I yawned expansively, jaw muscles stretching just until the point of discomfort.
”Forelegs next I think”, I murmured to myself as these too were summarily strained out to each side. Pushing out with my hind legs, each suitably limbered, I pulled myself away from the makeshift pillow. Shades was not as uncomfortable as he, or she…it ? would appear. His appearance was quite terrifying really, but like most situations I had found myself in over the years, it was suprising what you could get used to. Maybe even those razor sharp teeth of his, well….perhaps not.

Some time into my early career in the watch, I had visited a young mares home and been assailed by the stench of animal. The bloody things had infested the whole house top to bottom, there were mice in the walls, rabbits under the bed, you name it. The
place was surprisingly clean considering the sheer volume of turds the poor girl had to clean up. I’d noticed the midden as soon I had begun to walk up the path to her front door.

She was stunningly beautiful too, for a tree-hugging pegasus and I could have happily spent the day with her, losing myself in those huge shining eyes of hers. And her voice ? So calm, so peaceful and feminine, I felt as if I could simply float away into blissful happiness. I may have let myself too, if that bloody stinking animal hadn’t ruined everything. If there’s one thing I cant stand, it’s the smell of a wet dog warming up by the fire. There were literally clouds of steam pouring from the reeking things carcase, choking my lungs and sending me flying for the door in a desperate quest for fresh air.

“Oh….my, was it something I said ?”, the yellow mare said, a worried look on her face.

“No miss, I was just a little….claustrophobic that’s all. You have a wonderful home here but I don’t think you need to worry about burglary.” I heaved the sweet, sweet air deep into my lungs whilst the worried young pegasus flapped air over me.

“You don’t think any nasty, scary burglars will try to steal my babies do you ?” She asked, sincerity showing in her large eyes.

I shook my head, “No miss, I think you’re quite safe. You’ve got natural burglar deterrents anyway”. I motioned towards the dog, almost invisible in the cloud of noxious vapour beginning to fill the room.

She giggled, “Poor old Henrietta, she’s not as active as she used to be. Her coats been losing some of its lustre recently.”

“Has it ?!” I squeaked, then caught my breath, “Has it ?”. I coughed, clearing my throat. “Oh dear”.

“Yes, she’s seen a few years I think. I try to make her as comfortable as possible.”

By gassing out any visitors with the mangy old things stinking hide I suspected. The horrible creature probably knew what effect it was having on people. An effect, I noted, that the home owner simply didn’t notice. Years of living with hoards of excreting assorted animals, pest and vermin had doubtless numbed her sense of smell. “Or murdered it”, I thought to myself as I caught another whiff.

I had made my excuses and left, dashing back to the road side to rinse my face in the stream. She had stood in the doorway watching me, curious, but blissfully unaware of the olfactory sledge hammering she had dealt a member of the watch. I wondered if I could draw a gasmask for stores in case of future visits ?

Shades by comparison had a peculiar floral smell, sweet but with a fleeting gentle quality that had me wondering at first if I had really smelt it at all. His hide showed every bone, each taught muscle connecting them, the details of each joint horrifyingly vivid. His light frame made flying or walking a fairly simple matter, however I found that standing up on sand was an art in itself and one I was rather pleased I had slowly gotten the hang of. With a shake, the loose sand fell off me to join its fellows and I poked Shades with a hind hoof, “Oi you lazy bugger, come on. We need to haul flank.”

Shades opened one eye, its burning red inner light had ceased to disturb me long ago. How long had we been walking together now ? I had no way of knowing and I’d long given up trying to keep track. I missed my old pocket watch with a vengeance, its reassuring ticking was almost like a heartbeat of its own. A reminder that mine was, apparently, still tick tocking along with it somewhere. Wistfully, I turned back to my bony companion.

“Hey ! Come on now, I’ve got places to be, people to meet.”. He blinked, fixing me with a particularly hard stare then sniffed the air. I should have remembered to keep well out of the way when Shades got to his hooves. It was almost mechanical, and absolutely fascinating, to see his muscles pulling, the joints turning, wings adjusting and then ultimately, with a huge lurching movement, hauling his bony frame upwards. He staggered sideways for a moment before shaking the sand from his body.

I ducked as a bat like wing snapped out to shake the last of the sand away. A quick groom later, the sleepy Thestral nuzzled a good morning. I laughed, “And a good morning to you too, you old smoothie.” I put my hoof on Shades’ head and gave him a little rub. He gave a rumble and whuffed a blast of steam in happiness.

He was a strange creature, I couldn’t quite work out whether he was intelligent or akin to a kind of clever dog. A clever dog that had teeth like rapiers and could blow things up with its magical lightning type stuff. I didn’t want to think of him in that way, but he was so perplexing – a pony, yet not a pony. “Quite the enigma eh ?”. Shades whinnied and bobbed his head. The glow from the crystal pendant showed the way forward and the two of us set off once again into the expansive unknown emptiness of the Withers.

Days, weeks, months, passed in this manner. Every so often, Shades would fly off without any warning and a while later, return. I had no idea where he was disappearing off to and half wondered if one day, there would just be me, walking on and on into eternity. I mentally slapped myself, I didn’t like that train of thought. There would be an end to this journey sooner or later and, for as long as it lasted, I would take comfort in the presence of the Thestral. Thestral…..hmmm, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember anything about them from school. I’ll bet there was a whole section on them in the Ponyville library, the very same one I never bothered to visit when I was stationed there. I sighed, a bit bloody late now.

Lifting up the glowing crystal, I checked my bearing. To keep some sense of direction, I thought of the little white light as pointing ‘North’, helping me retain focus. Not to mention a reminder that somewhere there actually was a North. And a South. Other directions too ! Fancy that. Goddesses, I needed to get out of here, while there was some part of me left to escape, preferably with my faculties all intact.

A crunching thump behind me announced the midday arrival of Shades. He whinnied and stomped his hooves as I carried on walking. He’d catch up, he always did. I let out a sigh, watching the crystal’s glow, did it seem to be a little brighter than usual ? Probably not, I’d thought that before and given up on pursuing the idea. Bloody imagination.

A louder whinny from Shades, gave me pause, what in Equestria was he doing now ? I look behind me just as a large gelatinous blob of...something hideously foul was deposited on my back. “Agh ! Shades ! What the fuck, get if off me !”, I bucked furiously, sending the translucent thing hurtling into the air. The bony Thestral jumped straight up, catching the thing in his sharp, dragon like teeth. He trotted over, pleased with himself and dropped the trophy at my feet before letting out a joyful shriek.

“What ? Yes, well done buddy. You’ve brought me a lovely gift….um, whatever it is.”

I went to walk away but Shades ran in front of me blocking my path, the thing dangling from his mouth once more. He pushed the white blob at my muzzle before dropping it in front of my forelegs. He bobbed his head several times, letting out a blast of steam.

“You…you want me to what, eat….that ?” I asked incredulously. The Thestral nodded again, giving what I could only presume was an encouraging display by the excited wing flapping. Oh great ! Just what I always wanted….

I looked down and sniffed at the thing, “Ewwww !”. Shades opened and shut his mouth several times in emphasis. “Okay, okay !” I closed my eyes, opening them again, slowly refocusing on the blob. Oh bollocks, it was still there. I wasn’t dreaming after all. Well, I hadn’t eaten since coming to this place, I’d survived having tentacles driven through me, drowning and, ah yes, did I mention being dead ? Fan-bloody-tastic.

Compared to that, eating a sand covered, jelly…’thing’, was probably a breeze. Right ?

I picked it up in my teeth and flicked it up, snapping the thing into my mouth for a quick swallow. I stopped, was this thing dead ? Oh goddesses. I stared at Shades who looked on intently. He let out a blast of steam and I shut my eyes tightly, it didn’t look like I was going to get out of this one that easily. Shit, lets get this over with then.

I swallowed.

I nearly choked on the sand which covered the horrible creature, grating the inside of my throat and yet it was still slimy on its way down. Goddesses knew what was going to happen when it got to my stomach, I could barely remember the taste of food, or even water. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten for that matter but one thing was for certain though, it didn’t taste anything like this.

I bobbed my head to my Thestral companion, “Thanks for that my friend”, I croaked, “delicious”. I fought the urge to throw the contents of my stomach straight back up.

If Thestrals could smile, this one was doing just that. He let out a joyous scream and flew straight up into the air, spiralling up and up until I could barely see him. Then, with a boom of air, he rocketed downward towards me, making me leap back to avoid a collision. I gasped in surprise as he arrested his descent mere feet from the ground with a great flap of his massive wings. Shades trotted up to me and pushed his forehead into mine, releasing a slight blast of steam.

‘Friend’

“Wha….”, I looked around, expecting something to have materialised out of my sight. I had to be honest, this seemed to have been happening a lot to me recently. Well, relatively recently. I think.

‘Fairlight pony. Friend ?’

Okay, this was now officially off the weird chart. The Withers was getting to me more than I had thought and now, now some bizarre echoing, hissing voice was in my head. “Bollocking bloody Celestias damned……”

‘Home ?’

Shades nudged me with his muzzle and everything suddenly clicked into place, “Its you ! You can, speak ? Sort of ?”.

The Thestral bobbed his head, “Light, home ?’ the hissing voice said. How does he do that !? “Yes. I’m trying to get home Shades, the crystal will show me the way’.

He walked away a few steps away from me and turned back with his head on one side, a quizzical look on his bony face. ‘Shades ?’. I grimaced, well I had to call him something didn’t I ? I thought about calling him ‘Shriek’ for a while because pretty much, that was all he said. That or ‘Argh’.

“Yes. Shades is the name I gave you. I don’t know your real name, you can tell me if you like ?”.

“Name ?” He looked confused for a minute then threw back his head and screamed. Planting his hooves forward in the sand for emphasis, the Thestral looked intently at me.

“Look, cant I just call you Shades ? It’s a lot easier for me you know. I cant speak Thestral”. Or scream it either.

Shades shook his mane and let out a snort of air. Pawing the ground for a moment, he winnied, “Shades”.