//------------------------------//
// XII 
// Story: Twilights Journey: Escape Equestria 
// by Merotik 
//------------------------------//

Twilight was sweating profusely, as she strained her magic to keep pace with the Everfree animals. Twilights wooden transportation's condition was worsening the faster she traveled. The wheels were beginning to looses, she could feel the board she sat upon start to crack. She needed to slow down or her transportation would break. Yet by doing so would be to let the animals make their way to Appleloosa. 

She had to think quickly, she could see Appleloosa up ahead. It was still a far distance away. The farthest that the eyes could see. At the speeds they were traveling in, however, they would be there within minutes.

While concentrating on her speed and direction, Twilight formulated a plan. She couldn't teleport to Appleoosa and warn the town folk. That would require lots of magic, magic she had already spent in keeping up with the stampede. She could attempt to maneuver the stamped. To do that she would have to travel to the front and force the leading animals to divert their original course. That could work, if it wasn't for her transportations condition. It was already breaking at her current speed. Any faster and it'll break to pieces, with her still on it. Yet it was the only plan she had. There wasn't anymore time to think additional plans, it was now or never. Perhaps she could alter the plan a bit, she had little enough time for this. With the knowledge Twilight possessed, this would be simple.

With some quick thinking, Twilight estimated that with her transportations current conditions as well as the deserts rough landscape giving additional negative effects to her transportation. With the current speed she was traveling in and how fast the condition of her transportation was worsening. She estimated that if she attempted to increase her speed any faster, she'll have exactly eight seconds before her transportation falls to pieces. Yet if she continued her current pace, that'll leave her with two minutes. Either way, her transportation was going to be destroyed. 

Eight seconds would allow Twilight to travel close to the mid section of the stampede before her transportation breaks. 'But what next!?' Twilight mentally shouted. 'I can't make it to the front! If I try I'll either be thrown into the ground or the stamped! Then I'll be trampled! Unless I land on top of the bigger animals then . . . hold on. The bigger animals, there's lots of them in the stamped! Their too distracted running in the stampede, they might not notice me! Even if they do, they can't do anything about it. If they try to do anything to me, they'll only cause themselves to be trampled! If I use the bigger animals to make my way to the front, I can divert the stamped away from Appleloosa! One wrong move though, and I don't think it'll end well for me. It shouldn't be that difficult, I've seen Applejack do this kind of thing all the time. Then again, that was with cows and sheep, not Everfree Forest animals. Its risky, but its all I've got!'

Setting her plan into motion, Twilight increased her speed as fast as she could. Instantly, she could feel the wooden boards and wheels of her transportation start to break. Timing her trajectory, Twilight bent her knees, preparing to jump. Just as she predicted, eight seconds later Twilight heard the sound of wood snapping, cracking, and breaking. As soon as she heard this Twilight jumped, aiming for a nearby manticore. She landed on his back, and quickly wrapped her legs around his neck to prevent herself from falling off. She looked back and saw the shattered remains of her transportation falling back into the distance as they traveled away. Turning her head back forward, Twilight searched for more large animals that were close enough for her to jump to. Spotting a bear, Twilight quickly jumped off the manticore and landed on the bears back. Nearly slipping, Twilight bit onto the bears ear and pulled hard, pulling herself up to the bears back. The bear roared in pain but could do nothing about it. Just as Twilight had predicted, the bear was more concerned with the stamped then the faded purple unicorn traveling on his back.  Twilight repeated the process to a few more large animals. Making two successful jumps.

On the third, Twilight jumped to another manticore. Seconds before she landed on his back, the manticore was suddenly pushed out of Twilights trajectory. This caused her to land face first into the ground. She rolled across the burning desert ground for a few seconds before she manage to bite onto the tail of the manticore she had attempted to jump on. Keeping her jaw locked on his tail, Twilight was dragged on her back for several feet, before she managed to balance herself onto her hind legs. Now dragging across the ground on her hind legs, Twilight used her magic to create a rope out of her purple energy. Tying one end of the rope over the manticores neck, Twilight managed to pull herself up and onto the manticores back. This choked the manticore momentarily, so Twilight hastily removed the rope as soon as she was on. Taking only a second to catch her breath, Twilight immediately jumped to a tiger in front of her and the manticore. She was now at the front of the stamped.

With only seconds to spare, Twilight used the remaining energy she had left to conjure a large rope made out of her purple energy. Just like the rope before, only this one was bigger, much bigger. Moving the rope like a snake, she managed to wrap the rope around most of the animals within the front of the stamped. As soon as this was done, she grabbed hold of her energy rope and pulled as hard as she could to the right. This cause every animal that was tied to the rope to turn to the right spontaneously. All of the animals behind the front line quickly followed in their new direction. A few more seconds of tugging later, Twilight released the rope and turned around. 

She had managed to divert the course of the stamped mere seconds before they could enter Appleloosa. Literally ten feet away from the front town border. 

Twilight sighed with relief in her victory.

Her victory only last for a few seconds, however. 

The tiger she was on had jumped to avoid a large bolder. Taking her by surprise, Twilight was thrown off straight into the stampede. She tumbled, rolled, and dragged across the hot dirt. Animals ran into her as she did so. She could feel the paws and hoofs of the stampede hit every part of her body. Then at the last part of the stampede, she felt a manticore paw trample onto her head, slamming her head into the ground. The weight plus speed of the manticore caused the force delivered to Twilight to be a powerful one. To Twilight it felt like a child having just stomped on the head of a large beetle. 

At last, the stampede had traveled past Twilight. Twilight could barely hear the sounds of the stampede travel away as she lay on the ground. Her body ached, her ears were ringing, and her sight was blurred. Slowly and shakily, Twilight lifted herself to her hoofs. As she did, she saw a red liquid leak into her eye and stinging it. Quickly wiping the liquid out of her eye, she looked to her hoof and immediately recognized what the liquid was. Just as she did so, she could see drops of red liquid fall onto the ground. Placing a shaky hoof to her head, she felt that her entire head was damp from this red liquid.

" . . . Blood?" Twilight muttered, before she lost her vision entirely.

Everything had suddenly turned black and Twilight found herself no longer feeling any pain at all.

She fell to the burning desert ground.