Children of the Night

Chapters

Prologue: Children
Chapter One*
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

Prologue: Children

The castle was raised, the wards were in place and Luna had her little children at last. Twelve little foals, six fillies and six colts, all of them homeless or orphans. She believed they could have a better life with her here. It had been nearly two weeks since she sang her song and she decided to break off from Equestria.

She walked through the halls of the castle. She could hear various noises and voices, that was the children. She was their mother of the night now, and she wouldn’t give it up for the world. There was one particular hall she stopped in front of. Twelve doors, six on each side, some doors closed and some doors open.

She looked into the first on the left to find a little filly with a brown coat, reddish brown mane and tail and a darker brown on the ears. Her cutie mark was a keyhole. She was a pegasus, but her left wing was a bit smaller than the other one and looked almost dead. In truth it was, a birth defect had caused the filly’s wings to develop poorly. Luna had managed to fix the right one not long after arriving, but the process was painful so she was waiting for her to recover before doing so to the other.

She turned to look at Luna from where she was scouring the room for something, her reddish brown eyes gleaming with a tint of frustration.

“Mom! Have you seen my bottle of moondust?” She asked.

“I’m sorry love, I haven’t. I’ll ask the others if they have for you, though, we’ll find it.” Luna replied lovingly. Spirit sighed but nodded happily and quickly hugged the dark princess before returning to scouring the room. Moondust, it was the magical dust from the moon that Luna had used as a medium to bring the foals to her as she sang. Spirit saved some of the glittering powder and kept it in a small vial.

Luna opened the next door to find both a colt and a filly. The filly, Magpie, was black with white hooves and had a matching mane and tail, though there was a light blue streak going through both of them. Her cutie mark was a shining coin. Her orange eyes looked up at Luna and grinned.

The colt, Nightshade, was a deep purple coloration with a gloriously red mane and tail. His cutie mark was a crimson music note. His light blue eyes, which matched Magpie’s streaks, looked up at her as well.

“Mother, look! It’s so shiny and pretty!” Magpie exclaimed. Luna gained a knowing look as Magpie held up a small bottle of familiar glittering silver.

“For the record, mother, I did tell her it was Spirit’s.” Nightshade said. Luna chuckled lightly and ruffled their manes.

“Maggie, what have I told you about things in people’s rooms? Ask them if you can borrow or look at it, even if it’s shiny. And Nightshade, I know you wanted to see it too. Maybe next time, though, you would have had the foresight to at least let Spirit know you were borrowing it.” Luna started. She looked down at Magpie again and smiled warmly.

“Your sister is ransacking her room looking for this, I imagine if you were to apologize and return it she won’t be mad at you. Nightshade you better go with her, make sure things don’t get ugly.” Luna giggled.

“...Fiiine.” Magpie sighed. They both hugged her and they left at the same time, though the foals went back to the other door while Luna moved on.

The third door on the left was open and empty, though the fourth had two fillies. The white coated unicorn with a pink mane and tail with a soft lavender streak was Moondancer. She had a cutie mark of a soft purple crescent moon with two stars in the curve and had eyes matching her streak. She was concentrating on a dance routine she had been teaching herself. Luna had to admit, she was getting rather good at it.

The other filly sat and watched with an admittedly dumb look on her face. Night Light had a dark blue-green coat, her mane and tail were of a lighter shade with a dim neon green vertical stripes. Her cutie mark was three fireflies and she had soft blue eyes.

Luna resigned to compliment her dancing later, she would like that very much. She moved on to the sixth door, as the fifth was also empty, and gained a very worried look when she found Springsign bandaging Gari’s leg.

“Don’t worry mom! she’s just practicing!” Gari exclaimed, seeing Luna’s face. Gari was a unicorn of varying shades of brown with ginger mane and tail coloration. Her eyes were a dark emerald green and her cutie mark was two cookies, one with a bite on it, and speaking of there was a rather inviting plate of them on the nightstand. Luna ignored it, though.

“I’m sorry if we worried you, oh this must look so bad, I just found a book on it and was just trying to learn in case anything DOES happen.” Springsign said. She had a grassy-green coat and a two toned main and tail consisting of dirt brown and lime green, though the green of the rind instead of the inside. Her eyes were a burning orange and her cutie mark was a nice orange and yellow flower.

Luna sighed in relief and levitated a cookie from the plate and looked it over.

“What was it this time?” She asked. She answered her own question, though, as her magic undid the transformation spell and all the cookies became assorted books and loose sheets of paper. Gari burped at that exact moment and Springsign giggled.

“I told you that you shouldn’t have eaten that one...” She said. Luna just hugged the two of them and left to check on the other side. The side she was on was for the fillies and the other side was the colts. The first door she opened and found a colt staring at a candle. He had a white coat and a mane and tail like fire that matched the flame of his cutie mark. His crimson eyes were focused intently on the flame of the candle as it slowly but sure warped and twisted abnormally.

“Candlelight, love? Be careful.” Luna said softly after he noticed she was there. He smiled and the circle the flame had formed warped into a checkmark, then a heart. Luna giggled and quickly kissed him on the forehead before leaving.

The next room held the last four colts. There was Trotamundo, with his gingerbread-esq brown coat and messy white mane and tail. He had pale blue eyes and a cutie mark depicting an old-fashioned rucksack .

There was Fly-By-Night, who had a deep blue coat and a two-toned white and blue-green mane and tail. He had yellow eyes and a cutie mark of a full moon with blue clouds and simplistic birds over it.

Then there was Tingle and Wind Whisper. Tingle had a dark grey coat and incredibly messy electric yellow mane and tail. he had yellowish green eyes and a lightning bolt for a cutie mark. He zapped Wind Whisper with a tiny electric shock, who was light blue with a white mane, blue eyes and a gust of wind as a cutie mark.

“Tingle! Stooop!” The rather feminine pegasus whined.

“Oh come on, it doesn’t hurt that much!” Tingle laughed. Fly just shook his head and sighed in annoyance, his wings ruffling as he shifted his position.

“Think of it this way, Wind, if he keeps doing it to you then you won’t feel it after a while!” Trotamundo said.

“Or he could just stop, zapping your siblings isn’t the nicest thing to do.” Luna said. The four quickly perked up and ran to tackle her in a hug, though they couldn’t bring her to the ground as they expected. Luna giggled and caught them with her wings in a group hug before putting them down.

“Tingle, you really should be more mindful with your electricity. It’s all fun and games until you singe a mane. Wind, just leave the room if he keeps doing it, I’m sure you can find room with another of your sisters or brother.” She said. She was smiling though, there was no real harm done. The two nodded and Wind glared at Tingle as a tiny electrical charge formed on the tip of the grinning unicorn’s horn. Luna just hefted a sigh, rolled her eyes and left.

Her twelve children, they really were like a family. A bit rough around the edges, but nothing’s perfect.

“Mom, why aren’t there other fillies and colts here?” Spirit asked as Luna passed her room. She stopped and looked in, her smile falling a little bit. The little filly must have been a bit mad at Magpie for taking one of her most cherished possessions.

“Well, it’s kind of simple really...” Luna started as she entered the room and sat down next to the filly. “All of the grownups, and a lot of the other foals, back in Equestria didn’t really like the night. In fact, they sort of shunned it in favor for the day. They would all hide and avoid the night, but rejoice and play and have fun in the daylight. One day, though, I saw that there were a few little fillies and colts who loved the night like I did. They weren’t happy in Equestria, though, so I sang a magic song and took them away to a faraway place, where the sun can’t quite cast its shadow.” She continued. Spirit giggled and nuzzled up to her.

“Now really, you know how Maggie is. At least she gave it back, right?” Luna asked. Spirit grumbled something.

“You can guess a lot of things but she did give it back. You can’t be that angry with her.” Luna said. Spirit sighed and mumbled another ‘I guess’. “Good.” Luna giggled before kissing her on the forehead and leaving the room. She looked back as she saw Spirit leave as well and enter the door where Moondancer and Night Light were.

This was almost too perfect, Luna thought. She would never let this end. Nothing is perfect, though, and that reinstated itself as she felt all of her wards instantaneously fall.

Celestia and Luna stared each other down in the main hall of the castle. Behind Luna were her children. Behind Celestia was a contingent of royal guards. Celestia had an angry, and almost cocky, look on her face while Luna’s was a glare of pure fury.

“What are you doing here?! This is OUR place!” Luna exclaimed.

“What am I doing here? What do you think YOU’RE doing here?! You abducted twelve foals in the middle of the night and spirited them off to this place. You can’t just snatch up a dozen foals and expect nothing to come of it, it shakes ponies to their very being.” Celestia retorted. “I’m here to bring them back to where they belong and to try and talk some sense into you!” She continued.

“Belong? So, you think that a bunch of homeless and orphaned foals belong back there? I am giving them a home and I am their mother. They are my Children of the Night, and I refuse to let them or myself return just to have the biggest shadow of them all eternally cast down upon them.” Luna said, her raging fury changing into a rather sinister calm.

“Biggest shadow... what? You’ve gone mad, Luna. Guards, escort the foals out of here.” Celestia said, turning to her guards. Before they could move, though, there was a low hum in the air, the hum of pure power.

“If you touch them you will not leave this place...” Luna warned. Celestia glared at her, but then nodded to her guards. They moved around Luna and made to move the foals along, but just as one of the guards’ hooves touched the shoulder of Gari, all of them were blown backwards with enough force to potentially put them through the three foot thick stone walls. Celestia managed to cushion their impact enough to only daze them, though.

“Luna! How dare you attack your fellow ponies!” Celestia yelled, turning to glare at her sister after making sure her guards were alright. Her eyes widened in shock and she couldn’t help but take a step back as Luna wasn’t really Luna anymore.

“My fellow ponies? Funny, I thought they were YOUR little ponies. YOUR little ponies don’t interest me in the slightest, I will make them mine!” The new Luna exclaimed, ending with a maniacal cackle.

That most certainly was not Luna.

“M-Mommy?” Gari said softly. The creature that took Luna’s form froze and looked towards them. Celestia gasped and sent a blast of magic towards the creature, thinking it would turn on them. The creature looked forward and deflected it, but a very surprised Luna was still looking at them. The creature looked to be made of the stuff of nightmares, and was swirling about around her.

“Run!” Luna gasped as the shadows engulfed her once more, her surprise turning to a grin as she turned to face Celestia in full.

“Go after them!” Celestia ordered her guards as she sent forth a constant stream of magic to hold off this nightmare while the guards rushed past her. The foals had only hesitated for a moment before listening to their mother.

“Everyone in here!” Gari exclaimed when they reached the end of their hall, where there was an empty storage room. Spirit closed the door behind them and locked it and they all huddled into a corner. There were various bangs and sounds and rumbles as the battle raged on, and after only a few minutes there was a solid banging on the door. As it started to crack, Gari said something not even she really understood.

“Brothers, Sisters, are we all true Children of the Night? Do we ever regret following the song, starting this family with Mom? Do we ever want to go back?” She asked softly as the faces of guards smashing through the door was seen through cracked holes that splintered away from the door. They all looked at her for a moment before saying the same thing in unison.

“We are Children of the Night.”

And with that, and a sudden flash, the room was empty as the guards managed to blast through it with sheer strength alone.

Celestia stared up at the moon through one of the many holes in the ceiling, tears streaming down her face, as she watched the sphere of pure magic smash into it. That Nightmare was inside of it, and it was all she could do. She looked down as her guards entered the room.

“The foals?” She asked, worried.

“Gone, your highness. They disappeared, looked like teleportation but I don’t know.” The captain replied.

“Fan out, find them. Search the surrounding forest, I’ll scan the castle.” She ordered coldly. They bowed and were out of the building in seconds. Celestia used a very powerful and potent scanning spell to cover the castle and a one mile radius surrounding it. Finding nothing, her sorrow and fury both combined and all of the magic spread out in the scanning spell condensed in front of her and exploded with enough force to blow the immensely thick walls away.

The castle collapsed around her, stone and glass falling around her. What did fall on her simply disintegrated as she built up her power, what she had just done to her sister filling her mind.

The guards with her on that day would never see their princess as the ever calm and composed princess they were used to ever again, at least not completely. With a shrieking scream of rage and deprivation, the area exploded again. This time, though, it warped the entire forest. The effects ignored the ruins of the castle and the guards.

“This place will never be free of the sorrow here... Just as I will never be free of it either...” Celestia said softly to herself as she looked back up at the moon.

“Princess? Are you alright?” Her captain asked, entering the ruins.

“I don’t know...” She replied and started walking away. That captain heard what she had said, though, and as Celestia ignored the chariot and took off on her own wings he thought of what to call this unnamed place.

The Everfree Forest. Fitting, really.

Author's Note

http://firstnightmarenight.blogspot.ca/2012/06/children-of-night-foals.html
here's what they all look like
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/199525/folder/16123/1/children-of-the-night-stories
and here's a nice little group I found dedicated to the video, and unintentionally this story. give them some love if you would
Edited slightly due to an accidentally skipped over point, just a line of dialogue

Chapter One*

It was dark, very dark. You couldn’t see a foot in front of your face, at least until a tiny flame appeared on the tip of CandleLight's horn. It gave off enough light for the twelve foals to see each other, though only just. They were all lying on the ground.

“What just happened?” Spirit whispered.

“I-I don’t know, Gari did something... Gari what did you do?!” Tingle asked. all eyes fell on the unicorn.

“Gari? Are you ok?” Springsign asked, worry in her voice. They saw that her eyes were closed and she wasn’t moving. “Light, can you make that any brighter? I need to make sure she’s alright!” She continued, her voice gaining a frantic tone of panic. CandleLight made the flame just big enough to see the small clearing they were in clearly.

Springsign quickly checked to make sure the filly was breathing and that there weren’t any visible injuries. Gari was fine, at least from the looks of it. Everyone gained worried looks when Springsign suddenly froze.

“I-Is something wrong?” Spirit asked. Spring shook her head and moved something from Gari’s back. Candlelight moved closer to give more light and they all gasped in surprise.

“Wings?!” They all exclaimed in unison. They all stared at Gari’s unconscious form for a minute or so before Magpie noticed something. She got close to the ground, as if ready to pounce on something.

“What is it, Maggie?” Nightshade asked.

“Shiiiny...” She whispered. Nightshade followed her gaze to see that the light was reflecting off of something. Magpie suddenly dashed for it and everyone was surprised by the metallic clanging that came next. Candlelight detached the flame from his horn and set the end of a sizable branch on the ground on fire, creating a torch, and moving it to where Magpie was.

“Is that...?” A few of them said to themselves. There, in a heap of metal and Magpie, was a royal crown. Not just any crown, though, it was Luna’s crown.

“Wait a minute... Gari suddenly has wings and this here? Did mother... plan this?” Spirit asked, more to herself than anything.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I mean come on. Did you see how scary and sad she was when she told us to run? She wouldn’t ever do anything like that on purpose!” Wind Whisper exclaimed.

“Well what else do we know, then?!” Tingle exclaimed.

“Well, maybe Gari would know when she wakes up... Why is she sleeping, though?” Fly-by-night asked. The group looked at the ground for a moment to think.

“Magical exhaustion, maybe? Sometimes, if I use up a lot of magic in one big burst then I always feel really tired... And she teleported all of us here, and this doesn’t look like the forest around home..” Candlelight said. They all nodded, agreeing that it made sense.

“Well, Maggie, I don’t think we need to tell you to hold on to that... We need to find somewhere sheltered... Light, can you make some of those for the rest of us to hold?” Nightshade suggested, getting rather serious. Candlelight sighed a nodded, passing the torch to Tingle. He proceeded to make another one for himself, one for Wind Whisper to hold in his wing and one for Nightshade to hold in his mouth. He gave one to Wind because he was always the easiest to spook.

“Wind and Spring, can you stay here with Gari? Make sure she stays ok?” He continued. The two nodded and Wind was nearly touching Spring he was so close. He was shaking, but at least he hadn’t screamed or anything.

“Right, we should spread out a bit and see if we can find anywhere we can stay. Don’t go too far that you can’t see Wind’s torch, alright?” He finished, looking at his brothers and sisters. They were all a little shaken. Well, Magpie was lavishing in her excess of shinies to really have any reaction to their current situation. He couldn’t have separated her from them at the moment if he tried.

“I’ll go with Light!” Moondancer exclaimed, sticking to his side quicker than Wind had to Spring.

“I’ll go with you, Nightshade.” Spirit said, walking to his side.

“Fly and I will go with Tingle, maybe we’ll find an awesome cave with treasure!” Trot exclaimed happily, a direct contrast to how scared he looked at the moment.

“Yell if you find something or need help.” Nightshade said. Everyone nodded and the ones searching walked in three different directions.

All in all it took about ten minutes of watching the three lights in the distance move and bob around in silence before Wind Whisper broke the silence.

“M-Maggie, Y-You know you’re gonna have to give that to Gari when she w-wakes up, right?” He said. Magpie, who was sitting with the crown right in front of her, glared at him.

“He’s right, Maggie. That is for Alicorns, and the only Alicorn here is Gari now...” Springsign said. Magpie didn’t look very happy about it.

“But... I found it... It’s my only shiny here right now...” She said with a mixture of frustration and sadness. Springsign sighed.

“How about this, if Gari can’t tell us what happened then it’s yours until she can. And either way, we’ll all help you get more as long as someone else doesn’t need it.” She offered. Magpie looked between her and the regalia a few times before grumbling and pulling them closer.

“Fiiiine... But you have to promise that the next time I find something it’s mine, I might let you guys borrow it if you need it but in the end it will be mine... Alright?” She retorted.

“Deal, as long as what you find doesn’t already belong to someone.” Spring replied. Maggie just grumbled and adopted a rather sulky mood.

“We found something!” Trotamundo’s voice called loud enough for them all to hear. Two of the lights quickly rushed towards the third.

“H-Here... I’ll uh, I’ll have one of them wave a torch around if it’s something good. Bring Gari if it is, ok?” Wind suggested, holding the torch out to Spring. She nodded and took the torch and Wind quickly charged towards the lights. He was scared out of his mind, Spring guessed that all the sitting idly was wearing him down.

“Wind? Is something wrong?” Spirit asked when the pegasus burst into the radius of the torches. He was breathing heavily and shaking.

“N-No, no... I-I-I just... couldn’t sit there for any longer... It was freaky!” He replied. Spirit rolled her eyes and they looked at the massive cave entrance in the side of a mountain hidden by the trees. Well, massive to them.

“What if there’s an animal in there, and it’s not friendly?” Nightlight said.

“Well what i it is friendly and invites us in?” Trotamundo retorted.

“Only one way to find out.” Nightshade said around his torch and walked in. Spirit, TIngle and his group followed him in while Light and Moon stayed out.

The cave wasn’t overly large, but it wasn’t small by any stretch of the imagination. They heard the sound of running water rebounding around the walls and soon found a few small pools of underground water.

“Do you think it’s safe to drink?” Spirit asked.

“Well let’s test it.” Nightlight said.

“No!” Nightshade, Spirit and Tingle exclaimed at the same time. The filly froze where she was about to try it. “It could be polluted or something, even if it is running a little bit. Tingle, zap the water.” Nightshade continued, putting his hoof in. Tingle gave him a strange look, but shrugged and did as he was told. Nightshade flinched a little bit that was it.

“How much power did you put into that?” Nightshade asked, taking his hoof from the water.

“Enough to put you on your flank if it was direct.” Tingle replied. He had an impressed face, probably thinking Nightshade withstood such a big shock with such a small reaction.

“It should be good to drink... The more pure water is the less conductivity it has.” Nightshade said.

“Wow! I didn’t know you were so smart, Nightshade.” Nightlight said, looking at him with a look of awe on her face.

“Wait, so you barely felt it?” Tingle asked.

“No I felt it, it just wasn’t as nearly as powerful as you said. I think this is spring water.” Nightshade replied.

“I’ll go tell Candlelight to signal Springsign to bring Gari over here.” Wind Whisper said and dashed of back towards the entrance. Nightlight took a small drink of it, swished it around her mouth and then continued drinking.

“So it’s good?” Tingle asked. She nodded. Everyone quickly took big drinks as Wind returned with the others.

“How is she?” Nightshade asked, water dripping from his muzzle as he turned to see Spring and Wind carrying Gari.

“I think she’s starting to wake up, she’s been mumbling and stirring.” Spring replied as they set her down. Maggie was behind them, carrying the crown on her back and using her wings to make sure it didn’t fall.

Gari chose that moment to open her eyes tiredly and groan.

“Gari!” They all exclaimed. “What happened?!” Spirit asked. Gari looked up at them.

“I-I dunno... Just, suddenly a place and a spell appeared in my mind and I used it without thinking...” The filly replied, slurring her speech a little bit. Her head was pounding from using so much magic. Springsign quickly helped her over to the spring, where she greedily drank.

“H-Hey!” Magpie exclaimed suddenly. The regalia was enveloped in a silvery magic, like the magic that saturated the moon dust, and was floating.

“What is... is that...?” Gari said, turning to look after drinking.

“It’s mother’s crown, do you know why it appeared here? Also, why you have wings?” Nightshade asked, sitting down in front of her.

“What are you talking about? I’m a uni-...” Gari started, but froze as she unintentionally moved her right wing forward to look at it. She yelped and fell sideways away from it. “W-What?!” She exclaimed.

“Think, Gari, do you remember anything that could be linked to this?” Spirit asked. The others were silent. Gari looked at the floor after standing up, deep in though. It took a minute or so but she remembered something.

“Mom’s crown... I-I remember one time I touched it and it... zapped me or something. I felt all weird and stuff but it went away so fast... I... Could that have done something?” She explained. Before any of the others could reply, though, the regalia moved. Gari backed up as it came towards her, but after a moment she held still and it slowly fitted to their places on her body. The crown atop her head, the shoes over her hooves and the chestplate over her front. A perfect fit.

“What does this mean?” Gari asked, looking at her brothers and sisters.

“I... guess it means you’re a Princess now.” Spirit said.

“Cool! My sis is a Princess!” Trotamundo exclaimed.

“But... I don’t wanna be a Princess! I don’t know what to do or anything!” Gari retorted. Everyone went silent.

“Well we can decide what to do later, all I know right now is that it’s in the middle of the night and we have some shelter. We should sleep and rest.” Springsign suggested.

“Good idea, thinking is too hard to do much anyways, especially when you’re tired.” Nightlight said.

“I’m with Nightlight.” Candlelight said with a bit of a chuckle. Soon they all agreed that they should rest and decide what to do in the morning.

After some discussion they decided that they shouldn’t sleep right next to the spring, but not at the mouth of the cave either. They searched for a little bit and found a decently sized alcove that could easily fit all of them. Nightshade and Magpie, the latter a bit flustered at losing her shinies, left and returned ten minutes later dragging a few large branches with soft leaves on them in. They used it as bedding and huddled together to keep warm with their body heat.

“I hope Mommy’s ok... She and her sister were really mad at each other...” Nightlight said softly.

“So do we, Nightlight...” The others agreed.

Author's Note

Replaced the chapter with the fixed version reviewed by the creator, some minor and major changes.
Chapters with an Asterick ( * ) after it are finished versions. If it doesn't have it then expect it to possibly change.

Chapter Two

“It’s too big...” Gari grumbled as the crown slid down her face. “And it’s heavy!” She continued, pushing it back up to its place.

“Well... maybe we can pack it with grass or something?” Spirit suggested.

“That would look stupid and get it all dirty.” Magpie said. Gari grumbled and levitated it off her head to put it on a stone jutting from the ground.

“I guess you’ll grow into it.” Springsign said.

“Well big or not, I don’t even think I can BE a princess...” Gari said, staring at the crown.

“I guess you’ll grow into that too.” Nightshade said. They all looked at him.

“Wow that was... kind of deep.” Fly-by-night said. Nightshade just rolled his eyes.

“Perhaps you should think about what to do now? We’re all looking towards you for leadership...” He continued.

“Last night when I was out, everyone said you did such a good job leading us. Why don’t you?” Gari asked. Nightshade smiled.

“I don’t like being the leader all that much unless I have to... And you’ve always been good at telling us what to do.” He replied.

“And besides, you’re the princess now. If I were a princess I’d lead us all to an awesome life!” Trotamundo exclaimed. Gari sighed and thought for a few moments. She looked at her brothers and sisters and assessed what they could effectively do.

“A-Alright... We’re gonna need some wood for fires and food... I think we should all spread out a bit, maybe Maggie can be in the air since she can spot anything from a mile in the sky... Spring you should stay here where everyone can find you, since you’re always the best at identifying plants... The rest of us will look around a bit and if we find any plants we don’t know we’ll take it to you. Ok?” Gari explained quickly, thinking of it as she spoke.

“Sounds good.” Spirit said happily.

“Alright let’s find breakfast!” Trotamundo exclaimed, nearly charging off into the forest around them. Nightshade stopped him, though.

“Maggie, could you go up right now and see if you can see anything about where we are?” He suggested. Both he and Magpie looked at Gari, who nodded. Maggie launched into the air and started turning about.

“Gari, you should come see this!” She called down after a minute.

“How do you expect me to do that?” Gari called back.

“Oh, so those things on your back are extra horns?!” Maggie called back, earning some laughs from the others. Gari facehooved. She extended her wings and looked at them a moment before she started flapping and was soon in the air. It was a shaky hover, but she was next to Magpie and looking around too.

“I really thought you were gonna crash!” Spirit called up, there was something less than friendly in her tone.

“Well we did fly with mom, maybe not with wings but it kind of feels the same...” Gari called back back. Maggie was looking between the two, but just shrugged. She would have pointed, but by the look on her face Gari must have seen it already. The forest wasn’t just a forest. As far as the eye could see there were mountains. Some of them created a very narrow pass close by, probably close enough to walk to in less than a day. Between them and that, though, was nothing but forest.

“Do you remember anywhere in Equestria that has mountains like these?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t think so...” Gari replied. “We better get started, if you see something useful call for one of us.” She continued, looking at the ground. Magpie saluted with a grin and dashed off in one direct and began circling an area, eyes towards the ground.

Gari’s landing was much more like a pony who never had wings trying to land than her take-off. In other words, there was a sizable imprint in the ground. The others all cringed when she hit the ground, but she quickly dusted herself off. Spirit looked like she was trying not to laugh.

“You gotta fan your wings out like this,” Fly-by-night started and put his wings out as if to slow himself in a dive. “and flap to slow yourself down.” He continued, demonstrating how to land properly. Gari glared at him a little bit.

“Well why aren’t you up there with Maggie?” She snapped. He gave her a look and she remembered exactly why. “Oh, right, you don’t fly during the day... gotcha...” She continued.

“So can we go find breakfast now? I’m hungry!” Trotamundo asked.

“Go for it, try not to get lost. If you do then look for Maggie.” Gari said. They all nodded and, in varying speeds, went off into the woods to find anything they could use or eat.

Within minutes there was a scream from one of the fillies. Gari, Nightshade and Nightlight appeared at the source at about the same time. It wasn’t one of the fillies, it was Wind Whisper.

“What’s wrong?!” Gari exclaimed.

“Spider!” Whisper shrieked, taking off into the air and aiming back towards the cave. The three simultaneously facehooved and went back to what they were doing.

It was a good hour before any of them found anything, but after the first tiny patch of berries they were finding things much easier. Springsign did her best to identify everything, she did study a lot of books on flora in the two weeks they were with Luna.

They had found the blueberries, a few strange trees in which the leaves were edible, a small variety of edible and poisonous mushrooms, a few medicinal herbs she forgot the names of, some spices, ginger roots and ginseng roots. There wasn’t all that much of each of them, but altogether they had enough food to last them through the day.

“Hey! I’ve got something else!” Maggie exclaimed, dashing into the mouth of the cave holding a great mound of something in her forelegs. She plopped them all down, it was a massive pile. They looked like a bunch of furry green spheres.

“Chestnuts?” Springsign said, taking one and looking at it closer.

“Mhm, though they’re not very good. I saw some ponies roasting them over a fire, though, during one winter and they said it was really good.” Magpie replied. “There’s whole loads of them everywhere!” She continued.

“Wait you can eat these? Tingle and I started tossing them at each other, they are everywhere!” Trotamundo said, picking one of the things up and swiftly lobbing it at the grey unicorn. It got stuck in his already messy mane. Tingle wasn’t amused.

“Hey, that’s food... You can have Chestnut fights when we’re all full.” Gari said, stopping the two before they had an all out fight with the things. “We have a bunch of stuff here, but not really enough to feed everyone evenly. I remember mommy taught me how to make vegetable stew so I can try that.” She continued.

“Don’t you need a big pot for that?” Spirit asked.

“Oh! I know! We can use leaves and wood to make one!” Nightlight exclaimed. They all looked at her and she thought about what she said. “Oh wait, fire... right...” She said with a laugh.

“Anyways, I found these in the cave. I think we might not have been the first ones here.” Gari said, showing them a small pile of rocks. When they all looked they found it to be a few stacks of small stone bowls, looking a lot like cups, and a much larger one. “Maybe they used these to drink from the springs, whoever they were.” She continued.

“Don’t stews take a while to cook?” Candlelight asked. Gari nodded.

“We can roast some Chestnuts now to keep us off and then I’ll stay here and cook while everyone keeps looking for more stuff.” Gari suggested. They all looked at her for a little bit, thinking.

“I can’t think of anything else.” Spirit said.

“Agreed.” Nightshade said. The others gave general agreement as well and soon they had a decent fire going. They were all cracking the shells open to get at the nuts inside and the unicorns, and alicorn, were holding them over the fire to roast with their magic. Candlelight kept accidentally setting them on fire with his own magic, which in the end actually sped up the process.

When everyone was satisfied they only had a few of the nuts left, but there really were lots of them around. They weren’t exactly a meal, but they were better than nothing. Gari filled the large pot-like stone bowl with some water and put it on a makeshift stand over the fire.

“You should heat up some rocks and stones and put them in the fire, and when they get really hot put them in the pot to bring the water to a boil.” Nightshade suggested to her, coming from the cave with one of the stone cops filled with water held expertly on his head. Gari still had no idea how he did that without magic.

“What’re you doing?” Gari asked, doing as he suggested.

“I read somewhere that Ginseng makes a good tea.” He replied. He picked up one of the few ginseng roots they had and carefully bit a small piece off. He coughed a few times, ginseng had a very strong flavor. He dropped the chunk of root into the cup.

“Would you mind putting one of those tiny rocks in here?” He asked. Gari smiled and levitated a small rock that had heated up rather quickly into the cup. It didn’t start boiling, but it was better than nothing she supposed. He proceeded to take a stone that looked rather like a mortar and started crushing up the root carefully, making sure not to make any of the water splash on his face. After a moment he stirred it around and took the thing out and proceeded to sip.

“Want a sip? It’s not half bad.” He offered. Gari cautiously accepted.

“That is kind of good...” She admitted.

“Come on Nightshade, let’s go get a bunch more chestnuts!” Magpie exclaimed, dashing out of the cave with her muzzle still dripping water a little bit. She didn’t stop to wait for him, though. He laughed and quickly drank a good third of the tea and then passed it to Gari.

“The lady calls, good luck.” He said. Gari giggled at that and Nightshade left. The others followed suit, checking up with her as they left with varying degrees of interest. In about four hours the stew was looking less like boiling water and more like a stew.

Gari had used a few of the spices to give the broth a nice base flavor, then she added the mushrooms, small chunks of ginseng and ginger, a diced up potato Magpie had returned with and strange roots that were rather like carrots.

Among the roots and the potato, the others found some more things to add to their small stash of food. A few more berries, more of the different kinds of roots they had found before, loads of chestnuts and the edible leaves. The leaves were too bitter to add to the stew, Gari thought, since there was already ginger.

“Alright everyone, fill up your cup and enjoy!” Gari exclaimed happily. The others had all gathered around to wait for her to say so and within seconds were doing as she said. When they all had bowls full of the stuff and were happily eating, there was about enough for everyone to have a second helping.

“At least you cook better than you land.” Spirit said. Gari wasn’t sure if she should take the compliment for what it was or not, but decided not to react. She had to admit, it was better than she had hoped with all of the makeshift ingredients.

“I don’t even really like mushrooms and this is amazing!” Trotamundo exclaimed.

“Well good, I worked really hard on this.” Gari said happily, glad her siblings enjoyed her improvised stew.

“So, what now? We’ve got enough food to last a few days at the least.” Magpie asked, breaking the silence that none of them really realized had formed. They all looked to Gari.

“U-Um... Maybe tomorrow we can just explore? If we have enough food for a little while and nothing to carry it with I don’t think we should worry about collecting any more for now, maybe just remembering where to find some of it.” Gari suggested, thinking hard.

“Explore to where?” Spirit asked.

“Um... I guess we can start with this entire area, up until that narrow pass. Maybe we can try to find somewhere to stay that’s better than a cave just outside of it, since I didn’t really see anything from the air.” She replied.

“Sounds good.” Nightshade said. The others were either in full agreement or in uncertain agreement ,but generally they were in agreement.

“So it’s settled, we find out what’s in the area and then what’s past that pass.” Tingle said, finishing his bowl and getting his second.

When night fell they turned in, eager to explore their new world.

Author's Note

and here we are
by the way, all of you screaming and bitching about me getting an editor, I've been looking for one. so unless you'd do it or you know someone that would then keep silent if you would.
and sorry for my scattered updates, I've actually been quite busy lately

Chapter Three

Turns out there was a whole load of nothing, except for their cave, in the area they were in. They came to a unanimous decision to make their way to the pass about halfway through the day, after a few fly-overs they found that it wouldn’t take nearly as long as they had originally thought. So they fashioned a few rucksacks and canteens out of whatever they could find and filled them with water and their food, Gari’s ability to manipulate matter going further than just cookies and milk helping out a lot.

Even so, it was nearly midnight when they all met up there, the pegasi having flown to scout it out.

“Maggie, Fly, is there anything of note directly past it?” Gari asked.

“I couldn’t see anything in the dark, but Fly said he saw something.” Magpie said, turning to the colt.

“Well, it looked like a big beacon of light. I also saw some movement, but I couldn’t tell what it was. By how constant it was, though, I think it might be water.” Fly reported.

“Alright, let’s head towards the water then, do you remember the way?” Gari asked. He nodded and pointed in a direction. She nodded and started walking in that direction. The others followed closely, Fly quickly took the lead when they started weaving around obstacles. They walked for about an hour until they heard the sound of water.

“Finally, I’m exhausted!” Nightlight exclaimed, charging in the direction. Nightshade stopped her, though. “Hey!” She protested.

“It’s a water source and it’s very late, lots of forest predators are nocturnal.” He rationalized. The group was split between agreement and disagreement, but at that moment there was a distant howl, followed by one that was closer.

“You’re right, we should be careful and check it out before charging in.” Gari agreed. Everyone was spooked into compliance and they cautiously made their way to the sound of the water.

Lucky for them, there weren’t any animals there. What was there, though, was a massive waterfall.

“Alright, we should all drink our fill, fill our canteens and fan out to find some form of shelter.” Gari said. She was happy to find everyone agreeing, she was starting to get the hang of making good decisions. in groups of two or three, they all fanned out with torches. They all quickly made their way to where a second torch had been lit and both were waving, signalling that something was found.

They all arrived to where Nightshade and Magpie had found a wooden structure.

“What is it?” Nightlight asked.

“It looks like a tribal hut, and a big one at that... It doesn’t look like it’s been used in decades though.” Nightshade said, walking around the front of it.

“I’ll go in and knock on a few things to make sure it’s safe.” Gari said. Everyone gave her a surprised look.

“Wait, what? Don’t be stupid, you could get hurt!” Spirit exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, I’m an Alicorn remember? I can take a lot before I get really hurt.” Gari retorted. She was actually terrified, but she couldn’t bring herself to risk one of her siblings. She wasn’t the oldest, but she felt like their big sister now that she was an Alicorn. It didn’t seem like any of the others liked the idea, but they didn’t argue as she stepped into the large hut/shack/whatever it was.

As she said, she stepped heavily and constantly knocked on walls and poles. Luckily nothing broke, but it was close. Lots of creaking and cracking. It was pretty dusty too, and if she wasn’t an alicorn she’d probably get sick from all the mold and crap everywhere, but the more she looked the more she saw potential.

“Well, we can’t sleep here tonight, but we can clean it out and fix it up and live here for a while.” She told the others when she came out. Unintentionally adding to the effect, she shook herself and flapped her wings a bit, which created a cloud of dust around her. “Oh now that’s just gross!” She exclaimed, jumping into the stream. The others started laughing, and when she came up she started laughing too.

For that night they created a makeshift tent using branches from the trees around them. The nights were getting slightly warmer, or that might have been the fact that they were sleeping under the moon instead of in a cave.

As Gari and Spirit prepared breakfast the next morning, which consisted of mashed berry jam in bundles of sweet tasting leaves, something that had been nagging all of them finally came to light, sort of. The bundle Gari had in her magical grasp suddenly turned into a cookie, startling her and Spirit.

“Oh well it’s about time.” Nightshade mumbled to himself with a chuckle. Gari gave him an odd look.

“We’ve all been wondering how you’ve had such good control of your magic for like this entire time. You used to turn stuff into cookies or milk at least once a day.” Spirit said without looking up.

“Maybe it was because of her being an alicorn?” Moondancer suggested.

“Then she would still have control, her wings didn’t fall off. Perhaps it was because your magic was weak because of all the magic you used up bringing us here.” Nightshade suggested. They all thought about it and came to an agreement that it was the most plausible. Breakfast, and a snack, thus prepared they ate.

“Alright, first of all we need to clear the air in there. Wind Whisper, lead all of us with wings and we’ll blast the place with a rush of wind to stir up and blow away all of the stuff in the air, you’ve always had a knack for it.” Gari said when they finished.

“You should go in and open all the windows and stuff first, we can work on something to cover our faces for anything that’s left.” Spirit said. Gari nodded and quickly dashed around the inside, making sure every possible opening was open. Spirit had started having the others weave leaves into mouth covers as Wind led all of them, Fly-by-night only because the sun wasn’t quite up yet, into a high dive. They gained lots of speed before holding their wings out to bring them to a halting stop right before smashing into the building, then he beat his wings forward with a tremendous force.

All of the wind power and force built up by all of them followed the force of his wingbeat right into the hut. It was as if somebody had just pushed onto a dusty old fire stoke, a cloud of dust and whatever else was in there poofing out of the other side.

“Wow, that actually worked.” Gari said, landing with the others.

“Wait, you didn’t think it’d work?” Tingle asked.

“Well, I dunno. I half expected the thing to just fall over.” Gari shrugged. Spirit rolled her eyes and passed her a mask.

“Well let’s get in there and see what we can do. Can’t be that bad if it’s still standing.” She sighed. They all put on the makeshift masks and entered the building.

“Well, it certainly looks livable. If we could set up some sort of hose we could clean it up even quicker, and if we found a way to cut wood we could fix it up easily.” Nightshade said, his voice slightly muffled by the leaf mask.

“With some magic we can make the hose work, not sure how to cut wood though.” Spirit said, kicking around a bit.

“We’ll figure it out. For now we should get all of the bad and broken stuff out of here. We can burn the wood and maybe there’s some things we can use.” Gari said. She then turned to her siblings and looked them over, they were all looking back as if expecting something.

“Um, once we get it cleared out a bit we can try to clean it up more...” She continued, not sure what more to say. They all kind of stood there for a little bit before Nightshade turned and started looking around. Magpie quickly followed and the rest behind her as they all got to work clearing and searching.

“I’m not cut out to lead us...” She groaned to herself.

“You’re doing well enough, as much as I hate saying it...” Spirit said, having heard her when she was searching a nearby cabinet.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gari asked. Spirit didn’t respond and moved on to another area, tossing some unidentifiable ceramic into a big pile they had started throwing junk into.

After a few hours of it they were all getting hungry, so Gari and Spirit started on lunch.

“Hey, now that it’s bright out I’m gonna go up and see if there’s anything to see.” Gari said when she finished setting up a soup similar to the first one.

“Fine, I’ll watch this.” Spirit replied. Gari nodded and shakily, though much easier than last time, took to the skies. She was flabbergasted by what she saw. There was their waterfall and hut, but that was just the tiny little corner of the massive mountain range they were in. Their waterfall extended up into a series of falls, though theirs was cut off from the rest somehow and was probably the smallest.

To the north was a series of majestic spires and walls, it looked almost like an ancient city. To the east was a forest of massive trees, much bigger than the ones surrounding it. It gave her a strange feeling, neither good or bad. To the west was the source of the waterfalls, rather close, and she had a very good feeling about that place. They would have to go explore it first, should they explore it at all. They were to the south. Her reconnaissance finished she landed cautiously.

“Anything interesting?” Nightshade asked, him and Magpie having joined Spirit.

“A few things, though I’ll tell everyone at once. How’s the soup coming along?” Gari asked.

“Pretty good, I would love to have some of those rare spices we had back at the castle... But I’ve made do with what we have. I think it should be just fine.” Spirit explained with a smile. Gari nodded. She looked back at the house. It was kind of empty, though empty in a good way. There wasn’t debris and filth everywhere now.

“Candlelight, Tingle and the other unicorns have been brainstorming to figure out how to use magic to get water from the stream to the hut easily so we can clean it out.” Nightshade said, noticing where she was looking.

“Good, I can’t wait until we can actually live here. It won’t be the same, but it’ll still be nice. I’ve always wanted to live on my own with a family I can call mine.” Gari said happily, looking up at the sky.

“Ours.” Spirit interjected.

“You know what I meant, Spirit. I know it’s not my family.” Gari said with a laugh. Spirit stuck her tongue out and continued stirring the soup, which was very slowly starting to bubble. It would be done soon.

Author's Note

And here we are with Chapter Three. I don't quite now how long this is going to go for, since I haven't been given an ideal end, but you guys can expect six or seven more chapters at the very least.
enjoy and until next time, abschied meine freunde