Emergent Darkness
Floating.
All Astrid could feel around her was the strange and surreal sense that she was floating. It was not like she was on water, bobbing aimlessly along on the surface only to sink down into the fathomless depths. No, this felt different, somehow. She was not sure how else to explain it other than that word, “somehow”. She was just. . . floating. That was all there really was too it if she were honest, and she doubted she could have come up with a better way to describe the feeling if she even if she had the words, forced to stick with the comparison as she drifted through a seemingly eternal nothingness with no clear end in sight.
Suddenly she heard an echo through the void, brutally assaulting her sense of hearing and making her involuntarily cringe in discomfort. She opened her eyes a tiny bit, trying to ascertain the source of her torment as what seemed to be multiple voices spoke words she did not know, their tone shrill and harsh. Her vision was blurry and she had difficulty making anything out, but what she could see frightened her to no end.
She saw an eye, peering at her mercilessly and without anything remotely resembling kindness, compassion or even a small hint of pity. Instead it seemed to glare at her almost hatefully, unmoving and unblinking in the depthless existence that Astrid had somehow found herself caught in.
It was cold. So very cold, like her very blood had become frozen within the veins of her flesh as the eye kept its gaze locked on her. Hoping to ward it off, Astrid curled up in a fetal position, fruitlessly attempting to cling to some imaginary hope for warmth to come and bring her comfort, to make it not feel so cold, to make it so that her heart did not hurt anymore.
She wanted to go back home.
She wanted her father.
When Astrid finally awoke, she did so with startled gasp.
“Dad!” she exclaimed frightfully as she sat bolt upright. She instantly regretted the action, as she was suddenly wracked with an enormous pain in her head, pounding away at the interior of her skull like a jackhammer. Wincing from the painful sensation, Astrid clutched her head between her hands as she tried to massage the pain away, with little success.
“Wha. . . what happened?” Astrid questioned aloud, not really expecting an answer as she recovered from the dream she just had just awoken from. That was all it could be, right? It had just been a bad dream that she had after going to bed. But that did little to explain the headache she was suffering from, which continued to relentlessly assault her brain as she gripped her head in discomfort, and all she could really think about was finding some aspirin.
Removing one of her hands from her head, Astrid’s senses gradually returned to her as she got up out of her bed, trying to orient herself enough so she could reliably find the bathroom. She absentmindedly noticed that the blankets beneath her palm seemed to feel rather odd against her skin. Did she sleep on her arm funny or something? Astrid decided not to pay it much mind, as it felt like she were recovering from a brain aneurysm. Tentatively she opened her eyes to see where she was going, and Astrid found that it was almost pitch black. It was obvious it was still nighttime, but there should have been at least a little light from the streetlamps streaming in through her window. Was there a blackout in their neighborhood or something?
Astrid decided that she would ask her father about it later as she walked forward. Or at least she tried to. The moment she took a single step Astrid toppled over, falling to the ground and flailing her arms in a desperate attempt to regain her balance, resulting in her falling flat on her face. “Ow!” Astrid exclaimed, propping herself up and momentarily forgetting her headache as she rubbed her bruised nose. Thankfully a bruise was all that she had suffered, but that soon became the least of Astrid’s worries. It was only then, with her palms on the ground, that Astrid realized that it was not the carpeted floor of her room.
Grass. She felt grass underneath her palms. Why did she feel grass? The obvious answer to that was that she was outside, but that only raised the subsequent question of why she was outside to begin with.
Sitting up on her knees, Astrid’s eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. She could now see her surroundings, and was very much alarmed to find not the familiar poster covered walls of her room, but instead the trunks of a great many trees reaching up into the sky, where a mere sliver of a crescent moon could be seen hanging suspended among the stars. Astrid was not entirely positive, but she was reasonably sure that it was full when she had gone to sleep last night.
“What the. . . where am I? What happened?!” Astrid asked aloud, growing more and more alarmed with every second that passed with no explanation as to how she had somehow wound up outside. She began to stand up to get her bearings, but the moment she tried to do so she immediately fell down, feeling strangely off balance for some unknown reason, adding a bruise to the back of her head to accompany the one on her nose. The impact caused her headache to flare up once again, reminding her of its presence. Astrid groaned, wincing from the discomfort before she was able to open her eyes again, staring up at the crescent moon which stared back through the canopy above.
She rolled over, groaning from the small amount of effort, and propped herself up on her hands and knees. It was then that Astrid finally noticed something was very, very wrong with what she was seeing.
She was glowing. More specifically, her arms and hands were glowing. Even more specifically, little lines that spider-webbed across her arms and hands were glowing, forming odd patterns and producing a soft greenish hue, gently illuminating pitch black skin and small pointed protrusions jutting out of her forearms like thorns.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Astrid positioned herself onto her knees, bringing her hands up closer to her face. Instead of her own fingers, Astrid found small pointed appendages that were not quite claws, but nothing resembling human anatomy either either. They flexed and bent like fingers, but they, along with her arms, felt much too long and slender for her body. Frantically, Astrid checked herself to see if anything else about her was different, and was shocked to find that her body had undergone a similar, if not more drastic transformation.
She was still dressed in her night clothes, and her necklace still hung around her neck, but even with them on Astrid could plainly see her torso had somehow shrunk. Her skin had been recolored into a deep black with a strip of white running down the middle of her chest, the rest hidden by her nightshirt. She also noticed her hair had changed as well, transforming from shoulder-length auburn locks into a long rippling wave of orange and yellow that was almost radiant in the darkness, reaching well past her waist and dragging on the ground.
Was she still dreaming? She must still be dreaming. That was the only explanation for it, it had to be. None of this was real, none of it. It simply was not possible, there was no way this could have happened. It did not matter how lucid she felt as she gazed at herself in horror, nor how much the slight ache within her skull convinced her that she was very much awake, she must still be asleep and in the process of having a strange nightmare, one that she desperately hope to soon wake up from.
Except she did not wake up, no matter how much she pinched herself or told herself to wake up as she clutched her head between her hands, barely noticing her ears were now long and pointed. The headache and the prickly sensation of grass beneath her legs finally convinced her that she was not dreaming. She was awake. This was no dream.
Which meant that her father-
“Dad!” Astrid gasped, memories of the last time she saw her father flooding to the forefront of her mind. She swung her head left and right, desperately searching for any sign that her father was nearby, but all she saw in her immediate vicinity were dark trees, now seeming to be closing in her from all sides as her heart rate began to skyrocket. “Dad?! Dad?!” Astrid called again, shouting at the top of her lungs, hoping she could be heard. She received no response of any kind, furthering her descent into panic. “Dad, where are you?! Dad!” Desperate to find her father, Astrid forced herself to stand, barely keeping herself upright on two thin legs, beginning an unsteady sprint forward.
Not a moment later Astrid tripped again, but this it was because of her lack of balance. Her foot struck something on the ground, causing her to topple over. Glancing backward, Astrid saw the thing that had usurped her footing was none other than one of the stone fragments, the geometric patterns forming a slanted eye that seemed to stare at her with a piercing gaze.
The same eye she had seen in her dream.
Nearby were the other three fragments, arranged in such a way that they actually formed a perimeter around where Astrid initially woke up, something she only now just realized. The moment Astrid saw them, she felt as ifshe had been struck in the chest, remembering their involvement in the last moments she had seen her father, and the cold feeling they sent up her arm when she touched them; cold like the touch of death.
Seeing them like this, strewn about on the ground as they were, sent an unsettling chill up Astrid’s spine. She felt something inside of her twist a little, screaming at her to get away from them, to run as fast as her now short legs could carry her, which was just what she did as she scrambled to her feet, desperately trying to put as much distance between her and those evil things as possible, all while crying out for her father to come and find her.
“Dad!” she screamed, tears forming in her eyes as she sprinted past trees and bushes, her lengthy hair often getting tangled up in their branches. Astrid paid it no mind. All she cared about right now was finding something, anything that was familiar to her, anything she could use to find her way back home and put an end to this nightmare she was undoubtedly trapped in. Tearing her way past low hanging branches and sticks, Astrid accumulated many cuts and scrapes in the process that marred her black skin and poking holes in her nightshirt, but they went unnoticed.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of fighting her way through the dense forest, Astrid stumbled out into the open, feeling dirt beneath the soles of her miniscule feet. She realized that she had come to a road running alongside the forest. She looked to the right, hoping she could find something to guide her way.
She saw nothing of immediate value leading in that direction other than an empty dirt road seeming to go on forever into the night. She looked to her left. When she did, she still saw a dirt road, but also something that gave her pause and confused her utterly.
A castle. There was a castle in the distance. A castle with a great many towers and parapets reaching high up into the clouds from its perch on the side of a mountain, looking very much like the attention-grabbing centerpiece of some absurdly large crown. For a few long moments Astrid was frozen in place as she stared at the unexpected sight, wondering how in the world it was there. As far as she knew there were no castles around where she lived, especially none that hung suspended on the side of a mountain. So enthralled and perplexed was she by the view that Astrid almost did not notice the sound of wheels on the road behind her, accompanied by the steady thudding of what could only be a horses’ hooves, growing louder by the second.
Whirling around, Astrid did so just in time to see she was directly in the path of a horse galloping towards her while a carriage trailed behind it, rattling as it was pulled along rather roughly. Like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, Astrid was unable to do so much as move a muscle, witnessingthe carriage draw closer and closer. It was only when she could actually see the whites of the horses abnormally large eyes that she realized that she was about to become roadkill if she did not move immediately, prompting her to dive off to the side with a frightened yelp followed by a pained grunt as she landed on her chest. She heard the sound of hooves skidding on the ground and a masculine voice exclaiming in a surprised tone, “What in the world?!”
Though she did not see who it was that had spoken, Astrid decided that she would rather not find out what their reaction to her might be given what she currently looked like. She quickly crawled away back into the bushes, hiding herself from view without even bothering to look behind. She waited, terrified of being found for what seemed like minutes with nothing save for the rustle of leaves in the breeze and the occasional chirp of a cricket to fill the silence.
Before long she heard what seemed to be footsteps, or a pair of footsteps slowly approaching her position, growing steadily louder. “What was that little thing?” the voice questioned, and at once Astrid felt her heart begin to race and a nervous sweat run down her face. The more sensible side of her being told her she should just come out to see if whoever was out there could help her in some way, but the logical part of her mind was suffocated, drowned out by her fear and the irrational possibility that they would recoil at her appearance and harm her. For all she knew they could have been involved taking her away from her home, and that thought alone was more than enough to keep her quiet, praying for them to just leave her alone.
Again the footsteps drew near. It was all that Astrid could do to keep her herself from breaking down completely. She covered her mouth to keep herself from being heard as she frantically thought to herself over and over again, tears running down her face, Go away go away please leave just go away I don’t want to die please don’t hurt me go away please go away Dad please help me I’m scared go away.
Suddenly a new voice rang out, interrupting Astrid’s panicked thoughts. The voice was decidedly feminine as whoever it belonged to demanded, “Driver, what is going on out there? Why have we stopped?”
“Apologies ma’am,” the male voice replied, sounding almost as if he were standing right next to Astrid, causing her heart to skip a few beats. “Just saw something strange on the road. Not sure what it was though.”
“Well, figure it out later,” the female voice demanded impatiently. “We are already late enough as it is, and I don’t to be held up by some woodland creature. And I most certainly am not paying you to stand around and be distracted by every little thing. Now if you don’t mind I would like for us to be on our way.”
Astrid heard a tense sigh, followed by, “Yes ma’am, right away.” Soon afterward the sound of footsteps receding in the distance reached her long ears. Relief spread through Astrid as she slumped down, her heart still feeling as though it were about to burst its way out of her chest. She honestly felt as if she had just run a marathon nonstop, yet was still ready to dart away at a moments’ notice. But even then, she dared not move for fear giving herself away. It was not until she picked up the telltale sound of the carriage rolling away that she felt it was safe enough to risk peeking out. She did so just in time to see the rear of the carriage receding in the distance, until it eventually faded from view, heading in the direction of the city on the mountain.
Glancing around to see if the coast was still clear, Astrid cautiously ventured out of her hiding place, wondering who those two people had been. She had not seen either of them, but Astrid had been too afraid at the time to care. All that really mattered to her at the time, and still mattered, was the question of what she was going to do to keep others from seeing her like this. Astrid looked down at her hands, the markings on them still glowing in an almost ethereal green glow. She noticed her necklace dangling down in front of her chest, the silver angel reflecting the moons light. Holding it in her palm, Astrid gazed at it forlornly, the realization setting in that it was probably her only remaining connection to her home.
“What do I do now?” she questioned aloud in a soft and pleading voice. She closed her fingers around the necklace, looked up at the star filled sky above, hoping for an answer-anything that could help her- to present itself. Given everything that had happened it seemed just as likely as anything else. But no matter how much she hoped and silently pleaded, no answer to her predicament was forthcoming, leaving Astrid standing alone on the side of an unknown road, in the middle of apparently nowhere, with no clear indication of where to even go. The only visible landmark to be seen for miles was the castle, far off in the distance.
A breeze passed by Astrid, prompting her to wrap her arms around her torso to conserve warmth. She realized just how cold it was out here, and how ill-equipped she was to deal with it. The only piece of actual clothing that she seemed to have aside from her necklace was her nightshirt, which was not at all suited to stave off the cold of the night. But, unwelcome as the feeling might have been, at the very least it gave Astrid a goal- that being to find some place warm and relatively safe to sleep for the night. A quick glance at the dense wall of trees behind her was enough to quickly dispel them as an option. She did not particularly fancy sleeping in a bush, and the idea that there could be all sorts of animals that would not hesitate to make a meal out of her lurking near-by only made it seem that much less appealing.
But more than anything else, that was where the fragments were located, and Astrid wanted to put as much distance between herself and those evil things as possible.
However, this still left the question of where to go. As much as Astrid would have preferred not to, her only real option for the time being was to head in the same direction as the carriage, towards the castle.
Wiping away at her face with her arm, Astrid proceeded to walk at a quick though unsteady pace, following the trail left in the dirt road by the carriage’s wheels and the horse’s hooves. As she walked, she kept her hand tightly wrapped around her necklace, refusing to loosen her grip for even a moment, as if it would disappear the moment she let go.
Feeling time was of the essence if she wanted to return home any time soon, Astrid quickened her pace, as much as her unfamiliar gait would allow, occasionally being tripped up by own hair in the process, hoping that she would find something that could help her find her way.
Astrid was not entirely sure how long she had been running, only that it had been long enough for her unsteady pace to devolve into a weary shuffle as her feet dragged on the ground, creating twin trails in the dusty road behind her. A spike of discomfort to shot up her legs from the soles of her tiny feet with every step that she took. In the time that passed since she started following the trail left by the carriage, the moon had descended down into the sky by a considerable margin. The edges of the horizon had become tinged with hints of purple and blue. Morning was not very far off, yet all Astrid really wanted to do was find a place to rest, feeling ready to simply collapse on the side of the road.
But still the girl plodded onward, hoping that she could something, anything, able to help her. She could not stop now, she felt, not if she wanted to get home. Yet with every minute that passed her by it became more and more apparent to Astrid that the likelihood of that happening anytime soon were about on par with her being able to move the sun.
Disheartened by this revelation, Astrid tried to think of something else to distract her from the current situation. But the only other topic that was even remotely interesting to her was her body. As she shuffled along, Astrid often looked down at her hands, wondering how in the world her being completely changed like this was even possible. It simply made no logical, or even illogical, sense in any capacity. Besides, it only reminded Astrid of the events leading up to her situation, which was the last thing she really wanted to be thinking about. Shaking her head of such gloomy thoughts, Astrid tried to move on to a different topic, such as where she was going to rest. The longer she walked the more apparent her weariness, both mental and physical, became. Her gaze was half lidded and her shuffling gradually degraded even further into a slow shamble. She could hardly even keep her head from sagging downward, and more than once she caught herself nodding off.
In the back of her tired mind, Astrid could not help but wonder if perhaps she should have revealed herself to those people from the carriage. Although there was the chance they could have been involved in her being displaced from her home, logic dictated there was also the chance they were not, and might in fact have been more than willing to lend her their aid. But of course, she had been too frightened to take the chance, and for good reason she felt.
Oh well, Astrid thought to herself. Can’t really be helped now.
With nothing save for the chirp of crickets to accompany her, Astrid put aside such thoughts, and focused instead on continuing forward. The task would have been easier to tolerate if she did not trip over her own hair every few moments. As if to emphasize the point, at that exact moment Astrid’s feet became entangled in the orange mess of hair that dragged along the ground for the umpteenth time, resulting in her falling to the ground. Groaning in frustration as she picked herself up, Astrid brushed herself off, deciding that she’d had enough of it. “I’ve got to get a haircut or something! This is just getting ridiculous,” she grumbled, sitting down off to the side of the road. She proceeded to tie up the mass of follicles into a series of manageable knots, turning it into something that more or less resembled a braid. It did not help that a large amount of dirt and twigs had gotten caught in it, but Astrid was not really concerned with making it look pretty as she finished tying it up with a yank. With the minor annoyance taken care of, Astrid picked herself up and continued plodding long, still wondering where she would eventually rest her head.
At least another half hour passed by in this manner, and just when Astrid began to start thinking that she would eventually be forced to camp out in the forest, she spotted something glowing in the distance. Pausing in her trek, she squinted in order to try and get a better look at whatever it was, but the most she could discern was a lantern or light post of some sort. She was not sure exactly why, but for some reason it seemed she was having a harder time in seeing things as the sky overhead continued to brighten. It was not enough to completely impair her vision; she could still see where she was going, but Astrid found it rather worrying to think she might be going blind on top of everything else that had happened to her. Approaching the light, she hoped it was only from how tired she was.
Soon enough, Astrid was close enough to confirm the light was indeed a lantern, gently swaying back and forth as it hung from a hook on the top of signboard. For a brief moment, Astrid wondered if she was indeed going blind, since she was having difficulty in making out the words written on the board, until she realized upon closer inspection that the reason for her confusion was they were written in a language completely foreign to her. Flummoxed, the only thing she did understand was the artfully crafted arrow hanging below it by a thin chain, pointing at something to her right.
Glancing in the indicated direction, Astrid was somewhat flummoxed to see what appeared to be a train platform, with two sets of tracks running along either side. Sitting on one of the tracks was steam train, with a line of freight cars hooked up behind it. The engine itself looked rather odd to Astrid, appearing to have be constructed almost entirely of wood. Both it and the cars were decorated, to an almost garish degree, with copious amounts of brightly colored paint. Against the backdrop of the darkened forest and the vacant platform, it stood out quite profusely.
“Hello?” Astrid called out, looking around for any signs of activity. “Is anybody there? I need some help.” She waited for a few moments, but to her dismay, no reply was forthcoming, leaving her to wonder if she was completely alone. But when she took a closer look at the train itself, she saw a small pillar of steam coming out of its funnel, concluding someone had at least been here recently. She knew steam trains in particular took a long time to prepare, given how long it took for their boilers to heat, meaning that there must at least be someone here to keep an eye on it, someone that could hopefully point her in the direction she needed to go to get home. Maybe they were just on break or something?
While Astrid considered the matter, a tired yawn escaped her lips. As much as she would have preferred to wait until the engineer or anyone for that matter, to show up, she was simply too drained physically, mentally and emotionally to stay awake for much longer. She felt as if she were ready to simply pass out on the spot. She begrudgingly glanced around, hoping that there was someplace nearby she could rest. Just then, she noticed that one of the sliding doors on one of the freight cars had been left open a tiny bit. Shuffling over, Astrid could see that although it was only a small gap, it was just large enough for her small form to slip through without too much difficulty. Cautiously, she poked her head inside, and was summarily greeted by the sight and scent of straw. Pushed up against the walls were large bales of hay, tied together by lengths of rope and filling almost every corner of the car.
“Guess I’m a stowaway now,” Astrid muttered darkly, finding very little reason to even so much as sneer at her attempt at humor. All she could do was let out a heavy sigh through her nose, and with some effort, she hoisted herself up off the platform and into the car. Loose pieces of straw crunched beneath her feet as she shuffled forward, beginning the process of moving enough of it over to one spot to serve as a bed. It only took a few minutes, but by the efforts end, Astrid felt she was about to simply pass out from exhaustion. She plopped down onto the makeshift bed, feeling tiny pinpricks all over her body.
Yet for some reason, even though she was laying down, more than ready for at least a few hours of decent rest, Astrid was still kept awake by the thoughts continuing to roil through her mind. She stared at the roof of the train car, forlornly pondering the circumstances that had befallen her.
Just a short while ago, though it felt like an eternity at this point, Astrid had a bed. A a real bed, not something she had been forced to piece together with loose pieces of straw. She'd had a roof over her head, decorated with faded glow-in-the-dark stickers she herself had picked out and placed when she was younger. The grey metal roof of the train car was a poor substitute. She'd had a home, and her father, whom she could always depend on to protect her and keep her safe.
It’s gone. All gone.
Astrid felt her breath catch in her throat as that single thought entered her head, blotting out everything else, smothering any hope she might have had of going home, that all of this was little more than a nightmare.
It’s all gone.
A great and terrible weight settled on Astrid’s heart, crushing it beneath an oppressive and all-encompassing presence.
Clutching her necklace in her hand, the only thing she had left of her home, Astrid rolled onto her side. She clenched her eyes shut, but was unable to keep a stream of hot tears from running down her face as she opened her mouth, letting a choked sob escape her lips.
Whether it was for only a few minutes or a stretch of hours, Astrid wept bitterly until her eyes were dry and puffy and her wails were reduced to choked gasps of anguish. Only then was she able to finally drift off into a restless slumber.
The wan light of the moon shone down on the city of Canterlot from on high, gently illuminating the empty streets and roadways. The dark sky was mostly clear of clouds, allowing an almost unobstructed view of the starry night. Standing outside, on the balcony of a tower that stood taller than most any of the structures in the marble city, a pony with the purest coat of white and a mane that rippled like the northern lights, Princess Celestia, regarded the night sky with an impassive, almost blank expression as she stared at the remnants of the moon. The air around here was cool against her body, infiltrating its way past her fur and chilling the skin beneath, leaving the golden regalia she wore to feel more like ice upon her coat.
Celestia let out a heavy sigh, producing a small white cloud before it quickly dissipated in the frigid mountain air. As she watched, she absentmindedly shuffled her feathery wings into a more comfortable position, the visible sliver of the moon slowly descend towards the dark horizon. The night sky gradually began to brighten, turning from a dark, midnight blue to a deep shade of purple. It would not be long now until she raised the sun, signaling the beginning of yet another day for Equestria. Then she would hear the eventual bustle of the city below, sprawled out before her like a foal’s oversized play set. Afterward she would have to once more subject herself to the trials and horrors of politics and paperwork.
But that could all wait just a little bit longer. For the moment, Celestia was content to stand alone on her balcony, overlooking the dawn of a new day, mentally marking it off, reminding herself to do the same on her actual calendar later. That could wait as well, as the alabaster alicorn was mostly content with staying right where she was.
Mostly content, for as Celestia watched the moon continue on its path downward, the bottom half now sinking out of sight, she felt her breath hitch ever so slightly within her throat, momentarily cutting off her ability to breathe properly. At the same time, she felt her eyes moisten.
Closing her violet eyes, Celestia forced herself to regain her composure, her mouth forming a tight grimace across her muzzle. Soon it would be time yet again for Celestia to return to her duty as the sole Princess of Equestria, and it would not do to let anypony see her like this. She had to maintain control, no matter what. Steeling herself and reaffirming her sense of self control, Celestia took a deep breath, letting it out through her nostrils as the last little bit of moonlight vanished altogether, giving way for the sun to rise, chasing away the darkness and shadows, casting the city in the warm rays of dawn. The sun's light reflected off the predominately white buildings of Canterlot in such a way that was almost blinding to the eye.
Celestia hardly noticed though. She rarely took the time to notice these days, even with Equestria more at peace than it had ever been in centuries, and she and her ponies went through their daily routines with nary a thought to spare towards the concept of troubled times. Throughout the centuries she had been watching over her ponies, she could hardly imagine a more prosperous period in her country’s history. Yet when she looked down at the city on the mountain, watching as the streets gradually began to fill up, and the sun climbed ever higher over the horizon, she felt. . . malcontent, for lack of a better description. While she would be the first to say with absolute sincerity that she was very much proud of her ponies and her nation she helped shape, Celestia still could not keep out of her heart the subtle and omnipresent sense that something was missing, leaving a void in its place.
Celestia sighed once her daily task of raising the sun was complete, setting it on its usual course across the sky. Finished with her chore, she turned around, mentally preparing herself for yet another long day of tending to the troubles that would inevitably be brought to her attention. Most days were fairly uneventful, but every once in while something would crop up that required her attention- usually having to do with the nobles. And as usual she was the one to whom her little ponies turned to resolve it.
However, just when she was about to go inside and make her way down to the throne room, Celestia felt. . . something. It was subtle, so subtle that she almost did not notice it. She was tempted to pass it off as nothing more than an effect of the cold air of the Canterhorn Mountain. But the more she considered it, the more she recognized that there was something decidedly different about this feeling, something that she could not quite place. She paused just before going inside to turn around, trying to identify where it was coming from. The feeling did not last very long however, and soon vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the Princess slightly confused as to what its cause.
The only way she felt could adequately describe it was cold, but not in any way that was natural. Rather, it was like a looming sense of dread and insecurity, lingering on her spine like the tip of an icy claw, drawing a line between her shoulders, causing unnatural goose bumps to form under her white fur, and an involuntary shudder of her wings.
“Hmmm,” Celestia hummed, furrowing her brow ever so slightly. The odd sensation was gone, but it had left an impression on her thoughts. She could not decide if the feeling was wrong, or even worth her prolonged attention. In the end, Celestia decided to simply let it go for the time being, choosing to look into it further if it persisted in being a distraction. For the moment, she had her duties to attend to.
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oh hey, I forgot about this. A rare story that focuses purely on the plot without needing cross-overs.
Is the story finally safe to read?
9399705
Yup, the first of the rewritten chapters is up! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as much I enjoyed writing it.
9399706
Is this from the story where she first ended up with the nice colt and his more or less richt family? There also was a rude butler or something like that.
If that is the chase, will the family also be in this version?
i will read the chapter tomorrow.
What does the first chapter contain again? If she only appears in Equestria in this chapter then it's not to important, in that chase a short explanation would all that I need.
9399723
Yeah it's the same story, but a lot of changes have been made. Beforehand, it felt to me like events were more or less happening to Astrid without her being too actively involved. In this version I wanted her to be a bit more outgoing in amending her situation, and so a lot of events that were present I the previous version were cut. The events in the first chapter are largely the same, so if you already read it before the rewrite you won't miss anything new.
Do you have any plans for the fused shadows or are they just gone now. I don't quite remember what you did with them in the other chapters.
Saw an update, was happy, unaware that the story was being reworked.
I guess I'll see what's different.
As I recall, the current state of that family's household, is that it's unicorn lineage that has a non-unicorn heir? Or did I mix that up with another story?
9399833
i think you're right. or close to it. something also had something about the father not being around anymore. and all the nobles and elites looked down on her for it (as if she was to blame) but it's being reworked, so we'll see if that stays the same
Huzzah! I do believe it's a bit of a shame as I enjoyed your previous chapter, but this is lovely as well.
I, as always, eagerly await what's to come.
9399789
Oh trust me, they will be appearing. Not right away, but soon.
9399734
oh okay, well I think I agree with her being a bit to passive? during the first few moments of the story but everything that happened around the house or at least when she was hiding under the bed, those moments I remember in a good way.
Now that I think about it, I think I like in which direction you plan for this to go.
I planned to read the second chapter tomorrow like I said, but if I understand you right I don't need to read it ?
How often do you plan to update?, I'm just asking so I can plan to read a bit here and there if you say I should know most of it.
I had read everything you had written befor to answer your question.
This was a nice chapter and I think it even referenced the old version with the carriage if intentional then we'll done
I am happy to see this story back, though I was unaware it was being rewritten.
Well not a problem, since I'm of the mind that a story muss first please its author before pleasing its audience.
I already saw that this time the colt was absent and thus hadn't have nor is mother chasing after Astrid before bringing her back with them.
The MLP timeline also seem to be more well establish here and we are post season one.
Here are some mistakes I found along my reading :
but this was not because of her lack of balance.
if she
witnessing the
and I don’t want to be held up
tripped up by her own hair
hoping that she could find something,
Sitting on one of the tracks was a steam train,
Whoa wait, this is alive?! 8O
...What a delightful surprise!
9399940
At the moment I have six chapters ready to upload, and I plan to space them apart by a week each. This way it will give me enough time to finish up chapter seven as well as get started on eight.
Welcome back. But why did you change the Cover? The old was awesome.
I dont rember this story at all, but im glad past me decided to favorite it. This is a real treat to read!
Can't wait to see where this goes this time
9400131
I feel the same way about my past me. Good job, let's see where this goes this time!
Hello again. I am happy to find that you are continuing this story. You are a very talented author.
9400089
I just felt that since I was rebooting this story, it ought to get a new cover as well. Plus, it's rather hard to find pictures of Midna that reflect a certain mood, that mood being solemnity, so I had to be a little creative with I did manage to find.
VINDICATION!! (Brooklyn 99)
Glad to see this one update.
Midna is my favorite character in legend of Zelda.
Though things didn't progress far enough in the first draft for me to make a comparison between them,
i am still looking forward to seeing this progress.
Well hello again. It's nice to see you.
That the family that had taken her last time drove away and that she climbed into the train, does that mean now that she won't get to know them?
My arch nemesis. I hope you have planned something nice for her. I mean I wouldn't mind her being careful and sceptical about Astrid, but I would like to see a curious and not so premature Celestia again.
I mean I hardly know if I should expect her looking really bad in a fanfiction or not lately.
What I mean I guess could be that if she has Astrid in Canterlot in the end, that she won't completely treat her as a prisinor or whatever that could keep her there for twenty chapters. My imagination goes into a direction where she maybe tries to find out what she is and when it is a bit more clearer she tries to find a home for her while paying them little visits (not every chapter), to see how she is going.
I think you answered me on this one already and I like that it has adventure elements, but I still hope that it won't be like them having to fight a Villain every second chapter.
Not sure how to tell you how it could look like otherwise, but I'm tired of the stories that make it feel like there is never ending suffering the whole story and the happy moments are smaller than small.
Maybe there is a Villain, then if it has to be a few Interluds with what the Villains are doing and how it affects Equestria but without completely ruining the peace for our main char for a while.
It could start slowly and in that time Astrid learns about her powers, then in the end at some point there could be a big attack, maybe a little bit like you could image zelda game happening.
That too, I hope it's not Astrid she feels, it could be the Villain instead of her feeling the hero again. It's not bad, I just see it so often and because of that it looks at least a little bit less....interessting to me if that should be the chase.
Good I like it that she seems to think it's nothing important for now.
I'm just happy that it continues now. I can't help it if my comments should happen to feel negatively, but I got used to write them in a certain way and to speak my mind which is often that not the same bad stuff happens that I seems to see 70% of the stories that I'm taking a look at.
I really loved the family and I hope you have a similar heartwarming moment in mind. Oh and please don't make them solve the language barrier with a spell.
I mean not like "oh no she doesn't speak our language, but have no fear I Celestia or The bearded one we don't dare to name, will use a simple spell to make her understand us"
If they play with the idea, I often thing they should at least try to let it happen for a while like you did in the first version.
9401269
I appreciate the feedback. You don't have to worry too much about Celestia, as I too despise the "I'm a goddess therefore everything is beneath me and I can make up whatever rules I want" version of her, to say nothing of Tyrant Celestia. Without spoiling anything, I will say the role she plays in this story is anything but antagonistic. I have the Fused Shadows for that.
Regarding the language barrier, I actually did plan something similar to what you were talking about, but with a very light twist to push it out of the realm of cringe and hopefully closer to something like "Yeah, I can see that working." Until then, I appreciate the comment.
9401488
Well okay, but I normally like it that the character appears a bit mysterious and foreign to the ponies if the language barrier is there.
However it sounded as if you don't want it to work 100% right away, as if something goes wrong with said spell. I don't mean anything bad with it, but I was always wondering why do they start with the language barrier when they remove it so soon, or why do they have such a spell already ready to use in a first place.
I still hope you have them get to know her first as someone who doesn't speak their language a day or two. It's mostly a wish, I will get over it if it should happen.
That makes me think of another thing. Maybe you could not make her start with "I'm a human and had an accident, know I'm a weird creature?
It would look nice if she is telling someone about it in an heartfelt moment when she get's really close to someone and needs someone she can talk to.
Yes I admit I just want her to stay a bit mysterious, well I let you do your thing for now. I could talk nonstop about what could go wrong if this or that happens, at least her personallity is a good one as far as I remember which should make most scenarios turn out alright.
Well now ain't this s surprise!
While I did like the slice of lifey adventures of the previous version, I am more than eager to see where this is going now!
Glad to see this story isn't dead or something. Midna has always been my favorite Zelda character, and I'm eager to see how Astrid will fare in her new body.
Going in quite a different direction this time, I see.
I await.
9401488 so Astrid is Luna's daughter and the moon had been destroyed when Tia used the elements thus supposedly killing Luna but she was instead sent to the twilight realm with the missing part of the moon where she met Astrid's father and had Astrid don't know how she got them to earth but I like the subtle reference to Tia's grief
9403286
Uhhh, that's quite the theory, but I can tell you right now for certain that Astrid is not Luna's daughter.
So... Midna the Twilight Princess (chibi form)... Considering how big of a deal the sun and moon are magically in MLP, does the Twilight Realm she's linked to grant any powers as well (beyond maybe Shadow summoning/barriers/weird pixelly teleportation)?
Also, does she have the Fused Shadow headpiece? I couldn't really tell, but that would make an interesting bit of background - why the Fused Shadows would be here as well, and if one is, then what about the others.
9403365
ok, I kinda guessed because Tia sensed Astrid's power that they might be family. and the fact that Astrid/Midna is a princess as well kinda lead me to it
I was not expecting the update to this story when I saw the new chapter in my tracking but I'm delighted it is! I've been a fan of your work since I read hollow shades, (Still want a sequel to that) and have been waiting for this story eagerly.
By the way if you've been keeping up with the show at all, or at least the references and Easter eggs, you'll know that there is now a Link pony. Will we maybe see him at all in this story?
Interesting start...or restart, I guess.
While it's good to give the main character agency, I also think it's important not to go too far, especially with children. Nothing troublesome yet, but something I recommend keeping in mind.
9404094
Terribly sorry for the long wait for a response.
Regarding the Twilight realm and its Equestrian variant, I actually do have something planned that will showcase it.
Pertaining to the Fused Shadow headpieces, Astrid did leave them behind in the forest, surmising that they were what brought her to this strange world, and so wants nothing to do with them.
They won't be staying there for good though.
Thank you! I remember seeing this story before, once upon a time, and putting it down as an undesirable.
Now, though, I can see it becoming a good one (haven't read further just yet). I'm glad I came across it again- thank you!
This dont sound right