The unicorn mare flicked her head up, and looked around in the cave she had settled herself into. Whatever had made that snarling noise sounded close, and— and she was able to feel it.. when it had made that sound, her body rumbled and trembled with the sheer loudness.
Her violet eyes scanned the dark cave, looking out onto the void-filled abyss. From where did that noise come from? She had heard it from all sides. Up, left, right. There was no telling where the source of that noise was. She looked out on what was outside the entrance of the cave.
The sky was midnight black. Though it had only been a deep purple a few minutes ago.
...
The white specks of stars had vanished.
...
For a moment, the world felt stiff. Twilight looked around, feeling the urge to whimper and sob, to curl up into a ball and cry. But there was no reason to cry; maybe that rumbling sound was just a tree falling! As silly as it sounded, that's what she believed. Yeah, it had to be that!
At least.. she wanted to believe it.
The forest had stopped making noise. It was as if she had been deprived of her hearing, with how silent the forest seemed now. Every few seconds that passed, she would hear what she would think to be a noise in the distance, but would only find out a few seconds later it was just her moving around.
...
If Twilight were going to have to adapt to this strange place, she'd have to go see for herself what made that noise. Of course it was probably a tree, she still believed that! The sky was a literal pastel shade of purple a few hours ago, but she was sure it was just a tree! The "sun" was a bright red, but she was sure it was just a tree!
She— she saw something in the reflection of the water, but it was just a tree! She was being a scaredy pony, she knew it! She'd find the source of the noise and see that it was just a tree that had fell! She'd be relieved it didn't hit her, and then go back to sleep peacefully. She'd be fine. She'd be fine.
She'd be fine.
...
She wanted to be fine.
...
She hated the feeling of not being fine.
...
Twilight moved her hind-leg backwards, and raised her front-hooves in order to support herself. She pushed up her torso with her front-hooves, and quickly scrambled to be standing again. She could hear the slight noises her body had made as it scrambled across the cave, but it was no big deal! Nothing would hear. Maybe that lake-illusion was just her imagination!
She began to slowly walk over towards the entrance, in an attempt to find whatever had made such an awful sound. She wished trees weren't able to fall, so she didn't have to be dealing with this right now. She knew it was just a tree falling, so why was she going anyway?!
As she stepped closer to the entrance, she peeked her head out.
...
...
The snarl sounded again.
...
But it was coming from a clear direction this time. It had to be.
...
It was coming from.. in front of her—
Suddenly, a loud, dreadful scream sounded from in front of her! She wasn't sure of what it was, it didn't sound pony-like or anything remotely like any animal-noises she had heard before! She tumbled out of shock, she clearly saw something when she heard that noise a few moments ago. In fact, she could still see it.
Sleek, long, white claws. Black, sharp, shiny arms from which the claws had emerged. It's head— it was the shape of what seemed to resemble a lizard, the familiar white glowing oval-shaped eyes from the lake-illusion had been carved onto it. Were they supposed to be eyes? They didn't look like eyes! Where in Celestia were the pupils?!
Sharp, white teeth were bared from its muzzle. It's body was shaped like some weird variation of a lizard, but it didn't behave like a lizard at all. And compared to her, it was humongous, at least as big as a house.
It was the creature from which she had seen inside the lake. Only this time, it was in front of her, lips drawn back into a deep snarl. She could see it clearly now, but why couldn't she see it behind her earlier? Was she hallucinating, or could it not be seen when it wished not to?
It was clear though, now that she could see it, she had an advantage. The only disadvantage being that it was dark. She could choose fight, or flight.
...
She chose the latter, and after letting out a loud shriek of fear, she began to trot off wildly into the distance. She had to go somewhere, anywhere away from that thing. She couldn't sleep with that thing on her tail, let alone live! If this creature were determined, it would do anything to have her.
She could hear heavy, loud steps from behind her— each step letting out a huge vibration in the forest, a huge awful sound. The trees shook, each leaf rustling against eachother from the effect of the steps. They looked to be nearly about to collapse, just like Twilight had tried to excuse the snarl for.
It let out a roar again, sounding like the scream of a thousand ponies. Had she been stupid, she would have gone back with how similar it sounded. Her tail swiftly waved back and forth as she continued to run, and run, and run. She could feel it's watchful gaze behind her.
She knew damn well it was right behind her, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't die! In the distance, she spotted what looked to be long, tendrils of yellow grass. If the "sun" were still out, it would have a reddish-golden tint to it. But it looked dark, and depressing during this period of "night".
Without a care in the world, she charged through the grass, in the hopes the creature would lose her. But she could still feel it's presence behind her, it knew damn well where she was going. So the creature was intelligent then?
Shit.
She dived towards the left, in an attempt to make the creature lose her. She could feel herself succumbing to tears, but quickly stopped herself when she heard the creatures steps rummaging loudly farther and farther away. Even though she didn't dare to look back, she knew it had lost her!
She sounded as if she were insane, laughing out of relief, as droplets of tears formed out of her eyes. She was only relieved she was still alive, she couldn't think with logic in the moment.
She wasn't able to stop herself from plunging straight into a tree.
The tree was firm, harsher than regular trees. It felt almost like a boulder. Wetness, which she only presumed to be blood, dripped down her forehead and onto her muzzle. The world rang loudly for a moment, as if it were some broken flute.
...
In all her years of studying, she hadn't remembered being so weak. So why was she weak now? She had fought bad creatures many times before..
That was funny.
She didn't even remember fighting bad creatures.
So where had that come from?
...
...
...
By the time she had woken up, she found herself in what looked to be a shelter.