An echoing, distant voice called out, the sound barely carrying into her senses. Moments later the call rang out again, yet it seemed louder and clearer. Through extremely blurry eyes Princess Cadance's sight began to return as her eyelids fluttered open, the black, silhouetted world beyond making little sense at first. Feeling too returned; an extreme throb rang through her temple and her left side burned from what felt to be blunt trauma. Cold, moist forest air paired with the light breeze that whispered through the trees chilled her fur and gave every exhalation a visible steam. The voice yelled out once more; it was young and feminine. Cadance's body stirred as her sight cleared, the place she lay was at the base of a terribly tall tree on a fairly steep, grassy incline.
"Mom!"
The voice sang clearly now, and it was one Cadance recognized well. A groan escaped the groggy Alicorn as she rolled upright, her hooves digging into the dirt and grass below as she tried standing; her head spinning. She slowed her movement as the dizzy spell brought a horrid feeling to her stomach and throat, it took every bit of willpower to keep what contents were in her stomach from coming up.
"Mom!!"
It was her daughter. It was Flurry Heart. Panic filled Cadance's being as her eyes widened, her senses finally coming to full function.
"F-Flurry!? Flurry, sweetie, where are you!?"
"Mom!?! I'm over here! Are you okay?"
"I'm alive... but I'm hurt!"
Around one of the many large trunks in the area appeared Flurry's highlighted figure, her horn lit to provide light through the almost completely dark forest. The teenage Alicorn gasping as her eyes finally fell upon her mother.
"Mom! Mom, are you okay!? I've been looking for you forever!"
With teary eyes, Flurry ran to her mother, her hooves taking Cadance in a tight hug. The still dazed Princess looked around the dark, heavily forested slope with fearful wide eyes.
"Honey... where are we? I... I can't remember anything." Mumbled Cadance as Flurry's embrace was released.
"I don't know...!" Flurry sniffled, "Mom... I-I've looked all over for Dad, but he's not here!"
"You're sure he's not here? Y-You've looked everywhere? Did you fly above the trees and try to see him from the air?"
"I tried, but the leaves and branches are too thick, and there aren't any gaps! It's just one big, solid canopy!" Flurry responded with a sniffle, her hoof raising to dry her eyes.
Cadance's hooves once more pushed into the grassy, dew covered floor of the forest as she tried to right herself, but the action was quickly canceled as her head spun.
"Are you okay? Why can't you stand?"
"I'm... I'm really dizzy... my head is killing me. I can barely see straight." Answered the groggy Princess as she massaged her temple.
"You said you're hurt... what's wrong other than being dizzy?"
"My left side and wing... I think I rolled down the hill into this tree," As Cadance extended her wing, a wince of pain contorted her expression, "Sweetie... I don't think I could fly."
With concern, Flurry moved herself to examine her mother's mentioned wing, "It's not broken, is it?" She gave a sigh, "This is really going to slow us down..."
"Slow us down in doing what?"
"Going home! We have to get back to the Crystal Kingdom somehow!! We need to try and find Dad!"
A hoof fell upon Flurry Heart's shoulder, Cadance's ears falling flat with her head, "Sweetheart... I-I don't think we're supposed to go home."
"What are you talking about!?"
"I... I'm sure I teleported us here... and, if I did, it was for a good reason..."
"B-but what could be so wrong!? Nothing bad has happened since-" "Flurry, we don't know what could have happened! Neither of us can remember anything! The last thing I remember was it being November... for all we know that could have been yesterday or a year ago!"
Her mother's speech struck some sense into Flurry, her head hung low as she thought on a subject, "Do you... do you think Dad's okay?"
"Honey... I-I really don't know... but, we need to be prepared for the worst."
A short sigh came from Flurry, her breath expelling a little puff of steam from her nostrils. Cadance had noticed that her jaw had begun chattering, the chilled air of the forest had defeated any warmth held by her pink coat.
"You don't have your crown." Stated Flurry after a moment, her words causing Cadance's hoof to pat around her temple.
"You're right. I don't have any of my other royal attire, as well. Neither do you..."
"Maybe it was vaporized when we teleported." Flurry jokingly suggested, her words bringing a smile to her mother's expression.
"I doubt that. This is an odd thing, though. I only have my attire off at night."
The subject was dropped as Flurry stood from the grass, her eyes wandering the nearly pitch black forest, "Do you think you could walk now? I-I don't like it here..." She inquired through chattering teeth.
A groan escaped the Princess as she pressed her hooves into the moist grass, raising a short distance from the ground as her head bobbed side-to-side, "I-I don't know, sweetie... I'm still really woozy."
With a helping hoof from her daughter, Cadance was able to fully right herself, her figure still swaying as her mind struggled to keep her balanced.
"Honey, does your magic still work? I doubt I could do more than lift a rock..."
"My head hurt when I woke up, but it's gotten better... so I think so."
As Cadance finally stood absolute without any shaking, Flurry stood back carefully, her eye kept on an attent watch for any slippages, "I'm gonna need you to be the big girl here, Flurry. I'm sure by tomorrow I'll be able to use my abilities to their fullest... but my wing isn't going to be better for a while."
Cadance finally engaged her legs, Flurry following at her side as the duo moved down the forested slope.
"Is it morning or evening?" Inquired the mother as her eyes studied the surroundings, straining to see more than the simple silhouettes of the huge trees and their canopies.
"Dawn. When I first got up it was completely pitch black."
"How long have you been up?"
"Probably 15 minutes now. I spent a really long time looking for you and Dad."
Cadance's ears fell flat, "Honey, I'm sorry... I wish I knew where your father is."
There was a moment's pause, "What do we do now, Mom? How do we... how are we supposed to make things normal again?"
"For now, we just try to survive."
At best estimate the sun was peaked at its noon position, but that made barely any difference at the floor of the forest. Still, only an abysmal volume of light was allowed through the canopy above, and what came through was more of a glow than anything. Such contrast made seeing a non-chore, but that was where it stopped; the cold air of the forest had only gone up in temperature by a few degrees, and there still gusted a shifty breeze, which only worked to remove what help the slight addition in day-time temperature was given. The realm was an eerie one, as not only was it dark during the day but barely any noise moved through the trees. The leaves above were too far off and too large to be disturbed by the calmly breezing air below, and the complete lack of bird-song or any sort of calls made things seem completely dead.
One thing taken to notice by the two had been the presence of the lively and eclectic ground-level vegetation; one would think such a poorly lit area would have difficulty producing any sort of greenery, but it was apparent what tall grasses, shrubs, and mosses flourished cared not for the sun's rays. There was certainly enough moisture to support such life; the humid air was enough proof that the forest either had frequent rainfall or was host to some sort of network of rivers and streams. Such things were hard to discern, as the sky above had not been visible a single moment through the canopy, and the density of the trees was great enough to where much visual distance could not be attained. At least such an area gave fair concealment against any potential threats.
"What's the plan when we find a way out of this forest?" Flurry inquired as she lightly splashed her hoof in the brook she and her mother had come across.
With a sigh, Cadance lowered herself to a patch of fairly short grass, "Find some sort of civilization. For all we know there could be a town in this forest, but we can't fly up to get a pegasi's eye view."
"So... we're just going to live where ever we discover? How do we even know if... whatever lives where we are will be friendly?"
"We don't, but we can at least hope. We need to find a way home... I need to know Shining and Twilight are okay."
"Dad's as tough as a doornail, and Twilight may be even tougher than that. I'm sure they're fine! I bet they're looking for us right now."
Cadance could only smile at her daughter's optimism. With a stretching yawn, the mother Alicorn relaxed onto her uninjured side, the soft grass proving to be an exceptionally comfortable bed. The light splashes of the nearby brook and the lack of the sun's rays brought a second yawn as Cadance further relaxed, an oddly sweet scent coming from the short grass her head lay upon.
"This is... really comfortable." She stated lamely, taking a second sniff of the vegetation.
"Getting tired already?" Flurry joked as she took notice of her mother's research.
The younger Alicorn observed with curiosity as Cadance continued researching the grass, and after a moment, took a fair bite from the patch, her eyes widening as she chewed.
"This stuff is really good! Well... for grass. It's sweet!" She exclaimed, a small blade dropping from her maw as she spoke.
A little bit of searching showed Flurry that a patch of this sweet grass had grown on her side of the brook, it seemed the grass only had the strength to sprout up in smaller patches, as a taller, thicker grass was certainly the more dominant species. Her head craned as she took an investigative bite, her mother's assessment of the plant being spot-on; it was wonderfully sweet, yet it was an odd sweet. A raw, natural sweet, one similar to chewing on sugar cane as opposed to eating something like a sugar cube.
"Looks like we won't have to worry about food, this stuff grows everywhere!" Commented Cadance, her words causing Flurry to look up.
"It's good and all..." Spoke Flurry though a mouthful of the sweet plant, "But I don't wanna eat grass for the rest of my life."
"I'm sure there are other things growing in this forest, Sweetheart."
After grabbing another large patch with her teeth, Flurry had a thought, "How are we supposed to know if this stuff isn't poisonous?"
Flurry watched as her mother stopped chewing for a moment, her eyes looking down to the plant, "We aren't... but I doubt it is. Who's ever heard of poison grass?"
"We aren't in Equestria, all sorts of stuff could be poisonous."
"That's true, but I think we're safe seeing as how tame the plant-life in this forest seems to be. I haven't seen a single flower... it's just grass and bushes." Cadance explained as she laid her head back to her grassy pillow.
Flurry offered no response as she walked back to the fringe of the brook, her head dipping down as she took a few short drinks of the ice-cold mountain run-off.
"Maybe we should sleep during the day and move at night." Commented her mother.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, it's so dark during the day that it might as well be night, and as we know from earlier; it gets very cold at night. If we sleep around during the day, that means we won't need a fire to keep warm. Moving at night might be safer anyway; we'd be a lot harder to spot."
Flurry shrugged in agreeance, "You've got a point. I assume you want to sleep now?" Observed the Alicorn as she watched her mother stretch.
"I'm exhausted, yes. My mind needs sleep. Not tired enough yet?"
"Tired from walking, yeah. If I found a nice place to lay down I'm sure I'd be off in a second."
Cadance simply hummed in response. Silence came to the conversation as Flurry let her mother go undisturbed; she needed the rest. Upon standing from the brook, she peered around as she walked back over to the patch of oddly sweet grass found earlier and brought her figure to rest, the only sound filling her ears being the light babble of the brook. It may not be her bed, but her mother was right; it was comfortable... for grass. Now lying on her side, Flurry Heart's mind turned from the world and wandered through the realm of random thought, her and her mother's current situation being the focus of most things brought up.
What unfortunate event brought upon the need to teleport into a random forest? Had Tirek made some sort of return? Maybe King Sombra had come back for revenge, or the Changelings decided to launch a second invasion? What if it was an accident? Maybe Twilight Sparkle had been on a visit and tried showing off some new spell and it went wrong. No; that idea wouldn't work, it was clear Cadance had been the one to cast the teleportation spell... but why?
There were so many possibilities of things that could have caused their departure, and there were so many unknowns. A yawn escaped Flurry as she pulled her limbs out in a stretch, the wing she did not rest upon unfurling to be draped across her legs as she curled up. Mom had been right; sleeping during the day would be much nicer; sure, it was still cold, but it was a nice cold, one that made rest bearable as contradicted with the horrible, teeth-chattering chill that hung during the suns down time. With her eyes shut, the world felt peaceful; despite being however many thousands of miles from the Crystal Kingdom, she found the current situation to be quite comfortable. All of those camping trips Dad had taken her on were certainly helping make things feel more enjoyable.
The sound of water splashing broke through the walls of Flurry Heart's slumber, her ear flickering as the outside world replaced the world of sleep. Normally upon waking one was greeted by the bright warmth of the morning sun, but her eyes were greeted by the soft silhouettes of the trees and grass around her. With a groan Flurry rolled to her belly, stretching her back and neck while her wings gave short flutter. A second splashing sound brought her attention to her mother, who sat knelt at the edge of the brook, splashing the icy water onto her face.
"Morning, or, uh... afternoon," Flurry commented as she stood from her grassy bed, looking to the canopy above as she realized things were a lot darker than when she had fallen asleep.
"Sleep well, Sweetheart?"
"Yeah... really well," Flurry's back arched as her front legs extended into a long stretch, "I'm surprised by how comfortable this sweet grass stuff is."
On mention of the plant, her attention was taken down, her sight falling upon the spot where she had previously had a small meal from the patch. There was some sort of saying about eating and sleeping in the same place, or had that been about eating and using the restroom?
"Ready to get moving again?" Inquired Cadance after having taken a drink of water.
Flurry gave a hum in response, "What direction should we head?"
"I think we should follow this little stream. We'll always be close to fresh water that way."
Offering no rebuttal, Flurry began in the same direction her mother had, the two staying at opposing sides of the brook as they walked. Looking over, Cadance took notice of her daughter's observance of the leafen canopy above.
"You're still sure there's no way to get through that?"
"No way no how. It looks too thick to even climb through."
"Eventually we'll find a clearing, then we can at least get an idea of where we are."
"I could blow up one of these trees, then we'd have a clearing!" Flurry chimed with a grin.
The mother gave a scoff, "You aren't blowing up a tree. Do you want everything in this forest to know right where we are?"
"I never get to blow things up." She pouted, her head sulking as she walked.
"I'm sure you had plenty of chances to blow things up when your father would take you camping."
Flurry gave a short chuckle, "Yeah, there were a few rocks and bushes that didn't have a good day."
"You still know how to use all of those powerful spells, right?"
Flurry gave a humming nod.
"Good. If we run into any problems, don't at all hesitate to use them. If you gotta blow up a tree or two, you do it."
"Don't worry, Mom! If anything tries messing with us I'll teach it a lesson." Flurry beamed with conviction, her chest puffed as she walked.
"That's my girl."
Flurry Heart's horn radiated a light-blue glow as a purposefully weak beam of light showed that the way ahead was clear of anything that would cause either her or her mother to trip. The beam then followed her eyes upwards, the huge trunks and large branches and leaves of the canopy above holding nothing out of the ordinary. Satisfied, Flurry's horn ceased its glow, and the complete pitch black of the forest returning as the duo continued on their way to nowhere. The spell would have been held constantly, but such a task was not only taxing over time but also increased the likelihood of being spotted by something that didn't want to be friends. True, the forest was dense enough to where if anything could see the light it was almost already on top of the duo, but as Cadance has stated earlier; better safe than sorry. For a good 4 hours now the two had followed the stream, which by this point was now two-fold wider and ran a tiny bit deeper. The nightly air of the forest combined with the cooling effect of being near the little body of water chilled each Alicorn to their core. The two found it impressive that a place with no snow could be so horribly cold.
"Alright, Mom. T-Theory time. Where do you think we are?" Inquired Flurry as the duo moved, her jaw shivering.
Cadance gave a hum of thought, "I-I dunno... pretty far from home. I don't know of any f-forests like this in Equestria. Maybe we're in Griffonstone?"
"I bet we're on a t-totally different planet!" Chirped Flurry, more than less joking.
"Honey, m-my magic isn't that powerful," Cadance chuckled, "We're on the same planet... just in a new place."
"That you know of. Maybe we're the first astronauts! T-That'd be cool."
"No it wouldn't! How in Celestia's name would we get home if we were on a new planet?"
"Same way we got here."
"By accident?"
Flurry thought for a moment, "I t-thought we were sure we're here for a reason..."
"We're in this forest by accident, but it wasn't a mistake that I sent us here, I'm sure of it."
The conversation paused for a moment as Flurry continued thinking, her mind trying not to focus on the biting cold, "Maybe you were goofing around with some spells?"
"Sweetheart, you know I'm not a scholar like Auntie or Twilight. I haven't created a single spell in my entire life!"
Flurry held her silence for a moment as her horn flickered to life, her produced light doing a quick sweep of the area, "Anything's possible at this point. I think it has something to do with the Changelings." Commented Flurry as the glow from her horn was cut.
"We haven't heard anything from the Changelings since that one rogue Soldier showed up in the Crystal kingdom all those years back."
"Maybe he was a scout, and was simply pretending to be rouge!"
"T-That wasn't the case, Honey. You were too young to remember that whole thing."
"Got any better ideas? I mean... whatever happened must have been really bad for you to teleport us away."
"Yeah; a-and that worries me. I would stand by your father and fight whatever came our way... so why did we run, and why didn't he run with us? I... I just hope he's okay." Explained the worried mother, her words dropping off towards the end of her speech.
"D-Dad's fine, and in a f-few weeks we'll be back with him and everything will be normal again."
Her daughter's optimistic view on the situation really did help bring light to their dark situation, something Cadance had been very grateful of; if not for Flurry's calmness she would be a nervous wreck. A short yelp of surprise burst from Cadance as her right hoof missed the ground and splashed into the stream, yet not a moment later Flurry's figure whipped around as her horn instantly came to life, a force stopping the mother from falling into the water. With a sigh, Flurry manipulated her mother's figure to put the Alicorn upright and a fair distance from the creek's edge.
"Good catch, Sweetheart." Commented Cadance as she shook the icy water from her hoof, which now ached even worse from the cold.
"No doubt..." Flurry's illumination spell came active as she searched her mother's figure as well as the area in which she stood, "if you thought you were cold now, you'da been in for quite the surprise."
"W-Why don't we walk a little further from the creek, hm?"
As Flurry's produced contrast lit up the area before her, Cadance trotted to her side to follow closer, "T-That's not too bad of an idea, Mom."
A yawn from her mother drew Flurry's attention to the older Alicorn, "Getting tired?"
"Of course I'm tired. We've been walking for hours."
With what light the dawn's sun provided Flurry could see dark circles under Cadance's eyes. She looked like she had just been brought back from the dead, her slouched walk and low-hung head giving her a zombie-like stature, "You wanna stop for a while?" She inquired with a raised brow.
No verbal response was offered as Cadance instantly slouched against a nearby tree, her figure turning to allow her to use the wide, mossy trunk as a back rest. Flurry, giving a light chuckle at her mother's slight over-exaggerance, sat with her front hooves between her haunches, the tall grass of the forest floor flattening in a perfect circle around her figure.
"You don't look t-tired at all." Commented Cadance with a shiver.
"I'm not. I guess when you're old things get a little harder?" Flurry jabbed.
"I am not old! I'm only 38... and in a few years I'll stop aging all together!"
A quick laugh came from Flurry as she wrapped her wings around herself to hold in what heat she could.
"I know, it's freezing out here." Chattered Cadance, taking note of her daughter's action.
"I could find some wood and build a fire, you know. I'll stay up and keep watch and you can sleep."
There was an almost visual apprehension in her mother's expression as she thought upon the idea, "You're s-sure you want to stay up for so long?"
"I'll be fine. You need the rest more than I do."
"Well... alright."
With that, Flurry got to her hooves, "I'll go find some firewood. I assume you're gonna stay here?"
"I'd be of no use, so yeah. Just... be back soon."
"No need to worry," Commented Flurry as she departed in a stray direction.
Cadance's eyes wandered the nearly black forest of silhouettes before her as she stood, looking to find a more comfortable, preferably grassy place to lie down. After a mere 4 steps, she found a large patch of the short sweet grass mere feet from their stream. With her figure resting comfortably on the soft bedding, Cadance's head turned as she took a generous bite of the grass. Such an oddity, it was, to be sitting on one's food.
~§~
With a load of 5 fairly substantial logs taken from what looked to have been a fallen branch, Flurry turned to head back in the direction she had originated from. Hopefully the chunks were dry enough to burn nicely; they had been fairly tough in being broken down by her magic. Even if there was an excess of moisture Flurry's father had done a fine job of showing her the proper ways of building a fire, and with some help from a few spells, she was confident making a strong flame wouldn't be a challenge.
If not for her father's absence (and for that matter, her mother's presence, as Cadance had only once gone with,) the situation would have felt like any other time she had spent in the woods. The first few trips were events she had found to be fairly boring, but soon they became something she quite enjoyed. More than anything she was extremely grateful of those times; she had learned many useful navigation and survival skills from her father. If his intent had been to train her for the very unlikely situation she and her mother currently stood in, then he had done a wonderful job.
Flurry's body froze as a blood-chilling screech echoed through the forest, the sound similar to the cry of a falcon, yet it was more constant and held a slight chitter. Her heart pounded; the only sound now filling her ears being the silence of the forest. She jumped as a louder, closer screech responded; the sound feeling much closer than the last. The glow from her horn was cut, the logs held in her aurora falling to the forest floor as Flurry ran to the nearest tree and knelt at its base, the nearly foot-tall grass of the area providing her with some concealment. The Alicorn's ears remained perked as a deep, somewhat distant snap came from the canopy above, the rustle of the large leaves drawing her eyes upwards; whatever creature moving above was only a short distance from her. In the distance, another screech pierced her ears, the rustling pausing as the nearby creature stopped to listen. The responding cry from whatever fairly large creature lurked in the canopy caused Flurry's heart to skip a beat, her blood running completely cold. The rustling resumed and became more distant as the creature moved away from her general area; which might be in its favor, as Flurry's horn aimed right where the thrashing of leaves and branches had come from.
As the seconds slowly ticked by, no more calls rang through the forest and the canopy remained quiet. The thump of Flurry's heart filled her own ears while she cowered, her head now on a swivel as she searched the surrounding area for anything else. A realization clicked into her mind; the nearby creature had been moving in the same direction she had originated from, and the first call came from that same direction.
"Mom..." Flurry whispered as she darted to her hooves, breaking into a full sprint.
Just enough light for her to avoid colliding with a tree radiated from her horn as she ran, heart still pounding from adrenaline. Flurry's hooves ripped through the grass and dirt as her body banked side to side to snake through the trunks, a wing occasionally swiftly unfolding to act as an air brake for incredibly hard maneuvers. Finally, the trees broke and before her lay the creek, which she almost bolted into if not for a quick snap of her wings. Her head darted side to side, the figure of her mother nowhere to be seen.
"Mom? Where are you?" She called in a soft voice as to not alert what creature may be near.
The already loud thump of her heart increased as she paced in either direction at the creek's edge trying to decide which way to follow the little body of water. She was sure she had come back perfectly in the direction she had gone; so where was Mom? Flurry's body spun to the right as another screeching call ripped through the trees, one that had come from a direction the other two had not. The faint contrast from her horn was ceased as Flurry trotted with haste in the opposite direction of the creek's flow, her head on a swivel as she scanned the silhouettes for any sign of her mother.
"Where in the name of Equestria are you?" She called, her voice a little louder than in previous times, "Mom!"
Through the tall grass Flurry's eyes caught an irregular shape, her horn instantly coming to life as her light revealed a prone, pink figure. Flurry darted to her mother, her body sliding to a halt as she knelt with haste, taking her mother's unconscious figure in her hooves.
"Aaugh! W-wh... Flurry?! What are you doing?" Blurted Cadance as she was rudely awoken.
"Mom! Mom, you're okay! Quick, get over here! Hide!"
The still drowsy mother was dragged by Flurry's magic to the trunk of a nearby tree, the young Alicorn hunkering down with her mother held close to her side by a hoof.
"What in the world is going on?" Inquired the dazed Alicorn, her volume causing Flurry's other hoof to come up and cover her mouth.
"Shh! Have you not heard all of these screeches and the trees moving?!" The terrified Flurry whispered, her head craning upwards as she looked around.
"N-no... I was asleep."
"There's something in the trees, and it sounds big, and it makes an absolutely terrible sound." Returned Flurry, her quiet tone still shaky with fear.
Flurry felt her mother jump as the mentioned screech broke the air, the call being fairly close. The duo held totally still as their ears focused on the somewhat distant rustle of leaves and snap of twigs. Flurry's eyes locked to a black shape as it clawed its way down the trunk of a tree across the creek, upon reaching the grassy forest floor it stood for a moment; completely still. Flurry's head was suddenly forced down by her mother's hoof, the Alicorn holding her own head low as they hoped the grass would conceal their position. Over her own breaths and her thumping heart Flurry could hear the creature stepping through the grass despite being some distance away. From the left came another call from the creatures, the sound causing the nearby steps to pause. Cadance brought her head up just in time to see the black creature turn its head up, its maw gaping wide as a responding screech was let loose, the sound running her blood cold. After a moment the creature's figure leaped back to the trunk, the sound of its claws ripping through the bark as it climbed filling the air.
"Stay completely still," Cadance whispered as quietly as she could, her head coming back down to further hide her figure.
"We need to run the other direction." Came Flurry's shaking words.
"No; hold still. Be quiet, it doesn't know we're here."
Flurry remained quiet, doing her best to calm her breathing to minimize any and all sound. The shifting of leaves in the canopy had almost faded into the distance as the creature moved further from the two, Flurry's head raising as she looked around.
"It moved on," Commented Flurry, "Let's go; now. We need to get away from that thing."
"You're right. Move quietly, don't worry about going fast."
In perfect sync the two got to their hooves and began in the exact opposite direction of the creature's last position, their hooves impacting with as little heft as possible to keep the grass's rustle to an absolute minimum. After a full minute's moving, Cadance stopped, holding out a hoof to signal her daughter to pause as well. The two shared a look of complete terror and bewilderment, their breaths heavy.
"By Celestia's name, what are those things!?" Exclaimed Flurry, her voice still held low.
"I have no clue... but I can't believe I slept through that sound..." Cadance returned as she sat on her haunches, a hoof being held to her chest.
A grunt escaped the mother as Flurry suddenly took her in a tight hug, "I'm so glad you're okay..." She choked, her voice cracking as her eyes became misty, "When I saw you lying there... I-I thought one of those things had gotten you!"
Cadance freed her hoof from between their chests, raising both her limbs to return the embrace, "I'm fine, Sweetheart. I'm glad you found me when you did."
The reality of just how close the two had come to meeting the end started to hit Cadance.
"I'm proud of you, Honey." She spoke, her hoof running through Flurry's pink and blue mane.
"W-Why?"
"You stayed extremely calm, and you didn't over-react and use your magic. I think we were better off going completely unnoticed."
Flurry sniffled as her hold was lightened, "T-Thanks... and I think you're right. There were at least 3 of those things around us, I heard 3 separate calls."
As her daughter's embrace finally broke, Cadance gave a shutter, "That sound... what an absolutely terrible sound. The only thing I can think of close to that would be a falcon. What kind of giant tree-climbing monster cries like a falcon?"
"No idea, but from now on we need to keep our eyes up. The only reason I knew that one was so close to me is because it responded to another one. That's why I ran back to you; the first one screeched, then the one near me responded and began moving towards where you were, and the first one's call came in that same direction. I thought something had happened to you, and when I finally found you, I-I didn't think you were asleep..." Choked Flurry, trying to not let the image of her mother lying in the grass burn into her mind.
"You poor thing. I'm sorry... I should have gone with you."
"From now on, no splitting up; we stay together."
"Agreed."
Luckily, the past hours had gone by without any incident. Once the two Alicorns had fled from the general area of that creature, they elected to find their stream once more and continue following the little body of water, just from a ways off. A little while's walking finally wore the two out; an uneventful trip was something Cadance desperately needed to get back to sleep, as did Flurry. It was impossible to even think of slumber with the knowledge something lurked within the canopy above. Upon finding a dense grouping of trees each member of the party found their own patch of foliage to rest in, with the hope that the extra cover created by the closely grown trunks would help conceal them from any threats the realm of sleep was finally traveled to.
"I think I know another reason it'd be better for us to sleep during the day." Commented Flurry as she finished taking a drink from their brook.
The duo had woken a mere ten minutes ago and traveled a short distance to the stream for a little grass-based picnic before setting out for the day.
"Oh? And what's that?" Cadance inquired through a mouthful of the sweet grass.
"I'm willing to bet those things last night are nocturnal. Makes a lot of sense, seeing as how dark it is, even during the day."
"I'm willing to bet you're right. I saw a few bats sleeping in one of the trees this morning. Seems like anything that lives here is going to be nocturnal."
Flurry raised a brow, "Bats... in the trees?"
"Mhm. There was four of them, all hanging upside down in a little cluster on one of the lower branches. They were a lot bigger than any bat I've seen."
Flurry hummed in thought, "You sure they were bats, then?"
"What else sleeps upside down with its wings curled around its body?"
"Maybe they're come kind of blood-sucking bat. That's why they're big, so they can hold more blood!"
Cadance's head shook after she took a second bite of grass, "You're too creative, sweetie."
"I hope my creativity isn't true. Dealing with big vampire bats is the last thing I want."
"I'm pretty sure bats drinking blood is a myth, anyway."
Flurry's head craned downwards as she dipped her face into the icy mountain run-off, Cadance seeing several bubbles escape her nostrils. Upon raising from the water a field of droplets becoming airborne as she rapidly shook her head.
"Oh, that's refreshing." Flurry moaned as her hoof came to wipe excess water from her fur.
"If we had some towels and that water was deeper we could take a bath... but without any sunlight, and with how cold that water is, it'd be miserable."
"Then why'd you try diving in last night?"
Cadance grinned at her daughter's quip, "Keep blabbing and I'll throw you in there!"
"You can't get me; your magic is still shot!"
A feeling of weightlessness covered Flurry's figure as a blue aurora lifted her into the air a short distance, the force holding her still for a split second before it ceased, dropping her with a light thud.
"Oh..." Commented Flurry, her eyes looking to her mother's horn, "I guess it's feeling better?"
"For the most part. I doubt I could blow over any trees, so you'll have to keep us covered in that department."
Flurry's head leaned to the side as her attention moved to Cadance's left wing, which seemed to be held from her side by a few inches, "And how about your wing? You're sure it's not broken, right?"
"I'm pretty sure. It only hurts if I stretch it out," She explained as the mentioned wing slowly extended, the ache created bringing a wince to Cadance's expression, "I'd say in a week or so I could fly."
"Figures that you rolled down a hill and hit a tree. If your wing wasn't hurt we could have blown a hole through this canopy and flown out of this dark forest."
"You don't feel safe after last night, do you?"
Flurry sighed, "No, I don't... but I think that's a good thing. Feeling safe in this forest won't get us out of here in one piece."
"Very right you are."
Flurry brought herself upright, her face still a little wet from the stream's contents, "Should we get a move on?"
"Might as well. Same plan as before? Walk until we need to fall asleep?"
A simple hum of agreeance was given by Flurry as she began moving downstream, her mother trotting to her side.
"As terrifying as this place is at night, it's really beautiful," Cadance commented, looking around the dim forest.
"No doubt about that. It's so strange walking around during the day and sometimes not being able to see stuff."
"Makes you wonder how anything can grow down here,"
"Let's be thankful it does. Without this sweet grass, we'd be pretty hungry right now."
Cadance's eyes were directed upwards, "Are we sure there's not some kind of fruit growing in these trees?"
"I don't actually know. I doubt there would be anything growing past what we can see, considering there's barely any sun down here."
"Have you actually gone up and checked?"
Flurry's movement paused, her head also turning canopywards, "No... I haven't. I guess we won't know unless we see for ourselves."
With that, the Alicorn's pink wings spread from her sides and with a few hard beats took her into the verticle. The best way to gain altitude quickly and efficiently would have been to combine forward air speed with a verticle angle of flight, but when the furthest tree is only a mere ten or so feet off the simple option of pure verticle flight was the only exploit. Much climbing brought Flurry to the base of the canopy, and a thorough search showed no fruit were present. Curiously, Flurry turned her body upwards and latched onto one of the many huge bottom branches of the canopy, the thick, almost two-foot-long leaves hanging from their branches brushing against her figure as she gave a single powerful stroke to propel herself all the way up onto the thick branch, her figure staying in a crouched position, as the other huge limbs above her gave no room for standing.
"See anything?!" Shouted her mother, Flurry's attention directing to the forest floor, the height she stood at being quite dizzying.
"No, not a single fruit!"
Flurry's sight went straight up as she peered through the canopy; even while within the organic structure the sun's light could not be seen. As one of the many large leaves brushed across her face as she turned, Flurry paused as she observed something odd about the leaf. The round, somewhat pale leaf had an oddly thick core being around 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Her horn came to life as the leaf was broken from its branch with a moist snap, her eyes lighting up as she looked at the raw core.
"The leaves are the fruit..." Whispered the Alicorn, her magic moving the leaf close to her muzzle as she took an investigative sniff.
The leaf held a starchy, potato-like scent, and upon making this discovery, Flurry's teeth were brought to bare as she took a small bite from the core. The crisp vegetation held a faint taste of potato, but other than that it was fairly tasteless aside from the taste of water. It wasn't good, but it certainly wasn't bad.
"Mom! We can eat the leaves! The leaves are the tree's fruit!"
"Really!? Bring some down here!"
While taking a second bite from her current leaf the Alicorn's blue aurora took the base of 5 other leaves, and with a loud snap the group broke from their parent branch and were stacked neatly. With her cargo, Flurry slid herself from the limb, free-falling for a moment before deploying her wings and bringing herself to a controlled state of flight, her strokes giving just enough power for a slow, purely vertical descent. Her hooves pressed into the grass as she came to a rest, Cadance looking on with excited eyes as her horn's aurora came to life, the topmost leaf of the stack being taken from Flurry's control. A snap broke the air as the mother knawed a fair sized chunk from the core, her head bobbing in a nod as she chewed.
"Mhm! We can eat this!" She blabbed through a full mouth.
"It tastes faintly of a potato, doesn't it?" Flurry inquired as she took a bite from her original leaf.
"Very faintly. Mostly tastes like water and... dirt?"
"That's what raw potatoes taste like."
Cadance, upon further inspecting the foliage held in her magic, gave a little laugh, "Good find, sweetie. Now we don't have to just eat grass!"
"Funny, the grass tastes better."
"But these are going to give a lot more nutrients a lot quicker."
"You know... I wonder if we could cook these." Flurry added, her magic ripping the rounded leaf from its pale green core.
"Did you try eating the leaf?" Inquired Cadance as she took note of her daughter's action.
The removed portion was brought to Flurry's mouth, and after chewing a moment she simply shrugged, "It tastes like a leaf."
"Well, we're set on food! And possibly water; these leaf cores are really moist, and if we somehow lose track of our little stream we can probably survive solely on these."
"If we roast these over a fire, I bet they'd be pretty good. All we'd need is some butter, salt, and pepper and we'd have a replacement for a baked potato." Explained Flurry as she broke the foot-long, tapered leaf root in half with a spell.
"Should we find some wood and test this theory?"
A crackle of energy bust from Flurry's horn as 5 logs materialized a short distance from her, the randomly arranged group dropping a foot or so as her aurora released them.
"They were from last night." Explained the younger Alicorn as she took note of her mother's confusion.
"Oh... I see. Well, use all those mountaineering skills your father taught you and build us a nice fire!"
The forest's silence was over-ridden by the periodic snap and pop of fire, the wonderful scent of burning wood filling the chilled air. After holding one of the gathered leaf cores over the fire via stick for a good minute, Flurry's spell brought the browned, steaming item away from the flame, the stick being waggled swiftly through the air to help cool the core. With enticed eyes, the food moved to her open maw, and with a bite, she exclaimed in joy at the taste.
The core was floated across the fire to Cadance, who took the skewered core by her own spell, "It tastes like a baked potato!" Flurry spoke, her head tilting up to ensure no bits of her meal fell from her mouth.
Upon chewing a sizable piece from the food, Cadance too gave a hum of pleasure from the taste, "Good call cooking these, Sweetie!"
"Still's missing butter, salt, and pepper."
A second generous bite was taken by Cadance, her cheeks puffed by the excessive amount of food, "I certainly agree."
After having the skewer moved back to her side of the fire Flurry took the object from her mother's spell as she pushed herself back from the fire a bit, her haunches sliding fairly effortlessly across the grass. For the first time since the duo had woken up in the forest, they felt warmth. Such a welcome change, it was, from the standard chilled coats and chattering teeth that had become the norm.
"My front is so warm... yet my back is cold." Commented Cadance as she pivoted on her haunches.
"It's the worst feeling, isn't it? Somehow you can be roasting and freezing at the same time. That was the one thing I hated about nights camping with dad. He always loved it." Flurry reminisced, her eyes fixed on the dancing flames before her.
"We'll find Dad soon, Sweetheart. He's okay, I know he is."
Flurry's ears fell level with her head, "I hope so..."
With the day drawing to its end the pair now realized just how nice their fire had been. Having finished chowing down on the strange potato-like leaf cores and sitting by the fire for a while, departure was made as the duo resumed their wander through the dark woods. The chill of the air had only been extenuated by the moderate wind that had picked up, the force being great enough to bring some movement to the normally dead silent canopy.
A faint beam of contrast shined from Flurry's horn as she moved around a large stump, Cadance's eyes tracking the object for a moment as they passed by it.
"Honey, wait... light up that stump again," Cadance commanded as the two paused their travel.
The beam shined back to the fallen tree base, and after looking on at the object for a moment the pair realized something.
"That tree was cut down..." Commented Flurry as she stepped closer to the stump.
"And so were all of these."
Flurry spun around to see her mother standing some distance away, her direction pointing to a grouping of 3 other stumps. Upon joining her mother, Flurry looked skywards to see that the removal of the trees had created a thinning in the canopy, the red evening sky peeking through in a few places.
"Mom, look! I can get through right here!" Chimed Flurry, her pink wings spreading as she prepared to take off.
"You be careful, Honey. If anything looks out of the ordinary you come right back down here, okay?" Called Cadance as she watched her daughter take to the skies.
After seeing Flurry punch her way through the thinly veiled leaves of the canopy Cadance turned back to the forest, her horn casting a glow as she further investigated the area. A little ways from the original 3 stump Cadance found that a perfectly straight line of about 10 trees had been removed from their roots. Even more interesting than this was the presence of many saplings, the young trees being equipped with a simple twine and stick brace to help support them. They weren't the only ones in the forest, that was becoming increasingly evident. A rustle of leaves drew Cadance's eyes upwards as Flurry's silhouette broke through the sparse canopy.
"There's a big row of trees missing here!" Called the young Alicorn as she descended.
"I know, and all of these little saplings were planted by something! They're all supported by these sticks..."
As Flurry's hooves made contact with the grass, her eyes investigated one of the mentioned saplings her mother stood near, the glow from the older Alicorn's horn highlighting the little tree's pale leaves.
"So, where are we?" Cadance inquired, her words bringing Flurry's eyes up.
"A valley. A big one, surrounded by huge, snowcapped mountains. The only way out of this forest that doesn't involve scaling a huge summit would be that way," Flurry's hoof pointed in the direction they had been following for the past two days, "There's a lake probably 200 miles in that direction, and then after that I can't tell without flying any further."
"Did you see any roofs or structures through the trees anywhere?"
"Not at all, but there is a strange little mountain that branches off from a larger one over in that direction," Once more Flurry pointed, her hoof aiming to the right of their previous direction of travel, "Are you tired enough to sleep right now?"
Cadance's head recoiled at the question, "I guess... why? That's an odd thing to ask."
"Because we should get some sleep while we can. There's a storm coming from behind us, and we should catch some Zs before it hits."
"That explains this wind. You're right, let's find a place to hunker down for a while. Trying to sleep while getting rained on doesn't sound all that exciting."
Departure from the artificially created clearing had been made, and what little light the evening sun gave had faded as night fell, the pitch black forest finally holding some life as the now strong winds rippled the grass and shook the canopy overhead. A densely grouped trio of trees had been discovered not far from the clearings, and with the logic that the forestation above might be thicker, the duo agreed such a place would be best for slumber, and; conveniently enough, there grew a patch of the short sweet grass within the relatively small area.
As the pair began settling down into their bedding, it became apparent the only real comfort that night would be in the form of grass. Normally the temperature was bearable enough for sleep, but the windchill brought an almost arctic feel to the woods. As Cadance's ears tuned in on the loud chatter coming from her daughter's jaw she scooted herself close to Flurry, lying back down to where her front leg rested across the younger Alicorn's chest. A spike of pain came from her wounded wing as the limb was extended as far as she could manage, the feathery mat draping across Flurry's curled figure.
"Doesn't t-that hurt your wing?" Chattered the younger Alicorn as she brought her own wing from under her mother's cover, re-furling the limb to where Cadance's wing firmly tucked beneath her daughter's.
"Is it helping k-keep you warm?"
"Yeah..."
"Then it's worth it."
Flurry's legs tucked further to her chest and stomach, the act bringing a smile to Cadance's expression.
"I'm surprised it's just drizzling. Those clouds were almost black; where's all the rain?" Inquired Flurry over the gusting thrashes of the leaves above as she peered through the clearing's break in the canopy, her face being lightly peppered by rain drops.
"Dunno, but I'm glad it's not here yet!"
Cadance stepped from beside her daughter, beginning off towards their stream, a beam from her horn showing the way through the black, storming woods. Flurry, her horn too casting light, trotted back to her mother's side, the two turning to walk downstream upon finding their landmark body of water. Awoken by the cold of the night and the many thunderclaps after a short slumber it was elected that they continue moving instead of attempting to sleep more; the more time spent on the move was less time spent within the forest. Normally simple movement had been enough to keep the pair's body temperatures up, but harsh winds and the extraordinarily frigid air brought by the storm combined to be horribly uncomfortable without fire or clothing. Flurry's head turned skywards as the patter of rain on the topmost layer of the canopy suddenly increased in volume, the sound almost overwhelmingly loud.
"That answers your question, Sweetie! There's the rain!" Cadance shouted.
"I wonder how much will actually make it down here to us! The canopy is as thick as the trunks are tall!"
"Oh, don't worry, Honey; I'm sure plenty will make it down here!"
From the base of the canopy, almost as if the leaves were their own form of cloud, gently poured the sheet of rain. With such terrible winds and horrid temperatures, one would be used to the next step being a stinging, whipping rain, but such was the exact opposite; the chilling water fell with a gentle patter, though in great quantity. The sensation was similar to standing under a shower nozzle; if not for being frozen to their cores, the pair would have agreed the feeling was quite soothing.
"I-I k-kind of like the way this sucks..." Flurry commented, her jaw chattering.
"You're t-too much like your f-father."
The beam cast from Flurry's horn bobbed through the forest as she flicked her head, her completely soaked mane throwing a visible spray as it moved from her face. Suddenly, Cadance's hoof came to her chest to pause her movements, her eyes and light focused at the topmost portion of a tree's trunk.
"When you f-flicked your hair... your horn highlighted something; I j-just saw a pair of eyes, right there." Her mother spoke over the rumble of the rain, Flurry's light searching the area around where Cadance's was focused.
"I d-didn't see anything... you're s-sure it was a pair of eyes?" Flurry responded cautiously.
"I'm sure. T-They were bright yellow... and big."
From behind the trunk of where their attention focused a little flutter of movement was seen, the hard flap of bat-like wings overpowering the crashing rain. Flurry darted from her mother's side, strafing to the right as she cast her light past the trunk's concealment, her eyes just barely catching an airborne figure bank out of sight behind a further tree; its shape seemed almost pony-like.
"I just saw it! It f-flew that way; past the trees!" Called Flurry as Cadance trotted over, casting her horn in the same direction.
"D-Did you see what it was?"
"No... but I'm not the only one t-that heard bat-wings when it flew, am I?"
"I heard that, t-too. Maybe it was one of t-those bats I saw earlier..."
"It wasn't; I caught a t-tiny glimpse of it as it p-passed behind one of the trees up there, it was large, about t-the size of a pony, I'd guess."
Cadance paced a little forward, looking through the trees as raindrops glittered and danced through her bright light, "We're certainly not alone..."
"Y-Yeah, we figured that out when w-we almost got eaten by tree monsters..." Flurry commented jokingly as she resumed marching forward, the now saturated, grassy ground giving a splash as her hooves impacted.
"T-Thank Celestia we haven't seen another one of t-those in a while!"
Cadance watched as Flurry tapped her hoof twice on a nearby tree trunk, looking over her shoulder at her mother, "Don't jinx it."
"You're right, I s-shouldn't have said that." Smiled Cadance as the two continued on.
The forest strobed pure white for a split second as a bolt of lightning cracked overhead, the thunderous boom ringing the pair's ears.
"This storm is getting a little out of hoof!" Shouted Flurry, her forward progression being somewhat slowed by the strong headwinds.
"You don't say?"
A second crack broke the air; though it held less rumble than the standard thunderclaps, and it seemed to have come from behind them off in the distance instead of from above.
"That was odd!" Cadance shouted as the two paused, looking over their shoulders in the direction the sound had come from.
"Sounded more like an explosion than lightning!"
The duo stood for a moment, their ears waiting for any follow-up noises to occur. The rain's beat and the leave's thrashing made things difficult to pick up, but Flurry was positive her ears had just heard the distinctive crack and pop of high-power spells being cast.
"That sounded a lot like magic." The young Alicorn said more to herself than to her mother as she turned back from which the duo had come.
"Where are you going!? We don't kn-"
Cadance's call fell short as the distinctive screeching scream of one of the tree creatures sounded, the call being followed by several rapid, angered shrieks. Flurry's hooves brought the pace to a steady gallop, Cadance shouting as she darted to try and reform with her hasteful daughter.
"Flurry!! Why are you going over there!?" She called, following the weaving path Flurry took through the maze of trunks.
"It's Dad! He's in trouble!!" Returned Flurry.
"You don't know that!! Flurry...!"
"Who else would be in this forest casting powerful magic?!"
More screeching calls rang from what sounded to be multiple creatures, the sounds instantly being followed by 3 rapid bursts of magic. Cadance pushed her legs to their limit as she failed to keep a pace with Flurry, her gallop now a full sprint towards the battle occurring in the forest beyond. Up ahead Cadance watched as Flurry's hooves dug into the soaked ground, her head turning skywards as her wings unfurled. As the mother finally approached she could see that their previously discovered clearing had been reached, Flurry turning to see Cadance approach.
"You are not going to fly in this kind of weather! There's no way it's even possible!!"
"It's possible for Dad!"
Cadance could only look on as Flurry's wings beat hard to launch her straight up, the Alicorn going in the vertical as fast as her body would allow. The rain went from a soft patter to a stinging pelt as the canopy was bypassed, her eyes squinting as her horn shined brighter to try and see through the sheets of pouring rain, the sheer amount falling bringing visibility to almost zero. Flurry pushed her way against the winds, her wings flapping fast and hard to keep her heading towards the cacophony of magic and screeches bursting through the canopy. An incredibly loud, crackling boom erupted through the trees, a flash of magenta light bursting through the canopy, Flurry looking on in shock as a significant chunk of the canopy a short distance ahead began shifting to the side. The intense cracking of branches sounded as one of the forest's trees fell, an opening appearing before Flurry as the tree came to the ground with a crash. With haste she pushed through the air, a creature's nearby shrill only giving cause for her to fly faster. Through the trees near where the opening had occurred bolted three pure pink beams of magic, their power cracking the air as they passed clean through the canopy, a pained cry coming from one of the creatures after assumedly being struck by the spell. Finally above the opening, Flurry's wings tucked to her side as she went into a pure dive, only opening her wings at the last moment to bring her to the forest floor.
"Dad!!"
No answer was heard through the rain and wind, Flurry casting her horn's light as she frantically searched what portion of the forest she could see. She began off through the trees in a random direction, her light searching high and low for anything.
"Dad!"
Finally, another voice rang out to her left, Flurry quickly changing her path to where she heard the male voice call from.
"Dad!? Where are you?!"
"Flurry!?!" Returned the voice, seeming to be a lot closer than before.
Flurry's steps froze as a white figure ran from behind one of the many trunks, the light of her horn highlighting the Stallion's blue mane as he looked to her with pure shock.
"D-Dad! You're here! I found you!!" Flurry cried as she broke into a gallop, her father doing the same as they met with a strong hug.
"Flurry, honey! I'm so happy you're okay! Where's your mother!? Or Twily... is she here?" Shining asked frantically, breaking the embrace, his hooves still placed at Flurry's shoulders.
"Twilight's not here, but Mom is!" Returned Flurry, her joyous tears being lost in the rain.
The two shared a look for a moment, Shining squeezing his daughter back into his chest, her breaths shuttering as she cried.
"Come on, Sweetheart; we need to get back to Mom. I scared off those three panther things, but I'm sure more are going to be here soon." Shining spoke as he and Flurry let go of each other.
"Wait... panther things!? You've seen them?" Exclaimed Flurry.
"Yeah, a lot more than I would have liked to. They're like huge Panthers; pure black, huge paws, really long puffy tails and the worst pair of fangs you could imagine."
Flurry looked around, the light from her horn being recast as she tried to figure out what direction she had come from.
"I think Mom is that way... but I'm not really sure! Stay here, I'm gonna fly above the canopy and try to see the other clearing!" Shouted Flurry as her wings spread fully, the flap of her feathers filling the air as she rose from the forest floor.
Her wing's joints gave a faint ache of fatigue as she finally surfaced from the thick canopy layer, her eyes darting around as she searched for the gap. A bolt of lightning split the nearby sky with a wonderfully bright flash, the split second of contrast perfectly highlighting a formation of three airborne pony-like figures; whoever they were, they were heading right for her. Flurry's eyes widened, her breath catching in her chest upon seeing the figures; through the rain, she could hear a series of three high-pitched squeaks, the sounds being very close to a bat's call. Just as she made the move to dive for the canopy, her eyes caught a glimpse of the formation as they finally came close enough to be somewhat seen through the sheets of rain. A shout came from one of the figures in the formation as she dived out of sight, wings deploying only seconds before she hit the forest floor with a splash.
"Run! We've got company!" Flurry shouted, bolting in the direction she hoped had been where she originated from.
"What do you mean!? Who's coming?!"
"No clue! I saw three of them through the rain, and they're coming right for us!"
As the pair sprinted through the dense trees, a male voice called out, Flurry unable to tell if the pursuing creatures were simply speaking another language or if his speech was simply unintelligible through the cacophony created by the storm.
"You're sure this is the way Mom is!?" Shining shouted, following close behind Flurry as her horn lit the way through the maze of trees.
"I think so! All I've got to do is find our stream, then we're good!"
Another shout sounded through the trees, the call's seemingly close distance causing Flurry to quickly peek over her shoulder, aiming the light from her horn through the trees. Her attention snapped back forward to avoid colliding with anything, her horn's glow showing that the stream, which now ran at twice its normal depth, lay directly ahead, their angle of approach being almost parallel with the body of water.
"Dad, hide in the stream!!" Flurry shouted, banking as she rapidly turned towards the stream.
Shining complied, flipping himself around as he splashed into the two-foot deep water, the forest beyond going completely dark as Flurry's cast glow was silenced, the duo holding their heads low to make their profiles as small as possible, ice-cold water washing against their already frigid figures. The moment their movements fell silent the flap of large bat-like wings moved past the two, the creature emitting the same squeaking chirp Flurry had heard previously. Their ears listened intently as the flap seemed to halt; the figure clearly hovering in the air a short distance from the two. A strobe of blinding white lightning highlighted the pony-like figure for a mere second, Flurry having just enough time to see that the dark gray creature's wings were indeed like a bat's, its deep orange eyes seeming to look right at them. Her breath caught in her chest, the seconds slowly ticking by as the creature's wings continued to hold a steady hover.
"Jestem mily!" Shouted the bat-like pony, the impact of its hooves on the ground being heard as the flap of its wings ceased.
"Do you think that thing is friendly?" Flurry spoke, her head craning towards her Father so her voice could be kept low.
"If it wanted to hurt us, it would have."
With much hesitation, Flurry's horn came to life, a wide cone of light being cast as the previously unseen creature came to light, the gray bat-pony's slit pupil eyes peering directly at the duo. Something Flurry had not noticed previously was the creature's completely soaked clothing and the weapon slung to his side; he wore a midnight blue coat with four large pockets down his chest, and at his haunches sat a black saddlebag, the dual-pouched item having a special strapping system to keep it firmly fixed during any sort of maneuver. His oddly shaped weapon seemed to be a combination of a spear and a staff; at the weapon's front was a fairly long blade, but the length of the weapon was a combination of wood and steel, the steel portion being inlay with the wood.
"Do you speak Equestrian?!" Shining called, his figure straightening from his previous slouch.
"Nitzcheska?" Returned the bat-pony, two large fangs hanging from his top row of teeth catching Flurry's eye.
"Hello...! I'm... uh, I'm Flurry Heart!" Flurry spoke, tapping her chest with a hoof.
The bat-pony's head cocked, the previous slightly shocked expression he held turning to one of curiosity, "F...Flurry Heart?" He inquired.
Her hoof tapped at her chest once more, "Flurry Heart!" The same hoof moved over to her father, who's figure was highlighted by her horn, "Shining Armor!"
Upon having the young Alicorn's light moved back to his own figure, the bat-pony nodded, tapping his own chest with his mud-caked hoof, "Mennika."
Flurry and Shining shared a quick look as they stood from their watery hiding place, stepping up onto the stream's edge. The bat-pony's head suddenly rotated to look behind him, his large, fluff-tipped ears focusing on a short, very high-pitched screech, one Flurry and Shining assumed to be from the other two that had accompanied Mennika, as he had called himself. The creature's maw fell open, his head angling skywards as he made a similar sound, the piercingly loud screech causing Flurry and Shining to wince.
"Oh my goodness, I completely forgot I was supposed to be finding Mom! Stay here with these weird bat-pony guys, I'll be right back! She's nearby!"
"Uh-ah... Flurry, wait!" Shining shouted in return as his daughter darted from his side, the forest before her lighting up as she followed the body of water downstream.
Only a little more running brought Flurry to the clearing, her eyes scanning the area as she tried to spot her mother, who would most likely be hiding somewhere.
"Mom! Where are you!?"
"Right here, Sweetie! Did you find Shining!? Please tell me you found him!" Cadance's voice returned as she quickly stood from behind one of the stumps in the area, trotting towards Flurry.
"I did! I found Dad... and some other ponies! They're upstream, come on!"
"Oh, thank Celestia! Wait... what!? You found other ponies!?" Exclaimed Cadance as she ran at Flurry's side.
"They aren't exactly ponies... you'll see when we get there!"
Cadance held her silence, her mind wandering as she tried to imagine exactly what Flurry meant. Up ahead through the dense forest and sheets of rain Cadance's eyes caught a glimpse of a white figure, his features highlighted by the radial glow being produced by his horn. Cadance's heart rose in her chest, a bright grin coming to her expression as she and Flurry rounded the last few trees, Shining turning to see Cadance galloping right at him.
"Cadance!!"
"Shining! You're okay!!"
The two collided with a loving hug, Cadance instantly taking her husband's lips in a long kiss. With a smooch, the two separated, simply gazing at each other for a moment.
"I can't believe you're here! I... I was sure I'd never see you again!!" Cried Cadance as she buried her face into Shining's neck, the Stallion embracing her tightly.
"I can say the same, Honey. You have no idea how happy I am to see the two of you!"
Flurry, who had been standing off to the side, looked up from her parents to the now three bat-ponies, the identically dressed and armed trio of comrades simply looking on at the reunion. Flurry's hoof aimed in her parent's direction, her magic being used to create a pink, translucent heart, the action causing the trio to nod. Finally, the pair's embrace was broken, Cadance turning to see the three creatures looking on at her and Shining.
"So... you ended up finding... these?" Asked Cadance, she and Shining bringing themselves to their hooves.
"Technically they found us." Commented Shining.
The sounds of heavy rain took over the conversation as words went quiet, the two trios sharing a perplexed look as each party tried figuring out what the next step would be.
"This isn't how I thought the night would turn out." Cadance Commented.
"They don't speak Equestrian... so how do we tell them that we need shelter?" Flurry added.
Cadance's hoof tapped her chin, her sight falling to the ground as she thought.
"Iris," Mennika spoke, his hoof tapping the creature to his left, his drenched, aqua blue mane falling to the side of his face, "Speck," The same hoof motioned towards his rightmost comrade, the much shorter, white-maned bat-pony giving a little smile to the trio, "Nitzche", his hoof tapped to his own chest and to the creatures at his sides.
"Pony," Cadance returned, simply moving a hoof side to side.
The trio of bat-ponies gave the Alicorn a surprised expression as they took a step closer, their large eyes investigating her and Flurry's figure.
"Poniska..." Iris stated, turning to his comrades as he informed them of something in their native tongue.
Cadance looked on curiously as the middle bat-pony traced a half circle in the grass with a hoof, stamping the symbol upon creating it as he exclaimed "Lunaz Gritza!".
A faint, pure white aurora of magic encompassed the button at one of his coat pockets as a wonderfully ornate, steel blue compass was brought forth and floated to Cadance, who had taken note that, despite his lack of horn, could manipulate magic. Mennika stepped forward, tapping his hoof to the S of the compass, which pointed behind them.
"Nazomova." He spoke, his own magic ceasing as Cadance took the compass for herself, the glass face of the ornate object spotted by drops of rain.
"House? We need shelter." Returned Cadance, her magic being used to create a simple, flat image of a house.
"Jes, Jes, 'house'! Wiele domóv!" Mennika explained, his hooves stretching outwards, Cadance somewhat understanding his motions meant 'lots of houses'.
"You think he's pointing us towards a town?" Shining asked, looking at the compass.
"Town?" Inquired Cadance to the creature before her, a spell creating a small group of many houses.
"'Town', miasto." Nodded Mennika.
"I think that's a yes."
Once more, the bat-pony's hoof came up and tapped at the S, speaking a few words in his language as he pointed behind the trio, signifying to follow the compass. Cadance gave a nod in response, looking to her chest as the genial creature traced a crescent in her soaking fur with his hoof, doing the same as he had done in with the grass and gently pressed his muddy hoof to the center of the symbol, leaving a dirty spot on her chest.
"Lunaz Gritza, Poniska."
The confused trio watched as Mennika stepped back with his two comrades, their large membranous wings spreading as they took flight, the creature by the name of Iris hovering before them for a moment as he aimed his hoof in the same direction Mennika had, "Nazomova!", He called, turning and exiting the view of the trio as he followed his group back through the winding maze of trees.
"Looks like we found our 'friendly group'," Flurry spoke after a moment.
The constant heavy pour of rain had slowed to a drizzle, every other drop making it through the leaves above. Huddled around a now roaring fire sat the trio of cold, misplaced Equestrians, their collective gaze resting upon the dancing flames and embers as they rose into the forest.
"Lunaz Gritza..." Flurry commented quietly, her words causing her parents, who she sat between, to divert their attention to the young Alicorn.
"Trying to figure out what they were telling us?" Cadance inquired.
"Yeah... Lunaz Gritza. He said it after giving you that compass, and he said it after the other bat-guy spoke... is it some kind of blessing?"
"That was my guess, especially since he made that little symbol both times." Injected Shining.
Upon mention of her gifted compass, Cadance brought the tool from under her furled wing with a spell, gazing at its needle as it eventually pointed in between the N and the W.
"The one named Mennika, I'm pretty sure he told us to follow the compass south... but he kept saying 'Nazomova'. Is that what south means in their language, or is it something else?"
"Maybe it's the name of their town?" Flurry suggested with a shrug.
"Better question is, do we follow their directions and go where they want us to?" Shining asked, his eyes still gazing into the warming fire.
"We don't have much of a choice. We need shelter, from the rain and from the tree panthers."
Shining gave a somewhat joking scoff at Cadance's mention of the creatures, "With all three of us in one place, we could easily hold off 10 of the things! I alone scared off three of 'em." He gloated, cocky about his success.
"Yeah, but we can't fend off freezing rain and hypothermia. That, and I need to get a piece of paper and a pen so we can contact Twilight or Celestia and figure out why in the world we're in this horrible forest."
"I hope Twily's okay... if you're right, and you did bring us into this forest to run from something, then whatever's going on at home can't be good." Returned Shining.
"Twilight can hold her own... I'm sure she's looking for us right now."
The crackle of the fire took over as the dominant sound as each Pony fell silent, Flurry's aurora coming to life as her spells brought another log to the fire, a small pile of spares being left over from the excessive amount of fallen branches the trio had magically cut down to a reasonable size. Flurry let out a long yawn as her back curved in a stretch, the still damp wings furled at her back giving a little flutter.
"Tired?" Shining asked with a little smile, feeling quite worn out himself.
"Oh yeah..." Flurry's front legs slid along the grass in front of her as she continued stretching, "Running around trying to rally the two of you was pretty exhausting."
"This entire night has been exhausting. I'm ready to get some sleep, as well. We've been awake for far too long," Cadance commented as she looked at the no longer drizzling canopy above, "At least it's not raining anymore."
Cadance turned as her daughter stood from her position between herself and Shining, "You two can do whatever for the rest of the night, but I'm going to sleep."
"Cadance, if you're tired too then go find a place to lie down. I'll stay up and keep the fire going." Explained Shining.
"You're not going to bed, dear?"
"Somepony's gotta stay up and keep watch."
Cadance smiled to her partner, scooting across the short gap Flurry had left as she nuzzled herself against Shining. After a short kiss, the Alicorn moved from her sitting position to lay down at Shining's side, her back resting against him. A short grunt of pain was let out as her injured left wing unfurled slowly to drape across her curled up legs.
"How's that wing doing? Earlier you said it was still hurting pretty badly." Shining asked, his hoof gently petting the feathered limb.
"Better than when I first woke up," Cadance's mouth opened wide as she let out a loud yawn, "I'm sure within the next few days I'll be able to fly again."
With her eyes closed, the warmth of the fire and the comfort of Shining's presence calmed her normally wandering mind, a little smile working its way onto her expression.
"I love you, dear." She spoke quietly.
"Love you, too, Cadance."
Cadance and Shining looked on in anticipation as Flurry made her descent from the opening in the trees above, her hooves gently pressing into the still damp grass as she touched down. Celestia's midday sun poured in through the opening, something the group had been relishing in for the past few minutes since the clearing's discovery, which was identical in its method of creation to the previous clearing discovered hours ago.
"Well, did you see anything?" Inquired Shining intently.
"Nothing, not a single house or building. The only thing in that direction is a huge, very impassable mountain range. Whatever place that compass is supposed to take us, it's either on the other side of that mountain or it's concealed under the canopy."
Cadance, who's eyes rested upon the ornate compass within her magic, hummed in thought, "What's the plan if we can't find this supposed town? Those three bat-ponies seemed fairly eager for us to follow their directions." She elaborated, electing to use their colloquial term 'bat-pony' in place of the group's self-given name.
"Bat-pony... that's still such a jarring thing to say." Shining added.
Flurry Heart, who had brought a leaf from the canopy above with a spell while the other members of her party were occupied, gave a short laugh, "I had some pretty crazy theories on what we'd find in this forest, but never did I think hybrid bat-ponies would be it." She commented, taking a large gnaw from the moist leaf core upon shearing it free from its large pedal.
Cadance began off in the direction the compass aimed, Shining following at her side while Flurry, still hungrily consuming her leafen meal, headed the pack; as she had already been up front, "I had no clue there were ponies outside of Equestria. Is it possible that they're some kind of lost fourth tribe?"
"It's very possible. They look exactly like Princess Luna's Guard... minus the fangs."
Cadance gasped in remembrance, "You're right! I completely forgot about the Night Guards! I wonder if Princess Luna has some sort of connection with them..."
"When we get there, we'll have to ask them." Flurry called over her shoulder, the young Alicorn's words slurring as she chewed.
"They may have already told us. 'Lunaz Gritza'. Can you think of a word that sounds similar to 'Lunaz'?" Cadance inquired.
"Is it 'Celestia'?" Returned Flurry, smiling over her shoulder.
Cadance groaned tiredly as she and her family walked, "I hope we find this place soon, my legs are killing me."
For a full day now the group had moved in the compass's directions, and for around 5 hours since their last slumber had they walked. The sun's noon position gave the forest floor little light and little warmth, but these things had become the norm by this point. The chilly air caused no qualms with any of the group; so much movement for such a long time only made the cold seem pleasant.
"It couldn't be that far away. Those three bat-ponies who found us couldn't have been far from their home." Commented Shining Armor.
"Maybe we passed it?" Flurry Heart suggested from behind the group.
"He never said to go any other direction but South..."
The compass held by Cadance's furled wing came free, the tool being brought to her sight by the Alicorn's pink aura as she simply stared at the tool.
"Flurry, when you flew above the canopy yesterday, how far off was that mountain range?"
The daughter tilted her head back, mouth opening a little as she thought, "I'd guess... maybe 5 miles? It was close, I can say that for certain."
"We've been walking for so long, I bet we're getting close to it." Returned Cadance.
"I can still make a clearing in the trees above and check!"
Flurry was prepared for her mother's retaliation, but only a pause of silence came.
"The only reason we weren't doing that before was to keep our presence hidden; the bat-ponies that live somewhere in these woods know we're here, and the tree Panthers know."
There came another pause, Cadance looking to her husband, "Whaddya think?"
"I say go right ahead."
A beaming smile burst to Flurry's expression, her front hooves bouncing, "Really!?"
"Yes," Cadance rolled her eyes, "Go right ahead. Just don't be too... flamboyant."
Flurry spun on her hooves, her wings carrying her a short distance from the grassy ground as her horn came to life, the area being highlighted for a split second with a nearly blinding pink hue, a beam of magic tracing a perfect circle in the canopy overhead. Leaves and branches simply fell from their previous place, Flurry's wings pulling her back as a cascade of perfectly cut limbs fell with a thud, a gentle shower of large, round leaves following. The young Alicorn turned, smiling to her parents as she darted skywards, the two grounded ponies squinting from the beam of sunlight.
"You taught her well."
Cadance gave a short laugh at Shining's comment, "You were the one that made her want to blow up trees. She's been talking about it since we got here."
"We're getting super close! The base of the mountain isn't far off!" Called Flurry's distant voice.
"See anything else up there!?" Cadance returned.
"No! I'm gonna go up higher to get a better view!!"
Upon sitting to his haunches, Shining Armor groaned, "I hope she finds something. If it turns out this place is on the other side of this supposedly huge mountain we'll just stop and live here."
"I can agree to that."
Cadance joined her husband in resting, the warm sunlight provided by Flurry's spell feeling wonderful on the pair's cold fur.
"How are we ever going to get home, Shining?"
"I don't know... but if we got into this mess, we can get out."
The attention went from the conversation to Flurry as she returned through the canopy, her expression still holding a bright smile, "The town! It's at the base of the mountains! I can see a single building poking up through the trees, and the canopy looks a lot thinner around it!" She chimed, trotting to her parents.
"So we're close? It's not on the other side?" Inquired Shining as he and Cadance got to their hooves.
"Yeah! Real close! Maybe another hour of walking!"
Cadance groaned once more, "Another hour? That's not close!"
"If you two are so worn out we can rest for a while..."
Both parents fell back to their haunches, sighing in relief, "Yeah, we're resting for a while." Shining returned.
Having dozed off where she lay in the sunbeam, Cadance left her husband and daughter to their own devices, the two sitting a short distance from the sleeping Alicorn as they quietly conversed.
"....what is the very last thing you can remember? Mom said the last thing she could remember was it being November and the last thing I can remember was it being December..."
Shining's hoof tapped at the grass, his eyes wandering, "I... oh, goodness... the very last thing I remember was having lunch with you and your Mother... but I have no idea what day that was, or what month."
"Do you remember snow?"
"Being on the ground? Yes."
"I do too. There's snow on these mountains, but there's nothing on the trees... so I think we've lost quite a bit of memory."
"Do you remember Hearth's Warming? I don't."
Flurry nodded, "I do, yeah. I remember a little bit after Hearths warming..."
"So Mom's memory is the worst off, and yours is the best off... makes sense, she was the one to teleport us."
"I've never heard of a teleportation spell causing memory loss, though; that's what's so strange about this. Something else had to have happened, maybe before we were teleported, or maybe the spell had some sort of hiccup."
Shining sighed, rolling from his haunches to his back as he relaxed further, "All we can do for now is guess."
"I kind of don't want to find out what caused all of this..." Commented Flurry after a moment.
"I... sort of agree, but I need to know Twily is okay."
"Twilight is the strongest pony I've ever met, so I'm sure she's fine. She's probably more worried about you than you are about her."
Shining smiled, "She probably is. Twilight's never been the kind of pony to worry around. I bet she's working some sort of crazy spell to try and find us."
"With Starlight Glimmer's help, they'll probably end up teleporting in front of us in a few days."
"You're probably right," Chuckled Shining, "Place your bets; how long until they do teleport to us?"
Flurry's ears fell flat, her hoof tapping at the grass, "A week. I'll say a week. Give or take a day."
"That's pretty short. Honestly; I'm going to say two weeks. Those two are good, but I think we're pretty far from Equestria."
"They probably have their own problems, as well. At least the sun and moon are moving; so we know that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are alright."
"For what we know, they're alright. The hoof-ball is at any side of the field at this point... but you're probably right. I can't imagine anything bad happening to the Princesses."
"What if something bad has happened to them," Flurry paused, her tongue catching as she almost mentioned Twilight being involved in something horrible. Maybe it was best to keep silent on that topic.
"It'd take a lot more than that to make your Mom run like she did."
Flurry's head cocked, curiosity spiking as to what theories her father may have, "Like?"
"Maybe Twily was visiting and performed some spell that accidentally made another one of you. By Celestia's name, I know I'd run!"
Flurry smacked her father's side, the two sharing a grin, "She'd run if Twilight made another you! Then there'd be two snoring ponies taking up all of she sheets."
"I do not snore!" Protested Shining, "And I don't take up all of the sheets! If anything, your Mother is the sheet-thief."
"Why don't you just get some larger sheets?"
"Honey, they could weave us sheets that stretched ten miles in each direction and we'd still find a way to pull them all to one side of the bed."
"You could use two sheets."
Shining froze, his eyes simply locking forward, "You're right... how did I never think of that?"
"I may take sheets, but you do snore a lot."
Flurry and Shining peered to Cadance as she lifted her head from the grass, smiling to the two.
"Good... noon," Shining spoke as he looked to the sun above, "Have a nice nap, Honey?"
Still smiling, Cadance nodded, yawning as she rolled to her belly and stretched her wings.
"I heard. When we get out of this mess, I'll certainly have the Castle's seamers sew us a pair of sheets."
"Has it really been a 'mess'?" Flurry inquired, "So far we've been doing great."
After hearing her daughter's words, Shining stood from the grass and stepped to one of the many large trunks nearby, tapping his hoof at the rough bark, "Don't jinx it."
"I was just about to comment on that! She yelled at me yesterday for jinxing us on the tree panthers."
"Is that why three of those things came after me?" Chuckled Shining as he walked back to the group, sitting beside Flurry, "Because you said something like 'good thing we haven't seen any in a while!'" He imitated, raising the pitch of his voice.
Flurry's head went back in laughter, "That's exactly what she said! Good job, Mom; you made Dad almost get eaten by panthers!"
"Yeah, well the next thing that happens, we get to blame it on you!" Cadance smiled in rebuttal.
"Poniska."
Each member of the trio looked to the right, their eyes landing in a single Nitzche standing a short distance from the beam of sunlight, his eyes concealed by a pair of heavily tinted goggles.
"Mennika!" He spoke once more, tapping his chest.
"Oh! Uh... hello Mennika. Good to see you again." Stumbled Flurry, she and her parents still a little stunned from his appearance.
"Nazomova?" He questioned, aiming his hoof South.
Flurry nodded.
After cocking his head, Mennika pointed to Flurry and Cadance, then to his own wings, giving them a quick flap, "Skrzydełka... dlaczego nie lecisz?"
A confused look came to each of the Alicorn's expression, a few moments passing before Flurry gasped, "He doesn't get why we don't fly!"
"Oh! Uh..." Cadance held her injured wing out, purposefully cranking it to give it a wounded appearance, "Hurt." She explained.
Mennika's brow raised, his mouth forming an O, "Poniska, zostak, zostak!" He exclaimed waving both front hooves towards them as his wings spread, his figure turning as he quickly flew into the forest behind him, a few echoing, bat-like calls following his departure.
"I think he wants us to stay here." Flurry commented after a moment.
"How did he find us again, and how long had he been standing there?" Cadance asked, still a little dazed from Mennika's sudden appearance.
"Do you think they're following us?" Thought Shining.
"They must be... but why?"
"Maybe they want to make sure we make it to their town?" Shrugged Flurry.
"But... why would they be so keen on us making it there? When we first saw them, Mennika and his friend, they looked at you and me specifically, Flurry. I swear I could see them looking at our horns and wings... they know something we don't."
The flap of multiple wings became audible through the trees, moments later Mennika and his two comrades, Iris and Speck, who too wore pairs of tinted goggles, landing a short distance from the beam of light created by Flurry. Mennika turned to his leftmost comrade, who the trio recognized as Iris by his mane color, stretching out his wing as he explained something to the other in his native tongue, a hoof aiming at Cadance after speaking. Iris nodded, turning to take a step towards Cadance before pausing just at the sunbeam's fringe.
"Poniska, chzod," Iris spoke, motioning with a hoof for her to follow.
"I think they don't like sun," Cadance stated as she complied, Flurry and Shining following her from the beam back into the shades provided by the canopy above.
"Are they vampires? They do have fangs..." Thought Flurry, sitting with her father at the base of a tree as Cadance lay to her stomach, holding her injured wing out for Iris to inspect.
"Honey, I don't think they're vampires." Smiled Shining.
The two turned their attention up as Iris spoke to Mennika, he and Speck standing a short distance to the side. Mennika shrugged at his words, causing Iris to turn to Cadance as he stumbled with his words, clearly trying to devise a way to communicate. After a moment of silence, he held out his own wing, pushing at the membranous limb with a hoof as he made a crunching sound with his tongue, raising a brow as he wondered if the point had made it across.
"Ooh! No, it's not broken... uh," Cadance's horn came to life as her magic crafted the image of a tree, a pony figure too being created as she showed the little figure impact the tree, her horn ceasing its glow upon Iris nodding. A faint white aura of magic surrounded the latch at one of his saddlebags, the little spell being barely visible in the somewhat bright forest. Upon opening his bag, he brought forth a roll of bandages and a wooden dowel, his hoof lifting Cadance's wing as he began creating a splint to hold the limb in a certain position.
"They don't have horns... how are they using magic?" Shining asked, turning to Flurry.
"No clue."
The pair took notice as the dowel held by the strange white aura fell from its holding force, Iris groaning as his spell slowly lifted the stick from the grass to place it back where he wanted, his tongue poking from the corner of his mouth as the roll of bandages began to secure the splint to Cadance's oddly angled wing. Satisfied with the many wraps he had completed, Iris turned back to his bag as he took a stainless steel pair of shears from inside, the object seeming to have a lot of weight as he slowly moved it to the cloth bandage.
As the shears began closing, the spell holding them fell away, causing Iris to sigh as he looked up at Mennika, saying something to his comrade as his faint aura retook the shears. The aura grew in strength, the weight of the object seeming to lessen as Mennika helped his comrade cut the bandage. With the shears moved back into his bag, Iris fixed the loose end of bandage down by tucking it beneath the other wraps, his hoof coming from the ground as he traced a crescent on the bandage, lightly placing his hoof at the symbol's center.
"Lunaz Gritza, Flurry Heart." He stated with a smile, patting his hoof upon Cadance's wing as he looked up to her.
"Iris, jest to Flurry Heart," Mennika informed, pointing to Flurry, "ze jest Cadance." His hoof then directed to the Alicorn before Iris.
"Oh."
"We do look alike..." Cadance commented as she stood up, looking at her wing.
"Litchdo Lunaz bedzie pomoc skrzydlo, Cadance Poniska." Iris spoke with a smile as he and his two comrades spread their wings, lifting only a short distance before beginning off through the forest.
"What'd he say?" Flurry asked, looking on past the trees at the departing Nitzche.
"You're asking the wrong pony..."
What seemed to have been an hour's time had passed since the family had encountered their Nitzche friends; and for that matter, it had been an hour since Flurry had so excitedly stated 'we're getting close!'. The terrain had at first taken a slight incline, but now the hillside the trio traversed upwards had taken quite the grade. If one was to travel up such a slope for a few minutes, it wouldn't be too horrible, but seeing as the slope had continued on for much longer than a few minutes, fatigue was setting in.
"You said we were close..." Shining commented tiredly.
"I know... I know; it looked close from the air. But... we've got to be getting closer now; we're on a hill! That one building I could see was on a slope, as were the thinner trees... so we've got to be..." Flurry paused as her eyes caught a tiny glimpse of something through the gaps in the thick forest, a little more walking confirming her suspicions of sighting a structure, "right on top of it."
"Oh, thank Celestia! We finally made it!" Exclaimed Cadance as her pace quickened, a few more small homes revealing themselves through the forest, their sloped, stone-tiled roofs short enough to remain totally under the still fully birthed canopy.
The trio paused at a small clearing of trees as they looked on at the homes visible in their general area. In between each little, fairly decorative and elaborately architecturally designed home was one of the huge canopy-bearing trees, their frequency being enough to fully preserve the darkness of the forest floor. Walking in between a buttoned-up house and a tree the duo found a winding stone path that continued up the slope of the hill, houses branching from it with their own little walkways as it went up. Each house was unique; no two seemed to be the same, but they all followed similar design features.
Sloped roofs, thick stone foundations, wood and stone construction (the stone being used only in structural places to act as buttresses), arched doorways and painted navy blue highlights, many of these highlights being on the wooden shutters that sealed every one of the home's windows, the doors, crown moldings and various other locations; it gave a nice contrast. The little winding path was followed up further into the little, perfectly quiet town. Not a single home went without its shutters being closed; the trio could only guess that everypony was asleep.
"It's so quiet..." Flurry commented quietly, the only sounds in the air being her and her parent's hoofsteps on the stone path.
"I guess the bat-ponies are nocturnal... this place can't be abandoned." Returned Shining.
"All of these houses are so pretty... and quaint. We never would have found this place if you two hadn't run into Mennika and his pals."
"I'm glad we did; at least we can find a place to settle down for a while. Mennika had been so nice to us, I can only assume that everypony else here knows we're coming."
Flurry gave a chuckle at her father's response, "I sure hope so."
Continuing up the path lead the group to an intersection, a wider path running adjacent to theirs giving them pause. A quick glance in either direction showed that the new path only went straight for a little way before curving out of view, the homes only continuing for a little bit in each direction. Rolling her shoulders, Flurry continued on forward, her parents trailing a little behind as they walked.
"This town doesn't seem to be all that large," Cadance commented as her eyes wandered across the little homes as they went on; some now being two stories, but despite that their taller roofs still tucked snuggly beneath the concealment of the canopy without being remotely close to contacting the bottom branches.
"From the air, it didn't look too big. I could only see one building through the trees, and it seemed to be right at the base of the mountain. That must be where the town center or town hall is."
"Uh... guys, look up."
Cadance and Flurry followed Shining's directions, their eyes moving up to be met with the sight of many sleeping bats dotting the bottom branches of the canopy, the bats being snuggly packed in little groups with their wings tucked around their individual figures.
"I see the bat-ponies like being with their own kind..." Flurry commented quietly as her eyes wandered to find the same case with many other branches and the occasional corner of a home's roof.
"Let's keep a little quieter than we've been, I'd prefer not to wake them all up." Returned Cadance, following Flurry as she continuing up the stone path.
Only a few more homes past before the path leveled out and widened, each side of the path being flanked by a pair of fairly large, three-story buildings. The left-most structure was a fairly simple stone and brick building, its tall, sloped roof just barely scrapping the canopy, which had grown outward over time to mostly compensate for the structure's intervention of the forest. The front of the building had a single door entrance with a little porch, lining each of the three floors in fairly spaced intervals were wood-framed, 6-pane windows, each one lacking the shutters the homes did.
Each corner of the building had a round, fluted stone column that went from the stone foundation to the roof, the pillars also acting as a nice decorative touch for the rest of the fairly plain building. In very stark contrast, the right building was an elegantly crafted wooden and stone structure; it followed the theme of the many little homes of having a wonderfully unique design. From the building's arched double doors covered by a beautifully elaborate, pointed porch extended the front face of the structure, each side having 4 huge, multi-paned arched windows that spread across all three floors of the building.
The left side of the building became shorter by a story, jutting out at a 90-degree angle and taking a similar window formation of the adjacent structure; simple, square windows in intervals on each floor. The right side of the structure was a little stranger than its fairly contemporary opposite. It stood a full three stories, but it was not square as the rest of the structure was; the outcropping was an octagonally shaped citadel, each of its blue-painted faces being adorned with what was basically a smaller version of the eight large, arched windows at the building's front face.
The citadel finished with a circular, pointed roof, each corner of the octagon being capped with a stone pillar to help hold the wooden and stone structure steady. As the trio approached this building, Flurry's eyes were caught by the engraved and etched stone arch making up the doorway; it had an inscription.
Lunaz Lekkti Może Obdarzyć Szczęścia I Pokoju
"What do ya think that means?" Flurry inquired in a hushed tone as she aimed her hoof to the inscription.
"I... have no clue, but it says 'Lunaz'. I'm starting to notice a theme of 'Luna' related things." Commented Cadance as they continued on past the structure.
As the path continued, it once more gained an incline; a much more steep incline than before.
"You know, I just noticed something..." Flurry spoke as she looked over her shoulder, not to her parents but the path the trio had traveled.
Cadance raised a brow, "And that is...?"
"There aren't any street lamps... anywhere. I didn't see any torches or lamps on the outside of the homes or those two buildings we passed. This place must just be pitch black at night."
"Makes sense; when we last saw Mennika he and his two friends were wearing those dark goggles, the bat-ponies are certainly nocturnal, so I bet their eyes don't have much of a taste of bright lights."
The heavily inclined path made a heavy turn to the right, and as the trio continued to follow the trail up the hill, a strange, arched stone tunnel became visible. The tunnel went directly into the mountain, no light coming from the cavern it led to.
"Should we go in there?" Flurry asked, stopping a little before the entrance as she peered into the darkness.
"Whoa! Uh... should we ask him?!" Exclaimed Shining from behind Cadance and Flurry, the two turning quickly to see a single Nitzche sleeping as a bat would, his tail wrapped around the bottommost branch of a large tree at the edge of the walkway, his wings wrapped around his figure somewhat concealing the blue coat and black saddlebags he wore. His shut eyes were concealed from the light of the day by the same pair of heavily tinted goggles Mennika and his friends wore. Flurry for a moment thought this Nitzche was Mennika, but his mane and tail were a light gray, Mennika's had been a blue that nearly matched his jacket.
"Uh... should we wake him up and ask for, directions?" Cadance asked in a low voice.
"I guess... we can't wander around forever."
"How do we wake him up? Should we just... talk to him until he gets up?" Shining thought.
"Excuse me!" Shouted Flurry, her words not bringing a single reaction from the Nitzche stallion.
"Lunaz Grtiza?! She shouted once more, stepping to where she was almost directly under him.
"Nitzche!!"
The stallion's wings fluttered a little.
"Lunaz Gritza, Nitzche!!"
It had been hard to tell, but his eyes finally came open, his head turning down to look at Flurry.
"Oh, Poniska...?" He asked tiredly, his wings unfurling from his figure as they stretched with his back and front legs.
"Hello! Hi, can you maybe show us around?"
The Nitzche stallion mumbled some things in his own tongue as his tail released the branch, his wings lazily carrying him to the ground as he stood before Flurry.
"Witamy, Poniska..." He greeted groggily, surprising Flurry as he nuzzled his head into her neck, stepping to her parents and doing the same with them.
"Chzod, Poniska."
The trio watched curiously as the Nitzche stallion stepped from the group and began down the path which they had come, his steps heavy and head hung low.
"Poor thing, I feel bad for having to wake him up." Cadance lamented as she and her family began after the stallion.
"What was up with that little nuzzle he gave us? Is that some kind of greeting?" Shining injected.
"I guess so, but it was really cute!" Chimed Flurry, "His fur was so soft! What a sweet little greeting."
Cadance and Shining shared a look before peering to Flurry, their expressions holding cheezy grins, "Did Flurry just find her first love?" Taunted Cadance.
"Oh, give me a break! We're not even the same species!"
"Yeah, but he is pretty cute!" Cadance chimed, her words causing Flurry to blush.
"I said the greeting was cute, not him!"
The parents shared a laugh at Flurry's whining, "If you insist, Sweetheart!" Shining commented, his words bringing a groan from Flurry.
The attention was pulled from the conversation as the Nitzche turned down the path towards the beautifully ornate building they had passed, his hoof pushing open one of the two doors and his faint white aura sliding his goggles from his eyes to around his neck as he walked inside the fairly dark, expansive space, Flurry and her parents following.
Much to their surprise, the building was a library; an amazing one, at that. The floor was occupied by many groups of short tables, carpets, extinguished candles and little square pillows for sitting. The three-tier bookshelves and walkways began at the far end of the building's front and wrapped all the way around, every single shelf being filled with many different types of literature. In between each of the wide, tall shelves rested a fairly sized stone pillar, each of the pillars stretching from the floor to the base of the wooden rafters of the convex ceiling.
Every other rafter had a large, chrome chandelier hanging from it; the many candles of each figure currently extinguished, meaning the only light was given by the dim contrast that made its way through the trees outside. It had taken a moment to notice, but the trio realized Flurry's earlier-spoken words of "the bat-ponies like being with their own kind" held more truth than originally thought. Hung from the level, thick rafters which supported the chandeliers were a fair number of slumbering bats; many sleeping in groups of 4 to 5, spread randomly across the large wooden beams.
"This keeps getting weirder and weirder..." Cadance spoke quietly.
"Wysoka?!" Shouted the stallion Nitzche as he opened a door to the far left of the building; said door leading to the shorter out-cropping of the building.
Shining looked over to Cadance, "Who's Wysoka?"
"Dunno, but we just found our answer to the question of whether they have a connection to Princess Luna or not; look!"
Shining and Cadance flipped around to see that above the door hung a huge mural painting framed in a carved wood, blue-painted frame. The stunningly detailed work showed a crescent moon hung high in the night's sky, but more shocking was the depiction of a blue Alicorn to the right of the moon, her head held high and large, feathered wings spread as she remained suspended in the star-dotted sky. Her light blue mane and tail flowed wonderfully from her figure, and her hooves, temple, and chest were adorned with the exact attire Princess Luna had returned from the moon with. Most notably, and most shocking; was this mare's flank. A deep blue splotch spread inward on her figure, and at its center rested a pure white crescent moon.
"That... that's Princess Luna! But... she's so young... how do they know what she looked like before she was banished?" Exclaimed Cadance.
"Lunaz." Came the stallion's voice, causing the trio to turn and look at him, as he had come back to the three after having no avail in finding whomever he had been searching for.
The trio shared a look, their gaze once more returning to the painting. Question after question ran through their minds; having a language barrier was something not to be favored.
"Eh... Wysoka... what does he... or she, look like? Inquired Flurry, turning back to the Nitzche stallion, who had cocked his head at her words.
"Nie rozumiem, Poniska." He returned, shaking his head gently.
Flurry hummed as she tapped a hoof at the hardwood floor, an idea finally coming to mind. Her wings spread as she flew up to the painting, motioning to 'Lunaz' with a hoof, "Wysoka?" She spoke.
"Nie, Wysoka nie jest Lunaz. Wysoka jest rostly, czarny."
"Wysoka jest rostly?" Flurry repeated as she landed before him.
"Jes, rostly," His own wings carrying him into the air as he used tapped the tip of Flurry's horn, carrying himself a little further as he traced a line a fair two feet from her horn, "Wysoka jest rostly."
Flurry's eyes went wide, "Ohh! Wysoka is tall! Uh, alright... you said czarny... Wysoka jest czarny?"
Now understanding fully what Flurry was attempting to do, the stallion Nitzche flew up to the painting, tapping his hoof at the midnight black, star-dotted sky, "Czarny," the same hoof was placed to his chest, making a circular motion to ruffle his fur, "Jestem szarym, Wysoka jest czarny."
"Wysoka is black. They're tall, and black. Huh."
As the stallion lowered himself back to the floor, he stepped to Flurry and tapped her horn once more, "Wysoka ma I cytadela," he moved to her side, tapping her pink, feathered wing, "Ma tez Skrzydla, jak ty,"
His explanation brought a smile to Flurry's face, "Wysoka is an Alicorn! They must have a hierarchy of Alicorns like we do!"
"Poniska, chzod," Informed the stallion as he pulled his goggles back on, pushing the Library's door open as he walked back outside, the trio following a short distance behind.
"Wysoka sounds like a mare's name, but I could be wrong. It would be really interesting to see a stallion Alicorn." Shining spoke as they followed the Nitzche back down the path they had originated from.
"Wysoka is certainly a mare's name. I wonder what his name is." Commented Flurry, motioning her head toward their self-appointed guide.
Cadance and Shining shared another cheezy look, Flurry not noticing since she had been heading the pack.
"Excuse me, uh, Nitzche?" The stallion paused, turning around, "Eh... how do I ask this, uh..." Flurry thought hard for a moment before tapping her chest with a hoof, "Flurry Heart," She quickly stepped to her mother, doing the same action, "Cadance," The same was repeated for her father, "Shining Armor," Upon completion, Flurry moved back to the Nitzche stallion, tapping his chest, but not saying a word.
"Oh. Morsemere." He replied after a moment, understanding what Flurry was trying to accomplish.
"Lunaz Gritza, Morsemere." Flurry returned with a smile, out-stretching a hoof to offer a hoof shake.
Morsemere simply nuzzled her once more, returning her smile as he turned and continued on forward.
"You two make such a cute couple." Shining teased, his words only adding to Flurry's rosy blush.
"Oh, for Celestia's sake..." She mumbled, continuing on down the path as her parents giggled between themselves.
As Morsemere came to the wider intersecting path previously found by the trio he made a left turn, continuing on past three other joining paths before making his way down the fourth. Only a little bit's travel down the winding, stone road brought Morsemere to a modest two-story house, the wonderfully designed home having a doorway significantly taller than those around it. Upon stepping to the home's entrance, Morsemere gave a few hard raps with a hoof, pausing as he listened for any response.
"Wysoka!" He called, knocking a few more times.
Through the closed door the group could hear heavy, hard-hitting hooves coming down a staircase, a deep, grumbling female voice simply returning with "Cotz?!"
"Wysoka, kucyki tutaj Poniska."
The quick, heavy clop of hooves could he heard through the shut door, the now cheerful voice on the other end shouting excitedly as she approached the door. Each of the trio felt their heart skip a beat as the door opened to reveal a pure black Alicorn; though she was not a Nitzche, she was a pony. Her feathered wings were excitedly held from either side of her body, her seemingly glowing blue, slit pupil eyes darting across each of the trio's shocked expressions as they all stood rigid. The sight of such a being alone was a shock, but the one thing they could not bring their eyes from was the mare's misty, flowing, star-dotted cosmic mane and tail, their appearance being just that of the rest of her body; exactly like Nightmare Moon's.
"Poniska!!" The mare's deep voice sang, her pure white fangs seeming to glow from her mouth as she spoke, trotting happily towards the three as she knelt before them, quickly nuzzling her head into each of their necks. The group sat rigid for a moment as Wysoka... or thus far; as far as Cadance was concerned, Nightmare Moon browsed their shocked expressions, her own being a wonderfully happy smile.
"Chzod! Chzod, Poniska!" She chimed, standing as she trotted back into her home, rambling on in the Nitzche's tongue.
This was... but wasn't Nightmare Moon. It looked exactly like her... minus a few things. Her figure was pure black; no armor of any kind adorned her figure, she simply had a hoof-made necklace and a sleeping blind hung from her neck. Her flanks were not marked by the distorted and discolored cutie-mark she was known to have; they were as pure black as the rest of her figure. Missing, too, was Nightmare's venomous tone, Wysoka's voice, while deep, was gentle and cheerful. Other than that; this mare who had been called Wysoka was, without a doubt, Nightmare Moon... but was her appearance nothing more than that? It was clear that inside something different ticked.
The trio complied in following Wysoka indoors, her eyes glowing through the pitch black as she looked back, calling to Morsemere; who upon hearing her words took flight and departed. Wysoka's horn came to life as two of the home's shuttered front windows came open, natural light somewhat brightening the black room of the house, at the same time a few candles spread throughout the room too came to life with the help of her blue aura. With the room lit, Wysoka stood for a moment as she looked at the shorter ponies before her, her happy look turning to a confused frown.
"Dlaczego wygladasz smutno, Poniska?" She inquired, kneeling back down to them.
"Uh... sorry... Wysoka, but we don't speak, whatever you speak." Stuttered Cadance, both she and her family still dumbfounded by the pure black Alicorn before them.
"Speak again... wait, speak again, Poniska. My... my old word, you had them! Speak again!" Rambled Wysoka through a fairly thick accent as she took Cadance by her shoulders, her wide, glowing blue eyes staring right at her.
"Uh... what would you like me to say?"
Wysoka gasped as her expression turned from shock to pure glee, the mare giggling as she hugged Cadance tightly, pulling the unsuspecting Alicorn into her fuzzy chest, "You speak my old word!! Name... you, what is name? Flurry, jes?" Exclaimed Wysoka as she took Cadance from her chest, her sudden movements having brought a little bit of pain to Cadance's injured wing.
"N-No... my name is Cadance. That's Flurry Heart, my daughter, and he's Shining Armor; my husband." Returned Cadance as she pointed to each of her family members, their expressions still in a state of total shock as their eyes met with Wysoka's.
"You are linia krwi! Eh... not linia krwi... three of you, you are..."
"Family? Is... that what you mean?"
"Jes! Family. Linia krwi! Family..." Wysoka repeated as she craned her head up, looking around in her home, "Sit down? You can be tired, long walking, jes? Hungry or thirsty?"
"All of those, yeah. We'd like some food other than leaf roots and grass."
"Dobrze, dobrze. You sit here; I can bring ciastko, or jablko."
As Wysoka stood, trotting her way to the little home's kitchen area, the three had a moment to look at each other in disbelief as they turned towards the little area Wysoka had motioned to; it was clearly the living room. There were no couches or chairs, but there was a short, dark-wood table at the center of a deep blue and white themed carpet, atop the table was a single candle and some papers along with a quill and ink. The rest of the room, while being fairly barren of furniture, still held a beauty of its own; the dark, lacquered woods of the walls and ceiling negated the effects of the light coming in from the outside as well as the candles, and the navy blue crown molds and wooden pillars spaced about the walls gave a wonderful contrast to this dark theme.
Behind where the family sat at the table was an unlit fireplace, its stone and clay arched mouth finely crafted with many decorative designs, a wooden frame being built around it to both conceal and give shelf-space in the form of a mantle. A little further past the living space sat a short desk, a typewriter, and stacks of various books and papers taking up almost all of the availability of the desk. Instead of a chair, the desk had a simple, square pillow before it to act as a comfortable seat; something the trio thought to be quite curious. Around the desk were random stacks of books, many of them seeming to have no home, as the three wall-fixed shelves adjacent to the desk had zero remaining real estate. To the far right was a simple staircase which led to the unlit upstairs and down into the home's basement.
The wall of this staircase acted as one of the little kitchen's walls, the space being no less than a modestly sized stone oven, cabinetry, and a stone wash-basin that had a rough iron spigot poking from behind it. Past the kitchen was a more or less empty space, the only thing taking up the area between the kitchen's far right wall and the front wall of the home being a pair of two bookcases; all of which were full, and a pillow similar to the one before the desk. Cozy. Dim. Quaint. All were apt descriptions.
"Here! Water, and ciastko! I cook past night, they are good, I hope!" Chimed Wysoka as she stepped from the kitchen, four white and blue painted clay cups and a similarly decorative plate stacked with chocolate chunk cookies being set upon the table before the trio by her blue aura, Wysoka sitting across from them as she smiled. The family happily took a cookie each from the plate with their magic, each pony groaning in joy as they devoured the sweet, chocolatey treats.
"Good, jes? If you like more food, I can get from down." Wysoka added as she pointed downwards with a hoof.
"What other food do you have?" Inquired Flurry through her cookie-filled mouth.
"Lots! Many good fruit, jablko, winogrono, niebieski... I, I can know name in my old words... eh," Wysoka paused, her back leg tapping as she thought, "jablko... eh, round... red."
"Apple?"
"Apple... are apple red and round?"
"Yeah. They grow on trees."
Wysoka nodded, "Jablko are apple. Want apple, maybe?"
"I'm fine with cookies, so far. Mom, Dad, you two want anything else?"
Cadance sat up a little, smiling, "I want an apple! Oh, I love apples."
"I want one, too!"
Wysoka gave a toothy grin, the two large fangs hanging from the roof of her mouth shining through the dim light of the home, "Dobrze! I can get apples!"
The trio watched as Wysoka stood, trotting her way to the staircase as she departed to the home's cellar.
"Are we eating cookies with Nightmare Moon?" Flurry inquired plainly as she took a bite of a second cookie, having finished her first.
Both parents held their silence for a moment, their expressions still showing their utter disbelief at what was happening.
"I... I think so. She looks exactly like Nightmare Moon... but, the way she talks, the way she stands and moves... the way she looks at us. That's not Nightmare Moon. That's... whoever Wysoka is." Cadance returned, her half-eaten cookie coming to rest on the table before her.
"I don't know if I believe what's happening..." Shining stated with exasperation.
"Is Wysoka the name she gave herself or is it a name the bat-ponies gave her?"
"That's a really good question."
"Sorry for my old words being less good, 23 years for last I know them. I come here 23 years last, and the Nitzche learn me their Nitzcheska... then I say Nitzcheska and not old words... what are you called my old words?" Ranted Wysoka as she walked back up the steps, the three apples held in her blue magic being placed next to the plate of cookies.
Each of the three caught on a single set of her words as if they were glue: 23 years. 23 years ago was exactly how long it had been since Princess Luna's return and supposed removal of Nightmare Moon.
"Equestrian, that's what we speak." Flurry explained.
"Eekvestian... I had not know the name for words. Lots of things I know not."
"Is Wysoka the name you were... uh, given by your parents, or the Nitzche?" Inquired Flurry, fully changing the subject.
"Nitzche... I think I have not parents, or family. I work lots of days, years, to remember... but I not." Wysoka explained, pointing a hoof to the many books and papers riddling the desk space.
"Does it mean something?" Probed Flurry.
"Jes, Wysoka are when Lunaz's moon sit high up. Sit high up; you see?"
Flurry's eyes lit up, "Midnight! Your name is Midnight!"
"Midnight... that name, I like lots! Good name, I think; sounds good... midnight what you name this time?"
"Mid-night," Flurry enunciated, "Mid is just short for middle, and night... well, is night. It means the middle of the night; when the moon is highest."
"Nitzche call me Wysoka for my fur; 23 years past I first come to Nazomova, the Nitzche spoke "Twój futro jest czarne wysoka o północy!", they say all "your fur, black, clean, like Lunaz's wysoka." I like very Wysoka, so they call me."
"You like both Wysoka and Midnight... what do you want us to call you?"
"You name me what name you like very best!"
Flurry looked at each of her parents, "I like Wysoka."
"I do, too. It's so nice sounding, and I think it's best if we call you by the name you know." Cadance returned.
"Wysoka sounds way better than Midnight." Added Shining.
"We'll just stick with Wysoka."
Wysoka nodded. A moment of silence went by as she thought, tapping her back hoof on the carpet.
"I very want a know how you three get to Ciemny." Wysoka commented as she looked to Cadance.
"Ciemny...? Is that what the forest is called?"
Wysoka nodded.
"Oh, boy... well, as far as the three of us can tell, I teleported us here. We don't know why; all three of us have pretty bad memory loss from the spell, and neither of us have any idea why I teleported us here, we just know that something really bad must have happened for me to cast the spell... and we think our friends and family back home are in a lot of danger."
Wysoka's eyes went wide, "You not can remember reason for being here? I... I help! I can help! This, this all of my work for past years," Wysoka stood from her place at the short table and trotted to her desk, "My work, I work to remember! Years past, I get very good with remembered! I find lots things in my own remember... I, I am lots sorry for Eekvestrian... hard to spoke with old words, tonight and today I can not sleep, I will work on Eekvestrian! Next night, I can spoke Eekvestrian good, I will promise."
"Wysoka, you're fine for now. Just, keep on going; we understand so far." Cadance spoke, both she and her family enthralled by the prospect of Wysoka being able to help them figure out why they're in their situation.
"Dobrze... dobrze," Wysoka looked a little anxious to continue as she took a breath, turning back to the papers and books as her magic picked up one of the novels, "I spent years, lots years, working for remembering. Working to remember. I want to remember what am I, or who am I; because I wake in place very, very far from here long past ago, and I know not who am I. I... I not can really, uh, explain... I use magic, when I am sleep, and see, I can... I can see what past was for me. I spend so long, I do lots work to remember what seen, and I wrote all I see, and I get Nitzche to help; and see, I can see past of Nitzche! I wrote books to remember, and I make lots of paper, lots of work so I can remember pasts of me!" Her somewhat excited tone fell a little, her smile leaving her expression as she took a more neutral look, "But... so many works and so many years past, I still forget so much. Only small remembers; you see. Big blank; just black for long times, but then I remember, then big blank. Very big. No remember... for very, very, very long... and after lots years... still I not remember what blank is."
Wysoka finally paused, sharing a look with each of the very confused looking family before her, "You... you understand, jes?"
"I-I, well... yes, I understand just fine... this is just, very shocking." Cadance finally explained.
"Next night, I will speak Eekvestrian better! We talk more, and I help you remember! I may can help you go back to home and help friends and family; Nitzche say my magic is power, very lots of power! Power like Lunaz."
Silence fell over the room, all three of the trio holding their silence as they all registered what they had just been told; system overload was a good way to describe it.
"You are looked... worry. I am not scared you, am I?" Wysoka inquired, her imposing figure shrinking as she held her head low in worry.
"No! No, no no, you're not scaring us!" Exclaimed Cadance, "Like I said before; this is all a lot to take in at once. Hearing about what your magic can do, and all. It's hard to think when you're as tired as we are."
"Lots walking make for tired, jes?"
Cadance nodded, "Yeah... we've been walking for a quite a while. It's been really nice to finally sit down and have some good food. We've been really rude, Wysoka. We woke you up in the middle of your sleep, and you let us into your house and gave us food and water, and we haven't even said thank you. So, for that; thank you."
Wysoka smiled softly to Cadance, "No thanks, please. I can thank you, instead, maybe. You are like me, and like Lunaz; Poniska... may can you help me find my pasts; find who am I."
Cadance shared a quick look with Flurry and Shining, their minds on the same track, "Well, we'll do what we can to help... magic dealing with dreams and memories isn't really what I'm good at."
"No matters! If you not can help, I can care not; now I want to help you! Maybe help friends and family you have."
Flurry's loud yawning drew the attention of the conversation to the stretching Alicorn.
"Tired, jes?" Wysoka inquired, smiling to Flurry.
"Tired is an understatement. We've been walking for days..."
"Tired for sleep?"
Flurry nodded, both Cadance and Shining mumbling in agreeance.
"Upstairs is big pillow; I sleep on side not like Nitzche, so I have good special pillow for me, may big for all three of you to sleep!"
"Really?" Flurry asked, perking up, "That would be so nice. We've been sleeping in the short sweet grass for the past three days... a bed and a bath would be so nice."
"Bath! I have good big bath for me; good hot water. You want bath and sleep, jes?"
The trio gave a collective nod.
"Dobrze, good! Come, I can make hot bath." Chimed Wysoka as she trotted from where she stood beside her desk to the staircase, quickly making her way to the home's upstairs.
"Nightmare Moon sure is nice." Flurry commented jokingly as she took a third cookie from the plate for the road.
Cadance gave a chuckle as she and Shining stood, the family following Wysoka upstairs, "I never thought I'd hear somepony say that seriously..."
It had taken some time; enough time for Flurry to have already fallen asleep on Wysoka's large bed, for all three of the group to have a wonderfully cleansing and relaxing bath in the somewhat upscaled stone bath of the home's modest bathroom. The upstairs of the home was fairly basic and seemed a lot more barren in comparison to the downstairs. The bathroom took up a considerable space extending from the home's left wall, leaving the slightly L-shaped room to look a little more cramped than it would if things were totally open.
Two windows, which had been opened by Wysoka, let a little bit of natural light into the single-candle lit room, said candle having been placed atop a small, cherrywood dressing cabinet beside the simple pillow bed which Flurry slept at the fringe of. The bed and dresser rested comfortably against the right wall of the upstairs, adjacent to the resting area sat an odd thing for a bedroom to be equipped with; two bookcases. Cadance looked to the door of the bathroom as it creaked open, pale candlelight spilling from the doorway as a damp Shining Armor exited, a silken towel held by his pink aura working to dry his mane.
"That tub's nice, isn't it?" Cadance asked in a hushed tone, standing from where she sat near the bed.
"Takes a while to fill up, but yeah; it's nice. A lot better than that ice-cold stream Flurry made me jump into." Chuckled Shining, gently closing the door behind him.
"That was quite the night..." Cadance and Shining shared a loving kiss, their eyes meeting in the dim light of the room, "You have no idea how happy I was to see you, Honey."
"When I saw you and Flurry Heart run past those trees towards me, and you called out my name..." Shining chuckled, giving Cadance a second quick kiss, "The last time you made my heart flutter like that was the first time I saw you."
Cadance giggled quietly, nuzzling her head into Shining's neck, "Still such a romantic."
"Being through as much as we've been through... it's more than enough to make us inseparable."
"We can tick 'teleported to strange new lands' off out bucket list."
The two shared a quiet laugh, Shining turning back to the bathroom as he took the towel from his fairly dried mane, "This has been quite the adventure, hasn't it?" He commented, reopening the non-latching door with his magic, hanging his towel from a pair of wooden hooks mounted above the tub, his magic snuffing the candle in the little bathroom as he exited.
"I think it's only just started," Cadance added as she gently brought herself to the large pillow, her good side being rested upon.
"Whatever comes of this whole ordeal, I know we'll all make it back home." Spoke Shining as he joined his wife, the two embracing each other in their hooves as Cadance's magic pulled the large blanket Flurry had been hogging over the pair.
"Oh, great; now three of us are sleeping in the same bed," Shining commented at a whisper.
"Hopefully Flurry doesn't sheet-hog like you do; then I'll only have to worry about you."
"You're in the middle!" He exclaimed quietly, "You'll always have a sheet; I'm gonna have to battle Flurry."
"I love you, Shining." Cadance whispered, pecking his muzzle with a kiss.
"Oh! Did you have a good slumber, little Flurry?" Wysoka chimed as she turned from her desk to see Flurry lumber tiredly down the stairs.
"I did... your big pillow bed is really comfortable." Flurry explained, her voice raspy from having just woken up.
"I'm happy to hear that! I have been awake since you and your parents went asleep remembering my Equestrian." Wysoka explained with a smile, her accent still rolling her R's and making her W's into V's.
Flurry stopped dead in her tracks, her wide eyes locked with Wysoka, who wore a genial smile upon her face.
"How... How did you become fluent in Equestrian... overnight?"
Wysoka stumbled with her words, "It... it's hard to explain, I don't really know how to explain. Like I said yesterday, I can go back in my mind and memories and remember things, and I used to be able to speak Equestrian; before I found the Nitzche."
"That's incredible... you can travel into your own memories and... unlock things that you don't remember anymore?"
Wysoka nodded.
"Well... you kept saying yesterday that you don't remember who you are," Flurry explained as she walked to the living room, sitting down on the carpet before the table, "So, what do you remember?"
Wysoka sighed, "There are lots of things I remember... it would take a while for me to start from the beginning."
"I've got all day... or, well," Flurry looked from the candle-lit living room to the now pitch black outside world beyond Wysoka's home, "All night, I guess."
"As far back as I can remember... and things this far are still cloudy, I remember a large, stone building with a tall ceiling. There was a tall, white Poniska, like you and me; I don't remember her voice, or her face, but I remember there being... anger. From her and me. Then, something happened, and all I can remember is pure white, then black. But, this black, it was real, like a room. I could think, and feel, and speak within my own head to another voice, and I remember that voice... she was angry with me. For years and years and years this black is all I can remember, and I remember feeling lots of anger for a long time, then sorrow, then anger once more. Then suddenly, the black stops! And I remember seeing the white Poniska again, I remember being angry at her and she was angry at me. Then I remember being in front of other Poniskas, they looked so funny, because unlike Nitzche, their fur was all different colors! Like you, and your family, they were all like a rainbow. After that, things are kind of blurry again, and finally, very clearly, I can see this purple Poniska, and she had 5 friends with her, and they all look like a rainbow, too. There was more anger, and hate... but then; the purple Poniska and her freinds... they did, something, I still do not know what, but they did something to me, and everything went pure white. Then, 23 years ago, like your family, I woke up in a wide field of grass, and I could see all of these mountains. But, everything hurt. Everything hurt so so bad, I couldn't move," Wysoka winced a little at her memories, "My body hurt so much, I did nothing but lie in the grass. I cried, because then, I couldn't remember anything; all I knew was how to speak Equestrian. Now, after all of my work, I know what the past was like, but then, there was nothing. For days and days I couldn't move, but eventually I could, so I stood up and I began to walk towards the mountains. Days and days and days go by again, and my wings stop hurting, and so does my horn, so I begin to fly towards mountains. I flew up very very high to see around, and everything was grass, trees, and mountains. So, I flew. At night, I would fly, and sleep in the day, because the sun hurt my eyes and it made me too warm. So many days of flying later, I see this big forest, it seems to go on forever, but I saw something in the trees, at the base of this mountain, I saw a building! I flew down so fast the air hurt my face and wings, but I landed, and I found the Nitzche! They said lots of things to me, but... I spoke Equestrian, so I still don't know what they said to me, but eventually they called me Wysoka, and taught me how to read, and how to write, and how to speak Nitzcheska. They let me have this house, but I was so tall that the really nice Nitzche named Mostyn, she was the Nitzche's Dowódca then, she had the Nitzche make my house special. They took away the small doors and made them taller, and she gave me my bed, and she gave me the big bathtub you used last day. And I was happy! Now, I am happy, and the Nitzche and I are happy together!" Wysoka's smile faded, her mind turning back the clock, "I don't know why my past seemed so dark and angry, everyone I remember, they were angry at me, just like the purple Poniska and her friends; they were all very mad at me, and I don't know why. I don't know why they hurt me. Whatever they did, to make things white, and to make me wake up in the grass long ago, it hurt me. Why was there so much anger?"
Flurry couldn't bring words to her tongue. Wysoka could remember everything that Nightmare Moon had done; fighting with Princess Celestia, being banished to the moon, returning and being defeated by the Elements of Harmony at the hooves of Princess Twilight and her friends. One thing stuck out through all of her words; it wasn't anything that Wysoka had said, it was the fact she had said them to begin with. How was it possible for her to exist? Nightmare Moon had just been a mental creation of Princess Luna's. Where the Elements of Harmony really powerful enough to create... life?
"You look very shocked... have I been saying things too fast?" Wysoka asked with a little frown.
"Uh, no... it's just, that's a very intense story."
"Flurry, you remember being little, yes?"
"Being a foal? Yeah, why?"
"Nitzche remember when they were little, too. Sometimes, when the town sleeps, I will explore their dreams and minds, and sometimes I can find memories of being little, playing with their parents and being happy together. Why... why can I not find that in my own memories? No matter how hard I try, and believe me, I have tried hard," Wysoka pointed to the papers before her on the desk, "I can't remember being little, or having a family. The first thing I remember was being angry with that white Poniska... was she my family?"
Through Wysoka's glowing, azure eyes, Flurry could see something she had never had a pony look at her with; desperation. This creature had spent the last 23 years of her life trying to figure out what her life was, and now; sat before her, was the answer to every single question she had posed. Flurry thought hard, Wysoka noticing the young Alicorn's contemplation. Was it her duty... maybe even her right to tell Wysoka what her past was? What if Nightmare Moon still lived within this kind mare, and learning the exact truth would bring her back out?
"I... I don't know. Wysoka, you said something about a purple mare and her friends that, hurt you... right? They did something to hurt you, so does that mean you're angry with them?" Flurry probed.
"No. If I ever did see them, all I would ask is 'why?'. If I saw that white Poniska, I would ask her 'why?'. I... I did something to make them all angry at me, or they did something to make me angry at them... but I don't know what it was! It... it drives me crazy. Even more annoying is that, no matter how far I try to go back, no matter how far I leave the town, I cannot find them."
"Wait, what do you mean, 'leave' the town? Have you gone out on adventures to try and find other Ponies?"
Wysoka sighed, shaking her head, "Another hard thing to explain. When I am sleeping, and sometimes, if I put all my magic into it while I'm awake, I can move around. It's how I find the dreams of the sleeping Nitzche, and sometimes I can see the bat's dreams, and the dreams of other creatures that I have never seen... but I cannot find any Poniska dreams. I have gone so far in every direction, as far as I can go, to find them; but nothing ever happens. There are places I cannot go past, they are very far from here, and if I try to push past, then it hurts; and if I keep pushing, I wake up with blood dripping from my ears and nose, and then my head hurts for days. The first time it happened the Nitzche were very scared for me, because I fell back asleep after it happened the first time. The Nitzche who brings food in the night found me in my big bed, and she told the others to help, but they didn't know how. They thought I was gone, but I woke up, and they all said 'Wysoka, do not do that again!"'
Flurry's expression held a look of slight shock, "So, you can move around... in the world... while you sleep, but not physically?"
Wysoka nodded, "Nitzche have the same reaction when I first told them." She said with a smile.
"Did you look at our dreams when we were asleep?" Probed Flurry.
"No, because I wasn't sleeping. I was busy working to remember Equestrian. It worked, yes? I have never used Equestrian with other creatures, so I don't know if I am good or not."
"It's like night and day, Wysoka. You have an accent; of course, but other than that, you're perfectly fluent. Yesterday you were... understandable, but I think both I and my Mom and Dad missed a lot of what you said because it wasn't all that clear."
"I am happy it is clear now, then!"
The conversation paused as the light clunk of hooves on the upstairs floor drew both Wysoka and Flurry's attention to the staircase as a half-asleep, unkempt Shining Armor clunked his way down the stairs.
"Good morning," he groaned.
"Dad, it's not morning, it's almost 10 PM."
Shining paused for a moment, thinking, "You're right... I guess we have to be nocturnal for the next while," He spoke, his teeth clattering just a little as he walked to the table, resting on his haunches beside Flurry, who wrapped her wing around him.
"Did you sleep well?" Flurry nuzzled, her father giving a short smile in return.
"Yeah, I did. Mom's still asleep; she's absolutely beat after yesterday."
Flurry blew a raspberry, "Who wouldn't be?"
"Do you want food or drinks? I can get us food." Asked Wysoka as she stood from her desk, making her way into the kitchen, her head craning so her impressively long horn would not strike a low-hung rafter at the little area's beginning.
"Oh, that'd be wonderful. Do you have coffee or tea? I could use something warm to drink," Shining replied, nuzzling himself further into Flurry's wing.
"You are cold... here:" A blue aura surrounded Wysoka's horn, moments later a spark of orange light flooding the room as the home's quaint fireplace came to life, both Flurry and Shining squinting at the flames as they began to engulf the three logs stacked within.
"Thanks, Wysoka. We ponies aren't very used to being cold." Shining chimed gratefully as he and Flurry scooted themselves to the flames.
"You are not used to night, as well. I see your horns making light for you to see in the house. Where you come from; ponies sleep at night and live during the day?"
Shining paused as he tuned in on Wysoka's speech, "You... you're fluent in Equestrian... after a few hours of practicing?" He exclaimed, seeming a little more awake.
"Yes. Hard process to explain, I have told Flurry already." Wysoka continued as her magic held a kettle under the kitchen's little sink; a smooth, steady pour of water filling the vessel.
"Basically, she can travel through her own memories and pull stuff up that she's forgotten." Explained Flurry as she watched Wysoka move into the living room and hang the kettle from within the fireplace by a little hook fixed above the flames.
Shining offered a simple hum in return.
"What food do you like? I have lots of fruit, and I still have the ciastko from the last day."
"Anything you have, we'll eat."
Wysoka nodded at Shining's words, beginning off towards the home's staircase, "I will get fruit, then."
Almost perfectly in sync with Wysoka's departure, Cadance appeared from the home's second story, her mane just as disheveled as the rest of her family.
"Good night, honey," Shining commented with a smile.
Cadance gave a few tired grumbles as she clumsily lumbered to the fire, sitting at Shining's side to sandwich him between herself and Flurry.
"That bed beats grass any day." Cadance croaked, giving a little smile as she yawned.
"I second that motion," Flurry added.
After a short moment of silence, heavy hoof steps drew the trio's attention to the downstairs staircase as Wysoka came back up from the cellar, an assortment fruits and what looked to be a jar filled with some sort of herbal mixture held by her blue spells.
"Oh! Cadance! You are here in time for some food and tea!" Chimed Wysoka as she lowered the gathering of fruits to the table, keeping her jar with her as she moved to the kitchen.
"Yes, yes I am. Thank you for preparing breakfast, Wysoka; it means a lot to all of us that you've been so generous." Cadance replied in a still groggy tone, her horn coming to life as she took a peach from the assortment, Shining taking an apple.
"Wysoka, do you think you could bring those cookies you had yesterday?" Flurry inquired with a little grin.
"Cookies? Cookies..." Wysoka paused, thinking as she placed a fair bit of the herbal mixture into a steel-mesh container, "Are cookies my ciastko?"
"Yes, they are; and they're really good."
"Oh! Alright, yes. I can get you cookies. I am happy you like them!"
"Sweetheart," Cadance began, quickly swallowing the large bite of peach in her mouth, "you don't get cookies for breakfast."
"You all can have cookies, not just Flurry," Wysoka added as she walked past the family, depositing the plate of yesterday's cookies to the table while on her way to the fireplace.
Flurry shot her mother a cheesy grin, one of the cookies at the plate being taken by her pink aura.
Cadance rolled her eyes, sighing, "Oh, fine. But you can't just eat cookies!"
"Well, duh," Babbled Flurry through a maw-full of cookie, "I'm gonna eat more of those soft, blue fruits that Wysoka gave us yesterday. Those things are amazing."
"Niebieski? I did get some, they are on the table." Commented Wysoka as she finished fitting the herb-filled brewing vessel inside the kettle, sitting across from the family at the short table, taking one of the mentioned fruits in her magic.
"Wysoka, your Equestrian sounds so good all of a sudden... how'd you do it in a few hours?" Cadance inquired, watching with a raised brow as Wysoka dug her fangs into the little blue fruit within her magic.
"Wysoka can go back in her mind and bring back memories, she did it yesterday to re-learn Equestrian. She told us all of this yesterday, remember?" Informed Flurry, Wysoka nodding along with her words as she continued devouring her little fruit.
"Does that mean you can go back into our memories and find out what caused me to teleport my family into this forest?"
"I can, yes." Wysoka downed the bites of fruit, "I have gone back in my mind, I have gone back in the Nitzche's mind, so I can go back in yours."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Not from what I know; and I know a lot," Her hoof pointed to her desk and papers, "I have written 14 books on the memories I see, and how I see them, and how I can go through a sleeping Nitzche and see their dreams."
Each of the trio went slack-jawed, eyes widening.
"You've written 14 complete books?!" Flurry exclaimed.
"Yes, all slightly different. The Nitzche have some of my books in the biblioteka, they like to read about my work, and like to help sometimes."
"Is that the big Library near the base of the mountain?"
"Yes. I forgot where my books are in there, I would have to ask Edelweiss where she put them..." Wysoka thought, her vision trailing off.
"So, Wysoka," Cadance injected, just having finished her peach, "how does the process of... looking into our memories work?"
Giving a thoughtful sigh, Wysoka tapped her back hoof at the carpet, "I... do not know how I would explain any of it. But, to start, you have to sleep."
"Does it have to be a natural sleep?"
Wysoka chuckled, "You are excited to find out what happened, yes?"
"Yes. The sooner we know, the better. We still don't know if our friends and family are safe."
"Whether sleep is genuine or magic, it doesn't matter. What really matters is comfort and calm. When the mind is calm, and the heart is calm, things are smooth."
"How soon tonight could you explore our dreams?"
"Right now, but it would not be 'our' dreams. It would be yours, I can see only one thought at once."
"My memory is the best, Dad and I figured that out a while ago," Flurry spoke, bringing everyone's attention to her.
There was a short pause as Shining and Cadance shared a slightly apprehensive look.
"Process will not hurt her, I give Lunaz Gritza on that," Wysoka added, noticing the parents' nervous looks.
"Honey, this is the only way we're going to find out what happened." Shining spoke, his sentiment causing Cadance to sigh.
"You're right... Wysoka, you're sure it's safe?"
"Mom, It'll be fine; I trust Wysoka, and she's obviously really good at doing this kind of thing." Flurry butted in, Wysoka simply nodding in agreeance to her words.
Cadance gave another apprehensive sigh, looking to the floor for a moment, "Okay... but-"
Her words were cut short by a loud whistle as the kettle hung above the fire gave its cry, Wysoka exclaiming happily as she stood to collect the kettle.
"Tea and food first, then we worry about finding memories, yes?" Chimed Wysoka as she trotted to the kitchen with the steaming brew vessel held in her magic.
The trio couldn't help but smile.
The chilly air of Wysoka's upstairs room felt thick. Cadance couldn't help but notice the nervous shake in her own hooves as she and Shining sat a short distance from their daughter and Wysoka, who was currently igniting a strange little block of incense with her magic, the tip of the block holding a faint ember as it was placed upon a little wooden tray, thin whisps of smoke rising and filling the air with an herbal, almost sugary scent. Flurry was lying comfortably on her side, a knitted blanket snuggly covering most of her figure as she did her best to relax her mind; Wysoka occasionally swinging her hoof above the block of incense to waft its smoke in her direction. A single candle in the far corner of the room below one of two opened windows provided the only light within the space, it was just enough to provide somewhat monochromatic silhouettes of Wysoka, her pure black figure would have been completely invisible if not for her gently radiant eyes and wispy, star-sparkled mane and tail.
"Mysle spokoj. Mysle niewiele." Wysoka whispered as she craned her head down, gently touching the tip of her horn to Flurry's temple.
A black hoof was carefully raised from the carpet beside the bed, gently petting Flurry's side through the blanket as her magic worked invisibly, Shining and Cadance watching with worry. Her hoof came back up, Wysoka's gentle eyes looking to the peacefully sleeping Alicorn before her.
"She's asleep?" Shining inquired quietly.
"Yes. If she wakes with worry, do not be frightened. What she sees may hurt; things the mind hides are hidden for a reason."
The parents shared a quick look, turning back to see Wysoka lower herself from her haunches to her belly, her eyes closing as her horn took a faint, pure black aura, and aura that, despite the darkness of the room, still seemed to glow. The spell-bound horn was once more lowered to Flurry; the second it came to contact the young Alicorn's temple, things went gray.
Already memories could be seen. Through Flurry's own eyes Wysoka passed through different, somewhat faded memories, and as time ran on they gained clarity. There were different scenes of the young Flurry Heart's oldest memories, a warm feeling coming from them. This Poniska was happy, and as Wysoka moved forward through her life, that feeling stayed constant. Though, she noticed something that set her apart from the Nitzche; there were so many more memories. So many were happy, so many had her parents or other nice Poniskas she didn't recognize. Ignoring her own curiosity in fulfillment of her oath and promise to both Flurry and her parents, she bypassed almost everything Flurry's mind held until she found exactly what she hoped to find; the bad place. It was a feeling of fear, and it seemed to hold these few sets of memories in a dark mist, one only she could see. Forward in time, she moved; finding the exact moment Flurry had woken in the forest and began to look for her parents. In that time, there was this cloud of fear; but only days more faded that cloud. Flurry's happy, warm feeling returned to her thoughts and memories after she had found both of her parents. If Wysoka could smile at the images of these three Ponsikas walking and talking through the trees, she would. That happy remained once they came to Nazomova, but, for a split moment, Wysoka saw herself standing in the doorway of her home, and this single instant, nothing more than a few seconds of time, held a feeling of more dread and fear than any other time.
Wysoka continued looking at herself, letting that feeling soak through her mind. Why? What did Flurry see in her that she feared so much? She had smiled, greeted them with warm hugs and said hello... why did that give fear? This dreadful, almost crushing cloud of feeling fell as time continued to the present, Flurry becoming happy with Wysoka as she and her parents spent a little time with her. The things she saw were paused, time moving backwards through Flurry's eyes as she found the moments before her departure from the place she knew as home. It was daytime in this moment; something that caught Wysoka's attention. When Flurry woke up in the forest it was night. There were no lapses or truly forgotten times in between, and she was sure of it. How was it possible to be in one place with day, and wake an instant later in a place with night? More things about this memory began to surprise her further than the time; the settings, and the other Poniskas, they all caught her mind. It was a tall, bright building of white stone and gold colors; but all of the Poniskas, including Flurry, felt horror. She could begin to hear a loud banging at two doors leading into the room, a group of armor-wearing Poniskas holding the doors shut with their bodies, one of them being Shining Armor, who wore a specially colored set of armor. Things became more clear as she focused on this memory; she could now see Flurry was being hugged not by Cadance, but by a different, purple Poniska. She focused on the purple figure, and she felt something on her own mind she had never felt through a memory; fear, her own fear.
It was the purple Poniska she remembered from long ago, her face held the same shape, her fur was the same color, and the stripes of color in her mane were identical to what she remembered. More sounds came through the memory; she could hear Shining and Cadance shouting with worry, and she could hear another, seemingly calm Poniska talk. Only a little from where Flurry was being hugged by the purple Poniska that had hurt her long ago stood Cadance as she cried to a taller, pure white Poniska. That feeling came back. Worse. Her mind clouded with horror as she looked at the worried white Ponsika. It was her. It was the white Poniska she had seen in her oldest memories; the Poniska that had hated her, and done something to make her memory for so, so, so long be black. Time froze. The sounds stopped, the movement stopped, everything drove to a total halt as she continued to look at that white Poniska. Flurry knew her. She had told Flurry about the white Poniska, and the purple Poniska, and Flurry knew them. Wysoka felt another thing she had never felt in her mind while being in this state; a feeling she failed to place a hoof upon. If she had a chest, it would hold her breath tight. If she had a stomach, it would flip. If she had eyes, they would cry. What was she feeling? Why had Flurry not said anything about the white and purple Poniska? Flurry knew them. Why had she not said anything? Why did Flurry know the Poniskas from her past? What more did Flurry know? The memory suddenly began to move again; something she had not caused.
There was another Poniska in the room, one she had only noticed at the start of the memory; she was Cadance's height, and had been standing at a large window behind the other Poniskas in the room. Her fur was a deep blue, her eyes were almost exactly like her own, and too was her mane. This Poniska turned from the window, her hooves silently carrying her across the white stone floor directly towards Wysoka. She could see this strange Poniska was like herself, and every other Poniska except for Shining Armor; she had wings and a horn. Though, one thing about her figure struck Wysoka the most; her flanks were blotted with black markings, and at their center was the same moon of Lunaz's flanks. Who was she? Suddenly, the memory disappeared; a void not black or white replacing it; but this Poniska remained, her eyes locked with where Wysoka's sight remained. Her expression held an open-mouthed scowl of confusion as she continued, Wysoka beginning to feel that same dread once more in her own mind. Who was she? Was this Lunaz? How could she move freely from the rails of memory, and how did she see her? Wysoka knew she couldn't be seen in the memories, she was not there; she was merely a spectator, so how could she be seen? In the void, this blue Poniska stood mere inches from where Wysoka saw, her eyes drilling through her sight. The dread she felt turned to something painful; true fear taking over her feelings as this pain consumed her mind. The blue Poniska only continued to stare; her eyes suddenly becoming pure white. Wysoka could feel herself falling; though her vision did not move.
The void and the blue Poniska disappeared in an instant, her eyes flying open and chest heaving as the real world spun, her entire body shivering and her vision a dark blur. Pain like she had felt when she first came to wake in that field 23 years ago spiked through her entire being, the horribly loud, echoing voice of Cadance shouting something to her as she and Shining looked on with horribly concerned expressions. Wysoka snapped her vision to Flurry, who had not sat up, but was glaring at her with a horror-filled, teary-eyed look, Wysoka returning this gaze with an expression holding more anger than she had ever felt.
"Wysoka!? What happened? What did you see!?" Cried Cadance, her voice ringing through Wysoka's horribly throbbing head like a bell.
Her horn suddenly burst to life, holding the family completely still, "Quiet!!!" Her front hooves came to either side of her head, her eyes closing tight and fangs grinding together.
Cadance watched as Wysoka looked to Flurry with burning anger, her daughter returning the gaze with pure fear.
"If you touch my daughter, I sweat to Celestia...!" "I will not hurt her!!" Wysoka boomed, cutting off her sentence.
After a single moment of pure silence, Wysoka's horn released the three, neither of them moving as they continued to look at the pain-paralyzed Wysoka. Chest heaving and tears beginning to roll from her cheeks, she looked back to Flurry, this time the anger of her face being a look of what seemed to be sorrow.
"What do you know? You know the white Poniska, and the purple Poniska... but you looked at me... you looked at me with terror. What do you know that I do not?!"
"Flurry, what in the name of Equestria is she talking about?" Shining spoke in a fairly calm tone, both he and Cadance now too looking at Flurry, who had her eyes shut hard.
"This morning... Wysoka was telling me about what memories she had brought back from her mind, she remembers Celestia, and Twilight. Wysoka... I... I'm sorry I didn't tell you this morning when you first told me! I didn't know how!"
"How to tell me what? What do you know that I do not?!"
"Everything! All three of us, we know exactly what your past was! We know who you used to be, and we... we know everything! I-I'm sorry, I didn't know how to tell you!"
Flurry's soft, shuddering cries were the only sound in the room for a moment as everyone went quiet, Shining and Cadance now looking to Wysoka as she simply stared at Flurry with a look of total misunderstanding.
"What is it?" She finally spoke, her quiet voice beginning to crack as she took Flurry's shoulders in her hooves, looking to the young Alicorn with the same look she had given her that morning; a look of pure desperation, "I don't care how you know... or why... j-just tell me what it is."
Flurry Heart's soft hoof steps clopped through the quiet town as she traveled up the street from Wysoka's house. The poor mare, upon having her entire life divulged to her in mere minutes, had sat completely still a moment before standing and simply stating, "I will be home soon". That had been around 20 minutes ago, and her absence was giving the family much cause for worry. Flurry, being the one to have both told her the bulk of things, and being the one to have hidden the information in the first place, had taken it upon herself to make an attempt at consoling Wysoka. There was no lack of understanding between the family and Wysoka; however, it was perfectly understandable for somepony to need a moment after being told what she had been told, which really had been everything.
They told her of Nightmare Moon's tale, they told her about Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight, they told her what she had done to cause so much anger, and what had caused her thousand year lapse of memory. They told her, with a fair bit of difficulty, who Luna, or Lunaz, was, and why she had appeared within the dream and expelled her from a place she once held totally sacred in her thoughts. Where things became bumpy was explaining to Wysoka the fact she didn't have a family, and never had. Those 23 years of her research and working within the dreams and memories of both herself and those around her had, as Wysoka had so emotionally divulged, really been about trying to find who her parents were. Looking through memories of the Nitzche and seeing their joyous times of being fillies and colts had given her a horrible longing for that same feeling, and seeing that almost every single Nitzche over the years had a very similar set of memories had only made her wonder more and more why the past she brought from her mind was filled with so many bad feelings.
Through the trees, Flurry could now see the entrance of the Library; the one place she could think Wysoka would go. On her way there, she had been fairly confident, but now, as she stood a distance from the two doors, they felt daunting. Her chest tightened as she stared, her vision barely being distracted by a deep gray mare departing from the building. With a deep sigh, she began down the cobblestone path. Before pushing the doors open, her eyes were once more drawn to the scripture engraved so wonderfully on the stone arch above the doors: "Lunaz Lekkti Może Obdarzyć Szczęścia I Pokoju"
Pushing open the leftmost door let a substantial creak echo through the expansive and quiet Library, the chandeliers hanging above now having some of their many candles lit to provide the huge space with an acceptable amount of light. Flurry's eyes instantly went to a modest crowd of Nitzche stood around one of the short reading tables within the Library's center, every single one of them turning to stare at her with their wide, slit pupil eyes. From mare to stallion, every single Nitzche's fur was the exact same shade of gunship gray, the only variance in color being their wonderfully bright eyes and dark tones of their manes and tails. Another thing taken to notice was the fact every single stallion she could see had their figure adorned with the same three items Mennika, Morsemere, and the other two Nitzche they had encountered within the forest wore; a pair of specially attached saddlebags, a deep blue, long-sleeved coat, and a strange, wood and metal weapon slung to their side.
Through the staring crowd Flurry's eyes were drawn to those of Wysoka as she poked her head above the formation, her blood-shot, yet still radiant eyes peering to her with a look she hadn't really expected; happiness. Reluctantly, Flurry began towards the group, their eyes never leaving the young Alicorn as she made her approach.
"Lunaz Gritza, Flurry Heart." One of the mare Nitzche spoke in a soft tone, her expression turning to a little smile.
Flurry's mind couldn't bring any appropriate words to her tongue as she continued her silent walk. Upon having the gap fully closed, many of the Nitzche who had been standing close took Flurry in a warm, collective hug, those who had not gotten the chance to frontally hug the young Alicorn simply nuzzling her sides with their cheeks. Totally paralyzed, Flurry stood with her eyes locked to Wysoka's, a short, tear-shuddered chuckle coming from the black mare as she wiped her cheek with a hoof.
"I-I told them what you told me. The Nitzche are happy that you told me the truth about my past... and about my family. They... they say, at hearing I do not have family... they all told me 'Jesteśmy linia krwi, Wysoka'. It means, 'we are family, Wysoka'."
Her chest shuddered, fresh tears making their way down her already damp cheeks. Flurry felt her heart drop through her chest as she looked to the happily weeping mare, who now had a single Nitzche stallion nuzzling her side in consolation. Those around Flurry broke their embrace, her eyes browsing over their emotional expressions in a quick moment before turning back to Wysoka. For a single moment, the only sound to quietly echo in the hall were the cries from Wysoka. It was a cry unlike one Flurry had ever heard; she had heard many ponies weep over her few years, but this mare's cry was somehow different. With heavy hooves, Wysoka stood from her pillow at the table, loftily stepping to Flurry and kneeling before the younger Alicorn as she pulled her into a tight hug. Wysoka's chest shuttered against Flurry's as the black mare's tears fell, Flurry's own hooves slowly coming to meet the embrace.
"T-Thank you... thank you for coming to this place. Thank you... with all of my being." Wysoka muttered through her shaky breaths, Flurry's own tears beginning to make their way down her cheeks.
"I... I thought you'd be mad at us." Choked Flurry.
"Mad? No... no, never! I know the truth now!" Wysoka gave a sniffle as she released Flurry from her tight embrace, "I do not care you waited, I understand why you waited, I was a horrible being in the past... that is why when you and your family saw me, you were scared."
"What happened in your past doesn't matter, Wysoka. That barely counts as your past; you aren't that pony anymore. Nightmare Moon wasn't a pony that smiled, or..." Flurry laughed, "gave ponies cookies, but you are a pony that smiles... and you're much more than that. Bad pasts don't matter when you have a good present."
Wysoka totally froze, staring at Flurry with her mouth slightly agape.
"I have a good present?"
"That's not a question you ask me, that's a question you ask yourself."
Wysoka's stance straightened as she looked around the Library, her eyes temporarily meeting with each and every one of the surrounding Nitzche who she had the pleasure of calling her family.
"I... I have a good present,"
The collective clop of Wysoka and Flurry's hooves on the cobblestone paths of the pitch-black town rang through the quiet forest as they made their way back home, Flurry's horn giving enough light for her to just barely see the pavement before her as they talked. Wysoka's steps still seeming heavy and her head still held a little low, something Flurry had begun to take notice of.
"It makes me sad to see you sad, Wysoka. I... I'm sorry that you had to find out everything in such a bad way."
"No way to find out would be good, little Flurry. And, do not be sad for me; I will be fine soon," There was a short pause as Wysoka sighed, "I... for a long time, knew, deep in my mind, I wouldn't have family like you. Then, at night, Wsparcie came to me and said "Oh! Wysoka! You cannot believe this, in Ciemny, far far away, we find two poniska, we are sure they are poniska, like you!". I have these three Wsparcie follow you and mother for a while, and then you found Shining Armor, and the three Wsparcie tell me of this, so I make sure that you three can come to Nazomova and be safe from the odziałpisk."
"So you did have somepony follow us! We were wondering why Mennika and his friends kept popping up," Flurry's words stopped for a moment as she thought about something else Wysoka had stated, "What's an 'odzeealpisk'?" She inquired, horribly mispronouncing the word.
"Odziałpisk are black creatures, they feed from bats and, if they are very, very lucky, Nitzche; your father was fighting them in the storm, I remember my three Wsparcie telling me how they were now so sure you were powerful poniskas because he fought lots of Odziałpisk and never gets hurt. After that night, I tell those Wsparcie to keep following and make sure you come to Nazomova because, when I hear you are poniska like me, and I hear you are strong with magic, I think that maybe you and family could help find my memory of family. I am not sad because I do not have the family like you do, little Flurry... I am sad because I thought, for a first time in so long, that I had the way to find my family. I felt hope, I don't feel hope for a long time, then you and family come here, and I felt lots of hope."
That horrible feeling had come back to Flurry's heart as she looked at the slouching Alicorn to her side, Flurry doing her best to give Wysoka's side a nuzzle with her own side, but their height difference rendered such a gesture more loving than actually effective.
"I wish we could have told you that you have family somewhere waiting for you... but like the Nitzche said, you have family here. Some families are stuck together because they're related, but the family you have now; they're special. They chose you, you didn't get born with them. That's a special, loving bond a lot of ponies would want."
Wysoka looked down to Flurry for a moment before bringing her radiantly blue eyes back up to the town before her, the soft warmth of Flurry's little nuzzle to her side bringing her a smile. Silence fell over the duo as they walked, the occasional peep of a bat being the only noticeable sound.
"Little Flurry... do I get old?" Wysoka inquired out of the blue, her question catching Flurry a little off-guard.
"What do you mean?"
"23 years ago, when I first come to Nazomova, I knew many Nitzche who were all young then like you, and I knew some who were like your family, and I knew some that were old, and they are gone... but I look at myself and I have never got older. I look the same; tonight and 23 years... nothing changed. Nitzche told me I am a lot like Lunaz; because I am poniska, and she is, and I have horn and wing like her, they told me I do not get old like her. Is that true?"
"Yeah, it's true. You're immortal, just like Luna, and Celestia, and me and my Mom. You'll outlive every friend and every family member you'll meet."
"I... will live forever?"
"Immortality isn't invincibility, you still need to eat, drink, sleep, and do everything a normal pony does. You won't die like a normal pony, you won't lie in bed while your friends say goodbye... you'll die when someone decides they want to kill you."
Wysoka stayed quiet, her steps slowing a bit as this new information rattled in her mind, "Why would someone want to kill me? I love my Nitzche and they love me."
Flurry too went quiet for a moment, "The Nitzche probably won't ever want to hurt you. Someone else will, or something."
"What if a Nitzche does want to hurt me... what do I do?"
"Wysoka... I don't know. You have to make that decision when the time comes. Hurting others that want to hurt you isn't always a solution. Princess Celestia has been alive for thousands of years, and she's never killed another pony or creature."
"I have killed before... does that make me bad?"
"What did you kill?"
"Odziałpisk. It jumped from tree onto me, and I got scared. I hit Odziałpisk's chest with my magic, and then the Odziałpisk didn't move. I tried to make it get up, but it was dead."
Flurry couldn't take her eyes from the look in Wysoka's gaze as she stared directly forward.
"It was an accident. I have seen Odziałpisk before, and I can take them with my magic and put them back into the tree and they will run away."
"No, that doesn't make you bad, Wysoka. Sometimes... that's something you have to do..." "But you say Celestia lives for thousands of years, and she has never killed. I want to be like her; I want to be good."
"Wysoka... you are good. Defending yourself doesn't make you bad."
"Are Nitzche good, too? They use their strzalt to kill the Odziałpisk if an Odziałpisk gets close... but the Odziałpisk will kill Nitzche if they get close..."
Flurry chuckled, "Yes, the Nitzche are good, too. Once again, defending yourself isn't bad," She paused, thinking on a single word from Wysoka's dialogue, "Strzalt? Is that what their weapons are called?"
Wysoka gave a little hum, "Strzalt is their weapon, yes. Every Nitzche has one, but the Wsparcie use it the most. Wsparcie, in Equestrian, means Support; they protect Nazomova and Jaskinia from the Odziałpisk."
"Jaskinia?"
"The cave, in the mountain; that is where the Nitzche lived long, long, long ago. They still live there, Jaskinia is where new families have their young and raise their young. Jaskinia is a very special place for the Nitzche... I do not know if they would let me show it to you."
"Wow... the Nitzche really are like bats."
"Bats love Nitzche. Lots of Nitzche have bats that live inside their house, and bats live in the trees here in Nazomova. The trees here are safe; Odziałpisk are smart, they know not to come here."
"Why don't you have any bats in your house? I mean, I don't really like bats... so I'm kind of glad they aren't there, but it seems like you'd have some."
"They come and go. When you and your family slept a few bats came in and slept above you in the ceiling. I like to leave my windows open in the day because they can come in if they like, but Nitzche don't like the day, so they keep windows closed."
"So, you don't mind the sunlight as much as the Nitzche?"
Wysoka hummed, "Sun hurts their eyes, for me, not so bad."
"That certainly explains why all of the Nitzche wear those goggles during the day," Flurry had a thought, her eyes widening a little further at the idea, "Does the sun burn them? Like, being in direct sunlight, does that hurt?"
"No, it is just too warm and bright. They don't like it."
"How about you? Do you like being in the sun?"
Wysoka tilted her head, one corner of her mouth raising further than the other as she gave a little 'eh' of indifference, "The light is too bright for me, but the warm... not so bad. The Wsparcie I have to follow you thought it was funny how you and family slept in the sun. They cannot think of doing that."
"Speaking of the Wsparcie you had follow us, my Mom's been wanting to give Mennika his compass back; he gave it to us the night they found us, but we don't need it anymore, and it does have his name engraved on it."
"I know Mennika, I know his home, too... but he is Wsparcie, Wsparcie spend lots of time out, so I don't know where he can be. I will take the compass and when I see him, I can give it to him."
"What do Wsparcie do while they're 'out'?"
"Lots of things. They make sure Odziałpisk stay far, they find more places to put trees and plants to grow food, and they find best trees to cut down. Tonight, moon is big, so lots of Nitzche are out to cut down tree and move it. That's why Nazomova is quiet now, normally lots of Nitzche walk and fly and talk."
"Wait... what does the moon being full have to do with them working to cut down the tree?"
"Nitzche magic is not like mine, or yours or family's. I... still have hard time to know how theirs works, but it is strong when the moon is high and big. My magic is strong all the time, and is so much stronger than Nitzche. Sometimes they have me help move trees because I can do it all by myself, but they know you are here, so they did not ask tonight."
"Their magic is tied with the moon? That explains why they can use magic without horns, and why it's so weak during the day!"
"How does my magic work? It is always strong, during day or night, and even when the moon is smaller.
"I, well... I don't know. My mom would know more about this kind of thing than I would..." Upon speaking, Flurry's horn cast its light around on her surroundings, "We were supposed to be going back to your house, Wysoka; and your house isn't too far from the library..."
"I wanted to talk more." Smiled Wysoka.
"Fair enough. I just don't want my parents to get worried."
"We can go back, then. I feel mad at myself for not telling your family what I saw in the memory, so I can do that now."
"Wysoka, you learned everything about your life in the span of 5 minutes! You don't need to feel bad for not telling us right away; you needed some time to figure things out."
"And I don't remember a lot of what I saw... I was so focused on Celestia, but like I say! We can go home now, and I will tell what I remember, and when the sun comes up and we all sleep I can search your memories again."
"Hearing somepony say "I can search your memories again" is really weird..."
Cadance and Shining sat up from their cuddled position near the fire as a soft knock sounded from the tall door of Wysoka's house.
"I guess Flurry sorted things out with Wysoka..." Shining commented as he stood, Cadance's soft, pink wing sliding from his figure.
"I hope she's not too horribly shaken by this. When we first told her everything she seemed really upset."
Shining's hoof lifted the simple metal latch holding the door closed up, the now freed door swinging outward with a simple push to reveal the silhouetted figure of a single Nitzche, her bright blue eyes shining through the dark. The mare and Shining shared a look of confusion for a moment, the mare finally stepping closer and peeking over his shoulder into the home.
"Wysoka?"
"She's uh... she's not here." Returned Shining, shaking his head side to side.
"Czy ona nie tutaj?" Spoke the male voice of an unseen Nitzche, Shining's eyes straining to make out his figure in the purely black world beyond the home.
The mare took a step back, looking over her shoulder to her companion, who Shining could now see was standing beside a cart loaded with some sort of cargo, "Nie."
The two shared some dialogue in their tongue, occasionally looking to the still perplexed Shining as they conversed. A familiar, deep female voice called through the darkness, both Nitzche and Shining looking down the street to see Wysoka's gently radiant eyes and mane through the blackness, a shorter, dimly lit pink figure at her side.
"Lunaz Gritza, Wysoka!" Chimed the stallion Nitzche upon seeing her.
"Lunaz Gritza. Przepraszam za to, ze odszedtl," Spoke Wysoka as she closed the gap, Flurry splitting from her side and trotting towards Shining.
"So, I take it Wysoka feels a little better?" Shining asked once Flurry was in earshot, watching as Wysoka craned her head to share a welcoming nuzzle with the stallion.
"A little. She's really curious,"
Shining stepped through the doorway back into the home, Flurry following as they allowed Wysoka and the two Nitzche converse, "About what?"
"Everything. She wants to know about her magic, if she'll live forever, if she's bad for having killed one of the tree panthers... it's so strange to hear questions like that from somepony so smart."
"She's killed one of those things?"
"Yeah; and she feels terrible about it."
"Hello! You were not so worried about me, I hope?" Wysoka spoke, bringing the duo's attention to her as she walked up the little stairs of her home, her blue aura holding a little wooden crate and two sacks.
"Just a little worried," Shining explained, he and Flurry stepping aside to let Wysoka in, "What's all that stuff?"
"More foods. They wanted to give me more because your family is here,"
As Wysoka disappeared down the stairs to the cellar, Shining went back to Cadance's side while Flurry sat at the short table of the little room, taking one of the soft, blue fruits Wysoka had left out in her magic.
"She seems to be taking this well..." Cadance commented quietly, draping her wing back over Shining to pull him closer.
"I walked around with her for a while just talking, and if anything she only wants to know more. That, and the Nitzche helped quite a bit. She told a bunch of them her story while she was in the library and they all told her that they were her family," Finished Flurry as she took a bite of her fruit.
"Aww, that's so sweet of them. They really are a nice group of ponies."
"Yeah, they are. When I walked in a bunch of them hugged me and nuzzled me because, as Wysoka said; they're happy we were able to tell her of her past. And, poor Wysoka, she feels bad that she was too focused on Celestia in my memory and didn't remember much of what actually happened."
"You were there, what do you remember?" Shining inquired.
"I saw what Wysoka saw... it was really odd, I couldn't look around or move, or feel anything, but I remember you and some other guards were holding the door to whatever room we were in shut, and you; Mom, were talking to Princess Celestia, and you both weren't happy."
"I... I don't understand; why was Celestia there? And Luna, and Twilight?"
"Dunno, but we were certainly in Canterlot. We were in some room of the Castle, but I have no clue which one it was."
"Why would we be in Canterlot? That just doesn't make any sense to me..."
"What's even stranger is that whatever was trying to get in... it wasn't a monster or something; it was other ponies. I could hear other voices shouting, and angrily."
Cadance and Shining shared a look of despair, "Honey, you don't think..." "Okay, food is nice and organized!" Interrupted Wysoka's voice as she came up the stairs, "Flurry's family, I want to say sorry for not keeping my promise," Wysoka sat at her desk, facing the trio, "I said I can find out what happened, but I only focused on Celestia and then Lunaz."
"Told ya." Flurry quickly commented through her mouthful of fruit.
"You're fine, Wysoka. When's the quickest you can look back and try to find out what happened? Flurry told us what she remembered, and I think our friends and family might need our help a lot more than I thought."
A gentle, orange glow began to flood over the seemingly endless ocean of canopy. The sun had just begun to peek over the far off mountain ranges, and from the little rocky platform Wysoka sat upon at the side of Nazomova's mountain face, she watched. The poniska family had gone to sleep a short while ago, and she wanted to give them all time to get comfortable and drift to a more peaceful state of mind. They had been quite stressed after mauling over the details of what little Flurry had seen in her memory, and a stressed state of mind wasn't good when trying to see into another's dreams and memories. Her own thoughts had been clouded by stress and fear, and even now, sitting upon her special plateau of rock that seamlessly melded with the huge, steep face of the mountain, she failed to totally calm herself.
Her methods of clearing thoughts and temporarily forgetting about the world failed her, a lonely feeling and lonely thoughts still managing to seep through walls she always thought to be impenetrable. She still couldn't decide if she was happy or sad to find out she didn't have a birth family like all those around her had. It had been a while's time since she had last truly cared about having a mother and father or not; she had distracted herself by helping her Nitzche friends build homes or cut down trees, but now that her house sheltered the poniska family, it was something she couldn't take her mind from in the slightest. While she sat at her desk either reading books written by other Nitzche friends, or clacking away at her type writer, her eyes couldn't help but peer behind her to the family. Seeing them smile, seeing them sleep together, eat together, talk together; it only reminded her that in her memories those warm feelings didn't exist. She went to her Nitzche friend's houses sometimes to have food and to talk, she would go to the Biblioteka, or 'Library' as little Flurry called it, to read books or to study her own work with some of her Nitzche friends, she would help gather fruit from the trees on the other side of Nazomova's mountain, she would be part of votes and attend the gatherings in Jaskinia where everyone would come to have lots of food and talk, but even with all of the fun things she did, that exact feeling never came.
"Szczęśliwy poranek, Wysoka." (Happy mornings, Wysoka.) Spoke a familiar male voice, Wysoka's head raising to see one of her Wsparcie friends approaching through the air, his eyes covered by his special goggles and his short, deep blue mane and tail barely moving in the gentle breeze of the mountain side.
A gentle 'clop' sounded through the perfectly silent morning's air as his hooves touched to the rocks near the plateau, the weapon slung at his side being taken by a faint aura of white magic, its sling coming up and over his head as the weapon came to rest on the stone.
"Szczęśliwy poranek, Pitaya." (Happy mornings, Pitaya.) Returned Wysoka with a gentle smile, watching as Pitaya sat to his haunches a short distance from her, facing the same direction as she to look out across Ciemny.
"Edelweiss mi i Morsemere o tym, jak teraz wiemy, co wydarzyło się w przeszłości. Chciałem się upewnić, że nie jesteś smutny." (Edelweiss told me and Morsemere about how you now know what happened in your past. I wanted to come make sure you were not sad) Wysoka smiled brightly, unfurling her huge, feathered wing to embrace the much smaller figure of Pitaya, his entire body almost being consumed by the black blanket.
"Dziękuję Ci. Jestem w porządku ... Potrzebuję czasu, aby mój umysł jest spokojny." (Thank you. I am fine... I need time to let my mind calm.)
"Powiedział pan jesteś dobrze w przeszłości, i nie było w porządku. Chciałem się upewnić." (You have said you are fine in the past, and not been fine. I wanted to make sure.)
"I będzie w porządku, po pewnym czasie." (I will be fine, after some time.)
Silence came over the two, both Pitaya and Wysoka enjoying their embrace. Like many of her Nitzche friends, she had known Pitaya since he had been a young colt. Now knowing she would simply remain while those around her would disappear made her pull him closer, the fabric of his uniform and saddlebags being there instead of his fur.
"Jestem nieśmiertelny..." (I am immortal...) Wysoka said with an almost lamenting tone.
"Mówisz zdenerwowany... Czy to źle?" (You sound upset... is that a bad thing?)
"Jeszcze nie wiem." (I don't know yet.)
"Cieszę się, że można żyć wiecznie. Jesteś zbyt miły umrzeć." (I'm glad you can live forever. You are too nice to die.)
After speaking, Pitaya leaned himself into Wysoka, his head resting on her side. Her breath caught in her chest, her heart seeming to skip a beat upon hearing Pitaya's words. Her A single tear made it's way down Wysoka's cheek as she looked to her Nitzche friend, who simply returned the gaze with a smile.
The sun now sat fully past the horizon, but those few still awake in the streets of Nazomova could barely tell. Wysoka shared a friendly smile with a young couple as she passed on her way back to her home, the duo wishing her a good day's sleep as they too continued on home. They both looked fairly worn out, especially the stallion; his dark blue coat was unbuttoned and his goggles were lazy draped around his neck. Those other few Nitzche she passed help the same tired stature in their posture; for most, it had been a busy night of working together to move a downed tree or collect more fruit from nearby plantations. She hoped there weren't any hard feelings towards her; normally when a tree was to be downed she would tag along and, with her much stronger magic, move it all on her own. Nitzche's magic wasn't too strong, so anything that involved moving something larger than a crate or cart meant more Nitzche had to help. For the huge trees of Ciemny, a good half of all of Nazomova would be needed to help.
Wysoka sighed as she looked at her home, a few little sleeping bats hung upside down on the edge of the roof. Upon walking down the short path to her home and gently pushing open the door with a hoof, Wysoka stepped inside, her magic quickly taking the door to close it with almost zero sound. The only light in the room came from a small flame still burning within the fireplace, a periodic pop punctuating the room like a timer counting down the fire's life. Walking to her desk, Wysoka opened the topmost drawer and retrieved a little block of cukier trawy, a wonderfully fragrant and relaxing incense made from a sweet-tasting grass that grew around Ciemny. Taken from the top of the desk was a square, wooden dish already topped with the ashen remains of a previous cukier trawy that, annoyingly, fell from the dish to the once pristine surface of the desk.
"Kurwa..." Wysoka mumbled under her breath, setting the dish and cukier trawy down and beginning towards the kitchen.
After taking a washcloth to the kitchen sink to dampen it, she stepped back to the desk and swiftly cleaned the little pile of ash, taking the cukier trawy and dish back to her magic and floating the cloth into the kitchen sink to be cleaned later as she began upstairs. Tucked into her large bed, comfortably and peacefully, was the poniska family, little Flurry's hooves sticking from beneath the blanket and hanging off her side of the bed while her parents faced each other, cuddled together in their embrace. Quietly, Wysoka stepped to little Flurry's side, laying to her stomach and placing the cukier trawy atop the little wooden dish, her magic causing the very top of the block to catch fire, and after letting it burn for a short moment, blew the tiny flame out to leave a glowing ember, a perfect column or relaxing smoke rising into the still air of the room. Taking a deep breath, letting the smoke flow into her nostrils, Wysoka's horn began to hold a black, wavering aura of magic, her head craning to touch the point of her spire-like horn to little Flurry's temple, and like it always had; things went gray.
Being in this purely metaphysical realm once more confirmed something Wysoka had felt the first time being within Flurry's thoughts; there was seemingly more power to them. Not only were they a little clearer than when she looked at her Nitzche friend's dreams, but there were many more than in her Nitzche friend's dreams. Why was little Flurry special? Why, when in her mind, could she see more memories from little Flurry being young and older? There was a second thing she had noticed; little Flurry seemed to have a light energy to her being. When in her own dreams, Wysoka had noticed that her mind and memories had an energy that was, for lack of a better term, dark; dark like the aura her horn held when going directly into another's mind. Her Nitzche friends weren't dark like her, or bright like little Flurry, they were a neutral sort of feeling, like there was balance. It was beginning to trouble Wysoka; what was so special and different about little Flurry? Were all poniska like this? Were her parents like this? Suddenly, an idea clicked into Wysoka's thoughts. When she would sleep, and explore the lands around Ciemny, there was always that neutral feeling like with her Nitzche friends, and when she got too far away to where she couldn't go further, the places beyond weren't dark or neutral, but bright. It was something she had never done before, but what if she could somehow bring little Flurry into that place with her, maybe her light was what would let her go further. Maybe that light was where the other poniska were, and because Flurry was a poniska, she could go there.
Wysoka's eyes opened back to the real world. Little Flurry was still sound asleep before her. It was now totally day-time, a little bit of natural light coming in through the open windows, and the incense had completely burnt away. As she looked around the room, her eyes fell to the still sleeping family, her mind working as she thought of a plan. Maybe little Flurry's parents were like her, and their beings were bright. Could she somehow bring all three of them with her? It was a crazy idea, and she was doubtful it would work at all; but what if she could use their brightness to find the other poniska? Cadance was so worried for her family, and Shining worried about his sister, so what if she could find their family while in that other place? If she could, she could find out if they were safe, and she could go into their dreams and tell them how to find Cadance and Shining and Flurry. But... how could she do that? She could only go into that place while being asleep, and if she could bring another into that place, she had no idea how.
What if she tried to go to her other place while inside little Flurry's dreams? That was something she had never done before... but thinking back, almost everything she had tried to do had succeeded, so... why wouldn't this? That was one thing that frightened her about her abilities; when she slept, there seemed to be no bounds. If she could think of it, it could happen. She spent countless hours simply seeing just what she could create, and thus far her only limiting factor was her imagination and her own hesitation to attempt anything radical. Wysoka shut her eyes, taking a deep breath as her magic began to work, her horn touching to Flurry's temple.
Once more, she entered little Flurry's conscious. Wysoka's magic worked within this realm, her mind focusing as she tried to do what she had never attempted; go to that place within another's mind. Suddenly, very much to her surprise, she was there. Her sight no longer saw the memories and thoughts of little Flurry; instead, she saw the trees above Nazomova, the mountains in the distance, and the permanently twilight sky shimmering with stars. She had done it; she had no idea how, or how it had been so easy, but she had done it. Her sight moved down towards Nazomova, the little dots of dreams of every sleeping creature in the town showing themselves to her like beacons. She had spent many hours within this place in her mind trying to learn more about it, trying to discover what secrets it may hold, or why it showed her the minds of every being around her, yet did not follow the same constraints as the real world. There was no time of day; the sky remained a wonderful deep purple and blue, and the unseen sun cast just enough light for things to be visible, but not enough to blot out the beauty of the night's stars. Her sight turned eastwards, as that was the one direction where that bright light had always come from. North held no light, neither did south or west; but for some reason, east was the place she could feel and see that light like a halo of existence, it felt the exact same as the little contrast she could feel from the Nitzche, and even the surrounding creatures in the forest, but it was so much brighter and wider. That had do be where Equestria was.
As her sight scrolled over the dim lands at a fairly hasty pace, Wysoka heard a young feminine voice speaking through her mind, it was a questioning voice, and a worried one, she asked what was happening, why she was moving, and why she couldn't control anything. It was little Flurry; her mind was awake in the world, and she could see what Wysoka saw.
'Calm, Flurry. This place will feel odd, but there is nothing to fear.'
Flurry's voice returned with questions as to what Wysoka was doing, and why she could see the world passing by as if they were on a quickly moving train.
'I am using our magic to find your Equestria, so I can find Celestia and Lunaz to tell them where you and your family are.'
Flurry remained quiet, seeming to be pleased by the answer. Now, something she hadn't quite anticipated, was being able to hear the thoughts going through little Flurry's mind. She spoke to no one, simply thinking and wondering about her situation and just how odd the entire sensation was. Wysoka let her ponder, not giving any input as she continued forward, the huge trees and winding valley mountain ranges seeming to continue forever. Occasionally she would see the dreams or the simple light of a creature, some being bats, some being Odziałpisk, and some being from various other beings she had never seen in the real world. Flurry's questions to herself continued, her mind wondering as to how she too could see the dreams of creatures.
'You see them, too?'
Flurry's voice came back with a yes followed by a question Wysoka couldn't quite answer; why did she choose her? Why not one of her parents? Wysoka stayed quiet, letting herself focus on the dim world and awesome sky as she pondered an answer.
'I was already within your dreams when I came to this place.'
Flurry inquired as to what she had discovered; if she had found out why there were angry ponies trying to get inside, and why she was with Twilight, Celestia and Luna. Her voice was worried as she now asked if she knew if they were alright.
'I do not know. I had this idea to use your mind to come to this place before I started to look for answers. I hope I can find your friends and family in this place and tell them everything. Maybe they can get you back home, and maybe I can find Lunaz. She had powers like me to be in this place, and if I find her, I can tell her.'
There was an echoing of thoughts as Flurry's mind processed what Wysoka had told her. Flurry then posed another question she would have a hard time answering; what if this doesn't work?
'Then I try harder.'
Her words in Flurry's voice echoed for a second as she thought on them. Flurry then thanked her, saying how she and her family owed her so much for the help she had so generously offered.
'Help others remember is what I do. I have helped my Nitzche friends remember lots of things, big and small. Some want me to remind them where they left their goggles or bag, and some want me to remind me of a loved friend who has gone away. If I will help my Nitzche friends, I will help you the same.'
Once more, and with a very warm feeling, Flurry thanked her. The lands had finally begun to change; the mountains were still quite the same, but the trees were no longer the huge, thick canopy type of Ciemny. They were smaller, more spread out and with thinner leaves; the forest floor faintly visible through the gaps in between trees. There were many little lakes and ponds dotting the now fairly flat lands, many of them most likely being formed by snow melting from the mountains during the summer. She remembered this place; this was always where she could never go past, but as the lands passed by, an incredible feeling of joy came to her mind. Nothing worked to stop her, the trees and mountains simply moved by at a steady but quick pace.
Though, she had now noticed something; the light she suspected to be Equestria and the other poniska was not there, it had been replaced by a dimmer, strange aurora. Suddenly, the land totally stopped; below and all around was water, like a huge, never ending lake. Her sight moved back to see the line of where the land met this huge lake disappearing into the distance. What was this lake, and why did it never seem to end? Now, in all directions, she could see nothing but water. But still; nothing stopped her, nothing hurt, and she had not woken up with blood leaking from her nose. It was working, Flurry's magic had somehow helped to push her further into this twilight land of dreams.
Wysoka was still taken aback at the sheer size of this body of water. Long ago, when she first woke up in that far away field, she had flown over many lakes; some seeming to be quite impressive at the time, but this one? If she had a breath, it would be taken. Flurry's questioning voice returned to ask where they were. Little Flurry was becoming quite good at asking questions Wysoka couldn't answer.
'We are over a lake... one I have neve seen.'
Flurry made a comment on how they weren't over a lake because it was too big, instead insisting that they were over an ocean. Ocean. Wysoka had never heard that word.
'What is an ocean?'
It was explained that it was simply a huge body of water that separated land masses, and upon explaining that, her thoughts ran with questions and speculations on where they were, specifically asking which direction Wysoka had gone.
'East.'
Little Flurry's thoughts once more worked, another set of words she had never heard before cropping up; Forgotten Sea. With a shocked tone to her thoughts, Flurry came to the conclusion that her mother had somehow teleported them to the other side of the planet, or somewhere close to that point.
'Your mother has very strong magic if she can do that. I can move myself, but I have to see the place I want to go.'
As the ocean scrolled past, Wysoka could finally begin to see land; it started as a simple sliver, but as she moved that sliver quickly turned to an entirely new land, one dotted with trees, grass, and tall mountains. It was so similar to the places around Nazomova, yet it was so different. As the ocean faded into the distance and the land took over, Wysoka could now see buildings and houses out in the open, but her sight couldn't see any dreams from whoever lived in these houses. She thought it was odd that these towns were simply open to the world; no trees to cover them from the sun, not even a wall around them to keep out Odziałpisk.
Then, in the distance, she could see more and more towns, all of them being larger than the little ones she had gone past. Through all of the sights within this place, one stood out like no other; a town that was built upon the tall plateau of a mountain, and built into the side of the tallest part of this mountain was an amazing building, one constructed from fine stone, it's tall features topped with wonderful spires and ornate domes.
'Is this Canterlot?'
Flurry's voice returned with a yes, her thoughts then turning to the fact that this magnificent building was where she and her family had been right before being teleported away, and her thoughts began to worry about Twilight, Celestia and Luna. Wysoka's thoughts could only rest on one thing; why could she not see the dreams of those alive in this place? It then occurred to her; in the real world, it was day, and the poniska like Flurry were awake now. Her sight began to wander to other places, looking around the landscapes of a place she now knew to be called Equestria. In the distance, her vision caught something strange; it was not a little glow like the ones given off by the dreams of a sleeping being, it was the opposite, a purely black halo. The longer her sight rested upon it, the bigger it seemed to be. It was coming from a small town tucked right at the beginning of a little forest, that little town eventually disappearing behind the black halo as it slowly expanded outward... or was it moving towards her? Flurry's thoughts began to question what this anomaly was, as had Wysoka's. She tried to move back from this strange blackness, but she found her vision locked in place, her sight not being able to move from the enclosing blackness. It now felt cold; though she had no body, she could feel its chill, it was a feeling that would have brought a knot to her stomach.
In an instant, the world changed from her view of this enclosing black to the moment she remembered from little Flurry's dreams; the bright room in the castle where she had been teleported. Standing away from the window, and facing directly at her, was Lunaz. Wysoka couldn't bring herself to divert her gaze to the frozen memory, the only thing moving in the paused plain of existence was Lunaz, her silent steps bringing her towards Wysoka.
"It simply isn't possible..." Lunaz spoke quietly, her steps pausing as she stared at the spot where Wysoka's vision rested.
"What isn't?"
Shock took Wysoka's thoughts. She had spoken. She couldn't speak in dreams. Why could she now?
"You... you aren't. How are you alive, and able to do what you do?"
"I don't know."
Lunaz shook her head, pacing closer to Wysoka.
"Why are you within my realm, Nightmare Moon?"
Wysoka felt that same fear she had felt the first time she had laid eyes on Lunaz.
"I am Wysoka, not Nightmare Moon. Little Flurry told me about my past, and that I was bad, but I'm good now. I'm helping her and her family."
Lunaz paused completely, her expression holding a scold of confusion.
"You're helping them how?"
"By finding you. Cadance and Shining Armor and little Flurry worry a lot about you and Celestia and Twilight, and they want to come back home, but I found you, so now you can help them."
The dream went black like it had in the past, the only thing in the void being the perfectly still figure of Lunaz, "Indeed I can... but what I must do may hurt you."
"That's okay, Lunaz. I want to be good."
Wysoka saw a look in Lunaz's expression she had never expected to see; a look of sadness. Lunaz disappeared in an instant, Wysoka's eyes beginning to flutter open, her vision only seeing a horribly bright light. Her eyes adjusted to this light, and she began to see the green walls and wooden rafters the room she was in and the blue day-time sky outside the window of the room. It was not her home.
"Luna, did it work?" Inquired a soft, angelic female voice, the voice causing Wysoka to divert her gaze to the right.
Her eyes met with the wonderfully pink eyes of a large, concerned looking white mare, her spiraling horn long like hers, and her long, pink, blue and green mane flowing gently from her figure. It was Celestia. Wysoka's groggy mind raced as she tried to figure out exactly what was going on.
"Luna?"
Wysoka continued staring at Celestia, her head raising from the bed she lay in, her head swimming and entire body feeling light-weight and floaty.
"Princess... I don't think that's Luna. I think she did it." Came a second voice, Wysoka peering to meet the one she now knew to be Twilight.
"It's you. You're Nightmare Moon." Celestia spoke with a low tone, her head craning closer to Wysoka.
"Wysoka..." She returned, her eyes widening and heart now pounding in her chest; the voice she heard had not been her own, it wasn't as deep, it sounded a lot younger than hers.
Her floaty hoof came from beneath the warm sheets tucking her in, and the sight of the limb caused her heart to pound faster. Her fur was not a pure black, but a midnight blue, and her hoof was adorned with a strange, blued-metallic shoe. It looked exactly like Lunaz's hoof.
"Wysoka... that's what you call yourself?" Celestia inquired intently, her expression holding a look of wonder.
"Nitzche called me Wysoka, and so does little Flurry and her family."
Celestia and Twilight shared a look of wonder, a smile working its way onto both of their expressions.
"Thank you for keeping them safe," Celestia spoke as she turned back around, looking down as Wysoka slowly raised her hoof to gently touch the side of her face.
"Celestia... I am sorry for being bad. I am good now."
Her smile faded to a look exactly like the look on Lunaz's face moments ago, "You are good now... Wysoka."
Wysoka had no time to speak before her vision went black, the feeling of her body fading away as her thoughts quieted themselves. Things stayed black. Black like when she had fought with that white ponsika. Feeling began to return, her body burning with a pain like when she had first woken up in the far away field. Slowly, her eyes opened, her gaze meeting with the worried eyes of many of her Nitzche friends. A horrible metallic taste began to fill her mouth, her head throbbing and the base of her horn stinging as if she had been hit in the head. Her head slowly began rising from the floor of her home, her eyes darting around to see she was in her upstairs room, lots and lots of her friends being in the room, looking at her with worry. She groaned loudly, placing her head back to the floor. She had tried to go past that place in her mind again. Her friends would be annoyed that she scared them again by trying to go past that place.
"Wiem ... Próbowałem zrobić to ponownie, a ja powiedziałem, że nie." (I know... I tried to do it again, and I said I wouldn't.) She finally spoke, shutting her eyes as she coughed, a few drops of blood leaving her lips and landing to the wooden floor.
"Wysoka, dobrze się czujesz? Spałeś tak długo, a rodzina poniska nie ma!" (Wysoka, are you okay? You've been asleep for so long, and the poniska family is gone!) Cried the worried voice of her friend Edelweiss, Wysoka opening her eyes to see her, Morsemere, Pitaya, Speck, Mennika, and many others looking to her.
"Poniska rodzina? O czym mówisz?" (Poniska family? What are you talking about?)
"Flurry, Cadance i Shining! Przybyli tu kilka dni temu, a oni powiedzieli ci swoją przeszłość, pamiętasz?" (Flurry, Cadance, and Shining! They came here a few days ago, and they told you your past, remember?)
Wysoka's heart pounded. Someone had told her of her past? Who were the other ponsika that Edelwiess mentioned? Why were they gone? Why couldn't she remember?
"Nie, nie pamiętam ... Ja ... Ja nie pamiętam. Kto powiedział mi moją przeszłość? Co to jest? Czy oni wam też?" (No, no I don't remember... I... I don't remember. Who told me my past? What is it? Did they tell you, too?)
Edelwiess looked sad, "Powiedziałeś nam, co to było ... ale tylko powiedział nam kilka rzeczy, jak to, że nie mam rodziny." (You told us what it was... but you only told us a few things, like that you don't have a family.)
Wysoka felt a horrid feeling wash over her, her mind reeling as it tried to process what Edelwiess was telling her.
"N-Nie mam rodzinę?" (I-I don't have a family?) She choked, tears of both emotional pain and physical pain now welling up in her eyes as she sat up, looking over all of her worried friends.
Suddenly, Edelwiess, Morsemere, Pitaya, Speck, Mennika, and a few others who sat close by all moved to lovingly nuzzle Wysoka, her breath catching and eyes going wide from their embrace.
"Jesteśmy linia krwi, Wysoka." (We are family, Wysoka.)
"Wysoka? Wszystko w porządku? Wiem, że jesteś smutna ... ale to już od trzech dni. Wszyscy zaczynają się naprawdę martwić się o ciebie." (Wysoka? Are you alright? I know you're sad... but it's been three days now. We're all starting to really worry about you.) Edelwiess, one of Wysoka's closer friends and librarian, called through the tall door of the mare's home as she gently knocked.
No response; which was what she had expected. Edelweiss pushed open the unlatched door, her eyes instantly falling upon the slumped Alicorn, her figure hunched over at her desk and her wings hung loosely from her sides.
"Kiedy rodzina poniska powiedział ci wszystko, prawda to zapisać? Zawsze pisać wszystko w dół." (When the poniska family told you everything, did you not write it down? You always write everything down.)
Wysoka's figure didn't move, Edelweiss now seeing that her horn had a black and purple, wavy aurora of magic around it, the spell holding an almost evil quality. She knew well that was what Wysoka's horn looked like when she was doing something within her memories. Stepping closer, Edelweiss saw that Wysoka was indeed asleep, her two front legs crossed to support her large body against her desk, and her chin resting atop her type-writer in a fairly uncomfortable position. With apprehension, Edelweiss gently nuzzled under Wysoka's wing, trying to wake the large being. The action hadn't even brought the slightest movement from her.
"Obudź się, Wysoka. Nie dostał nowy owoc w ciągu trzech dni; wszystkie żywności będzie stary." (Wake up, Wysoka. You haven't gotten new fruit in three days; all of your food will be old.)
She pushed her head into Wysoka's side, her smaller figure barely being able to move the black, sleeping mare.
"Wysoka!"
A quick snort came from Wysoka as her eyes opened half-way, the glow from her horn ceasing as she slowly came from her realm. The one, blood-shot eye Edelweiss could see looked to her for a moment before closing, a tear making its down her fuzzy, black cheeks.
"Nie mogę sobie przypomnieć." (I can't remember.)
Edelweiss's frown worsened.
"Zawsze można zapamiętać rzeczy ... dlaczego teraz nie może pamiętasz, co ci powiedzieli?" (You can always remember things... why now can't you remember what they told you?)
Wysoka's breathing shuddered, a short sob coming from her as she sniffled.
"Moja magia ... Edelweiss, to nie będzie działać. Nie mogę wrócić i pamięta. Nie mogę iść do miejsca, gdzie widzę Nazomova. Ja ... nie mogę sobie przypomnieć." (My magic... Edelweiss, it won't work. I can't go back and remember anything. I can't go to the place where I can see Nazomova. I... I can't remember.)
Her cries loudened as she pulled her head from her typewriter, turning and pulling the smaller Edelweiss into a tight hug, her chin resting atop Edelweiss's head.
"Szarotki, nie mogę sobie przypomnieć! (Edelweiss, I can't remember!)
Wysoka's heaving cries brought a pain to Edelweiss's heart; it was a cry filled with more pain than she had ever heard. Wysoka didn't cry often; in fact, the last time she had seen Wysoka actually sob was when she had come into the library, ecstatic about how she now knew why she remembered what she did remember and that she knew what had happened to her so many years ago.
"Będziesz pamiętam trochę czasu, Wysoka. Twoja magia jest silna." (You'll remember sometime, Wysoka. Your magic is strong.) Edelweiss spoke in a soothing tone, doing her best to calm Wysoka.
There was no pause in Wysoka's heavy sobs, the tears leaking from her cheeks beginning to drip on Edelweiss's shoulders.
"Nie mogę sobie przypomnieć. To, że nie będzie działać! Próbowałem ... za trzy dni! I-spałem przez trzy dni, a to nie będzie działać!" (I can't remember. It-It won't work! I have tried... for three days! I-I have slept for three days, and it won't work!)
"Czy to ważne, Wysoka? Wiesz, co zawsze chciałeś wiedzieć; jeśli masz rodzinę, czy nie." (Does it matter, Wysoka? You know what you've always wanted to know; if you have a family or not.)
"T-tak! Nie wiem, dlaczego ta biała poniska był wściekły na mnie ... Nie wiem dlaczego ja obudziłem się w tej dziedzinie daleko! Nie wiem, co się stało!" (Y-Yes! I don't know why that white poniska was mad at me... I don't know why I woke up in the far away field! I don't know what happened!)
"Powiedziałeś nam wszystkim, że były złe w przeszłości, że biały poniska była zła na ciebie, bo robią coś złego. Flurry, mały jednym z rodziny poniska, że nie uważasz, że były złe; i nikt w Nazomova myśli, że jesteś zły. Użyłeś magii, aby pomóc rodzinie poniska wrócić do domu, więc sprawia, że jesteś dobry. To nie ma znaczenia, Wysoka." (You told all of us that you were bad in your past, and that the white poniska was mad at you because you were doing something bad. Flurry, the little one of the poniska family, she didn't think you were bad; and no one in Nazomova thinks you're bad. You used your magic to help the poniska family go home, so that makes you good. It doesn't matter, Wysoka.)
