The Birth of Grenth : Where we went wrong Reboot

by Nightshade shadow kitty

Chapter 2: Fear and Tyrant

Mia continues to walk to her home, the Shadow known as Grenth following close behind her.
Grenth wasn’t really following Mia out of kindness, but more so because she was radiating its food. That, and it was intrigued by the young filly.

Mia reaches the front door and nudges it open, stepping in, Grenth still right behind her.
“You’re back early Mia. Are you finished talking to-” Mia’s Mother freezes in place when she turns around and spots the Shadow looming over her daughter.

“Mia! Get down!” The mare fires a magic bullet at Grenth. And it just stands there, looming.
The spell hadn’t bounced off, and hadn’t been absorbed. It just simply had no effect on it.
“Mommy! Do not hurt Grenth! He is my friend!” Mia says after uncovering her head.
“What is a friend?” Asks Grenth as it continues to stand near Mia.
“Um… a friend is… somepony you like being around…” Not that she would know.
“I see… then yes. I am Mia’s friend.”

Mia’s Mother continues to stare wearily at Grenth, clearly not convinced that the creature looming over her daughter wasn’t about to gobble up her child.
“What… IS it?” She finally asks.
“I don’t know.” Both Grenth and Mia chime in unison.
“Grenth scared away the foals that broke Kirin’s gravestone. He tried to fix it but it didn’t work.”
“It is broken.” States Grenth matter-of-factly.

“I… I see… Well, I suppose I should fix it then. Um…” She starts to cautiously step around Grenth. “Mia, why don’t you come with me. You can bring your friend.”
Mia smiles. “Okay Mommy.” The filly follows after her Mother as the mare levitates over a lantern in case it got dark before they got back.

“Um… perhaps your friend can hide himself?” The Mare asks with a hint of hope in her voice. If they were spotted now their problems would only increase.
“Would that help?” Grenth asked. “Yes, it would help a lot.”
“I see.” Replies Grenth. “Alright. I will hide.” And like that Grenth sort of… melts into one of their shadows.

This obviously disturbs the Mare, but she HAD asked for the Shadow to hide itself, so she had no room to complain.

***

The walk to the graveyard had been uneventful. They hadn’t run into any other ponies so even if Grenth had materialized it wouldn’t have mattered.
They approach Kirin’s broken tombstone, the mare letting out a sorrowful sigh. “Foals these days are so cruel…”
The Mare starts levitating pieces of the tombstone into place, piece by piece, and using magic to repair the damage.
“What is cruel?” Asks Grenth as he observes the Mare as she fixes the gravestone.
“When somepony does something just for the sake of hurting or upsetting them.” Answers the Mare.
“So… it is like being mean or rude?” Asks Grenth.
“Well, yes, I suppose.” Answers the Mare, still weary of the Shadow.
“You have many words for very similar things… It is confusing.”

Eventually the tombstone is repaired, the Mare staring sadly at her daughter’s grave.
Grenth has since materialized again, the shadow looming over the mare, her sadness ‘tasting’ sweet to the shadow.
The Mare notices Grenth looming over her and she tries to move away, only for it to follow her. “What are you doing?” She asks, obviously a little shaken by his behavior.

“You taste good. I am… what is it called… eating?” It replies, not entirely sure if it was using the right words.
“I would prefer if you didn’t eat me.” responds the mare, backing away some more.
“I am not eating you? I am eating off of you?” It was getting slightly irritated by its inability to use the right words to describe the process. There simply weren’t any words that worked the way it wanted.

Needless to say, the Mare was as confused as Grenth was. “Well, since the tombstone is fixed, my daughter and I should be heading home. It was… nice meeting you?” She hoped the shadow would take the hint, but judging by its behavior so far, it seemed to lack the ability to pick up on subtlety. “We’ll be going now. Come along Mia.”

The mare starts walk back home, her daughter close behind, feeling a chill. She looks behind her, not seeing the shadow. Did it take the hint? That seemed unlikely, but she couldn’t see it anywhere.
Deciding that she had simply get lucky she leads her daughter back home, levitating the lantern before her as it started to get dark.

Mia stuck close to her Mother’s side, the filly not being a fan of the dark. The Mare noticed her daughter’s fear and decides to sing a song to help keep her calm.

“When the trees creak and sway, and the sunlight turns to grey, we run and run and run and run, back to our beds of hay. When shadows start to creep, and the willows start to weep, we run and run and run and run, back to our beds of hey.”

The mare goes through a few more versus, Mia happily joining in as they make their way home.

***

Mia and her Mother eventually walk through the door of their home, the Mare placing her lantern onto the table before shutting the door and bolting it shut. She notices a familiar saddlebag in the corner.
“Alright then my little one, off to bed now.”
Mia, being the good filly that she was, nuzzles her mother and does as she was told, going to her small room and curling up on her bed of hay and blankets.

The Mare then enters her own room, her husband sitting there, waiting for her. “Where were you?” Asks the Navy blue unicorn stallion.
“Fixing Kirin’s tombstone… We didn’t make trouble for anyone I swear.” The mare was frightened, and for good reason. Tyrant Lichslayer was far from being a gentle stallion.
“You know the rules. Once it goes dark, you stay in the home.”
She would say that it wasn’t dark when she left, but knew that making any sort of excuse would only make matters worse. “I am sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“It had better no-”
His eyes widen, his horn starting to glow scarlet like his mane.
Grenth was looming over the mare, having been drawn out of his hiding place by her fear.
Lichslayer fires a beam of magic at the shadow, the magic being completely useless against it.

The Mare had been forced to drop to the ground to avoid being killed by the beam.
Lichslayer charges the shadow, intending to impale it with his horn, only for the stallion to pass right through the shadow.

The Mare takes this opportunity to flee, hurrying to Mia’s room and gathering her up with her magic and placing her on her back.
“Mama? What’s happening?”
“Quiet little one.” She then goes to head out of the room, but sees Lichslayer still fighting, or at least attempting to fight Grenth, but having absolutely no effect on the shadow.

The Mare then decides to blast a hole in the wall to the outside, fleeing into the night with only her horn to light the way.
She needed to get away, far far away, because if she didn’t, she knew, she KNEW Tyrant Lichslayer would kill her.

Author's Note:

Hmm... this one feels a bit rushed. Sorry about the delay, sometimes I have bursts of creativity, and others it just completely runs dry.