Chapters Guests In the Everfree
MLP: The Vendreddi Fable
Guests In The Everfree
There was nothing special about this day. There were no holidays or events for everypony to convene upon. All the denizens of Ponyville were only focused on their daily tasks, even the six that had saved the land of Equestria many times over. They were all either focused or still asleep in the early morning, so no one noticed. Nobody saw the two dark blue balls of fire that soared through the skies to the south of Ponyville. Nopony even noticed them descend into the Everfree without even making a sound. They were all oblivious to the changes that were to come. They all just continued their tasks in the early morning.
Daniel awoke to the cacophony of birds and insects around him. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and rose to his feet, brushing off the dirt and leaves that had stuck to his clothes and long brown hair. He surveyed his surroundings. Trees, Lots and lots of trees , He thought to himself. “How in the hell did I get here?” he asked no one in particular, his French accent lightly effecting his voice. He tried in vain to deduce why he would be out in the middle of the forest.
After being unable to find out why he was in this predicament, Daniel decided to walk into the forest, but before he could take his first step into the undergrowth the tip of his shoe hit something hard lying in the grass. He looked down to see a long katana in a green snakeskin sheath. The blade was familiar to him; it was the katana that his father had brought back to him from his business trip to Japan. He picked up the blade and unsheathed it, indeed his suspicions were confirmed. Where the blade met the hilt, just before the guard, were the initials “D.V.”. A howl reverberating through the woods jolted him out of his thoughts. He unlashed the string from the sheathe and tied it to his back. Better safe than sorry , he thought to himself. Daniel pressed on into the forest questioning how he got here in the first place. As he walked farther into the bush however, he began to notice something strange about the forest. These plants make no sense; they’re all the wrong colors and shapes . He touched a flower that had bell shape to it, surprised that when he touched it; it actually made a slight dinging noise. And I’m pretty sure no plants are supposed to do that!
After what seemed like hours of walking, Daniel stumbled across a clearing much like the one he awoke in, and in the middle he saw a very familiar head of short, light blonde hair. He walked over to the gaunt, fair-haired boy in the clearing. He stood by his unconscious form and nudged his sides with his foot, “Scott,” the boy did not stir, “get up!” Scott grumbled in his sleep and turned away from his tormentor. Daniel retaliated by lightly stepping on Scott’s nether regions, Scott immediately sat bolt upright, “I’M UP. I’m up.” He said urgently, a slight French accent affecting his voice as well. The blonde-haired boy turned around to meet whoever awoke him, “Oh Daniel! Dude!” Scott rose to his feet and surveyed their surroundings. “Where are we?” he asked.
“You’re asking me?” Daniel responded.
Scott groaned in frustration. He went to stretch and put his hands on his lower back so he could stretch, “Eh? What the-“ he pulled out two black glocks with red dragons engraved upon it. Their tails started on the grips and their mouths on the muzzle, and on the bottom of the grip of the left gun, were the engravings S.V. “Wow…” Scott admired the firearms and the engravings on them, “Where did these come from?” he asked himself.
“Don’t know, don’t care, but look.” Daniel held up the katana with the snakeskin sheathe.
“Is… that-“
“Go Kibo no Hakobi-te. The Hopebringer.” Daniel finished his sentence. “Dad’s sword... however,” he took the blade out of the sheathe "somebody thought I should have it, but who?" he said as he pointed at the initials on the blade.
"Maybe it was dad?" Scott suggested "He always said he would pass it down to you one day."
"Maybe." Daniel replied
“Well why’s it here?” Scott asked. "And what are these things?" he asked holding the firearms up. "And why were they in my pants?"
“Hell if I know.” Daniel replied. “Hey keep those handy dude.” He quickly surveyed their surroundings, “Weeee… might need them.” he said as another howl reverberated through the wood.
Scott clicked the safety on both glocks and shoved them into his belt as they both set off into the forest. They walked for a good twelve minutes until Scott shouted out, “Oh, crap dude! It’s Monday!” Daniel stopped and shot a confused look at his brother. “Today was the season five premiere of MLP bro!” Daniels face went starch white. He stood there until only one word escaped his lips.
“Shit.”
First Encounter
Daniel and Scott trekked through the forest for what seemed like hours on end. The entire time, they had both been speculating as to how they got in this forest in the first place.
"Maybe we were abducted by aliens." Scott ribbed at his brother.
"Get real man, we ain't walking funny so there's no way it's aliens." they both burst into laughter. They continued walking through the undergrowth for a long while. The sun was just over the horizon when they started walking, now it was directly over their heads. At that point Scott called to Daniel.
"Hey man, I'm starting to get hungry." Daniel nodded in acknowledgement, and started looking for any kind of edible plant or berry. Nothing.
"Will you... eat..." he ripped off the bark of a nearby tree "Tree bark?" Scott gave him an unamused look. Daniel responded by waving the bark underneath his own nose like a piece of artisan cheese. This elicited a chuckle from his sibling.
"I don't think we'll find anything to eat here." Daniel said
"Yeah, I know." Scott replied "I don't even recognize any of the plants here." he stated, gesturing to the entire forest. A look spread across Daniel's face as if he was contemplating something. We can't see shit from down here , he thought to himself. So how should we go about finding food? Or even getting out of this forest in the first place? He leaned against a tree and looked up as the shock from his body hitting the tree scared a flock of birds to the air. Bingo .
Without a word he stared climbing up the tree to gain a lay of the land.
"What are you doing?" Scott called up to him.
"Getting a bird's-eye view!" Daniel called back. After another twenty-five feet, he was finally able to see past the treeline too... another treeline. Great. Daniel looked closer at the trees in the distance and could see what appeared to be small red orbs in their branches.
"Hey Scott!" he called down
"What?"
"I think I see some apple trees up ahead!" Scott's mouth began to water.
"FOOD!" he cried. Daniel descended the tree and face his brother.
"It should be just a few hundred meters that way." he pointed in the direction of the now setting sun. "Come on." He started of in light jog towards the sun with Scott on his heels. After a while they both reached the end of the wood and bush and were greeted with a quaint wooden fence with apple trees just beyond it.
"Sweet!" Scott yelled. The pair strode towards one of the trees. They both began scaling the tree towards their glowing red bounty. When they reached the top. Scott started grabbing apples and shoving as many as his jacked pockets would carry. Daniel however; settled upon a branch and unsheathed the katana from his back. He then started methodically cutting apples at their stems with precise two-handed thrusts, each of them falling to the ground below. After there were no more apples within his sword's reach, he climbed down to join his brother.
They both started stuffing their faces with the apple's they had cut down. Daniel began greedily wolfing down every apple he could get his hands on. Scott looked at his brother with a mix of amazement and disgust on his face. Daniel continued to gorge himself until he suddenly stopped and looked at his brother, his eyes wide with fear.
"Oh you idiot!" Scott thumped his brother on the back to dislodge the lump of apple blocking his airways. Daniel coughed up the piece of apple that had blocked his windpipe.
"Thanks man." he wheezed out. He promptly continued stuffing his face.
"I'm already placing my bet," Scott said to him "you're going to be dead before your thirty-three man." Daniel smiled at his brother, laid down his apple, and flipped his brother the bird.
"Very nice." Scott shoved him, "that's how you treat you're older brother? I save your life and then you flip me off?"
"Damn straight." Daniel replied. Scott laughed. Daniel sighed, "This is why I drink." he took an apple off the ground and held it above his open mouth squeezing it until juice came dripping out through the cracks. Scott fell out laughing again. Daniel looked across at the trees, apple juice still dribbling from his chin.
Daniel had always enjoyed making his older brother laugh. Ever since they were children growing up in the streets of Paris, France, they had only had each other, their father, and Bryan. Poor, poor Bryan. When they two of them were just six years old, their mother was taken from them by ovarian cancer. After which, they were left with only their father, Deodat Vendreddi, who was a wealthy corporate man dealing in the buying, selling, and managing of luxury hotels in the city of Paris. The boys had lived a life of luxury with their father, but they never could get rid of that rebellious streak they had inherited from their father; as a result they often snuck out at night to cause mischief on the streets much to the displeasure of local sweet vendors.
Daniel was raised on samurai and kung-fu movies. He had wanted to learn the was of the samurai since he was four, and he had a tremendous affinity for the code of Bushido. His father had gotten him his own array of practice katanas and instructors to teach him different martial arts, everything from Aikido, to Kendoka, to Shurikenjutsu.
Scott was fixated on the military. In his first year of high school, he signed up for the army preparation program "Unifiee". He was top of his squad in marksmanship and tactical commands and leadership. He had always favored spending time with their veteran uncle of seventy-one. He had educated Scott on all manner of semi and automatic firearms and how to operate them. If you had a question about any firearm from any era, Scott was your man.
"So where do we go from here?" Daniel asked.
"Um, we should try to find civilization as soon as we ca-" Scott tried to say as he was cut off by a stone striking the bark of the tree above his head. "FUCK!" he exclaimed, ducking behind the tree followed by his brother.
"What the hell was that!?" Scott asked aggitatedly as another rock struck the opposite side of the tree.
"I don't know!" Daniel responded, a third rock hit the tree.
"Come on out of there ya varmints!" a pastoral voice call out from behind the tree. "Ya'll best have some money tah pay for those apples you ate!" Scott and Daniel both looked at each other before Scott called out,
"We mean you no harm! We're just... lost." There was a long pause before they got a response.
"Ya'll can talk?" the voiced asked inquisitively. The two looked at each other with raised eyebrows, Daniel responded, "We're coming out." The brothers slowly revealed themselves from behind the tree.
What they saw next would be the beginning of their new lives.
We Mean No Harm
Daniel and Scot both observed a small creature that could not have come up past their waists at its shoulders. It had four legs ending in hooves and an orange-amber coat all over its body, with a mane and a tail that were both bright blonde. It's eyes were gigantic , and a bright emerald green, and below them was a small muzzle. Atop its head was a well-worn stetson.
"Who are you?" the small creature asked in a shocked, female voice. The two creatures in front of her remained silent with bewildered expressions upon their faces. The hooved creature asked again louder this time,
"Who are you?! " The brothers snapped themselves out of their brief inanimate state and looked at each other.
They both knew. This was her , one of the characters they had adored for three years now. Applejack. They had started watching the show, My Little Pony, when a friend at school had told them about it. They had both become enchanted by the story and the characters from the first episode. Daniel was the first to speak.
"We mean you no harm madame." he said raising his hands with his palms out. Applejack backed away from the duo slightly.
"You can talk." she said incredulously, suddenly halting from her retreat. She squinted at the two of them, "What are you two?" Daniel opened his mouth to respond but he was cut off before he could say anything. "Are ya some kinda monkeys?"
"No, we are not monkeys." Scott responded with an unamused look on his face. "We're humans and we-" he was cut off by his brother placing a hand across his chest.
"Hold on a minute bro." Daniel said to his brother. He turned to Applejack, "Could we have a moment to talk alone ma'am?"
"Umm..." Daniel turned around along with his brother before she could respond.
"Hey man, I'm not tripping right?" he asked Scott under his breath, "That's Applejack! As in Element of Honesty, Applejack!"
"I know dude. I can see her." Scott responded. "How is she here?"
"Hey! What are you two-" Applejack called out in the background.
"Just one minute!' Daniel interrupted her looking back at her with a polite smile on his face. "I think I know what's going on here." Daniel said to his brother.
"What do you mean." Scott asked.
"Look around man. Take a wild guess where we are." a look of shock spread across Scott's face as his eyes grew wider than wheels of cheese.
"Th-this is..."
"Sweet Apple Acres."
"Sweet Apple Acres is in-"
"Ponyville."
"AND PONYVILLE IS IN-!" Scott looked into his brother's eyes.
"Equestria." Daniel finished his thought once more. Scott turned his eyes to the ground. "We're in EQUESTRIA Scott!" Daniel whispered with apparent glee.
"HEY YOU LITTLE THIEVIN' VARMINTS!" The amber pony called out from behind them. The twins turned around to face her, and both reeled when they saw the furious scowl on her face. "NOW I WANT AN EXPLANATION AS TO WHY YOU TWO WERE EATING MY CROPS, RIGHT HERE AND NOW!" She began stomping her hooves on the ground. "YOU TWO BETTER START TALKING RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I'LL-"
"Whoa hold it!" Daniel interrupted her before she could finish. Applejack scrunched her face up in surprise at the sudden interjection. Daniel sighed and nudged his brother with his elbow. Scott looked at him and nodded. Then, the two brothers simultaneously clapped their hands together and bowed at the waist.
"We're sorry we ate your apples! Please accept our apology!" They both said in unison. Applejack reeled at the sudden plea for forgiveness.
"Wh-what!?" she exclaimed in confusion."
"We didn't know these were yours. We were just hungry. Honest." Daniel began explaining.
"We hope you can accept our apology." Scott said coolly. Applejack looked at the strange show of atonement and couldn't help herself but to say...
"Um... a-apology... accepted?"
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