From the Shadows

To a grey coated mail carrier, the day was as perfect, and as normal, as it had ever been. The Pegasus glided through the air, just above the ground, her blue uniform on tight, and her smile on even tighter. Coupled with a lazy eye, her expression was nothing less than comical.

Derpy Hooves, as usual, was on her mail route on this seemingly perfect day, and was just now reaching her daily task's half-way point, just beyond the square, but just before the residential outskirts; the hospital. Only today, the mailbox resting on its post outside the front entrance was something more.

A pony waited along with the mail within the box, leaning against the mailbox, and playing with the plastic red flag, flicking it up and down quickly. She'd never seen the pony before; tall, large, probably a stallion by his size, and wearing a very uncharacteristic article of clothing for the town; a brown cloak and hood. As she drew nearer, the mail carrier's eyes grew brighter as she saw that there was a package, colored red and adorned with a big blue ribbon at the pony's feet.

"Oooh, a present," she cooed as she came up to the mailbox, "Who's it for?"

"Oh, just an old friend of mine," he answered, confirming he was indeed a stallion by his voice, "There's a certain...anniversary coming up. This is just to celebrate."

He reached down and picked up the box as he finished, attempting to hand it to her.

"Could you deliver it for me?"

Derpy took the package in her outstretched forelimbs, and was shocked that it was wet.

"I think it's leaking," she said as she inspected her hooves, now colored red.

"Oh, wait," she said, pausing, "Is this paint?"

"Er, yes," responded the stallion, still hidden behind his cloak, "My friend is allergic to one of the, umm, chemicals they use to make wrapping paper, so I had to paint it. Red is her favorite color you see. The color of love."

He sounded like he was smiling as he continued.

"It's one of my favorite colors as well, but for different reasons."

Derpy looked at the address, written in dark black letters on the underside of the box. She turned it in her forelimbs, and upon making out the destination, she replied with hesitation.

"Oh. This address isn't in Ponyville."

"Yes, you're right. In fact, it's not in Equestria at all. It's in the Crystal Empire. Will that be a problem?"

"Maybe," the mare responded, still looking through her solitary straight eye at the package, "I'm not supposed to deliver anything outside of Ponyville. You should try the international delivery service. They can help you."

"Oh please," he persuaded, the words rolling off of his tongue, "Like I said, it's for a very important occasion, and it needs to be there as soon as possible. I would take it myself, but I have a very busy schedule to attend to. I can compensate you for any trouble you may have."

"Well," the mare said as she continued internally debating, "Okay. I'll do it."

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

"Who is it for, once I reach the address," she asked as the stallion began to turn away from her.

He turned back, and said, "It's for the matriarch of the home you'll be delivering to. You can't miss her, she's a very well-known mare in the country."

"Really?" Derpy asked friendlily, making small talk, "I've never been to the Crystal Empire. Is it as pretty as they say?"

"Oh yes," he said, chuckling a bit, "the prettiest place a pony can all home."

The two stared at each other for a while, and as the mare began to turn to carry out her task, the stallion stopped her suddenly.

"Oh wait. I nearly forgot."

He reached under his cloak, and retrieved a sealed envelope.

"Please give this to her when you deliver my gift. She'll know what it means. "

"Well, okay," Derpy said as she took the letter, and placed it on top of the package she carried, "I'll just be on my way then."

"Thank you again!" called the stallion as she receded down the street.

Then he turned, and walked off in the opposite direction, small, ebony crystals marking his tracks in the cobblestone.

****************

"This is bad," iterated Pinkie Pie, stating the blatantly obvious.

The group had been following one of the crystalline trails for the majority of the day, but weren't any closer to escaping Everfree. If anything, they'd found their way deeper into the trees; the light was growing less, and the shadows seemed bigger, the silence louder, and the trees more alive.

"How'd we get ourselves into this mess?" whispered Applejack, too low for the others to hear.

Twilight slowed down, and turned to face the others. It had to be at least five o'clock; considering they entered the forest just after dawn, their situation was dire to say the least.

"Any ideas?"

No response came from their shadowed eyes.

"Alright then," Twilight said, looking around concernedly, "Rainbow, do you think you could fly above these trees? Maybe we could get at least an idea of where we need to be heading. This trail was obviously the wrong one."

The Pegasus crouched, and sprang into the heavy air, pumping her wings as she ascended. However, for all her strength, her skyward advance was halted by the thick canopy of the forest. She became caught in branches and leaves, sending compost back don as she knocked it loose from the tree's embrace, and though she repeated her attempt to burst through the vegetation over and over again, she never saw the friendly blue smile of the sky.

"It's no good," she confessed as she alighted among her friends, "The trees are too thick."

Twilight kicked the mud in frustration, her hoof being held onto by the wet forest floor as she retracted it back upwards. She began to look around, specifically to avoid the looks of despair on her friend's faces, only a hint of a glint coming off of the jeweled elements of harmony around their necks.

Suddenly, Twilight's ears perked up, and her eyes grew wide as she whipped around to face the darkness of the trees.

"What is it?" asked Fluttershy quietly.

"Shhh!" hushed Twilight frantically, turning her head upwards suddenly.

The others averted their eyes as well, trying to search for any sight, and listen for any sound, that Twilight had apparently caught onto. But, they remained oblivious.

"Do you hear that?" asked Twilight concernedly.

"Hear what?" responded Applejack.

"You can't hear that?"

****************

Sombra took in a deep breath, his identity no longer concealed by the cloak. Rather, it was hidden by the shelter of the forest once again the perfect vantage point to watch, as well as reap the benefits, of his work.

He kept his horn aglow as he continued breathing deeply. Everything was going perfectly, but he still wasn't done.

Oh no. The forest was the least of his enemies' problems. He kept the spell, the one he was casting into the forest, going as he picked up a box of matches. The smell of oil was still persistent in his nostrils, even after its spreading had long since ceased. Much of the grass he'd treaded over the past few days was now damp with the thick, dark lipid, and his grin grew wider as he lit the matchstick with a satisfying *fwish*.

He dropped the flame to the ground, and watched in ecstasy as his trail of crystals was replaced with a trail of fire, retracing his stone-marked tracks, and the black silence of the stones was routed by an orange, crackling radiance.

****************

"Wait," said Fluttershy excitedly as Twilight was beginning to walk off into the trees towards the apparent sound she'd recently begun to hear, "I think I hear it."

The sound Twilight had heard had remained inaudible to the others for the better part of fifteen minutes, until now.

"What does it sound like?" asked Twilight, just as anxious as her friend.

"It sounds like...a whisper."

"That's what I hear too."

"Wait I hear it too!" yelled Applejack suddenly, "It's coming from over there."

She pointed into the trees off to the right.

"No, it's coming from there," corrected Twilight, pointing upwards and to her front.

"I thought it was that way," added Fluttershy, nodding off to their left.

"No," said Rarity, confirming that she too now had detected the sound, "It's behind us."

The group began frantically turning around and around, trying to pinpoint the sound, now audible to now, teasing at its own existence as it grew louder, then died down, only to pick up back again just beyond the mares' field of vision. It sounded like a whisper, a breeze in the trees, nothing more than a faint rustling or a disturbance in the air, but in the silence of the forest, it seemed nearly as loud as a train passing by.

The breeze grew into a wind, and the trees began to bend and creak all around them as a driving current came at them from all sides. No more a whisper; now, it was a voice, still low and inaudible, but definitely words being spoken in octaves too low for comprehension.

The voice grew in the wind, finally becoming audible as it danced around the group of mares. From the embrace of the trees it spoke, its voice deep, Slavic, and familiar.

"Open your eyes," it breathed, invisible, but not inaudible, "See the truth."

Twilight looked to the others; they were captivated entirely, their eyes blank, seemingly empty, as they gaped upwards and all around to the infinite sources of the voice.

"You can live, or you can die," came the whisper, "Use your minds. Think."

"Don't listen!" barked Twilight, but she too felt herself being captivated by the voice's melodious, alluring words.

"Let me help you," cooed the voice, "See things from a new perspective."

Suddenly, the trees seemed to part a bit, revealing a path through their limbs, as well as a flickering glow in the distance.

"Come to me," beckoned the voice, luring the mares towards the light, "and you'll find that in the darkness, there is salvation, a light unlike anything you've known."

They followed the gap in the trees, halfway in a trance, and halfway conscious as they plodded forward, weary and enticed at the same time. The light at the end of the tunnel of bark and dying leaves grew, however slowly, stronger, and the group felt the oppressive gloom of the forest lifting. It didn't take them long for them to leave the trees all together.

But, they found that the light they'd been following wasn't cast by the sun.