“Thistle Down!” The tone of the mare's voice snapped the filly out of her thoughts.

“Y-yes, Miss Rose?” Thistle blinked. Her ears swivelled towards her instructor.

“The Rockrill stream flows which direction through the Everfree forest?”

Thistle blushed, she hadn't been paying attention, and now was about to be called out for it.

“Uh, it flows...” She looked down. The blue colt in front of her twitched his tail up. “Uh, it flows north?”

“The choices were east and west. Look at the map! North is up, south is down, the stream flows right to left! Now, which direction does it flow?”

Thistle felt her face burning. “It flows east ma'am.” Her ears folded. A few chuckles broke out from some of the other ponies in the classroom.

The green mare in charge of the class snorted. “This is a serious matter class! Everfree is a hazardous place, if you get in there you need to get out!”



Thistle concentrated, her ears folding back. “When I left the stream, it was flowing from my right to my left. So it if flows east, then I went south. I need to go West to head home. The sun rises in the east. The stream should be north. So I should be heading this way!” She began to trot off. Her tummy let out a low growl. “Oh! Well, at least there's plenty of these flowers and berries to eat here too!”

While she ate, something thumped onto Thistle's tail. Turning her head, she beheld three of the largest spiders she had ever seen in her life! Two perched on her flanks, and the largest hugged her tail! She screamed and frantically shook her tail, but the giant spider gripped all the harder. She bucked repeatedly, but the spider dug in. The two smaller spiders bit hard, but quickly flew off as she bolted. Finally the last spider sank its fangs into her tail. She heard the hissing of air. The spider began to grow larger and larger as it filled itself with air from Thistle's tail!


Alright, let's see if we can't get this story moving again!

My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro