//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 - A Trek 
// Story: My Family and Other Equestrians 
// by Blade Star 
//------------------------------//

Now that we were all together at last, we only had one real goal to think about; getting out of this forest and finding someone, or rather somepony, to help us. Since I knew a fair bit about this world, I found myself nominated to again act as a sort of ad-hoc guide. After all, my parents knew little about the Everfree, and Lizzie had almost accidentally come into contact with Poison Joke. And God only knows what it might have done to her. I was hardly the most qualified person, but I think I was the least worst candidate for the job.

So I took the lead, with Lizzie and Mum following, and Dad bringing up the rear.

Our first step was to get across the extremely unstable looking rope bridge that lay before us. It crossed an extremely deep ravine. With so little light, I couldn’t even see the bottom of what seemed to be an endless void. But we needed to get across it. My small amount of knowledge told me that this was where the Mane Six had crossed way back when. Given everything that had happened so far today, my knowledge of the lore of MLP wasn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind. But I did remember that Rainbow Dash had retied the bridge back to its posts after refusing to work for the spectral Shadowbolts. Hopefully her knot tying skills would hold out.

“I think we ought to test it first,” Dad prompted as we all stood on the edge of the abyss. “It doesn’t look exactly solid, does it?”

I was about to turn back to him and reply in agreement, when I realised everyone else was looking at me.

I was the smallest of our group.

And the lightest.

I was to be the one that ‘tested’ the bridge.

Bugger.

My heart began to beat faster as I stepped onto the first, somewhat rotted, plank. The structure creaked from the pressure, and a few gusts of wind caused it to sway slightly.

I’ve never particularly much cared for heights. Heights, bugs, and teeth; those are the three things that make me uncomfortable. And not even being able to see how far the undoubtedly deadly drop was just made things worse.

Still, we needed to get across here at some point. I tried to reassure myself that the bridge had easily withstood the combined weight of six ponies quite easily. But as I brought my back hooves on, the wooden planks creaked again in protest. I decided to tread carefully. I eased my way forward, picking my steps carefully, and tentatively checking each plank as I went. Some easily took my weight without trouble, while others creaked and groaned ominously, causing me to skip over them to the next one. Behind me, my parents and Lizzie watched my steady progress with concern.

Eventually, after what had to have been one of the longest minutes of my life, I made it to the other side of the ravine. The bridge, while it had protested at times, and continued to sway in the breeze, had held firm under me, not even splintering. Turning around, I could just make out the other members of my family on the other side, though the fog that hung around the ravine partly obscured them.

It’s okay! I’m across!” I called out, cupping my mouth with one hoof to magnify the sound. “It creaks a bit, but it seems safe. Just come across one at a time to be safe, and watch your step!” I saw the three of them briefly consult with each other for a minute. Dad then yelled back across the gap.

“Alright! Your sister’s going to come across next!” he shouted back, the fog slightly muffling his voice. “When she’s across, I’ll send your mother, and then I’ll come last!”

“Fine! I’ll wait here for you and keep an eye on things on this side!” I answered.

With everything agreed, Lizzie began her own journey across the rope bridge. She still seemed fairly shook up, for she took a minute or so to get started. A part of me felt impatient with her; it was already mid-afternoon, if we didn’t get a move on, we’d be in here come nightfall. That was when all the nastier creatures came out to play.

Before long though, she started. Having watched me all the way, she chose her path carefully. The bridge again held firm, though it did continue to sway in the wind. I was a little concerned that, being bipedal, and consequently putting more weight on each foot, the bridge might be less stable. But luck seemed to be on her side, for she soon reached me and stepped back onto solid ground. I trotted over to her.

“Hey, you okay, Lizzie?” I asked as she walked up. Again though, she didn’t speak, only nodding in assent. I then called out that she was safely across. Next, it was Mum’s turn.

Like me, at times, Mum can be a bit panicky. But whereas I was currently switching between excitement and fear, she had been pretty scared this whole time. After all, we were seemingly stuck, further from home than most would have thought possible, with nothing but the shirts on our backs (though I didn’t even have that!), in a forest possibly filled with dangerous creatures.

She doesn’t much care for heights either. And unlike Lizzie and me, she was keener to get over the bridge as quickly as possible, rather than go carefully. I gritted my teeth as she scampered across like a deer, causing the bridge to groan in protest. Her heavier footfalls were also making it rock more, as well as putting extra weight on it.

“Mum, slow down; take it easy!” I called out. I really wasn’t liking the sounds the bridge was making at this point. Unfortunately, perhaps a moment after my shouted warning, the inevitable happened.

With a sudden splintering of wood, one of the planks gave way as she stepped on it. Her foot went through the gap and she tripped up, landing heavily on her front. Understandably frightened, she screamed. This brought both myself and my Dad, running from opposite directions to her aid. We were both worried that the bridge, now structurally compromised, might start coming down.

Since she was close to the mid-point, we both reached her at around the same time. She’d gotten back onto her knees, but the shock of it all had caused her to freeze up. And despite Dad and me both encouraging her, she wouldn’t or couldn’t move. The bridge continued to splinter and parts of the rope that held it all together were now starting to fray. I found myself now wishing that I was a pegasus. But since I couldn’t use magic as a unicorn, I doubted that I’d have been able to fly just by virtue of species.

Eventually, unwilling to wait any longer, Dad placed his hands under her armpits, and hauled her up onto her feet. I was actually surprised he was able to do this. Given that, from his position behind her on the bridge, he didn’t have that much leverage. Plus, he wasn’t all that strong to begin with. Still, he managed to get her up, and with me leading, we ran across to re-join Lizzie.

The bridge thankfully held out and didn’t collapse when we jumped off it. But we were all still pretty shaken, Mum especially. Dad was out of breath and sat down next to Lizzie on the soft grass, breathing heavily.

“Whew, thanks for your help, lad,” Dad said at length, still out of puff. “I’d never have been able to lift her myself.” I turned to look at him, perplexed.

“What help?” I asked curiously. “You were the one who got her out of there.”

I actually felt a bit guilty, and silly, for just running out onto the bridge without thinking, and not really being able to do anything. Suddenly though, much to everyone’s surprise, Lizzie spoke up, breaking her earlier silence.

“Your horn was glowing,” she said quietly. “And then Mum glowed and you and Dad pulled her out.”

I guess I’d been too panicked at the time, but evidently I’d tapped into my magic once again. I was still no closer to having control over it, but it was a start. If we were here for a while, I’d certainly want to learn a bit about it. Right after we got out of our current situation.





With the four of us now all across the ravine, we once again found ourselves trekking through the forest. The sun was still fairly high in the sky. At a rough guess I’d say we had five or six hours of light left.

I looked up at the sun in thought as we walked. That wasn’t the sun I was used to. It was some whole other sun. It wasn’t at the centre of a solar system, it was moved around this planet by the magic of an alicorn. The same could be said for the moon too. It was just…such an overload really. Every now and again I would remind myself that we actually were in Equestria, and hopefully, before long, we’d reach Ponyville.

Still, my excitement was tempered by our current situation. There were more pressing issues than running off to meet my favourite ponies. As much as it would be fun to be here, I think we all would want to go home at some point. We all had lives after all. Lizzie was just about to start university again, I’d recently finished and was job hunting, Dad had his own firm to run, and Mum was just beginning to settle into her retirement from teaching. We couldn’t just drop all that so I could go gallivanting around Equestria.

My thoughts drifted to a more immediate plan. Once we came to the edge of the forest, we’d need to get into contact with the ponies, preferably with Twilight Sparkle, now a princess I reminded myself. She’d be most likely to help us and not freak out as a lot of ponies tended to do. Our best bet would be for me to head into Ponyville. As a pony, I wouldn’t draw too much attention, certainly less than having three humans with me.

We’d all been walking in comparative silence for some time now. But I was suddenly startled out of my thoughts when Lizzie, who had been walking alongside me, spoke up.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked curiously. She was still fairly quiet, but at least she was talking now. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I’m just trying to think what we ought to do next,” I replied, still half lost in thought.

“Dad said you were taking us to this pony town outside the forest,” Lizzie said, I nodded.

“Well, yeah,” I answered. “But you, Mum, and Dad can’t just walk in there. They’d all panic. After all, things that come out of the Everfree tend to be bad news. I don’t want any of you getting hurt.” Lizzie pushed a tree branch out of her way as we pressed on.

“That makes sense. I guess that magic could really hurt us. You managed to pick up Mum after all.” I nodded in agreement.

“It’s probably a good idea for you guys to stay on the edge of the forest,” I suggested, before reassuring her, for her face had a worried expression. “Don’t worry, hardly anything goes near the border. All the nasty stuff stays closer to that castle.” Mum then broke into the conversation.

“How much further do you think it is anyway?” she asked.

I wracked my brains. We had been walking for a while now since we left the ravine and the rope bridge behind. It had been a while since I watched the pilot episode, and like I said, my exact knowledge of MLP wasn’t exactly at my beck and call due to my stress levels. I tried to remember the series of events that had led Twilight and her friends to the castle. Before the ravine there had been a…

“Hey look, a river,” Dad said, pointing ahead of us, just beyond a last thicket of trees.

Indeed, there was a river. As we came out of the trees again, we found ourselves standing on the grassy bank. The river was wide and fast flowing. I couldn’t see the bottom of it either. I knew enough about rivers to know that there was no way we could risk swimming. Even if I could swim in this new body, the current could potentially take you quite a way downstream, or even pull you under if you got caught on something. And even if we all got across, walking around in soaking wet clothes was a recipe for hypothermia. We weren’t exactly an SAS patrol unit after all.

No, there was no way we could all swim across, so we needed to find some other way. My dad quickly started looking up and down stream in search of some kind of bridge, or a shallower crossing place like a ford. But there was none to be found. From end to end, at least within eye sight, or until the river turned sharply, disappearing behind yet more trees, this river was deep, wide, and fast flowing, with foam even forming in places on its surface. I didn’t even want to think about what might be in there.

“Well, any ideas, lad?” Dad asked me haggardly, looking at the flowing water in concern.

Ah, yes, I reminded myself; Dad didn’t like water. Ever since he was a boy, mainly due to his mum panicking when some idiot pushed him underwater for a moment at the swimming pool. From that day on, he stays as far away as possible from any body of water he can’t touch the bottom of.

We needed to get across, that much was clear. I remembered that a river was one of the landmarks that we were looking for in order to guide ourselves out of the forest. But how did I even know that this was that particular river? The Everfree Forest was huge; covering a vast area of land, there could be half a dozen different rivers flowing through it for all I knew. I chastised myself for thinking that I could navigate using an ambiguous twenty minute long cartoon as a guidebook.

I was about to suggest trying to create a rudimentary raft of some sort, when fortune intervened. Ahead of us, in the centre of the river, bubbles began to appear on the surface of the water. Something was down there. A moment later, I saw something coming to the surface, something very large. Instinctively, I backed off, as did the rest of my family.

A few moments later, it tore out of the water, shooting up into the air perhaps ten feet. I won’t lie, that scared the living daylights out of me, and I’m fairly certain we all screamed in fright. I was certain that, whatever this creature was, its next move would be to dive down on us and devour us all. That…didn’t happen though.

As the creature steadied itself after broaching the surface, I recognised some of its features. It was a large sea serpent (although river serpent might be more appropriate), purple over most of its body with light orange hair on its head. This included a moustache on its elongated, dragon like muzzle. It was orange on both sides now, but I knew that once upon a time, half of it had been a well styled purple tail. Realising the identity of our assailant, I cried out in surprise.

“Bloody hell, it’s Steve!” I exclaimed in relief. The rest of my family looked at me in complete and utter bewilderment. After all, a moment ago, I was just as scared as them. Dad was the first to come to his sense.

“Steve?” he shouted back in shock. “That’s a bloody great sea serpent in the middle of a river!” I tried to explain.

“It’s okay, he’s friendly, really,” I assured. With some trepidation, I turned back to the huge sea monster, who was now watching us all with some curiosity. I swallowed and hoped I wouldn’t make an ass out of myself.

“Greetings, my friend,” I said, waving a hoof and doing my best to keep my voice steady. “I don’t suppose you could help a lost pony and his friends out could you? We need to get across this river and the current is far too fast for us.” I mentally crossed my now non-existent fingers and hoped the blighter would play ball.

“Well sure, little pony,” he replied, smiling. I’d forgotten just how fantastically camp he sounded. Behind me, Dad was struggling to avoid laughing. Suffice it to say, he comes from a different time.

“I’m always happy to help. And you are right, this current is just impossible unless you’re a good strong swimmer.” With one quick motion, he lay down prone across the river bed, angling his form so that it created a series of islands that we could hop across.

Mum and Dad were a little hesitant at first, but after I jumped across, with Lizzie following me a moment later, they followed suit. You had to watch your footing, since it was a little slippery, but it was easy enough, and in a few moments, we were all on the far bank, that much closer to our goal. We all turned back to the large serpent.

“Thanks for the help,” my mum called out to him. He smiled.

“Oh sure, hon; any time,” he replied, waving a claw in a dismissive way. He then dove back under the water, splashing spray up onto either side.

I was again smiling at our success. Lizzie too seemed to have enjoyed our unconventional trip across the river. Our parents…well, that was another story. The stunned stares told their own story

“That just happened, didn’t it?” Dad said at length. “I didn’t just imagine us all skipping along the back of a giant sea serpent that talked like a fruit.” Lizzie giggled at that.

“No, that happened, Dad,” she replied. “I guess not everything in this forest is out to kill us.”

“Just who exactly was he anyway?” asked Mum. I decided to have a little fun

“Oh, that was Steve Magnet,” I replied nonchalantly, enjoying the moment. “Really nice guy, I think you two would really get along.” Mum shook her head in amazement.

“Before we go on, just answer me this,” she said. “Are we going to encounter anything weirder than that?”

I actually had to think for a moment. What in Equestria was more left field than Steve Magnet? Well, there was good old Pinkie Pie, naturally. Then there was Twilight whenever she had one of her little episodes about being organised. Who else? Well, let’s be honest, most residents of Ponyville would strike most people as a bit funny at times. But off the top of my head, I couldn’t really think of anything quite as ridiculous as a campy, giant sea serpent living in a river that doesn’t eat everything that it comes across. Except perhaps Discord. Now there was somepony I didn't fancy running into.

“Well, not in the immediate future,” I replied, rubbing a hoof against the side of my neck. “But Equestria can be a weird and wacky place at times.”

“Alright,” Dad said, jumping into the conversation. “Do you think it will be much further to this pony town of yours?”

“It’s Ponyville, Dad,” I replied, correcting him. “I don’t think it’s too far. That river should certainly be the last big obstacle at any rate. Well, as long as we don’t run into that manticore.”

“The what?!” my mum exclaimed.





The river, as far as I could remember, was the last real obstacle in our path. Everything else that had impeded the progress of the Mane Six had been the result of Nightmare Moon’s interference. So, I hoped that all we needed to do now was press on until we reached the edge of the forest.

Then would come the tricky part; getting help from the ponies. Effectively, the four of us were about to be responsible for first contact between our two species. Aside from the odd fandom suggestion that Lyra knew about mythical humans, they’d never really cropped up in Equestrian lore, so I had no idea how they might react. Plus, ponies could at times be somewhat xenophobic; just look at how they treated Zecora. How would they react to humans?

It would all depend on how our first meeting went. Assuming that I could somehow get Twilight to follow me, a random stranger she’d never met before, into a potentially dangerous forest that ponies only went into if they had to. We’d still need some way to introduce ourselves and prove we weren’t a threat.

Twilight herself might be level headed, but what about other ponies? And then, what were we to do after? My only real plan was to either try and convince Twilight to help us, or somehow get up to Canterlot to consult the princesses. And how were we to do that? For goodness sake, it would be nightfall in a few hours, and we didn’t even have anywhere to sleep! Once again, our once seemingly jovial foray into the magical land of Equestria was starting to turn sour and my own fears were again starting to creep back up from the depths of my subconscious.

I’m not going to lie, at this point, I was tired, my hooves and legs ached; I was worn out and needed a rest. The long trek had been draining mentally too. Being on the alert for so long was just as draining as walking. I knew that before long our tempers, as well as our nerves, would start to give out, and that was the last thing we needed.

As we continued though, I noticed that, despite the time of day, the sunlight seemed to be getting brighter as we walked. With each step, the shadowy canopy seemed to get less and less. There were more openings between the trees and less dark shadows. All in all, the place began to feel brighter, and so did we as a result.

“I think we might be getting near the edge,” Dad commented, also taking note of the improving conditions. He was walking behind me with Mum, while I was still on point, with Lizzie at my side.

“You’re right, dear,” Mum agreed. “It definitely looks a lot less spooky all of a sudden, doesn’t it? What do you think, son; are we nearly out?” I nodded and called back to her.

“It sure looks like it,” I replied encouragingly. “Once we do get to the edge we can find somewhere to hole up for a bit, while I try and get my bearings.”

I was certainly glad that we were coming to the edge of this place. But I had little to no idea where we’d come out. We might be near Fluttershy’s cottage. But for all I knew, we may have gone completely the wrong way, and now be coming out toward Ghastly Gorge. Still, anything was better than being stuck in that place. At least outside it would be bright, sunny, and comparatively safe.

As it turned out though, my worries were unfounded. For a few minutes later, before we reached the edge of the forest, we all picked up the sounds of another group approaching. Despite my supposedly improved hearing, Lizzie picked up on it first, followed by Dad.

“Shh, do you guys hear that?” she asked, reducing her voice to a whisper, and holding her hand up in a stop signal.

The four of us stopped where we were and listened. Dad crouched down slightly in an effort to be less conspicuous. Faintly, but definitely coming closer, was the sound of not only hooves on the ground, but also a number of voices. It was with a mixture of relief, excitement, and fear that I recognised them all instantly.

Well, I guess we hadn’t gone the wrong way after all.