//------------------------------// // The Jungle // Story: The Girls: Children of Troy and the Sons of the Bear // by Chelis //------------------------------// As the train took us through the Equestrian countryside, we were relaxing from the race that was getting from Los Angeles to home. We wasted no time and went to Equestria, and told Celestia our plans. "We are going to check a few meadows in the Everfree along the abandoned rail lines, which it looks like they might be using it to go through Equestria undetected. If you can get us a train to the forest, we can move through undetected. We can enter Ponyville and get a train home," Jenna announced. That was the plan, and I didn't have any issue with it. Dash was on my lap, and everyone else was sitting on the train. We were the only passengers there, and even the conductor didn't want to be there longer than he had to be. "Alright! we are coming up on the fork! I will stop, you have five seconds to get out, and I'm taking off," he announced from the engine car. I gave Rainbow Dash a nudge to wake her up as we came up on it. "It's time, Dash" I said softly. She was awake and ready in a heartbeat, but still gave me a kiss for "energy". The breaks were applied with a loud screech, and the engine slowed down until we reached to the fork, which would take the conductor to Dodge Junction. It turned out, it gave us a clue. "Hey! Uh looks like the switch was going to the forest! Mind if you switch it!?" The conductor asked. Being the strongest of us, Nas had to do it. "oh, fo'sho!" The conductor was on his way as soon as Nas changed the switch and left us in front of the treeline of the forest. "Well, what are we waiting for?! Sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go home and not lose our scholarships!" Brock cheered as we started headed to the forest tree line "Well, good thing I don't have to live under the puppet strings of the athletic department!" Trisha chuckled. "Oh shut up, Trisha!" he replied * * * The trek through the Everfree was like a nature walk. We went through the high brush, following a copy of the old map, weaving across the clearing that was created between the train tracks. The plan was simple: take a look, and move on. The search was to take all afternoon, and we didn't want to waste time with breaks, only doing so with each meadow we passed, mostly to plan the trek to the next meadow. "Man, I'm glad there are not any mosquitos," Trisha said. "We don't have those! We just have giant creatures that will eat you as much as look at you," Rainbow replied as a joke. The trek continued, but on hour three our legs were cramping, complaining. It was also by a stream so it was an ideal place to take a rest. Everyone sat at a rocky outcropping, while I was resting against a tree, Rainbow taking her common spot on my lap. "How many more places we have to check?" I asked. Jenna pulled out her map and examined. "I think two more and we will be on the outskirts of Ponyville. We are ahead of schedule." "I would think so, there's nothing here," Josh said. "I would rather just find them now so we can give them the boot!" she added. "True." While we rested, Jenna pulled out a tablet. She started typing on it and was smiling. "You studying while we trying to save Equestria? Man that's nerdy!" Nas commented. "I'm not, just putting together my paper," she added. "On?" "This!" she added. Oh no she isn't… "I mean, traveling to some shitty corner of our world is boring, how about a research paper on Equestria! Could you imagine the reward?! the recognition?! We can usher in a new age of exploration and understanding of how our universe works!" Jenna said nothing, only to walk over to Trisha and yank the tablet from her. It took her a few wacks, but when she did, she broke the tablet in half by hitting it against the rock. "What the hell?!" Trisha hollered. "You want to end up like that Tablet?! Then keep complaining!" Jenna shouted, which made Trisha silent. "Right now, we are trying to fight off a group of people from our world who are doing god knows what to innocent ponies, and you want to invite the entire fucking world?! Do you no know what danger you will put not only Equestria but ourselves?!" "I…I.." "No! No excuse! I will let this go for now Trisha, but I really don't want the whole world to find this place, especially after the Mall-Vegas incident." she said as she walked off. Trisha already knew about the mall incident. About how we had to save the girls from a convention in Las Vegas. Thinking about it made me hold Dash a little tighter, knowing I nearly lost her. It also gave me clarity on why I continued to fight. Not just for Dash's sake, but or Equestria. As soon as the tension died down, we heard someone out in the distance that made everyone alert. It was a foreign language, and it sounded like a lot of them. It even woke Dash up. "Whats going on?!" she asked. "Don't know," I said as we got up. Everyone else was on their feet and looking in the direction of the voices and rustling. "I'm gonna check it out!" Dash announced as she flew up to a branch. She stopped, nearly turned pale, and flew back down. "There's twenty of them, they are headed this way!" "Who?!" I asked. "Humans!" We all looked at each other in dread and knew they were on to us. "What do we do!" Trisha asked in panic. Jenna was hesitant for a second but spoke up. "Run! everyone split up in groups of two!"