//------------------------------// // Boredom and Treasure // Story: Knights of the Everfree // by Lightning Shaker //------------------------------// Knights of the Everfree Chapter Five: It was mid-afternoon, and Dream Dasher had just left Lightning Shaker after another visit to see him at the hospital. He was glad things were looking up; his adopted brother’s wing no longer being in a cast was enough of a sign of that. It looked like it was going to rain, so he went home; their guardian wouldn’t be home for several more hours, so the earth pony ate a quick meal of oats and some fresh lettuce crisps. Dream Dasher briefly considered styling his shaggy mane of sandy brown hair, but then with a “Nah.” At the thought of grooming, he moved on to the living room. He sat lazily on the couch before getting up and pacing around for a bit, Dream Dasher felt mopey and kicked out at nothing in particular. There were no two ways about it, Dream Dasher was bored. Really really bored. Lightning wasn’t there, and that made him even more bored. “Well, might as well go to the Everfree.” He said to himself. Not really needing any more encouragement than that, he gathered up some of the supplies he kept stashed in his room, and with his saddle bags heavy with food and drink, headed out of the house. Summer was slowly giving way to fall the temperature not cold, but noticeably cooler. Dream Dasher made his way through town, the sound of his hoofs loud on the paved roads of Ponyville, but as usual nopony gave the red earth pony more than a glance as he went. He walked into the forest, using the same path that they had taken on that day. The earth pony bristled. He still couldn’t believe what had happened. Lightning was in the hospital because of that day. Dream Dasher was frustrated. Lightning should be here with him. He didn’t like not having his brother to do things with. He found the path they had gone down and followed it. With the rain clouds, the narrow path was even darker than before, Dream Dasher had to move carefully to avoid tripping on the many exposed roots that were nearly invisible on the path hidden by darkness and leaves. H made his way slowly, but he finally came to the clearing where they had been attacked by the nightmares. The only evidence that this was the place was the spots where the grass was slightly charred from the flames the nightmares spouted. He saw the spot Lightning had been laying when the remaining nightmares had been chased off, he could still make out where the blood had been, even though it had been raining the past couple days. The colt’s eyes narrowed as he remembered how his friend had looked. The battle was over; the unicorn that had come to help them was breathing heavily and still looking around for more, his purple coat covered with a sheen of sweat. Dream Dasher thought it odd how he looked worn out already, he had only used magic and hadn’t fought physically like the earth pony had, Dream Dasher’s coat had blood on it but it was hard to tell with its red color. Rare Charmer was shaking Lightning, trying to get him to wake up and crying. “We have to get him to a doctor, and fast. He’s hurt really badly.” The unicorn's horn began to glow as a blue aura lifted Lightning Shaker off the ground and deposited the unconscious pegasus onto his back. They all agreed, and the four of them headed back to Ponyville. Dream Dasher shook himself out of his thoughts and moved on. He was going to find those ruins, he was going to make it worth it. As he crossed the clearing, he couldn’t see a path, everywhere he looked the trees seemed to be too close together, or the brush too high. It was a while longer before he finally spotted it, on the other side of a couple of trees a few feet back was a path that would take him further into the forest, it was in the right direction so it must be the right path. Making his way through some trees and high brush, Dream Dasher arrived at the path. No wonder these ruins were so unknown; this path we well hidden, which seemed dumb since it was in the Everfree forest, not like anypony came here anyway. The path was dark, and as if to be really annoying, it started raining. Dream Dasher heard the rain long before he saw or felt it, the forest canopy was so thick that it just wasn’t getting through, but he could hear it pelting against the top of the trees. He started moving more quickly through the path. The darkness was making him nervous, and the rain hitting the trees was becoming loud, making it hard to hear anything that might be nearby. When he saw another clearing further ahead, he broke into a run, which was a mistake as a moment later his hoof caught on something and he fell hard against the ground. Cursing with a few choice phrases that would get him in a lot of trouble if Melody Spring heard, Dream Dasher picked himself up and continued a bit more carefully towards the clearing. He could just hear the chuckles he would get from Lightning for that. Wait, that sounded real. He looked around nervously but didn't see anypony. "Hello, is anypony there?" He called out, but was only met with silence. He shrugged, figuring it was just his imagination. The rain was coming down pretty hard when he entered the clearing. Looking around, Dream Dasher jumped in surprise when he saw a pony towering over him. He got down into a fighting position, ready to attack. The other pony didn’t move. Eyeing it warily, he moved a bit forward. A streak of lightning illuminated the area and he saw it was just a statue. Dream Dasher grunted with a facehoof and took a closer look at the statue; it was of a pegasus clad in armor, a coat of scales made it look more like a dragon. Taking note of how cool he thought it looked, He moved further into the clearing. Nearby was a lake. In the middle of it, on an island, he saw ruins; the ruins he was looking for no doubt. He could see the ruins, but was unsure of how to get to them; he supposed he could swim across; he was already wet from the rain after all. Moving to the edge of the lake, Dream Dasher looked around. The lake was surrounded by the forest on all sides. It was then that he noticed a rope stretching across the lake a bit of ways off, it looked like it connected to a tree on this side and a pillar of some sort on the island. It looked like somepony had made a raft that could be drug via the rope from shore to shore. He was glad it was clearly an earth pony idea, since a unicorn would have made it function by magic, and a pegasus would have just flown... “Lightning should be here.” He thought out loud, stepping onto the raft. The earth pony gave an experimental tug on the rope, and was surprised that the raft moved easily. The rope seemed sturdy despite how clearly old it was. A few minutes later, Dream Dasher was standing on the island. The ruins were eerie, especially with the dark clouds and occasional flashes of lightning. There were more statues of ponies of all different types. Most wore armor, and they looked a bit frightening; not that Dream Dasher would admit it to anypony. He found a building that looked like it might be a main structure. Standing outside it, he hesitated. He could go in now and look around, but he really wanted Lightning Shaker, his brother, and the only pony in Ponyville who was almost as cool as himself, to be here with him. “Well I’m here. Might as well see what’s in there.” Maybe it was dangerous, and Lightning was all busted up. He could at least make sure it was safe. Having concluded it was the best choice, he went inside. The ruins were dark, a few holes in the ceiling not letting in enough light to really see by, though they did let in rain. It smelled wet and moldy, the only sounds besides his breathing was the splat-splat of the rain hitting the floor. Dream Dasher looked around a bit; once he was reasonably sure he was alone, he let out a squeal – not a girly one – doing a bit of hopping from hoof to hoof. “This is so cool!” He shouted, his voice echoing off the stone walls. Once that was out of his system, he started looking around. There were pillars – some broken and crumbling – and a few paintings, though there was no way to tell what they had looked like, they were so worn and faded. The only door he could find that wasn’t collapsed and blocked off lead to a stairwell going down. He went down the stairs, which spiraled down, into an even darker part of the ruins. Dream Dasher suddenly wished he had thought to bring a light along as he was plunged into total darkness. When he reached the bottom, he tripped trying to take another step down only to find there wasn’t one. “Stupid dark stairs, next time I’ll bring a buckin’ light.” He muttered rubbing his face with a hoof. Dream Dasher felt around. Finally he found a door, nudging it open. The first thing he noticed was light. Maybe there was another hole and it went all the way down. He figured the light seemed to be coming from behind one of the pillars in the room, which looked even worse than the first one he had been in, with cracks and holes in the walls and floor as well as several broken pillars. Another thing he noticed was there were dead ponies in here – or at least skeletons of ponies – with a loud gulp he walked up to one of the skeletal bodies and gave it an experimental nudge with his hoof. Once again Dream Dasher was glad he was alone, for the yelp he gave when the skeleton fell apart was definitely not cool. These skeletons were all wearing armor, and there were even some weapons laying around. The armor was that same cool-looking armor the statues were wearing. He really wanted some, but somehow taking it off of dead ponies just seemed wrong. As he went further into the room, Dream Dasher noticed that the light wasn’t coming from a hole in the ceiling, but was rather coming from some weird thing on the floor. When he looked at it close, it was like a glass ball with spikes on one side. It glowed with orange light, with another blue light in the middle of it. He saw a small pedestal nearby, and looking at the strange glowing orb, he thought it kind of looked like a fire. “Maybe it’s some magic light, designed to look like fire, like those weird lamps that look like other things?” He guessed, his voice echoing off of the walls. At the very least, it was neat, and proof that he had found the place – not to mention a source of light – so Dream Dasher picked it up and placed it in one of the pockets in his pack, leaving the flap open. “Now I have a light. I always was the smart one.” He said smugly. Looking around the room again, now with a light that followed him, he saw some doors. Most of them seemed to be empty rooms or food storage, though the food was all long ago rotted. One of the rooms seemed to be an armory. Much to Dream Dasher’s joy, he found armor and weapons, that weren’t on dead ponies. “Totally fair game if nopony's using it.” He grinned, grabbing one of the scale armor vests He realized it was heavy, and would probably be hard to get on without help. Plus it was made for a pony much larger than he was, but that wouldn’t stop him from getting it back to Ponyville; he could keep it till he was big enough to wear it. Deciding that he had enough spoils for now, he draped the armor over his back as best he could, and started making his way back up the stairs. He would leave the armor at the edge of the forest till he could come back with a pack large enough to carry it home without anypony seeing. Back in the main room with the aid of the light he saw there were some doors up here too, he would have to remember these for later. It took him a while, but Dream Dasher made it back to the edge of the Everfree. He laid down the armor at the edge of the forest and had a snack consisting of a few apples and some juice. Satisfied that his pack was empty enough to hold the glowing orb while closed, and making sure to remember which tree he stored the armor at, he made his way to Ponyville Medical to show off the orb and to tell Lightning Shaker what he had found. “He’s going to be so jealous; he’ll get better real quick now, just so he can go.” Dream Dasher said, picking up his pace to a decent trot now that he wasn’t carrying the armor anymore. Unbeknownst to Dream Dasher, the orb in his pack pulsed strangely, and a maniacal laugh could be heard... at least by anypony close by who could feel magic. For one pony who had been watching Dream Dasher’s trip into and back out of the forest, this was a very disturbing thing.