It was like nothing that Hope Feathers had ever experienced in her short life. She was flying for the first time, and there was not a single word she knew that could describe the joy she was feeling as the wind blew through her russet brown with speckles of caramel fur and forest green mane, the feeling of accomplishment, everything was perfect. She flew higher and higher, to the tops of the trees that that were the whole world to her and her brother, and then she flew higher still; and that’s when it happened. That's when she saw It.
All of the happiness she felt merely seconds prior vanished; replaced with fear sorrow and longing, her heart was racing, and tears blurred her vision as she ran to find her brother, Silent Peace.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Silent Peace!” she called out as loud as she could into the forest, scaring all the fauna into silence. A young earth pony a messy brown mane approached her in his usual silent manor and whispered “I'm here, sis,” into her ear as he pulled her shaking body into a caring embrace, allowing her to soak his gray fur with a river of tears.
“Better now?” he asked when her shaking subsided. Hope responded with a nod pulling away to look him in his pale golden eyes. He smiled warmly. “What happened?”
“Well I was flying- oh yea! I can fly now!” a large smile illuminated her face. Silent Peace smiled back proud of his little sister’s accomplishment. “I was flying really high! Like a bird! Then I flew above the trees then…” her smile fell and her voice lost its enthusiasm, “then I saw these things. I know I never saw them before or at least I don’t think I saw them before.” She cocked her head to the side, “but they made me feel sad, and scared.” The young pegasus looked at her forehooves. Silent Peace put a forehoof under her muzzle direct her head back towards his own allowing him to look her in her large, teary, golden eyes. Brushing a stray lock of her short messy forest green mane off her face, he smiled and said: “you’re gonna have to be a bit more descriptive than that…”
The pegasus opened her mouth to reply; then closed it to pout. Finally Hope angled her eyes, tilted her head up and to the left and slid her lower jaw to the left and went silent. Silent recognized that position; it was her thinking pose. She assumes it whenever she’s planning something elaborate, this was no exception.
“Got it!” she exclaimed jumping up and ran off in the direction of the hallowed tree that has served as a home for her and her brother for as long as they could remember. The earth pony followed the eager foal back to their tree for her to collect her building supplies before going to the tree to create a mechanism to lift him above the treetops. Hope Feathers had a realization upon arriving at their home, one she shared with the earth pony: “this will take awhile; I’ll find you when I'm done!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun was at its highest when the excited pegasus brought the curious colt to one of the tallest tree in the forest. On that particular day, vines and twigs had been seemingly randomly tied together and to branches of that tree as well as those of neighboring trees. Despite Silent Peace having no idea how it worked, or was even possible, he trusted his sister; therefore he trusted her all of her crazy contraptions.
His trust was rightfully placed, for with in a reasonably short amount of time it safely brought the colt to the very top of the tree, allowing him to see the objects that saddened his younger sister so much. And he recognized them as well, as if they were from a dream. Then it came back to him; He remembered the last time he saw them. Six summers ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the middle of the night, clouds covered the moon. He was only 5 winters old as he stood at the edge of the village, right by the forest, scared, tired and confused. His vision was blurred with tears.
“my little pony, There’s not much time,” a mare, his mother, told him, she was crying as well, but to the point that she couldn't continue speaking, a stallion, his father, bent down to look his son in the eyes.
“Silent Peace, it’s not safe here for you and Hope Feathers,” he put a saddle bag on the young colt; a saddle bag that contained the precious cargo of a sleeping foal, of less than 14 moons of age. “You need to run away from here, run into the forest, take care of your sister, you’ll have to be strong and survive, and never forget,” he took a long breath, “never forget who you- ” he was interrupted by screams of pain and terror from within the village, “Run! Go you need to leave now!” the little pony obeyed, and ran deep into the forest and kept on running. Stopping only when his young body failed him, and he could run no farther, and fell into a deep exhausted sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silent Peace awoke in a cold sweat. He heard the crackling of a small fire and a chunk of wet moss on his forehead. He opened his eyes to confirm his location; he was back in his home tree, lying in the pile of moss, grass and hay that served as his sleeping area. His sister, who had been drawing nearby, noticed his movement and tackled the now conscience earth pony with a hug.
“wha-what just happened?” the colt stammered, not yet fully conscience.
“I showed you the objects and you fainted, so I brought you back here.”
“How long was I out?”
The pegasus glanced at the window to see that the sun was setting before answering with: “the whole day.”
Silent closed his eyes and took a deep breath processing what had happened. Then proceed to give his sister a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Come on Hope, let’s start making dinner.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night, they were lying in their respective sleeping areas in their shared sleeping room, ready for sleep. Of course, sleep doesn’t come easily after a day like theirs. They both knew that the other had yet to fall asleep do to their breathing patterns.
“Sigh’, what’s wrong? You’ve been really quiet all night.” Hope asked.
He took a deep breath, “I guess that I should tell you…” Silent Peace took another deep breath and told her what he remembered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silent gave his sister a comforting nuzzle, a simple gesture that provided both of them with the courage to take those final steps. Those final steps out of the forest; out of the only place they had known for the majority of their short lives.
They squinted and blinked as they witnessed the blinding brightness of the early morning sun; in its full glory, no longer obscured by the thick forest canopy.
Albeit the darkness had never hindered the siblings’ sight, the sun’s shimmering rays left them momentarily blinded. In order to compensate for the lack of sight their bodies made their normally acute sense of hearing even keener, allowing them to pick out a single sound from nature’s symphony. A sound that was oh so familiar; a song softly song, a sound that brought tears on nostalgia to their eyes and a single word to their lips: “mommy.”
Once their sight returned with a single glance they confirmed what they were to do: find the source of the music.
They stopped at the edge of a large garden, merely paces away from mare whose voice beckoned them like a moth to a light. They sat there and watched the mare as she harvested her garden and sang. Her mantis green and light sky blue mane was held in a braid down her amaranth pink crest.
Once the song was finished she looked up from her harvesting and at the foals. Her lime green eyes depicted her bewilderment and that feeling only intensified when her children remained visible after a few rounds of blinking.
The three of them merely look at each other in salience for a few moments before their mother spoke in a voice barely louder than a whisper, “Silent Peace, Hope Feathers… is it really you?” aforementioned ponies nodded and tears of joy rolled down her face as she galloped towards her foals and embraced them lovingly, which Hope and Silent hesitantly returned.
“My little ponies,” she whispered breaking the embrace, “I'm so glad that the two of you are both alive and well, but it’s not safe for you here.”
“Why not?” Hope innocently asked.
“I'm sorry,” she looked down at her forehooves, eyes glistening with fresh tears, “I'm sorry… it’s jus-” she was interrupted by the rough voices of stallions joking as they walked in their general direction.
“You need to go. Now,” her voice was quiet but serious and demanding. The siblings had no choice but to subserviently flee to their woodland home.
chapter 1: The End and the Beginning
chapter 1: The End and the Beginning
Author’s note:
I'm bad with names, ok, and I can’t really come up with a name for their mom, so for now I’ll just use {mom} and put in the name once I figure it out, so please help me come up with a name.
Chapter 1
The last of the winter’s snow had melted, making way for the flowers of spring, bringing with them new life and rejuvenation.
The siblings were enjoying a simple carefree breakfast and conversation in their humble home. Little did they know that it would be their last.
“I’m sorry Hope, but I just can’t believe that,” the gray pony chuckled at his energetic sister’s anecdote.
“But it’s true! It really did happen!” she pounded her little hoof on the table to add emphasis.
“I know it’s just-” Hope’s face turned serious as put up a hoof, signaling for him to be quiet. He did so immediately, letting the pegasus listen; even though they both have exceptional hearing, Hope’s ears are far superior to Silent’s. She tilted her head and ears for a short moment, to get a better fix on the sound.
The by that point the colt could hear it as well. Hope Feathers flew out of the tree to confirm what they had heard correctly: and they had. It was the roar of a powerful forest fire. That had completely surrounded the tree, and drawing closer by the second. Leaving them with no way to escape.
“How bad is it?” Silent asked as he finished packing two saddlebags with supplies. She flew over to him, wrapping her forearms around him, crying into his crest.
“I-it’s surrounding us… we can’t escape…”
“No, Hope Feathers,” he lifted his sister’s muzzle with his hoof, forcing her to meet his gaze. “You can. You have wings; you can fly over the flames. You can survive.”
“B-but Sigh’ – sob – I can’t, I won’t, not if it means that you’d d-di – Not if you can’t come with me.”
“Please, Hope, please, do it for me.” He tears filled his eyes as well.
“NO! I won’t leave you. And that’s final!”
Acknowledging his defeat, the earth pony returned his sister’s embrace. They held each other close, awaiting their imminent demise.
Then, locked in each other’s embrace, something happened, something that neither of them would be able to comprehend or even recall for the quite some time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two foals lay in a bed of ash. Soot covered the foals with a gray blanket. They stirred, awakening in a dead, colorless world, which was a lively utopia for them mere hours prior.
“Silent, are we dead?”
“… I don’t think so,” he attempted to shake the ash out of his mane, tail and coat, with little success. “It’s getting late. We need to find shelter.”
“But were?”
“We need to find our mother, can you fly up to see what direction the village is.”
The young pegasus nodded and did as she was told. Soot fell off her as she ascended, like gray snow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the setting sun on their backs, the foals exited the scared remains of all that they had ever known.
Awaiting the siblings at the edge of the village was a pacing pale pony, who upon noticing the siblings, ceased her pacing and ran to greet her little ponies with a quick but loving hug.
Her voice was full of urgency, “quickly, you must put these on.” She produced two black cloaks made out of a rough material, which she gave to them.
“Wha-” the young colt began to ask.
“I know you must have a lot of questions, but I can’t answer them now, it’s not safe here,” the mare interrupted. “We need to move quickly and quietly, for we mustn't be seen.” Under the cover of the moonless night, she led them to her small hut in towards the center of the village.
The moment she closed the door behind them, the foals began their questioning, but once again, the older mare cut them off, “I wish I was able to hide the truth, I had hoped that if you knew of it not, then it would not come to pass.” With a sigh and a face full of sorrow, she continued, “but it appears that it is known by them, so it should known by you as well.”
“Know about what?” the little filly demanded, growing inpatient by the mare’s seemingly irrelevant ramblings.
“The prophecies,” she posed before continuing, “The prophecies about your future.” She looked into Silent Peace’s bright-golden eyes, full of youth’s blissful innocence. “Silent Peace, when you were born it was prophesied that you would bring peace to a land stained by war; at that time I thought that it would be when you’re a fully grown stallion, and in some far off land…” She posed and turned to the filly, looking into her large, shiny eyes, which contained the same purity as her brother’s, “And six months before you were born, Hope Feathers, it was prophesied tha-”
“- I think that I should tell the prophecies,” a creaky voice interjected. The owner of the voice emerged from a shadowed corner of the room, an elderly mare with a periwinkle coat and a silver mane.
“Fate Seer! How long have you been hiding there!?”
“Oh, I was here the whole time, I was merely waiting for a good time to make my presence known.” The mare called Fate Seer smiled.
Their mother shook her head and sighed at the new arrival’s antics. “I guess you should be the one to tell them, since you’re here, would you like some stew?”
“Yes, yes, thank you.” She sat down and took a sip of said stew, “once again {mom}, you've really outdone yourself is that fresh primrose blossoms I taste!”
“Yes, it is, most ponies don’t realize just how early they bloom.” While the mares were discussing flowers and cooking, Silent slid closer to his sister and pulled her right up against his side, to offer comfort and familiarity to both her and himself in this strange home filled with strange ponies. Hope immediately nuzzled herself even closer to the one thing in her life that always has been and always will be there for her.
After a few minutes of the mares talking and completely ignoring the foals, Hope sneezed, reminding the adults of their existence.
“Oh, Hope Feathers, Silent Peace it’s so good to see you again! Look how much you've grown! It seems like it’s been winters since I've last saw you-” Not sure how to respond to the attention the siblings remained silent, and snuggled even closer to each other.
“Fate Seer! They haven’t seen you for over 6 winters and they were both very young then, I don’t think that they remember you, and you're scaring them.”
"Sorry about that, children," Fate Seer lowered her head in an apologetic manor towards the foals. "So would you like to hear about the prophecy now?"
Hope Feather eagerly perked up at the chance of finally getting some answers.
Quietly chuckling at the young filly's enthusiasm, she began, "so the prophecy goes as fallowed:" her eyes rolled to the back into her head, and her voice lost all emotions. “When evil covers the land and all hope seems lost there shall be a brother and sister, half pure of blood, born on the shortest day of year four years apart. They shall wield the swords of yore to the land will be cleansed of its impurities." Once she finished reciting, she fell to the ground. Unconscious.
"Don't worry, she'll be wake up soon, channeling the future always takes a lot out of her," their mother reassured.
"Erg! I’m now even more confused than before!" the brown filly pouted.
“Yea, what does she mean by 'half pure of blood,'?" the colt started.
“And what are 'swords of yore,'?” his sister continued.
“And what evil?"
"One question at a time, my little ponies; fist I’ll tell you about the species. There are four basic types of ponies: earth ponies, like you and me, Silent, pegasi, like you, Hope, unicorns who have a horn and can do magic, and the rarest of all are alicorns they have both wings and a horn. And then there are the descendents of the animorphus tribe, or those of pure blood, they can be any of the four types of ponies. Each pony with pure blood flowing though their veins have something called a soul beast; a soul beast is a specific type of animal with that give characteristic traits and abilities to their respective animorph."
"How does somepony know what their soul beast is?"
"Really {mom}, you never told them?!" the formerly unconscious mare exclaimed.
“I-I was hoping that if they didn't know, they would be safe," tears glistened in her spring green eyes, "safe and away from all of this."
"I understand {mom}, but Fate Seer put a comforting hoof around the sad mare, “but it's time for them to learn who they really are."
"Have patients, my little ponies, all will be explained shortly," the elderly mare assured the foals before they could voice even a single question. "So, {mom}, I believe you were telling the children about soul beasts."
"Uh, yes, so when an animorph is born, their soul beast briefly takes on a visible form in its special color surrounding the newly born foal. Animorphs are also born with cutie marks, which depict their soul beast."
"Silent Peace," Fate Seer looked at the gray-clawed paw print that decorated his flanks, “Your mark is that of the gray wolf, and Hope Feathers," she turned to the white outline of a heart surrounding four talon marks on the brown filly's flanks, “You bare the mark of the barn owl."
“What's your soul beast?" the filly innocently asked.
“You're not animorphs, are you?" the colt answered.
“No, you got your pure blood from your father. And you two are the only animorphs left in this village, and most likely the only ones in any village."
“Where'd they all go?"
“They were all taken; you are the only ponies with even a drop of pure blood in them." {mom} fell silent with sorrow.
“Who took them?"
“And why?"
“You too have a lot to learn," the silver maned mare shook her head at the foals before turning to their mother. “This will take a while to explain everything; it would probably be best for us to head down."
“Your right, you take them and continue explaining, I’ll set things up here," {mom} replied, starting to gather and clean the dishes.
The elderly mare went to a shadowed corner of the room and unearthed a hidden door from the floor. "Follow me children," she beckoned, as she took a lit torch in her mouth and waited for the foals a few steps down. After a quick glance at the other, the siblings approached the secrete stairs. "Stay close to me, and don't wander off," she advised as she began to descended down the stair well, leading the foals down a seemingly unnavigable maze of narrow intertwining stairwells and passageways; all of which took them farther and farther underground.
Eventually they reached level ground, and the periwinkle mare the lit a few of the torches that littered the walls of the circular room. The room smelt slight of mold and mildew. There were three tunnels scattered around the room’s circumference and in the center of the room, there was a small wooden table, surrounded by cushions of moss and hay.
“Silent Peace, Hope Feathers, come sit down, get comfortable, we’ll be here for a while,” Fate Seer told the foals standing rigidly by the entrance. They obediently sat down across the table from the elderly mare.
“What is t his place?”
“This, young Hope, is one of meeting rooms of the No Blood, I’ll get to that later; Now, where were we? Oh yes I remember now, there are no more animorphs left because ‘king’ Poison Blood learned of the prophecy-"
"Wait wasn't the prophecy about bringing peace?" interjected Silent.
"There are many prophecies about many things," she chuckled slightly. "The one I’m currently referring to is about how he will be overthrown by two animorphs."
"Why would ponies want to overthrow him?"
"Ok, I guess I have to start with some basic history; Poison Blood has been in power for generations"
“How’d he live so long?”
“Alicorns live much longer than any other type of pony, a healthy alicorn can live for several hundreds of years. As for why ponies would want to overthrow him, every year that he has his soldiers collect a large portion of our crops as tribute to him, leaving most with barely enough food to get by.”
“What happens if you there was a bad harvest and somepony cant afforded to give that much?”
“He is neither a kind nor benevolent ruler,” Fate Seer shook her head slowly.
“He also takes foals from random towns every year or so, to work in his mines,” their mother grimly added.
“Yes, yes, so as I was saying, to ensure his rule he decided to kill and or capture everypony with even a drop of pure blood flowing through their veins.”
“Dad,” Silent whispered.
“Yes they took him on during the first battle, the night I sent you away.” Tears were forming in her eyes.
“Is he still alive?” Hope inquired.
“I don’t know, darling, I don’t know.
“It’s getting late, we should get some rest, we have a big day ahead of us, come now children, I’ll show you to your room.” Fate Seer beckoned the foals to a seemingly random tunnel.
The next morning they were awoken by a kind mare who introduced herself as Care Taker she was a unicorn with a caramel coat and a leaf green and cyan mane and tail; she treated the foals as if they were royalty.
“Here’s some porridge for breakfast, I hope that you slept well, though I apologize for the rather rustic sleeping arrangements,” she gestured to the piles of hay and moss that were there functioning as their beds, “it’s the best we can do.” She bowed and levitated the two bowls from her back and placed them before the foals.
“Um thanks, the beds really aren't any better than the one ones in our tree,” Silent said with a small smile.
“Is there anything else I can do for either of you?”
“Na, I think were good, right Silent?”
“Sort of, Care Taker? Can you answer a few questions?”
“Of course, I’ll answer all of your questions to the best of my ability Mr. Hope and Ms. Feathers.” Another bow.
“Um, why are being so formal, is it because of that prophecy thing?” Hope asked. For that she received a light kick from Silent. “What, I'm just asking,” she met his eyes, and lowered her ears slightly embarrassed “yea, I guess that was a bit rude, sorry.” They turned back to the dumbstruck mare.
“Um, yes it is because you’re the prophesized foals, does it not please you? I can be less formal if you would like,” she stammered with another bow.
“Yea, please stop with the formalities, just treat us like we were normal foals,” Silent requested.
“Ok, so what are your questions?”
“What is this place?” the young pegasus asked.
“Fate Seer mentioned something called ‘No Blood,’ but never got around to telling us what is was last night,” Silent added on.
“Oh, Fate Seer, she's a kind mare but I swear she’d forget her head of it wasn't attached to her.” Care taker shook her head. “The No Blood is an organized resistance movement against Poison Blood.”
“Ok, now what is this place and how does it relate to No Blood?”
“This underground city is our main base. There other small bases throughout the land, it’s here that we plan, and train foals into warriors to help reclaim the land from old Poison.”
“I apologies that I cannot stay here talking to you two but I have other duties that I must attend to. If you need anything at all just exit the room and go left until you reach the infirmary there’ll be plenty of kind ponies who would be honored to assist you with anything.”
“Is there anything you’d like before I leave you?”
“no, but thanks for asking,”
“I’ll return later to bring you lunch. Goodbye!” she caught herself starting to bow, but stopped herself and walked out of the room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, or at least what the foals assumed to be the night, for they couldn't be sure due to the lack of sun in the underground labyrinth, their mother came to their room.
“Silent Peace, Hope Feathers, come with me my children there is a meeting that you need to attend.” And with that the pink mare led them through the tunnels.
“How can you find anything in this place?” asked Hope Feathers.
“It just takes time to get the hang of it, but the fortress is broken up into sections and there are maps of each section etched into the walls telling you were you are and where everything in the section is as well as where the other sections are. And we’re here this is it, stay close to me,” she advised as she entered a large room.
The room’s floor was cut into steps around two paces wide that circled the whole room. The steps went down towards the center of the room, but in the center there was about ten paces of level ground In it there were ponies of all ages, but mainly adults, they were sitting on the steps rapidly talking to one another.
The pink mare led the foals to the center of the room. The siblings obediently followed their mother, ears and tails down from fear of so many other ponies. Most of the side conversations stopped as they approached their destination.
“Attention!” {mom} yelled, from her spot in the center of the room. The few remaining conversations ended immodestly, leaving the auditorium silent.
“tonight, I have some very important news to tell you.” She paced the level area as she talked. “You may be aware of the two foals that have are with us today,” she pointed her head towards Hope and Silent, “well they aren't just ordinary foals. They are the foals of Slither, a pure of blood making them brother and sister half pure of blood.’ Gasps and whispers could be heard around the room
“Could it be?”
“Are they the foals mentioned the prophecy?”
“Is it really them?”
The blue and green maned mare cleared her voice to get everypony to cease their talking. “Yes, these are the prophized foals later we’ll prove with the swords of yore, but now I have other more mundane announcements to make…” she went on to talk about food storage, statistics and other stuff for a few minutes.
“Now, Metal Molder, would you be so kind as to bring me the swords of yore.” A stallion from the front row stepped forward carrying a long bundle in his mouth, which he paced on the floor with gentleness one would use on a newly born foal. He opened the package reveling two swords in beautiful intricately designed scabbards.
The larger one had a sky blue mouth guard and a golden gem embedded in the hilt. The gem seemed to be almost emitting its own light. The sheath was the same light blue as the mouth piece and had a loose weave of pale orange, fern green, a pale magenta and silver lines crisscrossing its surface, in the center of the scabbard was a detailed image of a gray wolf howling at the moon.
The smaller sword’s mouth guard was magenta and in the hilt there was a gold gem identical to that of the other sword. Its sheath was the same color as the mouth piece. And just like the other one it had loosely woven bands of sky blue, lavender, lime green, and chocolate. In the center of this one there was a detailed picture of a barn owl in the moonlight.
With a bow, Metal Molder gingerly placed the larger sword in front of Silent Peace and with the same care and formality he put the smaller one in front of Hope Feathers.
The siblings turned to meet each other’s eyes before simultaneously bending down and picking up their swords.
A strong light blue glow emerged from the Silent and engulfed him. The glowing colt rose two pony heights off the ground and the light formed the shape of a wolf.
At the same time a strong magenta glow covered the pegasus and she also rose two pony heights but instead of forming a wolf her aura formed an owl. The luminous beasts stayed hovering there for a few minutes before the glow faded and two unconscious ponies fell to the floor.
