The night was perfect for a stroll. The grass was soft, the moon was full, and there was even a gentle nighttime breeze in the air. On this night, there was one bat pony mare, Wisp, who walked through a forest on her own, soaking in the cool air. Her gray coat has been recently accented by dark purple stripes, her mane and tail are colored a mix of purple and light blue, and her preferred manestyle is a braided ponytail. She has no family and no friends. She lost all of them when she turned fifteen without having gained a cutie mark. For the past year, she's been living on her own in a decently sized hut that she built herself out in the Everfree Forest.
Though she was all alone, Wisp found walking through this one patch of the forest to be surprisingly relaxing given the forest's level of danger. She never once found a reason to worry about her nightly walks along this trail. Tonight, however, she would find one such reason, a very large, four headed reason. As she rounded the next corner of her trail, her eyes fell upon a very hungry hydra. It spotted her almost as quickly as she'd spotted it, and didn't hesitate to give chase. Wisp simply turned around and ran back down her trail. The hydra knocked over trees left and right while giving chase.
The start of the trail was fast approaching, and Wisp knew that if the hydra saw her hut, it might opt to take it out. Or it could end up running right through it if it didn't, for whatever reason, actually see the hut. Either way, the hydra might just destroy all her hard work, and she wasn't willing to let that happen so easily. She spread her wings and, for the first time in nearly a decade, she took off flying. She flew up and over the hydra, just enough for it to notice her flight path. She kept flying higher until she was hidden behind the canopy of leaves. After a few seconds, Wisp went back into the forest, believing the hydra to be blindly following her misleading flight path. The area was indeed devoid of hydra life, so she could finally land and walk home to try and calm her nerves.
"I hate flying," Wisp said to herself as she landed.
Nearly a decade ago, Wisp's parents were giving her flight lessons properly. However, during her first ever actual flight, she crashed pretty hard and spent the following week in the village hospital. Ever since that day, she's hated flying, afraid that she'd crash again and not be so lucky next time. Even when she had no choice but to fly, she worried the whole time that she would fly into something and get herself badly hurt or killed. Though she was always thankful when she landed safely, she never wanted to attribute it to her actually being a good flyer.
"Also, note to self: make a weapon, and soon," Wisp said to herself as she stood just outside her front door.
She opened the door and walked right on in. First place she went was the kitchen. She wasn't too particularly hungry, but she didn't care. She needed something, anything to take her mind off of what just happened, and food was the universally accepted method of doing so. She wouldn't have much time to get ready to eat, however, as the ground began rumbling before too much time had passed. She ran over to her window to see that the hydra she had just escaped from had decided to call her bluff. Whether it saw her, or simply wanted to run through something, Wisp could not figure out. All she knew was that the hydra was charging in her direction. She had to jump sideways to get out of the way as the hydra crashed through her kitchen, destroying everything in it's path.
"You son of a bitch, that took me a whole day and a half to finish!" Wisp yelled, calling the hydra's attention.
No sooner had she yelled that she regretted doing so. If the hydra didn't see her before, it knew she was there now. Without a second thought, she turned and ran out of and away from the hut as quickly as she could. She changed a single glance behind her to see the destruction of her hut. She kept running as fast as she could, not knowing what else to do. She kept running until she had come up on the Ghastly Gorge. She had three options: fly across, jump and risk dying, or stay and get eaten. The rumbling of the ground told her she'd better makeup her mind quick. She spread her wings and was just about to get airborne for the second time that day when one of the hydra's heads collided with her and sent her over the edge.
"So this is it, huh?" Wisp asked herself as she fell, head first, into the gorge, "This is how I die? Well, at least it'll end quickly".
Wisp then closed her eyes and eased up for the impact that was soon to take her. The impact, however, never came. Instead of head-butting rock bottom, Wisp fell into the small river. As her body hit the cold water, her eyes sprang open. She had stopped sinking mere inches from the bottom of the river. After breaking the surface of the water for some air, she swam to her left towards the nearest shore.
"Thank the stars the water's not moving very fast," Wisp said as she reached the shore and walked out of the river.
She shook herself as dry as possible, and attempted to spread her wings for flight. She knew that trying to fly while having damp wings was a terrible idea, but she didn't want to spend the rest of the night at the bottom of a gorge. She'd have to, however, as her left wing sent severe pain through her body as soon as it started opening up.
"Well, it can't possibly get much worse, can it?" Wisp asked herself, still wincing from the pain in her wing, "Not like I have a home anymore anyway".
She then just laid down and curled up. Bat ponies don't normally sleep at night, but she was exhausted and injured, so she tried her best to fall into a good slumber. What she didn't know, however, was that she was being watched. As she finally fell into sleep's embrace, a shadow, backed by moonlight, fell over her.
"Yes, sleep nice and tight little pony," The shadow said quietly, "Nice and tight".
The mercenary and the bat
The ground rumbled, tree rustled, and fear clenched tight on a lone bat pony mare in the forest. Whatever was heading her way was big, and she didn't want to face it, but she was unable to move, her fear cementing her to the ground. The monster drew ever closer. As it finally came into view, the mare could only stare at it, as if doing so would make it leave. The monster roared and went in for the kill. It's jaws clamped down on the mare for little more than a second before she cried out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Wisp cried out as her eyes shot open and she bolted upright.
She looked around to see that she wasn't being eaten. She saw rock all around her. The cold, damp air in her new residence informed her that she was in a cave. She blinked a few times, trying to regain control of her breathing. When she looked to her left, she noticed what looked like a makeshift bed, but with nopony laying on it. There was also a small campfire that had long since burned out in between her and the empty bed. As her breathing normalized, her thoughts began to register her surroundings. She wasn't alone, that much was painfully obvious, but not knowing where the other being was scared her to death.
"Finally awake, are we?" Came a voice from behind her, causing the poor mare to jump, "Easy there, I'm not going to hurt you unless you give me a reason to".
"Who are you?" Wisp asked, spreading her wings in a threatening manner.
"I am the one who gave you a place to sleep last night," The pony said, relighting the campfire, "Strange, though, I never expected a bat pony to sleep so well at night".
"Well, I appreciate that," Wisp said, dropping her pose but not her guard.
"Tell me, how does a bat pony like you end up in this canyon?" The strange pony asked, And for that matter, since when do bat ponies sleep at night?".
"I was almost hydra food last night. I tried to take off into the air when I reached the cliff, but was struck by one of the heads just as I lifted into the air," Wisp explained, "I've never been more happy to be forced to swim".
"Ah, I see," The strange pony said, levitating over an apple, "I'm sure you're hungry, so here you go".
Wisp stared at the apple now laying in front of her hooves. Fruit was something she was unused to eating.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not a fruit bat," Wisp said, pushing the apple away.
"You're not vampiric are you?" The strange pony asked cautiously, lighting up his horn.
"Not at all, I swear," Wisp said defensively, "I just don't eat fruit".
"You'd better not be," The strange pony said, turning his horn off.
"So uh... my name is Wisp," Wisp said, hoping to gain some trust, "What's yours?".
"Thunder Dasher," The strange pony said, "Though, you can just call me Thunder if you want".
"Ok, Thunder, what are you doing in the canyon?" Wisp asked.
"My wing isn't in the best of conditions at the moment, and I'm afraid I have no knowledge of medicinal magic," Thunder said.
"But why are you down here in the first place?" Wisp asked.
"I was tracking a contract, and I wasn't watching where I was stepping," Thunder said, "Before I knew it, I was tumbling down the canyon wall. When I landed, I did so up top of my now injured wing. I never learned how to safely teleport, my mentor did not think it necessary, so I can't really get out of here right now".
The two ponies sat there in silence for a short while. Thunder ate while Wisp thought. Wisp decided to be the first to break the silence with yet another question.
"Why help me?" Wisp asked, "I'm very grateful, but confused as well".
"I may be a mercenary-" Thunder started to say before he was cut off as Wisp's wings flew up and she regained her threatening stance from earlier.
"You're a sell sword?" Wisp asked with a low growl.
"Not at all," Thunder said, "I have morals, believe it or not. I helped you because it was simply the right thing to do".
Wisp stayed silent, but stayed on alert.
"If you wish to fly away, you have functional wings, and I won't try to stop you," Thunder said, "I would, however, like some company for at least a short while longer. Trust me, if I wanted you dead, I'd have killed you whilst you slept".
"You expect me to believe that you only want my company?" Wisp asked, still on alert.
"It gets quite lonely in a canyon after about a week," Thunder said, tossing the core of his apple away, "And, unlike most mercenaries, I prefer the company of others to solitude".
He seemed genuine enough, but it could also be a ruse. Wisp simply sat down, keeping her wings spread should she need to dart away at any second. She refused to take her eyes off the pony in front of her.
"I understand why you do not wish to trust me, and I do not fault you for it either," Thunder said, "However, we can't be friends if there is distrust among us. Tell me what I need to do to earn your trust, and I shall do it... well, provided I am capable of doing so".
The first actual day that Wisp would live through was about to turn interesting.
"You want my trust, huh?" Wisp asked, "You up for helping me get revenge on a home destroying hydra?".
