Deep green, rough brown, and cold grey surrounded her. She knew trips into the Everfree were dangerous, but she had wanted to see that Zebracian pony about some flowers. Now she was lost. She was in the Everfree with no clue which way the exit was, and she had been wondering for hours. Every time she thought was close to leaving the forest, she was met with just more trees.

She remembered the rumors from town, about the wild animals that live in the forest. Cockatrices', wraiths, maybe even dragons...She shivered. She did not want to be in the forest any longer than she had too. She should have asked somepony for directions, but she had thought it would be simple. Just stick to the path, and she would find the hut.

Of course, that was before a plant had caught her interest. Then she had found more, and wandered along until she didn't know how to get back to the path. She had felt foolish once she realized the flowers were simply modified poison joke.

It seemed the joke was on her now. It was nearly dusk. She knew she wasn't too deep into the forest, since she could still clearly see the sky through the canopy of trees. But she jumped at every nose, even though it was normally just a rabbit or fox.

A howl sounded in the distance, piercing and cold. She stopped, listening, as more sounded, closer to her. Her pulse sped up as she moved faster through the foliage. She didn't notice as it became easier to gallop, or when the trees thinned out. The howls were increasing, and coming closer.

Then she broke into a clearing. The first of the night stars twinkled down from a deep purple sky. She glanced around the glade, hoping against hope there would be somewhere to hide...and there it was.

A mine shaft.

It was perfect. She galloped full force into the opening, crawling through the narrow entrance. She didn't care about the dirt on her coat or in her mane, only about outrunning the howls. After a few feet, the space opened up some, though it was too dark for her to see. Panting, she leaned against the wall of the opening. She could still hear the howls, but they were muffled now.

Feeling safe, she began to calm down. She blinked a few times as her eyes slowly adjusted to what little light made it into the cave. She expected wooden beams and signs of a hoof-made cave, but instead she was greeted by the sight of several small bear-like animals whose fur looked like various constellations in the night sky. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the Ursa cubs to be a figment of her imagination.

She realized upon opening her eyes that they weren't. The cubs were small, too small to be Ursa minor's yet. The mother wouldn't be far, and if she were there when the mother came home...

She decided she would rather chance it with the timberwolves. As silently as possible, she stood to her hooves and turned toward the exit, only to see the Mother Ursa staring at her. For what felt like the trillionth time that day, fear flooded through her veins. The bear didn't look angry yet, but she still remembered the Ursa Minor attack on the town a few months ago. Just because the animal wasn't angry didn't mean it couldn't do damage.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to calm her heart rate. She had heard that animals could smell fear and would attack because of it. She didn't calm herself as much as she would have liked, but at least now she wasn't trembling.

She barely resisted flinching when the Ursa Major moved. The huge bear kept an eye on her as it walked over to it's cubs and laid down. She stared at it, as it stared at her. Slowly, she took a step forward. The Ursa watched, but did nothing to stop her. She took another, and then another, and soon she was through the tight opening and out of the cave.

Once she made it back to the tree line, she ran as hard as she could away from the cave. The bear could still change it's mind and decide it wanted her for a midnight snack. Once she had made a suitable distance, she stopped to catch her breath.

She was fighting back tears now. She was lost with no clue how to get out of the forest. Crying wouldn't help anything, but she couldn't stop the emotions from overwhelming her. Fear, relief, worry, hunger--everything crashed down on her.

She didn't bother with keeping quiet. If anything wanted to attack her, it would have been easy to hear the sound of her fleeing from the Ursa den. What had she done to deserve this? Why had nopony been searching for her? Where were her friends and the caring townsfolk? Surely, she would have heard them on their search.

She was starting to calm down some now, anger replacing the tears, until a twig snapping made her look around, fearful again. She shrank back against a tree, watching the direction the noise had came from.

A small light appeared to be bobbing toward her. She held her breath, terrified of what it strange creature could have a light. She hid in the shadows, watching as the creature came closer and closer until she could see how it was making the light.

It was a lantern. Standing before her was the pony she had came searching for early that morning. The striped pony looked around, as if searching for something.

Grinning, she ran out from the cover of shadow and tree. She could not believe she had been saved, this day was finally over. She could go home and eat and sleep in her warm, comfortable bed, protected from the frights of the forest.

Finally, she was found. Next Chapter: "%i%" End of an Era Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes