“You son of a bitch!” the dark blue Pegasus yelled as he reeled from the pain in his haunch and looked over his shoulder quickly to assess the damage done. “You bastard! It’s gone! You cut off my cutie mark!” he stepped back from his attacker that had suddenly appeared out of the Everfree Forest and glared at him. The dark black unicorn hovered a long katana like blade over his head. Blood ran down Oz’s left side as he tried to remain calm. He didn’t have anything to defend himself with against this sudden enemy. Looking closely, he tried to see the face of his attacker, but he was shrouded in a dark ghostly mist and his eyes were aglow with a strange orange hue. This mystery attacker almost seemed unnatural in every way, except for the red glow around the weapon he had. The blue pegasus noticed he still had to use magic to hold the katana like blade that was near the spell caster’s head.
Oz stepped back and tried to think of what to do. The attacker had only assaulted his cutie mark, nothing else. “Now for the other side” the dark figure said in a dark echo. He lunged at Oz, the blade going further than the Unicorn’s physical reach. Without hesitating Oz jumped sideways away from the blade as it swung at his unhurt cutie mark of three stars positioned in a triangle.
“What do you want with me!?” he yelled as he dodged yet another attack.
“To erase you!” the creature shouted as he used a magical blast to hit Oz in the chest and sent him reeling onto his back. He rolled onto his side and grimaced when the dirt from the road entered his wound. As he tried to stand the unicorn grabbed his tail with his magic and slammed his romp down. Oz struggled, flapping his wings, as the menacing creature walked up to the struggling Pegasus.
“I will erase your special talent from existence, for without your cutie mark, you are nothing!”
“Screw you ass hole!” As the blade sliced into Oz’s flank, he bucked the Unicorn that had idiotically gotten to close. They both yelped in pain as their individual attacks connected each other.
Oz had actually been surprised his attacker was even solid mass, but he couldn’t think of that right now, he had to get away. He grabbed the now magic free blade in his hip and pulled it out as fast as he could with his teeth. The pain was so great that when he had managed to pull the blade completely free it was instantly let go for a yell in agony. He attempted to stand but his hips were, for the moment, ruined. Opening his wings, he lifted up off the ground with a few powerful flaps. He looked at his attacker and saw him completely unconscious on the ground. The dark, mystical haze that had hung around him was now gone. The Unicorn pony had been smart, under the haze he wore a dark suit in order to mask his identity leaving the only identifying mark Oz could make out was the white horn.
He looked at himself and saw that his cutie marks were shredded and misshapen. Under the blood and dirt it was hard to tell what Oz’s special talent even was. “Without my Cutie Mark…” Oz whimpered as he attempted to fly to Canterlot “…then who am I?” he left the unicorn there, laying silent in the dust. He hoped to never see that monster again. “I hope my Cutie Mark is not forever gone. Oh dear Celestia, please let my cutie mark heal.” Oz thought as he looked up the mountain and saw Canterlot perched atop it’s majestic precipice. Oz, the pony of Astronomy, felt his ability to follow the stars slipping. He gazed at them as he flapped his wings weakly. With the loss of blood, he was growing weaker by the minute. His vision blurred and then his wings became motionless. The last thing he saw was his beloved stars moving further from him, as he closed his eyes and only momentarily felt the thump of the ground against him.
Oz sat looking at the sky above him with an annoyed look. He wondered why the adult pegasi had to choose tonight of all nights to cover the sky with clouds. It was tonight he had waited so long to just gaze at the stars. Always longing to study them, the young colt would sit on clouds in the middle of the night, just pondering the burning balls of fire that lay hundreds of light-years from him. This night however, would be a short one. He flew from the cloud he had been sitting on to the top of the mist canopy. As half of his body still was surrounded by the clouds, he was to infatuated with the sparkling above him to move any further. He stared at the little dots twinkling so far away and smiled with joy. He never understood why looking at them made him feel so much better, but the fireballs relaxed him greatly. He always seemed to beable to forget the stresses of flight camp when gazing into the speckled void. A cold breeze made him shiver and he sighed as he floated back down below the canopy. Oz yawned as he flew back to his dorm in Cloudsdale Flight Academy.
The next day, after Oz had finished the day of Flight Camp, he sat on the cloud cover resting over Ponyville. He always loved sitting here, especially if his favorite pegasus hadn’t cleared the sky yet. Oz watched the sky searching for her. After a little bit he was surprised to hear a subtle laugh behind him. It wasn’t directed at him but it still caused him to jump and see who was there. It was her, his first true infatuation, Rainbow Dash. He did a subtle smile upon seeing her glistening rainbow colored mane and flowing cyan coat. His thoughts were interrupted by her chuckling at herself again. He saw her looking through a hole in the fluffy ceiling. Filled with curiosity, he hovered behind her and peered through her window to the ground. He made sure that his shadow did not fall in front of her to ensure she did not notice him. He also made sure that he was far enough away that she wouldn’t hear his wing beats…or his heartbeats for that matter.
Below them was Apple Jack at Sweet Apple Acers bucking the trees in the east orchard. Rainbow Dash blushed as she watched her infatuation. She couldn’t help but giggle out loud as she watched with great admiration the strong hind quarters of the brown earth pony below. She had kept the night’s blanket over Sweet Apple Acers per Apple Jack’s request. AJ had asked Dash to do this for her just simply so Celestia’s hot sun wouldn’t be to much of a bother as the Apple Family harvest some of their apples.
Apple Jack bucked, and like always her sister, now grown and possessing her Cutie Mark, caught the apples in a barrel on her head. Rainbow watched the farm girl fully engulfed in her well versed movements. After a firm buck, AJ leaped over her sister, doing a front flip mid air and upon landing on her fore hooves, spun her rear around and delivered a massive blow to the next tree. Apple Bloom was already waiting with a new barrel and caught the apples just as they fell into the wooden cylinder. Oz was both amused and impressed with the sight he saw, but was saddened by the subtle sigh let out by the one he found infatuating.
He landed softly next to her and finally revealed his presence. “Didn’t know you were actually into other girls.” Oz said with slight depression in his tone. He knew he could never have Rainbow Dash. She was in her twenties, and he had just recently turned thirteen himself. However, he had never imagined he would lose out to another girl. Rainbow Dash broke from her hypnotic state and looked up at him surprised. At first she was scared, but once she noticed it was just a little foal that was interrupting her fantasies, she became irritated.
“What do you want kid?” she asked bluntly. She had never met Oz, and had never seen him watching her when she had done her weather jobs. Oz had always been good at keeping himself hidden from her view while she performed her awe inspiring acrobatic stunts that not only cleared the sky, but made his heart skip beats.
“I was just surprised you were actually into girls. I mean, I would’ve thought you would be more into somepony like say…me” he couldn’t stop himself. He just let the words blurt out of his mouth. His cheeks burned red as he suddenly felt smaller than the water molecules holding him up.
“What? Why the hell would I wanna be with some kid?” she glanced back at the Apples and then glared at Oz. “And if you tell anypony, you’re gonna get it.” She zipped the hole in the clouds shut and dashed off. Oz watched her, his embarrassment dwindling as she put distance between them. He felt like something that resembled stupidity should be his cutie mark.
Suddenly and without any reason, he began to sink into the clouds. It was almost as if he was losing the ability to stay aloft in the sky. He tried to flap his wings but it seemed as if the air was just passing right through them. When he slipped completely through the clouds all he saw below him was perpetual darkness, not the ground like he should have.
Oz shook himself awake with that feeling of falling that always would wake anypony and shot up in the bed he was laying in. He would regret that involuntary action for his wings hurt, as did his head and hips; which had caused him to let out a loud grunt. He looked around the dimly lit room and noticed he was sitting in a dark tan tent. It’s door had a mesh screen that seemed to have a zipper that could me moved to open and close it. At this time it was zipped half open, leaving the other half hanging loosely in the air. “W-where am I?” he pondered as he rubbed his bandaged head. He noticed that other than the bed in this tent, there was nothing else except for the candle on the floor, mildly illuminating the area. It occasional flickering seemed to mildly intensify Oz‘s headache.
“So…you’re awake” said a large alicorn walking into the room, pushing the loose material aside. He stood with a natural military stance, but it seemed weaker, as if something had reduced his moral in the past. His body was covered in many scars, most notably were the ones covering his cutie marks. Oz also noticed his horn appeared to have been cut in half at some point.
“Who are you?” Oz managed to cough out.
“I am Nova, from Tesorias. Who are you?”
“Um...I’m Oz, from Cloudsdale.” he responded uncomfortably.
“Hmm…” the Alicorn said as he studied the pegasus. Without any further words from Nova, Oz decided to break the silence.
“What’s an Ali-” before Oz could finish his quarry, Nova disappeared out of the tent without saying a word. “Okay then.” Oz returned to laying on the bed, it made him feel much more comfortable. He pondered about what he had dreamed. How many years ago was that? He sighed and closed his eyes, returning to the sleep he had been interrupted from.
Nova ducked from the claws of a Griffon that passed over him. He glared at the beast and fired a fireball from his horn. The griffon barrel rolled out of the way and came at him, his talons wide open. Without hesitation, Nova shot his wings straight up, letting all lift he had dissipate immediately and making him drop rapidly. The griffon flew right over, just barely missing any part of his body. The bird-lion turned sideways and flew back at him. He cupped his wings and pushed back up, putting his fore-hooves out in hopes his opponent would just slam right into them. His plan almost worked entirely. Yes the griffon was stupid enough to fly right into his stretched out hooves, but he did not just get knocked out as Nova had planned.
The impact made them slam together and drop out of the sky. As they tumbled and twirled the griffon scratched at Nova’s face. He kept his head held back but not enough. At one point when he turned his head sideways to avoid a swing, the bird-lion managed to cross his arm and swing again at the same spot. This attack connected not just with Nova’s face, but the talons chewed right through his eye. He yelled in pain and in a furious rage pointed his horn right at the Griffon. The bird lion grabbed the horn with his beak and bit as hard as he could. The pain in the alicorn’s horn was enough to enrage him even further. He closed his eyes and summoned as much force as he could. The next thing Nova knew was an extreme heat wave erupted in front of him as he felt his horn shatter from the eruption. He opened his eyes and saw the headless corpse falling limply next to him. He looked up, or really it was down, and saw the ground getting closer. Knowing the urgency of the situation, he twisted mid air and opened his wings. They cupped from catching the air and he landed softly on the ground. Looking over his shoulder, Nova saw the Griffon’s twisted body laying in the dirt. He huffed and then began to walk away.
His head hurt to much for him to beable to concentrate on flying. He needed to get to the village nearby, but his strength was fading fast as shock was beginning to set in. All he could think about was keep walking. That’s all he kept saying to himself in his head. “Keep walking Nova, if you stop , you die.” He stumbled into the town and looked around at the buildings. Some were being reconstructed from the last battle that had been there while others were just shoddy shacks. A lot of ponies didn’t consider making permanent homes worth the time because the war would just come back and destroy everything anyway. He spotted the hospital and started to meander to it. Through his blurred vision Nova saw a group of town ponies start to try and help him, but he couldn’t continue on. His vision blackened and he collapsed.
The dark blue Alicorn stirred from his thoughts to stare at the wooded terrain across the road from him. It was dark and creepy and it caused him to wondered if it was the infamous Everfree Forest he had heard a little about. He glanced over his shoulder at the tent he was standing outside of and sighed. The pegasus he had saved reminded him of himself that day back when he lost his eye and horn. He pawed at the eye patch with his hoof and grimaced at the feeling of scared flesh behind it.
He had watched everything happen. He had gone to help, but Oz had defeated the pony before he could get there. The way the pegasus had flown away and then collapsed, made him feel…oddly sympathetic to him. It was the only reason why he had offered any form of help. He stood into the stance that he had been trained to stand, militaristic. He would stand guard against that forest. If any more of those ghostly ponies wanted to attack, he’d be ready. He did hope though, that by defending Oz like this, he’d be happy to become Nova’s first friend. He huffed and pushed the thought away. “Nopony wants to be my friend.” Nova Spat. Oz though…maybe could be his friend…maybe…just maybe…