“I can’t see a thing, are you sure you know where we’re going?” Mystic questioned.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
But what they didn’t know was that they were walking in circles and that someone was watching them through magical means.
“Those kids, they might just make it” A strange stallion whispered.
“NO, I shall not allow those foals to ruin everything I have planned for this miserable world. The ponies will all pay for what they did to me long, long ago. They will all pay” A shadow cackled sending shivered down the stallion’s back right down to the tips of his hooves.
“And you. You have served your purpose, you are no longer needed here. You set me free and helped me grow strong so now you are useless to me and my purpose” The shadow boomed.
“A-And what-what is that” The stallion whispered, scared.
“To destroy all ponies and to take control of the world, and NOTHING will stop me. And because I must rid the world of filthy ponies, I must rid the world of YOU!”
“No!” And with a puff of purple and black smoke the shadows releaser was thrown against the wall and then chucked out the window like trash into the unforgiving forest.
“Well now that he’s out the way my work can really get started..."
It was getting dark and the twosome had gotten nowhere in the time they had been in the misty forest.
“We have gotten nowhere thanks to your navigational skills Stary” Mystic groaned.
“Well I’m sorry. Do you think you could find a way out of this forest, Moony?”
“Well no, but neither could you”
So they decided to sleep in the forest and try again the next time the sun rose.
"Help!" The raspy voice cried out into the night, "Please...help," the voice was fading with each breath.
Mystic woke to the sound of a pony calling for help, so she shook her brother awake and they went to go see if there was anything they could do. What the saw was awful, a stallion was lying on the ground with blood running down his face from a cut on his forehead, his body covered in bruises and one hoof bent in an awkward direction. The filly and colt rushed over and kneeled down next to the stallion, who's name was Shade, apparently, and asked him how he came to be in the situation he was in.
"Run........magic....evil....book...alicorn......LEAVE NOW!" The strange stallion could only manage those words before he convulsed and fell unconscious, his heart slowing. Mystic backed away, her blue eyes filled with fear and directed at the stallion.
"Shining, we need to get away from here!" Mystic called, her voice filled with fright; something wasn't right with that stallion, she could tell.
"But, Mystic, he needs our help!" Shining shouted back, not wanting to leave the pony to die.
"Shining, please, we have to get away from here," Shining could hear the desperation in his sister's voice and so he dragged himself away from the stallion, muttering the word sorry continuously under his breath as he walked away.
"Mystic, why? Why did you make me leave that stallion, chances are he'll die now," Shining frowned at his younger sister.
"I-I'm sorry, but there was something not quite right with that pony. I couldn't tell what it was but something about him was, wrong. I think he had been involved with some kind of black magic, but I-I I don't know!" Mystic shouted, coming to terms with the consequences of her actions,
"I-I do-don't want him t-to die, I j-just co-couldn't st-stay there, I-I just co-couldn't," Mystic choked, tears welling in her eyes. Shining pulled his sister close, glad that she didn't pull herself away, and hugged her, doing his best to comfort her.
"Listen, I don't know what was going on with that stallion back there, but I trust you. If you could sense that something was wrong and that we had to leave, I believe you, promise," Shining said truthfully, "I just wish there was something we could have done," the colt hug his head in defeat, surrendering himself to the inevitable.
"I wish we could have done something too, but being near him felt like I was bathing in insects, I'm sorry," Mystic explained and tried to apologise again.
"It's okay, now lets get some more sleep, we'll need our energy for the trek," Shining said, already walking back to their 'campsite' to get a few more hours of sleep. Mystic followed, occasionally glancing back in the direction of the stallion she left to die.
Even though hidden behind the mist the sun still made a steady climb through the sky as the moon slept for the day waiting silently for the next time to wander the sky with the silver stars.
The brother and sister actually woke up on time that day, but not by themselves they had little help from the creatures in the forest.
“Who’s there?” the spooked filly jumped up from her sleeping bag.
“It was just an animal, go back to sleep,” the tired colt groaned.
“Hey we have to get going anyway, so wake up,” Mystic shook Shining so he would wake up. They didn’t have a moment to spare.
The two adventures set of again dashing around in circles yet again.
“Ok, so we might just maybe be lost, but only maybe,” Shining proclaimed.
“So we’re lost”
“Well yes”
All of a sudden a root rose up from the ground and grabbed Mystic by her hooves and started to drag her down into the mud.
“Help!” Mystic screamed to her brother.
“Mystic?! I’m coming!” Thomas dived after his sister and using the pen knife he had brought in case of emergency and started to cut the root. However, despite from Shining's best efforts, the root would not cut and his sister was being drawn down further and further into the mud.
“Please, help!!” Mystic screamed louder than the last time. So in desperation Shining Star started to pile rocks on the root. The root started to wither and pulled itself back into the ground to heal itself. Mystic Moon started to pant and sat herself down in shock of what had just happened.
“Are you ok?” Shining asked sitting down as well to comfort his sister.
“Yeah, I guess I’m ok” Mystic said, slightly out of breath. After a short rest Mystic declared that she was better and they had to keep going and get to the castle.
“What! How did those troublesome kids defeat my grabbing root? It can’t be true,” A loud voice thundered around the small library, the sound waves themselves knocking books of shelves and smashing the glass cases of the precious ones ,“I will not stand for it. Let’s see those kids get through my illusions, they never fail.”
“This is taking forever. Are you sure we aren’t going in circles, we should be out by now,” Mystic’s moaning filled the peaceful air.
“Oh quit complaining and help get us out of here, if you’re so confident that you know the way”
“I never said I knew the way, I thought you did,” Mystic replied cheekily.
“Oh haha. Get a move on.” The Adventurers continued to walk through the eerie forest, for once not walking in circles. Unexpectedly a few trees that were standing in front of them jumped up and surrounded the siblings.
“What’s going on here?!” Mystic screeched.
“I don’t know!” The trees were almost doing a dance around them. All of a sudden Shining cried out, “Now it’s your turn to help me!”
“Wha- I’m coming” Mystic shouted in reply. Turns out one of the trees had Shining in his grasp and was dashing away from the group. Kate hurriedly picked up a rock and threw it at the moving tree, not really believing that it could possibly real. It went straight through it’s body.
“What! How did that happen? Wait a minute”
“I don’t have a minute” Shining Star shouted at the top of his voice, the 'tree' was getting further away.
“Shining don’t worry”
“What do you mean don’t worry, I’m being abducted by a tree, start worrying” Shining had to scream to be heard by his sister.
“It has to be an illusion. Put your hooves on the ground and walk away,” Mystic yelled back.
“What did you say!” Shining yelled back.
“I said-” but is was no use, Shining was out of sight, lost in the unforgiving forest with a tree. Mystic Moon tried holding back tears at how useless she had been. It was times like these that Mystic envied pegasus', if she had been able to fly then maybe she would've caught her only known relative left.
“No, I must go after him, I hate him, but now is not the time for petty arguments,” Mystic said through gritted teeth. So, with a growl, the filly charged into the forest, using the powerful leg muscles built up from years of jumping to their fullest.