//------------------------------// // 4: In Ancient Everfree // Story: The Journeymare Project: Turbo Pegasus // by MadHighlander //------------------------------// This time, Rainbow avoided the construct’s hoof and did nothing as it backed out the door and locked her in. Once it had left, she started seriously scrutinizing the contents of the lab. The first item to draw her attention was the foul-smelling beaker she had initially assumed was acid. Remembering the loud noise and bright light it had made, she picked it up, thinking, I wonder if… Flitting over to the small window, she pushed it open, leaving a gap just wide enough for one forehoof, and pitched the beaker out. It landed on the ground a few feet away, doing exactly what it had done when she had broken it the other time. “What in Celestia’s name…?” came the muffled exclamation from above the trapdoor. This time, though, rather than the sound of the trapdoor unlatching, a series of hoofbeats sounded as Starlight trotted across the room above, presumably towards a window. Okay. Now hopefully that was the hard part. Rainbow flitted over to the trapdoor and gave it an experimental push. Just like Shining had said, it was securely fastened from the other side. Nope. Let’s see here… She returned to the tables near the heavy contraption by the window. Sorting through the pages, she selected a relatively solid-looking piece of paper (titled, she noted absently, ‘in situ neutralization of odd matter: experiment #42’) and returned to the trapdoor. Sliding the paper into the gap, she attempted to use it to push open the latch. Unfortunately, the page proved not solid enough to move the latch, crumpling slightly but otherwise producing no result. Right. Knife. She returned to the tables and sifted through them, but found nothing narrow enough to fit through the gap other than more paper. Rainbow inhaled and then exhaled. Minor setback. Let’s look around, see if there’s anything else useful. The only thing in the room apart from the numerous stacks of notes were the experiments scattered around the table – a small orrery made from colored crystal, a rack of vials full of unidentified chemicals, a glass bell jar partially encased in a large mass of stone. Rainbow darted over to the chemical rack first, but the vials were labelled in abbreviations that likely only made sense to Starlight, such as DsEpm or TeSf or TarEx. The next item in line, the bell jar, was the object from which Rainbow had retrieved the paper that had failed to unlatch the trapdoor. Inside the bell jar, there was a small metal statue of a seated alicorn. There were a number of buttons on the stone structure, which glowed faintly from within like the construct or the auto-spell stones. Rainbow pushed the one helpfully labelled ‘start’ and the statue transformed into a candle, then back again, and continued to change back and forth. The window was just above the experiment. Rainbow took a moment to look out, and saw the disguised construct approaching the shack. She found it difficult to ignore the fact that it was about to kill her and her friends. You can’t help them now and you have infinite tries at this. She turned back to the device and looked at the other buttons. The others were, like the chemical vials, labelled in useless abbreviations. Rainbow pushed one at random. A vial plugged into the device emptied its contents into the bell jar with a hiss, and the changing object twisted and writhed before assuming a slightly unsettling, warped medium between the statue and the candle. One hundred percent useless, thought Rainbow. If I could figure out how to make the thing turn into a knife or something, then maybe… Signalling an end to her most recent trip, the time spell opened up once again and brought her back to the map room. “Think of anything?” Rainbow asked Shining upon touching down. “Maybe. Depends on what you found.” “I found a way to get Starlight away from the trapdoor, but I couldn’t get it open. I found some sort of … transforming … machine, in the lab, but I can’t figure out how to make it do what I want.” “Hmm…” Shining rubbed his chin with a hoof. “That’ll be the odd matter. And no, I don’t know what that means. It was labelled when we searched Starlight’s lab.” “You said you had an idea?” prompted Rainbow. “Yeah. I was thinking, can you take stuff you find in one timeline into another?” Rainbow contemplated that for a moment. “I don’t- Wait, yeah. The instructions Twilight left said we could take anything we needed to complete the mission as long as it wasn’t historically important.” “That’s great. You can check other timelines for stuff you need, like something that you can use to open that trapdoor.” “Right! Good idea. Anything else?” Shining thought for a moment. “Have you given any thought to how you’re actually going to stop this thing?” Uhh… “I was just going to wing it.” “Yeah, that’s going to get you nowhere. I’ll put my brain to that while you look for a knife.” Wordlessly, Rainbow activated the map control stone and called up the first set of coordinates. This time Rainbow descended in the midst of a forest. Unlike the prehistoric clearing, this forest had trees that looked much the same as those in the Everfree, if a little less foreboding. That, though, was perhaps attributable to the bright sunlight cutting through the canopy, blades of light cutting through the forest’s shadow and brightening up the area. “Nay, by all means keep thy blades, Commander,” came a voice from close by. Jumping, Rainbow retreated into the thick bushes nearby just in time for two ponies to emerge from the dense brush opposite. One was a solid-looking, pure white Pegasus stallion, clothed in a set of what Rainbow recognised as antique Pegasid officer’s barding. The stallion’s mane, as white as his coat, was shoulder-length and unruly to the level that Rarity would likely have taken physical offense to its state. The faint wrinkles around the stallion’s eyes spoke to the many years he had seen, while the faint pinkish scar poking out from the collar of his armor spoke of battle experience. The second pony was a dull gray Earth pony stallion, clad in a cloak made of something that looked like burlap. A pair of saddlebags was visible underneath the cloak in the form of a pair of bulges on either side. The earth pony’s mane was hidden beneath the cloak, but a wispy black beard grew from his chin, and as he spoke – for it was he who was the speaker - Rainbow noted with a faint shudder that many of his teeth were missing or discolored. These, Rainbow realised, must be none other than Commander Hurricane and Smart Cookie. “We are, after all, in an undiscovered country,” continued Smart Cookie. “We may be beset at any moment by ferocious beasts or murderous savages, and unless I am very much mistaken you seem to be the only one among us with any manner of fighting skill.” Hurricane chuckled. “Aye. Pansy, to be certain, would be overcome with fear were he faced with so much as a squirrel, though I sense there’s more to that unicorn than meets the eye.” “Surely you cannot mean the Queen? She seems rather a pompous fool to me – much reminiscent of mine own Chancellor.” They stopped dead, immediately in front of the bush in which Rainbow was hiding. She fell still, barely daring to breathe. “Nay, not Platinum, your assessment of her is quite correct. I mean rather the other one. I’ve heard tales of her sorcery.” Hurricane shuffled his wings uncomfortably, the tips glinting in the rays of light. Wingblades! thought Rainbow. Wingblades were a type of weapon used by ancient pegasi, designed to be flung at deadly speed with a flick of the wingtip. Also, their aerodynamic design meant that they would be perfect for slipping through the gap in the trapdoor. That would do the trick, if I could get my hooves on one. “You seem nervous. Surely you don’t mistrust our new friends, do you?” said Smart Cookie mockingly. Hurricane raised an eyebrow. “Do you not, even a little? Surely a thousand years of animosity cannot be erased in mere hours.” The earth pony looked from side to side. “I wouldn’t say I mistrust them, but I’ve put contingency plans in place in the event I am betrayed. Not only by the unicorns, but by yourself, or even Puddinghead. I mean no offense by it, but as my old grandmother always said, it’s better to be in a rainstorm with a waterskin than a desert without.” “That is a fair doctrine. Perhaps I should take identical measures.” “Let me aid you in that, then. Do you know the great oak tree that towers above the forest south of here?” Hurricane nodded. “I’ve heard tell that Clover means to hollow out the living wood as a workspace.” Smart Cookie furrowed his brow. “That is worrisome… I had hidden a cache of witchwood totems in an abandoned animal den among the roots. Should the unicorns turn on either of us, they will make us immune to their spellwork, but if Clover uncovers them it may prove troublesome for us all. I shall have to keep watch on the place and notify you if I must move the cache. In any event, if your fears come to pass you may feel free to borrow some.” “My thanks. Now, we must hurry to this waterfall you found –I must gather mists at the earliest opportunity, to begin manufacturing cloudcrete.” The two ponies moved on, and Rainbow breathed freely. I need one of those wingblades, thought Rainbow, emerging from the bush. I need to be careful about following them, though. She lifted off and drifted through the dense branches of the canopy, following the faint sound of the two ponies’ conversation. I am a shadow in the wind, or something. Before long, she began to hear the sound of rushing water in the distance. The forest opened up to reveal a massive gorge cutting through the landscape as if it had been cut apart with a giant pair of scissors. Smart Cookie was seated near the edge of the forest, as Commander Hurricane floated above the raging river, gathering up the wisps of mist that were thrown up from the river. As he gathered them, his Pegasus magic solidified the insubstantial eddies, forming a solid mass of cloudcrete. Rainbow hid just inside the tree line, a short distance downriver from the two ponies, and tried to think of a way to obtain one of Hurricane’s wingblades without him noticing. I’m enough of a ninja to follow them here unnoticed, but no way could I fly up there and snag one without getting spotted. Especially with Smart Cookie watching. I doubt I can wait until he takes them off, I’ll probably get recalled by the time spell before then. If I – Wait a second. Something’s wrong. Rainbow looked back around the area, wondering what had set her off. Smart Cookie is gone. Where? Why? There was a loud mechanical noise and something shot out of the forest. Whatever it was moved too fast for Rainbow to identify, but it struck Hurricane squarely in the barrel as he turned around to react to the sound, and he dropped like a stone from the sky. Fortunately, instead of falling into the raging river, he landed on the mass of cloudcrete he had been assembling. More importantly, a small object whizzed from Hurricane’s wing and off into the forest. A wingblade! There! She followed the blade’s trajectory into the forest. Crap… it landed near where the thing came from. Nothing for it but to take the risk. She flew through the trees toward the wingblade. There’s a bunch of thick growth on the ground here. It could be anywhere. She started sifting through the plants, looking for the wingblade. Come on, come on, it’s gotta be here somewhere… Something wrapped around her barrel from behind and pulled her into the air. It released her momentarily, her momentum carrying her further up as she spread her wings as she tried to catch her balance, until something dropped into her field of vision and grabbed her by the neck, slamming her into a tree hard enough to shake the leaves. It was another construct. Vaguely similar to the one from Starlight’s Town, but this one wasn’t disguised as a pony. On the contrary, its shape was reminiscent of a relatively young, wingless dragon, standing on two clawed feet and holding her against the tree with a long, powerful forearm. Its eyes glowed bright white on either side of its beaklike muzzle, and its head tapered to a hornlike protrusion hanging back over its neck. And a lone wingblade jutted from its shoulder. There it is! The construct’s rumbling voice interrupted her thoughts. “I was wondering when you would show up. I confess myself disappointed in your capabilities. I was told to expect a challenge.” The construct’s hand began to constrict, restricting Rainbow’s breathing. Rainbow reached out toward the wingblade. Her forelimb was barely long enough to reach. She took a swipe at it, knocking it askew. Crap, crap. Bracing her rear hooves against the tree, she pushed forward and took another swipe at the blade, smacking it flat against the construct’s arm and gouging out a chunk of its outer shell. Yes! The edges of her vision were starting to blur. Less yes. Pulling the wingblade toward herself, she activated the map control stone and selected ‘recall’. The time spell pulled her free of the construct’s grip and back to the present day.