You're dreaming. That's the only explanation. After all you've heard about lucid dreams before, that ponies occasionally had dreams that looked and felt exactly like real life. So that's got to be it, because there are no forests around Manehatten and you definitely don't remember leaving Manehatten, so this is a dream right? Right. This is a lucid dream, so now there's just the matter of waking up.

You nod your head in affirmation as you close your eyes, take a deep breathe, bring your forehooves up to the sides of your head, and then speak the oldest awakening mantra known to you.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" You peep with your right eye open to see the forest still there, and then close your eye once more to add a-

"Please?" To the end of your mantra... When you open your eyes you find that that didn't work. You're still asleep dreaming about being in a big forest. You sigh slightly, lowering your head as you bring your hooves back down to the ground... before getting a steely glint in your eye, and thumping the ground with your front-right hoof. Well fine, if you're head's going to make things difficult then you're just going to have to get serious!

You squeeze your eyes shut once more, and suck in a deep breathe in anticipation as you lift your right hoof up high above your head and then bring it down with a-

BONK!

"Ow!" You rub your head, letting out a low moan as you rub the poor hurt spot on your noggin, before opening your eyes again with a hopeful slightly pleading expression on your face... Nope. Still dreaming. And still cold... and it's still night, in a scary forest and oh buck this is real isn't it?!

"Gaaaah!" You let out a shout, and then start pacing around quickly in a circle, eyes open wide as your hear starts beating faster in your chest.

Okay, okay, don't panic, no need to panic, HOW DID YOU END UP IN A FOREST!?!? Okay no, no, no panicking, now isn't the time to panic, not now!

Blood lust and rage nothing but blood lust and rage. To kill, to slaughter to sacrifice to Kharneth our glorious and great blood god, and remember he does not care from where the blood flow only that it flows.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE

Calm yourself friend. Bloodshed and murder are all well and good, but we must build our wards strength before any rampages can occur.

No now is the time to get angry! What the buck is a forest doing here!? When you wake up you expect to do so in an alley! With your raggedy blanket! And an old worn teddy bear thrown out by the mare who lives on thirty-second street! Not in a Tartarus damned forest! You'll rip this place apart for ruining your world expectations!

You seethe, and stamp your hooves into the dirt, growling as you glare angrily at the stupid forest grass for being there! ... And then you close your eyes, and take a deep breathe, bringing your front-right hoof up to rub your temple... No, no, that won't help at all... Now's not the time for anger, but for careful thought and consideration... after all, if you're in a forest, really in a forest then that means you are a long ways away from Manehatten. How you got here you can't even begin to fathom, but since you are here, you need to deal with it... Which only leaves the question as to how?

Food. That needs to be your first priority. This is a forest, I'm sure there's something you can eat safely. And if you happen to find some fool wandering around the forest... well, taking their food by force should suffice to teach them a lesson about wandering around strange forests alone.

GRRRROOOOOWWWWLLLL...

Your stomach is nice enough to outline your priorities for you. You grimace as you bring your forehooves to cross over your sunken stomach, sitting back on your haunches and wincing slightly as the pain echoes through your body... It's a rare day that you get enough to eat, and your stomach never fails to remind you of your failure to provide for it.

You sigh, hanging your head as the pain subsides, at least until the next growl, then open your eyes... and blink as you stare at the forest floor... There are a few things ponies tend to forget, and one of them is that there is something very abundant and widespread that they can eat. Grass. And forests have lots and lots of grass.

You uncurl your hooves from over your stomach and get down flat-bellied on the forest floor, cocking your head to the right slightly as you examine the dark green grass pensively with a wary eye... While some grasses like alfalfa were proven to be good and delicious, others were seriously unhealthy, like junk food. And even moving past that, grass eaten right off the ground was often considered... unsanitary. But after considering that you ask yourself a question. Should either of those things matter to a pony whose expectations of a day were to wake up in an alley, stand in Pegasus-scheduled storm showers to bathe, and wind up with one meal if he was lucky?

... ... ...

CHOMP!

MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH

You chew on the grass with an almost blissful look to your face, taking mouthful after mouthful of grass, ripping into the most food you've had in you don't even remember how long. A few minutes later you lay on your back in a cleanly picked dirt patch with a satisfied groan patting your stomach with your hooves... You'll probably wind up feeling that tomorrow... No telling what so much food at once will do to your digestion, and grass right off the ground no less... Still, the food problem is has been solved, and for the first time in forever your stomach is content with it's meal. And that just leaves the question of where to go from here?

Bidden as we were, we answer the brother's plea.

Their latest weapon shall be ours, our vessel, our instrument of change. Our conduit to Equestria... we claim him as our own.

Now, little colt- you're no stranger to hardships- surely there's a way out of this forest, and to safety. You only need to find it; find some hint at other, possibly friendly equines nearby. Surely they can help you. And perhaps you could even repay them somehow once they did. You'll think of something when it comes to that. Off you go...

Pony, you have been chosen to be a champion of chaos and hate. I am known as a Watcher. There is a zebra living in these woods, Even she has a cutie mark. You must use your anger and spite to put an end to her. You have developed a disease called the Star of Woe, making you able to develop mutations to help you in something small as finding food, or something big, such as combat. The zebra has a powerful artifact that I believe could more than triple your power. She also has food. Think about it, you can release all of your anger and frustration on her, increase your power, and find food in one fell swoop. But I leave the choice to you.

You lay on your back looking up at a hole in the forest canopy, showing black clouds drifting across the night sky, letting the light from the stars touch down onto you on occasion as they twinkled up in the dark... You've never really noticed the stars before, but now you think that they're kind of important... You're not especially sure why, but they do provide nice light in the night. But you can't just lay here. You're cold in a strange forest at night. There are very few situations where that can end well. So now that you're fed, you've got to think, and you furrow your brows as you do just that.

You may not be sure quite how you got here, but if you could get here then other ponies could to. That means that there's probably a town or a railroad nearby. There may even be ponies in the forest itself. Or zebras. Though you're not sure why zebras would be in an Equestrian forest... You've seen a couple of them down at the Manehatten docks, from a great distance of course, trading goods with important business ponies. You always thought that they looked rather... well, imposing. But a lot of ponies more important than you do, so that wasn't too unusual. Still, they tended to leave after they concluded their business, back to their home, so it was really unlikely that you'd find a zebra living in the forest. Not even sure why you had the thought really.

You shake your head clear of the now rambling lines of thought, then bring your forehooves up and pound your right front-hoof onto your left. Right! First business is first. Get out of the forest, find civilization!

You nod to yourself and roll onto your hooves, standing up and shaking dirt off of your coat. Of course you've got no BUCKING IDEA how to get out of this forest. Hence being lost. The best you can do is keep moving in one direction, to hopefully arrive at the forest edge. Hopefully you'll meet somepony while walking, so that you can rob them.

You blink... ... Ask them for directions... ask them for directions is what you meant. You've never robbed anypony, even at your worst... You don't know why that thought crossed your mind.

Shaking your head, you sigh... Maybe it's the grass. Before looking up and nodding resolutely to yourself, and start walking off in one direction, still shivering slightly from the cold air, looking for a way out...

Listen well my friend. You are in the Everfree Forest, a place of danger, but you must not leave it yet. You have been given a gift known as the Star of Woe. It shall grant you power, but you must work for it. Seek the ruined castle of the Two Pony Sisters, there you will find the last whisps of Nightmare Moon. Call to them, absorb them into your being, and become endowed with the vapor form of the Mare in the Moon.

Listen for my Voice, You may call me Nomad.

We Shall speak again.

Perhaps a journey to the ruined castle first, read my previous post. It would be good to be untouchable when the time comes to confront the Zebra witch.

Ah, yes, what was I thinking? Nomad is right, Pony. To increase your power you must have something to increase first. I even forgot to introduce myself. I am Eclipse. Remember me, for I will be with this journey till the end, lest something urgent arise.

YOU HATE THIS BUCKING FOREST!!!

It's been maybe half an hour and you're already sure that you got turned around at some point! Or got turned east, or west, or north, or south, who can even bucking tell!? Every Tartarus damned tree looks the same, and the fur is standing up on the back of your neck because you're getting the uncomfortable feeling that something is watching you out in the trees! The winds are cold and you can almost swear that there are howls on the winds, or the occasional low growl. It's creeping you out! Goosebumps are forming beneath your fur, and you're getting scratches from the damned sharp branches from the damned scary trees! If that wasn't enough the mist seems to be getting thicker, and you've seen the makings of a storm! Lightning's lit up in front of you and thunder's sounded in your ears. You've tried getting the attention of the pegasi making the storm but you can't seem to find them and there's no response when you shout. Can they not hear you!? It's not like there's anyplace that has storms without pegas-

You stop dead in your tracks. Your eyes go wide and your heart starts pounding your chest again as you suddenly find yourself on the verge of panic. You gulp, and then lick your lips, before grinning an anxious smile and laughing nervously, all alone.

"Ha! Haha! That's, that's ridiculous, right?" You say to yourself, eyes darting about, peaking through the mist at the undergrowth, looking over trees that suddenly seemed much more sinister than before.

"I mean there's no way! No way at all! I mean this can't be the... the..."

Everfree.

BOOOOOOOM!!!

"AAAUUUGGHH!!!" You take off like a shot, your blood pumping, your heart racing, the thunderclap shattering your already frayed nerves. Your hooves pound against the dirt as glowing yellow eyes stare at you from every turn, howling wind fills your ears, and your legs creak out and ache with the stress of your running as you panic. Outright panic! Absolutely panic! You squeeze your eyes shut and start talking to yourself, desperately willing yourself to get a grip and stop running like a madmare.

"No no no, you need to stay calm, calm down, calm down, calm-Ooof!" Your mantra is interrupted by your front-right hoof striking a rock, throwing the rest of your hooves out of synch as you trip, tumbling forward head over rump, rolling across the grass, until you come to a stop, face-first, with your eyes closed and your body aching.

"Ugggghhh..." You moan, then slowly open your eyes... to the sight of a bottomless pit stretching out in front of you.

"Agh!" You shout, quickly scrambling back from the ledge onto your haunches, heart rate skyrocketing once again, breathing quickly as you look, eyes wide, at the yawning chasm in front of you, unfathomably deep...

"H-huh... t-that was... lucky... heheh..." You say with a very soft nervous laugh, glad that you didn't have a full bladder because if you had it would have been emptied by now. As you regain your senses, the near-death experience doing wonders for your focus, you raise your eyes and look to the opposite ledge of the chasm, the mist clearing.

You blink, then squint your eyes as slowly. Was that a... castle? ... No. The ruins of one. Numerous and ancient, stretching up in the dark... They look rather imposing. But then again, this whole forest looks imposing...

BOOOOOOOM!!!

Another thunderclap... and then a pitter-patter of wet droplets against your fur... and then the rain. Full, drenching, pouring, rain, coming right down on top of you, wetting your fur down and chilling you to the bone, which doesn't have much fat on it to protect it from said chill.

You grit your teeth and turn your gaze upward, glaring at the black storm-choked sky.

"Yeah, buck you to forest. BUCK YOU TO!!!" You shout, and then cross your forelegs over your body, shivering as the rain hits you all over, striking your body with freezing droplets... This isn't the first time you've been caught out in the rain, but with these winds, at night... Even if something doesn't rend you limb from limb, you could get very sick caught out like this without shelter. Shelter...

You look at the castle again. It's creepy and dark and scary, but that describes the whole bucking forest and at least that part has walls for the winds and hopefully a roof for the rain! Of course being on the other side of the chasm makes it a bit hard to get to. If you can't find a way across...

You let out a low growl of aggravation, then scan your eyes along the chasm, searching for some way across... And as you look a break in the mist reveals a long rope bridge, stretching between the ledges.

"Huh... well that's convenient." You mutter, before shaking yourself off and getting to your hooves with a huff. You trot over to the bridge, shivering and shaking, and the closer you get the more you realize that you spoke too soon. The bridge looks old, worn, and soaked. There are clearly boards missing from it at some parts. It's almost more frightening than the forest, you wouldn't dare trust your life to this thing.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

Then again...

You close your eyes and take a deep breathe in, then breathe out slowly as you stretch your front-right hoof forward, and peek as you tentatively place it against the first board of the bridge, testing it's weight. The board creaks beneath your hoof.

"Oh Celestia protect me..." You mutter, then gulp, and slowly bring your front-left leg forward, and place it on the next board... then move your hooves forward again, stepping onto the bridge, bringing your full body weight onto the rickety wooden deathtrap and just waiting for a moment, to see if you fall to your doom. ... When that doesn't happen, you start to walk across.

The journey seems to last for an eternity,. Every step the boards creek, every moment your heart is pounding and as you hear a-

CRACK!

Beneath your hooves, it seems to stop in your chest. But you take a deep breathe, and keep stepping forward, and somehow the bridge manages to hold you as you traverse the entire chasm, all the way across to the opposite ledge... and quickly leap from the bridge onto the earth, getting on your stomach and kissing it multiple times over, finding a sudden appreciation for sweet sweet ground, thanking Celestia that you're still alive!

But the pelting rain quickly sees you get over this grateful phase, and with a quick trot, you move towards the castle, rushing through it's stone door archway, and peering about inside... It's dark. Like the rest of the forest, occasionally lit up by a lightning flash, revealing the old ruins, once grand now little more than fallen stone... There are numerous holes in the roof, letting water and rain through, but there are still places to be covered from the rain, and the walls block most of the cold winds, save for around where ancient stained glass windows had once stood, now broken.

All in all, it looks very interesting, and while not the best shelter you've had worse. But there's still the small matter of you being wet, freezing, in a dark forest, with no sense of direction and no evidence of anypony else being here to help you. So the question becomes, as you sit in a dark dry patch, shivering and shaking, looking around the ancient and terrifying dilapidated ruin, of what the buck are you going to do now?

Author's Notes:

(To clarify, he hears the words and messages like they're thoughts from his own noggin, he doesn't know he's being guided. But now that you've guided him here, what are you going to do with him?)