The trees that surrounded me an' the others looked creepier an' creepier then the ones from my nightmare. They all seemed ta have faces with large teeth and crazy eyes. The branches seemed to be reachin' out like some sort of claws tryin' ta grab me.
Twilight was at the front of the group, Pinkie pie was right between her an' Rarity on her left. Rainbow dash stood by me and Fluttershy, who was to the right of Twilight. Each of us was carryin' a pack with a mark similar ta the marks we had on our flanks. Somethin' about this seemed kind of familiar ta me but I had this feelin' ah had to keep myself from tryin' ta remember, otherwise ah might start havin' an episode.
Takin' a deep breath ah started ta recognize where we are. The dark foliage of the trees brought me back ta the nightmare.
Twilight stopped and lit her horn and showed several marks on the ground. “Right about here was where we found you unconscious, Applejack.” Ah could see several claw marks across the ground along with several different markin's an' what looked like bits an' pieces of straw scattered across the ground.
“Can ya' tell where this dang creature went?”
Fluttershy stepped forward lookin' at the ground carefully. “Form what I can see,” she said in a low and cautious voice, but still it she was careful enough ta make sure we all heard her. “You struggled with what ever attacked you for quite a while, but as we all know it somehow won that struggle. From there the creature walked off in that direction,” she pointed a hoof off towards the north west, “we can all follow the tracks.”
Twilight took a moment to examine the tracks. Ah decided that it would be a good idea ta try an' memorize the track while ah could. It had a circular print at the bottom with five smaller circles all on one side of the larger circle and one triangular mark for each smaller circle. Twilight lifted some book out of her pack and started flipping through it's pages.
After a couple of minutes she closed the book and put it away. “No matches, whatever we're going to be facing off against it's not an archived creature.”
“Well no duh, egghead.” Rainbow dash dead pans. “even if you find it, you'll probably be attacked. Then have your mind wiped.”
Ah give her a quick glare, causing Rainbow dash ta flinch and lower her head in shame. “sorry.” was all she could say.
“Just choose yer words more carefully next time, please.” Ah scold.
“Girls.” Rarity said gettin' everyponies attention. “this is not the time. We must start tracking this creature as soon as possible.” Rarity was wearin' a rather interestin' outfit, a simple dress with a unique pattern that if ah had ta guess was suppose ta make her harder ta spot, but it wasn't that effective.
“She's right,” Twilight chimed in, “we have to get moving.” Her horn flared even more and a small sphere of light flouted out of her horn.
“Ooh, You learned a new spell Twi!” Pinkie Pie bounce at the purple alicorn, pocking at the little source of light.
The orb moved swiftly away from the pink mares reach, going high into the canopy. “Careful Pinkie! I can only cast that spell once a day, and the light is really fragile.” Twilight scolded.
The Pink mare just nodded her head and watched the orb carefully descend.
Gathering together letting Fluttershy take the lead this time while Twilight watched made sure the light was at the forefront of the group.
After being forced to walk through some precarious places, like a thin ledge on the side o' a cliff, an' some assorted bushes, some of which had thorns in them. Fluttershy came to a dead stop, causing everypony ta accidentally smack inta each other. “Uh oh.”
“Why'd you stop like that?” Rainbow dash asked, her tone sounded somewhere between upset, and confused.
Fluttershy turned around and apologized. “we may have a slight problem.” her voice was low and shaky making it hard ta hear at first, but we all seemed ta know what she meant.
“OH OH, Let me guess! The tracks just end here right?!” Pinkie yelled, making everypony turn ta look at her.
“no, they-” she didn't finish her sentence, instead she hid behind her pink mane and stepped to the side. What ah saw made my brain hurt somethin' fierce, instead o' one pair of tracks that lead in one direction, there were two.
“Pony-feathers!” Rainbow shouted as she noticed the diverin' paths. “what are we supposed do about that?”
“Only one thin' ta do,” ah say grabbin' everyponies attention, “we gotta slit up.”
Immediately everypony seemed on edge. Rainbow was the only one who didn't seem ta be all upset about it. But it was Twilight who spoke first, “that's the most logical course of action normally, But Applejack this is farther into the Ever-free forest then any of us have gone before. We don't know what's going to happen if we split up.”
Sighin' ah knew this was a failin' idea but it seemed the only way ta find the right path fast enough. Ah had no choice but ta try and convince the others we had ta split up so we could find the right path.
Just as ah was about ta say somethin' ah heard a rustlin' sound in one of the nearby bushes.
“Did ya'll hear hear that?” ah ask as every muscle in my body seemed ta tighten up in anticipation for a comin' battle.
All the others nodded and we all turned ta face separate directions. The rustlin suddenly seemed ta be comin' from everywhere all o' sudden. Wind picked up and the whole place seemed ta be closin' in us. My breathes became shallow and quick as my heart rate seemed ta speed up.
Out of nowhere a loud bang sounded behind me. Ah spun around ready ta fight for my life. Standing there right in front of the eyes of everypony was a horrible, terrifying . . . bunny?
Ah had ta blink several time, just ta be sure ah wasn't seein' things. A small white and gray bunny stood there with cute little eyes, an' long ears was little ol' bunny rabbit.
Everypony let out the breathes that we all hadn't realized we'd been holdin'.
“Well that was anticlimactic.” Twilight said.
“Your telling me deary,” Rarity chimed in, “I thought we were in trouble for a second.”
As if on cue the bunny began ta transform. It grew ta about 20 times it's size, it's teeth became razor sharp, claws grew out of it's paws, and the most terrifyin' thin' about it was that the gray an' white coat it had was turnin' black and shinin' with an ominous glow.
Before anyone could react, the creature swung a mighty big paw with razor sharp claws at Rarity.
Ah reacted without even a single thought and tackled Rarity out of the way. We rolled for a moment before comin' ta a stop.
Ah got up quickly an' saw everypony fightin' against the creature. Twilight and Rainbow dash were flyin' around, dash was physically trying ta beat the snot out of creature, while Twilight blasted it with bursts of magic. Pinkie, somehow, had found several stacks of pies an' was throwin' them at the creature, tryin' ta distract it. But understandably Fluttershy seemed ta be hidin' in a bush.
The problem was that the creature didn't seem ta be fazed by the onslaught, as a matter o' fact it only seemed ta be gettin' angrier. Ah could tell we didn't have a chance against whatever this was.
“Run everypony!” ah shouted as ah grabbed Rarity's hoof and helped her up.
The creature turned ta look at me an' ah could tell in that moment that it had one target, an' ah was it.
“Hurry, get outta' here!” ah shouted as ah turned away and ran for my life.