Chapter 1 - A Day's Work (Pilot Chapter)
The birds were erratic in their movements, darting back and forth between sun light trees, diving from branch to canopy and back again at a furious pace. The energy in the air was palpable, it's presence so obvious it made Forage glance up from his business once or twice to admire the colorful display that the birds enacted above him. Forage had a hunch as to why the forest animals were being so busy, Lavender Night. The night when the ponies -and other creatures- of Equestria celebrated the imprisonment of Queen Celestia's evil sister Luna, or Nightmare Moon as she was more commonly known, for trying to cast the realm into eternal night.
Forage was sprawled out on the forest floor, his hind legs stretched out behind him and his forehooves in front of him, picking at the aromatic lavender that grew in droves in that part of the forest. His back was aching from hours of being laid out on the dirt, delicately parting the purple flora from the from the forest soil. With the last flower Forage needed picked he rose from his prone position and sat on his rump, wiping the sweat from his brow and smiling proudly at the two brimming baskets of purple flowers sitting by his side. Getting up onto his hooves Forage slipped his muzzle through the handle of the first basket and flicked his head backwards, launching the basket into a cartwheel in the air and having the contents spill out into his saddle sacks, repeating the action for the second basket, tossing it into the air effortlessly and feeling the sudden rush at his side of his saddle sack being filled with Lavender, he was ready to go.
Satisfied with his haul Forage checked if the bags were secured properly, not wanting to return to the forest to get more as they were a pain to collect "properly". He started his way out of the forest, trotting lightly and following the dirt path that lead to the outside, absentmindedly chewing on the handles of the baskets that he held in his muzzle, then he broke into a gallop. He rushed at a tremendous speed, turning the forest around him into an intense blur of a multitude of shades of green. The wind rushed past Forage's face, whipping his tangled, black mane behind him and sending cold air through his coat, a broad smile plastered across his muzzle, exhilaration coursing his veins as fast as he plowed through the forest towards the growing break in the eternal tree line. The ever volumeous cries of the forest birds intensified as Forage burst out of their home, as if they chased him out, booing and hissing as the outsider left their forest.
The canopy was gone, revealing a brilliant, blue sky, with white, wispy clouds lazily inching across Forage's field of view. As he galloped along, endless fields of wheat and lavender flowed beneath him, unfortunately he wasn't allowed to pick that, someone else owned it. As the oceans of gold and purple opened up