The Everfree way

Inside the forest beyond the trees, you can begin to see houses grouping. Houses varying in many sizes, colors and shapes. There weren't just houses. In the center of the town, you could see a small herb garden. The gardener ponies differed from all three races. At the edge of the town where the forest grew it's deepest, a schoolhouse was placed in front of the opening into the deeper parts of the forest. The town looked as if it were a normal town, but it was simple to define it as anything but normal.

Three little colts and a filly one orange, one white, one grey and one black. All of them new to town. As these four walked down the street, they received more than their fair share of odd stares. The way the ponies looked at them made the colts feel like they were aliens in a new world, but the filly seemed to ignore it all completely. The orange colt got the nerve to ask a unicorn mare for directions.

"E-excuse me ma'am? But where is the schoolhouse?"

"Oh, you're just in time. It's at the edge of town, and I'm the schoolteacher." She answered. Her light blue mane twisted as she turned her head. "Follow me." She walked toward the end of the town, into the denser darker part. All four of the foals were getting nervous. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude. Are you new students?" The school teacher asked. The white colt perked up.

"Yes we are. We just moved here. I'm Treble Note." He said. "The orange one is Flare, the grey one is Nova. And the black one is Nightmare." Flare was caught staring at the schoolteacher's flank. She gave a slight wiggle in response. Flare snapped out of his trance. Nova smack Flare in the back of the head.

"Ow! Hey!" He said. Nova stared Flare down.

"You're fifteen. We're all fifteen! Quit perving out over the teacher." He said. Clearly Zerobeat was the oldest out of the group. Though, they were all the same age, Nova was taller and deeper voiced.

"Oh, right. I didn't tell any of you my name. I'm Ms. BlueStreak." Said the unicorn mare. Again, Flare got hit in the back of the head for staring at Ms. BlueStreak's flank.

"Hey! That hurts!" He yelled.

"Then quit checkin’ her out." Treble Note said. Flare turned and stared at Note. Note flinched in fear.

"So Ms. Blue Streak, what are classes like in The Everfree Forest?" Nova asked. Ms. Blue Streak stopped and turned.

"We're here." She said. She opened the door with her magic and all four of them walked in. The school foals were sitting in there seats, which was good. But, the air in the room felt thick and scary. What was so odd about this school? Ms. Blue Streak walked up to the front of the classroom.

"Good Morning class." She said. The foals all perked up and answered with gusto.

"Good morning Ms. Blue Streak." They all said.

"Today we have four new students. Please introduce yourself." Ms. Blue Streak said. She raised a hoof to the three colts and filly. Flare spoke up first.

"Hiya! I'm Flare. I'm from Manehatten. Good to meet you all!" He said. Next, Treble Note.

"Hey. I'm Treble Note. I'm from Cloudsdale. And I’m single." He said. Then, Nova.

"What's up? I'm Nova. I'm from Canterlot. That's all..." Ms. Blue Streak smiled. Finally, Nightmare.

“‘Ellos. I’m Nightmare Daydream, but I’ll respond to pretty much anything.” She said.

"Well, you four can sit in the back behind Lightning Strike." Ms. Blue Streak said. All four of the foals walked to their seats and sat down. But Nova gave Flare another smack in the head for pervin' out over the teacher, again.

"Will you...stop...doing...that?!" Flare asked.

"Will you stop pervin' out over the teacher?" Treble Note said. The whole classroom burst into laughter. Flare blushed a deep dark red.

"Quiet now young ones. Now, let's begin class." Ms. Blue streak said. The entire class left their seats and walked out of the door. Only Flare, Treble Note, Nova and Nightmare remained in their seats. Ms. Blue Streak looked confused, then realized they were new. "Oh of course. You're new. In The Everfree Forest, classes are outside the classroom. Follow the students, they will lead you to the forest." The four rose and started to follow the others.

“So...where are we going?” Nightmare Daydream asked.

“I don’t know but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Flare said

“Well, I mean we are in the Everfree forest so don’t you always have a bad feeling.” She replied.

The teacher then stopped in front of a clearing and turned to speak to the class.

“Okay class, today we are going to learn a bit about the different types of plants that live in our forest.” Ms. Blue Streak then fired up her horn, casting a spell. A large patch of small blue flowers appeared in front of the students.

“What are these?” One of the students asked, about to touch it.

“These,” Ms. Blue Streak said, moving the foal’s hoof away “Are Poison Joke and they are not supposed to be touched.” Treble Note’s eyes went wide.

“Oh! I’ve heard of those! If you touch one, nopony knows what the effect will be.” He said.

“Yeah you would know wouldn’t you Note.” Nightmare said, hinting at a past experience with it.

“Why you little...” Note said, holding up his hoof menacingly. To which, Nightmare just stuck out her tongue and told him to pay attention to the teacher.

“You’re right, Treble Note.” The teacher said. “These flowers, which first appeared around the Discordian Era, can cause a number of changes to you if you so much as touch or smell it. But, given the right spell, or, if you don’t have magic at the ready, careful handling, they can be taken and used for many different reasons, whether it be potions or just a bit of home decorating.”

“So, what are some of the unknown effects of Poison Joke?” Nova asked.

“You should let Note answer that” Nightmare whispered, earning a glare from Note.

“Well, most effects are actually a play on characteristic of you that you think makes you unique. For example, a while ago a pony who had prided himself with how he could sing found that everytime he tried to sing it would either squeak, scratch, or something else along those lines. While the effect can be that small, sometimes it does cause something bigger, such as changing your gender or species until you cure it.”

“Can we move away from Poison joke, please?!” Treble Note asked, desperate to change the subject.

“Or I can push you into it...” Nightmare replied, moving towards him.

“Hold it Nightmare.” Flare interjected. “Note is pretty sensitive about this. Stop teasing him.”

“Pfft...spoilsport. I wasn’t going to anyways. Plus, it usually changes from what it wants to affect so it probably won’t be the same as last time.” She said, waving her hoof.

“While that is true, we will be moving onto another subject.” Ms. Blue Streak said, though the group could’ve sworn they heard her say something else like “Wouldn’t want another incident so soon.” The class moved on until they came upon a dark cave. A wave of foul smelling green gas puffed from inside.

“Oh Celestia! It smells like rotten eggs basted in spoiled milk!” Nova shouted, trying not to gag.

“Which was then thrown into a garbage dump, which was filled with diapers and puke and then it was-” Nightmare was cut off by a hoof being shoved into her mouth.

“Yeah yeah we get it. Now stop trying to make us all sick.” Note said, holding his stomach.

“Only one creature in Equestria can make a smell that bad,” Flare started.

Nightmare jokingly interjected with a ”Yeah, you” before letting him continue.

“Chimera Breath” Flare continued

“Good job Flare. Yes, this is the local Chimera den. While they usually live in packs, the one living here is rather old and instead lives on its own, only bothering to come out every once in a while to get a snack, which is why we have been able to come this close without it trying to eat us all.” Ms. Blue Streak said. Little did anypony notice one filly had left the group. When somepony noticed, it was only because of a bloodcurdling cry from inside.

“What the hell was that?!” Nova shouted.

“Was that Flower Sprout?” They heard another classmate say.

They then heard a rumbling from inside the cave and saw the filly, who was presumably Flower Sprout running back out screeching. She was lightly bleeding due to a small gash on her flank, right over her cutie mark. Her sides were covered in tears and a fang was stuck in her tail.

“The thing in there must be hungry. He tried to eat me!” She shouted.

While the rest of the class was in hysterics, Nightmare managed to see that Ms. Blue Streak seemed oddly calm, but before she could point it out to her friends, the Chimera emerged from its cave, causing them all to run off.

“OH MY CELESTIA RUN!!” Flare shouted.

“OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!” Note screamed out.

“Holy crap.” Nova muttered, freezing before trying to run too.

Nightmare decided to take the calm approach and teleported them all to the other side of the cave but, seeing as she was still inexperienced they ended up in the air. Being natural pegasi, Note, Nova and Flare opened their wings, but Nightmare, being used to using magic, instead forgot to and flopped down to the ground.

“Crap.” Nightmare said rubbing her leg, which she apparently fell onto. “That bloody hurt.”

“Hahaha!” Note laughed. Flare and Nova tried not to laugh seeing as it would be mean and immature.

“Dang it Note! I’m blaming you for this. Get over here so I can hit you.” She said, starting to fly up to them.

“Umm...you can hit him later we need to deal with that Chimera.” Nova said.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that everyone else is sorta maybe dyin’ currently.” Nightmare said, looking at the other side of the cave, where the chimera was currently chasing Lightning Strike.

“Well, there is obviously nothing we can do guess we better go home.” Note said, before he was pulled back by Nightmare.

“Naw I gotta plan dudes.” Nightmare said.

“Screw that.” Flare said soaring down to slam into the Chimera.

“Idjit” Nightmare muttered. “Anyways, what I was thinking, before he decided to kamikaze, was that we should try to lure it over to that cliff over there and cause it to fall off or something. We could probably find a vine or something to trip it and one of us could lure it.”

“You may wanna hold that thought. Check that out.” Nova said. Everypony looked down to see Flare kicking around a bunch of burning timber.

“...or we could start a forest fire and possibly burn down everything including the village. Yep, lets go do that instead” Nightmare replied, which the guys immediately took seriously and started to help Flare. “...I was kidding….”

Note and Nightmare started to light some fires around the Chimera, which was then spread by Zero and Flare. The fire soon managed to circle the chimera, allowing the students to get away from it and head to the teacher. The fire did it’s job and caught flame to the Chimera. As the Chimera burned, blood splashed around, it landed out onto Flare and Nightmare’s faces, causing a student to faint. The guts and brains of the beast burst out of the chimera landing on a few of the students that were closer to it, causing even more to faint while others stood, staring in horror.

“Well, you wanted to know what happens here, so...Welcome to class. Be prepared to learn.” Ms Blue Streak said.