NOTE: I'm really tired when writing this, but I trucked through it for you guys. I just spent the last couple day traveling inside a car for at least 8 hours a day. Not fun, but shit needed to get done. Sorry this chapter is kinda short, but the next one will be lengthier I promise.
NOTE#2: I noticed a mistake I made in the last chapter. I was putting main 6, but Fluttershy isn't with them. She stayed behind in the first chapter. Sorry if I cause any confusion.
In the forest, main six (Excluding Fluttershy):
"Well this is just great. We set a tracker on him, go into the forest blind, he evades us, and now we forgot the way back. I'm starting to question our tactics." Twilight said, trying to evade the low hanging branches littering the forest. Everyone seems to be doing a poor job at avoiding the branches, except for a particular pink mare. Pinky was bouncing around the trees, bobbing and weaving through the branches better then someone who lived there their entire life.*cough*Shadow*cough*
"Are you alright?" Pinky asks.
"Um, sugar cube. Who are ya talking to?" AJ says looking around, but was only met with equally confused stares.
"That funny voice who coughed, then said shadow, then coughed again, duh." A couple trees back, said Blacky fell out of the tree upon hearing his name, nearly giving away his position. Luckily the rest just looked a bit unsettled, but quickly dismiss it as a "Pinky" thing. Don't want a repeat of Foggy bottom bay now do we.
"You got that right." Pinky please, just let me go on narrating the story. Ignore me, and I'll let you throw me a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party. Immediately Pinky shut her mouth and nodded furiously. Well now that that is taken care of, lets get back to the story. Come on Twi, you're not my favorite for no reason, use that brain of yours and get out of this pickle.
"I got it. If the Everfree is directly south of ponyville, then we just need to head north" Twilight exclaims with joy for finding a solution. "Now Dash, fly up and tell me which direction the sun is setting."
"You got it." without another word she takes off through the thick canopy of the forest. Minutes pass before she returns.
"What took you so long. We've been worried sick." Twi says a bit sharper then intended, but still gets her point across.
"Sorry, but I had to climb the old fashion way, because it became too condensed to fly in. Anyways, the sun was setting that way" She gestured to Shadows right, which meant that he was between them and north. However, before the thought of avoiding them even passed him mind, a figure popped out of the woodwork.
It stood on it's hind-legs, leaning against a tree with one arm. It's coat was a shaggy, dark brown, and had several scars dotting its figure. Bearing its teeth, revealing incisors capable to bite through steel. A frothy saliva slowly trickling down its fangs only added onto it's deadly appearance, and while most creatures in this world have naturally huge eyes, this behemouth had small, sharp yellow eyes, and only one thing could be found withing those gates to a lifeless soul. Bloodlust.
'Shit a Jackle. What do I do?! I'll be safe in this tree unnoticed, but at the expense of at least one of them kicking the bucket.'
'Stop being such a wimp. You of all people should know that a Jackle is ruthless, and that no one deserves to face one. Hell, no one should even have to know what one is.'
'But I don't want to die.'
'You wont, just run. Run as fast as you can, and once he follows you and the others are far enough away, you can figure something else out.'
'Wait WHAT?!'
'To late, I'm doin it.'
Before Shadow could argue his own choices, he did the second most life threatining thing in his life. The first one was with a sea serpent, twenty bananas, and some rope, but at least that time he had his friends to save him.
"I'm sorry 'bout this Flicker, Twitch, and anyone else who actually knows my name." Was the last thing he said, before his hooves met the forest floor. The leaves crackled under his steps, but the biggest response he elicited from the stare down, was the swiveling of some ears. Even as he stepped out from behind the final tree, he still went unnoticed. Every eye was fixated on the Jackle, and every hoof failing to respond to the owners commands.
"RUNN!!!" The sound from Shadow seemed to flick the play button, as everyone in front of him took off faster then he had ever expected. Well, everyone except for the Jackle, and now that he got rid of a potentially easy feat he was next on the menu. In retrospect, this was now deemed the most dangerous thing because he doesn't even have his chitin armor anymore.
'Well shit.'
Shadow took off in any direction he could, trying to gain some distance between him and death with fangs, but for every turn the Jackle had two. Trees of every kind rushing past, colors starting to blend and lose meaning. Time was all, but forgotten. Every step the sound of it's claws could be heard just a fraction closer, the song of his death playing. First, through a bramble with serrated stalks, cutting through his skin like a hot knife through butter. The Jackle faired much better, that is until it got caught in his eyes, but even that didn't detour the beast. It's prey was injured and it still had it's hearing and smell. Nothing was stopping this chase.
The bramble opened to a field of blue flowers, with an odd distance between the flowers and any other living thing. Shadow however, didn't have time to avoid the poison joke, in fact it might help him, and by help he means hurt the Jackle more then it does him. The flowers gave a slightly painful sting as he ran, but it was a hell alot better then if that Jackle caught him. How it would slowly tear him limb, by limb. Eating him while he was still alive. Those thoughts didn't even have time to enter Shadows mind, because he was to busy with a killer after him.
'Wait, what happened to the sound of his claws?' Shadow dared to view over his shoulder , and saw......nothing? He didn't question his good luck as he continued to run. It wasn't until he broke through a tree line did the effects of the poison joke kick in. His sight was going in and out, distorting his perception of everything. Then he lost feeling in all his extremities, but not because of the poison joke. This was from the blood loss, and heightened levels of adrenaline.
He struggled a few more feet, before his body went into shock. Shaking and trembling, the only thing he could do was cry for help, and that merely came out as a distorted gurgle. They say when you meet your end, you see a bright light. That was a total lie, all he could see was darkness closing around him. That and the face of someone beautiful. His eyes focused in one last time before he passed out and managed to catch a glimpse of that pink mane.