Andrew strolled silently down the path near the Everfree Forest. The time was a little past Midnight, and Andrew seemed to be normal, as he was dressed in his usual patrolling attire. He had his nightstick by his side, and his heavy duty flashlight lighted up the darkness anywhere he pointed it. He was whistling to a particular tune and looked forward to ending his shift soon, as there wasn’t anything bad to report.

The booming of thunder immediately took hold on the situation, causing Andrew to jump at the sudden noise. He looked to the sky and saw multiple storm clouds taking hold, he just remembered that the Everfree Forest had its own weather, exactly like back home on Earth. Rain started to fall, and Andrew felt the light patter of rain making contact with his hair, he didn’t care, rain sometimes to him was somewhat soothing, washing away to make a clean slate.

He recalled telling that story to Rainbow, and how sad she felt for him afterwards, but she was the one who wanted to hear it in the first place. Andrew didn’t care for Carmine anymore, not that it mattered anyways, she’s nothing but a mental image inside of his head, that is also trying to kill him along with the rest of his family. Nothing out of the ordinary, really.

Andrew still couldn’t help but wonder what had become of the rest of his team, and if anything, they should’ve been back by now, as it was nearing the end of the week. Either Night Shade was holding out on something he should’ve known about, or that they’re running late for their visit.

He liked the time off he was given, and wished for it to be longer than just a week. Besides, this place wasn’t anything like it like it was back home on Earth. Here, it was actually peaceful for a time, before the private military took over Dodge City.

As he continued down the beaten path, he heard something shuffle between the bushes. He shined the flashlight into that general direction, but couldn’t see anything. He wish he could’ve just shrugged it off and moved on, but his curiosity got the better of him. So he did what he does best: explore.

“Hello? Anyone there?” He called out, shining the flashlight back and forth into the woods.

He continued deeper into the forest, the sound of leaves crunching under his feet was the only sound he could hear. Except that he was not stepping on any leaves, because he was in the middle of a large clearing. The sound of crunching leaves drew nearer as Andrew tried to get out of the way.

“I know you’re out there! Come out!” Andrew held the nightstick like a tonfa, hoping to at least defend himself against an attack. He couldn’t help but to feel that it was not someone, but something.

He heard a vicious growl come from behind him, and yet another coming in front of him. There was no doubt that he was being hunted, and only being armed with a nightstick and handcuffs, only added to his disadvantage.

He pointed the flashlight forward, and saw that there was a pack of animals with glowing, lifeless eyes. He couldn’t recall ever facing an animal like this, yet he couldn’t help but feel that he somehow knows what they are. Then he remembered something; he did a little studying about the Everfree Forest during training in Canterlot, with it being the most wild and untamed part of Equestria.

“Timberwolves, interesting.” He chuckled, but instantly stopped when he remembered the hostility of the situation.

Andrew didn’t have much of a choice at this point. He was to either fight or flight, and considering that it’s late at night, and he wasn’t armed well, he would flight. He needed a distraction, so he searched his person for anything useful.

“Flashbangs! I forgot I had these!” Andrew said thankfully, taking one off of his belt. He couldn’t believe he’d completely forgotten about his Flashbangs, and he also noticed the coincidence of happening to have them on his person at this specific timing.

He pulled the pins, and threw it at the largest group, turning around as quickly as he could to avoid the blast effects. Once it detonated, the Timberwolves all cowered in the sheer bright white light, Andrew took this time to flee.

He looked back to see if he was still being followed, and for his sake, he wasn’t. Though, he didn’t take into account of the ledge in front of him, and tripped over a root of a tree in front of him. He tumbled down the side of the ledge, rolling violently down the slope. Andrew coughed as the dust filled the air, he found himself laying down on his back at the bottom of the hill.

As the dust cleared, Andrew saw that he was in immense pain, he couldn’t see anything, and everything was dark, he searched for his flashlight, but couldn’t feel it anywhere.

“Agh, fuck!” He loudly said, trying to get up. He was clearly in pain, and he still couldn’t help but feel something was off.

He rested his hand down on his abdomen, and felt something warm and wet. He felt for his flashlight one more time, and turned it on, aiming the beam of light towards his stomach. Fresh blood stained his clothes, and a wooden stick protruded from the center of the stain. The mud from the rain earlier didn’t help either, as his wound could easily become infected if not treated properly.

“Okay Andrew, stay calm.” He said to himself, slowly easing himself off of the stick.

Andrew started to sweat and grunt heavier once he got off of the stick he was impaled onto. The stab wound started to throb, and Andrew felt more blood coming out than it did before. He put his hand over the wound to put pressure on it, hoping for it to stop bleeding. Surprisingly, he felt no pain, no pain whatsoever, and he started to pant heavier knowing that something wasn’t right.

“Warning: traumatic shock imminent.” The AI in Andrew’s RIG announced, causing him to freak out.

“I’m gonna go unconscious soon, not good. Computer, use a small medpack.” He ordered.

“Applying small medpack...” Andrew heard the bar on his back go up slightly, but he knew that it wouldn’t last too long.

He grabbed his side and continued to walk forward slowly. Sometimes he had forgotten about the RIG he installed into his back, though he doesn’t know how because it’s a giant holographic bar right on his spine. It had its advantages at times, but it lowered his stealth capabilities, unless he turned it off, in which he doesn’t know how to.

He felt blood drip down onto the ground, and his locator was busted so he had no sense of direction. All he had was a flashlight and one more small medpack, which wasn’t going to last long on him, even if he did use it sparingly.

A few minutes into the trip, Andrew found a hollowed out base of a tree, he took this opportunity to take at least some shelter against what was out there. He inched his way inside, and found himself inside of a small grotto. He then slumped himself against the wall, and let out a sigh of grief.

“What have I gotten myself into?” He croaked, trying to wrap bandages around himself.

“I guess I should thank Twilight for making us carry first aid kits.” Andrew chuckled, coughing up blood in the process.

He heard a distant noise coming from outside of his little grotto, in his current state he was in no shape to continue exploring, as he was woozy from the blood loss already. Luckily Hops was nice enough to give him a bottle of Moonshine for the road, as it could save his life right here and now.

He gritted his teeth as he poured the clear liquid on his wound, grunting through the sting of alcohol cleansing his wound.

“Luckily this isn’t beer, or else I’d be dead by now.” The pain had subsided for the most part, and the wound was completely numb by now, at least the puncture was clean from the alcohol, all he needed now was to find Turmeric to prevent infection, though it wasn’t likely since he didn’t know what Turmeric looked like.

By now Andrew was losing consciousness, and if he didn’t find medical help soon, he would be dead. That was just the worst case scenario, because if his senses had yet to fail, he could hear a voice calling out for him. Though this wouldn’t last for long, and his vision started to fail.

“Is somepony there? T-There’s so much blood.” Andrew heard a voice call out, though it wasn’t anyone he could make out.

Even if he tried he couldn’t make anything out, as his vision started to worsen, and everything seemed to slow down for him. With his last bit of strength he crawled out of the grotto, leaving the half empty bottle of Moonshine behind. He collapsed, still holding onto his puncture wound, the last thing he felt was the warm blood oozing out of him.

“O-Oh my, you don’t look good.”

Twilight woke up early to perform her morning routine: take a shower, brush her teeth, and help Spike organize anything and everything. She had a gleeful expression as she performed these tasks as she didn’t have a care in the world.

The clock just hit 8AM and there was somepony already at the door, which was quite peculiar considering that she’s never gotten visits right when the library opened. She took the last few bites of her breakfast toast and she rushed on over to the door.

“Rainbow? What are you doing here this early? Especially on a Saturday?”

“Twilight, I think something’s happened to Andrew, he didn’t come back last night after he left the bar.”

“Can you tell me where he was headed?”

“He told us that he was going to patrol the Everfree Border, and he left right around midnight.”

“Why would he do that at night? Everypony in town knows that it’s not safe at night!”

“He said that’s exactly why he should do it at night!”

“He’s such an idiot, we have to find him quickly.” Twilight grabbed for her saddlebags and rushed out the door, catching Rainbow off guard.

“We have to find him, and fast! With heat season right around the corner, it’s best if he is able to at least run away if somepony catches him.” She said sarcastically, blushing a little bit on the matter.

Rainbow seemed flustered, almost offended Twilight would actually say that. She kept quiet though, as Twilight was about to speak again, “y’know, I wouldn’t be surprised if he agreed to do it with you, after all you’re his ‘girlfriend’ or so they call it.”

“W-What? Twilight, don’t tell me it’s already getting to your head!” Twilight shook her head in disbelief, returning back to her normal self, she continued down the path to the Everfree Forest.

“Right, sorry, the influence is stronger this year.” She said carefully.

“Hey look! Footprints!” Rainbow tripped over them, considering that it rained a little bit last night and there’s a size fifteen bootprint stuck in the ground.

“There’s no other person I know with feet that big.” Rainbow laughed, Twilight pulled out her magnifying glass to inspect it further, following them into the forest itself.

“It seems like he was attacked by Timberwolves here. See the pawprints?”

“What is this? It smells horrible!” Rainbow picked up a small hand-sized metal case, which seemed to have been set on fire, due to the fact that it was still smoking.

“I think that’s one of Andrew’s bombs, I forgot what he called them.” Twilight explained, examining the spent flashbang casing closer.

“He only uses these when he’s in trouble, that’s not a good sign...” She pondered, causing Rainbow to worry a little bit more than she already has been.

Twilight followed the footprints down to the slope, where the footprints got replaced with erratic imprints in the dried up mud, not to mention the debris that was scattered everywhere.

“It looks like he fell down there, c’mon!” Twilight slid down the slope in a careful manner, while Rainbow used her wings and easily hovered down to the base of the hill.

“Ouch, do you think this is Andrew’s?” Rainbow noticed the tree branch was covered in blood, along with a dried up pool underneath, the smell of Iron lingered in the air.

“No doubt about it, he could be in big trouble being out here for this long. We have to hurry, he went this way.” Twilight and Rainbow continued to track their missing human companion, only to find a small hollowed out area at the base of a tree.

“Why does it smell like alcohol?” Rainbow covered her muzzle, Twilight peeped into the small grotto and pulled out a small bottle.

“It belongs to Hops, it’s Moonshine.” Twilight explained, causing Rainbow to snatch the bottle from her magical grip.

“Hops gave this to Andrew last night! Where could he be though?”

“I don’t know, Rainbow, the trail ends here. There’s no tracks or anything, the rain washed it away.”