Ponies of Deltora: Monsters and Magic

Day three, Time 6:49 AM

Twilight awoke to a rare ray of light shining through the closed canopy of The Forest of Silence. She hadn’t remembered falling asleep, or even moving at all. The farthest back she could go was tearing out of The Dark while shadows leapt and clawed at her. Silently Twilight thanked that she couldn’t remember what followed and shifted to her hooves.

The moment her fist leg was out from under her it shot straight down. Twilight let out a gasp of shock. She had been sleeping on a large tree branch several feet off the ground. Carefully Twilight moved her leg away from the edge and shifted towards the branches midsection. Slowly the unicorn got into a standing position and looked around in confusion. There was no way she could have just climbed up this tree.

“Is anypony there?” She called to the dark forest. A small swarm of birds flew from the trees at the sound of her voice, but no other life seemed present. I’ll figure this out later. The mare thought to herself. She averted her gaze from the trees and instead to the forest floor. There was no way she could just drop herself down. If the fall didn’t kill her, she’d be severely injured. Instead she focused on one of the closer branches and used her magic to pull it towards her.

Once the branch was close enough Twilight positioned herself carefully and launched herself onto it. It wasn’t her most graceful of landings, but nopony was around to comment. Once she had landed the unicorn set to capturing another branch in her magic and repeating the process. It was slow work, but she eventually made it to ground level.

At the base of the tree Twilight was surprised to find her golden saddle bag propped against the trunk. Curiously she opened it with her magic and rummaged through the contents. Everything was still as she had last checked, including the severed black vine.

“What’s so important about this thing anyway?” Twilight wondered to herself.

“It’s not your place to question the rules.”

Twilight shot around and scanned the area. The voice was playful and eerily familiar, although she couldn’t remember why.

“Who’s there?” Twilight called to the trees. Her reply was a round of giggling laughter.

“Who, little old me? Oh I’m here to help you.”

Twilight didn’t trust the voice at all, but the note had spoken of help when she got the vine. “Alright, do you mind showing yourself?”

“Wwwwwhhhyyyy?” The voice cooed.

“Because I want to see who you are, is that fair?”

“Hmm, good point.” The voice responded. Suddenly the air in front of Twilight was an explosion of crimson smoke. Its appearance was so sudden that Twilight couldn’t turn away in time. Her lavender eyes were soon full of the substance. Strangely though, the smoke didn’t sting. In fact it felt almost comforting. What’s more she could see perfectly well through it. But what really got Twilight’s attention was the figure rising from the smoke.

It was an emerald green pegasus mare with a tattered mane and tail the color of pine needles. Silver bracelets adorned her legs, decorated with red, black, pink and yellow gemstones. She turned to Twilight and looked at her with eyes that were like balls of fire and let out a round of giggles. When the mare was finished she grinned at Twilight, who had an odd look on her face.

The mare noticed this and her grin was replaced by a goofy frown. “What, no ‘oh I remember you?’ I’m heartbroken Twilight, and after all the good times we’ve had.” She said, giddily tracing the image of a broken heart across her chest.

It was like something clicked in Twilight’s head as the mare continued her silly antics. Something that brought back not too distant memories from the dark reaches of her mind. Twilight lowered her head and began channeling magic into her horn.

“I remember you now, Festivities.”

The pegasus’s eyes burned brighter at the mention of her name. “Ooohhhhh goodie, you do remember! I was afraid I’d have to do the introductions over again.”Twilight wasn’t sure if this was some form of trick, but she wasn’t really in the caring mood right now.

“What did you do to my friends?” She nearly demanded as more magic entered her horn. Festivities reply to this was a sly grin snaking its way along her mouth.

“Don’t worry TwiTwi, they’re fine.” She pulls two glasses from behind her back that instantly filled with water. “Want a drink? You look parched.”

Twilight eyed the pegasus cautiously, anticipating some form of trickery. Festivities shook her hooves invitingly, causing some of the water to spill over the lips of the glasses, but Twilight refused to accept. Seeing she wasn’t getting anywhere the emerald mare let out a disappointed sigh and dropped the glasses. The moment before they touched the ground the glass became a trail of sand that blew away in the wind.

“Right to the point then, ok, I can work with this.” She raised her hoof to her eye and a tiny ball of green fire materialized. The wind blew the flames away and in its place was a pure black die. Twilight stared at the die in confusion; there was an immense amount of magic being channeled into it. From where it was coming from though was an enigma to the unicorn.

“Ok Twilight, you preformed our task exceptionally well, so here is your reward. I’m going to help you find one of your friends. *giggle* How does that sound?”

Twilight eyed the mare cautiously. “How do I know I can trust you?”

“I never break a promise TwiTwi, not now, not ever.” She lifter her head and flashed a proud yet mischievous smile.

“What about all of this? This isn’t anything like how you described it.”

Festivities rolled onto her back while hovering in the ait and let out a fit of laughter. “R-R-Really, ‘cause it sure seems that way to me.” She waved her hoof and a script appeared in it. “If you recall my dear, I said that this scavenger hunt would take place in an area divided into seven sections. I never said it would be in the store, or even Equestria.” The script then became a swarm of butterflies that took off into the trees.

Twilight was momentarily shocked by this display before returning to the conversation. “But you showed us a map of your store back in Ponyville.”

Festivities brought a hoof to her mouth and let out another giggle. “Did I, oh how silly of me.” She then flashed Twilight a devilish smile. “Ah but we digress. So as I was saying earlier I’m going to help you find one of your friends.” She waves her hoof and a poorly drawn map materializes, which she begins to search while giggling vigorously. “Oooohhh. Lucky, lucky you, one of our friends is not too far from here.”

Before Twilight could even respond she suddenly found herself in the air. Looking down, the lavender unicorn was shocked to discover she and her saddlebag were in a fully assembled catapult. There was a sifting, creaking sound ahead of her, and to Twilight’s shock the trees were parting to make a clear path through the forest. Festivities then walked around the side of the catapult, this time wearing an executioner’s mask. She looked to Twilight and quickly flashed a playful wink before raising her die. Instantaneously it became a black ax.

“Bon voyage, madam.” She said with a salute. Then in one quick movement she severed the rope holding the catapult down and sending Twilight sailing through the pathway. Festivities let out a final giggle before vanishing.

*****

Twilight awoke to the sound of running water in a cool stream. She had no memory of ever hitting the ground. She had no idea how much time had passes; had it been an hour or a day? Was she still in the forest or someplace new? And where did Festivities get off to? All these questions tossed and turned inside the dazed unicorn’s head.

Slowly Twilight made her way to her hooves, taking twice as long as normal thanks to her sword wound. When she was finally standing the unicorn decided to observe her surroundings. She was by a shallow stream in a strangely clear patch of forest. Unlike the previous sections, sunlight broke through to the floor in large amounts. Colorful birds filled the trees with their music. The area was far less forbidding, and dare she say it, pleasant.

“So where am I now Festivities?” Twilight asked the sky. Unsurprisingly to her, there was no reply. Twilight let out a sigh, another one of her silly games.

“Alright fine, I’ll play along.” She said in defeat and headed off along the river. Frequently she’d scan the area for signs that could tell her where she is. To her dismay there were no such things.

Her hooves brushed against something smooth, tempting Twilight to look. She had brushed against a smooth stone in a neatly made pathway leading into a garden of ferns.

Curiously Twilight followed the pathway. The placing of the stones was far too orderly to be natural, so it was safe to assume it was a way out of the woods. As she trotted along the ferns gave way to trees so close they created an archway, sealing her off from the sun’s light. At first this worried the mare, but her spirits were lifted when she saw light at the end of the archway. And what she saw when she stepped out made her stop in amazement.

Before her was a beautiful grove of closely spaced green trees, all growing around a cool of crystal clear water. Adorning the trees were plump golden fruits shaped like pears. Against the green of the tree they looked like tiny suns. Twilight inhaled deeply; it was an indescribably sweet smell.

Against her better judgement Twilight took a step into the shallow pool. The water was blissfully warm and gave small ripples as she approached one of the trees. The fruits called out to her invitingly, and her stomach seemed to return the affection.

Twilight gave herself a mental slap. What are you doing? You have no idea if these fruit are harmful or not. Despite her best attempts to stop herself however however, the alluring aroma of the fruits was too tempting. As she struggled with herself a small grey bird landed on the tree and dug its beak into one of the fruit. With this Twilight’s struggle was lost and she plucked one of the fruits from the tree and bit into it.

The explosion of sweet, heavenly flavour in her mouth was overpowering to the lavender unicorn. Her chin was coated with sweet golden juice that fell into the water and shifted like gemstones. But something else was mingling with this otherworldly taste, something horrible.

Spitting out the chewed fruit Twilight was quick to find the cause of the horrid taste. While the flesh was heavenly sweet the skin was hard and horribly bitter. With this knowledge Twilight plucked another fruit with her magic and carefully peeled the skin off with her teeth. Soon she was moaning with delight as she feasted on the golden flesh.