Rainbow descended back into the forest, once again rising back up above the treeline in time to avoid being spotted by Hurricane and Cookie.
I can’t go back to that timeline, Rainbow realized. If I do, Celestia will be waiting there and she’ll stop me from going back… I have one chance and one chance only to fix this. No retries like I needed in the Town. First thing, I need to get back to where Khonsu buried the supplies.
Thanking her timeline’s version of Celestia that she had thought to memorize the spot where she had seen Khonsu digging, she flew there at the greatest speed she could manage. Well, almost.
I can’t risk a rainboom. That’s way too obvious, it’d announce my presence to every living creature from here to Rainbow Falls.
She came to a rest over the canopy just as Khonsu bounded into the clearing below, carrying the bag over its shoulder. Rainbow hovered and waited as the dragon-shaped construct buried the food supplies and leapt away towards the north.
Now the time crunch begins. Rainbow flitted down to the forest floor, digging the bag free with her bare hooves and pulling it out. Slinging it over her back, she spread her wings and shot out from the canopy.
Wait. No! I don’t know where the Unicorns are camped!
She facehooved. And even if I did, Platinum will have already gone off against Private Pansy… She looked to the horizon. I need to… Wait! I know! She shot off towards the oak tree. Clover sounded like she didn’t want to go along with Platinum’s tirade. Hopefully she’s smart enough to go along with this plan without even knowing that I exist.
Arriving in the oak tree’s clearing, Rainbow deposited the bag of food supplies in the lower boughs of the tree, descending backwards into the thicket of twigs in the upper part of the oak. She could hear Platinum shouting indistinctly from below.
I made the food visible enough, I hope. Peering out from the leaves, she saw that both Clover’s and Platinum’s attention was focussed on Pansy. Crap, I need to draw Clover’s attention.
Thinking quickly, Rainbow reached into her saddlebag and withdrew the wingblade, rapping it sharply in the gnarled wood of the oak tree. The sharpened blade cut through the wood like butter. Damn. Flipping the blade around, she struck the pommel on the solid wood of the trunk, producing a loud echoey sound. Clover looked up at the tree.
Her eyebrows knit, but she said something to Platinum that Rainbow couldn’t make out. Rainbow retreated further into the tree’s foliage as a pale magenta magical aura wrapped around the bag of supplies and lowered it down to the ground.
Ascending towards the sky, Rainbow looked back to see Clover carrying the supplies as Platinum sheepishly extended a hoof towards Pansy, helping him back to his hooves.
Right, everything is back to normal there. She dashed off towards the gorge in the north. Now, second challenge. How do I stop Khonsu from knocking out Smart Cookie?
Rainbow arrived at the gorge and descended into the treeline before Hurricane – flying about and gathering mist – could spot her. Looking up and down the gorge, she spotted Smart Cookie, seated at the edge. I’m not too late, then. Good.
And then she saw Khonsu, creeping out of the forest, low to the ground, towards the earth pony. But I have a few seconds at most. What do I do, what do I do…
Rainbow gasped. That’s it! She reached into her saddlebag and withdrew the witchwood totem. Sorry Twilight, I know you wanted to study this thing. Winding back, she threw it at Smart Cookie with all her strength, retreating back into the foliage as she did so and moving towards the spot where she remembered Khonsu had launched whatever it was it had launched at Hurricane.
Looking to the side, she saw Smart Cookie reach down and pick up the totem just as Khonsu reached out and gestured just behind Cookie’s head. Smart Cookie’s eyebrows furrowed as he examined the totem, while Khonsu, confused, repeated the gesture.
Shaking its head, Khonsu retreated back into the foliage as Smart Cookie looked backwards, alarmed.
Rainbow, meanwhile, had found what she suspected was Khonsu’s shooting blind. Swaths of Star Swirl’s Beard moss was draped over a branch, but not growing from it – Khonsu, Rainbow guessed, had prepared it ahead of time, by gathering moss from around the forest to hide from view a large, horizontal branch that would be the perfect vantage point for it to strike at Hurricane.
I don’t know if it’s still going to try now that I’ve foiled its plans regarding Smart Cookie, but… she withdrew the wingblade from her saddlebag one more time. It’s time to try possibly the most shaky plan yet. She began sawing vigorously at the base of the branch with the razor-sharp blade.
She made it partway through the wood when she heard a rustling sound from nearby. No! Not enough time! She ducked behind the main part of the tree, hearing Khonsu loping through the undergrowth and climbing up into the tree. Its jet-black hand grasped the trunk of the tree, its talons coming within an inch of Rainbow’s muzzle. She held her breath, remembering what had happened the last time Khonsu had caught her.
There was a faint rustling, presumably the construct withdrawing its weapon from wherever it had kept it. Then it let go of the tree trunk, putting its entire weight on the half-sawed-through tree branch.
There was an almighty crack as the branch snapped, a shout of surprise from Khonsu, and a rustling crash as it fell to the forest floor. Rainbow chuckled furiously under her breath as a flock of crows rose from the canopy, cawing furiously, and (out by the gorge) Smart Cookie’s and Commander Hurricane’s gazes snapped towards the general area where Khonsu – still hidden within the foliage – had fallen. Then the other two ponies galloped off along the gorge to the south.
Heh. That solves that.
Then an iron grip closed around her forehoof. Shouting in surprise, she recoiled, worming her way free. Khonsu stood below her, glaring up at her with its expressionless face.
It looked no different than it had the previous time, when it had been victorious, but Rainbow felt certain that if its looks could kill there would be little left of her but a charred shadow on the trees. So how do I destroy you…? she thought.
Might be a good time for the shield spellstone. She reached to her wrist – only to find her spellstone brace conspicuously missing.
She looked back down at Khonsu to see it holding her spellstone brace above its head. “Looking for this?” it growled. “It will make a nice trophy after you have been destroyed and I have fixed the damage you’ve done to my mission.”
Crap. “That’s what Hyperion and Anteros said,” said Rainbow, a new plan evolving in her head on the fly as she rose up and surveying the landscape. “Guess how well it worked out for them.”
Khonsu made a deep grinding noise, and leaped from the trees at her. She dodged. It’s faster and more maneuverable in the air than Hyperion, but it can’t really fly. I have to keep it following me. She turned around and flew off toward the mountain, waving at Khonsu. It bounded across the treetops after her, either too stupid (not likely) or too angry (fairly obvious) to notice that she was occasionally slowing down to let it keep up.
I’ve got one shot, so I really hope I’m right about this. Rainbow angled upwards, climbing up the slope of the mountain. Looking back, she saw Khonsu leaving the foliage and leaping like a mountain goat from crag to outcrop in a mad dash to get to her.
Rainbow rose over a ridge, coming face to face with the gigantic cavern opening she’d seen from the forest level. An icy wind drifted from inside, and she dashed toward its source.
A puce-green earth pony, standing next to the entrance of the cave, simply stared in bewilderment. Aww, crap. I hope that doesn’t change too much.
A chorus of clicks and clacks sounded from behind her, as Khonsu followed her into the cave. Reaching a particularly chilly area (cold enough that icicles protruded from the ceiling and the floor was webbed with frost), she turned around and faced Khonsu. It too slowed to a stop before her.
“So are you prepared to make a last stand?” it asked, its voice burning with hate.
“Are you?” returned Rainbow, only half focussing on the conversation.
“Do you really think you can defeat me?” The temperature in the chamber dropped a few more degrees.
Rainbow looked around. “Well, I did a decent job with Hyperion and Anteros. But no, I don’t think I can do anything about you.”
“So you’re just standing here and accepting your fate?”
Rainbow grinned. “I don’t think I can harm you. But I’m betting they can.”
“Who-?” Khonsu turned around, and came face to face with a wispy, pale white shade in the vague shape of a pony.
It howled and leaped at him, the temperature of the cave dropping by several more degrees. Khonsu recoiled, and Rainbow curled up on the ground, focussing on her memories of her friends back in her own timeline as she was bombarded with sleet.
After a few moments, the howling abated. Shivering in the cold, Rainbow looked outward. The lone Windigo regarded her impassively, before vanishing into the depths of the cave in a whirlwind of ice.
Uncurling herself, Rainbow looked at Khonsu. It had been frozen practically into a solid block of ice, long icicles stretching backwards from its extremities away from where the Windigo had stood.
Twilight must be rubbing off on me, thought Rainbow. I came up with theories, tested them, and froze a magical golem. She pulled her spellstone brace from Khonsu’s outstretched hand, snapping off several of its frozen, brittle fingers to do so, and replaced it on her hoof. Okay, maybe that last one was still pretty cool. She chuckled under her breath at the accidental pun. Anyway, it’s a lucky thing that not only was Khonsu advanced enough to hate me, but one of the Windigoes survived the Fire of Friendship long enough to take care of it.
She flew up over the frozen construct. I wonder what it’s got in the way of spellstones. She tried to open the top of Khonsu’s head as she had with Hyperion’s, but it was frozen shut. A quick, sharp rap with her hoof shattered the covering, but revealed that all but one of the spellstones were badly damaged by the frost. The only one still functional was sealed tightly in by the icy skin covering the panel.
She tapped it with her spellstone brace anyway, causing a large crossbow-like weapon to materialise in Khonsu’s hand. As Khonsu failed to grasp it, it dropped to the ground and rested on the frost for a moment.
Is that a bolas thrower? thought Rainbow. She picked it up, and sure enough, it was a mechanical device designed to hurl restrictive bolas at great speed. This must be what he shot Hurricane with. Now that’s cool… Well, it doesn’t belong in the past, he won’t need it anymore, guess who gets a trophy. She stuck the bolas thrower in her saddlebag and returned to the spellstone slot, carefully picking out the recording crystal, which was - to her surprise - nearly intact.
After she had retrieved the crystal, Khonsu’s frozen remains drifted off into another time spell, as she activated the recall function on her own map control spellstone, summoning herself back to what would hopefully be her own timeline.