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// Elm 
// Story: A Walk in the Woods 
// by Chicago Ted 
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Early to bed, early to rise, in case
You’re sudd’nly thrust forth at a breakneck pace
To hasten, flee from this forsaken place.


At last! Celestia had finally cleared out her younger sister’s artwork, and had then adorned the sky with her own masterpieces, especially her pièce-de-résistance, her bright, gilded Sun. Day had begun, and not even the Everfree Forest could mask this.
It was time for Fluttershy to leave.
It took her a moment, once the Sun peeked out from over the treetops, to regain her senses and awaken to a new day. The rabbit that she saw in the middle of the night was gone. Or perhaps it was never there, having been fabricated entirely by her imagination, and she had moved her pillow for naught. Oh well.
As she was rolling up her sleeping bag, she heard a bird-call resonating from someplace nearby. Turning her head, she saw a cardinal perched upon a tree branch, simply sitting there and watching her. To what end?
Fluttershy stopped and tried to speak with the cardinal. It said nothing, and flew off when she advanced towards it. Perhaps it was not so wise to do so; these animals, compared to her contemporaries at home, were truly wild, focusing on surviving and nothing else. Fluttershy finished packing her sleeping bag, tied it securely upon her back, and then set off back to her home.
The sky was not the only thing awakened at this hour. All around her, Fluttershy noted how an instant vernumn had sprung from naught – Persephone had worked her unseen magic upon all the Everfree Forest, turning what once was foreboding place of doom and gloom into a warm abode within which any animal might reside. Trees had produced verdant radiance, and flowers were blooming up from the ground around her. Songbirds sang forth Æolus’s chorus, flying overhead in a myriad ways, and all seemed to fare well for the pegasus.
Not long after she had set off, she came across a stream – the very same stream that she crossed the day before. This time, using her hindsight as a tool, Fluttershy looked for another way across the stream. She found one part of the stream that was shallow enough, and had a few stepping-stones, scattered to make a path across one bank to then next.
It would do quite nicely.
Carefully, Fluttershy laid one hoof upon the first stone. Finding that it did not give way under her weight, she mustered the courage to step into the water, since no stepping-stone was within her reach. It was shallow enough. She felt the water course around her hoof, carrying on as though she were never there. Upon lifting it out, she felt the cool morning breeze; as it brushed past her wet hoof, she felt it cool down. Oddly, she felt at peace.
Crossing the stream the whole way did not take long afterwards. Putting one hoof in front of the other, she found that the stream washed away any anxiety that she may had had when she first entered the forest. By the time she set hoof upon the opposite bank, she felt refreshed, she felt couraged. Nothing could stand in her way.
She looked to her left, and found that Ponyville was also awakened, rising up with Celestia’s Sun, coming back to life after sleeping through the dead of night. Fluttershy would rejoin the lot soon enough.
She then saw a squirrel up in a high tree – watching her, pragmatically, not making a move nor a sound. Fluttershy greeted the squirrel, her voice matching with the wind. The squirrel did not respond. Fluttershy, therefore, disappointed that she got no response, moved on.
Over her head, a bright, vibrant rainbow appeared – one caused wholly by the wild nature of the forest, sans influence from her friend, Rainbow Dash. It served as the Everfree Forest’s way of welcoming her back to Equestrian civilisation, to her home, to her equine and bestial friends. Fluttershy felt humbled by its appearance.
She heard a buzzing sound again. She recognised that sound – up above her, high up in a familiar elm tree, she saw the hornet’s nest still buzzing away madly, as its residents laboured endlessly upon its upkeep. It indicated the trail, as promised, but now she was confused. The trail forked – she did not remember a fork from the day before – and she had no idea whether to take the left or right path.
She took another gamble and turned right.
She continued along the path, looking forward to seeing her home once more. Then she saw a rabbit in the road – a white one this time, not like the (apparently) brown one she spotted the night before. She tried to speak to it, in a voice so soft, so gentle, but it still hopped away when she approached it. Oh well. She pressed on once more, gaining ever closer to home.
Or so she thought.
As she turned at the next bend, she came across a fearsome sight. A creature clad of wood, fangs dripping with tree sap, green glowing eyes poking out from between leaf-rimmed lids. It snarled at Fluttershy, taking one step forward in her direction.
A timberwolf!
Calmly, Fluttershy stood her ground. She had seen timberwolves before; she had dealt with them in the past. This one was alone, surely it wouldn’t be much of a problem. Yes? No?
The timberwolf lunged at Fluttershy, but shied off at the last moment. It did this once more, twice more. Fluttershy knew that it was simply being territorial – naturally, she concluded, she went the wrong direction.
Was she never good at winning gambles?
After a moment of the timberwolf’s steeled gaze, it turned away and walked off. Silently, Fluttershy also turned back, making sure that the timberwolf never heard her.
Back down the path she travelled, looking around, listening around for the buzzing sound that indicated the hornet’s nest high up in the elm tree. It was no easy task – her heightened attention meant that she heard every creak, every crack, and every other small, otherwise easily dismissable noise that made up the Everfree Forest’s ambience. Twice she could have sworn that the timberwolf was tracking her from afar, hoping to land an easy kill. (Such a gruesome fate would never come to pass.)
The rabbit was still near the side of the path, watching her walk along. This time, Fluttershy never communicated with it – both parties, she found, found this arrangement perfectly acceptable.
Not long after – a few minutes later – she heard once more the buzzing hornet’s nest high above her. This time, however, she took the road that was travelled before – the one that, she knew, led right to her cottage’s doorstep.
Then she froze. There was a hornet buzzing around her face. She remained perfectly still, not even batting an eye, standing in the middle of the road, wanting, nay, wishing for the hornet to leave her alone. 
It eventually did, leaving her free to press on back home.
Celestia’s Sun had by now found itself fixed into its present position – Celestia had finished raising it. By most labour calendars in Equestria, this signaled the start of the work day. Be it in Ponyville, Canterlot, or essentially elsewhere, this was the moment all the shops opened, all the businesses started functioning once more – all signalled by this single, millennia-old tradition.
Fluttershy looked to the left – she was nearing her home, and this was where she heard a dry snap as she was entering the forest. Now she heard a quick staccato from a nearby tree – a woodpecker was perched upon the side, pounding through the bark, in hopeful anticipation of a meal in its near future. Breakfast, so to say.
Fluttershy needed some breakfast of her own as well – this thought propelled her back onto the trail. There was a time and a place for everything – this was the Everfree Forest during the early hours of daylight; it was neither the time nor the place to stop and admire the scenery around her. She had to get home, one way or another.
It wasn’t long before this actually happened. Fluttershy was pleased that everything was functioning normally. The tree-carved house was still standing, the ponds were still full of the five hundred twelve (or so) fish, and it appeared that all the animals were fed, surprisingly. Who had done the deed? Fluttershy wanted to know.
The moment that she opened the door, she was greeted enthusiastically by all of her animal friends. Her draconequine friend, Discord, had helped to care for them while she was gone, much to her relief. All seemed to be going well, now that she was back in her château.


Now, having reach’d the end of this long road,
I finally arrive at mine abode.
The steadfast rooster has already crow’d.