Chapter 1: Regret
It was a normal morning when I woke up, the skies were blue, the apple trees were green and full of ripe apples to pick. Morning as usual on Sweet Apple Acres doesn't really involve much. We just need to get up at 6:00 AM and start picking apples, we allow Granny Smith to sleep a little later. Applejack and Big Macintosh get up, eat breakfast, then kick trees, all day, everyday. Seeing I am to young to be able to kick trees effectively I go to school. School is everyday school, where we learn things. After school is the normal CMC meeting at the clubhouse. And that's it, pretty much everyday of my life, with some differs of coarse, but not many.
Once it reached night I woke up from a sound sleep by the howl of something from the forest, but then realized that it was actually coming from my bedroom window. I looked out the window, and once my eyes adjusted i could see Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo below the window, howling up at me. I leaned my head out of the window and said "What are you guys doing here?" "Do you want to see if we can get our cutie marks in surviving the forest?" Scootaloo said from below. "I don't know girls, I really don't want to be eaten tonight." "Oh, come on, it'll be fun" said Sweetie Bell. "Oh fine." I said. I grabbed my cape then snuck through the house, through the back door, and around the house to them.
We started making our way to the forest, when then from behind me I suddenly heard the voice of applejack say "And what do you think you're doing out here young missy?" I froze solid. If I went back i could not face the consequences that I would have to face If I went back. "Run!" I whispered, and we broke into a gallop.
Facing the Everfree, or facing applejack, facing the Everfree, or facing applejack. It's a tough choice, but I would have to go with the Everfree. Applejack's consequences are usually worse, like one time she made it so there were no CMC meetings for a WEEK. I would rather face ten Everfree forests than that. As Applejack ran after us we kept going deeper into the forest. Deeper, and deeper. Forever and ever. I swear the trees kept having horrid faces and the monsters kept getting scarier. Then, we fell. Seeing Applejack was right on our tails she fell with us. Then we landed.
Sweetie Bell and I landed on what seemed like a bush (Scootaloo sorta hovered to the ground). Applejack half landed on he bush and half landed In a river. Then she groaned. "Wh-where are we?" Applejack said painfully "other than just in the middle of the most dangerous place in equestria."
"I, I don't know." I said.
"Well, we probably should start moving in the direction that we came." Said Sweetie Bell.
"No, we have come to far, we must go further to see if we can get our cutie marks as survivalists!" Scootaloo said.
"So THAT'S why we're down here?! So you can get your CUTIE MARKS?!" Applejack was furious. "We are getting out of here! As far as I know Zecora's hut is that way." Applejack pointed a hoof to the left.
We started moving in that direction when Scootaloo started to walk backward. "Scootaloo! Where are you going?" Sweetie Bell whispered.
"I have not come this far for nothing. I am going further."
Seeing it was in our code and whatnot, we had to follow her. Getting deeper and deeper into the forest, it just kept getting creepier and creepier, I swear the trees laughed at me. I don't know how far we went without Applejack, but I was kinda regretting not staying with her. Staying with my friends can be more important though.
"I'm hungry." Said Sweetie Bell.
"I think I saw some berries a little back, I'm gonna go grab some." Said I, going back a little "wait here."
When I got back they were still sitting there, but they were frozen, not moving. Staring at something. "Apple Bloom?"
"Yeah?"
"Is that wooden statue of a manticore supposed to be moving?"
"Um, I don't think so."
"We need to silently move, now."
We broke into a run, dropping the berries behind us that immediately turned a sickly shade of brown. We clearly made too much noise, because the manticore was hot on our trail. Luckily half way through it following us it hit a tree and fell to the ground, unconscious. Immediately after it hit the tree we hit a giant stone statue all at the same time, and fell to the ground unconscious.
When I came to, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were already up.
"We didn't know if we were going to have to carry you through the forest or not" said Scootaloo "We just needed to hope that you would wake up, like you did just now"
"Where's the manticore?" I asked.
"We managed to drag it back to where it was and run away before it woke up."
"Oh, ok, good."
I went back to gather the berries I had dropped in running, because I was now pretty hungry along with them. When I got back Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were examining the statue we had managed to hit while running. "I got the berries that I dropped" I said, and Scootaloo came and ate one.
"These don't taste that bad." She said
"They are at least better than my cooking." Said Sweetie Bell. We all laughed. Then Scootaloo face planted into the ground and Sweetie Bell started to glow.
"I think we should not have eaten those berries." Said Scootaloo in a muffled voice.
"At least we now have a light." I said
"Hey!" Argued Sweetie Bell, immediately taken aback by her low, booming voice.
When Scootaloo managed to keep here now 5 pound head off of the ground we looked at the statue some more.
"It looks like that statue of nightmare moon that Zecora showed us on nightmare night."
"Just a lot more run down and older."
"Wait a moment, if this is the statue of nightmare moon, then that path should lead us back to Ponyville!" Said Sweetie Bell in a voice that made us all laugh.
As we got to the end of the path, Scootaloo stopped suddenly and stared, we all looked at where she was looking and froze. "Oh, no. This is bad." We all said at once, as we looked at Ponyville, that was now in ruins.
