//------------------------------// // CH 2: Everfree Forest Objective // Story: Galloping Grand Prix // by Jet Edge //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Everfree Forest Objective "Let the race begin!" Announced Celestia. Just then, everypony zoomed off toward the Everfree Forset, Celestia and Chrysalis being together, Chrysalis' powers were gone. Even though she had no power, along with Discord, both her and Discord had big grin's on their faces. As the racers were headed towards the Everfree forest, the guards pulling the carriages handed them the ingrediant lists. Twilights potion list read; "Magical Mane's Elixer: 2 cup of sugar 3 cups of bog water 2 leg of frog 4 nirnroots Effect: Change the" "What's it say Twilight?" Asked Applejack. "I don't know, someone must have erased the words, but we need 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of bog water, 2 legs of frog, and 4 nirnroots." Twilight replied, but unknown to the team that changelings had snuck into the storage area and tampered with some of the lists that were to be given to the racers today. The list really read; "Magical Mane's Elixer: 1 cup of sugar 2 cups of bog water 1 leg of frog 3 nirnroots Effect: Change your body, but beware! Too much of a good thing can cause despair!" The gang collected their items from the forest and mixed them in a cauldron, then brought it back to their carriage. As they raced away they passed Flim and Flam who were still gathering ingredients. "Brother, we still need to find more butterfly wings and another stock of poison joke." Said Flim to his twin. "Yes brother, but remember! Don't touch the Poison Joke when you find it!" Said Flam in a warning voice. "Yes, yes, I know that! But what do we still need?" "Well, we need 2 more butterfly wings, and 1 Poison Joke stock." Replied Flam, running a comb through his fantastic moustache. Flim and Flam had gotten a rather useful list, their list said; "The Splitter's Brew: 2 rotten apple slices 1 parasprite body 1 poison joke stock 6 butterfly wings effect: Want more of a good thing? Drink this and split into two! It will even help you sing!" This was one of the only unedited lists given out. "Flam, how could splitting our guards into two help us?" "Well, more ponies means more footpower!" "Your right, but we wouldn't need it if Celestia had just let us bring the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000!" "But then we would have an unfair advantage brother." "But still, it would have made the ride better, plus we would have delicious cider!" Flim exclaimed as he found the Poison Joke. He took off his vest and had used it to pull the stock out for them to use. The brothers went and mixed all their ingredients and then to gain even more of an advantage, put a paralisyse powder in all the other cauldrons, then they zoomed off toward the Crystal Empire. Trixie, Derpy, and Snowflake had collected all their ingredients, but Derpy had tripped and dropped all their ingredients into the swamp. "Derpy, you useless pony, do you know how hard it was to get those URSA minor hairs!?" Screamed Trixie. "I-I'm sorry Trixie." Said Derpy looking at the ground, looking sad. "Why don't you just use magic to make more?" "YEAH!" Yelled Snowflake at the top of his lungs. "QUIET YOU!" Trixie yelled at the top of her lungs, then turned back to Derpy. "You can't just use magic to make the items, the potion won't work if the URSA minor hairs aren't authentic!" She yelled at Derpy, the turned back to Snowflake, "And you! If you want to be useful, go get more URSA minor hairs, I will collect the other stuff. Derpy, you stay here and don't mess anything else up!" She stomped off alongside Snowflake who too was looking sad now. Derpy leaned up against their carriage and one of the wheels popped off. Panicking, Derpy saw their list of ingredients fall to the ground, it read; "Mage's Milk: 9 Ursa Minor Hairs 1 bottle of milk 1 cup of pixie dust 1 snake fang and a drop of snake venom effect: To Fly Too little will be good for this!" "Hmm, why doesn't this sound right?" Derpy asked herself Celestia and Chrysalis had been racing by when they saw Derpy by herself, staring at the list. "What's wrong my little pony?" Asked the princess "Well, I dropped the ingredients in the swamp and Trixie got mad at me." Said Derpy in a sad way. "But the weird thing is, the effect on this potion is worded weirdly." "Hmm, let me see it, maybe I can help." Smiled Celestia. "Really? You would help me?" Asked Derpy, her face lighting up with a smile. "Sure! What are friends for?" Said Celestia, her horn now glowing. The Potion list lit up new words that read. "Mage's Milk: 10 Ursa Minor Hairs 1 bottle of milk 2 cup of pixie dust 1 snake fang and a drop of snake venom effect: Too much traffic?Fly over it! But beware! Too little will not be good for this!" "Looks like somepony Tampered with this, and changed the numbers to fool your team." Celestia said with an angry face, turning toward Chrysalis. "What, it wasn't ME! My changelings have free will of their own, you know." She said innocently. "Besides, you can't do anything about it anyway!" "Oh yes I can!" She said, horn glowing. "I just cast a spell that turned everypony's lists back to normal!" Trixie and Snowflafe had reappeared, Trixie was happy to see Celestia, but her smile changed to a frown when she saw the broken wheel. "Derpy! What have you done!" She yelled at Derpy. Derpy's ears went down as she became sad once again. "I'm sorry Trixie..." "SORRY!? SORRY DOESN'T-" She was stopped mid-sentence by Celestia who said. "It's alright, I was just helping her fix the wheel." She cast a spell to fix the wheel as they all went to mix the ingredients. They mixed the ingredients, and a big puff of smoke came out in the shape of a skull and crossbones. "What was that?" Asked Trixie. "The mark of death!" Said a familiar voice. "The mark of death will not mean your last breath, though" Said the voice again, that's when Zecora had stepped out of the shadows. "In an ice-like state you will be, if you just drink up, and wait to see." "Zecora? Are you saying that the pony who drinks the potion mith the mark of death in it, will be paralyzed?" asked Celestia "Yes, and ones who are paralyzed will have the mark, in their eyes." she rhymed again. "So, why are you here?" Trixie asked. "I was looking out my window, when I saw a devious duo. Flim and Flam were their names, and getting ahead was their game. They took all of their potion, then tainted all the cauldrons." "Hmm, sounds like trouble. Thank you Zecora, and you ponies go get back in the race, I will stay here with Zecora and Chrysalis. We will clean the cauldrons, just try to catch up with the Flim-Flam brothers. Said Celestia smiling. Iron Will and Cranky Doodle were searching for their ingredients, "Iron Will doesn't need a potion to insure Iron Will's victory. Iron Will will just knock the effects into those guards!" Iron Will said, trying to seem tougher than he really is. "Oh yeah? Well Cranky Doodle doubts that can happen!" Cranky Doodle said, mocking the way Iron Will talks. "Okay okay, Iron Will can take a hint, Iron Will will get the ingredients, hoof Iron Will the list!" Cranky gave him the list which read; "Hermes' Horchata: 1 cup of Cheetah Sweat 2 and 2/3 cups of hawk saliva 1 cup of milk 5 cups of lightning bolt rainbows effect: Gain the speed of the gods! Equestria has never seen anypony so fast!" "Speed? Iron Will likes that idea! Here's Iron Will's plan, you get all the ingredients for Iron Will, and Iron Will will sit here and cheer you on!" "Eh new plan, you get the saliva and sweat, and I will go to the store and get the other stuff." "Right, Iron Will is okay with th-" A cheetah ran by I ron Will and Iron Will said in a hasty manner, "Iron Will will see you later, Iron Will is off to get some cheetah sweat!" he ran off toward the cheetah yelling stuff like "Come back! Iron Will only wants to squezze those sweaty juices out of you! Eh, Iron Will will be your best friend!" The Diamond Dogs were racing through the forest and had found their final ingredient. But when they got there, they saw Flim and Flam sabotaging the Cauldrons, then they saw the princess Trixie, Chrysalis, Snowflake, and Derpy. When they had all left, they mixed their ingredients, but the dogs didn't measure their ingredients, which was not good as their list warned them of that; "Stopping Soda: 1/3 cup of cola 2 cups of ice 1 stopping root 5 cups of Sloth's saliva effect: stop time for 30 minutes! but too much of something will make you be it!" They mixed their ingredients and tried the brew, but then they froze in place! It turns out that when it said 'you'll be it' it meant that the will be paralyzed for 30 minutes! All they could do now was wait, and watch the other contestants race by...