“It’s just a bad idea, nothing more and nothing less!” Apple Surprise protested, looking up from her milkshake and staring incredulously over to Awesome Blitz.
The quartet of fillies were back in Sugarcube Corner, though one table over from the one they had sat at the previous day. They had only just arrived, getting a quick order of milkshakes from the twins since Pinkie Pie apparently wasn’t in at the time, before getting down to business.
And the debate was on. Awesome Blitz was still all for the idea, while Apple Surprise was not exactly on board with her ‘trip to the forest’ idea. Sapphire just nervously sipped her milkshake as she watched her two friends go at it, joined by Avia who was waiting for a good moment to get a word in.
“Oh, come on, Apple!” the pegasus whined in response. “It’s totally a good idea!”
“How in Equestria did ya’ll figure that?”
“Because it’ll be completely awesome!” she proclaimed with excitedly flared wings. “Going into ancient ruins, finding secrets and fighting monsters!”
“We’re just fillies!”
“Awesome fillies!”
“Stop saying ‘awesome’ like that would actually make a lick of difference!”
“Never!”
Avia groaned, her head slowly lowering until it came to a rest on the table. They weren’t getting anywhere fast with this…
“Maybe we should all take a breath…” Sapphire suggested, looking between her two friends as they glared at one another. “This is getting out of control…”
Apple Surprise took a breath, but then relaxed back into her seat. “Yeah, your right. Sorry, Blitz.”
“Yeah, me too…” the pegasus in question agreed, also letting herself relax. “Sorry I shouted.”
“Me too…”
Now that everyone had calmed down for the moment, Avia was able to lift her head from the table and look back towards the ponies.
“Now that I can get a word in…” she began. “I’ve heard the Everfree Forest is really dangerous, at least from my mother’s stories.”
“Pfft, it can’t be that bad,” Awesome Blitz denied. “Apple Surprise’s aunt, Apple Bloom, used to go and see Zecora in the forest all the time.”
“Along a set trail,” the earth pony rebuked. “There’s no path to the castle. We’d have to go right through the actual trees and stuff, where the animals all live!”
“There was this changeling, Serpens, who once hid in the forest because it was so dangerous for most ponies to go into,” Avia recalled.
“Yeah, nopony wants to run into a manticore or a hydra,” Apple Surprise stated.
“I saw a trained manticore at a magic show once,” Sapphire randomly added.
The green filly frowned. “Emphasis on the ‘trained’, Sapphire.”
“Oh, come on, Apple Surprise. Don’t be such a worrywart!” Awesome Blitz remarked. “I heard once that wild animals only go for ponies when they’re separated from the group. But we, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, always stick together!”
“I’m not confident that logic would hold up in practice,” Apple Surprise deadpanned. “We could get really hurt doing this.”
“But it’ll be such a cool adventure! We could get our cutie marks for this, for being brave! Just think of all the cool stuff we could find at the castle!” the pegasus filly stressed. “Besides, we have Avia! And she’s a Changeling Queen!”
“A young one…” Avia sheepishly pointed out.
“But you still are one!” she retorted. “So, like, we basically have a changeling goddess on our side. That’s going to count for something! And, if things really go wrong, she can just use that weird joint mind thingy that changelings have to call for an army to come get us.”
“Hive mind,” the Princess clarified, before sighing in relent. “But yeah, I’m pretty sure the entire hive would turn up if I was in trouble. And then I’d be grounded for life…”
“Which is why we won’t get in trouble!” Awesome Blitz claimed, puffing up her chest confidently. “But either way, we have a Plan B!”
Apple Surprise sighed. “Ya’ll are pretty set on going ain’t ya, Sugarcube?”
The pegasus gave a hard nod.
“Nothing I can do to talk sense into you?”
The response was an equally hard shake of her head.
The earth pony filly sighed. “Well, if you’re going to go then I’m coming along. I can’t rightly let you go into that place by yourself.”
Awesome Blitz lunged over the table, grabbing Apple Surprise into a tight hug as the earth pony squeaked from the sudden contact.
“You’re the best, AS!”
“Ugh, the forest is so muddy…” Sapphire moaned sadly, before looking between her two friends. “…But a lady wouldn’t abandon her friends. I will suffer through it if I can help you, but you owe me a spa day!”
“Deal!” Awesome Blitz agreed, before turning to the final member of the group yet undecided. “Avia…?”
The changeling shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. “I don’t know…”
“Please…?”
Avia flinched at the pleading, shuffling even more. The royal changeling in her was screaming that this was the most awful idea in the wide history of awful ideas, that she could get hurt and/or grounded if she agreed to this! But she also had to wonder whether the three would go on without her, and if they were to get hurt because she didn’t come along…
And neither did she wish to disappoint her new friends.
“Alright…” Avia finally, if reluctantly, relented. “And I guess it would be pretty cool to see those secrets we were talking about.”
“Awesome!”
“But we’re doing things my way if we’re doing this!”
Awesome Blitz gave her a smirk. “Taking charge already, huh Princess? What is your way, anyhow?”
“Research!” Avia proclaimed far more enthusiastically, a bright grin appearing into her face.
The pegasus’ own smirk fell away. “Oh…”
“Research on what?” Sapphire enquired.
“There has to be books on the forest and what we could expect to see in the library,” Avia pointed out. “Plants. Animals. A map. Things we’d need to not get horribly lost and eaten.”
“I’d like to not be eaten…” the unicorn muttered.
“Exactly. We can read through it all so that we know what to do, and then we can leave shortly before sunset. That gives us plenty of time to get to the castle, have a quick look around and then head back for the raising of the sun!”
“Alight, I guess that sounds like a plan…” Awesome Blitz relented. “So… are we going now or…?”
Avia shook her head, grabbing onto her half-full milkshake and bringing the straw back into her mouth.
Adventure could always wait for milkshake.
Once the milkshakes were firmly in the stomachs of the fillies, they finally left Sugarcube Corner and headed off for the Golden Oaks Library. The sun was now directly above them and would soon begin its slow descent into the horizon in readiness to bring on the night. The coming darkness was still many hours away, fortunately, since it was the summer solstice. The longest day of the year meant they had plenty of time to research before sundown began, but consequently would also mean they would have less time to explore the ruins once they arrived there.
All the more reason to plan and organise it all, in Avia’s mind.
The four young fillies all made their way through the bustling town, weaving and diving through the colourful crowds in an attempt to reach their destination. They could now see plenty of the Solar and Lunar guardsponies patrolling the town and keeping the peace alongside their changeling counterparts, only adding to the population filling the streets.
As they got closer to the market, at one point they spotted Rarity deep in discussion with none other than Soronis and Puellula. The unicorn and two changelings didn’t spot the four of them as they passed, too engrossed in whatever they seemed to be fondly talking about. They didn’t stop to ask, continuing onwards before anyone decided to ask what they were doing.
And their sneaking around didn’t stop there. As they passed through the large market in the centre of town, another group came into their notice that they had to avoid.
Avia’s mother, Queen Twilight, was there. The Queen seemed to be chatting with the current Mayor of Ponyville alongside Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They were all stood nearby to Applejack own stall, though Avia failed to spot any other members of her family that might have been nearby.
She had no doubt that they were around though. And they always seemed to know when she was up to something, so getting caught by them would be game over pretty much instantaneously.
Fortunately, they managed to scoot on by without incident. From there it was a straight shot to the Golden Oaks Library, and they ran on over to the old tree without a second thought. They rapidly closed the gap, and on reaching the door they quickly squeezed inside and shut it firmly behind them.
“Hello?” Avia called out experimentally, allowing the others a moment to take a breather “Anybody home?”
Silence answered Avia, much to her relief.
“Alright, we’re here…” Awesome Blitz stated. “Now what?”
“We need a book on the Everfree Forest,” Avia mused. “Look under ‘E’ for starters, shout if you find anything.”
They got to work, all assaulting the mentioned section and beginning to search through all the books for one that might relate to the Everfree Forest. Avia fluttered her wings and propelled herself up to the topmost shelf, going through each title one by one, even removing some of the books to check behind the stack for anything that might have been hidden.
No such luck.
“How about ‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide’?” Sapphire asked, extracted a book in her magical aura.
“I can save you some time,” Awesome Blitz deadpanned. “Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty and-”
“Magic,” Avia finished, all too familiar with that last one. “No, we need something more directed at the forest itself. It doesn’t seem to be here… Look at the other shelves, there must be one somewhere!”
“It probably has a really dumb title.”
“Shush!”
Any protests about being so promptly shushed were ignored, and they fanned out to cover all of the other books in the library. While the others all started to check some at random, Avia elected to being going in sequential order from A to Z.
She had just made it to ‘F’ when there was a sudden commotion from outside. All the fillies turned towards the door and, through the windows, they could see a whole host of ponies moving past as if in a hurry while some kind of melody carried by countless voices echoed into the building.
“Uh… what is that…?” Avia asked, seconds away from asking the same question over the hive mind. “Is something wrong?”
Apple Surprise snorted, going back to her search. “Naw, that’s just a musical number. They happen every once in a while.”
Avia frowned, looking between the fillies to see if the earth pony was pulling her leg. But the reactions from the others all but confirmed what Apple Surprise was saying.
“…You ponies actually do that?” Avia deadpanned. “I thought Mum was kidding when she told me about that.”
“Nope.”
“Oh, well…”
She took one more glance at the door, wondering if her mother was among those joining in the chorus. Then she decided to just not think about it and instead returned to doing book stuff.
She continued on through the F section, finding little of any relevance to the forest. Her search continuing on despite the lack of progress, the Princess managed to make it all the way to the H section before there was a victorious cheer from Apple Surprise.
“Do ya’ll think ‘The Landscapes of the Everfree Forest: A Guide’ will be any good?” she asked smugly.
“I think so!” Avia chirped, hopping on over and taking the book as it was passed to her.
The changeling took it over to a nearby table and placed it down, opening it to the contents section and looking through what the book had to offer.
“History. Notable features. Plant life. Animal population,” she recited. “And a map! Huh, there’s even a reference to what the different areas would have been before the forest was here.”
“There was a time the forest wasn't here?” Awesome Blitz asked.
“Do you ever pay attention in class?” Apple Surprise asked.
“Mostly!”
“The City of Everfree was there before,” Avia answered the pegasus’ enquiry. “You know, the old Equestrian capital before Nightmare Moon?”
“Ohhhh…” the winged pony said in understanding. “That explains the castle.”
“Point being…” Avia continued. “We could probably navigate the forest with this book. And maybe even avoid the nasty things we don’t wanna run into.”
“Well, sounds a good a plan as any,” Apple Surprise said. “Let’s go over some of this stuff before we go, yeah?”
“Right… let’s start with the plant life,” Avia decided, turning to the right page and beginning to read. “Our first specimen, poison joke…”
The four continued to read through the dangers and wonders of the forest in equal measure, from the smallest insect to references of the elusive Tree of Harmony itself, while not giving much detail as to where exactly in the forest it sat.
They soon found themselves laughing and joking about the various things they saw inside, talking amongst themselves and not failing to partake in the occasional jab.
In all, her friends by her side, Avia was quite enjoying the moment.