Chapters The Elder Hooves II: Part 1: Cutie Mark Forsworn
Three little fillies were looking through a window of the well known Princess Twilight Sparkles home-A hollowed out oak tree. Now usually staring in the window of a library wasn't part of the official CMC schedule, however, they saw a bright light as they walked by, not to long ago, and continued to watch until they watched their sibling disappear.
The three fillies were frozen, not out of horror, but mainly curiosity and interest. It was a whole minute until one of them spoke up "That. Was. Cool!" Scootaloo stated "We gotta try that! Imagine us, the first ponies to get their cutie marks for disappearing!"
"I don't know about it. It could be dangerous," Sweetie Belle always advised against Scootaloo's ideas... well at least the ones she didn't agree with. But as per usual Applebloom and Scootaloo ignored her.
"Yeah! Scoots right! Besides, we could have a fun time! Now who's with me?" Applebloom hollered.
Applebloom continued to holler simultaneously "Cutie Mark Crusaders Disappearing!"
"Yep, just ignore me as usual," Sweetie Belle muttered "Huh? Oh yeah CMC Disappear and whatever."
The trio then galloped over to the door and entered the library. It seemed empty although the Fillies expected to accidentally bump into one of their now invisible sisters and their friends. After a while of walking around and quietly calling out for their sisters they deduced that the mane six were not there.
"Huh. I wonder where that thing took them." Sweetie Belle pondered
"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Scootaloo picked up the tiny gem "Sweetie, do some magic stuff to make it work."
"How?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Dunno, just do it." Scootaloo didn't answer Sweetie's question but she thought that she should try anyways.
Sweetie Belle cleared her throat and began to think of something to do. She levitated the gem away form Scootaloo then began to speak "Um, Hello? mister gem? Hi, I was wondering if you could take us to where our sisters-"
Before she could finish the gem exploded with a brilliant set of colors and lights filling the room causing the CMC to look away. Wen the lights died down, in the place of the stone was a Shrine with a sort of representation of the Elements of Harmony atop it. The whole thing was about twice the height of the fillies.
"Wow." Scootaloo uttered as she walked over to the Shrin. Gazing at the complex designs and cool depictions on the sides. However, when she lifted her hoof up to touch it she exploded into light just as the gem did, except, not as bright so her two friends could watch the whole thing. Soon Scootaloo disappeared too.
"Scootaloo!" Applebloom rushed over to the Shrine to but as she did her tail brushed against the shrine and she disappeared as well.
Sweetie Belle, devastated, was torn. She wanted to get help but her friends might be in danger right now! Father slight hesitation Sweetie lunged at the Shrine, also, dissapearing upon touch.
-3,000 feet above the Mointains of the Reach-
Sweetie Belle seemed to be floating somewhere, however, she had no clue where. After a minute or two of having a weird feeling in her stomach she realized she was falling. Falling at an incredibly fast rate and with everything around her being white she guess she was in a cloud.
Another minute had passed and she finally exited the cloud, now seeing the ground... which was a mountain range "Oh no." Sweetie whispered in horror as she prepared for her inevitable fate. Grabbing her backlegs and shutting her eyes, she huddled into a ball. She guessed it would be only a few seconds before she hit the ground.
"Three," she began to count to her death "...Two... one!" As she screamed the last number she felt a smack that was accompanied with a loud sound. She had hit her side causing it to go numb however her right side still felt. It felt something, strange yet familiar. It was lit air but pushing her up and moving in a certain direction. She was in water! The noise was a giant sploosh! She probably did hear it due to the sound of the wind as she fell.
She finally floated to the top of what seemed to be a small lake that was part of a river. She decided to float downstream until she found her friends. By Celestia I hope they're alive!
The Elder Hooves II: Part 1: Cutie Mark Forsworn
Sweetie Belle found an area, shallow enough to stand. She made her way to shore and fell over. The ground was more dirt than rock. Rarity would be mad out of her mind at Sweetie Belle for getting her fur muddy, however Sweetie Belle just fell form the sky, at about 3,000 feet into a lake and had to float down the river for about two hours. I think we can have an exception.
Sweetie would have stayed there and rested longer, however she heard what sounded like a rattling noise "Hello? Who's there!" Sweetie Belle got up and readied a flash spell. It wouldn't harm who, or whatever was moving. Just flash brightly and make them wield their eyes.
However when she looked around, all she saw were rocks and dirt. Behind her was a mountain and looking down and upstream along the shore, all there was were rocks and dirt "Huh, I guess I imagined it." Sweetie returned to resting but then the sounds returned.
Sweetie got up and looked around again. This time she saw something unusual. A rock now appeared to be closer to her "What? Rocks don't move..." Sweetie Belle slowly approached the "rock" to examine it better. Now she was close enough to touch it, so, she reached out a hoof slowly. Finally she lightly tapped it.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Sweetie screamed as the now revealed crab tried to snap its claws at her. Sweetie responded by levitating it, then hurling it as far as she could with magic. Now she was running in the opposite direction. Still screaming as she ran.
-CMC Campout-
In the last two hours, Scootaloo and Applebloom and managed to build a sturdy fort out of pieces of wood and leaves. Scootaloo had managed to get extra pieces to build a fire while Applebloom got an assortment of berries and some other fruits. She even found a few apples, which, she planned to make applesauce out of.
Then a terrible shriek tore thought the valley, catching the attention of both fillies. A first they were terrified, then they realized who it was "Sweetie Belle." Both fillies sighed in unison as they approached the river. As Sweetie Belle ran by they stopped her.
"Whoah! What's gotten into ya?" Applebloom asked.
"THE CRAB TRIED TO EAT ME!!!" Sweetie Belle screamed.
"Don't worry, they don't do much harm." Scootaloo tried to calm her down.
"Yeah, ah got in a brawl with one and the most it done to me was this." Applebloom revealed that most of her tail was cut short similar to Rarity's when Nightmare Moon attacked.
"So... it wasnt trying to eat me?" Sweetie Belle was more calm now.
"Nah he probably was, but was doing a horrible job at it." Applebloom added.
"Oh," they walked into the camp "Where did you find time to build all this?" Sweetie Belle was interested "It took me all that time to get somewhere shallow."
"We landed in the same lake but closer to this side. Me and Applebloom swam over here. Not long later we saw you fall but when we called out, you were to far always to hear us," Scootaloo explained "So in that time, we built the fort!"
Sweetie Belle went to inspect this CMC fort. It was small. Much smaller than the clubhouse, however had enough room for the three fillies. Surprisingly it kept warm as apposed to the coolness of the forest. It had a spot for storing stuff, which right now held fruits and vegetables. However it was missing something "Where are the beds?" Sweetie asked.
"Ya see that's the thing, we were figuring you could help with that. He don't have much an idea to make beds outta stuff from the forest." Applebloom stated.
"Hmmmm," Scootaloo rubbed her chin with a hoof, trying to think of something "Oh! We could use moss!" She said with excitement.
"Moss?" Scootaloo and Applebloom replied, clearly confused to there friend's idea of using moss for a bed.
"Yeah! We could use it as a cushion to sleep on!" Sweetie Belle seemed proud of her idea, immediately sending her friends out on a search for the plant.
Meanwhile a pack of wolves had been watching from afar. Moving in on the three fillies.
The Elder Hooves II: Part 1: Cutie Mark Forsworn
Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo were busy harvesting moss. Not a single one of them noticed the pack of wolves following them. Quick yet silent. They each moved so that they could all get the fillies at once. Only a matter of seconds and they would have dinner.
Or.. the wolves would've had dinner if Scootaloo hadn't turned around to find a wolf. Almost immediately she hollered alerting the others, the wolves didn't have time to get them. Each filly was going off in a different direction, weaving twists and turns as the wolves chased each one down. Sweetie Belle eventually made it to Scootaloo.
"Sweetie!" Scootaloo panted as she continued to run "I saw a road back there, maybe we can find somepony to help us!"
"Alright," Sweetie glanced back, seeing only one wolf but still continued to run "Where is Applebloom?"
Almost as if on cue, the two fillies could here a large shriek ahead of them. Immediately they speed up in its direction. As they got to the sound of the screaming, they found Applebloom and two wolves. She was cornered in between two rocks. One wolf had her back leg in its mouth. It's teeth had sunk deep and blood was gushing out.
Losing all fears she had for the wolves, Scootaloo chucked the biggest rock she could find at the wolves "Stay the buck away form my bucking friend!" She scream throwing another rock. Then the wolf let go, her plan had worked! ...or so she thought. She only diverted the wolves attention always from Applebloom, and onto her and Sweetie Belle "Horse Apples!" She squealed.
But before it could jump at her, a fireball had come shooting at the animal, blowing it to bits. The wolves looked at the source and ran off as a great stallion approached. Screamed into the forest for reasons unknown.
His fur was a pale orange while his mane was a dark brown. He wore a fur vest as well as a unique utility belt. On it were four large bottles, two red, a blue and a green. The belt also held a stick with many spiky rocks jabbing out.
"Are you okay?" He asked, his voice was low yet soothing.
"Applebloom! The wolves got to her!" Sweetie ran towards her friend. The stallions eyes grew large at the blood puddle surrounding the filly.
"By the nine! Quickly! We don't have much time, follow me!" He scooped the Applebloom up and put her on his back. He darted off, Scootaloo and Sweetie not having a choice, followed. Both stared worryingly at Appleblooms leg, which was barely attached anymore. Only by some skin at the base.
Sweetie Belle, who was getting sick by the sight of the injury, tried to look elsewhere to get her mind of it. She began to observe the mountains. Not as tall as the equestrian ones, but still, too tall for her to climb. They, as well as the rest of the land were blanketed in trees. Tall, dark green, pine trees.
Getting impatient Scootaloo spoke up "Hay mister, are we almost there yet?"
"We're almost there!" The stallion reassured "When we get there we must see Herbal Remedy and Healing Hoof."
They continued to gallop around a mountain until they saw a large camp, sitting on a river. Many other ponies, colored similarity to the stallion who saved them, populated the wooden fortress. Running into a tent, the stallion dropped Applebloom on a table.
"Stay out here." He exclaimed.
"Noway! That's our friend! We're not leaving her!" Scootaloo stated.
"No, let the healers handle this. She may not make it!" He put a little more strength into his voice.
"But-"
"No!" He screamed and entered the tent. Scootaloo huffed and sat down.
He approached the table where Applebloom was laid out. She already had a health potion bottle in her mouth and the bleeding had stopped. A stallion wearing wizard robes was busy at work, constantly using a healing spell on the filly.
"Dammit Herbal, I need that painkiller!" The Wizard yelled at a mare, who was running around in the back searching for this painkiller.
"Shut up brother! I'm Searching!" The so called Herbal Remedy hollered back "Aha! Found it!" She came rushing to the table, taking the empty healing bottle from Appleblooms mouth and replacing it with a large yellow bottle.
Then the wizard faced the stallion who rescued the CMC "Ah, Killing Blow! Good to have you around! Can you pass us that surgical bag?" He pointed a hoof at a bag near the entrance to the tent.
"Sure thing Healing," Killing Blow quickly grabbed the bag and gave it to Healing Hoof "So how bad is it?"
"Well, I'm gonna guess it was a wolf that bit her leg. This wolf had actually taken multiple bites out of the leg as you can see four different sets of bite marks here, here, here and here," he pointed to four different locations which killing couldn't make any sence of "During which, one of the bites completely broke the bone in two. The final bite led to this." Healing slowly pulled the two pieces of the leg apart, showing it was only being held together by nothing but skin "Many of the nerves had been cut as well."
"Alright, what do we have to do?" Killing asked.
"If we were able to take her to a good healer like in Solitude, Windhelm or WinterHold, she may have made it with no real, uh... Permanent changes." Healing explained.
"You don't mean..."
"We are going to have to amputate it," Healing finished. Killing had dealt with friends needing amputations, he still could never bear to watch one, so he left. Healing then lifted his favorite axe "Now for the fun part!"