Of Corruption and Sacrifice

Chapter 1

They Almost Solve a Mystery

            Twilight Sparkle was pacing in her library, waiting for a letter from her mentor. Princess Celestia had sent her letter two days ago, letting her know that she might soon have a very important mission for Twilight and her friends. The purple unicorn mare was starting to lose patience. If was such an important mission, she thought to herself, why is it taking her so long to tell me what it is? That’s it!

            “SPIKE,” she shouted. About two seconds later, a small purple dragon poked his head around the kitchen doorway.

            “What is it, Twi? I was in the middle of third breakfast… Or was it first lunch?” he said, trying to remember what meal he was actually eating.

            “Sorry, Spike, but I need to write a letter to the Princess,” She told him, in a slightly apologetic voice.

            The baby dragon sighed. “It’s OK. Give me a sec,” He gathered the necessary parchment, quill, and ink, and prepared to write. “OK, shoot.”

            Twilight took a deep breath and began:

            “Dear Princess Celestia,

I was wondering if you were still-

            And at that very moment, Spike began to gag, a belched up a sealed scroll in a cloud of smoke.

            “Oh,” Twilight said, startled. “Never mind about that letter, Spike” She indicated the letter he had been writing, then the one he had just belched up. “I’m sure this one will make the other one unnecessary”

            The dragon let out a huffy snort, crumpled up the letter he had been writing, and returned to the kitchen to finish his meal.

            The purple mare wasn’t even aware he had left, she was so absorbed in the letter the Princess had sent her.

“My dearest student, Twilight Sparkle,

I have a situation that requires the immediate attention of you, and your friends. Lately there have been a disturbing number of violent monster attacks in and around the Everfree Forest. Of this, I’m sure you are aware, as I know you closely follow such news. What you may not be aware of, is the reason for the frequency and ferocity of these attacks. Through examinations conducted by my sister and I of the animals conducting these attacks, it is clear they have been warped by some corruptive influence. The most disturbing trend in these animals, in that neither my sister nor I seem able to reverse its effects. While we believe Discord is NOT responsible for this corruption, it still bears his chaotic form of corruption, so it would not be wise for my sister or I to leave Canterlot while it remains a possibility he is responsible. Therefore, it becomes YOUR duty to investigate the source of this corruption, which seems to reside somewhere in the Everfree Forest near Ponyville. Please, take all of your friends who are available to search RIGHT NOW, and do not wait on those who have prior engagements. It is imperative you find the source as soon as possible, before somepony loses their life.

Wishing you the utmost luck in your search,

Princess Celestia

            Ten minutes later, Twilight had her pack on, and was galloping toward Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. She would see if Dash was available, and if she was, Twilight would have her check on the others as Dash could do it much faster than she herself could. As she came to a stop at Dash’s manor, she shouted, “Rainbow Dash! Are you up there?”

            After about three seconds she heard a sarcastic, “No…” It was definitely Rainbow’s hoarse, and bored voice.

            “Dash!” the annoyed unicorn yelled, “This is important!”

            The cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail was still not very concerned, until she remembered what happened last time she didn’t take Twi seriously when she said something was important.

            Three seconds later, she was hovering in front of the unicorn, and asked her voice full of concern, “What is it Twi?”

            Twilight explained the mission. “…And I was hoping you could gather the others who were available to help us go investigate.” She finished.

            Rainbow Dash nodded. “You can count on me,” The element of loyalty told her, “I’ll meet you over by Fluttershy’s cottage, and we can start our search there.”

            Twilight nodded back. “OK, I’ll meet you there.” The unicorn agreed, before charging her teleportation spell, and transporting herself to Fluttershy’s in the blink of an eye.

            After telling Fluttershy the importance of the mission, making numerous promises about everyponies’ safety, and telling her the mission might be entirely impossible without her, she very reluctantly agreed to go into the forest with them.

            After about fifteen minutes, Rainbow Dash showed up, followed by Rarity… And nopony else.

            “Dash, where are Pinkie Pie and Applejack?” Twilight asked.

            Rainbow Dash huffed. “Well, the Cakes went to Manehatten for a sweets convention, so Pinkie has to watch the little ones, and wouldn’t just take them with us. Applejack went to the same convention, trying to get ideas for new apple based sweets to sell.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know those are dumb reasons, but there was nothing I could do.”

            Twilight decided not to argue the fact that those WERE VERY good reasons not to come, and just nodded instead. “OK, we can do this with just the three of us. Does everypony know our mission?” She looked around, and all the ponies made reactions in positive. “Then let’s get out there and look-” She was interrupted as Dash zoomed out over the Forest. “Together…” Twilight finished lamely.

            She sighed, but then Rarity spoke up. “Oh darling, don’t worry. I’m sure Rainbow Dash will come find us sooner or later, and until then, she’s a strong pony and is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.”

            “I hope you’re right,” Twilight responded, as the rest of the ponies started searching on hoof.

            After about an hour of searching, a thoroughly shaken Rainbow Dash joined them. “Have you girls seen it yet?” She asked them shakily.

            “Why, whatever do you mean, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked, obviously alarmed at Dash’s rapid mood change.

            Dash turned to address Twilight. “Twi, the trees up there are… Wrong… I just can’t think of another word for it.” She said, shaking her head. “You’ll know what I mean in a minute.” Dash began walking with the rest of them, slowly and subdued. Fluttershy fell back with Rainbow, and tried to comfort her, while Rarity began to speak to Twilight slightly further ahead.

            “Umm… Twilight, what do you think Dash meant by ‘Wrong trees’?” Asked Rarity.

            Twilight just shook her head. “I have no idea… But we’re about find out.” She said as they came to a small clearing.

            And find out, they did. All the trees on their side of the clearing looked like normal Everfree Forest trees (an oxymoron, if ever there was one), but the ones on the far side seemed… Darker, more wild looking, even more than the rest of the trees in the Everfree Forest. They seemed to emanate an aura of wrongness, like they had come straight from a Stable King horror novel. The trees Nightmare Moon changed seemed scary, but not dangerous like these, and they were nothing like Discord’s style.

            A shiver passed through the four mares as they looked at the trees, and Fluttershy actually squeaked in terror, and hid behind Rainbow Dash, shuddering. Dash herself was also terrified of the trees, but her simple macho attitude made her stand firm on the outside. Rarity was transfixed on the trees, and the normal part of her was scared, but the dress maker inside of her, had her examining, albeit from a distance, the intricate, almost woven pattern of a small section the tree branches. Twilight was scared too, but her curiosity got the better of her. She began to approach the trees.

            “Why do they look like that?” She asked nopony in particular. Rarity gave an “Ah ha,” and approached the odd section of tree branches, still mildly intimidated, but no longer scared. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked, concerned.

            “This,” she said simply, as reached up her hoof to the area of trees, and pushed. Only, that particular part of the foliage wasn’t exactly solid. Rarity’s push separated the tree branches that had been woven across an almost pony sized hole in a extremely large tree.

“OH MY” Rarity let out a small scream as she fell through the hole, and into the tree.

“Rarity!” The other three yelled after her, as they plunged into the hole. “What’s wrong?” Dash yelled, as their eyes adjusted to the gloom of the interior.

“Oh, nothing’s wrong, it’s just this tree is surprisingly clean.” Rarity responded, in a calm, yet interested tone.

All the other mares groaned, but as their eyes adjusted, they had to agree with her. There was a small, but neat bed pallet made of grass in one corner, something that looked a bit like a chair on one side, and a large, deep pool of clean looking water at the very back. And the whole thing was VERY neat.

Before they really got a chance to look around though, they heard a yell from nearby.

“SHIT”

They didn’t recognize the word, but the voice sounded like a stallion, and he sounded like he was in serious pain.

They looked at each other, but before any of them could say anything, Fluttershy, who of course couldn’t stand the thought of just standing there while somepony was in pain, galloped out the entrance of the cave.

“Fluttershy, wait!” Twilight yelled, but the kind yellow pegasus was already out gone. Twi turned to Dash and Rarity. “We have to go after her,” they all said together, then turned and gave chase.

To their surprise, Fluttershy hadn’t gone that far… In fact, she was only at the edge of the clearing to their left. She was just staring out from behind a tree.

“Fluttershy, what are you looking at, dear?” Asked Rarity. Fluttershy just nodded in front of her.

They looked, and saw what appeared to be a bipedal, nearly hairless… Monkey? It was wearing a black suit of some sort, and was laying on its stomach. Its back was torn to shreds, and bleeding heavily, but even so, fear of the unknown creature stopped Fluttershy from approaching it. Rarity went woozy, and fell to the ground, but when she realized nopony was paying her any attention, she stood back up with a little huff. Dash was just stunned. She’d seen her share of blood from training accidents, but never quite this much at once. Twilight, however, kept her wits about her.

“It may be dying,” She said, mentally taking on the role of a field medic. “It’s lost a lot of blood. We need to make sure it’s still alive, and if it is, stop the bleeding and get it to a hospital.”

After glancing at the others, and realizing they were going to be no help in this, she sighed and used her magic to check it for a heartbeat. There was one, but it was faint and if they didn’t stop the bleeding soon, it would die.

Taking a deep breath, and focusing her magic, she managed to heal its wounds enough to stop the bleeding before her magic failed her. Healing a creature when she knew nothing about its anatomy was a very tricky and tiring process, and she hadn’t studied healing magic much as it was.

She turned to the others. “Snap out of it!” She yelled at them, and, to her surprise, they did.

“What do you need us to do, Twi?” Dash said.

“OK, Fluttershy, it’s unconscious, but just in case it wakes up, I want you to be talking to it to keep it calm.” Fluttershy nodded. “Rarity, can you whip up a stretcher from those tree branches that were covering that hole?” Again, a nod. “Dash, you and Rarity, with her magic, will need to carry it, as I’m out of magic. You all got that?” They nodded, even Rarity, who wasn’t happy about having to carry the thing, even if it WAS with her magic.

“Good,” Twilight said, “First we get this thing to a hospital and healed… Then we find out what it is and what it’s doing here.”