Through lapsing continuums

[Nightbow]

[45th of Summer, midday. Open to any ponies coming through the Rift.]

The time and space continuum had seemingly broken, and some unfortunate existences had fallen trough its cracking fabric, dragging them out in the middle of the nowhere that was Everfree forest. It was dark out, eclipse still on display in the high heavens.

Knight Shade had no idea what was happening. One moment he had been performing one of his own songs in front of an indifferent bar audience, painfully re-living the adversities from time before he had met Erebus, the next he was falling - or was he - into nothingness.
His stomach churned, tickling like on a colt playing on the swing set. He experienced a pricking all over his skin, very much like the one when you have just fallen asleep and wake up with the panicking sensation of falling. He was on the verge of blacking out when he landed, not as hard as he had expected, on solid ground.
The scent of wet moss filled his muzzle. Forest floor.
I must have fallen from the stage. Admittedly, the star might have taken one ale too many before his performance in order to calm his nerves. It was his first real show since the whole shadow thief episode. And I blew it, he thought, whimpering silently. But why would the bar floor smell of rain and leaves?

[Becka]

The fog was thick and... black? That wasn't right. Fennec would have assumed there was a forest fire except he could smell no smoke, hear no cracks as wood exploded from the heat. He couldn't hear his warriors either - their voices had been swallowed by the fog.

"Petoskey? Inu? Does anyone see anything?"

No one answered. He wasn't sure whether to be worried for their safety, or angry that they were ignoring their head stallion.

That will silly - these were his best friends, and some of the finest warriors he had ever met. A little fog was nothing to worry about, so long as it didn't come with a forest fire.

Fennec turned to find his warriors and return home but as he walked out of the deepest part of the fog he paused and looked around. These were not his valley's trees - they were nothing he recognized at all. He knew every inch of his forest and he knew, without a doubt, that he was not in his forest any longer. But how did he leave his land in only a few steps of fog?

"Petoskey?" He cocked his head to the side and listened to the song of unknown birds. The canopy here was thick and dark, but above that he saw only the outline of the sun. "Inu?"

"Where in Gaia am I?"

[Firefly]

"Ember? Bubbles? Twilight? Anybody?"

Firefly had absolutely no idea where she was. All she could determine was that she was in some kind of forest. It wasn't anything she knew from home, though. The pink pegasus trudged through the forest, head hanging low and ears drooping just a bit as she came to the realization that she was alone and that she wasn't home. This wasn't...

Wait... where is home, anyway?

For an instant, panic filled the brown eyes of Firefly. She had no idea where home even was anymore. What if she could never get back? Why could she only remember the names of her friends and not where she had come from? The question of how she had even gotten to a forest in the first place burned vividly in her mind, but it was one Firefly didn't want to address readily. Disregarding that question entirely, Firefly decided to trot along through the forest in the hope that she would find someone that knew something.

Her hopes seemed to be answered when she came around a corner and spotted a white pony with a purple mane. He wasn't familiar to her, but the one thing that seemed to stand out about him was the fact that he was wearing clothes. As far as Firefly knew, no one back home wore clothes. Even still, he was better than having no company at all. So, Firefly decided to take the chance and address him.

"Excuse me!" Firefly quickened her pace and began to move closer to Knight Shade. "Do you have any idea where we are? I think I'm lost..." Firefly said.

[Nightbow]

Knight Shade folded his hooves in underneath his frame, strenuously rising very much like a filly about to take her first steps. The world spun and he could apprehend dark trunks rising threateningly around him before he came crashing back down.
He was in a forest. But how was that even possible?
I must have blacked out. Somepony must have dragged me out here? Oh, whatever are they going to do to me? I thought the Greyvalers-
His gaze fell upon a figure in the dark that he had been unable to make out before. If it had actually been there before. It was a little taller than the little Bright Valley pony. Knight Shade screamed at the top of his lungs, kicking his hind legs in a panicking attempt to get away from Firefly.
"Rainbows! Please! You've got the wrong guy! I-I don't have any money, I'm just an amateur bar singer!"

[Firefly]

"Wha? Hey, wait!" Firefly called. She didn't understand what he was talking about. She'd never even seen him around before. Regardless, she wanted to at least see what she could find out from him. Maybe she was going about it the wrong way, though. ...Nah. Firefly felt like she was doing fine. The young pegasus fluttered into the air and followed after Knight Shade, seemingly no less deterred by his initial response to her appearance.

"I don't want to hurt you! I just want to know if you know where we are." Firefly said. She didn't know if he knew or not, but Knight Shade was the first pony she had seen since appearing in the forest. He had to know something... right?

[Nightbow]

The small white stallion sat on his rump, leaning back upon a front hoof as he rubbed his forehead with the other. A tiny hint of a coming headache throbbed within. Knight Shade squinted at the pony, apparently a mare, deeming from the voice.
"You ... why you are just a mare," he exclaimed with surprise. The pink pegasus that stood before him wasn't threatening in the slightest. She actually reminded him of Baby Heart Throb's mother - though those mares had actually been pretty scary when they hunted him down for abducting their foals (how ironic, it seemed this was his turn).
For a swindling moment he pitied the girl, thinking that she too was the victim of his abductors. But then he realized that she was as lost as him, stranded in what seemed like nowhere.

"I'm sorry." Knight Shade got up, brushing the pine needles from his coat. "I don't know how I got here. As silly as it may sound."

[Becka]

A scream in the forest caught Fennec's attention and he swiveled his long ears until he pinpointed where it came from and started off at a trot. His warriors wouldn't scream like that, but perhaps one of the herd fillies had wandered into the fog and gotten scared. More than likely it was his own daughter, trying to follow the warriors until she was lost and scared and possibly even hurt. She must be hurt if she screamed like that.

He picked up his pace through the trees until he saw... something. No... someone? Two someones. They looked like ponies, he supposed, but of such unnatural colors he couldn't really tell. And the one had wings like a Faye. Had Fennec wandered into the Faye-lands?

He nudged the sword at his side so they would know he was armed and then spoke. "Who are you and why are you here?"

[Firefly]

"Aww, that's all right. I don't know how I got here either." Firefly said as she set her hooves on the ground again and stood beside Knight Shade. Now that she thought about it, the white pony was rather odd looking in some respects. He had no symbol as far as she could tell, and his mane was rather poofy looking. What sort of place did he come from? Firefly wanted to ask, but she hesitated to at the same time. Since she didn't remember where she had come from, it would be silly to ask Knight Shade where he was from. It would only lead to Firefly being asked where she was from, and that would be a bit awkward to answer.

The pink pegasus offered a little smile, trying to make Knight Shade feel better about his situation, before extending her hoof slightly in greeting. "My name's Firefly. Good to meet you." Firefly said. Before she could ask Knight Shade's name, though, another voice caught her attention. Firefly glanced back to see where it was coming from and found herself faced with Fennec. He looked more than a little threatening, at least in Firefly's eyes. That didn't stop her from staying where she was. Firefly wasn't about to go running away just because she was scared.

"My name's Firefly. I... don't know why I'm here. I'm lost." Firefly replied. The last part she hated admitting. Generally, she knew where she was well enough to say that she wasn't lost. Even thinking she was lost was a bit difficult to comprehend for her.

[Nightbow]

Knight Shade returned the smile. So he was lost, but at least Firefly was on the same boat. The little stallion shook her hoof.

Suddenly Fennec stood before them, and Knight Shade immediately took a step back. He waited wide-eyed for the mare to present herself, then hurried to do the same.
"I am Knight Shade. I am lost, too," he answered, clearly intimidated.

[Becka]

So the funny colored ponies were lost, and it appeared Fennec was as well. He certainly wasn't in the valley anymore, although he couldn't have left it. He hadn't walked far enough, hadn't crossed any mountains, hadn't even made it to the river yet. But still, he could tell these were not his woods.

That didn't mean he had to admit that to them.

"Firefly, Night Shade, I am Fennec, first stallion of my herd." He bowed to them, one hoof straight out before him and the other tucked under his chest. When he stood back up he grinned. "I suppose, since you are lost, we should find a safe place to put you."

He looked around the woods and up to the strange sun. There were mountains here, but they weren't his mountains. There seemed to be a cluster of very strange, very colorful trees on the side of the largest mountain. Perhaps these colorful ponies were from there? At least the Faye one could be. Still, there should be a herd somewhere in this valley, and with a herd would come an idea of where they were and how they could return home.

He turned towards the middle of the valley based on the mountains and started walking. "Keep up," he said to the others, "or you'll be lost again."

[Will they run into guards if they try to leave the forest? Or will Eclipse find them first?]

[Nightbow]

[I'm guessing the guards haven't finished setting up camp yet, but they should be patrolling its borders. It is up to you if your characters will reach them before Eclipse comes.]

Knight Shade swallowed hard as he watched Fennec bow to them, not sure what was going on. But it seemed they were out of harm's way. He giggled nervously. The little white stallion felt thankful even though he couldn't find any words to express this. He too cast a glance upon the eclipsed sun. That thing is freaking me out. Are we even in Ponyland?
With Fennec as the natural leader, Knight Shade followed closely behind him, glancing at Firefly to suggest she did the same.

[Eventide]

Four pairs of yellow eyes glistened in the poor light of day. Heavy clawed feet kicked at the ground in protest. It was the Stonebacks. Awakened from their slumber in the ruins they now roamed the forest with grumbling stomachs.
Suddenly the huge armadillo-like creatures came to a stop and smelled the air. Through the trees they spotted three ponies. Targeting their prey, the quintet of monsters charged for the ponies with their ivory teeth bared.

The first one positioned himself in front of the group, holding them up. He growled at Fennec.
The others came from the sides, one of them nipping at Firefly's feet and the other attempting to clasp his jaws shut around Knight Shade's tail. The fourth came running from behind as back up, blocking their victims' escape route.

[Becka]

Fennec had never seen anything like the creature that stood before him now, growling low in warning. With a quick movement his sword was out and ready and he sliced the air between them as his own warning. If this thing wanted a fight, Fennec would be more than happy to oblige.

His ears turned and caught the noise of the other two snapping their jaws at his companions. "I don't suppose either of you have a weapon? Or know how to use a dagger?" He had one strapped to his ankle, but if they didn't know how to use it they were more likely to hurt themselves then one of these creatures.

[Nightbow]

Knight Shade froze with fear, shying away from his attacker. He didn't dare to back off too fast in case he provoked the creature or got flanked by another one. Oh snap ohsnapohsnap ...
The little white male only uttered a dumb:
"Hu-?" As the mighty stallion offered the pair to use his dagger, incapable of responding in any other way. Weapons were fairly uncommon in Greyvale, but he had seen them before.
The stoneback came closer, and Knight Shade tried to convince it to leave him alone. "Stand back! Don't!-" Too late. The alligator-like maw locked around the hoof that Knight Shade held protectively in front of is chest. Blood gushed forth and the rock star yelled with pain as he tore his flesh free from the jagged teeth.

"Back off, you!" He stomped the ground furiously, as hard as he could with one foreleg injured. Knight Shade bucked and one back hoof hit the stoneback right between it's eyes, causing it to flinch just a moment - but it did not seem like it was harmed.

[Feel free to NPC the monsters!]

[Becka]

[Waiting for Firefly to catch up before I move on with Fennec - he'll be properly jealous of her wings ;P]