Walk

by Cheshire

How it all began (Prologue)

A letter to Silver Lining and Cherry Darling from the town of Innsmouth

Dear children,

We’re sorry… So sorry.

The things you have seen, the things we have done… They are inexcusable and for that, we are truly sorry.

But the dark lords tell us that your lives are not of consequence to them, so please… Run… Run as far as you can and never come back. It’s hard enough to write this without their influence forcing me to write the horrible things that they would do to you. There is nothing left for you here.

Run. Run and never return.

Please… stay safe.

Praise and power be to Nacon

The letter ended here in deranged rambling, depictions of sacrifice and splashes of blood on the page. It never reached its destination.

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I never had a loving relationship with my parents. Ever since the changeling attacks started, they’d changed. Day by day, it only got worse. Their vicious behaviour seemed to know no bounds.

Our journey started the day I learned the secret of how they'd kept the horrible plague of insectoid beasts at bay.

I’d come home early, hoping to avoid a beating for skipping curfew. But what I came home to was nothing less than a nightmare. My brother, lying in a pool of his own blood. His face covered in bruises, blood dripping from his wounds. A magical circle glowing brightly on the floor and murky green mist flowing from my parent’s eyes. I could feel the power radiating from their bodies, terror striking the very core of my being.

I screamed.

They murdered him. They had sacrificed him. Given his soul and life-blood to a dark god so as to imbue them with unholy strength. They were murderers, monsters… And so I ran. I ran harder than I ever had before, my hooves beating on the cobblestone streets of my small town. I tore through alleys and side-streets, running towards my friend's home, Cherry Darling’s.

Cherry was under similar circumstances to mine. Everyone was. We'd been attacked, year after year, day after day by the nearby changelings. They wanted to feed, to encase us in their cocoons and use us as fuel for their rampant destruction of Equestrian soil. Our parents had... defended us so far, and I say that hesitantly, but their war with the changelings had changed them. No longer were they the kind, caring souls we once knew, rather, they were monsters. Fuelled by their own bloodthirsty desires, the unicorns began practicing dark magics, sacrifices to dark gods even performing acts of vampirism and necromancy, destroying the town we once knew. Their lust for power causing them to sacrifice their own children to powers beyond our realm.

Twisting their minds.

Tearing apart families.

Destroying the town.

Learning what had happened, Cherry urged me to fill a saddlebag, put on a cloak, and walk. Just walk and walk and walk. The destination pointless, the distance irrelevant and the time together priceless. We would walk, just the two of us, until our hooves wore down to stumps and our bodies had withered and grown old, to be given to the rolling plains and the sands of time.

And so we walked. The journey was hard and unforgiving. There were many times we thought of giving up. There were times we resorted to petty theft and begging, days where our friendship was strained and tested, broken and mended, but always we stuck together.

Like true friends.

Like family.

This is our story.

Author's Note:

Well, Here it is folks... The prologue to "Walk".

Here's hoping you lot enjoy it, and as always, feedback is encouraged and appreciated.

Comments

[BIGBLACKINTOSH]

Jaysus, what a start. I like it, gets straight to the meat; two ponies on a journey to nowhere. Lets see where this takes them

[Lab]

At least he now knows which child is the favorite.