//------------------------------// // The Grayroot Forest Part five: The Memory. // Story: A New Tale In Equestria. // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// _____*The maze of Jandoka, time unknown.*_____ Derpy sighed as she made her way through the maze quite easily due to Golden telling her where to go. "I am never bringing my girls to the Canterlot maze after this." She mumbled. Golden chuckled as he watched the show of boredom. 'They'll be disappointed you know.' He reminded. Derpy growled as she turned a corner. "I think I can manage it, besides I did tell them it was a 'possibility' that we could go." She countered. Golden rolled his near nonexistent eyes and sat down. 'Just try not to hit them with one of our psychic blasts.....its a nightmare trying to fix kids who get hit by one of those.' "Should I be concerned that you actually know that?" She asked her passenger. 'Most likely.' Golden said calmly. Derpy moved past a crossroads and continued through a secret entrance. "I don't think Vulture and the Twins were counting on a psychic." She commented. Golden rolled his eyes and laid back on a couch that he materialized. [1] Derpy came across a room with a Jungle like appearance and two levers, one for each end of the room and a shaking cocoon. "I wonder who that is?" She asked quietly. Golden didn't even bother trying to sense who it was.....it was obvious. "Let's see who it is then." He said. Derpy took flight and flew towards the cocoon that had a weird feeling about it, upon closer examination of the cocoon it appeared that it was made as an anti magic cocoon. Golden chuckled. "Oh my god! I WONDER WHO THIS COULD BE!" He shouted. Derpy sighed and flew up to a small strand of the cocoon that suspended it in the air, she grasped the strand and tugged as hard as she could to no avail. Looking around, Derpy spotted a rusted knife and grabbed it, she then flew up to the strand and proceeded to cut, but to her surprise the strand broke the second the knife touched it, sadly the knife disintegrated as the cocoon fell to the ground. Derpy panicked as the cocoon fell to the ground and she raced to grab it, just as Derpy's hooves touched the cocoon it landed on the ground and it slowly fell apart to reveal a familiar Cybernetic unicorn who was currently unconscious. "Well that was unexpected." Derpy commented. 'A good possibility is that her cocoon was made to withstand magic but not physical contact, it's likely that Twilight and Rarity's cocoons will be like this as well.' Golden observed. Derpy sighed and proceeded to remove the remnants of the cocoon off of Darkestlight. _____*five minutes later*_____ Dark slowly opened her eyes only to be met by total darkness. "Ugh, where am I?" She asked quietly. "Let your eyes adjust, it's pretty dim here." Came a familiar voice. After a few moments Dark's eyes adjusted well enough to the light for her to somewhat see, Dark slowly say up and looked towards the source of the voice. Dark was relieved to see Derpy leaning against a doorway. "How you holding up Dark?" She asked. A small shock of pain went through her body at the question but Dark sighed and stood up slowly. "Well enough I suppose, cybernetics killing me but I should be fine." She replied. Derpy nodded and looked out from the doorway. "Dark, I need to ask you something." She said randomly. Dark was caught off guard by the question but still replied. "Okay then." She said. Derpy looked her in the eye and sighed. "What REALLY happened to Gwen and Firefly?" She asked. Dark froze for a moment before walking over to the old cot she woke up on. [2] "Which part?" She asked. Derpy walks over to and old chair and sat down. "All of it." She replied. With a sigh Dark began talking. "It started when I went out for some herbs......" _____*Flashback, The Everfree Forest, Dark's POV (Around the same time Gwen and Firefly went searching for herbs for Roxanne)*____ Darkestlight was collecting herbs to replenish her stock before she ran out......again. 'Ok, I just need some Cragplant and I'm good to go.' About a half hour later it had started raining, then another five minutes of gathering what she needed, Dark started to return to her makeshift home when the rain started to pour. "Better hurry, don't need to be out when the Water Goblins come out." [3] As Dark approached her home she heard a faint laugh come from somewhere nearby, Dark quickened her pace toward the cave when she saw something odd. Dark rushed back to her home to discover two Rockwolves attacking a pair of sleeping Pegasi, Dark felt anger surge into her and she dropped her herbs and charged the wolves who roared in response. The wolf attacking the pink and blue Pegasus lunged at Dark who simply smashed it with her cybernetic legs, she prepared a magic blast as the second Rockwolf jumped at one of the rock walls and then lunged at her. Dark released the blast and hit the wolf in the face, not enough to kill, but enough to stun, and soon enough the wolf came face to face with the wrong end of Dark's double kick. For once Dark was glad that Rockwolves could only reform once every twenty four hours, she calmed herself down and rushed over to the pink and blue Pegasus who was closer. Dark attempted not go vomit at the damage as she covered the Pegasus in her aura. Okay, two broken bones, one fractured wing bone, and both dislocated and mauled, I will need to work fast but I can save her.' Once Dark finished her examination she rushed over to the other Pegasus and struggled not to black out at the sight before her. 'Oh boy.....ahh, get a hold of yourself.' She told herself as she envoloped the Pegasus in her aura. 'Okay let's see, oh boy.....Wings almost entirely destroyed except for the connectors, four broken ribs and heavy blood loss......I just might be able to save her....barely.' Dark grabbed the destroyed Pegasus gently in her aura and slowly moved her further into the cave but not to far from then the other. 'This is going to be near impossible, just hold on.' The rest of the night for Dark was spent stabilizing the one Pegasus and mending the other one's wounds, but the random accident in the form of a small stone giant blocked the pink Pegasus from the rest of the cave. Dark had finally finished stabilizing the blue pegasus when she realized she needed more herbs, so she applied a healing ointment that had a sleep effect. 'That should keep her asleep until I can get back.' [4] _____*End of flashback*_____ Derpy and Dark sat in silence after the story was finished, but after a while Derpy spoke up. "What about after that?" She asked. Dark sighed. "I went back to gather herbs and when I got back Gwen and Firefly were already moving." She replied. "Alright, I don't think it's the best time for a full blown conversation, so for now let's focus on getting out of here." Derpy suggested as she stood up and walked out. Dark nodded and stood up, she stretched briefly before following Derpy. _____*two hours later (In short it was just a lot of wandering around the maze, Roxanne found Trapper's crystal and that's it*____ "GWEN," Shouted an over excited Derpy. Roxanne smiled at the reunion while Fang simply rolled his eyes while staring at a strangely familiar box, Dark and Firefly shared a brief conversation and if Golden was out in the open she was positive he would kill himself. 'KILL ME!' Golden screamed. [5] (You gonna suffer man!) Derpy chuckled at Golden's expense and released Gwen from the hug. "So Gwen.....What's your crazy power?" She asked jokingly. "Firefly is now a living lightning rod." Gwen teased while Firefly gave her a raspberry. "And I can raise the dead." She said simply. Derpy chuckled. "I always did know you would wake the dead one day." She said. Fang had enough of the small talk clearly and cleared his throat. "If you don't mind, I would prefer it if we focused on getting our of here?" He suggested. At this everyone walked to the main room while giving Fang a weird look which made him shake his head. "Why me?" Fang sighed.