Writing is Magic

  *CREAK*

          As if to answer Rarity’s question, the front door slowly swung open, in the doorway stood a little purple- and green-scaled dragon.

          “Ah, there you are Spikey-wikey,” Rarity cooed, “We’ve all been wondering where you and Twilight have been.”

          “Twilight…forest,” the baby dragon huffed.

          “Spit it out, Spike,” Applejack stomped, “What are ya trying to say?”

          “Twilight went into the Everfree Forest last night and I haven’t seen her since!”

          Everypony collectively gasped.

          “The…Everfree…Forest,” Fluttershy shuddered, quickly diving behind Applejack.

          “I already told Rainbow,” Spike continued, “She’s going to try to find Twilight from the air.”

          “Yee-haw, sounds like a rescue mission. Come on, gals, let’s get going.”

          Applejack and Pinkie Pie followed Spike out the door, the latter carrying an obviously frightened Fluttershy. Rarity started after them, but then stopped.

          “Art, you can come along if you would like. That is, if you’re not afraid of the forest.”

          I took off behind them without saying a word. Before I knew it, we were a mile into the Everfree Forest. The others, mostly Pinkie, were obviously trying to scare me. Thinking just because I’m a city pony that I’m easily frightened.

          “I’m really worried,” Spike said at about this time, “I mean, what kind of trouble could Twilight find in the forest that she couldn’t handle on her own?”

          “Oh Spike, it’ll be fine,” Pinkie cheerfully interjected, “We’ll find Twilight, she’ll be fine, and then we can go home and finish the party!”

          “A party,” a voice called from the sky, “where?”

          A Pegasus pony landed next to us. She was blue with a multi-color mane.

          “Bout time ya got ‘ere, Rainbow,” Applejack semi-scolded, “have anything to report?”

          “Nope, sorry. Couldn’t find Twilight anywhere.”

          “Well stick with us on the ground. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

          Soon we came across a large cave, sort of like the kind you would think of a dragon living in, but of course in the forest instead of on a mountainside.

          “You don’t think Twilight’s in there, do you,” Spike asked.

          “Only one way to find out,” Applejack answered, stepping toward the cave’s entrance, “I’ll go in there and scout it out.”

          “You’re going to go in there,” Fluttershy meekly uttered, “You don’t have to.”

          “Fluttershy’s right,” I said, “You shouldn’t go in there alone. We’ll all go, safety in numbers, as they say.”

          And so in we went, Applejack in front, Rarity and I behind her, and Pinkie pushing Fluttershy.

          The cave was even bigger on the inside. It seemed to go on forever. I recall Pinkie making a joke about coming out on the other side of the Crystal Empire, but I can’t exactly remember it. Anyway, we finally made it to what could only be assumed to be the belly of the cave. Inside the big room were two very large creatures: a blue, opaque, bear-like animal and a much larger, purple animal which also resembled a bear.

          “Holy hayseed,” Applejack whispered, “is that what I think it is?”

          “An Ursa Major and an Ursa Minor,” I said, astonished, “I’ve never seen these creatures in person before. Oh, this would be a good start to a new book. I’ll call it, ‘Mystical Creatures of the Everfree Forest.’”

          “That sounds like a good read,” Rarity complimented, “but perhaps you can do your research when we aren’t searching for our friend.”

          “Fair enough, but then what are we going to do about her?”

          The others all looked where I pointed. There was a purple pony, tied tightly to a rather large rock. She had both unicorn and Pegasus qualities.

          “That’s her,” Pinkie Pie almost shouted, “that’s Twilight.”

          “She’s an Alicorn,” I said as the others shushed Pinkie, “your friend Twilight is an Alicorn?”

          “We’ll explain later,” Rarity assured, “for now we have to figure out how to get her out of here. Anypony have any ideas?”

          “Those ropes are pretty well done,” Applejack studied, “it would take awhile to untie them.”

          “No problem,” Rainbow announced, “You guys distract the Ursa, and I’ll go over there and cut the ropes.”

          “And how in Equestria do you expect us to distract two Ursa,” Rarity questioned, “Usually, I would ask Fluttershy, but there is no way she’s up to the task right now.”

          Fluttershy was near-paralyzed out of sheer terror.

          “Does anypony else have an idea,” Rainbow asked, annoyed.

          “I have an idea,” I said, “Does anypony have a writing quill?”

          “Sure,” Spike answered, pulling out four of them, “I always pack extras, just in case.”

          “Excellent,” I declared, magically taking them from Spike and moving them around, “I just hope this works.”

          Slowly, I maneuvered the four goose quill pens into the main room of the cave, two in the direction of the Ursa Minor, two in the direction of its parent. At first, I just gently grazed the feathers against them. Then, sensing no ill response, I began to more vigorously twitch them against their bodies. Slowly, the expressions of the two creatures went from annoyance to amusement to downright laughter.

          “Go, Rainbow, go.”

          Rainbow zipped into the room, cut the ropes holding Twilight, picked her up, and exited the room in one motion.

          “You gals get out of here. I’ll be a minute.”

          The six ponies and Spike ran out of the cave. I began to slowly lessen the amount of tickling I was subjecting the Ursa to. When I felt they were reasonably subdued, I brought the pens back to me and made a mad dash for the exit, moving as fast as my city hoofs could carry me. Eventually, I made it to the mouth of the cave, the Ursa were not behind me. We were all safe.

          Later, back at Sugarcube Corner, the proper introductions were made, and my welcome party continued.

          “I can’t thank you enough for helping me out of the mess I got myself in,” Twilight said, “How did you even know to do that?”

          “The only thing I’m good at is moving pens around,” I replied, “There didn’t seem to be a reason to harm them, so I tried to disable them with laughter instead. How did those two over-sized teddy bears capture you, anyway?”

          "Suffice is to say, I should have known better. Just know that when a mystical zebra tells you to stay put, you should really stay put. The Everfree Forest is no laughing matter."

          “And like I always say, laughter’s the best medicine,” Pinkie sprung up, breaking the seriousness, “And now that everypony’s here, the party can really get going!”

          And so the party roared late into the night.