Everfree Incident

Curses Can Resurface And Be Immersive

Frank's Pov:

Now In hindsight, this could be worse, but I actually thought Azure could be In there, but we came back out with less than we started with. How In Hell's name did this happen?

Day 1:

After enjoying my little date with Lavender, which by the way I would think yours truly Is a player. Yea, I was born with the gift of gab, so-

''Hey, get your head out of the gutter, rookie.'' Valiant Barrier broke my train of thought. Bastard.

''Yea, what Is It?''

''We're about to set off for your little 'Idea' and since you're the one who came up with this: figured you make want to take point.''

Damn, hate when he gets under my skin like that. Readjusting my new gear, courtesy of Iron over here, I looked to the Everfree forest and smirked.

''She's gotta be In there.''

''And how do you know that? The Zebra, Renoir questioned my skills.

''I know because I have a set of particular skills. Skills I have acquired over a long period of time. Skills that make me-

''Enough, already: we're burning daylight and I want to get this over with.'' The unicorn huffed.

Fine, beside I have better stories to tell when we get In there. Hoisting  my bag of supplies on my shoulder, we proceeded Into the charred underbrush of the forest, Ponyville slowing fading away as the path In front of us got darker and more ominous, but that bothered me not In the least. What does however Is how quickly the scenery changes and the overall mood shifts. The sound of grasshopper chirping and wild animals howling around us did nothing for me really. Coming out In a clearing, we surveyed the area: wide and circular with a surrounding treeline that gave a view of a cave uptop a small ridge.

Settling for that, I deemed that to be the first place to check as any for a snake. Putting on my gun gauntlets, or Shock-charge, i slowly made my way over to the cave, taking light steps on the damp ground to cushion my footsteps. Holding up the stop signal with one hand, I cleared my thoughts and fired a flash round, the projectile leaving my chamber with a blam and going down the hold further than I thought until It hit rock and flashed brightly, revealing nothing?

Hopping on a ledge to get a better look, I put my hands on my hips and pouted.

''Perfectly good waste of a-''Ahh!'' A large screech filled my ears. Peering down, a rather large mass flew up and scared the shit out of me, making my fall on my rump. A swarm of dark colored, almost grim looking bats with rather large fangs flew around us.

''I hate bats!'' Spike scurried around In fear.

''Get them off me!'' Iron yelled.

Groaning, I steadied myself and reloaded to more appropriate ammo. Thrusting my fist upwards, another shell discharged from the barrel and struck one In the stomach that flopped on my lap, the blood getting on my jeans. Voicing my disgust, I quickly got up and began laying down some fire, Intent on killing as many of these pests as I could. Being swarmed from all directions, I shot some down while Valiant and Flashing settled on stunning or electrocuting them, Zareran  and Gizmo using their claws to slash while Spike and Kanaranx settled on roasting with their fire. Going at this for a few minutes, we failed to see the damn things fly off with our food. And to make matters worse, somehow It began to downpour on us, the rain water quickly dampening my clothes and sticking to me. And to top It all off, we seem to have guests who obviously have no manners.

A snarl emanated from the throat of a Manticore as the rest slowly circled around us, cutting off our escape route. Seeing no other way out than to force our way, we only have one choice at this point.

''Okay, so far not 1 hour In and we already have hostility In the air.''

''I knew this was a bad Idea, I knew I shouldn't have listened to you.'' Valiant sighed.

''Yea, love you too buttercup: now stop whining and start fighting.'' I focused as the heel of my foot contacted with the jaw of the overgrown cat as It got pushed back and looked at me with rage as It charged forward and swiped at me, a narrow call as the claw grazed my knee guards and gave me a quick startle as I slid back. Rushing forward and releasing a shell, the Impact carved a hole through a stinger to which It spewed out some green fluid and the beast gave way and tumbled to the ground. Grabbing some mud, I hurled It at another that tried to leap but slid across and met the business end of Battering's hooves as It was dazed and a bullet was drilled through his skull. With Spike and Kanaranx working In tandem with their fire, Valiant and Flashing using magic, and Iron, Renoir and Battering resorting to bucking, we seemed to be holding our own.

Prepping myself for another attack, my hands caught the Incoming stinger and struggled for a moment before until I got some leverage to jump over and snap It In half, a roar of protest sounded as the remaining flocked upon us, Intent on bodily harm when a massive tree fell down, separating us we were provided enough time to escape. Going the opposite direction, the pitter patter of the rain hitting against the leaves of the tree as we left our assailants In the dust. We ran for a few minutes until the roars began to die down and we had a chance to relax and make sense of what happened. Making sure everyone was present, I spotted a dense grove of trees to settle down.

''Okay, so...that...happened.'' My heart was racing. Shooting me a dirty look at me, Valiant might have wanted to kill me but Instead decided on keeping a eye out as Kanaranx proclaimed: ''That was fun! Who wants to do It again?'' He offered.

Chirp-Chirp...

''...''

''Or we could do something else, that's fine too.'' The dragon leaned against a tree. Time to asses our situation: I've planned a mission to try and track down Azure, the backstabbing unicorn In possibly the most dangerous place I know In Equestria. Our food was stolen by bats and were ambushed by a group of manticores, and now....I've lead the guys with me and are lost. At least we have each other. Now I need to figure out what to do next, but I don't know what!  Jamir always made leading so easy and seemed to have things locked down, and what have I done? Nothing, just like everything else: I could never help, only give words of encouragement as a voice In his head and now that I have my own body, I can't even take two steps without making someone either pity or belittle me. Since nobody'll be here to hold my hand and turn this around, the task falls to me. If this plan fails then we'll take It from there. Getting up, my whole body shook with uncertainty and yet I gave this a whirl.

''Alright guys, check this out: we have no food, no sense of direction, and most of all: we don't have a lot of gear so the stuff we have now.'' -, I gestured to our gear.  -''will have to get us to survive until we get out of here.''

The looks on their faces told me how they thought I was bullshitting, and they could be right, but would rather take a slight doubt than nothing else. My first order of business would be to secure some food. Seeing as our light provisions were pillaged by fruit bats and not knowing how long we could be In here plays a major role In hunger. My only option would be to make a meal out of those already dead manticores, but that might have problems of skinning and cooking, not to mention-No wait! That's kinda of Irrelevant:I'd have to get the damn thing first and then I can worry about those small details. With that In mind, Kanaranx and I set off back to the site of our little skirmish. Walking back, the sloshing of the mud slowed us down and the rain obstructed my eyes as the dark leaved trees and the fog of the forest floor got thicker.

''Damn, I can't see where my feet Is-Whoa!'' I tripped, my clothes getting covered. Wiping dirt out of my eyes, my hands felt around for what I tripped over until I felt something furry and wet. Bringing a finger to my lips, the smell was bitter and stinging. A claw helping me up, we came across a fallen corpse and Kanaranx and me hefted It up, the limp body beginning to filter out a odorous, putrid smell that I held my breath for the remainder of the trip.

5 minutes later:

''Ohh, now I get It!'' Kanaranx slapped a claw to his face ''It was meant to not be In there so you'd feel ticked! Yay-Yay! what do I win?''

Groaning, I have just realized that I have to have the worst person to conversate with. You thought Peter Griffon and Homer Simpson was bad? This guy Is a true character: every other word out his mouth Is either nonsense or and/or stealing my job AND! very shitty too, might I add. Bringing  the corpse here was the 'somewhat' easy part, now comes to the part of skinning It. But then even that would be hard.

And how they feel about this? Me, I can eat meat just fine, no problem, however the Idea of eating another creature may not be assuring to the rest of them.

''Look guys, I understand that your species are herbivores and for that I know how you must feel. But would you rather starve or just suck up your pride and do this.''

''Can't we get some fruit or something?'' Battering grimaced.

''No.'' I deadpanned. '' This Is the Everfree: nothing safe could possibly grow here so what's your choice?''

...

Just like I thought.

Taking a look at the dead animal, my first thought was to get rid of the fur. Figuring the only ones with means to actually cook this thing by standard means, Spike and Kanaranx can take care of that. Breathing a little fire on their claws, they each took a side and separated the Innermost layer of fur and wings from the skin, revealing a large mass of hair. flipping It over, we broke off the stinger and was left with skin. Making a Incision down the middle, I took hold of the leathery and pulled back to feast upon a plethora of different organs, the heart still beating though albeit faint while the lingering smell of something akin to rotten eggs and cough syrup had me gagging. Based on what Fluttershy told about animal anatomy: the safe parts would be the heart, liver, kidney, and In some cases...I want to say the spleen.

''Ugh, goodness, a lot of things I've done that I'm not proud of, but this? This'll top It.'' Valiant shook his head.

With him losing confidence In doing this, he must have no backbone at this kind of thing as everyone else looked on with disgust. The question Is who will be the first to try this? Basically with nobody volunteering, once again It falls to me.

''Hey Spike, can you spark me a fire?''

''Mmm-hmm!'' The dragon spewed out a stream of fire In the other direction at a steady pace as I chose to try the liver. Reaching with my bare hand, the texture of the gray colored organ was slimy and gooey. Feeling some liquid Inside, I took a huge breath and rushed my hand forward and yanked It out, severing It from the arteries holding, squeezing to a similar character from MKX. Finding a stick and piercing It through, the heat began to roast and bring a stream trail to life as I wondered what It could taste like when I pulled away to observe the current state and let It cool down.

''Here goes nothing.'' I opened my teeth and chomped down.

''Well, how Is It?'' Flashing wondered.

''To be honest It doesn't taste all that bad. I can't really give It a comparison, but mildly bitter and chewy.'' I shrugged. Passing It around, they each took a look and copied me until It got to Valiant who looked absolutely mortified. Sighing, he hesitantly took a bite and swallowed. Watching was a tad hard to watch as I could almost feel his discomfort at taking this step. It may be Interesting to hear his opinion and yet I don't.

''This tastes...decent.'' He groaned.

Finding that to be a acceptable response, he passed It around to everypony else and took a bite. With that being taken care of, the next thing to do would be-

Squish, Crunch!

Turning to the source, Kanaranx got In the jist a little too well as the Manticore's skull was removed and skull was crushed open as the pink, mushy bits of the brain was shovelled Into his maw.

''Mmmph, mmmph,mmm!'' He mumbled.

Massaging my temples, the next thing I did was take a seat on a log and say: ''Same here, same here.'' Next order of business: find our way out by sunrise, I would not stay here and longer than Is needed to.

Eh, I tried.