Gus was the first to emerge from cover. Despite the trees, his feathers and fur still looked a little scorched around the edges. Some part of Lotus still remembered what it was like to feel pain from heat, but that was a distant memory now. As distant as being human, and a dude.
"I was going to say you did that without blowing up," Gus began. "But you dropped the ball on that part, right at the end."
She scooped the spell book up into her magic, then stomped out the embers burning on what was left of her notebook. The flames went out, but that would do little to salvage the rest. The whole thing was now consumed, taking with it all her practice and spell notes. Again.
Lotus's tail flicked angrily back and forth, and her ears turned slightly back. Whenever she was making progress, whenever she was close to something—there was always a setback.
"You did great, Lotus! I'm pretty sure that was first try!" Another voice cut through her confused thoughts, one that hadn't been transformed by her failed magic. Because Iron Feather had always been a pony. "You said you knew where that was."
She wavered, taking a deep, slow breath. When she exhaled, she saw actual sparks on her breath, similar to when the princess wrote magical letters. But there was no letter this time, just rage extinguished. Her mane stopped standing on end, and she could meet his eyes again. "I do. There's an open pit mine about... half an hour from here. Guess it could be worse—the perfect place for a portal might've been out in the ocean, or in a bank vault or something.
Gus stepped out from the trees, making his slow way into the clearing. It was more open now that much of the loose matter was transformed to ash.
"How much harder will it be to cast the other half of that spell? You got that one right first try, unlike another spell I remember. Will you cast the other one first try?"
She tensed. Of course, Gus wasn't wrong to feel upset. But another reminder wouldn't help. "The other one is much harder—and importantly, we have to break into a mine before I can cast it. We'll want to make sure we get it right the first try, so we can flee into Equestria. We can worry about how we'll escape when we make the return trip."
She turned her back on the site, carrying her spell book back to camp. There was no point bringing back her notebook, it was definitely a casualty.
"It might not even be a concern on our way back," Gus said, darting to catch up with her. "We might have a diplomatic delegation with us when we come back. We'll be returning as the brave explorers who connected two worlds, and taught humanity that magic and parallel universes were a real thing. Unless this isn't a parallel universe. I suppose there could be other explanations."
"And your textbooks burned at home," she supplied, before he could say something like it. "I know it's all my fault. You should just start every conversation with 'We all know the problems we're facing are your fault, but—' just so you don't have to keep mentioning it."
"I wasn't going to." He backed away from her, trailing behind. "Careful, Lotus. Talking about that is affecting you."
She grunted, looking away from him. “I don't know how much longer I'll need to study before I feel ready to try. Longer than I'd like."
They reached the camp, the same as when they left it. The pickup itself formed the border on one side, with her tent on the other. A cooking area stood in the center, with a circle cleared for a campfire at night. Of course, Gus hadn't thought to bring a chainsaw or any fuel, so they had small fires made from whatever dry fuel they could find.
She didn't have to worry about the details of keeping it fed, even though they might've been a way to relax.
"You've done great these last few days," Iron Feather said, settling down beside her at her desk. It felt far emptier there without her notebook. "Better than most unicorns. You did yourself a disservice when you said you weren't capable. In another life I'm sure Celestia would've found a place for you in her school for gifted unicorns. If you... were a unicorn."
She flipped through the spell book in her magic. It took more effort than usual, evidently the fatigue left over from her spellcasting earlier. She would need to relax through the rest of the day, to avoid straining herself. But she couldn't rest too long, or else she'd go insane in the woods.
"I think it would be better for all of us if I was. I don't know your world very well, but I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest that unicorns aren't burning all the time."
Iron laughed. "N-no, they're not."
She might have settled back into her studies without much fanfare, if it wasn't for the sudden sound of footsteps, stomping towards them out of the forest. Lotus sat up, her eyes snapping instantly towards the noise. If those were the boots of some police officer or retrieval team, why weren't they coming from civilization?
"I..."
Gus wasn't watching, he had his neck craned over a camera, where he used a pen in his beak to carefully manipulate the screen. But Iron Feather was watching, enough that he had picked up the spear, and held it under one wing. What was that, exactly? Lotus's ears remained tense, pivoting towards the noise. That required no concentration or effort or her part, it just happened.
She was wrong—it wasn't one set of heavy footfalls, but several. Leaves crunched; twigs snapped—something was coming.
Iron mouthed something, dropping into a low crouch. His good wing held up the spear, ready for him to catch it under his leg if he had to. The other one was still in a splint, healing and useless.
But it wasn't his voice that she noticed next. There is nothing to fear, Lotus. I will be returned to my rightful owner. Your responsibility will end.
She said nothing, sliding carefully out of her seat. Far from preparing to fight, her muscles tensed so she could run away. But what would she be running away from? She couldn't see anything, just a shadowy forest. Shouldn't she see a glint of a glass lens at some point? The shady government organization would probably want to shoot her from a safe distance.
Then they charged. Lotus screamed, as space that looked empty except for a few shadows resolved into half a dozen—shapes? It was no wonder none of them had noticed the eyes on them, because they didn't look like living creatures. Instead, Lotus saw a creature composed of bits and pieces of rotten wood, connected by a spindly array of vines and ivy. They wove between large and small sections of wood, each one covered with white mildew and fungus and crumbling at the edges.
With the creatures charging at her, they didn't look like rotten wood anymore—they looked like wolves, baring mouths filled with tooth-shaped chunks of wood, sharpened and pointed inward. If they got a good grip on her body, she had no doubt about whether they would rip her apart.
She should've run by then; she could read the murderous intent in those glowing pits where their eyes should be. Her body refused to move. Instead, she heard only that same voice as before, soothing her. Relax, Lotus. You don't have to do anything. They'll be taking the book now. You've done everything expected of you.
It was just like the firestorm in her house—she could never rationalize such coherent thought to belong to the imagination of her own mind. Someone was trying to talk to her, really talk to her.
"For Equestria!" Iron Feather shouted. His voice boomed over the forest, breaking through the fugue over Lotus's mind. Suddenly she could think again, enough to see that Iron was clearly not going to be able to hold off so many on his own. He charged to meet one of the creatures, striking up against it with the force of his spear. Rotten wood shattered under the impact, and the creature yowled in pain, struggling to get its legs under it. But while it died, another two circled in around him, and two more ignored him entirely, coming for her instead.
Just give them what they came for, said the voice from nowhere. Its words were soothing and gentle, the opposite to what was actually happening around her. It was a voice that made her want to listen, to levitate the book to them and be done. But if she did that—how would they make it to Equestria? How would she ever be human again?
"The hell are these?" Gus brought the entire camp grill down on one of the creatures, slamming it with enough force to dent the cheap metal. He backed away from another, opening both wings wide enough to lift him up into the air, and carry him away. He actually floated, far enough that he reached the trunk of a nearby tree. He gripped on tight, while two more of the plant-monsters snapped at the trunk.
"Timberwolves!" Iron took the bite of one onto his armor, then tackled another to the ground, crushing its rotten frame under his weight. "Undead... servants... of Searing Gale! She sent them!"
Two of them surrounded Lotus, teeth bared. They didn't attack her, instead blocked her from the worktable while a third hopped up, pushing aside everything with one paw, until only the spell book remained.
That might've worked a few days ago. It would've worked if she were still human. But for Lotus—physical space was only a suggestion. Her horn lit up, she yanked the spell book vertically into the air, slipping past the grasping paw of one expectant wolf.
Unfortunately, there were still two of them on her. She kicked out at one, but the other dodged, then bit down hard on her back. She barely felt it—something tried and failed to tear into the scales back there. She shook to one side, sending it scrambling to the ground. As it did, its claws dug into her flesh, tearing painfully.
She screamed, and the spell book tumbled from her grip, landing open on the dirt.
Lotus might not be strong enough to cope with the pain—but Eric was. He'd broken limbs before, the scratch of a wild animal wouldn't slow him down. There was clearly some of his strength left in her, because Lotus kept fighting. She screamed louder than the voice in her mind, then lashed out with a sudden wave of power.
Her scream wasn't just noise—it was flame. One timberwolf jumped for the spell book and turned to smoldering embers. Nothing ahead of her survived, except for the spell book itself, magically untouched.
Iron brought his spear down again, severing the vines along the spine of the remaining wolf-creature. It snapped in two still-moving pieces, until the pegasus slashed again to finish it off.
The heat in Lotus's chest finally dimmed, leaving only the smoldering underbrush ahead of her. Silence returned to the camp, broken only by a few pieces of still-wiggling growth.
"That was... awful," she muttered, dropping to one knee. "Anyone else get got?"
"Just you." Gus jumped—or glided—down from a nearby tree. He landed on the cab, then hopped down to ground level, avoiding the little fires still smoldering in the brush. "Probably ought to put these out before they burn the whole forest down."
"Extinguish the flames," Iron said, tossing the spear to the ground at his hooves. "I'll see to her wounds."