The night after the tense discussion with Berry Punch, Star slept little and poorly, still disturbed by what had happened. In the morning, she got ready and, exhausted, went to her classes with Plantain. But the elderly healer, who already knew what had happened, quickly saw that his apprentice wasn't going to learn much that day and sent her back home.
Star didn't feel like going back and being alone with her thoughts, as they were only revolving around what Berry Punch had said to her and her mother. Instead of going straight home, she decided to take a walk around the village. Although everything was still covered in snow, the weather had softened, and only a thin layer of clouds remained from the storm. Star went to the frozen stream. A tiny trickle of water dripped at the entrance of the cave under the now sleeping waterfall. A sign that spring would soon come.
The young pony sat on a rock, ideal for the purpose, took out a handful of candied blackberries from her bag, and started eating them one by one. Inevitably, she started thinking about the argument with Mulberry's mother. It made no sense. It simply didn't.
She had understood why Berry Punch was angry with her. But not even asking why her son went to see Star, and instead of accusing her of being...promiscuous? Berry was a mother, and although Star didn't know her very well, she knew that normally she would have asked about Mulberry first.
So why didn't she?
Also, going from being on the verge of depression to a strong outburst of anger in less than a day? Something must have happened. Star mentally reviewed everything she remembered from the argument: the voice tone and inflections, the words, the gestures and the stares. The young pony realized that there was something in Berry Punch's gaze that...wasn't normal. But she couldn't focus her thoughts enough to see it clearly. The argument was still too recent to think about it calmly.
Maybe there was a reason for all of it. Star tried to visualize what was strange about Berry's behavior. Maybe...
"Hey, Star," a young brown-coated pony approached her from behind.
"Hi, Silver. How are you?" the young mare turned to him.
"And you?" he replied, sitting down next to his friend.
Star handed him a few blackberries.
"Calmier."
"You don't look good."
"I didn't sleep well."
They continued to eat in silence for a while. Silver looked at his friend. To be honest, he didn't know what to say. What had happened was too violent. So much so that he had even thought of going to Mulberry's house and telling Berry Punch a few things to her face. He leaned in closer to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. Star looked at him without being startled.
"There's something I don't understand, Silver."
"What is it?" he asked.
"I don't know."
Silver looked at her, puzzled. Star smiled and shook her head from side to side.
"Don't mind me too much. I haven't slept well. I think I'll go rest."
Saying this, Star said goodbye to Silver Boulder and returned home. Her mother wasn't there. Without thinking much about it, she made herself an infusion to help her sleep. She hadn't even drunk half of it when she put her head on her pillow and fell into a deep sleep.
"I can't tell you now" she said.
"Why not?" he asked.
Star began to dream about the moment when she and Silver arrived at her house. She shook her head, trying not to recall that scene. She saw Berry Punch arguing with her mother. Anger. No...rage. Rage was what Mulberry's mother was radiating. Star saw herself greeting and attempting to explain to Berry Punch what had happened the night she slept with Mulberry.
"An explanation, you say!" exclaimed Berry Punch.
Star observed Berry's expression. At first, she thought the mare was offended. But something didn't fit with that explanation.
"My son went to find her, she says!" exclaimed Berry, talking to nopony in particular. "To talk! and tell me, at what point does 'talking' mean somepony stays over with you?"
Star felt the shock she had felt at that moment as something distant. She realized that it had affected her so much at the time that it had clouded her senses. But she was living her dream impersonally, as if reading a book, thus, she was able to unfold all her empathic skills and review her memory. Berry was attacking, but not out of anger. Now she saw it clearly: she had insulted her as a way of protecting herself. But from what? Why? She noticed Berry's gestures: she did look at the healer's apprentice fixedly, with anger, when she launched her offenses, but...
"Well, you must have done something very wrong for your son to decide to tell me his problems instead of his mother!" shouted Star Whistle in the dream.
"You little b...".
Star saw how Berry Punch looked away when the young pony began to speak, and she launched her insult before she finished the sentence. That was what didn't fit! Berry Punch was attacking her to avoid listening! To avoid listening to what? That her son preferred to tell his problems to a friend rather than his own mother?
In her dream, Star observed the moment when Berry launched her most terrible stab against her mother. When Glittering jumped out of herself and turned towards her, Berry stepped back. Scared? No... confused. Confused? How could she be confused?
At one point when she looked at her, Star saw how Berry Punch looked at the infinite with a mix of fear, confusion, and... regret? on her face. But when Star saw her again, after convincing her mother to come back home, Berry had pinned her with malice in her eyes.
"Mulberry never needed your help, little busybody. He has a FATHER and a mother for that."
"At least I have a mother who loves me."
Before locking herself in her house, Star looked at Berry Punch one last time, just for a moment. She hadn't seen it at the time, but now she remembered the expression that had stuck in her mind. The expression that had haunted her all day, although she hadn't been able to relive it. Berry Punch was looking towards the door, mouth open as if she couldn't find the words. Her eyes, also wide open, were shining with tears.
It was the expression of someone who had just remembered something very important.
Star woke up in her room. It was getting dark, she had slept for several hours. She sat on the floor, next to her bed. She remembered the whole dream perfectly.
"Berry Punch had forgotten that she loves her son... that she loves Mulberry..."
That was the strange feeling she had had all day, and the reason why she couldn't sleep the night before. Not because of the anger or the nerves of the argument: because she knew there was something abnormal in Berry Punch's behavior, but she had not been able to see it at the time.
How could someone forget that they love their child? How? She could believe that someone no longer loved their family, that they rejected their child... but forgetting their love for him? It was not possible. It simply made no sense. She had to be imagining it. It was not logical!
Star got up and stretched. As soon as she took a few steps, she heard her mother:
"Dear! Wake up and come to have dinner!
She went to the kitchen, where her mother had already set the table. Glittering was in good spirits, the anger from the argument had passed. They talked about a little bit of everything, touching on the topic of Berry Punch very briefly.
"Now I would love to be able to talk to my best friend," Star said.
"I know, dear, but..."
A howl resonated in the middle of the night. Star perked up her ears looking towards the window. It was her friend.
"Sometimes you scare me, Star," Glittering said.
The young mare, barely listening to her mother, quickly went to get her coat and, after saying goodbye with a quick kiss, went out into the night and trotted down the mountain.
When she reached the plain where they usually met, Star was not surprised to not find her friend. It was winter, there was snow, and she was a winter wolf. It was her voice -or growl, depending on how you look at it- that indicated her presence.
"Something disturbs your spirit, my friend," the wolf emerged from behind a bush. Only a couple of months had passed since she last saw her, but even so, she noticed how much she had grown. Star ran towards her to hug her the wolf way.
"You don't know how glad I am that you're here," Star responded.
"We're together, pony. If it's in my jaws to help you, I will. What's going on?"
Both of them lay down in the snow. Star began to explain what had happened with Mulberry and her mother from the beginning. For her, telling the wolf her problems was as natural as telling them to a sister. The wolf did not interrupt her at any moment, and listened with particular interest when the pony recounted the dream she had had.
"It's just that it doesn't make sense for Berry to forget that she loves her son. It's not logical. It doesn't make sense," Star finished in pony language.
"You ponies have forgotten your essence."
"What do you mean?" asked Star.
"Tell me, friend, why does the rabbit run from the wolf?" replied the heterochromatic-eyed she-wolf. Star looked into the wolf's mysterious and wise eyes.
"It's logical. It runs because it doesn't want to be hunted."
"No," the wolf corrected. "A rabbit runs from a wolf because its instinct tells it to. And it obeys. It doesn't question if it's logical or not, it doesn't wonder if it's wrong, it just follows its instincts. Now, tell me, my friend, what do your instincts tell you?"
Star had to make an effort to clear her mind of all the logic that generations of ponies had created, leaving only her most basic senses.
"That there is something unnatural in Mulberry's house," Star said, more easily expressing herself in the language of the wolves than in her own.
"Then you have your answer, my friend."
The young pony knew it was true. It didn't fit with the logic and culture of the ponies of Mountain Peak, but it did fit with what Star had seen in her dream. With what she had felt in Berry Punch's eyes.
"But what could it be?"
"I don't know. Keep an eye on that pony, her mate, and her foal. If more ponies start behaving like her..."
Star nodded. Whatever had happened in Mulberry's family, if it spread, it could endanger all of Mountain Peak. In her heart, the young pony wished her instincts were wrong.
They talked for quite some time more. The wolf explained that the following year she would assume her responsibility as an adult wolf: she would become the leader and guide of her pack and would, when the time came, bring a new generation of winter wolves. Star was glad to know it, imagining her friend would be a great mother. She even wondered how long it would take her to follow in her hoofsteps.
Truth be told, ponies of those lands usually formed families very young, when compared to other cultures.
After saying goodbye, Star returned to her village. The wolf set off on the path towards her pack... or so she led Star to believe. Taking a detour, camouflaged in the snow like a shadow in the night, she headed towards the Poni settlement of the mountain.
The village was silent. There were no lights except for the chimneys that had not yet gone out behind windws. The wolf slowly circled Mountain Peak, looking for any clue of what Star had told her. Eventually, she arrived at the rock wall, where the now frozen waterfall fell, and climbed up. Once she reached the top, she looked down at the village.
She called upon her seer's eye.
For her, small lights began to shine in the settlement. They were the essences of the ponies that lived there. Some were brighter, and therefore happier and healthier, than others. But after looking carefully, she saw something that wasn't normal: there was a house with two ponies inside. One essence was shining faintly, but the second was almost extinguished. Something that not even the most terrible sadness or disease could provoke.
The wolf focused her seer's senses on that house. There was something hidden in it, she could sense it, but not see it. She had to get closer. She descended the ravine and circled the buildings, approaching the cabin in question. She correctly guessed that it was the home of Star's friend, Mulberry, and his family.
Suddenly, the wolf stopped, feeling the adrenaline pumping in her body. She couldn't see. Her seer's eye had gone blind. She quickly backed away, regaining her senses as soon as she did. She calmed down and looked at the house again. No, she hadn't lost her oracle's eye. There was something in that house that was trying to hide from senses like hers.
The wolf crouched down on the ground, among the snow and bushes, while staring fixedly at the darkness that surrounded the house. And it stared back at her. A cold, dark, and hungry gaze. A voice that was both deep and sharp resonated in the wolf's mind. Like a chorus of thousands of impossible voices. There were no words in that voice, but there was meaning.
"Go back to your own, hunter. This is not wolf territory."
The wolf felt a presence trying to cling to her mind. With a single thought, she shoved it away. She almost allowed herself to feel offendedl, what kind of oracle would she be if she couldn't control her own mind? But when that presence came closer, she could appreciate its essence in its entirety: darkness and hunger. Lies and death. That was the evil that had invaded Mountain Peak.
"You will leave this place. Tonight," the wolf responded.
Her mind fell silent, until it was broken by laughter. High-pitched laughter devoid of all emotion except hunger.
"Will you face us, hunter?"
The darkness took on a very physical form. It seemed to spill through the walls and windows of the house. Creeping through the air like an evil cloud, it unfolded, trying to surround the wolf. She stood up and looked at the sky. The clouds covered Mountain Peak.
"We are the winter wolves. We are the lords of winter and night."
The cloud of darkness advanced quickly towards the wolf, who remained standing and did not take a single step back.
"The night is our kingdom, the snow our sister."
She didn't finish reciting the soul of his pack. It wasn't necessary. The she-wolf raised her head towards the clouds and howled. A deep, guttural howl that echoed throughout the mountain. The clouds responded, chorusing the howl with their thunder. The darkness stopped its advance, realizing its mistake. The she-wolf howled a second time, a new howl so powerful that the mountain seemed to vibrate with it.
And the storm answered the call.
Lightning jumped from cloud to cloud, illuminating the night as if it were day for moments. The darkness retreated, but it was too late: a bolt of lightning struck right in the center of the malevolent cloud. It screamed, hundreds of voices screaming in pain and horror. A second and a third bolt struck around the she-wolf, but no scream was heard again. When the storm stopped its discharge, only Mountain Peak stood before the seer.
She observed the village carefully but did not notice any darkness again that did not come from the night itself. Then she looked back at the house from where it had emerged. The essence that was almost extinguished had begun to recover its luminosity. Whatever had invaded that home had disappeared. The storm had brought the necessary light to scare away the darkness. She heard noises in the village, the ponies had woken up. The seer turned around and disappeared into the night.
Star was among the first ones to arrive at the scene. Small fires had ignited the bushes where the lightning had struck. The ponies who arrived did not understand what had happened: first, they had heard the howls, right next to the village, and then a storm had broken out. Silver Boulder came out of the village limit and searched through the burning undergrowth.
"There are tracks here!" he shouted. "Wolf tracks!"
Several voices asked what kind of magic it was. Star remained silent.
"Our howls summon the storm"... she remembered, whispering to herself.
"Gather everyone," Plantain Hooves ordered. "Get everyone out of their homes. There may be injured."
A few minutes later, the count was over. Only one pony was missing, who had disappeared without a trace from his own home.
Mulberry's father.