The sun had just peeked over the horizon by the time Twilight and her friends landed near the forest a little ways from the mountain range. Looking at it from above, Twilight could see that the forest was much larger than she had imagined it to be.

None of the memories she had gained prepared her for such a sight. The forest seemed to consist of a healthy mix of pines and larches that all bunched together so as to completely block the view of the ground beneath.

The trees closer to the mountain range were all snowcapped, but the forest became progressively greener further in—and the trees themselves seemed to go on for miles, much to Twilight's astonishment and Rainbow's dismay.

"Wow," Fluttershy breathed, her eyes widening in awe as she alighted on the soft and rather slushy ground, "this might be the biggest forest I've ever seen."

"Ain't this the only other forest you've ever seen aside from the Everfree an' the Whitetail Woods?" Applejack responded, landing much more heavily as she shifted back to her earth pony self, "those are the only places like this near Ponyville, an' ya don't strike me as the travelin' sort, Flutters."

"Oh, that's not true," Fluttershy replied, the lack of a blush doing nothing to diminish her embarrassed expression, "I'm sure we've all been through other forests in our adventures... I think."

"Have we?" Applejack replied, raising a hoof to her chin thoughtfully, "ya know... ah can't seem ta remember whether we did or not."

"Well, I know we've never been through any forest of this magnitude," came Rarity's voice, the viral mare having already landed and reverted back to her snow white unicorn form, "ugh... just thinking about all the dreadful things lurking among those trees makes me shudder."

"Why's that Rarity?" Pinkie asked hopping up next to the mare in question and tilting her head in confusion, "it's not like anything can hurt us, and besides—" she hook a foreleg around Rarity's withers and pulled her into a one legged hug as she gestured to the forest, "—there's probably nothing but furry forest critters in there anyway."

"Oh, I hope so, Fluttershy replied, looking towards the thicket of trees with a small smile, "I'd love to see what kinds of animals inhabit the forests of Griffonia," an ear twitched and her small smile suddenly dropped into a small frown and she focused on the forest. After a moment her eyes widened in surprise, "what... is that?"

Rarity raised an eyebrow and followed Fluttershy's wary gaze to the thick forest before her. When she didn't see anything she turned back to Fluttershy with a bemused look.

"What is what, darling?" she asked, frowning in confusion, "I don't see anything but a bunch of trees."

Fluttershy went to answer, but a loud, raspy, and familiar voice from above cut her off.

"I'm telling you, Twi, we should just—"

"For the last time, no, Rainbow Dash," came a gruff masculine voice, "like I said before, we don't know what—or who—is waiting for us down there, and I'd rather not be caught off guard if it's more of those mercenaries... or worse."

The others watched as Rainbow Dash and a currently disguised Twilight landed further up ahead. Twilight quickly shifted back to her lavender form even as she continued to bicker with the cyan pegasus.

"Twilight, what don't you get about them not being able to hurt us?" Rainbow argued with a roll of her eyes, "even if those mercenaries somehow followed us all the way here—which I highly doubt is the case—we can take whatever they can dish out."

"On the contrary, Rainbow Dash," Twilight rebutted, "they have the means to hurt us, or did you already forget about what the golem did to Fluttershy?" she furrowed her brow, "or my experience with the horn ring?"

Rainbow Dash winced at the memory of both incidents and looked away with a pout.

"Doesn't mean they can kill us," she muttered, "and I still say we should just fly over the whole forest."

"It doesn't matter if they can kill us or not," Twilight replied with a shake of her head, "if they can hurt us, they'll find a way to kill us soon enough if they haven't already, and besides," her stern expression softened, "even being what we are, I still hate seeing you girls hurt."

Rainbow cast a side glance towards Twilight before letting out an aggravated groan.

"Ugh... fine," she cried, "we'll do it your way, but I'm telling you, you're just making things harder for us."

"Noted," Twilight replied, finally turning to face the others. She paused and turned to look at Rainbow from over her shoulder with a smirk, "and besides, if we run into mercenaries or anything else that wants to hurt us, we'll be prepared to deal with them... on our terms."

Rainbow Dash frowned thoughtfully before returning the smirk and trotting up next to Twilight.

"Alright, fair enough," she conceded, "still rather fly though."

"How about this," Twilight offered as the two made their way over to the others, "if we don't get ambushed after spending a few hours in the forest, then we'll try it your way."

"Deal," Rainbow replied with a single nod, "I'm telling you though, Twi, we're not gonna get ambushed all the way out here, why would we? It's only been what, a day since we escaped? Two days? I still say you're just being paranoid."

"Better safe than sorry, Rainbow," Twilight responded solemnly, "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

Rainbow Dash merely rolled her eyes once more.

"Um... Rainbow?" Fluttershy began as Twilight and Rainbow arrived, "I think... I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think Twilight might be onto something."

"Wha—are you serious, Fluttershy?" Rainbow cried in disbelief, "who the buck is gonna be hiding out in some random forest out this far waiting for us? It's been two days at the most!" she shook her head and frowned at the butter yellow pegasus, "how do you even know that anyway?"

"Fluttershy seems to have gained some kind of ability similar to echolocation," Twilight explained in Fluttershy's place, "she can send out a pulse that can sense nearby lifeforms to a certain extent."

"Huh," Rainbow responded, completely forgetting her earlier incredulity and giving Fluttershy an impressed look, "that's actually pretty neat," she turned to Twilight with a raised eyebrow, "can we all do that?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight replied with a shrug, "if we can, I haven't figured out how yet."

"This is fascinatin' an' all," Applejack cut in, "but can we get goin'? If we run into any more o' them varmints, we can just rough em' up an' move on."

Rainbow Dash and Twilight looked from Applejack to each other, and the rainbow maned pony gave a shrug of her own before turning and trotting off towards the forest. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but closed it a moment later with a sigh and a shake of her head.

She and the rest of the girls followed after the cyan pegasus, and together they all passed through the thick foliage and into the forest proper. It wasn't too far in that Fluttershy began to feel uneasy again.

She tried to distract herself by looking for any critters hiding in the trees or underbrush that the six of them trotted past. Unfortunately the forest seemed to be oddly quiet and devoid of animal life.

There were no small animals flitting in and out of the trees, there were no birds singing a merry tune, there was no indication that anything lived in this forest. Fluttershy shivered—though it wasn't because of the cold air.

Something was clearly wrong here.

Frowning, the yellow pegasus sent out another pulse and waited. The search returned the same result as before, there only seemed to be one lifeform in the area... and the signal of that lifeform was coming through as clear as a bell to her newfound senses.

Not only that, but the lifeform felt... familiar somehow—like she should know who or what this being was, but who did she know all the way out here? As she continued to puzzle what this meant, the others took the time to discuss their next destination.

"I don't think the majority of griffons in Squawken have ever even been out of the mountains before," Twilight was telling Rarity, "I consumed a lot of griffons during that fight, and not a single one of them knew anything about the world outside of the Tessel Mountain range. The furthest any of them had been was this forest, and even then, they didn't go very far in."

"So we essentially have no idea what awaits us past this forest then?" Rarity replied with a frown, "that... isn't very heartening, Twilight dear."

"I know, I know," Twilight sighed, her ears flattening against her head, "I really should've grabbed a map or something before we left. I know we didn't really have much time to get settled, but I feel like that was a massive oversight on my part."

"Now come on, Twi, that ain't fair an' you know it," Applejack said, nudging the grimacing lavender mare, "with all the craziness that's been goin' on, a map was the furthest thing from all of our minds. We don't blame ya one bit fer forgettin' somethin' like that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Twilight said after a moment. She smiled gratefully at the cowpony, "thanks, Applejack."

"No problem, sugarcu—"

"Here ya go!"

Twilight and Applejack reeled back in surprise as Pinkie shoved a large scroll in front of their face. Twilight looked from the grinning pink pony to the rolled up scroll in her hoof.

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, taking the scroll, "what is... wait..." she unfurled the scroll to see that it was, in fact, a general map of Griffonia, complete with nearby landmarks. Twilight looked back up at Pinkie with a bewildered expression, "Pinkie... when did you—"

"Picked it up at that store when I first went to get those party supplies," Pinkie replied, her grin dropping a bit, "figured it would come in handy, y'know?"

"Anything else we need to know about?" Twilight replied flatly, "anything like, oh I don't know, a journal detailing what happened before we woke up in the facility? You have one of those to share with us?"

"Nope," Pinkie replied with a simple shrug, "that was the last thing I brought with me."

Twilight facehoofed and was about to turn her attention back to the map, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Rarity sweeping a worried gaze about the forest around them.

"Pardon me, darling," Rarity said with a troubled frown, "but we seem to be down one mare."

Twilight blinked.

"...What?"

"Twilight!"

Twilight looked to her left to see Rainbow Dash coming out of the trees with a distressed look on her face. She felt an inexplicable dread grip her as Rainbow approached, and sure enough the cyan mare's next words only cemented her worst fears.

"I can't find Fluttershy! She's just... gone!"

Not too much happening in this chapter I know, but the next one will be a bit more exciting.