Everyone knows the Everfree Forrest is a place to be feared and avoided, but this was not always common knowledge. In fact, almost one hundred years ago, many ponies enjoyed exploring the spooky woods. Of course, there had been rumors of dangerous creatures and poisonous plants inhabiting the Everfree, but it still drew many hopeful adventurers to it. One such adventurer was a young colt by the name of Brave Heart.
Brave Heart, as you can imagine, was brave. He was known for tackling any challenge without even giving the slightest hint of fear. The colt got his cutie mark when he was only six, when he scared away a bear by growling at it. Brave Heart, like any other young colt, was interested in the mysterious forrest known as the Everfree. Like everypony else, he too had heard the strange and even frightening rumors about it. However, unlike everypony else, Brave Heart was not scared in the least.
One day, Brave Heart was busy playing with his friends when they all heard the familiar sound of bike bell being rung. The group of colts looked behind them to see their other friend, Quick Delivery, making his newspaper routes. They watched him as he stopped in front of each house and tossed a newspaper onto each porch. Eventually, Quick made it to Brave Heart in the others. To their surprise, Quick was breathing heavily and even appeared to be shaking. The poor colt could barely stay atop his own bike. Before the colts had time to question him, Quick threw one of his newspapers at their hooves.
“Look...at...page...twelve,” Quick spoke between gasps for breath. With that, the colt was off and continued to make his way down the street.
Brave Heart and the rest of the colts eagerly surrounded the newspaper Quick
had given them. Brave quickly removed the paper from its packaging and placed it on the ground. He turned the pages, being careful not to miss page twelve. Finally, Brave quit flipping, for he had reached the page. Every single one of the colts, excluding Brave Heart, gasped at what they saw. The title of the article read ‘Dead Body Found In The Everfree.’ The paper had also included a gruesome picture of a mare with her body on the ground and covered in bite marks.
“Wow,” began one of the colts. “What do you think did her in?”
“It was probably one of those monsters they say live in the forrest.”
“Do you think it could have been a poisonous plant?”
“No way! Look at those marks! She was obviously killed by...”
“All of you!” Brave screamed, shushing the rest of the colts. “Just shut up, will ya? There’s only one way we’re going to find out what happened to her and that’s to take a look for ourselves.”
“Are you kidding, Brave!? I know you’re supposed to be fearless, but this is borderline insanity!”
“He’s right, man. Going into that forrest is suicide!”
“So what!?” Brave countered. “I’ve never faced anything that’s stopped me before. Why should this be any different?”
“It shouldn’t matter why! The point is you just shouldn’t go.”
“Uh, dude.”
“What?”
“Brave’s already gone.”
The colt looked around and saw that Brave Heart was, in fact, already making his way towards the Everfree Forrest.
“Darn it!”
As Brave Heart made his way closer and closer to the Everfree Forrest, he began to question why other ponies thought the place was so scary. Sure, the trees were thick and a few unsettling sounds could be heard, but it just seemed like a perfectly normal forrest to him. Brave trotted all the way up to the exact edge of the forrest, where his muzzle was only inches away from the darkness. Without even the slightest hesitation, Brave stepped forward and entered the Everfree.
Brave Heart walked further and further into the forrest, looking around for any sign of, well, anything. Unfortunately for him, Brave’s adventure through the Everfree was currently nothing more than a hike through a regular forrest.
“Really?” he thought to himself. “All of that build up for this? The Everfree forrest is nothing more than a...”
“Ow!” Brave suddenly cried. A sharp pain shot up from his left hind leg. Looking back at the limb, Brave saw a small, crimson colored spider clamping down on him. Without panicking, Brave Heart shook the tiny nuisance off his leg and crushed it beneath his hoof.
“Oh well,” Brave muttered. “A spider bite isn’t going to stop me, now is it?”
The courageous colt continued on his way, only he bore a slight limp. The pain from the spider bite wasn’t excruciating, but it was still fairly noticeable. Brave limped on for ten more minutes of boredom until he felt a familiar pain in his other hind leg. Looking back once more, Brave found another spider attached to him. He repeated the same procedure as before: shake, squash, limp away. Eventually, Brave deduced that the only think scary about the Everfree was the amount of pesky spiders that roamed the ground.
“I guess I should turn back,” Brave announced to no one but himself. “If there isn’t anything here then why would I keep going?”
However, just as Brave Heart turned around to head home, the faint pains in his two hind legs turned into searing burns. Brave moaned in agony and fell to the ground. The two bitten limbs started twitching and the pain only doubled. It took everything Brave had not to scream like a filly. The horrible pain crept up Brave’s legs and moved up to his belly. The colt vomited unintentionally and writhed on the ground. Unfortunately, the ground did not feel as solid as it used to. To Brave, the dirt beneath him felt like a bubble as it began to cave in underneath him.
Finally, the ground bubble popped and a decent sized hole opened in the the ground. Brave could do nothing as he fell through the hole, finally letting out a girlish scream. It came to a relief for Brave when he finally landed on a large dirt pile. However, that relief was short lived. Brave realized that the dirt pile was, in fact, not made of dirt when the pile began to shift and crawl around him. It was pitch black, but by the way thousands of tiny legs were crawling on top of him, Brave knew that he was in the middle of a large pile of spiders.
The poor colt’s situation only grew worse when the pile moved upward, causing Brave to sink deeper and deeper into the mass of spiders. Finally, the spiders on the top of the pile moved together, completely surrounding Brave Heart. Bite after bite, the arachnids tore at Brave’s flesh until bones and hooves were the only things left of the once courageous colt.
Nightmare Night was coming to end, and for the young fillies and colts of Ponyville, this new was absolutely tragic. They wanted to continue to play fun games, eat more candy, and even get scared a few more times. However, the night was getting late and the parents of said fillies and colts would not let them stay out for much longer. In fact, most ponies were already heading home, telling stories of the wonderfully frightening night they just had. But for one pin mare, the fun was just getting started.
Pinkie Pie was leading a small group of fillies and colts to the edge of the town. She joyfully bounded up and down as the children followed her every move. Finally, Pinkie and her followers reached their destination: the Nightmare Moon statue located on the edge of the Everfree Forrest.
“All right!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Are you fillies and colts ready!?” A few hushed murmurs and whispers passed throughout the crowd of children. Finally, a young colt by the name of Pipsqueak stepped forward.
“Uh, Pinkie?” he asked, in his adorable accent. “Why exactly are we here?”
“Because, silly, I’m going to tell you all some very special scary stories!” Now, a wave of cheers passed through the fillies and colts. “Ok, everypony, let’s get started!”
