Rain Lily wandered through the dreary forest on wobbly, aching limbs. She wanted to go home and forget that she'd ever done anything so stupid.
'How can I face Mom and Dad again? They'll be so mad at me for running off...And now I'll never get to visit with Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy again! What have I done?'
She sighed, glancing around the unfamiliar terrain. Her pricked her ears, hoping to catch somepony's voice on the wind. She listened quietly for a good ten minutes before giving up and continuing to wander.
She was practically starving, but she had no idea if Everfree Forest plants were edible or not. For all she knew, just walking around them was giving her some sort of terrible disease!
She kicked a stone with one of her fore hooves.
Bloop!
Rain Lily jumped. Had she just heard that? Or was she just imagining it?
She edged forward to find a cliff, leading down for about two meters before she lost sight of its wall through the river water.
"Water!" She squealed happily. Water would mean a place to clean her wounds. Plus, if she traveled downstream, she was fairly sure she'd run into somepony eventually.
Eagerly, she dove in.
The water was cool, but not quite to the point where it was unpleasantly cold. Rain Lily was surprised. She would expect a river that never got any sunlight to be absolutely freezing cold.
Still, she wasn't complaining.
She swam through it in little circles, splashing and laughing. It was wonderful. She longed to take a long drink from its depths, but the water was murky and somehow seemed thicker than it should have. It was probably her imagination, but Rain Lily decided not to take any chances by drinking the strange river water.
She dipped her head below, trying to scrub off as much of the dirt and dried blood as she could in the somewhat mucky water.
Her wounds stung, but she ignored them, just hoping they wouldn't fester. Maybe it wasn't such a good place to clean her wounds.
Rain Lily bobbed up and took a breath of refreshing air. How wonderful this river was! It would probably lead her to civilization, too. She'd soon have help to get back home!
This river had given hope to a bad situation. Rain Lily beamed at the thought of returning home, thought she was still terrified of what her parents would say.
Splash!
Rain Lily whipped around.
'What was that?'
She scanned the surface of the water. Sure enough, there was evidence of disturbed water only about six yards away. Ripples disrupted the surface of the river and tiny bubbles popped quickly.
"Who's there?" She demanded.
No answer.
"Hello? I'm Rain Lily. Who's there?'
Still no answer. Rain Lily began to get nervous.
"Friend or foe? Please answer!"
She could feel her heart rate increase. This wasn't good. Just a little more adrenaline could send her into a panic attack.
She began swimming for the riverbank, wanting to avoid whatever had just jumped into the water. Her hooves were just a few feet from touching the bank at a place there the slope was gentle enough to climb out. She was going to make it to land and get the heck out of that water.
The water suddenly crashed over her head, filling her mouth and nose. She wanted to cough, but she knew it would only make things worse.
Rain Lily flailed around, trying to find her bearings.
'Up. I have to swim up. The air is up. I have to go toward the air!'
Something was wrong. She was paddling and flailing, but she wasn't moving anywhere. She looked down, only to find herself stuck to the bottom of the river. Thin, fragile looking threads were stitched to her good hind leg just above the hoof, trailing down until they reached the bottom and went under the sand.
'How did I not notice getting sewn to the bottom of the river?'
She kicked, trying to break the threads. They only cut her. Still, she couldn't feel the cuts.
'Why doesn't it hurt? Even paper cuts hurt! Can these be too thin to feel? If so, why am I bleeding so badly?'
Her lungs ached desperately. She needed oxygen. Her flailing and paddling had wasted so much of her precious oxygen...
The river water got darker around her. Each passing second made it feel heavier, thicker, and colder. She wanted to swim away, to get out of the suffocating darkness and run as fast as she could, but how could she? It wasn't possible to leave her only good hind leg behind- especially now that she had no energy to even consider trying to chew it off.
Her lungs unable to take the pressure any longer, Rain Lily watched absently as large bubbles left her mouth one by one until there were no more. She kicked weakly one last time with her forelegs, trying to reach the surface, but to no avail.
Water rushed into her lungs and the small pony's body went limp.