Featherfall

Our story begins in an ordinary city, in Manehattan, and with an ordinary filly, a young earth pony. Her name was Lynn, and she had both a gentle heart and a bright mind, but she was also very quiet, and very shy.

During class, the other students would often pick on her. Lynn never understood why that was, never did she lash out herself, and she always treated the others with a warm heart. But it did not seem to matter. The others only laughed at her, spitting in the face of her kindness.

After school, she would sometimes stay to spend time with the phoenix the class kept as a pet. At those moments, her teacher would speak to her. ‘You have to learn to talk to the other students,’ he would say. ‘They only pick on you because you are different.’

Lynn was sad, and the more time passed, the sadder she got... until, one morning, everything changed. Amid a series of cruel mockeries, one of the other students, a unicorn, called upon his magic to summon a fearsome shadow. Young and inexperienced as he was, though, he could not control what he had set out to do, and without his intention, a pile of papers burst into flames.

The fire spread quickly, blocking the entrance before a single soul could escape. Now being trapped, everypony in the room began to shiver and cry, but Lynn knew better. The fire could be tamed by one creature alone, and when Lynn freed the phoenix from its cage, it took him but a few seconds to absorb all the fire into himself.

The other students knew that they were saved thanks to Lynn, and so they all apologized to her, promising to never be rude to her ever again. But the teacher only shook his head. ‘You wanted the fire to happen,’ he said, his black eyebrows narrowing above his eyes. ‘You were glad about something that put all of our lives at risk. You have to leave.’ And so she left.

For days, Lynn traveled through Equestria, far, far away from Manehattan, leaving this part of her life behind her. One day, she came across a tiny village enclosed in a curtain of darkness. As she got closer, she could see a number of lightbulbs, torches carried by the villagers, but the brightness they spread wasn’t enough to light up the place.

Hopeful to find a new home, Lynn quickly approached the villagers in an attempt to talk to them – for minutes she tried to get their attention, but to no avail. She had no torch, was not seen, and could not be heard. Sad and discouraged, she turned around, searching for a wall to lean on.

It was too dark to even see her own hoof in front of her face, and so she didn’t realize that the wall she had found was part of a hovel. Soon, however, she could hear voices coming from the inside. And it was so that she heard of the villain who was planting the seeds of fear and terror into the villager’s hearts, a pony who used the darkness to his advantage, striking in the shadows, never able to be caught. And she heard of the plan to put an end to him, by laying a grand fire onto the town’s largest building, that would at last illuminate the place, allowing everyone to see.

Lynn did not know what to do, if she should alert the others to prevent this crime, or if she should allow it to happen to stop the villain. And so, while she remained undecided, the plan took place beside her. The ponies snuck out, and they went to the largest building, luring everyone outside so that none would be hurt. And the fire they cast swallowed the building, and it bathed the entire village into light.

At this very moment, the villain was sneaking up to an unsuspecting villager, but with his protective darkness gone, he was caught and arrested before he could slit her throat. But while the arsonists had long mixed themselves under the crowd, Lynn was still residing beside the hovel.

‘You knew of this plan,’ one of the villagers said to her, and while the fire behind him slowly came to its end, the blackness crawled out of its hiding, surrounding him as he spoke. ‘You could have saved the largest building in town, and you chose not to. You have to leave.’ And so she left.

Disappointed and conflicted, Lynn spread her wings and and flew away, far, far away.

For days she was flying, not knowing where to, not knowing what she was searching for. One day, as she opened her eyes to the crisp morning air, she could see a constellation of clouds in the distance, too compact to be of natural cause. Curious, she left her own cloud to examine the sight.

The clouds were soft, and it was easy for Lynn to make a small gap for her to slide inside. But when she did, it was only to find that someone was already waiting for her: a sinister shadow, his eyes squinting at her figure in a menacing stare. Behind him lay a city populated by pegasi, with a gargantuan throne in its center. It was bright, and many of the villagers saw her quickly, coming for her aid and causing the shadow to flee.

‘You can fly,’ the pegasi said to her. ‘You can fly, and that means you can save us all. Do you see the throne?’ And they pointed towards the enormous throne in the center of the place. ‘The pony on that throne is not a pegasus, but he has robbed us all of our powers of flight, using them for himself. As long as he reigns, we are all tied to the clouds, but he can do as he pleases. You need to fly up there, and you need to take the fire from the top of the throne, because the fire is the source of his magic. Take the fire away, and we can take him off his throne and throw him down to Equestria.’

Lynn did not want the pony on the throne to die, and so she said no. But as time went by, she lived her life with the pegasi on the clouds, and she experienced firsthoof just how miserable it was while the pony on the throne ruled over the city, day after day. She did not want the suffering to continue, and so she decided to help, flying up the throne and taking the fire away.

The pony who had ruled over the city fell from the sky, and the pegasi took him and threw him off the clouds, just like they had said. But the fire Lynn had brought cast a shadow onto the walls, and the shadow spoke to her.

‘You are now guilty of murder,’ he said, his black eyes piercing into her soul. ‘You have to leave this place.’ And so she left.

With a broken heart, Lynn flew away, and the shadow came with her. Every day, Lynn flew to outrace it, but it would stay with her at every moment. When she couldn’t take his sight any longer, she let herself fall from the heavens and into the deepest ocean. Swimming in the water, she used her magic for a boost, traveling farther and faster, leaving the shadow behind her. And as she looked back ahead, she could see that she had reached the shores of a lonely island.

It was cold, and it was dark, and so Lynn made a fire to keep herself warm. For days she stayed on the island, but true rest should not be granted to her. Every morning, the shadows of the fire she lit grew longer, until, one day, her follower arose from it.

And the archon spoke to her. ‘You have now been in the air, on the ground, and amidst the water,’ he said. ‘You have been close to the sun, and you have been far away from the sun.’ Streams of black magic surged around him as he stared down at her with hollow eyes. ‘And everywhere you went did you do wrong, nowhere did you prevent the damage that was yours to prevent. Now, the moment has come for you to sleep... for a long time.’

He threw out his arms, and the water next to the island turned to ice, and the ice came closing in from all sides. Lynn stood beside the fire, alone and afraid, and she knew she would be caught in a prison of ice, for years, as punishment for what she had done.

And she lit her horn to raise a burning branch from the base of the fire, and she thrust the branch into the face of the archon. And the archon stared at her with black eyes. ‘Now you have murdered again,’ he said. ‘You must leave this place.’

And Lynn did not leave.

The archon’s body burst into flames, and soon he had left this world. But the black streams that had surrounded him rose into the air, and they formed a burning ring atop the island, melting the ice that had threatened to imprison the pony beside the fire.

And to this day, the ring of fire still resides above the island. Ponies who come near enough to see it are too scared to go further, and so no-one ever comes close enough to meet the pony it is guarding. But Lynn is still there, alive and well, and with the fire protecting her from evil, she has finally found her peace.