Chapter 18 - "Things just got a lot more difficult..."
-INSTALLATION: THE ISLAND-
Nearly half an hour has passed, following the events of Herbivore Island. The remaining members of the Tribe of Harmony were waiting patiently for Fluttershy’s return as some among them began to apply their level-up enhancements. However, their lavender tribe leader sat nearby, still mourning the loss of her draconian family member.
“Ah’ reckon ah’ should apply this one into mah’ health,” Applejack said, looking back towards her cutie mark. “It’ll be nice to be able ta’ take a few more blows. Got’ta say: It’s absolutely mind-boggling how this stuff works.”
“You already know where I’m putting mine!” Rainbow Dash shouts. “I’ve still got three applications to-”
“Now hold on, darling,” Rarity interjects, raising an eyebrow, “Don’t tell me you’re going to apply every single point to your speed?”
“Why not?!” The pegasus responds with a raised forehoof. “These implants are bucking awesome! I can’t believe how they affect our actual bodies with every point.”
“Ah’ got’ta agree with Rarity,” Applejack comments, turning her gaze away from her cutie mark, or implant, and towards her tribemates, “Yer’ already the fastest thin’ on this Ark. Donchya think putting anythin’ more into speed is just a waste?”
“That’s just it, though,” The cyan mare responds before flapping her wings and floating in the air, “I don’t want to be the fastest thing on just this Ark, but all Arks!”
The cowmare simply rolls her eyes in response as the cyan pegasus applies all three of her points into the speed enhancement. But Rarity forms a smirk on her muzzle before turning away and walking towards a nearby tree. The tree in question was on the thinner side, albeit still quite tall, as it stood just before a cliff face.
“Where’s she going?” Rainbow questions.
Applejack chuckles, seemingly catching onto the white unicorn’s intention, “You’ll see, R.D.”
Having reached the tree, Rarity turns around and stretches her forelegs one after the other. Preparing to perform an action similar to the Apple Family harvesting their crops.
“Observe, darling.”
[WHAM-CK] [WHAM-CK]
Rarity digs her forehooves into the sand and thrusts her hind legs backward with incredible force, letting loose a couple of grunts along with gritted teeth. She performs these strikes twice as the tree itself gives in on the second strike. With a creaking of wood and rustling of leaves, the tree falls over before sending flickers of sand into the air from where it impacted.
With a proud expression and exterior, the white unicorn looks towards the now-shocked cyan pegasus, whose eyes were widened with an agape muzzle.
“You see, dearie? Speed isn’t all that you need for these Arks. Ohoho~!” She finishes with some laughter.
Applejack stares sideways towards Rainbow Dash with a vibrant smirk. Then, the pegasus recovers from her shock before shouting:
“Alright! I’ve changed my mind!” She looks back to her cutie mark and accesses her inventory, all while both Applejack and Rarity try to hold in their laughter. The cyan mare seemingly tries to find something, but after failing to do so, she looks back towards the other two mares and asks:
“Wait, where’s the option to reset my enhancements…?”
“Ya’ can’t, sugarcube,” Applejack responds with a hint of snickering. “Y’all already applied yer’ enhancements, and Helena hadn’t told us how to reset them yet.”
“How could she forget to tell us how to do that?!” Rainbow responds with frustration.
“Ohoho, no, darling. You misunderstand,” Rarity answers after recovering from her own laughter. “It’s not that she forgot to tell us, she PURPOSELY didn’t reveal it to us.”
Applejack nods, “While you and Fluttershy were talking before we started our journey, Helena told us all about our implants and their enhancement application with every level we gain.”
“And we told both you and Fluttershy, of course,” Rarity said.
“B-but, you two didn’t say anything about our picks being permanent!” The pegasus shouts, nearly jumping into the air.
Rarity starts to laugh once more with Applejack responding:
“Because we knew that y’all would throw everythin’ into speed!” The orange pony joins the unicorn in their shared laughter.
Rainbow Dash growls through gritted teeth, “You two pranksters!”
“Doesn’t feel too good, eh’ partner?” Applejack responds with a wink.
“Seriously?!” Rainbow responds, tempted to start pulling on her own mane. “You two still held a grudge for all the pranks I pulled on you in the past?!”
“Why, yes, da-haha-rling,” Rarity responds, followed by a triumphant pose.
Rainbow lets loose an annoyed horse grunt, sitting on her flank and crossing her forehooves. All while her two tribemates continue to laugh together. During this laughter, Applejack glances towards the direction of Twilight, who was sitting on their flank with their head slumped down.
The cowmare’s laughter dies down before forming a sympathetic expression. However, her ears perked up, as did her fellow ponies, as they could hear a series of sand being kicked up into the air. Coming from the direction of their home of which they all turned towards.
The form of Vanellope could be seen rapidly approaching the group, along with the yellow pegasus who was currently mounted upon the Raptor. Hopeful expressions began to grow onto their faces, but it was Twilight who overshadowed them as the alicorn stampedes past her fellow tribemates, bolting towards the Raptor.
“Spike! Spike!” Twilight shouts, running towards Fluttershy and Vanellope, “I’m so sorry for not being there! And for you too, Pinkie!”
As she drew ever closer, the alicorn’s hopeful and happy expression slowly morphed into a sense of disappointment and sadness. She could only see Fluttershy mounted upon Vanellope, and only her alone.
The Raptor stops before the alicorn with Fluttershy looking down upon her with a saddened expression.
“F-Fluttershy… w-where’s Spike? And, P-Pinkie?”
The yellow pegasus turns her head from left to right, ears folded against her head, “They’re not coming, Twilight… I’m sorry…” She reaches into the raptor saddle’s right pocket and pulls out the note that was etched onto the wooden sign, “You should read this…”
Twilight lights up her horn, no longer caring about preserving her limited supply of magic, as she floats the note towards her within a lavender-colored aura. Unbeknownst to her, she failed to see the small smirk that forms onto Fluttershy’s muzzle. The alicorn’s eyes scans the note and starts to read it aloud, all while Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack approached from behind.
“Dear Tribe of Harmony,
If you’re reading this then my calculations were correct… and some of you have died during this exercise. I am truly sorry, loves, and you have my truest condolences. However, you must push on… mourn the loss within your heart, but keep pressing forward.
I have disabled the Ark’s respawn feature to increase the difficulty of this challenge. Normally, it’s very wise to retrieve fallen tribe members before continuing forward with your current task. Good on you, mates! However, there will also be times when those who’ve died can not help you any further… like what’ll happen when you one day face The Island’s Guardians. Not to mention its Overseer.
I promise you, those who’ve fallen are safely tucked away within the- hey guys! It’s me, Pinkie Pie! Hehehe, you all look like ants down there! I can see you from-
Sorry, loves… Pinkie wanted to write something down and forced her way in. At the moment of this note’s creation, she’s the only one who’s died so far in the challenge. As I was saying, those who’ve died during this challenge will not return until this task is complete.
Don’t feel discouraged, mates! If you all die and fail to complete this challenge, we can simply try this again until we get it right. Remember, sometimes all it takes is for just one of you to reach the metaphorical finish line. Tribe mates will be lost along the way, but so long as one of you reaches the end, there will always be hope! Of course, best-case scenario, you ALL make it!”
Trust me, I know this from personal experience. After all, it’s just like I told you: You all have an advantage that no other survivor has ever had. Well, except one, but I’ll tell you all about them at a later time.
You. Have. Me.
On the Arks, death is not the end but a way for you to take your previous mistake, correct it, and evolve from it. Never forget that.
I WILL mold you into the survivors I KNOW you can be. All it takes is determination on your part, and with my guidance, we will see this through to the end!
Rooting for you always,
HLN-A
Ps: And me, too! I’m throwing everypony a party once Helena lets me back onto the Ark! Love, Pinkie Pie!
Pss: Ooh! Did you know that there’s something called Sweet Vegetable Cakes here?! They sound super yummy!"
Twilight finishes reading the note, the rest of the tribe all around her, as a smile starts to form onto her muzzle. Her expression morphs into absolute determination as she turns back to the ponies behind her and says:
“Come on, everypony. We’ve got an Ark to beat. We may very well lose our lives, but by Celestia, we will not falter. From this moment on, even when one of us dies on the Ark, we have to keep going. Just like Helena said.”
“Now that’s the Twilight ah’ know! Good to see ya’ perkin’ up, partner!”
“Ooh, I’m so glad to see that Pinkie Pie is doing well,” Rarity comments. “Then that means Spikey Wikey should be there with them! Wherever they are...”
“Dying sucks... trust me, I know,” Rainbow said, rubbing the back of her neck with a forehoof, although momentarily shooting a glance towards Vanellope, “But after dying the first time, I actually got kind of used to it. Should I be worried?”
Fluttershy dismounts Vanellope and approaches the group, “Well, it still won’t be easy to see our friends get… killed. B-but, I trust Helena. Oh my, all this talk about dying is making me very nervous.”
Twilight nods as she beckons everyone else to follow, to which they oblige, as Fluttershy brings Vanellope along via a strap connected to the Raptor’s saddle.
“By the way, everypony,” The yellow pegasus starts. “Thanks to Vanellope, we have a decent amount of hide stashed in her inventory.”
“Very good, Fluttershy,” Twilight responds. “Keep those at the ready, we’ll likely need to craft some more Bolas with them,” The alicorn glances back towards her implant, a circular object being manifested seconds after; along with a map given to each of them by HLN-A.
“Ok… according to the map, we should continue along the coast which will take us directly to our objective,” The alicorn assessed, scanning the map floating before her that was encased within a lavender aura. She then turns her gaze towards the compass, said object also being held within her magical grasp as its red arrow points towards the adjusted direction.
“North-West is the key.”
“Are ya’ sure that y’all should be using yer’ magic, Twi?” Applejack questions, walking just behind the alicorn’s right hindleg. “Floatin’ them objects around must be tax’n.”
“Indeed, darling,” Rarity chimes in, walking next to the cowmare, “We can’t afford to use our magic so casually.”
Twilight laughs sheepishly, “It’s, uh, honestly out of habit. I try to be conservative… but I fail every now and then...”
It was now roughly 4:30pm on the Ark as the orange rays of the late evening sun blanketed the landscape. Even so, the Tribe of Harmony was making some progress. Along the way, they even passed a cave entrance that was positioned just around the bend of where they rested, the beach that was just adjacent to Herbivore Island. The tribe was curious about their discovery, but a sense of dread emanated from the cavern which caused them to move on. Trusting their instincts which practically translated into:
“Do not go in there!”
Following the discovery of the cave, their journey was rather stagnant compared to the incident with the Carnotaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Sarcosuchus, not to mention the events that transpired on Herbivore Island. Most of the creatures they ran into were those that didn’t pose them much of a threat. In truth, they were very lucky as they hadn’t even ran into any more carnivores during their travels.
Unfortunately, their luck was about to run out as the tribe stared hauntingly and fearfully towards a biome that literally crushed their plans. ‘Sticking to the coastline’ was about to get very complicated, thanks to the aforementioned biome:
The swamp.
“Oh, no…” Twilight comments with fear drenched in her tone. “Things just got a lot more difficult...”
