Ever since the creation of the Friendship School, Twilight and her friends had a lot more on their plate than they used to. Partly because running a school and having careers at the same time is a lot of work, but also because that darned map won't stop asking them all one or two at a time to drop everything they're doing and make their way to a random location anywhere in the nation and sort out somepony else's problem. It never bothered Twilight though. The gleam in her eyes whenever the map beckoned her could rival a spotlight.
Twilight's gasp startled Spike. "Spike, the cutie mark is glowing again!" Twilight shouted excitedly. Spike looked down from the crystal shelf with a bemused look.
"Okay, then go to the table and figure out where you're supposed to go or whatever." Spike mumbled in response.
Twilight rolled her eyes and scoffed."Come on, Spike. You should be thrilled. I get to go and help ponies and have fun doing it!"
"More like get another excuse to leave me by myself to do all the work that you don't want to do." Spike retorted.
Twilight's ears folded. "Well... That too. Actually, after you're done that, you should also dust everything else, Including the dungeon. I don't think we've ever cleaned it before."
Spikes eyes widened. "Wait, we have a dungeon?" He never got an answer as Twilight was already gone.
As she made her way to the table, her mind went crazy with ideas of what she was getting into. All of her over creative ideas came to a halt when she actually sat on her throne to get a clear view of the table. "Huh?" She stared at the table for a bit. "The Everfree Forest? Why would I need to go there? Nopony even lives there."
She spent a few minutes pondering what she should do. She couldn't ignore the table and the Forest was a pretty dangerous place, even for her. "I guess I'll just fly. I'll just plop down at the coordinates and tell the girls about it later. No need to bring everypony." she thought. "Fluttershy would be too scared to be useful and Rainbow Dash would probably pick a fight with a manticore and ruin the operation." She happily ran out the door thinking she wouldn't need to bring anything.
As Twilight walked along the edge of the Everfree Forest, she couldn't help but think back on all the nasty things that this place had brought her in the past. She was starting to have immediate regrets about coming alone. "Alright, according to the map, it should only be about 500 meters in. I know it can't be Zecora, she lives closer to Fluttershy's house. This is almost a different region entirely. The ground here is lively and less muddy, so I hope I don't run into any bad unknown plants." She thought out loud and took off on her way to her destination.
Before today, she never would have called the Forest "beautiful", but this specific part was a lot more green. The beauty only has a radius of a few hundred meters, but she appreciated that there was at least a little bit of Everfree that wasn't visually disturbing to look at. She landed on a small opening of grassland.
"This should be the place. I don't see anypony around." She thought. "Hello?! Anypony here?!" She yelled, her only response being the crows that flew from the trees after the sudden shouting startled them. She analysed the ground "The combination of life here is very odd. Grass growing under the treeline? That can't happen without magic." Her academic curiosity got the better of her and she made her way into the woods to get a better look at the mysterious grass.
"Wait, this isn't grass. This is moss. So why is it SHAPED like grass? What could possibly make it grow like..." She never finished her thought before she stepped into a hole in the earth that she didn't see because the magical moss covered it entirely. Her heart leaped and she slid down a tunnel that nothing natural could possibly form. This was almost more like a trap that was dug with sompony or "something." The mud and dirt she slid through was smooth and padded her coat down.
"AAABLGGB" She screamed as her mouth and eyes filled with the slime that helped lubricate her passage down. All of a sudden, the passage ended and she fell several meters into a giant bed of flowers. If these were normal flowers, she definitely would have hurt herself. Fortunately, the aura they gave slowed her fall. She lay there, soaked in mud and slime until the suns rays blinded her out of nowhere. The earth directly above her shifted taking the trees with them. "How?... Oh forget it." She grumbled, spitting out the gross taste of dirt.
"At least now, I can fly back out." She took off only for her wings to buckle up and she fell back down, only this time she landed on the rocks instead of the flowers. "Owww..." She rubbed her hoofs on her side. Panic started to build up inside of her. "Oh no... How... How am I supposed to get back up?" She analysed all over the walls to see if there was anyway she could climb. The only way she could go was the mysterious dark cave that led to Celestia knows where. Tears welled up in her eyes. "Will I never see my friends or family again? Am I going to die down here?" She moved her hoof to her mouth and tightly shut her eyes as she broke out into a sob.
"Howdy!" A young voice greeted from behind her. Twilight shrieked and jumped up from the rocks. If her fur wasn't so mashed down by mud, it would have stood up like a cat's. "You're an... interesting specimen, aren'tcha? Never seen a monster like you before. I'm guessing you came from the surface." It said with the cutest little face she ever seen.
"You... You can talk. Of course you can." Twilight laughed nervously, her tears washing some of the mud off her face. It didn't take long for her to resume her soft sobbing. "At least I got some company in my last moments..." She muttered, her lips trembling.
