“Okay so riddle me this, I’m always hungry, but never full, if your hoof touches me it’s gonna turn red,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Fire,” Godfrey answered and scratched his beak. “Alright, riddle me this: What’s black and white and red all over?”
“A newspaper,” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Come on, that’s an easy one. Here—until I am measured I am not known, yet how you will miss me once I’ve flown.”
Godfrey scoffed at her. “Oh please, time. And you’re complaining about mine being easy? Next riddle, it weighs nothing but when you put it into a barrel it makes it lighter.”
“A hole. So riddle me this, what gets wetter as it dries?”
“A towel. What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?”
“A river. I never was but always will be-”
“Tomorrow. The one who makes it has no need for it, the one who-”
“A grave.”
Godfrey smiled at her. “You know you’re a lot better at riddles than I was expecting.”
Rainbow Dash just snorted and shook her head. “Twilight and Pinkie Pie love riddles. I’ve just heard a lot of them.”
“Yeah, me too. You hear the same ones no matter where you go,” Godfrey nodded.
“Speaking of wherever we’re going… how long do you think it’ll be before we actually find something? Or someone,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Well considering you let all those lizards back there live, I’d say there’s an even chance between us finding your friends and them regrouping and coming back to kill us,” Godfrey said.
“My bad for not being as cruel as you,” Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“I’m just saying you better not blame me when we end up in another battle to the death,” Godfrey shrugged.
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Whatever, do you got anymore riddles?”
“Yeah but I’m kind of bored of that.”
“Yeah, me too...”
Godfrey pushed a log that was blocking their path out of the way. “You know what if your ship got wrecked? It’d annoy me a little bit too but they might not even be alive anymore. Just think about it, how come it’s taking so long for us to find them? It’s not that big of an island.”
“Shut up, Godfrey.”
He grinned at her. “I guess you’d never forgive me if that turns out to be what happened.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, the expression on her face would probably cause most creatures to freeze up. “You’re right. I wouldn’t.”
“Sorry for joking about it,” he winked.
“I bet you are.”
“Oh lighten up a little bit. There’s no way they’re actually dead—the world isn’t boring enough to allow that to happen. Heh, and even I think I might miss my little brother just a smidge,” Godfrey laughed.
“You’ve tried to kill him how many times now?” Rainbow Dash glared at him.
“A couple. But it’s not like that was anything personal.”
“Brother of the year...”
“I try.”
The two of them hadn’t had much more trouble getting through the jungle, they at least hadn’t stumbled across any ravines or rivers they couldn’t cross thanks to their chains. The only big issue was the still lopsided ground. There weren’t even really animals out bothering them, perhaps they could smell the gorilla that made a mistake in trying to tango with them. Not like Rainbow or Godfrey were going to complain about the lack of annoyances. It beat having to swipe at mosquitoes always trying to dive in at them. The humidity in the air was starting to get a little worse, as Rainbow looked up through the jungle canopy she could still see the sun beaming down at them but she couldn’t exactly tell what time of day it was. A time when it wasn’t going to be getting cooler anytime soon at least.
Because of how thick the jungle was though they still couldn’t see how much of it was left until they reached the mountains. Rainbow was thinking of having Godfrey climb a tree so they could at least take a look at this point. Walking through the mountains… she wasn’t sure it would be easier or tougher like this.
“Honestly if we find some rocks soon I’m thinking of trying to bash these shackles off us,” Godfrey said.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him. “Trying to get away?”
“Trying to get more comfortable. Won’t be able to break the chains around our wings but I think there’s a decent chance I could break the cuffs on my wrist and your hoof. And anyways-” he suddenly turned his head to the side as a spear came sailing through the air right where it had been and instead pierced itself into a tree in front of the two of them. “Huh. They got back to us faster than I expected.”
“Oh great,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I swear if you try and say “Told you so”, I’m going to flip.”
“Well for now I think we oughta just focus on the fight,” Godfrey said as he pulled the spear out of the tree. “Have they surrounded us again?”
Rainbow Dash took a look, but they weren’t in some wide open clearing this time. The trees were all around them, shrubs, plants, flowers, and hanging vines obscured every direction. Her ears picked up the sound of aggravated hissing and figures moving through the jungle somewhere out there, but she couldn’t tell how many were there or if they were blocked off already. They were moving stealthily just like before and clearly weren’t going to attempt another straight forward battle like the first time.
“Dunno, they’re not coming right at us again. I bet they just try to keep throwing spears or make some hit and run attacks as we walk through the jungle,” Rainbow said.
“Then they can learn that no matter how they come at us it isn’t going to help them,” Godfrey grinned.
Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah I don’t have a problem with that either, let’s just keep going and keep our ears open.”
As they started walking through the jungle a second spear came flying at Rainbow Dash this time. She simply lifted up her shackled hoof and let the spear bounce of the steel around it without even really looking. Their trip became punctuated by similar moments the more they walked, they’d pass through a veil of vines only to have a spear coming at one of them that Godfrey would either swat away or Rainbow would usually duck under. Only every now and then would they catch a glimpse of movement from one of the lizards. It was tough to see them since they blended in with the jungle so well.
“They’re gonna run out of spears at some point,” Rainbow said.
“Want to bet if they either give up and leave after that or try and fight us some more?” Godfrey asked.
“That’s an idiot’s bet.”
“So does that mean you’re taking it?”
“Shut up.”
They had to slide down a small hill and immediately jump over a salvo of spears thrown at their legs.
“I’ll give them credit, they’re at least not always going directly for kill shots. If they could actually land a crippling blow it’d be a pretty good idea,” Godfrey said.
“Yeah it’d be a real pain dragging you around with spears sticking out of your legs,” Rainbow sniped.
He scratched under his beak. “I don’t think you’d be strong enough to do that.”
A vein popped out on Rainbow Dash’s forehead. “Oh I so totally would. In fact—why don’t you let yourself get hit by the next spear so I can prove it?”
“Gehahahaha! You’re just too easy to rile up, Rainbow Dash!” Godfrey laughed.
“You should still get hit by it anyways…” Rainbow grumbled.
The next time they passed by a tree a pair of lizards came swinging by on vines, stabbing their spears out at Rainbow Dash and Godfrey as they passed. Godfrey put an end to that by smashing apart their spears with the one he still had. However, any chance at further retaliation was lost when the lizards scrambled into another tree and started jumping through the leaves. More squawks and violent hissing could be heard and Rainbow Dash had to duck her head down to avoid a spear being thrown into her skull from behind.
“They’re starting to get really annoying,” she said.
And of course from then on it was even worse as lizards would come scurrying out of nowhere or be jumping from tree to tree while throwing a single spear thrust at them before disappearing back into the brush. They blended in too well, it was almost like they dissolved into the green jungle. Rocks came sailing at their heads from every direction and hissing screams drowned out the sounds of the lizards movements. Even if Rainbow or Godfrey managed to knock one down they still had no trouble scampering off. Because of the terrain and all the trees that danger could be right around, they had to keep focused too much on the environment as well.
“This isn’t the fun kind of fighting,” Godfrey snorted in frustration.
“At some point they’ve gotta realize this isn’t working though,” Rainbow said. “They’re going to tire themselves out before we get tired.”
“Maybe some of them went back to the city to call for reinforcements. They could just be trying to slow us down,” Godfrey suggested.
Rainbow Dash frowned. “I don’t like that idea…”
“I wouldn’t mind if it turns into a real fight again, but I’ve got the feeling they’re just going to keep trying and bleed us like this.”
“You got any ideas for getting through this jungle faster then?”
“Yeah. We throw caution to the wind and just run while spears sail over our heads,” he shrugged.
“Okay, that’s not even a real idea, that’s a lack of ideas.”
“And your idea isss?”
“Umm… run through the jungle. But in a smarter way.”
“My kind of plan,” Godfrey grinned.
So without any hesitation the two set off at full speed, jumping and running together through the thick brush and past all the dense trees and foliage, being careful not to let their chain get caught on anything. At the same time they relied completely on their lightning reflexes to aid them against any attacks from the lizards. Which took the form of ducking under and avoiding an even greater swarm of thrown spears and stabs. The lizards got more frantic as well, likely surprised by the sudden jolt from their prey, and their angry hissing could be heard all throughout the jungle.
The chain was making this slightly difficult. It honestly would be for the best if Rainbow Dash just rode on Godfrey’s back but she just couldn’t swallow her pride and do that. Still, they were making good progress despite everything.
A spear chucked at Godfrey’s head that he ducked under.
A swipe from the bushes to Rainbow’s right that she jumped over.
Rocks thrown from all around them that they either knocked away or let bounce off the chains.
Spears thrown from above that they barely jumped past.
After rushing past a big-leafed banana tree, Rainbow and Godfrey looked up to see a whole squad of lizards jumping and swinging about on vines above them. Dangling from much taller and bigger trees in the jungle. They had a free shot at them now and one of the lizards leaped from on high towards Rainbow Dash, his spear pointed down directly at her open body-
When he was blasted by a beam of powder blue magic—straight out of the air.
The lizard went flying off into the trees and all the other hunters panicked in confusion, all of them jumping or swinging away from Rainbow Dash and Godfrey. A brief silence once more returned to the jungle as it looked like the two chained up rivals were out of danger for now.
The bushes in the direction the beam of magic had came from rustled and a pony stepped out, her eyes finding Rainbow Dash’s.
“Well then-” Daylight Gleam said as she dusted herself off while her horn smoked. “Finding you wasn’t so difficult.” Her eyes then turned to Godfrey and a grimace came to her face. “It looks like things could certainly be going better though.”