Chapter 3: Don't Use your Head!

Chapter 3: Don't Use your Head!

~Lightning started to come to herself again. Hardly though. But then, she was licked on the face and that suddenly woke her up. It was Spike, whimpering beside her. Lightning looked around to see that she was in her room in the hideout. The Rainbooms were also there, looking pretty worried. Twilight picked up Spike from the bed, Rainbow Dash had her arms crossed with a typical face, Applejack looked at Lightning in despair, wondering what happened. Fluttershy put a hand on Lightning’s arm, feeling complete sympathy for what just happened. Rarity looked in relief to see Lightning awake, she was also holding a load of stylish bandages and medicine. She drops them when Lightning opened her eyes. Pinkie was panicking in the corner, breathing in and out deeply with Sunset comforting her, they both dashed over when Rarity and Lightning finally spoke.~

“Thank goodness, she’s awake…!” Rarity sighs heavily in relief.

“She’s alive!!!” Pinkie yelled.

“Ow...Ugh...ah...What happened?” Lightning groaned.

“You...sure hit your head pretty hard out there…” Rainbow explained.

“I’m just glad we found her! No more broken bones or head injuries! Are you alright, Lightning?” Rarity asked, continuing to panic.

Lightning was a little confused. “What do you mean by head injuries?--O-OW-OWWW!”

~Lightning went to get out of bed, but immediately rested her head on the pillow again and groaned. She rubbed her head to feel bandages over it.~

“You hit your head out in the construction site...badly.” Sunset answered.

“What were you even doing out there…?” Rainbow asked.

“And where’s Karly…?” Fluttershy added.

“Wait...where’s Karly? You mean you didn’t find her too?!!!” Lightning asked, rather surprised.

“No...only you.” Sunset answered.

“Karly...saved me. She got hit in the head by a ton of bricks!” Lightning panicked.

“What?!!!” Rarity screamed.

“She must have been knocked right to the apple core!” Applejack exclaimed. “But, we only found you, Lightnin’. Karly couldn’t have just gotten up and wandered off without goin’ to you first or even get up at all with a nasty injury like that!”

“Unless she didn’t and someone took her...or something…” Twilight suggested.

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh goodness!”

“No!” Lightning shouted then groaned.

“If ya ask me, we better go an’ find her!” Applejack stated.

“No, I will, besides you need to finish the test. Unless you already did. Or didn't you? How long was I out for?” Lightning asked.

“About 12 hours...and it’s true, we didn’t finish the test…” Twilight answered nervously.

“But, we were too worried about you to finish it! So, we stayed right here until you had awoken…!” Pinkie stated firmly.

Rarity looked at Pinkie in confusion. “Another reason…” She turned back to Lightning. “We heard the storm and the power went out…”

“That’s when we went out to see you about it, but you and Karly were missing…!” Rainbow added.

“We looked everywhere and suggested you went outside, we saw Karly's tracks...and followed it...and found you passed out on the floor…” Sunset finished.

“Right.” Lightning said, looking skeptical.

“So, I carried ya back here. But, why did ya go on out there in that racket in the first place…?” Applejack asked.

“That creature…” Lightning quietly replied.

Spike suddenly spoke up. “Oh yeah! That creature thing you saw!”

~Spike jumped out of Twilight’s arms onto the bed again and onto Lightning’s stomach and sat down on it, focusing his eyes at Lightning's.~

“Did you find it? Or even see it?”

“No. It was too fast for me…Ah!--It’s that thing’s fault! It did this!”

“I don’t think that thing was to blame for this…”

“Yes, it is! If it hadn’t gone over the fence!” Lightning argued.

“Well, if you didn’t follow it…” Spike retaliated.

“If it hadn’t run away!”

“If you didn’t let your curiosity get to you…”

“If it never got in this hideout!”

“Lightnin’, calm down…! It’s over now...I don’t know who’s to blame but it's over now…” Applejack said, calming both Lightning and Spike down.

“Not technically, we still have to find Karly…” Twilight declared.

“But, how? We don’t have any signs to know where she could be…” Fluttershy pointed out shyly.

“She’s right. Our only option is to wait for the storm to die down, and go back to the construction site.” Sunset stated.

“What if we lose something important during that time?! Like, anything evidence worthy?” Rarity asked, still sounding worried.

“I’m not sure...maybe Spike could get a scent…” Sunset suggested.

“I could try…” Spike replied.

“Then we shall leave tomorrow morning!” Lightning said, sounding determined.

“By ‘we’, do you mean all of us, including you?” Rainbow asked.

“Of course! I have to find my BFF!” Lightning replied, clenching her fist.

“But you’re injured, Lightning. On the head nonetheless. Moving around could be the worst thing you could do…” Sunset said.

“I guess, it’s not as bad as losin’ a best friend…” Applejack simply replied.

“We should all fit in, if we are going to find Karly Crystal!” Pinkie stated.

“Exactly. I’ll be fine.” Lightning shrugged.

“Well, ok. Just promise me you will get some rest…” Sunset said, fearing for Lightning.

“Right here, right now. Promise.” Lightning holds up her pinky finger but Pinkie pushes it back down.

“Do it my way! Pinkie promise!”

“Pinkie promise?” Lightning questions.

“Yeah! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie sang.

“Ok…?”

~Lightning pushes a bit of the bed covers off of her chest so she can cross her heart, then she pretends that she has a cupcake in her hand and sticks it in her eye. Pinkie smiles but then grows stern and angry and gets up in Lightning's face.~

“DO NOT BREAK IT, GOT IT?!” She bellowed.

“Got it.” Lightning whimpered, feeling a little scared.

“Good…!” Pinkie smiled happily again.

“I suggest we should all get some sleep now if we are getting up early…” Twilight said.

“Yes, please. I am exhausted from all we just did.” Rarity sighed. “I can’t wait to snuggle up in my new improved, accessory bed. Lightning, you did an absolutely amazing job on the rooms, as well. Thank you so much!”

Lightning smiles at Rarity.

“Then let's just some shut-eye before the search we have to start. Night, everyone.” Applejack waved.

~With that, Applejack opens the door and walks out. Along with the rest, wishing each other goodnight.~

“Wait, where am I going to stay?” Spike asked, suddenly realising he has nowhere to sleep.

“You can stay with me, Spike.” Fluttershy softly suggested. “I could really use some company and a sleeping buddy…”

“Alright…” Spike wagged his tail.

“He’s all yours, Fluttershy.”

~Twilight loans Spike to Fluttershy and all walk into their rooms.~

“Oh, am I going to have to make a room for Spike then?” Lightning asked herself, pretty annoyed. “Great. Eh. I can worry about it later. Right now, Karly is my main focus. Don’t worry, Karly, we will find you. “

~Lightning puts her fragile head onto another pillow and dozes off again in her unconscious state. Hoping for a better day.~

~The next morning, Spike gets up first. He slips out of a still sleeping Fluttershy’s arms and goes to the door only to be hit by it as it swings open with Twilight coming in. Both girls were alerted by Spike’s squeal as he was catapulted into the nearby desk.~

“Oh, sorry, Spike…” Twilight apologised.

“Are...you ok…?” Fluttershy asked, rubbing her eyes.

“I’m fine…” He groans.

~Fluttershy gets out of bed and picks up Spike, rubbing his head in pleasure, closing her eyes happily. She then handed him to Twilight and they both go outside.~

“I’ll be there in a second...I have to get changed…” Fluttershy said.

~Fluttershy softly closes the door and Twilight and Spike turned around to see Applejack, Lightning, Sunset, Rainbow Dash and the Chief waiting. Lightning was on her phone, stressfully smashing buttons and holding it to her ear constantly.~

“Come on, Karly, pick up. Maybe she has no service, wherever she is...Rrrgh…” Lightning grunted.

“So, where do we go first again…?” Applejack asked, turning to Sunset.

“The construction site. Assuming the storm has stopped…” Sunset answered.

The Chief comes up behind her. “It has. I looked at today’s weather forecast. It stopped. Just go and find Karly.” He ordered, worrying for her.

“Don’t worry, Steven, we will. We just have to wait for the others to be ready.” Sunset reassured.

"I’m trying to wait! Rarity has been awake for an hour and she is still getting ready!" Rainbow complained, crossing her arms.

"I’m ready!" Rarity suddenly came out of her room, flipping her hair.

"Finally!" Rainbow relieved.

"Me too!" Pinkie bursted out, looking spiffy.

"Me three…" Fluttershy raised her hand shyly, coming out of her room.

"Lets...go." Lightning determined.

~The eight girls and the dog go upstairs, out the music room, out the front door and walk into the construction site, although, they were stopped by a few builders.~

“EY! You girls supposed to be here?” The builder asked, placing his hand in front of Lightning’s face.

“Probably not. They could cause danger while we're working. So, I’m afraid you are going to have to back off…” The second builder said, escorting them back out.

“This is kind of important, mate. Our friend is missing, and this was the last time I saw her.” Lightning explained, trying to stop herself.

“Well, we haven’t seen anyone so, not our problem.” He shrugged.

~Lightning gets quite solemn at this point. She grabs the builder’s shirt and thrusts him down to her face.~

“Listen, I’m not joking around, either you let us search this place, or I’m just going to knock your block off with a ton of bricks! Just like what happened to Karly…” Lightning sadly threatened.

“Uh, alright! Ok! If you’re that tempted.”

~He runs off, feeling a bit intimidated, and comes back, back to normal again, and he is also holding eight hardhats.~

“If you're going to investigate this place, just wear a hardhat.” The guy rolled his eyes.

~With that, he roughly places each hardhat on the girls’ heads, but, with the exception of Spike, he told Twilight to cover for him.~

The builder groaned. “Just knock yourselves out...kids…”

~He strides off, and up a ladder, leaning against the scaffolding.~

“Rude.” Rarity scowled, adjusting the hat on her head.

“Well...that happened.” Sunset said, looking at the ground rather shocked.

Lightning glanced at the Rainbooms and sighed. “I’m just worried about Karly...She doesn’t just randomly go missing.”

“Well, if my suspicion is right, Karly might be in danger.” Twilight said.

Lightning turned to Spike. “...Spike. Start sniffing. Find anything.”

“Ok…” He nodded.

~Twilight places Spike down on the rocky floor and works his magic. He wanders and sniffs and wanders and sniffs. He continues to wander and sniff until he spots what looks to be a lock of Karly’s hair and he sniffs it hard. But, he also smells something a bit off. Like he’s not the only one that has touched and sniffed it. He then spots a small thing move in a dark fence corner at the corner of his eye, and barks for attention.~

“What was that?” Spike said, looking up.

“What is it, Spike?” Fluttershy asked.

~Spike responds by pointing his snout at the small thing, that was escaping out of their sight.~

“It’s that small creature thing! It’s got some nerve coming here!” Lightning shouted.

~Lightning then throws her hardhat down to the ground angrily and runs after the creature. The Mane 7 also drop their hardhats but didn’t intend on following Lightning yet, just shouted.~

“Lightning, wait!”

~It was useless. Lightning had already got a head start and was hot on the creature’s tail. And this time she could see it in plain sight. It was a Shiba Inu with cobalt blue fur. However, The fur in the centre of its back was dark blue in the shape of a curved rectangle. It had blackpool eyes, a black nose, and white on its belly, forelegs and hindlegs. It had its ears pointing up and was about the same size as Spike. Maybe a little larger. What was interesting about this dog was that it had no collar, meaning it had no home. But, Lightning didn’t care what it looked like or where it came from anymore, she just believed it was responsible for Karly's disappearance, so she proceeded to shout at it.~

“Get back here! My best friend would still be here if it weren’t for you! What were you even doing in our hideout?!” She ranted on.

~Lightning wasn’t looking where she was going and when the creature approached a long-lasting river, it turned back to Lightning with a scary smile before crawling around the other way straight past her. Lightning was also around to turn around too, but the mud was too wet and slippery from the storm last night and it slid Lightning into the river.~

“HEY--WHOA!”

~Lightning fell with a splash. And the water is riveting and moving fast. Lightning firstly tried to grab the ledge or nearby rock, but couldn’t grasp onto it. Even her geode wasn’t useful in this dire situation. She couldn’t stop flailing her arms around to grab the geode, otherwise, she will be buried underwater.~

“Girls. Girls! Help! Help!” Lightning cried.

“Lightnin’?” Applejack yelled.

“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

~The Rainbooms and Spike had now caught up with Lightning and they see her being forcefully drifted away by the river. Instantly, they did all they could to pull her out, starting with sticks. Useless. So, they had to grab onto one another and reach out for Lightning themselves, as Lightning had now just grabbed on a rock to keep her from drifting.~

“Lightning, grab on!” Sunset panicked.

“If I could try!” Lightning yelled.

“Don’t worry, Lightning! We’ll get you out!” Rainbow reassured.

Lightning looks down and freaks out. “Girls, behind you!”

~All seven of the girls turned to see the blue Shiba glaring at them and growling. It leapt and was about to pounce on Twilight until Spike pounced on it first in mid-air. Spike prepared for battle, as the dog got up and growled at Spike. Both began a turf war. Fluttershy had to stop it but was stuck in their chain to help Lightning. Suddenly a whine of pain was heard and when everyone looked back, the blue dog had thrown Spike into the river too.~

“Spike!” Twilight cried.

~The blue dog then jumped and bit Rainbow Dash’s leg, and when she cried out in pain, she lost her balance on the surface and tumbled herself and the rest into the river, as they yell in surprise.~

“Guys!” Lightning called.

~Lightning lost her grip on the rock and began flailing again, then her head bashed onto a large rock in the water and it began to spin, she fell unconscious once again.~