Escape to the North

  "It's getting dark we should set a camp," said an old wolf while looking at the sun, which was very low over an horizon.

            The herd has been moving for two weeks without any problems. Grey was the new leader, but he willingly used the services of Twilight. Thanks to her the herd was moving fast and organized. Rainbow felt much better, but she still had nightmares. She couldn't forget those  Pinkie's dead eyes, which left their mark in her mind. Fortunately, she had support from Applejack and Rarity. Fluttershy was in the worst mental state, she looked lost between two worlds. In one moment, she was like Fluttershy - quiet and calm, but a few seconds later Wolf's soul would take control over her body and mind - she was becoming talkative and opened for new connections. She tried to talk with her friends, but it was difficult to her.  What about Twillight? The alicorn was fighting against herself. With her stupidity. The same stupidity, which ordered her to learn dark power. However, there was still a chance to save her spirit. Friends?The purple alicorn couldn't talk to them. Twillight thought they turned their back to her, but she was wrong. Applejack still believed, that Twilight'll win with consequences of her mistake.

          The ponies set up the tents and wolves prepared a campfire, and food. When night came, most of the members went asleep. Except the night guards. Twilight leaned out from her tent and looked around. She spotted a few wolves sitting around a campfire and celebrating. The alicorn shrugged and hid in her tent. It does not matter "what" for her. She focused her attention at a bag lying few meters in front of her.

               "I'll only read, nothing more. Everything will be alright. I can control it," she whispered to herself, getting closer.

        Someone came in to her tent as a black book started to levitated over Twilight's bag.

             "Hey my kamraten! Are you sleeping?" The young princess jump up and turned to the newcomer.  She took a few breaths, before answering:

             "No. What are you doing over there?"

Grey staggered and grimaced as if he was thinking about something.

            "Where?" asked a bemused and half-conscious wolf.

   The pony rolled her eyes.

              "Around the campfire?" she said with irony.

              "A! Oh! Sorry. We celebrate!" the wolf shook his head as he realized what was Twilight was talking about.

              "What exactly do you celebrate?" Twilight forced Grey into a bigger intellectual effort.  Finally he shrugged and murmured:

             "Ehm,I don't know" swaying, he turned to his mates around a campfire and shouted: "HEY! Sasha! Szto are we celebrating?!"

              "I-I don't know, ask Wolfrim!" that one shouted. He was in the same condition as his leader.

 Grey was looking at his mates for a very long moment. Something was wrong.

            "Hey! Ehm, where is he?!" he yelled, focusing his eyesight and trying to find the lost mate.

 Guards near a campfire started looking around. Some of them got up and swayed like a ship on the ocean, started to search. One of them almost fell into the campfire, but he regained his balance.

             "Over there!" yelled someone and pointed to the wolf lying in some bushes. Only his legs were visibly.

             "I think he drank too much and won't be saying anything now!" yelled Sasha with a smile on his face.

             "Now we have a reason for celebrating! We found him!" Grey raised his paws and pleasantly turned back to Twilight.

             "Yeah! Good thinking! Timoni! Bring us another barrel!" shouted someone behind him and the rustle was indicating that someone moved into the bushes

   Wolf was happpy, but only Twilight was confused. She was standing with widened eyes and gazed at Grey.

            "Szto? Now you know what are we celebrating. We found Wolfrim," said wolf with a big smile on his face.

            "Yeah..." though the alicorn wasn't sure that she really wanted to know.

            "Do you want taste this wonderful drink?" asked Grey. Only now Twilight realized, that Grey was holding a big cup in his paw.

            "Why not," she said and took the vessel from him, the Twilight sniffed, and shuddered. She looked at her friend. He was staring at her with a big smile. Twilight took a little sip. She felt something hot was flowing down her throat. The warmth moved through her whole body. This drink taste awful, but Twilight's body wanted more. This warmth was kinda comfortable.  "Not bad," she said and took another very greedily sip . Suddenly the whole world whirled in front of her eyes, and view became very blurred.  Soon she fell on the ground wiithout a consciousness.

Grey looked at the purple body lying under his forelegs.

            "Ooo, not good," he murmured before picking up a sleeping Twilight.

           "Good night," he whispered, putting her into a sleeping bag, then he went out.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

       Twilght opened her eyes and looked around. Everything around her was very fuzzy. When Twilight got up, she felt like she was closed in a washing machine with a "turbo" function. The world in front of her eyes was spinning.

What happened?

she thought, and suddenly her head started to hurt like someone hit her with a hammer.

My goodness! What a terrible headache,

Twilight thought again, and her head started to hurt more. She hid her face in her hooves, but the headache didn't want to disappeared.

    Grey came into a tent with the the same cup as the last night. He looked at the pony, and smiled friendly.

          "Hey, how are you?" he asked genially.

         "Ah, I feel like my head will blow up soon," said Twilight while looking at the newcomer, but she was still holding a hoof on her forehead.

     Wolf put down a cup in front to her, "Here, it's fresh, cold water," he looked at Twilight with understanding.

    Twilight took the vessel and drank the whole cup. She felt a big relief as a headache went away almost immediately.

        "What was that? What did I drink yesterday?" asked Twillight, putting down the cup.

    Grey smiled wider, taking a cup.

        "It was our traditional drink called vodka," he said while getting up. "When you will be ready, find me. I'll be somewhere around," the wolf began to move towards the exit direction. "Aha, I suggest you to eat a big breakfast or you headache will come back," he said before he moved out from Twiight's tent.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Another day, another few kilometres, another evening,  and another celebration. Twillight was in her sleeping bag and looking at the black book, which was protruded from the bag.

I will read only some pages, no more. I need this book, there are so many spells to learn,

Twillight got up and went to the bag. Suddenly she heard someone screaming outside. Soon winded Grey ran into Twillight's tent.

           "Fire!" he yelled and quickly disappeared. Twillight ran after him. When Twilight was near the exit, she noticed that, something indeed was on fire.The alicorn ran out and immediately froze. The whole forest was burning! Twilight felt like the heat of the fire was burning her fur and skin. Wolves and the others were fighting the fire with water from a nearby river. Though the ashes got into her eyes and pinched her nose, Twilight decided to help in this unfair battle. Fortunately, she was using her magic, not black magic.

Fighting with fire, durable for four hours, but they did it. The deadly flames have been defeated, and camp has been saved.

                  "Now, can someone tell me what happened?" asked the purple alicorn while cathing her breath and whipping out dust from her face.

    Twillight looked at a wolf, which Grey named  "Sasza" last night. Then he was behind a campifire so flames hid his grey as stone fur and white nose. He didn't stand out from the other wolves, but even in a herd like this one, every creature has a special think, which distinguishes him from the rest. In the case of Sasza it was a yellow tail and green-blue eyes.

               "Em, I could do something bad," he started very shy. "I started playing with fire, and emm, burning stick landed on our woods supply," he smiled very nervously and started to looking around, probably expecting a little help from his friends.

  Twillight didn't say anything more. She was too tired, so she decided to go back to her tent. The other ponies did the same thing.

When Twilight came back to her "home" she fell on her sleeping bag, ignoring a black book in her bag.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

              Days were passing by as fast as the distance between the herd and Ponyville. Only Grey began to disappear, so Twillight obligated herself to take care of the whole herd. It was difficult, but she did it well. When the sun was coming down, she was exhausted and went to sleep after dinner. The book has been completely forgotten by her.

          Meanwhile, two familiar silhouettes were sitting under a tree which was standing on a small cliff. The silhouettes of the wolf and pony. The patient listener could hear a subdued voice. One deep, hoarse and the second one soflt, and thoughtful.

              " Grey, t'ank ya for help with Twi'" said Applejack while looking and the grey wolf with a black nose.

              "My pleasure," the wolf smiled, looking at the sun, which was slowly hidding behind a horizon.

        For a few moments, the earth pony gazed at the orange dome slowly disappearing in the ocean of the black trees.

             "Ah wish t'at Twillight wil' be fine. Wit'out ya ah couldn't protect her," the pony said sadly still looking at the sun.

             "I can do this a whole time. It's fun for me," Grey looked at the pony, putting his paw on Applejack's hoof. "She is strong. Everything will be alright," he said calming. Applejack looked at him gratefully.

           "Ah am worried...," the earth pony paused as she moved her eyes on the black forest under a cliff.

             "About what?" the wolf said gently and drowned his eyesight in the ocean of the black mass.

             "About us, about this herd, mah friends, everything," Applejack said deep in thoughts. "W'at will happen?"she asked with fear in her eyes and voice.

      Grey slowly took a small leaf, lying nearby and started to stare at him, turning it around.

           "I don't know, nobody has ever known an answer to this question. I remember what my grandfather said me when I was just a pup: "We are the leaves in the wind of destiny. We can't predict where will we fall,"" he said slowly, carefully looking at the leaf in his paw.

         "So w'at should we do?" The earth pony looked at the leaf.

    Grey released the small plant, which was slowly falling down on the ground.

          "Keep flying. Catch a wind" he whispered as the wind kidnapped the small leaf and carried him into the unknown. Over the black forest into the sun, which almost hid behind a wall of the trees.

          "W'at with mah friends? A-And friendship?" Applejack followed her look behind the invisible force, which cought a defensless plant.

      Grey raised his head and pointed at a small branch over them.

         "Frendship...," he repeated quietly, putting his paw back. "It's just like this twig. The wood gives basements to live, the sense of an existence...," wolf paused  in sentense like he was thinking what he should say. Suddenly the leaves dried, as he narrowed his eyes. "Only the strongest leaves will remain on the branch," he said, when some dead leaves have fallen on the grass.

        "H-how did ya do t'is?" asked Applejack curiously and with a frown, looking back on the wolf.

  Grey smiled, before he began to giggle.

          "You should know something about us wolves. We know black magic but we learnt to control it. Black magic isn't so scary as you think, and everypony tried to convice you. The black magic builds everything around us. You are born in darkness, you dream in darkness and you'll die in darkness."  Power of truth Applejack heard a strange voice inside her head. Grey's eyes moved on Applejack's face. She tried to turn her head, bur she couldn't. Something won't let her do it.

Is he hipnotizing me?

she thought, before loosing herself in wolf's eyesight.

         "Celestia doesn't want our "wild magic" or something like that. She can't take, what even do not exist. She wants our black magic." Let the light of truth iluminated your mind, again the strange voice whispered somewhere in Applejack's head. Grey's eyes began shooting black aura.

         "The solar princess wanted too much power because she can't understand the point of the Power of Truth," the wolf said as he formed a black fireball hoovering over his paw. "Someponies and somebodies did it. That's why Luna can control her mind and that's why you can sleep safety here. You can't learn this, because you've already had it somewhere in your soul. If you want more, you will lose, just like Celestia." Applejack looked at the dried branch. She wasn't sure that it was her will or Grey who was controlling her mind. The small twig suddenly revived and big, beautiful leaves took place of the dried ones.

         "As you see, that black magic can give back life too," Applejack recovered her mind and control over her body. She looked at her friend. He didn't have an ash, flying from his eyes, the black fireball disappeared, and the whisper in her head subsided.

         "Amazing," whispered Applejack in speechless in admiration, but a bit unsure too.

        "Not amazing, but real," said wolf with a smile before getting up. "Good night my kamraten," he said and went to the camp.

Applejack stood on the cliff, thinking about what happened. She wasn't sure that it was just a dream. She was staring at revived branch over her, thinking about Grey's words. She closed her eyes. The light of the darkness will show you a way, the same strange voice came from her head, before she felt asleep.