Nova had started out strong, music pumping through his ears and the entire world to explore ahead of him, however, there was one problem with exploring a forest. "I can't see anything but trees!" Nova cried out, no matter where he looked, there was always another tree to greet him, he quickly thought of his situation. "Okay.... Almost everything here looks the same, the best course would be to pick one direction and simply keep going till I find some landmark, from there I can either keep going or change course." With that in mind, Nova quickly took off again.
It wasn't before long Nova came across his first landmark, in fact, he got a whole fateful of it, he quickly spat out the dirt in his mouth and picked himself up off the dirt road. "Bleh.... maybe I should slow down a bit, moving around so quickly is nice... but it doesn't give me that much of a chance to actually look around." With that thought, Nova decided to look around, the path was quite plain, though the fact that there was a path to begin with. "Means it leads to somewhere.... or someone." He looked down both ways, to his left, he could see proper sunlight starting to break through the trees, and the other way lead deeper into the Everfree.
"Well, it's nice to know close to an exit if I need one... but for now..." He turned to walk down the path, heading deeper into the forest yet again. "I'm looking to explore, not escape."

After walking along the path for a while, Nova started to notice something about it. ".....hoof prints?" he started at the strange markings on the ground, he knew that they didn't belong to him, he continued to stare at them for a while as he walked. "Hmm... ponies have four hooves.... so with twelve... that means at least three ponies have been here recently." He thought, using his basic logic. "Now.... Who could it be? The elements, perhaps?.... or maybe someone else? But who would be stupid enough to walk into a dark, scary forest for no reason?"

Just then, three fillies each got a strange feeling that someone was talking about them.

Nova slowly continued along the path, and before long he was met with a curious picture, just ahead of him was a vast field of blue flowers, and just ahead of those... "Three very small ponies, Fillies maybe? what could they be doing here?" This peeked Nova's curiosity, he quickly followed after the small group, being careful to avoid the strange flowers. "If I know anything about nature, it's that color means poison."
It wasn't before long Nova caught up with the trio, his longer legs easily closing the distance, and just a few feet away from them, he coughed to clear his voice.

The Three crusaders stopped, someone was behind them, whoever it was clearly wanting their attention, hence the polite cough, they each spun around, expecting to see Zecora, or maybe even the elements. To their surprise, it was neither, at first all they was was a pair of pants, they quickly looked up, only to be greeted by something they had never seen before.
"Hello there." The strange creature said, but none of the young girls could reply, shocked to see such an alien looking creature, and for it to be talking to them as well. After a few seconds of awkward staring, the creature keeled down their level and waved a hand in their faces. "Hello? is anyone there? Did I break you by saying hello?" He said, he was obviously waiting for a reply, and not before long, one of them finally spoke up.

"W-what.... are you?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly, he frowned in response. "I think you should be asking 'who' I am, it's rather rude to ask someone what they are before that you know." She looked surprised at that response, the next one butted in. "Okay then, 'who' are you then?" He smiled and replied. "My name is Nova, now what might you three be called?" The three mares each looked at each other before responding, first one was the one with the slight voice crack. "I'm Sweetie Bell!" Second came the one who asked Nova's name. "I'm Scootaloo!" "An I'm Apple Bloom!" followed up the last girl, Nova frowned slightly at the last one, but quickly shook his head. "Well, it's nice to meet you, now.... what are you three doing out here in a dark forest like this? I haven't been here long myself, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a safe place to play."

The Trio suddenly found the ground very interesting, Apple bloom quickly spoke up "W-well.... were not normally supposed to come in here, but we had to come see somepony we know!" Nova looked a little surprised at that. "Someone actually lives here? I guess that makes sense.... What with the path and all, wait, did you just say you're NOT supposed to be in here?"
"Uh.... what she means, although we aren't allowed in the forest itself, we can come see our friend Zecora!" Sweetie Bell quickly replied in an effort to cover up the fact they weren't allowed to actually be here. "Oh, okay then, you don't mind if I tag along, do you? I'd like to meet someone that actually lives here." The three nodded in response. "We don't mind, it's not too far from here anyway." They all turned and quickly made their way down the path, Nova followed behind them, having to walk at a slightly slower pace to match their small steps, it wasn't long before Scootaloo got curious. "So.... Now that we've asked who you are, can we ask what you are now?" Nova chuckled. "Sure it's fine, I'm what you called a Human, though I doubt you've ever heard of one before."
"No, I can't say I ever have heard of a 'Human' before." Apple Bloom as the next to ask a question. "So... where did ya come from?"
Nova thought about how he should answer. "Well.... lets just say you'll never find it on any map, so it's far away, there's no measure of distance that can summarize it." He looked a bit sad for a second, before changing the subject. "Uh.... is that where you 'friend' lives?" Nova pointed up ahead to the rather strange looking house ahead of him. "Yeah, that's where Zecora lives!"

The Fillies suddenly speed up towards the house, Nova quickly catches up behind him, he was rather thrown off by the appearance, the tribal masks were a bit strange, he quickly shook his head and looked stood next to the fillies as they knocked on the door, but no reply came. "Are you girls sure she's even home? There's no light coming from inside." Apple Bloom thought for a second before an idea came to her.
"She must be in town getting supplies! I forgot today was the day she went into town.... she must have taken a short cut to get there." all three girls suddenly looked very sad, Nova actually felt a little bad for them. "Well.... That's unfortunate isn't it? she must have taken a different route through the actual forest since I don't see any other paths, well.... if that's all you girls came here to do, I better take you back to he edge of the forest at least..." All three cried out at once. "No!" Nova was caught off guard by that.
"Okay geez, I didn't realize I was such bad company." he said with a half joking tone, the three mares blushed in embarrassment, before long Apple Bloom spoke up. "Uh... it isn't that, it's just we came here for another reason as well." Nova raised an eyebrow. "And that would be...... what exactly?" Sweetie Bell decided to reply. "Well, we came here to find our sisters..... well me and Apple Bloom at least." Nova's eyes were suddenly filled with surprise.

"So that's it.... I knew I recognized the name 'Apple' from somewhere." He thought to himself, he closed his eyes and sighed. "Girls, I can safely say that your sisters are no longer in this forest, the were teleported out yesterday.... in fact, if I had to guess I'd say they would be turning up in town right about...." This caused Scootaloo to get suspicious. "And how would you know that?" She asked, a hint of distrust in her voice, Nova simply shrugged and replied. "Does it really matter? I get the feeling your families won't like it if they got home and found out you weren't there, so how about we save that question for another day and I get you three out of this forest safely, okay?" The three fillies looked at each other, before sighing and nodding at Nova. "Alright, now this may feel a bit awkward, what with it being my first time." that sentence caused instant panic. "W-what are ya talkin' about?" Apple Bloom managed to stutter out in sudden fear, Nova's hands started to glow a bright white.

"Oh.... I'm just going to have a little fun, nothing to worry about, say hi to the elements for me will you?" Nova smirked, and before the trio could either run or shout, they vanished, a small wisp of light coming up from the ground were the three fillies once stood, Nova smiled to himself. "Oh man, that's going to be funny, thought it's probably just going to piss them off even further, if that's still possible." Nova thought to himself, now that he was free from the responsibility of making sure some children don't hurt themselves, Nova headed off the path leading out and went back to exploring his surroundings.

Meanwhile, aboard a train headed back to Ponyville, six mares got the fright of their lives when three screaming fillies suddenly appeared right next to them, causing each of them to also scream, the screaming and panic went on for a while, though eventually Twilight managed to calm everyone down, Apple jack and Rarity hugged their little sisters. "Girls, though I am glad to see you, how on Equestria did you even get here?" Sweetie Bell responded. "It was that 'human' we met in the Everfree, he was walking with us to Zecoras house, but when she wasn't there, he said we needed to get home, but we said we were trying to find you guys!" All six mares gasped in shock. "Did you say Human?! Was his name Nova by any chance?"
The three fillies nodded, and Apple Bloom continued the story. "After we told him that he started acting a little funny, he then said he would get us out of the forest, but I didn't think he would teleport us right to you." Apple Jack stared at her sister. "He didn't try to hurt you, did he?" Apple Bloom shock her head. "Good.... because you're grounded." Apple Blooms mouth fit the floor "What?! Why?!" Apple Jack gave her the 'You know why' look in response. "Oh.... right.... Everfree" Meanwhile, Twilight was thinking out loud. "Why would he send them to us? Why didn't he kidnap them, or something else?" Rainbow shrugged. "Maybe he did it just to mess with us?" Twilight shook her head, before realizing something very important.

"Wait.... if he is able to teleport these three right to us, does that mean he can just teleport to us at any time?" everyone's faces paled at that. "That.... is a rather disturbing thought, what are we gonna do?" Rainbow said, looking to Twilight for answers, but all she got was a shrug. "There's nothing we can do, Celestia told us Nova is powerful, we can't do anything at the moment to stop him, for now we just have to hope he doesn't try to do anything harmful."
A while after this, The group of mares eventually reached Ponyville, the sun was already starting to set, after a short goodbye, they all took off for their own homes.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Everfree, Nova was currently sitting on a pile of twigs and branches, which previously was a living creature. "Man, wolves made of timber, this place really is dangerous.... at least for someone that isn't me." Nova picked one of the twigs and snapped it, the wolf had attempted to ambush Nova, only for him to disappear and reappear above it, and crushing it to death. Eventually Nova stood back up, the sun was starting to set, and the already dark forest was getting even darker.
"How is that even possible? it was already stupidly dark in here." He quickly looked around the area for a place to spend the night, after walking for a bit he found an open clearing with a pond in the middle, he walked into the clearing and laid down near the side of the water, looking up at the now night sky.
"Mhh... looks nothing like the one back home...." The thought brought a small sadness to him, It wasn't long before Nova closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, to the Realm of Dream.

Author's Note

Finally broke the 2k word goal I set, now for 2.5k words.