//------------------------------//
// X 
// Story: Twilights Journey: Escape Equestria 
// by Merotik 
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Thirty Miles down the river, Twilight could see the tall dark green trees of the Everfree forest. She slowed her transportation down to a walking speed as she entered. 

Once inside, Twilight could feel the eyes of the forest creatures staring at her from within the trees and bushes. Twilights heart sped faster as she heard howls from within the distance. She began taking deep slow breaths to help calm herself down, extending her foreleg in and out as she did so.  

The forests interior was just how she remembered it. Dark green trees so thick you couldn't see through the forest. The clouds above were moving on its own and there was a thin white fog engulfing the area. 

Twilight moved her wooden transportation forward with caution, making sure to avoid anything that might seem dangerous. She drove over wet puddles, holes, bushes (using her magic to levitate the transportation), and around a patch of poison joke.

'Don't want to go through any of that again' though Twilight. She was suddenly reminded of the time when Zecora first came to Pony Ville and she and the rest of her friends accidently ran into a patch of poison joke. 

All seemed calm and well for Everfree forest standards. The forest appearance screamed for a predators surprise attack, yet none came. Then again, Twilight felt it was because she was only at the edge of the forest. Things were probably a lot safer in this area.

After traveling at a slow speed for nearly twenty minutes, Twilight felt that it was safe enough to increase her speed. Nothing bad has happened yet so she figured, 'why not?'

At fifteen miles per hour, Twilight immediately felt the forest become bumpier with her increase in speed. As she began tearing through bush after bush, Twilight had the sudden feeling that something was different, like there was a sudden change in the forests unusually calm state. Observing her surroundings, Twilight found that there was nothing wrong. She continued to speed through the forest with ease. 

Twilights heart began slowing to a normal pace, and she returned to breathing normally. For a trip in the Everfree forest, it was surprising to Twilight that nothing was happening. She was expecting to get pounced by a predator the moment she entered. Fall into quick sand, get tangled in vines (some of the vines were alive), or even get caught in poison joke, and she specifically made sure that THAT didn't happen again. Yet nothing was happening at all. Besides from the howling she heard in the distance, the Everfree forest was, surprisingly enough, calm. At the same time, it was actually very relaxing. The forest thick mass of leaves left little to no sun light to enter into the forest (if the sun was out, it was still the moons turn), and the patches of bluish green grass was thick and soft enough to make a good resting spot. These two combinations made the forest seem like a very nice place for taking naps. The scenery wasn't all that bad as well. The trees did look a little creepy to Twilight, but she still felt at peace as she traveled the quite calm Everfree forest. 

Twilight couldn't ever remember the forest having been this nice before. She assumed it was because she was always preoccupied in some sort of situation to notice the forests beauty. The first time she had ever gone into the forest was when she had to stop Nightmare Moon by looking for the elements of harmony. Her first impressions of the forest were the opposite of nice thanks to that night. The second time she had gone into the forest she was turn to stone by a cockatrice and wasn't revived until several hours later by Fluttershy. All and all her experience in the forest has given her the thought that this place was completely dangerous. Now however, Twilight felt as if she didn't give the forest a fair assumption. Sure she had been in sticky situations before but technically it was her fault for traveling without protection. The night with Nightmare Moon didn't count because technically the forest didn't place them in danger, Nightmare Moon did. Now, the forest didn't seem that dangerous anymore.

'I think I'd actually like to visit this place more often, if it wasn't for the fact that Discords chaos is spreading' thought Twilight. She smiled as she allowed herself to fall into incautious, comfortable state of mind. 'Maybe this place isn't so bad after all. Ha! Silly me, getting myself all worked up over nothing! There's nothing wrong with this place at all, heck, I'd even say the creatures aren't all that-'

Before she could finish her thought, Twilight suddenly heard the sound of stomping hoofs behind her. The ground started shaking, and Twilight could hear trees and bushes crashing, as if something was trampling over it with ease. Twilight turned and gasped.

Behind her was a stampede of every known creature to live in the Everfree forest. From manticores to tigers, cockatrice to snakes, timbre wolves to bears, all of them, every single last one.

' . . . Well . . . that was short lived' thought Twilight. Using her magic, Twilight forced the wheels of her transportation to move at the fastest speed she could manage. This wasn't easy, she was no longer on a flat path like before and now struggled to maintain her transportations maneuverability as well as prevent herself from falling off. She drove fast, avoiding obstacles in her path. She hopped over sand traps, drove through bushes, and occasionally ducked from low branches.

Suddenly from within the distance, Twilight could see light piercing through the edge of what seemed like an opening in the forest. Two trees separated from the thick clumps of trees, leaving a gap wide enough for Twilight to drive through.

It was the edge of the forest, and the light indicated that the sun had switched from the moon.

She leaned forward to accelerate her speed, determined to break through the opening. She didn't turn back, she was too concentrated on her driving to even take a moments glance behind her. She knew however that the danger was approaching closer. The steps of the creatures had came closer, causing the ground beneath Twilight to shake violently. Twilight came closer, and closer to the gap. Concentrating, Twilight surrounded herself and her transportation with her magic aura and prepared herself. As the creatures were mere feet away, Twilight drove through the gap and levitated herself quickly. She panted and wiped the sweat from her brow as she levitated herself high enough to be out of dangers reach. She watched as the stamped ran out of the forest, breaking through the trees thus widening the gap.

'What could have made the animals in such a frenzy?' thought Twilight. She levitated herself high above the forest altitude and narrowed her eyes to look into the distance. Twilight couldn't see it clearly, but she was able to detect a slight pink color in the distance. 'That must be a cotton candy cloud, Discords getting closer. His chaos is most likely driving the animals out of the Everfree Forest' thought Twilight.

It took five minutes before the stamped had completely left the forest. When Twilight was determined it was safe, Twilight gently place her and her transportation back to the ground. She quickly unstrapped her saddle bag and pulled out the folded map. Unfolding the map she pointed her hoof to where she was located. She looked to her left and saw that the river she had been following was a couple of yards away.

'Okay, so if I'm next to the river then all I have to do is head south. Then I'll reach Appleloosa and I can replenish on . . . wait a minute, which way was the stamped going?' Twilight turned to the large dust cloud running south in the distance. She gasped, "There heading straight for Appleloosa!" shouted Twilight. She hopped onto her transportation and stuffed the map back into her bag without folding it. After strapping her bag shut, she surrounded the wheels in her purple aura and began driving south as fast as she could.

"Gotta warn them before the stamped gets there!" shouted Twilight.