//------------------------------// // The Edge of the City // Story: The Last Mark // by Idyll //------------------------------// Lily started down the path. Mother Nature’s playground, ripe with innate depravity. A lawless land ruled by predators fueled by a hunger for the weak, where the innocent surrender morality to play the forced game of life, all in order to survive and live in a tight, damp, and cold burrow. Then she turned around to face the forest, but halfway through, to her side, she noticed her friends occupied by a claw machine. A bitter Poppy watched with her hooves crossed as Cozy executed a series of precise hoof movements over a joystick, and managed to clutch onto not one, but two plushies with the claw: a ‘whammy’ (snail), and sky-blue rabbit. She gave the whammy to Lily because she had a bag and kept the rabbit for herself, tucking it into her satchel, its arms sticking out. Cozy flew over a metal fence and found a large stick to widen a pre-existing hole underneath—to which Poppy opened it three times as wide with magic. “You two ready to catch your very first A-plus?” Cozy asked. “Haha, very funny,” said Poppy. “I was born ready if you must know.” She led the charge into the forest. Lily held her place with reluctance, given how trees formed a dark cavern around the dirt path Poppy followed, but a pastern fell to the back of her mane, and gently guided along. Signs along the trail warned travelers of danger. Poppy herself walked over a plank riddled with bite marks and scratches. Lily contemplated flipping it over to read, but she couldn’t risk losing track of others. Not here. “So,” Lily asked, “what are looking for, exactly?” After a pause, Poppy answered, “Oh, you know. Whatever’s interesting. I’m sure we’ll know when we see it.” Cozy, who was next to Poppy but hovered back to Lily, added, “The assignment specifications said that we could choose from any non-equine-like we wanted, and since we’ve barely gotten to know each other, it’d be rude for me to assert my own preferences… but a predator towering a pony would surely impress. Golly! You’d be the talk of the city!” “Soooo we have no ide—” Lily heard a noise. She shut her mouth and slugged her pace, shivering. She couldn’t tell if she was losing herself, or if pairs of slit eyes teleported each time she blinked. The difference between the others seemed to corroborate the former, but what if she wasn’t? What if she was sane? Snap! Lily squealed. It was only a branch under her hoof. She exhaled her captured breath. “Boo!” shouted Cozy, pulling up her tail to avoid being caught in Lily’s buck. With her hooves busy, she couldn’t conceal her giggle. Lily fell on her stomach and turned her head sideways as if it made her cheeks glow any less red. “Sorry,” Cozy apologized, smiling. “Come on! Let’s try and discover something interesting. She dropped her tail and hind legs to help the victim of her prank, but her hoof was met with a slap. “Jeez. What’s up with you?” “What’s up?” Lily said. “We’re in the middle of a forest, hundreds of miles away from home! I know Poppy made me go to abandoned places before but—” A howl pierced the air, and showered the pair with leaves as a colony of bats ditched their branches. “If some monster shows up, don’t expect me to save you!” Cozy squinted her eyes and smirked. “There already is one, Lily.” Lily gulped and looked around. “Kidding!” Cozy said. “But come on! How could I possibly brave this dark and scary forest without your protection?” She slowly ascended above the trees to the sky. “C-Cozy?!” Lily shouted, but not too loudly; she didn’t want to agitate any nearby monsters. “Yes?” Cozy replied behind her, head upside down lying on a cloud. “Only we’re not ‘hundreds of miles’ from home. It’s like, an hour on bus for you. Maybe two.” Because Cozy briefly left, Lily got a good look at the clear path ahead—and she did a double take on that ‘clear’ part. “Cozy, where’s Poppy?” “Looks like we’ve lost her.” “Cozy?!” “I’m serious,” Cozy said. That turned Lily’s frustration into dread. “She probably wanted to prove herself, so she went off alone, but what do I know about why anypony acts the way they do?” Lily probably thought, The class genius, huh, before resuming her fright. “Cozy, the path splits…” “Well, that’s a problem,” Cozy said, whose tone now matched the situation as if a switch had been flipped, to Lily’s slight relief. “And the canopy is too thick for me to get a proper aerial view. Oh no!” “We should find Poppy and get out of here!” said Lily, who caught her volume before it rose too loud. “It’s about to get dark.” The Moon replaced the Sun as she said that. “Great.” “I mean, hey,” Cozy said. “Most of the scary, flashy creatures only show up at night, right? Since Poppy has the camera, if she does run into a monster, at least she’ll be able to get a few good photos?” Lily glared at Cozy. “You’re not helping.” They heard a splash. It came from their right, hidden behind the trees. Lily nearly fainted when she turned and found that Cozy had disappeared. It took three scouts of the sky before she caught a reflection of the filly’s eyes against the dark. The pegasus pony was on a branch facing the noise. “We should probably check it out,” Cozy said as she entered the foliage. “It could be Poppy.” Lily heard another howl and had no choice but to follow. She asked in a loud whisper, “Why would it be Poppy? It’s freezing!” “You’re right, but she probably heard the noise too, and if we’re going towards it, she’ll probably go towards it as well.” Lily had only her hooves to protect herself against the thorny bushes. Mini steams surrounded by mud nearly made her slip, especially when she had to jump over them or traverse a mossy fallen stump. Cozy flew over all that and watched. Her only struggle was a single cobweb. The present spider bent its legs, ready to ponce at the filly, but the filly looked back at the spider. It peered into her eyes with eight of its own and left. “Nice bow, Lily,” Cozy said, arriving at a patch clear of trees on the other side. Lily felt around her mane and smacked off a branch. She twisted and flailed her infested leg as she noticed a Goliath of a spider had landed on it. The insect smacked the ground twice, got back up, and readied itself. It pounced at the filly. Cozy crushed it, grounded it, and scrapped her hooves against a rock. “Look like Poppy’s not here.” The mix of gratitude and irritation brewed in her chemical mind had become too much for Lily to handle and showed itself; she cried. “Oh geez, Lily, don’t lose hope,” Cozy said. She flew over to brush the dust off the other’s mane and wrapped a leg over her back. “I’m sure Poppy’s safe. She strikes me as the type of filly who’d scream for the hill if she even saw the web of that spider you fought.” Cozy chuckled. “Why don’t we look inside that cave? If I ever got myself lost, I’d probably find someplace to hide for the night.” Lily blew her nose with a leaf and smiled. “Poppy sure can hold a high note, but… maybe you should go ahead without me.” “But then we’ll both be lost.” Cozy flew in front of Lily and touched the sides of her shoulders. “Look, I admit, it was a really dumb idea to come here. We’ve been ignoring you all day, and if we had listened, we wouldn’t have gotten into this mess. And I’m a jerk for pranking you. Sorry.” Cozy held her head down. Lily brought it back up. “It’s okay.” Cozy continued, “Right now, we need to stick together, so that once we find Poppy, we can skedaddle and never come back! But at least once we arrive back home, we’ll have one heck of a story to tell!” Lily still looked a bit unsure, so Cozy brought the other’s head down and started to tie, over her mane, her own bow. “I’ve had this same bow since before I had feathers,” Cozy said. “I remembered you complimented it earlier… I think you should have it. I’ve always felt warm when I wear it. Maybe some of that warmth will rub off on you.” “Cozy…” “Don’t worry about it! Being scared doesn’t really align with my cutie mark.” Cozy paused. “It was from my mom but… she gave it to the fake me. I don’t think she’ll give me me a replacement… Come on! Let’s go to the cave, together.” Lily caught Cozy’s contagious smile, and the two ventured forth towards the cave, spawned from a mound with an entrance that sloped downwards, ameliorated by a curtain of vines and a tree overhead. The hoofsteps they walked past seemed a bit… bigger, than a pony’s, but Cozy wasn’t worried so neither was Lily. The latter was only a C+ student, after all, four students above the class average. “We should leave your bags outside,” Cozy said. “Wouldn’t want them weighing us down, would we?” Lily took a moment to respond as she gazed into the abyss, where she prayed to Celestia housed Poppy. “No, you’re right.” She nodded and propped her bag against the side of the entrance. Cozy entered, soon enveloped by darkness, the sound of her hummingbird wing flaps soon overwritten by the howls of the wind behind. A storm was due. Stoic to the tightening chest choking her heart, whose beat thumped her ears, Lily braved the cave. Barely a percent of moonlight penetrated the shadows, and unlike Cozy, she had to avoid tripping over rocks. She caught herself after each fumble but would produce a sharp yelp, though her tendons ached louder. It would’ve been easier to run down the slope, but also noisier. Don’t skip P.E. She bridled her breathing—calm, collected, cool. It’s all under control. We’ll find Poppy. We will. “Poppyyy?” Lily whispered. “…Cozyyy?” Lily closed her eyes—useless in this void—and focused on her ears. A pegasus’ flaps were part of sounds ponies learned to tune out, along with the undulating pitch of an active horn. But Lily should’ve been able to hear it on a deliberate search. She could only make out breathing—and not her own. A flash of light revealed an even cavern and a mass of fur. Bang! Lightning struck. Close by. Loud. Very loud. Lily jumped and got peppered with a layer of dust shaken off the ceiling, and bits of debris slid down the entrance slope. “Oh no!” Cozy cried from outside. Lily swallowed. Her frozen lips uttered, “C-Cozy?” “I’m a coward, Lily,” Cozy said. “A fraud. I’m so sorry. My wings stopped working once I saw the depths and… I wasn’t brave enough to tell you. Now you’re trapped. The entrance is completely gone! Oh, but don’t worry. I’ll go get help right now!” “Can’t you just stay here, please?” Lily begged. “…Cozy?” Nothing. A lack of options held Lily in place. The underground froze her ears. She couldn’t shout. She couldn’t see. Her fate was tied around Cozy’s fetlock. All she had was touch and sound: the feeling of the beast’s body heat, and the sound of its restlessness. “Princess, Celestia, please…” she prayed. Her prayers went unanswered. The beast twitched more, groaned more; it coughed and sniffed, and kept heightening in energy and lowering in intervals. Lily felt her tears return to her cheeks. She clutched onto Cozy’s bow and tried to slow her heart before it burst. They taught her in school the very basics of cave geography, how tunnels branched off and would narrow and stretch for miles. When they showed the class a video of a spelunking expedition Poppy said, “I’d rather die than squeeze myself through those cracks”, and then Lily agreed. Not anymore. She wanted to live. Lily recalled the image of the flash and remembered that there was, maybe, a hole at the back of the chamber that went further down. It would only be temporary until Cozy arrives with help. She felt the dry sides of the cave and hugged the edge with her side. Her eyes locked onto where her ears estimated the beast to be, with one foreleg outwards to feel for a wall. For a moment, her plan seemed to have prospects. She tripped and fell face-first into a blob of warm fur. Her ears were an itch away from a second source of snoring, her hoof soaking in a puddle of drool. The temptation to breathe felt like a wasp sting, but if she did, and it heard, what would happen? How would her parents react to: “Lily Lullaby dies stupidly in a cave.” Would Poppy be able to live with herself, or would she move on to Cozy? Lily felt the beast’s muscles tense under its skin. The storm started to pick up outside. Raindrops could be heard behind the sound of wind whistling through the trees. Thunder was only inevitable. The beast coughed and placed a claw over Lily’s tail. It’s over. Drained of hope, Lily officially entered the stage of desperation, where she could either try out hopeless ideas or meet her maker. “May all your dreams be sweet tonight—” Lily sang a lullaby. A relatively old one about Celestia and Nightmare Moon that you might’ve heard of before. “Safe upon your bed of moonlight—” The two beasts started to ease. The-one-next-Lily’s ligaments started to loosen, and its snore became uninterrupted. The filly’s spirit started to lift, as she held her tone. “And know not of sadness, pain, or care—” And as she went on, she felt a glow deep inside her heart, and what could be described, by most, as an epiphany of fate. “And when I dream, I'll fly away and meet you there—” And the earth pony started to hover as she sang. “Sleep... Sleep... Sleep... Shhh…” Darkness returned to the cave, but the residual luminescence of a fresh—cutie mark—could be discerned. Three purple musical eighth notes stamped themselves onto both sides of her hind. But the celebration was premature. Whatever her soothing spell had done to sedate the monsters had been undone by the show of her marking. Who would’ve guessed those things were evil? Hm? The beast beside her got up, sniffed the air, and growled. It needn’t rely on noise or scent. The glow of her stubborn stain had yet to vanish. “Lily!” shouted a voice—Poppy’s. “Poppy?” Lily responded. She was wrapped around her stomach in an amber ring of light and pulled towards rescue. The glow of said ring helped her duck her head under the low frame of the cavern’s entrance, as Poppy looked towards the main. There was light now, enough for Lily to appreciate her friend’s colors. Poppy lost her hoofing a few times but never halted pace. Lily was brought through a sliver in the entrance’s dirt walls before Poppy leaped through herself. The unicorn entered the embrace of moonlight and held onto a dangling root belonging to that tree overhead on the mound. She created a strong enough link between her horn and the root of the tree that her horn stood frozen midair. Poppy strained the muscles in her neck and her magic’s mind to pull down, until—her neck was freed. The entrance collapsed. The two fillies caught their breaths—soon to be joined by another. “Oh my goodness!” cried Cozy, hovering down from where the collapsed tree once stood. Lily composed herself to a presentable level. “Thanks for getting help, Cozy.” “Her?” Poppy said. “Cozy didn’t get help! I only found you because her tail was sticking out of that tree. Why in Equestria would you go inside a cave by yourself?” Lily looked at Cozy, and Poppy followed along. Cozy dropped Lily’s bag and slid it to the side, took a deep breath, and furrowed her eyebrows. “Don’t you dare pin the blame on me!” Cozy said. She tapped at Poppy’s chest. “You’re the one who wanted to go here in the first place. You’re the one who insisted that they could protect us. You’re the one who got lost, and if you hadn’t, Lily never would’ve gone looking for you in that cave.” “I… I thought a pegasus pony would’ve been able to spot me! I kept my horn glowing and…” Lily's eyes met above Cozy’s mane, who hovered back and continued, “Or maybe you thought that your best friend was dead weight? You’ve been neglecting her poor feeling all day. Is that how you treat all your friends?” Lily’s eyes joined Poppy, but Cozy kept on continuing. “And you haven’t even noticed that your best friend got her cutie mark, and she got it because she had to save herself from your decision. And since yesterday’s incident was your idea too, I guess that’s how I got my mark.” Cozy stuck out her tongue, oblivious to the shadow beyond her. “You don’t deserve to have friends. That’s probably why you’re still a blank… flank…” Cozy pulled back her tongue and gulped. “Nice cutie mark, by the way,” Poppy whispered to Lily by her side. “Thanks,” she responded. Either by the glow of my horn or my scent or my height, Cozy knew was standing behind her. She turned around, hesitantly. She had so much confidence when lying to others. None of that showed when talking to me.