Talons of Trouble
Dash handed the letter to the gray mare. “Thanks Derpy, I owe you one for this!”
“Maybe you could actually start calling me by my name,” Replied the agitated mare. “Try to remember that next time alright?”
Rainbow was already checking a map to go to the next location. “Mhmm, yeah sure.”
Ditzy Doo sighed in frustration before taking off to go back home. She had a filly to feed and she couldn’t waste any more time trying to talk to this infuriating mare.
Rainbow Dash was too busy to notice the mare left already and kept looking at the map. “Hey, so where did you say this pony was at?” She peaked over to look at the two brothers and light blue mare staring back.
“He lives just outside the Neigh Area in an apple farm. He runs in the cider business just like us and is one heck of a cider man at that!” Flim Responded.
“Yeah he is a great pony to get to know actually. So you know; he runs some sort of station thing for Unicorns as well. We can pick up the magic waves and hear what he and a guest have to say. This pony is truly an innovator,” Flam finished.
Dash moaned at the idea of having to go right back to where she started. She decided it wasn’t that bad though. This way she got another story about her father and his crew and that was all that mattered to her.
Spitfire walked over to the brothers and show mare to give them proper goodbyes. The three ponies had been kind enough to let them hear the stories they had to tell and she was extremely grateful. A round of hugs for the four ponies and the goodbyes were over. Flim and Flam looked over at Rainbow expectantly.
“Sorry boys, not into the gushy goodbye stuff. You will have to hug yourselves.”
The brothers gave a look to the ground and turned to walk away. A surprise hit them when a certain light blue mare stopped them and gave them a hug that made the brothers gasp for air. “I was kidding, you guys are amazing ponies and I will talk to AJ about the apples.”
“Well thank you Miss Dash, we will do our best to not outplay anymore ponies like we did that dreadful day. Make sure to tell her we are sorry for what we did.” Flim replied.
“Agreed, what we tried to do was terrible and we are extremely sorry for it!” Flam pitched in.
Dash looked over to Trixie who was putting her stuff in machine that the Flim Flam brothers were using. “So Trixie, you are going to be a good girl right? I wouldn’t want to have to kick your butt now for lying to me!”
Trixie laughed again, a fairly new experience for her, and gave a huge hug to the mare that helped her find herself. “Thank you so much Rainbow, I don’t think I will ever be able to repay you for helping me like you did. Also, if you happen to find anypony from that team, make sure to tell them thank you for me.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t think of forgetting either!”
“Do you promise?” the sliver mane mare asked.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Rainbow recited the promise and hoof motions that her friends had gotten so used to.
Everyone she was with just gave her strange looks and chuckles. They all exchanged a final laugh before they went their separate ways. Trixie hooked her cart onto the back of the locomotive and the three of them jumped on board. The trio waved goodbye to the two mares now getting their own saddlebags together for a trip of their own.
Rainbow felt a tear running down her cheek as she thought of her own friends. She realized she missed them so much but knew that not even that feeling of sadness could stop her from completing this mission. A look to the sky, however, made her scream.
Spitfire shot a look over at her in confusion. “What is it?”
“Look at how late it is already! There’s no way we will make it to the Neigh Area before nightfall! Come on we have to go!”
Spitfire took a few seconds to comprehend what Dash just told her. “Whoa hold on a second there! I think you forget what lies between us and the Neigh Area!” Rainbow Dash stopped her frantic packing and stared at her friend. “The Everfree forest is not exactly a smart thing to fly over at night Rainbow! I don’t feel like having to be saved by my husband tonight!”
“We will get there in time I know it! We are both the fasted mares in the sky! No way can we be stopped by some dark forest. Now come on let’s go!” Rainbow bolted into the air and started flying away before Spitfire could even respond. So she threw on her saddle bags and took to the skies praying to Celestia her friend was right.
The forest loomed below them menacingly. Spitfire did her best not to look at the creepy, unnatural, and massive forest. “Rainbow, I think we should set up a camp in that clearing up ahead alright? Flying at night is dangerous enough with all those monsters flying around!”
“Oh come Spitfire, we are almost past it. It won’t be much farther now and-“Her voice was cut off by a loud roar followed by a blast of fire that barely missed Spitfire. Rainbow however was not as lucky. The fire burned her left wing and she went plummeting to the ground unable to recover.
Spitfire recovered just in time to see the monster dive after her friend at high speeds. She didn’t waste time making a similar maneuver to catch her friend. She could barely see Rainbow Dash through the massive monster that was right on her tail. Spitfire knew she would never catch up in time and right as she started crying about not being fast enough another strange object bolted passed her. This one let out a roar like a lion and tackled the first creature in mid air. This allowed Spitfire to grab her friend and start stopping their decent.
She slowed them down a lot but not enough to stop in time. They hit the tree tops with a loud crack and fell down to the bed of the dark forest. Spitfire got up right away to grab Dash. She knew just what walked around these places at night and wasn’t about to let her friend get eaten. Throwing Rainbow Dash on her back, Spitfire began moving towards the clearing she had seen earlier. Another loud roar sounded from a few hundred yards away. No doubt the creatures were fighting at this moment.
It wasn’t the sounds of the battle that worried her though. She could hear things chasing her as she ran through the forest. No doubt the screaming and combat had attracted whatever it was chasing her. As she said that another scream belted out this time from her back. Rainbow was awake again and was looking straight at whatever was chasing the two mares.
“Spitfire! Whatever you do, don’t stop running!” Dash yelled to her friend as she was being carried. She woke up looking at the eyes of three Timberwolves that were now chasing them across the Everfree Forest.
Spitfire could only barely see what was in front of her and it was not enough to keep from hitting the smaller branches which were scratching her face. However she could see a light up ahead that looked almost like a camp! A final push from her legs got them outside of the tree line into the clearing she had been running for. Only this happened to be the same place the creatures had landed before.
This was the first time she saw them clearly. The fire breathing monster was none other than a Wyvern which had decided to prey on the mares. It was now being attacked by a Griffin with some serious attitude.
“Come on you chicken! Fight me without your fire!” The Griffin was teasing the Wyvern. Clearly she was not in her right mind. “Oh, so you will attack small mares but a Griffin fights and you are far too scared to get close!”
The dragon like monster snorted in the air apparently deciding the Griffin wasn’t worth its time. With that it flew away into the darkness. The Griffin returned the snort at the Wyvern and turned to face the ponies it had saved.
“Well look what we have here! A couple of crazy mares flying over the Everfree Forest at night. You two are lucky I came along.” She took a good look at the mare on Spitfire’s back and chuckled. “If it isn’t the Flip Flop! How are you doing Rainbow Crash?”
Dash rolled off of her friend to face the Griffin that had bullied her friends only a year ago. She was about to chew Gilda out for what she had done her friends but remembered Trixie and the Flim Flam Brothers. So, she decided to put the past behind her much like they did. “I am doing great Gilda! Thank you for saving us like you did. I owe my life to you.”
Gilda was obviously not expecting that from her old friend. “Wait, you aren’t going to yell at me or anything for last time?” She shook her head. “Ha, I totally called it, cool one second and lame the next” She laughed at the two mares.
“Wow, she gives you praise and thanks for saving her life and you go and act like that?” Spitfire intervened. “You are kind cruel don’t you think? She just got burned up by a Wyvern you know.”
Gilda snorted at the interruption. “I don’t remember bringing you into this conversation! Who do you think you are anyway!?”
“I am Spitfire from the Wonderbolts!”
Gilda recoiled and dropped on her haunches. “Wait… You are… Wonderbolts?”
Rainbow laughed a little bit. “Yeah, you just totally yelled at Spitfire. Anyway, Spitfire, this is my old friend Gilda. We were together in Junior Flight Camp and I recently learned she was a total bully.”
Gilda glared at her ex friend. “Hey why don’t you just shut your mouth and tell me why you were out here huh.”
Spitfire jumped in to keep the two from fighting any more than they already did. “We got a late start heading to the Neigh Area and got stuck flying up here. Why were you here though?”
“I am here to help Pegasi like you keep from hurting yourself. You see, my dad was a wonderbolt back in the day and I wanted to live up to his name. He was the first Griffin on the wonderbolts after all.” She answered extremely smugly.
Spitfire shot Rainbow Dash a look which she was already returning. She looked back to Gilda who was staring at them already having noticed how they reacted to what she just said. “What are you two all worked up about for?”
“Gilda, if your dad was the first Griffin in the wonderbolts then that means he worked with our dads!” Rainbow exclaimed.
Spitfire interjected, “You see Gilda, our dads worked for that same team on the wonderbolts and went missing during that one mission. Actually, we have been going around looking for stories from people who were saved by them.”
Gilda’s smug expression was wiped completely from her face and replaced by one of surprise. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious! You see, I didn’t know my parents but you know that. It turns out that Spitfire’s mom did know. She also gave us a list of people our dads saved. So we are going around finding these people to talk to them.”
Gilda got closer to them. “Can I see the list?”
Spitfire had been rummaging around grabbing dead sticks from the ground and shot up at the mention of the list. “Heh, well you see, we kinda lost the list in a fire. Now we are just going with the flow and finding ponies that have been saved. So far we are doing great!”
Gilda snorted at the two. “Of course you lost it. Although, you two need a Griffin with you and I wouldn’t mind hearing about my dad as well. You have yourselves a deal!”
Rainbow looked over at Spitfire who hadn’t been paying attention as she poked a stick in a fire to start one of her own. “I don’t remember inviting you but…”
“Oh come on you know you need me with you. Griffins are amazing at combat and intimidation and you know it!” Gilda walked up to her ex-friend, towering over the smaller mare.
“Alright, fine you can join us I guess. Just don’t do something to jeopardize the whole thing alright?”
So the two Pegasi and Griffin sat around the fire that Spitfire had created in the clearing and talked about the plan for the future. Spitfire wasn’t all that happy about letting the Griffin in but did agree to it as well. That night the three slept in shifts while waiting for morning; a morning that would bring a new type of journey.
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Notes time!
So this chapter was a good amount of fun to write and now we have a new main character! How do you like THEM apples? Anyhow, I would like to let you all know that I have started an E-Mail for my Fan Fictions and also made a Twitter where you can see when I am going to start writing and even get a chance to hang out with me.
So send me an Email at ShortySparkle@Gmail.com or follow me @Shorty_Sparkle on Twitter to hear updates consistently throughout the week and even get a chance to contribute to my writing! Thanks for reading this far and make sure to give a thumbs up to my story and leave a comment or throw an Email my way!