Timelapse

by Stik

Chapter 10

Twilight was grumpy, and she was perfectly willing to admit it. They’d been walking for days, or they should have been if the sun would go up and down at its proper pace. Instead they were barely at the end of the first day, the sun still shimmering in the sky close to the ground, lingering for an eternity like it was reluctant to finally set.

“You’re going to get a stern talking to when Celestia’s back, mister,” she muttered under her breath, glaring at it through narrowed eyes.

Rainbow Dash was hovering nearby and heard her, moving closer. “What?”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” she grouched. “I was talking to the sun.”

Rainbow backed off a few wingbeats. “O…kay… Hey, when are we gonna have a rest? I’ve been flying forever.”

“When we get somewhere with trees and shelter,” Twilight told her. “There’s likely more rain coming, and I’m not sleeping here in the open.”

“I don’t see much shelter around these parts, Twi,” Applejack told her with a theatrical swing of her head. She was right, they had been picking their way across a wide plain that would continue until the base of the Canterhorn, completely devoid of trees, shrubs or even interesting (and maybe tasty) flowers.

The ground beneath their hooves was soft and loamy, very nearly deserving of the term ‘bog’, and none of them had any wish to have to curl up on a tuft of grass to sleep. Every thirty paces or so somepony’s hoof would splash into a hidden pool or puddle and have to be pulled free with a sickening, wet slurp. Even Pinkie Pie couldn’t make those sorts of noises, not even with Sugarcube Corner’s most spectacular smoothies.

There were a few rocky outcrops here and there, poking up through the mush like stubby teeth, one day hoping to grow as tall as their nearby cousin, and maybe even grow a city on their side to boot. They didn’t look very comfortable, but Twilight was beginning to resign herself to the fact that they would have to make do. At least they would help keep the wind off. A stiff breeze was picking up, ruffling her feathers and blowing her fringe into her eyes if she faced the wrong way.

“Ugh,” said Rainbow Dash fidgeting atop the highest point on the outcrop they had chosen. “Remind me why we left Ponyville?”

“To go fetch help,” Applejack told her in a muffled tone that indicated that she was done with talking and wanted little more than to sleep, face hidden under her hat. “There’s nothin’ wrong with sleepin’ on the ground. Perfectly natural. It’s easy as pie, if you’ve not been spoiled all ya life with clouds for a bed, that is.”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes, anything Applejack could do, she could do as well, usually better. If a sleep-off was the challenge, then so be it. She flung herself onto her back and squeezed her eyes shut resolutely. May the laziest mare win.

“Ugh!” she exclaimed not three minutes later, and Twilight fancied she could see Applejack’s hat grinning in the half-light. “I’m not tired now we’ve stopped!”

“Good, you can take first watch, then,” Twilight said smugly, pulling her blanket around herself, despite the slight dampness that had sneaked into it through her saddlebags.

“What am I watching for?” Rainbow exclaimed, suddenly sitting upright, eyes wide. “You didn’t tell me there was anything to watch out for!”

“Scared, Rainbow Dash?” mumbled Applejack’s hat.

“Of course not!” the pegasus blustered in reply. “I just feel… under-informed. ‘Course I’ll take first watch. Nothing sneaks up on Rainbow Dash.”

“Don’t fall asleep,” warned Twilight, finally finding a bit of rock that cradled her head rather than poked it. “If the changelings are back then who knows what else Discord has freed from Tartarus. Imps, basilisks, demons, and their frightful masters could all be stalking this very plain in the darkness, waiting for us to fall asleep so they can whisk us away back to the underworld!”

Rainbow Dash squeaked and Twilight giggled like a filly. If she was scared at least she would be less inclined to shirk her duties. As for herself, sleep couldn’t come soon enough, and she soon dropped off despite the damp, cold and firmer-than-usual bedding, her dreams full of mysterious humans and space-ships.

“Twilight!” hissed Applejack, shaking her urgently. “Wake up!”

She opened her eyes, blinking. It was dark now, properly so, and the stars had come out overhead, twinkling and strange. They were so random, little structure or shape to them anymore. A few vague constellations were visible, but nothing as bright and clear as she was used to seeing.

“What’s the matter?” she asked sleepily. “Is it my turn to watch?”

“Too late for that,” Applejack said nervously. Twilight blinked at her in the gloom. The moon was up, casting some light on them both. Up above somewhere she could hear Rainbow Dash’s snores.

Applejack’s voice was low and nervous. “There’s trees.”

Twilight rolled to her hooves, untangling herself from the damp blanket. It hadn’t dried much, but it had at least been nice and warm once her body heat had soaked in. She shivered a little in the cool night air and cautiously she peered over the edge of the large boulder, looking out into the darkness. A mist had settled low on the ground like a thick blanket, glowing white in the moonlight.

“But, they weren’t there last night,” she said in bewilderment. Many trees surrounded the rock they were on, receding beyond her limited vision, a perfect little wood amongst the otherwise empty plain, poking up through the white fog.

A little alarmed she lit a bright light on the tip of her horn and pointed it around like a searchlight. The trees were in a neat ring, about sixty paces thick, pressed up against the rocks and rustling quietly, some might even say ominously, considering the lack of wind. Many of them were gnarled little things, stunted like those found on windswept hills, although still much taller than a pony.

“Were they there last night?” she asked, somewhat unnecessarily.

“They sure weren’t,” Applejack said with a gulp. “I’m about ready to admit it, Twilight, I’m getting’ mighty spooked about all this weird stuff that’s been goin’ on lately. For instance, where is everypony? We’ve not seen sight nor sound of another friendly face since we left home, exceptin’ that down right peculiar lot in that down right peculiar forest. And all the animals are skittish, hardly seen head nor tail of anything, and not a single pegasus in the sky.”

“I don’t know,” she said, dimming her light and looking back hopefully at Canterlot. In the dark she expected it to glimmer and glow with ten thousand tiny magical lights and cheery lanterns. Even during Luna’s night there should have been ponies flying overhead and even the occasional train winding its way up around the mountain, trailing steam. Instead there was nothing, just blackness and a terrible sense of abandonment.

“I’m afraid we’re wasting our time, I don’t think the princesses are there. I’m not sure anypony is there.”

“D’ya want to try an’ find the hu-mans, instead?” Applejack asked. “Ah reckon we could catch them up somehow, although ah don’t know how long that lazy pegasus up there has been asleep on the job. Don’t feel like more’n a few hours since ah dropped off, though.”

Twilight looked wistfully out to the east, imagining their new friends plodding on in that quiet, resolute way that they did. It would be nice to see them again, she admitted. She had felt safer with them around, somehow, if a little mixed up emotionally.

They were violent and their motives still remained a little bit of an unknown, but they were very strong and excellent fighters, exactly the sort of ponies… people… that Equestria needed right now. They had demonstrated loyalty, as well: when the changeling queen had knocked her out the humans had immediately defended her, placing themselves in harm’s way to keep her safe. That had to count for something.

“I don’t know if we’d be able to find them again, especially in the dark. No, I think we should stick our goal, get to Canterlot, see what we can find. The princesses have got to be somewhere. They have to be.”

They woke Rainbow Dash, and the blue pegasus had the decency to look deeply ashamed, especially when they pointed out the creepy wood that had snuck up on them. “I guess I was tired, after all,” she said sheepishly. “But it’s only a few trees, how bad can it be? Also, maybe we just didn’t notice it? We were pretty tired, after all. Doesn’t mean it has to be a magic wood.”

“That wood was not there when we arrived,” Twilight said firmly. “It’s not natural, either, and after all we’ve seen these last few days I don’t trust it, not one little bit.”

“We could fly over it,” Rainbow said, spreading her wings and hovering in place.

“It may have escaped your notice, sugarcube, but ah ain’t got wings.”

“Twilight could teleport you, I bet.”

“I’m about done with that blasted spell,” she complained. “It’s all I’ve done lately. It’s starting to make my horn hurt.”

“Well, then, I bet I can carry you,” she said boastfully. “Even as heavy as you are.”

“Why you little,” Applejack started, taking a step forward.

“Stop it!” Twilight growled, before they could get into another of their infamous bickering sessions.

“Rainbow’s right, they are only trees. What’s the worst that can happen? Ah’ll just walk through them.”

“Or maybe you’re afraid of heights, huh?” Rainbow said with a smirk. Twilight shushed her angrily.

“I don’t like it,” she said, chewing her lip. “There’s probably things in there, waiting to eat us.”

“They’re trees, Twi.”

“Pony-eating trees!”

“This is silly, guys,” Rainbow announced, rising up and swooping down towards the treetops. “I’ll just check them out from the air.”

Twilight called out to stop her, but she never listened. She was skimming the tops of them, her wingtips almost brushing through the leaves themselves. Abruptly there was a flurry of activity and a smothered yelp, and Rainbow Dash was gone into the shimmering mist that billowed up around.

Applejack and Twilight both gasped and began calling her name frantically. The glow from Twilight’s spell intensified, bathing the trees in magical light. The tops of a few were thrashing around and they could hear the clear sound of a struggle.

“Come on!” Applejack called, bounding down the side of the rocky outcrop, slipping amongst the lose rocks and earth.

“Applejack, wait!” Twilight called forlornly, afraid of following. She stood rooted to the spot for a couple of heartbeats before making a decision and following, she wasn’t about to lose both of them in the dark.

Something slapped out at her as she half fell, half slid down the uneven surface, scratching herself in the process. She cried out in alarm, dodging as another vine-like thing snapped out across her path. Something sticky and sweet-smelling dripped onto her face, thick and viscous.

“Applejack!” she called out, already having lost sight of her friend. Something wrapped around her hindleg and she instinctively kicked out, only helping to tangle herself further in the sticky fibres. “Help!”

“Ah’m coming, Twi!” came the reply as she was pulled up off the marshy ground, hanging from a leg. More tendrils were reaching out, searching for her like eye-less snakes. She was having a lot of difficulty maintaining her concentration and the light from her horn wavered, fading dramatically.

Something had grabbed one of her forelegs and was pulling her in the other direction now, stretching her uncomfortably. Something else sticky was trailing across her face and she bit at it savagely, chewing through it with a crunch that left a painfully bitter taste on her tongue. The third tendril vanished back into the gloom, but before long another three were snaking about underneath, reaching up from the ground.

Suddenly Applejack was there, and her heart soared at the sight of the athletic farmpony kicking and bucking at anything that got near her. She turned nimbly on her hooves and slammed her hindlegs into the base of the tree that held Twilight, sending a groaning shudder up through its branches and felt through the vines that held her.

She kicked again, and one of them loosened enough for her to wriggle free, falling until she was only held by the other, swinging wildly like a foal on a swing. “It’s working!” she called gleefully, trying to keep her light steady. Applejack was frantically dodging branches and roots that swiped and snapped at her, very nearly removing her beloved hat. With another few mighty kicks she had persuaded the second tree to relinquish its hold on Twilight, and she fell to the floor in an ungainly manner, wings instinctively opening to catch her but a little too late.

She leapt to her hooves as a branch came whistling down, impacting the ground with a crash that would have been very unpleasant had she still been underneath. Another swipe and another dodge, then another, all the time trying to stay one step ahead. Applejack was dancing just as much, searching for some sort of a target in the gloom.

They were both covered in sticky sap, leaves and small twigs adhering to them as well. Twilight had got some in her eye, and it stung badly, partially sticking the eyelid closed.

“Fire, we need fire!” Applejack was shouting between breaths. “Trees hate fire!”

Twilight briefly let the light waver as she tried hard to concentrate in the midst of a very stressful situation. In front of her a tiny flame burst into being, hovering in the air and sustained solely by her magical energy. She directed it towards a waving branch and the limb drew back with a scratchy hiss of bark on bark.

“We need something to light, I can’t keep this alive forever,” she said through gritted teeth. The cold and damp was making it difficult to maintain any sort of heat and she could feel her concentration ailing already.

Applejack was still busy dodging things, but she gave the nearest trunk a savage kick and some of the attacks were dropped for a moment, long enough for her to grab a fallen branch from the ground. It appeared to be very dead, and quite dry remarkably. Twilight leapt nimbly as another branch swept under her, very low to the ground, trying to trip her.

She was a fraction of a heartbeat too slow and the branch knocked her balance from under her, sending her to the ground. She finally lost her concentration and the precious little ball of flame was thrown through the air. Applejack was quick, however, and jumped at just the right moment, intercepting it with the bushy, dry end of the fallen branch.

The flame vanished, the energy absorbed into the wood, but it was just enough as a few of the dry old leaves began to crackle and curl, quickly catching and transferring to the twigs, and from there the entire thing was alight, with Applejack waving it around frantically in her mouth as the flames threatened to get closer.

Twilight saw her chance and grabbed it in her magic, holding it safely away in front of them. It seemed to have the required effect and the murderous trees drew back from the bright fire and fell relatively silent.

Applejack was busy collecting up more fallen branches, kicking the trees savagely to dislodge more and to discourage any further attempts to entangle them. The creepy wood was groaning around them, a loud, angry sound, and Twilight waved the burning branches around threateningly.

“Give us back our friend!” she screamed into the woods. There was no reply amongst the noise, and the pair pushed forwards for where they thought Rainbow had fallen. They looked up for the first time, the light from the fire illuminating the branches high above them.

Twilight immediately wished she hadn’t and gulped in fear, in the upper boughs were the unmistakable shapes of bones, some bleached white with age, some mossy and green, some big and some small. There were some skeletons that were recognisable as ponies, and she wanted very much to look away, but they had to keep a lookout for their friend before she herself became just another vague shape in the branches.

“They must trap their victims and wait for them to rot down,” Applejack was saying in horror, looking up at the partially decomposed corpse of some large animal, disgust on her face. Twilight shuddered, feeling as though she was going to be sick. She channelled the feeling into her horn instead, and the flames flared brighter.

Up above them in the branches another small fire appeared to have broken out, flaring fitfully amongst the twisted, shaking branches. There was something strange about it, however, the flames seemed unwilling to spread any further and yet burned almost white hot. Twilight stared, squinting to try and make out details.

“Applejack,” she called, “there’s something up there.”

“Ah know, and ah’m tryin’ not to look at it!”

“No, something else,” she said. “I think… I think it might be a phoenix!”

“A what, now?” Applejack kicked another trunk, her hooves smashing a questing vine into the wood, crippling it.

“A phoenix! They’re immortal, it could have been trapped up there for years. How terrible! We should help it.”

Applejack squinted up at it, glowing in the branches. “How?”

“Pretend it’s an apple?”

“Ah don’t think it’s much like an apple, darlin’,” she said doubtfully. They were getting adept at dodging the attacks now, the trees seemed less inclined to try, either, with Twilight waving the burning branches around. Ahead of them the gnarled trunks seemed to have formed a corridor, welcoming darkness at the end, as if they just wanted the ponies to leave.

Applejack bucked the tree holding the phoenix hard, but other than a panicked squawk from the trapped bird not a lot happened. She tried again and again, but in the end she was right, it wasn’t much like an apple, and certainly didn’t detach as easily as one.

“Yer gonna have to fly up there,” she said, “if you want to get it down.”

Twilight felt apprehensive, flying with fire, with carnivorous trees trying to catch them, and on wings she still hadn’t learned to use. “Rats,” she said, and reluctantly took to the air, trying hard to balance the different tasks and avoid burning herself. The trees moaned and thrashed about as she threatened the higher branches, and the bundle of leaves and phoenix even more so. Eventually it was free, and shot off like a rocket, its light flittering around the trunks as it flew frantically and its piercing cries echoing in the dark.

Twilight gratefully returned to the forest floor where Applejack was largely without fire and furiously kicking at anything that came near. The phoenix appeared to have calmed down and came fluttering carefully back through the trees, swerving and dodging as they sought to recapture it.

“Philomena?” Twilight said with a growing feeling of familiarity as it drew closer. The glowing bird twittered excitedly and flew circles around her head, ethereal flames trailing from her tail. “It’s him, Applejack!”

“That’s great, but we still haven’t found RD.”

Philomena (Twilight was certain now, even if Applejack looked stubbornly unconvinced) squawked and zipped ahead a few paces ahead of them, hovering expectantly. The ponies followed him, and unfortunately the phoenix was leading them back into the thicker parts of the wood.

“I think he knows where Rainbow is,” Twilight called back. Philomena was adept at dodging the angry swipes of the trees, and his small size made him difficult to keep up with. At least his burning feathers kept him visible through the branches and falling leaves. The trees also seemed a little put off by him, unsure of the cold, magical fire.

Several harried minutes later they were looking up at a wriggling bundle of branches and vines, patches of blue fur and multicoloured hair poking out from between the coils. At least there was no mistaking her, even in the dark.

Getting her down was another challenge entirely, the trees seemed exceedingly reluctant to release their latest prisoner and their fear of the fire appeared to diminish accordingly. Twilight ground her teeth as she channelled more energy into the burning wood held high in front of them. Applejack flung more and more wood at her, the wet branches smoking fiercely and adding a thick haze to the mist.

Twilight levitated the branches upwards while Applejack defended their position and the wood groaned and cried around them, torn between two decisions. It was a delicate balance between tormenting the trees and being careful enough to avoid burning their friend, but perseverance and a fair helping of luck had her down eventually, albeit a bit bruised from falling without being able to open her wings yet.

Once on the ground Applejack bit and tore at the remaining vines, heedless of the bitter, sticky stuff getting in her mouth. Rainbow Dash sensed escape and was wriggling frantically to try and speed the process along, which only slowed them down in the end. When her hooves were free at last she scratched at the bits on her muzzle, and was finally able to speak again.

Together again and able to move they ran for the edge of the forest, desperate to leave the frightening place far behind. The trees seemed to sense their captives were finally getting away and redoubled their efforts to recapture them.

In the end the three ponies and a phoenix prevailed, bursting out from the border of the wood in a flurry of leaves and twigs, chased by a hundred thrown pieces of wood and sticky barbs. They ran some way into the mists, breathless and panting, and found themselves up against another rocky standing. They scrambled thankfully up the side, dislodging grit and small rocks, aware the trees couldn’t follow them.

“That was awful,” Twilight moaned. “Let’s agree to never do that again.”

Applejack was licking at several long scratches she’d gathered during their fight, and Twilight fussed at her own with her magic. Rainbow Dash was trying to get the sticky residue from the trees off her fur. Big patches of her wings were smeared with the stuff, and it had soaked into the feathers thoroughly, grounding her for the moment.

“I think we should head on,” Twilight said, peering up into the misty darkness, trying to see the stony mountain they were aiming for. “I don’t really feel like sleeping again. Who knows how fast those things can move.”

“Can you find the way in this mist?”

“I hope so,” she said. In the distance they could hear the moan of the wind through branches and the rattle of dead leaves. Through the fog the sounds were muffled and lonesome, the sort of sounds that would send shivers up a pony’s spine. “We daren’t stay here much longer.”

Comments

[Stik]

4072042
Thanks for the honest critique - much appreciated :)

I can certainly see the point you make, i think having had this stuck in my head for so long has made it difficult to take a step back from it and see it from the perspective of another. You're quite right that it could probably stand on its own without the humans (and some modifications of course). I think, when i started this, i really just wanted to write HiE, the concept appeals to me for some reason, and i suppose i'm guilty of losing sight of everything else.

In any case, the majority of it is written now so i'm not going to make any drastic changes, which means Riley is here to stay i'm afraid. This cursed thing has been consuming my evenings for long enough that i just want to get it out the way and move on now ;) Shall chalk it up as a learning experience and try to remember to take a step back in whatever my next literary adventure is

Stik