A Family Matter.

by Thait

The wandering pony.

Metal armored hooves swept through dark grass as the unicorn trod along a non-existent path pushing her way farther and farther through the dark forest on her way...somewhere. She really couldn't remember where she was heading, or why she was heading there in the first place. She remembered the mists, the attempt to access the ancient archives, followed by the desperation and struggle to escape while still alive. Was she even still alive? Or did she die there in the archives and this was her punishment? Had she breached the archives, or was this all still part of the tests that allowed access? She was so tired she wasn't sure if this was just one more trick.

'One hoof in front of the other, just one hoof in front of the other.' Her mind continued to focus directly on her forward motion, as if it was only that single mindedness that was keeping her walking. Of course that might have been true as a stumble every now and then lead to a struggle to move the next hoof forward. Her mind dimly noted the flickering greenish glow that shined from the shadows nearby and if her mind had been more open to the outside world she might have realized it was a timberwolf, as it was she was to focused on her forward momentum to care about anything approaching her. For its part the wolf was finding that every time it considered attacking the oblivious food source that it felt a very impressive desire to be elsewhere as its survival instinct pushed it away from the pony. Overcoming said survival instinct in the end it rushed from the trees and leapt towards the pony with a roar, fully intent on getting a nice meal from the foolish pony.

The timberwolf was still airborne and descending towards the pony when its eyes caught the minor shimmer of blue that seemed to ripple through the air around its intended food source. The creature had no idea what the shimmer was, though it found out seconds later as its forepaws impacted the shimmer and simply ceased to exist as they were turned into wood shavings. The rest of the timberwolf followed behind and the mare stumbled on as tiny floating remains blew away on a breeze. Pale eyes blinked in confusion as several large slivers of wood floated down past a face partially obscured by a black scarf. The confusion was short lived though as the pony's mind began to focus on forward motion again to keep her moving.

'House?' The thought whispered dimly through the mares mind as she stumbled free of the forest and continued to push onwards. The house appeared to be surrounded by the largest number of birdhouses that she had ever seen, not to mention what looked to be burrows and other animal homes. Her mind slowly dredged up the fact that she had stopped moving and ever so slowly she lifted a hoof and struggled to shift it forward putting all her effort into the slow movement until she managed to get moving once more. What had started as spiking agony with each step had long ago dulled to a whisper of pain in the back of her skull. She was certain that there would have been those who would say that that was a problem, that she had pushed herself so far and so hard that she wasn't even feeling her pain anymore. Or maybe she had felt that pain for so long that she was simply getting used to it, she wasn't sure.

"Al-most t-there." Her voice was so hoarse that she didn't even recognize it. "Ju-st a litt-le farther. I'm coming m-mother." A hoof slipped on a small rock and the mare tumbled rolling down a short hill before sliding to a stop. Her vision blurred and she felt the tiredness that had been struggling to pull her down for the last six days leaping forward to try and grab her mind in an attempt to drag it into darkness. 'No!' The thought slammed through the encroaching blackness and with a pained filled sob she managed to get her hooves under her and struggled upright. She tried to tell herself that the agony that she was currently feeling in her back legs was just one more discomfort among many that she would get used to but was finding it hard to do when her mind didn't want to work correctly. Struggling to ignore the pain she focused on moving again and began another stumbling walk towards the town she could now see ahead. The closer she got to her goal the harder it was to focus and continue to go forward even as her hooves dragged with each step. The silver and black armor that covered her legs seemed to be getting heavier but she would never remove it for anypony, there was no way she wanted anypony to see her failure.

0000000

PONYVILLE

"Twilight! Twilight!" Twilight groaned and shifted about under her covers trying to block out the annoyance. "Twilight you gotta come quick, there's some unicorn walking into town and she nearly killed Rock!" That got Twilight's attention.

Throwing off the covers Twilight found herself looking cross-eyed at Rainbow Dash who's muzzle was less than an inch from her own. "What are you talking about." Rainbow Dash backed off and Twilight struggled out of bed trying to untangle herself from her sheets.

"Some unicorn just walked into town, well actually she stumbled into town and looked like she was going to fall over any second so Rock went to ask her if she was okay. When he started to get close he said he thought he saw something around her so he reached out and the next thing anypony knows there's blood everywhere and his leg was really torn up." By the look on Rainbow Dash's face it was obvious that it hadn't been a pretty picture. "Lyra told everypony to stay back and that it might be a offense shield, whatever that is."

"Is everypony else okay?" Twilight finally managed to toss off her sheets wishing that Spike was back from Canterlot.

"Yeah, but only cause Lyra was there. What the heck is it anyway?"

"Think of your body being surrounded by thousands of knives working like a blender, anything that touches it is torn to pieces in seconds." Twilight shivered at the thought of what would have happened to Rock if he had just walked into the shield, she hurried down the stairs and out into the street. "Our instructors at school showed us how dangerous such a shield was by creating one and then throwing a toad into it."

"Whoa! What happened to it?" The pegasus noticed Twilight Shudder.

"Everything was chopped so fine that it was nothing but a mist of blood and very tiny parts of the body." She still had bad dreams about that. "That spell is powerful and only some of the most talented unicorns can cast it without...bad things happening." Reaching the center of town she could see the crowds of ponies standing well back from the unknown unicorn that was stumbling and staggering through town. It was impossible to see much of the pony as he or she was shrouded in a black cloak that covered nearly everything and any part of the pony's legs that were seen were covered in heavy silver and black armor that covered from hoof to knee. Twilight recognized the armor immediately as a type worn by those who patrolled the frontier, mostly those who were forced to patrol in danger prone areas. The cloak hood covered most of the head but there was also black scarf that wrapped around to hide the ponies face as well meaning the most she could see was a bit of coloring that looked to be a dull pale blue. A simple spell allowed her to see the shimmering force that surrounded the pony and she stared in surprise at the size of the shield. A normal unicorn using a offensive shield spell would create a close shield that would exist only a foot or so out from the full extension of a fore and back leg allowing full movement but no danger of the pony running into their own shield. This pony had a shield that was nearly six feet outwards from her and seemed to be dual layered as well, as if the pony was actually afraid that something might get through the first shield.

"Everypony stay back!" Twilight was about to move closer in an attempt to speak to the pony when Lyra hurried over.

"Don't bother, I already tried to snap her out of it but she just keeps walking forward and doesn't respond to anypony." Lyra frowned as she looked at the shield "I've never seen anypony create a shield that big, or actually layer two of them together."

"I could try and disperse it." Twilight looked worriedly at the ponies all around "But if my spell fails it might detonate the shield instead and..." She didn't even want to think about what that might do to anypony standing around. "We need to get everypony out of here so I can..." She stopped speaking as she noticed a pony striding down the center of the street straight for the cloaked pony. "Hey! Stay back!" She didn't even get to move to intercept the pony when he began to shout.

"Beatrix Lulamoon stop this right now!" The stumbling pony froze, her one raised hoof lowering somewhat jerkily as if unsure if she should move forward or stay still.

'Talked to her?' Her mind struggled to focus and she noticed a blue unicorn standing in front of her, though his mouth moved she could barely hear what was said. But he was familiar to her battered mind, a blue unicorn with a blue and silver mane "P-ok-ey?" But Pokey lived in Ponyville, that vile town that she hated so much, filled with all those ponies she despised. 'Am I in Ponyville?' Her mind refused to answer that in the positive, she couldn't be there of all places. She had left the archives, fled the consuming darkness and its evil though she could still feel the chill of it on her legs.

"Beatrix! Listen to me!" Pokey stepped forward though he made sure to stay out of the range of the shield. "You're safe now, there's no need for the shield."

'Shield?' Her mind slowly began to move, memories ever so slowly began to churn about. She had been...running, fleeing something in the dark, and she had summoned a shield to protect herself. When the darkness had breached the shield she had reinforced it and struggled onward. So close to her goal, so close to what she sought and yet miles away. "I failed." It was at that statement that her magic finally gave out and the shields collapsed along with what fading strength she still had vanishing and sending her forward as her forelegs gave out. She barely felt the softness of a magic aura as it closed around her holding her in place. A scarf peeled away and the hood slid back as she felt herself being held.

Twilight stared as the cloth slid away to show a pony she had never expected to see in Ponyville again. "Trixie?" The mare looked horrible, her coat a dull pale mockery of its normal bright azure blue color and as the rest of the black cloth fell away Twilight could only stare at the strange black lines that curled and flowed across the unicorns form. They weren't a single solid mass of lines but short marks of black that curled or ran straight for a few inches and then curled or twisted. Her eyes though were what caught Twilights attention the most with the color almost completely gone leaving behind nearly white eyes with the normal violet barely visible.

"Beatrix." Pokey's telekinetic field faded as he held Trixie tightly. "Please, talk to me."

"Bro-ther." She struggled to speak through her abused vocal cords "I f-failed. Couldn't get in. I f-ailed m-m-mother." She stiffened suddenly "Not real, you're not real, nother tri-ck. Ha-have to-to..." Finally exhausting what little reserves she had left she slipped into unconsciousness.

Author's Note:

I will say the chapters for this story will be shorter than the ones for my doctor who story, so don't expect a 13k chapter for this one unless I really feel like it sometime. Most chapters will probably be anywhere from 2 to 4k at most. Well enjoy if you want to, or hate if you want to, it's up to you.

Comments

[Thait]

2637331 Fixed it now, thanks. Put that up at 2:30 in the morning so I'm actually impressed that's the only mistake I made.