The grey mare felt something shaking her. As she blinked herself awake, she could see that the stallion was standing above her. He looked down at her, a dead expression on his face. “Get up. We’re going.”

Near her, she felt around for the child and gently woke her. The child was taking a little longer to wake up, and the mare placed her onto her back and began to trot. The stallion had already walked away, and was already a sizable distance away from them.

The trees had begun to thin, and the grey cloud was visible from where they were. The forest had begun to end, although they were not quite out of it. They had climbed down the cliff, and had slept that night at the bottom, concealed by an outcrop of rock. She and her daughter had been forced to eat the fiddlehead ferns. The stallion had not offered them anything, but she knew that he was not out of food. He himself had not eaten, and he walked in front of them, almost leading the way. He had not taken out his compass once, and the mare felt as though they were not heading east. From their view on the cliff, the forest edge was not that far away, but he was leading them away from it.

When the child was finally awake, she jumped down from her mother’s back and trotted along beside her. “Are you sure you don’t want to ride?” The mare inquired. The child said nothing and looked down at the ground.

When the stallion stopped, the mare and the child stopped. He sat down in a clearing, and he pulled his canteen from his saddlebags. He drank slowly, and looked off into the trees. He would stare at the trees, take a sip, and then stare at the trees again. He was like some watchdog that knew something or someone was out there, but made no move as to inquire what or who it was. When he was finished, he stood up without a word, and continued onward. If the mare had not been watching him, she felt that he would have left them behind.

They walked away from the cliff, and made their way into the thick trees. The trees did not look any more alive than they had elsewhere, but they had grown taller and thinner. Less brush was scattered about, although the ashes never ended. As they crossed a dead creek, the mare could see a clearing in the distance. Neither she nor the silent child were tired, but she wondered if the stallion would stop again to rest.

There was nothing special about this clearing. It was as empty and naked as the rest of the clearings had been. One of the trees near the edge of the clearing had a thick growth of ivy at its bottom. It was not poisonous, from what she could tell, but there was nothing really significant here. In spite of this, the stallion had stopped. He had not laid down to rest, but he looked about. When he saw the ivy, he walked up to it and peered through it. Seemingly, beneath it was a hole at the base of the tree. The grey mare watched the stallion, and thought that he seemed pretty strange looking with the upper half of his body in the hole.

“What are you doing?” She finally spoke.

Nothing but silence came from the stallion, and then a loud, terrified scream erupted from the hole. The mare felt herself jump, and the child beside her let out a frightening shriek of her own. The stallion frantically began to pull himself backwards, as if he had come into contact with something deadly in the hole. The mare was about to rush forward and help him, when he suddenly pulled himself out. He was holding something in his mouth, and he threw it to the center of the clearing. It was a yellow stallion, and a half eaten apple core had been thrown out with him.

When the stallion turned around, he sprinted towards the stranger and threw his whole body on top of him. By the time the stranger knew what was happening, it was much too late. A loud pop resonated through the woods when the stallion did this, and the stranger let out a cry of fear and pain. The stallion didn’t even need to hold the stranger down the way he did, considering that the stranger was so much frailer and skinnier than he was.

The stallion stood above him. The grey mare kept her distance, and she felt the child beside her trembling. The stranger was breathing hard, and the mare herself could feel her heart hammering in her chest. As the stallion looked down at him, the stranger struggled. He begged for his life.

“Please, I was so hungry! I didn’t mean it!”

The grey mare had known what was coming when they had found the stranger. She stood, stoically, holding her confused and scared daughter closer to her. The child pressed against her leg, and watched the stallion confront the stranger.

“Mommy? What is he…?”

The mare looked down and nudged her daughter to look the other way. “Don’t watch muffin. Cover your ears too.”

The child seemed scared now, and she turned away from the scene. The stallion had now taken the stranger’s front leg, and seemed to be bending it in an unnatural way. The stranger was screaming in fear and pain, but the stallion did not say anything. When the stranger’s leg snapped, a loud scream and crack emitted from him. In spite of her covered ears, the child jumped from the mind staining noise, and began to shiver.

After the stallion had finished, he took his time in breaking the other three legs. It took about twenty minutes for him to completely cripple the stranger, but the mare knew that he could have done it much quicker with his strength.

She could not see the stranger, and she did not want too. The stallion turned to look at her, and she thought that it was finished. “Give me your rope.”

When she realized what he was going to do, she stood her ground. “No.”

He was silent for a minute, and then he walked up to her. His face in hers, his eyes were cold as the darkness. “I said, give me your rope. I know you have one.”

The grey pushed her child behind her. She stood her ground, and did not move an inch. Her saddlebags were mere inches away, but she stared back at him. “No. This isn’t right. What would she have said?”

The stallion snarled. He was not in his right mind anymore. “I will ask you one more time. Give me your rope.”

She could feel the child trembling behind her. “No. I’m not going to give you the rope. Don’t you think about touching my daughter.”

The adrenaline pumping through her body now was exhilarating. His eyes were like daggers, but her eyes were like swords. Only a mother would have been able to comprehend the strength and courage that possessed her, with her trembling and scared child hiding behind her, confused and unsure of what was going to happen. Her heart was beating fast. They stared at each other for a while. The yellow stallion nearby whimpered. Finally, the stallion turned away. He did not say a word.

When he approached the stranger, he reached into his own saddlebags and pulled out a rope himself. The mare did not question why the stallion had a rope of his own, but her mind was reeling with other thoughts as the stallion tossed the rope over a high sturdy tree limb. With one end, he began to tie it to one of the stranger’s broken back legs. With the other end, he pulled backwards.

Oh Celestia.

The child had walked to the front, and began to see the stranger being lifted from the ground. He began to move about in the air, and let out squeaky, pitiful screams. The mare grabbed her child and pulled her face into her chest. “Don’t look. Cover your ears.”

The child jumped amidst the cracking and screaming. The mare turned the both of them around, but it wouldn’t do any good. As the child began to shake and her breathing began rapid and panicked, the mare hugged her close.

“Please stop… please stop…” The child whimpered, but the stallion continued.

In the end, the only noises that could be heard was the constant dripping of something from the tree limbs. The stallion walked past her.

“Leave him.” His voice was as cold as ice.

The mare guided her daughter forward, barely catching a glimpse of the stranger’s horrid state as she glanced around to verify it. He hung from a tree, from his broken back leg, writhing and twitching in an unknowable agony. They turned and left. She could feel the stranger’s blood on her hooves. The child trembled.

He took them a different way than they had come previously. The mare knew that he did not want them to come back. He was leading them haphazardly so that they could not find their way back. He did not speak to them for the entire time. The child was not crying, but she kept close to her mother. For a while, she had been giving the stallion a look of utter despair, but when he had not looked back at her, she had stopped. Her head drooped now, but she did not cry.

By the time they stopped, the mare could feel her stomach growling. The stallion sat down a distance away from them, and stared out into the forest. Knowing better than to bother him, the mare removed the last of the fiddleheads that she had leftover in her saddlebags. She placed a few in front of her daughter. Her daughter had stopped trembling, but she had a blank expression on her face. “Muffin… please eat…” The child simply stared at them.

When the night fell and the darkness rose, the mare gripped the child in a soft grasp and pressed herself against a tree trunk. She had removed her saddlebags and placed them nearby, but she had removed the knife. The stallion had not moved or spoken since he had stopped. As the mare had watched him, she had begun to get a bad feeling. She could not read minds, as that was not her talent, but her intuition and instinct told her that the stallion was going to do something. The child seemed to sense it too, and cuddled against her mother, longing for her protective nature. The stallion’s state of mind reminded her of something, but she shook her head, trying to forget the unforgettable.

Don’t remember, Her thoughts echoed, Please don’t remember…

***

A light rain pattered on the window panes as the day slowly began anew. The grey cloud was outside, and it sent a gentle rain, awakening the day peacefully but suddenly. The grey mare was sitting at the bedside, and her hoof was placed over the young mare’s sheets. She was still, and her breathing had stopped during the night.

The grey mare stared out of the window panes, a faraway and dead look in her golden eyes. She had tried, she had tried, and she had tried and she had tried. It had all been for nothing. What had gone wrong? Her tears had dried, and now she was as numb as the body was.

Under the sheets, the body was heavily wrapped and bloodied. Bandages had not been lacking in their stores, but medicine and stitches were nowhere to be found. Those had been long cleared out by the desperate ponies before them. He had searched, while she had stayed behind. The precious baby in the other room was either sleeping or awake, but in the state of mind that the grey mare was in, she could not hear or understand.

They had been looking for something to eat. They had been looking for something as simple to eat. They had met others, and the others had attacked them. While her husband had engaged another, she saw a stranger looking towards her, with desperation in her eyes. The stranger had rushed towards her, and she had taken her eyes off of her daughters for a second. It had only taken a split second. When she had looked again, her daughter was lying on the ground, curled around the infant protectively, with a pool of blood appearing at her side. The stallion that had done the deed was dead, but the damage had been done. They had found an abandoned apartment, and had set up a barrier. Her husband not only left to look for supplies, but he also swore that he would look through every nook and cranny in every hospital until he found the proper necessities.

The mare screamed. She screamed louder than she had every screamed before in her life. She fell to the floor, wings a flare and her hooves gripping her skull. She screamed so hard and so long that she felt her vocals cords begin to throb in her throat, and she still screamed. Tears fell from her face harder than the rain outside did. When she finished, she wanted to lift herself up, but she kept herself on the floor, her head rubbing against the coarse carpet.

“Sparkler no… please no…”

The mare looked up. Her husband stood at the doorway. He was rugged looking, but still handsome. He stared into the room. A moment of silence and understanding moved between them. He fell to the floor, and began sobbing. The mare laid her head back down. The rain continued to patter against the window panes.

***

The stallion was gone and he would not come back. He had left his saddlebags behind alongside hers. When the grey mare checked, she found that there was still food left in them. Enough for her and the child. It wouldn’t last forever. It never lasted forever. It would be gone soon enough, and the mare knew that they would be hungry again. For now, however, they would not, and they would be satisfied.

He had left in the dark, and had left behind a cold feeling that the mare felt penetrate her very being. It was a dead feeling, and she found herself disturbed by it. When she turned to look at the child she could see that she was already awake. The filly had not moved, but stared at her mother with sleepy eyes.

“Where did the stallion go?”

The mare shook her head. “I don’t know muffin.”

“Why did he leave like that?”

The mare was silent. As if I really needed to think about it, she thought to herself. It reminded her of whom she had lost, which made an uncomfortable sensation in her belly. “He was really upset muffin. He misses her.”

The child glanced away into the trees, and then turned and looked down at her hooves beneath her. “I didn’t get to say goodbye…”

When the mare began to switch the food from the stallion’s old saddlebags into her saddlebags, she recounted the items that she had in total. When she finished, she felt her stomach drop into her lower abdomen. An item in her saddlebag was missing.

***

They were alone again. It felt strange to the mare, as she had gotten so used to the stallion and his wife being around. She felt a sense of loneliness, but as she watched her child, she knew that she would never truly be alone. They were both lonely, but they would have each other. They had no one else, but no one else had them. They were each their own. It was then that the mare realized that she needed her daughter more than her daughter needed her. She felt selfish, but a strong feeling of love overwhelmed her. They trotted, side by side, through the forest.

She had taken the stallion’s compass, and she was now using it. They continued east. The mare knew that there was nothing for them in the east. There was nothing for them anywhere. The world was like an empty jar that had been left in the darkness of some abandoned shelf. It was empty and lifeless, and had been abandoned long ago. Eventually, a cold, dark wind would come and sweep it off the shelf. It would shatter into pieces on the ground, and there would be nothing left.

They came to the edge of the forest, but the sky was darkening. They had been traveling all day, and would’ve traveled faster. The mare’s wing no longer bothered her, and though she wasn’t a doctor, as they sat down to rest at the forest edge, she removed her bandages to look. The crucial feathers had mostly grown back and so had the fur. The wing was still a fiery red from the burns though, and she wondered if that would ever fade. The stitches were still there, and they zig zagged across the wing in an unnatural way. As she unfurled her wing, she felt no pain and as she flapped it cautiously, she felt nothing. She flapped it a little firmer, and winced as she felt a jolt through her body. It was small, but she had not expected it. The child watched her, and looked at her wing alongside her.

“Does your wing still hurt mommy?”

“Not really. I think that I could use it if I needed to.”

The child pointed with her hoof. “What about those stiches?”

“I’ll have to remove them.”

The mare reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the knife and pliers. She would have cringed when she saw them, but she did not want to upset her daughter. She took the knife in her mouth, and twisted her neck to reach her wing. She was able to slip the small blade between the thread and the wing. She carefully cut the thread, and could feel a sting as the thread vibrated and set her nerves off. She had never done anything like this to herself before, and it made her sick somewhat. When one of her eyes focused on her daughter, her daughter’s face had paled.

When she had cut the thread thoroughly, she took the pliers and took hold on the cut thread. She pulled, and the thread began to slowly slip out of the wound. The pain was not unbearable, but the thought of the thread making its way out of her unnaturally made her somewhat nauseous. After a long and slow period of time, she had it removed. When she turned to her daughter again, she was surprised to see that the child had brought her a few new bandages. The child was shaking as the mare took them from her, and her face was still pale.

When she finished the work, the mare hugged the child strongly. The child still shivered, but she nuzzled herself against her mother’s warm chest.

***

As darkness began to fall over the wood, the mare took the child back into the forest. Though they were practically free now, she felt as if the cover of trees were safer than the open land beyond the woods. As they ate a small meal of tasteless apples and pears that night, the child barely ate. When the darkness had completely fallen and there was nothing to see but blackness, the mare and filly nuzzled together at the roots of a tree. The mare had taken the stallion and the white mare’s blanket and had draped it over them. She had taken what leaves she could find, and covered themselves with leaves. Though it was dark, she felt more camouflaged when she did this. They had slept like this before, and it seemed to work fine.

As she felt herself drifting to sleep, the child beneath her stirred.

“Mommy. I need to go pee.”

The mare lifted herself up slightly. She couldn’t see her daughter, but she could feel her in the darkness. “Really badly?”

“Really badly.”

The mare wanted to sigh, but she knew that the child couldn’t help it. She lifted them up, and she walked with her child into the dark woods. There were no lights to be seen in the distance anywhere, and the mare gave the child permission to use her magic. After they had walked a few feet away from their sleeping place, the child stood beside a tree. The mare turned away.

“Don’t look.” The child spoke.

The mare waited a few minutes. After what seemed like ten minutes of waiting, she could feel her drowsiness and exhaustion overtaking her. She wanted to respect the child’s space, but she was taking far longer than she usually did. “Muffin, are you alright?”

The child was silent. The area was still brightened, but she did not say a word. The mare felt as though something was wrong. She turned to her daughter, and found her daughter staring up into the trees. Her eyes were wide. She was whispering.

“Oh no… oh no…”

Above them, about twenty feet, was a still body hanging from the trees. As the mare looked closer, she could see that a long rope was tied around the pony’s neck. It seemed to be a stallion that had a brown coat and black hair. A sickening smell accompanied him. The wind gently made the body dangle, and he stirred from side to side, like a snake about to pounce. The rope was the mare’s.

The child was crying. The grey mare pulled her close and nuzzled her. She could feel her own tears begin to dribble down her face. The child’s face soaked the mare’s coat, but the mare pulled her closer. The tightened rope above them was creaking, and the leaves above were rustling.

“Why did he do it mommy… why?”

“He couldn’t take it. I’m so sorry Dinky… I’m so sorry…”

***

They had buried him as best as they could. The grey mare had dug a very small hole to the best of her ability, while her daughter had watched. As she dug, she would look over at her daughter, and could see a devastating expression of grief and sadness on her face. She could tell that her daughter was trying her hardest to not look at the corpse, keeping her body turned away from it as best as she could.

When the grave was dug, the grey mare lowered the body in as best as she could. She couldn’t make a coffin, so the corpse was simply laid down into the hole. She had tried to fold his forelegs, but she found them stiff. In order not to damage him any further, she decided to simply lay him into the hole. After she had pushed the leftover dirt on top of him, she and her daughter stood there at the shallow grave.

“Would you like to say a few words?” The grey mare asked her daughter.

The child had her head hanging low, and her eyes closed. She looked up at her mother when she spoke, and the mare could see that her eyes were practically swelling with unshed tears. The grey mare’s eyes were stinging and wet, and she could feel a throbbing sensation in her throat, and a nauseating churning in her stomach. But no tears came out. Her daughter trembled beside her, and lowered her head.

“I…” She tried.

The filly swallowed quietly. “I…” She repeated.

“I…” The last repeat was barely a squeak, but the mother could still make it out. With that last word, the filly could hold it in no longer. Her small body shivered, her eyelids closed, and her lips quivered. A sobbing noise erupted from her throat, and tears slid silently down her face.

As she felt her daughter press into her leg, the mare forced a few words out. “We didn’t know him very long, but he seemed like a good stallion. A good stallion and a good husband. And…” Her voice shook. “I’m sure that he would have made a good father for his child.”

The grey mare remembered in her younger days when she visited a graveyard for a funeral. The place was quiet, and a sense of calm and peace resided over the area. A common phrase was often repeated on the headstones there, and in this moment of sadness, the grey mare recalled it. “Rest in peace.” She spoke. “Rest in peace.”

It had felt like they had been there for years, standing in front of the shallow, makeshift grave, and mourning the loss of a stallion that they had barely even known for a few weeks. When the two finally turned away and set off again, the mare realized that it probably hadn’t been for more than ten minutes.

When they came out of the forest, they came upon the old rail way. The grey mare paused for a moment, contemplating the path they should take. She had used railroads to travel before, but what she had did was stick close enough to the rail way so that she could see it, but far enough away so that if somepony was on the rail way, then she could not have been ambushed. If the rail way led them into a city or town, then maybe they could find some food. They weren’t quite out yet, but the meager supplies they had would probably only last them a week if they rationed them properly.

She decided to take the chance and follow the rail way. Using her compass, she confirmed that they were still heading east, and the duo began to follow the rail way, keeping to the forests edge. It was still much safer to stay in the woods than it was on the open.

The mare recalled the morning after the burial. She had taken the stallion’s saddlebags and had taken them apart as best as she could. They hadn’t been better than hers, but the fabric had been thick and good and she had used some of it to make new face cloths for them both. Since they also had a new blanket, she had taken their old blanket and had fashioned a makeshift coat for the child. Her child was small, and there wasn’t much to the blanket, but the grey Pegasus herself was naturally warm and used to cold weather above the clouds. The child was a unicorn and quite small, and thus she had made a coat for her. The child had not spoken since the burial, but when the mare held out the coat for her, the child took it in her hooves and looked at it. At first, the mare had thought that she would not wear it, realizing how ugly it was, but the child had given her a big hug and put it on.

In the afternoon, the grey cloud began to rain, and the mare and child took shelter underneath the trees. At this point, as they sat wet and muddy, the mare wished that she had a tarp of some sort, so that they could keep themselves from getting wet. Where they would be going, there wouldn’t be many trees to hide under, and unless they found another cave or shelter of some sort, they would be wet and cold.

She felt her child shivering underneath her, and the mare decided that it was enough. Placing the child on her back, she bent her wings as to protect her daughter from the elements and set off, continuing. Surely, she thought, there must be something around here somewhere.
They trekked through the wet mud and ash and she continued to look. The rain was falling harder now, and the grey Pegasus found herself beginning to lose some of her natural warmth. She peered through the rain, and hoped that she would see something but she didn’t.

“Mommy, what’s that over there?”

The little filly pointed out with her hoof and the mare looked. Outside of the forest, on the rail way, seemed to be some strange, dark structure standing out in the open. It was a large, square shaped object, and as the mare peered closer, she could see that it was a box car. It looked to be made out of wood, and as she looked up and down the rail way, she could see no train or other cars out. This one had just been left abandoned.

The mare drew her knife and peered inside cautiously. There was nopony in here, and the car was empty. Save for a few barrels in the corner and the floor being covered in hay and ashes, it was safe and dry. They took shelter in it from the rain. As the child lay under a blanket, peering out into the thick downpour, the mare looked about for something useful. The three barrels were empty and the hay was inedible.

There was nothing to do with the loose floorboards, and soon the mare joined the child. The hay itself was old and dirty and not any good to eat. The child’s coat had been soaking wet, and the mare removed it and set it out to dry over the barrels.

Suddenly, an idea entered the mare’s head. Standing up, she trotted over to the barrels and inspected their bottoms. When she found the one she was most satisfied with, she shifted it over to the door. Taking it a few feet away from the box car, she let it sit out in the rain and fill. It would be filled in no time, and they would have something to drink while they waited. When they were done, they would be able to refill their canteen as well. Maybe even bathe.

When the grey mare was finished, she rejoined the child in the box car, and huddled beside her. Though the car was dry, it was still cold from the wet breeze that the grey cloud would blow inside. Thankfully, the child beside her was not shivering nearly as bad as she had been.

“Mommy, what do you think happened to that stallion from yesterday?”

The mare looked thoughtfully out into the rain. She didn’t want to answer, but she didn’t want to lie. “I don’t know muffin.”

“Do you think he’s dead?”

“No. But he probably wishes he was.”

The child beside her shifted. The mare glanced down at her, and the filly was fiddling her hooves. “Why did the other stallion do that to him?”

“Sometimes, when ponies get really angry or upset, they try to get revenge. It doesn’t do anything though. It just makes everything worse.”

“Should we try to find him and help him mommy?”

Physically, the mare felt as clean as she would in this world. Mentally, she felt completely drenched in filth. She had accepted at this point that there was nothing she would do, and until she passed from the world, she would feel the blood of others thrust upon her. There hadn’t been anything that she could do, but guilt was a powerful feeling. It would not leave easily. “I can’t remember where he is. I don’t think we could have help him.”

“Even if we tried our hardest?”

The mare nodded. “Yes. Even if we tried our hardest.”

“He’s going to die isn’t he?”

“Yes. He will die. I’m sorry Dinky.”

The child reached up and patted her mother’s back. She nuzzled her side. “Don’t say you’re sorry mommy. It wasn’t your fault. Sometimes, things just happen. Remember? Sometimes you just can’t do anything.”

The mare didn’t feel it. The child beside her sighed and laid on her side. The grey mare looked down at her and nuzzled her. She smiled.

“Thank you muffin.”

Author's Note

This chapter was more gory, and I hope that it doesn't bother or disgust people too much from reading it. I tried to keep the violence and blood in this story very minimal, and I hope that I succeeded.