The mare snorted in slight annoyance as her broken horn hit a tree branch for perhaps the tenth time in the past minute.
I feel so tempted right now to cut the rest of that bothersome horn off. I would look weirder than I usually do if I did though.
She chuckled to herself and kept strolling through the forest to where the bloodcurdling scream had come from.
I’m fairly certain it’s a pony, but it could be a changeling for all I know.
She continued to walk, hearing the gentle crunch of leaves beneath her hooves. She smiled, feeling the night breeze gently blow her mane back.
The Everfree Forest is just as beautiful as it usually is.
She stopped upon hearing the ragged breaths of a pony.
Turning her head in that the direction, she sniffed the air. It smelled like blood.
She walked closer to where she thought the pony was. She heard a grunt of pain and the crunching of leaves. The pony let out a scream as she walked closer.
“Don’t,” she said. “You’re just going to hurt yourself.”
The pony—likely a stallion by the voice—seemed to understand as he stopped struggling. He was still breathing heavily though.
She smiled and sat down next to him, wrapping a wing around him to comfort him.
The stallion sighed to himself as he leaned against a tree, questioning his choice of going into the Everfree. He made sure to keep his left foreleg up so as not to put any weight on it.
He gingerly peered at it. It was broken and desperately needed medical attention.
He wasn’t going to get medical attention inside a forest though. He needed to get back to Ponyville.
The stallion knew it though. He was probably going to collapse from exhaustion and get caught by monsters.
He stopped leaning against the tree and tried to walk, barely getting anywhere though with only three legs.
He didn’t give up though.
The stallion gritted his teeth and tried to move faster. His right forehoof hit a tree root on the ground, and he lost his balance.
His bad leg reflexively shot out to stop him from falling down completely.
He thought breaking the leg hurt already. Somehow, this felt worse.
He screamed as his leg contacted the ground. He sat down on his haunches and held the mangled appendage to his chest, ever so gently rubbing it with his right forehoof. That made it hurt worse.
It hurt. It hurt badly. It hurt so much that he simply sat there staring at it and blinking back tears, even though he knew a monster was probably after him right now.
He sat there for a couple minutes and then heard the crunch of leaves behind him.
He turned around to face the monster.
His leg didn’t hurt as much anymore.
The thing in front of him barely resembled a pony. It looked like a cruel mockery of an alicorn. The wings were there, but the horn was cracked and broken. Scars littered its body. Its cutie mark was too faded to see properly. For reasons he didn’t want to know, it was wearing a saddlebag that had dried blood on it.
Worst of all though was its face.
Its eyelids were open but there were no eyes. There was just darkness. It looked like an endless abyss.
He grunted in pain as he tried to back up and accidentally touched his bad leg to the ground.
It got even closer.
He was going to die.
He screamed as it was almost face to face with him. He tried to get away.
“Don’t. You’re just going to hurt yourself.”
He froze. That feminine voice sounded too gentle to come from a monster like that.
It (or perhaps she?) sounded just like any other pony.
The monster smiled at him.
He watched with widened eyes as it sat down next to him and slowly extended a wing out to wrap around him.
The alicorn felt herself get pushed away as soon as she touched him.
She sighed and pulled her wing back to her side, backing up from him.
“Do not fear me,” she said. “I know I probably look like a monster, but trust me. You’re not going to get anywhere anytime soon with your injuries. Let me check your wounds.”
She put her nose close to where the smell of blood was and smelled it.
The bone is broken, and by the smell of it—
She heard something snap. From the sound of it, it was probably her nose being kicked.
She stood up and walked backwards. She brought up a hoof and shifted the bone back, wiping the blood off afterwards.
“If you want it to hurt,” she said, “you’re going to have to kick me way harder than that.”
She shook her head, laughing to herself. “Now are you going to let me help or not?”
“Monster,” he said.
She winced for a moment before smiling again.
“Yeah, I know I am a monster. But if I don’t help, some other monster is going to kill you.”
She craned her neck behind and opened her saddlebag, pulling out a bottle. She set it on the ground and rubbed the side of her leg on the cap to read the writing carved on top.
Satisfied, she opened it and poured a glob of the viscous substance onto his broken bone. It soaked in, and the bone shifted back. The muscles and skin healed shortly after. Aside from the blood, there were no signs of any injury.
His breathing slowed down.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” he said. “How… How did you do that?”
She smirked. “I know this forest well enough. I know my herbs. You’re going to have to wait a few minutes though, unless you want to break it again.”
“But how do you know where everything is? Aren’t you blind?”
“Yes. I have my own tricks though.”
She waited a moment and heard him start to back up.
“You’re not even going to ask what a blind alicorn is doing in the forest?”
He stopped moving.
“If you really want to know, I was disfigured by Princess Celestia long ago when there were more than just a few alicorns. She sent me here to guard over the forest and stop monsters from coming from the darkest parts of the forest. There are creatures there that nopony should ever be forced to see, and my remaining magic is what keeps them at bay.
“I forgive her though. She has changed.”
She could almost picture his confusion. She sighed and put a hoof to her head.
“You probably think I’m lying. Maybe I am lying. Maybe I have gone insane. Or maybe I am telling the truth. But does it really matter if nopony will ever believe me?”
The supposed “monster” continued, “It is strange. I look like a monster, but I am afraid of the true monsters outside—the very monsters that would dare to torture those who are different just to better themselves.
“You’re probably not even listening. I suppose you’re going to run and tell all the ponies to go blindly kill the blind monster. That’s not the first time it has happened.”
She rubbed a long line on her foreleg and smiled, trying not to think too hard of the memory. It felt better that way.
“I really don’t care. I just care that I do my best to protect those who do care. Even if it means I must wait until the ends of time for rest, hearing not a single murmur of gratitude.”
She stopped, hearing the hoof beats of a pony running. He was far away, and she would probably never see him again.
“Just like last time.”
She sighed and put the bottle away. She then turned and walked deeper into the comfort of the Everfree, listening to the soothing howls of Timberwolves.
She stopped by a river and sat down, resting there. She forced raw magic to pour out her broken horn.
A gate in front of her materialized in the air for a second, humming slightly. The raw, unfocused energy from her horn seeped into the gate, which took the magic to audibly repair various cracks throughout its surface.
Something slammed against the gate before the gate disappeared again.
She panted from the exertion, but smiled in satisfaction.
She was certainly happy. After all, she was helping ponies, even if they didn’t know. That gave her meaning. She had meaning, so she was happy.
I have to be happy, right? Yes, I have to be happy.
I know my purpose in life even though I help everypony I see and they still call me a monster and I hate it but I am happy. I have to be.
That’s why all of it is just forcing smiles and fake laughter to fake being happy and ignore what all those monsters outside this forest say to me that hurt more than physical pain because I feel like killing myself if I don’t keep lying to myself and I need somepony to help me and save me from the words these monsters say but I am truly happy even though I don’t even know my name or what my cutie mark is anymore because…
Because…
…
She turned to look behind her as if she would be able to see her own cutie mark. She didn’t even know if she had a cutie mark anymore. She couldn’t even remember what it used to be.
She sighed.
The pony wished she had eyes to cry with.
She grumbled as the heat from the sunlight roused her from sleep. She blinked her empty eyes and stretched her legs out. Her leg brushed past a rock, and she felt something odd.
Writing?
She brushed the side of her leg against it, feeling the carved letters from the indentation.
She wished she had eyes to cry with.
“Thank you.” It said.
For once after several centuries, the alicorn of the Everfree truly smiled.