You know, the Everfree was certainly different than the last time I was here, makes sense since I was asleep last time I was here, the forest was still peaceful and quiet. But it had a eerie vibe to it, as if danger was lingering.
“Hey Rainbow, what are those flowers that are scattered about here and there?”
“Poison Joke”, the mare replied, cringing at the flower.
“What's that?”
“They're a special type of plant with, I guess a personality, they somehow can hear you, their leaves and petals pull pranks by altering you size, shape, color, it could be anything, as long as they think it's amusing.”
“That is very odd”, I said looking at one of the mystic flowers.
“You can say that again.”
It wasn't long until we reached the destination. There was a large tree with several windows in it's side, hanging from the branches were several masks and bottles of various shapes and sizes. It looked a bit creepy, although Rainbow said there's nothing to worry about.
“Zebra culture is very different than ours, when we first met her, we thought she was a witch of some sort, soon we learned that she wasn't a witch at all, and we shouldn't reject a book by it's cover. In fact, that Poison Joke we talked about, was the reason we found out about who Zecora really was.”
“So what does she do? I mean, like an occupation.” I questioned.
“She's a master herbalist, she knows lots of different recipes for different things, she even knows a thing or two about magic.”
"So she is a witch?"
"She knows a lot about magic, but I don't know about her being able to use it."
We approached the wooden door to the zebra's home as Rainbow knocked, “Hey Zecora, you here?”
“Who has come to pay me a visit”, a voice called, “it sounds like Rainbow Dash, is it?”
The door opened as Zecora pops her head from the door way, “It is Rainbow Dash and friend, how about you come in.”
Is she speaking in rhyme?
“What's up Zecora?”
“What is up, not much in news, I am simply making my usual brews.” Zecora chanted.
Rainbow Dash looked into the cauldron, she took a sniff and cringed, “What kind of brew is that?!”
“That is not a brew for ponies that you wince at”, Zecora replied, “it is a special fertilizer inside the vat.”
“Okay....” Rainbow backed away from the vessel, “I know that your busy, but could you make a pain relieving brew for my friend over there.”
Rainbow pointed towards me, I was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room. My mind was still lingering about what happened a while back. I don't even think I'll be able to get over the whole 'everypony you cared about in that house is dead now', well, except Mom. But it still felt like she's dead, I only have her soul-bounded crystal in my saddlebag.
“Hmm, I shall see what I can do”, Zecora responded, “but I think you should leave for a bit too.”
“Okay, no sweat. Come on Solace.....”
“I actually wish to speak to your friend who is over there, before I mix my brew, I shall set some time to spare.”
“Um...okay”, Rainbow sounded confused, Zecora gave her a look and RD quickly understood as she zoomed out the door.
Zecora turned to me, she walked up slowly and place a hoof on my head, “Solace, your vibe is giving me a clue, is there something bothering you?”
Wow is she good at this rhyming thing.
“Why should I trust you?” I snapped, removing her hoof.
“Calm now, pony who is red”, Zecora argued, “you are acting like a colt who should go to bed. I am simply a friend who is here to help, now tell me, what is troubling you young whelp?”
I looked at the zebra, a bit irritated that she called me a colt. She was right though, I barely know her and I made a poor first impression.
“Sorry about what I did, it's just that....”
I explained to Zecora what happened, her ever listening ears never moved until I finished telling my tale.
“The pain of death is not one of laughter, but the love of your friends will not falter.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Zecora sighed, rethinking her words, “Even if your parents are gone, the love from your friends shall mend the bond.”
“Yea, but friends aren't family, I haven't known my friends for that long.”
“There was a saying my friend Twilight would say when things became tragic, I believe it went, 'Friendship is Magic'.”
Okay that made no sense, well, kind of made no sense. I could understand how my friends could help me, but they aren't like the ponies I've known for all of my life. But Rainbow, Rarity, Derpy, AJ, and that one crazy one Pinkie have been trying their best to keep me smiling. Soon after the incident, Pinkie threw a big 'Let's-cheer-Solace-up' party, which a blast. AJ would bring some of her delicious apple treats every once in a while. Rarity would even invite me for tea (even though I hated the stuff) and we would chat about magic and the current fashions in Canterlot, and Rainbow Dash would come and visit whenever I'm not making deliveries with Derpy. (she allowed me to become a part time mail stallion so I could pay for food and other things) Besides, whenever I needed the comfort, I can always go into the crystal that held my mom's soul.
“Okay Zecora, I understand now.” I smiled weakly.
“Hey Solace, Zecora. There's somepony out here picking Poison Joke.”, Rainbow poked her head through one of the windows.
“What have I told that mare about the Joke”, Zecora growled under her breath, “I'll be right back with the antidote.”
I ran outside and followed Rainbow to where the pony was picking the mystic flower. Although I tried hard to keep my mind off of what the effects would be, it could result in something terrible. I lunged out of the shrubbery into a clearing, on the far side was a large patch of the little pranksters. Right in the middle of the group, was a gray unicorn with an electric blue mane and tail, she was wearing pink saddlebags and a pink hair bow and ribbon.
“Hey there! Are you okay?” I called to the mare. She replied with a smile and a wave as she continued her task.
Damn it, I really don't want to touch that stuff, only Celestia knows what would happen to me. Make it worse I can't learn a new spell, I didn't bring the spell book. Need to think.
“Rainbow, do you think you can carry my over to the other side of the patch?” I asked my pegasus friend. The mare was on the other side of the sea of non-poisonous poison, so I would probably be able to talk to her more easily.
“Psh, in ten seconds flat.” Rainbow got hold of my fore-hooves and flew me across, the blue flowers made it look like an ocean of one big, unknown and unpleasant jokes.
Rainbow dropped me on the ground, right next to the flowers, about fifteen feet from the pony.
“Are you ok?” I asked once again.
The unicorn looked at me, “Yea, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be okay?”
“Well besides the fact that your standing in Poison Joke.” Rainbow replied.
The mare looked down below her feet and laughed.
“I have a spell that can keep myself from being effected from the Joke.”
“Wait, a spell?” I asked, if there was a spell for this, Twilight or Rarity should know about it, it would help a lot.
“Yep, it's part of my talent. I can manipulate Poison Joke to give off the effects I want the plant to have on the pony. Right now, they're in a state of idleness below me.”
She turned to show her cutie-mark, it showed an image of Poison Joke, “Name's Star Flower by the way.”
“I'm Moon Solace, and this is my friend Rainbow Dash.”
“Hey, what's up.” Rainbow replied.
“Well, I need to go back to my village to plant these properly. I'll see you two sometime soon okay?”
“Actually Star Flower, we need to take you back to our friend Zecora, she thinks you're under the effects of the flower and she's already making the antidote.”
We made it back to Zecora's hut and our zebra friend wasn't pleased hearing about the mare's talent. She just finished making the brew and she just wasted all that time and resources making it. Zecora dipped a vile into the vat and handed it to me just in case something happens. I grasped it in my magic and tucked it into my bag. After the series of events, Star Flower invited us to her village, we agreed so Rainbow and I followed our plant specialist friend to her village, she wanted us to see something called 'Everfree Radio'.
“Hey Star Flower, what's a radio?” I asked curiously.
“A radio is a broadcasting system, it can be used for communication, codes, and a bunch of other stuff. But in this case, it's simply used for entertainment, we play music for other ponies to hear.”
Rainbow scratched her head in confusion, “Okay, but how do ponies hear the music?”
Star Flower pointed over to a group of ponies, they were surrounding a small black box with circles on each side, blasting music.
“So that's a radio, how interesting.” I walked up to the group of ponies and examined the box they ambushed, “but where is the music coming from?”
“Well, I'm going over to the station right now if you want to see.” Star Flower said as she walked in the direction of a large tower made of metal. Below the tower was a building with Star's cutie-mark on it.
“Are you the owner Star?” I asked, pointing a the sign.
“Sort of, I work with a DJ that goes by the name of One Trick, who is very good mixing songs. We also have several other ponies who help out with the station.”
We walked up to the door, I noticed some frost forming on the door, which was odd since it was too warm here for snow. The doors swung open and there was ice EVERYWHERE, ponies were slipping and sliding across the room. A blue-ish gray pegasus was flying around trying to keep ponies from running face first into a wall, she saw Star Flower and flew to greet her.
“One Trick, what the hay is going on here?”
“Frozen Sounds made everything a little too cold again.” One Trick replied shivering, “He turned down the heat and everything started freezing.”
“Where is this Frozen fellow?” I questioned, shivering as well.
“In the mixing room, he's currently on air so he can't hear us from the outside.”
“Then we'll need to thaw him out and restore the heat”, I said as I lunged in and began slipping on the ice along with the other ponies in the building.
Rainbow started laughing on the floor in my expense, “Need some help there?”
“Yea some help would be really nice right now!” I yelled falling once more on my face.
“Sit” Rainbow commanded, I did so, “Good, now stay.”
“I'm not a dog Rainbow”, I grumbled, “Why do I even need.......AH.”
Rainbow was pushing me through the hallway at lightning speeds, we kept going through the station until we made it to a large wall of ice that was blocking the way.
“Something tells me that Frozen is behind this wall.” I commented.
“Yea, and something tells me that doesn't look friendly.” Rainbow replied, pointing at the thing she was talking about.
It was a floating snake-like creature, completely made of ice and frost, there was steam coming off of it too, meaning it was dry ice.
“Solace, what is that thing?” Rainbow asked, she backed up a bit, trying to distance herself from the creature.
Let's see......snake-like body, entirely made of carbon dioxide and regular ice, and floats like a ghost.
“Looks like some kind of wraith.” I replied, I got into a battle stance along with Rainbow, “before I say anything else, I need to check something.”
Grabbing the nearest chair I could find with my magic I launched it at the elemental, upon touching the wraith, the chair froze solid and shattered as it hit the floor.
“Well that's not good”, I commented. When I turned to Rainbow, she looked a bit frightened from the chair shattering.
“If I make it through this, I'm giving that DJ a piece of my mind.” Rainbow growled.
“I don't think it was the DJ”, I said, “These Ice Elementals invaded the station, most likely through the air ducts a while back, they seem to be much more active when Frozen Sounds turns the AC down to make himself more comfortable in the mixing room, but I'm just going on a limb here so I'm not entirely sure.
“Well how are you going to kill it? You don't know any combat spells.” Rainbow replied backing up as the creature looked at us and hissed.
She's right, how am I going to kill it? It's completely made of ice and turns......Wait, the one failed spell from Rarity's shop.
Focusing on the ghast, I drew the levitation spell, leaving out the last moon and withdrew my mind's paintbrush. Instantly, the wraith's tail exploded into a blue fiery torch, gas and water melting off the Ice Wraith as it screamed in pain.
“Aw yea, that is one heck of a spell Solace.” Rainbow cheered.
“Yea, but it's not dead.”
The ice snake lunged at us with the full intent to kill. Thankfully, it's injured so it was easy to dodge.
“Can you light it up again?” Rainbow asked, getting back on her hooves, ready to dodge another attack.
“Maybe....” I refocused on the rampaging creature trying to freeze it's attacker, before I could start the spell, the snake nipped my leg, freezing it. It was incredibly cold, it felt like it was burning through my skin. So this is what they call a 'freezer burn'.
Okay, so I'm somewhat immobile and there's an angry elemental trying to kill me. Perfect.
“Hey you! Don't leave me out of this!” Rainbow picked up another chair with her teeth and chucked it at the attacker, knocking it off it's course to kill me.
“Thanks for the save”, I called. I refocused and used the fire spell on my frozen leg, I made it much smaller so I wouldn't burst into flames.
I looked at the disoriented creature, without any hesitation I finished it off, blasting it with another fire spell. All that was left was a small puddle of un-evaporated water. Seeing that evil thing die felt good, really good.
“Geez Solace, talk about a finisher.” Rainbow commented.
“Well, my guess is that there's more of these guys in the building, we need to tell Star Flower and have everypony evacuate. You go tell them to leave the building, I'll melt down this wall.”
“Sorry Solace, I'm not ditching you. As you said there may be more of these things and I don't want you to become a Solace-icle.” Rainbow flew behind me and once again started pushing me across the floor like a sled. Zooming down the hallways, my theory was correct, there were several other Ice Wraiths in other rooms, luckily they didn't notice us. Back in the main lobby we explained to Star Flower what was going on.
“Seems very unusual for Ice Wraiths to be here in the Everfree, they aren't made for this type of climate.” Star Flower said as she directed the other ponies out of the building, “They prefer living in the mountains where there's a lot of snow and ice.”
“Kinda obvious if they're made of ice.” Rainbow remarked.
“Then why would they be here?” I asked myself.
“Your guess is as good as mine Moon Solace.” Star Flower closed the double doors to the entrance and barricaded them shut, “But first, we need to get Frozen out of the broadcasting room and remove the pests along the way.”
“Okay, well first, we need to remove this icy floor”, I created my flame spell to melt the slick floor, leaving large puddles, “Come on, we got a pony to save.”
The three of us raced through the corridor passing several attacking wraiths, I quickly melted them with my make-shift spell, giving them no mercy. Soon we approached the ice wall once again.
“Everpony take cover, this is going to be a big blast.” I jumped into one of the rooms in the hallway, Rainbow and Star Flower jumped into another room across the way.
“Fire in the hole!” I drew a large fire spell and released the spell, a huge fireball of blue fire engulfed the wall, along with traveling into the hall, it was much, much larger than I expected, I almost roasted myself.
“Agh!” I heard Rainbow screamed, “Celestia's mercy, that hurts!”
The fire died down and I sprinted into the other room, Rainbow was holding onto the base of her wing, wincing in pain.
“Rainbow, are you okay?” I was scared, I just injured my closest friend. Fuck, there goes my Pinkie Promise, “I'm so sorry.”
“It's fine Solace, it was just a bit warm, that's all.” Rainbow winced once again, putting her hoof on her wing again.
“But, I promised to protect you, and the one thing I needed to protect you with, did the exact opposite. I broke my promise, what kind of a friend am I.” I flopped onto the ground putting my hooves on my head.
Suddenly, I felt a hoof hitting me in the head, “It's not your fault! It was an accident, you didn't mean to hurt me, did you?”
I shook my head.
“You need to try and learn how to control your magic, Twilight told me when she started learning magic, she had a difficult time learning to control her powers as a unicorn. Remember, she has a horn to control her magic, you don't so this is going to be much more difficult for you. Especially since this is a spell you created.”
Wait a sec, I made this spell. This must be the spell Las-Mir was talking about. I should ask him next time I go into his Soul Crystal.
“Are you sure you're going to be okay?” I asked.
“I'll be fine like I said, just a little burn.” Rainbow smiled as she gave her wings a few flaps.
I wasn't fully convinced, but the guilt should come off soon enough.
“Well, the spell certainly worked.” Star Flower pointed at the once was wall of ice, opening up a fork in the road.
“So, which way should we go?” Rainbow turned to our gray friend.
“We need to go left, there we pass the broiler room and then the broadcasting room.” Star Flower pointed.
“Why in Equestria would they have the broiler room right next to the broadcasting room?”
Star Flower shrugged, just as clueless about the design.
“Ugh, I have a bad feeling about this.” I grunted as we walked down the corridor, it was steadily getting colder as we approached the boiler room. Ten feet away and I saw several Wraith tails popping out of the door.
Damn it.