//------------------------------// // Friendship is Magic: Trails Part 1 [Unedited Tablet typed] // Story: Adventures of the Element of Hope // by Zoom zoom //------------------------------// To my surprise while it was for all purposes a death march, the company was rather cheery. Pinkie kept every pony engaged with fun little mini conversations, mostly about me and Twilight. Which meant all about me since Twilight was not seeing the point of such banter. I tried to keep what I actually did from them for a time, but eventually as we neared a cliff face within the forest I had run out of stories that didn't involve my prison life and thus would lead into it. Thankfully it was Applejack that finally stopped her. "I think that's enough Pinkie. You're gonna dry his throat out at this rate and none of us got any water on us." "Speak for yourself Applejack," Rarity said as she took a swig from a canteen. "Now when did y'all have time to get that?" "She asked me to get it while you guys were deciding what to do with Wish here," Rainbow Dash answered taking her own bottle out and sucking out some water. "I'd have gotten more, but it was a big of a time crunch and I had to talk Rarity out of more stuff." "I still say I will end up needing my eyelash curler on this trek," said Rarity. "But sometimes a lady must make do with what she has." Applejack seemed like she was about to complain when Twilight's voice cut though the noise. "Would you all just shut up. We have a serious mission here and yo all are just spouting nonsense! I knew it was a bad idea to bring all of you." As if on cue however, the ground beneath all of us crumbled and we began to fall. Rainbow and Fluttershy grabbed Rarity and Pinkie Pie to stop them, but that left the remaining three of the party to be stuck desperatly trying not to go over the cliff and to certain doom. I frantically tried my best to grab onto something but to no avail. I had only managed to slow my speed down at best. I could see Applejack holding onto Twilight after being able to stop herself. But she was unable to pull the unicorn up. "I won't let you get hurt Twi," the earth pony cried. "Applejack never leaves a friend hangin'." If I wasn't about to die from my fall I'd have groaned at that pun. Luckily I was too busy imagining my brains coating the walls to notice. However my fall suddenly stopped, and looking down it wasn't a moment too soon. Cyan hooves held my shoulders. I was so greatful I hugged the Pegusas right there. Only letting go when I heard, "You're choking me." With that I released her and before I could apologize, she had zoomed back to the top of the cliff to get Applejack as I saw Fluttershy helping Twilight down. "What the hay Fluttershy? You were supposed to catch him." Note: twist ankle from fall and have AJ tries to help Wishful. He refuses to keep up act so only AJ knows about it for now and will feel concerned for the next few bits. The beast roared as it swiped at all of us. Thankfully I was still taking up the rear before so it came up short of striking me. Still keeping the panic from myself thanks in part to no knowing if I could outrun this thing with my injury. Rarity's kick connected with a surprisingly audible sound and causing the creature to fall back. "Ha!" She cried, "take that you ruffian." It was then I spotted it, hidden in the shadows was something under the beast's paw. My magic was off to try to pull off whatever that was to get a better look at the real shadow. Twilight and the others rushed foreword, my twisted hoof keeping me from trying to stop them. Fluttershy thankfully was able to, though I will say I was surprised how loud she was able to project her voice. Instead of just telling them it was better to run however, Fluttershy herself stepped foreword. We couldn't do anything to stop her and Rainbow Dash seemed the only one both willing and able to stop her. But Fluttershy stared back, stopping the blue Pegasus in her tracks. The bellow of the beast returned Fluttershy's attention to it and she said in as sweet a voice I think she could muster, "it's okay. We're not gonna hurt you. Now let me see your paw." Surprisingly the creature followed this order and the rest of us gasped. A very large thorn was coming out of the creature's paw. Whether because of Nightmare Moon or just plain luck it was in there rather deep. If it wasn't a pony eating monster that tried to kill us I'd almost sympathize. "Okay now hold still," said Fluttershy as she examined the wound, "This might hurt a bit." With that she took the torn in her mouth and yanked it gently. The others flinched but I kept my eyes glued, my time in prison showed me far worse injures than that on a regular basis. Once the torn was out however, the Manticore roared again, it's maw streaming at Fluttershy who remained unmoving. Everyone, including myself, cried out being unable to do more than watch. And what a sight it turned out to be. "You're very welcome," Fluttershy said though giggles as the beast kept licking her face. I just stared in amazement. Were all these girls this incredible? Even miss Rarity had kicked this thing right in the face. I felt woefully ignorant for coming along just because I thought they needed someone physically strong. More and more my presents didn't seem to be needed, and right now I was slowing them down and being ignorant. Still we were so far in there was nothing I could do now. Doing my best to keep quiet as I trotted foreword, I rejoined the group who had all gathered around Fluttershy to give her a cheer. Note: Fluttershy notices the sprain I saw my own shadow slowly go as the forest grew thinker with trees. What little light the moon had given us was slowly disapaiting, and with it so was my willingness to keep up my act. Luckily in the dark I could start trotting on three legs. Thus made everything difficult since I was far easier to trip, but my luck seemed to hold out so I was at least able to keep up with the rest. "How are you holding up?" I heard Fluttershy whisper into my ear. Well at least it was an entire sentence this time with no hiccups. "I'm fine," I replied even lower. "Keep your voice down though. Twilight should be distracted by a simple injury on someone she doesn't like. "I'm not so-" whatever Fluttershy was going to say next was lost to me as I felt a tree stump finally end my lucky streak. I started to roll foreword, but Fluttershy caught me before my face hit the ground. The grip grew tighter however as I felt her shake. The sound of the others screaming causing my awareness to heighten as light finally did show, and the face of a terrible monster loomed back at me.