Eventually the trees began to thin. As the duo ran through the woods, the brush soon gave way to a narrow clearing, and the damp dirt of the forest floor soon turned to ballast stone as they loped out of the trees. The pre-evening sun was shining through the opening in the treetops and fell directly onto the metal of a single set of train tracks.
“Tracks?” Gilda panted. “Of course there’d be tracks. Why is this forest so weird?”
Rainbow Dash took a step forward to investigate. “That is weird. The Equestrian trains don’t even come out this far west.”
“I don’t think those are Equestrian tracks.” Gilda said ponderously, strangely out of breath for a gryphon that partakes in long-distance flights fairly regularly.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash said. “They’re train tracks in Equestria. How could they not be Equestrian tracks?”
“I mean I don’t think they’re connected to any of the current lines.” Gilda said, starting to recover. “You see how overgrown they are?” she pointed towards several adult trees that had grown through the railroad ties. “Even if they were still connected I don’t think they’ve been used for a very long time.”
“Huh, good eye.” Rainbow Dash said. ”I never would’ve thought of that.”
The tracks lay before them like a runway, albeit one that had decayed with the passage of time. The Everfree Forest was ancient, so the tracks had to have been ancient as well. Perhaps many years ago this rail-line saw travel. Perhaps it was a scenic route along the way to Vanhoover; a quick jaunt through an ethereal forest before the railway opened up to the picturesque western Equestrian coast
But now it was well past any age of usefulness.
The rails were too rusted and buckled from season upon season of rain and snow. Thick trees and old roots had grown over and twisted the railroad ties out of place, so any train that tried to venture down the line would surely crash.
The forest was slowly taking away the last remnants of whatever these tracks once stood for, and in another hundred years there would simply be woodland with no sign of the clearing or the tracks passing through it having ever been there.
“Well if West is that way,” Rainbow Dash said aligning herself with the setting sun. “Then these tracks are going north and south. Do you think we should follow them? They're bound to lead somewhere.”
“Yeah, we might as well.” Gilda said, picking some brambles out of her wings. “We didn’t come all this way to wimp out because of a few timberwolves.”
They began walking down the tracks in respective silence, treading over roots and sidestepping the occasional sapling growing through the ties. The tracks stretched on unbroken for miles, and there were no railway switches or junctions that could be taken, so the tracks they walked seemed to stretch on endlessly towards the horizon like some kind purgatorious journey through Tartarus.
As they traveled down the tracks Gilda absentmindedly looked off to one side of forest that they had emerged from earlier. She cast her gaze from tree to tree, searching for something interesting to look at, something to entertain her while they walked, but the longer she looked into the woods the more it felt like the darkness was drawing closer to her.
Even though she could clearly see the silvery stripe of sky above her, and even though with a few mighty beats of her wings she could easily be high above the forest, she still couldn't help but feel the itch of claustrophobia crawling over her body again.
The darkness seemed to swell, pulsating and undulating, and the the branches swayed in the breeze almost appearing as if they were little black hands reaching out of the forest. Grabbing at her, trying to pull her in. It made her limbs feel tight, like she needed to run, and her skin felt as if she had dozens of tiny insects crawling all over her body trying to nibble at her flesh.
The gryphon tried to scratch herself under her wings, only to wince from the sudden movement of her wrist. She stopped and looked down at her claw. Although there was no visible injury from the incident earlier with the vines, and despite having no issue running or walking down the tracks, the gryphon's wrist was in a moderate amount of pain from the simple radial movement of trying to scratch her own back.
She opened and closed her claw a few times, only to feel a crepitus crackling sensation as the tendon moved in her wrist.
Rainbow Dash stopped a few feet ahead "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Huh?" Gilda looked up from her claw. "Oh, nothing." Gilda lied. "I just stepped on a thorn is all." and walked past the pegasus as the continued down the tracks. But something was wrong. Gilda's possibly-fractured wrist only seemed to reinforce it.
For all of her blustering and bravado, Gilda was afraid of the forest, and she knew Rainbow Dash was as well.
She could see the fear on Rainbow Dash's face when they first landed and even when they began to walk through the forest. Gilda only hoped her fears weren't as transparent with all of her arrogance and pride, but more importantly she wondered how much longer they could keep it up and whether or not they were going to spend the entire trip lying to each other about how not scared of the forest they were.
“Hey,” Rainbow Dash said suddenly. “About earlier?”
“Yeah?”
“I know I said this before but good eye on noticing these trees growing through the tracks.” Rainbow Dash said. “I know I’m pretty good at noticing things but I’m not as good at putting things together like that.”
“Yeah, we gryphons are naturally observant.” Gilda said with a smug sense of self-satisfaction. “Nothing gets by us.”
“Except Timberwolves and a bundle of vines?” Rainbow said coyly.
The gryphon glowered at the pegasus, who stuck her tongue out in response.
“Yeah yeah laugh it up.” Gilda said. “I guess I deserve it for attracting those Timberwolves.”
“Hey don’t take it so hard G,” Rainbow Dash said. “I didn’t believe those rumors at first either. In fact I did the exact same thing. Broke a branch because I thought it was ridiculous, and got chased for a half mile. I even thought I could outrun it but apparently they can smell the tree sap on your hooves, er, claws.”
“See! even you thought they sounded ridiculous!” Gilda said puffed-up. “All the stories and warnings are so ridiculous!... But I guess they have some truth to them after all.”
“The townsponies are just superstitious.” Rainbow Dash surmised. “But it’s almost like what we were told at Junior Speedsters Flight camp: Don’t fly on an empty stomach or your wings will seize. Don’t fly above the clouds during a rainstorm or you’ll get sucked up into the sky. Don’t-”
“That empty stomach thing is true though” Gilda cut in. “First time I tried it I almost fell to my death.”
“That’s what I mean,” Rainbow Dash said. “They sound like paranoid ramblings but they stem from some sort of truth.”
“And I guess the ones about flying just make more sense to us.” Gilda pondered. “Maybe if we lived on the ground with the rest of Ponyville we would be cowering over every odd noise as well.”
Yeah, maybe...” Rainbow Dash said. She waited for a response but the conversation seemed to trail off. However it didn’t take too long for the gryphon to pick up a different conversation.
“So you say you’ve been having nightmares?” Gilda said in an attempt to distract herself. “What about? You never really told me much about them.”
“Oh you know, losing horseshoes,” Rainbow Dash said sourly. “and other namby pamby things like that.”
“No I’m serious.” Gilda said oddly earnest. “We might be walking for a while so it’d at least kill some time.”
“Promise you won’t make fun of me?” Rainbow hesitated.
Gilda nodded.
“Well,” Rainbow sighed. “Alright.”
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping for a few weeks,” Rainbow Dash began. “But the dreams started the other night actually. Started with this dream where I woke up inside a train car. It was really dark, at least I think it was, I don’t remember seeing any light. All I remember is being very scared, not because I didn't know where I was or anything like that, but because I didn’t know where somepony else was.”
“And umm…” Rainbow continued. “I was inside a train car, and I remember it was moving incredibly fast, faster than any train I’ve ever been on. I couldn't even stand up it was so fast.”
“Was it going fast?” Gilda teased. Rainbow Dash snorted in response.
“But eventually,” Rainbow Dash continued. “The train stopped, almost on a bit, and I was flung forward into what I would soon find out to be was a pile of foals. Because shortly after we stopped, the door to the train car was opened and I could see that it was filled with foals. Fillies, colts, all of them different ages, and I could see at the other end of the train car was this yellow filly that looked a lot like Fluttershy. And I just remember feeling incredibly relieved when I saw her, like I hadn’t seen her in a long time or like I was afraid I wasn’t ever going to see her again… or something like that.”
“This sounds a lot like that horror movie, Foals of the Forest 2.” Gilda chided. “Where a bunch of foals get taken to this old logging camp in the woods that’s supposed to be haunted but it’s actually not and the only way they can get out is take this old train but there’s this mad logger that-”
“Don’t spoil the ending” Rainbow interjected. “I haven’t seen that movie yet.”
“Whatever dude,” Gilda said. “All I’m saying is you dreams sounds like a b-level horror movie so far.”
Rainbow glared at Gilda.
“But please continue.”
“Yeah...so.” Rainbow Dash began again. “We were all led off the train and into the forest by this really tall pony. I don’t know if it was because I was a foal in this dream or what, but I think I was afraid of her. She seemed to tower over us, and we couldn’t see her face because it was so dark. All I could think was I don’t like this pony, I want to go home and the only thing I really remember about her was that her mane was constantly waving in the air, almost like how the princess’ manes move during the day, or night for Luna. Which now that I think of it probably was Luna because the very next dream I had was of princess Luna.” She paused for a breath. “I was in a classroom and she was teaching poetry and there were all these foals there and…” Rainbow Dash paused to gather her thoughts. “But before that all even happened, we were lead through the woods to that large stone building, the one that I told you about earlier, and the figure quickly ushered us inside. Saying it wasn’t safe to be outdoors.”
“Those don’t exactly sound like nightmares.” Gilda said. “When you told nightmares, I thought you meant like being chased by a monster or something like that. Like maybe that tall figure would transform into some kind of beast and chase you through the halls.”
“You would think.” Rainbow said thoughtfully. “But every dream terrified me. I would either feel like I was going to die, or be taken away, or worse. I’ve woken myself up screaming into the night, covered in sweat… It feels like I haven’t slept in days.”
“So is this why you made me take you all the way out here then?” Gilda said. “Because of these nightmares?”
“I know it sounds silly,” Rainbow Dash said. “but when you mentioned the building with the red roof it sounded like it was more than just a coincidence, you know? Like I was having these dreams for a reason. Like there was a reason why I, specifically, were having these dreams… But I don’t know, the more I think about it the more I think I’m just psyching myself up for nothing. Maybe Luna was right. Maybe it is just a bad diet or not sleeping right... but I just want to find out for sure. You know?”
“I know what you mean.” Gilda said, hopping up and absentmindedly tip-toeing down the rails as they walked. “It sound like these dreams have you really spooked.”
“I really don’t want to admit it,” Rainbow Dash said reluctantly. “but they do. It’s to the point where I don’t even want to go to sleep anymore.”
“Well... if it makes you feel any better,” Gilda said reticently. “I’m...kinda... afraid of the dark.”
“Ha, really G?” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Afraid of the dark?”
“Well not in the sense that I need to sleep with a nightlight,” The gryphon said, hopping down from the track. “if that’s what you're thinking.”
“Well then what do you mean? Cause that’s exactly what it sounds like.”
“It’s hard to explain.” Gilda said. “It’s no the dark necessarily, but a fear of the unknown.”
As they spoke, the haunting call of a loon echoed through the forest.
“Take that loon for example” Gilda said “I know it’s just a bird, but It could be ten feet away, or several miles away in a lake somewhere. But with how the sound echoes through the forest you can’t get a sense of where anything is.”
“So, you’re afraid of loons?” Rainbow dash asked.
“Don’t be a dweeb dash, you know that’s not what I said.”
“Well then what is it?” Rainbow Dash fired back. “It’s just a forest.”
“It’s a gryphon thing.” Gilda said sharply. “We like to observe, we like to know what’s around us at all times. It’s the eagle in us. But out here, you can’t see ten feet in front of you, you can’t tell where any of the sounds are coming from. They just echo off each-other and sound like they’re all around you.” Gilda paused as another loon’s call rang through the forest. “I can go into a cave or a musty old dungeon no problem. But out here… It just makes me anxious.”
“I knew gryphons were part eagle,” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “but I didn’t know they were part chicken as well!”
“I’m being serious dude!” Gilda wings flared up. “This forest bugs the crap out of me, and I’m only telling you this because I didn’t want you to feel like a dweeb for being afraid of your little dreams.”
“Relax G, I’m only messing with you.” Rainbow gave Gilda a friendly tap on the shoulder, her wings reflexively tucked back to her sides. “This forest bugs me too, like you said, you’ll never know what’s out there until it springs up on you.”
The two became silent once again. Minutes passed, and eventually Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“You know, now that I think of it, I think I can actually remember another dream. I didn't even tell Twilight about this one.”
Gilda didn’t say anything in response, she only looked ahead as they continued onwards. Rainbow took it as a go-ahead and began to explain her dream.
“I was in this cafeteria.” she said. “I remember the walls were incredibly high, like two or three stories, and there were a line of windows at the very top letting sunshine in. This made me super upset for some reason. Princess Luna was there and I remember yelling at her. ‘’I want to go outside’ I said “I want to play in the sun, I’m tired of the night”. Luna was furious. There were other foals in the lunchroom, sitting at the tables with trays of food in front of them, but none of them were eating. None of them said anything. They just watched as Luna and I glared at each in the isle. I remember going for the door, I think it led outside, and I remember Luna saying, in the loudest voice I have ever heard: “IF YOU LEAVE THIS PLACE WE WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO PROTECT YOU. YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE BUT WE GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT US.”
Rainbow Dash paused for a long moment.
“I looked back at her for a long time.” Rainbow Dash continued. ”She was scowling at me, and I felt like I was betraying her… I looked over to the right, and there, sitting all alone at a table, was that filly from the train, the one that looked like Fluttershy. Sandy Shores I think her name is. She was crying, and I could feel myself start to cry too. I walked over to the table she was sitting at, past Luna, and I sat down. I didn’t say anything, I just put my head in my hooves and cried. Luna came over to me and-”
“Dash shut up a sec,” Gilda said, still looking down the tracks. “What’s that?”
“What? I don’t see anything.”
“You’ll see it in a second.” Gilda said. “I forgot, you ponies aren’t part lion so you can’t see as far in the dark as we can.”
But before Gilda could even finish her sentence, a large structure began to emerge from the darkness. As they walked even closer it began to take shape, until finally, they were standing before an old rusted train car; abandoned in the middle of the tracks.
“It’s… A train car?” The blue pegasus walked around to one side and looked up at the open door. The metal had completely rusted over from season after season of the forest’s unruly weather patterns. Whatever brilliant colors or company logos were once emblazoned on its surface had long since faded away, until all that remained was the reddish-brown color of corrosion.
“Alright, this is too freaky.” Rainbow Dash called out to Gilda who had rounded the other side of the car but spotted nothing of particular interest.
“What’s the big deal?” Gilda asked flippantly. “It’s just some rusty old train car.”
“This is the train car. I just know it!”
On impulse, Rainbow Dash climbed up onto the platform and went inside the train car. Once she stood on her hooves, she turned around to face the door and was overwhelmed by the familiar images of her nightmares. The open door where the tall figure and the conductor stood talking. The corner where Rainbow Dash had landed into a pile of foals. She turned her head, almost expecting to see a small yellow filly standing before her, but all she saw was the same rusted metal that adorned the outside of the train car .
“What do you mean this is the train car?” Gilda’s head popped into view and looked up at Rainbow Dash from the ground.
“This is the train car from my dreams.” Rainbow Dash cried out. “I was standing right here, and the tall pony was standing right where you’re standing now.” Rainbow Dash pointed to the trees behind Gilda. “And there, by those trees, were these really bright lights behind you. This is it, it has to be it!”
Rainbow Dash climbed out of the train car, but from Gilda’s perspective looked almost like a fearful leap. “I don’t like this.” the pegasus said as she stood up on a her hooves.
“Yeah me neither, I say we bail.” Gilda said, flaring her wings as if she were getting ready to fly. “ I don’t think we’re going to find what we’re looking for, and besides, I’m getting bored anyway.”
“No.” Rainbow Dash said, looking off into the forest behind Gilda. “We’re almost there.”
And without another word the blue pegasus bounded into the trees.
“Dash, what do you think you’re doing?” Gilda said running after her friend. “What do you mean almost there?” The gryphon cursed loudly as she stepped wrong and the pain in her wrist returned once again. “And can we at least fly this time? I’m getting tired of running!”
“I know this sounds crazy,” Rainbow Dash said, hopping over logs and snapping branches out of her way. “but just trust me.”
“Ugh whatever you say Dash, you’re still gonna owe me dinner after this.”
The two didn’t have to run for long. The forest began to thin out again as they both came across a well-worn path cutting through the trees. Rainbow looked to the ground and squinted in the dim light, and could just faintly make out several sets of indentations in the mud.
“Gilda look,” Dash called out as Gilda emerged from the trees. “hoofprints, and they’re all going in the same direction. It’s gotta be this way!”
“Lemme guess, your dreams?” Gilda said flatly, frustratedly rubbing the soreness out of her claw.
“Yeah.”
“Yo know I gotta say Dash, it almost feels like you’re pulling my leg.” Gilda said whilst testing her weight on her claw. “I’m supposed to be the one who knows where to go after all.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and began to follow the hoofprints. Gilda followed close behind and the path soon melded back into underbrush once again. The thickets and brambles clawed at Gilda’s body, cutting her, and the vines seemed to be trying to wrap themselves around her again.
“Uh dude?” Gilda quavered. “Are you having trouble moving past these plants?”
“Not at all.” Rainbow Dash said as she pressed forward with persistence and determination.
It almost seemed as if the forest itself was alive, quivering and coiling closer around her; as if the forest didn’t want Gilda to advance any farther. The further they walked the denser the trees became, until it felt like Gilda had to squeeze past each individual tree one at a time, sucking in her stomachs just to fit through; and the gryphon struggled to keep up with her friend.
.
Just when the forest was at its thickest, when it felt like Gilda was being consumed by the very forest itself, did Rainbow Dash hear the cry of an eagle from behind her. Gilda, having tripped over a vine that had wrapped itself around her back paw and falling face-first into the muck, had finally lost her patience with the claustrophobic forest. She let out a fierce gryphon cry before barreling her way through underbrush, blasting away every vine, branch, and sapling in her path before finally stumbling out of the forest into a large secluded clearing.
Rainbow Dash stepped with ease through the newly created path her friend had just created. She was about to remark on the impressive feat of strength she had just witnessed, but all of her words left her mouth as she beheld the crooked, overgrown cobblestone path and the façade of an enormous, grey-stone building.
The building was dilapidated, forgotten by time, and was steadily being reclaimed by the forest, but through the vines and ivy Rainbow Dash could clearly see hints of red as the late evening sun shone onto the old stone roof.