Truth In The Shadows

Truth In The Shadows

By Music Brush, assisted by Mechafone.

CHAPTER ONE:

IN THE EVERFREE

   Celestia's sun was rising, the sunlight peeking through the leeves of the trees and the Everfree Forest was unusually quiet for some reason. Mirage walked slowly through the vines, hidden in the bushes taking extreme caution to make no noise or sudden movements. He was using his magic to make color of his coat match his surroundings making him hard to see and he masked his sent with dirt and mud only minutes ago.

   There was a snap from behind, the only response he made to the sudden noise was his ears turning back to listen for anymore movement. He slowly turned his head back, his breathing steady as he looked to see nothing was back their, at least not at first. He stept closer, his breathing steady and eyes unblinking then he a head poke up in sight. Just a deer He thought to himself and saw three more smaller deer grazing next to the first. And a mother deer, no less.

   He backed away, slowly so he would not spook the family as they enjoyed their morning. When he was in the all clear, he let his coat return to its origional color, his coat was s rich black and his mane a deep grey and he was covered in dirt from masking his sent from many of the wild animals. He brushed the dust off his cutie mark with the red scarf he wrapped around his neck revieling a single star infront of a mirror with smoke rising behind it.

   He then began trotting through the forest toward the nearest river stream. He knew these woods better then anypony, he had been living here for many years and learned how to look after himself, to hunt, to hide, when to fight monters or not and... Oops.

   He stopped his forhoof from hitting the plant infront if him, spread across the forest floor were bright blue leaf plants. Almost stept in Poison Joke. He also learned what plants to avoid, the poison joke he learned the hard way. When he first came into the forest to fend for himself, he came across the poison joke and was cursed with the floppiness of a stallion who had to much to drink for weeks, he was lucky to have made it that long without anypony to help him.

   He looked around to find another way around the plant, there was no clear path on the ground and his destination was on the other side of the Poison Joke. He looked up to the trees and spotted several low branches for him to use. He trotted over to a tree and jumped up grabbing a low vine with his teeth then used his magic to pull him up toward the branch. He jumped from branch to branch until he was past the Poison Joke then jumped down to the ground and cintinued his trott.

   After a good ten minutes of trecking through the forest, dodging hungry bears and other wild beasts, he came to a large river. He trotted up to the edge of the shoreline and stopped to check the flowing stream. It appeared to have nothing swimming in it, but he knew that an aligater or a dangerous monster could be hiding anyway in the water, waiting for the right moment to strike.

   He levitated a small pebble from the ground and threw it into the water. The water began to stir and Mirage to a few steps back, though he probably knew what he would see next he still did not want to take any chances. Soon a purple sea serpent streteched out of the river, it had orange hare and a mustache perfectly groomed and stylized. The serpent rubbed its head as though it had a headache.

   "Ow! who threw that rock?" The serpent asked as it searched the area until its eyes fell on Mirage. The serpent leaned its head down closer to the unicorn eyeballing him angrily. Mirage did nothing as the serpent approached, he just stood there staring at it. The serpent stopped right infront of Mirage, stared at him for a few minutes then sniffed. "That hurt, Mirage." He said.

   "Sorry." Mirage replied. "I hade to make sure it was safe for me to wash up before I went hunting for breakfast." The serpent smiled at the pony.

   "Well, the water is beautiful. I'll gve you some privacy while you clean up, you sure coild use it." Mirage gave a nod to the serpent then removed the scarf from his neck and placed it on a stone before getting in the river. He dived in the water to soak his mane, he brushed his hooves over his body to get the dirt and mud off. He was done scrubbing but he remained in the water for a while to soak for a minute before he got out to air dry.

   He trotted over to the rock he placed his scarf on, but his scarf was not there. He looked around to see if anypony was around then back at the rock and saw some fresh hoofprints on the grond that were not his. The hoofprints were leading toward the trees, he saw something peek through the leaves and heard what sounded like a quiet fit of giggles.

   "This is not the time, nor the place to be playing around" He called in a serious tone. "...and I don't play games." The giggling only increased as movement in the trees indicated who ever was around started to run off.

   Mirage rolled his eyes and started to run after when he heard a scream fallowed by a monstrous raor. He bolted after the scream through the trees and found pink pecasus mare with a yellow mane on her back as an Ursa stood on its hind legs, its claws outstretched ready to strike.

   Mirage ignited his horn as he ran up to the beast, using his magic to give him the appearance of a Timberwolf and jumped in between the Ursa and the mare. She turned and buried her head under her hooves, her eyes closed tight.

   The Ursa raored at Mirage as it swung its claw at him, he ducked under the swing and jumped as the Ursa came back with the other claw. Landing on the Ursa's arm, he bit the Ursa causing it to raor. He did not notice the other claw coming for him as the Ursa smacked him of its arm like an ant. Mirage rolled after hitting the ground, then quickly stammered to his hooves to face the Ursa, but the Ursa had already closed the distance between them and swung its claw at him. Mirage did not have enough time to react, the Ursa hit him in the side flinging him toward a tree, wich he collided with a hard 'thud' that nocked the air out of him. He collapsed to the ground, coughing some blood from his mouth, his magic faded leaving him in his pony form. He shook it off, struggled back to his hooves and saw the Ursa heading back to its origional target.

   The pegasus did not know the beast was about to attack her, she was still hiding under her hooves. Mirage ran up to the Ursa, his born glowing, and blasted an energy bolt at its rear causing it to bounce and roar. Mirage did not stop, he blasted more bolts again and again at the beast until it started off into the other direction into the trees. Mirage fired one more blast at the trees before stopping, breathing hard as blood trickled down his chin on the ground.

   He looked back at the pegasus, who had lifted her head from under her hooves and was now looking at him in shock. She appeared to be in her twenties, quite pretty and innocent looking.

   "Are..." He panted. "Are you... okay?" His legs threatened to give under his waight, but he was not going to let himself fall now. She slowly nodded her head, looked down at the red scarf then held it up to him.

   "T-this is yours." She whimpered. "Please don't be mad at me for taking it. I just wanted to..."

   "Why were you out here in the first place?" Mirage interrupted. She shrieked, ducking her head down from him still holding the scarf up at him. "You know the Everfree Forest is dangerous, don't you?"

   "I..." She said, still holind the scarf up. "I j-just wanted to..."

   "Never mind." Mirage said. He took the scarf from her hoof and wrapped it around his neck. "C'mon. Let's get you outa hear before that Ursa Miner comes back." She looked up at him in shock.

   "T-t-that was an Ursa M-m-miner?" Mirage only nodded his head, whiping his chin with his hoof. He looked the blood and rolled his eyes.

   "Damn it. I had just got washed up too." He sated flatly.

   "I'm sorry." She said, as she got to her hooves. He looked up at her, about to say something when a roar came from the trees.

   "C'mon. We gotta get outa here!" He said, pushing her the other direction.

   They had been walking through the trees for half an hour now, he would have had her out sooner but he was injured from the battle with the Ursa. He was limping and his back was bruised and the blood from his mout dried on his chin. The pegasus hopped along side him, almost as though that ordeal back there never happened.

   "Oh!" She said, looking over to him. "I'm Valentine, by the way. What's your name?" Mirage kept silent for a minute as he limped his way forward.

   "I'm Mirage." He answered.

   "Mirage?" She asked. "That's a cool name. Do you come out here in the forest often? Well you must since your able to fight an Ursa Miner. How did you fight that Ursa, by the way?

   "I just used my magic. That's all." He answered.

   "Oooh, you must be very good with magic. Is magic your special talent? You have a star infront of a smokey mirror for your..." She was cut off by his hoof at her mouth.

   "Do you always talk this much, or am I just lucky today?" He asked.

   "Well, I have to talk if I want to make new friends." She replied.

   "Well, you can stop trying to make friends with me, because you're going back home and I'm going back into the forest." He stated sharply.

   "Like that?" She asked, pointing to his bruised figure.

   "Trust me kido, I've had worse." He answered.

   "Oh, no you don't. Your not going back out there until we get you fixed up." Mirage blinked at her statement. The last thing he wanted was to be around other ponies.

   "Look, it's not that I don't appreciate your offer, but I just can't go into town."

   "Oh, yes you can. And I won't let you go anywhere elss untill you're back to the way you weee when I first saw you."

   "I'm sorry kid, but I..."

   "Nope. Let's go, Mirage. To Ponyville!" Mirage placed a hoof over her mouth.

   "Have you gota death wish?" He hissed in her ear. "We're in tbe Everfree Forest where even nature can hurt you. Now unless you want another Ursa on our hooves, I suggest you keep your voice down." She nodded, then they bith continued their treck through the forest.