The Black Horse - a star stable story

Chapter 7

A white horse with huge wings flew high in the night sky. The stars twinkle around her. Suddenly the sky darkens and a brown horse shoots her down with a dark beam of energy. The mare struggles to her feet and takes flight again She vanishes in a flash of light. The sky clears again and a voice says "The fate of the world is in your hands"
I woke with a start. Weird dream I thought getting out of bed. I saw Nina walk out of the bathroom now dressed. "Oh shoot I slept late" I immediately said. "No, I just wanted to see Thunder a little early before we left your fine" Nina replied. "Well I'm up anyway so I'll come" I said grabbing some clothes and going to get changed. A few minutes later we walked into the stables. Shadow saw us coming and peered his head out of the stall. "Good morning!" I said walking up to him. I noticed he was disguised again and knew it was only because the farm was a crowded place. "Good morning to you too" he replied "Did you get any breakfast?" I asked the horse. "No" Shadow replied "I think Steve is still asleep nobody's gotten hay yet" "Well here" I said grabbing a flake of hay and tossing it into the stall. "Does Thunder need hay?" I asked Nina already knowing the answer from Shadow and grabbing another flake. "Yeah" Nina replied turning and seeing I had a flake for him "thanks!" I then tossed some to Tin Can and Lisa's horse, Starshine. While the horses ate me and Nina walked into Silverglade Village and grabbed some breakfast. I only got some scrambled eggs, Nina got pancakes. We walked back and sat down in the stable to eat. As we ate we talked about everything that's happened since we came to this island. "It's all just so weird" Nina said "I never thought any of this was possible!" "Me neither" I admitted "and I have no idea what's going to happen next, suddenly everything we thought we knew about the world is questionable" "Yeah definitely I don't even know what to believe anymore!" Nina agreed. "I've been thinking since yesterday and I just can't figure all this out" I admitted. "Me neither" Nina said. We ate the rest of our meal in silence. When we were finished just as we threw out our plates away Lisa and Alex came into the stables. "Ready to go?" Alex asked us. "Yup just gotta get my horse ready" Nina replied. "So do we" Lisa said and the three of them went off to tack up their horses. I took a brush and brushed off Shadow. As I started to brush Shadow said "We are being chased by an evil magical horse and could die, and yet I need to be nicely brushed?" I laughed and replied "People usually groom their horses before riding it's good for you" I grabbed a hood pick and lifted up his leg. "Well I like it when you get the rocks out of my feet, it makes it easier to run" Shadow said. When I was done grooming we walked outside and I got on Shadow and we trotted around Steve's ring a little while waiting for the others. I didn't bother getting a new bridle. I was fine without it and it would just get in the way if we had to get out of someplace quickly. I actually have to worry about escaping places now I thought realizing I'd never even thought about that before. The others were ready pretty quickly and soon we were racing down the road toward Valedale. As soon as the village was out of sight Shadow revealed his wings again in a flash of light. In about an hour we were entering the Hollow Woods. Both me and Shadow were alert in woods where anyone could be hiding including a certain evil horse that had tried to kill us. We slowed to a walk in the woods to give the horses a break. Shadow could've kept going all the way to Valedale but the others needed a break and neither of us wanted to run ahead after what happened last time. After about another hour we finally arrived in Valedale. A girl on a horse was waiting for us at the entrance. "Hey guys!" she said to Lisa and Alex. She then turned to me and Nina "I'm Linda and this is Meteor" she said pointing at her horse as she said his name. "Hi" Meteor said to Shadow "Hi" Shadow replied awkwardly. My horse was not very good at meeting new people or horses. We all walked into the town. It was a simple little town in the woods it actually looked kind of peaceful. We walked up to a little house where a lady was standing in the front yard. "Hello" the lady said "I'm Elizabeth" me and Nina introduced ourselves and then Alex and Lisa started talking. They explained everything that had happened on the way here. "Well I told Fripp we would meet with him as soon as you got here so let's go up to the portal" Elizabeth said. "Wait whose Fripp?" I asked. "You'll meet him in a minute" Linda said as we walked up the hill. As we walked into a clearing something weird happened. The four rocks around the edge had symbols on them and the instant me and Shadow stepped into the clearing they all lit up bright with bright white light. Then the ground itself suddenly lit up a massive glowing symbol appeared. It looked like a pegasus, one front leg was lifted up and there was a circle around it. "What the?" I said looking at this. The others all watched amazed. Then a hidden door opened in the mountain face to our right. Shadow walked up to door with me and stepped into the hallway. Everyone else tried to walk into the doorway but some kind of magical boundary kept them out. Lisa said to us "this is clearly meant only for you two go ahead without us!" Me and Shadow looked at each other then started to walk down the hallway alone.