It was cold winter’s night, and the woods were deathly silent, save for the chirps of crickets and the hoots of owls. As the light of Luna’s moon shone in the dark sky, a unicorn trotted through a narrow dirt path. This unicorn had chocolate brown fur, and even darker brown eyes. His black mane was tied in many dreadlocks, and his tail was tied in a big braid. He had a wooden cart attached to his back as it wheeled behind him.
Yellow magic incased the brown unicorn’s horn as he looked over a map with a furrowed brow.
“Well this map was a waste of three bits,” He groaned as he shook his head. “I don’t even know where I’m going,”
This unicorn’s name was Tyrius. He was going on a trip from Ponyville to Appleloosa, but he had gotten lost in the woods. This map that he had bought, was a piece of junk. The ink was faded and blotchy, and the shape of the land wasn’t even right.
Tyrius sighed in frustration as he stuffed the map away. “Fucking useless,”
After about an hour of wandering, Tyrius began to yawn. He wouldn’t get far if he kept on going while he was exhausted. After a few minutes of searching, he found a small cave.
Using an axe that he kept stored in his cart, Tyrius made his way over to some trees and started to hack away at it with his axe. He needed a fire if he was going to survive the night.
With a spark of yellow magic, a fire was ignited on the bundle of wood. Tyrius sighed and lay himself next to the small fire. It didn’t take him much time to fall asleep.
~~~~~~~~
Tyrius awoke as he felt the fur on the back of his neck prickle. He slowly stood up. He looked at his fire pit and noticed that it had gone out some time ago. He turned his head towards the cave. Wasn’t the cave smaller last night?
Tyrius couldn’t explain it, but he felt like he needed to go in the cave. He heard inaudible soft whispers in his ears. He felt a tug on his heart, and he began to move forward. It was like his body went into auto pilot.
He went deeper and deeper into the dark cave, his horn glowing yellow with magic to light the way. The cave began to get colder and colder the further in he went. The sides of the cave soon weren’t even visible. There was only darkness. The light coming from Tyrius’s horn was useless against the extreme darkness.
Tyrius looked behind him, and to his horror, he couldn’t see the opening of the cave from where he came in. The unicorn’s heart rate picked up as his adrenaline spiked. Even with his magic, he couldn’t see a thing. He whipped his head around frantically, looking for any source of light, no matter how small.
Suddenly, Tyrius’ yellow magic failed. He tried to ignite his magic again, but it was like someone had muffled the magic with a pillow. It was there, but out of reach.
He began to panic as the darkness seemed to press down on him. In the deathly silence, he felt a presence, but he couldn’t pinpoint where. He felt like he was being watched. He felt exposed, like something was coming, but he didn’t know where. Was something behind him? In front of him? Above him? Below him?
Soon, there was nothing.
No more sound.
No feeling.
Just then the darkness seemed to pulse. From the inky blackness, came a figure. It was a dark and shadowy figure, and the only thing Tyrius could make out clearly, was the very distinct red eyes. Tyrius’s heart rammed against his rib cage as his breathing picked up. Overwhelming fear took over his entire body as he began to shake involuntarily.
The figure stopped short of Tyrius, and looked at him with its haunting red eyes. Suddenly, Tyrius felt something snake around his front hoof. He looked down and screamed. A pitch black coil wrapped itself tightly around his leg. He tried to shake it off, but as he did, another one wrapped itself around his other leg.
He tried to scream, but a coil wrapped around his muzzle, effectively shutting his mouth and muffling his words. He thrashed around as the coils began to wrap themselves around his entire body.
Just before Tyrius’s eyes were covered, he saw the figure before him change. It had changed into a pony. Its horn was crooked and sickly. Its brown fur was so dark it was almost black. It had pitch black hair that spilled over its shoulders. It had huge dark brown bat-like wings upon its back, and its red eyes pierced Tyrius’s soul.
Tyrius’ eyes widened with horror as he realized that the figure before him, had taken his form, save for the darker coat, mangled horn and bat wings.
“Who... are... you?” Tyrius managed to choke out.
The creature before him didn’t do anything, except for look Tyrius straight in the eye. Tyrius felt the last coil of black cover his eyes, and all he could see was darkness.
In the darkness, all Tyrius could hear was one word: “Typhon,”
After the creature uttered that word, he felt as if he were going faster than light itself. He wanted to scream, but his extreme terror made it impossible. He screwed his eyes shut, hoping that this would be all over soon.
He wanted more than anything to just go back home to Ponyville. He regretted ever going on this cursed trip. He just wanted to escape these horrors, and go back home.
Why couldn’t he just go home?!
Tyrius’ eyes snapped open as he gasped for breath and sat upright quickly. He hyperventilated as he looked around him. He was on the cave floor, with his wooden cart in front of him. In a panic, he scrambled away from the cave as fast as he could, ditching the cart.
As he ran, he realized that it was no longer night time, but mid afternoon. He began to slow down at this realization. He stopped running as he came across a flat plane of grass. The grass went on for miles. Tyrius sighed in relief when he realized he was out of the forest. He collapsed as he caught his breath.
He tried to wrap his head around what had just happened. He didn’t understand. What was that creature? And why did it look like him?
The unicorn droned forward with no emotion as he tried to digest the events of last night. Or at least, he thought it was last night.
Even when Tyrius found a town and found somewhere to stay, he still thought about what had happened. Even weeks, months after that day, he could not get that name out of his head. The name that would haunt him the rest of his days.
Typhon.
