The floating embryo

   “I’m telling you, Twilight, I had never felt anything like this before!” said Pinkie, walking around the purple unicorn, who was trying to organize the books of the shelves.

   “So, is it another doozy?” questioned Twilight.

   “Yes! No, wait! It’s actually bigger than a doozy! It’s like... A Super Doozy!”

   Twilight looked at the pink pony, wrinkling her nose.

   “A Super Doozy?” she asked. “Is that even possible?”

   “It seems so. My Pinkie Sense has been crazy about it all morning!”

   Since the last incidents with the famous Pinkie Sense, Twilight Sparkle had decided to take predictions of the pink pony seriously, no matter how crazy they could look. It had become a survival instinct for the purple unicorn. After all, she didn’t want to have a piano falling over her head. Again.

   “And do you have any idea of where it will be this time?” Twilight asked.

   “I think so...”

   Pinkie went to one of the windows, and she put her hooves in the glass. She could see, in the distance, a bunch of sinister shadowy trees. It was that place, the one that even little fillies knew they should stay away from. A very serious expression appeared in the face of the pink pony, like if she was about to confront Destiny itself, when she said:

   “It will be in the Everfree Forest.”

   “Hey, hooves out!”, shouted Spike. “I’ve just cleaned that window!”

   “Ups. Sorry,” Pinkie moved away from the glass. “Like I was saying: It will be in the Everfree Forest.”

***

   “I hope this is important,” said Rainbow Dash, floating over Twilight’s head, with her front legs crossed. “I was busy. Napping.”

   ‘Oh, what a shocker...’ thought the purple unicorn. “Look, girls, Pinkie has had another of her twitches, and this time it appears to be something really big. I don’t want to take risks, so we’re going to the Everfree Forest to investigate.”

   “Ah, I get it,” smiled the pegasus. “You needed some brave and strong pony to watch over your backs. Well thought, Twilight!”, and she started to punch the air.

   Actually, Twilight’s original idea was to gather all the six, but Applejack was having a family reunion at the farm, and Rarity was busy making some dresses, so she and Pinkie had had to conform with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

   “Do... do we really have to go?” whispered the latter. “Maybe it’s nothing... No offense, Pinkie Pie.”

   “Yeah, that’s a possibility,” said Twilight. “However, like I said, I don’t want to take risks. Better safe than sorry.”

   And so, the four ponies ventured into the dark forest, two of them walking, the third one flying, and the fourth one bouncing happily.

***

   What was the Everfree Forest? Generations of ponies had tried, in the distant past, to answer that question, without any result. That place had been the source and inspiration of many legends and horror stories. After all, only in nightmares could the mind of a pony conceive the existence of that accursed forest, where plants grew without any help and there were no seasons, that place roamed by bizarre animals and horrible monsters.

   Eventually, everypony had decided to stop searching for answers, and just let it be. The Everfree Forest became another common element of the world, one that was better to leave alone. A dark domain of the unknown, and maybe even of evil, which should not be disturbed.

   “Echo!” said Pinkie Pie, as loudly as she could, bouncing between the trees. “Echo! Echo! Oh, why is there no echo?”

   “For the last time, Pinkie Pie: that happens on caves!” groaned Twilight.

   “And what happens on forests?”

   “Bad things...” whispered Fluttershy, trembling. “And... If we keep making noises... bad things will happen to us...”

   “Hey, Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash, flying over them. “If Pinkie’s prediction is true, what will we do when we encounter that big thing?”

   “I’ve been working on new spells,” explained the unicorn. “I think they’ll be able to deal with that thing, whatever it may be.”

   “I also have a plan,” said Pinkie, suddenly turning serious. “Trust me, I have a plan...”

   The other three gulped. Pinkie Pie being serious? Twilight Sparkle was pretty sure that somewhere, maybe not too far from Ponyville, there was a list with the events that would foresee the End of Equestria. Pinkie Pie being serious had to be one of them.

   They kept walking. They even paid a visit to Zecora and asked her if she had seen something weird in the forest recently. The problem was, there were too many weird things in the Everfree Forest to pick just one and say it was weirder than the others. So, they left Zecora’s house and continued with their search, although they were starting to get tired.

   “I don’t think there’s anything big in this forest,” said Rainbow Dash, eventually. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, but I’m afraid your twitch failed this time.”

   “It hasn’t failed!” replied the pink pony. “It’s just that we haven’t found the Super Doozy yet!”

   “Anyway, we should stop and go back to Ponyville. My wings are starting to get tired, and I still need to catch up with my Napping Timetable! I’ll have to sleep extra hours to recover the lost time!”

   “I agree with you, Dash,” sighed Twilight. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, but I’m tired too. We’ll continue searching tomorrow, if your twitches persist, ok?”

   “But... but... Oh, ok...”

   “Good. Now, which is the road back to Ponyville?”

   The four ponies looked around. They had reached an unknown part of the forest, the dark trees seemed bigger than usual, and their branches were tangled over their heads, creating a ceiling of wood. They couldn’t see the sky.

   They were lost.

   “Look!” said Dash, pointing at one lonely branch. “A raven! Fluttershy, ask him if he knows the way out.”

   “All right,” smiled the yellow pegasus, happy for having encountered a normal animal she could talk to.

   However, when she approached the bird, Fluttershy suddenly stopped, and went back. She looked worried.

   “What happens?” asked Twilight.

   “That’s not a normal raven,” explained Fluttershy. “There’s something wrong with him... But I don’t know what.”

   The black bird flew in circles over the ponies a few times, and then landed on another branch. It croaked, and pointed one direction with its wing. The ponies looked, but there were only trees.

   Then, suddenly, a black wind came out of nowhere and engulfed those trees. When it dissipated, the sinister plants had disappeared, and there was a road which led directly out of the forest, back to Ponyville.

   “What?!” asked Twilight. She looked back at the raven, but the bird had flown deeper into the woods.

   “Who cares?” said Rainbow Dash. “Come on, let’s return home!”

   But Pinkie Pie had gone the opposite direction, right after the raven.

   “What are you doing?!” shouted Twilight.

   “That bird!” answered the pink pony. “He is the Super Doozy!”

   “What? Pinkie, wait! Oh, that reckless... Come on, girls, we can’t leave her!”

   A pink figure was running under the trees, following a black bird she could hardly see, in all those shadows. Her Pinkie Sense had returned, stronger than in the morning. That raven was the big thing she had felt.

   “Stop right there!” said a cyan body, landing right in front of her.

   “Move away, Dashie!” moaned Pinkie Pie. “I have to follow that bird!”

   Twilight and Fluttershy catch them, exhausted.

   “You...” said the first. “You can’t... be so reckless...”

   “But girls! He’s the Super Doozy! We can catch him!” she looked over Rainbow’s shoulders. “Oh, no, we can’t. I’ve lost him...”

   “Come on, Miss Twitches,” said Dash, pushing her back. “I think you have had too many cupcakes this morning, or maybe not enough. We’ll go back to Ponyville, and...”

   Then, they heard that sound. A strange growl, which actually sounded more like a mix between a gurgle and an actual growl. The four ponies felt that they were being watched, that they had been surrounded.

   Creatures came out of the shadows. They looked like ponies, but their bodies were made of water. Although they were totally faceless, it was perfectly clear that they were not friendly. At all.

   “What are they?” asked Rainbow Dash, preparing to defend herself and her friends. “Melted windigos?”

   “Kelpies!” said Twilight. “Be careful, girls! They’re dangerous water spirits!”

   The horn of the unicorn started to glow, as she stood in front of the kelpies, protecting Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash snorted and flapped her wings, trying to look menacing. She was hoping to scare those things, because she wasn’t sure she could fight entities that were made of water.

   The kelpies walked forward. They also came from behind, so their preys could not retreat.

   Then,  the black wind from before appeared again, forming a defensive whirlwind around the four ponies. The dark breezes created spirals that hit some of the kelpies, forcing the others to step back.

   Pinkie Pie felt it again. She looked up, pointed with a hoof, and exclaimed:

   “It’s him again! The Super Doozy!”

   Her friends looked, expecting to see the raven, but it wasn’t a black bird what it was floating over her heads. Inside of a bubble, acting like the core for that supernatural wind, there was an embryo. Maybe from a pony, but it was still not completely formed, so it could be from any kind of animal.

   It looked really, really, really angry.

   The embryo gave a deadly stare to the aquatic demons.

   “Go away” said a voice.

   Immediately, like if they had seen the most terrific of visions, the kelpies ran away, returning to the shadows.

   Slowly, the bubble rotated, and the embryo looked directly at the ponies.

   “You!” shouted Pinkie Pie, literally jumping from behind Twilight. “We’ve been all day searching for you! It’s nice to finally meet the cause of my twitch!”

   The black wind engulfed the ponies. At the next second, they were outside the Everfree Forest. The last spiral of blackness disappeared over the shadowy trees. There was no trace of the embryo, and Pinkie’s Sense wasn’t tingling anymore.

   “Wait!” said the pink pony, yelling at the forest. “Don’t go! Tell me your name!”

   But he had gone. Not a very sociable supernatural being, after all...

   Pinkie looked at the ground, disappointed. She really wanted to meet that strange entity, specially after all the troubles they had had searching for it. Twilight put a friendly hoof over Pinkie’s shoulder, and suggested that they should go back to Ponyville.

   But, as soon as the pink pony turned around, a voice came from within the trees:

   “My name is Francisco.”

   Pinkie smiled and jumped.  

   “Weeeee!” she squeaked. “Did you hear him, girls? His name is Francisco! Mmh... A bit weird, actually...”

   “Ok, Pinkie, calm down,” said Twilight.

   “Well, it seems that you’ve finally met your Super Doozy,” smiled Rainbow Dash.

   “He doesn’t look like a bad guy,” said Fluttershy. “Only a bit creepy.”

   The pink pony looked at the Everfree Forest.

   “And now, it’s time for my plan!” she announced. “Be ready, girls, because my plan is... pause for dramatic effect... A party!” Next Chapter: The black wind and the pink princess Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 37 Minutes