It's Adventure Time!
We walked down the tower back to the main dining hall. Twilight was slowly getting her wits together after that scene... We entered the dining room and Shining Armour was sitting at the long dining table next to a pink alicorn with some other ponies that most likely work for the Princesses as well. When Twilight saw the mare sitting next to her brother she cheered up and trotted over to them. I was going to follow her to greet the alicorn, but a light brown hoof went around my neck and pulled me to the side. It was Daring Do, who was looking impatiently at me and was tapping the floor with her hoof.
"Erm... putting that previous scene aside..." she began, " we were supposed to be leaving to the Everfree Forest five minutes ago..."
"Without any breakfast?" I asked, surprised. I mean, we were going to travel all day and I didn't want to leave without having a decent meal.
"If it wasn't for that delay you could've eaten something... but then that happened..." she blushed. "We can pass by the kitchen and grab a snack. While in the forest we can eat any fruits or berries we find. Don't worry about food poisoning." she replied. "I know which fruit is good or bad in that place." she added just before I could ask about the same thing.
"Alright... Anything else I should be aware of before leaving?" I asked.
"Well, since you're a Pegasus like me, we can cover a lot more ground by flying." she said. "Think you can handle flying for long hours without stopping?"
"Eh... I'm not sure. I never flew for longer than two minutes or so."
"Well I guess it's time you put this new body to the test", she said. "We'll keep flying until you get tired, deal?", she spat on the bottom of her hoof and presented the sloppy mess to me.
"Uh, what are you doing?" I asked, slightly disgusted.
She rolled her eyes and lowered her hoof, "I'll take that as a yes...".
"...Sure". And with that, I turned to the table and gave Twilight and Shining Armour a wave to let them know I was leaving. Shining Armour happily waved back, as well as the Alicorn next to him, and Twilight gave an awkward smile and then waved. I continued my way to the kitchen with Daring. We both ate some celery and an apple given from the chef. We then walked back to the tower and up to the entrance to the royal guest room.
"Daring, what are we doing here?" I asked confused. She was looking out to the valley below, her wings flapping slowly. Oh... are we going to do what I'm thinking?
"Time to test those wings, Johnny.", she looked back at me with a mischievous grin. Oh fuck are we REALLY going to do that???
I hesitantly walked up next to her and looked over the ledge. It was a drop that looked much higher than the tallest skyscraper in the world! I swallowed dry and looked back at Daring. "You sure about this?"
"Wait... are you thinking we're going to dive??", she laughed. "Oh man, we're not the Wonderbolts, Johnny! We might be Pegasi, but if we pulled out of a dive this high we'd end up with a mighty wing cramp." she said, controlling herself. "We're going to glide to the Everfree forest and slowly descent on the way."
"That's what I was thinking too, Daring Do. I'm not crazy", I lied with a poker face, but she obviously didn’t buy it because she chuckled under her breath.
"Okay, we wasted enough time already." Daring Do said, climbing the ledge of the stairway. I followed suit and tried hard not to look directly below me. I might not have vertigo, but looking directly down from high above can be disorienting.
"Let's go!", she yelled, jumping down with her wings closed and dropping a few metres before flaring them open and gliding quickly towards the forest to the West.
I closed my eyes and sighed, flapping my own wings slowly for a small warm-up, "Rainbow Dash, your teaching skills might be horrible but at least I know how to fly now... Thanks.". I smiled and tilted forward, letting my whole body fall over the ledge, packing my forelegs against my chest. I opened my wings half a second later and tilted them a bit, letting the air drag me forward. Soon I was following Daring Do that was a few seconds ahead of me. We were gliding across the landscape which was a good five hundred metres below us.
The scenery... holy crap what a scenery. If I was doing this at night with a clear sky I would probably go nuts with the view, but at the time I had to take what I could get. Every once in awhile I would look down to watch the land. Since it was still early in the morning, there were a few fog patches scattered around from the cold night. The fields below us were completely covered in grass, a few dirt roads that looked like thin lines crossed the landscape, one or two of them leading straight to the Everfree forest. A few scattered patches of yellow indicated some of flowers or dandelions, but it was impossible to tell from our height. I took a quick glance back at Canterlot Castle. We had dropped a few metres and I was able to see the waterfall that ran below it; its massive drop made it look like the water blended into the lake below as a mist. And now that I noticed it, there was another forest next to the lake. Looking at the tone of the leaves, I’d say Fall was about to start. I turned my head forward again, just to see that I accidentally slowed down and that Daring Do was almost turning into a small dot with wings in the sky. I quickly increased my speed and caught up to her. While the breathtaking scenery was all around us, the menacing dark green forest could be seen to the Northwest, where our destination was supposed to be.
The drag was the only noise I could hear while we flew across the land , the wind blowing against our wings and face. We spent about an hour like this until we finally landed in front of the Everfree Forest, which at the place we landed it just looked like a huge wall of dark trees. It looked intimidating as hell, I wouldn’t want to walk into that place alone... Daring Do’s got balls, like damn!
"Well... here we are, the Everfree Forest." Daring Do spoke, and she took a swig off of her canteen before offering me some of it.
"Thanks." I smiled, and picked up her bottle with my hoof. Yeah that's right,my hoof! Turns out that we can actually pick up some stuff with them after all. The act of doing that for the first time scared me a bit and I almost dropped the bottle, because I felt the cold water inside the canteen, much like I would with a hand. I took a sip or two and gave it back to Daring, in which she put it back in her saddlebag.
"So where is this ruin you talked about?" I asked her.
"It's deep inside the forest. If we fly over it, we'll eventually find a clearing with some metal fences, but that's really far in." she replied. "Even while flying we'll only reach it by noon."
"Well, what time is it?" I asked.
"It's adventure time!" she joked, and pulled out a watch from her bag. "Just kidding. I think I've set off all the hazards on my way there already.”
She checked her watch and put it back in her saddlebag and continued.“ It's just past half eight, get ready flap those wings, kid." She crouched a bit and jumped up in the air, hovering just above the trees. "Just tell me when you start to get tired and we'll take a small break."
"Roger that." I said, and took flight behind her.
We spent the next three hours flying past tree after tree, and an occasional clearing with a small lake... And more trees, and more trees... I was getting so bored I almost didn't realize Daring Do slowed down right in front of me and I almost crashed into her mid-air.
"Well... I think we're getting close." she said looking at me. I just barely dodged her and was now trying to control my hovering and not crash down into the trees. She cocked an eyebrow and continued. "You tired yet?"
"A bit..." I said. "but since you say we're close I don't think we need a break.". After I regained control of my flight I looked around. It was literally a field of trees. Not a single hill or mountain in sight except for Canterlot castle at the very edge of the horizon. "This forest is freaking huge..." I commented, "how did you not get lost in here the first time?"
She turned her flank to me and showed her cutie mark. This is NOT easy to get used to...
"Okay... it's a compass rose..." I said.
"Exactly" she smirked, "my sense of direction is unmatched. I could find my way back to Canterlot in pitch black conditions without even trying." She squinted her eyes a few kilometres ahead and continued. "Wow we really are close. I think I remember seeing that tree...", she pointed towards one of the taller trees around us.
"You remember trees??" Holy shit what other special talent does she have that I still didn't find out yet?
"Yeah... I got a bit of a photographic memory", she smiled, "It's how I managed to draw that sign back in the castle in so much detail" she flew ahead of me and inspected the tree, then yelled back at me. "Yep! That's the one! We found it!"