I opened my eyes.
Above me, shadows of trees shifted against the night sky, clouds peppering the horizon.I breathed out, and a cool column of vaper escaped my muzzle.Something tingled along my spine, and my head throbbed.
I was out here for a reason, but what?
“Hello, is anypony there?” I called out into the cool night.
Suddenly a murder of dark birds lifted from their perch, dispersing in a cascade of cawing and shrieking; and then silence, the ornery kind that ignored the wind, that hollow breathing husk that rustled through my mane.
I was alone… but all the same, I felt watched.
“Hello?”
Again, nothing.
Why was I so alone?
I felt like sompony should be next to me… like I had just been talking to … a lover?
I wanted to hold somepony's hoof… to shelter up against their side against the endless imposing wilderness about me.
I shivered in the cold
It felt like the trees were reaching over to grab me… to consume me.
I tried to think back to what had brought me into the forest in the first place… but I found my mind blank.
Dearest Luna, who even was I? My head throbbed.
I picked a direction and began walking… no particular destination, no particular goal, just moving for the sake of moving, just trying to bring some life back to my cool numb hooves.
I circled for a bit, pacing from tree to tree…
Then something caught my nose. A sweetness lit the air. Mesmerized, I followed as it led me through the woods.
I could almost see the scent, it was so potent.
Now I had a goal… a purpose.
My stomach growled.
With a start, I realized; I was hunting.
The moon slipped back behind the clouds.
Eventually, the trees cleared. Before me stood a ramshackle cabin, degraded but inviting. A wholesome light illuminated the windows, but still, I was afraid. Who lived in such a place... in these dark dank woods?
Trembling, I approached the door.
I stared at it for a moment. It loomed above me… for a moment seemingly more menacing than the trees.
I shouldn't be here… I should run, I should leave.
Sompony is going to get hurt.
I shook myself. No, I needed help.
I raised my hoof and knocked twice, timidly calling inside.
"Hello?"
There was silence. I knocked some more.
Suddenly the door crashed open, and a pink form, a stalion burst out from within.
"Hello! Hello! Oh my goodness, you look so cold! Come inside, please, come inside."
Suddenly the smell returned. The hunger came with it.
The world grew suddenly sharper… and a deep anger swelled up inside of me.
That evening I had been lamenting over some older books of long-forgotten lore...
My marefriend loved old stories, and I thought I might find some great quote or poem to use when I proposed to her… I sincerely hoped she would say yes.
But I couldn't focus. Not that focusing had ever been my strong suit, but this somehow felt different. On that night my nerves were stretched, and my ears were twitching... It was as if something was off... or about to be off.. It was a sensation of wrongness that refused to leave me alone.
It wasn't the first time I had felt this nervousness... In fact, it happened quite often... too often.
It was the sort of feeling that was impossible to truly infer anything from... if I did, I would always be on edge.
In the earlier days of Twighlight's rule... there had been a surprising uptick in friendship problems… honestly it was all too often something more than a friendship problem.... and ponies like me and my friends were called on to help solve them...
Something usually went wrong.
Something always went wrong... so I became used to having my guard up.
Always being ready,
Always being ready for anything, alert.
It made me nervous.
Even now.
But all the same… this nurrvisnes felt different… I was buzzing with anticipation for… something.
Shards of glass lay about my hooves, a lamp I had attacked in self defense, from when it had loomed over me in just the wrong way.
Buck me.
Wincing I levitated a shard of glass from my foreleg. Blood ilked from the wound.
Dam.
I dug through my desk.
Bandages, bandages, I kept them around here somewhere.
Always ready, always ready.
The nervousness ticked inside of me, an ever increasing ticking of a doomed clock.
KNOCK Knock knock
I nearly fell out of my seat, dropping the bandages on the ground.
Tap.
Tap Tap.
Maybe it was just some tree branch hitting a window.
"Hello?" a voice called
I nearly jumped into the ceiling…
Luckily the surprise didn’t trigger me snapping out a zapping or explosive spell.
Tap tap tap.
Some branch?
No. This was some pony at the door.
I approached the door. Celestia I wished my lover was here, she always knew how to calm me.
Heart beating like a torrent, I opened the door.
A stone gray mare stood shivering … It was summer… maybe she was sick… or maybe scared… was somepony after her?
"Hello! Hello! Oh my goodness, you look so cold!... Come inside, please come inside.
The wind shifted and clouds moved revealing Luna's moon beyond.
Suddenly standing before me... was no earthpony mare... but a large wolf staring at me with fiery glaring eyes.
She pounced.
I couldn't breathe I couldn't bear to remember. Tears streamed from my face and a dark abyss opened up inside of me. I was there looking into his eyes as, as the light, the cool ember’s flame of life, flickered and faded from within them.
It was over and there was no new beginning to be had. It had ended, he had ended, and it was me that had brought the end. Nevermore, nevermore, never again would I hear his voice, never again would I feel his soft embrace, and never again would I look into his eyes and see the burning embers of life.
I cried, my tears flowing onto the soft fur of his pink flank, onto the raven that was his mark.
All he wanted to do was tell me he loved me.
The evil had ended. It would never bother Equestria again. He could do no more harm. I had made sure of that.
Gripping with my teeth I pulled taut the cloth binding the cut on my leg. He had gotten me… but it was only a scratch…and he was dead. The evil was over.
The moon peeked out from amongst the clouds.
