The Everfree Forest, located right at the foot of Moonlit Mountain, was a strange and dangerous place. Only rarely ponies ventured into it, and if they did, it were usually guards who did yo, scanning for dangers of which there were many. For some unexplained reason, the forest seemed to be a gathering point for everything evil in the land, so it was no wonder that it was crawling with dangerous beast and monster, as well as plants of all sizes and shapes. From the tiny star spangled spiders, who could kill a pony in a single bite, to the giant ethereal star beasts that slumbered deep within the forests hidden caves and alcoves, who could crush entire buildings with ease, the Everfree Forest was not a welcoming place to anyone.

So it was strange to see a lone pony wander through the forest all by himself. Even stranger was that the stallion didn’t seem to be properly equipped for his dangerous travel. He was wearing no clothing or armor, except for an old bracelet on his leg, leaving him with nothing to protect himself from the thorny underbrush, which resulted in many painful cuts across his seafoam colored coat, accompanied by twigs and other dead foliage sticking to his blonde mane. He was also not wearing any weapons to protect himself, or any provisions which would have saved him from starving to death, since even though the forest was filled with plants and fruits for him to eat, most of them were poisonous for his kind.

And yet, despite all odds clearly being stacked against him, the stallion insisted on venturing deeper into the forest, his bespectacled eyes only focused on the path in front of him.

Putting one hoof in front of the other, the stallion moved forward, relentlessly making his way through the forest, only pausing occasionally to avoid a dangerous beast or trap, until hours into his march a sudden loud noise to his left made him pause in his tracks. Fearing an attack, the stallion slowed down and looked around in the hopes of spotting whatever had made the noise, yet no matter how much he strained his eyes, he couldn’t find any clues. Despite that however he didn’t immediately continue his track, but waited for a few more minutes, until he was convinced that whatever had made the noise was gone by now. Only then he continued on his way.

“It should be somewhere around here” he muttered quietly, as he marched forward. “I need to find it quickly.” There was a certain sense of urgency surrounding him, both in his voice and actions. While calm in his movements, now and then his eyes flickered around randomly in frantic search for any signs of his goal, while at the same time his ears constantly twisted around so that he could listen for any signs of danger.

He took another step forward, but froze as he noticed a pair of gleaming green eyes staring at him from the darkness. Silently he watched as a small group of at least seven wolves, who seemed to be made completely out of wood, emerged from the woods around him, each one of them staring right at him.

‘Timberwolves’ he thought as he studied them, his eyes focused on the one of his right, who seemed to be at least a head bigger than the rest. He head heard of this beast, mostly in the stories the guards had told at the bar. According to them the beast were cunning but weak. While not to be taken lightly, they were nothing a trained soldier couldn’t take care off. Unfortunately he wasn’t a soldier and the wolves seemed to know.

Slowly they drew closer to him, while blocking each of his escape routes by walking around him in ever smaller getting circles.

Trying to find a way out of his predicament, the stallion frantically looked around, but to his dismay, he couldn’t find anything that would be of help to him. He realized that the wolves had waited for the perfect moment to ambush him - a revelation that nearly left him speechless.

Meanwhile the wolves drew closer, until they were so close, he could practically feel their teeth on him. With holded breath he watched as one of them crouched down, preparing to jump, yet he didn’t close his eyes. If he was to die, he would do so with honor.

“Forgive me father, I have failed you” he whispered as the wolf lunged - and crashed right into what appeared to be a giant tree trunk that suddenly appeared out of the ground in front of him without warning.

A quick series of angered and confused snarls came from the wolves as they growled threateningly at the stallion, but didn’t attack. The reason for that became clear a moment later, when the tree trunk suddenly bend down and with a loud roar split it’s top to reveal rows of sharp teeth and a set of threshing tentacles connected to them.

At once nearly all of the timberwolves backed away from the beast, except for their leader, who wasn’t ready to give up on his prey quite yet. Angrily he took a few steps forward and bared his teeth at the monster in front of him. For a pony it would have been an intimidating view, but for the living tree, who was actually some kind of giant snake or worm as the stallion noted, it wasn’t threatening at all. While the alpha was still busy trying to impress him, the worm simply bend down, and, with surprising speed for his size, it curled its tentacles around the wolf, before simply smashing him to pieces between his maw and swallowing down the leftovers, causing the rest of the wolves to flee in terror.

With the wolves gone, the beast turned his attention to the stallion. Slowly it bent down with it’s maw flared, but right before it reached him a voice called out of the dark: “That is enough for now, Jim!”

Immediately the worm paused and backed up, while behind him a pony came trotting out of the woods. At first he had trouble seeing anything due to how dark it was, but then it suddenly became a lot brighter, allowing him to better see his surroundings.

The light had come from the other pony’s horn who was a slightly bigger than usual unicorn mare with a purple coat and a mane of gold and yellow. She was wearing a light set of leather armor without any markings and what looked like some kind of chain was wrapped around her right hoof. Red eyes stared down at him as he let himself slide along the tree behind him to the ground, his legs feeling exhausted after the last few events.

“Who are you?” the mare asked as she stared at him, taking in his disheveled look and lack of weapons, before her eyes settled on the bracelet he wore. “And where did you get this?”

“My name is Lux. And this belonged to my father,” the stallion said as he slowly stood back up. He removed the bracelet from his leg and showed it to the mare who inspected it carefully.

“Your father?”

“Yes,” Lux nodded quickly. “His name is Bright Light. He is working for you.”

“For me?” the mare asked mockingly, causing him to shake his head.

“For you” he repeated and put extra emphasis on the last word. “He is working for Harmony.”

Following his words, the mare kept silent for a while, then she suddenly turned away from him and whistled a short melody. The moment the last note left her mouth the worm, who had patiently waited behind the mare, rose up to his full height, before he dove back underground, leaving a large enough hole for two ponies walking side by side in his wake.

“Follow me,” the mare ordered and walked towards the hole. At the edge she stopped and turned to Lux who hesitated only for a second before he followed her.

**************************

The tunnel the worm creature had dug was surprisingly comfy to walk in. While the ground was still very uneven, the tunnel fell in a pleasant slope that was not too steep to walk on. Apparently the worm had been trained to ease the burden for its masters as much as possible.

Here and there their path crossed other tunnels, that led in other direction, but the mare guiding Lux didn’t seem to have any problems finding the right path in the underground maze.

“What was that thing,” Lux finally asked after they had walked for a while and pointed at the direction they had come from. “I have never seen something like that before.”

“They are called Tatzelwurm” the mare answered after a moment of silence. “We keep them around to bury tunnels for us to help navigate the area. It is far easier to go beneath danger than to go through it.” She paused and turned around to face him. “Don’t bother trying to remember the way though. They constantly change the layout and connections of these things. See?” she said and pointed to a nearby tunnel, where another tatzelwurm was busy destabilizing the tunnel walls in order to collapse it. Instead of answering her, Lux simply nodded.

They continued the rest of their way in silence, until they reached an especially large tunnel at whose end he could see a bright light. As they approached it, the mare began to slow down, allowing Lux to catch up to her.

“Here we are” she said, once they reached the end of the tunnel and paused, allowing Lux to take in the sight in front of him.

The were standing on top of a large cliff that oversaw an enormous valley nestled inside a dome of rocks that surrounded the valley on all sides. A bright blue sky shone down on them from above, while a giant river cut through the valley below, separating it in three unevenly large parts.

One of the parts, which was also the smallest of the three, was covered in lush green grass and different kinds of trees and flowers springing forth from it.

The next one was filled with rows and rows of fields of mais, wheat and other grains, tinting the whole area in a warm golden light.

Finally the last and biggest of the three parts was unlike its brothers not characterized by the bright colors of nature, but was instead covered in the greys and browns of stone and steel, as thousands of buildings of the widest variety covered it in its entirety, as well as stretching far into the mountainsides, where several caves had been repurposed to work as living quarters.

This one also was the liveliest of them by far. While the fields and the grassland were only sparsely populated, the city was brimming with energy. Thousands of creatures in a wide variety of colors and shapes flocked through the streets and marketplaces, filling them with life.

“This is amazing” Lux said, once he had managed to regain his voice. “How is this possible? And where are we?” he asked the mare who only shook her head.

“It’s none of your concern,” she said. Suddenly she looked away, her eyes locked on something behind him. “But they are.”

Following her eyes, Lux turned around and stared in the direction she was looking at. His eyes shrunk in fear, as he saw a small group of four armored ponies approach them on a nearby staircase he hadn’t noticed before, lead by a griffin in a black armor. Red eye markings and scars adorned his aging face, and a part of his beak was missing, giving him a dark appearance.

“Welcome back, Dawn” he said to the mare once he had reached them, and gave her a quick salute. He waited until she had returned the greeting, then his gaze turned towards Lux. “Is that him?”

“Yes.” Dawn nodded. “I found him outside and decided to bring him here.”

The griffon bowed down and eyed Lux carefully. “Can we trust him?” he asked Dawn who shrugged.

“I’m not sure. He fits the description Bright Light gave of him and this,” she said as she pointed at his bracelet “is definitely one of mine. I remember giving it to his father myself. Just to be safe though, I took him through the long route, to make sure all spells that were cast on him were disabled. Should he try to contact someone or if someone should try to locate him, they won’t have any luck.”

“I see” the griffon said, as he scratched his chin in thought.. “I suppose we should take him to the council then. They can decide what happens to him.” He turned to Dawn and nodded at Lux. “Take him to the guard quarters while I’ll inform the council of his arrival. Let’s see what they have to say about this.”

With his orders given, the griffin gave her a last nod, then he took off and flew away. Once he was gone, Dawn approached Lux and gestured for him to follow her.

“Let’s go” she said and nodded to the staircase where the rest of the guards were already waiting for them.

For his part, Lux only nodded. The conversation he had just witnessed, had raised many questions inside his head, up front the mares remark - ‘no, Dawn’s remark’ he reminded himself - about meeting his father. It took him a lot of willpower not just to ask all of them, but he had the feeling it would be better if he didn’t for now and so he once again followed Dawn towards another unknown location.

Author's Note

Only the second week and already a small delay... I blame my cold for that. Anyway here is the second chapters. it's rather short, but i hope you can enjoy it nonetheless.

And like always, have fun^^