By the Borders

Chapters

Chapter 1: Gifts and Curses
Chapter 2: In the Shadow
Chapter 3: Never safe when the hounds howl
Chapter 4: Stories
Chapter 5: Prepare
Chapter 6: The Shadow
Chapter 7: Soulbound
Epilogue

Chapter 1: Gifts and Curses

A slight breeze stroke my hand and crawled up my arm. I woke up with a blurry vision and only got halfway up in a sitting position before I was smashed back down with a nearly lethal headache. I don't know if you have had a REAL headache before, but this was bad. Brick-to-the-face bad. I was surrounded in my own complete mental hurricane with houses, cars and cows everywhere. My eyesight was a gone and I had absolutely no situational awareness at all. I tried to sit up, only to lose balance and hit my head against the wall. Even though I could barely feel the hit to the head, I felt a little numb at the moment. The pain subsided slightly, enough for me to lean against up the wall. "Urgh, let's do this," I said as I forced myself up and walked towards the window, while massaging my eyelids to get away most of the blurry vision. I'm unsure of exactly how it happened, but I realized something was wrong... when I fell...

The shock almost woke me completely, but then the headache of ragnarok returned and took its toll on my vision, mind and also the rest of my senses. In waves I could see before it got dark again. I could see the shimmer of the sun through the clouds as I fell. And then I saw great mountains, towering over an everlasting carpet of green trees. My head pounded as I saw what I thought was the ground closing in before I lost consciousness.

Immediate pain washed over me as I woke another time. But now I was lying in the dirt, and I felt worse than ever. The headache was gone, replaced with bruises over my entire body. Especially bad was my ear, which I could see was pretty bad due to a stream of blood. But as I touched it, I knew this was not my regular body. I looked at my hands, which turned out to be... hooves. I forgot the pain as a thought streamed through my mind. I sat up to find that I could not sit up without my front ha- HOOVES. I looked briefly over myself. Yes, I had the figure of a horse. Though it was not as I knew it, more like... *Squeal*. "OohmyholyhotdogbarbecuesausewithCHILLEH! I'LL BUY A DRINK TO WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE OF THIS! This is the best day of my LIFE! I'll savor this day and take it slow, not in that order," I took a closer look and found my body to be colored brown. And a small stream of hair down my forehead revealed that my mane was green.

If I had not been in pain right there, I would have been squealing off like the little kid I felt like. I blessed the day I was introduced to FiM, many of the best days of my life. Ah, how I could browse the net for hours just to find something with L- err, where was I? And because of that I could not believe what had just happened. "I am a pony! A MOTHER. TRUCKIN'. PONEEEH," I screamed towards the sky as I felt the joy chill through me to my very bones. I jumped (once, as the pain came knocking on my mental door again) before I looked about at my surroundings. Everything was different here than back home, it was just so much brighter and colorful! Shining sun and beautiful nature, probably some colorful wildlife as wel-auchauchauch. My ear hurt more than ever. But how was I gonna stop the bleeding? It was probably already infected. A stick snapped and something hid behind a tree. I looked up to see a pair of purple eyes.

"Uh, hi," I said as I got increasingly embarrassed of how I had acted in front of a PONY OF EQUESTRIA! "Eh, I guess you caught me in an awkward moment there. Eh, can you help me patch up my ear? It hurts pretty bad," I had to get a conversation going, lest I wanted to have an awkward silence (which always gnaws on me). She slowly walked out into the open (I could immediately tell it was a filly) and eyed me up and down. Her mane was dark purple and her body was painted with a sweet teal color. "Haven't seen you before," she said with a soft voice. "Where are you from?" I felt a bit awkward with actually TALKING to her, I just could not believe it even though it was all unfolding in front of me. Her bright green eyes were staring into mine and I just could not meet them, even if Jigsaw had designed some contraption to make me (it would be like: "I wanna play a game," "NO!" "Okay...").

I stood there for the duration of what you could define as an awkward silence, but her *cough* made me snap back into it. "Err, well, eh. Nowhere you have heard of, I'm sure," I read on her face that she was not satisfied with such an answer. "*Sigh*Well judging from that crash I guess you are an very inexperienced flier," "Heh, (you have no idea) yeah. I kinda just dropped by (pffft)," I had managed to draw out a faint smile in her. "Yeah, I could tell. You needed some help with your ear you said? I can help you if you promise to tell me where you are from afterwards," She had me pinned there. "Fine," But at that point, my brain had (without me knowing it) tied up the hint in what she said: "You must be an inexperienced flier" rang inside my head again. I slowly turned my head, not wanting to have my surprise revealed too early. The grass was flowing like waves in the ocean, a small yellow flower stretched towards the sun and the shades from a flock of birds soared over me. I saw a bruise on my back leg and a little dried up blood, before spotting a green feather... I fainted...

I felt a slight headache and some pain in my ear again, as well as some bruises and numb spots on my legs and belly. But it was fine. I sat up, biting the pain as I tried to get a grip again. I could tell that I was in a different spot than before. There were no marks on the ground, except for a trail of flattened grass. My cheeks went scarlet as I realized that the other filly must've dragged me over here. I didn't exactly give the first-impression of a baws, but I guess I have NO reason whatsoever to complain. She giggled."Great, you are awake. I put some ointment on your ear, it should heal if you don't scratch it off," she said, sitting behind me with the (FRIKKIN') cutest smile I have ever seen. (Not that I have seen the smile of too many ponies from EQUESTIRA *GLEE*).

"Hey! Don't space out on me now! I want to know where you're from! You should also rest a little," Oh! Right! I've got WIIIIIIIINGS!!! *Near heart-attack*. I took a look at them again, moving them about. Folding them, stretching them, moving them back and forth and finally I tried to lift myself from the ground. I had almost no bruises on them, but I needed some more practice before I could jump off a cliff (which I was planning). I guess I didn't notice I had wings (I know I probably should have) because I didn't expect it, and they were hardly harmed in the cra- wait... "HEY," she screamed loud enough to make me snap back into it (which is really loud, into my ear). She let out a sigh"Now, where are you fr-" "How did I survive the landing," I (rudely now that I think about it) interrupted her.

"Wh- what? Hey! You promised to answer me," "Oh, right. Okay, but how did I survive that fall? It was all groggy to me, but it seemed like I fell for maybe two minutes," Once again, my brain had done some overtime without my knowledge (yeah, I know it sounds weird). "Oh, well. I noticed you just a couple of seconds before you crashed, you were falling pretty fast. But I found you further away from where I thought so would land, so I guess you unfolded your wings before you crashed," This meant that I was transformed before I landed, but I won't figure out what happened in first round I guess. Oh well. "Now it's your turn to answer! Where. Are. You. From," "Uh, well. I kind of fell out of my bed, but I... I'm not really a pegasus," An awkward silence followed before she clearly held back a small laughter. "Not a pegasus? What else could you be? You've got wings don't you," "Well yeah, but that's the thing, you see. Because I earlier today I stepped out of my bed and suddenly I fell from the sky as a pony! I was not a pony before that fall! I was... it's complicated I guess," She raised a brow, clearly not convinced.

"Okay, if you say so. Then what's your name," That one struck me surprisingly surprising (I know, confusing sentence is confusing. Deal with it!). "Well, I do have a name. But eh, could you tell me yours first? Please," She sighed "Okay. My name is Acorn, I live in the GreatTree village," It was exactly as I had predicted, I can't use my real name here. It's just not right. "Well, actually I want to not use my real name. It is both hard to pronounce, and it doesn't have any real meaning here," She was surprised from my reply, but she smiled. "Well we can't have that can we! What do you wanna be called? Our names reflect a bit of us, so would yours be... eh, I dunno," "Heh, kamikaze or something," "What," "NOTHING," There is no way I'm gonna go into that subject, not here, not with anyone here, ever.
"Well, we could just drop that one for now," "Hey, what about my a cutiemark? What is it," Oooh, another surprise! It's... blank. "Hm, nothing," My disappointment was great, but at least I still have everything else right! "Yeah, usually everypony have their cutiemark by your age. That's why I kinda believe you," "Okay, so... Now what," It felt weird how I just did not have a goal or purpose of being here at all. So I needed some answers. "Is there a town nearby? I want to ask around, maybe uncover something in the process," A smile flared up in her face. "Sure! My hometown is just nearby, I'll take you there but I need to get some of the plants I went out to get here. I'll be back in a minute," She said before she set off. I couldn't help but to notice her daffodil on her plot, then I realized what I was doing and turned away with a blush.

A random fruit of some sort dropped on my head, it looked like something between a pear and pomegranate. Strangely shaped like a pear, but colored somewhere between pink and red. I sat down and ripped it open, it seemed like an apple or pear on the inside. I took a bite and immediately tasted a sweet yet sour taste, beautifully balanced. But a kick to my belly sure took away that great feeling. Acorn stood before me with a angry look on her face. "I can't turn my back without you trying to poison yourself. You do realize that you almost paralyzed all of your insides right," She said whilst staring into my eyes with a disappointing look (ಠ ›ಠ). "Well, then why did you drag me to some trees with poisoned fruit," I said to my pathetic defense after eating a random fruit that looked funny.

She sighed once again. "Just don't eat anything I don't give you permission to eat okay? If that's all right, then you should survive the trip. Here," she bucket a tree. A perfectly fine, red apple landed in front of her. "Eat this," "Mkay," It tasted just as delicious as it looked: Juicy and sweet. "Now let's g-" I knew that her halt in mid-sentence was not a good sign; it usually never is. A distant roar thundered through the woods, it was more terrifying than anything I had ever heard before. Acorn's face paled and she backed away slowly with her head lowered. A tree was torn down, followed by another. Suddenly another roar shook my spine like biting an ice cube probably would, but this was dangerously near. Whatever it was it was moving incredibly fast and had to be massive. I heard Acorn scream at me from the distance; I had spaced out again and did not notice her making a run for it.

Chapter 2: In the Shadow

No time to think, no time to rest. A shadow flowed over the land, killing everything (not my kind of fun). The trees, flowers and the grass even, everything took a bow. I started to gallop in the opposite direction, but then I realized that my wings would likely carry me faster. I focused all my might on my wings, and it worked. I levitated above the ground a foot, two feet, and then five feet backwards into a tree. Now, panic really struck me as I knew that the shadows where on my hooves any second now. In a frantic maneuver, I flapped my wings everywhere around me to gain altitude. It worked, though I had to work on my balance quite a bit unless I learned to enjoy kissing trees with my entire face. And the trees wouldn't like that!

The shadows where below me now. A fall would be far more than undesirable at this point, so I leaned slightly forward while my wings kept me up to drive forwards. A turtle would win in a race against me with the speed I first had, but I didn't really think there and then. The shadows moved faster than I thought, they had spread far across the fields towards Acorn. ACORN! I could not let her get caught! I felt adrenaline pumping in my veins, forcing me to actively think for the first time since I arrived here (yay). A bird does not simply lean forward like a helicopter have to, that would take away plenty of its maneuverability. SO, that means that the WINGS create the forward movement! "I got it now," I said to myself, though I only had the theoretical part figured out. But it worked. I moved much quicker, as fast as the shadows. But I had to go faster to catch up with Acorn.

At that point when I managed to separate how a bird and a mechanized vehicle worked, it all became clear to me. I had to take the best of those two worlds to gain speed! But I didn't have any jet engines. So swallowed, took a deep breath and folded my wings. I fell a bit fast as you can imagine, but folding my wings out again and tilting them up made the risk worth the effort. I glided just above the ground at an INCREADIBLE speed! Not as fast as Rainbow Dash of course (cuz she is just too AWESOME for me to even reach up to her hooves), but far more than I needed to catch up to Acorn. The shadows had almost caught up with her. I could see she had sprinted to the best of her abilities to avoid whatever being touched by the shadows would involve. But she was clearly tired now "TO THE RESCUE," I thought before I flew over her and grabbed her around her waist (or whatever) before pulling her with me.

She struggled since she probably didn't think it was me, and that was the last thing I needed. "H- hey! Quit it," I said while trying to keep my grip (wait, how could I possibly have gotten a grip with HOOVES!?), but I lowered my altitude in case I would lose her. Which I did. She screamed when I lost her into a green barrier of leaves. "ACORN," I screamed after her before following. She had broken a couple of branches on the way. The branches gave her some bruises, but I think she would have been worse off if she had hit the ground dead-on with no speed bumps. "Acorn! We gotta move. Can you walk," We both knew the urgency. She stood up, but she clearly had a lot of pain in her right plot (Search for "dat plot" on Google if you don't understand me). "Ngh, I don't think so. I would be too slow," "Hang on," I said before sliding under her and standing up with a clearly blushing pony on my back.

I can't say she was too heavy, and I can't say that I would dare to complain after all the other awesome stuff today. But I had massive troubles flying with her over the trees, and now I couldn't risk dropping her again. So I had to lose a shadow on foot... Great. So, how do you lose a shadow following you? I had, and still have no idea. So I just ran with Acorn on my back, hoping for the best (in the form of a miracle preferably). I had put some distance between us and the shadow, but it was catching up now. I wondered what that creature really was. Since it roared, it had to be a creature of some sort. Hopefully I could outsmart it or something. But at this rate I would perish, and so would Acorn. Suddenly the forest ended, before us was a great patch of grass. My hooves was almost too tired to go on, but further away was a steep mountain we could rest upon. If only we could reach it.

You know, I've always loved the wind. But sometimes it carries nothing but troubles. Sometimes, it's comforting to hear it flowing through the grass or the leaves. But sometimes it would all be better if it would just shut up. Then again, I wouldn't have made the good friends I did from that day on if it did (the wind that is). I am never more angry at anyone for any reason than when someone (doesn't matter who) annoys me while I take a nap. You can only IMAGINE how furious I was with all the background noise when I had finally gotten a day free from practice. And those nagging girls in class never shut it when I want to be left alone, why in the blazes did they have to keep on nagging!? Oh, but I guess I derailed... A beautiful sparrow soared above me, a beautiful sight you don't get to get a good look at much. Not when you are training so much as me. But then, a huge flock of birds just raged over the cloudless sky in a single, massive wave.

I looked to the opposite direction, and I could never have anticipated what met my eyes.A wave of darkness flowed over the forest, devouring it. It left only rotten and broken trees behind. I could not fathom this, how could a forest so lush and beautiful simply die in the matter of hours!? How could I stop this? How could I save the forest? Would the forest ever grow back to normal again? All of these questions in my head where silenced when a silhouette fled from the forest. Even though I have good eyes, I would have to get closer to actually see what it was. But it didn't matter to me. If someone was fleeing from that abomination behind it, I would save him (or her). I thought to myself: "I am the fastest flier there is, and I will not let someone perish while I am here," I was always a cocky bastard back then, but I had the right to with those intentions in mind. "I'll save you," I said, and I jumped over the edge and Dashed downwards with my incredible speed and agility.

No time to waste, I could see now that it was two ponies running from the shade. One of them injured. A brown pegasus with a thick stream of dried blood noticed me and called out to me; "Oy! I could sure use some help here. If you don't MIND that is," A teal-colored filly with a purple mane rested on his back, barely conscious. The shadow were mere steps away as I helped her off him, and carried her towards the cliff to safety. Her hooves were in the worst shape, the rest of her body came off easy with just a few cuts and bruises. I knew a place nearby where we could get herbs for her, herbs that would get her up on her feet in no time. I was going to ask for help recovering them, but the brown pegasus was not there. "Hey! Greenmane! I need some help here," But my call was returned with silence. He had probably been slightly injured too, but he looked fine enough to fly by my account. He must've been all good, considering the distance they had traveled. I thought "Yeah, I'll just have to help him if he have some trouble on the last part," and I turned around. There he stood. Well within the shadows, staring into the woods. I don't know what I found most petrifying. Whether it was the fact that he was now standing hooves and flank far inside the shadows that had annihilated an entire forest, without a scratch. Or the monster that was making its way towards him.

Even at half a mile's distance, I couldn't move. I could feel the malice pulse from this creature. "Is he okay? Where is he," I heard the filly whisper behind me. She was so exhausted that she couldn't stand up. I had to do something. "Stay here," I said before my stupid pride took over once again. I jumped over the cliff and headed straight for the colt. Even looking in the malicious creature's general direction was almost maddening; I knew the Colt was defenseless. I aimed for the Colt, but my eyes burned in the smoke that rose from the ground. I closed my eyes and grabbed blindly in front of me where I thought the Colt stood. I latched onto something, and I felt my hooves having a solid grip around him. I smiled, but my eyes burned yet. Suddenly something pulled the Colt downwards.

I heard something similar to a snake's hiss everywhere on the ground at the same time. I had never been more afraid. I heard something whisper in my head to "let him go" and "flee while you still can". My heart was pounding, and it felt like all was lost. Like it was all over. I felt weak, my strength fading. Clouds shrouded my thoughts, and I could hardly even think with the whispers rising inside my head. But I could not let him down! Whatever wanted him, could go another day without him! With every muscle in both hooves and wings, I fought to gain altitude. It was like he had been caught in a group of vines in the jungle. But I had to stay strong.

Within a split second, he was free. One moment, something held him with an incredible force. In the next... Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The whispers were deafening inside my head moments ago, but now it was as though they never had existed! My head was crystal-clear. I could open my eyes, they were completely fine! And even the ground which was as dead as can-be was now a great green plain again! Nothing was changed! It was just like one of granny's old ghost stories, but right then I felt like nothing else than shout out in joy! I won! Whatever that thing was, it was gone! I couldn't believe it! I laughed and jumped about, I had never been more relieved. But what was that? And what just happened? I remembered the very reason I flew down here: The pegasus.

He lay motionless on the ground facing the other way with his mane over his head. I was careful when dropping him not to let him fall and injure himself. But how could he be fine after what THAT? Something was wrong somehow, but he looked fine. I stroke his mane away from his face and a chill went down my spine. His eyes were pitch black. Black as tar. I had never seen anything like it. But then again, I had never experienced anything like what I just experienced within the last five minutes. For starters, I had to get him up to the cliff. This is just one of those days…

Chapter 3: Never safe when the hounds howl

"Just my luck" I thought. When things look great and peaceful, SOMEPONY has to show up and drag hell along with it! What on earth DID just happen anyways? I sat down my sorry rump on the ground and took a rest to catch my breath again. It was okay to drag him along. I didn't have any issues with carrying the other filly all the way by air after all. But there was a problem however: Whenever I touched him, my body turned to lead and I could hardly stand upright! And to make matters worse, I almost landed upon him after trying to lift him up. Just that brief moment of the effect, was enough to drain most of my energy. Therefore, I had to get him up to the cliff without touching him. And his safety wouldn't be much to brag about after the sun goes down. After all, there was another reason to why I picked that particular spot to be alone! They say that when princess Celestia's gaze turns away, all the creatures hiding in the shadows come out to hunt. Not that I had ever seen any. But still, a pony on top of the cliff is a safe pony. I would want nothing more than to sleep at that point, and the night wasn't far away either. And then the sun began to tease me by casting it's orange beams on my face before it would hide away over yonder. "I don't have the time for this," I said with a groan. "Please Celestia, just for a moment more!"

It's strange to wake up to night. Especially since I never got to stay out late to gather berries or flowers. Even when the what we needed were just around the corner, my grandmother gave me strict orders to get back in. She was unshakeable when it came to the night: It wasn't safe. And I owed it to her to do as she said. But looking up at cloudless sky, with so many beautiful stars... I was breathless. The sky sparkled of diamond. A beautiful mix of dark blue and purple, with sparkling the stars so bright. In a book I read about them, and I giggled a little when I noticed "Orion's belt". But no books could ever describe the beauty of the moon. A perfect, brightly glowing ball on the sky. I would probably have sat there all night if I could have. Mmm, yeah. I would have now that I think about it! "ACORN," someone shouted for me. The voice was weak, but not distant. I still felt a little numb from yesterday, but I didn't notice or mind. Because I heard that the voice was desperate.

The voice came from behind me; on the backside of the tiny mountain I sat on. I galloped away to find it. But I didn't know what to expect to find. I didn't recognize the voice, I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know where anypony was right then or why I had slept where I woke up! I skipped around, jumping on flat rocks while trying to find anypony. Suddenly I could make out groaning to my left, behind some loose stones below an edge on the cliff. I galloped over and saw a light-blue pony, dragging the weird pony (which I just called Blank because of his blank-flank (not that I was looking much mind you)) behind him by ropes or something down the hill. "Hey, you okay? What happened?" I asked him, but he was just as afraid as he was tired. And then I heard the howls. He quickly looked over his shoulder before he dropped the ropes in his mouth. "Hurry," he said. "We have to get him up before they are here!" I didn't need more of an answer than that; it didn't seem like we had the time. I jumped down while the light-blue pegasus regained some strength. I ran over and took a quick look over "Blank". He was completely unharmed (exept for his ear, and the cuts from before), but there was something about his eye. I reached out to pull away the hair over it. I could see on his face that his eye was wide open even though he didn't move. But just before I touched him, the other pegasus yelled a desperate "No!" I quickly pulled my hand away before another series of howls roared out of the woods. Something was closing in.

I made a careful jump down, it was two metres after all. The way upwards was rugged, steep and just plain bad. Not suitable for walking, let alone carrying anything. "Why did you carry him this way? Why not by air? And why can't I touch him?" So many answers, so little time, and he had so little energy for some reason. "Neh, never mind th- that! Just do. Not. Touch him. Whatever you dh- do!" He sounded serious, so I guessed that I should just go with it. He moved away, and I grabbed the ropes which turned out to be vines! He really WAS serious about it. I pulled Blank upwards by the vines like a strong farmer drags a plow, towards the steep wall I had jumped down from. Everything was fine, the ground softened up as we got higher and safer by the second. But everything came crashing down on us, when howling started just around the corner.

My spine was chilled to the bone, while the other pegasus hurried up and flew up ahead (but only barely due to his exhaustion). He landed on top of the wall and sat down there to get another respite as I reached it. But now I heard barking and growling, behind me. "Almost there," I thought. "I can't just abandon him!" I looked upwards towards the light-blue pegasus, sitting there. He looked down on me, two body-lengths down. It wasn't much when it came to climbing, I had done it as a kid. But right then, it was a mile. I didn't dare to look behind me, the barking told me everything. The light-blue pegasus looked at me, looked behind me, and left.

I was their prey, and I was doomed. All that had happened, was for nothing? I would die here? I thought that I might as well look behind me - not that it would matter - before they took me. The creatures were hounds, of the black kind with grey stripes. Grandma once took out a book and showed me the pictures; she told me that they were very dangerous. I had looked at the picture in wonder and awe, it was a beautiful picture. With graceful poses and with a beautifully flowing fur, that I had dreamt of stroking. I would never have known that it would all lead to this. Those hounds didn't look that beautiful at all. Just feral, and dark. "Grandma," I whispered with my scared voice, which was breaking down. "Where are you?" My throat tightened, making it harder to breathe. I started to sob, before my sobbing went over to crying.

"More howling. Heh, someone won't be here to look at the new dawn," I thought. The night was cloudless, truly a beautiful sight with the full moon. But not everyone is lucky, I should know. After all, I have taken away fortunes from the fortunate. And I have seen so many like me suffer. 'Bad luck' I say, for them. Moving through the woods didn't save me as much time as I thought, I still wouldn't reach any town before dawn. "Oh well," I said with a shrug. "I guess this is as good time as any to rest." But even though it would be safer for me to sleep outside in the night, the animals would pose a problem to even me. But there hadn't been neither animal, nor beast that had ever put a scratch on mah dark coat. But Lady Luck wasn't smilin' to me right there, I can tell you that.

First off I heard whispers, the kind with 'promises of power in exchange for your soul'. I could tell, they were whisperin' 'bout ME, almost evaluating me as they got closer. But they passed, so I thought I was good. Not a chance. Those snapping branches wasn't stepped on by squirrels, that stomping wasn't made by a pony, and that deafening growl sure as BLAZES was not harmless. I threw away my bag into the bushes and readied myself. A big, snarling, angry face, followed by a large powerful body emerged from the shades. Those hungry red eyes wanted a meal, and I was ready to dish out some whoppin'. It didn't know who it was messin' with, but I would teach him to fear me. He stood up on two legs, towering above me with another six or seven ponies above my size. He let out another growl. And I, a grin. Before we both charged straight at each other.

The biggest hound was the one running first, and it went straight for me. Blank was lying motionlessly beside me, was he dead? I dried my tears and cleared my head. I quickly turned my head back again to the hounds again when the biggest one dashed towards me with a growl, while the others slowed down behind. Letting their leader in for the feast first. I closed my eyes and braced myself by taking a step forward. But to my surprise, nothing happened. The seconds passed, and I hesitantly opened my eyes. The wolf had stopped just two-three meters away, looking straight at me with hesitant eyes. "Why?" I asked myself. My answer came to me in the form of movement BEHIND me: Blank stood up with an intense - but strangely empty - stare at the wolves. But right there I didn't know what to be scared of the most, the wolves, or his pitch black eyes that chilled me to the bone. Looking straight at them was like looking into the abyss. There was nothing in there, nothing but darkness.

Blank still had a few cuts and bruises all over his body and dried up blood, but worst of all: His badly ripped ear. But none of those things seemed to affect him at all. He coldly stared at the wolves, and walked forward. With strangely empty - yet focused - stare directly at the leader-hound (which actually took a step backwards)he walked forwads. However, he was brought to a sudden stop when a big rock hit his head with a short *thud*, and he was unconscious once more. I looked up at where the rock came from, and a big group of rocks now thundered over me and crashed down around Blank. I was nearly deafened, but I couldn't care much about it while Blank was in the middle of the rockslide! When the dust settled, two of the rocks were laying on each side of Blank's bleeding head (almost TOUCHING him). I just stood there with my jaw hanging loose; my mind didn't process what had just occurred properly.

The hound had to dodge the rocks, so we had some breathing space now. But why did this just happen? I looked up, and my eyes met those of the bright-blue pegasus. I couldn't help but to smile, but I was still only meters away from a certain death. The pegasus was more exhausted than ever, but he raised a hoof towards the rocks. "Of course," I whispered, because now I knew what he was thinking about. I quickly galloped towards the rocks and kicked one of the biggest, barely moving it. So a kick alone wouldn't do it; I had to push it over. Leaning against the rock, I put all my strength to it. If I wasn't quick, I would die. But I just wasn't strong enough!

Even though I managed to move it a little, it still didn't roll over and push the rest with it! But Blank started to groan, and touched his head before he went deadly silent again (I couldn't see his face, but I imagine he looked quite shocked to find himself bleeding so heavily). I yelled "Hey! Get up! Help me," and hoped that he would respond to me. He groaned and stood up before mumbling something about his best day ever. But I could see that the wounds took its toll on him as well as me now, especially the last hit to his head. But a relief poured through me as I could see that he had returned to (somewhat) normal state, without his black eyes. We were in kinda pretty bad shape at the moment. But he helped me push the rock with what strength he had, which was more what I had. The rock started to roll a little, and we could hear some smaller rocks starting to roll on the other side.

But the great hound wasn't idle for long, waiting for us to get away or something. He leapt on top of the rock, and lounged after us with his big jaws. If it wasn't for Blank screaming "WATCH OUT!" to me, then it might have gotten my head or neck. But I fell on my back when I dodged, and was left defenseless on the ground. The rock rolled a little back and forth since the hound had pounced it, but that didn't distract him for long. The hound towered over us on the huge rock, casting his shadow down on me. Behind him though, was all downhill. Some of the rocks had even rolled down, and it was enough to scare the smallest of the hounds away. The great hound was ready to pounce me, and lowered his head. But Blank jumped in front of me, ready to fighting a hound twice or three times his size. I... Admit I blushed... A little... But it wouldn't do us any good; he was dead meat in comparison. That is, until a bright-blue lightning struck the totally unprepared hound in the snout! Above us, the other Pegasus had gathered a cloud big enough to actually shoot lightning! In the NIGHT! I wish grandma could have seen it; it was incredible! The big hound looked up and snarled, giving a very prepared Pegasus an opening. In a single incredible dash, he head-butted the hound straight to the chest! The hound fell backwards, but held onto the rock out of pure instinct. Not his best choice; he dragged it with him, triggering an avalanche of boulders.

Priceless. Even though I had just rammed a dog-like thing at the size of a car, the best thing about it was watching Acorns face after doing so. But the numbness in my entire body got to be the party-pooper this time. "Ey, thanks dude. Great shot by the way, how you did that lightning… thing," I said while rubbing my sorry skull with my not-so-comfortable hoof (the first time ever I missed my hands). But he had already landed above me somewhere. With a single jump and nearly no effort at all from my wings (I was finally getting the hang of it), I flew over the edge and found him in already deep sleep. I had noticed it was night, but it hadn't really bothered me 'till then that I didn't have a clue of what had happened. But that wasn't my main issue. "Hey," I heard down behind me. "A could you help me up this teeny tiny cliff? I don't have wings, and it's too tall y'know," she said without a hint of sarcasm (which is one of my main reasons I love Equestria). "Sure, but where am I anyways?" "I don't know, this is outside of my known area. And I don't know which direction you ran when you saved me," she said with a slightly decreasing voice as she said it. And with her hoof drawing circles in the sand. This however, didn't tell me anything. "Okay but, who are you?"

"What? My name is Acorn remember? You've forgotten?" she said almost as confused as me. I had an INCREDIBLE pain in my entire head, especially on top. "Yeah, I. I can't remember. I can't remember anything. Much of it is foggy, and none of it makes any sense," I said whilst trying my very best to remember. Which made the pain a whole lot worse. Now my head pounded away. She seemed to connect some of the dots while I started to sway slightly in the air. "Oh, thats right! You got hit by a rock just now. It may have made you forget. How is it?" She asked. But my head was not only pounding now, I was losing eyesight and balance. "I- I-" was all I said before falling down again. A distant voice called out to me, but I was so tired. I got a glimpse of the moon. It was nice.

Chapter 4: Stories

Okay, I had been there in about a day or so. But I hadn't even seen the tail of anypony from ponyville. But I guessed I would have made a fool of myself somehow. For instance; I somehow fell asleep sitting, and that usually does NOT end well. Luckily I didn't wake up with my face in the mud, and I didn't have any friends that had taken advantage of the funny situation. Either would end with people giggling around me when I wake up. I grumbled and scratched my eyelids before sitting up with a groan and staring aimlessly around me for a couple of seconds (some habits never die). "Hey, how are you holding up," I heard over my shoulder.

The other pony landed as smoothly as if he were walking all along. He carried a couple of flowers in a bouquet, strapped to a small backpack of his. And each of them had a different color, petals and shape. "Yeah, I'm good. But what are those for," I said. I would have felt left out of something if I had my memory. I mean, who would NOT have been thinkin' fishies when another pony comes up to ya with a nice set of flowers? It would either be awkward, really awkward, or INCREDIBLY awkward for one of us. "Oh, yeah. Two of these flowers have healing properties, and the rest is just something I stumbled upon that taste pretty good." Or the flowers could be for eating... Don't judge me for doubting him.

"Ah, right." Then I remembered the other filly, the one from yesterday. "Hey, where is the other filly?" "I don't know, I slept for a long time. But somehow you slept even longer. By the way, did you hit your head?" I touched the top of my head; it was bandaged. "Oh, the other filly told me a rock hit me yesterday," I said. The funny thing however, was that my sense of logic was somewhat decreased as well. And I didn't think about WHY a rock would hit me, I just thought it did and didn't require an explanation. But HE realized why. "Oh, sorry about that. Guess my first impression didn't come out well this time. I'm Breeze by the way," he said. The way he talked, the way he apologized, even the way he WALKED/FLEW suggested that this was a proud pegasus. While I was literally nobody.

"Hi, I'm. I-... I don't know actually. I don't remember. I can't remember a thing actually," I said. But I shook his hoof (somehow) and then explained my current state; Foggy memory, heavy pain in my head and a thorn in my hoof (kidding). Acorn arrived, and we all got to introduce ourselves to each other a second time. Breeze was a 1st class flyer in his village, but he got a week off and had decided to get away from everyone else for a while. Apparently he didn't like the fuzz about him beating even the teachers' record (hotshot). His family always bragged to others about him, and he was really well known. But it all came to a price he didn't like to pay; everyone treated him as the celebrity he was. And no-one cut him some slack.

We skipped me.

Acorn was a little filly, living in a cabin in a forest a day from there or so. She and her grandmother had lived together for most of her life, and she had never met her parents. Her grandmother apparently had a big library. And with it: a lot of knowledge. She knew the entire forest, and taught Acorn everything she knew. Her grandma was old and wouldn't live forever, so it was good that Acorn could be there for her. Acorn herself though, was nothing short of a natural (pun intended) talent. She was an earth pony unlike her mother and grandmother, which were unicorns. She said that her father was a pegasus, but she didn't wanna talk more about it. An awkward silence followed after that before I suggested that we should do something (genious). Acorn said that her grandmother could treat my skull, which I should REALLY get a look at (the rock must've been huge). And Breeze agreed, so we got our plots flying about a little before we realized just how lost we were. Breeze had never been to Oakwood (Acorn's forest), I had lost my memory of where I ran from and Acorn had fainted as I had carried her. Soooo... We had to take a gamble there, and we just flew in the general direction Breeze saw me running from.

Breeze was the better flyer, so he took Acorn on his back. On the way he talked much about how it was around where he lived. The fame, the expectations and the jealousy from competition. But I think he somehow enjoyed it more than he admitted. In a way it was his world, and he knew it inside out. On the way though, we discovered that Acorn is scared of heights. REALLY scared. Even though she tried to hide it, she was deadly silent all the way and shook a lot all the way. She was even close to falling off once, but Breeze noticed in time. So we tried BLINDFOLDING her, and it worked (more or less). By the time we flew lower to see if Acorn would recognize anything every now and then, but hours went by without luck. We took a break and landed before we set up a small camp. It seemed like Breeze had some increased hearing, (or something close) because he heard that we were being followed. Or rather, someone was there at least. He said that he went to find good trees and bushes for food. But he returned with urgency and before dragging me with him to a post-battleground.

"What in Equestria," he said in clear awe. This was an impressive scene for a battle; all was obliterated. There were shattered rocks, splintered trees, branches and logs everywhere and even craters! But the confusion from that was nowhere near what we felt when we discovered ice, fire and watermarks. ON THE VERY SAME TREE! (And everywhere else of course, but the tree was by far the strangest) Whoever fought here had some serious firepower, and had to use it. But there were no signs left behind of whatever had fought here, no hoof-prints (the ground was too scorched, frozen, or simply ravaged to make anything out), no items or... remains (which was a great relief to both of us).

We walked around, searching for signs of life. At first, there was none to be found. But as the trails got less scorched, Breeze found hoofprints. And after that our jaws dropped through dimensions as we found three bears. Bears the size of a room was almost piled up in front of us. But neither had burns, frost burns or anything else. Well, except for the massive wounds that is. But that seemed rather "normal-like" at that point. The bears were breathing and they didn't even bleed too badly. "Okay, so. Three massive bears can't possibly have created this entire ruckus by themselves. But I feel fine with not meeting whatever did this," Breeze said after a moment of silence.

I had forgotten all the clichés in movies and the likes, so I didn't have anything good to come up with at the moment. But I had to agree of course. I gave him a nod and we flew off to find Acorn, eager to tell her the news. But not finding her where we left her was not exactly calming to either of us. In the camp we had left Breeze's handybag™, Acorn's very small pouch and some leftover flowers (they tasted better than 'meh', which was good enough for me). And Acorn of course, which was now replaced by a new bag... Great.

"What's this?" I asked Breeze. My instincts told me to open the bag of course, but Breeze focused more than me. "Let's leave it for now, we gotta find Acorn!" And so we did. Not. She found us, just as she had found some strange fellow out in the forest. NOTHING WAS STRANGE! (My sarcasm broke the scouter there.) "Hey! Breeze! Please help me," (gotta love dat innocence). Breeze (which was closest at the moment) dashed towards her, but made a REALLY sudden stop when a white unicorn with a black mane (and a really AWESOME western coat; Clint Eastwood style) stumbled forth. He had a cut running over his face, bleeding badly. "Uh, hi there," Breeze hesitantly said while sending Acorn a confused look. "We have to help him!" She said, clearly stressed. Which made me notice the gash on his limping back-hoof. Breeze looked at me; neither of us liked this.

But I sighed and trotted over to them, and took him on my back (I noticed how carrying stuff/ponies was surprisingly easy). And Acorn ran ahead of us, she grabbed her pouch and pulled out some leaves (I would have been paralyzed with confusion if I had my senses running). As I put the pony down on under a tree, she grinded them between her hooves and applied it to the cut on the pony's face. It was painful for him - I could tell - but he was also very tired. "Breeze, find some carnitals! I can mix it with something else for the hind leg!" Acorn said with the most serious voice yet. She would've made a good nurse. "Roger that!" Breeze said with a military pose, clearly knowing what to do (which I really wouldn't, no matter my state). He flew upwards, looked around, and flew away.

He was in bad shape, but was very much conscious. He looked around the camp. But his eyes stopped at the bag, and I noticed him noticing it. "Is it yours?" I said. He looked at me. His eyes didn't reveal anything but exhaustion, then he gave me a nod. I strolled over and grabbed it before bringing it to him. He opened it and grabbed something (again with the magnetic hooves) and ate it. I was gonna ask, but let it be. Acorn ran about and looked at the nearby plants. "I have to find something else, wait here with him," she said before setting off without giving me a chance to reply. A fool would have NOT asked him at such a moment.

I gathered up, took a deep breath, and asked him with my most manly voice: "So, uh, um, well. You wouldn't happen to have seen any bears around here would you?" (Okay not so manly then, don't judge me.) "Well, bears n' bears. A've seen some wild lil' cats runnin' about. Tryin' to show guts by breathin' elements at meh. Don' suppose you've seen too many of those little buggars though. Not being from around here n' all," He said and pointed to my empty spot. "We all have our secrets boy, best not to share too many. N' best not say too much, lest ya'll let 'em kill ya," he said. And I was left speechless. Mostly because none of this made sense to me. An awkward silence followed. "To answer your question, yeah. I have seen some bears. Before buckin' their sorry behind."

Yet another awkward silence followed. He sighed. "Look, I know that you are not from-" Acorn came galloping back, to us. Carrying flowers and a full pouch. She sat down and immediately started to mash them together with a mortar and a pestle. I turned to the other pony. "Eh, hey. I didn't catch your name," I said. He looked at me, looked at Acorn, and said: "Dice. Dice Blackmane." Acorn stopped mashing herbs and looked at him. Then she finished off quickly and added a little water before applying it to his hind-leg. "My grandma talked about you. She said you were deceiving everyone you met and stealing their money. And that you were a very wanted man," she said, staring into his eyes. He returned it with a lazy gaze; he had heard this pretty many times.

"So ya have have heard the legend of me. Bet you don't know much else though. Anyone been talkin' 'bout how I stole from Sir Oro? A man that was lovin' cookes a lil' too much? Anyone ever told you 'bout how I passed the money on? Nah, too much details," he said. He was clearly a proud ma- colt (shaddap, I'm still not used to switch it like that). But something wasn't clear yet, and I dived headlong into it: "The three bears. You were the one who took them down right? But you're not a unicorn, why was there ice, fire and watermarks all around?" "Oh, ya noticed that didn't ya. I don' use magic, ever. I prefer to get up n' personal. The elements came from the bears you see. Pretty nasty lil' kitties." And awkward silence followed. For the longest time. "What?"

Chapter 5: Prepare

Prepare

I’ll have to summarize a lot of things that happened in a quick manner so that this won’t take a lot of dry, boring time. First off: Dice is awesome in a Chuck Norris way! Both in body and mind, he is truly a badass! He never backs down, and he usually sides with the losing part just to get into trouble (he told me more stories). Second: Acorn knew the road after talking with Breeze a little, so we walked without further problems (except for me having to carry Dice as a suggestion from Breeze so that I would strengthen my wings). Third: There were no bumps on the road. My mind however, had a different story altogether. There were headaches, voices, mental pictures and... Well... I’ll just take it from there shall we?

“I gotta say kid, flyin’ aint’t a strength of yours by a long shot yet. I’ve met a lot of good flyers, and a good pegasus flies with or without a pony on his back as if it’s nuthin’,” Dice said, seemed like the backside to being that badass is your lack of patience for us ‘lesser beings’. “Give him a break will you, it takes a Pegasus months to learn how to alter clouds and weight,” Breeze said to my defense. He would know better than anyone else after all, so Dice decided to shut it for the rest of the trip. Acorn ran on the ground so that she would better recognize the tracks. But I had a feeling that she would’ve done just fine even in the air, because she ran non-stop in a pretty narrow path after a while. She knew these parts of the woods, hell she even pointed out that it would take her fifteen minutes to run from where she was! In the distance I couldn’t see anything but trees. And the some trees. And then we stumbled upon trees. BEFORE WE WERE SURPRISED BY trees. But as I was flying, my mind went cloudy. The world around me went back and forth, left and right in addition to a headache. I slowly lost a little altitude, but Dice gave me a small thump in the back of my head. Suddenly Acorn said halt out of the blue. Breeze was going to ask her if something was wrong when she pointed her hoof at a door!

“What in the hay? Where did this come from?” Breeze said in confusion, he inspected the door. And it looked normal. Now, why am I saying what HE did instead of what I did? Because meanwhile, I went for a kamikaze run into the ground. Dice however, was badass enough to jump off in speed and land safely while I kissed the ground. The weight of carrying him was simply too much for me to handle. "How on earth do other pegasi pull it off" I thought. I had to pull my face out of the ground (literally), but somehow my nose remained intact. Equestrian laws of physics reduce physical damage? Awesome! “Oh fer the love of- get up ya pile of potatoes, you’ll rest later,” Dice said. As ever, he sure knew how to motivate me... “Welcome to my home sweet home,” Acorn said with the biggest smile I’ve seen yet. “I’ll ask grandma to make you guys something! Oh, she’ll be thrilled to meet you! Just wait here,” She said before opening the door and disappearing down some stairs. Except for the door - the tree which the door was attached to - looked pretty normal. Dice leaned down under a nearby tree and closed his eyes. Breeze walked around the tree with the door, he still couldn’t believe the perfect craftsmanship that was used to make such a well-hidden house. In the meantime, I looked around a little. Then the headache returned in full strength, with the wibbly-wobblyness, the loss of balance and the rest of the package.

(Acorn) I almost tripped as I beamed down the stairs. I was more excited than ever! Oh, it was going to be so great! I had never had any visitors there before, and I had almost never met anypony other than grandma for most of my life! I ran around in the living room yelling for her in excitement, but I was met with silence. I barged through the bedrooms, the food-cellar and even the secret room from when I was a foal. But I couldn’t find her anywhere. I panicked a little, and started to fear the worst. I checked mother and father’s empty room, and looked in the library. But she was nowhere to be found! I gave up looking for her and decided that I should tell the others. At least we could find something for Dice’s wounds, but I wouldn’t dare to attempt to make any potion for Blank just yet. Disappointed, I went back to the others.

I just couldn’t think of anywhere else she could be! But my mind was pulled away from grandma when I heard a tree fall outside. “What’s happening?” I said. Dice and Breeze stood close to the door. With their backs towards me, lowered heads, and their hooves dug into the ground it looked as though they were ready for battle. And they were. Blank was standing next to the broken tree, breathing heavily. “Wh-” “Shhh,” Breeze hushed me. “Listen,” he said. “You pile of worthlessness, why do you keep on? Why not just lay down? It would all be SO much easier for you and everyone else,” Blank said. “Oh shut it, you damn well know it wasn’t my fault. You damn well know I did everything I could. And you DAMN well know that I will never let anything bad happen ever again!” He yelled to himself. Something very strange was going on here, but more questions appeared as I realized something: His eyes were black again.

“RAH!” He screamed as he threw himself towards a tree before kicking it so hard it was nearly ripped out from the ground with roots and branches. The tree was severed in half, and splinters flew everywhere. One of them flew towards us and dug into the ground where Breeze stood. Luckily, he jumped out of the way. I on the other hand, tripped backwards and down the stairs. “Ouch,” I said while rubbing the back of my head. I was unharmed, but this was bad. VERY bad. I just didn’t know what to do then. I got back up on my hooves and ran back up. To my surprise, Blank wasn’t in a rage anymore. He was crying on the ground, with his hooves over his head. I looked at Breeze, he just shrugged. “Acorn?” I heard from to my left. Grandma stood there with her head tilted to the left, and with two buckets of water attached with a rope hang over her back. “Grandma,” I yelled in excitement. I galloped towards her and gave her a hug, spilling the water in the buckets. She hugged me back, because I had never been gone in the night before. “I thought you had run into trouble. Thank goodness you are safe. But who is this,” she said while inspecting Dice, Breeze and Blank, looking more surprised for each of them she recognized.

"Dice Blackmane, Breeze, this is a strange fellowship you have found my dear. And what is this,” she said. Walking towards Blank, who was now dead-silent once more. His eyes was still black, but he laid motionlessly on the ground with his eyes open. Grandma stared deeply into his eyes, and then she whispered something into his ear. Whatever she said had a mighty effect. Because he responded with a short scream of pain before he held his hooves over his ears. “Acorn, would you please show our guests inside? You can cook something together and give Mr. Dice some bandages while I make something for your friend here,” she said before going into the house again, leaving us and the buckets outside without a word.

Inside, grandma had opened a door to a room I never knew existed. It was hidden behind one of the bookshelves. “Grandma?” I asked. It seemed she had a few secrets I didn’t know about. I knew she knew how to make potions, how to heal wounds and the effects plants had. But that room was just... Wow. It had everything a skilled alchemist would ever need. She had told me stories about alchemists that tried to turn things to gold, but I never knew... “This day had to come sometime; I always intended to show you this room Acorn. From this room, you can help others, you can cure diseases, you can save lives,” she said. “But this is not MY legacy Acorn, this is your mother’s. She built this room, and used it to heal others. She asked me to show it to you once you needed it. And now you do,” she said. She I looked at her in both shock and confusion. Mother had left something for me?

Grandma pointed a hoof towards the living-room. “The brown one is in dire danger. To help him pull through, he needs this potion,” she said before shuffling in between some recipes on one of the shelves. There were dusty tomes everywhere, but this one wasn’t hard to read at all. It read ‘self-insight’. There were so many things to do, so many things to mix, so many procedures that had to be perfect. “It seems so incredibly complicated, what does it do?” I asked. She only replied “It will save your friend,” before she left the room. It was mid-day, but I worked like never before. I studied the tome, but failed at some points before correcting myself. But at long last, I fell asleep on the tome. Luckily, none of the ingredients were in heating. We were all sleeping, except for Mr. Blank.

Beauty is no joke, and because of that I can’t make fun of looking at the beautiful moon. The moon was way clearer, bigger, and shinier than back home. And here’s the thing about beauty: You can describe it as much as you much as you want. But in the end, you can never really describe how beautiful something really is. You can just point out some of it. And that’s why I never say a thing when I’m gazing at beauty; I wouldn’t know where to start. I heard a crash inside the house, seemed like something fell from a shelf or something. I could hear low voices, and then I heard hoofsteps up the stairs. “Trouble sleepin’?” Dice asked. “Not at all, I would just prefer not to,” I said. “Yeah, the shadow can do that to ya. Did the others know?” He asked, seems like he thought of the others as well. Because I was more than a little dangerous in this state.

“Yeah, but they are probably as clueless as me for what it is. It seems like they are hiding something from me,” I said. The others had told me about my black eyes, they told me about me ranting to myself and they told me about how I destroyed those trees," I said and raised a hoof at the broken trees. But I could still feel how they were hiding something from me. And now was the moment to find out. “Care to explain the rest? I’d rather know what’s taking over my mind if you know what I mean. And you seem to be holding some answers,” I said to him. I really wanted to know. You know, just in case I find myself standing over the bloody corpses of everyone I hold dear... Again. “Yeah, I reckon’ if anyone should be told ‘bout the shadow then it’s gotta be you. Can’t have you pransin’ about, not knowin’ a thing ‘bout how ya might die. After killin’ off everyone ya hold dear that is,” he said like it wasn’t too big a deal, while I sat there with my slowly dropping jaw.

“First off: Don’t worry. You’re not the first one, n’ others have survived without killin’ nobody,” he said. And that was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I emptied my lungs with the air I had held for thirty seconds without knowing so. “Second: The shadow turns you against yourself, twistin’ your grip on reality 'til ya let go. And ya must NEVER let go, ya hear!” he said while staring with glaring eyes into my own. Then he sat back again and looked up. “Third, remember who ya are. You’ll never get yourself back if ya lose yourself,” he said, full of thought. “What!? But I’ve suffered memory loss! I can’t even remember a thing before yesterday night!” I said, the panic was striking my chest. But Dice just smiled. “If your memory was wiped clean, ya would’ve been a log. Ya can walk, you can talk. Heh, ya can even fly some even though ya only had a day at best of trainin’ before your wipeout. The memory is there son, ya just gotta get in there n’ find it,” he said.

Dice was incredibly convincing. And with those words he had gained my respect. He knew what to say, and he knew more than most about personal life-lessons. “Acorn’s sleepin’, she’ll get right back at workin’ at your potion tomorrow. It should be ready then. You know, sleepin’ ain’t such a good idea since the shadow makes every dream into a nightmare. But it might give ya a chance to face him. Maybe even square off a little,” he said before standing up. “The one thing that helps people the most when they fight off the shadow, is that it tries to become part of ya so that it can twist ya. So twist it a little the other way, will ya?” He said over his shoulder. But then he turned around. “Oh, and one last thing. Tell him that uncle Dice says hello will ya?”

Chapter 6: The Shadow

The shadow

"So let me get something straight here. I'm going to face an entity of darkness that shouldn't have a shape or a weakness. No face, nor body, no voice or mind? But in order to twist me for whatever reason it has, it'll give itself all of the above? Great," I said to myself. I was so tired I could've slept sitting again, but I feared my dreams. Last time I dreamt, I dreamt of losing control and going on a rampage. Who knows what I could dream of next time? But if the shadow would try to take over me, why make it easy? I looked up at the moon again, absorbing its awesomeness/beauty (can't decide) before going back towards the house. I wondered if I should really sleep inside, but outside wouldn't be such a good idea either. So I went inside, Breeze slept on a really comfy-looking chair. Dice had leaned back on a sofa with his handybag™ next to him. The door into that brewing-room or whatever was open, and I could see Acorn quietly sleeping on her desk. The d'awww in that room was almost too much to for me to handle.

The room was pretty big for an underground house, not what you would've expected considering the massive weight the soil on top added to the structure. There were planks covering every corner, so it was really clean as well. So I guess whoever built it must've been a pretty good carpenter. Maybe it was one of Acorn's parents? Next to Dice, there was a small table with a single burning candle shedding light around. There was also another in Acorn's room. I stepped inside and blew out the candle, easing her sleep. Then I walked back into the living room and blew out the last candle, putting out all the light in the house. I made sure to find myself the most secluded spot in the house before lying down and closing my eyes. "Bring it on shadow," I said to myself. Dice would have made a grin if he had heard me.

Dreaming is so strange. At times I have realized that I was dreaming while running from something terrible, allowing me to force myself awake. At other times the dreams are like a reality, but I have less to no control. This dream was like neither; I had full control over all senses and I felt perfectly awake. I stood in a dusty dark middle-age hallway. Torches burned, but only on the path ahead. Behind me was only darkness, and it chilled my spine to look at it. I started walking forward and the hallway turned right. Just as I passed the corner I saw a door. Big and old, with rusty metal and rotting wood. I felt an urge to knock on the door, and so I did. The loud sound echoed into the hallway. And to my unlucky surprise it was answered by distant noises; I couldn't stay there. There was not response, and no sounds from within. So I opened the heavy door with an INSANE cracking-noise before going in. Inside was dark as well, but two torches hung above the door. I grabbed one of them, and going further in (YES I grabbed it with my mouth... shaddap).

My hooves echoed a lot on the few steps I took, but I reacted quickly when sounds of movement came from the hallway. I head-butted the door (which was not as painful as you would've expected). As the door closed completely a sound of heavy clicking sounded in the walls, and into the door. Without touching the door, I knew it was completely locked. I walked about a hundred meters into the room, listening for any sounds. But the echo of my hooves on the moist and cold stone floor was everything I heard. But then I saw a stone table; square and huge. I walked straight to it and held my torch over it, revealing old carving that looked almost like something ancient Nordic. "Interesting, isn't it," something said. The sudden voice startled me a lot, and my heart raced inside me chest. "Relax, I'm over here," it said with its dry male voice (sounded a little grumpy actually) before hoof-steps revealed his location at the table's other end. I turned to him and dropped the torch on the table in surprise. It was me.

Not that I had looked at myself at all, but the ripped ear, the wings and the hair was enough. I stood there for a couple of seconds with my mouth hanging and my eyes open in shock. "What, I know that you knew this would happen. Or at least that Dice told you so," he said with a smug grin on his face. His mane was almost pitch-black, and so were his eyes. No wonder I didn't see him. "You may have entered YOUR dreams in YOUR mind, but make no mistake; this is my domain. I am in charge here," he said with rising anger in his voice. He was clearly more than just a little upset about my presence there. "If you think that I'll just let you take everything from me while I just sit idly by and do nothing, you are a sorry little foal," I responded. And saying that I was angry was an understatement; I was 'this' close to catching fire. "Heh, not the little wimp are you. Looks like I have to do this the hard way, even with most of your memory locked away here," he said tapping his hoof on the stone table.

"Tell you what. You break the seal and I'll let you have your memories. No time pressure, no catch. Just don't use an eternity," he said. He took a step back, but still looking at me with a pretty de-motivational grin. I looked at the table; it was filled to the edge with carvings of high quality. I could make out five ring-like formations of symbols, but it still didn't make any sense. I slid my hoof over the carvings, feeling on all of the symbols. To my surprise, I felt differently as my hoof slid over the circle formations. I knocked a little on the symbols, but with no reply. But the symbols did definitely emit some sort of aura. I couldn't think of anything more, but then I noticed my torch. A tiny flinch of burning fire shot from the rest of the wood and onto the closest circle, with HUGE effect! A couple of the symbols lit up and the burning little piece of wood ignited anew, just with a fire ten times as big as it actually should burn! I threw the entire torch upon the circle-formation (afraid to get burned), and watched as the torch turned to ash in a second as the circle-formation spat out a ball of fire.

The torch was gone, but the table was still burning brightly at the exact place the symbols formed a circle. I felt some adrenaline as this made perfect sense, but it lasted a second as I easily pointed out a cold truth: I didn't have water. I looked around to see for any moist areas, but none was nearby. Then I noticed the black pony on the other end of the table, with his head resting on his left hoof (the human way that is pretty impossible for ponies to actually do...) and the other hoof resting on a bucket. He tipped the bucket over and water flowed out, but all of the water quickly massed up on one the rings; forming a small tower of ice. Suddenly at the blink of an eye, the water froze to solid ice. Like a reversed icicle. I looked at the black pony, who just gave me a shrug (with a smug look on his face... smugshrug!). For earth I jagged loose one of the bricks on the floor and found it to have some dirt underneath it. For air I initially thought about just blowing of the table. But on second thought I jumped on the table and flapped my wings once, which was enough. A small tornado formed on the table, and I jumped down again. Nothing happened... I tilted my head in confusion.

"Wait for it," the black pony said. Suddenly, a crackling sound came from the table. "I would take about ten steps back if I were you," he said while going off himself into the dark room. I looked down at the table and noticed the carvings changing. The carvings stretched around, forming a twisting web-like mass of paths. Liquid poured from some holes near the circles (which was perfect circles now), filling the paths towards the middle. I took the black pony's advice and hoofed it. And just in time too; the table let out a sound that gathered in strength, the sound that tells you something WILL. GO. BOOM! And so it did. A massive wave of air blew me almost off my hooves. I held my wings in front of my face (wings FTW!) to shield it from the dust. And as the dust settled, everything was as it was seconds before. I stepped closer to the table, and saw the black pony on the other end.

"Not that hard was it? Go on! I'm sure you're eager to remember, right?" he said, something was wrong. Why would he say that? Why would he help me? Hesitantly, I walked up to the table's end. In the middle was a colorless orb. The kind of orb you can see into, but you can't really see anything. It's just... Nothing. I reached my hoof out to touch it, but before that I saw the black pony's grin. The moment my hoof touched the orb, all was gone. Then I felt another headache pulling me back into reality, and onto the cold stone floor. I stared on the floor for a couple of seconds, checking that all my manual functions were still fine. Then I sat up, rubbing my head to make the pain a little easier to bear. Then I noticed my ear, which made me remember waking up after the crash, which made me notice that I could remember! I immediately fired off some quotes from pure randomness (quotes from awesome games/animes mind you): "ALL YO YENS! YIP YIP YAP! Dosh!" Even though I nearly squeeled from the joy from being my old self again (with the new memories), it didn't take me long to realize how something wasn't right.

I remembered my meeting with Acorn, I remembered Breeze saving her, I remember the hound-like things and I remembered everything I went through up to that point. But I was kinda surprised to remember something that wasn't there before at all! Somehow I had a memory about something else from the time when I crashed, BEFORE I woke up and saw Acorn. I had sat up, I had been confused, dazed and my ear bled. I even did the exact same thing when I realised my transformation the first time: Shouting out in joy, praising life and jumping a little around (which meant that I repeated myself later). But for a split second I saw something blurry that was even then nearly wiped away from my memory. It was the figurine of a pony I, that much was certain, but I blacked out the second I saw him. The thought itself is kinda scary; a pony that wipes your memory when you see it? I couldn't really do anything about that then, but I made a mental side note to ask somepony later. I had been in my own world to figure out that, because apparently a black pony performing black arts on a wall with lots of lights and bad stuff went unnoticed by me. The shadow (which we called him) was pretty damn busy in a world of his own. But this one consisted of a lot of bad magic and things I wouldn't like though; he was taking control of me.

"And so the sleepyhead comes to join the party eh?" he said. "I think the access to your memory was an ok price, for a little time alone with only me and your control nerves," he said with a grin on his face. But his eyes were, eh, 'glowy-black' this time. And he didn't move his face eyes away from that wall for a second. I didn't really get it, but then I noticed a very thin stream of something (likely magic) between his forehead and the middle of the wall. He had painted the wall with something thick- and bright red. The paint formed a circle with a dot on the middle, and a lot of symbols and lines in between. But these symbols were different from those on the table; they had more edges and twisted through one another. It must've taken him a lot of time. I wondered how long I was away so that he could paint that thing, because he sure put a lot of effort into it due to all the details. "What are you doing," I asked. "Oh, nothing really. Nothing you need to worry about. I'll just take over that worthless mind of yours and make something out of it," he said cheerfully with a little smile painted over his twisted face.

"But I guess you won't go cry in the corner in the meantime, so I'll just have to give you some motivation to change that," he said. The faint stream of energy streamed into the wall and the Shadow's eyes stopped 'glowing'. He turned his head and looked at me with a sickening smile, MY sickening smile. "Make no mistake, BOY. This is MY territory, and you're not welcome here," he continued. I wanted to take him on; I wanted to break that twisted face of his. Like HELL if I would let him just take over my mind! We were probably evenly matched, but then I understood what he meant. As he sat there and just looked at me, the shades of two ponies stepped forward (literally living SHADES). The odds had tipped into his favor. It would be a hell of a battle. But I was ready.

Chapter 7: Soulbound

Grandma softly shook me awake; so I thought that I had been asleep for a long time. On the table was the all of the ingredients, I just had cut some small bits of white-rock mushrooms and add it to the rest before heating it all together. But that wasn't why grandma woke me. "Acorn, come with me," she said. I was still very tired, so I just followed her outside without a word. The sun was setting, which explained why I was still tired after sleeping. I carefully closed the door behind me to not wake the others, and then followed her . The path we took lead to the pond I used to play in when I was just a little filly. Even though it took a while to get there, it was really worth it. I had forgot to visit it for such a long time, but the sight of it made my heart jump with excitement from those dear old memories.

While I was galloping down to the pond, the memories flashed before me; the day I learned to swim, the snowy days when I could walk on it, and the day I galloped onto it on the wrong time and broke the ice. The best part was grandma's hot soup and being tucked into a soft blanket afterwards. I almost shed a tear at that last memory. I jumped into it just to feel the nice water again. The water was so nice, perfect temperature and very clean water. But I had the shock of a lifetime when I got up again. Grandma sat on the edge of the water, but next to her sat five MASSIVE bears! Each of them looked kind of strange, but all of them looked dangerous. I was going to yell to grandma to run, but she just raised her hoof. "Don't be afraid dear Acorn; these bears are not dangerous at all," she said with a calm voice to calm me as well. "B- But Dice told me he fought big bears, which used elements!" I said; I was still not convinced, and a LOT of explaining was required. Each of the bears had slightly colored fur, each unique in color and style. One of them had a little spiky yellow fur, another had flowing fur with a blue tone and so on. The style resembled elements.

Grandma nodded her head. "Yes, it is true. These bears have always protected these woods. They felt a malicious aura and thought Dice was the source, but the real source escaped, and Dice defeated the three bears that found him," she explained. But all of this made some more questions for me. Most notably: "What are you not telling me," I said while trying to put up a more strict tone. Grandma just smiled while tilting her head. "You mother was an excellent herbalist, she could make any cure to any illness. She wrote it all down and left it here when she met your father. They were so happy together, and letting her go was the right decision. But before she had botched her first potion as a filly, I had reputation within enchanting. That is what inspired her to become good at something. And that is also where the story of these bears began," she said.

"These bears were friends of mine, or your mother actually. She found them as cubs, orphan cubs that would surely have perished. In no less than five years she tended to each of them. In time in time they grew to become fierce, strong and dominant. They protected me, my hut and your mother. But when your mother left, she wanted you to stay safe. The bears live a life of their own now, but they have sworn to never let no harm befall you. They try to make the woods safer when you leave the hut, but it's easier for them in daylight," she said, giving me the pieces for the puzzle. But a final detail remained. "But what about the elements?" I said. She let out a sigh. "These bears almost died a long time ago, and I knew they had to become stronger in order to survive. And I knew how. But the price was their mortality. I enchanted their very being with pure elemental orbs, so that they could better defend their home. I simply gave them the offer, and they accepted," she said with a sad tone; she wasn't really proud of that deed. "But it is time to get back; you should finish that potion soon. Anything can happen in the state your friend is in now," she said. But the second she did, the gray-maned bear stood up on his hind legs and sniffed into the air. It then looked at grandma who somehow understood. "We need to hurry back," she said.

I could stand his laughter, I could stand his swiftness, and I managed to beat the crap out of his wolves with just a couple of scratches. But the thing I could NOT stand was how that BUCKTARD was TAUNTING ME! "Oops that was a close one! Wait, no it wasn't! Better get better than yourself if you wanna beat me," he said while jumping about like a monkey, which made me see red. One of the wolves' head had taken a pretty well-placed hoof between his eyes, while the other wolf had gotten off with more of a fight. The wolves didn't bleed however, so I couldn't know how good I had knocked them away from reality. But my only focus was that little jockey. We flew around the room (which Shadow had magically lit up with torches on the all of the walls) with me in a constant pursuit. He knew how to fly way better than me, but the room wasn't that big. But after managing to escape my grasp by going BELOW me, I had enough of him.

I charged straight for him and made a nice tackle that you only see on sport highlights. He had turned around to taunt me again, but that had opened his mid-section for me. Now he was rolling on the floor a little before I jumped on top of him and held him down. I raised my hoof to strike him, but the wolf with lesser injuries had snuck up behind me. He pounced me and then he held me down while I was helpless on the floor. Shadow giggled a little, but he walked towards the wall again. "Finally, I have a proposition for you. But first I'm going to show you something," he said. I could hear how his fatigue had risen considerably; I could have finished him. But right there I was helpless, with the wolf standing over me and with pain aching in my body. And that is not applying MY fatigue, which almost could have put me asleep right there. Shadow touched the wall with his hoof, and suddenly the entire circle became something similar to a mirror. But the reflection was Acorn's living room...

"What the-" "Shhhh! Here comes the good part!" Shadow said to me. He was clearly in control of whatever happened in the mirror, which was not good. The mirror reflected a 1st person view from MY eyes; this was what he was talking about! The mirror showed me standing up, and walking towards the herbalist room. Then it showed my hooves grabbing bottles and matches, before pouring the contents out in the doorway and igniting it all into a furious inferno. I could see the hut burning down; I could see the tree curling slightly up as it darkened and the smoke filled the sky. But worst of all was the screams. A burning silhouette stumbled out the door before landing on the grass and lying motionless ass the fires spread in the grass towards me. Shadow closed the mirror and looked at me with content. I was completely shattered, tears filled my eyes. Shadow walked up to me and lowered his head in front of mine and stared straight into my eyes. "This is the future I can make reality, but you can prevent this if you comply with a simple request of mine," he said with his stone cold voice (MY stone cold voice).

"You see, there isn't really any specific reason for me to take control of you. I just want to, honest. I have been cursed with never having a body of my own to walk this earth with," he said. "In fact, I have never known how it is to have a body of my own. That mirror just lets me look at how it could be and how it would look, and that simply won't do. I am part of a greater being, a being I am now separated from. I like to be free from it, and I aim to keep it that way. It will try to get me back some other time, but that won't be soon. So now that you know me a little better, here is what I want from you," he continued. He didn't look so evil anymore, not as much of a pure essence of malice as I saw him as before. His voice softened up and he changed from evil to sympathetic. "I want my own self, my own me. Sure it is fun to be you, but it isn't me if you understand. All you need to do is to let me do what I want. It will take time, but you will be in complete control of yourself don't worry. There will be a lot of confusion no doubt, but I won't cause you or your friends any harm. I'll go away if I break any of those promises, deal?" He said, while reaching out a hoof in front of me. The wolf stepped away from me, allowing me to stand up. I stood there, allowing all of this to sink in. All of that in the mirror is what he will do if he can't get his way, but what will he do if he DOES get his way?

We reached the hut, nothing seemed wrong. Grandma jumped down from the bear she rode, before rushing in ahead of me. When we got inside, Breeze and Dice woke up with confused looks on their faces. Grandma stood in front of Blank, who slept with his pitch-black eyes wide open. Dice and Breeze noticed, and stood up. We all gathered up around him. Without a word he stood up with his empty gaze. He walked towards us with steady steps. Dice and Breeze readied for battle, but Grandma stopped them. "Let him pass," she said. They stepped hesitantly aside so that he could freely walk outside. Grandma stopped the bears snarling from tearing him into tiny pieces, and he kept on walking. He stopped a couple of feet away from the hut. Then out of the blue, a dark aura poured out from him. The aura didn't have anything evil about it, but it lifted Blank from his feet. He was levitating for a moment, with his hooves and wings hanging loosely. But suddenly a bright purple light nearly blinded me. After a few moments the light diminished, and I could see him again. A line of purple divided him in half.

Grandma pushed me to the side. I could see that it was not just a line, but a purple WALL in with the size of a door that divided him in two from the top of his head and down. He started to groan in pain, but that quickly switched to SCREAMS of pain. He tilted his head backwards and screamed towards the sky, but the rest of his body hang just as lifelessly as before. Suddenly the left side's mane became slightly darker, and the left side's mane became slightly brighter. Then we all looked in deep confusion as his voice doubled before suddenly going silent. And his head turned left and right at THE SAME TIME! The jaws of all of us (including the bears) dropped as it progressed. Now there was two heads sticking out from the same body. Then the purple wall started to become brighter again, and then it all exploded. The wind blew us back, and there were smoke everywhere. After a few moments Breeze blew the smoke away with just a few flaps of his wings. And before us laid two ponies...

And so the M. O. A. H. returned again (mother of all headaches). But have you ever had that feeling when you sit up and look directly at a persone that is basicly a spitting image of yourself? Of course you haven't! He looked at me and I looked at him, we tilted our heads simultaneously and sat up simultaneously as if we were one. Then we both said "Hi," simultaneously while raising my left and his right hoof at the same time. This got REALLY awkward. Even more so when we noticed that we were being watched by a most curious audience. I won't go into DETAIL on what happened next (because most of it was just awkward. For example the thing with Dice and the bears) but to skip to the part when we cleared that up. It was time for me (both of us) to explain ourselves. It seemed as though my coat became darker while his became brighter. "Who is the real you," Acorn asked us. We looked at each other, and knew we thought the same. And so we answered at the same time with the same words (also same tone): "I think we're the same, except for our colors. Shadow said that it would take ti-" Dice cut us off there. "Hol' on, who is this Shadow," he said.

We looked at each other and swallowed, then we stared at the ground while we gave them a rough explanation. "He defeated me in combat, and then he showed me what he would do by controlling my mind if I didn't accept his offer," we said. "O-kay then. He was the one inside you, and he proved too powerful to you?" Dice asked. We nodded. He let out a sigh before continuing. "But what'n the hay IS he? An' what was that offer ya talked 'bout," he asked. "Well, he said he was part of a greater being. He wanted a body of his own, but he didn't say how. His offer was do as he pleased, all while I watched him carefully that is," we said, realizing how stupid I had been. Dice let out another sigh; I was waiting for some yelling of any sort towards me. Something to make me feel like I screwed up big time and should never make such a mistake ever again. "Naw, it's okay. Ya haven't been completely screwed over y'know, I've heard 'bout stuff like that which wants to be free from the big boss," he said to both of us with a comforting smile. But then he got serious again and looked at him, at me, back to him, and back to me. "But I've seen this before! Shadow rests within one of ya, in time he'll try to take over ya when he ain't a tired lump of dark mud no more. But ah think neither of ya will get easy of either way."

Epilogue

"The problem now is two things: One of ya will steadily become him, while the other will steadily become yerself," he said. All of us tilted our head in confusion. He let out another sigh before explaining further. "Look, to get a body of his own he had to copy you first. Then he could steadily change it. But he wouldn't wanna make it too easy now would he? I think he tainted the real you just to make us run blind, n' think that the wrong pony is changin'," he said. Now all of us understood; either of the two of us could be the Shadow, but we wouldn't know! "So what do we do? Wait it out?" Breeze said. We were indeed at a halt here; we didn't have a clue as to what we should do. "I'll go with ya wherever ya go. The Shadow can lead me to the real thing, n' he n' me have a score to settle," Dice said. Acorn's grandmother went into the house and brought back a map she rolled out on the ground. "There is one you should inform this to. The Shadow is a looming threat; it nearly destroyed a grand capital city a long ago," I (or... we) hoped this would go where it did go. We looked at each other and then expectantly on the map. "Princess Celestia needs to hear about this," I and my counterpart yelled out IMEDIATELY after she finished her sentence. "AAAAAWWW YEEEAAAAH!" Then everypony just looked at us with the strangest of looks for MANY awkward seconds.

Breeze was the one to break the silence. "Riiight, I'll go with you as well. I need to get back home before my vacation wears off and I'm needed again. And if we cross Ponyville first then I can go the rest of the way by my own from there," he said. So I (/we), Dice and Breeze was going. We looked at Acorn, who in turn looked at her grandmother, who smiled softly at her. "Don't worry Acorn, I'll be fine," she said with a soft voice. "You need to explore the world, and these friends will need your potions in the future," she said. "Oh right! The potion!" Acorn remembered, suddenly becoming stressed. "Don't worry dear, you won't need it now. But I can make it into something else before you leave," her grandma replied. So it was all set. We were ready to go. Then we just needed the final detail. "So where do we go from here," we said. "Oh it is far away, but it will just take a few days of galloping with resting. You see you should cross Ponyville," she said while pointing it out on the map. "And Ponyville isn't too far away. It is right next to the land of Riverdale. And we are right here," she pointed. "By the borders."

"Great, lets go," Breeze said. Seemed like he was anxious to get going. He grabbed his handy bag™, and walked a few steps. "Come on guys," he said. "Heh, excited as ever aren't ya," Dice said with his usual 'slightly-more-tired-than-you' tone. "Don' get ahead of yerself now. Not everypony's got wings ya know," he said before following after Breeze. "Wait! Acorn," Acorns grand-mother said. "I don't think I need ALL the bears here," she said. Breeze and Dice stopped and turned around, and all of us looked curiously as the 'most' brown'ish of the five (the others had slightly colored fur) stood up on his hind legs. Now we noticed how it had a big circle on his stomach with a symbol inside. The bear itself was easily six ponies high when standing. Dice had an uneasy look on his face, Breeze looked in awe, I and me looked in awe and Acorn smiled. She went over to her grand-mother "Thank you grandma, I'll be back soon. I promise," she said while giving her a hug. It was a pretty strong "d'aww" moment. I and me & co. hid away the tears that moment brought us. "But will he slow us down," Breeze asked. "Oh no, he isn't as slow as a normal bear! In fact, he can speed up your journey a little since his enchantment allows him to keep on running for ages," she said. The bear went down on all four again and let out a growl to show off his fierceness (not that it was really that necessary at all considering he could fill an entire room alone...).

"Yay," Acorn said. Jumping up and taking a seat on the bear's back. "Come on Dice," she said cheerfully. But he still had that uneasy look on his face. "No thanks, I feel better when galloping myself," he said. "Safe travels," Acorns grandmother said while waving goodbye. Acorn waved back "Bye grandma," she said. Suddenly the bear burst into a pretty damn impressive sprint (for a bear that is). Acorn sqeeled in joy as they charged through the woods. Dice was appalled. "W- wait a sec," he said as he set off to catch up. "Well I'll be damned," Breeze said in sheer amazement. Haha, this will be quite the interesting trip! See you by the finish line guys," he said before shooting off the ground. I coughed a little due to all the dust. My other me didn't get so much dust in his face, and so he thought what I would have thought if I didn't get so much dust in my face (I know it's confusing). He stood in front of me. "Is it okay if you're named Stale?" he asked with a slight smile on his face. I grinned. We needed to get seperate names sometime. "Sure, and I'll call you... eh... Mate?" He burst into laughter "Sure! And together we are," he paused to let me join in. "STALEMATE!" we yelled before both of us burst into laughing. "Oh shi- the others are probably way ahead now!" I said as I remembered the others. "Well then there is only one ting to do," Mate said. "Stale! Grab my tail," he said as he held out his tail to me. We were both thinking the same, because I would have done that if it wasn't for all the dust in my face earlier. I bit his tail and held on. We both jumped into the air and flew away as Mate yelled "ADVENTURE!" It was glorious.