//------------------------------//
// — Chapter Sixteen — 
// Story: Finding Friendship 
// by Kamen-Zero 
//------------------------------//


--- Into the Everfree ---


Twilight's day off had been a relaxing change of pace from what the day before had brought. With nothing to distract her and no outside responsibilities to attend to, the young alicorn was left with an entire day for herself and Spike. Thankfully so, as the last thing that the long dragon needed right now was to be left alone to further stew in his thoughts. He needed stimulation, companionship, and reassurance that everything was going to be fine. 

Be it reading, playing, furthering his education, or just simply relaxing, Twilight and Spike did just about everything they could whilst confined to the interior of their home. There was even a visit to Fluttershy's cottage at the edge of town, for the sake of Spike socializing and getting some sunlight in the unseen safety of the pegasus's back yard. The effects of this day were clear and apparent, doing wonders for the long dragon's mental fortitude and apparent mood. It'd be foolish to say that his worries and anxieties had simply vanished, but it would be equally ignorant to claim that today hadn't helped. 

In every sense of the word, it was the perfect day.

But like all things, even perfect days have to end sooner or later. Forced by the natural law of all things, the golden sun was made to dip past bellow the horizon as its silver counterpart was lifted into the heavens above. And after such a day, both Spike and Twilight were left understandably worn out. Not exhausted, but more than ready and willing to end the day with a good night's sleep.

Or at least, one of them did.

"No!" Spike shouted with a laugh, nibbly climbing from the kitchen counter onto one of the overhead shelves above. The shelf was empty as he and Twilight didn't have need of an excessive amount of plates or other dishes, making it the perfect hiding spot from his equine caretaker. Or rather, it would have been if she hadn't seen him jump up there.

"Yes, Spike," Twilight responded, just as jovial as Spike currently was. "It's time to go to bed! You're a growing dragon, you need your sleep!"

"How about 'no'?" The reptile leaped to another shelf, further away from Twilight, and snickered again. "I'm not even tired!"

Twilight sighed in jest. This was something of a game that the dragon had developed early on in his life, a habit of denying sleep that Twilight had thought she broke him off of. Apparently, he was feeling nostalgic today and decided to resurrect these antics, much to Twilight's annoyance. Yet still, she was smiling and laughing right alongside him. Even if he was being defiant, it was just nice to see him legitimately happy again. But even still, the game had to end sooner or later. And as Spike attempted to leap to the third and final shelf, he was gently grasped by a cloud of magical mist and pulled closer to the alicorn.

"Hey, no fair!" Spike flailed about in his midair prison, desperately searching for some kind of perch to regain his advantage. Unfortunately, the pony's magic held strong and he was left in his helpless state. 

"Who said I was playing fair?" Twilight giggled as she simply walked away, magically guiding the dragon alongside her like a balloon as he continued to tumble and flail in a futile attempt to escape. His fate was sealed as the two entered his bedroom. The door shut behind them, and he was gently placed into the messy mass of fabric that he had crafted into his nest. "Come on now, time for bed."

"But I'm not even ti-... -tired..." A loud yawn betrayed his intent in the middle of that last word. 

"Come on Spike, you've had a busy day. And now you need your sleep." 

"Fine..." He yawned again, burrowing himself into his pillows and blankets. "But you can't make me like it."

"You'll probably end up enjoying it regardless." Twilight smiled as she watched Spike get comfy, giving him a gentle pat with a hoof once he was done. She leaned over and gave a gentle kiss at the end of his snout. "Love you. Goodnight."

"Night, Twi." Spike yawned again as he nestled further into the bedding, his eyes slowly closing as he began to try and fall asleep. Twilight, meanwhile, left the room as quietly as she could, and turned out the lights as she closed the door behind her.

I should probably get to bed, too, Twilight thought alongside a yawn of her own. Today had been long for the both of them, and she had things that needed to be looked into tomorrow. If nothing else, she was going to be keeping a very close eye on her employer for several reasons. And that was going to require energy, rest, and vigilance. All three of those things being accomplished with sleep.

But as the young alicorn was readying herself to climb into her bed, there was something on her nightstand that caught her eye. 

The answers are in the Everfree.
~ A friend.

The source of a small, irritating buzz in the back of Twilight's head over the entire day. It wasn't enough that there was some mystery involving her employer, but now there was this mysterious "friend" character promising answers in the Everfree Forest. As to who this mystery pony was Twilight couldn't say for sure, maybe it was Applejack trying to be discreet? Or maybe someone else who was concerned about Onwud? There was no way of knowing. 

But what Twilight did know was that whoever was responsible for this had used the same message that she had seen in her sleep. A fact that only further served to intensify her own curiosity, and her resolve into following the ominous invitation.

"I know I'm going to regret this..." Twilight murmured to herself, lighting her horn and drawing forth a second scrap of paper. If she was going to do this, she was going to at least make sure Spike wasn't going to worry if he woke up while she was away.

Running some quick errands.
Be back soon.
—Twilight.

The message wasn't the only precaution Twilight had decided to take, however. At least another hour was spent waiting, just to make sure Spike was actually asleep. On top of that, and the note she was planning on leaving, there was a third layer of protection the alicorn planned on leaving. A quick flash of her horn was all it took to set it in place, something of an alarm that would trigger if Spike was abruptly awoken. If there was another nightmare to be had in this house, Twilight would be made aware of it instantaneously.

All of that combined with the usual magical security measures in place allowed for Twilight to leave her domicile with minimal anxieties. And so, with cloak and saddlebags in toe, the young alicorn ventured forth from the safety of her home into the chilled night air. Ponyville was a wildly different environment in the cover of darkness than it was in the light of day. Quiet, almost eerily so, not a soul could be seen stirring about the town. No, all of the denizens were sound asleep in the comfort of their own homes. Twilight was the odd mare out, not something that was uncommon for her. 

Even if this lead turned out to be nothing, or worse if nothing else Twilight was happy to learn of Ponyville's quieter side. Perhaps she'd make a habit of taking late-night strolls around town over the rest of her stay here. Maybe she'd even take Spike out along with her once or twice, show him around town a little bit. She was sure he'd get some amusement out of that. 

"Push!"

"Push!"

"Push!" 

The rhythmic shouting followed by the heavy grind of wheels against the dirt road pulled Twilight from her daydreaming. Looking ahead of her to the source, Twilight saw something she never expected to see in this town. Slowly being rolled down the middle of the intersection, streight through Twilight's path, was a trebuchet. Standing at about six feet tall, constructed of various pieces of scrap lumber and unprocessed logs. In place of the weight at one end was a wooden plank dangling horizontally from a rope. Evidence that this particular model was designed to use pony-body-weight as the firing mechanism. Speaking of, the sling of the launching mechanism was currently home to an oversized water balloon, sloshing and jiggling with the motions of the siege weapon. The haphazardly made war engine made short and slow strides down the street before stopping. Another shout of "push" was called out before each jerking advancement. Not loud enough to rouse any of the sleeping townsfolk, but it wasn't exactly subtle either.

Twilight stopped in her tracks as she watched the monstrosity roll by, her eyes falling upon the three ponies escorting the device. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. The earth pony and the pegasus worked at pushing the contraption itself, Apple Bloom being the one responsible for the "push" commands to keep their efforts synchronized. Sweetie Belle wasn't slacking on her part either, she was busy hauling a red wagon with two additional water balloons, additional ammunition for whatever it was these three were up to.

And as the alicorn watched this display, she couldn't decide if she should intervene or if she should see where this led the trio of fillies. Despite their size, the three rounds of ammunition of choice were still just water balloons. A little water—"little" being relative here—never caused anyone any harm. And it wasn't like they could get the right amount of weight to properly launch them anyway. 

That choice was taken away from her though as the three fillies took notice of the older mare watching them. They stopped on the spot, looking to Twilight with the same wide-eyed expressions of shock. If this mirrored expression were to be summarized by a single word, "busted" would be the perfect fit. They continued to gawk at the cloaked pony for what felt like ages, Twilight looking back at them with her own look of curiosity and concern. Eventually, the stalemate was broken when Twilight spoke the obvious question.

"What are you three up to?"

"Nothing illegal!" The three fillies blurted the answer in perfect synchronization.

I... honestly don't know what I was expecting, Twilight observed as the three frightened fillies remained motionless. That is until one of them squinted heavily at Twilight and raised an accusing hoof.

"Wait a second, what are YOU up to?" Sweetie Belle demanded, soon after her two cohorts were joining in on the intensive glare.

"I'm an adult, I don't have to explain what I'm doing," Twilight responded blankly, "Especially since I'm not the one with a trebuchet."

The three looked to have been defeated, if the return of their solum faces were anything to go by, that is until an idea came to Scootaloo. "The trebuchet that YOU taught us how to build!" She pointed and scoffed in victory, catching the alicorn off guard. "So here's the deal! You leave us to our business, and we won't rat you out! Deal?"

Scootaloo's inquiry was answered imminently with a magenta-hued beam of light that swiftly struck the trio's trebuchet. Then, with a slight popping sound, the wooden monstrosity simply ceased to be, vanishing into thin air as if it had never even existed in the first place. Understandably so, the three fillies were appalled and horrified at all of their hard work was erased from existence.

"Wha... but... that's not fair," Apple Bloom bellowed, "We worked hard on that!"

"And I didn't destroy it," Twilight responded with her own triumphant grin. "But it is about a hundred feet in that dirrection." She raised a hoof and pointed in the dirrection the three had been pushing away from. Surely enough, their weapon of choice could be seen in the distance. Entirely unharmed. "I'll take your deal, don't get me wrong. But consider that a lesson. Don't threaten people."  

Dumbfounded, the trio simply glanced back and forth between Twilight and their trebuchet. They seemed to be deciding if pushing the cloaked pony any farther was a bad idea or not. Their decision was made clear as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo raced towards the distant trebuchet as Sweetie Belle stayed behind to guard their ammunition. Twilight kept her smile on full display as she watched the two fillies run. Then, once they were about halfway there, she unleashed another blot of light at their creation. And like that, it was whisked back to where it had been before Twilight had intervened. Now visibly frustrated, the two ponies began to rush back to the horned ponies.

"Stop doing that!" Apple Bloom shouted in frustration. "We get it, we're sorry!"

"And we won't tell anyone you were involved!" Scootaloo added, out of breath.

Twilight's smile faded into a more stern look, one she typically only brought out when being the authority figure with Spike. "Alright then. Just promise me you won't actually hurt anyone with this thing, and I'll let you go."

"... You aren't going to bust us?" The question came from all three of them, each one more confused than the last.

"You need to learn that there are consequences for your actions," Twilight explained while placing a hoof on their haphazardly built machine, "And this? This will have consequences. Big ones. I'll leave the choice up to you. You can do whatever it is your going to do and face those consequences, or you can avoid those repercussions and go home."

Hesitant at first, the three fillies weighed their options before complying to Twilight's promise and once more beginning their trek. But as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom resumed their rhythmic pushing of the cart, Sweetie Belle stayed behind for a moment. A clear sense of wonder had overtaken her, and she looked up to Twilight with wide starry eyes.  

"Hey... do you think you could teach me how to do that zappy thing you did?"

"It's not that hard of a spell. Just a simple combination of teleportation and levitation." Twilight gave a more sincere smile to the young unicorn, happy to see such enthusiasm for magical knowledge in one so young. It reminded her of her own younger years, in some fashion. "Of course, you'd have to learn the teleportation spell first. That's the hard part. How old are you?"

There was an attempt to hide the disappointed sigh that followed. "... Eleven."

Twilight furrowed a brow at that, ponies were required to be at least fifteen years old to begin learning spells of that caliber. And going off of her reaction, Sweetie Belle was also aware of this fact. She felt a little bad about getting the filly's hopes up like that, but a quick idea was enough to undo that.

"Well... I can't teach you teleportation, but I can teach you some other spells if you'd be interested. Nothing too advanced, but enough for some cool party tricks, at least."

The offer seemed to resonate with the young unicorn, who swiftly took the offer with glee. Of course, neither one of them could begin the lesson at the moment, so they took the short amount of time needed to set up an agreed-upon time and date to meet up. After that, Sweetie returned her attention to her wagon of water balloons and dashed off after her friends—not that there was much catching up to do, given the circumstances. 

Now with that out of the way, Twilight was free to get back to her own business. While she was worried about what possible harm those three little ponies could cause if left to their own devices, she was far more concerned about whatever it was that was waiting for her in the Everfree Forest. And if left to its own devices, these things could lead to far more problems then a small group of children with a downsized siege weapon.

She doubled her pace, wanting to get into the woods as quickly as possible, soon after finding herself at the nearest entry point to the Everfree: Fluttershy's humble little cottage. Even at night, the cabin sitting at the very edge of Ponyville was as warm and welcoming as ever. Silhouetted beautifully by the pale moonlight, if Twilight were more of an artist she'd almost be compelled to sit down and paint the calming sight. 

Note to self, take up painting, she mentally commanded of herself, It'd be a good way to make bits in the future.

Of course, now was not the time nor place for such frivolous thoughts, right now Twilight was a mare on a mission. And the only thing standing between her and that objective was the admittedly pretty cabin. But it was an obstacle that could be removed easily enough just by walking around the structure, which is exactly what Twilight began to do. But the light creaking of an old wood door heralded the halt of everything. The world fell deafly silent to Twilight as she looked over to what was meant to be a quiet house, hoping that she wouldn't be noticed in turn.

While the dark of the night did obscure her, it was easy enough to recognize Fluttershy's muted silhouette emerging through the back door of her home. She moved slowly and silently, seemingly wincing at the loud resonance the door had made upon her exit. Even still, she was quick to get over this minor inconvenience and get back to whatever it was she was doing at such a late hour. A flutter of her wings was all it took for the pegasus to leap from the back porch to just beyond her humble fence. From there, she stopped to observe something at the base of the perimeter, before moving on unwaveringly into the dangerous forest that lay behind her house.

Twilight, who had gone unnoticed, was left to watch on with many questions buzzing about in her mind. It wasn't exactly a normal occurrence for someone to just walk into the woods in the middle of the night, even in Twilight's unique situation. Especially as one so dangerous as the Everfree. What in the world could she possibly be doing in there? Perhaps she was also given a mysterious note as the alicorn had?

Or maybe she's the one who sent it, the idea was quick to butt in. It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility for Fluttershy to have been this mysterious friend character. Deeper and deeper this mystery kept going, only pushing Twilight further and further into wanting it solved. But first, she had clearly seen Fluttershy check on something before waltzing into the woods. Naturally, Twilight was drawn to the fence out of pure curiosity, moving carefully and quietly as to not draw the attention of the property owner.

The humble fence was normal enough at first glance, nothing noteworthy or out of the ordinary to be seen. Twilight was at first just going to write this off as nothing of interest. That is until she stepped on something small and brittle that snapped under her weight. Lifting her hoof to investigate, Twilight was greeted to the sight of a small white stick, half of it now laying on the ground, half of it still stuck in the dirt like a fence post. Nearly identical to the one that Fluttershy had on display in her home, in fact. Twilight magically lifted the shattered remains of the twig for further study.

And she was almost imminently choked by the horrid stench emanating from the small branch. Twilight gagged and coughed at the awful stench, doing all she could to stifle her reaction as to not draw Fluttershy's attention. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she did so. It wasn't just a rancid stench either, it burned and tingled at the inside of the alicorn's nostrils in an almost acidic way. 

It's like rotten eggs had a baby with morning breath and burning hair, Twilight idly commented, flailing wildly in an attempt to free herself of the smell. Thankfully, while it was potent, it did not carry far from the stick it clung too, which made escaping it an easy enough task, as the broken fragment of the stick was thrown off to the side. With that out of the way, she was now free to continue her investigation unabated. This time, she made sure to magically hold a bit of her cloak to her face to block out the smell.

Yet aside from its unusual color, and horrid smell, the only unusual thing about it was its placement. Stuck in the ground like a small post, it had to have been placed there intentionally, there was no other way it could have gotten here. Fluttershy was the only culprit that made any sense, but why would such a stick be placed out here like this? Especially when there was another one placed so lovingly inside of Fluttershy's home. That's when Twilight noticed that this wasn't the only twig placed to stand guard outside her domicile. No, in fact, there were several more of these strange objects. All placed an equal distance away from one another, all along the perimeter of the fence.      

"But... why?" Twilight wondered out loud, dropping the cloak from her face in thought. There had to be some reason behind this arrangement of smelly sticks. "And then there's the one she keeps in her house... that she carries into the Everfree..."

Her train of thought was derailed by a familiar growling coming from behind, and Twilight's blood went cold at the sound. She hadn't heard such a sound since the incident, and she had sincerely hoped she never would again. Slowly and steadily as to not provoke an attack yet, Twilight turned her gaze back towards the forest and the glowing green eyes that watched her from within. Thankfully, only one of the wood-made beasts was present at the moment. But Twilight knew better than to assume that others wouldn't be far behind. She also knew that these things were prone to attack anything that moved on sight, especially in the dead of night. Yet that attack never came, the lone timberwolf in question never made any kind of advancement towards what could have been an easy kill if it hadn't made itself known.

"Why aren't you trying to kill me?" She squinted at the timberwolf intensely, trying to get a read on the furious glare it was shooting towards her. "Can't be a survival instinct. You... things aren't that smart. So why are you just standing there?" 

Twilight approached with great reservation and caution, ready to counter any attempt on her life. The timberwolf continued to growl furiously, almost sounding like it wanted the pony to stay away. Of course, she didn't stop, these things didn't care about what she wanted. Why should she care about what they wanted? Closer and closer she came, and slowly the wolf was revealed from the shadows. Light from Twilight's horn served to further illuminate the area and answer several questions at once.

The wolf wasn't biding its time. It was struggling.

It couldn't advance despite its obvious efforts. As if being pulled by an unseeable chain, or being pushed back by an undetectable wind, the timberwolf strained itself greatly as it tried and failed to get past where it was standing. Something was keeping this creature at bay, and keeping Twilight from being assaulted, yet she couldn't quite place her hoof on exactly what it was that could be doing this. Thinking and thinking, observing the timberwolf all the while, the alicorn pondered on what this could mean.

"So you want to kill me, but you can't. Why?"

Seemingly as if to answer her question, the wolf's gaze shifted for but a moment. Curious, Twilight looked back to Fluttershy's cottage. An idea came to mind as she turned her back to the monster, quickly trotting back towards the humble home. A moment's search was all it took to find what she was looking for, the half of the broken stick she had stepped on earlier. Taking it in her grasp, she went to return to the timberwolf. And soon, her theory was proven correct. The closer she got to the creature, the further it was pushed away by that same unseen force. Seeing this, Twilight kept walking forward with. The wolf wailed and howled at this, falling as it changed its tactic and pushed away and fled. Once it was gone, she stopped to examine the small piece of wood. 

"It repels them..."

The realization had served to answer several questions but raise so many more in turn. Fluttershy had seemingly found a way to protect her home from these timberwolves—and herself, seeing as how the pegasus seemed to make an effort to take one into the Everfree with her. But how could she have done this? Fluttershy didn't seem like the most magically inclined individual, and whatever these wards were, they were magic without question. First, there was the memory charm seemingly put in place by her employer, and now this. Could there be some kind of connection?

Well, there was only one way to find out. 

The answers are in the Everfree.