//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Call of a Raven // by Autum Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter 14 ___________________________________________________________ “I got the scent, guys,” Beast Boy said, before howling. He was currently in the form of a Bloodhound. Robin looked around, frowning. “I don’t like this. Why would Raven be hiding out in in the Everfree Forest?” It had been almost two months since he, Raven, Princess Twilight and the Element of Loyalty: Rainbow Dash and the Element of Laughter: Pinkie Pie, had gone to the unicorn Starlight Glimmer’s village and found both Joker and Harley Quin, transformed into animal like creatures and Raven, after losing control of her powers and going on a rampage, had vanished. Harley was currently being held in suspended animation within a type of crystal in the Crystal Empire. The doctors hadn’t been able to identify what had caused her mutation, but that it wasn’t magic. The fact science had been involved worried Robin more, though. Magic would’ve made it easier to accept given the way this world functioned and it would’ve made changing Harley back into a human far simpler a process. With science being the cause, though… well, it just made things way more complicated. After she’d vanished, Raven hadn’t returned to Ponyville. She hadn’t gone to Canterlot, either. More worryingly, Princess Luna said she’d lost track of Raven’s magical signature. Since the lunar princess used Shadow Magic similar to Raven, the two were able to sense each other and, after less than a day after Raven vanished from Starlight Glimmer’s old town, Luna had sent an alarming message to Princess Twilight about Raven’s magic simply vanishing altogether from their world. Knowing from personal experience just how bad that revelation could be, Robin and Cyborg had gone looking for Beast Boy, finding him hiding with the zebra, Zecora. Apparently he’d been trying to avoid the Pegasus Fluttershy due to how eager she was to learn about him and his ability to turn into any kind of animal. The three had agreed to go looking for Raven, Zecora saying she would help, but that it would take some time before she could. In the meantime, the three had done their best to search for anywhere they could guess Raven would’ve gone. They’d checked the old castle above the Tree of Harmony, they’d asked those Raven had gotten to know during her time in this world before they’d arrived. They’d even asked the stallion Cyborg had been hanging around, who, briefly, had some weird kind of moment where he said something about Raven’s family needing to stop hating before seeming clueless about what he’d said. The only family they knew Raven hated was her dad and he was long gone, so they chalked it up to the odd moments Cyborg said the stallion has from time to time, where he says gibberish, then forgets whatever he was talking about. Princess Twilight had tried to help out, but, what with her being occupied with trying to understand the odd crystal box that had grown out of the Tree of Harmony and helping Starlight Glimmer settle into Ponyville, her hooves were tied and she seemed really upset about it too. Clearly, she and Raven had become close during her time here before they arrived. Finally, though, after several months, Zecora had come to them with a finished potion. Or, rather, a salve, which she then put on Beast Boy’s nose. “I can’t believe that actually worked,” Cyborg said as the green dog started quickly moving through the brush, nose to the ground. “I didn’t understand half of what that zebra said.” “True, Zecora’s odd rhyming talk was tricky to figure out,” Robin nodded as the two followed the dog to an opening in the ground and sliding down into an underground cave. “Still, at least, whatever she meant by With this salve upon your nose, you will find the scent where it grows actually meant now.” Until Beast Boy had the salve on his nose, he hadn’t been able to follow Raven’s scent. Sure, he could smell her scent, but it was all over Ponyville. Finding where she’d teleported to didn’t exactly help when her scent would’ve only restarted wherever she’d teleported to, which they’d had no clue of. However, soon as the salve was on BB’s nose, he’d become more keen to smells he claimed he never even knew were possible. Zecora had then lead them to these woods and told them to keep searching until Raven’s scent picked up again… and now it had. “Still, why did Raven choose to stay in this murky old cave?” Cyborg asked as he turned out some lights on his body to help Robin and Beast Boy see. “From what we’ve seen of her since arriving in this world, she’s not fond of these kinds of places anymore.” “Whatever the case, since Princess Twilight said she and Spike would be searching the old castle for information on that crystal box, if we need their help, they’ll be close by,” Robin said, glancing up at the entrence, before re-joining his team. The three continued through the cave, Beast Boy keeping his nose in the air to follow the scent, indicating Raven had flown through the cave, not once setting down on the ground. After several hours, they stopped by a dirt wall, Beast Boy looking up at it in confusion. “What’s up, BB?” Cyborg asked. Beast Boy shifted into his human form. “The scent just ends here.” “Huh?” Cyborg and Robin glanced at each other, then to the green boy. Beast Boy frowned at the dirt. “This doesn’t make sense. Zecora said my sense of smell is way stronger for at least the day, right? I think that’s what she meant by Now smells far away, will be viable to you this day, right?” Robin looked firmly at the dirt, before glancing to Cyborg. “Cyborg, scan that patch of dirt.” He nodded, doing so, before blinking in surprise. “There’s some kind of energy convergence in that spot. It’s reminiscent of that time we… we… what was I talking about, again?” The other two looked to Cyborg’s vacant, confused expression, then each other. “Seems hanging with that stallion’s started Cyborg doing that too,” Beast Boy pointed a thumb at him. “Either way,” Robin looked to the patch of dirt, before his eyes narrowed. “Wait. Look closer at that patch. It’s some kind of swirling pattern.” Beast Boy cried out in alarm, while reaching up, his hand went right through the dirt and it starting glowing with a yellow light, He yanked his hand back… only to find it totally fine. “What just happened?” Cyborg asked as the light faded form the patch. “That was weird,” Beast Boy shook his hand, frowning at it. “It kinda felt familiar… by I can’t say why. Kinda like that time that dude pulled us into his games to take all our powers, but… not?” The three looked to each other, then the patch. “Raven’s scent ends there, correct, Beast Boy?” Robin asked firmly. He nodded. “Yeah.” Cyborg grunted. “Then, whatever’s going on, she clearly went through there and we gotta go in and get her back.” The three nodded to each other, before one by one climbing up through the dirt patch, which glowed as soon as they touched it, passing through. ___________________________________________________________ Beast Boy gave a loud, desperate, dramatic gasp as his head pushed through the sand, his hand waving around wildly. He felt a larger hand grab it and help pull him out. After coughing several times, Beast Boy opened his eyes and looked around, confused. “Um… how did we come out in the forest?” he asked, darting his head back and forth. “How long were we climbing through that dirt… that’s somehow turned into sand? In a forest?” “We were barely in there for a few seconds,” Cyborg shook his head. “Plus, smell the air,” Robin said, the other two doing exactly as told. “Smell that? That’s salt water. We’re near the sea.” Beast Boy blinked. “How? How did we go from an underground cave in a forest to anywhere near the sea? Is there a sea near a forest in Equestria?” “There isn’t.” The three whirled around as someone stepped from out of the shadows of the nearby trees. Raven gave a small smile. “Hey, guys.” ___________________________________________________________ I sigh, shaking my head. “Should’ve figured Robin would find the natural portal.” “Portal?” Beast Boy asks, glancing to the others. “What portal?” I walk out from the trees and kneel down in front of the pool of quicksand. “This portal. It’s a link between this world and Equestria.” “This… world?” Robin blinks. Cyborg gasps as he’s looking down at the screen on his arm. “Whoa. I got reception. We’re back on Earth? How?” I shake my head as I get up. “Not Earth. Not yours, anyway. And not mine, either. This world is one Princess Twilight and I visited not too long ago. In this world, it’s a humanified version of Equestria.” “Humanified?” Cyborg glances up from his screen, cocking an eyebrow at me. I shrug, walking forward, leading them down a path. “In this world, almost all Equestrians have a human counterpart.” “Wait, even Spike?” Beast Boy asks, intrigued. I shake my head. “No. he’s a dog in this world.” Beast Boy blinks, before rubbing his neck. “That’s rough.” We all turn, giving him deadpan glares. “What?” he asks, apparently not aware what just happened. I sigh. “Raven?” I look to Robin. “It’s been just over two months now. When you didn’t come back, we all got really worried. Princess Twilight’s especially upset.” “I probably deserve whatever lecture is waiting for me,” I admit, stopping and looking up at the sky through the trees. “And, if you’d said that four days ago, I’d probably do my best to avoid it.” “Four days ago?” Cyborg looks to the others, then back to me. “What difference does four days make?” I chuckle. “You have no idea.” “I… have to confess, Raven, I’m surprised how calm you are,” Robin says uncertainly. “Yeah,” Beast Boy says. “After what Robin told me and Cy about your freak out in Starlight Glimmer’s village, we expected you’d be a nervous wreck. What?” he adds to the anger I feel aimed at him from the other two. I take a deep breath, then let it out, turning around. “Yeah. When I found the portal, I choose to isolate myself here. Thought it the best way to keep everyone safe and to punish myself. But, a young explorer helped me understand it wasn’t my fault. I can’t blame myself for actions beyond my control.” They all look to each other, then to me, an eyebrow raised, Robin asking, “A young explorer?” I chuckle, walking passed them, back towards the portal. “I’m sure you’ll meet her one day. Thanks to that magic crystal of hers, I can open portals straight to her world anytime I want. And she can visit me, should she ever want.” To the confused looks and emotions, I just laugh. “Come on, boys. Let’s head back. I’m sure I’m getting an earful from a certain purple pony princess. No point putting it off, right?” “She’s way more mellow than I expected,” Beast Boy mutters to Cyborg. “I heard that.” ___________________________________________________________ As the four Titans left the forest, heading for Ponyville, they didn’t notice the figure in the trees watching them. He turned to his right and bowed as a dark portal opened in front of him. “Good news, Master. Raven has been found… and she seems to have accepted what happened in that village.” Good, came the voice from within. Raven needs to develop her powers in order for the plan to work. Her wallowing in self-pity is of no use to me. And her sister? Deathstroke chuckled coldly. “Doing as instructed as we speak… and none the wiser to the truth.” The figure in the portal grunted in approval and the portal closed. Deathstroke looked back to the Titans, watching as the headed down the path. “Such a shame when family fight for no reason, wouldn’t you agree, Raven?”