Abrupt Sense of Flames

Your eyes squint open, adjusting to the strange new lighting. Your eyes are no longer blurred and you can make out strange fixtures on the walls and ceiling. You try to pull your fore hoof to your head but a thick blanket impedes you. You look back and behind you your left wing is wrapped in a damp green, raggedy cloth.

  You hear a few clops of hooves in the other room and your head jolts to the side in a panic. You see a black and white striped “pony” with golden bracelets fashioned around her neck and fore hoof. She steps in with a small wooden bowl filled with greenish puss.

  “Oh the lost pony is awake. Are you feeling alright?” The strange ponyish thing says with some strange accent; you can’t put your finger on where it is from. You don’t reply.

  She makes her way towards the risen mattress in which you lay, helpless, again. She places the wooden bowl on a small, hand crafted wooden table, located next to the bed. She sits and looks at you for a while until she speaks.

  “I do not need to know why you are out here, so I will not ask. You have broken your left wing, it will heal in time, but you may not fly for a while.” She gets up and grabs the wooden bowl filled with the green uh… stuff. “Please take this. It will help you heal.” She offers you the bowl. You take it and exchange looks from the green mush and the black and white pony.

  You take your other hoof, and with it, you scoop some of the mush out, pulling it near your maw. The smell is unbearable. ‘It can’t taste any better than it smells’ you think. ‘Well it’s going to make me better. Wait… I don’t even know this lady! She doesn’t even look like a pony! And she lives in this forest! With creepy things all over the walls! How do I not know she’s trying to poison me!?’

  Your eyes shrink and your brows narrow. You throw the bowl across the room and jump straight up, attempting to get out as soon as you can. The bed blanket shoots straight off. Your wing jolts an unbearable pain but you do not show any sign of weakness for this… this… thing is going to do Celestia knows what.

  The black and white thing’s eyes spring open. “No! I am trying to help you!” She makes her way towards you and your eyes scan across the room. You find only one door which seems that it leads to the main section of the home. You sprint through the door and find more strange things covering the walls and furniture. You see 3 more doors. With no time to ponder where they can go, you choose the one on the left.

  The thing runs into the room where you were and calls out for you. This room you are in has nothing but strange plants! Plants of all colors, shapes and sizes fill the shelves. Finding no exit you run back into the room where ‘it’ stands.

  “Do not be scared! I will not harm you!” It says in an attempt to mess with your mind! You take through the middle door, this one leading to an exit. With no hesitation you dash out of the door and break down a path marked with strange colored stones. It has to lead somewhere.

After only a few minutes of sprinting you stop near a yellow leaved tree over hanging a small brush. ‘I think I lost it. I don’t think it would have followed me all the way out here.’ You sit down, leaning your head on the base of the tall tree. ‘What was that… that thing? It was a she I think. But it wasn’t a pony that’s for sure.’ You shutter. You don’t want to know why that thing is like that, or even what it does. You’re just glad you’ve gotten away un-scathed.

  You lean back against the tree and take time to assess your “situation” on your wing. It has a tightly wrapped greenish cloth wrapped around it, wreaking a light stench of whatever she soaked it in. It did do a good job of soaking up the blood from whatever cut you have. You begin to un-wrap the cloth from your wing. It leaves small strings of goo and blood as you remove it. Once the cloth is off, you stretch your wing outwards before quickly retreating it back into a tight fold on your back.

  “Ow! Well, I can’t fly any time soon.” You grumble to yourself, agitated. You whip your eyes, removing a surprisingly thick layer of mud. You lay your fore hooves on the ground and relax your shoulders the best you can without putting pressure on your wing against the log. Your head lightly thumps the log and you close your eyes. You just begin to let your body relax when…

  “AH! CHERRY! WHERE’S CHERRY!?” You scream in sudden realization. You shoot up, scraping your withers against the tree. Another strong wince of pain shoots throughout your body, but you pay no attention. You must find Cherry.

  ‘Oh, Celestia! Is she still at the party?! How long was I out?! Is she ok?! Where am I?!’ You have too many questions and not enough time. Cherry is out there, lost, alone, and you’re supposed to be there to protect her, and you’ve failed.

  You have no memory of this place. Not until now have you ever been in this forest. You’re still new to Ponyville! That doesn’t stop you. You begin heading in some direction, anywhere away from where you just came. Small bushes and shrubs knock out of the way as your body tanks through the vegetation. One stride after another, your head begins to ache from the rapid flow of blood around your body.

  For about 10 minutes, your environment hasn’t changed in the slightest. There are still thick woods reducing your vision to about 10 feet. You fun faster and faster, squinting your eyes more and more to block flinging tree branches. You begin to lose balance and your hooves tremble down, your knees land in the grainy… sand? Your eyes shoot open, taking in the, thought to be forest, but what appears to be a river. It’s on a gentle slope coming from your left, quietly trickling down rock after rock.

  You sit there, admiring the peaceful setting of this forest. The way the sun lightly penetrates through the leaves, how the water plays a peaceful melody against the stones. You’re eyes rest, fixated on nothing, just looking.

You snap out of your trance when a drop of warm blood slowly runs down your barrel. ‘How long was I out?’ Cherry could still be at the party, or…not.

  You stumble your way back onto your hooves, following the river downstream. Nothing but rocks, sand, water, and occasionally some moss. The damp sand soothes the soles of your hooves, somewhat relaxing you. No need to run anymore, you’ll just hurt yourself more.

  Your journey treks for who knows how long this time. All of a sudden, a small bridge comes into site. A simple bridge, made out of a few pieces of lumber and some nails. No painting or fancy engravings. Just a bridge. About one foot off the ground, as if built for a foal. The stream, trickling under its feeble planks, creates a rhythmic pitter patter against the stones.

  You approach the structure, not knowing what to make of it. ‘Why is it here? Maybe somepony lives close!’

  You run across the stream, splashing water everywhere. Continuing past the bridge, around some rocks and you find a cottage. Around the cottage are flowers and small animals roaming around, continent with their habitat. What looks like to be Fluttershy is watering a tree around the end of the cottage. The tree is small, with an abstracted branch sticking out at about waste level, and no leaves.

  “Hey!” You call out to the Pegasus. You take a deep breath, “Thank Celestia I found you! I’ve been in the woods forever because Applejack tried to rape me, and I don’t know where Cherry is, and I need to find her and I passed out in the woods, and when I woke up I was captured by this weird looking pony-thing, but it wasn’t a pony! I don’t know what it was, but that doesn’t really matter. Do you know where Cherry is?! I need to find her!”

  You begin to pant, noticing that the Pegasus has retreated back behind the tree. “Oh don’t be scared, it’s me!” You tell her your name.

  “Oh, it’s uh… you… from the party.” Fluttershy says inaudibly.

  “Yes! It’s me! Do you know where Cherry is?” She flinches back. You look down and notice you’re leaning over her. You sit back.

  “Uh I uh… I don’t know.”

*I like to think of this chapter as "fahsionably late"*