A Darkened Path

by Crackshot

The end begins

A/N: This came faster than I thought. Next chapter should be up soon enough, taking enough time for school and what-not. Gonna start off with.... Well, I don't wanna ruin it for you, the loyal readers, so I'll keep my mouth shut for right now. Have fun everyone.

He walked down a dark, cold stone hallway, stumbling every other step as blood dripped from his wounds and onto the floor. He stumbled and fell to the floor, breaking his fall with the only hand he could still use. He began coughing, more and more blood spattering from his mouth to the stone floor, his miniature reflection staring back at him. Sighing heavily, he pushed himself up again, using the stones of the wall to keep his balance.

“Alright…. Alright… I think.. I think I lost them…” he said, trying to catch his breath. He used this moment of safety to think back on just how he’d found himself there…

ABOUT TWENTY YEARS EARLIER

It was a dark night in Ponyville when Applejack walked down the road, an unconscious stallion thrown across her back. Her face was streaked with tears, and her strength was just beginning to fail her.

“C’mon now… Just…. Just a bit further.” She whispered to nopony in particular as she trudged along, not sure where she was going or what to do when she got there. She looked from side to side for a place to stop, a place where she could put the stallion down and go to sleep. She sighed, looking down in defeat as her knees finally gave out beneath her, the gravel coating the ground rushing up to meet her. She tried to get back to her hooves, but she couldn’t get a grip on the rocks, and the weight on her back wasn’t helping at all. She began crying once more; cursing herself for not being able to carry her burden, and cursing the stallion for making such a foolish decision, but in the end it all meant nothing.

Her love was dying, far as she knew, and there was nothing she could do to help him. She lacked the strength of body and will to do anything but lay there in the street and cry.

“Applejack? Applejack, is that you?” came a familiar voice, and the farmer turned to see her friend Twilight through the loosened strands of her hair. “Applejack, what… Who… Why…” the lavender librarian seemed at a loss for words at the sight before her, but her country counterpart did not have enough patience for her to solve the conundrum.

“No… No time ta’ explain, Twi’… Just… Just lend me a hoof will ya’?” she asked, her lungs burning as she struggled for breath. She was growing dizzy, though if it was from lack of oxygen or anxiety, she did not know. The last thing she thought before the sweet void of sleep embraced her was one of worry, both for her health and for that of her stallion.

The stallion, though unconscious, was as healthy as one in his condition could be. His heart beat as it should, his lungs took in and pushed out air at regular intervals, and to any doctor he would seem perfectly healthy.

But no doctor could define what ailed him if they tried.

For deep down, in the corners of his heart and soul, there had always been a darkness. A darkness that, instead of driving him to steal candy as a child, drove him to free slaves. A darkness that, over the years of his life, had accumulated. For every deed of goodness he performed, the dark within him had grown, eventually driving him to release it in a burst of anger and rage that ended in the death of his father.

But, with the death of his father, only more darkness was born into him, the flames of anger and guilt beginning to lick at his very soul as he fled from his past and his future. And, as his life progressed, his new life, the darkness had been welcomed. It had been part of life, a balance to the light he held.

But the toll it took upon his body more than evened out the equation. By the age of twenty, he looked to be at least in his thirty’s, and so on. His mind changed with his body, growing as old as he appeared, yet never straying from the youthful joy and humor he had before his fate changed forever.

And then, at the age of twenty-five, he lay at a crossroads. His body, though living was empty, his soul long since departed to an astral plane beyond even his comprehension. Though he did not know it, his soul was being fought over, and his decisions from then on would have repercussions throughout reality.

“Ugh, that’s the last time I try to cleanse an evil forest.” The man known as Wolves Fang muttered, awaking to find himself in a far cry from the forest he’d left. He stood in a field of wheat and wildflowers, a soft breeze blowing and causing both to sway. He walked, his hands outstretched to catch the wheat as a he passed, the crickets and other insects flying away as he passed in silence. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life, the birds flew, singing their serenades to him as the passed in glory, the sun shining bright and the sky blue as the deepest sea, clear and amazing without a cloud in the sky.

He felt his heart thumping in his chest as he saw this beautiful sight, and let out a laugh of wonder as he broke into a sprint through the field.

“Yeah!” he yelled out, enjoying the feeling of freedom and health rising within him as he whooped and hollered through the rolling plains of grains. He felt at peace. He felt alive. He felt happy.

And then, in an instant, it was all gone, replaced with burning flames and screams of pain. He looked around to see people, animals and homes, all burning, blazing with light as they called his name. His true name. Tears streaked down his face, staining his skin, and he turned to the only solution he could see.

He ran. He ran as fast and far as he could, through the fields once more. The birds flew and sang again, but in pain and sorrow as their homes burned around them and the flames scorched their feathers. The tears continued to flow, and his feet never stopped pushing him forward, further and further as the flames licked at his heels, urging him ever onward. He heard voices, faint at first but growing louder over the roar of the flames.

His cloak, which had served him well throughout the years, caught fire first, the flames spreading quickly as he fell to the ground, burning flowers rising to meet him as one last thought raced through his mind.

Why?

Comments

[oisdfwsdfwe]

Hi buddy :

2012Sorching summer comes, in order to thank everyone, characteristic, novel style, varieties, low price and good quality, and the low sale price. Thank everyone

==== ( http://www.fullmalls.com ) =====

==== ( http://www.fullmalls.com ) =====

$33 True Religion jeans, Ed Hardy jeans,LV,Coogi jeans,Affliction jeans

$30 Air Jordan shoes,Shox shoes,Gucci,LV shoes

50%Discount winter fashion :Sandle,t-shirt,caps,jerseys,handbag and brand watches!!!

$15 Ed Hardy ,LV ,Gucci Bikini

$15 Polo, Ed Hardy, Gucci, LV, Lacoste T-shirts

$25 Coach,Gucci,LV,Prada,Juicy,Chanel handbag,

$10 Gucci,Ed Hardy sunglasses

$9 New Era caps.

give you the unexpected harvest

==== ( http://www.fullmalls.com ) =====

==== ( http://www.fullmalls.com ) =====

==== ( http://www.fullmalls.com ) =====

==== ( http://www.fullmalls.com ) =====

==== ( http://www.scnshop.com ) =====

[Crackshot]

1268639 .......... What?