Story: OC Level Up - Legend of the Everfree Forest [E10+]

[MisterChippy]

Level Up - Legend Of The Everfree Forest

Follow the journey of a lost pony forced to fight his way through a cursed wood to regain his lost past. Sporadic updates of short, +/- 1000 word chapters.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review them. Even if you think the chatacters are less than 2 dimensional, the plot nonsense, the writing style pathetic, and any other bad things about the story, please tell me. I want to improve and if I write crap and no-one calls me on it, I'm going to keep writing and posting crap. I don't think anyone wants that. Also, if you like something, please say so. It'll make me happy and help me figure out what to keep doing.

RATING: E-10+

There is violence, but it's not graphic or even realistic. Any scary scenes will be balanced out with humor and since there's only one pony character there's no chance of any 'Adult Content'.

Prologue: A night to remember.

Chapter notes: The intro to our story which introduces the protagonist, an impulsive and none too bright pony named Quest Hunter. Be prepared for a bunch of expository dialog to set the scene, but don’t worry. Later chapters will include more action and be reminiscent of a series of games that this fic’s title is in no way based off of.

Deep, deep inside a lost forest, there was a clearing. No animals ever visited there, no plants grew there. In fact, nothing had disturbed its peace in over one thousand years. Then, one fateful night, something did enter that clearing. It was a pony, brown as the trees surrounding him, who stumbled into that clearing that night. As he entered the clearing, he tripped and fell, sprawling onto the barren dirt before passing into oblivion. If anypony had been listening, they would have heard a name pass from his lips as he fell, but nothing was listening, nothing but the forest itself...

“Quest.”

“Uhhh...” The pony on the ground moaned and twitched as he woke up. Who was that, and what were they saying?

“Quest.”

It sounded like a name, but whose? Was it his name? The pony’s head throbbed as he tried to remember.

“QUEST!”

The pony awoke violently and sprang to his feet, head swinging side to side as he tried to take in his surroundings. Where was he? Even more importantly, who was he? All he could see wherever he looked was trees. Nothing but trees. Who had been calling him?

“QUEST!!! LOOK ABOVE YOU!”

Slowly he moved his gaze up, and was shocked to see an orb of light floating above his head. It hung in the air, like a second moon in the dark night sky. He tried looking into the light to find its source, but found that he couldn’t see past its luminescent boundaries. Working up his courage, he addressed the light.

“Umm, are you talking to me?”

“No, I’m talking to pebble over there. Of course I’m talking to you, meathead! How many ponies named Quest do you think there are in this clearing?”

“I’m guessing one.”

“You’re guessing... wait a minute, you don’t know your own name?”

The orb said, bobbing up and down in the air with impatience.

“I don’t know anything. One moment I was... somewhere, and the next I’m lying on the ground with a fairy yelling at me.”

Suddenly, the ball of light zoomed down and slammed into his face, knocking him to the ground. It felt... hard, like the ball was made of stone or something.

“What was that for?”

“For calling me a stinking fairy! Don’t you know anything?”

“No! I thought we’d already established that!”

“Ohhhhh, riiiight... Sorry about that then.” The ball said, flickering in a sheepish manner.

“It’s fine. I’m sorry I insulted you. But if you aren’t a fairy, than what are you?”

“I, my dear pony, am a god!” The ball of light said, puffing up a little and glowing a bit brighter.

“A god? God of what?” The pony asked, trying to remember anything at all about gods. He knew he’d heard of them before, but hadn’t they been omnipotent beings instead of little balls of light?

“Gods don’t have to be gods of anything! Just being a god is enough! Sheesh, when I asked them to bring me a pony I expected them to pick one who could mind his own business. Now, enough chit chat. Time to get down to buisness.” The god said, puffing up a little.

“Wait, you asked someone to bring me here? Who” The pony interrupted before the god could say whatever it had been about to say.

“The Spirits of Fate of course. Jeez, you must have been pretty thick even before you lost your memory. Now, as I was saying...”

“Did these Spirits take my memory?”

“What? No, of course not! Why would they do that. It was probably one of the Dark Lord’s minions who did that. Now, back to the to...”

“Wait, Dark Lord? What’s going on here?”

“You’d know if you’d just let me finish a sentence! Sheesh! Anyways, long story short there’s an evil spirit who’s taken over my forest and the spirits of fate sent you here to help me get rid of him.”

“But, who am I? And why should I help you?”

“Because you promised!” The god said, bobbing up and down frantically.

“I promised?”

“Yes! You promised! I asked the Spirits of Fate for a hero, and so they sent a message to you, Quest Hunter, the greatest hero in all of Equestria, asking for your help. You said you’d be over here as soon as possible and that you’d be happy to help! It’s not my fault that the Dark Lord sucked out your memories on the way over here. Now, the Dark Lord’s palace is...

“Greatest hero in all of Equestria...” Quest mumbled to himself, ignoring the god. So he was a hero, and not just any hero, but the greatest hero in the whole entire kingdom! No wonder he’d promised to help out. After all, even he knew that no hero would ever turn down a cry for help. Still, it’d be nice if he could remember any of his past adventures.

“Hey, god! So this Dark Lord thingy, they have my memories, right?”

“Huh?” The god said as Quest interrupted it’s monolog. “Oh yeah. Probably keeps them in his cauldron of souls in his evil palace or something. Now, were you paying any attention at all to what I was saying?”

“Nope! I’m Quest Hunter, the greatest hero in all of Questia! Now let’s get back my memories!” Quest said as he charged into the woods.

“Sweet Discord, I’m doomed.” The god murmured to itself.

“Hey, Quest! Stop, you’re going the wrong way!” It yelled as it chased the overly enthusiastic pony out of the clearing into the dark forest, never thinking to glance down at the ground where Quest’s shadow had been. And still was. Slowly, like a snake uncoiling itself after a long nap, the shadow rose up until it was floating above the ground, like a peculiar knot of zig-zags and coils.

“So that’s the infamous Quest Hunter, is it? Interesting. Very interesting...”