“Twilight! Twilight!”

The voice, though quiet, was filled with worry and urgency, and was just loud enough for the purple unicorn wandering around town to hear it, stopping and turning to see her pegasus friend galloping over to her.

“Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, quickly growing concerned. Even though it didn’t take much to scare her pink-maned friend, the fact that she came all the way out here to try and get help was likely cause for alarm.

Fluttershy skidded to a stop beside the unicorn, taking a second to catch her breath before speaking. “The m-mayor...he...he went into the forest!”

Twilight blinked in confusion before her eyes widened. “The…Everfree Forest?” The pegasus nodded, and the unicorn quickly began to panic. “Oh no no no, this is bad...”

CLANG!

The lion-like creature flinched back as the cold metal slammed into its face, letting out a cry of surprise and pain. Using this second of breathing room, Chuck jumped to his feet and started dashing down the path, hoping he chose the right direction and was headed back to town. However, he could hear loud thumps behind him, and he knew the creature was chasing after him.

Trying to keep running at top speed while still avoiding the forest’s dangerous-looking flora proved difficult, but possible. He only bumped into one or two vines, and managed to avoid anything coming right out of the ground. Nevertheless, he was still barely moving fast enough to stay out of the lion’s range, and he knew he wouldn’t have enough stamina to get back to town before slowing down. Not to mention that the idea of leading this thing straight to Ponyville, endangering the lives of everypony there, didn’t appeal to him too much.

The lion was practically on him now. He wished he had bought an axe while he was at Quills & Sofas, but he didn’t think he had enough bits. Instead, he was stuck with a shovel and a fishing rod...

As soon as that thought ran through his head, his eyes brightened and he skidded to a stop, turning around.

Before the lion could pounce, Chuck reached into his pocket, putting away his shovel and pulling out the fishing rod he had yet to use. Glancing up to make sure he aimed properly, he cast the rod, the lure flying high up in the air and over the head of the lion, where it wrapped around a tree branch.

The creature seemed to practically laugh at this before pouncing. At the last second, Chuck dropped the fishing rod and jumped back, narrowly avoiding the deadly jaws that were set to cut his career as mayor short. Instead, they grabbed onto the wooden fishing rod.

Growling at being avoided, the lion took its mouth off the rod and prepared to pounce again, but it stopped when it noticed something odd: the rod was floating in the air.

Perplexed, the creature batted at the tool, unable to notice the practically invisible string reaching from it up into the air above it. The rod floated around like a Hearth’s Warming tree decoration, and the lion swatted at it again. A comical smile appeared on its face, and with a meow one would expect from a small cat rather than a giant lion, it dropped to the ground and continued to bat at the floating fishing pole.

Chuck, very slowly, began to back away. The lion paid him no heed, more interested in its new toy than the escaping meal. Once he figured he was a safe distance away, he turned and bolted down the path once more.

“Lyra! There you are!”

The secretary looked up in surprise. She and Bon Bon were just about to head out when Twilight ran over to them. “Twilight?”

“Mayor Chuck...he went into the Everfree Forest!” the librarian cried. Of course, this instantly gained the attention of everypony else in the cafe. All conversations ceased, and all eyes were on Twilight and Lyra.

Lyra, for her part, just blinked. “He...what?”

“Fluttershy saw him running into the Everfree Forest like he was chasing something,” Twilight elaborated. “I don’t think he knows what’s in there!”

Murmurs began to fill the room from the various ponies.

“Does he really not know…?”

“What was he after?”

“He could get hurt!”

“Do we even care?”

That last question drew an immediate reaction from Lyra, who spun around to glare at the crowd. “Who said that?”

“Said what?”

“‘Do we even care?’. Who said that?”

The ponies all looked at one another. Some appeared confused; some appeared nervous. Finally, one stallion raised his hoof indifferently. “I said it. So what?”

Lyra slowly approached him, her glare not faltering. The crowd split to give her a clear path, nopony wanting to get in her way. Soon, she was looking the stallion right in the eye. “I care.”

He snorted. “And who are you to make a difference?”

SMACK!

His smug look became a wince of pain as a new red spot began to form on his face.

“How you haven’t learned your lesson from the past disgusts me,” she growled, lowering her hoof. “I’m keeping my eye on you. So watch it.”

As much as he wanted to keep his tough appearance up, the stallion found himself at a loss for words. With a huff, he stormed out of the cafe, not saying anything else.

Once he was gone, Lyra turned to the rest of the crowd. “Anypony else want to make any remarks about our mayor?”

The silence could be cut with a knife.

“That’s what I thought.” She turned back to Twilight. “Now...let’s go for a walk.”

Just as Chuck feared, he had gone the wrong way.

He sighed, looking around for any landmarks. All he saw were trees. At some point, he had reached a fork in the path and taken a turn, then a few others, and now he had no idea if he had turned around and was headed back home or just going deeper and deeper into the woods.

Getting tired and hungry, he sat down on a log (after making absolutely sure it was safe) and pulled out an apple, biting into it with a crunch.

As he did, however, he heard a different crunch from behind him.

Feeling an annoying sense of déjà vu, Chuck turned his head to look behind himself, seeing another pile of bushes that could easily be hiding something. Part of him wanted to ignore it and keep eating, but he knew that would just be giving whatever made the sound a big opening to attack.

Keeping the apple in one hand and his shovel in the other, Chuck stood up slowly and walked over to the bushes. Using the handle of his shovel to move some of the leaves and twigs out of the way, he peered in.

A pair of glowing yellow eyes glared back.