The Epic Journey

by JerryTheHouseGhost

The Forest of 1000 Curses

"What's wrong, Rainbow Dash?" asked Twilight.

"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! There are weird noises in this forest and there's a flying pile of sticks that attacked me!" Rainbow Dash just wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. She did not want to get attacked by those sticks again. "Who knows what else could be hiding behind those trees!?"

"Hold on, there's a flying pile of sticks? Are you sure you're not just seeing things?"

"It's true, Twi. I saw the sticks with my own eyes," said Applejack. This was coming from the element of honesty, so there was no doubt to the other ponies that there was a flying pile of sticks.

"I don't think sticks normally fly," said Twilight.

"You think?" asked Rarity. "Of course sticks don't normally fly; when was the last time you ever heard of them flying?"

"You've got a point. There's no way sticks could fly; it's physically impossible without magic! Unless..."

Everypony was looking at Twilight silently. They were all waiting to hear her finish what she was going to say.

"Unless what!? The anticipation is killing me!" said Pinkie Pie.

"Unless this is the Cursed Forest," Twilight finally finished her sentence.

"The Cursed Forest?" almost everypony asked this question.

"Yes. I have read about it in only a couple books. There is hardly any information about it. The only thing I know is that weird things happen in it; sometimes impossible things, which would explain the flying sticks."

" 'Weird things' is a very broad statement," said Rarity. "What kind of weird things are we talking about, here?"

"Um, does anypony else see that?" asked Fluttershy. Everypony turned their attention toward where Fluttershy was looking. Just past the tree-line was a bright blue-colored ball. It was rolling to the right, and everypony watched it long enough to see it roll all the way around the clearing.

"Are we going to investigate that ball, or...?" Twilight had no idea how to react to this.

"You're asking us?" asked Rainbow Dash.

The ball suddenly stopped. The six ponies looked at it. A noise of several little hooves running began out in the distance. Four little ponies (three fillies and one colt) came out of the darkness behind the ball. One of them hit the ball, which flew towards the six ponies and smacked Twilight in the face.

"Ow! Watch where you're kicking that!" yelled Twilight.

The four little ponies all looked at Twilight, and their eyes started to glow red.

"Nice one, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "You made the little scary ponies look at you."

"Oh no," said Twilight. "Don't break eye contact with them. I think they'll stay still if we-"

The little ponies started walking slowly towards Twilight.

"Now they're walking towards you! What are we going to do!?" asked Rarity.

"We're going to run. Everypony stay still until I give the signal, okay?" Twilight looked behind her to see that all of her friends except Fluttershy had already ran off. Twilight looked back at the red-eyed ponies. "I guess it's just you and me now, Fluttershy." She looked back again to see Fluttershy running into the treeline. Twilight looked back at the ponies. "Don't kill me!"

The four ponies stopped five feet in front of Twilight. They were just silhouettes with red eyes now. One of the fillies stepped forward. "We do not want to hurt you."

"The horror! The horro- wait, what?"

"We said, we do not want to hurt you," repeated the filly.

"Why did you say 'we' if you are the only one talking?" asked Twilight.

"We are everything in this forest. We speak as one, and this form was determined to be the least frightening to you. We are sorry if you were still scared, as we have not made contact with anypony for six years."

"If you don't want to hurt us, why did you attack my friend Rainbow Dash with a pile of sticks?"

"The pegasus was merely in the way of our usual path with those sticks. We are sorry for any pain we have bestowed upon her."

"All of my friends have ran off, could you somehow bring them back so they won't be lost for eternity?" asked Twilight.

"We have already began sending your friends back this way," said the filly.

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Rainbow Dash and Applejack were back in the forest, and happened upon the same area where they were assaulted by the sticks. "Oh, no! I'm not getting attacked by sticks again!" said Rainbow Dash. Just then, a pony came out from behind a tree.

"Could you two go back to the clearing, please?" asked the pony.

"And just who are you?" asked Applejack.

"That's not important. We just want you to return to your unicorn friend."

"Rarity?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Is Rarity purple?" asked the pony.

"No."

"Then it is not Rarity."

"So, Twilight, then?"

"Is Twilight a pegasus?"

"Didn't you say we had to return to our unicorn friend?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Just shut up and go back before we have to scare you that way."

"Who's we?" asked Rainbow Dash.

The pony turned into a bunch of bats and fire balls, then started scaring Rainbow Dash and Applejack back towards the clearing.

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Rarity had tagged along with Pinkie Pie when everypony ran away. "Do you feel bad that we left Twilight and Fluttershy behind?" asked Rarity.

"Wait, we left Fluttershy and Twilight behind!?" asked Pinkie Pie. "I though everypony was with us."

"Nope, it's just you and me."

"Oh, um, and me." Fluttershy had just caught up with them.

"Well, I feel a bit better knowing that we only left one pony behind," said Rarity. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie stared at her. "I'm not saying that we shouldn't go back and find her!"

The three ponies looked back where they had come from. "How far did we run?" asked Rarity. "How are we even going to get back? I'm sure we made a few turns on our way here."

"Oh! I have a way to get back to Twilight!" said Pinkie Pie enthusiastically.

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Twilight heard screaming coming from her right side. She looked to see who it was coming from. Rainbow Dash and Applejack came running through the trees into the clearing. "There's Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but where are my three other friends?"

Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy suddenly fell from the sky with the party cannon. "Pinkie Pie, never make me get on your party cannon then fire it ever again!" said Rarity

"But it was so fun!" said Pinkie Pie.

"Never again!"

"Okay, all of my friends are back now. Thank you," said Twilight to the filly.

"We welcome your thanks. It is time we give you what you came here for."

"You know why we're here?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Even I don't know why we're here!"

"Of course, pegasus. We were told in advance of your travels that would soon lead you here."

"You know about the journey we're on?" asked Twilight.

"We do. And we are supposed to give you a message."

"Well, where is it; where's the note?"

"It is not a written message, but a spoken one. We were instructed to tell you to return home."

"Return home!?" asked Twilight. "We've been on this journey for a week or so now! We've been trying to find out who sent me a letter and to do what they wanted me to do! You're telling me that the last message they wanted me to receive was one telling me to go home!?"

"We are sorry if it is not what you wanted to hear, but it is what we were told to tell you."

"Who could be powerful enough to have an entity that controls an entire forest relay a message to me?"

"This pony asked us to keep her identity a secret to everypony."

"So it's a she, huh!?" asked Twilight.

"Oops, uh, we've already told you too much! You must return home now!"

"How do you even expect us to get home? I have no idea where we even are in relation to Ponyville!"

"Oh, yes. Step through here, and you will be sent to Everfree Forest." A big, bright circle appeared in front of the six ponies.

"What is that?" asked Rarity.

"It's a portal that will send you to Everfree Forest, now step inside before we have to close it and recharge our ability to open it again."

"Fine, everypony go through it," said Twilight.

The six ponies stepped through the portal and ended up inside of Zecora's hut.

"How did you all get inside of my home? Just a second ago I was all alone." said Zecora.

"We don't have time to explain, Zecora. We've been through a lot, and we all just need to get some rest. I'm going to tell Princess Celestia about our journey tomorrow." Twilight and the others began to leave Zecora's hut and head to Ponyville. Pinkie Pie was the last to leave.

"I'm still keeping an eye on you, Zecora," said Pinkie Pie as she left the hut.