I slung the longcoat over my shoulders and checked my costume once more, feeling more nervous than I have ever been before. I couldn't understand why, though. I mean, it can't be the costume! It's perfect, even down to the material of the holster! 'Course, it was hard to find a replica of the pistol, but it was worth it—
The doorbell suddenly rang, interrupting my thoughts. Quickly collecting myself, I calmly strode to my door. Opening it revealed my best friend, Kess, wearing the simplest costume I've ever seen. Instead of her usual pink sweatpants and purple T-shirt, she just wore a simple white nightgown that showed off her slender arms, tan from having lived on a farm most of her life.
But what truly caught my attention was her hair. It was so strange, so outrageous, so weird, that—
"Why are you staring at my hair?" Kess asked, with a slight hint of amusement in her voice.
"I don't mean to be rude, but what happened to your hair?" I replied.
She simply laughed.
"Don't worry! I simply dyed it black! As it turns out, having pink hair does NOT work when dressing as Samara Morgan," she said, before noticing what I was wearing.
"Nice! Let me guess, Mal?"
I nodded, before turning to the parking lot. "We should probably get going. Your car, or my Jeep?"
"Jeep. My car isn't working very well."
I just shrugged. "Shame. Alright, let me just clean the front seat up. Wait here."
As she waited by my door, I jogged over to the Jeep, its dull patina occasionally glinting from the nearby street lamps. Opening the passenger door, I was greeted by a wall of trash. Thank God I parked by a Dumpster. After clearing out the trash and moving my hunting shotgun to the backseat, the seat was mostly serviceable. Waving Kess over, we both got in, started the Jeep up, and pulled out of the lot.
As we drove along, Kess suddenly leaned out the window and yelled, "This is gonna be the best night ever!!!"
***
"This will be the greatest night in the history of Equestria," Twilight cackled, wearing a labcoat and goggles, preparing the final steps for her new enchantment, "for tonight is the night that transdimensional teleportation becomes possible!"
"Uh, Twilight?" Spike interjected from the stairs to the basement, "everyone's waiting upstairs, waiting for you, and Pinkie's starting to get agita— Are you playing mad scientist again?"
Immediately, Twilight teleported her suit to the upstairs closet before turning to Spike.
"Of course not! I'm just... finishing up an experiment. I'll be up in a minute, okay?"
Spike just sighed. "Alright. But if Pinkie gets into the coffee, it's on you."
Twilight, having turned back to the enchantment, just muttered 'okay'.
Spike just faceclawed, before heading back up to the library, leaving Twilight alone once more. Sighing with relief, she quickly doublechecked her efforts to ensure there were no mistakes.
Satisfied, she lit up her horn and, cautiously avoiding the runes on the ground, started the recitation for the spell in ancient Equestrian.
"Eaque cum quaero ut unum Deum. Adferte mihi et de alio ex orbe!"
With a boom, the candles in the room suddenly flickered out, quickly followed by a flash so bright, Twilight had to shut her eyes and turn her head, or risk becoming blind.
When she opened her eyes, what she saw completely shocked her.
She saw...a simple apple.
Twilight stared in shock, surprise and confusion, before quickly shaking her head and levitated the apple over to her to test it, when she suddenly remembered her friends upstairs. Sighing, she put the apple out of the way for later testing before grinning and prancing up the stairs, for tonight, she had a sleepover to handle, and it will hopefully be more of a success than her last attempt.
What she and her friends did not notice, however, was a bright flash appear in the Everfree Forest, followed by an incredibly loud crash.
***
When I came to, I noticed that I was feeling some pain in my right leg. Looking down, I saw that my leg was being held in place by the crumpled firewall. I immediately set to freeing my leg, flinching everytime my leg scraped against the twisted steel. After what felt like hours, I finally pulled myself free. Cheering to myself, I turned to help Kess out, only to freeze upon seeing that Kess wasn't there. I blanched. Suddenly, I heard a rustling off to my right, behind the Jeep. Quickly grabbing my shotgun out of the backseat, I readied it, aiming at the rustling noise.
Right as I was about to pull the trigger, out comes... something. It looked like a wolf, but it appeared to be made out of scraps of wood and leaves. I lowered my shotgun in confusion, just as it makes eye contact with me. Rather than walk away, like I expected, it growled and started to stalk towards me. Surprised, I tried to shoo it off, but that only seemed to make it angrier. Suddenly, it stopped, and howled.
This thing was confusing me more and more, so I did the first thing that came to mind; I fired a warning shot. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had last used Dragons Breath in it, and I had inadvertently left a single shell in the tube. Thus, when I fired the shell over its head, some of the flames hit it...catching it on fire. It burned up within seconds. I sighed in relief, until I remembered that Kess was currently missing, and from the sounds emanating from deeper within the forest, more of those things were coming. I loaded myself up with what I had in the Jeep, which essentially amounted to my shotgun with 16 shells (two tubes worth), my M1 Carbine with a couple magazines, and my custom Taurus 85. Holstering them, I decided to head away from the sound of the wooden wolves. Before I left, however, I made I quick prayer that Kess was alright, before heading off.
