Secrets of the Everfree

by PaisleyPerson

Chapter 3: Messengers

Chapter 3
Messengers

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” I heard the snores turn to snorts as she started to rouse.

“W-what?” she yawned, rubbing her eyes. I glided down to land gently on the cloud she’d been napping on. Seeing it was just me, she flopped back down. “Five more minutes.”

“Have a good rest?” I chided.

“What do you want?” she groggily groaned, rolling over.

“Come on, sleepyhead. Wake up!”

“Can’t it wait?” she groaned.

“You don’t even know what I’m here for!”

“Doesn’t matter. Come back later.”

“You sure you don’t want to know why I’m here before you chase me away?” Realizing I wasn’t going to leave her alone, she jerked back up in annoyance.

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake! What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. Just wondered if you were interested in meeting my parents...”

“Come again?” The way I talked about my father, Wind Storm, almost made him seem like an idol in Rainbow’s eyes. He was, in fact, the fastest thestral I’d ever known. He was much faster than me, and I could already keep up with Rainbow- most of the time. She’d been incredibly eager to meet him.

“Well, I’ve been having trouble finding them all to invite them to the wedding, so Torchwood suggested that maybe they never got the memo. We’re going to the Everfree for a quick fly over to round up any stragglers. You in?”

“Well, since you’ve already got me up...” She tried to disguise her excitement under a calm and casual mask. It wasn’t working.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” I apologetically smiled. “Come on. Torchwood’s trying to recruit Twilight to join us.”

“Yeah? How’d that work out?”

“Well, let’s go see.”

---

“There you are! You ready to go?” To my surprise, it was Twilight who greeted us. She was wearing her saddlebags, which had been packed with several official looking documents.

“Uh, yeah... So you’re coming after all?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world! Princess Celestia left me in charge of integrating the thestrals back into society, and if some have been left behind, it’s my duty to make sure they’re recovered,” she declared, stuffing another scroll into the already packed saddlebags.

“Have a good trip!” Spike waved from inside. He’d been reunited with Blaze, and the two both waved from inside. While Blaze did have wings, he hadn’t learned to fly just yet. They hadn’t filled out enough to lift him off the ground. Even if he was able to fly, I doubted he could keep up for the duration of our trip. It was best that they both stay behind.

“Alright, then.” I backed out of the library, surprised at how quickly we’d gotten organized.

“Now, before we leave, I thought that it might be a good idea to divide into groups,” Twilight stated. “That way we can cover more ground. Acrylic, could you go with Rainbow Dash? I don’t mean to split you up from your fiancé, Torchwood, but I think it would be best if there’s a thestral in each group.”

“Good thinking,” he agreed.

“And Acrylic’s the only pony who can actually keep up with Rainbow. That leaves the two of us.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Rainbow exclaimed, jumping into the air. Twilight made no move to call her back, so I started after her.

“Acrylic, here!” A few of her scrolls were levitated up to me. “Just in case you find anypony, you’ve got proof,” she explained.

“Thanks,” I called back down. Rainbow was waiting for me, so I zoomed up after her.

“Any ideas on where we should start looking?” she called over the wind.

“Our best bet will probably be my old sector,” I answered. “Blade Wing Four. It’s this way.” I knew she wouldn’t tolerate a casual flight, and picked up the pace.

“Whatever you say, boss,” she saluted, slicing through the air after me. I looked back to find Torchwood and Twilight taking a much slower gait. Knowing her, she was probably taking the opportunity to learn all she could about fire dancing from an expert. At that pace, they’d get some ground covered, but it would be mostly up to Rainbow and I. Better get busy, in that case. I flapped even harder, pushing me into the lead. Rainbow took that to mean I wanted to race, and streaked off in a rainbow colored blur. I didn’t have much of a choice but to keep up. She had the advantage, though; I had to make sure the documents weren’t lost. I was beginning to wish I’d brought my own saddlebags. The wind was doing its best to steal them from me.

I soon forgot about the scrolls, and lost myself to the contest. I wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. The air whistling by my ears almost seemed to be singing to me. I shut my eyes, furled my wings, and simply dropped. Rainbow got worried at first, but then remembering how much I loved to free fall, she flipped onto her back and dropped with me. What had started out as a relaxing free fall quickly escalated into a stunt competition. First, Rainbow tried impressing me with a series of barrel rolls. I countered that with a last minute free fall recovery, pulling up inches from the ground. She corralled five particularly puffy clouds and sculpted them into a shape resembling her cutie mark in ten seconds flat. Meanwhile, I was folding into another headlong dive for the trees, using the fold of skin inside my wing elbow (or wing membrane, as it was called) to swing me back up into the air and perform crazy spins and weaves. By the time I recovered from my dizziness, Rainbow was a speck in the sky. I perched on a cloud to catch my breath and regain my balance. What was she doing? By the time I realized, it was too late. Rainbow was going in for a sonic rainboom.

She was just a few hundred feet above me when she reached the required speed. At that rate, it would only take seconds to bring her to my level. I was trying to wave for her to stop, but she didn’t see me. A sonic rainboom would wake up the entire Everfree! While it did seem like the quickest way to attract thestrals, I didn’t feel like dealing with ursa majors or cragadiles today. Given our current location, though, we’d more likely have to face off with timberwolves or manticores. There would be no escape, then; the latter had wings.

My wings snapped open to bring me in her direction. I wasn’t sure what I hoped to do. Collide? At least it would slow her down and stop the shockwave from shaking the forest. She saw me coming, but she was going too fast. She swerved to avoid the collision, but only sped up. Before I could dive after her, a deafening *BOOM* struck me senseless. White noise rang in my ears, and I dropped about a hundred feet before finally regaining enough sense to recover. I hovered midair, shaking my head in an attempt to return to reality. Rainbow wasn’t too happy with me, either.

“What was that for? Afraid to get shown up?”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” I shouted back. She remained silent, willing to hear me out. I was more interested in hearing something suspicious come from the forest. I listened for any unusual rustlings. I was too high up to hear anything if I’d wanted to. “A blast that loud would wake up the whole forest,” I explained in the sternest voice I could manage.

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Not when we’re right above manticore territory,” I hissed.

“Oh.” Realization hit her like a brick wall. Something moving in the corner of my eye attracted my attention. My jaw dropped.

“THE SCROLLS!” The abandoned parchments were fluttering to the ground. I must have dropped them when the blast of the rainboom hit me. Rainbow and I both dove to retrieve them. She was faster, and caught two in one swoop. I retrieved one, and eyed a second settled atop the tree canopy.

“Did you get them all?” Rainbow panted, cradling the two in the crook of her elbows.

“There’s one missing,” I gasped. “Twilight gave us five. We only have four!”

“So that means...”

“It’s down there,” I finished. We both peered through a gap in the branches, down at manticore territory.

---

“Find it yet?” Rainbow hissed. I peered under another bush.

“No. Be quiet!” She’d snapped another twig. Manticores had exceptional hearing. She gingerly stepped over a rock and explored a fox burrow. “Ugh. Where could it have gone?”

“Twilight’s going to kill us!” I whimpered, circling another tree trunk.

“Check the branches,” Rainbow ordered. “Maybe it got caught coming down.”

“It might be a better job for you. You don’t have such a large wingspan. You’ll fit between the branches better than me.”

“Alright. You take that grove, then.”

“Right.” I jumped over a couple of ferns to the area she indicated. The grove was shrouded by a ring of densely packed trees and shrubs. I poked around under the greenery for a while, but found nothing. I wasn’t sure how to get through the trees without attracting attention, but finally managed an angle where I could poke my head through. My breath caught in my throat. No wonder the trees were so densely packed. I should’ve known better than to go poking around in it. This was a manticore den! I jerked away, but then remembered that I was supposed to be quiet, and tiptoed the rest of the way. When I thought I was out of immediate danger, I scrambled back to where I’d left Rainbow. We had to get out of here, scroll or no scroll.

“Rainbow?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to achieve with that. I’d have to raise my voice and risk attracting the manticores if I wanted her to hear me. I cleared my throat.

“Rainbow Dash!” I winced. The entire Everfree must have heard that. There was a rustling in the trees nearby. Already on edge, it didn’t take much to put me into full defense mode. A couple of leaves fluttering to the ground told me it wasn’t a manticore. They never attacked from the trees. And instead of snarling, all I could hear was faded grunting. I climbed onto one of the sturdier bows to investigate. The sight that met me made me want to face-hoof.

“A little help?” Rainbow grunted, tugging at her entrapped wing. The pegasus had somehow managed to work her way into a particularly dense cluster of branches. The problem was, she couldn’t get out.

“When I said you could fit through smaller spaces, I didn’t mean that small!”

“Thanks for that,” she grumbled.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I said, awkwardly hovering beside her. My wings weren’t made for such tight quarters.

“First, I have to get out of here,” she irritably reminded, taking my hoof and pulling. I pulled back, hoping to break her out of the tangled brambles. “Ow! Careful!”

“Shh! You don’t understand!”

“Quit pulling so hard!” All of Equestria must have heard that one.

“Be quiet!” We both froze, ears swiveled forward as a growl echoed through the already dark and eerie forest.

“What was that?” Rainbow shuddered.

“I was trying to tell you,” I groaned. The mother manticore came smashing through the brush. We couldn’t yet see her, but she was coming up fast. “We’re about a hundred yards from a manticore den.”

“WHAT?!” She was practically screaming, not helping our case. The crashes came faster, closer. I pulled harder, despite Rainbow’s protests. A loud crack sounded her freedom. The branches snapped, sending us both tumbling to the ground. We were each tangled in each other’s wings. Well, mostly mine, given that they were long enough to envelope the both of us. By the time we were both back on our hooves, hot breath trickled down our backs. A very angry manticore proved to be the source.

“RUN!” Too late. Rainbow was already trying to fight it. Would she ever listen to me? I couldn’t let her face down the beast alone. What else could I do but join in? I reared, and brought my hooves down hard, not only causing an earth-shattering quake to rock the ground but also blasting white flames into existence. I recalled the little training Torchwood provided me in the art of fire dancing, and directed the fire with my mind to envelope the manticore. I didn’t want to burn her; she was only defending her cubs. So I kept the fire cool, but briefly let small patches grow very hot to chase her off. She howled at the pinching sensation I created, only making her angrier. I didn’t understand. This technique always worked to chase off Everfree creatures. We used it all the time back when I still lived out here. What was I doing wrong?

“YAAH!” Rainbow reeled back to avoid being hit with the creature’s scorpion tail.

“Get back!” I screamed. “Run! Just run!”

“What about the scroll?”

“Forget the scroll!” Finally, Rainbow listened to me. She darted off into the open sky. I was inches from freedom myself, when I felt claws digging into my ankle and dragging me back down. A startled whinny was all I could manage. I wasn’t sure if Rainbow heard me; a veil of leaves soon blocked my view. I lashed out, kicked, writhed, and did everything in my power to get out of the manticore’s claws. The vague stinging around my hoof told me that she’d broken skin. I’d suffer worse damage than a mere scratch if I didn’t get away soon.

I was flung to the ground, hitting hard against the base of a tree. The breath was knocked out of me by a tremendous force; I looked up to find a giant paw was planted squarely on my chest. The other paw was raised to plant the death blow. I flinched, closing my eyes in preparation for impact. The familiar whistling told me that help was on the way. A delay of the crushing hit caused me to peek an eye open: Rainbow was folded into a steep dive right for us. She’d attracted the manticore’s attention, too. She swooped down, barely knocking into the creature. It was still enough to make the manticore falter. So long as she was sparring with Rainbow, she was too busy to remember little old me. I shoved with all my might, pushing her off of me completely and fighting fire with fire, literally. This time, I let the flames blaze. She howled, finally backing off.

I couldn’t keep up the intense temperature much longer. But I couldn’t escape, either. My wing had been damaged somewhere in the skirmish. The pain was too much. I knew I’d never be able to take off like this. Even if Rainbow had realized my predicament, I doubted she’d be able to carry me very far. So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, or more appropriately, between the ground and an angry manticore. My energy was wearing out. Even Rainbow had her limits. She was wearing thin as well. I couldn’t maintain the fire wall. It sputtered out. The manticore glared down at me, hatred in her eyes. Rainbow had vanished.

Comments

[Dan]

Dammit, Dash. This is why I hate ESFPs. (though tvtropes says she's more ESTP)

But then, she called out Lightning Dust, so there's hope for her yet.