//------------------------------// // The Green Divide // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// The dark line on the horizon quickly became more pronounced and it changed from a solid black blur to a deep green the closer Rainbow Dash got. Seems like they finally made it. From how high up she was, she could actually see where the dark green line ended at the south and faded away into a much lighter landscape beyond. It looked like she could fly over the Green Divide in a snap. But that’s not really what either Rainbow Dash or Wish wanted right now. And it was because of that that Rainbow Dash descended through the air towards the end of the desert and the start of the incredibly thick jungle that constituted what was known as the Green Divide. It popped up out of the sand so suddenly it looked like Discord had chopped up two different countries and smacked them together for fun one day. “So that’s it?” Wish asked her. “Don’t know what else it could be,” Rainbow Dash said. “It doesn’t look like any forest I’ve seen in Hoofica. Why’s it all just one straight line? And the trees and everything look so thick, it’s weird.” Wish said. “It’s more like a jungle than a forest.” “What’s the difference?” “Uhh...” Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow. What was the difference again? “Jungles are more like… tropical. And I think denser… and more humid.” “So what you’re saying is you don’t actually know but you’re going off your gut feeling?” Wish frowned. “And what it looks like to my eyes,” Rainbow Dash nodded. Wish rolled her eyes. “Okay then… not like you’ve ever been wrong about anything before.” “Pfft!” Rainbow Dash snorted at the sassy filly and continued to fly down. She landed in the hot white sand, ten feet in front of the wild jungle. And wild was certainly correct. There wasn’t a place to stand or walk in there that wasn’t covered by leaves, tall grass, bushes, vines, roots, or trees. A thick and impenetrable jungle from where she and Wish stood, the heavy cover of the trees and foliage would block out the sky once they actually walked in. Again she could probably just fly over it all, but they both wanted to find some food and water too. There also probably had to be a few actual routes and trails through the Divide or else the Aux-Lemm caravans and other travelers wouldn’t be able to trade effectively through it. Rainbow Dash didn’t have the patience to go looking for them though. The hooting and cries of animals and birds came from the Green Divide as the two ponies stood there and listened. At least that meant there had to be plenty of food and water to pick up along the way. Wish hopped off Rainbow Dash’s back and walked forward. “I think it’ll be more fun than just flying over it.” “Nothing’s more fun than flying, kid. But I guess you want to do something different. Don’t blame you,” Rainbow Dash shrugged and walked up next to her. “Well it seems like a waste to just fly over it instead of walking through and seeing it...” Wish said. “I mean you’re on this huge adventure so I figured you’d want to see and explore new things.” “That’s true but… I also just really love flying and moving fast through places. Specifically places that don’t have any action, which I kind of doubt this jungle will,” Rainbow said. “Then let’s just look for fruit while we’re in here to make it worth it.” “Now that’s something I can agree with,” Rainbow Dash smiled and walked ahead of the filly to make an easier path through the dense foliage for the both of them. The first steps into the jungle caused an immediate change in the atmosphere. Humidity. It wasn’t any hotter than walking through the desert had been, but it was much, much, wetter. Sweat covered both their bodies and they were dripping in minutes. It was tough to walk too since the ground was so uneven, Rainbow Dash had to lift Wish up a couple of times to carry her over roots and fallen logs. The filly absolutely refused to be carried anymore than that though, having had enough of riding Rainbow’s back in the desert. The leafy plants and vines they pushed through didn’t make things any easier either and Rainbow Dash hoped nothing they were touching was poisonous. One giant plant she pushed the wide leaves out of the way but as soon as her hoof left them the leaves swung back and smacked Wish in the face as she followed behind Rainbow. “Ack!” Wish sputtered as the heavy leaf hit her, sap and some kind of mildew getting over her face. “Oops, sorry,” Rainbow Dash sheepishly said and helped wipe her face off. “Bleh… be more careful next time,” Wish rubbed her eyes. Both of them really wished they had a towel now to wipe themselves clean. At the same time as they slowly traversed through the jungle they heard the countless cries and skittering of other animals. As they went deeper in they finally started to see the jungle life as well. A large boa constrictor slithered up a tree they walked past while toucans rested on branches overhead and all manner of rodent and insect darted from bush to bush. Wish didn’t hate animals or anything but she still felt a little uncomfortable being around so many wild ones. Especially since some of them could probably eat her. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof was just looking around with a big smile on her face. “Fluttershy would love it here.” Wish knew there were many more animals in the jungle they couldn’t see, that might have been watching them. A large beetle, larger than her hoof, flew past her head and she ducked down to avoid it. Maybe I should’ve just let her fly us over the jungle… what’s with this reversal? I’m not used to adventuring like she is… Wish thought to herself. She tried to take her mind off all that by looking at the very pretty plants and flowers all around them too. And search for fruit that had to be growing somewhere in the meantime. At the very least it was extremely colorful in here and pretty much everything was nice to look at. There was more color in the jungle around her than in Rainbow Dash’s mane. Speaking of, Rainbow Dash tugged some vines out of the way so she could walk through and they promptly snapped, dropping all of their length down on top of Wish. “Ugh!” Wish cried out as she was buried beneath the lengthy plant vines. “Oops… again,” Rainbow Dash winced. Wish promptly threw the vines off her and stood up, dusting herself off with a frown on her face and without another word she scrambled up onto Rainbow Dash’s back. Rainbow could practically see the dark cloud of annoyance over her furrowed brow. “I’m just going to sit here and look for fruit,” Wish pouted. Rainbow Dash felt a small smirk tug up her lips. “Be my guest, kid.” “I don’t think nature likes me very much...” Wish murmured and kept on the lookout for their desired food. “Well you said it yourself that you haven’t really traveled much. Just gotta get used to it,” Rainbow shrugged. Wish huffed again and looked up at the trees to see if any of them were fruit bearing. She definitely saw some fruits and seeds but none she recognized as edible, Rainbow Dash must’ve seen the same thing. They couldn’t just eat something random growing in a jungle like this, they had to find a fruit they recognized like bananas, pineapples, or coconuts. One tree that looked like some kind of mini-palm tree had a large blue fruit growing at its neck, but something that color could easily be poisonous. She tried paying attention to some of the animals to see if there was any fruit they were eating but at the moment she didn’t see any in the middle of a meal. It was just so hot too, she constantly had to brush her soaked mane away and wipe sweat from her eyes. There probably wasn’t clean water in here either. Every puddle would likely be dirty and buzzing with mosquitoes and who knew what else. The crying of some kind of bird—much louder than the others—rang out through the jungle as Wish and Rainbow Dash passed through another few trees. It startled a few other animals and they all ran to hide. But as Wish and Rainbow Dash looked for the culprit it turned out to just be an exceptionally large parrot. It flew around where they were and landed on a tree branch, peering down at them with its black eyes and not making any further noise. “How big did this place look to you from above?” Wish asked Rainbow as they walked past the parrot. “Dunno for sure. The jungle didn’t look more than a mile or two thick and I’m pretty sure those were the lands of Vissidia I saw beyond it,” Rainbow said. “Then it’s not like we really need to walk that far before we get through it,” Wish trailed off. “Nope,” Rainbow Dash nodded and continued on. Perhaps ten more minutes of struggling through the thick foliage of the jungle, and the two of them started to hear something new. High pitched chattering, whines, and howls from directly ahead. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and pushed through one last layer of leaves before she stepped out into a clearing. All around the clearing were banana trees with dozens of tiny monkeys only half Rainbow’s size hopping up and down and swinging between them. It was a cacophony of noise as the monkeys growled and bared their fangs at each other, throwing bananas and waving their arms in the air. They seemed to pay no mind to the pony intruders at first, far too busy yelling at each other and doing whatever sort of monkey business they were doing. Some hung by their tails upside down and screeched while others ran about around on the ground. Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head and glanced at Wish. “Well we found some food. Hope you don’t mind the noise.” “Are these monkeys okay with us?” Wish asked as she looked around at the wild monkeys and their chaotic behavior. “Well they haven’t done anything about us yet, have they?” Rainbow said. A screeching monkey came swinging by on a vine and grabbed Wish off her back. Rainbow Dash dragged a hood down her face as Wish screamed. “Oh come on, seriously?” “Ahhhhh! R-Rainbow Dash!” Wish screamed for help as she was carried through the air. Rainbow Dash watched as at the apex of the monkey’s swing he let go off Wish and sent her flying into the sky. She almost jolted up and flew to grab her—but then she saw another monkey come swinging in and grab Wish first. “Waaaaaahhhh!” Wish continued to scream. Meanwhile the monkeys were cheering and shouting as well and… Rainbow Dash looked harder. They were smiling. They were just messing around with Wish. “Rainbow Dash, do something!” Wish yelled for her again as she continued to get thrown around by the laughing monkeys. “W-Wish, just r-relax!” Rainbow Dash said throughout bits of laughter. “They’re playing around, they’re just having fun!” “Well I don’t like it!” Wish shouted for her in-between tosses. “Hurry up and get me down!” It was pretty obvious that it was really bothering Wish so Rainbow Dash figured she should probably help her out already. With a smirk, she brought her hoof to her lips and loudly whistled across the entire clearing. The shrill noise cut through it and the monkeys’ roughhousing instantly came to a stop… which of course meant that Wish was left flying through the air. “R-R-Rainbow Dash!” “Oh shoot, coming!” Rainbow yelled and shot up to her like lightning. She grabbed the filly out of the air and safely floated down to the middle of the clearing. Wish was breathing heavily and she closed her eyes to calm herself down while Rainbow looked around at the now much quieter monkeys and all the piled up bananas. “So… do you like bananas?” Wish opened up her eyes and frowned at Rainbow Dash. “… they’re alright.” “Well I think we’re going to be able to eat our fill.” The two ponies sat on the southern edge of the clearing and proceeded to eat a number of bananas together while the monkeys returned to screaming and swinging about around them. Occasionally they jumped on Rainbow Dash and messed with her mane and tail but she did a decent job ignoring them. Wish just sent a stiff glare at any of the primates that came close to her. It was all pretty loud and obnoxious still but having some food to eat made it easier to deal with. Wish tossed her third peel to the side and sat back, having had enough to eat for now. Rainbow Dash was on her seventh. “You can eat a lot,” Wish said to her. “I’m bigger, and I use way more energy than you. And I live in the same place as Pinkie Pie and Applejack, you kind of get used to eating big meals,” Rainbow shrugged. “Well if there was some chocolate cake around here I feel like I could still eat a whole one of those by myself...” Wish said. “Hmm, maybe we can look for some in Vissidia. I bet they’ve got chocolate cake there,” Rainbow said. She finished her seventh banana and threw the empty peel behind her back. Reaching down to start snacking on an eighth, she watched as a monkey came swinging down and stole it right out of her hoof. The pegasus frowned at the laughing monkeys as they tossed her banana between them and jeered at her. Wish looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. “I’m ready to leave when you are.” The banana came flying back with a splat right on top of Rainbow Dash’s head. “Yeah. So am I,” the pegasus said. After taking a few leaves and wiping herself off as best she could, Rainbow Dash grabbed Wish and put the filly back on her back, the two of them continuing their walk through the Green Divide after finally getting some food. It shouldn’t be too much longer until they were through the whole thing. The humidity of the jungle, the struggle through the dense foliage, the wildlife, it had all worn out its welcome to the two ponies. Wish now kept a sharper lookout as she rested on Rainbow Dash’s back, making sure no more monkeys or anything else would come swooping down to grab her. That boa from earlier still made her kind of wary. “Oh by the way, kid. If you see any pretty and colorful looking frogs, don’t touch them. That’s advice from my friend, Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash told her. “Why?” Wish asked. “They’re poisonous.” “And you didn’t remember to say that before we came in here?” “Well I still don’t know if there are actually any in here… just seems like the kind of place they would be according to what Fluttershy has told me.” “Hmm...” “In general I think she told me that really colorful animals and stuff are more likely to be poisonous or whatever. It’s like a warning sign or something. I dunno, I’m not the expert on it.” “You are compared to me.” “Oof… that aint exactly a good thing,” Rainbow Dash winced. Thankfully the rest of their travel through the jungle was proving to be fairly uneventful. It was getting slightly darker though, a combination of the day getting later and the thick jungle canopy drowning out a lot of the light. Rainbow never would’ve suggested they sleep in a humid and unbearable place like this, where they probably couldn’t find a spot to stay clean, but barring any unforeseen accidents they shouldn’t be stuck in here much longer. Rainbow couldn’t believe it but after being covered in sweat this much and having to push through the dirty and smelly jungle, she probably wanted to take a bath as much as Rarity. Ugh, Rarity might never let her live it down… especially if she also learned about that spa trip Rainbow Dash took back in Oreville. While she wasn’t as great at judging distance when it came to walking as she was when flying, Rainbow Dash was decently sure they were coming to the end of the Green Divide. Both she and Wish were hearing less and less crying and howling from animals as they traveled as well. That was something Wish was far more grateful for than Rainbow Dash. “You could use a pet one day, kid,” Rainbow Dash said to her. “You ever have one?” “Nope,” Wish shook her head. “Pets do a lot of good, I’m serious. I think you’d like having a cat or a dog… or a tortoise.” Wish raised an eyebrow at her. “Why a tortoise?” “Cause they’re awesome!” Rainbow Dash blushed. Wish shrugged. “Whatever you say...” “It’s true! Don’t knock tortoises!” “Okay, okay, sheesh!” Wish shook her head. “Just keep walking already...” Rainbow Dash hopped past a large leafy plant and into mud, splattering it up her hooves. She rolled her eyes and kept walking anyways. Now though, light was starting to come from ahead, not just faint slivers from above. The end of the jungle had to be coming up, the trees weren’t completely blocking their vision anymore. Rainbow Dash picked up the pace to get through all the hanging vines and big plants in the way. After passing around another large tree she and Wish were both able to peer ahead and saw the last vestiges of the jungle starting to thin out. “There we go,” Rainbow Dash grinned and walked towards the light. It was basically just a few more feet worth of trees and vines that she needed to push through before she and Wish both emerged out from the Green Divide. The light and what lied beyond the line of trees became easier to see—green, green and sunlight. The humidity was started to lessen as well, a drier but still warm breeze was coming in from the south. Looking back at Wish to give her a grin, Rainbow Dash jumped past the last row of trees and landed on soft grass. The two ponies emerged from a tropical jungle into an idyllic countryside not out of place in the heartland of either Hoofica or Equestria. It was the afternoon, and the sun still shone down to brighten up the grassy world in front of them. A blue sky with white clouds hung over head, the temperature in the air was a perfect springtime, simple dirt roads snaked through the tall green grass in the distance, and a few homes and farmhouses dotted the lands. Wildflowers sprung up everywhere and flocks of pretty birds flew overhead while a rabbit stuck its head out of its hole before quickly retreating at the sight of the ponies. “Vissidia,” Rainbow Dash said as she took the peaceful lands in. “I think Cart might have been right about this place.” Wish silently looked on as well before jumping off of Rainbow’s back. The grass felt comfortable on her hooves and she took a moment to relish the feeling. Something told her that walking on her own here would be much better than walking through the desert and jungle had been.