My Little Gemcraft

by Registered Anonymous

Chapter 8

I DON’T OWN MY LITTLE PONY OR GEMCRAFT THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS AND THIS IS A NON PROFIT STORY THAT I AM USING BOTH FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

Chapter 8
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In the darkness of the Everfree forest, where only a few shreds of light could pierce the canopy of the trees and reach the forest floor, the sounds of the creatures that called the forest their home could be heard amongst the bushes and up in the trees. Most of these creatures that would be making these sounds would not be a threat to most travelers passing through. The only creatures that travelers would have to look out for would be the predators especially the ones that hunt in silence. While most of the predators in the Everfree may be nocturnal hunters with the lack of light in the forest it creates an environment that resembles an endless night. Although today things were quite different in the forest for instance the sound of creatures in the bushes and the trees, there were none. The predators of the Everfree that stalked the forest there were none to be seen. There was only silence. A silence that would feel unnerving to any traveler walking through the forest, in fact a traveler would consider this feeling quite… dreadful. But that is to be expected when entering the Everfree forest that is considered to most of pony kind a strange, mysterious, and dangerous place. But the current traveler that is following the road that goes through the forest is not a pony, but a human wizard who entered this forest out of pure curiosity and an idea that something interesting may be hidden deep within it. But you know what they say: Curiosity killed the cat.
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Everfree Forest
9:07 A.M.

I walked down the forest path following it closely so that I wouldn’t get lost in the dense forest around me. Fluttershy was right, this forest had eerie feel to it. Not scary just… strange. Maybe it’s just so different from the rest of Equestria is the reason behind its eeriness. But the forest sort of reminds me of my own dimension’s forests filled with their own dangers.

I continued onwards deeper into the forest and further on the dirt path that guided me. I occasionally looked around me to take notice of some of the flora that grew here and tested a couple to see if they could be made into healing tonics. To my amazement though I found that most of the flora were indeed herbs that could be used in tonics and other useful potions, I guess those herbalist classes that I took for electives back in wizard school are paying off now.

I took a couple of samples of the flora and carefully put them in my pocket for later use if need be and have Twilight help me with the names of these plants. I continued gathering different herbs until I caught sight of a patch of blue flowers off to the side of the road.

“Now what do we have here?” I said to myself as I approached it and crouched down near the blue flowers.

From what I could observe about these blue flowers they strangely resembled the way poison ivy grew back in my dimension. So with that good observation in mind I plucked one of the flowers out by using a little bit of levitating magic and carefully placed it in one of the back pockets of my robe. Hopefully I won’t get a rash on my ass after I get back.

I then stood up and continued my journey down the forest path satisfied with what I have found so far. I wanted to see just how far this path would lead me into the forest and if it even had an exit of some sort on the other side. Although for some reason the tingling I was feeling earlier was now coming back almost ten fold now almost as if it was trying to tell me that maybe I should turn back right now. Was I beginning to fear of what could be lurking in the forest or an untold, hidden secret that should have been forgotten? Either way the feeling was slowly adding anxiety onto my mind and made my blood run faster adding onto my adrenaline that was already running through me making me get a strange sensation in my whole body. The feeling was making me progress down the forest path towards whatever lay ahead of me, whether it is for better or for worse.

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Ponyville Library
9:51 A.M.

Twilight Sparkle slowly awoke from her peaceful slumber and looked out the window to see that it was almost midday.

“Oh… seems like that party from last night took more out of me than I thought,” She commented on her situation of waking up late.

She proceeded to get out of bed and made her way downstairs. When she finally got down the stairs and into the main area of the library she noticed something amiss. Not by the fact that the room was a complete mess, but by the fact the couch was now vacant.

“Huh where is Zekeal?” Twilight asked herself as she trotted over to the couch to inspect it more.

The first thing that caught her eye was a note lying on top of the blanket that she laid on Zekeal from last night. She picked it up using her magic and the first thing she noticed about it was that it was scribbled in horrible Equestrian and looked sort of rushed.

Twilight then began reading the note out loud “Went out for fresh air will be back later.”

She stared at the note until eventually she sighs and says “Well this will explain where he is; I hope he took into account that he will be meeting the Princess later on today and won’t be late for it.”

Twilight then laid the note back down on the couch and turned her attention to the mess in the library and began to tidy the place up a little before her assistant Spike woke up. While she was tidying up she noticed the cup that Zekeal used for his alcoholic drinks during the party last night. The one he used for his twenty-one pints of Sweet Apple Acre Hard Cider. Enough that could lead to a very bad case of a hangover.

Twilight blinked a couple of times as a scary thought arose in her mind and she says to herself “On second thought maybe I should make certain he is alright and still remembers that he is meeting the Princess today as well and hopefully not lying in a ditch somewhere.”

Twilight dropped everything she was doing at that moment and quickly trotted over to the door and opened it with her magic. And by open she basically pulled the door from the doorway and placed it to the side. She made another mental note to get that door repaired.

Once she was outside she began trotting towards the center of town and began to ask around if anypony saw Zekeal today and where exactly he was at the moment.

Mean while back at the library a certain purple dragon was slowly getting up from his slumber and tiredly made his way downstairs. The sight of the library after the party from last night that greeted him didn’t really help his tired mood knowing that he will be the one to clean it up.

“Aw horseapples,” Spike said under his breath while face-palming.
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Everfree Forest
10:03 A.M.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have strayed off the dirt path that I was on,” I said to myself as I proceeded through the underbrush of the forest.

A little while ago I was walking down a dirt path when suddenly I felt the tingling in my head again only this time stronger than ever. Then I get the strange idea of leaving the forest path and to head deeper into the forest using my own sense of direction. I thought I was going crazy for some reason. Especially when I chose to leave the forest path that I was on in the end.

So here I am walking through the underbrush of the forest almost completely lost. I decided to leave a trail of gems on the ground in case if I do end up getting utterly lost. But hey at least the walking is helping me get over what’s left of my hangover so there is a plus. But there is a minus to it as well since I now have a cloud of dread hanging over me. It has been hanging over me ever since I left the forest path and the tingling in my mind isn’t helping either! Almost feels like I’m back in my world trying to navigate through a forest without a map or a compass and there were monsters about.

I was steadily getting annoyed by the situation that I got myself in and was just about to turn around and head back when I suddenly stumbled and tripped over one of the many roots that were embedded into the ground. This didn’t really help my mood much.

“God dammit! Why did I think going this way was such a good idea!?” I yelled almost at the top of my lungs while picking myself up “There isn’t even anything out here!”

I may have spoken too soon.

I looked up as I picked myself up and what I saw almost made me go pale. What lied in front of me was a small meadow in the forest with a large cave in the center of it. From what I could guess the mouth of the cave was at least twelve feet high and six feet across.

This cave was big enough to hold something in it.

And that something could be possibly dangerous to my health.

I carefully stood up and slowly walked forward carefully as my curiosity got the better of me. I walked forward until I was just outside the edges of the meadow and looked around for any signs of other dangers that I was not aware of.

“Step two complete.”

I jumped suddenly from the voice that I heard. I looked around to see just who or what said that, but there was no being around me. I quickly tried to shrug my jumpiness off.

“My mind must be playing tricks on me or something,” I said to myself. I continued to look around for any signs of a huge beast that might live here. There were none. I sighed with relief and made my way over to the mouth of the cave. I looked inside and saw nothing but a thick blackness.

It is strange how a cave is in the middle of the forest as well as being in the middle of a meadow at the same time. This had fishiness written all over it.

I materialized a yellow Triple Damage gem in my hand and proceeded to throw it as hard as I could into the cave. Using the gem as a light source I noticed that the cave was very large and very deep as I saw my gem begin rolling further and further down deep into the cave depths being lost in the blackness. I made the decision of not exploring the cave very quickly.

“I may be curious, but I am not stupid,” I said to myself.

I was about to turn around and head back to the forest path when I felt something that I was not expecting. I felt another being’s presence.

And it felt hostile.

I quickly materialized a gem in my hand and looked all around me searching for where the presence was coming from. I could hear the rustling in the bushes near me and threw the gem-bomb at where the noise was coming from. The gem-bomb promptly explodes on impact, but no sound of a creature in pain or anything for that matter. There was then a rustling noise coming from behind me. I quickly did a turn-around while materializing another gem-bomb and threw it. Again another explosion, but I heard no cry of pain.

I was getting incredibly annoyed by this and I yelled angrily “Dammit! Come forth you damned creature, come forth you annoying being, come forth and face your demise by my hands!”

I shouted out a crudely constructed ‘monster summoning call’ to try and bring out the being that was hiding and/or messing with me.

After my shout there was a sudden silence. I could tell the being must have heard me. Maybe it’ll finally come out of hiding.

And boy did it.

I then heard the sound of ground and dirt shifting to my right and I tried to turn to see what it was when suddenly something erupted from the ground. I quickly covered my face to block the dirt that was flying at me, but suddenly changed when something pounced on top of me and slammed me into the ground knocking the breath out of me.

I kept covering my face when I hit the ground fearing for the worse to happen whether it is my body getting torn apart, my head being ripped off, or some other horrible death. But to my surprise it never came.

Instead of pain the creature was more or less rummaging through my wizard’s cloak. As if it was searching for something.

“Where is the pretty, shiny gems!?” came a somewhat hoarse, raspy voice “I swear I saw creature holding a shiny gem not too long ago!”

I moved my arms from my face and looked at what just tackled me. What I saw reminded me of a dog, but it was humanoid.

“Where!? Where is they!? There is only plants in these pockets!” the voice of the humanoid dog says as it proceeded to search through the rest of my cloak. While also pulling the herbs that I gathered from the forest and throwing them to the sides.

That made me mad.

“Get the hell off of me!” I yelled as I kicked the humanoid dog off of me, not a very strong kick, but still enough to get it off of me.

With a yelp the humanoid dog hit the ground only about two feet away from me and I quickly got up and materialized a gem in my hand.

“Just what are you and what do you want with me?” I told it while threatening to throw a gem-bomb at the dog.

The creature slowly got up and looked at me slightly annoyed at my actions, but reluctantly says “I am a Diamond Dog! I like gems! I search for gems! I take gems! I steal gems from ponies and other creatures like you!”

I stared at the Diamond dog wondering whether or not it was a good idea to kill him or not. On one hand it is trying to steal from me, but at the same time I don’t want to get into a fight that I could avoid and who knows if there are others like it. So I decided to try to outsmart it.

“Alright you see this gem that I have in my hand?” I asked it while holding out the gem I already materialized.

The diamond dog nodded its head quickly and says “Yes, you used gems like that to attack me! But I don’t want gems that go boom!”

“Don’t worry the only reason the gems exploded was that I made them explode by using magic,” I began lying to the diamond dog “Without magic they are just ordinary gems.”

The diamond dog took a minute to process just what it was just told. It looked like it basically understood what I said.

“So… no magic, no boom?” It asks me.

Keywords ‘basically understood’.

With a sigh I say “Yes and there are a ton of them in that cave over there where I threw the yellow gem. It is sort of my stash of gems.”

I pointed towards the cave where I threw my gem into from before and I then say “And you can have every single one of them if you let me leave in peace.”

The diamond dog looked over at the cave and looked back with squinted eyes at me while scowling and says “How do I know that this is not some trick!? You remind me of ponies and they are very tricky! Especially those who attack me!”

Great this being is not as dumb as I thought. Time for a quick changeup.

“Listen how about this then,” I began to say while I slowly materialized ten grade one gems behind my back “How about I give you these gems as a sign of my trust.”

I then show the diamond dog the gems I just materialized behind my back in a nice little pile in my arms.

The diamond dog’s eyes were almost the size of saucers.

“Wow! Such big gems! Me like! Me like a lot!” the diamond dog says while snatching them all out of my hands.

“Now will you let me leave?” I ask the diamond dog with a hint of annoyance.

“Sure, sure go ahead I don’t care. But gems in cave are still mine! All mine!” the diamond dog shouts to me as it heads towards the maw of the cave and enters it with the gems I gave it still in its arms. It quickly disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

I quickly sigh in relief as the diamond dog disappeared from my sight.

“Good riddance,” I said to myself.

Then as I turned around to head back to the forest path when I say under my breath without really thinking “Come forth creatures of dread, come forth beings of darkness, come and face your demise at my hands.”

I blinked twice at what I just whispered under my breath. Now why would I say a monster call right now? There were no monsters around here in fact there should be no monsters here period. Maybe I am just still a little tired from the party last night and my mind’s just playing tricks on me. Today is just a weird day for me, thats all.

“Step three complete.”

…A very weird day.
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Meanwhile underground a certain diamond dog was stumbling around in the dark trying to find a nonexistent treasure in the dark.

“Gems, gems, gems! Now where are those gems that creature said was down here!?” the diamond dog asked himself while looking around eagerly.

Using his sharp eyes he quickly scanned the area around him. With his eyes already used to underground travel it was easy to see almost everything around him.

There was nothing except for one lone yellow glowing gem in the darkness.

“What!? But that creature said there were many gems down here! He lied!” the diamond dog shouted while throwing the gems he was already carrying to the ground.

“Grrrr. When I get out of here I’ll make him slave and make him dig for gems! No one tricks a diamond dog and gets away with it!” the diamond dog rants in the darkness. Although during his rant he didn’t notice the scurrying sound in the darkness and it was slowly getting louder.

Then suddenly just outside the ring of light the gem casted another creature entered the light of the yellow gem. It looked like an overgrown bug just barely the size of a chicken. It had what looked like a blue carapace, but with the radiance that was giving off from the yellow gem the carapace looked green. The creature slowly crept its way towards the gem as if it was drawn to it. Once the creature neared the gem it suddenly went into frenzy and began attacking it.

This scene drew the attention of the diamond dog as he looked at it and began growing annoyed by the creature attacking his gems.

“Shoo! Go away you little beetle! These are my gems!” The diamond dog shouted as he then kicked the creature away a couple of feet.

When the creature recovered from the attack it quickly scurried away back into the darkness not to be seen again. Then a new sound began to resonate through the cave. The slow shifting, sliding sound of something incredibly huge.

The diamond dog’s ears perked up at this as he squinted to see just what was making that sound in the darkness. He soon got his answer.

Just outside of the yellow gem’s light source a mammoth of a beast was slowly sliding itself towards the gem. It looked like a giant mass of tentacles and most of its body was blood red. The diamond dog couldn’t even see the face of the new creature with the amount of tentacles it had, but was slowly starting to fear for his own safety after this new development.

“W-what are you?” the diamond dog says noticeably more scared.

The tentacle creature responded by raising one of its big, long tentacles up high into the air and proceeded to bring it down quickly.

“NO DON’T!” the diamond dog shouted for his life as he rose his hands up in order to defend himself even though it wouldn’t help him.

*SMASH!*

The tentacle came down just mere inches away from the diamond dog while crushing only the gems that the diamond dog dropped.

The diamond dog slowly opened his eyes and began to whimper at the fact that he was almost just crushed.

The tentacle beast then began to slowly turn away from the diamond dog and began to slowly drag itself towards the entrance of the cave almost as if it was following a scent path almost like a hunting dog.

The diamond dog was growing more and more confused by the moment. He had so many questions inside his head that he felt like his head was about to burst. But the questions would have to wait as he began to notice that all around him there was movement going on.

Creatures of all shapes and colors slowly arose from the ground and began making their way towards the exit as well.

The diamond dog quickly began hugging the side of the wall for dear life hoping that he would not get swept away by the crowd of creatures that were exiting the cave while not trying to get trampled in the process.

It wouldn’t take long for the creatures to reach the exit of the cave and begin leaving. The smaller creatures that got outside were able to maneuver through the forest with ease while the larger ones had to begin uprooting trees to create a path for themselves. All hell bent on getting somewhere and fast.

After a while the diamond dog was able to exit the cave without getting trampled by some of the larger creatures. The first thing he noticed while exiting was that the creatures were all heading in what looked to be a certain direction. A direction that would take them close to Ponyville.

“Forget this. Gems not worth getting trampled for. Ponies problem now.” Says the diamond dog and with that said he turned around and left the meadow.
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Fluttershy’s Cottage
11:28 A.M.

Twilight spent most of the morning trying to find Zekeal and from what some of the ponies in town said he was heading towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight made the choice of heading over to Fluttershy’s to ask her if she has seen Zekeal or not. Then this scene happened.

“HE DID WHAT!?” came the shout of Twilight Sparkle as she stood mouth agape at a now cowering Fluttershy.

“Y-yeah I-I tried to s-stop him Twi-Twilight, but he said h-he would be fine.” Fluttershy said in a timid tone “So I c-chose to let him go on his own. Please don’t be mad at me.”

Twilight sighed with a hint of annoyance in it and says “No Fluttershy I’m not mad at you, but I am annoyed at Zekeal for not taking a guide with him. The Everfree forest is a dangerous place for anypony.”

“Yes I know Twilight, I told Zekeal of all the dangers the forest has, but he still said he would be fine. He must be very brave.” Fluttershy says.

“Either that or he is just too curious for his own good,” Twilight comments.

Twilight then trotted over to one of the windows in the cottage and looked out towards the dark forest. Fluttershy then trots over to her as well and says “J-just why were you looking for Zekeal in the first place Twilight?”

Twilight looks over at Fluttershy and says “Well today the Princess said that she would visit Ponyville and meet Zekeal for the first time and I thought Zekeal forgot about it. But right now I just don’t want to end up explaining to the Princess on how Zekeal was eaten by a hydra or something.”

“Oh…my…” Fluttershy says wide eyed at Twilight’s dark comment “That would be very… hard to explain.”

Twilight nodded her head while looking back out at the forest.

“Well Twilight wpi;d you care for some tea? It’ll probably calm your nerves down a little. That is if you want any.” Fluttershy says to her.

Twilight turned her head again and says with a small smile barely able to hide her anxiety “Yes some tea would do me some good. Thank you Fluttershy.”

“No problem Twilight,” Fluttershy says as she goes into the kitchen area.

Twilight then looks back outside and something catches her eyes.

Coming out of the forest was none other than Zekeal himself.
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I managed to follow the forest path back towards Fluttershy’s cottage with relative easy and pretty quickly to boot. The only problem that I am currently facing now is my hunger.

*growl*

Maybe skipping breakfast was a bad idea.

Although it wasn’t long before I got out of the forest and Fluttershy’s cottage was in my sights. I made the decision of going over there first to see if she had anything to curb my appetite for a while.

But it would seem asking Fluttershy for food would have to wait for a bit.

“Zekeal! Why did you go into the Everfree Forest without warning me first?” said the voice of Twilight Sparkle.

I looked back towards Fluttershy’s cottage and in the doorway stood Twilight. She wore a face of disapproval and worry.

I chuckled nervously and said under my breath “Guess I’m sort of in trouble now…”

Slowly I began walking towards Fluttershy’s cottage while scratching the back of my head and wearing the face of a kid who is about to get scolded.

Once I got up to the doorway and in front of Twilight I say to her “Sorry about that Twilight, guess I should have told you, but I got a little too curious you know.”

Twilight shook her head “I understand your desire to learn Zekeal, but please warn me before you do those kinds of things; I just don’t want to see you get hurt or even worse.”

“I understand your concern for me Twilight, but I can take care of myself,” I say to her with an apologetic face “But from now on I promise that if I try to do anything that might be dangerous I’ll ask you first to see if it’s alright.”

Twilight sighs “Thank you Zekeal and I apologize if I’m acting a little… over-the-top.”

“No problem Twilight and instead how about if we just say it was just poor planning on both of our parts?” I asked her with a small smile on my face.

Twilight giggled a little “Yeah maybe it was poor planning on both of our ends.”

We stood there for a moment or two enjoying each others company until Twilight breaks the silence.

“So… did you forget what today is?” Twilight asks.

I thought for a moment. Then another moment. Then another until eventually:

“What was today supposed to be again?” I ask her.

Twilight facehoofed and says “You are supposed to be meeting the Princess today.”

My mind suddenly remembered and I proceed to say “Oh yeah, yeah I was supposed to meet her today wasn’t I? I guess my memory got away from me during last night’s party.”

Twilight shook her head “Well you’re really in luck then, she hasn’t arrived yet so we still got time.”

“That’s good so what do we do until then?” I ask her.

Almost as if on cue we hear the voice of Fluttershy call out “Twilight! The tea is ready!”

Twilight turns her head towards the cottage and says “Well we could have some more tea until then.”

“That sounds lovely,” I say to her and soon after my stomach begins grumbling again “Also do you think she has any spare apples or bread I could eat to help curb my hunger?”

Twilight giggles a little “She should have something to your liking hopefully.”

Twilight then begins trotting over towards the cottage and with me following close behind her. But not before looking up at the sky towards the forest. What I saw sort of made me a little depressed.

‘It looks like it’s going to rain,’ I say to myself as I watched gray clouds begin forming over the forest ‘Oh well it’s only a little rain right? No sense in worrying too much.’

I pushed the thought of the rain aside and made my way towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

Little did I know there was a terrible storm brewing in the forest.
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End of Chapter 8

Hello readers I really hoped you enjoyed this chapter in my series and if not well don’t be afraid to tell me your opinions about it. Also any errors I may have missed in the story please voice them to me it will be greatly appreciated.

Zekeal: Hey Registered can we add a romance tag to this story? Its bound to get more views!

No Zekeal that is a terrible idea. I can barely do romance at ALL and to add on to that a human x pony fanfic is sort of frowned upon here. That is if it’s done horribly.

Zekeal: Well if that’s the case then I’ll add the tag myself! Pinkie Pie! Can you come over here for a second?

Pinkie Pie: Sure Zekeal what is it you want me for? *bounces over to Zekeal*

Zekeal: Pinkie Pie… *gets on one knee and holds one of Pinkie Pie’s front hooves* I have always lov-

OH NO YOU DON’T! *grabs Zekeal by the collar of his cloak and throws him into the 4th wall while managing breaking it… again*

Pinkie Pie: Huh? What was he about to say?

Nothing Pinkie Pie it’s best for you not to hear what he wanted to try and say. Anyway best start wrapping this up now.

This has been Registered Anonymous.

Zekeal: *very weakly* Zekeal… ow.

Pinkie Pie: And Pinkie Pie!

Signing off check ya’ll later.