//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: If a Mare Falls in the Forest... // Story: A Rainbow of a Different Color // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Chapter 19: If a Mare Falls in the Forest… Rainbow Dash hadn’t known what to expect when she and Hawk set out for the Golden Glade that morning. A sprawling metropolis? A tiny little hamlet surrounded by dense forests? In hindsight, Rainbow realized it was true to its name. Just like River’s Reach was named for the river splitting it in two, the sparsely populated Golden Glade was surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of wheat, barley, and other brilliantly golden grains, rolling up and over the contours of the hills that defined the land. “Here we are!” Hawk shouted from underneath her. He’d carried her the entire two hours between River’s Reach and the Glade without rest, which left Rainbow rather impressed. Still, she felt terrible that he’d had to carry her all that distance. Gravity pulled on her stomach like a heavy stone for a moment as Hawk sharply raised his wings and bled off the rest of his momentum before touching the ground. Rainbow relaxed her limbs as Hawk’s hooves landed on dirt and stones to absorb as much of the shock of impact as she could, and when Hawk’s landing trot came to a stop, she carefully rolled off of his back with the help of one of his wings. “Welcome to the Golden Glade,” Hawk cheerfully said, smiling at Rainbow Dash. He held out his left wing, crest pointed skywards, and a second later a kestrel landed on it. It made a brief show of shuffling its feathers back into place before preening the plumage lining its back. Rainbow took a quick look around and whistled. “It’s a pretty quaint place,” she said, her eyes wandering between the thatch cottages and the small number of ponies wandering to and fro. They were mostly mares and foals, and almost exclusively earth ponies at that. She figured the stallions were out in the fields. They probably had so much ground to cover they would be out until the sun went down, and then some. Hawk Tail started walking towards the center of town, and Rainbow Dash quickly took her place by his side. “It’s the definition of peaceful,” the brown stallion said, smiling lightly as he nodded towards the ponies he passed by. “They don’t even have a town guard, let alone a constable.” Rainbow cocked her head. “But I’ve never seen anything like that in River’s Reach either. You’re saying you guys do?” “Not exactly,” Hawk admitted. “But we do have a militia force. Dad’s in it, and a few of our neighbors. That rifle he keeps mounted above the fireplace isn’t just for show.” “Huh. When’s the last time he’s had to use it?” Hawk Tail shrugged his wings, earning what Rainbow thought was a perturbed glare from the kestrel perched on one of them. “Not since I was real little. There was some marehunt for a murderer that’d escaped from Mymis and was making his way north. Don’t think he even fired the thing, though.” Rainbow opened her mouth to say more, but seeing a pony trotting up to Hawk Tail stopped her. “Mornin’, Hawk!” the stallion greeted in a leisurely drawl. “Was wond’rin when you were gonna show up!” Hawk dipped his head and bumped hooves with the ruddy earth pony. “What’re you talking about? It’s not even past ten yet!” “Yeah? Reckon Harrow an’ I’ve been up fer six hours now.” He chuckled and shook his head. His emerald eyes caught sight of Rainbow, and he turned towards her. “Well, Hawk, ya di’int tell me you were bringin’ comp’ny along. Howdy! Name’s Tilth. I’m ‘bout the closest thing we have to a post office manager ‘round here.” “Rainbow Dash,” she replied, holding out her small blue hoof to lightly bump it against Tilth’s bare and large one. “Hawk invited me along.” Tilth vigorously nodded and beamed at her. “Well, pleasure to meet ya. A friend of Hawk’s a friend of mine. Where ya from, missy? By the looks of ya, I’d guess Cloudgate, huh?” Rainbow flinched at the question. She tried to wring an answer out of the void that was her past, but just as always, her memories eluded her. “Uh…” She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “No, I-I mean, yeah, totally.” Her uneasy smile turned into a strangled chuckle and she angled her head away from Tilth, almost trying to hide behind her mane. The ruddy earth pony was silent for a moment, standing almost statuesque and peering at Rainbow down his long, boxy muzzle. “Awesome!” He suddenly burst out loud, a dumb smile plastered across his face. “Can’t say I ain’t ever met a mare from Cloudgate before. Or, well, guess I can now!” He turned back to Hawk Tail, who was watching the pair with a mix of confusion and amusement on his face. “So, this ‘ere’s gonna be our new lil’ flier, hm?” Tilth said, trotting a few steps closer to the kestrel and leaning forward. The kestrel abruptly stopped mid-preen and fixed one eye on the earth pony as its head slowly swiveled around to face him. Almost indignantly, it shuffled its wings and hunched over so the crests were near the base of its neck. “Yup,” Hawk said, moving his wing in front of his body so Tilth could get a better look at the raptor perched on it. “Matteo left the rookery a month or two ago. Since we only have two fliers to the Golden Glade, and one of them’s going to retire soon, we figured now would be a good time to train him.” The kestrel made a short little screech and pointedly returned to preening its tail. “Alright, alright,” Tilth said, slightly shaking his head at the raptor’s indifferent behavior. “I’ll leave ya alone, but ya better put away yer bad attitude, mister. You and I are gonna be workin’ together fer a while, you hear?” If the falcon did in fact hear, it made no indication. Rainbow watched Tilth with an eyebrow raised as the earth pony shrugged and stood up straight again. “Well, how’s about I take you to the office, hm? Get this lil’ guy introduced to his home away from home!” He didn’t even wait for a response before he turned around and marched in the opposite direction, tail gaily flouncing back and forth with his gait. The mare turned to Hawk Tail and cocked her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. Hawk Tail flashed a quick smile at her, sighed, and shook his head. He took a few steps after Tilth before stopping and extending an open and kestrel-free wing to Rainbow, which Rainbow happily slid under. The brown feathers wrapped around her shoulders and draped down her side like a warm and comfy safety blanket. The couple matched their strides as they followed Tilth through the town, with Hawk shortening his lengthy steps to accommodate Rainbow’s smaller legs. Tilth had a bad habit of rapidly trotting off, realizing the two pegasi weren’t right behind him, and waiting at the nearest street corner for them to catch up. Rainbow had to admit that she found his energy and enthusiasm funny. “So it’s been, what, three, four years since ya last were back here?” Tilth asked while Rainbow and Hawk approached from further down the dirt road. “You brought one o’ them pigeon hawks here, got him all trained up ta fly the route.” Rainbow thought she sensed a tiny little flicker of irritation run through Hawk’s body. “They’re not pigeon hawks, they’re merlins,” he grumbled. “And her name is Isabella.” “Ah. Right. Forgot ‘bout that. Izzy’s a pretty bird. Always like seein’ her.” They rounded the corner of a small tool shop in the center of town to see a large hill rising up before them. At the top of the hill was a square wooden building, two stories tall, with the southern wall of the second floor almost completely removed. Tilth came to a stop at the foot of the hill and turned towards Rainbow. “Well, there she is! Our lil’ office ain’t much, ‘specially not like what I’m sure Hawk’s been showin’ you in River’s Reach, but we make do. C’mon, let’s get Matty squared away, then we can get started!” Again, without waiting for a response, Tilth set off at a rapid gallop up the side of the hill. Rainbow and Hawk Tail watched him go, the former leaning against the latter’s feathery embrace, with bemused smiles. When Tilth was halfway up the hill, a feat that took no more than ten seconds, Rainbow looked up at Hawk. “Is he always like this?” “More or less,” Hawk answered. His umber eyes watched the pony gallop over the windswept prairie grasses like they were nothing. “He just loves life. I don’t know how anypony could like toiling in the fields for sixteen hours a day, but that’s Tilth and his brother, Harrow. Some ponies just love what they do.” “Like you?” Rainbow asked, smiling and leaning back across his chest so Hawk had to hold out a hoof to support her. Hawk Tail smiled down at her, and their eyes met, magenta and umber, for several long seconds. The blue mare held her forelegs against her chest and squirmed slightly, the underpinnings of a nervous titter making her ways to her lips. “Something like that…” Hawk murmured, adjusting his forelegs to hold Rainbow more snugly against his body. Just then, a jovial shout rang out from the top of the hill. “Hey! Ya guys comin’ or not?!” Blushing, both pegasi broke away from each other, and Rainbow shuffled an embarrassed step to the side. Hawk flattened his wings against his side and chewed on the inside of his cheek as they refused to settle comfortably. “Y-yeah, on our way!” he shouted back at Tilth, who was standing clearly before the door of the house on the hill. Inhaling sharply, he looked back to Rainbow, who was trying desperately to conceal the furious blush blossoming beneath her blue haired cheeks. “Well… wouldn’t want to keep the stallion waiting,” Hawk said, adding a shrug for good measure. He bent his neck in the direction of the post office. “Come on. Might as well get Matteo settled.” The falcon shrieked its agreement. ----- “There! That’s eighty!” Rainbow Dash closed the timer, which was really just a pocket watch on a small fabric lanyard, and pointed towards a squat tree with long, thick limbs. “That’s a good spot!” Hawk Tail nodded and tilted his wings down. On the last warm breaths of late afternoon air, the two pegasi descended until with one mighty flap, Hawk landed at the base of the branch. It was just barely thick enough to allow him to stand, and he rolled his shoulders so Rainbow could keep a tight grip on them. He held his hoof out, and Matteo landed a moment later. The kestrel clenched his talons tight around Hawk’s limb to keep from sliding off of its sweat-slicked coat. To the west, the sun just touched the horizon, sending long and heavy shadows shooting off towards the east from the numerous trees and branches in the forest. The air temperature had dropped into the comfortable mid-seventies with a slight breeze to help cool the two pegasi off. All around them, birds sang their last songs, and the cicadas began to buzz. The day was winding down with a slow lethargy, one which Rainbow Dash echoed with a loud yawn. “Tired?” Hawk teased, looking over his shoulder at the mare clinging to his back. He caught Rainbow’s tired ruby eyes half-lidded, though she did her best to snap them open as soon as Hawk glanced in her direction. “No… well, a little.” She shrugged and briefly crossed her forelimbs across his chest. “I feel bad because you’ve been doing all this flying back and forth all day, carrying me, too. If anypony has a right to be tired, it’s you.” She yawned again, then frowned and crossed her eyes at her muzzle like it was the culprit, not her. “All I missed out on was my usual afternoon nap.” “Well, now that you mention it, I am a little tired,” Hawk said, smiling softly. “We’ll send Matteo off and then head back to Tilth’s place. We’re only what, eighty minutes out?” At Rainbow’s nod, he shrugged. “We should be able to finish tomorrow if we start early. If it’s a two hour flight between here and the Glade, then if we release Matteo from our office just after dinnertime, we should catch up with him and bring him back to River’s Reach once and for all before midnight.” “Mmhmm.” Rainbow glanced at the kestrel and couldn’t help but notice that the raptor also seemed sluggish. “Jeez, this is taxing on the little guy too. I didn’t know it was this involved to train them.” Hawk Tail whistled a few notes to the raptor, which cocked its head. “We have to train them to recognize landmarks and orient themselves. That’s why we’ve been flying back and forth all day, going ten minutes further out each time. And we still only got barely more than halfway to River’s Reach from the Golden Glade, and we’ve been working since ten this morning.” Rainbow touched her chin with her hoof. “I can’t imagine how long it takes you to train them to go to places really far away.” “Weeks, usually,” Hawk said. “My dad takes care of those birds.” The mare turned her head in thought. “But I thought your dad’s wing was messed up and stuff.” “It is,” Hawk admitted, “but he can still fly with it. Just not quickly and not for long periods of time. He gets a bunch of his army buddies to go with him, and they take turns making the rounds. A pegasus can fly from River’s Reach to Mymis in about nine hours, but that’s fifty-four two-way flights if you’re training a raptor at ten minute intervals. They add up over a while, especially the last several flights. It takes a day to do just one interval.” “Wow. And one day you’ll be doing that too?” Hawk nodded. “One day. I just hope I’ll have somepony to fly with me.” “Mmmm…” Rainbow glanced at her bandaged wing and sighed. One day soon… Hawk Tail turned his attention back to Matteo, and after a few more shrill whistles, he waved his extended foreleg. The kestrel’s wings opened, and with a squawk, it took off with several rapid flaps of its small wings. It rose almost straight up, made a few brief circles, screeched once, then flew off towards the west. Rainbow and Hawk watched the kestrel go until it was little more than a part of the shadowy blurs of the forest around it. “Well, we should probably get back to the Glade,” Hawk said, slowly unfurling his wings. “Tilth’s got a bed—two beds set up for us.” Rainbow Dash bit her lip. She could feel her heartbeat quicken as her eyes surveyed the ground ten feet below them. It was a dirt hollow, packed down from centuries of rainfall, but at the moment perfectly dry and only a little dusty. Somewhere nearby a stream burbled, oblivious to the quietening forest around it. “Hey, Hawk?” she murmured. “Can we go down for a bit?” Hawk Tail raised his eyebrow. “Uh… sure? Whatever you want.” The brown stallion spread his wings, and after giving them a quick flap to compensate for Rainbow’s weight, he glided down to the hollow below them. As he was used to by now, he crouched down to one side and opened his wing, letting Rainbow slide off of his back with something to support herself. The mare nodded her thanks, took a step or two away, and then sat down on the dusty ground. Facing the sunset, she placed her forehooves between her haunches and swept her tail around her legs like a sitting cat. She shot Hawk a small look, which the stallion immediately understood. With a tense breath, he wandered up to Rainbow and sat down by her side. His right wing reflexively extended towards Rainbow’s back, but the stallion caught it and pressed it back against his side. The two pegasi sat in silence as the sun slowly, slowly disappeared behind the horizon before them. As plentiful as the trees were around them, they could still see the fiery orb through the gaps at the edge of the forest. It cast long shadows behind them and decorated their coats with a faint orange glimmer. Eventually, Rainbow was the first to speak. She nervously pawed at the ground with her forehooves and chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Hawk…” she murmured. “What is this?” Hawk’s ears perked and he chanced a glance at the mare sitting next to him. “Hmm? What do you mean?” Rainbow sighed and looked at her hooves. “You know what I mean…” she muttered. Her unbound wing fidgeted at her side, and she turned towards Hawk. Their eyes met, but neither pegasus tore them away. “What are we?” The stallion swallowed hard. Ultimately, he was the one to break eye contact first. “I don’t know. Good friends?” Rainbow rolled her eyes and frowned. “Really?” Hawk Tail shrugged. “I’m not really sure. What do you think?” She was quiet for several seconds, yet her hooves remained restless. “I don’t feel like it’s that,” she finally said. “Whenever I’m with you, I feel like I can forget about… forgetting about everything. And you were the first pony I’d spoken to since I woke up. I just…” The mare growled inwardly and turned away from Hawk. “Whatever. It’s… stupid. Let’s just go back to Tilth’s place and—!” Forelimbs wrapping around Rainbow’s shoulders and pulling her into a warm hug against a brown, downy coat stole the words from her throat. She felt strong, soft wings cocoon her back, and warm breath tickling her nose as Hawk Tail nuzzled her forehead. “It’s… it’s not stupid,” the stallion whispered. He leaned his head back enough to let Rainbow look up at him, their noses just an inch apart. “I know what you mean… and I think I feel the same, too.” A tiny smirk pulled at the corners of his lips. “Besides, I think the only ponies we’re fooling at this point are ourselves.” Rainbow giggled and rested her head against Hawk’s chest. She could hear his heart beating, and beating rapidly. Sighing, she seemed to compact herself into his embrace, and she felt Hawk’s hoof moving through the hairs of her mane. “So this is real?” Hawk buried his nose in Rainbow’s mane and closed his eyes. “I think so—no. I ­know so. And I’m willing to try if you’re willing to as well.” “I want to try,” Rainbow squeaked. “I really do. But if it all falls apart…” Her worried eyes reflected the glare of the last sliver of sunlight on the horizon. “I don’t want to lose my best friend.” “Rainbow, you know me,” Hawk said softly. “I’d never blame anything on you. And I wouldn’t let something as stupid as that drive us apart and leave you alone.” The two ponies separated just enough so they could look eye to eye. “Whatever happens,” Hawk Tail began, “however this thing shapes up between us… know you’ll never, ever be alone. I’ll make sure of that.” He tilted Rainbow’s head down to kiss her forehead, and Rainbow giggled. “Thanks. It means a lot.” Hawk nodded and held her close, wrapping her in his limbs. They stayed like that for several quiet seconds before an impish smile made its way to Hawk’s face. Before Rainbow knew what was happening, the two pegasi were tumbling across the dusty ground, with the smaller blue mare safely surrounded by Hawk’s protective limbs. The dying light of the sky became the ground and then the sky again. When it finally stopped, Hawk Tail was lying on top of her, and their noses were touching. Both ponies smiled at each other, and the rest was natural. Rainbow’s eyelids fluttered closed and she arched her back off of the ground as her forelegs wrapped around Hawk’s shoulders. The warm sensation of Hawk’s soft lips meeting hers would stick with her the entire night.