The quartet of stallions set out into the forest, beginning the journey that would lead them through swamp, mountain, cavern, and plain.  If everything they had read held true to this day, they would soon find themselves thrust into an amazing adventure full of danger and mystery.  To each of the four, something inside them pulled them ever forward through the forest.

For the first stretch of the forest both Big Mac and Doctor knew their ways around.  This first small area was a common trotting ground for all the citizens of Ponyville.  Not many dangerous animals roamed the edge of the woods, aside from an occasional cockatrice or two.  This was the part of the forest where Zecora, the witch-doctor-esque zebra, made her home.  Travelling through this section of the forest was easy and comforting for the two veteran stallions.  Almost nothing caught them off guard or surprised them.

It was a completely different story for Brain and Chance.  Although trying to appear tough and impervious to the eerie sights and sounds of the oddly dark forest, neither of the human-ponies were actually steady.  Their breathing shifted faster and slower, depending on how long it took for another creature to make a sound.  They didn’t know what to expect from the dark embrace of the forest.  All they knew was that they could not risk getting left behind by the stallions that trotted ever so casually in front of them.

Big Mac and Doctor stopped suddenly, raising their hooves as if telling the human-ponies to stay back.  Trying to gaze around Big Mac, Brain craned his neck.  In front of the group, in the middle of the road, a huge snake was curled into a large pile of green and brown.  The snake was at least three feet around, and roughly fifteen feet long.  A massive, heavy snake.  Big Mac stepped back a little ways, Doctor following him slowly.

Big Mac spoke quietly, “I don’t think we oughta risk wakin’ the thing.”

Doctor nodded in agreement, “I’m not ready to be snake food just yet.  We should try and go around through the trees.”  He pulled a compass from his pouch, making sure they were headed in the right direction.  They were headed due east, straight to their destination.

Chance laughed at the stallions, “Oh come on, are you really scared of a snake?  Isn’t that what they made daggers for?”  He pulled a large knife from his pouch.  The blade was roughly three inches long, and the hilt was solid steel.

Brain looked at the knife in confusion.  “I thought you pawned that old thing?”

Chance scoffed, “Hell no!  I knew this thing would come in handy one day!”  He slid his hoof to the tip of the hilt, shifting its weight in his hoof.  He tossed it in the air, catching it by the tip of the blade as it came back down.  He flicked his wrist a few times, and on the third flick, sent the knife flying right at the snake.

Big Mac and Doctor both leaped to the side, certain that the knife would only make the snake mad.  To their surprise, they watched as the knife penetrated right into the snake’s head.  It convulsed wildly once, then sprawled itself straight out.  With a single wicked hiss, it stopped moving, plopping to the ground with a thud.  Chance walked right up to it and ripped his knife from its head.  He wiped the blade on the grass, and then stuck the knife back in its cover.

He turned to smile at the trio of stunned stallions.  “See, I told you that’s what knives were for!”  He turned back to face the road.  “Let’s go fellas.  We have a long ways to go before we get to the waterfall.”

Doctor and Big Mac exchanged concerned looks, but Brain just casually walked up beside Chance.  The two of them started walking down the road.  Both letting out sighs, the two stallions decided it best to keep up.

The trek from that point on was pretty bland and boring for the most part.  The group passed by tree after tree, all of which were either covered in buzzing insects or prickly leaves.  The farther the group travelled, the greener everything seemed to get.  The tree bark developed a green tint, the leaves became a fluorescent color, and the sunlight itself seemed to take on a green shade.

It wasn’t long before the group emerged from the tree line to find themselves staring at a massive waterfall, nearly a quarter mile wide, flowing quickly and roaring loudly.  The water had an emerald-like color to it.  The group decided it would be best to rest on this side of the waterfall.  They laid out some of their supplies, including packages of food and a few flasks of water.  They sat in the moist grass and proceeded to eat and relax.

The sun was high in the sky, and Brain figured it was noon already.  It took them five hours to reach the waterfall from town.  It was weird, however, that it felt like barely an hour had passed since they left Fluttershy’s house.  After he had finished a single pack of food, Brain kicked back in the grass and stared at the green-tinged sky.  He let his mind wander while Big Mac and Chance talked.

Big Mac took a bite from a sandwich he had packed.  He looked at Chance with an expression of suspicion.  “So…you got any idea how you ended up here?”

Chance shrugged his shoulders, “No clue.  I remember walking into Brain’s house the night before last, and some green light flashing.  Next thing I know, I’m waking up half submerged in the Ponyville fountain.”

Brain sat upright to listen to Chance talk.  “How the hell’d you get in my house?”

Chance pulled a key from his pouch, “You gave me a key, remember?  For when you went out of town to PAX East.”  He shook his head.

“Oh yeah…So why were you coming over, anyway?” Brain continued.

“Because I wanted to make sure you didn’t pass out in the middle of your living room again.  You were pretty drunk by the time we made it to Wal-Mart.”  Chance chuckled.

Brain muttered, “You always have my back, huh?”

Doctor interrupted their conversation with a scream.  “Um, I hate to interrupt such sweet memories, but we have a problem!”

The other three stallions jolted their heads in the direction of Doctor’s voice.  Towering right over his head was a massive spider, almost the size of Fluttershy’s house.  It was spewing a web from its mouth, covering Doctor and holding him in place.  Brain jumped at the sight of the spider.  He couldn’t stand spiders…

A smile covered Chance’s face as he ripped his knife from its cover.  He leaped from the spot he was sitting and darted over toward the spider and its web.  Doctor was now almost completely covered in web.  With a wild growl, Chance pushed himself off of the ground with all his strength, the knife held firmly in his teeth.  In the middle of the air, Chance took the knife’s hilt in his hoof and thrust toward the spider.

Like something from a kung-fu movie, the thrust propelled Chance forward, right into the spiders head.  The knife tore straight through its head, causing it to flail wildly before collapsing to the ground, dead.  Chance pulled the knife from the spider’s head, flinging the blood off of it.  He hopped down the leg of the spider, stopping right beside Doctor.  In one swift motion he sliced the web open like a leather sack, Doctor squeezing out of the web with minimal effort.

Brain looked on in amazement as he watched his best friend perform these amazing tricks.  He had never known Chance to take any form of martial arts or do any sort of weapons training, so this came as a total surprise to him.  He was caught completely off guard by the hoof suddenly appearing in his face.

“C’mon Brain, can’t I get a bro-hoof for that?”  Chance laughed wildly.

“S-sure thing, dude!”  Brain placed his hoof to Chance’s.  He sighed as his body finally relaxed, seeing the spider was dead.

Doctor coughed up a wad of white gunk.  “I’ll tell you right now, if another spider tries to have me for a midday snack, I’m out of here!”

Big Mac slapped a hoof to Doctor’s back.  He chuckled, “It’s alright buddy!  As long as we got this ninja stallion on our side, we oughta be alright.”

Chance put the knife back in its cover.  He took a bow as he said, “Thank you, thank you!  I’ll be here all week!”  He grinned excitedly.

“Where’d you learn all those cool moves, Chance?”  Brain asked, his thoughts finally settling down.

Chance shrugged, “It’s cartoon logic, Brain.  Not a single bit of experience with martial arts, and you can still do ninja flips.  I don’t make the laws, they just happen.”

Brain laughed at that.  “True enough, my friend!  I can’t argue with you there!”

Big Mac and Doctor shared confused looks.  Doctor pulled the map from his pouch and asked bluntly, “So, how are we going to cross this waterfall?”

Chance immediately responded, “We tie ourselves in a chain with some rope.  We get as far upstream as these cliffs will let us, and cross over in simple, short, rock-to-rock bursts.”  He waved at the rocks that sprung up from the river.  He thought they could be used as a means of keeping the current from pulling them downstream.

“Well then,” Big Mac started, “I oughta go first.  Then Chance, followed by Brain, and Doctor can bring up the rear.”

Doctor looked at Big Mac incredulously.  “Why exactly must I bring up the rear?  I’m plenty stronger than Brain!  …No offense to you…”  He looked at Brain with a sympathetic expression.

“You’ve obviously never seen him drunk.  Dude becomes an ox.”  Chance scoffed.

Brain laughed, “I actually agree with Doctor here.  I’m not too used to this body yet, and I don’t feel confident enough to support the pony behind me.”

Big Mac sighed, “Alright then.  Brain will bring up the rear, with Doctor in front of him.  Now, do we got a rope?”

Both Doctor and Chance smiled as they pulled long cuts of rope from their pouches.  Doctor’s rope was cut shorter and thicker, whereas Chance’s rope looked flimsy and long.

Brain said bluntly, “This situation calls for strength more so than distance.  We’ll use Doctor’s rope, but hold on to yours just in case, Chance.”  He stood up, taking Doctor’s rope from him.

He went to each stallion individually, tying the rope tightly around their stomachs.  After the other three were secure, Big Mac tied the rope around Brain.  The group of stallions started their trek through the raging waters.  The water wasn’t too awfully deep, and it was easy to keep balance near the rocks that covered the expanse.  Before long, the quartet was on the other side.

Brain sighed as he undid the other stallions’ ropes, “Well, we made it.  Now we just have to find the cave.”  Without wasting any time, the group set out for their next landmark…