''--t are you... talking... about?"

I blinked and looked around me in confusion. Nothing but wild flora and darkness as far as my eyes could see... which wasn't very far unfortunately. The air was warm and humid, and something in it made me itch.

"Where the fuck..."

I heard the sound of a twig snapping somewhere, but when I turned to look, I didn't see anything. Deciding now wasn't the time to stand there gaping at my new surroundings, I took off in a random direction.

It was clear that I was in some kind of forest and...

"Oh you have got to be shitting me," I growled, carefully trying to make my way through fallen trees, thorny bushes, and various other underbrush, "if I wound up in the Everfree Forest I swear to god, Discord..."

Another snap of a twig made me jump slightly and I whipped my head around to see that there was still nothing there. My heartbeat began to pick up and I tried to quicken my pace.

The only thing that came out of that was me tripping over upraised tree roots and smacking into the trees I couldn't see in front of my face.

"I'm fucked," I muttered, rubbing my nose after running into yet another tree, "I'm absolutely useless in the dark, and I have no fucking idea where the hell I'm going," I hissed and yanked my hand away from the thorny bush I had mistakenly reached for, "seriously, the least he could've done was give me a goddamn flashlight or something..."

I continued to gripe and groan about Discord and the utter unfairness of my situation as I made my way through the thick dark forest. It probably wasn't a smart thing to do given where I was -- hell, it definitely wasn't a smart thing to do -- but I couldn't help it.

I had a habit of talking to myself out loud, and it was a rather hard one to break. Not to mention it was all that was keeping me from freaking out, as I tried not to think about the things that wanted to chew my poor unsuspecting legs off along with the rest of me.

Another sound caught my attention and made me freeze in my tracks. A loud cackle rang out from somewhere in the distance -- the eerie sound making my heart slam against my chest in fear.

The mad cackle sounded again and this time I could tell it was coming from somewhere up ahead. What that in mind, I promptly turned around and headed in the opposite direction.

"Nope," I muttered, pushing past more underbrush as fast as I could, "nopenopenopenopenope, I am not dealing with whatever the fuck that was."

I suddenly heard the sound of heavy footfalls and several loud cracks and thumps that most likely indicated the felling of large trees. That crazy laugh accompanied the loud noises and much to my horror the sounds were getting louder.

Whatever that thing was, it was getting closer.

"Oh shit," I moved as fast as I could possibly go while being hampered with crippling night blindness, "ohshitohshitohshitohshitshitshitshitsh--"

I slammed into a tree and fell backwards with a cry of pain.

Whatever was chasing me was now practically on top of me. I was crying and whimpering at this point as I tried to ignore the pain and scramble back to my feet.

"Fuck this goddamn forest!" I shouted as I pushed myself off the ground and tried to dash forward, "and fuck you, Discord!"

It was immediately after cursing the forest and the draconequus that had dropped me in it that I heard the cackling thing burst through the trees behind me. Against my better judgement I turned to look and screamed.

The first thing that caught my attention were the eyes.

I had a bit of a phobia when it came to eyes -- nothing major, but something about eyes just... unsettled me. It was the main reason I never fully looked anyone in the face whenever I talked to them.

This thing's face was more or less all eyes and big grinning mouth full of stupidly sharp teeth. It only had two eyes, but they were massive, had piercing black pupils, and they were disturbingly human looking -- nothing like the rest of it.

It had what looked like shiny white scales that covered it's massive pudgy body and pulled itself along the ground on all fours. It's stubby legs ended in thick stumps and it had a long tail that dragged so far behind it that the end disappear into the trees where I couldn't see it.

It's almost conical head was also way too big for its body.

Once the monster was out in the small clearing it stopped and stared at me silently. I had also stopped running and stood frozen in fear as I stared back. For a moment, neither of us moved an inch, the thing just standing there and staring at me unblinkingly as some kind of black ooze dripped from its open maw.

"Girls, over here! I think I heard something!"

And just like that, the spell was broken.

It opened its mouth wide and let out another loud and eerily human cackle before charging once again. I turned and tried to run in the direction of the voice, hopping over upturned trees and shouting for all I was worth.

I was far too panicked to shout any kind of cry for help so I just screamed wordlessly in the hopes that whoever was out there would hear me over the sound of the cackling beast behind me and save my ass.

"Hello? Who's out there? Where are you?"

The voice sounded incredibly familiar, but I couldn't afford to focus on it due to me literally running for my life. All I could do was try not to stumble over myself as I ran through the forest towards the voice.

I ducked a large overhanging branch I had been lucky enough to see and raised my head back up just in time to see a bright flash of magenta. I cried out in surprise and stumbled over a log I hadn't seen.

I hit the ground face first.

The loud cackle dissolved into a victorious screech.

A feminine scream somewhere above me pierced my ears.

Agony ripped through my back as I felt something vital being torn away.

My own blood curdling scream joined the others.

My screams quickly turned to thick gurgles as blood welled up in my throat.

One final stab of agony course through my body as another large piece of flesh was ripped from me.

After what felt like an eternity, the pain finally stopped and a blackness darker than that of the forest replaced everything else.

Next Chapter: Equus II -- Not Exactly my Idea of a Dream Cruise... Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 8 Minutes