Thud, Thud. The iconic sound of hooves knocking on a door, odd, I wasn't expecting any guesses as I rarely get any late-night to expect for a few ponies who really need a tooth placed back in if they were doing something stupid, they enough of the pain, hell even a few that simply didn't even to be seen near the office in town. Not that I mind too much, dental hygiene is important and an infected tooth can lead to death, but sometimes a stallion just wants to be left alone in his house with a good novel.
Thud, Thud. "I'm coming! Geez, hold on to your horses...That just sounds wrong for some reason or another." Was all I called out just before I made it to the door.
Reaching the front door and pushing it open after unlocking it greeted me the sight of an empty yard facing the small village of Aumntumdale, my new home town, must have been some foals trying to pull a prank on me, as any young foal would do on a random pony. Come to think about it shouldn't be any foals trying to prank me as Celestia has already lowered the sun and most parents don't let their foals out during the night were starting to fade away, but I don't see any creature on the ground, maybe the sky? It couldn't hurt to see if a single pegasus had decided to jump onto my roof or something like that, scanning the roofline in the dark isn't the easiest thing for a no-lunar pegasus or anycreature with night vision, so if there was any I didn't see.
Odd, as I was thinking about that I almost swore I hear something break a branch somewhere near me, a quick turn showed nothing but a field partly lit up by the light of the moon, nothing I haven't seen before in the field. Well, that answers that I was a victim of a simple prank, doesn't matter as my novel was calling my name and I wanted to answer it with earnest by getting a new chapter finished and entering slumberland.
I had finished my goal of getting to the next chapter while in bed and drifted off the dreamscape, yet something felt off as a sudden pain erupted across my back like being dropped from some height onto the ground, one that felt like it was littered with small stones and small sticks. And that was odd as I know for a fact I had a spring mattress that was still in good shape, added I was pretty sure no creature had entered my home while I wasn't looking and even if they had I would have heard them or seen them, it wasn't a big house. A sudden thought did accrue to me, that I may not have locked my front door after rentering my abode, even so, the town I call home is out of the way for most to visit add to the fact I live a little distance from the center of it and away from the main path into it. The only way to fully tell is by seeing that I was pranked or foalnapped, odds are it was a prank, as I and my family aren't important to get any meaningful ransom. The other thought would be Changelings, but I am pretty sure I lack the love needed for more than one to survive off of, plus the village isn't even close to them but if the rumors held any truth, they had spies in just about every village and city in all four corners of Equestria and the rest of world.
Either way that doesn't change anything, waking up to finding myself in the middle of a forest, quickly jumping up was about the only thing I could do besides laying on my back in pure shock as to how I got so far away from my house. The best thing now is to figure out how I got here, but first I should find something edible first as my belly informed me of where my hunger levels sat at, that is something that shouldn't be too hard to do in a forest, as hay is made from dried cut grass and I am pretty sure a forest should have some grass or flowers to feed off, if not I pretty sure I can find at least a field or something.
Taking a good look around, showed that nothing of noteworthy was around me, just your usual forest stuff, trees, bushes, rocks, and fallen branches, and smell of smoke filling the air, wait that isn't normal in a forest as they are not meant to be set on fire. Panic was setting in thanks to both the fire and the fact I wasn't sure which direction as the smoke had quickly covered the air, and started to fill my lungs all of which are good reasons to panic but if I hold it together I can possibly make it out of here alive.
Yeah, making it out of here would be a good thing, just hope angry dragon isn't behind this fire, quickly lowering myself closer to the ground so that way I had an easier time to breath has smoke likes to rise above air, crawling in a general direction and hoping that doesn't lead to the source of smoke was the best I can do for now. It was a bit painful and annoying to do as the ground was covered in small rocks and other pointy objects that poked me in the gut as I 'stalked' forward towards, luckily none of them felt sharp enough when I moved over them to cut through my hide.
Moving through the smoke, I could some shouting and what sounded like steel on steel banging, a nearly classical tell of a battle being waged, which means I should be moving the other way and double-time it in any other direction except the one I was heading.
That was the plan before a dozen arrows landing right where my tail was, and I keep my tail cut short, so I was nearly shot in the ass by some random archer and basic logic always state, move away from the spot where you were nearly hit by a deadly object. A quick jump and a panicked run allowed me to dodge a few more metal-tipped arrows and some magical arrows that tried to land in the area I was laying in, so a random zig-zag full galloped was throwing off most of the unicorns were focused on turning me into a pin cushion for arrows.
About a half dozen fully armored unicorns with four of them holding a bow in their magic while the rest of them just had glowing horns, readying for another salvo at me as they tried to guess my movement until I felt something just seize one of my legs forcing me to cartwheel onto my face and finally onto my back. Painful it was but I wasn't about to just let myself die from a random accident when ponies are trying to kill me! Rolling to my right just in the nick of time as four non-magical arrows impacted the earth I was laying on and a magical missile exploding in that same area, I was on all fours again in no time, running was harder to do as smoke filled my lungs instead of air which is needed for living.
Coughing up a storm as I stopped long enough for a magical zap to hit me in the flanks, sending my body into shock as suddenly all of my muscles felt like they were set on fire before everything just went lip on me, blacking out from a fusion of lack of oxygen and the pain from being hit by magical lightning.
Author's Note
I have Grammarly on my internet browser so it does help with the grammar, but it doesn't always seem to give the best options, that and it doesn't like or understand 'pony grammar,' (as if anyone can) as I am purely guessing that their version of kidnap is called foalnap, but it also seems in the series that terms and grammar is mainly based on the anatomy of the speaker. As griffons and ponies have a similar saying but it is different because of their bodies AE, 'Can you give me a claw?' (for griffons) and 'Can you give me a hoof?' (for creatures with hooves). IDK, just ranting.
