A void of white stretched everywhere, leaving all sounds and senses empty. One would think that they were in the middle of nothingness. But the blank void was not as empty as it seemed; a small figure was floating about the void’s nonexistent gravity. It was the limp body of a black lamb, garbed in a green uniform that was waving about on a nonexistent breeze. Red droplets of blood trailed off the side of it's green jacket, creating a thin trail of crimson as it traveled slowly across the seemingly endless void of white.
“Awaken, young one,” A soothing voice called out, it's words echoing with presence of both genders. “Your time to rest eternally has not yet come, and more days are yet waiting for you.”
“Who’s there?” A feminine voice laden with fatigue asked from a floating figure, not moving as it hovered in place.
“Awaken and you will see.”
“I can’t… I don’t have the energy to,” The lamb said, as her eyelids struggled to open.
“Here young one, let me lend you the energy so you may open your eyes to see me.”
A reassuring warmth spread throughout the lamb, rejuvenating her tired body. Her once limp floating frame was becoming rigid as she took in more of the energy from the comforting warmth. Her eyes slowly cracked open, and what she saw put her in a state of awe. Before her was a glowing being that gleamed too brightly to look at straight on. An aura of blue surrounded the brilliant creature. It’s size was triple of the lamb floating in front of it. A pair of magnificent wings that matched it's size could be seen moving, as if they were keeping it aloft in the air. The wings looked to be that of a giant dragonfly, as they fluttered slowly.
“Who and what are you?” asked the lamb, now moving her body so that she was level to the creature before her.
“That is not important at the moment, for you are here for a purpose that is not yet known,” The glowing being said as it seemingly nodded in honesty. "But I can tell you that I am to be your guide. Now you must waken.”
“AWAKEN NOW, BO!”
A vacuum of air surrounded Bo as a black portal opened up, greedily awaiting to suck her in.
“What’s happenin-….” Bo was unable to finish her question as she was swallowed up by the Blackness.The glowing blue being stayed still, it’s pair of wings coming to a stop.
"I hope I have done the right thing," The genderless voice rang out, as it's owner started to shrink down slowly, until it was just a small orb of blue with wings barely visible on it's side
“Ehhh, why does my head hurt so much?” Rubbing her head with one of her hooves,”…And where in the blazes am I?”
Getting up onto her legs, and brushing off dirt and debris from her green uniform and white shirt. The small black lamb Bo began a survey of the land about her. She took note that she was in what seemed like a thickly dense forest or woods. The canopy was too heavy to let in enough light to indicate what time in the day it was, but Bo could tell that the sun was sure enough still up.
“Where in Harmonia am I?”
Bo had gone to many of the Kingdoms that resided in the realm of Harmonia, but could not think of any that had such untamed vegetation. Ferns grew just about everywhere, bushes were large and misshapen, and even the trees looked like no one had cared for them from the moss and vines hanging carelessly off them.
Trying to recollect her last memories, the last thing she could recall was someplace in a void of white. Some weird celestial being that she had encountered in that bleak void had said she was needed, but hadn’t given any evidence as to what. Beyond that, everything seemed a touch hazy to recall, except for the time she and her fellow BraveHearts came to inform Royal Captain Hansel about needing to talk about Princess Ginger’s erratic changes. Bo definitely had a feeling that she was missing a day’s worth of memories.
As she continued her thoughts, she looked down to her outfit and noticed that there was a patch of blood on the left side of her body. This caused her to panic, thinking that she had unknowingly been mortally wounded, but the fact that she was not feeling any discomfort or pain made her stop and examine the large patch of blood closer. There was a large puncture hole on the left side of her white shirt, and some blood had matted her black wool coat. She found no cuts or any other wounds around the spot, but the blood was fresh and had not congealed.
“That’s strange, and there is nothing around to indicate that something’s blood had spilled on me. But that idea still wouldn't explain the big hole in my shirt. I have to get out of here so I can find out why and what has happened.”
That was easier said than done, for Bo had no idea of anything to use as directions to get out of this forest area. She paced about in thought around a tree that had been close to the spot she had awaken from. She didn’t want to just wander about an unfamiliar area, and the sounds she was hearing around her of hungry beasts assured that staying here any longer would be a bad idea as well. There was one option she almost hadn’t thought of, seeing as there were numbers upon numbers of large tall trees.
“Why didn’t I think of this sooner….” Giving herself a facehoof.
Touching the small brass cowbell that was around her neck, a ringing sound resonated as a grappling hook in the shape of a ram's head materialized. It's two horns were facing forward as hooks, with a long chain attached to it's end.
“I should be able to get to the top of this tree, so I can see which direction I need to go.”
Gripping the chain close to the grappling hook's end, Bo started spinning it to gain momentum for the hook to reach the top of the tree. Letting it go, the grappling hook flew up high to one of the tree's highest branches, but fell back down when Bo gave the chain a reassuring pull. Bo had to give the grappling hook several more tosses before she finally had a firm grip to the tree with the hook. The work had taken longer then she would have wanted, but it would reward her with more knowledge of where she was, and of where she was to go.
Climbing up the grappling hook's chain wasn’t all too strenuous to Bo, but her thoughts were weighing her down. The fact that her memories of the past few hours couldn’t be accessed made her feel that something severe must have happened to cause her to block them out.
Pushing her concern aside when she reached the top of the tree, Bo scanned the horizon. The trees seemed to spread out beyond her vision, as if it were a sea of lush greens. Towering mountains could also be seen in the distance, their tops capped with whiteness of snow. The sun showed that the time of day must be around midday, because of it's position in the center of the sky.
“Just where the fudge am I? No kingdom in Harmonia is this big.”
With all of her questioning thoughts now starting to pile up, Bo was starting to feel distressed. Lost memories, lack of knowledge of where she was, and now the thought that she might not even be in Harmonia anymore. The day was feeling like it wouldn’t end up being a good one. The only thing that could raise her hopes now would be some sign of civilization.
Still scanning about the horizon, Bo spotted a thin trail of smoke. It could be a sign of someone living close by, and despite her feelings, it had lifted her spirit as she now had a destination.
Traveling the dense forest hadn’t been too difficult, only an hour had passed since she started heading towards the trail of smoke she had spotted. Sure enough, Bo had to re-climb a tree what felt like every thirty minutes to insure that she was still heading in the right direction. Bo had been forced to move off of her path several times to avoid encountering dangerous looking animals. Sure she could easily protect herself, but she didn’t want to be the one provoking a fight, and there was also the fact that the animals she saw were almost alien to her. One she almost thought was one of her friends, until she saw the scorpion tail and leathery wings it bore.
The lion-like creature that had the scorpion tail and wings had reminded her of a report she had read from the kingdom of imagination. It had been an interesting read, as it detailed information about many creatures Harmonia’s mirror world of humanity thought as being mythical. If she could recall, this particular beast was a manticore. Luckily, it had been sleeping when she had come across it.
A few more hours had passed, and Bo was slowly reaching the location of where the now wispy smoke was still flowing upward. Further checks on her location by climbing the trees had also let her have a better glimpse of what had been producing the smoke. It was still a far ways off, but Bo could see what looked like sort of small cottage. Better yet, she could see the forest’s tree line up ahead.
It was beginning to get late; the sun was just starting to dip beyond the horizon. Chilled night air was let to drift about. Bo knew that traveling in a forest this dense at night without any light could be dangerous. Her destination was about another hour off, and dehydration and hunger were starting to affect her. It seemed that before she had woken up in this weird place, she hadn’t eaten or drank anything for a long time.
“I need to keep going forward; I can’t risk trying to sleep in this forest. There are just too many things that could eat me while I sleep.”
Bo just kept moving, seeing as it was her best and only option at the time.
Bo could hear moving water as she got closer and closer to the forest's edge. Just the sound of it was causing her dry mouth to plead for the refreshing liquid. Her lust for something to drink caused her to have a jolt of energy, allowing her to charge the final yards of the forest. She rushed over to the small stream that lay before her and dunked her head in, taking huge gulps of water until she had to pull out for air.
She was so happy to finally be out of that forest, she was starting to believe that something was watching her in that wild place, and she was happy to be clear of the place. She had reached the cottage at last; this could now hopefully allow her to relax. Unfortunately though, all the windows of the small cottage were pitch black. So who ever lived there was either gone or had gone to sleep.
Bo really didn’t want to wake the person from their sleep, seeing that she would be a stranger disturbing the peace. Going to the closest tree, one that wasn’t in the forest, Bo laid her head against it. She let out the fatigue of that day, drifting off to a peaceful dream.
If only it had truly been a peaceful dream.
“Hey, Fluttershy, come over here. There’s some strange animal sleeping under the tree.” A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail called out to her friend.
“Oh my…you're right, the poor thing looks wounded,” a light yellow Pegasus said, her long pink mane hiding a part of her face. “Could you help me bring it inside the house…if that’s ok with you, Rainbow Dash…?”
“Ah, no problem Fluttershy, it should be a piece of cake anyways.”
“That’s not cake, silly filly,” A pink pony’s head popped out from underneath the branches of the tree, spooking both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash for a brief second. “That’s a lamb… and a weird one at that.”
“Pinkie Pie… what are you doing up there?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash a big smile. “My Pinkie Sense told me there was going to be a doozie when I was hopping by and….” Pinkie Pie stopped talking as she saw the red patch of blood on the lamb's green jacket. “Is that cherry syrup?”