The Everfree forest.

A mysterious place outside Ponyville, a place many ponies avoid. It is home to many wild creatures that are capable of taking care of themselves instinctively, without the need of pony aid. The plants also grow wildly, and the weather naturally occurs without pegasi aid either. How the forest does all this is unknown, and feared to Equestrian ponies and is considered unnatural by them. The forest is also notoriously known for monsters. Monsters are regarded differently, and separate from animals entirely and in a sense abominations.

The snow here fell as it pleased, and Twilight could not help but wonder why anypony would live out here? She looked over at Applejack, who was currently leading them further and further into the forest. She seemed calm, like if she had made this trip at least a hundred times. Unlike Twilight and the rest, she was completely calm, didn't flinch at any sound, or looked around nervously. No, she knew exactly which path to take.

"Oh dear, I knew he lived in the Everfree." Said Rarity, sounding nervous. "But does he really need to live so deep within the forest?"

"Nicholas likes the forest, and the peace. Besides, the elves are more comfortable out here." Applejack explained, still not looking uncomfortable one bit.

"Wait, so there are really elves?" Rainbow asked.

Applejack nodded, though glanced back at her cyan colored friend with a raised eyebrow. "You know that already."

Rainbow just shrugged. "Yeah, well, you're the only one who has ever seen them."

"I hope they're cute.." Fluttershy mumbled.

"Oh, they're cute alright." Applejack said, a hint of warning and slight amusement in her tone. "But they're also very fond of mischief."

"Mischief?" Twilight repeated, "how do you mean?"

"Well, when bored they like to play small pranks. Nothing dangerous, but it can be a nuisance." Applejack explained, then thought about it for a moment. "Like, do you remember that time your milk turned sour?" Twilight did remember that, very clearly in fact. She had been very puzzled about it, because she had just bought it the other day. She nodded, and Applejack smirked. "That was elf magic."

"Bwahaha! That sounds awesome!" Rainbow laughed, Pinkie joined in, laughing as well.

"What else have they done?" Pinkie asked excitedly.

"Hmm, well..." Applejack hummed. "Oh! Do you remember that time the newspapers didn't make sense? Like the letters on the paper had changed to spell out naughty words?"

"That was them?!" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief. "How powerful are they?"

"Not much, compared to unicorn magic they're not as strong. Nicholas can explain it better than I can." Applejack reassured Twilight, then decided to reassure the rest, mainly Fluttershy. "But they're not bad, they just like to play small pranks now and again."

Pinkie laughed, and squealed. "Like me and Dashie!"

Applejack chuckled. "They do softer pranks, sugarcube. Now get ya flanks moving, we'll be there soon enough."

They were farther into the Everfree than any of them had ever been before, unlike Applejack, none of the others had ever dared venturing so deep into these woods. Still, after having followed the path Applejack seemed to know, Twilight was struck by the strange calmness of this place.

When Twilight or the others pictured the Everfree, they saw a spooky dark and unnatural place. Filled with monsters, scary sounds and strange smells. However that was not what they saw here. Maybe it was because of the snow, but the whole forest seemed calm, like it had gone into a deep slumber, and with all its dangers gone. They hadn't heard one growl, or seen any monster.

The woods just looked serene, almost beautiful..

Suddenly Applejack stopped, and so did the others, not daring take another step without Applejack. Her ears flicked about, as if listening for something. The wind moved through the trees, sending the loose layer of new fallen snow flying across the landscape like waves on the ocean.

Twilight lowered her head, as if trying to remain out of sight to some monster. Then in a low whisper, she asked. "Applejack, is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Applejack looked at Twilight, then raised an eyebrow. "Nothing is wrong." She assured her, speaking normally. "This part can be a bit tricky though, with all the snow and such. Why don't you girls wait here, and I'll make sure we're on the right track."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, I mean, maybe we should follow you?" Twilight asked, taking a step towards Applejack.

She however just shook her head. "It will just take a minute, don't ya worry sugarcube." Applejack trotted away, and soon enough vanished from view behind some bushes and trees.

The group left behind seemed to gather a little closer, as if trying to protect one another against something. Pinkie seemed less nervous. "I wonder how his place will look, maybe a giant cookie tower? Nicki loves cookies after all!"

"I don't think so, Pinkie." Twilight said, looking at her pink friend with an amused expression. "If what you guys have told me is true, then he would need a workshop to create these toys. Not to mention a place for him to sleep, house these so called elves, and a place to store these toys. It will most likely be like a farm, just like Sweet Apple Acres."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Rainbow agreed, though Twilight suspected she was only listening with half an ear as her eyes kept flicking from place to place.

"I hope we won't be intruding, there isn't that long until Hearth's Warming Eve, he must be so busy." Fluttershy put in, looking rather nervous, more so than the others. Still, she too was interested in seeing how Nicholas lived, sadly they did not see him as much as they wanted to.

"Oooooh, look at this, I found a smoking tree stump!" Pinkie called, having trotted away from the group.

Twilight looked over, an eyebrow raised. "Pinkie, tree stumps can't release smoke or steam." Well, it was the Everfree, so maybe they could?

"And look how bouncy and soft the ground is over here!" Pinkie continued as if having not heard Twilight at all. "Wheeee!"

The others turned to her, trotting over as they rather wanted to stay in a group. As they came closer, they saw that indeed a tree stump was releasing thin white smoke, as if it was a smokestack. Twilight tilted her head, trotting a bit closer to it. "That's strange, that should not be possible."

"Uhm, Twilight? Hate to break it to you." Rainbow said, landing beside Fluttershy on this strange ground, that did indeed move up and down as Pinkie bounced around. "But this is the Everfree forest, I don't think anything is supposed to make sense in here."

"It is all weird and strange, and bouncy!" Pinkie laughed and kept bouncing up and down.

Twilight turned around, feeling how the ground beneath her moved under her like if there was nothing beneath the ground she stood on. She suddenly got a bad feeling about this, and as Twilight trotted closer to her friends to share her worries, something could be heard cracking beneath them. "Girls, I don't think we should be standing right h-Whooaaahh!!"

All of them let out a scream as the ground beneath them suddenly seemed to collapse under their weight. The fall was not long, only about three meters, give or take. They felt branches, snow and dirt follow them down as they landed in a bundle together on this new ground that seemed much more sturdy.

Already a wave of warmth hit them all, like if they had just stepped inside a house after spending time outside in the cold. Not surprisingly, they were all a bit confused and tried to get a sense of what had just happened.

"Oww.."

"Hey, someone is sitting on my wing!"

"Whoops! That's me, sorry Dashie!"

Twilight managed to get out of the pile of ponies they had made, and shook her body to get the snow and dirt off her. Once done, she noticed how dimly lit this room was. Looking up, she could tell that her suspicions were right, they had been standing on a thin roof made out of planks and branches. The snow had covered it up, so to them it just looked like a small hill.

"Where are we?" Rarity asked, having managed to get free from the pile as well, and was not frantically trying to get her mane back in order.

Rarity was followed by Fluttershy, who seemed to try and make herself look as small as possible. "Oh no, have we broken somepony's home?"

Back in the pile was only now Rainbow Dash, who was laying on the floor, and Pinkie Pie, who was sitting on top of her. "It looks like a wood shed!" Pinkie exclaimed, and looking around, the others could see a lot of firewood had been pulled up alongside the walls.

"Pinkie.." Rainbow said from below her.

Pinkie looked at her friend. "Yeah?"

"CAN YOU GET OFF ME NOW?!" Rainbow yelled angrily, but the rest quickly brought their hooves in front of their snouts and shushed her.

"Shhhhh! We don't want anypony to hear us." Twilight whispered, looking around.

"Huh, why?" Rainbow asked, tilting her head. "It's not like we did it on purpose." She pointed out, as she was finally able to get up.

"We don't know what we are dealing with yet." Twilight simply answered.

The room was clearly for firewood, all along the walls there were stacked wood. The walls were large planks, holding out the dirt, all being held in place by thick vertical wooden beams. On each beam was a small candle, some were lit, some were not, which was why it was so dark in here.

Looking up they could see the ceiling was still being worked on. In one end of the room the roof looked like it was made of logs and beams, while at the other end it was just a thin layer of branches and a few planks. At the end of the room, they could see light spreading across the floor from under the door. It meant there was another room, a place with more light since they could see the light so clearly.

Either Rainbow flew back up and flew them out one by one, or they tried the door. Twilight interest had already risen, so she was already trotting towards the door. Wanting to stick together as a group, the rest of her friends followed close behind her.

The closer they got to the door, the more they could hear. It sounded like hammers, small hoofsteps, saws sawing, and a whole lot else. The five friends looked amongst one another, as if checking one final time if they should really do this. When none of them protested, Twilight looked to the door, and slowly pushed it open. Just a little, she didn't want to be seen, but at the same time she wanted to see what was going on, and where they were.

To their amazement, the door led to a massive hall!

It had two levels, the ground floor had lots of tables, lots of hammers and saws going on, lots of woodwork happening, and painting. On the second level, which they were on, had more walkways to the side. Up here there were side rooms built into the walls on each side of the great workshop. One room seemed to be sewing, another room seemed to be wrapping toys up. One looked like a private post office, and the one next to that seemed to have a lot of springs, gears, and small mechanical parts.

Now all of these things did not happen by itself, everything that was being worked on happened because of the many workers moving around. They were small furry creatures, none of them had ever seen them before. They had long pointy ears, long tails, and mostly looked like cats in some ways. They were very small, maybe at their tallest they were just about the same height as Spike, but on average a little smaller.

Many of them wore small and simple outfits, some wore small tunics, dresses, or vests. The female creatures almost all seem to wear a dresses, some with small trousers, some without. The males wore tunics mostly, all with trousers and belts, some without.

There was a common thing though, all of them wore long pointy hats, every single one. Like their outfits, they all seemed unique. Some had a small bell at the end of their hat, others a cotton ball, or nothing at all. These little creatures all walked around, worked together to make toys, sort out mail, painting and wrapping.

Fluttershy leaned forward, her eyes as big as dinner plates. "Are those...?"

"Elves.." Rainbow finished, was just in much awe as her yellow friend.

"I can't see, let me see!" Pinkie declared, then jumped up on her friends.

"Whoaaa!! Pinkie!" They all got knocked off balance, and fell forward, slamming the door open in the process. It was like everything went still, and once the commotion was over, they all looked up to face the hundreds of elves staring at them in shock. Slowly they all started to approach the five ponies, none of them looked particularly happy to see them.

"Uhm, Twilight, darling, what are we going to do?" Rarity asked as the ponies started to sit up.

Twilight for a moment thought about running back inside the firewood shed, but they all soon discovered the little elves had all surrounded them. "I don't know!" Twilight admitted.

Rainbow scoffed. "I'll just fly and, what the?!" Just as she took off a lasso was thrown, catching Rainbow and pinning her wings to the side.

One of the bigger elves stepped forward and pointed at them. "Ionróirí!" He yelled, though none of the ponies understood what he said. As for the elves, they seemed to understand, and before any of them had a chance to protest or fight back, they were swarmed by hundreds of elves.

Applejack smiled as she trotted down the hallway, a white elf girl by the name of Mina sitting on her back, holding a tiny clipboard. She was the first elf Nicholas met, and had sort of become his second in command and his number one assistant. "I really appreciate this Mina. It's mighty kind of you to allow my friends to come in."

The little elf waved her off with her tiny hand. "Ná bíodh imní ort faoi, Applejack." The little elf replied. Applejack had spent enough time with Nicholas and the elves to understand the basics of their language, though she was nowhere near as fluent as Nicholas was.

"Well, thank you all the same." Applejack trotted towards a small door that would lead to the outside again. Her friends would be happy to get out of the cold and into the warmth of Nicholas's home.

Just before Applejack could reach it however, another elf came running after them, yelling at them to wait. Mina looked confused at the elf, and asked what was going on. "Cad atá ag tarlú?"

"Ionróirí! Tá ionróirí sa cheardlann!" The little elf replied frantically.

Mina gasped, and it took a few seconds before Applejack understood what he meant. "Invaders? What are you talking abou-oh.. Oh no.." Quickly she galloped back down the hallway, passing some elves who were in a panic.

Reaching the large double doors that let into the workshop, she burst through. "Girls?!" She called, and just as she suspected, she found all her friends in the middle of the workshop, surrounded by elves, tied up with wrapping paper and ribbons. They even had neat little bows tied around their muzzles, keeping them all quiet.

All of them called Applejack, trying to get her to help them, but their words were muffled. Their farmer friend sighed, shaking her head. "That's why I wanted you guys to wait.. Let me get the scissors.”

Author's Note

The first description of the forest is from Pony Fandom Wiki. I wanted to get the facts about it out of the way.

Also yes, the elves are speaking Irish, and sorry to any Irish if it looks all wrong, blame google translate. I tribble check to make sure it is as accurate as possible, but don't blame me if it still looks horrible.