Charm

by Pixiepop

Chapter Two

"You've seen this before?" I ask, trying not to sound desperate.

"Mmhmm, in the garden, its amazing!" He raises his fore hooves in the air for emphasis.

"Can you take me there?" I request. This "garden" could be the only answer I have, and I'm not even sure if I can trust the little brat. I am in the EverFree after all.

"Okay! But only if you listen to me the whole time." He acts like this is a game. Before I can say anything, he trots off, zigzagging across my path and orbiting around me.

...

Koda's quieted down and started at a steady pace in front of me. "So...how did you get those pretty wings?" He asks, probably bored, after all it has been a whole 10 minutes

I remember that day, only a couple days ago. A pain akin to what I felt then is starting to seethe in my stomach. It felt like I was being eaten from the inside. The worst of it came when my back started to throb, like whatever creature had been plaguing me suddenly wanted out, now.

"Imagine what it felt like to have your foal teeth brake out of your gums, but with a tooth the size of a wing, times two." I answer, hoping he won't ask anymore questions.

"Eww..." He replies, mission accomplished

...

Koda stops abruptly at a clearing, I almost bump into him. He grabs me by the hoof and yanks me into a grassy clearing. The sun is shining as bright as afternoon.

"Is this it?" I say, annoyed at the sudden contact. I still can't touch him without shuddering, poor kid.

"No, it's over there." He gestures at a shaded hole in the dirt. I reluctantly leave the grassy clearing. It felt good to feel something other than despair radiating from the barren earth.

Koda is already far ahead of me, regaining the energy he had when we first started this journey. I pick up speed and bound towards the shady grove, remembering that this could be the answer to my problems. I bend my wings at half way to keep them from slowing me down.

I don't think I've ever been underground before, save the basement of my house. It's absolutely torturous, fear, panic, and worry pound themselves into my skull like a nail through a coffin. Strongest of them all is insanity, it's giving me a pulsing head ache. I can hear Koda's laughter, it's not much deeper but it feels like a mile.

I come out to find a small underground garden, it has lush, long grass, colorful flowers and sunlight streaming in from some holes in the ceiling. The most striking thing about the place though, are the life-sized wooden statues.

There are about six statues, each one is painted black and red. Some are unicorns, some pegasi, some earth ponies, even some alicorns, like me, I guess.

It feels strange to call myself an alicorn, alicorns are perfect, powerful, and beautiful. I'm an alicorn gone horribly wrong.

The last one is just a chunk of wood. It looks like it's been carved out into the basic shape of a pony, but it lacks details and looks too unfinished to be recognizable. However, the one right next to the mystery pony, I recognize.

It's a statue of King Sombra, looking the way he used to look. His armor is gleaming black and his horn shares the same color scheme as my wing. The eyes look the most realistic, they gleam purple with life-like rage.

"I like that one best." Koda sneaks up behind me, I shiver with surprise "His horn is so cool-looking, and that armor, cape, and crown set him far apart from the rest of the statues."

I pause for a moment and stare at him, "...Koda, you're so strange."

He looks even more confused, but only for a second."Now what? Are you satisfied?"

"Huh?" I remember what I came here for. "Oh yeah." I look around the statue, nothing that could possibly tell me what is going on, though I now know there were others like me, they were carved into wood for some reason, and one of them was Sombra.

Sombra...he's the one I know most about. I mentally run over everything I know about him...grew up in the Crystal Kingdom. He tried to take over Canterlot. He was beaten. He ran off to the Everfree forest! That's it!

"Do you recognize that one?" I tap on the wood with my hoof, making a hollow sound like drums. My hoof looks sharper than it used to, I used to know fillies who would file them all day to make them sharper. They would kill for these.

"No." He states plainly.

"He came here about 100 or so years ago." I inform him. My eyeballs roll back into my head, revealing only the whites. It's a bad habit I have when I'm trying to remember something. "Don't you have history books here?"

Speaking of that, there's something that's been plaguing me since I met him "Who takes care of you?" I ask, hoping it isn't something like a chimera or manticore.

"The trees" he replies innocently

"Eh?" I grunt.

"I sleep in the trees, the trees whisper stories and comforting words into my ears. They remind me of my name when I almost forget it." His eyes glaze over, staring off into space while his coat dulls to a tired, dark gray.

I wave my hoof in front of his face, no reaction. I grab his chin lightly and turn it up to me, something I've seen many parents do when they wanted a little colt's attention. "So...no history books?"

"You do know books are made of trees, right?" He stifles a giggle.

"I'm serious!" I wave my hooves in exasperation and once again punch Sombra in the chest. The same "bonk" reverberates throughout the room.

"Calm down, Spring, jeez." Koda mutters.

"Sorry, Koda, but I've been kinda upset the past few days, and you treat it like a game!" I say, sounding far from calm.

Koda is silent. Then he mumbles a "S-sorry." He looks part shocked and part downcast. I hope he isn't going to cry again.

"Um...forgiven." I say, trying defuse the incoming fit of tears.

He relaxes and leans on the statue."So what now?" He asks.

I knit my eyebrows in thought, Koda watches in fascination. Then it hits me.

"I've got it!"

Author's Note:

So I know I said "next update soon" and that was a lie. But here's what happened. I try to make every chapter 1000+ words because I'm pretty sure they said "a chapter must be 1000+ words" (or not, I could just be flat out wrong) and my wooooooorst writing flaw is I can't fill up space with my writing. I think "okay, in this chapter I want this, this, and this, to happen." Then I'm done and I raise my index finger in the air and declare "snack time!" So I check how many words I have, and its usually about 500 then I take a break, brainstorm, write, I'm at 800, brainstorm, think, write, I'm at 999 (or something). And that plus another few "snack times" equals NOT soon. I try to compensate by making a ton of stuff happen, but then I run out of ideas, and I see stories on here that can squeeze 2000+ words into a single day. Well, bottom line, I hope writing this story more will help me train out this flaw, but if I don't, I guess it's better for you because there will be more meat to the story and less filler words. Well...bye

Or as they say in Macedonia, збогум

Comments

[Rinderin]

Hmm, where exactly is an update to this?

[Pixiepop]

4292611 mmm I know, my I have recently been working on other stories and my computer broke so I lost all my progress on the next chapter (I know, "back it up") I'm sorry, I have been trying to rewrite it as quickly as possible and I do not plan on abandoning this