The Legend of Shimmerstrike

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“Are we almost there?” asked a stallion.

“It’s right there, you idiot,” said another stallion.

“Oh, yeah…”

I saw the entrance to a cave. I was on the first stallion’s back and he smelled terrible like he hadn’t bathed in weeks. My legs were bound to each other and the rope was tied tightly around my wings. My instinct was to thrash but I hardly had the strength to move.

“Stop it!” he said.
I didn’t. He bucked me off his back and slammed me to the ground several times then I was on his back again and we were going inside.

There was nopony in the cave before us. A mare went to the fire pit and lit a fire then a stallion made a strange contraption that sat above the fire and large chunks of meat were speared through it and he spun the meat as it cooked. Ponies aren’t supposed to eat that.

My parents were alive at least. We were put in separate cages all lined up, my mother in the middle of my father and I. They were just large enough for my father to turn around in it. Once the meat finished cooking, they teased us and threw small bites of it at us. I couldn’t eat it. The smell of it made me sick and the sight was just as bad. Even if I was hungry then, I couldn’t eat anything.

That night my parents tried to console me. “Everything will be all right,” they said. “We’re going to be all right.” As much as I wanted to, I didn’t believe them. I curled up and my mother put her hoof through the bars of the cage and stroked my mane. “We’re going to be all right,” she repeated. I could only cry because I knew it wasn’t true.

The next day I found that my mother and I were going to stay. They pulled my father out of his cage and put him into a crudely-made arena. Out of the door on the opposite end came a small pack of wolves. I looked away and covered my ears.

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I came from my nightmare and back to the world. I had never been in more pain than I was then. Surely I had broken more than I’d care to know. The corners of my vision were black and I could make out almost nothing when I looked around. The helpful glowing mushrooms were very few.

The side of my face I had rested on was damp and my long mane stuck to it. It was from the floor of this cave—or whatever I had fallen into. This place was very wet.

I could hardly move; every attempt would tell me to lay still. It’s all I could do.

Then I heard the familiar snap of ripping skin and the crunching of bone in jaws. The corpse of the armored stallion lay in a heap and on top of him sat a strange creature that looked like a pony. It was hunched over and sniffing the corpse all over and would occasionally take a bite or two. I heard deep whimpering, as if the stallion’s mouth was closed. Perhaps he was poisoned. I’ve caused that before.

Closing my eyes was the only escape from the grisly scene. I did think the creature might overlook me since I was off to the side and was much smaller than the stallion. I was afraid that it would find me. I kept my eyes shut and soon drifted off again.

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My mother was tossed back in her cage and the door slammed behind her. This had been a daily thing, sometimes more than once. I hadn’t known where she had gone or what was happening to her at the time. Every day, when she returned, she would sit in the corner of her cage and cry.

“Mom, you’re bleeding,” I said. She had blood on her hind legs. I couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed.

“Oh?” she looked down then crossed her legs. “Oh, don’t worry, Shimmerstrike. It’s nothing.”

“But, you’re hurt. You need help!”

“No, I’ll be fine. You just stay quiet. All right?”

“All right,” I said.

I put my hooves through the bars of my cage and hugged her. She hugged me back and stroked my mane.

“Don’t worry, Shimmerstrike. Somepony will help us. You’ll see.”

I can’t say how long my mother and I were held by them. I noticed that her health began to decline. They took her away less frequently, then eventually stopped altogether. She could hardly move and soon she did almost nothing but sleep.

It wasn’t long after that I learned where they had been taking her.

The big and stupid stallion opened the door to my cage and backed me into the corner. He said I was coming with him and put the noose around my neck. It snapped tight when I didn’t follow and he dragged me out. My mother cried and begged him not to take me and he ignored her.

I could hear my mother’s cries echo throughout the cave as I was dragged to an area I hadn’t seen before then. We came to a small tent and the stallion pushed me through the flaps. There was another stallion in the tent. He was the leader of that disgusting bunch.

“Get on the bed,” he told me.

“Why?”

“Because I told you to.”

“No.”

I turned to run and my head was whipped back and I fell to the floor. The stallion picked me up and put me on the bed. I tried to scream but he put his hoof over my mouth. He leaned in close, holding my noose.

“I’m taking this off. You leave this tent, you die. Understand?”

I wept.

“Good.”

Forgive me, but I’m going to omit this part of my story. I’m sure you don’t want to hear it any more than I want to tell it.

When the leader was finished, I was taken back to my cage. I curled up against the bars and cried. My mother dragged herself to me.

“I’m sorry, Shimmerstrike. I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you. I just can’t do it anymore.”

I didn’t even look at her. It was the most traumatic experience of my life, but I didn’t blame her for it. She had endured it day after day so that I didn’t have to. She was the best mother in Equestria.

The next day, I was taken to the stallion again. On my way back, I saw a key on the stupid stallion and he didn’t notice when I took it.

I pulled the key out and showed it to my mother.

“Mom, I have a key. We can leave now,” I whispered.

She looked up at me and smiled. I knew she wouldn’t have lasted much longer down here so I planned to leave that night when they were all asleep.

The leader had left soon after he was finished with me. I’m not sure why. He had done this before.

The stupid stallion came with the noose that night.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He slipped the noose around my neck.

“No! Leave me alone!”

I was dragged out of my cage and into the tent. He threw me on the bed. I jumped off and tried to run around him. He shoved me down and stood up to hit me. When I fell, the first thing that came to my sight was a dagger on the floor, just under the mattress. I sprung up and cut his throat with it. I stabbed him again and again as he fell to the floor and didn’t stop until I was too tired to pull the dagger out of him.

I didn’t think it would have been that easy to kill another pony. I suppose I had a good reason to, but I took the life of another pony with no remorse.

The room grew cold and I suddenly felt that I wasn’t alone. I turned and saw a stallion towering over me. He was in black robes and had a hood over his head.

“Have you been here the whole time? Why didn’t you help me?”

“You didn’t look like you needed my help.” His voice was low and smooth and he had a chilling smile on his face. “I was sent here to kill this stallion. You’ve done it instead.”

“I’m… I’m sorry. You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

“Nightmare Moon hasn’t asked for your blood, so I won’t spill it.”

“Can you help me then?”

“No.”

“Please?! My mother is dying! Maybe… maybe Nightmare Moon sent you here to help me.” I started to cry again. Nightmare Moon would never send somepony to help anypony.

He pulled his hood back to reveal a bright purple mane and yellow eyes. He didn’t say anything but he extended a hoof to help me up.

“I have a strange feeling about you,” he told me. “I’ll help you out of here, but I won’t do it alone. Would you care to kill these bandits?”

It was at that moment my new life began.

“I’ll kill them.”

“Good.”

The two of us killed the rest of the bandits in the cave. He had shown me the proper way to slit a pony’s throat in their sleep so that they never wake.

“We need to help my mother. She’s still in her cage.”

We went to the cage. My mother was curled up in the center. I unlocked it and nudged her.

“Mother, get up. We’re leaving.”

She didn’t move.

“No…”

I shook her.

“Mother, wake up. Wake up!”

She didn’t move.

The stallion walked up and placed a hoof to her neck.

“She’s…”

“No! She’s fine!”

“I’m sorry, little mare, but she has passed.”

I wept into my mother’s mane, praying to the Divines that she would be fine. I wept for a long time. The Divines had abandoned me. But the stallion didn’t.

“I can’t leave her in here.”

The stallion put a consoling hoof on my shoulder. “I’ll help you.”

He carried my mother and I carried a shovel. We walked far away from the cave. I couldn’t bury her within miles of the wretched place. We found a nice spot beneath a beautiful tree—I’m not sure what kind—and the stallion dug a hole. I picked a flower and placed it behind her ear. We placed her into the hole and filled it.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I opened my eyes. It was only the armored stallion and I. Clearly he was too big for just one of these things. I figured there were more of them.

I felt worse than I had before. Those nightmares have always haunted me.

I looked up the hole I had fallen down and saw that it was night. Only stars were in the sky and the only light came from the few glowing mushrooms that were giving off a sickly green light. I could hear water trickling from several spots around me. It had eroded depressions into the cave floor. This was the strangest cave I’d seen. The walls were entirely covered with a coarse moss and I could see what appeared to be ancient architecture built in some of the spots. Perhaps I was imagining it; it was dark and I was nearly dead.

The tight passages soon opened to a set of stairs leading down into a chasm filled with the twisted corpses of trees. Massive fungi sprang out of the floor giving off a glow like their smaller brethren; it was as if the ominous dark was being kept at bay by their light. The air was very cold and crisp and smelled fresh. The smell of death had become so familiar to me that I noticed it right away. Strange flying insects crawled on the furry wall and flew away when I neared them.

I had already forgotten about my pain because of my amazement. There were no words to describe that place. The sight of it made my mane stand on end but I could do nothing but venture further.

It was obvious that nopony had set hoof in here in at least a thousand years. The only sound was the faint scrape of my hooves as I dragged myself and the occasional beating of the insect’s wings. The chasm was massive and filled with a maze of passages formed by raised rocks, but I just walked with no idea of where I was going or where I’d end up. It was like an entire world under Equestria.

After several hours of aimless wandering I came upon life. There was one of the eyeless creatures sitting beside a fire. I imagine I had gone deeper; the air was especially cold now. At that temperature there would be snow in Equestria. This creature was bald. It appeared content despite only having the small fire to warm it. Perhaps it was accustomed to the climate down here. Certainly more so than I.

I’m not stupid, but I am curious—perhaps to a fault; I couldn’t resist getting a closer look at it. It didn’t notice me and wasn’t particularly exciting other than the fact that I hadn’t seen anything like it before. It only sat there by the fire. Perhaps it was sleeping.

I was within just a few steps of it and stood still, watching it, when it perked up and began to sniff. Of course, I didn’t think of it having a heightened sense of smell due to it not having eyes. Its hearing was probably heightened as well, but nopony can hear me if I don’t want them to—even in my state of near-death. Learning it at that moment wasn’t very helpful.

My hoof made the slightest scrape on the rock as I stepped back and the creature pounced. It landed on my head but quickly worked its way to my back. I felt a tugging on one of my wings and then sharp teeth. The wings of a Pegasi are very sensitive. The pain of having my wings being chewed on was similar to being hit in the groin. I fell to the ground and rolled, hoping to knock the creature loose, but that was a mistake. I got it off but my wing went with it. It wasted no time going for the other one. I thrust my dagger to the creature and i
its skin split very easily. I killed it, but not quick enough. I was a Pegasus without wings.

I didn’t get off the ground at first. I pushed the creature off of me and lay there to bleed. The creature couldn’t have weighed more than half as much as I did but it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. My grey feathers were all around its mouth, hiding its crude rotten teeth, and both of my wings were on the ground, one right beside me—which had at least one bite taken out of it—and the other about ten feet away.

When I was ready, I got up and started to limp again. Fearful—and sure—that I was going deeper into this Hell, I kept to the path through the rocks. That past week had been so hard on me; I’d never been through so much pain in all of my life before than I had then, but I knew Sithis wouldn’t abandon me, no matter how deep I would have gone.

I had been wandering a while when I came upon a small group of the creatures; there were three of them. One led the others, who were picking at each other; one would swipe at or push the other, then be chased a small ways up the rocks, then the other would do the same. I knew then that I wasn’t quite as agile as I was used to, so I hugged the wall and stood still and held my breath as they passed. They didn’t notice me. I started to wander again.

My mane was stuck to my face with sweat and dirt and blood. My saliva was thick and my tongue was swollen from dehydration. I don’t know how long I’d been wandering or how long it was before I’d woken. It could have been days. I heard the trickling sound I’d woken up to and followed it.

There was a small stream that emptied into a pool. The water didn’t smell like water and it was too dark to see if it was dirty or not. Water that deep in the Earth must be fresh, right? I asked myself that very question. I would have died without water anyways, so I took two sips. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t water on the first and I spit the second out. Maybe it was best I didn’t know exactly what it was.

Not even a minute after drinking, my vision blurred and I felt even more dehydrated. Whatever flowed down there was poisonous, I can tell you that much. I needed rest then more than ever.

I collapsed and shut my eyes.

I’ll only rest them a few minutes.

* * *

The trickling of the poison woke me. I was alone. On top of the pain from whatever was broken inside me and the open wounds on my back, I now felt the strange effects of the poison. It was like my blood was boiling inside of me.

I went from a limp to a crawl and dragged myself onward for the longest time. Then the greatest thing happened: I began to ascend. I was in too much pain to be relieved.

After a short ways, I came to a lightly-rusted bronze-colored gate. It opened when I touched in and I crawled into the elevator just beyond it and began to rise. It felt like the gravity was going to crush me into a puddle of mush. Then I heard the wind and felt cold.

The gate opened to snowy Equestria. I appeared to be in the middle of a forest. The air was very crisp and smelled of the pine trees. Lumps of snow covered some of the green on the trees. The sky was clear, revealing a beautiful display of stars and a crescent moon.

It was only seconds before frozen blood had shut the wounds where my wings used to be. I limped along in the direction I thought was the ‘right way’. My vision was blurred from the poison, snow and night all at once. My heartbeat drowned out the noise of the world. I was surprised that I hadn’t died at that point.

I soon had to stop so that I could rest. Sleep would be impossible, but just a while to catch my breath was nice.

The snow wasn’t building on the ground. I gathered firewood—I couldn’t carry anything more than small branches, and only one at a time—and made a small fire. There was nothing to eat or drink so I ate some snow from a pine tree. It tasted almost as good as the water from the stream near Shockwave’s dungeon. It was much better than whatever was in that pool.

I rested my head on my hooves and closed my eyes. The warmth of the fire did put me at ease. It made me feel like I was at home again. The sheer volume of my own heartbeat had died down slightly, only to be joined by the screaming of the wind. I turned my back to the wind and used my mane and tail as a blanket, though they were frequently blown out of place. I wanted to just rest my eyes, afraid that if I went to sleep I wouldn’t wake up. It amazes me how many times I’ve wished for death, only for it to come for me when I’ve changed my mind.

* * *

I had dozed off without knowing it. When I woke up the fire was out but the snow still wasn’t sticking. The wind hadn’t gotten worse either. Thank Sithis for the small favors, I thought.

Then I noticed a shadow on the ground that told me I wasn’t alone. I turned around to see a black Unicorn mare watching me from just a few feet away. Despite the cold, she wore no armor—only a green formal outfit, something you would see on a noble. Her eyes were red like mine.

I didn’t say anything to her or get up. If she was going to kill me, there wasn’t much I could do.

“Are you okay?” she asked. I’d never heard a more ridiculous question. She didn’t sound concerned either, but like she was hoping I’d say no.

“Leave me alone.”

“You really look like you need help.”

I wanted to say no, but if she could help me then I’d take advantage of her hospitality.

“I have just the thing,” she said.

I didn’t find it very strange then that she knew what was wrong with me—maybe she didn’t know—but she lifted me onto her back with magic and started to walk. She didn’t live far from where she found me, maybe a half-mile.

Finally we came to her home. It was a cottage, like mine, in the middle of the woods. The light from the fireplace was blasting out the window and into the night. She set me down when we went inside. It was very warm in her home. The smell of a stew on the fire welcomed me but I didn’t want to eat. Being poisoned generally comes with a loss of appetite.

“You can sleep in my bed if you’d like.” She pointed to the bed. There was a lantern on the end-table next to the bed.

I narrowed my eyes. “I can sleep on the floor.”

“No, really. I insist.”

“Fine, but you’d better not be up there when I wake up.”

She smiled. “Of course not.”

I crawled into her bed and began to doze off. For some reason I couldn’t fall asleep; there was something about this mare that made me uneasy. I felt like she was watching me. She tried talking to me as we were going to sleep but I didn’t answer. I wanted to rest but I couldn’t. Sleep wouldn’t have helped me anyways.

Later into the night, a shadow came over me. I rolled over to see what it was. It was the mare.

“If you want your bed then I’ll sleep in the floor. I’m not sharing a bed with you.”

“I understand.”

She stood there a few more moments. I groaned and rolled out of the bed and crumpled to the floor. I didn’t have the strength to crawl further from the bed.

“Take your… damned bed.”

“I don’t need the bed. You’ll need it to get better.”

“Then go back to sleep on the floor.”

“No.”

“No?”

She was such a strange pony. I could tell that she wasn’t tired, but I couldn’t sleep with her standing over me. I looked around nervously then tried to climb back onto the bed.

“Let me help you up.”

She helped me onto the bed and stood there to watch me again.

“Can you go away?”

“Don’t mind me, Shimmerstrike. You just rest.”

“I can’t when you’re… How do you know my name?”

“You told me.”

“No. I didn’t.”

“Yes…” The smile on her face when she said that made me want to slit her throat.

“You’re lying to me.” I pulled my dagger out and pointed it at her. The strain from holding it up had my hoof shaking. “What do you want?”

“I want to help you get better.”

“How?”

“Death.”

“Maybe I don’t want to die.”

“That’s the only way. I know.” She stepped toward me with a grin. I’ve always remembered her teeth…

“Stay back!” I knew it would do no good. I was too weak to fight, or even run away.

She slammed her hoof down on mine that had the dagger and leaned in and put her lips to my neck. I felt a quick stinging sensation. I reared my head back and gave her the most powerful head-butt I could. She stepped back, slightly dazed. Her teeth had ripped the flesh around where she had bitten me. Normal ponies don’t have teeth that sharp…

I was a Pegasus, nearly dead, poisoned and without wings, and she was a Vampony in perfect health. I remember the amusing thought that was in my head: there are more pathetic ways to die.

But, as I said, I didn’t want to die. I grabbed hold of the lantern and launched it at her. The glass shattered and the oil covered her and ignited. I liked the screams of a pony on fire, especially mares—the screams of a stallion just aren’t as blood-curdling. I don’t think anypony likes the smell. She ran for where she thought the window was, bumping the wall several times before finding it. She blasted her hoof through the glass and leapt into the cold. I never did see her again.

I couldn’t enjoy the moment in my condition, and coming with this Vampony only made it worse. It was like I was brought to the edge of death and left to dangle. My heartbeat intensified and so did the pain from my wounds.

I fell to the wood floor and died.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

A cloaked figure prowled the streets, invisible, even in the moonlight. Small, likely a mare. She fled from the light of the guards’ torches as they circled the city on their patrol. The mare knew the city very well, cutting through alleyways to reach her destination.

She neared a cottage on the edge of the city and stepped up to the window.

A mare and stallion were tucking their filly into bed. They each kissed her on the forehead then the father blew out the candle. The moonlight made the assailant’s reflection visible. No features, only black cloth.

She sat there a while with the patience of a predator lying in wait.

Finally she reached up and opened the window and slid into the room without a sound. She stepped up to the bed, staring down at the filly. The foals heartbeat echoed in the mare’s ears.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The mare opened her mouth and gently placed her lips to the filly’s neck. A familiar metallic taste crowded her senses. The foal’s heartbeat began to slow. She didn’t wake. She didn’t even stir.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The mare’s breath quickened.

Thump! Thump!

The metallic taste faded.

Thump!

The mare pulled back to catch her breath. Her hood fell back to reveal a fanged, grey-coated mare with crimson eyes and a green mane. Blood trickled from my lips. I wiped it with my sleeve, still panting.

Then the world erupted in a bright light and I heard a high-pitched scream. It was my voice. My skin burned and was turning to ash before my eyes.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->