//------------------------------//
// Flood of Thoughts 
// Story: Trailblazer The Rescuer 
// by Trailblazer Rocker 
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Trailblazer and the other five continued their journey north. So far, there wasn't much to do except for following the path that they were on. Only one day has passed since they left the nomad campground, and so far, there were no enemies to deal with during that period. During that day, they walked, set up their tents, took them down the next morning, and continued. Here, they stopped for a second to examine the map Rainbow Dash had.
"Do you know where we are now?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
"I'm taking a look at the landmarks and I'm trying to find them here..." said Rainbow Dash. "Okay, we're right here," She pointed to some plains between Marehattan and Ponyville somewhere between the bottom-left corner and the center of the map. "It looks like we're still a ways away from Marehattan, but once we get there, we have to continue going west if we want to keep going north to the Crawnite Mountain Range."
"Well, what's west of Marehattan?"
Dash scanned the map again. "Tethleon."
"Hey, we're going to end up in my home city?" Trailblazer said, a little bit surprised.
"Yeah."
"Huh. That's kind of a pleasant surprise."
They walked some more and ended up at a river with a steep cliff. The slowly flowing water was about 100 yards below them. The lack of waves of any kind told them that the water was deep.
"Well, this isn't any good," said Pinkie Pie. "There's a river, but no bridge. How are we supposed to get across?"
"Uh, Pinkie...?" said Rainbow Dash. "We have wings, we can just fly you all across!"
"Oh, silly me!" Pinkie Pie said back as she rubbed the back of her head, a little embarrassed.
"All right. Fluttershy. We have a job to do."
"Right with you, Rainbow," Fluttershy said, preparing for their flights.
Before they started with their friends, they all took off their backpacks and carried them across the river. Once all six of them were on the other side, Rainbow Dash got a hold of Twilight Sparkle and flew her across, with Fluttershy right behind her as she carried Rarity. Fluttershy flew back and got Pinkie Pie, carrying her over as well, leaving Trailblazer as the last one left. Rainbow Dash flew over and grabbed him, ready to take off and carried him.
As she was halfway across, a bunch of darts flew from a concealed area on the side that the other four ponies were on now. They stuck to Rainbow Dash's body, stinging her upon impact, and injected her with a black liquid.
"OW! Those hurt!" she yelled. She tried to fly, but she started to feel weak.
"Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie shouted. "What's going on!?"
Dash's body started to feel a bit numb, and her flight became worse. "I think I'm losing feeling, I don't think I can make it!" She strained to continue carrying Trailblazer and she flapped her wings even harder to stay airborne, but the effect of the black liquid took over, and she couldn't hold out. She let go of Trailblazer and hung on to the cliff edge, at the mercy of the substance that got into her as she tried to hang on. Trailblazer screamed as he fell, trying to latch onto the face of the cliff to slow his fall.
"Oh, NO!" Fluttershy lept and dove after him, which she saw him grabbing onto the rocky edge, although not stopping himself, it slowed him down. He fell into the water, where Fluttershy hovered above it, looking around anxiously for him to resurface. After a few seconds, he came back up, taking a deep inhale once he did. He swam hard towards a dry surface and grabbed onto it.
"There you are!" she yelled. "We have to save Rainbow Dash!"
Trailblazer grabbed Fluttershy and she flew him back to the side they were headed towards. Upon getting back up to the land, they saw a maroon pony charging at them.
"Oh man, did I get you guys GOOD!" he yelled. "The boss sends his greetings!"
"And just who are you?!" Rarity yelled at him as Twilight started to pick Rainbow Dash up."Were you the one that shot Rainbow Dash?"
The pony let out a big laugh. "I'm SteelHide, here giving you a free sample of Black Hole's homemade fast-acting poison darts!"
"That was poison??" she asked. Trailblazer and Fluttershy touched down near them.
"Ha! You'd better believe it!" he laughed back. "But wait, there's more!" He charged them again and rammed Twilight and stepped on Rainbow Dash's hooves, forcing both of them to fall down towards the river.
"Oh, hell no!" yelled Trailblazer. Fluttershy dove after the two, trying to save them.
"I guess I can't take you all out on my own, but that was a grade A ambush you just walked into! And with that, I'm outta here!" SteelHide yelled as he ran away.
"We have to go after him!" yelled Pinkie Pie.
"No, we can't do that now," said Trailblazer. "We have to help Rainbow and Twilight!"
Fluttershy dove and caught Rainbow Dash, leaving Twilight Sparkle behind.
"No! Flutter-" but before she could finish, she fell into the water. Fluttershy flew Dash back to the others as quickly as she possibly could, and set her down next to them. Fluttershy quickly flew back to the edge and dove to retrieve Twilight Sparkle. But she wasn't on the surface of the water. She saw some distinct bubbling near her position, but there was some real struggling there. Twilight Sparkle emerged from where the bubbling was, trying to stay above the surface.
"Hel-!" she yelled before falling back underwater. Fluttershy tried getting close enough, but she fell back down before she had a chance. Twilight reemerged one last time. "I can't swim!" After Twilight yelled that, she fell back down and didn't resurface.
"Oh, you have to be kidding me!" Fluttershy said. She took a deep breath, got towards the last place she saw her, and dove beneath the surface. It took her a few seconds to come back up with Twilight Sparkle in her grasp. She coughed hard continuously from swallowing a lot of water.
"I don't ever want to do that again..." Twilight said as she was shivering.
While that was happening, Trailblazer plucked the darts that were stuck in Rainbow Dash's body. Rarity gathered her anti-poision herbs from her backpack and walked back towards the three. Trailblazer grabbed them from her and fed them to Rainbow Dash.
"How's it working?" he asked her.
"My legs still feel asleep..." she told him, shaky.
"We need to get more of those anti-poison herbs!"
Both Pinkie Pie and Rarity gathered some more herbs from the backpacks. Trailblazer grabbed them and gave them to Dash again.
"Anything now?"
"I... I can feel everything now, but I just feel terribly sick..."
"Hang on." Trailblazer ran to the backpacks himself and grabbed some of the herbs. For the third time, he gave them to Rainbow Dash to see if it worked.
"Oohhhh..." she moaned. "I still feel sick to my stomach..."
Rarity ran to her bag and grabbed one of her first-aid kits.
"I don't think we can use that now," said Trailblazer. "Those are for like physical injuries."
"Have you even looked?" Rarity asked. She opened it and looked inside. Sure enough, she saw band-aids, gauze pads, cloth for slings, tape, and scissors, but nothing else that could help Rainbow Dash's poisoning.
"Just get me one more herb, please," Trailblazer instructed.
Pinkie Pie hopped back to the backpacks and pulled out another herb. Rainbow Dash took it.
"...Nothing. I don't feel any different than before..."
"I think that's all we can do for her now." Trailblazer turned to face Rainbow Dash. "How are you feeling now?"
"I feel sick... And I have a bellyache like you wouldn't believe."
Trailblazer groaned. "I think you can pull through." He picked her up and placed her on his back. "I gotcha." Rainbow Dash's head was resting near Trailblazer's left shoulder, with her body lying across his back, and her hind legs hanging near his right hind leg.
After that happened, Fluttershy joined the four again with Twilight Sparkle beside her. They touched down and gathered their backpacks.
"I, never, want to do that again..." said Twilight.
"Why, what happened?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"I almost drowned!" she yelled, surprising them all.
"Good lord, Twilight!" Rarity exclaimed back.
"I'm sorry... I still could've died... It was a scary thought..."
"It could've been worse..." said Rarity. "You're still okay, but Rainbow Dash..."
"Don't remind me," she told her.
"Let's keep heading for Marehattan. We'll need some help."
A unanimous agreement rang from them and they hiked some more.

"Hey, doesn't AppleJack have some relatives in Marehattan?" Pinkie Pie wondered.
"I think she told me about them one day," said Trailblazer. "Kind of opposites, from what she's told me."
"How so?"
"AppleJack is a farmer, while her... Orange something aunt and uncle are more like... Rarity, with how they talk and act."
"Do you think we should tell them about AppleJack?"
Trailblazer grimaced. "Well, no news is better than bad news, but they may be able to help us out. It's worth a shot."
"So, we head to Marehattan, find AppleJack's relatives, and tell her what happened to her..." thought Twilight. "On the bright side, we could have a place to stay when we get there."
"And if we're lucky enough, they'll kill the messengers." Trailblazer said, with strong pessimism.
They had their campsite set up for the night. One was made a bit bigger by stretching out the span of the drapes they had and spreading the spikes out. Trailblazer used his tent to shelter both Rainbow Dash and any of the others.
"Until we reach Marehattan, we should keep an eye on Rainbow Dash throughout the night."
"Is that why you have your tent wider than usual tonight?" asked Fluttershy.
"Yeah. I'll watch over her first for a few hours and then I'll call upon any one of you to take that shift. If she gets any worse, use those herbs to help her out. Do you all understand that?"
"Yeah, we got it," said Twilight. All of the others nodded.
"Okay, good." As he said that, the other four went to their tents to sleep. Trailblazer walked back info the tent he set up and watched Rainbow Dash.
"Go get some sleep, Dash. You need it." he mumbled softly to her.
"I'll try..." Rainbow Dash quickly fell asleep. Despite the comfort she was put in, it still looked like she struggled to be relaxed. Trailblazer watched her, thinking to himself about the Tethleon Treasure. Watching over Rainbow Dash like this reminded him of the time he took AppleJack inside after she exhausted herself from her latest Applebuck Season. A wave of melancholy swept him at the thought of it. He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out one of his cans of white pop. Going against his own orders, he walked outside and opened it, drinking it as well. He knew that it was going to keep himself awake, but he didn't feel as if he was going to get any sleep tonight anyway. He looked up at the sky to see the moon, which was providing the only kind of light that night, and sighed, looking down after seeing it. He thought about what took place in the past as a foal, and reflected on how he tormented Black Hole. At those thoughts, he felt some guilt and at fault, and still he wanted to do the right thing as he grew up. Now it was too late, and the thoughts of responsibility came to him some more. At last, he grumbled to himself and walked back into the tent. Rainbow Dash was now relaxed, but still sick. The reflection thoughts and the pop kept him awake as he watched her body raise and lower with each breath. After a few hours of watching her, he walked back outside and woke up Pinkie Pie.
"It must be my turn, right?" she asked groggily.
"Yeah..." Trailblazer stepped aside and let Pinkie Pie out of her tent and into the one Rainbow Dash was sleeping in. He took her sleeping bag and laid down on his back, staring up at the tent's ceiling, not moving at all until his eyelids felt heavy. He finally fell asleep, which he found hard to believe, but he accepted his tired state of mind and slept.