SwiftWing walked slowly through camp, silver mane bobbing, hoof beats echoing through the silence. She nervously went on to sit next to her best friend Feather-heart. "What's going on?" she whispered, rustling her wings in discomfort. Feather-heart shrugged and looked back up towards where their leader, Rock Hoof, was standing, waiting for the rest of the Herd to show up."It looks serious," Swift wing commented to her friend. Feather-heart leaned towards her, "Yeah, I think-," she was cut off by the slap of the tail of the pony in front of them. "Shush!" The older pony scolded. Feather-heart quickly gave a polite nod of her head and turned forward in attention, keeping her eyes focused towards the front, trying to clear her mind so she could listen.
Rock Hoof surveyed the ponies for a minute before lifting her head to speak. "My fellow members of our forest alliance, it has come to my attention that more and more ponies have dared venture into our forest, dangerously close to our borders," She paused and SwiftWing realized that she was speaking through her telepathy, a spell granted to her by the Forest Gods, when she became leader, as each leader gets a unique trait given by the gods to aid them on their quest as leader. Their last leader had the ability to see short prophecies.
The only problem was that accepting these gifts often shortened the life span of the leader as an exchange for the power. A rather sad trait of becoming leader. When this exchange was first made, almost none would step up for leadership, which led to the reason why each leader, when they first become leader, picks a young successor to carry on their legacy. It may have been cruel to the few who did not want to go, but it worked.
She gazed in envy at the gold shimmer Rock Hoof's horn gave off,giving her sky blue mane the illusion of movement, and her white coat looked as if it were glowing. "If she had wings" SwiftWing thought,"I would have no doubt that she would be the best princess in all of Equestria." She lifted her head proudly.
Rock hoof continued "Since the battle between Princess Twilight and Tirek, outside ponies have been coming more often into the forest. This is, as you all know, extremely dangerous, especially for our young ones." Rock Hoof nodded her head at the unicorns. "Unicorns must cover the camp best as possible, make the camp nearly undetectable, use magic if you must." She let the effect pass through the unicorns before continuing "Pegasus and earth ponies, I want the borders of the edges of the river and forest patrolled double, if you see anything suspicious, report it back to camp immediately."
Uncertain mummers broke out int he group, scared Fillies moved close to their fathers and mothers and Ponies grew tense with worry, shaking in anger and moving to protect their young ones, as if worried the outsiders would burst in at any moment, ready to spring out at their invisible enemies. Mummers grew quiet and every pony glanced forward, attentive.
Rock Hoof continued, "If we do not protect our camp then we will be forced to flee, so please my fellow ponies," She paused "Try your best." With that she stepped to the side. There was a silence that followed, as if every pony was listening for the beating hooves of intruders. Feather-heart and SwiftWing exchanged nervous glances, both afraid of what would happen next. Star and Dashing Cloud quickly took Rock Hoof's place, calling names for afternoon patrols. Feather-heart and SwiftWing talked for a bit before Feather-heart got called up for the northern border patrol with Sketch Light, Fire Hoof and Cherry.
"Bye!" SwiftWing called lightly. Feather-heart grinned.
"See you soon!" she laughed.
SwiftWing waved. "Tell me all about when you get back alright?!"
Feather-heart turned and smiled "I promise!" She shouted back at SwiftWing.
..."I promise"
