Hours had passed since Twilight had tried to lay down to sleep, she found that she couldn't. She needed to keep herself busy, and as she looked towards the maw of the cave she found that the rain that had started when she was out in the wilderness of the forest had stopped. The rain here... well, wherever she was; was entirely irregular, and unlike the planned weather of Equestria. That wouldn't help her situation to study the clouds and weather, she needed to move and maybe find some sort of civilization out here. Twilight thought on, as she left her temporary shelter, thinking about where she should head. 'Maybe survey the land? Find somewhere high?' she mused, thinking on where she could possibly find a place high enough to see over the land. It then hit Twilight, maybe just climb to the top of the forest. Or, not exactly climb, but levitate?

Twilight eyed the top of trees, the extended canopy interlacing with the surrounding trees. Sure they were tall, but maybe she could climb them?, they had low enough branches that looked like they could support her weight. The lavender pony decided to get a move on, it would be now or she keep wandering the forest at ground level, where creatures could attack her. she started her climb, only get about a quarter up the tree before slipping and falling. As she fell back down she knew she'd be at this for awhile.

Twilight looked down from her position. She had finally reached one of the thicker branches of the tree, and was now three-quarters of the way to the top. If she were to fall now, she wouldn't get back up with nor only just a broken leg, it'd probably kill her from this height. She huffed in slight annoyance, she could have reached this spot an hour ago by teleportation, but each time she tried to focus on teleporting, a searing pain shot up from the brand. She guessed it was to "discourage" her from teleporting back to Equestria, but a warning had already been given, this one seemed like overkill.

Twilight focused back on her task, knowing it would be better to get to the top, since she was burning precious daylight. Focusing the energy into her horn, and then spreading it over her body, she began to float up into the canopy, before she reached the top, going to a branch that looked like it would survive her weight, despite it's small appearance. She turned her head, looking out from over the various treetops, looking for something that might be a clue, she had hoped to spot something, but she couldn't see that far over the trees, seeing as how some of them were larger than this one, how that was possible, she didn't know. She had also spotted what looked to be a river in the distance, but it was clearly something moving, so it had to be a source of water. Wait. What was that?

Twilight looked further down from the supposed water source, seeing smoke in the distance. Smoke meant there was fire, and that meant there was civilization! Twilight quickly made a mental note in the direction of the smoke, hoping that she would find somepony there. She quickly reversed the steps she took to get to the top, floating down as close as she could before she expended her energy, and climbing down the rest of the way. She turned towards where she had seen the smoke, and started to go in that direction. She looked to the sky, surmising that it was getting close to sunset, and if she started now she'd probably have to deal with nocturnal creatures, so she took a few small branches off of nearby trees so that she could use them for a fire, and began her trek back towards the shelter she had made.

'I'll set off tomorrow. I still have bread, and I found a small pool of water in the cave'. Of course drinking water from a unknown source wasn't favorable to her, but she didn't have any other choice. She hadn't been given anything to drink from, so she had to make do with what she found. She realized that she should try to find the source of that smoke quickly, because once she leaves her shelter, if she didn't have any water, that would be- Twilight broke off the line of thinking. She would deal with it one step at a time.

Twilight made it back to the cave just as the sun went down over the horizon, and the moon came up. She set up the fire, using her magic to start the spark and as she looked as the flames consumed the wood she imagined that instead of wood being burnt it were ponies. In particular, six ponies to be exact. She hadn't yet looked at the last two letters, but she knew who the final one came from. She had the feeling to burn it, but she decided against it. She would read it at her own pace. Twilight watched on as the flames eventually became embers, and as the blaze died down she laid down to sleep, using leaves from the ground as a makeshift bed. She closed her eyes, letting the cold of sleep take her.

Twilight opened her eyes as she looked at the murky darkness, as the world around her began to take shape. Suddenly, images of a blazing sun and a fractured moon took shape, and she could feel liquid flooding over her, threatening to drown her in it's red depths. She rapidly tried to swim up to the river's surface, only for her to be held down by magic, and as she feebly fought against it, she could see who was holding her in the magic, from the gold horseshoes to the white coat, to the flowing hair. She yelled in anger, as darkness claimed her.

Twilight woke with a start, sputtering out unseen liquid from her lungs as she tried to get her mind under control. She didn't know what she had made her body react so violently like this, and as she got her breathing under control she quickly went through her dream to find that there was nothing. She peeked her head out of the cave, to see that it was still night, and that it wouldn't be day for another few hours. She couldn't go back to sleep now that she had been woken like that. Twilight thought for a moment, deciding that it would be better if she got a move on and go in the direction of the smoke she had seen earlier. The quicker she was out of this forest, the better.

Author's Note

Bonus chapter for tonight! Which means I'm writing another in the morn. I was originally going to post this tomorrow, but decided against it because I'm wide awake, and I'm enjoying writing this. I hope you all enjoyed it, and to those that talk in the comments and not only give me suggestions, or have really well drawn out speculation, I'm glad you took the time out to. I enjoy reading the comments and I tend to respond when necessary. And yes, I'm refering to some in particular (Yes, I'm calling you out!): Thule, TwilightSparkleRocks, Telwyn Freecolt, and Kyuubi325. Also special mention to bronyoftherevolution, for giving me a particular scary idea. I'm glad I was given it! I'm sure there were others that thought it but didn't comment, but I now realize I've gotta be wary of you cheeky buggers. You all are able to snipe backstory before I even write it! I won't say what exactly, and your just gonna have to guess until then!

PS. I didn't have a better chapter name for this one, and went with "Forestry" for it's allusion.