Night 5 Discord's Everfree Adventure

[SunsetSombra]

Discord's Everfree Adventure

Be sure to keep to the path dimly lit by the luminary bags. If you stay in the light, none of the forest creatures will harm you. On the night when you should most fear the Everfree Forest, a spell will keep you safe—so long as you keep to the path ahead!

The forest is starting to look ever increasingly intimidating in the pale luminescence of Luna's perfectly controlled moon...a dusky glow falling upon everything around you, giving an almost ethereal feel to the massively overbearing surroundings, the rustling of the leaves and bushes starting to become more regular, and the howls of unseen creatures are beginning to be more frequent than perhaps they would have been only a short time ago.

Still, you go ever onwards...the promised candy must be ahead somewhere, and even the dull echoes of laughter in the wind will not deter the group treading through the woods off of the beaten track. However, the uncertainty of the gloomy shadows ahead are still very much alive and well within everypony, and whispers of soft fear are becoming more common. The potential for danger or reward lies closer to you now than the return journey home does...

Determined to reach the promised prize, you all press onward with hope ever present, in your heart!

[Pennwick]

((Just pointing out that Aloe and Lotus switched costumes after the 3rd night in an effort to confuse ponies. Aloe was wearing red at those points. Now it’s blue. We didn't pull it off as well as I had hoped.))

The Blue costumed spa pony had stood dumbfounded at the entrance to the forest for quite a while before deciding to reenter. Had she really scared or at least startled the Princess of the night? She had to admit, scaring the pony who was previously Nightmare Moon, even inadvertently, was quite an accomplishment. She wondered if with a little luck she could do the same to Discord who ponies had seen in this forest. A little nagging pony in the back of her head told her that it probably wasn't possible but the allure of the possibility was too much to ignore. Plus there was the fact that Lotus had had been personally pranked by the Chaos being. Not to mention the time he turned their hot tub to gelatin, filled the mud baths with chocolate pudding, and left ice sculptures of himself on the roof of the spa.

Yes, there was definitely a bit of a score to settle, the question was how. A sudden noise and a smoke filled costume probably wouldn't do it. She doubted she could pull a fluke like that off again anyways. Disguising herself as Twilight Sparkle, the Ponyville Hero? She didn't have the time. She began muttering her ideas aloud, this was kind of exciting. "Maybe a simple prank would work the best, the more steps the more chances to fail. A whipped cream pie might work! But I don't have a pie tin. Perhaps an 'Imprison me with the Elements of Harmony' sign stuck to his back. But how would I sneak up on him I would need a distraction. Sneezing powder plus a trick handkerchief? Now there's an idea..."

All these ideas floating through her head and she wasn't noticing the Spooky atmosphere of the forest at all. In fact she wasn't noticing much of anything; she was libel to bump into somepony or something.

[Boss_Hoss1]

(OOC: tonights soundrack is Wierd Al Yankovic's "Nature Trail To Hell -in 3-D" as a polka instrumental )

Racing on over from the Nightmare Moon Monument, Snails trotted excitedly onto the well lit path , hopefully not losing his best bud, Snips in the process.

he looked around and saw another adult pony dressed as a jester, this time in blue markings instead of red. he pulled up short and waved.

"Hello! You must be Miz Lotus, I saw your sister earlier t'night. You two make awesome jesters, eh? I'm a scary Parasprite!"

he bounced on his hooves and made a buzzing sound as he bounced round the other ponies on the path.

Snails suddenly stopped bouncing and backpedaled a few steps as a set of glowing red eyes looked down at him from beyond the path. He had never found out yet what eats Parasprites in the Everfree to keep them under control... And tonight was not a night to find out!

He nervously faced the eyes fom behind the nearest adult pony "Ummm what was it Pinkie Pie says to say?.. oh yeh... "HA! HA! HA!"

Snails looks at the eyes to see what effect that had...

[Pennwick]

((Everfree forest. Red Eyes. What have you done.))

"... no that won't work. You can't buy a sombrero at this hour." Aloe's head jerked up as she heard Snails talking. "Hello again," she had forgotten about the costume switch after her fright this past hour. "What were you saying?"

The colt had stopped talking and was once again staring at something outside of Aloe's range of vision. She slowly turned to face the point of his nervous laughter. A pair of glowing red eyes glared out from the treeline. There was a sound of hooves treading against dirt and Aloe could sense the creature getting closer. She began backing to the far side of the path, pushing Snails with her.

[DJpinkypie]

Turns was now without a costume seing as he had given the cloth to the weeping mare at the monument. So he decided it was best to stay away from the festivitys for a while maybe take a stroll throught the forest. He had heard that discord had been seen there but he didnt really care all that much his mind was still on the sorowful mare back at the monument. 'I hope she is alright he thought to himsef.' Just then he noticed two other ponies in the distance and he quickened his pace a little in hopes of catching up with them.

"Hello...." he began as he caught up then he froze in place also noticing the red eyes that seemed to be gleaming at the ponies.

[DJpinkypie]

"Wha-wha-what is that." Turns was just barly able to get out, he said as he got close to were the other two ponies were one a colt and the other he could tell was one of the spa ponies but he didnt know wich one, he had not yet had the pleasure of meeting them. Though he would like very much to know them he was a little fixated on the large red eyes that were still focused on them from within the forest. "Is th-this a pr-pr-prank, if s-so its no-not very fu-funny." Turns was so scared that all he could do was cower in fear. Despite being an unusually large stalion, he measured up to be just under the size of big mac, he was truely frighned to the very core.

[Boss_Hoss1]

(OOC: Ohhh I did not think about the inhabitants of a certain town... )

Snails gulped as he watched the eyes bob along "um, y-you are Miz Lotus r-right?"

He did not resist being pushed back by 'Lotus' (Aloe) as she got him well away from the shining red lights. He suddenly wailed "I'M NOT A PARASPRITE! I'M NOT A PARASPRITE! WAAAAA!" And scrambled out of his costume, showing he was just a silly orange unicorn foal.

The shining red eyes apparenly decided not to try and fight the spell protecting the path and receded off into the distance but did not completely disappear.

A quivering Snails sheepishly put his costume back on after wiping away tears "Da-does a-a-anyony know w-what that was?!"

[Pennwick]

"N-no. And I don't really care to find out tonight. Lets... Lets just keep moving." she peered down the darkened path the thing had gone down. Perhaps one day when Zecora visited she would ask. She started trotting down the path at a somewhat quicker pace; wanting to put some distance between the thing and herself.

She decided to explain the trick she had botched. Partially because he didn't seem to understand and partially to try and get her mind off whatever that thing was. "No, I'm Aloe." she pushed the cap up a little so her mane could be seen. "Lotus is the opposite colors, we just switched costumes. We were going to try and fool Miss Rarity and Fluttershy but we haven't seen either of them all night*." She thought for a moment as she slowed her pace, perhaps it would allow her to get the drop on Discord. Make him think that she shrugged off his magic easily. That would be quite the fluke if it did work.

((* Heh.))

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails kept looking back to be sure Snips was near.

He definitely did not want to lose his best bud especially here as he trotted along to keep up with the adult ponies.

He did a double take as Aloe revealed her trick "Ohh... I see.. I think."

He kept looking warily off into the woods on either sides just to be sure they werent being followed. "I h-hope all that was a prank, eh!"

It was a little.. no, very disturbing to him that even the adults were scared of those eyes...

[CircePonyDemigoddess]

Savory Spell wandered further down the path now as she grumbled to herself about missing running into DIscord the second night.

"I can't believe I left before I saw him," she snorted, her voice carrying in a frustrated tone. Granted, she wasn't as upset about missing the third night, because she had been nervous about running into Princess Celestia while dressed as her, yet she was disappointed that she had also missed seeing Princess Luna the previous night. Hopefully, Discord might make a return appearance. Or if not, at least she'd be excited to meet some new ponies. As soon as that thought went through her mind, Savory spotted two ponies a few feet ahead of her on the path. One was an orange, lanky foal and the other was a blue earth pony. Careful not to startle them, Savory made sure that her hoofsteps could be heard clearly as she walked up to them.

"Pardon me, you two. Are you in need of some accompaniment?" she said softly, smiling. "It's only my second night out here, and I'm a bit nervous about walking alone."

[DJpinkypie]

"Wa-wait for me." Turns called after them, "Pl-please dont leave me here." Fear was still gripping at turns he was in shock about what had just happened. "Exuse me d-do you mind if i hang out with you guys for a little while?" Turns did not want to be alone in this forest. And he was shaking as it was. Maybe having a little company would be good for him. Besides he didnt have a costume so if discord (or nightmare moon for that matter) came back then he would be in big trouble without some other pony to hide behind.

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails Neighed, even more surprised so many adult pones were as afraid as him and his friends of this trail.

"Um, I-i dont mind, eh."

He shivered at a thought "uhhh.. That story about Zombponies was just made up by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, wasnt it? The blank Zombponies in the Haunted House are just costumes arent they?"

Snails jumped straight up n the air as one of the hidden pranksters in charge of the trail growled into a lantern chimney, making a very ursine roar... (OOC: very old and real movie sound trick)

[Corsair]

Snips followed behind Snails a little more cautiously. It wasn't that he was scared of the forest... I mean not really... err... Ok, the Everfree Forest could be pretty scary, especially at night. But he was more afraid he getting in trouble from his dad. After the incident with the Ursa, he'd sworn never to go into the forest again. Snips hoped that during this special event it wouldn't count, but it still made him nervous. The sign at the beginning of the path proclaiming "Discord's Everfree Adventure" didn't help after his run-in with Discord himself earlier.

He caught up to Snails as the bigger colt was talking to another jester pony. Or was she the same jester he'd seen earlier? The costume was different, but the coat was the same... maybe it was the gloom in the forest confusing him. He watched Snails bouncing around, and smiled, but said nervously "Snails, make sure you you don't get off the pa..."

All three ponies noticed the glowing red eyes in the darkness off the edge of the path. "Gah!!" the colt yelled as he backpedaled away. He bumped into the pink stallion that had been with them at the statue.

After a moment of panic, Snips realized that the... whatever-it-was, couldn't get at them on the path. He looked up at Snails' yelling, and couldn't help but laugh a little. "Heh, good thing nothing eats hydras. At least I don't think anything eats hydras..."

As the group moved forward, the pink stallion caught up. He seemed even more scared than Snips was. A unicorn mare joined them as well, and the group moved in a tight huddle along the path.

"Twi...Twilight Sparkle says there n-n-no such thing as z-z-zomponies," he answered Snails, nervously. That's when he heard an all too familiar sounding roar. "URSA!!!" he yelled, and began galloping down the path.

[Manestream]

" HELLO, My little ponies - I'm here by order of the princess to make your night a little more FUN! "

From the darkness of the trail two yellow eyes peer over the crowd of ponies, dancing towards the light until they finally reveal discord himself! - and with a snap of his fingers all of the light along the trail go out for a moment! Giving a grand laugh as his eyes dissapear back into the night, he calls out to you:

" Now tread gingerly my little ponies - How delightful it is to see chaos abound, and turn your world up-side-down! "

He clicks his fingers again, and the world seems to spin, and suddenly your feet are in the air- and your lying in a soft patch of... flowers? As the lights come back on along the trail, you see that you and everypony are lying in a large patch of poison joke! Oh no! But at least you still have all your candy...

[Pennwick]

It took Aloe a moment to recognize her repeat customer in the Princess Costume. If it weren't for the voice she might have gotten halfway to a bow before realizing who it really was. Unfortunately it put her at a disadvantage; when discord appeared it was Aloe who was distracted not the Draconequus. She only got a good look at him before she found herself tumbling in the darkness. No chance to throw pies or stick amusing signs to the creatures back.

She once again found herself on the ground hatless. Next year she would ask rarity for a strap to keep any headgear attached. She rolled herself over and tried to reach for it but couldn't quite seem to move her legs right. Her two 'right' hooves were covered in blue spots and looked funny. "Oh dear." she whispered to herself now struggling to try and stand on her 4 left hooves. After a few attempts which only ended with her lying on the ground again she managed to shakily stand. She tried to reach for her hat once more but only managed to fall forwards. This time using her teeth and her 'left' left hooves she managed to get a grip on it and fix it on her head though it wasn't anywhere near straight.

"Is everypony else all right?" she asked. She stood rather still afraid if she tried to walk over to anyone she would just fall again. Though she would have to make her way out of the forest somehow.

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails neighed in terror and galloped down the path with Snips, until two yellow eyes in the dark forest quarter in on them ahead. He backpedals and runs back to the group, grabbing snips by the costume tail on the way and pulling him back to the group. the yellow eyes follow them along the path and finally comes onto the path, revealing it was Discord. -just before the lights go out!

"Oh No! Not again, eh?"

Snails squeals and finds himslf upended in flowers that had an eerily familiar smell...

He scream out "Oh Nooooo!" his voice suddenly getting squeaky.

"Im a tiny foal again! Snips?! You okay?"

He looked around and saw Aloe having trouble standing "Miz Aloe? Need some help there?" He trotted over and saw how big she was to him now. "This could be a problem, eh."

[Pennwick]

"I think... I think I'll be all right." she wobbled down into sitting position with her 'right' hooves folded akwardly under her body. Maybe there would be some back at the spa. Lotus had gone home for a while to mix the remedy for herself. Perhaps there would be some left. However Aloe wasn't one to miss a potential silver lining in this situation.

"Actually, if you wouldn't mind." she reached into her right pocket where some of her candy was recieving its fair share of bludgeoning. One chocolate was smashed into a tiny pieces inside its package. "Could you take some of this." she dropped it into Snails candy carrier. A few pieces fell to the ground. Hopefully the colt/foal could get them. She couldn't quite understand why she seemed to have lost the coridnation of all of her hooves. Maybe it was just the shock her body was going through. Instead she plucked a few of the flowers off the ground and stuffed them into her freed up pocket before struggling to her feet again.

She tried taking a steps slowly to get out of the patch. It was difficult but she could move. Though she was going in about a 30 degree angle from the direction she was facing resulting her constantly drifting towards the side of the path.

[Corsair]

Snips ran blindly for a moment after the roar that had sounded suspiciously like an ursa. Only to run into something WORSE! "No! Not you again!" he yelled at Discord. The chaos creature laughed at the ponies on the path, then, Snips suddenly found himself on his back.. surrounded by familiar blue plants. "Awwww! Not again!!" he cried out. This time, the hair didn't grow out from his mane and tail, it just appeared, exactly as long as it had been before. Well, at least he was dry this time..

The colt struggled to turn over, then sat down to part the hair around his face. Sure enough, the rest of the group has gotten joked too. Snails was a tiny foal again, and Miss Lotus seemed like she had something wrong with her hooves; she kept falling over on to one side. Snips just flopped to the ground, feeling defeated. "Snails, I think I'm going to just let the forest eat me..."

Then, he got an idea. "Maybe, if we give all our candy to Nightmare Moon, she'll stop sending Discord after us?" he said to the pair. He struggled to his hooves. "I'm going back to the statue! Err, I mean I'll try to follow you to the statue... stupid hair."

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails groaned at being so young and tiny again "Maybe if I paint myself up like Pip, nopony will notice.."

He turned around as Snips flopped over "Oh no Snips We cant give up like this..."

Snails suddenly had aloe give him some smushed candy. he even picked up the chunks of chocolate that fell on the ground "3-second rule! Thanks Kindly Miz Aloe!"

He bounced on his tiny foal hooves When Snips suggested heading back to the monument to bribe, er "donate" the candy to get Discord off their backs. "Yeah that's it! Awesome idea Snips! Come on Miz Aloe! We gotta get back ta the Nightmare Moon Monument!"

He trotted along, helping keep the adult mare going in a straight line...