The Return of the Everfree Kingdom

Prologue: Before the spark of Friendship had hit the next generation

The day felt a bit colder than usual, the cold air instilling a chilling sensation to each and everypony it breezed past. The bright Sun hovered high as the pegasi cleared the sky, making sure to keep in bounds of what the weather report had stated earlier that day. The elegant Princess of Equestria sat on her throne, guards stationed all throughout the room, all directly across one another, each looking exactly alike. The guards tensed as they shifted their attention to a small pony striding into the throne room, but calmed when they remembered that the filly was the Princess’ pupil. The small lavender pony bowed to the Princess as she stood in front of the throne, to which the Princess replied with a smile as she signalled the small equine to stop her bowing. “Now, what brings you here Twilight Sparkle?” the regal Princess asked, her tone full of sincerity.

“My dearest Princess Celestia…” the small filly known as Twilight Sparkle said, her words full of admiration and respect. “What kinds of magic shall I be learning today? Levitation? Telekinesis? What about all of them?” Twilight asked. She was filled with enthusiasm as she eagerly awaited what her mentor will teach her today.

“Now, now, Twilight…” Princess Celestia answered. Her voice still had the compassionate tone that the Princess was famous for. “There are many different kinds of magic out there my faithful student. Some of them more dangerous than you think. I can’t just go teaching you all of them, I don’t think anypony has learned them all anyway” her words still contained the tone of kind-heartedness but had a substantial amount of worry.

“But what are those dangerous magics you keep telling me to avoid?” the young Twilight asked. Not quite satisfied by the answer she received. “If you tell me what those dangerous types of magic are, I’ll be able to keep away from them.” hoping that this time she’ll get the answers she was hoping for.

Celestia shook her head in disapproval “Twilight Sparkle, I had expected better. Surely you must know that if these weren’t dangerous, I would’ve taught and told you about them already?” her voice slowly losing some of the kindness it was filled with earlier. “These magics were banned by me for a reason Twilight. And even I should tell you, I know that you have a hunger for knowledge, which is quite respectable in a student. But I’ve seen some ponies consumed by that very same hunger. I don’t want you to end up like them.”

“I’m so sorry Princess…” Twilight said, her head almost hugging the ground “I was just a little curious….”

The Princess let out a sigh as she smiled at the small filly “Don’t trouble yourself over it Twilight, I know that you were just curious. But I thought that after all our conversations that we had on this topic, you would stop asking such foalish questions.” her voice returning to its original sympathetic state.

“I’m really sorry if I troubled you Princess” Twilight said, speaking in an apprehensive tone since she genuinely thought she had upset the Princess. “How about we drop the subject and do something else hmm?” she asked hoping to change the subject quickly.

“Alright, today I just want you to practice on your telekinetic powers and read a few books on Equestria’s history, my dear student”

“But… I already know how to do telekinesis Princess” Twilight answered back in a whiny tone, the books she could handle but she was confused as to why she needed to practice that spell again. “Can’t you teach me something like teleportation?”

“Yes, you have learned how to perform Telekinesis. But you should learn how to perfect it.”

Twilight had a confused look on her face “Perfect? But after you leant the spell that’s it, isn’t it?”

“Well, there is learning the spell, and then there is perfecting. Both of which are two completely different things, and the second always comes after the first.” Twilight heard an unfamiliar voice; she turned to see an unfamiliar pony covered in a brown hooded cloak which shaded his face, his bright red eyes shining through the shadow that his cowl cast over his face “What? It’s true” the strange stallion said, a hoof to his chin in thought. He quickly waved his hoof “Oh, hello by the way. Forgot to say that first, but I thought you may have wanted an answer to that simple question of yours.”

“Ah, it’s nice to see you after quite so long” Princess Celestia said smiling back at the mysterious stallion. “It’s so nice to see you again after all these years.”

“Nice to see that you have taken on a student of your own Princess” The stallion said clearly, some glee in his voice. Twilight stood between the two of them, looking from one to the other, wondering what was going on.

“Oh yes” the Princess added after realizing she forgot Twilight. “Twilight this is a unicorn who goes by the name of Mentor” Twilight stared into the black shadow the Mentor’s hood cast over his face “as his name implies he is a teacher and he is also a philosopher.”

“Indeed Princess” the Mentor replied with pride “I travel far and wide teaching ponies and I study the unique nature of the different hearts of ponies in our world.”

“Study their hearts?” Twilight asked trying to understand, “but how can you study their hearts when it is inside their body?”

Both the Princess and the Mentor laughed after Twilight finished asking her question “oh small little filly, you have quite a lot to learn.” The Mentor replied while he tried to stop himself from laughing “a heart keeps them alive, but I am talking about their HEART, the little thing that gives ponies and other living beings the feelings we all call emotions.”

“I think I understand Mister Mentor” Twilight replied scratching her hair in thought “so you study the different emotions that a pony has and then you teach others about those emotions?”

“Exactly! Well I also teach magic but you got the answer correct” he answered “you’ve got a smart little cookie here Princess, oh and speaking of cookies” he reached into a pocket of his cloak to pull out a box “here a little present to the little genius.”

Twilight exclaimed as she opened the box to be greeted by different kinds of cookies, chocolate chip, hazelnut and also vanilla flavoured cookies. “THANK YOU!”

The Mentor chuckled as Twilight started to eat some of the cookies “be careful there are some apple flavoured cookies in there as well, now going back to what you were saying as I arrived here, what was that about you not wanting to perfect your spells?”

Twilight looked towards the Mentor as she still had bits of cookies in her mouth, she quickly tried to swallow it as she tried to think of an answer “I already know them don’t I? Doesn’t that mean I’ve perfected it? So there’s no need to work on the spell more.” Twilight said. He put a hoof to his chin as he contemplated the question.

“Well you see… yes, you have learnt the spell, but perfecting the spell is an entirely different thing” he said in a gentle, soothing tone. “When you are perfecting the spell, you try to test its boundaries, like what it can do and what it can’t. In the example of teleportation, you test to see how far you can go, and if you can teleport instantly from place to place.” he said with a proud smile on his shadowed face. “I could show you, but I just woke up not too long ago, and I’m a bit tired” he said, covering his mouth with his hoof as he yawned. “Sorry little one, but I can’t exactly show you what my version of a perfected teleportation spell is like.”

“Awwww…” Twilight said in disappointment. All the excitement she had from thinking that the Mentor would show an example and all the cookies had vanished in an instant. “I thought you were going to show me what one of your perfected spells was like.” she said, sad at not being able to see an example of what he was trying to tell her.

“Well I suppose one little spell wouldn’t make me sick up” he said ruffling up Twilight’s purple mane with his right hoof “Fine, I’ll show you once” Twilight beamed with excitement as she quickly fixed her hair and turned her full attention to the Mentor. “Now, let’s see here… I’m going to go-“ he said, disappearing with a bright flash of light. “Here” he said, his voice coming from a different direction. As Twilight turned around to see him sitting on top of the back rest of the throne, her face filled with joy and excitement seeing him display his skills at teleportation. He looked down at Princess Celestia who was just below him then, turned into a bright flash of light as he reappeared right next to Twilight, making her jump a tad.

“Awesome!” Twilight said, clearly in awe of the Mentor’s abilities. “Is that what it’s like to perfect a spell?” the stallion turned towards her and raised a hoof in the air which made her stop dead in her tracks.

“There is a time and place for learning. And right now, I’m not teaching anything. I’m not wearing my teaching headband right now as well” he said, pointing a hoof towards his hooded head. “Without it, I’m not in a mood for teaching or mentor related things at this particular point in time.” Twilight was disappointed and confused by Mentor, he saw this and smiled. “Why are you so disappointed? You saw an example of a somewhat perfected spell AND you received some delicious cookies AND you’re being tutored by another great teacher” he paused for a little bit before looking at the Princess “But even SHE had a great teacher once upon a time.” he added, grinning.

“I didn’t invite you here to talk about old times Mentor…” Celestia said, signalling with her hoof that it was time for Twilight to depart. “There is something we need to discuss.” As Twilight left, she turned to see the two of them talking, and she overheard some words coming from their mouths, but she was only barely hear what they were saying.

“So, is your student part of the next generation?” She could hear the question coming from Mentor’s mouth. “Are you already teaching her the essentials?”

“Yes, I am trying to teach her what she needs to know. Would there be any reason for me to do otherwise?”

“Well, she seems like a nice one, but I think you have sheltered her a bit too much don’t you think? She might turn into an anti-social bookworm in the not too distant future, or even worse, A POLITICAN!” the Mentor said with a scarred tone in his voice.

“I would never let my student do that, she is much too bright for that but, I do admit that she may not have many friends at the moment. But trust me when I say that the time will come when she will have lots of wonderful friends.”

“Is this another one of those infamous hunches of yours? Like the act of your little sister being sent into hiding from the public a couple hundred years ago?” Twilight heard as she was walking away. She could hardly make out most of what they were talking about by now, but she could clearly see the Princess get flustered, trying to talk to Mentor.

“That was a necessary precaution for the future of Equestria. She even agreed to it.”

“Yes, yes, I know that this is all fo-” Celestia cut him off as he was about to finish by sticking her hoof near his mouth. “Oh, sorry, I’ll keep quiet. But really, I’m going to be waiting for a long time until it’s my time to shine.” Mentor said, smiling as he pushed the Princess’ hoof down.

“I’m sorry that I have to call you when it’s going to take a while. It must be difficult for you to have to keep doing this.” Twilight could see a frown on Celestia’s face

“My dear Princess Celestia…” he said bowing and putting on a fake regal voice “’Tis my solemn duty, to help and protect this land, no matter how long it takes and no matter what obstacles cross my path I have to ensure that the elem-” once again Mentor was cut off by a simple hoof from Celestia.

“Let us not talk about your duties where ponies could hear us.” Celestia said looking around “also you seemed somehow off when you talked to Twilight, is something wrong?”

“To be honest, she reminds me of this other pony I knew way back when, she even looks and acts like her. But I guess in my case such things aren’t outside the realm of impossibility, I mean remember how long I have been around?”

“Well yes I know you’ve been around for a long time Mentor” Celestia replied “but what I want to know is how do you think she will fare when the time comes?”

“It’s usually different each time, I hope that the others drawn to this one are able to comprehend and master their abilities like the last generation otherwi-” Twilight couldn’t hear anymore as she exited the Throne room. Walking towards where she usually practiced her magic, she wondered what they could have been talking about.

“What was that all about?” Twilight asked to herself as she pulled out a book from a stack of them nearby. “The Princess gave me these books not too long ago... And now that I finally have time to read them, I might as well” She said to herself, telepathically opening the book to its first page. “How to Make Friends” she stared blankly at the cover of the book for well over a minute before telekinetically setting the book down beside her “Although I don’t want it, Princess Celestia gave it to me. I can’t get rid of it just like that…”

She opened another book from the stack entitled ‘telekinesis and the wonders it can do for you’ and she started to read the book, she also started to eat the rest of the cookies the Mentor gave her. She stuffed one into her mouth before spitting it back out “BLEH, he wasn’t kidding when he said there were apple flavoured cookies.”

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Not very far from Canterlot, near a small town by the name of Ponyville, was the Everfree Forest. A mysterious and unknown place where everypony fears entering, and those who do, never find their way back out. Which is why the place is feared, and usually ignored by most ponyfolk who live in Ponyville. No one really knows the tale of how this forest came to be, and no one knows how long ago this place became sinister. Deep inside this dark forest laid the ruins of a once well-known castle, the castle is known as the old palace where the two princess sisters used to rule from in the legends of old.

“What are we even doing here?” said a voice from inside the broken palace. An old green pegasus filly with a darker tint of green for her mane stood near a shrine where a pedestal stood, the pedestal was a wide pole and at the top spread out and held 5 spherical objects in the air. “Are you even going to answer? What in the hay are we going to find in this dump?” she kept staring over to the other side of the pedestal, where a red unicorn who barely looked like he was older than a colt with an orange mane was digging with a shovel he was levitating.

“Testy aren’t we? You read that book I showed you, it said in great detail that something was hidden here, something of great value…” he said, his eyes intent on his digging. “Do you know how rich a pony could be if they found this? We’re lucky we found that book otherwise some other lucky pony would have been rolling in bits.”

“Yeah, but is it really worth it? We don’t even know if it is something we could sell in the first place, it could just be a silly plate for eating for all we know.” the unicorn’s female companion said, waving her forehooves in the air. “Besides, this place is just too creepy. It feels… off, somehow…” she said, looking around the large room as the stallion kept digging.

“FINALLY!” the stallion yelled, as he felt the shovel hit something as he dug. He set the shovel down and peered into the hole, as his Pegasus friend trotted over next to him to see what their fruits of their labor were.

“A BOX?!!” the Pegasus had yelled at the top of her lungs “ALL OF THIS FOR A MEASLY BOX?! BY CELESTIA’S GREAT FLAMING FLANK YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING M-!”

“Calm down…that is no way for someone our age to be saying” the stallion said, sticking his hoof in her mouth… only to have to quickly withdraw when he felt her tongue come in contact “ Eugh… Well, hoof licking aside, it’s just a box. A really weird looking box, since it’s sporting all those spikes, and there’s some kind of fog that’s seeping from inside. But think about it for a second, people put valuable things in special boxes, so maybe there is something really valuable in this box, do you understand?” He said slowly so as to mock her, to which she replied with a sigh. “Good. Let’s open this shall we?” he asked, but just went on to open the box without hearing opinion.

By the millisecond he touched the box, it flung open violently, making him stumble back from the shock. And as soon as he put one hoof down, a mysterious dark energy came spiraling out of the box, filling the room. The two small treasure hunters stood still in fear and awe as the sight unraveled itself before them. Soon, all the energy converged towards a single point in front of them and it all collided in a bright flash of light, blinding the two ponies, forcing them to shield their eyes. The light then vanished, and as they deemed it alright to lower their hooves, they saw a strange looking pony standing where the flash had originated from. The bizarre pony was a lot taller than the young unicorn, he had a black coat, a horn, and his mane was brilliantly white. He was also heavily clad in bright silver armor, covering most of his figure.

The strange pony turned towards the treasure hunters, his eyes a fierce dark red. And as he opened his mouth, he said to the two of them, “Greetings little ones, I am King Everfree, I bid you welcome to my castle and fair Kingdom” he smiled as he started to slowly make his way towards them, the two young ponies paralyzed out of fear “I’m sorry, if I knew I was going to be having guests I would’ve cleaned the place up a little.”