"Hello!? Can anypony hear us!?" Sweetie Belle called.

"We got off the trail! Can anypony else help us get back!?" Scootaloo shouted.

"It's no use, gals. We're too far away from the trail for anypony to hear us." Apple Bloom dejectedly muttered.

"It probably also doesn't help that the forest is so thick over here. Even if somepony did hear us, they probably have no idea where our voices are coming from." Scootaloo acknowledged.

"Well we can't just stop trying! The sun's already set and it's going to be night time within the hour. We went from trying to find and rescue Cooper to being lost and needing a rescue, ourselves." Sweetie Belle pouted.

"Ah'm sure if we just keep on heading back in the direction we came from, we should be able to get back on the trail sooner or later. The White Tail woods ain't that big." Apple Bloom suggested.

"Uh, are you forgetting the fact that whatever you saw led us on a wild goose chase and we took so many twists and turns to get here that we don't even know which direction we came from?" Scootaloo rebutted.

Apple Bloom frowned at the point her friend made. She opened her mouth to refute it, but quickly found herself coming up empty. Albeit with a sigh of resignation, she looked over to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

"Alright, so what do you think we should do then? 'Cause I'm right outta ideas." Apple Bloom replied.

"Well, the sun always sets in the West, right?" Sweetie Belle inquired, sticking out her tongue in thought.

"That... is true. So..." Scootaloo trailed off, glancing up to the sky.

What with their position in the forest, the trio of fillies could not see the sun itself, nor the surrounding landmarks, but they could barely see the faintest hint of light shooting by above them. The rays of light were just barely perceptable, but they were undoubtedly there, making all three fillies' spirits rise.

"Okay, so if the sun is setting over there..." Scootaloo trailed off once more, pointing in the direction of the light.

"Then that means that West is that way!" Sweetie Belle chirped.

"-An we know Ponyville was to the East of the White Tail woods!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"Then we just need to go that way!" The trio cried out in triumph, all three of them pointing their forelegs in the same direction.

"Sweetie Belle, you're a genius!" Scootaloo cheered.

"Come on girls! We have our destination!" Sweetie Belle beamed.

"Looks like that forest navigatin' day with Cooper and Zecora came in handy afterall." Apple Bloom chuckled.

"Haha, it sure did." Scootaloo agreed.

With their spirits renewed, the cutie mark crusaders headed East, in the direction they were now sure held their home. While the forest was still thick and difficult to transverse, they moved with a small pep in their step, especially as the evening sky grew dimmer and dimmer. Previously long shadows cast from the many trees around them crawled up higher and higher until the ground was bathed in darkness. The only light illuminating their path came from the errant rays of sunshine that lingered as the orange ball of fire made its last dive over the precipice of the world.

A cool breeze picked up, rustling the leaves of the trees and making branches sway back and forth. Already long and dark shadows moved and creeped forward in the ever darkening forest. Sounds that were previously easily ignored suddenly sounded louder, and more intimidating. A snap here, a crack there, creaking and groaning as trees swayed in the breeze made all three fillies tense. Their high moral and good moods quickly shifted to fear as they proceeded further toward the direction they believed to be home, but as they continued on, doubt grew in their minds.

"Um, are we sure we're going the right way?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Of course we are. We're going East, right?" Scootaloo replied, though it was clear from her tone that she wasn't very sure, herself.

"We were, but... I dunno, it's gotten too dark for me to see anymore. I don't know which way the Sun set anymore." Apple Bloom responded, nervously glancing back and forth at the long shadows around her.

They tried to put the growing doubts out of their minds and focus on simply moving toward the town, but a loud *snap* made all of them freeze. Three pairs of eyes, pupils shrunk to pinpricks in fear, all slowly glanced over to the direction they'd heard the noise from. Their ears were perked up and angled straight forward, and the fur on their bodies bristled as they searched for whatever could have made the noise.

For a time, they could only see the shadows and trees before them. Throughout their walk, the forest hadn't opened up much, making it difficult to discern if anything was watching them. An owl hooted off it the distance, making all three of them wince, but they stood stock still otherwise, their senses working in overdrive to detect what could have made such a loud snapping noise.

As the seconds turned into minutes, and no monster came, the three fillies let out a sigh of relief.

"Whew... I thought there was something there for sure." Scootaloo noted, keeping her voice down.

"Me too. That was a really loud snap." Sweetie Belle added.

"Let's just get out of here. This ain't even the Everfree and this place is givin' me the creeps at night." Apple Bloom replied, stepping forward.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed suite, the three of them moving their attention to the task of progressing through the woods once more. It was only after their eyes were elsewhere that the wooden form began to move again, stalking them as quietly and patiently as it could. Glowing green eyes finally opened once more, finding the trio of fillies in a matter of seconds with its superior night vision. It was almost too easy to track these three.

"Alright, I think that's everypony." Twilight announced, glancing over the last of the stragglers returning from the search party."

With the sun completely gone from the horizon and darkness taking over the world, Twilight found herself back at the entrance to Ponyville. While she didn't like it, searching for Cooper was already a difficult task, but searching for him in the dark was nearly impossible. Without tracking spells that would take expert, specialized unicorns from Canterlot to employ, the odds of finding the human were virtually nonexistent.

"We'll resume the search in the morning, Princess. I'm sure that if he doesn't come back and get spotted by the guard in the night, we'll find him soon enough in the morning." Mayor Mare replied, offering a sympathetic smile to the lavender alicorn.

"I'm surprised Rainbow didn't spot him from the air. If anypony would've seen him, it would've been her." Twilight shook her head.

"You've said it yourself, he's very good at hiding, Princess." Mayor Mare offered.

Twilight let out a quiet sigh, "I really wish he wasn't right now."

With that, Twilight turned around to find Celestia and Luna walking over to her, both with concerned frowns on their faces.

"No luck?" Celestia inquired.

Twilight shook her head, "Not yet. We're calling the search for the night and picking it up at first light. Times like these, I really wish you could just keep the sun up until we find him." She sheepishly suggested.

"Regrettably, I Cannot do that, Twilight. You know why." Celestia shook her head.

"Worth a shot." Twilight sighed.

"Is there not any night guard presence in Ponyville? I could have some thestrals fly in from Canterlot to aid with the search. Their natural night vision would make it much easier to find Cooper at night." Luna offered.

"That would be wonderful, Princess." Twilight gratefully accepted.

"Well then it looks like there's nothing more for us to do ton-" Mayor Mare began.

"Twilight!!!" Rarity's voice cried out, suddenly capturing the attention of all three alicorns and the mayor.

The shrill nature of the fearful cry told Twilight all she needed to know about the nature why Rarity was calling out for her. The news wasn't good. In fact, just from the sound of her friend, Twilight knew without a shadow of a doubt that the news was downright horrible. Images of Cooper's corpse laying somewhere in the forest instantly flashed through her mind, making a pit form in her stomach as she heard the beating hooves of her approaching friend.

Only, there was more than one pony approaching. As Twilight's eyes fell on the snow white fur of her unicorn friend, she was surprised to see AppleJack galloping alongside her, and Rainbow Dash flying in above the both of them. The trio of mares quickly reached all of the princesses, sweat dripping from their fur as they panted for breath.

"What is it? What happened?" Twilight questioned, her tone conveying the urgency she felt in her heart. Over and over, her mind went back to the images of Cooper lying dead on the ground just like in her nightmares, "Did you find Cooper?"

AppleJack quickly shook her head, "We ain't found 'im yet. We've got worse problems, though." She replied.

"Worse? What's happened?" Celestia questioned.

"Sweetie Belle is missing!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Apple Bloom too!" AppleJack added.

"And her aunt's haven't seen Scootaloo either." Rainbow finished.

Loathe as she was to admit it, Twilight felt the briefest flash of relief wash over her as she learned her greatest fear was not yet true. She fought the urge to let out a sigh of relief, knowing full well that her three friends were all worried sick about their sisters. She quickly put her mind to work, thinking of all the possible locations the three fillies could have gone off to.

"Did you look in their treehouse?" She inquired.

"Of course we did. That was the first place we looked when we realized they were all missing." Rarity replied.

"Ah talked with Granny and Big Mac and they said AppleBloom hasn't been home since this mornin'. She was at the school but ain't nopony seen her since then." AppleJack explained.

"Who have you talked to? Surely somepony has to have seen them." Twilight reasonded.

"We've only asked around since the search was called off. We didn't know they were missing until half an hour ago." Rainbow responded.

Twilight frowned at the answer before glancing over to the dispersing crowd of ponies that made up the search party. Almost all of them were already gone or home, but a few stragglers still hadn't quite made it out of the town square just yet. She noticed a particular pegasus stallion trotting away, his light blue mohawk standing out against the pale moonlight shining down on him.

"Thunderlane!" Twilight called, galloping over to him.

Thunderlane gave a start at the sudden call, turning his head and giving Twilight a quizzical look as she rushed over to him.

"Um, yes, Princess?" He asked, turning around to face her.

"Did you see the cutie mark crusaders by any chance?" Twilight inquired, hoping beyond hope that her hunch was wrong.

"The CMC? Oh yeah, I saw them when we were heading out to the White Tail woods. I thought they were with their sisters, so I didn't think anything of it." Thunderlane replied, wholly ignorant of the dread in Twilight's eyes.

"Oh... t-thank you, Thunderlane." Twilight muttered, turning around to her friends.

While Thunderlane gave an awkward and slightly worried wave and trotted off, Twilight trudged back to her friends, her wings drooping at her sides as she thought over the implications of what she'd just been informed.

"What'd Thunder say?" Rainbow asked, snapping Twilight's attention back up to her.

Twilight nervously gulped, "A-apparently they were in the search party. Everypony saw all of you and thought that they were just with you so none of them mentioned it." She explained.

"What!?" The three mares shrieked.

"We've gotta go look for 'em! The White Tail woods ain't no Everfree, but there's still plenty a' critters that could hurt them in there at night!" AppleJack exclaimed.

"What were they doing in the search party!" Rarity gasped, glancing over to the woods.

"I don't know. They must have slipped in and blended in with the crowd. I'm sorry girls... I didn't see them." Twilight apologizzed.

"Well we've gotta go find them! They're still out there in the woods somewhere!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Let's get a move on!" AppleJack agreed.

"We'll speak with the mayor and get the search party reorganized. You go with your friends." Celestia ordered, giving a determined look to Twilight.

"On it." Twilight replied, turning tail and galloping toward the woods, Rainbow, AppleJack, and Rarity on her hooves.

"I already told Pinkie and Fluttershy about Scoots and the others but they don't know where to look yet. I'm gonna go tell them to head to the White Tail woods again." Rainbow announced.

"Go. We'll meet you there." Twilight responded.

With that, Rainbow banked away and sped off into the distance, disappearing into the night within a matter of seconds. Meanwhile Twilight, AppleJack, and Rarity continued to gallop until they were out of town and reaching the entrance to the woods. They slowed to a trot, and eventually came to a stop as they reached the trail that led into said woods.

"Alright, Rainbow should be back any minute with Fluttershy and Pinkie. Once they're here, I suggest we break into teams of two and search the forest one trail at a time. Rarity and I can put out a lot of light with our magic as well, so even if they somehow don't hear us, they should be able to see us." Twilight explained.

"Sounds like a plan. I just hope Pinkie or Flutters brings a lamp. It's mighty dark out tonight." AppleJack noted, glancing to the sky.

While the moon was high in the night sky, there were hundreds of clouds present, blotting out the otherwise bright light of the night. It wasn't difficult to see outside of the forest, where there was still a decent amount of light permeating the air, but the shadows from the tall trees made the forest a dark and imposing prospect, even to grown mares. Luckily, the three of them didn't have to wait long with just the shadows to keep them company, as the sound of beating wings and galloping hooves quickly reached their ears.

"We're here!" Pinkie cried out, coming to a screeching halt just a few paces away.

"We came as fast as we could." Fluttershy added.

"Passed the town square again in the process. The Princesses have at least a hundred ponies and guards all gathered up and heading this way. They're bringing lanterns and flashlights." Rainbow quickly explained.

"Good. That's great news. Let's head in and get a head start. Pinkie, I don't suppose you have a lantern or something?" Twilight inquired.

Pinkie promptly fished a full-sized lantern out of her mane and quickly lit it, casting all of them in a warm orange glow.

"No idea how she fits so many things in there but I'm not complaining." Rainbow scoffed.

Twilight smiled, "Pinkie just being Pinkie. Alright, let's split up into teams, girls. Three teams of two. Fan out and lets cover as much ground as we can."

With their instructions made clear, the group quickly broke up into the aforementioned trio of pairs. Fluttershy followed Rarity onto a trail heading to the Northern side of the forest, while Rainbow and Pinkie Pie headed south. Twilight and AppleJack headed straight ahead into the center of the forest, Twilight's horn casting a bright lavender light that illuminated all of the trees and trail around them.

"Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!" AppleJack and Twilight called out.

Though it was to be expected, neither could quite hide their disappointment as their calls were met with nothing but silence.

Author's Note

Well this is certainly an interesting development. I wonder what will happen next?