//------------------------------// // Primal Zone // Story: Little Memories // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Twilight swallowed heavily, a small bead of sweat forming on her brow. Even with her friends close by, the tempo of her heartbeat continued to increase with every step they took towards the Everfree Forest. The ancient and often demonized primal zone loomed ahead of them like a wall of raw malevolence and the curling and thrashing vines that were still spreading out from the core only added to that feeling. “And we have to march into that,” Twilight thought to herself, the lump in her throat stubbornly rising back up despite her best efforts to swallow it down, and the tremor in her core refusing to fizzle out. Rainbow walked to her immediate left, one hoof on Twilight’s back to help ease her fear. Fluttershy was behind them, her ears down and her own eyes shining with a terror that dwarfed even Twilight’s. Applejack had taken point, a long line of rope hanging from her neck. Pinkie was to the left of the group, while Rarity took the right. “Alright,” Rainbow spoke up after a moment, giving Twilight a reassuring squeeze. “We’re getting close. Shields up.” Twilight nodded. “Moment of truth…” she thought to herself. She took a deep breath and began to channel magic into her horn. The pieces of the spell she wanted fit neatly into place, drawing on her inner reserves, and soon, a dome-shaped barrier made of lavender light flickered into existence around her and her friends.  She let out a relieved sigh upon seeing it form, and the fear she had felt before faded just slightly. They were safe, or at least safer than they had been. She could focus on the spell and not be- Crack! “Gah!” Twilight yelped as one of the vines slammed across the front of her barrier as they drew up to the edge of the forest. One of the many blue thorns that decorated its length punctured right through, sending rapidly-dissolving shards of magic back into the dome like broken glass. The barrier flickered, and Twilight’s heart leaped into her throat. “Concentrate, darling!” Rarity said firmly, moving quickly to Twilight’s right side. “Focus! Do not allow these brutish weeds to distract you!” “You got this, Twilight!” Pinkie added with a bounce and a sharp nod.  Twilight shakily nodded before channeling more energy into the spell, and in a few moments, the hole made by the vine was sealed up. A wave of dim light passed over the rest of the dome as she added a few layers of reinforcement to the spell, hoping to keep that from happening again. The vine came in for a second strike, but this time, it bounced harmlessly away with a dull thud. It twisted and writhed in the air as if going into a rage, and began to relentlessly pound on the dome, striking at it over and over again. With every single hit, Twilight felt a small stab of pain at the base of her skull. The strain of maintaining such a barrier against the continuing assault. But thankfully, her barrier held firm, and any strain the attacks were causing would take hours to be a concern. “Good going, Twi,” Rainbow encouraged her in a soft voice. “Now, let’s go.” Applejack nodded back at the rest of them. “Yup. Ah’ll go first and keep an eye on the road ahead. If it looks dangerous or too hard to traverse, Ah’ll let y’all know.” “Okay,” Fluttershy agreed from the back, shuddering and flinched down towards the ground every time the vine struck the barrier. “And I’ll make sure none of these big mean plant thingies try and sneak up on us!” Pinkie declared before bouncing to the back of the group and walking backward next to Fluttershy. “And I’ll keep Fluttershy company back here.” Rainbow nodded back at her with an appreciative smile. “Thanks, Pinks. You doing alright, Fluttershy?” “I’m scared,” came the barely audible response. “But I’m alright…” “You’re being very brave, dear,” Rarity consoled her with a smile of her own. Twilight didn’t say anything, her mind focused almost entirely on maintaining her spell. As the conversation died down and the group traversed deeper and deeper into the Everfree, the assault from the vines became more aggressive. Additional tendrils joined the first one, slapping and crashing into the dome with enough force to shatter bone.  Twilight grit her teeth under the pressure but held strong. “Thank goodness for Alicorn magic reserves,” she thought to herself with a tiny smile. Her smile was quick to fade, however. The light from the sun and moon overhead were swiftly starting to be blocked out by the rapidly-thickening forest canopy. Twilight shuddered involuntarily as strange sounds and flickers of movement began to make themselves known in the twisted, gnarled shape of the forest. Patches of sickly green moss clung to the bases of many trees, and a whole selection of flowers and plants could be seen amid the vines that sent a chill down her spine. A large fly buzzed into view ahead of the barrier, heading straight for one of those unsettling flowers. The moment it landed, the petals closed with an audible snap. The buzzing of the fly could be heard inside for only a second before falling completely silent. Twilight shivered at that, and she could hear Fluttershy whimpering behind her at the sight. “It’s getting pretty dark in here,” Pinkie muttered anxiously, her ears folded back. “I can’t even see where we came in anymore. It’s like a big spooky cave.” “It’s worse than the first time,” Applejack noted with a frown, glancing up. Her eyes narrowed with disgust and disdain. “Ah blame them darned vines. Must be makin’ everythin’ worse in here…” “Great, just what we need,” Rarity sighed with a slow shake of her head. “An end of Equestria scenario, and a pitch-black jaunt through the most dreadful forest in the known world.” “Girls, quiet,” Rainbow suddenly cut them off, glancing between them all with a stern frown. “Let Twilight concentrate on her spell.” Twilight briefly contemplated telling Rainbow that she could focus on her spell despite their chatter, but ultimately decided against it. Adding to the discussion herself would be more distracting than listening to it, anyway. Slowly but surely, what little light was left was completely blocked, leaving the soft glow of Twilight’s magic as the only source of illumination in the forest corridor. Their progress was slow. The darkness was part of it, making it difficult to find their way through the muck, mud, and patches of dangerous plantlife. But more than that was Twilight’s need to maintain a slow and steady pace in order to keep her barrier up. If they ran too fast, she could easily lose focus on her channeling, leaving them vulnerable. And with the vines continuing their aggressive assault, any moment of weakness could not be tolerated. They had been going for almost two hours now, and so far had only seen a few breaks in the canopy where the dull light of the split sky filtered through in narrow beams. Distant animal calls and the constant, fleshy rumble of the vines slithering and snaking about overwhelmed almost all other sounds, even the constant thumps and thunks from the attack on Twilight’s spell. To make matters worse was the increasing strain of keeping up her barrier. She had been confident in her power earlier, but the attacks were persistent and constant. She still had several hours worth of magic in her yet, but the pressure was adding a whole new layer of strain to her body. It was as if she was carrying something on her shoulders, and it got heavier and heavier with every blow her barrier took. It was getting to a point where she was starting to breathe heavily from exertion, and a burning sensation was filling up her legs. “Wait a sec,” Applejack suddenly said, breaking Twilight out of her thoughts. She jumped in place and looked up to Applejack curiously. The farmer was pointing directly ahead, her previously slumped posture having straightened up. “Ah think that’s a clearin’! Maybe if we pass through that, the attack from all these vines’ll lighten up fer a bit.” “And it’ll give us a better chance to figure out where we are,” Rainbow agreed with a sour frown on her face. “We’ve been in the dark for so long that I’m starting to think we’re lost.” “Lost?!” Fluttershy squeaked out, the color steadily draining from her face. “Oh no…” Rainbow winced and glanced back at her apologetically. “Oh, whoops. Sorry, Fluttershy. I didn’t mean to worry you.” “Once we get to that clearing,” Pinkie tried with a hopeful grin. “We can look for some landmarks or anything that stands out! We won’t be lost for long, so you don’t need to worry your pretty little head about it!” Fluttershy nodded meekly in response to the assurance, shifting to be a little closer to the party pony’s side. Twilight watched the hole in the darkness up ahead with great interest. The closer they got, the more she could make out, but the vines were still blocking a lot of her view. It wasn’t until they passed through the treeline that she could make out details with any degree of clarity. The clearing was sizable, easily a few dozen yards in any given direction from the center. It was shaped vaguely like a jelly bean, and a small, murky stream cut a winding path through it. The presence of the vines was somewhat reduced here, but there were still way too many for Twilight to feel comfortable dropping her barrier.  “Oh, finally, some light!” Rarity celebrated with a sigh of relief. She looked up at the sky, her muzzle skewing into a displeased frown. “Although I could do without the sun and moon at the same time. One or the other is fine, thank you.” “Let’s settle down by that stream,” Applejack suggested, nodding at the river. “Sit down, catch our breath, rest our legs. Whadda y’all think?” “As long as we don’t take too long,” Rainbow said simply. “The more time we spend sitting around, the more danger my family’s in, and the more these stupid vines are gonna spread.” “Ten minutes,” Twilight suggested with a slow nod, her voice strained and her mind begging for her to let her muscles relax for a little while. “Rest for ten minutes, then keep moving.” “Yes, please,” Fluttershy agreed quietly. There were no disagreements, and in short order, the group came to the center of the clearing. The attacks tapered off as they left the edge of the trees behind, and Twilight sighed heavily with relief upon getting the chance to decrease how much power she was pouring into the spell. She fell to her haunches by the river and stared at her own reflection in the water. She was a mess. Sweat matted down the fur all over her body, leaving her looking shaggy and incredibly disheveled. Her mane was slowly becoming undone from all of the stress of the day, a fair few hairs poking up and out at erratic angles. Her eyes were bloodshot, and bags were starting to form under them. Rainbow glanced around for a moment before cringing. “I can’t see anything notable from here… Alright, I’m flying up,” Rainbow declared after a few seconds of quiet. “I’ll be back in a second.” Twilight’s eyes shot wide open, and she turned in place to affix Rainbow with a disapproving look. “Wait, what?! Rainbow, you can’t! Your wing!” Rainbow paused with an irritated grimace. “I… I can fly long enough to figure out where we are,” she tried, the strength rapidly leaving her voice. “It hurts, yeah, but-” “No!” Fluttershy suddenly cut her off while walking up to stand in front of her. “It’s too risky, Rainbow! What if you make it high up but then fall? What if we can’t catch you?!” Rainbow hesitated and took a step back. “...Fluttershy,” she muttered quietly. Fluttershy held her gaze for a little longer before taking a deep breath. “I’ll fly up. You stay here.” “But… the vines!” Rainbow protested. “They’ll attack you! No offense, Flutters, but you’re not fast enough to get away from them!” “I’ll be okay,” Fluttershy stated firmly, although Twilight could not miss the anxious tremor in the pegasus’ voice. “Just stay here and rest.” Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but whatever she had in mind, the words did not come. She mouthed uselessly like a fish for several moments before letting out a frustrated sigh of resignation and slumping to her haunches. “Ugh… alright… just…” she looked up at her foalhood friend with worry. “Be careful…” Fluttershy nodded. “I will…” she said before looking up and unfurling her wings. With a deep breath, she took to the air and passed effortlessly through the top of the barrier. Thankfully, what vines there were in the clearing didn’t seem to take much of an interest in her for the moment. They were more interested in the still present dome of magic blocking their efforts. Twilight watched her go for a short time, a lump forming in her throat. Soon, though, she returned her gaze to the stream and tried to just relax. She sat there in silence for a while, simply eyeing her reflection and trying to calm her quivering nerves.  “We’re doing fine,” she told herself. “We’ve been going for two hours, and we haven’t gotten hurt.  We can do this. We’ve got this. We’ll find the Tree of Harmony and save it. We’ll stop these vines, we’ll save the Princesses, and we are going to be fine.” She took a deep breath, slowly starting to smile as she went through that order of events again. They really were doing well so far, weren’t they? She was beginning to think the intensity of her anxiety from earlier might have been a little out of proportion. “They were right,” she thought, glancing back at her friends. “I can do this.” Pinkie Pie suddenly winced, reaching one of her hooves up to her shoulder. “Ow!” she complained in a long whine. “What is it, darling?” Rarity asked in concern. “Did you pull a muscle?” “No,” Pinkie shook her head. “My shoulder just got all achy all of a sudden. And my knee’s pinchy, too.” Applejack suddenly stood bolt upright from where she stood a few feet away. “Wait… what?” “It’s weird,” Pinkie went on, glancing at her foreleg and letting it swing back and forth like a pendulum from the knee down. “I’ve never gotten that combo before. I wonder what it means.” “Combo?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is this one of your pinkie sense things?” “Uh-huh!” Pinkie nodded. Before anything else could be said, the water right by Twilight suddenly swelled and erupted outwards. A chorus of alarmed and frightened shouts echoed throughout the clearing as a gaping maw filled with jagged teeth lunged at Twilight from the water and crashed against her barrier, putting a spiderweb crack along the front. Whatever this creature was, an annoyed grunt slipped past its rocky nostrils, flooding Twilight’s own with a stench she dared not try to describe. Between that and the shock of its sudden emergence, Twilight’s focus on her spell was completely broken. A deafening crash akin to shattering glass filled the clearing as Twilight’s dome splintered into thousands of rapidly dissolving pieces. Startled and alarmed, Twilight staggered back before falling onto her haunches. “CRAGODILE!” Pinkie shouted, backing up several paces. “What?!” Twilight asked, quickly rising to her hooves and leaping back with the aid of her wings. As soon as she came to a landing, she gave the beast before her a proper look. It was like a crocodile, but Twilight was now able to see why Pinkie had referred to it as a ‘cragodile’. Its entire body was composed of, or at least covered in, a series of jagged and uneven stones, most of them gray or green in color. A pair of piercing yellow eyes with slit pupils glared at Twilight head-on as the creature advanced. It was massive. Even lying on its belly like this, it was easily a few inches taller than Twilight. And there were more of them. Two more cragodiles emerged from the water, snarling and hissing hungrily at the five-course meal of mares that had decided to take a breather next to their home. With fight-or-flight instincts kicking in, the light on Twilight’s horn grew several times brighter. A distressed cry tore past her lips as she let fly a beam of magic, raw, unfocused, and at the expense of her barrier. It flickered and faded around them, leaving them open. The beam struck the lead cragodile in the center of its face, causing it to slide back a few inches. It dug its claws into the dirt, digging up deep trenches that gave Twilight a chilling idea of just what they could do if they got ahold of her. Rainbow was already on her hooves and moving forward, her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Fluttershy, stay up there! It ain’t safe on the ground!” Applejack barked while grabbing her rope and starting to twirl it in the air like a lasso. “Rarity, Pinkie, get to Twi!” “Oki doki!” “On it!” Twilight took another step back, her breath starting to come in heaving gasps. Rarity suddenly put herself between Twilight and the cragodiles, her own horn lighting up. “Back away from my friend, you ruffians!” The lead cragodile roared and lurched forwards. It was fast—far faster than its large size and lumbering gait would suggest. Rarity barely had time to squeak before it was upon her, its gaping mouth wide open and eager to chomp down on her. Twilight went to stop it with her magic, but there was no time. Her heart twisted with terror and dread. “We’re going to lose Rarity!” The cragodile was stopped short, thankfully, when Rainbow suddenly tackled into its head from the side. She grunted in pain from the collision with hard rocks, but it did the trick. The cragodile was sent crashing into the dirt off to Rarity’s side with an infuriated roar. Rainbow grunted with effort before kicking off from the creature’s head and landing protectively in front of Rarity. Her side and shoulder were now decorated with a series of scrapes and small cuts from the force of her attack, but whatever pain she might have been feeling did not reach her face. “STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!” she shouted, her good wing fanning out aggressively. “Rainbow…” Twilight breathed out, relief and shock flooding her system in equal measures. That had been too close… As the cragodile was recovering and beginning to advance again, Applejack’s rope came flying in from the left. The loop at the end fit itself nicely over the reptile’s mouth before pulling tight, sealing it closed and eliciting an infuriated roar from the beast. One of the other cragodiles lunged forward in its stead, only to be very suddenly blasted backward when Pinkie of all ponies leaped in its way with her party cannon in her hooves. The bang was loud and made Twilight’s ears ring, but the results could not be denied. “Twilight, snap out of it!” Rainbow’s voice suddenly cut through Twilight’s stunned trance. “Focus! We’re sitting ducks right now! Get your barrier up!” Twilight blinked, the threat of the vines becoming clear in her mind again. “R-right!” she said before channeling energy into her horn again. She had to keep her friends safe. Before she could bring her barrier back into existence, one of the vines finally took notice of her exposed state. Lashing out like a whip, it slipped under Twilight’s barrel before rising up into her gut with intense force. Twilight’s eyes flew wide, a breathless wheeze fleeing her lungs along with her breath. The force of the blow sent her flying up into the air several yards, dazed. The vine was quick to follow up on its strike, coiling around her barrel several times before squeezing her. What little breath was in her lungs fled them in an agonized gasp. She could feel the bones in her shoulders and wings starting to pop under the pressure, and white-hot pain danced all up and down her system. “TWILIGHT! NO” She heard Rainbow screaming from somewhere nearby. Twilight squirmed, desperately trying to catch sight of her friend. All she found was another strand of the vines mere inches from her face. This one was different from the others, looking almost like some kind of flower with its black, finger-like petals folded shut. Then they opened, slowly revealing to her panicking eyes a vertical slit hidden underneath. Finally, Twilight found it in herself to scream just as the flower shot forwards, completely covering her face. The world went dark, the fingers of the plant curling around the back of her head and holding on like a vice. Her screams devolved into a series of coughs as something, a foul-tasting gas of some kind, began to be pumped into her mouth and down her throat. What didn’t make it into her body stung at her eyes and filled her nostrils with an unidentifiable aroma that made her stomach churn. She tried to fight back. She squirmed and she thrashed, trying desperately to channel magic into her horn. But between the agony of being strangled by the vines constricting her torso and the terror of having some unknown fumes being pumped into her system, all while being completely unable to see the world around her, she was left unable to concentrate. Everything was starting to fall out of focus. The sounds of her friends fighting back against the vines were starting to become distant and fuzzy, and the agony in her bones started to decrease into numbness. Her panicked thoughts gradually crawled to a halt, and her struggles fell still.  Soon, her eyes fluttered closed, and she knew no more.