//------------------------------// // Till Breaking Dawn // Story: The Shadow Lands // by kento124 //------------------------------// The world was black, and cold seeped into her body as she lay on the ground. Silver felt a sharp sensation of fear, but the feeling soon lost itself in her fuzzy thoughts. The fragrance of something familiar woke her, and suddenly the blackness turned into an open field that stretched out on all sides. “Where am I?” she asked out of confusion, but the smell caught her attention again. It brought back warm memories. She couldn’t tell its direction, but she searched profusely for the source. Her muscles felt tired and she felt exhausted as she continued to look urgently for the source of the smell when a small house appeared in the distance. The home gave Silver a sense of dread, yet the house seemed warm and welcoming. The closer she got to the door, the more she felt that something was off. By the time she reached the door, the weight of that feeling was nearly crushing her. Her legs were trembling, and she couldn’t bring herself to open the door.. As if sensing her hesitation, it opened itself to her. As the door creaked open, it showed a room full of love and despair. Silver finally recognized the smell as food, and heard the clatter of pans from a room somewhere inside. She heard a familiar voice call out, "Hey Sil, dinner is almost ready." She began to cry as the old memory played out. "Silver! You must wake up!!" a voice bellowed from behind her. She turned to the sight of a black mass approaching her. She tried to run, but it quickly grasped her legs as it dragged her out of the house. Her screams were muted by the dark tar enveloping her, as it slowly embraced her body with only a whisper to be heard. “Silver, you must not go, you need to wake up!” Nothing but pitch black silence enclosed her now as the world went black. XxX The sound of a loud crackle echoed through her body as it twitched in pain. Silver gave a slight groan at the pain, slowly opening her eyes. The intense pain of her stiff muscles shot through her as she lifting her head for a view of her surroundings. With blurred visions and mind, she could barely make out the small field she was laying in as trees and brush surrounded her. Trees? She questioned as her head seemed clogged in a mist of confusion with an aching pain passing through at every thought. Just then, she saw a flash of light with a deep rumble following it, which caused her to instinctively fidget in pain. It took her a few minutes to realize that she was in a forest. She looked up to see dark balls of flashing things in the sky, when another flash and thunderous roar echoed the sky, letting something small fall. "Hun... it's water." She mumbled, staring at the dark sky. She sat there for a bit until her mind cleared a bit. As she proceeded to stand, an intense dizziness overtook her as she fell to her side with a thump. She felt the intense need to vomit; as she held it back, she noticed something near a tree just on the outside of some brush. ‘That's not far,’ she thought as she slowly crawled toward it to avoid vomiting. She came upon it to find a young blue filly. She thought Why is a filly here? as she slowly remembered who she was. She still felt weird as she tried to stand once more. She could feel the sting of her muscles and the nauseating sway of her mind, trying to move in front of the filly. She nudged the filly, trying to wake her, but with no avail. She heard a weak whisper, “Silver, you need to move. There’s danger coming.” The voice sounded familiar as her mind pounded with pain. She gave the area around her a slight look, wondering where it came from. "SILVER!" it yelled, being more desperate now. Just then, the previous events played out in her mind, recalling the last request, now trying to grab Lunar as her vision doubled with the water falling from the sky. She barely managed to pick Lunar up and place her on her back, making sure she was secured. As she tried to think of a direction to go, a small growl took her by surprise. She looked about, finding strange creatures staring at her just to her left. They reminded her of the wolf back near her home, as fear took hold when she counted six of them. She felt frozen as they stepped closer; she didn’t know where the nearest town was. The soft voice she heard beckoned, “Run to the right!” Obeying it, she ran to her right just as they pounced. She didn’t have time to think about the voice as the sound of the wolf creatures galloping just behind her. Silver had no idea what they were, with the fear of what they would do pushing her body to run faster. Not caring to look over her shoulder, she just kept running. As she did, Silver could feel her body getting hotter, and her vision dulled even more. She couldn't even tell where she was anymore as her body ached in terrible pain. Her mouth ran dry as each new breath she drew sparked pain in her chest, with her mind only working on three thoughts; run, protect, survive. She kept pushing through the heavy downpour as each step smashed the ground. As if in a dream, she noticed a house in the distance, or what she thought looked like one, soon realizing she was out of the forest and the rain. Her body begged for rest, but she soldiered on. Just as she was in reach of the home, a sharp pain crashed into her side. The pain could be felt across her whole body as she came crashing down to the ground. As she made contacted with the ground, she barely was able to look up to noticing the wolf things encircling her. With most of her strength leaving her body now, her mind switched to Lunar. She noticed the filly lying just outside of their encirclement. Being unable to gather any strength and her mind fading, she couldn’t fight the darkness back any longer. XxX Just as she began to close her eyes from a hard day’s work, the sound of something rustling was just audible for her to hear. Thinking it was just the restless animals and deciding to pay no mind to it, she shifted in her bed to find a comfortable position. As sleep slowly came over her, the rustling started to become louder, causing her to exit her bed in annoyance. “What in Equestria is going on out there?" She grumbled, turning on a lamp. She proceeded to the old shutter window and swung them open to peer over the view of the backfields. She knew there wasn’t much out back, just a hen house and the cow pen in view. She grumbled even more as nothing seemed to be wrong besides a small breeze blowing and what look to be a nasty storm over the Everfree forest. She figured the swaying of the trees spooked the animals, deciding it was nothing to bother with after closing the shutters. When she walked back to her comfortable looking bed, the shutters launched open from a gust of wind. The noise startled her, turning around and glaring at them. "You darn window, scaring me like that. Ah should nail you shut!" She muttered in frustration, walking back to the window. Just when she was about close it for a second time; she noticed something in the distance. She strained her eyes trying figure out what she saw. "Oh no...“ A chill was sent down her spine as fear swept through her body when they came closer. “TIMBERWOLVES!” She yelled, seeing a pony being chased by them. Without missing a beat, she rushed toward her bedroom door grabbing her rope, slamming open the door. She feared for the pony, as well for the farm. As she entered the upstairs hallway, she yelled while bolting for the stairs. "Macintosh, wake up, we got a problem! Apple Bloom, wake Granny! Macintosh, meet me out back!" She finished nearly jumping down the stairs, skidding on the downstairs floors. Macintosh pokes his head out and saw Apple Bloom do the same as their eyes met, “Apple Bloom, get Granny. I'll see what AJ's up about," he told her. "O-okay," She responded, exiting her room to walk to a door further down the hallway. He exited his room as well, going to figure out what got Applejack all spooked. The time he was in the downstairs kitchen, he heard Granny smith’s voice rang through the house "Ah ye varmints aren’t taking this Smith.” He noticed the back kitchen door was open as a painful yelp came from outside. He felt a twitch in his heart, darting out in fear for Applejack. To his relief, Applejack was all right… But to his dismay, he noticed a gray Pegasus and a small blue filly just out side the encirclement by three Timberwolves. He noticed that they weren’t moving as the wolfs drew closer to them. "We’ve gotta save them, just follow my lead!” he heard Applejack say as he nodded in agreement. She turned to the timber wolfs,  readying her lasso with a grin, as they have yet to notice the two ponies. As she slowly moved closer with Macintosh, one of the wolves stepped closer, preparing to attack the gray pegasus. With a hard swing, she tossed her lasso just around its mouth, shutting it tight just an inch from the gray mare. Macintosh rushed the other and gave a strong buck, shattering it to pieces. The other wolfs jumped back in surprise by their attackers, giving off a sharp growl at the new target. One hunched down, preparing itself to strike at Macintosh. Applejack took advantage of its confusion by giving it a strong kick to its head, sending it just in front of the first one who just broke free from her rope. Macintosh saw one of the Timberwolves starting to regenerate, when he noticed that the filly was waking up. The young filly slowly got up, looking about and saw Macintosh standing there. He could see that she was scared and wet, as was the grey mare. “Oh, y’all think you can catch me!" He turned to see Aj dodging the Timberwolf's attacks. Just then, a young voice came from the house, "Big Mac! what’s going.....?” He turned to find it was Apple bloom standing in the kitchen doorway. “Apple Bloom, grab the filly, and I’ll get the mare." He yelled, turning his head towards the gray mare. …. Her mind was in shock at what she saw. Silver on the ground, a red stallion  staring at her, and a mare fighting with some strange creatures. She felt scared, cold, and wet. "Apple Bloom, grab the filly, and I’ll get the mare." She heard the stallion yell as a pony the same size as her came running up to her. “Come on, we gotta get you to the house. It’s safe in there. Big Mac well get your friend,“ the young filly said, motioning toward the house. With her thoughts in disarray, all she could do was nod in agreement and follow. Lunar looked over the filly to see the stallion picking up Silver, and began to follow them. "Big Mac, watch out" She heard being yelled across the yard, looking back to the red stallion to see a giant wooden beast pouncing at him. He let out a grunt of pain as he and Silver flopped across the ground. She froze in her tracks at the sight of Silver on the ground. The stallion was stunned by the beast’s strike as it moved for Silver. The beast’s eyes seemed hungry as its jaw opened. “Silver! NO!" She screamed, turning back toward the beast. "Wait, are you crazy?!" The young filly behind her yelled, turning to run after the blue filly. Lunar saw the creature was only a hoof away from Silver readying to strike. The fear of loss slowly grew as it drew closer to Silver. She couldn't let that happen as she focused on a spell. As a blue aura began emanating around her horn, the beast slowly rose into the air. The strain on her body was so great, she was barely able to stand. She threw it with all the strength that her spell failed, sending the thing flying across the yard to impact the others. The release left her body feeling tremendously weak, as relief filled her at the thought that Silver was safe. …. Applejack turned to see the timber wolf fly across the yard towards her, saying, “Oh shoot!" Quickly ducking out of the way, it crashed into the other two Timberwolves with a loud crash. She turned to see who threw it, just to notice the blue filly collapse and Big Mac getting back on his hooves with Apple Bloom nearby. What just happened she thought as her gaze turned back to the Timberwolves, seeing them running away. "Ha, that'll teach em to mess with a farmer!" She yelled turning toward others, running to them. She came up to Big Mac, asking, "You okay?" "Yep" He stated, turning back to the gray mare and proceeded to pick her up again. "That was awesome, that filly just tossed that thing like it was nothing!” Applejack gave a scolding look to Apple Bloom. "Apple Bloom, what are you doing out here? Its dangerous," She stated. Apple Bloom looked back with a confused looked, responding “But Mac asked me to get the filly inside." She looked to Mac, who just nodded. "Alright, let’s just get them inside. They seem to be in bad shape." "AJ, this is bad, she has a fever. She's burning up." Big Mac said, just noticing the mare’s temperature. She placed her hoof on the mare’s head. This is bad. This Pegasus is on fire, she thought as she said, "She needs a doctor. You two, watch over the filly. I'll take her to the hospital." walking over to the mare. "AJ, I will give them a call." Macintosh stated as she placed the mare over her back. “It’ll take them ah good hour to get here, and she needs a doctor now! It'll be faster to take her there.” She stated, securing the mare to her back. “Then please be careful,” he asked out of worry. “I will, Mac. Take care of the filly. I'll come back when ah know she’s okay," She answered back to him as she turned and galloped into the dead of night. XxX Applejack knew she could make the run to the hospital in twenty minutes, no sweat. Only when she arrived just outside the main doors, she took a moment to catch her breath. ”Yep, faster,” She reassured herself as she entered the hospital, making her way to the receptionist at the far desk. The reception room seemed bare and empty, since no pony is usually up at this hour. The nurse at the desk gave a puzzled look as she noticed them. “Uh, can I ask what seems to be the problem?” The nurse asked with a confused look. Only when she noticed the orange mare hold a gray pegasus did she quit her chair, making her way over to them.          "Ah think her name is Silver, Ah don't know her last name. She has a terrible fever." Applejack said, looking back to the nurse. The nurse reached out and touched the mare’s forehead. Shock flashed across her face, saying, "oh dear, she’s on fire! We need to get her in right away!" The nurse raced toward the desk and hit a button, saying, “We need a cart in the reception room stat. We have a patient who needs treatment fast!” Within a minute, two stallions in the green scrubs busted out through the double doors on the far side of the room. They lifted her up off her back and on to the cart; then quickly rushed back through the doors. "Is she going to be okay?" Applejack asked, turning back to the nurse. "She does seeme to have very high fever, which could be dangerous. I’m glad you got her here when you did, any longer and she might have been in some real trouble. She will be fine; the doctor will see to it.” Applejack let out the breath she's been holding. She felt her buckle a bit as the run was catching up to her. “Would you like to spend the night? You seem to be in need for some rest.” A small grin appeared as she said, "Yes, that's mighty kind of you. Um, could you tell me when she wakes up?" "Yes, this way, please." The receptionist led Applejack through a pair of white doors.