Just a few days before Hearth's Warming, an unnatural blizzard lays siege on Ponyville, bringing a strange character into town with it. Serendipity, Thoraxis and Petra's blind daughter, and her visiting friend, Charybdis, decide to investigate.
Serendipity is an intelligent and strong-willed, but peculiar and unique individual indeed. She's blind, sickly, suffers from the effects of albinism, and altogether possesses an almost fragile and ethereal quality due to her appearance and condition.
Because of this, and in part due to her hybrid status and antisocial nature, she has earned the worry, unease, and harassment of more than a few of Ponyville's residents throughout her life. Nevertheless, as a young, but full-grown adult, she is quite content with living alone in the middle of the Everfree Forest as an avid plant breeder, and part-time botanist.
As her seventeenth winter pulls in and Ponyville readies itself for another Hearth's Warming, a sudden blizzard of an epic, and almost magical proportion invades, forcing many of the town's inhabitants indoors. No sooner had the fierce storm arrived, but a complete stranger pulls in as well; his reason for appearing being under the pretense that he's "looking for somepony."
This drifter with an utterly alien personality, Striga Phobetor, ends up renting out the half-changeling's home for the week. As one of her only friends and non-related cousin, Charybdis, comes to visit for the holiday, the two become captivated with the mystery surrounding this enigmatic character, and who... or what... he may be...
Art work based off of character created by Faith-Wolff from Deviantart
Thoraxis the changeling, a look of both worry and pent-up excitement covering his face, had been pacing outside of the cave on his hole-filled legs for nearly three hours now, the shape of the full moon shining down on him from the star-covered sky. He was shooed out after his wife, the albino wyvern Petra, told him that the eggs were about to start hatching, and now he was waiting. Waiting patiently. Waiting to hear the words...
"Thoraxis... Thoraxis, come quick!" he suddenly, and finally heard Petra's distant, echoing voice come from within. The changeling hurriedly ran into the cavern without a second to lose, hundreds of thoughts running through his head like a stampede of angry buffalo.
Nearly three months after she had announced that she was pregnant, Petra had laid almost two hundred eggs inside of this cave near Ponyville, and once she had placed the last of them in the nest, her instincts took over, and she became very, very broody over them for the next eleven months. Despite the changeling's best efforts to get an expert or a doctor to see if the eggs and his wife were truly fine and healthy, Petra would only allow Thoraxis to get more than remotely close enough to observe their incubating children, and herself.
With every passing month, Thoraxis noticed with glee that the eggs had grown bigger, but by a small margin. What were once no more than just slightly larger than his hoof, almost grew to twice the size by the time he last saw them a few days ago.
As Thoraxis finally got to the end of the cave, he heard a loud sniffle, followed by a small sob. Instantly sensing something was dreadfully amiss, he quickly dashed forward, until the sight of his wife and the nest of stones, hay, and gems she rested next to was in sight, the hundreds of eggs sitting inside of the ovular aerie, still as death, and unhatched.
Petra was lying on an area of rock next to the egg pile, and where her head was positioned, pointed to a single egg in front of her and the nest. It was broken open, revealing the upper torso of a small, white, equine-shaped creature with a tiny, curved horn and pink, web-like mane. It was plain to see that this hatchling apparently had tried to get out of it, and had half-succeeded, but now lied motionless on the ground, its eyes closed.
"She's... dead..." Petra mourned out loud in a despairing wail when she saw her husband approach, before motioning to the rest of the eggs with her snout. "She was the only one that hatched, too. The others... the others didn't."
"No... no..." Thoraxis spoke, his face curling into one of sorrow and loss. Petra slowly turned her head away from the sight and cushioned it against a nearby rock, several tears falling from her red eyes.
Thoraxis and herself had both counted the possibility that at least a few of the eggs would be infertile due to how different either of their species were, but they had both also expected at least a few would hatch. At the thought of how unfair this travesty was, considering how far she and Thoraxis had gone in taking care of the eggs, the wyvern curled her claw into a ball, and let more tears freely fall.
As she had her moment, Thoraxis walked closer to the unmoving figure, and gently nudged the poor, limp creature's pure white, chitinous, damp, horned head with his muzzle. When nothing happened, he sighed despondently, his face dropping in utter sadness. The two had put their blood, sweat, and tears into making sure the eggs were safe and secure. Not a single one had broken under their heedful watch, and the only time they were ever moved, was when each was turned onto its side to make sure they could get incubated properly.
A sudden glimmer of movement caused Thoraxis to lift his head again, and his eyes, at first half-closed from sheer anguish, widened in surprise at what he then saw. As if restored to life once more while he wasn't looking, the little creature before him began to stir, her legs twitching and moving as the rest of her body followed suit.
"P-Petra... Petra, sh-she's alive!" he shouted in a whisper, as the hatchling used her front, hole-filled legs to lift herself up and move some more, immediately attempting to finish the previous job of freeing her lower half from the egg.
"Wh-what?" the wyvern inquired, lifting her head. Thoraxis used his hoof to excitedly motion for her to approach, which she instantly did. When Petra witnessed what he spoke of, she gasped in startled relief, planting her claws on her mouth.
"She's got a will to keep going, huh?" Thoraxis chuckled in undiluted happiness, as the two watched their only surviving child finish leaving her egg, before letting her thin, equine body come to a solid rest on the stone ground from the effort given, taking in multiple, deep breaths and panting loudly.
"Thoraxis... we have a child!" Petra spoke in an overjoyed voice, tears of ecstasy replacing the ones of loss. "We have a child, Thoraxis! A beautiful, little daughter! We did it!"
"Mmm... mmm?" the small creature mewed as the sound of her mother's cheering hit her long ears, her head lifting and moving around, eyes opening for the first time in her life. Thoraxis, struggling to hold back his own emotions, entered a sitting position and lowered his head to his new daughter.
"H-hello, little one," He greeted the unusual hatchling. "I'm your... I'm your daddy!"
The whelp looked around when she heard the noise, as if trying to spot its location in a pitch-black room, despite the cave's natural lighting from the rays of the near-full moon that shot through a small hole in the ceiling. Thoraxis, curious about her behavior, lifted his hoof in front of the hatchling's face, and waved it. She didn't respond, or even seem to notice it.
Taking a closer look, he noticed that, while having bright red eyes like her mother's, the hatchling's were clouded and dull. Thoraxis came to a grim realization as he watched the small being crawl toward his direction, intrigued by the sound he previously made.
"Petra, she's... blind," he spoke, looking up to his spouse bleakly, while the creature wriggled into his lap, as if on instinct. Petra returned with an unsure expression, placing a claw on her mouth as she heard the news.
"What? Blind?" she asked, worry coming into her tone. "Oh dear... what does this mean for her?"
"I don't care if she's blind," he said back in a higher tone, watching with a fascination only a parent could show as their daughter, her eyes closing again, began to suck on the tip of his hoof, revealing the multiple, tiny, needle-like teeth that lined her jaws. "I'm just glad we have a child."
Petra put a claw out, and ever so gently caressed the chitinous skin on the tiny being. Despite freshly knowing about this disability they knew they had to work around, neither of them could help but smile at their onerously fought-for accomplishment.
"What should we call her?" Thoraxis inquired, as the exhausted creature let out a mighty, but small yawn, and began to fall asleep in his lap. "The only names I can ever think of are all changeling names, but I don't want her to have a name like "Antilles," or "Insecti" or "Thoraxis jr.," or something like that. I want her to have one that the ponies around here will understand. I want her to have a pretty one."
"I wanted to name at least one of our children "Serendipity,"" Petra spoke softly, as to not spoil this tender moment. "Because of how it was a bit of a "happy surprise" for me when I found out we were having kids."
"I like it," he agreed right off, before tittering slightly. "Though I must say, that "happy surprise" left me fainting in broad daylight, in the middle of Ponyville's square when I heard it. That was a good day."
And so, under the roof of the cave and shine of the moon, they named her, their small, delicate, precious daughter.
Long had time passed since lazy summer turned into busy autumn, and longer still had busy autumn become cold, quiet winter.
In the middle of the snow-filled Everfree Forest, surrounded by foliage of varying sizes, rested a small house, built from the hollowed-out trunk of an old, gnarled red tree. Extending from it, like a giant, green, synthetic root, was a greenhouse made up of glass panes.
The greenhouse was made for winter conditions. Peering out from one of the many glass windows it was made of, any could see the large blanket of snow that lied outside, covering the forest. Many of the plants inside, each varying in shape, size, color and more, had their flowers closed, like sleeping children due to the thick cluster of clouds above blotting out most of the sunlight of which they fed on.
As the vegetation in the greenhouse continued to rest, the multiple lights and lamps that hung above most of them suddenly turned on, filling the paned room in a yellow glow. No sooner had they activated, the door to the greenhouse slowly opened, and a tall, thin, white shape with blank red eyes and a horned head emerged from behind it. The being, Serendipity was her name, had a visage closest to resembling a small changeling queen.
Serendipity was taller than most ponies one was likely to encounter, almost the height of an alicorn, but was also skinny to an utterly non-pony degree, near the point of being considered skeletal. Most would agree she looked rather sickly, as her features and chitinous frame seemed to possess a permanently droopy quality and atmosphere. Even her long horn bowed downward slightly. From the crown of her head to the bottom of her neck, a long, pink, web-like mane fell like the branchlets of a weeping willow.
Serendipity slowly trotted through the doorway, but soon stopped and inhaled the smell of her greenhouse deeply. Her horn didn't glow, but she still used magic to send out an invisible, brief current of energy that harmlessly bounced off her surroundings, revealing them to her.
The Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, taught her the spell when she was younger. She also told her it was a form of magical reception, very similar to echolocation used by bats to navigate in the dark. By sending out an invisible shockwave of pure magic, when it bounced back it would reveal an image of what the land in a few dozen yards radius looked like, and whatever figures were in it, all in her mind. Whenever she used it, the only colors she would see would be black-and-white; the only colors she would ever know in her life, without dreaming, but she could easily discern shapes from one another.
After seeing what was in her way, she trotted forward on her long, hole-filled hooves. The transparent, insect-like wings poking out of the red shell that rested on her back flittered in a happy way as she made her way to her favorite plant in the room.
"It's morning, Hesperus!" she spoke in her usual light, soft tone, approaching what appeared to be a normal-looking, if not larger-than-usual rose, closed into a bud. With a yawn, the plant opened up, revealing a red flower, but in the center, past all of the petals, a small, fanged mouth rested.
"Morning?" he inquired, in a high-pitched, guttural voice. "Wow, I must've slept in."
After feeling for it with a hoof, the half-changeling used her magic to pick up a nearby bag full of a special kind of plant food she made, just for this particular plant. Carefully dumping it into the pot with a shaky, white aura of magic to hold it in place, Hesperus bent his stem over and used his two, large main leaves to scoop the brown, dirt-like substance around his pot and himself, making sure every spot around him was filled.
"And just so," he cackled, as he patted the remaining fertilizer down, before sucking in the nutrients with his roots. "That's some good stuff. Thanks, Seren."
"Want some water with that?" she inquired, putting the bag down on the counter.
"Water? Yay!" he cheered, childishly. Sending out another small wave from her horn to find the watering pot, Serendipity bent her head over. Lifting it up by the handle with her mouth after locating it, she turned back to the plant and tilted the watering can forward, letting out a rain of water droplets fall on the plant. As if parodying what a pony, or pony-esque being would do in the shower, the plant started to wash himself with his leaves.
Hesperus was a talking snapdragon rose - a plant Serendipity had created herself by crossbreeding nearly a dozen other plants, which was a fact she took pride in. What she didn't take as much pleasure in, however, was the fact that he grew to an extreme magnitude if he wasn't properly taken care of, and was very... ambitious.
"How is watering me and feeding me that special kind of plant food going to help my chances of overthrowing the princesses of this land, and take it over, anyway?" he asked as she finished. "I never get enough power from it to grow to my full height anymore."
"It's not supposed to let you grow to your full size," she replied, placing the watering pot down with a cheery voice and smile, her two, long, saber-like canines hanging like icicles from her grin. "It just makes sure to keep your size at a minimum, so you're nice and healthy, while also keeping you out of trouble."
"Aww..." the plant whined, drooping over slightly. "But... but I want to take over the world!"
"What would you do if you took over the world?" she pondered out loud, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"I dunno..." he said. "I haven't thought that far yet."
Closing her red eyes and smirking, Serendipity turned about and started back to the door, to grab more things for the other plants.
"One of these days, this world will be mine! And all will bow before me, you'll see, Seren!" Hesperus shouted again in a hammy tone as Serendipity left the room, the plant now bursting into a fit of maniacal laughter when she disappeared behind the door.
With the chores around her house now done, Serendipity ventured outside through the snow, leaving tracks in her wake. After working on her plants, she loved to spend the rest of her mornings just walking through the forest, checking on her local iceberry bushes, and hearing the songs the birds in the treetops sang. She made sure to never venture very far, as to not get lost or run into an unsavory creature, and when she ever wanted to return, she would simply retrace her footsteps.
Serendipity didn't bring a jacket or coat along, for she was nearly impervious to the frigid cold outside; an ability she believed came from her mother's side. Two other things she inherited from Petra was her albinsm, which made it so she could not stay comfortable in direct sunlight for very long, and what little poison her fangs possessed, though the toxin itself was a great deal less potent. She remembered hearing from her father, Thoraxis, that she once made his entire hoof go numb when she teethed on it as an infant.
She was interrupted from the memory by the sound of hoofsteps going through the snow behind her, causing one of her ears to lift at the sound. "Who goes there?" she asked, turning around and letting a single pulse of magic leave her horn. She got back an image in her mind that showed a pony-shaped figure approaching.
"There's no need for worry, it is just I," a familiar male voice greeted politely. "I just came over to stop and say hi."
"Oh, Zak. It's you," she said, her demeanor changing. "How are you and Zecora doing?"
"My aunt is doing very well. I'm also good, if you cannot tell" the zebra replied, readjusting the gray scarf around his neck. Zak was a fellow student of Zecora's, and the wise sage's nephew as well. Both trained under her tutelage in how to breed and grow all manners of plants, from magical ones that can be used in potions, to ones that could be used for something as simple as decoration. Zak wanted to become a potion-maker and herbalist like his aunt, though Serendipity wanted to use her skills for more recreational and self-sustaining purposes.
"Are you ready for Hearth's Warming?" she asked again. "It's going to be upon us in a few more days. What do you plan on doing?"
"I'm just going to spend it with my aunt, so we can have some time together without too much of a fuss," he said, before his cheeks, already red from the cold, turned into an even brighter shade of crimson, which he was thankful Serendipity could not see. "I was... also kind of wondering if you wanted to come and share it with us."
"I may be able to, but... I'm not sure," she replied, her unfocused gaze and unseeing eyes held elsewhere, as they usually were when she was in conversation. "My cousin's coming over, and I promised her she could spend as much time with me as possible. She's a bit hyperactive, and I know how Zecora and yourself don't like having too many things getting broken and all..."
"I understand, full and well," he nodded, before his face lightened up, remembering something. "By the way, how's your family? Are they all doing well?"
"They all came by yesterday, as a matter of fact," Serendipity spoke. "We had dinner in my house together, talked about our lives, made some plans... that sort of stuff."
"Whatever activities you plan on doing, you had better do them on this day," he said, in a slightly graver tone. "Zecora told me she thinks a powerful storm is on its way."
"Oh, the only thing I have planned at the moment is just waiting for noon to roll around so I can head to Ponyville to greet my relatives when they arrive," she said, her head slowly turning in his direction more. "Would you like to come with me when I go? I'm sure I could get there faster with you leading the way."
"Sure! It's always a treat to meet with your family," he chuckled. "I guess that means I'll see you at noon, Serendipity."
"I'll see you at that time too, Zak," she replied, hearing the zebra walk away. When the sound of her friend trudging through the snow slowly got to point of being distant, she turned around and continued her trek.
As she trotted through the howling wind, Serendipity thought about how much she loved to be alone. When she was a child, her parents, while rightfully cautious, were a bit too doting with her because of her inability to see, physical fragility, and mediocre-at-best use of her magic. To this day, at the age of seventeen, her skill in the use and application of magic was still utterly pathetic for reasons she could not find out, to her personal frustration, coming to the equivalent of but a preschooler that has just learned a few new spells at the playground. Even so, as an adult she absolutely adored the fact she didn't need the help of others anymore. She had gone forward despite the warnings against it, she adapted, and she successfully became the independent individual she was today by cleverly working around her flaws, or putting them to her advantage.
As she reached the part of the path she usually stopped on, Serendipity turned around and prepared to head back, when a peculiar feeling hit her.
Something was watching her.
Her instincts were almost never wrong when it came to eerie feelings like this. After using her magic to scan her surroundings, she still saw nothing that could have given her this feeling within the spell's radius. Then, as soon as it came, the feeling abruptly left.
After doing another sweep of the area with her magic, just to make sure it wasn't nearby, Serendipity took the time to start heading back to her house, a sense of haste and urgency overtaking her stride.
Princess Luna was not happy. She levitated, eyes closed, in deep concentration above the floor of her room.
Being the Princess of the Night, she was also the protector of dreams in the world of the unconscious that every pony in the land visited every night. And her most despised adversary from that realm was up to something...
The Black Witch, a being that wove dreams and created nightmares, was no longer literally sewing discontent in the dream world, as she had sensed the night before. Before her descent into madness as Nightmare Moon, she often fought this aberration of wood and raw magic while defending the immaterial realm of the mind, but could never fully destroy, or completely imprison him, for his control in the plane of thought was leagues above, but not at all beyond her own power. When she returned and was cleansed of the dark magic that held her, the wretched, wicker creature was gone, to both her relief and surprise.
But four years ago... four, short years ago, he returned. Ever since then she spent most moments trying to stop him from resuming his work, but now, he was in the real world. The physical world. His reasons for coming here was a mystery to Luna, but one thing was sure: He was vulnerable. If she caught him here, he wouldn't be able to do a thing about it, and she could keep him locked away for the rest of his days.
She was going to make sure he didn't escape this time. Her will to finally defeat him was unparalleled. Her desire to impede his progress was full. Her concentration was ma-
"Luna, are you in here?"
As the voice of Celestia went out, Luna, with a startled shout, fell to the stone ground below, her concentration lost. When she recovered, she looked to her sister with a grumpy expression.
"Dearest sister! Do you mind?" she inquired, picking herself up.
"Sorry, Luna," she apologized from behind a muffled giggle, before allowing her face to become stoic again. "I just came in to tell you that Twilight, her friends, and her family just arrived. I also wanted to know if you wished to greet them with me."
"In a little while... possibly," her younger sister replied. "I'm still very much in my work, at the moment."
"It's the Black Witch, isn't it?" Celestia inquired. Luna nodded.
"Yes, it is him," she said. "He's in the physical world, where he is most at my mercy. I intend to catch him while his claws are in the cookie jar, and I cannot afford to be distracted, even if it is nearing this most joyous holiday."
"How will you find him?"
"I'm tracking him," she responded. "I know the foul stench his black magic leaves behind better than any pony alive. If I can just find an area of Equestria that has even a single trace of his presence..."
"I had better leave you to it, then," Celestia sighed. "I'll tell the others the gravity of your effort."
"Thank you, sister," she said. "Just remember, I will try to greet them, if I get the time. It's just right now that I have a problem with."
As the Princess of the Day slowly left the room and closed the door behind her, the Princess of the Night simply went back to her work, closing her eyes as she reentered her concentrated state of mind.
With Zak leading the way, both Serendipity and himself finally entered Ponyville, and the sound of voices all around them soon started afterward. It was only on rare occasions that Serendipity came to the town, and just hearing the bustling street around them brought back memories, some fond, some not.
Despite her blindness and sickly nature, life growing up in Ponyville wasn't too difficult, but it certainly was odd. She went to the Ponyville schoolhouse with the other children her age, and was taught to read, do math, and perform other skills needed in life by deciphering symbols with her hooves. When it came to making friends however, she sorely lacked both the urge to want to do so, and the skills.
It was a short time later that a select few of the other students, which she presumed were either jealous of the constant treatment and attention given to her, or just plain disturbed by her admittedly unnatural appearance, started to pick on her, but not in an up-front way. From a distance, Serendipity could hear them call her words she despised, the usual being "freak," "purblind," "ghost," and worst of all, "that hybrid thing." But throughout all of this harassment, she remained quiet and composed, choosing to ignore their words rather than give in to them.
When she turned thirteen though, the way others saw her reached its utter breaking point. As if something inside of her "clicked," she soon found out that whenever she was within a few feet of a unicorn, alicorn, or any other magic user that wasn't her father, sister, or somepony she was close to, they would suddenly get a terrible headache, and feel as though their power was being slowly seeped away. This instantly provoked a backlash of fear and anxiety aimed at her, mostly from the worried parents of the foals at school who were afraid for their children's health.
At this time, Zecora kindly offered Thoraxis and Petra to teach Serendipity herself, which they readily agreed on. From then on, she was taught how to grow and use plants, which was a passion she found out she very much enjoyed. When she was old enough and smart enough to take care of herself, she left her parents home and built her own house in the middle of the Everfree Forest, with some help.
"Look. It's her," Serendipty heard an older, female voice whisper, coming from behind her. Her ears splayed back in annoyance as the bombardment of comments began.
"What's that half-bred wiccan doing here? I thought she left forever," another voice continued, coming from a young foal of some sort.
"I thought she died," another spoke. "She still looks weak enough, too. Just look at how thin she is."
"And that undeathly pallor of hers is still there as well," yet another said.
"Don't get near her Cloudswirl, or she'll suck out your soul," a filly apparently warned his friend. The voices seemed to stop after Serendipity felt a hoof touch her shoulder, and came to the realization that it was Zak.
"Listen to their poisonous words, you should not," he spoke to her, having taken notice of her disheartened expression. "They do not know you as I do, so let them and their ignorance be forgot."
After smiling to her friend, practically radiating the words "thank you," a young, and very spirited voice suddenly went out, calling for her.
"Serendipity!" it yelled. Moments after smiling at the sound, Serendipity tensed herself up, and soon after, the playful tackle she was expecting hit her in the chest. Both she, and the smaller, cornflower-blue, silver-maned pony that impacted against her were cushioned by a snow pile that lied behind the two. Zak could only widen his eyes in surprise at the blur that went past him.
"It's nice to see you again, Chary," the half-changeling chuckled, referring to her cousin by her ironic nickname, as she recovered and pushed back the snow that was covering her. "Where's your parents?"
"Talking with yours, in the square," Charybdis replied, popping her crooked-horned head out of the snow like a jack-in-the-box, before taking notice of the zebra that was watching them both, staring at him intensely with her golden eyes. "Ooh... how are you Zak? Long time no see! You've been treating my cousin good, right?"
"With the utmost respect of course, Charybdis," he replied. "I must admit, that static personality of yours I sorely missed."
"Everypony loves my personality!" the filly shouted, raising both of her hooves to the sky for emphasis, before jumping out of the snow pile altogether. "Well, except for old folks. I never understand why..."
"Probably because they're old, and like peace and quiet," Serendipity smiled with a roll of her eyes.
"Let's go see our parents!" Charybdis suddenly said again, taking hold of the half-changeling's hoof. Before she could so much as say something against it, Serendipity felt herself get yanked forward, and the two practically flew through the street. Wearing an amused expression at how close those two were, Zak started to follow.
Charybdis, while not being related to Serendipity or her family, was still like a cousin to her. While her father, Longinus, was an alicorn, and her mother, Carol, was a kelpie, Charybdis herself was a full-on unicorn, with no differing features whatsoever. Well... save for her crooked horn, which she permanently bent the tip of out of place when she accidentally "ran into a wall" as a foal, just a short time after learning to walk. The only traits she seemed to carry over from her mother was her manic personality, and similar color scheme. She also loved to swim.
"Mama! Papa! Guess who I found!" Serendipity heard her friend shout soon after the two ran off. Deciding to use her magic to see who they were approaching, she saw five shapes just ahead, each bearing a familiar silhouette. The first two, both tall, she instantly knew as being Charybdis's parents, while just nearby, the rest of her family stood.
Unnoticed by Serendipity, Thoraxis was in a thick coat, while beside him her sister, Skia, stood clad in at least three separate coats and jackets, showing her heavy dislike of the cold. It was brought upon by what Serendipity had been told was a traumatic moment she experienced in her nymphhood, which also left her older sister with a scarred and lame back leg. Just next to her was the taller form of Petra.
"Serendipity! Is that you?" Longinus, dressed in a dark cloak, inquired in the half-changeling's direction.
"It's certainly good to lay eyes on ye again, you pretty lil' young'n," Carol continued, bowing her blue, finned head to Serendipity. Ever since she and Longinus had gotten married, the kelpie's once thick accent had become a fair bit more mild over the years, to the point that everyone could understand her.
"I'm doing very well, I'll have you two know. I can't wait to spend the holiday with Chary," she replied. "I trust you all were having a pleasant conversation before I arrived?"
"Very well!" Skia popped in, having to speak loudly because of how her voice was muffled from behind her thick attire. "We were talking about how well-received the last book mom and I published together was."
"Oh that reminds me, I forgot to ask something," Charybdis spoke up, looking toward Skia and Petra. "Did you two finish that next book in the series yet? I've been waiting since my last birthday for it!"
The young changeling and the wyvern looked at each other briefly, before looking back, then back to each other.
"Should we tell her?" Petra whispered, leaning over slightly.
"I'm up for it," Skia responded, placing a hoof into one of her coat's pockets, as the two swung their heads over to Charybdis.
"As a matter of fact, Chary... we have the first copy right here!" the wyvern spoke again, just as Skia pulled out a brown-colored book with a picture of a thorn-covered rose on its front.
"You do?" she said with glee, bouncing up to them. "Hoo boy, gimme, gimme, gimme!"
As the group happily let out a small bout of laughter at the filly's excited antics and talked among themselves some more, in the background, a peculiar shape was moving through town.
The figure was dressed in an all-concealing, vivid blue cowl with a white trim, and wore a wide-brimmed hat with a pointed top that sagged slightly behind, too tall to hold shape. The only part that wasn't covered by cloth seemed to be the horn that stuck out of his forehead, and the collar from the cloak that covered his front revealed a pair of blank, round, white eyes from behind.
Sitting on the top of his covered head, clutching the base of the wide-brimmed hat, was a giant, dark brown moth. Its feathery antenna swayed back-and-forth in the wind, and its wide, equally-white eyes scanned around like the light in a lighthouse. As he trotted on, his hooves clopping hollowly on the icy ground, he began to pass by a small booth with a gray-colored, female pegasus with golden, crossed eyes sitting behind it, a jug full of yellow liquid nearby, as well as a few glass cups.
"Oh! Pardon me, sir!" the mare spoke, flagging him down with a hoof. The shape turned and looked at her with his blank eyes.
"Can I help you, my friend?" he inquired, his voice young-sounding, but with a dash of eccentricity in his dialogue.
"Oh, yes! I was wondering if you'd like some lemonade. I made it with an experimental, secret ingredient I got from apples and cranberries," the cross-eyed pony asked in a neighborly manner.
"Sure!" he said, heartily, turning his full attention to the pegasus. The pony with the complex eyes, Derpy, poured the from the jug into a small glass before passing it to him. The glass was enveloped in a white aura of magic, and lifted to where the stranger's mouth was, behind the collar of his cape. As he emptied the glass of its contents, he let out a cough and burst into a series of jittery spasms, before returning to normal a few moments later.
"I'm getting a feeling... mmm... ooh, yep it's there alright, uh... oh, what do I describe this as? What's my feeling? It's on the tip of my tongue!" he spoke to Derpy lightheartedly.
"You hate it?" she asked, seeing the sour reaction in his eyes.
"That's it!" he spoke, clapping his hooves together underneath his cloak. "I hate this! It's disgusting! Revolting! It makes me want to regurgitate my previous meal, it's so bad!"
"Do you... want more?" Derpy asked, noting his cheery disposition.
"Please," he said, putting his cup forward again so the pegasus could pour another round in it.
"Who are you, mister?" she asked, as she did so. The character let out a vaporous laugh.
"Kekekeke... I'm Striga Phobetor, registered oneirologist, graduated highest honors in Canterlot University, formerly attended Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns," he replied, before guzzling down another sip of the drink, and going into another twitching fit before continuing. "Oneirology is the study of dreams, you see. Most call that sort of field unimportant, or impractical, or "Luna's field of work," but not I!"
"I... see something on your head," Derpy said next, finally taking notice of the creature as it looked down upon her with its large, innocent eyes.
"That? Oh, that's just Augur," Striga replied. "He's part of a giant subspecies of black witch moth I discovered a short time back in the woods. Funny thing about black witch moths is that most see them as an omen of death or misfortune, but this little- er... big guy here is as nice as they come."
"I thought bugs and stuff hibernate during winter," she spoke again. The moth replied to her comment by fluffing its brownish, fur-like coat that covered the middle part of its body.
"He's warm enough," Striga responded, as his pet's fur settled. "Say... do you know if there's any place in this town that's opened for rent?" he then inquired. "I'm looking to stay here for a few days."
"No... I was told that everything's closed up right now due to the holiday," Derpy responded with a shrug. "Sorry."
"Oh, that's okay," he said, as he nonchalantly put the empty glass down with his magic. "I'll find a place."
"What are you doing in Ponyville anyway?" she decided to ask, just before the strange unicorn could turn around and leave.
"Mmm... just looking for somepony," he replied, before drifting away, back into the street.
A light snow that started a few minutes before had already picked up by more than a significant bit. The chunky, white specks fell as fast as rain, and the wind pushed it all in a slanted direction. Walking through the dark, night-struck forest and rapidly building storm, the three shapes of Serendipity, Zak, and Charybdis were going forward. The young filly's parents allowed her to stay with her cousin for the night, after she repeatedly asked the two if she could.
"We are almost there," Zak said, his voice aimed at Charybdis. "The ice around here is plenty, so do take care."
"Brr! Am I'm glad to hear that!" the unicorn shivered, as she tucked her face further into the collar of her thick, blue jacket. Soon after her comment, the sight of a wider-than-usual tree came into view. Sensing the uphill feeling, Serendipity sent out a pulse of magic, and got back the image of her home.
"There it is," she said, nudging her cousin's shoulder. Charybdis looked up, and let out a small cheer. Without a word she began running forward, causing Serendipity to laugh and chase after her, sending out several more pulses to make sure she didn't collide with anything.
"Careful of the ice! Careful of the ice!" the zebra warned, as he could only watch the two dash ahead. Charybdis quickly opened the door and fled inside from the gale, with Serendipity right behind. As soon as she walked in, Serendipity headed for the nearby switch and flicked the lights on, lighting up the inside and some of the outside. After hearing Charybdis toss her coat off and run elsewhere, she turned around and faced Zak as best she could.
"It's good to see neither of you slipped," he started, before she could. "On this ground, I myself don't have a very good grip."
"Are you sure you can make it back to Zecora's place fine, Zak?" Serendipity asked in a concerned way. "You might need a jacket, or maybe even a flashlight. I have a few in the closet."
"You don't have to worry about me," he smiled, straightening out his scarf. "Even through a storm like this, I know my way backwards through the Everfree."
"Well then... take care, Zak," the half-changeling said, sensing the zebra depart as she heard him crunch through the snow. She closed the door, and turned into her house, taking a few steps through it. When she didn't hear the hoofsteps of her cousin, she started to call out her nickname.
"Chary?" she asked out loud. "Chary, where'd you go?" Serendipity made her way around, heading to the greenhouse before long. Moments after approaching the door to the area where she kept her plants, she heard the sound of a conversation come from within.
"...So then what happened?" Charybdis's voice asked, sounding deeply interested. Serendipity let out a smile as she realized her cousin was talking to Hesperus, and quietly entered the greenhouse.
"And then... bang!" the snapdragon rose exclaimed, expanding his two main leaves for emphasis. "I got humongous! I ran around the forest on my roots, knocked down a few trees, scared some timberwolves, that kind of thing."
"That sounds like fun," the unicorn giggled.
"Oh, you bet it was!" he agreed, before sighing. "But... then Seren fed me a special kind of fertilizer, and I shrunk again. She told me it was "for my own good," but how can it be if I'm trying to take over the world? I don't want to be like all these other plants in this place! I don't want to stay in this pot my whole life!"
"Plants shouldn't take over the world," Charybdis said again, amused by his inconceivably far-fetched life goal. "What would you even do if you took over the world?"
"I don't know, I haven't gotten that far yet," Hesperus replied, basically repeating what he told Serendipity earlier, while frowning the toothy frown he usually made when he pouted. The plant's flowery red head lifted again as he caught a glimpse of the white shape coming up to them both.
"Oh, hi Seren," he spoke, prompting Charybdis to turn around as well. The filly flashed a smile to her friend.
"Your plant is so funny!" she laughed. "He thinks he can take over Equestria! Why don't any of your other flowers talk?"
"Trust me when I say that having one talking plant is more than enough," Serendipity chuckled, her unseeing eyes looking as though they were focused elsewhere. Charybdis's brow curled in a curious way as she turned back to Hesperus.
"What's he made of? I've never seen a plant like him before."
"Well, I bred him from a mixture of a lot of flowers and plants," she replied, walking up beside Charybdis and petting Hesperus on his flower head with a hole-filled hoof, causing him to let out a small purr. "Roses, Venus flytraps, and snapdragons are just to name a few."
"Cool."
"It's going to be time for bed soon," Serendipity said again, as she ceased her petting. "It's very late, and you remember what your dad said..."
"Ugh. I know, I know..." Charybdis moaned, before reciting what he told her. ""To be in bed before nine...""
A deathly silence had gone about on the empty street in Ponyville as the storm continued to pick up in intensity. The only thing that seemed to make noise was the sound of the wailing wind that blew the falling snow and ice around, and the only light seemed to be coming from the streetlamps that lined every street corner, their individual glows illuminating the weather surrounding them.
Sleeping soundly in his bed, was a young colt by the name of Cinnamon Swirl. His room was plain, and filled with toys and pictures, not unlike that of any other foal his age. Yawning, he slowly awoke, coming to his senses at a snail's pace. Looking to the clock on his wall, he saw it was twelve o'clock exactly.
As he wondered why he woke up, his gaze happened to go past the window. At first he just saw a streetlamp at the far corner of the street's block, but then, taking a closer look, he saw something else.
There was a figure standing on the left side of the streetlamp. A tall figure, rivaling the size of the lamp itself. Its unmoving, supernaturally skinny shape was eerie enough to cause a shiver to go down Cinnamon Swirl's spine, and it didn't help that it was partially silhouetted by lamp's yellow light, yet the visage it bore was nothing the colt couldn't discern. On the top of its head was a pair of long, feathery antenna, and below it, showing through the dark like a pair of piercing white flashlights, were a set of wide, circular, blank eyes.
It suddenly moved, extending one of its skeletal arms in Cinnamon Swirl's direction. One of its three claw-like fingers, the index one, uncurled outward toward him, before curling inward, in a "come here" gesture.
"Reup, tnurenev cuh te," it whispered in a way that seemed to echo all the way from where it stood to Cinnamon Swirl, through his window. Before the foal could discern whether or not the voice was a male or female one, he suddenly found himself enthralled by the very words it emitted. Cinnamon Swirl pushed back his covers and hopped out of bed. Unlatching his window, he opened it up and jumped outside into the street. He quickly trotted through the storm that went on around him, but didn't feel the slightest cold.
Now up-close to the being, Cinnamon Swirl saw it in its full detail. It was as if it was made entirely out of dull brown wicker branches, each curling around and woven together to form the monstrous, moth-like shape it possessed. Draped down from its back was a pair of long, dark brown, mossy strands that dragged several feet behind it like a parody of a regal, ragged cape, and partially covering its small, insectoid abdomen. He quickly realized they were like wings.
"Hold still," the figure commanded, in an otherworldly-sounding, heavily distorted tone. Cinnamon Swirl, now acting on his own accord, silently obliged. He didn't feel fear, despite how alien this being was, but there was a hint of panic going on in his mind.
The figure kneeled over on its long, thin legs, and unfurled its arm again, bringing its three-clawed hand up to the foal's brownish face. "Ammalf amina," it spoke. The moment the moth-creature talked, a sudden, white, candle-like magic wisp appeared, floating just above its palm. The fiery object didn't exude any heat as far as Cinnamon Swirl felt, but its very appearance was like nothing he had ever seen before, despite how simple it was.
The flame danced above its wooden hand for a good minute, but that was all it did. With what sounded like a disappointed sigh, the creature curled its bony, claw-like fingers inward, extinguishing the flame, and looked back to Cinnamon Swirl with its enormous eyes.
"Go back to bed, small one. You do not have what I am seeking," it said, as it stood back up. "Mutider."
Obediently, Cinnamon Swirl turned around and made his way back to his house, clambering through the open window upon reaching where he previously exited from. After shutting it, he crawled into bed, pulled his covers over himself, and instantly fell asleep.
"How disappointing," the creature muttered to itself from where it stood. "That marks the third foal tonight, and still nothing. My prize... my Thysania is here indeed... but where..."
It turned, and walked off a small distance, its peg-like feet leaving tiny, barely-noticeable holes in the snow below, while its wings dragged behind. "I cannot risk another attempt, for now. There's no doubt Luna is trying to spy on me by sensing my magic, tch, tch, tch..."
Without another word, the being disappeared into the darkness of the night, and the blizzard enveloped its form like wet ink.
Ding-dong.
Serendipity's previously-sleeping head shot up from her pillow as the sound of the doorbell ring went out. She let a silent, gasping yawn escape her mouth, exposing her fangs as she used a hoof to brush her messy pink hair from her cloudy, red eyes.
Ding-dong.
"What is... it...?" Charybdis's exhausted voice inquired, as she looked up, groggily, from the bed she lied upon nearby.
"Just the doorbell, Chary. I'll get it..." Serendipity yawned back. She rose out of bed sluggishly, and managed to muster her sight-spell, before stumbling through her house, to the front door. Upon reaching it, she shook her horned head until she was fully awake.
Ding-dong. The bell rang again. Sighing, Serendipity placed her ear against the wooden object. "Hello? Is somepony there?" she asked. Her blind eyes lit up when a young, male voice responded.
"Ah yes, somepony is here," the voice said, in an optimistic way. "May I come in?"
Reaching over and feeling around a nearby coat rack where she kept her trio of spare keys, Serendipity located them, and used the first two to unlock two of the adjacent locks on her door. With the last lock, a silver security door chain still in place, she peeked out from the crack made in the doorway, before casting her spell. She saw a pony-sized shape clad in a great amount of clothing by the looks of it, and a large lump rested on its hatted head.
"What business do you have all the way out here, stranger?" she inquired, cautiously. The strange character loosed a friendly chuckle.
"Hmhmhm... all other places were closed in Ponyville, so I was pointed out here. I came wondering if I could stay here for the night, and maybe a few more afterword," he replied. "I go by the name of Striga. Striga Phobetor. This rascal aboard my head is my pet moth, Augur."
"That thing on your head is a moth?" Serendipity asked, surprised.
"Yes it is," Striga said. "But back to the point, I need a place to stay, and you're my best chance of getting out of this here storm. I even have bits to pay for the rent!"
"Well, I have a spare room, yes, but..." she replied, trailing off as she remembered the spare chamber she had, filled with practically nothing. "...There's no bed in it. Or chairs. Or cupboards."
"I'll take it!" he said, joyfully. Rolling her eyes at his enthusiasm, Serendipity unhatched the chain lock and turned the knob, opening the door. Striga trotted in out of the raging storm outside, shaking the snow off of his clothes before entering, as Augur flapped off of him, flying a short distance through the house before landing on the wall.
"So... where is this room?" the pony asked.
"Just down the hall a bit. Follow me," Serendipity replied. As the two made their way to the area, Serendipity's newest guest looked around, admiring the detail put into the making of the house.
"I must say, this is a lovely interior," Striga complimented. "In my earnest opinion, this is the perfect place to set up an abode in the forest without having to get into the complicated matters of building one from various bits of timber. This tree was more than wide enough to build a house in!"
"Heh. I had help picking it out," the half-changeling chuckled, as the door to the extra room came into view, and she sensed they were nearing it. "You know, I bet you would think that I would be surprised to see somepony like you arrive at my doorstep at this time of night, but I'm actually more shocked that you didn't comment on my appearance yet."
"So what? You're an albino pony. Big deal," he said. "I've seen stranger..."
"Actually, I'm not a pony at all," Serendipity replied, as the wings on her back briefly buzzed for emphasis. "I'm half-changeling, half-wyvern."
"You are? Neat!"
"That's it? "Neat?"" she inquired.
"What? Were you expecting me to give you a trophy for being one?" he laughed hysterically, his white eyes closing with the unkempt, joyful emotion he felt from behind his cloak. "Hee-hee! Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't care very much about other's appearances when they're not part of my current schemes and plans. You could have been a giant swamp monster, and I wouldn't have noticed as long as you were kindly like this."
Serendipity couldn't help but smirk at his overreaction, as her hoof pulled on the doorknob and opened the door for him, revealing the empty inside. When he had a good, long look, she tapped a hoof on the ground and spoke up.
"This is it," she sighed.
"Hmm... roomy, wooden, bears the sweet smell of dry sap, square... It's perfect! I thank you, Serendipity," Striga responded, having calmed down. "I'll make sure to pay for this night first thing tomorrow morning, I swear to it."
"I'll be waiting," she smiled. Bowing his head to her, Striga walked in while Augur flew in a few moments before he could shut the door. With this bit of business done, Serendipity calmly walked back to her room to rejoin Charybdis, thinking of her new, peculiar guest. As she approached her cousin's bed and made sure it was tucked in properly, she heard her stir.
"Who was... that?" she inquired, sleepily.
"Somepony looking for a place to stay for the night," she replied softly, as to not fully wake her up. "He seemed very eccentric, but I'm sure you can meet him in the morning."
With a yawn, Charybdis fell back asleep. Having the same idea in mind, Serendipity closed and locked the door to their room, and crept into her own bed. After a few minutes, she too drifted away in peaceful slumber.
Serendipity was the first to awaken that morning. After noticing that Charybdis was still snoozing away peacefully in her now-messy bed, she re-tucked the covers back over the foal, and silently slipped out of the room like a ghost, uttering not even a single noise as she unlocked and exited through the door.
Getting to it like she did almost every morning, the young half-changeling set to work around her home. The first thing she did was shovel and push all the snow from the still-ongoing blizzard from her doorstep, and afterword fed and watered her plants. When she was done that, she started for the kitchen to make herself something to eat, until she noticed she was passing by the guest room.
Remembering her peculiar visitor from the night before, Serendipity, after locating it, turned the knob and peeked in. Upon hearing the sound of somepony working on something, she used her sight spell to make out an image of the inside, and saw Striga's awake, cloaked shape bending over an object of some sort, as well as several, paper-thin items hanging from clips on the wood ceiling.
"Morning!" Striga greeted heartily, upon turning his hatted head and seeing her. Serendipity gave him an odd look as she fully opened the door, unaware that Striga's pet moth took the chance to flutter out from just above her.
"What are you doing?" she inquired.
"Why, finishing up a rousing session of tapestry weaving, of course," he replied, as he put the needle and thread thread he was levitating down. "It's a passion I enjoy. I've known how to do it since I was but a child, you see. The works you see around me are all for clients I meet with, so don't touch. Very delicate."
"Tapestries... huh," she said in an interested tone, taking a step into the room. "What do they look like?"
"Can't you see them yourself?"
"No... I'm blind," she spoke, motioning to her red, sightless eyes. Striga's own white eyes widened in surprise at her revelation.
"Oh my, I'm... sorry, I didn't know," he said in an apologetic tone. "After seeing how you moved around last night, I thought... you were no different than I in the field of vision. Eep."
Serendipity chuckled. "You don't have to be sorry, I get that reaction a lot. I typically navigate by using a spell I learned when I was younger. By the way, how did you get these papers, and what I presume to be a loom in here? I didn't sense you come in with one."
"Magic," he grunted in a joking fashion, before snorting twice.
"Wait, you're a unicorn?" she inquired.
"Yes," he replied. "Why do you ask?"
Serendipity thought of how he might react if he found out about the usual stamina-draining thing that happened when she was around unicorns, and so decided to bite her lip, staying her tongue. "N-no reason, just wondering," she quickly said, tittering in a way that provoked a look of brief curiosity in Striga's eyes.
The look dissipated as he looked back to the materials in front of himself, letting out a small hum as he processed a thought in his head.
"Have you ever tried weaving before?" he inquired, gazing back to the half-changeling. "Anyone can do it, pony or not. It takes some practice to become a master like me, but the basics are simple to learn."
"I haven't," Serendipity said. "I'm also curious about one other thing: What stuff are your tapestries made of?"
"Silk," he replied. "A special kind of silk, mind you. A magic kind of silk. You won't find any like it anywhere, except in a dream, possibly. And to me, it's easily acquirable thanks to my... sources..."
"Magic?" Serendipity asked, perplexed. "You mean it's enchanted?"
"Yes, it is. The magic goes into effect by broadcasting the user's emotion to convey a desirable image. However, in my years of using it, I've seen that most ponies can't seem to get it to work for themselves. Their minds... no, their souls... just aren't tuned in the way that the silk likes. Granted, I've seen a rare few, but still..."
Another idea suddenly came to his mind, and he let out a hum, betraying his thoughts before he even revealed them. "Do ya'think you might you want to try a go at it? You don't have to worry about breaking any of my silk or tools. It's all easily replaceable."
Serendipity thought for a moment, placing a hoof to her mouth. "Well, I don't really have anything left to do this morning, at least until my cousin wakes up, and I'm not that hungry for breakfast right now," she shrugged, relenting. The half-changeling walked up to Striga, and he stood up, allowing her taller form to sit in front of the weaving loom.
"Take this needle and thread," he started in a helpful manner, using his magic to lift the two objects and put them in front of her until her own magic grasped the two, "and remember, it's all about feeling. No looking, no smelling, no tasting, no hearing, feeling. Pure and simple."
"Feeling... got it," Serendipity said, resisting the urge to comment on how twee he sounded. After feeling around for it, she located the loom and its already half-finished form, and set to continuing where Striga had left off. Using her weak, but stable magic to hold the items in front of her carefully, her hooves searched and touched where the needle needed to go.
"If you don't feel like it's your cup of tea, it's okay to give up, you know," he said, as she started. "Not everyone is into weaving."
"If anypony that's ever known me knows something about me, it's that I don't give up," she smiled defiantly, as she resumed. The needle continued to slip through the threads, lacing them together perfectly. To Striga's complete surprise, an image began to form several minutes later, when she had added on another third to the once-blank tapestry. The image was a sunflower field, with a beautiful, sunny, blue sky shining overhead.
Hm. Impressive... he thought in amusement. His mind was interrupted as a loud yawn went out through the air, coming form the room's entrance. He turned his hatted head and saw the small form of Charybdis, her eyes half closed in a sleepy manner.
"Serendipity? Are you in here?" Charybdis asked.
"Oh, good morning Chary!" the half-changeling greeted in reply, stopping her work and partially turning to her. "You looked like you slept well. Are you hungry?"
"A little," she replied.
"I can make you some breakfast if you want."
"Yes... please. Thanks..." the young filly yawned again as she walked on, leaving the two alone once more. Serendipity, after placing her tools down, stood back up and made her way to the doorway, until Striga stopped her with his voice.
"I must say, you may not have ever woven before, but you sure show a natural talent," he complimented. "You even managed to form a picture. If I didn't know any better, I would say that you'd certainly make a good weaver, if you ever pursued the path of one."
"Thanks, but I'll stick with growing plants for now," Serendipity smiled back, before exiting the room.
"Are you all ready?" Petra asked through the blizzard. The wyvern and her four companions were just leaving the house in a single-file row. Also following them on their upcoming trek was Thoraxis and Petra's pet cryophoenix, Despereaux, whose crystalline, icy shape soared above them all on the powerful wind current the storm around them was providing.
"Ready!" they all shouted in unison as the last of them exited, revealing how they looked. While Longinus, Carol, and Thoraxis were covered in plain, heavy coats and hats of varying colors, Skia looked like an enormous puffball with four stubby boots for limbs. The way her multiple wears were being worn also made it so her only visible facial features were her two, green, monochromatic eyes shining through her closed-up hood.
They each headed for the pathway into the Everfree forest. While the three females of the group walked next to each other in the front, having a delightful conversation among themselves about various matters, Thoraxis and Longinus held back and remained behind them. They were far enough back to be unable to hear what the three were discussing, but not far enough to lose sight of them through the storm.
"Thoraxis, do you still remember the days before you met Petra?" the alicorn decided to ask in an effort to make their own dialogue session, looking down to the changeling with his cyan eyes. "The days before you dug me up? The time when you were but one changeling, in a world of foes?"
Thoraxis blew a loud breath through his mouth, shooting out a cloud of misty air in front of himself. "I still remember," he replied. "And let me tell you, if somepony ever told me that my life would have come to this around twenty years ago, I wouldn't believe them. And I wouldn't give up the life I have with Petra for anything in the world."
The alicorn couldn't help but smile at his warmhearted answer. "I still look fondly back on the day you proposed to Petra. The jittering legs, the ring box you held in your hoof, the gleam in your eyes... you appeared so nervous. It wasn't even a month after we had found Skia, too."
"You of all ponies know how high-strung I get in those kind of situations..." he laughed as he readjusted the collar on his coat, the image of him asking that wonderful wyvern to be his wife still freshly floating around in his head seventeen years after the fact. They both walked a little further along snow-filled road, before Longinus thought up another question.
"I noticed your younger daughter didn't talk much about herself yesterday. Is she well?"
"Yes, very," he spoke. "Zecora and her nephew have been keeping an eye on Serendipity for me lately, and they've told me that she's exceptionally happy. You know, I still have trouble trying to comprehend how she likes being by herself so much..."
"Some individuals are simply like that," Longinus said, avoiding an oncoming, snow-topped bush. "I can hardly blame one for taking a liking to the peace, quiet, calmness, and tranquility of solitude. You also told me what some other ponies thought of her when she was younger, after all."
"What's Charybdis like?" Thoraxis decided to inquire. "She's as energetic as her mother, and the way she acts so brazenly all the time looks like she might be a tad bit hard to control."
"Heh," Longinus laughed. "She's a hoof full at times, that much is true, but Carol and I love her dearly. To sum her up in three words, "she's an adventure.""
""An adventure?"" the changeling repeated. "So... she's just like her mom then, isn't she?"
"In every way."
They both chuckled to one another and continued to talk, as the two marched through the storm behind the others, the snow and wind picking up in intensity all the while.
"Please can you take me to see Princess Luna?" Night Wish once again asked his older sister, Twilight Dusk. The teenage unicorn only gave her sibling a sharp look of annoyance.
"For the fourth time, no. I'm reading," she replied, shifting her rectangular-lensed glasses to a better position. "Also, Mom and Dad said we're not allowed to bug her; she's busy."
"Aww..." Night Wish whined, his expression lowering to a frown.
Both ponies were the children of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her husband Flash Sentry. Twilight Dusk bore a sharp resemblance to her mother, both in terms of appearance and intellectual habits, save for having a slightly darker coat, and a sapphire streak going through her purple mane. Night Wish, while also having a similar bodily color scheme, bore a completely blue mane and the wings of his pegasus father.
Both were dwelling in the middle of one of Canterlot's hallways, the sound of a great many ponies talking, dancing, and generally having a good, celebratory time in the room adjacent to them.
Night Wish desperately wanted to see Luna and give her a Hearth's Warming gift he made for her. It was a large cookie he had made himself not a day before, depicting a full moon and several stars on its surface, all written in frosting. He kept it in a red box by his side, a green bow holding its cover shut.
"Mom and Dad didn't tell me, so do you know why she's not coming out of her room?" he asked again.
"Who's not coming out of their room?" a familiar, female voice asked from behind the two before Twilight Dusk could answer. Night Wish's entire body spun around to see who it was while Twilight Dusk only lifted her head from her book.
"Princess Luna!" the foal suddenly shouted, pointing out who the dark-colored alicorn coming down the hall toward them was. He quickly dashed toward her and hugged her leg.
"It's good to see you again too, Night Wish," the princess welcomed in a chuckle, patting his back.
"What were you doing that was more important than having a fun Hearth's Warming with everyone?" he asked as he trotted back and grabbed the present he left behind.
"Something very important I assure you, but I decided to take a small break and greet you all," Luna said as she followed him to where his sister sat.
"I-I... brought you a gift," Night Wish spoke again, turning to show his box to her. The Princess of the Night couldn't help but smile, and accepted the present, using her magic to pull the bow off, followed by the cover, and then the object's content.
"Oh, Night Wish..." she swooned, levitating the treat up to her face. "You're so sweet."
"Not as sweet as the cookie, I hope," he laughed. Luna took a bite of it, and grinned warmly as she savored its delicious taste.
"Why exactly were you locked in your room, and not celebrating with everypony else?" Twilight Dusk spoke up, readjusting her glasses again.
"Mmmph?" she replied, swallowing what was in her mouth. "I apologize that I couldn't join up with any of you yet. For the last few days I've been looking for someone with little success."
"Who is it?" Night Wish inquired, curiously.
"A monster, known as the Black Witch, who makes dreams into nightmares," Luna said, her expression tensing up a slight bit as she placed the cookie back into the box. "He is a strange, demented creature that was once a pony, but used a dark, ancient magic many hundreds of years ago to enter the dream world and cause havoc with other pony's dreams. I thought him gone for the longest of times, but he came back a short while ago. Now, he's in the real world once more, and I must locate and catch him before he returns."
"Did you hear that? A monster. Maybe we could help..." Nightwish quietly suggested, poking Twilight Dusk with an elbow. His sister gave a roll of her eyes before mumbling in a way she knew she was going to regret.
"Do you think you need assistance in finding him, princess?" she asked, bookmarking her page and closing her book. Luna pursed her lips as she thought, before deciding her answer.
"Well, as a matter of fact..."
While Zecora the zebra was busily working on a potion, Zak, having just placed some more wood into the fireplace's still-going blaze, was staring out the window at the snowfall. It had gotten worse in a very short time, with the storm being so thick that he couldn't even see the surrounding trees anymore.
"Aunt, I do not think this blizzard is all that it seems," he started, turning his attention from the window and giving Zecora a serious look of worry. "And though this is a hunch, I would say something is actively driving it on, I ween."
"A force behind this storm, I sense as well. It does not feel evil, but what it truly is, I cannot tell..." she replied. "Only time will let us know. For now, all we can do is let it flow."
Nodding at her words, the two found themselves interrupted by a loud knocking at the door. Without a word, Zecora walked up to it and opened it, revealing the cold shapes of who the two zebras realized were Thoraxis and his companions.
"Sorry we had to stop in..." Thoraxis's coated form apologized through chattering teeth, walking in. "In just the last five minutes the storm seemed to pick up tenfold. We each needed to find somewhere to warm up."
""Warm up" is an understatement..." Skia muttered as she limped behind him and pulled down three of her hoods, exposing her changeling head. At this point, she was very happy with herself that she had put on so many items of warmth, fully prepared for when the precipitation would get this bad.
"Even I can't see through this weather!" Petra said in a surprised tone, shaking the snow from her already pale, white face. "I've lived up in the frozen north for most of my life, and the storms there weren't usually as bad as this. Despereaux's having a fun time out there, though..."
The cryophoenix let out a crow of agreement as he landed on her shoulder, right before Longinus and Carol entered.
"Aye. That's the thickest an' coldest storm Ah've seen in a while," the kelpie sighed. "It's almost nightfall too. Ah hope we get to Serendipity's house afair 'en. Charybdis is expecting us."
"Don't worry. I'm sure we can make it there before the sun fully sets," Longinus replied to his wife, reassuringly. "And even if we can't, she's in good hooves."
"To make it to Serendipity's house tonight, I think you cannot," Zak said in a partially somber tone, unhappy to give them the news. "You'll get lost in the forest from what this snow and wind has wrought."
"What? Oh, no... oh dear, oh no..." Carol said in an anxious voice, tapping one of her gold earrings with a hoof in a worried manner. Longinus, seeing her in distress, quickly wrapped a leg around her and hugged her close.
"Easy there, Carol," he whispered, soothingly. "She's safe, she's warm... she'll be alright until tomorrow."
"Well... as long as ye think so," the kelpie responded, flashing an uneasy smile back at him.
"Please, you all may stay as long as you want, need, or like. Until this storm became stronger, Zak and I were also about to see if those two were alright," Zecora replied. "This time of cold is like in the days of yore, don't you think? Neighbors and friends, all huddled together around a fire, our bonds as thick as ink..."
"Seeing's how it appears we're here for a while... what should we do?" the changeling asked after sitting down and coughing into his hoof, looking for suggestions.
"I know a few stories," Skia and Petra both spoke at the same time. After looking at one another and chuckling at the coincidence, Petra continued. "We can all share one with each other, or something. Ya'know... go in circles."
"That sounds like a good idea," Longinus concurred with a positive expression, as both he and Carol relaxed themselves by the fireplace. "I know some old tales and legends of mirth and merriment myself, actually. Have any of you heard of the legend of Snow, the winter ibex?"
"Go ahead and tell us! And take your time," Zak smiled, watching as he and the others settled down in a circle around the room. "We have all night, so it's not a crime."
"It's getting late..." Charybdis sighed as she stared out the window, an activity she had been doing for the last dozen minutes, her view pointed toward the falling snow and the now slightly darker sky. "Where are they? What's taking them so long?"
"By the sound of it, the weather's gotten worse. That could be a possibility," Serendipity replied with a shrug, approaching her. "If they can't make it tonight, and need to find a place to stay, at least you get to spend another night with me without your parents telling you what to do, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so..." the young unicorn mumbled. "But still... I hope they did find a place to stay."
"It certainly is a pity..." Striga's voice suddenly sighed from just over a foot behind the two, causing them to jump in a startled reaction. "I need to leave town by the end of the week, and if this snow clogs up the roads for too long... oh dear, we would most certainly be in trouble, wouldn't we? Hehehe..."
Charybdis remained silent as she heard his somehow mocking laugh, while Serendipity greeted him with a smile.
"Sorry Mr. Phobetor, we didn't see you there," she said. "Is there something you need?"
"Mmmmyes. I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind if I took a peek at your plants," he replied. "A small curiosity as to what your flowers and greens look like has befallen me, and to sate it I must appease to it."
"I don't mind at all," she responded. "Just keep your hooves away from the talking one. His name's Hesperus, and he might try to bite you if he doesn't like you."
"I shall keep it in mind. Much obliged for the warning," he thanked, bowing his head before turning around and trotting about the greenhouse like a tourist observing an attraction. Charybdis watched him leave with a lowered, untrusting brow.
"That Striga guy... he's weird..." the filly whispered into Serendipity's ear, once he was gone. "I think there's something wrong with him. Just standing near him... I can't really explain it, but I don't like it. That moth of his is creepy too. The way it looks at me... it's not natural. Brr!"
"I don't feel it," Serendipity spoke back. "Striga's a bit odd, I'll admit that, but he keeps to himself. Just don't worry about him."
"Whatever. I'm going to go try and build an igloo outside, if that's alright with you," Charybdis said again, before shooting a much more serious look to her cousin. "Please, just be careful around that guy. My gut's telling me that he's trouble. The only time its ever been wrong was that one time I decided to try out an asparagus burger. Bleck!"
"This, coming from you? Little miss troublemaker-pants?" the half-changeling chuckled, rubbing her cousin's maned head with a hole-filled hoof in a playful, sisterly fashion. A grin spread across Charybdis's freckled face, and she let loose a laugh as she pushed the limb away.
"It's just as a heads-up," her cousin said again. "Do you think you want to come out with me?"
"Sure! Just give me a few minutes to water my plants and vegetables again and I'll be right out," she replied, cheerfully. Charybdis gave another smile and turned about, going off to put her winter cloths on. Serendipity made her way to the greenhouse, passing through the same door her guest used. As she entered, she suddenly heard her plant shouting at something.
"Get away from me you nectar-sucking buzzard! Shoo! Skedaddle!" Hesperus growled in a pestered voice. Using her sight spell, Serendipity saw him using his leaves in a futile attempt to ward off Augur, who flew overhead. The oversized insect only continued in his efforts, adamant to drink the peculiar plant's nectar. His long, thin proboscis extended, but as it got close to the snapdragon rose, Hesperus snapped at it, causing the moth to retract it, only to make another attempt a moment later.
Smirking in amusement, Serendipity located her watering can, and after filling it up with the nearby hose, sprinkled some drops over her cherry tomatoes, lettuce, peas, and radishes. As she finished watering them, she moved on to her flowers and began on them, until Striga, who was standing just a few feet away from her, spoke.
"Do you grow any witchwood trees, Miss Serendipity?"
"I'm sorry, what?" the half-changeling inquired upon hearing his abrupt question as she finished, placing the watering can down and turning to him.
"Witchwood trees," Striga repeated. "They're among my favorite plants, but I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. The only few I've ever see were grown in the wild."
"What, dare I ask, is a witchwood tree?" Serendipity said again. Striga chuckled in a way that told her he was about to relay a long explanation.
"A unique plant," he began. "Tall and thick-trunked, covered in dark, green-black, mossy leaves and gnarled, tough, aged bark. Gangling branches possessing a ghostly thinness and an aura of venerability. Despite my fondness of them, most ponies grow to dislike them for their... "supernatural qualities...""
"Supernatural qualities?" the half-changeling questioned, now fully intrigued by what he was saying.
"Yep. Imbued inside every witchwood tree, in its very bark, is pure, raw, unrefined magic of incalculable power," he began to answer. "And with the fact that there was nothing to control this power, strange, eerie, things were known to happen without warning. Some ponies that stand near a witchwood tree for too long claim to hear voices calling out to them. Others see things they aren't sure are real. Ones that unwittingly sleep beside them tend to gain lucid, horrendously realistic nightmares that last for weeks on end. Because of these reasons and more, ponies would usually destroy or uproot and remove such a tree from their property or premises. Not even insects would dare approach them, save for one species that commonly nests in them with no ill effects... the black witch moth, hence the name."
"Your pet moth, Augur, is he a black witch moth?" Serendipity wondered aloud. "I wouldn't be able to tell."
"Yes! Well, he's part of a... giant subspecies of them..." he responded in a hasty tone, turning and looked at some nearby tulips. "But the little ditty about the moths isn't my favorite thing about the trees. It's a certain legend that goes with them, dating back a few thousand centuries. Ever heard of black magic?"
"You mean dark magic? Yeah," she replied. "I heard about it back when I was in school as a nymph. It's a form of magic that relies on one's negative emotions to power its spells, with hate, fear, despair, greed and so on being the prime candidates."
"Despite popular belief, black magic has nothing to do with dark magic," Striga corrected with a shake of his head, his words practically oozing with anticipation to explain what he meant. "Black magic goes by many names. Black magic, witchcraft, parasite magic, and thaumaturgy are to name just a few. It doesn't rely on emotion, or one's own power either. It's actually powered by the user's ability to manipulate and utilize the magic and life essence of surrounding objects to perform various feats and incantations."
He suddenly shook his head and sighed. "It would take me forever to explain what I've read and heard about that stuff, but the thing is, the practitioners of it were called "black witches." And they could be anyone, not just unicorns, I mean anyone. Earth ponies, pegasi, and I even remember hearing about a few griffons as well were among them."
"What did they do, exactly?"
"From what I've read, lots of things," he responded, as he began to watch Augur still stubbornly attempting to pollinate the snapdragon rose, despite the latter's snapping jaws of objection. "Despite their insidious name, many were simple miracle workers, magicians, and healers or hermits looking to make a common, if not at times lonesome living. There weren't very many of them to begin with, and the last of them were thought to have been killed off around two millennia ago after a knightly order grew fearful of them."
"That sounds terrible," Serendipity commented. Striga nodded in agreement.
"...But where it connects from there is the real reason I like the trees, and ends on a much happier note. It's an old story I've known since I was young," Striga began to finish. "An ancient legend goes on explaining how two black witches, a husband and a wife, managed to escape persecution by transferring their minds and souls into a pair of witchwood trees, and molded physical forms from them afterword. From there they used their newfound power to escape into the dream world, and to this day it is said that they both still reside there, creating dreams, both good and bad, for the ponies of the land."
"Well... that's lighthearted," the half-changeling said again. "I've never heard of any of this before. How do you know so much about it?"
"Let's just say I'm a bit of a history nut when it comes to the sort of things relating to dreams. I'd love to tell you more later, but now I've got to get ready to head into town, once night falls," he sighed in a somewhat awkward tone. "I need to deliver those tapestries. A few of the ponies there need them, and I'm trying to meet up with somepony else."
"Wait, you're heading out? At night? In this storm?" Serendipity exclaimed, puzzled surprised and concern in her words upon hearing his decision. "You'll freeze before you get thirty meters from the house!"
"Ooh... is that a challenge I hear?" he cackled. "No need to fret for my sake. I've wandered the globe long enough to know how to move through scorching heat and blistering storms. You can expect me to get back here by morning."
Humming to himself, Striga turned and trotted to the door as Serendipity checked over the last of her plants, thinking to herself about what he said. "I must say, these discussions of ours are fairly pleasant," he commented once he was halfway to the exit, his moth flying down and landing on top of his hat as he spoke. "Not very many take the time to listen. When I return, I simply have to tell you more about how black magic works."
"Just keep you mind focused on what's outside for now, Mr. Phobetor," Serendipity chuckled. "I may not know you very well, but I don't want you to have an accident."
"Ammalf amina," the wicker creature spoke to the yellow filly its moth-like form knelt before, a wooden claw held to the young earth pony's face. They were both standing in the center of town in the dead of night, the storm raging around them like a cyclone, but neither appeared perturbed by in the slightest by the frigid night air about them.
With his words, a white flame appeared over his palm and simply floated there, doing nothing but illuminating the terrified pony's face. A minute soon went by, and the creature slowly closed its fingers with an eerie creaking noise, enveloping and smothering the flare.
"Return home. You too do not have what I am looking for," it spoke again in its distorted voice, standing back up before reciting another incantation. "Mutider."
The fearful visage on the filly's face mollified into a blank expression, and as if in a trance, she turned and calmly walked to her house through the snow-sodden street, readying to enter it by hopping up and squeezing her small shape through the open, circular window that rested by her room. When she tried jumping a few times and couldn't reach it, her shape was suddenly covered by a magical, white aura, and was gently pushed through by a telekinetic force, the window shutting behind her.
Having done the feat himself, the wooden creature turned its gaze to the rest of the snow-covered town, then to the lamppost it stood beside. Looking into the bright light it gave off, the glow reflecting off of its blank, white eyes, he entered deep thought and stood there for the next several minutes, his long antenna blowing too-and-fro in the passing wind before finally moving once more.
"My beloved Thysania... where are you?" he wondered aloud as he closed his bright, blank eyes, his voice impoverished with peppered traces of frustration and distress. "You promised me you would return in thirteen-hundred years time, and I've waited patiently all that while... I've sensed you somewhere in this this area, even... but where are you? If I linger further, Luna will discover me... and if she overcomes me, I may lose you forever..."
The creature opened its eyes and let out a groaning sigh, before turned its back to the town, clenching its fists with a hollow cracking sound echoing from it. "It's been so long since the day you left me... so agonizingly long since I last held you in my arms... since I last felt the comforting warmth of your very presence... I won't give up until you're mine once again. The ruler of the night will locate me any day now, but if I can just stay under her prying nose for a few days longer... just a few days longer..."
And with those final words, the being walked away from Ponyville, vanishing back into the darkness of the blizzard.
The blizzard had lightened up by a significant margin when morning struck upon Serendipity's household. Granted, it was still going on, but the fierceness it had possessed had been reduced from a hurricane of ice, to a meager snowstorm.
Just outside her house, Serendipity was playing with her cousin. A pair of snow forts had been erected by the two, each shaped into the likeness of a knight's castle, and now... it was an all-out war! Charybdis, chuckling maliciously, threw a snowball at the albino half-changeling, hitting her directly in the head from where she tried to hide.
"Gotcha!" she cried out with a smug grin planted on her nose, before ducking behind her fort's walls to make another.
Wiping the snow from her face and laughing evilly, Serendipity quickly rolled a up a snowball of her own in her hooves and tossed it back at Charybdis, missing by a mile thanks to her disability. She had not a single care about it though, for she was having a fun time.
"Over here!" Charybdis taunted again, just before throwing another sphere of compact snow. The half-changeling was quick enough to move her head this time, and avoided the projectile. Just before she could return again, their fight was interrupted by the sound of flapping wings and a loud squawk. Looking up with her golden eyes, Charybdis spotted a bird made of blue-tinted ice gliding above them.
"Despereaux?" she inquired. "What're you doing here?"
The cryophoenix chirped and landed on the ground near her. Lifting his leg, Charybdis noticed that he had a rolled-up note wrapped around his foot that he was motioning to. Using her magic, she quickly undid the string that was fastened to it, and unrolled the paper as she brought it to her face.
"Hey, Seren! He has a note!" she shouted to her cousin, whilst reading from it. Serendipty had just started trotting up to the filly by the time she finished scanning its words. "It's from your dad. He said that they couldn't come here last night because of the storm, and that they all took refuge at Zecora's hut. He also wants to see if we want to spend Hearth's Warming with them. Neat!"
"He wants us all to spend Hearth's Warming with Zecora and Zak?" Serendipity questioned. "I must admit, that sounds like a wonderful idea."
"I bet you I can get there first!" Charybdis challenged, placing the note in her coat pocket. "I bet you!"
"Now, hold on a minute Chary, I don't think a race is necessary..." Serendipity began. Charybdis only curled a brow in her typical, mischievous manner, and let out a quick shout.
"Ready, set, go!"
With those words, she dodged by Serendipity and fled into the forest, kicking up snow in her wake. Despereaux, upon seeing her speed off, took to the air and followed swiftly behind. Serendipity let out a groan and followed as well, yelling out her cousin's name in the process.
"Chary, wait for me!"
She used her sight spell to avoid the oncoming trees, and then again just a moment later.
"Chary! Hold up!" Serendipity yelled again. No response. She continued to run, passing by dozens of trees, every second used to power her sight spell, which became progressively weaker due to the amount of snow falling in front of her and the fact that the running was making her tired. "Chary? Chary! I said hol-"
Thunk!
She had hit something, and whatever it was let out a gasp of surprised pain. Both shapes blundered into the snow below like spiraling rocks getting tossed into a lake, scattering flakes across the surrounding area. Lifting her body up from the frozen sea of white, Serendipity shook her muzzle and rubbed her sore head.
"Ow... owowow..." she mumbled in a pained tone. "Charybdis? Are you alright?"
"A thousand pardons, but I'm not Charybdis," a familiar, male voice replied, followed by the sound of someone rummaging through the snow.
"Oh... Mr. Phobetor. I'm so sorry..." Serendipity apologized. "I was chasing my cousin around. Y-you're not hurt, are you?"
"Just had my hat knocked off," he responded. "Blast! Where is that darn thing?"
"Let me help! The rush from when we collided got me excited, and if I can't think straight I can't use my sight spell, but I'll feel around for it. Ah! I think I found it."
"That's my cape."
"Oh. Maybe it's over here, then... Ha! Here it is!"
"That's my cape again."
"Heh. Sorry..."
As the two searched for the object, Charybdis's voice suddenly shouted from a few dozen feet away.
"Serendipity! Where'd you go?"
"Over here, Chary!" Serendipity shouted back. Judging from how the sound of snow getting dug up on Striga's side had picked up upon hearing the words, he had doubled in his effort to find his concealing piece of headwear.
"Where... is... it?" he muttered in a frantic tone. When Charybdis's hoofsteps through the snow were but meters away, he shouted a strange word in a manner akin to someone having run out of time at something.
"Murelag!"
The moment he said that, Serendipity felt as something made of cloth suddenly fly from the snow behind her with an incredibly fast force, brushing past her back, and headed in the unicorn's direction. Mere moments afterword, the two were greeted by the filly.
"There you are!" Charybdis said. "Hey, what're you doing sitting in the snow next to Mr. Phobetor for?"
"We bumped into each other, my hat fell off, and she helped me find it," Striga responded first, the factor now apparent that he had located his missing piece of gear. "...But I have it back now, so we're all good. Everything is fine here. Yep... How are you?"
"I'm... well," she replied, before a sight caused her to look up. "Your moth looks amused."
Striga looked upward as well and spied Augur, who simply looked down on them from the branch of a nearby tree, flapping his wings slowly while his antenna swung back-and-forth, making a small, rapid squeaking noise that resembled laughter. Striga gave him a glare before standing up and brushing himself off.
"Come on, Seren!" the filly said again. "I don't want to miss all the things they're probably doing together!"
"Don't worry, I'm coming..." she sighed, as she struggled to get herself out of the snow she had dug herself into. A hoof suddenly went around one of her own and started to pull, helping her up. Noticing the feel of it was rough, dry, and course, unlike what Charybdis's felt like, she came to the realization that it was Striga.
"Thanks," Serendipity said in a grateful tone, upon regaining her footing. "And sorry about running into you. We're both in a hurry to see our parents. They wrote to us asking if we wanted to spend Hearth's Warming with some friends of mine."
"May I come along?" he asked. "I have no place to stay at the moment."
"Of course," the half-changeling replied. "Just follow my cousin. She can lead us to her place."
"I can indeed!" Charybdis replied. "Follow me!"
She turned about and began to proudly march off with a cocky swagger in her booted steps. Shrugging, Serendipity started behind her, followed by Striga, who pulled his hat down a far bit over his head, making sure it wouldn't come off this time. After a few minutes had passed, the thought of the previous event continued to gnaw at the back of Serendipity's mind, and she finally spoke, turning to Striga.
"You, uh... really wanted to get your hat back before somepony saw your face, didn't you?" she inquired. Striga looked back at her, a melancholy glint in his blank eyes that she was unable to see.
"My face is... badly scarred," he started. "I got it from an accident a few years ago involving... fire. And acid. And sharp things. It's very embarrassing to let others behold it..."
"What was that word you used?" the half-changeling asked once more.
"What word?" he spoke back in a confused fashion.
"The one you used just before you oh-so conveniently found your hat," she replied. "That word."
"I don't recall using a word," Striga shrugged. "Perhaps you mistook the wind for my voice. It can deceive one like that, you know..."
"I may be blind, but I'm not deaf," she chuckled. "Come on, we both know you said something. It sounded like "moor-lag." Ringing any bells now?"
"No," he denied. "I have no recollection of using such a word."
"Yesterday, you said something about black witches reciting incantations to perform spells," she spoke again, before letting out a hum. "I wonder..."
"My business is my own!" Striga suddenly exclaimed, walking in a much more hurriedly manner forward. As she tried to process what had just happened, Serendipity suddenly felt something land on the tip of her curved horn, and came to the realization that it was Augur.
"Your master's a little off, isn't he?" she spoke to the insect. He replied by fluffing the snow from his wings and fur. Chuckling slightly, she brushed her mane back and continued forward. "Charybdis said she thought he was a weird. I'm beginning to think there's a lot more to him as well..."
Despite her original decision to have a quiet Hearth's Warming with just her nephew as company, Zecora greatly welcomed having more guests over to celebrate the holiday a few days early.
Petra, Zecora, Skia, and Zak were all having a wonderful conversation about how their lives had been going in the last month, and Striga remained in the corner by himself, working on his latest tapestry. The almost-done product bore the visage of a fearsome centipede crawling through a forest. While Thoraxis wandered about, visiting each person with a curious look in his eye and a talkative mouth, Serendipity sat by the house's window, listening to the commotion going on the other side of it.
Charybdis and her parents were outside, building snow ponies together. Though she could not see their expressions, through the glass she could hear their boisterous, mirthful laughter go out through the frosty air, and the occasional crunch of a snowball hitting something. At times like these especially, the young hybrid longed to see what the world was like, but settled for just listening to it. She heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching her, she turned and realized it was her father just from hearing him cough into his hoof.
"Enjoying the party, Seren?" he asked.
"Yeah, but... I'm going to need to head back home and water my plants in a few minutes," she said. "And don't worry, I'll come back afterword."
"Do you think you'll want your mom or I to get you there?" Thoraxis inquired again. Serendipity let out a small hum as she thought, before replying.
"I was actually wondering if Striga could lead me back," she responded. The pony in question stopped his work the second he heard her, lifted his hatted head, and peered over his shoulder to her.
"Meh?" he mumbled in an inquiring tone. "Why do you want me?"
"Yeah, why?" Thoraxis asked. Serendipity shrugged, closing her clouded, red eyes with a smirk.
"No reason. I'd just like him to do it, if he can find the time to do so," she replied.
"Oh," Thoraxis spoke again, before an overly-suspecting grin came upon his face and he bumped his elbow on her shoulder, whispering into her ear. "Is he... somepony special you haven't told us about, hmm?"
"What? No!" she whispered back, in a shocked voice. "I just met him two days ago! He's renting my house out. I want to know him better before he leaves."
"Oh! Oh..." Thoraxis said, backing his head from hers a small bit. "Sorry."
Serendipity smiled, before turning as best she could to Striga. "Do you think you're up to it, Mr. Phobetor? I can have someone else do it if you want."
He returned with a small sigh. "Why not. I'm almost done my last piece, and it's not even nightfall yet."
The two set out into the snowy forest several minutes afterword. As they walked in tranquil state of quietude, the only two sounds to go out were the wind and ice making their seemingly endless ethereal howling through the frozen and stiff treetops, or the snow that was practically cracking below their hooves. Finally, after what felt like an hour to Serendipity, Striga broke the silence.
"You... wouldn't happen to know of any ponies born under... "unlucky" circumstances in the last four years, have you?"
"Um... no," Serendipity slowly replied, before lowering her brow. "Should I?"
"Just curious," he responded, before repeating himself. "Just curious."
As he finished, Serendipity turned her head away, thinking of what happened a meager few hours ago, and that strange word he uttered. "That word you used earlier, do you remember using it now?" she asked. The second she spoke, Striga stopped in his tracks.
"You're not going to give up on that, are you?" he said. After looking over his shoulder, making sure no one was around to hear, he let out a sigh.
"Yes... I know some black magic. Is that all you want to know?"
Serendipity smirked. "Actually... I wanted to ask a few more questions about it, if you don't mind."
"Questions? Just... questions?" he inquired. "What, no gloating over being right?"
"I'm not interested in that kind of thing," said she.
"Alright then, ask away," said he.
"Well, first off, you said it was different then other forms of magic," the half-changeling started. "How?"
Striga let out a small chuckle, looking to a nearby birch tree. "To use it, you must first feel the magic that surrounds you. All life has magic in it, from the smallest blade of grass, to the largest ursa major. Your own body had magic in it, just not the kind that is used by your horn. And once one learns to sense this magic, they can use this magic. They can mold it like clay into whatever they want, as long as they have the right knowledge."
"Can anypony learn this kind of magic?"
"Yes, but your soul has to be in... the right place to truly learn more than the basics," he said. "It all depends on its "alignment." White souls can't learn a lot, but black souls can."
"Huh?" the half-changeling asked, obviously confused. Striga, shaking his head and sighing again, readied himself to recite another history lesson.
"Though the soul -- what makes you you -- has no definitive tint to it, black witches of the past created color-coded names for the two different types. Every pony you'll ever meet today... any creature for that matter... has what most would call a "white soul." Like the color they're named after, they absorb nothing, and are blank. Because of this, they make their own power, becoming reliant on themselves for energy only. A black soul, true to its namesake, absorbs everything instead, but also in an opposite fashion to its "colorless" counterpart, it cannot provide for itself; hence its reliance on its surroundings."
"Really..." Serendipity spoke, intrigued. "How does that factor in for one's ability to use black magic?"
"Those born with white souls can learn some black magic, but not at all that much. Likewise, those with black souls can learn some normal magic, but will never get past learning, at the most, basic spells," he said. "What defines white-souled magic users, is that they're like batteries, for lack of a better word. Their power comes from their own magic. Their own energy. Themselves. Unicorns, alicorns, and the like can run out of it if they strain their power too much, like a muscle. Black magic practitioners on the other hoof, due to being unable to use anything on the inside, instead use what surrounds them; moving, manipulating, and converting the magic and life energy to form what they desire. The majority of spells they use are just like the average spell you'd normally see, though. Like telekinesis, teleportation, turning one material into another, etc."
"How would you tell if a pony has a... "black soul?""
"It's simple, but nearly impossible to find today, due to what has happened in the past," Striga replied in a much more solemn tone. "To tell if a pony has a black soul... the first sign is that they would be the misfits, outcasts, and pariahs of society at a young age and beyond. Not just any misfits, outcasts, and pariahs mind you. They gain that status from the fact that they passively, and unwittingly absorb small quantities of energy from nearby beings they have no positive connections toward. Magic users are the ones most affected, typically going weak in the head from being near one. Fear against this kind of individual is sure to follow."
Serendipity went silent as he said that. After getting past the "outcast" line, her mind raced back to four years ago, when the final "symptom" he described happened whenever she was around unicorns. Quickly thinking of something to replace the subject, she thought of the upcoming holiday.
"Hearth's Warming is a time to be with family," she began again. "Why aren't you with yours?"
"I have no family," he spoke back, bluntly. "The only family I ever did have was my wife, Thysania Aisling. She died a while ago, though..."
"I'm... sorry," Serendipity apologized.
"You shouldn't be," he spoke again. "It was her choice. She was as fluent in black magic as me, possibly even more so. One day we came across a young foal who was dying from a terminal illness, and she took pity upon him. Deciding not to consult me beforehoof, she used her power to transfer her own life essence into the child before I could catch wind of her actions, saving his life at the cost of hers. Before she passed, she told me of a vision she had that said we would meet each other again, someday..."
He trailed off with a depressed sigh. "She was always stubborn like that, and I loved her for it. I just hope that her vision comes to pass. To tell you the truth, I've started losing faith in it..."
"Hope is something that shouldn't be let go of so easily," Serendipity remarked, in a serious voice.
"Yes, well... I've had that hope for a long time," Striga responded. "Long enough to let it become an unbearable pain. Long enough to have what is left of it in my heart shaken to its core."
""Long enough?"" she inquired, in a perplexed voice. "You don't sound very old."
"There's a great many things you don't know about me. That's another story, for another time," he sighed, before motioning forward, to the tree-shaped building they were nearing. "Your house is just ahead, Serendipity. You should get your business over with so we can get back to your family."
Princess Luna, Twilight Dusk, and Night Wish were in Luna's study together. Projected over the room was a magical map of Equestria, and scattered about on the ground were a great many books and charts, half of which had been opened and thoroughly read through by Twilight, who simply sat in the corner reading another. The two had attempted to help her the night before, though not for long due to the time, and had just arrived to aid the princess once more this day after getting their activities with friends and family over with.
"Not in Griffonstone... not in Fillydelphia... hmm..." Luna mumbled, reminding herself of the two main places she crossed off again on her list.
"So many places, so little time," Night Wish sang, as he looked at the shape of the Crystal Empire.
"Well, the search has been narrowed I must say," Luna responded.
"What about Ponyville?" the foal brought up. "Did you check there?"
"Twice, yes," Luna spoke. "Both times, I was unable to locate him, and found nothing.
"Hmm..." Twilight Dusk hummed, looking over the map herself, and noticing the precipitation over her hometown. "How long has that blizzard been there for?"
"A few days," she replied. "It was but a small snowstorm before your family left, but since then it grew. I can barely see through it with my magic without focusing it all at once."
"Well, that certainly seems peculiar," Night Wish said.
"It's nothing out of the ordinary. And I doubt he would try to hide in it," the princess spoke. "It's completely inhospitable in that kind of weather."
"I'm willing to bet that he's in Ponyville," the foal said again. Luna looked at him strangely as he shrugged. "Hey, he might be using his magic to create the blizzard in the first place. It would make the perfect cover for any crafty, secretive things he might be trying to do. Nopony know's what he's up to, so why not take a wild guess?"
"That does make sense," his sister agreed, shifting her glasses around again. Luna put a hoof to her chin as she thought it over.
"Alright," the Princess of the Night finally said, flashing a trusting smile. "I shall try focusing on Ponyville for tonight."
Even after ushering in the night, Luna continued to watch Ponyville with dutiful, unwavering eyes. Night Wish and Twilight Dusk had dozed off by this time, and both were levitated and tucked into Luna's own bed by the princess herself. She took a quick glance from her map to make sure they were both still comfortable, and smirked at how cherubic they looked.
But then, the moment she stared back to the map, Luna felt it. Like a quick jab from a needle, she sensed the Black Witch's familiar anti-magic. Like Night Wish had predicted, he was in Ponyville, without a shadow of a doubt. After getting over the surprising feeling, Luna shook her head and looked back to the two ponies in her bed.
"You both truly are your mother's children," she whispered with a smirk. Without another word, the alicorn silently teleported out of the room in a small flash, headed off to confront her enemy.
The moth-like creature of wood was kneeling on the snow below as the storm around him raged on, and an orange-furred filly stood before him. This was the final foal in town, and the sign on the white flame that danced above his open hand still did not show what he wanted. He was about to shoo the young pony away and give up for what he now knew was the last time, when something happened.
A white beam suddenly cut through the air, and the creature let out a cry as the beam went through its outstretched hand, severing the limb neatly, and causing the white flame to dissipate. As it plopped to the snow-covered ground below and the creature jumped back, a new, alicorn-shaped figure landed from the air, in between the small filly and creature.
"You..." the Black Witch growled, as vine-like tendrils began to extend from his injured arm, forming a new shape. "I knew you would find me sooner or later..."
"And here I am," Princess Luna said back. Turning to the filly nearby, Luna gave her a large glare.
"Run home, small one," she commanded. Nodding in agreement, the young earth pony quickly scrambled to her hooves, and dashed off. Returning her gaze back to the Black Witch, she saw he was just finishing regrowing his detached limb; which the vines had formed, and was now being hardened with bark.
"You have made a grave mistake coming to the physical world, Black Witch..." she spoke; her tone devoid of emotion. "Your nightmares end here."
"You'll never understand," the Black Witch replied, as he started to back up in the snow on his peg-like feet. "Nightmares must happen, Luna. With nightmares, one remembers what they must be wary of! With nightmares, it reminds one of the dangers of everyday life they must prepare for! They remind the guilty of their crimes, the foolish of their plights, the cautious an occasional peek to the possible future! Nightmares are a fact of life that must be beheld!"
"No, they are a scourge," she snapped back, as she paced closer to him. "I have helped ponies get though many of the nightmares you created, and they have caused nothing but misery."
"Without me, the responsibility for the balance of dreams will rest on your shoulders, Luna..." he warned. "...And you do not have the skill to do so, nor will you ever."
"Enough talk, Witch. Your reign of fear ends tonight," Luna growled, as her horn began to glow. The Black Witch started to chuckle, as if her threat meant nothing. With a glare, the alicorn sent out another mighty beam that burst through the air.
"You shan't defeat me this day!" he simply laughed, raising his wooden arms up, and letting the attack intercept it. The cyan stream of magic disappeared behind his three-clawed hands upon contact, completely absorbed like water before a sponge. Before Luna could reel back and let off another attack, the creature suddenly lifted his cape-like wings to their full, incredulous height, and unleashed a single thrust, propelling himself forward at an utterly supernatural speed. Stretching his claws out, he grabbed Luna by her head before she could even react.
"I can still fight!" he screeched, as his previously-hidden mouth opened into a monstrous, gaping, empty maw, like a snake unhinging its jaws. With a demented sucking noise, the startled alicorn could only watch as a her magic began to part from herself like a stream, and entered the being's gullet. Within seconds, she felt herself grow weak.
"No... no..." Luna sighed, feeling as her power left her, causing her to tire. Her eyes started to close, and the princess felt unconsciousness about to overtake her. But then, remembering just how much of a magnitude the importance of her mission was, a surge of strength returned and her eyes flashed a furious white.
"No!" she roared out in a rage-filled voice, a solid glow of white emancipating from her horn. Before the Black Witch could react, the glow turned into another deadly beam of pure destructive power, and had impacted against his side with massive force. The blast blew an enormous chunk out of the Black Witch's abdomen, scattering sticks and wood everywhere. Gasping, the being closed his mouth and let go of Luna, stumbling back several paces. He fell to one knee, clutching his severely damaged side as luminous, green, blood-like sap started to leak out heavily, staining the snow with its lime color.
Her strength and magic returned, Luna recovered quickly, and took several steps toward the Black Witch. Upon getting within a short distance of her foe, she could hear him speak something to himself.
"No... I've come too far to lose now... too far..." he whined, his voice degrading to a distorted whisper. "I have been searching too long... to lose her now... too important... cannot die... must see her again, like she promised..."
"Who have you been searching for?" Luna demanded to know, stamping a hoof into the snow. "Tell me!"
"No," he denied. "I'll not tell you... not ever! Her soul belongs to me, not anyone else! Me!"
Luna was about to attack once more, when suddenly the being before her let out an incantation.
"Aenit nemaxe!"
With that shout, the Black Witch seemed to explode into a brown cloud. To Luna's horror, upon getting a better look, she realized that every speck of that "cloud" was a small, individual, brown-colored moth. The thousands of flying insects scattered all over Luna's face in a violent swarm, blinding her before disappearing into multiple directions in the dark, snowy sky, leaving her alone before she could do anything to stop it.
Upon wiping the last of the remaining creatures from her face, Luna spun around, looking for her quarry with a glowing horn and fire in her cyan eyes. Soon realizing the obvious, the magic surrounding her horn dulled, and she let out a frustrated groan.
The Black Witch had vanished.
Turning around, Luna planted a hoof into the snow below her in anger. Sighing, she let her rage leave and started to take in a few breaths of the cold air; severely fatigued by the fight. Lifting her head, she then saw something in the dark that interested her.
It was a piece of the creature. His previously-severed claw, to be precise. Using her magic to lift it to her face, she saw its rough, wooden complexion up close, and the many wrapped and woven sticks that made it up. The luminescent, sappy ichor was still leaking from the end of the limp limb like droplets from a sink nozzle, dripping to the white ground below and staining it in its bright green, almost toxic color. The entire thing seemed to possess an aura that felt completely alien. It was like a mixture of a siphoning force, and raw, unrefined energy. One thing was certain though, and the Princess of the Night smiled in realization of it.
Now that she had a piece of him, she could track him.
Ding-dong.
Serendipity awoke with a start, snapped out of her sleep by the ringing noise of her tolling doorbell. Making haste, she slipped out of the covers on her bed and felt her way to the front door, pushing back her disheveled mane with a hole-filled hoof in the process.
"Hello?" she asked, upon putting her ear to the wooden object that separated her from the outside.
"It's Striga," the familiar voice on the other end replied, in what sounded like a weakened tone. Sensing something off and wasting no time, Serendipity unlocked the door and opened it.
"I apologize... for returning this early..." he asked for pardon, as he stumbled in.
"You sound hurt," Serendipity immediately pointed out in a concerned way, closing the door after he entered. "Are you alright?"
"Just got attacked by a timberwolf on my way here..." he chuckled wearily. "It's but a flesh wound."
"Flesh wound?" she asked. "Those things have teeth that are... like... the size of fence pickets!"
"How do you know?" he asked back. "I thought you said you were blind."
"My parents told me," she answered. "I've heard enough descriptions of them to get a good picture in my head."
"Well... I'm just going to go to my room and... bandage myself up," Striga said again, shuffling past her, and letting his cold, wet cape brush against her white, chitinous body on the way down the hall.
"Just let me know if you need anything," Serendipity brought up, before he could disappear behind the corner. He didn't respond. Sighing with discontent, Serendipity trudged off to her room and back to her bed, instantly reentering the peacefulness of sleep soon after rolling under her covers.
Entering the guest room, Striga approached the middle of it and sat down. Pulling his large, wide-brimmed hat off, it revealed the unearthly wooden appearance of his twisty, wicker-woven head. It had the eyes, ears and overall shape of a pony, but any being that had a good look at him this moment would surely tell he was not one. His "horn" uncurled from its spiral shape, revealing the two feathery moth-like antenna he actually possessed, and after lifting a part of his cape, he peered at the still-festering wound in his side. Placing a hoof to it, he focused some of his power, closing his white, pupil-less eyes in the process, and soon the damage was reversed back to the way it was; new wicker branches folding and weaving over the spot, covering it once more.
Flying down from where he had bedded down on the wall, Augur glided to the ground in front of his master, sympathetic to his plight.
"Oh, my small, loyal familiar... why must this happen to me?" he asked the moth in a whisper in a depressed whisper, looking down to the furry insect. "Thirteen-hundred years I've waited... thirteen-hundred years... and she is nowhere to be found! And now that fool Luna has appeared, just to hinder me that much further, or be the death of me if I am not careful! She will ruin everything! Oh, woe is me..."
The oversized bug flew onto his cloaked shoulder, giving its usual, wide-eyed look to his master. He lifted his head up and looked into the glowing compound orbs of his smaller friend, slightly comforted by his companion's expression.
"Do you have an idea of who else is left, my friend?"
It nodded its head. Just as it did, a memory returned to Striga from earlier in the day.
"That other foal... the Charybdis filly that belongs to that pony Longinus, and his kelpie wife... yes, I missed her! Do you think she is the one?"
The moth shook its head in disagreement, confusing the Black Witch.
"Not her? What do you mean?" he asked. "If not that final child, then who?"
Quickly rising to the air with several beats from its large wings, the moth moved its foremost pair of small, thin legs in a gesture that beckoned Striga to follow. Without a word, Augur then turned about and went to the door. Going to it with him, the Black Witch opened it for his pet, and the two entered the hallway of the house.
As he walked, Striga slowly shifted from his pony-shaped form to his true, tall, bipedal, moth-like visage, shedding his cloak in the process. To his earnest confusion, instead of leading him to the house's entrance, the moth stopped by the closed door of Serendipity's room. Striga shifted an unsure glance toward his familiar, clearly not following.
"You... you think it is her?" he asked in a voice faint enough to be mistaken for a puff of wind. "She isn't even a foal. Though, she does have a few abnormalities that would make others wary of her... Are you saying that you think this is true?"
The moth nodded its head rapidly, more so than his pet typically did when conveying a statement. Sighing silently, the Black Witch faced the closed object, and like a phantom, simply walked through it as if it was not there at all. Looking around upon entering, he soon saw who he was now, apparently, looking for.
Serendipity was sleeping uneasily on her bed; her body twitching in an agitated fashion, while a tense expression covered her face. Whatever she was dreaming of; which was surely one of the countless works Striga himself had created, she was clearly not enjoying it. After he loomed over her body like a gargoyle for a good few minutes, Striga finally bent down on one knee by her side, and opened his hand.
"Ammalf amina," he breathed. As soon as his words were spoken, the vivid shape of a white wisp appeared over his three-clawed palm, barely illuminating the nearby surroundings. To his great surprise, the flame flickered toward Serendipity the second it formed, drawing the hand it belonged to closer to her. There was no draft in the room, and that factor only made this straining moment that much more heavily intriguing.
Could it be? the Black Witch thought to himself giddily, with hope rising in every fiber of his being. Could it... really, truly be?
The claw was now within inches of her restless, but still-sleeping form. The moment the white flame, now fully, visibly bent in her direction harmlessly touched her chitinous skin, it suddenly flashed jet-black. The second Striga saw this, he knew what it meant. He knew who he had found, and he couldn't help but succumb to the irresistible urge to say the three words he had been dying to utter for over a dozen, long, grueling centuries in a whisper that reeked of euphoria and relief as he closed his hand over the black fire.
"I found you."
Hearing a voice, Serendipity's head shot up from her bed in a pant. Quickly, she sent out a pulse of magic in a paranoid manner, but saw nothing was in the room with her. Rubbing her forehead with a hoof and letting out a large puff of air from her mouth as she remembered the nightmare she had awoken from, the half-changeling lied back down, placing her head onto her pillow.
Closing her unseeing, red eyes a final time, Serendipity slowly reentered sleep, and soon knew no more.
As the morning of Hearth's Warming Eve went on around Serendipity's house, the half-changeling was busy giving her plants as much of her attention as possible, knowing well that she was going to be gone most of the day. As she worked, she couldn't help but feel weirded out by how... communicative Striga was now acting toward her.
"So... need any help with these plants?" he asked, pointing to another section of the greenhouse. Serendipity shook her horned head again.
"No, Mister Phobetor. I said I'll be good doing it myself, but thanks anyway," she responded once more as she tipped the watering can over some plants with her limited magic. Once Striga noticed the odd look that she was expressing, one he quickly attributed to annoyance at his current actions, he began to think of something that would make her feel happier.
"I'll just... go into the other room now," he spoke, tipping his hat and turning around to leave the greenhouse until another thought stopped him. "Say... are you... going anywhere today, Serendipity?"
"Well, yes," she replied. "I'm going down to Ponyville with my family for a little while, and then later on I plan on spending the rest of the day at Zecora's again."
"Want me to lead you to Ponyville?" he suggested as Augur flew back to his hat. "I have time to do it, if you want to get there quickly."
"Um... sure," she agreed uneasily. Happy with himself, Striga and his moth quietly left the room, allowing the half-changeling to work in peace. Sighing, Serendipity tried her best to look in Hesperus's direction as she began to focus on him.
"It might just be because of that moth that keeps trying to pollinate me, but does that Phobetor guy seem to be acting different to you?" the snapdragon rose inquired in an unsettled voice, as he felt the soil around him being watered. "The last time he came in here all he did was look at the other plants and me, but now he seems to be looking at you more. Did you say something to him?"
"Wait, he's looking at me?" she asked, stopping her work. "He said he wanted to observe some of the herbs I've been growing."
"Nope. All he's done is stare at you with those big eyes of his since the two of you came in here," the plant confirmed. "If I didn't know any better, which is likely considering how everyone doesn't like the fact that I want to rule the world, I'd say he's either suddenly infatuated with you, or is just trying to be creepy."
"Charybdis said she thought he was pretty weird, so... I'll go with weird," Serendipity commented as she began to work again.
The walk through the Everfree Forest with Striga was mostly quite for Serendipity, and she was deeply appreciative that he helped her get to Ponyville without having to tire herself out by constantly using her sight spell. For what seemed like the first time in a few days, the once-raging storm appeared to have been reduced to the occasional snowflake, or so the young half-changeling felt.
As she sensed that they were entering Ponyville; the delectable smell of cooking pastries and chimney smoke filling her nose, Serendipity soon heard the sound of multiple voices go out, most of them singing Hearth's Warming carols that conveyed messages of neighborly affection and good will. To her surprise, she soon noticed that Striga himself was starting to sing along with them in an unusually merry whisper, as if he was trying to hide it.
"Do you see my parents yet?" she decided to ask, interrupting her happy guest as her hooves began to trot over the freshly-shoveled ground.
"Your parents?" he inquired in return, as he narrowly passed by a pony in a hooded, haggard yellow robe that was busy hauling a cart full of what appeared to be strudel and books across the road. "No... not yet, but I'll keep looking..."
It wasn't too long that they ventured through the town before he spoke up again. "Ah, I think I see them," he remarked.
"Where?" she asked.
"This way!" he replied with a shout, as he suddenly took her hoof in his own, coarse-feeling one before she could react. Serendipity felt that there was gusto in his footsteps as he lead her in a quick fashion through the town, but soon he suddenly stopped, and another sound of smaller hooves approached the pair from just ahead.
"Seren!" the voice of Charybdis greeted in a cheerful voice. "You got here earlier than I thought. Hi, Mister Phobetor."
"Um... hi, Chary," Serendipity welcomed in return, brushing her pink, webbed mane back. "Striga helped me get here."
"Well, that sounded like a nice thing to do," she said, before an excited expression crossed her face. "Guess what? My half-sister Luna's here right now! Wanna say hi to her before she leaves?"
"Wait, did you say Luna?" Striga asked, his tone shifting from a joyful one, to a much lower volume in the blink of an eye. "Where?"
"Oh, she's talking with our parents right now," Charybdis answered, pointing in the direction she spoke of before expressing a warm, innocent smile on her freckled face as she looked back to the two. "They're talking about a dream-monster she's trying to find."
"A dream-monster? How odd," Serendipity spoke in an interested tone, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "What did she say it was like?"
"Something about being made of wood was all I caught. Sorry," the filly apologized with a shrug. "You can ask her right now if you want."
"Hmm... I might just do that..." she smirked, taking several, quick steps forward before Striga could stop her. Using her sight spell a single time, she saw the shapes she quickly recognized belonged to her mother and father, and stepped into the space that lied between them as they watched what went on in front of them.
"Hi Mom. Hi Dad," she spoke with a loving smile to both of her parents. They both turned their heads to her and grinned.
"Hello dear," Petra began. "How are you?"
"Can't complain," she said back, before hearing two voices discuss something ahead of her. It didn't take her a second to know who they belonged to.
"I understand what you spoke of his deeds, but what is this character like?" the sound of Longinus's voice asked.
"His appearance is as unnatural and perverted as what I feel lies inside," the female voice that Serendipity attributed to Luna replied. "He bears the visage of a giant wooden insect, contorted into the form of a moth. I'm sorry father, but I must leave now and look over my findings before the night ends."
"Very well," Longinus said, before leaning in and giving her a small hug. "Stay safe, my daughter. I do not wish to lose you to what you hunt for."
She smirked. "Do not worry about me. I've tangled with him multiple times. I know how he fights."
"What's going on? Is she leaving?" Striga, who now stood directly behind Serendipity, whispered into her ear. Slightly startled, she turned to him.
"I think so," she spoke, before a questioning, intuitive spark gleamed in her blind eyes. "Is... something wrong?"
"Oh, no. Just curious," he chuckled quietly. With a mighty sweep of her wings, both heard as Luna took off into the sky above, scattering flakes of snow below her as she left the ground. Striga slowly backed off as Serendipity's parents turned their full attention to her, wishing not to get in their way.
"So, Serendipity... what's your plan for tonight?" Thoraxis inquired. Serendipity smiled.
"Let's just say that I've got the perfect surprise for Charybdis," she said in an enthusiastic tone. "I've just got to find the right presents for everyone else now. What are you two planning, I wonder?"
"Well... your dad keeps telling me he doesn't want anything," Petra smirked, glancing at her husband.
"That's only because I have everything I need," Thoraxis chuckled back. "You still haven't told me what you want."
"Whatever you two get, you'd better figure it out soon..." Serendipity sang in a playful voice to her parents, who each gave a wry look back as they watched her leave to finish her own business.
As the first rays of moonlight shined through the rapidly-gathering clouds over the snow-harrowed land and the first flakes of a new storm began to fall from them, everyone had gathered inside of Zecora's hut. Serendipity, with a palpable, rare feeling of suspense jolting through her body, tore through the final ribbon that was wrapped around the box in front of her. Once that was done, she lifted the lid carefully and stuck her hole-filled hooves in.
Feeling something smooth, she pulled out what she noticed almost immediately was a small plastic bag. Shaking it, she felt multiple objects inside shake about.
"These are the rare ghost orchid seeds," Zak smiled from nearby. "In the spring they bloom most beautifully, if one can attend to its needs."
"Wha- these are ghost orchid seeds?!" the half-changeling gasped in amazement, trying her hardest to look in his direction; a giant, open-mouthed grin of delight lining her face, fully exposing the long fangs that were her canines. "I've always wanted to grow these! H-how did you know?"
"I might have heard you speak about them to my aunt..." the zebra blushed, pawing the wooden ground in a nervous manner. "If I didn't get them for you, it felt like it would be a most horrible taunt."
Zak suddenly found himself at the end of a large, and utterly unexpected hug, prompting smiles and laughter of joy from the onlookers. After letting go and allowing a brief few seconds of awkward silence to come between them, Thoraxis spoke up.
"Alright... whose turn is it now? I know there's still one left..." he said, eyeing everyone sitting in the room. Charybdis was quick to raise her hoof.
"Me! Me!" cheered the filly before setting her sights to the box that sat before her, which was covered heavily in red-and-blue wrapping paper, sealing it in more ways than Serendipity intended when she did it. "Serendipity got me this one."
As she started to tear off the excess decorative material to get at the actual present, Striga, who stood next to Serendipity as the night's event went on, whispered into her ear. "Serendipity, I... have a gift for you too," he said.
"You do?" asked she in an equally quiet voice. "That's very thoughtful of you."
"It's not with me right now, but I'll... go get it," he spoke again, drifting to the door behind him. "I will see you soon... my Thysania..."
"What was that?" Serendipity asked again, not catching the last part of his sentence.
"Nothing," he replied, exiting the abode with a click of the door and silently slipping into the night. When the popping sound that indicated Charybdis had finally gotten to the box and removed its cover went out ahead of her, Serendipity returned her attention to her cousin. Unseen by her, the filly was wearing a surprised expression and her jaw hung agape when she carefully placed her hooves into the package.
"Surprise!" Hesperus's voice went out as he was raised from the box, showing the red bow tied around his top like a hat. "It's me!"
"You didn't..." Charybdis sighed, lifting him up closer by his pot and shooting a speedy glance at Serendipity, before looking back. "You're... you're giving your snapdragon rose to... me?"
"Yes. He's yours now," the half-changeling grinned, very pleased at her reaction. "I put a list of directions on how to take care of him inside the box. It's not actually all that complicated."
"Seren... I... I can't say it enough, but thank you!" the crooked-horned unicorn shouted, placing Hesperus down, running up to her friend, and tackling her in a tremendous hug, not unlike what this embrace's current victim had done not a few minutes prior. "You're the best cousin ever!"
"Not as best as you!" Serendipity replied, hugging back. When they cut it off Charybdis trotted back to Hesperus; picking him up with her magic and bringing him to show to her family as Serendipity's own appeared from behind her.
"That was sweet," Skia said. "Didn't it take you a really long time to breed that snapdragon rose?"
"Yep," her albino sister replied, before lifting the bag of ghost orchid seeds she now had. "But just imagine what kind of plant I can try to make with these. They don't bloom long, but still..."
Just as she finished her sentence, a sudden, bright shape caught her blind eyes. All she could see now through the infinite void was that small, wisp-like shape. Before the half-changeling could properly react to the fact that she was actually seeing something, her eyes widened instead; caught under its spell the second she saw it.
The wisp just... floated there, right in front of her, seen by no one else. The moment her eyes looked into its glowing form, it was as if they were ensnared by its alluring appearance. Before she could even think of something else, she suddenly, and uncontrollably spoke a few words.
"If none of you mind, I... I think I... want to go for a walk, to... get some fresh air. By myself."
"Um... are you sure?" Petra asked, surprised by her sudden decision.
She closed her eyes and gave an assuring smile. "I'm sure."
"Alright, but... be back soon, and don't get lost," Thoraxis implored. Serendipity nodded her head as she made her way to the door and then left through it, keeping her blind eyes focused on the light the entire time. Further and further from the hut and into the woods she went, the storm picking up all around her all the while, but still she followed it without pause, as though her will was not her own.
"Closer... closer..." Striga spoke in a faint breath, curling his claws and arms inward as he had been doing for a some time now, until the shape of Serendipity approached him through the forest and gaining snowstorm. Once she was just in front of his true form, he lowered his arms. When he did, Serendipity's dull expression shook off and was replaced by a lively, sore-looking one.
"Ugh... what happened?" she asked as she rubbed her head and eyes, her own senses restored.
"Do not worry, you're safe," the Black Witch spoke in a comforting tone.
"S-Striga? Is that you?" she asked, taking her hole-filled hoof off of her head for a brief moment. "Wow... You won't believe this, but I saw something... I think it was a light, and now my head is... killing me. Is my mom or dad around here?"
"They are not, and you no longer need them, I'm happy to say," he said in a cheerful voice. "You may consider this to be my... Hearth's Warming gift."
"What do you mean by that?" she asked. Striga smiled as best as his true form could allow.
"You are what I have been looking for most of my life to find. You, Serendipity, you are my lost love."
"Wh-what do you mean? What are you talking about?" Serendipity asked, great confusion and distress swelling up in her voice; the fact she was still disoriented not helping in the least.
"What I'm trying to tell you is that... well... do you remember the story I told you about my wife? About Thysania?" he responded, before touching her chest with a claw. "Your black soul is the same as hers, only reincarnated. You are Thysania Aisling. But do not feel fear, for once I free your soul from your body and return her memories to it, you will remember who you once were, and we can be together once more."
"Free my soul from my- Striga, are you-"
"Sleep," Striga interrupted, waving his claw. Closing her eyes and going limp, Serendipity suddenly collapsed to the snowy ground, unconscious. Bending down on a knee, Striga gently picked her up and began to carry her deeper into the forest, passing by many hundreds of trees as he did. He finally stopped trekking through the woods as he reached his destination.
What stood before the Black Witch and his was a tall, twisted tree with a thin appearance and thick trunk, covered in dull brown, gnarled bark and long, winding branches lining it. The snow didn't seem to collect on its branches, which strangely still possessed leaves despite this time of year, and ones of a black-green color as well.
A witchwood tree.
Carefully, he placed the still-comatose Serendipity on the ground in front of it, and slowly went to his knees. Stretching a hand out, a small, smooth metal sewing needle suddenly formed in it from thin air, and he held it tightly and with much precision as he brought it down to Serendipity's unmoving shape. The tip of the object, upon touching the sleeping half-changeling's side, passed right through her physical body as though it was some incredible illusion. When it was pulled out moments later, it had an entity bearing such an alien geometry that it could only be described as semi-corporeal living light, attached to its tip, glowing a ghostly silver color. It was expanded longer the more the needle was pulled back.
The second the ethereal stream fully left Serendipity with a final tug, her body stopped breathing and went still as death. Bringing the half-changeling's life essence to himself, Striga cradled it in his other claw and looked at it closely; knowing what had to be done next.
He had been waiting hundreds of lifetimes for this moment. He was so very close now. So very close to reuniting with Thysania. To feeling her loving touch. To just gaze upon her as he remembered her all those centuries ago... but he knew he had to keep his mind focused in his work. Getting to his peg-like feet, he brought the ever-so fragile quintessence to the tree. Touching the base of it to its trunk, he held it in place with one claw, and used the other to hold the needle. With fluent, graceful movements he had used all of his life, Striga began to sew the soul into the tree as if it were thread. He was just moments away now. Just a few, meager moments away... just a few more stitches away, and then they would be together fore-
"Black Witch!" A voice shot out through the forest behind Striga in an echoing, enraged roar that made snow fall from trees with its sheer magnitude. The sap that ran through his body went cold with horror at sound, and he stopped his progress dead in its tracks.
No... no, not now... any time but now... he thought, slowly turning his head over his shoulder and seeing a familiar shape bearing wings and a horn land on the ground with a crunching of brittle snow. It was Princess Luna. She didn't take a single step before coming upon Serendipity's spiritless body that lied in the snow, her expression giving away that she was fearing the worst.
"What are you doing? What have you done to her, witch?" she demanded to know, lowering herself to the ground and lifting Serendipity's limp, lifeless head into her lap with her hooves, feeling no breath exit her mouth.
"I am restoring her to what she was before," the Black Witch responded. "She only is in the cocoon. I am releasing her from it."
"What... what is that..." Luna spoke again, looking to the phantasmal object he held against the tree's surface. "Is that... her soul?"
"Yes," he spoke. "And in a minute, it will be bound to this tree."
"I shan't give you that minute," the alicorn growled, gently cushioning the half-changeling's head as she gently let her soulless body lie back on the ground. "Let go of her essence. Now."
Hesitantly, Striga did as she demanded. The second his claw let go of the stream-like quintessence, it undid itself of its bindings with a small wriggle and instantly fled back to its original body like a magnet. Upon fully reentering her, Serendipity shuddered to life; chest heaving upward, coughing and gasping for air as if she had almost just been suffocated. As the alicorn saw her weak eyes close again, Luna looked back at the Black Witch; staring daggers at him with burning anger.
"You have gone too far this time..." she growled, stepping closer to him. "This... this is unforgivable."
"What you're doing now is unforgivable," he said back, as he began to pace around her like a fox, only to see the alicorn remain by Serendipity's side in a protective way. "Serendipity's very being was part of a plan I made over a thousand years ago. She is meant to be with me."
"I will make you regret laying your vile claws on her," Luna spoke as she bent over into an offensive position, unaware of a large bug flying up from behind her. Just before she could attack, the moth lunged at her with a shrill bleating sound, causing her to turn her head to the surprising noise as it impacted against it.
Augur grabbed onto Luna's face with an unyielding grip, beating his wings furiously. Quickly lighting her horn, she sent the moth spiraling away and hitting a tree with a small shockwave, dispatching the oversized insect, before it fell to the snow. The second her face was free, she saw the Black Witch reel back to unleash an attack. Knowing exactly what to do, she magically placed a brief, spherical barrier around herself, deflecting the oncoming green projectile of raw magic, which was sent back at Striga, hitting him directly and sending him slamming against a birch tree that lied behind him with enough force to break its trunk in half, sending the broken part crashing to the ground.
Luna jumped to the air, intent on finishing this fight, but the Black Witch, knowing what would happen if he were to fall now, reacted faster. With no mercy in his blank eyes, he sent his claw forward.
"Fall."
As the words left his mouth, Luna's attack was prematurely halted, and she sank to the ground like a stone, as if gravity itself had just forced her down. Grunting with effort, she tried to stand, but could not even move her head a centimeter an any direction.
"Luna... I never wanted to kill you, much less harm you..." he began, in an emotionless tone as he slowly made his way to her struggling form, lifting an open hand. "But this... this is too important to me. You are seconds away from taking her from me. Seconds away from leaving me alone in this miserable, wretched universe once more. I... will not allow this."
He started to slowly close his hand, wrapping his claws toward his palm at a snail's pace. "Crush."
With that word and action, Luna let out a muffled shriek as she felt her body curl unnaturally, and her limbs warp and twist in a way that caused excruciating agony. And she couldn't do anything about it.
"In every encounter I've ever had with you, I have refrained from using my full power. But do you feel it now, Luna?" he asked in his unwaveringly calm voice over her cries. "That's the feeling of your bones contorting. Shifting around. Bending. In a few moments, they will break. They will all break. In a few moments you will be shattered like glass, I will finish my objective over your broken, frozen whimpering, and then I will be gone with my prize."
Behind him, as he continued to utter these threats, Serendipity was almost fully returned to consciousness. The first thing she heard upon awakening were pained shouts coming from somewhere in front of her. Agonizing screams that forced her addled mind into thinking clearly.
"Writhe, Luna," the sound of Striga's voice suddenly went out. "Writhe... cry out... No one, pony or otherwise, will help you..."
"S-Striga... please, don't... hurt her..." Serendipity tried to mumble, but weakly. Through the still air the Black Witch more than heard her soft voice, and his unfeeling expression melted as he registered her words. His insectoid head spun around, his feathery antenna waving about, and saw the young half-changeling attempting to stand up on shaky legs, losing his entire focus on Luna as he saw her shape.
In that moment of hesitation, Luna, now in control of herself again, acted. Her horn lit up as she let out a malevolent roar, and she lashed out with a diagonal, cutting beam that slashed right through Striga like a hot knife through butter. At first he felt nothing, but when he noticed a fine line of sap bleeding out from just underneath his raised left arm, leading to just above his right shoulder and then around to intersect where it began, he knew what had happened.
"Oh," was all he spoke, before the two pieces of him separated; his upper half sliding off and landing on the ground nearby with a sickening plopping noise while his lower part fell backwards with an audible thud, both heavily leaking their precious, internal, vivid green liquids into the snow like ichor.
Stumbling to her hooves, Luna looked to the bisected remains of the creature as his upper, and still animated half tried feebly to crawl to where Serendipity was still trying to stand, using his only remaining arm to do so. He was letting out loud, tortured gasps as he made each stroke, clearly showing how utterly damaged he had become. He was still too far to get to her in a short amount of time, and Luna made sure he never did as she approached him and flipped him over onto what was left of his back with a still-sore hoof.
"This... this ends here, Witch," she panted, staring into his wide, blank, shocked eyes with her own, burning ones. "I'll make sure you never hurt another innocent soul, ever again."
"No... please... no... no..." Striga begged in an absolutely terrified, choked whisper as his words slowly descended into barely-coherent words, large tears falling from his face and quickly freezing onto it from the frigid temperature that surrounded them. "Too far... I've come... too far... die now... all for... nothing... pain... agony... alone... alone..."
"Luna," Serendipity spoke up from just ahead. Raising her head, Luna looked into the approaching half-changeling's clouded eyes.
"Serendipity, are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm fine, but... don't... don't kill him. Don't kill Striga," she said, as she got closer.
"I don't have to," the alicorn responded. "He's going to pass on his own in a few moments."
"Can you save him?" Serendipity said again, prompting a wide-eyed look of surprise on Luna's face.
"Why would you want that?" asked the princess.
"He... doesn't deserve this," she went on, strength returning to her voice. "I know you know that. You have to."
"He tore your soul from your body! He almost ended your life!" she argued, her voice rising.
"He told me why he wanted to do it, and it wasn't to kill me," Serendipity went on, giving Luna a pleading look. "Please... please, just save him. I can try to reform him or something, but please just don't let him die. I'm begging you."
Luna looked back to the unresponsive Striga, who was now barely twitching and looked to be mere minutes from bleeding out, sighing in discontent.
"Very... well," she muttered. With a quick utilization of magic, she telekinetically lifted Striga's lower half from nearby to where he lied, connecting it with the rest of his wicker body. One spell for healing and plant growth later allowed the wood to grow and twist around each other, stopping the sap leakage and attaching both halves together in the process, as repaired as she could make.
"Is he... alright?" Serendipity asked, walking closer until she felt his wooden hide touch her leg.
"He is alive," was all Luna said. Serendipity lied down in the snow beside him, and felt his alien body to see if he was in one piece.
"Thank you," she spoke softly after she was done examining him, trying to look up to the Princess of the Night.
"Thank me after what happens when he wakes up," the princess scoffed in return. "Now, come along. I'll help you get him back to Zecora's hut. Your family must be worried sick."
Striga finally awakened to the sound of a small draft blowing through the room he lied in, and someone humming a cheerful earworm in the background. Sitting his sore, wicker body up, he saw that he reverted to his pony-shaped self while he slept, and currently had thick, crimson bed sheets sprawled out over himself. Before he let his head down with a groan, he traced the humming to the blurry, white shape of Serendipity, who stood nearby, next to a small, wall-mounted shelf. She was tending to several, empty plant pots on the shelf by scooping soil into them from a green bag she held over her back, and had what the Black Witch quickly realized was Augur clinging onto the tip of her horn, observing his surroundings from high up.
"Morning," Serendipity said, with a hint of ebullience in her voice, after hearing his moan. Placing her bag of dirt down and turning herself around, she gave him a warm smile as Augur flew from her head to the air in front of him. "How are you feeling?"
"Sore. Confused. Alive," he replied, his tone full of relief. "What happened? Where am I?"
"Back at my house," she stated. "You've been out for almost two days. And don't worry about your moth, I've taken good care of him."
"But... where's Luna?"
"Gone," Serendipity said again, plopping herself next to his bedside. "After I asked her to let you stay, she left you in my care. The princess also told me to tell you that she's going to be keeping a very close eye on you, just so you know."
"You... you and Luna were the last things I saw," he said again, lifting his head from his pillow slightly. "How am I alive?"
"I convinced her to save your life," she smirked, as Augur decided to fly to her horn again. "But not because of what you tried to do to me. I'm still a little ticked off at that, especially because of how Luna phrased it."
"But why?" asked he. "Why do you not want me to change you into a creature like I? To replace your thoughts with whose you once possessed? You would be happier that way. We would both be happier that way."
A small interval of silence came between the two. "As tempting as that may sound, I like myself the way I am," Serendipity finally responded. "I love my life the way it is, right now. If you were to just give me her memories, and erase or alter all that I've known throughout my life... I don't want that. And after how you described Thysania to me the other day, I don't think she is the kind of person that would want that either."
Striga went as quiet as he heard her response and reasons, looking down to the wooden floor in a depressed way. "What happens now?" he decided to inquire next, looking back up to her as she left his bed. "What would you have me do?"
"To tell you the truth, I still haven't thought that far ahead," she tried to chuckle. "It hasn't even been three days since I found out you were not only a black witch, but also a giant, wooden moth-monster that makes dreams for a living, and how I'm, supposedly, the reincarnation of your wife. I'm still kind of trying to... process all that information in a way that makes sense. I haven't told my parents, or anypony else that much, of course."
Serendipity slowly got back to her hooves, and walked away a small distance. Every step she took seemed to echo throughout the mostly-empty room.
"I'm stepping out in a few hours to give my farewells to my cousin," the half-changeling spoke again, as she located and picked up her bag of earth, slumped it over her shoulder, and then approached the doorway. "With the holiday over, she's heading back home with her parents."
"What will you want me to do while you're gone?" Striga asked.
"Hmm... nothing, right now. You should just rest and heal up a little more," she replied, tilting her head partially. "And remember, don't even think about running. Luna gave me the cryptic statement that she placed a few "precautionary" spells and charms on you to make sure you can't go anywhere without unpleasant consequences."
Upon her leaving the room, Augur hopped from Serendipity's horn to the wall, and began to crawl toward his master. After reaching him, the small insect gave Striga a curious glance. Striga returned with one of his own.
"What does this all mean?" he asked the insect in a hushed whisper. "She despises what I had planned for her, yet, she is the reason I am alive and with her now. Can I... make something of this, my friend?"
The feathery antenna on the bug waved about as it tried to shrug.
The clouds had broken at long last the day before, revealing a blue sky, and finally letting the sun shine its fullest across the land.
A carriage, sporting a dark orange color, stood on the road at the edge Ponyville. Its six-pony crew waited attentively in polite silence for their charges, who were in front of the carriage, to finish their business so they all could be on their way.
As Longinus and Carol spoke of cheerful ideas on how they should schedule their next get-together with Thoraxis, Petra, and Skia, Serendipity stood off to the side with Charybdis, who still held onto Hesperus with a hoof.
"And remember, Chary. You have to take care of him in every way the directions describe. Especially with the plant food," she said in a serious tone, poking her in the chest with a hoof. "If you don't feed him it, he'll grow to a monstrous size and cause an unknowable amount of havoc. Got it?"
"Got it," she smiled, before placing the plant she held down on the ground and jumping at her in another, strong hug. "See you soon, Seren."
"I'll see you soon too, Chary," the half-changeling smiled, hugging back. "Hesperus, you behave yourself, you hear?"
"Oh, don't worry about me," the snapdragon rose cackled in an not-so-reassuring way, as he saw the two break off. "I won't cause any trouble."
"Charybdis, are ye coming?" Carol spoke from behind them. The filly spun her head around and waved back.
"I'll be right there, Mama!" she shouted, before looking at Serendipity again and pick up Hesperus once more. "Bye, Seren. "
"Goodbye, Chary," the blind half-changeling responded, closing her clouded, red eyes gleefully. She heard her friend bound away with a crunching of snow, followed soon after by the creaking sound of the door to the carriage closing. With a quick order from the driver, the ponies pulling the coach began to trot off, and the noise of their hooves and the carriage's squeaking wheels gradually became distant. A new sound, one made by what Serendipity realized was her own family, grew closer to her until they were upon her.
"This was a good Hearth's Warming, wasn't it?" she asked the three as they surrounded her, watching their friends leave by her side.
"The best," Thoraxis grinned, putting his hooves over her and Skia's shoulders, pulling his two daughters close to him in a loving embrace as Petra joined in; each laughing together merrily all the while. "The best."
