This Dark Forest

The sounds of an animal chasing me were all I could hear while dodging tree roots, leaping over hedges, and sprinting as fast as I could from the unknown danger. I sprinted as quickly as my legs would carry me, but the noise grew louder and louder, until I could hear a chicken screeching at me from behind. I had to force myself to not look back, I had just seen this animal turn several others into stone, and if it not for a pony staring it into submission, they probably would have stayed that way. I did not have the same pony luxury.

Eventually the rough terrain opened to a small field, surrounded on three sides with tightly nit trees, too tight for me to squeeze through. The screech of the monster became louder every passing moment, and with nowhere else to turn I placed an arrow in my bow and aimed half-heartedly in the approaching monster's direction. I waited for what seemed like an eternity, the suspense practically killed me. Suddenly a half-chicken, half-snake monster dove out of the bushes, making me shut my eyes tight to avoid being turned to stone.

The creature dove at my legs, wrapping its body around them while dragging me to the ground. It pecked viciously at my face, trying to get my eyes open by means of ripping my eyelids off. I swung my fists furiously at it, hitting a large blow to the side of its head and forcing it to release its grip on me with a loud cry of pain. I quickly got to my feet and took an arrow in one hand, throwing my bow to the side, ready to stab the monster if it came to near.

Diving once more for my legs the monster wrapped me once more, this time I was ready. Listening to the sound of where the animal was approaching from I stabbed downwards, creating a large gash on one side of its serpent tail. The monster screeched in pain, but continued to wrap its body tighter and tighter around my chest and neck. The pain was unbearable, and choked much of the air from my lungs making me release my grip on the arrow to furiously pull on the creature's choke hold.

It was no use, and the creature simply tightened faster, making me let go of the arrow and lie in a heap of pain. The choking continued to get tighter and tighter until something inside my mind snapped opening my eyes and making me stare directly into the monster's with pure bloodlust. The creature loosened it's grip on my chest before it's eyes began to glow a bright red, it was a distraction. Feeling my legs go numb I reached out to grab my arrow and stabbed at the monster several times in its eyes, blinding it before continuing to stab the head and neck. Even though I was tired, out of breath, and should barely had enough energy to move I continued to lash out at the monster, my hands and face soaked in blood.

I woke with a start, panting heavily with sweat clinging to my face and hands, I looked frantically around at my surroundings, I was still in the cage, and surprisingly Saviour had managed to stay fast asleep. The sight of him calmed my nerves, allowing me to lean back against the wall, drifting slowly back to sleep.

***

Fluttershy ran back from the library with Twilight, having told her of the creature she captured and sparking the unicorn's interest. Following the path to Fluttershy's cottage Twilight asked a constant stream of questions, waking Rainbow Dash from her nap on a cloud.

"Hey! Fluttershy! Twilight!" Rainbow Dash called down from her cloud, "Where you off to in such a rush?"

Coming down from the cloud Rainbow Dash walked up to Fluttershy, greeting her friend.

"There's something I want to show Twilight you at my cottage. You can come too, I mean, if you want... I'm not sure if it's safe though... Maybe you don't want to see. Oh, forget I said anything."

"Psh, danger's my middle name. Now what is it that you have to show me?"

"Do you remember the monster that attacked Angel?" Fluttershy replied.

"Yes, Twilight and I spent hours trying to figure out what it was. It was so boring and we didn't even find anything in the end."

"Well I, um, caught it." Fluttershy trailed off at the end of her sentence.

"You what?!" Rainbow Dash stared at her friend in disbelief. "What does it look like?"

"It's um... about twice the size of a pony and stood on its hind legs. It was wearing a dirt covered, shirt and pants, and held this weird stick with a string on it. Oh! And it looked sort of like a monkey, except with hair on its head and chin." Fluttershy seemed slightly proud of herself after finishing.

"And you caught this thing?"

"Well... yes."

"You've gotta show me!" Rainbow Dash quickly flew off, leaving Fluttershy and Twilight in the dust.

***

Being confined in a small box alone for hours on end can be a little unnerving, but thanks to Saviour I was able to keep much of my sanity. At first it felt odd being trapped with a rabbit intelligent enough to understand speech, even in a world where ponies could talk and monsters from mythological tales existed, but after the first hour or so, and several games of tic-tac-toe later, I hardly noticed he was a rabbit. We had just finished a few games of charades, at which, for a rabbit or any other animal, he was an extremely good actor, not the best guesser though.

"It's over here..." A feminine voice whispered in the distance, "I think it's asleep. Try not to wake it, I don't know if it has seen me yet."

"Wow. It's huge! How did you manage to catch that thing?" Another feminine, but somewhat masculine, voice said.

I turned my head to the cage door, staring at me were three colourful ponies. One of them was the yellow pony I had seen several times before, and the other two I recognized from the manticore attack. One was cyan with a rainbow mane, the other purple with an accompanying purple mane. I stared back at them, silent, wondering why they had kidnapped me.

"Eep!" The yellow pony dove behind its blue coated pony, trying to hide itself from my view.

"Fluttershy, I think it already saw you. Plus it's in a cage, what is it going to do?"

So Fluttershy was the yellow pony's name... seems fitting.

"What do you think it is Twilight?" The cyan pony asked it's purple friend.

"I have no idea Rainbow. I've never seen anything like it in any of my books." The purple pony, Twilight, responded.

I had forgotten about my rabbit roommate who woke up from its deep sleep, rubbing its eyes and walking up to the cage.

"Oh! The monster captured that poor bunny!" Fluttershy jumped out from behind her blue friend, beginning to unlock the cage's door.

"Calm down!" Twilight's horn began to glow and Fluttershy was engulfed in a purple aura. "Maybe it didn't notice him yet. We can't give it the chance to free itself."

I looked down at Saviour, who looked back up at me, Maybe I can mess with these ponies a little. I picked Saviour up by the ears and dangled him over my mouth. Beyond being a little annoyed he didn't seem to mind and just put his arms together, waiting for my charade to end.

"Oh that's it!" The blue one began unlocking the cage door just like its friend before, this time managing to undo all of the locks before in at me.

"Rainbow Dash wait!"

The pony was fast, but I managed to dodge the attack and the pony smacked face first into the floor where I had just been standing. I leapt out of the cage, locking the door behind me, and headed for the woods, carrying Saviour in my arms and running for my life. Noticing my bow and quiver leaning against the cottage's walls I ran over to grab them, swinging both over my shoulder in one smooth motion. Inches away from freedom the same purple aura that had surrounded Fluttershy came over me, dragging me slowly back into the cage.

I had been locked in that cage for long enough, and had no intention of going back. Planting my feet firmly in the ground we began a desperate game of magical tug-of-war, audible grunts came from the pony behind me as I pushed harder and harder against the magic.

"Look out behind you Twilight!" I shouted back, trying my best to sound like her Rainbow maned friend in an attempted distraction.

Luckily she glanced over her shoulder, actually believing it was her friend that called out, and lost focus on her magic. It was more than enough for me to break free from the glow and sprint into the forest, escaping my pony captors with Saviour clinging to my back as I ran.

***

Fluttershy teared up at the sight of the rabbit being taken into the forest by the monster, and began crying outright as they disappeared behind the trees. Twilight walked up behind Fluttershy and placed a comforting hoof on her back, trying to calm her crying friend.

"We need to go after that monster!" Rainbow Dash had just been freed from the cage and was about to race off into the forest, if not for a purple leg blocking her path.

"I agree, but it won't do any good to rush in without a plan." Twilight glanced back at the sobbing pegasus. "Plus, one of us needs to stay behind and comfort her."

"Fine..." Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and sat down in a huff. "What do you want to do?"

"I'm going to follow it and then teleport both of us back to the cottage. You stay here and calm Fluttershy down. If anypony else comes by the cottage tell them what happened, alright?" Rainbow nodded and saluted Twilight before walking over to Fluttershy, calming down her weeping friend.

Twilight began galloping towards the forest, skidding to a halt to look up at the threatening trees. Swallowing nervously the unicorn started chasing after the monster again, following the sounds of branches breaking and bushes being parted.

Twilight closed the gap between her and the creature before finally being able to see its back clearly. Concentrating her magic Twilight began to cloak the creature in it. Closing her eyes to concentrate the magic further Twilight lost sight of where she was going and ran into a furry, large, and growling manticore. Looking up at it the manticore gave a low growl and swiped Twilight with a large paw, throwing her very roughly forward.

***

I made my way through the last few bushes before coming into a small clearing, the same one from when I was fighting the half snake, half chicken thing. The hoofbeats stopped and for a moment I thought the pony stopped chasing me until Twilight's body came crashing through the bushes and fell in heap at my feet.

Behind her, an ear shattering roar and in the distance I could see a manticore barrelling through the trees, knocking several down as it went. My first instinct was to run, but something about the fear in the pony's eyes made me stay. I dragged her body to the other end of the clearing and camouflaged her and Saviour with loose branches and shrubs before looking back to the incoming manticore.

This pony better be fucking thankful... I thought as removed the bow from my shoulder and readied an arrow.

The manticore jumped into the clearing and let out another loud roar, shaking the ground around it. Keeping my feet I stood tall and tried to make myself look as threatening as possible, which was fairly hard considering the manticore-s size and strength. It looked confusedly around the clearing and held a paw up, drawing the figure of a pony in the air. I shrugged, much to the manticore's disproval, and it walked slowly back into the forest.

I waited until I could no longer hear the manticore before removing the makeshift camouflage from on top of Twilight's body. She gave me a terrified glance and shrunk back slightly at the sight of me as I removed the last few bits of sticks from on top of her. I held my hand out, offering help, the small gesture seemed to help her loosen up slightly and she took my hand in her hoof, which was softer than I had imagined it would be.

Pulling herself to her hooves with my aid, Twilight began taking a few cautious steps forward before collapsing on the ground with a yelp of pain. Crouching down I beckoned for her to grab onto my shoulders, and after fidgeting awkwardly for several moments I had her head resting against my shoulder and her hooves wrapped around my neck, similar to a piggyback ride. Saviour came out from his hiding spot in the bushes and looked at the two of us with an odd look, confusion and surprise etched onto his face.