Survival-shy

As Fluttershy began her way in to the forest, she was reminded of why the other ponies didn't like to come in to the Everfree. The entire area was unsettling to say the least. It was densely packed with vegetation all around, making it nearly impossible for the pony to see any farther than a few feet in front of her. The overhead trees made it much harder for the moonlight to shine on to the forest floor. Even after she pulled the flashlight out and turned it on, she could only see what she focused the beam of light on.

The darkness would have been somewhat tolerable if it weren't for the eerie feeling of the environment. The added foliage gave one the feeling of being watched, and all around, Fluttershy got the feeling that she was being observed as an intruder to the forest, and that any move she made out of place could cause some sort of reaction. She was shaking and twitching all over at that thought, and eventually chose to hum a little song to herself.

"Giggle at the ghostly... hm hm hmm hm hmh hm..."

Every few steps, she kicked her bag slightly. The pebbles she were carrying fell through a small tear in the bottom of the bag, and she used this like a funnel. Every time she kicked it, one of the pebbles fell on to the ground below her.

She stopped several times to consider turning back and going home, but every time she did, she could hear the animal in the distance, still howling out of despair, and decided that she should press onward so she could at least get back home in time for at least a nap before dawn. If she could do that, she could give the animals a good breakfast and treat some of the injured ones before sleeping until lunchtime, or so she hoped.

The longer she walked, the more she began to doubt how long it would take to get home. After what felt like an hour, she noticed some rain begin to fall, which wasn't much of a problem, but still became an inconvenience because of the added mud. Fluttershy mentally added a bath to her list of things to do when she got home.

A little while after that, she got to a small river, just shallow enough to wade though. Fluttershy wondered how she would be able to get through the river and still maintain her trail back home. "I know!" she thought out loud as she picked up a large stick for nearby and stuck it in to the ground alongside the river "this stick will be the only one sticking out on this side of the river. That way I'll be able to tell which way to go when I come back!". she felt confident that she had been able to think that far ahead and, after putting some more pebbles in her bag, went on her way to the source of the noise.

Fluttershy continued to walk through the forest, all the while trying to keep her mind occupied so she wouldn't get cower in place from the eerie feeling of the forest. At first, the humming had helped, then the humming turned to quiet whistling. After she began to run out of songs, she began to think about what time she might get home, and what she would have to do to get her chores done and still have time to sleep. At first, the issue was getting home for breakfast. Then, the later it got, she thought Angel would be able to feed them breakfast, and she would get back in time to be able to eat a quick brunch. All the while, she never noticed that the stones that she put down became farther and farther apart, or that the rain had picked up and her legs where getting covered in mud.

Eventually, she got close to the source of the howling, and that's when she saw the thorn patch. I was a rather large opening, almost the size of her house, with nothing but dead thorn bushes strewn about in a large heap. She could hear the cries of something coming from within the bushes. She decided to investigate by flying around the pile to investigate. Flying over to the other side of the pile, she found just what was causing the noise.

It was a fully grown Manticore, stuck with its hind legs within the thorns. The dead plants were tangled around its fur, and it was bleeding badly from different points, showing that it had struggled.

When Fluttershy saw this, she was taken aback by the sight. She never liked to see an animal hurt, and with it being so far out in the woods all alone made her feel even worse for the poor creature. She moved in to see what she could do.

She started by flying down in front of the Manticore, so that it could see her. It didn't notice her as it continued to struggle. She advanced towards the creature, making very little noise doing so until she was right in front of it. She made her presence known by giving a little "Ahem". Immediately the creature turned from what it was doing to see the tiny pony in front of it. "You look like you need some help"

Just as fast as it had seen Fluttershy, it began to calm down. It recognized the yellow pegasus from before, when it was having problems with a thorn the]at seemed to come out of nowhere and attack it's paw. As soon as it laid eyes on her, it calmed down.

Fluttershy had seen this and began to waste no time pulling apart the thorn vines. Most of the thorns where large, and she had no problem finding better places to lay her hooves on the vine. Others where smaller, and gave her only some minor cuts

After pulling off most of the vines on top, she began to pull of the largest one which had the Mmnticore's back paws trapped underneath it. Pulling and flapping with all her might, the large vine opened up, reaching the point in which the Manticore pulled it's legs from the thorns and out of the thorn pile. Fluttershy began to let go of the vine, but as she did, her wing got picked by the vine, and pulled her on to the other vines.

After getting untangled, she found that her wings and back had been seriously injured, and that she wouldn't be able to use them for some time. she walked over to her saddlebags, which she had set on the ground prior to helping the manticore. She got out her medical kit and got to work dressing and bandaging her wounds on her back and wings. Once she was done with that, she got to work on the manticore's wounds on it's back legs, dressing them with rubbing alcohol and water from the rain

With her work complete, Fluttershy let out a gentle sigh. She would probably get home by lunch now, but it was worth it to help another living creature. The manticore, observing its wounds, got up and gave fluttershy a nice warm 'thank you' lick. She accepted it, speaking to the manticore afterwards. "Now, just be careful that you don't open up those cuts again, and you should be good to go". The Manticore understood this, and ran off in to the woods.

Now that her work was over, Fluttershy could see that the rain was beginning to die down. She packed her saddlebags up and started to head home. She found her first pebble on the edge of the clearing, and proceeded to go on to the next one.

If she could find the next one.

She assumed the pebble would be directly behind the one she was at, but she couldn't see it just from standing there. She moved forward, only to find that what she thought was soft ground when she entered was actually a rather large mud pile. "Okay," she thought "Maybe I'll just move on to the next one."

As she began to look for the next one, she found that that one was even harder to find than the second pebble was. Questions began to arise in her head. Did she just put it out farther? Did it sink in to the mud? She wasn't sure.

The more she began to search for the pebbles, the more worried she got. More questions piled up as she relentlessly searched around. Her mind began to come to only one conclusion, even though she wanted it to be anything but that. She hoped maybe it was just a little to dark, or maybe she was looking in the wrong places. More and more she began to worry until only one conclusion remained, one conclusion she dreaded to think about.

She was lost.