Until the afternoon, I had nothing much to do. Twilight Sparkle went off and tried to get her friends to join us. I don't know, why exactly we need those ponies, but well, her friends are her friends. It was actually impressive how the Everfree Forest – at least that is what Twilight Sparkle had called it - had obviously not even been touched by anything that had been going on for the last month. Although it was the darkest forest I had ever seen, it was still pulsating with life. Everywhere were things moving and red eyes in the dark. Scary, but alive, unlike much that I had seen. Soon, Twilight arrived with her friends behind her. This time, I was able to greet everypony.
“Hello Princess Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and...”
I was confused for a second, but to be honest, their names were really quite descriptive
“...Rarity and Applejack.”
“Howdy there!”,
“It's nice to meet you.”,
“Let's do this!”,
a mumbled “Hello.”
and a loud “Let's do an epic adventure and afterwards we can have a party!”
were the answers.
Twilight did not even bother to greet me again.
Stepping through the forest, there were enough times, when Twilight Sparkle had to stop me, just before I would tread into some deadly flower or another trap. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was entertaining the group, if you'd like to call it that way. She laughed and sang and tried to cheer me up. However, I was not in the mood to be cheered up. To be honest though, she made me laugh more than one time.
When we arrived at the zebra's house, Twilight went ahead and knocked the door. The house was filled with strange potions and masks and all that zebra-stuff. Most zebras don't live like that anymore, however some still try to go with their traditions. Maybe their old knowledge was just what we needed.
“Unexpected guests here I see,
for I have not made enough tea.
The reason for your visit you will soon share,
but until then, please sit down on a chair.”
Rhyming was an old zebra tradition, continued by even less zebras in Equestria. We sat down in some chairs at the back of the room, just under a mask which was yelling at some distant place. The zebra prepared some tea for us and after she was done, she put the pot onto her fireplace.
“I should really be ashamed,
I didn't ask how you were named.
You can call me Zecora,
which stands for 'dune flora'.”
I was not quite sure, whether I should answer in rhymes or in normals sentences.
“Dream Whisper is my name and for the rudeness you are not to blame.”
That was really the best, I could come up with. I felt a bit awkward trying to rhyme, but failing so badly was even worse. I also asked myself, whether all Zebra names rhymed on their meaning.
“Zecora, we are searching for something called the ancient forces, do you happen to know anything about it?” interrupted Twilight, not even trying to use rhymes.
“If the ancient forces are what you seek,
I'll have to tell you: My knowledge is weak.
Old zebra lore is hard to find,
for it all has to be rhymed.
If your need is strong,
just follow along.”
Zecora went towards an empty corner of the room, just to suddenly stop and push a carpet aside. Under the carpet there was a secret door in the floor. She opened it quickly and started to walk down the stairs, which were lit by a couple of torches.
Down in the basement there were a couple of bookshelves, all of the usual living room furniture, but of course in zebra-style. I quite liked it, although some of the masks were a bit strange.
“Stored in all these pages,
are the information of all the early ages.
The ancient forces were an ancient idea,
maybe you will not be finding them in here.”
Zecora pointed at one book in the shelf on our left.
“What you seek might be in this documentation,
but be sure not to get this old book into too much agitation.”
Twilight Sparkle hovered the book out of the shelf without any hesitation and started looking through it. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence – except of course the boiling tea upstairs and the wind outside, hushed through the walls - Twilight finally found something.
“Here we go!
The ancient forces once 'lived' in peace together. However, when some strange force invaded, a chain-reaction started. The ancient forces began to shift in balance, causing ponies to suffer. However, the ponies were the ones to stop the imbalance and return the ancient forces to peace. The question is just, how we actually regain balance. Why do these books always have to be so cryptic?”
“There is an ancient force of fear,
which you should search right here.
The Everfree forest is full of supernatural powers,
they slumber in the animals, in the trees and in the flowers.
Maybe in the center of these trees,
an ancient being spreads like a disease.”
This Zebra was actually quite helpful and had a lot of knowledge. I had always thought, that zebras had a strange culture believing in some mystical entities, but maybe I had underestimated them. Maybe there was more truth behind them than we expected.
If she was right, we had to find some entity of fear in the forest. How were we going to find some random entity of fear in there? Then, I had an idea. There is one tale, that you tell every filly and colt in Equestria: The tale of the Timberwolfes. The Timberwolfes, who again and again are in people's nightmares. Maybe destroying the Timberwolfes would bring the forces back to balance. - A bold idea, but maybe worth the risk - Destroying a force of fear could only help, couldn't it?
Of course, it all would not help me to control my magic any better, but somehow we had found out something more important. If there really was an initiation for all the commotion in the last years, from Nightmare Moon over Discord and Chrysalis and that shadow king in the north – I had only read newspaper articles – to the recent events with Dream Cry. If there really was an initiation for all of it, we would have to stop that before thinking about a single pony's problems. I had vowed to myself to stop self-pitying and start to actually be a heroine. Maybe I could become what Candy Pop had believed me to be and here was the opportunity for me to take.
“If we search fear in the Everfree Forest, there is just one logical thing to search: The Timberwolfes. In all of the nightmares I had visited, the most were filled with Timberwolfes. When we destroy them, it could restore the balance.”
The others weren't as convinced as I was.
“Y'all know, that it could also fail. We are not sure, how to stop it all.”
Applejack had a point there.
“It's our only trace!”
I would not have thought, that Twilight Sparkle would defend me. Applejack still did not agree. After drinking the tea made by Zecora, she resignated to Twilights arguments, because she could not come up with anything else either.
“Buck it. Let's just kick those Timberwolfes' behinds. I still ain't sure about it, but heck, it's our only chance.”
.There were a couple of other dangerous animals in this forest, but finding the Timberwolfes couldn't be that hard. I mean, you can smell their breath over thousands of hooves. We headed off into unknown areas to fight strange forces.
“I can smell them!”
Applejack yelled. I was kinda concentrated on the rustling of the leafes, just to get my mind ordered. Meanwhile, the penetrating howling of the Timberwolfes echoed through the whole forest. This unpenetrable forest was the home of the Timberwolfes, they would use the dense treeline to their advantage. Maybe we should have tried something else. Their penetrating stench was now also coming to my nose, just to make me back off a little bit. Behind me was just Pinkie Pie, staring at me.
“Do you fear the darkness? I know something that could help you.”
She literally started to sing, even though the howling got more and more intense and we could hear rushling around us.
“When I was a litte filly and the sun was going dooown,
the darkness and the shadows would always make me frooown.
I'd hide under my pillow from what I thought I saaaaw,
but Granny Pie said, that wasn't the way to deal with fears at aaaall...”
“Not now Pinkie!" interrupted Twilight Sparkle. I was not really happy about her saying that, but although Pinkie Pie may have been giving away our position and overwhelming the sound of the Timberwolves, at least the song had been calming.
We arranged us, so we were standing back to back, making a perfect circle. Another growl came from right in front of me, but the leaves of the trees just made shadows fly throughout all of the forest. I could not make out any wolf. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie pushed me back and I fell over, right towards, where the growl had come from.
I turned around just to see, that a fight had already ensued. Twilight Sparkle was trying to get a giant Timberwolf off of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who both had been crushed by it. Another, smaller Timberwolf just jumped out of the bushes to attack Applejack and Rainbow Dash came for her rescue, just to be attacked by a third Timberwolf. Another one was coming, getting Twilight Sparkle from the side. I had to react, but using my magic was too dangerous. I tried to stand up, but already a fifth direwolf had found me. I was thrown around and against something hard in my back. Just buck it. I assembled some magic, just enough to throw the wolf away from me. Again, the spell had a mind on its own. It started to literally rip the wolf apart with a giant ball of fire, which was not about to burn me.
Somehow, Applejack had evaded the next attack by the Timberwolf attacking her and it had fallen over from its own momentum. Now, Applejack galloped right towards me and just jumped me down, trying to get me through the explosion and out of the claws of the next Timberwolf, whom I had not noticed before. My spell, just finishing, blew us both away into the forest. In the end, I just landed on the ground somewhere, completely without orientation. The one Timberwolf had disassembled and still burned. That one would hopefully not reassemble. When seeing what had happened, the other Timberwolfes just got more furious and even stronger.
I stood up, feeling quite a pain in my back. Although the pain was insane, I had to help them. I decided to go for Twilight Sparkle, as she would probably offer the most value in the fight. She almost had an even fight with the Timberwolf, but he was gaining an advantage over her. I just jumped towards him to get him away, but his prank was faster than me. He just deflected me and I landed on the other side, barely able to catch my fall. I had to use magic again. This fight would not be won without it. I took a deep breath and focused my energy on the Timberwolves – If I would be able to turn them into stone, we could stop them once and for all. This time, I tried to calm myself, not making any mistake. As soon as I would enter the dream world, I could start to harness the energy.
Another Timberwolf – now counting six already – made its appearance. It leaped towards me, threw me to the ground and opened that disgusting mouth and a drop of saliva dropped down onto my face. The Timberwolf started to swing the mighty prank. Then, he released his prank, but I also released the power of the spell. In a matter of a heartbeat, I was being sucked into the dream world. The energy just flew through me. Every part of my body began to hurt and became tensed. The energy tried to rip me apart to flow faster and faster. The other Timberwolves turned around, while the one on top of me was already turned into the black stone, his paw right in front of my face. The other wolves were not able to do anything either, but the magic was still flowing and it seemed as if it would never stop.
At the same time the stone Timberwolf on top of me was crushing my bones. Rainbow Dash started flying towards me and just kicked me away. I lost consciousness, but the spell was stopped. To this point, I still don't know, how she knew, that I had lost control over the spell. I can only imagine, that she had seen Twilight go out of control sometime and had the quick reflexes.
When I tried to stand up, I realized, that I had not managed to get along without a scratch. Some blood was running down my back leg – The wounds from my fall into the cliff from Fluttershy's dream had opened again. The leg had not been broken, just sprained. Now it was most definitely broken.
“Let us just... go back.”
said Rainbow Dash. You could hear the pain in her voice. Her left wing was partly ripped apart by the Timberwolfes. It must have caused her enough pain to still get over to me. Applejack also had wounds on her side and back; Both, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were not as injured; Rarity seemed to have been hit at her flank, cutting through her cutie mark; Twilight Sparkle had a deep wound in her flank and her hair was stuck together by blood. Without using any words, we all agreed to Rainbow Dash. There was no need for words.
It was a silent march, slowly trotting backwards, trying not to lose the balance. It was a march of shame, a march of failure. We should have known, that although we were strong, the old forces were no easy enemies.
Twilight was being partly carried by Fluttershy and Rarity, while I helped Applejack and Pinkie Pie to carry Rainbow Dash. She was even more wounded than anypony had expected; The claws had been burrowed deeply into her skin.
After the first half of the journey, the situation of walking with three legs had just gotten worse and worse, so Applejack and Pinkie Pie had to carry both me and Rainbow Dash. I don't know how long it took us to get back to Ponyville, but it was too long. I repeatedly started to drift away, but tried to stay awake.
To be completely honest, it had been an awful idea.