Chapter 2
“My experiences with Pinkie Pie have told me that spending any amount of time with that pony can be… distracting when it comes to any sort of serious work. Despite the best of intentions, Pinkie’s idea of helping can be, at once, both beneficial and detrimental to any efforts toward productivity. However, no matter how frustrating she can be, I find that her unlimited energy and unbounded enthusiasm is always enough to make me smile.”
-Twilight Sparkle, On Extra-Galactic Voyages, p. 96
A blinding pain filled Twilight’s head as she reached up to massage her horn, which had impacted a branch when she crossed the spell’s event horizon and spilled out onto the forest floor. She groaned and gritted her teeth as the pain slowly subsided, and she gradually opened her eyes to observe her surroundings. The trees here were utterly massive, possibly related to the redwood tree on the eastern coasts of Equestria. Plants resembling ferns covered the forest floor, along with several other varieties that she wasn’t familiar with. This had to be the Everfree Forest, and she shuddered at the thought. The autonomy of all the flora and fauna here was unsettling to any pony, and in spite of her logical mind and sound judgement, Twilight was no exception.
Gingerly picking herself up off the forest floor, Twilight sighed. “Great. How am I supposed to get home from here?” After brushing the leaves and sticks from her coat and shaking the detritus from her mane, she looked around and tried to figure out if there was a path of some kind that would lead her out of the forest.
Her eyes scanned over the forest, but in any direction she could see nothing but an unending jumble of trees, bushes, and vines that all seemed to blend into a single green mass. If only she were a pegasus pony. She could fly into the atmosphere and get an idea of where she was, not to mention where her friends were. She sighed, resigned to her earthbound status.
“Well, I’d better get moving,” she said to herself. “If I just head in one direction, pretty soon I’ll stumble on something that will lead me home.” She gulped down her anxiety. “I hope.”
The dense, loamy underbrush sank under her weight as Twilight walked through the forest. It felt good on her hooves, which was the only comfort she truly felt at that moment. Her brow furrowed in consternation as she looked up at her surroundings, wondering why she had the nagging suspicion that she was in an alien world. The trees were roughly familiar. The underbrush wasn’t strange to her, despite the plant life being of no kind that she’d ever read about in any of the nature and floral books in her library. But something still nagged at her that she wasn’t home.
As she contemplated the forest, a sudden cracking noise was heard above. She whipped her head up just in time to see a blob of purple and green falling through the branches just a few feet ahead.
“Aaaaaahhhh!”
Instantly she recognized the voice that was coming from the blob. “Hold on, Spike!” Instinctively she projected an aura around him as he plummeted from the tree, halting his fall only a few inches from the ground. She galloped toward him as he came to a rest on the forest floor. “Are you okay?” she said breathlessly.
With a groan, Spike gingerly stood up and brushed himself off. “Yeah, I’m okay, Twilight.” He frowned as he started to get a better look at his surroundings. “Where are we? This doesn’t look like any place we’ve ever been to before.”
Twilight looked up around her, frowning and darting her eyes. “I don’t know, Spike. I thought it might be the Everfree Forest, but I’ve been there several times on visits to Zecora. It’s similar, but there are subtle differences between the Everfree and wherever this is.”
That was not what Spike wanted to hear. “Do you know how to get us home?”
Shaking her head, Twilight said, “No, I don’t. This place might not even be in our country.” She didn’t want to contemplate the possibility that they were any further than a few thousand miles from home.
She started to walk, picking a direction that seemed relatively clear of trees. “C’mon, Spike. Let’s get going. Hopefully we’ll come across a road, or a river, or something to take us to civilization so we can get back home.”
Spike nodded, then jogged to catch up. “I hope we find our friends,” he said, putting his claws together and twiddling them.
“I’m sure they’re fine, wherever they are,” replied Twilight. Her voice didn’t carry the sureness that that statement demanded, and her face echoed the trepidation in her words. With a sigh, she continued to walk through the forest. Spike jogged by her side, privately hoping that Twilight was right.
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The skies soon grew dark as Twilight and Spike tried to find a place where they could bed down for the night. The forest so far had been unforgiving in that regard, with many moss-covered logs and brambles in their path. As Twilight helped Spike over a large chunk of wood, he scowled. “I hope we can find some place to stop soon, Twilight. My feet are sore from all this walking!”
“I’m sorry, Spike,” said Twilight as she picked up the pace. “But I can’t see any place that looks like it would even be comfortable to sit down on, much less sleep on.”
Spike sighed when he heard that answer, but continued on with Twilight. As he walked, his mind started to wander. Shadows began to look more ominous. The darkness began to gain fluidity, and several times he would have sworn that the shadows had begun moving. “S-sure hope we f-find a place soon,” he said, nearly biting his lip.
“If we don’t find one soon, we’ll just have to make camp anyway,” said Twilight.
This answer didn’t really satisfy Spike either, but he swallowed and continued to walk with Twilight.
All the while, the darkness continued to grow. Spike strained his eyes, trying to make out the shapes around him, but then a gentle purple glow grew around them. He looked up to see Twilight looking down at him with a comforting smile. It forced the anxiety in his stomach to subside, and he even managed to smile back at her.
Soon the path widened to form a small clearing, and to Spike’s delight, it was covered in a fine layer of soft moss. “This looks like a good spot!” he said as he felt the undergrowth.
Twilight was about to object to stopping, wanting to continue her search for their friends. But the fatigue that flooded her body at the suggestion won out, and she acquiesced to Spike’s desire to stop. “Alright, Spike. We’ll stop here for the night.”
The words had barely left her lips before Spike was on the ground, curled up in a ball. She chuckled and used her magic to levitate a blanket of moss over his body. “Goodnight, Spike,” she said. Then she laid down on the underbrush and closed her eyes. With a yawn, she relaxed and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The combination of the strange surroundings and the rustling coming from the nearby forest caused Twilight’s eyes to shoot open. They darted back and forth as she kept still, not daring to move lest she attract the attention of whatever it was that was making the commotion. It wasn’t apparent what was making the noise, but she knew that it was approaching.
“Wha…” she heard from her left. “What’s making that noise, Twilight?”
“Hush, Spike!” she hissed.
The noise got closer in the bushes.
“Sh-shouldn’t we b-be m-moving?” he whispered.
Twilight lit her horn faintly, trying to see what it might be, but she couldn’t make out much and she didn’t want to brighten her horn’s glow any further, lest she attract whatever creature that was approaching.
The bushes in front of them rustled.
Twilight and Spike could take it no longer. They both started to scream in terror.
Just then the bushes parted and a familiar Earth Pony walked out into the clearing. “Hi, guys!” said Pinkie Pie with a grin. “I just figured out that a mane twitch, knee shake, and hoof jiggle all mean that my friends are close by in a dark forest! How cool is that?!”
“Pinkie Pie?” said Twilight as Spike slid off her back. The surrounding brush grew brighter as she turned her horn up to full brilliance. “What are you doing here?”
Trotting over to them, Pinkie said, “I was trying to find you and the other girls. But so far my Pinkie Sense just told me where you were.”
This brought no comfort to Twilight. “Well, it’s still the middle of the night. We should probably get some sleep so we can search some more tomorrow.” She sighed and laid back down on the forest floor. Just as she started to dim her horn, she felt something crawling up next to her. She looked down and saw Spike curled up beside her. She smiled. “Goodnight, Spike,” she said, giving him a nuzzle.
Glancing up, she said, “Goodnight Pinkie P…” Her friend was already sound asleep across from her, legs sticking up in the air and twitching as she snored quietly. Sighing again, Twilight lowered her head down on the moss below her and closed her eyes, letting fatigue claim her.
Blobs of color resolved themselves in Twilight’s vision, her mind’s eye giving her an odd display of mostly pink hues. She frowned as she slowly cracked her eyelids to find a mass of pink and two huge eyes. “Morning, sleepyhead!”
“Gah!” Twilight instinctively backed into a tree at the sight of Pinkie Pie in front of her face. As she rubbed her head from the impact, she frowned at Pinkie. “Ugh… morning, Pinkie Pie.”
“We’d better get an early start if we wanna find our friends,” said Pinkie as she pulled a large leaf topped with a stack of pancakes into view and held them in front of Twilight’s face. “Better eat up, Twilight!”
Twilight stared at the delicious smelling pastries, wondering how Pinkie had managed to gather the ingredients needed for them in the forest. Then she looked over at Spike, who had rolled away in his sleep. She smiled. He was so cute when he slept. She gently nudged him, and his eyes slowly opened up. He was in mid-yawn when it occurred to him that there was a stack of pancakes in front of him. “Um, Twilight? Where did you get pancakes?”
“Pinkie Pie made them for us,” said Twilight, and then she lifted one of her pancakes up and experimentally sniffed it. “I can’t imagine what out of, though.”
Spike took a bite of his, then said, “Mmm! Not bad! Some kinda berry flavor!” Then he dove in and started chowing down.
Twilight looked at her pancakes again, then shrugged and started to eat them. To her delight, they were indeed quite edible. She’d never eaten a berry like this one before. It might have been the way they were cooked, but it was a strange combination of sweet and sour that was unlike anything she’d ever tasted before. She managed to eat the entire stack, smacking her lips and making pleasurable sounds the entire time. The only fly in the ointment was the lack of water to drink, and she attributed that to a similar lack of proper cups.
As she finished up her breakfast, Pinkie Pie walked up and said, “Ready to go find the girls?”
Twilight stood up and nodded. “Yep. C’mon, Spike.” After he hopped up and mounted her back, Twilight started to walk alongside Pinkie Pie in the direction they’d been heading the previous day.
Birds chirped overhead as the trio of friends continued on their journey toward wherever the path led them. Pinkie Pie bounced along, a nearly constant grin on her face. Her enthusiasm was not shared by her companions. Spike was getting slowly more and more frustrated at Twilight, who had stopped to examine yet another species of strange plant. “C’mon, Twilight! We need to pick up the pace!”
Twilight didn’t avert her gaze from the small fern that was growing beside the path. “Hold on, Spike. This is fascinating! This plant resembles an Athyrium filix-femina, but the leaf structure is all wrong! It should be vascular, but there are no veins to speak of at all!”
With a sigh, Spike grabbed her mane and tugged her along. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “Alright, I’m coming!” She shook her head as she jogged with Spike to catch up with Pinkie Pie. “It’s just weird… there are so many species here that are brand new to Equestrian biology. When we find civilization, I plan on asking Princess Celestia to fund an expedition to this place.” Then she gulped. “If she’s not furious at me for bringing her to see Rarity’s spell.”
Rolling his eyes, Spike said, “Twilight, I think we need to be focusing on finding our friends first. It’s really weird here, and I wanna go home.”
“Oh Spike,” said Twilight gently. “I’m sure we’ll be home before you know it.” She smiled and nuzzled him, then her voice became resolute. “But we still need to be focused on finding the princesses. They’re the most powerful beings in all of Equestria! If they can’t get us home, I don’t know who can!”
Spike nodded and continued on with his two friends. “I dunno, Twilight. I don’t think we’re even in Equestria anymore. Just look at all the strange creatures here!” He pointed at a small lizard that had six legs and a pair of antennae resting above three bright blue eyes. “Weird monsters and combinations of things that shouldn’t exist!” The small lizard slithered away into the underbrush, then Spike gasped. “Do… do you think it might be Discord?”
Twilight shook her head and said, “Spike, that’s simply not possible. The girls and I sealed him in stone ourselves! Besides, if he were really on the loose, I’m sure we’d have chocolate milk rain by now.”
“Chocolate milk rain?!” Pinkie Pie’s tongue hung out of her mouth as she panted at the thought of pure, sweet deliciousness pouring from the sky.
Laughing at their friend’s preoccupation with sweets along with Spike, Twilight said, “Sorry, Pinkie. No chocolate rain on the horizon today.”
“Awww,” said Pinkie Pie as she bounced back ahead of Twilight.
As she pronked on, Spike sighed and frowned, not wanting to consider the thought that popped into his head a few minutes back. But the prospect was getting more and more likely, and he was running out of more reasonable explanations.
Noticing his frowning, Twilight said, “What is it, Spike?”
“Nothing,” he replied.
“No, c’mon, tell me,” said Twilight. “What are you thinking about?”
“Well,” said Spike slowly, “I was just wondering… Y’know how there are all these weird animals and plants and things around us? Well, what if we’re on some kind of…” He hesitated to say the next word. “…alien world or something?”
Sighing, Twilight said, “Spike, you know that aliens and spaceships are all just make-believe. It’s too far-fetched to even consider.”
“But what if you’re wrong, Twilight?” said Spike. “What if we’re on some other planet? Or in another galaxy, or universe?!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. I really need to put a limit on how many comic books he’s allowed to read in one sitting. “Look,” she said, “it’s simply ridiculous. After all, what are the odds that we’d land on a planet that not only had the same gravity as Equestria, but had a breathable atmosphere, too? Besides, no Equestrian astronomer has even seen another planet outside the solar system, even with our most powerful telescopes.”
Spike tried to think of a rebuttal to Twilight’s statement, but nothing came to mind. With a sigh, he replied, “I guess you’re right, Twilight.”
Alien sounds and sights continued to plague Spike as he walked with Twilight. He cringed as he spotted a small, brightly-colored insect with a neck the same length as its body fly up and land on his nose, and he brushed it off with a scream. He looked up at Twilight, who had a passive look on her face. Shaking his head, he said, “Twilight, c’mon… we need to face facts that we’re not in Equestria! Look at all the weird stuff around us!”
“Weird stuff is not evidence that we’re not in Equestria, Spike.” Twilight’s implacable willingness to cling to her world view was getting on Spike’s nerves a tad.
“But we don’t even see any Pegasi flying around! Don’t you think that the princesses going missing would have them up in arms, searching for any sign of them?”
This argument seemed to penetrate Twilight’s ironclad stubbornness. She was silent for several seconds as she pondered his reasoning. Then she nodded, her eyebrows turning down and her ears folding back. “Yeah, you might be right, Spike.” She then stopped walking and said, “Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie stopped her bouncing and turned her head toward Twilight with a smile. “What can I do ya for, Twilight?”
“Do you think that you can help me climb up into the trees and to see where we are?” She pointed up into the boughs of one of the gargantuan trees in front of them.
Giggling, Pinkie said, “I can do you one better!” She reached into her mane and extracted a long, shiny rod with hoofholds and a spring on the end. “I always carry a pogo stick in case of bouncing emergencies!”
As Twilight and Spike wondered how the toy managed to remain hidden in Pinkie’s mane all this time, Pinkie Pie mounted the silver contraption and then began to bounce. The spring squeaked as she got it going, and in moments she was shooting through the canopy, crashing back to earth with each bounce. Twilight was sure the pogo stick would break as she bounced up and down, but it somehow held together with each impact.
“Twilight,” said Pinkie on the way down from a bounce. The contraption collapsed and sprang back up, propelling her into the air with a schock-a.
“I think…”
Schock-a.
“We have…”
Schock-a.
“A problem!”
“What? What is it?” Twilight called after the pink blur as it ascended back into the trees. In seconds, Pinkie Pie managed to slow herself and stow the pogo stick back in her hair.
Her eyes were as big as dinner plates. Her brows were raised. The sight of Pinkie this shocked was enough to cause Twilight’s anxiety levels to shoot through the roof. Pinkie reached out and grabbed Twilight, shoving her face into Twilight’s and shouted, “There’s nothing but trees out there, Twilight! No Ponyville! No Canterlot! No mountains! Just trees!”
“Trees?” repeated Twilight.
“Wh-what are we gonna do, Twilight?” said Spike as he twiddled his claws.
“I…” Twilight backed away from Pinkie, sitting down heavily on the moss and breathing heavily. “I don’t know!”