Chapter 3
"Well, what is it? Come on and tell me!"
The irate filly looked at the three faces around her, each trying with difficulty to hold back their laughter. She had fallen asleep during the foals' party, and when she woke up, everypony seemed to think something about her was absolutely hilarious. "What happened? Is there something in my mane?"
She left the room in search of a mirror. Moments later the three remaining foals heard a scream, followed by heavy hoofsteps as their victim approached. "Which one of you did this?" she demanded, pointing to the crudely-drawn marks across her face. Swirls and zigzagging lines covered her, all but the patch that had been covered by her leg as she slept. Somepony even dared to tape a square of paper to her flank; on it was a drawing of a cone-shaped hat with a large letter "D" written on its side. "Come on, this isn't funny!"
"Sure it is!" a yellow-coated colt replied, the first of the three to speak up. "You should see the look on your face!" He closed his eyes and fell backward in his laughter, oblivious to the furious pony just a few steps away.
Minutes passed, and the four young ponies now sat in a circle within a makeshift tent. Consisting of two blankets and several poles to hold them up, along with a few books to keep the corners down, it appeared to them as an impenetrable fortress. A sign reading "Keep out!" was placed by the entrance, next to a drawing of a scowling pony. The yellow colt who had spoken earlier now held a bag of ice to his swollen cheek as the other three talked.
"Know what would be fun right now? Truth or Dare!"
"Oh, Cherry, I wanted to play tag…"
"You can't play tag in a tent, silly! Come on, I'll start."
All eyes followed the pink filly as she decided who to ask to begin the game. "How 'bout you, Lemon Drop?"
The yellow colt looked at her for a moment. "What...okay, I'll go."
"Good. Now, truth or dare?"
"Truth," he replied without hesitation. He didn't want to imagine what kind of dare he might be given by the victim of his last prank.
"Have you ever kissed a filly?"
"What?" Lemon Drop gasped, his cheeks flush with embarrassment. "What...no! Of course not!"
"Are you sure?" the filly giggled, "If you're lying, you get a dare, too. You'd better be telling the truth, or else..." her voice drifted off, leaving the threat hanging where it was.
"Okay, I did, but just one time!"
"Really?" Cherry Cobbler leaned toward the colt, pressuring him to continue. "Who was it?"
Lemon Drop looked down at the ground, sighing in defeat. "Promise you won't tell anypony?"
"We all promise."
"Twist."
Everypony but Lemon Drop burst into laughter at the name. Twist had been one of the last in the class to get her cutie mark, just before Featherweight. Her cutie mark was a pair of peppermint sticks, which she gave to everypony in class in celebration. Still, most foals still avoided her, and made fun of her slight lisp. That she had kissed Lemon Drop was perhaps the most hilarious piece of news all week, at least within that tent.
Cherry Cobbler wiped a tear from her eye, trying to stop her laughter from returning. "Okay, now you can ask one of us."
The game went on for many minutes, mostly consisting of dares. One filly slid down a staircase on a baking sheet, and another leapt from a stack of furniture onto a pillow. Few truths were told, but each one was taken as seriously as the foals could manage to avoid hurting anypony. Before an hour passed, they were exhausted from their play, and sat just outside of the tent.
Cherry Cobbler looked at the remains of their tent, which had collapsed sometime during their game. "What can we do now?"
Two ponies stood up, walking toward the front door of the house. "My mom's coming to pick me up soon," said one, "Good-bye!"
"I have to go, too," moaned the other. "If I'm late for dinner, I might get grounded again. See you tomorrow!"
Cherry saw the only remaining guest, Lemon Drop, start to rise as well. "Not you too!"
"I'm not going." Lemon replied. "I was just thinking...how about we go to the Everfree Forest? That would be fun, right?"
"I don't know...what if we get lost? What if nopony can find us? Or a monster finds us?"
"There aren't any monsters in the forest! That's just a story so kids don't want to play there! Everypony knows there's nothing really scary in there!"
"Well...if you're sure...okay, let's go. But we have to be back before it gets too dark, okay?"
Lemon Drop trotted quickly with Cherry Cobbler down the path toward the Everfree, eager to get as much time in the forest as possible before nightfall forced them back home. They hadn't gotten far, however, before running into another familiar face on the road. Lemon Drop knew immediately who he had knocked down. "Sorry, Twist. Um, what are you doing here so late?"
Twist slowly rose from the ground, adjusting her glasses to get a better view of the two who had run into her. When she recognized the colt, she quickly looked down, her cheeks turning nearly as red as her mane. "Oh, hi, Lemon Drop. I wath jutht going home. Why are you here? It'th almotht dark."
"We're going to the Everfree Forest! You can come with us, Twist! It'll be fun!"
Twist backed up a step. "I don't know...what if thomething happenth to uth? I heard there are monthterth in there."
The colt struck what he thought must have been a heroic pose. "Don't worry, there aren't any monsters. That's just something our parents tell us to keep us out. I'll prove there's nothing there." He rushed down the road to the forest, yelling over his shoulder. "Come on!"
Twist ran alongside Cherry as they caught up to the colt. Together they soon crossed the entrance to the Everfree Forest. The first change they noticed was the complete disappearance of the sky – the thick, tangled mess of branches overhead blocked out the waning sunlight – and the mist that wound its way around them. The mist rose higher, eventually rendering the foals nearly sightless.
Twist, slightly taller than the other two, had an easier time of navigating the forest. She led them down the barely-visible path, turning back every now and then to make sure she had not lost the others. "Are you both okay? There'th a clearing up ahead."
The path led into an open area about fifteen meters across, and beyond that was the bank of a river. It was far too fast and deep to even try crossing. Cherry Cobbler sat at the riverbank, looking to the other two as she spoke. "Okay, Lemon Drop, we came here and we didn't find any monsters. Can we please go home now?"
"See? Just like I said, there's nothing to be scared of. Now we can...wait, what's that?" Something had caught Lemon Drop's eye. Cherry and Twist moved closer, trying to see exactly what was so interesting; a ball of light could be seen in the fog, as if somepony was holding a lantern. It hovered in the distance, slowly moving down the path the foals had just been on. Lemon Drop ran after the light, calling to it. "Hey! Come back here! Who are you?"
Twist and Cherry Cobbler struggled to keep up with the rushing colt as he chased the mysterious light, Twist running just ahead of the smaller filly. When the fog made it impossible to see him, she tried following the sound of his continuing calls. As the sounds got louder, Twist was sure she would soon catch up to the colt, but then the calls suddenly ceased. He was gone, as was the ball of light. Twist looked all around, trying to figure out where they had ended up; she and Cherry were back at the forest entrance, the same one they had used earlier. "Where'th Lemon Drop?" she asked Cherry, who appeared just as surprised as her. "Did you thee him anywhere?"
"No, I didn't see him anywhere." Cherry replied, her voice shaking slightly. "Maybe he passed by us and we didn't see him?"
"But he wath yelling. He wath yelling at that light, and then he jutht...thtopped. What if..."
Twist was interrupted by a shrill cry that echoed from somewhere within the forest. It sounded almost like a bird call, but neither filly had ever heard such a bird before. Cherry cringed at the sound. "Twist," she whimpered, "I'm scared."
"It'th okay, Cherry. Let'th go home. We'll find thome really brave and tough ponieth to go find Lemon Drop. He'll get back thafe and thound, and we'll never play in the foretht again. We'll thtay inthide and behave and..." Twist felt a rush of air from behind, like something running past her. She turned around and found that Cherry Cobbler, too, had vanished.
The same sharp cry tore through the sky again, now seeming closer than before.
Rainbow Dash stepped down from her perch by the window, joining the rest of the group. Applejack gave a short whistle of approval. "Fine story ya had, Rainbow."
"Thanks, AJ. You know, now that I think about it, this is really different for me. I mean, I used to hate reading, but after reading those Daring Do books I just got hooked. If you'd told me a few months ago that I'd be reading books for fun, I'd have laughed you away. Of course, now I almost worry I'll turn into Twilight before long!" she snickered.
The room fell silent as everypony tried imagining Rainbow Dash actually going through such a transformation. In a second it was again filled with laughter.
Twilight stood up. "Alright," she announced, "this candle won't last much longer. Let's take a short break while I find another."