"It's such a beautiful day," said Twilight, as she and her friends walk along a trail.
"It really is," said Applejack, as she kicks a small stone out of her way, "it's really peaceful."
"I wonder if there's a place for us to take a dip into the water," asks Rainbow Dash, as she looks to her left towards the trees to see if she could see a river or lake past them.
"That would feel wonderful on a day like this," said Rarity, as she wipes away a bead of sweat from her forehead. "It's very hot today."
"The skies are blue, the birds are chirping. Everything about this place is perfect," says Pinkie, as she skips along the trail.
"I'm glad we have a three day weekend," said Sunset.
"What do you think of today, Fluttershy?" asks Spike.
"It's really pretty," says Fluttershy, as a monarch butterfly catches her attention. "Oh! A butterfly!"
Fluttershy runs off the trail and runs after the butterfly through the forest.
"Don't go too far Fluttershy!" shouted Twilight. "If you're lost, remember the trail that leads towards our destination to the campground!"
"I'll be fine!" calls out Fluttershy, as she disappears into the forest.
As Fluttershy rummages through the bushes, she finds an opening and spots the butterfly perched on a branch. The branch also happens to be at the edge of a cliff, which made Fluttershy a bit nervous knowing that if she screwed up, she'll fall.
"I'd better be careful," whispers Fluttershy, as she tiptoes towards the butterfly as stealthy as she could. "I don't want to fall off the cliff."
Fluttershy then brings her hands close to the butterfly and tries to grab it, but the butterfly flew away in the nick of time. Fluttershy then looks down and is frightened by how far down the cliff was. She moves backwards, but slips onto her bottom and slides quickly forward.
"HOLY MOLLY!" shouted Fluttershy, as she grabs onto the branch with a firm grip.
Fluttershy was on a state of panic, as she kept holding onto the branch.
"Phew! At least this branch is-" Fluttershy was cutoff, as the branch was slowly starting to come apart. "Oh no."
The branch snaps, as Fluttershy falls backwards towards the bottom.
"AHHHHHH!!!!" shouts Fluttershy, as she makes her way down.
Fluttershy lands with a bang and hits the back of her head on a few rocks. Flutter shy weakly opens her eyes and looks around with blurry vision till she was out cold. Fluttershy laid on the stone ground, as little of blood flowed down the back of her head.
20 Minutes Later…
The friends made it to their campsite and sat down in their chairs bathing in the sun. It was like as if they were at a beach with the sound of the streaming water close by.
"Um… is anyone worried about Fluttershy?" asks Sunset, as she leans up from her chair and removes her sunglasses. "She's been out in the forest for quite a long while."
"Now that you mention it," says Twilight "She's been gone for a while."
"Should we go look for her?" asks Spike, as he stands up from Twilight's lap.
"We should, darling," agreed rarity, as she to stood up with her sunglasses still on. "I'm starting to worry about her as well."
Everybody stands up and looks back at the trail from where they have entered from.
"Wherever she is, I hope she's okay," says Twilight, as she, the girls, and Spike set off towards the trail from where they came.
10 Minutes Later...
"FLUTTERSHY?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" shouted Pinkie, as she jumps onto a tree trunk and searches the area.
"FLUTTERSHY?! TELL US WHERE YOU ARE!!" shouts Twilight, as she and Sunset went into the forest.
"FLUTTERSHY, DARLING!! PLEASE ANSWER US!!" shouts Rarity.
"FLUTTERSHY!! ANSWER US!!" shouts Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
"Twilight, I'm very worried than ever," said Sunset, as she pushes aside a bush to see behind it. "What if Fluttershy was attacked by a bear or worse!?"
Twilight leans down to Sunset and pats her back.
"It's okay, Sunset," said Twilight in a calming manner. "We'll find her."
"Let's hope so," said Sunset, as she stands up and walks past her to look around the area a little more. "Let's hope so."
"Fluttershy, where ever you are, please be safe," thought Twilight, as she walks back to the trail to see if the other girls found anything.
Elsewhere, a person wearing peasant-like clothing that looked as if he came out of the do period and is walking along through the forest for a stroll until he heard a scream that caught his attention. The thing looks around the forest with it's large tennis ball sized eyes that are shown besides it's bandaged up face to search for the source of that scream. He then walks down into a very small gorge and finds a girl with pink hair lying on the ground, as the blood from the back of her head makes a tiny little puddle..
"Huh? A girl?" said the thing with a gruff-like voice, as it walks up to the fallen girl.
He leans down towards the girl and places his right hand in front of the girl to check if she still had a pulse. He felt her heart beating, but it was a bit weak.
"She's alive," said the thing, as it slowly picks her up and carries her on his shoulder. "No need to worry, Miss. I'll take you to a place where you can recover."
The sun began to set behind the mountains and the girls are beginning to lose hope on finding their lost friend.
"Twilight, it's hopeless now," said Rainbow Dash. "It's getting dark and we don't have our flashlights with us at the moment."
"Dashie is right, but we still need to look for Fluttershy," said Sunset.
"I think… we should look for her tomorrow," said Spike. "Once it gets dark, it'll be a whole lot difficult to find her, even with our flashlights."
There was a moment of silence till suddenly, they heard the sound of clanking wood coming from the trail.
"Hello there," shouts a person from the distance, pulling with him a cart filled with vegetables and potatoes. "Why are you ladies doing around this trail at this time of the day?"
As the person got closer to them, the girls got a good description of the person. It was an old man around his sixties; he wore clothing like that of a peasant from the edo period, wore an eye patch on his right eye, long gray hair, and was wearing sandals. Beside him is a german-shepard with a scare on its left shoulder.
"Sorry, but we're looking for a girl with pink hair. Have you seen her?" asks Twilight.
"A girl with pink hair, you say? Hmmm… no, I haven't," said the old man. "Come with me. I'm about to cook me and Gara some soup. Care to join?"
"Sure," said the girls.
"That's good to hear. Follow me," said the old man, as he and the girls followed him down the trail towards the camp grounds. "My place is a little further from the camping area. It's been a while since I've had some company with me."
8 PM
Darkness has come and some animals run around free through the night. A wild boar munches on some grass when suddenly, the thing that saved Fluttershy clamped its right hand onto the boars' neck. The boar squeals and thrashes from the thing's grip, till the thing throws the boar as hard as he could against a boulder, making the boar stop squealing. The boar was out cold, as the thing came up to it and grabbed ahold of it by the head. The thing used all of its strength until the boars head was pulled clean off.
"I wonder if that girl is hungry," wondered the thing, as he threw away the boars head.
He places the boars body onto his right shoulder and walked off towards his hiding place where Fluttershy lays unconscious.
Fluttershy's eyes slowly open from the drop of water that lands on the tip of her nose. She slowly leans up and looks around, noticing that she's not with the girls or at the campsite, but in a cave. She also realizes that she's sleeping on a comfy somewhat handmade bed made out of leaves. On the left side of her is a tiny fire that made the cave visible to look around.
"W-where… where am I?" said Fluttershy, as she looks around the cave.
Suddenly, she hears the sound of pebbles falling. She turns her head forward and looks up to the entrance of the cave. There stood a large being caring a headless boar on his shoulders with bandages around its face and hands. She stands up, as the thing comes up to her. She quickly grabs some small rocks that stood beside her and threw them at the thing. As the rocks landed on the thing's chest, the thing did nothing to retaliate; it stood there with the headless boar still on its shoulders.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU MONSTER!" shouts Fluttershy preparing to throw more rocks at the thing.
"Please don't hurt me," said the thing. "I won't harm you."
Flutter shy stops her next throw and tosses the rocks aside her after hearing the thing talking to her.
"You… you can talk?" said Fluttershy.
The creature nods.
Fluttershy's body felt tired and she fell to her knees.
"You shouldn't be moving at all yet," said the thing. "Your body needs rest. Please go to sleep."
Fluttershy obeyed and lies back down onto the bed. She looks back at the thing, who seems to be making a fire and stares down at it as though it was a TV. She wanted to know if this thing was lying to her or telling the truth, but she felt her eyes being heavy and she instantly fell asleep.
The girls and the old man sat near the fireplace and began to have some warm vegetable soup.
"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself earlier," said the man before blowing on his wooden spoonful of soup. "My name is Joe and I'm known as the hermit around here."
"I'm Twilight and this is my dog, Spike," said Twilight, as Spike gave Joe a few barks.
"I'm Applejack."
"The name's Rainbow Dash."
"Pinkie."
"Rarity."
"I'm Sunset Shimmer."
"Nice to meet you girls," said Joe before eating a spoonful of his soup. "Mm, that's delicious."
"It's really good," said Sunset, as she took in another spoonful.
"Anyway, tell me what happened to your other friend that you were looking for," asks Joe, as he set his bowl aside.
"Fluttershy was trying to catch a butterfly and she hasn't come back," explains Twilight. "We searched around the place and couldn't find her."
"Do you know where she could be if she gets lost?" asks Sunset.
"I'm afraid not, but I believe that something took her," said Joe.
"What?" said the girls.
"I'm afraid that your lady friend might be dead. Big eyes must have found her and ate her."
"Big eyes?" said the girls with confusion.
"That thing took my eye out twenty years ago. Ripped it right out of my skull," explained Joe, "he's a goddamn demon!"
"Where can we find this 'big eyes'?" asks Sunset.
"You can't go out there now. The forest is dark and you won't be able to find your way back. Even if you have flashlights, you won't find the way back. Do you girls have a place to sleep for the night?"
"Yes, we're at the campsite," said Applejack.
"Good. Come over here to my house and we'll go looking for her first thing in the morning," said Joe, as he picked up his soup and continued to eat more. "But please, relax and enjoy my soup."
"Fluttershy, I hope you're not dead," thought Sunset, as she and the girls continued eating soup.
TO BE CONTINUED...
