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// Prologue:- A bed time story. 
// Story: Something Else 
// by Mr Clumpy 
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	“You must remember that this is a strange memory for me to bring up, one from thousands of years ago when the world felt young and full of life; one from when i was naught but an innocent filly lost in the wilds alone and scared with my sister. We had come across a strange creature, something of both danger and comfort; a strange mixture mind you, but in the end it meant us no harm. You need to understand that this took place before we grew up and the darkness took her so long ago.

Dim was the orange light that flickered around the clearing, scattering shadowy patterns across the trees and silhouetting a tall dark figure sitting with his legs crossed on the ground. He was staring into a small camp fire with milky white eyes, set into a ghostly pale face, a sad smile etched across his features; framed with long, silky black  hair twisted into a series of complex braids hanging loosely down his back. His body, curiously, seemed to be made of a golden stone laced with black and silver, covered over in places by a dark swirling cloth. One of the things that I remembered most was the eyes, but Luna? She was completely fascinated the colour of its mane, we had never seen a creature with such strange features or such a dark mane before, it was darker than hers by far and blacker even than the night itself.

“Come sit down my dears, I won’t hurt you” he beckoned us softly. I remember that his smile seemed to warm up as he looked across the fire, straight through the leafy shrubs we were cowering ineffectually behind and patted the ground beside him, a gentle blue enveloping his right hand. Again such sharp details; that comforting glow, magic I now know, but back then... It was strange, we felt that he didn't mean us any harm but he still gave off an air of a danger difficult to ignore. How could we trust such conflicting senses? how could we trust something that wasn't a pony?

A soft rustling answered him as I shuffled forward, close behind my sister; to him it must have been strange to see us little creatures, with our small wings and stubby horns, nervously peering out of the bushes at him. He was equally as strange to us, though the previous fear of the strange creature before us seemed to be slowly ebbing away... fading as foalish curiosity got the better of us, but even then it was Luna and not me who went over to him first.”

A soft smile and gentle sigh crossed Celestia’s lips. “It's strange really, considering all my failings... now, now don't start with that, everything from a grain of sand to a god has flaws you know. But anyway Luna approached it, slowly at first, then gaining in confidence she trotted over and sat near the fire, though still keeping a cautious distance away from the creature.”

“Well hello there, little filly,” I recall he said to her, “are you by any chance hungry?” she nodded, before he lazily pointed quite clearly in my direction “And how about your sister hiding in the bush there? Hmm... I think I might have something for you two in my pack somewhere...” he said, reaching down into a lumpy backpack at his feet, one milky eye closed and his tongue sticking out in concentration while he searched single-handedly for his prize..

A small cough escaped Celestia’s lips as a blush rose to her cheeks, “now, you must remember I was only a few years older than you when this happened, and like all family I was protective of those close to me, even more so since it was my fault we were lost in the wilderness in the first place; so when he took a small cake out of the bag and offered it to my sister, who at this point had slowly shifted closer to the creature, I ran over and batted it away with my wing, inadvertently knocking it into the fire. I didn't know what it was at first so I naturally panicked, it is really quite amusing now I think about it; a frightened Luna not knowing what was happening behind me, standing in front of her, my wings spread out barely 2 feet tip to tip and Ievitating all the threatening objects I could - which embarrassingly amounted to about 3-4 small pebbles! Hey don't giggle you! I wasn't always this old you know!”

With a quick smile towards her little purple ward she continued “well, anyway, despite my rather embarrassing display he just looked for what seemed like eternity before laughing. I had never heard anything quite like it, it sounded like it came from deep within his chest, reverberating up through his throat in a gravelly roar. I stood there, confused and anxious, before he swiftly plucked me up off the ground and plopped me back down next to my sister. It was strange you know, I didn't understand it at the time; I threw away his food, I threatened him, and he had the power to do whatever he wanted to us and he just laughed, and then he just got out another two sweet rolls and gave them us with only the word “enjoy,” and a swift smile. He watched us eat before staring back into the fire, with those milky white orbs; as we slowly drifted off to sleep, full of food and soothed by the warmth of the fire.”


“Speaking of which” she said softly as she looked down at the little filly, eyes closed and breath deep and even, before gently tucking her in and kissing her forehead. “Sleep well my little Sparkle, sleep tight.” she whispered with a smile, then turned and flicked the lights off with a golden glow of her horn. But, before she could leave, she heard a quiet murmur from the bed; “what happened to the creature?”

“I don't know... I just remember falling asleep, hearing it whisper an apology and then waking up under a blanket, with the shouts of the castle staff echoing through the trees.”


She closed the door and continued down the hallway towards her own quarters. She ignored most the guards and castle staff along the way, caught in her own thoughts, a mild sense of guilt tugging at the corners of her mind from the lie she had just told Twilight. She recalled a few more details than she had let on. One of these details had been two letters, written in a long cursive hand that spelt out both her’s and Luna’s names, left within a hoofs reach of the sleeping fillies. Strangely, she did not remember either of them telling him who they were. The second detail she remembered clearly was that the creature - or ‘human’ as she had found out centuries later - was missing its left hand. Looking back at the memory, and her own dark experiences, she realised the wound had been recent, barely healed. Though by far the most disturbing part of the memory were the details she noticed when she awoke in the morning. That terrible smell. That of bile and blood, burning flesh and bodily waste spilt upon the ground, ash in the air and brimstone on the wind. Trees burnt and and mutilated corpses of creatures stranger than the human littering the ground in a wide circle, at the centre of which the young princesses slept. In the midst of the thicket she and her sister had hidden the night before, had lain a bloodless hand, wrapped in the same strange golden stone the human had been clad in. On one of the lifeless fingers lay a simple golden band...