The Journey's Beginning

The next day came too early for Code. Then again, most mornings came too early for him. He woke up to the sound of a pony knocking at his door and shouting his name.
"Code, get your butt up!"
He groaned and turned over, burrowing his face deeper into his pillow. "Five more minutes"

A sudden burst of light came through the door, and his marefriend was insantly standing next to his bed.
"You said that four times already! Enough is enough, we gotta get moving!" She lit her magic and lifted Code off of the bed.
Code flipped over in the air to face her, his eyes only slightly opened. "I dare you." He said with a challenging tone.
She locked eyes with him and released her magic, slamming him to the floor. Groaning, he stood up and shook his head, fixing his mane. "Well, I did dare you."

Runa giggled and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Come on sleepy head, everypony is waiting for you. Here, I'll help you." She lifted his bag up and placed it on his back, quickly fastening the clasps around his wings. "All done, now its time to go." She opened the door and with a playful smile, left the room.
Code sighed and adjusted the bag so he could use his wings, "Why did we have to leave in the MORNING" He groaned as he himself left the room. The lanterns on the walls were brighter than the night before, signaling, as Code would learn, that the sun had risen. He went through the kitchen, into the dining room, where indeed all of his friends were waiting.

All of them were standing by the door, trying to hold in laughter while Dreamie tried to talk to a pile of luggage. No, Code thought, that's not a pile of luggage. Walking around Runa, he saw Amity,shaking under the weight of her pack, grinning from ear to ear.

"I...didn't know....what I... would need," She struggled to say, "so....I just...grabbed it all." She shifted her pack to try and get more comfortable, only to cause everything to shift to her left side and have her fall over. Everypony in the room burst out in laughter, save for Dreamie, who was obviously trying to hold it back

"Amity," She said after a deep breath, "You don't need all that stuff. We will only be gone for a few days." She quickly turned her head towards Jet, who blushed and shied backwards. "Besides, we all have stuff that we can share together, so it won't be that big a deal."

"Well, okay. Can you give me a minute to unpack and repack?"

"Sure, we don't mind waiting."

Code glared at his marefriend, who smiled sheepishly. He laid down and closed his eyes, mumbling about his sleep being interrupted. He was just about to doze off when Amity announced that she was done.

He opened his eyes and was only slightly humored when her saw her still wearing an overstuffed pack, but by the looks of things, she had already taken out most of the stuff she was going to bring.

"That'll have to do, we should be leaving." Dreamie picked up her bag and walked out the door, followed in suit by her friends. Code yawned and followed the group outside, where they were all surprised to see a small farm, and sunlight. the door they exited from was hidden in the shadows of a small hill. In front of the hill was a small field, which was home to a small, fenced in garden, filled with odd fruits. Surrounding this field was the looming Everfree Forest.

"It's a spell," Amity said, causing Code to jump, "surrounding this field is a small warding spell that keeps the trees from growing and the fog from entering. My grandmother put it here so she could grow food so she didn't have to go into town."

"It's amazing," CandyMellow exclaimed, running over to the garden and smelling a flower.

"It's amazingly simple," Dreamie said in awe. She walked over to the edge of the clearing and put her hoof into the fog, then back inside the invisible barrier, "I wish I had time to record this."

"Me too," Jet nodded knowingly, "but we need to get to the Pillars as soon as possible. We can always record more about this when we return."

"Alrighty then fellas," Time Chaser said, bouncing around the field, "Let's head out on our adventure!"

The group huddled up together, with Amity at the lead and they stepped over the threshold of fog. After a few seconds, the majestic scenery of the field began to shift and waver, before completely fading all together, as if it had never been there in the first place.
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This was Amities first time out this far past the field, and so far, she was letting her new friends down. She had already sprung five traps that her family had originally placed for any monsters that strayed too close to their home. If that wasn't bad enough, she herself placed three of the ones she triggered.
Currently, she was spending extra time trying to cut down TimeChaser, who was dangling by one hoof up in the air.

"Sorry about that,"she apologized, "My map says the trap was more to the left of us, I don't know how we triggered it."

"It's alright," TimeChaser said just as the rope got cut and she hit her head on the floor, "Ouchies."

Dreamie walked next to Amity, her face revealing her concern, "Are you alright Amity? You seem kinda off."

Amity looked at her new friend and she knew she couldn't say how much she was freaking out, "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a little excited that I am finally able to leave the house without one of my parents or older brothers tagging along. I'm.... fine." She smiled sheepishly, hoping her new friend wouldn't ask her again.

"Well that's understandable," Dreamie said with a smile, "this is new for all of us, nopony I know of has ever gone through the forest this far before. Sorry, but you're going to have to save the exhilaration until we get out of here, some of our group are getting a little scared."

"M.M..m..More... than a llli..little....." Candy Mellow stuttered, backing into Code and screaming.

"Alright, lets see here..." she looked closer at the map, silently cursing her own horrible hoofwritting. "Umm... I think we should go...uh....that way." She pointed straight ahead of her, right towards a big cliff. "No, uh... this way." She started walking around the cliff.

From behind her, she heard Jet mumble, "Remind me again why we brought her along. Isn't she supposed to know where we are going?" Amity walked a tad bit faster, nearly tripping another trap. "What am I here for?" She asked herself, "It hasn't even been an hour and I have already started screwing things up. Now I see why Dad wanted me to stay home. I can still go home, just turn around and-"

"What's the matter Amity?" Time Chaser asked, bouncing up next to the embarrassed pony,knocking her from her thoughts, "you look exhausted."

"Why does everypony keep asking me what's wrong? I am fine."

"Really, cause you sound annoyed."

"I'm not annoyed," she snapped angrily. Noticing her anger, she took a quick deep breath and turned to T.C.
"Really, I'm not annoyed. I'm just... not used to this."
"This being... other ponies?"

"Yeah, I'm.. not used to it is all. Its causing me to read the map all wrong and I get turned around and upside down. To be honest, I don't even think I am leading us the right way anymore."

"Don't worry," Code said, walking up next to her and putting his hoof around her, "you'll figure it out. Your part of the herd now! Its way too late for you to go home now."

The extravagent way he presented it caused Amity to chuckle and clear her head. She took another look at the map and pointed up the small hill next to them, "We have to go that way."

That was when she heard the howling. It was distant, and quiet, but she still heard it throught the forest. She froze in place while her new friends trotted up the hill, listening for any other disterbance. Suddenly, she heard it, a rustling in the bushes to the side. She almost eased up until she realized that was the direction they had come from, and they just disabled all of the traps!

"What's wrong Amity?" Dreamie asked worried, "you look like you just saw a ghost."

"We have to run, now." She said, trotting up the hill in a quick sprint.

"What?" Jet asked as she passed, "Why?"

"Timberwolves!" And then, the forest exploded. Timberwolves of various sizes and colors all pounced on the unsespecting herd, and they would have been immediately crushed or worse had it not been for Dreamie and Jet quickly producing a shield for them and teleporting them to Amity. Immediatly after the teleportation, they set off in a run, with Code flying alongside them.

They began running blindly, aimlessly following behind Amity, who would occasionally make a sharp turn or, in one case, slide through a small whole. All the while, the Timberwolves were right behind them, pawing and clawing over eachother to get to the little ponies [1] Almost out of breath, Amity suddenly stopped still and seemingly dissapeared. One by one, the ponies followed her, running straight to where she was and falling down the perfectly pony sized whole in the ground.

Above them, the Timberwolves clawed and bited at them, but the whole was surreonded by moss covered stones, so their claws kept slipping off.
"I..have never seen... them act like that." Amity huffed, catching her breath
"I've never heard of them in a pack that big either," Dreamie said, pondering "This isn't the first time something unusual like this has happened, especially in the Everfree."

Author's Note

[1] Isn't there a rule that says this has to be mentioned in every decent fanfiction?