Chapter 6: The Wall of the Four
Shining Armor leaned against a tree, panting, as he watched his guide nimbly jump over a fallen tree ahead of him. For the umpteenth time that day he marvelled at the agility and tirelessness of Zen and cursed his own relatively comfortable lifestyle in Canterlot. Captain of the Royal Guard was no easy post, but with the preparations for the wedding and maintaining the force field, he had let his exercise regimen fall by the wayside of late. It had started with skimping on marching and combat drills with his guards, then even his morning run had been slowly eaten away until he was lucky to have time for some stretching in the morning before running off to some task. He had promised himself that he would start running again on the honeymoon - Cadence liked to sleep in anyway - but a 7-hour hike through the jungle was not what he had had in mind. He had kept pace with Zen thus far, but only just. He had hidden his exhaustion by asking to examine Zen’s map to make sure they were still on course.
Zen on the other hand, seemed to relish to exhaustive effort. He was sweating as much as Shining Armor, but never stumbled or tore his eyes off the next rise or obstacle. All the energy he had bottled up in grief had finally found an outlet in their adventure, and he was hellbent on walking until his legs collapsed or they hit the wall. Shining Armor would have to remind the pony to keep drinking water, as even Zen’s basest needs were subsumed by the fire inside.
The sun had been up for several hours, but there was no chance of being stumbled upon by Maneoans. The town sat on the southern end of the island, and by now Zen and Shining Armor had run a northwesterly trail and were now approaching the wall just south of Whale Bay.
Zen turned and saw that Shining Armor had stopped: “Come on Captain, not far now. Soon we’ll be at the place where it is said the great adventurer crossed the Wall.”
Shining Armor shook out the cramps in his legs and trotted to catch up to Zen, who upon finishing his sentence, had immediately turned and continued through the forest. He was just about to ask Zen who this great adventurer was when he heard a twig snap behind him. Now the jungle was filled with ambient sounds - birds squawking, frogs croaking, wind rustling in the trees - but something in a pony’s mind can tell when a simple sound like a breaking branch means danger.
Shining Armor tensed and hissed at Zen, “ZEN! DON’T MOVE”.
Zen stopped midstep and swivelled his eyes around to look at Shining Armor. Shining Armor flicked his eyes over his left shoulder and his horn started to glow a deep purple. Before Shining Armor could even begin to form a spell in his mind the attack came. Shining Armor grunted as a heavy object roughly his size slammed into his side. He felt claws sink into his saddle bags and shrugged them off while bucking with all his might. In one motion he dislodged the predator and turned, throwing up a protective shield like the one that had protected Canterlot around himself and Zen. Zen was frozen in place, still barely processing the initial attack.
Shining Armor was panting with the effort of the shield and trying to calm himself as he watched a lithe jaguar tear into his saddlebags and turn its nose up at the meager rations he had packed. Upon finding nothing of interest in the pack, the jaguar turned to the two ponies standing wide-eyed, surrounded by a strange purple sphere. Hesitant to attack this new and strange apparition, the jaguar paced back and forth before the shield. Deciding such a fantastic meal was worth a bit of risk, the jaguar moved up and swiped at the shield. His paw bounced harmlessly off the shield and the jaguar took a step back, confused but unhurt.
Shining Armor on the other hand winced at the effort of deflecting the jaguar’s blow. Between gritted teeth he said to Zen, “We need to find a way to escape. I can hold the shield for now, but it he launches a full attack at it, I might not have the energy left to protect us.”
Shining Armor cursed his exhaustion again - had they faced this threat at the beginning of their trek it would have been a small feat to hold this size shield for at least a few hours while the jaguar moved on to less well-guarded prey. Now, he only prayed that Zen had something up his sleeve.
“Hold it as long as you can. We are only a few hundred yards from the Wall I believe. Follow me as best you can” Zen pronounced, and began slowing making his way away from the jaguar with Shining Armor following him backward having to stare into the golden eyes of the hungry jaguar.
Just as Shining Armor was about to tell Zen to stop and prepare to fight hoof to claw, he heard a whisper in his ear, “Give it all you’ve got Shining, I’ve found the place I was searching for. All we need is a distraction to confuse the jaguar and hide our escape”.
Shining Armor took his eyes briefly off the jaguar to glance to his right. The large green barrier to his right - which he had only seen out of the corner of his eye and had assumed was just dense foliage was in fact a towering 40 foot wall of stone, covered almost completely in creeping vines. Shining Armor turned to the jaguar and - with Cadence’s sleeping visage swimming before his eyes, he let out a mighty shout and yelled “SHUT YOUR EYES” before releasing a blinding flash across the jungle.
As Shining Armor opened his eyes to their now shieldless state, he felt his hoof pulled into a small hole in the vines which had been invisible a second earlier. A musty and dark few seconds let to a similar green curtain being pulled apart and a view of Zen emerging into the jungle. Respite was not theirs yet, and they both spend several minutes pushing large broken pieces of the wall into place over the tunnel to stop any pursuit.
Falling down on the pile of rubble they both panted and laughed off all the stress and fear that had accumulated since the initial attack. After a good long rest, Shining Armor was the first to stand and offer his hood to Zen. Pulling up the older pony, his eyes travelled up the wall and grew wide. Seeing his shock, Zen turned to look at the wall and adopted a similar look of disbelief.
“Shining Armor, what are those?” Zen asked shakily.
“I haven’t the faintest idea, but I’m starting to think you were right about the Wall. Some things are better left unknown.”
The two ponies were speechless as four pairs of stony eyes looked down upon them with unblinking malice.