Creeping Fungus, Missing Pony
A small bug, less than 1 millimeter by 1 millimeter in size scampered frantically around in circles searching for food, a partner, or Celestia only knows what. The tiny arachnid skittered sideways into a vertical crevice on the gnarled oak's bark and disappeared for a moment before climbing out of the recess, fighting gravity with every step.
Applejack pondered at the awesome creature: if it were pony-sized it could scramble along a canyon wall faster than she could gallop! It could probably leap over the Town Hall in the center of Ponyville in one bound or lift 40 bushels of apples!
It was these random moments that brought a momentary pause to the rural pony's life: an encounter with a notion so bizarre as to shift the motivation for hard work into secondary, ordering her mind to make room for exploratory thoughts. It was the sheer scope of the world, how every turn a pony made in life had so many nooks and crannies with little bits of knowledge or an entire environment previously unknown to them.
Applejack clucked her tongue in a statement of melancholy. She knew that some paths of thought lead forever and that one of her problems was that she occasionally chose to stop walking them too early, but as the ponyverb went, time is apples.
Sighing, the young but grown mare stood up, stretching her legs and banishing existential thought from her mind for another few hours of muscle pumping, determination fueled apple-bucking.
It was said few hours later as she was clearing the last trees in the southern edge of her arbor that AJ noticed a discrepancy on the horizon, a new reddish-white color along the base of the ground coming from the Everfree forest. She cantered out of her familiar territory onto the plain of grass until she neared the source of her worries.
A wave of fungi, already yards past the base of the tree trunks, seemed to be emanating it's way towards her farm. The mushrooms swept back into the depths of the dark wood, disappearing in the deep undergrowth and scattered around rocks and bush, swarming wherever there was once-clear space.
Nickering in worry and intent on finding her most knowledgeable friend, Applejack galloped back in the direction of Ponyville, the setting sun burning on her left flank.
Lathered and panting, Applejack stared dimly at the dark library. The lights were off, in Twilight's room and all around the tree. There was no answer at the door, even after several minutes of hoof-hammering. No notice posted. No Spike. Not nothin'!
By now it was getting to late to pay a visit on most of her pony-friends: they would be finishing up supper or tucking in foals for bed, or just winding down for the night and not wanting to deal with other pony-folk. She would just have to come back into town tomorrow at a more opportune time for dealing with real affairs.
She turned back, a worried crease appearing on her brow as she tumbled the odd situation in her head. Her hooves struck the cobblestones loudly as she clopped towards home, echoing around the darkening lane like an ominous reminder of her friend's absence.
~-~-~-~-~-~
For two days the library remained shuttered and for two days it was all Applejack could do to keep her mind on her usual quota of apples and not stare at the horde of strange mushrooms that had been approaching her family's orchard, the fungi throwing it's spores forward through the earth, creeping steadily onwards as an army with grappling hooks would scale a giant wall. The vanguard of the wave now was halfway across the clearing and approaching each day over the great swaths of land. Once immaculate, they were now covered in red-brown heads and yellowing stems, the vibrant tall grass withering in the fungal wake.
If it had been some other type of incursion, the orange pony knew her family's large store of natural information would have been sufficient to the task, it was just that these particular shrooms were not referenced in any of the family books on the local ecosystem and without the library's copy of Super Naturals, there was no easy access to knowledge on this sort of thing inside of Ponyville.
She stood at the edge of her family's livelihood like a sentinel, observing the myriad of spores when Big Mac appeared at her shoulder. Worrying, she said, "Those are some mighty fast mushrooms out there, big brother, and Twilight's been missin' for 2 days... Somethin' just ain't right, I can feel it."
"Eeyup", her stoic brother replied.
"I can't stand just sittin' around any longer doin' nothin' but chewin' grass till my teeth grind down to nubs and my gums turn green! I'm gonna have to go into Ponyville and do some real detective work.... I might even have to go into the Everfree". A nervous hiccup was apparent in the name of the forest.
He looked her in the eyes, long and hard sensing for her true feelings. Apparently satisfied with her state of mind, he drawled out, "Eeyup."
"Hmm... Good talkin' big brother, take care of the Acres while I'm away".
Nodding, Big Mac solemnly took Applejack's post as she turned and cantered off to the village.
~-~-~-~-~-~
A foreign tune sliced through the crisp, isolated air and into the pony's ears as she trot up the secluded path to Fluttershy's cottage. She must be teachin' her birds a new song, she thought, referencing the moderately talented choir. The orange mare circumvented the quaint dwelling towards the back meadow. Surprisingly, the pony leading the call and response lesson was none other than Sweetie Belle!
Fluttershy was hovering near by (literally) with an anxious look on her face as the young filly nudged the sensitive yellow pony out of her comfort zone by means of unconventional teaching. Clearly, Fluttershy had, once again, not anticipated the energy packed in the small body of the cheerful filly.
Applejack stood at a short distance, amusing herself at the show and not interfering with the antics of the exuberant Sweetie Belle. The small pony let out a wild holler, the octaves ringing out bizarrely due to the excitement of their source, yet still perfectly pitched. The gaggle of birds, feeding off of Sweetie Belle's aura, belted a not-so synchronized cacophony that only startled Fluttershy out of the air and into the shelter of her own hooves.
Rather than cause her meek friend any more discomfort, Applejack decided to hoof in, "Alrigh' there Sweetie Belle, that's probably enough singin' lessons for one day. Best let Fluttershy take over from there, sugarcube."
"But Applejack!" Sweetie Belle shrilled, her voice cracking, "they're just starting to get in to it!"
"Now why don't you just look yonder at Fluttershy and try to tell me all's well one more time", the cowpony responded.
Sweetie Belle turned and saw the yellow pony still cowering on the ground. Understanding that she faced a probable moral defeat and was unlikely to continue her improvised lesson, Sweetie Belle hopefully responded, "But.. but I might get my cutie mark for teaching animals like Fluttershy does!"
Applejack gave her the fish-eye. The pink and purple haired filly visibly drooped; the sparkle in her eyes went out as she slumped, she was the image of sadness.
"Now don' take it to heart there little one", the orange mare consoled, feeling bad about being a spirit damper. She said with a wink, "you could come do some detective work with me if you're wantin'"
The effect was immediate. Depressed Sweetie Belle zapped out of reality with a bright flash and a fully animate one replaced her. "Really really really Applejack!?! What are we looking for? Did someone do something naughty? Is it about Rarity? Where are we going??!" A Pinkie Pie-esque note of insanity twinged her voice.
"Whoa there little filly, this could actually get pretty serious... I think that there might have been a genuinely bad idea comin' out of my muzzle. Maybe you ought to stay in town here..."
"How could you say that Applejack! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS INVESTIGATIVE DETECTOR GO!!" Power rippled out of the small unicorn's horn, ripples of cosmic brilliance distorting the airwaves in the clearing, a visual show of her enticement. Fluttershy rocked her ostrich swag, nothing but the pink of her mane poking out of the ground.
It was true, Applejack reflected, what Equestrians said about the younger unicorns: raw magical power, innate talent, and the passion of youth clearly did combine into a force to be reckoned with.
"Y'know, I think it'll be alright after all, we'll be a great team together", AJ replied, saving face.
Despite having an unclear picture of what they were about to do, the effervescent Sweetie Belle struck the air with a celebratory high-hoof.
The sun was peaking it's parabolic curve as the two trotted away from Fluttershy's cottage, when a thought occured to Sweetie Belle, "So then.. Um... Applejack, where are we going?"
"Oh, I suppose I didn' mention that did I'?" The orange pony cocked an eyebrow at the filly.
"Uh, no?"
"The Everfree Forest, Sweetie Belle, the Everfree forest."
The leafy canopy sheltering the winding shadowed path seemed to absorb nearly every ray of light cast down by Celestia's sun. It was a metaphor, perhaps, for the wild bounds of the forest that ran on it's own terms rather than the standard of Equestria. Next to the mere ponies, the strands of Oak and Fir seemed gargantuan; ebon pillars scraping the underbelly of the sky. Perforating the earth around the base of every tree-trunk, choking out even the forest's aboriginal plants, grew the mushrooms. If at first imposing and menacing, the dark tangle of the Everfree seemed actually to be suffering, it's ordinary state of liberty being crushed by the invasive fungus. The very trees were drooping, lines of sticky sap running down the bark like tears. Here and there, tiny spores were starting to encroach on the path, gnawing slowly away at the bare ground.
It was common knowledge in Ponyville that the once the town had grown large enough for Celestia to grace it with Her presence, she had lain great magic on the feral wood: not only to prevent it's further expansion into now-claimed pony-territory, but also to protect the path through, so anypony could travel to the other side and out safely. Even to Applejack, untrained in the arcane arts beyond Zap Apple harvesting, the implications were immense.
If this red-tipped carpet was starting to erode Celestia's magic then... Well she really didn't want to think about that.
~-~-~-~-~-~
Somewhere at the approximate center of the great wood, an enormous mushroom stood like some monument to an indifferent god. At seemingly random intervals, it would issue forth a bright lavender light, illuminating the dark clearing in which it stood. At it's base a small mound of displaced dirt gave evidence of an opening into the heart of the earth, a black mouth gaping and toothless, ready to swallow anything passing between it's jaws.
Once more the eerie light flared, revealing a curious raven perched nearby, head cocked towards the shroom-shaped enigma. It hopped a step closer, cawing once as if to draw the strange thing into friendly conversation. Impatient, sensing a pulse of life from the fungus, the rook took flight, gliding on outstretched, glossy wings. It landed on the source of it's curiosity and pecked at it once as if to test the thing's fortiude.
Suddenly, everything changed.
A soft call morphed into maddened cawing, the blackbird beating it's wings and trying to spring off of the soft surface. It gained an inch of air, strands of some ooze clinging to it's pronged feet. A shriek of triumph locked in it's throat and choked to despair as the bird sank back down into the head of the pulsating shroom, slowly being enveloped in the now-shifting patterns of the cap. Soon enouugh, the last hoarse cry escaped the sharp beak as the mushroom gorged, melding the crow's shape into it's own being. It wasn't long before the surface stopped rippling, smoothing back into normalcy that made the growth seem almost content.
Not even a feather was left to indicate that a creature had once lived.
"Perhaps there is always pain when you touch something larger than ordinary life"
"Applejack, isn't the road supposed to be protected by Celestia's magic?" Sweetie Belle inquired.
A thin trickle of sweat ran down the earth pony's forehead as she replied, trying to make the issue seem less important than the observation, "Well you're a sharp little whippersnapper aren't ya? Yea, Ah'd think. At least that's the way the tale goes".
The filly positively beamed at her rightness yet despite Applejack's efforts, it slowly dawned on her that something was indeed quite wrong. "So... does that mean there's stuff stronger than Celestia's magic?" She said this as though such a thought were blasphemous, the gears in her head starting to tumble with interpretations that AJ had chosen to ignore.
"Now I don't know a whole lot about magic but, if it was outright stronger than Celestia, Ah don't think this would be much of a path here. It's probably just that it's been unchecked so long they're finally poking a few holes, that's all. Look", she pointed with a hoof, "these spores here are tiny, struggling like they aren't living in the right conditions. Ah'd bet a bushel of apples that Celestia's magic is the only reason the path isn't carpeted right now"
"OH that is a good theory!"
"Well it's the best Ah can think of although right now Ah figure that in a few years once you really get into your magic training, you'd be able to come up with better", Applejack stated modestly.
The ponies continued their trudge through the deepening wood until they came across a split in the path. Unlike the right fork, which was much the same as they had been trotting on, the left fork was nearly overgrown with fungus- it was the path to Zecora's hut. Applejack paled and let out a quiet, stressed whinney. She hadn't known what to expect, but she had been hoping with every ounce of her spirit that the wise zebra would have been prepared in some way. There were few with greater knowledge of the forest and it's contents than Zecora, perhaps none with similar wisdom that were on friendly terms with Ponyville.
Sweetie Belle interrupted her reverie with a shrill squeal, a note of surprise but not immediate danger. Nonetheless, the orange mare spun around, heart racing in her chest.
"Why you silly filly! Scaring me half to death and.. What on earth are you doin' eating that? You don't know what it could do to you!"
The smaller pony had a guilty look on her face as a thick yellow stem poked it's body out between her teeth. A sucking noise followed by the disappearance of the plant-matter into Sweetie Belle's gullet was almost enough to break Applejack's forced, calm demeanor. She waited, tense, to see if there would be any immediate reaction. In case it was poisonous enough of a shroom to be obvious right away, she was ready and trained to perform a Hooflich maneuver.
"Huh, It tasted like a normal mushroom although maybe it was a little bitter..." She blinked innocently, attempting to evade a lecture she knew was probably coming.
"Why you... Ah'm startin' to think it was a bad idea to bring you out here, what with you takin' all sorts of unnecessary risks and all."
"I was just hungry, I haven't eaten since breakfast and I love mushrooms! Did you know, Rarity says truffles are a del-i-cacy!" There was a note of triumph in her voice, as if anything Rarity said made everything else a moot point.
"Hmmph," AJ's nostril's flared in mild disdain, "well you seem ok, but we don't know about Zecora. I think we ought to check out her place, see what we can find."
Finding herself off the hook, the pink and purple maned pony took off with a great bound down the left path, kicking fungus up in her devastating wake. Shaking her head, amused, Applejack followed a short distance behind.
It was half a turn of the clock when Zecora's clearing appeared before them. Well, once it had been a clearing. Now, the red growths had choked out everything up to the small shelter; even the well kept herb gardens were no longer apparent. None of it was a good sign, not the creeping invaders, not the overgrown path, and especially not the door to the hut, hanging open ominously, the shadowy interior indiscernible past that looming mouth.
"Applejack, I feel-"
"Not now Sweetie Belle, Ah need to check inside there for signs of... anything".
Swallowing her fear, the mare took a tentative hoofstep through the doorway. Her throat was dry, tongue parched as she struggled to cross that dread threshold. Her eyes steadily adjusted to the dark, enough for her to make out the rough shapes of furniture but not enough to pick out any real details.
"Oh I know!" Exclaimed Sweetie Belle from a few paces behind, "Twilight just taught me this trick last week!" She screwed her eyes up in concentration, a vein throbbing out on her forehead. White light began to shimmer up the length of her horn, coalescing into a globe of white energy. With a final grunt, she rammed her horn forwards, knocking the ball through the open door.
From behind Applejack, Sweetie Belle could see a room deserted as if left for only a minute but never returned to. A couldron sat over a fire that had burned down unevenly, the logs not having shifted at all. A hardened crust of some grime covered the broth in the pot and several piles of herbs could be seen scattered across wooden counters as if waiting to be tossed in. If the yard is that messy and this room looks like it was just left for what was meant to be a minute... That means Zecora must have been gone for awhile!
Coming to the same conclusion Applejack said, "Why don't you keep an eye outside while I poke around in here a little more?"
"Ok!" The filly turned point and plopped her flank onto the ground, training her gaze hither and thither in search of any other presence. She could hear Applejack behind her, shuffling things around and turning things over to look for any clues of a struggle or kidnapper.
That was when it began, a sensation in her stomach that trickled around inside her slowly, shifting down her body to her hooves faster than it crawled to her face. The tingling began to morph her sensory input, distorting and melding senses together. The jagged bark on a tree erupted into a toothy grin, guffawing at her jaw slackened in disbelief. A breeze whipped through her mane and caused a bright flash of orange across her field of view, the color as cheerful as a Scootaloo who had learned to fly.
It was as if a demented yet playful sort of chaos had been let loose inside her being.
Every beam of light had a swirling tail, swatting away the flies of darkness as they buzzed around the clearing. Each leaf on any tree she gazed at had it's own smiling face, winking at her mischievously. Dust motes glistened and laughed, drifting idly by in their own universe, embodiments of Xen.
Sweetie Belle wondered where this brand new universe had come from, has this sprung from my mind directly or has it always existed, hiding inside of the Everfree just waiting to be discovered? She swayed with the rhythm of this new world, peaceful in her bliss.
She listened to her nerve endings. Each stimuli, be it a gust of air rustling her hairs or a patch of light on her hide, was whispering a conversations to it's neighbors. The whorls of each mushroom cap called to her sweetly, singing:
Sweetie Belle, Sweetie Belle
Can you see us now?
We've wanted to speak with you
But didn't know how
So here we are, face to face
Have you any questions for us to taste?
The patch of spores that had addressed her were positively flushed with revel at their collective cleverness, happy with their successful communication.
The filly giggled at the nonsensical nature of everything happening around her
"Now what in tar-nation are you laughing at?" Applejack stood at her shoulder, stone serious and frowning in concern.
Oh no! Not her! That bucking mare
She'd like us gone, out of her hair
But we'll say NO! The power here
Resides in us, not her, my dear
To Applejack, this exchange was non-existent. One moment she had been questioning Sweetie Belle's seemingly random mirth and the next, blackness had enveloped her, rooting her in place. She was immobile and snared, unable to see or smell or taste anything other than the dark.
When, before her very eyes, Applejack morphed into a cluster of 4 mushrooms (one stalk for each leg), Sweetie Belle did the only appropriate thing she could have- scream at the top of her lungs and bolt in terror.
The blood cells, carrying what a scientist would classify as Psilocybin, pumped around her small body as she sprinted as fast as she could back towards Ponyville. As the chemical spread farther through her bloodstream, Sweetie Belle lost more and more clarity of thought. All around her tiny voices shrilled in horror as she stomped her way back down the overgrown path. Her ears lay flat against her skull, attempting to block out the bone-chilling cries.
Come, Stay with us!
She came upon the split of the regular path: left to go deeper and right, towards home.
Don't run away from us!
Her eyes were dilated, pupils the size of saucers. She flared her nostrils and stormed away as fast as her hooves could take her. Colors swam around her field of view, darting and swooping at her face, trying to rear her from her course.
We want to play with you!
Rivulets of sweat streamed into Sweetie Belles eyes as she pounded down the path, causing stinging yet shining diamonds to dance before her. She clenched her lids shut, forcing all of her will on escape, lest being lured by amazing sights.
Sweetie Belle, don't be a fool!
Even with her eyes closed, the filly could sense the aura of the place lightening as she approached the exit.
Fine. You've made your mind
The *Psilocybience** will have you.*
Despite the fact that the last sentence spoken sounded far away, those words had the most weight to them. Sweetie Belle burst out into the brightly-lit plains. Relief flooded through her, a surging swell so powerful she collapsed. The last thing she remembered before the enveloping folds of unconsciousness closed around her was the sun looming over her, whispering, "Hush now little one, you're safe now. You're safe."