The First Dark War

Silk Glade had just finished bathing her beloved baby Red. She was always delicate with him, making sure not to harm even the smallest little hairs of his brick red coat. Her own fur was of a similar red, more crimson than anything; he also had her pale yellow eyes. They even glinted the same under the candlelight that lit their small, wooden shack. It was enough for them, enough for her, however. She had a child that she cherished and nurtured nonstop; a bastion of the good spirit and hope she held.

Silk's husband had gone to war, and never returned. She still cried at his loss, his brave sacrifice. Red couldn't grieve with her because he was simply too young to understand the tragedy of losing a loved one. A loved one who never betrayed his wife's trust. A loved one who always stayed true to his vows and never lost passion for her. She longed for his touch again; she wanted him to lay her on her back, to trace his hooves up her body and kiss her deeply, and...

Red suddenly wriggled in his mother's forelegs, bringing the widowed unicorn back to reality. He looked up into her eyes, deep into them. "Mama." He proclaimed in an innocently light voice.

"Oh, my sweet little baby..." Silk Glade's eyes started tearing up when she responded. A single drop of life trailed down her muzzle in an almost artistic fashion, tracing her young features ever so carefully. "Red, my precious child...I love you so, so much."

The foal smiled wide and giggled, putting his hooves up toward his life's giver. "Hold! Hold!"

Red got what he wanted and more. Glade pulled him into a fulfilled grasp and let loose her building tears. Crying. She hated doing it, but at the same time, it was the only thing reminding her that she was alive and could feel, for the moment.

"OPEN UP NOW OR WE'LL KILL YOU AND YOUR BABY!" A gruff voice shouted from outside her home's rickety door.

She managed to keep it closed with her magic for awhile now, and whoever was outside, mostly likely another thug, wasn't too happy. With pretty much every soldier out fighting the changelings and their army, security wasn't guaranteed. Especially not for the poor, who always had to fend for themselves anyways. Her strength had been waring thin recently, her magic becoming weaker and weaker. She was finally going to lose the biggest fight in her life. The fight for survival. The worst part of it was that she'd have to leave her only child to whatever would come his way. She wouldn't let him die, though.

Her strength finally failed. The tied-together boards that made up her door broke away from its hinges and slammed onto the dirt floor. Almost immediately after, the intruder was revealed, and the intruders behind him. There stood three massive, leather-bound, black-coated earth ponies that brandished crude nail clubs. The first rushed in with defined anger and excitement. To him, her death would be another successful raid.

Silk Glade had already placed Red on her rickety hammock behind her. She was as prepared as she would ever be. With a glow of her horn, she sent one of the shards of her broken entryway straight into her assailant's throat, incapacitating him easily. As the second thug rushed her along with the third, she acted fast, but not fast enough. Red's mother charged and impaled one of the two in the chest and sent a beam into his body, essentially boiling him from the inside out. Her next move was to grab up his weapon and send it toward the skull of the last foe. As her projectile made contact, crushing her target's face in, his weapon collided with the side of her head with such force that it broke open her skin and skull.

She looked up at her baby, unable to think, move, breathe, to do anything else. She looked at him sadly until blood and brain ran down over her eyes, obscuring her vision. Her heart stopped and her horn crumbled away into dust as her remaining magic dissipated. Darkness enclosed her like a pair of hands cupping her between them. The last thing she heard before fading was Red's violent crying. He could understand loss after all.