I once was asked if I believed in monster when I was a little foal.
I responded the only way I could, with a simple nod of agreeing to it.
Times were horrifying, many myths were too believed to be true.
Life was based around fear, a short life guaranteed.
Little did I know, I would become one of the worst.
Eleven hundred years ago, long before the discovery of the elements of harmony by Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the land was already ruled by the two princesses that still do it. Yet in that ancient time, there was one major difference. For each of them had a church that was just devoted for them and them alone. The celestial church was for the princess of the sun, whereas the lunar church was for the princess of the moon, obviously. But the church that worshiped the sun had managed to dominate the land more with every preach spoken. Though to make the matters even worse, there were many myths had originated about the hatred of the lunar church. That very hatred had been boiling up between the two. While the numbers of the lunar one kept becoming lower, many of the villagers and townsfolk thought they were converted into children of the light.
The truth however, was an ancient and silent war between immortals and their mortal arch nemeses. A war that had been waging on for decades already.
---
We write a small and unnamed settlement near the edge on the other side of the Everfree forest. The sun had begun to decent behind the hills. Ponies went to rush inside their homes faster than the pegasi could make it storm because of one simple thing. Which was the very fact that the monsters would haunt the nights and thus the streets. Manticores and timberwolves alike crawled out of the woods and walked through the streets and roads. All while they looked for a pray with their keen eyes. Something that resulted almost always in a merciless kill before the body was being devoured. Of course they could fight and some tried that. Though all ended up the same way.
So many had found death that way. It was horrible to say the least, but none could truly mourn about it. That particular night was no exception. Windows were shut tight as doors were barricaded with anything possible out of pure fear for the beasts that lurked the nights outside.
“Come on! Come on!” was shouted in a stallion's voice. On the emptied streets were still two ponies hurrying to get home, or so they hoped. One of them as indeed an earth pony stallion with a red coat and green mane, two colors that clashed against each other. The other was a unicorn mare with a dark blue coat and two toned mane and tail, the primary color was a deep blue but a streak of pure white went through them, making her stand out in any crowd just a little bit.
“I am coming as fast as my legs can carry me!” the unicornian mare replied to him. She turned her pace into a fast gallop. She tried to stay with him as her green eyes turned themselves up into the skies and noticed the sheer darkness. “We won’t make it!”
“We are going to make it! Just trust me on this one!” he returned to her. His eyes were looking back at her while the streams of sweat dripped off of his face.
“We won’t!” Just when she said that, there was the howling of a timberwolf which did its turn through the streets. The cold and dead sound literally caused the two ponies to shiver in fear. She was right, their luck began to hit rock bottom. The ponies knew they didn't have much time. They both pushed themselves against a wall of a building near a corner, yet the stomping paws of a lethal manticore could be heard.
“Shh,” was the only sound that the stallion brought out. The mare nodded to that. She didn't had the desire to die yet. Their hearts were beating in their throats whereas the steps came closer and closer to them. Some sniffing could be heard while the two began to fear for their lives.
Without a warning was it just there. The giant nose of the beast poked around the corner, only to take another sniff for flesh. They could forget it, their lives were over. No one had ever survived a direct manticore attack from what they knew. The both of them closed their eyes while they prayed for a miracle. One that most likely would never come to their aid.
Yet when they least expected it, there was another howl of a timberwolf that did its turn. The sounds caught the attention of the beast in an instant. It growled loudly in anger before it turned back around. Its scorpion tail swung around freely and hit the building before moving with the beast. But the stallion was foolish enough to open his eyes just before it made impact. He was literally staring at the deadly stinger that it had. A stinger which was literally one hoof away from him. His eyes grew enormously big at the sight as he wanted to scream but found the courage to not to.
He turned himself back to the mare as his breathing became more and more intense. “L-Let’s go, just go!” he said to her. She nodded and together they ventured through the deadly night. They moved silently over the crossroad and further down the street. But the more they ventured down, the more she had the feeling something terrible was going to happen but didn't want to bother the stallion with it. Something she better could have done.
---
They galloped past houses they eventually moved by an alleyway concealed in darkness. Before the mare could react had the feeling came true. The stallion was all of the sudden dragged into the alley by something. He disappeared in the darkness and she had no idea about what to do.
“W-What in..?” was all the deep blue maned mare could bring out. Her eyes watched into the alley with care. She was hoping to see something of what was going on, but they caught up nothing. Suddenly there was the sound of a blade that cut through both flesh and bone that filled up her ears, which resulted in her shivering once again. She brought a hoof before mouth in order not to scream.
Though to make matters even worse for her, the head of the stallion rolled out of the alley, right up against the foreleg that was still standing on the ground. “No..!” the unicorn said quietly. She turned her head back into the darkness. “Show yourself! Show yourself, you monster!” she said.
A dark chuckle began to take its turn. A loud click was heard before the sound of clattering hooves over stone made their turn in her ears. The unicorn took on a stance of preparation. She awaited just what would leave the darkness. But out of the shadows, there came a figure that calmly walked out of them. A figure that had a near gray coat and red mane, it appeared to have the shape of an earth pony mare. Something about that mare was off, almost as if she wasn't a true pony anymore. The other mare couldn’t place her hoof on it though.
Not to forget the two blades that were attached to her lower forelegs. With the help of metal braces were they set tight against the fur. Just one of them was covered in blood that still traveled down the cold steel. The way she walked changed into a seductive one. Then her deadly voice echoed faintly through the air. “And just what was such an amazing mare doing with...” Her red rimmed eyes fell upon the head of the stallion before returning to the dark blue maned mare, “such a piece of filth of a lycan?”
“L-Lycan!? That was my brother you, you,” the unicorn spilled out before she lost the words.
“Me, what?” the gray coated mare asked with a tease to her voice.
“Why did you kill, my brother?” she replied before tears started to collect in their eyes.
“For the simple fact he was a lycan, a werepony, as you might call them.”
The dark blue mare’s face turned itself into a shocked reaction. She had never believed in the myths, but then her own flesh and blood turned out to be one. Yet with this mare standing before her it would only have made matters even more confusing. “Tell me, what is your name?” the bladed pony asked all of the sudden. Her eyes met those of the unicorn, keeping a close one on them.
“S-Shiva,” the unicorn brought out lightly. She didn’t dare to lie against the armed mare.
“Shiva huh, nice name. Shame to put you to an end as well,” the bladed mare replied in a mentally twisted voice. She was already raising on her hind legs to assume an attacking stance.
“W-Wait!” Shiva shouted in the vague hope that she would stop. As a miracle for the first time on that cursed night, the other mare actually just did that.
“For what?” the bladed mare replied with a raised eyebrow.
“I want, to make a deal... Look, I do not desire for my life to end tonight, not in the same manner as my brother did just because of what you claim him to be, but killing me won’t help you out in any way except giving a pair of parents more grief than they already will receive.” Shiva tried her utmost best to spare her rather poor and miserable life the best she could. The other mare lowered herself from her bipedal stance just before a light twinkle could be seen in her eyes. But this twinkle was of utmost insanity and complex calculations.
“Tell me, Shiva,” she spoke in a calm voice, “what do you know about the lunar church?”
“N-Not that much...”
“Are you a member of the celestial one?”
“N-No ma’am, I, have never been that religious. Neither are my parents, but my brother is, or was,” Shiva managed to bring out. She was still frightened for her life of course.
A deep sigh left the nostrils of the gray mare. She turned herself around and began to walk away in a slow pace of her hooves. “Are you coming?” she asked. Her head turned over to Shiva.
“C-Coming for what?”
“I don’t know, life, death, whichever you prefer. They'll sniff you out either way, they know you are family and they will come and get you. So I ask again, you coming or what?” she said to her.
Under some mocking from the words did Shiva eventually released a deep sigh of her own. She knew that her only safe haven might just be where this mysterious mare was going to and decided to walk next to her. Together they would be going to wherever they might be heading towards.