Old memories

by TheSourceCode95

Chapter 11

It had been almost three weeks since the accident. Time passed by more quickly as everything became routine again. She had been with Golden Knife for eightteen days now. He was usually at work in the living room, laying out reports and newspaper snippets, making notes, and writing letters. When he did that, Rainbow was often outside practising her flying skills. She had always dreamed of joining the Wonderbolts one day, and now she had her wings the time had come to make that dream come true. It would be a lot of work though. Getting off the ground was a lot easier when being chased than in a nice and calm backyard.

However, today was not a normal day. Today was Sunday, Golden Knife's day off. It was the only day in the week they both slept longer than until eight o'clock. When the clock reached the tenth hour, that was early enough. Slowly a pair of purple eyes opened. Letting out a groan, Rainbow stretched herself. The smell of coffee had filled the room and had woken her up. Coffee was definately not something she drank. Once had she tried it, but one sip had been enough to make her realise most adults were crazy. However, waking up to the smell of it wasn't that unpleasant.

"Morning, Rainbow Dash," Golden Knife said while walking out of the kitchen, a cup of coffee and a glass of milk, both carefully balanced in one hoof. He placed the glass of milk on the table in front of Rainbow and sat down in the chair, taking a sip of his coffee.

Rainbow slowly raised her head, still getting the rest of her sleep out of her head. "Good morning, Golden." She reached for the glass, but couldn't reach it. Rolling her eyes back in her head, she got ready to stand up and grab it. Two hooves on the ground, her eyes open again, she saw that the glass was already held in front of her. "Thanks."

Golden Knife sat back in the chair again, watching Rainbow as she drank her milk. "And, how is the flying going? Able to get airborne without being chased already?" he chuckled.

"Yeah, it's actually not too hard once you've lifted off. Yesterday I've flown for surely half an hour straight!"

Golden leaned back in his chair. "Good, because I was planning something for today. And it would be a lot easier if you could fly there yourself. However, it's a flight of at least forty five minutes."

Rainbow looked away from her milk, one eyebrow raised. Forty five minutes of flight wasn't nothing. Canterlot was about an hour away. The other side of cloudsdale maybe fifteen minutes. "Where?"

Casually Golden Knife answered her. "Well, I thought that maybe, if you'd want to try it, we could go down. You know."

Rainbow was burning with curiosity now. What could he mean by going down? "Come on, just tell me!"

"Little impatient, aren't we? Well, I was thinking. You know how pegasi feathers never get blown away once they land somewhere? I thought that maybe we could go down to the Everfree Forest and look for yours."

An empty glass was turning on the table, as the bathroom door swung open and closed. Three seconds later, fully awake, Rainbow Dash stood at the front door. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Golden Knife stood up and walked towards the bedroom. He tossed a saddlebag over his back. In it, there were two rain capes, a can of hot coffee, and a couple sandwiches. Next he walked up to a hook on the wall, with around it a leather band. On the leather band there was a golden sheat, layed beautifully with gemstones. He threw the belt around him and fastened it.

On the night table next to his bed laid a knife. Apart from the golden handle, it looked like a pretty normal knife. However, if you inspected it more closely you could clearly see that it was not. The handle was thicker than that of a normal dagger, and so was the blade. It was als balanced a bit different, balanced perfectly for throwing. He grabbed the blade with his teeth, and smoothly slid it into the sheat.

Rainbow was tripping of excitement in the hallway. Her brain was eager to tell Golden to hurry up, but she had grown to know him good enough to realise that was not going to help at all. Instead, she waited. Biting her lips to make sure the words stayed in, but she waited.

"Rainbow, please do realise that there is a big chance we will not find your feather. The Everfree Forest is a big forest, and today we will only be able to cover the outer edge. There is a big chance we won't find your feather. Not today, not next time we go looking for it. It can easilly be lost forever."

"Yeah, blablabla, I know, can we just go already?" Rainbow said. She was already floating outside the door, waiting for Golden to follow her.

"Been working on your takeoff?" Golden Knife was watching her as a feeling of respect for Rainbow grew inside of him. It had only been three weeks since she had gotten her wings, and she was already flying. It had taken him at least half a year to acchieve such an easy liftoff himself.

Rainbow looked down. She realised she had already taken off. Slowly she started to tip over, head down. Quickly she raised her head, trying to get control again, but that only made it worse. Wings rapidly flapping as she tumbled over, letting out a muffled "ough" as she fell into the clouds.

Golden Knife laughed and gave her a hoof getting up again. "No need to fly yet anyways, we need to get to the other side of cloudsdale first."

Rainbow could not hold it any more. There were so much questions she wanted to ask. Even though Golden did not usually answer her questions if it wasn't the right time, she gave it a shot. "Where do you want to take off from?"

"You'll see," Golden Knife answered her.

"How do you want to fly?"

" You' ll see."

Questions were fired at Golden Knife the entire walk, usually being answered with "You'll see," or not at all, since then the next question had already been asked.

Finally, he said something different. "We're there."

Rainbow stopped walking. Her eyes grew wide and slowly went from left to right, taking in the entire panorama laid out in front of her. The weather was as clear as it could be, and they could see all the way from Canterlot in the south to the high mountains in the north of cloudsdale. Even though she had lived here all her life, she had never seen this place before. It was amazing.

"Are you coming?" Golden Knife had already taken off and was hovering next to her.

Rainbow snapped out of her amazement. She bent all her legs, and unfolded her wings. The base of her wings aiming up high, the tips of her wings aiming down. Then she straightened her front legs, shortly followed by her rear legs, kicking herself high up in the air. As soon as she did not go upwards any more, her wings straightened. This was the hardest part of liftoff, by far. When her wings were fully horizontally, she pushed them down as hard as she could, sending her up another meter into the air. She was airborne.

"Nice one, Rainbow. Next time try aiming your wings up a bit more when you unfold them, then you'll get more lift at the first stroke. Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" Golden forced his wings back with a huge stroke, sending him forward. Quickly, Rainbow followed. They were on their way to the Everfree Forest, on their way to her feather.

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"Wow," Rainbow gasped. They had flown for about forty minutes, when she could see they were getting close. Flying low definitely had it's advantages, like thicker air, which made it a lot easier to fly. However, there were also some downsides. Closer to the ground meant less time between losing control and crashing into the ground. And, you saw a lot less. From their takeoff spot in Cloudsdale she had seen the Everfree Forest, but as soon as they had descended she had lost sight of it. Now, they were there.

The Everfree Forest laid in front of them, extended far in both directions. It was not easy to miss. The Everfree had some kind of mist around it, that seemed to banish all happiness out of the forest. The sky above it was clearly a lot less blue, and more gray. Almost black. Even darker shadows were cast on the top of the leaves by the ink black clouds, moving in all directions but the ones that would make sense. The greenlife in the forest seemed dead, but it was too lively to be dead. The Everfree Forest. Forever free, forever expanding its boundaries into the rest of Equestria.

On their way Golden had told Rainbow a couple stories about the Everfree. Those stories included myths as old as the forest itself. Hundreds of years ago the forest had appeared out of nowhere, behind the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Behind the Castle had always been a small apple orchard. However, one of the apple trees had mysteriously turned corrupt. Within a matter of hours it had corrupted the rest of the trees as well. Vines had started to creep out of the orchard, and into the castle, quickly tearing it apart. Within ten hours the castle had been reduced to ruins. Since then, the forest had been spreading. Quickly at first, but slower as it got bigger. Even today, the forest was still expanding. However, not as quickly as before.

"Is it alive?" Rainbow asked. The sheer sight of the forest made her shiver. At first she thought Golden just did not want to go in there because he didn't dare. She was right. But now she knew, she wouldn't dare to enter that either.

"You tell me. Some say it is, others say it's dead. There are even ponies who say it has never lived, or has died and came back to life." Golden Knife had landed right next to a tree. They were about a kilometer away from the forest, but they could clearly feel it's presence. You just couldn't feel happy.

Rainbow landed next to him. Her legs numb of the flying, she decided to lay down before she fell over. Her wings folded back neatly in place. Her stomach rumbled. Until now, she hadn't noticed it, but the flight had taken a lot of her energy. This morning she had wished Golden would just forget about his preparations, and hurry up to go look for her feather. Right now, she was glad he had prepared a meal for them. It's strange how an empty stomach can change someponies point of view so easily.

Golden Knife took a couple apples out of his bag. Quietly they sat next to each other, eating the apples and looking at the forest. "You feel it as well, don't you?" she asked him.

"Yes I do. Everypony does. The Everfree Forest surely isn't a fun place." Quietness fell over them again. In the background there were still some noises of birds tjilping, bunnies jumping around and other wildlife, but they seemed a long way away.

They had finished their apples and Rainbow felt new energy flowing through her again. Even though only short, the rest had done her very well. Golden Knife took a map out of his bag and unfolded it in front of him.

The map was one of their side of the Everfree Forest. Lines were drawn all over it in different colors, and on one spot there was a cross. "This, is a map of the Everfree. The cross is where we are right now," he explained. "Today I want to cover this area." His hoof was tracing the outlines of a small box drawn around the cross.

"Today, we will walk through this area, scanning it systematically. We will start where we are right now, and then walk over towards that lake over there. Then we will walk back and forth, shifting about twenty meters in the direction of the Everfree every time."

Rainbow looked over at the lake he had pointed out. It wasn't close, and would surely take about half an hour to reach by hoof. Flying they would be there a lot quicker. However, she was not a dumb pony, and realised that she could not fly good enough to do that and get back home in the evening, so she nodded.

Golden Knife rolled up the map, and stood up. Rainbow stood up next to him, about five meters between them. They started walking, scanning the area with their eyes. Rainbow's eyes went back and forth between things that looked interesting to her, where she thought her feather might be. Golden Knife however, having done this many times before, scanned more systematically. Slowly going back and forth, left and right.

Not a word was spoken. The presence of the Everfree was hard upon them. If there was no need to say anything, they didn't. Hours went by in silence.

They had walked back and forth between the lake and the invisible line from their landing spot to the Everfree about seventy times, when Golden Knife decided it was enough for today. They had covered more area than he had hoped for. "I think that is enough for today."

Rainbow looked up at him. Her face grim and disappointed. As much as she would have wanted her feather, she wanted to get out of this place now. In silence she nodded and walked up to him. He had already taken some sandwiches out of his bag, and handed one over.

They had come closer to the forest, she could notice it. The silence was deafening. She could hear Golden Knife munch on his sandwich, and herself on hers. She heard every single movement she made. Her heart was pounding, more and more rapidly. She munched and munched on her sandwich, trying to think of something to even think of. But nothing came to mind. Nothing but emptiness, nothing but sadness. Her eyes started to water. Never would she feel happy again. Never.

Golden Knife looked at her, and saw what was happening. "Come, Rainbow. Let's go." He took her sandwich and wrapped it in the foil again. They both unfolded their wings, and took off. Away from the Everfree, away from sadness and despair.

As the distance between them and the Everfree grew, their moods raised. After about 15 minutes, Rainbow finally managed to speak again. "What was that?"

"'That', was the Everfree," Golden spoke. "Nopony exactly knows what it is that causes it, or what exactly it causes, but it's not good. All happiness is lost inside that forest. We were not inside it, but if you're near it for long enough, it has the same effects. If you really want to get that feather back, it's something you'll have to get used to."

It was not something she wanted to get used to. The unhappiness, the unlivelyness of that place, it was unbearable. She had known pain, stress, loss and a lot of other feelings she rather wouldn't have known, but this was entirely different. It was a lot worse.

All of a sudden, tiredness came over her. Her eyes started to get heavy, and her wings got weaker. Slowly she started to lose altitude. Golden Knife looked over, and started to fly down and under her. Her hooves touched and slid off of his back, her legs around it. Her wings were still moving, but lacked the power to lift her. They folded, and her eyes closed. Exhausted, she fell asleep.

Author's Note:

It's strange how some chapters just start as quickly mentioning something, meant to take,at most two paragraphs. Well, I think this is a bit better than a 2-paragraph mention.

This story is going to be longer than I expected...

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

Your writing is getting waaaay better

[Daring Cammie Do]

"Little impatient, aren't we? Well, I was thinking. You know how pegasi feathers never get blown away once they land somewhere? I thought that maybe we could go down to the Everfree Forest and look for yours."

I'm liking Golden Knife. You better not kill him. If you do, I will hunt you down and make you rewrite it so he doesn't die, just gets injured.