The Mystery of Everfree Forest

In the darkness of the unpredictable forest, a lone unicorn strolled around with a sense of some caution. After all, this was the strange, and relatively scary Everfree Forest. Nopony ever entered here without having at least some sense of fear, no matter how small. Even the animals that lived there and dealt with all of its surprises in a day to day basis were always in a state of fear, never knowing what other dangers this forest will throw at them. Of course, some of the dangers for ponies that enter are the animals that lived there.

However, this unicorn, though a little nervous, was absolutely exhilarated by the sense of danger. There was a mysterious feel to this forest that no one seemed to understand, and that attracted the young scientist to be, Rosemary Star, to investigate. This was her current main objective: solve the mystery behind the dangerous Everfree Forest. What caused this particular forest to be as unruly and not others, like Whitetail Wood? She would likely spend a good amount of her time trying to figure this out among other things she would do.

As her hooves made a soft clomping noise and the grassy trail, her yellow eyes glanced around the scenario around her. Then she stopped in front of one of the scariest looking trees, took a deep breath through her nostrils and let out a great big sigh. "Alright, Star," she told herself. "You're finally in your true element. Time to get to work." And with that, she started examining the tree with her naked eye.

"That there, that's not me..."

The voice was unearthly, the tune ethereal, the words alien, and in the Everfree it seemed to come from everywhere. The language was nigh indecipherable to Equestrian ears, yet though the song came beyond Equestria's borders, it felt fitting in the eerie and disquieting forest. Almost...as if it were at home.

"In a little while, I'll be gone...the moment's already passed..."

Two things were certain; it was definitely singing, and it was unmistakably feminine. No, three things. She sang as if she had sang these strange lyrics to this melody countless times before. It had a certain confidence that if anything was right in the world, it was this marriage of word and note.

This confidence flew in the face of everything else about the song; it's wavering tune, it's foreign language, and perhaps most important of all; the absence of any singer.

Doodle's ears perked up at every little sound as the happy pegasus mare gleefully skipped through the Everfree as if she had nothing to fear! She could barely contain her excitement and enthusiasm as her ears swiveled upon picking up a faint tune coming from behind a bush shrouded trail. The soft thud of her hooves pounding the dusty path could easily frighten off any creature so she unwillingly slowed her pace. Her eyes widened as her mind filled with what could be making this tune! "A siren?? *Gasp* Oh my gosh, oh my gosh I can't wait to see!!" she said letting out a muffled giggle. It was definitely not a language she'd ever heard before which made her even more excited!

Before she knew it, she zipped through the air with a new determination to know EXACTLY what made this tune and nearly collided with a dark, rose colored unicorn.

After examining the tree for a few moments, the unicorn could hear a sweet sounding melody coming from some unseen singer. Her eyes normally wouldn't leave the object she was currently observing, but the melody was so nice, she theorized that perhaps that was the source of the current mystery that needed to be solved in the Everfree Forest.

Intrigued by the song, she didn't notice the Pegasus flying right at her until the flyer collided with the unicorn. This sent her flying and knocked her head right into the tree she was previously studying, caught in a bit of a daze.

The singing wavered into silence as the unseen singer heard the crash.

Doodle gasps loudly as she jumps up and offers her hoof to help the unicorn up. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Are you ok?? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!! I'm sooo sorry! I was just following this beautiful singing voice and-she stops abruptly as soon as the singing stops. "AYEEEEEEEEE!!!! IT STOPPED!! WAS IT A SIREN?? OH MY GOSH I'D LOVE TO MEET A SIREN!! OR A MANTICORE!! I'M SURE MANTICORES HAVE LOOOOOVELY SINGING VOICES! OH MY GOSH, THEY INSPIRE ME SO! THEY'RE JUST A BUNCH OF AWESOME PLASTERED TOGETHER TO MAKE EVEN MORE AWESOME!!"

She shouted as she bounced around the assumingly bewildered unicorn. "I'm Doodle Bug, by the way! What's your name??" Doodle's ever present and very happy-go-lucky attitude, high energy, and huge grin attitude remained unchanged as if nothing happened!

Rose shook off her dizzy sensation, but was then met with utter chaos. The unicorn lost track of what the Pegasus was saying very fast. Every time she was wondering what this girl was saying, she missed another point. She did, however, hear the part about the pony apologizing for crashing into her. The unicorn took the hoof and adjusted her stance before giving the frazzled Pegasus a smile. "No worries." she said. "I just didn't notice because I heard this singing voice."

Apparently the other pony heard the song too, because she was starting to bounce around like a maniac. "Nice to meet you Doodle Bug." Rose said with a bit of reluctance. "My name is Rosemary Star. But you can call me Rose, or Star. What brings you-" It was then that she noticed that the song stopped. "Oh no! The song stopped? But that could've helped me..."

Rose's ears folded back before looking at the Pegasus. "I'm a scientist, so I like to research a lot of things. I was here trying to find a logical explanation to why this forest acts so unruly. Have you ever wondered what causes this place to be so strange? Even in terms of magic, nopony seems to understand." Her ears perked up, glancing at Doodle Bug, trying to see if she understood how Star felt. "Do you know what I mean?"

The sound of footsteps started filling the air, urgent yet cautious, and they were getting louder, until...

"Is every- *hem* Is everypony alright? I heard a big crash."

The Earth pony's's light green eyes surveyed the scene in front of her. A unicorn and a pegasus, a common sight in Equestria, if not in Everfree itself. They seemed to be fine, in fact the pegasus seemed to be radiant.

Her concerned face gave way to relief. "Bless us. That's good. I was worried that somepony was hurt."

She held out a hoof. "My name is Paradise Blossom. Yours?"

Doodle's eyes lit up at the thought of further exploring the wonders of this mysterious forest! "Oh my gosh! I've always wondered that too! But I've always assumed it was slowly absorbing the chaos and brutality of the first time Disco-ball-what's-his-name was here! There are stories that the chaos magic couldn't all be depleted and some of it had been absorbed into the land so much that it couldn't be helped! So the Alicorn sisters had to find a suitable way to stop the spread of the evil it now contained! They eventually had to contact the spirit of the forest, yadda-yadda, who agreed to allow the forest to become the center hub of this chaotic magic!"

"Unfortunately, once the chaos magic was fully absorbed into the forest, the animals and trees began acting very strange! They were slowly being mutated into what they are today! To prevent this from further spreading throughout Equestria, the Alicorn sisters planted this crystal tree which bore strange symbols to prevent the chaos from leaving! Thus, the Everfree forest was born! Although, I must admit, some parts might be extremely fabricated as it was an extreeeeemely old tale mares used to put foals to sleep! Or... at least that's what I'd assume as I did find it in the foal's section of the library, hehe!"

Doodle giggled as her usual happy smile shifted to wonder as an earth pony came, quite speedily, upon the scene. "Hi, hi!! My name is Doodle Bug! Oh wow! Where are you from?!? That accent is sooo cool!! It is so nice to meet you, miss Paradaisu Burossamu!" 'Hold on... Paradais-Brosam... Paradays-Burosam... Paradise-Blossom... Yeah, that's it!' "Oops! I'm sorry, I mean Miss Paradise Blossom! Hold up, that sounds like Neighponese... YOU'RE FROM NEIGHPONESE?!? OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT!!" She said all the while rapidly shaking Paradise's hoof, then began happy bouncing all over the place now imagining what traveling to a far off land would be like!

If only her wings were strong enough to make the journey since she didn't like to travel by train. She then turned back to Rose giving her a chance to introduce herself as well!

((Edit: She does not know Neighponese, she just recognizes the dialect in Paradise's voice and copied the accent she said when she introduced herself.))

Rose's eyes widened with a huge grin. Doodle Bug seemed to know so much about the forest, but grin soon faltered the moment she heard that all of this awe inspiring information came from a children's book. Probably an old foal's tale for little kids. "Oh..." she said, trying to remain as impressed as possible. "Well, that is... fascinating." Well, the point was that Doodle seemed to understand how she felt. No matter how erratically she explained herself.

Turning to the earth pony, Rose reignited a big smile on her face as Doodle introduced herself to Blossom. The Pegasus's enthusiasm was quite contagious, and it easily made her forget about the disappointment of how useless her information was. "Yep. No worries, we're fine." Rose reassured, not noticing Blossom's accent at first. "My name's Rosemary Star, but you can call me Rose, or Star if you want."

Apparently Doodle Bug knew a lot about different languages. Who knew? "You know Neighponese?" Rose asked, thrilled. The unicorn hopped around a little with Doodle in a bit of excitement, but stopped much sooner. "That's so cool! I've never been to Neighponese myself, but I would love to visit there one day, too." Rose looked back and forth from the Pegasus, to the Earth Pony. "So what brings you guys to the Everfree forest?" Rose asked, finishing the question she was about to ask Doodle a few moments earlier.

These ponies are very excitable, aren't they?

Paradise replied to the Equestrians' excited actions with a serene smile and nod. "Peace be with you, Bug-san, Star-san," she breathed, making a gesture with her hoof, "Yes, Neighpon is where I am from. I have gone a long way."

She wondered if it was the right time to bring up the reason why she had gone that long way. She eventually decided against it; ponies seemed to become disinterested rather quickly when the subject of her faith was brought up.

Her gaze wandered over the fearsome looking trees that surrounded them as she said, "I am here because it reminds me of home. I was praying when I heard the crash."

((I'm sorry, I'm getting pelted with wicked allergies, can you please skip me?))

(Sorry for the late reply. I had the stomach flu.)

"Neighponese greeting! Impressive." Rose said, seeming rather pleased with the uniqueness of the Earth pony's speech. "Well, I have a lab over by the Ponyville Dam that I live at, but I like to study things in the field. I'm from Trottingham. You might know my mother, since she likes to grow many different colors of roses. Ya know, if you've been there of course."

Rosa smiled at Blossom's response with a nod, glancing over at the tree she was examining a few moments ago. "I came here to do some studies. Me and Doodle here were just talking about it a bit actually. I wanted to start off by figuring out why some trees seem scary without the influence of the light from the sun or the moon. I was studying that particular tree," she pointed it out with her right hoof, "so intensely that I didn't notice that Doodle was about to crash into me."

A bit of magic came from Rose's horn, levitating a piece of bark she had taken out as a sample. "I'm going to analyze this piece, along with other substances, once I gather enough of them and bring them back to my lab." She opened one of her plastic bags and stuck the bark inside of it, placing it on her back.

Paradise nodded along to Rose's explanations, trying to follow along as best she could. Apparently, she was a scientist of some description, one that studied plants. Her mother would have liked her, she supposed, her love of flowers was why she named her daughter such.

There was however, one thing she didn't quite understand.

"How does the bark...ah, will studying only a piece of the tree really show how- why the tree is scary?" she asked curiously, "Isn't the scariness of the tree really in our minds?"

She waved a hoof, hoping that she made sense of some kind. "If somepony lived here for a while, they wouldn't find the tree scary as much. But to somepony who is new, they would be unused to such a tree, and might be scared."