Chapter 8
Long Night
Three years later, Inn decided to watch the sun rise that morning, she had never taken the time to watch the sun rise before, but she had heard it was beautiful, and she wanted to see it for herself. She flew to the top of a tree and watched the horizon.
She sat there for several hours. Nothing happened. She began to think that maybe she woke up earlier than she thought. She began to wander the forest. As she did, there was a loud boom in the distance. Inn could see the trees shake from the force of whatever it was.
She thought this might be interesting, so she went to investigate. The mountainside cliff had shifted causing a large amount a rock and dirt crash to the ground below. Off in the distance she heard a voice.
“... Loopty looped around and BAM!” She looks to see a group of ponies walking away, she moves to follow but is distracted by another voice from the other direction.
She soon found two ponies on the path. The same two she saw back when she was making he hut the first time. But the stallion was acting a bit... odd... maybe even insane. He kept going on about how he could hold things with his hoof. It freaked Inn out a little.
Thinking that she could not get any useful information form those two, she went on to look for the other ponies she had seen, but was unable to locate them. Eventually, the white mare flew to a river bed. A thought came to mind. A childish thought. She has not just played or had fun in years.
She jumped into the water and swam for a few minutes. Trying to see how fast she could get from one bank to the other. She tried some different strokes, and did some free style. Then out of nowhere, the water got rough. Inn found herself having a hard time keeping her head above the water. She slowly made her way back to a shallow spot and walked back to dry land.
Inn, wondering what happened, flew around until she saw a purple serpent thrashing in the water. She really liked the scales on this serpent, and thought of harvesting him for upgrades to her hut, but seeing that he was talking to some ponies and not trying to eat them... The thought left her quickly.
Instead, she thought of listening in on what was being said. As she drew closer, she saw that the pink one was looking right at her, she had already been caught. Deciding that there was no point in spying on ponies that had already seen her, she flew away to dry herself off. She never flew at night, and was enjoying the moonlight and shadows.
She just few, long after she was dry.
Suddenly, the sun came out, soaring up high into the sky. The light blinded Inn, who lost her concentration, and her wings. Inn fell down fast, hitting the trees with massive force, which knocked Inn out cold.
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Almost a day later, Inn awoke. She felt sharp shooting pain all over her body, especially on her left side. She panicked, too afraid to look around to see where she was because she did not want to make the pain worse.
Her mind was racing, she began to think back to when she was little. She had had a small hiding place that she had made back then, so Inn made a unicorn horn. Using her horn, she levitated piles of dirt and twigs so that they would form protective shell around her. Soon after she was done with that, the weak, dirty, and exhausted, Inn laid her head down to try and sleep.
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Inn just stayed in the same place, unable to move more than her head with out feeling intense pain. She looked around, and it almost looked like night. The small shelter she had made was dark and the sun shining in through the cracks of the woven twigs looked like stars.
Whenever Inn could, she made the bubble around her bigger. She thought it was useless, but she still wanted to try standing. It was just as bad an attempt as she had expected, she painfully arranged her legs beneath her, slowly building up the strength to push herself up, but when she finally tried, all she managed to do was flop over to her other side. She could not tell if anything was broken, but she imagined the pain could not be much worse than this.
She been laying there for three days, although it felt like months. When all of the sudden, she heard hoofsteps getting closer. Time seemed to slow down as Inn’s hart raced. The steps sopped at the edge of the little shell she had made. Her mind was bursting with questions.
Is it a pony, or a monster? If it's a pony, is it a nice pony? If it's a monster, is it a nice monster? Is a nice monster even technically a monster? What if it isn’t nice? How can I defend myself? Is who or what ever it is out there just looking, or is it trying to find a way in? All these thoughts rushed through her in under a second, but if felt like minutes had past.
The steps started again, this time going around the bubble. Inn could faintly see many colors passing by. Inn was now staring to hyperventilate. Many colors does not say anything about who or what it is. The steps circled all the way around stopping after a full rotation.
But then, slowly the steps where going on top of the mound, as if the thing was testing it's durability. It stomped on it with little force. Seeing that it was in fact sturdy, it got back onto all fours and paused for a few seconds.
Inn was hoping that that would be the end of it. But there was still one more thing for the thing to do... look inside. The creature started to tear open a doorway. Even though it was painful for Inn to do so, she started shaking.
Inn closed her eyes, too afraid to see what was about to happen. Hearing the sound of the twigs being moved gently and then thrown to the ground. She could not tell how far the creature was, but she knew that the hole it had created could not have been very large when it stopped. “Inn, is that you?” said a familiar voice.
She opened her eyes to see a quilt like pony looking back in shock.
“Inn, why are you in this... cocoon?” asked Moonstone.
“I ah, the sun... it, ah, the night was... I f-f-fell from the s-s-sky. C-can you help me?” Inn stammered, as she tried to find the right words to explain what had happened.
“Well of course my little pony. Let me widen this hole a bit more.”
Tears of happiness and relief slowly started to pour form Inn’s eyes.
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Over a nice hot pot of tea, all was explained. Inn was extremely confused, but Moonstone was intrigued.
“It sounds like Celestia must have overslept. In her panic to make up for lost time, she sped up the sun so it would be in the right place. I just wonder what would of made her falter like that,” Moonstone said, thinking out loud.
“W-well, still... thanks. I-I thought...” started Inn, tears forming in her eyes again.
“Oh it was my pleasure. No thanks needed! Anyway, I know all the in’s and out’s of the pony body. Fixing you up was no problem at all!”
Inn sobs for a few seconds, then looks at the tea. “S-s-s-so... the, tea is... g-g-going to, help me too?” she asked, still trying to regain her composure.
“Yes, the medicine inside it will help you recover faster.”
“W-w-were is, that black thing you had b-before?”
“Black th- Tex? Do you mean her?”
“Y-yes, ah, h-her. She looked, interesting. But, n-now I didn’t see her today.”
“Some years ago, I got her working. She is investigating like you are.”
“R-r-r-really! You g-got her to w-work?” asked Inn, her eyes widening.
“Yes, did I not tell you?”
“No, but th-that’s amazing M-Moonstone! I-I-I thought you where h-have a hard time g-g-getting non-living things to m-m-move!”
“Maybe you two will meet up out there.”
With that, the two spent the next few hours talking about Moonstone’s work.