He Is The One

by Loyal Defender

Where The Sun Never Shines

Loyal got out a little sheet of paper, wrote "Went out, had enough cake for one day. Maybe try again in a few days". And set it down. He went to the front, purchased a medium chocolate icing cake, and left the shop.

He was on his way back to Fluttershy's when he saw Rainbow Dash chilling on the grass next to a sidewalk on the way.
"Hey, Rainbow, how's it going?"

"Hmm? Oh, not too bad. How's about you? What'cha been up to?"

"Just tried the impossible cake challenge. Turns out a MARSHMALLOW makes it impossible."

"Marshmallow? Hah!" Dash began laughing before she turned towards Loyal. "Sounds like someone set up a prank on a bunch of ponies over the past few years. Hope nothing too bad happened."

'Prank.' That word set of all sorts of alarms. "Oh, yeah...kinda like the prank involving some pony having kibble put into a shirt....oh, wait, YOU did that to me!"

"Hey, lighten up will ya? It was just a harmless prank. Like a little kitty cat's gonna hurt you."

"How about FORTY?!"

"Forty? What? I didn't even know there were forty cats in Ponyville..."

"Well there are. So, you owe me."

Dash chuckled nervously. "Hehe... R-Right.... Sorry about that..."

"Yeah...why don't we go venture into the Everfree? Unless you're too chicken.." I teased.

"Chicken? Pssh. The I've been in and out of the Everfree Forest lots of times! Heck, we had to go there to save Equestria at least 3 times."

"WEll, then, let's go. Why not show me the way into the Everfree, though? Because I don't know where it is EXACTLY."

"Fair enough! C'mon, it's this way."

Eventually, Rainbow and I arrived at the forest's entrance.

"So...why IS it dangerous?"

"There's lots of dangerous creatures living in these woods. The weather makes itself, and in general, it's just not like the rest of Equestria. All in all, ponies tend to stay out. But, well, we sometimes have to make excursions into the forest if we're going to visit our pal, Zecora, for instance."

"What's this big deal? Where I'm from, animals and weather do stuff themselves, and we're fine. So why is it so scary if it happens here?"

"The thing is that it's not how things work in Equestria. Besides, these animals can be very savage. A timberwolf would sooner rip somepony to shreds than try to make friends."

"Pssssh. I've suffered worse. busting my head clean open when I was little, choking nearly to death on Brussels sprouts (and pushing it down stupidly with a fork), busting a tooth dangerously close to a vein, having my thumb popped out of joint. and all of them were more painful than being ripped to shreds by a timberwolf, I can tell ya." I replied, beginning to enter the forest.

Rainbow gagged a bit and turned pale for a moment.

Loyal saw an odd, indigo colored plant, and reached down to touch it.

Dash looked to the plant Loyal was speaking of and immediately recognized it. "Uh, I wouldn't if I were you. That plant's called Poison Joke, and it does some pretty crazy things to anyone who touches it. I lost control of my wings one time because of that!"

"You forget: It probably only affects creatures from this world." Loyal replied, as he pulled the plant out of the ground. The roots were oddly shaped like infinity signs.

"See? Nothing."

"I don't know... It took all night for the thing to affect me and my friends..."

"Eh, I'm sure it's no biggie."

"Whatever you say.."

"This place isn't so bad. It's kinda relaxing in this forest. I don't see how it freaks ponies out. It's not so scary, aside from the creatures."

"Most ponies like to live their lives peacefully. Creatures that would want to hurt us are going to throw that way out the window."

"Well, what's the worst thing that could possibly live here?"

"Timberwolves, Chimerae, Manticores...."

Loyal eventually saw a faint light in between some bushes. "Hey, RD...do you see that?"

"Uh... no, where?"

"Between those bushes here.." Loyal parted the bushes, revealing small lights. "See them now?"

"I... Huh... What IS that...?"

"it looks like....small lanterns. We should go check it out."

"You coming, Rainbow?"

"I dunno... Something about those lanterns gives me bad vibes..."

"Should we disguise ourselves, just in case?"

Loyal grabbed a bunch of leaves, turning them into a cloak. He gave the cloak to Rainbow.

"I guess?"

"Alright, uh, thanks."

Loyal put on is leaf cloak, and headed down the slope.

Rainbow Dash followed closely behind, wary of their surroundings.

In front of Loyal was a small town. This town was strung with lanterns and lamps. Small houses lay across the area. Ponies roamed around, chatting, drinking drinks, and eating special exotic foods. One thing was odd about them: They all had no Cutie Marks.

One gray pony stood in front of the town, and he noticed Loyal and Rainbow. "Ah, welcome my friends! You must be new around the Everfree, yes?"

"Err, well... I don't know if you'd say NEW exactly..."

"Hm....well, if you're here to find a place to stay...you're always welcome here!....That is...unless..."

"I don't know if you'd say we're VISITING exactly... We were kind of just exploring, we saw the light of your lanterns..."

"Unless... what?"

"Unless you have one of those cursed CUTIE MARKS.....we had to....eliminate our of our own because of that."

"Umm... Right..."

Just then, the lanterns temporarily fizzled out. In the darkness, Loyal could see rotting,

flesh ripped corpses in place of the friendly ponies. After a moment, the lights came back on.

"Uh, Rainbow, I think we should leave now.." Loyal said.

"Right, so, this has been fun. We really do need to head home now though."

"OH, but you just got here. Why not stay for a bit?"

Loyal began to back away, snagging his cloak on a branch, tearing it apart and revealing....

"C-Cutie Marks?! You really think you could visit here while hiding the most banned entity? I'm sorry...but you two must go..." The pony said, approaching Loyal, with an evil look in his eye.

"Err... We'd be happy to, really!"

Slowly, the gray pony's body deformed into a rotten body of flesh rips and bony parts. A...zombie pony. "Dash....LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Loyal exclaimed, taking off, running.

More zombie ponies began crawling out of the ground, slowly approaching Loyal and Dash.

"NO REASON TO TELL ME TWICE!"

"THIS IS WHY I'VE ALWAYS HATED 'THRILLER!' Loyal shouted, as he kept running through the forest, dodging zombies as he went. Eventually, they stopped appearing, but Loyal kept running. Eventually, he found a brown stone structure, and he ran inside. "RAINBOW, IN HERE!"

Rainbow followed Loyal inside.

Loyal pressed a button he found, and the door slammed shut. Pounding can be heard coming from outside. "NO ESCAPING GRAY HOOF! I'LL EVENTUALLY GET YOU!"

Before Loyal could say anything, there was a voice. "Hey! Who's there?! If it's you, Cabelleron, you're not welcome here!" Hearing that name made Rainbow immediately realize exactly who was in this place with them. Her eyes widened with glee.

"It's Daring Do! Oh, maybe she'll know what to do!"

At that moment, the golden Pegasus entered the room, and was shocked to see Rainbow.

"Rainbow Dash?! What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised.

"Daring, listen, we're being chased by these... THINGS. I don't know WHAT THE HECK they are, but they started chasing us after we stumbled into a village or something around here somewhere."

"Village....you...oh, no....don't tell me you ran into Sunny Town.."

"Sunny Town? Never heard of it, but that place was ANYTHING but Sunny!"

"The ponies there did so many terrible sins that they were cursed to be ponies by day, and zombies by darkness. They can't exactly be killed except without special armor Celestia keeps hidden. Don't ask me how I know that. And speaking of not knowing things, what the hay is THAT?" Daring questioned, gesturing to Loyal.

"That... is a long story that I'd rather get into another time."

"Fair enough."

Pounding could be heard on the door. "OPEN UP! JOIN US!"

"Okay, follow me! I know the way out!" Daring said, galloping into a hall.

Rainbow Dash followed after her.

Loyal ran after the two, and caught up. Daring pushed a hidden button in a wall, revealing a secret exit. "Through here! I"d ask you to accompany me, but there's no time!"

"Right! Thanks, Daring Do!"

Loyal and Rainbow booked it, dashing through the forest, narrowly dodging ghouls sprouting up every which way, and after a heart-pounding chase and narrow escape, they wound up quickly finding their way to the exit.

"We...we're alive! WE'RE ALIVE!"

"Yeah... just barely! But still!"

"As happy as I am, I'm sorry if this didn't turn out to be the adventure you expected.."

"Are you kidding? I've never had an experience like that before!"

"Really..?"

"Yeah! Look, I've fought Princess Luna in a corrupted form, and a chaos god.... And a centaur that stole all the magic in Equestria, but never ZOMBIES!"

"So...you're happy that you experiences something so amazing? I'm glad I could make you happy, Rainbow..."

Rainbow grinned, having never experienced something so rushing and thrilling before (aside from meeting Daring Do, or course), and pounced/tackled Loyal into a hug. "You BET! That was the coolest thing EVER!"

Once again, a heart formed over Rainbow and Loyal, and magically disappeared. Another bond.

Author's Note:

Now, just so you're all aware, there will be a few times when things seem rushed, when in fact, they are not rushed at all. I usually get inspired by a lot of things, so some things in the story might seem out of place, but I ALWAYS (or most of the time), find a way for them to make sense. Sunny Town is one such thing. And it's not the first or last time we'll see it here, either.