//------------------------------// // Issue 1.1 ~ Maybe This Wasn't Such A Good Idea... // Story: It's All A Little Strange To Me // by Essay Jay //------------------------------// KRAKOOM! Starlight shivered as she quickly pulled out her cloak at the sound of thunder in the near distance. She could see the swirling opaque clouds hovering ahead of her, and the haziness that accompanied the look of rain falling in the distance. Huddling her cloak close and clasping it closed, she breathed in the petrichor that now came with the storm before truding. FzzzKrKRAKOW! Lightning struck all around her as the sky only darkened further and rain began to pelt her. The flashes of lightning helped illuminate her path ahead and she pressed on, never giving up. The wind pelted her relentlessly, and with it came the grazing gale of rain against her face. BrrmmmmGRKRAPOW! Mud covered her hooves as she desperately tried to follow the path she had taken. With only the light to truly see, she squinted through the unrelenting downpour of water coming from all directions and nearly slipped on a rock she hadn’t seen in front of her. Yelping in surprise, she scrambled and jumped, landing on her barrel. FzzzzzASH! She got back to her hooves and began to hurry, trying to get under the cover of the tree canopy just a few trots away. Bursting through some bushes and into the graces of the underbrush, she sighed. Looking up, she could see the faint electric charges going off in the clouds, and much less subdued rainfall. RrrrbmmmmBM! Muttering under her breath, Starlight began to look for shelter as she started to rush through the small forest. Jumping over fallen trees and overgrown moss as well as squirrel hills and jutting rocks, she found herself over a crevice that stretched for as far as she could see from side to side. It stretched for about three metres and with little light to see with, it appeared to be ominously bottomless. Nudging a few rocks off the edge, she held her breath and waited. BrrrrrBOOM! Prkchkkikplat! Five seconds. It took five seconds for the sound of rock hitting the bottom of the ravine. She did the math in her head, and she paled. That was nearly one hundred and fifty metres. Gulping, she backed away from the edge before moving to her right. As another crackle of thunder lit up the sky, she found a path across that had been created by a weeping willow. Testing its strength with her hooves, she carefully got on and began to catwalk across, very very slowly. With her senses focused on the task at hoof and being buffeted by rain once more, she didn’t notice the telltale sign of burning ozone and her hairs standing on end. Electrons began charging and the air seemed to come alive. BRAKOW! In an instant, lightning struck. Everything around her shook and she was blinded with light, making her slip. Crying out in alarm, she attempted to grip the tree but found herself sliding. With her ears ringing and suffering from temporary flash blindness, her hoof snagged against something and she screamed as she felt the world slip out from beneath her. Hitting her head on the wood of the dead tree, pain tore through her skull. She could feel something rip open and felt one side of her body suddenly feel weightless. Blinking her eyes to try and rush her recovery, breathing in and out all the while, the white began to leave her vision. Looking up, she saw that her hoof had been snatched by a small V created by two branches. As she looked down, she bit her tongue as her survival instincts lit her already searing mind on fire. “Gah!” Starlight gasped as she saw the book she had borrowed from Twilight floating downward before hearing it impact the ground below. With it went nearly half of her rations that she had prepared, and she groaned at the first thought that came through her mind. “Twilight’s going to kill me…” Starlight whispered, gazing warily and wearily down at the wreckage of her book, and with it the only hope she had of going where she needed to go. And maybe even her own life if she ever made it back to Ponyville. She then thought of her food and silently began to panic as what the loss of that food implied. At the current moment, however, she had more pressing matters to attend to. Such as: the ensurance that she live and not die. As her hoof slipped slightly, she cried and turned her attention back to the task at hoof. Swinging her right hoof up, she struggled to grasp anything that would aid in her ascendance. With no trees to cover her currently, rain blew in full force and she could barely make out what she was seeing as water sprayed against her eyes. It especially made it harder to grasp things when they were constantly being showered in water. Finally catching a cranny, she cried out in extreme effort to lift herself up. Throwing another hoof over, she was able to get more leverage, and soon, her form lay breathing heavily across the width of the trunk. Feeling it would be safer to just crawl on the tree now that she had had a near death experience, she scooched herself across the remaining length of the tree. With adrenaline still pumping through her veins, she once more entered the safety of the trees and soon came across a small overhang of dirt which lay with the open side against the wind. Smiling to herself, she made her way beneath it, testing it with some branches and rocks before settling down and collapsing. Breathing heavily and feeling the strain of recent events catching up to her, she looked through her remaining belongings and then up at her new temporary dirt ceiling. Moaning, she put both of her hooves onto her face in vexation. With no book, half her food gone, and wet and cold, she pulled her hooves down her face, stretching it out while she groaned all the way. “...ponyfeathers…”