I had to admit that it felt great that the Everfree Forest somehow wasn’t scaring me. Seeing clouds that moved on their own and animals that cared for themselves didn’t seem like a threat to a human anyways. Well, I was no longer one, but I had luckily kept my memories. The forest itself seemed to be barely different from a forest on my world, the difference being that it contained many plants and creatures that were alien to me, but as long as I stayed away from a certain blue flower, I was sure to be able to handle everything. The last time I was really scared was when I had snuck out of my bed at night when I was a kid to watch the movie Alien without thinking about the consequences, namely nightmares for the next couple of weeks. If every shadow turned into what you’re afraid of the most, it inevitably increased your parents’ electrical bill.

Forests had never scared me, no matter if at dusk, dawn, or at the night of Friday the thirteenth. At Halloween, or rather Nightmare Night here, a few years ago, my friends and I made a nightly hike through the forest near our home. A friend and I had then split up, dressed up as Scream, and scared the others. Only another friend, who guided the others, was in on the secret, and we all had a good laugh. That was one of the advantages of living on the countryside. If I had wanted to go to uni, I would have had to move to a town, but small places attracted me more.

Despite the sun still blazing high in the sky, the forest turned darker around me with every step. However, I wasn’t worried about that. As long as I walked in the same direction, I would just have to turn around to leave the forest again. The branches of the trees hung low, and the wind blew softly, causing the various spider webs to flutter like the sails of a ship. I saw plants that resembled raspberry bushes and small strawberry plants, but also many that looked as though green goo would come out of them as soon as you approached them. I continued my way until I found a small clearing that seemed ideal for some magic experiments. I had planned a few things in my head already. What would happen if I only changed the form, size, or just the material itself? An apple out of stone would make a far better projectile than a normal one, but there were none around unfortunately as I had forgotten to take one with me.

The ground and the wood had to be sufficient as test subjects, so I picked up a branch from the ground. It didn’t taste very good. I started to concentrate and imagined the symbols that were required to turn wood into something harder. Iron or platinum flashed across my mind. I could feel with my tongue how the small branch began to change and slowly was covered by a new layer. After a few seconds, it was over, and it shimmered in bright silver. But the real test was just ahead, and I started to whip the branch against the nearest tree, which didn’t turn out to be a good idea. The metal jarred, and I thought I would have lost a couple of teeth. I let it drop and saw the branch slowly turning back into its original state again.

“Concentration,” I mumbled to myself while inspecting my jaw with a hoof. My next try would not be to change the material, but only the form. My model was clear. Full Metal Pony. I grinned at my thoughts.

Time flew by just like my stamina. I had no idea how Twilight had managed to levitate objects in her magic for half the day and still able to practice after that. She must have a lot more magical power than most other unicorns. My greatest success in the last few hours that I had spent here was to conjure a small wall out of the ground. During the first few tries, it was only a few centimeters wide, but with more practice, I was confident that I could improve that. A sound came from the bushes behind me, and I spun around to the source. I had been lying under one of the trees for the past few minutes to give my sweat a chance to drop on the ground. The small bush rustled again, and as I slowly walked towards it, I immediately regretted my curiosity as a manticore jumped out of it.

“Umm… hi… You don’t happen to know Pinkie Pie by any chance, do you?” Seriously, how did that enormous thing fit into that tiny bush? The creature was about twice my size and looked like a lion, and if it weren’t for the wings, bat ears, and the scorpion tail, he could have passed as one. By the experience I had from living near a forest my whole life, I stepped backwards slowly without taking my eyes off the manticore. I had to show that I was not afraid.

It growled at me but made no attempts to attack, but before I could disappear behind a tree, I stumbled with my injured hoof over a thick branch on the ground. That was just the invitation the manticore was waiting for, and it immediately charged at me, its claws ready to inflict the first blow.

Out of reflex or because I still had the runes in my mind, I built up a wall in front of me, but it instantly got shattered by the force of the blow and only left a dust cloud behind as it crumbled down. However, I could use that to my advantage and quickly stood back up to run away, which was quickly denied by my hoof. Due to the fall, it was now hurting as much as in the moment the injury happened, and so I could only limp. The large cat… thing behind me needed a while to realize that I was no longer in the small dust cloud, but as soon as it faded away, it was behind me again and would soon catch up if we kept going like this. I repetitiously placed more small walls behind me that didn’t stand a chance against the speed and momentum of the monster and only exhausted me more. I followed the same tactic that had kept Big Mac off my throat already: I always took a turn as soon as possible. Large animals and ponies had their problems with shifting their weight into new directions, and this was my advantage now. At the same time, however, it was my biggest disadvantage because I had completely lost my orientation. So even if I did get rid of that thing behind me, I would still be in this forest, but that problem could wait until I survived the first one.

I saw a low hanging branch coming towards me, and an idea shot through my head. I ducked underneath it, but not without turning it into platinum. I didn’t look back, but the sound of teeth hitting a platinum bar was music in my ears, which then felt like bleeding from the scream that followed the impact. I heard a tree hitting the ground and the usual heavy steps of the manticore behind me, but not for long. The creature roared, and I noticed a draft whooshing behind me which caught my attention. The manticore was nowhere to be seen, but there was a wide gap in the thick branches of the trees next to me. Shortly after, a familiar face looked out of the gap.

“Are you crazy?! What are you doing here in the forest?” Rainbow Dash shouted at me. I used the break to catch a breath rather than answering her. “Come on, we have to get you out of here. That thing will be back soon.” She tried to grab me by my forelegs and take off, but I was kicking around for my life. There was only one thing in my life, besides a manticore attack, that caused me to panic: heights. I had suffered from vertigo for all of my life. It was so bad that it would act up when I was on the third step of a ladder. “Why are you struggling…?” Rainbow couldn’t say more before both of us hit the ground again.

“Sorry, Rainbow, I’m just not a friend of heights.” She stood up from the ground and rubbed her side.

“I noticed.” Before she could stand on all four hooves again, she launched into the air again, but this time it was thanks to the blow of a large paw that struck her. She flew a few meters before crashing against a tree, her wing twisted at an unnatural angle as she lay there, motionless. The manticore turned towards me and roared at me loudly. If I ran now, he would turn to Rainbow, and that was out of question.

I slowly moved in a semicircle to the place where she was lying, not taking an eye off the creature. The game was starting anew, only that my disadvantage had grown since I could never run nor dodge now. I concentrated my magic as best as I could, prepared to let an iron fist jump out of the ground this time. The manticore stomped on the ground multiple times before jumping towards us, and with the help of its wings, it closed the gap. It was all or nothing at that moment. Thankfully the spell worked, but not in the way I had planned. A pole shot out of the ground, but instead of a fist on the edge, it was sharp and rammed itself into the body of the monster. The momentum was enough to send it flying through the air like Rainbow earlier, and it disappeared in some bushes. I had no time to wipe the blood off my face; I had to wake up Rainbow quickly. Hurting her was the last thing I wanted, but I couldn’t be fussy now either, so I slapped her face with my hoof a few times. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes again and instantly held her injured wing.

“Why is my face hurting more than my wing?” was the first question she asked after standing again.

“You can slap me back later, but we have to get out of here now. I don’t know how long the wound will keep that thing away.” She threw a look back and saw the pike poking out of the ground.

“Was that you?” she asked, uncertainty evident from her expression.

“Yes, but we have time for that later. Can you run?” She nodded and led the way. I said nothing more and just followed her without asking questions. If someone knew the way out of here, it was one who looked down at the layout of the land on a daily basis. We quickly went past the bush where the manticore had disappeared, only to hear some quiet munching. We exchanged some unsure looks before curiosity took us over. Rainbow was the first to take a peek through the branches but pulled back out after a second and threw up. Now I really wanted to know what was going on there and pushed my head into the bush.

On the other side, the manticore was lying motionlessly on the ground. One of its wings had multiple holes, and an eye seemed to be missing. Its mouth opened slowly and out came various small flies that I immediately recognized: parasprites. Many of these small creatures were gathering around the manticore, taking a bite out of it here and there. As soon as the bite was gulped down, the parasprite duplicated and both started to eat. The whole thing was going so fast that half of the manticore was already gone. My horror slowly faded away, and I turned my eyes away. Rainbow seemed to have recovered from the sight too and walked over to me.

“I’ve seen some things, but what was that?” She pointed at the bush which covered the horrific sight.

“I would say those are parasprites, the carnivorous kind. Just another reason to get out of here before they notice us.” Rainbow just nodded, and we went on our way again. It didn’t take her long come to her senses again, and she realized why she had been running here.

“Now I really wanna know what you did in the forest. When I heard the manticore roar, I couldn’t believe my eyes at first.” Her wing still stuck out in an odd way, and if I had to take a guess, I would say it was broken.

“I wanted to practice a little; you’ve seen that. Twilight said the forest would be the right place.” She didn’t stop or turn around but I could see the hoof moving towards her face.

“Had it occurred to you that she maybe meant the Whitetail Forest?” A light dawned on me, and I was a bit ashamed for not thinking of it sooner.

“You mean the forest where the Running of the Leaves took place and you and AJ wrangled?”

“Yes, that forest… But hey! Where you know that story of AJ and me from? We had agreed to never talk about it again.” Now I had said something wrong. If AJ had promised her, she would have never told me, and neither would the others.

“Ancient human technology?” I knew that she wasn’t buying that even without her strange look.

“Fine if you don’t wanna tell me. But I will find it out.” Great, now I had set Rainbow ‘Eavesdropping’ Dash onto myself. Even the princess had thought it would be better to not mention the series, and at least she had seen everything. My fear of what the others might think was the only thing so far that made me keep this secret.

The trees were thinning out, and I could soon see the edge of the forest. Rainbow had tried to see through my game the whole time, but I kept my mouth shut. If I ever spoke with someone about that, then it would be AJ and Twilight in that order. The way from the road to the town passed quickly, and before the sun had disappeared, we were standing in front of the library. I knocked and Spike opened the door.

“Woah, dude, what happened to you?” I had completely forgotten about the blood on my face and coat, but now I understood the strange looks that were thrown at me on the way.

“Manticore blood, not my own. Is Twilight here? I think we have a problem here.” Spike let us in and then made his way into the basement to get Twilight. She arrived upstairs not even a minute later and threw a disgusted look at me.

“So you really ate a manticore?” At first I was flabbergasted at her question, but shook it off.

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, Spike said you were covered in manticore blood, and since you were a carnivore…” She didn’t finish her sentence but didn’t need to.

“Twilight.” I pointed with a hoof down my entire body. “I am one hundred percent pony. I can’t even chew meat, not to mention digest it or that I even feel the desire to eat it.” She nodded and apologized quickly, which I immediately accepted. It wasn’t every day that a blood-covered pony was standing in her house. I started to recount what had happened in the forest, why I was there, and everything after the manticore had showed up. She apologized again when I got to the point where I confused Whitetail and Everfree. That the Everfree couldn’t be meant when talking about a quiet place to practice seemed to be widely known here. The fact that I wasn’t bothered by the weather and animals caring about themselves surprised them again, however, so I had to explain that too. When I began to talk about the parasprites, she covered Spike’s ears, which probably was better that way. After I finished, she turned towards Rainbow Dash as well and brought her wing back into form with a bit of magic. She was told to try to rest it for a few days, but Twilight indicated that a flight back home shouldn’t be much of a problem before she sent Spike upstairs.

“And you are sure that the parasprites…” she gulped, “ate the manticore?” We both nodded, and Rainbow’s stomach seemed to twist just at the thought. “I don’t understand how that’s possible. Parasprites basically eat the same plants we do. Why are they suddenly eating animals?” As soon as Twilight had finished her last sentence, the reason fell from my eyes. However, if I told them, I would have to reveal knowledge I wasn’t supposed to have. But more was at danger here. At some point, the food in the forest would run out and then Ponyville would be the place where they could get delicious meat, pony meat.

“Twilight, I have a theory.” Both Twilight and Rainbow looked at me, surprised. “You remember the parasprite incident here in town?” Both nodded. “Before Pinkie lured them back into the forest, you enchanted them so that they would leave your food alone. I suppose you designed the spell so that everything that is considered food in your eyes would be taboo. Buildings, stones and other objects are not food for you and other ponies, but neither is meat. In the forest, there are almost only plants and animals, and one of them is falling under the category food, the other less so.” Twilight followed me eagerly while Rainbow looked at the titles on the backs of some books in the shelves disinterestedly. It didn’t take long until Twilight came to the same conclusion. At some point, there wouldn’t be any animals left in the forest, but ever so many more hungry parasprites.

“I have to look up something immediately, I have to write a letter to the princess, I…” She ran around the small table in the middle of the library like crazy as she listed off all the things she had to do. I was about to get her back into reality again, but then she stopped on her own and terror filled her eyes. “Fluttershy! She lives directly next to the forest and houses a lot of injured animals! She is in danger!”

Author's Notes:

And we are getting a bit dark. And with a bit I mean just a bit, at least in comparison to that what will follow later.

Also, a new story of mine just hit FimFiction. Check it out: The Impossible

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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