Chapter 1
Rainbow Dash squealed as she grabbed the only Daring Doo book she hasn’t read yet: Daring Doo and Neighzis[1]. Excited to read it, she checked it out from the library. After thanking Twilight Sparkle, a purple unicorn and one of her best friends, she began to fly out. She stopped however, realizing something. Daring Doo had all these amazing adventures almost every other day and night, while she only had them when trouble arose in Equestria, and that didn’t happen a lot. She strived to be just like Daring, the fictional Pegasus was unstoppable.
Rainbow Dash slowly lowered herself to the floor, still standing in front of the doorway, and thought. Why couldn’t she have amazing adventures? She had a few ideas, but brushed them off. She tried to see what adventures she has done had in common. In her first major adventure against Nightmare Moon involved her learning about her Element of Harmony: loyalty. Her other friends found theirs as well; the element of laughter, Pinkie Pie, the bearer of generosity, Rarity, the always honest Applejack, and Fluttershy, element of kindness. Twilight Sparkle had the previously unknown element: magic, and together, they defeated Nightmare Moon and turned her back into Princess Luna, Princess Celestia’s sister.
It was much harder when they went against a draconequus, Discord, spirit of chaos. Using his powers, he tricked Rainbow Dash and her friends into thinking negative thoughts against each other, but Twilight Sparkle helped them regain their senses and defeat Discord.
Twilight Sparkle… She was the main pony in all of these adventures. She’s the leader of their little group of friends, right? How come she only does exciting things when she needs to? She doesn't have to do that.
The very unicorn she was thinking of broke her thoughts. “Rainbow Dash? Why are you just standing there? It’s a bit creepy.”
Rainbow Dash turned on her hooves swiftly and flew over to where Twilight was standing. “Twilight, I need to talk to you.”
Twilight, a bit surprised and nervous about her friend’s sudden change of attitude, looked at the cyan Pegasus puzzled. “What do you need to talk about?”
Rainbow Dash paused, trying to think of a way to put what she was going to say nicely, and sighed. She tried her best to look stern and faced her friend. “How come you’re not like Daring Doo?”
Twilight took it as more of an insult. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, how come you always play it safe? You don’t do a lot of exciting things.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Rainbow Dash didn't understand her logic, and asked, “don’t you want to feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins? The wind in your mane…”
“I don’t see any reason to do those kinds of things, Rainbow.”
Rainbow Dash gave up her attempts and began to flew out sulking, “Ugh, fine. Have it your way. Have fun being boring, Twilight.”
Once Rainbow Dash got out, Twilight pondered over what her friend had said to her. “You don’t do a lot of exciting things.”
Twilight suddenly became angered and trotted over to a section of the library she never really went to: the paranormal section. As she searched through all the books on ghosts and cryptids, she mumbled under her breath, “Not exciting… I’ll show you exciting, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash was sitting on a cloud, talking to herself. “Come on, Twilight… Do something with your life…” She stood up and prepared to take off, when a light purple unicorn galloped under the cloud and yelled her name.
“Rainbow Dash!”
Preparing for a lecture on what she said earlier, she groaned and flew down to where Twilight was standing. Twilight was holding a dusty, black book with a leather cover with her magic, and Rainbow Dash could faintly see the words “Abandoned Places” on it in copper letters. The edges of the book’s pages were beginning to turn into a nasty yellow, showing signs of age.
“I thought about what you said, and I found a place you’re going to love.”
Rainbow Dash became interested, and waited patiently until Twilight shoved the open book in her face. Rainbow grabbed the book with her hooves and read the title of the page.
“Ponyville’s Everfree Forest Science Laboratory.”
She continued, skimming through the short article.
“Many decades ago, there was a scientific study going on at this facility. When no results were found, the scientists closed the doors on the place and moved on. However, months after it was shut down, stray animals went missing and were never seen again. Many Ponies reported hearing strange howling and roars coming from the Everfree Forest, but could never tell what animals they were. Soon, about a year or so later, Ponies began disappearing as well. They too were never seen again.
“Ponies thought the old scientific lab was responsible, but there was never any evidence. But, at some point, Ponies and animals stopped disappearing, and the citizens of Ponyville got used to the roars of unknown creatures. To this day, no one knows what happened to the Ponies, or what is making the noises that come from the forest.”
Rainbow Dash finished, and Twilight grabbed the book from her. “Why don’t we bring our friends? It’s exciting, right?”
Rainbow Dash was satisfied that Twilight was going to do something adventurous and agreed immediately. “This is great Twilight! Let’s do it tonight, when it’s scariest. Let’s go get everypony.”
The two ponies went to gather their friends.
It took them around an hour to get everyone. (It took 30 minutes to convince Fluttershy.) After everyone was ready, they took their leave to the Everfree Forest.
1 – I was a little iffy about putting this in. It’s based off a drawing by tiarawhy.