“Tyrone and I are going to stay here with Sticky,” said Rainbow Dash, “you guys keep looking for Rivs.”
Poncho, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy nodded and continued into the sketchy forest. The interior of the forest was darker than the outside of the forest due to the tall trees that shrouded them. The forest was indeed a thick maze of trees and branches that, even without darkness, cut visibility. They continued to run through it to an unknown location.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” said Twilight, “can’t you summon up your woodland creatures to help us find Rivs? I mean we could probably find non-hostile animals somewhere in here.”
“I would but...we can’t use our powers, remember?” replied Fluttershy in her soft voice. Twilight frowned due to the fact as she had forgotten that important detail in their journey home. That was the real reason why she cut her research trip short.
They trekked into the forest longer and they all noticed the temperature still gradually lowering as time passed. It was a good thing they had brought extra blankets from the bus or their asses would have been quite frozen. They draped the blankets around their necks and were stopped by a Pinkie Pie outburst.
“Guys, guys! I see something hanging from the tree over there!”
“What tree?” asked Twilight as she tried to scan the dark forest.
“That big one to your right!” said Pinkie.
Twilight looked over and she saw a big tree, alone. The tree was in the middle of the forest, so she thought, and was under the only gap that showed the sky. The moonlight shined on something that was hanging from the tree. It was faint from where they were currently at, so they decided to get a closer look. They approached the tree slowly and realized that the body of Rivs was the thing hanging from the tree. Horror struck them at what they saw of him. His body was loaded with bloody scratches and bruises. His limbs were also deeply cut. His eyes were still open and lifeless.
“Oh no! Guys, let’s go,” said Poncho nervously.
“Hold on a second,” said Twilight. She stepped closer and examined the corpse of Rivs. She studied the cut marks and how deep they were. Finally, she noticed what looked like a mark on Rivs’ dangling arm. She quickly returned to her friends’ side. “Yeah, we should go, and let’s make it fast.”
“What is it?” asked Pinkie curious of her findings.
Twilight looked at her blankly, “It’s the same marking from the house we found Quantico-.” Poncho was quickly off before she finished the sentence. They chased after him deeper into the woods.
“Poncho wait, you’re going the wrong way!” yelled Twilight as she and her friends chased him through the forest. Poncho ignored them. He kept running to get away from everyone and everything. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening. After a long sprint, he stopped and sat down as he couldn’t run any longer. A couple seconds later the rest of them caught up to him.
“Poncho,” said Twilight out of breath, “why did you run this way?”
“I don’t know, I was scared,” said Poncho sadly.
“Well,” said Twilight as she and the others helped him up, “let’s just all get back to Rainbow Dash and the others. I bet they are worried about us. We have been in this forest long enough.”
The group jogged cautiously through the forest back to the clearing near the road where Sticky was sitting. As they passed more and more trees, they kept noticing the marking on them they swore they didn’t see the first time through. “They have to be following us,” said Fluttershy softly. “They’re almost mocking us at this point.”
Twilight nodded, “Probably, let’s hurry up and pick up the pace. I think I see the clearing.”
They all sped to a full, almost near sprint. It felt like they were running for hours when they finally saw the clearing to the road in sight. They broke out of the dark forest and onto the side of the road. They saw Rainbow Dash, Tyrone, and Sticky at the same spot they were at earlier.
“That was quick,” said Rainbow Dash fluttering her unusable wings. "Although, I could have been in and out of there much faster."
“Quick?” said Twilight shockingly, “it felt like we were in there for hours!”
“Well it’s only been ten minutes. I guess you didn’t find anyone?”
“Well...” started Poncho with his famous drug out word.
"Well what,” said Sticky half-annoyed, “don’t even start that here.”
“We did find Rivs,” said Twilight gravely, “but he’s kinda dead.” Sticky, Rainbow Dash, and Tyrone went silent. The silence was broken after a couple of mournful seconds.
“Dead? You’re kiddin’ me, right?” said Sticky in disbelief, “you have to be. There is no way he is dead. We have been through a lot and you guys are saying he, my best friend, is DEAD?!” Sticky sat back down and closed his eyes.
“Oh no he’s dead alright, you can go check for yourself,” said Poncho, “he’s hanging from a huge tree just in the forest.
“Shieeettt, now I’m da only brotha out here...” said Tyrone, “tha dude was fly.”
“Save the tears for later,” said Rainbow Dash suddenly, “that doesn’t matter right now. What we need to do is go back to the rest of the group and see if they’re alright.”
“Yeah, we-”
A loud screech echoed from in the forest cutting off Twilight, and everyone froze. They then heard a second one, which sounded closer to them than the prior one. They kept hearing the screeches get closer and closer until their minds told them to get out of there and they began to run down the road.
“What is that?!” asked Poncho loudly.
“I don’t know and I don’t care, just run!” yelled Twilight.
They heard a scream right behind them, Tyrone took a quick glance over his shoulder. “Ay! They be draggin’ Sticky away!” The others turned and saw Sticky being dragged by a dark figure into the woods until they could see him no more. Then they heard a scream, which they could tell belonged to Sticky. The scream continued for another five seconds, and then swiftly, the scream, along with Sticky, was no more. “Aw man! Everyone’s dyin’!”
Twilight closed her eyes of the horrors from what had occurred in the the past twenty minutes. She couldn’t grasp the fact that they were all about to die, one by one. The world seemed to start swirling in disbelief and fear. She quickly shook her head and fought back tears. She abandoned the prior thoughts and looked at the remaining members of their group. “We need to keep going, there’s nothing we can do now. Let’s just hope we can get back to the others before any more of us perish.”
* * * * *