‘Ugh …where am I…’
You grip your head and sit up slowly, taking in your surroundings. A large expanse of trees greets your vision, along with a throbbing pain in your ankle.
‘Agh! What the heck?!?’
You look down and see your ankle twisted backwards at a rough angle. You prod at it with a finger and the area flares in pain.
‘Grah! Oh God, that hurts! Just what I needed, a broken ankle, and in the middle of some god forsaken forest on top of it. This couldn’t get any worse. At least I know some basic first aid to temporarily take care of it until I get out of here. If I get out of here. What am I thinking; of course I’ll get out. This forest shouldn’t be too large, I’ll just hobble out of here, find a home, and get whoever lives there to drive me to the hospital. Simple.’
You crawl your way over to a pile of fallen branches and start sifting through them. Picking out a few decently sized ones, you take the flattest two and place one on either side of your ankle. Wincing, you take a vine you had ripped off a tree and start tying it around the makeshift splint. You take some of the larger branches and tie them together into a rather flimsy crutch. After using a nearby tree to pull yourself up, you put some weight on it to see if it can support your weight. It does, and you start walking off in what you believe is north. As you start off, you begin to think about what caused you to wind up in this situation.
‘What happened last night? I remember heading off to the bar with my friends… did they do this? No, they wouldn’t have. Couldn’t have, really. Not only are they not smart enough when they’re drunk, but they know I’d kill them. I know the night started out well enough, same as every other weekend. A few drinks, tons of laughs, and a crap load of harassing Jacob. Even if he was drunk, he shouldn’t have let those affections slip. Anyway, what else happened? Greg failed at picking up a chick, again, but that’s normal… that fight! Now I remember! I got into a brawl with that weird guy with a goatee. Creepy dude, that one. I remember after I whooped him, his eyes turned yellow, and he said something about giving me a “new life for the most fun he’s had in ages”. I just passed it of as another drunk, but I guess he was serious. He’s dead if I ever get my hands on him. But first, I have to get out of here.’
After a few minutes of limping, you notice the sound of footsteps coming from behind you.
Slowly, you turn around. “Hello?” A smile creeps its way onto your face as you see a figure begin to emerge. “Oh, thank God. You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for someone to help out of here. See, my ankle’s broken, and I was wondering if you could drive me to a hospital.” Your smile begins to fade as the figure gets closer, increasing in size.
‘That’s…much too large to be human…’
Terror spreads over your face as a gigantic wolf steps into your line of sight. Even more so as you realize:
‘It’s…made out of wood. How is that possible?!? Wolves aren’t made out of wood! And it looks pretty hungry… and it’s coming closer… ah, crap.’
Fear overtakes you as you start to limp away as fast as your leg will let you. The wooden monstrosity follows slowly, seemingly able to tell that you’re injured. You hear another sound off to your left, but you ignore it, fearing another wolf. Looking back every now and then, you notice that the wolf has slowed its pace.
‘It’s toying with me. It knows it’s gonna catch me eventually; it’s just taking its time. I have got to get out of here. Hopefully, I can get out of this stupid forest before that happens.'
Ignoring the continuous rustling from your left, you press forwards. What you fail to notice, however, is that the wooden wolf has caught up with you. It lashes out with its front paws, sending you flying into a tree. A loud ‘CRACK!’ is heard as pain erupts in your left shoulder. You let out a loud yelp of pain as the wooden beast gets closer. A stinging sensation tears through your side and you move your hand to it. Pulling it back, you notice it’s covered in blood. You attempt to back up, only to press into yet another tree.
‘Stupid forest…’
As the wolf crouches down to make a leap at you, some feminine voices are heard nearby.
“Over here! I found it!”
“Oh, dear… I think it’s bleeding!”
“Well don’t just sit there! Git over there and help the poor critter out!”
The wolf leaps and you throw your hands up in defense, only to see a rainbow crash into the side of it. The blood loss has gotten to you by this point, and your vision becomes blurry. The rainbow crashes into the wolf repeatedly, and an orange blur has also showed up to help it. A yellow and pink blob enters your line of sight and starts talking to you.
“Don’t worry; everything’s going to be fine. I’ll take good care of you. Now let’s find out what’s wrong…”
You somehow manage the strength to speak. “My ankle… is broken… my shoulder might be, too… plus this gash on my side…”
The blob stops inspecting you and yelps in surprise. “Y-you can talk?!? Oh my, um, we need to get you out of here now! I should take you to Twilight’s, too. Maybe she’ll know what you are…”
You want to object and tell her (you think it’s a her) to take you to the hospital, but you no longer have the strength to speak. She starts to lift you onto what you think is her back when the other two come back.
The first one that speaks has a southern accent. “C’mon Fluttershy, we need to go! Ah don’t know how long we have before that varmint reforms itself!”
“Alright Applejack. But we need to take him to Twilight’s. She might know what he is.”
Another, raspier and more tomboyish voice speaks up next. “Wait, how do we know it’s a guy?”
The voice you now know to be Fluttershy’s speaks up again. “I’m guessing based on his voice.”
“He can talk?!?”
“Yes Rainbow, now we need to get him to Twilight’s, or he won’t make it!”
You feel yourself being lifted again, and try to think about the ones who rescued you. ‘At least I found someone to help me. But what’s with the names? Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy? What are they, hippies? And why are they so short? Man, am I tired…’
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”
“No time Twilight, we need your help!”
“With what? And what in Celestia’s name is that?!?”
And that is the last thing you hear as you pass into unconsciousness.