Chapter I
It was a cool, crisp fall morning. The morning sunlight was just starting to seep through the trees. It was melting the evening’s frost into a low hanging fog. As the soft light penetrated the fog it began to fall on a small form lying on the ground. With the sun rising in the sky the fog melted away and with the ever increasing light the small figure awoke. The creature stood up, stretched, shook off the morning dew and looked about. When the kinks were worked out it sat back down to think.
It quietly mumbled to itself, “I need to keep moving. I can’t let them find me…” and with that it stood up, stretched its wings and took off deeper into the forest. It was a very fast flier. It wove in and out of the trees with ease. After a while it landed in a small clearing, where the sun was in its full strength unhindered by the trees. It flopped down and lay there unmoving in the early afternoon sun. It was difficult to think because of the exhaustion. Thoughts tended to wander off and then need to be reigned in again. “I need to rest for a while, then keep moving. They will be looking for me soon." it thought.
On that same crisp morning she woke up too. She rolled out of bed and opened her window to let some fresh air in. She took a deep breath.
“What a glorious morning," she thought. "What could go wrong?” she asked.
She went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. After she was done eating and washing up she went out to work. Arriving at the orphanage somepony came running up to her.
“One of the colts has run away! What do you want me to do ma’ma?”
Her heart skipped a beat. ”Please tell me it’s not him again.”
The worker looked down and replied, “I’m afraid it is ma’ma.”
She sighed and told him to get the staff together. He ran off as ordered and a few minutes later they all gathered in the courtyard.
“Alright everypony our young colt friend seems to have escaped again. Do we have any volunteers for a search party?” she asked.
They all looked around at each other. No one wanted to go look for a colt that would probably just try and escape again.
“None? Well then, it looks like I will have to choose.” She looked at them and picked out five. Two mares and three stallions and took them to go start the search.
The colt, that's what he was, suddenly woke up. He jumped to his feet and thought, “Oh no I must have fallen asleep. It’s getting late already. I need to get moving and fast!”
He spread his wings and sped off further into the darkening forest. He was weaving in and out of the trees faster than before. There was a greater sense of urgency growing in the back of his mind not wanting to be found again.
Off in the distance he saw a mountain which looked to have sheer cliff faces on its westerly side. As he drew nearer he could see what looked like a small cave about half way up under the small outcropping. He sped off towards it hoping that it really was a cave where he could hide. He flew up the sheer cliff face. He found that it was indeed a small cave and it was well concealed. He landed and started to explore the cave. He soon found that it wasn’t as small as he had first thought. The cave opened up just a bit further in and was rather like a house. It had several smaller rooms that branched off from the main cavern. He decided to stay and work on the cave by cleaning out fallen rock debris and cobwebs some old and abandoned other still quite fresh.
He chuckled to himself, “but that can wait I need some sleep...”
He awoke the next morning feeling quite stiff from sleeping on the not yet cleared stone floor. In time he would need to gather some fresh pine boughs to help alleviate the morning aches and pains. He slowly worked his way to his feet and stretched.
His first order of business was to find something to eat and drink. He was famished and parched after not eating the previous day. He flew out of his new home in search of a water source and soon spotted a nearby pond in a small clearing of trees with a small stream running out of it. He hoped that it was spring fed and would not dry up in the depths of winter. Speedily he made his way over to it and dove right in. After a while of playing around in the water his stomach reminded him it was still devoid of food so he swam over to the bank. Nearby there was some blooming clover and sweet, tender looking grass. He was not disappointed; he proceeded to munch on both until he was content. After lying in the sun by the pond for a while he turned his mind to working on his new home.
After leaving the orphanage the search party tracked him to the Everfree forest. She wondered what was wrong with this colt why would he go in there? Was it really that bad living in the orphanage?
“Do we really have to go into that awful place?” One of her assistants asked.
“Yes. We have to do our best to find him. It’s the law, you know that.” She replied, then pushed into the overgrown forest. “We need to split up in teams of two to cover more ground but whatever you do, do not get separated."
Soon they were all marching on, deeper into the forest. It had been decided when they split up to meet back at the orphanage later that day. There had been no sign of the colt. The trail had gone cold, but they would keep searching for the next few weeks to no avail. They, though they didn't know it yet, would never find the colt. They had come close many times, but each time he dodged them without them knowing he was even there.
As he grew up alone in the woods, he learned how to interact and communicate with the wild creatures of the Everfree. Life was pretty good for him, he had all he needed: food, shelter and companionship. He would have to lay up some food for the upcoming winter, but there was plenty on hoof. One of his favorite companions was a falcon he named Screech that often soared though the skies with him.
He learned a lot from those days of flying. He soon started to push himself more and more seeing how fast he could fly between the dense tree trunks without crashing. It did not always end very well for him and he had many aches and pains to show for it. But he always got back up and pushed harder still.
One of those days when he was out pushing his luck once again he heard something far off in the distance screaming. He flew off immediately to find out what it was; before he got there he saw a small yellow Pegasus filly free falling. There was no way he could get to her in time. But just before she hit the ground a cloud of butterflies broke her fall. He slowed down and stayed back a little to observe. She seemed to be singing, something about never having seen butterflies and been on the ground before. He lost interest once he saw she was fine and started back home to his forest domain. As he was on route home he heard a massive explosion and turned around to see a shock wave colored like a rainbow flying out in all direction. It was a very impressive site, but he was too tired from the day’s activities to go investigate.
Soon he was approaching his cliff side home and saw his owl companion sitting on the edge of the cave. He smiled; Charlie looked like he wanted to do a late night flight. As he landed in the cave Charlie hooted at him and he said, “Sorry bud, but I’m beat. Maybe we can go out tomorrow night okay?” The owl hooted again and flew off. He chuckled saying, “Well he wasn't to happy was he? Oh well I will make it up to him tomorrow.” He crawled into the bed he had made in one of the side rooms and fell quickly asleep.
The next morning he awoke quite late compare to normal. He shrugged it off to the fact that he had exhausted himself yesterday. As he tried to get out of bed he felt a sharp pain in his left front shoulder. He remembered that he’d slammed into a tree while trying a new move down by the pond. He slowly tried to get out of bed again this time not using his shoulder.
Once he got on his feet he made his way into the main room which was still very bare. It only had a small couch made of grass and a stand that he had made for Charlie and Screech.
He decided that today he would work on his home some. After grabbing some grub he went out looking for things he could use to build some storage for food and water, so he wouldn't have to fly to the pond all the time. He soon found some decent logs which he slowly flew up to his cliff side home straining every muscle as he did. He almost dropped several of the bigger one while carrying them up.
Soon he was at work carving them out with some tools he had made out of sticks and sharpened rocks. Over the course of a few evenings he had them all finished and stocked with food. With the bucket he had carved out of a small log he started about the task of bringing up water to fill the troughs he’d carved in the tops of the logs.
After all the work of those days he was ready to go out for a refreshing night flight. This would not be just a short flight to make Charlie happy but a longer exploratory fight that Charlie had wanted to do when he had promised him some nights ago. Soon they were both gliding though the night skies; yes this was the perfect life he thought to himself. The longer flight was making him tired so they headed home. Upon arrival Screech was settled in already and Charlie joined him, both were soon fast asleep. He quietly slipped past to his room and went to bed.
A few weeks later he was sitting at the entrance to his cave thinking, something he had grown to love. The view from his cliff side retreat was particularly breathtaking taking at sunset. Suddenly he realized that he could no longer go by his old name Stargazer. If he ever went into a town during the day he would be recognized. He started to think of what he could name himself, maybe he could go by Shadow Fury or Flaming Dawn. No those wouldn't work they were too flashy. He thought for quite a while.
“Wait, I know! I can be Shadowmane!” He exclaimed.
“Yes, I shall be Shadowmane from now on.” he thought proudly to himself.
The time passed quickly for Shadowmane, but not for the workers of the orphanage. They had been occasionally conducting searches for months with no trace. At last they wrote him down as missing, presumably dead and with that it was over for them, they continued taking care of the rest of filly’s and colt’s still there. Most of them forgot about him, but not the head mare. She would always remember that beautiful crisp morning that he had run on.