Cloud Skipper was hopping happily, making her way back to home. The day at school had been fun, but going home was still the top moment of the day.
The path leading to her home was in close priority of the Everfree Forest. But that wasn’t a bad thing. The creatures couldn’t come out. In fact, Cloud Skipper actually liked to see occasional wild animals pass by near the borders of the dense forest.
She knew a lot about the wildlife of the forest. She could recognize if a timberwolf was lurking nearby or if a cockatrice was wandering around in search of food.
She froze on her tracks when she heard a loud crack come from the very edge of the forest. Being a curious little filly, she had to know what had caused it. So she slowly started walking towards the edge of the forest.
From the edge she couldn’t see anything interesting. Nothing was moving, save for the few leaves dancing in the afternoon wind. She stared for a few more seconds, but gave up eventually. It must have been just some boring little critter.
She made her way back to the road and started heading towards home. She looked back for the very last time, hoping that the source of the sound would have revealed itself.
That was the last mistake Cloud Skipper did.
----»«----
When ponies go missing, worry starts to grow.
When ponies go missing for longer than two days, the word will start to spread.
When little fillies go missing for times beyond one week, a slight panic will start to grow. And when panic is present, someone has to do something.
This certain someone was Twilight Sparkle. She was chosen for multiple reasons.
First off, she has some experience about panic.
Secondly, she’s the smartest pony in town. If you don’t know something, she will.
And thirdly, she happens to be the leader of a certain group called “The Elements Of Harmony”.
So, after making their very unanimous decision, the town council headed towards the library of the town.
----»«----
Twilight was happily minding her own business when she heard a knock come from the door.
“Always when I start scheduling…” said the lavender unicorn to herself, slight annoyance present in her voice.
She hopped out of her bed, made her way down the stairs, and opened the door.
“What now?” she asked without even trying to see who had interrupted her.
“Ahem. Miss Sparkle, we need to talk,” answered the mayor.
----»«----
After the council had left, the situation was starting to get clear to Twilight. Something was possibly threatening Ponyville and she would have to get rid of it. That would be easy.
But she would also have to locate a lost filly from the depths of the Everfree Forest. Not so easy.
She knew that she couldn’t do it alone. The Everfree was just too big and too dangerous. She needed help.
So Twilight dug out one of her checklists containing all the ponies in Ponyville (good thing that she always had some of those stashed somewhere), packed her saddlebag and headed out to the town square, hoping to get as many ponies to help as possible.
----»«----
“So, that’s why I need as much volunteers to help me search every inch of the Everfree Forest,” Twilight ended her speech, hoping that the ponies would already have lined up in front of the crate she was standing on.
But most of them had sneaked away when she had mentioned the forest and three of the remaining eight were a little too young to go for this mission.
“Ugh… All right girls, I guess it’s up to us once again,” she said to her five best friends who were the only grown-ups remaining. The Elements of Harmony would once again have to save Ponyville.
“All right. Rainbow Dash, you go and make a quick scan of the area from the sky. If you see anything suspicious, report back to me immediately. Don’t try to chase it down alone, ok?”
“You got it, Twi!” came the answer from the cyan mare as she dashed towards the edge of the forest.
“Applejack, could you possibly get someone to watch over those three?” Twilight asked, slightly tilting her head towards the youngest three, also known as “The Cutie Mark Crusaders”.
“Sure thing Twi. Ah think that Granny Smith and Big Macintosh can handle them for one night,” Applejack answered before trotting towards the three, a slightly nervous look on her face.
“Everyone else, just prepare. When Rainbow and Applejack come back, we are going to head to the forest,” Twilight ordered the remaining three. She got approving nods and mumbles alongside a sharp “Yes Sir Ma’am Sir!” from the most energetic member of the small group.
´Let’s just hope that this will be an easy one´ Twilight thought to herself, giving a single, worried gaze towards the dark forest.
----»«----
The forest seemed empty. Nothing was moving, save for the branches of the trees that were swinging around in the cold evening breeze. It was like all the wild animals were hiding somewhere. But that wasn’t a bad thing. It would make the search easier. You wouldn’t have to deal with an attacking timberwolf every time you turned your back.
Rainbow made a one final round around the forest and headed back towards Ponyville, making a single mistake.
She didn’t see the blank face that was observing her from the very edge of the forest.
----»«----
Applejack knew she had made a mistake. Even walking with the three fillies was a nightmare. Luckily it was for no longer than from Ponyville to the farm. A distance she would go in a few minutes.
But now there were three playful fillies bouncing around, observing everything in the way in hopes of finding their special talents.
So when they finally got to the farm, it had been good twenty minutes. She didn’t have time to explain to Granny or Big Mac, so she just told the young ones that they would be having a sleepover here at the farm while the grown-ups were looking for that lost filly.
Well, they were excited, of course. Getting to spend the whole night together. So when they had disappeared to do Celestia-knows-what, Applejack started running back towards the town, knowing that she would hear about this from Big Macintosh later on.
----»«----
Twilight was starting to grow nervous. Rainbow had returned, but Applejack was nowhere to be seen. Of course the fillies slowed her down a little, but she should have been back by now.
Trotting around in circles, Twilight began to count seconds.
After she had reached a good three hundred, Applejack finally returned. The look on her face and the slight panting told everything necessary.
“It’s okay AJ. I know those three can be annoying when they get on that mood,” she comforted the orange mare, getting a “thank you” look in return.
Now that everyone was present, Twilight could start her speech.
“So, Rainbow came from her scouting mission and she saw nothing. Nothing unusual. But nothing usual either. Dash, could you tell them?”
“It was like all the animals were gone! Nothing was moving. It was almost scary to see the forest that silent and still,” Rainbow explained.
“But that’s not a bad thing. It will be easier to search if the animals are hiding,” she quickly added, trying to cover the s-word she had said.
“So, we probably should be heading there now as the moon is still giving us some light,” said Twilight and started leading the small group towards the edge of the forest.
----»«----
It was well past bedtime, but the three friends were still awake. They couldn’t sleep for some strange reason.
Earlier that evening Scootaloo had realized why they were here. The older ones had dumped them here so they could go and have amazing adventures on their own and the fillies thought that it was unfair.
The atmosphere of the room was waiting. Two of the fillies were waiting for the orange one to say it, and the orange one was waiting for the right moment to say it. It was unavoidable.
“It’s not fair,” came the words that released the pressure. “We should be allowed to go too. We’re big enough…”
“So what are we going to do?” asked another voice. The answer was obvious. All three knew it already. But they were waiting for the brave one to say it.
“We’re going there.”
That being said, all three jumped out of the bed. The best way to get out unnoticed was to climb out of the window. In order to do that, the window had to be opened. Two gazes shifted towards the orange one.
“All right I’ll do it.” Was the answer to the gazes. Scootaloo moved to the window and opened it. Obviously she would have to go first.
She carefully reached out of the window and performed an agile jump in order to get to the roof. She then helped the two not-so-agile ones to get there.
Getting down from the roof was the hardest part. But there was nothing these three couldn’t overcome. After a few minutes they had tied their capes together to form a long rope and climbed down to the ground.
Just a quick look at their flanks and a slightly disappointed sigh and they were ready to go help the older ones.
Chapter Two: The Suspicions
The entrance of the forest was dark and scary, just as it always was. The three fillies stood there, observing the scenery in front of them.
“Where do you think they went?” asked Sweetie Belle. “I don’t see any tracks.”
“Don’t look at me, ah don’t know,” answered Apple Bloom.
Slowly the eyes of the two started wandering towards Scootaloo.
“Ugh, I’ll try my best,” she answered to the gazes.
And the three started the quest of finding the rescue-group.
----»«----
The woods were thick and despite her best efforts, Twilight couldn’t get any data from the surroundings. Her spell wasn’t designed for this.
She stopped the usage of the spell in order to save energy. It was going to be a long night and she had to make desperate things to shorten it up at least by a bit.
“Okay everypony, I have bad news. My spell won’t work here. So, we’ll have to find the filly by traditional ways. And in order to make this faster, we’re splitting up into groups of two.”
Everyone agreed with her. Even Fluttershy, if you take a scared “eep” as a “yes”.
“So, the groups are the following. Applejack, you’re with me. Rainbow, you’re with Pinkie. And Fluttershy, you’re with Rarity.”
Everyone seemed to approve their fate.
“Okay, let’s be on our ways then,” she said and every group began walking to a different direction.
----»«----
The forest seemed to be darker and colder this night. Everything had been dipped into a can of cold, black paint and taken out to dry on the dim moonlight that was hardly making its way through the thick leaves of the dark, twisted trees.
It was almost lyrical.
But the three had not come here admire the dark and scary forest. They had a way more important mission.
Scootaloo, being the best tracker of the group, was leading them deeper into the forest. She had found some hoofprints near the “main entrance”, so she had started following them and the other two had started following her.
And they were making progress. They could hear the hoofsteps in front of them. But just when they thought that they had found the others, the tracks split up into four directions.
But being a master tracker, Scootaloo could see that the ones that turned to the left were the freshest, so she started following them. The hunt was on.
But in the dark she couldn’t see that the tracks were bigger and not actually hoof-shaped.
----»«----
It had been an hour, and nothing had happened. A pony like Rainbow Dash would get bored from less. So it was very understandable that she was flying around in loops in order to have something to do. The cold night wind making its way through her mane had the ability to ease her mind a little.
The company could have been worse, though. Pinkie was one of her very best friends. They seemed to understand each other better than anyone else.
And of course Pinkie was fun. She always made Rainbow laugh.
Rainbow let out a small sigh, allowing her thoughts to wander.
Big mistake. She almost immediately managed to bump into a tree, causing her to get a slightest bit shocked, and let out a somewhat not-her-style scream.
And her friend found this very amusing, of course. Soon the silence was gone and Pinkie was giggling out loud in the middle of the Everfree forest.
Rainbow didn’t like this. She was starting to feel a little embarrassed, even though there was no-one else nearby.
“Pinkie, stop. You’re drawing attention,” she said, trying to end the stream of high-pitched giggles.
“No I’m not silly. We’re alone!” Pinkie managed to say before bursting out to giggles once again.
Rainbow just groaned and decided to wait for her friend to get hold of herself. Pinkie was right. They were alone. The others were in the forest, yes, but nowhere near. That helped her to ease her mind.
Yet she was wrong. They had a silent audience of one, looking at them from the darkest spot of the surroundings.
----»«----
Twilight had chosen the thickest path for a reason. It would lead towards the hut of a certain zebra. And that certain zebra knew a lot about the forest and its occupants.
Maybe Zecora could even help them to look for the filly. Twilight had her hopes high.
But when they arrived at Zecora’s hut, they found it dark. After a quick peek in the window they were quite sure that Zecora was not home.
But where would a zebra go in the late hours of night?
Provided with no answers, the pair decided to go in.
The door was locked, of course. But the window was slightly open, like they were invited in. And a polite pony never turns an invitation down.
So Twilight slowly pushed the window more open with her hoof until she could get a hold of it with her magic.
The very next moment the window came down. It crashed to the ground, causing shards to fly everywhere.
“Oops…”
Applejack gave her a nasty, yet understanding look.
“Uhh… Try to avoid the shards,” advised Twilight.
Applejack answered by pulling a shard out of her right side. It had hit it with power and gotten stuck.
“Sorry,” apologized Twilight. To save her friend from the evil army of shards that was waiting in front of her she took Applejack in the grip of her magic and levitated her over the shards and into the hut.
Twilight then followed, tying to swiftly jump in through the window, calculating the power of the jump completely wrong, tripping to the windowsill and faceplanting right in front of Applejack.
Applejack did her best to hold the laughter back, but it was unbelievably hard. The sight of her friend lying on the ground after a nice faceplant was just too amusing.
When Twilight finally managed to sit up, Applejack was almost losing it. And Twilight could see this, judging by the nice shade of red that was spreading up her muzzle.
Applejack straightened her left forehoof and helped her friend up, still having hard time not to laugh.
Twilight grabbed her friend’s hoof and let Applejack pull her up.
“Okay. That didn’t happen. It’s our little secret. Deal?” Twilight mumbled, the same red shade still occupying her muzzle.
“Sure thing, sugarcube. You have my word,” answered Applejack. This managed to ease Twilight’s mind.
“Okay, let’s see. Zecora usually has something helpful here. But what could be helpful now?”
“Uh, Twi? I think you should come and see this,” said Applejack who was standing next to a table, observing the contents of it.
“What is it?” Twilight asked as she came towards the table.
“Uh, I think it’s a book,” Applejack answered, and wandered off to examine the contents of a nearby shelf.
The thing on the table was obviously a book. But Twilight had never seen any book like this one. It had no title. Just a strange symbol carved into the covers.
Twilight slowly opened the book, revealing the first page. And what she saw was not pretty.
The page was soaked in blood. In the middle of the page she could see the same symbol again. But the strange thing was that the symbol had no blood on it. It was pure white, creating a clear borderline against the rest of the blood-soaked page.
She quickly turned to the next page. This one was clear of blood. It looked very old instead. And the content remained disturbing.
It had the word “no” written to it twelve times. Twilight found this odd. The book wasn’t making too much sense.
Out of curiosity she switched to the next page. But the text got no better.
The page looked just like the earlier one. But the contents were different.
“Always Watches.” “No Eyes.”
Twilight quickly scrolled through the other pages, but the style did not change. Just the text. She came over to such disturbing notes as “Don’t look or it takes you.” or “Can’t Run.”
The two final pages had gotten stuck together. The top one had a simple plea “Help me.”
Twilight carefully tried to get the two final pages apart. It was difficult, but she was a librarian after all. She knew how to deal with tricky cases.
But when she finally succeeded, she immediately started hoping that she wouldn’t have even tried.
The final page had a picture of a slender, black figure. Just looking at it gave Twilight chills.
She quickly closed the book, threw it on the table, and began running towards the window.
“Let’s go AJ, we have wasted enough time.”
The orange mare just shrugged and followed her pair.
When they got out, Twilight immediately began galloping towards the path they had come from.
Applejack didn’t get her behavior. Was she scared of something?
And suddenly the air felt colder and heavier. It was playing around in her back, sending chills through her body.
As she quickly trotted away, their silent, tall quest disappeared from the other room of the hut.
----»«----
Rarity disliked this very forest for many reasons. Most of them had something to do with her look, but there were some that related to pure fear.
And her pair sure wasn’t helping. Fluttershy was constantly hiding behind her tail, getting it all dirty and messy. In addition, Fluttershy’s fear seemed to slowly start taking Rarity over.
As if that wouldn’t be enough, the occasional sounds from the surrounding made the situation even worse.
But they couldn’t leave. They were supposed to do their job, no matter how scary it was going to be.
So they kept on going, slowly and carefully, not letting their eyes slip off of the surrounding woods.
----»«----
They were near. Scootaloo could feel it. She had managed to track the grown-ups down. She waited for the two others to catch her up and pointed towards the large opening.
“They must be there. The tracks end here and I can hear noises,” she said to the others who immediately got cheered up a little.
“Now let’s surprise them. We’ll sneak up on whoever it is and scare him or her as badly as possible,” Scootaloo said, wearing a devilish grin. For her big surprise, the two others agreed.
“Well, let’s go,” she said. But nothing happened.
“Ugh… Okay, I’ll go first,” she added and carefully made her way into the opening.
The thing that was standing on the other side was no pony at all. Scootaloo had never seen anything like it. It looked like it was standing on two hooves. But that was impossible. No creature that big could stand on just two.
She was getting curious. What was on the other side was something new. Something totally unusual. She was starting to think what an exotic animal expert cutie mark would look like.
She kept on walking straight towards the thing, careful not to make any sound. She was halfway there and still unnoticed.
But for some strange reason she turned her head to see if her friends were following.
And the worst possible thing happened.
She stepped on a twig and it snapped in two, letting out a loud crack.
The thing immediately turned towards her. And for some reason Scootaloo couldn’t take her eyes off its face. She wanted to, but she couldn't.
Then the second worst possible thing happened. Her friends jumped out from the bush.
The creature immediately shifted its gaze to the two and all of a sudden the two were frozen on spot, the look of sheer terror on their faces.
Suddenly Scootaloo was able to move again. But she was not able to think straight. So she did the first thing her brains told her to.
She lifted her hind legs up and bucked the creature as hard as she could.
But it was no use.
Just as her hooves connected with the leg of the creature, she felt the strongest pain she had ever felt. It was consuming her leg, causing her to fall to the ground, tears forming in her eyes.
“Run! Save yourselves!” She tried to shout to the two others, but they didn’t seem to listen. They were too busy staring at the creature.
And all of a sudden the creature attacked.
The only thing that could be heard was the faint scream of a filly, soon covered by the howling of the cold night wind.
Chapter Three: The Consequences
“Wait. I heard something.”
Twilight shifted her gaze towards her pair.
“It was just the wind, Applejack. Let’s keep going. We need to find that filly as soon as possible,” she said to the orange mare.
Applejack said nothing to answer. She just kept on walking. But the thoughts of the two were the same:
´Hopefully that filly is still all right.´
But neither one knew that they had no hope.
----»«----
“Dash, how long do we have to walk?”
Rainbow looked at her pair who just had repeated the same question for the tenth time.
“For the last time Pinkie, I don’t know!” she answered in a slightly annoyed tone.
“Okey-dokey-lokey!” was the answer she got.
They just kept on walking. They couldn’t stop. They had to find that filly and they had to get out of here.
“Uh, Dash?” asked Pinkie. A slight nervousness could be heard in her voice.
“What?” asked Rainbow, keeping the same tone.
“What’s tall, black, has no face, and walks on two hooves?”
“I don’t kn… What?”
Pinkie pointed towards the horizon, a horrified look on her face.
Dash slowly shifted her gaze towards the spot Pinkie was pointing at.
“What? There is nothing there…”
“Look closer,” said Pinkie. “I’m sure I saw it.”
Rainbow tried her best to zoom to the point where Pinkie had pointed, but she still couldn’t see anything. She was just about the turn around and keep on walking when she felt someone touch her shoulder.
“Boo!”
Rainbow completely freaked out. She let out a high-pitched scream, and jumped high in the air.
It was only when she heard rather familiar giggles that she realized what had happened.
“Pinkie!” She tried to protest, but it was unbelievably hard to speak to the pink party pony when she was giggling.
“Ugh, let’s just go already. And don’t you do that again. I want you to Pinkie promise here and now.”
Suddenly the giggling stopped and Pinkie performed her ritual. And when it was over, Rainbow felt a lot better. No incoming pranks would mean that she could ease her mind.
They kept going forward, completely unaware of the dark figure that was now in the very spot where Pinkie had pointed.
----»«----
“Eep!”
´What now?´ Rarity thought to herself.
“What is it dear?” she asked.
“I-I saw a b-black f-figure over t-there,” said Fluttershy, pointing towards the edge of the path they were on.
“Oh it must have been just a tree. Don’t worry. Nothing is going to hurt us,” said Rarity, trying to comfort her friend.
“Oh. Well, if you say so,” answered the timid one.
“Let’s keep on going. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. My hooves are killing me, and this place is all black and icky,” Rarity complained and kept on walking.
Fluttershy had no options. She couldn’t get behind. Rarity was her only support. She couldn’t do this alone.
And just as she left, a black figure appeared from the depths of the forest behind them.
----»«----
“Wait. There is an opening. Straight ahead.”
Applejack shifted her gaze back to Twilight.
“Are ya sure? Ah wouldn’t like to git lost in here,” she answered.
“Yes, I’m sure. This map is the most update copy of the forest. It covers almost 40% of it,” said Twilight. She didn’t like it when someone doubted her map-reading skills.
“All right, let’s go that way then,” said Applejack and began heading back to Twilight.
They then took the path that was supposed to lead them into the opening.
And just few hundred feet to their left a dark figure was looking to the very opposite direction.
----»«----
Rainbow was the first to enter the opening. It was well lit thanks to Luna’s moon, and relatively safe. So she decided that they would take a little break.
“Hey Pinkie, how about a break?” she asked from her pair.
“Okay,” was the simple answer from Pinkie.
´Phew! Finally! ´ thought Rainbow.
And all of a sudden Pinkie pulled a picnic-basket filled with cupcakes from Celestia-knows-where.
“You want one?” she asked, offering a sugary treat to Rainbow.
“Sure. Thanks,” answered Rainbow and took the cupcake from her friend.
And there they were, sitting in the middle of The Everfree Forest, having a picnic in the late hours of the night. And it couldn’t have been better.
Rainbow turned towards the basket in hopes of getting another one of Pinkie’s delicious cupcakes.
And just at the same moment Pinkie turned towards Rainbow in order to give Rainbow another cupcake.
And when their gazes met, reality was suddenly a far less important thing.
They just stared into each other’s eyes for what felt like an eternity, and neither one wanted it to end.
But everything good has to end eventually. The ender of this one magical moment was Twilight.
“Ahem. Rainbow? Pinkie?”
Both immediately snapped their gazes towards the source of the sound.
“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said when she realized what she had done. “But what are you two doing here? How did you know how to come here?”
“It’s simple, really. We just walked down the path and it led us here,” answered Pinkie, seeing that Rainbow was still speechless from their little moment.
“Wait, the path led here? That can’t be right. Only a single path is supposed to lead here…”
And just at the very same moment Rarity and Fluttershy stumbled out of the forest.
“My, everypony seems to be here already. Finally a pleasant surprise.”
Fluttershy gave a simple nod from behind Rarity, indicating that she completely agreed.
“Okay, now as we are all here, we should plan what to do next. We won’t find anything in the nighttime,” said Twilight, receiving agreeing mumbling from her friends.
“I’d say that we head back home. It’s much easier to look for someone when it’s daytime and this place is well lit. Does everypony agree with me?”
The group agreed yet again.
“Well, let’s get goi-”
Twilight stopped speaking when she noticed the dark figure in the edge of the opening.
Everyone turned to look towards the place Twilight was looking at in order to find out what had caused this pause.
The thing would have stared back if it would have had eyes. But the face was all blank and white, and just looking at it made them feel uneasy.
The body was no better. It was tall and slim, taller in the vertical direction instead of the horizontal. No-one had ever seen any creature with a body like that.
Out of its back were pointing out long, thick tentacle-like things that were moving and stretching like they would be made out of rubber. And as of a warning of their incredible hazardousness, one hit a tree that was behind the creature, easily cutting through the thick bark.
It appeared to have a black skin with a small white and red dot near its head. And the black just kept going. Its legs were all black. Even the tentacles were black.
And the most disturbing thing? It was moving towards them.
“Everypony… RUN!” Twilight commanded.
Five ponies immediately dashed into different directions. But one stayed in the spot. A certain cyan Pegasus.
“Rainbow, you’ve got to come!” shouted Twilight. She had stopped a few hundred feet away from the opening.
“No. You go. I’ll hold it off.”
Twilight knew that she couldn’t get Rainbow to come. So she just nodded, and kept on running, whispering a small “thank you” towards her friend.
----»«----
Pinkie had also stopped. Rainbow was still there and she couldn’t leave her best friend.
Pinkie turned back to face the opening and began running towards the cyan dot in the horizon.
----»«----
Rainbow was ready to charge. This thing might be big and all, but there was no living creature that couldn’t feel pain.
She waited for the perfect moment, licked her lips, and charged.
And everything went wrong.
When she touched the creature, she felt an incredibly sharp pain navigate its way through her left forehoof.
Ignoring the pain, she tried to buck the creature. No use. Now the pain was in her both rear hooves too.
She had no escape. She couldn’t even get up. She was completely defenseless.
She was just ready to take the final blow when she felt a sudden warmth on her side.
She opened her eyes and saw Pinkie on the ground, pressing tightly against her.
“I’ll never leave you,” said the pink pony, tears forming up in her eyes.
“Never.”
And not even a single scream could be heard.
----»«----
Twilight was running as fast as she could. She successfully dodged every tree and root, as tripping would be fatal.
She just hoped that her friends were doing the same. They would get out of here. And they would get out of here alive.
And when they’d get out of the forest, they’d go get Princess Celestia.
And when they’d get Princess Celestia, she would come and destroy that creature. Twilight was sure about that.
Twilight chuckled to herself, a sudden wave of warmth embracing her in its tight yet so comfortable grip.
In the dark there was no-one to see the somewhat twisted look she had on her face.
----»«----
Fluttershy ran. Nothing else mattered. She just had to make it out.
But running can be hard if you can’t see where you run. And the tears in her eyes didn’t make it better. She was just jumping randomly, hoping not to stumble.
And then she did the biggest mistake she could. She stopped and looked back to see if any of her friends were following.
Only a few feet behind her was a black figure. It was staring right into her eyes. At least that’s what Fluttershy thought. It was hard to say.
She tried to turn and keep on running, but her feet refused. She couldn’t move. She was doomed.
The creature was slowly coming closer, prolonging her suffer.
And when the horrifying the creature lowered its head to the level of hers, observing the face of the small mare, she let out the most heart-rending scream.
And that scream took over every inch of the forest, informing the remaining residents that their numbers had decreased by one.
----»«----
Rarity had recognized the source of the scream immediately. Her best friend was gone. She felt the feeling take her over, making her let out quiet sobs. She didn’t care anymore.
She just stood. Stood waiting for the unavoidable. And when the unavoidable came, she welcomed it.
She knew the creature was right behind her. But she didn’t try anything. She knew that revenge or fighting would not work against this thing. It was a hunter.
And when she felt the figure get closer, she turned around, looked straight into its face, tried her best to remain calm, and simply said:
“I’m ready.”
For her slight surprise the creature didn’t show any kind of emotion when she said that. It just stood there observing her, tentacles moving behind its back.
But it wasn’t for long. It soon grew bored to trying to break her. It reached one of its tentacles out, and let it smoothly slide down her back, leaving an incredibly cold feeling to the spots it had touched.
And then, without a warning, it made the final strike.
And even though Rarity had already given up, she couldn’t keep the small scream inside her.
With her last remaining powers she managed to whisper a silent “thank you” to the creature.
----»«----
Applejack was panting hard. She had never ran this fast. And yet, it wasn’t fast enough.
She had heard the screams. She knew that she couldn’t avoid the creature. It was too fast.
But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t try.
Forcing her hooves to increase the speed, she took the path that was supposed to lead home.
Big mistake.
After only a few hundred feet, she saw the creature. It was standing in the middle of the path, looking towards her. As Applejack looked towards it, her vision started to blur and her eyes began to hurt.
She quickly turned around and started running back into the forest.
But that was no use. Suddenly it was there, blocking her path again.
Wherever she would go, it would block her path, slowly but surely decreasing the distance between itself and the orange mare. It was just playing its little game with her.
So the only option was to fight it.
She ran left, hoping to lure the creature to a suitable place. And when she saw it on the path again, she didn’t turn. She charged towards it at full pace.
For her surprise, the creature just stood there. It was making no move to dodge her. ´This will be easy´ she thought to herself, keeping the same pace.
But she didn’t see the slightly moving tentacle that was waiting for the right moment.
And just when she had almost reached the creature, the tentacle got launched towards her.
Surprised by this sudden attack, Applejack tried to stop and dodge it, but managed to stumble on her own hooves.
Just as she painfully landed, the tentacle hit the ground only inches away from her head, leaving a cloud of dust and a small hole to the cold ground.
Applejack tried to move, but the landing had been hard. The pain she felt inside her was horrifying. Her left side hurt the most, hinting of a broken rib. She was doomed.
She was basically lying there in the front of the creature, waiting for it to take her. But it wasn’t going to do it anytime soon.
No, the creature had time. It looked at Applejack’s painful squirming, doing nothing to speed things up. It was just enjoying the little show.
But every show has to end. And as this one ended, the creature just disappeared, leaving only a small hole to the scenery.
----»«----
Twilight had heard the screams. At least two down.
And according to her fast calculations, the chances of Rainbow and either Pinkie or Applejack surviving were really slim.
So the most likely case was that she and either Pinkie or Applejack were still alive.
But she had a plan. If the creature wouldn’t get her before she got out of the forest, she would be safe.
And when she’d get out of the forest she would inform Princess Celestia right away.
And then the Princess would come and destroy the creature. And she would bring her friends back, too!
Chuckling to herself, Twilight kept on going as fast as she could.
And just a few minutes later she saw it. The creature was standing on the edge of the forest, blocking the easiest escape.
But she couldn’t give up now. She was so close.
Twilight turned to the left, and dashed into the dense forest.
But the creature was there too. Running was no use. Wherever she turned, the creature would appear.
And now it was slowly making its way towards her. The sound of its tentacles tearing the tall trees out of its way echoed in the air. Twilight was obviously starting to panic.
And when a unicorn with the talents of Twilight starts to panic, things start to happen.
The brains send an alarm message through the body. This prepares the unicorn for the upcoming.
Then the magic of the unicorn gets triggered on, causing a powerful spell to complete itself. The chosen spell is what the brains find to be the most suitable for the situation
In this case, it was a simple teleportation spell to the closest safe location.
In a bright flash the unicorn was gone, leaving a blank-faced humanoid standing alone in the silent forest.
----»«----
Twilight had no idea what had just happened. First she had been in the forest and the very next second she was home.
But the only thing that mattered was that she was safe. No resident of the Everfree could come out of the forest.
But she knew that she still needed to inform the Princess immediately.
She ran into her bedroom, grabbed a scroll and a quill from the nightstand and began writing.
The letter was pretty simple:
Dear Princess Celestia.
I need you help immediately!
Some horrible creature is in the Everfree Forest and it took my friends!
- Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
Sending it was a bit harder. Spike was seeing an old friend in Canterlot and there was no spell she knew, save for the magical fire-breath of Spike, to send a letter.
But a familiar hoot gave her the solution.
After she had tied the letter into the leg of Owlowiscious and ordered him to take it to the Princess, she had completed the number two on her mental checklist.
But the hardest part was ahead. Waiting.
----»«----
Princess Celestia was in the throne room, just relaxing and enjoying a nice cup of tea when she suddenly heard a hoot from come from the window.
She put the tea down on the small desk she had moved into the room and went to open the window. As she swung the small window open, Twilight’s pet owl dashed in with a scroll tied to its leg.
Celestia straightened her right forehoof and let the owl land on it. She then carefully untied the scroll from the owl’s leg with her magic.
When the scroll finally came loose, she let the owl fly over to the throne to get some rest. It had had a long trip.
Celestia opened the scroll and began reading.
----»«----
The letter was obviously a prank. And Twilight was a horrible prankster.
Celestia folded the scroll into a small paper airplane and threw it towards the trashcan, correcting its course when it was about to hit the floor too early.
“Did she really think I’d fall for that? I’m an eternal Alicorn goddess! I’ve been here since Equestria was made! And I have a little sister. I know everything about pranks. And she thinks I’d go for an old one like that.”
She got a small hoot as an answer.
“And what if I would have gone there? Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie jump from somewhere and try and scare me. Not going to happen!”
Again a small hoot.
“Actually, I think I could send then all to the moon for, like, a day. They would learn a valuable lesson: Never try to prank the Princess.”
This time the answer was two hoots instead of one.
“Oh come on! I’m an eternal being. Can’t I have a little fun? I mean, I’d even give them extra oxygen. And it would be just for a single day.”
Yet again a single hoot.
“All right, I’ll do it next week. And you better not slip any of this to them. It must be a surprise.”
A single hoot and the owl was on its way back.
“This is going to be so good,” Celestia said, chuckling to herself.
----»«----
Twilight wasn’t feeling very patient right now. And when the minutes kept on rolling with no answer, she decided to go do something else to make the time pass faster.
The only thing to come in her mind was to go brush her mane. It was still in simply horrible condition thanks to the running in the thick woods.
So she grabbed the brush from her nightstand and went to the bathroom.
She lit up the bathroom lamp, positioned herself in front of the mirror, grabbed the brush into her magical grip and started brushing.
The brushing even managed to make her relax a little. But not enough to stop worrying. It was taking awfully long for the princess to respond.
Suddenly she noticed a slight blur in the corner of the mirror. And the longer she stared at it, the larger the blur grew, forming up a clear symbol.
She quickly turned around in order to stop the blurring that was consuming her vision.
And there it was. A tall slender creature was standing right in front of her.
And if it would have had a mouth, it would have been wearing a grin even Pinkie would have envied.
The last thing Twilight saw was the symbol, telling her that all hope was lost. Her hope, her friends’ hope, Equestria’s hope.
