//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Bound to Find Something Eventually // Story: Waiting For You // by Rainb0w Dashie //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash and Gilda were flying west, soaring through the jet stream above the great Equestrian plains. Even though they were both at least two miles in the air, the pair kept their eyes trained to the ground, following a rogue offshoot of the Everfree Forest that had managed to stretch itself through the plains to the base of the Smoky Mountain Range. "We're getting close!" Gilda called out to Rainbow Dash, yelling over the wind. "It's hard to see this early in the year but I remember it being just north of a gorge that cuts through the forest." Rainbow Dash scanned the trees below. The western sun cast a glare across her flight goggles, obscuring her vision. She held up a hoof to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun, and even though the land below was still washed out by the afternoon light, the pegasus spotted a long section of trees that seemed inexplicably shorter than the rest of the forest. "Do you think it could be over there? Rainbow Dash pointed at the section of forest. "Where that long section of trees dips below the others?" "Yeah, that's the gorge. "Gilda called back. "We have to go north now." The two banked northward into a descent, and shortly afterward dove through the canopy of the forest and landed somewhere below. "Damn it!" Gilda ripped off her flight goggles. "We undershot it. it's nothing but forest here." "Well you said it was north right?" Rainbow Dash shouted, her voice echoing through the forest. "You know we've landed right?" Gilda chided. "You don't have to shout anymore." "Eheh, sorry. I've been shouting over the wind for so long." Rainbow Dash said much quieter this time. "So you said it was north right? Couldn't we just go back up and land somewhere else?" "And then what? keep hopping back up and down, landing wherever? We could be doing that for hours!" "Chill bird," Rainbow said. "It was just a suggestion." Rainbow Dash paused and looked the forest. Even though it was only late afternoon, the canopy of the everfree forest let almost no light through. The trees were densely packed together in this section of wood that only a few golden streams of dappled sunlight could be seen shining down from the holes in the treetops; creating just enough ambient light to see maybe ten or fifteen feet away, but for the most part the forest was as black as the night sky. “Dash did I ever tell you that I hate this place?” Rainbow Dash looked back at Gilda who was digging one of her talons out of the mud. They were both submerged up to their knees in mud from their hard landing. “Cause I really do hate it. And did we have to pick the wettest spot to land too?” “Geeze Gilda, what’s gotten into you?” Dash said to her friend. “You weren’t like this on the fly over.” “I’m sorry.“ Gilda wiped off her talons on a neighboring fern. “I just remembered that I really don’t like this place. It gives me the creeps.” The air was damp and smelled of decaying plant matter. Unseen animals and insects filled the air with their song and somewhere in the forest echoed the sounds of monstrous beasts that lurked in the darkness. Despite the proud and mighty gryphon that she was, the atmosphere of the forest churned up feelings of dread inside Gilda. A lingering sense of impending doom, and she could feel her feathers begin to stand on end the longer she stood in the forest. “Well we didn’t come all this way to wimp out because of a little mud.” Rainbow Dash said freeing herself from the mire. “So, should we go north?” “Yeah I guess.” Gilda groaned. “Might as well. We’re bound to find something eventually.” The two began making their way through the denseness of the forest, brushing past branches and vines and the occasional fallen tree; knocked over from storms that ripped through the forest long ago. The trees stretched on unbroken for miles, and there were no natural trails or passageways that could be taken, so the narrow path they carved was made uneven by the many knotted roots and interlocking branches that obstructed their path. As the pair cut their way through the forest they did so in relative silence, focusing on moving branches and tree limbs out of their way. The task was laborious, but they were quickly able to find their stride and soon the task became effortless. They began to make  some real progress, covering a mile in under fifteen minutes or so, but the longer they worked the more Rainbow Dash began to focus on the forest itself rather than helping her friend clear a path. The Everfree Forest was a mysterious place and home to horrifying creatures, several of which Rainbow Dash had first-hoof encounters with; Timberwolves, manticores, dragons, and ursine. She had also been told once or twice that the forest was a place of physical and spiritual banishment, that one could hear the moans of forsaken spirits echoing through the woods at night. She’d heard similar ghost stories about the forest all of her life, more so once she moved her house above Ponyville. In town there’s a local superstition that you do not enter the forest under any circumstance.  The townsponies are so afraid of the forest that there was even an uproar when Fluttershy decided to build her cottage on the forest’s edge. Everypony in town thought she was going to anger the spirits that haunted the forest or provoke a pack of timberwolves to descend upon the town; but after years of living there without incident the citizens of Ponyville began to ease up on their fears, and their superstitions soon became more of a respectful distance than that of irrational myths and fables. Rainbow Dash never believed any of the ghost stories herself. She thought they were ridiculous. She was aware the forest was dangerous and recognized its threats, but she never let it bother her too much. It was just a forest after all, not some big insurmountable evil. For all the times she’s ventured into the forest she’d hardly ever seen a timberwolf or a parapsirte, or even an ursa for that matter. It was just a normal forest like any other. Wind sighing through the trees, birds chirping on the branches, owls calling to each other in the dark. The only difference was the weather acted of its own accord and the plants grew without aid. Sure there were things in the forest that scared her. The fundamental nature of the forest itself was enough to make her uneasy. She was always taught that pegasi controlled the weather and earth ponies grew the plants. That’s the way things were supposed to be. So the forest doing these things on its own felt unnatural and wrong. Sure there was some level of fear. The dreadful unexplainable sounds she could sometimes hear from her home at night were enough to lend some credence to all the tales she’d heard about the forest. Sure the distant rumblings of dragons and ursine were enough to dry up her throat and make her breath go shallow; but she had to keep a brave face. It was just a forest after all. “You want to pick up the slack dude?” Gilda said abruptly, retrieving Rainbow Dash from her reverie. “I’m doing all the work!” “Oh, sorry,” Rainbow Dash bent a branch out of the way. “I guess I got distracted by the forest.” “You’re not afraid of the woods are you?” Gilda mocked. “Big tough Rainbow Dash is gonna get eaten by a timberwolf if she’s not careful.” “Hey, you don’t like this place either.” Rainbow Dash retorted, dismissing the gryphon’s teasing. “Only because it sucks.” Gilda said emphatically. “There’s dirt and mud and bugs everywhere, but you keep looking around like you’re afraid something’s gonna jump out of the woods and attack you. You ponies are so terrified of this place it’s unreal.” “What do you mean, ‘you ponies’?” “Have you heard some of the stories about this place?” Gilda said hotly “If you enter the everfree forest you’ll never be heard from again. Don’t fall asleep in the forest or else your soul will be trapped for eternity. Or, uh, Don’t ever break the branches in the everfree forest or you’ll-.” “Hey that one has some truth to it!” Rainbow Dash said anxiously. “If you break the branches in the forest it could attract timberwolves.” “That’s exactly what I mean.” Gilda said self-assured. “Terrified.” “I’m not terrified of the Everfree Forest.” Rainbow Dash said with consternation. “It’s just common sense. Timberwolves can sense when the trees are being broken, since they’re made of the forest itself, so breaking the branches could alert any timberwolves in the area to come and attack you.” “Oh, so you’re saying I shouldn’t do this then?” The gryphon said as she snapped a particularly large branch. The distinctive cccrrrrricckk echoing sharply through the woods. “Better watch out dash, the timberwolves are coming!” Rainbow Dash was stunned. “Don’t do that!” she said, unconvincingly trying to hide the fear in her voice. Gilda only responded by brazenly snapping another branch. “It’s not a joke, G!” Rainbow Dash shouted with real panic in her voice. “You’re gonna get us both killed!” Gilda jumped and grabbed onto the arm of a tree, her paws dangling in the air before her weight broke the entire branch from the trunk and ripped a thick strip of bark down to its base; exposing the wet green sapwood. “And what’s that gonna do?” The gryphon said from the forest floor, branch in her lap and smirking up at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash said nothing. She was trembling from a combination of fear and anger. Her instincts told her to run but her hooves were locked in place. She wanted to say something, wanted to yell,  but her teeth were clenched tight. More than anything though, she wanted to punch Gilda, to bash that stupid grin off the gryphon’s face. However, before Rainbow Dash could do anything Gilda simply started to laugh. “Your face is so priceless dude! You look like you’re about to cry!” “If the timberwolves don’t kill you I will.” Rainbow Dash finally said, hitting her friend on the shoulder. She could feel a hotness in her cheeks. “Don’t try to act tough. You know I got you good.”  Gilda tossed the branch deep into the woods and got back up on all fours, still laughing.  “I knew you ponies were afraid of your little ghost stories but I didn’t think you’d actually get this freaked out. You actually think that breaking branches is going to…” Gilda suddenly clapped a claw over her beak. “Grover’s Ghost! What is that smell?” Rainbow Dash covered her nose as well. The air had suddenly become heavy with the pungent scent of rotting wood and fungus. The stench was thick and sickly sweet, smelling of cedar and pine mixed with used horseshoes and wet saddle leather. Rainbow Dash had to take short shallow breaths in order to avoid gagging. “It smells like something died!” Gilda grimaced and tried to move away from the smell. For a split second Gilda thought they had just stopped next to the carcass of a dead animal, a deer or a racoon maybe; her brain didn't make the connection at first. But when she heard howling and the distant sounds of scratching at the dirt steadily growing closer did she finally make the connection. “We have to run!” Rainbow Dash yelled and bolted past the gryphon, plunging like a deer through the trees. Gilda looked where her friend had darted off to, and turned back to see several pairs of green eyes begin to appear in the darkness. Shen turned and ran as well. It didn’t take long for the gryphon to catch up with Rainbow Dash. The forest was so thick it was almost impossible to run through. There were so many obstructions and protruding branches that Rainbow Dash had only been able to move about fifty feet before her friend caught up to her. “Why are we running?” Gilda said as they bounded over a fallen tree. “Because we’re being chased by Timberwolves!” Rainbow Dash said. “No, I get that part” Gilda said as they ran around an unusually large boulder. “But why are we running? We can fly.” Rainbow Dash was silent. “I didn’t think of that.” she said, and without another word the two quickly took flight and rose above the treetops. Their eyes stung in the bright afternoon light, and they both covered their eyes and blindly flew north, landing somewhere in the forest where the trees weren’t as dense. As they two landed, Rainbow Dash began to scold her gryphon friend when she was sure she couldn’t hear the timberwolves’ howls anymore. “What they hay is wrong with you?” Rainbow Dash yelled. “I told you breaking branches attracted timberwolves, I wasn’t joking. “ “I’m sorry.” Gilda said roughly. trying to rub the blindness from her eyes. “Sure it was only a pack of timberwolves,” Rainbow Dash said less heated “But what if you attracted a timberwolf king? You can’t run from those, you can’t even outfly them.” “What is that?” Gilda said. “A timberwolf that’s like four stories tall and almost as fast as the wonderbolts.” Rainbow Dash said. “It can-” “No.” Gilda said pointing into the darkness. “What is that?” Ahead of them in a clearing, on the edge of the darkness, Rainbow Dash could see something moving. It wasn’t coming towards them. It wasn’t a Timberwolf. It was writhing and wriggling in place, and as her own eyes adjusted to the darkness again Rainbow Dash could see it to be a bundled mass of vines at the base of a tree. As they moved closer to investigate, something shiny caught the sun and shimmered through the vines, and they could soon see the vague shape of a golden slab inside the vines. “It looks like… gold?” Gilda said. The vines continued squirming and constricting, like a pit of snakes coiling around each other for warmth. “It looks almost like a breastplate, or some kind of armor.” “Maybe it’s some kind of bronze?” Rainbow Dash said. “No wait, look, there’s a sword in there too.” Gilda took a step towards the quivering mass and could indeed see the dull faded blade of a sword, but only briefly as the vines continued to wrap around themselves. Curiously, she reached out a claw to to move vines apart when one suddenly sprung forth and wrapped itself around her wrist. “Uh dude?” Gilda said as the vine tightened, squeezing the tendons hard and balling her claw into a fist. She tried to pull her claw away but it only caused the vine to tighten more “dude, DUDE!” She cried out in pain. “Get this thing off me, it’s breaking my wrist!” Rainbow Dash ran over to Gilda and tried to pry the vine off of her friend’s wrist. She pulled at the vine, but it seemed to only cause it to tighten more, as if it were trying to pull the the gryphon inside. “It’s pulling me in!” Gilda cried as the vine wrapped around her other claw, cuffing her. She dug her back paws into the ground and tried to pull back as hard as she could, but the vines simply coiled themselves further up her arm. Rainbow Dash had to think of something quick. She looked around, frantically searching for a branch or something to break the vine with but found nothing. The gryphon cried out in pain and Rainbow Dash did the only thing she could think to do. She unfurled her wings and jumped into the air, flying at the vines. She smashed into them with the broad part of her body, snapping the vines and causing Gilda to fall backwards. Rainbow Dash was about to turn to her friend and gloat about her quick thinking when she heard a frightened cry and looked over to see several vines slithering across the forest floor and Gilda scrabbling backwards trying to get away. The pegasus rushed over to her friend, kicking the vines away, and helped the gryphon to her feet. “Let’s get the buck out of here!” Gilda said as the two began to run, leaving the vines and the huddle mass to disappear into the darkness of the forest.