Pearl paced back and forth slowly along the second level of the newly refurbished Golden Oaks. Downstairs she could hear her newly wedded wife rustling through the books below. Pearl’s eyes glanced over at the open scroll on the bed. She had read it so many times it had already been committed to memory.
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To Pearl Rose from Tiamat, Mother of Dragons.
Your presence is requested. I have heard of what has happened to you, and I may be able to help. Princess Twilight has spoken highly of you and of your love for dragons. I admit that I am curious to meet you in person.
An escort shall meet you by the waters of the Rose River the night before the next full moon. There is much I wish to discuss with you that will forever change your life aside from your recent changes. Expect an extended stay.
===
Everypony was shocked when the letter appeared through Spike's flames two days ago. For those two days, she had been in a constant state of panic. Why was the Mother Of all Dragon Kind calling on her? Some unknown Pegasus daughter of an intercontinental ship foreman and a banker.
“Pearl, come down, I have something to show you.” Twilight's voice rang out clear as a bell from the library floor.
Rolling her eyes Pearl guessed it was some tedious bit of information on the mating habits of rocks crabs or crystal flies. Her princess was always researching something peculiar like that.
The gem fused into her chest glowed, earning a glare from the Pegasus. "Listen you stupid thing. I don't care what you want. Twilight is my wife, and I love her more than anything. If you don't like it? Go find somepony else to corrupt."
That seemed to shut the jewel up. At least for now, as Pearl made her way downstairs. Pearl knew that her anger only made her Soul Gem more powerful, but she couldn't help it. Ever since she put it on, her anger had become hotter and hotter. “Okay Twilight, what now?” Pearl smiled as Twilight lifted her head up. A bit of ink smeared along the alicorn’s cheek.
“I found it. The path to the Old Dragon Lands. Your mentioning of the Rose River the other night got my brain twitching.” Twilight shifted through her scrolls and pulled out a map.
“Glad I got some part of you doing that.” Pearl huffed in a whisper. She had expected a lot more at night now that Twilight had finished up with her latest paper. “So what did you find? I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be an easy uneventful flight.”
“That is the problem. Flying is out of the question.”
“Come again?” Pearl quirked an eyebrow.
“Flying is not possible. The river lies on the other side of the Everfree Forest. And it is forbidden to fly over it.” Twilight watched as her beloved blinked in confusion, as her gem glowed. The sight of the accursed thing made her heart clench. To the day she died, she could never forgive herself for bringing the Dazzlings' gems to Equestria as she had, and for what they had done to her beautiful Pearl.
“Oh come on, we’ve seen ponies fly over the forest before.” Pearl sat back in a chair and crossed her front legs in front of her chest.
“That was only on the fringes of the forest, kind of a mystical gray area. But once you get into the main forest. Pony magic does not work. Not even Alicorn magic works in the Everfree.”
“But how is that even possible?” Pearl rubbed her head in confusion.
Twilight sighed as she moved to the window behind a large desk and a throne. Yes her castle library was remade after the battle with Tirek, even thanks to the power of the Tree of Harmony it had grown three times as large and looked like a castle with a tree growing around it. But she loved it as her library has grown exponentially.
“This is something only myself and the other princesses know. Even I was shocked when I learned of it. But the Everfree is grown over an Abyssal Portal. Possibly Tragar itself."
Pearl's heart clenched in horror. Every filly and colt knew that name, though most thought it was nothing more than a myth. "The final battle of the God War. Nopony knows where it was. Hell, most don't even think the Shining Ones and Wicked Ones even existed."
Twilight nodded. "But we know these portals exist, and what comes from them no sane mind could conceive of. Not even Discord, and I flat out asked him about it. And it is this power that drowns out all other magics but its own. That is why flying over the forest is forbidden.”
With a shrug and a chuckle, Pearl leaned back. “Okay so flying is out. And I'm not crazy enough to go through the forest. So we’ll just plan a trip around it.” But her smile quickly vanished when she saw Twilight’s face and her shaking head.
“To go around and get where you want to go, would take a month. And that is by flying. That is how vast the Everfree Forest really is. Your only option is to go through the forest.”
“But... ponies who go in rarely, if ever, come back out. And even if they do, they are never the same again.” Pearl groaned. "And if this really is Tragar, then I'm risking literally everything going in there."
Twilight nodded. “Going through the forest will get you there in two days. But you are right, and that is what I am afraid of."
Pearl nodded sadly as she poked her gem. "I risk permanently losing myself. It's hard enough already to bring myself back from feeding on the hate and anger in the Human World." She cast a pleading look at the princess. "And the worst part? I love the feeling it gives me. The ecstasy and joy. And it's getting harder and harder to fight it. One of these days, I won't fight it at all, and then what will you do?"
Twilight moved over and nuzzled her head under Pearl's as it dropped. "I know, Rosie. But I refuse to think it will ever come to that. We will find a way to get it off of you. This I swear. And don’t worry, I will be going with you. Maybe Tiamat really does know a way to help you.”
Smirking, Pearl leaned back and ran a hoof along Twilight’s floof, channeling all of her powers into this. “Maybe. Right now I want to take my mind off of it all.”
With a slight shiver, Twilight looked at her wife. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
With a grin Pearl slipped from the chair and walked away, shaking her hips back and forth slowly. With a look over her shoulder, Pearl gave her own rump a swift slap with her tail and winked at Twilight whose wings puffed out instantly. "Come and find out, Twily. Let me show you how a siren shows her love. Make me sing," she said in a two-fold voice.
Twilight grinned goofily, before speeding off after her wife, Pearl adding more sway to her hips with each step, before running her tail along Twilight's snout, earning a roaring blush from the alicorn.
Twilight and Pearl stood at the archway of trees that lead into the deepest part of the Everfree Forest. The area where no ponies have stepped foot and come back or come back in one piece.
“This place looks more frightening than I thought it would.” Pearl shuddered. Like all ponies, she had heard tales about this forest. Some even more graphic since moving to Ponyville. But it was something else to be standing at its gates, so to speak.
“On that, I agree.” Twilight shivered noticeably. Her friends all thought the pair were crazy for doing this and insisted on coming with them, but Twilight assured them that they would be okay. “Well let's not stand here like a pair of frightened fillies.”
“Yeah,” Pearl groaned a bit as she walked beside Twilight into the dense forest.
The pair walked side by side for what seemed like hours. The canopy overhead blocked out much of the sun, but she was surprised at how bright everything was. Half expecting monsters to leap out of every corner, she found that the scariest thing they came across was a large gray wolf as large as they were and its family crossing the path. A pathway that despite not being used, was well maintained.
“I’m surprised,” Twilight cheerfully stretched as the pair stopped at the banks of a river. “Having lived beside the Everfree for as long as I have now, I never would have expected it to be like this.”
“Yeah, I mean the trees can be a bit creepy. But it doesn’t feel unpleasant.” Leaning down Pearl took a long drink of water before she sat back and felt a cold shiver down her spine. “Twilight, is it just me, or are things just a bit too quiet?”
Looking around, Twilight blinked. She saw that the path they had been on was no longer there. Standing up she took a few steps forward and saw that they were nearly surrounded on all sides by thick dark trees so tightly pressed together they formed a solid wall. “This is not good.”
Pearl felt it as well. They were not welcome here. Not at all. Something malign, dark, evil, was all around them. They could feel it. This was not natural. Pearl felt her gem begin to glow, as if responding to something, and felt her anger rise for no reason. "I say we keep going. I don't like this," she growled, fighting to keep her anger in check.
Twilight caught the hint of anger in Pearl's voice. This. All of this. It was wrong. Wrong in a way that she could not explain. "A very wise idea, Pearl," she said, as the path opened before them once more. Her earth pony magic was going insane from this, and Twilight had to force her lunch down where it belonged.
Pearl wasn’t sure if it was her anger clouding her thoughts, or the quick straight path they took. But not long before sunset, the pair reached a raging white rapid river. Looking across Pearl could just barely make out the shapes of trees on the other bank. "Is this it?"
Twilight looked around. "This is it. I believe we are to meet this guide on the other side of the river. But I don't see how we can cross it."
Pearl gave her a look. "Can't you make us a raft or something? I still can't fly, remember?"
Twilight looked back the way they had come. To her horror, the path had vanished once more. And as she watched, shadows slithered beneath the trees, unnatural and yet seductive at the same time. "My magic won't work here. And I don't know what else we could use to make one."
“Oh great. You get up all this way. And now we're stuck at the banks of a nearly impossible to pass river. Well, thanks a lot for nothing!” Pearl growled and stomped her front hooves into the ground, her anger rising by the second, but could care less as she shouted profanities galore as she stomped up and down the riverbank, her gem glowing brighter and brighter by the second.
“I sure hope you don’t kiss your wife with that mouth.” A soft melodic voice said from behind Pearl.
Turning around she found herself face to face with a huge serpentine creature, her face was almost wolf-like while twin antlers sprouted up from behind her ears. A thin coat of white fur covered thick aqua green scales. Pearl recognized her immediately as an eastern dragon; she felt her excitement mingle with her rage. Leaving her feeling a bit bewildered at the whole thing.
Twilight blinked in surprise. She hadn't been there a second before. "Are you a spirit?"
The dragoness nodded as she looked at her. "That I am. I’m the soul of the Rose River. Even the branch part that runs through the length of this forest that you followed all the way here.” The spirit dragon pointed to the split leading into the forest. “That part isn’t known much as part of my river, but it is. It’s a shame your kind also forgot that.”
Pearl rolled her eyes. "We seem to be doing that a lot recently. Just look at Princess Luna or the Crystal Empire. So are you our guide to the Dragon Queen?"
The dragoness nodded as she looked at the gem in Pearl's chest. "I am at that. I’ll be with you for the rest of your journey. And I'll even help bring you home along my river since part of it does pass a few pony villages, and one with a train station.”
“Good. I’d rather not deal with this damn forest again.” Pearl glared at the forest, a feeling Twilight shared as she wrapped a wing around her.
Their guide glared at it as well. "I told Tiamat that this was a poor place for us to meet. The Abyss has been more active lately, and the forest is showing it. But this is the only way to the Ancient Dragon Lands from Equestria."
“Maybe, I just want to put as much distance between me and this as possible right now,” Pearl sighed.
“That would be quite the trick.” the dragoness whispered out of earshot. “Well, let's get you to your meeting. I’m sure you're still hyped for it.”
“OH yeah. So? Do you have a name I can call you?”
“My own name isn’t used by any but my kind. But you can call me Summer.” Summer grinned as Pearl and Twilight climbed onto climbed up onto her back. A rather novel experience for the both of them as Pearl held Twilight close.
“Well, let's go, Summer. Off to the Dragon Queen.” Pearl pointed her hoof to the other side of the bank.
“Aye Aye captain!” Summer laughed and began to swim across the wide river with Pearl laughing along with her, earning an eye roll from Twilight.