A true resident of Equestria could always tell when midnight had arrived, should she be awake at such an hour. It was something they all learned, that their benevolent ruler of the night, Princess Luna, would allow her orb of brilliant silver to remain dead overhead, such that one would have to crane her neck all the way back to gaze upon it. Just as sure were the signs of the seasons and the age of the year as foretold by the waxing and waning of the celestial body. None of that though, would be of any help tonight.
Barring drought, Luna forbade the use of clouds to block the view of the night she labored to create for her subjects. Those subjects, however, did not care to dwell within the shadow of the Everfree Forest, and so those skies were left untended. As a lone traveler paused to gaze up through the sparsely leaved canopy of branches, only a hazy void of darkness stared back. The rest of those leaves crunched underhoof, or were caught up in the draft from her cloak as she hurried along.
Every minute spent within the confines of the trees was another minute that the safety of civilization lay further behind, and she had passed within hours before. More than once along the way had growls echoed from the bushes and eyes reflecting the dim light of her lantern stared from the darkness. All too often the wind howled through the trees, whipping the leaves and smacking the branches. Those were the moments in which she knelt down and wrapped her tattered cloak around the glass of the lantern, praying fervently that the wind would not take the light away. Clouds above gave threat of rain, but it had not yet been realized. All they had done was take away the stars and the moon, and that was more than enough.
No trail existed to where she was going, only the faintest flicker of a pull, an iota of desire urging her to walk deeper into the ancient home of the forest. It had cared not which path she had taken, dragging her through thickets and up steep hills. Only the dim circle from her lantern gave her a glimpse of where to place her hooves; the candle within burnt down to a scant stub. Even after several hours for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, the shadows beneath the trees from where those eyes glared were too deep to discern. It had made the treacherous road even harder; tripping into gullies and stumbling over fallen logs in the depths of the brush. Her lips had long since bloodied, dried, and cracked to bleed again- a constant torment in the howling wind.
Each step was labored, slow to rise and no more eager to come back down. Hardened earth gave way to dead leaves, to sticks, to boulders, to more leaves, to pine needles, to the dirt again. All of it passed under her, given no more thought than was needed to avoid stumbling and dropping the precious light. Teeth clenched around the handle, mouth cramped from the strain, she held onto her only companion in the night. Not even those animals giving the howls and screeches came closer, none of those eyes dared show what creature they belonged to. They knew.
Had those clouds gone away, the moon would have shown out in its waxing glory, a thin crescent for all the world to know that the longest day of the year had come and gone, and the night was slowly becoming longer than the day. Tonight was short, nine hours of darkness, but the fifth hour of the night had yet to pass. Reflecting on the hour allowed her mind to wander just far enough to trip again, her hindleg caught on a gnarled root reached up from the forest floor. The lantern dropped from her teeth, and she gasped as it fell. That flight ended sharply but a moment later, as the earth made to rise up again. A moment’s joy grasped her tired mind as she saw the light continue to gleam.
The wind howled once again the branches, and she started up the incline. Each step pained her, but the ache crept away with the sickly tingle of adrenaline and yearning. As she rose up the hill, so too grew the pull on her, demanding she hurry to the top. The wind blew at her back, urging her on. Staring straight down, she found purchase between the tufts of grass and atop the boulders, each step in celerity.
“Stop.” The voice sounded in front of her, deep and cold. She looked up, not realizing she’d already gotten to the stop. A chill ran through her legs, eating away the last of the compulsion. Before her, a stallion in a hooded cloak waited. “You are late.”
“I...I came as quick as I could!”
“You know the promise! You were to be here by midnight on the third year, to return what is mine.”
“Yes, but...I-”
“Where. Is. It?”
“It was stolen from me!”
“What? I did not lend you an artifact of power to hear such idle lies.”
“It’s not a lie! Please...I’ll do whatever it takes to repay you.”
“Yes.” He walked closer. “Yes you will.”
She backpedaled, only to stumble over a rock, and become entangled in her cloak. The lantern fell again, this time with a crash of glass. As the darkness washed over her, he drew a small blade and a tome from within his cloak. The cut was so quick, and the blade so sharp she barely felt the pain, but the warmth of the flow of blood from her fetlock was there. Swiftly, he caught a single drop on the open pages.
“Our debt is settled.” He turned, and began to walk away.
“No! You can’t do this to me!”
“Oh, I haven’t done anything to you-yet. I only lent you an amulet of power beyond your dreams, which you lost. I only recouped the debt which you knew you would owe. And I only kept the wild beasts from hurting you so that we could be at peace with one another. Now, my patience wears thin, and I will no longer trouble myself to do so.”
As she stretched out her bleeding foreleg, pleading for mercy, he vanished into the darkness. Around the hilltop, the howling began again, drawing closer to where she lay.