A pony Story

The mare stood her ground, she stood beside the stranger.

"I am a fighter and I am not going anywhere!" The mare spoke to the stranger. The two ponies faced the rabid hybrid as it charged again. As the stranger distracts the beast, the Pegasus takes to the sky and then plummets back to the ground sending splinters and bones in every direction. With a triumphant grin on her face, she approaches the cloaked stranger. The mare lifts her hoof in gratitude. Then she sees the stranger's fore-hoof. A small trickle of blood is weaving its way down their fore-hoof and to the ground. The Mare's eyes go wide.

"You are bleeding, we need to find help and get you looked at!" The mare shrieks. The stranger just ignores her and turns to leave but the Hybrid's damage has already been done. The young pegasus mare jumps in front of the stranger and tries to stop them from walking away. The cloaked pony tells the mare that their life is none of her concern. She should have run far away from the forest when she was told to do so. The stranger resumes their walking and again the pegasus mare jumps in front of them.

The stranger, wounded and frustrated glares at the striped Pegasus. The cloaked pony tells the mare to move out of their way.

"I will not!" Shouts the young mare. "You are wounded and you are in need of help!" she continued. The stranger looks at the mare from under the hood of their cloak in surprise. No pony has ever helped this stranger before. This young Pegasus was right though. The stranger needed medical care. The hybrid's scratch had begun to burn. They were feeling a little light-headed and weak. Celestia's day was almost starting, the colors of a new day filling the dark sky.

The two ponies stood in the darkness of the forest staring at each other, neither one moving. The hoot of a nearby owl interrupted the ponies. The stranger is growing weaker by the second from the hybrid's scratch. Feeling weary they lie on the ground where she was standing to rest from the night's excitement. The Pegasus stands to watch over the stranger. She keeps a sharp eye out for any more trouble.

Half a day goes by. The mare is getting hungrier with each passing minute. The stranger still sleeps as the Hybrid's
poison runs through the Stranger's body. The mare has a hard choice staring her in the face, leave the stranger, find food, and help or stay starving and stay with the pony that just saved her and keep her safe. It takes her a few minutes to make up her mind. The stranger still sleeping and the mare's mind began to wander.

"I want to help this pony..." She just looks at the cloaked pony next to her and continues to think. "They're sick, they need help."

A twig snaps nearby the pair and the mare turns her head in the direction of the sound, she remained quiet as she stood up keeping her eyes and ears facing where that sound came from. The stranger heard the noise as well and began to stir, all they could do is lift their head and shake off the hood part of their cloak revealing their head. The mare saw a shadow coming out of the trees and she opened her wings to their fullest extent and fluffed up the fur on her chest making herself look bigger than she actually is. The approaching pony began laughing at the scene before her.

"Relax young one, I am not here to harm you, I have come to help your friend." The mare still did not move from where she stood in all of her puffed-up glory. The cloaked pony was still laying on the ground, they could not say a single word, they try to stand up but quickly found out they are too weak to even try, this caught the mare's attention and she relaxed her wings and folded them back in place and slowly stepped aside to allow the newcomer to look at the stranger. She looked at the cloaked pony then turned to the Pegasus mare and asked her what attacked them. The Striped mare explained what she thought it was, a Hybrid Timberwolf. The newcomer's eyes went wide with fear and mumbled something that sounded a little like, "It's worse than I thought." The Pegasus relaxed completely and gave the newcomer a confused expression, the newcomer told the mare that she would explain as soon as the trio got to a safe place in the Everfree. in a few quick movements the newcomer mare picked up the now unconscious cloaked stranger and carried her on the newcomer's back and they walked a great distance from the clearing where they were. The newcomer lead the way and the striped mare's jaw fell open just a little at the sight before her.

A walled village in the last place anypony would have thought. In the deepest and darkest part of the Everfree. The newcomer mare welcomed the Pegasus Mare to her home, The Village of Kara-nah, and she explained that it meant New Home in Old Ponish and was founded by her mother a great queen who has long since disappeared moons ago and now she was the ruling heir, then she introduced herself to the mare as Princess Jay Feather, Sister to Hazel, Daughters of MedicineArrow, Great Queen of the Everfree. then asked if the Pegasus mare had a name as they walked through the village to the medical hut passing homes and market stalls. The mare said she did have a name but every time she shared it was strange sounding to her ears as she hardly ever said it out loud to herself or anypony else.

The mare had previously heard the princess said that it was worse than she had thought, she asked the princess why she had said that instead of giving her name by this time they were walking into the medical hut, The Princess laid the cloaked stranger on a cot and explained to an older looking Black and purple Pegasus mare the pony's condition and that they needed to be watched closely, she then turned back to the red mare and asked her to follow her back to her home where the Princess would explain to the mare in greater detail. Once in the hut, the Princess walked over to a bookshelf next to the fireplace where the two ponies sat. Jay browsed her collection of books looking for one volume in particular.

"Rules, How to's, Village Financial Managing...AH! Here we go!" the Princess exclaimed as her guest looked up from her steaming cup of tea.

"This I think will help explain why I said what I said, The Second Volume of the Queen's Journals," Jay said as she used her magic to carefully place the tome on the table between the two mares and open it to the page she wanted.

"Here!" Jay broke the silence that settled in the little hut and the Pegasus looked away from the warming fire to see the young Princess was looking at. "It says here that it all started when a Unicorn arrived in the village..." She paused for a moment taking in the realization of what her mother did.

"what is it? please tell me what is going on?" The mare asked sounding nervous Jay looked up from the pages she read.

"It says that the Unicorn came from the Hollow Shades that is located North and East of where we are. It says that The Queen had him help her apprentice, Nightshade make an elixir of life so she would not age whenever she would leave the EverFree because of the oath she took many moons ago." She stopped reading and plopped down on her cushion lost in thought. It was a solid few minutes before she spoke.

"I took that same oath... I have never set foot outside this forest... My mother always said she could feel the forest and all of the Ponies who came and went, She kept them safe as they traveled within her domain, I don't have that feeling...." She stopped and looked at the mare then back to the record that her mother wrote, she flipped ahead a few more pages and continued to read.

"It says the Unicorn had heard that the mirror pool in an underground cavern, is where an old stallion placed my mother as leader of the younger ponies of HIS clan as he was released and left with the older members, he took them to their reward..." Looked up once again at the mare. "My best guess he took them to a safe place to sleep for the Eternities." It was pretty clear that the mare was wondering what this had to do with her question and her quest, but she listened quietly. The Princess resumed.

"Reward... The Unicorn snuck out during the day after spending the night in the Queen's home, according to this that he was heading for the sacred cavern to finish the elixir... It does not say what happened next." Jay said after flipping forward in the book a little bit more, then turning them back trying to find what she needed, then she stopped and got a closer look at the pages and let out a quiet gasp.

"There are pages missing!!" She shrieked making the Pegasus jump, spilling the last drops of her tea.