Fairy Tales of Equestria

Little Red Prancing Hood

Once upon a time in a small village near the edge of a thick forest, there lived a young filly who always wore a lovely red cape with a hood that her dear Granny had made for her. The filly loved it so much that she hardly took it off and she wore it so often, every day in fact, that everypony in the village had started to call her Little Red Prancing Hood.

One sunny day, Little Red Prancing Hood heard that her Granny was sick with a bad cold and she wanted to pay the old mare a visit. So Little Red's mother packed up a basket with some freshly baked apple goodies and a large jug of crisp apple cider, Granny's favorites. She gave the basket to her daughter and told her,

"Little Red Prancin' Hood, I need ya to take this basket of apple goodies and cider over to Granny's house. She's sick in bed and awfully weak; these'll do her some real good. And on your way there, I want ya to go quickly, stay on the path, and don't talk to strangers. The forest can be very dangerous, especially for little fillies and colts. So be sure to be extra careful."

"Don't worry 'bout me, mama. I'm a big pony now; I promise I'll be careful." Little Red said confidently.

Little Red's Granny lived in a small cottage on the other side of the dense forest; she knew it would be a very long way to walk, but the filly felt she was up for it. Although Little Red Prancing Hood was a sweet and friendly filly at heart, she was known to be rather inquisitive and always get a little distracted. After waving her mother goodbye, the little filly in red was out the door and on her way to her Granny's house, holding the little wicker basket by the handle in her mouth. But Little Red would've been much more careful if she listened to her mother's advice.

Little Red Prancing Hood was making her way through the ominous yet peaceful forest with a smile on her face and a skip in her step while humming a happy country tune to herself. All around her leaves rustled and animals stirred, but she wasn't afraid because she travelled the forest many times with either her mother or her Granny and she never came across any danger.

But after an hour or so of walking, Little Red Prancing Hood suddenly found herself in a very unusual part of the forest. She soon began to hear rustling in the trees and bushes around her, but it didn't frighten her; she figured that it was just a small animal or bird of some sort and shrugged it off. Little Red stopped in her tracks when she felt a rough finger tap her left shoulder. Her ears perked up when she heard a deep male voice she didn't recognize say:

"Hello, little filly."

Little Red quickly turned around, looked up, and let out a tiny gasp when she discovered the source of the voice; it was a tall, abnormal-looking creature called a draconequus. The filly was quite surprised; she had never seen a beast like this before and she didn't know how wicked and dangerous such a creature can be.

"Oh! Um... h-h-howdy, m-m-mister..." Little Red stuttered hesitantly, taking a small step away from the stranger in fear.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. I only wanted to say hello." The creature said sweetly. "Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Discord. And what is your name?"

"Oh, uh... Little Red Prancin' Hood." The filly calmly answered, no longer afraid. "It's nice to meet ya, Mr. Discord."

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Hood. And, might I ask, wherever are you going in this deep, dark, spooky forest all by yourself?" Discord politely asked.

"To my Granny's house. She's sick with a bad cold so I'm gonna go visit her today to cheer her up." Little Red naïvely replied.

"To Granny's house, eh? How thoughtful of you. And what might be in your basket?" Discord asked, slowly lifting the cloth covering the basket to take a look inside.