Hiding a secret....

Rez looked at doodle as to say its ok. "Here how about I get the trap door open." He said walking up to the door and opening it. He looked down and saw a short set of stairs leading to what seemed to be a hidden room. "Ok your the one that knows what we need to do." He said moving out of the way still waiting to see why they came here to find a pony.

Doodle grabbed a plank of wood and held it out to the laser grid to light it then went back inside the cabin and down the rickety wooden stairs. Inside was an empty black cauldron, a desk, old dried up herbs and vials of blue energy.

A huge sigh slowly went out of her and she looked back at Rez thinking now was the best time to come clean. Her expression hardened into a very serious one. "Would you like me to show you or tell you why we came all this way?"

"You can tell me if you want." He said looking around and making sure its safe.

She sighed again and said, "I need a curse removed that an evil unicorn using a certain kind of dark magic casted upon me when I was younger. This spell prevented me from feeling love or falling in love... The worse part is that when I do feel love her spell activates causing dark energy to swirl around my body and slowly corrode my soul..."

The tears started to pour from her eyes again as she continued. "And now that I do feel this way about a certain some pony... it could kill me if I don't find her to lift it. Only her unique kind of energy can lift this curse she put upon me."

"Then we need to find this unicorn." Rez said hugging doodle. "Lets not waste anytime." He said now looking around. "So that would explain why she's been acting this whay. She probably thought I wouldn't believe her." He thought to himself

Doodle nodded and hugged him back as the tears continued to fall. "Well coming here was a bust..." She said while kicking around dirt and dust. She flew back up and crashed through the roof back into the Everfree forest. "There is another place she could be but getting there will take a few days." she said flying low over the trees. "But it's hard to spot."

She then landed in an opening in the trees and said, "Let's set up camp and rest for the night."

Rez landed next to doodle and started to gather wood for a fire and after started to put the tents up. "if she cant fall in love does that mean she doesnt like me? Wait she did say something about liking a pony and that the curse only hurts her when she feels love." He thought to himself. "hey doodle have you ever been camping before?" he asked trying to start a conversation.

"Well I have a cabin in the woods but have never had to actually 'rough it' by living outside the comforts of civilized life." She said trying not to sound too much like a wimp. "I've always wanted to go camping though but just never had any time or anyone to go with and going alone is not recommended." She said with a chuckle.

She kept her back turned to him the entire time hoping she wouldn't feel that emotion and feel that awful pain again. Even though the temptation to just lose herself in those big grey eyes of his. She rubbed sticks together and lit a fire then started a pot of purified water over the fire to boil and pulled out the ingredients in plastic bags. for a good old country soup her grandmother taught her.

"yumm that smells good." Rez said smelling the soup.

"camping is fun when your with somepony else but there have been times to where i was on my own." he said finishing the tents. "ok im going to let you have the big one and ill take the other if thats alright with you?" he asked sitting down.

"It was a recipe my grandmother taught me, it's a country stew she made back in the olden days... when she was still alive..." She said trailing off as the memories of her flooded through Doodle's mind as well as the instructions for cooking it. "Now, Doodle, Don't go and mix those ingredients all together at once, you need to slowly add one at a time to let the flavors melt together evenly."

She stirred and slowly added each ingredient just the way she was taught.

"Well your grandmother was a good cook then." Rez said looking at doodle.

"why does she try to not look at me? did i do something or say something. Maybe shes ashamed of the curse." He thought to himself.

"so where do you want to sleep doodle?" Rez asked looking at her.

Recurve never really went to this neck of the woods. But he heard how no other pony would venture off into it either. That meant privacy. He's gotten used to that over the years. If he hadn't messed up that one shot at the events... Anyway, here he was, relaxing on a branch on a tree deep in the Everfree forest. "Aaaahhhh. Solitude...."

As he was relaxing, thinking of many different evil things, he heard two other ponies. A mare and a stallion. "For the love of Cele--" He dared not say Celestia's name, not even in vain. He hated every symbol of Love and Order. He looked down, and heard the mentions of love. "I cannot catch a break today..." Recurve then jumped down in front of the ponies, with an evil grin on his face. He brushed back his mane a bit, so they could see his red eyes. "Hello there you two lovebirds. How are we doing?" He had a tone of anger in his voice. He wanted them out, or to ruin their day.

Doodle jumped back surprised by the sudden intrusion by a crystal pony. She was caught so off guard that she bolted behind Rez. She didn't know why but she felt very safe around him and cautiously peeked around him then mumbled, "S-sorry, I-I didn't know this spot was taken. I didn't really know anypony else was out there this far..." She slowly creeped out from behind him. "Where are my manners, hi there, I'm Doodle Bug! It's nice to meet you!"

She said happily extending her hoof to him.

Rez looks at the ponie cautiousely. "My name is Rez what is yours and why are you here?" He asked scanning the pony and still being cautiouse.

"I dont know if its the grin he's making or if its just him but im not getting a good feeling from him at all." He thought to himself now watching doodle to make sure nothing happens to her.

Recurve looked at Doodle's hoof in disgust. But, just to show he was "polite," he reached out and shook her hoof. Needed to play off the nice guy a little bit. He began circling the two. "The name's Recurve. You know, like the bow?" He hid his bow in the bushes, so nopony would find it. He pulled it out and showed it to them "Like what you see? So, now that we all know each other... What are you ponies doing out here in this part of the woods? Some dangerous things lurking 'round here, you know." Hopefully one of those dangerous things would come and take these two. He looked over at the boiling pot and took a big whiff. "MMMMmmm, smells good. What are you cooking, here?"

Doodle nodded, "Of course I know there are dangerous creatures lurking everywhere in these woods. But I-" She cut her sentence short due to a rustling in the bushes that surrounded them but went on pretending like she didn't hear it. "Soup's ready!" She brought out three wooden bowls and poured each of them some then produced three spoons.

Just then three huge manticores jumped out of the bushes growling and waving their scorpion tails around.

Rez pulls out his axe and steps in front of doodle as the manticores started to get closer. "Well lets see how skilled you are with that bow and help me with these manticores." Rez said now looking at Recurve.

Suddenly a manticore jumped at Rez. Out of reflex Rez swung his axe using the handle side to hit the manticore.

Recurve was glad to see these Manticores. "Good timing. I wanted to hurt something pretty badly." Recurve didn't care much for protecting the other two. He only shot the one coming towards him. He set up three arrows, and hit the Manticore right across the face. No more worries for him. All that is left is the one who is most likely going after Doodle

Doodle jumped out from behind Rez with her teeth bared. She was NOT going down without a fight and leaped into the air only to get forcefully pushed back against the ground by one huge manticore. She was pinned underneath it's huge paw. Using her wings she forced the paw up and wiggled the rest of the way out then bucked it hard in the face.

Then all of the sudden something snapped inside of her causing her animal instincts to kick in. All she could think about was wanting to spill this unlucky manticore's blood. She began furiously bucking and kicking the manticore repeatedly in the face. Once it was down laying there passed out on the ground her instincts subsided. She looked at the others and said, "Is everypony okay?"

Rez looks at the manticore he nocked out to make sure he's passed out and responds to doodle. "Yeah I'm fine. What about you recurve?" He asked now looking at recurve. He still did not get a good feeling from him. He looked at the manticore then recurve. "He's got some skill with that bow. Hopefully he wont try to use it against us." He thought to himself.

Recurve looked at Doodle in amazement. "That was impressive..." He nudged Rez. "Your mare knows how to fight. That's a real turn on." Recurve then sat on one of the manticores. "Didn't see this coming. Oh well, it was fun." Recurve was still looking for ways to mess with these two. A little couple is perfect for causing hatred. He eyed Doodle, still curious as to why she came here "So, now that we're all fine, mind telling me why you're out here?"

Doodle's eyes shot towards Rez at the mention of being 'his' mare. Her face turned redder than a berry and suddenly the wave of pain shot through her like a bolt of electricity but it was different this time. It was more than her small body could take causing her to pass out as the dark energy danced around her and those evil blue and violet eyes appeared above her. When she woke up she was soaked in sweat and still breathing heavily. "U-u-unicorn..." She said weakly and got up as the dark energy and eyes above her head vanished.

"You okay doodle?" Rez asked worried face red from what Recurve said. "We need to hurry and find this unicorn doodle." He said still worried. "If your going to help us Recurve then you can come but don't even think I wont fight you if you do us any harm." Rez said looking at recurve seriously.

Recurve couldn't help himself but laugh. Doodle collapsing was hilarious. She was in a sharp pain, and he loved it. And she said something about a Unicorn. He still wanted them to think he was friendly, so he helped carry Doodle, but he was still chuckling. "Sure, I'll help you out... Hehe... Where are we going?" This was rather entertaining. But if only Doodle could die, or Rez would suffer the same pain. That would make for a good show...

"It's not far now, just a few days travel." She said in a low, almost monotone voice. "Come on now, we've gotta get going if we want to make it there soon!" Her mood quickly rose into a positive upbeat one as she started running east but stopped when she came smack into... a raging river. She dipped her hoof into the icy cold water then took a leap of faith and bounded quickly from rock to rock hoping she wouldn't fall in and get swept away by the current.

She was not in the mood for drowning today! Once she was across she looked back at the other two and motioned for them to follow.