Twilight awoke to the darkness of a cave. Or, at least she assumed it to be a cave.

For around a minute, Twilight could see nothing but darkness, not even when she placed her hoof right in front of her eyes. When her eyesight returned, the view was no better; all around her were the bones of animals, squirrels, birds, and fish, anything the creature could find while hunting.

She had woken up in the Chimera's den, and this was its feeding ground.

Twilight immediately, slowly began to glance around the cave, but saw nothing around her. This didn't help her one bit; she knew that the Chimera was still here, and not knowing where it was hiding was worse than seeing it two feet away. It was when Twilight tried to rise to her hooves and walk around that she noticed her problem. Every step she took made her dizzy and caused her to see double, and it wasn't long until she collapsed in her tracks. Feeling an ache in her hind leg, Twilight rolled over onto her back and raised it so she could see. Where Twilight's leg met her flank, two small and barely noticeable puncture wounds dotted the flesh; fang marks. The Chimera's snake tail must have bitten her while she was preoccupied with its other heads, which explained why she ended up here without memory of getting this place. What's worse, she could be anywhere right now; far away from civilization or help, and of course, she didn't tell anyone where she was going, meaning that it could be a while until somepony got worried and went out to look for her. Twilight didn't even know how much time had passed, as waking up in the cave made it impossible to tell how long it had been.

Twilight had to get out of here. Rolling back onto her belly with the crunch of tiny bones beneath her weight, Twilight rose to her hooves once again and limped towards the mouth of the feeding den, trying not to put any effort onto her bad leg. Before long, however, Twilight's vision went fuzzy again and she suddenly got bone-tired and short of breath. Crashing back down to the ground with a winded, pained gasp, Twilight lay there for a short while, but didn't feel any better.

"Urrrrrggh!" Twilight groaned in frustration, the sound reverberating off of the walls of the cave.

Day or night, it was going to be a long, painful time before she got out of here.

The trees of the Everfree had spent many a day echoing the sounds of nature; the whistling of the wind through the leaves, the cicadas and crickets and birds with their idle chirping, the ethereal howling calls of Timberwolves in the night, and even the roars and growls of prowling beasts. Now, they echoed the calls of ponies, calls into the suffocating abyss for a forlorn, imperilled friend.

"Twilight!" Rarity called. When no answer came, Applejack, who searched just as hard as she did not fifty yards away, bellowed out the call with all of the might in her lungs, which was saying a lot.

"TWILIGHT!" the cry sounded like a thunderclap in the silence.

No answer.

Just around that moment, Fluttershy, who had taken to the skies to get a better view, descended through the foliage like she was nothing more than a leaf and touched down with the softest of sounds. As much as she preferred the ground to the air, she would gladly take the place that Rainbow would usually take if it meant finding Twilight quicker.

Before Rarity could speak, Spike, who had taken to searching alongside her, piped up.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Nothing," Fluttershy said sadly, doing her best to avoid Spike's worried gaze. Instead, she focused on Rarity and locked eyes with her, which made Rarity focus on the tree behind her to avoid looking into the eyes that made Cockatrices turn into craven cowards. "I looked through every valley, gorge, cliff, river, clearing, wood and bramble patch, but I didn't see anything."

Applejack had made her way to them, grumbling something about this going faster if Rainbow was here, but no, she was off on her own again. Looking around, Rarity saw one of her friends was unaccounted for.

"Where's Pi—"

"I didn't find anything either!"

Rarity's eyes were darting around looking for the source of the noise when suddenly, Pinkie Pie was right there, popping downwards from the branches of a tree like some strange, fuchsia whack-a-mole. Rarity jumped back a few steps with a startled yip, which in spite of the situation caused Applejack to chuckle at Rarity's expense. Even Fluttershy cracked a ghost of a smile before retreating back into her usual, reclusive state.

"Uh, Applejack," Rarity said, turning to the orange mare, "where did Rainbow say Twilight was again?"

Applejack sighed. "I told ya already, Rainbow said she was 'in the Everfree'". She turned and spat into a bush. "Real darned descriptive, huh?"

"Maybe… maybe we could split up," Spike suggested. "You know, divide and conquer. We'd sure be able to cover more ground that way."

Applejack shook her head. "Ain't gonna happen," she insisted. "If what Dash said was true, Twilight went out to look for this James guy and wound up goin' missing. He's prob'ly out there now, waiting for just that kinda opportunity so he can pick us off one at a time."

"Oh?" Rarity said. "And, pray, where exactly is Rainbow Dash now?"

"She said she'd go ahead of us…" Applejack replied.

"And, do you realize that she, in doing that, has completely disregarded her own advice?"

"You don't think I know that!?"

"No. But I do think that you've forgotten what happened the last time Rainbow pulled that stunt."

"You'd do the exact same thing as much as I would, given half a chance! 'Sides, it would've taken much longer for us to figure something was wrong without her tellin' me!"

"Really?" Spike suddenly retorted. "And yet my going around saying 'Twilight's gone and I haven't seen her all day' wouldn't clue you in?"

"Uhm…" Fluttershy muttered. A cold feeling had found its way into the forest, brushing past the group and making it feel as though something had eyes on them. Her head began to hurt, and a ringing sound started up in her ears.

"Not immediately!" Applejack objected. "Ah'm just sayin' that none of us wouldn't take the chance to find whatever was responsible for a friend goin' missing and make it pay! Right, Pinkie?"

"Wha-!" Pinkie was caught off-guard for once. "Don't—don't drag me into this!"

"See?" Rarity said in response. "You sound just like Dash did when we pried her out of that tree. I don't think you've gotten over it as well as you let on, do you?"

"Girls… girls!" Fluttershy tried to get an assertive edge into her voice, but it felt like her tongue was slipping into a knot. The ringing grew louder and louder.

"You don't have enough of an idea what this guy's like to know! But then again, you weren't there for most of it, so why would you?"

"How DARE you!? I'll have you know it wasn't my fault he got away in the first place!"

"Please! Stop!" Fluttershy begged.

Nopony was listening at that point, however; they were all too busy yelling at one another. The cold feeling got worse as the pain in Fluttershy's head grew and the sound in her ears became deafening. A well of anger, spite and resentment began to stir in her gut; at herself, at her friends, at everything. And all the while, Twilight was somewhere in danger, and even now it could be too late to save her. It was too much to bear—Fluttershy had to get it out of her. All the anger, the rage… it had to be let out.

"ENOUGH!"

The ringing in her ears stopped, along with every other noise. Now it was the silence that was deafening and every head was turned towards her. Warmth returned to the area, as if the cold feeling had run off to hide somewhere. Fluttershy did her best to reel in her anger before continuing.

"Please, everypony… enough," she said. "I know that you're all angry, and that it makes you feel better to take your anger out on something. But this isn't helping us, or Twilight, for that matter. We need to stay calm, and stick together as friends, because if we don't, it'll be just as bad as if we decided to split up. Worse. So let's not fall apart now; we'll finish this together."

For a moment that seemed to last forever, the group stood still. Then they gathered their composure, apologized to one another, and continued as though nothing had happened. At the back of the group, Applejack approached Rarity and walked beside her for a few minutes in silence. Then she spoke.

"Lissen, Rarity…" she began.

"It's okay, Applejack," Rarity cut her off. "What's past is past."

The quiet persevered for another few seconds before Applejack spoke again.

"You were right, you know," she said. "About me not getting over it. I haven't. It's just that…"

"…Go on," Rarity said, "I'm listening."

"…I wanna be there, Rarity," Applejack replied. "Dash has no right goin' after this guy alone. If she was right about what she said… if James and Twilight really did cross paths, and he hurt her… I want to be there to bring him in too."

Rarity considered this. "So do I," she said gently. "But Twilight is what matters now. We need to find her, and once we do, we'll go after him and end this—once and for all."

Above the group's heads, off in the distance, a low rumble sounded, and the petrichor scent of rain began to fill the air.

"Storm's comin'" Applejack mused.

"Let's just hope," Rarity replied, "that we find Twilight before then."

'Inch by inch, Twilight,' she reassured herself. 'Ignore the short, frequent bursts of horrible, terrible pain pulsing through your body, and just…keep…going. Inch by inch.'

Slowly but surely, Twilight was crawling through the dank, moist cave. Every movement made her ache all over, and every few feet she'd have to stop for a breather and fight to remain conscious. Chimera venom wasn't deadly, from what she had researched; more like it made whatever prey it caught wish that it was dead, weaken and soften it until the monster was ready to eat. Twilight neither expected nor desired to experience it firsthoof, but here she was, and she felt like a huge pile of dragon droppings.

During one of these rest periods, Twilight took the time to check her bite wound. Even under the fur of her coat, Twilight could see the flesh around the mark turning a deep green hue. It suddenly occurred to her that, even if she did get out of here, without proper treatment, the venom would spread in a matter of hours. Who knows what could happen then…

'No,' Twilight insisted to herself. 'It won't happen that way! I'm getting out of here; my friends are going to find me!'

Renewed by the thought of her friends coming to the rescue, Twilight immediately forced herself to her hooves and began to move at a loping gait towards the mouth of the cave where she saw the light of the forest beyond. It was a great effort, but she finally managed to reach the mouth of the cave… before succumbing to wave after wave of pain from exertion and collapsing once more. Blackness crept into the edges of her vision, and this time she was unable to move.

And then Twilight heard a familiar voice. It sounded like it was in her head, but it could very well have been right in front of her. A dark, fuzzy figure appeared in her fading vision, walking towards her and stopping short to crouch down next to her.

"Will they now?" the apparition said mockingly. "They won't if I find them first."

Twilight had used up her strength by staggering to the cave mouth, and could only stare ahead and use what willpower she had left to focus on staying awake.

"Did you think it was a coincidence that the Chimera just happened upon you?" the apparition continued. "No. I had seen it a few weeks prior to this incident; all it took was for me to lure it to you and make sure it got a good hit in."

'You…' Twilight's head spun. 'Why… why did I ever think… to trust you?'

She tried to pour some willpower into her horn, tried to force out a spell that would hit the apparition and blast it to cinders. But it felt like it was falling off of her head.

"What's wrong?" it said to her. "Feeling tired? Feeling weak? That's what you are, isn't it? Weak, sad, and pathetic, the whole lot of you. And, as history shows us, fate favours the strong—" The apparition caught a hovering dragonfly from the air and crushed it in its hand. "…And the strong are strongest alone."

Spots began to dance in Twilight's vision, but she wouldn't give in—not now.

'You're wrong,' she thought. 'I swear I'll get through this and prove it to you.'

"The Chimera will be back soon," the apparition said, appearing to glance over its shoulder, "so I'll have to leave you. But I'd like you to know this; your friends have no chance. One by one, they're going to walk into a trap and… well, you won't be there to see it, so it doesn't matter."

The apparition turned to leave, but stopped and turned to say one more thing.

"Oh, Twilight," it said. "When you get to the afterlife… be sure to tell Rainbow 'hi'."

With that, the phantom turned and strolled into the brush, and disappeared. Twilight couldn't recognize the figure at all, with her eyes messed up as they were, but there was only one creature on the planet with that shape.

'James.'

Twilight's vision finally began to give in, and she tilted her head to see one last thing; a squirrel, perched on a rock. It regarded her for a moment before retreating into the forest once more.

'I hate him.'

Then she blacked out and sank into unconsciousness.

For roughly an hour, the group of ponies moved in dreadful tranquility, punctuated by distant thunder and calls into the forest for Twilight. And yet every time, no response came. Though nopony would admit it, a fear had begun to settle into each of their minds; what exactly happened to Twilight? Would they ever know?

Better yet, would they want to know?

It was only when the group reached the familiar clearing that they got some clue as to what went wrong. The group entered the clearing, which was as sunny and pretty as ever save for one obvious flaw; a single boulder by the banks of the river that cut through the clearing had been split in two.

"This," Applejack said, "was where we confronted James the first time."

"Look," Pinkie Pie said quickly, needlessly nudging Applejack several times to get her attention. "That rock over there is broken in half. Reminds me of my childhood, kind of," she muttered afterward.

"Yup," Applejack murmured. "Twilight was here, all right. I can see hoof tracks in the dirt. James was here too, on account of his weird prints in the dirt nearby." She clenched her jaw. "That boulder… somethin' went down here."

"You're forgetting something," Rarity added. "If this is where James and Twilight ended up coming to blows, then that means both of them could still be here."

Applejack considered this for a moment. "Spread out," she said finally. "And be careful. This place seems… quieter than usual."

The group split up and started to search around the clearing; Rarity and Spike circling to the left, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to the right. Together, the party made their rounds about the clearing, checking every angle and making sure that there was no way James could get the drop on them. Still there were no definite signs as to what happened to Twilight. Rarity was wandering on one side of the clearing next to the river and was about to give up hope when Spike noticed something odd and brought it to her attention.

"Rarity," Spike said. "Look at this."

He was holding a length of thick vines in his hands, which Rarity didn't see as so special until he unraveled it into its full length. It had been tied into a loop at one end, and was frayed at the other, as though it had been cut by something. When Rarity asked Spike where he found it, he led her to a hanging vine from a tree. Closer examination made it clear that it was an artificial construct; a trap. And it was highly likely that James wouldn't make just one…

Moving back into the centre of the clearing, Rarity caught sight of her friends and hollered at them. "Be careful!" she yelled.

"Got it!" Pinkie yelled back, turning to face Rarity and walking backward without looking where she was going. "This guy could be anysuch place, and it's dangerous. Applejack's told us a kajillion times!"

"No, you don't understand! There are—"

"It's okay, Rarity! If my middle name wasn't already 'Diane', the first other choice would have been 'fun', the second 'laughter', and the third, 'cautious'! Or, maybe it would've been 'smile'… uhm… the fourth choice would've been—"

Snap!

"WHOOP!" And suddenly, Pinkie was suspended from a tree by her leg, her poofy mane looking like a trail of thick pink smoke.

Rarity and Spike approached the rest of the group, with Rarity shaking her head.

"You were saying?" she asked sarcastically.

As the group tried to dismantle the trap and lower their friend to the ground, Fluttershy felt a slight tug on her mane. When she didn't immediately respond to it, there was a sharp yank, causing Fluttershy's head to tilt slightly. She looked down to see a squirrel at her side, frantically chittering and tugging on her mane to get her attention.

"Uhm… girls?" Fluttershy said to the group, keeping her attention on the squirrel pointing towards the northeast anxiously. They weren't listening to her.

"Okay," Rarity explained, "what we're going to do, Pinkie, is suspend you so that your hooves are facing the ground…"

"Uh-huh," Pinkie replied.

"And then I'll cut the vine and you'll land hooves-first."

"Get a good grip on my neck," Applejack said.

Fluttershy turned towards the group and said with more urgency, "Girls!"

Rarity quickly cut the vine, causing Pinkie to fall on her back hooves and trip, dragging Applejack down with her. As the two awkwardly stumbled back up, all four of their heads turned to her.

"Yes?" they asked in unison.

Fluttershy gestured to the squirrel with her hoof. "I think this little guy's trying to show us something," she said, turning back to the creature. "Right?" The squirrel nodded.

Before her friends could find an answer to this, the squirrel ran off, with Fluttershy right behind it. "Come on!" she called back to them.

"Wha—hang on, Fluttershy!" Applejack yelled after her. But it had already happened; the entire group was following her on behalf of a squirrel looking for Twilight.

Thunder rumbled overhead once more, and it was much closer this time.

Under the darkness of the storm-grey clouds, James moved as quickly as possible. He was hoping to find a cave or perhaps a hollow tree to take refuge in until the storm passed, with the booming drums of approaching rain beating louder and louder with each thunderclap. Admittedly, he was a little sick of getting soaked.

After what had transpired with Twilight, the storm did nothing to take him off edge. He felt like someone was still after him, and it was only a matter of time until one of them got sick of waiting and made a scene. He'd have to be ready, then; like he said, they'd have to take him standing. If they didn't have the guts for that, there would be no other way. That being said, he no longer wanted to fight off waves of attacks. He just had to get out of here, and if he couldn't get home, he could at least flee the country until he found a way.

'Always a way,' he thought. 'Always, always a way.'

Rain began to patter lightly at the ground as James quickened his pace slightly. Suddenly, the scenery changed from trees to flat grass; another clearing. Why does this forest have so many damn clearings?

Regardless, he was halfway across the clearing when it began to pour buckets. But the real thing that ruined his day happened when he was three-quarters of the way across. It would seem that the time to make a scene, as it were, had arrived.

"JAMES!" she roared, clear over the crack of thunder loud enough to deafen. James turned to see a many-coloured comet streak down from the sky faster than his eye could follow and land with the same grace of a comet on the other side of the clearing.

There was a flash of forked lightning, splitting the sky. It all seemed so unrealistic, with her standing there like some poster for a revenge movie, a baleful glare in her eyes. James was staring at Rainbow Dash; big, proud, and angrier than he'd ever seen her.

There would be no avoiding her this time.