The Pyro and The Engineer's Misadventures in Equestria

"Doctor, is he alright?", Twilight asked.

"Well, the bullet hit him in the forehead, a fate that's not too dangerous given to his strength. However, the bullet was encased in chaos magic, causing the bullet to crash through his skull, and damaging a part of his brain, causing him to end in a coma.", the Doctor replied.

"Is there a chance that he will wake up?", quietly asked Fluttershy.

"His state seems to be 'frozen'. He isn't dying, but at the same time he isn't recovering. But don't worry. Our specialists will make sure that he will be healthy in no time.", answered the Doctor.

"Well, we have to deal with the oversized Pyro aswell. Since Engie isn't dying, I guess it gives us time to find the cure to recover Pyro. He might be able to help us.", Twilight said. The other 5 nodded to her, and headed outside the hospital. Well, except Applejack.

"Applejack, aren't you comming?", Twilight asked.

"Sorry, Twi. I gotta stay there. I can't just leave him there.", she replied.

"But we need all the help we can get! The Everfree Forest is hard to go on without enough help!", Twilight countered.

"I know, but I simply need to stay here. If things get too hard, just come here and I'll help.", Applejack said.

"Okay, I guess.", Twilight replied. The two shook their hooves, and Twilight headed with the four other ponies outside.

"I can't believe it! Who blocked the path to Zecora's hut?", Dash yelled as she found a large tree trunk fallen over the path.

"I guess we need to take the harder path, then.", commented Fluttershy. The others walked out of the blocked path and went deeper into the woods, hoping to find their way through the forest maze.

5 minutes later...

"Are we there yet?", Pinkie asked.

"No.", Twilight answered.

"And now?", Pinkie asked again.

"No.", Dash answered.

"And now?", Pinkie asked yet again.

"No.", Rarity answered.

"And now?", Pinkie asked yet again.

"NO!", Dash, Twilight and Rarity yelled at the same time.

...

"And now?", Pinkie asked YET again.

"Ugh. I think we walked in circles.", Rarity said.

"Yeah, I remember seeing this beehive like one hundred times!", Dash replied.

"Uh, girls? I think we are lost.", Twilight commented.

"No, we can't be! Let's just head fowards from now on!", Rarity replied. Eventually, the five set off to head only foward. Eventually, they found a path with a sign and a gate.

SIGN:

Welcome to the Everfree Square.

Backwards: Ponyville
Ahead: Everfree Square
Everywhere: Everfree Forest

"Hang on, if 'Everywhere' is the Everfree Forest, then why Backwards is Ponyville?", Pinkie asked.

"Pinkie, you get the idea.", Twilight replied. They opened the gate, and entered the Everfree Square. It was a circle path with three other pathes protuding from the sides of the circle path. In the middle of the circle path were leafless trees and bushes with creepy flowers. There were bushes with those creepy flowers in front of every protuding path.

"I'm scared.", Fluttershy squeaked.

"Big news.", Dash replied sarcastically.

"Enough joking. Which path should we choose?", Twilight asked.

"Let's choose the one to the right!", Rarity answered, pointing to one of the gates. The five walked towards it. However, as soon as they approached a bush, the creepy flowers began reacting, swirling around with living lips. This scared the heck out of Fluttershy, who squeaked and ran away quickly, only to meet with another of those flowers, which caused her to fly again quickly through the gate. The other five ran after her.

"Fluttershy! Those are only flowers! They won't hurt you!", Dash said.

"Don't you know? Everything here hurts you!", Fluttershy replied.

"Silly, if everything here hurts us, then the floor would be giving us lots of pain in the hooves!", Pinkie replied. Her comment managed to calm Fluttershy down.

"Uh, girls, isn't this the same sign we have seen?", Rarity asked as she pointed to a sign.

SIGN:

Welcome to the Everfree Square.
Backwards: Ponyville
Ahead: Everfree Square
Everywhere: Everfree Forest

"Now that you mention it, the path behind DID seemed to disappear, too. Coincidence?", Twilight replied.

"You guys are just having mirages of the forest. C'mon, let's head out again!", Dash replied as she flied to the middle path on the other side of the circle path, again with the lip-bearing flowers scaring Fluttershy. However, they found themselves to be at the sign path again.

"Uh, why are they putting the same sign everywhere?", Rarity asked.

"Mmm, there's something fishy about this path....C'mon, girls. Follow me.", Twilight replied as she went backwards.

"Uh, Twilight? That's where we came from.", Dash replied.

"Yes, and no. We came from here, but at the same time, we didn't came from here.", Twilight said.

"Huh? What the hay are you talking about?", Dash asked.

"A-ha! Come here, Dash. I'll explain it to you.", Twilight replied. Dash, followed by the other three headed to where Twilight was. To their surprise, the Everfree Square they came from wasn't there anymore.

"What? This forest can shape-shift now? Oh, now we REALLY are doomed!", Dash said.

"No, it cannot shape-shift. If you notice closely, you can see hoofprints on the floor. These are actually OUR hoofprints. When we were heading towards the gates, we ended up over there again. They aren't actually placing the same sign everywhere. We are just walking on circles!", Twilight explained.

"Exactly, my dear friend.", a voice called out.

"Huh? Who said that?", Twilight asked. As if on cue, a black cloaked pony fell from the sky, landing perfectly on it's hooves.

"I said it. I am here to help wanderers not to get lost. This large square thou see is enchanted by an ancient power, confusing the wanderers. Thou must find thy correct pattern, and head through the correct path. Take a wrong turn, and thou shall arrive back to the edge of the Everfree Square.", said the hooded pony.

"But where does this square leads to?", Rarity asked.

"It is basically an alternate path to the normal path you came from. Why art thou not using thy main path?", asked the pony.

"A dumb tree decided to fall on the path to prevent us from heading to Zecora's hut.", Dash answered.

"Oh, I see. Well, I wish thou good luck in your quest.", the hooded pony replied as it jumped towards the trees and disappeared.

"Mmm..correct pattern...It must have something to do with the enviorment.", Twilight suggested. She went through the square, inspecting each single detail, but she stopped on the last gate. "I see it.", she said.

"What?", the others asked.

"All the gates haves a flower with sly smiling lips. This flower also haves lips, but those are much bigger than the others. This must be the correct path.", she replied. The five went through the gate, and true to her word, they didn't found the sign anymore.

"Well, we did made some progress.", commented Rarity.

"Yes, but we are not done yet.", Twilight replied. She went towards the flower bush. The first flower started slowly leaning left and right while singing a melody. She went to the next bush. The second flower popped out like the first, but instead of leaning left and right, it's mouths started to spin around and fell out of the flower. "It's this one.", she replied. She went through the second gate, and arrived at the third square. This one had no flower bush. "Well, no flowers this time. Keep an eye on everything else, girls!", she said. They started wandering around. First gate, bush with no flower, leafless tree. Second gate, bush with no flower, leafless tree. Third gate, bush with no flower, leafless tree, and...wait...

"AAAHHH!!", Fluttershy screamed as she flew slightly away. Out of nothing, one of the tree holes in the third gate popped red eyes along with a slight scream.

"It's the third gate!", Twilight said. The elements, along the terrified Fluttershy, entered the third gate, arriving at the fourth square.

"I think this one's the last. It is most likely hard.", Rarity commented. The five nodded, and went through the gates. Oddly, all of them were equal.

"I don't get it. There's no difference in those gates.", Twilight commented.

"Are ya sure? I really dislike dead ends.", Dash replied. They made another loop, nothing. A third loop, still nothing.

"There's something strange about this one.", Twilight continued.

"Uh, Twilight, I think you missed something.", Pinkie commented, pointing at a larger bush in the side of the gate that they came through. She wiggled through the bush, and found an opening. However, there was nothing in the inside.

"There's nothing inside this opening, Pinkie. But I think this might point out to something....", Twilight mumbled. She went through the gate they came from.

"Why are you going back again, Twi?", Dash asked. Twilight didn't answered, she just kept going fowards until she was out of range. The five went after her. They were surprised to find that the third square wasn't there anymore, but rather, a path that junctioned with another path. Twilight was waiting there.

"The fourth square was supposed to be a play on wanderers. We found the way out.", she said as she pointed to the left. They saw the collapsed tree there, blocking the path. They headed to the right, and finally arrived at Zecora's hut.

"Zecora, are you home?", Twilight asked as she knocked on the door. There was silence for 5 seconds, but it was soon interrupted.

"Oh spankle! It's my good old friend, Twilight Sparkle!", a voice said through the hut. The door opened, and inside revealed the rhyming zebra.

"This rhyme didn't made much sense...", Dash murmurred to Rarity and Fluttershy.

"Zecora, Equestria's in danger! We need your poison joke cure to save a friend of ours!", Twilight said. The zebra hesitated for a moment, before it replied.

"Now, calm down, my friendly gradient. I happened to run out of ingredient.", Zecora replied.

"This one didn't made much sense, either.", Dash continued.

"We can get some more! Tell us, what are the ingredients?", Twilight insisted.

"Doesn't works like that, my friend. I happened to take all of the forest's stock of ingredients.", Zecora replied flatly.

"A-ha! This one didn't even rhymed!", Dash bursted out.

"Rainbow, what are you doing, dear?", Rarity asked.

"This isn't Zecora. The real Zecora never hesitates to think of what to rhyme. This one hesitated all the time, and when it didn't, it hardly rhymed!", she continued.

"Bingo!", the zebra yelled, as it mysteriously flew up in the air. Eventually, the gray-n-darker-gray legs revealed to become black, and the zebra double it's size. Not to mention that a greenish hairstyle popped out, alongside holes in the skin. The zebra revealed to be nonetheless the changeling queen.

"Chrysalis?! What are you doing here?", Twilight asked.

"Hah hah hah! You see, Discord and Trixie offered me this nice job of tricking you into looking for the cure to the poison joke to cure Pyro, while they use their chaos magic to slowly kill Engineer! You five have just fallen into my trap! Eventually, chaos will rule Equestria, and none of you will be able to stop it!", the queen yelled. Before the five could react, she used her twisted magic to encase the five in greenish fire, and caused them to shrink on the floor, banishing them to Celestia knows where.

"With five of the elements out of the way, this only leaves with Pyro, Engineer, and that cowboy pony to stop! And that's a job....for Nightmare Moon!", Chrysalis said to herself, as she held a bottle containing a purple space-like fluid sloshing about, trying to wiggle free. She began to chuckle devilishy, which quickly turned into a maniacal laughter.

TO BE CONTINUED...