//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: Forest of Lost Foals 
// by Dusk-Spark 
//------------------------------//


When Pipsqueak finally returned to Ponyville, he had to confront the families of the ponies lost to the Everfree. He claimed it was all his idea, not wanting to ruin Scootaloo’s name. The stares hurt the worst, even more than his injured hind leg. For the next week, ponies went in and out of the Everfree forest looking for the lost foals. But there were no traces of them, Pipsqueak found their discarded Runes but no trace of the bodies, not even the monster could be found in the daylight. He felt like…he‘d left something behind. Not just his friends and classmates, but a part of himself. The experience changed him, he‘d never really be the same again no matter how hard anypony tried to tell him it was all over now. Not that they really had any kind words for him...

"It's never over."





It took a long time. But, eventually, the nightmares got to him and he was checked into the psyche ward after a failed suicide attempt. Why did he try to commit suicide? His room faced the Everfree Forest, so every night he‘d hear their voices calling out to him. Beckoning him to return and be with all his friends. They promised how wonderful it was. Even Saphira and Scootaloo were happy. The whispers in his brain wouldn‘t stop, even with medication. 
They wouldn‘t stop. Over time, he learned to shut them out but they were always there. In the back of his mind, always keeping him on edge, and always saying the same thing like a song stuck on a loop...





Years came and went as Pipsqueak spent many of his days in the psyche ward of the Ponyville hospital. 
“Not yet.” Is what he kept repeating every other day. “I’ll go back to you soon.” He would always say those words every so often. He had escaped from the Everfree on that Nightmare Night many years ago, but he wasn’t done yet. No…this wasn’t over, not by a long shot. Like Saphira said; 



"There was only one way this story was ever gonna end. One of us was going to die.”

 

This was going to end in blood one way or the other, and Pipsqueak was gonna make sure that it wasn’t his blood. Because, what Zecora showed him years ago gave him a small sliver of hope. Whatever was in that forest, hunting foals who go astray…Pipsqueak was privy to two pieces of information:

It could feel pain and it could bleed.



~Fin