“I’m really, really glad you guys still grow fruits and vegetables here,” Rainbow Dash said to Belle as the two of them stood on the dock of one of Mile Moss Crannog’s many floating platforms. It was one of the most southern ones, she and Belle had walked to it early this morning after another visit to the Elder. Currently a stallion was sitting on the edge of it with a fishing pole beside him and his line already out in the water.
“I’m glad you have a good opinion of Mile Moss Crannog after coming here… but I wish we could’ve spoken more of things that weren’t so negative. If it only wasn’t for that monster I’m certain your visit to our swamp would be magical,” Belle said with a look of dismay on her face.
Rainbow Dash reached forward with an easy grin and put her hoof on the mare’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I can tell how much you love your home so rest easy when I tell you that I liked coming here. The monster isn’t your fault or anything.”
“Thank you for saying so, it’s been difficult. But I hope now that the rest of your journey goes well. I will pray for the swamp and our ancestors to watch over you,” Belle smiled.
Rainbow pointed to the fresh line of mud on her face. “I’ve already got them protecting me, don’t I?”
Belle giggled. “Indeed you do. I’m glad you have shown respect for Mile Moss Crannog even though you’re from so far away.”
“Hey, like I’ve said I’ve been to a lot of places. So long as you aren’t sacrificing ponies or worshiping chaos and evil it’s all good to me,” Rainbow shrugged. “Anyways though I really should get going, I’m glad I stopped by in Mile Moss Crannog and got to meet you and learn all that I did.”
“Be careful out there. It’s still dangerous,” Belle warned.
“Danger’s my middle name,” Rainbow grinned.
Because the area of the swamp right around Mile Moss Crannog was not as dense as the rest, it was still generally bright out at this time of day. A layer of fog stayed over the water but Rainbow Dash was at least able to see everything without issue. And hear everything. Because of course the croaking had not stopped. She flew past a pair of ponies out on a boat, fishing. A stiff smile and wave was all she could offer the two of them before she went by.
“I’m not getting used to that part...” she said to herself.
Honestly she was kind of surprised ponies even went out fishing like that in this swamp anyways. Even just regular alligators seemed like they’d be pretty dangerous to small boats like that.
In fact…
Rainbow Dash turned around and zoomed back over to the two fishers. “Hey there.”
“Well hello, miss,” one of the fishers said before squinting his eyes and seeing the line of mud on her face. He smiled up at her. “I see you’re our friend.”
“Nice to meet you,” the other fisher said.
“Can we do something for you?” The first asked.
“Actually I just wanted to ask if you guys are really okay out here? I know there are a ton of alligators in this swamp, one tried to even eat me when I stopped on a log,” Rainbow told them.
“Oh yeah, we’re more than okay,” the first one nodded.
“Guess nobody told you about Gator Powder?” The second one asked.
“Gator Powder?” Rainbow tilted her head to the side.
He pulled up a draw-string bag sitting in the boat and opened it up, revealing a white powder on the inside. “This here is Gator Powder. It’s made from grinding up a bunch of different seeds and roots, gators hate the smell of it. You sprinkle a bunch wherever you boat out to and you make them go away for a few hours. We fishers do it, crawdad trawlers and farmers do it too.”
“Huh, okay then,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“Been living in this swamp a long time, had to find some way to avoid the gators,” the first fisher said.
“Guess so. Well that’s really all I wanted to ask, glad you guys are doing alright!” Rainbow waved to them again.
“No problem, take care out there, friend!” The first said.
“Be careful deeper in the swamp,” the second said.
A little more waving and Rainbow Dash flew away from their small boat, resuming her trip into the depths of the swamp. So they had a way to keep themselves safe from the gators if they needed to spend a lot of time out in the water? She wondered if it worked on the monster at all. Someone had probably tried already. It was as they said, they knew the swamp much better than Rainbow Dash did. Since she was still fairly close to Mile Moss Crannog she was willing to bet she’d continue to see more ponies like that either fishing or doing something else. The swamp wasn’t as huge a country as some places she had been to but it was very large and if the monster stayed closer to the heart then it might be a little bit before she got to the danger zones and where ponies no longer traveled.
Aside from the hunting party. Once she had gone further south she’d start asking ponies she saw if they knew anything about the party or how to find them. Belle and the Elder said they were more likely to spot her first if she kept going this way, but Rainbow preferred being proactive.
It might take a solid day or two of finding her own way through this part of the swamp before she reached deep enough to find the hunting party and monster. The early darkness and density of trees that came with the swamp slowed her pace. Annoying, but she had dealt with worse. At least she knew there was stuff in here that was perfectly safe to eat. Belle and the Elder had both told her how to spot healthy plants, since she sure as hay wasn’t going fishing for any of her meals.
And if she ever got bored while flying through here maybe she could intentionally find some alligators and bother them? Something to chase and attack her should get her blood pumping.
Fluttershy probably wouldn’t appreciate her just messing with animals out of boredom though…
That thought did make her think about what should be done with the monster. Was it really just a monster and not a normal animal at all? Or was it some kind of unusual animal that was just doing what any big predator would do? If it was just an animal then it was wrong to kill it, even with the danger it posed it had a right to live here in its own home too, she would have to try finding another way. Though the hunters might disagree with that… and it was their swamp.
Rainbow Dash grimaced. She really hoped it was just a big evil monster.
It was an exceptionally big swamp though, if she had to get a peaceful solution it couldn’t be too bad for them to just stay out of the monster’s territory. Hopefully. But the swamp was super important to their culture and religion so they might not deal with being unable to travel anywhere in it badly…
“Ugh! Stupid complications!” Rainbow shouted to the swamp.
There was no point to thinking about this dumb stuff anyways, not until she found the hunting party and saw the monster for herself. If things turned out to be more complicated she’d deal with it then. Until such a time, she was going to happily fly along and look forward to her adventure in this swamp. Taking things easy was the Rainbow Dash way. Unfortunately, she thought that maybe some of her prior experiences on this journey may have started to jade her. She liked to think she was too strong for herself to be changed in any negative sort of way.
But… when she returned to Equestria, maybe her friends would notice something she didn’t? She had been thinking of ways to become better ever since her failure in Oreville but what if she had become worse in a way she hadn’t even been thinking about?
Cynical. More pessimistic. Quicker to expect things to be bad or for the worst to happen?
She had always kind of had a bit of a pessimistic streak in certain ways. Or at least she wasn’t all super jolly and frou-frou about friendship and magic and all that stuff like Pinkie and Twilight. But she was positive with the big important stuff—the stuff that mattered. What if she came back to Equestria and she was even more negative about the little things because she hadn’t been expecting to ever get changed in such a way. It would be lame. And she didn’t want to believe it could happen to her. But she didn’t want to believe a lot of things had happened on this journey either.
Rainbow didn’t want to fail at anything. I’m not changing for the worse about anything. Only for the better.
She stopped on a mudbank that sat between a couple of gnarled trees and caught her breath. Her mind had just gone crazy there for a moment and she needed to relax. She also carefully glanced around at the waters to make sure there wasn’t any rippling or bubbling. Definitely didn’t need a sudden alligator attack again.
Rainbow could feel the now dry mud on her face as she relaxed. “Friend of Mile Moss Crannog… things are going well. Not doing this just for myself, doing it for my new friends.”
A grin touched her lips and she cracked her neck, flying back up and heading away from the mudbank. “Keep it simple, Rainbow.”
Several hours later things were already getting dark in the swamp and she hadn’t seen any other ponies in ages. She didn’t exactly know what signs to look for when it came to finding new crannogs. She had stumbled upon Giacomo’s home from luck and he directed her on to Mile Moss Crannog. But from what Belle and others had said there should still be more places and ponies out here for her to find.
When it went from just “dark” to actually evening, she did soon find another pony out in the swamp.
It was a lone mare on a raft, not riding in a normal boat. Rainbow Dash saw her because of the lantern that hung off a hook on top of a wooden pole that sprouted up on one side of the raft. She had several different bags lying on the raft that looked in various states of being filled, and carried an oar that was strapped across her back. No, it wasn’t actually an oar, just a big stick that she probably used to push off against the mud and trees when navigating her raft through the swamp. Right now though her raft was stationary between a few trees and she was reaching up into one and plucking some kind of fruit from it, placing them in one of her bags.
Rainbow Dash decided to fly on over to her and say hello. She zipped over to the trees and flew right beside her head. “Yo!”
“Wha-?!” The mare yelped in a startled voice and dropped the fruit she had just picked into the water. She was an earth pony even several years younger than Rainbow Dash, with big yellow eyes that stuck out in the darkness. “You scared me! Who are you?”
“Uh, sorry… my bad. I’m Rainbow Dash, who are you?” Rainbow Dash sheepishly replied.
The mare frowned but then her face softened up as she noticed the mud on Rainbow’s face. “I see you’ve come down from Mile Moss Crannog. My name is Sophia.”
“Nice to meet you, you gathering food tonight?” Rainbow asked.
“No, these fruits are used for medicine, I’m a medicine mare,” Sophia explained. “Everything I gather from the swamp goes towards my medicines.” She said and pointed to her bags. “What are you doing out here in the swamp? We don’t get many travelers through here—and I’m certain the ponies at Mile Moss Crannog would’ve warned you about the monster.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “They did. Actually I’m going out to find the hunting party and help them deal with the monster.”
Sophia raised an eyebrow. “You’re quite a brave pony then. Even just regular alligators frighten me enough I’d never go anywhere alone without plenty of gator powder.”
“Figured they could use some help. I think your home deserves to go back to being peaceful. I mean, peaceful compared to now, you’ll still have all the regular alligators,” Rainbow said. “Speaking of that, do you know how close I am to the monster’s territory? And where the hunting party that went after it is?”
Sophia pointed slightly southeast. “I’d say fly that direction and you’ll come across one or the other in another day. Soon as you pass the lilypad fields, and you’ll know them when you see em.”
“Thanks,” Rainbow saluted. “And uh… I’m just gonna go out on a limb and assume I wont find a nice place to sleep going that way, will I?”
“Not a chance,” Sophia shook her head.
“Great,” Rainbow sighed.