The Everfree Forest is feared around Equestria. Within its borders are timber-wolves, Manticors, serpents, and various other creatures found nowhere else, who take care of themselves. The sky is almost always blocked by the large canopy, giving the forest a dark and evil feel to it. The weather there even takes care of itself, something deemed unnatural.
The forest has been labeled as a place of shadow, and many parts of it still remain unexplored, for nopony is brave enough to delve too deep, for fear that they may never return. There are few who would enter at all.
Yet, on that day, four creatures were in the forest. A canary pegasus, a purple baby dragon, and two strange creatures never before seen.
Today was not their day.
///
Geo was the first to awaken from her portal-induced slumber, lying on her back towards what should have been the ceiling of her apartment. Instead, she awoke to branches and leaves. Geo lay there for a few minutes, wondering if she was dreaming, before a branch fell from the canopy above, hitting her leg. The minor pain told her she was not.
Geo rose to her feet rather hastily, looking around, taking in the immediate area. Her surroundings consisted of her couch, her fridge, her television, her coffee table, and trees. Trees everywhere.
The logical assumption would be that Geo was in a forest somewhere, but that didn't make any sense to her. She was in her apartment last time she was awake.
Geo did not understand why she was not panicking. She was in a completely unknown location, apparently on her own, and she did not feel perturbed in the slightest.
Taking a deep breath, Geo noticed something different about the air. It was so...clean. The environment was so serene. She felt at peace, not a normal thing for a hot-headed girl such as herself.
It as then that she heard a groan come from behind the couch. She quickly rushed over to see who it was. Unsurprisingly, it was Christian. He was face down on the ground, face in a mud puddle.
He lifted his head, looking at Geo with a face slathered in mud.
"I swear Georgina, if this is your doing, I am going to do to you what fire did to the Hindenburg."
"Destroy me?"
"Yes. Very much so."
And with that, the magic was gone.
Christian lifted himself off of the ground, and wiped his face on his sleeve. It removed most of his accidental mud mask, but left a few streaks here and there, a little like war paint. He stared at Geo with his cold blue eyes, then averted his gaze to their surroundings.
"Where are we, Geo?" he asked, also internally questioning why he was so calm.
"Gee, we might be in a forest, Christian. Ever think of that?"
"Of course I did! But it is not any forest I recognise. Nor do I recognise any of these trees." Christian said curiously as he approached one of the large plants. He reached out and knocked on the trunk experimentally a few times.
"How would you even remember what kind of trees these are if you had seen them?"
"Geo, I am shocked! Remember to whom you speak!" Christian gasped in mock-shock.
"Oh yeah, photographic memory, and all that. Right."
"For your information, it is not only photographic, but eidetic as well. Remember all of the books in my room?"
"Yeah? What about them?"
"One of them was an almanac on all the known species of tree." Christian stated matter-of-factly, looking over at the tree. "This tree in front of me? It was not in there."
Geo shook her head and sighed. "When would knowing all of the worlds trees ever come in handy?"
"Knowledge is power, my dear." Christian stopped studying the plant and turned to his female counterpart. "Now, let us check our surroundings, and see what apparently came with us to..." Christian looked puzzled, "here."
"Wherever here is." Geo grumbled.
After a few minutes of studying what had come with them, it was determined that the television was destroyed, the couch was in tatters, the coffee table was broken, and the fridge was just fine, oddly. When the duo had opened it, Geo was relieved to find that her supply of Coke would not run out any time soon. Christian did not seem as thrilled, even though there was more Pepsi in the fridge than Coke.
"What's wrong now? Come on, we got our favourite drinks! What else do you want?" Geo asked irritably, opening a can of Coke and taking large gulp.
"Well, yes, we have a large supply of soft drink. That is alright. However, there is something else we need to survive."
"Yeah right! All I need is my Coke and chips and I'm set!" Geo stated after emptying the can of Coke and belching at the top of her lungs.
"Yes, you seem to be on the right track. So, Geo, could you go get me some chips?"
"No, those are mine. You can't have any!"
"Alright, let us try this. Go get some for yourself, then."
"You know what? I will! All this bickering is making me hungry."
Christian stood there with an amused look on his face as he waited for her to realise their problem. When she did, she blushed and looked away from him.
"We, uh, don't have any food, do we?"
"No, we do not. Goodness, that took you far longer than anticipated."
And so, the duo sat there in contemplation, wondering how to solve their problem. Naturally, Christian had an idea first.
"We are in a forest. I could simply find an animal for us to eat." Christian suggested.
Geo thought about this for a few seconds, before nodding. "Sure, just make sure you bring back some fruit or something."
Christian looked wholly unamused.
"You are coming with me."
Geo looked at him darkly, before standing up. "Fine, let's get this over with." She pointed at him. "But I refuse to watch you kill anything. If I'm going to eat something, I prefer not to know where it came from."
And the duo ventured out into the forest, searching for a hapless critter to feast upon.
Or they would have, had they not discovered a small, yellow horse just outside of their little camp.
Christian looked at the peculiar creature. It was much shorter than he was, and looked to be resting at the foot of one of the strange trees. Closer inspection revealed that the odd horse had a bubblegum pink mane, and a canary yellow coat, and it had a large chunk of a red crystal through one of its fore-hooves, attaching it to the tree. From his extensive memory, Christian picked it to be a shard of Red Diamond, not a very common gem.
Further inspection showed the creature to have two other strange features. A tattoo on each flank depicting three pink and blue butterflies was the lesser of the weird parts. What truly caught the young mans attention was the fact that, whatever this thing was, it had wings. That would mean it was a...
"What in the hell is that thing?"
Christian lost his train of thought upon hearing the voice of his now-fellow hunter. He turned to her, looking at Geo with a confused look, not something he often had.
"It is equine in nature, but it does not-"
"Equine?"
"It is a horse."
"Why didn't you just say horse, then?"
"Moving on, it is unlike any type of horse that I know of. Oh, and Geo? Prepare for your childhood fantasies to come alive." Christian said, showing his trademark grin before standing aside, letting Geo see the entire creature.
"Aww, it looks so cute! I'm going toOH MY GOD IT'S A PEGASUS!" Geo screamed at the top of her lungs in excitement, jumping up and down while making soft 'squee' noises.
"Shut up, girl! We do not yet know what else lives here! I would rather not be set upon by a predator, thank you!" Christian growled at his over-excited roommate.
Geo began to look at the pegasus a little harder, noticing tattoos and the gem shard.
'Why would someone do this to a poor little pegasus?"
"It may be some form of ritual from wherever we are."
Suddenly, Christian had a brainstorm.
"Geo, what is the only species we know of capable of making tattoos?"
Geo didn't even need to think for this one. "People. Why?..." Geo stopped herself. Christian could practically hear the gears in her head turning. Her face lit up. "People! There must be people nearby!"
"Very good, Georgina. When we get out of here, you have earned yourself a cookie."
"Shut up, Chris."
Christian looked back down to the pegasus. "Alright, now that we are here, we may as well make this corpse useful."
"Hey! Who said she's dead?" Geo cried, moving over to the animal, placing her fingers against its neck. "See, I feel a pulse."
Christian felt for himself before frowning. "Indeed, it lives." He then looked at Geo. "How can you tell that it is female?"
Geo saw the perfect opportunity to freak Christian out.
"Well, just look down. It's legs are open, you can clearly see-"
"AUGH! Dammit, girl, no further detail needed."
After Geo calmed down from her giggling fit, Christian presented her with a new problem.
"Geo, I am going to have to remove the shard from its fore-hoof if we wish to take it...her back to camp."
Geo looked at him for a few seconds before responding. "Fine, let's just get this over with. then we can take her back and nurse her back to health."
By this point, Christian was already trying to pull the shard out of the unfortunate creatures arm. His surprised jerk at hearing Geo's suggestion brought the gem about halfway out. As the two humans were looking at each other, neither of them noticed that the pain had started to bring the pegasus back to the world of the conscious.
"Nurse it back to- we are not keeping this pegasus! Look, it is big enough to keep us fed for a few weeks!"
"How dare you! Why would you kill such a cute, innocent animal?"
"You had not qualms with it when we first agreed to go hunting!
"Yes, but that was before I knew it would be super cute and cuddly!"
"Do you have any shame, girl?"
"Stop calling me girl like you're older than me!"
"Physically, I am two years your junior. Mentally, I am twenty your superior!"
"Did you just call me stupid?"
"No, I said I am twenty years your superior mentally. I alluded to calling you stupid."
"That's it! You know what? Fine! We'll take the cute little horsy back to camp, and eat her. But if we find another one, we are not doing the same thing!"
Christian smiled. 'Finally, you see the light!" he looked back towards the pegasus attached to the tree. "Alright, I need you to grab my shoulders and pull on the count of three."
Geo looked surprised. "But you hate physical contact."
"This is an acception. Now grab hold, before i remind you of something you wanted to forget."
Geo threw her hands into the air. "Oh for God's sake, fine."
Grabbing onto his shoulders, Geo felt Christian shiver under the contact. With an attitude like that, he'll be a virgin forever, she thought, bringing a smile to her face.
"Alright, hold tight. One," Christian said, grabbing what he could grab of the gem.
"Two." he said, about to pull...
"Hey,hold on a second, do we actually need the gem? Because we could just pull her arm off of the gem and leave it in the tree." Geo suggested. Christian actually contemplated the idea, before rejecting it.
"We take the gem at well. When we get back home, we can sell it."
"Really? What kind of gem is it?"
"It is a shard of a Red Diamond. They are uncommon at best. Worth quite a pretty penny, i am told."
"Ooh, money. Let's do this!"
"One, two, THREE!"
With a slight ripping sound which made Geo feel sick, the gem was successfully ripped from the animals arm, again causing her to flicker into consciousness for a few seconds, unbeknownst to the pair.
"Alright, now that that is over with, I would advise you to let go of my shoulders before I do to you what Mike Tyson does to me every time I play Mike Tyson's Punch Out!"
"Knock me unconscious?"
"Yes. Very much so."
And so, they proceeded to drag the unconscious pegasus back to camp, which was not a very far trip. However, the feeling of being dragged across the ground tends to wake people, especially when they were awoken not a few minutes ago.
///
It was this that Fluttershy awoke to, being dragged across the floor of the Everfree Forest, searing pain going through her left fore-hoof, a throbbing in her head, and a weak stomach.
At first, she thought she was being rescued. Then she heard what her saviors were talking about.
"So, how are we going to make a fire?"
"I am not quite sure, though I believe a pile of sticks and dry leaves will help us along."
"How re we going to make a spark, Mr. Genius?"
"Simple friction, my dear. If I rub the sharpened end of a stick onto the blunt side of another, i may eventually generate a spark."
Fluttershy did not like where this was going, but just as she was about to call out, she heard something that terrified her.
"Yeah, then we'll have fire."
"Indeed, and we can cook our catch here with said fire. I do not intend to eat a pegasus raw."
"AAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
The shock of her loud scream caused her now captors to stop dragging her, which gave her enough time to kick free, get up, and try to run.
Her left fore-hoof saw the situation differently. Fluttershy fell with a scream, but this time with a scream of pain.
The two things looking at her were standing stock still, staring at her. She took the opportunity to fly up into the nearest tree.
The creatures seemed to snap out of their daze, before looking up at her. "Well, that is rather unfortunate. Now we cannot eat."
"Did you hear her scream? It sounded human!"
"It must be simple parlor tricks. No horse can mimic human speech patterns."
Christian then sighed, and looked up to the tree. "Well, I am going to have to climb the tree to get her down. You stay here, I-"
"No! Leave me alone!" Fluttershy yelled, shivering in fear in the branches above. Apparently, her voice stunned the two creatures, because they both stopped and stared at her.
One of them was tall and thin, with pale white skin with no coat, and it's mane was small and curly, and dark brown. It was wearing clothes as well. But what really caught Fluttershy's attention was it's eyes. She, Pinkie Pie and Rarity all had blue eyes, but this creatures eyes...they were blue, yes, but something was off...looking at it's eyes made her feel...queasy...Fluttershy quickly shook her head and looked at the other creature.
This one was shorter than the tall one, but still taller than her. It was somewhat pudgy, not outright fat, but just...large. It had a small brown mane, tied into what looked like a tail on the back of it's head. It also had glasses, and behind them some dark green eyes. Its face was covered in pimples. It wore clothing as well.
Then, the creatures continued to speak.
"It can talk." the tall one said simply, still staring at Fluttershy with its 'off' eyes. "Most...interesting."
"Little pegasus...can you understand what we are saying?" The short one called up to her. She was reluctant to respond to the creatures who said such cruel things, but she did anyway.
"Yes, I can. You...said you were going to eat me." Fluttershy whimpered, still scared out of her wits.
"Yes, we are. Now come down here so I do not have to come up there." The tall one snapped irritably at her. He was immediately yelled at by the shorter one, "What the hell is wrong with you?" It then turned to Fluttershy.
"Look, pegasus, do you have a name?" The short one said calmly. To anyone else, it would have been obvious that they were trying to goad Fluttershy down. Fluttershy was nothing if not naive, however.
The fear seemed to overtake her usual shyness, if such a thing is possible, and she responded with "Fluttershy." The short one smiled used her hoofs...wait, those aren't hoofs! These things have claws like Spike! The short one used these claws to motion towards the ground.
"Why don't you come down here, Fluttershy? I promise that we won't try to hurt you, or eat you, or anything bad." The short one looked over at the tall one. "Well, I won't."
The tall one looked over at the short one, and looked as if it was about to say something, before the both of them turned towards a noise to their left. Standing there were three faces Fluttershy was glad to see. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Spike.
"Hey! Leave Fluttershy alone!" Twilight Sparkle cried, flaring up some of her purple magic in warning, and pointing her horn at the creatures. Rarity did the same with her blue magic. Spike, lacking magical abilities, just stood there, trying to look intimidating. It would have looked cute if not for the situation they found themselves in.
"Did you hear me? I said, if you value your safety, you'll leave Fluttershy alone, and go away! You hear me?" Twilight shouted once more. The short one seemed to take the threat seriously, and poked the tall one.
"Come on, Christian, we should just leave. We'll find something else to eat. Let's just-"
"You were going to eat her?!" Rarity shouted in disgust. "That is the most...simply...horrid...I can't even describe it!" She stamped her hoof down. "No! You are not going anywhere! We are taking you to the Princess!"
This final sentence was the breaking point for the tall one, apparently named Christian.
"Oh, this is just ridiculous!" Christian shouted, seemingly to itself. "We come here against our will, end up in this foreign land with no food. Then we find a pegasus, a creature that is supposedly a simple myth, alive and well. Then, when we try to take it back to camp, it wakes up, attacks us, and flies up a tree. Then, to top it all off, you show up, two unicorns and a bipedal lizard of some kind, also supposed myths, threatening to take me...us to some Princess? The fact that you can threaten at all..." Christian seemed furious. It looked towards the short one. "Come, Geo. I believe we will be leaving."
The short one, apparently called Geo, nodded, and as Christian stormed towards the two unicorns, began to follow.
Then suddenly, the two creatures were both enveloped in purple magic, lifted into the air, and slammed against a nearby tree.
"You are going nowhere! You were going to eat a pony! Do you have any idea how disgusting that is? You two are definitely coming with us!" Twilight growled at the two creatures. Geo seemed like she was very afraid, but Christian was not backing down.
"Unicorn, I suggest you let us down before I do to you what Chris Brown did to Rihanna!" It shouted in a voice that made Fluttershy tremble. It sounded like her a the Grand Galloping gala, when the animals would not love her.
Twilight and Rarity looked confused. "Who did to who?" Rarity asked.
Geo answered with "He means he is going to beat you senseless."
Christian nodded, and replied "Yes. Very much so."
Twilight just stared at what was now confirmed at a 'he' with an angry look on her face. Keeping her magic active, she walked up to where she was trapping the two.
"Listen up, whatever you are. I am going to use a spell to knock you out, and when you wake up, you will be in a dungeon. That will definitely happen if you don't stop being so mean!" Twilight shouted at the two.
Christian leaned towards her as far as he could, looked her dead in the eye, and said,
"Try me."
And with a bright purple flash, he was out like a light.
Twilight turned to look at the one called Geo. "Are you going to be as difficult?" she asked angrily.
Geo just stared at her, and then looked over at Christians unconscious form. When she looked back at Twilight, she was not happy. Her face was flooded with rage. Twilight noticed this however, and decided to skip the angry rant. A few seconds later, Geo was out as well.
The forest seemed silent around the ponies as they stared at the strange creatures that had attacked their friend. Fluttershy had found it a good time to fly down to the ground, but the gem still lodged in her arm made sure she could not stand on it. Rarity went over to the canary pegasus, and without words, hugged her dearest friend. Fluttershy cried, and cried, letting all of her fear out, while Rarity patted her on the back while whispering soothing words.
Twilight and Spike, however, where more interested with what they had just knocked out.
"What are they, Twilight?" Spike asked, a slight tremble in his voice.
Twilight looked down at her number-one assistant. "I don't know, Spike." She looked up at them. "I don't know."
After Fluttershy had stopped crying, they all decided to go back to Ponyville, so they could contact the Princess and let her know who or what they had found. Rarity and Fluttershy walked in front, the unicorn still holding the pegasus as she limped, while Spike and Twilight stayed at the back, the dragon standing guard while Twilight levitated the unconscious form of Christian and Geo.
They did not know what they would learn from these strange and seemingly hostile creatures, but what they did know was that they were dangerous, and apparently ate ponies. So they needed to stay vigilant.
This was just another part in the chain of events that was started and continually revolves around the two strange creatures, known only as Christian and Georgina.
Sorry, Geo.