As the humvee rolled to a halt near the new ranger station an airboat glided in and slid to a stop at a nearby pier that had also been recently made. The pilot turned out to be none other than Earth’s Cattail and his passenger the ranger they saved. As they got out they heard the tail end of what Cattail was saying to the ranger. “....so don’t be beating yourself up for taking too long. It was just good luck that Apple Bloom tripped over you and her friends were there with the cure. And speak of the devil hear they are.”
Every one exited the humvee Ashley waved to Cattial saying, “Nice seeing you again Cattail.” Cattail waved at them and said, “nice of you to drop in but what are you doing back here?” Alex smiled as she relied, “We got a lead on an artifact somewhere in that swamp and that some lowlife’s are going to go after it“
“Well if you're going into the swamp, you're going to need transportation.” Cattail mentioned. The ranger nodded and added, “We have an airboat and a zodiac available for the trip..”
The ranger looked at the group and said, “Some of you look like the one that saved me. Normally I’d warn you from going in but considering you guys seem to know what you’re doing… just don’t get your selves killed.” The Ranger went into the station.
Daring Do then said, “Ok until we get word on where we should look we should head into the swamp. We’ll head towards Ayers Rock on as a direct path as possible I’ll use my special talent to help us locate the satchel. Rainbow, I mean Micaela, Princess I want you airborne and keeping pace with the boats. Pease call us and warn us if you see large patches of the flowers so we can avoid them. Flut… I mean Flora you will ride in the airboat with me Alex and Cattail. I am hoping you can talk local predators out of putting us on the menu.”
Alex hopped up to Daring Do’s shoulder as everymouse climbed into the boats. Twilight and Micaela took to the air, though Twilight was a little shaky, Daring Do, Flora, Cattail, the anthro CMC and Ayumi boarded the airboat while Rarity, Pinkie, Starlight, Ashley & Rick Boarded the zodiac. Ayumi Shifted into Tempest and pulled out two of her short swords stating “A precaution against hydras and cragodiles. I won’t hurt them too bad if I can avoid it but, I’ll behead the hydras to slow them down if needed.” She then handed Daring a small blue crystal “This thing holds five charges of ice magic I’m handing it over to you due to your knowledge of relics so you should know how to use it effectively just be careful and throw it after the last charge is used. Trust me you’ll understand why I say this when it happens. Also I sent Spike ahead to scout out some of the flash bee hives in case we need to collect our own honey at some point.” After seeing everypony’s looks she added “Dragons are immune to swamp fever and bee stings due to being literally hot blooded and damn near bulletproof. He’ll be fine, my counterpart had her Spike do the same thing.”
“We might have to keep watch for umbrium as well. The Black Hand used to summon Shadow Kahn. Ninjas who’re made of shadows. If we encounter them we might face shadow ponies because of Sombra.” Alex called out from Daring Do’s s shoulder.
“Spike and I can take care of-” Ayumi started sniffing the air “You smell that? Someone’s following us. Keep your eyes open.”
Alex looked about as she sniffed. “I smell the San Fran Trio & Dr. Callabreon’s goons.”
“No this smells like someone worse.” Ayumi said as she tasted the air with her shifted tongue. ”It smells like the Pony of Shadows, Sombra’s elder brother. Though from the smell of it he’s non hostile.”
Alex frowned “The Pony of Shadows?” Alex sat there confused which expressed by asking, “Wasn’t he trapped in Limbo? Pellets. How did he get out of limbo?”
“His host, the unicorn mage apprentice, Stygian, was freed during the 7th season of the show along with the other pillars, including the legendary Starswirl the Bearded.” Ayumi said “I think he’s here for me; I have a shadow form I can take that’s similar to his. If he becomes hostile then I’ll worry but as it sits he may just want to see his kid brother again.”
“Pellets. I think he might have gotten a new host.”
“Your mousefriend isn’t his host my student. Like I said he’s here from me.” Ayumi said darkness in her eyes.
Daring Do nodded. “Mage Meadowbrook Expressed an interest in visiting this world. She said something about wanting to learn about Earth’s ailments and curing them.”
Alex looked at her sensei and asked “Any clue on where we should look in this swamp Sensei?” Alex couldn’t help half liddening her eyes as she enjoyed the breeze of riding on airboats relaxed her in a way she couldn’t place her paw on, yet she enjoyed it.
“Well if she did travel to this world through the natural portal here we should try to find her old camp as there wasn’t a swamp back then.”
Alex frowned and said, “The problem isn’t finding a portal on Earth, it’s keeping them under closed. Portals have been opening and closing at random for over 13, 000 years. Earth seems to have affinity for them. Add to that Pocket realms both natural and artificial.’
Twilight flew lower and said, “We got a Huge Patch of the flowers ahead and a large patch of dry ground just beyond.” Alex shouted, “Can we go around to get to it?”
“ARE THE FLOWERS BLUE LITTLE SIS?!” Ayumi RCV “REMEMBER THIS SWAMP HAS JOKE IN IT!” Ayumi then took to the air herself but stayed next to the airboat. “Sorry bout the rcv guys but i wanted those in the zodiac to hear too the fan is pretty loud after all.”
“Eh?” Alex said as she tried to get her ears to stop ringing.
Twilight looked uncertain as she replied, “They looked like Blue water lilies with orange spots.”
“We do not land there.” Ayumi stated flatly “Those flowers are Fever infected Joke if we get anywhere near we’ll all get infected.”
Alex got a confused look and flew up to Tempest & Twilight and said, “I thought Poison Joke looked more like a blue petaled rose not a water lily.” After saying that she landed back on the boat. She panted as she sat down. She use her alicorn magic to levitate a granola bar to her from the backpack she was sharing with Daring Do then began munching it. The exhaustion she had felt was familiar to her. Daring Do looked at her mousefriend and asked, “Are you ok?”
Alex looked up from the granola bar and replied, “It’s only ki exhaustion. Just a little food and rest and I’ll be as good as new.”
“Swamp Joke is a slightly different subspecies” Ayumi clarified “Even if it’s not Swamp Joke those orange spots indicate fever infection and that stuff can go airborne through flower pollen”
“Ah.” Alex said. As they maneuvered to avoid the swamp joke, she began to feel a subconscious tug on a direction close by. Daring Do noticed and said, “We’re close aren’t we? Like when we teamed up.” Alex nodded.
“Everypony duck!” Ayumi saId as a swarm of Flash bees passed by overhead of those in the watercraft. She the directed her gaze towards the two adventurers. “I heard you two. We’re close enough that those of us with active magic can sense the portal and Meadowbrooks satchel. Be on guard for those ninja. I know how they operate, but I’m wary of fighting them at all.”
“Alex was able to sense the mirror of Latrop Htrae when I was here the first time.” Daring noted.
Alex grew to human size and started scanning the area. “Sounds like you had a few run ins with the Shadow Kahn.” She remarked.
Her tail was twitching at a rapid pace and she lowered her ears closer to her skull.
Ashley spoke up in response to Alex’s body language, “You okay, sugarcube?” She addressed the mouse adventuress.
“More than a few; the other reason I moved to the Siberian wilderness was to hide from the last embers of the Fourth Reich. My uncle Dirk fought them during a NUMA Operation in Antarctica. The embers learned how to use the twelve talismans before they turned into animals,” Ayumi stated “Naturally, the Shadow Kahn stole the monkey and tiger talismans back from us after a few days.”
“Ugh! That was two head aches and a half.” Alex said. “I had to round up the rabbit and it didn’t help I got shrunk to my mouse size for the first time during that escapade. You DON’T want to ride a rabbit bareback. Especially when it runs fast enough to make sonic booms.”
“Rabbits that make sonic booms? That’s so awesome!” Micaela exclaimed. “But not as impressive as my Sonic Rainboom.”
“Two words. Dream Angel.” Ayumi said “Been there, done that.”
As they were talking they came up on a wrecked Airship with the markings of the Australian Armed Forces.
Ashley looked at the wrecked Airship, “Maybe we should send a picture of this aircraft to Shining Armor? He was in the Armed Forces before he became, well, his pony self.”
Having a shocked expression on her face, Alex spoke with disbelief. “I don’t believe it! That’s the Flying Unicorn! She was supposed to be an armored zeppelin. But she disappeared on her maiden flight without a trace. The project was abandoned afterwards.”
“Ya think maybe Twilight knows more about this here zeppelin, or her brother?” Ashley asked.
“If he has the proper level of clearance, he might.”
Both water vehicles slowed down and came to a stop near the wreck. They then noticed it was on a sizable piece of dry land. Everyone disembarked and looked the wrecked airship over from where they stood. It looked like a cross between a zeppelin and a destroyer with a rigid support cage for the armored airbag of which there was no trace of. It looked like it had been in a battle for it’s life…. And lost.
Alex let out a low whistle and commented, “To think that if this poor thing made it into WWII the atom bomb may have never have been invented.”
The CMC announced as one, “This is so awesome!”
Twilight, Micaela, & Ayumi landed and the group got ready to explore the wreck. Alex stayed on Daring’s shoulder, she looked at the Flying Unicorn and said, “The satchel (or at least something that could lead us to it) is somewhere in the there.” She the turned to look at Cattail and said, “Cattail? Would you watch after the fillies?”
Cattail smiled as he replied, “Sure thing.”
”Not cool.” Scootaloo groused.
“I thought we were going to help you!” Sweetie Belle complained.
“We could be a help!” Apple Bloom offered.
“Please?” All three Crusaders said with big pleading eyes, hoping to gain permission from the older adventurers of the group.
“And you can help by watching the boats and staying with Cattail. Especially you young lady.” Daring said focusing on Earth ‘s Scootaloo. “You look too much like my daughter for Dr. Callabron too resist using you as a Hostage.”
“Why would he do that?” Scootaloo asked.
“He’s just the stallion who would do that kind of thing.” Daring Do replied. “He once took the pony version of Miceala hostage in a pyramid near the village of the legendary Somnambula.”
“Don’t forget that he is an experienced adventurer in his own right. With his own bag of tricks.” Alex added.
The anthro CMC looked at each other then at the older anthros and said, “You can count on us!”
“Good.” Ashley remarked. “Now you three mind Mr. Cattail while we're inside and stay outta trouble.” With that the Rest of them approached the crashed ship to find Meadowbrook’s satchel.