Umbral Storm

I had a splitting headache. From the edges of my head to the tip of my ears, and especially atthe base of my horn.

The pain even radiated down my neck and towards my wings, which even further radiated down to my hooves, which felt a numbing sensation as if I’d slept on them badly in a fitful night of rest.

Is there such a thing as a full-body migraine? I’d only been resting for the better part of thirty minutes, and it felt like it was getting worse by the second.

And I don’t know if it was trauma from seeing those terrifying umbrum, a daydream, or if I was actually going insane. I could swear that I heard deep whispers in my head, speaking completely incomprehensible nonsense.

The nonsense filled my mind with restlessness until eventually I grunted in annoyance and opened my eyes to stare at the mud and root ceiling. The voices immediately evaporated from my mind.

Flitter ran her wing over me soothingly, “Everything alright?” Her voice was tired and subdued as she forced a small smile onto her face.

I didn’t want to make Flitter worry even more about me. She had enough to worry about on her plate already, so I simply gave her a wary smile, “All good here.”

She raised a brow but shrugged as her head returned to the dirt like a rock. My eyes scanned the room and noticed a distinct lack of our new… bodyguard. I didn’t know what to think of the two-headed being yet... Xyka seemed pretty adamant on abandoning us if the going got too tough for them to handle. Nai seemed friendly all things considered, though.

“They’re outside.” Flitter muttered, “They said it helps them 'reconvene’ or something.”

I must’ve fallen asleep for a little while without realizing, huh…

I nodded and untangled myself out of her wings. Flitter looked at me scrutinizingly, “Where are you going?”

I dusted my tail and sides off, “Outside.” She gave me an unimpressed glare, and I laughed sheepishly. “I’ll be right outside with Nai-Xyka. It’ll be fine.”

She sighed, “Well, if you have to hide, just make some really loud duck noises or something, and I might save you.”

I giggled, “Huh?”

Flitter just shook her head in amusement and pushed my flank forward. “You heard me. I guess you could try a bird call if you’re feeling brave.”

I made my way towards the exit with a small groan, “I won’t need to make any animal calls. You’re weird.” I said through a laugh.

“Weird is good.” She huffed before closing her eyes again.

I carefully scrambled up the odd collection of roots and vines until I reached the entrance. I quickly took a peek out through the foliage covering me, and things seemed relatively similar. Still no sounds of wildlife, but the surroundings were still bright with the morning glow, which indicated no umbral storm immediately overhead.

I poked my head out, giving another cautionary scan, before fully pulling myself out of the den.

My body was still screaming out to me with every movement, but with everything going on, it was the least of my worries.

Okay, it wasn’t the least of them, but I didn’t have time to worry about it.

I looked to the horizon; the umbral storm was about half the distance away from when we’d found the den initially, which meant that it was making some serious headway as it crossed the valley below. The clouds… or shadows… morphed in the sky quite violently. If I were to make an assessment, I would say that it looked angrier than before.

I glanced around, seeing no signs of the small white wyvern. I did a full turn around, and there was no trace or sign of him anywhere. He wasn’t outside or anywhere in the surrounding area. I looked around in stark confusion before the pit formed in my stomach.

I immediately groaned and sighed greatly and let my head fall in annoyance. Of course he ditched us; we were the cause of all these creatures attacking him; we were dead weight in his eyes.

I shook my head with a growing sense of dread and turned back towards the entrance of the cave. I had to let Flitter know we would be on our own now and that we’d have to get moving.

“Quack!”

I yelped and immediately fell backwards in fear. Once my confusion wore off, my eyes adjusted to see Nai-Xyka simply lazing above me in a tree branch. Nai’s wing hung off the side without a care as he giggled and snorted happily.

Xyka had his wing folded against their side, but he couldn’t help the small smirk on his face even as he rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t sound like a duck at all, Nai.” He admonished.

Nai’s head hung off the branch and gave me an upside-down grin as he giggled mischeiviously, “You should’ve seen your face!”

I groaned and dusted myself off again as I stood, my wings aching from the sudden fall backwards. “You’re going to give me a heart attack, Nai. Is this really the time to be pranking me?”

Nai just waved his claw dismissively, “Hey, that’s better than an umbrum finding you instead!”

Xyka stood, causing Nai to roll his head back up, and they jumped down from the tree with extreme ease. Landing right in front of me like an acrobat, Xyka only tilted his head, and then they both turned away from me.

“I’m surprised you guys can climb and move with so much agility.” I commented as the two passed by me, “Isn’t it hard?”

I watched curiously as the two walked over to a large rock, laying on their back and soaking in the sun as Nai’s giggle fit finally calmed down.

I looked around nervously again at the precariously unhidden spot they decided to relax in. But I eventually shrugged it off and trotted up to the rock they were both on. Xyka shook his head at my question with only a small bit of consideration: “Nope, Nai pretty much lets me move our body.”

“Because it’s annoying arguing with you when we disagree,” Nai said with obvious annoyance.

Xyka continued as if he hadn’t heard him speak, “But if we have to, we both move in sync. It’s just our nature.”

An awkward silence filled the air afterwards as I sort of wobbled left and right on my hooves.

“So…” I had hundreds of questions for them, but I figured most were inappropriately timed right now. “How does your magic work? The light? Those beams?”

“Cool, wasn’t it?” Xyka smirked and waved his wing grandly. “It works the same as it does for you ponies, I’d guess.”

“Except for the charging part!” Nai countered, “We’re like flowers! If we don’t sit in the sunlight to recharge our energy, then we stay magicless until we can.”

That was a great analogy, though Xyka seemed annoyed by the comparison as he groaned deeply, “We’re not flowers.” He cleared his throat. “We are great trees, absorbing the light that splendidly spills upon us so that we may preserve the peace and tranquility of life!” He proclaimed proudly as he puffed their chest out.

“That’s mommas line. You make it sound really dumb.” Nai said unamused.

I took a step forward in intrigue; I couldn’t help excitement from climbing into my voice. “Wait, so you two know what it’s like to be magicless?” They both looked at me curiously, and I continued questioning, “Does it like… hurt you guys if you go for a while without it? Does it put you at risk if you don’t recharge in time?”

The two heads looked at each other with odd expressions. They didn’t say anything as they scuttled off the rock, walking around me in a circle with scrutinizing eyes. I tried to stay relatively still with a look of confusion over my face, until they went behind me and started messing with my wings. “Hey!” I called back to them, “What are you…”

No matter which way I turned, they stayed behind me out of my sight. Nai started ruffling with one of my wings, causing me to wince in pain. He sniffed it a few times. “Yep, you’re completely magicless!” He said candidly.

“I know that!” I pulled away in annoyance as I tried to dislodge my wing away from his claws.

Xyka tapped my horn a few times, causing my eyes to become disoriented as I shook my head to get him to stop and the pain to stop radiating downward. Xyka hummed boredly, “Aren’t alicorns supposed to be these all powerful magical ponies?” His head poked around my left shoulder and into my view as he gave me a raised brow. “Or was that just a big myth?”

I huffed at the devious little gremlin grin on his face. “Like I said, I’m just a copy of somepony else anyway. I’m hardly a real alicorn.”

Nai-Xyka jumped off, casually sauntering in front of me. Xyka pursed his lips. “That’s rough. So this ‘Princess Flurry Heart’ is the one who used dark magic to make you. And you’re some sort of… necromancy? I’m having a hard time grasping what you are.” He deduced with a hum.

I took a defensive step forward. “W-What? No. Flurry would never do dark magic; she’s good at making magical constructs! I don’t know what you’re smelling on me, but it’s not her-”

Xyka leaned dangerously close to my muzzle and tapped his own. “The nose doesn’t lie. Though I’d be really mad if someone made me out of dark magic then lied to me about it.” Xyka interrupted with a smug grin.

I grunted in annoyance, even if I wasn’t quite sure of it myself; to say that Flurry had accidentally invented some sort of dark magic to create me was just too far-fetched. “I hardly know you; for all I know, it could be a lie.”

…

Nai finally spaced into the conversation between us with an amicable point of view: “He’s right, brother, he doesn’t know anything about us, and we don’t know the whole story either. Best not to judge, like momma says.”

Xyka stayed silent as he steeled his expression, and the air between us grew quite a bit of tension. I could tell Xyka wanted to say something back to his brother, but he resisted the urge.

I sighed as I looked a bit impatiently at them. “You never answered my question earlier either.”

Nai looked up in thought before a lightbulb went off in his head, “Oh! Yeah, sorry, we don’t know. We’ve never gone that long without magic. And our magic probably works differently.” He laid his clawed wing against his chin as he hummed, “Though the elders have said it’s painful to be without our light, I’ve never heard stories of anyone going an extended period of time without it. The sun comes out every day after all!”

"Well, that’s just great,” I muttered with barely contained annoyance. “Nobody ever has answers, and I’m always stuck back at square one.”

…

The wind began to pick up quite a bit again, causing me to turn my head towards the looming cloud in the distance. “Have you tried meditation techniques?” Nai questioned with a hint of unsureness.

“Meditation? That’s supposed to help me do magic… how?”

Nai-Xyka’s wings flared out on their sides, and Xyka’s head upturned at the sight of the clouds behind us with a small glare of defiance. His head fell back on me a moment afterward. “Follow me. I wanna show you something cool.”

And without time to question or refute, they immediately turned tail and ran off. “Hey! Wait! We shouldn’t go far from Flitter!” I yelled after him as I struggled to keep up.

I continued to follow them through the lightly forested area as they happily zipped between each and every boulder on their way. By the time they finally stopped, I was slightly out of breath and a bit miffed at having to limp-run my way after them as they perched on top of a rock near a vine-covered cliff face.

“Hey!” I called up to them, “This doesn't seem like a great idea! Whatever… this is!”

Nai smiled, “Just watch!”

My breathing evened as I watched them with a raised brow. With their wings outstretched, at first they just looked like they were posing like a statue, which while majestic didn’t exactly mean anything to me.

Eventually their body seemed to glow dimly at first as their brows furrowed in concentration. Slowly the glow got brighter and brighter, and as it did, a bunch of small orbs of light began racing from every direction towards them. Being absorbed into him like a black hole.

My eyes widened in intrigue, as they only got brighter and brighter. Color began to recede from the area we were in until things started to disappear near them, making me look around in shock and worry.

Only a second later, the bright glow of their body was snuffed out, and my entire vision went black. I could physically feel that I was still there, but it was like I was standing in a completely pitch black void. “H-Hey, are you still there?” I asked with a hint of panic. I could hardly even tell if my right hoof was forward or my left. And I even began to confuse whether left was right.

Immediately afterwards they stopped their odd technique, and both light and color returned to the surroundings, leaving the wyvern panting heavily from on top of the rock. Xyka grabbed his head and groaned, “Brainburn aooww…” He groaned before panting quickly like an overheated dog to cool down.

Nai seemed to shake it off quicker as he looked down at me in excitement, “Cool, right?”

I looked back and forth for a moment and shrugged, “I mean, yeah, you sucked in every ounce of light so much that the color disappeared…” I huffed, “That’s pretty cool, but I fail to see why you’re showing me…”

They jumped off the rock and came up to me. Xyka shook his head. “It was a demonstration. One of our elders likes to do things like this a lot in front of all of us little ones that lack magic understanding. He always tells us that staying stuck in the mindset of magic coming only from within ourselves is a quick excuse to give up.”

I tilted my head greatly as Nai agreed with a nod, “Using magic from the core is convenient, but it’s never the only way to use magic! There is magic all around us; we just have to urge it into our control.”

“That’s great,” I said with a hint of annoyance. “But I can’t exactly just stop caring about regular magic. I sort of need it to live.”

…

…

“Oh.” They both remarked at the same time.

"Well, that sucks…”

“Sorry about that…”

Xyka and Nai expressed themselves quickly.

…

I couldn’t help but shrug and scoff slightly. "Anyway, what sort of magic is that? Are you some sort of sun whisperer or something? Did you just… tell the light to do things with your mind?”

“Yep, it’s called ambient magic. Magic that comes from the world around us.” Xyka nodded; he nudged my chest with his wings. “Our momma always told us… Sometimes the only thing you need is a small spark of hope deep inside your soul, and it can ignite the passion in everyone into a wildfire.”

Ambient magic? I vaguely remember Cadance going over that with me. Though it was a very short topic in the grander lesson of ponyology.

“But… that just looked like… photosynthesis.” I said with an unsure head tilt.

Xyka just sighed in an annoyed way, “Maybe for someone who’s inexperienced in magic, such as yourself.”

Nai laughed shortly, “It’s a practical application of magic that everyone should be able to do. Is what he’s trying to say. It’s so prevalent in our culture that often young hatchlings learn it first before anything else.”

While his words were interesting, I became lost in my own head.

“Cadance, why can some earth ponies talk to animals but not others? Shouldn’t they all be able to, like how pegasi can all move and shape clouds?”

Cadance gave a mirthful chuckle as she set her hoof on the book in front of us, her wing gently grazing my side. “Well… I’ve not quite figured it out myself, honey. But I’ve heard it described as them hearing the voices of animals carried in the magic that surrounds all of us. Like an enchanting feeling on the wind rather than actual words.”

“Can you talk to the wind?” I asked in wonder.

She giggled and pushed the hair out of my eyes. “Not quite…” She hummed in amusement. “I’ve never been good at that kind of stuff. I like speaking to the heart; the heart is funny.” She finished with a giggle.

Huh, I guess this was the same application of magic…

My eyes widened as Nai’s head popped between us; his eyes shone brightly in excitement. “Sun Whisperer though?! That’s such a cool title!”

Xyka turned them around, and they began walking back where we came with a sigh, “Already taken by Elder Kildra-Moss…”

I clicked my tongue after thinking for a moment about his previous words about how we all could use it. If we all could, then all ponies would be the same, right? I voiced my concern, “I doubt that I have the ability to use that type of magic if I can’t even use regular magic at all.”

Xyka stuck his tongue out at me, “Never know if you never try.”

“Everyone has a soul,” Nai chirped.

“You should know that better than us even! You’ve died, haven’t you?” Xyka questioned. “You must be very aware of the outline of your soul.”

He was right; it never really felt like I was Flurry because I could always feel something deep inside of me telling me this was wrong. That this wasn’t how I was meant to be. That must be my soul, deep down, trying to tell me that it wanted out.

And then there was always that dark coloration and unsure shape of my soul that I’d seen. Always twisting with a color deeper than any void, I didn’t ever like it; I would always shiver at the sight.

What a whimsical concept death and souls are.

“Not really,” I mumbled shortly. “Last time I saw my soul, it couldn’t decide what it wanted; it just turned me into this black shape of messy confusion. That was a dream though, so who knows what it could mean?” My thoughts made me remember Luna, and I felt a hard pang of sadness deep in my chest.

I never did get to say anything to her. But then again, she never contacted me in my dreams since I ran away. Surely it was due to a practical reason, like my lack of magic.

Not her hating me…

After a little walking, Nai interrupted my thoughts by stopping dead in his tracks and pointing with a wing, "Oh, oh! Look at that!”

We all looked in the direction of what looked to be a massive cave opening in the side of the cliff. And of course Nai-Xyka immediately shot forward towards it in excitement, "Hey, we really need to be getting back!” I called out with an outstretched hoof. A deep, unsettling feeling formed in my chest.

Xyka scoffed and called back, “It’ll just be a minute! We’re close to where we left Flitter anyway.” They took their first few steps into the cave. “This place is cool!”

Nai giggled excitedly as he whistled, “Wow!” I could hear his voice echo loudly from super far away. “This is huge!”

They both examined the monstrous entrance to the cave with glee. Acting like they’d never seen something like it before. “It’s just a cave!” I called, “Really not that interesting guys!”

Nai looked back, “For you! We live in the open plains! We’ve never seen caves and mountains and stuff.”

Oh, because they hadn’t seen them before. Well, if we were waiting for Flitter to recharge anyway, then I guess a little bit of sightseeing couldn’t hurt them… I sat my flank down next to a fallen tree stump as I watched them with a mildly amused smirk.

Xyka scuffed his wing on the ground and sniffed the stone. “Why does it smell weird here?”

As they got a bit deeper, Nai formed a small wisp of light above them and began to shine it everywhere around their surroundings. There were large divots in the stone everywhere; they shone their light. I began to grow anxious as the wind picked up even more. Looking over on the horizon, the storm had made considerable progress towards us.

I lifted my hooves around my mouth, “Hurry up, we can’t stay all day!” I called.

Nai-Xyka just walked even further in, even as Xyka turned his head with a smug grin, "Ah, come on! Are you scared!?” He called back to me with a cackling laugh.

They walked further in as Xyka began making mock ghost noises back at me.

They stopped dead still in the cave, causing Xyka to become disoriented as he looked at Nai in annoyance, “Are you scared too?”

Nai just pointed forward with his wing and an expression of horror on his face; slowly, Xyka’s eyes followed his gesture, and they were both staring face down with an extremely angry ursa-minor.

I couldn’t help but laugh nervously as my eyes widened. “You might wanna leave!” I called while hopping over the fallen log and hiding behind it, just barely peeking my eyes over to watch.

As they were taking cautious steps back, Xyka turned his head towards where I was. He was clearly terrified, but he tried to stay overconfident. “No no. You talked about showing off earlier? You haven’t seen anything! Watch this!”

“Brother no…” Nai begged, his eyes turning into pinpricks.

Xyka turned back around and released a blast of light magic directly into the face of the stalking ursa-minor, the blast illuminated the cave as it made contact with the bear’s forehead.

And then it bounced off.

Directly into the sky like a beacon…

…

Nai-Xyka cowered against the floor as Xyka laughed nervously, "Alright, mommas right maybe we’re better at diplomacy-”

They immediately got swatted by the ursa-minor with no regard for their existence. I watched as they flew out of the cave and flew all the way past me behind the log and collided with a tree nearby.

I waited to see if I needed to run away as I watched the cave. The ursa-minor didn’t leave, only standing at its entrance and roaring deafeningly for a few seconds straight, almost causing me to fall over due to the wind pressure. It quickly snorted with pride and turned around to wander back inside.

Maybe it was scared of the storm too.

…

I turned around. “You alive?” I asked while watching the limp body of Nai-Xyka slide off the tree and face plant into the ground unceremoniously.

After a moment, Nai’s head popped up out of the dirt. “I don’t think Kieran or the creature liked your trick, brother. Maybe you should’ve fired something a bit more powerful to impress him…”

The only signs of life that Xyka showed were immediately after those words as he shot up and growled in Nai’s face, “Well, of course, I didn’t use all of my power! I didn’t want to actually hurt the animal! I’m not a monster, jeez.” He scoffed with a bright red face.

“Why are you trying to impress me?” I asked incredulously, with a raised brow.

Nai covered Xyka’s head with his wing as he started ranting angrily, “Oh, don’t worry, he does with everyone.”

I swiftly detected a few large cracking sounds, and my attention was drawn to the tree they had impacted, which splintered and groaned. I immediately stood and dodged out of the way along with the sore Nai-Xyka. It cracked and splintered all the way up, and finally fell greatly with a large thud that kicked up an entire cloud of dirt.

I coughed as I stumbled out of the cloud, disoriented, with Nai-Xyka not far behind.

There was an air of silence as I felt like we were all just processing what had just happened, which was quickly countered with the wind picking up even more. I felt myself stumble as I caught myself, and we all looked toward the umbral storm. It was clearly growing much bigger and coming our way much faster than it had only moments before.

I felt a searing pain ignite deeply in my mind as I lowered my head and seethed at that feeling.

“Little one…”

…

…

“Nice going Nai.” Xyka huffed.

“Me!?” Nai growled back. “You shot at it!”

“You led us to the cave!”

“And you got too confident again! You never listen to momma about your ego!”

“They aren’t here right now if you haven’t noticed, Nai!”

I recovered from the pain and turned my head swiftly with a stamp of my hoof at the two, and I groaned angrily as they butted heads, “Not the time!” I pointed towards the storm with my hoof, “We grab Flitter and get out, now!”

Nai seemed to wilt under my tone as their wings hung dejectedly. I started running as best as I could with my injured leg as we made the few hundred yards over to the timberwolf den. Nai-Xyka stopped and allowed me to go down first, as I quickly slid my backside down into the hole.

“Flitter!” I called out to the form laying in the corner.

As I got closer, I noticed that something was immediately wrong, as she was panting in her sleep and there was a very noticeable layer of cold sweat covering her. Her chest was heaving, and she was shuddering in her sleep.

I immediately became worried as I trotted over and began lightly shaking her. “Hey, Flitter. Flitter! We need to get out of here.”

She came back to the waking world with a loud gasp and her eyes opened to me with a pained expression, “O-Oh, of course.” She tried to smile at me, but as she shifted her body, she immediately groaned in pain and winced.

My ears folded on my head as I watched her ragged breaths mixed with the pain. “W-What’s wrong?” The anxiety in my chest at the moment seemed to explode.

She didn’t answer, just looked down at me as she bit her bottom lip.

“Tell me!” I pleaded with her as I nudged her with my hoof.

Her face only showed resignation and sadness as she pointed down with her wings. I quickly moved around her to see as she revealed the problem.

There were multiple lacerations on the back of her legs, so many that it looked like she had been caught inside a storm of glass. They ran all the way from her flank down to the base of her hooves. Some weren’t as severe, but some were bleeding heavily.

My blood ran cold as my mind connected the dots. They’d gotten so close as to cut hairs from my tail, I hadn’t even considered…

…

I didn’t know…

How was I supposed to…

…

Why!?

…

I immediately ran over to the entrance and poked my head out in a panic. Nai-Xyka was waiting patiently as I looked at them desperately. “She’s injured. We need something to wrap her legs with.”

Xyka lifted his brow. “Now both of you are injured?”

Nai nodded his head swiftly with concern. “What do you need?”

I grew flustered and snappy, especially as I watched the dark clouds loom closer. “I don’t know! Like leaves and some vines! Something to cover it! Quick!” Nai saluted, and the two shot off into the foliage right afterward.

As I pulled my head back in, Flitter was trying to move herself up onto her legs, but she immediately seethed with pain and collapsed back into the dirt with a gasp and a loud yelp.

I ran up and laid my hooves on her back, “No no, stay down until Nai-Xyka can find something to help.”

“Just go,” she seethed through gritted teeth. She looked back and gave me a sincere smile. “I’ll be fine, but you need to go, Kieran.”

I immediately shook my head firmly as I felt tears brimming my eyes. “No! I’m not leaving you here!”

“But they’ll catch up…” she huffed, reaching forward a hoof and caressing my cheek, “It’s for your own good!”

“Who cares about my own good!? I already died once, you haven’t! So what if they catch me?” I refuted in anger as I pulled her hoof off me and held it in my own as tears streamed out of my eyes.

“You’re younger than me. It’s fine! And they seem to be after you, not me!” Flitter tried to argue.

“But if they find you, then who knows what they’ll do?”

She huffed, “I’ll figure it out!”

Anger rose in my chest at the idea and I yelled at her, “I’m not leaving you!”

“Just go!” She yelled back.

“If I leave you, then I’m no better than my brother!”

…

…

Flitter’s lips quivered, and I steeled my expression again and shook my head. “And I’m not him. I’m not him because you told me that I didn’t have to be.”

The air was heavy. “I’m going to figure this out. I promise, Flitter.”

I stayed with her and just sat there as I made sure she didn’t move. It felt like eternity passed in those moments as my anxiety and fear only built until it was an impassable mental wall. It all blanked on me the moment the wyvern finally returned.

“I’m back!” Nai-Xyka called as they zipped down the entrance of the cave.

Nai immediately conjured his little light portal, or subspace, whatever it was. He pulled out these great big leaves and a bunch of vines. He sniffed the leaves as he hoofed them over. “They smell good, like medicine. But I don’t recognize any plants her? So I can really only guess.”

Turning them around on my hooves a few times, I nodded thankfully and quickly moved behind Flitter. I did my best to wrap the leaves around her legs. I was no doctor, and had no medical training, but I figured treating it like gauze would be a good start.

Xyka hummed, “I have an idea. We’ll be outside!” He called as they zipped back out of the entrance.

I continued to wrap leaves tightly and then tie knots around her legs with the vine, even through her wincing whines and grunts of pain. Tying knots with your teeth was exceptionally hard, but something about the urgency of the situation was making me go at a speed I was rather proud of.

I finished one leg and set it down gently as I looked up worriedly. “Is that any better at all?”

She seethed through a huff of pain, “I… I think so. It feels a bit numb now.”

“Did I wrap too tight?” I asked in panic.

“No, no, I think it’s whatever leaves they are. It feels fine.”

I took her word for it and hurried onto the next leg. Thankfully, this one wasn’t nearly as injured as the last, and after having dressed her other leg, I did the other at record speed.

“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything.” I huffed angrily through gritted teeth as I held a vine in them.

Flitter sighed. “Adrenaline is an impressive motivator. I hadn’t really noticed until you fell asleep for a bit.”

“And still you said nothing?” I looked up and asked her with a hurt expression.

“I thought I was overreacting at first.” She replied guiltily.

As I finished tying the last knot, Nai poked his head in. “Are you almost done?”

Xyka’s head followed. “Uh, guys, we need to move very soon.”

After he said that, Flitter tried once again to stand, and she did so shakily. Though her legs wobbled, she managed to support herself against the den wall, as I stared helplessly at her, wishing I could give her a shoulder to lean on.

Once she got to her hooves, she sighed greatly. “It helps, but I don’t think I can run with you.”

“You won’t have to, c’mon!” Nai called down to us as they retreated from the entrance.

I ran up to the entrance as I concernedly watched Flitter make her way up the tangle of roots. She winced with every step, but I could see that she was putting most of her weight on her front two hooves. And with enough effort, she finally got her head to the entrance. I held my hooves out and wrapped my forelegs around one of her front hooves and began using all my strength to pull her out of the small hole.

With enough heaving, we finally managed to get her up and out. But not without her legs flaring in pain as she grunted loudly. She huffed with annoyance as she stumbled against a tree. “I can’t! I won’t be able to walk, let alone run.” She said dejectedly.

“Don’t need to!” Xyka said as they approached with something.

My eyes widened as I realized what they’d done. They had crafted the most ramshackle looking sled imaginable, using an enormous flag and weaving it between a layer of sticks that were tied together with rope and a few large leaves on top.

Both me and Flitter looked at it in surprise. As I circled in intrigue, “Where’d you get the flag?”

Nai hummed, “Well there was this really big and terrifying castle just over that hill over there… but it looked crumbled and abandoned, so I’m sure it’s fine.”

“How did you…” I shook my head. “Right, you’re fast.”

“Xyka tied the wood together, so don’t be surprised when it collapses.” Nai admitted.

Xyka growled at him, “Whatever, get her on already!”

I looked up at Flitter and nodded as she wearily stumbled over, and though it was a tight fit as she lowered herself on, once she curled in on herself a little she fit perfectly fine onto the small sled.

I nearly fell over as a gust of wind made me look upon the looming clouds, now only a valley away from us and hovering over a cliff.

I scrambled quickly up to the front of it, pulling one of the loops on the corners of the flag, which still had a small rope attached to it. I quickly pulled it up and around my chest. Nai-Xyka followed me and grabbed the other corner before looking at me. I nodded thankfully at them.

I closed my eyes as a surging headache came upon my body and I momentarily winced. I heard odd muffled voices swimming about in my head, but as soon as I opened my eyes again, they were gone.

“Where are we headed, anyway?” Xyka asked.

“The nearest town, I think it’s called Ponyville… It should be in the direct opposite direction from the storm.” Xyka nodded affirmatively at me, “Alright, we go!” I commanded over the howling wind.

The first moment of trying to walk was rough as I nearly stumbled a few times and we got into the rhythm of walking together. But after a few moments, we were walking in sync, slowly, but we were still making headway.

…

There was a somber air as nothing but the howling wind whipping around us, and the wooden sled rumbling across the ground beneath us made a grating and unpleasant sound.

Eventually Nai spoke up, a bit lightheartedly, “At least the way forward is pretty much flat.”

But none of us really seemed keen on talking at that moment, as it dropped back to a dull and heavy silence.

…

…

We’d been hauling Flitter for what felt like ages now. Some parts were simple, and others were exceptionally hard, as we had to maneuver around rocks and other inconveniences. On more than one occasion, me and Xyka had gotten into arguments over how to approach situations, only for Nai to come in and suddenly make decisions for us.

The umbral storm was still following at a steady pace. Every step felt futile as the clouds neither grew more distant, nor did the wind die down.

Each step just felt like a delay of the inevitable. And if I was being perfectly honest, it seemed unavoidable at this point.

My limbs ached beyond belief, my body felt tired, and yet the forest ahead of us felt never-ending. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, only continuous trees, bushes, and rocks that made me feel like I was going insane. Like this was some sort of delayed purgatory after dying on earth.

Nai was certainly holding onto his positivity. “Oh! There’s another owl nest up there! That makes twelve.”

…

…

“Look at that waterfall over there! That’s number four!”

“Can you stop?” Xyka rolled his eyes.

He wilted as his head dipped to watch the ground as it passed us by.

I slowly sighed as I looked over, “So… on a scale of one to ten, how dangerous is an umbrum, really?”

Nai pulled his head back up. “It depends…”

Xyka nodded. “The average umbrum is limited in mobility. They can only move within the shadows, with dark clouds, or at night. I wouldn’t say they’re any more dangerous than a pony can be. They’re just extremely hateful and resentful. They hold grudges forever and cannot be reasoned or bargained with.”

Nai hummed, “They usually only attack in groups.”

…

“There are exceptions, of course.” Xyka sighed, “Imperators…”

The wind almost seemed to howl even louder at the word as Nai nodded in agreement, “They’re scary.”

Xyka continued to explain with an odd stare forwards, as if he was remembering things. “It’s just what our people call them. It’s the name we give to an umbrum that has a physical body.”

“A physical body?” I questioned.

He nodded, “They can morph into shadows whenever they want, and having a physical form provides them with the ability to use dark magic, or to disguise themself amongst regular beings. Far beyond what a regular umbrum can do. Also, they seem to still have personalities that can think about more than hatred. They’re cunning.”

“Sombra,” I muttered to myself in thought under my breath.

Xyka eyed me before continuing, “They’re dangerous. Umbrum love to torment someone until they are either taken over by another umbrum or turned into one themself. The higher the magic of the victim turned umbrum, the more potent the dark magic the umbrum can use. I’m guessing that whoever ‘Sombra’ is was a powerful pony?”

“Only a unicorn…” I replied under my breath. “And even he was still very powerful…”

…

…

Xyka’s wing reached out and nudged me, “Hey, if we’re lucky, then they don’t have any imperators in that storm. They are quite rare after all. My people only know of a few.”

“If we’re lucky.” I mumbled…

We crested over the top of a hill and I sighed in relief, my limbs getting a temporary respite from the constant strain.

“Uh… guys?” Nai called over the wind. “I don’t think we are lucky.”

Me and Xyka both raised our heads to see what he meant, and it became instantly clear. Through a set of trees and bushes, the forest seemed to disappear, and once we got closer, we realized why.

We were standing over a cliff face, at least a good hundred feet up. Far below us was the last mile or two of the forest, and in the far distance the town of Ponyville sat.

But that was still far, far away. And down a whole cliff, including jagged outcroppings of rocks that looked like they’d tear your body to shreds.

Xyka growled and stomped his back foot angrily, “You moron! I thought you said it was flat, Nai!”

Nai whined with tears brimming his eyes. “I thought it was! I-I couldn’t see the entire way…”

“Stop…” I told them monotonously as my face darkened. “It’s not worth arguing over.” I muttered coldly.

…

“We go around,” I announced with finality as I turned and waited for Nai-Xyka to join me. They quickly helped turn the sled and began walking with me.

Both of them seemed lost for words, or maybe too scared to speak to me because of my change of mood.

“Is something… wrong..?” Flitter mumbled as she stirred from her cold sweat of a dream and blinked her eyes open.

I turned my head back and gave a wide smile, “It’s alright, go back to sleep. We’re bringing you home.” She yawned with a small smile spreading on her face, and then she slightly moaned in pain before her eyes closed and her head lowered again.

With every step we took along the ridge of the cliff, I watched as that dark looming cloud got closer and closer. Me and Flitter were at the mercy of Nai-Xyka’s light now, and whatever else may roadblock us once again.

I felt a chill crawl down my spine as an actual boom of thunder loomed overhead, and lightning racked about in the clouds overhead. Signaling us like a predator realizing it was finally about to catch its prey.

As we walked along the cliff, it seemed like it would never end, like there was no way down other than rock climbing. With each second, and each step, I felt a little of my composure wash away.

I was tired…

I was in pain…

I was going to bring Flitter home?..

I didn’t even know if I’d ever get there myself…