//------------------------------// // Her Name Echoes Through The Forest Part 2 // Story: She Drives Me Batty // by I Thought I Was Toast //------------------------------// My armor was as spic and span as supply sergeants Spic and Span could make it. Dad and I made our way out of town to meet the rangers out at the edge of the Everfree. Having Dad escort me was a little embarrassing, but it was his friend I was shadowing tonight. I couldn’t really complain. The forest loomed overhead, and the air was ominously black beneath its boughs. There was no stopping my hackles from rising as we entered the path to Zecora’s house; it was always like that, even after years of wrestling manticores with Dad. “You ready for a night filled with terror and wonder?” Dad chuckled from beside me. “Grave Digger said he was going to give you the full tour. “Sort of.” We stopped there, a little bit in, and I looked from side to side, peering into the gloomy brush. “I’m still worried about Diamond, but… if I can’t stop worrying about her here, how can I possibly last a night in Hollow Shades? The spoopems will gobble me right up.” “Heh… Just give it time, Champ. I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Dad patted me on the back. I almost hugged Dad, but the moment was ruined by a stick cracking nearby. Both of us immediately tensed and swiveled our ears. There were a few moments of silence where Dad and I heard the shuffling of some sort of beastie in the bushes to our left. Then Dad rolled his eyes and reached into his shadow, and there was a yelp from our right as he dragged out the scruffiest thestral I had ever seen. “Nice try, Bones. Next time try burying yourself, and maybe you’ll actually get the drop on me.” I stared at the ranger in Dad’s hooves, a thousand emotions warring inside me. Dad had picked him out like it was nothing, while I had heard neither peep nor screep. His armor was a completely different beast than the normal guard attire. Rather than polished to the point of gleaming, it was dull and muddied looking. Different shades blended and patchworked across a light suit with a few dark and tarnished pieces of metal acting as pauldrons. He had no helmet—just his mud-covered face. When I saw his steel-hooved boots, my face scrunched up, ears swiveling as I clicked like mad. How had I heard little more than a stick cracking? Those things sounded heavier than cinder blocks. “As observant as ever, aren’t you, Squeaks?” The ranger waggled his brow at Dad as he dangled in his grip. “I was trying to test your daughter, though, not you. Aren’t you the one that wrote to me that that desk job of yours was making you soft?” He barked and growled over at the beast in the shadows, and I blinked as a timber wolf walked right out and over to his hooves to curl up. “Maybe if you actually crawled out of the woods more than once a year, you’d realize just how dangerous pushing the purple princess’s papers is.” With a chuckle, Dad set his friend down. “Soft for Ponyville is grizzled and hardened in almost any other town. You ought to visit for more than a single night of pub crawling every other blue moon; it might just toughen you up.” “Pffft. No thanks there. I’ll take the star beasts and bug bears.” He turned from Dad to look up at me. “Now for you… hrmmm… Size, power, and good wings for endurance flying? That’ll be useful with wrestling and relocating any monsters that need to be taken care of, but I don’t know…. You’ve almost got too much of a record to believe.” “Permission to speak, sir?” I stood at perfect attention. “Granted.” “I’ve been wrestling with Manticores in here going on five years now. Every word of that record is true; I just need the chance to prove it.” “Oh?” He glanced at Dad who nodded. “Well, Discord damn me, that is pretty pretty impressive. Careful about claiming it’s all true, though. Not everything I’ve heard is good.” My insides clenched at his words, but I said nothing. My face was carved from stone as I stood tall and proud; my soon-to-be mentor tilted his head to look at me with a searching gaze, and though I felt the urge to squirm, I squashed it down. “Mmm…” After what felt like an eternity, he finally held out a hoof. “At ease, soldier. You aren’t working for us yet, but you’re gonna find that that ramrod straight walk you see in the cities means absolute squat out here.” Oh, no… please don’t be Canterlot all over again. Did rules mean nothing anymore? “If that’s… what you want, sir.” Despite my best efforts, I had to grind the words out. It made both Dad and his friend chuckle. “Call me Grave Digger—Corporal if you want to pull ranks.” The stallion pushed his hoof closer when I didn’t take it. “I know going rankless probably feels weird for somepony that grew up with both their parents in the Royal Guards, but it’s worth getting accustomed to such. Some stations are much more casual than others—ours is a bit of a mixed bag.” “How so, Corporal?” I couldn’t risk the viper biting me, so I kept standing as still as a statue until he took it back. “You’ve got a lot of ponies like me who are just here to get away from everything.” With a shrug, Corporal Digger set his hoof down and rustled his wings, his own pose hardening up into something more professional. “We can pull the act, make no mistake, and there are even a few that find it useful. My CO barely talks unless he’s pulling rank—and I don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s about as shy as they come without the mask.” I was sensing a but. “However—” That was close enough. “—for us, it’s just a means of being quick and efficient. There’s no glory or pride to it, and we don’t practice being statues like they do in the Royal Guards. Every minute I’m stuck ordering you around is a minute not spent doing my job, understand?” Mmm… function and efficiency over form. Different battlefield, different rules.. “Sir, yes, sir!” I snapped a crisp salute. Corporal Digger snorted and turned to Dad. “You know, I was told she was formal, but I really thought a chance to meet die Phantome der Nacht would have had her foaming at the mouth. She runs with those sunblasted Crusaders, doesn’t she?” “I would never let myths and fairy tales get in the way of my work, sir!” I stomped a bit harder than I meant to. I may have been more of a daydweller than most thestrals, but that didn’t mean I was stupid enough to believe in vamponies. The corporal blinked for a moment at my response. “Myths?” He looked at Dad. “You never told her?” “Of course not, Corporal.” Dad growled as he drew out his friends title with a rigid grin. “As Captain of the Dawn Guard, I understand the importance of national secrets. What do you take me for?” “A father that loves bragging to his little filly? Damn it, Mettle. Of all the times for you to follow the rules, you pick today? Really? Now I look like the bad guy.” Corporal Digger glanced at me and licked his lips. “I don’t brag about things that could endanger her.” Oh, thank Luna. Dad had stopped pulling rank. “If I’d told her they were in the Everfree, there’s a good chance either she or one of her friends would have gone looking. Just look at her.” He waved a hoof towards me, but my eyes were glassy as I stared off into the distance. “Vamponies are real….” I could hardly believe it; I wouldn’t have believed it if Dad hadn’t pulled rank. “How many…?” With a sigh, Dad patted my shoulder. “Thirteen. There have only ever been thirteen. All the stories about thralls and conversion are just that. Die Phantome der Nacht are…” He bit his lip. “They can tell the story themselves.” “Errr… Tempered? With all due respect, I don’t know that I should take her that deep.” Corporal Digger shuffled on his hooves. “Not if she didn’t know. I was only going to take her because I thought—“ “You thought wrong, so now you’ll take her or pay the price.” Dad bared his fangs in a grin. “But my CO—” “—is going to be getting a letter from a certain princess with orders the instant I get back to town.” Dad slapped his friend on the back. “If I gotta clean up your mess, you can take my daughter out there. Spilling classified secrets—the nerve.” “Hey! You don’t get to lecture me on that, This is nothing compared to the time you blabbed that Nightmare Moon was coming back.” The Corporal slugging my dad was the last thing I saw as my brain completely fried. “Dad knew about—” My shout was cut off by a hoof in my mouth. “Technically, it wasn’t me who did that.” Dad arched his brow at his friend. “I was just the courier.” “Courier! Hah!” Corporal Digger threw his head back and laughed. “You carted that crazy astronomer into your mom’s bar and dragged him around like a trophy! What was his name again? It was Night-something-or-other.” “It was Nightlight….” Dad sighed as he ran a hoof down his face. “You know, I found out after becoming Captain that he’s Princess Twilight’s bucking dad? She hadn’t been born when I met him, but it turns out the crazy apple doesn’t fall far from the crazy tree; he just spotted the stars moving a little too early.” Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and wrapped a hoof around the corporal, hugging him close enough that I could hear the bones creaking. “But that’s two state secrets blown now, buddy. If you couldn’t tell, Night here had no idea about that either—hay, not even Morning knows that one. The sun witch herself swore me to secrecy, just like she did with everypony else in that bar.” “No… that has to be a load of guano. You didn’t tell Morning?” The Corporal gulped. “That’s uhhhh…” “Corporal? Please don’t tell me you blabbed about Nightmare-bloody-Moon over pillow talk.” “While I can neither confirm nor deny your statement, Captain, I will withdraw all complaints about taking your daughter to die Phantome der Nacht.” Corporal Digger snapped off a salute to Dad; his timber wolf mimicked the action. Dad waved them off, rolling his eyes as he started walking away. “Just try not to blab any more secrets, will you? Rangers are supposed to be brooding and quiet.” “Damn it, Mettle.” Corporal Digger muttered under his breath as soon as Dad disappeared. “Why do you think I’m out here on my own? I should have gotten Moon Flower to do this instead of me….” His timber companion let out a sympathetic whine and nuzzled its owner. “Mmm… alright, Tulip, alright! Down, girl.” He pet the pile of lumber as it licked his face with a leafy tongue. “You’re right. I do have you.” As he turned to look at me, I was still a bit too dazed to do anything other than fall back on the old standard; I fired off a salute and stood at perfect attention. “Let’s get going and follow my lead. It’s best to move like a hunter in these woods. No hall patrols here, got it?” “Understood, sir.” I followed as the corporal about faced and stalked into the forest. Head down, rump up, our ears were in constant motion as we crept through the gloom. A constant buzz filled the air from bugs flitting just out of sight. A snake slithered off to our left—or maybe it was a giant millipede. It was hard to tell with all the brush, and when the corporal’s wolf pounced on it, the beastie was quick to burrow down with a hiss. “Tulip, no!” Corporal Digger clicked his tongue, and his companion was instantly back at our side. “What have I told you about slurping up snakes?” Tulip barked. “They are danger noodles, Tulip. If you want spaghetti, you should go after worms instead.” “Rrrrruff, ruff!” Twigs flew as a woody tail wagged. “I don’t care if venom makes a better sauce than mud. You know what spicy food does to you.” Tulip’s stomach gurgled in agreement with the corporal, making Tulip whine and pout at her master. “Rrrrowr?” The Corporal sighed and stopped to dig in his shadow, pulling out an air-tight metal box. I opened my mouth to ask about the heavy security and locks, but as they hissed and clicked open at his touch, I was able to smell the answer. “Spoiled, little pup.” With a chuckle, he threw his pet the bloodiest hunk of meat it had ever been my pleasure to see. The container was sealed in a flash, and washed in his shadow to strip the smell before he dropped it back through. “Do you just… have those stored everywhere in the forest?” I whispered and hastily wiped the waterfall of drool from my face. My mentor nodded to the trees. “Since the Everfree Rangers are an all thestral unit, we’ve made little nooks and crannies all over to hide supplies. It makes lugging stuff around less of an issue. Though less numerous, we have also dug a few emergency caves to shadow hop to, but the Everfree doesn’t like it if we make too many of those. It’s eat or be eaten out here.” “An all thestral unit? I don’t remember anything about that being on the application. Why would it be all thestrals? I know it’s dangerous, but this isn’t Hollow Shades.” My ear flicked and swiveled to track some far off stomping beast as it roared in the depths of the forest. “You really think we’d risk any daydwellers disturbing die Phantome der Nacht?” The corporal held up a hoof to stop us as we approached a river, tossing a pebble into it and nodded when nothing came rushing up from below. “It’s not advertised, but we quietly turn down any daydwellers that apply. There aren’t that many who do.” “Huh….” I bit my lip and looked around. Some of the trees looked back, their gnarled and knotted faces crying out in agony. “And I guess even if it’s a small area, all the evil left from the Nightmare is concentrated here.” “You have absolutely no idea.” With a snort, Corporal Digger leapt to glide over the river with Tulip right at his back. I’d never seen timberwolves jump like that, but then again, she had to be a different breed or something. None of her wood was rotting. “It’s good to see you can keep up. A lot of recruits would be a quivering wreck by now.” “Would that be from fear or exhaustion, sir?” I couldn’t help puffing out my chest a fraction of an inch at the praise. “Yes.” He looked me up and down. “That said, you hardly look like a new recruit. I hope your parents haven’t been pushing you too hard?” “I push myself, sir.” “So I’ve heard….” For some reason he sighed as he pushed some vines to the side and continued. “Regardless, I can appreciate the hustle and endurance.” “Endurance was always my strong suit. Fitting in small spaces or gaps? Not so much.” I tried to follow him smoothly into the brush, but the branches and vines clutched at me like a web snaring prey. I had to melt down into my shadow to escape and reach the other side—something he arched his brow at. “Do you always do that?” Corporal Digger unlatched a machete and sheath from his armor, and hooved it to me. “Seems like a waste of energy to constantly use your shadow.” “I have energy to spare, and it’s usually easier for me than muscling my way through.” The belt didn’t fit me naturally so I ended up jury rigging it to my armor rather than strapping it to me. “It doesn’t help anypony for me to go bursting through walls or breaking down doors.” “Your father would disagree.” The corporal chuckled as he bent down and led me under a half-fallen tree. It appeared to have been struck by lighting, and time had turned it into a mossy and mushroom-covered arch. “Yeah, well, that’s different.” My face scrunched up for a moment before I quickly schooled it. “Dad does it, and he’s a hero. I do it, and it’s vandalism.” “You speaking from experience?” “No. I just don’t like collateral damage; I’m not my father, Corporal.” That got him to pause and look back at me. “Huh… You sure? I’ve heard some pretty wild stories about you and your friends.” My stoney facade sharpened into a shadow-filled glower. “And if anypony bothered to tell those stories right, you would know I’m the one minimizing all the Crusaders’ damage as much as possible. My friends are a force of nature, Corporal. I’m just the umbrella.” “Is that so?” “They once flooded the town with tree sap, sir. If that isn’t a force of nature, I don’t know what is.” “I see.” The response was short and clipped as Corporal Digger glanced into the foliage around us. We continued on in silence for a bit, and as we did, Tulip bounded in and out of the brush around us. The quiet gnawed at me like a starving wolf the more we trekked on, though. My guide and mentor wasn’t really doing much to show me how things were done. We climbed a few trees, swung on some vines, and wrestled a giant mandraboara that was feeling territorial. None of it seemed important; we were just wandering through the woods! How was I supposed to distract myself from thinking about Diamond like this? “So… is this all you do here, sir?” “What do you mean?” “Do you do more than general patrols?” “Sometimes.” He nodded, but didn’t elaborate. His pace had slowed and his ears swiveled about. I ached to ask him more, but the way he was watching the woods made me bite my tongue. “I often relocate and reroute animals with Tulip.” When Corporal Digger next spoke, his voice could barely be called a whisper. “I can’t exactly wrestle manticores, but we can herd the more nasty packs of wolves. Sometimes we even borrow a pack if I’m asked to take on something big, but usually it’s Silent Hill who handles the bigger beasts. He’s built like you and your dad. Moon Flower handles plants and collects samples for research, while Tan Hide…” Pausing, he held out a hoof, and I stiffened. My ears swung wildly to try and hear what he did that I didn’t, and the few seconds of pure, nerve wracking silence only served to— Wait a minute. It wasn’t just silent; it was silent. That’s what he was listening for! No wonder I couldn’t hear it! There wasn’t anything to hear in the first place! No birds calling… no bugs buzzing… no trees creaking… and an unnatural stillness to the air…. “Uhh, Corporal?” High on the thermals of success, I immediately nosedived straight into failure-town by opening my big, dumb mouth.  “Shush-shush-shush-shushhhhhhh!” Hoof met muzzle, but it was too late. The world shook with the roar of thunder, the twang of a bow, and the swoosh of a spear. Corporal Digger went from plugging my mouth to tackling me to the ground as a line of searingly bright light shot out from behind a tree. I got the slightest glimpse of an enormous fletched spear whose tip burned with solfire. It was both blinding and beautiful to watch. At least, it was until my brain caught up to the fact it was curving mid air to aim at my face. The image was seared into my eyes even after everything went black. Corporal Digger might have dragged me into the shadow realm, but I only had eyes for my narrowly avoided doom. The two of us fell in the inky black for what felt like forever until we were dumped into a damp, mucky cave with a plop. The floor was flooded with a solid inch of water, and the smell of rot and fungus was strong. The floor beneath the water sucked at my hooves as I stood up, with mud thick enough to worry about sinkholes churning beneath us. “Discord damn it!” The corporal was clutching his side as he floundered up on his hooves and hissed. “That. Bucking. Hurt! Get over here and check the wound, now! We need to make sure it won’t get infected!” What? My face must have mirrored my thoughts, because Corporal Digger growled and raised his wing so I could see what looked like a long cut in his side. The saddlebags had been cut right off and were drifting in the muck. His armor looked to have melted slightly from the touch of… something…. Had he been shot pushing me down and out of the way?! I scrambled over to the corporal as he waved his wing to get me to go faster. “There’s no blood. Is that a good thing? What the hay was that?!” “Orion the Hunter.” Corporal Digger grimaced as he pulled some bandages from his pack. “He’s not well known. A lot of ponies don’t survive contact, and he’s the only star beast of his kind. Standard protocol with him is to run like tartarus is nipping at your tail, but as you can see, the best spot we had to run to was—” “—a filthy, flooded pit?” I arched my brow at him and the soggy bundle of cloth. “Those aren’t going to help with infection, sir.” “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” An intense glower was leveled my way. “It’s just to stop me from dripping a trail of blood while we find more reliable shelter. The cut might look clean and cauterized, but we don’t know if moving will cause it to open.” “Why even run here? How did you know it was here? How were you familiar enough to make the jump? This has to be…” I poked my head out of the cave to blink in bemusement at the swampy muck that bubbled and festered as far as the eye could see. “…at least a mile from where we were? You had us falling through the darkness forever.” “This was one of our designated safehouses until an Aquarias butted heads with an Ankaa about three months ago. A lot of the region is still flooded with hot, bubbling muck as you can see. The cave didn’t make it, and we haven’t found a suitable replacement for it, so…” “So, we’re up the creek without a paddle.” I sighed. “Only until we find shelter.” As he followed me out of the cave, he nearly tripped and fell. “It doesn’t need to be a safehouse or supply cave. Enough of the little hidey-holes should have survived that I can grab us med supplies, but most of the places we hide supplies are small, tight, and hard for anything to get into.” “Don’t want bears in your house, eh, sir?” I caught him and let him lean on me. “Bears, manticores, fragments of Nightmare Moon.” With a gesture of his wing, the corporal gave me a heading to follow. “You would be amazed how much the latter loves stealing snacks. There’s a supply cave a few miles that way, by the way. We should stumble upon some other form of shelter beforehoof, but head that way to be sure. If something tries to eat us, I’m taking another shadow hop.” “No offense, sir, but you aren’t exactly in any shape to—” “I am getting you to safety, one way or another.” Corporal briefly leveled another glare at me. “If that means doing so from the grave, I will.” I fell quiet at his words, my stomach churning. Seeing self sacrifice from the other side? It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as I thought it’d look. Did Diamond always feel this guilty when I played the hero? Or was it just because I wasn’t used to being saved? “So… that Orion thing…” It took a bit to find the words. “He’s not another state secret is he?” “Heavens, no.” Corporal Digger started laughing only to wince. “You would probably know him as Eerie Eye.” “The thestral who hunted one of every star beast to woo the moon?” I blinked. “The one and only.” My companion grunted as he did his best to keep pace with me, but his face was pale and pained as we moved. “Remember how the story ended with the moon taking him as a consort and bringing him into the heavens? There’s a constellation to commemorate that. Orion is the star beast that eventually coalesced from it down here. “There’s only ever one; thank the stars for that. Eerie Eye was scary enough as just a mortal. Orion has all the cunning of his origin on top of the strength and power of a star beast.” With a grumble, he held up his wing to stop me, then gestured to a nearby spit of land that wasn’t bubbling. It had a hollowed out tree trunk that could at least shield us from some of the elements. “That’ll work. Take me there.” He swore under his breath as just turning took us quite a bit of work, the muck sucking at our hooves with every agonizing step. “I should have run sooner, but I hesitated.” My brow furrowed. “Hesitated over what?” “You were top priority, but I was trying to figure out if I could grab Tulip too.” Ohh… I hadn’t thought about… “Is she gonna be okay?” I helped rest the corporal on his haunches as we crawled into the trunk. My brow furrowed as I chewed at my lip and considered his words. “Probably, but there’s always a chance she won’t be.” From his new spot in the gloom, Corporal Digger twisted his face as he scrounged up the energy to shove his hoof into his shadow and rummage for supplies. “Orion doesn’t really hunt any of the timber animals. They don’t register to him the same way flesh and blood do. You saw that his arrows burn, though, and she might be crazy enough to bite him for shooting at us.” Soap, water skins, and various things to clean the muck were first, and he furiously scrubbed his hoof clean before reaching back in for more. “There are plenty of things that do hunt timber wolves, though, and those are what I’m worried about. She’s trained to head back to the station and wait for me, though, so as long as she makes it there….” Fresh bandages were next, pulled out carefully with his clean hoof and set to the side. “Alright, rookie. Time to help me strip and clean the wound. This time we’re gonna do it right and bind it up under the armor. Then we’ll rest… an hour maybe? That’s more than enough time to mope and pray the damn muck didn’t infect it.” “Do you need more than an hour, sir?” I was both relieved and perturbed at the lack of humor as I moved to follow the corporal’s orders. Dad would have been cracking jokes left and right if it was him; things would be weird, but at least if things were weird I might be less stressed. I could feel a little twitch threatening to break my whole stoney facade as I shed Corporal Digger’s armor and took to cleaning and disinfecting the wound. “An hour is the most we can afford.” There was a scathing hiss in response to me washing the wound gently. “I sent us a decent distance away, sure, but there’s always a chance Orion will head this way. The odds are low since he doesn’t know where we went, but even a chance of meeting him again is a risk we can’t take. If he catches the scent of my singed hide? Of the very prey he just missed? We aren’t going to get away next time; he won’t let us.” “Great…. Well, it might not be a vampony, but I guess this is just as wild. I assume you’re planning on taking me back?” The cut was wide and shallow, so I was stuck wrapping a huge amount of the corporal in bandages before I rested him against the back of the tree trunk. “What? Are you kidding? This was nothing. Real— Ow! Bucking solfire!” Having tried to pat his side as proof, the corporal failed utterly to convince me. “Look. I promised Mettle I’d take you, and I might not be in the best shape to do that now, but I carry through on my promises. Besides, it’s not a proper ranger adventure if you aren’t stuck in the forest for a few more years than you planned on.” “Come again, sir?” “It’ll take an extra night, maybe two, but if we can get to the station, I’ll have one of the others take you after a good day’s rest.” “Sir, you really don’t have to. Besides, what am I going to tell my parents?” “Let me handle that when we get to the station. I’m sure we have a bottle of dragonfire somewhere.” “If you say so, sir.” I moved to the entrance of our little hollow and stared out into the forest. Maybe it was just an hour, but it felt like it was going to be a long vigil on my part.