A long piercing shriek pierced my ear drums and brought me to my senses in a terrifying shock of water and darkness. Helplessly, I flailed around, desperately trying to gain a purchase in the sand and keep my head above the water. Silver fronds, like thin snakes twisted over and around me, pulling me deeper in. I struggled and bit at the things binding me, noticing to my horror that they weren’t just ‘around’ me, the vile things were actually running through me, the tips of one wriggling this way and that, horribly alive.

Goddesses, this was beyond anything I had ever experienced in my life. Or death even for that matter, I had to get away. I pushed hard with all four legs for all I was worth, the shrieking noise louder and more insistent this time, a mournful cry of a creature the likes of which I had never heard before. And probably never would again If I didn’t get myself out of this. I bit and kicked again and again, feeling the fronds loosen their grip ever so slightly. Encouraged, I drew a deep breath and heaved for all I was worth, by Luna’s good grace, I was doing it !

Euphoria was violently torn away by a fresh batch of silver tendrils shooting out from the black river and renewing their grip on my hind legs. “Get the fuck off me you…” I snarled as I bit at them. They, it, whatever it bloody well was, was not going to take me without a fight. I still had a job to do, a need to complete my duty and nothing was going to keep me from it. I would take revenge for what those scum had done to my beloved and no thing, no pony, would keep me from my destiny, “NO PONY !” I screamed out. My cry resounded with a desperate animal call from within, of anger, fear and hate, all rolled into one. The cry became me and I became it, strength boiling throughout my body, a chill wind swirling around me, freezing the tendrils to ice. I struggled to escape, to get free, the silver lengths shattering around me like fragile glass under my onslaught.

Coming to my hooves, I backed away from the horrible broken mass which was now quickly retreating back into the inky river water. I took several deep breaths, coughing out the last of the water and sand just as the high pitched cry I had heard before assailed me. I turned towards its source and saw, further along the shore, another pony writhing in a mass of the damnable things. I wasn’t going to let this happen, not again, no more deaths, not on my watch. Every pony goes home, even here.

I raced forward, sending a plume of water spraying up into the air from my hooves, solidifying it into ice. The rapidly spreading ice rushed out across the surface of the river, catching up to the writhing mass and its struggling victim suspended above. The
white of the ice stood out in stark relief against the blackness around it, freezing the tendrils holding the pony in its crushing embrace.

For a hideous moment, I thought the stricken pony had frozen too, but a rapid struggle followed by a crash of broken tendrils, sent the pony tumbling downward to land on the ice. It wasted no time and ran towards me at a gallop just as more of the silver snake like things broached the unfrozen water in pursuit. “No you DON’T !” I snarled, rearing on my hind legs and slamming for forelegs down again, sending a fresh wave of sparkling white death into the oncoming mass. The pony, now a blur of legs and steaming coat, rushed past me in a blur. I continued to back away, wary of any pursuit from the churning water. Sure enough….It came.

The surface of the river bulged upwards, black water sloughing off as….some ‘thing’ rose up from its depths. From the burning pits of Tartarus itself, an opaque white snarling mass of teeth and tendrils crashed down onto the ice. Horribly, its putrid surface split open, revealing two watery, pale pink eyes which glared at me with what I could only describe as unadulterated hate. Sickeningly, it slithered forward, using its writhing appendages sprouting from its body to drag the gelatinous mass along the ice. The creature was clearly having trouble though, the ice freezing and breaking off tendrils as fast as new ones could appear. Even so, it came onward, howling and hissing its murderous intent.

I laughed. I laughed at the pathetic nature of the creature, how it could only hunt by stealth, fearful of its prey. A coward. A coward that attacks those weaker than itself, taking away their precious lives in a watery flurry of fear and pain. It didn’t deserve to live.

Without thinking, I drew in a deep breath, feeling the air chilling within my lungs. Drawing on the ethereal power within me, I exhaled. From my muzzle was released a terrible, drawn out blast of blue and white swirling mist, roiling out towards the oncoming creature. A bone chilling cry mingled with the clouds, becoming one with it, eager, feeding it, “Diiiieeee………..”. It was hungry.

Too late, the creature appeared to realise the threat and halted its forward momentum to try to keep out of the fog. The things tendrils caught in the ice, impeding its attempts at escape.

Glittering in the darkness, the blue-white fog billowed around the creature and where it touched, froze the flesh of its body solid. The thing screamed out, gnashing its long teeth in fury and pain, flailing its silver tentacles at the thick cloud in a vain attempt at fighting back. Each frond cracked and shattered the moment it hit the ice, causing the creature to scream all the more.

From deep within me came another, deeper, rumbling laugh and cry, rolling out across the river. The creature stopped its struggling and looked at me with its hideous eyes, it knew now….it was certain. Death itself had come to make its claim.

A moment later, the river creature was an unmoving, solid frozen mass. The sound of water cracking as it froze, faded away and silence fell once more over the featureless

landscape. Featureless, except for the glittering ice feature now resting upon the surface of the black river. I felt jubilant but drained, hanging my head for a moment to try and take stock of what had just happened. My mind turned to take stock of these details just in time to be jolted by a flash of purple lightning searing across my vision.

The icy corpse of the river monster exploded in a billion shining fragments, that splashed back into the water and showered down around me. I whirled to face down the new threat, to find a black pony shaped figure, head lowered in a fighting stance, glowering at the shattered remains in the river. Its nostrils blowing out jets of white vapour, whether in reaction to the bitter cold of the frozen scene before it or part of its own physiology, I couldn’t tell.

The pony like creature raised it head to the sky and let out a long piercing shriek, a noise I recalled from when I first came to at the edge of the water. The pony I had rescued from the river monster stood before me, only….only it wasn’t a pony at all. At any rate, not what you could really ‘call’ a pony. The thing was equine shaped certainly, but black coated and thin. Really thin. I could see every bone of its skeleton, and for a moment, I thought this to actually be an animated skeleton, a frightening reminder of the nature of this land.

The creature had horns too, short pointed ones that extended behind its head like sharpened ears. It regarded me with glowing red eyes, flicking its midnight black tail side to side before shaking its wet, bedraggled mane. The thing let out a whuff of steam from its nostrils and turned to face me. Slowly, tentatively, the pony like being walked towards me, letting out the occasional blast of white steam.

I stood transfixed while the distance closed. Then, as quickly as it had begun, the thing was in front of me, head lowered. It moved its head towards my neck, eyes closed and….sniffed. Stepping back, it pranced sideways on its hooves seemingly unsure as to what to do next. Unsure myself, I stood there and let the creature continue. It didn’t seem to be any threat to me, however I kept the icy feeling of barely controlled rage within me, ready to release at any sign of aggression.

The skeletal pony moved forward and sniffed me again, more confident in its approach. On instinct, I leaned forward emulating its behaviour and sniffed its neck. The creature jumped back in alarm, snapping out huge bat like wings in a display intended, I presumed, to make itself appear bigger than it actually was. I lowered my head and whuffed at the air as I had seen it do when the creature first appeared.

Whatever my emulated display meant to the thing, it seemed to work as it folded its wings and walked towards me, eyes blazing like red coals. Letting out a small whinny, the black coated being nuzzled my neck and pushed itself into me. I wondered at the bony thing and smiled, feeling the coldness inside me begin to lessen, slowly draining until it faded away.

Backing away for a moment and watching me with its quizzical glowing eyes, the pony like ‘being’, I’d have to think of a name for it I guessed, spread its wings open and lunged into the sky. It flew out over the river, banking low and then swooped over my head gliding on those great leathery wings, crying out a loud low howl.

“What the bloody hell was that all about I” I wondered aloud.

“That’s a Thestral, love. Looks like you made a new friend.”

What’s with all the sneaking up on ponies around here ? If I wasn’t dead already, I’d probably have died of a heart attack by now.

On instinct, born of repetition most likely, I span to face……

“Meadow”.