//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Celestia Goes West // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// Morning came, and Sunny woke to find that a storm hadn’t destroyed their little hut. She got out of her hammock with only a little difficulty and stretched with a yawn. The pale yellow unicorn cast a Perceive Body spell to highlight any nearby taro or water lily roots. One sat further in the jungle, probably not far from the lake she pulled the water from yesterday. Sunny glanced back and saw Marble sleeping fitfully on the sand. He’d been twisting and turning all night, to the point where his near-constant shifting woke her up a few times. It looked like he finally managed to get some sleep, though. She debated waking him up so he could start lighting a fire but decided that she might as well let him sleep. He needed to catch up on some sleep right now, anyway. She slipped into the jungle and listened to the sounds of life, chasing after the food her spell showed her. Marble’s presence made things difficult. Sure, he might provide a second set of eyes to watch her back, but he would probably prove to be a huge liability. The way he complained made it evident that he didn’t know how to best take care of himself in the jungle, and she’d probably have to teach him how to not die in the wilderness. Not to mention that she now had the problem of dealing with poisons now. If she was still by herself, she would probably let herself “cheat” and use the rest of her magical powers to deal with the problem, now that she had a pony following her, that made things far more complex. Cheating was out of the question, and while she might be able to use Control Body to isolate the poison and even maneuver it out of the body, that method turned out to be more painful than not. That was the one thing she would be okay with cheating on, and now she couldn’t do that. Not to mention all the days she’d waste getting him across the jungle. Yes, she was going to explore that on her own, but now she couldn’t take her time doing that. Now she had to babysit the pegasus for at least two weeks of travel until they made it to the northern shore. Once there, she’d make sure he was at least safe enough to travel back to the official border before she’d finally have a chance to actually enjoy herself. She wouldn’t have to bother if it weren’t for Celestia’s bleeding heart. What else would you have me do? “He’s not your responsibility anymore,” Sunny argued. “You don’t need to worry about him. He’s Twilight’s problem now.” Well, maybe I don’t want it to be Twilight’s problem. Perhaps I want to make sure he’s alright. It’s not like he’ll become my responsibility again when I get back. He’ll still be Twilight’s problem, then. This is the one chance I get to do the fun part of my old job. Sunny blinked. It had been too long since she last had one of her little vacations. It had been so long that Celestia hadn’t been sure why she was leaving until now. “See, Luna, this is why I needed to go.” As Sunny mused about how this whole charade was perhaps the only form of therapy she was going to get, she finally came up to the pool she saw the other day. A handful of lily pads hovered on the surface of the water, and Sunny casually reached into the depths with her magic and pulled a root free. She grabbed another three before she slipped them into her saddlebags, drying them off by pulling the water off with her spell before she turned to the pond itself. With another Control Matter spell, she lifted a sphere of water up out of the pond, focusing on just the water to leave the particulates behind. She’d still have to boil this to make it safe to drink, but it was otherwise clean. Focusing her attention on the ball of water, she began to make her way back to the shore and the campsite. Sunny broke the treeline just in time to see Marble sitting up. “Morning,” she said. He blinked. “Um, morning.” “The hut didn’t collapse. I’m sure you’re happy to know.” “I noticed.” “If you want to help with breakfast,” Sunny said, pulling out her pot. “Then you can get a fire going. You might be able to get the coals from last night to burn.” He nodded and moved over the yesterday’s campfire while Sunny dropped the water into her pot and turned her attention to the lily roots she grabbed. With a bit of maneuvering of her magic, she skinned them. Leaving the dirt-encrusted skin behind, Sunny glanced over the four vegetables. “Are we having soup again?” Marble asked as he looked up from the fire, slowly growing as he fed it wood and kindling. “Nope, we’re going to roast these,” she replied. “That way, we don’t need to break out the bowls, and we can get moving faster.” “Okay,” he muttered. “Then what’s the pot for?” “Well, I made you a bunch of canteens, didn’t I? You’ll probably need water to go in them.” “Fair enough, I suppose,” he replied, though the sarcasm in his voice was poking through. “It shouldn’t take long,” Sunny told him. “We just need to bring the water to boil for ten minutes, and by then, the roots should be done, and we can start moving into the actual jungle.” “I still think that’s a crazy idea.” “So you’ve said,” she replied. “The first forty feet into the jungle shouldn’t be a problem, but once we get past that, we’ll be on our own. That’s where we’ll need to start paying attention, and I do mean we’ll need to pay very serious attention. If we don’t, then the chances of us dying increases heavily.” “Oh, so it’s only crazy after those forty feet, got it.” “The important thing is that we need to start paying attention because the danger will then be ahead of us for the next forty feet, and then we’ll have to worry about what’s ahead and behind.” “Behind us? That soon?” “Of course, jaguars are incredibly stealthy ambush predators. All we’d have to do is walk past one, and it would try to attack it, and they’re one of the weaker creatures we can face out here. If we’re lucky, we won’t even see any Zorbos, Thessalhydras, or Bukavacs.” “You made up those words.” “I wish I had,” she said before she hovered the roots over the fire to begin roasting them. “We’re going to start moving soon, so get yourself ready.” ---☼--- The jungle roared with life. Every step into the dense undergrowth disturbed the life around them, and the jungle growled in answer. It seemed that everything living in the jungle reviled these ponies invading this sacred space. They were past the safe area now, and Marble and Sunny both needed to keep their eyes open as they traveled. Sunny took the lead, using her machete to clear a space before them. She could have used her Control Body spell to force the plants to move out of the way, but that would use far too much magic for the trip for the day. Using her telekinesis would use far less energy, and since Sunny was an expert of Control Matter spells, it only made sense that she’d use that where she could. Marble, however, typically flew over her path, hoving just above and behind her. For some reason, this annoyed her. “What am I looking for again? Eyes in the darkness?” he asked. “Strange movement,” she said. “You won’t see their eyes until it’s too late. Your eyes are better at seeing movement anyway.” “And how do I see movement in pure darkness?” he asked. “Well, if you don’t, then we’ll be eaten, and then we’ll have more to worry about.” That probably wasn’t the best response; her inner Celestia remarked, we can do better than this. “Do I want to?” Sunny asked. That was a question only Sunny could answer. Celestia could say whatever she wanted, but if Sunny wasn’t game, then it wouldn’t get through. That was sort of the point with all this, after all. Still, he could at least make it easier. “I’m not sure that being able to see movement helps when it’s so dark.” “You can get a torch out.” “And then be a glowing neon cafe sign saying ‘open 24/7?’ No, thank you.” “Yes, because fire doesn’t at all act as a deterrent to wild animals.” Sunny’s machete dug into a particularly stubborn branch before she shoved her way into a clearing. A spacious, cylindrical area opened up, reaching all the way into the canopy, and after a quick look around, revealed what caused it. An old, ancient tree had fallen from the ground, leaving a single, open window into the sky. Now, new life was trying to grow up in the empty spot as the plants fought for sunlight, but the pair finally had enough room to breathe. “Wow... that’s probably the first piece of sunlight I’ve seen since we got in here.” “Ray of sunlight,” Sunny corrected. “Regardless.” “Sure,” she replied. Marble flew up into the air and began to circle up and around the clearing, checking the area. “So...I guess this is a great place to break for lunch?” “Lunch?” she asked. “We don’t have time for lunch. We have to keep moving. Just eat your other lily root.” “What? Both of those were barely a breakfast. How do you expect me to eat that little and keep going?” “Because we’ll have a big dinner,” she replied. “That’s not enough! I mean, if we had a huge breakfast, that might work.” Sunny sighed before she reached into her bag and pulled out an energy bar she packed away. “Here, now stop complaining. You have ten minutes for me to catch my breath, and then we’re heading back into the trees,” she said. Marble shook his head before grabbing and biting into the bar before he began flying higher into the air. Sunny let him go before she looked around for a place to sit down for a moment or two, just to get a chance to sit down. She heard Marble say something above her. “What?” Sunny called. Marble dropped back down. “I think I see something,” he yelled. “What?” “It looks like it’s a Lusitanpec Windtower.” Sunny blinked. “They were old outstations that the Lusitanpec used to mark their borders—” “I know, I know,” Sunny interrupted. He was close but wrong. The Lusitanpec borders expanded beyond the Windtowers. What purpose the towers actually served, Celestia wasn’t sure. Whenever she spoke with these ponies, they always ensured that no one actually shared that information with her. It didn’t help that she was seen as the Avatar of the Tenochtitlan’s Holy Flame. “We might be able to rest there.” Sunny considered that for a second before nodding. “That might not be a bad idea. How far away is it?” she asked. Marble paused. “A ways away,” he said, trailing off. Sunny sighed. “Can you carry me up there to show me?” Marble frowned. “I can try,” he replied. He dropped low, hooking his legs into Sunny’s armpits, before lifting her with all his might. Wings beating wildly, he took her up into the air, to the very tops of the trees. “Right over there,” he said with a grunt, motioning to the tower with his head. Sunny squinted as she followed his motion before she just spotted the tell-tale sign of a giant Lusitanpec stone head that typically capped so many of their buildings. It was so far away. “That’s going to take us days to get there,” Sunny groaned under her breath. “Can I take us down?” Marble asked, obviously straining. “Yes,” she replied, and the pegasus began dropping to the ground as fast as he could without causing any damage. They landed hard, just hard enough to make Sunny’s knees sting, but not hard enough to do worse than that. Marble gasped audibly. “I need to work on my wing muscles,” he muttered. “Alright,” Sunny said, turning to him. “Are you ready for the good news or the bad news?” “Give me a second to catch my breath, first,” he replied. Sunny nodded, allowing it. He inhaled deeply one more time before motioning to Sunny. “The bad news is that the tower is at least four days away. It’s almost not worth it to head there.” Marble blinked. “What? But that’s only thirty miles away, give or take.” “It looked closer to forty,” she said. “Which takes the average guard about ten hours to cross, which would be split between two days to give time to set up camp. That’s over already explored and clear terrain. We have to fight for every foot in the jungle, which means we have to double that distance at least. Then, that assumes that we can cross the distance like we’re flying, and we don’t need to take detours to get there.” Marble sighed and deflated. “The good news is that it’s in the right direction. It’s on our way anyway. We’ll cross it when we get there no matter what.” “So we should be making our way there?” Marble asked. “Yes, but chances are we’re not going to get there for another four days. For now, we just need to move, and move quickly and quietly.” “Alright, sounds like a plan,” he replied with a smile. Sunny raised an eyebrow. Was that really all it took to get Marble to cooperate? Well, fine then. She’d work with that. “Now, I’m going to rest for a second. Keep an eye out for anything that might want to eat us.” Surprisingly, that’s precisely what he did, flying up into the air and checking the branches for any kind of monster that might be trailing them. Sunny, meanwhile, found a rock to sit on for a moment or two before she finally regained her strength. Ten minutes passed by, and she stood. “Come on, we have a few more hours to go until we have to break for camp.” “About that,” Marble asked, soaring down to meet her. “When you were talking about moving, you said that we’d only spend about five hours marching. Did I understand that right?” “You did.” “Why so little?” “Well,” Sunny began, “for one, we didn’t start moving until about ten-thirty. That doesn’t give us a lot of time to move during the day. More to the point, we need that time in the after to set up a new camp and, more importantly, make sure we find food and water.” “That’s a lot of time for just finding food and water,” he said. “Not really, when you consider we need to first find it, then bring it to camp, then cook it, make sure we build a shelter that can keep the rain off of us. Then, after all that, we should have time to actually rest. Which we need, because somepony’s going to have to stay up for another few hours to take the first watch, and then the other one’s going to have to wake up in the middle of the night for the other half. We’re going to be exhausted if we just keep moving.” Behind her, Marble was silent for a moment. “And you get all this training with the Conservation Committee?” Sunny smiled to herself. “I learned a few survival tricks from military ponies.” Which was true. The fact that Celestia learned it from the ancient Pegasopolian Legionnaires was irrelevant. “Well, I guess it’s good to know that you at least have an idea of what you’re doing.” “I’m sure it’s very comforting,” she replied, hacking another branch in two. They continued on, marching through the thick jungle for another few hours before Sunny called a rest. She handed Marble her machete and told him to gather what he could for a simple bedroll before she began setting up her hammock. Honestly, she couldn’t believe her luck. All of her supplies made it through. She still had everything she packed, and other than saltwater getting in her bags, nothing spilled out. She tied off her hammock and then tied a rope above it. Draping the tarp over the rope, she set up the bare minimum to keep the rain off her as she slept, but it would do, especially after she tied off the lower end to make a slanting edge for everything to slide off. Marble returned a little later with a large number of palm fronds stuck under his arm. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable place to sleep, but it would do. “Set up a place for you to sleep,” she said, “I’ll go see if I can’t find our food.” She cast her Perceive Body spell and waited as a wave of magic washed over the land around her, looking for some sign of edible plants. A handful of fruit appeared, along with a single taro root, and Sunny sighed with a frown. She’d have to go looking for more to eat if they wanted to have a decent meal today. “I’ll be back,” she said, taking out her pot. “Why don’t you try and get a fire going?” Marble nodded and got to work collecting branches to bundle together for a small fire. Sunny stuck around just long enough to make sure he didn’t light himself on fire before she slipped into the undergrowth. She picked her way carefully through the dense foliage and found some young palms that she could cut open to get at their hearts inside, along with another taro root and some more fruit. With dinner tonight found and secured, she continued outward. Spiraling around the camp in a clockwise movement, she always kept the campsite to her right. This, more than anything, helped her keep her sense of direction even as she spiraled in larger and larger turns. Eventually, she found what she was looking for when she came across a shallow pond. Pulling the water into the air, she collected enough to refill the canteens and use enough for a stew once more, though it looked like they might need to have a thicker stew than usual. But that was good enough for Sunny.