When Apple Bloom came to, the first thing she did was panic. She found herself upside down in some sort of greenish goo, with no air to breathe. Apple Bloom squirmed around, movements slowed by the thick liquid, but found no air pocket in her small prison. She tried to flail against the almost transparent walls containing her and her goo, but to no avail. Her struggles slowed as her head felt light and vision began to fade. And so, with blackness closing in, she surrendered herself to the inevitable and allowed her lungs to fill.
With her first ‘breath’ of the green fluid, the blackness receded. Her head cleared, and she breathed the green stuff once more. It felt thick, and she had to work harder than normal to cycle it into and out of her lungs, but it seemed that whatever this green goop was, she could breathe it.
Her panic subsided when she realised she would not be drowning today, and Apple Bloom looked around her prison with calmer eyes. It was rounded in all directions, including up and down, reminding her of nothing so much as an egg. Looking through the translucent walls of her odd prison, Apple Bloom thought she could make out some similar shapes, one above and three below. She focused on the one above, and thought it looked like some kind of cocoon, large enough to hold a pony.
Or a griffon, she realised, recognising the figure contained within. That’s Gabby!
Looking at the cocoons below her, she thought she could make out the shapes of more griffons, one in each cocoon.
I’m not in an egg, thought Apple Bloom. I’m in a cocoon like them.
Looking more closely around her own cocoon, Apple Bloom sought a way out. She thought that if butterflies could get out of their cocoons, then so could she. Unfortunately, the interior of the cocoon appeared seamless.
Suddenly, her cocoon was bumped. Glancing around to see what had happened, she saw Gabby’s cocoon swaying around a little. Figuring that Gabby must have woken up, Apple Bloom moved to get a closer look at her friend.
Gabby saw Apple Bloom watching her, and waved before holding up one talon. She then turned to the sides of her own cocoon, repeatedly scraping one claw along a scratch that grew deeper and deeper with each pass.
Eventually, the tip of Gabby’s claw poked through the side of the cocoon, tearing a slice down and releasing the goo-covered Gabby. The griffon gripped the side of her cocoon, allowing the green fluid to drain to the ground, before coughing up yet more goo. She swung herself over to Apple Bloom’s cocoon, and she flicked her wings several times to remove as much of the goo as possible. When she landed atop Apple Bloom’s prison, she used a talon to begin cutting Apple Bloom free.
After about a minute of scratching, Gabby broke through. Gripping the sides of the cocoon with her talons, she pulled it apart. Unfortunately, her efforts worked too well, and the cocoon’s weight widened the tear to the point that the bottom half of the cocoon tore free of the top. Apple Bloom felt her stomach begin to float before Gabby grabbed hold of a foreleg. Unfortunately, Gabby’s goo-slicked talons and paws were unsuited to suddenly holding so much weight all at once.
With a yelp, pony and griffon both fell, bouncing off of one of the lower cocoons and rolling over one another before landing on the ground with a sickening crack of breaking bone when Apple Bloom landed squarely on Gabby’s outstretched forelimb.
“Ahh!” Gabby cried, before Apple Bloom shoved a hoof in her beak.
Apple Bloom looked at Gabby’s broken foreleg, eyes wide. She sputtered as she tried to speak with the goo in her lungs, before coughing it up and trying again. “I’m so sorry about that, Gabby!” she finally managed to whisper.
Using her good limb to remove Apple Bloom’s hoof, Gabby whispered back her reply. “That’s okay, Apple Bloom. It’s my fault, I should have had a better grip.” She looked around, finding herself to be in what looked like a dark cave, with a sliver of bright light some way off to the side. The bottom half of Apple Bloom’s cocoon had rolled up to the remains of a much larger cocoon, which looked like it had cracked open. “Where are we?”
Apple Bloom joined her in looking around. “I’m not sure. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“Ugh. A great big timberwolf attacking me,” said Gabby. “You?”
“Manticore,” Apple Bloom replied, rolling the shoulder the manticore had bitten. She tested her foreleg, finding it sore but able to hold her weight. “I reckon we’re in that big tree that ‘Scootaloo’ and ‘Gilda’ wouldn’t stop talkin’ about.” She looked up at the three remaining cocoons. “What about them? Where’d they come from?” she asked, pointing up. The three griffons were beginning to wake, twitching their heads and flailing about as they panicked at the apparent lack of breathable air.
Gabby looked up before tilting her head to the side. “I think they’re from Effai clan. They must be the griffons that were chasing us.”
“That’s what I thought,” replied Apple Bloom. “I don’t want ‘em to catch us, but I wouldn’t leave anypony to the monsters in this here rainforest.”
“Yeah,” grimaced Gabby. She looked up at the imprisoned griffons. They were in the process of learning that they could, in fact, breathe the goo. “Any ideas?”
“You could stay there and let my children take you,” suggested a deep, reverberating voice from the darkness. “It’s been sooo long since we had so much to feed on!”
“Run!” cried Apple Bloom, bolting for the light.
Gabby looked back and forth between the fleeing Apple Bloom and the imprisoned griffons, before flapping up to the lowest cocoon and, with a talon on her unbroken foreleg, leaving a deep scratch in the shell. She pointed it out to the goo-smothered griffon within before flying her way after Apple Bloom out of the tree.
She found Apple Bloom just outside, staring in shock at a trio of manticores standing with a timberwolf and a four-headed hydra. Gabby wasted no time, simply scooping Apple Bloom up with her good leg and flying as fast as she could. She threaded the gap between two of the hydra heads, leaving the multi-headed monster snapping at itself while Gabby zoomed off, the late afternoon sun behind her.
After flying a few hundred ponylengths from the tree of horror, Gabby dipped below the canopy out of view of the hydra. Since the beast was still roaring and growling at itself, Gabby thought it might not have seen which way they had gone, but she did not want to stay in open skies where they could be chased down by a swarm of manticores.
Gabby flew for all she was worth, swerving around trees and soaring over streams while Apple Bloom clung on for dear life. After a few minutes of crazy flight, Gabby began to lose altitude as her flaps slowed down.
“Gabby,” said Apple Bloom, “I think we’ve lost ‘em.” Gabby seemed not to hear her pony passenger, so Apple Bloom lightly swatted her in the beak. “Gabby!”
Gabby finally blinked, and glanced at Apple Bloom before slowing to a hover. She let Apple Bloom down, before her wings finally gave out and she fell.
Apple Bloom was ready for her, and quickly positioned herself underneath the griffon to catch Gabby on her back. “Easy there, Gabby. We got away. Now I guess it’s my turn to carry you for a while.”
“Thanks, Apple Bloom,” panted Gabby. “I guess I got a little panicked back there.”
Apple Bloom shifted Gabby into a more comfortable carrying position before setting off. “Heh. I don’t blame ya. I was scared outta my wits too. What kept ya, anyways? When I got outside alone I thought that that voice had got ya.”
“I showed one of the Effai griffons that they could scratch their way out. I’m sorry I scared you like that, but I couldn’t just leave them there,” explained Gabby. “They might be Effai, but they’re still griffons.”
“Huh,” said Apple Bloom. “Probably for the best, I guess. Even though they were chasin’ us, I didn’t like leavin’ ‘em there like that. At least they’ve got a chance now.”
“If those monsters are all chasing us, then those griffons might have a better chance than us,” mused Gabby. “Who do you think that voice was, anyway? It sounded weird.”
Apple Bloom shuddered at the memory. “I dunno, and I hope I never hear it again. I’m probably gonna have nightmares about it.”
“Maybe you should ask the moon to help you with them,” suggested Gabby.
Apple Bloom blinked. “Huh? What do ya mean?”
“It’s something my mother used to say to me, that the moon keeps bad dreams away,” Gabby shrugged. “Just one of those things you tell fledgelings to help them sleep at night.”
“I don’t think ponies don’t know that one,” replied Apple Bloom. “Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask, I suppose.” Apple Bloom glanced up at where the sky should be, hidden above the thick canopy of the rainforest. “Maybe I’ll try when we’re not in a rainforest that’s home to a bunch of monsters. Wouldn’t want to give them shapeshifters any ideas.”
“Good point.” Gabby tilted her head, looking at Apple Bloom. “You look different, Apple Bloom.”
“Maybe it’s all the goo stuck in my coat and mane,” replied Apple Bloom. She paused to flick her foreleg in a somewhat successful attempt to get rid of the offending liquid. “I don’t mind a bit of green here and there, but I sure don’t like swimmin’ in it.”
“No, it’s not that,” said Gabby. “Was your mane always hanging down like - oh no, it’s your ribbon! It’s gone.”
“I lost my mane ribbon?” said Apple Bloom, feeling her mane with a forehoof. “Oh, ponyfeathers. I liked that ribbon.”
“Well, I’m not going back for it,” quipped Gabby “So don’t even ask.”
They giggled while Apple Bloom continued eastwards. “It’s a pity I lost it, actually,” said Apple Bloom. “I coulda used it to make a sling for ya leg. Ooh, wait. There’s some vines. They’ll do nicely.”
Apple Bloom gently deposited Gabby on the ground, before gathering up some vines and a few straight sticks. With these, she made a makeshift splint and sling for Gabby’s broken foreleg.
Stepping back to admire her hoofiwork, Apple Bloom asked, “How’s that?”
Gabby shrugged with her good leg. “Still hurts, but I think this’ll do until we find a real doctor.”
“Think you can walk for now?” asked Apple Bloom.
“I think so,” Gabby replied. The pair set off towards the east, Gabby limping slowly at first, before finding an effective three-legged gait. “How much further, do you think?”
“To the edge of the rainforest? I dunno,” replied Apple Bloom. “Hopefully not too far. I keep thinkin’ another one of those shapechangers is gonna jump out at us. How far to Eyrieport, once we’re out the other side?”
“Depends how fast I can walk like this,” said Gabby. “But I’m afraid it might be too far.”
“There’s gotta be a road out there somewhere, right?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Yeah, of course,” answered Gabby. “Why?”
Apple Bloom looked over her shoulder at Gabby’s wings. “Let’s grab some more vines. I have an idea that might speed us up,” she grinned.