//------------------------------// // Everfree Trials Part 1 // Story: My Little NinjaGo // by yolky206 //------------------------------// Twilight guided all of her friends to the entrance to the Everfree Forest and gulped. The entire way there was littered with scorch marks and small bursts in the ground. The trees that arched over the entrance also had many scorch marks on them that burned deep into the trees. Some trees that got hit were also knocked onto the grassy earth. "I think we should split up." Twilight told her friends. "The forest got a bit cleared out, so we should be able to see each other. The creatures that live here also got scared off a bit, so that isn't a problem either. If we go separately we won't have to worry too much about stopping too often." A majority of the ponies nodded their heads in agreement. It was a good plan that made sense after all. Then Jay decided to ask a question by raising his hoof. "So how many teams will there be and who goes in which team?" Twilight thought for a moment before answering. "How about this, Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and I will be one team. You, Kai, Cole, Zane, Nya, and Lloyd will be the other. Spike is currently at the library and Celestia can get to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters very quickly by herself. Are we clear?" Nods from everypony met Twilight's gaze. She then turned around and walked into the Everfree, with all of the teams splitting off from the entire group and going down their own seperate paths. ------------- Lloyd walked around the thorn bushes and weaved his way around fallen tree branches. All of his friends were right behind him and some were trying to keep an eye on the other team of ponies. Up ahead there was a really tall hill that looked like part of one of the cliffs fell down and narrowed the path ahead. Twilight and her team seemed to know that path, so Lloyd decided to go around it instead and let them walk down the narrow path. The path ahead of Lloyd was twisted and surrounded by very thick trees. When he stepped forward he couldn't see Twilight and the others due to the undergrowth. He just kept going though. After all, the two teams didn't have to see each other to head to the castle. As long as they made it without too much harm then they would be okay. The first major obstacle Lloyd got to was a door. A door that was burnt and had thick smoke coming from it. None of them could walk around it because the trees and vines were forming a wall that was covered in carnivorous plants. The door itself appeared to be made out of magic very recently. Lloyd approached the door and tried pushing it open. It didn't move. Then he tried to pull, and once again it didn't budge. He called his friends over to try and open it with him, but the magic of the door repelled them and forced them to fail. Next he tried using magic, but not only did he not know any manipulation spells, but everything he tried didn't work. "How the heck do we open this?" Lloyd asked with frustration. To everypony's surprise, the smoke coming from the door stopped and began shaping into words. "Tell, a, secret." Nya said as the words spelled themselves out. "So one of us has to tell a secret to the door then. Who's going to do it?" Nopony raised their hoof. Just about all of them never kept any important secrets because that would falter their training and fighting. "I'll do it." Kai told them before stepping up to the door. "When I was just a kid in the blacksmith shop, I was stupid and played around with the sword metal. When my father walked into the shop I took a sword that was in the furnace and started swinging it. My father tried to stop me, but I accidently cut off his hand. Only my mother and father know this." Lloyd just stood in shock at what Kai said. The door swung wide open after Kai finished speaking, but nopony was walking through. Everypony was staring at Kai, who had his head down. Nya was the first to walk up and comfort him with everypony else following. When Kai was fit to go Lloyd guided them through the door to get to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. ------------- They made it around the tall hill a few minutes later, but the path Twilight went on led a different direction. The undergrowth was thick, eyes seemed to be staring at them from every direction, the path ahead was almost buried, and there was almost no light in the area. Basically, Lloyd got all of them lost. "So Lloyd, you got us lost." Cole said. "Does anyone know how to get back?" "The door shut behind us and the path is nearly impossible to see." Zane told Cole. "I do not believe that there is a high chance of turning back." "Fantastic." Kai said sarcastically. "How can this get any worse?" Right after Kai said that, all of them heard a low growling sound. "Now you jinxed it!" Jay yelled. "Does anyone know what's making that noise?" Lloyd was about to yell 'no' before the ground started shaking. Some of the trees ahead toppled over and he could hear loud slithering sounds. He turned his head toward the direction of the noise and saw a long, scaly, black, slender figure rising from the forest. He looked up just a bit and his mouth dropped open. A large snake head was resting on the body that had bright red eyes. A long forked toungue snaked out of its mouth and flicked at him and his friends. "Uhh..... I'm out of here!" Jay yelled before trying to fly away. "No you're not!" Kai told him while pulling down Jay with his magic. "We're all fighting this giant snake; despite the fact that back home we're doing that all day." "Don't argue, we have to fight." Lloyd said to his teammates before turning to the snake. "If we can't defeat it, then we have to go around it and flee toward the castle, not away from it." Lloyd told Nya to step back while they fought the creature and run if one of them got hurt. He got into fighting position and waited for the snake to slither closer to them. Once it did so, he ran toward it and delivered some well-placed kicks with his hooves. His friends did the same. But when they finished attacking, the snake was completely unfazed. Any attacks that they did that left marks were regenerated and they only got the snake angry. Nya watched the snake and drew in a sharp gasp. "Guys? I know how to defeat it!" But her cries were drowned out by the snake's roar and charge toward her friends. She expected them to get themselves together and attack, but for some reason they wouldn't move. 'They're probably too shocked to do anything.' She thought before running over to the snake. 'It looks like I'll have to do this myself.' Nya slowed down when she got closer to the snake. The snake roared at her and was raising its tail to flick her away. But she just walked up to one of the spots that took the longest to regenerate and began petting it. The snake made a noise of surprise and lowered its tail. She began speaking softly to the snake and telling it that everything will be fine. The snake lowered its head and began lightly rubbing her before getting up and slithering off with what looked like a smile on its face. "How..... How did you do that?" Lloyd asked Nya. "That snake was only attacking because all of you threatened it, even though it didn't want to fight." Nya explained. "I was just calming it down and trying to get it to leave nicely." Lloyd was still pretty shocked about the whole event, but he just shook his head before walking toward the castle that peaked over the edges of the trees. ------------- When the path completely disappeared under the undergrowth, Lloyd decided to lead them through an archway in the trees that was incredibly dark. Once again, that got them all lost. This time, it was dark though and they couldn't see anything except each other's eyes. Another brilliant navigation move by Lloyd Garmadon. "Remind me in the future to not let Lloyd guide us in a maze." Kai said with irritation. "I can't even see my own hoof in front of me!" "Didn't you guys learn a spell that makes light?" Cole asked. "I'm pretty sure that it would help here." "Oh yeah!" Lloyd said in surprise. "I completely forgot about that! I'll cast it." When Lloyd cast the spell, there was a wide array of stone statues everywhere. When he looked closely at them, he realized that they were ponies. Ponies that wandered too far into the Everfree Forest. There were also many creatures being displayed as well. But one thing all of the statues shared was a look of surprise, sadness, and anger. "Does anyone here know what did all of this?" Lloyd asked. "Uhh... No." Kai said. "But if you listen carefully, you can hear something moving in one of those bushes." Lloyd looked to where Kai was pointing and saw a bit of a tail peeking out from a bush. The tail kept sliding out and bits of a chicken's body began showing. When the creature was fully out of the bush, it's head was facing away from Lloyd and his friends. However within seconds, the creature turned its head toward them and shrieked. Its red eyes glowed as it stared at him and he felt like he was stiffening up. "I don't know what this thing is, but I'm turning into a stone statue!" Lloyd yelled. "Help me out!" Lloyd saw his friends try to reach him, but the creature began turning them to stone too. All except one. "Ha ha ha ha ha!" Jay laughed. "This thing looks funny." "It's a cockatrice." Nya told Jay. "And why are you laughing at it?" "Well if I'm going down, I'm going down laughing." Jay told Nya. "Besides, the cockatrice looks really weird. The tail of a snake, the wings of a bat, then the body and head of a chicken! The chicken part is kinda unexpected, that's why it's funny!" Lloyd just stared at Jay with confusion but began laughing too. The cockatrice DID look pretty funny, and soon enough everypony was just sitting there, laughing at the deadly creature in front of them. The cockatrice stopped trying to turn them to stone and instead just looked back and forth at each of the half-stone ponies that were laughing. When Lloyd decided to look down, he noticed that the stone half of him was chipping away because the cockatrice wasn't using its magic any more. "Keep on laughing!" Lloyd told his friends. "We'll be free soon if we do!" The loud sound of laughter kept rising, and Lloyd felt tears trickle down his cheeks. The cockatrice was becoming worried and started to panic, and soon it fled through the bush it came through. The stone that encased all of them was almost gone, and when the cockatrice left it disappeared completely. Lloyd fell over from laughing so hard, and eventually all of his friends did the same.