The gate in the back pasture had been left open. This was a serious error that none of the barn staff had ever committed until now. Someone had been extremely careless and now, one of the foals freshly weaned had gone missing. Stolen, was the first thought then it became more likely that the foal had simply wandered off with nothing to stop it - like a gate, that should have been shut tight and locked.
Gosh, she was tired!
She’d been walking, and walking, and walking without end. Her hooves felt like they were going to fall off and she swore her legs were growing sore by the second. Of course, she had no actual comparison for time or soreness - she was now a grassfed baby fresh off her mama’s milk and put out to pasture in the back with the other foals like her. Or at least, she had been until she’d seen the break in the fencing and gone to investigate because she was way too curious to ignore such things as that.
Stupid!
She reprimanded herself, a small voice shrilling through the gray matter of her brain inside her big skull. Beneath the big blaze covering her face, she frowned as she stopped to take stock of her surroundings. Snowy. Everything was snowy and cold. But the cold didn’t bother her that much since she was a big shaggy thing - all fur and hooves and a big face that started to blink back big fat tears. She swore she wouldn’t cry! No tears! This was an adventure and she just had to ask for directions back to the big farm and pretty white fences lining the pastures, that’s all.
Sniffling and scuffing her big feet through the snow, she came upon an iced over puddle. Big brown eyes started up at her from a sad hairy face that had long whiskers and a bit of a beard. They were her eyes, she realized. Pitiful, but hers and with one stomp, she broke the ice and splashed around in the puddle for a moment until she was good and muddied up. Hah! Let them deal with it, those idiot people that left the gate open and allowed the baby Clydesdale to walk right through it. She huffed out a dragonlike puff of air, but it was a weird little snort that sounded more meek than ferocious.
Fleck, lost and alone, began to feel the weight of the world settling heavily upon her shoulders. What now? This was all so… different.
Margaux stepped daintily through the snow, at last coming through to a patch that met her satisfaction. She dropped her neat black nose to the belly-high drift, blowing a hard breath. The dainty filly delighted in the puff of snow that blew away from her face. With a groan of happiness, she fell over sideways and proceeded to roll luxuriously in the fluffy cold stuff. This was her very first winter, and so far she LOVED it. Mama had left her here earlier in the day, saying she needed to go and do biggie things for a bit. She said she'd be back later to get her. Margaux paused her rolling for a moment, coming to a rest on her side, breathing hard. Mama had been so sad lately. She hoped whatever she was doing today would make her happier.
Pushing worry to the back of her mind (it was not in her nature to worry), Margaux jumped up suddenly. With a kick and a whinny, she darted around in a burst of energy, making snow fly from tiny hooves. She looked like some weird, puffy, possessed teddy bear, galloping on her stubby legs around the wide open space. Leaping over half-buried logs, she was a shaggy, pale red comet. She was an unstoppable stampede. She was... crashing! Oh no!! With a shrilly shriek, she collided with a tall, leggy someone. She had been so concerned with her trailblazing dash that she hadn't noticed anyone else around "OOOPH! Oh, I am so SORRY!" She groaned as she pulled herself up from the ground. Snow had padded her landing, but her nose was sore from where it had collided with the stranger's barrel. She stepped back a pace, looking up at the towering filly she'd barreled into. She noticed that the dark girl had dewy eyes, and was making sniffling noises.
"Oh dear, I really am sorry. I didn't hurt you, did I?" She babbled in concern. It was almost comical, as she only came up to the Clydesdale girl's shoulder, but she felt genuinely worried that she had somehow managed to injure the sad filly. She danced in place nervously, her red-and-cream tail whipping wildly back and forth. Margaux tried to smile up at the drafty child, her short neck stretching up to look at the bay lass, hoping to reassure her. Oh, she was going to feel absolutely awful if she had done any damage. She had only been trying to have some fun, while Mama was gone...
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved;
In secret, between the shadow and the soul. Trivial things can make the world seem like it’s ending…
She didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to leave all their friends behind—she pled through her hot tears and when pleading did not work, she said things out of anger that she did not mean; hateful, hurtful things that made their mother cry and their father furious. She thought they deserved it; if it was so dangerous, why wouldn’t they tell them what was going on? Why wouldn’t the adults tell them what they were so afraid of? It wasn’t fair.
The only one that wasn’t afraid was Bastion, he rallied the soldiers and led an army straight up the tall mountain (despite his father, their old general, begging him not to). The weather was wicked that night; snow seemingly fell by the pound, it was a blizzard unlike anything they had ever seen and still Bastion continued to march right on to fight the unknown foe—
Bastion was not like his father.
Bastion was stupid.
Bastion woke them.
Bastion was the first to die.
Zella was the one that found his head in the snow. She screamed until her throat was raw, until her parents and the other adults came running to chase down whatever assailant was hurting her; Bastion’s father buckled and cried like a baby—after all, Bastion’s mother had died in the spring and now the old man had no family he could claim. She thought that was the worst thing in the world, to have no one left to love.
Screams and cries made their rounds through the crowd as the reality of what happened sunk in; the relatives of the soldiers were the worst, she would never forget the way they sobbed. The others? The others were even more afraid now, because Bastion had woke them and now they were hunting; the army was the first to go, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
They tried to flee.
Zella and Zola’s parents headed south while the others went west—south, their father said, where it was warm and where ice dragons did not dare tread.
They almost made it.
Zella would never forget the look on her mother’s face—frozen solid, stopped dead in her tracks, she looked so sad and afraid. Her body shattered when the dragon landed, the ground shaking beneath the sudden drop of its weight; eyes wide, her heart hammering wildly against her small chest, she nudged Zola roughly and kept mouthing the word ‘go.’ They ran, while the beast stayed behind and feasted on the icy remains of their mother and father in the snow.
Until the real ending is staring you right in the face with a mouthful of teeth.
She was gaunt and cold, tired and sick; meandering through the Playground earned her the concerned look of a fairy who made a mental note to tend to her later—you know, once she had settled in. She didn’t see the trees that rose up all around them, she didn’t hear the children laughing and playing; she saw a vast frozen wasteland and heard everyone screaming, heard them screaming while they were frozen or ripped apart and—
Zella blinked, brought out of her stupor when she accidentally bumped her shoulder against her sister’s; she shivered, purposely leaning against her twin for support while they continued trudging through the snow—at least, until the little red dun girl came crashing into the big ol’ bay.
And the rest, well, it would be history.
“Are you okay?” Zella called out to them softly, hesitant to come any closer than they already had.
[Sorry for whatever this is, it'll get better. <3]
@[Elle Belle] @[Kristin]
((Im just going to keep this in the winter timeline<3))
She stumbles quietly through the ice covered fields. Her body is numb with the settling realization that she is alone.
She is so, so alone.
Her mother had left her two full moons ago. What had become of her, Sefra had no clue. It was when the snow set in and the leaves died, that she decided to leave. She allowed what navigation she had in her mind to lead her where it may. She traveled in the day and slept hidden in the underbrush at night. The solace of winter offered her nothing but freezing temperatures, and abandonment. Deep in the small girl's heart, she hated her mother for leaving her. Though even deeper in her heart, there was forgiveness. Despair.
"I am so sorry!"
Sefra stops dead in her tracks, petal-shaped ears turning towards the voices. The octave of them suggested that they too were children.
Part of her screamed retreat, but a larger part begged her curiosity to light.
"Hello?"
She spoke, voice clear as she broke through a small line of trees. Before her stood three girls. They seemed to be around the same age as her, this was good. This was really good. She stared at them with wide eyes, dark tail curling around a shaking hind leg.
Two of the others had seemed to take a bit of a tumble and stood with anxious looks. The other stood a bit off, a worried look upon her delicate features.
"I didnt mean to interrupt."
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