Chapter 1: Thoughts

The wind swiftly made its way through the forest and through my matted mane. My body was stiff from the excessive amounts of sleep that numbed me. In the cold breeze I could only feel parts of my bandaged body touched by the icy winter wind. But how, how did I get here?

The soft earth beneath greeted my hooves as I forced myself up. The quite rustling of the leaves along with the peaceful melody of all the creatures of the night were the only things to keep me company and keeping me aware of my surroundings. My throat was arid and my thoughts were cloudy from dehydration. I tried swallowing the remaining moisture from my mouth but I choked as I had only swallowed what felt like a fine dust. Why is this happening?

"Oh man" I said below my breath. "I feel terrible..."

Trying to orientate myself I sat up leaning against the rough back of the tree that stood tall behind me. I tried opening my eyes to observer my surroundings. But the evening's darkness was the only things I could see. An endless sea of black was the only things that met my vision. I rubbed my eyes to maybe they would adjust to the low light. Where could I be?

I took my hands off my eyes. Nothing.

What happened to me was the only question that surfaced in the hazy thoughts of my mind. I stood up off the ground ready to seek what might of happened only to regret it soon after. The world must of moved, I could feel it shift around my as I tried to balance myself. With a sharp jerk it threw itself to one side and my balance failed me. I felt my head hit the surface of something hard as the world spun around me, I felt my eyes close again and felt the warmth on the moist ground beneath my mane. The forest seemed to notice my presence as I could faintly make out its presence as the quite sounds of the forest softly whispered behind me. My mind was slowly consumed again by unconsciousness as I exhaled deeply. I could not fight the haze as I drifted off into a deep sleep once more.

~~~~~~~

The moon greeted me as I slowly walked down the forest path. The Everfree forest was eerie and illusory as usual but something about it always captivated me. The quite rustling of the leaves along with the peaceful melody of all the creatures of the night were the only things to keep me company and keeping me aware of my surroundings.

The forest was always evolving. Either the creatures of the night learned a new song to communicate with the rest of Equestria, or maybe a unique plant was growing in the forest to give it new life. That's why I walked here at night. It was so beautiful, I could discover new things or relearn some old things. But tonight I just walked to take in all it had to offer me.

"Hi there Twilight!"

My fur stood on end as I held in my scream. I turned around to meet the voice.

"Oh Rainbow Dash! Don't do that! You really scared me for a second there." I said.with a hint of embarrassment.

She chuckled a bit to herself at my comment.

"Heh, I guess I did."

I could make out a small smirk appear on her face. I met her eyes with a serious look on my face. But this seemed to have the entirely opposite affect on her. Now she was laughing loudly holding her side. In the distance I could see a flock of birds take off from their home in the trees, probably disturbed from sleep by a certain cyan pegasus.

"Keep it down Rainbow! I don't want to attract any unwanted attention. Who knows what might be lurking in the forest at night?" I said.

"Pfft don't be such a wuss Twilight. I bet you could take anything that comes at you in the woods." she said with a matter-of-factly tone in here voice.

"Except me of course, I got you good Twi. You should of seen the look on your face!" She did a little flip in the air.

"Whatever Rainbow. Let's just get back to Ponyville..." The evening was winding down and the moons was high in the sky. I was planning on heading back soon anyway.

"Whatever... Hey I just had a great Idea. Let's race back there!" Before she even finished her sentence she rocketed off down the old dirt path. The look of determination glued to her face.

I facehoof'd. Quickly I conjured up space and speed in my mind as I teleported down the path in front of her.

"Ponyville is the other way Dash." I said pointing down in the opposite direction.

The cyan pony's cheeks showed a little redness on them. She floated in the air before taking a higher position in the night sky all the while using her forehoof to rub the back of head.

"I knew that I was just-" The sheepish look on her face disappeared as a new look took its place.

Rainbow Dash flew down deeper into the forest at blinding speeds leaving a ghostly after image in her wake. Where was she going? I could still see her flying down the path deeper into the Everfree. I conjured up the teleportation spell again.as I still had a line of sight on her.

"Rainbow?! Where are you going?" I said as I had appeared behind the pegasus.

But she said nothing. She stepped aside to give me a full view. There in front of me was a pegasus. He lay sprawled across the path, probably unconscious. He lay on the edge of the path, but what really shocked me was how could have Rainbow seen this pony? His coat was the same shade of clay earth that the path was made of. His mane was swept back and dark crimson with streaks of silver across both mane and tail. His ear was torn and his breathing was rapid and shallow. He wore two iron rings on the back of his hooves. But, the real odd thing was his cutie mark. It displayed a light blue crystal with a small yellow orb towards the top and a small purple crescent towards the bottom, possibly representing the sun and the moon. How odd, what could it resemble?

I took another good look at him. Thick rough bandages were wrapped tightly around his body. The bandages looked as if blankets were dipped in red wine then torn for use. What might of inflicted these wounds? I looked at his mane again. Some of the silver had large patches of the same color crimson as on his mane and tale.

"Eh, Twilight, he looks dead, lets get out of here..." Rainbow said with a shaky voice. This must of been terrible for her to bear witness to such a broken body.

I put my hoof up to the colts neck. This was met with disgusted remarks from the cyan pegasus.There was still a pulse, there was still warmth. He was still alive, but he was severely injured. It was actually a medical miracle that he was still alive. The small pool of blood that resided at the base of nearby tree must of been more blood then anypony could have.

"Rainbow! Quickly help me get him back to Ponyville!" I said.

"But he is covered in blood and he looks all nasty..." She said with a little disgust.

"Ah don't be such a baby Rainbow. This pony needs help and you can't even lift a hoof to help him?" I looked straight at her. She fiddled around with her fore hooves as a conflicting look spread across here face.

I knew exactly new what to do now. I knew how to get her to help me.

"I bet you couldn't get him over there anyway!" I said with over exaggerated amount of sarcasm as I lifted the pegasus with my magic.

Her expression changed instantly to react to my comment.

"You know I could to! Give 'em here!" She swooped down from the air and pulled the wounded pony onto her back.

She struggled a bit but managed to stay in the air.

"Where.. Are we.. Going Twi...?" She said stopping between words to flap her wings and support the unconscious pony. She must be stressing her wings now. Pegasi were light but Rainbow Dash didn't normally have to carry an entire pony on her back.

"Uh.." I panicked for a bit. Where could I take a injured pony at this time? All of Ponyville was asleep at this time. Who could I take him to?

I heard Rainbow's voice again.

"Come on Twilight..! It's not that I'm tired..! Its just that he's getting blood all over my coat...!" Rainbow Dash shot me a distressed look. I knew I had to act quickly.

"Quickly! Head over to Fluttershy's house! She'll know what to do!"

Rainbow nodded her head as she flew off in that direction still carrying the wounded pony on on her back.

I knew the exact location of Fluttershy's house since I have been there so many times so I conjured up yet another teleportation spell as I thought of the front door of her cottage.

With a flash of light Fluttershy's cottage appeared in front of me with Rainbow Dash already inside.

"Oh dear..." Fluttershy had a genuine look of fear across her face. She must of never seen anything in this bad of shape.

"Here Rainbow." Placing pillows on her scarlet couch, "Lie him down gently..."

Rainbow Dash rolled over a bit. The pony landed on the couch with a loud thud.

I could see Fluttershy cringe as she looked at the bandaged pegasus.

"At least it won't stain your couch. You can't even tell the difference. His mane like disappears!" Rainbow said with a foolish grin.

I facehooved for a second time tonight.

"This is serious Dash! He is seriously hurt! You could of fractured a rib or something!"

A feeble voice spoke from behind us.

"No... It's fine... I don't think anything is broken... Really..." *cough* " It's fi-" The voice cut itself of.

"See he's fine." Rainbow said as she smiled at me brushing herself off.

Well all were speechless after that. Fluttershy was the first one to say something, her voice brimming with fear.

"Oh, is there anything we can do for you?"

No response.

"Looks like he passed out again." I said with snort. "He might of been able to talk if you didn't drop him on the couch."

Rainbow Dash had guilt written all over her. Her ears dropped down as she spoke. "Eh well... I better head of now. I need to get up early for training tomorrow." She said as she headed to the door. "I might be back later to check the guy out. Just to see if he's okay."

And with that she took off. I looked at Fluttershy, she was taking some bandages out of a small closet.

"Twilight, could you help me remove his bandages? They need to be, um, changed and replaced so they don't get, um, infected." She started unrolling the bandages. As I lifted pegasus up and slowly began removing the thick bandages that were wrapped around him.  As I worked on placing the bloody bandages on the ground I heard a small gasp come from Fluttershy.

She must have been looking at the body of the pony, gasping in shock.

"Now it's okay Fluttershy. I'm sure he will be-" I looked at the colt. I felt my mouth swing open in shock. Not a single gash was present on his body. No visible scars. How is that possible. how did this bandage get so blood soaked? Was it even blood?

I set the pegasus gently down onto the couch. What was he doing out in the woods? I checked the texture of the bandage. It was blood for sure, the texture and the color proved that to me as I examined it closely. What is going on here?

"What do we do Twilight...?" Fluttershy said with a shudder.

"I don't know Fluttershy, Let him have a nice long rest. I will have a nice long talk with him in the morning." I sat in a chair situated across from the couch.

"Would you like to sleep in a room upstairs?" Fluttershy said.

"No, I'm going to keep my eye on this one." I said flatly. I didn't know who or what this pony was or was up to but I wasn't going to let him out of my sight until I had some answers.

I must of been broadcasting my thoughts in my expression because Fluttershy just acknowledged this and walked out.

"Alright Twilight. I will have it ready if you need it though."

"Thank you." I said still observing the tan pegasus.

"Goodnight."

No response.

~~~~~

Authors note: Please let me know what you think of this. I would really like to hear from everyone. I am always looking for ways to improve myself and my writting. ALSO I need an editor so if anyone would be most kind please privately message me. You would be doing me a great favor one which I could not think of repaying with just a simple thanks!

Second chapter will be up Friday or something depends on how busy I am this week but I am enjoying writing this. I will try update this every so often. This will not be abandoned. Popular or not. I love writing to much to let this story die.

Of one more thing. I have a name for this character but I am interested to see what you might think a good name for our main character. I've gone though a ton of different names for him, I would be overjoyed to see some input. Thanks!

Edit'd on 12/22/11 So many typos and grammatical errors. I feel so ashamed... Fixed though and lengthened just a bit.

~Athanix,

Peace.