Dark Horizons

by shadow hunter

Chapter 3: When All Seems Lost

Consciousness slowly returned to Rainbow Dash as she lay on a cold, hard surface. She was momentarily confused as to why her bed felt so weird, until her memories flooded back; the storm, the winds, getting blown to the ground, and then the noise behind her. Slowly she half-opened her eyes, careful not to make any sudden movements, and surveyed her surroundings.

She was in a dark corner of a circular cave with a fire in the middle. There were two hairy creatures seated around the fire, their bodies and the flickering flames cast spooky shadows along the walls. Shuddering, she recognized the creatures as the ones from her dreams. They roughly resembled bears, but with longer limbs and two small fangs protruding from the tops of their mouths and descending downwards, to end in sharp points just below their chins. They didn’t look friendly before she noticed their fangs, but now they looked downright horrifying.

Remembering her attempt at flight from her dream, Rainbow Dash slowly shifted to face her right side and was relieved to see there were no scratches adorning it. She heard a growl followed by a few grunts and a shuffling noise from over by the fire, and slowly shifted to see what was going on. One of the creatures had gotten up and was walking on two legs across the cave to another dark corner. It walked hunched over and seemed in no hurry at all. When the creature arrived at its destination, it rummaged around for a while before finding what it was looking for. It hauled out a large log and dragged it behind itself as the creature made its way back to the fire. The log must have been at least three ponies long and at least three hooves thick, but the creature simply tossed it casually onto the fire and sat back down. Rainbow Dash felt a bead of sweat trickle down her face and drip onto the stone floor. She was far outmatched when compared to these creatures.

The second creature, the one that was seated closest to her, got up and turned towards her. The cyan mare felt her heartbeat stop for a moment as fear began to slowly grip her, but she pushed it back into the recesses of her mind. She had to remain calm or it could spell her end. The creature stood there regarding her for a few moments, moments which seemed to crawl by for Rainbow Dash. Finally the creature turned back to the fire and sat down. Her mouth tried to let out a loud sigh of relief, but she managed to restrain it.

Rainbow Dash knew she had to find a way to get away from them, before the events of her dream could take shape. Looking around the cave one more time, nothing caught her eye as being useful in her escape. The cave was circular and almost entirely lit, save the corner she was in and the corner with the wood. This meant that any attempt at escape would almost certainly lead to detection, unless… Her heart skipped a beat. If she could creep along the ground in the shadows of the creatures, she could make it to the cave entrance! Upon retracing her route however, her heart fell as she realized the gap between the two creatures’ shadows was too large to cross without getting noticed.

A movement by the mouth of the cave caught her eye and she saw another creature coming into the cave. It was sopping wet and left small puddles behind it after every step. She noticed the cave’s mouth was just barely big enough for it to fit in as it bent over to fit through the opening. It was carrying three large sticks, two Y-shaped sticks and one long one. It put them down near the fire but not on it, and sat down to the growls and grunts of its companions, as they moved to facilitate it.

Rainbow Dash pondered the reasoning of bringing in the sticks but not putting them on the fire, until the horrifying reasoning became clear to her. When she was younger, her mother had once told a horror-story about sophisticated meat-eating ponies that would cook their food over a fire using two sticks to hold up one that was suspended over the fire. They planned to eat her! Not if I can help it! She thought, glancing around the room once more for anything that could help her escape. Rainbow Dash’s heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she found it.

When the second creature had sat down, the other creatures had rearranged themselves and the gap in the shadow had closed enough that she might be able to make it through without being seen. Rainbow decided that she had to give it a try, and began to slowly and carefully crawl around the edge of the cave. Every step, she carefully chose where to place her hoof to make the least amount of noise as she crawled along the wall.

It felt like it was taking forever, but she was making progress. Rainbow Dash was now just before the gap in the shadows, so she settled down to wait for a better opportunity. The wait wasn’t very long. At that moment the creatures appeared to have struck up a conversation, or something similar, as the cave came alive with their growls and grunts. The cyan mare quickly took advantage of what she hoped would be their lack of attention, and darted across the gap. Glancing back at them, she saw no sign that they had noticed her. Satisfied that they were not alerted to her disappearance, she continued crawling along the perimeter of the cave.

Rainbow Dash had crept halfway around the cave and was at the midpoint between where she had been lying, and the exit. The cave came alive with an incredibly loud roar as all the creatures got up. Pressing herself against the wall, Rainbow Dash felt her heartbeat increase rapidly as she became aware that they were searching the room quickly. Knowing that she had no choice, the mare made a quick bolt for the entrance. The creatures roared in rage as they saw her rapidly approaching freedom. One of them was quicker than the rest, and reached the cave entrance before Rainbow Dash, extending its long and very sharp-looking claws. Thinking quickly, Rainbow feinted right and then dashed to the creature’s left. Sailing past the creature’s right side, she felt a sharp pain run down her whole side and came crashing to the ground outside the cave’s mouth.

Scrambling to right herself, the cyan mare glanced at her side to see six crimson slashes adorning it. With the creatures roaring from the cave and doing their best to hurry out, she had little time to think and instead ran on instinct. Bolting into the Everfree forest, Rainbow Dash tried not to think about the fact that this was where her nightmare took place. There was a torrential downpour that splattered her face and muddied the forest floor as she dashed through the woods as fast as possible. After having run for what seemed long enough to have lost them, she began to slow down. Listening for anything following her, Rainbow Dash heard nothing and continued trotting through the woods, looking for anything familiar.

It feels like I’ve been moving for hours, Rainbow Dash thought. Her pace had initially been a thunderous sprinting that eventually degraded down to a trot, which had now been reduced to a slow and stumbling walk. She knew that the wound in her side was weakening her and decided that she would have to stop somewhere to rest. The last thing she needed right now was to collapse in the middle of the trail from exhaustion. Looking behind her, she caught sight of the trail of dripping blood she had been leaving behind, tinting the mud and puddles on the path with small red specks. As much as the mare wanted to stop and rest, she knew if she did it would all be over.

Stumbling through the woods, Rainbow Dash heard a series of growls from behind her. They had caught up to her! Forgetting both her wound and her exhaustion as a burst of pure adrenaline kicked in, she bolted forward with newfound speed. Some part of her mind screamed in protest that she couldn’t keep running forever, but she pushed the thought aside. Then she recognized her surroundings, although what met her eyes was not to her satisfaction. Rainbow Dash had bolted through the forest so quickly that she failed to notice that she had entered the part of the woods in which her dream began. Growling came from her left and, seeing no other options, the mare veered right only to run into the wall of undergrowth. Her heart was pounding faster and faster and she felt cold fear begin to grip her mind as she realized that despite all her efforts, her dream was unfolding before her eyes.

Rainbow Dash heard a growl from behind her, but knew that looking back was the cause of her downfall in the dream, so she pushed herself onwards and past the rock that spelled her previous doom. Finally she burst out of the thick forest into the full force of the rain that blurred her vision and stung her face as she ran. She felt the mud under her hooves, but didn’t think quickly enough to save herself. Time seemed to progress slowly and she watched helplessly as first her front hooves lost their footing, followed quickly by her back ones. Tumbling to her left, she slid to a halt in the mud. Rainbow Dash knew that she should be getting up, trying to run, but lying down felt so good and getting up seemed like it would take so much energy.

Growling came from around her somewhere, she couldn’t tell exactly where. Blinking as much of the rain out of her eyes as she could, she looked up to see a large slightly-blurry shape growling down at her. So this was how it would end, the great Rainbow Dash was destined to die exhausted and lying in a mud puddle at some vicious creature’s feet. She had always envisioned a more heroic end but there was nothing for that now, so she simply closed her eyes and, feeling somehow calm, waited for the final blow to arrive.

That final blow never came though. She heard the familiar sound of hooves splashing though mud followed by a loud shout of “If you dare hurt her, ah will…” Rainbow Dash didn’t hear the rest as a particularly irritating raindrop hit her in the ear, but she knew right away from the accent exactly who had said it. She looked up just in time to see a very muddy and bedraggled-looking Applejack slam into the creature above her with tremendous force, causing them both to tumble over her. The creature fell into the mud after doing a nearly-complete front-flip over her, but Applejack glowed purple and was quickly righted and set back down on her feet. Rainbow Dash looked over to see a similarly worn-down looking Twilight standing by the edge of the woods, saving Applejack the trouble of sprawling in the mud with her foes.

Applejack continued to beat away at the creatures, with Twilight dutifully saving her from crashing into the ground several more times, until the beasts finally realized that they couldn’t win and retreated. “Yeah, y’all go ahead an’ run!” Applejack yelled after them, as they quickly melted away into the undergrowth. Rainbow’s friends quickly trotted over to her, Twilight letting out a gasp at her wounds.

“Rainbow! You’re hurt!” Twilight said, her jaw hanging slightly open in shock and her brow creased with worry.

“Are ya all right Sugarcube?” Applejack asked, not yet seeing her wounds. She moved around Rainbow to where Twilight was standing regarding her. Applejack saw the scratches running down Rainbow’s side and gasped. Making a quick decision, she said “We’ve gotta get you back to Ponyville Hospital right away!”

“Uh… hey… thanks for the rescue guys” Rainbow said weakly, struggling to stay conscious to speak. “I would love… to get back to Ponyville but… I don’t know that I can” she mumbled “I’m exhausted… too tired to walk anymore.”

“You just hold on Sugarcube, we’ll carry you back then!” Applejack said urgently, as Twilight agreed and carefully lifted Rainbow with her magic and placed her on Applejack’s back.

Rainbow Dash smiled, mumbling a quiet “Thank y…” before trailing off and falling asleep. The group then headed back through the Everfree forest towards Ponyville as quickly as possible…

Comments

[OnionPony]

I'm getting a lot of Nightmare On Elm Street vibes from that thumbnail, which is a good thing since I love Nightmare On Elm Street(the original is the superior version though, the remake was a disappointment IMO).

[Reader Wolf]

WHEW! That was tense.

[shadow hunter]

475329
Glad to hear it! I wasn't too sure how this would turn out but, judging by that comment, it would appear I did my job well!