The Mare in the Woods

The white unicorn and the black pegasus arrived at their home. Alexander opened the front door, bursted past the dining room and turned the picture frame on the display cabinet. Trebass caught a glimpse of what the picture inside the frame was for the first time, it was a mare. She was dark purple, with a lighter shade of purple for her mane.

"Say, who is that?" Trebass asked, as he ran down the hidden metal corridor with his companion.

"Somepony important to me... But that's not important right now. Somepony, or something in this dimension is emitting strange readings that I've never seen before!" Alexander quickly changed the subject.

"What kind of readings? And does this have something to do with Bable?!" Trebass had many questions.

"This... Thing. Has the power to move throughout time and space! Just like the the Eyeglass!" Alexander opened up the vault door leading into his lab.

The computer, Eyeglass, and small coffee table looked as polished as ever.

Alexander continued, "I'm not sure if Bable is involved, but I've managed to pinpoint it's exact location space. Oh, and you might notice that I've added something extra to the Eyeglass."

Trebass opened the glass door leading inside Alexander's invention. The first thing he noticed was that there were four velvet chairs inside instead of one. It had only been a day since Trebass had been inside the Eyeglass, he wondered how Alexander had improved it in such short time.

"I've removed that metal helmet you've been wearing this entire time. The chairs are now equipped with force field that protects you from anything that could harm you while travelling through space and time." Alexander stepped into Eyeglass.

"Then, what was the helmet for?" Trebass asked.

"Well, it was used for mediocre protection against the atom deterioration that you would experience when travelling in the Eyeglass. In other words... Um... You're kinda lucky you're alive right now." Alexander chuckled.

"I hardly find that funny." Trebass scoffed.

"Anyways, I've also placed three more models of the M.a.s.t. on the three other velvet chairs. But these models are prototypes of the one your currently wearing." Alexander said, as he picked up one of the M.a.s.t.'s and wrapped it around his wrist.

The silver watch-like mechanism began to light up. Alexander sat down in one of the velvet chairs.

"Wait, you're coming with me?" Trebass asked.

"Yup! I thought I'd tag along for once. Besides, I've got the computer running itself-" Alexander was cut off, as he noticed the dark blue pegasus standing in front of the vault door.

"What the hell is all this?!" Shock Bolt blurted out as he looked at all the machinery around him.

Trebass leaned towards Alexander, "We don't have time to explain all this again. And he'll probably run his mouth to everypony if we let him out. I think we should just come with us."

Alexander nodded, "Look, you wanna help Royal right? Then you'll have to trust us. Get in, and hurry up."

Shock Bolt looked at them with a doubting look, "How can I trust you-"

"Just sit in the damn chair!" Trebass shouted, with an annoyed look on his face.

Shock Bolt jumped from being startled, then trotted into the Eyeglass. He sat down next to Alexander, he sensed a some hostility from Trebass and didn't wish to aggravate him by sitting in the seat adjacent to him.

"Here we go, hold on tight rookie." Alexander looked at Shock Bolt, as he pressed a button on his M.a.s.t.

The Eyeglass began to make the same flickering noise that Trebass heard before he was sent into the other dimensions. Sparks began to fly above the three ponies as the room they sat in began to fade into a white room of nothingness.

"W-What's happening?!" Shock Bolt had never experienced anything like this before, naturally he would have panicked in that moment.

"Even I didn't freak out this much when I first started doing this." Trebass said in a bragging manner.

"You've done this before?!" Shock Bolt asked.

"Look, you two need to cool it. If we're gonna get back home safely we need to work together." Alexander folded his arms as he sighed.

The blue pegasus and the white unicorn turned their heads away from each other. Alexander could feel heat coming from the two as angry looks stuck to their faces. The black pegasus sighed, as the whiteness turned into blackness.

"Where are we?" Trebass asked.

"I can't see a thing, it's too dark..." Shock Bolt whispered.

"Hold on, each one of our M.a.s.t. models are equipped with high powered flashlights. They'll last about forty-eight (48) hours before it dies." Alexander explained.

"What's a... Mast?" Shock Bolt

"It stands for Micro Analyzer for Space and Time. To put it simply, it tells you where you are and what point in time your in." Alexander explained.

Shock Bolt took the M.a.s.t. Model on his seat and wrapped it around his hoof. He looked at it as it began to glow green. Numbers and characters whizzed by on the tiny screen so fast that he couldn't keep up.

Trebass could only see part of Alexander's face, since the LED screen wasn't all that bright. Suddenly, a white flash of light blinded him. Trebass covered his eyes with his hoof, as he pushed the light away with his other hoof.

"Next time, warn me when your about to send a ray of light-" Trebass cut himself off, as he saw what Alxander's light had revealed.

In the center of the ray of light sat a pony in a corner. His mane was dark brown and he had a light grey coat. Blood was dripping down his forehead and from his mouth. In his hoof, he held a meat cleaver.

"I think I'm gonna be sick...." Shock Bolt went into a state of fear as his legs shook and a disgusted look imprinted itself on his face.

"Sweet Celestial almighty. What is this thing?" Trebass knelt down next to it.

"It's a pony, what did you think it was?!" Shock Bolt whispered.

Trebass looked back at Shock "What's with the whispering? It's not like he's alive anymo-"

*SLAM*

"What the hell?!" Trebass scrambled to his feet.

A meat cleaver was slammed into the wooden floor and had just barely missed his leg. Trebass pointed his flashlight towards the mysterious pony, he was nowhere to be found.

Shock Bolt jumped again as the sound of childish laughing filled the air.

"Hee Hee Hee..... Let's play hide and go seek!" A high pitched voice seemed to be coming from every direction around them.

Suddenly, another loud slam echoed throughout the darkness. A door had opened, as a dim light from outside cleared away most of the darkness. The three ponies trotted outside. Trebass exited first, then Shock, and finally Alexander.

They had emerged from a wooden shack that was surprisingly in good shape. Trees of all sorts of colors surrounded them. The sky was a dark orange, it gave off enough light for them to see in front of them. But further into the woods was pitch black.

"What do we do now? And where's Royal?" Shock Bolt asked.

"I hoped it wouldn't have come to this... But we have to go into the woods." Alexander sighed.

"Why? I mean, can't we just stay in this nice little shack?" It was clear that Shock didn't quite fancy the woods just yet.

"I'm picking up that thing's energy signature from within those woods." Alexander took a step towards the woods.

Shock spoke up again, "Well, shouldn't we wait until its brighter outside before we go into that pitch black forest?"

Alexander sighed, "We're in a different dimension. This weather could last forever for all we know. Besides...." he glanced at his M.a.s.t. "We only have twenty four (24) hours until the Eyeglass leaves. We can't stay in this universe forever, it'll cause a rip in the-"

"Okay okay! I get it." Shock finally gave in.

The three decided that they would split up to look for Royal, the mysterious tuxedo pony, and the little foal that went missing.

"I need to investigate these strange readings, so I'll look for the tuxedo pony Trebass told me about." Alexander fiddled with his M.a.s.t.

Shock volunteered to look for Royal. Trebass felt like objecting, but decided not to.

"Looks like I'm stuck with the kid." Trebass sighed.

The three walked for about five (5) minutes into the woods. They came to a three (3) way fork in the path.

"The readings are coming from the middle path, so I guess this is where we split up. Don't forget, our M.a.s.t.'s have a GPS system that can show us where each of us are." Alexander said as he examined his own M.a.s.t.

Trebass and Shock nodded as the black Pegasus ran off into the darkness.

The white unicorn spoke up as soon as Alexander was out of earshot, "Now we'll see who finds Royal first. I'll head down the left path."

Shock nodded again, then headed down the right path.

As the three ponies headed down their own paths, the sound of the child's laughter echoed throughout the woods and sent shivers up each of their spines.