//------------------------------// // Swamped I // Story: Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This // by MagicS //------------------------------// Amethyst Star was not a loser. Despite the amount of discouragement that had been heaped upon her she was also not a quitter… yet. It was starting to weigh on her considerably and her pride was being worn down seemingly every day but for now she was continuing her journey west. The words from Quartz and Obsidian still rang in her ears but she did her best to pay them no mind. Amethyst Star still wanted to do heroic stuff like them and make this a real adventure. She’d find someway to emulate them and prove herself. That’s what she was still looking for as she entered a new part of the Undiscovered West. The plains had gotten progressively wetter and wetter until she was trodding over soggy ground and then wading through water a few inches deep with mud down below that sucked on her hooves with each step. The dry savanna had turned into a bog and the treeline Amethyst Star could see further ahead of her was telling her it would become a full-blown swamp soon enough. The thought of swimming through gross swamp water that had who knows what in it was not appealing to her but the swamp seemed to extend from north to south with no end in sight so going around it could take ages. And besides, gross as it was she wasn’t going to let a swamp scare her, there could be something cool in there too. Already as she got closer her legs kept having to reach deeper before they hit the mud below the water. She wasn’t sure how deep the water would get in there but it was likely more than enough to submerge her or at least get up to her neck so if she could hop from tree to tree or find some kind of boat to use instead of swim that would be great. Amethyst would prefer to avoid swimming if possible, not like she couldn’t or wouldn’t but if a better opportunity presented itself she would take it. Even though she was already filthy and wet. Actually thinking a bit ahead she pulled off her saddlebag and propped it up on her back. “Not like I’m not used to getting dirty, Ponyville gets muddy and rainy all the time and there’s all kinds of swamps and forests right around us,” she said to herself. She may not have been a farmer or anything but she lived in the “country” and muck was nothing new to her… and there was that one year she fell into the mud during the Sisterhooves Social. It was the middle of the day but the insides of the swamp looked dark thanks to the heavy foliage, it would probably still be plenty bright once her eyes adjusted but she couldn’t imagine how bad it would be at night. The light from the stars and moon wouldn’t penetrate the trees at all. Hopefully she’d be able to get through here in one day at the most. Amethyst Star’s hoof slipped and she fell down to her chin in the water. “Gross, gross, gross,” she groaned as she tried to regain her hoofing before giving up, it was getting deeper anyways so she might as well wade now. Her legs paddled along underneath her like a duck, going through the thick and murky green water to the edge of the swamp and one of the gnarled trees closest to her. She could take a rest on it and get at least a little out of the water and look around before she went any further. “Figures that if I’m doing something adventurous it’s still something dumb and unpleasant like traveling through a swamp. Knowing my luck so far I’ll get to go on an epic quest in here and be covered in swamp water the whole time, that’d be fitting for me, wouldn’t it?” With a few seconds more of swimming Amethyst Star pulled herself up onto the trunk of the tree, its twisted trunk giving her plenty of places to find purchase and the mountain of roots just under the water letting her stand up freely. She squeezed the trunk of the tree tightly and shimmied around it so she could see what the rest of the swamp looked on the inside. As was expected, it was a swamp. The plain grass she had been traveling through that turned into a bog was gone and replaced by water that rose high above it, with innumerable lily pads on the surface and reeds shooting up through the water and a collection of different types of trees that Amethyst Star didn’t know the names of. She didn’t see any easy path or anything so it looked like for now she’d have to swim from tree to nearest tree until she found something else. “I’m not gonna get sick from doing this, am I?” She wondered as she let herself drift from the first tree into the darker water of the swamp. She had to push lily pads and algae out of the way but she was still able to swim pretty well, now slightly using her magic to help balance her bag so it didn’t fall off. It would be too heavy to try putting it on top of her head and she wasn’t sure she had the magical power to telekinetically carry it for however long she might be in here so this was a nice compromise. It might get a little wet from water splashing across her back but the bag was decently thick too. Amethyst Star saw a tree ahead that was shooting up sideways in the water, that would make a good place to stop for a second since she could easily stand on it and get completely out of the water for a change. The thing was covered in moss so it might be a little slippery but she would be careful. The unicorn swam by a few other trees to make it to her selected destination and pulled herself up onto the trunk, walking out of the water and shaking like a dog. That was hardly enough to get rid of all the water though, her tail was still a soggy mess and she needed to wring it out more than once. “Ugh, kind of a waste of time since I’m just getting wet again,” she said. Amethyst Star pulled her bag off her back and set it down on the trunk, trying to rub out any of the small wet spots she saw on it. “Hope there aren’t any crocodiles in here… or hydras… or chimeras… now that I think about it there’s already plenty of dangerous stuff in Equestria. What kind of stuff might live out here?” Amethyst Star gulped as she thought about that. What she knew for sure though was that there were a lot of frogs in here, their croaking drowned out pretty much any other sound. And there were plenty of mosquitos buzzing around too, she had to swat them away from her body all the time. Getting a little worried about the potential troubles in the swamp, Amethyst Star decided to walk up the side of the tree so she could give herself a bit of a vantage point and see if she could see anything in here. The vision was still decent enough since it wasn’t dark yet, she just hoped that the thick trees wouldn’t completely block out the direction she was checking. Amethyst got up to the leafy branches and raised a hoof over her eyes, squinting to see as far as she could. For the most part it was still just a swamp. There was a lot of swimming she would still have to do but she did at least see some floating logs and felled trees that she could use as checkpoints to rest on just like this one, so that was a bonus at least. The swamp was big though and she couldn’t even come close to seeing the end of it from here. It just extended into darkness going west. She was about to give up and go back down when her eyes spotted something a little out of place through the trees. At first she didn’t notice it because it blended in pretty well, but then she saw that it was too uniform to be natural. It looked like a bunch of logs were sticking out of the water and had a bunch of reeds on top of them, the logs were evenly placed and clearly carved and the reeds as well were all bundled and tied together from what she could see. It was a house. A house made of reeds held up by stilts. “Well, guess that’s a good sign,” Amethyst Star headed down the tree and grabbed her bag, time to get back to swimming. Her spirit was somewhat reinvigorated after seeing that house. Now that she had something concrete to check out it made swimming through all the muck a little easier. Still nothing she’d like to do if she could avoid it though. She kept herself heading in the direction she was pretty sure the house was in and hoping that she wouldn’t have to make many twists and turns through the swamp that would disorientate her while at the same time keeping her eyes peeled so she wouldn’t miss it. It almost looked like it was camouflaged with what it was made out of. Or maybe they just didn’t have anything else to use. A few more minutes of swimming was all it took before she started to see that house through the other trees and brush around her. And so much more as well. It had been hidden by the foliage of the swamp around it but there was hardly just one of those stilt houses. She saw a veritable village of crannogs, platforms, huts, etc. all built of reeds and thatch and twigs gathered from the swamp. Stilts and artificial islands held everything up, it was a wonder that it didn’t all sink into the mud. There were a lot of stilt houses like the one she had seen that had shoddy bridges, whether plank or rope, connecting them. Besides that there were even some stairs and ramps nailed into trees that led to little homes carved into them as well. It really was a full blown swamp village with all kinds of architecture. Wonder if it was ponies who made all this? She thought as she swam right into it all, the village was too big to go around and she didn’t want to anyways. There was a large platform that seemed to lead to a lot of other buildings through walkways and bridges dead ahead of her, and even better there were stairs built into it that went right into the water, like it was a dock or something and they expected people to arrive there and come up. “Not gonna ignore that good will,” Amethyst Star smiled and swam a bit faster, happy that she could get out of the swamp water for real and walk around on something pony-made for the first time in here. Amethyst Star felt the first step beneath her hooves and with a pleasant sigh she walked out of the thick green water and up the stairs. Swamp water pretty much cascaded down her body and she took the opportunity to have another quick shake and then put her saddlebag back at her side where it belonged. “Okay!” She happily said as she stepped up the last step before the main platform. “Stop right there, stranger.” Amethyst Star looked up to see three sharp, stone-tipped spears being thrust in her face, a mere inch from her eyes. The unicorn’s hoof stopped in midstep and her eyes widened in fear. The three earth ponies standing at the top of the stairs that obstructed her kept their weapons steady, the central one wearing “armor” made from reeds and muddy paint all over his face. With sharp eyes and a deep frown he opened his gross mouth full of missing teeth to speak to her again. “No pony of the Flytrap Clan is allowed here. Begone or face the consequences.”