Azure Island: Eclipse of Destruction

by Chaos Knux

Chapter 2: Everfree Forest Trouble

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Somewhere far away from Azure Island...

After being sucked into the vortex our three friends find themselves lying in a pile in the middle of a thick forest that seemed to go on forever on every side...

“Ugghh... What happen?” Knockout said trying to get up, only to find himself buried by Shandra and Colson. “Hey uh guys, mind getting off me? You are KINDA breaking my back...”

“Wha-what, who is that, are we about to be killed or something?” Colson asked while opening his eyes to find himself on top of Knockout. “Oh, hey KO. Why are we still alive, and why are we in a forest?”

“Urgh, that’s the last time I watch a DVD with YOU idiots...” Shandra said rolling off the other two, Knockout and Colson slowly start to stand up to get a better look around. “What happened to that crazy pink pony, and where are we?”

“I don’t really know, but I DO know is that it is night time in this world and we are in a thick forest. BOTH of those things added together is something I don’t like.” Knockout said looking around, they was surrounded by trees and wild plants on all sides. After looking closer he noticed a small opening of what he thought would be a path way out. “Let’s try this path, maybe it will lead us to a safe place to spend the night.”

“Sounds fine to me, but....” Colson stops for a moment and hears a rather loud breathing sound behind him. “I don’t like the sound I hear behind me...” Colson turns around slowly seeing what seemed to be a cross over of a dragon, scorpion and a lion.

“WHAT IS THAT?!?” Knockout yelped in shock, causing the beast to become hostile and lunge at Colson pinning him to the ground. “Rats, I should have kept my mouth shut. HEY YOU, LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Knockout dashed over to the beast and was about to give it a punch, but was whacked back by it’s tail.

“Oh please, this is just a simple lion! How can you possible fail at-” Shandra was getting her gun out of her holster and a ear piercing scream was let out, her and Knockout quickly turned over to the beast that had stabbed one of it’s huge claws into Colson’s chest while having him pinned against a tree.

“COLSON!” Knockout and Shandra both gave out a yell and were about to run over, but was given a motion to stop by Colson.

“It’s to late for me...” Colson said weakly as he spat out a bit of blood. “Save.. yourselves...”

“N-no, Colson...” Knockout said in a voice of anger and sadness. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU STUPID BEAST!” In his anger, he grabbed a rock on the ground and threw it at the beast, only to have it bounce off and make it give off a warning roar before turning back to splitting Colson open.

“Come on Knockout, there’s nothing we can do for him now. Let’s hightail it out of here before the thing comes after us...” Shandra said grabbing Knockout’s shoulder and trying to turn him around, he resisted for a moment, but went ahead and followed Shandra down the path. As they were walking away they could hear their friend’s screams fill the air chilling them to the bone.

After a couple minutes of sprinting they found a strange house carved into a tree, they looked around and found a path that lead to the door.

“Are you sure this is a safe idea Knockout? I-I-I don’t want to end up like Colson.” Shandra said still shook up at what they had just witnessed.

“Relax, when was the last time I got us into trouble?” Knockout joked in a attempt to lighten the mood as he gave a knock to the door, only then realizing the stupidity of his question. “Er... Don’t answer that.”

“You are going to get us ALL killed before the pink pony shows up again...” Shandra mumbled as the door opened, behind it was what seemed to be a zebra with golden rings around her neck with a large earring on her each ear.

“What strange creatures from the forest to my house comes in such a form? Best not be coming for trouble, or I shall send them back to whence they come from.” The zebra said in a rhyming-song like voice.

“Well, we aren’t from this forest but we do come from another world.” Knockout said while taking a few steps back. “And me and my friend were wondering if would could spend the night here while we wait for day...”

“If rest is what you seek, then you may stay here for the night. If you are in trouble, perhaps I can help with your plight” The zebra stepped aside and motioned for them to come in.

“Oh, I don’t think we’ve introduced each other yet.” Knockout said realizing that he forgot to mention who they were. “I am Knockout Steel Coatrack, but you can call me Knockout. And this is my friend Shandra.”

“And I am Zecora, pleased to meet you.” She said as they made there way into the house, Knockout and Shandra looked around seeing vases and masks lying every where. “I apologize for my mess so uncouth, all you see are items that remind me of my youth.”

“You don’t suppose she knows anything about the Pinkamina character that brought us here, do you?” Knockout asked Shandra quietly.

“I don’t know, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” Shandra responded, but before the could ask there was a knock at the door.

“Now who could be here at an hour so late?” Zecora questioned as she opened the door. “Oh, Fluttershy, seeing you is just great.”

“Hello Zeco-” Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the two other figures inside the hut. “O-oh, I- I didn’t know you had guests over, I can come back later for them if you want...” She quietly said while slowly backing off.

“Oh no, it’s quite alright young one. We were just about to have stew, would you like some?” Zecora asked as she was filling up some bowls.

“I was just coming by to pick up the tea that’s made from the herbs here, but I could stay for a while... If you don’t mind that is.” Fluttershy shifted her gaze at Knockout and Shandra, her expression becoming suddenly very interested. “What kind of animals are those two? I have never seen anything like them before.”

“That I know not, but the food is now hot.” Zecora said while everyone sat down around the pot of stew that was over a fire. “My guests please sit down by the table so near, which of you would like to explain where you came from and why you are here?”

Knockout and Shandra exchanged glances for a brief moment before Knockout spoke up. “Well, my friend is still shook up about something that we saw a moment ago so I’ll try my best to explain.” Knockout took a deep sigh, he was never good at explaining things. “We come from what I am guessing would be a far off planet that we call Earth. There we live on a small island group known as the Azure Islands, I lived on the island that was called Sapphire Isle. We were having a small get-together with me and my two friends, I popped a DVD into our DVD player and we were going to watch it when things started getting odd.” Knockout stopped for a moment to take another breath.

“What is a DVD and what is a DVD player, you are sure you are not playing us for foals?” Zecora asked looking a bit unconvinced about the whole story so far.

“Yes I am telling the truth, and I have proof to go with it.” Knockout said as he pulled up the DVD case he had stuck in his coat’s pocket. “We found this on our doorstep the day before we watched it, and it is because of this thing that we are even here.”

“Uh, hello? Earth to Knockout, that’s probably not going to mean much as proof to them if they never heard of the things,” Shandra informed her echidna companion, having recovered from her earlier shellshocked state, before turning to the rhyming Zebra and yellow pegasus to explain “DVDs are little, flat discs that our worlds use to hold information. Sometimes they hold recorded videos, other times they store other forms of information, like little books. DVD Players are machines that replay the videos, whil the books-type discs can be read with other devices.”

“Very well then, go on with your story, the stew won’t get cold.” Zecora finished her rhyme.

“Thank you, now where was I?“ Knockout ”Oh yes, we just started to watch the DVD when we were met by a ear piercing song that killed my ears in the first few seconds. One of my friends found a note on the back of the case that said to skip to Scene 13, we quickly skipped over to the scene to get rid of the horrible song that was playing only to find a rather depressed looking pink pony rambling on about how her friends didn’t like her or her parties.”

“Oh my.” Fluttershy said, while bringing a hoof to her mouth. “That sounds like what Pinkie Pie said when we were going to throw the surprise party for her, how did you find out about that?”

“Well you see, in the world we come from, you guys are a bunch of... erm, how should I put this...” Knockout stopped and looked over to Shandra. “How should I put this without hurting their feelings?”

“Honesty’s best, Knockout.” Shandra responded, before continuing with a very blunt. “You guys are a cartoon in our world, apparently.”

“How rude of you to say we are fake, here I was giving you a place to take a break!” Zecora gave off a displeased snort at Shandra, who in turn merely glared.

“Uh, don’t mind my friend, she is still upset about this whole thing.” Knockout said sticking his head in between the two to stop a fight from happening. “Anyways, after the pony you call Pinkie Pie quit talking the DVD froze and the only thing we were able to do was to turn off the TV. We were thinking of something else to do while we waited for another friend of ours to get there when a voice came from behind us mentioning to ‘make cupcakes’, we all were a bit shocked when we heard it and made sure none of us said it. Before we could decide if we imagined it or not we heard the voice speak up again saying ‘Me silly!’. We all turned back around to the TV to find the same pony back on, but notably closer this time.”

“--and then she leaped out of the TV, tried to kill us with a knife, and sucked us through to a place where a lion-scorpion-dragon thing killed the friend who came with us. We ran because he told us, now we’re here.” Shandra finished coldly.

“...Thank you for giving them the Reader’s Digest version Shandra...” Knockout said snorting a bit before turning back to Fluttershy and Zecora. “Anyways, I am a echidna, and Shandra is a echinda-hedgehog half-breed.”

“I prefer hedgechidna, and you know it.” Shandra growled.

“Oh... I’m sorry about that...” Fluttershy said sadly looking at the ground. “The Everfree Forest is no place to be at night, there are many strange creatures roaming about here.”

“Its seems you had a bad run in with a Manticore that was hungry, but you were wise not to make him angry. And if it is Pinkie Pie whom you seek, we have not seen her for a week.” Zecora said while standing up. “But going with Fluttershy would be best, she may be able to help you on this quest.”

“Okay, sorry about causing you the trouble.” Knockout said getting up. “Ready Shandra?”

“Yeah, whatever. Sooner we get home, the sooner I can pretend this is a bad dream caused by Ryan’s burritos.” Shandra said as she got up and headed out the door, Knockout and Fluttershy followed shortly afterwards. Upon heading outside, Fluttershy took the lead knowing that she was the only one who knew how to get home. As they walked down the dark path, they found themselves at the spot where they last saw Colson alive and stopped for a moment.

“This is where we were attacked by the beast that killed our friend.” Knockout said looking over at the remains of his friend who had all his flesh and fur ripped off, and on his head was a note. “Uh great, a note?” Slowly he picked up the note and looked at the writing, it matched the writing on the back of the DVD case. “Hey Shandra, check this out.”

Shandra walked over and took the note from Knockout. “Can’t you read, the note says ‘This is what you will all soon look like’ ...” She quickly glanced to KO who then gave a weak nod. “Uh Fluttershy, I think we should get out of here fast....”

“You should really be careful, the Everfree Forest...” Fluttershy was cut off by another voice.

“Hey Fluttershy, what are you doing out here this late?” A deep blue pony said while walking out of a bush, on her back were two saddle bags that seemed to be filled all the way up. “Oh... What kind of creatures are those? I don’t remember seeing any of them in my books...”

“Who are you?” Knockout asked raising his eyebrow at the pony who just walked up.

“I’m Twilight Sparkles, a friend of Fluttershy’s. And I guess you guys can talk like us, that’s nice to know.”

“Yes, we can, and you have star with smaller stars around it on your butt. Now that the obvious is taken care of...” Shandra quipped.

“Uh... Please don’t be rude. She has probably never seen anything like you before...” Fluttershy said before walking over to what she thought was her friend. “Hello Twilight, what are you doing out here?”

“Oh well, I uh... Just came by here to pick some flowers, I was doing some studies and I wanted to get some of the ones that I saw in my books!” Twilight said pointing to her saddle bags. “I might have over stuffed them in here, these bags are rather heavy for being flowers!!”

“Well, I think we should get going now. Have you two seen what that Pinkamina pony did to our friend?” Knockout asked while pointing to the skeleton of his friend, when Knockout pointed they all winced a little besides Twilight who just stared.

“Pinkamina? Who’s that?” Twilight asked while walking up to the skeleton of Colson, regretting that she did. “Oh no.... Did this Pinkamina pony do THIS to your friend?”
“Well, he was attacked by a ‘Manticore’ when we arrived here, I don’t think the beast would have had time to eat him since we’ve only been here for a little while...” Knockout said scratching his chin. “But this note makes me know that what it DIDN’T eat Pinkamina took.”

“I’ll have to hear you’re guy’s story later on, we should get out of here before the Manticore comes back for seconds.” Twilight said walking away from the dead body.

“Sounds like a plan to me, let’s go.” Knockout said as he, Shandra, and Fluttershy walked off leaving Twilight behind for a moment. Twilight just watched them walk off and gave a small giggle. “Okie Dokie Loki!” After she said that she started walking off to catch up with them.