Twilight walks home, she didn’t realize how late she was out for, since the sun has now basically set and it’s getting dark. As she walks, she notices that she’s been walking past the Everfree Forest, she must of took a wrong turn somewhere.

Recently the Everfree has made her feel uncomfortable, I mean more than usual at least, almost like… Well it doesn’t matter, the Everfree is a creepy place, and just recently it felt more creepy.

Twilight is about to walk away when she notices Libi, standing outside one of the Everfree Forest’s entrances. As soon as she notices Twilight, she suddenly dashes in, disappearing down the path.

“What’s she doing?” Twilight wonders, curious, and against her better judgment, follows after her.

But as she walks down it she instantly regrets it, the sun has already set by then and suddenly she find herself very alone in one of the scariest place in Equestria. Not to mention she has that weird feeling again, the one she has recently gotten when she enters the Everfree, it feels like something has surrounded her, like a thick smog that you can’t see but can feel instead, it starts to feel suffocating. But Twilight continues on, like she’s drawn to something…

Libi stands over a pit, while strange noises can be heard deep within it, it sounds like eating, the kind of eating that’ll make a pig look polite.

“Here’s one,” Libi says, feeling the presence of the creature below.

She knew that there had to be at least one of them here in the Everfree, how could there not be, the Everfree Forest must draw them to it like moths to the flame. Libi leaps down into the pit, confronting the creature, which has no eyes or limbs or anything a normal creature would have, it’s just a disgusting pile of molten flesh and pony bones, living a twisted unnatural life.

The creature notices Libi instantly, stopping its feasting of the dead manticore it killed. The two stay silent, staring at each other the best that two can if one doesn’t have eyes. Libi suddenly snarls at it, showing off her sharp canines, somehow causing the creature to back off, as if afraid of the demon.

It starts moving away, Libi watching it as it climbs out of the pit in fear, moving as far away from Libi as possible. Libi looks down at the dead manticore, and even though it was just killed its flesh was already festering from where the creature touched it.

“Disgusting!” Libi says, holding a hand over her mouth in disgust, before pointing a finger at the corpse and suddenly incinerating it in pink fire, destroying it in its entirety. Libi sighs, placing her hands on her hips, “Will we never be free of them?”

She flies out of the pit, looking at the obvious path the creature made, heading, probably, straight for Twilight, the creature won’t be able to resist her.

“Good,” Libi says, a satisfied smile on her face, “Soon the world will be cleared of two problems…”

Twilight is shivering right now, since it has gotten quite cold suddenly and she’s only wearing her swimsuit and a towel. The feeling has grown stronger, making it harder to breath, her breath becoming rasp and troubled, and she’s broken into a hard sweet, but she keeps walking on, like she’s not really in control of her movements.

Suddenly a noises catches Twilight attention, making her jump in fear, she turns sideways and sees, to her relief, a bunny rabbit hopping across the path. Twilight so relieved that she collapses onto her knees, she feels so tired all of the sudden, like something is draining her strength. She wishes she never entered the forest in the first place…

Suddenly a foul smell enters Twilight’s nose, nearly causing Twilight throw up, and forcing her to cover her nose while she looks around for the source. She screams when she finds it, for standing near her is a horrible thing. She falls backwards, trying to crawl as far away from it as possible, while it slowly moves towards her.

Twilight’s movement are halted as her back slams into a tree, causing her yelp in pain as her head smacks against it, the thing getting ever closer. She tries to stand, by her body is shaking too much in fear, while a painful burning is felt surging through her body.

Twilight has never felt so powerless in her life, nothing in her body seems to be responding to her commands, she feels like a prisoner in her own body, tears forming in her eyes as the thing gets ever closer. She wants to scream for help, but the words catches in her throat, and she instead makes a strange whimpering noise.

Libi watches all this from a tree, soon she’ll rid herself of a problem.

‘Any minute now it’ll break free and then I’ll destroy both of them…’

“Help me….” Twilight manages to whimper, her face stained in tears up her body shakes fearfully.

Libi eyes widen at the words, she almost just jumped off the trees to help in response to those words, which is strange since they were not a order and shouldn’t have any effect on Libi.

The thing is almost upon Twilight, who has managed to curl up, trying to get as far as she could from it.

'Any moment now…’

“PLEASE SOMEONE SAVE ME!!” Twilight screams, her voice somehow freeing herself.

“Damn it!” Libi says, as she leaps from the tree, her body no longer listening to her anymore, driven by unfamiliar force.

She lands between Twilight and the creature, readying her clawed gauntlets.

“DIE!” she yells, slashing it with her claws.

The creature lets out a horrifying scream, before suddenly dissolving, leaving them, suddenly, by themselves.

Libi sighs, before turning to Twilight and helping her up, “Are you okay…”

Twilight suddenly hug Libi, sobbing into Libi chest while clinging to her as if she’ll suddenly disappear.

“I was so scared!!” Twilight cries, feeling like she’s reverted back into a small filly.

Libi is shocked by Twilight sudden hug, before strangely smiling and holding Twilight back, saying, “Shh, it’s alright it’s gone now...”

The two stay embraced for quite a while, Twilight eventually calming down in Libi’s arms, until she pulls aways from Libi, blushing.

“Better?” Libi asks, smiling, before summoning Twilight a towel to wipe her face

“Yeah, I think,” Twilight says, the strange feelings she was feeling before gone, while letting Libi clean up her tear stricken face, “I don’t know what came over me, I never felt like that before…”

“Fear can make ponies do strange things,” Libi says, dismissively, dabbing at Twilight’s tears.

“What was that thing?” Twilight says, looking at what remained of the creature, which is a pile of recognizable pony bones.

“Does it matter? It’s dead now,” Libi says, sighing, unsummoning the towel as she finishes cleaning up Twilight’s face.

Frustrated, Twilight says, “I order you to tell me what it is!” using her hold on Libi to force a answer.

Libi sighs again, “It’s a Corruption Spawn, what usually happens when a male creature, that has been affected by Corruption, mates with a female.” Libi knocks two pony skulls out of the pile, one large enough to be an adult, another too small to even be a newborn baby, “These are the skulls of its mother and the growing child it most likely ate inside the womb, before devouring the mother from the inside as well.”

That’s… that’s horrible!!” Twilight says, disgusted, “How did that even happen?”

“Think of it like a tumor that grew on the growing baby, until it grew big enough to completely absorb the baby,” Libi says, looking disgusted as well, “Corruption has been for long time trying to revive themselves through other races, this is the most common result.”

“What is Corruption anyway?” Twilight says, realizing she missing an important point.

Libi frowns, “They’re our ancient enemy I talked about before, they once were a huge threat to the world and the budding younger races, like ponies. We defeated them though, many times, until they were all destroyed, but sadly not before they permanently tained parts of our world and some of the world’s magic, like this forest.”

“Does this mean Ponyville is in danger from the Corruption in the forest?!” Twilight says, horrified, wondering if this poor mare was once a citizen of Ponyville.

“No, that is not how Corruption works,” Libi says, shaking her head, “Someone can’t become corrupted like that, they have to invite it into themselves, like by using magic.”

“What kind of magic?” Twilight asks, concerned.

“The corrupted kind, since Corruption can corrupt anything, including magic and even books, so there are certain books out there containing corrupted magic, using such texts will invite Corruption into the caster and/or whoever it’s casts upon,” Libi explains, sadly.

“What will Corruption try to do then?” Twilight asks, holding her arms nervously.

“Try and take control of their host, before trying to corrupt others, and then trying to…” Libi says, nudging the bones, “...procreate. But my kind, ethereals, usually wipe them out before it can get too far, so Corruption spawns are usually all you really can find these days.”

“So they just try to corrupt and breed?” Twilight asks, disturbed.

“It is all they can do now, they lack the numbers for anything major, unless they can suddenly increase their numbers nothing will happen,” Libi sighs, shaking their head.

“Where did they come from, who controls them?” Twilight asks, fearful.

“As far as we can tell, another dimension, they crossed over back when the world was still young, and the barriers between such dimensions were weak,” Libi says, shrugging, “And as for their leaders, they have none, they all move with one purpose, to corrupt and destroy everything.”

“I see, what did it want with me then?” Twilight asks, worried.

Libi looks at Twilight, and then at the bones, before shrugging, “An easy meal.”

“That all?” Twilight asks, confused.

“Yeah, they need to eat, and a scared pony is easy to kill and eat,” Libi says, sighing.

“I see… what were you doing in the forest Libi?” Twilight asks, suspicious.

“Hunting, it is a good way to keep my fighting skills sharp,” Libi smiles, flicking her hair.

“That all?” Twilight asks, unsure.

“Why else would I be in this stinking forest?” Libi says, looking affronted.

“Umm, I don’t know,” Twilight says, not sure why she was asking in the first place.

“Well, you better teleport out of here,” Libi says, making a go away motion, “There may be more about.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Twilight says, her horn light up, “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see ya,” Libi says, smiling and waving.

Then as soon as Twilight disappears, Libi’s fist suddenly crash into a nearby tree, shattering the trunk and sending it flying away.

“Fuck!! I was so close!!” Libi screams, her fangs bared, “I nearly got rid of Twilight!! But then my stupid body betrayed me…”

Libi suddenly pauses, and then holds her hand over her heart, which is beating furiously.

“No, not my body, my heart…” Libi sighs, ‘Things are starting to get more complicated.’

Twilight, who had teleported out of the forest, walk the rest of the way home, the cold not bothering her much anymore. Her body was still sleek with her sweat from back in the forest, the thought of those things living in the forest terrify her. But she wonders why no one has mentioned seeing them before, I mean Zecora lives in the forest and she never mentioned any such creatures…

She’ll ask Libi more about them later, but for now, she just wants to get home. But as she gets back to the palace, she sees someone waiting for her outside. It’s her student Starlight Glimmer.

“Hey Twilight, I’m back!” she says, waving happily at Twilight.

‘Oh dear, things are going to get more complicated…’ Twilight sighs, shaking her head.

Author's Note

Whether or not you've heard, I'm now a uni student, that means I have less time to write, so updates will be far in between, but do not fear, I'll still be writing these stories, so it is just about patience.
Sorry.