkness but she could not see them. Her vision became blurry as the darkness began to envelop the light. She could feel her skin tighten and contract as she began to choke on her own breath.
“Ocellus!”
The changeling's daze was shattered by the call of her Griffon companion. She turned to see her friend in her face with a stain of anger on his face.
“Come on, let's go.”
“Go?” She whispered.
“Ya, didn’t you hear what Twilight said?” Ocellous'ss frozen gaze gave the answer to his question. “She said we’re suspended for a whole week.”
“What!?” She gasped.
“Ya, it’s so dumb, but what can we do?” Gallus scoffed.
“Oh, ok,” She whispered.
“Okay?” Smolder scoffed. “Aren’t you at all mad?”
“I’m...I guess I’m just worried about Sandbar.”
“Silver Stream?” Cozy’s sweet voice drew the group's attention. “Are you alright?”
The group all looked to their hippogriff friend who still stared blankly at the floor. She didn’t acknowledge their voices in any way.
“Silver?” Smolder called out. “What’s up?” There was only silence as a response.
“I think she’s just shocked,” Gallus sighed. “Or just mad...I guess.” They continued to stare at their unresponsive friend.
“Silver?” Ocellus whispered as she approached her friend. “What’s wrong?” She went face to face with the hippogriff until she could see right into her eyes. She flinched as SilverStream jumped back. The hippogriff looked up as locked her gaze away from the changeling. Ocellus looked in the direction of her friend.
Her breath quickened as she realized that it was the same dark hallway. She could feel the same gaze staring at her from the darkness. Suddenly SilverStream began to breathe heavily. She leaned into Ocellous’s ear and gasped.
“She’s here,” SilverStream gasped.