Wish: Book II - The Truth

Chapter 3: Stolen

The little filly’s Mother allowed Valiari and I to stay in her home once he explained our current situation. He and her began talking, getting to know each other, and after a while she seemed comfortable with us around. She treated us to some warm water as we sat at her dingy wooden table. She set a candle in the center and Valiari lit it with his torch. Without anywhere to set his torch he blew out the flame and leaned the charred branch against the metal wall. The filly’s Mother took a seat with us on her creaky wooden chairs. She brought the water in a steaming metal kettle and gave each of us a small ceramic cup with it. Candle Light joined us as she climbed up on her own little wooden stool and rested her little hooves on the edge of the table. Her Mother gave her a little cup of water, and then she turned to us.

“So, you two came a long way to get here?” She asks.

“Indeed we did Miss.” Says Valiari.

“You didn’t um . . . you didn’t happen to see anypony else around did you?”

“No, we didn’t. Only those that were frozen stiff.”

She then lowers her head covering her mouth with her hoof.

“. . . Are you alright Miss?” Valiari asks.

“I-I don’t know.” She says raising her head back up.

I notice that her eyes are turning red, and she’s starting to sniffle. She doesn’t look directly at any of us, instead she glances all around the corners of the dining room and back down to her hooves.

“It’s just that . . . um, m-my husband. He left a while ago to go find food or help. He still hasn’t come back. . . S-Sometimes I hear noises outside, and I always hope it’s him, but when I look outside I see nothing. And every time I turn away the noises start back up again, but th-there’s never anything out there!” She says ecstatically.

Valiari glances at me with a look of shock, and then stutters as he tries to come up with the right words to say.

“Well I-I’m sure he’ll return soon.” He says, but she doesn’t respond.

Instead she continues to sob and hide her face with her hooves and her mane as it droops down over her face.

“Do you hear me? He’ll be back soon, just give it some time.” He persists almost angrily, and from the tone of his voice she jolts and lifts her head up in shock. “There’s no reason for you to lose faith in him; he’ll be back. I’m sure of it. Right now, you need to be strong. Not just for yourself, but for your daughter.”

The mare then smiles with her tear-filled eyes, and almost immediately I can see that most of her sadness has subsided.

“You’re right I . . . I just have to wait, he’ll be back. . . Thank you. All this time my daughter has been the only thing keeping me sane; she’s my world, and I don’t know if I could go on living without her. You know I really should apologize to you, I didn’t mean to yell at you the way I did I was just . . . scared.”

“There’s no need to apologize.”

“No really, and not just to you, but to your friend as well. In fact . . . I’m glad it came along. I remember the days when I was bound to my bed because of my illness, she came home one night and your friend was all she talked about. My heart hadn’t felt so much warmth in such a long time; just to see her jump and smile with so much joy. Of course I didn’t know what to believe except that she was just making up stories, but now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes I’m glad I was wrong. As her Mother I can only do so much, but right now she just needed a friend, and it warms my heart just like it did before to see her so happy. So thank you.”

“Well, you are very welcome. I’m glad we could help. However, it isn’t really ‘me’ you should be thanking.” He says turning his head towards me.

“You’re right.” She then looks on at me. “Thank you, truly.”

I say not a word, but I give her a nod to let her know that I do accept her thanks. I turn to look at Candle Light as she’s sipping out of her little cup. As she smiles at me I can feel that heavy sense of guilt reoccurring, but I push it aside to smile with her. Surely I’ve known her before, at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself. If only I could remember, then it would be easier for me to put my mind at ease. I turn to Valiari as I want to ask him just how exactly this filly and I became friends. However he prepares himself to speak to the mare, and so I keep it to myself. I suppose I'll have to ask him later, and for now I'll just have to wait until the time comes.

“By the way, if I’m not mistaken, didn’t my friend here give your daughter a little gift before he left?” Valiari asks.

“Oh yeah! I have it, it-it’s in my room!” Candle Light exclaims.

“May we see it?”

“Go on sweetie go get it from your room.” Says her Mother.

“Okay!” She says before hopping down from her chair and trotting into the hall.

“I remember when she brought that thing home, it was such a beautiful thing to just stare at. I had never seen anything like it. It was like a sort of ‘good luck charm’ for us. Ever since she brought it home I feel we’ve bonded more as a family. Not only that, but my illness, it kind of just went away! With every passing hour I could feel myself getting better. And even now, as the storms rage on outside, we remain safe. I began to question if it really was just coincidence, or if maybe . . . maybe it wasn’t.”

“Well Miss, you would be correct! As a matter of fact that gift of hers really is something special, and there’s more to it than you think. The fact that you recovered from your illness so quickly is no coincidence, in fact, it’s what could save us all.”

“I got it Mommy!”

“Oh-uh good sweetie, why don’t you go ahead and show them?”

From the edge of the table the little filly sets atop it a small stone. Its shape makes it appear as though it was torn off a much larger rock with all the edges and flat sides. I can feel a wave of warmth overtake me once it is set on the table, but the most outstanding feature of the stone is its vibrant green glow that stretches nearly over the entire table. The light emanates from the very core of the stone, and it diffuses through its glassy form and reflects off of all of our eyes. Valiari appears to be heavily entranced by its light and warm embrace, as he speaks without even a blink.

“Th-That’s it. I knew it! I knew it just had to be! Ma’am, this is what’s going to change everything. With this, we'll be able to stand a chance against the cold.”

“And what makes you think that?” She asks.

“Do you even know what you have here? Within this little stone lies an enormous magical aura unlike anything else. Its special properties can work wonders. It radiates this field of heat and warmth, and I’m sure that right now you can feel your heart beating fast, and your stomach is in knots. You feel relaxed, lively, unlike anything else you’ve ever felt.”

“R-Right. That’s exactly how I feel. How do you know that?”

“Because I’m feeling it right now, so is my friend, and I’m sure your daughter is feeling it as well. Not only that, but watch this.”

Valiari leans out from his chair and grabs the charred tree branch he left leaning against the wall. He grips it tightly between his teeth, and after rolling up his black sleeve to expose his bare fore-leg he uses the end of the branch to scratch himself. The cut already is turning red, and blood is appearing at the top of the broken skin.

“W-Why did you do that?” She asks confusedly.

“Just watch.” He says.

Dropping the branch he reaches his fore-leg over the table near the stone, as the Mother and I watch bewildered by his actions. But as we continue to stare I can see that his cut is beginning to close, and the blood is disappearing. The Mother’s eyes widen with shock as he pulls his leg back to show that his cut has completely healed.

“You see? It has this ability to heal those who are near it! This stone will keep those who possess it safe from harm!”

“I . . . I don’t believe it.” She mutters.

“Now, tell me, if your husband went to go look for help, where do you think he would’ve gone?”

“W-Well um, the only town nearest to ours would be Ponyville. If he would have gone anywhere I suppose that would be the only place I could think of.”

“Alright, then pack up what you need ladies. We’re leaving.”

“W-What?! Why?” She asks exasperated.

“Because we’re not waiting any longer. It’s time for us to take action; we’re going out there to find your husband. And once we find him, we’re going to put a stop to all of this.”

“B-But what if he comes back and we’re not here?”

“We’ll leave him a note, so that if he does, he’ll know where we are, and that you two are safe. So what do you say? Shall we?”

Looking at Valiari as he patiently waits her answer he nonchalantly sips his water, the filly’s Mother contemplates her answer, and I can tell by her face she is full of worry. But soon that leaves, and the spot is taken over by what looks like pure determination.

“. . . Alright, let’s go.”

“Wonderful! Now tell me, just how far is Ponyville from here?”

“Um it’s just down that way, it’ll be through some thick woods. It will be a long walk, but once we get through there should be some wide open fields, we’ll be able to see Ponyville from there.”

“Excellent, then there is no time to waste. Go ahead and pack up what you need ladies, and make sure you keep that stone close and keep it safe. Because with it, I think good luck will start to come for all of us.”

“Okay, come on sweetie help Mommy get ready.”

“Where are we going?” Candle Light asks.

“. . . To get Daddy.”

And so the filly and her Mother hurry into their rooms and begin packing all the things they might need for the trip. I stay with Valiari at the dining table waiting for them to finish, and all he does is stare at the stone.

“. . . You know where this came from don’t you?” He asks.

I shake my head no, but he still doesn’t detract his attention from the stone.

“It came from the caves we were at earlier, this stone is a piece of one of the larger ones that were embedded into the walls. But what I don’t understand is just how could this little stone have survived while all the others’ power had withered away? Believe it or not those caves used to be full of an array of color, but now their power has all but faded. And yet . . . this little one still glows. I just don’t understand how this could be possible, but right now there’s no time for questions. After all that I’ve lost, I’m not ready to lose two more. I already almost lost you once, and there’s no way I’m letting that happen again. The same goes for this poor little family, we ‘will’ find that filly’s Father, no matter what. I’m not going to let any more hearts get torn apart from here and on. . . They must be almost ready by now, let’s get ready to go back out. And Aireal, don’t forget the rules.”

After the filly and her Mother came back into the dining room they had on their backs white bags containing their belongings. Both sacks are covered in smudges of dirt, and each has their own share of holes. Valiari tells the Mother to hold the stone, he said he felt it would be safer with her. We found a wrinkled sheet of paper and a worn wooden pencil with which the Mother used to write the note in case her husband returns. She laid it on the table right next to the lit candle, and after Valiari explained that we all need to stay close together we left the house and began our walk to the next town. With a glance back I could still see the small candle’s flame through the window until the dark consumes it.

The Mother held out the stone, and its light shined through the dark to show us a good deal of the area around us. The snow and all four of our bodies were illuminated in green, the distance our eyes can perceive is much greater than that of Valiari’s torch from before. We left behind all the dingy metal shacks following behind the filly’s Mother as she led the way. Explosions from the clouds scared Candle Light so much that she at one point stopped walking to cover her eyes and tremble. Her Mother was able to calm her down, but from then on she clung to her Mother the rest of the way.

The stone’s warmth makes me feel like I’m not even surrounded by chilling winter winds, but it feels like the air of summer. Flashes of white light expose the woods in the distance. The trees were so tall, and their branches made it look like they were all reaching up to the sky touching the smoky clouds. Once we got to the entrance to the forest all of us stopped walking. It felt like we were about to cross the boundary into a place where danger was just waiting for us from behind the trunks of the trees. As soon as Valiari asked what it was we were waiting for it was like the filly’s Mother was snapped right out of her trance and brushed it off as nothing.

We passed the first few weeping trees with the reoccurring feeling that something is in here with us. I make sure that I follow Valiari’s rule, so I stay near him at all times. Further into the woods we can hear the winds howling through the trees’ hollow trunks and the clacking of the hundreds of branches. Eventually we come across a few particularly strange objects. More piles and stacks of snow in bizarre shapes and many different sizes. Of course we ignore them, but the further we go the more prominent they appear. To settle our curiosity we decide to go ahead and take a closer look at them. Valiari digs at the snow on one of the smaller ones, and what he uncovers disturbs us all. A bird frozen with its wings outstretched as if in midflight. Through the ice we can see that its eyes are milk white and its mouth is hanging open.

Disgusted the filly’s Mother backs away, but she bumps into something behind her. Upon turning around she finds that it was one of the taller statues of snow, and still trembling from fear she decides to wipe away the snow anyway. What she sees sends her in a fret, what she had uncovered was a pair of milk white eyes belonging to a frozen deer in mid gallop. Valiari had to calm her down and beg her to just keep walking. Trembling and whimpering she continued to lead the way, and it was from here, that noises began to sneak up on us from far beyond the trees.

“W-What was that?” The filly’s Mother asks.

The sound of snapping tree branches erupts in the distance. It starts low, but then progressively becomes much more violent and intense.

“Oh no, it’s those noises again. It’s those noises again!” She shouts.

“Shh! Just quiet down!” Valiari orders.

The sounds continue at a constant pace until finally dissipating. The air becomes still and silent, the only sounds left are the sounds of our breathing. Then suddenly the sounds erupt louder than before from one distinct location in the woods. We all jolt and gasp turning to where we believe the source to be, until another explosion of noise occurs behind us. Again and again the noises fluctuate as the Mother continues to panic, the filly begins to panic as well, and Valairi is trying to get them both to calm down. The both of them are shouting at the top of their lungs trying to outdo the heavy crackling noises. Until, everything goes dark, everything becomes cold, and everything turns eerily silent.

“What happened? Aireal, where are you?” Valiari whispers.

“What’s going on?! Where is everypony?! Sweetie stay with Mommy, don’t let go! Why did the noises stop?!”

“Will you please stop shouting?! Just stay calm, I’m going to try and get my torches out from my bag.”

I hear him throw the bag off of his back, but then it is followed by a grunt and something hitting the snow. The crackling starts back up, and the Mother begins to panic yet again. I can hear snow being disturbed all around us, something is here. Perhaps more than just one. Crouched near the snow and coursing with fear I crawl as close as I can to where I believe the Mother and Valiari to be. The Mother’s continuous panicking assures me that I am in the right place.

“V-Valiari! Where are you?!” She exclaims.

“Just . . . just hold on! Something just ran into me.” He says with his voice straining.

“Are you alright?! Please, hurry!”

“Just hold on for a second!”

The air becomes filled with the screams of the Mother as they rattle my heart from inside my chest. I listen as they disappear in the distance, carried away by the wind. The crackling of the branches stops, and the air feels empty. A tiny light begins to glow beneath the dark, growing into the full-fledged green glow it once was. I now see Valiari partially buried in snow glancing all around his general area. With every quick turn of his neck he shakes off piles of snowflakes from the brim of his hat. His hooves are dug in his bag with several smaller bags spread around him.

“. . . Just what in Equestria was that?” He asks.

“Mommy?” Candle Light asks.

Both Valiari and I turn our heads to Candle Light who sits waist below in the snow. But something’s wrong, she’s alone, with her Mother nowhere in sight.

“Mommy where are you?”

“What in the . . . Ma’am?! Ma’am where have you gone?!” Valiari calls, but with no response except his own echo. “It doesn’t make any sense, where could she have gone? Candle Light, where was your Mother when everything went dark?”

“She was right here.” She says pointing to a spot of disturbed snow nearby.

“This can’t be, there’s no tracks or anything. Where could she have gone?” He says developing panic in his voice. “There was something here with us, I felt it push me down!”

Candle Light’s lips are beginning to pout, and I can hear her voice starting to whimper as she covers her eyes. Realizing that she’s about to cry Valiari tries to calm himself down for her sake, and quickly hurries to her side.

“Listen, sweetheart just relax. We’ll find your Mom, don’t worry alright? She can’t be far.”

“Are-Are you sure?”

“Positive, but we should hurry. Now let’s get ready, just stay close to us. We’ll keep you safe. I’ll go and look around the woods. Aireal, I need you to keep an eye on her and stay close to me, can you do that?”

“Y-Yes, yes I can.” I say.

“Alright, good.” He says rubbing his eyes and temples out of tenseness. “Right, let’s . . . let’s go, what are we waiting for? We have to go.”

Valiari stuffs the bags that fell out of his sack back inside, and he picks up the glowing stone from the snow. Leading the way I follow behind him careful to be sure that Candle Light is safely near. We’re filled to the brim with fear as every last snap or creak of a tree branch sends her and I jolting and checking every shadow. Minutes go by, and still we have found no sight or sign of the filly’s Mother. Valiari stops and realizes that we’ve been going in circles. We’ve passed our same tracts a couple times now, and realizing this Valiari drops his bag and sits down leaning his back against a tree trunk.

“I just don’t understand, she wouldn’t just abandon us like this. Especially not her own daughter. Where could she have gone. . ? And to leave no tracks behind. Why? Why did it do this to us? Why would it all of a sudden just stop?” He says looking down at the stone.

“. . . What do we do now?” I ask.

“We . . . we move forward. We have to go to Ponyville.”

“But what about Mommy?” Candle Light asks.

“Honey, we’ll find her. If your Mother went anywhere it would have to be Ponyville. I’m sure once we get there we’ll find her, or she’ll find us. Okay?”

Candle Light then nods her head, and after a minutes rest we collect ourselves and continue forward through the woods. I still notice her occasionally staring out into the woods in the hopes of her Mother appearing, but all that’s out there are the shadows between the trees. None of us speak a word, we simply continue with the voices of the sky shouting at us. I can tell that Valiari is under a great deal of pressure, his voice and his eyes allow it to be plainly shown. The sudden loss of the filly's Mother clearly had a huge effect on him, and I don't think there's anything I could say or do that could relief the tension from his mind. Soon, just like the filly’s Mother said, we finally reach wide open fields of snow arched with several small hills. After struggling to make our way over them Valiari suddenly stops to stare out in the distance.

“Wait, did you see that?” He asks while still staring out into the dark.

“. . . What?” I ask,

“Just wait.”

After waiting a few seconds with the winds blowing snow in our faces a sword of light strikes in the distance, and reveals a great tree not too far ahead. From what I could tell there were several other smaller structures behind it, but what stuck out the most to me was that I saw windows built into the tree’s bark. Also a balcony built along one of the tree’s larger and longer branches.

“I know this place. I’ve seen it before. . . It’s that library.” He mutters.