Essence: Past, Present, Future

by IceQB

Chapter 3: Nightfall

Night was looming by. Having woken up by the change in light, I sat up, stretched out my hooves, and licked my dry lips. I sat there, contemplating on my next action, before proceeding to flick both the levers on my left, revealing a bowl of apples, as well as the night sky. I might have slept only for a few hours, but within those hours, the sky had turned into a palette of red, orange, yellow and blue, pathing the way Luna's entrance. Time flew by fast, and I was still groggy. The air around me felt cool, like it was a perfect place to sleep, but I had a task to complete. Reluctantly, I grabbed an apple and proceeded to munch on my little snack.

“Princess Diane?” shouted the guards, “We'll land in one minute.”

“Will do.”

I sat there staring at the plethora of colors in the sky, wondering if I'll see Luna. At times, I feel like I don't even have a third sister. The last time I saw her was at her birthday, and even so, she left her party we threw her quite early. She said she had much more important things to do than to celebrate her birthday.

I looked down at my apple, looked up at the sky, looked down once again, and proceeded to finish my apple.

- - - -

Where we landed, the trees stood tall and the ground was flooded with dead leaves and twigs. Insects of all kinds roamed the place, with the slight consolation of tiny animals running around. I stepped out of my carriage, not before hitting both levers, closing the roof and hiding the bowl of apples. I was careful enough not to step on any insects or break any anthills, and then proceeded to signal my carriage driver to go back. I then stretched out my wings. They were sore from being kept folded throughout the entire journey, but now there was much room for them to flutter. They felt heavy, but my wings weren't the only things that were amiss.

“Where is the tower?” I inquired. “This is not where I usually land.”

“We received strict instructions from Princess Celestia just before we landed. A storm brews ahead, and the thunder endangers your safety, so we are forced to land a distance away from the tower, Princess Diane. Roughly one or two days worth of journey before we actually reach there.”

That nerve of my sister. I'm pretty sure there isn't a storm, but she just wants me to dirty my hooves, that's all.

Still, I had to keep my composure.

Or at least attempt to. She'll pay eventually.

“How thoughtful of her. Well then, guards, shine some light onto this place. We need to keep moving forward. We don't want to waste any more time.” With every word, I strongly emphasised the sarcasm. Celly was in for a whole new level of pain when I got back.

The surroundings instantly shot up with a bright light. My two unicorn guards, with their illuminating horn, then walked in a direction I presume to be the way towards the tower. I felt a rush of excitement overcome me. Where I was at, I wasn't sure. I had never ventured into the wild unknown before. But even with that feeling, I felt scared. I felt my body tremble with fear. What lies in front of me was a path ever so mysterious. A path that might be fun and exciting, but a path that might be dangerous and dark.

Oh Luna, protect me like you've always done so in the night.

And with mixed feelings of joy and fear, I ventured deep into the forest.

- - - -

The moonlight penetrated through little cracks in the canopy, shining on the path ahead of us. What laid in front of us remained the same: creepy trees, dead logs and fallen leaves. It felt like we were going in circles, and I could have sworn we passed that funny looking tree at least five times. Nevertheless, I trusted my guards to do the right thing. Their jobs were simple: to escort me to the tower. But even with the guards around me, I had a cold chill run down my spine. I felt a shadow lurking around in the forest.

With each minute that passed, my heartbeat increased, my paranoia dictating what I did; the emotion of fear overpowering joy, the once brave turned scared. I scanned around one more time just to assure myself that there was nothing. The crickets chirped, the owls hooted, but there were no other unusual sights found. Other then the occasional twig breaking, the forest remained still.

A little too still for my likings.

Hoping to past the time, I tried to distract myself by talking to the guards. “So, guards, tell me about yourselves.”

“Um...” hesitated the guards. They were also distracted, not by the eeriness of the forest, but by the question I sprung onto them. Guards wouldn't usually converse with us Princesses. To talk to one without addressing formal matters is usually condemned by the guards. It was like an invisible set of rules that forbade the guards from doing anything normal.

“Hmm? What did you say?” I tried to lead them on slowly, hoping they'd reveal something about themselves.

“Um... my... my name... is Tiberius, Princess Diane.” spoke the left guard cautiously, who was the bigger one of them two. He had a long lustrous mane, and wielded a sword and shield, just like his cutie mark.

“And mine is Sanchex, Princess Diane. It's an honour to be here,” replied the smaller guard. His eyes were as sharp as his two daggers that were buckled to his belt, and his lips smiled with a tiny sly. His cutie mark was undoubtedly one with two daggers, both pointing towards the sky.

I smiled and let out a little chuckle. “Well then, please do tell me more,” I implored.

So both my guards, Tiberius and Sanchex, started briefly introducing themselves. At first, they were shy, producing one or two sentences for each question I asked. Then slowly, their sentences started becoming mere words once again, the awkward tension rising with us three, which did not help me cope with the eeriness of the forest.

As we made our way towards the tower, the ground behind us strewed with broken twigs we accidentally broke. At every twig I stepped on, I flinched and scanned around, only to realise that it was just a twig, even though I made a point to avoid stepping on them.

SNAP!

Instinctively, I jumped back and looked on the ground in front of me, but there wasn't a twig in sight.

Calm down Diane, you're just freaking yourself out.

Before I took another step, I paused and looked over at my guards who were further off in the distance. Their footsteps were as silent as my thoughts were at that moment.

SNAP!

This time round, I wasn't moving, and I was quite certain my guards didn't step on any. But just to be sure, I called out to the guards.

“Hey guards, stop moving for a second.”

They obliged, but yet the sound still echoed from within the forest.

SNAP!

We froze in our tracks, eyes now focused towards the pitch black darkness of the forest. Cold sweat formed all over my body. None of us dared to move, for there was a shadow lurking somewhere behind the trees.

Thud, thud, thud.

Whoever it was, it was getting closer and closer, with each step getting louder and louder. My heart started beating faster, my eyes scanning the forest even more fervently.

“Show yourself!” I commanded, but the only thing I could hear were the impeding footsteps. My body trembled slightly and my hooves shook even more.

Suddenly, the bushes behind me rustled. I swung around, and readied myself to engage the shadow.

Who could it be? Thieves? Foalnappers? Assassins?

I started speculating each outcome. The more I thought about it, the worse each outcome turned out to be. I shuddered and shivered, only daring to blink after all of this was over. My eyes were glued onto the rustling bushes, the moon paying no solace or comfort for my predicament.

Worse still, it could be... Discord.

Stop thinking about it! You're just making yourself paranoid, that's all. I chided myself. With each growing moment, the suspense grew larger in size.

After a long time, the shadow finally stepped out of the bushes. It took its time to advance, it's face still unknown due to the cover of the night. The guards then took a protective stance over me, their weapons drawn high, ready to engage the target if deemed dangerous. Whoever it was wanted to talk to us, or die.

The shadow then stepped out of the darkness, and into the light. Certain features could be seen initially. Wings. A horn. Then the figure came fully into the light. It bowed its head and removed its hood that was covering its face, revealing a bluish mane. It slowly moved its head up towards my eye level, and when we locked eye to eye, my skeptical fears were demolished entirely.

It was familiar. It was someone I knew personally. And it was unexpected.

I stared in awe. It was truly a night to remember.

“Hey there, Luna.” I called out to my sister.

Author's Note:

Luna makes an appearance finally! Oh yay!

Finally got it out of my system... took so long just to get Luna onto this wild adventure.

Comments

[IceQB]

2324036 email would be great XD ill send you mine first.

But i STILL don't get it. I run it over Word as well... albeit not Microsoft Word, and I did a spellcheck and everything, but I guess computers aren't perfect o.o Maybe I should read it over slowly to note worthy mistakes, cause just like you said, people have noted about my grammatical and spelling mistakes, which I puzzle over |

Speaking of the idea of the reincarnation, I've got comments about it being unorthodox, that I'm breaking Canon etc... same thing goes for the Diane.

[IceQB]

2326429 and thanks for looking over my work too :) Appreciate helpful comments XD

[Power to the Bronys]

2338238
Hey, no worries man. I like going over other writers work and offering feed back, and even receiving feed back myself. Okay, well, that last part was a little bit of a lie. I like getting GOOD feed back, and I don't really like it when people point out my mistakes. But it's still good to hear from other writers and get their opinions.

And don't worry about "not getting it." I went over what I had for my story over a dozen times, and there was still mistakes that others found! So, its best to get a second opinion and have some pre-readers on demand.

And don't worry about breaking canon. I've already done that many times by making Vinyl's eyes red (CONSPIRACY! ) and mentiony Derpy by DERPY and not the other "Name-that-shall-not-be-named." So, kudos on breaking canon. It means you think outside the box and are not bound by the masses.

And I look forward to working with you.
-Power to the Bronys