The Omitted Forest

by TwiztedSaxGuy

Omega

There was a certain emotion to the air, it was foreboding as the rest of the forest. The emotion could be described as fear, confusion, apprehension. The forest embodied the inhabitants and the inhabitants took their abode in the forest without knowing the repercussions, Now they bury a friend from the past and the present, even though their memory of him is vague.

A dead silence follows the crew, not a sound could be heard except the clopping of their hooves. Hawkeye finished digging the life size hole and the others stepped away to retrieve the body. Strange, Hawkeye thought, how a pony can get used to death, but in a forest that is death itself, be afraid for their life. It seems there is no escape from death, yes of course everypony dies it’s only when a pony dies, but this is a different death. As far as I’m concerned in this forest, you just die for arbitrary reason.

How is it that there is an engraving on that infernal crystal telling us not to fear and to love, yet we still die?

Stormcaster could physically feel his mind slipping. I’m already dead, he thought, we’re all dead. There is no way we can stop it: the diamond. My family, they’re starving, I can hear their moans for food. I see them begging at the street corner. Blizzard is unconscious due to his malnourishment, and Wing Torpedo losing her beautiful color. She’s starved to the bone, Storm thought, I can’t save her. I can’t save anyone.

Snowcone and Stormcaster dropped the cold dead body in the hollowed hole. They knew that this would be the final resting place for their short lived dear friend. Hawkeye stood over the body, just staring intently into his forever black eyes, as if he were consumed by darkness itself. Snowcone shook Hawkeye out of his stupor. He began to speak.

“Overcast was a stallion of little words, but it is important to remember that he felt. He felt what it is to be wanted, and even if it was for those few short hours, he truly was wanted. And what he experienced brought out a smile that made the firmaments open. We will never forget you even after death, friend.”

Snowcone silently sobbed.

There it is, she thought, another dead friend, who dies without a smither of logic. When we all awoke after that great battle with the wolves, we noticed Overcast was still just lying on the ground. We just decided to let him get more sleep, on account of Stormcaster mentioning that Overcast never slept. At mid afternoon we knew something was wrong, Overcast didn’t move an inch.

Is it cruel to not feel surprised by the death of him? I think deep down we all knew he was dead, but no one wanted to say it.

The last three of the original seven.

After Storm finished dressing Snowcone’s wound and deeming it worthy of walking they began to plan.

The crew of what remained of it looked for ways to escape. They packed and walked away from the diamond that was blackened. There was no more need to be at that place. They tried breaking it with weapons, to no avail, even pretended to love one another. None of it worked.

Hawkeye sighed, walking through this monotonous gray forest, isn’t that how it all started with Specter? Hawkeye wondered sometimes at night about Specter. The leaf, or something, it was vague and mysterious. Like the ghost stories the soldiers made about abandoned bases.

They continued walking, not necessarily knowing why they were walking. Anything to get away from that diamond, Snowcone said when they were deciding whether to leave. Little did the crew know that they were walking through a forever circle of fog. When nightfall came they set camp and lit a fire. They shivered in place, waiting for sleep to overcome the tenacious grip of the cold.

Hawkeye was staring at his collection of finely sharpened knives and then looked at the back of his arm where he knew a large vein was concealed under all the fur. Snowcone saw this and placed a hoof on Hawkeye’s shoulder. Hawkeye was in a deep contemplation and when he felt the hoof he was frightened.

“Don’t abandon us Hawkeye, you’re the strongest one here,” Snowcone said.

Hawkeye felt sympathetic, a feeling of being needed by someone. It was strange. Yea sure, Hawkeye thought, I’ve been needed by the agency plenty of times. Whether it be killing some rebellion leader against Hurricane or the important political leaders of the other pony races.
But this was a different feeling, one he couldn’t describe.

Hawkeye reassured Snowcone that he wouldn’t be going anywhere except with her and Storm when they escape the frozen hell.

That simple sentence, it kept him awake for most of the night in a deep contemplation. His last thought before sleep finally won him over was: I wonder if we’ll all be alive by morning.

The next morning they started walking, trying to make good distance. Same shit just a different day.

Storm was in constant threnody, everywhere he looked he saw his wife and son. They were begging for food, but whenever he tried to give them some they would disappear. He tried telling the others about what he sees but all that came out was his breath and a concerned countenance.

How could you abandon us like this Storm? Daddy, please help us. Storm could now hear the voices in his head. He dropped to the ground clutching his aching head.

The others decided to stop and treat Storm. Snowcone determined he had a fever. They lit a fire and spoke seldom. Snow covered Storm with as many blankets as they could spare, and dragged him near the fire. Snow told Hawkeye how to break a fever with heat.

“We can’t wait here for days until his fever breaks, our food won’t last that long,” Hawkeye said.

“If we move now, he’ll die,” Snowcone said, staring at the suffering body of Storm. He was clutching his head still, moving his lips, but no sound came out.

“So what do we do?” Hawkeye said.

The question lingered in Snowcone’s head for a long time.

Hawkeye was trying to figure out the mystery of Storm’s condition. He contemplated while watching Storm, his frail body, he seemed to be getting skinnier, he wouldn’t eat. He was now reading what Storm recently wrote in the dirt.

They’re starving

Writing that in the dirt took all of Storm’s energy and he collapsed back into his limbo state of torture.

What does it mean? The others died very quickly, but now we have Storm dying slowly, painfully. Times like this I wish Wind Turret were still here, he would know what to do.

Snowcone was sleeping, a strange sleep in which no dreams are dreamed, only darkness. She suspected with this dreamless state she’ll wake up in what feels like a few seconds, but what is actually eight hours. What do dreamless dreams mean? Does it mean that nothing is on your subconscious?

But it wasn’t a dreamless dream Snowcone realized after she heard the voice. It was a deep voice, ominous, a voice that demanded attention.

“Snowcone, the one with hope.”

“Who are you?” She said.

“Nothing. But I do have a message, a visual message.”

A burst of life and color suddenly came to view, Snowcones eyes adjusted and she beheld Specter at the time he ran off.

“Is that a leaf?” Specter said

Snowcone was surprised when she was in a third person view of the event. She could see the leaf. It’s orange texture. She saw a little colt Specter travelling in his backyard forest. She saw him walk to his home and even saw the draft papers that required Specter’s parents to fight in the Griffon War.

One by one she saw all of the crew’s past life until they died. She asked the voice why she was seeing this.

“Notice how all of the ponies had normal lives with troubling background situations. And what happened to them, they’re dead! There is no escaping the forest, death itself lives in the roots, it empowers the trees to grow. The fog is the very ghastly breath of death. The full moon that shows every night is the eye of death, watching you die. You will never escape, you will all die.”

Snowcone saw Storm, his dying body. She saw what he saw, the half dead bodies of a mare and a child. All as skinny as toothpicks, they looked as if the wind would blow them over any second. They constantly moaned how unfaithful Storm was, how starving they were. Storm just closed his eye, covered his ears and perpetually wept.

Snowcone screamed until a body was hovering over her shaking her awake. It was Hawkeye.

“Are you alright Snowcone?”

She leapt into Hawkeye’s arms and cried, soaking his chest.

Hawkeye would’ve felt awkward, but the feeling of sympathy overpowered it. He held her until her sobs stopped and a soft breathing came. He set her down and covered her.

What the buck is happening anymore, Hawkeye thought, falling asleep.

In the morning, Snowcone reluctantly told Hawkeye about the dream, how vivid it was, and what she saw. She never experienced anything like it. After she told the story, she said she might be losing hope in escaping.

Hawkeye tried to tell her otherwise, but to no avail.

So, I’m the last hope.

Hawkeye stood up and began to pack, Snowcone barely paid attention and Storm’s fever was still bad. Hawkeye never thought of himself as the leader type, but now he knew what must be done. This is what Wind would’ve wanted.

“Everypony stand up!”

Nopony listened.

“I said stand up!”

Hawkeye walked towards Snowcone.

“Did you not hear me?”

“What are you trying to prove? You’re beating a dead horse,” Snowcone said.

“We are going to get out of this forest, healthy, and alive. I don’t want to hear you getting fussed up over a dream, because that voice in your head is a lying son of a bitch. I know you can do it because you were the one who gave me hope. You were the one who gave Overcast hope. You didn’t give up on me so I’m not giving up on you.”

She was staring in Hawkeye’s eyes intently.

Hawkeye reached a hoof out, “Stand with me Snowcone and we’ll be free.”

She reached for the hoof, their hooves touched and produced the warmest feeling Snowcone ever felt in her life. There was a purpose now, and she had to power to pursue it without looking back.

“Lets get out of here Hawky.”

She walked over to Stormcaster’s limp body with a fierceness in her eyes. She knew what he was going through and she was going to get him out.

She leaned over Storm.

“Storm look at me.”

He remained in his unconscious limbo.

She shook him wildly and saw him rouse a bit. Then she leaned close to his ear and whispered in an ethereal soft tone.

“They aren’t real Storm, it’s all in your head. You are tried to escape reality, but fell into insanity. Now I want you to wake up and see your real family, they have full bellies Storm, but they are missing something. They are missing a somepony, and it’s you. Now get up and walk out of this forest with me so you can go see your beloved and son. They are waiting.”

Hawkeye’s mouth dropped, he saw Storm’s eyes were open with such a bewildered fascination at what Snowcone was saying the whole time. She stared at him for what seemed an eternity until an excitement came over Stormcaster. He awoke from his sleep ready for a party.

“Well what are we waiting for fillies and colts! Lets go home!”

They now stood with a fierce determination in their faces with a knowing certainty. They put their arms over each others shoulders and looked at each other.

“Lets go home friends,” Hawkeye said, the others nodded with smiles a mile wide.

The last three walked through the forest that was dissolving right in front of them. A wall of red light was shown in front of them and as they continued to walk they were closer. On the other side of the wall of red they could see a ghastly horse. Snowcone recognized it, it was the alpha and omega. It was there for the beginning with Specter and it is here for the end.

But, Snowcone thought with an even more confident smile, it will be the end of this forest. They were paces away from the wall, the wendigo was charging at them. The forest behind them was decaying into ash that flowed around the last three. They breathed the death of death itself with happiness.

“We’re already home,” Snowcone said as they walked through the wall of red. The charging wendigo that was in front of them dissolved into a gas of blue.

There was light.

The crew, the last three, the agents were out of the forest and were now in a grassy plain just a few miles from the City of Clouds. They shouted cheers of joy and cried tears of joy. But the most beautiful thing about the moment was the sky. The sky is a light blue with fluffy clouds in the sky and a warm sun looming over the horizon. A rainbow was arched over the entire expanse of it all to top it off with bliss.