Before Equestria

by wormtailismyidol

In a world before Equestria was born, a sarcastic hero, a straight laced dressmaker, an eccentric teacher, and their friends work together to unravel the secrets of their homeland and fight for their freedom. Rated T for mild language and mild violence. Warnings: AU, OC.

3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Elder Tree

The next day was Saturday. I don't work on the weekends. Thank God for that.

I had this nice morning all planned out. Me and Zeal and Morning Current were going to go to the Elder Tree. We met up in the village square at, I'll say nine o'clock, and made our way through the streets. Soon we were out of the village and trotting at a nice little pace down The Great Path. You should see it at nine in the morning. It's a riot. There are street venders everywhere. It's funny. They think they can cover up the darkness. But they can't.

We walked down The Path for a really long time. My hooves started to hurt.

"Hey, Tumble," said Current, "I just remembered, I'll get to see your mom. I love that girl. She's a crack up."

My mom works as a guard for The Elder Tree. That means she has to get up at about five in the morning and head all the way over to the middle of The Forest.

Now, a trip to The Elder Tree is really something. First you see this bright light up ahead. Then you get closer and closer and you realize it's coming from a huge (and I mean huge) tree in the center of The Forest. The tree itself is a wonder. It glows white and all the little flowers that bloom from its branches rain down on everypony. It's like magic or something.

Well, it is magic.

Then there are all the lanterns that people put around it. And the candles.

When we got there, it was hard to fight the crowds, but I saw my mom. She's probably the coolest mom you'll ever see. She's got a chin length sandy mane just like mine. She even has the pistachio colored streaks. I think she dyes her mane now though.

So we sat down on one of the benches and just looked up at the tree for a while. We talked about everything you can think of.

Then I thought I smelled something. I shrugged it off at first, but then it got stronger. I was about to say something when Current said something like, "Do you smell smoke?" I smelled it alright. Everypony looked around all scared like, but we couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from. Then it just got even stronger. And we realized it was coming from The Elder Tree itself. Everypony started yelling to put water on it or something, but it was already too goddamn late. The tree was on fire.

We all backed away and just watched the thing burn. You couldn't see much through the smoke. Just this huge grey cloud. It became so much darker all of a sudden. The fire died down. Then there was this big crash. The tree fell.

And I never saw my mom again.