Raspberry Zinger gulped as she stared into the gloomy maw before her. She’d heard tales of the Everfree Forest before—the strange plants, the stranger animals, the unpredictable weather. All of it paled in comparison to what she peered into now. The foliage was too thick to see very far inside, and she winced at the noises coming from within.

She never thought she would be making a delivery here.

“Alright, Raspberry,” she muttered to herself, swallowing. “Y-You’ve delivered to worse places. C-Can’t think of them right now, but… I know you can do this. You have a customer waiting on you. You can’t let them down.”

Though she had no idea who would be crazy to live out in the middle of the freaking Everfree Forest.

Raspberry took one tentative step forward, and then another. And another. And another.

She kept going until she was well within the forest’s outer limits, and she quickly picked up the pace as the trees and underbrush grew thicker and thicker around her. Her hair stuck up on the back of her neck as she trotted, an overwhelming feeling of being watched ever present.

She heard a twig snap right beside her and that was enough to flair out her wings and start flying. Raspberry fought through the thick branches of forest canopy and the interwoven vines hanging from them.

She finally broke through with a triumphant cry—only to come face-to-face with an angry-looking thunderhead. It rumbled and shook before shooting a bolt of lightning at her. She just barely ducked the bolt, and with an “Eep!” she crashed back through the canopy to the forest floor.

“Alright, no flying. Noted,” she muttered, glancing skyward as she continued on.

Raspberry picked up the pace with her trotting as she tried to find the path to her customer’s home. Asking around Ponyville had made it appear as though the path was rather easy to follow, so long as you avoided the poison joke.

Apparently that luck was only for locals.

Raspberry got turned around back to the entrance of the forest twice as she tried to find her way. With a frustrated growl, she turned away the second time, intent on moving in as straight a line as possible into the forest—only to appear back where she started from.

With bewildered spluttering, Raspberry marched back into the forest, only for another twig snap to cause her to freeze up. She slowly turned her head towards the sound to find the glowing green eyes of a timberwolf staring back at her, snarling.

With a scream, Raspberry used a mixture of wing power and hoof power to run through the forest, leaping over rocks and tree roots and diving through the underbrush. She narrowly avoided a small field of blue flowers—the poison joke the Ponyville locals had warned her about, she surmised—and continued her frantic escape.

Glancing back over her shoulder to see if she was still being followed proved to be a mistake—she ran smack into the side of something and crashed to the ground. Rubbing her head, she realized she’d ran into the front door of some sort of hut.

The door opened, revealing a confused-looking zebra.

“Y-Your order, ma’am,” Raspberry said, reaching into her saddlebags and pulling out the miraculously unharmed package.

The zebra beamed as she took the package. “Thank you so much for delivering this to me,” she said, before turning a concerned gaze towards Raspberry. “Perhaps you would like to come in for some tea?”

“Tea sounds lovely,” Raspberry said with a strained smile, trying to knock loose some of the leaves and twigs from her mane.

Author's Note

Raspberry Zinger: Female, Pegasus

About: A deliverymare working for Slap and Stick Moving Company. Raspberry is quick to startle and rather jumpy. This problem is compounded by a batpony infatuated with her--that one of her coworkers has her convinced is after her blood because of her fruity name.

Appearances: None so far

Fun fact: Raspberry Zinger is named after an herbal tea!