Chapter IX- Rotten Luck

Have you ever had a bad day? I mean like, a REALLY bad day? As if the universe itself was conspiring against you? Sure you have. Everyone has a day like that every once in a while and if you haven’t had one recently, watch yourself because that just means you’re overdue for one and odds are the day will try to make up for lost time. That’s the kind of day Meadow Sweet was having. The day began just like any other. The Earth pony woke up like she did every morning, crawled out of her tent, and had a breakfast of porridge with milk and dried berries with her fellow Everfree Rangers. A Pegasus with a dark purple mane and sky blue coat named Whisper Wind, and a unicorn with a snow white coat and blonde mane named Summer Shudder, but the instant she left their campsite it all went downhill.

Her run of bad luck started when she went to tend to a call of nature. She tripped over an exposed tree root and landed face first into a cluster of poison joke that she was sure wasn't there the day before. The foliage of Everfree had a habit of moving around, of growing, vanishing, and re-growing as if on a whim. It wasn't the first time the forest had played a practical joke on her and it wouldn't be the last. Mumbling angrily under her breath, she returned to camp covered from head to hoof in blue bumps the size of gum drops. Her companions shook with laughter as she retrieved the tube of salve they kept in their medical kit for just such emergencies.

“Yeah yeah.” She said unscrewing the cap. “Laugh it up.”

She turned the tube upside down and gave it a squeeze. Instead of giving her a generous hoof-ful of soothing salve, the tube sneezed a pitiful amount of air into her hoof. Her companions laughed even harder.

“If you like I can try to freeze the bumps off?” Summer Shudder offered.

“Fine.” Meadow sighed dropping the tube back into the first aid kit. “Just get it over with.”

Summer Shudder’s horn began to glow an icy blue and a few of the bumps on Meadow’s cream colored coat froze over.

“Did it work?” Meadow asked.

The ice cracked and fell away revealing two larger bumps underneath.

“Oh my!” Summer Shudder chuckled behind a hoof as Meadow moaned. “I guess now they’re cold sores.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Meadow growled.

Whisper Wind flexed his wings and motioned his head towards the path that led to the main road and eventually Ponyville. Meadow Sweet sighed and shook her head.

“No it’s okay.” She said. “It wasn’t that big of a patch. These will be gone by the end of the day… I hope…”

Whisper Wind raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’m sure.” Meadow Sweet said. “Thanks anyway Whisp. Let’s just get to work.”

The mute Pegasus shrugged and the three split off to tend to their usual rounds in the forest. As rangers it was their duty to keep a watchful eye on Everfree Forest. While it was true that the ponies of Equestria couldn’t tame the wilds of Everfree that didn’t mean they couldn’t make sure the creatures that lived there behaved themselves and didn’t attack anypony that traveled the roads along the forest’s edge. It was a dangerous but rewarding job that kept Meadow in the forest eight months out of the year but she wouldn’t trade it for the world, even on days like this.

Her run of bad luck didn’t end with the swan dive into the patch of poison joke. When she went to check on a pack of timber wolves that had recently claimed a vacant cave as their own, she stepped on an ink cap mushroom and got the bottom of her legs covered in black spores that while not deadly, wouldn’t come out without scalding hot water and a vigorous scrubbing.

Grumbling and cursing to herself, Meadow made her way to another section of the forest, keeping a careful eye on the ground, watching out for anymore roots and ink caps. Unfortunately, this caused her to miss the hornet’s nest that was hanging from a low branch. Her ranger training had conditioned her to travel noiselessly through the forest but that went out the window as she galloped through the trees and the hornet’s stingers began to burrow into her body like red hot needles. She spotted a stream up ahead and with a grunt of effort jumped in without a second thought. The hornets hovered above the water for about a minute, waiting for her to resurface then flew away to rebuild their home. Meadow Sweet quickly resurfaced gasping for breath. She groaned and shook her gold colored mane which was now a soaked and tangled rat’s nest. According to the position of the sun it was midday and she and her rangers would be meeting back at camp for lunch. She swam out of the water and began the long walk back to camp, limping along the way.

“Ow… Ow… Ow…”

Summer Shudder and Whisper Wind’s eyes widened when they saw the blue bumped, ink splattered, sting riddled body of their friend stagger into camp. They sat there in open mouthed silence as their friend hobbled over to her stump and sat down in front of the fire without a word of explanation. Summer was the first to break the silence.

“Celestia’s crown Meadow!” Summer said as she began using magic to pull stingers from her friend’s body. “What happened to you?”

“I’m pretty sure this forest is trying to kill me.” Meadow said wincing as each inch long stinger was pulled from her body.

Whisper grimaced at her and extended Meadow a cup of her favorite herbal tea.

“Thanks.” She said taking a sip from her cup. “So how did your patrols go? Did anything unusual happen?”

“I’ve been sensing a lot of magical disturbances.” Summer said.

“Magical disturbances?” Meadow repeated.

“Yes. At first I thought I was imagining it. They started out small but have grown exponentially all day, each one lasting no more than a second.” Summer said. “I’m not sure what could be causing them. I’m going to meet with a few other unicorns from the other groups and see if we can try to triangulate their source.”

“Could it be dangerous? Do you need us to come?” Meadow asked.

“Thanks but that won’t necessary.” Summer said shaking her head. “It could be nothing, just the natural magical energies of the forest fluctuating. If it is something dangerous then-“

Suddenly, Summer Shudder’s ice blue eyes widened and the hairs on the back of her neck seemed to visibly rise. Meadow started to ask her what was wrong but stopped when she heard a faint rattling sound. She looked down at her cup of tea she had set down on the ground and saw that the amber liquid inside was shaking.

“What’s-“

There was a flash of brilliant white light, a deafening explosion and Meadow’s world went black.

-The Pony Scrolls-

Meadow wasn’t sure how long she had been out. The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that she was surrounded by a thick dome of ice. The second thing was that Summer Shudder was lying unconscious a few feet away. The mare dropped next to her friend and shook her.

“Oh no, Summer! Summer, wake up!” Meadow pleaded.

Suddenly a knocking sound came from the other side of the ice. Meadow gently set Summer down and approached the side of the dome that the knocking came from.

“Whisper!” She called. “Is that you?”

There was a single knock.

“Summer is unconscious!” Meadow cried. “Can you get us out of here?”

There was a pause followed by another single knock.

“Hurry!”

Outside, Whisper Wind turned around and began to buck the ice with his hooves. He slammed over and over again, cracking the ice a little more with each strike. Finally the ice gave way and formed a small hole just big enough for Meadow to wiggle out of.

“Help me get Summer out of there!” Meadow said.

Whisper nodded and the two made the hole bigger. Once it was big enough Meadow dropped down and pulled Summer out. Summer groaned and opened her eyes. She gasped at the sight of their devastated campsite and sat up.

“Oh, what happened?” She asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Meadow said

Whisper hovered in front of them and began rapidly moving his hooves around.

“Whoa, slow down!” Meadow said.

Whisper Wind gave a muted sigh and began again, this time at a slower pace, telling her of the flash of light and a massive explosion and that he had just regained consciousness himself.

“It must have been the magical fluctuations.” Summer said standing up and surveying the damage.

“Could they have really done something like this?” Meadow asked.

“I suppose it’s possible.” Summer said uncertainly. “But honestly I can’t be sure. But what do we do now?”

“We… We have to regroup.” Meadow said. “Make contact with the other rangers and make sure they’re okay. The closest group would be Silver Stride’s to the north. Let’s get-“

The earth pony paused. Her friends were no longer looking at her. Their eyes were wide in fright and they were staring at something behind her.

“Wh-What?” She asked nervously.

Whisper slowly raised a hoof and pointed behind her. Hesitantly, Meadow turned around and gasped at what she saw. There was some kind of… creature moving through the trees. It was transparent and wispy, like some kind of ghost and even though it was as long and as tall as a train car, the creature moved without making a sound. It had a segmented tail that curved above its torso and two massive, three pointed pincers at the front of its body. Despite rumors and legends, the rangers new for a fact that while Everfree forest was home to some truly bizarre creatures, it wasn’t haunted, yet as they watched this apparition pass by them without so much as a glance they could not put a name to it.

“W-what the hay is that thing?” Meadow wondered aloud.

The creature glanced at their direction and the ponies’ heart’s leapt into their throats. The creature clicked a pincer but paid them no mind. Rather, it seemed to look through them as if they weren’t there. It moved past the remnants of the ranger’s campsite as if with a purpose but what exactly they couldn’t say.

“What’s it doing?” Summer asked nervously.

Whisper shook his head.

Suddenly the creature began jerking around wildly, lashing out with its pincers and tail as if fighting some invisible enemy. After a moment of this the creature went limp, fell to the ground and vanished. Meadow exchanged nervous glances with her fellow Rangers.

“Seriously, what the buck is going on here?” Meadow said.

The ground began to shake underneath them. Meadow and Summer hopped onto a fallen log and Whisper took the air.

“What’s happening?!” Meadow shouted.

An ancient and dented pincer burst from the soil, showering the area around it with dirt and rocks. There was a metallic groaning sound unlike any the ponies had ever heard as the creature began to pull itself from the ground like a monster from a late night horror movie. It looked like the creature they had just seen but it was… older? Could that be the word used to describe such a sight? Its dull, dented body was covered in dirt and pieces of it were actually missing. Its tail ripped itself free from the ground and the thing seemed to change; the dents didn’t pop out, rather it just seemed to suddenly not be dented any more. The dullness was suddenly replaced by a glossy shine and the sun glinted off of the creature’s oil black body. In the blink of an eye, the three Everfree Rangers found themselves staring at a creature that had not been seen in Equestria in millennia, though they had no way of knowing what the beast before them was, let alone what it was capable of. At a glance the creature looked a lot like a scorpion but to Meadow the beast resembled a scorpion in the same manner a puppy resembles a rabid werewolf.

The creature made a strange clicking sound, turned, and looked at the ponies. As Meadow stared into the single red glowing orb in the center of what she assumed was its face, she had no doubt in her mind that this time, the creature took notice of the three Everfree Rangers.

“Oh pony feathers…”

It clicked its pincers rapidly and charged the ponies with surprising speed. Meadow and Summer jumped from their perch just as the monster’s gigantic stinger rammed into the tree trunk and split it in half like a maul through firewood with a loud crack. Meadow kicked out with her hind legs and hit the creature in its side as hard as she could while Summer sent a blast of cold energy from her horn. The creature didn’t even seem to notice the assault. It pulled its stinger free from the ground and shook away dirt and bits of wood.

Let’s see… Meadow thought dodging a sweeping blow from the monster’s pincers. Fall into a patch of poison oak? Check. Step on an ink cap? Check. Wear a hornet’s nest as a hat? Check. Nearly drown? Check. Get eaten by a giant scorpion monster? Check.

As I said today just wasn’t Meadow Sweet’s day, and just when she thought that it couldn’t possibly get any worse, a two legged monster with dark green skin and tusks jutting from its mouth burst from the trees on the western side of the clearing with a terrifying roar, clad in heavy armor and brandishing a massive war hammer.

This is the worst birthday ever. Meadow thought.

Author's Notes:

Okay, super sorry this took so long to post. My computer was out of commission for a LONG time and I just now got it working. This chapter was supposed to be longer but i just wanted to post something to show that this story hasn't been abandoned. The next part should be up later on.

Cheers!