“Hey, Dad, did you see my headphones?” the voice of a mare reached Spike’s ears. He groaned in annoyance.

“Dawn, I was sleeping, like you should still be doing… What are you doing up this early in the morning?” he asked, groggily. The teenager paid his tired state no heed.

“Uh, what else, talking to my friends on the mobile crystal.” she replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The mobile crystal was a relatively new invention. It was an oval-shaped clear crystal no thicker than a window and no larger than a hoof. It allowed the user to tune into somepony they knew, and the crystal would act as a window between them, allowing them to communicate visually and audibly across long distances.
Spike rolled his tired eyes. “Of course, worst invention since the portal device.” he groaned. “So if you’re talking to your friends, why do you need your headphones?” he asked.
Dawn just scoffed. “Duh! I wanna listen to my music now.” Spike groaned into the pillow. He thought Twilight was lucky to be such a heavy sleeper.

“Look, Dawn… I don’t know where your headphones are, so just retrace your steps and piss off.” he said, trying to make himself comfortable again.

“You’re a model parent, you know that?” Dawn asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, it shows in your personality.” Spike replied with a comeback. Dawn just scoffed once more and closed the door to her parents’ bedroom behind her.
Slightly annoyed by her father’s uselessness in relation to her headphones, she scowled as she made her trek back to her room. She passed some of the guards, but they knew better than to address her when she showed a mad face. The halls were pretty dark, even this early in the morning, but thanks to Dawn’s draconic eyesight, she could see well enough. Her room was close to her parents’ despite her numerous protests. She flung the door open and began her search anew. She checked on her dresser, under her pillows, under the bed itself, under the covers, on the balcony, in her bedside drawers, her cupboard, behind her changing screen, in her bathroom; nothing. There was no sign of the blasted headphones anywhere. She began to try and recall where she left them last, rubbing her neck in the action. It was then a shade of red flew across her face. She could feel them already around her neck. She removed them and examined them to double-check that the object around her neck was indeed the object she was looking for. Though nopony was around, she blushed still. She owed her father an apology.

Suddenly, she saw the glow of her mobile crystal. Almost instantly after the glow lit up, the chiming sound rang, signifying to her where she’d left it last. She made her way to her bed and picked up the crystal with her talons.

“Answer.” she said to the crystal. The ringing died down and the transparent image of her friend and secret crush appeared. “Skyler! What a pleasant surprise.” she said, blushing once more, thankfully, the transparency on the crystals made it impossible for anypony to tell.

“Hey Dawn, sorry for callin’ at this hour I didn’t wake you, did I?” Skyler’s voice replied through the crystal. Dawn could see that he was trying to get a closer look as his eye became all that she could see through the crystal. She felt this the time to act strong in order to earn some appeal.

“Nah, I’m more of a night owl, anyway. I was just sittin’ back, chillin’ in ma room.” Even she thought she was starting to sound stupid. Fortunately, Skyler didn’t seem to mind.

“That’s good to know. Listen, I called you up to tell you that some friends and I are out in the ‘Red Forest’ and we found something totally awesome. I figured you’d wanna see it for yourself. You interested?” Skyler asked. Dawn thought he was going to ask her out, make her dreams come true, but the discovery of something labelled ‘awesome’ was almost as good. Dawn didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Heck, yeah! Where in the forest are you I’m on my way now.” she asked. Skyler looked around, seemingly unsure of his exact location.

“I’m not sure… maybe two or five miles in, just south of the centre?” he replied. Dawn smiled as she strapped a saddlebag to herself and pocketed the crystal.

“Alright Sky, I’ll see you there. I’ll call you back if I can’t find you.” she said The muffled farewell of her crush could be heard through the pocket.

“Hang up.” she whispered to the crystal. A single chime indicated that her command had been accepted. She proceeded to pack a few essentials into her saddlebag. These essentials included some money for breakfast should the little expedition last longer than expected. A rope in case what Skyler had discovered required a descent too small for wings to work. Lipstick, should the morning take them anywhere. Finally, her headphones so she could listen to her music on the way there. Her headphones were magically attuned to her stereo, so she could listen from anywhere in Equestria.
Feeling set for the journey, she leaped off from her balcony and took flight, headed south of her parents’ kingdom to the ‘Red Forest’.

The morning air was frightfully cold. Dawn was unused to flying this early in the morning. It was still dark out, but the edge of the morning sun’s light could be seen through the lighter colouring of the sky towards the East. Despite the cold, she liked the view. This was her namesake; the dawn of the day. She decided to enjoy herself, taking solace in the silence of the night, save the wind whistling past her ears. She began to spiral in the air as her wings cut through the wind like a blade through water. Such a scene made her happy. It was a rarity for her to be happy without some form of communication or musical sustenance serenading her ears.

Her reverie was cut short as somepony called her name from above. The hybrid looked up to see the Captain of the Dawnguard and Astrobolts, Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus was dressed in her typical training clothes which consisted of sweat bands around her hooves and forehead, and a fluorescent yellow coat over her body. She flew down to meet Dawn.

“Fancy seeing you out here so early.” Dash remarked. Dawn smiled and looked ahead for a moment to make sure she was still on the right path.

“Yeah, got a call to check something out. What about you, you’re not on duty for another hour.” Dawn replied. Dash shrugged in turn.

“Yeah, well my guards can’t keep up with me unless I wear myself out before morning training, so I do a little extra workout to take away some of the energy.” she replied. Dawn was always surprised to find out just how much energy Rainbow Dash had. It was as if she were getting stronger every day. Anypony would think she were the hybrid, what with her strength. “So what’s this thing you’ve been called out to check on?” Dash asked, changing the subject.

“Dunno. Skyler told me that he and some friends found something interesting and asked if I wanted to check it out.” Dawn replied.

“And because you’re like, super-hot for him, you couldn’t refuse, right?” Dash teased. Dawn scowled at the Pegasus.

“Well I was going to ask if you wanted to come along, but I don’t think I will now.” Dawn thought she had the upper hand then.

“Sorry, kiddo. But a princess such as yourself can’t go wandering aimlessly into a forest without protection. As Captain of the Dawnguard, I’m afraid I’m obligated to accompany you, whether you want me to or not.” Dash retorted. Dawn cursed under her breath, letting the wind take it away. She sighed in resignation and nodded to the cerulean mare.

“Alright then, but please don’t be like a parent and embarrass me in front of my friends especially Skyler?” she asked on the verge of begging. Dash huffed with pride.

“Please, you forget who you’re talking to. I’m Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Astrobolts; the only flying team that poses a threat to the Wonderbolts in terms of awesomeness. If anything my presence will make you appear to them as twenty percent cooler.” boasted the Pegasus. Dawn managed a chuckle and nodded in agreement. Their conversation ended there as the two of them sped off to their destination.

The ‘Red Forest’ was named as such after the Alchemically produced red trees were grown over one of the largest battlefields in the Great War, as a sign of remembrance to those who had fallen in battle. The forest had grown faster than any before, and some believed that it had become a cruel red sister forest to the Everfree. It was public knowledge that dangerous creatures of unknown origin resided within the forest; creatures that could dwarf a Hydra in terms of ferocity. Some believed the forest to be the home to the angered souls of the fallen who believed their deaths to have been in vain. Others believed that new creatures had grown from the forest, just as the trees had done. But all agreed that the forest contained things that had evolved in some way to kill and/or eat ponies. There were commonly known dead zones where no life was present within the forest and that was the closest thing to safe within it. The centre of the forest was one such zone.
Dawn and Rainbow Dash glided just above the treeline, scanning the area for the ponies who dared to venture into such a place. They made their way southward from the centre of the dead zone, looking, listening for any sign.

“Down there!” Dawn called out to Rainbow Dash as she pointed toward the small group of ponies gathered around together. Dash regrouped with Dawn and they descended together.
It unnerved both mares when they saw the group wounded and exhausted. Even Skyler looked pretty banged up.

“What in Equestria happened here?” Dawn asked, rushing to Skyler’s aid. The lime and blue Pegasus was shaky as he spoke.

“M-m-m-m-monster… emerged… from the… thing we found. W-w-w-we thought it w-w-was a c-c-crystal from s-s-s-s-space. B-b-b-but it w-w-was an e… It was an e… an e…” Skyler couldn’t get the last word out, but Dash seemed to know what he was going to say.

“Egg?” she asked, the casual tone gone from her voice. It was one of those rare times when Rainbow Dash seemed more like a Guard than an Astrobolt. To the chagrin of Both newcomers, Skyler nodded. One of the other party members began to cry in frustration.

“Looks like another conspiracy can be added to the rumours of the forest; spirits, evolved creatures and now aliens. We have to get these ponies out of here.” she said. Dawn was prepared to follow those instructions, but no sooner had Dash given the command, that something foul had made itself known to them in the distance. Skyler lost all sense of composure and crawled into Dawn’s forelegs, hugging her for dear life. While this might have been a dream come true for her, the circumstances countered it perfectly.

“It’s coming.” Skyler said, barely above a whisper.

Author's Note

So, first Chapter. For those of you who might be confused as to where I'm going with this, I've changed the plot of the story. So instead of her being taken by dragons, she's going to be taken by a Red Forest creature from space. Everything else is pretty much the same. Enjoy.