The River Back

by WHARRGARBLSMURF

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 7182

The tale of a nameless colt awakening in the wilderness, lost, cold & alone.

The tale of a nameless colt awakening in the wilderness, lost, cold & alone.
Disclosure: I want to describe a world from the view of someone with no knowledge of reality or speaking capabilities but without sounding like I'm writing this story to someone with the intelligence of a kindergarten student. See what you think.
Also, thanks to UNKNOWN for all his help with minor editing suggestions. You, sir, are greatly underrated.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-06-11 23:50:14 UTC

Haemophillia

Alien

Counting trees served to keep his mind busy, doing what he could to keep away the thought of aching pain radiating through his tired legs from walking. The colt sometimes thought he was hungry or thirsty, but when he went over to a bush or low-hanging tree, the only vegetation he could find, he found the leaves to be bitter and near frozen, so he refrained himself from eating said plants.

Although the world he was in seemed like everything was covered in ice, the water was surprisingly refreshing to him when he gulped mouthfuls down his throat, even if it was freezing. On occasion he glanced into the stream to get an idea of what he looked like, and from what he could see from the reflection of the waving waterway, he had scrawny black streaks of wet hair on his head, similar to that on his tail, but he also possessed bright orange eyes, the type that could be mistaken for glowing in the dark. Apart from those two distinct features, there was little else he could see through the ripples in the water. He also realised how much better he was feeling as the bruises had all but vanished from his skin, although he wouldn't risk doing things such as running yet, just to be on the safe side.

When the colt got to a point in the river where it made it's first major curve in the landscape, he spied a structure in the far distance through trees; some tall alien creation nearly beckoning him to come closer. He looked down the stream, then up to the structure once more before deciding to investigate this thing, even if it would be only for a few minutes.

Moving closer to the construction, he realised it had even numbers of trees lined up in parallel leading up to it, like a wide path blanketed in snow. Every tree had a small, grey box fixed to it that swayed in the wintery breeze, the frost had also covered most of the sides and base, along with the fact that he was too short to even get a good view made it difficult to figure out what it was. Leading further to the structure however, made a chill colder than glacial water run up his spine, as the giant, derelict building looking down on him from it's towering height in dismay and sadness.

Some of the windows had been smashed out or cracked either by age or thievery, but all remaining were thick with frost just as the grey boxes on the trees were. Upon further inspection of the front area, he found a wooden door left slightly ajar decorated with scratches and indentations from time, the same could be said with the silver knob that had a flicker of yellow swaying back-and-forth on it. Moving closer to the mysterious light he realised the colour was the reflection of a fire, crackling away calmly in it's birthplace and blissfully unaware that soon it would die from a lack of fuel. Once the colt saw the fire and felt the warmth licking his face he discarded fear of the building and tiptoed across the wooden floorboards to where a lounge was placed, adjacent to the flickering element.

The young colt sat staring into the blaze, a large grin on his content face, his eyelids droopy and blinking constantly from the heat drying his eyes, forgetting his worries, the river and everything inbetween, growing to the point where he wanted to curl up and lie where he was, happily drifting off to sleep. This comfort for him was short-lived however from a loud "THUNK" noise outside, but when he sprang onto the lounge's armrest to see what the commotion was, he heard creaking hoofsteps in the storey above, making his blood pump faster.

Unable to decide what to do in the few precious seconds he had, whether he should face what was about to happen or hide became the hardest question he had to ask himself, so he dove under the cushions on the lounge running the chance that he wouldn't be spotted, then decided he'd come out when he felt the courage to either stand his ground or flee.

He followed the sound of the steps above him to the point where they were beginning to move down and became somewhat softer. At this point, the colt saw what was making the hoofstep sounds as it came down via stairs beside the fireplace, stairs that he had failed to notice when he entered.

A tall alien-creature cloaked in leather and wool clothing appeared with a hood over it's head covering the face, and like the colt, it had four legs, but only used two for walking as the other limbs had four or five lengths of skin at the end; one was grasping the wooden end of a metallic rod almost the length of the creature's own limb, while the other dangled freely beside it's body. Amazed, the young colt went unnoticed to the alien as it passed by him without even batting an eyelid. This was obviously due to the sounds of another alien coming through the doorframe, and although he couldn't see the new member from where he was, he could hear the hoofsteps and talking in an unintelligible dialect to his (not that he had one anyway).

The colt could feel the vibrations of the steps in the floorboards and the couples' chatter as they came closer to him, and he began to panic, but did what he could to remain as still as he possibly could under his cushion. When they were between him and the fireplace they came to a silenced halt, frozen in place. He felt sweat run down his cheek when he realised one of them was slowly reaching out towards him with it's outstretched appendages. When the alien slowly lifted the pony's only source of cover, he bounced out in the hope of surprising them, knocked one over by ramming into it and bolted for the door, not caring if they were friendly or wanted to roast him alive. The cold from the outside hit him like a hurricane as the weather had become the middle of a blizzard. He passed a large contraption on four wheels, immediately thinking it to be the possible source of the "thunk" noise, but not necessarily the "crack", although he didn't care in that point in time, as all he wanted was to get away from the aliens.

Through the howling wind and snow he could hear shouting from aliens slowly fading away the further he ran from his potential danger, the steam of his breath turning invisible within moments, puffing and puffing until he reached the river again. He squinted his eyes making sure he wasn't being followed before walking upstream, while trying not to wander into a tree as his hooves kept sinking into the thick snow and his eyes dried-out all too quickly from the wind, but just as the blizzard felt like it was reaching it's peak, it subsided before the colt had even realised he could see clearly again. He looked to his side to check that the river was still there, as it ran it's course downstream carrying snowflakes and twigs along with it.

The colt sighed in moderation now that he was back on track, yet as he looked up to see the path ahead of him, he realised there was none. Instead, the path was replaced with a colossal mountain no more than one hundred metres away, almost as if it snuck up to him in the storm. He looked around to see if he had indeed gone the correct way instead of backtracked to where he first gained consciousness, but to his moderate relief he didn't go back, and now it seemed that the stream came from the mouth inside the mountain, or perhaps from the other side of the stoney wall altogether.

The young pony hadn't even taken another step from where he was when the snap of a twig caught his attention. Swinging his head around believing to see the aliens, his eyes only met with a hungry look from a skinny wolf hiding under the branches of a dead bush, flashing it's sharp teeth. The colt could feel the blood in him rush to his legs once more as he cautiously backed up towards the cave. Within moments he realised this was one of the worst things he could have done, for instead of one wolf there were now six emerging from the underbrush at a quick pace, moving straight towards him licking their teeth with thin tongues smelling the fear spreading off their dinner.

The colt's only choice now was to run and hope that he could reach the mouth of the mountain in time before the hounds could reach him, but these dogs may've gone for days without food so who knows how desperate they could be? He tried with all his might to run ignoring his fatigue, but his legs were like stumps compared to their long twigs and claws, nearly catching up to him in mere seconds. He reached the mountain only to see his route blocked by fallen rocks from the inside, but with a running jump he lept onto the first stone. Yet, as fate would have it's cruel way, the young colt screamed as the teeth of a wolf pierced the skin of his flank and sank into his flesh, beginning to pull him back down to the ground and struggle to rip a chunk of food off his terror-stricken prey.

As quickly as he felt the world and the wolves cave in around him as more teeth began to sink into him, everything in time seemed to pause, replaced by the "CRACK" noise to fill his ears, but this time much closer. He lay curled up in the snow as his weeping and rose-red blood mixed into a vile concoction, waiting for Death to claim him. But Death didn't come that day. Instead, the pony looked up to see the red, blood-stained snow, and in the puddle lay one of his attackers motionless on it's side. Slowly rising to his hooves he looked over the corpse of the wolf and saw the two aliens standing next to their four-wheeled contraption back where he first saw the wolves, the hooded one with the long object in his grasp, moving to aim it downwards to the ground to show that it meant no harm.

The colt only stared at the pair of aliens, but when the one without the rod began to approach the colt, the other alien put his outstretched limb across it's path and mumbled something incoherent as they both looked at each other. When they looked back to him, the pony realised that this was his goodbye, beginning to turn around and limp towards the cave in the stone wall. Without looking back he climbed the rocks and disappeared over them into the dark hollows of the mountain, where the river flowed through and into the stream.

Effulgent

Darkness would be a poor synonym for what the colt saw in front of him, as he hobbled deeper and deeper into the cave, the crack of light peeking over the rock pile fading away behind him, so too was the frozen world of snow as it changed into a biting cold from within the cave.

With eyes refusing to adjust fast enough to the blackness, he was left stumbling for a while, occasionally tripping on a stone and falling flat on his face shouting agony one more time through his body, particularly to his rear where gouts of blood still dribbled down a hefty bite mark. Deciding to walk closer to the water seemed a reasonably option for the moment, or at least until he could catch his bearings. The ground was mostly flat, giving the impression of sentient handiwork as the river flowed with ease through a trough in the floor it'd carved, making it easier to follow the stream, but this would also become a double-edged sword if anything in the shadows crept up behind him or pulled him into the river. He tried his best not to think about those things.

As his eyes began to make out the outlines of the cave's walls and it's imperfections, he could begin to feel confidence build up inside him, urging him to bump up his speed to squash some time. Ignoring all doubts and worries in his mind against this, he picked up his pace, slowly morphing it into a sprint.

Not pausing for a breath while charging through a cave you could barely see in would be seen as an idiotic feat to perform at least, but he only saw the consequence when his hind rebelled against this act and tightened the warped muscles of his still-healing wound, forcing him to stop with all hooves screeching on the ground. Making matters worse, the colt tripped over a cylindrical object lying on the ground that sent him flipping forward, smacking his muzzle into a wall and ricocheting onto his back like a cockroach.

Wiping the grit from his face, the colt realised he'd run directly into the side of a waterfall that lead into the stream. The source of the waterfall was at such a height that the amount of mist would pound to the ground like needles, barraging him at the bottom of his abyss.

Feeling around, he found the cylindrical object he'd tripped over; from running his hooves along it's structure and his limited sight, the object appeared predominantly red, hollow, and with symbols on one side. Some of these symbols pointed to an end that had been badly burned off not too long ago, he thought that it might've been from a traveller heading in the same direction he was going in, or perhaps heading in his opposite direction, believing it may be the tracks of the aliens.

He placed the tube gently against the wall if the travellers would ever come back to find it, and cautiously started to traverse the vertical wall in near blindness, feeling for a groove before lifting himself one step higher. This soon became natural to him, climbing the obstacle like an automaton left him in a state of mind where he forgot about time, purpose and a lack of energy. What would have been hours for most labourers became mere seconds in his mind.

This became a problem however, as when he tuned back into reality he froze where he was, terrified to think of how far he had to go and how far away the sound of the waterfall hitting the ground was. Gulping, he tried not to think about what would happen if he fell and splattered against the ground, continuing up the face of the wall. He moved to grasp for another small ledge, his heart burst into action when the rocks buckled beneath his pressure, tumbling deep into the blackness he had climbed through, leaving it up to his wits to scramble upwards for another hoofhold in the wall.

Engulfed in fear, he accidentally repeated to toss more loose ledges into the abyss, until finally clambering up quick enough to find one big ledge with enough strength to hold his whole weight. He pushed himself as far away from the chasm as possible, keeping his eyes locked on it's position and waiting for the feel of the lumpy and jagged characteristics of the wall against his back. He continued to slide away, his expectation of meeting with a cold, stone wall quickly replaced with confusion.

He turned around in hope of seeing the wall and slight fear of seeing some horrible, drooling monster towering over him, only this time, before him lay a colossal cave decorated with hundreds upon thousands of different sized stalactites clinging from the ceiling, glistening in a blue-white colour like stars. The river too had this look, as it finally flowed calmly through a crevice in the floor instead of a raging waterfall. The little colt simply sat in awe, staring at the formations and withstanding the cold by wrapping his legs and short tail around him on a freezing patch of stony ground.

Snapping out of the cave's beauty, he carefully slunk over to the edge of the abyss, sticking his small tongue out at it's emptiness in a taunting sense, before retracting once more from it's presence. Something caught his eye however, at first glance it was something circular and red, but as he trotted closer to the object he realised it was similar to the tube he found at the bottom of the waterfall, except this one had a cap on one end where the symbols pointed to. The colt first tried to remove the end by wrestling it with his teeth, when that didn't work he tried to bang it on the ground, when that plan also failed he scrapped the cap along a nook in the floor, holding the other end in his mouth. There was a snap as the rod instantaneously burst into flames at the other end, bright red light blinded the eye closest to the fire making him panic and toss the rod away in surprise.

He closed the light-sensitive eye and rubbed the eyelid with his hoof, the remainder of his sight tracked the rod as it flew a good distance through the air, stalactites dancing in the reflection of the red flame. He blinked constantly in an attempt to even-out the light in his eye, and seeing how this rod did nothing but lay where it was and burn, the colt approached the rod without much worry. He lifted it up in the grasp of his teeth so that it faced the opposite eye this time, continuing on he walked closer to the stream as he observed everything around him illuminate under the flame's influence.

The red fire slowly died away, leaving a black scorch mark on the tip of the rod just like the first one he discovered. When his eyes began to adjust back to the light of the cave's reflections, he felt the tickle of warm air brush against him. Believing it to be the trickery of his imagination reminding him of how cold it was, he disregarded it the moment before a strong gust of air caught him off guard, snuffing out the remainder of the flame leaving him in shadow again. He stood where he was, befuddled as to how a current of wind reach this far into the cave. The colt's eyes widened when a hopeful thought entered his head, dropping the rod, he quickened his pace once more, just as he did when he first entered the mountain yet this time he could see and run with far more ease, not to mention determination.

The size of the cave began to shrink down to that of a tunnel, until he turned a sharp corner to see…

The outside; the other end of the mountain; filled with lush, dark-green vegetation to which he could never had imagined and trees tall enough to scratch the starry night sky - the real night sky, shining with all the creativity space could offer like a universe painted with a dodgy brush. The young colt breathed in the warm air with a happy heart, his optimism telling him it won't get any worse hereafter as he looked back to the gaping mouth of stone, where the river flowed through and into the mountain.

Transcendence

The colt trotted through his tiny piece of utopia alongside the river, musing over the landscape features from the small blades of grass to fallen trees dotted with moss, finding himself content every step of the way. He breathed in the moist air when suddenly, far down his path a glowing spec floated into his view. He was so tired he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him, but then another appeared, then five more, then ten, twenty, fifty nearing the appearance of hundreds if not thousands, all gently hovering down from the branches like slow-motion rain, settling on the ground around him.

He stared at the ring of glowing insects surrounding him, each beady eye looking up at him as if they were anticipating him to begin communicating, but his brain was so void of thought that he could only stare back at the sheer amount of them. In what could be seen as disappointment, each insect gradually ascended back into the canopy and disappeared, leaving the colt with a deep sense of guilt for not acting sooner. He sighed and continued down his neverending path.

Something latching onto his back however, making him shriek in surprise and leap into the freshwater stream. He hid under the water for a moment, scratching at the point where the thing touched him as he carefully re-emerged from the water, rising just enough to clearly see one of the small glowing insects at the edge of the bank looking back at him, as a matter of fact, it was the only remaining one from it's whole legion.

Whilst pulling himself up to dry land and shaking all the water off, the insect stayed where it was looking up at him. The colt glanced over to the insect, gave it a solemn nod, and continued along the riverside.

Not long after he began walking again, the small insect fluttered in front of him, landing in the middle of his path. It tried to start a conversation with him by opening it's wings and closing them to the rhythm of an unco-ordinated tune it produced through chirping noises, so the colt stepped back and lay on the grass in curiosity. The pair exchanged looks before the insect waddled it's way over to him, crawled up his face where he restrained himself from scratching again, and plonked itself on the edge of his nose, conjuring further joyful sounds.

The colt delicately rose from the ground and continued down the river with his newfound friend, eyeing it with very slight paranoia. He yawned as his eyelids began to droop, listening to the insect's almost hypnotic melody. His body was about to give in when the insect cut the tune and rocketed off his muzzle like a fair weather friend. It took the colt a moment to comprehend the event, and through blurry eyes he looked over to where he thought the insect bolted to, seeing it cling to a tree trunk further down the river waiting for him.

Honing in on the little light source, he realised the insect was hardly moving from a box it somehow trapped itself in, similar to the small boxes pinned against trees in front of the old house, but with closer inspection he found it was a flame generating the light in the box, not the insect, cocking his head to one side in confusion as to how there would be a lamp in the middle of nowhere. Further down the river he heard the chirping of the insect, but on top of that there was the clear sound of gushing water, Tensing his muscles and drawing a sharp breath, he hoped he wouldn't have to to climb another waterfall to perilous heights.

The colt ran towards the location of the chirping, the sound of the waterfall gradually growing as he passed more lamps pinned to trees, and soon enough he saw the waterfall, relieved when finding that the waterfall only came down a small hill that could easily be traversed in no time at all. What struck him as odd for this earth formation was the small iron door from the side, only a few steps away from the waterfall with vines drooping over it's wooden framing, the familiar glow of his insect pal illuminating from one of the vines waiting cheerfully for the colt.

The door's stature seemed rotten and old, the colt nudged the door with one hoof hoping it would open easily. The door ignored his effort, then using his upper-strength to push against the door again and with his back hooves digging into the soft soil, the small pony burst the door's frame apart, splinters scattering the ground as he tumbled inside The moment he regained his hoofing he darted back out into the wilderness and hid in a bush, waiting patiently for an alien to run out after him in rage.

Not a peep arose from behind the twisted door, the only movement or sound came from the gentle wind moving through the branches above him, and the river which should go without saying. The observing insect fluttered to the ground and walked into the structure without worry, so concluding that there was no danger, colt creeped towards the door again and peered inside, the yellow light of the insect beside another light flickering in the breeze at the top of a short white rod on a table.

He stepped over the door's warped frame and into the room not seeing a soul, but instead, a variety of woodworks from shelving to cupboards lined the walls, even a bed with neatly folded covers in the corner of the room. The flame sat merrily as it ate through it's remaining stump of fuel, it's cup-shaped gold base sat on a sheet of paper, but at first glance he realised there was no way of reading the incomprehensible scribble covering it. The insect hovered over to the colt's nose where it lay once more, giving the colt mild comfort as he scouted every nook of the room from the leather-bound novels lining the walls, to the passageway leading into a smaller room with the characteristic of the waterfall flowing over an open wall, trickling into a small pond that could be used as a bath.

The colt returned to the bed, seeing it as the best place to get some rest, crawling into the sheets for the hope of a satisfying doze, the insect likewise on the bed's side table, bundling up comfortably.

With a mind absent of any threat, the colt drifted into the dreamworld accompanied by nature's lullaby, consisting an orchestra of distant creatures and gushing water, which for the first time in his short memory gave him peace, drifting off into the darkness of slumber.

Dreaming...

He'd never dreamt anything before, hardly even used his imagination outside the logical world, yet here he stood in a golden field he'd never seen, and the sun neither rising nor setting as it painted the sky red over a mountain range, leaving the surrounding world in the shadow of overcast clouds. The colt wondered what the sky looked like at the top of a mountain like those ones, and the instant the thought popped into his head something grasped his whole body, and in one swift motion he was pulled at full throttle towards the mountain. He shut his eyes tight and looked away expecting to slam against the side of the alp, but when the wind rushing through his mane suddenly stopped, he cracked open his eyes to find himself at the peak of the mountain, over viewing the plains coated in long grass and deep scarlet sky, just like he wanted.

The colt felt like he'd been through so much already he didn't care if he flew to the top of a mountain with the power of his mind, but it was when he turned to trek back down the slope he saw a white glow close by, something sitting on a bench spectating the landscape whilst having a conversation with itself. He crept closer to it until he knelt a handful of meters away from the being, almost able to make out a couple of the words they said, then a thin sliver of the light poked it's head up a moment before the being split into three and looked directly at him.

Freezing the moment he was spotted, the colt realised it was four individual beings instead of one, the fourth and bulkiest member of the party turned to air the first chance it got, taking the bench with it. Two others in the shape of what he thought were aliens stood back bewildered, one with a thin, winged reptile on it's shoulder that climbed down to the ground and scampered over to the colt, standing upright close enough to feel it's warm breath against his muzzle. The two stared at each examining the new animal before them, the other pair mumbled words to each other whilst gesturing towards the colt.

Eventually the reptile's master sounded a sharp whistle, and the creature scurried back over to the being and perched itself on a shoulder, the colt could've sworn he saw it whisper something into the alien's ear. The alien crouched to get a better view of the young colt, gently fondling a part of it's face the pony could just make out to be wisps of facial hair.

After a lengthy silence and a number of tired yawns from the colt, the other glowing alien nudged the observer's side and pointed out towards the plains. The colt followed the gaze of them both to spy the tiny movement of another alien, yet even at a distance he could tell this one was severely malnourished, not to mention wounded judging by the tattered blue clothing it wore. When the colt looked back to the beings, the one still standing now moved towards him at a calm pace in the hope of not frightening the colt away, but he felt no sense of fear from the aliens, just a strange, almost omniscient presence the closer it got. The being reached out and brushed the colt's fur gently. ca every muscle in his little body relax and crumble to the ground in exhaustion, only to see darkness once more.

The cooing of birds brought him back to reality, beams of sunlight shone through the twisted door showing the dust particles floating above the ground. He stretched his limbs and heard his bones heave, but looking down his body something scratched at his mind, telling him something had changed. His eyes widened in surprise when he that no wound, not even a scar bore any resemblance on his flank from the wolves. He doubted damage like that could've healed in a day, so perhaps the apparitions he met in his dream had something to do with it?

After a moment, he shrugged off the possibility. It was healed; that's all that mattered to him. The colt sighed and looked over to his only friend in the world, sleeping happily on the barren bedside table. The colt crawled out of bed and stood next to the insect with a grin, nudging it's side gently, the insect rose and fluffed it's wings, chirping as it flew onto the tip of his muzzle again ready to continue the adventure. Upon stepping out into the warm sun, he clambered up the hill and pushed forward along the stream.

Yet something further upstream shimmered in the sunlight. The colt picked up his pace to get into view sooner, and to his astonishment a large, metallic structure protruded from the forest landscape, and from the only gaping mouth of an entrance the river poured out. Why such a creation existed here eluded him, and why the river he'd been following all this time had been a product of this building only peaked his interest further.

The colt cautiously walked towards the derelict edifice, all his instincts telling him to turn back as the building loomed over his tiny body, blocking out the sun. The insect scrambled to hide in the colt's mane as a deathly-cold breeze of air crawled it's way out to greet him.

With tenuous courage, the colt took a deep breath and put one hoof in front of the other, and before he could conceive the possibility of turning back, he was knee-deep in water and consumed in darkness.

Homecoming

The sloshing sound of water around him only worsened the further he walked into darkness; each droplet echoing tenfold within the giant metallic chamber, making him paranoid something was watching from behind the pitch-black wall, waiting to pounce. The grub in his mane gave no support or comfort whatsoever, just observing through layers of hair, perhaps it was more nervous than him. The thin air became worrying too, filling his nostrils with the scent of unnatural fumes.

Over time he believed that there probably wasn't going to be anything jumping out at him, as the only movement in the water was his own. But the moment he let his muscles loosen he stubbed his hoof on something hard, a loud squeak slipping from his lips by the surprise as he leapt back. He froze in the water where he fell back with a splash, the grub scrambled to the top of his head for safety, waiting for something to happen, yet there was nothing but silence. Summoning his courage once again, the colt cautiously leant forward to feel the stone-hard object. Upon climbing it, there was another, then another, and eventually it began to resemble stairs leading up to a single metal door left slightly ajar, a subtle light shining through.

Preferring to go through the door rather than continue into darkness, he shook off the water and poked his head through the doorway. He looked into a room lit faintly by sunlight shining through air ventilation fans in the ceiling, ominously spinning from their high place. This construction was a giant cubic room, two tunnels split off at separate ends of the room and a generator nearly as big as the room itself sat in the centre, reaching up towards the ceiling with large rubber tubes, however it was clear they had been detached from the fans, one flopping down onto the ground. The colt could feel his insect worm it's way through his mane, coming to the top of his head and poke out between his ears, observing the room with him.

Concluding that the room was safe, the colt stepped into the sunlight to dry himself off, weighing up his options of what to do next. Down the tunnel on his left was nothing but blackness, cutting his vision short by a few meters, but it's path took a turn deeper into the building. Down the route on his right was also blackness, but this appeared to continue in a straight path with a very slight breeze coming through. Both were circular, like pipes, he presumed they served as maintenance tunnels or escape routes for whatever sentient creatures lived in their depths.

It was then an idea struck him. Spinning around to eye the machinery in the middle of the room, he found the loosest panel he could find and tore it off, angling it in a beam of light so that it's lustre reflected the rays down the right path, piling up some scrap metal behind it so that the makeshift mirror would stay in place.

Sunlight beamed into the blackness, bouncing off a wall at the far end, around a corner and into the unknown. The colt looked deep into the path he chose to take, knowing full well that he could turn around and leave if he didn't feel up to the task. Curiosity kept his fire burning, the river led him to this place, he had to find out where he came from. It's not like a little curiosity killed anything, right?

Their journey in the tunnel was brief, the two reached a sharp corner, leading into more darkness, even though the sunlight zig-zagged into what appeared to be a seemingly infinite path, or at least a very long one.

A spike of fear shot up the colt's back when he heard something scraping along the ground far behind him, and quick as a flash the sunlight was gone. The mirror, though he couldn't see it now, had fallen to the ground. He backed up against a wall, panicking on the inside, keeping an ear out for any movement if something knocked the mirror over and was coming for him. There was nothing, nothing but the gentle breeze coming from deeper in the building. Gathering his bearings, he wiped small beads of sweat from his face and let his muscles loosen, reminding himself that there was nothing to be afraid of in this place but his own exaggerating imagination, the mirror probably just fell over on it's own.

His insectoid companion crawled to the tip of his muzzle, it's teeny legs making his skin itch with annoyance, but it didn't matter, the glow from the grub's rear seemed help illuminate the tunnel in a peaceful yellow shade, chirping swiftly in delight. Even though now his vision was reduced, it didn't worry him, the grub was more comforting than a fireplace in winter, they had each other's back, and in that moment it was all the lost little colt needed. He didn't even bother asking himself why it wanted to become a companion for him, he just went with it.

A friendly tweedle popped the colt's daydreaming bubble, his insect friend had spied a route splitting from the main tunnel, pointing at it with it's glowing rear. The insect's glow wasn't as powerful as sunshine flaring through the building or the flaming rod he found in the cave, but he could see that the path led to another door, an ominous pale-green light poking out from under it. The insect fluttered off his face down to the ground, crawling through the tiny gap between the floor and the door, obediently waiting for the colt on the other side.

He pushed against the door, swinging open with a squeak, the green sheen across the walls enticing him into the room. Papers were strewn about, desks flipped over and tools scattered, broken on the ground like someone threw a tantrum before leaving in a hurry. The source of the glow stood before him, a towering green vat rose over him like a monolith, holding a mysterious, sleeping figure in it's belly, the figure's body thin as twigs yet with a head as large as a soccer ball.

Tapping the tank surprised the colt with a response, the creature jolted back to the edge of the vat, staring at the colt with wide eyes as the colt too stepped back in shock. They watched each other for a minute, reading each other's anatomy and trying to get a grasp of what the other was. The young stallion took a brave step forward and placed a hoof on the glass, he figured it might help the creature to understand that he was friendly, and sure enough, the creature cautiously floated forward to rest a slim, spindly appendage on the glass where the colt's was. It seemed so alike to him yet so different, something whispering in the back of his mind that it's dark hair and minimal oratory skill reflected him. Perhaps this was where he came from.

The insect crawled out of the colt's mane and fluttered onto the glass, a twinkle of wonder appearing in the figure's eyes as it watched the insect. The grub crawled to the base of the vat where a console of buttons and dead light bulbs lay, sat on the edge of a lever and jumped on it, like it was trying to push the lever down, as if it was a failsafe to open the tank.

It leapt aside when the colt grasped the lever with both forehooves, the creature in the vat watching intently, bracing itself for the unknown. With a heave and a clunk the lever fell as the vat burst open like a dam, flooding the colt in a recipe of glowing water mixed with shards of glass.

Consciousness

Consciousness

He awoke on his side, staring at the white, pebble-ridden ground, soaking wet and covered in bruises. His lungs forced water mixed with blood out of him, giving him the ability to breath once more. Trying to lift himself from the rocky substance he lay on only resulted in bursting out a sharp yelp before crashing back onto the ground, giving him more bruises on one side. He cleared his throat as best he could and let out a plea for help.

No answer. Even the birds in the trees ignored his cry. Only the icy trickle of running water at the colt's hind legs gave any noise to comfort him. With what remaining strength he could muster, he pushed on the ground with his forehooves, circling around until his mouth was in the edge of the crystal-blue stream, and with his slender tongue he tried to scoop what water he could into his mouth, discarding care for any mud that clung to his palette in the process.

After what he thought was enough time to get back enough scraggle of strength, he lifted himself up, trembling on all fours. He began to take his first step, like what most of his kind would do after they were born, but just like them, he staggered forward and clumsily tumbled onto a nearby tree, grasping at it with his limbs to keep his footing, or 'hoofing' in his case, before slumping down onto the ground with his back against it's trunk.

There the pony sat, occasionally moving to make himself comfortable by scraping twigs and stones away from underneath him. What felt like an hour had passed when he heard a "CRACK" sound, not the noise of a fallen stick or that of a rock being thrown onto another, but something different that made his blurry eyes spring to life and scour the landscape instinctively for danger. But all he saw was the thick flora of trees, devoured in a white blanket of snow, as if it were in a constant state of winter.

He slowly and carefully rose to his hooves, buckling under his own weight and slamming into the tree one final time, ignoring the splinters and scrapes from the tree bark, he pushed himself off and limped towards the river, realising his front-left leg had a bruise running up it from hoof to torso, but the pain was so immeasurable it was like the bone had been broken in ten different places. He stood by the stream, looked down and up from where it was flowing from, wishing that the "crack" noise was made by another creature, hopefully like him, and that he wasn't alone or surrounded by enemies.

One hoof after the other, he slowly made his way up stream from where he figured his unconscious body travelled in the flow of the waterway, wanting to find out where he was and how he ended up at the edge of a river in the middle of seemingly nowhere.