Chapter 1

        The tall grass, around the small patch her parents had cleared, swayed gently from the air current of the pegasi. The flying ponies, were hard at work, corralling the scattered clouds which drifted carefully under the summer sun, creating short spurts of shadowy cover below. It was a hot day, but with everything combined it made for a very comfortable time for a picnic.

The little filly watched the pegasi at their craft. For an earth pony, it was an awe inspiring sight to see at how the pegasi could control the weather just by moving a few clouds around.

Always perfect, she mused, even when it rained or snowed.

Like any filly, the inevitable questions surfaced in her mind: where did the clouds go when they weren’t here?  Did the pegasi store them in a shed for clouds or something just as similar? Perhaps they acted like cows and grazed elsewhere in the sky? Her parents told her it was more complicated than that. Her father, on the other hoof, elaborated about something called Centralized Weather Control and Technical Weather Formations. All that she understood was that they were fancy ways of saying: “the rain was needed elsewhere.”

The answers were hardly satisfying, if not clearly over her head, but it did explain the constant sunny days they had in their part of Equestria.

Still, she continued to ask where exactly, knowing her father couldn’t resist talking about the world at large and his travels. She loved to listen to the descriptive details of his stories, about the far away places he had been too and the people he met. There was something about the way he told them that made her feel that she had been transported far from her home and stood right alongside him in those moments of his life. She could see herself walking down the streets of the foreign metropolises, talking to different races that lived there, and view the exotic landscapes that surrounded them. It was like living in a wondrous dream, one filled with adventure and mystery.

Most importantly, she was with her father when she went to those places. That was the greatest part of each story that he told.

She turned to the tall grass and let its hypnotic sway carry her far away from the little picnic. Her imagination setup the stage of where the clouds would go next and what people would look up at them. Her mind played with the idea of a dry desert with prairie dog folk waiting patiently for the rain or even a metropolis with buildings that could touch the sky filled with griffins. The idea of being able to see inside the clouds as it rained, would truly be a sight to behold. If only she were a pegasi, perhaps, it could be more than a dream.

So many places to dream of alas.

Coming to from her imagination, she laid back on the red and white checkered blanket and stared into the crisp blue sky and its white fluffy clouds. The sun beat down on her shiny mulberry coat and curly silver mane as she played with the light with her hooves. She watched the light beams shoot outward trying to get around to her eyes, and returned  to wondering what types of adventures the clouds would have.

When she sat back up, she gazed intently out into the surrounding world as though commanded by a strangely familiar voice whispering in her mind.

The hill they sat on looked over a vast section of Equestria, though she couldn’t remember where they were specifically. All she knew by heart was the dark tangled mess that was the Everfree Forest. Her father always made sure she understood where the Forest was and what dangers lay within its borders. Yet - there, she found herself gazing.

Unlike the rest of the Equestrian landscape, the Everfree did not reflect the colorful vibrancy of its surroundings. Instead, it appeared to embrace the idea of everything being coated in a dull and dreary gray. The only time she knew somepony to lose his or her color was when he or she  was sick or very sad.  As to why the forest wanted to be in either state, she couldn’t fathom. She only understood that it couldn’t be because it was lonely, not with all the types of plants and creatures to watch over and keep it company.

She told her parents her concerns, but was quickly answered with: “the forest tended itself and that if it was sad or sick it was because it had its own reasons for being so.”

The answer only confounded her.

The idea of the forest wanting to be sad or sickly seemed absurd, at least to her. After all, what pony would intentionally want to be sick or miserable? Maybe the forest just didn’t know how to tend itself or maybe it did but it needed help and didn’t know how to ask. Then again, it was plausible that the forest couldn’t ask, so no pony would know even if it wanted help.

So many questions all of which ended with her concerned with the forests well-being.

She told her mother that if she could, she’d like to do something for the forest. Her mother patted her head and told her, it was good to be thinking of others. It meant she had a warm heart, which was fitting to the season she was born in, and reminded her even though she wanted to help the forest, she still had to stay away from it.

Sighing, she accepted that she wasn’t going to be doing anything for the Everfree anytime soon. Maybe one day.

As she looked back to the Everfree from the hilltop, there seemed to be a particular spot in the tree line, that caught her attention. It was hard to describe being that the spot was so far away, but from what she could see, it appeared to be a dark smudge oozing out of the forest itself. As she tried to focus in on the smudge, the sound of her mother’s voice drew her attention elsewhere and she quickly forgot about the strange sight.

Again, she went to watching the pegasi corralling the clouds.

It must have been break time. The clouds now had been turned into what appeared to be balls and pins. She chuckled at the sight of the speeding round clouds crashing into the bowling pin equivalents, causing them to poof into nothing.

It must be fun to fly and to make clouds into anything you wanted, she thought.

Lying back on the blanket and dreaming of the clouds, her mother would say something to her from time to time and she’d glance over towards the yellow mare. She’d have to shield her eyes as the sun would glisten off her mother's shinny yellow coat. Only her mother’s mouth remained visible past the intense glare. That smile - always serious, but lovingly and kind. She was a beautiful pony. Her father especially like to remind her mother of that fact.

The sky was a beautiful blue, but as the pegasi got back to the work, the puffy clouds began to seem darker as they rolled across the sky.

That must have been the reason for... wait - what reason again? She stopped and blinked, her mind doing a double take. Hold on, she thought to herself, was it the reason why the clouds were moved elsewhere? No, that didn’t seem right. She already asked that question. In fact, did she even ask a question concerning - what again?

A voice again whispered in the back of her mind.

The pegasi rolled the darkening clouds past the Everfree and again her eyes trailed to the place before. This time however, the smudge had become a spot and was much larger. No. As she squinted her eyes, she corrected herself. It was closer. There wasn’t much to it, just a spot, but something…

Her father’s voice drew her attention back. It was time to eat.

She turned about, excited for the weaved hay her mother had prepared. She loved weaved hay. Well she loved her mother’s version of it. Her father just didn’t have the same touch. His generally came out brown and crunchy, but if it was fried pineapples, that, her father was king of.

With the food out, she managed the weaved hay, from her plate, between her two hooves, and took a big scoop of carrot dip. The contents slopped back onto her plate, but there was plenty still clinging onto the hay. Her father was good with scoping dip of any kind, even carrot dip, with his mouth and… and what?

She looked at the dipped hay. The whisper returned again, but this time it stirred something in her mind and began to crawl around searching. The more and more she looked at the dipped piece of hay, something seemed to be missing from the picture. No, something was added. Carrots! She didn’t like carrots. She never ate carrots. Both her parents hated...

Her father called her name and the spell was broken once more. She turned to him and tried to peer through the glare as she looked up at him. All she could see was his smile. It was a wide smile. A happy smile. He asked her what kind of activities she had been trying to prompt her cutie mark this time around, her mother echoing her father’s words.

Excitement filled her. She looked at the empty space on her rear and beamed at their interest. Oh, she’d been trying… The words bunched in her throat. She wanted to tell them all of what she had been attempting, but not a word would march forward. Instead a sadness filled her. Why was she sad? It was such a wonderful day and… and… and what?

Something was wrong.

The clouds had now begun to bunch together and the pegasi seemed to be losing control. She swore there was the sound of thunder in the distance, but rain wasn’t scheduled was it?

For some reason, her mind slipped away from her parents and she had to look back to the Everfree, where the whisper in her mind compelled her. She turned and noticed the dark spot clearly this time, but now it was even closer. It wasn’t near the Everfree anymore. It was standing there at the base of the hill. Calling it a spot now was far from what it was. It was a dark and shinny figure, a pony perhaps as it looked very much so, but there were many things that looked like ponies in the Everfree. Things that liked to eat ponies. Either way, as she looked at whatever it was, it seemed, at least by her understanding, that the whisper became clearer.

Somepony tried to draw her attention away again, but this time her eyes didn’t move to the voice, instead they travelled to her rear. What she found was not the previous blank space as before. What she found was the points of a compass surrounded by a group of stars.

A cutie mark? When did she…

She looked to her father, upset by the sudden appearance of her oddly discovered talent, but when she looked to him, he wasn’t sitting with them anymore. He was walking away.

Wait, why was he going? Where did he get all that equipment from? No - we were having a picnic! He still had time off! No! Don’t go! Please, come back! It’s safe here!

She tried to scream, but his figure faded into the tall grass and he was no more.

You won’t come back…

Lightning flared, but no sound came. Small drops of rain began to fall.

When she turned to her mother, the dark figure stood at the top of the hill, but still a ways - still whispering in the back of her mind.

It wasn’t a pony. It wasn’t anything she had seen before but, it was evil looking with its pointy ears and empty expression, yet somehow, the menacing creature seemed so familiar.

When she focused on her mother, the mare was no longer yellow, but a dim gray variant of her former self, just like the forest. Her mother sat with her back to the filly a withered and defeated form.

“Mother,” she called to the mare, but instead of a response, the withered form collapsed towards the ground.

She tried to run, she tried to catch her mother, but the mare only fell through her fore hooves and when she stopped clutching herself and opened her eyes the world was a different place. The sunny sky was gone. The pegasi were blown away as dark clouds barred the brilliant blue. Instead of sunbeams, cold rain beat down heavily soaking her to the bone.

The world had changed. This was not her Equestria, this was not her home.

She looked in the direction of the figure and it stood before her now. It was a monster, there was no mistaking the fact. It stood tall, looming over her, a tidal wave ready to crash down. Its skin was like tar and moved with much ease as though an endless ripple travelling the waters of the ocean. Only a dark void filled the place where there should be eyes. Its ears reminded her of a diamond dogs, pointy and straight. What concerned her the most, was its teeth. Jagged, like a saw blade. It had no tail, nor a cutie mark, and it had claws instead of hooves.

Lightning exploded as thunder rolled across the land.

As frightening as the creature was, she wasn’t afraid. Even the sudden assault on her senses by the weather could not sway her. Instead, she turned to the real terror.

The tombstone lay flat, consumed by overgrowth and time. She knelt into the mud and brushed her hoof over the gravemarker. The words written on it were all but readable, as the stone itself had become all but a marker for the dead. Even still, the decayed piece of mared stone meant more to her than anything else in the world.

Tears, began to fall to the stone.

“Summer,” whispered the voice, from far away.

Why did you all have to leave me?

“Summer,” whispered the voice again, becoming closer.

Why couldn’t we all be together?

“Summer,” said the voice, louder now.

Why did it all have to fall apart?

“Summer!” spoke the voice as though next to her.

She slammed her hooves on the ground smashing the dirt as lightning flared, thunder ripping through the world.

The creature now loomed before her again, but it was not what she stared at. Her hooves, they were no longer that of a fillies, but of a battered and aged mare. Her hooves were cracked from the abuse of her rusted shoes. Scar’s ran up and down her forehooves with missing patches of fur and blood.

Whose hooves were these?

She checked herself all over and it was not the body she knew. Shock and panic filled her. Where had the shine in her coat gone? Why the sloppy straight mane? Why all the scars, burns, missing fur, blood? By the Elysium Fields, what happened to her?

She pressed into the mud and screamed out all the frustration that her battered body could and when her lungs could take it no more, she stopped and heaved.

“Why won’t you let me-” she began.

“Summer,” said the voice sympathetically. She looked up from the marker and at the monstrous image of the demonic pony creature that it had come from. It bent down to her and from its back two nightmarish wings sprung forth and wrapped around her gently. There was no heat from the embrace, only the cold chill of the lifeless. But, there was a heartbeat, somewhere distant in the darkness, yet close. It was elusive, confusing her, but it was there nonetheless.

The creature rested its muzzle on her shoulder and spoke, its hideous maw mimicking the words in her ear. “I need you to wake up now. It’s important.”

Wake up? Why? What was there to wake up too? It was gone - all gone. There wasn’t anything worth living for. It was gone!

Light flared and thunder crashed about, and the world became a void. She fell from the embrace, falling ever further downward into the abyss, and she let the depths take her.

“Please,” said the voice, “I’m still here. We are all still here.”

She didn’t care. She didn’t want to. There was no reason to live on.

“We are still here,” the voice echoed.

Were you? Were any of you? Everyone was gone. They had either left or died or… or… there was nothing. The world was nothing. She was nothing!

“Are you?” came a new voice as clear and familiar as though she had always known it. “I don’t think you're nothing. I know for a fact, you are very much something.”

“But I - I don’t…” she said.

“I know,” said the voice sympathetically. “However, there still a reason, if I remember. A promise that you made. I think that makes a good reason to keep living don’t, you think young lady?”

Yes, there was a reason, a promise. Something she had made that couldn’t be walked out on.

She - she needed to - live! She couldn’t let it end this way. No! She wasn’t going to let it end...

Suddenly something began to push her back up to the light. The world began to spin as the lights about her danced and finally engulfed her.

Then - silence.

*        *        *

Like every night, she opened her eyes to the same rotted ceiling. This night however, she opened them to a brown hooded stallion, looming over her. Her expression was all but friendly.

“You better have a damn good reason for being in my room,” she said restraining herself.

“I’m sorry, but we have intruders downstairs,” said the hooded stallion backing away. “I wanted you to know before I did anything.”

She gave the brown earth pony a quizzical look as he stared back from underneath the shadow of his hood. She was about to say something, but ignored the statement instead, concerned more about the immediate threat.

“Do they intend any harm?” she asked. It would have been a dumb question with an obvious answer, but considering the brown pony’s behavior she was not so sure. Even so, if there was somepony invading a home in these parts, harm and death were part of the game.

“It was mentioned,” replied the stallion casually.

Her expression now changed to one of deadly intent and anger.

She rose from the messy straw bed, pulling free the bladed weapon attached to her shoe, hidden under the straw.

“How many,” she asked, as she equipped her shoulder rifle.

“Five. Two males, three females, all earth ponies. Under equipped but crudely effective from my take. No backup,” he said as she finished attaching the spikes to her rear shoes. “Would you like me to go first?”

“You lost your turn when you woke me up,” she said as she stopped in front of him, trying to make eye contact into that concealing darkness of his. Whether she made contact or not, the fact that the angry glare she gave him should have made the point. Content, she placed the bit trigger in her mouth and walked onwards, out of the room and towards the stairs.

The stallion followed, making no sound as though a phantom.

*        *        *

All that remained in the room, that of any importance, was a faded picture of two ponies stuck in an old picture frame, sitting next to the straw bed. It had seen better days, but this night was not one of them. The figures in it were quite happy being together, a tiny house sitting in the distance. A small piece was missing from the lower right corner, ripped or torn. Regardless of how it was done, the portion was clearly taken by force.

Somewhere below the discharge of a weapon could be heard, followed by a hard thud of something collapsing to the floor. The picture remained still and silent as the sounds of rushing hooves echoed about. Yells of confusion and screams of rage began to fill the house. Quickly booms of thunder proceeded, coming and going in rapid succession and random spurts. The whole house became engulfed in battle and quaked from the excitement.

A loud explosion traveled through from the floor and toppled the picture flat on its face.

Silence, crept back into the home.

Nothing moved in the house as the moments ticked by, at least nothing that could be heard from the room. Then, hoof steps vibrated the floor. Somepony climbed the stairs, moving with steady purpose towards the empty room. When the owner of the hoof falls in question did enter, the picture shifted slightly as though trying to escape as the hoof slammed down next to it. The monster gazed down at the fallen picture and with one heavy scoop, lifted it from the floor.

The dark shadow cast from the strange creature fell on to the picture. In all the years it had sat next to the straw bedding, it did not recognize the creature that it for so long lived with. All that it understood, was that this monster attended to it and struck fear into whatever soul it still possessed.

*        *        *

When she returned to her bedding, she noticed the picture.  With a quick scoop of her shoe, she picked it up, her eyes scanning every inch of its contents then returned it to its proper place.

When she noticed the black aura around her foreleg, she said with clenched teeth, “Leave it be.” The aura vanished and the wound continued to bleed.

Tossing the rifle to the floor, she grabbed her first-aid kit and bandaged the wound. Another scar to the collection, she mused.

Returning to the bedding, she shot a look straight at her odd housemate and said, “Now if you don’t mind, keep out of my fucking dreams!” as she pointed towards the door.

The stallion nodded graciously, then backed out of the room and closed the door softly.

She stared at the door for a while, waiting, listening for any signs of life, then as if some inner strength had given out, she allowed herself to collapse. Clinging to herself in a ball she cried.

“Why won’t you let me forgive myself?” she murmured.

 *        *        *

The stallion floated above the wooden floor hoping that she believed he had gone. He remained, listening, as she cried throughout the night, until she had finally succumbed to sleep.

He floated away from the door and shifted back to the small cloud form he preferred to be, travelling down the stairs and over to where she had gathered the remains of what used to be the intruders.

The place was a mess, but he would take care of that before the morning. First, he would take care of the bodies.

There was no worry of anypony discovering them, not that anypony would care. After all, it was what led them here in the first place. All the morality and laws in the world didn’t mean anything when it came to desperate measures in desperate times.

Looking over the dead corpses he began to wonder why he felt compelled to warn her. Deterring intruders was what he did, so why ruin her dream like that? Was it concern or was it hunger that motivated him?

Again, he changed his form. Now, he was the nightmarish creature from her dream. He stripped them down of their supplies, what there was in any case, then dug his claws into the wasted flesh and pulled the death from her home one by one.

Doubt plagued his mind as he left the fresh meat in the Everfree. It wasn’t that he doubted somepony would find the bodies. It was doubt about himself.

He could feel it, the regression. The draw pulling him back to feed uncontrollably. The world had become primed for it. Now it called to him like a seductress. There would come a point where he would willingly want it again. Even now it wanted to come back, and one night the world would be ripe for the reaping. No pony would be safe, not even - her.

He looked up to the moon.

Especially - not even her.