The Story That Never Happened

by Darkswirl

Prologue

Dawning Amity breathed softly as her mind came to. Her eyes opened, and her breathing shook as she took in her surroundings: a forest bathed in shade. She blinked to clear her eyes and realized she was moving. "Are we almost there, dad?" she heard herself ask, as though she were merely a passenger in this dangerous trek.

"Almost, sweetie. If the family was right, it should be just north out of these woods." a golden-brown pegasus sounded from before her. Beside him walked a light yellow pegasus mare who carefully picked her way through the underbrush as the trio slowly and quietly made their way through the woods.

Soon, the woods gave way to a clearing, and their path ended at a deep ravine with a churning river yards below them whose rough waters masked their voices. "They didn't mention a river... Are we still on the right path?" the yellow mare asked, her voice filled with hesitation and fear. Before any answer could be offered, the ground began to tremble behind the family as a Doom Dog burst from the ground with a terrifying snarl.

"Get across the river!" the golden-brown stallion ordered to his daughter as her parents took low flight to distract the creature. But Dawning Amity could not move; her hooves were planted firmly into the ground and her body was still with fear as her mother and father struggled to avoid the massive claws of the Doom Dog as he swung them through the air to swat the ponies like flies.

The next moment, a pained cry sounded through the forest as the yellow mare slammed into the ground and the Doom Dog, content with the strike but growing tiresome of the other pegasus, charged forward towards Dawning Amity in a reckless rage of blood lust. The breath was stolen from her body as the creature slammed into her, sending them both careening into the rapid waters below, where she could not hear her father screaming.

Water enveloped the pair, and Dawning Amity felt no pain as the world faded to blackness...

---

Breathe...

Breathe.

Breathe!

Dawning Amity awoke with a gasp and a cough as her body demanded air, and she hurried looked about to make sure she was safe, taking comfort in her familiar surroundings. The rain thudded against the roof of the makeshift shack in a calm but dangerous pitter-patter of nature. Looking down, the golden pegasus mare discovered that a puddle of water had been forming from a hole in the roof directly where she had been resting her head, threatening to drown her if she had remained asleep for much longer.

"Are you alright?" her father asked from across the room.

"I'm fine, it was just a nightmare... How's mom?" Dawning Amity responded as she cleared her throat. Her eyes fell upon the pair huddle up against the wooden wall of their home, with her mother laying slumped against her father; a large gash in her side turning green and blue around the edges from the fight a few days earlier.

Her father did not immediately respond, and turned to look once at his sleeping wife before carefully settling her down on the floor as he stood up to approach his daughter. With a heavy sigh, he sat beside her and stared through the wooden door of their dwelling, his mind lost to memories and better times. "Dad?" Dawning Amity whispered, pulling her father from his thoughts with a blink. "Is mom going to be alright?"

Without a word, he turned to his daughter and studied her face, finding admiration in the soft curves of her cheeks and the flat top of her snout that reminded him so much of his wife. "The infection is getting worse." he said; his voice masking the majority of his fear and sorrow. "She needs proper medical supplies if we're going to treat it."

"What do you want me to do?" Dawning Amity asked as she stood, ready to bolt out the door and prepared to do anything to save her mother.

"I need to stay with your mother and make sure she's safe. You need to go to Oort's family and ask for medical supplies." her father replied.

"But we have nothing to trade! We have no food or anything!" Dawning Amity exclaimed. "They won't give us anything..."

Dawning Amity's father looked silently at her; his eyes filled with pity and regret, the likes of which the young pegasus mare was far too inexperienced to understand, before quietly speaking: "You must try. Trust in the good of others, if nothing else. All we have left in this world is each other."

Dawning Amity gave a short, determined nod as she hurriedly moved to leave the relative safety of their home before her father spoke once more. "Dawn," he began, quietly. "your mother and I love you very much. If she were awake, she would tell you how proud she is of the mare you've become."

Dawn smiled at her father as she pushed open the door to the outside world. "I'll be back." she promised, before galloping off out towards the mountains in the north west. Her father watched, sadly, as his daughter left and, when she was beyond his sight, he shut the door behind him and placed the heavy wooden bar to block any from entering before returning to his wife, whom he held closely and tightly with one hoof under her snout and the other across her forehead; her head pressed against his chest. With a deep breath, he turned his head down towards his sleeping wife and whispered softly into her ear: "I love you."

Comments

[Rune Caster the First]

Wonderful chapter! I'm so looking forward to the next chapter.

[Shpoople96]

Ah, yes. A very early story, indeed.

[Darkswirl]

8040007 This story was actually started about three years ago and has undergone several revisions.

[Shpoople96]

8041040
Three? More like five...

[Darkswirl]

8041046 If you want to be fucking technical it's 4.599684 years, but the point remains: it's just a prologue for now because I've scrapped the previous information. But this isn't the end of the story.

[Advent Link]

a short but effective chapter. This poor family, just trying to do their best, but heavy mistakes were made.

[Circut Breaker]

Lyra is mad that you plucked her so much
stop plucking the heartstrings

[dragonus85]

8041061
just read this prologue it tickled my interest so i took a gander at some comments and this one caught my eye. i love technicalities