//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Fall Forest and Winter Mountains // Story: My Little Pony: The Great Defenders of Friendship // by specialhoof2022 //------------------------------// After the events at the Valley of Giant Drops, Sunny started telling me about our next destination. "That storm was back at the side." I say. "Yes." Sunny agreed. "But now, we should go to our next destination: the Forest of Fall." "What's that?" I asked. "The Forest of Fall is a forest that has events of the 3rd season, fall, everyday." Sunny told me. "That's so cool." I say. After a few minutes of walking, we all made it to the forest and it was beautiful. All the leaves in the trees were in all colors of fall; red, orange, yellow, brown. But, only a few of them fall down and new ones grew. The grass was greenish-brown colored. Apples and acorns were all over the ground. Pumpkins were ripe enough to become Jack-O-Lanterns for Nightmare Night or pumpkin pies for Harvest and Hugs Day. And, hedgehogs were rolling on piles of leaves, and squirrels were harvesting acorns. The Forest of Fall was another place to visit, it would be for like events that could happen in the fall. "Wow, this is my kind of place." said Fruity Tooty. "I love autumn." "True." Izzy Moonbow agreed. "The Forest of Fall is the only place to stay autumn. The trees loose some of their leaves and grow new ones. Some of the trees have acorns for all the squirrels, while, this is the best part, other trees grow some delicious candy apples." "Candy apples?!?" Frosty Flavor asked excitingly." Can you show us where one of the trees is?" Then, Izzy lead us to a tree that grows candy apples. The apples were covered in caramel sap the tree leaks out. It is sap, but it never makes anypony sick, it still tastes like caramel. Carver Crafty brought popsicle sticks with him for any occasion, for holding the apples because everypony always know to hold candy apples with popsicle sticks at all times, while they eat them. The pegasi foals flew up to the apples and made them fall down to the unicorn foals, who caught the apples with their magic. Then, the unicorns pushed the apples onto the popsicle sticks. Now, we can all enjoy the snacks of autumn. "These are the best candy apples I'd ever tasted." I said as I took a bite. After we ate the candy apple, Izzy gave us more information about the Forest of Fall. "There's another fun part about the Forest of Fall. Follow me." Izzy told us. We followed Izzy to another fun part of the forest. She lead us to a very cool entertainment, the slides of leaves. The slides were literally covered with leaves. "Wow, those slides rule." said Fearful Moe. "The only way to get to the other side of the forest is to ride on the leaf slides, nothing harmful going on there." Izzy told us. "Now that's my kind of fun in the fall." said Joydan Gallop. "Come on everypony, let's go!" I called everypony. We jumped and began to slide down the leaf slides. The slides were very long, but none of us don't mind at all. There were lots of entertaining things along the way, we went up high and down low, did zigzags, and curves, jumped over gaps, and approached the big drops. It took 5 minutes, but we made it to the end of the slides and the forest. "Wow, that was so awesome." said Horseshoe Henry. "Let's do it again." "Sorry, we got to keep on going. We got a pony to stop." said Sunny Starscout. We got rid of the leaves off our bodies and manes, and continued on our journey. After we left the Forest of Fall, Sunny told me about our next destination. "So we left Maretime Bay, walked across a prairie, rowed across the Big Pond, hiked on the Grassy Hills, camped at the Big View Cliffs, sang a song at the Garden of Colored Blooms and Butterflies, got wet at the Valley of Big Drops, and enjoyed the Forest of Fall." I remembered. "So, what's next?" "Well, now we're going to the Winter Mountains." Sunny answered. "The mountains are all high up to the clouds and all covered in ice and snow." "That does sound cold." I say. "Luckily, I brought my winter clothes, even for Winter Wish Day." "Great." said Sunny. After a few minutes, we made it to the mountains. It was a little hard to get up there, but at least, we all brought our climbing tools for mountains. We took out our winter clothes and put them on. Then, we took out our mountain climbing gear for climbing the mountain. "Okay everypony," said Hitch Trailblazer. "Mountain climbing may take like an hour, but we can all get to do our best to get to the other side of the mountains. So, let's go up." We only had 8 ropes for us to climb up, so we had to take turns. From climber to climber, we were climbing up to the top, it was 1,500 feet high. Then finally, after 45 minutes, we regrouped after the climbing. Now, we can continue on hoof to get to the other side of the mountains. We were all wearing snowshoes on our hooves, that way it's easy for us to walk on the snow without going deeper. The Winter Mountains were beautiful; all the snow was soft and sparkly, the snow animals were playing around, and it was full of snow clouds almost all the time. We were hiking up to the top of the mountain. Some of us were playing in the snow by making snow angels and snowponies, and rolling on the snow. It was so much fun in the snow, but we still need to keep on hiking. Until finally, when we'd reach the top we found a big lodge cabin. The cabin was big enough for us to stay in, so we ran towards it to stay in for the night. As we walked inside, it was amazing for a winter house for Winter Wish Day. The lodge up in the Winter Mountains was a blast. It had lots of tables to have customers, a cafe with great food and drinks, old paintings hanging or the wall, wood carved sculptures, and a great fireplace. We need to rest for the night, we sat down at the tables, while a few of us sat by the fire since they got cold. Then all of the sudden, somepony popped out from another room, it was a unicorn stallion named Andri Douglas. His fur was grayish blue, his mane was gray, yellow, and white streaks, and his cutie mark was a ranger badge. "Greetings everypony." Andri said. "Welcome to the winter lodge. I'm pleased to have some visitors here, why don't you all stay for tonight? It's getting dark outside now." Andri was right, the sun was going down, we all decided to stay and sleep at the lodge for tonight. Andri took us to the hotel rooms, where we would be sleeping. We got our coats off, put our bags and cases in closets, got into our beds, turned off the lights, and drifted to sleep. The next morning, we packed up our bags and cases, then we all met at the cafe, where were gonna have breakfast, before we leave on our quest. For breakfast, we had pancakes, omelettes, cereal, milk, orange juice, and hot chocolate. The lodge was amazing to visit at the Winter Mountains, most ponies would want to take a vacation there. After we had our breakfast, I asked Andri a few questions. "Andri, we had to get to the other side of the mountains." I say. "Is there a fast way there?" "Oh yes." Andri answered. "Just find the sled rental shop, get some sleds, and sled down the mountains to get to the other side at the bottom." I obeyed, told everypony else the directions. Then, we thanked Andri and left the lodge. The sled rental shop wasn't far from the lodge. We walked towards there and started renting some sleds. We bought a sled for 3 ponies each, put on our helmets for safety, then we all approached a slope that leads to the other side of the mountain. We all got on our sleds, then we all started sledding. The slope we were sledding on had lots of obstacles along the way. First: we avoided the evergreen trees. Second: we were bouncing on snow bumps. Third: we entered the icy tunnels, going in spin cycles, which made some of us dizzy. And last: we were now sledding on a steep slope, going down really fast. We were approaching an off ramp, we went too fast, we launched up and off the sleds. We feared we could get hurt, but luckily, there was a big snow bank, we landed on it without any harm. "Thank goodness for snow." said Cloudy Carla. "Let's do that again." "We should do this everyday." said Izzy Moonbow. "You roll your dice, you loose your mice. Nopony gets hurt." said Disgusted Lex. "Guys," Daytime Darwin cried. "I can't feel my legs! I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS!!" "Daytime, those are my legs." Hitch said when he popped out of the snow. "Here, let me help you out." Zipp Storm said when she lifted Daytime out. "Wow, just like a pillow." said Needle Stitch. "I should visit the Winter Mountains more often." said Rollette Skate. "Alright everypony, it sure was fun, but we got to keep walking." said Sunny Starscout. And, we all got off the snow bank, and continued on our quest. Meanwhile at the Castle of the Two Sisters, Cozy Glow was still watching us from her magic projector. She was angry that we were almost there to fight her. "Guards!" Cozy shouted. " Our enemies are still coming. Since that storm didn't stop them, I got something that might help. Go capture Sunny Starscout and her friends and bring them here. We'll be ready in no time." "What about the foals?" one of the guards asked Cozy. "No need to worry about the foals." Cozy answered. "They won't ever come near without grown ups." Then, her thugs left the castle go find the Mane 5. Cozy looked at the projector again. "You little ponies won't be celebrating more. I'll be pooping on your party soon enough." Cozy said before she let out her evil laugh.