The Forest of Kettle Mane

by Flutterpriest

Rating: teen
Tags: Roseluck, Thriller, Lily, Original Character, Horror, Anthology, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 5419

Deep within the forest of Kettle Mane, a compilation of pages from the Book of All Stories begins to surprise Fizzy Glitch with it's power.

Deep within the forest of Kettle Mane, a compilation of pages from the Book of All Stories begins to surprise Fizzy Glitch with it's power.

A story from Scattered Pages - Tales from the Book of All Stories -- A Limited Run book for Ponyville Ciderfest 2023

Art by Eighth

Published 2023-11-22 17:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2023-11-22 17:30:03 UTC

Scattered Pages

“You can fix anything but a Blank Page.” - Nora Roberts

With this many creatures searching for pages inside of the Book of All Stories, one of the best ways for Fizzy to hide was by being in plain sight. Today’s hiding spot? Right among the flower ponies of Ponyville.

The sun was going down as Roseluck flipped the sign at Flower Pony Florists to closed. Of course, a stallion just so happened to try to enter the store right as the door clicked into place. With a quick jab to the sign, Roseluck turned and grabbed the mop to begin cleaning up for the night.

Lily watched the scene with a smile. For a moment, you would have thought that this was an absolutely normal day for the employees of Ponyville’s signature flower shop. That is, until Lily looked into the dark corner of the store. Their new friend Fizzy was hunched over the pages that she’d been reading ever since she joined them this afternoon. She stared deeply into her ‘notebook’, flipping pages and examining its contents so closely, you’d think she was missing a pair of spectacles.

“Hey Fizzy,” Lily called out, “want some water or something?”

Fizzy didn’t even seem to react as Lily looked at Roseluck and gestured at their friend.

“She’s been like that since she got here,” Roseluck said as she cleaned the floor. “You could offer her a million bits and she wouldn’t even notice that you were actually holding ice cream.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s okay. I swear she’s been getting more obsessed with every turned page. I thought she’d relax by reading, not freak out more.”

Roseluck nodded and set aside her mop. She trotted over to Fizzy and sat down beside her.

“What are you reading, love?” she asked.

Fizzy snapped out of her trance and looked to her new friend.

“Just more stories about Pinkie Pie finding more Pinkie Pies that knew of other Pinkie Pies.”

She sighed before she continued.

“I keep thinking that I’ll find some sort of hint or clue in the stories I’m uncovering. Or maybe some way to manipulate time or locate them easier. Instead, all I’ve learned is that Baltimare Pinkie Pie settled down with Manehattan Pinkie Pie and now have an adopted family of yaks.”

She slammed a hoof on the table and rubbed her temples with her hooves.

“Well that’s fun,” Roseluck said. “But don’t you think at this point maybe you’ve--”

“Speaking of,” Fizzy continued. “I got this idea that maybe I should search the lands between generations of ponies. There’s gotta be some sort of story about Princess Twilight passing the torch to the next leaders that split the unicorns, pegasus, and earth ponies. I bet there we are gonna find a BUNCH of pages that could help restore the book.”

“Fizzy--” Lily said, setting down her things to join the table.

“I can go right at dawn. And then if I can search really quickly, I’ll still get back in time to get an hour of sleep before heading to the Dragon Lands.”

“Fizzy,” Roseluck said, placing a hoof on Fizzy. “Don’t you think at this point you’ve earned some sort of break?”

Fizzy looked incredulously at her new friends.

“A break?! There are agents of chaos and agents of evil out searching every day to try and get more pages than me. The book has to be restored. At any cost.”

A silence fell between the three of them.

“Listen, Fizzy,” Lily said. “If you don’t think they aren’t taking breaks from time to time, then you need to snap out of whatever dream you’re in.”

“No, see. I know they’re taking breaks,” Fizzy replied. “Which means that if I DON’T take breaks, then I can pull even further ahead. Then I can breathe a little bit more.”

“Yeah, but we just got done with work for the day. Heck, I’ve worked the last few weeks without a day off.” Lily said. “Plus, you look exhausted dear.”

Fizzy scowled and looked at Roseluck.

“Well you’re in for a vacation, aren't you? I’m sure Daisy can handle the store.”

Roseluck shifts uncomfortably in her seat and looks down into the table.

“Fizzy… If you spend all your time trying to study for something #BetweenThePages of your notebook, then you’re gonna miss out on all the things happening right in front of you.” said Roseluck. “It’s not healthy.”

Fizzy looked from Roseluck to Lily, then to the notebook.

“Just me, then…”

“Nope!” Lily exclaimed.

With one quick movement, Lily snatched the notebook and leapt from the table.

“What are you doing?” Fizzy asked, trying to push past Roseluck. “Where are you going with my notebook?!”

Lily moved behind the bar, pressed a button on the register and the cash drawer popped out.

“Protecting you from yourself.”

He took out the tray, threw in the notebook, and closed it tight.

“WHY?!” Fizzy yelled, fire beginning to move down her horn.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to go camping. And nopony is going to even THINK about pages, or books, or even FLOWERS. Got it?”

“Got it!” Roseluck said. “And I even got the trail mix that has cashews instead of almonds.”

“Ooooh! Nice job!” Lily replied.

It was a sunny day just outside of Kettle Mane national forest outside of Marewalkee and the three friends were trotting along towards the inner forest for their impromptu vacation. The short trip seemed to make Fizzy fidget relentlessly, but she insisted there wasn’t a problem. Or at least, not one she’d admit to. As Roseluck and Lily bantered back and forth as if it were any other day, Fizzy walked along staring straight ahead, her mind clearly in another place.

“What did you bring, Fizzy?” Roseluck asked.

“Sunscreen,” she said flatly. “And a fire extinguisher.”

“A fire extinguisher?” her friends asked in unison.

“Kirins don’t exactly do the best job of preventing forest fires. And then even if I don’t go all fire and brimstone, we need to make sure we don’t get sunburnt.”

“Can Kirin even get sunburnt?” Roseluck asks.

“Well I’m not breaking my streak today,” Fizzy said. “Besides, tomorrow when we go to search for more pages–”

“Can we PLEASE!” Lily interjects. “Not talk about the ookbay for like ten minutes? We’re on vacation. We all deserve a break, especially Fizzy.”

“You know what?” Roseluck said. “Why don’t we tell each other some stories from when we were young to pass the time? Surely you girls have some camping stories, right?”

“Nope,” Fizzy said flatly. “Most Kirins literally live in the forest, but I’m pretty content behind a computer screen. I didn’t even bring a GameKirin this time.”

“Well that’s a little sad,” Lily said. “I have a lot of stories. Especially campfire stories. That was always my favorite part of camping.”

“Mine too!” Roseluck added. “Did you guys ever hear the story of Slendermane?”

Lily and Roseluck looked at Fizzy gleefully.

“Well don’t let me stop you two from having fun,” Fizzy said as if she were offered a plate of leftover brussel sprouts.

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!”

“Alright,” Fizzy relented. “Let’s hear it.”

“Well I was just a little filly at camp when I first heard it. See, they say the Kettle Mane forest is filled with all sorts of mysterious creatures. Some from books of myth. Some only shared through stories from generation to generation. This is one of the latter. Slendermane, or Slender as some ponies call them, hides deep in the woods specifically for young ponies who are off and alone. Ponies who are in need of a friend.”

She giggled to herself and Lily nodded eagerly.

“I heard,” Lily interjected, “that originally it was the imaginary friend of a Princess from years and years ago. Before Celestia and Luna. That Princess didn’t have any sisters and made herself a friend. But one day, she left it alone in the forest that she played in. Since then, Slendermane is simply trying to find their new best friend to play with forever.”

“That’s another version!” Roseluck interjects. “Then usually you make up some filly that went missing a few years ago in the forest. And you describe the Slendermane as this long tall creature that can blend in almost perfectly with the trees and wears mostly black. Which, of course, spooks everypony because you’re surrounded by trees and the dark of night.”

“Devious,” Fizzy said. “And then at that point, somepony rustles the bushes and everypony screams?”

“Oh, not at all. See, you use that as a warmup story to something way more cutting like the Stallion with a Hook Hoof. But I will say that one year at camp, there was a timberwolf puppy that wanted to steal our campfire snacks and scared the ghosts out of us when she darted out of the bushes.”

Roseluck laughed to herself as she recalled the memory.

“Those were easier days.”

“Tell me about it,” Lily said. “The sooner we get all this nonsense with the pages done, the better.”

“Hey!” Fizzy retorted. “I thought you said no pages talk.”

“Oops…”

The girls laughed as the trail became enveloped by the branches of the forest above them. The light peered through the leaves in small streams that lit the dusty ground. The birds’ chirps echoed off each tree to make sound travel way farther than they felt it should. Each twig that cracked under the hoof pierced the air like a gunshot.

“You know, I got lost in these woods as a young filly,” Lily said.

“What?” the girls said almost in unison.

“How have you not told me this?” Roseluck said.

“I dunno. It never really came up. And after that time I took the time to learn how to use a compass and read a map so it would never happen again. So I was able to conquer my fear of the woods. Heck, it only happened because I got a prank letter to find my secret admirer in the woods. My friends got in big trouble after that one.”

“Some friends… Wait, do you see that?” Fizzy suddenly asked.

The other two looked where Fizzy was staring. Dangling from a branch as they walked by was a stick doll pony dangling from a tree.

“There’s another over there…” Roseluck added. “Wait, I think there’s a bunch of them.”

The three kept moving along the path, but now at a bit more of a trot than a walk.

“Why do you think there were so many?” Lily asked.

“Some sort of… local custom?” Fizzy suggested.

“It’s not like anything I’ve ever heard of,” Roseluck said. “It’s creepy.”

“Do you think it’s an offering to the Kettle Mane witch?” Lily suggested.

“Another scary story?” Fizzy asked.

“Yes,” Roseluck said sadly. “But not one that’s very fun. Kids used to get lost in this forest all the time. Lily’s experience was one with a happy ending. Not all of them had that. So the parents invented a scary story to keep young fillies and colts out of the woods at night. Now every time somepony goes missing, there’s always one nutjob that says we shouldn't search because of the witch.”

“It’s weird how some stories end up becoming myths and legends,” Lily added. “But hey! I think we’re here.”

A clearing opened up ahead of the three with a tall white tree rising up from the center of the lawn. The tree had seen much better days as it seemed almost dead, but the grass around the clearing made it look homey.

“Looks as good as any place to start making camp.” Roseluck said. “Let’s unpack.”

The ponies started taking off their packs and stretched their sore muscles.

“Hey Fizzy, could I get that sunscreen?” Lily asked.

“Of course, lemme just…”

Fizzy opened her pack, and right as it opened, Roseluck gasped. Fizzy starred in shock. Lily stomped up and snatched Fizzy’s notebook out of her satchel.

“How did you get this?” She demanded.

“I-I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t pack it. I swear.”

The next hour was dominated by the silence of the forest.

After Lily took the bundle of pages from Fizzy, nopony felt much like talking as they set up camp. When one would meet another’s eyes, they’d immediately look away in awkwardness.

Once the tent was raised, and Lily began to assemble a stone circle for a campfire, Fizzy decided to speak up.

“Guys, I really didn’t pack it.”

“Fizzy-” Lily said warningly.

“I’m serious,” she interrupted. “I don’t have the keys to the cash register. Only you and Roseluck do. And there was no time I could have gotten into the store.”

“I’ve already packed it away into my camping supplies. Nopony is going to touch it other than me.” Lily said, staring into the forest in a refusal to look at her. “Just drop it.”

“No, I won’t. We were finally beginning to relax and have a good time and now we’re all mad at each other. I. Did. Not. Bring. The. Notebook.”

“I believe you, Fizzy,” Roseluck said.

The other two looked at her in surprise.

“You do?” they asked in unison.

“Listen, the pages have been proving to us that they have more power than we understand,” she said. “Is teleporting itself really that far outside of the list of possibilities?”

Fizzy shook her head and Lily nodded intently.

“All I’m saying is that the minute we all turn on each other, the other factions win. I’m choosing to believe Fizzy. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. I don’t think she’d just go bananas and disregard our feelings.”

Lily sighed and looked intensely at Roseluck. Her face was wracked with indecision, but understanding. When she finally looked at Fizzy, Her face was sullen.

“Fizzy. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“We’re all tired,” Roseluck said before Fizzy could respond. “We’ve been searching for pages non stop and it’s taken a toll on all of us.”

Fizzy walked up to Lily and wrapped her in a big hug.

“I understand. Water under the bridge.”

Lily embraced her tightly, then released.

“Well! Now how about we get some firewood so we can cook dinner?” Roseluck said cheerfully.

“If you girls want to,” Lily responded, “I still have to get this fire set up and begin to prepare some of the food. Just don’t go out too far.”

“Sounds good!” Fizzy said, rising to her hooves. “Let’s go!”

The girls took two empty saddlebags and trotted merrily towards the edge of the clearing, looking for firewood. They followed the path of the sun to know what direction they needed to go to get back to camp. Over time they found a stick here or a twig there. Luckily, having a Kirin friend meant that starting the fire was going to be easy, but keeping it going was a whole different problem.

“Thanks for defending me back there,” Fizzy said, after they managed to find at least one sack worth of firewood.

“It’s really not a problem. It didn’t make any sense to me why you would do it,” Roseluck said. “And I think that if you did do it, you’d tell me, right?”

“Of course!” Fizzy said quickly.

Roseluck smiled and snatched another twig off the ground.

“I can’t wait until things begin to go back to normal. All of us are just so… on edge, ever since you told us about your quest. I get why. Just…”

“Things seemed so much easier before?” Fizzy asked.

“Yeah…”

The girls were silent for a moment. Fizzy decided to speak up.

“What do you think will happen… if I fail?”

“Fizzy, you’re not going to fail,” Roseluck said assuringly.

“No, but really. There’s a really strong chance I will. All I have to do is find fewer pages. And it could even be just by a single page. And then what? What if they change the stories so that Villains win? Or that all the rain turns into chocolate milk? Or that none of us ever met and we won’t have any friends anymore?”

Roseluck turned to Fizzy who was trying to hide the moisture in her eyes by pretending to find a stick on the ground.

“I swear I just saw…” Fizzy mumbled.

“Is that what you’re worried about?” Roseluck asked, pulling Fizzy into a hug. “That after this you won’t have any friends?”

Fizzy sniffed and tried to say something, but it came out as a voice crack.

“Listen,” Roseluck said. “Friends stick together no matter what. Even if one of the other factions do win, we’re gonna do what all the good guys do, alright? You know what that is?”

“What’s that?”

“We’re gonna pick ourselves up. Dust ourselves off. And keep fighting.”

Fizzy smiled and looked up at her friend.

“Say it with me,” Roseluck said.

“We’re gonna pick ourselves up. Dust ourselves off. And keep fighting,” the two said together.

“Thanks, Roseluck,” Fizzy said, breaking the hug.

The two grabbed a few more sticks when Fizzy’s ears perked up.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Roseluck asked.

“I think that’s a stream!”

The two girls trotted through the forest and just a few feet away, they found a large stream, several feet across with a murky bottom and quickly running water.

“Do you think there’s any fish in there?” Roseluck asked gleefully. “You’re a pescatarian, right?”

“Yeah,” Fizzy said. “But if you think I’m getting in that muddy stream, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Psh! If you think a little dirt is gonna keep me from fresh fish, then you don’t know Roseluck!”

Roseluck leaped into the stream, examining the water around her.

“Let’s see… if I were a fish…”

“You probably scared them all away!” Fizzy teased. “Come on, I think the sun is beginning to go down. We should head back.”

“I’d be…. Here!”

Roseluck shot her hoof into the stream.

“Ooh! I got something!” Roseluck shouted in delight.

“Really?” Fizzy shouted in surprise, leaping to the edge of the water.

“Yeah, check out… this!”

Roseluck pulled her hoof out of the water, holding Fizzy’s notebook.

Fizzy stared in surprise for a moment at Roseluck. Roseluck stared at the pages in her hooves.

“But… how?” she asked.

The three ponies sat at the campfire, staring into the flames. They had been quiet for a while, the unease of their current situation gnawing at the back of their minds.

Lily sighed and decided it was time to break the silence.

“Well, I think the idea of not talking about the book on this trip is pretty much ruined now. And I don’t think it’s any of our faults.”

Fizzy looked to meet Lily’s eyes and nodded in agreement. Roseluck simply watched the flames flick in the night air.

“I just don’t get it,” Roseluck said. “We know the pages have power, but this is almost… like it’s alive. Trying to say something to us.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you two,” Fizzy said. “I’ve had these weird vibes about the notebook for a while now.”

“Well, I hear you now,” Lily added. “Now I think it’s only fair to ask what it’s trying to say.”

The three exchanged glances with each other. A piece of wood in the fire cracked loudly, causing Lily to jump and curse under her breath.

Fizzy looked back into the fire and thought.

“I’ve always felt that the book, the real book, is trying to push me to find the pages. To complete it. Like.. it almost needs stories in the same way we need food.”

“Well that’s not creepy,” Lily asked.

“Then how do we know that finding pages is actually… good?” Roseluck asked. “What if the book itself is bad, and the notebook is beginning to show us its true nature?”

“I don’t know if there’s a way to really know,” Fizzy said. “It followed us this far into the woods and wanted to make sure that Roseluck and I knew we had it. So what does that mean?”

“Are there pages hidden in the woods?” Lily asked. “I don’t think there’s anything in these woods about Sunny Starscout or Twilight Sparkle. Unless there was some sort of lore I’m not familiar with…”

Roseluck bolted upright.

“Lore,” she said simply. “These woods might not have pages, but we have stories about these woods.”

Lily shook her head.

“Why would your notebook want stories about three ponies going on a camping trip? Let alone three ponies that are… small in terms of the greater… canon? Is that the right word to use?”

Fizzy shrugged and rose to her hooves as well.

“Well, we’re here now. We could feed the notebook by telling it some stories. We could try MAKING our own story out here in the woods. We could try to go out and find pages for ourselves.”

“The only way I want this day to end,” Roseluck said, “Is wrapped up in my sleeping bag, having a nice dream, and going home tomorrow.”

She trotted her way to the tent and unzipped the flap.

“Wait, just like that?” Lily asked.

“Yep!” she said. “Maybe that’s boring, but I’m going to go to sleep, and then in the morning, we can hike back home. If this notebook is hungry for stories, then it can be happy with something short and sweet.”

She stepped into the tent and turned on a little flashlight that lit her silhouette.

Fizzy looked at Lily in surprise.

“She might have a point,” Fizzy said. “It would be crazy to go out looking for pages in the dark of night.”

Lily sighed and rose to her hooves.

“Well, then let’s at least put out the fire.”

None of the ponies would admit it to the others, but they couldn’t sleep. Each imitated what they thought would fool the others as they speculated on their situation. Lily rested her head on her pack, feeling the outline of the notebook against her face. In a way, she felt calmed knowing that at least that was under control.

It was Roseluck that was listening to the sounds of the forest, trying to focus on anything other than the surreal experience she had gone through just hours earlier. She could feel the slipperiness of the fish in her hooves. She felt the way it wiggled and fought against her grasp. But when she pulled it out, it was the notebook. Even trying to remember what exactly happened in that moment felt like trying to grasp a particularly annoying fly out of the air.

Instead it made more sense to focus on the chirping of the cicadas. The songs of the night birds and hooting of owls were almost a lullaby for the exhausted and confused ponies. Every now and then a stick would crack, surely an animal trying to forage for an evening meal or find a safe respite from predators. Or both.

Luckily most animals were more afraid of ponies than ponies were of them. Unless they left food out, there likely wouldn’t be a bear or a timberwolf. They were safe.

Until there was a crack a few feet away from the tent.

Roseluck sat up, her sleeping bag’s rustle giving away that she was awake.

“It’s probably the campfire,” Lily said sleepily.

“We doused the campfire,” she said in a hush. “Plus, the campfire is on the other side of the tent.”

The three listened intently, Fizzy sitting up slightly. They could hear the rustle of grass all around them, but the tent didn’t move as if there were any breeze. The air around them felt thick and time felt as if it slowed down, following the invisible movement just outside of their tent, moving from the campfire, to the tree in the center of their clearing, to just outside of their tent.

Lily now began to sit up and reached into her bag. Her hoof moved past the notebook to a hatchet she had used to cut the firewood the girls had brought back. Roseluck placed a hoof to her mouth. Fizzy grabbed the tent’s flashlight and pointed it towards the opening of the tent. She tried to click it on, but it was as if the batteries had suddenly died.

The movement moved to the tent’s zippered front.

Lily tried to silently exit her sleeping bag as Fizzy slapped the flashlight and pressed the button urgently.

The zipper began to move upward. Fizzy’s horn began to smoulder. Lily moved beside Fizzy and whispered under her breath.

“On three…”

Fizzy nodded in understanding.

“One… Two..”

The zipper kept moving upward, almost reaching halfway. The tent began to rustle, almost shivering in anticipation.

“Three!” They shouted together and bolted out of the half-zipped open flap. Fizzy went full flame mode and lit the area round the camp, leaving nowhere to hide.

But outside the tent was completely empty, and the flashlight instantly flickered back to life.

“What’s out there?” Roseluck asked. “Are you guys okay?”

“There’s nothing here,” Fizzy said, her flames dying down as she moved the flashlight around their camp.

“This is just like a bad horror story, I swear…”

In that moment, Lily and Fizzy both shared a moment of realization.

“Roseluck,” they asked inside the tent. “Where’s the notebook?”

They peeked back inside as Roseluck moved to Lily’s bag and began to fish around inside of it.

“You put it inside here, right?” she asked.

“I know I did,” Lily said. “I literally was sleeping on it…”

She upended the bag and its contents fell on the ground. She did the same for her pack, as well as Fizzy’s.

The notebook was simply gone.

Lily began to hyperventilate and Fizzy began to go through their mess of packed supplies.

“No… No… Nononono,” Fizzy said to herself tossing things about the tent. “I said we shouldn’t go on this trip. I knew we shouldn’t have.”

Lily stepped back inside the tent and zipped it up behind her.

“I…knew it was there,” she said. “Are we sure it isn’t under the sleeping bags?”

“It’s NOT,” Fizzy began to growl, “UNDER. THE SLEEPING BAGS.”

“STOP!” Roseluck shouted at her two friends. “Listen. This is completely out of our hooves now. It probably warped away for… some reason. But if we go and try to find it right now, we will just get lost in the woods at night. Now, the best thing we can do is just go to sleep and deal with this when the sun comes up. Okay?”

The two looked at her, clearly still fuming.

“I said: Is that okay with you?” she repeated, her tone becoming more aggressive.

“Fine,” Lily said. “But we’re sleeping in shifts.”

“Fine,” Fizzy replied. “I’ll take the first watch.”

When the sun peeked over the forest foliage, none of the ponies felt particularly rested or comfortable. They stepped out of their tent in silence, simply taking in their surroundings. For the most part, their clearing seemed almost untouched from last night. Lily moved to their campfire remnants and began to stack firewood together.

“What are you doing?” Fizzy asked.

Lily looked up at her for a moment, before continuing to stack wood.

“Making oatmeal.”

“How can you think about food at a time like-”

“What else CAN we do, Fizzy?” Lily snapped. “The notebook is gone. We have no clues. We’re in the middle of the forest and we’ve had spooky things happening ever since we got here. I want to get something in our systems, and go home as soon as we possibly can. And if we find pages along the way, so be it.”

“And what, just leave the notebook?” Fizzy said. “Absolutely unacceptable. What if somepony else-”

“The notebook has made it VERY clear at this point that if it wants to be found, it will-”

“I found it,” Roseluck called weakly.

Fizzy darted to Roseluck instantly. Lily sighed before finishing her sentence under her breath.

“Show itself.”

Lily tossed the wood into her circle in forceful frustration and moved to the girls who were staring up at the dead tree in the center of their clearing.

“How did it get up there?” asked Fizzy.

“Well, don’t everypony just stand there looking at it,” Lily said.

With a light wiggle of her rear, she leapt up the tree and climbed the dead bark. In a matter of seconds, Lily snagged the notebook from the top of the tree. As soon as she grabbed it, she flinched in pain.

“Ouch!” she said, juggling the notebook in her hooves before it dropped in front of the girls. Roseluck held out her hooves to grasp it as well, but it seemed as if it bit her as well. The notebook fell to the ground with a dull thud.

“It cut me!” Roseluck said.

“Me too,” Lily said, landing.

Two thin trickles of blood rested on the sides of the notebook’s pages as Fizzy moved forward and opened its pages carefully. As she flipped, she saw story after recognizable story, but as she turned to the back, where she was used to seeing empty pages, she could see scarlet letters begin to arrange themselves on the pages.

“Lily looked in concern at her hoof and kissed the wound gently, despite what her mother always told her as a filly,” Fizzy read.

She looked up to Lily who was frozen, holding her hoof to her lips.

“It’s.. disinfection.”

“She said sheepishly,” Fizzy continued to read.

“The book… is writing a story for us?” Roseluck said.

“Well, it just wrote down what you just said,” Fizzy replied. “And this. What I’m saying right now. As I’m saying it.”

She rose to her hooves.

“Stop it. I’m a dumb notebookbook. Pickles.”

She looks at her two friends in a bewildered shock.

“It’s coming to life. And documenting everything.”

Fizzy moved to close the bundle of pages, but a sharp searing pain ran up her hoof.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed, a trickle of blood running onto the ground.

The notebook glowed a dull crimson and new words showed on the page.

The pact is sealed.

She looked to her two friends, who crowded around the pages.

“Oh, nuh uh,” Fizzy said. “Do we have… a quill?”

“Uhm,” Roseluck said, looking back at the tent and assessing her belongings.

“I gotcha,” Lily said, picking up what Fizzy was putting down. She snagged a discarded twig from nearby and handed it to the kirin.

“Will this work?”

“I think so,” she said.

She pushed the sharpest end of the stick into her cut. A searing pain burned down her leg as she wetted her makeshift quill. As she tried to write in the notebook, she mumbled the story under her breath, making the words spring to life on page.

“Except it was all in their heads. The three packed up and went home and nothing bad happened.”

As soon as she dotted the period, she felt as if controlled like a rag doll. She was lifted to her hooves along with her friends, and began to pack their belongings in an exceptionally fast fashion.

“What's happening?” Roseluck asked as all of their items were stuffed back into their bags.

“The ending,” Fizzy said as Lily seemed to tear down the tent in three quick movements.

Fizzy picked up the notebook, and the three of them were back on the path, trotting as if they were being pushed. After a lighthearted two-hour hike, they stepped out of the reaches of the trees, they felt the force stop. The three looked at each other in surprise and Fizzy opened the notebook once more.

Below her scrawled writing in her own blood were two simple words.

The End.

Fizzy closed the notebook and sighed to herself.

“It’s over, I guess.”

“Well, I hated everything about that,” Roseluck said. “Can we go home and just… make smores on a grill or something?”

Lily wrapped her hooves around the two girls and nodded.

“I think that sounds like a lovely idea.”

And so the three went home, their painful ordeal seemingly over and deciding not to check the notebook for any words that seemed to be written after that point.

But, who would think that writing on magic pages would simply solve all of their problems?

The notebook simply needed to wait for nightfall.