Forest Fire

Pain. Pain was the first thing that she felt. Everything ached. As the initial feeling of hurt faded, she began to notice other things. There was ground beneath her. It was hard, and she could feel the cold of it seeping through her flight suit. There was also something wet over one of her eyes. The sound of her heartbeat faded from her ears, letting her hear the faint sounds of insects.

Spitfire lifted her head, feeling a twinge in her neck. When she opened her eyes, one saw things normally while the other burned with something wet. Everything from that view was tinted red and the sizes were all off. Reaching up with one hoof, she moved to wipe the stuff away and hit the edge of her goggles. She had actually forgotten she was wearing them. The mare took a hold of the eye wear, pulling them off to look at them.

One of the lenses was shattered, shards still sticking to the rim but the middle was mostly missing. That explained the skewed vision in one sense. Also gave a very obvious clue as to the cause of the other. Tentatively, she raised a hoof to feel at the spot around her eye. Spitfire winced as she felt a burst of pain when she touched a piece of glass. She pulled the shard out, a hiss of pain escaping from between her clenched teeth. She dropped the bloody piece of glass and the goggles.

Spitfire moved to stand up, feeling the weight in her legs as she did. They were sore and stiff, but nothing was broken or felt seriously damaged. It would be unpleasant to walk, but she could manage it. Next she spread her wings to give them a testing flap.

The pegasus found herself back on the ground as white hot pain flared through her body. Slowly, carefully, she pulled her wing back in, tucking them against her body. As she did, she could feel the pain burning from the right one. It was probably not broken since she could still move it, but it was definitely too injured to use. So flying was not an option. She was going to have to walk.

Now the question became where was she? Slowly turning around, Spitfire looked at her surroundings and tried to figure out her location.

It looked like a courtyard for a castle, or had been at one point. There was enough to tell that the ground had once been covered in cobblestones, but plants had forced their way up between them and pushed them around. Large chunks of what must have once been the walls surrounding the courtyard still stood, most of it having fallen into large piles of rubble. Beyond the remains of the walls, all she could see was pretty much trees.

Spitfire wiped at her forehead, trying to keep the seeping blood from getting into her eye again. Her mind worked to try and figure out where she might be. The sheer amount of trees indicated that it was a forest of some kind. With a castle that looked abandoned, it was unlikely that many ponies came out to where she was. At least, not on any regular basis. She could think of one possible location, and dear Celestia she hoped she was wrong.

Her gaze drifted up to the sky. She bit her lip as she saw the twilight of dusk begin to touch the edge she could see. The idea of being stuck in a strange forest at night did not appeal to her. Spitfire was no coward. Becoming the captain of The Wonderbolts took courage, but it also took intelligence and skill. One of the abilities that had helped was actually being able to understand her fears, and right now the idea of being stuck -- injured -- in a dangerous place at night did not seem to be safe in the slightest.

The setting of the sun did give her one advantage. With so much of the sky blocked by the trees, the hints of twilight gave her a good idea which direction was west. Knowing that, she could figure out the other three and use that to help decide which way she needed to travel to get out. Although, admittedly, it would be more helpful if she could figure out which direction would actually be the shortest.

The pegasus began to walk, heading toward a hole in what had once been the castle walls. She moved through the rubble carefully, not wanting to injure herself further. She was already unable to fly. If she were too injured to walk, then she would be at the mercy at whatever ended up finding her. Spitfire had no interest in dying, especially without anypony ever knowing what happened to her.

Reaching the gap, she looked out at the area near her. The ground seemed flat over all. There was a bit of sloping, but nothing too bad. She would have to be careful to avoid the roots of the trees, but there was no immediate danger of falling if she slipped. Once she stepped out of the courtyard, she began heading in the direction she believed would lead her back to civilization.

The way she headed ended having Spitfire walk along outside of the castle for a while. She finally stopped when she saw that there was a gap between her another part of the forest. Spitfire moved close to the edge on her side, stopping once she was able to stretch her neck and look down. With the darkness of night and the forest around her, she could not see the bottom of it. That was enough to know it was too far to simply hop down. Closing her eyes, she focused on her ears. After a moment, she thought she could hear water running somewhere below.

That should be no surprise to her. After all, one purpose of a castle was defense. So it would make sense for there to be natural barriers to aid in the protection. Turning to look at the castle, it looked to her as though she must be close to what would be the front. As such, there should be some way to cross the gorge. With that conclusion, she began to follow along the edge from what felt like a safe distance.

A rope bridge came into view, giving the pegasus a flare of excitement. She picked up her pace, moving faster toward it. Spitfire then stopped as she reached the edge, looking at it.

How was it still standing? If the castle was any indication, the rope and wood should have rotted away already. They would have needed to be replaced at some point, but the certainly were not very new. Had magic been used on them to make them last longer? Or maybe to make them look older than they actually were?

With a step closer, Spitfire reached out with a hoof and put it on the first board. Slowly she pressed down, putting more and more weight onto it. When nothing happened, she put another hoof onto it, repeating the process. There was a groaning creak from the bridge, but otherwise nothing happened. Still feeling uncertain, she began to walk across it.

A third of the way across, the bridge suddenly lurched as it tilted toward the right. Trusting her instincts, Spitfire turned and started running back the way she had come. The bridge shifted and jumped as the pegasus moved as fast as she could to try and get back to solid ground. There was a final groan as the ropes snapped.

Out of desperation, Spitfire tried to jump for the edge. Unfortunately, the bridge already began to fall away, giving her nothing solid enough to actually push off of. With just inches from salvation, she began to fall.