I opened my eyes and I saw nothing but darkness. I gasped and quickly jumped onto all four hooves and looked around. I was surrounded by darkness. No trees, wildlife or anypony in sight. I’m standing inside the void.
“Hello, Quick Learner.” A familiar voice rang from behind me. I turned around and saw my great great grandmother. I sighed in relief as I remembered that this place in my ‘mind’.
“Umm… hello.” I replied, unsure of what to feel.
“My, my…” she started. “You found somepony in the path of your destiny.”
“Yes, and so what?” I asked her, giving her a questioning look.
“What are you going to do?” she asked me back.
“What do you mean?” I replied.
“Do you take her with you in your journey?”
“I don’t know…” I answered.
“She will suffer, you know?” She said grimly.
“W-w-what do you mean?” I asked her, stammering.
“You’ll see,” she chuckled, turning around and walked away.
I wanted to ask her to stop but suddenly I can’t find my voice and I tried to chase her but my hooves felt like it was cemented into the ground. I gave a pathetic squeak and then in a bright flash, my world swirled into darkness.
--oo--
I quickly sat on my haunches as I returned to the land of the living. I was breathing heavily as if I had run in a marathon. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths to calm myself down. I looked to my side and I saw Pink Cotton looking at me with a worried expression.
“What’s wrong?” I asked with a soft voice.
“A-are you okay?” she asked me back, slowly approaching me with her expression unchanged.
I let out a small chuckle. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”
“B-because you looked like you had a nightmare.” She answered as she sat next to me.
I felt a small smile tugged on my face and I ruffled her mane. “It’s okay. I’m fine, really.” I said with an assuring smile.
She squeaked when I was ruffling her mane. I looked to the water canteens next to me and noticed that they were empty. I levitated the canteens to me and set them into my saddlebags.
“I’m going to refill the canteens with water at a creak that I saw yesterday. You stay here and don ‘t go outside, okay?” I explained to her and she replied by giving a meek nod.
I unzipped the tent’s entrance and stepped outside. Even though it’s morning, the forest looks a dark and scary but it’s not as scary as yesterday. I casted a shield spell around the tent to ensure that nothing would harm her while I’m away.
I focused my magic in my horn and with a small ‘pop’ sound, a dome like bubble appeared. Giving the shield a slight tap, the shield surface rippled. I was somewhat satisfied and I called to her from the outside, “I’ll be back, okay?”
She replied by giving a small squeaked from inside the tent.
I nodded and headed to the area where I saw a stream of water yesterday. It was not far, and it was west from where I set up the tent. Upon arriving to the stream, the area seems to be quiet. Too quiet. There’s no sound of any wildlife or even the sounds of insects. I quickly uncapped my canteens and refill them as fast as I could.
~~oo~~
As I was casting a water purifying spell on the canteens, I heard Pink Cotton screamed. I felt my blood when cold. I quickly dropped the canteens and galloped full speed to the tent. You stupid pony, I thought to myself. Survival spell books warned you that the shield spell worked effective when the caster is nearby. It’s all your fault. How can you forget the simplest thing? I mentally bucked myself over and over again.
I felt my breaths becoming more ragged. I’m not used to the physical stuff since I usually hang around in the library or in my room. I finally see the tent moments later. I saw a manticore clawing the shield surrounding the tent and cracks were forming on the surface. The shield was going to shatter, and Pink Cotton might get hurt. I quickly remembered a spell from the survival spell book to fend off manticores.
My horn glowed and I focused the magic towards my throat. I inhaled a lung full of air and screamed. A high pitch sound came from my throat and the manticore quickly writhed in pain as its oversensitive sense of hearing was being tortured by the spell.
The manticore tried to roar as loud as it could to scare me away but it was pointless. My determination to save Pink Cotton was far greater than my fear of manticores. Pink Cotton slowly exited the tent to look what was going on. As the pitch was too much for the manticore, it quickly turned around and flew into the air. Unfortunately, as the manticore turned, its tail hit the shield and the shield instantaneously shattered, causing its scorpion like tail grazed on Pink Cotton’s right foreleg. She collapsed right in front of me.
“No!” I yelled and galloped towards to the fallen filly. “Nonononononononono.” I panicked, looking at her injured foreleg. It has a slight cut on it and it was swelling. I felt her touched my chest. I looked at her and saw tears in her eyes. “W-welcome back.” She spoke weakly.
I could feel tears started to stream down my cheeks. “Shhsss…” I shushed her. “You’re going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.” I assured her but I could see in her eyes that she thought otherwise. I levitated the map in front of me and frantically searching for nearby civilization. I noticed there’s a village nearby, not too far from our location. I put on my saddlebags and levitated Pink Cotton onto my back. Without wasting any more time, I galloped towards east.
I felt exhausted as I’m not used to running for a long period of time. My lungs and muscles began to burn and I started to breathe heavily. Even maintaining a simple levitating spell was already hard enough on my weakening state but I’m not letting my weariness to be the cause of a filly’s death. I could hear Pink Cotton muttering on my back but I was too focused on galloping to make any sense out of it.
As I almost ran out of energy to gallop, I saw a clearing in front of me. I quicken my pace and saw a small village of ponies nearby. I let out a relived sigh and continued to gallop towards a building that looks like a clinic.
Many ponies looked at me as I levitated an unconscious filly behind me. I took the chance to ask for help. “Anypony, help!” I yelled. “Please, the filly is badly hurt.” I saw a yellow coated Pegasus mare with a red cross cutie mark flew in front of me.
“What happened?” She asked in urgency.
“Please, help her. She got stung by a manticore. You got to save her.” I explained between pants.
“Sir, but you need to take a bre-“ I cut her off before she could finish her sentence.
“No!” I yelled. I took few deep breaths and looked pleadingly into the mare’s eyes. “Please… help her.”
She only nodded with a worried expression. She rested Pink Cotton on her back and quickly flew into the clinic. I finally had the chance to take a breather. Then, beige unicorn mare trotted towards me.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I was too tired to answer so I gave a small nod and my legs gave out.I rolled onto my back, breathing heavily and I could feel my heart was beating fast inside my chest. I tried to open my eyes to look around but I couldn’t open them. My eyes felt like they were glued shut. I could feel the world slowly slipping away from me. Voices became muffled, my body went numb and then I fell into the unconsciousness.