//------------------------------// // A Night in the Jungle // Story: Doctor Whooves Episode 19: The Rifts // by Doctor Perseus //------------------------------// Chapter 5: A Night in the Jungle The Deep Cluster, Deep Jungle, Elmheim, Gaia, Winter, 1002 C.E. The group decided to make camp in a small clearing once the sun had begun to set. "I thought you said the temple was only a couple hours away," Bright Eyes said to Daring, who was busy stoking the campfire. "Okay...I might have been off a bit," Daring chuckled as the campfire roared up into a nice, warm flame. A few feet away, Clockwork and Matilda had finished setting up the tent that Matilda had pulled out of her purse of a million and one items. "I say," gasped Clockwork as he looked through the front entrance of the tent. "This tent's as big as a house on the inside!" "Yes. Another item I picked up in Diagon Alley," said Matilda as she sat down a few feet from the fire. "I should probably visit there again once all this drama has passed." Colgate sat a couple feet from the fire and munched on a few leftovers from breakfast as she stared deep into the hot, orange flames. "You okay?" Bright Eyes asked as she sat down next to her. "I'm not sure. I'm afraid I might be going crazy," Colgate replied with a chuckle. "Well, we are an odd group. A unicorn whose skin becomes as hard as stone when somepony looks at her, an adventurous pegasus who's from a book series, a mysterious mare with a purse that's large on the inside and an abnormally large hat, and a stallion and a mare who are alternate versions of a two ponies already in this universe. I think it's alright if any of us starts to feel a bit crazy." Colgate chuckled again in reply. "If only it were that simple, Bright Eyes. I...I think I saw Twilight earlier. Right after we fell out of the rift." "Twilight? But she's all the way back in Equestria." "I know...but it wasn't the Twilight we know. This Twilight looked all wrong. Her coat, mane, and eye colors were off and...that smile. Oh Celestia, that smile. Let me tell you, I've never seen something so disturbing in my life...and that's saying something as I've definitely seen some disturbing and frightening things." "It was that bad?" "Yeah." Colgate leaned back and looked up at the starry sky. "Weird." "Hmm?" "The rift. We're three days in the past. That's not very far. Right now, at this very moment, there's a past version of myself over in Equestria...and she's scared out of her mind," Colgate said as she continued to gaze up at the stars. "And there's past versions of Clockwork and I making their way across the ocean on a boat to get over here to Elmheim," Bright Eyes added. "Weird when you think about it, right?" "Yeah. It kinda is." The two mares fell silent as they stared up at the stars for a couple minutes. Daring continued to stoke the fire and eat a few bits of leftover breakfast food, Matilda was busy examining her vortex manipulator, and Clockwork was exploring the interior of Matilda's magical tent. Suddenly, a soft roar began to reverberate through the trees of the jungle around them. It wasn't the roar of an animal but more of a...produced roar. A roar that sounded like it was coming from a machine of sorts. "Now what the hay is that?" Daring asked. Colgate and Bright Eyes gasped as a massive, metallic machine suddenly flew over the top of the clearing. Colgate, Bright Eyes, Daring, and Clockwork stared up at the odd machine as it continued to fly through the sky. Matilda, however, didn't seem affected by the sight of it. "Don't worry. It's just an airplane," she said. A few seconds later, there was a large flash of light in the sky and the airplane disappeared. "A what?" asked Daring. "An airplane. Like the motorcycle, it's another futuristic device. However, that appeared to be more of human origin." "More rifts, I assume," Colgate guessed. "Of course. You better get used to random sights like that. We're getting into the heart of rift country. That plane was only just the beginning." "Something's telling me that I'm not supposed to feel really excited about that." Matilda smiled at Colgate before returning to her examination of her vortex manipulator. Later that night, Colgate awoke in a cold sweat. The sadistic smile of the dark Twilight had been haunting her dreams throughout the night. She pulled herself out of bed and made her way to the kitchen of Matilda's house-tent. After making herself a glass of water at the sink, she quickly gulped it down. She prepared to head back to bed when she heard the sounds of snapping twigs and hoofsteps on leaves coming from outside. She wanted to ignore the sounds, but something drew her to them. She quietly exited the tent and stood in the middle of the campsite. The remnants of the campfire sat in the middle of the clearing and the pale light of Luna's Moon cast down over the jungle. Colgate turned her head as she heard the sounds emanate from a little ways away from the campsite. Every instinct in her body told her to flee but something else was begging her to follow the noise. Eventually, this other force won. Colgate gulped as she began following the noises into the jungle. The jungle was eerily quiet as Colgate made her way through the cluster of dark trees. She made sure to keep a safe distance away from the source of the noise. Her heart was pounding and her breathing was soft and raspy. She slowly followed the source of the sounds for a few minutes before it seemed to fade away into the jungle. Colgate carefully examined the scene around her. She wanted to illuminate her horn to get a better look but a certain feeling told her not do. After a minute of looking around, she shrugged her shoulders and was about to head back when she noticed a clearing nearby. It didn't take her long to notice that somepony was standing in that clearing. Colgate gulped as she slowly approached the edge of the clearing and watched whoever was standing within it. Then...Colgate realized who it was. It was her. It was the dark Twilight she had seen hours earlier. She wasn't doing anything. She was just standing in the clearing...waiting. Colgate noticed something lying on the ground next to the dark Twilight. It was the crazy Rainbow Dash. She was unconscious but was dressed in her black cloak as well as armed with her electrified rod. Just then, a dark humanoid figure emerged from the other side of the clearing. Colgate couldn't really make out who the figure was but what she could see was that it was male and had an incredibly pale face. "They're all sound asleep. Just how I like them," chuckled the figure. Colgate shuttered as she heard the unsheathing of a knife. "Shall I go have my fun?" "You shan't," replied the dark Twilight sternly. "Not yet. Those ponies have their purpose. Once that purpose is fulfilled, you can then do whatever you wish. I know it may be hard for one as normally as...unpredictable as you to follow such orders but I assure you that your time is coming." "I hope so. It's been far too long since I've had any fun. So what about her?" The dark Twilight nudged the unconscious crazy Rainbow Dash and chuckled. "She has her purpose too. A rift is going to open soon and take her to an alternate world. From there, we'll just let her do her own thing. I've studied her past actions and I think she can do enough damage on her own. Eventually, her path should intertwine with the others." "Don't let her take any of my meat!" "I wouldn't dream of it. Don't worry, my psychotic friend, there is plenty of fresh meat around to satisfy your hunger." The dark Twilight began walking towards the edge of the clearing. "Come. Let us head to the temple and prepare. Tomorrow should be an absolutely enjoyable day." "Yes. I look forward to it." The figure proceeded to let out a horrible, nightmare-inducing laugh before following the dark Twilight into the jungle. Colgate stood there, frozen in fear, for at least five minutes. It wasn't until a rift opened and took the unconscious crazy Rainbow Dash to another dimension that Colgate finally gained the strength to head back. Her mind became fuzzy and she hardly remembered her walk back to the campsite when she finally made it back into the safety of Matilda's tent. It took her quite a while to fall asleep when she returned to her bed. The voices of the dark Twilight and her sadistic companion tainted her thoughts and chilled her to the bone. Eventually, however, she managed to push the thoughts away and drift off into a deep sleep. Bright Eyes was the one who woke Colgate up the following morning. "Sleep well?" she asked with a glowing, cute grin. Colgate let out one of her usual early morning groans and rubbed her messy mane into place. "Not exactly," she replied. "Nightmare?" "It sure felt like it." Bright Eyes gave a confused and concerned look. Colgate was about to explain to her about the events that had taken place during the night but Colgate concluded that Bright Eyes wasn't the one to speak to about this. "Nevermind. It was just a realistic nightmare." Colgate hastily got out of bed and made her way out of the tent. I need to speak with Matilda, she thought. Clockwork and Daring were busy eating breakfast in the center of the campsite while Matilda was sitting towards the edge of the clearing and was once again examining her vortex manipulator. "You look like you have something on your mind," Matilda said when Colgate approached her. "I do," Colgate replied. Colgate sat down next to her and proceeded to tell her about what she had witnessed during the night. When she was finished, Matilda gave a serious look. "At least we have a clearer picture as to how and why the crazy Rainbow Dash crossed paths with Daring back in her universe," she said. "Personally, the other two intimidate me more than the crazy Rainbow Dash," said Colgate. Matilda was silent for a few seconds. "I know who this dark Twilight is. The one you've seen." "You do?!" "Yes. Her name's Thalia. She's an evil clone of Twilight." "A clone? When was she created? How was she created?" "Celestia knows. Like me, she encounters the Doctor and his companions out of chronological order. From this point in time, she's yet to be created." "And yet she's here now. Does she have a vortex manipulator like you?" "I think so. Where she got one, I do not know. But what I do know is that things have gotten much more difficult for us now that Thalia's involved. Celestia knows what plan she has now." "Is she one of those I'm going to take over the world types?" "No. She's more like those I'm going to destroy you no matter what it takes and destroy as much as I can in the process types." "She sounds fun." "You don't know the half of it." "But...there was somepony else there too. A human." "Yes, speaking of that, what did this human look like?" "I couldn't see much, as it was very dark, but I could tell that it was male, was wearing a trench coat, was wielding a knife, and had an incredibly pale face. I think he also had matted, black hair but I couldn't really tell in the dark." "Sounds a lot like somebody I read about on the internet once." "The what?" "Nevermind. From what you told me about what he said, he sounds like somebody whom Thalia has teamed up with for this current plan of hers." "And he was also really sadistic. He was in our camp last night! He had a knife! He wanted...he wants to kill us!" "Oh. From the sound of things, I think he wants to do much more than kill us." Matilda fell silent for a couple more seconds. "But we musn't think of that. We have to think about what we're fighting for. The Doctor. Our families. Our friends. Equestria. The universe. We must think of these and not what horrible things our enemies wish to do." Matilda stood up. "We best pack everything up. We need to get to the Elmheim Temple as soon as possible." "They're waiting for us there." Matilda gave a snarky, yet confident, grin. "And we'll be ready."