Over the Everfree Wall

by GameQubb

Chapter One

Led through the mist,

By the milk-light of moon,

All that was lost, is revealed.

Our long bygone burdens, mere echoes of the spring,

But where have we come, and where shall we end?

If dreams can't come true, then why not pretend?

Oh how the gentle wind,

Beckons through the leaves,

As autumn colors fall.

Deep in an unknown part of the Everfree Forest was a part of the wood where no pony has ever been too, not until now. Walking through the wood on a lone dirt path were six animals from a small town called Ponyville. An owl, a toothless alligator, a tortoise with a propeller, a cat, a dog, and a rabbit all who, like their owners, are great friends to one another even if some of them are opposites of the other. The tortoise and owl, named Tank and Owlowiscious, looked casual while moving through the path, the cat and dog, named Opal and Winona, looked a little worried at the sights around them, the rabbit, ironically named Angel, looked very irritated for not finding the way out yet, and the alligator, named Gummy, just kept a blank expression as if nothing is happening.

Owlowiscious landed on a nearby branch and looked around a little more before sighing in defeat once again. "Please tell us you found something," Opal yelled to him as she still looked worried.

Owlowiscious flew back to the group and said, "Sorry everyone but I still can't find anything. The wood is too foggy and dark." He waved his right wing over all around them indicating the fog all over the trees and sky. "If it wasn't so foggy I would probably have more of a chance." Angle only scowled at what he said.

"Or maybe you're just making an excuse because you're getting lazy," Angel said making them all gasp at what he said. "That's all."

Getting a little irritated himself with Angel Owlowiscious went up in front of him and smugly said, "Well I don't see you helping in anyway. So you don't have any right to call me out."

"If you want to take it there then so help I will-"

"Hey! Will you two stop it," Winona asked turning toward them. Owlowiscious and Angel turned to Winona and she continued, "Let's just keep going and try not to argue." With that said the two of them stopped arguing and continued along with the rest of them.

A few minutes went on and they were still moving down the path with little hope of finding a place to stay, much less their home. Everywhere they looked they saw nothing but trees and insects. However, once Owlowiscious looked at one of the trees he saw a very familiar looking young phoenix. He blinked a couple of times to see if he wasn't imagining this but still saw it.

He was about to talk to the young phoenix when all of a sudden all six of them heard the sound of an axe splitting through wood. They all hurried over to where the sound came from and saw to their relief an old unicorn stallion carrying an axe with his magic. From the sight they all assumed that he must be a woods pony since he was cutting off branches a fallen tree. His fur was a light grey color and his mane and tail was white. He was also wearing a dark trench coat so they couldn't see his cutie mark and on his left was a lit lantern which was very bright for just about any pony.

Out of all of them Opal was the most excited to see a pony in front of them. "Finally! Some help," She said as she started moving toward him. The others tried to get her to slow down to not try and startle him.

It was too late though since the old unicorn heard them. "Huh," He turned and looked for them. "Who's there?" He then saw where the noise came from and sighed in relief. "Just regular animals, thank Faust." He however, noticed something off when he saw a cat and dog in the group. "What's a cat and dog doing all the way out here?"

Winona rolled her eyes at that. "We should say the same thing about you. What's a stallion doing all the way out here in the woods," Winona said not knowing that he actually understood what she said.

"I live out here. Just because I'm out here in the woods doesn't mean I don't have a home."

"Uh-huh," Winona said but then her eyes, as well as all of their eyes, shot wide open at the fact that he was talking to them. "WAIT YOU HEARD US TALK?!"

"Shhhh," The woods pony shushed them and tried to make sure that nothing else was around. "Of course I heard you talk. Why would you think I couldn't."

For as long as they've known no pony has ever heard an animal talk, except cows, sheep, buffalo, and some weird tiger, goat, and snake hybrid. No matter how many times they have tried to talk to other ponies it was practically impossible since pony brains couldn't understand most animal languages, except maybe Fluttershy. Seeing a pony in front of them that actually can hear them talk was something a little abnormal for them.

"You know what forget I asked that," The woods pony said trying to wonder why six animals are out here. "What are you all doing out here in the open?"

Tank, using his propeller, flew down in front of him and said, "We're sorry sir but we were just looking for a way home."

"Right now you should be looking for a place to hide," The woods pony said to all of them. "Don't you know what would happen if the Beast were to find you." The six of them looked at each other in confusion before the the woods pony said, "Well all you need to know is that it won't be good."

Owlowiscious decided to speak up and said, "Sorry but we don't know anything about a beast, we're all just lost." All of them nodded at that.

"You have no idea how right you are," The woods pony said to Owlowiscious. "I'm afraid that out here all of you are more lost than you think."

---

After their first encounter the woods pony brought them all over to an old mill that he sometimes uses as a shelter. Gummy just stood there in the middle of the room, Opal and Tank were laying on the couch next to a fire place with Opal laying very close by Tank feeling more calm near him, Winona was laying on the ground near the couch, Angel was sitting on a nearby chair relaxing from the endless walking, and Owlowiscious was standing on a top of the chair Angel was sitting on.

The woods pony started a fire in the fire place just when Owlowiscious asked, "So what is it that you do anyway?"

The woods pony took a deep breath and replied to his question. "Do you remember that tree I cut down," The woods pony asked to which Owlowiscious nodded his head and he continued. "You see that tree isn't just like any other tree, it's made of Edelwood. It's a certain type of wood that I use to keep this lantern lit." He pointed his hoof at the lantern. "This lantern has been my burden for far too long but I must keep it lit no matter what happens."

Angel tapped on one of Owlowiscious's talons and made a gesture saying that the woods pony was crazy. Owlowiscious rolled his eyes and Angel looked at him rolled his own eyes. "Dude he's crazy," Angel whispered to Owlowiscious. "But don't worry I got an idea. We knock him out and then we get out of here."

"Okay one: he's not crazy," Owlowiscious whispered to Angel. "Two: even if he was that's a bad idea so just forget about it." Angel stated looking a bit irritated at that remark.

The woods pony looked back at Owlowiscious and Angel and asked, "What are you two whispering about?"

"That you're crazy and we want to get out of here," Angel said while Owlowiscious was trying to shush him to no avail.

"You can leave whenever you want to but I urge you all to be cautious," That got all of their attention as they all looked in his direction. "You must be careful to not run into the Beast while you are out there." Before any of them could ask about the beast he was talking about he continued to talk. "I'll go out into the mill for a little while don't follow me." With that said he left all of them.

After he left Tank started wondering about what he said. "A beast," Tank asked himself. "What do you think he meant by that?"

"I don't know but it sounds scary," Opal said as she started clinging onto Tank a little more. "Not to mention it might be filthy."

Winona looked around a little but and noticed that something was wrong. She looked at the rest of the group and figured out that one of them was missing and she knew exactly who it was. "Hey guys where's Gummy." The rest of them started looking around as well and also noticed that he was gone.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Opal started to panic. "You don't think the beast got do you?"

"Drama Queen," Angel whispered to himself. "He probably just went outside to find something to eat. I'm gonna go out there to find something, I'm getting hungry," Angel said as he got up from the chair and headed for the door.

"I'm gonna go with you and try and find Gummy," Winona said as she got up from the floor and followed Angel out the door. Angel made and annoyed gesture but accepted it anyway and allowed her to come.

Outside the mill Angel and Winona started searching around the area. Angel was only looking for berries or fruit while Winona kept on searching for Gummy. While searching for Gummy Winona decided to look and see if he got into the mill. When she looked inside she saw the woods pony again but this time he was using the mill. He grabbed the sticks he got from the tree from before and placed them in the mill making oil.

Angel kept looking around and finally found a bush full of safe to eat berries. "It's not any of that good stuff Fluttershy makes me but this will do," Angel said to himself as he started grabbing some of the berries. Just as he was about to pick another he heard a growling sound and looked to find what made the sound. Once he did he regretted making that decision.

Right in front of him was a giant Timber Wolf but something was different about this one. Since he was with Fluttershy he practically everything about all types of creatures so he already knew that there was something different. This Timber Wolf had much darker colors than a regular one, it had sharper fangs, and it's eyes were bigger and brighter. The sight of this Timber Wolf made Angel's ears drop and made him run for his life.

As he ran he climbed onto a barrel that Winona was standing allowing her to look through the mill. When he climbed in the force caused the barrel to shake and make Winona fall inside it to. She was about to bark and Angel until she saw Gummy underneath her. "There you are Gummy I've been looking for you." She turned to Angel and said, "What was that for anyway?" Angel only pointed at the Timber Wolf that started to look inside the barrel and at them. The sight of the creature made Winona and Angel scream but Gummy still had a blank expression.

Back inside Owlowiscious looked over and Opal and Tank and asked, "Tank you don't really believe in this beast right?"

Tank started to think about it and came up with an answer. "Well we've heard of strange creatures before so I would think that there might be something unique out there."

Just then the woods pony walked back inside and noticed that Angel, Gummy, and Winona are gone. "Why are three of your friends gone," Neither of them had a good answer until the door swung open again revealing the missing three.

Just then the Timber Wolf burst through the door and rapid speed and found it's prey. Owlowiscious flies up screaming, "BY FAUST THE BEAST IS REAL?!" The woods pony was about to do something but then some of the wood that fell off when Angel was hit into the wall fell onto his head knocking him out. Owlowiscious looks in shock at that and said to himself, "This is just great we're trapped in here with the beast and no way to defend ourselves."

"I have a thought," Opal said to all of them. "RUUUUN?!" Just like that all of them were running away from the beast.

They were about to head to the exit but the beast blocked them off. It was about to consume them when it felt something on it's left hind leg. It looked over and saw Gummy chewing on it even though Gummy didn't have any teeth. It threw Gummy off of it's leg but when it went back to the other it saw that they all left and when it turned back to Gummy it saw Gummy was gone too.

The beast quickly caught up to them and Angel threw one of his berries that he grabbed at it, which then it ate. Thinking that he could use these berries to help he sighed, "Oh I hate to do this. Oh well just as long as I don't get eating, I didn't really want these berries anyway." Angel then started throwing the berries he collected at it, distracting it, and letting them get away.

As they were running they made it to the roof of the mill with the beast following them. "Angel," Tank called to him. "Quick give it more of your berries."

Angel looked around for some but noticed that there weren't any left. "I think we have a problem," Angel said making sure that they all know that they are in quite a predicament now. He quickly looked everywhere on the roof and saw one last berry and sighed. He grabbed and threw it off the roof making the Timber Wolf follow it and get stuck in the mill making the roof and walls outside crumble and collapse.

They all jumped off of the roof in time and landed in the water, much to Opal's disgust. As she quickly got out of the water the rest of them looked over at the beast's direction and saw that it crumbled into stones and twigs like any other Timber Wolf would. They all got out of the water and sighed in relief while Opal was shaking the water out of her fur which then caused her to get all frizzy.

Just then they heard someone talking. "My goodness what happened here," They all looked and the woods pony has recovered and saw the damage that was caused. They all moved toward him and he looked over them saying, "Did all of you have something to do with this?"

"Yes we did," Winona said. "But don't worry we took care of the beast so there's no need to worry anymore."

"What?! The Timber Wolf, that wasn't the beast," The woods pony said making them all shocked to hear it. "The beast is nothing like any creature you would find in the Everfree Forest. I've seen the beast and that was not it."

With his wings wet Owlowiscious was only able to walk to him. "We're sorry sir we didn't know, but this wasn't our fault."

"You were the ones that brought it here and made it chase you everywhere making this happen am I right," The woods pony said. He turned away from them and says, "I think it's best that you all leave right now before the real beast comes."

Without anything else to say Owlowiscious sighed and now that his wings were dryer and he could fly again they all turned and left. They all went back on the main path on their way hopefully back home. Unknown to them the same young phoenix from before was flying behind them. As it landed on a nearby branch it looked over at Owlowiscious and stared in awe.

"Owlowiscious! Big Brother!"

Comments

[DarkZonker]

It's a lot of characters to replace just the two brothers. I'll keep an eye on it for now