The End and the Everfree

Fluttershy's breathing was rapid. Her pupils were dialated. I have to stay strong she thought, but her thoughts couldn't stop the panic. She looked down at the pony laying before her, sprawled out with a dart in their neck. Her eyes slowly drifted from the shine of the dart's tip to the pony's lavender side, bearing a cutie mark of a star.

"Twilight..." she managed to squeak out, wrapping her hooves around the fallen alicorn. As a tear dropped from her eyes, she heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. "Hello?" she sniffled. "Is anypony there?"

Silence.

"Please... Leave me alone..." She knew who it was, deep in her gut. It was him. The figure that stalked the everfree. The same one that had been hurting the animals. The creature she had encountered earlier. From the bushes rolled a small, metallic ball that landed right at Fluttershy's hooves.

The pegasus took a moment to process what just happened.

And in doing so, she wasted one of the most precious seconds in her life.

There was a flash of blinding light as Fluttershy felt a sharp pain in her neck. And then...

Darkness.