Act II, Chapter XV
Departing was slower than usual.
The ramp of this particular airship was small—as was with it belonging to a smaller craft—but it would have been nicer to have the luxury of a wider gangway. The few passengers on board took their time leaving the airship into the minuscule port, slowing their dawdles more so as they peered at the fall underneath them.
The port the airship was docked on was a mere circular platform on top of a tree amongst several other platforms of the same size. The drop didn’t compare to the altitude of Bocoltá’s main port, but the fact that the gangway looked a hundred years old quelled not their anxieties.
River bit an uneasy lip as she paced down the ramp, stepping her away as if she were walking on a tightrope. She didn’t even have that duffel bag on her back.
Feather levitated by her side as she finished walking through the gangway, now on the security of the port’s platform. “Where did your duffel bag go?”
She tapped her smaller bag still wrapped around her neck. “Folded in here. I finished all the stuff while we were traveling.”
Landing to meet her eye to eye, Feather made an “O” with his mouth. “I know your diet can be… high maintenance and all, but isn’t that a bit too much?”
River waved a hoof at him. “Pshh, it’s fine. I did eat some in the last airship and some back at the hotel, but I had a little help, let’s just say.”
Speaking of the devil, Feather turned when he heard somepony grumble, realizing that it was Twilight. She held onto the dirty, rusted railing not out of the fear of falling but for the necessity of the fact that she looked like she was about to collapse under her own weight. She let out a disgruntled “ugh” as she staggered to join them—ungracefully.
Feather simply glanced at Twilight then back at River Moon, raising his eyebrow. “Really? You gave her nutrition bars and energy drinks while we were on a moving airship?”
River shrugged innocently. “What? She said she was hungry last night and I just gave her a few bars and shakes. I was being nice.”
A force hit Feather’s side. Twilight unceremoniously propped herself to his person; he picked her up and held her steady. “The absolute state of you. How much did you eat, anyway?”
The alicorn let out a troubled breath. “I ate five bars, two drinks, and a sip of coconut water. I only realized each had three hundred calories right after I already ate them all...” She made an uncomfortable noise of despair.
Feather glared at River as if she had just stolen a cookie out of the cookie jar, the latter merely puckering her lips and avoiding his fiery gaze. He sighed as he continued to hold on to Twi, rolling his eyes. “Come on, let’s just find our way down.”
Finding the staircase and beginning their descent, Feather let go of Twilight when River offered to help her on her hooves—which he greatly appreciated, actually. The staircase wound around the trunk of the large tree, partly protected by railings. As he made his descent, Feather unwaveringly began to thrust himself down into the world of the Amarezon rainforest once again.
That world had been wrought in darkness. It was hot and humid, under the shade of massive canopies, large umbrellas that blocked the light of the sun but trapped the warmth. Occasionally, rays of sunshine flitted and reached the ground in accordance with the rustle of leaves.
As he descended further, taking the lead, Feather heard the sounds. Bugs, strangely subdued, though they droned monotone and unchanging. Birds produced exotic chirps, calls, a faint song or two even from a distance. His steps were firm, but the scant ruffle of flora wavered his soul. Perhaps the rolling descent was the cause of it—probably both.
And the musk too was strong when it came to his muzzle: dank, wet, flora and leaves. The moisture of the forest floor revealed itself as he neared the end of the staircase. The trees leered over him; he had been on the top, now they shielded him from that outside world.
A chill laved his senses, stirring a boiling pot of emotions when his hoof reached ground. His and River’s stop to Bocoltá was exactly that, a mere interlude. It all started in the Amarezon, and now he found himself in this same forest’s grasp. They were farther than they have ever been from the retreat, and yet here they were. Again.
“Wow...” Twilight gazed up at the forest canopy, vines falling and tangling themselves from the peaks of their branches. It was as if she had forgotten she had a stomach ache at all. “I didn’t think the trees here would be so high.”
“That’s what I thought as well,” River commented from beside her. “No wonder these ponies think they’ll be safe from the outside world here.”
“The Amarezon is more than half the size of all of Equestria,” Feather interjected matter-of-factly, watching branches sway from swathes of forest gusts. “Who knows what kind of stuff is hidden in its deepest crevices?”
“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” Twilight said, eyeing a path in front of them and glancing at the two. She was most right with the sentiment. Feather knew that out there, waiting to be found, was a lost city forgotten by time. Would they find it? Was destiny in their favor?
River interrupted, “The captain said to just follow the pathway and wait for a river ferry to take us to La Orilla. Let’s go.”
Without another word, the group began their trod to the inland port, one of many situated in the Amarezon River. While creating a settlement in the Amarezon was hard, the ponies that do live here used the Amarezon River extensively to their advantage; it was the cradle of any society who dared reside in an environment this unforgiving.
Feather regarded the still rainforest with reverence, a sliver of fear accompanying it. Treading the path, he was reminded of when he originally had walked alone. How could hidden—possibly fake—threats lurking in unseen corners frighten him so much? In the Amarezon, if one so much as sneezed, it could spell death. The rainforest was a lot of things, but it was most certainly not empty.
He couldn’t see any animals; that was what he was reminded of once more. The rainforest can be a loud place—almost as loud as a city—yet none of the animals that made these noises could be seen. It was like the sea all over again, a home to an inordinate amount of creatures hidden from seeking eyes. Some of them have never even seen the light of day.
The group didn’t have to travel too far until the trees suddenly thinned out, in front of them the elusive yet mighty river Amarezon. What Feather first noted was how wide it was; he could barely make out the features of—quite frankly—anything on the other side. He somehow couldn’t wrap his mind around the notion that this tiny twig of the Amarezon river he had seen on the map was this size.
When he looked side to side, the river just kept going until it found itself in eventual bends, but even that could barely be seen due to the gargantuan scale of what was in reality a mere section of the river’s whole.
“I didn’t think it would be brown.” River reached down and dipped her hoof in a calm part of the river’s surface, letting it stay for a while before retracting it. “I didn’t expect it to be a bit warmer than lukewarm, either.”
“River Moon! Don’t put your hoof in there.” Twilight pulled her back with a yank of her magic, River squealing a tad. “It’s dangerous.”
She pouted at the purple alicorn. “But I just wanted to see how cold it was...”
Her expression softened. “I know, but the Amarezon river is more dangerous than what most ponies realize. There could be snakes or even anacondas that could be lurking under the water, undetected, until it’s too late.”
River’s disappointment morphed into curiosity. “Anacondas? Like those massive snakes that wrap around you to crush your bones and eat you whole?”
Twilight shuffled. “Erm, yeah, those things. Just stay out of the water, okay? You’d have to be in a really bad situation to be in the water in the Amarezon.”
All three turned when they heard the sound of a horn in the distance. Looking to his side, Feather saw the port with a boat already docked onto it, waiting for passengers alike.
“The ferry! Guys, c’mon, before we miss it!”
In a dash, the ponies ran like their lives depended on it, as if the ferry was already leaving. River was a firm first, Feather a far second, and Twilight being an even farther last. Feather felt a tuft of mane on his face as a gust of air suddenly came from behind him, passing him, a purple blur he soon realized to be Twilight.
Reaching the station, Feather found the two mares waiting for him on the gangway, Twilight taking a breather and clutching her stomach. He gave them a nod as he caught his breath, too. “It wouldn’t hurt to wait, y’know.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to use your wings, pretty boy.” River smirked as he blushed, his wings growing the slightest.
I was in the moment! “Just get on the stupid boat.” He pointed a hoof at it as if it were a five star meal served on a silver platter, expectantly.
River giving a defiant harumph and Twilight a short giggle, Feather followed them into the gangway to board the Amarezon river ferry.
They found themselves on the deck of the ship near the bow. A large, white fabric hung on top of the entirety of the deck, tall enough for the views from the bow to be unobstructed, thick enough to block direct sunlight.
Feather could only take note of that for a moment, though, as the ship let out its final bellow, the weight of the craft shifting from under his hooves as the ferry began to slowly accelerate. The ponies back at the port waved at it as the ferry began its routine adventure through the mighty river Amarezon.
The ship was not pedantic in its gait—slow but assured in its march down the water. The few passengers on the deck looked to both the left and the right, hoping to catch a glance of some odd creature or weird looking anomaly.
Same as it was, the Amarezon offered not much in return. Sure, there was the abundance of flora and tall trees that lined the riverside, but there were no animals to be spotted. Where do you hide?
The sunlight barely gave the green of the leaves an ochre tint. While the water was brown, one could see the reflections of the tree tops clearly as they looked down the river, a seam that cut through the dense tropical landscape.
As the ferry approached a bend, Feather looked on and saw the winding passage that was more of the river, a slithering serpent slipping its way through the Amarezon itself. The reflections of the landmasses gave the impression that the forest was one in the same with the ripples of water on the river surface: waves that cut through the domains of earth and water.
“Twilight, do you know if there are any river dolphins here? I really wanna see the bright pink ones.” River peered over the edge, her hooves on the railing.
She peered out the edge, too. “I’m not so sure. They are quite rare. I actually don’t know much about them, but it is fascinating that they live in freshwater.”
“I know! I’ve seen some photos of them in an encyclopedia once and they look sooo cool, especially in a place like this. Usually dolphins and whales live in the oceans but to know that pink ones exist here? It’s a little bit romantic.”
“You read?” Feather quipped, though he didn’t even try to sound mean—he wasn’t even necessarily toying with her.
River rolled her eyes. “Where do you think I get all the crazy conspiracy stuff like aliens and haunted tombs and stuff from? I don’t know if you even know a quarter of the things I know.”
He raised his eyebrow. “Really? Like what?” Feather wanted to challenge her, though a small part of him wanted to know what she knew, even if they were just—most of the time—tall tales.
River placed a hoof on her chin, thinking. “Oh! Like how they found underwater pyramids in the middle of the Celestial sea. It’s over eleven-thousand years old, older than even the oldest cities we know of today. It may even be a lost civilization.” She raised her eyebrow in dramatic fashion, speaking her last words rather eerily.
“Wait, what?” Twilight casted a critical glance. “Say that again? They found pyramids in the middle of the Celestial sea?”
“Yeah!” Her tone didn’t match the weight of the subject matter at all. “They were found by a research ship by accident one day. I don’t think a diving team has been sent down there, though.”
The alicorn blinked. “Probably just natural.”
“They align perfectly with true north,” River replied, “and you can’t discount them as natural formations just yet. Like I said, they haven’t sent a diving team down there.”
“River, you can’t just label unknown landmarks as indicative of intelligent purposefulness.” Twilight tilted her head.
“Hey, I never said-”
“Guys, I think we should hold this conversation for later,” Feather interjected, pointing a hoof at the distance. “Look.”
The two mares turned their heads to the distance, expressions of surprise gracing their faces. Obscured a tad by the trees were old cobblestone structures—one on each side of the river—that have been carved with the visages of animals and deities, fashioned garishly and angularly. Displayed on each of the structures was writing he couldn’t decipher, but there were signs on each side beside the structures that read “LA ORILLA.”
As the ferry floated along the water, Feather noticed that the river was now lined by short but thick walls, crenellations abundant and equidistant from each other. There were occasionally sculptures that perched larger battlements of the perimeter: river dolphins, jaguars, sloths, toucans.
The subject matter of these sculptures changed from the local wildlife to that of ponies: a few in their traditional clothing, foals playing, elders sitting and pondering. The last of the sculptures were of a mare on one side and a stallion on the other, looking at each other despite the distance between them, the mighty Amarezon river. They were long lost lovers, strangers who touched once in their lives and never met again.
“Look!” River waved a hoof at the sight. Nostalgia grasped Feather when he gazed at it, even if he’d never set a hoof in this place before.
Huge structures stood to dominate the landscape, the density of the flora decreased to allow one to look upon La Orilla. The city seemed like a small place, but the structures that loomed over even the trees made Feather think if this was how these people reached the heavens.
These huge structures, Feather realized, were pyramids, their steps scaling their massive heights, their breadths the most impressive aspect of their appearances aside from their painted accents: some slightly faded, some completely worn out into the obscurity of time.
As the boat got closer to the riverside, Feather noticed that either side of it was fashioned with steps that allowed a clean transition from water to dry land, although he didn’t know why anypony would willingly jump into the Amarezon river. It made the city just a tad neater, perhaps.
Not a single bridge spanned from one side of the river to the other, only small boats that occasionally picked up passengers in easygoing exchanges, as if time was an endless resource, one many reprises that must have occurred everyday.
The ferry finally found its way to the port, the ponies on the ground fastening it to the security of the earth with ropes. It didn’t take long for Feather to hear the bang of the gangway hit the dock surface.
The group gazed amongst themselves for a moment, feeling the hollow breeze stroke their sides. It was as if the wind was telling them to just go already.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Feather glanced to his side to find the other passengers leaving the gangway, collecting themselves and their belongings. “Let’s go.”
River and Twilight followed his lead through the innards of the ship out to the gangway. Feather felt the grass under his hooves, clean grass, grass that had been maintained by actual ponies, permanent residents. He felt the damp in his nostrils as he took in once again the musk of the rainforest, intermingling with fresh food and fire.
It was an orderly place, a bastion of life before. The oddness had caught him when he thought of the idea that the Bocoltán skyline consisted of hundred year old buildings and modern skyscrapers, but this was in a league entirely its own.
The buildings of this city fell into two categories: the structures on the ground and the treehouses that perched up high in the loft of the tree tops. From his conjecture, the treehouses were more of living spaces and homes and the lower structures were more for places of labor, worship.
Worship. Feather again noticed the large structures that occasionally appeared: pyramids. These stepped pyramids seemed to be places of high importance: places of worship, a congregation place for important ponies in power. It was a contrast to see treehouses and large pyramids coexisting in such a manner, the liveliness of the former with the formality of the latter.
He found one similarity amongst them all, though. Feather—for the life of him—could not recognize a single structure that looked younger than a few hundred years old. Despite how hard he may try in the inner machinations of his psyche, his subconscious would always find a tiny little detail that would set off the notion that the structure he gazed upon was made by somepony who wasn't even alive to this day.
As the group plodded, Feather saw ponies arranging all sorts of decorations, whether it be colored lanterns placed by the pegasi or banners near the ground flapping from the occasional wind. The motif of the decorations seemed to point to one thing: water.
“It looks like a fiesta will start soon,” Twilight said, as if reading his thoughts, gazing upwards at the decorations being placed. “It’s most probably the celebration of the coming of the rainy season.”
The Amarezon, being a tropical rainforest, experienced great rainfall throughout the year, especially during the wet season. The clouds would come and rain down upon the fauna of this side of Equus, bringing in bountiful harvest and prosperity for the locals the next few months. In Equestria, rain was seen as gloomy, but here the ponies knew that it was the harbinger of life, an assured tomorrow.
As the group advanced through the perpendicular pathways, Feather came to realize that this city was much more grid-like than he had expected. La Orilla consisted of equidistant grids, and despite it being a relatively small city, structures and fauna were spaced generously, allowing an illusion of great breadth—unlike the claustrophobia of narrow Manehattan alleyways.
“Woah, I didn’t know they had canals like that.’’ River gazed upon several canal systems that were pony-made, off-shooting from the Amarezon river. Ponies in boats came in and came out of the canals to drop other ponies off and transfer items.
Speaking of canals, they found themselves in what seemed to be a large marketplace. Ponies in tents were scattered about, colorful cloths acting as roofs for them to stay under the shade despite the protection of some of the trees. There were even large recesses that housed wide steps to allow ponies from boats to seamlessly go from water to land, bringing their produce.
“Communities like these that live in the deep Amarezon have used the river water to their advantage,” explained Twilight, nodding at several traders on boats hoisting their items up for the ponies on ground. “Many of them come from other settlements, but a lot like using boats for the convenience of it.”
The group strolled through the marketplace until they found themselves much farther from the presence of the Amarezon river; once again, the forest grasped the three with its depth. The architecture here grew more grand, more sophisticated, until they found themselves in front of an absolutely massive structure.
Feather felt the air leave his lungs.
It was a pyramid, and it towered over everything in its vicinity. That wasn’t what impressed him, though. What impressed him was the breadth of its base, larger than the rest; its slope seemed no greater than thirty degrees.
Two sets of staircases, side-by-side, led to the tops of the structure. The pyramid had a flat peak, as if somepony had cut right through it with a gargantuan knife, and adorning the peak were two structures.
On the left side of the pyramid’s crest stood a structure of blue accents and on the right stood a structure of red accents; they were yin and yang, white and black, the sun and the moon. The rest of the structure was grey and aged, chips and cracks on the surface, moss growing on crevices. This was a building that may well be over a thousand years old. It was from another time.
“This is where they worshiped their gods, isn’t it?” River sniffled as she peered at the peak, the sun’s rays barely clipping the constructs of the architecture. “It’s a temple.”
“Yes, River, that’s right. Although this one is interesting because it’s seemingly in the dedication of two gods rather than one.” Twilight pointed a hoof at the left structure for Feather and River to follow. “That shrine right there seems to be dedicated to the god of rain and thunder.” She then pointed her hoof to the right structure. “And that one seems to be dedicated to the god of valor and war.”
River continued to gaze on to the peaks as if she were a climber looking to conquer Mount Everhoof itself from base camp. There was a disquietude in her that spread to air. “A testimony to not only one but two gods,” she stated simply. Her words were dry. “I wonder if... I wonder if this is what she must have felt.”
Feather followed her gaze up to the peaks and wondered that himself. Was this what Jade must have felt whenever she looked at one of these pyramids, these shrines? He wondered if it made him feel closer to her or even farther away.
Catching their attention, Twilight said, “I think we should try and find a place to stay for now, then we can start looking around. What do you guys say?”
River and Feather regarded her with nods, the former speaking, “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. It’d be annoying to walk around with all this stuff and get mugged by a monkey or something.”
As the three headed back to the city center, Feather cast one last glance at the temple and wondered if they were watching him. There was a romance and dread to that, the idea of being followed by gods.
Took a while with editing, but the next chapters should be published more frequently. The movie's also coming out in a few hours where I live, so that should be fun! 
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I love the way you said this. More typically I’d see it as, “but the fact that the gangway looked a hundred years old did nothing to quell their anxieties.” I like your way better. Verbal flavor!
She is evil! Or at least mischievous. Trouble, definitely trouble.
Propper? I don’t think this is actually a word. Did she run into him, or just fall over in front of him? If she ran into him, maybe “prodded”? If she just fell down in front of him, perhaps “prostrated”?
I love your descriptions in general. I don’t always remember to mention it when I particularly love something, just keep in mind that far more often than not, I love your descriptions.
I had to look up “laved”. I’m impressed, haha. I should have figured it out from context clues and “lavatory”, and the Spanish verb “lavar”. Have a cookie for reaching me a word. 🍪
You could alternatively just say, “… interjected matter-of-factly, watching…” and it would be clear that this is his tone.
I was also surprised that the river is brown, but it makes sense. It is not the typical way we tend to write things though, haha. So, nice detail!
Bahahahhhaha!
I’ve got to admit, that’s a little eerie to have nostalgia for somewhere you’ve never been.
I know this is important! I sit on the edge of my seat every time the wind does anything! It is significant!!!
This felt a little clumsy to me, consider instead…
… but this was in a league entirely its own.
or maybe
… but this was in an entirely different league.
Propped up ever so often?
Hmm… I guess I’d expect it to be “popped” up every so often… I don’t know whether this is a question of error, or if it is just that I had not heard it that way before.
I think you’re missing a “not” here, at “… made by somepony who was not even alive ….
Hmm… to this day? Maybe I was reading it wrong… so… the notion is that the buildings are ancient, hundreds of years old, and the builder lives to this day? I’ll leave this comment… just in case… but maybe that was just me.
*cast can also work as past tense… and in this case, I think it would be more correct to have “Feather cast one last glance…”
Also… quite a nice last line there for the introspection.
I loved the setup in this chapter. I’m excited to see where the adventure takes our intrepid voyagers! The settings are just delightful to read, and the banter of our protagonists makes me smile without fail.
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Lotsa odd uses of propped, I noticed. I'll have to keep that in mind. I'll comb through this chapter and smoothen things out when I have the time. The wind will have an interesting use later on, and let's just say you'll know it when you see it