Monday
"Butter? Jam? Can I talk to you two for a moment?" Astral called her friends to the side just before school started. Both turned and nodded, and Astral bit her lip as the three got into a group huddle.
"I was thinking, instead of seeing if we can find our cutie marks, how about we explore the Everfree?"
Apple Jam frowned, confused. "You want to explore the Everfree? I thought you were terrified of that place!"
"I realized how stupid that was. I mean, it's just a forest. Besides," she said, going in for the kill "there might be cool treasure in it!"
There we go.
Jam leaped about a mile into the air, and, upon landing, pulled Astral into a one armed hug. "Now you're speaking my language, Assie! Buried treasure! Exploring the unknown! Facing down deadly monsters!"
"Yeah!" Butterscotch said, before double taking. "Wait, what?"
After this, the day followed the same way as it always did. Cheerilee was writing up the train equation up on the board when an idea came to Astrals head.
Hmmmmmmm . . . this could be fun
Carefully, she wrote out the question into her notebook before Cheerilee could rub it out. She was called up to the board to answer the math question, which she did, before returning back to her seat.
"You're really good at magic now!" Butterscotch said, and Jam nodded enthusiastically.
Uh-oh.
"Thanks, but we should probably focus on the Everfree," she deflected, and Jam brightened even more.
"Right,okay! We're going to need a med bag, water, rations, rope, a map and possibly a small knife" she fired off in rapid fire order, and only stopped when she saw Astral and Butterscotch staring at her. "What?" She asked defensively.
"Nothing," Butterscotch said, still staring. "I just didn't expect you to be so . . ."
"Responsible," Astral finished, and Jam scowled.
"Hey, I don't play around when it comes to adventures, and this has the potential to be the best adventure ever!"
Tuesday
"Today class, we are going to be learning about flight or fight," Ms. Cheerilee said, pointing to a diagram on the board, while most of the class feigned interest. "Every living being has one or the other, otherwise they would completely die out! The fight-or-flight response is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. ."
Neither Astral, Jam or Butterscotch, however, were paying attention. They had moved their seating positions so they were all beside each other, and all three were looking at the only map of Everfree. It was messy and incomplete, but it would have to do. Unless her mom had a spare?
"Astral Plane! Apple Jam! Butterscotch!" Jam and Butterscotch both jerked back, while Astral just looked upwards, and, in one move, rolled up the map, and place it back under the desk, focusing all her attention on Cheerilee.
"That's better,now," she continued to go on about Flight or Fight, and Astral quickly tuned her out once more.
Wednesday
The three Crusaders slowly made their way through the dense forestry, careful as to not accumulate more scratches, bruises or burrs in their fur. They had gotten lost almost instantly, and, though they could only see brief flashes of the sky through the leaves, it looked like they'd been walking for an hour or two.
Despite this, Astral didn't feel nervous. In fact, the new and interesting scenery made her feel calmer than she had been in the last few days. Maybe it was just the fact that there were ways to find new things in the loops, and she didn't have to stay in one place.
"It's amazing." Clearly Jam felt the same as she did, as the earth pony stood on her hind legs, and spun in a slow, small circle as if she was trying to take it all in. Meanwhile, Butterscotch, who lived close to the Everfree, wasn't as amazed as the others, though he did seem to enjoy the quiet that nature brought.
"So, what do we do now?" Jam asked, turning bright eyes to her friends, both of whom looked stumped.
"Uh, oh, I know! Why don't we try to find the Castle of the Two Sisters! There's all kinds of secret passages there, so he Princess probably hid some cool treasure there somewhere!"
Butterscotch's suggestion was met with much enthusiasm, and Jam jumped up onto a fallen tree, and pointed in a random direction. "Onward, my friends! To adventure and jewels!" With that, she slid down the log, and took of racing into the undergrowth, Astral and Butterscotch on her tail.
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Astral asked as Jam visibly hesitated once more.
Jam shot her a look over her shoulder. "Do you want to lead?" She challenged, gesturing ahead, and Astral shook her head ,nervously glancing around the landscape. What had originally been an idea to stave off boredom had quickly deteriorated into the likely odds of her friends getting into serious trouble.
Well, it could be worse.
Then, like the Gods themselves answered her call, rain began to splatter down through the tree branches. But, it was sunny all week, so why . . .
Oh yeah, the Everfree has it's own unique weather patterns.
Because why not?
The trees helped stopped most of the rain, but it was such a downpour, that in just a couple of short minutes, Butterscotch, Astral Plane and Apple Jam were soaked, and with the strong breeze coming in, they started to shiver as well. "We need to find shelter!" Jam had to scream over the sound of the wind and rain and . . . thunder?
Brilliant.
Astral aimed a desperate glance around, and saw, halfway hidden by vines and moss, a small cave opening in the ground. She lunged at it, and used her magic to clear the way.
In seconds, she and her friends were in a very,very large cave. It was easily the size of a stadium, and a part of Astral wondered how the earth above had managed to stay stable without Earth Pony Magic. The only source of light was from the now big hole above them.
They moved away from the hole, and Astral cast her Illumination spell, instantly filling the room with a violet light. "Nice work Astral!" Jam said, enthusiasm returned now that they had a cave to explore. The light managed to reflect off what looked like a shiny object, and Jam barely held back a gasp. "Treasure!" She exclaimed, before racing towards it.
Butterscotch and Astral raced after her, but the other filly had grown up working on a farm, and easily outpaced them, before coming to a sudden and extreme stop, causing the two to run into her. The combined force knocked them all down to the ground, and also gave Astral a first hoof experience of what caused Jam to stop.
A manticore, towering in front of a golden ring, spitting and snarling.
Astral's light went out.