Dark Comet

by Mr Tinkertrain

Into the forest

The trio wandered on the path leading through the Everfree Forest and beyond. It was an old path which usually wasn’t used anymore, since nopony wanted to go through the Forest. But since Fluttershy was the only one who could fly over the trees, they had to take the ground route through it. “Uh … Twilight … do we have to go through Everfree Forest?” Fluttershy was the one who asked, and Twilight turned her head to her friend, who was walking next to her. “Well, Fluttershy, this is the fastest route to where I think that thing came down. And the route around Everfree Forest will take some months, and you know that aswell as I do.” Fluttershy just whispered something, what neither Spike nor Twilight could understand at all.

They didn’t ask what she said and just kept on walking – until they reached the borders of Everfree Forest. The dark trees of the forest reached high in the sky before them, and it seemed like the sky turned from a bright blue into a dim grey where the borderline of the trees began. They stood a while in front of the trees, before Twilight was starting to walk ahead of the others, until Spike grabbed her tail and pulled her back. “Do we really have to go through the Forest? I don’t want to go in there!” He was trying to explain as Twilight looked at him furiously. “Either we go through there or we will spend months wandering around. Come on, what could possibly happen?” Twilight turned around and kept on walking ahead.

Sure, the Everfree Forest wasn’t really inviting to take a walk between its trees, but as long as they stay on the way they should be safe from whatever lives in this dark forest. Twilight assured herself that her friends were following her by turning her head over her should and looking behind. Spike just followed her, while Fluttershy was looking around anxious. It probably was not a good idea to bring her here, since she is so fearful and shy. But Twilight knew that she would keep by her side. Also she felt a bit fear as they walked through the dark and silent forest, but she suppressed it. Twilight thought she could see some shades dancing through the shadows of the forest, but she was sure that they were just imaginations of her winds, caused by the dark look of the forest around and the quiet, yet audible rustling of the leaves above them, as the cool wind was rushing through the leaves.

They reached an old, wooden bridge over a lake. The water was dark green and dirty and full of dead leaves. Twilight was the first to step on the bridge, which let out a loud creak as she put her hoof on it. She stepped back and looked closely at the wooden bridge. She didn’t trust it, but the sea was too large to walk around it. Carefully she was stepping on the bridge, which let out another creak. And even more carefully she walked across it, reaching the other side safely. Spike, who was much lighter than a pony, followed her immediately without even causing the bridge to creak. The last one who had to cross the bridge was Fluttershy, who didn’t think about using her wings to fly over the bridge instead of risking crossing the old, wooden bridge. It once creaked loudly, and then the pegasus broke through the wood, hanging on the edge with her hooves. She did not even had the time to scream.

Twilight didn’t think twice about using her magic as she slowly walked back on the bridge, carefully so she wouldn’t break down too. She almost reached Fluttershy and caught her in the last moment before the pegasus would have lost her grip. Twilight pulled her up onto the bridge again, which creaked dangerously. They crossed the bridge carefully, so none of them would break through the rotten wood again. As they reached the other side where Spike waited for them, Twilight just turned over to Fluttershy. “Do us all a favor and just fly over the bridge next time, ok?” Fluttershy blushed and remained silent, but nodded.

They continued their way through the forest, occasionally meeting small animals that crossed their path. At dusk, they started… to look for a shelter for the night and soon found a small cave. “Fluttershy, you gather some firewood, I will check the cave to see if something is in there.” The pegasus nodded and immediately started collecting small sticks. Meanwhile Twilight lifted the next larger branch she could find with her magic and let it hover it in front of Spikes face. “Spike,” she said, “Fire!” The baby dragon took a deep breath and spat fire on the branch. Twilight then went into the cave, checking to see if anything was hiding in there. It turned out that the cave went deeper inside the earth than she expected. There was possible a tunnel network below there, not that she cared much about this. They just need a shelter for the night.

As Twilight stepped outside again, Fluttershy and Spike had gathered a good amount of firewood and piled it up to a small stack. It was mostly some sticks and branches, and it would burn down pretty quickly, but it was the best they could get, as it was already getting dark. Twilight lifted the stack with her magic and carried it into the cave, where Spike lit it up with a small flame. The fire lightened up the cave and spread nice warmth around it. While Spike and Fluttershy rolled up and tried to sleep, Twilight was lying awake and watched the dark forest outside of the cave, but she could see nothing but darkness.

But when something moved out there, Twilight got alarmed. Whatever it was, it probably was not as nice as the wild animals back at Fluttershys cottage. They traveled already deep into the forest, and it was night. Nopony really knew what could be lurking through the shadows outside of their cave. Twilight threw some more wood into the fire. The fire crackled as it got fresh material. Twilight hoped that the fire would keep most wild animals away from their shelter, and that she and her friends would make it through the forest without major problems. She kept staring into the darkness, she registered a small shade moving outside of their cave, standing in the shadow, but couldn’t tell if it was a pony or a wild animal. She tried to look closer, but then it fled. It probably was just a harmless animal.

Twilight was lying down again and tried not to fall asleep, but she couldn’t help herself. It felt like she closed her eyes for just a second. When she was awakened by cracking of branches and the rustling of leaves outside of the cave, she first saw that the fire went out and then stared into the darkness around. She wasn’t sure if she could see anything, but as the rustling came closer, she thought that it would be better to wake up her friends. She gave her best to wake up Spike as silent as possible, and as he woke up, she gave him the sign to remain silent. But Fluttershy wasn’t used to be woken up in the dead of night and let out a small scream, which was stopped quickly by Twilight as she closed the pegasus’ mouth with her hoof, so she couldn’t let out a scream.

They hid behind a rock, as the pale moonlight revealed a dark silhouette of something large coming to the cave. It was shambling almost in front of the trio, but didn’t notice them yet. The creature let out a deep growl as it vanished in the darkness of the cave. Twilight was sighing, relieved that it didn’t notice them, as the creature went into the deeper parts of the cave. They waited a while in their hideout, and then they moved out again. Twilight looked into the shades of the cave. “Well, we can’t stay here now. We have to move on.” While Fluttershy was too scared to contradict, Spike wasn’t too eager to stay in the cave either. They moved on with their journey into the southwest, now through the darkness of the forest and the cool of the nightly air.

They moved as silent as possible, they didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves, especially not in the dead of night, far away from any hideout. Luckily they weren’t encountering any other creature of the forest, but Twilight noticed that the shapes of the trees were slowly changing, the silhouettes of the trees, which reached high into the sky, were slowly changing into crippled versions of themselves the further the trio went into the southwest. Also they could feel the cover of grass and dead leaves below them change into bare earth. Also the nightly noises of the forest hushed away and an unnatural silence fell over the forest. A silence none of them liked really much, but they didn’t think about turning back. They kept on moving ahead, even now that they just got a bit sleep and still were tired.

Their journey was silent, none of them spoke a word until the dawn of the new day was breaking and the morning light let them see where they exactly where. Twilight examined one of the trees that were growing around them now. The bark was unnaturally pale and withered, as if the tree hadn’t received watered since a long time, but she didn’t recognize that kind of tree, and Fluttershy didn’t know either those trees. She never went that deep into the forest, by Twilights estimation they should be past the old castle already.

They didn’t care much about the trees besides that they looked kind of spooky and went on with their journey. Twilight also noticed another change: The further they went into the southwest, where that thing she saw during the meteor shower came down, the more the land became a barren wasteland. She didn’t know if this was a bad omen or not, but she certainly didn’t felt good about it. Spike was the first one to break the silence that fell over them since the night. “Twilight? When do you think will we reach our destination?” The unicorn just shrugged. “I don’t know. We will know when we’re there.”

“But when will we be there? I’m tired of walking!” Spike complained. He only stopped to complain as Twilight agreed to carry him also on her back. She wouldn’t turn back just because of a complaining baby dragon. They almost reached the end of the forest, as Twilight heard the cracking of branches again. They stood still and waited if something showed up, but nothing happened. Twilight shrugged and moved on. “I guess it was nothing. Let’s move on.” She said. The unicorn turned her head around to see if her friends were following her so she didn’t see where she walked. She walked past the last tree, not realizing she was walking towards a hillside. Luckily she turned her head to where she was walking in the last moment and stopped right in the same moment she could see the abyss before her. Spike was the one who pulled her back and risking an own look down. “Well, this is surely deep. If Fluttershy isn’t able to carry us both across this abyss, we need to find a way around it, Twilight.”

The unicorn turned her head to her winged friend. “So, Fluttershy … can you carry Spike and me over there?” The shy pegasus looked at the abyss. “I bet that Rainbow Dash could do it, but I doubt that I could fly Spike and you over there …” Twilight nodded. “Well … then I guess we will have to look for another way across this abyss.” She looked around and pointed to a path at the side of the abyss. “There is a path. Let’s follow it, it is not like we don’t have much of a choice anyway.” Twilight took the lead again and walked ahead of the others, following the unknown path without any idea where it would lead them.