The next day came and Pinkie went to school with her sisters. They were home schooled and their mother had decided today’s lesson would be about predisposed metamorphic geodes, AKA gems or jewels, and how they were formed in perfectly cut shapes by forces unknown to even the princess. Rumoured that they had been done so by an ancient, now dead race called ‘hoomans’. Lunch time came along and while Inkie and Blinkie went out to play, Pinkie was kept inside.
Her mother and father had spoken last night. They’d decided that one whole week was too much. Pinkie’s mother had talked Clyde down to just three days of grounding. They hadn’t told Pinkie yet and would tell her over dinner tonight. That wasn’t all they’d spoken about though. They’d spoken about how she’d changed. Neither of them disliked her new attitude but it was just so different to what she used to be. Calm and quiet like her sisters and aside from the occasional tiff with one another or one of the children from town, all three of them were well behaved children. But such a drastic and sudden change in their daughter, it worried them.
As Pinkie sat at her desk, looking out towards the dull barren fields where her sisters were playing with their favourite pet rock, Pinkie remembered something. “Mother.”
“Yes dear?” she replied, looking up from the book she had been reading : Dragon Eggs, and How to Identify Obvious Ones.
“I know I’m not allowed out to play but could I go out and get the stuff I bought in town yesterday?”
“What did you get?” Bonnie asked in turn.
“It was a gift for Inkie and Blinkie. I also got some milk and sugar to make a cake. I was planning on throwing them both a party.”
“Don’t try and bribe me into letting you out there with the promise of cake Pinkam-... Pinkie.”
“No, that’s not it. It’s that I left it when I saw the… when I thought I saw the fire yesterday. The probably milk’s bad by now but I shouldn’t let the other things go to waste too.”
“Where did you leave it?”
“Just on the path back from town. About half way here.”
“Alright. You have forty minutes.”
“But it’s only thirty minutes to town and back?”
“I know Pinkie. Now go, that forty starts now, don’t waste it.”
“Oh thank you Mom!” Pinkie yelled and hugged her mother, before bolting out the door and out of the front gates. She hopped all the way out there for about seven minutes or so before the bag came into view and that’s when she slowed down. She could grab the bag and come home with twenty-five minutes to spare. Or… “I know I saw smoke yesterday. I know I did!” she said to herself as she looked around the side of the road the smoke had been above.
She got to the bag and picked it up, checking the contents. It was all there, the milk smelled bad like she'd expected so she just picked up the bottle and threw it away. She then swung the bag over her head and onto her back.
But instead of heading back to the farm, she looked to her left, then turned around and looked to her right. Then turned around twice more until she was facing the direction she’d been facing yesterday, while standing in the spot she’d been in when she saw “The smoke was… there!” she pointed with her hoof where she remembered seeing it come from. “I know there was smoke and I’m going to find out what made it!” she proclaimed to nopony.
Without hesitation, even though she’d never been into the woods by herself before, she hopped off the road and started bouncing her way into them. There wasn’t anything to really worry about in this forest other than a few rock-lobsters the real danger came from getting lost. Pinkie and her sisters had always been told not to enter the woods without a compos. The lode-stone that their house was built on was magnetic and so the compos would always point to the farm.
She headed towards where she thought the smoke had been coming from. She’d been walking for about ten minutes now, but still hadn’t found anything. If she didn’t turn back soon she’d be in even more trouble than she was already in. “But I didn’t do anything…” she sighed to herself. “I didn’t… and if I can prove I saw fire then they’ll have to unground me!” she chirped, happy with her completely flawless logic and continued on. If she was late back home it didn’t matter because she was right!
Pinkie kept going, eventually she could hear something up ahead. She stopped bouncing along and went into stealth mode, pulling herself low to the ground and crawling her way slowly forward. The sound had been coming from a bunch of weird looking, white barked trees that were in the middle of a clearing.
As she approached her eyes scanned over the white trees and past them to a giant white rock. They weren’t trees, they were stone of some sort… marble? She continued to sneak around, all the while looking for what had made the sounds she’d heard moments ago. Unfortunately she couldn’t find it though and soon enough she saw something else.
A fire pit. A small circle of rocks with a pile of ash in the middle of it. She hadn’t been seeing things! She had proof now! She had… she had something very sharp poking at her throat and a heavy weight on her back. “You’re not very good at sneaking, little one.” a deep voice said loudly right into her ear. “I could hear you coming before you decided to ambush me.”
“I, I didn’t… please don’t hurt me!” Pinkie whimpered. “P-please…” she feared for her life as her eyes unfocused with fright. She just stared forward, not daring to move for she didn’t know how long. Eventually, mercifully, the object pointed against her neck was removed and the weight came off her back. Despite the weight off of her, she fell to the ground. She’d never been so scared in her life. She curled up and began to cry.
Lying there sobbing she felt a hoof on her side and jumped from its touch. The assailant ignored her resistance and moved his hoof down her back towards her flank. “You are a female?” Pinkie didn’t know much about what her eldest sister had called sex but she remembered her parents telling her about ‘good touch, bad touch’. And with that, he lifted Pinkie’s tale.
And then put it back down. He moved away from the girl he’d just found. Walking back towards his camp, Pinkie got a good looked at him at last. He was big, really big, easily three times her size. She could only see the back of him. Or at least she assumed it was his back. He was very hairy and round, standing on four short legs, which were probably longer than they seemed, just covered by his long shaggy brown coat.
He walked over to a small rock near the fireplace and grabbed something. He then turned around and started back towards Pinkie with a bag in his mouth. Pinkie got a look at his face and knew for sure this wasn’t a pony. He had a dark nose with large nostrils and his forehead pointed out above his eyes. And on each side of that forehead was a long dark grey horn. The only thing Pinkie thought this creature would be was a demon.
“Drink.” he said putting the bag on the ground in front of her. Pinkie looked at the bag and wondered what was in it. But she didn’t dare disobey this creature and reached out for the bag. She tried to open it but couldn’t figure out how. Eventually “The top there, put it in your mouth and bite down.” and she did as instructed. She felt a drop of water spill out from it. It was just water.
Pinkie took a few more sips before releasing it. The creature grabbed the water-skin with his mouth and returned it back where he’d gotten it. Pinkie got to her hoofs and thought about running but feared what he would do if she did. One of this horns had been pressed against her throat and he had moved so silently despite his size, he obviously had great grace and would probably catch her if she tried. Pinkie didn’t know what she should do.
“I am sorry.” the beast said. “I did not mean to scare you. I was told that ponies are smaller creatures. I thought them as small as you. I am just small too I suppose. But I see you are just a child. I thought you intended to hunt me, so I acted first.”
Pinkie was still scared but at least she was in less danger than before. But this thing had nearly killed her and never even seen a pony before. “W-what are you, Mister Monster?”