( 1 ) A Mourning to Remember

The first time Merry Weather find out about her infertility, she left the doctor’s office in a daze and walked. Not home. Not anywhere. Just walked as far as she could for as long as she could. All she ever wanted her whole life was to start a family. She and her boyfriend had tried for almost a year to have a child, but suspicions grew in Merry Weather’s heart grew that something wasn’t working. Now, her worst fears were confirmed.

Her long walk passed by homes with families turning in for the night. Merry Weather couldn’t help herself as she stared while walking by, only to see the mothers and fathers gather their children into the homes and prepare them for bed. She tried to hide her tears, not because anyone was watching, but because she’d lived a long life of hiding her feelings from others. Her most recent boyfriend had helped her feel special enough that she finally opened up, finally showed some heart. But now, she had nothing to tell him. He couldn’t know. He would leave her. The fears grew in her mind, and she objectively didn’t know if they were true, but her heart said they were, and she always listened.

One hour into her walk, several ponies tried to talk with her, ask her what’s wrong. She didn’t listen. Or perhaps she couldn’t, with all the thoughts swirling around her head. She tried so hard not to accept the idea of living without children, and couldn’t find a way around it. She stayed with the doctor for almost an hour, asking every possible question she could think of to find a way around it. But no magic or technology could help her have a baby. She could adopt, but that still didn’t quiet the voice in her mind which said that she would never get to feel a child growing inside of her, a child whom she could nurture for nine months in the tender protection of her womb before she could experience the incomparable wonder that was child birth. She didn’t care if it wasn’t meant to be easy. She just wanted it nonetheless.

Three hours into her walk and it was well-past nightfall. She was far beyond the borders of Ponyville and right under the floating city of Cloudsdale. Pegasus patrols watched over her as she moved silently and with no apparent purpose for the next two hours until one broke from their patrol route to ask if she was okay. She offered no response and continued her walk in silence. Since she did not speak, the patrol units could not tell if anything was wrong and had no cause to detain her, so they allowed her to pass without incident.

Nine hours after she started her walk, she dragged her body to a forest glen at the base of the mountain housing the city of Canterlot. She was overwhelmingly exhausted. One pony, however, had been alerted by the pegasus patrol a few hours prior and followed her in silence after she saw who it was. Rainbow Dash knew Merry Weather, since they both worked in Ponyville’s weather management team. Rainbow had heard enough stories about Merry’s trouble having children to know that her visit to the doctor today didn’t turn out well. She followed and made sure to distract any creatures which might have shown an interest in the mournful lost pegasus. She knew Merry needed some time to herself.

When Merry collapsed on the ground at the foot of the river leading up to Canterlot’s crystal waterfall, Rainbow Dash swore under her breath and flew to her side. She pulled out some water and medicine from her saddlepack and immediately administered it to Merry. “Sweetheart, you can’t be doing this…”

“I can’t have kids, Rainbow…what does it matter?”

Rainbow Dash held the mare close and said nothing. Then, when Merry felt a little bit better, Dash guided Merry into Canterlot nearby so they could rest in safety.

The next few weeks were hard on Merry Weather. Her boyfriend did everything he could to cheer her up, but absolutely nothing worked. Merry suffered severe depression and the doctor prescribed some medication for her, which she forgot to take more often than not. After nearly a month of constant pressure, including many days where Merry wouldn’t speak, her boyfriend made a hard decision. He told her he had reached his limit and that she needed to seek professional help. He helped her contact a psychiatrist before he broke up with Merry and left for good.

Merry’s friends came over to comfort her, but she had gone quiet. She stopped going to work and Rainbow Dash couldn’t get her to come back no matter how hard she tried. As a result, the weather in Ponyville was more chaotic than usual.

Merry didn’t realize it, but her inability to help control the weather led to one of the worst storms in Ponyville in years, and something else which would change her life forever…

“We can’t control this storm with our small team!” Rainbow yelled to her squad. “Ditzy is out sick, Thunderlane is out of town and half the team is neutralizing the lightning strikes so they won’t set the houses on fire!”

“What about Cloudsdale? Can we get a message to them?” Fluttershy asked. She wasn’t normally part of the weather management team, but she was trying to help. Her animals were absolutely terrified and she promised she would protect them. Their fear always overrode her own.

“No, we’re cut off!” Rainbow said. “I haven’t seen a storm this bad in years! There has to be some disturbance higher up in the atmosphere. Something we can’t see that’s destabilizing the environment!”

“There’s some strange cloud cover over the Everfree Forest,” Fluttershy said pointing past her cottage. “Do you think this is magical in nature?”

“Oh crud! You might be right! Go find Twilight in her library and ask for her help! I know she’s new here, but she might know something.”

A lightning bolt struck a tree near the two pegasi and Fluttershy squeaked in surprise. She hid under a table, all her courage now washed away with the rain.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled. She moaned in frustration. “Stay there! I’ll find some help myself.” Rainbow took off towards Twilight’s library. On the way there, she spied an open door to Merry Weather’s house with no one inside.

Merry Weather was out on one of her long walks when the storm hit. She had enough sense to hide under a large tree as the rain poured down without relent. Flashes of light lit up the sky in shades or purple, blue, and green.

That doesn’t seem right, Merry thought as she spied the sky. I’ve never seen multi-colored lightning flashes like that. She remembered her weather training, hesitated, then flew off into the sky to find the source of the strikes.

She soared above the storm and over the cloudcover. The wind was strong and desperately cold, but she could handle the ice forming on her coat. She looked down below and gasped.

The clouds were swirling in an unnatural formation of circular torus shapes. Their perimeters were doused in hues of swarming dark colors, and the interiors were pouring down torrents of water in spinning formations. It looked like the beginning of a tornado, but one that Merry had never seen before. Whenever the lightning flashed, Merry saw glimpses of something within the center of the open circle in the clouds. Houses? It couldn’t be. There was no town within the Everfree Forest. She moved closer and waited.

Another flash. This time, it was unmistakable. In one instant, Merry Weather witnessed hundreds of homes along residential streets at night with streetlights casting a glow every few hundred meters. She couldn’t spot any ponies, but why would she? The weather was just as bed in the town as it was here in the forest. She moved even closer, trying to see if she could spot more details.

She was too close. The next flash occurred around Merry Weather, filling her eyes with a clear picture of the homes beneath her. For the briefest of moments, Merry was hovering above a completely different town with houses unlike anything she had ever seen before. And in the window of one house, she saw something staring back at her. Several, in fact. And none of them were ponies.

The flash disoriented her and she tumbled to the canopy below.

Somewhere, a baby was crying.

“I’ll be there soon, sweetheart…” Merry Weather heard herself say. She didn’t know who she was talking to.

The crying continued.

“Hold on…” she tried to open her eyes but rain kept pelting them.

Whatever was crying was very close now.

Merry Weather opened her eyes suddenly. She couldn’t see anything in the darkness, but she could hear the baby crying. She sat up with a start and looked around.

Where are you? She thought, listening carefully. Her ears turned in every direction until the cry sounded again. There!

Her wings unfurled and she winced in pain. She tried to move them but felt a stinging sensation in one and absolute pain in the other. She had bruised one wing and broken the second. She grimaced in pain but heard the baby cry again and took off as fast as she could. Her legs still worked perfectly.

She heard a very strange sound. Almost tinny. Like rain falling upon metal and wood. But there were no houses here…

Merry Weather stopped in her tracks at the edge of a clearing.

A single house stood within the Everfree Forest. Two stories tall, it was a perfect replica of the homes she saw in the flashes of light within the torus clouds. Only this time, the house was cut perfectly in half. It’s inner workings lay bare for the entire forest to see. And there were three timberwolves encircling it from all sides.

“Oh no,” Merry Weather said. She could hear the baby crying from within. And so could the wolves.

She couldn’t fly, so there was no way to zip in quickly, snatch the child and then escape. She had to find a way to outwit the monsters.

Her mind raced. What did she know about timberwolves? Magical creatures, constructed of wood, bark and forest debris. They’re held together by magic, but they break apart under stress. If too many get together, they form a Greater Timberwolf, which is nearly impossible to defeat in battle. Extremely fast, they can chase down any prey for miles. They’re clever in packs, but not too bright. They are guided by instinct with almost no intelligence. I’m smarter than them. I can beat them. I have to beat them.

She looked around. What could she use? She needed a distraction. With every cry of the child, the pack moved closer to the source of the sound. One wolf was already at the edge of the bisected house. A few more steps and it’d be inside the kitchen.

Merry Weather found a rock on the ground behind the bush she was crouched under. She aimed at the nearest wolf and launched the rock. It sailed past. The wolf didn’t even notice. The blast of the wind, the pelting of the rain and the howling of thunder was far more distracting than any rock. What else...

She tried shaking a bush as violently as possible to get their attention. One wolf turned around and stared. Merry froze. She could see it through the foliage. Could it see her? It started to move in her direction. She backed up slowly and crawled away.

The crying continued from the unseen child. Through the breaks in the trees, Merry could see two wolves still heading towards the house. One was already sneaking around the lower floor kitchen. Merry hoped to Celestia that the child was upstairs.

She was at a different vantage point, closer now to the house. She picked up another rock and launched it inside the kitchen. It hit a pot on top of the kitchen counter and knocked it to the floor with a clatter. The timberwolves looked around and growled. They were confused. Merry might stand a chance. The crying however, redirected their attention upstairs.

I can’t fool them! Merry said. I have to be faster then… She moved quickly through the underbrush and ended up on the opposite side of the house where the timberwolves could not see. The noise in the environment was so loud it hid her hoofsteps as she snuck up to the side of the house and peered through a window. The first timberwolf was staring up the staircase at the crying coming from above.

No no, over here! Merry thought. She took the hard edge of her hoof and smashed it against the side of the window. It shattered, and Merry heard the timberwolves growl inside the house. She couldn’t dare look through the window now. She glanced around at the side of the house. There had to be a way to get to the second floor. She peeked around the corner.

A timberwolf was staring in her direction. She slowly pulled her head back.

Oh buckflanks… Merry thought. She looked up at the second floor. If she had some way to boost herself up, she could make that jump easily. Her wings were useless right now. The adrenaline in her body overrode the pain. She just needed something to step on. And she was struck by an idea.

She turned and saw the timberwolf staring around the corner, right at her.

…They’re held together by magic, but they break apart under stress…

She couldn’t move. It’s glowing yellow eyes caught her own and she was paralyzed with fear. She shivered and her mind blanked. She knew what she needed to do, but couldn’t do it. Not when staring in the face of death itself…

The baby cried upstairs and Merry broke out of her paralysis. She dove into action and leaped upon the timberwolf. It didn’t expect the pony to move towards it, and shrank back, growling and snapping at her in response. Merry slammed its head down with her hoof and rolled onto its back. She elbowed the creature in the back of the head and saw pieces of its wooden body fall apart. They are fragile, she thought. She pushed it back down as it started to struggle, then elbowed it in the back of the head once more. “STAY DOWN!” she yelled, hearing the cry of the child and finding her strength with each strike. She stood on its back and kicked off. She grasped the edge of the second floor overhang and pulled herself up. I’ll be there soon, sweetheart. Don’t worry. Your mom isn’t here. But I am.

As she sat on the edge of the second floor, she saw a second timberwolf run around the corner. But where was the third one? Merry stared through the window. And her heart nearly froze.

The timberwolf was staring through the bars of a crib at a small squirming bundle. It snapped at the bar and tore it apart, eating it. The wood formed on the back of its body, as the white crib bar became a part of its carapace. The baby cried and Merry heard it come directly from the crib.

She didn’t have to think. Her instincts did it for her. She grabbed the top of the window with her forehooves, hung on and thrust forward with both of her back legs, sending shards of glass into the interior of the room as she dropped through the opening and threw herself on top of the wolf. It spun around in panic and toppled to the ground with her. She slammed her forehooves against its head, cracking off several pieces of its carapace hide. It fought back and pushed her to the ground with its wooden paws, snapping at her with its jaws. She held its mouth back with a hoof under its neck as it snapped at the air around her. She couldn’t overpower it, no matter how hard she tried. Next to her head, she saw a broken piece of the white crib bar still mostly whole. She grabbed it with her free hoof and jammed it sideways through the back of its maw. It couldn’t snap it since it had no teeth at the far back of its mouth. Still stuck under its body, Merry Weather grabbed the exposed edges of the stick on the back sides of its maw with her hooves and twisted its head sideways. The timberwolf fell off to the side and Merry Weather pulled herself on top, straddling its body. She slammed down on its throat with her forehooves over and over until it stopped trying to snap at her. She stood up and saw it was having trouble righting itself, no doubt dazed by her unrelenting assault. She leaped up and aimed both of her back hooves on its head. She came down with the force of her entire body.

The timberwolf stopped moving. The headless body broke apart. Merry Weather cried out in victory and then turned to the open doorway. She saw one of the other wolves standing on the stairway. She slammed the door closed and dropped a dresser down in front of it. She was nearly exhausted and threw herself against the dresser. She stared at the squirming bundle still crying in the crib. The growls behind the door became louder and louder. The door began to shake as the wolf on the opposite side slammed its body against the barricaded entry.

Merry Weather looked around the room. She couldn’t carry the baby without some sort of help. She noticed a baby sling hanging on the back of the door. She tried it on, but realized it would have to rest on her back between her wings. The baby would be facing upwards, so she’d have to shield with from the rain somehow. She grabbed the baby. It was dark, but she could see it already wore an insulated little outfit, though its mouth was open. She couldn’t tell if it was a pegasus, a unicorn or an earth pony, but there would be time for that later. It was too dark to see much of anything in the house. She placed the bundle in the sling and put it across her back. She felt her mind having trouble focusing. She looked at her arms. They were bleeding. She had been bitten and didn’t even realize it. She had to get back to her home in Ponyville and dress her wounds. She looked around the room and found some fabric she wrapped around her forehooves. A baby stroller was nearby and had an overhanging cover on it. She broke it apart and tore off the cover to strap over her back so the baby would have some protection.

The door started to give way and Merry heard two growls coming from the other side. Perfect, she thought. That means there aren’t any outside. She crawled out the window and looked around in the moonlight. No timberwolves were anywhere to be seen. She moved around the edge of the building and dropped down, nearly tumbling to the ground. She might have sprained an ankle, but couldn’t tell.

She took off running as fast as she could, but her body was worn out. She barely managed a jog and the baby on her back would not stop crying. The wolves would hear her escape for sure. She heard their howls back at the half-house. The fear in her heart spiked when she heard several howls answer from all around her in the distance.

Oh no…I can’t…I can’t outrun all of them!

Her mind was faltering. She was getting tired. Months of not working were catching up to her. Her body had almost no endurance. She had no idea where she was in the Everfree Forest. For all she knew, she could be heading deeper into the forest with no one nearby to help her.

She slid down an embankment and threw herself on her face so she wouldn’t overturn and harm the baby. She came to a stop in the mud and opened her eyes. In the distance through the flooding underbrush she saw several pairs of glowing yellow eyes across the forming lake. She tried to push her body up but she was so fatigued her muscles refused to respond.

Come on…get…up! She willed herself to move, but she barely managed to shake a little. The glowing eyes moved closer. Come on…

She managed to stand, and that was an effort in itself. She stood and tried to concentrate. She needed to control herself. Needed to rest. But those eyes were moving closer. Her normal yellow coat was covered in mud, so she had some camouflage. But she couldn’t stay out in the open. She backed up into the brush slowly. Where can we hide? She looked around. Where am I?

Wait…wait…WAIT I KNOW THIS PLACE! Merry Weather had taken dozens of walks through the Everfree Forest in the past few weeks. She knew most of its paths like the back of her hoof. She was in the floodplains at the lowest end of the Everfree Forest. And they were only a few hundred yards away from the path back to the town. But it was dark and hard to see the landmarks. She could push herself. Just a little further. If not for herself, then for the child. She thought she might die from exhaustion, but she didn’t care anymore.

She started down a path on a hunch. She had to trust herself. There was no one else. She didn’t run. She couldn’t run. She barely had enough strength to walk. But walk quickly she did. She passed by a lightning-marked tree. I remember that! She thought to herself. The rain began to pour down even harder. You can’t drown me out anymore. I have someone who needs me! Merry Weather thought to herself. She felt the mud cake her hooves, pulling her down. I’m not giving up! Not this time! Not anymore! She trudged through the mud-filled path and felt the stamina in her body start to fail. No, no it won’t end here! I won’t quit on this child! If I die, they have no one! I’m their mother now! And mothers don’t quit! She gritted her teeth and started to jog with reserves she didn’t know she had. The howls of the wolves were behind her somewhere in the forest. They were on the scent. I’m going to go home with this child. I’m going to give them a life. I’m going to help them grow up. I’m going to be there for them like no one was ever there for me before. And they’ll be happy because they’ll know their mother loves them. And they’ll love me too. She started to gallop. I’m going to live, because this child is my life now! She broke into a full run with the town in sight and heard a war howl erupt behind her on the path. She crossed over into Ponyville. Don’t worry, baby. Momma’s here. And she isn’t leaving you.

Her body was invigorated at the sight of her home. She rushed to the open door and slammed it shut. She dropped a dresser down in front of it as she had done in the bisected house. She placed the child, still in the sling, on her bed and removed the cover.

“We…” made it, she thought. As her eyes closed, she pulled the bundle closer to her. It squirmed a little and cooed. She realized the child wasn’t crying any more. She smiled. And fell asleep.

In her dreams, she stepped across broken twigs as she held a small bundle of joy in her arms. It cooed and giggled and Merry Weather laughed. “You’re mine,” she said. “I’m gonna take care of you, because you’re my love.”

The tiny bundle kicked and giggled. “What are you though? Unicorn? Pegasus? Earth pony? I will love you all the same,” She pulled back the cloth from the baby’s head. Her heart jumped.

She woke up to the baby crying again. She stared at the window. It was daylight. “Ugh…” she moaned. “I’ll get you some food.”

She felt her wings ache and realized one of them was still broken. She’d dealt with enough pain in her life to overlook even this. But the thought of the baby, her baby, lying on the bed, was enough to make her endure any pain. “I’ll make you something. Calm down,” She mixed together several ingredients to make a rudimentary formula for the baby until she could go to market and get the real thing. She placed it in a bottle (which she had always kept, for the day when she decided to have her own kids, and never threw away even after her last visit to the doctor). She walked over to the bundle and stared down at the covering. The baby squirmed, but she still hadn’t seen its face.

She remembered her dream, placed the bottle down and picked up the baby. Now, in the bright light of the morning sun, she could clearly see something was off. There was no pony fur around the baby’s face. She felt a wave of sadness, thinking this child must have been abandoned for being different. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I was abandoned for being different too.” She held the baby against her chest.Iit stopped crying. “Aww…you’re a good baby! So sweet.” It cooed. “I’m going to call you Little Heart, because that’s what you are to me. When you get older, I’ll think about changing the first name, since you won’t be so little anymore.” She laughed. And pulled back the cloth.

For a moment, she stared, wide-eyed, without moving. Her mouth hung open in disbelief. The baby stared up at her with big brown eyes as it nibbled on its small, pink fingers. The black hair on its head was matted and the little ears on the side were small and delicate.

Human, Merry Weather mouthed, but no words came out.

Author's Note:

Extra Story Details

Writing Time: Approx 3 hours
Draft Number: 1 Draft
Story Location: Ponyville, Everfree Forest, WIlderness Areas
Story Themes: Maternal Love, Desires of the Heart, Instincts
Note: This is an "A" Story, meaning I wrote it first during a marathon of story-writing one night. "A" stories are designated by having a slow setup, but a more definitive end to the writing session.

Story Background:

I've had this idea for a while, and actually, it was meant to start at a different point in the story. However, as I started writing this out, I noticed that I was really digging the conflict Merry Weather faced during the instance I wrote about, rather than jumping ahead in the storyline to explore some later themes.

I actually constructed the character Merry Weather in the online MLP RPG entitled Legends of Equestria. It was a strange thing exploring the Everfree Forest in-game as her, but fun. :)
http://www.legendsofequestria.com/

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