Sunset Expedition

by MysteryMan97

Chapter 4

Sunset shifted her near-empty saddlebags onto her back and began to walk towards the forest. By now, walking to the woods to scavenge for food had become normal for her, and she tuned out as she tracked down various flowers, fruits, nuts, and roots to supplement the plentiful but nutritionally deficient reeds and tall grasses that grew by the rivers near her camp. I knew from the portals spell matrix is mostly in Equestria and what I can see is just the bare minimum to keep the connection stable, but I think I can work around that. The connection is there even when the portal is off, so if I can just find a way to reach in and expand that constant connection, then thaumaturgical energy will flow from Equestria through the portal, like water from a full container through a hose, pushed by the different background energy levels! It won’t be as…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound that set every nerve in her body on edge, brought up every bad instinct her herbivore hindbrain had: the sound of a predator calling to its pack. Whipping around, she scanned the forest, her heart pounding as she tried to focus for even the hint of movement.

The sound of twigs breaking to her right was the only warning she got as some reptilian… thing jumped out of the brush and attacked her. It struck before she could get a good view, and she only barely dodged the first strike. Taking a moment, her eyes locked on a sturdy branch, and with a flash of light she was there, clutching the trunk and watching the land below. Oh dear Celestia what was that? I’ve never seen anything like that before, it was like a demented horror show version of a lizard mixed with a timberwolf! She watched as it pawed at the tree, shaking her perch with every strike. After a few minutes, it looked up at her, and even though it was an alien reptile wolf thing, Sunset could feel the sheer hatred radiating off the creature before it turned away and left.

… Alright then, I’m just… I’m just going to stay here for a bit, give it time to go somewhere else and find some other prey. Sunset thought as she felt her heart finally start to calm down. I can… I can go look for food somewhere else, north of Starswirl’s river maybe? Yeah, that sounds good.

After a few more minutes, she gingerly slid down, constantly on edge for the creature to return. Double-timing it, she rushed through the woods back to her campsite. Where did that thing come from? It looks too large for me to have missed it before now, is it migrating? Did it eat all the food in its last territory and relocate? Is it part of a pack? Why show up now? Not that I’m complaining, if it had shown up before I figured out low-energy teleportation I would be… She shoved the thought aside as she cleared the trees and walked the well-worn trail back to her campground. As she climbed the small hill, her blood ran cold as she heard the sound of snapping wood from her campground. Rushing forward, her worst fears were realized: the creature had followed her scent to her camp, her home!

The monster had walked through her wards and fence like they were nothing, smashed her tent open, and scattered the gems from her magic circle across the dirt. Her books, the same books that had taught her how to survive after her poorly-thought through plan dumped her on an alien world, were scattered, and she saw a couple that looked like they had been ripped up. She took this all in in one moment of sheer terror, and then the monster turned towards her, hate and hunger in its eyes.

With a yelp, she dodged its first strike with a quick teleport, and then another, but it wasn’t enough. She could feel her reserves dropping fast, and the creature just wouldn’t let up! Every time she teleported, it would turn around, find her, and charge again after only a few seconds, she just didn’t have the power for a longer-range teleport, and there were no trees nearby for her to climb up.

With one last *pop!* of teleporting, she sheltered behind an intact portion of “fence”, hoping the sharpened sticks might at least scare the creature off from making a direct charge. No such luck though, and as it began to close the distance again she realized something: It’s not going to stop! It’s too hungry to stop, or I pissed it off, or something, so the only way to stop it is… to kill it.

Like most ponies, Sunset wasn’t that big on the whole “killing” thing, but as the revelation sank in and the predator closed the remaining distance, time seemed to slow as her body shifted to fight. With a flash, she arrived just beside the creature, smacking it with a buck from both her rear legs as it charged, sending it stumbling to the ground.

Yes! Yes I did it! I… oh come on! She watched the creature stand up and glare at her, hunger filling its expression. Again it charged, and again she teleported to the side and bucked it to the ground, but this time it recovered before collapsing, and when she tried that tick a third time a clawed paw shot out and raked across her side, sending her sprawling.

Oh Tartarus, oh this is bad, oh dear Celestia I can’t stand up, I can’t stand! I can’t stand! She panicked as the creature rounded on her, marching forward with the air of a creature that knew it had won. No, I’m not dying here! I didn’t survive this long just to die to some overgrown lizard! I’ve got to… got to… She looked around in a panic, searching for anything that could save her, and as the monster got closer, her eyes fell on one of the sharpened sticks, laying on the ground where it had been knocked aside, and an idea sprang into her head.

Her horn began to glow, and her opponent paused for a moment in confusion, giving her the opening she needed. That stick was enveloped in a cone of light, its structure strengthened magically as it was lifted into the air, pointed at the temporarily frozen monster, and flung with laser precision right into its open mouth.

The beast fell over with a pitiful whimper. With her heart pounding and adrenaline running through her system, Sunset stared at the massive reptilian corpse for a long moment before slumping over on the ground as the pain of her injuries caught up to her.

The cut on her flank was bleeding badly, and she poured every last bit of magic she had into every healing spell she knew, desperately trying to stem the bleeding for just a little longer, when her reserves ran dry. Normally, a unicorn running out of energy is only mildly annoying, but in a low-magic environment the absence of magic in a body can be physically painful, and when combined with the post-adrenaline rush crash and the trauma from the cut the shock was bad enough to knock Sunset out cold, laying on the edge of her ruined camp with an open wound.

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When Sunset finally woke up, she wished she hadn’t. Her body felt drained in a way it hadn’t since those first cycles where she had still been learning how to manage her powers, and her flank hurt in a way she had never truly experienced before. Looking over the wound, she saw that while her last bit of magic had kept her from bleeding out, it hadn’t done much more than that. To make things worse, she had plenty of other, less life-threatening cuts all over that side of the body from the same hit, and her rough landing had left her right side a mess of bruises and cuts.

Alright Sunset, you got this, just… just got to get one of the crystals I left charging, and use it for a healing spell. You can do it, just stand up. She forced herself to her hooves, and despite the sharp pain that seemed worse with every step, she walked into her camp. However, the magic circle had been disrupted, and the gems scattered, forcing her to dig around in the dirt for a gem with some charge in it.

Alright, I got you. Oh yeah, come to momma. She thought as she grabbed the gem telekinetically, pulling energy from it into herself. With that, the passive magic all Equestrians had returned with a vengeance, soothing her aches and cleaning infections from her open wounds, as she burned a good chunk of power to clean and begin to seal the cut on her flank.

With three more gems worth of power, she finished sealing the wound and flopped down on a small rock she used as a chair to observe her camp, munching on some food to fill the aches of hunger in her stomach. Let’s see, the tent is in pieces, my food storage lean-to is wrecked, my books are… damaged, and just about everything else has been trampled or smashed a bit. On the bright side, my cooking utensils look intact, a little banged up but nothing major, and as long as I don’t have to eat raw food for the rest of my time here I can figure out the rest. She looked down at her body and sighed. Even magic won’t heal that wound quickly, I’m not a doctor and I don’t have the power for constant healing spells, but I can’t afford to sit around, I need to save what I can… she winced in pain as she tried to stand, pain shooting up her flank. Alright, I’m just… just going to wait a bit, see if I can get enough energy for a bit more healing before I stand up again. Her journal caught her eye, and to her surprise on further investigation her ink was still there, even if several of her quills had been snapped. Need to replace those soon she thought as she reached out and grabbed her journal. Flipping through its pages, going through reams of notes and observations, she pulled up a blank page and began to write.

Expedition Log: Cycle 227

If anypony finds this, you should know that this world is not the paradise my earlier notes might have implied. Earlier today, while I was searching for food in Meadowdale Forest I encountered a strange new creature…

…

… And so, I don’t know what will happen to me. I think I’ll be able to avoid infection with magic and rinsing the wounds, but I’m not certain, and if another of those things shows up… if another shows up I’ll try the same trick and pray to whoever is listening, if anypony is, that it works again.

I’m writing this next part in the event that I die because of my wounds or an infection or some other monster, so unless you’re part of my family, stop reading. Celestia counts as family.

I’m sorry. I would say I didn’t know what I was thinking, but I did, and I just didn’t care. You all have been nothing but supportive, gave me such a wonderful life back in Equestria that I completely abandoned in a tantrum, and I can never make up for that. If you’re reading this, that tantrum killed me, and I don’t know any words to describe how sorry I am for that.

Sunset paused, looking at how much space was left on the page as she contemplated how to phrase the next part.

Please don’t abandon this world because it took me. Despite the predators, the crabs trying to take off my legs, the weird pony-salamander-lizards, and all the other weird creatures here, I’ve fallen in love with this world, and I don’t want to let it be abandoned. There are so many amazing things here, and if the portal can be held open all the time then there’s no reason to not let everypony see them.

Sunset closed the journal, leaning back and looking over her ruined camp. With a glow, she cast another healing spell on her wound, and after a few moments forced herself to her hooves. The pain was still there, but it was manageable now, and with grim determination she got back to work.

Author's Note:

And in this chapter, Sunset learns that the wilderness is not to be taken lightly.

Coming up in the next chapter: Sunset studies the portal some more and makes First Contact with humanity.

Comments

[Cross Lament]

Try teleporting your opponent instead of yourself, Sunset.

[MysteryMan97]

10066234

Sunset learned a lot of things as Celestia's student, but how to fight a monster was sadly not one of them. A bit of an oversight on Celestia's part if you ask me.

10066623

Thanks! I actually originally wasn't going to include them, but then I realized just going a year into the future and telling people that Sunset had been through a lot wasn't a good idea, so I decided to write the journal entries to show what she'd been going through.