One less

"One Less"

Written by Ingvaeonic.

Cover art by Ingvaeonic.

Chapter 1: "1"

"Respectfully yours, Pinkie Pie."

As Pinkie Finished her letter, Spike quickly sent it on its way. Standing in her door frame Pinkie watched as Spike engulfed the letter in flames. She was transfixed on its slow disintegration as it turned to ashes and disappeared from sight.

Something purple caught her eye, momentarily intrigued by this Pinkie looked in its direction to spot Twilight, and her other friends approaching.

"Hi Pinkie Pie, we were thinking we should go out and celebrate!" Twilight said this with a smile on her face, but why wouldn't there be? They all worked hard that day trying to figure out which pinkie was the real one. Pinkie had used magic to clone her self to be with all her friends at once. But things got out of hand as her clones started making clones and before they knew it an army of Pinkie Pie's were causing chaos throughout Ponyville. They were worried they would never find out who the real one was, but they eventually figured it out.

They were glad to have her back.

Applejack sparked up at that.

"You up for some wheelbarrow races?" Applejack had fond memories of playing this game, it was her childhood joy that taught her how to have fun, for she usually got sucked into her work at the farm.

"Or I could take everypony on a cloud ride!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash. She loved How the ponies would squeal when she flew too fast when asked not to.

"I could throw a party with punch and zesty cucumber sandwiches!" This was accompanied with a little squee that Rarity may or may not be infamous for in Ponyville.

With everyone Throwing out ideas, Pinkie started to feel cornered, 'every-pony seemed to have such great ideas', she thought, it was becoming overwhelming. After a second to decide, she knew exactly what she felt like doing.

"You wanna know exactly what I feel like doing right now?"  She said this while backing up into her home, she gained a few looks of confusion from the other girls, but they changed to looks of amusement. Pinkie jumped onto her back, and with a great sign or satisfaction, snored loudly after instantly falling asleep. The looks of amusement changed to laughter after Flutter Shy, One of the girls who was know for her kindness and element of harmony to back this statement up, quipped.

"That looks like fun."

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'Elsewhere'

With fatigued breath she forced herself to run faster. She knew someone would come for her, one of those evil ponies would take her away. Like they did everyone else.

She just needed to run that little bit further, through fields and acres she would not give. She knew if she stopped for a second, she would be done for. She collapsed. Her head spun, running for so long took its toll and now she was rendered helpless. She had run into a nearby forest hoping she could lose them, but losing her way in the process. She could no longer tell which way she came, every direction looked identical, but the worst was yet to come.

It was becoming dark.

Noticing this she mustered up her remaining strength and hobbled weakly. Passing a few trees she came across a small stream that ran towards her direction. This reminded her on how parched she really was. Nimbly walking to it, she lay down next to it and engulfed her entire head into it. Taking huge mouth-fulls she quickly rose to take air in sharply, and more quickly then before returning her head to the icy deeps to sway her thirst.

This cycle was ended as a high pitched screech was heard, quickly rising her head to spot the intruder, she slid on muddy grass causing her to partially fall into the stream, soaking her forearms, head and mane. At this point the type of monster that formed the noise had become so ferocious, so dark and evil inside her mind that finally getting away from the satanic stream and checking her surrounds , caused everything for a split second to become blood sucking, and murderous. To then find no monster did quench her fear slightly although still on edge, made her feel really stupid.

Trying to forget what made the sound, she followed the stream upwards. Checking her back now and again fueled the fear that nagged her mind, the slightest nick of sound from any direction caused her to jump and face its position, only to have complete darkness return her gaze.

Seconds seemed like minutes as she heard another noise, not a monsters screech, but a strange sound, like popping. Following this sound, she came to a small clearing that was lit up, it included several bulky objects. Two tents, a fire and various logs scattered around the fire, the sound seemed to originate here, specifically the fire. She was mesmerized by it, how the flames danced around itself, how the logs that gently broke down into white ash, and how the wind would nudge it in different several directions, like conducting a ballet.

Slowly approaching the flame she neglected her footing, she kicked something round and hard. A small reflective glass bottle glimmered in the fire-light, now that she observed the ground she noticed the floor was littered with them. Stepping carefully she continued her approach to the fire, reaching her destination she closed her eyes and sat in the fires warm embrace. With her previous fear gone, she felt content. As the fear melted away, something else decided to nag at her.

She was starving.

Groaning she picked herself up and wondered the camp site trying to be as silent as possible. Nothing but dirt, the whole campsite had been plucked of grass and all that remained was hard, dry soil.

Taking a hard long look at the warm inviting fire, and then the dark, mysterious forest. One was warm and secure the other, dark and dangerous. She knew she had no choice.

Taking slow steady steps she walked back into the forest. Rounding Bushes and shrubbery she hoped to find a berry of some sort, but to no avail. Not wanting to get too far away from the campsite, she walked the circumference of the fires light, trying to pick out all if anything she may eat. Just as things seemed to become hopeless inspiration struck.

"Surely they brought food with them..." She mumbled, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to intervene with whomever this campsite belonged to. She figured they were males, glancing at all the bottle of rum and beer that lay about, she realized that was sort of sexist, but it just seemed to be a male thing. Walking in a curvy pattern, trying to avoid all the bottles that conveniently marked her way to one of the tents. As she approached the tent she began to have second thoughts. What if they were big, mean, and don't like being disturbed?

What if it's not even a pony?

with all these thoughts raging on inside her head, she tripped. Time seemed to pause for a slight moment as she tried to comprehend what just happened. The tent became blurry as gravity forced her under its will to fall.

Just as fast as time stopped, it started again. With her now on top of a destroyed tent. Realizing she was probably crushing whoever was in there she scurried onto her hooves began to make a run for it. If only fate would have it, there were still bottles surrounding her, trying desperately to hop, skip and jump her way across seemed futile, as she slipped  and was sent flying.

She landed, hard.

Her landing was so forceful that the bottle underneath her smashed, causing her to scream out in pain. The glass sunk deep into her pelt staining it red and rendering her left forearm useless. Adrenaline coursed through her as tears of shock and pain blurred her vision. This only served to slow her down, the once warm and embracing light, turned sinister in a matter of moments. Her only sanctuary was the dark forest, as fast as her war heavy body could muster she hobbled to the tree line. Thinking fast she hid behind a bush, hushing herself she waited, she waited for any sound that would mark the inhabitants of the campfire alive and trying to give chase.

As time ticked on the campsite was as silent as she left it. No noises, no screams of angst or rage, nothing. After what seemed like forever, she mustered up her courage and peeked out the bush. As she had left it, the campsite sat peacefully.

After more time passed she took hesitant, shaky steps towards the light. She reasoned with herself that this was a bad idea, that anything could happen. She could even die. Her burning curiosity won the battle, she marched on her three hooves to the center of the campsite then over to the tent. Her side was soaking with blood but still high with adrenaline, she ignored it. Taking better care to avoid the bottles this time, she glanced inside the half-demolished tent, she found many things including a sleeping bag, torch, an ice cooler to which she relieved had some food in it, and a jacket.

But was empty of any pony, griffin or anything that could have build the campfire.

She wasn't out of the clear yet, there were two tents. Leaving the explored tent now slightly covered in blood, she ventured to the only other tent. Like the the other, this tent was also unzipped, peering inside she sighed a breath of relief. It was also empty. Taking her time to search the tent she found most of the things residing in the other tent minus the ice cooler and plus a small black box. Opening the box found to be medical equipment, bandages, plasters, alcohol wipes, ointments and the usual things you would find inside a camping first aid kit.

Although now she could patch up her forearm, there was one problem. The glass was still inside her, and deep at that. She was no doctor and only knew simple things that revolve around first aid, but that unfortunately had not included pulling glass from wounds.

So she sat.

She thought long and hard whether she should leave the glass in or not, stories of how ponies take them out, only to die of blood loss as the glass had been closing a major artery or some major function. It was a dilemma for leaving it in came with its own problems, higher risk of infection, loss of body parts due to lack of blood supplied. Weighing her options she decided to play smart and only remove glass the was not lodged too deep into her pelt.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she closed the tent and set out what she determined fit for the job. Bandages and alcohol wipes. Steeling herself one last time, she gripped the first chunk of glass between her teeth and began.  Pulling it out fast was the best way, so when she twisted her neck and pulled with her whole force. The screeching that was heard before in the night would pale in comparison to what shriek of agony that escaped her mouth. Tears stained her cheeks as she slowly but surely pulled at that she could from her forearm.

The blood pooled at the tents floor as her newly opened wounds gushed with the liquid of life. Each agonizing tug at the glass caused her to once again howl in pain.

Before she knew it, it was over. Blood splattered her coat and the tent floor, unwrapping the bandages she tightly wrapped her forearm in soft cushiony cloth. Wanting to be safe she wrapped two pairs of bandages around her wound, but the blood still seeped to the cloth service. Wiping her wet and blood shot eyes, she unzipped the tent end exited. Leaving behind a hoof trail of blood she entered the other tent.

With tired eyes she looked at the sleeping bag and pillows lovingly, but she had to take priority over luxury. Opening the icebox she produced three carrots, a handful of clovers and two apples. Slowly quenching her hunger she chewed on the delicacies that had evaded her for so long. Zipping up the tent she bee-lined for the bed, lowering herself onto it she closed her eyes and swiftly departed from reality.

The camp sites original owner was yet to be discovered.