The Everfree Forest, a dark and dangerous place. Nopony knows the exact origin of this mysterious forest, some say that the forest is one of the oldest living landmarks in Equestria. Whatever its origins are, eveypony knows to avoid this forest. For in this forest, the predatory creatures have made this pace their homes and will eat anything foolish creature that wanders into their homes.
Bloodthirsty creatures are not the only thing that lies in this dark forest. Like the name says, the Everfree forest is free from any influence from the ponies. The plants grow on their own, the weather move on its own, and the animals take care of themselves.
Because of these characteristic, most ponies feared the forest and tend to stay away from it. Those few brave enough to enter, never reached any deeper and usually stayed near the sides. With nopony bothering the forest, the whole forest remained silently peaceful for centuries.
That is until one day a pony sought to strip the forest of it precious trees. Mr. Filthy Rich, a businesspony seeking to make money from the Everfree forest. Logging are in high demand in Equestria and being the ever opportunist, he bought a logging company and put them to work.
He chose the Everfree forest since nopony else had and it doesn't belong to anyone. He was told that the forest was a spooky and terrifying place, and that by cutting down the trees he'll angering the forest. Rich dismissed these claims, and continued on with his operation.
A week after a sawmill was built near the Everfree forest, the light brown businesspony sent his lumberjacks to work. They steadily cut down the trees and slowly made their way further in. At this point Mr. Rich was visited by an inhabitant of the forest. This visitor was a zebra named Zecora, she was basically here to give the same warning the other ponies had told him before.
And like those ponies before he told her that he'll be continuing his operation, and asked her to leave. Before she left, she muttered about how much of a fool he was and left.
On Week two since this started, there has been some numerous incidents. There were attacks from the creatures living in the forest and some ponies getting infected by a blue plant called poison joke. These incidents have put ponies into the hospitals nearby. However, despite all this set backs, Mr. Rich was about to quit now. With his work force decreased, the businesspony hired ponies from the nearby town of Ponyville.
With the additional help from the Ponyvillian, Mr' Rich's workforce has been restored to full strength and are pushing even further into the forest. Then on the next day, something strange just happened. The once previous cut down trees were suddenly back. The stump that was previously there has been restored into a full grown tree again.
While some ponies find this disturbing, Mr. Rich sees this as another opportunity. If these trees can rapidly grow back, then that means that he'll have an endless supply of lumber. At the same time of this discovery, his secretary informed him that several of workers didn't show up. At this point he was too excited to care about some ponies who didn't show up to work.
For the next couple of days, things went smoothly. Trees were cut down and brought to the sawmill. Then the stumps once again grew up into trees again. However, at the same time more lumberjacks are mysteriously disappearing.
Family and friends of the missing workers have stated that they have never returned home. News of the disappearing ponies discourage other ponies to accept the job offer by Mr. Rich. Even some of his own workers are quitting, but it's not about the missing ponies, rather something entirely different.
According to them when they were cutting down trees, they can hear faint sounds coming trees they were cutting down. Not only that when taken to the sawmill, the workers there also heard the faint sound of screams coming from the lumber they were cutting up.
The workers couldn't take the screaming anymore and quit. And now with many ponies quitting, Mr. Rich had no choice but to participate in cutting down the tree with the few remaining workers he had left. Picking up his ax, he trotted to the last spot his workers were working on.
The spot he reached was where the stumps grow into trees. The brown pony then noticed the trees strange differences from other trees. Unlike the smooth surface of the regular trees, these threes were more bulkier in the trunk section of the tree.
The light brown earth pony refocus on the task at hoof. Raising his ax, Rich swung the weapon and plunged it into the trunk of the tree. Then he heard something, it was quick but he definitely heard something. Raising his ax again Mr. Rich hits the tree again and heard the sound again. Listening closely the sound was indeed a faint scream, the scream one would give when they are in pain.
Believing that the scream was just in his head, the earth pony swung his ax again and hit the same spot, receiving another scream. He continued to hack at the tree while hearing the scream at the same. The screams were starting to bother Rich, as he tried to quickly hack against the trunks, hoping to bring down the tree as fast as possible.
With one last strike the tree started to tilt. Moving to the side, the tree fell right next to him. Mr. Rich was panting from overexerting himself. He just wanted to go back to his office and relax. However, for some strange reason he wants to stay here.
He then looked at the stump he created, he trotted closer to it and kept both his eyes on it. He doesn't know why but, right now that looks really comfortable. He went up to the stump and planted his brown butt on it. Sighing in comfort, Mr. Rich didn't even notice the vines coming from the stump.
The vines surround the relax pony, once they have everything done, the vines tighten around the body, containing their prey. Mr. Rich tried to move , but noticed that his legs were not moving. Looking down he some tree bark covering his rear legs and they were spreading fast.
Then Mr. Rich came to a realization, he was becoming a tree. Then that means those missing ponies also turned into trees. At this point he started to feel disturbed, the trees he and his workers have been cutting down were actually the missing ponies.
Not wanting to become a tree, Mr. Rich pulled as hard as he can but, the vines were tied tightly around his body and legs. Meanwhile the tree barks were slowly creeping its way to the rest of the body. Looking down, his legs have fused with the tree trunk and soon the rest of his body is becoming a tree.
The creeping tree bark finally reach his neck, he futilely moves his head forward, hoping it would do anything. Instead his head was encased in tree bark, branches started to form from atop his head. Once the leaves started to grow, the transformation is completed. Mr. Rich has become a tree.
The next day when his worker came looking for him, they found the spot where he was working and turned their eyes on the tree. Looks of pure horror and shock appeared on their faces and they ran off. The reason was because on the bark cover tree, was a face in shape of Mr. Rich.
"And ever since then, nopony ever cut down a tree from the forest. For it will bring the wrath of the forest upon them!" Applebloom said in a spooky tone.
Once she was finished, she looked at her two friends, expecting a response from them. Sweetie Belle was at awed from hearing her story. Scootaloo on the other hoof....
"That story sucked," the orange pegasus stated.
"What?" Applebloom responded, shocked by her friend comment.
"Come on, seriously a tree?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Oh I don't know maybe because it wasn't scary!"
As the two were arguing, down below Applejack was rather shocked by her little sister story and remind herself to have a talk with Applebloom later but, now it looks like a fight is about to break out.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was not bothered by Applebloom's story. In fact what bothered her the most was Scootaloo's attitude. Once she stops the fight that is about to happen, she gives the little filly a scolding.
Before either can go up, they were stopped by Rarity. She put her hoof mouth and shush them to silence, she then pointed up and told them to listen in.
Back above the two crusaders were arguing ferociously, Sweetie decided to butt in before this escalated. Putting her hoof in her mouth, she whistled. This got both fillies to stop their fight and looked at the unicorn.
"Please girls stop fighting," she gave both ponies a stern look. "It was starting to get good but, now all of sudden you're fighting."
Both fillies started to feel bad, especially the orange pegasus. "You're right Sweetie Belle," she said, then turned to Applebloom." Applebloom I'm sorry for what I said." she apologized.
"Sometimes I say things without thinking and I..." she was interrupted by her yellow friend.
"Scootaloo I forgive you," she told her friend. "Now why don't you go on with your story."
Scootaloo smiled and took out her paper, she then started to read its content.
"A long time ago there was once a serial killer that lived in Fillydelphia, back then he was quite well known and feared. The killer though he was invisible, that nopony can catch him."
"That was until his identity was revealed, forcing him to flee to his old family house in the outskirts of town. Thinking that he was safe, he was unaware of the group of ponies stalking him, wanting to exact their vengeance on him."
"But the thing with this group of ponies is that they are dead, after all...."
THE DEAD SEEK VENGEANCE