Everfree Forest

The Everfree Forest is said to be a mysterious place outside Ponyville that is first introduced in Friendship is Magic, part 2. The Elements of Harmony are kept there before Twilight Sparkle and her friends retrieve them, it is where Zecora makes her residence, and it's home to a variety of creatures.

History
The Everfree Forest is first introduced in Friendship is Magic, part 2, when Twilight Sparkle reads the book The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. It specifies that the Elements of Harmony's last known location is in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, and that the castle itself is located on what is now known as the Everfree Forest. When the ponies venture for the first time into the forest, Applejack mentions that "It ain't natural, folks say it don't work the same as Equestria". Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash surmise in Bridle Gossip that the forest "just ain't natural": the plants grow on their own, animals take care of themselves, and clouds move without pony intervention.

Fluttershy, who lives in a cottage near the edge of the forest, tells the Cutie Mark Crusaders in Stare Master that the forest is "much too dangerous. It's filled with far too many strange creatures". These include timberwolves, the manticore, a notable sea serpent, Ursas, parasprites, dragons, and the cockatrice, which feature in, respectively: Family Appreciation Day, Friendship is Magic, part 2, Boast Busters, Swarm of the Century, Owl's Well That Ends Well and Stare Master. The abundance of monsters explains why the ponies are wary of the fact that Zecora makes her home in the Everfree Forest, citing it as one of the reasons they fear her in Bridle Gossip. The forest is also the location of the "ancient castle of the royal pony sisters", where the Elements of Harmony are located before Twilight and her friends retrieve them in Friendship is Magic, part 2.

The forest is mentioned more than once as a place of banishment: when Rainbow Dash panics over her impending performance in Sonic Rainboom, she considers the possibility of being banished into the Everfree Forest for her failure. Twilight Sparkle also considers this in A Bird in the Hoof, hypothesizing that she and Fluttershy would be banished and possibly imprisoned in the Everfree Forest for kidnapping Princess Celestia's phoenix, Philomeena.

The Everfree Forest also contains many types of flowers, poison joke being among them. Zecora was able to cure Twilight Sparkle and her friends by using many medicinal plants presumably that she gathers from the forest.

According to one of the comics in the German magazine, a land outside of Equestria lies beyond the Everfree Forest.

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