There groups first steps into the forest were without issue, Fluttershy had finally calmed down but she seemed the only one that had. Pinkie was bouncing out of excitement or was she always bouncing. Fluttershy pondered on it for a second but it didn't seem like anything to think about for to long. Pinkie Pie was always being random, as Rainbow Dash would put it. Speaking of Rainbow Dash, she was doing loops and tricks everywhere.

"I can't wait to see some action!" Rainbow Dash yelled out of excitement. She almost starting spamming out shouts of excitement  but before she could really start Twilight spoke through it.

"It would be nicer if we didn't run into anything" Twilight interrupted "We don't know what is in this forest and it could be very dangerous." Twilight remembered the encounter with the cockatrice and shook a little. The idea of being a stone statue forever seemed to have got to her.

"We are bound to run into danger, it will take two or three days to reach the area of the source. Which mind you has still not been pinpointed. And we have to leave the forest again. It would be a stretch of very good luck if nothing happened." Luna said with a smirk. She had not been outside of the castle that much after being released from the moon and was is one of her first adventures. She was probably looking forward to some danger herself.

The group had walked for about 3 hours and decided to set up camp. The time in which they had left was in part the cause of the early stop. As Luna prepared to rise the moon, Fluttershy began on the cooking. Everything seemed to going good so far. "No danger so far...... no danger at all." She thought to herself with a smile. "Maybe we won't run into anything at all." Though she knew that would not be the case. They were not that deep in the forest and everything got worse as you got deeper. The easiest was to know where you will find what was to look and feel at the trees. The more damaged they were or the bigger they got, pointed to what you'd find in that area. So the best places to set up camp would be in areas with small weak trees that were barley damaged, whilst avoiding and area with very large or damaged trees. Another way to keep safe was to avoid areas with high amounts of rocks or sticks littering the ground. This was a sign that a cockatrice or "Tuncreep" was in the area. tuncreeps would litter an area with small dry sticks so when a creature or pony walked and snapped a stick, it could hear it and would tunnel underneath it. It was a bug like creature. It looked like a centipede only much larger. Though they do not use poison to help catch there prey.

After it had pinpointed the location of its prey it would burst out of the ground under or very close to its prey and pull it down into the ground. Few have ever escaped ones clutches. Fluttershy being one of the survivors. Her encounter was with a sick tuncreep was a lucky one. She had managed to nurse it back to health and in return, was aloud to live.

Fluttershy didn't really know if she should tell them about these dangers though she thought the princess already knew. "Luna would probably be the one to tell them." She thought to herself. Oddly though, not once did she speak of the dangers of the forest. Though Rainbow dash would not stop talking about what she would do if she saw danger.

"If anything attacks I will beat it no prob, I'll even stare down a cockatrice if I have to." Rainbow Dash yelled. All she seemed to have done was yell since they got into the forest.

Twilight laughed "I don't think you'd win a staring contest with cockatrice, or would you be able to protect yourself from a manticore. We should just let the guard handle it, they have more experience with these kind of things."

Twilight was right about the guards, royal guards were only really there in case of animal or dragon attack. In the time that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had ruled, had there only been one war during the rebellion of Luna and The New Lunar republic. Being that the threat of war seemed so be extremely low and guards got little to no "pony to pony" combat and were mostly trained in the art of rescue and dealing with creatures that had been causing problems, or protect during escorts.

It was was they were going to bed that another light beam shot into the sky. This time it was a red beam and it had happened much earlier then the one of the night before. All the ponies stared at the light until it disappeared, most looking in awe of what it might be. Only fluttershy and Luna looked at it with a hint of fear. "I hope the animals are doing okay." Fluttershy told herself only to get a reply.

"I'm sure there doing fine. I have faith in Angel and you should to." Applejack told Fluttershy. "Your right.... I'm sorry... I can't help but worry." Fluttershy replied. She was kind of sad that she had left Angel be hide. Though she new that his stubbornness would lead the rest into danger if he came with.

"I really wonder what making those light beams." Twilight said

"As do I." Luna replied "I only hope that it is not a sign of danger, I don't know what I would do if somepony got hurt because of this journey" The worried look never left her face. "I will stay awake and keep an eye out." Luna told the rest, Her being nocturnal meant she could do it without issue.

"I will take guard early in the morning Princess, You still need some sleep" Shield the leader of the royal guard said.

"Thank you, Shield. Make sure to wake me if anything happens" Luna said as she found a good spot to sit and wait.

"Wake me up to! I want to get the chance to fight with you." Rainbow Dash yelled out. Even though you could see how tired she was she was still yelling... Fluttershy thought to herself. She was getting very tired as well. The stress of the day had taken a toll on her.

Shield looked up to Luna seeing if it was aloud. She nodded slightly. Even if no one would wake up Dash, she'd probably still wake up looking for a fight.

All kinds of sounds could be head from the forest. The wind was blowing quietly and it made Fluttershy feel at ease. She could see that all the other ponies were sleeping. She tried to sleep but couldn't. The moon was high in the sky and the stars look beautiful.

All of a sudden she heard the same whispers that she had heard the night before. At first they spoke the same thing but then began adding new sentences.

"That time has come again.... The successor shall be found and the secrets revealed. If its time does not come then shall all perish by that which is unknown.

As reach suns fall and moons rise. A light shall be seen and a voice shall sound. Those who hear it but do not understand beware. Those who hear it as a tongue of there own, embrace that which is sounded. Doubt not what is heard or else you shall fall beneath the feet of others of which have not yet been spoken.

Fluttershy jumped up and almost squeaked again but kept herself from doing so. She look around and saw Luna. Luna had also heard the whispers and looked at Fluttershy in disbelief.

"Did you hear the voices, Fluttershy?" Luna asked trying to keep the others from waking up.

"Yes princess...... I did." Fluttershy said trying to keep in a squeak.

"Do you know what that said?" Luna asked. She didn't know if she should be scared by this or excited.

"Yes princess... they... said........" Fluttershy was interrupted by Luna "We should not talk about it here, I don't want to wake the others come." Fluttershy nodded and the two of them walked to an open area not to far away. "Tell me what they said"

Fluttershy told Luna what she had heard and about it happening to her the night before. Luna still had the look of disbelief as she listened. The look on her face slowly changed into curiosity. Luna  started wondering what it meant just as much as Fluttershy.

"I need to tell my sister right away. Go back to the camp and wake a guard and tell him that I have to leave and he must now take guard. I will be back by morning, do not move camp until i'm back. And don't forget: Do not to tell anypony what happened to you. This night or last. This could be of great importance but until we are sure. Don't speak a word."

"Yes princess." Fluttershy felt better after telling somepony and most of the bad feelings had left. She started walking back to the camp. Princess Luna teleported away in the same way Fluttershy had seen Princess Celestia teleport, only instead of a bright light, it was a dark shadow. She was almost out of the clearing when she heard a voice coming from one of the trees.

"So it appears your the successor of this system, i'm glad it will be left in such kind hands."

Fluttershy Squeaked and looked up in the trees. The voice sounded like the whispers she had heard only this time as one voice. It was a males voice from what it sounded like.

It was to dark to see what had spoke but she could see a single small glowing eye looking down on her. it was not circular but a red line. starting thin oh both side of the face and grew quickly downwards and then went back up leaving only a thin strip connecting the two sides. It looked like a strange pair of glasses or googles instead of an eye.

The creature jumped out of the tree and Fluttershy jumped back, almost landing in some bushes that were behind her. She was to afraid to talk.

"There is no need to fear me, little one." The creature said.

Fluttershy could now clearly see it now. It stood tall, just a bit taller than the princesses. It wore a strange suit with patches of skin showing along the shoulders and face. Its skin was light and partially tanned. The next thing she saw was that It had hands. Hands like spikes but with dull ends. It wore gloves that went half up its arm but left the fingers bare. It also wore a hood with a small tip at the end that cast a shadow over the whole face other than a piece of its chin. Right above the beginning of the legs she saw a small black cape that reached down to about the knees.

They stared at each other studying one others looks. Fluttershy finally worked up the courage to speak.

"Who are you?" She didn't think of what it could be. She was so used to being around other animals that it didn't dawn on her at first.

"I'm Siege, Guardian of this system. Though I doubt you know what that means." The creature said kindly "What might your name be little one?"

"My....... my name is Fluttershy." She squeaked a little. She began to calm down. The creatures voice sounded trustworthy and she felt safer hearing it.  

"Well then little Fluttershy, I guess I have some explaining to do." The creature said only to be cut off by a guard.

"Who goes there!?" The guard yelled out. Fluttershy squeaked and looked at the creature. She could here some guards coming to her there location.

"it looks like this is not the time to tell you what your fate is, little Fluttershy. Tell the others not of what you saw or heard tonight. It is not yet time for the secret to be revealed. Remember my name, for you will need it later if you want to continue your journey for the truth."

Before Fluttershy could say a word a distinct robotic voice was heard "Cloak engaged" The creature known as Siege Disappeared right before Fluttershy's eyes. She squeaked and saw the guards. They had finally reached the clearing but were to late to see anything other than Fluttershy looking at a tree.

"We heard voices, are you okay? One of the guard asked impatiently. He had trouble waking the other guards up which had angered him. One of the guards even kicked him in the face by accident.  

"Everything is okay, sir. I was just talking to one of the birds" Fluttershy said trying her best to lie. She had a little smile on her face. "A new animal friend." She thought to herself. Her reaction was more than strange, but she would rather be happy then fear what just happened.

Rainbow Dash popped out of the bushes at full speed.

"Is there a fight. What did I miss?!? She said yelled put of excitement.

"Its a false alarm, miss." The guard told Rainbow Dash. The look of she had on her face quickly changed to disappointment and she quickly got sleepy again. "A man, I really thought there was some action going on" Rainbow complained.

"I'm sorry rainbow, I didn't mean to wake you up...." Fluttershy said happily. She had no idea how the guards or Rainbow would have reacted to Siege and how he seemed to of just disappeared had helped them both.

Twilight and the others had also been woken up by the commotion and had found there way to the clearing. The only ones not in the clearing were rarity and a few guards. the 4 were yawning as the guards brought them back to camp. Along the way Twilight saw the Princess Luna was missing.

"Wheres princess Luna?" She asked.

"She needed to go tell princess Celestia something. That reminds me, she told me that some of the guards need to be awake and keep guard whilst the princess in gone. We aren't aloud to leave until she has returned." Fluttershy replied.

"Did she tell you what she needed to tell Princess Celstia? Twilight asked. Fluttershy shook here head saying no and continued to walk back to camp. She thought it would be better if twilight didn't know to much and knew bad things would happen if she did considering the warnings she got.      

"I will stand guard for the rest of the night." One of the guards told the rest.

"I will too!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "I dont want to miss anything this time!"

Fluttershy wondered if Rainbow would ever stop yelling and lied down. She began to get very tired and fell asleep almost right away. She had had a long night and deserved some sleep.

[Again thank you for reading, I am trying to keep things from expanding to quickly but i think i might be failing a bit. Please excuse any grammar and spelling mistakes made. Writing has never been my talent and this is only my first story. I don't know when i will have the next chapter ready but it should not take too long. I can keep pumping out chapters and long as i have an idea of how i want to continue the story (which has not been a problem so far.) and as long as i have the time. This will continue until late Sunday, since my vacation is almost over. I'm doing the best to preread and find any mistakes.before posting the chapters but if anyone would like to help preread just message me and you can.]

Next Chapter: Overnight walk. Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes