Authors notes :)
Hiya folks, Fear not, i have not abandoned you yet. For the last month I have had the absolute worst luck with my first year of High school. I'm not really complaining, since it is like, my fault and stuff. But yeah, I have a chapter for you guys, finally! Please everypony, hold your applause. To those of you that have read my first chapter before I edited it, I have fixed the Chinese instead of Russian problem that, for some reason, alot of you didn't notice.... :P So yeah, Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, and please, have nice day.
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Black.
That is all I could see, I was floating in an endless sea of darkness. I knew of a few people who wouldn't mind this as some sort of afterlife. i looked down at my body to see what i was wearing, but there was nothing there. my mind began to ponder to thoughts any rational human being would think after they had died. 'is this it?' and 'will I be here forever?' were the primary questions popping into my mind.
My questions were seemingly answered when I saw a light. Not an ordinary light, it was a bright red, and it resembled a shooting star. If said individual making this thought didn't include the fact that it was not disappearing, and was actually coming closer. Then I saw another light that resembled the first, but orange. Then i saw one that was yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. All of them began to swirl in a circular motion, quicker and quicker each time. The peculiar lights had also begun to grow larger, and even created a ringing noise, growing louder and louder. It had eventually grown so bright i had attempted to close my eyes, but to no avail, all i could do is watch the blinding light get larger and larger, louder and louder, brighter and brighter, until,
Bang.
I had awoken in a snowy forest, very similar to the battlegrounds I had previously fought, and.... no. I had just realized A thought that would give any human being chills. I was dead. But that couldn't be true I thought to myself. If i had died why was I still capable of sentient thought, or feeling, or any other sense. Although at the same time, I remembered the battle that resulted in mine and all of my comrades' inglorious, betrayal by the government we loved. I had known it was our nuke for one reason and one reason only. It came from our side. Not the faction, but the direction. It had went west to us, and since west of us was US soil, i had quickly eliminated the other possibilities.
At the same time, where normal people would be horrified at the oh-so-horrible thought of not knowing if you were alive or dead, i was a realist. I was the kind of guy that would go, "We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem." In short, I tried my best to keep fears and any other emotion from clouding my decision. That didn't mean it always work, but my brain decided to pay me pity and made me think straight, so i was grateful. I had made a mental checklist in my head. Something along the lines of this: 1. Find food 2. Figure out where the hell I am. Very detailed right?
I had, unfortunately, received/remembered absolutely none of my survival training. So, i had picked a random direction, relying on my sheer instincts. And by that I mean I just guessed.
As i was walking I was experiencing growing pains in my head. I had very little prior experience with headaches, so ignoring hate pain was even more grueling. And before any of you say I was being a wuss, it felt like i was having a migraine, or whatever it is. I was also growing cold, even with my army issued survival gear on, and my gas mask to keep my face warm (I thought atleast), i was getting the chills.
My gambit seemed to finally pay off when I discovered a pair of tracks. I had no experience hunting, but I was sure at the moment that they were deer tracks. So, knowing that killing a deer would gain me food, and even a pelt for warmth, which I had direly needed, I, with a desperate determination, followed the tracks, with but A glimmer of hope that I could actually catch my prey.
The only thing was, after a few hundred yards of fatigued stumbling, I discovered a much larger print in the snow. It was, like a body. Not an actual body, but whatever made this Imprint undoubtedly made it. Seeing as how there were no other tracks, and since there was no blood, it was highly unlikely that a bird swooped down and grabbed the unsuspecting animal. But then i studied the imprints closer. They were too small for a deer I believed. But than again, they were not that much smaller than a few of the baby deer my uncle had photographed. Only one contradiction to my deer theory remained. A much lighter imprint in the snow, with a patch of hair. The slight difference in the snow was not deep, but had a small mark, most likely a tail. To support my claim there was A single strand of hair. It was a dark color, It appeared brown, or black. Predicting the color was hopeless, since it was but a single hair, so I got up and kept at following the trail, although I was more curious then hungry now.
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Rainbow Dash's POV
"She's gone!" yelled A frantic and obviously stressed Apple Bloom.
"What do you mean she's gone!" I worriedly replied, instantly regretting my previous actions.
"Here's a note! look!" Sweetie Belle quipped, as she handed me a piece of paper.
As I had read the piece of paper, my heart stopped and my brain came to a shocking, yet so obvious explanation. Scootaloo was an orphan, and I had just ruined her life, possibly forever. No. You can't think like that Dash. I can still save her.... I hope. I was snapped out of my trance by Sweetie Belle shaking me, energetic as ever. I would have smiled, if this conversation were under better circumstances.
"What do we do!" Sweetie Belle heartbrokenly shouted.
Inside I sighed at what the brave Rainbow Dash everypony knew was about to obviously say. "I'll find her, tell everypony in town about this." I did not wait for a response, although they had clearly attempted to shout one, but it was to no avail as I had taken off, leaving, not a trail of Rainbow, but A new trail. One I had never left behind for anypony to see. A trail of tears.
As I flew away from the clubhouse, I had thought of good signs of tracking the orange pegasus, and immediately facehoofed at the most obvious answer. It was snowy, very snowy. I flew back to the clubhouse, and raced through the maze of trees, quickly following the tracks with all the speed and maneuverability Equestria's best flyer was known for.
I raced through the forest desperately plotting to save my number one fan, who I had betrayed so coldly.
"If i can hurry up I can still save her."
"What if it's already too late?"
"no.. it cant be true, it just cant be! She is still out there, and I can still save everything."
"It's over Dash. The Wonderbolts will never let someone who backstabbed her flightless friend."
Rainbow Dash snapped like a twig, just like at the young flyers' competition. This time she did not crawl in a corner before her time though, she flew with more determination and velocity. She had even started to pay attention to the tracks now. She had just realized one thing. Scootaloo's tracks were not the only tracks anymore. Not thinking of any other possibilty, She blazed forward believing that Scootaloo was in mortal danger. She might have been right about the first part, but not in the way she imagined.
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Griggs POV
As I had walked forward, with my head angled down, knowing that unless this animal was clumsy enough to walk into stationary objects, I was fine. The only thing my brain had not calculated was the potential that there was a cliff. As I took one last step forward thinking that there was a patch of snow there, my foot dropped like a stone, and As i lost my balance I did a good amount of flips and landed. Not the flips you may be think of. The flips I were doing were a rough combination of uncoordinated rolls down the hill, ending with me landing feet first in the snow. Sorry, did I snow? I really meant ice.
I screamed out in agony as my injured foot burned in pain. At the time, I had no idea what creatures my cries of vulnerability provoked, but that did not stop me from roaring from the result of a clumsy fall. I had no idea what the status of my foot was, but I calmed myself. I took that as a sign that my bone was not broken. I still had my eyes clenched shut though. I lay sprawled across the ice, gripping my ankle, until I felt a rather unexpected touch. It was the undeniable grip of another man's hands. As i shockingly opened my eyes I saw one person I had not expected to see.
"Thomas?"