Chapter 4: Into the Jungle
Sunny Inn, Sunny Island Port, Elmheim, Gaia, Winter, 1002 C.E.
Colgate awoke early the following morning to a series of knocks at her door. As she walked to the door, she noticed her reflection in a mirror. Her mane was a mess; and for good reason. She hadn't had a very good night's sleep. All night she had been plagued by relentless nightmares and visions that made her feel sick to her stomach. Screaming and running ponies, torture chambers, a castle in flames, terrible creatures of metal, and the Doctor...drowning in a pool of black sludge.
"Sleep well?" asked Matilda, who greeted Colgate at the door. Colgate let out a loud moan in response as she attempted to comb her hair with her hoof. "Oh. I see not. Don't worry, I can fix that mane of yours." She proceeded to reach into her purse and pull out what looked like a perfume bottle. She then sprayed a fruity mist onto Colgate. Colgate gasped as her mane came to life for a few seconds and made itself.
"What the hay was that?!" she gasped.
"A special hair spray I picked up in 3209. Are you packed?"
Colgate looked back at the bags she had packed the night before to prepare for her trek into the jungle with the others. "Yeah."
"Excellent! Get yourself ready then and meet me and the others downstairs shortly! I'll go wake the rest of them up!"
Colgate let out a yawn and nodded at Matilda before heading to the bathroom to prepare herself.
A few minutes later, Colgate was in the bakery downstairs. She had found a comfortable seat at a table by a window and was sipping on a warm cup of coffee. It wasn't long before she was joined by Daring Do. "Ya ready for some exploration?!" asked the adventurer with a twinkle in her eyes.
"As ready as I'll ever be at this time in the morning," Colgate replied with a yawn. "You seem awfully happy. Yesterday, you were frozen with shock about finding out where you were."
"That was just temporary. Nothing can hold Daring Do down for long! Not even the walls of reality itself!"
Quite an ego you've got there, Colgate thought.
"Must. Have. Muffins," said a familiar, tired voice from nearby. Colgate watched as Bright Eyes marched towards the food table liked a zombie pony.
Clockwork approached them with a tired, yet adventurous, smile on his face. "Perfect morning to start a trip into a jungle, I must admit," he said with a chuckle.
"Whatever you say," Colgate said back.
Matilda then appeared with her brim hat still perched neatly on her head and a grin plastered confidently on her face. "Everypony ready to head out then?" she asked.
"Don't we at least get breakfast?" asked a still tired Bright Eyes as she walked towards the table with a tray of muffins and various other breakfast goodies.
"We can eat along the trail." Matilda presented her purse to Bright Eyes and opened it. "Dump it all in."
"Just...dump it?"
"Yep!"
Bright Eyes shrugged as she took the tray of food and poured it into the small opening of the purse. Bright Eyes watched in amazement as the food was magically sucked into the purse like a vacuum. She managed to catch one muffin, though, and hastily stuffed it in her mouth.
"Well let's get moving!" exclaimed Daring as she flew a few feet into the air. Colgate slowly stood up and let out yet another tired yawn. "Come on!" Daring grabbed one of Colgate's forelegs and pulled her towards the front door of the inn.
"I can walk myself, thank you very much," Colgate replied as she struggled to break free from Daring's surprisingly strong grasp.
The Western Cluster, Deep Jungle, Elmheim, Gaia, Winter, 1002 C.E.
It wasn't long after the group passed through the jungle entrance that any sight of Sunny Island Port was blocked from view. The bright, yellow light from the Sun disappeared and was replaced by a strangely calm, green haze. The trail they were on started out wide and welcoming but gradually transitioned into a thin, wormy pathway. The thick vegetation of the jungle rose up on both sides of the trail and acted almost like thick walls that kept the five ponies trapped on that one, single trail. Eventually, the trail became so thin that the ponies couldn't even walk side-by-side and had to stay in a single file line. Colgate found herself in the middle with Daring Do and Matilda ahead of her and Bright Eyes and Clockwork behind her.
"Sure is quiet," said Bright Eyes as she looked at the tall trees bordering the trail.
"I agree, and I hate to sound clichéd but it's too quiet," Clockwork added.
The group suddenly came to a halt as Daring Do, who was leading, stopped. Her ears perked up and she examined her surroundings with a look of suspicion on her face. "I'm with you guys on that one. During my first trek through the jungle, there were strange, exotic sounds to be heard everywhere I went," she explained. "Here...it's just silent." The group spent another minute looking at the the vegetation surrounding them before continuing on their way.
It wasn't until an hour later that the trail opened up into a small clearing. A little stream was flowing through it and the canopy opened up to allow yellow sunlight to pour down upon them. "We should rest here for a bit," said Daring as she placed her backpack next to the stream.
Bright Eyes fell down onto the ground and let out a groan of relief. "A rest sounds nice," she said.
Colgate walked over to a smooth rock close to the stream, sat down, and leaned against it. Daring proceeded to gather some of the stream's water in various containers while Clockwork took a few moments to examine the boundaries of the clearing. While Colgate rested her head against the rock, Matilda approached her. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.
"No. Take a seat," Colgate replied. Matilda grinned as she sat down next to Colgate. "Say, Matilda, can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"That vortex manipulator of yours. You can use that for teleportation, correct?"
"I know what you're going to ask and, no, I cannot use it to teleport us to the source for dimensional rifts."
"And why not?"
"The rifts are the reason. There's so much temporal and dimensional interference in this one area of the universe that it's impossible for my vortex manipulator to pull off any major actions. Believe me, I've tried. Not even the TARDIS itself would be able to land in this jungle." Matilda gave a quick glance at Colgate's horn. "Even a teleportation spell from a unicorn would be ineffective here."
Colgate's ears perked up as she heard something reverberate through the jungle. It was a soft ringing sound that seemed to bounce off everything around her. The sound lasted for a few seconds before fading away into nothing. "Strange."
"So how far are we from the temple?" Bright Eyes asked Daring.
"In the case that the temple exists in our universe as well," Clockwork added.
"Quite a ways," Daring replied. "It took me two days in the jungle to find it. The temple's towards the center of the jungle and we're still in the Western Cluster. We've got a long way to go."
Derpy laid back down and groaned. "Hold on...what's this?" Clockwork asked suddenly as he noticed something in the brush. "I've found something!"
Matilda hastily stood up and made her way over to where Clockwork was standing. "What is it?" she asked as Colgate, Daring, and Bright Eyes attempted to get a peek.
"Something's in the brush," Clockwork replied as he pointed at something almost completely concealed by the jungle grass.
As Matilda bent down and wrapped her hooves around the object, she turned back to look at Daring. "Daring, could you be a dear and help me out?"
"Sure!" Daring replied as she ran over and proceeded to help Matilda pull the odd object into the clearing.
"What...what is it?" Bright Eyes asked as soon as she and the others got a good look at the object before them.
"Oh my Celestia," said Matilda with a chuckle. "It's a motorcycle!"
"A what?" asked Colgate, Daring, Clockwork, and Bright Eyes together as Matilda examined the rusted, black and silver motorcycle lying before them.
"A motorcycle. It's a transportational vehicle. It doesn't look like a human motorcycle so I'm guessing that it's Equestrian. Ah! Of course! There's Celestia's seal of approval!" Matilda laughed as she patted her hoof on a picture of a smiling Princess Celestia that was welded into the side of the vehicle. "But Equestrian motorcycles of this kind won't be commonplace for nearly another five centuries or so. Heck, the first motorcycle is still eighty years away."
"A rift must be responsible then," said Clockwork. Colgate, Bright Eyes, and Daring turned to look at Clockwork. "What? Was I the only one here listening to her ramblings about the motor...bike?"
"Exactly my thoughts, Clockwork," said Matilda as she stood up. "Oh and, don't worry, they're called that too."
As Clockwork smiled at Matilda, Colgate felt a strange force beginning pulling on her backside. Suddenly, Bright Eyes screamed, "COLGATE! LOOK OUT!"
Colgate turned around and found herself staring at a large patch of bubbling air immediately behind her. Just then, the spot of air ripped open and an explosion of light filled the clearing. Colgate felt herself get lifted off her hooves and pulled towards the rift. Bright Eyes hastily grabbed onto Colgate, Clockwork grabbed Bright Eyes, Matilda grasped onto Clockwork, and Daring wrapped her hooves around Matilda. "COLGATE! DON'T LET GO!" Matilda ordered.
"WHY IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA WOULD I DO THAT?!" Colgate snapped back. Colgate felt her rump enter the rift. A feeling resembling that of hot and cold water rushing over her body began to flow through her skin. Her body shook violently and her teeth started to chatter vigorously.
"I'M LOOSING MY GRIP!" Daring cried as her hind hooves began to slide along the earth. The golden yellow pegasus began to frantically flap her wings in an effort to prevent herself and the others from falling through the dimensional portal.
"WE CAN'T GO THROUGH!" stated Clockwork. "WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT'LL TAKE US!"
The group began to slide into the rift at a quicker rate. "I'M AFRAID THAT WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" Matilda cried.
Colgate couldn't help but let out a shriek of horror as Daring and the others finally lost their grip and everypony flew right into the rift.
The Jungle Field, Deep Jungle, Elmheim, Gaia, Winter, 1002 C.E.
Colgate's ears were ringing as she and the others fell out of the rift. She rolled over a few times and came to a stop on an area of soft, dead grass. Her eyes popped open and she found herself looking up at a wide, blue sky. A large family of birds flew across the sky as Colgate proceeded to sit up. She was relieved to see that she and the others had made it through okay.
"That...was not fun," sighed Bright Eyes as her eyes began to invert in various, odd angles.
"Traveling through rifts is hardly fun," Matilda said as she stood up.
"Where are we?" asked Clockwork. He looked to see that he and the others were in the middle of a large field. The field was bordered on all sides by a thick jungle.
"We're in the Jungle Field!" Daring exclaimed.
"The what?" Colgate asked.
"The Jungle Field! It's basically just a field located deep within the jungle. We're practically in the Deep Cluster: the center of the jungle!"
"But what universe are we in?" Clockwork asked.
"The same one," Matilda replied as she looked at her vortex manipulator. "We're still in the same dimension."
"So...that's all the rift did? It just shot us deeper in the jungle?"
"And that's not so bad. We're closer to the temple," said Daring.
"No. It's not bad at all," said Matilda. "The rift even went and gave us a little bit more time."
"What do you mean by that?" Colgate asked.
"According to my vortex manipulator, the rift sent us about three days into the past."
"We traveled back in time?!" asked Bright Eyes.
"Yes, and I'm glad that we did. This gives us more time to sort things out."
"More time? You talk as if we have a deadline," said Daring.
Matilda gave an unsure look. "Do we?" Colgate asked.
"Not really," said Matilda. "It's just...I have a bad feeling about this year's Hearth's Warming Eve." Before anymore questions could be asked, Matilda began walking out into the field. "Come along. We best be getting to the temple.
Whoa. That was an unexpected, serious turn, Colgate thought.
"The temple should be this way," said Daring as she began leading the group across the field.
As she followed the others, Colgate couldn't help but feel that she was being watched. She turned around and what she saw made her skin crawl. Standing a few feet away from her was a familiar looking unicorn mare. "T...Twilight?" she asked. The mare looked like Twilight but she had pitch black eyes and hair, a pale coat, and blood-red lips. Her mouth was curved in a horrible smile that made Colgate shake something fierce.
"Have fun in the temple," chuckled the dark Twilight.
"What?"
"Hey Colgate!" called Daring. Colgate turned back towards the group. "Come on!"
Colgate nodded and quickly turned back around towards the dark Twilight only to see that she had disappeared. Colgate gulped hard as she turned around and continued following the others. As she walked, she could hear a cold, terrible laugh echoing through the surrounding jungle; and it only made her feel worse when she concluded that she was the only one who heard it.