It had been 3 hours since Blaze got back from Fluttershy’s house. He had unpacked most of his books and other things. He had finally checked out the other 3 rooms on the ground floor which had turned out to be a broom closet with the power mains, meaning he now had power, a lounge and another bathroom. He hadn’t had time to unpack his test tubes and lab equipment into his study yet, and the box was reminding he had yet more things to do. He had to start his journal soon as well.

Later, he thought. He was sitting in his study at his desk eating the daffodil and blueberry jam sandwich he had been waiting for, thinking about all his other jobs. He looked around the room. He had set up his half empty book shelves, which, with the pile of empty boxes and the chest, desk and balcony, made the room seem fuller.

He smiled. He went over to the chest and opened it, revealing an acoustic guitar. He had always loved the strumming noise it made, but his skills were better assigned to being a doctor. He was good with medicine, administering, making, and even researching it. He looked at his Cutie Mark, a bottle of red medicine. Spot on.

Never mind. He looked back at the guitar. He still loved playing. He picked it up and walked onto the balcony with it. He sat down and started strumming it, all the time looking at the evening view of Ponyville, and the large tree he now knew to be Fluttershy’s home.

The thought of her made him smile as he started playing.

-The Next Day-

Blaze woke from a peaceful sleep. Playing always helped alleviate the nightmare, like it was a medicine itself. He got up and stretched his wings sadly.  He walked down to the stocked kitchen. He still had to get used to waking up somewhere new every day, where you hardly knew anypony. He didn’t have much to do. He had to go into town to get some books on the Everfree forest and see if Sofas and Quills had any more scrolls and quills.

Then he had to travel into the Everfree forest to start documenting. But he knew that place was different.

He knew it wasn’t a normal forest, and he didn’t need the rumours and legends circling around Equestria to tell him. The way ponies avoided it, the way it sent a chill down his back. It didn’t matter. He had gone everywhere else, so this was the only place left.

He grabbed his saddlebag and walked outside to where he had set up Hammy’s run. Hammy had loved the run as soon as he had seen it. What he didn’t love, however, was being made to get up and go into town with Blaze while he had an aching stomach.

“Well it’s your own fault for eating nearly all the cupcakes and muffins,” Blaze said when he saw the look on Hammy’s face. “Besides, you’ve shown me you can’t be trusted after yesterday”

The look on Hammy’s face could have broken rock at this point, but Blaze merely picked him and put him in one of the saddlebags. Hammy tutted but Blaze just started walking towards town. He had returned the cart to the apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres, earlier in the day. And for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched. Oh well, probably him being paranoid.

-2 hours later-

The library pony hadn’t been in, but her assistant Spike had helped Blaze find some suitable books. As he sat down to read some over lunch, it dawned on him that the Everfree forest was a dangerous place. Manticores, Timberwolves, even Ursa’s. He would have to use his camouflage suit. It wasn’t the first time he had had to enter a dangerous area in search of medicinal plants. He knew how to avoid dangerous animals if he had too.

As he read through the books, he made a list of the plants that were already tested for medicinal uses and memorized what they looked like. After finishing lunch and putting the plate in the kitchen he adorned his camouflage suit, grabbed his saddle bag and packed it for in case he found unknown plants and set off towards the Everfree forest.

-3 and a Half Hours Later-

After hours of searching away from the path, he hadn’t found any new plants, mostly just Everfree vines and Heart Fire flowers.  He had been going in roughly the same direction, following a path on a map he had outlined. He was getting tired, and he knew it would get dark soon, but as he looked up he saw some sort of clearing ahead. He couldn’t see space, but there was light ahead and almost no light made it through the canopy of leaves and vines. He hoped it wasn’t a Timberwolves nest. As he moved closer to the clearing, it became obvious it wasn’t just any clearing.

As he broke into the sunlight, he looked over thorned flowers to a massive clearing. It was full of plants he had never seen before, and it wasn’t anything like the Everfree forest. It looked to be completely unexplored, it wasn’t on any map, and was at least a few hundred meters across. There was a rocky outcrop near the centre, with several trees atop it. He wondered how this place was even here, in the middle of the Everfree forest. He guessed that the thorned flowers were somehow keeping back the forest that surrounded the clearing, and that if was going to start studying the clearing, he may as well start there.

He attempted to pull one out of the ground, but the roots went down maybe 5 hoofs he guessed. Realising he couldn’t get a sample now, he pulled out a scroll and pencil and from his saddlebag and quickly sketched the flower. He took some of the petals then moved on the actual clearing.

So far, he hadn’t spotted any wildlife, and guessed that if there was any they would be hiding from him, undoubtedly because he was the first pony to step hoof here. Other than the soft whistle of the wind, it was completely silent. There weren’t many different plants, and there were lots of flowers he recognised, though decided not to pick. He even spotted a bee hive in one of the tree’s on the rocky outcrop protruding from the centre of the clearing. He needed to get up there.

As he climbed up the outcrop, he smelt something he couldn’t place. It somehow smelt sour, but had an edge of sweetness to it. He ignored it and kept climbing. He was rewarded when he reached the top. There was a small area of flat land with several trees on it, but it was higher than he had expected. He could clearly see over the Everfree forest from here. He looked over the view and spotted the tip of his house many miles in the distance. He would have to come back here in the morning. This place had massive scientific value. He took out his map and drew a circle around the area he had reached, and labelled it the Everfree Breach.

Journal of Dr Blaze Carousel, Entry 126 - I have recently moved to the small town of Ponyville, in hopes that the Everfree forest located nearby will hold the plant I have been looking for. The longer it takes for me to find it, the less good I can do when I find it and make a cure. Today I got some books from the library on the Everfree forest’s plants, and crossed off any that couldn’t be made into medicine, which were all of them. However, as I searched the forest for new plants, I stumbled upon a huge clearing with a completely different eco-system to the Everfree around it. It was surrounded by blue, thorned flowers that seemed to just stop the Everfree in its tracks. I decided to call these flowers Everfree Wall. I tried to take one back as a sample, but it was stuck solid into the ground, the roots going maybe 5 hoofs down into the ground, so all I could do is take petals and draw a sketch, and boiling the petals doesn’t seem to produce anything over than sweet smelling water.

However, I saw at least a dozen other plants that were completely unrecorded in any books that could produce any type of medicine. The clearing itself wasn’t marked on maps, so I have decided to label it myself as the Everfree Breach. As it is, no-pony else has ever set hoof there, ever. There were several signs of animal life, but I couldn’t see any actual animals. If I’m going to properly work out the eco-system there and how the plants grow, I’m going to have to find somepony who’s good with animals so I can get a better picture of the place.

Luckily, I already know of somepony who can help me with the animals. Plus I can give her a gift for already helping me out. I hope she can help me. I HAVE to find this cure soon.

Blaze put down the pencil and smiled. He turned to go and make the gift he had thought up for her before he went to see her in the morning.