Chapter 1

Restlessness in Everfree

“Come on Spike!!” Twilight exclaimed “We don’t have all day for this!” the purple unicorn was in quite a hurry, after all, one does not simply miss a Pinkie Pie party.

“I’m coming twilight, just slowdown, these boxes are heavy” he grunted under the weight of the decoration boxes “but (urgh) wouldn’t it (huff) be easier to (hmmph) use your m-magic?”,

“sorry, what?” Twilight responded, oblivious to spikes comment,

“n-nev-never mind” remarked a less than enthusiastic Spike. But this wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill party, princess Celestia herself was coming to stay in ponyville for a few days and everypony wanted to make a good impression. “Ok, we’re here Spike” called Twilight,

“g-great, where do I d-drop th-these” Spike answered, incredibly relieved,

“oh, anywhere will do” Twilight replied, “great” sighed Spike before he fell on the floor asleep with exhaustion, unfortunately he was woken up by the voice of a hyperactive pink pony.

“Hi Twilight, soooo glad to see you made it, why is spike on the floor? Everypony has to work super-duper hard, eek, I forgot the balloons, I’ll be right back” and at that Pinkie dashed out the front door, plowing through a small crowd.

“Pinkie...” Twilight sighed, “I really need to get used to that, anyway, Spike”,

“yes Twilight?” replied the half asleep dragon,

“would you mind running back to the library and picking up my quills, I seem to have forgotten them” Twilight requested, Spike shuddered at the thought of more work (especially since he had just lugged 5 heavy decoration cases halfway across town)

“I’d love to Twilight but I… have very… important… things… to… dooooooooooo” replied Spike before falling asleep again,

“ugh, that dragon. Oh well, he could use the sleep, better do it myself.” Twilight muttered to herself walking out the front door, only to be greeted as Rainbow dashes landing pad again. “Hi Rainbow” she remarked in a mildly displeased tone,

“oops, heh, sorry” replied Rainbow, trying not to burst out laughing.

“it’s okay” sighed a rather frazzled twilight, “I was just on my way to the library to pick up my quills, and I might check on Fluttershy, she hasn’t arrived yet”,

“oh, well ok, I’ll tell everypony you may be late” Rainbow suggested, knowing how much Twilight liked being punctual, “just hurry up or there might not be any cake left when you get here”,

“I’ll hurry”.

Fluttershy awoke with a start at the sound of knocking at her door, “oh, my, who could that be?” she wondered as she walked to let in her guest “oh, hi twilight”,

“where were you, the party will start soon” twilight was trying to sound urgent, even though the party was still an hour away.

“Goodness, that was today, I’ll be right there” Fluttershy replied.

“You go ahead Fluttershy, I’ll catch up” called Twilight,

“ok, I’ll see you there” she called back, quietly of course. Twilight was about to follow after but stopped in her tracks, “hmm” she thought as she sensed something off. Now normally a unicorn can’t sense abnormalities, but for some reason Twilight felt unsteady. “Something’s not right” she whispered, walking towards everfree might not have been a good idea but Twilight was fixed on finding out what was going on.

Deeper and deeper she went, slowly starting to wonder if she would make it out alive. Suddenly a snapping twig made her jump and she ran into a bush, “what was that?” Twilight wondered, panicking as she scanned the forest, “great, I just sounded just like Fluttershy”. Regardless of how she sounded, she knew she had to get out of the forest, and soon, the noises of all the fierce creatures sounded restless. “I have to find Zecora” Twilight whispered as she ran off into the woods.