As Octavia and the rest of her friends made their way back to Necromancers Delight, Octavia decided to ask a few questions about the forest.

"I was wondering, what's so bad about the forest?" Octavia asked.

"What's so bad about it?!" Her friends said in unison.

"Even when I was full of malice, I wouldn't put one hoof into that wretched place." Mooney said with a hint of fear in her voice.

"It's one of the scariest, horrifyingly evil places in the underworld!" Flare said, shaking like a leaf.

"Only the bravest of warriors or the stupidest of fools enters that forest." Midnight added as they entered Necromancers Delight. "I think we've got a book about places like that......." Midnight ran a hoof over the stores bookshelf until she pulled stopped and pulled one out. "ah, here it is." Midnight trotted over to Octavia with the book and gave it to her, Octavia opening it immediately.

The Black Forest and other areas to be cautious of

One of the most dangerous and typically unknown places in the underworld is the appropriately named the Black Forest. Spanning from the northern mountains that border the capital city Tartarus and the outskirts of Midnights Moonshine, it is one of the few places that crosses over into one of the other four planes of existence.

"Four planes of existence?" Octavia asked nopony in particular.

"Yeah, there are four planes of existence. There's the mortal plane, the underworld, Heaven which is the plane of celestial and holy beings, and Hell which is the plane of evil souls and infernal beings." Night Shade said with a dismissive hoof. "Just keep reading."

The Black Forest intersects with both the mortal and infernal plane, creating a sort of mediator for the mortal plane, but this is not the case here in the underworld. The black forest hosts a wide variety of animals, fauna, and other inhabitants, but don't let their appearances fool you, all are dangerous. One of its most dangerous inhabitants is the packs of sinisteeds.

Normally a territorial infernal creature, the sinisteed feeds off of innocent souls by corrupting their very nature, causing the soul to become another sinisteed. Not much is still known about the black Forest, but it is recommended to go around instead of through the Black Forest at any cost.

"I feel like there is a lot this book isn't telling me." Octavia turned towards Midnight and Night Shade. "That's good, right? The sinisteeds are the only bad ones, right?" Panic started finding its way into Octavias voice.

"I wish it were the case." Night Shade said. "The sinisteed is just one of the horrible inhabitants of that damn forest."

"Elemental wolves, trolls, carnivorous plants, undead. The list goes on and on and on." Midnight rolled her eyes. "There's even necromancers, pyromancers, red mages, and a whole assortment of vampires."

"But I thought vampires were good. Your a vampire" Octavia pointed to Midnight. "your a necromancer" she pointed to Night Shade. "and you two are the technically corrupted versions of the princesses." She then pointed to Mooney and Flare. "How are those ponies different from you?"

"They choose to use necromancy to harm others and the vampires won't hesitate to suck you dry." Night Shade said.

"That's another thing, how can we be 'sucked dry' if we're dead!" Octavia sighed. "That doesn't make sense."

Night said sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, you can die here, you just come back after it happens. But if you die by the hooves of the dark arts or if your killed too much, you'll eventually fade into nothing."

"Into nothing!"

"Look, we don't have time for this." Night Shade said as he lightly shook his head. "We're gonna need to start packing. Mooney, do you think we could borrow your crossbow?"

"Certainly."

"Good. Surprise, could you help Midnight get our traveler packs."

"Yeppers!" Surprise said as she picked up Midnight and carried her off.

"Wait a minute!" Octavia yelled, getting everyones attention. "First of all, how did you get a crossbow?" She pointed to Mooney.

"It was a gift from War."

Octavia facehoofed. "Of course it is." She then looked at Night Shade. "And why do we need travelers packs?"

"Our packs have everything you need to traverse places like the Black Forest."

"Found them!" Surprise yelled from the other room.

"Good! How many!"

"Only three!"

"Looks like I'll need to make a couple more." Night Shade turned to Mooney and Flare. " Sorry, looks like only three can go."

"It's all right. I've gotta keep a promise anyway." Mooney nuzzled her little sister as she materialized a crossbow in front of her. "Just take care of this thing, alright."

"Can do." Night Shade yelled to Mooney as she and Flare left. He then turned his attention to Surprise and Midnight as they carried in three saddlebags. "Hey Midnight, you think you can use some of your shadow magic to help us out?"

"Shadow magic?" Octavia looked confused at what Night Shade said. She got her answer when she saw Midnight concentrate, her muscles visibly tensing as if she were casting a spell. What she saw both amazed and confused Octavia even more. Just like Night Shades familiar, black wisps started forming around Midnight, even draping itself over her back as she started to relax. "How did you do that?" Octavia asked.

"Like I said, I'm a vampire. Magic comes naturally to me." Midnight said as she stretched, her joints popping as she did so. "It has been a while since I used my magic though. I should exercise it a lot more."

"Yeah, me too." Night Shade picked up one of the saddlebags and proceeded to open it. "Looks like everything's in here." He said, moving some things around. "Hey I've been looking for this!" Night Shade pulled out a small lighter that was shaped like a guitar. "This thing's been lost for ages."

"Hold it!" Octavia said, finally having enough of not being in the conversation. "First of all, if anyponies going to go get Vinyl, it's going to be me. Second of all, I want an entire explanation on this 'planes of existence' thing. And third, I want to know more about this bloody town!" Octavia panted a little, not out of exhaustion, but out of anger.

"You done?"Night Shade raised a brow as he said it. Octavia nodded. "Good, we leave in about thirty minutes." He floated a saddlebag over to Octavia and Night Shade. "Lets just hope she hasn't come across the forests guardian."

"It has a guardian?"

"Yeah, but nopony knows if it's good or evil. I think evil."

"Why is that?

"Well duh, it's called The Black Forest for a reason. But it's a good thing I found this." Night Shade flicked open the lighter and gently blew on its flame, causing the flame to spew out like water. It even almost singed Octavias eyebrows.

"Is this place ever normal?"

"Define 'normal'."

As Vinyl walked through the dense foliage and trees that had become known as the dark forest, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. At first, she tried to ignore it, but a sense of dread eventually found its way to Vinyl. To calm her self down, Vinyl scrolled through her phones library to find a song to calm her nerves.

"Hey lady, what's that?" Flicker asked with curiosity.

"It's called a phone. It has my entire library of music." Vinyl said, finally finding a suitable song mix she had found not too long ago. "Oh yeah, and please don't call me lady. The name's Vinyl."

"Okay Vinyl." As Flicker said this, she started to slightly grow and shrink in rhythm with the song mix, her color changing from a lime green, to a tri-color of neon blue, white, and magenta.

"Whoa, this is new." Vinyl said as she watched the change unfold.

"What's new?" Flicker asked, before flickering as she thought. "Is it because I'm three colors now?"

"Well, yeah." As Vinyl smiled at the small flame, the sense of dread she felt was slowly dissapating. "I think it's pretty cool."

A few moments of peace is all Vinyl needed for the lingering sense of dread to disappear completely, but the forest wouldn't allow that. A deep, sorrowful moan came from the depths of the forest. This caused Vinyl to slightly shake in fear, her pupils becoming the size of pinpricks. Even Flicker seemed to shrink in fear, her once erratic flame becoming almost a tiny spark.

As Vinyl shakily continued forward, she heard another moan, closer than the previous. By now, Vinyl started looking over her shoulder, her fear starting to take over her rational thinking. But she proceeded forward, although she was at an extremely slower pace than before.

When she finally had walked a couple of feet, she could hear rustling behind her, and then the deep sorrow moan rang through the forest once again in the one place Vinyl didn't want to hear it.

Right behind her.

Author's Note

Hey there readers! I just wanted to say that I appreciate any and all feedback from you people. I also wanted to say that I got the sinisteed from an extremely good fanfic writer a while back when he talked about it in his blog. His name is Chaotic Note, and he's really good, if you want check him out!

Just remember, like,comment and fave!