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A Dark Room1,141 words
A Tiny Village994 words

A Tiny Village

The fire was burning.

The room was warm.

The lonely hut was quiet.

Twilight returned, exhausted, from hauling another load of wood. She saw Pathfinder and Treadheart playing with Warm Smiles while Steel Heart was working on what looked like a wooden spear. When Twilight asked about it, he only said it was always good to be prepared, not even looking up from sharpening his weapon. She sighed and went over to Wood Nails, who had already started setting up the framework for the next hut. She called out, and Wood Nails responded only by glancing up and looking at her for a few seconds before getting back to work.

The fire was roaring.

The room was hot.

The lonely hut was silent.

The rain poured hard, drenching the ground and anything on it. In the room, the six ponies huddled around the fire while the sounds of lurking beasts could be heard outside. The six ponies talked over their experiences, trading tips and tricks and just generally entertaining themselves. It was all well and good until Twilight heard some scratching in the storeroom. Sneaking as quietly as she could over to it, she found a stallion picking through the various supplies. He turned, saw her, and tried to run off, but before he could she had him in her grasp. When she asked what he was doing, he said that he just needed food and that he didn't want to hurt them in a panicked voice. She sighed and said that if he needed help, all he had to do was ask; in fact, she'd let him stay with them for a while until he was able to go out on his own. He thanked her, but said he couldn't stay. He did help her learn the finer things of stealth, though.

The fire was burning.

The room was warm.

The lonely hut was busy.

Twilight and Wood Nails finished sawing out the walls of the second hut and putting them into place. After the roof was attached and the small amount of furniture put inside, Steel Heart came into the tiny village carrying a large carcass, and put it on the padded dirt in between the buildings. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he called over his sons to come help him. Warm Smiles was leaning on a hut, working on knitting a small quilt from the pieces of cloth caught by the traps. All in all, life was good and simple in the village.

The fire was flickering.

The room was mild.

The tiny village was quiet.

The only sign that anything was coming was the faint rustling of bushes in the forest. One of the new pegasi that had moved in over the past few days was the first to notice anything; she quickly turned around and started scanning for danger. Then the beasts leapt from the wood. There were only about two or three of them, but they managed to drag off a unicorn, kicking and screaming, into the underbrush. Then everything went silent. The two ponies who had come in with the now-dead unicorn just stared in mild shock at the gnarled, curled trees and bushes from where the beasts had come. But life went on; within hours, they were back to work, albeit slower and quieter than before.

The fire was burning.

The room was warm.

The small village was bustling.

The village had been growing at a rate of a hut every two or three days. Twilight had fallen into a simple routine of sending out the stronger ponies to get wood in carts, waiting for them to return, and sending the wood off to Wood Nails. She was mildly surprised when Wood Nails suggested building a hunting lodge a few miles out of town, to get meats and furs for the town. Thinking it over for a moment, Twilight decided it was actually quite a good idea, and immediately delegated some of the wood-gathering ponies to get to work on it. Within a day, the lodge was up, and the food and furs began flowing. Some of the residents had reservations about eating meats, but most of them either came around or found enough plants to sustain themselves.

The fire was burning.

The room was warm.

The small village was bustling.

The sound of a far-off horn signalled the arrival of the caravan. They stopped next to the village, surrounded by guards holding rifles and bayonets. An old, fat earth pony stallion climbed down from the most decorated wagon and walked up to Twilight, offering a trade; a hundred furs for a compass. Twilight eagerly accepted the trade; compasses were extremely rare this days, with most of them either having been taken apart or destroyed. When she picked it up, she noticed it was pointing towards the southeast. She looked off towards the southeast, and all she could see was grassy plains for miles. She thanked the trader for the compass, and went back to the town with her new tool.

The fire was burning.

The room was warm.

The small village was quiet.

It was the dead of night. Twilight was alone outside, holding her compass, a blank sheet of paper, a stick of charcoal, and a torch in a small fur bag. She silently stole into the night, leaving only a small note in the room that simply said, "Gone Southwest." She trudged through the night, looking for anything of interest. Suddenly, she heard a crazed shout from behind her. She barely had time to turn around and look before a crazed stallion slammed into her side. With the breath knocked out of her, she barely had time to reorient before he hit her head with his hoof. She felt her consciousness slipping away as she tried to fight back. Lighting up her horn, she barely managed to get a single magic blast off before she collapsed, unconscious.

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