Apple Bloom paced back and forth in front of Sweet Apple Acres. She was getting impatient, and somewhat annoyed. She could understand why Sweetie Belle would be late, but Scootaloo? She was never late. Apple Bloom looked at Sweet Apple Acres' clock and sighed in annoyance. Where were they? She checked her saddlebags out of boredom. Apples, books, apple pie, apple cake, apple sandwiches, trading cards, more books, plushies, and a couple of hair bows. Just the essentials. A high-pitched yell violently yanked her out of her saddlebags and into the real world.

"AAAAAAAPPLEEEEEE BLOOOOOOOOM!!" Sweetie Belle yelled as she sprinted towards Apple Bloom.

Skidding to a halt just in front of Apple Bloom, Sweetie tried to catch her breath. This task rapidly proved to be impossible while she remained standing, and Sweetie Belle lay down for a moment. Neither of the two spoke for a moment. Apple Bloom broke the silence (not really) by producing an apple from her bag and offering it to Sweetie, who graciously accepted.

"Thanks," Sweetie said as she crunched the apple happily.

"Why in Equestria were ya running so fast? We don't have to leave at any particular time," Apple Bloom asked.

"Didn't want to arrive too far behind Scootaloo. Speaking of Scootaloo, where is she?" Sweetie explained.

"Ah have no idea. I thought that she woulda arrived before you, but she seems ta be late." Apple Bloom stared at the obviously empty road. Almost as if her glare had galvanized the universe into action, a fast moving speck appeared on the road.

As Scootaloo pulled up, Apple Bloom muttered under her breath. "Well speak of the devil."

"Huh?" Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom questioningly.

"Nothing," Apple Bloom hurriedly said. "Are ya ready to go?"

"Yep. I've got everything I need. How did Sweetie arrive before me?" Scootaloo asked.

"I have no idea," Sweetie admitted.

"Okay! Let's go!" Apple Bloom cheered.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS WORLD TRAVELLERS YAY!"

In a nearby field, Applejack stopped mid-applebuck and looked worriedly towards the Everfree Forest.

"Why do ah get the feeling that something is very wrong?" she asked a nearby apple tree.

The tree wisely remained silent. The ancient laws forbade it from communicating with mortals, but it could help the young ones. It sent a message to the Everfree, telling the forest's soul to protect Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. It dropped a few apples and did the closest thing that a tree could to a contented sigh: let a few leaves fall.

The Everfree Forest wasn't used to ponies travelling through it, but recently there had been a lot of ponies and similar beings coming through. The most annoying thing was that none of them were scared. It had gradually built up a reputation to prevent ponies from coming in it, and to make sure that the ones who were brave or foolish enough to would be too scared to ever come back in.

After the Nightmare Moon thing, for some reason, a small group of ponies had been venturing in more and more. It was always the same six, and now three more had joined them in regularly visiting. Today the three were back, and seemed more obnoxious than ever. Unfortunately, it had been asked by Old Apple to keep them safe. So, unfortunately, it was honour bound by the old pacts to help them. That didn't mean that it had to like it. And it certainly didn't like it.

"So, what path should we take?" Scootaloo asked. The three fillies were standing at a fork in the road. The right path (in all senses of the word) looked like a timberwolf pack had walked through. It had been broken and clawed, like an extremely angry chainsaw ghost had gone on a rampage. The left path looked perfectly fine. An experienced forest dweller would know that the lack of any claw marks meant that the left path lead to the lair of a particularly dangerous Spectre, but the Crusaders weren't experienced forest dwellers.

"I vote left." Apple Bloom said.

"Me too." Scootaloo agreed.

"Me three!" Sweetie chimed in. However, before they could start walking down the wrong path, the Everfree decided to act. A tree collapsed in the middle of the path. Just to drive the point home, it sent a few more trees collapsing.

"I don't think the forest wants us to go down that path, Apple Bloom." Scootaloo quietly said.

"Normally, if somepony had said that to me, I'd have called them crazy, but ah think you're right. Let's go down the other path." As the Crusaders began walking down the right path, the Everfree forest breathed a sigh of relief (in a manner of speaking). It decided to get rid of that Spectre as soon as possible. While it was planning the attack, it failed to notice a group of bandits walking along the same path.

"Ah think this was the right path after all, girls! We'll be in Appleoosa in no time!" Apple Bloom happily exclaimed. The Crusaders had been travelling down the right path for an hour and hadn't run into any monsters. They had seen a lot of abnormal forest critters, but nothing that had tried to kill them.

"Excellent! How much longer?" Scootaloo asked.

"Uh... does anypony have a watch?" Apple Bloom asked.

"No." Scootaloo responded.

"No, should I have brought one?" Sweetie Belle worriedly asked.

"Okay, all we need to do is find the sun. Shouldn't be too hard, right?" Apple Bloom said nervously.

"You're right, shouldn't be too hard... for us." A new voice came from behind the Crusaders. It was harsh and sounded cruel. The fillies spun around to see a quintet of mean looking beings. The one who'd spoken was a massive earth pony who was missing an eye. His coat was dark green and lined with cuts. Standing beside him was a pegasus mare with a dark pink coat. Her eyes were like chips of ice, a muted shade of light blue. Hovering above them was a grey griffin with dark orange feathers and eyes. His beak was jagged but sharp, and was the same shade of orange. Standing behind them were a pair of unicorns, one male, one female. The male was dark blue with a curved horn and a black mane and tail. His cruel eyes burned green and black, almost drowning out his natural purple irises. Finally, the female unicorn had a purple coat that was so dark it was almost black, a disconcertingly bright green mane and tail and pure black eyes with no visible white. Together, the five were very intimidating.

"Uh, ah think we can manage without your help, no offence, but ah think that we'd better be going now." Apple Bloom said quickly.

"You're not going anywhere." The pegasus mare said, smiling evilly.

"Except with us." The unicorn stallion added.

"HELP!!!!" Sweetie Belle screamed at the top of her lungs.

The Everfree heard the scream and immediately remembered the laws. It looked through the eyes of a nearby bat and saw the bandits grabbing the Crusaders and tying them up. It knew that it wouldn't be able to reach them in time, so it searched for someone who could. It smiled as it found the perfect band of candidates. It explained everything to them. As its chosen saviours ran off, the Everfree Forest resumed the task of trying to remove the Spectre.

"Now what do we do?" Apple Bloom whimpered. The Crusaders had been tied to a tree just outside of the Everfree Forest while their captors argued over what to do with them. The unicorns wanted to use them for magical experiments, the earth pony wanted to sell them as slaves... it seemed like all of them wanted to use them for something different. Except for the griffin. He didn't seem to want to have anything to do with the others or them. He kept looking at the forest like he was expecting something to come out.

Finally, the bandits seemed to get sick of arguing and decided to determine their fates tomorrow. They began cooking their dinner. Except for the griffin. He just kept watching the forest. Soon, all the bandits went to sleep. Except for the griffin. He remained awake, just watching the forest.

"Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle whispered. It was the first time she had spoken since they had been tied up.

"What?" Apple Bloom whispered back.

"I'm scared. What are they gonna do to us?"

"I don't know."

The next morning, Apple Bloom woke up to find the bandits arguing once more over what to do with them.

"I say that we should just sell them and get it over with." The earth pony said. "It's easy and we won't have to worry about them any longer."

"But I need subjects for my experiments!" The unicorn mare protested.

"Me too. I vote that we should get them." The unicorn stallion agreed.

"I think we should try to get a ransom, and if that doesn't work, we sell them." The pegasus said.

"Why don't we try to get a ransom for two of them, and use the third for experiments?" The earth pony asked. "That way everyone's happy."

The unicorn stallion began to protest, but a flying knife interrupted him. A long curved dagger impaled itself in his back, silencing him immediately. The bandits looked at the dagger in shock for a moment before turning towards the forest. A black robed pony stood there. Its swamping cloak concealed its body and head, but its face, or rather the mask that concealed it, showed. The mask was composed of angular black metal, and resembled a skull.

The pony threw another gleaming dagger with its booted hoof with deadly precision, hitting the remaining unicorn in the chest. As she keeled over, the pegasus lunged, trying to catch the pony off guard. Dodging the attack, the pony threw another dagger at the charging earth pony, hitting him in the eye. The pegasus tried another attack, attempting to cut the pony with a short dagger she had drawn. As she lunged, the pony stabbed her in the chest. The pegasus slumped to the ground as the pony walked over the the Crusaders.

"Get away from us!" Scootaloo yelled at the pony. Ignoring her, the pony cut the ropes binding them to the tree. Sweetie Belle immediately ran over to hug Scootaloo, who reluctantly returned the hug. Apple Bloom pointed an accusing hoof at the pony.

"Who are you, and why did you save us from those mean ponies?" Apple Bloom demanded.

"I am Starburst, and I saved you because I was asked." The pony said, pulling back her hood and taking off her mask. Her coat was bright orange and her mane was bronze, while her eyes shone like emeralds. She had a kind smile and looked like she did so a lot. Her eyes showed wisdom beyond her years, but there was steel in her gaze.

"How did you do that? How did you throw those knives? Who taught you?" Scootaloo eagerly asked.

"It doesn't matter right now. There are more bandits coming, we need to get out of here before they arrive." Starburst looked worriedly at the path leading away from the Everfree.

"Starburst! Behind you!!" Sweetie Belle yelled. The griffin had snuck up behind them.

"I know." Starburst turned to look at the griffin. "Steel Talon, could you perhaps clear those bodies away? I don't want to leave any signs that we were here."

"Sure thing." The griffin, apparently named Steel Talon said. He began dismantling the camp and moving the bandits' bodies.

"He's with you?!? We thought he was a bandit!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"For a while, he was a bandit. We've been trying to take down this group for a while now. We were going to wait for a few more days to strike, but circumstances changed." Starburst explained. "We have to go."

"Where are we going?" Apple Bloom asked.

"To our camp. I think you'll find it more comfortable than this one."

To be continued...

Author's Note

And chapter two is done! This is possibly the fastest I have ever written the second chapter of a story. No, seriously. I hope the third chapter comes out as fast and that this one is as good as the first. 4 upvotes and no downvotes? That's the best ratio on any of my stories ever!! Thank you all so much!! As always, thanks for reading, and please tell me what you think.