Chapter 3
“After returning from the mission and getting a shower to clear both the sweat and her mind, Rainbow Dash visited me while I was studying and confided in me the thoughts that she had toward Rarity as they both trekked through the forest and tried to find us. She described their struggles, detailing their efforts to not become prey for some vicious creature. But she emphasized that for a while, she was the most dangerous creature as she concentrated on not erupting into a volcano of curses at Rarity’s incessant complaining.”
-Twilight Sparkle, On Extra-Galactic Voyages, p. 108
“Rainbow Dash…”
Rainbow had been gliding gently through the trees, charting a path for them to follow, when she heard the call that caused her coat to stand up right between her shoulder blades. A call that she had heard many, many times since she had tumbled down out of the void and landed face-first into a bush. “What, Rarity?”
“This walk is taking simply forever. How much longer till we reach the edge of the forest?” Rarity was looking up at her, eyes full of annoyance at having been made to walk for this long without a break.
“Just a bit longer, Rarity,” she replied. Her teeth hurt from the gritting.
A scowl came out of Rarity as she said, “Well, I’m getting incredibly tired from this trek. I can’t believe nopony has been here to clean up, either.” She looked around her at the detritus on the forest floor, avoiding the larger pieces of debris and cringing at the state of her hooves.
Rainbow meanwhile was wishing that she had a pair of earplugs. In truth, she had come to the conclusion that this couldn’t be the Everfree Forest when she had swooped into the air to get a good look at her surroundings. The forest stretched for miles, way past the horizon with no end in sight. As she glided above Rarity, this thought gave her another reason for the hairs on her back to be standing up. It meant they were likely in another part of Equestria, if not another part of the globe. She’d never circumnavigated the globe – though, come to think of it, that would be a really fun test of her long-range flying at top speed – so she wasn’t sure just what part of the world they were in. She just knew it wasn’t home.
Dash was not looking forward to having to inform Rarity of this. If Rarity even suspected that they were in for a hundred mile walk through an apparently unending forest, she’d likely start freaking out about it. She just hoped that they would eventually come across some sign of civilization, and she hoped it was pony. She especially hoped it wasn’t griffon. Her former friendship with Gilda had seen to her developing a dislike of that particular species.
“Rainbow?”
A shudder passed through Rainbow’s back.
“Rainbow, it’s been simply forever since we rested. Can we please stop for a few minutes? Please?”
Rainbow sighed, then said, “Alright, we can stop for a few minutes if you want. Let me scout ahead and see if I can find someplace where we can rest up a bit.”
Before Rarity could reply, she shot off into the forest at full speed, sending leaves falling from the trees and animals scattering away. Weaving and bobbing through the trees and scanning the ground for anything that didn’t look like a pile of sticks or a rock, she eventually came across a small clearing in the forest that looked comfortable enough to sit down for a bit. She glided down gently to the forest floor, a beam of light from the canopy illuminating the patch of soft moss like a spotlight. She sniffed the moss, tested it with her hooves, then smiled. “Whew! Glad I found this place! Feels like the perfect spot for a nap!”
Rainbow was tempted to just lay down right there and nap, but she couldn’t just leave Rarity to fend for herself in the woods, plus she was expecting Rainbow to be back soon anyway. Flapping her wings, she lifted herself into the air and took off toward where she left Rarity. A few minutes later, she was setting down in front of her friend. “Hey Rarity, I found a place to rest up about a half-mile from here.”
“Oh goodness,” said Rarity. “That sounds like a rather long way to walk through the forest… I hope that we get there before dark!”
“We won’t if we don’t hurry. C’mon.” Without waiting for an answer, Rainbow whipped around and started to fly off through the woods. She was only a few hundred yards ahead before she looked down and saw no sign of Rarity below her. With a scowl, she flipped around and shot back to where she’d left her friend in a cloud of dust and loose twigs. “Rarity! C’mon, we need to get there before the sun gets too low or I forget where it was!”
Rarity looked up at Rainbow with a scowl and said, “I’m trying, Rainbow Dash! But a unicorn can’t travel as fast as a pegasus in the forest with all these awful logs and roots to hop over.” As a way of hammering home her point, she hopped over a log that was in her way.
“Ugh, fine,” said Rainbow as she sighed and resigned herself to trudging along at the same pace as Rarity. This managed to stoke the fires of irritation she felt in her gut, causing her to almost lose her cool at her friend.
It’s your darn fault we’re stuck in this place, Rarity. She furrowed her brow at the thought of just why they were in this forest at this moment. She could have been taking a nap, or practicing her signature moves, or getting through the latest Daring Do novel. A brand new one had arrived in the mail just that morning, and she hadn’t even had time to smell the fresh-from-the-press scent that a new book carries before she was dragged to the boutique to check out a spell that she had no real interest in viewing. Or at the very least, her interest in it paled in comparison to the interest she had in seeing how Daring was going to defeat Ahuizotl’s latest attempt to rule over the Tenochtitlan Basin with an iron fist.
And now she might never get to find out what happens.
All because of Rarity.
Sure, she was concerned about getting herself and her friends back to Equestria, not to mention reuniting them with their respective families and returning things to normal back home, but this is Daring Do. Very few things in life mattered to Dash more than that, and she was incensed that she hadn’t even had a chance to read so much as the prologue before she was ripped away to another country. That thought was more irritating at the moment than the grating noise of her whining. Or complaining. Or whatever she insisted it was.
But fatigue was starting to claim her. Even if she was angry at Rarity, her wings were starting to get sore, and she needed a nap. This would be about the time she’d normally drift back down to her favorite napping tree in the park, fluff the pillow on the branch that perfectly cradled her body, and sink into a glorious snooze under the mild summer sun. And so she was looking forward to laying down on the soft moss and catching a few z’s.
It took a few minutes to find the clearing, but once she did, Rainbow swooped through the air and landed on the moss. “Ta-da! Am I awesome or what?”
“Oh, thank you, Rainbow Dash!” said Rarity as she pranced onto the raised mound of moss, its bright green leaves set aglow by the beam of sunlight filtering down through the canopy. As she was examining the small hill of green, she frowned. “Hmmm… Oh! Rainbow? Can you be a dear and fly up to get me some leaves so I may make us some pillows?”
“Sure,” said Rainbow as she spread her wings and flapped into the air. She came back moments later with hooffuls of leaves and branches. “How about this?”
“Perfect,” replied Rarity. “You can set them down over there.”
After Rarity had used her magic to warp and fold the soft leaves into a pair of pillows, she levitated one over to Rainbow Dash and said, “There! All done!”
Rainbow smiled as she took one of the pillows in her hoof. She held it up, examined it, and saw the care with which Rarity had created them. They were simple, but fluffy and soft, and hers was even monogrammed with grass thread. “Wow! Thanks, Rarity!” She fluffed it up and dropped it on the moss, then she laid down on the thick, soft underbrush. She was about to comment on how comfortable it felt when sleep overtook her and she drifted off into a deep sleep.
Hot mugginess washed over Rarity’s face, accompanied by a funny moist feeling on her nose. She frowned in her sleep, dreamily brushing the slimy substance from her muzzle. “Mmmph… Don’t do that, Rainbow,” she mumbled in her sleep. Then she heard a low rumbling noise. She slowly cracked one eyelid, and was surprised to see a long, red tunnel lined with sharp teeth.
Her eyes shot open and took in the creature standing before her. It looked like a wolf with no hair save for a large mane around its neck. She gasped at the sight of two enormous tusks set into its lower jaw, with tips that looked as though they would make short work of a pony’s belly. Its hot breath washed over her face as it slowly walked toward her.
With a scream of terror, Rarity quickly backed away, prompting the wolf to pounce. She put up her hooves, lifting the creature up into the air and sending it crashing on its back.
Rarity didn’t hesitate, taking the moment to dart toward a nearby rock, hoping to make it around or over the formation before the creature recovered.
It wasn’t but a moment before the creature had gotten back up and started to stalk her again. Strained squeaks escaped her mouth as her eyes darted back and forth. But she could see no way to escape the creature.
Just as it was getting into a position to pounce on her, an azure blur shot into its side, sending the creature rolling off into the bush. Rarity watched as the creature picked itself up off the ground and sent a bone-chilling roar resounding through the forest. It glared at Rainbow Dash as she hovered over it. “You want some more?!” she said as she glared back at it. “Come and get it, ugly!”
Shooting out of the way of the creature as it leaped up to bite her, Rainbow stuck her tongue out at it. “You gotta do better than that to keep up with Rainb- whoa!” She barely made it out of the way of the sharp tusks as the wolf thrust itself up at her. Quickly she darted back into the trees.
The creature began to pace back and forth, trying to see where she had gotten to. As she did, Rarity’s irises shrunk. “Dash?!” she exclaimed as Rainbow disappeared.
Her cry of fear got the attention of the beast. It whipped its head around, red-tinted eyes boring into her brain and filling her with dread. She stared at those eyes, unable to break her gaze as her entire body was paralyzed with fear.
Slowly it started to stalk toward her, saliva dripping from its jagged teeth. A rumbling growl emitted from deep within its throat.
“No…” Rarity squeaked. “No, please…”
Moments later, a blue dart pierced through the forest clearing, connecting a hoof with the wolf’s jawbone. Cartilage snapped as the creature’s head reeled from the assault, barely recovering before Rainbow landed another blow to the other side of its head.
She hovered above it, a cocky grin spread from one side of her head to the other. “There’s more where that came from, baldy!”
It looked up at her and roared, but Rainbow lunged forward a bit, feigning an attack. It instinctively ducked, then snapped up at Rainbow. She floated above the creature as it stood there, growling up at her. Neither creature looked away. Finally, it grunted, then slinked off into the forest, its tail between its legs and its stomach growling.
“That’s right, you’d better run!” hollered Rainbow as she landed, wings outstretched, chest pumped out, a smirk playing on her lips.
The smirk disappeared in an instant as two hooves wrapped themselves tightly around Rainbow. She wheezed as the air was squeezed out of her lungs by the embrace. Squirming and wriggling, Rainbow struggled to free herself as Rarity expressed her gratitude. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you Rainbow Dash!”
“Rarity…” croaked Rainbow, “…leggoahme!”
Blushing, Rarity released Rainbow and said, “I’m sorry, I just can’t express my gratitude enough for you saving my life like that!”
Cocking an eyebrow, Rainbow said, “Eh, no big.” She gave Rarity a wink.
Composing herself, Rarity took a deep breath and said, “Well, then. I think it’s time to get going. My hooves are getting filthy and I don’t think that I can take a single second more without a decent pedicure.” She began to trot down the path they had been traveling on a few minutes ago, her head held high as she continued to maintain her spirits.
Rainbow, however, didn’t follow her. She hovered there, rubbing the back of her neck as she looked off to the side. Her mind was not on the trek they were on. Instead, it was wandering back to what she was doing by keeping the truth from Rarity. It would find its way out eventually, once she discovered that the forest was too big, too wild even for the Everfree, and nowhere near Ponyville, she’d know that Rainbow had been hiding the truth from her.
As she trotted, Rarity came to the realization that Rainbow Dash wasn’t following her. She looked up where she expected Rainbow to be, and when the air above her turned out to be empty, she looked behind her to see Dash hanging in the air, having not moved an inch. Quickly she trotted back to Rainbow and said, “My dear, we must continue if we’re to escape the Everfree Forest before nightfall. I don’t want to imagine what sort of demonic creatures lurk in the shadows when the night is there to camouflage them.” She gulped down a terrorized lump in her throat as she considered her own words.
“Uh, yeah…” said Rainbow as she continued to rub her neck, “about that… I think it’s gonna take a little longer to get home than we planned.”
“How much longer?” said Rarity as she began to realize what Rainbow knew all too well.
“I think we may be on the other side of the world. Maybe not even on our world.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Rarity said as she rolled her eyes. “I might have messed up that spell to view the past, but I hardly think I have enough magic to teleport us all across the world.”
“Well, all I can tell you is, when I look around up there, all I see is forest. That’s it. And the Everfree is not anywhere near this big.” Rainbow crossed her hooves as though that was all there needed to be said.
Rarity’s mind began to work as she struggled to rationalize what she just heard, to make it fit what she knew about the Everfree Forest. But the more she wrestled the facts to make them fit, she couldn’t come to any other conclusion. “This… this isn’t the Everfree Forest?”
“Nope.”
“Sweet Celestia…” Rarity began to pace back and forth, her eyes going wide with terror. “What will we do, Rainbow Dash? I can’t stay here! You saw that wolf-thing that tried to eat me! What if he comes back, or what if there are other creatures out here who are far worse than that horrid thing? Plus, what about my shop? Or Opalescence?” She gasped. “I was supposed to take care of Sweetie Belle this weekend! I can’t just abandon my duties to my little sister!”
Rainbow sighed and put up a hoof to stop Rarity from talking. “Relax. We’ll get to the end of the forest eventually, and when we do, we’ll be able to find somepony to help us get home. I’m going to fly up and get a better look at things. Be back in a flash.” She shot up through the trees and disappeared beyond the canopy.
Rarity watched her as she disappeared, and as the loose leaves Dash knocked down began to flutter around her, she began to think about her situation. Twilight had been right. She should never have tried to perform that spell at full power, in front of the princesses, no less. She sighed and sat down. This was all her fault, wasn’t it? Being trapped here in this awful place. Pretty as it was, it was still dangerous. What if her friends had been seriously hurt by being hurled into this forest? She was sure Twilight and the royal sisters could handle themselves, but what about Pinkie Pie? Or Fluttershy? She couldn’t bear the idea that any one of them could be hurt by her actions.
She sighed again and then looked up at the canopy again from where she sat. Hopefully Rainbow Dash could find civilization soon. If she could, then they stood a better chance of getting home.
Hovering above the treeline, Rainbow scanned the horizon, her hoof above her eyes to shield them from the noonday sun. She was trying to get a better look at the objects on the horizon that she’d seen when she first popped up here.
They were definitely fliers of some kind, but she’d never seen anything like them before. Most Equestrian craft were made from brown wood, or white, or some other friendly looking color. But this craft was bluish gray and black, hard-edged, and definitely not friendly-looking. They danced through the air in a lazy ballet of swoops and dives, like a swarm of dangerous bees around a hive.
The worst part was the sound.
Rainbow has never heard something so mournful, yet so chilling. It was a faint roar that sounded more like a wail, as though a thousand ghosts were just behind it, crying banefully at their torment. It sent waves of uneasiness down her spine, and made her want to drop back down below the treeline, but she stayed up long enough to determine that the weird flier was hovering around something pretty massive.
It was a massive tower, with several curved ribs above it in the general shape of a dish, though at this distance it looked very wispy and gossamer, as though it could blow away in a stiff breeze. She’d never seen anything quite like it.
One thing was for sure, though: it meant that civilization was in that direction.
She shot back down through the trees and landed next to Rarity, then explained what she had seen. “Perfect! Let’s be off, darling!”
“Right behind you, Rarity!” said Rainbow uneasily. As she trotted behind Rarity, she couldn’t help but feel like they should be heading anywhere but toward that thing she saw in the distance. Something about it and those weird flying things gave her a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. But it was the only sign of civilization, so they had to head toward it.
She just hoped it wasn’t a decision she was going to regret.