Monsters lurked in the Everfree.
They flew, crawled, scuttled, burrowed and brachiated through its verdant vastness, ambushing unprepared travelers and occasionally wandering out of its bounds to terrorize ponykind. But as Lightning Dust lead her trainees into it, she had to admit that there was a familiar aspect to it as well. While most ponies viewed the forest with nothing more than a sense of dread, Lightning’s own relationship with it was a bit more complicated.
Sure, it was a dangerous place. But it was also kind of wondrous at the same time. Whatever depths of Bitterroot’s imagination the forest had sprung from, a veritable legion of strange and useful plants had come with it.
There were the crackling zap apples that made the most delicious jam. Glowcap mushrooms that made for cheap and easy lighting for lower class ponies. Snickersnap vines, with their springy state were quite useful when it came to snares and improvised traps. And, of course, there were the dozens of varieties of truffles that always sent ponies and their hunting boars to explore every nook and cranny.
Lightning stopped in a clearing, turning to face her charges. “Alright everypony. Here’s the very first thing you must know about the Everfree forest. It is always changing its layout. That’s why we never go into the forest without one of these.”
She plucked a compass from her saddlebags. “Bitterroot may be able to shift the trees and the landscape whenever she tosses and turns in her dreams. But she can’t change what direction north is in. Never. Leave. Without. Your. Compass. I know I said I’d stop being all Spitfire here, but this is an exception.” She held her little device high. “If you get lost in the trees, one of these, and the memory that Ponyville is to the east of us- which is that way-” she said, jabbing a hoof back the way they came, “will help save your life. Understood?”
With all eyes on their commander, the recruits replied affirmatively as with a single voice. “Understood!” Lightning felt a little surge of hope at the echo of the Rangers’ old unity.
“Good! Now, follow me, we’re going to learn how to track a beast through the undergrowth.”
- - - -
“That’s a print, right?” Angel Wings asked.
Sunflower cocked her head as she peered at the patch of dirt. “I think so...could be a smudge though.”
“Isn’t a print kind of the same thing as a smudge? Just in the dirt?”
After explaining the basics of how to track, Lightning Dust had lead them on for what felt like another hour or so until they had found another clearing among the trees. It was a wide open area, with several fallen trees and trampled plant life that sloped down to a narrow, winding ravine. There she had let everypony split up to examine the area and see if they could pick up any tracks.
Angel Wings rubbed her chin. “Well...if it is a print, what do you think it’s a print of?”
“I dunno...the Mighty Smudge Beast?”
“Nah, the domain of the Mighty Smudge Beast is Sonata’s kitchen.”
Angel and Sunflower jumped at the sound of Lightning Dust’s voice coming from right behind them. She hovered above them with a wry grin and her forelegs crossed.
“Buuuut...yeah, that one’s just a smudge. Or a track that’s been washed out enough by rain that it’s effectively a smudge. Now that one over there?” She pointed to another spot on the ground. “That’s a thorn boar track. There’s quite a few of them in fact.”
Sunflower hummed to herself considering the implications of that. “So, with all the trampled down plants, that probably means this is a regular travel ground for them?”
“Good deduction! For whatever reason, the animals of the Everfree seem to know their way about despite the shifting terrain.”
“Why’s that?” Sky Stinger asked from his position across the way.
“No one knows. Maybe Bitterroot doesn’t hold things against animals the way she does against ponykind. Maybe it’s just that if you spend long enough in the Everfree Bitterroot’s magic changes you a bit. The caprataurs seem to have an easier time finding their way around as well. But the important thing is to remember is that animals and monsters won’t be thrown off by a sudden change in terrain.”
“Just how often does that happen anyway?” Vapor Trail asked.
Lightning Dust shrugged. “It’s completely random. Bitterroot dreams. The forest changes.”
“Does she make the birds stop singing too?” Icy Mist asked.
Lightning Dust frowned, slowly scanning the clearing. “Hmm. No. It means that there’s something dangerous nearby.” Smoothly, she drew her crossbow. “Weapons up everypony.”
Up came the other crossbows. Lightning kept her position in the air above, while motioning with a hoof for everyone to gather up. “Okay, we’re going to slowly back out of the area. Don’t make any sudden movements. If we stay grouped together, most Everfree predators will leave us alone.”
They began to do just that winding their way back down the path they had followed into this area. It was slow going with weapons balanced in hooves, but nopony complained or spoke as they crept along. Their eyes swept the undergrowth for threats, each of them ready to unleash a flurry of bolts at the first beast that showed its muzzle.
That was, until the underbrush shook. Sunflower cried out, spun about and fired. The crossbow bolt passed just over Scootaloo’s head before vanishing into the undergrowth.
“What was that?” Scootaloo exclaimed. She stormed over to Sunflower, almost dropping her own crossbow in the process. “You could have hit any one of us with that shot!”
“I-I’m sorry!” Sunflower stammered. She wasn’t looking at Scootaloo while she answered, instead keeping her gaze fixed on the surrounding plant life. “But I t-thought I saw something! What if it was some kind of blood sucking bat or a badger that eats your bones?”
Lightning landed on her other side. “It’s okay Sunflower. It was much more likely to be something simple, like a weasel, squirrel or rabbit.”
Then came the snicker. Everypony turned to see a white rabbit, standing on a nearby rock. It wore a devious smile, quite uncommon for a bunny. But worse was the fact it was idly twirling Sunflower’s crossbow bolt in a paw.
The recruits all gave sighs of relief, Sunflower even going as far as to coo at the little fluff ball.
“Aww! How cute!”
“...Buck,” Lightning swore.
Angel Bunny, demon rabbit of Echidna, dropped the bolt and gave an unearthly screech before charging into the middle of the crowd. Chaos descended as the little furry beast began springing from pony to pony, bowling them over with surprisingly strong kicks and punches. Lightning could swear that the little bastard was cackling with glee as he sent ponies sprawling.
She dove for the rat, swinging the butt of her crossbow right at his stupid fuzzy face! But Angel just jumped over the strike, landed on Lightning’s crossbow and then cracked her across the snout with a spinning kick. She stumbled backwards, rubbing at the sore spot.
“Gah! You stupid, little-”
Angel snickered again.
Before Lightning could take another crack and putting him down, soft singing began to fill the area.
Lightning swore. “Ascraids! LEG IT!”
Her charges needed no further encouragement, taking off at full gallop. However, they didn’t make it far before magic lashed across their path. A verdant green color, it cracked and popped through the air, a lashing wall of thorny vines rising up to block their way. An alicorn shaped shadow swooped overhead, followed by another soft round of singing.
“Back the other way!” Lightning shouted, snapping off a shot at the retreating form of Echidna.”We’ll have to find a way around!”
And so they galloped back towards the clearing and the ravine, only to come to another sliding stop at the sight that greeted them.
Massive segmented legs were reaching out of the ravine, hauling a massive form out of the lightless depths beneath the earth. Lightning’s heart sank as the beast finished pulling itself into the muted Everfree sunlight.
It was a spider the size of one of Ponyville’s cottages. The web draped shell was a lurid, clashing pattern of yellow and black that was quite unpleasant to look at. Lightning could only groan as the lumbering arachnid clicked its mandibles at the feast of ponies laid out before it.
An arachnarok spider.
They were one of the most vicious monsters to live in the Everfree, perhaps beaten out only by the mighty ursa majors. Yet they were strong and hungry enough to hunt the major’s cubs, the so called ursa minors. Normally they rarely bothered ponies, as they were simply too small to be worth the energy to catch and eat. Lightning had already realized that this case was far from normal.
“Scatter!” Lightning shouted as the spider charged.
The arachnarok barreled through them, scattering ponies left and right with its sheer bulk. Save for Sunflower. She stood stock still, paralyzed by sheer fright of the onrushing beast.
“Sunflower, move!” Lightning shouted, diving for the stunned earth pony.
The arachnarok brought one of its limbs down in a brutal smash. Sunflower tried to dive out of the way, but she was a fraction too slow. There was a nasty crunching sound as the tip of the leg tore through Sunflower’s right hind leg. Sunflower’s bone chilling scream of pain tore through the clearing, making everypony freeze, their blood running cold. Sunflower could only sob as the arachnarok scooped her up, almost gently bringing her towards its dripping fangs.
“TAKE IT DOWN!” Lightning bellowed.
She was already moving, her crossbow spitting an armored piercing bolt right for the beasts multifaceted eyes. The bolt drilled into the depths of one of its eight, eliciting a shriek of pain from the monster. Sunflower toppled from its legs as it lumbered about to face down Lightning dust.
Then came a round of bolts from her Rangers to be.
They raked the flanks of its carapace, more than a few finding gaps where the beast’s crude breathing ports were situated. The rest bounced off the thick shell, or got caught in its sticky web covering, as it took a few angry swipes at Lightning Dust. Lightning dove to avoid the swipe, transitioning into a barrel roll as she shot between its eight massive legs.
The arachnarok turned about again, now facing the largest group of Rangers that had fired at it a moment before. Thrusting its abdomen forward, webbing sprayed wildly across the line of rangers each strand easily as thick as a pony’s foreleg. Ponies collapsed as they were stuck to the ground by the sticky threads. Angel Wings and Icy Mist were part of that group and immediately began to try pushing their way out of the mess. Scootaloo broke off from her position, galloping for the trapped rangers and drawing a knife as she went.
On the other side of the spider, Firefly lead her group of applicants on another sortie. Once more the crossbows twanged their deadly chorus but this time she was calling her shots.
“Go for the leg joints! We need to bring it down!”
A few of the bolts managed to bury themselves in the leg joints, but it was a hard target to hit while it bucked and shifted now turning to face Firefly’s line. Lightning came about again her next shot drilling deep into its bulging abdomen, cutting through its carapace like it was wet paper. Every shot from her crossbow struck with a power that made the beasts armor effectively useless. But when your target was the size of a house crossbow bolts were only so many pin pricks.
“Come on you eight legged freak! Pegasus with juicy flanks right here! Come and get me!” Lightning shouted, practically wiggling her rump in the spider’s face. “I bet that you’re too damn slow to catch a pegasus like me!”
The spider reared up, swinging its tree-trunk sized legs wildly. Lightning spun about and dove, avoiding the strikes by such a narrow margin that her hooves were skimming along the the edge of the shell.
“Shoot it now!” she shouted, even as she banked to the right of the abdomen with all her might, her wings and side screaming from the effort.
Once more the crossbows sounded, the bolts now tearing into the relatively soft underbelly of the colossal spider. It screeched in pain, almost toppling backwards before managing to right itself.
Lightning had a feeling that Echidna’s magic was keeping the arachnarok around. Most predators wouldn’t so doggedly chase prey after being wounded. Wounds risked their ability to hunt and that meant starvation. Bad news for the spider, but also bad news for them, as they’d actually have to kill this thing!
Webbing wrapped around her hind legs.
“Ascr-”
She hit the ground and hard, eliciting a fresh round of agony in her still healing ribs. The shadow of the arachnarok loomed over her and she could hear its fangs grinding against each other, eager to feast. Rolling into her back, she stared up into the cold, alien eyes of the monster that was going to kill her.
“RRRAAAGGHHH!”
There was a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning. Then came a blur of rainbow that smashed into the spider’s head. Chitin crunched and bucked. Green ichor flew every which direction as a gaping head wound was opened up by the hooves of an infuriated Rainbow Dash. The spider reeled, almost falling over again. Lightning dove for her weapon.
“Aim for the head wound!” she shouted.
The crossbows of the Rangers...her Rangers, sang a final time. Over a dozen bolts drilled through the gaping hole in the shell, ending their journey in the oversized spider’s undersized brain. With a final, rattling screech, it keeled over, its legs twitching a few times before finally lying still.
For a moment, the only sound in the clearing was the continued soft sobs of Sunflower.
Lightning grit her teeth and limped to her hooves. “Rainbow Dash! Grab Sunflower. Rangers! Get our trapped members out of those webs. Use your utility knives! We are falling back to Ponyville, now!”
The sounds of more crossbows cocking filled the air as every applicant were now pointing their weapons at Rainbow Dash. For her part, Rainbow Dash was keeping her cool, keeping an even stare back at them.
“Weapons down Chroma!” Sky Stinger snapped. “You’re coming with us!”
“Funny...I was already planning to,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.
Lightning Dust stomped over to Sky, placing herself between him and Rainbow Dash. “Stand down, Sky Stinger!”
“Have you lost your mind? That’s Chroma! The one that put you in this mess! She helped destroy Equestria!”
“I know exactly who she is and both what she’s done and what I and my friends have done to her! Bur in case you’ve forgotten, we have wounded and anotheralicorn- who has more directly tried to kill all of us- is still in the area! Now stand down! All of you! I’ll explain everything once Sunflower is safe!”
Sky Stinger glared daggers at Chroma, but lowered her weapon. “Fine.”
Everypony burst into action eager to leave the spider and the forest far behind them.
- - - -
Echidna watched the ponies go with a frown.
Clearly, she had underestimated the resilience of them. It seemed that even one element bearer was dangerous on her own. Still, she had gained a few useful pieces of information. One, Lightning Dust could rally ponies to her side. Two, Rainbow Dash was now working for the side she had once hated so much.
From her hidden perch in the treetops, she reached over to pat her faithful companion on the head.
“Oh, Angel Bunny, what are we going to do about these foolish little ponies?”
Angel ran his paw across his throat.
“I know, I know! But we might need some help.”
Angel thumped a foot against his branch. Then, holding his paws next to his head like horns, he stomped back and forth, snarling and growling. Echidna beamed at her little friend.
“That’s a great idea! I’ll set it up tonight! I don’t know what I’d do without you Angel.”
- - - -
In the depths of the Everfree, the caprataurs held dominance.
They alone were strong enough to survive the monsters and the weather. They alone were resilient enough to deal with the depredations of the constantly shifting forest. They were nothing like the weak ponies, cowering in their cities, behind their walls. Building over ancient hunting grounds. Pitiful ponies, mewling and scrabbling in the dirt. Pretending that they were anything more than worms.
Such dismissive rage coursed through the body of Azrakh as he stalked through his war camp. Change had come to the Everfree and Azrakh intended to be on the top of the pile. His war camp was strong. Great walls of thorny vines had been conjured into being by his chief shaman, all centered around the tribe’s totem. The statue of Jormungandr was likewise made from summoned vines, thorns and wood. It loomed over the camp, a fearsome tower that spoke to their devotion and to their appetite to destroy pony kind. The serpent that would devour the world. His warriors camped around its massive edifice, dwelling in crude tents arranged around equally crude firepits and lit by flickering torches.
Azrakh’s brief good mood faded as he saw two warriors trading blows while one of the does cowered nearby. The two were among his more powerful gors, and each should have easily been able to claim a doe or two for themselves. But now, with so many does having vanished in the upheaval from the rainbow pony’s attacks, they were no longer enough does to go around, even among the elite.
“Rogalor!” he bellowed.
The shaman came hobbling over, hanging onto his crooked staff. The crude fake wings that he clung to like a totem clattered as he dipped his head into a bow. “My lord?”
“Have scouts found does?”
Rogalor shook his head. Azrakh growled, his hands tightening into fists. The ponies were behind this, somehow. He felt it deep in his bones. The weak little filth, stealing their women! He would personally break every last one of the vibrant coated little bugs. He would snap their spines and break their bones. He-
A vibrant flash of light filled the camp.
All around him, his warriors bellowed their rage, scrambling for their weapons. Azrakh shaded his eyes with a hand, keeping his gaze and ire focused on the massive shape that appeared around their totem statue. Long and serpentine, it coiled about the base with a rumbling hiss. As the light faded, the beast that had visited his war camp was revealed in all of its glory.
The serpent was massive, almost as tall as the totem that bore a similar likeness. A massive fang filled maw dominated most of the head, while beady little eyes peered out at the teeming mass of caprataurs around it. Coils capable of crushing boulders draped over each other, easily capable of smacking the assembled warriors aside. The odd thing about its appearance though was its yellow body, giving way to pink on its armored plates.
Rogalor threw himself prostrate before the beast. “Mighty serpent! Why have you come?”
Azrakh was one inch away from striking the superstitious fool, when the serpent began to speak in a soft, sibilant voice. “Your totem spirit demands war! You crouch and hide in the forest, while the ponies plot against you.” The serpent partially uncoiled itself, letting its tail sway back and forth in the air. Six pictures of ponies danced in the air above the serpent’s tail.
Azrakh’s nostrils flared, a furious snarl tearing from his throat. He recognized those ponies! They had attacked his war herd before!
“These six lead their kind against you! You must strike them down before they can strike you down!”
Fury built within Azrakh’s frame. Those little ponies, meddling in his efforts again! No longer did he care about the true identity of this serpent...not completely at least. It was probably a threat, but one that could be dealt with later. No...he would deal with those six first.
“Accept my gifts and conquer in my name!” the serpent hissed. It then opened its mouth, spewing forth a cloud of inky blackness that engulfed one of his warriors. Azrakh watched as the gor grew and swelled, extra limbs sprouting from his frame. Soon the monster that he was towered over the rest of the crowd, roaring in glee at his newfound strength and size.
As quickly as it appeared, the serpent vanished in another flash of light. All around him, Azrakh’s warriors chanted towards the night sky, roaring and cheering at the thought of visiting violence upon ponykind.
“Beastlord! Command?” Rogalor asked.
“Gather war-heads!” Azrakh snarled. “Hunt pony-filth! Kill pony!”
In the distance one of his gors blew the camp’s mighty war horn. Eager for the blood that would be spilled in the future, Azrakh threw his head back and bellowed to the night sky.