I look towards the sky and I am the prey, but also the beast. I scour the earth feasting in my name, wishing for a semblance of something worthwhile. The only thing I attain is sorrow that never ceases to leave. It’s apart of me now, so has the rest felt this fate. For I am an anomaly and nothing else.
A brush of leaves flew out from a set of bushes, floating down from the intense force that was applied to the bush. A rush of steps and breaths gave out into the cold forest air. Dirt flying from quick hits off the ground onto anywhere it could get too. Nature was a silent and indifferent creature that had no preference to anything. And the dirt was just the same, except for the creatures that were running.
A Griffon chasing after it’s prey, trying so desperately to stop its movement and maim it to death with its ferocious claws. The pony running with a full sprint, trying to stay alive for a few minutes more as to not find his fate as a mere predator’s lunch. They were in a duet of ferocious intent, each having their own reasons to keep moving. No pony was ever the wiser to what was deep inside, yet they would keep moving to a fear of their own.
The pony ran against the thick grass and past the tall dark brown trees, the rush of terror making his heart race, and his spirit going wild with the killer behind him. Tree after bush quickly went past him, before he scrambled and slid down a dead end. He looked at the giant marsh that was filled with vomit colored water, tainted with the threat of parasites and other menaces that would eat him alive. He turned around and found the griffon that was chasing him had paused itself, merely looked at him with a satisfied smile.
“Stay back!”, he said. Shivering with the inevitability of his demise. He walked a few seconds aback and nearly tripped over the squishy dirt into the marsh itself. The griffon took this chance, and raised her wings high before flying up and pouncing down to the Stallion with all her force. He merely crouched and covered his eyes for his death was about to occur in a few moments.
The Griffon looked at the stallion, and paused mid-air before she lowered her claws from cutting down her prey. Something in her mind had caused her to hesitate, a idea that made her reserved to just rip apart a living being just like that. Normally, she would not waste time tearing and eating whatever she wanted, but this thought had stuck to her and never left her consciousness. An uneasy feeling of confusion assailed her mind and it didn’t make things any better.
This stallion opened his eyes and saw the Griffon just sitting there near him. He looked at her solemn face and felt just as confused as she was. Then, he realized what was happening and stormed off with his hooves that digged into the earth with full force. He again stopped a few meters off when he heard what he couldn’t believe, whole-hearted cries of sadness. What was believable more was him running away to safety, but some crazy piece of him wanted to comfort the monster that chased him. He sighed and begrudgingly turned around towards her.
She continued to sob, her face covered with her claws. He appeared through the tall grass and watched her, an enigma that had no real definite explanation. There he trudged on a stick, shattering it with his powerful hooves. The noise caught her attention, and she turned towards it to see who she was going to eat standing before her. He raised his hoof in fear, before lowering down all the way to the ground.
“W-who are you?” he said, him hoping that this wasn’t a bad idea. His voluminous red mane contrasting against his light blue skin.
She looked at him, the awkward silence giving way to them both watching each other without a single movement.
There, she wiped away the tears against her feathered face, and stood up towards the stallion.
“Eh, my name is Alluralae, and… you?” she asked.
The stallion scratched his head and gave a sad sigh.
“I’m Star Luminescence, I was just passing through before you charged at me looking for a meal”.
She looked down at the marsh with it’s bubbling froth and dead logs with decay floating around until she groaned at her own stupidity.
“You had me too, why didn’t you just kill me and get on with it?” he asked.
Alluralae couldn’t believe her ears, he was still here asking him such a silly question like that after what she tried to do. It almost made her giggle inside.
“It’s complicated, I haven’t eaten in several days ever since I got kicked out of my tribe…”
Star’s eyes lit up from that information, it almost seemed like fate. Though, it was still too good to be true or a little too convenient. He gave a grin and turned to his side, his bare flank without a cutie mark on it.
“I couldn’t find who I was, didn’t have a mark on my flank. So I guess we're on the same boat as well.”
She looked at his hindquarters and stared guffawed. It really was too good to be true.
“So you were kicked out of your tribe as well? That’s… interesting.”
“Yea, I guess we both have that in common.” he eyed her happy disposition and wondered what exactly was happening right now, before he asked a weird question. “Say, would you like to come with me, I have a nice cozy cave you could stay as long as you don’t try to eat me again.”
“Really, you would do that for someone that tried to eat you?” she asked.
Star Luminescence nervously scratched his head, things were going to get a whole lot more complicated.
“I guess?”, he said. the griffon grabbed him and lifted him up in the air with a hug so tight, that he couldn’t breathe. Air racing out of his lungs, being squeezed out into the atmosphere. His chest tightening up into his body by the force of her hug.
“Okay-cch, okay, tag out please!”
She dropped him on the ground and smiled, before he stood up and stretched his limbs.
“Lead the way new friend” she said.
And so, they went their way to the cave that Star had said existed.
-)-
They arrived to the cave, it’s dark reaches spanned deep into the recesses of the cave’s network. The two peered deep into it’s depths, Star Luminescence walked forward into the giant cave hole and disappeared into the darkness. Alluralae felt a shock of energy drive down her back, she was shivering with fright at the sight of such unbearable lack of light in the cave. She couldn’t muster the will to move her claws into the cave to what horrors would await her there. It even scared her more, that the pony would just walk in nonchalantly like that.
“Are you coming or what?”, he said within the cave, his voice reverberated loudly against the stone walls that went outward to the world.
Alluralae motioned towards the cave, but she paused at one claw in the dirt. She stared into it’s mesmerizing darkness and swallowed a helping of saliva into her gullet. Into the cave she went, each step falling slow onto the ground. The darkness blinded her sight, but she continued by the original source of his voice. She continued, she raised her claw onto the cold cave wall and drove it along it’s base, the cold temperature cooled her claw’s palm.
