She knew she shouldn't do this. Just the thought of going was forbidden. But she needed to, she just had to. She tried not to think about any doubt as she placed her cloak over her small body with her magical horn.

"Twilight", her small dragon assistant known as Spike called toward her nervously, "are you sure this is the right thing to do." The purple unicorn froze in her tracks, contemplating an answer.

"I need to know", was all she could say, "I just have to."

As she neared the forest doubt started to creep into her mind, what if this wasn't the right thing to do. But the pain in her horn returned again, that was the real reason why she wanted to go into the Everfree Forest; the pain was intensifying and she could only imagine what Fluttershy was going through. Another thing too, something she kept a secret even from Spike, while inspecting Fluttershy's condition she noticed a tip of her back hoof seemed discolored, when she looked closer she was horrified to see the tip was solid stone. The stone slowly moved upward beginning to fully consume her hoof, and at that rate Twilight knew she only had several days until her dear friend would be fully consumed by it. she

Twilight ignored the fear of the forest and continued through the bushes she remembered her friend emerging from. She wasn't an expert tracker but luckily her friend left an easy to see trail with all her chaotic movements, and with her horn glowing as a light source she cautiously entered into the forbidden forest Even with the light of her horn guiding her paths he felt that she was slowly but surely being fully engulfed into the dark and cursed forest.

As she kept traveling she noticed it was extremely quiet, no birds were making noises, it was complete and absolute silence. Even with the clearing it seemed darker then before, looking up the moon was full but it seemed the light stopped right above the trees, this was very bizarre indeed. Looking up at the moon made her loose her focus and hit a large stone pillar causing her to loose her focus on her magical light source surrounding her with darkness. A rustle came up from behind her causing her to freeze, to scared to turn her light back on in fear of having her location discovered she simply held her breath trying to quiet her heavy breathing. A light sound of hoofs approaching her made her heart skip a beat. She slowly scooted back until she could feel the cold stone behind her. The hooves stopped sever feet from her and time seemed to slow down until everything stopped.

"W-whose t-there", Twilight stuttered, it was all she could say and she felt weak for saying it like that, but it was all that could come out of her mouth. Silence responded to her. She could still sense the ponies presence but it's responding to her. She didn't know what to say, could this be the pony that hurt her friend, or maybe they were lost just as she was. "Are you lost, if you are we can find a way out, together". Every word coming out of her mouth made her feel more and more like an idiot, she had a strange sense to fear this pony and she didn't know why. A deep snicker was all that responded and then suddenly the presence of the pony was gone. Twilight, still frozen in place waited patiently for any sign of the mysterious pony. "It's just my imagination", she muttered to herself, "no pony would dare go into these forests this late at night".

"Then why might you be here", a raspy voice crackled from behind her. Twilight quickly jumped back yelping at the sudden voice.

"W-who was that", she tried sounding brave but every word made her doubt herself more and more, "Show yourself." She stood up boldly trying to hide her fear but the sweat falling down her neck kept sending shivers down her spine. Was it the darkness or the fear of being in the forest so late that caused her to feel such terror for no apparent reason. She had never been this scared, sure fighting Discord and Queen Chrysalis or King Solomon was scary but not even combining them altogether filled her with such fear. She knew this fear was not just her own.

"I should be asking the same thing", the voice sounded hoarse and deep, most likely a colt. "What are you doing here." The voice was suddenly behind her inches from her ear. How could he be behind her, he was several feet from her not long ago, she quickly turned around seeing nothing. She never heard him move, no sound nothing, and even if he did move behind her it would have taken much longer for him to reach her, unless...there was more than one. "Why is it so dark here", he was somewhere off to her right now, it was the same voice as the one behind her. "Where is the castle", this voice coming from her left, it was a deep loud heroic sounding voice. "What has happened here, where is everyone", this voice was slightly different, more frantic but seemed to come from a farther unknown distance. "Please tell me what happened to them", this one in front of her inches from her face.

"My f-friend, s-she passed b-by here not long ago, she was injured, or hurt or something; i need to know what happened to her". There was a pause.

"I do not know or care what has happened to your "friend", the last word he spat out, "I have better more important things to worry about, like the fate of Equestria, the elements are attacking th-."

"What do you mean the fate of Equestria, nothing is going on", tears welled up in Twilight's eyes, "I need to know what happened to my friend, shes turning into stone and her eyes are glowing blue and there is NOTHING I can do to help her". Even though she tried holding back her fear in front of the mysterious colt what she couldn't hold back was her tears at the though of what would happened to her dear friend Fluttershy if she were to return with no answers. Silence replied back to her, she bit her lip. "If your not going to help me, then I have to look for a way to save her".

"Wait", the voice called to her in the dark, "please... don't go". It was the pleading voice, "please don't leave me alone". Twilight turned to where the voice was coming from. "I can help your friend".

"What makes your think you can do that", she responded cautiously.

"Because", she could heard the voice coming closer, his heavy hooves stepping into the soft soil making muffled thuds. "Because", he repeated again, Twilight looked up in horror, "I did it to her", all twilight could do was gasp as she stared into the deep blue glowing eyes that had once engulfed Fluttershy's