Carnival of Dust

by MyLittleJosieph

Intro

Introduction

It was a chilly morning as Jewel and I took our weekly walk into the Everfree Forest. Even though the forest was a dangerous place to be, there was a part that was different from the rest. A part that living things seemed to avoid. Near a sign pointing towards two towns opposite of each other one could find a decaying trail. It would take you to a river where a broken rope hung over the water's edge. When we were younger Jewel and I would come down here and swing upon that rope. Being a Pegasus pony, she would often tease me by hanging in the air with the rope in her mouth leaving me to dangle over the river.

On this particular day, Jewel lost one of her hair clips in the water. It was a bright pink one so we were able to keep track of it as the river carried it off. What we weren't expecting is that we would eventually find it being grasped in the teeth of a little filly.

"Wait!" Jewel called out to the little filly, only to watch as she bolted off into the woods. Jewel took off after the little one leaving me to chase on foot. Unfortunately, the two were faster than I was and I soon lost them in the morning fog.

Completely disoriented, and a little bit scared, I stumbled into a clearing where the fog wasn't as thick only to see a large iron gate with cobweb patterns molded into its design. My gut was telling me to get as far away from this place as possible but I was too frightened to listen to my instincts. Instead, my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself walking towards the cobwebbed gate.

As I got closer to the gate, the more it felt like I was attempting to enter another realm. In my panicked state, I could have sworn that music was starting to play, drawing me even closer to the gate. Lights of a carnival started to flare up as my balance started to tilt and just moments before I dropped off the edge of sanity I watched in awe as a ticket booth on the other side grew large angry eyes and glared at me.

"Greetings Stranger!"