The tree was beautiful. In the years since being planted, the Moon Pear tree that marked Moondrop’s grave had grown tall and strong. Every autumn it bore the most alluring fruit Amity had ever seen. This year’s harvest was much the same as any other year, though the fruit currently had yet to ripen into their trademark shade of luminescent lavender. The blue leaves rustled softly as Amity approached the tree. She would have arrived sooner if flying were allowed in city limits. But flying in such narrow streets caused too much havoc in years past.

The earthy scent of the forest lingered densely in the air and brought back memories of the many times she’d come to visit the tree with her father. The smooth, red-violet bark spread gracefully down to its base, upon which was carefully leaned a wrapped package. Amity wasted no time in reaching the package and tearing into it. Inside was a beautiful new set of saddlebags. Alongside the saddlebags was a note that appeared to be hastily scrawled, it read:

“Amity,

I wish so much that I could explain to you why I left. But there is just no time. Know that I had no other choice and please, don’t come looking for me. I left in order to keep you safe. So please, stay safe. I hope these saddle bags will make a nice early birthday gift for you. I’m so sorry I won’t be there to spend that day with you. I’m so sorry.

~Love, Dad”

She fought off the urge to cry again, though this time she could not tell if it was from sadness or from a joy of sorts. Her father was actually alive, or at least he was after he’d written the note. That much gave her hope, if only a little bit. But the world outside of towns was dangerous. A pony could not be guaranteed survival if they left, especially alone. Most ponies dared not even to venture from their homes during the earliest hours of the morning.

This is because almost every night, between the hours of 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM the most awful and unearthly noises could be heard from the forest around their town. The forest was definitely not a safe place. There was no getting used to it…it was believed to be the shrieks of the lost souls of the missing ponies of Elmsgate, crying out for a way back in. She imagined hearing her father’s voice added to their nightly screams.

Amity shuddered at the thought, and winced as the next thought pressed to the forefront of her mind: she had to find him. She simply could not believe that he was truly dead, not after seeing that note. He was the only family she had left that did not essentially shun her right after her birth, or turn on her now that she needed somepony. He did not abandon her to a cruel fate, and nor could she rightfully abandon him to his. She could not sit by if there was any way she could help. Yet the thought was crazy. It was far too dangerous. He’d even made the point to ask that she not come looking for him… but how could she not?

Amity read the note over a few times more, letting its meaning sink in. It really didn’t tell her all that much, but it still told just enough to give some meaning. He was sorry for leaving, that was clear, and he did it to keep her safe. However, his reasons for leaving, and how that kept her safe, were far less clear. The tone of the note told her something more though: that he would not, or didn’t expect to return. And the hasty handwriting stood out as a warning. Her Dad, being the perfectionist that he was, would not just scrawl out a note. Something had him in a hurry, as though he were afraid of something.

Amity dropped the note with a disheartened sigh. This new development did not improve her mood much at all. For a brief moment along the way there, she had let herself believe that her father would be waiting at the tree for her. When she did not see him there, her heart still desperately hoped for some good news. Floating the new bags up, Amity turned to leave.

She froze midstep, something having caught her attention from the corner of her eye. The note had landed face down. On the back of it was the emblem of the water purification plant where her father had worked since before she’d been born. It suddenly struck her that his office would be on quarantine for at least a month. People were afraid to approach things like that once a pony disappeared, lest they get themselves marked to be next. If there was any information there, it’d be untampered with.

Getting inside his office unnoticed would be relatively easy too, at least, once she was actually inside the building. But on the other hoof, getting into the building itself would prove to be a problem. Ponies that didn’t work there, or have a city-approved job application in hoof, wouldn’t be allowed in any entrance. And all entrances were watched over by guards, all armed with the best quality energy-based weapons the town could manage. Clean water, free from silt and contaminants, was a valuable thing. Everything needed it to survive. It’s not surprising that it’d be well protected.

Amity picked up the note and put it in her new saddle bag. She knew what she wanted to do, but she needed to think about how it could possibly be done without getting melted or burned into a pile of ash. Neither of which were a prospect she necessarily looked forward to. She decided for the moment that the best option would be to go back into town for food, the grumbling in her stomach had become distracting. From there, she could return home and contemplate her next move.

Luckily, upon her arrival back into the market, Amity’s basket and its contents were right where she’d dropped them. She made a quick effort to finish shopping and set out for home. Along the way, against her better judgment, Amity began to think about the rest of her family. Though they would never say so, least of all to her face, her family believed that her being born with both a horn and a set of wings was a dark omen and the cause of her mother’s death. It seemed they believed that evil magic from the forest had some sort of influence over her.

It was exacerbated years ago, when she’d gotten her cutie mark. It was unfortunate really, that her mark turned out to be as odd as the rest of her appearance. It was a large white swirl that stood out starkly against the black patch on her rump. It was less strange in appearance as it was in its arrival, though. It’d simply appeared one morning upon waking up. She’d had no idea what it’d meant, nopony did. All she could gather was that it did not appear the same way other ponies got theirs.

Her father, to spare her the gossip and rumors from her family, made up a bogus story of how it represented her ability to draw and make intricate patterns of many kinds. A talent that she had indeed, as she could build patterns of stars and intricate weavings that she began doodling and painting in her early teen years. But she felt in her heart, that though many were impressed by her artistic ability, it was not her special talent at all. However, in the end, she had to agree that it was better than nothing when ponies asked about it.

Amity continued to be lost in bitter thoughts of her family life until she stumbled foolishly over a rock in the path. Her face blushed hotly, making the awkwardness feel worse. She huffed in embarrassment as a few passersby snickered and trotted off. Rather than make the situation worse by getting indignant, she opted to pick up her pride and continue on her way, this time keeping a wary eye on her surroundings.

When she found herself home again, she set herself to work on dinner. She wanted to distract her thoughts with food for a while. While cooking went by quickly enough, and despite how hungry she was, she found it hard to eat much of anything. The very idea of what she was planning to do weighed heavily on her mind and made her stomach turn.

Ponies in Elmsgate just didn’t do things like this, it was too dangerous. But Amity knew if she didn’t take the chance to find out now, the window would close and she’d never get to. Nor would anypony else. With a sigh, she pushed her unfinished plate aside and turned her face to the window. She sat, pleading up to the stone far above her cavern home that the past few days had been just a long, bad dream…and that tomorrow she’d wake up.

Amity sat up in bed, staring groggily at her clock. 7:00 AM. It was fairly early, but possibly the best sleep she’d had in a few nights. She’d feared what dreams might come that night when she first laid down, but thankfully nothing had come to torment her. She climbed from bed and brushed her mane and tail, part of her old morning routine. She contemplated the previous day as she did so. Much of it had been spent at home, thinking and writing out plans. Failures and bad ideas, mostly. She was going to need some sort of help if she was to pull this off without dying in the process.

Once her mane was pleasant, she left her room for breakfast. But as she came upon her father’s bedroom door at the top of the stairs, she stopped. After a few moments of contemplation, she decided that it was time to actually take a look around. The door creaked loudly in the quiet house, revealing an impeccably kept bedroom. It was not at all like Amity’s room, the condition of which was something that she knew had bothered her father terribly.

As she entered his room, it came as no surprise to her that it looked the same as the last time she’d been there, the day he disappeared… when she had gone looking all through the house and through the town for him. When she had found he wasn’t there, she wasted no time in lingering or looking about the room. She’d become too afraid to in the days to follow. But that morning she had fresh eyes, and it did not take long for her to notice something off.

The throw rug at the foot of his bed had one corner flipped up. She was certain that she had not left it that way the last time she visited, and it wasn’t normal for her obsessive compulsive father to let that go ignored or unnoticed. She walked over to the small rug and went to flip the corner back into place when she noticed something more. A floor panel appeared out of place beneath it.

Amity immediately pulled the rug from its place and revealed a number of removable floor boards. One board had a strange emblem engraved into it. It was a symbol that she had never seen before. She carefully lifted the floorboards with her magic and set them upon the nearby bed. She set a low glow with her magic and peered inside the little space beneath the floor. It went deeper than she would have expected, she had to lean down into it to reach the bottom of it. It appeared to be some sort of crawlspace that if she crouched, she would be able to navigate.

She brightened the glow of her horn to and crawled in to explore the tiny space. It did not travel far, no more than to the corner of where her bedroom across the hall ended against the outer wall. There in the corner, she found a travel trunk. It couldn’t be easily opened in the small space, so she decided to try and drag the trunk back up to her father’s room to get a better look.

This hadn’t been the first time she’d multitasked with her magic, though when she’d done it previously, it was usually only with cooking or painting. But this time was different; the trunk was bigger, and heavier. The moment she enveloped the trunk with magic, her horn sputtered and went out. For a few brief seconds, Amity was left in complete darkness, her heart racing.

Very suddenly, her horn lit back up against her will, this time with more power and intensity than she’d ever felt in it before, her usual green magic crackling with little bits of red, flurries of blue and fluttering orange streaks. In a brief moment of panic she realized that she could not turn her magic off. In desperation, she flung the trunk over to the entrance in the floorboards. It exploded open and papers flew everywhere as her magic again flickered out.

Being too afraid to try and use magic to light her way, Amity instead carefully made her way to the entrance with only the dim light seeping from it to guide her. Rather than try to gather the papers with her magic either, she climbed out from the crawlspace to fetch her father’s bedside lantern. Once lit, it allowed enough light for her to collect many of the scattered papers. The poor trunk was beyond repair at that point, and some of the boards of the wall had cracked from the force.

After she’d collected all the papers she could find, she spread them out across the bed and began looking them over. Immersing herself in this new mystery was far easier than contemplating her magical outburst, so that’s what she did. Many of the sheets of paper were blueprints for magical machinery, similar to the machines her father had told her about in the water purification plant. But these were older models, according to the dates on the corners. These were at least 10 years old, and they updated at least every other year.

Among the blueprints were also many pages of notes, unfortunately all out of order now. But from what she could gather of them, most were notes on the machinery and the spells that ran them. She looked every paper over carefully, though she admittedly didn’t understand most of the intricate spellwork and technical babble. She’d never really had a mind for machinery like her father, but she knew enough to know what they were for. These machines were the heart of the purification plant. They’re what made the water safe.

She began to skim through the diagrams and notes, which all seemed to faze together. At the bottom of the stack of papers, she found another folded blueprint. She opened it rather unenthusiastically, expecting just another diagram of something she didn’t understand. But, upon opening, it brought a smile to her face. The blueprints depicted more than just machinery. They depicted a building. More specifically the building she needed to get into.

With further inspection, the blueprints revealed something she’d been hoping for. The purification plant had one extra entrance that she hadn’t thought of before: the drainpipe that allowed the stream water from the forest to flow into the purification department. It was just large enough for a pony to squeeze through; she assumed that for maintenance reasons. But as an added bonus, the purification department was located right beside the magical science offices, which would include her father’s office. After hours the water plant would be left running without heavy supervision. A few night guards would be no trouble if she was careful. The only catch to this plan was that even though the blueprints were up to date and showed the layout and size of the building, they did not depict any machinery or other obstacles that may be in the way.

“Well, even if I have to turn back, this is the best plan I have…” Amity said thoughtfully. “And I suppose it couldn’t hurt to scope out the area if nothing else; see what kind of security is about at night.” She rolled up the blueprints to use as a possible map and took it with her as she left the room.

As she reached the kitchen, there was a sudden knock upon the door. Amity froze and looked anxiously at the nearby entrance to her home. Who could possibly wish to visit her? The knocking came again and a familiar voice entreated entrance on the other side. Amity let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding and threw the map beside her bags.

“Charlotte?” she asked as she approached the door. She opened it with caution and gasped in horror. There was no danger waiting outside the door, just Charlotte. A rather shabby looking Charlotte. Her usually prim and neat hair was matted and mussed, and her clothes torn. But worse was her face. She’d been beaten, severely.

“Good Heavens! Charlotte! What happened to you?!” Amity ushered her friend inside and quickly shut the door. Charlotte was bawling almost hysterically, unable to speak through her sobs. All Amity could think to do was retrieve some medical supplies to treat her injuries. The bruises on her face were big and she was cut in multiple places, sticky blood staining her pale blue coat. After cleaning and applying bandages to Charlotte’s cuts, she placed cool, damp cloths upon her bruises. She helped her broken friend to the sitting room to rest on the couch. By then her crying had subsided well enough to speak. “Charlotte, what happened?” Amity asked.

“M-my family. My own family did this to me. My brother saw me talking to you in town… he found me and dragged me all the way home.” Charlotte sniffed and cringed at the pain in her face. “H-he threw me in front of our parents and accused me of trying to get them all killed. When he told them that we’d talked, it seemed that it was all they needed to hear…” Charlotte explained.

“So they beat you for it?” Amity was astounded. Her family had never been anything other than loving towards their daughter, and the image of them torturing Charlotte made Amity feel sick to her stomach.

“N-not immediately…they locked me in my room first. I heard them arguing downstairs; even my grandmother said I should be thrown out.” Charlotte moaned at the memory. “My own grandmother! Can you believe it?! When they brought me back downstairs, they said I was no longer a part of their family. That I was a disgrace to their name and that I wasn’t welcome there anymore… that’s when things got violent…” Charlotte had stopped crying at this point. She had clearly breached through sadness and into anger. In an attempt to calm her friend, Amity produced a hairbrush from a drawer in the kitchen. Sitting on the couch with her, Amity unpinned and began to brush Charlotte’s ruined mane.

“How did they get violent?” Amity questioned cautiously, not wanted to upset her friend any more than the whole day had already done.

“It was my mother, of all ponies, who started it.” Charlotte continued. “She began ripping my dress from me, saying I was below it. When I fought back, my father struck me… it continued from there until I couldn’t fight back. Then he had my brother drag me to the end of the road and dump me.” Charlotte glowered. “If only I were strong enough, I’d get them back for this. I’d get them all for this!” She shouted and kicked at the air. Amity had never seen her friend this angry.

“I’m so sorry, Charlotte. This is all my fault…” breathed Amity. “This wouldn’t have happened if I’d have kept my distance.” she lowered her head and hid her face in her hooves.

“Don’t be a fool.” Charlotte said firmly. “This was my fault. It was my fault because I didn’t tell them to kiss my ass when they first told me to avoid you.” She smiled weakly. She obviously wasn’t going to let Amity feel bad about what happened to her.

“But Charlotte-“ Amity was a bit shocked to hear her friend swear, but was glad to see her come around. “We can’t just let this go. We have to call the guard, or somepony, they outright assaulted you.”

Charlotte snorted at the prospect of going to the guards. “And tell them what? That in this society it’s perfectly legal for them to have done what they did? That because I’m an outcast, I’m not considered a pony anymore?” Charlotte said with certainty. “You and I both know that the only thing worse than the upper class in this town are the ponies running it.” She continued.

“Good point.” Amity huffed, resigned. “But you are always welcome here.” She said as reassuringly as she possibly could.

“You don’t sound necessarily confident in that…” Noted Charlotte.

“Well, I’m not sure for how much longer I’ll even be welcome here. It’s impossible for mares to find decent work that doesn’t involve debasing oneself…” Amity explained. “Without my father here, I don’t think I can pay the bills. It won’t be long before they evict me.” There was an understanding silence in the room as they both mulled over their options. Suddenly, Charlotte perked her ears up excitedly.

“I’ve got it!” she exclaimed. “Amity, we’ll leave town! We’ll quote unquote disappear, and nopony will really question it at all.”

Amity dropped the brush in astonishment. “Leave town? Are you crazy?! We can’t just wander out into the woods on our own, nopony knows what all is out there. Not even traders are safe, and they don’t talk much about places outside of town.” The very idea of it made her face go pale.

“Oh come on, Amity. How do you know that it’s not just a bunch of bullshit fed to us in order to keep us stuck in this shit-kicking town? The government doesn’t want the people to think it’s safe out there, just to make sure none of us leave.” Charlotte pushed the idea further, “I can’t imagine anything worse than staying here…”

“I… I don’t know about this… My father always told me that there had to be something out there in those woods, it’s not even safe on the trading paths they say. Besides, there’s got to be something out there, you hear the screams at night as much as I do.” Amity was hesitant to admit that leaving town almost sounded like a better idea than staying. But the very prospect of the forest beyond the gravestone trees made her shudder.

“Look,” Charlotte leaned in closer, as though someone might hear them. “My father once told me something the local traders told him. Somewhere along the path far beyond town is something called a ‘train.’” Her eyes sparkled excitedly. “And the train takes ponies to wherever they want to go, so long as they can make it in time. And I know exactly where we’d go.” Charlotte was practically dancing in her voice.

“Where would we go?” Curiosity had gotten the better of her, and Amity couldn’t hide the fact that the idea of this train had her excited.

“The traders spoke of a city known as the Everglade. It’s a Changeling city that was built atop an old swamp. But apparently they have the highest fashions there and some of the leading technology in household robotics!” Were it not for the soreness of her injuries, Charlotte may just have gotten up and danced around. “They say it’s a cultural haven and a safe place from the magics of the forest… we could build new lives there.”

Amity couldn’t help but smile at the prospect, although it wasn’t necessarily the city itself that had made her happy. Perhaps the train had seen her father, and could take her to where he’d gone to. Maybe he was already there, waiting with the train for her to show up. Maybe they could all go to the Everglade together. She finally nodded and agreed that perhaps it’d be a good idea to seek out this train and see if it would take them to the Everglade.

“But… there’s something important I have to do first…” Amity explained. “I need to get into the purification plant, to my Dad’s office.” Charlotte’s obvious confusion led her to explain further. “My Dad sent a message to me through a courier. He wasn’t taken… He left. I don’t think he’s dead, but he could be in trouble.” Amity trailed off thoughtfully

“Something had him afraid, and I need to know what and why… I know it sounds a bit like a desperate plan to go, but there may be clues in his office that could tell us why or even where he left to.” Amity stood up from the sofa, and paced. “And…and if we can find that out, maybe the train could take us to him. Maybe we could all start over together in Everglade.”

“But how do we get in to begin with? Everypony knows how heavily guarded the gates of the Water Plant are.” Asked Charlotte. Amity smiled, and levitated the map in from the kitchen.

“Using this.” She said with a smile.

Author's Note

This is part of Chapter 1 before it was edited, it needed to divided into smaller chapters, so this is now Chapter 3!