The Elements of Equestria

by trooper7051

Chapter 18

The Elements of Equestria
Part 18

"Well, it ain't our apples, but it'll do for now." Applejack said chewing on a sprig of the 'grass' they had been walking through.

She mentally kicked herself for missing it that first day. The plains weren't covered in tall grass, they were covered in wild triticale wheat. The two farm ponies had an easy time determining what it was once they took more serious notice of it when they saw Pinkie Pie occasionally snap off a sprig and eat it. It had been breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the previous couple of days. Everypony stopped and watched as Pinkie stuffed her nose into her saddlebag and came out with nothing to chew on for the first time since the trip began. Pinkie Pie's secret stash of sugary treats had run dry. She peered into the hidden compartment of her saddle bag and sighed sadly, closing her eyes as if saying 'Good Bye' to a dearly departed friend. She maintained her posture for several more seconds, until she cracked open her eyes and realized there were three other sets of eyes gazing on her worriedly, 'Yowser-wowser! You'd think that by now they'd know me enough to realize when I'm just being overly dramatic!'

Pinkie lifted her head and bounced happily over to her friends,
"Candy's all gone!" she sung happily.

Applejack eyed the direct incarnation of the color pink with concern,
"You sure you're alright sugarcube? You looked awful sad 'bout somethin'."

"Sure I'm sure! It's just empty calories, very yummy empty calories, but empty calories just the same. I'll be fine as a fish . . . Wait that doesn't make sense unless I add a context . . . I'm frisky as a flea . . . no fleas are icky and gross . . . " Pinkie continued mumbling to herself as she began walking away, coincidentally in the correct direction.

Dr. Mend leaned over to Applejack,
"I'm not so sure about that." he said quietly, "If Pinkie has a dependency on sugar, she might begin suffering withdrawal effects before too long. She doesn't seem to notice the cold either."

Applejack rolled her eyes and walked off after Pinkie, still favoring her injured leg,
"She's just bein' Pinkie, doc. Don't even bother tryin' tuh figure it out. Pinkie goes beyond yall's fancy science and theories. Just go with it and trust her. If'n she was feelin' poorly, she'd let yall know real quick. Ah don't think that pony even knows the meanin' o' the word lie."

"Prevarication, fabrication, falsification, misrepresentation, fibbing, paltering, perjury, deceit, guile, duplicity . . . Am I getting warm?" Pinkie called back from in front of the two talking ponies.

Applejack stopped in her tracks, jaw hanging open in disbelief, she truly didn't know what to say, fortunately Dr. Mend did,
"She's just being Pinkie, Applejack. Don't even bother trying to figure it out. Pinkie goes beyond your common sense and logic."

Dr. Mend smiled to himself as he followed Pinkie into the tall grass. It had been quite a while since he had the chance or urge to turn on his snarking charm. Behind him, he heard Applejack and Big Macintosh burst out laughing and he couldn't help but to join them. In the distance Dr. Mend could see a wall of trees slowly emerging from the tall grass, 'That must be the swamp. We're getting close to Haysburg, I hope.' the sky was slowly changing from clear to overcast, foretelling of snow coming that night.

Step by step, the steps blurred into one monotonous song of drum-like beats as the hours past. The four ponies approached the tree line with a bouncing vision of pink in the lead. Pinkie Pie stopped talking, then slowed down, then stopped walking altogether, something was off,
"Hey Dr. Mend?" she called into the tall grass behind her, "There's something wrong with the swamp."

Dr. Mend hearing Pinkie's call, sped up his pace and caught up with her in a few seconds. She was standing in front of the tree line where the tall grass had tapered off to no more than a few inches high. She stood, staring up at the tall, twisted trees with their vines and moss. A thick fog rested there, stretching from the ground to the tops of the trees and beyond. To Pinkie it seemed to swim in the air just past the tree line. It seemed to writhe and twist in on itself, coiling and uncoiling as if in eager anticipation.

"What do you mean? All I see is a line of trees and a lot of fog. Fog is normal in swamps, Pinkie. Nothing's wrong." Dr. Mend said stepping up next to Pinkie.

The black stallion lifted his right fore hoof to take a step and felt a sudden and strong pull on his tail,
"Hey!" he shouted.

"Fump fing if wong wif vat fwamf!" Pinkie repeated around her mouth-full of tail.

"Pinkie Pie, would you please let go of my tail?" Dr. Mend deadpanned.

The pink mare spit out the black gluten brush and kept talking, her usual demeanor now unusually serious,
"I'm telling you something is wrong! I don't know how to explain it but we can't go in there! We need to find a way around!"

"Pinkie please we need to get to Haysburg as soon as possible. Finding a way around will take hours if not entire days. We have to go through." Dr. Mend stated solidly.

"Ayup." came a deep voice from behind them, "We can't waste no time. We gotta go through. Ah can scout ahead and find us a solid path through the swamp, but we need to keep goin' . . ." Big Macintosh trailed off as he came within sight of the treeline.

"Ah agree with Big Mac." Applejack said bringing up the rear, "We need to take a straight shot through this here swamp. Ah can't spend days on end walkin' 'round this here mud hole when mah leg ain't completely healed yet. Ah'm powerful sorry Pinkie, you know Ah don't tend to ignore you, especially with your 'Pinkie Sense' and all, but this time Ah gotta make an exce . . ." Applejack trailed off as well when she spotted the fog.

'This ain't right.' Applejack thought, 'Somethin's plumb wrong with this 'ere swamp. Ah can feel it in the ground, this ain't right at all.'

Applejack looked toward her big brother worriedly, Big Mac looked back with the same expression then addressed Dr. Mend,
"Can't you feel anythin' strange with this 'ere swamp Doc? Applejack and Ah both feel it, Pinkie too. Somethin' ain't right."

Dr. Mend cast his gaze back at the other ponies,
"No, nothing at all." the older Earth pony gave it some brief thought, "It might have something to do with my medication, though I have no real idea. Is it really that strong?"

The other three Earth ponies nodded somberly, Dr. Mend continued,
"We don't seem to have any other options though, Applejack needs to have that leg treated properly and Haysburg is sure to have some kind of medical facility. We'll just have to be really careful."

Pinkie hung her head defeated, Dr. Mend had a valid point,
"Alright, but you be extra special, super-duper careful when you're scouting ahead Big Mac. Keep looking back every five steps. If you ever lose sight of us, stop and yell until we find you."

The massive work pony chuckled quietly,
"Ah done knowed that since Ah was a colt, Pinkie. Thanks though."

The four ponies slowly entered the tree line and into the swamp.

*************************************************************************************

"So you're telling me that we've been walking in a field of naturally growing food for days, nearly starving the entire time when we could have been eating fresh wheat every step of the way?" Rarity couldn't help but be upset at the news Sea Blue had just given her.

"I'm not completely certain yet, but that is my best guess. It's obviously some kind of grain but I'm no expert. Don't go getting worked up over this, Rarity. Even if I'm right, have you ever tried chewing raw wheat? I don't know anything about it in its raw form, but I wouldn't want you to chip a tooth." he explained.

In response, the white unicorn bit off the sprig of the closest plant and chewed thoughtfully for a moment before responding,
"It's dry, obviously, and a bit tough to chew but overall it seems fine to me." she said biting off another sprig hungrily.

"I'm glad it's edible. You took a bit of a risk by just chomping down on a random sprig like that. I could have been wrong. Please try to be more careful in the future, Rarity. Although on that note, I think I'll try a few myself. We should probably pack as much as we can into our saddle bags. I doubt we'll be able to find fresh wheat in the swamps." he said gesturing to the distant tree line, "We should be there before sunset. Once we're inside we should have an easier time finding somewhere to sleep."

"Yes, more mud, slime, and moss, and less dry grass and dirt. A lovely exchange." Rarity said morosely.

"Nothing we can do to change it." Sea Blue said around his full mouth, "We should probably work on the problem while we walk. Any ideas?"

"I don't suppose we could carry woven mats with us, on our backs, the whole time, could we? I can make them while walking. Multitasking has always been one of my stronger suites." Rarity offered.

"Sounds better than any of my ideas at the moment. How can I help?" the turquoise unicorn stallion asked.

"Actually now that you mention helping, it reminded me of something that occurred to me a couple of days ago. You said that a young pony needs a parental figure of both genders to, how did you put it, 'develop properly' or something like that. Well, darling, I'm not trying to tell you your business but you're wrong. Applejack and Big Macintosh both grew up with only Granny Smith as a parental figure and they turned out just fine." Rarity said with just the slightest hint of smugness in her voice.

Sea Blue stopped walking, then he stopped chewing. He cocked his head to the right and puzzled over the mare's statement for several long minutes before answering.

"Huh, looks like you're right. I can't find any flaws with that logic." he simply shrugged and continued trotting.

Rarity would never admit it, but she was hoping for a much stronger reaction to the stallion's admission,
"You seem very nonplused even admitting you were wrong." she ventured.

Sea Blue shrugged,
"It's not a big deal unless we make it one. Psychology is, after all, in its infantile stages of development. I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm right far, far more often than I'm wrong. Besides, I was speaking out of my specific area of expertise, so admitting an error is not a big deal as long as I don't let myself get a big head over it. I don't specialize in Developmental Psychology after all."

'Not a bad viewpoint, I suppose. Perhaps I was being a tiny bit petty. No matter, a good point is a good point and I won't let myself get a big head over it. My little mishap in Cloudsdale showed me the error of that one. Now onto other, more important things, like keeping my poor coat as clean as possible.' Rarity thought as she passed Sea Blue in a brisk trot.

*************************************************************************************

Lemon Lime trotted along, lost in thought, 'Twilight has barely said two words to me since she asked about my feelings for her. Did I make her mad? I hope I didn't, but she did ask. I couldn't lie to her. What am I supposed to do now? Does she expect me to drop it? How can I? She's all I ever think about. I just wish she would say something, anything! I'll ask her!' he thought for a moment before rebuking himself, 'No! I told her I'd give her some time to think about it and I will. She doesn't need me making her decision any more difficult than it needs to be right now, and pestering her about it might end up pushing us apart. I need to stop obsessing about this and just let it go. O.K. what else can I think about?' he looked around and saw wheat, wheat, and more wheat. Twilight had identified it the previous morning and they had been making good meals out of it since. Walk, bite, chew, swallow, walk, bite . . . it went on.

The little stallion's mind searched frantically for something to contemplate, but all he saw was, 'Wheat! Duh! Alright, what can I make with all this wheat?' his horn lit up and he began using his magic to pick sprigs from passing stalks and stuffing them into his saddlebags.

Twilight was buried in her own thoughts as the three ponies trekked across the plain, 'How is anypony supposed to react to hearing . . . THAT? He said he loves me. I'm not so sure about that, but he obviously has a deeply rooted infatuation with me. Ugh! Why did this have to happen now? I don't know anything about romantic love. I'm still learning about platonic love between friends and I'm nowhere near completion of THAT subject! Learning about friendship is enough without dealing with Lemon Lime pinning over me all the time.' Twilight took a deep breath and cleared her head, 'Now in his defense, he hasn't been pushy about it per se, and he did say that he didn't want to burden me with it. I should have left well-enough alone. I guess I kind of asked for it didn't I? Alright, that means the proverbial ball is in my court, it's my move, so what do I do? Do I tell him that I'm not interested? It is, more or less true. Not that I'm opposed to trying to learn about romantic love, just not right now.' she let out a pent up sigh as she continued walking, 'Why is this so hard?'

As Twilight continued racking her poor brain over the topic at hoof, Fluttershy was contemplating something of her own, 'What did that scarry dream mean?' she had been having it regularly for several nights previous, 'Why does Valiant change into that. . . thing? Why was he acting so 'familiar' with me? Why was he living in my cottage? What was that strange bracelet on his leg? It has to mean something. I remember that it had some markings on it, but I can't recall what they looked like. Oh, this is just so frustrating! I'm worried sick about him and this dream isn't helping.' she looked up and saw that Twilight and Lemon Lime had stopped in front of a scarry, foggy, dark swamp.

The custard yellow pegasus immediately stopped and lowered herself to the ground, trying to be a inconspicuous as possible. The fog and twisted trees made the swamp look like a close relative to the Everfree Forrest.

"This must be the swamp we have to go through before we reach Haysburg. It should only take two more days and we'll finally be there." Lemon Lime said quietly.

Twilight didn't want to say anything, but her horn was starting to ache a bit. Out of sheer morbid curiosity she channeled magic through her horn and attempted to discern why her horn was feeling like somepony was slowly applying pressure to it.

She reached out with her magic and touched the fog, talking as she poked at, and analyzed it,
"Hmm, the fog is magical in nature, but it's a strange type of magic I've never felt before. Unicorn and Alicorn magic has a specific feel to it, this might just be very strong latent natural magic. The books I read about the area did say that there was a veritable cornucopia of ancient ruins in this swamp and the surrounding countryside. It could also be that some of the ruins have old magic to keep interlopers from disturbing them. Some powerful ancient ponies had their tombs, crypts, and graves enchanted with magic to keep out wild animals and anypony who might want to steal something. If unicorn magic is made permanent and left alone for a really long time, unless it was very carefully cast, it degrades and/or merges with local natural magic, or searches for any close-by source of magic to attach itself to. It should be safe, though. I've never heard of even ancient ponies enchanting an area with malignant magic, specifically because of how it degrades. Only a really ancient source of power, like a sentient enchantment would have the time to collect and utilize any amount of degraded local magic, but since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were crowned, nopony has EVER intentionally cast a spell with sentience because it was too controversial, in regard to the 'life' of the spell. Even if a pony had enough power to create a sentient enchantment, it's considered cruel and callous to create something sentient. I figure it's just natural magic that the swamp uses to veil itself from possible threats."

"Veil itself?" Fluttershy asked, shaking, "Like it's alive?"

"Sure," Lemon Lime replied, "Wait, I thought you were a druid, Fluttershy."

The butter yellow pegasus mare shook her head,
"I'm a veterinarian. I only know animals."

"Well then," Twilight began, adopting her lecturing voice, "All regions of Equestria have a type of spirit or soul if you will. All the regions of forests, swamps, plains, rivers, oceans, and mountains have a type of consciousness that extends through the entire area and it manipulates the natural magic around itself as needed. Earth ponies were the first to discover it and for a long time Unicorns refused to believe it because the Earth ponies couldn't control natural magic like Unicorns can with their own power. Earth ponies have a type of almost subconscious communion with the ground. Zebras have the same thing but with plants instead instead of the Earth. Some areas only have a little natural magic and some have a lot of it. The area around Ponyville for example, has quite a bit more natural magic in the ground, that's why the orchards at Sweet Apple Acres are almost the only place in Equestria that can grow Zap-Apples. The Everfree Forest is another example of an area with potent natural magic. The big difference is that some areas are accepting of the involvement of ponies and others are not. The area around Ponyville is accepting of our involvement while the Everfree Forest is utterly opposed to it. That's why the Everfree is so dangerous, the forest itself calls out to any and all creatures that are dangerous to ponies to protect itself from what it believes is a threat, that perceived threat is us. The Everfree is probably the most magically powerful region in all of Equestria, that's why Princess Celestia and Princess Luna chose to make their home there. They felt the natural magic calling to them, records indicate that the Everfree was friendly to ponies for a very long time. I have no idea what changed but the change was sudden and drastic. It occurred around the same time Princess Luna changed into Nightmare Moon, but that could just be coincidence. In any case, this swamp shouldn't be openly hostile."

Fluttershy reached out her hoof and poked the fog to determine its thickness, her hoof could barely make an indentation,
"Um," she began quietly, "Twilight, I hate to pester you, but do you happen to know any spells to help a Pegasus move through fog? I'm not strong enough to even put my hoof into it."

Twilight nodded ameably,
"Sure thing, Fluttershy."

The lavender unicorn lowered her head and focussed her magic. She used Mutate, Control, Physical, and Spirit, then added on Sustain for good measure, ensuring the spell would last for a full day. It was a fairly common spell for unicorns to know. Twilight knew some unicorns living in places like Trottingham and New Yoke actually made a decent living off of their spell knowledge for Pegasi and Earth Ponies. Fluttershy reached out once more to touch the fog. This time her hoof encountered no resistance whatsoever and slipped through the fog like that of her two companions.

Lemon Lime led the way with Twilight following closely behind and Fluttershy bringing up the rear. He lit up his horn for light, but the fog was so thick it simply reflected the light back, effectively blinding the trio. The little unicorn let his light fade and came to a stop after a mere 20 steps. He turned around but couldn't see the break in the trees back to the plains; he could only barely make out Twilight and Fluttershy and they were right behind him.

"Sorry for stopping but I need to think for a moment." he apologized to the two mares, 'Alright, normal vision is basically useless right now, so an illumination spell won't help. A directional spell would work better, but we still need to see. What animal can't see well but can still navigate effectively?' he cleared his throat, "Twilight, how do bats navigate?"

"They use echolocation. They emit ultrasonic sounds and they instinctively compare the outgoing pulse of sound to the returning echoes and use the data to map out their surroundings, often in great detail." she replied off the top of her head.

Lemon Lime addressed the mare of his affections once more,
"Could you cast a spell that creates a sphere around us that can translate the sounds we make into useable images of the swamp since we're basically walking blind here?"

"I'll give it a shot, but it's going to be mostly guesswork." she replied.

Twilight lowered her head and began focusing her magic, 'Alright which Nouns and Verbs? First the Nouns. Air because that includes sound waves, Water to compensate for the dampening effect of the fog, and Mind to allow us to discern the nature of the echoes. The Verbs: Knowing to match up with Mind for the discernment, Ruling to match up with Water for the lessened dampening from the fog, and finally Mutate to match up with Air to make the echoes more noticeable. Here goes nothing.'

Twilight released the spell and it settled over the three of them gently as a lavender mist of sparkling motes.

The spell made Fluttershy's ears itch,
"Did it work?" she asked.

In half a second the world exploded in bright, vibrant hues in every color of the rainbow as trees, bushes, and even the very ground they stood on all became crystal clear in perfect detail, albeit in a plethora of seemingly random colors. The trio of ponies were awestruck by the simple beauty of the world around them. Lemon Lime took a single step, no harder than normal. Once more the world exploded in silent multihued beauty as his hoof crunched into the fallen leaves on the ground.

"I would say the spell worked." Twilight said, obviously pleased with herself.

"Boy did it!" Lemon Lime exclaimed, "It's so beautiful!"

"Let's get moving, we still have several more days to go before we reach Haysburg." Twilight said stepping out once more.

*************************************************************************************

Rainbow Dash snuck a peek at her flight companion with concern, 'All this time I was wishing for Trooper to shut up, now I'd give my left fore leg to get him to say something. He hasn't said anything all morning and he keeps twitching like he's being surprised every few seconds. What the hay happened to him?'

Trooper was lost in his own little world. His repressed memories kept replaying in front of his eyes several times a minute. His mind kept replaying the scenes from when his family was killed. Something didn't seem right about that tornado and he had finally pinned it down, 'It was far too fast. It should have never moved that quickly. The sky was clear and suddenly a tornado appears for no obvious reason. It is not natural. What could have caused it? Valiant mentioned that the tornados around Haysburg would pop up randomly and quickly, I just thought he had been exagerating. Nothing natural could cause a tornado like that to form out of thin air and on a clear day. Something else had to have been involved, but what?'

"Trooper!"

His name being yelled in his ear brought him back to himself just in time to pull to a stop in front of a wall of fog. All thoughts of his repressed memories fled his mind as Trooper back-flapped and edged away from the thick fog eyeing it in confusion. Rainbow Dash flew up next to him, coming to a hoover while addressing the stallion.

"Erm, why is there a massive wall of fog here?" the multihued mare looked left and right as well as up and down, "It's almost in a straight line, like a huge box of fog."

Trooper cleared his throat,
"I have not the faintest of ideas." he said reaching out, "I wonder how thick it is?"

His hoof met significant resistance, but he managed to push through, barely,
"I would estimate it to have a density of 8.9 maybe 9.2 or 9.3 at the most. Do you come to the same conclusion Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow Dash pounded on it several times before answering,
"You're not too far off Troops. I'll give it about a 9.4 personally. In any case it's way too thick to fly through right now. Want to try flying over it?"

"That sounds like an acceptable alternative. Fillies first." he said with a playful bow.

Rainbow noticed that Trooper’s mood seemed to brighten a bit, ‘Maybe he gets to introspective when he’s thinking. Does he get lost in his thoughts like Twilight does?’

As they ascended, Trooper felt the need to ask a question that had been stewing in the back of his mind for a while,
"By no means do I intend to start an argument with my next question, so please do not take offense, but why are you so affable toward me suddenly?"

Rainbow Dash shot him a dry look,
"In Equestrian, Trooper."

"Why are you so friendly with me right now?" Trooper deadpanned.

"Oh, that. I finally got over what you said to me when we first met." Dash said.

Trooper quirked an eyebrow,
"What I said? You mean about you being beautiful?"

"About me not acting like you thought I should when you introduced yourself to Rarity." Dash clarified, "I mouth off all the time. It's part of who I am: confident, insincere, friendly, helpful, heckling, and often sarcastic. I'm happy with who I am and if somepony else has a problem with it they can chew a rock, because I'll probably be . . . wait, did you say 'beautiful'?" she asked.

"Indeed I did, and to that statement I hold. You may utterly lack any sort of refinement whatsoever . . ."

"Watch it there bub." Rainbow Dash warned.

"But you obviously take good care of yourself. You exercise regularly, you do not smell, and you obviously watch your diet. I can say with complete honesty that I do not believe I can spot a single ounce of adipose tissue on you, it is all muscle, sleek tones, and finely rounded curves. In all honesty Rainbow Dash you are quite probably the most attractive pegasus mare I have ever laid eyes on. Although that does bring another question to mind: why do you not have stallions falling all over you?" Trooper asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged,
"No idea. Maybe they're all intimidated by me. Somepony started a rumor that I'm a Filly Fooler and that probably helped it along. Honestly, I'm too busy training for the Wonderbolts to get tangled up in any kind of romance right now anyway. Eventually, sure why not, but not right now."

Trooper chewed his lip in thought,
"That makes good sense. Eyes on the prize and all that. So what do you plan to do once you achieve your dream?"

Rainbow Dash slowed down and let Trooper join her in ascent before answering,
"I'm going to prove I'm the best there ever was. I never take second best. I'll end up as Wonderbolt Captain and I won't let anypony stand in my way."

"What price are you willing to pay to achieve your dream?" Trooper asked cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Dash asked.

"What if you have to step on the dreams of somepony else? What if there is somepony who is just better?" Trooper ventured.

"There won't be anypony better than me. I'm the best, the very best and that's all there is to it. Anypony else who wants to be Captain will just have to settle for second best." Dash claimed.

The two pegasi finally reached the top of the fog bank and leveled off, coming to land on the soft fluff as they continued their conversation.

Trooper shook his head,
"I sincerely hope you are correct Rainbow Dash. I shudder to think what you would do if somepony else actually was better than you." he paused and then posed another question, "Let us, for a moment, assume that the impossible had occurred and you are not the best. What would you do then?"

Rainbow Dash sighed heavily,
"Come on, really? It's not going to happen." she claimed haughtily.

Trooper's blank stare convinced her to answer the question,
"Ugh! Fine!" she groaned, "I guess I'd have to train even harder to show them who was best."

"And if you were unable to do so? If you were forced to take second place through no fault of your own?" Trooper probed.

Rainbow Dash grunted and scuffed her right fore hoof on the fog,
"Look it doesn't matter Trooper, cause it's never going to happen!"

"I am not trying to anger you, so please do not misunderstand me. I am simply trying to ask how you would react if you failed. I am concerned for you. Being a fantastic athlete is not only about being a good winner but also a good looser at times. I am merely asking so I can have an idea of what you would do if you did fail." Trooper said trying to placate his multihued companion.

"I don't know and I'm not worried about it. I guess I'll figure it out if it ever happens." Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.

"Do not take this the wrong way, but I believe that to: fail to plan is to plan to fail. I think perhaps you should give some serious consideration to the possibility, despite how admittedly unlikely it is." Trooper said cautiously.

"Look, I appreciate your concern Troops, but I'd like to handle this my own way and I think we already have plenty to think about . . ." Rainbow Dash trailed off as she spotted a shadow from above.

Dash looked up and Trooper followed suit. Both ponies felt their muscles tighten as an entire flight of gryphons came barreling toward them from the clouds above. The two pegasi had missed spotting the gryphons as they landed on the fog and the gryphons had waited until the two ponies were directly below then before launching from their perch.

Trooper saw the predators come swooping toward he and Dash, they showed no sign of slowing,
"Dash fly! I will hold them here!" he yelled.

"Are you crazy!" Dash yelled, already in the air, "You can't handle that many, nopony can!"

In a moment of focus, Trooper's armor appeared with a flash of light and a loud metallic sound,
"I am not just anypony! Get out of here, you can make it! GO!" he yelled.

Had Trooper had the notion to look up, he would have noticed that the gryphons had all stopped as soon as his armor formed. They hovered in mid air aghast at the pair of pegasi.

The eldest gryphon addressed the pegasi loudly from above,
"Hold pegasi!" he commanded, "Hold and speak with me! I am Arrow, Flight Leader of my nestmates."

Trooper kept his armor and called back,
"I will speak with you, and you alone, Arrow. The mare is free to go. We meet in the air."

"Hey! I can speak for myself you know!" Dash yelled.

Trooper ignored her, his focus was above.

"Very well. I will descend alone. We meet between us." Arrow called back.

Trooper ascended as Arrow descended. They met in the air. Arrow watched Trooper cautiously while Trooper eyed Arrow with cold detachment and a calculating stare.

"I am not your enemy, stallion." Arrow said evenly.

"You could have fooled me." Trooper spat back, "Or is it customary to greet others with a group of swiftly flying allies at your back from above?"

"Calm yourself, stallion. We could have overtaken you by now, were we so inclined. We thought you were perhaps one of the ponies from Haysburg trying to get away again." Arrow explained.

Trooper's eyes narrowed,
"And why, exactly, would you be inclined to stop ponies from Haysburg from escaping? Have you besieged the city?"

"Not as such, but before you judge our actions, hear me out." Arrow began, "There is a darkness on that place. A darkness that is keeping the ponies from comprehending their situation. They are being manipulated by this darkness and we mean to keep it from spreading."

"You will have to excuse me if I remain skeptical." Trooper replied.

"Trooper?" Rainbow Dash called from below.

Trooper looked down, only to see Dash ascending toward him,
"Trooper, I think we should listen to him." Dash seemed to have her eyes glued to something behind him as she spoke.

"You see our shared predicament, I see." Arrow said.

“Shared predicament?” he asked incredulously, “And said predicament is what exactly?”

Hovering right next to the stallion, Rainbow Dash lifted her right fore hoof and pointed. Trooper turned and followed Dash's gaze and his pupils shrank to pinpoints.

"Where is the edge?" he asked incredulously, "We should not be even three-hundred paces from the edge of the fog.”

Encompassing the entire field of his vision was nothing but solid fog as far as any of them could see. The edge was gone. Trooper’s eyes shifted to the gryphons. For the first time he noticed exactly how ragged they looked. He spotted sunken cheeks and hollow eyes, gaunt layers of feathers poorly covering the outline of ribs and other bones. Trooper immediately realized he and Dash were in trouble. The gryphons were starving.

“How long have you been trapped up here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Arrow lowered his gaze as he answered,
“I’m not entirely certain. It feels like months, but that cannot be correct. The sun never sets in the fog, there is always light up here. There is powerful magic at work here.”

“How have you survived?” Trooper asked.

Arrow’s face fell even farther,
“We use bits of fabric to collect water, but we’ve had nothing to eat in so long. We’ve already eaten the leather thongs for our slings, bolas, and armor. Do you know anything that can help us?”

“Food.” The whisper came from the flight of gryphons above the two ponies.

Arrow’s face contorted in anger, as he faced his fellow gryphons,
“BE SILENT!” he bellowed, “How DARE you say such a thing!”

The assembled gryphons shifted their eyes and fluffed their feathers in embarrassment. The total situation sunk into the two ponies as Arrow turned back to then with sorrowful eyes.

“Have you lost any to starvation yet Arrow?” Trooper asked.

“Thankfully, no. It won’t be long though. We’re growing weak. The fog will occasionally lift and open up to Haysburg. We’ve already decided that the next time it does, we’ll go down and beg for food.” Arrow heaved a heavy sigh, “We’ll beg, if we can find the opening. It’s in a different place every time it appears.”

Rainbow Dash flew over to Arrow and raised his chin with her hoof,
“And we’ll be there to vouch for you. We’ll sneak you food if we need to.” Her voice was firm and determined.

Comments

[doorcf]

FINALLY AN UPDATE!
This should continue not matter what

[Midnight Blues]

so glad you moved to FIMFICTION love this story.

[Dracus]

YES ! An update !
aww chuck i need to re-read some chapters, it's been a long time since the last i read..

[MrAskAPirate]

t.qkme.me/353j49.jpg

[kyubbiman]

Awesome Story please update soon

[RadBunny]

Happy to have found this story! Apologies that you had to be the recipient of such pathetic comment (honestly, I share your viewpoint- and I find it amusing the reader phrases his insult using the term 'forced'. Who is forcing a reader to read?

Anyhow. Hope you continue this story!

[heirofaniu]

You wouldn't believe how happy I am to see this here.

One thing I did notice though is you used the word "scarry" instead of "scary". Scarry would mean something like covered in scars.

[Lainofthewired]

Where they heck are they stuck, Silent Hill? I'm just glad to see this story here, it always makes me happy :3