“Uh… Shadow?”

“Yeah…?”

“Is it just me… Or does the Everfree Forest look creepy as all hell?”

“It’s not just you…” Shadow shook his head. “That’s definitely some creepy shit.”

“How the hell did Ish go camping in there?” Jorge raised an eyebrow. “Just look at it!”

Shadow sighed with a shrug. “Let’s just get this over with…” He simply continued walking, not caring of the possible dangers that could be lying hidden inside the forest.

Jorge hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not he wanted to follow Shadow into the forest. He simply stood still and watched as his best friend continued to walk in alone, seemingly fearless of what’s in store.

Shadow paused, turning his head back to the cuban. He raised an eyebrow. “What’re you doing standing around, for?” He nudged his head towards the forest. “What happened to the cuban who wanted to beat the living shit outta Ish with that bat that I just bought specifically to beat him with?”

Jorge scratched the back of his head, his mental debate still going.

“Jorge, absolutely nothing will hurt us in there.” Shadow deadpanned. “We’ve literally had to stall Tirek once, remember?”

“Y-Yeah…” Jorge nodded, slowly trying to mask his fear.

“You practically stared death in the face, remember?”

“Yeah…”

“So then the fuck are you scared of!?” Shadow raised an eyebrow, stomping a hoof on the ground to emphasize his point.

“You’re… You’re right!” Jorge stood strong, masking his fears with his confidence. “If I lived through Tirek’s bullshit, I can handle anything!”

“Well, I wouldn’t say anyth—”

“C’mon, Shadow! We got an asian to hunt!”

“There it is again, that feeling someone wants to kill you…”

“I thought you said you don’t get those?”

“I lied, now hurry up and pack up the tent, we have deadlines to meet.”

Jorge and Shadow continued on their path inside the forest. Shadow had simply ignored all the creepy vibes that was thrown by the entire forest around them.

Jorge, however, simply shook with every step he took.

“I… I’m starting to regret my decision…”

“Already?” Shadow raised an eyebrow. “Jeez, Jorge. Don’t be such a wuss.”

“I’m a wuss?” Jorge raised an eyebrow at the canadian. “Well, gee, excuse me for having legitimate fears about a place that has quite a lot of weird and creepy shit in it!”

“It’s just a forest, Jorge…”

“Just a forest?” Jorge’s eyes widened. “Are you not aware of what happens in this forest?”

“No?”

“You know how clouds are only moved by pegasi and all that, right?” Jorge queried. “Like, they never move.”

“Yeah…”

“They move on their own. Here. In this forest.”

“Alright, so clouds move on their own, big deal.”

“Plants somehow sustain life in here. No one’s ever around to actually take care of them.”

“That’s easily explainable with the self-moving clouds...”

“Alright, then how about the cockatrice?”

Shadow paused right in his tracks. “The what?” He asked.

“There’s like… this weird creature that has the body of a snake, and the head of a chicken.”

“Alright, so it has some freaky shit. Big de—”

“And if you stare into its eyes, or vice versa, you’ll be turned into stone.”

“...Okay, fuck.”

“Don’t even get me started on—”

“I’ve heard enough, Jorge...” Shadow sighed. “The sooner we find ish, the sooner we can get the fuck outta here…”

They continued with their asian hunt. Shadow seemingly beginning to worry what else was in this forest, but refused to listen to Jorge to avoid becoming more frightened by these strange creatures. And while Jorge was still shaking with every step he took, Shadow walked by his side, which seemed to help calm him down just a bit.

Jorge kept a careful eye around the forest, making sure there would be nothing that would catch him off guard. He tried to ignore his paranoia as his imagination would place fake objects into his view, leaving him to question whatever he would see is real or not.

In an instant, Jorge saw something in the corner of his eye, and jumped back in fear. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?”

“WHAT!?” Shadow froze in place, his eyes widening. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WHAT!?”

“THAT!” Jorge pointed at the object he saw earlier. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?”

Shadow jerked his head to where the cuban was pointing, finding a large, tall object, shrouded in shadows. Being the bravest one out of the two, Shadow slowly took a step closer, trying to get close enough to see what it was without being attacked.

Jorge simply stood in place, his legs shaking immensely as he watched his friend get closer and closer.

Eventually, Shadow was finally able to make out what it was, and simply groaned once he had identified it.

“Jorge… It’s just a tree…”

Jorge blinked. “Right… I knew that…” He smiled sheepishly.

Shadow simply rolled his eyes, and continued on their hunt. With Jorge quickly following suit.

While Shadow was more concerned with finding the asian to end his annoyance, Jorge was dead-set on making sure nothing was lurking in the shadows.

“Dad, what if we walked into a timberwolf? Or the cockatrice? Or even the manticore!?” questioned Cryo while the duo walked along the trail.

“Wait, there are monsters here? Like... this forest wasn’t perfectly safe? As in... we decided to camp in this incredibly dangerous forest for weeks while we could’ve died at any moment?”

“I’ve been trying to tell you that the entire time we’ve been here!”

“We’re out. Nope, not spending another second here. I, I mean yo- WE have so much to live for.”

“But we’re in the middle of the forest. We’ve been walking deeper into it after we packed up camp.”

“Are you implying we’re lost?”

“Uh… Yes…?”

“Fuck.”

Moments later, Jorge interrupted their journey once again.

“Wait!”

“What now, Jorge…?”

“I thought I heard something…”

“Jorge, you’re just paranoid…” Shadow sighed. “It’s nothing, seriously…”

“And this Cryo, is how you sneak up on people”

“But… they can hear you.”

“No, as long as they can’t see me, they can’t hear shit. Trust me.”

“I don’t think that’s how any of this works…”

“But they’re just as, if not stupider than me.”

Cryo blinked. “But ‘stupider’ isn’t even a word!”

“Wait, no..” Shadow raised an eyebrow. “I think I hear it, too…”

Jorge simply stood still, listening closer to the sound of the voices, trying to locate where it was coming from. Once he had gotten a good idea where it was, he immediately turned around, throwing a blind punch directly behind him…

...And right into Ish’s face.

“OW! YOU FUCK! WHAT KIND OF PERSON JUST PUNCHES THE OTHER PERSON TRYING TO SNEAK UP ON THEM!?” Ish shouted as he rubbed his face.

“THE KIND OF PERSON WHO’S TERRIFIED OF THIS FUCKING FOREST!” Jorge shouted back. “YOU BITCH!” He immediately reached for something Shadow had been carrying with him.

“I’M THE BITCH!?” Ish retorted. “I’VE BEEN CAMPING IN THIS PLACE FOR WEE—Wait... is that the bat?” Ish’s eyes immediately widened. “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! ANYTHING BUT THE BAT!” He watched as Jorge prepared to swing. “JORGE NO, WE’RE FRIENDS!”

“THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SCARE THE SHIT OUT A CUBAN, YOU BITCH!”

“FUCK THAT, CRYO WE’RE BAILING!” Ish immediately picked up Cryo, bolting from the two pegasi.

“YOU’RE NOT RUNNING AWAY THAT EASILY!” Jorge flared his wings open, immediately taking off to chase the human.

Shadow blinked, immediately realizing that he would be left alone if he didn’t go and follow.

“JORGE! YOU FUCK! WAIT FOR ME!”

“Breaking news!”

Dash peeked her head from the kitchen as she prepared herself a quick snack. “What now…?”

“It appears we’ve finally seen an end to these ‘Meme Inc’ barrels!”

Dash walked out of the kitchen entirely, walking a little closer to the TV. “Huh?” She raised an eyebrow.

“The final barrel randomly appeared in the river earlier today, with local human Ishtaba tied up in rope inside it!”

Dash’s eyes widened in shock.

“Along with Ishtaba trapped inside the ‘Meme Inc’ barrel. There was also a note inside the barrel, written and left by Prince Shadow himself!”

Dash’s reaction slowly dimmed down to normal. “Ah. That explains it…”

Snappy grabbed the note, preparing to read it aloud to the camera. “Here lies Ishtaba, your ‘Beast of the Everfree’. Fueled by his boredom, he pretended to play a prank on all of Ponyville. And after a while, Jorge and I had finally realized that it was him all along. Once we knew, we immediately looked for him, hunting him down until his prank was over. This is his punishment. To be humiliated in the news in front of potentially thousands of ponies all over Equestria. Hopefully this will teach him not to anger us again.”

Snappy Scoop slowly put down the note, staying silent for a moment.

“Well… You heard it here, first…” She paused once again. “This has been Channel 10 news on the story... I’m Snappy Scoop, signing off.”

“You really think that’ll teach him a lesson?” Jorge asked.

“No.” Shadow shook his head. “But that’ll at least make him think before he does something stupid again…”

“I suppose…”

“Also, thanks for agreeing to foalsitting Cryo for the night for me…” Shadow smiled. “I’d rather not bother Twilight with someone else running around. Especially now that she’s finally began calm down more…”

“Bah, it’s no big deal.” Jorge scoffed. “I’m pretty sure Cryo could use a break from Ish after that entire camping trip…” He looked over to the colt who had been sleeping on his back the entire time.

“You sure you’ll be able to handle him?” Shadow raised an eyebrow.

“He seems like a pretty chill kid, and from the few times I’ve passed by the two, he actually seems to be smarter than Ish.” Jorge chuckled. “So, I believe there’s still some hope for this kid, even if he is being raised by Ishtaba.”

Shadow looked at the sleeping colt, and smiled over the adorable sight. “Y’know, Jorge… I told Ish that if he’d ever screw up in terms of being a parent for him, that I’d take him back to orphanage…” He scratched the back of his neck. “I… I don’t think I can do that if Ish ever does screw up now…”

“You think camping with him for weeks wasn't a bad parent move?”

“Not enough to warrant taking the foal away from him, no.” Shadow shook his head. “He's done worse things before. I'm waiting for one of those worse things to happen.”

Jorge looked over to the colt again, then back to Shadow. “If Ish screws up. And I know he’ll screw up… We’ll think of something.”

Shadow modded, pausing for a moment as a thought came to him. “...Do you think Ish will ever clean up his bullshit? And actually try to be a human being?”

“I… don’t know.” Jorge shook his head. “That’s something Ish is gonna have to do on his own…”

Shadow looked down, thinking to himself. “We may have to considering taking the foal in… If Ish ever screws up…”

Jorge closed his eyes, sighing deeply as he listened to his friend’s concerns. “Let’s… not jump to conclusions so fast.” He shook his head, opening his eyes again to look his friend in the face. “We still have our own foals to worry about, and they’re not even born yet. Just… give it some time, alright?”

Shadow slowly nodded in response. “You’re right. We’ll see what happens as time goes on.”

Jorge nodded, walking towards his house. “I will say this, though…” He smirked. “If Cryo ends up enjoying spending the night with us tonight. He’ll be more than welcome than to spend the night whenever he wants.”

Shadow smiled warmly at the cuban’s kindness. “I don’t see why you were so worked up about trying to care for your own foals, when you’re doing a perfectly good job at taking care of Ish’s…”

Jorge blinked, realizing how right Shadow was. “Wow… I… I didn't realize—”

“I can already tell you’ll be a great father, Jorge…” Shadow chuckled. “You’ve been worrying all this time for nothing…”

Jorge chuckled back at his friend’s comment, and smiled. “Thanks, Shadow…”

Shadow nodded softly, watching as his friend slowly entered his home.

As soon as the door closed with a soft, yet audible click, he sighed.

“Let’s hope I can do as good of a job as you can…”

Author's Note

Only two chapters left to go~!