//------------------------------// // A strange new world // Story: Stranded // by Deathsia //------------------------------// A STRANGE NEW WORLD Nearly five hours later, Sweetie Belle had practiced walking between the couch and the table enough that her legs no longer acted as if they would give out on her anymore but walking on two legs was still an adjustment she was still getting used to. “Okay, now lets try walking to the door.” She remarked aloud and took a timid step from the table towards the door. Success. She then put one leg in front of the other, each timid step becoming braver and longer in stride until she stood in front of the door. “Okay, I think I have this walking thing down.” She remarked softly to herself as she looked down to the door and pushed against it only for it not to open. “Huh? Why isn't it opening?” She asked aloud as she pushed harder still only for the door to seemingly not budge. She then looked down and saw a doorknob sticking out. “Oh, duh!” She remarked aloud with a soft chuckle, reached down, clasped her right hand around the doorknob and turned it. To her delight and dismay the door swung open which allowed a brisk cold breeze to blow in which caused her to wrap her arms around herself and shiver loudly. “S-S-Suddenly I'm wishing I still had fur.” She stuttered out as she looked around outside the house. A rich forest met her eyes as she looked about herself. Trees, bushes, and wildlife as far as the eye could see. To her left she could see the same spot where she had seen the two humans earlier carrying a large plank of wood and much to her relief, they could not be seen anywhere. She timidly took more steps out into this lush forest only to shiver once again as another brisk breeze brushed against her exposed lady parts and body. “Burr! I'm going to catch a cold at this rate.” She remarked aloud as she continued to walk through the forest now and soon came a crossed what looked to be a small campsite. “The fire's still lit...” She remarked as she stared at the blazing flames which burned brightly before her. Another brisk cool wind hit her again which prompted her to walk closer to the fire. She was now close enough that the fire's warmth provided some relief from the bitter cold that surrounded her. Curiously, she looked about the campsite and noticed a few backpacks had been left along with what Sweetie Belle could only assume to be the kind of clothing that the creature she encountered before was wearing. Yet another brisk cold wind pummeled her but this time it was much colder. So cold in fact, that it felt as if somepony had taken an ice-cold bucket of water and doused her in it. As she shivered loudly and fiercely now her eyes fell upon the discarded garments on the ground. “Is that what they use to keep warm since they don't have fur?” She thought to herself. She would have said so aloud but her chattering teeth wouldn't let her make a proper sentence at the moment. While she could tell it wasn't winter time here due to the obviously lack of snow, she figured it was sometime during the fall. Even Rarity made her put on clothes during the winter time, even if it was merely a scarf and booties. The wind didn't seem to be letting up this time around either and continued to pummel the poor girl as she walked towards the backpacks and the garments on the ground. She then leaned down to pick one of them up only to fall forward and hit the ground face-first which sent a surge of pain through her hands and face as she skidded slightly against the cold and rough dirt on the ground. Sweetie Belle immediately sat up and sat on her rump as tears filled her eyes. She could care less about the fact that her rump and neither regions felt uncomfortable on this rough and cold ground at the present time as her face stung and throbbed. She placed her shaking hands on her face and felt something wet along her left cheek. Curious she removed left hand from her face and glanced at her fingers. Something wet and red was on them. She knew that this was her own blood of course but judging by the small amount on her fingers, it was nothing more than a minor scrape. Still, it was enough to make Sweetie Belle cry as she sat there for a brief time doing nothing but this. “Hey, did you hear that?!” “Yeah, it came from the campsite!” Sweetie Belle's sobs were brought to a screeching halt upon hearing these faint voices. While they sounded distant, for her to be able to hear them, even vaguely meant that they were close by. She then quickly grabbed the garments on the ground and was about to make a break for it when she noticed something sticking out of one of the backpacks. It was a small plastic bag filled with none-other than a daisy sandwich. Her stomach rumbled upon seeing this delicious food but she had no time to eat now. No, now she had to find a place to hide or fear being discovered by those humans. On impulse, she grabbed the backpack along with the garments and darted off into the forest doing her best to keep her balance as she ran as fast as she could which wasn't very fast at all since she had barely learned to walk on two legs a mere five hours ago. Regardless of this, she hid herself behind a nearby bush and sat on the ground. She could hear the footsteps growing closer now. Soon she could see two humans standing in the campsite in the distance from where she sat. “You see anything?” One of the humans asked. This one was wearing what looked like a green shirt to Sweetie Belle while the other looked like it was wearing a dark blue shirt. “No, nothin- Wait a second, my change of clothing is missing and so is my backpack!” The man wearing the dark blue shirt exclaimed. “Ya don't think it was the horse-girl do you?” The green shirted man asked curiously. “Might have been. Lets look around to be sure.” The dark blue shirted man replied. The two humans then began to look around the area as they slowly walked farther and farther away from the campsite. The green shirted human was growing dangerously close to her now and as much as she wanted to make a run for it, she feared that any sound she made would give her away so whether it was by fear of being found or fear itself, she was unable to move an inch as the human grew closer and closer. “Turn around, please turn around.” Sweetie Belle thought to herself fearfully only to her own horror for the human to grow closer still until... “Hey, I found a nude girl over here! Ya think it's the horse-girl?” The human shouted as he walked up to her. “Duh! When those three came here they were all nude, or did ya forget?!” The other human shouted back as he ran over to the green shirted man's position. “Stay away!” Sweetie Belle screamed as she scrambled to her feet with the garment and backpack still in hand and ran as fast as she could. “After her!” The dark blue shirted human could be heard shouting as Sweetie Belle ran for her life as fast as her legs could carry her only to fall face-first once again turn around onto her back and stare at the green shirted human as he caught up to her. “Come quietly and we won't hurt ya.” He said coolly as he walked up to her. Sweetie Belle scooted back farther and farther away from the green shirted man with each step he took as her heart pounded against her chest and breathed in and out at a fast pace. She was soon pinned against a tree in a sprawled out position as the man walked up to her. “Gah, close your legs, I'm not that kind of pervert! ” The man exclaimed as he blocked his face with a hand as he walked up to her. “I just wanna take ya back with us, I promise I won't hurt you if you come quietly.” The human's initial remark confused Sweetie Belle for a moment but only for a moment as the fear of being caught overwhelmed any sense of curiosity she had of why the sight of her unmentionables were so appalling to his eyes when back in her world it was normal to walk around with them exposed. Her eyes darted back and forth around herself for anything she could use to defend herself. The only thing that she saw was a lone stick on the ground next to her. “Hey, where's ya go? Did ya get the horse-girl?” The blue shirted man could be heard shouting which prompted the man to turn around to reply. In this very instant, Sweetie Belle lunged for the stick, picked it up with her left hand, and smacked the human hard a crossed the back of his legs which caused him to fall to the ground with a pained cry. Though the impact snapped the frail piece of wood in half, it had served its purpose. She then quickly stood up, picked up the garments and backpack, and darted to the right into the forest. She didn't bother to look behind herself as she ran as fast as she could. She didn't know if they were still after her and she didn't care, the only thing on her mind at the moment was to find a safe place to hide. After running for what seemed like forever, Sweetie Belle stopped to catch her breath as she looked behind herself now. No sight of either of the humans who had found her earlier. She then looked in front of herself now to see a small cave. She walked inside the cave, sat down, and took this time to catch her breath. CRACKLE-THOOM! Sweetie Belle jumped with a start as she looked outside the cave and noticed the unmistakable sight of rain pouring down outside now. A storm had apparently set in. This prompted another curious thought to her mind now. Did they have humans who scheduled the weather here too? It didn't look like any of them had any wings. It was then as the rain poured down outside that she realized just how hungry and tired she was. She recalled the daisy sandwich she had seen in the backpack earlier, moved it to her lap, and attempted to open it only for it to be sealed by something. What, she didn't know but she did notice the small hole it was sticking out of earlier. She then placed both hands around that small hole and pulled both hands in opposite directions. With a loud “zzzzzzzzzzZZZZIT!” the backpack seemed to open at which point she noticed a small tab-like object sticking out from the side near the other end of the large hole the backpack made now. Curiously, she attempted to grab onto the tab-like object only for her left hand to be unable to get a firm grip on it. She tried once again only for three of the five digits of her hand to slip off leaving the first to the right of the smaller digit on her hand and the small digit to the left of that one gripped on the tab-like object. She found that by holding these two digits down she could maintain a grip on the tab-like object. She then proceeded to pull on it at which point another sound emitted from the backpack. It sounded similar to the first but this one was a lot softer than before. She pulled more and more and soon realized that the hole was slowly closing. “So that's how it works.” She remarked aloud in awe having fully understood how this contraption worked now. She then pulled the tab-like object back so that the hole opened up again, reached inside and felt around for the plastic bag she saw earlier. Instead of finding the plastic bag however, she found several objects she didn't recognize and one she did which was a compass. She then decided that if she wanted to find her meal as fast as possible, she may as well dump the remainder of the contents out. The plastic bag fell out among many other objects, of which Sweetie Belle immediately recognized as a flashlight, box of matches, compass, and a small torch. The other two objects that fell out however were foreign to her. One of which looked like a metal rectangular object with several cylinder shaped objects inside it and a large object she couldn't describe with any kind of shape she could think of. Curiously, she picked up the fairly large and metal object. It looked as if it had a handle of some sort which she could hold with one hand but it's what was attached to this handle that confused her the most. It looked like a rectangular cone with a small hole on the end of it. At least, that's the best way she could describe it to her mind. Her stomach rumbling once again however caused her to dismiss the idea of trying to figure out these foreign objects for now and quickly put everything back into the backpack with the exception of the plastic bag. She then opened the plastic bag haphazardly effectively destroying it in the process which caused the daisy sandwich to fall onto the ground. She quickly picked it up and bit into it. It tasted bitter to her and old but it was food and she was sure her stomach wouldn't argue this fact. In no time at all she had eaten the entire sandwich and while it wasn't as filling as she had hoped, it at least quelled the hunger pains she was feeling before. Sleep soon took hold of her however and she dosed off against the cave wall.