The Twisted Paths of Spirits and Mares

The grass was soft and springy under my hooves as I slowly walked through a moonlit field of never ending grass. The Moon’s silvery light shown down on upon me like a beacon of hope in the sky. Its soft light sending a happy tingle up my spine, filling me with a sense of purpose. Though, what that purpose was, I had no idea.

As I looked around, my tufted ears flicked from side to side, trying in vain to pick up any source of sound but there was only silence. A large range of gently rolling hills stretched into the distance no matter what way I turned, and beyond those where black crenelated walls of which I could barely make out through the valleys.

My leathery wings flicked in mild agitation against my dark purple coat. I tossed my head up and to the side as a lock of light purple mane drifted into my view, removing the annoying strands of hair. “Where am I?” I finally said aloud, knowing that there was nopony to answer, but the frustration made me talk to myself just to break the eerie silence.

“You are in my domain, my child,” a voice answered me, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It chimed like silvery bells in a wind, soft and gentle, but with a power behind it that sent the fur on the back of my neck uncomfortably twitching.

I spun around for a moment, eagerly seeking a source for the voice. But there was nopony around. “Who are you?” I called out, my voice echoing along the grassland, still searching for a source of the voice.

“The Moon,” came the immediate reply, its tone carried the expectation of recognition. The weight of those words reverberated deep into my very being, and I knew at that very instant that this was the creator of my tribe. My creator. The Moon herself! My Goddess.

I swallowed nervously and shifted my weight around on my hooves. Goddess had never spoken directly to me before! Why is she now? What do I do? What do I say? I started to internally panic as I looked up at the softly glowing silver disk of light in the sky. In that moment, it soothed me, and I knew exactly what to do. “Forgive me, Goddess,” I said, still a little nervous as I spoke directly with my Goddess for the first time, hoping I had not offended her too much as I prostrated myself on the ground before her with a deep bow.

“You, who are one of my Faithful Children of the Night,” my Goddess explained. ”I have summoned you here for a mission of utmost importance. You must prepare the rest of my Children for the trials and tribulations to come. The revolting Spirits of the Sun gather their forces and will soon be on our shores,” the Moon’s voice echoed throughout the land, forcing my ears back from the sheer intensity as I unsuccessfully tried to dampen the sound. “That is my will. You will not fail me, my Child.” There was a definite hint of danger in that last part that had me shuddering in fear.

“But… What can I do? How do I do that?” I desperately asked, trembling at the words of my Goddess. I only knew Spirits existed! But I didn’t know how to fight them! How do you fight something you can’t even see?! I looked up at the Moon, hoping my Goddess would grant me wisdom for this task.

“You will know what to do when the time is right,” my Goddess’ voice said with a sharp finality to it.

“But-” I tried to call out to my Goddess, not wanting to leave it on that note.

“Enough! Go and do my will, Child,” the Moon proclaimed as the world around me vanished. I felt myself in a free fall, instantly spreading my wings, but it did nothing to alleviate the sensation. Time seemed to lose all meaning as I continued falling in the black void until the sensation stopped. It was replaced by something comfortably cradling my back.

<><><><><>

"... going to be okay?" a deep, gruff male voice filtered into my ears, muted and muddy at first, as if there was a wad of cotton shoved deep inside my brain keeping me from fully understanding what was being said. Though, after I realized this, full clarity returned almost instantly to me.

"How should I know? I'm no doctor! She looks like she’s walking through the gates of bloody Tartarus," a sarcastic and somewhat stressed female voice stated, ending with a small huff, but her voice quickly calmed down as she composed herself. "But at least she's still breathing." Her voice was definitely the closest to me as I tried opening my eyes.

"Hey, I think she is waking up. Hey you! Can you hear me?" The deep voice had damn near shouted right in my ear! Was that a hint of anger I heard in his voice? It was hard to tell as the rest of my mind was still feeling a quite fuzzy and sluggish.

"You idiot, you're going to frighten her! Go get me a bottle of grog and few pieces of the cleanest cloth you can find." There was a quiet sigh, a stillness of sound, and a slight rocking motion. Then came the rhythmic sound of heavy hoof falls that slowly got further away before ending with the thud of wood colliding with wood.

"Miss, are you awake?" the female voice softly asked me, sounding a little closer to my face than before. At least I detected no sense of hostility in her voice. "Can you open your eyes or give me a sign you understand me?"

I tried to open my eyes again and immediately shut them as the harsh light brought nothing but pain. “... owwww,” I managed to croak out. My parched throat burned when I spoke, like I hadn’t drank anything in a long time. “Water… please…” I croaked out in a ragged voice.

“Shhh, don’t try to speak right now,” the mare’s soothing voice gently chided. “Not until Iron returns with some grog so you can wet your whistle. And here, let me get this lantern away from you till your eyes adjust.” There was soft creak of wood as the mare moved and then a click that I assumed was the lantern being placed somewhere else since my eyes weren’t complaining to me anymore from behind my tightly shut eyes. ”There, that should be better. I hear thestrals like you don’t like bright lights.”

After a moment, I dared to slowly open my eyes, blinking the sting of the light away until I was able to focus on the lightly colored mare in front of me. She had a milky white coat, a light green mane and blue eyes. “Who… are you?” I managed to ask the mare, my curiosity winning over the soreness of my throat.

“Name’s Lily and you're lucky to be alive. You look like you have been to Tartarus and back,” she answered with a furrowed brow. “Oh and try not to move too much. I‘m no real expert on wings, but I doubt they’re supposed to be bent that way.” I frowned at that, noticing that I couldn't really feel my wings at this moment.

Those thoughts were cut off as I heard the unmistakable sound of heavy hoof steps against a wooden floor along with the tiny creaks and groans as everything gently swayed from side to side, rocking me and the hammock I was resting in. At least the hammock soaked up most of the motion, dampening it considerably as it comfortably cradled me.

My eyes turned to watch a large earth pony stallion walk in, carrying a brown bottle with him as my tongue subconsciously licked my dry lips. “I brought what you asked for,” he stated with a grunt, not looking at me as he held up the bottle to Lily and put down a bundle of cloth next to the mare.

“Thank you Iron,” Lily said as her horn lit up, surrounding the bottle of grog in her soft green magical aura. “Don’t worry, I will be fine watching her. You go keep us on course and ahead of that storm.”

“Yeah, yeah. Stay out of the storm,” Iron said before he turned around and headed back up the stairs, quickly glancing at me. Did he just glare at me? What did I do to him? Sorry for interrupting your day, buddy. Damn.

Lily interrupted those thoughts by putting the small, chilled bottle up to my cracked and sore lips. “Drink,” she ordered and tilted it up, the liquid inside splashing into my mouth. I coughed slightly and nearly choked for a moment before swallowing the harsh liquid as quickly as I could. The grog burned a bit but it felt like Elysium itself on my parched throat. Lily let me drink a few mouthfuls before pulling the soothing bottle back, letting me breathe.

Swallowing and licking my lips a few times, trying to spread that wonderfully moist liquid all around before trying to speak again, I asked Lily the question burning on my mind. “Where am I?” My voice was still a little hoarse and weak, but it was starting to sound better now.

“You’re aboard the Royal Fortune. Finest sloop to ever sail the Nine Seas!” Lily proudly answered with a smile. “And to be precise, you are below deck, in a hammock.” Her eyes ran over me over somewhat intently, a small smile on her face. “Mind telling me your name?”

The question, though a very common one when meeting new ponies, caught me completely off guard. What was my name? I racked my brain trying to think of an answer, though everything was coming back blank. How could I not know my own name?! But before I could freak out too much, an answer finally came to me in a flash of clairvoyance. “Night…,” I said softly, brow furrowed in confusion. “Night Shimmer,” I finished with a bit of effort, causing a mild headache to manifest. “Why can’t I remember anything?” I suddenly demanded staring into Lily’s confused and sympathetic eyes. “How did I get here?”

“Shhhh,” Lily said putting a hoof on my chest and gently holding me down. Not that she had to work hard, I was barely able to push myself up and even that was a struggle for my feeble limbs. “You remembered your name, that is a good start. But your body is very frail. It looks like you were starved for weeks! If we hadn’t found you when we did, you wouldn’t have lasted another few hours. As for your how, Iron pulled you up out of the sea.”

She hummed to herself for a moment as I blinked at the mare, racking my brain as to why I was in the state I was in. “I am going to go make you some soup, and while you are eating that, I can tend to your wounds. You can keep the grog for now, but it’s strong stuff so don’t drink too much if you can’t hold your liquor,” she half-jokingly stated, pressing the bottle into my hooves, and I took it on reflex.

“Okay,” I automatically replied as I stared up at the ceiling, letting the feeling of the chilled bottle take over my thoughts. It was a nice distraction for the time being as I was gently rocked back and forth, letting my mind settle on a few prominent questions I had. “Who... am I? Who is Night Shimmer? Why did I say I was Night Shimmer?” I idly asked to the ceiling, my eyes following a crack in the wooden plank as it swayed with the motion of the ship while I was pondering the question of one’s existence. “Why can’t I… why can’t I remember anything?” I demanded of the ceiling. “And what was I doing in the ocean?”

With the stained wood of the ceiling not providing the answers I desperately sought, I carefully turned onto my side and promptly hissed at the unexpected pain coming from my wing. I instantly stopped and slowly rolled onto my back, the only position that didn’t send sharp, white hot lances of pain directly up my spine. “Right… injured wings,” I muttered ruefully to myself, staring at the same spot on the ceiling once more, that one knot in the wood became my sole conversational partner for the time being. “My name is Night Shimmer, and I am a thestral, nineteen years of age. My parents are…” I trailed off as my mind offered me nothing but an endless void and a small headache as a reward for demanding answers from it. “My cutie mark means…” I blinked at that and slowly turned my head enough to try to look at my flank. I couldn’t even remember my own mark! And I couldn’t see it from my current position either! Oh, that was going to bug me.

“Okay, stay calm… Just try to remember something else,” I said aloud and looked back at the knot on the ceiling. “Thestrals drink blood and use that to power their magic. Unicorns channel magic through their horns. Pegasi can control the weather and fly. Earth ponies are stronger and tougher than the others,” I said after a moment of contemplating the wood grain in the ceiling. “I remember that, but not my parents?” My snout scrunched in frustration.

Anything else I was going to say to my wooden friend was cut off by Lily coming back, a steaming bowl wrapped in her light green aura floating alongside her. “Well, you’re still awake. That’s a good sign,” Lily optimistically stated, guiding the bowl gently into my hooves. It was nice and warm to the touch and the aroma it gave off was absolutely amazing. “Eat. Slowly,” she ordered with a warm and caring smile. “Food should do you wonders, maybe even help your noggin.”

“Thank you,” I said before awkwardly holding the bowl in my feeble hooves so I could sip out of it. The thick, hot soup had a delicious and savory fish taste to it that had my stomach grumbling, begging for more, with the first swallow. The warmth did my throat wonders as well. The grog had helped with the initial dryness, but the bite of the alcohol stung, and it wasn’t all that pleasant to drink.

Lily stayed by my side, attentively watching me as I ate, though I was too engrossed in the food to really pay the mare much attention. My stomach was demanding I eat the whole bowl right then and there, but I had to pace myself, which was extremely difficult. As the last of the wonderful soup entered my mouth, I swallowed it all and rested the bowl down on my chest. “Thank you…” I gratefully stated after letting out a content sigh as I glanced at Lily somewhat awkwardly and held out the bowl for her to take.

“You’re very welcome,” Lily stated with a small yawn and took the bowl from me in her magic aura. I blinked as I finally noticed how tired and worn down she seemed. There were large bags under her eyes, and she seemed to be fighting to stay awake. “One last thing I need to do tonight. We need to fix your wings,” she stated, giving me a serious look. “They won’t heal right unless we get them back into place, and you might not ever be able to fly again.” The bottle of grog replaced the bowl in her telekinetic grasp as she offered it to me once again. “Drink as much as you can. You’ll thank me later.”

Cautiously taking the bottle of grog, I glanced between Lily and the still cold bottle for a moment before nodding and exhaling, mentally preparing myself as I put the bottle to my lips and drinking as fast as I could. I nearly gagged at the repugnant taste and odor now that my mouth wasn’t a desert and I could actually taste it, but I got half the bottle down in one go. “Blech!” I gargled out, my head feeling like it was being shoved back full of cotton again. Lily’s aura pushed the bottle back up to my lips. I plugged my nose and went for round two, somehow managing to get the rest of the foul liquid down my gullet without it coming back up. Happy that I had finished off the grog, Lily moved the bottle away from my lips.

“Now, turn over on your belly,” she ordered, using her magic to help me before I could start on my own. The pain in both my wings and back gave me more than enough motivation to continue moving on my own as my head was getting fuzzier by the minute. “Bite down on this,” she added, practically shoving a small but thick length of rope into my mouth.

“Ok-,” I tried to say before I was magically forced to bite down on the rope. It briefly registered in my mind that the rope tasted like salt before Lily’s aura moved from my muzzle to wrapping around both my wings, making them feel slightly warm and tingly.

“On the count of three, I’m going to set your wings back in place,” Lily calmly stated as I started to get very anxious and nervous, biting on the length of rope in my mouth in anticipation. “One-”

All I heard after that was a sickening grinding sound as I felt both my wing joints at the base of my back shift in a very unnatural way. A moment later, there were two dual pops that resonated throughout my body, and then an overwhelmingly sharp pain like no other burned its way through my entire spine, emanating off the bases of my wings. I cried out and nearly bit through the thick rope as my mind reeled from the sudden trauma, the fuzziness rapidly expanding before everything was black once again.

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Slowly I awoke from my dreamless slumber to sound of the ship’s creaking timbers, that ever present noise echoing in my ears. I was still in the hammock, rocking gently back and forth with the ocean waves. There was sunlight filtering down from the deck above through the tiny cracks in the ceiling, making miniature spotlights that lit up the small motes of dust that hung effortlessly in the air around me. However, my wings felt much better, though they were still fairly sore.

“How long?” I quietly asked myself and tilted my head to the side curiously looking around the room. A sudden loud snore from my left side nearly had me jumping out of the hammock in a wild panic. My wings helpfully let me know that they couldn’t spread themselves open still as a small burst of discomfort filled my back. Glancing over my shoulder while still laying on my belly, I noticed that a wide strip of white cloth had been tied around my barrel, pinning my wings snugly to my sides.

Calming down, I glanced over at the source of the loud snoring. It was the earth pony stallion from earlier. I think his name was Iron? Now that I could get a better look at him, I swallowed somewhat nervously. He was at least twice as large as I was and looked to be all muscle as well. His mane and tail were a bright, solid orange and his coat was a slate grey. His ears kept flicking back and forth. Either something was annoying him, or more likely from the snores, he was having a dream.

My wings wanted to spread out of habit as I looked around for a way out. I didn’t want to be alone down here with this unknown stallion who seemed a little standoffish towards me. Carefully I slid out of the hammock and silently crept towards the stairs up. I paused partway through as I pasted Iron, my eyes drawn to the sleeping stallion’s neck. I licked my lips for a moment as a different kind of hunger started welling up inside me. I could almost taste his blood on my tongue... Shaking my head, I fought the hunger down, pushing it to the back of my mind, and instead climbed up the stairs and opened the hatch, slipping out into the warm daylight and salty air.