Chapter 1
The girls talked as they made their way down the dirt road to what Honeycrisp called ‘the homestead’ of Sweet Apple Acres. Really, it was a small town in and of itself. As they passed the southern boundary of the northern orchard, they found the bustling micro-community. Besides the trio of massive barns, the largest windmill Smarty Pants had ever seen, and a pair of grain silos large enough to comfortably house a dozen ponies each, most of the buildings were laid out in a wide ring around a central fountain.
The fountain wasn’t ornate by any stretch of the imagination. It was clearly for everyday use. A fact made readily apparent when a portly yellow stallion with a green mane sauntered up to it to gather water into a rolling cistern. The landmark feature of the fountain was a bronze statue of a mare rearing up on her backlegs. She wore a fierce smile and a wide-brimmed hat that reminded Smarty Pants of the stories she read about settler ponies.
As they passed the fountain, the two city fillies took in as much country life as their eyes could see. A two-story green house to the left had a yard full of chickens clucking and carrying on as chickens do. In the fenced yard adjacent a farrow of pigglets wallowed in the mud around a drowsy mother sow. A pair of earth pony children chased a hoop with a stick around an old oak tree. A gaggle of old mares sat under the awning of a brick house, knitting and carrying on about plans for the next barn raising before harvest.
Farther down the ring a busy gathering of ponies was taking place. As expected, most of them had apple-themed cutie marks. Smarty Pants watched as the ponies loaded wagon after wagon with fresh produce and canned goods. This one had a decorative board fixed to the back of it that read ‘Manehatten’. That one read ‘Seaddle’. One of the wagons was less of a wagon and more of a sled strapped to four pegasi. Its sign read ‘Canterlot Castle’. One of the pegasi, an orange stallion, saw Sandy and gave her a huge grin.
“Well bless my hitches. Howdy, Sandy!” he said with a wave. “Fancy seeing you here! We’re about to head out to the castle for our weekly delivery.”
“Hi Mr.Appleseed!” She waved back as the three fillies came to a stop. “It’s nice to see you, too! Me and Smarty Pants are visiting for the weekend. Tell mommy that I made it here just fine, okay? I don’t want her to worry.”
Appleseed laughed. “Powder Puff? Worry? I don’t think that unicorn has an anxious bone in her body, but I will. You enjoy your stay, you hear? I’ll be back soon. Kiddo, be a good host and get our guests to the house in time for lunch, okay?”
Honeycrisp nodded an affirmative. “You got it, Pop!”
They waved their goodbyes as Honeycrisp led Smarty Pants and Sandy along the inside of the ring towards a small rancher with an old dog sleeping on the front porch. When Honeycrisp opened the squeaking front gate to her home, the dog opened an eye and slapped his white tail on the ground with a single thump.
“Hey Walter, who’s a good boy?” asked Honeycrisp.
The dog answered by stretching out all his limbs from his spot on the porch. Then he was still again, sleeping like good dogs in sunbeams do.
Just beyond the dog, a screen door behind them opened with protesting hinges.
“Hello Smarty Pants, it’s good to see you again. Is that your friend, Sandy? She looks just like Appleseed said she would.”
Smarty Pants looked at Honeycrisp’s mom, a gray earth pony with an anvil and hammer cutie mark, as she leaned against the door frame. She was crazy pregnant.
“Whoa!” shouted Smarty Pants as she ran up the porch. “You’re so pregnant!”
Merry Hearth smiled at the filly. “Yes I am. Wasn’t I pregnant the last time you came to visit? It couldn’t have been that long ago.”
“Well yeah, but now you’re crazy pregnant! When are you due?”
Sandy fluttered her wings in excitement. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
Smarty kept pushing for answers. “Do you have any names picked out?”
Sandy turned again to face a disinterested looking Honeycrisp and shook her by the shoulder. “Aren’t you excited about being a big sister?!”
Smarty Pants poked Merry Hearth in her soft belly. “What about Smarty Pants? I think that’s a good name, what do you think?”
Honeycrisp let out a groan and smacked her forehead into the first step leading up to the porch. Walter thumped his tail at the excited ponies.
Merry Hearth laughed that brash-and-yet-endearing sort of laugh that only farmfolk seem to be able to conjure up. “You girls are so silly. Come on inside and wash your hooves. Lunch is ready.”
The three fillies went inside. Smarty Pants and Sandy hung their saddlebags on pegs in the entryway and followed Honeycrisp to the washroom. It was just like a picture out of an adventure story she wrapped up the other day, about dangers on the frontier. That reminded her of the whole point of being here this weekend.
“Hey Honeycrisp, do you have a map of the area? Something with the farm and Ponyville on it? Maybe part of the forest, too?”
“Huh? Yeah, I think so. Pop’s big into maps, says grandpa was a cardiographer, whatever that means.” Honeycrisp moved on from the sink to dry her hooves.
“Cardiographer? You mean cartographer. Yeah, that’ll work. Do you think Appleseed will mind if we borrow it?” She caught the towel as Honeycrisp threw it to her.
“I dunno, you’ll have to ask him. He should be back soon. Canterlot ain’t that far off.”
Smarty Pants offered the towel to Sandy, who was still scrubbing dirt out of her muzzle.
“Thanks,” said the lime green pegasus.
“Come on, Pants. Mom made mashed potatoes and creamed corn, your favorite.” Honeycrisp made a gagging sound and crossed her eyes, which made the other two ponies laugh.
“I heard that, Missy!” came a warning from beyond the hallway, “Food’s getting cold girls, get a move on.”
The three came around the dining room corner and sat at the table. The room was a simple affair, by the standards of the two Canterlot girls, but Smarty Pants thought that it was nice. It reminded her a bit of home, back in Farrington. The wall between this room and the kitchen was full of portraits of ponies most of whom were long gone.
Smarty Pants did a double take when she thought she noticed Princess Twilight in one of the oldest pictures in a place of honor over the mantle. Yeah, it was definitely Princess Twilight alright. She had the wings and the horn and the pink stripe in her mane and everything. She was just… Way shorter. And her hair wasn’t flowing with immeasurable power. It looked like she and three other ponies were all bridal maids for some lucky bride. She’d have to file that away and ask her teacher about it later. For now there were mashed potatoes and creamed corn.
Smarty Pants was far from a picky eater. If it was edible, she’d ed it. But there was a special place in her heart for good old fashioned farmpony food. They worked hard and ate well. It just felt right in her earth pony bones.
She heaped a mountain of smashed spuds on to her plate and pressed her spoon into the center of it to make a crater. The other ponies watched in morbid fascination as Smarty Pants talked to herself as she poured a steaming ladle full of hot creamed corn into the depression.
“Surrrrrg— oh no, it’s going to explode!” the bizarre little earth pony mumbled to herself. “Oooooh-noooo, the mountain is a volcano! Everypony for themselves –pssssssssssh”
Honeycrisp laughed so hard, she fell out of her seat and onto the dining room floor.
Smarty Pants looked away from the yellow dribbling horror on her plate, and her ears perked up. Everypony just stared at her, except for the hysterical unicorn on the floor. Wide eyed, Merry Hearth held a spoon full of mashed potatoes frozen in the air in front of her open mouth, apparently forgotten. The little light-brown pony blushed so hard she thought she’d be pink for the rest of her life.
“Um, these potatoes are delicious, Mrs. Hearth.” Offered Sandy, mercifully.
“Thanks Sandy,” the older pony smiled gratefully at the young pegasus for changing the subject “but you don’t have to call me Mrs. Anything. You can just call me Merry. Everypony else does.”
“Ok… Merry. Thank you," she said fluttering her wings happily in her seat. She loved it when adults treated her like a pony and not like a foal. It was one of her favorite things.
Merry regained her composure before she addressed her daughter’s lack-there-of. “Honeycrisp, get off the floor sweetie and finish your lunch.”
Smarty Pants gave Sandy a bashful look as she shoveled her mashed potato mountain one spoonful at a time into her gaping maw. They both let out a surprised ‘eep’ when they heard the screen door screech open and then slam closed from down the hall.
“Bendy, Kiddo, I’m home!”
“We’re in the dining room, dear. Wash up and have some lunch with us.”
“You got it!”
The girls ate in silence as they listened to Appleseed make his way around the house. They heard him trot over to the washroom and run the water. The sound of the loose towel rod squeak made Smarty Pants wonder if they had any mineral oil at all in Sweet Apple Acres, or if the sound of protesting metal was just part of the country experience.
A few hooffalls later, and a fresh-faced Appleseed joined them at the table. He leaned over to give Merry a kiss on the cheek as he helped himself to the potatoes. Merry returned the gesture before making a sudden intake of breath, reacting to a sharp pain in her side.
Appleseed shot up to his hooves and his wings flared on instinct. One of them smacked Honeycrisp in the side of the head. “What is it? Is it the baby? Is it time?!”
“N-no, no! It’s not time. The baby’s just kicking, is all. Put those things away and finish your lunch. I swear you’re so jumpy these days.” Merry made a silly face at her husband, calming him immediately.
“Sorry,” he said, lowering his wings and turning to see his daughter rub the side of her cheek where his wing hit her. “Sorry, Kiddo. I guess I got a little worked up.”
Honeycrisp put her hoof down and flashed a challenging smile at her father. “It’s okay Pop. I’m tougher than I look,” she said before bopping her dad with a foreleg.
Appleseed put Honeycrisp in a headlock and gave her a noogie. “That’s my girl!” he crowed before she struggled free to smack him on the muzzle with a mean right-hook.
“Hay now, no rough-housing at the table! We have guests," said Merry with a frown and shaking her head in disapproval, before adding, “Appleseed, don’t you encourage her. It’s not ladylike.”
Chastised, both ponies returned to their meals, but it didn’t stop them from exchanging the occasional jab. When the matron of the house wasn’t looking, of course. Sandy giggled at their antics.
“Oof!” said Appleseed, who caught another right hook.
Merry Hearth sighed heavily and gathered her empty plate to take into the kitchen. Before she left, she shot a stern glare at Appleseed, who was smiling back sheepishly as he was being pummeled in the ribs by his daughter, who was herself oblivious to the all-seeing eyes of her mother. He stood up to follow her into the kitchen.
“Aw, Bendy, don’t be that way! Bendy, come on.” Before either pony could leave the room, Sandy asked a question.
“Bendy. That’s a cute nickname. How did you come up with it, Mr.Appleseed?”
Before either pony could answer, time crawled to a stop for Smarty Pants. Colors seemed to fade and objects in the periphery of her vision blurred into unimportance. Everything was thrown into sharp relief. She could count the moments between each heartbeat. This sensation, whatever it was, was familiar to her. It happened whenever her brain kicked into overdrive.
It meant that an important revelation was about to come to light.
Smarty Pants thought about Sandy’s question. She watched Appleseed fidget, a nervous smile on his face. She looked at the bright blush growing across Merry Hearth’s face. She looked back at the pregnant mare’s husband. She looked back at the pregnant mare. Revelation came.
“oh. OH! UH, HAY GIRLS! WE HAVE A TREEHOUSE TO FIX! WHO’S READY TO GO? SANDY? OKAY COOL, THANKSFORLUNCHBYE!” The panicky earth pony knocked her chair over as she fumbled her way around the table in order to grab the lime-green pegasus filly in her forelegs and run for the front door.
“Smarty, what are you doing?! Don’t forget our bags! Where are we go—“
The three ponies that remained in the dining room heard the screen door slam open and its hinges scream in protest. Walter let out a half-hearted woof. Honeycrisp sat there looking at her food.
“Hey Pop, do you have a map of the area we can borrow? Smarty Pants wants it for something.”
“Sure thing, Kiddo.” the relieved stallion said. “I’ve got one in the study. It’s rolled up with a blue ribbon to keep it closed. Help yourself.”
“Thanks Pop.” She excused herself from the table and made her way for the study. Before leaving the dining room she turned to face her parents. “Also? Super gross.”
The treehouse and the tree it occupied were situated in Honeycrisp’s backyard, by the large blackberry thicket that lined the back end of their lot in the homestead. Several feet below them at the base of the tree, Walter snored peacefully in his dog house.
The cool evening air was filled with the songs of crickets and the gentle babbling of the fountain in the center of the homestead. The gentle soundtrack of farm life was punctuated with the occasional tinkle of the wind chimes that hung at the back of the house and sporadic bursts of laughter from three young fillies. The sunset had come and gone, but the girls were just getting started.
The treehouse was in a sorry state when they first climbed its step ladder earlier that afternoon. It was filled with sticks, leaves, and glass from a broken window. The treehouse looked like it had barely survived a war. When Smarty Pants remembered the fight she had here with Honeycrisp, she guessed that it wasn’t all that far off.
It took about an hour to clean it out, get a tarp over the unicorn-shaped hole in the roof, and board up the window, but they took pride in their work and finished it without any outside help. Afterwards the girls took stock of their supplies and set about making it home for the weekend.
Sandy was a firm believer in being prepared, and she was certain she packed the essentials. In one of her saddlebags, she brought her favorite pillow, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, and her diary. In the other saddlebag she pulled out half-a-dozen sugar scented candles, a bag of trail-mix, and a small magically sealed paper box with a note from her mommy on it.
Smarty Pants turned her saddlebags upside-down and dumped a pile of books, paper, and writing materials onto the floor. Smarty Pants was a firm believer in being prepared, and she was certain she packed the essentials. Honeycrisp lit each of Sandy’s candles with a fizz of magic from the tip of her red horn after Sandy found good spots for them around the treehouse.
“So.” Honeycrisp asked while re-braiding her golden mane, “How did you two become friends? Are you a nerdy bookworm like Pants too, Sandy?”
Smarty Pants bristled, but Sandy laughed softly before answering. “I met Smarty Pants a few years ago when I came to live at the castle with my mommy. We’re the only kids there.” Sandy’s eyes went wide at her last statement. “That's not to say that we’re just friends because we’re the only kids there! We get along really well, even though she’s an earth pony.”
She did it again.
“I mean, it’s not bad that she’s an earth pony, she’s just really nice for an earth pony is all.” She couldn’t stop her own mouth. Her eyes were wide and she was trembling. “Not that earth ponies are bad, oh gosh no, I mean I’ve met some bad earth ponies but I’ve met some lovely ones too and—“
Sandy felt a pair of strong forelegs pull her back down to the floor. She didn’t remember flying into the air. She was still talking. Luckily, something was stopping her from forming words. She regained control of her breathing and felt her stream of consciousness ramble to a halt.
A moment passed and Smarty Pants pulled her hoof out of Sandy’s mouth and wiped it off on her hip.
“Ew.” stated Honeycrisp.
Smarty Pants shot her cousin a dirty look before telling the story as she remembered it.
“Sandy showed up at the castle a few years ago. She used to live in an orphanage in Cloudsdale, but she was adopted by the Royal Pastry Chef. Your dad knows her. Anyway, I walked into the kitchen to get a snack while reading all about hydrodynamics— Interesting stuff really— when I bumped into this filly.”
“I was learning how to make cupcakes from my mommy.”
“She was covered in flour.”
“I’d never baked anything before.”
“I asked her if she wanted any help and we ended up baking for the rest of the day.”
“We got to make muffins for a Princess!”
“You know, come to think of it, I don’t think those muffins were any good.”
“She almost ate a whole one!”
“Maybe next time we should make muffins with blueberry and cream cheese instead of blueberry and bleu cheese.”
“Or crêpes! We could stuff them with raspberries and tartar sau—“
Honeycrisp derailed that train of thought right there. “Smarty Pants! You… uh… you remember when we first met last summer, dontcha? At the library?”
Smarty Pants did remember. “Hay yeah, I remember, Honeycrisp. How can I forget the little red bookthief.”
“Little red bookthief?! You stole it first, Pants!”
“Like fun, I did. I was going to check it out!”
“It was already in my hooves, you little liar!”
The two cousins butted heads and neither was willing to give any ground. Each snort and stare was met in equal measure. Smarty Pants scuffed a front hoof along the floorboards, ready to charge the red pony that was almost half again as large as she was. A menacing heat began to seep out of the unicorn’s horn.
“W-what are we fighting about?” Asked a timid Sandy from under her sleeping bag, ears pinned to the back of her head.
Smarty turned with a jerk to look at her friend before Honeycrisp could shift her weight and both ponies tumbled into a pile on the floor with a creaky thud. Walter let out a woof and the tree was momentarily silent.
“Sorry, Sandy,” apologized Honeycrisp.
“Yeah. Sorry, Sandy,” agreed Smarty Pants, “seems like we’re always ready for a scrap.”
“You started it,” said Honeycrisp setting the bait. But Smarty Pants wasn’t biting. She had her other friend’s feelings to consider. She knew how much the pegasus hated confrontation.
“Forget all that,” Smarty Pants said as she shoved herself back up to her hooves. She walked over to her pile of supplies and fished out an old rolled up sheet of parchment as tall as she was long. “Let’s talk about why we’re here, now.”
“Why we’re here?” asked Honeycrisp from her spot on the floor as she played with her pigtails. “Aren’t we here to hang out this weekend?”
Smarty Pants unrolled the parchment on the floor in front of the three girls. “Ostensibly, yes.”
“Gesundheit” said Honeycrisp.
Smarty Pants walked past her cousin and grabbed the map with the blue ribbon tied around it from its spot against the wall. Removing the ribbon, she dropped it on top of the other parchment on the floor.
“Remember my earlier question before lunch about the Sun and Moon Goddesses?”
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with the map?” asked Honeycrisp, suspiciously.
“I’m getting to that. Anyway, Sandy, you’ve heard of them, right?”
Sandy was reading the note on the white paper box with a smile on her face. She looked up when she was addressed. “Huh? Sun and Moon Goddesses? No, I’ve never heard of any Goddesses besides Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence.”
“Well there were two more of them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They had the power to lift the Sun and the Moon, all by themselves!”
“No way, you’re making that up!” accused Honeycrisp. “It takes hundreds of ponies to raise the moon and it takes even more to raise the sun! No way two ponies could do it alone.”
“Oh they could, but that’s not the half of it. They ruled Equestria before the Senate even existed, from a castle deep in the Everfree Forest.”
Honeycrisp looked uneasy at this and shot up to her hooves. “H-hay now I don’t like where this is going. What’s two dead Princesses got to do with us?”
“Oh they’re not dead, Honeycrisp.” Smarty Pants gave her cousin a fierce grin. “They’re hiding.” She raised a hoof and brought it down on the stack of parchment. “And we’re going to find them.” Smarty Pants rolled the two parchments together and then tied them with the blue ribbon.
The red pony scoffed. “You’re joking. Tell me you’re joking.”
Smarty Pants didn’t say anything. She walked over to her pile of supplies and started to pack.
Sandy stared wide-eyed at her friend as Honeycrisp stood up on her backlegs.
“You’re serious. You can’t be serious! Right now? You want to look for a pair of missing Princesses that I’ve never heard of before. At night. In a castle that I’ve never heard of before. In the middle of the Everfree Forest?!“
Smarty Pants smiled to herself and kept packing. Sandy looked back and forth between the two girls before she scrunched up her nose and fluttered her wings with determination. And then she started packing, too.
“This is crazy! You’re crazy! You’re both crazy! There is no way I’m going with you two. Do you even got a plan? What am I saying? You’re little-miss-perfect Smarty Pants, of course you got a plan. Well you can count me out, cuz. There ain’t no way, no how, you are getting me to go anywhere near those woods. Not now, not ever!”
“Welp,” cheered Smarty Pants, “Here we are. The edge of the Everfree Forest!”
“Horseapples.” Cursed the sullen unicorn.
“S-so, what’s the p-p-plan?” asked the pegasus over the sound of her knocking knees.
Smarty Pants smiled at her friend and rubbed her left foreleg in what was hopefully a soothing manner. If these woods were half as scary as all the stories said they were, they’d need all the courage they could muster up and then some. A unseasonably warm breeze from the direction of the farm boosted her spirits before she answered.
“Honeycrisp, can I see the maps again?”
Her cousin sighed dejectedly and her horn lit up. The two maps floated out of her saddlebags, the blue ribbon was untied, and they both were opened in the air, floating next to Smarty Pants.
The earth pony stood up on her hindlegs and put on a pair of thick rimmed glasses. “This map on the left is the map that Appleseed made,” she said tapping the map with a collapsible pointer she fished out of her mane. “Here’s the Sweet Apple Acres swimming hole, here’s the Everfree Forest, here’s the Golden Oaks Library, and over here is the old train station.”
Smarty Pants turned to the other map and continued. “This map on the right is over 500 years old. It was commissioned by the department of—“
“Get on with it, Pants.”
“Right. Here’s the Sweet Apple Acres swimming hole, here’s the Golden Oaks Library, and over here is where they were just breaking ground on the then-new train station.”
“And?”
“Jeez, Honeycrisp, you have no flair for the dramatic, do you?”
“Nope.”
Smarty Pants leveled her eyes at her cousin and smacked the map with her pointer. “Here is the Everfree Forest.” She looked at the map and slid her pointer to a big red circle. “And this is the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.”
“So?”
“So? SO?! So we have two maps with legends depicting distances! Two maps separated by hundreds of years that share common landmarks! We can deduce where we are on this map,” she said, slapping first map with her pointer, “and we can use these common landmarks to figure out where the castle is and the most direct route to it!”
“What, like with math and stuff?”
Smarty Pants facehooved, but also ended up smacking herself in the face with her pointer. “Ow, dang it… Yes, with ‘like math and stuff’, Honeycrisp. Don’t worry I already did the math. All we have to do is walk this way," she said aiming her pointer into the forest, "for about an hour, and we’ll be at the castle!”
Sandy was unable to contain a yawn as she spoke. “An hour? Smarty Pants, we’ve already been walking for almost an hour. Don’t you think we should head back and try again in the morning after a good night’s sleep?”
Smarty Pants’ left eye twitched. “No! We’re so close! And tomorrow’s Princess Twilight’s birthday! I have to find them tonight so I can—“
“Is that what this is all about? You’ve got us out here, about to walk into the Everfree Freakin’ Forest in the middle of the night, to gift-wrap a pair of old princesses for your perfect teacher?”
Smarty Pants didn’t answer. Instead she puffed out her cheeks and walked into the forest.
Sandy walked after her friend, but turned to Honeycrisp before entering the forest proper. “That wasn’t very nice, you know.”
“Yeah I know,” Honeycrisp sighed, “come on, let’s go get her before something else does.”
The three of them walked for an hour. Then another hour. To her credit, it wasn’t until halfway through the start of the third hour that Honeycrisp voiced her concern.
“Okay, do you remember when I said this idea was crazy? Well I was right and now we’re going die to death out here.”
“I know it’s just ahead, I can feel it! Can’t you feel it?”
“You asked me an hour ago if I could feel it. If it weren’t for my magical floating heat lamp, we wouldn’t feel anything! I mean, look at the frost on the ground here, Pants! The ground shouldn’t freeze at this time of the year! What if the Frostmare is out here, huh? She’ll freeze us, unhinge her jaw, and swallow us whole!”
Smarty Pants sighed. “The Frostmare is just a myth, Honeycrisp. I didn’t know you were so superstitious.”
“She is not a myth, my cousin saw her once.”
Sandy piped in “Hey, girls, I think—“
“Oh your cousin saw her once? Well I’m your cousin too, and I say that she doesn’t exist. That’s one true and one false. And according to the rules of logic, a statement that is both true and false must be false.”
“Smarty Pants, Honeycrisp, we’re in a clearing and there’s some big doors her—“
“Don’t you use your fancy ‘ipso facto’ mumbo jumbo with me, Pants. This isn’t some social club in Canterlot.” She looked around nervously. “This is the Everfree Forest. Everypony I’ve ever heard of who’s gone in has either never come out or been changed for the worst. Forever.”
“The doors are pretty heavy, I don’t think I can open them by myse—“
“Oh? Is that where we are? The Everfree Forest?” Smarty Pants gave her cousin a dumbfounded look before glaring at her. “Look Honeycrisp, I’ve been preparing for this trip for months.” Smarty Pants walked up to her cousin and started poking her in the chest to punctuate each statement.
“I know how to avoid Poison Joke. I know how to read the tracks of Timberwolves. I even know how to imitate the territorial call of a hydra. If that doesn’t scare off the manticores and the cockatrices and the ‘Frostmares’ then nothing will, ok?”
The magical fire floating next to Honeycrisp brightened in intensity and heat with each poke.
As calmly as she could, Honeycrisp answered. “You walk us into the Everfree Forest, in the middle of the night, and tell me three hours in that I shouldn’t be scared.”
Smarty Pants was sweating from the heat coming off the fire, but she wasn’t about to back down now. Honeycrisp continued.
“My parents don’t even know we’re out here! Of course I’m scared! This place eats ponies alive! If you think that manticores and hydras are the worst of it, well then, you’ve got another thing comin—“
“GIRLS!”
The sudden shout echoed through world around them. The two cousins turned to look in stunned silence at the glaring pegasus.
“Sorry. Um, there’s a set of doors here. They’re really old. Made out of some kind of metal and stone. The lock’s rusted shut, but I think we can open it if w—“
A bloodcurdling shriek pierced the night air from somewhere in the forest beyond. The ponies felt a wave of raw arcane energy blast through them and reverberate off the door. Honeycrisp’s fire went out and her eyes glassed over. For a terrifying moment they stood there in cold dark silence.
A bush on the far edge of the clearing rustled and the girls huddled together. Without the benefit of Honycrisp’s magic their teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. Their eyes adjusted to the darkness and they could make out hazy clouds of breath that came out in ragged gasps.
Suddenly, Honeycrisp stepped forward. “G-get behind m-me.” Smarty Pants couldn’t tell if her stuttering was fear induced or if she was witnessing the onset of hypothermia.
The unicorn strained her will and a red glow slowly crept up her horn. She pushed and pushed like she knew how to do, but something was stopping her. She fell to her forelegs to catch her breath.
“W-what’s g-going on? W-why can’t you use y-your magic-c? Chattered Sandy.
“I d-dunno. S-something’s f-fighting it.”
The ground quaked with a thunderous step somewhere out in the darkness and the forest became unnaturally silent. Smarty Pants looked past her friends. Whatever this was she hadn’t planned on it.
“T-the d-door. Sandy, h-help me move the d-door.”
The two ponies turned to face the metal monstrosity behind them and gasped. Where once was just a set of massive double doors held fast with a rusty lock, there was now a thin wall of ice growing thicker by the moment.
“H-Honeycrisp, we’re in t-t-trouble here!”
Honeycrisp turned to look at the girls and saw the door. She cursed under her breath. “H-horseapples. I t-told you c-coming here was a bad-d id—“
Another bush, a closer bush, rustled.
“S-stay back!” she yelped. “W-we have fire and w-we’re not afraid to u-use it! I’m an A-apple!” she added, as if that was somehow scarier than ponies able to magically wield fire.
The bush rustled again, and a lone figure broke through into the clearing. Its wooly white coat glistened in the frosty starlight. Its tail wagged.
Honeycrisp shot up to her hooves and she ran forward to embrace her old dog. “Walter! Oh, Walter, who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy. I’m so happy to see you!”
As if by magic, the sight of the loyal old watchdog, who must have followed them for several hours, warmed the girls like no fire could. Walter continued to follow his pony back over to the two other ponies. Walter liked them too. Walter was a good dog.
Smarty Pants could think clearly again. It was time to act. “Ok, I don’t know what that is out there, but it’s bad news. See this pattern on the door?” She pointed through the clear ice wall, still growing over the set of doors.
“This symbol marks that we’re at the northern gate of the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. We must have wandered around to the back side of it sometime in the night. If we can get through this door, the warding magics that keep this place safe from…” She exchanged a frightened look with the two other ponies. ”Scary things... will keep us safe, too.”
There was another thunderous step somewhere in the distance. It sounded closer. It felt closer.
Sandy turned to her new friend and best hope for survival. “Honeycrisp, can your magic get through this ice? I don’t have anything to chip away at it in my bags and Smarty Pants only has books and quills.”
The red filly furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. But I’m sure as hay gonna try!”
She grunted with effort and glorious heat began to radiate off of her. “I did it!” she grinned, “I have my magic again!”
As if to confirm the revelation, the shriek broke through the black night a second time. Though there was no paralyzing wave of power this time around, the booming steps became a booming gallop. Whatever it was it was moving faster and it was definitely heading this way.
Walter turned his attention away from the girls and walked to the middle of the clearing. He squared his shoulders, lowered his head, and let out a rolling growl. Walter was a good dog and that was a bad thing.
Honeycrisp focused her heat magic on the thin wall of ice, and it melted away in moments, leaving a bone-dry set of metal and stone doors, held together with a rusty lock.
“W-what do we do now?” She asked nopony in particular.
“First we keep calm.” Answered Smarty Pants, though the fear in her voice betrayed her. “Next we shove!”
The three fillies threw their combined weight at the doors but they only managed to shake some of the rust off of the lock and the hinges.
“It’s no good!” quailed Sandy, her wings fluttered involuntarily giving Smarty Pants another idea.
“Sandy, can you fly over the top of this gate? Check if there’s a key on the other side.”
“Right!” The little filly hopped up and over the gate without a second thought. The booming hoof falls were getting louder. They were getting closer. Walter was now barking his head off at the thing rampaging for them with his hackles raised and his old yellow teeth bared.
Honeycrisp said nothing and fidgeted uncomfortably in silence. An exasperated voice called out from the other side of the wall. “There’s nothing! Just brambles and weeds! Oh mommy, what do we do? I’m scared!”
“J-just stay there. You’ll be ok!” replied Smarty Pants. She might not be able to spare herself or her cousin, but maybe Sandy could get back to Canterlot and send for help. Or a bag to put all the extra pony bits in. She shivered.
“Buck this. We’re getting in there, now!” Honeycrisp’s red horn glowed white hot and she gritted her teeth in pain. A solid beam of heat shot from her horn into the old lock and the clearing lit up like high noon. The pony churned her hooves in the dirt trying to gain purchase against the metaphysical forces at play in her horn.
That damned shriek cut through the air once more, sounding their inevitable doom. A second wave of magic hit with enough force that it made Smarty Pants dizzy. She heard a thump. Honeycrisp was passed out in the dirt.
Looking at the door she saw the light of the still-glowing lock was quickly fading and the thin wall of frost was trying to retake the warm-to-the-touch door. Smarty Pants smiled grimly to herself. Whatever that thing was it wasn’t smarter than she was. She knew what happens when you superheat metal and then cool it quickly.
She turned to buck the lock with all of her freaky earthpony strength and they slammed open revealing a startled pegasus on the other side. She grabbed her cousin, who was just starting to stir and pulled her past the gate. Honeycrisp came too as she was being dragged through the gate. She heard Walter barking. She panicked.
“W-walter? Walter! Walter, come here boy! Come on Walter, let’s go buddy!”
Walter was a good dog. He heard Honeycrisp call him and he liked Honeycrisp. She was a good pony. She was his pony. But there was a bad thing coming. And Walter wasn’t going to let the bad thing hurt his pony. So he stayed there and he barked.
“Sandy,” yelled Smarty Pants “help me shut the doors!”
The two friends each picked a door and started pushing. Honeycrisp wasn’t strong enough to stand yet, but she tried anyway. She fumbled on unresponsive hooves.
“Walter! Walter, come! Come on boy, please!” She pleaded.
The doors were closing. She watched and screamed her dog’s name over and over again. She watched as something darker than nightmares slithered into the clearing, its body a mass of spikes and odd geometry. She watched as the old dog charge forward into the blackness. She watched as the doors closed.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
974 users online
562,432 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
2937081
I am typing as fast as I can!
Thanks for the comment!
The dog must survive. DO IT! MAKE THE DOG SURVIVE! You are the god of this world and you just made a bad if that dog dies. This is a warning. You can tell I'm serious because I took the time to write this on an IPOD!
WALTER! He was a good dog.
Probably the Celestia and Luna just trolling evryone around everfree forest
2937763 I warn you, I'll be obliged to gnaw your face off if bad things happen to that dog.
I like dogs. ^.^
Holy cliffhangers Batman!
MOAR!!!!!
I'm really enjoying this!
Wow... Here's hoping it's just Luna and/or Celly trying to scare everypony away, so they won't get found.
This was a tough chapter for me to write. I hope I have a good balance between story and action. It was my first real action scene and I feel it needs a touch up so some revisions may creep in later, but it won't change the events of the story. They'll just make it flow better.
Thanks for the posts, next chapter soon(ish)!
Another good chapter. Is the slithering thing Spike?
2941089
That would be telling!
No, Spike's too cool to be 'darker than nightmares'
...right? Oh man, now I'm not sure...
Thanks for commenting!
2941392
images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120123140443/mlp/images/f/f7/Spike_grown_up_S2E10.png
evil-rick.deviantart.com/art/MLP-LL-Spike-305569438
Hellz Yeah! Dark Spikes!
But yeah what ever we end up seeing, I'm sure it's going to be awesome. And I can't wait to see more of Twilight & Smarty Pants.
Btw. How can Sandy have a Dust Devil Cutie Mark if she doesn't / rarely flies?
You're welcome.
2941450
I'll totally have to go into her cuite mark story at some point. It's a good one
2941468
Yay!!! Back Story!!! I love back stories! And we can see the tales between her and Smarty Pants [may be it's own fic between this and the previous fic]?
2941490
I was planning on opening up the world for other fanfic writers after this story is finished.
Maybe you could write their lost tales!
2939376
That's my guess assuming "hiding" still is not a euphemism for dead.
2941576
I don't know if I'd do them justice but you've done a rare thing for me. You did an OC right and made one that I care about. So for that list is filled with a very short list of ponies:
Soul Shard [because she's mine and a precious filly. Honesty I'm doing the same with her. Allowing other Authors to user her if they'd like.]
Nyx [because Nyx.]
Azure Tomato [inspired and influenced Soul Shard's tales a great deal. From Arx Novo, to other races using magic other than unicorns.]
Smarty Pants [Your OC. Mostly because she's adorable, good hearted, and you're building her a good foundation. I especially loved her Cutie Mark story, being a Twilight Birthday story at the same time. It was especially adorable. And I can't wait to see what you do with her. I might do a fic with her. But I wouldn't want to mess things up [since I'm new at writing and I tend to be dialog heavy [I'm getting better though]].
and finally
Lightning Flicker [Deathpony45's OC because it has potential for greatness, especially when I add Vinyl to the mix.]
____________________________________
Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see where you take this filly, and some day I might take you up on the offer to do a fic with her in it. Although I'd pass it by you first.
Oh no! Walter!
Now the only way I can see him coming back is as a horrible corrupted terribeastithing.
Cutie Mark Crusaders Version Two, you had better make this all worth it!
Also, this is reminding me of the first two series episodes. Not that that's a bad thing.
2941576
I'm interested.
2954205
Really? That's great! I'd love to see your take on them.
Also, I should have the next chapter for you tonight or tomorrow night for pre-reading.
2957006
Glorious. Especially with my computer up and running again.
wow I forgot to put this in my read later section
I can't believe I have so much trouble with this series
2964430
Glad to hear you're along for the ride.
Chapter 2 will be live tonight or tomorrow as soon as I get it back from my fantastical amazing super great pre reader and make some unrelated updates
2964988good to hear
, I'm really enjoying these stories
2937860
Is.
Walter's gonna kick some slenderpony ass.
2942431
That would be too easy. `Tia is in suspended animation in a block of ice, while Luna is that horrible monster slaughtering everything in it's path. (Walter dies, BTW.) It turns out that Twilight knows exactly where their bodies are, but it is there minds/souls that are on walkabout. The poor pooch died for nothing.
Greenhouses aren't for animals, they're for plants.
4126768
I must be missing something. I assume "Bendy" means she's flexible in bed?
4128143 her cutie mark is an anvil, her nickname is alluding to the fact that she bends metal.
Nah, it mean she gets freakie twisty in sex
I liked the story, but now I hate you author. You killed off Walter. Walter was a good dog. Why did you do it author! WHY?!?!?!
4135430
I am history's greatest monster.
Methinks this sentence needs an ed-it
And now we take a moment for our lost friend and companion Walter.
Also not fully sure what "Bendy" refers to, I have an idea but I don't want to voice it. If any one wants to tell me I would appreciate it
~Imperial Brony signing off
I don't care how many supporting characters and extras get caught in the crossfire. When you kill off the dog, I get mad.
4252148 I only hope that Walter isn't confirmed dead. That way he might live.
EDIT: Nevermind... Just read on to figure out what happens. I am satisfied by this result and will not say any more to avoid spoiling it.
I really love how Sweet Apple Acres has developed over the years, it's like they barns finally stopped getting knocked down and the family finally has a surplus of them. The relationship between Honeycrisp and her father and the way she beat on him all dinner long was pretty hilarious, not to mention the "Bendy" scene.
Walter!
That was a very powerful last paragraph. For your first action scene, that was well done.
Future Sweet Apple Acres is awesome.
Whose best dog? Walter is best dog! Also I'm pretty sure the a in asked doesn't get capitalized.
I have no words. Dang it Smarty. And then she follows it up with "crazy pregnant". Its just so inherently funny. And then the food volcano. Smarty does not let up does she? If she keeps this up I might pass out from oxygen deprivation due to laughing so hard.
This. First: It reminds me of Jimmy Neutron's 'Brain Blasts'. Second: I assume this is meant to be Smarty's talent in action? If so, it might just be my favorite special talent ever. Either way its really cool. (Also obligatory 'the humor continues to be awesome' comment)
And Sandy takes the adorable trophy thanks to her marvelous mastery of the apology string.
Smarty and Honeycrisp play off of each other brilliantly. They are good characters on their own, but when you stick them together magic happens.
This hear is one of the best scene transitions in the history of scene transitions. It both cuts out needless filler without makeing it feel like anything has been skipped, and it delivers a good gag. Simply brilliant.
That actually does seem rather well prepared. Imitating a Hydra call is bound to scare of just about everything.
And know we have the reason why I think Honeycrisp is Honesty and not Loyalty. Because Walter is Loyalty. Because Walter is best dog. Eldritch abomination far beyond his understanding scaring threatening his pony? CHARGE IT! Walter is a certified BADASS!
If it was edible, she’d ed it.
Intentional mistake?
Sandy was a firm believer in being prepared, and she was certain she packed the essentials. [...] Smarty Pants was a firm believer in being prepared, and she was certain she packed the essentials.
What's up with the repetition?
5677823 shows what they thought was important. Both brought the essentials both brought different things though
Walter was a redshirt
Redshirts show how the monster works
Monsters work very, very well
Walter was a good dog
Good-bye, Walter