It irritated Twilight to no end. She was a mare who believed in facts before proving if something was real and she could interact with it or if someone had made something up as an excuse as to why they were doing something dangerous. She should have known that the Cutie Mark Crusaders would have run into the forest, for about the twentieth time in the last two months, and would have made something inside the forest angry. But this blunt lie that Sweetie Belle had come up with, even claiming that her friends had seen it as well, just irritated her to no end and made her head hurt.

There was no alicorn stallion sleeping inside the Everfree Forest, she was absolutely sure of that. She had run test after test on the forest a few days after her initial arrival and the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but hadn't found anything to suggest that there was another alicorn besides the three she had known. The forest still had some secrets, that she was sure of, but there was no way that she could have missed something like an alicorn, who, according to Sweetie, was sleeping on a cloud. She refused to accept the story without proof, of which she was sure there was none at all.

"Oh stop your pacing Twilight," Spike moaned, sweeping up a pile of dust before dumping it in their trash bin, "You know what they say about fillies, they made up things when they're stressed out and tend to believe whatever they made up. I'm sure the Crusaders ran into a harmless creature and, fearing that it had been the 'monster' they had been searching for, ran away before it could gobble them up. Then they made up a fictional character, that they had to have created ahead of time to get their stories straight, who could save them from certain demise."

"Wow Spike, I didn't know you knew all of that," Twilight said, pleased that Spike had actually remembered something from all the books they had been working on.

"Well, I was their age once," Spike chuckled, stashing the broom and dustpan in the closet, "I remember when I used to make up stories abut how I was saving the fair maiden from certain doom by slaying a ferocious beast that had kidnapped her. Or, in one of my better stories, I would do battle with an evil sorcerer and defeat him or her to release a village from the evil spell they had cast upon the villagers."

"Or how you'd jump on my back and made me chase down my brother," Twilight told him, sliding a few more books back into place, "just so you could leap onto him and tie him up like a pig. Or how you would pull out cutouts of battle armor and have a battle with Shining, just to see which of you were the better trained soldier that should be joining Celestia's guard."

"Hey, it would have been a first for dragons everywhere," Spike said, waging a claw in the air, "If I could have taken the exam I'm sure I would have passed with flying colors and been given special armor to let other dragons know that we can live in peace with ponies after all. And when the Changelings attacked I could have pulled out my weapon and charged into battle, to protect the Princess that I was sworn to keep save with my very live."

"You were too young to do any of that," Twilight told him, bursting the bubble before it inflated any bigger than it had before, "but you were a fine knight when you helped us rescue Rarity from those Diamond Dogs that one time."

Her conversation with Spike was enough to make her focus on something other than the lie that Sweetie had told her. She still had to tell Applejack about what her sister had done, but considering the time it was and how much sleep she had missed in the last few days Twilight decided to talk with Applejack in the morning. Once she was sure that no one else was coming to the library Twilight switched the sign to 'Closed', locked the door, and blew out the lights before teleporting them over to their castle. She'd get a quick bite to eat before heading to bed, she had a big day trying to explain what Apple Bloom had did to Applejack.

-----------------------

Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Bloom's home and workplace for the moment. Apple Bloom had told her sister that she was going to spend an hour or two hanging out with her friends before returning home for supper. Scootaloo had spent a good hour of tricks before they had reached the forest earlier, cutting into the time she had promised that she'd be gone. She wasn't looking forward to telling her sister that she had been gone later than she had promised, nor was she excited about telling her that they had gone into the Everfree Forest and had nearly been eaten by Diamond Dogs. She also wasn't sure what to say about the alicorn that she and her friends had seen, but decided that telling the whole truth would be easier then telling a lie.

There was no point in lying to Applejack, she was the Element of Honesty and always knew when Apple Bloom was lying to her.

"Apple Bloom," Scootaloo said, stopping Apple Bloom in her tracks, "Are...are you going to tell Applejack everything?"

"Yes," Apple Bloom replied, shaking her head slightly, "Even if I tried to hold pieces of our adventure back Applejack would be able to tell and then I'd be in trouble for lying to her. I'd rather just tell my sister everything and hope she goes easy on me for going to the Everfree Forest without telling her."

"And are you going to tell her that it was my idea that we went into the forest?" Scootaloo asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

"Everything Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said, starting down the path to the house.

Scootaloo sighed and got her scooter going, not wanting to be anywhere near the farm when Applejack learned that she had risked her sister's life to go monster hunting in the Everfree Forest. She wasn't sure that Applejack would do to her, but she didn't want to be anywhere near her in the next few days. As Scootaloo sped away she wondered if Sweetie Belle had been successful with telling Twilight about the stallion they had found, but knowing Twilight she knew it wouldn't be that simple. It was a shame that they couldn't get anything of the stallion's while they were there, as having proof would have shaken Twilight to her core.

Apple Bloom, on the other hoof, walked up to the front door of her house and pushed it open, finding her sister standing on the other side and staring down at her. Before she could open her mouth to explain why she had been gone so long Applejack threw her front legs around her and brought her into a hug.

"Apple Bloom, I was worried sick about you," Applejack said, tears falling from her eyes, "Spike sent a letter saying that you and your friends had gone into the Everfree Forest and I had feared for your safety. What were you thinking, heading into that dangerous forest without letting anyone know?"

"Scootaloo wanted to hunt monsters," Apple Bloom told her, "and we came across a group of Diamond Dogs that wanted to eat us. We tried running away from them, but eventually we came to a clearing with a cloud that was hanging near the ground and had a stallion sleeping on it. We didn't know who the stallion was, but we dashed under his cloud and Sweetie cried out for the stallion to save us from being eaten by the dogs. I thought that we were done for, but then the stallion climbed off his cloud and we learned that he was actually an alicorn with a flaming mane. I don't know how he managed to chase them off, but if we hadn't found him and Sweetie hadn't cried out for aid we might not have escaped from those dogs.

Sweetie Belle wanted to be dropped off at Twilight's library so she could tell her that we found an alicorn in the forest, though we really don't have evidence that he was there. I just wanted to come home so I could jump into the warm embrace of my sister and proclaim that I was going to stay away from the forest until I was older, just like you."

"Well, grab an apple and then get to bed," Applejack said, letting her sister go, "You've had a tiring day and I won't push a punishment on you until the morning..."

"I'm grounded from Scootaloo aren't I?" Apple Bloom asked, heading for the kitchen.

"And crusading for a week," Applejack replied, watching her sister take her apple upstairs before she closed the front door.

Applejack had seen it in her sister's eyes, she had been telling the truth when she had mentioned the alicorn stallion that she and her friends had bumped into. It sounded weird to think about there being a fifth alicorn in Equestria, one that everyone knew next to nothing about, but she believed her sister. Twilight wasn't going to like the fact that she was on the opposite side of the argument, but, as the Element of Honesty, she could tell when ponies were lying and knew the stallion existed. Applejack only wondered who the stallion was and what he was doing in the Everfree Forest, besides sleeping like a certain pegasus she knew.

-----------------------

"Ha ha ha ha ha," one of the Diamond Dogs said, holding a spear as he and his friends approached the cloud sitting pony, "He may have bested us when there were only four of us, but now that we have three times the amount of dogs he doesn't stand a chance. Foolish pony, there are no ponies who can best a Diamond Dog in combat."

"Boss, he'll hear you if you keep talking so loudly," a second dog said, armor pieces brushing against each other as it approached the clearing, "but I can agree, this pony doesn't stand much of a chance against us."

The Diamond Dogs may have been beaten earlier by a cheap trick, but they managed to gather several groups together to deal with something that could ruin the kingdom they were trying to build. All the Diamond Dogs present wouldn't stand for allowing some strange pony to continue to live in the forest, and so they gathered together to end the pony before it could defeat them. So they surrounded the clearing, bringing all the spears and rope bindings they had at the time with them, and prepared to bring the fight to the pony.

"For Dogtopia," one of the latest recruits shouted, dashing forward and bringing his spear down on the cloud.

At first the leader thought that they had gotten the stallion before he could even react, but as seconds passed them by the dog that attacked first burst into flames, running around while screaming his head off. The cloud vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced with the stallion who barely looked like he had been awake for more than a minute and still had the stick in his mouth. The leader stared at the pony, wondering if it was some miracle that had set his recruit on fire and not the stallion who had tricked them before.

"Oh not you guys again," the stallion moaned, blowing a puff of smoke out before returning the stick, "Seriously, you should have stayed in whatever hole you all climbed out of."

"Foolish pony, I bring reinforcements," the leader grinned, gripping his spear and holding it in front of him, "You don't stand a chance of defeating all of us and escaping being eaten. Attack him boys!"

The stallion stood there and let the other eleven Diamond Dogs jump out into the open, spears and rope flying towards him as if the dogs thought they stood a chance. A ring of flames surrounded him, catching the weapons and rope before burning them to cinders, causing the Diamond Dogs to slow down before they reached him. The stallion sighed and looked to his left, the flames bursting to life and reaching for the dogs in that direction, making each of them catch on fire. He then looked to his right and repeated the process, watching the dogs running around with their coats on fire and bumping into each other quite often.

Eventually it was just him and the Diamond Dog who claimed to be the leader of the group that had attacked him, but all the stallion did was sigh and pull out his cloud. The lead dog growled and picked up his spear, charging at the stallion while his back was turned, but, just like the rest of his comrades, he caught on fire as well. The stallion climbed onto his cloud as the last of the dogs disappeared into the forest, stretching his legs just a bit before getting into a comfortable position.

"Never mess with a superior opponent," the stallion yawned, staring up at the stars for a moment, "how true those words have become."