Everfree outskirts

Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the elements of Harmony await further orders from the Princesses of Equestria, Applejack paces up and down the stretch of field separating them from entering the Everfree forest.

”Now, ah know when something’s up cause’ I can feel it in my gut... and this ain’t a good feeling” Applejack says, her head hung long and her Stetson hat nearly falling off the side of her mane.

“They’ve been gone for almost an hour... this doesn’t read well in my mind” Twilight confesses, she looks wearily around her remaining friends. She summons a scroll from her saddle bags hanging on her withers and starts to scribble a hastily done letter to send to the Princesses.

It read;

Dear Queen Celestia and Priestess Luna,

The elements of Harmony and I are worried sick for our friend Rainbow Dash and the well-known adventurer Daring Do as they haven’t returned from an expedition into the Everfree for over an hour now, we were wondering about any news from the guards on their whereabouts.

Sincerely Twilight Sparkle

Spike, Twilight’s faithful assistant and baby dragon stands beside the violet mare and readies himself to send the message to the princesses, he plucks the letter out of Twilight’s magical grasp and prepares to belch his green flame onto it which will send it to the former-Princesses in the Royal Canterlot Palace where it will reanimate and be able to be read.

But a bright white puff of smoke and a golden ray of light shines just in front of the five elements of Harmony and the small dragon, out of the light steps Queen Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria and the manipulator of the sun.

Her brilliant array of striking white fur and rainbow mane and tail astonish even those who have seen her a million times before, she sheepishly blushes for her sudden arrival and quickly nods to two guards on each of her sides.

They step away and let the Queen through as she slowly trots over to Twilight and her friends. Celestia’s majestic stature revels in the sunlight as her horn begins to glow a cool white, she prepares a calming spell to put her subjects at ease.

After casting a glance behind her towards the Everfree, Celestia turns to advance into the dark depths of the forest. A quick plea from a guard turns the Ruler of the Sun around to fade his objection before continuing on her way.

Seeking deep into the retched forest, Celestia’s magic covers across a large ten metre radius collecting any and all Intel on where the two Pegasus had gone lost. A slight sliver of their disappearance picked up on Celestia’s “sonar” it was Daring Do’s helmet, crumpled and filled with a greasy substance... ‘Oh, please don’t be what I think you are’ Celestia’s thoughts run to the wild suggestions as she quickens her pace.

Before going too far, Celestia picks the helmet up with her magic and gives it a flick letting the layer of grease inside go splattering onto a few trees and bushes. Mentally gargling at what had come out of the helmet, Celestia shakes off the remaining lines of grease and pulls it towards her. The helmet lay rested, clipped to the side of a one-strap saddle bag on Celestia’s right side. A trail of little trinkets lead the Princess down an albeit passage through a set of rose bushes and into a small clearing easily scorned with scuff marks in the dirt and trails of slime spanning down into a two small holes.

‘They were here, I know now... but what happened?’ Celestia asked herself, before her answer could reveal itself. Several screams and... Moans emanated from under the ground, they came from the holes. Celestia quickly recognized the sound of the screams and matched them to the two Pegasus, she chose the closest hole to her and dived into it using her wings to navigate a long tunnel beneath the surface of the Everfree, it went on for a bit twisting and turning, it was a tight fit mostly and Celestia’s fear of claustrophobic areas really started to chime in the back of her mind but it ended abruptly as Celestia found herself plummeting deep into a ravine where watery spires hung from the rooves of carved out shelters in the walls of the underground abyss, she stopped mid-flight and took in all the fascinating colours and the projection of a rainbow through the quartz walls after Celestia had finished shining her horn into any and almost all the gemstones she shook out of her trance and tucked her wings into her sides and bullet fed herself straight down to a clearing under the ravine where pools of bright cyan liquid began to congregate to form something, she was staring face to face with a newly forming monster lying in the middle of the crystal cave system, Celestia could feel the heat of its breath and hear the sound of what seemed to be an ocean under the crust of Equestria.

Regaining her regal posture, Celestia spoke with a powerful tone ‘Where. Are. They?!’ she said, her eyes lighting like a distant fire. She stood with her front hooves in a defensive stance, the monster was none like any other. It had the head of a snake, the body of a wilder beast and mountains of curled up Tentacles and a long articulate tail much like a monkey’s but larger. Getting a closer look at the hideous beast, Celestia’s muzzle scrunched up at a moment’s notice.

The thing noticed and growled before slowly speaking in a low guttural growl ‘Where is what? Your highness, I hardly know what you are inclining...’ it stood up off of the ground and came around the height of Sugar Cube Corner’s main building in Ponyville, Celestia although seriously regretting laying her eyes on this behemoth stood straighter than ever. Her back arching down giving her head more of a reason to heighten and bring her overall size at around six foot, five inches.

She repeated what she had ordered ‘Where are my subjects, Donavan?’ the beast’s name was Donavan, Celestia should know that as much as she let the thing live after it was found by the royal guard stationed in the Crystal Empire, Celestia was told that Donavan was found loitering around the streets disguised as a wealthy noble and had preyed on the weak and helpless to appease his satiable appetite for the young mares of Equestria, he had dropped his disguise in a back alley and lured the mares with flowers and other miscellaneous items clamped in his Tentacles.

Celestia remembered the oh so frightened look on his face when she found out about him, she ordered for him to be publically executed or face heavy fines and a lifetime in the royal dungeons underneath Canterlot, but he managed to escape the convoy escorting him to the Crystal Castle, he fled into the Everfree while Celestia backed down and let him stay in the forest but now that he was refusing to give the location of Celestia’s subjects and hopefully not to Celestia’s dismay violated any of them.

She stood firmer than her body could handle as she spoke this to Donavan ‘If you so much as lay a slithery Tentacle on them, so help me I will personally teach you the meaning of Violation by scorching your hide with the heat of the sun then strip your flesh from the bone and use it as a throw rug... now tell me where they are?!’ Celestia’s fire was growing inside, her temperature was rising as little sparks of fire erupted from the crevices beneath her wings and hot smoke began to fume from her snout.

Donavan simply lowered down to her height and breathed a large puff of steam onto Celestia’s already parched face ‘Now, Now. No need to get feisty my highness-‘ He was cut off by a thundering hoof to the side of his maw, his tongue flicking out the front of his mouth and brushing the side of Celestia’s cheek leaving a slight glob of saliva. With a booming shout, Celestia used the Equestrian voice to power her speech one more time ‘WHERE. ARE. THEY?!’ Celestia’s mane was practically smoking at how angry her emotions where getting, a fiery hot red light glowed from her horn as she charged a mega-spell.

Donavan slouched to one side as the cave got hotter and his cold blood was overheating from absorbing the energy from Queen Celestia, he hissed and threw two limp forms at the Queen who caught them just barely in her magic, they were the Pegasus Daring Do and Rainbow Dash. Their hearts were beating but very slowly, afraid of what Donavan had done to her subjects she inspected their frail bodies and discovered them to be covered with the same grease as found in Daring’s helmet, and had marks and bruises covering their midsections along with cuts and scrapes and dirt covering their hinds and hooves.

Laying them down onto her back, Celestia was mortified at her inspection. She couldn’t resist charging a massive mega-spell to vanquish this vile, retched, torturous Bastard. The spell magnified in size and grew into a huge red and orange orb which was sucked into her horn then dispelled into a beam of light which impacted on Donavan’s thick hide evaporating his face then slowly burning the rest of his flesh off until it was just a skeleton with bits of burnt muscle hanging off the bones.

Celestia smirked at her little light show as her wings shot open and she took to the surface following the same route to get down there, once up on the surface she made sure that Donavan were never to be found, she stomped her hooves on the sides of the holes causing them to collapse and fill up. Eagerly to get back to the elements of Harmony to reunite their friend, Celestia checked them one more time to see if there were any permanent damaging.

Relaxing at the sight of them waking up and showing signs of life, they immediately began to take flight and question where they were, Celestia rested their thoughts with her calming spell and told them that Donavan will not be bothering them any longer. The two began to realise and calmed down to sit back on Celestia’s back and rest, she didn’t mind them there as Celestia smiled to herself knowing her subjects can trust her to keep them safe.

Upon her re-entry into the Ponyville border, the elements rushed to the Queen at the sight of their friend and adventurer, Twilight stops and gives a of thank-you to Celestia who in turn acknowledged them and smiled greatly at her, she then levitated the two ponies off her back and set them on the ground gently. After that she gave her goodbyes and left in another puff of smoke but not before returning Daring Do’s helmet and mending the slime covered rips and tears in her shirt along with giving Rainbow dash a quick once over with a grin and a slicked hoof to bring her mane down into a flat curled ripple rather than its rather Mane-iac state.

Author's Note

Any words of wisdom for the viewers Celestia. No. Okay.