WARRIORS - The Pony Prophecy

Chapter 4

Fluttershy's POV

Trees blurred past as Rainbow and I ran through the large forest. The blue-gray she-cat struggled with her injured foreleg, but she was determined to escape. She winced slightly as she sped up, but continued on, ignoring the pain. I did my best to keep up and match her pace, panting lightly as we paused at a stream that separated the forest from the open land ahead of us.

Before Rainbow could move again, I held out my tail to stop her from getting any closer to the stream and jumped across, then signalling for Rainbow to follow. "This way I can pull you over if you need help," I explained. The blue-gray she-cat nodded, leaping forward. She gripped the riverbank with her forepaws, trying to use her hind legs to push herself upward onto the grass. I reached forward and grasped the scruff of her neck in my teeth, and, careful not to hurt her, I helped pull her up.

We rested for a few moments, before the sound of a twig snapping echoed somewhere nearby, causing me to jump. I crouched low to the ground with my tail curled up beside me, listening for any other sounds. After a moment of hearing only silence and my own heartbeat, I slowly stood up, and began moving away from where I'd heard the twig. Rainbow followed beside me, her fur bristling, ready to jump out at whatever lurked out here. As we walked deeper into the moor, the scent of another fox slowly became detectable. The sun began setting, and soon I saw the silhouette of what appeared to be the fox we scented.

At once, the two of us broke into a run, even Rainbow knew we wouldn't be able to fight it off. As we ran further, the sky grew darker, and the harder it was to tell whether the fox was still chasing after us. I heard the sound of a bush rustling loudly, and very close to me. I immediately sped up, running as fast as I could. After a while, I heard nothing to indicate that the fox was anywhere near us, and I couldn't smell it either. This convinced me to stop and catch my breath.

As I looked around, I realized Rainbow Dash was no longer with me. I panicked for a moment, thinking the fox might have gotten to her. Taking a deep breath, I stood up and began retracing my steps, hoping with all my heart that the blue-gray she-cat was safe. After a few moments of still finding no sign of the fox, I felt safe enough to call out to Rainbow.

A moment of silence, and then...

"Fluttershy?"

Immediately, I sped off in the direction of the faint voice, knowing it belonged to her. Eventually, I spotted a large patch of dirt and sand with a bunch of rocks of all sizes scattered around. Laying on her side under the shadow of a particularly large rock was Rainbow Dash. As I trotted over to her, I noticed a few more scratches along her legs and cheek. 

"Rainbow, what happened?" I asked, alarmed. "Are you okay?"

The blue-gray she-cat nodded, lifting her tail off of her left hind leg, where there was a rather deep scratch, as well as some smaller ones. "Yeah, it's nothing I can't handle. The worst of it's on that leg. I lost any sign of the fox after I crashed into that bramble bush, it must of given up."

"The loud rustling!" I realized, "That was you, not the fox! Are you sure you're okay, that cut looks pretty bad." I pointed with my tail to her hind leg, which was bleeding from the scratches quite a bit. I gave it a small lick to ease the bleeding, which caused her to flinch.

"Cobweb does a bit better for bleeding than your tongue would," a new voice called from behind us, "Perhaps I should take it from here." 

I spun around to see a dark gray she-cat with silver and black patches and deep blue eyes walking slowly toward us, and carrying an assortment of leaves in her mouth.