Lingering Chaos

by nightelf37

Back Together

"Prince Tango, which way do you want to take your fair lady?", Crinoline purred.

Unused to being depended on for such a decision, Tango stopped at the path and peered uncertainly down its length in either direction, checking for signs of creature tracks or some kind of indication for where it might lead. "Maybe we ought to take the right turn, little miss? If the river is behind us, that would send us farther downstream, wouldn't it?" Tango offered, not taking another step forward until Crinoline weighed in.

"That sounds good," Crinoline happily chirped, ruffling Tango's mane. "It is decided, then."

The forest was eerily quiet. Any time they aren't talking, they are hearing nothing other than the distant chirping of some strange outlandish beast, made more strange and outlandish by the chaos. Crinoline and her majestic mount trotted downstream the river. The dense forest was hard enough to travel one pony height. It was even harder to travel when the trees were shooting confetti at you, snapping at your hooves, and hitting you in the face with low hanging branches. It actually looked pretty peaceful however, a lot nicer than the forest was before it.

They saw an antlered jack rabbit scurrying around, and a large origami eagle kicked off a branch and flew away. In a strange way, the forest seemed better off like this. However, they saw how quickly the influence spread, and it has no signs of stopping at just the forest.

Tango marched along the path warily, but regarding each new strange and potentially dangerous thing with pleasant appreciation while endeavoring not to let Crinoline too close into reach of anything that looked like it might want to take a snap at them. He drew the newspaper clipping from his pocket every once in a while, saying to Crinoline as he did comments such as, "I bet Sonata would know about that," and "I delivered something like that for Crochet one time. Stung my legs up something fierce."

Crinoline listened. "I really would like to see your home. Promise me to take me there if we come back," she said holding tight onto Tango, keeping a low profile.

Mystic shut up when Ashen talked, feeling more and more awkward about the whole situation as she went on and started to get creepier, talking about the snake skin and all. He then took a step back towards a soaking wet old book he noticed earlier as he and Ashen heard some rustling in the bushes, distracting the two of them from the conversation.

Jumping back away from Mystic, Ashen grabbed her her still-moist cloak and hastily threw it onto her back as she prepared to cast a spell in the highly likely case of it being another predator or attacker. "Show yourself or I'll burn you alongside your cover!" she yelled, hoping to scare off whatever it might be.

Overjoyed to hear the voice of his separated ally, and without much thought of the context, Tango's trademark handsome, vacuous grin found itself once more to his face and he called out, "Miss Ashen Rise!"

Taking a little time to levitate aside the brambles in his way, which threatened to snag at his passenger or his own now-exposed flank and slightly-less-magnificent-than-usual(but-still-quite-magnificent-all-things-considered) mane and tail, Tango rejoined the others in the clearing.

"And Mystic! I knew you two would be fine. Hope you haven't been searching for us too long," the large stallion continued apologetically.

"Not really," the purple pony replied. "Just getting patched up after our Canis encounter."

Acknowledging Mystic's statement with a polite nod and settling into an easy mood again, Tango withdrew his small mirror from his pack and set about restoring his mane to its full flowing glory with the use of his sickle as an unconventional comb. A fairly quick task, as his hair seems to naturally want to fall in the most becoming manner.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," Crinoline muttered, then leaned her head to the side. "Is this how you will wear your rug from now on, Miss Ashen, or weren't you expecting to be interrupted and acted out of panic?" she teased with a big grin on her face.

Ashen was both relieved and surprised to see Tango walk out of the foliage she'd threatened to burn down though Crinoline was snarky and suggestive.

"Well, seeing as you came from upstream, I'm sure you could guess that we were in the water longer and had less time to dry before you could show up." A few drops of water fell from her still-soaked hood past her face as Ashen justified her appearance. "And I doubt you would have looked much different had we walked in on you before you'd have had the chance to dry. Hm, no." She corrected herself. "I'm sure we'd have caught you in a much more compromising position than just wearing wet clothes.

"But enough childishness!" the mare declared as she corrected her cloak and began to collect her belongings.

"The forest looks real wacky, doesn't it?" Mystic remarked as he looked around.

"It seems your students were right after all, Mystic. So...as much I don't like to admit it...you were right...I'm sorry..." As she continued on, she seemed to trail off as she picked up her soaked spell book. Her composure began deteriorating as she noticed its condition.

"It's okay," he replied. "Had anypony else other than those in my class said it, I would've been doubtful myself. Unless it was Zecora. Or the Bearers of Harmony."

Not catching the gravity of the lull in the conversation, he asked cheerfully, "Well then, where do we go from here? Miss Crinoline thought we might meet you near that big sound, but then we found that path over there and Miss Crinoline said it would be a good idea to follow it this way so we could find you here. And that's how we got here."

"Tango is giving me to much credit, he found you," Crinoline corrected, starting to work on his mane as well. She looked at Ashen. "You are just no fun my dear." She shifted her focus over to Mystic, a pitying expression on her face. "I really hope we didn't take to long to rescue you."

"Yes, hope we weren't too long," Tango agreed, a worried expression returning to his honest face. "I've spent a week or two in the forest running from monsters of one sort or another, but from what I remember, everypony seemed to think we ought to hurry to..." Tango's face went blank for a moment. "...to do whatever it was we were going to do with that 'chaos' thing."

"Nah, not that long, I hope," Mystic answered back to Crinoline and Tango, then caught himself. "Hold on a second, Tango. You've been in the forest before?"

"Spend most of my time in forests. Not this one, specifically. Had a couple of requests to harvest some poison joke for some clients, but I haven't been too deep in the Everfree..." Tango scratched his chin in brief thought. "At least, I don't think so. When I first started, I got lost in the wilds west of Baltimare for about a month. Can't say for sure where I was most of that time."

Mystic Shield shudders, remembering the one time he got lost in the forest.

Yearrs ago, during his colthood…

Mystic, a young colt back then. was screaming at the top of his lungs as he fled the timberwolves that were chasing him. He was well aware that they were surprisingly fragile, but his mind still screamed with fear of canines that had lingered from his time with the Diamond Dogs.

He was visibly cringing, enough for his companions to notice. Especially Crinoline.

"What did you do to him?", she accused Ashen, pointing her hoof at her. She rolled over, landing on the ground next to Tango as she walked up to Mystic and embraced him. "Shh, she will not scare you anymore with us around." She said, stroking the back of his mane with her hoof.

"No, no, no, you misunderstand," Mystic Shield attempted to explain. "Tango just reminded me of my own time I got lost west of Baltimare, that's all. Although Ashen can be scary."

"I know, sweetie," she purred, walking around Mystic. "Just stay close to me and out of her biting range." She wrapped her tail around Mystic's snout to lead him away from Ashen and next to Tango.

Opening the dripping spell book, Ashen reluctantly checked the damage the water's done.

The pages are all soaked through and through, having smeared out what little writing that had remained legible on the pages that aren't sticking together or hadn't been turned to pulp.

As her sight passed each and every page and more and more damage was revealed, Ashen's eyes grew more and more moist. Being unable to bear the sight of it anymore, Ashen snapped the book shut and levitated it back to the pocket it had called home as she pulled her hood back over her head, shrouding it in shadows again.

Ashen wasn't sure if she was supposed to be glad or annoyed by Crinoline's pestering, but at the very least it pulled her mind back to the present and away from...that.

"In that case you might want to stay back a little further unless you want to find out how easy those fibers of yours catch flame," she dully said. She wanted to sound snappy, but just couldn't bring up the energy for it. If I sound weak, that wench will never let me hear the end of it.

A broad grin broke across Tango's face as he patted Mystic affably on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Mystic, little miss. I used to be scared of doctor ponies and nurse ponies too, back when I was a little colt. But Miss Ashen is a nice pony. Nurses won't bite you," he explained to the others in a brotherly manner. "They make nurses sign a form says they won't bite anypony. Waltz told me that." He then wandered off to look at the path again, contemplating what he saw down the stretch of both ends with great uncertainty.

"I sure hope so, but I believe that biting is the least of our problems," Crinoline explained to Tango before responding to the other mare in the group in an overly dramatic manner. "Thanks for the advice, Miss Ashen. I shall recreate my ensemble using more fireproof material. Would be a shame if I would have to stop playing with you."

Mystic was quick to cut in. "Um, girls? Tango?", he called. "Lest we forget, we're trying to find out the cause of all this chaos which has apparently made its way here. Anypony got a course of action to suggest?"

"Hmpf, fine. Nothing is to be gained here anyway. Back where me and Tango came from was a crossing. I suggest us to go there and take the other path" Crinoline started to trot in that direction.

"For once, we agree," Ashen said as she turned to follow. As much as she hated letting Crinoline lead, she knew she wasn't in a position to think clear enough to lead herself. "Let's find out what's doing this and be done with it."

As the others caught up to his position on the path, Tango allowed himself to fall to the back of the group and plod along steadily behind them. Mystic Shield noticed this, but said nothing.