Prologue

There's always a story

The root appeared out of the nowhere. He had not enough time to jump or dodge, and his speed and the darkness did not help much either. He tripped and fell unbraked on the hard and cold forest ground. The few leaves did not cushion his crash much, more so the edged stones and twigs, whose participation left deep cuts and bruises on his young body.

"Ah," his small scream made the huge shadow ahead of him to stop instantly. The darkness was scared away as the shadow turned around to face him. Her gentle face showed worry, and her head was immediately at his level, bringing the glowing light with her. At once, he felt safe and calm, even the bruises did not hurt so badly anymore.

"Are you okay?" her voice was soft and caring as ever, the question was that of every mother, but whenever she asked it, it sounded like an angelic choir that was worried for his wellbeing.

He nodded weakly, the running had left him at end of his tether and the incident robbed his last hidden strength reserves. He could not go much further on his own. She knew this. Her eyes were full of love and peace as she gave him a little peck on his cheek.

"Wait, I'll carry you." smoothly, her light gently took him on her back,though, as he briefly touched one of her wings, a jolt went through her body, and she turned her head away from him in a swift motion, so he could not see her face, but he heard her inhale sharp.

"Mother! Are you okay?" his voice was weak and anxious.

She gave him a reassuring smile, though, it seemed forced, since some of her teeth were visible. She never smiled with her teeth. Dad always said that is a smile of lower ponies.

"I'm fine, dear. I just..." the sound of snapping twists and clapping hoofes in the distant interrupted her. She gave him one last loving glance before starting to trot, slowly at first, due the thick forest. "We have to hurry. Hold on tight."

Soon her gentle trotting turned into a full gallop as they started to hear voices nearby. He held on to her for his dear life, looking back anxiously, while she selflessly broke through the tangle of twists that stood in their way, only having the soft glow of the light to show her the way into the unknown.

His hooves desperately grasped her mane to hold himself on top of her back as she dashed through the trees, occasionally jumping over tree stumps and other obstacles. He could manage to see a soft glow of a red light somewhere on their left in the trees. His fear grew. They had found them.

"Mom!" his voice was raspy and quiet, but she seemed to have seen the light as well, wheras she increased her speed.

The red light did not stay alone for long, he could see more and more lights among the trees, joining the red one in its pursuit.

Suddenly, out of the nowhere, appeared a blinding, dark winterblue light directly above their head. His mother instantly changed her direction, fast enough to avoid the blue explosion that created a hole exactly there, where they would have been if she had continued to run straight. Nevertheless, the explosion was strong enough to make its toll. The blast wave pressed them into the forest, where they hit the ground hard. He could not see his mother, but heard her scream nearby.

But fate was not done with them yet.

As soon as they hit the hard, stony ground, they started to tumble down a hill. He could not manage to stop his involuntary movement, and helplessly rolled down the entire hill. After an enternity his torture finally found a sudden end as he violently hit once again the ground. It did not take long for the pain to catch up. He groaned. It hurt alot, his entire body felt like he was on fire. His former bruises were extended and plenty new joined, his once white coat was now stained with blood stains and soil, and his right front leg hurt violently.

Through the throbbing sound of his pain, he heard a heavy breathing a few meter in front of him. Despite the glow of his mother's light was gone, he knew she lay there; but why did she not get up? As loud voices and and the sound of approaching hooves from the top of the hill reached his ears, he desperately tried to get on his own hooves. He would get his mother and they would escape. They had to.

His target firm in mind, he tried to stand up, but was betrayed by his body. As soon as he put pressure on his right front hoof, the pain was too immense to continue, though a small scream escaped his lips.

"Over there! I heard something."

They're coming

His panic grew, he was helplessly extradited. Frantic he looked around in the darkness, searching for something to hide. Anything.

There.

On his left was a giantic tree, not able to properly move himself to it, he turned his body around with his healthy legs till he and the tree were parallel, then started to role sidewards towards the tree. That went great so far, they did not find him, but he still had no place to hide. He looked up the tree that was a real monster, its bark was thick and adorned with scars, created by animals in a fight or simply to whet their claws. Actually a perfect hiding place, the crown was dense, additionally, he was small, and could easily hid wherever he wanted to; but now he could not, his foreleg hurt too much to run or even climb.

"They have to be here somewhere. Silver Bolt, get your torch over here, we can't see crap."

His heart jumped. They were close. Hectic he searched for an entrance or a gap in the old roots, using his left hoof to scan the surface, but there was nothing, only a tree.

"Hey, over here, I think I found something."

This time his heart stopped. What should he do? His body shot down and his breath became heavy and fast. He could almost feeld their present. Where were they? His eyes went wide and he nearly shrieked as a burning stick became visible just a few meter away.

There was one of them. He did not really know who they were or what they wanted, although, he knew what they wanted.

Him.

But he did not know why.

Now, though, was not the right time to think about that. He had to hide. The soldier did not look yet to him but he could any moment.

Stay calm! Remember, this is like playing like hide and seek, and mother cheated and had counted faster again. Where would you hide so fast?!

He started to use all of his remaining legs and senses, quietly sniffing and scanning the surface with both eyes and hooves.

There! His hindlegs found something. Carefully, he bend his back, getting closer and closer with his healthy front leg to pull him into safety. The soil near the tree was stony and full of dry twigs. One wrong movement and they would hear him. With his entire body still laying on the ground it was quite easy to break something, but he had no other choice. He could not risk another painful try to stand on his right foreleg, the chance that he would scream was too immense. Endlessly slow, he reached for the edge of the root, and got it. Combining all of his last energy, he pulled, and in one swift motion his small body disappeared from its former hidding place between the feet of the ancient tree, filling now the space of the root's gap. But not entirely noiseless.

The ear of the soldier jerked as the sound of breaking twigs filled his ears. His head rapidly turned to the tree. His eyes narrowed as he observed its huge roots and dense crown. Slowly and carefully, he went towards it, his spear at the ready.

"Hm..." The burning torch revealed the true extend of the tree that was once hidden in the darkness. It really had to be ancient. A small squirrel watched him from one of the branches, tilting its head, while observing the stranger who disturbed its sleep with burning light and noises.

The pony shaked his head at this and was about to leave the squirrel and his tree alone as he noticed the agitated soil at the feet of the giant. Narrowing his eyes once again, he came closer touching the ground with his muzzle - the earth was warm. He stood up and started to sniff for something familiar. Since a pony is not exactly a dog or wolf, it naturally cannot sniff that good, but to find a member of its own kind, the olfaction of pony is sufficient. It was only a matter of time before he would find a hidden pony here.

"I FOUND HER!" was being heard from the forest, the unexpected outcry startled the concentrated soldier, a small leap in the air was the result where his head collided against a lower branch, and brought him a nice bump. Swearing and cursing he left the tree behind and hurried to the source of the outcry.

Inside his hideout, under the roots, a small colt let out a sigh of relief and his body unbent from its former tension. But when he saw who they found, the tension returned even stronger than before. There, encircled by ponies and their weapons, lay his mother, and she did not move.

Once again he panicked. What should he do, he did not think he could get out here again, even if he wanted to. Tears started to form around his eyes due his helplessness and he whimpered a single word.

"Mother."

As if the world heard his silent outcry, the body of his mother started to glow blue, and was leviated off the ground, eye to eye with a creature that seemed to be a living nightmare. It seemed as though it appeared out of the pure darkness of the night, the eyes of the monster were a radiating white as if it was energy, and they glowed so violently. It opened its mouth and screamed in a incredible loud voice, he usually was used to hear from his father whenever he adressed his subjects or was very, very mad. This creature, though, used it for intimidation and torture, since it was a voice for great events with many guests where you have to speak up, so that everypony could hear you.

"WHERE DOST THOU HIDE THE CHILD!?" the power the voice contained was so immense even some of the treetops bend down. As his mother did not make any attempts to answer, she was flinged at the hard soil violently. A small cry escaped his lips. Immediately he coverd his muzzle with his left forehoof. The creature stopped, its eyes searched for his tree and stared at it. His mother weakly shook her head, while she tried to raise a hoof to the monster's breast; it was simply ignored and carelessly removed with a swift motion of the monster's hoof. But so easily did his mother not give up, once again she tried to raise her hoof, this time though, the monster's blue light grabbed her leg, and, without a stir, broke it.

His mother screamed, but instantly stopped as the blue light that had encircled her disappeared and she unimpeded fell on the dirty ground. However, the creature did not stop there, it raised a leg itself now, bringing it over one his mother's hindlegs, and stomp down. The crack echoed through the forst. He closed his eyes and tried to cover his ears, to ignore it, pretending it did not happen, but failed, the screaming and the crack burned into his mind, and he could not look away. After it checked whether his mother was able to disturb it again, the monster turned its head once again in his direction.

He was weeping now, not being able to come to terms with the violence he just witnessed. As their eyes met, he began to scream, and then everything exploded.

Author's Note

Hey, this is just the prologue, further chapter are going to be much bigger.
Furthermore, as I've already said, english isn't my first language, please report all mistakes you can find. I try my best, but that's not always enough.
I hope to see you follow me through the entire story, I'm confident that I'm going to become better and better.