Twilight stared out into the forest, looking at it from a far distance with a determined smirk. Twilight felt the adrenaline flow through her mind like a river as she wondered about what exciting things lied in the smallest of corners of the Everfree. Sure, she had explored the forest before, usually strolling with AJ or Fluttershy. But she wanted to be thorough in her cataloging of every plant, fungus, and fauna she saw during her walk.
She ambled towards the entrance of the forest, her young dragon assistant following behind her. The entrance of the Everfree forest was marked by an old wooden fence which was installed to separate a small playground from it. The towering canopy stretched overhead like a giant maw, and beyond grew a foreboding wall of smaller trees with leaves of fall orange and yellow.
There was a reason why the forest was widely feared in Ponyville; it was beautifully huge, and yet, haunting. Its animals were another sight to behold, from the tame bunnies and the broad spectrum of birds, to the more vicious hydras and nocturnal cockatrices. This place was a demonstration of how the magic of harmony affected the evolution of the everfree’s ecosystem.
As Twilight continued to walk, Spike sheepishly shuffled closer to her and nudged her. "Uhh hey, Twilight, why do you want me to come with you?”The drake asked nervously, looking at his equivalent to an older sister. “I could just stay home with Rarity."
"Well, it's because you need to do something else than sit around the library and be alone." Twilight responded, looking back at her dragon assistant with a teasing grin.
The drake groaned before puffing up his chest. "But I wouldn’t be alone, I would have Rarity with me!" Spike retorted, blushing a bit as he thought about his older crush.
Twilight then just looked at him and groaned. “You know she only sees you as a friend right?”
"Ok, fine, I guess you have a point," he muttered softly before sighing and entering the forest with her.
Once they entered, Twilight's worry was replaced with a sense of adventure and curiosity. The sheer number of things she could do overwhelmed her mind with possibilities. The weather was foreboding, with gray clouds covering the sky and a vast silence that usually accompanied rainy or cloudy days, but some ugly weather wouldn’t deter her.
A dirt trail crawled up a small hill. Damp leaves dotted the ground, floating atop the slick mud and supporting little pools. Insects helped themselves to the fresh rainwater.
She smiled exuberantly as she crossed a bridge which extended over a thin river. Deeper into the forest, over undulating hills, the short oaks were overshadowed by great, mature birch trees. They explored for hours, sketching curious insects, examining animals, and tasting plants and herbs and taking appropriate notes on their utility.
They decided to stop when the clouds parted and the soil dried up. While they had enjoyed the little trip, they couldn't dismiss the feeling that something watched them from a distance. Though, seeing as how it wouldn’t have been an unusual scenario in the wild and unpredictable Everfree, they neglected to mention it.
In the end, they recorded plants, birds, fauna, and insects. She skimmed through the pages, feeling satisfied with what they had recorded. While she was preoccupied with her book, Spike noticed something caught between the branches of a bush. It was a clump of cyan mane, apparently having been torn out as somepony got stuck and attempted desperately to escape. Spike didn't know why, but he felt unnerved.
Twilight turned her head and noticed the drake blankly staring into the bush. She inserted her book into her bag and approached him from behind. "Hey, Spike, what are you looking at?" Her sudden unanticipated question seemed to startle him.
"Well...I think it's some hair from somepony's mane, but I’m not sure who it belongs to.” His brow narrowed as he felt unsure and confused. It was out of place to him, as if his mind was screaming that something was off.
"Well, okay, that seems a bit concerning. But who would catch their hair in a bush so… frantically…? It looks like they were scrambling to get out. Look at the drag marks, and the leaves." She mused as she examined the bush and its missing branches.
"We have to figure out who this belongs to. Okay Spike, grab the twig with the hair tangled around it as a sample,” Twilight requested sternly, turning back to the trail from which they had come. Spike retrieved the sample and followed along.
As she descended a hill with her companion, she glimpsed at a figure in the corner of her eye standing atop of a tall distant hill, gazing at them. Her eyes required a moment to focus on the blurry figure atop the hill, but she could see they were standing between the trees, watching without any distinct emotion or… obvious facial features.
The figure appeared to be an earth pony from the obvious lack of any noticeable feathered or sharp appendages. Her coat was white but, what was the most strange part, she almost seemed to lack a mane altogether. Her height was also challenging to determine due to the viewing angle.
She blinked, and the mare vanished.
"Hey, is something over there, Twi?" Asked Spike, tapping her shoulder and attempting to look where she was staring.
Twilight blinked and shivered before looking back at Spike with a slight chuckle of denial. "Well, I thought I did, but it must have been a trick of my crazy old mind," she replied jokingly.
"Well, let's continue moving, then. We can't spend all day here, and you still have to write about our findings to Celestia."
"Okay then, let's move," She replied nonchalantly, trotting at a brisk pace while occasionally glancing into the trees in an attempt to spy the mare lurking. "Who was that?"
When she arrived in town, ponies were going about their daily business, but something was noticeably off. They all had a dark look in their eyes. Their conversations were casual, but they seemed to be avoiding something, like something terrible had happened that nopony dared to mention again.
After a bit of wandering, and experiencing several cold-eyed glances from ponies,Twilight spotted Mayor Mare seated at a picnic table and eating a haybuger by herself. Twilight approached from the rear and lightly tapped the back of the chair with her hoof. Mayor Mare turned around.
"Hey, Mayor Mare, may I speak with you?" Twilight asked politely, but nervousness also pervaded her tone.
The mayor quickly swallowed the bite of food in her mouth and set the burger down before initiating eye contact again. "How may I help, Twilight?”
"Well, while we were out studying the Everfree’s ecosystem, we found this." Spike deposited the twig with the cyan hair coiled around the twig onto the table.
"There were some drag marks and some broken twigs and leaves." Twilight explained with a note of worry and confusion in her low voice.
The mayor quietly gasped. She leaned in and murmured, "dear Celestia, this is the hair of Lyra Heartstrings!"
"Lyra? But I thought she wasn’t that much of an outdoor pony! Do you think something happened to her?"
"She’s gone missing! Along with some foals and a few other adults.” Mayor Mare frowned as she quietly explained the dire situation, trying her best to ensure nopony could overhear their conversation.
Clouds of anxiety inundated her mind. "Wait, ponies are missing?! How did I not hear about this?!" Twilight shouted abruptly. Several passersby paused to look at her with confusion as her yell echoed throughout the street.
The mayor gestured for her to calm herself and sit and avoid attracting attention. "What’s important now is you learning the full story. Buzzwing was the first foal to go missing, and despite ponies being concerned and rousing search parties to investigate, they turned up with nothing the next day. Then, a few days later, Lyra went to investigate the Everfree with Ms. Cheerilee. Now here we are, clueless about what happened to all of these missing ponies, and panic is spreading like wildfire! Some ponies have already given up, but I know there's more to this." Mayor Mare finished explaining as she nervously scraped her hoof against the wooden tabletop. “Some teachers reported seeing the other foals as well as Buzzwing looking out at the EverFree, it was strange, like they were mesmerized by it.”
Twilight felt something deep stirring in her gut. It seemed she stumbled into something huge, something greater than even herself. More disturbingly, she had witnessed Lyra’s last known position, and she had the strain of her hair,and it had been ripped off.