What happens when the most valuable person you have loses interest in you? Moonlight Dancer couldn't control her hate from the past any longer and commits something she'll regret.
What happens when the most valuable person you have loses interest in you? Moonlight Dancer couldn't control her hate from the past any longer and commits something she'll regret.
A light breeze of chilling wind was blowing through leaves on spikey branches of black trees. Shadowy creatures were moving from one bush to another, as they were looking for a prey. This particular evening, when an unusually crimson-red sun was about to hide behind the line of horrizon, a mare dressed in black cloak with hood on her head was following a long forgotten road in the Everfree forest.
"I'm almost there, calm down, calm down..." She said to herself, nervously looking around at few pairs of glowing spots lurking from surrounding darkness.
"This is getting heavy..." She though looking at a large bag attached to her back.
"I guess it's a burden I must carry alone" The mare suddenly lowered her head, a single tear fell from within the hood on a ground covered with rotten leaves. She stopped in place. A sudden gust of wind blew the hood of her head, revealing mare's saddened face. Her delicate skin, covered in yellow fur soft as a finest silk, now met with piercing cold air, sending shivers throught her whole body. Her light-pink mane long enough to merely touch the ground was covering her left side of face. A few drops of water fell to the ground. Although these weren't tears anymore.
"It's... Raining? That's all I needed now..." She said to herself while pulling her hood back on her head.
"I have to hurry... I didn't come all the way here to give up now..."
For the next 15 minutes she was walking silently, until she reached her destination. A stronger wind started to blow as she walked towards few moss-covered concrete pillars. She knew she has to hurry. She knew what is so special about this place, that's why she would never came here if not for that special reason.
As she got close to remains of a long forgotten temple, she untiled the bag, wnich fell to the ground with a quiet thud. "I-I guess this is our farewell... I'm sorry that it ended like this..." She said leaning down to the bag. Her voice full of guilt and sorrow, all emotions she was holding that whole time, now she just couldn't hold them anymore. She covered her head with her hooves and started to cry silently. It took her some time to pull herself together. Finally, she stood up a decided to go.
"Now I just have to get out of here, oh my... Getting here took me more time than I expected" The mare though to herself while making her way back to the line of trees.
Just when she though she made it, she noticed a red spark with a corner of her eye. then, she realized what she got herself into. She jumped to the other side as fast as she could, barely evading a shadowy wolf-like creature which crashed into the ground where she was standing just a second ago. Force of impact could be felt from where she was standing now, trying to regain her balance. A terrifying fear paralyzed her body, she could feel her legs crumble as she raised her head looking straight at devilish red eyes staring at her. A black-furred creature was now slowly approaching helpless mare, it's long claws shone in the moonlight as they were made of black steel. Sharp teeth now fully shown in a terrifying grin, followed by low growl.
"I-I... Must run... B-but I can't move..." She tried to move, to run away as fast as she could but her legs just couldn't move. Using her whole willpower, she managed to evade just before beast's next leap, and immediately started to run.
She blindly ran through forest trying not to hit a tree, but the thick fog was making it hard to navigate. Sharp bushes she ran through scratched her coat leaving few bloody trails on it, however, it wasn't her real problem right now. She looked back, that creature was still chasing her, swiftly making its way through trees. She was almost panicking when she saw the monster's speed.
"I need to do something, or this thing will k-kill me..! Oh, I have no other choice..." She turned to her left side and started running towards it.
The mare knew where this patch leads to, it was her only chance to get away from this beast. She could hear it's wild roaring as it chased her, but she was getting closer to, what seemed to be a cliff. The closer she was to the edge, the thinner the forest got.
The beast was just about to strike the mare standing on the edge, but what came next it didn't expect. The mare jumped from the cliff into darkness awaiting on its bottom. The beast almost lost its balance and fell, but it managed to jump back. Black cloak flew loose revealing mare's yellow body with wings as she was falling down.
"I'm going to fall if my wings won't unfold now! But my body is in so much pain..." She could feel how her wings locked, she knew she must relax, but situation she was in right now was making it rather hard. "Come on, come on, please..."
Her wings finally unfolded, but now it was too late to maneuver into flying. Few flaps of her wings slowed the fall down, but not enough to land without any harm. Last thing she could remember was falling through climbers and leaves just before hitting the ground.
"Oouch" Yellow mare woke up, she was lying under a tree in a pile of leaves. She managed to stand up and look if she had any serious injury after the fall. To her relief, nothing happened except few scratches she got earlier.
"Oh my... I'm lucky, these leaves must have saved me from falling..."
After regaining her senses, she noticed it's still night, the moon was high on the sky, brightening the night with its light. She shook her body as she reminded of a black monster chasing her through woods as she desperately tried to escape. "Hunters" she said quietly to herself.
Long forgotten creatures from old mare's tales to scare their foals. Only few ponies knew that they were real, even less survived after they found out. Those who knew would rather not get close to this special place.
What was so special about these ruins, it's that being close to them at night time is a suicide. She didn't know anything more about these creatures, except that they appear from nothingness at night and wander around these particular ruins, while being extremely hostile to all living creatures.
All that happened has almost made her forget what she had done not long ago, what made her come all the way here, what changed her life completely.
I may have escaped from that monster, but I'm still in the forest, and it's completly dark already
She though to herself, unfolding her wings.
"Ouch!" The mare groaned in pain and gazed to her hurt left wing, reminding the fall from the cliff.
I must've injured it during that fall, I guess I'll have to walk...
With a frown on her face, she looked upon the dark path surrounded by trees and started walking.
Thick bushes around barely visible path through the forest were moving, as if something was crawling beneath them. The only source of light was that of the moon, lurking from the gaps between branches along with some raindrops. A yellow mare following the patch and observing the surroundings wasn't sure where it leads to. She was tired and unable to fly with her left wing hurt. She knew she can't go back where she came from. The moment she leapt from that cliff ruined it all, now she was probably on the opposite side of the forest.
It took her a while, but after some time she started to recognize this part of the Everfree. She came across some landmarks she knew from her childhood, when she used to wander around the forest. The mare went further to look for other landmarks and calculate where she is.
A giant dead tree that fell down years before I knew this place. I remember coming here with our mother for the first time.
She stopped, looking at the fallen tree and recalling some good memories from the past, when her mother showed her this part of the forest.
A rock with some ancient symbols carved on it's surface. I never got to know what these carvings mean.
The pegasus stood by a rock lying few hundred metres from the fallen tree and looked around, searching for something. Her gaze stopped at remainings of what seemed to be two stone pillars and a more visible patch between them. She immediatly ran towards it.
There it is! I remember that patch, it's rather long but it leads straight to...
Her face expression changed from excitation to sadness as she realized situation she's in.
...Ponyville
She stood there, as if not sure if she should choose her only way out of the forest or not.
I guess I have no other choice than to pay somepony an unexpected visit... If I won't die on my way there, that's it.
With her head lowered she took a slow pace along the path.
After fifteen long minutes of nervously looking around she found something lying in the middle of her path. As she came closer, she identified the object as a piece of wood. A very characteristic piece of wood. She noticed few more similiar pieces, along with some sticks around the path.
I only hope it's not what I think it means...
Despite her hopes, few minutes later she felt a nasty smell, followed by few growls. A wolf made out of wood jumped onto the path in front of her. She stepped back, seeing as more of them appear from darkness behind the first wolf.
One, two, three, four. Four wooden wolves. I don't think they're going to leave me alone, but this time I might be able to actually defend myself. They aren't that dangerous, and besides that they're really dumb.
The idea of fighting in her condition wasn't very smart, but she couldn't risk getting lost another time during the chase. She slowly walked to a nearby tree, so it would be just behing her, and bent her legs, crouching close to the ground.
"Come on, you monsters!" She yelled in their direction, provoking one of them to attack. He charged straight at the mare, he was just about to jump when she evaded to the left, back on the path. The wolf slammed into the tree with enormous force, falling apart into pieces. The pegasus took a nearby rock and prepared for the next attack, which came sooner than she'd expected. Another wolf leapt to her and swiftly attacked with his claws, leaving a bloody trail on mare's coat. She groaned in pain, but also managed to smash the wolf's head with her rock, effectively disabling him from further fight.
In the meantime, remaining two wolves decided to surround her from two sides and attack at the same time, which she already predicted. The pegasus unfolded her healthy wing and jumped into the air, flapping with it and gaining minimal height. However, it was enough to escape from beetwen two wolves, which smashed into each other, sharing same fate as their comrades.
She landed, looking around for any other threat, but to her relief there were no more wolves.
Ooh, that was close...
Just when she was about to continue, the remainings of her enemies started to glow, and after a while they arose from the ground, forming into a huge creature.
"Ooh my, why it must happen now!?" She said to herself frustrated and started to run along the path. The creature started to chase the mare, taking large steps with it's legs and getting dangerously close to the wounded pegasus.
I can't stay on the path, it can easily outrun me
She made the right decision and jumped away from the path just before the beast leap. She jumped straight down the steep side, rolling down from it and hitting a tree at the bottom. Her vision blurred as she was looking through the fog. She could hear trees breaking under something heavy coming into her direction. She was lying there, feeling her consciousness drift away.
Giant wooden beast landed with a powerful impact before the helpless mare. She couldn't do anything but look as the beast raises it's giant claws into air, preparing to deliver a blow. Her vision almost completly dark, last thing she could remember was a stream of purple beam, which destroyed the whole beast just before it stroke, and somepony shouting to her.
"Fluttershy!"
Somepony... Saved... Me? Is she calling... Her?
"Fluttershy, are you alright? I'll use my magic and try to heal you, you'll be fine, I promise!"
What is this feeling? It's... Nice
A purple aura surrounded the wounded pegasus, healing most of the wounds. The yellow mare slowly regained her senses and raised her head towards her saviour, who was a purple unicorn.
"Fluttershy! Thanks Celestia you're alright!"
"Ohh, umm... Thanks for help."
"Fluttershy...?" The unicorn looked on her friend's flank and noticed something weird "Wait, what's with that cutie mark? You're not Fluttershy?"
"uhm... Well, actually, I'm her sister..."
"Wow, really? She never told us she had a twin sister, you know. What were you doing in the forest in the middle of the night anyway?"
"Umm, I got lost and then that monster attacked me. I was going to visit my sister."
"I see, so you went to the forest at night and almost get killed to meet your sister here, in Ponyville? You know, it sounds suspicious..."
"Ohh, b-but I would never... I-I would never do-"
"Geeez, calm down. I was just joking. You are just like Fluttershy, really." She said with a warm smile "What's your name by the way?"
"My name's Moonlight Dancer, and you?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you."
They both shook their hooves, smiling.
"Thanks again Twilight, You saved my life."
"Oh, don't mind it. By the way, your wing's still hurt, are you sure you don't want to go to our hospital?"
"Thanks, but I can handle it. I should meet with Fluttershy now."
"Alright, I can show you where she lives, follow me."
After a while they came to the Fluttershy's cottage, to their surprise, the lights inside were still on.
"Should I go with you, Moonlight?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Thanks Twilight, but I'll go alone"
I must go alone
"Well, I understand. See you soon, then."
Twilight left and Moonlight was now standing in front of her sister's door, hesitating for a while.
