The girls walked single-file down the hall, following Applejack's lead. The mare gulped and turned to the others, a nervous expression on her face. "D'ya promise not ta freak out when ya see 'im? He ain't lookin too good right now..."
The other mares nodded, expressions ranging from reluctance to nonchalance to active curiosity. Sighing, Applejack pushed open the bathroom door, showing off the bathtub containing the unconscious form of—
"Uhh...Applejack? There's nothing in there." Rainbow tilted her head quizzically, hovering just under the ceiling. "Are ya sure it wasn't just a bad dream or something?"
Applejack turned to look into the room, her coat going several shades paler at what she saw. An empty tub, water splashed onto the floor, the contents of the cabinets and whatever had been on the sink strewn about the floor, and a small swirl of a diluted pinkish hue in the center of the floor. Jason was nowhere to be found. "H-how...How could he have gotten up? Ah've seen ponies unconscious for days with less wrong with 'em!"
Instinctively taking control of the situation, Twilight turned to her group of friends. "Girls! We need to find Jason now. He can't have gotten far in his condition. Let's go!" She took off, a chorus of "right!" sounding off in her wake.
-----
Walking was something I'd been doing for a very long time. There were no cars in Equestria, no bikes that would fit me, no planes, buses, or taxis. If I had to get somewhere, I walked. And I'd become very, very good at it. Even in my current condition, walking was automatic. My legs were carrying me at a steady, tramping pace, allowing my mind to wander. And wander it did.
The first thoughts that flitted through my mind were, of course, of home. I wondered how my family was, if they still missed me, or if they resented my impulsive decision to abandon them like so much trash. I quickly buried that thought, and another took it's place. In the three years since I'd been in Equestria, I had never been caught in the middle of some cataclysmic disaster. There were no Discords, no Sombras, no Ursa Majors or hydras invading Ponyville. It had been incredibly...quiet. A part of me wondered if the events from the show were purely plot-devices, having little to nothing to do with the actual going-ons of Equestrian life. It made sense, the writers had gotten the whole 'unconditional love and tolerance' horribly wrong. Who said that was the extent of their inaccuracies? I crushed that thought under foot before I could get too angry.
Anger would solve nothing. It would never go away, but getting mad hadn't done anything but dig me deeper into whatever pit I was in. It was better to just hold it back. Clearing my mind of everything except for my surroundings and immediate senses, I tried to judge where I was. I had been walking parallel to the treeline of the Everfree for a bit short of two hours, at roughly three miles per hour. That put me a good five or six miles away from the farm. Despite the unpleasant heat and throbbing from my bandaged neck, I gave a small smile. That put me quite a distance from any ponies. And judging by the angle of the sun, I was heading North.
If the sun even set in the West in Equestria. I had no idea of the planet's functions or natural laws, and I had thrown out the laws of physics when I witnessed the sun being raised by a talking horse-goddess.
Nonetheless, my direction didn't matter. My plan so far was to walk until I found a different town where I could make a fresh start, or walk until exhaustion and infection took me. Both were equally valid options, and had various pros and cons. A small part of me was unnerved at how callously I considered my own demise. When I had hanged myself, I had considered it my last act of defiance, a final hurrah to end my life on my own terms. When that had failed, I was left with nothing. Now, the concept of death was...mundane. I couldn't bring myself to think of it as anything dramatic or meaningful, as I had in the past. My family would never know, the ponies would never care, and the princesses hadn't so much as checked up on me, as they promised they would. The only person who would truly be negatively affected by my death was me, and something tells me I wouldn't be particularly upset after the fact.
...When had my thoughts gotten so dark? Even when I was at my most ill on earth, I had always been certain I would pull through. When did I stop caring about my own life?
I closed my eyes and released a sigh, swallowing painfully. Breathing was getting to be difficult. The ice-bath had taken most of the swelling down temporarily, but the summer heat and exertion of my hike had caused my throat to begin closing at an alarming rate. I noted with distant apathy that at the rate I was going, I would suffocate within the hour.
My eyes picked up something from the corner of my vision. A thin wisp of black smoke in the distance, like that which was emitted by a bonfire. The pillar of smoke was almost undetectable against the darkening twilight sky, but it stood out as a beacon of...if not hope for rescue, then at least something to head towards. What waited at the end didn't matter.
Black smoke means live fire. Live fire means civilization. I repeated the mantra over and over again in my head, until my vision began to darken from lack of oxygen. It looked like...wagons. A caravan of wagons, curved around a large campfire. Just as I'd hoped. A large grin spread across my face even as the last of my vision faded to black, and I had a brief sensation of falling before nothing.
-----
A splash of cold water onto my face brought me coughing and sputtering back to the waking world. Sitting up, I glared at my captor.
Wait...coughing? Sputtering? Sure, the actions were unbelievably painful, but they were possible. Raising a hand to my neck, I felt what must have been fresh bandages.
Whoever had woken me up must've known what I was silently asking. "A powerful anti-inflammatory. With the Everfree so close, the shaman can whip up a cure for any ailment." The voice was deep and gruff, obviously non-equine. Trying to focus my eyes in the darkness, I could just make out a humanoid body. But the legs were bent...unnaturally, and the arms were too long and bulky. Large triangular protrusions from the head were assumed to be ears, and I had a growing dread of exactly what I had stumbled into. "Get up and follow me," the gravelly voice ordered, turning and walking out of what I assumed was a tent. For just a brief moment, I saw what was unmistakably a canine muzzle and tail.
Struggling clumsily to my feet, I walked unsteadily out of the tent and into the warm light of the fire. My eyes scanned the mishmash of various species represented, though the vast majority were Diamond Dogs. There were a couple grizzled, scarred ponies, and a solitary griffon laying near the fire, curled away from me. Knowing speech would elude me for some time yet, I warily followed the hulking canine to another tent. This one, unlike the more traditional tents surrounding it, was covered in strange symbols and trinkets. The dog opened the flap and gestured me inside. Ducking in, my nose was assaulted by several pungent spices and aromas at once, disorienting me for a second. Looking around what I could only describe as a cluttered tribal witchdoctor's lair, I gulped—and winced—as a vague uneasiness crept over me. My eyes finally set upon an equine form in the center, somehow completely still while balancing on a gnarled staff...on her head.
The absurdity of the scene caused me to release an involuntary snort of suppressed laughter, and the pony's dark-rimmed, almond-shaped eyes flew open. Somehow leaping down to all fours with her—the petite frame was undoubtedly a mare—staff held in one foreleg, she gave one look at me and scowled. "Mimi karibu hakuweza kuokoa wewe...Kama alikuwa kusubiri tena, ungependa wamekufa!" The staff she held swung in an arc through the air, smacking me in the thigh. "Stupid!"
I jumped lightly, grunting and swatting at the staff. Turning my gaze back to the zebra—the stripes gave it away, though the golden hoops and Mohawk still threw me for a loop—I snorted, grimaced, and shook my head, turning to walk away. The staff descended onto my shoulder, enough to get my attention but not enough to be painful. Taking a deep breath and slowly turning back, I crossed my arms with a petulant scowl on my face. She had the stones to shout God-knows-what at me, call me stupid, hit me with a stick, and then stop me from leaving? I huffed and glowered at the zebra mare. This had better be worth it...
-----
"Applejack...just give it a rest already, we've been out here all night!" An irritable, exhausted Rainbow Dash pleaded, the tired pegasus' wings barely able to hold her in the air. "If he's in as bad shape as you said, then there's no way he'd last this long in the Everfree. You tried, okay? Let's just go home."
The orange earth-pony turned towards her rival, unkempt mane and bloodshot eyes making her look extremely unhealthy in the dim light. "Ah...Ah can't. If ya wanna leave, then go. Ah'm gonna keep lookin'."
Rainbow looked back. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and even Twilight had left over an hour ago. Returning her exhausted eyes to Applejack, she slumped to the ground and tried to blink the sleepiness from her eyes. "No way...I'm not leaving you out here alone."
The mares sat, fatigue and sleeplessness finally catching up to them. No matter how hard she tried to deny it, Applejack couldn't take another step. She closed her eyes and let her head hang low. "Rainbow...did we make a mistake?" She shook her head, fighting sleep as long as she could. "Ah've felt so...horrible 'bout what he did. Ah jes' feel like there was more Ah coulda done. He never raised a hoof—or claw, whatever the critter has—ta me, and Ah ran 'im off th'farm every time Ah saw 'im."
Rainbow snorted, rolling her eyes. Leaning back against the unsteady farm-pony, she tried to form a response. "I dunno, I saw him trying to catch a fish one time...Gave him a good zap for it too. Have you seen how big he is? If he's a carnivore, what makes you think he won't turn on ponies next? Especially if he's as hungry and crazy as you think." Her eyes began to droop. "Far as I care, we're better off..."
Applejack pulled her hat down over her face, her own eyes becoming heavy. "But Ah watched 'im eat mah apples...them ain't meat. Maybe he's like a bear? Fluttershy has one o' them that's awful tame..." She yawned, snuggling closer to the snoring Pegasus for protection from the cold forest night. "Maybe Jason can be tamed like that..."
Mere seconds after silence had settled, two loud snores filled the air.