”Scootaloo? That wouldn’t happen to be the third member of your little gang?” Karon asked, noting the lack of an orange little pegasus in the present company.

”Yeah that’s her. We were out crusading in the forest trying to earn our cutie marks when this fog appeared out of nowhere. We couldn’t see anything and when we tried to walk back the way we came, we got separated and couldn’t find Scoots anywhere. When we found a way out of the forest, we ran and told Rarity what had happened.”

The little filly had said it all without pausing for breath once, a feat that earned her an almost imperceptible nod of approval from Pinkie Pie. Karon raised an eyebrow at the filly and asked.

”What exactly did you say you were doing in the forest?”

”We were trying to earn our cutie marks, we-”

”Now hold it right there, we ain’t got time ta talk about all that now. We need ta get moving before something happen ta that girl,” Applejack intervened before the little filly could continue her explanation.

”I can understand your need for haste, but why exactly are you stopping to tell me all of this? If you want my help I’ll give it of course, but I don’t know how much help I can be.”

Karon added skeptically. Trying to find a child lost in the huge primal forest sounded like an almost impossible task to him. The denizens of the woods would not take kindly to a search party barging through looking for the little filly.

“Yes but uhm, couldn’t you do the same thing you did when you looked for Rainbow Dash after she tried to go around the world? If it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you I mean,” a worried looking Fluttershy asked her fear for the missing child too much to allow herself to be silent.

“When Rarity gathered all of us together and explained the situation, Fluttershy mentioned you had some way of checking up on Rainbow Dash despite the fact that you didn’t have any idea where she was. We were hoping you could do the same thing for Scootaloo and tell us where she is so we can go get her,” Twilight said, rescuing Fluttershy from having to explain further.

“You want me to divine the filly’s location?” Karon asked a little surprised, “I could in theory do it but it would require something that belonged to her since I haven’t seen enough of her to search just by her aura.”

“I don’t know what that means, but if you need something of hers, then we should hurry to the hospital,” Twilight replied and was already half on her way to running towards it.

“Wait, wait! Hospital? Why would we go to the hospital?”

“She lives there, all orphans do. Since they don’t really have a place to stay, nurse Redheart has set aside a few rooms they can live in together.”

“She doesn’t have a family?” Karon’s voice had a tone to it saying it was more than just a question.

“Well, yes but can’t this wait until after we’ve found her and brought her back safely?” Twilight asked him impatiently, not wanting to waste any more time.

“No need to go to the hospital then.”

“But you said you needed something that belonged to her!”

“I needed something I could use to form a connection to her, I don’t need to have something of hers now that I know we already have one.”

“So … can you do it?”

“Give me a minute.”

Karon walked away from the group of ponies, all staring at him with trepidation and fragile hope. Searching for Scootaloo in the forest without any way of tracking her would be very difficult, and if she had wandered in the wrong direction they might never find her.

He sat down next to his discarded book, his back turned to the ponies. He wanted a small measurement of privacy for this, not for the divinations sake, but for his own. This time it would require something personal from him, he would need to draw from his own loss of family and find whatever resonated to it. Hopefully it would be the little orphan filly, Karon couldn’t imagine there would be a lot of orphans in there. The Everfree Forest was a place where the children without a family to protect them were nothing but food for those that did.

In there, a small Pegasus child was nothing but food, she had no family to save her, but she had friends, hopefully that would be enough.

Well, she also got Karon, who would have just a minute ago reluctantly helped search for her, but given up soon because he would have assumed the forest had devoured her. Not now, not after knowing she was like him. He was going to help find that filly and drag her out of that forest even if he had to burn it down inch by inch.

The emotions stirring in him were good. They would provide ample energy to draw from, making sure he would not lose the link he was about to try and form. In a quieter, colder and far more logical place in his mind, a voice dryly noted that he had allowed the ponies around him to get to his emotions a lot, and unless he took care in how it affected his actions, he might end up in a very bad situation he would not be able to control.

But the sober tones of logic had never been a voice acknowledged by the feelings in Karon’s heart, and it was getting more difficult with time to ignore them in favor of cold rationality. However, at times like this one, the blind power of emotion was desirable. It would give a greater connection and make sure he did not simply abandon the filly when the search became statistically unreasonable.

He let his growing determination and will fuel him, warm him, light up his mind to the purpose he now possessed. From the power, a mental shape took form, a blob of invisible mental energy, but unlike Karon’s usual grey colored form, this one was scarlet. Formed not from his usual feelings of pride, contempt or fear, this temporary body for his mind was born out of something Karon rarely felt.

He had felt it when he decided to save Twilight from the void and bring her home, and now he felt it again as he thought of how easily a little pegasus without a family could be robbed of her life when inside a place like the Everfree Forest.

His mind made the switch between bodies easily, snapping into place and flying off towards the forest. As soon as he crossed the invisible line between the Everfree and Equestria he could feel the forest awareness once more. It expanded his senses and his mind suddenly flew across all across the forest’s vast expanse, feeling the life force of each and every thing that breathed.

The plants digging into every crevice they could find, the trees firmly rooted in the soil, and the creatures that walked within their shadows. They were uncountable in their diversity and numbers, and Karon realized how lucky he was to have only encountered that pack of timber wolves while within the forest. Had he travelled deeper inside it, he would have found himself facing far more dangerous creatures.

But he was searching for a specific life and needed to focus. Searching manually this way would be faster than doing it physically, but it would still take too long. By the time he had managed to track the filly down he would most likely have found her in some beast’s belly.

Instead, he drew upon his own memories as a focus. The many nights he had laid awake and thought of his family, never being able to be with them again. Perhaps this filly was different and had always been an orphan, never even given the chance to meet them. It didn’t matter, whether you think it is better to have had and lost than to have never had, they were both without family now.

And that leaves a hole in your heart, an empty space reminding you that there was supposed to be something present in your life that you’re missing. Karon focused on that empty space, letting it become a focus as his mind took in all of the forest. It echoed out from him in pulses, passing through all that which was not something sharing in the emptiness.

Until it reached a set of large rocky hills. Jagged rocks that had pierced the surface of the earth covered the area giving it a lot of natural protection. Within that cluster of stone, there was a small presence, a creature whose aura burned with fiery orange and sickly yellow. It had courage, but it was also afraid, very afraid.

It had to be the lost filly. When the echo reached her it did not pass over. Instead, it bounced back to Karon, bringing with it the sense of a similar empty ache where the love of a family should have been.

Karon could feel no other life forms near her, which was good. It meant no predator had managed to catch her scent yet. If the filly was smart, she would remain where she was for a little while, hidden and protected by the rocky area.

Unfortunately, she had managed to blunder quite deep into the forest. Karon had spent several days within it, but he had stuck no more than a day’s walk from its borders. This little filly had managed to head towards its center in almost a straight line, and if she continued on, her path she would move deeper into the forest than Karon had dared to thread. Perhaps she had mixed up her sense of direction and thought she was heading towards Ponyville, but regardless of the cause for her rush towards disaster, they needed to get to her soon before she passed too deep into the forest.

His mind stretched out and connected to the little filly’s. He tried to speak to her telepathically, to tell her to stay put and wait for rescue, but everything he tried to communicate to her was lost in the babble of flittering thoughts. Her mind was full of them, not stopping once, constantly bombarding the child with doubts, fears and what-ifs.

Within that torrent of thoughts and emotions, all Karon said went unheard and unnoticed. He cursed loudly, the mental voice going unheard by all but him. Perhaps he could try later when the filly would hopefully have calmed down, but he wouldn’t be able to physically move about while trying to speak to her.

So he did the best thing possible, Karon formed a link connecting the little filly’s aura to his own and a glowing line appeared between them. He wouldn’t be able to communicate with her through it alone, but at least it would allow him to track her presence.

Karon reluctantly cut off the syphoning of his emotions his temporary mental body used to keep itself alive, and gradually it began to fade away. With a feeling of being stretched out like a rubber band being torn apart, his mind was flung back into his original body.

It was always unpleasant to return this way. Between the small trauma of being flung across bodies and the discomfort of being caged within a slab of meat it took Karon a minute to properly recover.

When he did, he noticed a circle of ponies standing above him, looking down on him with concern on their faces. The two fillies were squashed between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, looking at him with more curiosity than concern.

“Well...?” Twilight asked, biting her lower lip waiting for an answer.

“I’ve found her,” Karon said, remaining still on the ground with the faces of the ponies above him, framed in perfectly by the sky above, graced with the last beams of sunlight as night was beginning to fall.

Which was why he got a perfect view as their faces turned into huge smiles, all of them relieved that the whereabouts of the lost filly was known. Now all that remained was going in after her….

Into the forest filled with the most terrifying predators on the planet … just as night was falling….

“Are you sure you are ready to do this? You might feel like you must save her just because she has no family like us, but I wonder how long that might last when we stand face to face with another pack of wolves … or something worse.”

“I’m not leaving her in there to fend for herself, and I am not letting Twilight and the rest of them go in after the filly alone either.”

“Why so heroic all of the sudden?”

“Must have been hanging around all these ponies for too long. Besides what else am I to do? Sit back and let Twilight, Rarity and everypony else run into danger without even trying to help them. I’m not a hero, but I am no coward either.”

“Well then, get your badass on because you’re going to need it.”

Karon rose up from the ground and looked at the ponies around him skeptically. He might no longer view them entirely as naïve little children, but still … if he had to pick a group of creatures to follow into a dangerous forest during nighttime in order to save a little child, then this one would not be his first choice.

Or tenth.

But he reminded himself that this group had faced dangers before, many dangers and they had still prevailed. And they had ventured into the forest before when needed and emerged very much alive. He would just have to make sure they did so again.

“So what are we waiting for, let’s go!” Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly and everypony gave murmurs of agreement, even the little fillies.

Which did not sit well with the rest of them.

“Ah’m sorry sugercube, but there’s just no way Ah’m letting ya come with us. Now ya head back to ta farm and stay there until Ah get back okay?”

The little yellow filly whined sadly while the little unicorn filly was trying her best to give her older sister puppy dog eyes, but Rarity remained unimpressed.

“I’m sorry Sweetie Bell, but I am with Applejack on this one. Now you go back to Ponyville and we will get Scootaloo and return her home.”

“You promise you will get her back?” she asked and her puppy dog eyes increased in size with the question.

“Of course we will, so don’t you worry about a thing. Tomorrow morning you will wake up and Scootaloo will be back where she belongs.”

Still disappointed that she and her friend wouldn’t be allowed to join them, the little filly at least took some comfort in her sister’s confidence. So while Sweetie Bell and Applebloom turned around and began their walk back to Ponyville, the rest of the ponies and Karon turned to face the forest.

Beyond the boundary of Equestria it waited, draped in mist and shadow, and home to the savage beasts Equestria could not house herself. A remnant from a far more violent and bloody time, and now one of Equestria’s own were lost within.

“Come on everypony, let’s get moving!” Twilight said loudly, trying her best to inspire courage in her companions. It had mixed results, but it did what it was supposed to and signalled the start of the rescue operation. Motioning for Karon to take the lead and guide them to Scootaloo, Twilight and the rest fell into line behind him.

The group passed through the boundary and into the Everfree Forest, nervously glancing around themselves looking for any sign of danger. The ponies did at least, Karon had connected with the forest's mind as soon as he had entered its fold and could feel that no predators were near ... for the moment.

He led the group deeper into the forest, using the forest’s awareness and his own link to Scootaloo to guide them towards her, while simultaneously keeping away from the path of any other creatures he could feel close by. It was getting harder to do the further they went as the number of predators increased deeper in.

And also because Karon’s fear was realized when he understood that the little filly was moving.

“Damn, I was hoping she would stay put for the rest of the night and wait for dawn.”

“Apparently not. She must think she is heading towards Ponyville and now that darkness has set, fear will motivate her even further. She will be moving fast and without thinking things through, easy prey for anything that comes across her.”

“Then we have to be faster.”

“Easier said than done. If we were alone, we might have been able to slip by undetected with enough haste to catch up to her, but with the rest of the ponies with me there is no chance to match her speed if we want to remain unknown, the group is too big and leaves too much of a trail to follow.”

“And it will be worse the further in we go … You know what the best solution is.”

“There is a difference in trying to do the right thing and doing something suicidal just to play hero.”

“Can you see any other options?”

Karon couldn’t, so he remained deep in thought trying to find any other way for them to succeed in rescuing the filly. Behind him, the ponies had struck up a nervous conversation in an attempt to defuse the tension a little. Karon would have liked to tell them to shut up and stop trying to attract attention, but it wouldn’t have mattered that much anyway. And at least it did give them something else to focus on.

“So, does anypony know what they were doing inside the forest to begin with?” Rarity asked while carefully avoiding a low hanging branch that threatened to mess up her mane.  

“Weren’t ya the one they came running to in the first place?” Applejack asked back.

“Well yes, but all they did was shout about how they had been looking for ruins to earn their cutie marks and then got lost in a fog.”

“Oh hayballs!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed from her position over the rest of the group, lazily flying with their slow pace.

“”Now what was that for?” Applejack asked.

“Just yesterday I was telling Scootaloo about those Daring Do books I’ve been reading. She said she sounded awesome and I told her she should try and get a cutie mark in doing the stuff she does. Like exploring old ruins and discovering treasure or running away from a horde of mind controlled buffaloes. How was I supposed to know the squirt would take it seriously?” she finished a little defensively.

“Rainbow Dash, ya know how those girls are with their cutie marks, and ya also know how much that little filly admires ya.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault this happened! I didn’t tell them to go inside the forest and look for old ruins. You need to be a professional athlete to be able to handle things like that, like me,” she added and puffed up her chest a little.

“And ya know that little filly wants to be just like ya, so didn’t ya understand she would probably try and do something ya would do?”

“Well, I, uhhh.”

“Could you all try and stay quiet! I don’t want something to hear us and come investigating, and Karon also looks to be concentrating, so from now no talking!” Twilight said in a harsh voice, making it clear there would be no arguing with her.

“Good girl Twilight, keep this up and I might fall for you too.”

“Well actually I think you already h-“

“Not another word!”

The rest of the group fell silent after Twilight’s outburst and they walked in silence for a while, passing by thick clusters of trees as well as more open areas with grass and small collection of pools of water.

But the silence was broken when Karon abruptly stopped and sighed loudly, having found no alternative despite trying his utmost to do so. He turned around and faced the rest of the group, all looking at him and expecting an explanation for stopping.

“Why are we stopping? Is there something wrong?” Twilight asked worriedly and cast a few glances around, expecting a monster to come charging towards them any second.

“You could say that,” he said and looked at every pony in turn before holding his gaze on Twilight, “This won’t work.”

“Of course it will, you know where Scootaloo is so all we need to do is go get her, you do know where she is right?” The last part was voiced in great fear, without any way to track the filly her demise was all but certain and they all knew that.

“No, the problem is that I can, but she is moving away from us quickly, and at the pace we are keeping, we won’t be able to catch up to her in time. Sooner or later something will catch her scent….”

“So why are we wasting time standing here talking, let’s hurry up and save that filly!” Applejack said.

“Because we can’t move any faster if we want to remain undetected, and it will take even more of our time to deal with whatever comes across us if we don’t.”

“But, there has to be something we can do! I can fly faster than anypony else, if I go on ahead you can catch up to me,” Rainbow Dash added.

“And how are you going to find her? You would need to stay above the tree line to fly that fast and without my way of sensing her presence, it is only by luck you would be able to find her.”

“But … we can’t just abandon her!” the pegasus almost shouted, despair threatening to consume the group by Karon’s reasoning.

“No … we can’t….”

“Here we go.”

“…So I will have to continue on my own.”

Karon was instantly shouted down by a flood of angry protests as well as a polite request from Fluttershy to reconsider.

“Don’t think I like this, but it’s the only option we have. Alone I can move a lot faster and still stay undetected. Not to insult you, but ponies weren’t made for moving through dense forests. If we want to return the filly back home alive, this is how it will have to be.”

Everypony still looked incredibly uncomfortable with the idea, but they couldn’t argue with him. They all knew what he said was true, so they would just have to trust him.

“Maybe that’s why they’re so reluctant to allow this.”

“Karon could I speak with you for a moment … in private,” Twilight asked and walked away from the rest of the group, Karon followed after her and they both stopped behind a set of thick trees. Neither sight nor sound would reach the rest of the group from there.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed quietly to him, her eyes filled with anger and … fear.

“Something I didn’t really think through most likely.”

“I don’t think you are thinking at all. How do you expect to be able to do this on your own? What if she's hurt and needs help. Are you sure you can handle all that by yourself.”

“I will do what I can, but if I don’t do this, she will die without doubt. So tell me Twilight, because your moral compass is a lot more reliable than mine … What should I do?”

She didn’t answer. She just stared at him with her mouth half open as if she wanted to protest, but no words would come out. Instead she threw herself at him and hugged him hard, her horn sticking into his side quite painfully.

“Just make sure you make it back alright.”

“You do remember I spent nearly a week in here?”

“Yes and I also remember what you told me happened to you, so don’t act smart with me.”

He smiled down at the unicorn and the mixed message her glistening eyes but sarcastic tone gave.

“Are you crying?”

“No, you just smell and it’s making my eyes water.”

He laughed a little and the unicorn smiled back at him. They remained standing there, looking deep into one another’s eyes for a few moments. Then Twilight cleared her throat and gave a nervous little laugh.

“So I guess I will see you back in Ponyville then. Try not to take too much time in getting back. I still want you to write about your kind of magic.”

“I promise you that if I make it out of this unscathed, I will teach you something really cool.”

“I'll remember that,” she said and gave him one last encouraging smile before heading back to the group.

“Looks like we will be teaching her something after all.”

“I must say, after everything we put her through she has earned it.”

Karon would have continued the internal conversation but was interrupted when he heard creaking behind him. He cursed silently when he realized that he had allowed himself to let go of the forest's awareness.

But when he spun around he did not face a beast ready to leap at him, instead he found himself looking into the crystal blue eyes of Rarity.

“Rarity … you should be more careful about sneaking up on someone.”

“Perhaps I should tell you the same hmmmm.” she responded and lifted an eyebrow at him.

Karon didn’t fall for it. He could see that her attitude was nothing but a bad attempt at hiding her fear, and to be honest, Karon was glad she would be leaving the forest. He was glad they all would.

This was no place for ponies. For them, the Everfree Forest was an unnatural place. For Karon … it was nature at her finest, even if she could act like a complete bitch sometimes.

“You should probably return to the rest of the group before they get worried.”

“Oh don’t worry, I told them I needed to tell you not to dirty your new shirt,” she said it with a knowing little smile and Karon grinned at her explanation.

“Oh yeah, I’m definitely a bad influence.”

“And what did you really want to say to me?”

“I wanted to say that you better not ruin that as well or I am going to be very cross with you … and to take care. I don’t want to think that anything might happen to you, but please be careful.”

She walked up to him and gave him a similar hug as Twilight had, but a lot softer, tender and loving. He held her for a minute before letting go. She turned around about to leave when Karon kneeled down next to her and said.

“Hey Rarity…”

“Yes?” she asked and turned to face him, and as she did he brought his face down and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was slow at first, explorative, and neither of them dared to move.

But ever so gradually, they both sank deeper into it, their lips pressing harder against each other. Karon had been worried that kissing the pony would feel too alien to be enjoyable, but he found it very … pleasant. Their mouths might be a lot wider than a human's, but their lips were shaped so when puckered, they didn’t use any more muscles than what a human would.

The end result was lips that were a little bigger, a little wider and so very, very much softer than normal human lips, and Karon was enjoying them immensely. Their lips pressed hard together and moving in synchrony, he let his tongue slip through and briefly dragged it behind her upper lip, teasing her when she couldn’t catch it with her own.

She moaned, a little from excitement and a little from annoyance, and pressed herself hard against him. Both their breathing increased and as Karon’s pulse flared, he noticed he had unconsciously begun not only to explore her mouth but also the rest of her.

His hands had moved across her body, caressing her back while lazily dragging his nails across her flank. Without meaning to, his hands moved to her hips and were slowly making their way to her inner thighs.

When they did, Rarity placed her right hoof in his arm, whether to stop or encourage him he was not sure. Instead, she moaned into his mouth and Karon laid her down on the ground. Rarity didn’t even try and protest at having to lie down on something so dirty, instead she gasped loudly for air when Karon broke the kiss and began moving his tongue downwards.

He kissed her chest and stomach and traced a line with his tongue through the hollows and sensitive places he could find. His hand had moved away from her legs and were both placed on her flanks, gently dragging his nails over her cutie mark.

He moved himself further down and licked her inner thighs, dragging his tongue upwards with painful slowness. Rarity didn’t know what to do. Her was body giving off signals and filled with a desire beyond anything she had felt so far. Instead her body responded for her, lifting her hips up towards Karon, begging him to get on with it.

Karon smiled at her reaction, but pressed her hips down again firmly with his hand. Rarity looked down at him with misty eager eyes, nervousness present but giving way to desire as she let him take control. Karon’s amber eyes were burning with desire and he was just about to give into it when they were both interrupted by a loud squawking from a nearby tree.

Squawking is a misleading term. iIt sounded like something had hit a chain smoking crow with a crowbar and the sound was enough to wake both Karon and Rarity out of their stupor. They both blinked and tried to clear their heads, remembering suddenly were they were, and what Karon was supposed to be doing.

He looked down on Rarity, her cheeks flushed and eyes filled with a kind of hunger she had never experienced until mere moments ago. When she met his eyes, there was no doubt in Karon’s mind that he wanted her more than anything at the moment, to tear off his clothes and join with her there on the ground.

In such an ancient primal place like this, what could be more fitting than indulging in the fiercest of passions. Instead, he tore away his gaze and picked up a nearby rock, he turned around to the tree the bird had been heard from and threw it into it.

The bird in question squawked loudly once more and flew out of it indignantly, disappearing into the distance while Karon muttered quiet curses of the fate he hoped befell the little avian.

Behind him Rarity stood up from the ground and shook herself, trying to clear off the minuscule amount of dirt that had gotten on her pristine coat. When she was done, she walked up beside Karon who was still staring after the bird, letting all his frustration take shape in very explicit descriptions of the bird’s parentage.

It involved a dead goat.

“That was … different from how I expected it to be,” Rarity said, her voice still husky but also a confused note present in it.

“Still good I hope?”

“Oh yes, very … very good.”

They both went silent and contemplated what the hell had just happened and what it meant.

“I think it means we aren’t that far away from having some real fun with Rarity. Oh the things we could teach her….”

“For once, I’m actually inclined to agree with you.”

“You should get back to the rest of the group before they come looking for you.”

“You’re right. Just be careful while out there alone.”

“I will,” he said before leaving her where she stood, casting out his senses and heading towards the lost filly heading towards her doom.

Behind him, Rarity watched as Karon faded away into the surrounding mist and shadow, praying to Celestia to make sure he returned safely. Then she walked back to her still waiting friends, Twilight tapping her hoof impatiently when she saw Rarity emerge.

“What did you have to say that took so long?” she asked, making note of her flushed appearance.

“Why you know how I feel about fashion Twilight, and after that last dreadful turn of events with his robe, I needed to make sure he understood just HOW important it is he takes proper care of them.”

Four ponies nodded understandably, thinking she had spent the last fifteen minutes more or less shouting at Karon not to ruin the clothes she made him, but when they turned around and began walking back towards Ponyville, the fifth pony remained still. Applejack knew Rarity had lied about why it had taken so long, and that coupled with her flushed appearance….

For once Applejack wasn’t sure if she wanted the truth.

But she decided it might be best not to think about it and hurried after her friends, all of them eager to leave behind the mist drenched shadow land that was the Everfree Forest.

Karon, on the other hand, was heading in the opposite direction. While the ponies were leaving the dark forest behind, Karon was only entering deeper and deeper into its fold. He was moving fast, jogging forward unhindered by the terrain, his body naturally finding its way as the forest mind constantly fed it information on where it was. Every branch was dodged, every hole was avoided, every root jumped over as he hurried towards the lost pegasus.

All of this would have been far easier had she simply decided to fly, but if she could, she would have by now. This meant she should be very tired at this point, adrenaline and fear were most likely the only things that kept her moving.

The forest became a blur as Karon’s mind sank away from his physical environment, trusting his body to take care of itself while his mind focused on the life forces around him and the line of energy leading him towards Scootaloo.

It was becoming more and more dangerous as time passed, and his body began sending him messages, telling him to slow down and take it easier. His muscles still had a lot to give, but moving through a forest with heavy vegetation is different from running in a field. The constant contorting of his body and sharp turns were putting strains on his joints and ligaments, and they were making that fact well know to Karon.

He briefly stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Leaning against a tree, he did his best to steady his breathing. His mind was still only half aware of his physical state and surroundings, the other half was still busy feeling all the energy and life around him.

He could feel the hungry presences of several large predators in the close vicinity. Thankfully, they seemed to be very territorial because Karon couldn’t feel traces of them outside of the areas they were in. So if he could try and stay in the outskirts of each territory, then perhaps the predators would leave him alone, not wanting to attract the attention of their competition and cause a fight for prey.

Of course they might also team up and kill him first, and just share his savaged body for all he knew. Awareness of their presence did not include understanding of their nature. Karon just felt a very basic impression of their life force, and it was enough to tell if they were killers or not, but beyond that they remained a mystery.

He took a deep breath and pushed it out forcefully before setting off again. By now, the forest was so dark that nothing without low light vision could see properly, but Karon wasn’t using his eyes to find his way. However, the little filly should be, so why was she still going in an almost straight line away from him? She must have some other way of determining directions, but whatever it was, it was screwed up, and in just another hour or so she would be deeper than Karon had dared to go.

“So get going, faster now, ignore the trail you’ll be leaving. Doesn’t matter if something catches your scent, if we don’t increase our pace she’ll end up dead very soon.”

“I hate children….”

Karon abandoned all attempts at stealth and ran as fast as he could. His body was beginning to have trouble avoiding all the tangled roots and branches at this speed, but he made do. Every time he caught in something and fell, he simply stood and kept on going. As long as he didn’t sprain or break anything, he would make it.

He ran and ran, and until his clothes clung to him, drenched in sweat. His breath came out hard and harsh through his mouth, and came back in between clenched teeth. Luck would only last so far and the little filly had pushed hers for too long now. In front him, Karon felt the pony child stop her frantic running and collapse. She had crossed her limit and could do nothing now but wait for dawn and her strength to return. She was tired, defenseless and very much alone.

Easy prey.

She was maybe two or three hours ahead of him at the pace he was keeping, but he didn’t know how long he could keep it up. The healthy diet and regular running from danger had kept him in good enough shape, but there was a difference between sprints from ravenous wolves and steady running for hours on end.

He needed to slow down, pace himself so he wouldn’t be completely useless once he found the pegasus. It wouldn’t do to arrive just as helpless as she was, and have both of them end up as exotic food for whatever lucky beasts happened to find them.

He slowed down and returned to a jog, his racing heart thumping loudly against his chest. His head felt dizzy and he used the forest's awareness to sense the closest body of water. It was not far and barely diverted his course. Once he reached it, he fell down on his knees and greedily began quenching his thirst.

It didn’t taste all too bad, so Karon drank without fear. He had drunk from the Everfree Forest's water before and he had suffered no unfortunate consequences then. After he was finished and he could feel the water pressing to his stomach wall, he fell back and rested his head on the ground. The world was spinning a little oddly and he closed his eyes for just a minute, trying to regain his balance and sense.

But when he opened his eyes again, his eyelids felt a little too heavy and the sky above had taken on a much lighter tone, no longer black but a deep blue color that was the Everfree’s version of a sunny bright day.

“FUCK!” Karon screamed out loud and rose up from his position. He shook his head and forced it to connect back into the forest mind. With a mental cracking sound, his mind was flung away and he felt Scootaloo’s presence once more.

“She hasn’t moved yet.”

“What are you waiting for? RUN, RUN, RUN!”

Not wasting any more time, Karon broke out into a sprint. He had a little more than two hours of running ahead of him before reaching the little filly. He hoped she wouldn’t wake up until then.

By some miracle, no predator seemed to have stumbled upon her while she slept, so there was still time. Karon, he ran as fast as he could, his strength recovered from the involuntary nap and a clear goal in front of him.

“No excuses available this time. Are you regretting pulling out the hero mask now?”

“I’m actually not … this feels … good.”

“Until you arrive to find a few half chewed bones and the echoing screams of a dead child.”

“Will not happen.”

“Well look at that, you even have the stubborn naivety of a hero. You are certainly taking this seriously.”

“It will not happen,” Karon continued, repeating it silently to himself as a mantra. Using it as a focus, letting all doubt and fear melt away under the steady chanting of it.

Two hours passed and Karon’s pace had only slowed by a marginal degree. His clothes were drenched in sweat once more and his muscles were burning, but he had not pushed himself in vain. The filly hadn’t moved at all since he began running, and he was now no more than a few minutes away from her.

He stopped when he came upon a hill, trees growing in the few places not covered in rocks. He walked up the hill on heavy legs and felt each step taking him closer and closer to the lost pegasus. Just a few more steps and he would finally reach her.

He passed by a large rock and came upon the sight of a very small orange bundle of feathers and whatever strange fur that passed as the pony’s coats. Karon smiled a relieved smile and put his hand on his knees, finally letting his tension and fear completely melt away.

She looked very tiny lying there, pressed hard against the large rock in a vain attempt to make herself invisible; sadly enough orange, just doesn’t blend into the dark grey of stone, but even though she stood out like a burning flame against the background, no predator had found her. Whether it was through the grace of some higher power or by pure chance, Karon didn’t know or care. All that mattered was that she was safe.

“Woho the annoying child that attacked us previously is safe, way to go. Can we please get back to Ponyville now?

“As fast as we can, let me just try and wake her up carefully. If she wakes up and doesn’t remember us, she might run into the forest in fear and that would be….”

“If she does that, we turn around and go back home. We can tell everypony we found her dead and they shouldn’t bother looking for her half-eaten corpse.”

Karon stretched out his hand and gently shook the pegasus to wake her up. She remained unresponsive and he checked his link to her, worried she might have fallen ill, but her life force showed no sign of sickening or faltering; she was okay, just very tired.

He shook her again and again and kept on until he heard her grunt angrily and smack away his hand with her hoof. She rose up and shook her entire body and glared up at him defiantly. She remembered what had happened yet showed no fear at waking up in this way.

“Hey, if you think you can eat me I got news for you. Nothing as ugly as you will ever manage to get me!” she spat and swung around on her front hooves and bucked him hard in the chest. It hurt as all hell and he would have two very nasty bruises, but he still managed to grab the filly around the neck before she could run off.

“Wait, wait you stupid little featherball, wait,” Karon huffed for breath a few times before his chest would expand properly. The little Pegasus had stopped squirming when he began to speak, but still glared at him defiantly.

“You don’t remember me? Rarity’s boutique, you assaulted me from behind.”

She looked up and down at him skeptically before her eyes widened slightly.

“Ohh right, you were that thing skulking around outside. What are you doing here?”

“Saving you featherbrain. Now let’s go before something with big teeth finds us.”

The little pegasus was about to retort when a loud roar cut through the forest. Well, roar might be misleading since it sounded far more like a bird crowing than of a lion roaring. No matter how you classified it though, both the human and pegasus instantly fell silent and looked towards the direction it had come from in fright.

“Oh damn it!”

“What?”

“That came from the same path we came from. It must have caught our scent.”

“Maybe we should have taken a slower and more careful approach after all….”

“You think? At least it’s intelligent.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Come on, it made itself known just after you set it up with that line. It obviously has enough intelligence to make a dramatic entrance.”

“Technically, it hasn’t made an entrance yet.”

“Well when it does I am sure it will be….”

The shrill roar was heard again, and from behind the rock, a large bird shaped creature jumped out and locked its gaze on them. Its small stocky wings flapping hard and stirring up dust from the ground.

“….Something like that.”

The creature looked like a huge heavily muscled flamingo with an oversized beak. Its legs were thin but ended in three very sharp looking talons that dug into the ground. It was brown in color and two small eyes were staring at them with hunger and rage, but no real intelligence.

“So no chance at diplomacy.”

“Like that would have worked even if it could speak.”

“Maybe it would have worked well enough to allow us a chance to stab it in the back.”

“You can always throw the filly away and see if it will turn its back when trying to eat her.”

The bird thing screamed again at them and Karon got a good look at the sharp beak and the teeth inside it. It continued to flap its wings in some kind of challenge; they were very small and stocky and didn’t look to be able to support the massive creature.

“So it’s a carnivore but probably not capable of flight. Makes killing it a lot easier.”

“Not really, but we can pretend if it makes you feel better.”

“Scootaloo, get behind me and stay there. Whatever you do don’t move and don’t attract its attention.”

He didn’t look down at the filly as he said so but could still feel the resentment at having him order her to do anything, but she still complied. The bird thing noticed and understood he was protecting the filly and readying himself for battle. It was all the challenge it needed and with another shrill shriek, it lowered its head and stormed towards them.

Karon rushed towards it as well, hoping to draw it away from the pegasus child. When they met in the middle of their paths, Karon jumped to his right and rolled away from the bird. The bird was large and bulky and was not used to sharp turns, when it turned its head to follow after Karon the rest of its body continued forward and it tripped over itself.

It went down with an angry scream, but got up almost instantly as its deceptively weak looking legs lifted it up, the sharp talons giving it a perfect grip on the ground. It went towards Karon again and he raised his right hand, gathering an electric charge just as Eldros had taught him.

It was done in haste and under a lot of pressure but it gathered anyway, and with barely a few meters between them Karon let it loose. For a split second lightning struck out of his palm and left a burning imagine on his retina, unfortunately it wasn’t aimed very well. What should have been a decisive strike straight towards the birds head instead leapt into a tree to his side.

But the lightning at least served to distract the bird and instead of ending up between its sharp looking teeth he was brutally struck by its upper beak in his stomach. It knocked all of the air out from him and he fell down on the ground hard. He clutched his stomach with both his hands and his eyes almost popped out of his skull from fear when he felt the birds talons close around him.

It had him pinned and stared down at him with its beady eyes, anger shining out of them at the sight of the stupid creature that had dared to challenge it. Karon desperately gathered energy as he saw how the bird drew back its head to strike down at him.

But it was interrupted when a purple bolt of energy sizzled past it, barely missing its beak. It turned to face the new challenger and saw a purple unicorn standing in the same spot the bird had appeared on. She had a determined look on her face and her horn shone with a powerful purplish light. At the sight of their savior Scootaloo gave of a whoop and punched her hoof in the air.

Recognizing the unicorn as the more dangerous opponent, the bird thing let go of Karon and turned to face Twilight. The bird gave off its usual shrieking challenge before it ran towards the still unicorn.

When it was halfway there a bolt began forming at the tip of her horn and when it had grown to the size of her head it launched towards the incoming bird, but even though it lacked real intelligence, the bird creature possessed cunning and even it couldn’t miss what the growing bolt of energy on the unicorn’s horn had meant.

When the bolt launched from Twilight’s horn it had dug its talons into the ground and jumped to the side, so instead of hitting it in the chest the bolt of energy sizzled past as uselessly as the previous one had and the bird closed in on Twilight before she could do anything else.

Its beak opened and snapped shut with Twilight firmly held by its sharp teeth, it shook it’s head around and slammed the unicorn into the ground countless time. Behind it Scootaloo screamed in horror at the sight of what was happening, but fell silent when the bird bit down hard and the sound of a spine cracking could be heard all across the hill.

It dropped the broken form of Twilight and shrieked in triumph at its fallen foe, but the triumph turned to confusion when Twilight’s body was no longer there. The confusion had barely had time to set in before it was struck in the back with a lightning bolt, and the bird went down on the ground twitching as it screamed in pain and more confusion.

It lasted for no more than a few seconds, but it was enough to instill a bit of fear in the bird, it got up slowly and looked over behind it suspiciously. Karon stood there facing it, sparks dancing out of his palms and a smug smile on his lips despite the fact that he was shaking and sweat poured out of him in streams.

“Never faced a trickster before have you!? Did you really think an overgrown dodo bird was enough to kill me?”

The bird was more wary this time and remained still, only answering his insult with another shrill shriek. Karon looked to be on the verge of collapse and he fell down on his knees but still held both his palms towards the bird and sparks continued to dance on them.

“You see tricksters are all about distraction, we seem to be doing something and it’s very distracting while we are actually doing something else entirely. Sleight of hand really, but we can do far more interesting things than pull a rabbit out of a hat.”

The bird was losing its patience with every word Karon spoke, it could not understand speech but it still recognized the sounds Karon made as taunts. Its newfound fear of the opponent before it was not enough to entirely overcome its pride.

“That’s what I’ve learned so far anyway. Well that’s not entirely true, I’ve learned something else too…”

Karon was covered in perspiration and the bird could clearly see he was not far from being too weak to defend himself, but it didn’t understand what it was that had drained all his strength so suddenly, and it didn’t care.

That was a mistake.

“….I’ve also learned that having your head smashed in by a floating rock hurts like a motherfucker.”

He finished with a huge grin and pointed up with a shaking hand. The bird didn’t understand, but it turned its gaze upwards just in time to see a rock the same size as Scootaloo fall down on its head.

Huge bird or not, gravity is impartial and when the rock hit its head, the bird flopped down with a squelching sound and started twitching even more violently than it had before. Karon had to admit he was impressed that bird still lived; he thought he could actually see its brain for a moment.

It screamed in pain and terror and struck out its talons and beak at everything around it. It tore up huge lumps of earth in its frenzy and got up with half focused eyes and blood dripping from its head, it screamed at Karon in equal rage and fear.

Karon responded with raising both his palms and sparks flew out of them threateningly as he roared back at it. They remained that way for a brief moment, both staring at the other waiting for someone to make a move.

But the bird had had enough and shrieked towards them a final time before it turned around and half ran back the way it had come, passing by Scootaloo without even glancing at her.

"That was pretty good, I'm getting better at this badass thing."

"That last part with the speech was pretty cliche, but it worked so I'll let it slide this once."

Karon let his hands fall down and he groaned in relief. He had been faking that last bit, he was so exhausted that if he had tried firing of another lightning bolt, he would pushed himself too far and probably fainted.

But it wouldn’t do letting Scootaloo know that.

“Yeah you better run little chicken! What kind of pathetic creature has wings but can’t fly anyway?!”

“Hey!” an angry Scootaloo shouted at him, feeling enough insulted both for herself and the bird.

“Oh, right.”

“How about a little appreciation. I just saved your flank from being bird fodder.”

“Yeah and now you look like you can hardly walk. Besides, I was going to make it home by myself anyway.”

“No you weren’t, you were walking in the opposite direction.”

“Every pegasus can tell north from south, and Ponyville is east of the forest so I was going east.”

“Ah, they can feel the planet’s magnetic field, that explain it.”

“You were heading west. The Everfree isn’t connected to the outside world. It’s a place trapped in time and the outside world has gone through plenty of magnetic reversals since its time.”

“Huh?”

“Sigh, what feels like south is actually north in here and vice versa.”

“That’s just stupid.”

“Hey I didn’t make it so, but point is, I just saved you from going into the heart of the forest and ending up as food.”

The filly hesitated for a second at this when the situation finally began to sink in. When it did her heart dropped and she looked a little ashamed.

“I guess I should say thanks, but why are you here? And where are Sweetie Bell and Applebloom, are they okay!?”

She sounded worried when she mentioned her friends but calmed down when Karon explained everything that had happened. Once he was done, she looked to be back to her usual confident self.

“So are we going back now or what?”

“Yes, if we hurry we might make it before sundown.”

Without anything further to say, they began the walk back to Ponyville. The little filly walked beside him and tried to keep up with his long legs as best she could. After a few minutes of walking, Karon remembered something that had bothered him during the entire fight, something that had struck him as very disturbing.

“Hey … Do you really think I’m ugly?”

The filly hadn’t given any other answer, but a roll of her eyes and they had walked the rest of the way in relative silence, only interrupted occasionally when Scootaloo swore as she stumbled on something or at the end when Karon asked if he should carry her.

They had been able to keep a more leisurely pace than they had kept when running inwards, but the walk back to the outside was still long in uneven terrain, and the poor filly had become very tired. Karon had felt weariness settle in as well, but at the sight of the stumbling filly he had again offered to carry her the last of the way, and she begrudgingly accepted. She had quickly fallen asleep as he carried her on his back.

Karon came out of the forest nearly the exact same time as he had entered it the day before. The sun's last rays where shining over the horizon and his book laid untouched beneath the tree where he had left it. The difference was the picnic basket, the quilt on the ground and the six ponies lying on it.

Five of them were sleeping but when Karon came out of the forest with Scootaloo on his back an overjoyed Pinkie Pie bounced up from the ground and screamed loudly.

“Look everypony, they’re back! Hurry and wake up they’re back!” she shouted and bounced around to each pony in turn and gave them a shake, not that she really needed to. As soon as she had screamed the first time everypony had woken up and were now running towards Karon in joy with a cart-wheeling Pinkie Pie behind them whooping loudly.

Karon was too tired to distinguish words in the chatter that flooded his ears when they reached him and just gratefully handed over the sleeping filly to Fluttershy. After that he turned to face Twilight and just said. “Sleeeeeep?” in a pleading voice.

Twilight nodded in understanding and told the ponies to give him space, and that they should see them tomorrow at the library instead. They didn’t sound happy about it since they wanted to hear all about what had happened, but dispersed anyway. Rarity picked up the quilt and picnic basket, and they all went back home. Except for Fluttershy who headed towards the hospital with the still sleeping Scootaloo snuggled safely between her wings.

Karon marched over to the book he had left beneath the tree and picked it up, not caring to check if it looked like somepony had looked it over and seen what it was about. Twilight waited for him to join her and they both began walking towards the library, ignoring all the curious ponies that saw them walking through the town.

“Apparently rumor spreads fast. We were barely gone a day, but it still looks like everypony is aware of what has happened.”

“Maybe they have nothing else to do during the day. Hell, most of the time it looks like the ponies are just walking around the town aimlessly.”

When they reached the library, they entered wordlessly and Spike came running out from the kitchen and greeted them eagerly and immediately began prodding them with questions. Karon ignored them completely and went up the stairs and into the bedroom. He climbed up to the platform and dropped the book on the floor beside the bed which he fell down unto with a relieved grunt.

He burrowed his face into his pillow and waited for sleep to take him. He laid there for quite some time before he realized that his mind was too worked up to allow sleep to come. He flipped over onto his back angrily and stared up at the ceiling from between half closed eyelids.

He remained that way for a little while and waited for his mind to calm down, but it was still reeling from the events of the last day and wasn’t done processing all of it yet. So Karon did the only thing he could think of and reached down to the floor and picked up the discarded book. Maybe it would be so boring it would put him to sleep, it was about high society after all.

He opened the book and lazily began reading, not really paying attention to it. It went on about the importance of maintaining grace and bearing in everything a gentlecolt did and to never lose proper protocol.

After several pages of such nonsense, it finally went into ways of courting a lady and how a gentlecolt should act towards her. There was a lot of the usual stuff everyone would think of when hearing the word courting, but there was also some new information that actually sounded useful to Karon.

His mind was calming down as it became occupied with the new information and Karon felt himself becoming sleepier with each page. They mentioned ways in which a gentlecolt would prove the truthfulness of his love and intentions towards a lady, things like getting the parents’ permission to court their daughter or writing a song in her honor.

But chief among these methods was the one mentioned last.

”When a gentlecolt truly wish to prove his intentions and the value of his commitment, he should show this in what is commonly called the trial of valor. It is a dangerous trial and therefore shows that the gentlecolt is willing to risk his life to achieve his chosen lady’s favor. It also proves that the gentlecolt is no mere dandy and also possess martial skill with which he can protect and serve the lady in question. The trial is to venture into the infamous Everfree Forest and pick three flowers, each with a virtue the gentlecolt thinks represents that of his lady. He is then to leave one flower in front of the lady's front door for three days.

“On the fourth day, the gentlecolt should reveal that it was he that left the flowers and explain each virtue he associates with each flower and how they represent the lady he is courting. If the lady finds them suiting to her character and the gentlecolt to her tastes, she will inform him then and there. It is common for a courting to not need to extend further beyond a successful trial of valor since there are few ways as dangerous and sincere as it is to prove a gentlecolt's intentions. So if you, the prospective gentlecolt reading this, are considering courting a lady that has caught your fancy, then you should know that completing a trial of valor is almost always a sure way to show you are beyond what she can find in any other gentlecolt. Succeed in this trial, and you are sure to win your lady's heart.”

“Definitely sounds like something Rarity would love. Hell she might even be expecting this of us.”

“But … but … the flowers … they’re supposed to be picked in the Everfree forest … we just got out of there….”

Downstairs both Twilight and Spike jumped when they heard a loud scream come from upstairs, a scream telling a tale of just how terribly unfair life could be and of the irony the universe seemed to love so much.

Next Chapter: Chapter 19: Teacher, mentor, flower-picker Estimated time remaining: 19 Hours, 4 Minutes