“Hey you!” A voice called out “Stop right there!”
Sonata jerked around to see a police officer. When she turned back around to the creature it, as well as the gate, had completely vanished.
“Is your name Sonata Mouse?”
Sonata nodded proudly, loving the sound of her new last name.
“That’s me!” she chirped
“We’ve been looking for you. Your family has been worried sick. What in the world are you doing out here by yourself?”
“What do you mean?” Sonata asked “I must have only been gone for a few minutes. As for why I’m out here well…”
She stopped short. What was she doing out here? She couldn’t remember a thing. She remembered being on the playground and walking towards the edge but other than that it was all blank.
“Little lady you’ve been gone for almost a week. Do you know where you are right now?”
“Just a little bit outside Canterlot High School.”
The officer’s face looked shocked and he held out a map, pointing to where they were. Sonata had traveled nearly one hundred miles into the Everfree Forest! Sonata’s mouth fell wide. How was this possible? She turned around to find something even more terrifying. Her feet were mere inches away from where the gate once stood, was a tall cliff side. If she had taken even a step further, she would have certainly fallen to her death
“Well we’re going to get you home right away.”
Sonata began to shiver and cry. She felt so afraid all of a sudden, but not just the fear one would have from suffering such a weird experience. It was a deep, intense, primordial fear, as if her life was in imminent danger. What was more unsettling was that every time the winds began to blow, she could swear she heard whispers. She clutched the officers side tightly.
“A-are we going home soon?” Sonata asked, her teeth chattering
“Yes.” the officer reassured her “Just stay calm. I promise that nothing will hurt you.”
The officer made his call and in a few minutes a police car came to pick them up.
“You’re lucky we came by when we did.” one of the officers said “I was just doing my routine check of the area and recognized you from the missing person’s list.”
Sonata didn’t respond. For whatever reason this fear buried deep within her gut would not subside. It gnawed at her no matter how much she tried to reassure herself. It took nearly an hour to arrive at the station, Sonata watching the moon the entire way there. She kept getting flashes of a blue and red monster that spoke in a tongue she couldn’t understand. What was so unnerving about it wasn’t its words but its appearance. It was a tall moose like creature, but it stood on its hind legs. It had long, sharp, pitch black claws and its teeth appeared to be stained with blood. Its belly was disfigured, as if someone had placed a blender to it and its head was more bone than skin. It’s beady, glowing red eyes looked furious, as if Sonata’s very presence made it want to kill her.
Anon arrived at the station in record time, nearly beating the police officers there. When he saw Sonata, he gave her a big hug.
“Oh Sonata! I missed you so much! Where have you been? How did you get out here?”
But Sonata couldn’t focus on her father’s words. All she was able to see was that terrible monster. It was etched deeply inside her mind and would not remove itself. The more she envisioned it the more real it seemed to become. She began to shake and cry.
“Sonata?” Anon asked “What’s the matter?”
“T-that thing! It’s right there! It’s standing right there!”
“What thing Sonata? Tell daddy what’s wrong.”
The officer came by Anon’s side
“She’s been wondering the woods for a week likely without food or water.” the officer explained “She’s probably hallucinating right now.”
“Well then we need to get her some food and water.” Anon said
Anon was surprisingly calm during this whole thing. Likely because he was still in shock. Even he couldn’t understand it. A little seven year-old girl traveling one hundred miles into the woods for a week? Probably without stopping as well. There was no way anyone, especially someone so young, could travel that far and in that kind of terrain in a week if they had stopped. Sonata let out a blood curdling, bone chilling scream and passed out.
The officers quickly picked her up from the floor and put her on one of the spare cots that they had lying about the station. Poor thing must have been through the ringer. Anon pulled out his phone and explained the situation to Adagio and Aria.
“But how is that possible?” Aria asked in disbelief
“We don’t know yet. Sonata was so delirious that when we picked her up she could barely recognize me. She may need to stay in the hospital for a while.”
“We can come and visit her right?” Adagio asked
Even though the phone Anon could tell she was crying. He could only imagine the pain she must be feeling. She probably thought the last thing she would hear her sister say was that she didn’t care if she was consumed by the beast within her.
“Of course you can Adagio.”
After a while of waiting, another officer led Anon back to Sonata. She was hooked up to a respirator and was being given IV fluids.
“So, what’s going on with her?” Anon said, completely stoic
"Dehydration and hypothermia. We're lucky we got to her when we did. If we hadn't she would have been a goner."
"Will she be alright?"
"She'll be fine with rest. We’re going to move her to a hospital for the night and keep her there for the night, just to get her condition stabilized."
"That's good enough for me.” Anon breathed “I'm just glad she's going to be ok."
Sonata blinks her eyes open. Once she looks at you her heart rate spikes and tears start to fall down her face.
“Daddy I’m scared.”
“I know sweetheart. But you’re safe now. Daddy is right here.”
"Can I go home now?”
“They said you’re going to have to stay at the hospital for tonight” he explained “But I will come for you the first thing in the morning. Just try to get some rest alright?”
Sonata’s eyes filled with pure terror again, seeing something that nobody else could see before blacking out once more.
Meanwhile, at Sunset’s residence, Sunset Shimmer lay on the couch aimlessly browsing through the web. Ever since she heard about Sonata on the news she had been worried sick. And Anon didn’t even bother to contact her. That man, so rude. He must be worried sick though. Just as Sunset was halfway through the article she was skimming, her journal buzzed. Twilight must have finally figured a solution to Adagio’s problem. Took her long enough. She opened the journal and read the text.
Hello, Sunset Shimmer. I have some urgent news. Something is very wrong.