After waiting motionless for ten minutes, Fluttershy carefully lighted down when she was sure the guards were gone. The stallions had gotten very peeved when they realized they had been searching a smelly swamp for what seemed to be nothing, and had long since headed back to the forest.
The timid pegasus was now creeping through the muck with her trio of otters and duo of mice hitching on her back. Sure, the guards were gone. But there was an even bigger task ahead—finding her companion in this huge dark murky swamp. And for all she knew, Dash could have been captured already.
Peering behind every bit of moss and tree, Fluttershy whispered, “Rainbow Dash? It’s me, Fluttershy. You can come out now.”
Luckily, she wouldn’t have to trek very far. She found herself in a small clearing when a droning sound echoed throughout the swamp. Fluttershy couldn’t help but jump and glance around carefully, her eyes wide with terror. “W-who’s there?” She backed up, only to trip over an odd bump covered by mud. She fell on her bottom, getting more muck all over her fur, while muttering a quiet, “Ow…”
Glancing down at the thing she had tripped over, she saw a patch of blue covered by a layer of grime. To her surprise, the droning sound was now right behind her, and Fluttershy was able to make it out as a groan of pain. Whirling around, she found herself face to face with her rainbow friend.
“Rainbow Dash. Oh I’m so glad you’re fine,” Fluttershy said happily. “I see you hid in the mud. Very clever.” But oddly enough, Dash didn’t respond, still making that weird groaning sound. Upon closer examination, Fluttershy saw some drool hanging from Dash’s mouth. Slowing moving up, Fluttershy found some snot running from her nose, a pair eyes rolled up into her head, and a mane half-covered by a dirty worn-out beanie.
And that was when she saw the serpent clinging to the side of Dash’s head with its fangs.
xxx
And only an hour later, Rainbow was vomiting by the side of a tree. “Bleargh! I-I’ve never felt so bad in all my li…li…Bleargh!”
“Oh it’s okay, Dash,” Fluttershy replied calmly while shielding the animals’ eyes.
“It’s okay? I got bit by a snake and almost died. And now those meds you gave me is making me even more sick!” Dash was able to shout before spewing even more of that Sweet Bar O’ Celestia on the ground.
“You must be having a teensy-weensy allergic reaction. Don’t worry, I‘ve seen this happen before. Luckily, that should render Fang’s venom useless.” Fluttershy held the snake across her back, which looked much more content than it had been on Dash’s head.
“O-okay. I think…I think I’m good now,” Rainbow uttered, wiping the remains of her lunch off her mouth. “Thanks a lot, Fang.”
“It’s not his fault. It’s only his instincts. I mean, you did, well, break his cage.”
“Well it’s not like there was a sign telling me there was a root,” Dash replied, injecting a bit of her own venom into her words. “What was I supposed to do, let Fang lay there in the mud we’re we’d lose him? Jeez…I knew this was a bad idea…”
Fluttershy’s eyes flickered, and her lips were pulled into a worried frown. Picking the larger animals, the kind pegasus said, “If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll be glad to take the big cages while you can carry the small ones.”
“Thanks, I feel so much better.” Rainbow dizzily swept up the otters, who were unsurprisingly quarreling in their inane otter language, and the two mice, who were acting like the otters’ polar opposites. With Fang draped around her neck like a scarf and the two larger cages in tow, Fluttershy led the way through the swamp. Rainbow staggered close behind, trying to keep her green-tinged face from plummeting forward into the mud once again.
Her mind was all jumbled at the moment, concentrating on one thing: trying not to lose anymore of her lunch. She was focused, in fact, that she didn’t realize the triplets had crawled out of their pack and dug themselves into her multicolored mane. They began to swing to and fro due to Dash’s erratic movements, letting out small squeaks of joy. Fluttershy looked back to see the circus act behind her, and she couldn’t help but giggle.
Finally, one of the troublemakers—Anton by the looks of it—ended up latching onto one of Dash’s ears to get himself steady. The pegasus recoiled her head in pain, finally feeling the multiple tugs on the back of her mane. “Alright, that’s enough! Can’t you see I’m sick?”
One of otters remained wrapped around her neck, so she demanded, “That’s means you too, Gio.”
“That’s…um…actually Anto—.”
“Whatever!”
xxx
After about thirty minutes of quiet marching, Fluttershy was able to make out an opening in the foliage out of the blackness. “Good news, Dash! It’s the edge of the swamp!” she called out happily.
“Thank Luna!” Dash muttered.
“I don’t think you should say that, Rainbow. I think Luna was the one who sent those guards after us.”
“It’s just an expression, ‘Shy,” Rainbow replied, just as the moon started to peak through the ceiling of leaves and branches. They stepped out of the swamp and its suffocating stench, and into the clear air of the plains. They glanced up to see the starry sky for the first time in forever—or so it seemed. Both pegasi let out a sigh of relief before taking in a gulp of fresh air. Their hooves were no longer perpetually sunken into the mud, and they took great happiness in feeling the hard dirt below them. A forest of tall grass stood before them, swaying in unison to the soft breeze.
“I’ve never been so happy to be in the middle of nowhere in all my life,” Rainbow Dash said, sitting on her haunches to rest.
“I know you want some rest, Rainbow, but I really think we should keep moving.”
“Hey, as long as we’re out of that swamp, I’m good.” And with that, the duo continued on into the grass, leaving the swamp behind them.
The grass was a few inches above their head, easily providing cover for whoever could be searching for them. It was surprisingly easy to maneuver the thick blades, which were a lot lighter than they looked. Dash inspected the blades more closely to find tiny exotic bugs clinging onto the undersides with not a care in the world. And oddly enough, she found herself envying them.
But suddenly, she was snapped out of her brush with nature by a scorpion tail lashing out and snatching one of the bugs from its perch. She watched as Fluffy flicked the creature into its mouth, devouring it with a resounding crunch. “Dude, not cool,” Dash whispered, to which the manticore let out a purr of satisfaction.
“You know, I think he’s starting to like you,” Fluttershy remarked.
Dash gave a short glance at Fluttershy, then to the baby manticore curled up in its cage. For a moment, their eyes met, and Rainbow gave a tiny half-smile. But then she shook her head and replied hardily, “Probably ‘cause I gave him food or something. Animals are suckers for that stuff, you know? By the way…okay, are you just going to wear Fang around your neck like that? Because it’s kinda distracting.”
The snake hung rather limply around Fluttershy’s shoulders, and she just acted like, well…like there wasn’t a long venomous reptile wrapped around her windpipe. With a nonchalant smile, she simply replied, “Yep.”
With a snicker, Dash uttered, “So kinda like a…feather boa?”
“No, he’s a rattle-snake.”
“I know, but he’s like a feather boa. Get it? Get it? Huh? Get it?”
After staring at her friend blankly for about five seconds, Fluttershy replied matter-of-factly, “No, boas are much larger and less venomous. Fang is a special kind of rattlesnake.”
“See, I’m trying to make a pun because he’s wrapped around your neck like a—oh never mind.”
Thus they continued, for another hour of so it seemed, quietly contemplating the night and the solemnity of the nature that surrounded them. After a while, the animals started to become antsy. Fluffy had started his incessant growls, seemingly conversing with Fang’s hisses. The phoenixes had begun to skirt about their cage, still awake ever since leaving the swamp. And of course, the mice were doing absolutely nothing.
“Hey Anton! Quiet poking your sister!” Rainbow commanded, tired after a full minute of wrestling between the two otters.
“Actually that’s…um…correct?” Fluttershy commented, mildly surprised.
Dash’s eye flashed with a subtle surprise as well, but with a smirk she answered happily, “I guess I’m getting good at this.”
“I’m so glad, Rainbow. You’re really starting to-.”
Fluttershy never got to finish that sentence. To Dash’s horror, Fluttershy suddenly flew backwards, sending her cages toppling down. When Dash went to help her up, she found the yellow pegasus frozen in place. Her legs were extended into a rigid position, and her mouth was still paused in mid-sentence. A faint glow exuded from her eyes, and Dash realized this was the work of some kind of magic. Suddenly, there was a loud rustling to her side. Rainbow quickly jerked her head around to see a Royal Guard galloping toward her, crashing through the tall grass like a runaway train.
But amidst the sight of her paralyzed friend and the stallion rushing towards her, one thing stood out to Dash above all. There was a certain stench in the air, a smell she had become all too familiar with from dealing with lightning and forests all her life.
She turned to find that embers had shot off the phoenixes’ wings when Fluttershy dropped them. And unfortunately for her, she was about to see why fire and dry brush don’t exactly mix.
Xxx
Two hours earlier…
Many, many miles away from that grassy plain, Princess Luna sat comfortably on her throne, stroking her new pet ferret which sat on the armrest. A knock resounded on the throne room door, followed by a Royal Guard scuffling inside. While a smile, the moon goddess said joyfully, “Ah, there you are, Lieutenant. What news from the western front?”
“Umm…east, princess,” he quietly remarked. Luna only responded with an odd look, so the stallion just cleared his throat and relayed, “Errr, well, we received some reports from the patrols that they spotted some strange figures trekking through the swamp on the far end of the forest. Unfortunately, when they went to investigate, they found nothing except a few prints. The water had covered up whatever tracks they might have left.”
Stroking her chin thoughtfully, almost the same way she had been stroking her pet ferret, Princess Luna began, “I see, so they’ve decided to cut through the swamp. That means they’ll come out into the tall grass fields then.” Waving her hoof theatrically as though she were sweeping it across the grass, Luna commanded, “Station some patrols in the fields as soon as possible. Then put the others at Deep Crevasse, so we can intercept them at the bridge if they manage to slip by. Even if they’re peg-ow! Jeffrey that hurt!”
The ferret in question chomped a bit too hard on Luna’s ear, and it didn’t seem to want to let go. With her magic, the princess pried the creature off her earlobe, leaving a tiny little bite mark to go along with the dozens of others already there. Holding the ferret in front of her face near her snout, Luna stuck out her lip into a pout. “What did I say about nibbling?”
The stallion raised a brow, muttered, “Ahem…you were saying, princess?”
“Oh yes. Even if they are pegasi, they’ll have a difficult time carrying their animals across the gorge. We should be able to trap them there.”
“I’m on it, Your Majesty.”
Before he could scurry away, Luna added, “Oh, and one more thing. Tell your guards that if they come across the smugglers, do not vaporize them. Only stun them. I want them brought back alive. That should be all, Lieutenant. Dismissed.”
“Yes, princess.” Giving a quick salute and a quick glance at the ferret hanging off Luna’s snout, the guard ran off shaking his head.
As the door slammed shut, Luna leaned back in her throne, stroking her pet sinisterly. “Soon…those smugglers will be in the hooves of justice. There will be no escaping the moon’s gaze. I will find them soon enough. Isn’t that right, Jeffrey?”
Suddenly, a voice from down the hall echoed into the throne room. “Luna, are you talking to yourself again?” the low voice said.
“No…Perhaps.”
“And please tell me you didn’t keep one of those ferrets, did you? “
“No, of course not, sister! Why would I…ever…do something like that?” Luna replied, slowly placing that ferret behind her back.
“And did you clean up the floor?”
Princess Luna sniffed once, and then curled up her snout in disgust. Trying to breathe through her mouth, she muttered, “Erm….yes.”