A light breeze of chilling wind was blowing through leaves on spikey branches of black trees. Shadowy creatures were moving from one bush to another, as they were looking for a prey. This particular evening, when an unusually crimson-red sun was about to hide behind the line of horrizon, a mare dressed in black cloak with hood on her head was following a long forgotten road in the Everfree forest.
"I'm almost there, calm down, calm down..." She said to herself, nervously looking around at few pairs of glowing spots lurking from surrounding darkness.
"This is getting heavy..." She though looking at a large bag attached to her back.
"I guess it's a burden I must carry alone" The mare suddenly lowered her head, a single tear fell from within the hood on a ground covered with rotten leaves. She stopped in place. A sudden gust of wind blew the hood of her head, revealing mare's saddened face. Her delicate skin, covered in yellow fur soft as a finest silk, now met with piercing cold air, sending shivers throught her whole body. Her light-pink mane long enough to merely touch the ground was covering her left side of face. A few drops of water fell to the ground. Although these weren't tears anymore.
"It's... Raining? That's all I needed now..." She said to herself while pulling her hood back on her head.
"I have to hurry... I didn't come all the way here to give up now..."
For the next 15 minutes she was walking silently, until she reached her destination. A stronger wind started to blow as she walked towards few moss-covered concrete pillars. She knew she has to hurry. She knew what is so special about this place, that's why she would never came here if not for that special reason.
As she got close to remains of a long forgotten temple, she untiled the bag, wnich fell to the ground with a quiet thud.
"I-I guess this is our farewell... I'm sorry that it ended like this..." She said leaning down to the bag. Her voice full of guilt and sorrow, all emotions she was holding that whole time, now she just couldn't hold them anymore. She covered her head with her hooves and started to cry silently. It took her some time to pull herself together. Finally, she stood up a decided to go.
"Now I just have to get out of here, oh my... Getting here took me more time than I expected" The mare though to herself while making her way back to the line of trees.
Just when she though she made it, she noticed a red spark with a corner of her eye. then, she realized what she got herself into. She jumped to the other side as fast as she could, barely evading a shadowy wolf-like creature which crashed into the ground where she was standing just a second ago. Force of impact could be felt from where she was standing now, trying to regain her balance. A terrifying fear paralyzed her body, she could feel her legs crumble as she raised her head looking straight at devilish red eyes staring at her. A black-furred creature was now slowly approaching helpless mare, it's long claws shone in the moonlight as they were made of black steel. Sharp teeth now fully shown in a terrifying grin, followed by low growl.
"I-I... Must run... B-but I can't move..." She tried to move, to run away as fast as she could but her legs just couldn't move.
Using her whole willpower, she managed to evade just before beast's next leap, and immediately started to run.
She blindly ran through forest trying not to hit a tree, but the thick fog was making it hard to navigate.
Sharp bushes she ran through scratched her coat leaving few bloody trails on it, however, it wasn't her real problem right now.
She looked back, that creature was still chasing her, swiftly making its way through trees. She was almost panicking when she saw the monster's speed.
"I need to do something, or this thing will k-kill me..! Oh, I have no other choice..." She turned to her left side and started running towards it.
The mare knew where this patch leads to, it was her only chance to get away from this beast.
She could hear it's wild roaring as it chased her, but she was getting closer to, what seemed to be a cliff.
The closer she was to the edge, the thinner the forest got.
The beast was just about to strike the mare standing on the edge, but what came next it didn't expect. The mare jumped from the cliff into darkness awaiting on its bottom. The beast almost lost its balance and fell, but it managed to jump back.
Black cloak flew loose revealing mare's yellow body with wings as she was falling down.
"I'm going to fall if my wings won't unfold now! But my body is in so much pain..."
She could feel how her wings locked, she knew she must relax, but situation she was in right now was making it rather hard.
"Come on, come on, please..."
Her wings finally unfolded, but now it was too late to maneuver into flying. Few flaps of her wings slowed the fall down, but not enough to land without any harm. Last thing she could remember was falling through climbers and leaves just before hitting the ground.
"Oouch" Yellow mare woke up, she was lying under a tree in a pile of leaves. She managed to stand up and look if she had any serious injury after the fall. To her relief, nothing happened except few scratches she got earlier.
"Oh my... I'm lucky, these leaves must have saved me from falling..."
After regaining her senses, she noticed it's still night, the moon was high on the sky, brightening the night with its light.
She shook her body as she reminded of a black monster chasing her through woods as she desperately tried to escape.
"Hunters" she said quietly to herself.
Long forgotten creatures from old mare's tales to scare their foals.
Only few ponies knew that they were real, even less survived after they found out. Those who knew would rather not get close to this special place.
What was so special about these ruins, it's that being close to them at night time is a suicide.
She didn't know anything more about these creatures, except that they appear from nothingness at night and wander around these particular ruins, while being extremely hostile to all living creatures.
All that happened has almost made her forget what she had done not long ago, what made her come all the way here, what changed her life completely.
I may have escaped from that monster, but I'm still in the forest, and it's completly dark already
She though to herself, unfolding her wings.
"Ouch!" The mare groaned in pain and gazed to her hurt left wing, reminding the fall from the cliff.
I must've injured it during that fall, I guess I'll have to walk...
With a frown on her face, she looked upon the dark path surrounded by trees and started walking.