Lily Artist’s mind wandered as she searched her abstract thoughts for ideas of things to draw. She sat in her chair staring at her pages so hard, she thought she heard the papers rip as her piercing pink and purple gaze tore straight through them. But when she blinked, the blank canvas remained untouched. Frustrated, she threw her head down onto the desk, but immediately regretted it when pain rushed to her forehead. Holding her hoof to her head and extending her wings outward to balance herself, she trotted to the kitchen to get an ice pack. She silently walked to the kitchen, carefully placing one hoof in front of the other, in case a creek woke her best friend Cherry Bookworm.

Cherry had been her best friend since they were fillies. They were ten when they first met at Cloudsdale Christian Center. Although they didn’t have the exact same personalities, they clicked instantly and became the best of friends.

Lily was lost in her memories, until a sharp pain shot her back to the present. She continued her journey to the kitchen, trying her best to ignore the pain. Her apartment was pretty small, so it didn’t take long to get to another room. When she entered the kitchen, she flew straight to the freezer, opened the door, grabbed an ice pack and gently placed it to her forehead.

She was starting to feel somewhat better by the time she got to her bed. Lily had decided to figure out what to draw in the morning, after a good night’s rest. Slowly she felt the pain die away and sleep swallow her like a sea of darkness drowning out the light...

As she opened her eyes, Lily realized she was in the one place she would never forget, the place she was raised in, Pony Ville. She looked up and saw her old house. Unlike the other houses, this one was a small, one story, wooden cottage. Lily began to take a step forward, but as she placed her hoof on the ground, all went black.

Suddenly, she heard a click and light was restored, but Pony Ville was gone. Instead of standing in her old house, Lily was in a different house, a house she never dared step hoof in again. In the shadows, she heard hoof steps approaching, then another set of steps, and another and another. Frightened, she backed up until she felt her back hooves hit the stone wall of the fireplace, and she stood there listening to several unknown ponies creeping toward her.

As the first pony crept into the light, she felt a shiver run down her spine and her blood run cold. Her red and black striped mane, her sharp yellow wings, her deadly grin on her face, and her eyes as red as blood had burned the image of the pony into Lily’s memory long ago. The pony stopped and waited for the others to join her. A dark red stallion with a fiery black mane and a curved charcoal horn trotted up and stood right next to her. Another mare came forward. She was a sapphire earthpony with a white and yellow mane. A white stallion earthpony with a gray mane and yellow eyes closely followed her as they stepped forward.

They stared at Lily as though they were wolves and she was a piece of meat. The yellow mare walked forward until she was an inch away from Lily’s face. Lily growled at her trying not to show how afraid she was. The pony looked at her with a look of pure immorality and whispered in a voice that chilled her to the bone.

“Face it, you have nowhere to go. Soon you will join us.”

“Never!” She growled, “I am nothing like you! Why would I choose to be someone as heartless as you!”

The mare looked back at her companions and signaled them to retreat to the shadows. The pony turned and followed them, then looked back and said, “You are exactly like me.”

As those words came out of her mouth, a bright light shone from above them and the pony froze. A dark blue alicorn shot from the light, and stood in front of Lily, with her wings spread out defensively. Princess Luna! She came!

Luna bared her teeth and screamed “GO!”

The pony whimpered, turned and ran into the depths of shadows. Luna lit up her horn and sent a shock-wave of blue light into the air. The house disappeared and they were standing on what looked like a path of light and stars.

Luna turned and looked at her with sadness in her eyes. Lily tried to hold it together, but she couldn’t. She ran into the princess’s arms and tears streamed down her face. Luna wrapped her wings around her and held Lily like she would a child.

“I’m so sorry Lily.” She whispered.

Lily opened her eyes, and got out of her cloud bed. She walked over to her desk, but lost interest quickly when she saw the blank paper. As she walked toward the door, she stopped and remembered the icepack. She rolled her eyes and lazily walked back to pick it up.

The dream was still fresh in her mind, and she couldn’t get what the mare said out of her head. ‘You are exactly like me.’ The words echoed throughout Lily’s mind. She wondered and hoped it wasn’t true. Surely it wasn’t true... right?

She shook the thought out of her head and began walking to the kitchen. Cherry was already up and making breakfast.

Cherry turned around and said “Finally, you’re up. I’ve been up for like an hour.”

“What time is it?” She asked.

“Eleven, seven-teen. I made breakfast, and it’s not burnt hay.” Lily rolled her eyes at her.

That had been joke for a long time, and still Cherry liked to bring it up just to annoy her. When they were fillies, Lily once said that she was going to make breakfast. But when she cooked the hay, she burnt it until it was charcoal black. As much as she laughed she still couldn’t help thinking about if she really was as heartless as the pony. Then she thought, ‘am I really like my birth mother?’

Author's Note

By the way, the burnt hay thing was a real thing and it was actually burnt bacon. But I couldn't put bacon in there because they are ponies and ponies don't exactly eat meat so I just put hay in there instead. Also I have just started working on Chapter 1 and I will let you know when I am almost done with it.