Lost in Translation - Chapter 1

Lost in Translation
Chapter 1

>Five days.
>You’ve been lost in this god-forsaken forest for five days now.
>Welcome to your new life, Anonymous. You’re going to be stuck in this forest until you’re eventually eaten by wolves.
>Or… whatever the hell was in the forest now. It had been a while; you thought you were hallucinating when the wolves seemed to be made out of tree branches…
>But that was beside the point at this time. Right now you were on the move, stalking your next prey.
>You saw tracks made in the soil of the forest, and you had been following them for the past day.
>You were starving, and you’d eat just about anything at this point. Berries, mushrooms, even leaves on occasion. You’d managed to trap two bunnies over the past few days as well. One was the best damn thing you had eaten in days, but the other had hints of rabies. You didn’t want to deal with that happening to you, so you simply left it there.
>But these tracks… these were different. Larger than bunnies, and yet didn’t have the same markings that the wolves had.
>These… were hooves.
>And from what you can remember from school, hooves only came from a few different animals.
>Giraffes, zebras… and horses. All of which would have ample amounts of meat to last you for however long you needed.
>You could already taste it.
>As you sprinted through the underbrush of the forest, you recalled vaguely different survival tips you had learned in boy scouts as a child.
>Which berries to eat, for example. “Leaves of three, leave it be! Berries white, danger in sight! Berries of blue will do harm to you!” All of these silly mantras that had been buried deep in your subconscious had suddenly come out after years of never having to use them.
>And you couldn’t be more thankful; they had saved you on more than one occasion.
>Suddenly, as you follow the tracks, they come to an abrupt stop.
>…
>Where’d it go?
>You look around, your ears hypersensitive now to any sort of sounds of the forest. Anything moves, anything BREATHES, and you can hear it.
>You take one, cautious step forward.
>And then you are falling.
>Falling down.
>You slam your head and back against a muddy surface as you hit the bottom of the hole. Someone dug a pitfall trap.
>Looks like you weren’t alone in here after all.
>You quickly manage to get to your feet, only to see that you were a good twelve or thirteen feet underground. Damn… and the walls were too far apart for you to scale it on your own.
>Wait, what’s that up there?
>You see, in the corner of the light coming from the hole above you, the silhouette of an animal’s head peek over the edge.
>As the features come into view, you can finally make out what kind of creature it is.
>A zebra, with… were those rings that it was wearing…?
>Did it just snicker at you?!
>Oh, Anonymous… you’re going to have yourself a FEAST when you get out of this hole…

>Alright. Stuck in a hole, with little to no knowledge of the forest around you…
>Yeah, you’re in just a peachy situation, aren’t you?
>You sigh, rubbing the dirt out of your eyes, before cleaning yourself off. No sense in being filthy in this hole, right?
>…Fuck man, this is getting to you way too quickly.
“Just fucking perfect…”
>You grit your teeth, slamming a fist into the moist walls of the pit. Why you? Why did it just HAVE to be you, Anonymous?!
>You keep this up for about two minutes before finally slumping to your knees once again.
>Alright, just have to keep calm… No sense in wasting energy at this point…
>You close your eyes, and take a deep, full breath in…
>Yes, Anonymous… find your center. Breathe in the nose, out th—
>You feel something smack against the top of your head.
>Your eyes shoot open, and you quickly reach for it, catching it before it reaches the ground.
>Is this a…
>…Rope?!
>You tug on it a few times, before looking up at the top of the hole. It’s… sturdy!
>Who could have thrown this down? Could someone have heard your grunting and come to help?
>Your smile is like nothing you could ever imagine. Maybe someone finally came for you! Finally, after all this time!
>You grip the rope and, with all of your might, your survival instincts, your will to live, you pull yourself out of the pitfall.
>Your first grip outside of the hole… you’ll never forget this moment. The day you triumphed over the forest, and… and…
>…And there’s nobody here.
>…
“Then who the hell threw th—”
>…
>You’re still stuck in this forest.
“FUCK!”

>Day 6 in the forest… you’ve begun to feel the effects of no social interaction begin to set in.
>You’ve begun to keep a journal… on a nearby oak tree.
>You fashioned a branch down to a sharp, precise point, and shaved the bark from a tree, and kept track of every occurrence.
>You found a pond the other day. You attempted to catch something, but with no real equipment you were out of luck.
>Still no sign of that zebra that led you to the pitfall. You still have a “special” place in your heart for when you track it down.
>…From the left… what was that?!
>You dive down behind a fallen tree trunk, keeping your breathing controlled, making sure to only take slow, quiet breaths, and only when necessary.
>It sounds like… animals communicating with each other. Whinnies, snorts, and…
>…Hoofsteps. You’d recognize that sound anywhere, even if it was on soft terrain.
>You peek over it, and see six distinct figures in the distance.
>…A bit oddly colored, mind you, but still visible.
>Time to move out, Anonymous.
>You’ve not eaten in days, and it’s time to take on your new prey.

>”What d’ya think Zecora wanted us for, Twi?” the orange pony turns to speak to her purple-colored friend. “She just sorta… well, y’know, wasn’t too keen on what she meant when she asked us for help…”
>”I’m not sure, Applejack,” the purple unicorn replies, not taking her eyes off the trail. “But as any good friend would, we need to help her in any way we can!”
>”Ah know, Twi, it’s just…” Applejack hesitates a moment before speaking again, “What if it’s somethin’ we can’t handle on our own?”
>”Hah! That’s silly!” the blue pegasus laughs, her rainbow mane flicking backward as she tilts her head back to continue her laughing fit. “We’re the Elements of Harmony! There’s no way something can beat us like that!”
>The group of six ponies all stopped when they heard a faint rustling in the bushes a few yards away. The yellow pegasus yelped out a bit in surprise, her eyes wide with fear as they shot over to where the sound came from.
>”Wh-what was that?!” she mutters frantically, pointing her hoof towards the bushes. “In the bushes, over there, I saw… something…”
 >”C’mon, Fluttershy, you can’t be scared of something so easily!” the pink pony giggles, before trotting over to the yellow one and wrapping a hoof around her neck. “There’s nothing out here that can hurt you, just watch!” she exclaims, walking over to the bushes.
>”Pinkie, I don’t believe that’s such a…” the white unicorn tries to hinder the pink pony’s movement, to no avail.
>”Aw, Rarity, don’t you remember? Just giggle at your fears, and they’ll go away, just like that!” Pinkie laughs, finally reaching the bushes and prodding them with her hoof. “See? Nothing here!” she exclaims, turning to face her friends. “Let’s keep going!”
>What she hadn’t noticed in her optimism, however, was the figure that had risen up out of the bushes just behind where she was prodding. All of the ponies had a look of sheer terror on their faces.
>”Um… girls? What’s the matter?” Pinkie asks, raising an eyebrow, before turning around and seeing the figure before her.

>End Chapter 1