To Start Over Again

by Catlovingmermaid

Into the Forest Again.

Author's Note:

I want to apologize for the long wait, writer's block, and then life, then it kind of got pushed onto the back burner, but now I have an actual writing schedule and I have this story on it. It will probably only get updated once a month, but if I finish one of my other projects on Fanfiction then I might just move this to twice a month, I'll keep you posted, but don't be surprised if it doesn't happen until June.

Twilight shivered as she stared into the dark forest, she had forgotten how scary looking the forest had been back then. She glanced at her friends, friends who weren't her friends yet.

"Whee," Pinkie shouted, racing ahead, "Let's go."

"Wait," Twilight shouted, pulling Pinkie back by her tail, "I should go first, I'm the only one of us who's been in there before."

"Heavens why would anyone go into the forest, just look at it, it's dreadful," Rarity shuddered, staring around her at the gloomy trees

"And it ain't natural, folks say that it doesn't work the same as Equestria," AplleJack added, keeping close to the others as they followed the path.

"Everypony who's ever come in...." Rainbow started.

"Rainbow quit it," Twilight said, "There's no point trying to scare the others, I've told you, we've been through these woods hundreds of times."

Rainbow paused, obviously it had never occurred to her that if Twilight really was from the future then she had truly made it out of the forest in one piece, "Huh," she said, "Way to ruin the adventure of the unknown." she grumbled.

The group hadn't gone very far when Twilight froze, a frown on her face.

"Is something wrong Sugarcube?" Applejack asked as she nearly walked right into her.

"No, not really," Twilight said, taking a deep breath and counting to ten silently, I won't Twilight, I won't start Twilighting. she thought to herself, "It's been a while since I was here, It makes sense that things are different, but I thought that we would have fallen off the cliff by now."

"You want us to fall off a cliff?" Pinkie asked, "That's an odd thing to say."

"No, Nightmare Moon collapsed the ground beneath off causing us to fall and I get stuck on a cliff and Applejack told me that everything was going to be alright. When I let go, Rainbow and Fluttershy caught me." Twilight explained, "That was how I knew that she was the element of honesty. What are we going to do? We need to prove that you're the Elements of Harmony.

"I'll tell you what I think," Applejack said, "Ah don't know anything about Elements of Harmony or anything like that, and ah don't know what to think about you being from the future but I do know that if we work together we will figure everything out, you understand?"

"Yeah," Pinkie cheered, "Together we can do anything!"

---

It felt like they had been walking forever, and they still hadn't fallen down the cliff or ran into the Manticore, or face the scary faces on the trees. Twilight was starting to get worried about that. Nightmare Moon had done everything in her powers to stop them from reaching the ruins, why wasn't she this time. She shouldn't have mentioned the fact she was from the future and had defeated her already.

"Is it just me or are we walking in circles," Rainbow asked, stopping to stare at a rock, "Because I'm pretty sure that we passed this same rock ten times already."

"That's because we have, silly," Pinkie Pie announced, bouncing forward, "We've just been going in a big circle over and over again."

The ponies all turned to look at the pink party pony, "Why didn't you say something before," Twilight demanded.

"I thought you knew," Pinkie pointed out, "and we were going in circles on purpose."

Twilight exhaled deeply, "No Pinkie, we weren't supposed to be going in circles. Now, what do we..." Twilight trailed off, her eyes landing on Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow Dash, can you fly up and find the correct path."

"Sure I can, but you're the only one who seems to know where we are going."

"You're looking for a large crevice, you should be able to spot it from the sky," Twilight explained.

"Yeah, that will be no problem for me," Rainbow Dash said spreading her wings, "I'll be back in two shakes of a tail." she announced before jumping into the air and taking off.

---

Rainbow Dash glanced beneath her, the Everfree Forest stretched out in front of her in every direction, "This might take a moment," she muttered as she did a loop de loop, trying to get a sense of where she was and where she needed to go.

---

"Rainbow's been gone an awfully long time." Rarity said, glancing up into the sky.

"She'll return," Twilight insisted, "She's the element of Loyalty, no matter what happens she will return."

---

Rainbow Dash glanced down beneath her, there, a giant crevice, about three miles to the east, "Wow we are way off course," she thought, "I better make sure that the path here to the others is clear."

"Rainbow..." a voice called out from the shadows.

"Who's there?" Rainbow called out.

"Rainbow..." the voice called out again.

"I ain't scared of you!" Rainbow called out tensing her muscles, waiting to strike, "Show yourself."

A dark figure stepped out of the shadows, "We've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flyer in Equestria."

"Who," Rainbow asked, eagerly.

"Why, you, of course."

Rainbow gasped, "Really? I mean... oh yeah me, Hey, uh you wouoldn't mind telling the wondercolts that would ya, 'cause I've been trying to get into that group for like, ever."

"No Rainbow Dash," the shadowy figure said, "We want you to join us, the Shadowbolts. We're the greatest aerial team in the Everfree Forest, and soon we will be the greatest in all Equestria, but first, we need a captain. The most magnificent..."

"Yep," Rainbow interrupted.

"Swifted..."

"Yes."

"Bravest flyer in all the land."

"Yes," RAinbow chuckled, "It's all true."

"We need you."

"WHOOHOO!" Rainbow Dash shouted, doing a quick loop de loop, "Sign me up. Just let me go back and show my friends where we're suppose to be headed."

"No it's them or us." the shadow figure said, "Well..."

"Thank you," Rainbow said, "For the offer, I mean, but I'm afraid that I have to say no."

---

Twilight frowned as the shadows seemed to grow longer and longer each second that they waited.

"Look," Pinkie shouted, "Rainbow's back."

Rainbow landed in the middle of the other ponies, "Sorry it took so long, but, wow, Twilight we are way off course. The ruins are this way."

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, this was a really good chapter. Took quite a while, but was well worth the wait. The exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are rather well-done in all the right places. Yeah, Nightmare Moon changed things up a bit, as we expected and, to her credit, Twilight DID acknowledge that she made a tactical error earlier. Instead of the rockslide, Nightmare Moon simply got the girls lost a bit and Rainbow had to get them back on track.

Of course, I'm very certainly looking forward to more of this.

And I hope you and your family and friends have as safe and happy of a new year as possible.

[Starlight Nova]

The synopsis confuses me. Wouldn't befriending her old friends be easier the second time around?

[toshibafox]

10606631
that's a beginner's trap, think like a game you already played before.

There was this RPG boss that handed me my ass, so after leaning of its weaknesses I restarted the fight to get ready for the boss.
The problem is the mistake made by assuming I didn't try that hard to come up with a legit strategy even with its weakness it still kicked my ass.

point being that even with knowledge of future events, the enemy can simply alter their plans to play around her future knowledge or even use it to their advantage.

The name of the game is 'the tenth line: speical edition'

[Eversong]

When will the next update