The sun shone brightly in the sky; only a few small, white clouds could be seen. The clouds didn’t spoil the view at all, instead, they made it even more beautiful. No changes to the weather were planned for the rest of the day, so those few clouds that were in the sky mostly had pegasi on them, leisurely sleeping to their hearts' content. The village was in a state of calm that only a harmonious and friendly community like Ponyville could achieve.
Many ponies were out in the streets, doing their everyday activities. Some were shopping for groceries while others simply chatted with their neighbors and friends. Some other ponies were working in the market, trying to sell as much of their stock as possible. They always had many customers on sunny days like this one. After all, who doesn’t like going into the sun on a beautiful day?
A certain earth pony mare was also going about her everyday business. She had a coat whose color seemed to be a mixture between light purple and dark red. Her mane was a grass green and was quite capacious. One might think that she had some kind of green plant on her head due to its color and volume. Her brown eyes looked over the market place while she stood at her stand.
Her cutie mark was a brown book with a red rose imprinted on its cover. To other ponies, it clearly showed that she had the unique talent of being skilled in a combination of scientific writing and gardening. Her job was a mixture of both. She inspected and analyzed plants as they grew, and then she wrote books about them. The books would contain methods of cultivation, typical taste, workings of the plant, areas where it could be found, and many other things. They were books that ponies of every kind could buy if they wanted to try gardening.
At the moment, a purple pegasus stallion was looking through a book on peppers. He had a wiry build; slim, yet muscular. This was a build you normally only got when you had a job in reconnaissance. His wings were a little bigger than normal, and a black and blue styled mane accompanied him. His cutie mark was some kind of knife or dagger, but the mare couldn’t tell which. She didn’t know anything about weapons. She didn’t need to. The only things she needed to know about were plants and books. The pegasus closed the book and placed it on the counter.
“I’ll think I’ll take that one today, Rose Book,” he remarked happily. “I've never tried to grow peppers before.” A slight chuckle escaped him. “But if this book is as good as your other ones, I am quite sure that I will have no problems growing them.”
Rose Book had to smile at that. His name, she remembered, was Purple Edge. She didn’t know what his job was, but he was one of her most frequent customers. He had said that he needed a hobby to compensate for his stressful job. So, one day, he bought a book about roses and followed the instruction in it. It was a common misunderstanding that only earth ponies could grow plants.
Everypony could grow them; the other two kinds just had it way harder. The earthen magic of the earth ponies seeps into the ground through their hooves and vitalizes the seeds, making it nearly impossible to destroy them. Pegasi and unicorns, lacking this advantage, simply had to make do.
Gardening without earthen magic was hard since there is so much that can go wrong. Many unicorns and pegasi tried to garden successfully, but most of them weren’t satisfied with their results. Over time, the idea that only earth ponies could grow plants came into the mind of the general public.
Rose Book smiled at the pegasus. “Alright, that will be 20 bits.” Purple Edge took out his money and put two larger sized golden bits on the counter. Rose took the bits and put them into a drawer. “Thank you Edge,” she said with a chuckle. “And don’t worry. I think you will be perfectly capable of growing beautiful peppers with this. Peppers aren’t that hard to grow,” Rose added.
The pegasus lifted an eyebrow and looked at the book. “I hope so. The bananas that I tried to grow... weren’t that pretty.”
A slight chuckle escaped Rose. “I told you that growing bananas is quite hard.”
The pegasus only sighed. “I know, I know. But hey! I wouldn’t be a hobby gardener if I didn't try to grow something more difficult,” he replied with a cocky smirk.
Rose smiled and shook her head. “No, you wouldn’t.”
They both shared a short laugh. After a short while, both just stared at each other awkwardly, not knowing what they should talk about. Suddenly, Purple Edge seemed to remember something.
With an unsure look, he asked: ”So, you’ll be going into the Everfree Forest later?”
The mare seemed to perk up, and looked at him with a quizzical expression. Shortly after, she realized why he had asked that. Her expression quickly changed to a warm smile.
With a short giggle, she answered him. “Hey Edge! You don’t need to be worried about me. I’m only taking seeds from the border of the forest. Dangerous animals don’t come to the border. There is no reason to worry about me. I do that every month, and nothing's ever happened to me.” It seemed sweet that he was worried about her.
After a short while, the pegasus only sighed. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am overreacting. It’s just that the Everfree Forest looks so dangerous.” The purple pegasus shook his head. “Nah, I think you’re right.” Just then, a bell rang, and both turned to the sound. The brown clock tower showed that it was now exactly 2PM. Purple Edge turned to Rose Book.
“Well, it was lovely talking to you. I gotta go, break’s over,” he exclaimed with a nervous voice.
Rose only had to giggle at this. “It’s alright. Have fun at work,” she happily shouted. The pegasus' face changed to discomfort for a short while, and Rose Book could swear that she heard him say: “Fun, yeah.” He started flying but stopped in midair. Slowly he turned around and with an unsure expression said one last thing to Rose Book before flying away.
“Try to only talk to ponies for a while.”
Rose Book didn’t know what he meant, but before she could ask him, he had already flown away. Only talk to ponies? What exactly did he mean? Rose just shook her head. Probably just some random comment. She looked around and saw some books laying on the counter. With a quiet grumble, she walked over to them and put them back to their appropriate place, just when a new customer arrived. Rose Book smiled. Today was a good day.
The sun was nearing the horizon. The streets of Ponyville weren’t as crowded as earlier. Slowly, the ponies began to end their everyday activities. The pegasi in the skies began flying home to Cloudsdale, and the talking neighbors began to end their conversations. Less and less customers were at the marketplace now, and Rose thought that she probably wouldn't have any more customers that day.
Hearing a bell ring, Rose Book turned to the clock tower and saw that it was 6PM. In one or two hours, the sun would set, and the streets would be nearly empty. “Seems like that’s it for today.” With a sigh, she began to stash all the books away. She took them from the counter and put them in some bags. After she stashed every book away, she took a broom and began to clean the floor of her stand.
Books didn't make a lot of dirt, but the visitors did. Ponies were often running around on such beautiful days, and it couldn't be helped if they carry some dirt to her stand. Rose honestly didn’t mind. She was happy to see the harmony of the ponies in the village. Cleaning up a little stand is nothing compared to that. Also, she liked cleaning up her stand. It felt like repairing something. To bring something to its nicest and most beautiful state. She loved making something shine. Her mother always used to tease her because of this. She said that she should have gotten a cutie mark as a fashion designer.
Ironically enough, she had once tried to sew. It hadn't turned out so well, and her mother never made the joke again. When Rose Book was finished cleaning up, she took a deep breath and overlooked her work. The stand was perfectly clean; it looked like nopony had been there the whole day. Satisfied with her work, she took her bags and began to put them on her back. Some of them were pretty heavy. Books aren’t lightweight.
With the books on her back, she turned around and walked out of the stand. When she left it, she turned around again and locked it with a key. Putting the key back into her back, she walked to the front of it and lowered the shutters. She wasn’t doing this for fear of thieves, but rather for fear of accidents. Once, there was a storm, and it had thoroughly demolished everything. Since that day, she always put down the shutters and closed the door. Cleaning didn’t annoy her, but that what that storm did was just too much.
Looking her stand over, she saw nothing wrong with it. With a last, satisfied nod, she turned away from her stand and began walking home. It was still quite bright, and the sunset hadn’t begun yet, but the day was nearing its end. With her bags over her back, she looked around the streets. Some ponies were waving to her, and she waved back. She was friends with many ponies, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course, there was one mare that had even more friends.
Pinkie Pie was bouncing along the streets, and gave a wave and a greeting to every pony she saw. Her cotton candy mane bounced along with her. Rose always had to smile a little at this. It just looked so silly. When the pink party pony saw Rose Book, she waved at her and Rose Book waved back with a slight chuckle.
“Hey Booky, you want to come to the ‘Welcome to Ponyville Ice Colt Party’? You know, he is a new pony, and as you know I throw parties for EVERY new pony. I heard he likes ice and crust, I mean ice crust. You know the one I mean. The ultimately tasteriffic ice crust from Ice Crust. Oh I love them. Oh and guess what, he also loves cupcakes!” Pinkie practically screamed the last part and jumped into the air.
Rose Book lowered her ears in order to not get assaulted by Pinkie's loud voice. Pinkie made as if to continue talking, but Rose motioned with her hoof to stop, a nervous smile on her face. Pinkie aborted her speaking attack and, leaning into Rose’s face with an overly happy smile, said: “Do you want to come?”
Rose honestly considered going to the party, but then she remembered that she still had to go to the Everfree Forest to get some seeds. With a sigh, she slowly shook her head. “Sorry Pinkie, but I still need to do something. Next time, okay?” Rose explained with a reassuring smile.
Pinkie frowned for about a second, but it instantly changed back to a smile. “Okey-dokey. A party is still a party even with only 42 guests. See you later, Booky,” she shouted happily as she continued on her bounce through the street.
“Goodbye Pinkie,” Rose called back to the bouncing mare, who gave one more wave without turning around. Rose let out a happy sigh and continued to walk to her home. After some minutes, she finally arrived. It was a single orange house with a green roof. The neighbors call it the Carrot Building. A green door led into the house, which had two floors. Rose always loved the feeling of arriving home. With one of her hooves, she opened the door and trotted in.
Closing the door behind her, she walked over to one of her tables and threw her bags on it. Then she simply sat down on the floor. With a deep breath, she rested a little. There was no point in going to her living room since she still had to go away again. If she sat down in her living room, she would most likely postpone her trip to tomorrow. No, she was not the perfect working type. She liked cleaning and being friendly to customers, but if she got comfortable on her couch, she wished to never stand up again.
While sitting down for a short while, she thought back to her family and to some happy memories she shared with them. With a slight chuckle, she stood up and looked out of the window. The sun was nearly at the horizon. Maybe thirty minutes before dusk. She slowly stood up and walked over to the table where she'd left her bags. She took one and cleared out all the books. When it was nearly empty, she slung it over her back. Then, she walked to the front door and left the house.
Outside, the streets were now pretty empty. Only a few ponies were still walking around, mostly headed for home. Tomorrow was a work day, so they'd need to sleep early. Rose Book turned and began walking in a direction that didn't have many houses. This was the road to the Everfree Forest.
She continued walking on for some minutes until there were no houses around her anymore. She left the village, and the only thing that was ahead of her were some grassy plains on the left and a cottage on the right. The cottage was Fluttershy’s home, and Rose Book could see that she had just brought out dinner for her animals. With a smile, Rose took a turn and walked over to the cottage. Fluttershy saw her when she looked up from her beavers. She stiffened for a moment, but quickly relaxed when she realized that it was only Rose Book.
“Oh hello there, Rose Book. Are you getting more seeds from the Everfree Forest?” Fluttershy asked in her typical soft spoken voice. A toucan landed on one of Fluttershy’s shoulders and chortled at Rose. Rose pulled her head back a little, and Fluttershy turned to the toucan. “Mister Toucan. I told you that you can’t do that to ponies. Apologize!” Fluttershy scolded the toucan, and he lowered his head.
With a quiet whimper, he held out his claw. Rose accepted it with a chuckle. “No worries. He just surprised me.” When Rose was finished shaking claws with the toucan, she turned to Fluttershy, who had a warm smile on her lips. “Yes, I need more seeds from there. Even though I've written a lot of books already, I can’t stop searching for new ones,” Rose explained.
Fluttershy looked a little worried. “Well, as long as you are careful.”
Rose giggled at this. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. It’s not my first time in the forest. I can look out for myself.” Hoping to reassure Fluttershy, Rose Book placed a hoof on the shoulder that was not occupied by a toucan.
“I know," Fluttershy sighed. "But promise me that you'll come to my cottage if something happens,” Fluttershy urged Rose.
Rose needed to suppress an eyeroll. Fluttershy always said that.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy. Nothing will happen, and if something does, I will immediately run to your cottage.”
Fluttershy seemed to calm down after these words and sighed in relief. “Well ok then. If you’ll excuse me, I need to continue feeding my little friends. Good luck!” Fluttershy said while turning around.
“Bye Fluttershy!” Rose called after her, then continued walking down the path to the Everfree. After a minute of walking, she stood at the border to the Everfree Forest. A last gaze back to Ponyville and Rose saw that it was dusk. In less than ten minutes, it would be dark. The dangerous animals don’t come out until about two hours after dark, so she still had a lot of time. Looking back at the Everfree Forest, she let out a deep sigh.
It looked so different. While the normal world looked colorful and happy, the forest just seemed dark and gray. It always seemed so foreboding. The dangerous looking plants always woke a feel of dread inside of her. The animal noises made her feel endangered. To not know what just made a sound and how far away it was, could scare a pony. Something could always just leap down upon her, and it was impossible to look at everything at once. No matter how fast one could turn, there was always a blind spot.
Her throat felt dry, and she wished she had drunk something before she left her home. The forest was too natural. It was nature in its purest form. A place where only the strongest survived. A place with predators. A place where she was considered food by more than one animal. A place with animals that could be so silent that she would never hear them until it was too late. Nopony forced her to go into there. She could still turn around.
Her body urged her to just turn around and run away. The bad feeling in her stomach practically screamed at her to not go inside the forest. Her hooves felt cold as if the ground was freezing. Why did it feel so cold? Maybe she should just turn around and get back to her warm house; to her books; to her couch; to her bed. Yes, she could just turn around and go to the forest tomorrow, when it was bright again. Nopony should go into the Everfree Forest when it was dark. The foreboding feelings told her that it was practically against her nature to go to such a dark and dangerous place.
Rose knew that it was not dangerous right now. She knew that nothing would threaten her life in the next two hours. Her safety was guaranteed for that time. So why should she turn back now? She still had time. There was no way that she came out here for nothing! She tried to reassure her stomach and her knees that it was not dangerous in there, right now. Her body did not listen and instead intensified the signs of fear. Rose let out a shaky sigh. She needed to go in there.
Taking one step, she came closer to the forest and the signs of fear intensified. Another step, and the same thing happened again. At the third step, she passed the border of the forest. Now, her body suddenly said to move faster. This time, she listened to it and quickly took another couple of steps. She now was in a decently speedy trot.
The feelings changed from fear to something that told her that she was being watched. She felt as if thousands of eyes were watching her from every side. It felt like tiny needles were always poking at her. She noticed multiple times that she began scratching at some spots without any apparent reason.
Hastily, she looked around; to her left; to her right. The trees seemed to have faces, and they all seemed to watch her. They were watching her every move. As she trotted down the path, she felt something crawl up her neck. She made a short stop and used her right fore-hoof to ruffle her mane. After some scratching, she put the hoof down again. When the hoof touched the ground, and she continued on her path, the scratching sensation came back.
She ignored it for now. There was nothing in her mane, and she knew it. Suddenly, something seemed to move at the left edge of her vision. She instantly turned her head left. There was nothing. With all her concentration, she focused on every aspect of the forest before her. She couldn’t see anything moving. Her breath quickened again. She swore that something moved earlier. Her ears were completely standing and scanned the environment for potential threats.
Suddenly, there was some kind of very faint noise. It nearly sounded like a groan. Quickly turning to the side she thought the noise came from, she stood still and listened. She didn’t know what she wanted more. If the noise would appear again, she may have a chance to guess what it was. On the other hoof, if it never appeared again, she could hope that whatever created it vanished. After a minute of staying perfectly still on the spot, she decided to move slowly forward again. Maybe it was just her imagination.
Her body urged her to turn around and run as fast as possible out of the forest, but she came too far to turn back now. With a shaky breath, she slowly walked along the way again. Whenever her ears picked up even the faintest of sounds, she would instantly turn to the direction of it and look at it for some time. The moving figures on the edge of her vision became more frequent the longer she was in the forest. The itching sensation on seemingly random places of her body didn’t help to calm her down. One itch was especially strong. It was the itch on her neck, near her mane.
Rose knew that there was nothing in her mane. The only thing that produced this itchy sensation was her own nervousness. She tried to suppress the urge to scratch her mane furiously, and it seemed to work, but after some time, the scratch seemed to intensify. After several seconds, she couldn’t control herself anymore and scratched her mane. For a short time, it felt like heaven, but that ended when she hit something hard with her hoof.
Suddenly, she panicked and let out a loud scream. There was something in her mane! With a strong punch, she threw it off and jumped two hoof-strides to the side. Her eyes quickly darted around the environment in order to find the thing. It didn’t take long until she saw the outline of it. She couldn’t see the whole thing due to the darkness of the forest. It seemed to have a lengthy thin shape. It wasn’t too bulky, maybe only one hoof long, but that didn’t matter right now. It fell out of her mane, and she was still terrified by it.
Rose didn’t dare walk towards the thing. She rather looked at it from afar. Her heart was beating at an incredible speed, and her throat hurt. Not only was she thirsty beyond comparison, but her scream hurt it too. Sweat was everywhere over her coat, even though the temperature seemed to be freezing. Her eyes were thoroughly concentrated on the thing that was in her mane. What was it? Was it some kind of bug? Was it some kind of monster? Was it something worse?
She still continued to look at the thing in pure terror. Wait, did it just move? No, she wasn’t sure. It seemed to twitch, but only so slightly. There, it moved again. No, it didn’t. Was it moving or not? Rose Book took a huge gulp. She needed to get closer to it. If she wouldn’t know what this thing was, this would be on her consciousness for a long time. She wanted to walk forward, but her hooves didn’t want to respond. It was obvious to her that this thing was not dangerous, due to its size and the fact that it was not moving. Or at least she thought that it was not moving. Ever so slowly, she began to walk towards the mysterious thing.
As she slowly came closer, she realized that the thing was not moving. This gave her at least a little peace in her heart, even though it was still pumping like crazy. Due to the darkness, she wasn’t able to make out what it was. With a shaky sigh, she reached with her hoof to the thing. With one last deep breath, she began moving it towards it. When she touched it, she instantly withdrew her hoof again. The thing didn’t move.
Shortly after, she put her hoof on the thing again. This time, she only retracted it slightly. Her fear was slowly being calmed. She was thankful beyond comprehension that this thing didn’t seem alive. When she put her hoof on it for a third time, she let it stay on the thing and felt it. It wasn’t soft, but it also couldn’t be considered hard. She knew that feeling. Following a hunch, she picked it up and brought it closer to her eyes. When she saw what it was, she had to laugh.
It was a pinecone. All this just because of a pinecone. She began laughing louder and louder. Panicking just because of a pinecone. It was so embarrassing that she only could laugh. The fear that dampened her senses slowly vanished. She finally felt safe again. How could she fall into panic? She knew that there was no danger in here for at least two more hours. The forest felt warm again and the itches on her body stopped itching. She finally calmed down.
Rose took the pinecone and threw it to the side, at some tree. The pinecone landed against it and rolled to the floor, but Rose didn’t care anymore. With a small smile still on her face, she began to walk further into the forest. She didn’t feel the need to sprint anymore and simply walked forward. The forest didn’t seem so scary anymore.
She walked along the path for quite some time. To her right, the ground fell away in a steep drop. The drop wasn’t exactly dangerous with its four meters of height, but if she fell down there, she would have problems getting back up. The forest seemed to continue down there. Rose Book had never walked this far into the forest before. It seemed like the pinecone incident earlier calmed her down so much that she didn’t even notice how deep into the forest she'd gone.
She'd totally forgotten about searching for the seeds. That was the reason why she was in here to begin with. With a silent curse, she looked around the ground of the forest. She needed those seeds or else all of this would have been for nothing. She quickly found some plants on the ground. When she saw them, her expression changed to a smile, but it vanished quickly. Poison Joke. No, she didn’t need them. Getting poisoned by Poison Joke now would be just plain stupid.
With a sigh, she continued searching for more plants. A little while later, she found some kind of field with green flowers. Strangely enough, the flowers were blooming. Most plants only bloom in the daytime, closing at night to conserve their energy. She made out one single plant from the field. This one stood a little bit away from the rest of the field. Maybe it was a plant that bloomed all the time, or maybe an even rarer kind: A plant that only bloomed at night?
The form of the plant was similar to Poison Joke. If its color weren't green, it might even be possible to confuse the two. Rose was happy to see this plant. She never heard of this kind of flower, and finding an entirely new kind could be extremely interesting. Slowly, she walked over to the plant. Strangely enough, it seemed to glow. From up close the plant looked even more beautiful.
Rose wanted to pick it up, but she stopped herself. She didn’t know that plant. It could be poisonous. Picking up a flower she'd never heard of, with her mouth, didn’t seem to be a good idea. But she couldn’t just leave it here. Luckily, she always carried her Pick-Piece with her. Craning her neck, she put her head over her saddle bag and opened it up. After it was opened, she looked deeper inside and took out some kind of device.
The device looked like two long boards, which connected at one edge, creating a V-shape. Some strange teeth markings could be seen at the spot where the two boards connected. Rose smiled and put her teeth to the markings. She lifted it up and made two test snaps with it. The boards connected at the front and made a quiet clapping noise. When she relaxed her jaw muscles again, the thing opened up. If she didn't have something in her mouth, she would have smiled right then.
She slowly lowered her head down to the green plant and tilted it. Moving her head further forwards, she placed the boards around the stem. Carefully, she bit down on the apparatus, and it closed itself around the stem. With great care, she weakly pulled on the flower. She felt it pulling out of the floor, but the roots were still firmly lodged in the ground. Letting go of the flower, she moved the apparatus further down to the ground. The plant’s roots were too deep in the earth. She had to change her picking tactic.
This time, she bit down harder until she had a firm grip on the flower. With a strong yank, she picked up the whole flower. Some roots were torn away, but most of the flower seemed to be in a good state. Carefully, she put the flower into her saddle-bag and also put the apparatus back into there. When she was finished, she let out a sigh. This was risky. If the flower was dangerous by smell, she would feel pretty miserable right now, but this didn’t seem to be the case.
This plant didn’t seem to be poisonous, at least by smell. This was already a good trip. One does not discover a new plant every day. Looking up at the sky, she saw that the moon already rose above the horizon. Judging by it, she was half an hour in the forest. She still had around an hour and a half to return. That was enough time. With a smile, she decided to walk back to Ponyville.
A totally new plant. Rose felt giddy when she thought about analyzing something she never heard of before. Maybe this plant could be used to cure some disease? Maybe it was edible? Maybe it could keep bugs away? So many possibilities. After a short while of walking, she was back at the ledge again. When she saw it, she stopped. When she thought about it, she realized that she never saw this ledge before.
Looking back at the moon, she saw that she still had time. A short look wouldn’t hurt. Slowly and carefully, she walked to the ledge. When she arrived, she slowed down even more. If she fell down there, everything could happen. She could lose her way and wander around aimlessly. She could get hurt by the fall. In the worst case, she couldn’t get out of the forest on time. There was no way she would survive a whole night alone in the Everfree Forest.
Before she came close to the ledge, she got down on her body. Slipping now would be disastrous. Slowly, she crawled forward to the edge. When she arrived, she put her head over it and looked down. She didn’t see what she expected. A floor like of the rest of the forest was what she expected, not purple grass. The trees looked the same as on the rest of the forest, and they were still large enough to block her view. She could only see some ground from where she stood right now.
The purple grass genuinely confused her. Why was the grass down there purple? There was surely no reason for that color. After a short while of looking, she also noticed that the trees were slightly different at the trunk. The trunk of the trees also was purple on the bottom, but changed color to brown the further up they went. That was strange. Rose never heard of trees with two different colors on their trunk before.
Speaking of it, the trees seemed to be a little bit different than the normal ones if one looked ever so closely. The leaves had a darker green tone in comparison to the other ones. Their forms also seemed to be more… wild. Instead of flat and even leaves, they looked rougher. They had some kind of needles coming out of their edges. Those needles couldn’t be called dangerous, but they just looked strangely aggressive. As if the forest warns everypony who comes here. The downright strange look practically screamed “stay out of here!”
Rose felt strangely fascinated by the looks of this particular part of the forest. What kinds of plants would she find here? What kind of new life was blooming in this part? Were there undiscovered animals? Maybe she should return another day, when there still was sunlight. With a sigh, she looked up. Wait, there was something. There, on a branch on a tree, was some kind of white flower. It looked a little like an apple flower, but strangely different.
It also looked a little wilder, just like the leaves. Instead of seemingly sensual petals, this flower had rough ones. It consisted of those rough petals and a blossom that looked like one large spike. Just like the green plant, Rose never saw this one before. Two unknown kinds of flowers in one night. This was her lucky night. The flower bloomed from one of those trees that were located at the bottom of the ledge.
It was only two meters away from the edge of the ledge. It was so close, yet so far away. There was surely no way for her to reach it without climbing down the ledge. But Rose knew that if she would climb down, she wouldn’t be able to come back up again. She wanted that flower, but not so badly that she would risk her life for it. With a sigh, she stood up. Nothing more to do here. It was also time to go home now. While an hour and a half was still plenty of time, she couldn’t be careful enough.
Slowly, she turned around. It was time to go home. When she turned around, she saw some of the green flowers again. Wait, something was different. Weren’t there more flowers earlier? She squinted and looked closer at the field. Yes, there certainly were fewer flowers, and something different. What was this dark spot that blocked the view of some flowers?
Rose wasn’t able to tell what this dark spot was. Was it a tree? Was it just some random empty spot? Was it her imagination? Suddenly, her ears perked up. There was a faint sound, and she obviously did not like that sound. If one concentrated on that sound, one could hear the rhythm of breathing. The fact that the sound originated from the flower field didn’t help in calming her down.
Slowly, all the signs of fear returned. Rose totally forgot about the fact that it was night, and she was in the Everfree Forest. But this was impossible! The animals don’t wake up for at least 90 more minutes. This couldn’t be an animal. Wait, maybe this animal was here all along, sleeping beside the field. No, that was impossible. She would have noticed it earlier when she picked the flower.
She suddenly felt cold again. The itches on her body returned, and her ears were fully focused on the direction of the flower field. Her eyes quickly made some sideway glances but never left the shadow for more than half a second. The movement on the edge of her vision returned as well, and she needed to control herself to not hastily look in every direction. The only potentially dangerous thing was this shadow by the flowers.
If it was an animal, she could be in massive trouble. The shadow was at least two meters high and at least one meter wide. If this really was an animal, then it was big. She quickly went over her knowledge about wildlife in Everfree. What was this? Timberwolve – no, not the right proportions. Manticore – no, a manticore would be bigger and would also have different proportions. Ursa – too big. Dragon – too big. Hydra – too big. That’s it. She didn’t know any more dangerous animals that were located in the Everfree Forest.
What was this thing? Was it even an animal? Maybe she just imagined things that weren’t there. Yet, she still didn’t dare to move. Like a rock, she stood motionlessly in place. Her eyes haven’t picked up any movement from the shadow. Maybe it wasn’t an animal after all. Suddenly, Rose saw movement on the corner of her eyes. Out of reflex, she looked for a short time to that direction but didn’t see anything.
She quickly looked back to the shadow. Wait, did it get bigger? Rose wasn’t quite sure, but the shadow seemed bigger than before. No, this was not possible. She was quite sure that it did not move. The chances of the shadow moving exactly in those two seconds she looked away were too small. Yet, she couldn’t take her eyes away from the shadow. Her eyes told her that it had definitely gotten bigger.
There was still this faint sound of breathing in her ears that did not change. It still came from that shadow, but it hadn’t moved. Maybe it came from behind the shadow? Rose was not sure, and she didn’t really want to know. The only thing she wanted to do was run away, but her body didn’t want to. Her body told her to run, yet it also told her to stay perfectly still. It was as if it couldn’t decide. If this really was some kind of monster or animal, sudden movement could startle it. This was the last thing she wanted to do.
Moving only her eyes, she looked to her left. There was the way; the way back home. Maybe if, she moved terribly slowly, she would be able to make some distance between her and that… thing. Yes, she just needed to slowly walk over there. Rose quickly moved her eyes back to the shadow. It had undoubtedly gotten bigger. Rose had to put all her effort into suppressing a scream. There was no doubt, the shadow was bigger.
While it had been around ten meters away at the beginning, that distance was maybe five meters now. The shadow seemed to have doubled in size, and she only saw half of the flower field beyond it, while she saw nearly the whole field earlier. On top of that, the sound of breathing was louder now. It could undeniably be recognized as breathing now. There was no doubt, something stood before her, and if the fact that the distance between her and the shadow had been halved meant anything, it could only mean that this thing knew she was here.
But why didn’t it move now? Just as before, it didn’t seem to move at all. This didn’t make any sense. There were no animals that only moved when somepony didn’t look at them. Her itch felt unbearable. She needed to scratch herself badly, yet there was no way she would do that now. Movement could make this… thing attack. But she also couldn’t just continue staying here. It wasn’t as if it would just turn around and walk away.
But movement could make this situation even worse. She took a remarkably quick glance to the sky but returned her gaze directly back at the shadow. It didn’t move. Maybe this short interval was too small for it to move? She did some more short glances, and the thing never moved. The breathing also didn’t get louder. There also was still the matter that she was not able to recognize the form of the shadow. The only thing she could see was that it was taller than wide and that the size was too tall for her tastes.
It simply looked like a deep void. The shadow seemed to be even darker than the forest around her. Normally, fur or skin was able to reflect small amounts of light. Yet, the fur, coat, skin, or whatever this thing had seemed to absorb it. What was this? What should she do? Would she arrive at home safely? She was barely able to grasp her own thoughts in the state of panic she was in. What could she do to get out of this situation?
There were only three possible actions she could take. Wait until the shadow disappears; try to escape down the path; slide down the ledge. The ledge was directly behind her. One step and she would fall down, but she couldn’t possibly do that. She wasn’t able to observe this area due to the high trees. On top of that, she wouldn’t be able to climb back up if needed. Hooves were not made for climbing. Also, she didn’t know what was down there. What if this thing originated from this strange new part of the forest?
Staying here would be the worst action. There was no way that this thing would just turn around and leave. Apart from that, it would be impossible to concentrate on this thing for an extended period of time. She was already awake for roughly 14 hours. If this thing was nocturnal like all the other dangerous things in the forest, it would have just woken up, if it even sleeps. There were also other monsters in the forest. At night, this shadow wouldn’t be the only thing that was after her.
There was only one option; escape to the path. She needed to move. There was no possible way for this to play out well if she didn't move. She tried to take a step to her left, but her legs wouldn’t budge. Her hooves felt like they were lodged in the earth. They didn’t want to move. She urged them to walk to the side, but they didn’t listen. Instead, they only began to get shaky. Her knees were slowly starting to shake. She tried to stop them, but nothing seemed to be able to calm them down.
After some seconds, they were full out shaking uncontrollably. “Move. By Celestia, just move,” she told them over and over again in a nearly inaudible voice. The shadow still only continued standing there, foreboding, ready to attack. Rose allowed something she hasn’t allowed herself for a long time. She allowed herself to take a deep breath. There was no way to get out of this if she couldn’t think clearly.
The thing didn’t seem to show any reaction to this at all. Rose took some more deep breaths, and she was finally able to calm her knees. There were still some movements at the corner of her eyes, and a spot at one of her shoulders itched, but at least her knees were calm again. She was ready. It was now or never. With one last breath, she lifted her left fore-hoof and placed it to her left. The shadow did not move. The breathing pattern did not change.
Her hoof touched down, and there was still no reaction. She could do it! After a short pause, she slowly moved her left back-hoof also to the left. Still no reaction. With one more breath, she moved the rest of her body to her left hooves. Neither the size, nor the sound of the thing changed. Rose only moved around 30 centimeters, yet this was a monumental step. It showed her that she was able to escape.
Constantly checking that she wouldn’t step down the ledge, she took another step towards the path. The shadow still didn’t move. Rose let out another deep breath. There was a chance to get out of this. Rose quickly took a glance to her left and instantly turned back. She wouldn’t let this shadow out of her eyes for even one full second. It didn’t move. She took another glance, another one, another one, and another one.
Now she was able to judge how far she still had to walk and in what direction exactly. Slowly, she took another step towards safety. Still no reaction. She then took another one, and another one. Around three meters were now between her old position and her new one. The shadow didn’t seem to move at all. It was still at its old position. From her new point of view, she could also see that the shadow was actually around eight to ten meters away from her old position. Apparently, she had misjudged the distance because of the size of the thing. It was way bigger than she had thought. It might even go up to three meters.
Rose took another couple of steps, her breaths still being extremely fast and deep. Her heart was also pumping in a rapid rhythm. She was sweating like crazy, and her hairs on her coat stood up. She wanted to do nothing more than to just turn around and flee as fast as she could. Yet, there was no way she would do this. She knew practically nothing about this thing. It was possible that this shadow could move at unreal speeds. Instead of running away, she just took some more slow steps.
After a while, she felt the ledge again with one of her hooves. Making a pause, she decided to take some quick glances to her potential escape route. She took one quick glance to the path. A second shadow. There stood a second shadow, not even five meters away from her. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from it. It was just too close. All her hairs stood up like never before in her life and her eyes shrunk down to the size of needles. Her ears nearly tore themselves of her head while standing in perfect stasis. Her breathing fully stopped. Even her sweat stopped. For a second, it even felt like her heart stopped.
Her mind shut down. This shock was too much. Like a statue, she stood frozen in place, gaze locked on the second shadow. Rose was not able to formulate any thoughts. There was nothing going on in her head. She simply watched the thing. Even from this close, there was no way to recognize any features it had. It was just a mass of black. Just like the other one, this shadow didn’t move. It also breathed in the same rhythm the other one did.
Wait, was it getting louder? The breath seemed to get louder, but something didn’t seem right here. Suddenly, Rose’s ears turned around and she stopped thinking. The breath that was getting louder came from the first shadow that was, by the sound of it, directly breathing down her neck. She didn’t think anymore. Her body moved without her giving an order. Acting as if it had a mind of its own, her body immediately jumped down the ledge.
Author's Note
Well, now the real story begins. I hope some of you liked it. Chapter 2 is already 2000 words in, an I don't intend to change this story to gore or something different later on. The last 5000 words you read are basically how the rest of the story will look like.
Hope you liked it and a big thank you to I See You for being my editor and the Eye of Sauron.
