The Wight Chronicles - Summer: Pathfinder and the Wight of the Waters

by Sqoad

CH.08 - The Sky Tyrants: The Creature of the Night

"I wish to see it," Princess Celestia said, "that which you saw."

"I can't promise to control it," Princess Luna warned, "it feels an eternity since last winter."

"But you saw it nonetheless. Perhaps some clues lie there."

"Granted." Princess Luna averted eye contact, trying to think of better omens. "I will try this once, but I pray it is in vain."

"I want to share that optimism, Luna, but I also want closure."

What was about to take place was for Princess Luna to let some pony else dive into her own dreams to seek answers. Between the two sisters, only she had any potential insight on the 'children,' which was presented to her in the form of a vivid dream. Princess Luna laid herself in her bed awaiting sleep to take her, yearning for the comfort of knowing. Soon her mind was adrift in the vast plane of inner universes, filling rapidly with landscapes, skies, individuals, creatures, scents, sounds, feelings, emotions, but not time. But everything here was other ponies' dreams; she had to find her own, and lay aside her curiosity for others.

A light in front of her blinded her briefly before awakening in a wintry landscape, not far away from Canterlot. The snow was barely light enough to make out the city lights from this distance.

"I know this place..." Princess Luna thought to herself.

"What have you found?" a familiar voice asked, soon revealed to be the slowly embodying voice of her sister.

"This is the place I saw it," she replied, pointing to a lone evergreen tree growing from a trench.

"What did it look like?"

"I... cannot remember..."

The two sisters trod together to the evergreen. Princess Luna was obsessively scanning the snow for prints, but found none; she knew Princess Celestia would not leave prints of her own, and she noticed soon too that she was not either.

"This is no good, sister, I am not dreaming of this place yet," Princess Luna said.

"Maybe you have found another's eyes for this place? It seems too empty here."

Princess Luna looked around trying to make sense of the scene, realising soon what was amiss. Ponyville was supposed to be clearly visible from this spot from morning to evening, but was nowhere to be seen. "This must be before Ponyville's time."

"Then time must pass," Princess Celestia said using her magic.

The sisters watched the sun and moon come and go in rapid haste as seasons passed before them in seconds. Soon a small settlement erected in Ponyville's place, expanding in great haste along with the passing days, months and years that to the sisters seemed no longer than the wink of an eye.

"This is it," Princess Luna said when winter came again. This time the snow was heavier and it was the dead of night, and not evening. "It should be around here."

"Then retrace your steps."

Princess Luna shut her eyes for a moment and felt the wind sweep across her face, opening them up to find herself soaring in the air. She was departing Canterlot in the night to see the land with her own eyes. She wore a winter cloak and a pair of goggles to ward the snow flakes from her eyes. She swooped down the mountain to fly low above the land below, gliding over the train tracks for simple navigation. It was a great winter to re-explore an Equestria that had changed little, yet changed so much, in her absence.

It then came to her mind to be adventurous and leave the trail and see the untouched landscape. She turned south and began counting tracks in the snow to see how lively the world was. Well into a high two-digit number a different type of track caught her attention. It was unlike the others; unwell, sluggish, asymmetrical... unnatural.

Princess Luna landed by the trail and followed the track for a while. It crossed a vast empty field in a straight line, yet wobbled much from its trajectory. The thing that had made these tracks was clearly weak and disoriented. Nearing the end of the trail stood a large evergreen, where the tracks had spaced further apart as it neared it, implying the creature had begun to run. But the track now revealed another interesting detail: there was only one set of prints per cycle. It was not a common animal making this journey.

The tracks ended at the trunk of the tree with no evidence that it had ever left. Princess Luna looked around but found nothing, and the tracks were clearly not used to backtrack either. It was still around, or it had somehow flown away.

"It is here, isn't it?"

"It must be," Princess Luna replied in thought, unable to speak in this dream.

"Where is it?"

Princess Luna tried to look up the branches, but saw nothing in the shadow. She created magical light and sent it up the tree but still saw nothing, despite having perished all darkness.

"Did you see it?"

"Not until a while," Princess Luna confessed. "I saw something... but what was it?"

Princess Luna gave up the search and started trotting away when she heard a faint rustle in the tree. In her peripherals she could clearly see the branches moving by no means of their own as this was a windless night.

"The tree moved," Princess Luna recalled. "I returned to the tree."

"What did you see?"

"Fog, unnatural fog, like the tree was breathing."

The princess looked to the small gap between the branches, spotting two pearly lights shining out. Each was centred with a distinct black dot, like pupils. Whatever was hiding in the tree was now looking straight at her. But these eyes did not warrant cheerful curiosity. Even Princess Luna knew what they were; two eyes, spaced closed together, forward inclined, built for depth perception... a predator. She withdrew with haste and flew away. Suddenly it seemed as if time coursed by again in rapid speed.

"You left it?"

"I was scared. I had never seen something like that before, and instinct took over."

"You returned?"

"Yes. On a whim of stupidity."

"What did you see?"

What seemed to be a few weeks passing with the Canterlot streets suddenly riddling in holiday lights and activity, the princess was once again flying out over the vast landscape, following the same route. Out of curiosity, Princess Luna flew to the same tree one more time. This time it was early morning, only barely passed midnight where the princess had decided to end her night with another flight. The tree showed signs of much activity. Some faint, some fresh, the tracks were both coming and going from that evergreen, always from the same creature. But there were no signs of prey being brought to or from it. It seemed as if the tree had become merely a nest for a hibernating wilder-being.

Princess Luna landed again at a safe distance. She approached the tree carefully, noticing a few changes. Some branches from other trees had been gathered to build a primitive wall around the trunk. It had become a small hut without lighting to accommodate exactly one occupant.

"Is it in there?"

"Yes, it's there," Princess Luna replied.

"What happened?"

"I startled it."

Princess Luna moved in and readied another light spell. She shot the small ball of light into the tree branches to see if the creature was in there. She had hoped to spy its coat colour or perhaps its shape. What she got instead was a loud cry and a fright, on both parties.

Out from the tree jumped a deformed figure wrapped like a mummy from head-to-hoof - only it had no hooves. It had talons for forelimbs and flats for feet, showed no signs of ears and only the barest that could constitute a tail. It had no face to speak of as it too was hidden in the wrappings, but the eyes were there as before. Grey, dead, but glowing with almost supernatural intensity without any light to reflect. It was too dark to make more details out, and since the ball of light was in the tree branches, Princess Luna cast another one, scaring the creature another time, causing it to stumble backwards into the tree hut.

"You scared it."

"I had not planned on it."

Princess Luna approached the tree, trying to see the creature lit up, but a sudden cry of terror blasted from within the branches, sending spines shooting like needles around the tree. Princess Luna recoiled, but her cloak and goggles rendered the assault ineffective. The tree was now exposed, revealing the curled up creature and the ball of light above it.

It breathed rapidly, irregularly, and its eyes glowed vividly revealing its pin-thin pupils - a sign of fear. It clenched its teeth, to muffle the breathing, allowing Princess Luna to see its canines that, as its eyes, seemed to glow under its fogging breath.

"What happened then?"

The stars moved rapidly for a moment but neither the creature nor the princess had moved. The snow kept falling down, and the princess herself began to feel the chill. She turned and stepped away, extending her wings to take flight. Then she heard it again. After a long time of what now appeared to have been restraint, the creature began to breathe with a shivering racket, teeth snapping rapidly and the breaths were longer and farther apart between inhaling and exhaling. She had not, and would not have, thought about it, but the one thing she could not see on that creature was a coat of fur. Now that its shelter had been destroyed, it was freezing.

"What did you do?"

Princess Luna turned again and approached the creature, who was now rocking back and forth, seemingly unable to register her presence any longer, or too worn to react. While she had stood in warmth for all this time, it had only lost out of body heat. In a spell of compassion, Princess Luna removed her cloak and presented it to the creature. When the creature did not react, she placed it on the ground before it and turned around. She gave it a few moments before observing through her peripherals how the creature carefully took the cloak and wrapped it around itself, but remained curled up.

Luna flew away again, and many nights would pass without her visiting. But she would many times ponder on its existence. It was unlike anything she had seen, with a behaviour she perceived as sapient. A little secret of her own, it felt like.

One night she would make another journey across the field to look upon that lone evergreen tree. The trails were still there, some fresh, some old. The creature had not left its shelter, but rather gathered new branches to build a new wall. But it looked improved upon. This was not a primitive's fixture, but a concious effort to construct a home. A shelter for the winter. Though she wanted to, Princess Luna would not land that night. She would not land the next night either, nor the next after that. She soon found herself visiting every night, but never once touching down. Sometimes she would notice changes; improvements, redesigns, accidents and reparations. It was a constant struggle to muscle through the winter, and Princess Luna wondered if it was not worth to at least consider bringing such a thing to civilisation, which it clearly had within sight, but never made an effort to reach.

Princess Luna touched down for the first time in weeks, but something seemed different. She did not leave any prints in the snow, and suddenly Princess Celestia stood beside her.

"I have slipped out of my own dream, sister," Princess Luna confessed.

"Perhaps we can still learn. But see, the sun is already rising," Princess Celestia said.

Princess Luna inspected the tree hut, but it was empty. She looked at the tracks, indicating that the most recent ones were supposed to have been heading towards the hut, not away from it. She had never seen the creature in the day, which had made her assume it was nocturnal. But was it then possible that this being a slip, she would not be able to see it? She had to focus, try to dream again, but she was suddenly distracted.

"My mind..." an unfamiliar, masculine voice spoke.

Princess Luna looked around but found no source. "Where are you?"

"My mind..." the voice repeated. "My mind... is my own."

Upon the finishing of that sentence, Princess Luna suddenly felt an agonising headache.

"Are you alright?" Princess Celestia asked.

"I don't know, sister. Why does it hurt to sleep?"

"My mind... is my own," the voice repeated again, causing Princess Luna's headache to worsen. "My mind is my own."

Princess Luna bit down as hard as she could, trying to concentrate, but her eyes were failing her and she could hardly stand. It was as if she was awake.

"What is that?" Princess Celestia asked.

Princess Luna faced the east horizon, spotting a silhouette like the creature facing away from them. It turned its head slightly, but not enough to reveal a face. It wore a wide hat and a foreign ensemble of clothes and armour.

"Is that the creature? Is that the child?" Princess Celestia asked.

"I don't know," Princess Luna answered, still trying to clear her vision.

Now the silhouette turned, revealing the familiar glowing grey eyes. Its hat appeared affixed to a dragon mask which covered most of the face, and nothing of its body was revealed. Furthermore it did not possess the cloak Princess Luna had offered, showing signs that it was not the same creature.

"My mind is my own," the silhouette repeated one more time. This time Princess Luna could not bear the pain and let out a loud growl.

"Is that the child? Is that a Child of the End?" Princess Celestia asked once more.

"... Yes," Princess Luna replied and collapsed.

---

Princess Luna awoke in agony. The headache had been real. Too real. Princess Celestia stood over her with a hoof on her back, gently massaging her.

"How are you feeling?" Princess Celestia asked.

"I am scared."

"Scared of what?"

"That thing, that creature we saw... it was not just a slip," Princess Luna explained.

"What was it then?"

"It was its dream we had entered."

"Another child?"

"It must have been. There was more to mine, but it somehow must have gotten interrupted."

"What did it say to you?" Princess Celestia asked.

"You didn't hear it?"

"I could not understand it."

"It said: 'my mind is my own.'" Princess Luna explained.

"'My mind... is... my own?'"

"It kept repeating that sentence. Each time it hurt me - gave me a headache I could never imagine."

"What does it mean?"

"It was trying to expel me from its dreams. We accidentally entered its mind."

"I didn't know we could be detected unless we wanted to."

"When you travel into another pony's dreams, usually you can't," Princess Luna confirmed, "but this creature noticed me instantly. It looked at and spoke to me. I should have been able to disappear right there, but I could not."

"And then it attacked you?"

"Yes. But that should not have been possible. I don't understand what happened."

"Rest, Luna, I shall watch the night this time."

"Thank you..."

Princess Celestia left the room to allow her sister to recover. Princess Luna was still shaken and could feel a belated cold shiver run down her spine. She shut her eyes and tried to sleep, but her headache kept her twisting and turning in bed. Too surreal was it that another creature would command such power in the dreamscape, a place where she had considered herself an adept. A guardian.

"What are you...?" Princess Luna moaned.

She opened her eyes and looked out the window. She counted the stars to distract herself for a moment, when she suddenly heard a strange voice. It was unintelligible, but definitely from within the room. She looked around but saw nothing, and decided to lay down flat. What she could not see might still see her, yet strangely her instincts told her to lay still instead of move. Her eyes once again turned to the window. Two stars shone brighter than the rest, appearing more than they ought to have been.

Those two stars suddenly turned, like two eyes locking onto her. And for the briefest moment they blinked. Two eyes. Two grey, dead eyes. "My mind... is my own."