Lost in Darkness

by ChocolateFan25

Chapter 6 - Survival

Her sleep didn't last long and the sound of the chirping birds woke her up again. Fleetfoot groaned and blinked a few times. Her sight was blurry and her headache grew immensely. "Why do things always get worse?" she muttered and lifted her head. For a second, she closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of the woods. Wind and birds. But nothing suspicious.

"I guess it's safe to leave from here." she thought. With more effort than normally she got up on her hooves. Her legs wobbled and she needed to hold on to one of the branches of the tree, to keep standing.

"Okay, keep calm, Fleetfoot. You can do this." she encouraged herself. "What do you need to do first? There was something important, but what was it?"

She stepped forward on her weak legs until she was reminded of her nausea. "Food... I should eat something. If my friends didn't hear me the first time then it should be useless to try it again. And so far it has proven useless to just sit here and hope for anyone to find me."

For a few minutes she just stood still and breathed slowly. Her heart raced, which increased the weakness she felt in her legs. All of this made her want to lie down again. "If I do this, I will be dead soon." she muttered with a frown.

As soon, as she felt better, she continued her way. Fleetfoot shivered in the cold morning air. The first bright sunbeams made their way through the treetops and brightened the forest a bit. But it hasn't been long enough to warm the air up. Twigs and leaves crunched under her hooves and the smell of the woods was as strong as ever. But Fleetfoot didn't mind it any longer. Her mind was busy with something else.

"And what should I eat? It's not like I got stranded on an apple farm. Okay, I need to think. I know, that I can't eat the leaves. Neither those on the ground or on the trees. Reindeer can, but ponies can get horrible stomach ache from them. Also, I can tell from experience. What else..."

She looked around and took a closer look at her environment. All kinds of small plants grew on the spots with more sunlight. Many of the trees and rocks were covered in soft moss. She even spotted some bushes, but they didn't carry any berries.

Fleetfoot sighed and walked a few steps farther until she saw something familiar. A few larger bushes covered a clearing and grew high into the air. Small thorns grew out of the twines and she recognized the form of the leaves.

"Those are... raspberry bushes, right?" she said to herself and walked closer. She had a small raspberry plant when she was a foal. For her it was fascinating to see something grow and bloom. Fleetfoot had spent her whole fillyhood in Cloudsdale with rare trips to the local cities on the ground. Living so far away from nature made it more interesting for her.

On closer look she saw, that she was right. A bright smile appeared on her face and she sighed in relief. "Thank Celestia, I'm not doomed!" she said and threw her head back to look into the sky for a moment. With a hoof she lifted some of the twines to look for raspberries. She found some immediately, but what she saw crushed her hope again.

The berries were still small and green. From the look of them they could not be eaten for a long time without causing more pain in the stomach. She kept looking on all the bushes and groaned, when the thorns added even more scratches on her forelegs. But none of the berries could be eaten.

"Great." she deadpanned. "Too bad I didn't crash-land two months later or I wouldn't starve to death."

With low hanging ears and still weak on her legs she walked away. The longer she searched the more hope she lost. "Why do ponies have such a stupid sensitive digestion?" she wondered in her frustration. "Can't eat this, can't eat that and if you should try it anyway you can spent the next days with a nasty colic. Right now, I feel screwed over by nature."

Every step felt heavy and the uneven ground made it even harder for Fleetfoot to walk forward. Sometimes her way led her up for a while, over boulders and fallen trees. And then she had to make a detour because she ended up in front of a cliff, which she couldn't climb up.

Still, she noticed a few changes around her. The farther she walked in one direction, the more friendly the forest seemed to be. More moss, mushrooms and small plants covered the ground and more light seemed to shine through the cover of treetops. To her it felt more like a nice walk through a park. The parts of the woods closer to Dodge Junction were much darker and the thick fog in the night made it a truly scary place.

After climbing up another boulder and looking around for any kind of predator she would have to outrun, she sat down and caught her breath. "It's kind of funny. A few days ago I felt constantly weak. Only because I couldn't defeat some overly powerful and magical being. But in comparison with now I felt like Wondermare."

Her eyes hung low when she rested her head on her forelegs. Her ears dropped down and a small sigh escaped her lips. "I never thought I would die like this. Not that I've spent much time thinking about it, but I thought my death would be at least epic. Something like throwing myself heroically in front of a rampaging monster, so a wagon filled with orphans could escape at the last second. But this? Died from walking in circles for too long. Well, it should make for a funny epitaph."

For a moment she closed her eyes and tried to relax. Warm air blew past her and ruffled her feathers. A strand of her mane hung in her face and moved slightly with the wind, which tickled on her face. The last days have been too much stress for her.

She blinked a few times in her effort to not fall asleep, until she saw a large clearing just a few yards away from her. "I could need some sunlight right now." she said, got up and walked a bit farther. Soft grass grew on the entire clearing and swayed with the small breezes from time to time.

Without much thinking she led herself fall down on her stomach. Despite her situation Fleetfoot felt more at ease. The grass reminded her of the picnic she once did with her comrades. The warmth, the laughter, the fun.

"And that delicious apple pie Soarin brought with him." Fleetfoot thought with a smile. She opened her eyes and took a sniff at the grass. "Smells like hay." she muttered.

Suddenly an idea struck her. Fleetfoot lifted her head and looked around the clearing. "Grass? Can I eat it?" she wondered.

One thing small foals are taught was: don't eat grass. While things like leaves or mushrooms were forbidden with the explanation, that it would cause stomach ache, there was no real reason to not eat grass. It was just declared uncivilized.

"If I think about it, isn't hay made out of grass?" Fleetfoot thought. She looked again on the ground. It looked as if it could be edible.

"I... could try it. At least." Fleetfoot said. Her mind was still in a struggle between her hunger and her pride.

"I have to eat something. But I'm sure my parents had something in mind when they forbid me to eat grass. But it shouldn't be poisoned. We eat hay all the time, why not eating some grass for once?"

After a while she took a deep breath and decided to try it out anyway. "It's not like my pride has much use right now." she said.

She opened her mouth and closed it around a few blades of grass. It had a smooth texture and didn't seem to be bad at first. Fleetfoot plucked the grass from the ground and clenched her eyes while chewing. She had expected a bitter or sour taste as a assurance that grass can't be eaten. To her surprise, it didn't taste as bad as expected. It was juicy and tasted rather sweet. It lacked the flavor a good pile of hay would have, but it was something she could get used to.

"It's surely better than expected." she thought and took another bite. With every mouthful of grass she started to like it more and thought less negative about eating it. Finally, she reached the feeling of satisfaction. It also came with a small stomach ache from eating nothing for so long, but it was something she could live with.

"Well, now that food isn't much of a problem anymore, I can continue my search for the second important thing that keeps me alive. Water."

***

"That should lighten up her mood." Soarin muttered while walking down the hall. His wings were outspread and on each one he carried a small saucer. He had placed two slices of his favorite apple pie, the ones from Sweet Apple Acres, on them. They still steamed a bit and the smell of apples and delicious crust filled the air. For a moment, Soarin considered eating his slice right away, but he had something else on his mind.

The way from the kitchen to Spitfire's office was a short one and Soarin sighed in relief. "Nothing dropped? Good! Take that, butter hooves!"

From behind the door he could hear Spitfire talking with somepony else. For him, it wasn't too difficult to recognize her voice. It literally burned in his mind, which wasn't much of a surprise with her tendency to yell more often than to speak. The other voice sounded somewhat familiar to him, but he had no clue whom it was.

Soarin lifted his hoof and knocked on the door. Suddenly, the voices stopped and for a second it was quiet.

"Can I come in?" Soarin asked.

"Sure." he heard Spitfire say.

He opened the door and took a look inside. Her office looked way more messy than it used to be. Multiple files and papers piled up on the floor and a few maps covered her desk. Her window sill turned into a place for the many coffee mugs, which brought the yellow pegasus through a couple of nights.

Soarin quickly spotted Spitfire on the other side of the room, looking through the window. Her lips were pursed, as if she would be dissatisfied with something. Across her desk on a chair sat a mare. "Have I seen her before?" Soarin wondered. "Beige coat, green mane... I have met her somewhere, but I can't remember."

The mare turned around to see who interrupted her discussion. She tried her best to look friendly, but her laid back ears gave her mood away.

"Oh, I didn't know you were busy..." Soarin said and started to walk back.

"No, you can stay. My visit was supposed to be a short one anyway." the mare said. She rubbed her chin and looked at Soarin from top to toe. "You are... Soarin, right? Co-Captain of the Wonderbolts?" she asked.

He nodded and proudly raised his head in the air. In his forgetfulness he folded his wings together, as it seemed to be more polite in front of the guest. Two loud splashing noises remembered him, that he was carrying the plates with apple pie on his wings.

"Shoot!" he yelled and blushed. "That was not supposed to happen."

The mare chuckled while Soarin picked up the plates and tried his best to get the smashed pie slices from the floor as well. "Well, I guess your name slipped my mind." he said and tried to make the best out of the situation. "I hope she's not mad. Mares are normally mad when I forget their names..." he thought.

The mare cocked her head and lifted an eyebrow. "We haven't met yet in person." she said. "Anyway, I'm Sun Leaf, current leader of the Timberwolf research team."

Soarin smiled at her and then looked at Spitfire, who still frowned. "Oh, you looked familiar to me so I guessed I have met you at some point. With all those events and missions it's easy to forget a pony." he apologized and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, what have you talked about?" he asked curiously.

Sun Leaf's smile disappeared again and she looked at the map on the desk again. "We talked about the failed search operation."

Soarin gasped and his ears dropped. "F-failed?! Wait, have you...? You found...?" he asked. Soarin didn't dare to say what he feared.

"No." Spitfire said and turned around to both ponies. "We found nothing. That's the problem."

Soarin looked back between Sun Leaf and Spitfire and tried to come up with the right words. "But..." he said "What about the uniform Misty Fly found in the woods?"

"No indication that she's still alive."

"The hoof prints?"

"Led to nowhere."

"What about..." he said and thought intensely. They only had a few leads, but none helped them. It was as if she was swallowed up by the ground. He shivered at the thought of all the swamps, that gave the forest its name, and how right he could be.

"We gave our best." Sun Leaf said. "But we have to keep in mind, that we are searching in the middle of a Timberwolf zone. We can't just take a few tracker dogs and scour for her. It would be too dangerous. We put up cameras in the more visited places and marked their traces and how far they reach out of their zone. We also placed more signs outside the Hayseed Swamps and informed the inhabitants of Dodge Junction of the incident and how they should act in case of another attack."

Her last words made Spitfire's ears perk up. "Informed them?" she asked and stepped closer "What exactly did you tell them?"

"Just that a pony was attacked and dragged into the woods by a Timberwolf. I didn't tell them her name or occupation."

Spitfire relaxed again and took a seat on her chair. "Good. I don't want the incident to go public. Not yet, at least."

"Not yet?" Soarin asked and raised an eyebrow.

"If it turns out, that... that she doesn't come back, I'll have to give the press a reason why I'm searching for a new member. I could just tell them, that Fleetfoot retired out of whatever reason. But they would soon notice that she simply disappeared." Spitfire explained.

Soarin frowned, but he understood her. "May I ask a question?" he said to Sun Leaf. Since the incident there was something on his mind he simply didn't understand.

"Go on." Sun Leaf said and nodded.

"As far as I know, Timberwolves are native to the Everfree Forest. But I've never heard of Timberwolves living in the Hayseed Swamps. How did that happen? I mean, there's quite a distance between those woods. I'm certain we would have noticed if some sort of migration happened, especially if it involves such dangerous animals."

Spitfire widened her eyes in surprise. "Oh, that's something I've been wondering as well." she said. "When I received your request, I wondered that as well. Back then, I ignored it since it was not relevant to the mission. But now..."

Sun Leaf thought for a moment and took a deep breath. "You're right. They normally live in the Everfree Forest and rarely come out. Outside of the woods they would find more food in form of ponies, but the lack of trees also means more vulnerability, so they stick to their home and only hunt what they are used to hunt. Timberwolves, like normal wolves, are not some sort of brutal murderers. They take care of the population of small animals, so they don't eat everything away. They do eat ponies, but they don't go out and hunt them, as long as they don't step into their zones. The reason for the Timberwolf population in the Hayseed Swamps happened six years ago."

"One of the tasks of the research team is to keep track of the Timberwolf population. After a very harsh winter we noticed the disappearance of three Timberwolf puppies from two different packs. We simply thought, that they didn't survive the winter and went on. But a year later we were informed of some Timberwolf sightings outside of Ponyville."

"My team and I went there to investigate the situation and to our surprise, we found the three missing Timberwolves. It turned out that an old stallion wandered through the Everfree Forest on one cold winter night and found the three puppies, who were lost. He took pity on them and took them home, where he raised them."

"But Timberwolves grow faster, unlike ponies. They were already bigger than a grown stallion by the age of one. So it was only a question of time when they would be noticed. We talked to him and explained, that they have to go back into the forest, since they were already a danger to the ponies around them. The stallion refused to listen to us and threw us out of his house. When we came back the next day to take the wolves with us, they were already gone. He released them into the Hayseed Swamps, just because he didn't want to give them to us."

"We set up some live traps to relocate them back to the Everfree Forest, but it never worked. The Timberwolves kept quiet until now, so we just watched them from there and wrote down how they adapted to the new environment. When we checked last time, they even had four puppies. From a scientific standpoint, it's interesting to see how things go. But now with the incident, we're not sure anymore how long we can tolerate them in the woods."

Soarin and Spitfire listened quietly and nodded from time to time. "Wait..." Soarin said "Those Timberwolves have been living with a pony for over a year? Without any incidents? What if they're adapted to ponies? Maybe... maybe she's still alive? I mean, it would explain why we've found hoof prints so far away from their normal hunting places."

Sun Leaf sighed and shook her head. "You can train a dog. But you can't train a wolf. I don't know how he managed to live with them for so long, the stallion refused to tell us. But even IF they accepted him, it doesn't mean, that they do it again. Remember, Timberwolves are predators. If they're given the chance to eat a pony, they'll do it. They act on instinct."

Soarin lowered his head. As informative her explanation was, it crushed any hope of finding their missing comrade again.

Sun Leaf got up and pursed her lips. "I'm sorry to say this," she said "but your friend was dead from the second she was alone with the Timberwolves."

Soarin looked away while Spitfire kept a straight face. "Thank you very much for your visit." Spitfire said finally. "We appreciate your help and your insight on the matter." Her ears twitched and she tried her best to look and sound as professional as possible.

Sun Leaf nodded and said her goodbye to Spitfire and Soarin. Spitfire leaned back in her chair the second the door closed. "What have I done?" she muttered and covered her face with her hooves.

"You did nothing wrong." Soarin ensured her.

"No." Spitfire said with dropped ears. "I should have never send them to the mission. From the first second I saw both of them fighting, I should have dismissed them and send somepony else with Misty Fly. And now we've lost two members."

"Two?" Soarin asked. "I don't like the sound of it." he thought.

"I'll wait a bit longer. I don't want to just give Fleetfoot up. But do you think we can trust Wave Chill after what happened?" Spitfire sighed and took a sip of her coffee. She frowned and put it back down. The coffee was cold.

"You look like a mess." Soarin said and looked at her unkempt mane.

"I feel like a mess, too." she said and her eye lids drooped.

Soarin showed her a friendly smile. "I think I know what you need."

"Some cider?"

"No, some apple pie."

"Still made out of apples. You know what? I think you're right. I'm normally a muffin type, but I would take anything right now, as long as it calms me down."

***

"I still can't hear it. Am I going in the wrong direction?" the blue mare wondered in her thoughts. After she had discovered the small clearing with the grass she continued her search for water. From the few flights she did above the Hayseed Swamps she knew that the forest was divided by a river close to Baltimare. If she could find the river she would be one step closer to civilization.

"But how should I find this river if I still don't know where I am?" Fleetfoot pondered. "I can't rely on the position of the sun because I can barely see it. And I'm not that good at climbing to get up one of the trees. I still wonder how I escaped the bear yesterday."

She rubbed her chin in thought before shaking her head vigorously. "No, I have to concentrate. I need water. Where could I be?" Fleetfoot cocked her head and tried to remember where she fought the Timberwolves.

"It was in the plain close to Dodge Junction. I wandered around for two days, but the environment stayed the same. Dry earth, tall trees and no small plants other than a few half-dead bushes. And then there were the swamps... so I must've walked south close to the Badlands."

She then took another look around herself. The farther she wandered, the more clearings she found and the trees seemed to be more healthy. Small flowers and moss covered the ground instead of a seemingly endless blanket of rotting leaves. Of course, she still found more than enough leaves on the ground, but not as much.

Fleetfoot also saw a few animals, but none of them were as hostile as a those she encountered a couple of hours ago. Just some squirrels and an anthill, which she steered clear of. A faint smile appeared on her face when she remembered something in her past. "High Winds and I have been quite often in those small woods around Cloudsdale. Once I mistook an anthill for a huge pile of leaves. And jumped into it." Fleetfoot cringed at the memory. "Ugh, that ended ugly."

She stretched her tired limbs and got up slowly. "Okay, enough nostalgia." she muttered and walked a few steps. "Moss... it can only grow if there is more water around, right? That's what they said back than in school. So... I should find the river if I follow the moss?" She scratched her head and sighed. "I don't have a better plan right now, so why not?"

A last time she looked around in case someone not friendly came close to her. She met so many predators the last days that she became somewhat jumpy at every noise. "The coast is clear." she thought.

In fact, there was nothing to see. If the birds wouldn't constantly chirp she would've believed she would be the only living being in that place. Fleetfoot sighed, but this time from relieve. "Good. I feel better already from the grass, but I still don't have the strength to outrun anything."

With a frown she threw a look on her right wing. The bandage loosened up sometimes, so she had to retighten it every few hours. With one hoof she felt her wing to see, if it was healing without much complications. The pain had subdued into a bearable twinge and the muscles around the bone didn't feel as warm as a few days before.

"Why can't you heal faster?" she asked herself. "Or don't break as fast?"

Without much more standing around and thinking, the blue pegasus looked for the next moss-covered rock and followed the path. By now the woods didn't seem terrifying any longer. It reminded Fleetfoot a lot of the trips she took either with High Winds or her family. Just walking around, taking a photo of one of the trees and having a nice picnic. "It was such an easy time. Back then, when my biggest worries have been my homework and getting my Cutie Mark. I miss it a bit." she thought.

Her way led her over hills and around boulders and with every passed minute Fleetfoot became more worried. "What if I walk in the wrong direction? I don't think I can last much longer without water."

Fleetfoot stopped to lean against a tree. It was still tiring for her to walk for so long. She let her head hang low until she heard something in the distance. Her head shot up immediately and she looked around. Her ears twitched and she tried to listen closer. There was definitely a splashing sound, like a fountain.

Fleetfoot started to grin and walked to the sound. Her hooves moved faster and before she noticed she galloped all the way. The sound became louder and she felt more happy. With a last jump she walked up another small hill to look down at something she had been searching for nearly a whole day.

It wasn't the river she had been looking for, but it was a creek. The water flowed down across the forest and it looked as if small, long plants grew in the water on the gravel ground. "Finally!" she exclaimed and walked down.

After another quick search for dangers she lowered her head and dipped her snout right into the water. Normally she would use her hooves to bring the water up to her face, but she didn't care for manners anymore. It's not like anyone would watch her.

"I never thought I would miss water that much!" she thought full of joy. She stood there for a while and drank.

Finally, she lifted her head and sighed. "At last..." she mumbled and sat down. Her throat felt still dry and scratchy, but not as bad as before. For a while, she just closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of being alive. The wind in her mane. The soft, cold ground under her coat. The sound of splashing water and singing birds in her ears.

She then stretched her legs and her good wing. "I could drink a bit more..." she thought and leaned forward. In the reflection of the water she noticed something. The face of an unknown pony stared back at her.

For a moment her heart stopped and she spun around with wide opened eyes. In her panic she stumbled backwards into the water and looked around. Around her it was as empty as before, when she arrived. Fleetfoot's breath became quicker and she turned around again. She was alone. Quickly, she threw her head back and checked the treetops. Nothing unusual.

"What happened? Am I... insane?" she wondered walked out of the water. "There was a pony... and it looked scary..." Fleetfoot took more deep breaths and calmed down slowly.

"I haven't drank anything until now. Maybe it's just dehydration?" A nervous chuckle overcame her lips and she sat down again. "Yeah, it must be it." she muttered and turned back to the water.

Again, she saw the reflection of the stranger, looking at her. Fleetfoot flinched, but gave her best to not jump away like before. She looked again, this time for a bit longer. Her ears dropped when the sudden realization hit her.

"It can't... It's me..." she said voiceless and put her hoof in front of her mouth. "I have slept in dirt and walked into a swamp, so I expected that I would look dirty. But..." she thought.

Her coat was felted and partly covered in brown mud. Her disheveled mane hung down into her face. The dark circles under her eyes showed the stress she went through in the last days and the dried blood on the side of her face showed the dangers she had barely escaped.

With a hoof she whipped some lose strands of her mane out of her face. "Did I become that?" she wondered and kept her gaze down. "I have been only for a few days in the woods. Or not? Did more days pass and I didn't notice it?" she asked herself. She hovered her hoof right above the water and her reflection. "When did I give myself up?"

Looking at her reflection stirred up many emotions in her. She felt sad, lonely, desperate. But something else started to grow in her. Something she thought she had lost many days ago.

She lifted her hoof a bit and slammed it down into the water, making her reflection disappear in the waves.

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!" she yelled at the water. "I overcame so many dangers, trials and problems just to curl up in some forest and die a pitiful death? No! I trained so hard and gave up so much to become a Wonderbolt! This. Will. Not. Be. My. End!"

The more she yelled the more she felt a fire in herself. A fire she had missed for so long. Ever since she lost against Tirek, she felt unsure about herself and what she can do and what not. She tried so many things to get this feeling back. The feeling she always had and enjoyed about being a Wonderbolt. The determination to reach every goal and defeat every obstacle in her life.

"I aced the flight school, even though no one believed in me! I showed everypony, that I don't need to be huge or have the body of a bodybuilder just to be an incredible fast flyer! I survived the Wonderbolts Academy!"

Memories of her youth flooded her mind. She remembered the excitement and the happiness she felt, when she was accepted into the Academy. And how quickly she regretted it. She had trained under the harsh eyes of General Steelwing, one of the best drill sergeants of the Wonderbolts until he retired a year after her graduation and Spitfire took over.

Fleetfoot visited Sptifire a few times, when she had a new group of cadets to train. And every time it looked like a nice day in a wellness center, compared to what she had to do with General Steelwing.

It was hard. It was brutal. But in the end it was all worth it. He trained those, who seemed to be worthy material, until they couldn't stand anymore. But the hard training made her stronger and graduating felt for her like one of the biggest achievements in her life.

A smile appeared on her face and she felt the feeling of pride filling her body. "I overcame so many obstacles in my life and I will overcome this one as well! I'll find a way out of this, get my wing checked in a hospital and tell my grandfoals one day how I survived in one of the most hostile environments for a pony! ...Or I could write a novel about it."

Fleetfoot got up and looked up into the sky, which was partly covered by all the trees around her. "Do you hear me, Hayseed Swamps and everyone who lives in it?! I'M NOT AFRAID ANYMORE! YOU WILL NEVER GET ME DOWN!!!"

The birds screeched and flew away in panic, but other than that she heard nothing. Fleetfoot's heavy breathing turned into a laughter.

"Wow, I think I really needed that." she said to herself.

She stretched herself one last time before she took her first step along the creek. This time she wouldn't panic. She wouldn't whine or think about how much she missed her friends, her sister and her home. This time she would embrace the adventure and whatever the forest would throw at her.

Author's Note:

Yeah, it took me a bit longer again to write a new chapter. I would've done it a few weeks earlier. If my room wouldn't have turned into a sauna. I'm melting.