A Tail of Two Ponies

by Lilyheart

Chapter Four: The Everfree Forest

🥜

Gnarled branches. A deep black contrast from the colorful pastel everywhere else. The birdsong had stopped. An eerie silence suddenly filled the air. Was it colder? But inside, what I felt was fear. Something choking up inside my chest, something that hissed at me saying, “This place is unnatural!”

Yet the feeling itself was unnatural. Alien. This was the feeling of a horse’s fear, not the human instincts I’m supposed to have.

“Oh, we are so not going in there,” mumbled Lilyheart.

“Agreed,” I mumbled back. I didn’t need stupid horse instincts to tell me to stay out of Everfree. Forever more.

“Still… I kind of have a longing to go in,” Lilyheart mused.

“I am not getting eaten by a timberwolf.” Flashes of the woody monsters jumped into my mind, and two small ponies limp in their jaws. It was the sort of thing I would draw and laugh at before. I wasn’t laughing.

“Oh, I know. It’s just… you know, the sort of call of adventure; the sense of wonder. Like we’re on the edge of something… something… Something that you can’t quite put a name to.”

My ears twitched. Grrr. Still, beneath my fear was exactly the sort of feeling Andrew described. “It reminds me of Subcon.”

Lilyheart snorted. “Your least favorite level?”

“Yes, my least favorite level.”

“I’d rather face a timberwolf than Snatcher.”

“Why?” I asked as my tail flicked. Both Andrew and I refused to look away from the forest. “You can reason with Snatcher. Timberwolves just want to eat you.”

“But that’s why. Snatcher’s evil. Timberwolves just want to eat. Snatcher choo–”

Two curved yellow eyes appeared in the darkness, like twin crescent moons. Andrew and I tensed. A moment passed as the eyes stared at us, and we stared back.

“Yeah, we see you, too,” Andrew said nonchalantly.

“Don’t antagonize it!” I whispered.

“You haven’t seen the episode. Rarity talked to one of the eyes. Called it out and made it afraid of her. The eyes are harmless,” Andrew explained, his… her tail sweeping across the grass. “Aren’t you fella? I don’t suppose you want to show yourself? And maybe point us to the direction Ponyville is in?”

The eyes blinked, and slowly faded away.

“I guess you don’t have Fluttershy’s talent. Or Rarity’s,” I quipped.

Lilyheart flicked his…her tail, and Andrew grumbled a little in annoyance.

“Let’s leave,” I said while trying to back up. I lifted… my back hoof, but found I didn’t know how to go backwards. I didn’t practice that before. Fine, I’ll just turn around. Though the truth was, I didn’t want to have my back to the forest so close.

“But how are we supposed to get to Ponyville? It’s on the other side of the forest!” Lil–Andrew asked as sh–he followed.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to skirt around it.” Which meant turning to our left or right. But not this close to Everfree.

And suddenly I realized it was darker.

“Whoa,” whispered Lilyhear–Andrew. “Celestia must be lowering the sun.”

Actually, I was wrong about it being darker. Colors were darker. That isn’t how light or color works back home. Human eyes can’t see color as they start losing light. But I could clearly still see color, just colors with darker shades than before. It doesn’t make any sense at all! Ugh! I hate being here!

“I think we’re going to have to wait before trying to figure out how to get to Ponyville, An-n-n-n-Lilyheart,” I finished with a roll of my eyes. “We should probably find a place to stay for the night.”

Lil–Andrew looked around. “But where? It’s not like we can build a shelter or find a tent laying around.”

“We’ll have to sleep under a tree. I don’t like it, but that’s much safer than walking around in the dark. Particularly not like this,” I motioned with my hooves. “Let’s hurry up and get a little further from Everfree.”

“W–wait!” urged Andrew.

“What?”

She–he was looking up and walking in a circle. “The trees here are the tallest besides the Everfree ones, if we can climb them, we might be able to see Ponyville, or how far Everfree Forest reaches in the direction we’re going.”

“And how do you expect to climb them?” I motioned with my hooves again.

Lilyh–Andrew was still searching for a decent tree. “I’m not sure yet…” She turned… He turned to me with a smug grin. “Trixie.”

“Trixie. What does Trixie have to do with anything?”

Her grin got bigger. “We’re not flawless,” she sang lightly.

Wow. Andrew was never a good singer. Actually, he was a terrible singer. But what just came out of the little pony’s mouth was a voice clear as crystal, solidly hitting each note. It was a voice I could imagine on the show.

“W…W-What about it?”

Lilyheart (Andrew?) blinked. “Oops! Sorry, wrong song. I always get those two mixed up here. Let’s see here…” She tapped her hoof to an invisible beat. Eventually nodding her head to it as well. “Best friends! (Best friends!) Until the end of time! (Until the end of time!)”

What? How are you making the echo?!

“We’ve got each other’s backs, (backs!)

And let our true selves shine! (selves shine!)

And that’s because everything we need is all right here,

When we’re with our team!”

Lilyheart beamed. I felt my heart tug in two directions at the sight. It was ugly to me; ponies were meant to stay in the tv. But… she was so happy.

“D-do you get what I mean?” she asked.

A flash of Trixie running straight up a tree, a trio of red-eyed, angry ponies chasing after her flashed in my mind. Really, couldn’t you have just said that? I nodded. “But… are you really going to just try to run straight up a tree?”

“We won’t know if it works until we try it!” With a look of determination on her blue face, Lilyheart moved into a position much like a dog that had gotten ahold of a toy and wanted to play. Or maybe a cat about to pounce on a mouse. She lowered her barrel to the ground, her rump in the air, tail wagging back and forth. Her tongue stuck out, her ears folded down, and her eyes locked on to what I assume was a tree to my left.

“W–wait!” I cried and jumped in front of her just as she began to lurch forward.

“What?” she asked while recovering from slipping on her right hoof.

“Let me do it! I’ll run up the tree.”

“Okay… but I’m the one better on my hooves. It should be me.”

“But you said I was probably stronger, right?” I countered while taking a look at the tree she had just tried to charge after. No wonder she had picked that one. It grew in a slight angle. “Besides, I need to practice, anyway, so please, let me do it.”

She looked me over and considered it. “Okay.”

“Right,” I said, and switched places with her. “By the way, I don’t think the way you were going to try was the best. You looked…” Ugh, how do I finish that sentence? “...Like a dog.”

“Bark, bark,” Lilyheart mimicked in a monotone. “If you’re going to do this, you’re going to have to let your instincts take over. And my instincts told me that that position was the best way to start a run from.”

“Well, my instincts tell me I don’t have to do that.” Really my horse instincts told me nothing. I was ignoring them at every turn. My human instincts told me if I formed that position, a little more of my dignity would die.

I hoofed the ground with my right leg. Ugh. Great, so much for doing this without giving into horse-stincts. I felt my ears flatten over my head. My tail flicked back and forth. I hoofed the ground again, and focused on the target. The memory of a quickly approaching tree trunk popped into my head, followed by pain throughout my body. The weird sensation of everything being flattened, and then sprung back to normal. Not this time.

I charged. Crisp air whipping past. My mane flapping. My hooves like springs firing off the ground. The tree went from there to here in a flash. Lift your hoof!

And then I was trotting upwards. It felt like a roller coaster. Or in a video game when your character falls and your balance goes haywire. Suddenly I could see the stars peeking out from the black webbing of the branches, amidst a purple-pinkish sky. And then I was at the top of the tree.

“Ahh!” I yelped and scrambled my legs in place. I started falling.

Findabranchfindabranchfindabranch!

I made wild grabbing motions and quickly found myself hugging a limb. My heart pounded from my barrel against the wood.

“You’re doing great!” Lilyheart cheered.

How am I supposed to get down?

“Do you see anything?”

I see a blue cupcake with yellow frosting and a ground that is way farther away than it ought to be!

“You can do it!” the blue cupcake cheered again. You’re being awfully supportive.

I breathed heavily. I don’t recall being this afraid of heights before. Probably because I have hooves!

“Ro-bin! Wind! Ro-bin! Wind!” Lilyheart wasn’t even looking at me now. Instead she was giving a hop for every syllable.

I could have been a pegasus. But no, I had to prefer natural looking ponies.

“Ro-bin! Wind! Ro-bin! Wind!”

Oh, I hate that name.

“Ro-bin! Wind! Ro-bin! Wind!”

Ugh. Slowly, I unwrapped my unsteady legs from around the branch, and gently began placing my weight on them to lift myself up. Oh, wobbly legs, wobbly legs!

I looked left. I looked right.

“Lilyheart. I can’t see a thing. All the branches are in the way. And I think the other trees are too tall.” I did this all for nothing.

“Well… you looked cool when you climbed up.”

“And I have no idea how I’m going to get down.” I let my body rest against the branch and wrapped my legs around it again.

“You could try hopping to different tree branches. Just like Hat Kid!”

Hat Kid isn’t real.

“Or maybe I could–”

Lilyheart’s cold scream broke through the forest.

“Lilyheart!” I called.

I looked down to see a blue pony thrashing about on the ground. Dragged. Quickly.

“Something gra–” Another scream.

“Lilyheart!”

I watched helplessly as she disappeared into the Everfree Forest, her voice giving way to silence. The sun set, draining the forest of any bright color left.

Comments

[whimsycreator]

Omg I loved how you described Lilyheart as a blue cupcake with yellow frosting XD The ponies do kinda look… confection-y!