You see, after a certain number of minutes of absolutely useless struggle, Thunderlane and I reached the agreement that there would be no stopping the out-of-control Rumble. In fact, once he ran out of juice, the kid would need at least one full grown stallion capable of flying to catch him, preferably one that had not wasted all his energy on a pointless endeavor.
Thunderlane was understandably shocked when I had made that well thought-out observation.
“Okay, so now that we have established that Rumble is currently flying toward the Everfree Forest, what do we do?” I asked, doing a bit of sight-seeing from this aerial point of view.
So pretty. Green and black foliage scrolled down before my eyes, in varying shades of dark and creepy. It brought a smile to my lips.
His eyes narrowed and he stared right at me. “You want to explain to me what’s going on, exactly?”
Aaaaand there goes the smile.
“Oh, my bad,” I said soberly. “I inadvertently released Discord from his prison.”
His hoof collided with my face. This was getting a bit too common for my tastes. Couldn’t a crazed man-pony-thing just go on his merry way without ponies socking him in the face all the time? Was that really so hard?
“Now, give me a good reason I should not do it again,” Thunderlane grabbed my wings and pulled me close. I could see the fury quite well at this distance.
“Honestly? I don’t have any other reasons that it hurts.” I pouted. “You’ve got a mean right hook, you know?”
He gave me a savage grin. “Yeah, I know.”
“Meh.” I shrugged in a spot-on imitation of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “It happened. T’was an accident. I got screwed over by that, like, a bazillion times already.”
For a moment, his stare hardened and a brief spark of fear went through my body. In anticipation, I closed my eyes and braced myself for another hit.
To be honest, I did not expect him to let go like he did.
“Huh?”
“What’s the point?” Thunderlane sighed. “We’re both being dragged around the sky by my little brother. And I remembered your thing about not being exhausted when he’ll stop.”
A violent thug from the rope all but confirmed the veracity of his words.
I shot a hesitative glance at the colt, who was still brightly flashing a golden light. The smile on his face was so stretched it was a bit scary actually.
When I turned back to Thunderlane, I saw he was also staring at Rumble, though his face betrayed a deep sadness.
I could not help it. I giggled.
…
Oh boy, if I thought he was pissed before, I was sadly mistaken. You could say I was dead wrong.
‘Well, there goes my fangs. And I was starting to appreciate them more. They were useful when I had to bite things.’
“Not what you’re thinking,” I blurted out, eyes wide and trying to look as apologetic as possible.
“What. Was. It. Then?” He was so close I could feel his breath on my eyes, as he loomed over me with a dark expression on his face.
“I was thinking the Everfree Forest is green.”
“You expect me to belie-”
“Why is it still green?” I cut him off, much like Madam Bucket had once done to me. I tried to be perfectly calm and neutral, but it came out as deceptively happy. “I mean, the sky is orange, the grass around Ponyville was crimson… Look! It’s like a normal forest from here.”
At my words, I saw his eyes widen and his anger get washed away by an uncharacteristic thoughtfulness. Okay, that was mean, but I was actually surprised here. I had always classified him as a stallion of action.
“Something’s not right here,” he muttered, staring at the forest beneath us.
“Yeah, I figured.” I nodded. “It’s like Discord’s magic did not reach this place or it didn’t affect it. How crazy is that?”
Thunderlane stayed silent. He just gave me a look, as if I was a moron.
…Oh. Right.
“Well, that’s that.” I shrugged. No use getting worked up against a mostly generalized conception at this point, though the least I could do would be to change the subject. “How have you been? Still trying to get into Berry Punch’s pants?”
The black stallion stuttered like crazy. Oh, and he blushed too.
“W-what?! How’d you…?” He stopped mid panicked question, before staring at me harshly. “How do you know that?”
That made me chuckle.
“Come on, you two practically ate each other’s faces the last time I saw you two!” I rolled my eyes. Crazy, yes, but not blind.
Thunderlane seemed to think I had grown a second head now. At least, that’s what his face told me.
“…The buck are you talking about? I never met you before today!”
“Huh?” I blinked. “Ooooooh, right, time traveling and a possessed Caramel. How the heck did I manage to forget that?”
Third head. Fourth head too, if I was not misreading the look he was sending my way. In his mind eyes, I probably started looking like a hydra. Awesome!
“Are you, by any chance, an escapee from the mental ward just around the block?” Called it.
“I can’t say I am.” I grinned, considering myself lucky this was actually true.
Thunderlane let out a sigh of relief.
“But then again, I reckon I will be once this adventure is over.”
“For the love of buck!” He facehoofed, his voice hitting a chord as it seemed genuinely bothered. “I hit a mentally ill pony.”
I yawned, stretching my front legs over my head and setting myself more comfortable in the loop the rope made around my torso. “If it makes you feel better, so did one of the Elements of Harmony.”
It was Thunderlane’s turn to grin now. “Well, that’s pretty interesting.”
I was about to reply, but then a jolt in the rope made us both cringe, as some knots drove themselves into our bodies. The ball that was pressing against my lungs did not help me speak.
“Rumble, buddy!” The black stallion turned toward his little brother, a frown on his face. For a second, he looked as if he wanted to reprimand him, but any annoyance quickly slid off his expression. “C-can’t you…?”
His voice broke.
‘Aw hell…’ I thought, lowering my head.
And that’s why I saw it.
“BOULDER!” I shouted.
Thunderlane’s head whipped around and his whole body became stiff as a rock. He saw – I knew he saw – the round, brownish sphere cutting through the air. Its silhouette was slowly growing bigger and with each inch it was growing, my heart was beating that much faster.
“RUMBLE, DIVE!” The other stallion yelled, pulling at his little brother’s hind legs.
My whole body seemed to lurch, to jump up my throat with the sudden turn. The world spun on its head, my eyes now fixed on a few cotton candy clouds. They seemed to be holding a conversation over the weather pattern they wanted to adopt.
Fascinating.
“Duck!” Thunderlane’ hooves pressed on my head.
A large shadow passed over us and a small draft of air stroke my fur, right as the boulder flew less than a meter away from our bodies.
We watched the thing continue its arc toward another part of the forest, perhaps longer than we should have. “Phew, that was a close one.”
“Yeah.”
An awkward silence fell between us. We were sort of stuck a bit together and no, our legs were not touching, but still. I was not very comfortable here.
“Hum… yeah…” Thunderlane grimaced and fiddled with one of his wings. “So, huh… you’re new around here?”
“Sorta… I’ve been here before…”
“No you haven’t. I think somepony would have noticed a weird half-pony hybrid before!”
“Look, it happened in another reality, but it was still here, okay?” I crossed my front legs and gave him a look, which he returned with a frown, until…
“Crazy dude,” he said, his eyes lighting up with understanding, and made a snapping noise with his hoof (…what?). “Got it.”
“This shouldn’t bother me at this point, but it does.” I tried not to, but I started pouting again.
Every time I told the truth, ponies were calling me crazy. They were right, but for the wrong reasons. That just got on my nerves to no end. If I had been perfectly sane and told them what I told them, would they still try to intern me? That was a sobering thought.
I opened my mouth to make an acidic comment on it, but Thunderlane beat me to it.
“Hey, is it just me or is Rumble still flying downward?” His voice was so controlled I wondered if he was even trying.
Slowly, I scratched the back of my head and shot a glance at our surroundings. “Well, the clouds are behind us, so…”
“And the trees are easier to make out than earlier…” He added, very casual about this.
“The rope is pushing us down…” I tried to flex a wing, without any success.
“So… we’re about to crash into the Everfree Forest?”
“Looks like it.”
That was about the moment we started screaming like fillies.
The following scene was extracted from the official Royal Canterlot records, cannot be distributed outside of the library and its content must not be divulged to outsiders. Offenders will be prosecuted and risk facing punishments reserved for traitors against the crown.
“You have got to be kidding me…” Rainbow Dash’s eye twitch as the crazy stallion-thing was swept aside by the supercharged colt.
“What? Why are you surprised? It’s obvious that you can’t have the big reveal right away before the story is over! Think of all the fans that will be disappointed!” Pinkie Pie jumped to her friend’s side, motioning to the audience of mesmerized ponies.
“Hum… fans?” Fluttershy shot a nervous glance around her.
“Yeah, fans from all around the world! We can’t give them the impression it was a rip-off!” The pink mare threw her hooves in the air. “Imagine their pain!”
“T-that’s so sad…” Fluttershy’s eyes drooped.
“Ah dun’t wanna hear any of this stuff right now, Pinkie!” Applejack’s voice rang loud and clear. It seemed a bit scary how intense her gaze had gotten. “Twi! You heard what that son of a-?”
“Applejack, dear!” Rarity yelled, scandalized.
“Ah stand by my words.” She turned to her other unicorn friend, whose brows were furrowed together. “So, ye heard him, right?”
“I did.” Twilight nodded, staring into space. “Twist and turns are his master plan, fin… something. Ring a bell?”
“That’s what Discord said the last time he was free!” Rainbow Dash blew out hot air from her nostrils. “If I can get my hooves on him…”
“I have the feeling you will need to wait your turn, dear.”
The pegasus would have replied, hotly, that she would not wait for somepony else to do her job. She would have, had her eyes not fallen on Applejack, who was stroking her little sister’s mane.
The mare’s expression was set in stone. Had she not known her friend, she might have been scared. As it stood, only a chill went down her spine. Nothing more!
“D-d-does that mean he is… in the labyrinth… back in Canterlot?” Fluttershy asked, her voice even quieter than usual. It had been her idea to search the trickster spirit in Ponyville. If they had lost so much time because of her…
“No, I don’t think that’s what it means, Fluttershy,” the lavender unicorn replied, looking at the sky and trying to sort her thoughts. “Back then, it was a misleading statement so we would be…”
Her voice trailed off and none of her friends had the courage to complete her sentence. They did not want to relive that memory.
“A-anyway!” Twilight cleared her throat and continued nervously. “The Elements were in the books where I had first heard of them.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember that!” Pinkie giggled. “There was a double meaning to that clue too.”
“A double meaning, dear?” Rarity tilted her head slightly, confused as to her friend’s words.
“Can ye keep those tidbits to yerself?! We’re in the middle of something here!” Applejack snapped.
Both mares fell silent and the fillies just a few feet away started to feel quite uncomfortable with the farmer’s short-fuse. The two’s liveliness toned down a bit, for fear they would get a tongue lashing as well.
“…In any case, I think we ought to look around the library.”
A big fat “That’s your answer to EVERYTHING!” floated on Rainbow Dash’s lips, but she ultimately held it in.
“Alright, let’s go.” Applejack stepped off the stage, all to her mission. She was going to end this if it killed her.
“Right behind you,” Rarity said, pausing just a moment to give Sweetie Belle a nudge and whispering for her to hide somewhere safe.
She realized she was being terribly unfair about this to her friend, as luck stood that her own sister did not carry Discord’s plague anymore, but, truly, no forces in this world could have stopped her from giving her precious Sweetie Belle a little bit of comfort.
“Yeepee! We’re getting to the main events!” Pinkie jumped off stage, into the stretched legs of the crowd.
Applejack glanced at her friend, who seemed to be extremely amused by the wavy feeling of being carried away unevenly. Her body was almost stretching in impossible ways, but she credited that on the generally chaotic atmosphere that had overridden Ponyville.
“Come on, girls! We gotta find Discord!” Rainbow Dash, who had taken to flying over Pinkie Pie, waved at her remaining friends on the stage.
“Of course,” Twilight said, looking away and biting her lips.
“Twilight?” She heard Fluttershy’s quiet voice, but simply shook her head and stepped off the stage as well.
“We have a mission to complete. This can wait…”
“Tell me that wasn’t your stomach, please.” Thunderlane stopped and groaned.
“…Well…” I looked away, feeling a powerful urge to whistle innocently.
“DUDE!” The black pegasus rammed his head into the nearest tree. “You just ate a squirrel! You told me you were full.”
“I-I was…” I fiddled with a rock on the ground, who, by the way, was covered in thick grass and dead leaves. “I’m just hungry again.”
“Too bad!” His face crunched up and his gaze grew severe. “We’re not staying any time more than we need to in this forest, especially not to let you hunt.”
I tilted my head to the side and rolled on my back, for a better perspective of his face. Yes, he was pissed. Moving on. “You know, I expected you to freak out more at seeing me bite an animal’s head off.”
‘Not to mention I should probably freak out a lot more at the feeling of a brain going down my throat. That’s sorta like zombies, except I was aiming for the eyes, but got the brain, then the rest of the body for good measure. Is it creepy that I licked my paw and hooves clean of the blood that had sullied them? Or it’s just the part where I almost fangasmed over it?’
“Well, the little prick had it coming after trying to lure us into a pack of sleeping timberwolves and playing with that balloon.” He muttered, shifting one wing to adjust the unconscious Rumble on his back. His other wing trembled, but did not move. At all. “Plus, I’m a pegasus, I worked in Cloudsdale and there are griffons around that place.”
I blinked. “Sounds logical to me.”
“Okay, I will need to be more explicit next time I want to explain something so obvious.” Thunderlane rolled his eyes, though his grin was rather mocking.
“Hey! That was just mean!” I shouted, getting back on my hooves and frowning.
“No, mean is pretending to fall in a patch of Poison Jokes and scream,” Thunderlane grumbled and started walking again.
“I wasn’t pretending, I really fell!” I ran after him, nervous at the prospect of being alone in this forest of doom. “And that scream was unintentional.”
“Dude, it lasted twenty-three seconds!”
“I was holding a conversation with some friends in my head at the time, I just didn’t realize I was still in the middle of a scream.”
“See?” He jabbed a hoof into my shoulder. “This is exactly why I think you’re screwing with me.”
“I’m serious.” I felt a growl build up at the back of my throat. It was pushing to come out and be freed. That in itself felt perfectly normal, it was the desire to bite through some ponies that made me sick.
“Whatever. Either way, it’s scary.”
Some branches cracked under our hooves at that moment. It made us both cringe and stop.
Crunch.
Oh dear… was that another branch being stepped on? Close to us? Without either Thunderlane or myself moving?
‘Yes, to all three, my dear.’
‘Thank you, Madam Bucket. See you in the afterlife in a moment.’ I chuckled.
‘Oh, I believe you will find it lovely there. Stan the great janitor regularly makes rounds to see if any one of us is missing anything in your perfect paradise.’
‘You know, that sounds like one of these things that is great on paper but kind of annoying in person, no?’
‘…Why did you destroy my idea of paradise? I trusted you!’ The imaginary bucket started crying.
My ears drooped. ‘S-sorry, Madam Bucket. I really did not mean to taint your eternal rest!’
‘What good is that now?! I will always be annoyed at his kindness from now on!’ She wailed.
“Huh, Dude?” A black hoof passed in front of my eyes. The insufferable screams faded as my attention focused on that new voice.
“What?” I turned around.
Thunderlane was staring, seemingly equally concerned and pissed off. “You spaced out after that squirrel climbed that tree.”
I glanced in the direction his hoof showed and got sight of some movements in the foliage overhead. “Oh.”
“Now that you’re semi-conscious of your surroundings again, can we move on? I’d rather not stay in the Everfree Forest with Rumble on my back any longer than I need to.”
I nodded and, a surge of bubbliness hitting me, I smiled. Something about the Everfree Forest made me want to goof around.
“…Let’s go then.” Thunderlane muttered, glancing at my completely normal attitude before shaking his head and walking away. Of course, I followed him.
The nervous side of me wanted to talk, to babble and kill the stress with a normal conversation, but something held me back. T-the air in the Everfree Forest was heavy; it seemed harder to push forward, but, in reality, it wasn’t. The light never truly filtered through the endless green of the leaves above and this perpetual darkness wore down what little courage I had left.
There were whispers carried by the wind, but no wind. There were shadows but nothing to project them. There were eyes glowing in the darkness, then only darkness.
I was starting to understand why the Everfree Forest was so universally feared.
My coat was starting to stand on its ends. I probably appeared like a puff ball.
“Gee, relax.” Thunderlane sighed, clearly getting tired of this arrangement. “We can handle ourselves, or at least, I can.”
For some reason, that made me feel better. I could not tell why, but those words tugged at a heartstring inside and images of a man – yes, a human – flashed before my eyes. No idea who that was, but I liked him. I knew I did. He made me feel... safe.
All to my smiles and this warmth in my chest, I failed to notice the abrupt leveling of the ground.
The familiar weightlessness of a fall came back to me, lightening my limbs for the briefest of moment, before some pain spread in my wings and my shoulder. The speed carried me further, down a hill, with me only able to see the world spin rapidly and nothing more.
My face took the brunt of the next hit, namely the ground.
With dirt sticking up in on my cheeks and my chin, I tried to shake it off, but my eyes fell on an odd sight.
Behind me, I heard some sliding and pebbles rolled down close to me. They were accompanied by a pair of black hooves and an actually concerned voice.
“Holy crap! Dude, are you okay?!”
“SHHHHHH!” I hushed really loudly, my nerves interfering with the volume I wanted to use.
He blinked. “Huh?”
“Don’t talk!” I hissed, grabbing him with my griffon paw and pulling him down to the ground.
“Hey!”
“Will you shut up?!” I snapped, shaking with fear.
It was this, the unnerving fear that laced my body language that must have convinced him to stop.
“What is it?” He whispered, trying to spot the horror that was making me feel so cold and vulnerable.
“Over there.” I pointed.
The other stallion scanned the woods, looking between the trunks and the bushes. It took a minute, with me growing increasingly reckless.
“What is it? I only see a chicken.” He narrowed his eyes further, squinting to see whatever threat I had detected, but my silence clued him in. “…You’re kidding me, right?”
“It’s a chicken that lives in the Everfree Forest! It’s got a nest! Look! How can it survive?! Either it was lucky as all get out or it’s a chicken that isn’t a chicken!”
“Okay, now, you’re just wasting everypony’s time. That chicken is a chicken and I will prove it to you.”
“No, no, no, no, no…”
The following scene was extracted from the official Royal Canterlot records, cannot be distributed outside of the library and its content must not be divulged to outsiders. Offenders will be prosecuted and risk facing punishments reserved for traitors against the crown.
The situation seemed dire, grim. For some rational ponies, if there had been any left except the Bearers, panic would have been an appropriate response and cries of “The horror! The horror!” would have echoed. As it stood though, the only one crying foul was the bearer of the Element of Generosity.
“Applejack!” She screamed, horn flaring with a blue aura. “Control your gorgeous brother!”
“Ye think this is easy?!” The cowmare grunted, her whole body shaking from the effort of restraining her older brother. Her words were almost unheard of under the mad barking of the red stallion.
“It certainly is funny though!” Pinkie giggled, pulling on Big Macintosh’s ears. “Look! He’s almost like a bunny like this! He doesn’t seem to mind either!”
Her bubbliness reached none of her friends though. They were too preoccupied with stopping a disaster in the making. None of them knew if Ponyville could survive, but they would rather not take their chances.
“Hum… Opal?” Fluttershy asked timidly, flying to eye level with the giant cat. “W-we know that you do not appreciate being yelled at, like everyone else, but we’d be really happy if you were willing to just run away?”
The poor filly was almost blown away by the following hiss.
“OPAL!” Her mistress screeched, scandalized. “Where are your manners?! That is no way to treat Fluttersh-Kyah!”
With a violent shake of her head, the vicious creature made her mistress tumbled off her. With a not-so-gracious yelp, Rarity crashed to the ground. Her usually well-groomed and cared-for mane lost its lustrous shine, covered in dirt instead.
“OPAL! MAMA’S NOT HAPPY!” She screamed, turning around with flaring eyes, only to see a giant paw and a growing shadow.
A cyan blur flew right into her, lifting her off the ground and out of reach of the maddened disproportional animal. Whereas she expected the impact to cut her breath, the manoeuver had been careful enough for Rarity to feel it like a breeze.
“Be more careful around your crazy vicious cat, Rarity! Remember that Discord did something to her if she’s this big.” Rainbow Dash sensibly reminded her unicorn friend, surprising even herself.
Her words fell in deaf ears though. “Oooooh, that young lady is getting the Extra-Shine Miaou Mix instead of the Royal-luxury Special, FOR. A. WHOLE. WEEK!”
With a roll of her eyes, Rainbow Dash decided that ignoring her friend’s following rant would be for the best. At least as far as her nerves were concerned.
Just as she prepared to join in back on the fray – which would not be too much as Big Mac had broken away from the earth pony mares holding him back and was now fighting a purple magic field –, the pegasus’ gaze happened to fall on a rather peculiar scene.
Three little fillies were enjoying the sight from high up on a balcony. Well, to be more accurate, one of them seem to enjoy it greatly, lying on her throne like that, but the other two did not seem quite as happy. Their expressions were grim and their movements were hampered by chains and shackles.
Distracted, Dash stared as the filly on the throne, a beige coated earth pony with a red mane, violently threw a glass of juice at the head of a pink earth filly. The poor girl trembled and shook, lying on the ground in pain.
The second chained filly stepped forward almost immediately, placing herself, as Rainbow Dash realized, between her abused friend and their tormentor.
“More fruits in the next one…” She bowed her gray head and spoke respectfully, albeit with a slight tremor in her voice. “Yes, of course, my Queen!”
The filly on the throne dismissed her with a hoof and sipped on another glass of juice almost immediately, enjoying the shade of a parasol and the wind produced by a magical autonomous fan.
“RAINBOW DASH! A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!”
Startled, the pegasus dove into the fray again. “Why are we the only ones that need to go through this kind of crap?!”
“OH CELESTIA, IT BUUUUUUUURNS!”
Part of me wanted to say ‘I told you so’, but that was silenced by the pants-soiling terror I felt at the grotesque spectacle before my eyes. So I tried to keep the hyena laugher to a minimum.
It did not work.
“IT’S EATING MY SOUL! …WHY?!”
A small prayer went to thank the benevolent one that convinced Thunderlane to leave Rumble with me.
“AND FOR BUCK’S SAKE, STOP LAUGHING, YOU FREAK!”
The following scene was extracted from the official Royal Canterlot records, cannot be distributed outside of the library and its content must not be divulged to outsiders. Offenders will be prosecuted and risk facing punishments reserved for traitors against the crown.
“AHHHHHHH, THE APPLE’S APPLES ARE ATTACKING! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Three mares ran past the bearers,
“You know, for a while, I expected that to happen sooner…” Pinkie remarked, humming to herself.
“Is that a bad thing?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
“No…” Twilight sighed. Her eyes focused on Applejack’s family produces, her horn started glowing intensively. With a stern and completely serious voice, she only said. “It means I had the time to extrapolate the best method to deal with this.”
“Not. A. Word.”
Never before had someone pronounced words with such raw venom. In the history of the universe, they were the very worst. And they stemmed from a pal that had been proven oh so wrong about the innocuousness of a chicken.
Whoa, it was almost like the Universe had chosen another being as the target of its torments. The poor guy…
Still, I respected his wish and only patted his shoulder, the one not horribly burned. It made him cringe, but he forged on, pushing his legs to carry him forward, to the edge of this forest of doom.
We could see the light beyond the outline of the trees. It was already lighting up this part of the forest.
Rumble, still unconscious and still weighting down on my back, stirred.
“Buddy?” Thunderlane asked, detecting the reaction as soon as it had happened.
For sole reply, the little colt’s movements came to a halt. He would not wake up yet.
“Darn… he must have really hurt his head back then.” I grimaced, knowing firsthand how painful a crash could be and well…
Rumble had flown headfirst into a tree trunk. Luckily, he was still glowing golden light at the time. Unfortunately, he also stopped glowing and just fell unconscious immediately afterward.
“Y-yeah…” Thunderlane stared at his brother again, voice thick with emotion.
“Eh, don’t worry,” I said, grinning and dancing on my hooves. “Nopony dies on Discord’s watch. Corpses are not very entertaining, or so he says… The comatose? Maybe?”
For a second, a chill went down my spine. It was as if a slab of ice had been grinded against my back. The pure anger and the raw disgust in the air had a nauseating property. It came from Thunderlane’s direction.
Beads of sweat running down the side of my face, I dared not glance at him, for fear he unleashed that on me.
Silence fell again.
We marched without exchanging another word. The hatred emanating from my companion would not subdue and he pulverized the one monster that tried to block his way. After that, I cautiously slowed down so as not to lose sight of him…
I was the one to breathe a sigh of relief when we broke through the cover of the Everfree Forest.
The difference was like night and day. Fresh pure air caressed our fur and stroked our manes. The sun’s heat radiated to us. The orange sky was like a…
…I had no real description for the orange sky, and the fuschia grass wasn’t a much bigger source of inspiration. It was just weird.
‘W-why are you looking at me like that, Janet Greatlol?’ I blinked at the tall figure of that particular imaginary friend.
‘No reason. At all. And remember, I’m not sarcastic...’
I grinned. That was easy. ‘Because you told me, right, I remember that.’
Thunderlane, on the other hoof, did not seem very pleased with our location. His eyes had widened at an unusual sight.
“I-is that a crater?”
Those words jugged at my memory. Like the proverbial sledgehammer or the hooves of an indignant big brother, it collided with my head and gave me vertigo. Images flashed before my eyes, those of a great, kind ru-
“PRINCESS CELESTIA!”