Over her balcony on Canterlot Castle, princess Luna was hard at work with the evening sky. Using the magic from her horn, she willed the stars and their constellations to do her bidding. Like a painter with a brush, she weaved the stars around till she was pleased with her work. As princess of the night, it was one of her duties to raise and lower the moon, as well as bring the stars out from their stellar slumber. Her other duty of the night was to use her magic to travel across the dreamscape to watch the dreams of others and protect them from nightmares. It was a thankless job, but she was glad she did it as she had protected many foals from their nightly fears.
Finishing the last few constellations in the sky, Luna decided to get a little creative and make up one of her own. With her magic pouring from her horn, she pulled the stars around in the sky until they began to form the image she desired. Once the last few stars were in place, Luna stopped to admire her work. There, in the center of the sky, was a constellation of a mare resting next to her young foal.
"Beautiful as always, my little sister." A voice snapped her attention away from the sky.
Walking onto the balcony beside her was her sister, princess Celestia. She was the princess of the day and ruler of all of Equestria. As alicorn princesses, they have ruled over Equestria for many years. But a thousand years ago, a fight between the two broke out, as Luna became jealous of her sister and lost control of her powers. Turning in Nightmare moon. Using the elements of harmony, Celestia banished her sister inside the moon, were she slept for a thousand years. It was only recently, was she released from her prison. And thanks to Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle and her friends, were they able to use the Elements to return Luna back to normal.
Since then, Luna has tried her best to catch up to the times and reconnect with the citizens of Equestria. Although she has little success in that department, she was able to earn most of their trust back. During that same time, princess Cadence became ruler of the Crystal Empire and Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn herself. So, Luna decided to remain in the background as she helped rule beside her sister.
"Thanks." Luna simply said as her gaze was once again brought back to the night sky.
"What's the matter, dear sister?" Celestia asked, noticing she was deep in thought.
"Nothing. Just thinking."
"A bit for your thoughts?" Celestia said as walked closer to her sister, so they both were beside each other. She too once again brought her sight back to the night sky.
"I was thinking about the past, as well as the present."
"Luna, you know the ponies of Equestria don't hate you anymore." Celestia stated.
"I know, sis. But some still fear me." Luna said, she sad eyes never looking away from the night sky. "But, I've learned to except it. To use it to our advantage. While you rule the day, I rule the night. And I can use my power to gather info and stop any plots against us or the kingdom. Just as I've done before."
"Just don't get too carried away with your work." Celestia said as she glanced over to her sister.
"I won't big sister. Times have changed, and Equestria is not like it was many years ago. Peace reigns across the land, the Crystal Empire has returned, and there is now four alicorn princess."
"Indeed. Even Discord has proven to have changed his ways. Even if he still uses his powers for mischief."
"Ugh... don't remind me. I still haven't forgotten what he did when Tirek showed up." Luna shook with disgust.
"Come now, sister. You know he learned his lesson from that."
"So he says. I still don't trust him." Luna said, looking at her sister.
"Lulu, you don't trust anyone." Celestia replied, returning a gaze.
"And that's what makes me a wise ruler." Luna huffed, lifting her snout in the air.
Celestia just laughed as looked back up to the sky. Suddenly, something caught her interest.
"Wow Luna, that's a beautiful shooting star."
"What shooting star?" Luna asked as she brought her gaze to what her sister was talking about. Up in the night sky, a lone shooting star was seen flying past the stars Luna placed in the sky. "That's not one of mine."
The two sisters watched in amazement as the 'shooting star' began getting bigger and bigger, which meant it was in fact a meteor. Realizing that it was going to crash somewhere close, the sisters watched with great interest, for fear of it hitting a near by town. As the meteor came closer to hitting the ground, it's destination soon became clear.
"It's heading for Ponyville!" Celestia exclaimed, her voice full of worry.
"Wait. I think it's heading past it." Luna said as she continued to study it's flight path.
As they continued to watch, the meteor past over Ponyville before coming to a stop somewhere in the Everfree Forest. After a moment to make sure nothing else happened, did the sisters take their eyes off the sight.
"It landed somewhere in the Everfree." Luna stated.
"What was it?"
"I'm not sure. It couldn't have just been a meteorite. There was a strange energy coming off from it." Luna exclaimed.
"I felt it too. Something's not right about it."
"What should we do?"
Celestia paused as she brought a hoof to her chin in thought. "We don't know what it is. We could send some soldiers to check the crash sight, but it'll take time to send a unit out this late." She stated. " I think we should send Twilight and her friends to investigate the crash sight."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Luna asked in surprise. "If it's something dangerous, the girls would be in trouble."
"True. But they are the closest ones to investigate it in time. Besides, Twilight and the girls know how to handle themselves."
"I still think we should send a unit out to scout the area, just in case."
"Agreed." Celestia nodded as she walked back inside. Luna followed close behind. "I'll send a letter to Twilight and explain the situation to her. Hopefully, our fears will be unfounded."
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Spike jumped out of bed as low rumble and what felt like an earthquake woke him out of bed.
"I don't know, but it sounded like it was close." Twilight said as she got out of bed and walked over to the near by balcony window.
Opening the balcony doors and stepping out to get a better look, she soon found a small trail of smoke coming from the Everfree. As she looked around from her crystal tree castle, see saw that just about everypony in Ponyville felt and heard the commotion.
"It appears to be coming from the Everfree forest." Twilight explained.
"What do you think it is?" Spike asked, full of worry.
"Not sure. It could be an explosion of some kind. Hard to tell for sure." Twilight said as she walked back inside and closed the balcony doors. "One thing is for sure, whatever happened wasn't natural."
Spike was about to say something, when a sudden burp came upon him. Belching a small puff of green fire, a scroll with a royal seal on it. Spike quickly caught it in his claws before it hit the ground.
"A letter from princess Celestia!" Spike exclaimed.
Wasting no time, Twilight used her magic to grab the letter with a levitation spell. Bring the letter infront of her, she open the letter before clearing her throat so she could read it.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
As no doubt you have become aware, something has happened in the Everfree forest. A meteorite has crash landed into the forest. While a meteorite crashing would be, by itself, quite an event. The fact that Luna and I sensed a strange energy coming from it has caused us to take great interest in it. Since you are closest to the crash site, I ask that you and your friends to scout the area and check out about said matter. I ask that you all take care and proceed with caution, however, as we're not sure if it is in fact dangerous. I will send a unit of soldiers to help check the area and make sure nothing bad will happen.
I look forward to hear what you have found.
Take care,
Princess Celestia
"A meteorite, huh?" Spike ask after Twilight finished reading the letter. "No wonder it made such a ruckus."
"This is amazing!" Twilight said as she clapped her hooves together in excitement. "A real life meteorite! I never got to study one before. I wonder what of mineral it'll be. Oh, maybe it'll even be a new type of ore."
Spike just rolled his eyes.
"I can't wait to study it and see what it is!"
"Could it just wait till later this morning?" Spike asked, holding back a yawn. "It's like four in the morning."
"Sorry Spike, but you heard what the letter said. Celestia wants us to investigate the meteorite as soon as possible." Twilight replied.
Walking over to her bedroom door, Twilight cracked it open before giving a light whistle. A moment later, an owl flew down the hall before coming inside her room and landing on her desk.
"Who who." The owl hooted.
"Hello, Owlicious." Twilight greeted her feathered friend. "I need you to do me a favor. Fly over to Rainbow dash's, Applejack's and Fluttershy's and have them come here. Can you do that for me?"
"Who." The owl replied by giving a solute with it's wing.
Using her magic, Twilight grabbed a quill and piece of paper over to her. She wrote something down before rolling up the paper and handing it the owl. She also put the quill back were she got it.
"Here. So the girls know why I sent you." Twilight said.
Owlicious took the rolled up paper in his beak before giving Twilight a small nod. Speading it's wings, the owl flew out of the room and headed towards it's destination.
"Spike, you stay here and wait for the girls to show up. I'm going to go get Rarity and Pinkie Pie." Twilight said before walking out of the room in a hurry.
Spike just stood there for a moment as he let out a big yawn.
"I better go make some coffee. It's going to be a LONG morning."
My eyes slowly began to open as I finally began to stir. The first thing that I noticed was that it was that it was still night time, and the other thing I noticed was that I was somehow outside. That snapped me fully awake and made me focus my attention more on the surroundings. I was in the middle of an open meadow inside of a huge, dark looking forest. The full moon and the stars my only light in this dark and strange place. Moving my stiff body around so I was sitting up, I quickly learned that I was inside a small crater in said meadow. How did that happen? I thought to myself as tried looking around to figure out what could have been the cause. And for that matter, how did I get here?
I tried to think back to what could have happened, but a burning throbbing feeling started building in my head, causing me to wince in pain. The more I tried to think about my past, the more the pain in my head would increase. Throwing my numb hands up to the sides of my head, I tried to keep my brain from exploding outta my skull as I curled up into a small ball on the ground. Red hot images flashed in my head, filled with dark shapeless shadow, too cluttered to make anything out. Each image that flashed into my mind sent a fresh wave of pain through my skull, causing tears to well up in my eyes. The images flashed faster and faster in my head, until it all stopped on a single dark form. It was a huge dark creature with long horns and scary glowing eyes that felt like they were burning right through me. It opened it's fanged mouth to bellow out a wicked laughter, before everything flashed bright red for a few second, then solid black.
and then the images and the pain was gone.
I laid in the dirt for what felt like minutes, still recovering from the pain I felt and the strange dark images that had came with it. Hot tears streamed down my face as I tried to figure out what had just happened. Afraid at first, I then tried to once again think of what could have happened to me, but all I getting was a complete blank. Trying a little harder, I tried to think back to anything about my past, but once again I found nothing. Nothing! I couldn't remember my name, who I was, were I came from or how I even got here. Absolutely nothing! It was if my mind was wiped completely blank, leaving me lost as to my true origin.
Panic crept in, as I found myself shivering in complete fear and horror at my current situation. Where am I? Who am I? How did I get here? What happened to me?! These questions run over and over inside my head. I had hope that if I asked enough time, something might have came to me, but nothing did. So I laid there on the ground for several long minutes, hoping that if I was really lucky, this would all be nothing but a horrible nightmare. But I knew this was real. The lingering throbbing in my head and the cold night wind was proof enough of that. Deciding to give up on trying to remember about myself, I instead turned my attention on scouting out the area. So if nothing else, I could find some place warm for the night and not be out in the open.
As I sat up this time, I took a look at myself, and found myself completely surprised with what I saw. My whole body was completely naked, and covered in light blue fur. Not only that, but what I took for just being numb hands, turned out to not be hands at all. Instead, at the end of my now blue fur covered ar.... err, front legs, was a pair of hooves. What the? Was all I could think of as I sat there staring at my front hooves. After a moment of doing nothing but looking dumbly at my hooves, I turned my head left and right, checking out my body. Hooves, fur, a snout sticking out right in front of my eyes, as well as brown hai... mane, at the top of my vision and tail on my butt. On closer inspection, I noticed what appeared to be little wings folded on my sides.
The only conclusion I could come up with was that I was some type of winged equine, and a small one at that. Was I always like this? I couldn't quite place it, but something felt off about it. But faint howls coming from the forest brought me out of my little daze and once again reminded me that I was in the middle of a dark, unknown forest, and completely alone. I don't want to know what made that sound! I thought as I stood myself up on all fours. I better find some place to hide until morning. I began making my way out of the strange crater I woke up in, which was tricky because it was at least a few feet deep, and my body was quite small. But eventually, I was able to crawl my way out of the crater with only a few hiccups.
Walking around with four hooves didn't prove nearly as hard as I thought it would. Don't know why would think that, but for some weird reason it just felt like something was off. But I decided to put that trail of thought on the back burner, as I turned my full attention on traveling through this strange forest. After a few minutes of traversing through the bush, I soon found my thoughts drifting back to my current situation. How did I end up here? that question continued to ring in my head for several minutes. I thought back to the crater I woke up in, and wondered if maybe I was the one who caused that. But I swiped that train of thought out of my head, because it just didn't make any sense. Yeah, like I just fell out of the sky!
Cautiously, I continued to trek down the trail, with the full moon shining through the trees above. The forest had changed, everything had a hostile feeling to it. The atmosphere was oppressive, unlike the more neutral and tranquil forest through which I had hoped was what I would be hiking through. This was a place that was truly wild, nature in her purest most terrifying form. The sudden change of atmosphere was unnerving to say the least.
I really don't like this. I thought to myself. I could feel my ears flopping downward, an expression I wasn't quite used to just yet.
A loud gurgling made him jump, making me realize that I was quite hungry. My stomach protesting that it didn't have anything inside of it at the moment. I did my best to fight off the hunger pains for the moment, promising that I'd eat just as soon as I found some food. As I traveled, I noticed that I was walking along the base a sheer cliff, located to my left. As I continued alongside the jagged wall, doubts once again came back to the front of my mind.
What is this? I thought as I studied the cliff side. Should I climb it? It might help me find... something. Edging way enough, I took a look at the cliff base. I was quite a fall. Better not, don't want to risk taking a nasty fall down it, and‐HOLY SHIT THAT'S A BIG HOLE!
I had passed a large boulder that had been obscuring my vision, revealing a vast cave. My gazed focused onto the gigantic cavern; the entrance looked bigger then any cave entrance I've ever seen before. Not that I remember seeing one before, but anyway.... I attempted to peer into the massive expanse, but the light was unable to penetrate the interior of the crevasse due to the moon's unfavorable angle. If I had some type of light, I could delve deeper into the cave. But as of right now, I was on the fence on if I was going to use the cave as a shelter or not. I had barely crossed the threshold, when a sudden gust of wind rushed past me... then back... then past me again.
Stepping a few more step deeper inside, I managed to get a small amount of illumination in a small portion of the cave, thanks to the strange dim light of what looked like stars. What in the hell? What I saw was as impossible as it was terrifying. There, sleeping soundly, was a bear. Not just any bear, any other bear would have been beyond bad, but this bear was a special kind of trouble, reserved for monster movies and horror flims. The bear's coat was a deep navy blue speckled with what seemed to be luminescent stars. Also, it happened to be the size of your average apartment complex.
"Mmnghhffff!"
I shoved my fist into his mouth to stifle the scream that was desperately trying to escape from my throat.
DON'TSCREAMDON'TSCREAMDONOTSCREAM.... or pee, DON'T PEE!
DO NOT PISS YOURSELF, ME! DO NOT! I tried to will myself to keep calm, so as to NOT give myself away to the sleeping monster.
Animals can smell fear and I'm pretty sure they can smell piss as well. I thought, about to take a few steps backwards. So whatever you dooOOOHOLYSHITWHATTHEFUCK!!!
The whole cavern behind the huge star bear shifted, this time a pinkish purple star dim clawed appendage wrapped itself around the star bear and pulled it closer to the wall. Which I quickly realized wasn't a wall at all. It was another bear. But THIS bear was TOTALLY HUGE!
HOW!?
WHAT!??
HOW DOES THAT THING EVEN FIT IN THERE?!!
WHAT THE FUCK?!!
I MEAN WHAT THE FLYING FUCK!!!
I so terrified that my knees began to buckle as my head started spinning like a tornado.
DO NOT FAINT!
DO NOT PASS OUT!!
RUNMOVEGETTHEFUCKOUTOFHERERIGHTFUCKINGNOW!!!
My legs were happy to obliged, as I quickly tried to set a new world record for the 500 meter 'Run Like a Bitch'. Sprinting through the underbrush as gracefully as a my body would allow, adrenaline coursed through my veins. I ran with everything I had, the fire in my heart fueled by an all‐encompassing fear. The after taste of dirt still lingering in my mouth from were I had my hoof in it, but while this was good for keeping the volume down, I was so terrified that I was still screaming within the confines of my own mind.
MOVE IT.
MOVE IT.
MOVE IT.
MOVE IT.
MOVE IT.
MOVE IT.
MOVE IT....
Move it....
... move....
....crap.
My body soon gave out, leaving me sprawled out, face down, in a patch of soft dirt. Rolling onto my side I started panted like a dehydrated dog on a hot summer day. After a few moments of just laying there, I slowly attempted to sit up and cringed at the pain running through my legs. Cramps.
Double crap. Well.... I needed a break anyway....
Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I slumped my head to the side, so as to get a better view at where I was. I could see right through the bushes closest to me, and into a small clearing on the other side. There, it looked like a small dirt trail could be spotted at the other end of the clearing. Which meant that it had to lead somewhere. But what caught my attention wasn't the pass itself, it was it's apparent guardian.
The beast that held the appearance similar to that of a lion, but had the tail of a scorpion and wings of a bat. It was at that point, all I could really do was slowly turn my gaze up to the sky, take a deep breathe and muffle yet another scream of terror.
SERIOUSLY!?
WHY ME?!
WHY GOD?
NO! No. Calm down. Clam down. I took a couple of deep breathes, trying to rain myself in. It's okay. Compared to Bearzilla back there, that thing is just a baby kitten. I had to fight back a shutter at the memory of the cave. Okay, note to self: never go back that way never again. Period!
Taking another look, I gazed through the underbrush to spot the creature again. The beast seemed to lounging in the moonlight, snoring as it laid in the middle of the clearing. For some reason, I couldn't explain why it looked oddly familiar to me. But why is that? I tried to think more about it, but the best I could come up with was that it was a mythical creature of some type.
I decided to focus my attention on trying to figure out what to do next. I really needed to get past that thing and make my way to that dirt trail. I could just try to sneak past it while it was just asleep, but at the same time, I didn't want to take the chance of waking it up and being ripped into tiny pieces. The only other option I could come up with was to hide someplace close by and wait for it to leave. Which to me, seemed like the best and logical choice after all, seeing as it was still night time. And the fact that I was pretty tired after all that running earlier.
With no time to waste, I began to search the immediate area, I had to find a place to sleep while I tried to wait for my chance to get outta of here. Looking around frantically he spotted an large, hollowed out log, that looked to be the remains of a fallen tree during a storm or something. It looked big enough for me to fit in, and would be a perfect spot for me to hide in while I slept. Sneaking over to the log, I began to check the inside of it out to make sure everything was okay. It was a little moldy, but there wasn't any nasty bugs inside it at the moment and at this point beggers couldn't be choosers.
Making my way over to some bushes close by, I decided to take a moment to answer the call of nature in some bushes. After I was finished, I made my way back to the log. A moment of fear crept into my head, as I worried about if the monster would be able to sniff me out because of my urine, but a quick wiff inside the log told me otherwise. Ugh! Hard to smell anything past the smell of dead wood.
As I began to settle inside the hollowed log, my stomach choice that moment to remind me of it's protest. Trying to fight it back down, I instead focused on thinking about my next move. Which turned out to be a huge mistake as all the worries that was in my head started leaking out. Since crawling out of that crater, I tried to keep my mind focused on just moving forward, but now that I had a moment to stop and think, I realized I didn't have anywhere to go.
Will I die out here? What if no one finds me? What am I going to find to eat out here? What if that monster finds me? I had to take a few deep breathes to keep the fear from taking me over. I decided to answer those questions as they came. First off, I WILL survive this! Can't risk thinking like that. Second, someone is bound to find me. If not, I'll find someone as I make my way out of this forest. Third, in the morning I could try to find some berries to eat or something. Fourth, I'm sure I'll find a fresh river or stream out here. And as for that monster....
Truthfully, I didn't know what to do about how to deal with it. But at least I was able to give myself some comfort in knowing that I wasn't completely screwed. Just kind of. Facing the exit of the log, I spent what felt like forever as I watched for anything to happen. But thankfully, it seemed peaceful enough, giving the circumstances.
Exhaustion soon began to take me over, so I decided to close my eyes for some rest. My last thoughts before I began to travel into the realm of dreams, I hope I don't wake up dead.
