Part 1
Heart of Shadows
by
TheDeinonychus
Part 1
The Monsters We Face
Are Nothing Compared To
The Monsters We Make.
There was a cool breeze blowing in from the beach, the tang of salt carried on the air as the spray from the breaking waves were caught up in the wind, drifting up towards the lone figure settled atop of the hill overlooking the sandy dunes that separated her from the ocean. A contented sigh escaped her lips as the dark blue mare idly moved a small collection of stones around with her hooves. It was a silly game, one more suited to fillies than to a mare well into her fourteenth season, but the simple pretend time held another meaning for her. She moved the two larger stones around, while the many smaller ones were bumped about and made to scatter about every which way. In her mind, the unicorn didn't see just some little, dirty rocks. No, she saw something far different, they weren't just stones to her. To her eyes, she saw a stallion and mare, madly in love even with their innumerable foals running and playing around their hooves. It was a scene that danced through her mind on more than one occasion. A scene she all too often would flee from her duties as the shaman's daughter just to go experience with stones or sticks or acorns if she had to. This was all she wanted, not the responsibilities of a shaman, not the fear or respect because she could command powers greater than her friends. No, all she wanted, all her heart really desired, was the love of a family.
"Moonlight!"
The voice broke her daydream like a bolt of lightning had struck one of those little stones. Moonlight's eyes widened, one hiding behind her pitch black mane, as she sat up from her little foalish games and looked back over her shoulder, spying a bright yellow earth pony running up the hill towards her. The fiery red mane and spear strapped to her side told the unicorn just who it was, and that brought a smile back to her lips.
"Ember! W-what are you doing up here?" she chuckled, a nervous rear hoof gently kicking the small stones which had moments ago been her pretend family, hoping her friend wouldn't notice her silly, foalish hobby. As the earth pony made her way up the hill towards her unicorn friend, her pace slowed to a brisk trot, her eyes, normally as bright and flickering as a bond fire, were now lidded and seemed more interested in the grass than her indigo friend. Moonlight could tell something was wrong. Usually she couldn't stop Ember from talking, but now she had barely said a word. She lowered her head a bit, the dark curls of her mane lightly brushing the tips of the grass, trying to look comforting. "Um, is.. Is everything alright, Ember?"
"No", was the curt response from her friend, the earth pony finally looking up. Her eyes were tense and dour, something was troubling her, something serious. Ember was one of the tribe's warriors, the ponies that everyone depended on to protect them if wild animals or monsters thought to attack their little camps. The simple stone-tipped spear was what they used to defend themselves, a skilled pony could with but a flick of her head, send the spear sailing to it's target with deadly force. Right now, it rested in it's lashings, held to Ember's side tightly, should she need to charge into a fight. It was how the tribe's warriors kept their spears should they ever need to get in close with whatever they were fighting. This fact wasn't totally lost on Moonlight, but in her mind, the worry that her friend was in trouble weighed more seriously. Ember turned from her indigo friend, taking a few steps towards the long tree that grew atop the hill Moonlight had been daydreaming upon. It's branches were tossed about by the wind coming off the ocean, it's leaves starting to be torn free to flutter about wildly. It was a sure sign that a storm was brewing just off shore, drawing closer and closer to land. However important that may be, it paled in comparison to the storm what was about to brew between the two friends. "Moonlight, we need to talk. Now."
"O-Of course, Ember," she unicorn said, her friend's dark mood starting to make her worry, "You know you can always talk to me about anything. What's troubling you?" Moonlight took a few slow steps towards her friend, but the narrowed glare that greeted her rooted her hooves to the ground.
"It's you! You and Golden Fields!" Ember blurted out. Golden Fields. The mention of the stallion made Moonlight's heart jump, half in joy, half in terror. Had something happened to him? Was he in trouble? Was he hurt? Panic had started to grip the poor mare, she wanted to take off to find him, the pony she loved, the pony she had yet to profess her love to. But that look, those eyes, her friend's stare kept her in her place.
"D-did... Did something happen to him? Is.. Is he alright?" she asked hopefully, maybe her friend was just exaggerating things, playing a game with her just to see her panicking like a filly found playing were she was told not to. That hope died little by little as her friend came back from the base of the tree, turning her body as she did slightly, just enough to keep the sharpened stone tip of her spear aimed right at the unicorn, right at her aching heart!
"You happened, that's what! I cant believe you!" her friend lashed out, her eyes blazing, golden yellow as they burned holes through the unicorn's terrified teal ones. With every word she spoke, venom seeped into her words, it almost dripped from her lips, all of it meant for her friend. "We.. We're.. We were friends! Don't tell me you didn't know!"
"K-knew what? Please, E-Ember.. You're scareing me," Moonlight managed to squeak out under the earth pony's death-gaze. She cringed back, her legs shaking, knees wanting to buckle. Right now she wished nothing more than to become one of her rocks, a clump of dirt, anything no pony would notice, no pony could hurt. Slowly she watched Ember circle her, the spear never leaving it's aim, always pointing at her with as much murderous intent as it's owner's words.
"Knew how I felt! You.. You think just cause you're the shaman's daughter you can just do whatever you want! Take whatever you want! Whoever you want!" The enraged earth pony started shaking with barely contained fury. Never had the unicorn seen her friend in such a state. To watch it was almost as painful at the words flung at her like knives. "That night you just prattled on, just let it slip out like it was nothing. About how you would just walk u to him and make him yours!"
It all came crashing into Moonlight at that moment. What has pushed her friend into such a rage. Golden Fields, he was the love of her life. But he was also the love of her best friend's live too. Her mind raced, flooded with memories of every time the three of them were together. Years flew by, every little thing she never really noticed, never really considered, each one now felt like a beacon, shining at her to be noticed, to finally be taken for what they were, declarations of love. Her friend's love for the stallion she wanted for herself. The weight of it all was too much to take, her flank fell to the ground as tears started to well up in her eyes. Each breath felt as if it was her last as she struggled for another. "I... I'm s-sorry.. Ember.. I.. I didn't.."
"No.. And you never will..." her friend's words seized her like a maw of pure ice. The fiery mare had circled around her, down the hill a small distance from the sobbing unicorn. One hoof dug at the ground, pulling grass and dirt up as she lowered herself slightly, that spear almost singing it's want to find it's target. Moonlight couldn't believe what she was seeing, her friend, the one pony she thought would be with her to the end, was moments away from ending her life. "I'll never let you have him!" And with that cry, rearing to her hind legs, Ember charged, her spear aimed for her friend's heart.
Everything seemed to tick by in slow motion. Her best friend, her every hoof fall hitting the ground like thunder. Every leaf blown on the wind cartwheeling in a lazy tumble. The tears cascading from her cheeks to soak the ground seeming to take hours to splash onto the dirt. She should let it happen, just let her friend end her right there, and be with the stallion she loved. It was her fault, wasn't it? She let this happen, let her own wants cloud her mind, make her blind to what was really happening. Her friend would be happy. Golden Fields would be happy. Everyone would be happy without her, wouldn't they? But still, something, something deep inside wouldn't let it end like this. Wouldn't let her sit there and accept what her broken heart told her had to happen.
Those deafening hoof falls drew closer, that murderous spear mere moments from ending it all. With her belly pressed to the ground, it was the last chance, her only chance to stop what was coming. "NO!" she cried, the sound carried on thunder from the distant storm bearing down upon the beach. With every fiber of her being, she pushed off from the ground, from the muddy puddle of tears she had made, and slammed hooves first into her friend, past the tip of that spear. The ground surged up to meet them both, breath leaving them as they landed and rolled. End over end, tails over manes, that spear snapping in two as they tumbled down the hill, grass thrown up and rocks kicked loose as they made their way, a blue and yellow ball of tears, fury, and sorrow.
Maybe it was chance, or fate, or the will of some unknown god, but as the two finally came to a stop at the foot of the hill, Moonlight found herself on top, her friend pinned under her. Ember's spear had snapped in half on the way down, now just a useless haft strapped to her side. The unicorn's chest as pounding, every breath she took burned in her lungs as she kept her weight down on top of the earth pony. Her teeth clenched in a mask of fury, anger enough to rival the hate that still burned in her friend's eyes. "No.." she breathed out, bringing her fore-hooves up above her head. The hate of he friend's face turned to shock as she realized a moment before what was about to happen. Those hooves came down, the dull thud of them striking her face bringing a cry of pain from the earth pony. The sound wasn't enough to snap the unicorn out of her fury.
"No!" Again her hooves came up, Moonlight's limbs moving as if on their own as she raised them, only to bring them down again, forcing more cries of pain to escape the yellow mare under her. "No!" Each time the word left her lips, her hooves struck down, soon the cries turned to sobs of agony. "No!" A muffled crack, accompanied by a struggled gasp. "NO!"
"NO!" *crack*
"NO!" *crunch*
"NO!" *splatter*
It didn't seem to end. It seemed as if it would last forever. But eventually, as tears flooded down her cheeks, her limbs started to ache, and she had lost the strength to raise them again. As if a mask had been pulled over her eyes, the reality of what had happened, what she had done, came into view. Her best friend, the mare that had tried to kill her, was unrecognizable. Hardly anything remained of what had once been a cheerful, feisty yellow mare poisoned by hate. Slowly, the horror of what she had done crept over Moonlight, her aching hooves covered in her friend's blood, it was splattered all over her, like some sick warpaint. It was on her legs, her chest, her face, broken only by the steady stream of tears flowing down each cheek. She had never seen anything like it. Never had she ever seen, or even heard of a pony spilling another pony's blood. The building storm took pause, it's fury and the roar of it's thunder drowned out for a moment by the scream that ripped through the sky.