A dark fog, surrounded me. I stood alone with an eerie silence in every direction. I gazed through the darkness, searching for any sense of really anything. However, nothing was visible or audible. I was purely and utterly alone.
Minutes seemed to pass, as I stood inattentively in the darkness and fog. All of a sudden, I heard a little girl's laughter behind me. I just about froze, shocked and scared. I recalled horror movie scenes where a little girl's laughter meant that something bad was about to happen.
Hesitantly, I turned to face the girl and see the culprit of the laughter. As soon as I saw her, my fear dissipated, replaced by confusion. She wasn't some stereotypical horror movie girl. She was actually pretty cute. She looked like my sister when she was younger, maybe at eight or nine years old. Looking at her closer, the resemblance to my sister was actually striking. Every feature of her face was the same as Jaiden's when she was at that age. She even was wearing the same bunny pajamas that Jaiden wore before, except smaller to accommodate for the girl's smaller body. The only difference to Jaiden was her hair. This girl's was shorter and blonde, the same color as mine.
The girl noticed me observing her, but she just looked at me and smiled. She even had the same jubilant smile and gaze as Jaiden did. I was a little weirded out by the similarities that the two shared, especially the fact that this girl had the exact same bunny pajamas.
We stood apart for a while, just staring at each other, with her smiling all the while. I didn't know what to say, or if I even should say something. I was never the greatest when it came to people, especially little kids.
Eventually, the girl wordlessly opened up her arms, like she was getting ready to hug someone. I looked around for anyone else other than me amongst the darkness and fog. She wasn't planning on having me hug her right? Once again, this was something that Jaiden did. She was a hugger and always wanted me to hug her, but I'd feel weird hugging some random little girl. She looked at me with Jaiden's playful face and waved me over, indicating that she wanted me to hug her.
I couldn't shake the anxious feeling in my gut about this whole thing. I just shook my head at her as a "No," slipped out from my mouth.
She flamboyantly flew her arms in the air, disappointed by my response. She turned to face away from me, possibly to compose herself, before facing me again. She then turned to me with puppy dog eyes. She gave me the same puppy dog look Jaiden would give whenever she wanted me to do something. It only ever worked when my sister did it, but for some reason I felt the same uneasiness that I would whenever Jaiden did it.
I breathed out a defeated sigh, and the girl understood, just as Jaiden would, that my sigh meant that I had caved in. I scolded myself for never being able to hold my ground, as the little girl ran over to me, bunny pajama ears flapping every which way.
Eventually, she stood a few inches in front of me, staring up with youthful eyes. She really was adorable. She was pretty small too, as you'd expect from a little girl. Her head made it up to about my belly button. Her eyes were still locked on mine, hope and joy flowing through them. She quickly through out her arms, wanting a hug. Having already caved in, I knelt down to her level, and breathed out another sigh before wrapping my arms around her. She hugged me back, with her tiny arms tightly gripping on the back of my shirt.
The hug lasted for a few moments. She was obviously comfortable, nuzzling into me. However, I started to get a little uncomfortable and tried to retract my hug, but the little girl wouldn't let me. Her arms were abnormally strong. I tried to get out of her grasp, but with a little more force this time. It didn't work. I kept trying to get out of it with more and more strength yet she wouldn't budge. What kind of child was this? I started panicking and repeatedly tried breaking out but every time it seemed like I was getting more entangled within her grasp.
"Please let me go!" I said, trying to be polite, but panic evident in my voice.
The girl was quiet for a moment, not moving and keeping a bear like strength grip around me. But then, she moved her mouth close to my ear before whispering "Have fun!"
She pulled her head back, and looked into my eyes. Then, a sudden and disturbing show of light began to take the place of her eyes. I began to lose all of my vision. Like a camera flash, I was blinded. All of my senses were beginning to fade until the only thing I was aware of was the show of never-ending, blinding white.
Hours passed without any sense of anything other than the bright light. Fortunately, however, my senses began to slowly come back to me. I began to hear the dampened chirping of birds and sense a tingling sensation beneath me. A faint smell of grass began to welcome itself into my nostrils. And, slowly, color began to invade the blinding white. Possibly 30 minutes passed before all of my senses were back to me in their entirety.
I found myself on my back, laying outside, and feeling more tired than I usually did. Wait, what am I doing outside?!
I immediately sat up, looking at my surroundings. Dense forest surrounded me everywhere I looked. There didn't appear to be anyone near me, or possibly anyone even miles from me. I had a complete and utter feeling of isolation from anyone and most importantly from safety. The only somewhat comforting thing I had was the sound of birds chirping in the trees high above. Immediately, I realized that I needed to find a way out of this forest and towards civilization.
With a goal set, I went to get up, only to look down and see-
Oh my god! What am I wearing?!
Now, I was wearing bunny pajamas! What is happening! This had to be some kind of prank. There really was no other explanation. Jaiden must've put me in these stupid pajamas and dragged me out into the middle of the woods. But, why would she do that? She usually did stuff that would make me more social, she wouldn't do something like this. I can't really rule out that this was Jaiden's doing, but at the same time, I don't think Jaiden would do something like this to me.
Right now, I have no way of knowing what happened or why I'm here, so I just need to focus on getting out of these woods and getting home.
As I pushed myself off the ground, I notice how nimble and loose my body feels. I thought it must've been because of good sleep. And speaking of my sleep, that girl in my dream also had these pajamas on. She said to "Have fun," whatever that meant. Wait, did that girl in my dream do this? I pause for a moment before chuckling to myself. I've only been in these woods for a short amount of time and I'm already becoming looney.
I need to compose myself and get home. Now lets see. Every direction looks the same in terms of density of the trees. Should I just go one direction until I find a clearing? That sounds like a stupid plan, but I don't really know what else to do. Either I stay here and probably not come up with a better plan or just act now.
I exert a sigh. Once I get home and find out who did this to me, they'll be sorry, even if it was Jaiden. But for now, I just need to get moving.
As I begin to walk, I realize just how big the trees around me are. Each one must be at least 50 feet tall. They make me feel miniature in comparison. Even the smaller plants and flowers look way larger than most. Is this some type of GMO forest? That sounds stupid, but no matter what it is, it doesn't seem natural at all.
After about an hour of walking in a single direction, it didn't look like I accomplished much. The trees were still as dense as ever and I still hadn't been able to find any trace of mankind. I couldn't even find any dirt paths. However, one thing had noticeably changed, the noises. The chirping of birds left a long way back, replaced by eerie silence. I'd become increasingly paranoid at the sounds of an occasional branch breaking. The paranoia even began to affect my vision too. I began to question whether I was seeing things peering back at me within the most dense areas of the forest.
My fear and paranoia were growing more and more as I traveled without seeing any progress towards getting home. Eventually, I took a break, seating myself up against one of the large trees to catch my breath. I wish I had some water or food, but I didn't trust eating anything in this forest for obvious reasons. You never know what could kill you out here. I'll make sure to eat as soon as I get home though... that is, if I even can get home. No! I shouldn't think like that! I'll make it out of here and get home, and change out of these stupid pajamas.
I planned to sit and rest for a couple of minutes, but that rest is quickly disturbed by some rustling coming from the direction I'd been walking. At first, I don't think much of it, but the intensity and strength of the noise begins to pick up. Whatever it is, it's headed straight for me. Fear inside of me begins to build, causing me to stand up, as I prepare myself to run.
But soon, the noise stops a few feet deep within the forest before I can see what's causing it. A second passes, and then a little bunny jumps out into view. How ironic, I think. The little thing pauses in the opening. Then, it smells the air and gazes at me before running off.
I felt my body relax and the fear dissipate. I was about to sit back down, but then another, more subtle noise came from where the bunny jumped out from. Immediately, a creature slowly moved out into the opening. This thing caused me to cease up out of complete terror. It seemed so familiar but yet was so horrifying. It was a wolf, but made of wood and branches. It had wooden teeth that were shaped like mini daggers, telling me that it was definitely a ferocious predator. As I stood motionless, it's green, lifeless eyes scanned the opening until it found mine. As soon as it saw me, it lunged straight in my direction. In that moment, my flight instinct kicked in and I took off running as fast as I could in the opposite direction.
I tried running as hard as I could, but my legs lacked the power I had back home. I don't know why, but even though my body felt as nimble as ever, I couldn't move nearly as fast as I should've been able to. At that moment, I didn't think too much about it, as my only goal right now was to not get eaten alive by this beast. Every couple of seconds, I checked behind me to see where the thing was, and each time I noticed it quickly gaining. I wasn't going to outrun the thing, I needed a plan. The creature was obviously much larger than me, I thought maybe I could use that against it.
I kept running, until I came upon a set of trees that had a small slit between the them. There was a wall of thick forestry that seemed to block any path around. If I was able to time it, I could jump through the slit and leave the creature behind. So, running as hard as I could, I waited until the perfect moment and then jumped. I felt sticks and barbs of the trees cut through some of my "clothes" and even some of my skin as I jumped through.
I lost my balance mid-air and landed hard onto the ground on the other side of the trees. Once I fell, I laid on my side, pain surging through much of my body. But, I quickly gathered myself to see if the creature made it through as well. A few seconds passed with absolute silence before I heard the creature move away from the other side of the trees. It's sounds began getting more and more distant within the forest until I knew it was truly gone.
Finally, feeling safe, I picked myself off the grassy floor. I looked around to see that I had finally made it out of the forest entirely. Now, I stood at the edge of a large grassy field, with the only trees being part of the forest behind me. I wanted to celebrate for having escaped, but the pain I felt from the trees and their cuts was halting that for now. I reached up on my face to feel a large, bloody cut on my right cheek. I had noticed other smaller cuts on my arms and legs, yet the one on my cheek was definitely the deepest.
If I could find some water, I might be able to wash it out. I decided the best thing to do was to once again get a move on and that's exactly what I did.
Without the fear of being trapped in the forest, I gleefully walked through the field for a few minutes before stumbling upon a group of bunnies. Why am I finding so many bunnies today? Once they noticed me, I expected them to bolt, yet only one of the five left. The other four just stared at me and stayed put. It was odd. Maybe they thought I was one of them? I laughed at the thought. But my laughter was cut short by the sound of something else. A sound that brought so much joy to me, the sound of running water. There was a stream nearby!
I bolted towards the noise and as expected, found a small running stream full of clear water. I felt like crying, but instead I almost leaped into the stream, mouth agape. I filled my mouth with the cold, refreshing water, eyes closed to better enjoy the taste and refreshment. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Then, I realized that I still needed to clean out my cuts with the water. I looked into the stream to observe the cut...
I froze, and so did the figure in the stream looking back at me. It was the girl from my dream. She was still wearing the same bunny pajamas, although they were a little more rugged. Her short blonde hair was messy and covered with dirt. She had the same shocked expression that I'm pretty sure I shared at that moment. The little blonde girl also had cuts on her body like I did, with an evident one covering her cheek... just like me. I put my hand up to my cheek, with the girl in the stream following the same motion.
"No..." said the little girl, fear in her eyes.
It couldn't be.
I squinted a couple of times. I must be seeing something wrong. Maybe I hit my head when I escaped the forest. Or maybe... maybe I was in another dream. Yes! That must be it. There's no other explanation! I'd heard people say that you can't feel pain your dreams, so I brought my hand up to my mouth and bit.
"OW!" yelled a high pitched voice... my high pitched voice.
"No, this can't, be real," I said, every high pitched word that came from my mouth shocking me.
How is this possible?! Why is this possible?! I felt a surge of anxiety flow through my body. I had so many questions, absolutely no answers and no one that could give me those answers. But, things were starting to add up. I questioned before why the wild life looked so much larger than normal. It wasn't the plants and trees that were bigger, I had shrunk! And when I was running from that terrifying beast, even though I felt nimble, I was considerably slower than ever. It's because I was stuck in a young body! B-But how?! I broke down, frightened and absolutely terrified by what was going on.
I laid down in the grassy field, tears starting to come down my cheeks with growing intensity. My fear of not knowing or understanding what was going on sent me through an inconsolable state. And hearing my weeps sound like a young girl's sent me further down into despair.
WHY?! Why is this happening to me?!
I must've cried for 15 minutes before finally feeling like my eyes were dried out. I just felt awful, for so many reasons. But, eventually I started to feel dehydrated so I took another couple drinks of water with the tears beginning to dry on my cheeks. I felt like I wanted to keep crying, maybe because I honestly didn't know what else to do. Nothing was making sense and it didn't seem like that was going to change.
But, something deep within me didn't want to give up. I don't know if it was some deep rooted hope that I could fix this whole situation or if it was just my pride begging me not to cry anymore. In either case, I realized that laying down and crying wouldn't accomplish anything other than making me succumb to my own sadness. I needed to try and preoccupy myself with something other than crying right now.
My eyes gazed back at the stream, making sure to avoid seeing the image of my new form again. I watched as the stream flowed passed nearby hills before disappearing. Then, a question came to mind. What if the stream led to civilization? I can imagine that most sources of fresh water must be accessible by people, right? Maybe if I found someone, they could fix me! It was a far fetched plan, but it was better than just sulking here for the rest of my life.
I composed myself, before getting up and following the stream in the direction it was flowing. As I began walking, my mind began to wander. I kept trying to come up with some plausible answers as to how this could've happened to me. I knew it wasn't a dream and I immediately ruled out that this could be a prank by Jaiden. But every other possibility that popped into my mind seemed more ridiculous than the last.
I must've walked for 15 minutes, eyes glazed over, my mind lost in thought, before noticing a small building in the distance. It was a quaint little place that had integrated with the surrounding wildlife pretty well. Bird houses and wildlife surrounded the place. And once again, I saw even more bunnies. I know they aren't a strange species to see, but even so, it was odd to see them as often as I did. In addition, the building had a familiar aura to it. However, I didn't focus on that too much. Instead, my tiny feet picked up their speed as I bolted towards it.
I finally arrived at what seemed to be the back of the building. Up close, it seemed like a regular cottage. Somebody must be home, right? I made my way to the backdoor and paused for a moment. What if somebody answers and just tries to kidnap me. There are some scary people in the world and there wouldn't be much I could do in this young, tiny form. But, what other choice do I really have. With a heavy breath, I cautiously knocked with my tiny hand. I looked down at it with uneasiness. I don't know how this could've happened to me.
I stood at the door for a couple moments before realizing that no one was home. Was it abandoned? It would make sense with how much wildlife surrounded the place. I sighed before planning to walk away. Just then, a painful roar came from my stomach. I haven't eaten in hours, I realized. I definitely wasn't planning scavenging for food in the wilderness. Maybe there was something to eat inside. It's worth a shot.
There was a small doggy door at the bottom of the back door. With my smaller body, I'm sure I could get in. I kicked the doggy door to see if it was locked. Nope.
"Yes!" I basically screamed with a high pitched voice.
I don't think I'm ever getting used to this voice. But, I was too excited by the prospects of food to really let it spoil the mood. I got down and easily made my way through the doggy door and into the house. Once, I stood up I once again felt an almost unsettling familiarness to the place. I tried to shake the feeling as I realized just how many animals were in there too. Once again a lot of bunnies. They're everywhere I swear! There were also more bird houses hung from the ceiling. There had to be about 50 animals just staring at me.
I had to be in the living room of the house. On the other side of the room was what seemed to be the front door. The entire house had a very warm feeling to it. The house had a color scheme full of warm colors with much of the furniture being a mix of warm brown and green. I also noticed just how well kept the place was. If this place was abandoned, it sure didn't seem like it. Was there actually someone living here? I shook the thought. If there was someone here, they wouldn't allow these many animals in their house.
As I made my way through the house in search of the kitchen, I realized that every single animal was focused on me. Oddly enough, they weren't scared of me, instead it was as if they were studying me. I even had a couple of bunnies starting to follow me. I thought, how were they not scared of me? I tried to intimidate them and have them run off, but they weren't afraid. There was no way they just saw me as a big bunny, right? I always liked animals so I had no intention of hurting them but I wanted them to stop following me. It made me feel more powerless and weak than I already felt. So, I turned to them and decided to roar at them. And I have to say, it was the most pitiful "roar" I'd ever heard. If my sister was here, which thank god she wasn't, she would've said that it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. I felt my cheeks flush immediately. Even though it was just a bunch of rabbits, I felt overly embarrassed. I immediately realized I couldn't be intimidating in a small, cute girl's body, with a voice that would kill anyone from a heart attack, AND while wearing bunny pajamas. Having become all of that and more was the biggest nightmare of mine come to life.
I shamefully continued around the house, with more bunnies than before following me. I gave up on trying to rid myself of them, instead focusing on finding food. Eventually, I stumbled into what I assumed was the kitchen. There was a stove, fridge, sink, and all the other components of a regular kitchen. I didn't have any plans of cooking, so I reached into the fridge to find a whole assortment of goodies. There was mostly vegetables and fruits, with ironically enough, most of the vegetables being carrots. And, fortunately enough, nothing was spoiled and all the food actually seemed very fresh.
I took two tiny handfuls of what I could carry before shutting the fridge and making my way out of the kitchen. The bunnies still followed me, a couple even began glaring at me. Maybe they wanted some carrots? But, they had an odd disappointment in their eyes. I didn't want to say it, but they were starting to seem almost human with their emotions. One, which looked the angriest, even shook their head at me.
Followed by the bunnies, I went and sat on one of the chairs in the living room. I took an apple from the pile I'd gathered and started eating it. The bunnies and their eyes became more menacing with every bite I took. Maybe if I gave them some carrots, they'd stop creeping me out. I reached from my assortment and picked out a fresh looking carrot. I brought it down to them, only to have the angriest bunny slap it out of my hand.
Wait, what? The carrot flew onto the ground with a hard thud. I looked at it and then at the bunny. Did it just slap the carrot of my hand? Do bunnies normally do stuff like that? The bunnies were now scowling at me with very evident anger. I looked around and saw that even the birds sitting up high were glaring at me with the same intensity. Maybe I should be leaving now. Actually, I know I should be leaving now.
I stood up, my pile of stolen food in hand as I made my way to the front door. But, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a noise coming from outside. Stunned, I stood motionless. I heard the noise again, and again. It sounded like foot steps! It was most definitely foot steps! And each step was getting noticeably closer to the front door. Somebody was coming! I immediately darted towards the backdoor, but was stopped by a pack of angry bunnies. What is wrong with them!? Are they possessed or something!? I ran and jumped passed them and made my way to the back door. I had to undo the lock before busting through to the other side. I had lost a couple items of food, but I knew I wasn't getting those back. For now, I just ran with what I had left in my arms, happy for just having escaped, or so I thought.
I ran for about 20 yards, trying to keep the remaining food I had in my arms, before hearing a shout behind me.
"Why are you running?!"
Oh no! They saw me! Fear began to creep in as I started to run as hard as possible. Food began slinging all over the place, leaving a path behind me. The stranger was definitely female, as told by her voice. Even her voice was familiar! Everything here was so familiar which made me feel even more uneasy as I fled. I was so scared that I didn't pay any attention to the bunny ears of my pajamas slapping me in the face, or the pounds of food I was losing in my hasty escape. But, most importantly, I didn't realize that the stranger had ran after me, or was gaining on me so fast.
The only time I looked behind me was when I heard the flapping of wings. Wings?! I stopped to face my chaser. A familiar yellow blurb met my gaze as it zoomed directly at me.
"Fluttershy..." was all I was able to say before she made contact with me and knocked me out.
Food flew in every direction, leaving me unconscious and her a babbling mess.
"Oh no! Oh no! Are you okay?! Im so sorry! I didn't think you were going to stop!" Fluttershy said, stammering all the while.
I gave no response, out cold.
"Oh dear," she said, putting a hoof on my motionless body and listening for a heartbeat. "Oh thank Celestia!"
"I'm so sorry! I swear I'll make this right," Fluttershy says, lifting my body onto her back.
Then, with me in tow, she trotted back to her cottage and passed the busted door before placing me on one of the couches in the living room.
"I'll make this right," Fluttershy whispers to herself, determination in her eyes.