A Fawn's Journey

The fair of Östskog, deer were shopping while fawns played and laughed, jogging from one place to another. The stalls covered the entire street on both sides of the sidewalk, the fair began right at the entrance to the town. Unlike Elain's village, the street was full of life.

The siblings stood after the entrance, Elmer looked fascinated, that would be his first time outside the village. Elain enjoyed seeing her brother so excited and chuckled, she had already been there in previous years, but that time she felt something odd in the surroundings, something that caught her attention and made her suppress her smile. There were soldiers on every corner, deer dressed in pastel blue uniforms and armed with rifles and holstered pistols attached to the back with a strap.

Elain tried not to give it importance and focused her gaze on Elmer, she had to be more aware that her brother didn't get lost. They began to walk between the stalls, some sold food like fruits or cheese, others clothes. There was a wide variety of items that caught Elain's attention. She stopped for a moment to look around.

And when she least expected it, Elmer began to trot foward.

When Elain noticed it her eyes widened as she started chasing him, avoiding colliding with the rest of the deer, which severely slowed her down. Her brother, despite being slower, had the advantage of being smaller to dodge the crowd more easily.

After no more than twenty seconds of chasing, that seemed eternal to Elain, Elmer stopped suddenly, something from one of the stalls caught his attention. She rushed to grab his left forehoof.

"Don't do that again, please. . ." Elain said with a fake smile, trying to hide her nervousness.

Elmer ignored her "Eli, look!" He tried to point to a stall to the right with his right forehoof without losing balance.

Elain sighed and turned her head to see what was catching his attention. It was a stall full of toys, brought from Vaverfront according to the sign, a port city in the east that shares a maritime border with Equestria, famous for its export of wood and toys. She nodded and walked with Elmer towards the stall, still holding his hoof to make sure he wouldn't run away again.

When they got close enough, a hazel-colored deer with brown antlers focused his pink eyes on the siblings and greeted them. What caught Elain's attention was the haute couture suit that deer was wearing.

"Oh, Welcome! Please take a look around, you will not find better quality toys anywhere in the kingdom" He said with a grin.

Because of his bourgeois accent, similar to that of the nobility, Elain deduced that he was from Vaverfront.

"Hi" She said abstinently as she was looking around. The vast majority were wooden toys, they looked perfectly sanded and several were exactly the same, something impossible to do by hoof. Elain wondered how he did it.

"I like this one!" Said Elmer pointing at a small stuffed reindeer among the wooden toys.

"How much for this one?" Elain glanced at the reindeer, then looked up at the seller.

"Depends, how much do you have?" He narrowed his eyes and smiled at her in amusement while resting one hoof on the wood of the stall.

Elain rolled her eyes and put a hoof under her coat, looking for her saddlebag. She felt nothing, She had forgotten her saddlebag at home in her rush.

"Well. . . looks like i forgot the wallet, I think we should just. . . go away" She said embarrassed "Let's go, Elmer" She turned to the right, pulling her brother's hoof towards her.

"Hey, not so fast" The seller said with an almost threatening tone, Elain got scared.

Then something happened that made the world freeze. Elain saw that deer burst into green flames out of the corner of her left eye. Everything became silent for an eternal three seconds.

Elain looked around as several soldiers bursted into green flames too and other figures appeared in their place, black creatures with blue eyes and long fangs in black military uniform pointed their rifles at the remaining deer soldiers.

Gunfire erupted and chaos took over the fair, an uncoordinated stampede of deer began between screams and shots. Elmer was completely paralyzed in shock. Elain didn't understand what was happening, but one thing was clear, she had to get out of there. Almost instinctively, she pulled on her brother's hoof and carried him on her back in a heartbeat, then she began to gallop towards the exit of the town, this time too scared to think about whether she would collide with others.

Above them, a swarm of those creatures approached from the sky to reinforce the attack and prevent civilians from escaping. The few remaining soldiers tried to form a barrier while shooting at the swarm, all of them quickly falling one by one, in a desperate attempt to save as many civilians as possible.

Elain's pupils shrank, she was not prepared to see deer dying, especially not like that. Elmer, didn't make a sound. both fawns had just arrived and the fair turned into hell.

Elain was lucky to be close to the exit since both siblings only went through a few stalls into the fair. She managed to cross the exit, but then one of those creatures landed in front of her, causing her to stop abruptly. The slide of her hooves in the snow brought her closer to that creature. Now they were barely a meter away, this time she could see it in much more detail.

She spotted a print on the side of its steel helmet, the logo was a black trident with blue wings. A weapon visibly more modern than a rifle rested between its holed forehooves. Elain noticed it was a changeling, she heard stories about them but never saw one before, She couldn't tell if it was a mare or a stallion.

The changeling glared with icy eyes and hissed at her with their forked tongue. Elmer screamed in fright. Elain never screamed when she was scared, instead she lowered her head and rammed at the changeling with her antlers, hoping to keep running until she reached the forest, too many things were going through her mind, she was simply acting on instinct. Her reaction caught the changeling off guard and he moved to the side to avoid being rammed, then he started shouting things in a brutal language that she didn't understand, while he clumsily adjusted the gun to point it at her.

Elain kept galloping between gasps as she began to hear bursts of gunshots heading towards her, hitting the snow and causing small splashes of water that reached her fur. Luckily, she was already close enough to use the nearest trees as cover. The changeling didn't follow her, instead he hurried into the fair. She continued running until she went a little further into the forest trees, away from the main path. When she realized that no one was chasing her anymore, she stopped and sat in the snow, letting her brother get off her back.

Elmer sat on the snow next to her sister leaning his back on the trunk of a tree, he was weeping and shaking. Elain hugged him, trying her best to comfort him, although she was shaking too.

After a few minutes, Elain stood up after regaining her composure. She looked around to make sure no one was there following them, the sounds of gunshots coming from the fair had already stopped. She assumed that all the defenders had already died.

"We need to return to the village right now" She said with an altered tone.

"Eli, What was that thing?" Elmer asked timidly.

"A changeling" She paused to breathe. "We don't have time for this, I will explain later"

"Why do they want to harm us, What have we done?"

"I don't know, please, get up. We need to go"

Elain waited for her brother to get up, it didn't take long, then they both walked towards the village at a brisk pace.

Elmer had so many questions, he opened his mouth to start asking again but then glanced at his sister's face, she looked overwhelmed, a look that Elmer had seen very few times so he didn't say anything for the moment, he was afraid of making her upset.

Elain knew that part of the forest, so it was not a problem to find the path. Once they found it she quickened the pace since there were no more fir trees or branches to block the way.

"Hey, wait for me!" Elmer yelled between gasps as he tried to gallop faster to reach her speed.

And they both continued running down the path. It wasn't the most discreet way, but it was the fastest.

They had made good time, in just twenty minutes they were close to the exit of the forest towards the village. Elain decided to stop after noticing her brother was far behind.

"Come on! Mom and Dad are in danger!" She yelled at him.

Elmer couldn't stand the pressure and had to stop to throw up. Elain was panting, unable to think clearly because of her nerves.

After that moment of waiting, looking at Elmer with a wrinkled muzzle, she noticed one of the tips of his left horn was broken, probably from a shot from that changeling.

Elain didn't have time for this, finding her family as soon as possible was the most important thing at that moment, or at least that's what she thought.

"Come here right now! I won't stop again because of you!" She scolded her brother.

Elmer's eyes widened and began running towards her with teary eyes after vomiting, terrified by his sister's unusually threatening tone.

The race resumed at a slower pace for a few more minutes until they finally reached the village.

When Elain arrived at the village, she stood paralyzed in shock for what she found ahead, her pupils shrank.

Most of the cabins in the village were destroyed. There were a few changeling soldiers patrolling the area and two huge metal machines with wheels and a cannon as long as the trunk of a small fir tree.

Elain saw that her cabin was still intact. She shaked her head and motioned for her brother with a forehoof to follow her. She headed to the left, walking behind the first row of trees that faced the village, Elmer went behind her. The plan was to skirt the village until she got as close as possible to her house.

A hoofstep caused a branch to break, Elain jumped in fright. Elmer was about to laugh out loud like last night due to her overrreaction, but Elain put a hoof in his mouth in time.

A pair of changelings who were near the trees became altered, as if they could sense the presence of both fawns in some way.

Elain quickly grabbed her brother in her hooves and sat behind a tree so as not to be discovered, however, she could hear hoofsteps in the snow approaching her position. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest.

A male voice with static sounded out of nowhere, saying things in that unknown language. Elain heard how those hoofsteps were now moving away. She risked a peek and she saw how all the troops were heading south, towards those snowy plains. In the south layed the heart of Olenia, the great cities of Cervus and Hjortland.

Elain sighed in relief and released Elmer, he was completely in silence, both fawns started walking again through the trees until they were already close to their home, they took advantage of the fact that the soldiers were no longer there to get out of the trees. Elain looked around and ran directly towards the door.

The door was half closed, Elain kicked it open and went into the cabin first, no one was in the living room. The property was in a mess, as if a search had been made.

Elmer arrived after Elain, but unlike his sister he spotted something that made him scream and take a few steps back.

Elain turned around abruptly to see what was going on, she saw a stain of fresh blood on the floor, next to the wooden table, her eyes twitched. She turned around again and ran towards the stairs that led to her parents' room and quickly climbed them, tripping a couple of times on the steps. Elmer glanced at the blood stain as he followed her sister up the stairs.

She began jogging down the hallway once up the stairs, this time paying more attention to the details. The door to her parents' room was open. As se approached, she saw the window glass was broken, shattered glass on the floor next to some photo frames and clothes from the closets that were open. Her mother's black coat was lying between them, torn and stained with a few drops of blood.

Elmer arrived and stood behind Elain, she was blocking the way to enter in the room. He didn't understand anything and clearly he wasn't at all aware of the situation. Elmer couldn't resist anymore and started asking questions.

"Eli, What happened here?" He said with an altered tone.

"I- I don't know" She begun walking foward.

"What was that metal cage with wheels?" He entered in the room and stood in the right corner.

"I don't know" This time she took a longer time to answer as she took a look around"

"Where is mom?"

Elain didn't reply. Elmer was behind her, so he couldn't meet her eyes.

"Eli, Where is mom?" He repeated.

Again, Elain didn't reply, she was just standing still in the middle of the room.

He pulled her left rear hoof. Elain gritted her teeth

"Eli?"

"SHUT UP!"

She quickly turned around and glared at him, Elmer pupils shrank, meeting her glare with his own blue eyes. Elain was venting as she glanced around the mess multiple times.

"This is all your fault!" She continued scolding. "We could have arrived on time if you hadn't stopped!" She focused her blodshot eyes on him "You with your stupid questions only make everything worse!"

Elmer reared back and lowered his ears, teary eyes now looking down at the floor.

Elain's eyes widened as she suddenly stopped, consumed by guilt for what she had just done. Her muzzle sunk into a sad expression, but before she could say anything to fix that, one of the portrait frames that was lying on the floor behind Elmer erupted into green fire as another changeling in military uniform appeared behind him, smiling deviously at her.

Elain raised her hooves and grabbed her brother to pull him towards her, or at least that's what she tried when she suddenly felt a solid object that smashed her head away.

Everything went black.