Land of the Dead

NOTE: for better reading, use this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a\_Am4cHMBKM&feature=related

Long before the dawn of equestria, or even the three pony tribes, the land of equestria was still inhabited by ponies, but they were certainly not united in friendship and harmony. This land was called Muerte, their word for death. It was a dense forest, lots of trees for cover, although you could never be safe there. Each and every pony could kill you seven different ways, even fillies and colts. Fighting and hunting were necessary skills to stay alive. Ponies were trained to fight within days of learning to walk. Many died, whether it was from battle or disease. The pony population was quickly dropping. Living there, you'd better hope you were a unicorn. The three types of ponies had extremely different populations. Unicorns had the most ponies, because they could wield weapons easily using magic, Pegasi the second most, because they could fly away from attackers, and earth ponies the fewest, because they had no particular skills. Even with those differences, however, at least twenty ponies were killed daily, and about three born. This is the story of Gray Skies and her struggle through life.

          Gray Skies had grown up in Muerte, raised by her mother and father, but their time had passed. She lived on her own now. As if surviving wasn't hard enough, she thought sadly. I have to do so with memories haunting me. Days after she gave birth to Cloud, her mate had died for her in the forest, when Gray was attacked while feeding her child. It had been three days since cloud was born, one since her death, and Gray hadn't left her hiding spot inside the roots of a tall oak tree. She had no strength to move, and had broken one of her hind legs as a filly, permanently out of use, which slowed her down considerably.

          Gray thought back to the first time she met fall. They first met in a berry patch, where Gray had been scavenging for food, days after her parents had been killed. She gasped and in desperation, pitifully attempted to run away, falling to the ground within a few seconds. Fall looked just as shaken as she did, but had instinctively used his magic to ready a weapon. Gray whimpered on the ground, unable to stand. She tensed up and closed her eyes, preparing to be stabbed by his spear. Fall studied her for a moment, then lowered his spear when he was sure she wasn't a threat. he trotted over to her and tapped her shoulder with his hoof.

         "I'm not going to hurt you." he said gently. Gray relaxed her muscles and looked up at him. She was just a filly, Fall noticed, and saw the tears brimming in her eyes. Was she abandoned by her parents? he wondered. Her leg was bent at an awkward angle, obviously broken, which explained why she couldn't run far.

           "What happened to your leg?" Fall asked the filly. She stared at him for a moment, then buried her head in her hooves and started quietly sobbing. "No, you don't have to be afraid of me." he said. Fall tried to help her to a standing position. Her eyes became wide as saucers and she began desperately flailing her front legs, trying to hit him. The two fought for a minute, but ultimately, Fall overpowered her and started pushing her into a small cave in a hill nearby.

            Fall began to follow her into the cave, and Gray scrambled further into the cave, using her front hooves to push herself away from him. She was stopped by the end of the cave, and once again began to sob. Fall left the cave, covering it with a tree branch to hide it. Gray stared at the exit and realized he had trapped her. He's trying to starve me to death, she thought. Tears began silently streaming down her cheeks.

             After about an hour, Gray Skies had cried so much she had no tears left, and was sitting in a puddle of sadness. Her stomach ached with hunger. Why didn't he just kill me with his spear? she thought wistfully. Why did he have to torture me this way? She sat in her puddle of sadness silently, and decided that she would die with dignity, without pleading and screaming.

             Suddenly, the tree branch moved and Fall entered, then he re-covered the entrance. Gray saw from the small glimpse of outdoors, and Fall's appearance that it had been pouring rain. Wordlessly, Fall dropped a rabbit and some moss at her feet, taking the same items to his side of the cave. She stared down at the moss, and back at him, a questioning look on her face. Fall sighed. "You're still not going to talk to me, eh?" Gray gave a tiny shake of her head. "The moss is for a bed." he explained, then showed her by spreading it out on the cave floor and sitting on it. Gray watched, then did the same.

              "You ought to know by now, I'm not going to hurt you. If i had planned on killing you, I would have used the spear, or just left you in the cave, trapped. Obviously i wouldn't have given you food or shelter if i wanted you dead." He growled. Gray retreated further into the cave, frightened by his change of mood, curling into a tight ball in the corner. Her eyes widened in fear. Fall's face softened. "Hey, come on now, I didn't mean to scare you." He told her gently, taking a step towards her. Gray whimpered and tried to scoot away from him, but he quickly sidestepped and blocked her escape.

                 "My name is Fallen Stars, but if you ever decide to talk to me, you can call me Fall." He said. "You should know I'm really not trying to kill you. This is a land of no harmony, but that doesn't mean we can't ally, alright?" Gray slowly moved out of the cave's corner. She nodded and whispered; "Okay," so quietly that Fall could barely hear it. He smiled. "So, what's your name?" He asked her.

                 "G-gray S-S-Skies." She whispered. "M-my M-mother and F-father w-were... were... M-mu-murdered." she added shakily. Fall looked at her, and saw tears in her eyes again. "Oh, I'm sorry." he said gently, then moved closer to her so that their sides were touching. "You need to get some sleep," he added. "It's getting dark." Gray nodded.

                  That night, the two ponies slept right next to each other, in happiness and comfort. Their friendship continued for years, and grew. Years later, both Fall and Gray were adult ponies, still living in their little cave. Rarely had they been attacked by other ponies, and never inside their home. Gray Skies learned that she could trust Fall, and soon, they both fell in love.

                                           ~~~~~~~

                  "Gray, honey?" Fall called. Gray trotted into the cave, a smile on her face. "Yes?" she replied. Fall turned beet red. "I don't really know how to ask this, but..." Gray nuzzled Fall's shoulder. "You can ask me anything." she whispered. Fall looked at the ground. "Well... uh..." he began uncertainly. "erm...I.. I..." he kicked the ground. "I want a foal!" he blurted. Gray was taken aback by his request. "Uh..well...i...." she stammered. She quickly regained her composure. "Okay." she replied.

                                           ~~~~~~~

                     Nine months later, Fall and Gray had moved to another place (with great difficulty due to Gray's bad leg), a tree with tall roots that could easily hide a family, or even two. Gray was in labor all day. (I'm going to skip the details) Finally, a small Pegasus filly was born. Gray was about to faint with exhaustion, but her joy kept her awake. Fall was right by her side, a bright smile on his face as well. "What should we name her?" Gray whispered. Fall stared deep into her eyes. "What do you think of Cloud? Cloud Skies?" Gray smiled, but then she frowned as if a thought had suddenly come into her head. "But, she has no name in common with you. We should call her Fallen Clouds. Cloud for short." Fall Smiled. "That's a perfect name." he whispered.

                    The next day, Gray was feeding Cloud inside the tree, and Fall was out hunting. Suddenly, Gray saw the shadows of three ponies blocking the sunlight in the tree. It's probably just ponies passing through, as usual, she thought. Suddenly, she heard the ponies' voices. All were stallions. "Hey guys, do you hear somepony breathing in there?" one of them asked. "yeah, we should check it out." another added. A third pony looked in. "There's a mother feeding her newborn. Totally unprotected. Either her mate abandoned her or isn't home." The three laughed. "So, what? Kill or spare?" The first pony asked. "Definitely kill." the third once declared.

                       The three Stallions entered Gray's home, each using magic to wield a spear. "Get the foal." the third pony commanded. Tears welled in Gray's eyes. "No," she pleaded. "You can kill me, but PLEASE don't kill my child." The three unicorns grinned. "I think i know how to hurt this pony most." the third pony said. "Kill the foal, but slowly. Make sure she sees her baby suffer." Gray struggled to stand on her bad leg. "Nopony. Touches. My. Baby." She growled. She quickly began hitting them with her front hooves. The three unicorns laughed. "That's all you can do to protect this foal? I think she deserves to leave this world."

                       The second unicorn laughed as he picked up the spear. Slowly, he moved the spear towards Cloud, who had begun to cry. He finally reached cloud and slowly began poking a hole in her stomach. The filly began screaming. Gray tried to stand and fight, but the third unicorn placed a force field around her so that she could see and hear just fine, but couldn't move a muscle to save her child. "DON'T TOUCH HER! LEAVE THE POOR FILLY ALONE!" she kept screaming, but they just laughed. She kept fighting the force field, until it finally broke. The first unicorn looked at her and hit her with a nearly fatal magic bolt. Gray's life slowly began to slip away. Her vision was blurred, and the sounds around her dulled.

                       She could still hear her filly's screams, although they were dull and slurred. Suddenly, another noise came. A teleportation spell. She heard the shouts of Fall, though heard no words. Then, her child's screams stopped and faded to sobbing, and the sound of a father comforting his child. There was no sound of the three unicorns.

                       Suddenly, Gray heard a pony's words. she looked around, trying to find the source, and saw a blurry unicorn, but Dark blue with a white mane. Fall. "Gray, stay..." the other words faded out. "stay... me!" she heard again. "Your filly... I need.." She heard the sound of a spell, and instinctively, kicked at the source.

                        Then, there was a flash of light and Gray had her senses back. A healing spell... she thought. Now, before her she saw Fall, handsome as ever, staring at her with tears in his eyes. She looked past him and saw their filly, unconscious and bleeding on the ground. Gray tried to get to her hooves, but her leg stopped her. Instead, the gray mare dragged herself across the room to lay by her child.

                         Cloud was barely breathing. Quickly, she brought cloud closer to her stomach to eat, but cloud couldn't move. Her life was draining out onto the floor. She wrapped herself around the filly and began sobbing. Fall trotted over to her and tried to comfort her, but with no success. "She's.. She's dying fall..." Gray cried. "Our one day old filly is dying." tears began to silently stream down fall's face, but he suddenly stopped, thinking he had to be strong for Gray. The two ponies wrapped themselves around the dying foal, sitting in silence. Finally, Cloud's heart stopped. She was dead. Gray buried her face into Fall's mane, and Fall weakly nuzzled her shoulder. The two stood in silence for a few minutes. "F-Fall, o-our f-f-filly n-never... she n-never..." Gray stopped mid sentence and burst into tears. "It's-It's gonna be alright Gray." Fall tried to keep a brave face, but Gray could tell he was on the verge of crying as well.  "Sh-She was m-my f-first child. Sh-she n-never s-saw us. Sh-she... she m-might've t-thought w-we were k-killing her." This was enough to make Fall begin to cry. Fall and Gray were suddenly overwhelmed by their despair, and sank to the ground.

                           Finally, after some time, the despairing couple fell asleep next to their dead child. However, Gray was awoken by the sound of a spell being cast. Suddenly, a bolt of magic struck fall in his heart. He too was dead, never to rise again. "No! Fall! Don't leave me! I need you..." Gray whispered in his ear, but it was no use. Fall was dead, and so were her spirits. Never again could she be happy.

                           Gray awoke the next day, sunlight streaming through the holes in the tree roots. Her mind was flooded with those memories, and was overwhelmed with sadness. There is no more living for me... she thought sadly. There was a spear left on the floor from the day before's events. Gray Skies carefully wielded it, aiming the point to her chest, and quickly dragged it towards her. The spear struck her right through the heart, and she fell to the ground, killed by her memories.