The Prince Of The Everfree Forest

Both me and Twilight stood in her castle with tears in our eyes, I was reminded of the monster and she witnessed death for the first time. We both took our seats silently, I picked up my tea and put it to my lips. It had turned cold. I glanced over to the clock that rested over the fire place  and became alarmingly aware of the time that had pasted.

“So... what happens now?” Twilight asked behind her porcelain mug. She then recoiled back, tongue sticking out in disgust. She put the mug back on the table.

“Dunno... move on, I guess,” I mumbled.

“How can you 'move on' after that?” she remarked, a frown on her face.

“A long time ago, Celestia told me to let go, that my good deeds of the day would wash away past mistakes,” I was like a stained shirt, what I didn't tell Twilight was that the next day Celestia banished me, I guess the stains of the past were too hard to wash out.

“Maybe you're right,” she said, standing up and collecting our mugs. Her eyes caught a glance at the clock, she snapped her head back to it as if she didn't believe that was the true time.

“We were out a while,” I remarked. Twilight's attention turning to the balcony, it was already dark and Luna's moon reign over the night sky.

“We were,” she agreed, then a idea sparked in her head, “Say, I have a spare room around here somewhere, you can stay here if you like,” she offered. Leave the forest for a whole night?

“But what if somepony walks into the forest, no one will be there to protect them, or the timberwolves might get a sense of wanderlust, or -” I begun to panic, yet before I could continue the list of worries, she planted her hoof on my yapping lips.

“You've served for 2000 years, surely you can take one night off,” she said, removing the hoof from my mouth, “And if you stay, with can come up with a solution to the food problem and I can show you around town tomorrow,”

“I have been interested to have a peek around town, I suppose I can stay just one night,” Twilight tapped her hooves together like a little filly.

“Great, this will be fun, I promise...” she wasn't lying. Since Spike was fast asleep, we decided to leave him and try to make some food for ourselves. Both of us didn't have good culinary skills, we burnt the everything we tried and we woke Spike up anyway due to our fits of laughter, so Twilight made him get some take-away. We ate that instead, it was nice to have some food in me after so long without a bite to eat. After washing up, (Which took way longer than it should of done) Spike went off to his room and me and Twilight decided to get down to business.

We laid out a map of Ponyville and its surrounding area, with pieces of blue tack with marked the areas and sources of food. Eventually we narrowed down possible food sources, leaving us with the Ponyville river and several fruit farms. Going even further we found out that it was migration season for many different types of fish and that the river would be teaming with food. All that we needed now were some fishing nets and the time to set them up. After that I would be able to end the food shortage and I could set up a more permanent food system.

  I leaned over Twilight's balcony, off in the distance the Everfree Forest waved to me in the wind. The silent call of rustling leaves and splashing puddles, the forest still needed me. It was for the best though, if I didn't stay I couldn't feed the animals, then everything would fall apart. Wouldn't be much of a prince if I didn't have the admiration of my 'subjects', unless I became some tyrannical king. I didn't want to do that, I just wanted to be normal, I had a taste of normal life, and I wanted it more and more, though my purpose in the world told me otherwise. I can't be normal, I have to be a silent protector, even if I have to tear a mother from her foal or rid ponies from the world, it would all be for the greater good. Fate didn't care about me, it care only for the big picture, and the big picture was the survival of Equestria and beyond.

“Are you alright?” the sweet, innocent voice of Twilight called from behind, breaking me from thought.

“I'm fine, just thinking...” I mumbled, she perched next to me and followed the trail my eyes took until she to was looking at the Everfree.

“What does that place mean to you? Its a forest infested by vicious monsters and vile plants, you owe it nothing,”

“Its a forest infested by 'my' vicious monsters and 'my' vile plants, I owe it everything, they kept me company when the world wouldn't,” I snapped back, though not sounding too harsh, “Its not just a place, its my place,”

“I'm just saying, there's nothing stopping you from leaving it behind, starting a new chapter of your life might be the best thing to do,”

“Are you kidding, I couldn't do that even if I wanted, not with these-” I pointed to my wings, “-and this-” tapped my horn, “-you know that to be true, once an alicorn, always an alicorn,”

“Then travel further, go to Saddle Arabia or the Zebra Lands, where having both a horn and wings doesn't matter,” she continued, her persistence was interesting, maybe she didn't want me here, stealing her spotlight or Celestia's attention from her. Or maybe she just wanted what's best for me. For some unknown reason, the thought made a fire in my heart, inspiration guiding my tongue to speak truth.

“No, my place is here, to protect the citizens of Equestria from the dangers that lurk in the shadows, be it dragon, or plant, hydra or bird it would fall to me should it be a danger to the ordinary, or best still, be turned to help us,” I dismounted the stone railing, forcing Twilight to do the same as I held her hooves in my own, “Princess Twilight, you seek to bring harmony to all ponies, but please, let me help you bring harmony to the small critter and largest ursa major, pony and animal working in peace, together we can make this happen,”

Twilight giggled, “So this is what Celestia meant when she said you still had harmony inside you,” she took her hoof away from mine to cover her smile, “Whist it is a lovely thought, there are just too many complication to consider,”

“We can find a way, the combine strength of you and your friends have saved the world from things despite the odds being stacked against you, if we use that along side all my and the princesses powers, who knows what we are capable of!” I tempted, this could be a new dawn for Equestria, a way to leave my mark on the world whist improving it as well.

“Do you really think we could do it?”

“I know we can, you just have to believe,” I held up my free hoof for her to take.

She took it, we both stared into each others lives, sharing the thought of a truly united Equestria where animal and pony would work together. Dragons sharing their wealth, serpents taming the wildest waves, bats spreading seed according to pony organization, timberwolves pups running and playing with ponies like an ordinary dog would.

Then, in the heat of the moment, when everything, no matter how big and menacing it was, seemed insignificant in comparison to the moment. She moved in closer and I followed, lips pressing together in a twilight of passion, for those moments the world was pointless and unimportant, all that matter was that kiss.

Of course, it didn't last. She was the one to move away, hooves scampering away backwards in embarrassment and eyes glued to the floor. Cheeks that burned and eyes that fluttered in shook, opening and closing in disbelief. I took a seat on the marble stone and watched her like a silent guardian, showing no emotion or action that could give away my feeling for that kiss.

“I'm sorry, that was a mistake,” she muttered through deep breaths, I scraped my role of the watcher and moved to her side, pulling my wings over her to cover her in a feathered blanket.

“No need to say sorry, its ok,” I reassured, “Though it was a pleasant shock, I didn't know you had proper feeling for me,”

“It seemed a good idea at the time,” she admitted with adorable shyness.

“Twilight, it was a good idea,” I said, pulling her into another kiss but on my terms this time.  My head was faced down while her's was upwards, in the back of my mind an angelic chorus played, it was definitely a good idea.

With unexpected force she pushed me away, breaking the kiss and dropping me onto the floor. “No it wasn't, I hold valuable objects that I have been trusted to give to you when the time is right, if I have feeling for you then I can't be trusted to keep them,”

“So, your royal duties are keeping you away, I understand,” I lied, why was fate so cruel, it torments me with my duties then keeps the ones I love away with theirs, it wasn't fair!

“Yes... I sorry, I just can't be another way...” she bit the bottom of her lips, hooves shuffling awkwardly until her emotion burst out of control. She dived for me, pinning me to the ground in a fury of uncontrollable love.

“But Twilight, what about your duties?” I asked though it was mostly muffled by her mouth.

She broke away long enough to respond, “Screw it, I deserve a break,” before diving back in. I shrugged, fair enough.

After Twilight felt her feeling for me were justified by near suffocation. I departed for the spare room, at some point between the chaos of scrubbing plates, Spike told me the directions to the room and I followed them, finding every other room before opening the magic door to the one I actually wanted. From a simple glance I saw that the room was vastly bigger and better than my cave, a hint of jealously grew inside me, I've wanted my own castle since I was a little colt, though hopefully one that looked less a giant crystal tree.

I moved straight for the bed, paying no attention to the rest of the room. It was so soft and springy, my body just sunk further and further into the mattress. When my head nestled into the pillow it broke any illusion of energy, bring on a tide of sleep deprivation. I was out cold.

I was awoken by the enchanting smell of cooking pastries. At some point my door had been opened during the night, probably just the wind from some open window in the castle or Twilight decided to watch me sleep during the night... creepy.

After some quick realization and events refreshing in my mind, I felt like a cloud had been removed from my head. Movement seemed easier and thoughts felt more purified than before, lack of good sleep must have affected me even more than I first thought. I made a mental note to get a proper bed or even better, a proper place to live. Maybe I could convince Celestia to send some bits my way, just enough to get my life going, she owed me that much.

A slight knocking at the door made my head turn. Her knocking forced the door to move away, no longer dividing us. In her magical grasp she held a tray of food, including the soft, succulent looking pastries and a glass of orange liquid.

“Good morning Autumn, sleep well?” she greeted, walking in despite lack of communication on my side.

“One of the best night sleeps I've ever had,” I replied with a smile, a smile grew on her lips to. She placed the tray on top of my body, the heat from the food burning through the plate and tray to my legs, but it was bearable. She gave me a peek on the lips, hardly a match to her enthusiastic self from the night before.

“Good to hear, now I have the whole day planned out, though before that I have to ask you,” she said.

“Go on...”

“Can we keep the huggy kissy affection to a minimum, and by minimum I mean none at all?” she requested, “Not that I'm afraid of what ponies might thing, its just it might raise too many question that I'm not ready to handle,”

“I understand,” I picked up the knife and fork, trying to remember how they worked. Twilight let out a sigh of relief.

“I'm glad you understand, it's just I don't think I could handle the scandal,” she murmurer, “now we can start the day off by...” She then proceeded to explain in great detail the plans she had, mostly it was just showing me around town and introducing me to all the ponies I saw on the stained glass window. I intervened by saying I already met Rainbow Dash, I couldn't mistake the mare with a mane like that. Whist she spoke never ending plans I chowed down on my 'pancakes' and drank down my orange juice, by the time she done speaking I was done eating.

I followed her down to the castle kitchen, she was answering any questions I had, there wasn't many since her in depth explanation didn't leave many holes in my knowledge.

“Twilight, before we go, can I do one thing?”

“Of course, what is it?”

“I would like to pay a quick visit to the Everfree, just to make sure I didn't miss anything important,”

“Oh, sure, I can do some more preparations before we begin. I'll met you outside the Everfree when your ready to go,” she said, I checked if the coast was clear before giving a quick kiss goodbye. Walking out the door revealed the town to be very much alive, I tried my best to act casual, wasn't very noble of me to panic at the sight of townsfolk. They all watched me with wide eyes, whispers of disbelief and wonderment echoing between them. None tried to speak to me or go near me so I just ignored them and went to where I needed to be. I soon made it to the forest.

“Autumn! Autumn!” called a familiar, country accent from just outside the forest. Apple Bloom stood with a cute little red cape over her shoulders, with her was her two friends with similar capes, on the backs of all of them was a stitched on foal high hoofing the air.

I snuck up on them all, they never expected me to come from outside the forest. With a scream and a good laugh from me, I made my entrance. “What are you girls doing here? Surely you have better things to do besides stalk a prince?”

“Err... well we wanted to check around the Everfree Forest, we just wanted to make sure it was ok with you before we went in,” Scootaloo explained with a foal's innocences, despite how ridiculous her statement was.

“Woah woah woah, you can't go in there, its far too dangerous for young fillies like you,” I moved to be between them and the forest, just in case they got any ideas.

“Well, it was before, but now were friends you can tell those big meanies to leave us alone, for we have adventurers cutie marks to earn,” Sweetie Belle said.

“It doesn't work that way,” I begun pushing them away gently, but they were too stubborn for that.

“But your in charge ain't ya, you control them?” Bloom assumed with a cocked head.

“No, they do their own thing, I just advises them not to do things,” I explained, continuing my vain effort to push them away from the forest.

“So we can't go in?” Scootaloo asked with a coy smile on her lips, it concerned me, what did these fillies have planned.

“No,” I huffed, bunching them up into a group to push them away easier, though none of them lost the smile. The then faced away from me, forming a semicircle as they exchanged whispers, something about a 'plan B'.

They then just turned back, smiles of innocences on their faces. Apple Bloom faked a cough to get my full attention, she took a deep breath before speaking, “A.J wants her buckets back,” my face sunk, I knew that would come back to bite me in the ass.

“Fine, wait here, don't move a muscle,” I pointed to all three menacingly. As I moved away, I felt a tugging at my tail. When I turned back, the three fillies had plastered faces of irresistible cuteness.

“Since you're already going in, can we come with?” Sweetie asked with heart-melting sweetness. Every instinct told me to say no, but the cuteness was like two unstoppable forces colliding, one had to win.

I huffed, “Fine, stay extremely close to me though and never leave my sight for a single second,”

The three fillies cheered, alarms of regret sounding in my head. The fillies ran in despite my warning. “Hey, what did I just say!” I began chasing them down, into the darkening forest we went.

With each one in front of me, I led them down the path towards the cave. Their eyes darted up at every bird taking flight and they jumped at every cricket croak. All curiosity had left them, replaced by fear, fear of my forest.

Calling upon the inner tour guide within me I stopped the group, “Do you want some berries girls, their tasty,” I indicated to a small row of bushes with small red berries growing on them.

“Are they safe ta' eat?” Bloom asked, I chuckled.

“Of course, their only mildly hallucinogenic,” I joked, the fillies eyed me curiously.

“Hallucin-what?” Scoots raised her eyebrow, I walked them closer to the bush and began picking some of them for them. As I plucked the last berry from the bush, a chicken's head popped out and began squawking uncontrollably. We all screamed, the fillies clambered underneath me as I put a hoof to my chest to calm myself down, in my panic I dropped all the berries to the ground.

“Jees Coco, you couldn't have picked a worse time could you?” I asked, he just began scrapping the ground and clucking randomly. The three fillies shuffled out, curious why we all weren't turned to stone.

Scootaloo sized herself up to the cockatrice, “Coco?” she looked at him and he looked back, both stared into each others eyes like it was a staring contest.

“He's my pet, his harmless ever since a yellow pegasus traumatize him, never been the same after that,” I shock my head in thought, never did figure that one out.

The fillies looked to each other in worry, “Err... we don't know anything about that,” Sweetie reassured. The two others nodded swiftly in agreement. I urged the group (Including Coco) onwards, the quicker I got these fillies out, the better.

As we walked, the feeling of eyes watching us tingled at the back of my neck. Worse still, the thing watching us wasn't following any normal predator pattern, if it was timberwolves they would have tried to surround us, cockatrice was just charge us, so this was something different...

With a roar the made trees sway it terror, the predator reveal itself to be the one thing I feared would find us. A manticore, complete hostile and uncontrollable. “Girls, get behind me, now!” I ordered, they didn't argue.

Me and the manticore circled the ground before us, the fillies staying behind me the whole way. At the sound of the roar, Coco fled into the shrubs, his lack of loyalty was understandable, the only thing he'd be was a snack. Since neither of us backed down, the manticore resorted to a show of force, he roared again, attempting to challenge me to a monstrous debate.

“Cover your ears girls,” I advised, before I could check if they did I responded with a feral roar of my own. The ground trembled as we fought nature's argument, each roar was louder that the last as I slowly reached the end of my voicebox's rope. I could compete with timberwolves any day, but a manticore was a different story, this creature was born to fight and roar unlike timberwolves that still had some sense of loyalty and companionship inside them.

The beast stepped forward, breaking the duelling circled and attempting to do the worst possible thing. He wanted to fight it out. I couldn't refuse, unless I wanted the deaths of three fillies on my conscience. “Girls hide in the bushes... now!” I broke eye contact with the manticore to look at them. Fear etched on their innocent faces, faces I was ready to die for.

The ground rumbled like a several hundred tonne creature was charging at me, because there was. I dived away, the fillies scampering away into the bushes. My hindhooves brushing against his mane as I dodged his wild attack. Attention returning fully to the manticore as a pair of sharp razor like claws streaked through the air towards me, missing me by the hairs on my hooves.

His relentless assault stopped me from landing any strikes of my own. Eventually my luck ran out, a single claw down from one ear to the opposite jawline. My shock leaving me open to a more vicious attack, a full paw from cutie mark to mane tore down me in a fury of pain, thankfully my wings were extended so he didn't lob it off. It didn't stop there, the second claw down my chest as he attempted to strike my neck.

A stick the speed of light knocked at the manicore's head, looking over to the bushes was a very angry looking Scootaloo holding more sticks. “Scootaloo... what are you doing!?”

“Saving your tail, what's it look like,” she was brave, very brave. And she paid the price, a single razor like scorpion tail found the place were her cutie mark would be, she cried out in pain as venom was injected inside her. Her sacrifice did one thing, brought me time.

Time that I wasted, I rushed to her side in a attempt to get the manicore's attention, instead I got what I can only describe as a manicore bitch slap. Knocking me down to the ground near the filly.

The shadow of two fillies running caught the manicore's attention better that I did. He turned and chased the two as they hid again in more bushes. I forced myself to my hooves, blood dripping from all over my body as I pushed myself further than i thought possible.

A blast from my horn impacted the back of his head, “Oy, look at me you big bastard!” he huffed, scratching at the ground to prepare for the final charge. He began to run at me, all the while getting peppered by my magic, it was more of a light show rather than a offensive spell. I accepted my fate, he rammed into me and crush countless bone in my body. Whipping his tail around to pump venom into me to, I was done, finished, end of the line. “Autumn...” the weak cry of Scootaloo from behind.

“Hey...” I held out my hoof for her, I felt the manicore's breaths against my side, readying to eat me alive.

“Is this... the end?” she asked, taking my hoof.

The sound of timberwolves howling and snarling blocked out any response i had. They had come to my aid like the loyal 'subjects' that they were, protecting me and the fillies in our time of need. With strength in numbers the snapped and tore at the manicore's hide until he was forced into a retreat. Instead of chasing him down, they stayed to watch over me.

"Autumn, Scoots, stay with us!" Bloom cried, rushing over to our sides. The poison was too much, i blinked and my eyes couldn't reopen, outright refusing to respond. My mind was also starting to slip away, i couldn't hold on.

"Girls... Tell Rainbow Dash... that... no... it doesn't matter," Scootaloo's hold on my hoof loosened until it was like holding a cloud.

"Scoots?" Sweetie asked, she wasn't getting a response, "Scootaloo?..."