Wretched Hive 3: The Gray Pony

The gray pony opened his eyes to the sands below. The air fell through his mane as the surface closed in. Its howling kept his snout silent; his descent towards death pressed his ears to his head with its unyielding breath.

"If this is a dream," he thought. "Then I will wake before I hit the--"

The impact shocked him. His entire body shrieked out in pain as he spat out sand. As his weary eyes looked around, there was nothing but sand in front of him and ringing all around him.

A wave crashed violently behind him. He turned around quickly, the pain and ringing forgotten, to find an angry, blue ocean crashing onto the sands. Dark clouds swirled in the horizon. He watched the movements of the sky and sea, hypnotized by their natural rhythm. The waves crashed and the clouds swirled.

Something smacked the sand.

He turned to find an adorable changeling building a simple sandcastle. Its eyes were bigger than those of other changelings, its fangs smaller, and its frame lighter. It was almost like a baby. But that was impossible. He shook his head and trotted toward the child.

It looked up and smiled at the pony approaching it.

"Hello!" the young bug chirped, happily.

"Umm... Hi?" the confused pony said, looking around. "Where... Do you know where we are?"

"My name's Mercy!" it chirped in ignorant bliss. "What's yours, mister?"

The pony's mind blanked. "I'm... I'm not entirely sure."

"What do they call you?"

"...Carnal," he reluctantly answered.

"Kernel?" Mercy grinned as Carnal gulped. "It's nice to meet you, Kernel!" Kernel decided not to correct the child.

"So... Mercy? Where are we?" He looked around, only to see one side stormy waters and the other side sand.

"So what happened to you?" Mercy chirped with an adorably crooked head.

"What... What do you mean?" Kernel asked, his concern for the child overturning his need for an answer.

"Well, I've only ever seen two others show up on this beach," Mercy explained. "Or maybe it was just one other..." Mercy shrugged. "Either way, it's nice to meet a stranger, Kernel!"

"Umm... Likewise. So where are we?"

Mercy shrugged.

Kernel looked up into the blue sky and scratched the back of his head. "Don't suppose you remember how you got here?"

"I like building sandcastles!" Mercy chirped. It grabbed his gray hoof with its harmless, little fangs and pulled him away from the sculpture.

A wave crashed just behind them, destroying the castle and leaving a dark splotch on the sand where it stood.

From the splotch grew a pony made of shadow. Dark clouds moved quickly to blot out the light. Now the two were in the middle of a rainless storm, with a shadow staring at them. Kernel turned to run, only to find Mercy standing still, staring back at the shadow with wide eyes.

"Mercy!" he called out.

The changeling didn't move.

Lightning flashed overhead as the shadow picked up some sand with its hoof.

"Mercy, come on!"

The changeling watched as the shadow slowly spilled the grains of sand into the darkness. Thunder crashed.

Mercy went limp and collapsed.

"Mercy!" Kernel shrieked as he lunged to the child's aid.

The young changeling had a hole where its heart would have been. Mercy was dead.

Kernel glared at the shadowy pony. It scooped more sand into its hoof, its gaze piercing through the pony despite a lack of eyes.

"You can't," a dark, corrupted voice echoed from the darkness.

Fear and dread filled the pony and he turned from the darkness and ran as fast as he could. All ahead of him was sand.

"You can't," the voice echoed. Sand fell from the dark clouds above him and the rest of the desert. "You can't."

Kernel couldn't take it anymore. He stopped and glared back at the pursuing darkness. "I can't what?!" he screamed at it.

The shadow spilled the sand from its hoof. "You can't."

The clouds tightened until Kernel couldn't see anything in the darkness. He closed his useless eyes.

"You can't."