Pinkie Pie was still covered in bits of bone and blood when Twilight arrived. Her face was as pale as a full moon on an autumn night, but she was no longer shaking. In fact she was as still as the corpse that laid in front of her. Which was unsettling for the Pink pony who normally was so full of life and never seemed to stop moving. Her eyes were bloodshot and pinpricks. She just sat there, her eyes never leaving the body that laid before her. Meanwhile Fluttershy was inside Sugarcube Corner shaking like a leaf hiding behind her mane cringing from anyone who dared to go near her. Applejack was doing her best to comfort her, but she seemed to have her hooves full. During all the commotion that happened after the monstrous creature made its escape, Applejack didn’t really have time to process what had just happened. After Pinkie Pie basically shut down, Fluttershy lost her mind and started screaming uncontrollably. It took Applejack fifthteen minutes to calm Fluttershy down enough to get her to stop.

Twilight slowly walked up to Pinkie Pie trying not to startle her. Her eyes drifted away from her friend to the bloody mess that was on the ground before her. The mare had a sickening smile spewed across her face, with an eyeball missing. Her fur matted with drying blood, cupcake frosting and stomach bile. Plus a gaping hole where her chest should be. All in all, it was a sight Twilight had never seen in Ponyville. She heard Spike running up behind her, but before she could turn around to stop him he had already saw.

“Twilight I got the books you as-. W-wheres her eye, and, and her chest?” Spike's eyes went wide as he doubled back, shaking his head to unsee what he had just seen. His stomach convulsed and started to reject anything that he had in it, violently puking up his breakfast. Twilight rushed over to Spike's side trying to block his view of the corpse.

“Spike, I don’t think I’ll be needing your help with this one.” Twilight sheepishly looked over her assistant, who was still projecting bile out of his mouth. Derpy Hooves was walking nearby when Twilight glanced up. “Um Derpy, could you please make sure Spike gets back to the castle? I don’t want him exposed to this anymore than he already is.”

A smile exploded across the wall eyed mare's muzzle as she almost jump for joy. “Sure thing Twi, anything for a friend.” Derpy walked over and picked up Spike, throwing him on her back and trotting her way off to the castle. Twilight resumed her attention the corpse that laid on the ground.

Her horn started to glow as she began to examine the corpse. A piece of parchment and a quill levitated next to her as she jotted down notes of the exposed cavity in Golden Harvest’s chest. For the most part her organs were still intact, except for some of her intestines that took a beating when her rib caged busted open. Twilight glanced up at the still immobile Pinkie.

“Pinkie, I know it’s a lot to take in, but I need you to tell me what happened.” Twilight sat on her hunches as she waited for her friend to speak. Pinkie Pie slowly dragged her hollow eyes over to where Twilight was and stared at her for a few moment before she turned her gaze to mouth of the Everfree Forest a few hundred yards away from where they sat. They sat in silence for what seemed like hours before Pinkie opened her mouth. The sentence she uttered had no warmth or life in it. Just an eerie monotone, with the hint of fear beneath it.

“Mother Tree does not take kindly to those who harm her children.” Twilight gave her friend a confused look before opening her mouth.

“I don’t understand what you are talking about Pinkie.” Pinkie slowly turned her head to meet her friends gaze.

“Deep within the Forest, lives the Mother Tree. No harm will come to thee, as long as you treat nature in kind. But harm her children, and you’ll wake to find. Your Nightmare’s waiting to invade your mind. During the Waning Moon at the strike of three, a beastly tree will come for thee. Run you can try, fight as you might.The Everfree Curse will consume your life.” Pinkie paused for a moment before she continued speaking. “My mother use to tell me this poem when I was just a filly. I always thought it was just a tall tale. Until now.”

Twilight stared at her friend in awe. Pinkie Pie was known to babble nonsense, but what she said simply could not be true.

“How could a poem cause this? I doubt a creepy set of sentences can cause someone to die. There is a more solid explanation for this. There has to be. How did something burst from her chest? Why did something burst through her chest”

Applejack was able to take a moment from Fluttershy and finally pitched in to answer Twilight's question,”A worm, at least that what Ah think it is. And why, well yer guess is as good as mine.” Twilight gave Applejack a dumbfounded look.

“A worm did this? A worm busted through a pony's rib cage, from the inside? And made a hole the size of a hoofball. You guys do know that it roughly takes over 899.236 pounds of force to crack a rib.” Applejack walked up to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“Twi, Ah never said it was a typical earthworm either. This, this was sumthin’ else.” Applejack looked at Twilight with confusion and concern in her eyes.

“Something else? What else could possibly cause such harm? I’ve never read about anything like this before.”
Twilight paced around the scene taking it all in. Her eyes dancing around in her head as she juggled around the different possibilities in her mind. At this point her mind was like a circus of tiny fillies trying to juggle all these different ideas in her head. Eventually they crashed and she couldn’t think of anything.

“I have to find a book on this. I must commence some research and dig deeper into this.” Twilight turned and faced Applejack “Try to get Fluttershy to rest first. Will you two be ok?”

Applejack shook herself out of her daze to answer Twilight’s question. “Ah don’t know about Flutters. She’s shook up mighty bad. Uhhmm, what do you s’ppose we do now?”

Twilight quickly glanced around the scene,”Get together a group and find the creature. Bring it to me alive...if you can. I understand if it’s too dangerous and you have to kill it.”

“How in tarnation am ah s’ppsed to catch that lil critter? When Ah don’t even know what it is.”

Twilight shrugged, “You know how to wrangle most animals, right? I’m sure you can handle one a tiny worm. Just be careful ok?”

Applejack stared at Twilight for a few moments, taken aback by the outrageous request of her dear friend. She looked down and thought for a few moments.

“Applejack?” Twilight took a few steps towards her friend before getting a response.

“Ah.” Applejack swallowed before she continued. “A-ah can do it.” Applejacks ears pinned to the back of her head as she hid her unsure look from Twilight.

“Are you sure?” Twilight gave her friend a reassuring smile.

“Ah’m sure. Ah can catch it.” Applejack gave Twilight a half hearted smile as she turned and headed back to the Castle

“Twilight,” Pinkie had returned her hollowed gaze back to Twilight after spacing out for so long. “Twilight, take note and heed my warning. For Mother Tree is not to be trifled with.”

Twilight gave Pinkie a worried look, then quickly changed to a quizzical one. “Ummm, ok. Pinkie, go get some rest. Take it easy.”

Pinkie Pie turned away, her body swaying loosely back and forth as her mane and tail fell flat as it drooped behind her. She wandered off by herself without saying so much as “goodbye”. Twilight stood and watched her wander off before turning and heading off herself back to the Castle.

Her mind wandered slightly as she tried to think of an explanation to Applejack's description of the so called ‘worm’ that had killed Golden Harvest. It defied all logic that Twilight could pull from the vast amount of information she had stored in her mental Library. Never before had she heard of such a creature. Not even in the darkest and most taboo of books that she had come across. All with the most vile creatures known to ponykind had such a monster. It seemed like something out of a nightmare.

As Twilight left, two other ponies found their way into the bloody scene. One walked in with all the grace and class of a sophisticated pony. Her pristine pure white coat glistened despite the sun being blocked out by a blanket of clouds above. Her purple mane and tail had the shape of infinite waves as they curled in on themselves. One might mistake her for royalty if it were not for the fact that she had no crown of her own.

The other did not have as much class. If somepony could see this blue blur they would find a wild, energetic, and very sporadic pegasus. In fact her favorite pastime was napping on clouds when she should be working the weather. Her flying was unlike any other. She was incredibly skillful. Able to make risky maneuvers coupled with precise movements she would impress even the most experienced of flyers. Despite this, she actually crashed into a nearby set of tables and chairs as the other came to a screeching halt in her trot. Both saw what lay before them, and both could not believe their eyes.

“Oh my, what a horrific scene have you dragged us out to see Applejack? What is the meaning of this?”
The alabaster mare quickly turned her head as she tried and failed to keep her cucumber sandwiches down as they flowed out of her mouth is a sickly yellow bile.

The Cyan blue pegasus held a hoof up to her stomach as she snorted and began to laugh at the sight of her friend losing her lunch. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as her body shook from her booming laughter.

“Looks like Rarity prefers to spit than swallow. That’s not what a proper lady such as yourself should do. Bahahaha!” Rainbow Dash started to roll on the ground as her laughter took control of her body.

Rarity stared at her blue friend for a few moments. Her rasping breath occasionally forcing out a string of saliva mixed with small chunks of undigested food. Before she could say anything another stream of brownish yellow liquid shot from her mouth. With pain and fury she directed the stream all over her friend who was pointing and laughing. She laughed no more.

“YUCK! Really? You just had to do that? I think some of it got in my mouth.” Rainbow Dashes voice cracked as she complained, and becoming coated in the gnarly mixture. The cocky pegasus tried shaking as much off as possible.

“T-that’s what you get for l-laughing Rainbow D-dash,” Rarity could hardly speak as she coughed and continued spitting out contaminated saliva.

Rainbow Dash flicked some of the vomit back at Rarity. She didn’t even try to move because she was so exhausted and already filthy from her own disgust. Rarity looked over her coat with a sigh.

“This is going to take hours to clean out of my coat. And I had just went to the spa yesterday.” Rarity's lower lip quivered as she began to pout. Applejack was walking up with a shaking Fluttershy as the two ponies were still locked in the battle to belittle each other playfully.

“Now look here you two. Ah got to get Flutters back home ‘fore we do anythin’. Ah need ya two to behave while Ah’m gone, and Rarity, your coat is only goin’ to get worse. So put a hoof in it.”

Rarity gave Applejack a evil glare as she was still mourning of her once beautiful shine. With a huff and a quick upturn of her nose she sat on her hunches to display her displeasure of Applejack’s statemate.

Author's Note

As with Chapter one this is the nonedited version. Will repost the edited version once my editor gets to them, just couldnt wait anymore. Lol