//------------------------------//
// 12. Exploring Everfree Forest 
// Story: Exploring Equestria 
// by A_guy_from_Earth 
//------------------------------//


Night came to Equestria. Sun got down, and full Moon slowly started to climb to the zenith. Ponies finished their work for today and went to have some rest before sleep or went to bed immediately to replenish their forces. The Castle of Friendship prepared for the night too. Meeting of bearers of the Elements was over, and Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy went to their homes. Researchers finished all their chores, Max prepared to stay for his shift, and his colleagues got ready to leave.

They gathered in the hall to say goodbye to each other when Twilight with Spike came to them.

“Thank you for your assistance once again. Everything was prepared in record time,” she said. “You did a great job. Now you all, including you, mister Zicht, may be free.”
“Yeah. Enjoy your two-day off-time!” smiled Spike.
“Two-day?” surprised researchers.
“Their slumber parties, especially if Pinkie Pie takes part, have tendency to turn into something much more continuous,” said little dragon.
“Yeah…” Twilight shyly nodded.
“So relax and have a good time during these days!” said Spike.
“As you wish,” smiled members of Team One and bowed.

They said goodbye to each other, and researchers left the castle.

“I can’t believe it!” exclaimed Karin when Twilight’s and Spike’s residence remained behind. “Two-day off-time! That’s plenty of free time!”
“Yep,” nodded Zet’rar. “And it’s wonderful!”
“I know, but… We haven’t so much free time since we arrived here. I have no idea what to do!”
“You know, I’d prefer to follow Spike’s advice,” said Kor. “Let’s seize the opportunity and have really good rest!”
“I’m voting for this!” Sheim, Max, Bluve and Oma raised their forelegs.
“I have another idea…” spelled Edez and smiled.
“What is it?”
“Why not combine business with pleasure? There is one place not far from here where we haven’t been. We could visit it, walk there and explore in en route!”
“Sounds good, but I have one question: what is this place?” asked Affi.
“I’m talking about Everfree Forest,” answered Edez.
“Everfree Forest?” exclaimed his colleagues.
“Edez, this place is probably the most dangerous in whole this country!” resented Oma.
“I know, but we also are dangerous, and we easily can get excellent protection: one small Set 11, and nothing will be able to kill us here!”
“Those nanites?” winced Sheim.
“Yes. They are the best protection for such place as Everfree Forest. Our best weapons are, in fact, parts of our bodies and… agree, after the last weeks we need some adrenaline.”
“You know, Edez is right about the last. These days were very boring,” said Kor.
“So, what do you think? Spend the next day exploring the forest, and the second day having the rest?”
“We’re agree,” answered his friends and nodded.

Edez smiled and they together rushed to their house.





The next day they woke up very early. The forest, as they knew, was huge, and they wanted to look over as much as it was possible. They had a quick breakfast, packed more precise scanners, analyzers, memory blocks and some more necessary devices in saddlebags and passed to the last and the most important part – protection. Set 11 was, in fact, a big portion of nanites that greatly improved some abilities of organism. They provided incredible stamina, vitality and regeneration, and were able to heal even the most horrible wounds in a couple of moments. They were self-installing, like the implants from research set. The installation process wasn’t so painful comparing with the implants – sometimes it was even imperceptible – but the thing was that there was about a liter of these micromachines, and all of them had to be swallowed. It took some time, but eventually all preparations were finished. Researchers nodded to each other and rushed to the forest.

They quickly reached its edge and boldly entered the most unique, peculiar, harsh and dangerous area in whole Equestria. Team One went to the central regions of the forest and immediately began to study: make scanograms and snapshots, collect samples, analyze, classify and explain everything notable what they found. And soon they got quite deep into the thicket.

“You know…” spelled Kor, looking at another strange crooked tree, “Now I’m ready to fully agree with ponies. This is absolutely alien place, even comparing with other extremely wild regions of the country. Just look at these plants! They look like they are from another planet!”
“Indeed,” said Bluve, “but the most surprising is that, according results of analyses, in  lot of cases they are the same species what we regularly see in Ponyville!”
“Yeah, it’s very hard to believe that these plants and those ones are the same,” added Max.
“But it can be explained,” said Edez, looking at his scanner. “For some reason, structure of energy mix is different here. It’s disordered and changeable, and it gets more and more complicated when we go deeper. But at the same time transition zone between the forest and surrounding regions is incredibly narrow – only a quarter of micrograd. How to explain this – I don’t know.”
“You want to say that all these incredible differences are just reaction on local energy environment?” wondered Karin.
“Yes. It’s the most probable explanation.”
“We’ll be able to say exactly in two or three decades, when we examine the samples and find the mechanism of reaction on changes in perfect mix,” said Bluve.
“I see.”
“Speaking about foreignness of this place… I must say that this forest looks surprisingly similar to thickets of Hartulox,” noted Sheim.
“Agree,” said Affi. “They are very alike.”
“Wait, where’re Zet and Oma?” exclaimed Kor, looking around.
“They were right behind me…” said Max, looked back and surprised: Zet’rar and Oma were absent.
“Affi, can you sense them?” asked Edez. 

She nodded and concentrated, but it turned out so that there was no need in this – soon the answer swept right over them. Zet’rar, vigorously screaming like a jungle hero, and Oma, joyfully laughing, rushed forward, clinging to the branches with their additional limbs. They brought down small avalanche of leaves on their friends and moved further.

“Well, here they are,” grinned Bluve, brushing off the leaves from her head and back.
“Just like children!” sighed Affi.
“Oh, come on!” said Edez to her. “Rejoice for them! They have finally found each other!”

Meanwhile Kor noticed one thing that could spoil his friend’s fun.

“Zet!” he shouted. “Watch out for that…”
“Huh?” Zet’rar, continuing to rush forward, instinctively turned, and – very predictably – having no possibility to see the general situation, crashed into huge pine.
“…tree,” finished Kor and sighed.

Oma gasped, stopped and dashed to her friend. Other members of the group made haste too. Together they unstuck Zet’rar from the tree and brought him to life.

“Thank you,” said Zet’rar when he finally got up and looked at Oma. “We should be more accurate next time.”

She gave a nod.

“Next time don’t rush like mad, okay?” said Affi.
“Sure,” answered Zet’rar and Oma.

Researchers continued their journey together and on the ground. But Oma and Zet’rar agreed that they will repeat this, and next time they do it in the dead of night in Ponyville park.

The trees around became higher and higher, their crowns got more and more dense. Although the Sun was rising and slowly got higher above the treetops, Team One, moving to the center of the forest, got into places where everything around became darker. But the work went as usual: their saddlebags gradually got bigger and heavier because of samples that they took, their hand-held and implanted devices continued to register, mega- and gigabytes of information filled their memory blocks. And nothing seemed to be able to interrupt their mission: neither spooky landscapes nor strange sounds and shadows behind the bushes. But some sounds made them to alert.

“Did you hear that?” asked Kor when he heard suspicious noise again.
“Hear what?” wondered Bluve.
“The rustle.”
“I haven’t heard anything,” said Zet’rar.
“I clearly heard it!”
“Probably you hear a bird swarming in a tree crown,” supposed Karin.
“I’m able to distinguish sounds, and this one wasn’t from a bird, it was from something bigger.”
“Then it was a big bird,” stated Edez. “There are some flying creatures three times bigger than me and you, Kor, in this forest. So don’t pay too much attention to this, let’s keep up!”

They continued the exploration, but the rustle didn’t stop. From time to time it came from different places around the group. Usually it seemed to be far, but in some cases the source was very close.

“Yipe!” exclaimed Oma when something quietly rustled right to the side of her.
“You heard it too?” asked Kor.
“Yes! Like there was a big animal here,” she pointed to the nearest bushes.
“See?” officer addressed to other members of the group. “I’m not the only one who hears this noise. It follows us!”
“I think it’s just a curious marten or raccoon,” said Bluve.
“No. If it was just an animal, it would show itself sooner or later. The thing that follows us always hides and does it intentionally.”
“Kor, dude, you’re exaggerating,” said Edez.
“No! Something really watches us!”

And at this moment something rustled in the crown of the elm that was in front of the group.

“There!” shouted Kor and pointed.

Sheim immediately raised his foreleg, aimed to where his friend was pointing and released a spike. One second, then there was a sound like two pieces of wood hit each other, and… in front of startled researchers an unconscious changeling fell down from the crown.

“Heh, nice…” nervously grinned Max.
“A changeling?” exclaimed Oma. “They are spying on us?”
“I think they are spying on many ones here,” said Kor.
“Is he dead?” asked Karin, looking at motionless body.
“Nope, just way out,” answered Sheim. “I blunted some spikes just to knock out and not to wound,” he leaned over the changeling and found big bump on his head. “And I see that it works.”
“Good job, my friend!” smiled Kor and put his foreleg on Sheim’s shoulder. “Right in the bonce!”
“And what should we do with him?” asked Affi, pointing to chitin pony.
“Let’s eat him,” suggested Kor.
“What?” exclaimed his friends.
“I tried to regenerate their flesh in bioreactor, and it turned out that it’s very tasty!”
“Count me out,” uttered Karin, Zet’rar and Sheim.
“I can understand that these creatures may be a delicacy,” said Oma, “but we came here for peaceful explorations, and nothing more. And, by the way, he hasn’t done any harm to us.”
“I have an idea,” said Max. “Let’s just leave him here, but before it – Affi, provide an amnesia for him.”
“With pleasure,” grinned Affi, sat down and grabbed changeling’s head with her forelegs. She focused and her hornlike antennae rose from her mane. She had been sitting like this for a minute. Then she released the changeling and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Done,” she said. “Now he won’t remember anything in the last month.”
“Good.”
“So, we go further?” said Edez.
“I think that it would be better to take some break from surprises of the woods and visit Zecora,” offered Karin.
“Zecora?”
“Yes. We can learn about specific features of whole this region in one place, learn about all local plants and ways of their application.”

Other researchers paused and took a thought.

“It’s an excellent offer indeed, but we don’t know where she lives,” said Oma.
“Why? I know. Twilight and Spike told me.”
“Well then lead us!” said Edez.
“Okay. Follow me!”

They left the changeling to have a thorough nap under the elm and turned off the path. For the following half of an hour researchers waded through the jungle, did their job as far as it was possible, strayed, brushed away local midges and cursed thorns and mosquitoes in all languages they knew. But, eventually, they got out from the bushes and came to the small house inside a crooked tree.

It looked just like bearers of the Elements and Spike described it: little door right in the middle of the trunk, no porch, some little windows of irregular shape in unexpected places, old wooden walls, sometimes covered with moss and lichen. It was the house of true forest sorceress. But except all this one more thing was noticeable: there were no signs of presence of the owner inside – windows were curtained, and ones which haven’t blinds showed that darkness filled the rooms, no smoke or steam came from flues and vent-holes.

“Oh damn!” swore Karin when she approached one of the windows and looked inside. “I hoped that we would spend time in a quiet environment, pleasantly and usefully! But she is absent!”
“Well, it’s not in the cards…” sighed Affi.
“We’ll have to wander through the woods again.”
“Guys, come here!” called Zet’rar, who stopped near the door.

His friends quickly gathered near him, and technician pointed to the door. There was small wooden box attached to it with description ‘Open’ on its cover and some illegible writing on the sides. Researchers looked at each other, and Zet’rar slowly opened the box. Inside they found only one small transparent crystal.

“Ehm, do you have any ideas what is it?” asked Bluve.
“Not a single one,” honestly answered Zet’rar. “Except jewelry, I haven’t seen anything like this. And this thing aren’t jewelry, it’s just a… rock!”
“Maybe it’s a key, a magical artifact which can tell where Zecora is,” suggested Sheim.
“You think so?”
“Locals have a lot of stuff based on the effects of energy mix. We saw some examples, and all of them amazed us – they had so unexpected genesis and application so we could barely hide our real emotions. And we saw only small part of them. Probably it’s another such thing.”
“Sheim is right,” uttered Edez. “It might be another artifact.”
“Well, there is only one way to find out,” said Affi and looked at Zet’rar.

Technician sighed and gave a nod. He put his hoof inside the box to grab the crystal, but only he touched it, he recoiled. The crystal began to vibrate and soon after this… resounded.

“Excuse me, my friends,” the crystal said in Zecora’s voice, “but now I am absent. I am in Thicket, improving my knowledge and enchantment. If you have something to say, touch again this crystal, and leave your message after the signal.”

Researchers just sat down with their jaws hung open.

“Say whaaaaat???” exclaimed Zet’rar. “Is that an answerphone?”

Max stood up and came to the box. He focused on the writing on the sides and tried to read it. Soon his eyes became big and round.

“Dang it, dude, it is!” he exclaimed.
“Magic answering machine?”
“Yes!”
“This is madness. This is just madness!” said Affi.
“Well, at least we’ve found really impressive and useful artifact!” uttered Edez.
“No doubt,” nodded Kor with empty expression.

Only in a couple of minutes they finally fully came to their senses. After short discussion it was determined that they’ll take the extra precise scanogram of the crystal. They really were interested in how to make a simple stone solve a great amount of communication problems.

“Wait!” suddenly exclaimed Karin when the decision was taken. “And what about Zecora herself and her house?”
“I have an idea,” said Zet’rar and took extra precise scanner for large objects from his saddlebag. “Speaking about her house, we can make a detailed scanogram and later regenerate all the mixtures and powders that she made particle by particle. It’s not difficult and it will allow us to do everything what we need and want. And what about Zecora herself… Well, we’ll have to wait.”
“I agree,” said Affi. “It would be much easier, useful and… safe for all of us.”

Other researchers agreed too, and they began to make the scanograms. Sheim and Edez were working on the “answering crystal”, Zet’rar, Affi and Kor processed the house. Fixing the location and characteristics of every particle takes some time, even though you have the best tools developed over eight million years.

In twenty minutes they finished. Tenth part of total free space of memory blocks turned out be filled – the amount of data was simply enormous. Researchers packed their devices and got ready to move in the depths of the forest again, when the nearest bushes suddenly swished. Team One stopped, and a timberwolf jumped out from the thicket. Researchers knew average sizes of these beasts from the books, and comparing to them this one was small. Probably it was just an adolescent. But it doesn’t reduce the danger: it was furious and ready to attack.

Timberwolf stood in a fighting pose, his green eyes glowed, and he growled loudly and angrily.

“And what now?” quietly asked Bluve in trembling voice.
“Leave it to us,” said Kor and Edez, grinned and stepped forward.

Now it’s necessary to say that original species of Kor is close to wolverines, cougars and crocodiles of this planet, and Edez’s species – to bears and crows. Their ancestors were strong and, not rarely, aggressive animals, and thought they were separated by hundreds of thousand years from those ages, they preserved some habits and rituals from their wild past. And among them were some cries, including battle ones. So Edez and Kor approached the timberwolf, made angry faces too and roared.

The sound could be heard a mile away, even in this dense forest. The timberwolf, say the least of it, didn’t expect something like this. His anger and desire to fight instantly vanished, he sat, gulped, and soon, whining, ran away. Kor and Edez with satisfied smiles saw him off and then turned to their colleagues. They thanked them and said that they did a good job – all of them except Max. He didn’t say a word, continuing to stare at the place where few seconds ago the timberwolf was.

“Um, Max, what’s wrong?” wondered Bluve.

But biologists didn’t respond. He didn’t even react. Seeing this, his colleagues looked where he was looking. And was taken aback: there was a piece of wood on the ground at that place.

“Is that?.,” hesitantly began Oma.
“Yeah,” nodded Bluve. “It is. That guy shat a log because of fear.”
“A log?” choked Kor.
“Well, he’s wooden, after all,” spelled Zet’rar.
“Act like you want, but I won’t take it as a sample!” stated Max.
“Well, my friends, this is how you become the dominant species,” spelled Edez. “Yeah… Let’s better keep on.”

Other researchers agreed, and they left Zecora’s site.

The immersion into the forest’s depths continued. They went along barely discernible trails that hided under the mighty crowns of huge trees again. They got farther and farther from the edge, and the regularity which Edez had found showed itself more and more perceptibly. Disorder of the structure and other anomalies gradually escalated – it was evident not only in the instrument readings, but also by the sight of surroundings. They met strange plants, mushrooms and animals more often. It seemed that even quaintness of their look escalated too while they went deeper and deeper. And they met more creatures and things what they have never seen before. So they had to take more samples.

But soon one problem became apparent: the number of samples was too great, they simply couldn’t bring all them to their house and ship’s on-board laboratory. Yes, they had blocks of warped space that allowed to carry things far greater than the sizes of blocks themselves, but these storages also were limited – they consumed enormous amount of energy, and because of this the ratio of outer and inner sizes should be relatively small, or else the devices won’t work for a long time. There was only one solution of this problem: carry out more analyses right on the place. So Team One slowed down and focused on the examining.

They made scanograms and snapshots and estimated them, noted specific features and tried to give the explanations and find ways of practical application, visually examined them and did some more tests. Sometimes they dissect samples using simple instruments and even their claws to ensure the reliability of the scanner reading, and not rarely they tasted the samples. They could allow this – thanks to the treatment they were almost absolutely immune to poisons, only preparations from programmed substances could really harm them. They used this possibility to supplement the total characteristics of the studied things. The only bad moment was that the samples quite often had bad taste.

Sheim took another weird mushroom that looked more like a clamshell, made a scanogram, viewed it from all the sides and, just for interest, tasted it. He made only two chewing motions, when he winced and spat it out.

“Yuk!” he muttered “Tastes like shit.”
“And seriously?” said Affi and Oma.
“I am serious. Listen, you, heterotrophs, unlike some other ones, don’t need fertilizers.”
“Got it! No more questions!”

Meanwhile Max examined one more new mushroom species. It looked just like chanterelle except that it was gray, even a bit silvery. He did standard exploration procedure and took one. Most likely, it was a mimicking poisonous mushroom, but there was small probability that it’s just another kind known edible one. Getting the information from the scanners will take time, so Max decided to find the answer with the simplest way – he tasted it. He chewed it and… sighed with disappointment.

“Hey, Max, what’s wrong?” wondered Karin.

Biologist spat out the mushroom and said:

“I’m a biologist, and I must distinguish species by their appearance, must guess their taxonomy. I must presume the most probable characteristics. But I keep failing again and again! Especially with mushrooms.”
“And… what happened now?”
“I thought that this one was just mimicking inedible one. Well… It’s absolutely another species, another family. It’s some kind of psilocybes.”
“There is analogue of this filth here?”
“Turns out that yes. It’s the first time when I see mimicking hallucinogenic mushroom.”
“Psilocybe, you say?” spelled Zet’rar who came to them.
“Yep,” nodded Max.
“Ehm, can you give me some ones then?”
“Sure, but… why?”
“You see, to us, unfalizans, psilocybin is the same thing that caffeine is for you, terrans. And I’d like to make a little boost now.”
“Okay, here you are,” said Max and gave his friends some mushrooms. “Although I can hardly understand how a bowl of mushroom soup can replace a cup of coffee.”
“Well, it’s biology and traditions,” said Zet’rar and ate a mushroom. “Wow! They are really good! How much psilocybin do they contain?”
“Hm…” Max focused on the aftertaste. “I’d say that one mushroom contains lethal dose for a dozen average ponies.”
“That’s a strong stuff.”
“Yeah… Wait!” biologist suddenly grinned, took some more mushrooms and put them into a box for samples.
“Why are you taking them if you have done the analysis?” surprised Karin.
“I know some chemists who will pay a lot for such rich source of psilocybin.”
“What?” she exclaimed together with Affi, Bluve, Edez and Sheim who heard him.
“You’re relapsing to this again?” snarled Oma. “Have you forgotten that you were condemned for this!”
“At first, I perfectly remember this. At second, now I have every right to sell the samples legally – we’re allowed to assign small things like these and do everything what we want with them. And those guys, having only a couple of samples, can easily reproduce the necessary amount by bioregenerating. And, at third, why did you fall on? You all are “nice and good”, I must say.”
“What do you mean?”
“I remember your personal dossiers, guys,” said biologist and grinned. “We all have criminal records. You, Oma, using your position of the secretary of department, not once did some machinations with documents for a good reward. Zet’rar, during student protests on Naglavon you blew the whole building of new laboratory complex, empty by happy coincidence. Karin, you have even two criminal records for vandalism during student protests. Sheim, you pandered to illegal miners from your native planet for nine years. Bluve, for almost all six years of war between Zateaf and Hegi you were a smuggler who supplied people of Zateaf with equipment from the Institute. Kor, you was tired by tribunal twice for grievous bodily harm during fight at bars. Affi, you were an industrial spy for nineteen years. Edez, I know that you were a victim of circumstances and appeared at the bottom, but still, you committed thirty nine robberies. And what about me… Yes, I illegally traded chemicals, but I started not because I wanted, I started to do it because of stupid laws of Aurelia that don’t allow students to have a good job to pay for extortionate student loan. My fault is that I didn’t stop when I should.”
“So what?” snorted Kor.
“I just want to say don’t put hasty judgments and first look at yourselves before blaming other. And, by the way, our criminal records it’s just the beginning.”
“What do you want to say?”
“I want to say that all of us also took lives of other sentients. And not once. I can even rank us in the ascending order! Oma, you survived one attack of apters on the research base where you were, you fought with cruelty and killed thirty eight ones. Sheim, you survived one attack of ultu and one attack of apters on research bases, you fought during both attacks and killed fifty four ones. Bluve, you survived an attack of nobu on your research base, took part in hostilities and killed eight ones; during the war between Zateaf and Hegi you, protecting yourself, “treated” seventy two ones with X-413, no one survived. Zet’rar, you survived one attack of jyaxee on your research base, fought and killed fifteen ones, also you survived the attack of these imitators on transport ship where you were, took part in hostilities, used unfalizan battle suit and killed one hundred and twelve ones. Then me. I took part in seven armed clashes and during them killed one hundred and fifty nine ones. And because I mastered ains-brukis trainings on Radun’… one hundred and forty eight of them were killed with a single shot or hit. Karin, survived two attacks of ultu and one attack of jyaxee on research bases, took part in hostilities, used the avatar suit and thanks to this killed two hundred and four ones. Edez, survived a lot of battles, during which killed six hundred and eighty three ones, two hundred and forty four ones you roasted alive with your abilities. Kor, survived a lot of battles, during which killed seven hundred and thirteen ones, six hundred and seventy you used as a “fuel”. And, finally, our dear Affi. Six successful telepathic attacks, six destroyed enemy ships, including vobhian “titan”. Seventeen thousand one hundred and forty killed ones. We’re wonderful group, aren’t we?”

Researchers just sat down.

“Yeah… Having looked from the side… We are just a bunch of thugs and maniacs,” spelled Kor.
“And such monsters as we are exploring this peaceful, friendly and nice land,” said Karin.
“And we arrived here on the starship which is able to turn four planets like this into dust with a single shot, and it’s still in orbit,” added Zet’rar.
“As I said, wonderful! Just, dammit, wonderful!” exclaimed Max.
“Now I’m realizing… We are horrible,” said Edez.
“I’m sorry, Max,” uttered Oma.
“Eh, it’s me who must ask for forgiveness,” sighed Max. “I did this excoriation to you.”
“But thanks to it we realized some very important moments,” said Affi. “You opened our eyes.”

Other researchers nodded in confirmation.

“Such slams are useful,” said Edez and put his foreleg on Max’s shoulder. “They help to look on the things from the other side and rethink the actions.”

Biologist gave a nod. Edez nodded in response and with a gesture said “Let’s get back to work”. Team One stood up and mover farther.

The exploration continued. Researchers returned to collecting and analyzing data and sampling. There were a lot of things to study: they found something new and extraordinary every few minutes, and each of these things was different from the other, unique. They had to put all the efforts to do the job qualitatively and thoroughly, use all their intelligence to find explanations and reasons. It was very interesting, but, despite all the seeming variety, it was quite monotonous job – although they addressed to different fields of science, the algorithm of actions during the research procedures was of the same type. And they had been keeping working like this for several hours. It began to affect researchers: they slowly got bored, but, most importantly, they became more inattentive. They remained focused on finding new and strange and were extremely careful with analyses, but they stopped to pay attention to minor details. For example, they haven’t noticed how the Sun climbed to the zenith, passed it and started to move down, they didn’t hear bird songs and animal noise, they didn’t pay attention to midges that scurried around. And, also, they haven’t noticed how gradually the general landscape changed.

Zet’rar was the first who noticed that trees around became more crooked and bare, small clearings appeared, amount of moss and lichen grew, and it started to take more strange and spooky forms, from time to time there were big tussocks, and squelch more and more often came from under their hooves.

“Guys,” he uttered, “I think we wandered into a swamp.”

His friends stopped and looked around.

“Oh my!” exclaimed Bluve. “Indeed.”
“Well, goodbye, hooficure,” sighed Oma, shaking the dirt off her forelegs.
“How far we have got?” asked Kor.

Edez looked at his tracking device.

“Twenty eight micrograds from the edge of the forest,” he said. “As far as I know, it’s the outskirts of Froggy Bottom.”
“Well, we are at one of the largest swamps on whole this continent,” said Karin. “Nice!”
“What a nasty place!” winced Affi. “I have goosebumps from it.”
“I don’t want to study it,” said Bluve.
“Why?” surprised Max. “It’s just a big swamp. Yeah, it looks creepy, but a lot of swamps are creepy.”
“Yes, there is nothing to be afraid of,” said Edez. “It’s just a large bog, which you can find at every planet with water resource level above average minimum. So come on, people! Let’s move!” he waved and went forward.
“Okay,” said other researchers and followed their first curator.

They quickly found that except excessive humidity and its consequences Froggy Bottom was, in fact, the same area as Everfree Forest. All characteristics inherent to the woods were inherent to this swamp. The same chaotic structure of energy environment, the same atmosphere of wildness, the same oddities around. It made researcher’s work easier and had calming effect on them – it seemed that they will continue their small scientific journey as usual. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t fated to happen.

After some time researchers finally found relatively dry path, but only they started to move along it, loud noise, which could be made only by something big, came from the nearest bushes. Team One stopped, in a moment branches drifted apart, and huge beast came to the path and stood in front of the group. It was at least twice taller than Kor and Edez, had shape of a cat, was black as coal, but covered with real scattering of stars and seemed to be a bit transparent, its gray eyes glowed as big star-like spot on its forehead. It wasn’t going to set on, it showed no open agression, but it made it clear that it won’t let them step back or get round.

“What is that?” whispered Oma.
“A Lynx,” quietly answered Bluve and gulped, “one of the constellation beasts.”
“Constellation beasts?”
“Yes. Very strong creatures filled with magic. I read about them in castle libraries, and Teams Five and Eight reported about them. They said that they are, in fact, ordinary animals mutated for some reason.”
“So it’s just an overgrown feline?” said Kor, continuing to stand still.
“Yes.”
“That’s nice, but what should we do?” whispered Zet’rar.
“I have an idea,” answered Max. “But, Kor, Edez, you have to cover me.”
“Okay.”

The biggest members of the group slowly bended towards each other, hiding Max behind themselves. Lynx noticed it and became suspicious, it frowned and began to growl. 

“Ehm, Max, it’s going to attack us!” muttered Edez.
“Just one more moment…” said biologist, looking down at the stone near his right foreleg. “Now!”

He immediately released his claws, grabbed the stone, stood on hind legs and threw the rock at the beast. Boulder hit a glowing star on Lynx’s forehead, beast staggered, rolled its eyes and fell unconscious.

“Wow!” exclaimed Kor, looking at the defeated creature. “That was impressive!”
“How you managed to knock this monster out with a single throw?” wondered Karin.
“I looked under its skin,” answered Max. “Well, they are very strong creatures but with very irrational body structure – their weakest spot marked with the most noticeable sign! They have a little ganglion right under their skin at this “forehead star”. Hit it – and pain shock will do the rest.”
“Well, Max, thank you,” said Edez. “But I have one question: how soon it’ll wake up?”
“Not in the nearest ten supramoments for sure.”
“Then great.”

They moved further, but it turned out so that Lynx’s growl attracted another monster. And it showed itself very soon.

Researchers walked only three hundred steps when load roar shook everything around. They froze, and four identical heads with big toothy jaws appeared above the treetops and roared again.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” sincerely exclaimed Kor, Sheim and Karin.
“Nice! A hydra! That’s, dammit, all we needed now!” swore Zet’rar.
“I don’t wanna annihilate!” screamed Bluve.
“Affi!” screamed Edez. “Help!”
“Eh, here goes nothing,” said Affi and ran towards the monster.

Meanwhile hydra, having fallen a couple of trees, came out from the thicket. It roared again and rushed into attack. Seeing this, Affi stopped and got ready for the telepathic strike. Her antennae rose from her mane, ridged and started to vibrate. She strained herself and stared at the monster. Hydra was quickly approaching, first head had already prepared to seize the prey, but suddenly the beast jerked and… stopped. Affi strained even more and growled from stress. Hydra slowly stood up straight, then all its heads turned and stared at each other with empty expressions. Beast was motionless for some seconds, then its head began to lean back slowly. But soon they suddenly stopped, jerked forward and collided. Clash of hydra’s skulls with each other was like a thunder. Affi, having finally completed the attack, shouted and hardly managed to keep standing on own hooves. Hydra collapsed like a felled tree with loud crash.

When the hydra was defeated, researchers made haste to help their second curator.

“I’m all right, all right… Thank you,” spelled Affi when Sheim, Kor and Max helped her to stand up.
“It’s we who have to thank,” said Sheim. “You saved us!”
“I was the only one who could do it.”
“But still, thank you.”
“How are you? Can you walk?” asked Max.
“In a moment I’ll be fine.”
“Well, my dear, congratulations,” said Edez, helping her to stand. “You defeated probably the most dreadful animal on this continent!”

Affi thanked him with a nod.

“But… May I ask one question?” continued Edez.
“Yes?”
“I saw how you made hundreds obey you, and it didn’t cause you great problems. Why now you were so stressed?”
“If creature has several brains in one body, it always makes the telepathic control much harder. Structure of the mind is complicated, it’s a single massive, but it looks like a rete of ropes. You have to put a lot of efforts to regularize it.”
“Oh, I understand now.”

Soon Affi recuperated, and researchers were ready to continue their journey. They made a scanogram of the hydra, took some samples of its tissues and went farther.

Luckily, there were no more monsters around, so they could continue their work in a quiet environment. They spent about an hour in the swamp, scanning and analyzing, and after this, having seen enough of moss- and lichen-grown trees, strange amphibian and pesky insects, they came to dry raised area. It stood out from all other surroundings – it has taller and greener trees, there was no reed and sedge on the ground. And there was small trail that led to the most used crossing through the swamp. After short discussion Team One decided to continue their walk along it.

Soon Froggy Bottom remained behind, and researchers found that they again were among typical landscapes of Everfree Forest. These places looked very similar to what they had recently crossed, though it was another region – probably the one noticeable differences was the species composition.

Researchers were glad that they returned to the more familiar environment – at least they could predict what they can meet. So they smiled and went on. They had whole third of the day for studying.

They returned to their ordinary tasks and everything went as usual until Kor suddenly stopped everyone.

“Hey, dude, what’s wrong?” wondered Zet’rar.
“This,” answered officer and pointed to thick layer of fallen leaves that began in thirty steps from their current location.
“Just some piles of leaves? Do you really think that there is something hiding under it?”
“I don’t sense anything serious,” said Affi.
“I don’t like these leaves. It looks like someone poured them here intentionally,” said Kor.
“You think it’s a trap?” uttered Bluve.
“Yes. And there is only one way to check this out.”

Kor looked at a side, noticed a stick, took it and threw to the leaves. The stick flew about fifty steps and fell in one of the piles with loud and pleasant rustle. Team One waited for some time, but nothing happened.

“Well, what was I saying? Just lots of leaves!” grinned Zet’rar and waved. “Come on!”

And then… Whole layer just exploded. Waves of old brown leaves drenched all around. researchers jumped back, stared at the leaves and shuddered: from under the piles something monstrous was appearing. It was huge – at least three times bigger than Lynx – and hulky. It quickly stood up, and when it happened, researchers could see the beast. It was bipedal and had huge paws. Though it was stooped, it reached the tree crowns, and, what was the most surprising, it looked like a bad-made golem: it was covered with stones, bark, grass, moss and lichen. Its single eye was just a black hole. The monster opened its mouth and showed jaws full of sharp teeth made of rocks. 

Researchers were terrified.

“Holy crap…” muttered Max. “Mapinguari!”
“Mapi-what?” said Oma.
“Terran animal, a kind of giant sloths, cryptid in former times, primarily vegetarian, but very angry…”

“Mapinguari” slowly took battle pose and growled.

“That’s nice but this fucking thing can attack us at any moment!” hissed Karin.
“Step back,” suddenly said Edez. “I’ll handle it.”
“What? Alone against this monster?” whispered Affi. “You are not a telepath!”
“Yes, but I have something else. Let’s see how powerful combination of equestrian and dreketanian organisms can be…”

First curator of the Team went forward. Having seen that only one from the whole group was going fight, beast got surprised, but then, having thought that it will be much easier to beat them one by one, snorted, leaned a bit and got ready to pounce. Edez looked at the monster and…

Everything happened in a second. With lightning speed Edez dashed forward and hit the monster in the stomach. For a moment researchers could see how net of large electric sparks covered the beast. It shouted with all its might, shuddered and soon fell down unconscious. Edez, panting, stood back on all four legs.

“Well, it is powerful!” he spelled.
“Wow…” uttered Affi.
“You roasted whole forest monster,” muttered Kor. “Wonderful!”
“I wouldn’t say so,” uttered Max who approached the beast and put his ear to its body. “You just singed him a bit, Edez. He’s alive.”
“Teams Five and Eight and other groups didn’t report about creatures like this,” said Bluve, examining the monster.
“So we are pioneers now, right?” said Sheim.
“Yep.”
“Then let’s explore it!”
“Wait!” Max loudly said. “I don’t want this thing to wake up when I’ll rummage under 
his skin or what he has… So, Kor, come here and process our little friend.”
“You want me to…” began surprised officer.
“Yes. Take some of his life forces and provide him good knock out.”
“As you wish.”

Kor approached the monster and put his forelegs on it. He focused and soon began the taking. One minute, and he finished.

“That’ll be enough,” he said.
“Are you sure?” asked Max.
“I took so much energy that he won’t wake up even if plasma bomb explode only a micrograd away.”
“Then I’m satisfied.”

And they began the studying. In fact, they did the same procedure what they did with hydra, except that now they took more samples, made extra precise scanogram and Max tried to look under the skin of the monster using his sensory organs. He remained very surprised after this: the monster not only was covered with different natural materials, he was entirely made of them – all organs were stone, wooden or metal. It seemed that this creature was much more complicated version of a timberwolf. It was something more than  mutation.

Eventually, they finished the exploration and continued the campaign. But they didn’t have time to go far – the situation in which they fell in the swamp, repeated: shouts of one beast attracted other ones…

Researchers got to a small clearing when sudden loud rustle came from all the sides. They alerted and stood in a circle. And soon timberwolves started to come out from the thickets all round and approach them. All of them were adult, big and ready to attack.

“Dammit, that mapinguari summoned all the creatures from the surroundings!” swore Max.
“Or our little friend, whom we met near Zecora’s house, called for help…” uttered Edez.
“There are tens of them!” exclaimed Bluve, looking around.
“Yeah, there are really a dime a dozen of them,” said Oma.
“And all of them come to us,” added Zet’rar.
“Well, my friends,” spelled Edez, “we have no other choice.”
“Fight?”
“Yes.”
“I have nothing against,” grinned Kor, kneading his neck.
“Then let’s beat the shit out of them!”

They stood in fighting poses. Timberwolves, seeing this, bared their teeth and jumped on them.

Fierce fight started with the first seconds. Each member of the group got attacked by two or three beasts at the same time, but they managed to dodge and even hit back. Team One repulsed the first attack and went on the offensive. Although only Kor, Edez and Max were professional soldiers, all researchers of the Institute had military trainings – it was impossible to equip all research groups with military units and predict all the assaults, so researchers had to protect themselves, their works and bases. They knew how to fight and had the experience. So they could battle with any beasts.

Karin strained herself to maximum and just tore creatures apart with her telekinesis. Bluve separated her forelegs and thrashed every beast that attacked her – anxaimans are strong species, they are able to tear off a limb of creature what is as big as them. Sheim knocked timberwolves out with lightning prodding strikes – he wasn’t strong, but thanks to biological features of rugartairan could contract his muscles incredibly quickly, and it provided high killability; he preserved his spikes and used them only when he had no other possibilities. Zet’rar released his dorsal limbs and brought an avalanche of blows on the beasts. Not the strongest, but numerous and frequent hits did their job. Oma most part of the time evaded the attacks, but when there were possibilities, she shifted and kicked beasts with all might of her hind legs; the power of her blows was so great that she just cracked the skulls of wooden monsters, sometimes she even dented their jaws into their throats. Max acted mostly like Oma – dodged, scanned the enemy, and when he found the weakest spot, put all his strength into the hit; he methodically destroyed the creatures one by one. Affi strained and sent powerful telepathic pulses right into the heads of the monsters; it killed them immediately. Edez flounced across whole glade, crashed creatures with mighty blows and ran a current through them; some ones he set on fire. Kor released his claws, changed the teeth and just mauled and lacerated them like giant mad wolverine.

Team One managed to resist the attackers, but number of timberwolves significantly exceeded them, and they always attacked in groups. All members of the group sooner or later got wounded, even Edez couldn’t escape this – wooden monsters all the time tried to bite off their limbs, and Zet’rar lost one of his dorsal ones. They left traces of their teeth on Max’s, Kor’s, Affi’s, Oma’s and Sheim’s backs. And not everyone was finished from the first time – a lot of beasts restored themselves and continued the battle until it got crashed again or destroyed. But thanks to nanites of Set 11 and supporting implants researchers were able to continue the battle.

In six minutes it was over. Researchers, hardly panting, stood and looked at the destroyed beasts. Whole clearing was covered with remains of timberwolves – slivers, chips, broken and burnt logs.

“That’s all,” breathed Edez.
“No more ones,” said Max, looking around.
“We did it! We did it!” exclaimed Bluve.
“Wait, where’s Karin?” exclaimed Affi.

All other looked around. Karin wasn’t on the glade. They got worried, and suddenly a loud scream came from the woods. It was her.

Before anyone reacted, Kor rushed to her.

During the battle Karin, fighting off, got into the woods. Timberwolves took advantage and surrounded her with significant part of their pack. Karin was trapped – having strained, she could destroy the greatest part of the beasts, but not all of them. And when she’ll be dealing with the majority, the remained ones attack her.

She, trembling, slowly stepped back and prepared for the worst. But suddenly a loud crackle came from the nearest bushes, and huge brown shadow jumped from it right on the monsters. Furious Kor in the first seconds turned three creatures into raw material for particle boards. In the following moments he destroyed five more monsters. Timberwolves, seeing all this rage, just stopped the attack. Now Karin took advantage and, having strained, grabbed dozen of monsters and crushed them in the air. Kor meanwhile killed all the remained ones.

Now it was finished. Kor slowly stood up straight, turned to Karin and asked:

“You alright?”

She nodded and smiled.

“Y-yes. Thank you! Thank you!” she ran to him, embraced and kissed.

Kor got confused for a couple of seconds.

“Ehm… Not worth it!” he muttered.

But Karin continued. She stopped – and sprang back – only when officer gently said that all other are here and watching.

“Are you okay?” Edez asked Karin.
“Yes,” she answered. “I got in a trap, but Kor came to the rescue.”
“Together we defeated the last of them,” added officer.
“Glad to hear it.”

They returned to the trail and there just fell down. For a half of an hour they just lay on the grass, recovered and recuperated. Then they finally stood up and discussed their plan of actions.

Researchers unanimously agreed that it will be enough adventures for today. Yes, Everfree Forest is place with numerous mysteries which would be very interesting to learn, but if they continue to face with monsters, they won’t last long, and no one wanted to use the last source. So they decided to stop combing the woods and turn back to Ponyville. But they left one object for exploration in their list – the Castle of Two Sisters.

Edez together with Sheim and Kor quickly defined the direction and group moved on through the thicket. The castle stood almost at straight line from their present location to Ponyville, so it would be a sin just to pass by and didn’t look at one of the most mysterious and historically significant places in whole Equestria.

And so they made their way through bushes, grass and vines. Researchers made their way quite slowly as they didn’t use any trails, but they were glad – since the fight on that clearing they haven’t met anyone bigger than fox on the ground and owl among the tree crowns, and their only problem again were bothersome midges.

They were walking and enjoyed the particular beauty of this forest, when they heard rustle somewhere near again. Researchers quietly cursed this place and their luck and prepared for another encounter. The rustle meanwhile got louder and louder. Team One expected another constellation beast, so they stood in fighting poses to attack at any moment. The source of the noise quickly approached and then showed itself. From the shadows of huge trees two figures came out – one of them was only a bit lower than Edez and Kor, second one was tiny as a colt. Both figures had a pair of horns. They came to light, and then researchers saw that they were deer: the tall one was brown and wore red armor, the young one had color of desert sand, both of them had strange necklaces with small barrel-looking boxes. They approached the researchers, who breathed a sigh of relief and took usual poses, and stood near them.

“Good day, travelers,” tall deer greeted them. “Are you alright? Do you need any assistance?”
“Thank you, but we’re fine,” answered Edez. “Good day to you too and thanks for the care.”
“We saw that you were moving not along the trail, so we thought that you might get lost.”
“It’s very easy to get lost in this Forest if you don’t follow the trails,” added young deer.
“We don’t have any problems with terrain orientation,” said Sheim.
“Pardon me, but let me ask, what are you doing at such distant part of the Forest?” wondered tall deer.
“Oh, we just walking, enjoying and admiring the wildlife,” said Affi.
“We’re here as tourists,” added Zet’rar.
“Tourists?” surprised deer.

Max, Zet’rar and Sheim with no word took their recorders, which looked just like ordinary cameras, from the saddlebags and showed them.

“Well, okay then,” spelled tall deer.
“Where did you come from if you are so interested in the Forest as a sightseeing?” wondered young one.
“From Europonia,” said Edez and, seeing surprise on faces of deer, decided to confirm it with introducing. “I’m Berg, and these are my friends and colleagues Antilipsi, Erő, Pippi, Lierre, Didinga, Allegro, Calma and Zicht.”
“And I am Bramble and this is Blackthorn,” young deer introduced himself and his companion.
“I am the commander of the guard of the Thicket, and Bramble is prince of our little kingdom,” added Blackthorn.
“Our regards,” said researchers and bowed.
“Well,” said Kor when he stood up, “I didn’t expect that I’ll meet a colleague in Everfree Forest,” and he looked at Blackthorn.
“Colleague?” surprised deer.
“We came here for permanent residence and now are working in the Castle of Friendship as servants and guards,” explained Oma.
“Hm, princess Twilight has finally hired a staff…” quietly spelled Bramble.
“Well, nice to meet you too, colleague,” said Blackthorn, nodded to Kor and then addressed to all group. “But, still, do you need any help?”
“Thank you again, but no,” answered Karin. “We know the way.”
“But what about creatures that live here? Manticores, timberwolves…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that! We can stand for ourselves!” assured Max.
“We know a number of ways,” added Bluve.
“And what are these ways?” wondered Blackthorn.
“Guys, give them a roar,” Affi grinned and addressed Kor, Edez and Zet’rar.

Guys smiled and gave a roar. Almost whole hundred decibels of roar. Blackthorn didn’t move, but all his hair stood on end. And Bramble… Bramble was soon found at the top of the nearest small fir.

“Well, that was impressive,” said Bramble when he got down.
“Thank you,” nodded guys.
“We’ve already used this to drive away one timberwolf,” said Zet’rar.
“And… what happened?”
“It laid a log with fear.”
“No wonder…” spelled Blackthorn.
“Thank you again for the offer,” said Affi, “but we can handle everything ourselves. As you see.”
“Well then good luck!” said Bramble.
“And beware of Guardians of the Forest and stone porcupines,” added Blackthorn.
“Guardians of the Forest? Stone porcupines?”
“Guardians are big bipedal monsters made of wood, stones, grass and other things. Stone porcupines are live druses of crystals that may explode if you walk near them. They make loud metal rasp right before this. Both of them usually hide themselves.”
“Well, now we’ll know!”
“Goodbye!”
“Goodbye!”

Researchers and deer nodded to each other, and they went in different directions.

“They’re strange,” spelled Bramble when Team One disappeared from sight.
“You don’t say…” nodded Blackthorn, and they went back to their city.

Team One continued its way to the castle. An hour and a half of walking separated them from their destination. A lot of things could happen during this time, but the last part of the way turned out to be as calm as the first, before the meeting with deer. Only four little surprises had occurred: they ran into a couple of fighting wolverines, a hawk caught a mouse just in three steps from them, a flying squirrel occasionally landed on Zet’rar’s head and they had to make a detour to round big swarm of wild bees. Eventually, having overcome the thickets, they approached the ruins.

From the top of the last hill they could see the castle. Although only some parts of whole building remained safe, it looked magnificently. Even now it was possible to feel its might and former royal luxury. Researchers, looking at it, smiled and quickened their pace. They walked down the hill and could already see the suspension bridge that went over gorge, when something cracked right under small pile of leaves and dead branches which their group surrounded.

They stopped, and in a second loud metal raps came from the pile. At that moment all researchers remembered words of Blackthorn, and spelled the only thought what they had:

“Fuck.”

And the pile exploded. Four dozens of dark long crystals shot in all directions. Most of them flew past, but other reached the aim. All researchers, even Edez, just had no time to react. Everyone was hit.

Karin and Sheim were stabbed in their sides, Oma – in stomach, Zet’rar – in thorax. Three crystals dug into Edez’s legs and two into Bluve’s, and they fell down. One crystal crashed Kor’s mandible. Two crystals hit Affi’s hips. Two more ones pierced Max’s throat.

“Argh!” growled Oma. “Why we always get into such crap?!”
“Damned creature of damned forest…” swore Bluve.
“Shit!” snarled Sheim.
“Egh… a little help here?” uttered Edez, pointing to his legs with own head.
“Not only you need it…” hissed Affi.
“Oh… Fine!”

After some time they got all crystals out from their bodies. Wounds were terrible: muscles and some organs were torn apart, bones were broken, and they lost a lot of blood. But thanks to implants they withstand the pain, and thanks to nanites they could regenerate themselves. Researchers focused and sent mental signal to all micromachines in their bodies. Tiny robots immediately rushed to heal the damages. And wounds began to skin over right in one’s sight. Ten minutes, during which they only had to hold fixed bones and wait, and the healing was finished. There even were no traces of formed injuries on their bodies.

“Finally!” exclaimed Max when the process was over. “I can breathe like a normal terran!”
“Bearable,” spelled Kor, moving his mandible.
“Just like new!” smiled Bluve, looking at her legs.
“Does it look fine?” Oma asked Zet’rar, sitting and stroking her belly.
“Perfectly, my dear,” answered technician.
“Well, these nanites should do their best…” uttered Affi, stretching her hind legs. “How’s my… butt?”
“Sexy as always,” answered Edez.

Affi sighed and shook her head.

“You know, Edez is right,” said Sheim. “Affi, you have amazing figure!”
“Yep,” nodded Edez and grinned. “It can charm even a draconequus!”
“What???” she exclaimed.
“We are not blind. We saw how you looked at him. There was something more in your eyes than just interest and admiration. So, if you want to get him, don’t be shy, my dear. Use it,” master researcher grinned again and with a wave told other to follow him.

Soon they left the forest and crossed the bridge. Affi’s face meanwhile regained its usual color. When researchers approached the ruins, they stopped for a moment near the entrance and looked up at rising ancient walls and towers. They looked severe and cold, it seemed possible to feel all the horrible events what happened here, but at the same time for some reason these mures created the impression that nothing happens when they will be inside. This strange sensation gave confidence. So researchers gave each other a nod and went in.

They appeared in grand hall: big high elongated room with set of portals on both sides, total volume of which was so great that it seemed possible to place three Ponyville town halls there. Seven corridors began in it with low but quite wide stairs. Though the roof of the hall almost entirely collapsed long ago, a lot of decoration elements preserved, and surprisingly in very good state.

“I can’t believe that all these things are more than thousand years old…” spelled Oma, looking at carpets, tapestries and wooden carved panels.
“Yeah…” nodded Sheim. “All fabric and wood should decay, having spent so much time under winds and rains!”
“Once I heard Twilight saying that princess Celestia casted a special spell on whole this place for better preservation,” said Affi.
“Well then it’s clear,” uttered Edez. “But I have a feeling that it’s only the beginning of surprises.”
“Let’s start the excursion then!” grinned Kor.

Researchers went to the widest stairs which were right in front of the entrance. They climbed it, passed a couple of corridors and appeared near the entrance to another large hall. They entered it and saw that it was the main room of whole castle – the throne room. It was almost as big as the main hall and looked quite similar to it – mostly because of brutal colonnades on the sides that were almost just like those sets of portals. But here, instead of the main stairs, there was an elevation on which two thrones stood. The wall behind them was decorated with two large tapestries with stylized images of princesses. This hall also had only remains of the roof, but was surprisingly clean.

“Wow…” uttered Karin, looking around. “Just like ancient Terran palaces of feudal era!”
“Well… With the only exception that this room is much bigger than in average castle on our home planet,” added Max.
“Yeah, right.”
“Amazing!” uttered Sheim and took his recorder. Zet’rar also activated his camera.
“Hm…” Kor rubbed his chin, grinned and went to the thrones.
“What are you doing?” asked Affi, looking how officer approached the seats.
“Well, we’re alone here, no one looks, and I always wanted to sir in the chair of a ruler!” he said and sat on old Celestia’s throne. But in a moment he jumped from it with loud exclamation like he has just sat in a nettle bush.
“What’s wrong?”
“Aaaghh… It’s cold!”

Researchers laughed.

“It serves you right!” said Affi to him.
“Princess is still protecting her place!” grinned Bluve.

Having giggled for some more time and made Kor even more grumpy-faced, they made several panoramic shots and went further.

They started to move along numerous corridors of the castle. Great passages, so high that pegasi easily could do their stunts there, interspersed with narrow tunnels where ponies could walk only in a rank. Some of them were empty – even without doors and windows, only bare walls – other had some decoration. It wasn’t so splendid like in throne room or main hall, but still it was more than worthy of the royal residence. Team One could see magnificent tapestries representing historical moments of old times, portraits of nobles, warlords, court alchemists and magicians, some sculptures and vases. Unlike Canterlot – as they knew from bearers of the Elements and Spike – there was no furniture in the corridors. It could be understood: Canterlot palace served almost entirely as a residence, this castle also served for defense. And this feature had left its mark: although the castle looked grand, its decoration was strict and somber.

“Gosh! I can’t believe that princesses could prefer such grim style!” said Oma when they entered the passage full of torch holders made in form of pony’s forelegs.
“Well, your tastes and preferences can change significantly during your life, especially if you live for several thousand years,” said Edez. “For example, five hundred years ago I was bald but with spade beard.”
“Oh my…” sociologist shuddered, having imagined her curator in such image.
“Wooden,” said Zet’rar, gently tapping one of the holders.
“These could be used as quite nice sconces…” uttered Max.
“Yeah,” nodded Affi. “For a cabinet where you want to write a horror novel.”

They moved farther, and soon appeared in the corridor which they could call “The exhibition of equestrian armors.”

“I wouldn’t edge myself into them even if I was a teenager!” swore Kor.
“And they fit me just right!” smiled Max, standing near one of the armors.

The wandering continued, and during it researchers also looked into rooms. After the throne room they hadn’t met anything more notable: all the rooms what they visited were cabinets, bedrooms for guests, maid’s rooms, barracks and closets. There was nothing interesting in them, and they showed various degrees of mess. Something different they found only in basements – castle pantries and kitchens. But because of presence of remains of food there, there was inexpressible strong smell that could easily cure rhinitis and created want to never come back here. Sometimes they opened a door and it turned out that it lead to nowhere – rooms were just absent, and through doorway they could see remains of masonry and treetops of Everfree Forest to the horizon. They could visit various rooms – as apartments of nobles as storages where cleaners and gardeners kept their tools. It was possible because all these rooms were unlocked – the castle was abandoned quickly, so no one cared about this. Now this circumstance allowed researchers to learn more.

But, eventually, they found a locked door.

“Hey, guys, come here!” exclaimed Bluve.
“Yes? What did you find?” asked her friends who ran to her.
“This door is locked,” said physiologist and pointed to ordinary wooden door – ones like this usually led to closets.
“Yep, it’s closed thoroughly,” spelled Zet’rar, having pulled the handle.
“Well, in that case, there should be something really important inside if it was or remained closed,” said Affi.
“Then let’s find out!” smiled Edez and leaned all his weight upon the door. It creaked, but didn’t yield. Edez frowned and leaned again, but again with no results.
“Let me,” intervened Kor.

Curator of the Team stepped back, and Kor hit the door with his forelegs. The door loudly creaked, but moved only a millimeter.

“Step back, you weaklings,” sighed Oma and approached the door.

Surprised Kor retreated. Oma stopped in a step from the entrance, moved her tail, then stood on it and hit the door with all might of her hind legs. The door crackled and flew off its hinges. “Nice,” uttered Zet’rar, Bluve and Max. Edez and Kor dropped their jaws. Oma, having given them a smug smile, stepped aside. Affi took and switched on a lantern, and they entered the room.

Their guess turned out to be true: this room really was one of the most important in whole castle. It was the armory. Dozens of racks with different weapons. Eyes of lads and Karin lit up, Affi gladly smiled, and they rushed to examine the ammunition. Oma with Bluve just slowly walked and looked around. Armory was incredibly rich: there were weapons not only for ponies, but also for griffins and minotaurs. Spears, glaives, knives, daggers, swords, sabers, axes, halberds, clubs, hammers, slings, bows and arrows, armors, helmets, shields – the storage had enough arms for a whole brigade. And all these arms preserved in very good state: wooden parts remained intact, metal parts have no traces of rust, blades still were fine. Researchers with undisguised delight examined the weapons, held them and even tried them, making some simple moves and testing their ease and practicality of use.

“Neat!” smiled Max, lifting and looking at blued machete in perfect state.
“This is for me!” gladly said Kor and took minotaur battle-ax.
“I must say that for peaceful creatures they have quite large armory,” spelled Karin, sorting out throwing knives.
“Well, centuries ago everything wasn’t so peaceful here, so existence of such armory is understandable,” answered Affi.
“Yeah, those guys thoroughly prepared for battles,” added Zet’rar.
“You know… After all those meetings with monsters…” said Edez. “Such stuff as this will be quite useful for all of us.”
“Your hands are itching too?” Affi addressed him.
“At first, now it’s hooves, and at second, this place is forgotten and no one needed it for centuries. And these things will be really useful for us.”
“And not only Edez thinks that we should take some stuff from here, believe me,” said Kor.
“Oh yeah,” added Sheim and Karin.
“Well then let’s rob this storage!” grinned Max.

And they started to pick the weapons what they liked. Luckily, they have some additional bags, free space in blocks of warped space and other means of carrying.

“Girls, take something!” Edez addressed Bluve and Oma.
“Okay,” said girls, and went to choose arms for themselves. Soon Bluve had four short swords and four clubs, Oma took set of small knives, a glaive and pair of heavy metal “boots” for her hind legs.
“Ready for another monster attack, sir!” reported Kor.
“Glad to hear,” responded Edez. “And, by the way, we can visit this place a couple of times more.” Others agreed, and they continued their tour across the castle.

And again endless corridors began. But now they were excited: they have found forgotten armory, and who knows what they can find next? So they actively looked around and examined all the rooms and portals trying to find something new.

Edez led the group. They were near another wing full of apartments and other rooms, when suddenly first curator heard loud scream of his subordinates right behind him. He turned around and got shocked: all other disappeared – a big dark hole now was on the place where his friends and colleagues were. Still affected, he looked down at his hooves, and noticed that tile under his left foreleg was indented in the floor. He realized what had happened, quietly swore and turned back to the hole.

“Guys, are you alright?” he asked.
“Except for a couple of bruises, yes,” answered Affi.
“What happened?” wondered Karin.
“I occasionally stepped at tile that activates a trap…” growled Edez. “I can’t leave because you might get locked, so can you get out yourselves?”
“We’ll try.”

After some minutes they managed to get out. Using their claws, they one by one climbed the walls of the trap. Quite slowly, because they didn’t want to damage their tools, samples and now weapons, but they did it. When the last got out, Edez put his hoof away from the tile. And the trap closed with slam.

Researchers looked at each other and moved on. But now, having got the reminder, they slowed down and watched their step and not only step.

Wandering through the next wing, they found another large entrance portal. After the throne room and main hall it was first big room what they met, so, wondering what could it be, they rushed inside. And when they got in, they delightfully gasped: it was the royal library. A hall even bigger than throne room, filled with incredibly well-preserved books. Thousands of tomes, placed on shelves that were as high as three-storeyed house. Although here and there were dust, spider webs and stones and bricks from the roof, this place looked amazingly. It was real treasury of knowledge of ancient times.

“Now I can fully understand Twilight,” uttered Affi.
“Yes… As far as I know, you can see libraries like this only in three places in whole country – Canterlot Royal Archive, Trottingham and Manehattan Universities,” said Oma.
“There are so many ancient books here…” spelled Bluve. “It’ll take hours to look through all of them!”
“Two days at least,” added Max. “We should came here first! Or we should return here tomorrow.”
“My friends, there is no need in this,” said Zet’rar.
“What do you mean?”

Technician didn’t response. He only smiled and took a can-sized device with a shape of truncated pyramid from his saddlebag and put it on the floor. Then he activated it, quickly typed a command on holographic panel which appeared right after the activation, and said “Wait!” Soon the panel disappeared, and short, but powerful flash lightened the room. When the library plunged into darkness again, he took the device and put it back. 

“What was that?” uttered Max.
“One of the latest unfalizan achievements. Instant particle scanner of medium precision,” answered Zet’rar.
“You scanned the library with it? Why?” wondered Oma.
“Simple. To convert these books into electronic format,” said technician and, seeing light incomprehension on faces of his colleagues, continued. “The scanner isn’t detailed, but it’s able to detect particles of ink on the paper. Thanks to scanogram it will be possible to reconstruct the location of each area of ink on the paper. And, using one simple algorithm, which I’ll write in a couple of supramoments, we will be able to define every sign by location of ink particles and, thus, convert the book.”
“Zet, you’re genius!” smiled Kor.
“I just can’t express how you make this task easier and better,” said Affi.
“Thank you.”
“Good job, Zet,” Edez nodded to him. “Now we have all the materials, but, still, let’s stay here for a while.”
“Sure!” smiled Zet’rar. “Electronic formal is handy, but nothing can compare with primary sources.”

Other agreed, and they started to explore the ancient temple of knowledge.

“Just look at all these chronicles!” exclaimed Kor, looking at rows of records. “They’re not only about Equestria, they’re about all regions of this world! Wow! Well, now I know what I gonna read in the evenings!”
“For you it’ll be a good entertainment…” spelled Karin. “But for me and Oma – a good number of reports…”

Zet’rar found a tome named “History of Necromancy” on one of the most hidden shelves. He got interested and decided to take a look. Max, Bluve and Affi joined him. They quickly looked through it. Zet’rar, when he was closing the book, said:

“Quite frightening, but it can’t compete with what rotula did.”
“Yeah…” responded his friends and shuddered, having remembered one of the most cruel and unprincipled civilization in Known Space, which turned fallen soldiers of their enemies into own weapon with swarms of nanites.
“Take a look at this!” exclaimed Oma, holding such a big book that it could fit as a hovel for a filly.
“Terrors of Equestria…” Edez read the title and got silent.
“It’s a complete catalog of all the monsters that inhabit this continent,” continued Oma. “There are detailed descriptions of different spirits, changelings, shadow ponies, windegoes, dragons, guardians of forests and mountains, trolls, constellation beasts, timberwolves, hydras, parasprites, and other and other. You name it!”
“Well… I didn’t expect that this land can be so rich!” uttered Sheim.
“Me too. I just can’t imagine how ponies can be healthy and live long and happily having all them right next door!”
“Well, ponies really live in a couple of steps from these monsters, but they don’t contact with them or contact incredibly rare,” said Max. “For instance, how many ponies usually visit Everfree Forest during a day? Although thousands live near its borders, only a couple of dozens dare to go into. They keep themselves safe thanks to the simplest strategy: avoiding. And, speaking about “healthy and live long and happily”… Ponies created very favorable environment for themselves and support its existence. All these have its good effects on them, so we can see prosperous and contented culture. Also they follow some simple but very salutary rules, like spend more time outdoors and be physically active.”
“Can the effect of these prescriptions really be so great?” wondered Kor.
“Why, yes,” nodded biologist. “Before invention of genetic modifications and treatments they were the most reliable ways of improvement of health and providing the longevity in every civilization. Even basic physical exercises, good environment and enjoyment of it can do miracles. As we said in Medical Academy, sun, fresh air and onanism will strengthen your organism!”

Several researchers sighed and shook their heads.

“Seriously?” said Sheim.
“Well, for some species…” Zet’rar began.
“For some species – yes.”
“Ah, forget it!” Max waved off. “None of you will understand it!”
“Just look at all this magnificence!” exclaimed Edez, standing in front of magic literature section. “Now we’ll certainly create complete description of phenomenon of local magic!”
“Yes,” nodded Affi and smiled. “Having the data what we got during that show and such theoretical basis, we’ll be the first who crack it!”
“Guys!” shouted Karin. “Come here! I found something what you should see!”

Other researchers gathered near her and looked. It turned out that Karin found a folder with architectural drawings of the castle. That was really useful finding. Her colleagues thanked her and began to memorize it. Soon they could navigate freely through the whole building, so, since now there was no fear to stray, curators allowed their subordinates to divide and explore everything what they want. Only with a single time limit: since it was evening, they had only about an hour to spend here if they wanted to return into Ponyville before nightfall. Regular members of the group agreed, and they went in different directions.

Max and Bluve went to castle hospital. It took them some time to get there, but when they did it, they were very glad: its rooms remained in very good state, and thanks to this biologist could find drugs that ponies used in old times and some interesting literature. Karin and Kor rushed to the rooms of headquarters and after their exploration remained very amazed: it turned out that Equestria long time ago had quite rich military history. Zet’rar and Oma spent greatest part of their time in ballroom where they danced and Zet’rar played some music to his love, but they did some explorations too: they found that all the traps built in the castle based on difficult mechanics and contained absolutely no magic elements. Edez, Affi and Sheim decided to do a little sacrilege and wade in princesses’ apartments. They managed to do it, but they didn’t find anything interesting and noticeable – if there was something, it was removed long time ago.

In two supramoments they met near the entrance as they agreed. They quickly exchanged the news, briefly told to each other what they found and what they got, and, while the sky still was blue, left the Castle.

They knew that with nightfall dangerous creatures of the Forest brisk, and a lot of them start their hunt at that time, but on their way to the town Team One met only small evening birds and other arboreal animals. This gave confidence: they chose perfect period, when day animals only started to go to sleep and night ones only about to wake up. So they with no fear went forward and vividly discussed the events of this day. 

The trail seemed to be calm and quiet until their very arrival to Ponyville. They passed two thirds of whole way and didn’t meet anything special. They thought that nothing can happen to them in next supramoments, but everything changed in a second.

Thunderous sound shook the surroundings. Frightened researchers froze and started to look around. Trees and bushes rustled and soon from behind of them dozens of angry growling predator beasts slowly came out. But now it wasn’t timberwolves, it was their counterparts from constellation beasts – lupis, blue sparkling monsters at least one and a half times taller than highest of researchers. And they were not alone – together with them there were several purple corvis, which could easily carry away a pony, and three silver leones, high as average tree. And, in addition, four hydras.

Researchers were shocked.

“Oh come on!” exclaimed Sheim and Oma.
“It can’t be that we got so unlucky!” exclaimed Zet’rar.
“We’re screwed,” stated Edez.
“It can’t be that there is no way out!” exclaimed Karin and Bluve.
“Teleportation of material bodies now, when ship’s ASI is in passive mode and all shields are up, is impossible. We are alone against almost hundred monsters, which are much stronger than us. Even our abilities and weapons won’t guarantee victory.”
“And I won’t be able to hold them all, especially hydras,” added Affi.
“Sorry, but now we really have no chance. The only way out is the last source. Guys, transfer all the data into your implanted memory blocks, Bluve, activate the main annihilator.”

Bluve took deep breath and concentrated. Other researchers encircled her. Beasts meanwhile continued to approach, and now only several steps separated them from attack distance.

“Done,” said Bluve.
“Get ready for transportation…” spelled Edez.

Monsters, shouting, growling and showing their teeth came closer, and suddenly all nine ponies simultaneously fell down unconscious. Creatures surprised – they have never seen such reaction. Interested, they leaned over ponies’ bodies and… Main annihilator activated.

Huge dome of white light rose above the forest without a sound. It instantly spread and covered area at least twice bigger than Ponyville. All the beasts and forest around vanished in the annihilation wave. After all of this only huge crater remained.

Team One after some time woke up in their new avatars on their ship. Saying almost no words and making rare sighs, they activated the ASI, gave it all the data what they could save for processing, launched the growing of new set of avatars and only then left the ship. They returned to Ponyville after midnight and immediately fell asleep. At the next day they woke up late and spent remnants of their free time having relaxing rest. They had to recover after those events.





But their act of self-annihilation couldn’t remain unnoticed. Light dome above Everfree Forrst was seen with the naked eye even from Canterlot. This sight alarmed and frightened hundreds of ponies. No one could even suppose what happened there. So representatives of all military and secret services of Equestria came there as fast as they could. Ponies from Second Department of Special Service were one of the first.

“Holy… Oh my goodness!” uttered Dim Silhouette, Grace and Cloudbreaker when they reached the place. In front of them was incredibly deep two-thirds-of-a-mile-wide crater, at the bottom of which a small lake of dirty water had already formed.
“Unbelievable…” spelled Razor Edge.
“What happened here?” uttered Grace. “Thousand ponies saw dome of light, but didn’t hear a sound! And here we have this giant hole! How there can be an explosion without a thunderous noise?”
“And absolutely without fragments and other remains?” added Cloudbreaker.
“Yes!”
“It wasn’t a simple explosion…” said Hidden Path.
“Then… It was some kind of magic manifestation?” supposed Dim Silhouette. “But I can’t remember any natural phenomena that looked like this…”
“If so, then who could do this?” wondered Grace.
“Well… all known free magicians able for something like this are our princesses, Discord and soldiers of Special Unicorn Battalion of Canterlot guard,” said Cloudbreaker. “All other are in jails or in Tartarus or destroyed. The only exception is queen Chrysalis, but I don’t think that she could do something like that, it’s not her way.”
“It wasn’t magic,” suddenly said Razor Edge.
“What?” exclaimed Dim Silhouette, Grace and Cloudbreaker.
“I scanned the surrounding for traces of magic. But I felt only typical background of Everfree.”

Dim Silhouette, not believing her colleague, casted a scanning spell herself and examined some things from near the crater. And soon got frightened: Razor Edge was completely right.

“It’s true. No signs of magic,” she uttered.
“But… How?” exclaimed Cloudbreaker.
“Magic always manifests itself gently and a bit blurry, no matter how dark and strong it is,” explained Razor Edge. “In most cases, and especially when it comes to powerful manifestations, the edges of its zone of influence are always diffuse and imprecise. Yes, magic can be perfectly focused, but still one can feel the aura. Here there are absolutely no traces of magic.”
“And look at this!” exclaimed Dim Silhouette, holding a part of a stone that she picked right from the edge of crater. “It looks like they were cut! And branches of the trees too!” she pointed to them.
“So there can be only one explanation of that event,” spelled Razor Edge.
“Technology?” guessed Grace.

Unicorn nodded.

“But that is the problem,” said Hidden Path. “Such technologies aren’t known to anyone in the world.”
“Unknown?” surprised others.
“Yep,” stallion nodded. “I’m familiar with all latest achievements of other nations and all the materials that our intelligence service brings. I know what technologies each country possesses. We have energy cannons and prototype artillery, europonians have crystal-based bombs and artillery, ponies of Eastern Kingdoms – self-propelled machines and devices that cause earthquakes, volcano eruptions and terrible storms, griffins of Empire – artillery and explosive devices which they call thermobaric bombs, minotaurs – self-propelled armored vehicles, zebras, camels, elephants, antelope, dogs and cats – firearms, alpacas and llamas together with zebras and antelope have grenades, marsupial ones – biogenic war gases and other poisons, also alpacas and llamas, together with cats and dogs have inorganic war gases, deer – poisons and mutagens of immediate action, dragons of southern continents – electromagnetic guns and bombs based on crystals. Here we have giant crater of perfect hemispherical shape with absolutely no remains. The only thing that left such traces is annihilation. But it can be created only by magic.”
“But… Is it possible to create such technology at all?” said Cloudbreaker. “We arrested some maniacs, who had devices that no pony has ever seen before.”
“It isn’t possible. There is no even a hypothesis that could explain how to initiate annihilation with technical sources.”

His colleagues silently gulped.

“We can only guess who or what it was,” spelled Hidden Path.
“You think it was those nine?” supposed Grace.
“It’s impossible to say, there was no pony around for miles. But I sincerely hope that it was not them.”
“Why?”
“Because thing which was able to do this couldn’t come from our world.”

Having finished, Hidden Path sighed. Pegasi and unicorns shuddered.

They were silently looking at the crater for some more minutes, then slowly went to help other groups of agents, guards and policeponies that arrived to the place. They’ll have a long investigation.