Escape to the North

               Sometimes everything what we know is broken down. We watch how our world is collapsing and disappearing in the ash. The same happened with the Elements of Harmony. Two ponies, one unicorn, one alicorn and two pegasi thought that their friendship was immortal... great... unbreakable! They were wrong. Piece by piece their world was tearing apart.

             At the beginning, Pinkie Pie has been murdured. Some weeks later, Twillight ran away overcontrolled by dark power. Few days later, Rarity disappeared. Nobody knows what heppened to her. Applejack woke up one morning and she spotted that Rarity's tent was gone.

For Fluttershy, the burden of three souls was too heavy. She was avoiding other ponies and wolves like a wild animal, which has been thrown in the middle of a new environment.

There were six friends at the beginning- only two of them are left.

              It was just another day of tiresome travel and another night of thinking. Grey and Applejack were looking at the stars, shining in the black skies. A lonely tree, which was bent over them, rustled calmly.

                  "When wil' be on t'e North Region?" Applejack asked, still listening to the melody of the lonely tree.

                "Two or three more days. Can you see trees over there?" Grey pointed a claw at the horizon.

      It was dark, but the moon gave enough light so Applejack spotted a strange shadows afar off,  twisted like snakes .

                "Eyuep, Ah can see t'em," she said, narrowing her eyes.

                  "It's our home," Grey said frighteningly quiet and sadly.

                  "W'at's wrong my kamraten?" Applejack turned her head  to him and looked at him with an uncertainty.

       Grey sighed deeply, still looking at his home on the horizon.

                 "Szto, damn wind," he rubbed his eyes as a tear flashed shyly there. The wolf smiled sadly, looking again at his homeland.

                 "C'me on, Ah know it isn't wind. Somet'ing is wrong," Applejack was staring at her friend worriedly.

                  The wolf signed again, but this time very deeply, like it would be his the last breathe.

               "I don't think I can get there. I feel very tired. I need a rest. You know what I am talking about," the wolf said rueful, closing his eyes.

                   "Ah know," the pony whispered before she raised her head to the sky, "Ah know," her barely flew out from her mounths. The time has come for Grey. The unstoppable wall of fog tried to take her another friend. Applejack could only staring at it powerless. The old wolf put his paws on her shoulder and smiled heartily. His eyes were very calm. He knew what will happen now and he prepeared himself for the inevitable. In this the last evening of his life, he will fall asleep and never wake up. He took off his hand from Applejack's shoulders, then he looked at the white globe shinning over them.

                    "Luna, Luna, Luna...

                     Vzryvaia voem tishinu,

                      Luna, luna, luna...

                      Luna i volk v nochnom lesu," he sang silently and looked at the moon. Applejack tried translate this song in her mind:

                                                                                              {Moon, moon, moon,

                                                                                               yelping flowing through the woods.

                                                                                               Moon, moon, moon

                                                                                               Moon and wolf in dark forest}

Applejack almost burst into tears, but she refrained herself as Grey put a paw on her hoof.

                        "Don't cry my kamraten because you have a whole life ahead. You and Rainbow Dash must be strong," the wolf whispered but he paused to catch his breath. His end was very close. "Don't think about the past. It's now only a history, nothing more. You both must stay on a  branch. Like the strongest leaves," he finished almost loosing his breathe.

                       "T'y at least c'me back to yer homeland."the pony wailed desperately.

  The wolf chuckled soundlessly.

                       "I came so far and lived so long. I have never thought that I will see my home one more time. It was a wonderful travel but every trip must end. Mine is ending right here, right now. But thanks to you I felt a true freedom, kamraten," Grey smiled again and turned his head to Applejack. His eyelids were slowly closing, but the wolf was raising them up using his remaining strenght.

                      "Ya ha'e been always free," Applejack smiled bitterly. Her tears began to drip on her hooves.

                      "Freedom is like flight - without wings if you are alone, just like me," the grey wolf paused for a long moment and took some deep breaths before he continued; "My friends and family died many years ago. Indeed I still have my herd, but it wasn't the same. Those young wolves couldn't replace my kamratens from my childhood," the wolf looked again at the earth pony: "Even You couldn't do it either, but you were special. I've met many ponies, pegasi and unicorns during my travel, but none of them could truly understand me, but you did it," Grey almost slipped from the tree, but Applejack caught him.

  Grey breathed frightfully deep.

                    "Now go. You have friends to save," the wolf said, taking out his paw from Applejack's hoof almost unwittingly and putting it on the ground.

                     "Goodbye kamraten," Applejack got up and looked at her friend one last time. She tried to keep a stone expression but her eyes were saying that her soul was suffering hardly. Suddenly, the earth pony turned back and went away with a raised head .  She knew that it's just a first step into this deadly travel from which nobody and nopony have returned alive. Grey moved into his one way trip. Alone.

                   "Someday we wil' meet again, ya know?" she said before her figure disappeared in the shadow of the night.

                    "Yeah, I kno-w" the old wolf said, loosing his breath and consciouness. Even when the world in front of his eyes began to blur, he gazed at his friend until the orange body completly disappeared. "Go with a pride... and you will always succeed," Grey barely whispered and one more time he loooked at the stars over him. He remembered his whole wildlife. The pictures of his past flew in front of his eyes. The momemts of love, hate, fun, pain and happiness, everything was gone.

                   "Luna... luna... luna...," Grey began to hum his song, but suddenly he stopped. "Show yourself. I can feel you," he said exhausted.

Behind the wolf appeared a confused ghost with red eyes.

                   "How long did you know about my presence?" the spirit asked, getting closer.

                   "Since you came here" Grey snorted.

  The lost spirit stopped a few meters from Grey.

What? How? I thought I was invisible

the thoughts were tumbling over his semi-transparent head,

                    "I know why are you here and who sent you to me," Grey lowered his head and began to gaze at a small spider moving on his paw.

                    The ghost stared at the old wolf.  This voice was very similar, but the Shadow's deserted mind couldn't remind to who.

                     "How..." the black fog tried to say something, but Grey didn't let him to do it.

                    "Come on. Ja wiżu(know) everything. Even szto ty jest(who you are). Timotienko," Grey smiled before turning to the ghost.

                  A powerful memory hit the remains of his mind, forcing him to take some steps backwards. Now he remember everything. All of his memories returned to him like a big mental boomerang thrown into a big dark abyss. "Grey..." the ghost  murmured a long moment later.

                  "Yes, my kamraten, it's me. I'm glad you finally recognized me " Grey started to laugh quietly.

                Something flashed in Timotienko's eye as he hoovered closer. "What happened to you?" he asked very gently.

                     "Ahh, nothing important. I need to take a rest," Grey said almost closing his eyes.

                The ghost came as close as he could, and he put his head on Grey's chest.

                    "Your hearth..." Timotienko paused as he straightened up. "It's barely beating," he finished.

                     "I guess it's time for me, don't you think?" The old wolf smiled exhaustedly, still looking at the small black spider, which was standing now on his leg.

                    "No way! I can save! I know, I can do it. If I-I give you my soul you'll..."

                   "... become a monster like Fluttershy," Grey interrupted his old friend. "Just do what you have to do. Shorten my torments," the old wolf rised his eyes, as the small spider slowly disappeared in high grass, "please," the dying looked imploringly on the black fog in front of him.

                 "I'm so sorry," Timotienko said before he flew through Grey's body. Wolf's heart immediately stopped beating and the grey corpse fell on the ground.

              "Soon I will meet you. Goodbye kamraten," Grey whispered with his last breathe. His dead eyes were looking at the moon, hidding behind the trees.

              "I'm so sorry, my kamraten", the ghost repeated, gazing at the still warm body of his friend. "I will avenge you," the black spirit whispered before he disappeared.

  Now, only a dead wolf left on a small cliff near. His grey-brown eyes were looking at the direction of the snow-covered trees painting themself on a horizon. His home, so close, but still too far. At least Grey saw his homeland one more time, before he left this world. It was a beautiful death, maybe the most beautiful of the wanderers?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

        Grey was buried on the same cliff the next morning. A small wooden cross marked the place of the endless dream of the another wild hearth. Applejack stood at the grave in silence and gazed at the mound, where was lying a small branch. The same which was revived by Grey the night before. Suddenly Applejack heard someone's steps, it was just Rainbow Dash.

                  The pegasus wanted to say something, but her words couldn't erase a scarf on a Applejack's hearth

                       "H-he was a good friend," she said unsurely.

      Applejack didn't respond, but the tears started to flow down her orange face. Rainbow Dash put her hoof on Applejack's shoulder.

Unexpectedly, the pegasus jumped up and flew high, over the ground. Straight into the sky. Applejack was looking as her friend was flying through another white and grey cloud on the blue sky.

                "It's for you and the rest of my friends, wherever they are,"she whispered as she stopped. She took some deep breathes and began to fly onto the ground. Before everyone could figure out what the pegasus was trying to do, a huge rainboom crossed the sky. Epic rainbow circles were moving through blue skies. They were visible from a long distance. Long enough to let Twilight and Rarity to spot them. Immediately they remember how those colorfull circles created their friendship.  Then they were a symbol of the beginning of the new, beautiful chapter of their friendship. But now they were a symbol of the end.

               Rarity turned back and ran into the rainbow's direction blindly.  Twillight was unable to decide. Should she go back to her friends or keep running. After few minutes she was trotting back to her friends. She knew, that together they will find a sollution to her problem. Twilight will find a way to take control over her mind again.  "No, "WE" will find!" she thought, moving through bushes.