The Everfree Shadows

by The Ohvist

a Sunrise of Recent Memories

Author's Note:

By-BOOGITY!!

Celestias' sun rose over the eastern horizon, it's divine brilliance marred only by the Canter and Cower ranges as it cast down a long and ever-shirking of the glow. However, one area within Equestria remained within perpetual shadow. At the base of Mount Cervidae -host to Canterlot City- stood the untame and masterless Forest of Everfree, where creatures roamed and clouds floated on the mysterious Natural Magic bound within the wood. T'was a place nopony dared to enter, let alone settle alongside. Save for the ancient Elkine and Alicorns of aeons past, none have truly lived along the Everfree Forest, A fact that stood firm as the mountains and as stagnant as the heavens above... Until recently.

A simple farmhouse, no older than two-and-a-half months, stood against the edge of the Everfree. Belonging to the Smith Family, their patriarch Appleseed raised this abode so his family could settle from three years of endless traveling, journeying the length and breath of the Untrodden Frontier in pursuit of fortune and family. Accompanying the Smith Family included Appleseeds' wife and her brother, along with Appleseeds' two children. And it was on this coming day that we find Applesmith, the younger of Appleseeds' children, resting against a bench outside of the farmhouse, sleep draped across her rest-filled eyes as she struggled to stay awake, in her mouth was a cooking pot as she intently eyed the treeline of the Everfree Forest.

"Come on, Smith. Ungh! You can sleep when everypony else is awake." Struggled the filly to herself, resisting to close her eyes for even a spare moment, as recent memories flooded her mind, of finding a wild orchard in the forest, of wolves made of wood and black smoke, of running away from the wolves and reaching back home. Applesmith was so lost in her thoughts, she couldn't register the front door opening and a lime-green coated, pale-blonde maned stallion step through and approach her.

"Criminy, Applesmith. Were you up all night?" Asked Shoesmith as he slowly approached the tired filly, only to see her slump forwards as the pot slipped from her mouth and hit the grassy acre with a dull thud, frightening the stallion as he rushed over to his nieces' side, "Applesmith! Y'alright?" Shoesmith put his hoof against his nieces' neck and an ear against her back. He felt her breath and heard her heartbeat, before sighing with relief as he realized she just passed out from exhaustion and sleep deprivtaion.

Applesmith shook herself awake again, the bags beneath her eyes weighing down her eyelids as she looked intently in the direction of a stallion right next to her until her sight managed to focus enough to see who it was. "Uncle Shoe?" Yawned Applesmith as she dunked her head into a bucket of water next to the bench, "Did something happen?"

"I'll say something happened. Somepony didn't get back to bed once she woke everypony else up last night." responded Shoesmith as he walked around her to the other side of the table, "Why were you out here instead of inside?"

"I just felt uneasy about those Tree Wolves in the forest." responded Applesmith as she ran her hooves across her face before shaking the water off, "But you don't believe me." Applesmith remembered how she alerted her parents several hours ago to the oncoming Timberwolf pack, only for them to run off back into the forest before her parents awoke. How she tried to tell them that she had found an impossible fruit growing in the forest but had lost her saddlebag when she fled from the Timberwolves. And how none of her parents even bothered to listen and were more concerned about how they would support themselves without any food.

"Shoot, Applesmith. I don't think that's the case at all, we just never heard of Tree Wolves attacking for no good-given reason is all." Shoesmith proceeded to adjust his Boss-of-the-Plains with his left foreleg, "I doubt Princess Celestia herself would've told yer' Pa about this before we settled down here."

"I dunno, I distinctively remember hearing others talkin' that the princess likes to play practical jokes or perform trials-of-character on others unsuspectingly." Applesmith then looked up as Shoesmith continued to adjuct his hat still, "Why are you doing that?"

Shoesmith looked indignantly at his hat before flicking it off of his head in defeat. "It's this dang hat I got up in Canterlot when we were there. While you lot were off talking to merchants and traders, this bloke in a blue coat and hat walks up to me and says to me 'I told you I could do it, don't tell her over there I did this though.' than gave me the hat off of his head and took mine, both hats looked alike fer' some odd reason. I tried to ask for my ol' one back, but he ran off somewhere. Never told me who he was."

"Canterlot Unicorns are too wierd, it's best to ignore them." Said Applesmith as she saw her uncle reach to pick up the hat again.

"But it wasn't a Unicorn, it was an Earth Pony." Replied Shoesmith as he tried to stretch and reshape his hat in fultility before putting it back on again, "Regardless, I'm not gonna get used to this hat of mine."

"With luck, we'll find yer' old hat sometime or a better one than this one." Yawned Applesmith as she slumped on the bench.

"Maybe you should get some rest, niece." Stated Shoesmith as he saw Applesmiths eyes close slightly, "nothing much to do around here these days til' the crops grow in a few weeks."
"Sure. Thanks." Spoke Applesmith as she slid off of the bench before stretching and turning her neck, "Think I'll go 'fer a walk. This vale sure is nice to sleep in during the day." Without another word, the young filly trudged off to find a nice spot to sleep in the Everfree Vale.