I hunted, hunted and hunted,
I hunted for it in the forests.
I hunted, hunted and hunted,
I hunted for it in the rivers.

~The Hunted - Nitheesh Annadanam~

~Jaeger~

We could feel it, all of us; that aura from the forest screaming at us to get out. We were not wanted here. Despite the will of our surroundings, we ventured on. It was eerily quiet within the Everfree, as though all the life it once held was gone. Playing dead were the creatures within. A natural defence mechanism for any living being when a superior predator comes along. But not us. We were determined to push through the forest to Zecora's hut.

"Ugh! Darn it, the Everfree's changed itself around, nothing looks familiar. It could be leading us back out for all we know." Twilight growled in frustration, bringing our little caravan to a halt.

"So, are we lost then?" Trixie asked, looking around for any timberwolves that may take advantage of the sudden disorienting state we'd found ourselves in.

Pretty soon, everypony was becoming stressed and confused in equal parts. amidst the confusion, I closed my eyes and calmed my mind as best I could.

"We've been in here for three hours! We should have made it to Zecora's by now!" Rainbow Dash argued.

"Haven't you been listening? The Everfree's changed! The roads, the paths, the placement of the trees, they're all different! We're lost in a place that may as well be new to us." Trixie retorted.

"Are we gonna be okay?" Scootaloo asked nopony in particular.

"We'll all be fine." I said in a calm manner. All heads turned to me as I sat in place with my eyes closed. I took a deep breath and let it out to calm my nerves. Listening for any sound, I placed my ear to the ground. At first there was nothing, just the calmness of the earth beneath. I could feel the nervous shifting of my friends as they watched me. Ultimately, the Everfree was no different to the rest of the forests, at least on principle. The trees could be manipulated, but not the ground.

I listened further, trying to expand my range as best I could. I'd done this a number of times, and I knew what to listen for. And I discovered a noise I dreaded hearing. A dragging sound, faint but unmistakable, the sloshing of liquid within the body. It was in the Everfree Forest. And it wasn't far away.

My eyes snapped open and I rose to my full height. I looked at the group with a mixture of worry and anger. "We have to move, right now!" I ordered, heading away from the source of the noise. The others followed closely.

"What did you hear?!" Twilight called next to me.

"Was it Timberwolves? Shades?" Trixie asked.

"Neither. We're being hunted by something much worse than Shades." I replied, ducking under a stray tree branch. I looked behind to see that everypony was still close by. Spike was on Twilight's back, Scootaloo on Rainbow's.

"What could possibly be worse than a Shade?!" Dash demanded, taking flight to hover over us. I said nothing as I pushed my body to run faster. The others managed to keep up, especially Winny. However, they were growing tired very fast.

"Twilight, can't you teleport us to Zecora's hut? All you'd need to do is picture the interior, right?" I called over to her.

Twilight panted through her response. "But... I've never... teleported... this many... ponies before! I don't know if... I can!" she replied.

"Our survival depends on you doing it right now!" I yelled at her. I could tell by the look on her face that she was beginning to panic. "I know you can do it, Twilight! Trust in yourself!" I assured her. Looking ahead, I could see a dead end coming up. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the familiar violet glow of Twilight's magic as she began to charge her teleportation spell.

From behind, a sickening roar sounded just as Twilight fired her spell, and for an instant, everything went black.

~Trixie~

We all heard that roar. I'd go so far as to say Canterlot heard that roar. Having Jaeger tell us of something worse than a shade was easily the most frightening thing I'd ever heard. Had I been in charge of teleporting everypony, assuming I had the ability to do so, that roar would have caused me to screw it up.

Twilight Sparkle never ceased to amaze me. As the darkness faded away to reveal a small hut that I'd recognised as a classic zebra dwelling, I found myself both envious of my former rival, and loving her at the same time. The fact that we'd teleported outside meant that she'd been startled by the roar as we all were, but to appear just outside was a feat few could achieve when startled.

"We're here." I said, hoping that I hadn't made a fool of myself by assuming there were no other zebras residing in the Everfree. A chorus of relieved sighs were my response. I'd never met Zecora, but I had been to her homeland. I found the rhyming to be a rather cute quirk. Zebras were kind and generous to a fault. Among all my audiences, they were the only ones that didn't chase me out of town for lying about my exploits. They actually shrugged them off as mere stories, mare's tales that would do well to inspire the younger generation. Why I left remains a mystery to me.

However, I found a similar response in the mare I now called friend. Truly an inspiration to all Unicorns. How I wished we'd met under better circumstances.

"Somepony call out to her. I doubt an unfamiliar voice will get her attention." Jaeger said, pulling me from my thoughts. It came to my attention that nopony had moved from the spot we'd rematerialised from. It took me a few seconds to realise why this was; if the thing that was worse than a shade lived in the Everfree, chances were Zecora might have been...

I looked to Twilight who appeared to have reached the same conclusion as me. "Zecora?" the young Scootaloo's voice called out. "Zecora, are you there? It's Scootaloo... We're not dead!" she said. I'd have thought that the ability to speak would be proof of that last remark. I'd yet to hear one of the dead utter a word beyond 'Urgh!'.

~Zecora~

As I heard the familiar voice of my friend, I peeked my head through the window. True to her word, Scootaloo was not dead, nor were the six others with her. I recognised Twilight immediately. Rainbow Dash had seen better days and the dragon, Spike looked to be in a daze. The dog seemed familiar, and it brought Apple Bloom to mind. The sky blue unicorn with the strange hat seemed familiar also. Ah, t'was the possessed mare Trixie that brought Twilight to me.

But the one that caught my attention most was the grey one at the front of the group. A dark presence surrounded him, one I was familiar with. Many a zebra had fallen to darkness in the past, but none like this Unicorn. Even from here, I could tell his magic was weak, but somehow, he showed an air of strength. His mere presence was enough to almost make me pass out. The air felt thick around him. How the others hadn't noticed was beyond even me.

Feeling I'd spent enough time examining my guests, I opened the door and ran to them. As expected, they were slightly apprehensive, but that grey one didn't even flinch. I knew then and there that he was a bad omen.

"Zecora?" Twilight asked. I looked at her with a gentle smile. Hoping to disarm her of her fears.

"Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you. As it is to see you, Scootaloo." I said. Immediately, I saw that my rhyme had placed all but the grey one in a calmer state.

"Thank goodness you're okay. We were worried that the Shades had gotten to you, or worse, the zombies." said Twilight. I knew what they meant. I'd ventured beyond my hut from time to time as usual, only to find the townsfolk wandering around aimlessly. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that they were dead, yet still walking.

"I assure you my friend, I am alive. I too am glad to see that you all did survive." I replied, turning to the grey one. "But forgive me for being rude. Might I ask; 'who are you'?" all the while, this grey stallion had been giving me a calculating glare, but as soon as I addressed him, his entire demeanour seemed to change like the wind and he seemed almost like an new pony.

"My name is Jaeger, ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard things." he said, being so kind as to bow. It occurred to me that my initial impression of the one called Jaeger may have been misplaced. Yet that air of evil surrounding him kept me wary. "We were on our way to Appleloosa when the girls insisted we check up on you. We're all glad that you're still amongst the living." he added, offering his hand to me.

I decided that I would take my cautions and his kindness both with a grain of salt. After all, nopony knew better than I how deceiving appearances can be. As I took his hand in my own, I felt the cause of the darkness surrounding him. It was like a static shock as we connected. I instinctively drew back and glared at him.

"I thought you were hiding a trick! You use the forbidden art of Red Magic!" I growled at him. I'd expected a few gasps of realisation, mainly from Twilight, Spike and Trixie, yet nopony even flinched at the term. This either meant that they weren't aware of such a magic, or they already knew he used it. Given Twilight's background, it had to be the latter.

"It is necessary." was all Jaeger said.

"It's true, Zecora," Twilight began. "Red magic is the only thing that the Shades can't defend against." she said. Though I was not aware of the magic's ability to defeat the ones known as Shades, I was struggling with which was the greater evil.

"If you must label it as evil, then it is a necessary evil. I cannot do the things I do with regular magic." he declared. As before, his demeanour had changed back to calculating, as though he were wondering what to do with me. I'd never seen such intense eyes before. They almost seemed to glow a bright orange.

"Your true intentions, I will find out. But for now, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. For these are my friends, so I will travel with you to the end."I said, staring Jaeger down. It wasn't the fact that he said nothing in response to my declaration that scared me, but the fact that he just stared right back. He showed no weakness or hesitation. It was like staring into the eyes of a reptile. Like he didn't care either way.

Thankfully, Twilight had the presence of mind to break the lock Jaeger and I had onto each others' eyes. "Why don't we all just go inside and work out where to go from here. Our destination hasn't changed, but the path seems to have. I'd feel better if we had a plan to go with." she offered.

"Right you are my friend. A plan of action we will need, to reach journey's end." I said, leading the group back into my hut.

~Scootaloo~

How to describe the situation before us... Jaeger being Jaeger and Zecora being... not Zecora. It was a painful thing, seeing my friend treating my new hero like he were as bad as the Shades that had put us all in danger in the first place. During the time we spent up in Rainbow Dash's home, I learned from Twilight about red magic and how it was an illegal kind of magic due to it's more aggressive nature, whatever that meant. Twilight went on to tell about how Jaeger saw no evil nature in the magic itself, but rather the evil nature of the ponies who practiced it. It didn't make much sense to me. All I knew was that Jaeger was using a type of magic that looked evil but wasn't and he wasn't evil himself.

To me, that was a double positive, which meant Zecora had no reason to be wary of him. It was almost hypocrisy given how everypony treated her with caution and kept her at a distance when she first arrived. I thought she'd have known better. Thank Celestia for Twilight's intervention.

But now we had to deal with Five ponies, a Zebra, a baby dragon and a dog squashed into one little hut. The term cozy came to mind. At least I was between Rainbow and Jaeger as we all sat down.

"First thing's first," Trixie began. "What exactly was that thing we were running from before Twilight teleported us all here? It didn't sound like any shade." she said. I knew the awkwardness of the situation had doubled as I felt Jaeger tense up. Whatever that thing was, he didn't want us knowing about it. Whether or not that was because he wanted to spare us any more fear was up for debate.

"Yeah, come to think of it; it sounded like whatever was outside Rarity's boutique that night." Rainbow said. I took her word for it, though I kind of half-wished I knew what they were talking about. The way Jaeger answered with a sigh made me wonder if I should even bother listening.

"I call it the 'Braken'. Braken meaning 'vomit' in my native tongue. I chose that name because it is a zombie that has reached a state of decay in which all it's internal organs have liquified and become acidic. With the belly still intact, the Braken carries this acidic mass within itself, adding to it with every pony it kills or whatever it can feed off of. These things are far more dangerous than your average zombie because they can project their vomit roughly five meters from themselves, making them hard to reach and dispose of."

Everypony, even Zecora had placed a hand on their stomachs either to sympathise with carrying that much weight around, or to try and will themselves not to be sick. I was among the latter.

"The worst part is that they don't even need to be fast." he continued, making me shake with fear at what he was going to say next. Rainbow wrapped a wing around me and pulled me closer to try and comfort me. "I don't know if it's some sort of means of communication or basic instinct, but they have some sort of symbiosis with another class of zombie called 'Sprinters'. The name alone can give you a clue as to what they can do. Basically, they run after the Braken's prey and catch it, dragging it back kicking and screaming to their master, where he proceeds to..." I noticed him stop and looked up to see him looking at me. I knew he'd stopped short of the really bad stuff to spare me the details.

"How fast are these Sprinters?" Trixie asked.

"No faster than your average pony. All they can really do is tail you until you tire out. Unlike us, they don't have the disadvantage of fatigue. But there is good news regarding them." he said, looking back to me. "They're as blind as newborn puppies. So the key to escaping them is to get out of sight of the Braken, and out of sound from the Sprinters. When they lose track of your sound, they just tend to run straight. It's kind of funny really, I saw one of them run right into a lamp post." he said with a chuckle.

"Why were you apprehensive about telling us this?" Twilight asked. Jaeger dropped his smile and went back to sad.

"Because the pony it used to be was a friend of mine before the Shades emerged." he replied, earning silence from everypony. "Gallant was among the first to be killed when the Shades rose. He was an Earth Pony, hence the strong stomach to carry all the acid...

"He wanted to be a Royal Guard." The girls and I looked up at Jaeger with sadness in our eyes. This was the first time he'd ever talked about his past, let alone his friends. "Said he wanted to become one of Twilight's guards, so he would always be close to home. He was so eager to apply for the academy when he turned eighteen... would have been last week actually." I saw Twilight was on the verge of crying. I didn't want to know how she was feeling. I didn't even want to wonder how she was feeling. How could anypony not cry over a story like that, especially when the pony dying wanted to be your guard?

I hated this plague. I hated the Shades. I hated what they'd done to Twilight, Rainbow, me and Jaeger. But without it, we might never have met him. I leaned towards Jaeger, making sure Rainbow's wing was still around me, and rubbed my head against his side as mushilly as I could. Not a fan of mushiness, I figured Jaeger deserved it.

"We should head out in the morning. The Shades will be coming out soon, and we don't want to be stuck in the forest when they do." Jaeger interrupted. Nopony complained, though we all insisted that Zecora take her own bed while the rest of us found somewhere to lay down. Zecora in turn insisted that somepony share with her, after all, there was plenty of room. In the end, Spike was the lucky one. Aside from Jaeger, his relationship with Zecora wasn't as solid as the rest of ours. Sharing her bed could only bring them closer.

Naturally, I found a comfortable spot on the couch; nestled between Rainbow's arms and her bosom, blanketed by her wings. Trixie seemed to take a liking to the highest crook of the hut that used to act as a shelf for various ingredients (which seemed to have run out some time ago). Twilight and Jaeger snuggled up together near the middle of the room, the fire beneath where the cauldron usually was keeping everything nice and toasty. Winona resting at the foot of their spot. I wedged my face into the crook of Rainbow's neck and closed my eyes, hoping for as light a nightmare as possible, or perhaps a message from Princess Luna stating that she and Princess Celestia were still going strong against the Shades.

Author's Note

It's been a while, but I managed to Braken out another chapter. lol