//------------------------------//
// Everfree 
// Story: Raining Metal 
// by thecakeisalie 
//------------------------------//

	Fluttershy trotted into the Everfrre forest, neverousness clearly displayed on her face. The bright sun was quickly swallowed by the gloom of the canopy above. She in no way wanted to be here, but it was for the fillies. And that creepy unicorn, too, but he just happened to be there. Fluttershy fervently wished that the children were fine, maybe they'd been picked up by Zecora, but the forest needed to be checked just in case. She followed the sound of galloping hooves before they dissapeared into the difference. Knowing she was all alone, she continued, her trot just slightly faster now.
Fluttershy was confident she could handle anything that came her way, but the fillies, and the unicorn? What if they met that mean cockatrice? Or a hydra? Or... well, there were more than enough dangerous things in the forest to keep her imagination oocupied. They managed to keep her terrified, too. And that wasn't even counting the plants. Poison joke was bad enough, but what if they ran across something worse? A carniverous tree? A poisonius plant that looked like normal hay? Who knew what the Cutie Mark Crusaders might get into? 
In her worrying, Fluttershy missed something important- four sets of hoof marks headed right, and deeper into the forest. She continued to head left, making her way to Zecora's home as fast as her terror allowed.


Midnight had found the young fillies tracks rather quickly after entering the forest. The tracks were already at least a hour old, and how knew where those foalish fillies could have gotten to in that time? He might be to late already, and that disturbed him. It disturbed him so much, in fact, that he took off galloping in their tracks before even realizing fluttershy was following. Hydras, cockatrices, Ursas, both minor and major, dragons, manticores... the terrors of the forest were many, and they were much to dangerous for three little fillies.
He almost missed the tracks taking a sharp right as he came upon the turn, he was already going too fast to stop, so he had to waste time making an extra wide turn. He lost the tracks in the undergrowth in the process. He decided it was time for magic- so he cast a tracker spell. What he found terrified him, it was the worst possible outcome. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had found there way into a large, and inhabited, cave.


"Come on, Sweetie Bell! Nothing's here!" Scootaloo shouted.
"I don't know, guys," Sweetie Bell choked out. "It's really dark and... well, scary in here."
"Ah, com' on, it's fine, Sweetie. Nthin' in here. Anyway' Cutie Mark Crusaders: Forest Explorers can handle it!" Applebloom shouted out to her friend.
"Yeah, stupid. Come on, I bet there's treasure!"
"Well... ok!" Sweetie brightened up considerably, a smile lighting her face. After all, it was just a cave, right?


At the back of the cave, a large purple Ursa woke up, Appleblooms shout having disturbed it's nap. It wasn't sure what had awoken it, but it hoped it made a nice snack. After all, A recently awoken Ursa Major is always hungry.
As it came upon the three fillies, it felt cheated they were far to small to make a good snack. And they wouldn't even give any fun, the oblivious foals. It needed exactly one more pony, preferably larger, and even better, ready to struggle a little. That would be better. But even an unsatisfactory meal is a meal, right?


Applebloom heard some snuffling approaching, and turning to find out what it was, got the biggest shock of her young life- coming face to face with an Ursa Major. "Uhh, guys... I think we should get out of here now!" She shouted in a panicked voice, fear contorting her features.
"Why?" asked Scootaloo, turning around, "I'm sure that we can handle anything!" The bravado faded out of her voice as she completed the turn and found the largest thing she'd ever seen. And it was definently not happy. Uh oh she thought, this is bad... if only Rainbow Dash was here! She .. might be able to save us... the panic scareing her stiff.


"AHHHHH!" Midnight heard distant screaming that sounded exactly like three little fillies. He put on an extra burst of speed, going faster than sound, but not quite sonic rainboom fast. As the birds flew away from a large swath of trees in a cacophany of terror, he knew he had to be fast, but no so fast he hurt himself. He sped off into the forest, attempting to make it to the fillies in time to save alll three of them from the Ursa Major he'd sensed. If they were smart, of which there was no evidence to Midnights mind, they'd run into the forest and hide, quickly. Ursas weren't remarked for their intelligence, but they were still very dangerous.
As he rounded a bend, he found a clearing and a cave, out of which slowly came three little fillies. A purple snout poked out of the cave, followed by a head at twice as large as Midnights entire body in colt form. Still, he could handle it. He was a god, after all. So it was he jumped in front of the three fillies, and shouted "Run to Zecora's! I'll handle this monster."
"But.." Applebloom started to protest, but was quickly cut off. 	
"GO! NOW!"


Hearing a loud scream, and seeing the birds fly away, Fluttershy trembled in fear. But she knew she had to help the fillies and the unicorn, and set out towards the source of the sound. If she had to, she had The Stare, and hopefully that'd be enough. She was about halfway there when a dark flash clacked out the forest, then passed by, revealing the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing there, trembling and crying, and running towards her. "Oh, Fluttershy! It was so big!"
Applebloom sobbed
"What was Applebloom?"
"The.. the bear!"
"What?" Fluttershy was shocked. How had the girls managed to get tangled up with an Ursa? And where was Midnight?
"Is that the unicorn?" Scootaloo asked "He stayed behind to help us get away!"
Fluttershy hadn't realized she'd asked out loud, but she got an answer. And not a good one, either. Deciding she couldn't help the unicorn now, she felt she should take the fillies back to Zecoras and make sure they were ok. "Come on girls, we're going to Zecora's." An unusually silent and timid group of crusaders followed close behind.


The Ursa thought to itself, a feisty one! Just what I wanted. It then procceded to lumber its way towards Midnight, the hunger and anger written all across its face. It hadn't even realized the three fillies had escaped.


Rainbow came zooming in to Zecora's moments before Fluttershy returned. As she banged on the door, she shouted, "Zecora! We're going into the forest to look for the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Can you help us?"
"If the forest you search, wait a while on your perch," came the reply.
"What?" Rainbow was in the middle of preparing a rant for Zecora when Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders came up.
"Oh, Rainbow, it was horrible!" Scootaloo burst out, rushing up and nuzzling deep into Rainbow's mane.
"What? What happened? Fluttershy, where were these foals?"
"Well..." Fluttershy looked more than a little disturbed, and definently fearful. "They found an Ursa Major... Midnight found them... he stayed behind." Fluttershy was crying and looking down by the time she'd finished, unable to look at the shock she was sure would be spreading across Rainbows face.
"Where?" Rainbow demanded, then took off before getting a response. She had a stupid unicorn to rescue. Again.


Midnight stared at the approaching beast. He knew the fillies had gotten away, he could sense them running away. Letting go of the magic, he stared down the Ursa. He knew the dumb brute didn't realize who he was, and he knew Ursa's were dangerous, even to him, in some cases. But he was more than powerful enough to handle a stupid bear. He let slip his illusion and was revealed as the oldest creature in the world, and the one true immortal, unkillable force. Even then the Ursa only took a second to wait, before continuing forward to destroy his new prey. The Ursa failed to notice that it's prey was surronded by a swirling black aura, quickly growing tighter, faster, darker. Then it made a fatal mistake- it swiped for the Alicorn. The blast destroyed all the trees near by, sent the Ursa into the next life, and left a young unicorn colt unconcious on the forest floor.


Rainbow saw a massive clearing, looking like it had been bombed out from far above. She noticed a small speckle of Deep blue in the forest, and swooped down to check it out. She found she was right- it was Midnight. She picked him up and carried him back to Zecora's.


Midnight woke for just a few seconds to find Fluttershy and Applebloom nearby, clearly watching him. He reached out a hoof and took one of Appleblooms. He knew he only had a few seconds until his body slid back into unconciousness, but that was enough time to give his message. "Applebloom," Midnight forced out, "Granny Smith... died last night." He missed the renewedlook of sorrow and pain that crossed Appleblooms face as the blessed blackness took back his mind.