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// Chapter 1: The Outside World 
// Story: A Storm on the Horizon of the Arcane World 
// by Fluttercheer 
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The first steps were the hardest. After she had left her village, a place she had come to feel hatred and resentment for, she reached the huge mountain that formed the southern border of her village. And doing these first steps, on the mountain that had always felt like a watch tower to her when she looked at it from her bedroom window, proved itself to be nigh impossible for Fizzlepop Berrytwist.
As she was setting hoof on the mountain, the swirling, hot anger inside her began to slowly transform into something else. A sudden homesickness so strong, that Fizzlepop felt like it would rip both her heart and her stomach apart. It was a feeling she didn't know. Fizzlepop never felt homesickness before, as the thought of leaving her village had never even occurred to her. In this moment, Fizzlepop hesitated, stumbled and eventually stopped. She turned around and looked down on her former home, which was barely visible from her high spot.
Thoughts manifested in her head, thoughts about returning and about finding ways to deal with everything that has happened. It was her home, after all. The place she loved. The only place she knew. She could still turn around and would probably be at home before sundown. Maybe she could talk to Glitter Drops and Spring Rain, demonstrating them that she got something in her even without magic, somehow.
But as the names of her first and only friends echoed through her mind, pain surfaced inside Fizzlepop and she turned back at the mountain and continued climbing it. It was then that the steps became easy and they remained an easy task until the mountain was behind her. Somehow, though, Fizzlepop knew that this newfound strength would come at a price sooner or later. That moment of payment came when she stumbled down the mountain in eastern direction and found herself inside a very dense and very dark forest.
Carried forward by the anger and the pain, Fizzlepop inspected her surroundings. The trees stood close to what little free space that, if Fizzlepop was generous, could be called a path. The canopy did not allow for much sunlight to find its way through and so, the ground Fizzlepop treated ever forward on was shrouded by an insidious darkness, that seemed to gleefully hide roots as thick as her legs. The bark of the trees blended with the darkness and together they formed one solid mass of black. Fizzlepop could only tell the trees apart from the rest of the forest as she was dangerously close to hitting her head. An attempt to cast the illumination spell she was well acquainted with failed, of course. And after tripping over many roots and passing by many of the dark shadow trees, a crippling weakness suddenly replaced the anger Fizzlepop felt in her heart. She sat down, amidst the darkness, and let the feeling spread over her entire body. A sob escaped her throat.
The black forest around her sealed it, there was no way back now, no return to the life she knew. She was far away from home, in the outside world that she feared so much. And yet, nothing could bring her to climb back up the mountain and to return to her village, as she feared this place even more now. Fizzlepop lifted her hooves and covered her eyes.
And now, she sat there, crying and wailing and all strength she had extinguished. Extinguished, or, blown out like wind blows out the flame of a candle. All hope and strength had left her since she stepped into the forest. Fear got added to her pain, as she realized that she never had been as weak as this before, and this combination of feelings immobilized the lost filly completely.
If Fizzlepop had thought about taking a watch with her, she would know that more than half an hour had passed since she sunk to the forest floor. The only thing that moved, other than the tears that came from her eyes and the shivers that went through her entire body, was the sun in the sky, as it descended menacingly towards the horizon. Time flies when you have lost all hope, this was the first thing that Fizzlepop learned after leaving her village, a lesson she shouldn't forget for the rest of her life.
What ended Fizzlepop's paralyzed state, after another couple minutes, was a long, blood-curdling howl, one that didn't seem to come from too far away. Fizzlepop instantly stopped her sobs and rose back onto her hooves in a quick reflex caused by a new kind of fear. Back in her village, she had been hearing the stories by merchants and travelling salesponies who tried selling their goods in this remote corner of Equestria, so she knew what the howling meant: Wolves. Furry animals, like dogs, but much bigger and much faster. With sharper teeth than dogs and longer claws.
“With teeth so sharp, that they can snap the neck of a filly like you in half before you even know what happened,” Fizzlepop repeated the gruesome description a merchant gave her some months ago, in a whispering and hushed tone. She started shuddering and the shudders finally got her moving.
The forest quickly became even darker now. The sun was still in the sky, but between the high trees and the thick canopy of branches equipped with countless needles, the night had gotten a headstart. And night was the time when wolves set out to hunt. Wolves were nocturnal, they slept only during the day, that was something Fizzlepop knew, from the same merchant who had scared her. She couldn't return home, but she had to find a safe place for the night. Fizzlepop quickened her steps.
It did not take a minute for Fizzlepop to realize that the now complete darkness made it impossible to search for a hiding spot. Before her breakdown, she could at least see the outlines of something if she was right in front of it, but now her eyes failed her completely. In her desperation and fear, motivated by more howling that seemed to come closer and closer, Fizzlepop tried to cast another illumination spell to aid her. The magic from the remains of her horn sizzed and sparks flew, but the desired outcome did not happen. All that she achieved was that the few miserable sparks hit a nearby bush and set it on fire. Fizzlepop gasped out loud in shock. Now she could see, but the flames meant danger and burning alive in a forest fire she herself had caused was in no way a better option than getting the flesh ripped off her bones by one of the wolves she could still hear.
Fizzlepop shook her head to remove the picture from her mind and began ripping off the burning branches. She threw them on the ground and stomped out the flames in a panicked frenzy. The darkness that engulfed her again once it was done felt like bliss to Fizzlepop now. Panting heavily, she sat down on the charred branches and lifted her forehooves to take a look at them. She could not see them, not even that close to her face, but the burning feeling was enough for her to figure that the flames had left some nasty wounds. Fizzlepop sniffed, but she quickly rubbed the newly emerging tears from her eyes and got back up again. Her survival instincts went into full effect now.
Ignoring the darkness, Fizzlepop groped her way forward. She was trotting on her hindlegs, figuring this would make it easier to move around in the narrow space between the trees and that, perhaps, it would make her appear more intimidating in case she did meet a wolf while stumbling through the pitch-black forest. Her heart started to beat faster while she fumbled with her hooves over trunks and thorny bushes, in the feeble hope to find a spot that the wolves of this forest could not reach. Deep inside, Fizzlepop knew there was no such spot. Wolves could smell her, this was another thing she remembered, and that would make it easy for them to pull her out of any hideout she chose, even if they could not see her inside of it.
New pictures rose in her mind. She saw herself, sitting in the middle of a thorn bush, her skin full of scratches from which thin trails of blood drew grisly patterns on her coat. She was shaking and her ears were pricked up. Then a monstrous, furred paw bigger than her head shot out between the thorns and buried its claws into her jaw. Her tiny body got yanked out from the bush and she stared into terrifying, yellow eyes and foaming jaws with long, sharp teeth that reminded her on razor blades. The jaws opened and the paw that held her in its grip shoved her head between the teeth of the beast. As it bit down with full force, Fizzlepop erupted into an earpiercing scream. She stumbled all of a sudden, as her left hoof stepped into nothing. The ground under her hooves felt sloped and before Fizzlepop could do anything against it, she had lost her balance. Hind hooves first, she found herself sliding down. Fizzlepop screamed and screamed, her mind sore from her all too vivid imagination, as well as the shock over her sudden fall. Beneath her, she could feel the soil skidding, then her fall came to an abrupt end.
Fizzlepop lay still on her back, listening to the sound of her rapid heartbeat. Her breath was going just as fast. The involuntary descent had only lasted a few seconds, but Fizzlepop felt like she had slid right into the center of Equus. As she stretched her forehooves to the sides, having calmed down somewhat, they soon hit solid walls of soil. Her hind hooves touched soil, as well. This was some kind of tunnel. She had fallen into a hole, the burrow of an animal, perhaps? To her relief, she could tell immediately that it was abandoned, as she was all alone in here.
As her heart was beating at a relaxed pace again, Fizzlepop turned around in the narrow hole, until she laid on her stomach, and looked up. Of course she couldn't see anything, so she had no idea how deep under the ground she was exactly. But Fizzlepop had no desire to climb back up. No, she would stay in this hole and sleep here, that's what she decided. There wasn't much space in the burrow, but this circumstance gave the place something cozy. It was also warmer down here, which put her worries of freezing while having to sleep outside to rest. And she would be safe from the wolves here, that was a given. Considering the circumstances, it was the best sleeping spot she could have hoped to find.
Having time to think about her situation again now, Fizzlepop erupted into new sobs. She covered her mouth with her forehooves, more instinctively than from actual worries a predator could hear her above the ground, and suppressed the sounds. Fizzlepop weeped and cried over her misery, her once perfect and now suddenly ruined life, until the tears had carried her over into a deep sleep.
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As Fizzlepop opened her eyes again a while later, it was still dark above her. She had no idea for how long she had been sleeping, but she could tell that something woke her up. A sound from outside, maybe, or it was just the unfamiliar environment that made it hard for her to sleep for a longer duration. Never before in her life she had slept outside. Fizzlepop began shaking as the reality of the situation dawned on her once more. She was not sure if she could go to sleep again. Something inside her said that she should leave the hole and keep wandering, until she found a way out of the forest or a more comfortable place to sleep. “If somepony lives in this forest?” Fizzlepop thought to herself.
She was still pondering the question, as she suddenly could hear sounds from above. There was something scratching over the ground. Fizzlepop held her breath, frozen in fear, and listened silently. The scratching stopped all of a sudden, but then something stuck its head into the hole. Fizzlepop could not see the intruder, but she could hear it clearly. A deep growl found its way into her ears. It sounded like it was mere inches above her head. And she could smell it, much as the creature must have smelled her down here. A bitter, disgusting stench wafted down to her and Fizzlepop cupped her nose with both forehooves. She inched back a little, but there was no way to go. “If I stay quiet, then maybe it will go away,” Fizzlepop whispered to herself.
The wolf (it definitely was a wolf, Fizzlepop was sure of that) did not do her this favor. It looked up from the hole in the ground for a moment and emitted a howl that sent cold shivers down Fizzlepop's spine. “Go away!” she shouted up the hole.
The wolf did not listen to the request and stuck its snout back into the hole. Then, to Fizzlepop's horror, it started digging.
“No, no, no..... Please don't come down here,” Fizzlepop muttered in fear. “Please don't come down here.” She inched back again, her instincts telling her to flee, and her hindhooves found their way blocked by the bottom of the hole once more.
Scared out of her wits, Fizzlepop dug her forehooves into the soil and flung the dirty pieces at the predator. She even shot sparks from her horn stump, but nothing deterred the ferocious animal. Fizzlepop could now hear the same scratches that awoke her a few minutes ago. There was more than one wolf now. She could hear an entire pack roaming around right above her head. Fizzlepop gulped. They were digging her out and there was nothing she could do!
Fizzlepop squeezed her eyes shut, resigning to her fate. If she had to go now, at least she didn't have to see what the wild beasts would do to her. Unfortunately, her mind was not as merciful as her eyelids were. The pictures returned, showing her in dozens of horrific details what would happen once the wolves had reached her. The scenes in her head grew in intensity.
As Fizzlepop couldn't take them anymore, she changed her mind. Using all her concentration and mental strength, she focused on her magic. Under immense pain, she managed to gather enough magic to fire off a single blast at the digging wolf above her. It got hit by it right into the snout. A purple fire engulfed its head as it pulled out of the hole. The beast trashed its head around, whimpering, then it ran off into the distance. Startled and intimidated by the sudden burst of magic, the rest of the pack followed its example. Fizzlepop could hear them stampeding way, until there was only silence anymore.
Having gotten ahold of the situation in the last moment, Fizzlepop breathed out strongly. Her head was exploding. What was left of her horn was the center of the pain and it spread out over her entire skull from there. For a moment, Fizzlepop was convinced that the drilling pain all over her skull would not allow her to sleep again. But then her vision went black and she sunk down flat. Her own pleading that the wolves may not return was the last thing Fizzlepop perceived before she passed out from exhaustion.
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