Ben’s Point of View:
We were now running again after deciding which way to go. Pedro and BJ were talking without a care in the world, but something didn’t feel right the coyotes weren’t chasing us with a lot of effort. I just don’t know something felt off “I don’t know guys something seems off” I said before I felt myself lifted up by my left leg pain going throughout my whole body. A giant version of the coyote was holding me effortlessly by my leg. I tried to punch anywhere that looked like it might hurt, but my sense of direction and nothing holding me in place made my punches pretty much useless. Before I could say anything the coyote threw me hard against a tree knocking the wind out of me. As I tried to catch my breath I could feel pain shooting thru me again as a bunch of younger coyotes scratched and bit into my flesh. As I tried to push, hit, shove and kick my way out of the pack I felt one grab me by the neck and rip a good chunk of my neck.
My vision started to blur and my breathing became quicker, my friends seem to be trying to say something, but I couldn’t hear them they were coming out as muffles. I could feel myself being carried away. I wanted to tell them to leave me behind and save themselves, but I couldn’t find the strength to tell them. I was fading in and out of conciseness I could see Manny carrying me while trying to stop the bleeding with his hand. I felt myself slip away when I was put down on the ground in a cave.
“THAT FUCKING HURT!” I screamed rubbing my neck until I stopped and realized my wound was gone. “What the…” I said looking myself over. I had no scratch marks or bite marks anywhere on my body and my cloths somehow manage to fix themselves as well. My attention was brought back to where I was when I heard the sound of my friends scream in rage. They were charging head first towards the coyotes with blood lust in their eyes. I tried to get in there way, tried to tell them to stop, but they ran right through me as if I wasn’t even there.
“What the hell…” I said before I noticed a figure lying on the ground completely motionless. It was me, but that’s not possible I’m right here…aren’t I? My brain trying to process what was happening: How could I be alive, yet not at the same time? How can I still be in this plane of existence yet not be seen or heard by others? Where and what the hell is going on? I was locked within my mind for what felt like hours trying to figure out how this could be possible, until I notice a coyote walk right thru my body slowly going towards my friends.
My friends looked completely exhausted BJ was leaning on his sword while Manny and Pedro were supporting one another on one knee to prevent them from falling, but the worst part of it was that they had no hope at all. I wanted to say something to them, but I knew I would be wasting my time since they couldn’t hear or see me. ‘Fuck it’ I thought as I made my way towards the entrance of the cave walking right thru the coyotes ‘Man this is weird yet cool. Wait losing my train of thought’ as I reached the outside I looked at the night sky ‘If I’m going to be stuck here in limbo I…no if we’re going to be stuck here in limbo I want to know where we are at least or I hope they’ll join me who know how dying works’ I thought with a dishearten laugh not really caring for my own joke.
Until my train of thought was interrupted by the sound of BJ screaming “FUS RO DAH” turning around quickly I noticed a group of coyotes being sent to the sky follow by a blue aura sending the rest surrounding the outside flying towards the forest. “What. The. Fuck.” I said completely shocked staring at my friends.
Pedro was the first to say something “Did you just use a dragon shout?” he asked with shock and disbelief.
BJ just nodded his head saying “Uh huh”. But it was short lived, when a couple of whines came out from the entrance. The coyotes were back, but now just staring at them it was as if they were deciding something. That’s when they just up and fled for their lives. We were all surprised at what just happened.
“Did they just flee?” Manny asked with hope and disbelief.
“I think so” Pedro said shocked as well.
“What the fuck is going on and where the fuck are we?” BJ said trying to stay calm.
‘Why would they flee? They had the advantage, sheer numbers and my friends are completely exhausted. One little dragon shout wouldn’t scare them away unless…they’re afraid of something else’ I thought trying to figure out the strange behavior.
I was brought out of my train of thoughts when Manny shouted “WHERE’S BEN?!?!” looking over I could see that my body was gone, not only that I started to feel a bit more… solid?
“It was here a moment ago” Pedro yelled back looking around the cave trying to find my body.
“You don’t think they grabbed him when we weren’t looking do you?” BJ asked and was barely able stopped Manny as he tried to run after them.
He thrashed about trying to get free from their grip he yelled screaming and kicking “Let me go we have to go after him we have to save him.”
“Manny calm down were in no condition to chase after them and even if we were there’s no point he’s dead Manny we…we have to move on” Pedro said trying to not choke up on the last part.
“How could you say that” Manny yelled at Pedro starting at him with anger.
“It’s the truth Manny” he replied back sadly he slightly chuckled and said “bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts.”
“Idiot” I said as I saw Manny completely lose it and got loose from their grip. Tackling Pedro to the ground he smacked his armor with his hands making a dull thud sound. This went on for minutes until his hands started barely smacking against Pedro’s armor until he finally stopped and just stared at Pedro with emptiness.
“Finally done” Pedro said as he gently pushed Manny off of him and brushed himself off.
BJ walked over to Manny and gave him a quick hug followed by a pat on the back and said “I know it sucks and truth be told I want to go after them too, but Pedro’s right for once we can’t just blindly go after them.”
“Only once?” Pedro said annoyed.
“Not now Pedro” BJ snapped at him causing him to back off. That’s when BJ looked like to be brooding over something ‘Looked like BJ is blaming himself again’ I thought with a sigh and shook my head. That’s when I noticed Manny was looking right at me. Confused I started to move around the entrance a bit his eyes following my every move.
“Look we need to get away from here it’s…it’s what he would have wanted us to do” BJ said sadly. BJ then started to wave his hands in front of Manny trying to snap him out of it “Hey Pedro give me a hand I think Manny’s shell shocked” He said but Pedro was just staring at me now as well or I think he was, I couldn’t really tell with the helmet on and everything. That’s when BJ finally turned around and went slacked jaw at the sight of me.
I wasn’t too sure what to do in this kind of situation, so I did the only thing that came to mind “Uh hey” I said as I sheepishly waved at them.
My point of view:
“But you were just there and now you’re over there and and….” I said just spouting out nonsense and walking towards him.
“Holy shit Ben you’re alive” Manny said shocked and dumbfounded following my lead.
“No shit Sherlock” Pedro said as he walked over towards us surprised as well.
“Look Ben guys I’m…” I tried to say before Ben tried to punch me in the face, but instead hit the side of my helmet. Although it didn’t hurt I was still too tired to properly stand and fell on my ass. Staring up I could see a Ben scowling at me.
“Let’s get one thing straight BJ” he said calmly eyeing me down like how a parent would disciplining a child. “This is not your fault. You had no way of knowing what we were getting ourselves into” he said.
“But…” I tried to say before he continued.
“NO buts! it’s all our faults, we agreed to go into the cave, which thinking about it now was rather stupid on our part, but nonetheless we are all to blame…especially Pedro” he finished pointing at Pedro.
“Hey~” Pedro said while we all chuckled at his expense.
Ben offered his hand to help me up and said in a low voice so only I could hear “We choose you to lead us, even if we didn’t vote on it or say anything about it, we need you to take the crappy job of keeping us not only in line, but to make sure we keep our sanity since we know we can rely on you” he said with an awkward smile. “So how long are you going to sit on your ass?” he said waving his hand back in forth.
I didn’t know what to do or say I just sat there thinking about what Ben said…and he was right. Of all my friends I was always the rational/calm one and my friends needed that right now. With Ben dying and...not dying, Pedro’s pip boy actually working and my dragon shouts we need someone to keep it together for everyone else’s sake. As I grabbed Ben’s hand and got up I gave a reassuring smile and said “Thanks Ben…I needed that”.
“No prob” returning the gesture “But on a side note we need to leave like now” he said as he started to walk out of the cave.
“Why? Can’t you see we’re tired and besides we found shelter we should rest for the night here” Manny said.
“Well this would have been a good place, but didn’t you forget a couple of things”
“Such as?” Pedro said.
“Well for starters we’re still near the hunting ground of those coyote things and more importantly this area is about to become rather dangerous”
“Why is that?” Manny asked.
“It’s simple why would they run off when they had you guys surrounded and outnumbered”
‘That’s a good point why would they run. The only time an animal would run off of an easy kill or prey if it feels….threatened by another’ “Oh shit” I said quietly as I realized what he was talking about. “An animal would only flee if it felt threatened by another animal that’s higher in the food chain” I said joining them outside and slowly jogging away from where we came from.
“Precisely” Ben said beside me.
“But how do we know that what’s happening right now” Manny asked.
“Think about it Manny, it makes sense” Ben said.
“Ok let’s say your random theory is correct. How, what and why is it happening now” Pedro asked.
“The dragon shout” I said.
“Dragon shout?” Manny and Pedro asked at the same time.
“Ugh ok here’s the short version shouting plus cave equal loud echo/ noise now what usually happens when you get woken up like that?”
“Usually I rage and get pissed off…oh” Pedro said.
“Exactly just like how you don’t wake up a bear when it’s hibernating” Ben said.
“So basically we just woke up something more dangerous than those coyotes…fan fucking tastic” Manny said.
“That’s why we need to get some distance from this area. Pedro when a stream or river shows up on your map let us know we’ll then follow its path for a bit and rest there.
“Got it.” He said.
Later
“Ok this is good as any other place to set down” I said. We’ve been running for what felt like hours going (Ta fuck it’s still nighttime!) west apparently and we eventually found a clearing near a small river. We were all beyond tired and exhausted, but we had to do some things before any of us could get any sleep.
“Guys I know we’re all tired, but we have to set up camp so Manny, Pedro go get some kindling. Ben help me get a fire going”
“Fine” they all said. Couple of minutes later we had a small campfire going and we were all sitting around it trying to keep warm. As I looked at their faces, except Pedro, I could tell it was finally past time to get some well earned rest.
“Ok guys this is how it’s going to work” I said getting their attention. “I’ll take the first watch then Ben then Manny then Pedro last Understood?” they just simply nodded their heads and quickly went to sleep.
‘Well just me, the creepy forest and the stars to keep me company…super’ I thought sarcastically as I leaned against a tree. With nothing to do I decided to star gaze. I could see surprising a lot of the constellations quite easily like Taurus, Orion, Cancer, Leo, Ursa Major, Virgo and many others. ‘Wait aren’t stars harder to see during certain months than other and the Moon why is it so much bigger than normal’ I thought trying to figure it out, but eventually found it too difficult to stay focus/awake while thinking. ‘Meh I’ll just try thinking about it later’ and continued to spot out different constellations that were familiar, this went on for about a couple of hours and I decided to finally get some sleep. Couple of shakes later Ben finally decided to wake up, but was rather upset ‘Must have been a good dream’ I thought with a slight chuckle. Staying up a bit longer to make sure he was actually awake he told me he was fine and to get some sleep. Moving closer towards the fire and lying down I quickly fell asleep.
Pedro’s point of view
Manny woke me up around early in the morning the sun barely peeking over the horizon shedding its light all throughout the forest. I had nothing else to really do so I decided to mess with my pip boy and see if I couldn’t get the many different functions working. About four hours later I learned only how to turn on two things the light and the eyes forward spotter (That’s what I’m going to call the compass). Now I would have rage, but given the fact that I now have EFS four hours spent seems worth it to me. I also learned how to take my helmet off, but apparently I have to be making some sort of physical contact with it or it would just magical puff back onto my head. Ben and Manny were awake by the time I figured out the light button and we were now just waiting for BJ to get up. Manny figured out how the spy’s watch worked and would cloak and uncloak every once in awhile and Ben sat there deep in thought.
Out of curiosity and not just boredom/frustration I asked “Penny for your thought?”
“Mhm oh no it’s just that I might know where we are but…”
“Wait you know where we are?” Manny asked while uncloaking.
“Well it’s more along the lines of a guess really and I would rather wait for BJ to get up to…confirm my little guess” he said trying to avoid answering.
“Come on Ben just tell us it can’t be that bad” Manny said now just messing with his knife by opening and closing it.
“Well…”
“Do it, do it, do it” Me and Manny said chanting like little kids.
“Alright alright keep it down” he said shushing us as we sat around him to listen.
My point of view
I was having a nice dream can’t remember what it was but it revolved around some chicks, ponies and a pineapple why the pineapple was there in my dreams I’ll never know, any who I was having a great dream till my friends yelling woke me up.
“You can’t be serious” Pedro yelled.
“Like I said it’s just a guess, but given all the stuff I’ve seen I believe that’s where we are” Ben said trying to calm Pedro down. As I turned my body and half opened my eyes I could see Manny sitting in front of me no longer interested in their conversation and was messing with his knife while Pedro and Ben were a bit away arguing about something. ‘Too damn early for this shit’ if you couldn’t tell I loathe the mornings I mean nine in the morning is too early in my book and to have people yelling and arguing a foot away really did not make me happy.
What I wanted to say was ‘For real guys it’s too early for this bullshit’ but what I mumbled accidently “Fus Ro” but I caught myself before I finished. A familiar shock wave came out and headed towards my friends. Manny fell over losing his grip on his butterfly knife as it soared towards Ben and Pedro. Pedro was closer so he stumbled a bit away nearly getting hit by the knife. As for Ben he wasn’t very lucky as the knife hit and stood now in place in his skull. Ben’s body then limped over and fell with a thud. Manny and Pedro just stared at me while I stared back with a poker face.
Manny was the first to react “YOU KILLED BEN” and proceed to rush over to his body.
“You bastard” Pedro said holding back a laugh.
I finally got up and said “I didn’t mean to it was honestly an accident”.
That’s when Ben’s body puffed into a purple like smoke the blood that formed around him following suit. Couple of seconds later Ben respawned in the same place and just stood there like nothing happened.
“That really hurt ya know” he said while rubbing his head where the knife struck.
“Like I said it was an accident besides now we know you can’t die so lesson learned” I said with a shrug. “So what was all the yelling about?”
“Ben thinks he knows where we are” Manny said putting away his knife.
“Oh really” I said surprised.
“Well like I was telling Pedro and Manny here” he gestured with his hands “and given all that has happened/what we have seen I believe we’re in Equestria” he said.
“And I think he’s gone crazy” Pedro said shaking his head back in forth with disbelief.
“Just think about it, BJ the forest we’re in...Looks familiar now right and the sky at night looks similar during the show and the strange creatures it all leads to one conclusion” he said with a serious look.
“Bullshit” Pedro said “We could just be in another dimension or another world is all”
“This coming from the guys who doesn’t believe in sci fi stuff” Manny said
‘Ben has a point I’ll give him that’ I thought trying to process what he said.
“You can’t be seriously considering what he said” Pedro said “We are not in the magical land of girly ponies, we’re just in a random forest in another world, our world or another dimension” he yelled. That’s when Pedro and Ben went at it again yelling back and forth while Manny just sat there trying to calm them down.
“Enough” I yelled shutting everyone up. “Ok Pedro let’s say Ben’s guess is right, that’s a good thing. If we can find Canterlot or Ponyville we can get help and return home. And Ben even though every ounce of me wants to agree with you, you have to understand how far fetched it sounds” I said. “Besides this might be a blessing in disguise if we truly are in Equestria” I said holding back my enthusiasm.
“Oh and why’s that” Pedro asked clearly still upset.
“Well if all my reading of fan fiction is correct and if we are in the Everfree Forest then I know which way Ponyville is” I said.
“Wait we’re going to rely on what a bunch of fan fic's say about which direction to go? You’re kidding right?” Pedro asked unamused.
“Got a better plan” I asked with a shrug. Everyone just remained silent and eventually just shrug. “Ok then southwest here we go” I said pointing in a random direction.
“Southwest is that way” Pedro said and started to walk the direction he pointed at.
About an hour later of walking southwest, talking about what we learned so far we eventually remembered that we didn’t eat anything for breakfast and since none of us knew how to fish, without a pole or net, and the small critters were too fast to catch we decided to scavenge the land for fruits or berries.
“Hey guys I found something” Pedro hollered and we all gather around him to see a strange looking fruit tree. The fruit was about the size of a pear, but had a light red color and little bumps all over the fruit.
I know for a fact that no one in our group has ever seen this kind of fruit before and I was always taught up in the mountains that you can’t just eat any type of berry or fruit without knowing if it had poison in it or not.
“Ok Ben you’re up” I said and gave him the fruit Pedro was holding.
“And why exactly am I eating it?” he asked annoyed.
“Case it’s poisonous or not” I said Ben seemed reluctant at first, but after a couple minutes of begging he eventually took a bite of the fruit. Ten minutes past and he seemed fine, but I wasn’t convinced for some reason.
“Oh come on BJ nothing’s happening the fruit is obviously fine” Manny said as he grabbed a piece of fruit from the tree.
“Ben are you sure you’re fine” I asked Manny a couple of second from taking a bite from the fruit.
“Yeah I feel fine BJ don’t worry…” Ben said when suddenly his head exploded. We were covered head to toe in Ben’s blood and watched how his body fell with a thud to the ground. Manny quickly took the fruit away from his mouth and chucked it as far as he could throw.
“Oh my god that fruit killed Ben” I said.
“You bastards” Pedro said as we snickered at our joke.
Ben’s body and blood puffed in a purple cloud and respawned in the same spot. Feeling his head he said “Well that was different”.
“So what did we learn” I said to Manny.
“Wait before eating” he said. With a nod of approval we went out to finding something to eat again. This time we found a berry that looked like a blueberry in shape and size, but it was colored a sandpaper brown. Wasting no time Ben ate some and again we waited. Ten minutes later he seemed fine like nothing was wrong, but that’s when his stomach started to growl.
“Oh god” Ben said slouching a little.
“What?” We all asked.
“I need you guys to do me a favor” he asked with all seriousness.
“What is it?” Pedro asked.
“I need you guys to kill me” he said keeping the same attitude.
“No way man I’m not going to kill you” Manny said backing away.
“Well technically you helped me kill him earlier remember” I said.
“I’m still not going to do it and why do we need to anyway you said you were fine” Manny said followed by another growl.
“Just trust me please hurry” Ben said he looked like he was bobbing up and down.
‘Wait a minute people only do that when…oh shi…I mean cra…I mean fuck it’ I thought and unsheathed my sword. “Ok Ben I trust your judgment, if it that bad I’ll do it. Well here I go” I said while charging him and plunge my sword straight through his heart. This was probably the worst idea we had ever had. The second his body hit the ground an unimaginable stench smell filled the air. No words or description could ever be used to describe how terrible it was.
“OH GOD WHY” Pedro said as he quickly put his helmet back on hoping the mask would ventilate the smell, but much to his dismay it didn’t.
“The stench, oh the humanity” Manny said as he looked like he was going to gag. I decided to stop breathing all together and hold my breath for as long as I could. Seconds later Ben respawned also taking the smell away. As we all now took in a deep breath of beautiful clean smelling air Ben was laughing his ass off at what we went thru.
“You totally trolled us didn’t you” I asked furrowing my brows.
“That’s what you get for making me your food taster and besides now I know if I ever get poisoned killing me cures it” He said getting over his laughing fit and brushing himself off.
“Dude imagine if we made that into a stink bomb it would be the greatest/deadliest prank know to mankind” Pedro said what I imagine a mad look in his eye.
“Oh hell no” Manny said and whacked Pedro upside his head.
“Ok guys let’s go look for food…again” I said with a sigh and we headed out again to scavenge for food. We were finally able to find some food that didn’t kill or give us massive diarrhea. It looked like an orange, but was blue, it didn’t have the hard skin of an orange more soft like a peach and even though it was really sweet, I’m talking like how you eat a whole bunch of sour type candy/food and your face scrunches up, it was nonetheless still edible. We were now hopefully on our way towards Ponyville and it was completely silent.
My friends didn’t seem like talking and seemed down and I could imagine why. We have been going around, what felt like, in circles. Pedro kept on silently cursing under his breath and would change our direction…a lot. Manny didn’t show it, but was becoming more paranoid while Ben showed no emotion whatsoever. ‘This damn forest is making everyone tense, but what can I do? Think dammit…’, so I decided to do what I normally do when I’m walking somewhere and bored or I just needed a little pick me up I hummed a tune. As I started to hum 'With a Little help from my Friends' by the Beatles.
Pedro was the first to start singing:
“What would you think if I sang out of tune, Would you stand up and walk out on me.”
Then I took over: Time 18 seconds
Then Manny and Ben joined in and we all sang while skipping: Time 46 seconds
Pedro suddenly changed our directions making us do a complete U turn: Time 1:13
"Ooh, I get high with a little help from my friends, Yes I get by with a little help from my friends, with a little help from my friends” we finished up and then burst out into laughter. After getting over our laughing fit we continued our journey while singing another tune.