“I’m so sorry Twilight…” Fluttershy apologized. Her ears were down as she stared in her cup of jasmine tea.
“Ids okay Fluttershy. Id was as accident.” Twilight responded with a slightly nasal voice. She was holding an ice pack against her sore muzzle.
“Nodings broken and id doesn’t hurd much anymore.” It had hurt much more right after Fluttershys impromptu hug/headbutt, but Twilight wasn’t going to say that aloud. Fluttershy was already feeling bad about accidentally giving her a lesson about kinetic energy and the aerodynamic qualities of a unicorn and she didn’t want to make it any worse. Besides, a simple pain numbing spell and an ice pack were already doing wonders, and all she could feel was slight sting in her muzzle.
“Wads god you in a rush anyway?” She asked as she lowered the ice pack to take a sip of her tea.
“Oh…I got…really s-scared and wasn’t watching where I was going…” Fluttershy responded and took the tea cup carefully in her hooves.
“What happened?”
“I was in the Everfree forest…Ms. Woodpecker had asked me to come and check her chick…she was feeling sick…a-and I couldn’t just say no, it’s my job to help animals after all.” Fluttershy took a sip of her own tea now that she had calmed down a bit.
“Oh no, you didn’t come across a monster, did you?” Twilight asked, and immediately Fluttershys ears went down again.
“Y-y-yes…I mean…I-I think I did…”
“You…you think?”
“W-well…I mean uh…I don’t k-know what it was…that I saw.”
Twilight tilted her head slightly.
“It was…very tall…and it was hiding in a bush.”
Twilight drank the rest of her tea and made a motion with her hoof for Fluttershy to continue.
“I didn’t see much of it…half of it was hidden behind the bush…and the rest of it was covered in clothes.”
“Clothes?” Twilight gently rubbed her still slightly sore muzzle.
“…It didn’t…have someponys clothes…did it?” She asked hopefully.
“Oh, nonono…those clothes seemed to be its own. They were so huge that nopony could wear them.”
“Are you sure it was a monster? I don’t know any monsters that wear clothes.”
“Well I…I don’t know…”
“What else can you tell me about it?”
“It looked like it had a beard, it had quite a lot of hair on its chin. And small eyes. I couldn’t see them very well because of the hat.”
“…It wore a hat too?” Twilight asked confused.
“Yes. But it was a camouflage hat.”
One eyebrow was raised.
“T-the same type you had…w-when you had when you went to watch the dragon migration. Its other clothes were the same too.”
“Hmm…So what you saw was a tall creature with a beard and it wore camouflage pattern clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Perhaps it was a minotaur?” Fluttershy seemed to think about it.
“No…I don’t remember seeing any horns. And it didn’t seem as big as Iron Will when he was here.”
“A diamond dog?” Twilight asked, trying to think. Fluttershy shuddered.
“No, it didn’t look like a diamond dog at all…a-atleast, not the kind we saw that one time…”
Twilights frown deepened as she tried to come up with creatures that matched Fluttershys description. She got up from her seat and walked to a bookshelf. Soon books started levitating down, encased in a lavender aura.
“Well perhaps it was…no, those don’t live in the Everfree. Well maybe…hmm, but they have only one eye…” Twilight muttered to herself as she searched her books for anything. Fluttershy sat still, drinking her lukewarm tea, and waiting for Twilight to find something. All she got, however, was a slightly frustrated sigh.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I don’t know what it was that you encountered.”
“Oh, that’s okay.”
“Still, we shouldn’t ignore it.” Twilight mused.
“Especially if it is native to Everfree forest. I’ll make sure to inform the guard that something has been sighted in the Everfree and they should be on the lookout for a minotaur like creature with camouflage clothes, possibly another monster.” That was the problem with living so close to the Everfree forest. There was always the danger of a monster attack.
“Okay.”
“If you see it again, or if any of your animal friends spot it in the Everfree forest, be sure to tell me or the guard about it.”
Fluttershy nodded.
“Now, with that settled, would you like to join me? I was just about to go and buy some groceries when you…uh, visited me.” Twilight said with a smile as she opened the door. Fluttershy blushed a bit, but nodded nonetheless.
“Great, let’s go then.”
********************
Life continued on in Ponyville as normal. The populace had long since accepted the possible dangers associated with the Everfree forest and weren’t that bothered with the prospects of another monster lurking around. Most ponies were more annoyed than scared by the announcement that an unknown creature had been sighted in the Everfree. It was a rare occurrence that a monster caused any serious harm. More often they would only manage to scare a pony or destroy one’s property, rather than cause an injury, or in the worst scenario, take one’s life. Ponies made sure to avoid going to the Everfree forest (not that many wanted to go there anyway) for the time being, and if they had to go, they wouldn’t do it alone. Weeks went by without anypony seeing or hearing anything about the mysterious creature.
********************
Rainbow Dash was lazily flying around in the fields outside of Ponyville. She had been practicing her tricks all morning, and was trying to find the perfect cloud to nap on.
“Well deserved sleep for well done practice.” She muttered to herself and let out a yawn as she spotted one. She flopped down on the cloud, letting the fluffy goodness engulf her. She peered down the edge, enjoying the sights of another beautiful day, and feeling the tiredness of hard practice catch up to her. She didn’t have anything else she needed to today, luckily, and could spend as much time as she wanted napping. Perhaps she could go and get some cupcakes from Pinkie later. She felt her eyelids drooping, and yawned again. However, just as she was about to pull back from the edge and go to sleep, movement caught her eye. Something was moving close to the edge of the Everfree. It was quite the ways down, but Pegasus eyes were sharp, and Rainbow could make the shape of something large moving.
Feeling more alert, she tried to make out what it was. Tall, seemed to move with two legs, really odd looking. For a moment, she thought she was looking at a minotaur, but then she remembered what Twilight had said a few weeks back. A minotaur like creature had scared Fluttershy when she was helping animals in the forest, and they all should be on the lookout for it. Rainbow scowled at the creature that was walking along the edge of the forest, as if with no care in the world.
What is it doing, she thought as she grabbed the cloud and gently flapped her wings to propel the cloud forward. She glided along towards the creature, staying hidden by the cloud. It was indeed wearing camouflage clothes as Fluttershy had said, although its jacket was tied on its waist, and it seemed to be wearing a gray shirt instead. But it didn’t seem to be trying to hide at all, just walking around in plain daylight. Rainbows cloud was now on top of the creature, high above.
It doesn’t look very tough. Rainbow entertained the idea of flying down and giving it a good kick in the rump for scaring Fluttershy as it had. It was, however, walking to the opposite direction from Ponyville, and Twilight had said that they had no idea if the creature was actually a dangerous monster or not. What kind of monster would wear clothes anyway, especially if it lived in the Everfree forest?
“I don’t think that Raritys clothes are that popular.” Rainbow said to herself and snickered. Rarity would probably faint if the creature came to her looking for something to wear. Its current clothes seemed to be well worn as indicated by the many patched they had. Rainbow could also see that the creature was carrying a basket with it, although what was in the basket, she couldn’t tell. It wasn’t very large, so there wasn’t anything like a pony in there.
Rainbow kept following the creature as it seemed to walk without any destination, occasionally stopping to look around and to pick flowers.
Maybe it really is just an oddly shaped minotaur…without horns and all that, she thought as the creature sat down to rest. She jumped off from her cloud and glided silently downwards, landing on one of the trees close to it. She wanted to take a closer look, just to be sure that it wasn’t up to anything nasty. Her ears perked up as she heard a weird noise coming from the creature. It was really deep humming, almost like Applejacks big brother. It was humming a pleasant tune to itself while checking the contents of its basket, which was full of mushrooms.
Hmm, maybe it’s like Zecora, and lives in the Everfree and makes potions and stuff, Rainbow thought to herself. It didn’t really make any sense otherwise. Come to think of it, had they even asked Zecora if she knew anything? She should definitely bring that up with Twilight when they saw each other the next time. Twilight did visit Zecora quite often. Something to do with tea or some such.
Is it really going to be looking at stupid mushrooms all day? Irritation was starting to get to Rainbow as she tried her best to stay still and quiet. She was losing perfect napping time by sitting here, and the creature could only sit and do nothing. Eventually her patience ran out, and Rainbow decided to just leave and let the creature do its own, boring things.
Unfortunately, when she took flight, her wing smacked one of the branches and it let out a loud crack. The creature instantly put the basket away and turned around, scanning the treetops with its gaze.
Not good, Dash mentally cursed and tried to gain altitude, only for the leaves to make even more noise as she flied up. Her cover blown, she decided to fly back to Ponyville, staying near and above the treetops in hopes that the creature wouldn’t see her.
With her hasty retreat, Rainbow hadn’t noticed that one of her primaries had fallen off, gently fluttering to the ground next to the creature. It picked it up and examined it, turning the large, pristine blue feather around. Mystified by what could have left it, the creature put the feather in a pocket of its pants, picked up its basket, and begun its somewhat hurried trek back in to the Everfree forest.