The Tallmare (being reworked)

by hus

ch31 Forward

The group so far had been walking through the Everfree for about 40 minutes. They were about another mile away from the old military hospital. As Twilight walked across the dried dirt path that slowly climbed the hill, she took in the current moment where she was standing as if she was taking a photo of a core memory. The Autumn sky still had Celestia’s sun trailing with a few clouds in the air. The air was cool as it was days before and in the area she was in had two large patches of thick grass that formed a small clearing on the part of the trail they were on before briefly ending where the tall crooked trees met the luscious grass. Twilight took in the brief moment of peace with gratitude, feeling some temporary relief from what she had been going through. She could only stare up at the sky as the wind brushed against the trees and feel the bliss that had waited for her to just come here. She was glad that it greeted her and yet she knew it told her that she would be here only for just a moment.

“Twilight, Twilight are you there??” Applejack nudged her friend who continued staring off into space.
Then the lavender unicorn got snatched back into reality and looked back at Applejack.

“Oh, I’m doing ok, just needing some time to reflect, you know?”

Twilight continued staring out into the sky for a bit before heading back to the trail and resumed walking. Applejack knew there was something off about Twilight. She had been acting so stern over the past couple of days but yet was she really doing ok at this moment?

Applejack trotted quickly back up to Twilight and gave her a firm serious glare, poor Applejack couldn’t speak, she stopped herself. There was no way of knowing what consequences would come to her if she forcefully questioned her friend. It was obvious that Twilight wasn’t doing fine, but at that moment Applejack had realized that trying to talk to Twilight about her state of mind was a hornet’s nest that she dared not to touch. So instead, she continued to walk with the element of Magic.
As Twilight continued walking up the hill towards the large gap in between the trees, Thorax joined in with Applejack on walking with Twilight and gave her the same concerned look Aj gave her as he tased a mix of unease and determination.

“Soo about the night before, do you like me?” Thorax asked in an awkward manner as Twilight and aj whipped their heads towards him, they both looked flabbergasted at his question and AJ even had her jaw slightly ajar.

“Thorax…did I look interested? OF COURSE NOT! I'm clearly not interested in anypony and rather just see you as a friend, plus you still have a zebra to grieve.” Twilight added dismissively as she turned her head away from him.

“Thorax you got a dragon you like, plus we gotta look ahead because we’ve got a bigger problem on our hoofs.” Aj pointed out as she rested a hoof on the back of Thorax's neck.

Thorax sighed and turned his head back to the road ahead. “Yeah.. I got a potential dragon bf that needs saving after all…well if he can be saved that is.”

The group resumed walking and re-entered the shadowy veil of the twisted pine trees of the Everfree. Fluttershy felt an uneasy presence as they walked across the pine-needle-covered trail, she felt it watching them, expecting them, observing them. Few glimpses of daylight slithered through the leaves and covered the ground, the forest seemed expansive and different from the rest of the everfree region. Wildlife was sparse and the birds barely came down from the trees. The trees twisted upwards and reached so high that they almost blocked out the sun.

This area of the Everfree seemed more ominous than the other parts that Twilight was familiar with. She heard that this area also had some unique wildlife in it and that the creatures in this area rarely wandered into the other parts of the Everfree. As they continued to walk Thorax saw somepony resting near a stream. It looked like a mare and appeared to have her mane brushing against the tide as she laid down. The others caught on as well and Fluttershy approached the mare with caution.

When the element of kindness got closer to the stranger she noticed that it was a mare she recognized. Octavia slowly picked her head back up and turned her eyes back to Fluttershy, her face looked full of wariness, confusion, and despair. She still had that mask with her that was resting next to her flank. Eventually, the musician fully turned her body around and pitifully stared into Fluttershy’s eyes.

“Fluttershy, what’re you doing so far into these woods? How did you even know where I was?”

Kindness merely puckered her lips inward as she thought about how to respectfully talk with Octavia, “Well, I was gonna ask you the same. Me and my friends are just taking a little hike, you know?”

Octavia looked away and slowly stared out at the forest, her eyes filled with comprehension and calmness. It was like Octavia was mentally telling herself that she was safe. Fluttershy could tell because she had seen other ponies do the exact same thing. “Well, I don’t know why I’m out here… I was just sleeping and now I’m here… It’s like this almost every night. I always think I am in my room or doing something else until I just look up in these woods with dirt on my hooves and bruises on my fur, yet I don’t know, I don’t know what I am doing here. Lyra keeps telling me I’m doing ok but, I keep seeing that creature…. That faceless pony staring at me from behind the trees. I just keep having these nightmares about…. I actually don’t know what they’re about, I just know that they don’t seem to fit, they don’t seem to match anything related to me. It’s all just black, white, black, white, black, white; over and over again. I don’t even know if I’m safe anymore. I just don’t feel like I have control.” Octavia started to cry into the water as she gritted her teeth and placed her hooves on her dirty and matted mane while she knelt down into the stream.

Fluttershy tightly hugged the sobbing violinist, almost as if she was hugging an injured animal that she was taking care of. “You can come with us you know, you don’t have to stay in the woods all day and be alone.”

Twilight and the others watched on as Fluttershy compassionately held the distraught Octavia with her forehooves. Twilight remembered the night where she first saw Octavia wearing the mask in Bonbon and Lyra’s old home. She thought that Octavia was doing this consciously, but now it appeared that Octavia was just as much a victim of the Tallmare as she was.

After about a solid minute of sobbing, Octavia then stared down at the ground, her body tingling as she started to consider the offer. Her velvet eyes looked back at Fluttershy’s friends, then looked back at Fluttershy. “I’ll come with you, I just don’t want to be sitting here looking like a mess all day by myself.”

Fluttershy started to walk back to her friends as Octavia got back onto all fours and followed along weakly. She didn’t even seem to mind that there was a Changeling in the group, not out of tolerance but as if her mind was in her own personal world.

The group of friends could tell that Octavia was going through something but neither of them wanted to ask her about it. Twilight felt like she could understand Octavia, but she didn't know why. Maybe it was her own experience, but no she was totally fine. But was she really?

“No…I'm ok, I’m a brave and intelligent mare and I’ve been pushing through this. I’m strong, I’m brave and I’m-...Im safe…Yeah, I'm safe, just really really safe.”

When they reached the summit of a hill, Twilight felt a voice in her mind speak to her. It told her to move forward, push through, and then stop when her burdens were finished. She stopped briefly on the hills summit as she took in her mind’s words, before catching up with her friends. She could tell that there was a challenge ahead, a challenge meant just for her. She didn't know what it would be but…But she hoped it would be the end of this.