Chapter 2
Signs and Warnings
Talon was starting to get tired.
She’d started leading her friends through the cave at a brisk trot, hoping to get out soon. She hadn’t known how deep the cave was, but she was certain in her and her friends’ athletic abilities and endurance. They had all earned Black Belts in Karate at the dojo where they met after all; surely they could handle a little hike through a cave.
Unfortunately for her, she’d been depending on her abilities as she knew them in her old body. The equine figure that she now inhabited didn’t have nearly the strength or stamina that her human one had and she soon found herself out of breath at the back of the pack; herd she corrected herself. Ruth was trailing with her, but the others seemed to be doing fine. AJ, Rebekkah and Diane were leading the herd with Faith not too far behind. It didn’t make sense, and she stated as much at their first break.
“Ok, that’s it, how are you two not getting tired?” she snapped at Faith and Diane when they finally stopped. “AJ and Rebekkah were obviously lucky enough to get strong bodies, I can see that from their muscles, but you two don’t look that much better off than me and Ruth. In fact, I’d even say that Diane looks a bit pudgy. How are you keeping up with them?”
Faith looked over to Diane, raising an eyebrow at her figure. “You know, I was wondering that myself. I’m guessing that pegasi are naturally lighter than normal ponies in order to be able to fly, but I can’t see why Diane wouldn’t be having a hard time. Her body doesn’t seem nearly as muscular as AJ’s, not to mention the obvious extra pounds of fat, and yet she’s able to keep up easily. How are you doing it?”
Diane could only shrug. “Honestly, I have no idea. I just have lots of energy for some reason. It’s like I’m on a constant sugar high or something.”
“Oh, well that’s just peachy for you, isn’t it?” Ruth had taken to the long trot about as well as Talon, and while she wasn’t normally one to complain, she found herself grumbling at her inept body.
“Alright y’all, break time’s over. Let’s see if we can’t get out o’ this cave before our next stop.” Anne stood up and started trotting through the cave, Rebekkah right beside her. Faith and Diane shrugged and stood up to follow, Ruth and Talon right behind them, groaning at the thought of a few more hours of walking with these weak new bodies. Both of them were looking forward to getting out of the cave.
As they continued trotting, they started to notice the cave getting lighter. “We must be near the exit,” Rebekkah observed quietly.
“Finally!” Talon galloped past her friends, ecstatic to finally be leaving the cave. She rounded a final corner and cried out in alarm, shielding her eyes. The others caught up to her and squinted into the light at the end of the cave. They started walking forward again, all the while trying to make anything out in the light.
They exited the cave into bright daylight. When their eyes adjusted, they were stunned by what they saw; in front of them were cracked stone columns, weathered and worn floors, and significantly collapsed ceilings. They were standing in front of the oldest ruins any of them had ever seen. Not too impressive considering they were the only ruins they had ever seen, but still. Behind these ancient ruins was a thick green forest.
“Oh, wow.” Talon stood rooted to the ground in fascination. “This is beautiful. They look like the Greek ruins I’ve seen in history books.” She trotted in, the others following her carefully. The ruins didn’t seem exactly stable, and they weren’t completely sure that a column wouldn’t fall on top of them at any moment.
“Hey, what’s that?” Diane asked, pointing to a sign posted on the forest side of the ruins, near a trail that led into the trees. The girls trotted over, and saw writing on the forest side of the sign. “Hie urbem ruinas Daemonum. Si vis vivere, relinquamus nunc!” read Diane.
“Anyone here speak gibberish?” asked Anne.
Talon shook her head and glared at Anne. “It’s not gibberish, it’s Latin!” she scolded. She looked back at the sign. “It is strange, though. Why would there be Latin writing in this world?”
“Well, what’s it say?” asked Faith impatiently.
“Just a minute. Give me some space.” Talon squinted at the sign, calling upon the few years of high school Latin she had taken back in DC. “Well, roughly translated, I think it says “Here the ruins of the City of Demons. If you-’” Talon paled a bit and gulped loudly.
“Well, what is it?”
Talon cleared her throat nervously. “’If you wish to live, leave now.’”
The six friends stood silently for a while, before Diane burst out laughing. “W-wow, you really had me going there for a second. ‘If you wish to live, leave now.’ Ha ha, oh man, you got me good.”
Talon glanced at her friend, worry in her eyes. “I’m not joking, Diane. That’s really what it says.”
Diane stopped laughing immediately, staring at Talon like she’d just grown a second, well, I guess with everything else that’s happened, a second head wouldn’t have been that surprising. “W-wait a minute, you’re serious?” Talon nodded briefly. The six friends looked back at the ruins they’d just exited. “W-well, I’m sure it’s nothing really. But, you know, we’re not going to find any cities around an old ruin, right?”
Ruth gulped and nodded. “Y-yes, quite right. We can’t do anything around here, so why bother staying? Why don’t we just head down this lovely path? A path is sure to lead somewhere, and the forest will be a nice change of scenery.”
“Y-yeah, y’all’re right,” agreed Anne, turning from the sign. “We should see if we can find some sort o’ city or town before nightfall. Let’s rope ‘em up and ride ‘em out.”
The six ponies turned from the ruins, trotting into the forest, trying their best not to look back at the “City of Demons”. So focused were they on getting away from the creepy sign, none of them noticed another one posted near the entrance to the woods: a sign which read, “Warning, Everfree Forest. Do Not Enter.”
Five hours later, the six friends collapsed, exhausted, in a clearing. Over the last five hours, they had found out that their
knowledge of Karate had carried over to their new brains. Unfortunately, they had learned it the hard way: fighting of three separate lions (each of which had a scorpion’s tail for some reason), a pack of wolves (who were apparently made of wood), and a swarm of tenacious (though surprisingly cute) insects.
“You know,” said Ruth, trying to catch her breath, “I’m beginning to think that perhaps the cave wasn’t quite so bad.”
The others groaned in agreement. None of them had been hurt, (can’t say the same for their attackers) but all of them were fatigued. Anne looked at the sky, noting the setting sun. “I reckon we should sleep here tonight; we don’t know how far it is t’ the nearest town an’ we could all use some rest.” Her stomach complained loudly, and she glared at it. “Along with a bite t’ eat.”
Faith nodded her head wearily. “Yeah, I could really go for some pizza about now.” She studied the grass in front of her before she shrugged, leaned down, and took a bite.
The girls gasped. “Faith!” shouted Talon, “What are you doing?”
Faith chewed her mouthful of grass for a few moments, a contemplative look on her face, before swallowing. “Not bad, actually. It tastes a little raw, like unseasoned salad, but that’s to be expected I guess.” She quickly leaned down and took another bite. The girls stared at her for a few seconds before Rebekkah and Anne looked at each other, shrugged, and leaned down to begin grazing themselves. Eventually, Diane, Ruth and Talon joined them, grazing in the clearing as the sun set.
Finally, they were all full. They’d eaten a lot of the grass, but they could tell that they would have enough for breakfast in the morning. Grass for breakfast, thought Talon. I suppose things can’t get much stranger than this.
Talon Swift awoke to a pounding in her skull.
Is this going to be a regular thing now? she wondered. Man, I hope not. She opened her eyes and looked around the clearing. Birds were singing, Anne was already up and grazing, the sun was starting to rise, and Talon’s head hurt from where it had been resting on a rock. How did I even sleep on that? I must have been more tired than I thought. She stood up and made her way over to Anne. “Morning AJ. Did you sleep well?”
“’bout as well as I could, under th’ circumstances,” she replied. “The others’ll probably wake up soon. I’m surprised that Rebekkah ain’t up yet; she usually beats me t’ the punch, and I get up with the sun.” She shrugged and bent down to continue grazing and Talon joined her. Soon enough, the others woke up. After eating their breakfast and doing their usual morning sparring session, they set out down the path again.
It didn’t seem to take too long for the sun to past its apex. They had recently eaten lunch and fought off another wolf pack when they came across the first sign of civilization since the ruins. It appeared to be a hut carved out of a tree. Various corked bottles hung from a branch on vines and there was a strange mask out front that looked a bit like an alligator. Talon walked up to the door, looked back at her friends who nodded encouragingly, and knocked. There was no answer. She knocked again, a bit louder this time. Still, there was no answer. Talon trotted over to the rest of the girls, shrugging. “I guess they’re not home.” With that, they turned and headed back to the path and continued following it. Two scorpion-tailed lions later, they found themselves at the edge of the forest. The path seemed to lead to a small town in the distance.
Rebekkah stopped, squinting her eyes and muttering to herself. “It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get there before sunset tonight,” she finally said. “I think we should stop for today and make our way into town tomorrow.” The others nodded and started to turn back to the forest when they saw a sign. The sign read, “Warning, Everfree Forest. Do Not Enter.”
“Well,” snorted Diane, glaring daggers at the sign, “wish we’d known that before we entered the first time.”
Talon rolled her eyes and led her friends to a clearing that she had remembered passing near the edge of the forest. They spent the rest of the afternoon grazing, sparing and wondering what was going on at home and how to get back. Eventually, the sun set and they all lay down and went to sleep.
None of them noticed the pair of green eyes that had been watching them slip of deeper into the forest.