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        The Expedition to Everfree Forest                        

By: Hikuro

It was the morning after the ponies first discovered "poison joke," and Twilight was exhausted. As she slowly crawled out of bed to get ready for the day, she peeked a glance at the clock. "OH MY GOSH!! ITS 10:30?!!" Twilight screamed as she never slept-in a day of her life. She had good reason to sleep in though. Pinkie Pie was so happy to be able to talk after the ponies swim in the liquid cure yesterday, she threw a party for Zecora, so other ponies could get to know her and so Ponyville would befriend her as one of their own.

All this yelling caused spike to turn over in his bed and groan. "wuzza matter twilight?" he asked as he let out a yawn. Twilight was brushing her hair in the mirror as spike approached. "I realized something last night as I was getting ready for bed. Poison joke is just ONE of the MANY plants that exist in the Everfree Forest. It made me wonder what potential the other plants in the forest have. If one plant has a bad effect, maybe one of the plants might have a good effect." She had walked over to the window and opened it to let the sunshine in.

"Long story short, I'm going on an expedition into the Everfree Forest to inspect the wildlife." Spike’s eyes opened in shock upon hearing this. "But Twilight, the forest is dangerous! Did you forget our encounter with the Ursa Minor from the forest? Not to mention that scary manticore that looked like it was gonna eat all of us-" "I know the forest is dangerous, Spike, but think of all the good that might come from my expedition." Twilight said with confidence in her eyes. "But Twili-" "No buts, Spike!" Twilight interrupted abruptly. "I’m going to the forest and that’s final!"

Having her bags ready, he trotted out of the house and started walking down the trail. She didn't even get a few paces out, when suddenly Spike yelled, "Twilight!!" Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and sighed. "Yes, Spike?" she asked frustratedly. "Please be careful....for the sake of me and all your friends in Ponyville." "I will, Spike." she said calmly. "I promise." Her expedition had begun.

As she approached the entrance to the forest, her mind was filled with all of the horrible memories that were tied to this awful place. Just before she passed the first tree, she stopped and let out one last -GULP- as the confidently trotter her way into the forest.

The first plant she noticed was a pretty looking orange flower with what seemed to be yellow spots on it. It was the only flower in the whole lot of poison joke flowers, and possibly the only flower in the entire forest as she could tell. She carefully managed to clear a path through the poison joke and finally reached the flower. The spots were a lot more noticeable on the flower up close, and it stood taller than the surrounding poison joke. As she was staring at the flower up close with a magnifying glass, the flower shot a cloud of pollen into Twilights face. At first Twilight freaked out at this, remembering the consequences of the poison joke, but as she began to calm down, she noticed the gas was causing no damage. Her face wasn't burning and her eyes weren't boiling out of her head. Once Twilight had calmed down, she uprooted the flower out of the ground, using her magic and a simple gardening trowel.

She was beginning to head out of the forest to go investigate the flower at her house, but suddenly she felt strange. This is when the panic started to kick in, causing Twilight to become very nervous. She began to shake and sweat, as any other nervous pony would begin to do. As she looked around the forest, the scenery started to change. The trees began to grow scary faces, which began to growl in anger at her with their sharp teeth. A cute little bunny hopped up to Twilight, who was now beginning to shake and whine as sweat began to pour out of her. Twilight stared at the bunny, and screamed in terror! The bunny's eye were blood red and its face had giant bleeding cut marks on it, blood pouring from each one. The sheer terror of the hallucinations caused Twilight to black out.

It was later in the evening and Spike was worried about Twilight. Celestia was about to set the sun and prepare for Luna to bring up the moon. Suddenly a huge WOOSH of air passed his head. This woke Spike from his trance and he looked into the sky. The woosh that startled him was none other than Rainbow Dash, who was doing a little evening practice. Dash noticed Spike and slowly flew over to him. "Whats wrong, Spike?" Almost sounding like Flutter Shy. "Twilight went out on an expedition to Everfrre Forest this afternoon and she's still not back yet. I'm really worried something’s happened to her." Hearing this, Dash was shocked and stood up straight. "Well then what are you waiting for?" Dash yelled confidently, "We gotta go to the forest and look for her!" She grabbed little Spike and threw him onto her back and, in a flash, sped down the trail that led to the forest.

"TWILIIIIIIGGGGHHHHTTT!!" Spike yelled at they entered the forest. Rainbow Dash had flown up high to get a birds-eye view of the forest, hoping to spot Twilight among the trees. As they went around their third round trip, Dash finally noticed a small purple dot next to a huge tree and dove straight down to it. Spike, barely able to hang on, was hopeful that Dash had found Twilight.

Shortly after landing, Spike asked the most obvious question ever, "Did you find Twilight, Rainbow Dash?" Dash did not show an expression of happiness and her eyes widened. "I found her..." The bright look on Spikes face quickly turned into a shocked one when he laid eyes on what looked to be Twilight.

Twilight was badly injured, her body covered in long cuts and large scrapes, all of which were still fresh and still bleeding. The most noticeable feature was the many yellow spots that covered her body, all the same size and color on her purple exterior. "We have to bring her to Zecoras place!!" Rainbow Dash yelled before grabbing Twilight by the back of the neck, dragging her tattered, bloodied, and horrific looking corpse toward Zecoras house, which was luckily close by.

Zecora, who seemed at peace mixing her newest brew in the timely black cauldron, was quite surprised when Rainbow Dash burst through the door in a rush. "Zecora, please help Twilight!!" she yelled loudly as she crashed into a shelf of books on the other wall of the house. Zecora approached Twilight quickly, but suddenly stopped and shrieked in terror when she noticed the spots on Twilight's body. "These spots are the mark of the accursed 'Sunset Ivy' and are one of the worst poisons any living creature can receive!" she said with a shocked and sad look on her face. Dash and Spike looked in sheer terror as Zecora went to a locked chest, which she opened with a key found underneath it. Out of the chest she pulled a huge scimitar and approached Twilight with it in her mouth.

"The only cure for this disease is DEATH!!" she yelled as she attemped to swing the scimitar at Twilight. Luckily, Rainbow Dash had WHOOSHED in and tackled Zecora, which caused her to fly back along with the scimitar. The moment seemed too quick, and when Rainbow Dash came to her senses, her eyes opened as wide as they have ever opened. Tears flooded her eyes as she saw the scimitar embedded in Zecoras chest. Zecora, who was breathing her last few breaths, said her last quiet words. "You have to kill her, or she will...." Her eyes closed and her head falls down. She was gone, lifeless as she fell over on her side, blood flowing in a stream across the floor.

Before Rainbow Dash could realize what she had done, Spike suddenly yelled, "LOOK OUT RAINBOW DASH!!" as Twilight tackled her and took a huge bite out of Dashs back. Dash yelled out in pain and flew forward, causing Twilight to fall off of her. Twilight groaned and yelled, for she was no long Twilight, but a mindless shell of Twilight, out to kill anything she laid eyes on.

Twilight had noticed the dagger and pulled it out of Zecoras corpse with her mouth. She began to slowly approach Spike, who was completely paralyzed in fear from all of the events. Rainbow Dash had gotten up from another crash at the same bookshelf when she noticed Twilight about to do her evil deed. She dashed at Twilight so fast, they crashed through the wall of the house, leaving a giant hole in its place.

 Looking at Twilight, Rainbow Dash began to tear up as Twilight hissed and screeched at her with her pure white eyes. She was no longer Twilight, but a mindless killer that wanted to feast on her for dinner. The thought of Zecoras last words raced through her head: "The only cure is death....", "You have to kill her!" Seeing the scimitar on the ground, Dash picked it up with her teeth. "NO! I CANT DO IT!!" She screamed as she looked once more at Twilights face, which was now wrinkled and pale. With tears in her eyes and no shame left in her, she finally thrust the scimitar into Twilight's throat.

Not moving a muscle, Twilight's face began to turn back to normal. The spots went away, along with the wrinkles and her eyes began to look like her old eyes. Tears flooded Twilights eyes as she muttered her last simple sentence in her regular, caring voice, "Rainbow Dash...What have you done?" Her eyes were glowing as tears began to form."Why..." was her last word as her face paled up as she collapsed on the ground. This shattered Rainbow Dash, causing pools of tears to run down her eyes and for her to collapse on the ground right next to her.

She slowly moved next to the dead mare and looked at her face one last time. Spike was on his knees, crying like the poor baby dragon he was. Rainbow Dash, who at this point was as pale as a ghost, muttered some words, "Twilight....I'm so sorry..." as she huddled next to her, trembling on the cold, wet ground.

-end  