They were marching like they were the day before. Dust took the lead as soon as they went on with their quest, and the other three were following as a group a bit behind, until Twilight left that group and closed up to the stallion who led them into the east. “Do you even know where we’re headed?” She asked him, receiving a simple nod as answer, nothing more. “Don’t you want to tell us what our destination actually is?” The stallion still didn’t say anything, he just shook his head. But Twilight didn’t give up that easily. “Come on, tell me where we’re going to!” Dust just sighed and gave up the strategy to keep silent until the unicorn would stop nagging on him.
“No.” Twilight just looked at him in a confused manner and stopped walking for a moment, before she shook her head and waited for her friends. Rainbow was hovering next to her. “Why do you even try to talk to this guy?” The athletic pegasus just shook her head as she was saying this. “Well, Rainbow, I think that if we all could get along, this entire journey could be so much more fun.” As Twilight said those words, Pinkie interrupted her. “Just walking is boring. Can we sing a song?” The answer came from Dust. “No songs.” He said over his shoulder, which caused Pinkie to let her head hanging down, as she muttered something to herself, which Twilight couldn’t understand.
Around noon they reached an old rope bridge across a deep gorge. The only problem was that the ropes on the other side were cut. They couldn’t see another place where they could cross that gorge without losing too much time. “Any chance that pegasus could get down there and fetch the cut-off ropes, fly over to the other side and fix the bridge?” Rainbow stopped hovering next to Twilight and landed. She closed her wings and looked at the stallion in front of her. “You could at least call us by our names.” She said to him, but was looking at Twilight as she said that. Only as her friend nodded, she took off into the air again and fetched the loose ends of the bridge. She flew over to the other side with the ropes between her hooves and tied them to the poles on the other side. The bridge was still a bit unsteady, but it would do.
Dust still didn’t trust the mare, who was waving her hoof on the other side as sign for them to cross the bridge. He pointed to the pink pony behind him. “You”, he said, “You go first.” She just shrugged and then walked over the bridge with a smile on her face, even as the bridge was heavily shaking. As she reached the other side she just hugged her winged friend. Everything seemed fine, so he stepped on the bridge carefully. Step by step he crossed it, but he broke through one of the wooden planks in the mid. He pulled his hoof out of the hole in the plank, which left some splinters stuck in his leg. He didn’t care much about it, but he was now even more careful till he reached the other side. Now, only Twilight was left to cross, and she just walked over the bridge, avoiding the hole Dust had left in the plank. She just trusted Rainbow to catch her if she would fall. Even if she wouldn’t catch her, she still had her magic.
But neither did she need to use her magic nor did Rainbow need to save her from the fall. When she reached the other side, she was promptly hugged by Pinkie, but she saw a concerned look on Dusts face. She pushed Pinkie away and went over to him. “What’s the matter?” She asked, and for once he answered in a friendlier manner than usual. “The bridge. The ropes didn’t cut themselves. Someone knew that we’re coming.” He said, looking down on Twilight. “This means, our target is warned. Probably thanks to that flying trips of this pegasus.” He fell into his usual tone again, as he pointed on Rainbow. “We’re moving on.” Twilight just looked after him for a while, then she turned over to her friends. “Well, you’ve heard him. Let’s go then.”
“Why do we even follow him?” Rainbow asked after a while. “Simple question, simple answer: I’m the only one who knows where we’re going.” Dust answered without even looking back to who he spoke to. “Hey! Could you stop that?” The cyan colored pegasus got angry about him always butting in when she talked to her friends. “No.” His answer left Rainbow speechless for a moment, and as she wanted to answer him in an appropriate manner, she decided that he isn’t worth it. She just shook her head as they went on. While Dust didn’t care about what she accomplished back at the bridge, it didn’t change his opinion about her at all.
I was in the evening when they reached a thick forest where only one path led through. Dust found himself relying on the pegasus once more as he told her to fly up high enough to check the size of the forest and if there is any way around. He didn’t want to go through a forest where someone could lay in wait for them. As she returned from her scouting, for which she only took off after the unicorn gave her a sign that it would be okay, she brought bad news for Dust. “There isn’t any other way, and I guess if we go around it, we will lose around one or two days.” She just shrugged when she reported what she had seen.
Dust looked at the setting sun, but he couldn’t find an alternative. The forest didn’t seem to inviting, but they wouldn’t have any choice left. So their little group moved on into the forest. They soon felt like they were watched by something, but none of them could see something between the surrounding trees. They just guessed that the feeling came from the usual wildlife in such a forest. The rest of the sunlight vanished as they entered the forest, blocked off by the trees standing one by one, which also led to the fact that none of them had any idea if it was still evening or already night.
The silence was only interrupted by the twittering of some birds and a few other animals which were still awake. But Twilight also felt a menacing presence, and a look to her friends revealed that her friends also felt that presence. Only Dust didn’t seem to have that feeling, or he didn’t show it. He just kept on walking through the dark forest without noticing this presence. As they made it halfway through the forest, they found a very small glade, rather a small spot lightened up by moonlight. Twilight had a strange feeling, as if something was waiting there … but she couldn’t see anything in the pale light.
She could see the same feeling in the eyes of her friends, but Dust ignored them again and just followed the path, straight towards the other side and leaving them behind. But Twilight saw something moving between the trees. Her friends were left with a surprised look on their faces as the unicorn dashed towards the stallion. “Dust!” She yelled “There is something between the trees!” But everything she achieved was that the stallion turned around and looked at her instead of checking what was happening around him. The shade Twilight saw between the trees came out of the shadows and stormed towards the stallion.
Twilight could see the wind rushing through the short, grey colored fur of the creature and drool dropping out between its long, sharp teeth as it was spurting on all fours forward, and she could hear a short scream behind her, probably from Pinkie. As Twilight almost reached Dust, he also realized what was happening and ducked, in the hope to avoid the creature’s razor-sharp claws. He could feel the air draft rushing over his back, and then the creature crashed into him, trying to bite into his flank. Pictures from the first chase were rising up in his mind, but he didn’t let them get through to him, he reacted by hammering his hoof on the creatures body and a loud snap sounded as the creature howled in pain.
But it didn’t let the pain stop it from grabbing him with one of its paws and raised the other above him, ready to end the life of the stallion below it- if it wasn’t for Twilight, who just reached the scenery and rammed the creature off Dust, but I didn’t seem to care much about it. It just registered a new foe and let out a deep growl. It didn’t waste time as it charged back to Dust, who just were standing up again and stepping back as he saw the creature coming towards him, letting the claws running through the air without harming him. As he looked back, he searched for what he was supposed to deliver to Canterlot, but it seemed like the creature hadn’t had the object with it. This meant that the lair of the creature was around here somewhere, or that it weren’t alone.
As soon as this thought came to his mind, a second creature charged out of the shadows and towards them, but it didn’t reach them, as it was intercepted by the pegasus. Rainbow didn’t care about the stallion, but she wouldn’t leave Twilight alone there, so she took off and kicked the second creature with her hind hoof and all her power in the face. A hollow snap could be heard as it went down on its knees and fell over. As she looked back, she couldn’t see it moving anymore, and then she looked over to the one who was chasing her friend.
While Rainbow got rid of the second of the creatures, Twilight could almost feel the breath of the first one on her back. She tripped and fell down and as she turned around she could see the fangs of the creature already over her – filled by a cupcake. Twilight looked up to Pinkie, who was throwing cupcakes at the creature. It might not be effective as a fighting method, but it confused it and gave Twilight enough time to get on her hooves again and to run to her friend. She looked back at the creature, who got hit by another cupcake in the face. As it wiped the remains of the cupcakes from its face, it just stood there and growled, but made no attempts to come closer to the group of ponies. It then looked at the other one, back to the ponies and let out one last growl before it ran back between the trees, leaving its companion behind.
“Somepony can explain what just had happened?” Twilight asked as Rainbow finally returned to them. She just shrugged. “It just realized how awesome we are!” She said as answer to the question of her friend. Dust just shook his head. “They know we’re after them. We’ll have to hurry up and somepony of us got to keep the night watch.” He said while he stared into the darkness, where the creature disappeared. “What are those things anyway? I’ve never seen them before.” Twilight asked their leader. “I have no idea, but they’re dangerous.” The stallion shrugged as he answered. “Well, that’s really helpful.” Rainbow said. “Are we gonna stand around and discuss the rest of the night or will we move on already?” None of them said anything, as Dust started to walk ahead again.
For once, the pegasus was right. And he was a bit impressed how she got rid of the second creature in a single move. But only a bit, he thought as he lead the small group onward, to a place only he knew where it was.