She has heard the rumors and the terrifying tales. Of the brindled stallion that is no longer what he once was and of the white mare that accompanies him; she has heard of their vast abilities and the chaos that erupts in their wake, of the danger they pose to those in which they come in contact with. Sunlight was fine with these stories and even encouraged them.
Her gold-tipped ears would search the forests for those who had come in contact with them, becoming more and more intrigued by what was happening in the realms of kingdoms and royalty. She had never cared herself for those kinds of stories of the rise and fall of kings and queens, an idea she made clear when speaking to her uncle Obscene so long ago. This story, however, is nothing like the ones she had heard previously. It instilled a hunger within her, her golden eyes sparking hotly with something like curiosity and mild jealousy. She would probe their minds without permission, seeking the next part of the story.
It is when there is mention of nightmares and darkness all around Tephra - her once home - that Sunlight no longer wished to be a spectator in the story. She wished to place herself directly into it, unsatisfied with being a simple bystander. She wanted to see it for herself.
She did not doubt that what she saw inside the random strangers’ minds. Her perchance for danger and uncertainty fed her motivation like oil to her fire, interested to see these characters interact with someone like herself - someone who burns brighter than any magma that may spew from the silent, groaning volcano in the distance.
Sunlight walks through the inland grasses lazily, as if she had not spent years away from the place that had been her home. It isn’t anymore, she quickly realizes once stepping foot within it once again. There is no love lost here in the ashen peninsula and she is not here to request that the nightmares that frightened everyone away would come to a conclusion. She does not care about Tephra and what it has become. It is why her fire is released from beneath the darkness of her hooves with each step, bright white and hissing the moment it touches the dry gold of Tephra’s summer grasses.
There is a darkened trail in her wake, where the gold stalks turn to ash with each step forward, igniting and spreading away from her until it is stopped by either the few trickles of inland sea streams or joined into one of the many lava flows.
She is unaware of the terrifying tales that are told about the brindle stallion and the white mare. It was naïve of her to be without this knowledge. Divest would have been surprised, shocked to learn that the brindle stallion was Gale. She had spent the last six months in the company of the monster that masquerade as her childhood friend, unaware he was the monster from the terrifying tales.
Gale had not been that monster though; he had not been the creator of chaos and destruction that the rumors speak of him to be. He had been the same brindle stallion she knew as a young filly—awkward but charming with his bright blue eyes, eyes she could never look away from. How could someone like that be a monster?
But he is gone now.
Nowhere to be found for weeks.
Divest could not find him anywhere, only that his scent was fading away from the humid jungle. The nightmares that creeped out of the heart of the jungle were diminishing, but she could still feel the darkness, the nightmares lurking within the shadows. Maybe he had not left after all, but still, she could not find him.
The jungle had been quiet lately, except for the jungle noises that she has become used to. She has watched it quietly in the passing of weeks, mostly discovering she is entirely alone. The nightmares Gale had mentioned when she first arrived in Tephra had not harmed her, but she is not sure why. Maybe Gale had known how to keep her safe.
She is surprised to find another, within the distance crossing over the crisscrossing streams of lava and springs, during this hot summer afternoon. With each step, a trail of white fire flares from the black and gold marked sabino without much care she notices. A curious flicker of her ear moves forward, unaware of what brings the stranger here to the jungle, so she moves towards the mare to find out.
“Hello,” she calls out, closing the distance between them. The pastel mare moves with grace with every step, her long silver tail trailing behind her. A welcoming smile touches her lips and stretches across her finely crafted facial features. Divest does not show her caution towards the stranger, she wears a warming expression to masquerade such things. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone here,” she says cutting to the chase, “My name is Divest. Who are you?” She knew the black and gold marked mare was not a familiar face of Tephra.
Sunlight is not greeted with fire and brimstone, no nightmares squeeze into her mind and there are no shadows nor darkness to pierce her flesh. She is actually quite disappointed with the severe lack of anything - all in all, the kingdom is still what it had been when she had left many years ago as a filly. She briefly wonders if her sisters are still here, but the sting of their memory is enough for Sunlight to brush their faces away from her mind, also brushing away any affection she might harbor for anything or anyone besides herself.
Her gold-tipped ears flick towards the unfamiliar voice, surprised that this is the way she was being greeted. She had expected an inferno, for the volcano to be in shambles and lava to be spewing uncontrollably - she had even expected to be attacked, but instead is sorely surprised to be greeted by a green woman who she holds no recollection of that seems equally surprised to see anyone else amongst the inland plains as well.
The fire-laced woman snorts, halting her feathered legs but doing nothing to douse the trickling fire she had started. Her white flames are hungry it seems, eating up the dry golden grasses with little assistance. Perhaps the woman is merely a distraction, a ploy for the real darkness that lives here, so Sunlight remains aloof with little fires sprouting from her fetlocks.
“Divest, hello,” comes Sunlight’s curious reply, her brilliant eyes deeply narrowing as the badger markings of her face outline their intensity. She flicks her tail almost impatiently, sparks of white flame crackling within the gold of her tail the movement. “Everyone is gone?” she asks mildly, turning her attention away from the pastel green mare for a moment to scan Tephra fleetingly, wondering if the statement rings with truth. The tri-colored mare peers into Divest’s mind briefly and openly sneers at the realization of the truth. “Everyone is gone,” she clarifies with certainty, turning her face sharply towards Divest with something like a smile.
Sunlight sighs as if to regain her composure, rolling her shoulders. The flames still chew at the grass, slow and methodical in their listless trance. “My name is Sunlight. I used to live here,” she admits, though there is no love lost for the volcanic land. She had come only to see the chaos but now seems to have missed it completely. Her pale lips press together firmly, thoughtful.
“Where is everyone? I find it hard to believe a whole kingdom would just up and leave.”
