An Unnatural Survival Experience

Rusty's eyes slowly opened. He rubbed them as he adjusted to the light.

Then he realized there wasn't any light to adjust to.

He got on his hooves and looked around. Trees everywhere. Was this the Everfree Forest?

He slowly walked forward, until he tripped on something.

A pony- no wait, two ponies. Out cold.

Then he bumped into a tree. No wait, another pony ((and not Fluttershy)).
Very small pony, at that.

What the buck was going on?

((Turn order: LegendaryPwny, Gemini Starshade, BrawnyHooves, KID, TheArcadeFire, repeat))

Gemini stirs slightly as Rusty trips over him, turning over with a small mutter before his eyes flutter open, trying to look around without really moving his head.' Trees, grass under me, some random pony just tripped over me...Definitely not my house.' Gemini stretches out with a yawn before standing up, looking around before stopping at Rusty." Uh...Hi?"

Brawny gets up a little dazed, but looks the wrong way from the other ponies. "I hear you, but I can't see you. Stop playing with me!" Brawny turns around and sees the other two, a little embarrassed. "Oh, hello." He looks around seeing nothing but darkness and trees. "Eh, I've woken up in worse places."

"Wha---?" Kid said as woke up out of a dead sleep when he felt somepony bump into him. Realizing he had been sleeping upside down on his head the entire time.

He turned right side up and got up on his hooves. Looking around he noticed he seemed to be in a darkly forested area with three others.

Looking at the other three, he waved cautiously. 'Where the hay am I? and who the hay are those stallions?' Kid thought to himself, not wanting to speak just yet, in case he needed to save his breath.

Rusty had no idea what was going on, but he was guessing that none of the other ponies did either.

"Ok, fellow confused ponies," Rusty said, "we are probably in the everfree forest. I don't know how deep we are in here, but we need to survive somehow and get out. We should introduce ourselves, and head in one specific direction and never waver from that direction until we find a trail. Then we follow that trail until we are out of here."

"I'm Rusty. I specialize in potion making."

Rusty waited for another pony to speak.

"I'm Gemini. I specialize in...Well, learning quickly, I guess. Never really figured out my special talent, just that I was good at copying others." Gemini says, glancing at the other ponies to remember they're faces." Oh, hey Brawny."

Brawny only recognized the pegasus that he liked to call Gem Gem. "Hello Gem Gem." He looks back at the other two. "I am Brawny Hooves, and I am aspiring musician, and I'm not bad in a hoof-to-hoof fight." Brawny looks at the colt, feeling a little worried about him in this situation

Kid felt as though this wasn't the first time he had to state his name and what he was good at. Looking at the three older stallions, he started to feel intimidated.

"and I'm not bad in a hoof-to-hoof fight."

Well, that didn't make Kid feel any safer. But, if he was stuck in the Everfree, he ought to trust them, lest he get left here.

"I'm Kid and..." Kid stopped as he realized the only thing he could say would be 'ex-con artist.' And despite how he was going to have to rely on these ponies for his life, he didn't want to tell them his past quite yet.

"All right then! Now.." Rusty looked at all these ponies, "I was thinking we should go..." he randomly pointed in a direction with his hoof, "THAT WAY! No wait-" he changed his direction, "THAT way!"

Gemini rolled his eyes, glancing up at the thick canopy above him with a sigh." How about we figure out how we got here first? Anypony got any ideas on what the hay happened?"

Brawny looks over at Gemini. "Your guess is better than mine. I just want out of here. TO LIGHT!" Brawny runs towards Rusty but rams right into a tree. "That, my friends.... is progress in disguise. And a little head trauma." Brawny gets back up and ventures forward.

Kid winced as he saw Brawny smash into the tree. How somepony could do that can call it 'progress' was beyond him. Kid did however start looking around where he was and noticed a tree that looks like somepony could climb it. Not wanting to distract anypony from formulating a plan, he quietly trotted over to the tree and hopped up to the first branch he could reach.

"You all right, Brawny?"

Rusty looked over at him, and, as his eyes got adjusted to the dark, he saw the plants around Brawny. Those flowers, all of them were poison joke!

And all around Rusty! Were they all standing in a poison joke patch?

Gemini was unaware of the poison joke flowers around them, instead looking up at Kid." Where you headed, Kid?" He hovers up next to him, looking around a bit.

"Well, that's just dandy." Brawny notices the Poison Joke and tries to be optimistic about it. "Wonder what's gonna happen to us. This'll be interesting." This just made him want to get out twice as fast

"I have an idea of getting a birds eye view of everything." Kid said has he hopped up to another branch. "Maybe that way we can start formulating a way to get out of here."
Kid continued jumping up from branch to branch.

"Good idea, kid!" Rusty said, thinking he should do the same.

Well, he tried to say that. For some reason, he did not say "Good idea, Kid!" But "Doog aedi, Dik!"

Why was he talking like that?

As much as Rusty thought about it, he couldn't connect it to current events.
Odd, Rusty thought to himself, I was always so good at making connections and observing things.

Gemini looked down at Rusty in confusion." What was that?" Whatever the earth pony said, it made absolutely no sense to Gemini, then spots the poison joke below them." Is...Are those blue flowers what I think they are?"

Brawny trips over into the Poison Joke. "Didn't picture my day turning out like this. We got a pony speaking backwards and flowers that make us backwards." Brawny tries to get back up but can't lift himself up. "What the hay?" He tries to get back up again but falls on his back. "Well, I know what it did to me." Obviously he was getting weaker

As Kid was jumping up to the next branch, he noticed while in mid-air that it was getting larger...and farther away! Kid then started to plummet down towards the ground, thankfully he didn't jump that far up and his landing was broken by a pile of poison joke.

"Oof!" Kid exclaimed in a higher than normal pitched voice as he landed. "Well, atleast I wont have to worry about being to heavy for those branches!"

Kid then trotted over to Brawny and attempt and help him out, instead getting squished under the stallions weight.

Thunder Bird, woke up to the sound of other ponies. And when he woke up, he was in a tree. He rolled out of it in shock. And he hit the ground pretty hard, noticing a couple of stallions looking around the place. A strange blue flower surrounded him. Oh...Wait.. This was Poison Joke wasn't it. "Dear Celestia no." He muttered. He rolled around to get on his hooves, brushing off the neon blue flower. He was expecting the worst out of it. But please Celestia be something easy to cope with.

Rusty noticed this new pony fall from the inside of a tree and helped him up. It didn't seem like any of the five ponies were going to get out of here easily. Rusty then heard a very strange noise.

As he turned his head, he saw that he was looking at a pack of timber wolves.

Gemini looked down at the ponies below him, over to the new one who had fallen out of the tree, then to the pack of timberwolves with a sigh, muttering a small curse as he goes to glide down to help the others. Halfway down, he starts to feel heavier, and soon ends up crashing onto the ground." What the..." He flap his wings a few times with a small grunt of effort." I..I can't fly! Guys, I can't fly!" He yells out with a slight bit of panic in his voice.

Brawny pushes himself off off kid and just barely gets back up on all fours. He hears the timberwolves coming. No amount of words so vulgar and rage induced could sum up what Brawny wanted to say. But instead he just said: "Never pictured it ending this way." He tries to run, but from being so weak he moves extremely slow. Even a turtle could run faster than him

"It isn't ending this way!" a tiny Kid squeaked. "We know that throwing rocks at them stalls them, and if we could get our hooves on some form of fire we could burn em'!"

Kid then imagine what if this was the end, quickly shaking that off he started running over to some thinner branches, of which he could now climb up. Quickly climbing up as fast as he could to an are that he was sure the wolves couldn't get at him.

"Come on, everypony!" Tiny Kid shouted to the small group. "Rusty and new pony, help Brawny out, the poison joke isn't affecting your mobility!"