//------------------------------// // Prologue: Remember... // Story: Chasing Rabbits // by Shinzakura //------------------------------// His armor gleaming in the sun, the knight headed home. It had been a score of months since he had seen his wife, but her liegelord had told him that she was on a special mission for Queen Faust and would return any day now, but for now, he had to stand his duty as the warden of the Western Lands, the area known as the Unknown West, the very edge of the queen’s realm. It wasn’t as though he would miss her much, or she him, truth be told. Their marriage had been one of typical political convenience, more for her family’s sake than his, and their marriage had not even been consummated – she had nerves that day, she claimed, but then next day she had journeyed to her master’s keep, where she had undertaken her mission since. But those were the edicts given them by the Throne of Everfree. The Queen of All, the great alicorn herself, did this for the sake of her people and it was not his to question her orders. It was his duty to merely obey and keep the faith. The earth stallion wiped the sweat from his furry brown face as it stung his eyes, locks of his lavender mane slipping down under his helmet. It was a beastly hot day, the kind of day that would give a lesser pony the vapors. It certainly was enough to make him hallucinate a few minutes back; he thought he’d seen an oversize hare on the pathway leading to the tiny village midway towards his home, and as he reached the crossroads that led towards all directions of the compass, he had to wonder if there was a purpose to it all. “Help me.” The knight stopped in his tracks, slowly withdrawing his sword. “Who tr’spasses anon?” His eyes drew towards a copse of trees, and something about them looked…unnatural. They appeared twisted and gnarly, as if they weren’t a part of this world. Out of the trees came a strange figure, the kind of which the knight thought he had imagined if he wasn’t on his guard. The creature appeared to be a mouse at first glance, but no mouse moved upright on its hindlegs, as if it were an Abyssinian or a minotaur. The strange beast was dressed in a strange outfit the likes of which were unfamiliar to him. It was holding a codex in its forelegs and it was bleeding profusely from its side…and was clearly dying. The knight acted quickly. Even though he was merely an earth stallion, he had tinctures and nostrums available to him that could be used as short-term curatives should a healer not be nearby. But even as he reached the mysterious being, he knew what he had would not be enough. “Rest,” the knight insisted. “‘T’is but a short vent’re to the nearest ville. Yond be a simple there and—” “No. I will not survive,” the creature said, its voice raspy and weak. With flagging strength, he held the tome out to the knight. “Please, hide this! He will only get stronger! He has become mad by this…this….” He coughed up blood. “I cannot even explain this madness. But he must not find this! He must not!” The knight unsealed the largest bottle he had; it would hopefully keep the creature alive. “Drinketh this. This shall holp ‘til we can sally the simple.” “No!” The creature thrust the book into the knight’s hooves, spilling the potion. “Take this and go! Leave me before it’s too late! Before all becomes—” he coughed again, with more blood spurting out. “Before your world and mine becomes snicker-snack! Chase the rabbit! Chase the rabbit!” The knight looked at him oddly. “Thee maketh nay senseth, neighbor, but if’t be true t’is imp’rtant, I shalt doth so. Alloweth me to proffer this from thee and then I shalt see to thy rest once thee passeth to th’ Great Pasture.” “No, leave me! Each minute the codex is in the open is one he will use to find it! Go!” And with the last bit of his strength, he grabbed the stallion’s surcoat, pulling himself up so that he was face to face with the stallion. “Remember these words! Remember them!” He then whispered something into the pony’s ears before collapsing to the ground, his strength spent. The pony looked at the creature, shaken. “I shall remember. I vow it.” The creature looked at him, his eyes nearly glazed over. “I thank you, good sir. May I have your name before I breathe my last?” The knight removed his helmet. “Blazing Lance, Mast’r of the West’rn Keep, steadf’st and true sw’rn knight to H’r Majesty, Queen Faust. And thee?” “Radourmeire. Sworn tailor to my—” He began to cough up blood, and his body shuddered, the sign of a death tremor. “I breathe when I sleep,” he said, then breathed no more. Lance held his helmet at the ready in honor of the strange creature. I must bury this poor soul, he thought. He deserves not to be left as a body to be carrion for the beasts. He began to undo his saddlebags, to unearth the small spade he carried for occasions such as this. But then, for an unnaturally hot day, a cold breeze suddenly flittered through the area, and the world seemed to turn gray. The nearby grassy fields moved and shifted in the breeze, but the most worrisome part of it was the trees that the creature had come from. They now seemed to shimmer with a radiance of eerie magic, flickering through the colors of the rainbow in maddening, wild ways. That was enough for Lance. He quickly shoved the strange book in his saddlebag, tied it and slipped his helmet back on. “Thou shalt not be f’rgotten, Radourmeire,” the stallion swore. “And I shall keep the faith. Thou hast my vow.” Moving as fast as his legs could carry him, Lance galloped away from the crossroads and down the road that would lead to the village. Once there, he would eat, but not stay, instead heading to the Western Keep. He would need to send word to his queen and to Lord Starswirl. Hopefully, the strange old wizard would send his wife to aid him – though he and Jade held no love for each other, Lance knew his wife was a formidable magic wielder and would be able to help him figure this out. And as the world got colder, and his breath began to crystalize in the midsummer sun, he wondered if he would even survive to tell them.