Everfree 1

Everfree 1
Chapter 4

MagiTech Headquarters, Canterlot City
Two Weeks Later...

Several ponies of all shapes and sizes wandered around the lobby, waiting for their host, Perception Filter, to greet them. As they did this, they all— at one point or another— had read every magazine available, sat in every chair, paced around the room a dozen times, and had conversed with one another. One popular topic of conversation was their destination, the mysterious, and largely dangerous, Everfree forest.

Each of them had been told bare minimum of what they needed to know, but none had been told the whole story. One pony, named Psyche, was busily investigating everything he could about his surroundings and the ponies that were destined to work with him, just like a stallion evaluating his resources. The first he spoke to was Pyromancer.

“Hello there,” he said in a strictly neutral tone as he approached the slightly insane pegasus.

“Hi there! I’m Pyromancer!” he chirped, and held out his hoof to shake. “Do you need something lit on fire?” Psyche scratched his chin, contemplating his options.

“I need you to burn that chair over there,” he said after a moment's contemplation, pointing across the room.

“Oh yeah! I sat in it earlier!”

“I want you to burn it.”

“Why?” Pyromancer asked, still smiling.

“I want to see how your fur resists the fire, it may be useful to know.”

“Okay, sure!” Pyromancer trotted away from Psyche, ignoring his small remark, and picked up the chair, before dragging it outside the doors, into the midday sun. He quickly procured a matchbox and struck a flame before dropping it on the chair. As the innocent and poor chair was slowly consumed with flames, Pyromancer picked it up and put it on his head, before entering the building once more.

All attention was drawn to him as the burning chair atop his head slowly disintegrated to nothing.

“Heya guys!” he said happily, as if nothing had happened. “Watcha’ starin’ at?”

“You’re a freak,” Shadow Clock jumped in. She was currently sitting down and reading another magazine. She didn’t even bother to look up.

“Aww, that’s mean...” Drifting Facade interjected. “He just has a special talent is all...” Her voice was low, and while she was not shy, her voice took on a meek undertone while talking to Shadow Clock.

“You’re a freak too,” she said, licking her hoof and flipping another page in the magazine. Drifting Facade frowned, but didn’t respond, and simply went back to pacing around. Psyche smiled and approached Shadow Clock with new interest.

He didn’t say anything when he got to her, and instead started staring at her eyes, never blinking.

Shadow Clock looked up from her magazine with an unamused expression on her face, and she raised an eyebrow.

“Something you want freak?”

“Shhhh,” Psyche said. “Stop blinking.”

Confused, Shadow Clock blinked once again, and Psyche let out a small frown.

“Stop. Blinking,” he demanded.

Shadow Clock narrowed her eyes again, and then blinked once more, just to spite him, and snapped her magazine back into place. “Beat it freak.”

“Oh, you shall work quite well...” he murmured, walking away with a sadistic smile still in place. As he walked away, he noted a brown unicorn with a broken horn talking to an onyx-colored unicorn. They seemed to be hiding away from everypony else, and whenever anypony approached them, the skirted away. Psyche was tapping his chin, thinking of a way of approaching the one with the broken horn, when the doors leading down into the facility burst open, revealing a frazzled Perception Filter.

“Everypony, quickly! This way!” he shouted, before turning away and bolting down the hall to an unknown destination. There were some grumbles, and some shrugs as the ponies in the lobby hastily wrapped up their conversations, but they all followed.

~~~~~

Before they reached their destination, Perception Filter had to turn around several times to guide the crowd through the winding corridors and down a few flights of stairs. All the while, murmurs were floating away from the group, mostly concerning what had their host in such a rush.

Eventually, they reached what seemed like the end of the twisting and turning hallways, and saw Perception Filter sitting by a door, breathing heavily.

“P-please... Come... In...” he panted out, before opening the door. Inside, there were a few lights on, but the majority of the room was painted in darkness. They all warily entered, and as their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw a tape recorder with a tape lying next to it.

“F-folks...” He stopped for a moment, and breathed in some more. “T-this, is our mission.”

“Mission?” Shadow Clock asked. “What the hell is this, some sort of game?”

“No, in fact it isn’t,” he replied, matter-of-factly. “This is a very serious matter, and this is your last chance to back out.”

“Back out of what?” Pen Knife asked, speaking to someone other than the onyx unicorn that was following him for the first time.

“Our deal. Once you hear what’s on this tape, you can’t leave. If you decide to stay, we will hold each and every one of you responsible for backing out of a legal contract. Does anypony want to leave?”

There was no sound at first, but slowly, one pony in the back coughed, and the whole crowd parted to see who it was. It was O’Tipsey, who was raising his hoof.

“I take it you want to leave, O’Tipsey?”

“No, I just wanted to ask a question,” he responded, lowering his hoof.

“Shoot.” Perception Filter licked his lips and put on a nervous grin.

“Are you still gonna be packing alcohol for me?”

Perception Filter smiled, and let out a small relieved sigh.

“For a second there, I thought you were gonna quit on me.” He let out a small chuckle, and tried to regain his posture.

“Naw man. As long as you’re packing the alcohol and keeping your promise about the bits, I’m still in,” O’Tipsey said with a smile. Perception Filter turned to the rest of the group and tapped the floor twice.

“Well, everypony still in?” This time there were no responses. He let out another, less audible, sigh of relief. “Okay, now then. What you are all about to hear, cannot leave this room. Everybody got that?”

A general consensus of murmurs and “yes”’s were heard from the small group of ponies before Perception Filter nodded.

“Right then,” he said. Without another word, he picked up the loose tape and put it in the tape recorder, and pressed play. There was a small hissing noise as the tape started, and then somepony spoke. It was a filly, that had a rough, gravelly, and harsh voice.

“This is the base Everfree 1, contacting MagiTech HQ in Canterlot, somepony please respond,” she said, before someone else picked up on the other end.

“This is MagiTech Headquarters. Please identify yourself.”

“This is communications officer Sugar Fields, I.D.: Four-hundred A.X. Twelve.”

“Please wait a moment while I process your identification,” the operator said.

There was silence for a moment, and then they could hear “Sugar Fields” moving around and muttering, “C’mon, c’mon, hurry up.”

“Processing complete. How may I help you Sugar Fields?”

“Okay, this is a Code-A4 distress call, it is urgent.”

“Please state the nature of your distress call,” the operator said tonelessly.

“Okay, this is gonna sound ridiculous, but there is something here,” Sugar Fields said in a voice that suggested she was having a hard time even believing her own story.

“Please clarify.”

“We found something out there, and now it’s in here. Listen, I don’t know the details but....” The call faded out for a few moments, and all that could be heard was static.

“What was that ma’am?” the operator asked.

“I said that—” Without warning her sentence was cut off by a shrill scream, and the sound of a scuffle on the other end of the call.

“Ma’am?”

All that could be heard after that was the sound of a sickening *crunch* and what sounded like an explosion before the call went dead. Perception Filter popped the tape out of the recorder and set it aside.

“We received this call a few months ago. Weather conditions have not permitted an expedition until this time,” he said, with a frown.

“Wait a minute,” Pen Knife interjected. “Let me get one thing straight.”

“Yes?”

“Your distress system is based upon a call service that requires a running check on I.D. before any complaints can be made?”

“Yes, that is correct. It is an efficient system.”

“No, no it isn’t!” Pen Knife said incredulously. “What if some, life-threatening condition were to emerge and they couldn’t get help in time?”

“They wouldn’t be able to get help in time anyways. Even during the summer, expeditions into the forest are long and we often lose members. It is a completely voluntary position, so anyone signing up knows all the risks that come with being assigned to such a post. Besides, any troubles they would encounter in the forest are ones they are equipped to handle.”

“That is no excuse.”

“It is not your, nor my call to make. In any case, it is too late to leave,” Perception Filter said with a dark frown. “Are there any other questions?”

This time, Jarome was the one to speak up.

“Okay, I have a question,” he said. Perception Filter nodded, and he continued. “Why do you need me in all this? You said you’ve led expeditions into the forest before, why me? And why don’t you have a trained crew specifically for this job?”

“We need you, put simply, because we lost our last guide on the last trip. He was mauled by a manticore. The reason we don’t have a specifically trained crew for this, is because most that we hire die, or if they don’t, don’t want to go back into the forest.”

"It takes more money to train people that it does to find those who already have the skills,” Psyche said. “It’s efficient. I like it.”

Perception Filter nodded in agreement, and motioned towards him. “Psyche knows,” he said.

Jarome’s face darkened, and the atmosphere in the room seemed to get a little bit heavier on everypony’s brow. There was a brief silence, once again, and then the onyx unicorn that Pen Knife had been talking to spoke up.

“So, when’s all this shit goin’ down?” he asked in a casual tone, yet his tone suggested a deep, underlying sadness.

“What’s your name?” Perception Filter asked, and Pen Knife cut in.

“He’s Blizzard. He’s one of my men, here for security.”

“Well then. To answer your question, tomorrow. We already have all our supplies packed, and the caravan ready to roll out. We have provided rooms for all of you. If those are all the questions, I will take you back to the lobby where our receptionist will show you to your rooms.”

Nopony spoke.

“See you tomorrow. Try to get a good night’s sleep.”

~~~~~

MagiTech Headquarters, Canterlot City
The Following Morning...

Down in the lobby of the building, there were a few ponies already up and talking, waiting for the others. Among them were Psyche, Drifting Facade, and Pyromancer. While Pyromancer was busy lighting magazines on fire with his lighter, (something that the receptionist was having a very hard time not pulling the alarm to call the guards on) Drifting Facade was trying to hold a conversation with Psyche; much to his dismay.

“I don’t really want to work here anymore,” the filly said, her ears drooped low.

“And? How exactly does this affect me?” he snapped, irritated at having to converse with somepony for so long.

“Well geeze,” she said, backing a step away. “You don’t have to be so rude.”

“And you don’t have to keep bothering me with this incessant conversation, yet you keep talking. I consider that rude of you.”

“How exactly did you manage to get hired?” Drifting Facade asked.

“Mister Filter found me on the street after the hospital manager turned him down. Offered the job, I took it.”

“Well, I think it’s a bit disturbing that—” she was cut off as another pony pushed their way through the double doors that led to the apartments in the upper levels of the building. It actually turned out to be Pen Knife and Blizzard, who walked over to Pyromancer, but seemed to reconsider it when they saw what he was doing. So instead they redirected themselves towards Psyche and Drifting Facade.

“Good morning Pen Knife,” Drifting Facade said, politely tilting her head.

“And a good morning to you too,” he replied. He seemed a bit distant to Drifting Facade, but that was to be expected if yesterday was any indicator. There was a very brief moment of awkward silence, but Psyche broke it by speaking to Blizzard.

“So,” he said, “Blizzard was your name, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” replied the unicorn, still in a dejected and depressing tone.

“Good. Tell me, why are you so... sad?”

“I don’t like being a unicorn. I used to have wings and a horn, but, I got stuck with the horn.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Drifting Facade interrupted. “You were an alicorn? How come I’ve never heard of you before?”

“Oh,” he said with a tone that suggested he might actually care about this topic of conversation, “I wasn’t an alicorn. I was a Changeling. I got stuck in this,” he gestured towards his body, “form when... something, happened.”

Everypony in the room, save for Pyromancer and Psyche, froze at the mention of the word “Changeling”. They all turned towards him and stared at him.

Drifting Facade gulped and shakily asked a question. “W-what?”

“I used to be a Changeling,” Blizzard stated. “Well, I still am, I’m just stuck like this.

Before any more questions could be asked, Psyche held up a hoof and interrupted the conversation.

“How?” he asked, his eyes boring into Blizzard.

“What?”

“How did you get stuck like that?”

“I don’t really like to talk about it...” he trailed off. Psyche exhaled slowly and took a deep breath.

“Why don’t you tell me...” he said in a tone that suggested it would be a bad idea not to.

Blizzard took a glance at him, as if evaluating him in a new light. “Why do you want to know?”

“Just tell me,” Psyche said impatiently.

Blizzard paused for a moment, and then shook his head. “No, I won’t.”

Psyche glared at him, and said in an undertone, “You should tell me, now.”

There was a very tense, awkward silence as everypony else present waited to see what became of the conversation.. Eventually, Blizzard relented, and bowed his head.

“I got hit in the horn with something during the battle of Canterlot as I was battling the royal guard. I disguised myself as one of them to cause confusion, and then one of the guards I was attacking noticed me and launched a piece of brick at my horn. Everything went black after that. When I woke up, I was in the dungeon.”

Psyche tapped the ground with his hoof a few times, as if contemplating the new information he had been given, then, “Say, Blizzard. I think I know a way for you to be a Changeling again...”

“Really?” he responded, his dejected tone lightening with the promise of a new hope.

“Should Miss Clock meet an untimely death, which is more likely than not, I could transplant his horn to you, possibly allowing you to perform the magic needed to change back.” The room fell into another awkward silence, pierced by the sound of Pyromancer flicking his lighter, trying to ignite the magazines in his grasp.

“What...” Drifting Facade started, but trailed off. And right at that moment, Shadow Clock walked in the room, and all eyes went to her.

“What?” she asked, looking around. “What are you assholes looking at?”

Nopony said anything, and Shadow Clock let out a half-chuckle that sounded more like a forced snort.

“Fine, don’t talk. It don’t matter to me.” She walked into the room and sat down, and all eyes gradually drifted away from her to Psyche again.

Blizzard was the next one to speak. “So... Do you really think you could help me get back to being a Changeling?” he asked, making sure to keep his voice low.

“Da,” Psyche said, reminding everyone that he was from Stalliongrad.

For the first time since anyone saw him, Blizzard smiled.

“Thank you,” he whispered as his eyes teared up. “Thank you so much.” Then, without warning, he rushed forward and (much to Psyche’s dismay) embraced him in a hug.

“Ugh, yes,” he said. “Now let go.”

Reluctantly, Blizzard pulled away, yet insisted upon standing near Psyche. Pen Knife gave him with an odd look, but stayed silent. Psyche put on a disgusted expression and tried to scoot away from Blizzard, yet he would have none of that; every time Psyche would move, Blizzard scooted up next to his side.

The doors opened once again, and revealed Jarome and O’Tipsey trotting out to join everyone else in the lobby. O’Tipsey looked as if he could care less about anything and everything happening around him, so he went to sit down. He procured a flask of whiskey and started drinking, observing the state of the room.

Jarome, on the other hand, was a different story. He looked as if he were about to rip off somepony’s head, and if one were to judge by the way he swore profusely at anyone approached him, and his angry hoofsteps, he probably would. Only a few seconds after the two ponies, Perception Filter emerged from the double doors and swung his hoof around and whistled to get everypony’s attention.

Once everypony was silent, he spoke. “Well then, welcome to day one of the Everfree expedition. I hope you are all well rested, because we have a long day ahead of us. Remember, before we leave, we’re laying down some ground rules. One: nopony goes anywhere alone. Two: Accidents are going to happen, and people are going to get hurt, maybe even die. In this event, nopony tries to be a hero, and nopony panic.

“Lastly, and most importantly, there is something dangerous waiting for us at Everfree 1. We don’t know what it is, but we have taken several precautions against whatever it may be. Any questions before we head out?”

Nopony said anything, and Perception Filter nodded.

“Alright, let’s head out.”