Chapter Twenty: The Other Side
The wind was blowing, the darkest hours of the night shrouded the area in pitch-black darkness. The wind ruffled through the pink bubblegum scented leaves and the wooden cores keeping the trees high up in the air now transformed into chocolate bars. The world had definitely changed as the search party got deeper into the forest, it was starting to scare them beyond belief.
Derpy was unable to see the difference in this strange altered world, it felt the same, but just looked different. Lyra and Bon-Bon on the other hand were scared stiff, in the corners of their eyes they saw the world change as the trees and grass changed colour and physical form. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, the world had gone upside down.
"Bon-Bon, this isn't right..." Lyra grabbed Bon-Bon by the arm and lightly shook her from side to side.
"You think I don't know that? Who could have done this to the trees?" She looked at the nearest tree and pointed at the leaves and the strange chocolaty substance that replaced the dark brown wood.
"That rancher!" Lyra quickly jumped to conclusions.
"How could a simple rancher change so much in little time?" Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow.
"I dunno, this forest is just starting to look like a candy land." Lyra also looked around again and took observations towards the trees and the grass, the pink leaves left a strawberry scent tingling within her nose. "And the scent... man... it's worse than your perfume..."
"Never mind that, we need to find shelter. It's too dark." Bon-Bon sighed.
"Why didn't you bring a flashlight?" Lyra glared.
"I thought we weren't going to be outside for so long, not to mention going deep inside a dark forest looking for Dinky." Bon-Bon looked over to see Derpy walking up to one of the transformed trees, she poked the chocolate hanging off from the stem and plucked it from the tree like an apple. Without a thought, she shoved the chocolate piece into her mouth and chewed into it and swallowed the food down the hatch.
"Hmm... yummy..." Derpy licked her lips.
"Derpy dear, you shouldn't be eating that, it might be poison or something." Bon-Bon reached over and tapped her on the shoulder, she turned round to face her friend looking sad.
"Sorry Bon-Bon... it's just really really really tasty..." Derpy apologized, she locked her hands together and gave a nice smile. "I'm just hungry Bon-Bon... Thinking about Dinky makes me hungry."
"So it tastes like actual food Derpy?" Lyra interrupted.
"Yeah... it's really chocolaty..." Derpy pointed over to the area she plucked the chocolate from and grabbed two pieces and handed them to Bon-Bon and Lyra.
"No thank you Derpy..." Bon-Bon pushed away from the offering and looked back at the path they were walking down. Lyra smiled and took one piece of the chocolate and chewed on a small chunk, she swallowed it and licked her lips and nodded.
"Yep, it's real chocolate. How the heck did that happen?" Lyra got closer to the trees and took a closer examination, constantly breaking off pieces of chocolate with her fingers which caused her to get a little dirty with melted chocolate all over her hand.
"Lyra, I don't think you should be eating that, it might be dangerous..." Bon-Bon worried, she walked back over to her wife and grabbed her by the arm.
"Ugh, if you want me to stop okay. But you're right about what you said earlier, we need someplace to rest. My legs are killing me..." Lyra took a step away from the tree and turned to face Bon-Bon. "But where are we gonna rest? I'm not sitting under a chocolate tree, I'll get all messy. Plus, I need some place private so I can sort out that annoying maids outfit I put on."
"We'll just have to look for a small hill or find a cave or-"
"A cave? What are you? Nuts? If we go into a cave we might a bear waiting to rip us to shreds!" Lyra yelled out to her wife in surprise.
"It's better than staying out in the cold..." Bon-Bon mumbled.
"I'd rather stay in the cold..." Lyra crossed her arms and looked away, she thought about what she was arguing about for a moment and then looked back at Bon-Bon. "I guess a cave isn't that bad... as long as there isn't any bats..." She sighed.
"But knowing the landscape around here, finding a cave would be next to impossible... Especially that the world has been changed to look like a child's game board." Bon-Bon groaned, she moved back over to Derpy and grabbed her by the hand and slowly moved her away from the tree. Derpy complied like a little child and moved over to Bon-Bon who held her close.
"I guess you're also right about that, but how about that hill in the distance?" Lyra mentioned.
"Hill? What hill?" Bon-Bon looked around and scanned the area surrounding her, the only thing she could see was the dirt path, the grass and the altered trees no matter where she looked.
"Over there." Lyra pointed further down the path that they were originally set out to explore when she turned to look at her recent finding, a slump in the terrain. A small hill standing amongst the bizarre candy land unaltered with its flowing green grass and a strange luminous bright light in the distance giving a sign of hope for the trio.
"Is that a light? Lyra... you found something! Come on, we might have found Dinky!" Bon-Bon was pleased with this new discovery, the light was like a beacon of hope to them. The unaltered land seemed like a nice change from the chaotic candy abominations that spawned as far as the eye could possibly see.
All three began to pick up the pace and make their way over to the hill, smiles erupted onto their faces as they got closer to the lump in the ground. The light was getting brighter, it was there. At the end of the journey, they found... a door.
They found a wooden door, a basic brown door with a silver handle attached to the middle of it. A boring old simple door in the middle of the forest attached to the floor at the top of the hill. Bon-Bon and Lyra looked at each other, they didn't know what to make of this.
"A door? That's it?" Lyra leaned down and got onto her knees, disappointment flooded her as she stared at the random object attached to the hill.
"Oh my..." Bon-Bon couldn't hold it anymore, someone played a devious trick. It wasn't funny, Bon-Bon let herself go as tears started to flow down her face in shame, fear and disappointment at what they found. She took a step back and breather in, fanning her hands to help the flow of scented air. "This is unbelievable... I thought we nearly found Dinky..." She choked.
"You mean my little muffin isn't here?" Derpy joined in late with the realization, she looked at the upset Bon-Bon and then looked at the door on the hill for a moment and pondered for a moment what was going on.
Bon-Bon turned to look at Derpy and slowly nodded, Derpy took a few more seconds trying to figure out what she just meant until it finally hit her. She grabbed Bon-Bon's arms and shook them once again as tears began to flow down her face.
"We gotta go Bon-Bon! I wanna find my little muffin! I don't want her kidnapped!" Derpy shouted at her friend, Bon-Bon was getting disoriented as she was being violently shaken back and forth by Derpy's anger.
"Whoa, calm down Derpy!" Lyra quickly turned round and moved in-between the two and broke up their arguing which caused Derpy to back away from both of them.
"We gotta open the door! We gotta open the door!" Derpy shouted like a child, she couldn't control herself now, she pushed Lyra out of the way and ducked to reach down for the door.
"Derpy wait! We can't go down there!" Lyra yelled to her yellow haired friend.
"I wanna find Dinky now!" Derpy quickly reached down for the silver door handle and started to twist it counter-clockwise which caused a loud clicking sound to come out from the door, she pulled it wide open and looked down into what was on the other side of the door.
"Derpy stop!" Lyra regained her balance after being pushed and made a quick dash for Derpy, but as she walked up the hill she felt her legs tripping. As if her control in her legs was starting to weaken and she began to trip over herself, she got up to Derpy but fell over on top of her. The collision between the two pushed them over the edge and into the other side of the doorway, they both fell into the hole in the world together and yelped out for help.
Bon-Bon was absolutely horrified at what she saw, Lyra and Derpy fell into the hole leaving her alone in the middle of the forest. She started to run up to the hole in the ground but before she could make it to where Lyra and Derpy fell in and the wooden door closed itself with a loud slam.
"NO!" Bon-Bon shrieked as she landed onto the door, grabbed the silver handle and started to turn it and pull the lever But the door wouldn't budge, not a single bit. It was as if the door instantly locked itself with no locks or keys whatsoever.
"Lyra!" Bon-Bon desperately tapped on the door, her tears fell off from her face and landed on the door.
"No... please..."
"Derpy... Lyra... come back..."
"Lyra..."
...
"Lyra..."
...
"Lyra... wake up Lyra... It's really dark in here..."
Lyra's head was hurt, she was certain a ringing pain in the back of her head that caused general imbalance to her whole body. She felt numb, her arms and legs felt weak and she didn't want to get up. Derpy's child-like voice was the only thing that mattered right now. She couldn't see a thing, her eyes were perfectly wide open but she wasn't able to see a single thing.
Her mind came onto one conclusion, she was trapped in something. Her body was free, but the surrounding world was dark. She felt no limits around her and Derpy's voice was adding onto the headache she got just from trying to figure out what was going on.
"Derpy...? Where are you?" Lyra groaned, she moved her arms to feel something rustle under her. A certain strange feeling under her felt like she was lying on something strange, her arms began to touch a cold wet floor now knowing they have regained themselves and started to pick herself up. Without any light to guide her, she picked herself up and rested herself on her knees.
"I'm over here Lyra!" Derpy called out, her voice slightly echoed in this new strange dark room.
"Stay where you are and don't move... I need to find a light switch, do you understand?" Lyra muttered, she got up onto her feet and stood still, her balance still wasn't perfect. It felt like the world was tipping over and over and she was in the middle of it all.
"But you've got something on your head..." Derpy spoke again.
"Wh-What do you mean? I can't see a thing!" Lyra kept her ground high, she tried to keep her feet on the ground for as long as possible until she had to drop back down onto her knees again. This was not helping her at all.
"Hold on Lyra... Derpy to the rescue!" Derpy over happily shouted out loud, the sound of crunching could be heard and the breathing that belonged to Derpy.
"What are yo- AH!" She quickly felt a quick tugging pain in the back of her neck, what was Derpy doing? Lyra fell over onto her backside as familiar hands tugged onto whatever was apparently on her head.
"Ggnn... gah!" Derpy grumbled to herself, she pulled on the object so hard with both hands, it was starting to slip!
"Derpy... you're gonna kill me if yo-" As if it were just that, the item slipped off from Lyra's head if it were nothing. Bright lights and the smell of wheat and hay invaded her senses as she closed her eyes from the pain of the light.
"Sorry Lyra..."Derpy apologized. "This blanket was stuck on your head..." She lazily put the blanket on Lyra's legs for her to see. Lyra opened her eyes to see the blanket right in front of her, a red basic blanket was stuck on her head. How was that even possible?
"Lyra... where are we?" Derpy scooted around to Lyra's front and sat down beside her, she landed on her knees and put her hand on Lyra's head and directed her vision only to her and nothing else.
"I don't know... where’s Bon-Bon?" Lyra shook her head to grasp away from her friends grip and started to look around inside of this... cage. She couldn't believe it, they were both trapped inside a large metal cage. Strings and lumps of hay were spread out everywhere all over the ground and various bowls and chew toys were scrambled all over the place.
"Are we dead Lyra?" Derpy tapped her friend on the head again in an attempt to catch her attention.
"Knock it off Derpy! We ain't dead!" Lyra shook her head for the final time, all the confusion and anger within was only adding up to her fatigue. She shouted at Derpy and pushed her away by the chest.
"But how come were stuck in an animal cage Lyra?" Derpy continued to fire off questions to her friend non-stop.
"Animal cage? How do you know that were in an animal cage? We don't even know if were still in the forest or not!" Lyra moaned.
"But we are... look at the horsies over there..." Derpy pointed over to a dark corner of the cage that both of them didn't seem to notice, something or someone was inside the shadows watching their every move. Derpy pointed and waved at the creatures hiding in the shadows gesturing them to come out. "Look Lyra! Horsies! See, were in an animal cage!"
Derpy was right, a large red stallion slowly mulled his way out of the shadows looking very curious about the two new creatures in the cage. He was the first, and then another horse came out, and then another, and another. One by one a group of them emerged from the shadows to reveal themselves. Lyra froze at this moment, all these animals all bundled up in a cage wasn't a good idea.
"Derpy stay away." Lyra whispered.
"Why? They're cute horsies!" Derpy pointed back at the horses and waved to them.
"We don't know if their dangerous or not, just keep your distance." Lyra warned, she crawled away from the group of incoming horses and backed herself up against a pile of hay. Derpy slowly got up on her feet and walked over to the group and noticed the confusion in their eyes, the big red stallion was the first to see what was really going on. He looked up and sniffed her blonde hair in a strange curiosity.
"How is this... the door... and... horses... now... oh, I can't take anymore of this..." Lyra closed her eyes and dropped down onto the pile of hay, she lifted up her arms and dug her fingers into her temple to relieve the pressure building up inside. But on the other hand, Derpy sat down again and was now surrounded by the horses.
"You’re all so cute!" She squealed in delight, she wrapped her arms around the muzzle of the white mare with the purple mane and hugged her tightly. The mare didn't even bother to resist, she looked at the others and then continued to allow herself to be hugged by the strange human.
"I wanna keep you all as pets!" Derpy childishly yelped, she was excited and happy. Such cute horses surrounded her and eyed her up curiously, she obviously didn't notice, but Lyra did.
"Derpy... we can't keep them... we don't even know where they came from..." Lyra rose up from the hay and looked over to see that they were all surrounding her friend. "Who the heck even installs doors like that... we gotta escape..."
"Aww... I don't wanna go... I wanna stay with the horsies!" Derpy turned round and let go of the white mare and saw her friend lying in the hay.
"We can't... we gotta get out of here, I don't want to die surrounded by some dumb horses..." She got herself back up and walked over to her friend and the group of horses, a chill ran down her spine as they all looked at her. Strangely feeling like they understood what she said, they didn't look angry or sad.
"But what about Dinky?" Derpy turned herself round and noticed one of the smaller horses, a little filly with a yellow coat and a red mane. "Aww... look at this one Lyra! She’s got a bow in her hair!" She reached over and picked up the filly by placing her hands under her belly, raising the filly over to her chest and hugging it tightly. The filly didn't resist at all, she instead just accepted the warm hug and nuzzled her way into Derpy's chest.
"I think I'll call you pork chop!"
To be continued...