Cadence Unbridled (Sections 1 & 2)

by Flikaline

By The Edge Of The Forest : Part 1

By The Edge Of The Forest : Part 1

‘Starburst is not interested in her in the slightest,’ Cadence was telling a rather depressed Steamer.

‘But Fleur still likes him,’ Steamer replied miserably.

‘She’ll get over him sooner or later,’ Cadence responded, ‘it just takes her a while sometimes to realize that she stands no chance.’

Steamer tried to smile. He knew Cadence was trying her very best to cheer him up. Spitfire seemed to come out of no-where and approached Steamer.

‘I have something of yours,’ Spitfire said to Steamer, who looked a little confused.

A little colt stepped out from behind Spitfire.

‘Tex!’ Steamer exclaimed, ‘what have you been up to this time? Never mind, I don’t want to know.’

‘At least he got me away from Soarin’ for a little while,’ Spitfire commented, ‘all Soarin’ ever talks about these days is Daffodil. It’s driving me crazy!’

Cadence couldn’t help but give a small smile. Soarin’ had probably been talking about Daffodil non-stop since he and Cadence had got back from that sky pony town. Shining Armor was suddenly rushing up to them, slightly out of breath.

‘Shining Armor,’ Cadence exclaimed in surprise, ‘I haven’t seen you around lately. I was starting to worry. Is there something wrong?’

‘Yeah, there’s something wrong,’ Shining Armor puffed, ‘but it’s nothing to do with me not being around much. It’s Big Mac. He needs help. He’s asked me to come to Ponyville as soon as possible. He sent me a letter.’

*

‘So why did he write to you?’ Cadence asked Shining Armor as they walking towards Sweet Apple Aches to meet Big Macintosh, ‘why not just ask the mayor or . . .’

‘He’s very shy,’ Shining Armor explained, ‘I might be the only friend he has. I doubt he felt he could ask anypony else, and judging by the letter, not even he is sure how big the problem is. Even I didn’t feel I could ask any other guards to come all the way to Ponyville when I didn’t even know how big the problem is.’

The four of them: Cadence, Shining Armor, Steamer and Tex (who had tagged along with his big brother) had almost reached Sweet Apple Acres and Shining Armor could just make out Big Macintosh pacing up and down among some apple trees. The four ponies hurried over, Shining Armor in the lead. Big Macintosh was a bit surprised to see not just Shining Armor, but three other ponies.

‘We’ve come to help you, Big Mac,’ Shining Armor told him, ‘we got here as soon as we could.’

‘You’re still not thinking of going into that there forest?’ came the voice of an old, green mare.

‘You must be Granny Smith,’ Shining Armor commented.

‘Yep,’ Big Macintosh said.

‘You well know them woods are . . . um . . . something,’ Granny Smith continued.

It took her a few moments to remember what she was talking about.

‘Them woods are dangerous, youngen.’

‘She won’t listen to me,’ Big Macintosh explained in a low voice, ‘there’s something strange going on in those woods.’

‘Oh, there’s something strange going on,’ Granny Smith (whose hearing seemed to be better than Big Macintosh thought) said, ‘in all my days . . . but if you think anypony will believe you or care until it stars effecting Ponyville . . . what was I saying?’

Even though she was old, Cadence realized that it could potentially be difficult to get passed Granny Smith. They would either have to convince her, or distract her, or both. There was also the issue of Tex tagging along.

‘We’ll be safer going in as a group,’ Cadence began timidly, ‘we’ll come straight back as soon as we know what’s wrong.’

‘A princess like yourself should know better than going getting herself into trouble!’ Granny Smith retorted.

‘Well somepony has to do something,’ Shining Armor said, ‘it may not be as bad as we think but we’ll never know if we don’t go and find out.’

Granny Smith looked thoughtful, and Big Macintosh seized the opportunity.

‘I heard you tell Applejack that you would teach her about apple bucking today,’ Big Macintosh told her, ‘you could teach this colt as well.’

He motioned his head towards Tex.

‘I supposed I could . . .’ Granny Smith replied quietly.

‘We’d better go before she changes her mind and starts blocking the way,’ Big Macintosh muttered to Shining Armor.

The four ponies headed for the forest at a rapid pace, ignoring Granny Smith’s objections. For a while, they just walked in silence.

‘So what is the reason I haven’t seen you around much lately?’ Cadence asked Shining Armor.

‘Oh, well, you see I’ve been putting in a lot of extra training,’ Shining Armor explained, ‘there’s going to be a position open soon and I’m really hoping I’ll be the one chosen for it.’

‘I’ll have something to say about it if you aren’t,’ Cadence told him with a smile.

‘So what’s going on in here anyway?’ Steamer inquired, ‘Everything seems to be normal. Safer than I expected actually.’

‘I started to notice something was wrong when I heard timberwolves howling,’ Big Macintosh began slowly, ‘it was during the day. They might be active during the day but they don’t how unless it’s night time. My next suspicion came because the forest seems too safe. There are other odd things too but it’s mainly the behavior of the timberwolves that’s worrying.’

‘Maybe they ate something manky,’ Steamer suggested.

‘Or maybe they have rabies,’ Shining Armor added.

‘They could be reacting to some kind of magic,’ Cadence put in, ‘it may even be an unintended side effect. No-pony else has been or near the forest have they?’

‘There was a strange unicorn filly near the forest earlier,’ Big Macintosh said thoughtfully, ‘she was talking to Suri Polomare. I didn’t like the look of her much. She was a turquoisey green color with darker patches. They didn’t seem to be doing anything particularly suspicious though.’

‘That sounds like Thora,’ Cadence commented, ‘I wonder what she was doing in Ponyville.’

‘And what she was doing with this Suri Polomare,’ Shining Armor added.

He couldn’t help wondering if this whole thing was just one of Thora’s jokes.

‘They seemed to be getting on,’ Big Macintosh told them, ‘This Thora seemed to be giving the little filly some ideas to boost her confidence.’

Cadence wondered how Trixie felt about her big sister spending time with other little fillies. Did she even know? She hadn’t exactly looked happy the last time Cadence had seen her. Thora seemed to have been spending all her time with Lightning Dust instead of Trixie.

As they walked on, they saw nothing particularly suspicious but they couldn’t help but feel there was something wrong. Something was just not right.

‘I’m starting to think this problem lies beyond the forest,’ Steamer said, ‘what does lie beyond these woods anyway?’

‘Well, there’s some abandoned castle apparently,’ Big Macintosh replied a little uncertainly, ‘I’ve never gone this far into the forest myself and I’ve never known a pony who’s gone to the edges of it.’

‘How are we ever going to find the source of the problem like this?’ Shining Armor asked.

‘Perhaps we should just follow our instinct,’ Cadence suggested, feeling a bit silly, ‘I can’t be the only one who feels there’s something wrong. Maybe if we follow that feeling, we’ll find the source of the problem more easily.’

The others didn’t look particularly convinced but it wasn’t as if any of them had a better idea. They continued to walk with Cadence taking the lead.

‘Can you smell something funny?’ Cadence asked after a while.

The others nodded nervously. About a minute later, Cadence caught sight of a sudden bright light out of the corner of her eye. It was gone in an instant. Cadence began to walk in the direction she thought it had come from. Either her idea of following their instincts had worked, or it was just dumb luck. A few moments later, another different colored bright light shone, then disappeared.

They hurried towards it. What was going on? They came to what looked like a cut out valley in the ground. The light seemed to be coming from a cave in the valley that they could only just make out. On looking down, they spotted a large amount of steps leading down into the valley. Cadence flew down and waited for the others at the bottom.

‘I’m not looking forward to climbing back up those,’ Steamer commented once he reached the bottom.

They hurried towards the cave. On reaching it, Cadence stopped and gasped. There were two familiar figures standing there who began to turn their heads.

It was Arachne and Lamia!

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

I can only hope Cadence has a trick or two up her proverbial sleeve.