Manehattan

Day 1

It was a bright and sunny day in Manehattan. School had just ended, and there were several fillies racing to escape the boring classroom.  Amidst all of them, one could see Ray Light and his two friends, Sound Wave and Butterscotch.

Sound Wave was a Blue Earth Pony with a white mane, bearing a cutie mark of two musical notes, representing his talent to sing. Butterscotch was a pegasus with a caramel-colored coat and a dark brown mane, and the same as Ray, Butterscotch hadn’t earn his Cutie Mark yet.

As they trotted towards the center of town, they were discussing what they should do, now that they had free time.

“How about we go play in the park?" asked Butterscotch, which earned him almost annoyed looks from both of his friends.

"Nah, we did that yesterday... and the day before yesterday. What about a change of location for once?"

"That's an excellent idea Wave, I vote for the forest, we haven't been there for, like, forever."

As almost always when Ray proposed something, his two friends agreed with him. Sounding their agreement, the activity for the day was agreed on.

About twenty minutes later, the trio found themselves in front of the entrance to the forest. It was a beautiful forest with all kinds of trees, bushes, flowers and animals. But not animals of the hostile sort, no, in this forest harmony was dominant. Thus it was a perfect spot for young adventurers to explore and play, and sometimes, to make a big discovery.

While looking around, trying to decide which way to go, Ray asked:" Last time we were here, we found that awesome Waterfall in the cave west of here, what do you think we will find this time?"

"It's not guaranteed that we find anything" said Sound Wave in his cool and calculating manner.

"Yeah but if we search for a good, long time, we'll surely find something, right?" Butterscotch answered.

"Depends on our luck I guess, I think we should go north this time, we pretty much have the western part covered already..."

Sound Wave responded to Butterscotch’s statement with a small grin on his face.

"North it is, when I can trust something, it's your sense of direction, I guess."

"Oh stop it, you're making me blush, Ray! Perks of being a pegasus, I’d say."

"If you say so. But come on, we're burning daylight, my father expects me home for dinner, so let's go!"

With this final statement they ran off into the woods and started their little adventure.

Four hours later.

"So, we found nothing after all" said Butterscotch while kicking away a pebble.

"Don't let it get to you Butters, sometimes you have luck, sometimes you don't! Next time we'll be sure to find something!"

When Butterscotch heard those words from Ray, he instantly cheered up. "Yeah, I guess you're right"

"Next time for sure, don't worry about it. But I guess I gotta stop here, it's almost time for dinner, and you know how my dad is..." Ray said.

With now lifted spirits, they started trotting towards the exit of the forest.

"Hey, look at me!" Wave suddenly shouted.

As Ray and Butters turned around to look what their friend was up to, Wave was already climbing a big rock. Once he arrived at the top, he struck a hero-like pose and shouted: "I am the King of this Rock! Is there anypony who dares to challenge me, the Great and Powerful Sound Wave?" looking down to his friends with an expectant grin on his face, he waited for a response.

Ray and Butters looked at each other with smiles on their faces "THE KING MUST FALL!" they shouted in unison and started climbing the rock to assault the king and claim the rock as their own.

After a short amount of struggling and wrestling, Ray came out on top (as always), and looked at his defeated "enemies"

"I now claim this rock as my own, any complaints?" he asked. Butters and Wave only shook their heads at that, admitting defeat. Striking a victory pose, Ray shouted “AND ONCE AGAIN SIR RAY LIGHT COMES OUT VICTO-" Ray slipped on the rock and began to fall, which apart from a initial shock didn't worry him or his friends that much, the rock wasn’t that high after all. Ray, now lying in the dirt, spitting out a leaf that got into his mouth, earned a round of laughter from his friend, which he soon joined in.

*Crack*

The laughing stopped abruptly at the pretty loud noise. It just didn't sound natural, and before anyone could say anything, ray was suddenly gone. In his place was a hole, through which Wave and Butters concluded, Ray must have fallen through.

Poking their head over the hole to look down, Wave shouted "Ray? Can you hear me, Ray?!"

But there was no answer; worried something serious might have happened to their friend, they called out to him again and again, but with no response coming out of the hole. "You think we should get help?" Butters asked. "Yes...."

"Hold on Ray! We're going to get help!" Wave shouted down the hole, and with this they ran as fast as they could back into town to get help.

About an hour later

Wave and Butters were running towards the forest with Ray Light's Father and some other ponies who'd volunteered to help with the search. But as they approached the entry to the forest, Ray stumbled outside of it.

The now pretty confused search party ran up to him and as soon as they reached him, Thunderstrike grabbed him in a tight embrace while saying "We thought something happened to you! I couldn't bear the thought of losing you too!" tears of joy streamed down from his eyes.

"I'm okay dad, but I’m not exactly sure what happened... I awoke inside of a hole and couldn't find Wave and Butters anymore, so I decided to walk out."

"You sure you're okay? That hole looked pretty deep." Wave asked with a concerned face. "We couldn't even see the bottom of it!"

"Yeah, I’m alright; I somehow managed to climb out. I may have some cuts and bruises; it wasn't exactly easy to climb out of there. I'd just like to go home and maybe sleep a little, I’m pretty tired." said Ray, with a half-asleep expression that showed he was indeed speaking the truth.

"Let's get you home and patched up son, we can talk some more when we're back." And with that, the search party scattered, glad to know nothing happened.

After Thunderstrike and Ray got home, the father tended to his son’s minor injuries. "Are you really alright? Weren't you scared? Does it hurt anywhere else? Is this too tight?" Thunderstrike practically bombarded ray with questions.

"I'M ALRIGHT OKAY?" Ray suddenly shouted, which silenced Thunderstrike. "I'm just tired and I really, really, really would like to go to sleep now pleeeeaaassee?"

Thunderstrike looked at his son in confusion. This was, after all, the first time Ray shouted at him. "Okay Ray, you just go to your room now and get some rest. Maybe we can talk a little more tomorrow." As soon as the words were spoken, Ray turned around and walked straight into his room, shutting the door behind himself.

'Something is different' Thunderstrike thought. Since he came out of the forest he'd been acting a little weird. Probably just my imagination, tomorrow he'll be back to normal.' And with that, Thunderstrike, too, lazily strode towards his bedroom. Tired after an exciting and frightening day, after all, what would he do if Ray too, was lost?