Cast in the shroud of dark mystery, the Everfree forest is unlike any other place in Equestria. A dangerous place of nightmares that held those that would harm pony kind and feast upon any who were foolish enough to enter its domain unwittingly. It was said that the forest was once the home to the Alicorns, a powerful race of pony with both unicorn magic and graced with the flight of the pegasi. The Alicorns were scattered throughout pony history. Legend tells that they were Immortals, but a catastrophic event long ago destroyed their race, leaving only the God princesses to watch over pony kind. Not many books exist that predate Celestia or the mare in the moon. Pearl had heard whispers in the library that only in the deepest bowels of the Royal Canterlot archives survived the tombs of when Celestia's people existed and maybe what had happened to them.
Pearl was in a panic, she had to find her way out of the forest before night fell completely and the residents awoke to find a lost unfortunate soul to feast upon. Pearl began to run in panic, so many horror stories ran in the back of her mind. She passed so many twisted trees that seemed to reach out for her all wishing to devour her in her panic, and always the feel of a stalker that watched from the shadows. Cold sweat ran just as fast as she did. She turned, always watchful, not to be surprised any more than she was already. She cursed her daydreaming and all the trouble it’s caused in the past. Her day had started so pleasant until Twilight became a part of it, never could she have imagined that her hero would destroy her day time and time again. Every day had been great here in Ponyville until she researched Twilight and it all seemed to degrade from there.
Pearl could hear the cry of a strange beast as she ran, was it a timber wolf pack that had found her or worse, a celestial beast like a Ursa Minor, a Lupin pack, or any of the other monsters that were described to be made of the very stars in the nights sky. Again she could feel hungry eyes watching her as she ran; something had definitely found her and was lying in the darkness for the right time to strike. Pearl was determined not to give it that chance. She cleared her mind of the dangers and rushed head long into the forest hoping to find her way home.
She saw the dying light as she began to approach a clearing. This was it, she was home free. Or so she thought. Her hope had dashed away faster than a Wonderbolt race. Pearl passed the tree line to come face to face with a dead end, almost quite literarily. A ravine filled her view and her heart died as she knew she was completely lost. The deep gorge spanned a distance too far to jump and the depth was too dark to judge a fall in the dark. She couldn’t see a bridge in either direction. As Pearl negotiated her options, the dark depth to the front or the hungry forest to her back. Pearl began to lose hope, her eyes began to water, this couldn't be it. First, she had lost her hero, and then her way, soon her life would be forfeit also. It wasn't right, this wasn't right. Then again, in the last week, nothing seemed right. She recalled the tragic meeting with Twilight and the broken husk of a pony she had become. The book that Twilight had given her, ‘The Fall of Friendship’, even Twilights words that heroes truly don't exist. She thought to Applejack, the stubborn cowpony had given her enough reason to doubt herself. It all flooded her mind and seemed to swallow her up faster than the forest ever could. But then she remembered her family, their smiling encouraging faces seemed to cut away the sadness. And then there was Autumn Breeze and her mother, their shy hidden ways gave Pearl a new found hope. Fear was only the darkness shutting out the light of life she remembered. She had told Autumn the same thing. How could she just stop when there was so much to live for? Pearl felt she could run a little more even if she got more lost it was better than giving up. Pearl shook her head and got ready to face the hungry forest once again.
“It's so sad my dear, to see such a lost soul way out here. It almost brings me to tears about what could happen to it.” A terrible rumbling voice crept through the Everfree, Pearl froze solid. Her stalker finally made himself known. “Hmm, it’s been so long since I've tasted pony,” The voice laughed to itself. “If I remember right their very tender, especially the younger ones.” A pair of fiery red eyes began to glow from the darkness and in Pearl's fright, the massive lion's face pierced the darkness. “Lost in my forest after dark? And here I thought your princess taught your kind better.” The rest of the smiling face emerged. A great lion, his body dwarfed Pearl by a great deal. Even the red stallion she saw that morning was nothing compared to his immense size. A pair of leathery wings were folded to his side as he approached Pearl, who was stunned by terror. “Oh now, you shouldn't look so distressed, my dinner,” he passed her and his chitnous barbed tail brushed under her chin. “Because you’re the first pony I've had in some time, I'll eat you as painlessly as possible.” Pearl could watch her life flash before her eyes.
It was beautiful. The laughs with her friends, her mother’s face, even her father’s ranting about his junk. Even moments with her silent sister. The warm nights curled up with Twilight's book, Twilight's book. She remembered the lessons it taught about being afraid of monsters and how to be brave in the face of danger. Pearl shook away the fear the manticore emanated and regained her head. She hopped away from him and prepared to run or fight, no matter how futile it would be. The manticore perked up a little and reviled in his prey’s new sense of energy. She wanted to be a hero even if this would cost her life. Heroes don't stand scared, heroes stand against evil. And where she stood, nothing seemed more evil than this. Pearl readied herself against the menace and prepared for a fight or to run if she thought it would help at all. She took a deep breath and called out to her pursuer, “I cannot be eaten this night,” The manticore only smiled and licked his chops revealing a row of razor sharp teeth. Pearl resolve was a little shaken but there was no going back now. “If I'm going to be a hero, then I have to get past this.” With that, she lunged at the monster deciding a fight was better than cowardice.
The manticore's look soured as his meal spouted nonsense and jumped at him. Like a flash he dodged Pearl's attack and pinned her to the ground. His size betrayed his speed as the beast's claws cut into Pearl. “A hero?” he brought his stinger across and slammed it into the ground inches from Pearls face. “Throwing your life away is not the path of a hero," the angered monster yelled at his helpless victim. His crushing weight was too much for her and his words stung worse than his tail ever could. “Foolish pony, I was hoping for a meal to have the sweet taste of hopeless fear. I must say, it is most mouthwatering.” Drool dripped onto Pearl as she lay helpless under his paw. Sharp claws dug into her flesh and the dirt below her. “But you start with this hero talk,” his voice became dark. “A hero stands for a principle, a hero defeats a darkness that oppresses the ones they care for.” He leaned in close to her ear. “Tell me, what is it you stand for? Or even against for that matter, hero?” With a self-satisfied laugh he crushed her again knocking the air from her lungs and Pearl felt as if the beast above her broke one of her ribs. Pearl cried out in pain. “That’s more like it, hero. Cry for me, it'll make you that taste that much more delicious.” The monster pulled his stinger from the broken ground and drug it across Pearls face cutting open her cheek. It burned as his poison seeped into her blood stream; it was so painful as it began to go numb. Pearl had to think quick, the monster was right though. What was she thinking, attacking him when running wasn’t the most heroic move, but it may have left her in a less painful position.
“I...I stand for the hope of dreams.” Pearl reached deep into herself and managed to slip from her captors grasp and find her footing, but was cornered, the great beast between her and the forest. There had to be a way to get away, there had to be a way to survive and get back to those that mattered.
“The strangest things the damned will say before death.” The manticore inspected his claw that held Pearl, and licked it clean of her blood. “The hope of dreams? Maybe the poison is acting faster than I expected. You seem to be spouting gibberish, my supper.” He watched Pearl as she stumbled around and prepared for his meal. She bled from her wounds and blood stained the ground as she struggled against his poison. Still, the look of determination on her face angered him to no end. “You'll never leave this forest alive my little pony. Just give in to my poison and lay down for me. I wouldn't want you falling and getting all dirty.” The enraged manticore swung his tail into a nearby tree smashing it as if it were nothing.
Pearl was undetermined, but her vision began to blur. “No, I will stand for wh...what I believe. I came to Ponyville to meet my hero,” Pearl stumbled as she spoke. “It didn't matter what the reality of what she had become, she stood against the darkness that would hurt her friends no matter how much it hurt her.” That was it; she understood what Twilight had done. Twilight really was the hero she had always dreamed of. A new vitality overtook Pearl as she poured everything she had in to standing. She looked over her shoulder to the cliff. “Goodbye villain, you have given me a direction. Now, I must follow.” She smiled to the predator as she fell back over the cliff. It wasn’t her best idea but she took the chance that the ground would be more forgiving than the creatures’ razor maw.
Pearl could hear the monster let lose a defining roar as she slipped out of his view and into the darkness, the last thing she saw was the manticore looking down on her against the full moon. She tumbled against the sharp rocks every one sliced her coat staining it from its brilliant white. But Pearl felt none of it; her attackers poison numbed her entire body to the pain as she passed in to the abyss.
“I did it, I stood against the monster," she laughed to herself, “But what now? Lost was better than whatever my position is now.” Pearl rolled over to survey her surroundings. “Trees...more trees.” 'Well, it is a forest,' she thought to herself. The moonlight barely reached Pearl as she lay on the cold, thorny ground. “Well, at least I won't be eaten.” Pearl smiled and laughed but it was to much she struggled to breath and gave a violent cough, she could taste blood in her mouth. The manticore's poison had done its work, Pearl was almost completely paralyzed. She tried and tried again to will her battered limbs to move, but nothing.
She labored to breath, as she strained to listen for anyone or anything in the inky darkness. A few specks of lunar rays illuminated distant parts of the Everfree. A flash of a silvery object moved through the moon light. Pearl tried to move her head to see it better, but there was nothing, no movement. Just the spectral felling of motion. The shimmering figure came into view, a great pony stood before Pearl. His mane seemed to sparkle with the radiance of the heavens themselves, his regal stature was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Maybe she didn’t survive the fall, was this the envoy to the other side? He was breathtaking; quite literally, Peal could feel herself slipping away into darkness.
Everywhere the world seemed to burn as the land and trees were scorched. Pearl stood amongst the mayhem, transfixed upon a mother holding her foal. The two cried out as the forest fell around them, tears evaporated as they left their eyes. The heat must have been unbearable, but Pearl could feel nothing as she watched. It was strange, all Pearl could do was watch the scene, but she felt no need to help the two ponies in their plight. Then the foal looked to Pearl. “Please come back to me, Pearl, wake up…” Pearl shook her head and the foal buried her head into her mother’s chest as a burning tree fell on the helpless victims.
“NOOOOOO” Pearl shot straight out of her bed and frantically looked around to see she was home and in her warm comfy bed. She put a hoof to her head and wiped the cold sweat from her brow, but found a cold cloth. She looked around to see a pair of pegasi cringing behind a chair across from her bed. “Ms. Fluttershy? Autumn? How did I get here? How am I alive?” Pearl quickly raced to a mirror to inspect her body. “I’m fine but how? The manticore, the fall? I thought I was a goner.” She patted herself all over, looking for any sign of the battle from the night before. Nothing, not a bruise, not even a scratch.
“Oh dear, you’ve been out for at least a day.” Pearl looked behind her in the mirror to see Fluttershy come from the chair and approach her. “Autumn said you went to Twilight the other night, and then left without saying anything.” That rang a bell but still no marks. “Autumn went to see you the next morning, but you didn’t answer the door or open the store. So we got worried and came in to find you asleep and tossing like you were dreaming of something terrible,” Fluttershy continued and Pearl thought back to the dream of a blazing inferno, but it was hazy. She shook her head to clear it, but when she opened her eyes there in the mirror was something out of place. A tall metal object that she had never seen before, but was so familiar. It filled her vision as she spun to see it but it was gone. Nothing occupied the space behind Fluttershy, just a blank power blue wall.
The blood had rushed to her head as she blankly stared past Fluttershy. The world went black and spun as Pearl fainted from the overexertion. Once again she sat up from her bed with a cold cloth on her forehead. “I see your awake. Feeling better?” Autumns soothing voice filled her ears and left a euphoric tone after words.
“Much, thank you,” She sat in bed holding the cool cloth in place. “So sorry for the scare, but it was the darndest thing.” Pearl looked for the shy, yellow caregiver, “Where’s your mother?”
“Cooking some celery soup,” Autumn handed Pearl a new cloth and took the old one from Pearl. “It’s my favorite when I’m feeling a little under the weather. Where did you go after the other night, I know it wasn’t here,” Autumn looked around carefully. “I know you went into the forest. I followed you, but was too scared to go in after you.” She whispered. “Did something happen?” Autumn gave Pearl a suspicious look, but before Pearl could answer, Fluttershy returned with a bowl of hot soup.
“So tell me Pearl, what did Twilight have to say. Was she looking alright?” The question caught Pearl off guard. She did see Twilight that night and what transpired wasn’t exactly a casual conversation. “You’re the first pony she’s spoken to in over ten years. It’s a wonder really, I never gave up on her. I knew one day she would reach out, but I was hoping it would be one of her friends,” Fluttershy got up from the chair she was sitting in. “At least what’s left of her friends.”
Pearl recalled the event as best she could, but had to stop a few times to comfort Fluttershy as all she could do was cry. Fluttershy would only wipe her tears and tell her to continue. By the time Pearl had gotten to the end, both Fluttershy and Autumn was a streaming fountain of sorrowful tears. After hearing it from her own lips, even Pearl was about in tears.
“Oh my, Pearl, it must have been tragic. I knew we had lost Twilight, but it sounds like she’s lost even to herself.” Fluttershy stared out a window toward where the Library would sit, wondering what her misunderstood friend was doing.
“Do you think Spike could bring her back, mom?” Autumn jumped up and rushed to Fluttershy. “You use to tell me how close they were. I know if she were to see him, she may come out finally.” Pearl was lost, who was Spike? She tried for all she was worth to think back to her books and a character like that.
“No, I don’t think Spike would come back. I haven’t seen him in half a decade.” Fluttershy pets her daughter's head, soothing her disappointment. “He’s very busy in Canterlot as Celestia's assistant. And they didn’t exactly leave on good terms.” Fluttershy started to cry a little from the memory of the past.
After an afternoon of unfortunate stories from the past, Pearl decided on some food. Sleeping for a whole day can build up quite the appetite. There were a couple of places to eat in Ponyville, but Sugarcube Corner was her favorite. It was something about the way they made an apple fritter that reminded her of her mother. Pearl walked with Autumn to the bakery. They had left Fulttershy to her own devices, she practically pushed them out the door so she could be alone. If Fluttershy was anything like Butterfly, then she was finding what little comfort in her animals that they could provide. She caught a moment of bliss just thinking of the cream Pegasus laying on her couch, covered in the six menacing white rabbits. Pearl told Autumn and they both had a laugh at Fluttershy's expense. As they walked, Pearl would see a glint out of the corner of her eye, a shimmer of metal seemed to follow her through town. She would turn to see what was there, but every time she did, nothing in the area could have produced enough reflection.
“Ever get that feeling your being followed?” Pearl leaned over to Autumn as they sat at the café. Autumn just looked at her as she chewed her dandelion sandwich. “No, seriously. And the worst part is that I don’t think it’s a pony that’s creeping around.”
“I know you went into the Everfree the other night, but I don’t think anything is lurking in the bright happy alleys of Ponyville.” Pearl wasn’t amused by Autumn's poke at her sanity. It was true though, she had escaped the manticore and he seemed really upset (to put it lightly) that she had gotten away. But she doubted he followed her to Ponyville. But it still didn’t explain that strange shimmer and the metal object that was just out of sight.
Pearl and Autumn finished their lunch and Autumn bid Pearl a sweet farewell. Pearl seemed to have developed a keen sense of paranoia as she made her way home. 'Maybe I’ll write mother and tell her everything is fine,' she thought to herself as she walked through the Ponyville Park. Her mother had written her a few times and she usually returned the message within a timely fashion. The Junk Man was happy for Pearl, having gotten the store up and running faster than he expected.
‘That is a terrible nickname for a parent’. Pearl froze in her tracks, who was that? Pearl warily looked around her to see where the voice came from. But there was no pony around. “Hello?” she sheepishly called out. “Is anypony there?” she had given caution to a small cluster to trees, was her assailant hiding among the background. ‘Don’t be so jumpy filly.’ There it was again, the voice was defiantly there, but it seemed to emanate from the back of her mind. “This is it, I’ve gone bonkers. I’m hearing voices.” She sat down on a park bench and laughed to herself. The stress of losing her dream had finally caught up to her. ‘Good then, you can finally hear me.’ The voice in her head spoke out again, ‘I’ve been trying to catch your attention all day.’ The voice sounded very annoyed with Pearl.
“Ok…” she looked around hoping no pony would see her sitting on the bench talking to herself. “And who are you then," she asked with her eyes looking up to the somewhat cloudy day. ‘My name is Gallitais, and I’m the one who you struck a deal with to save your miserable flank.’ Gallitais, what kind of name was that. She let a little chuckle loose. ‘It’s my name and we have an arrangement.’
Pearl was a little taken back his less than pleasurable tone. The liberties he took with her weren’t much to her liking, and what arrangement was he talking about. “Was it you who saved me from the Everfree?” she called out to a squirrel that happened to pass by. It may have looked silly but it was better than talking to nothing. The squirrel just looked at her with a cocked head.
'Yes’ it spoke to her and she felt her heart sink. ‘You lay dying on the forest floor, so we made a deal. I would use my power to save what was left of your life, and you would run a little errand for me.’ Pearl didn’t like where this was going. “What kind of errand are we talking about here; you need me to pick your laundry up?” It was in bad taste, her joke, but could you imagine a disembodied voice needing or even having cloths. Pearl chucked once again. ‘Something like that, yes.’ The voice didn’t sound very amused. ‘First, you’ll need to go to that dreadful place you call home and retrieve something.’ Pearl became very worried. ‘We’re going on a little trip.’ Pearl swallowed a hard lump in her throat.