Knights of the Everfree

by Lightning Shaker

Food and Danger

Knights

of the Everfree

Chapter Two:

The three ponies continued on, trekking through the forest. The warm summer day seemed to be approaching a hot one very quickly, the forest canopy making the air feel stifling and closed-in. It was dark, the trees letting only small shafts of light waft through occasionally to get lost in the haze that seemed to emanate from the forest. To Lightning’s annoyance, the forest floor was overgrown with random roots and other things jutting out and making it difficult to walk.

Lightning Shaker looked at his companions, noting that he wasn't the only one sweating. He could see a clearing up ahead, and thought that maybe they could stop for a drink while there. He was suddenly glad he'd bought a bit more than they would need for this trip, since it looked like this was going to be a tiring day, also with having an extra person along. He thought back to one trip they’d made. It was the middle of winter, the trees in the forest had all lost their leaves, and they had gone into the forest with their friend Cloudy Skies, his insistence that there was a mine with a whole bunch of jewels he had found not far from one of the usual areas the three often went to.

The trip had been a bust, not because the mine wasn’t there, but because it was owned by some apparently humorless ponies. During the trip, Dream Dasher had eaten twenty two apples, two bags of hay fries, a whole pie, and drank three bottles of apple juice. Lightning Shaker chuckled. Dash was a healthy eater; the entire trip had only taken two hours. He wondered how the Earth pony hadn’t exploded.

As they neared the clearing, Lightning asked if they wanted to stop for a food break, he was slowing down, looking at them, when he caught a puzzled look on Rare Charmer’s face.

"Is something burning?" She asked, sniffing the air.

They looked around, and all three agreed there was a strange smell in the air, like something burning and some other acrid smell that Lightning Shaker couldn't seem to place. It was then that Lightning noticed the forest was beginning to glow, maybe there was a fire he thought, if so they needed to get out of there and inform Ponyville. A fire could spread and be very dangerous. He looked back to voice his opinion and noticed the glow was coming from behind them as well. He looked all around, starting to panic. It seemed like there was a glow coming from each direction, and he could smell the fire, but couldn’t hear it. Maybe they had time, he thought.

“We need to get out of here! I think the forest is on fire!” He shouted, looking about for an escape route.The other two seemed to agree, looking for a way to get safely away from the fire. This proved useless, as when they turned a corner, the path was completely blocked off by flames.

“We might just have to make our way through the trees and brush. There’s no other place to go." Dream Dasher said, sounding almost uninterested – even a bit bored. To him, the idea of fleeing and not going to the ruins was apparently worse than possibly burning in a fire.

They began to move towards the forest, leaving the path, when they heard the sound of another pony. It seemed to be causing a lot of commotion. Lightning wondered if maybe the pony was caught in the fire. Maybe it needed help. He looked to his companions, they had heard it too. “What should we do?” Rare Charmer asked. It was clear she was getting very scared.

“We should try to help." Lightning said. "We’ll find the pony that’s hurt, and maybe I can grab a cloud and drag it down to use it to put out the fire.” The three ponies seemed to agree that they needed to help. They headed in the direction of the other pony.

What they saw when they got there was horrible. They could see the pony now. Its body was on fire, its mane and tail; even his hooves stretching up beyond his fetlocks were burning. Lightning looked up. He couldn’t see a clear path to fly above the tree line; the forest canopy was too thick. “Hold on, we’ll help you, I just need to be able to fly up!” Lightning called out to the pony, shouting over the enraged sounds he was making.

It was then that the currently burning pony looked at them, its eyes ablaze as well, it exhaled and a plume of flame came with its breath. “Oh, dear Celestia, no.” Rare Charmer breathed as she stared at it. It was then that Lightning came to an odd realization. The pony before them was on fire; however, the forest was not.

"Wait, that pony is on fire! Not burning, just on fire... Why can't I be on fire?" Dream Dasher asked, with his usual ability to overlook the problem for some chance to have a cool thing. Despite the situation clearly being bad, Lightning spared a moment to give Dream Dasher a disapproving look. “What? I think having a flaming mane and tail sounds cool.” The Earth pony replied, grinning.

“Umm, guys? I’ve read about these things, it’s called a Nightmare, and it is a very dangerous creature.” Rare Charmer whispered.

Lightning sighed. “So, we need to run, then.” He backed up a bit as the creature pawed at the ground, its head lowered. It was ready to charge. “It’s blocking our path, let’s go back the other way and we’ll figure something out.” He said, flaring his wings out to look like the biggest – and hopefully best – target.

The three of them started running for the clearing, the Nightmare giving pursuit. Clearly, it was fast too, as Lightning Shaker could hear the hoofbeats getting closer. He pushed on, a plan forming in his mind. They would get to the clearing and hopefully be able to circle around and have an opening to run back along the path, if they were lucky, they could make it safely back to Ponyville.

Lightning’s hopes faded as they got to the clearing, the Nightmare right on their heels, there were three more of them in the clearing. Apparently, those were the other glows they had seen. “Dash, get Rare out of here, I’ll create a distraction.” He said, dropping into an aggressive stance.

“Umm, I think you're too late!” Rare Charmer shouted as Dream Dasher went charging after the nearest Nightmare running headfirst into it.

The other three Nightmares were charging now, right at Rare Charmer. Lightning threw himself in front of them and his world exploded in fire and pain as the first one hit him, throwing him across the clearing into a tree. He got up, shaking himself. The smell of burnt fur was strong, and his whole body hurt from the impact. He charged forward to the one closest to Rare Charmer, and pivoted on his front hooves, delivering a hard buck to the Nightmare, though he missed hitting in a good spot due to his much smaller size.

Lightning felt pain along his back as the Nightmare stomped just between his wings. The smell of burning feathers added to the burnt fur smell, and somewhere Lightning heard Rare Charmer screaming. He got up again, looking to protect her, but she was by herself. It was him she was screaming about. Was she crying? He smiled in spite of the pain, turning and throwing a quick jab with his hoof at the Nightmare, catching it in the face.

The Nightmare reeled back from the hit to the face; Lightning attacked another one that had run up to join in. His hoof, however, met another hoof as both ponies jabbed at the same time. A loud crack sounded, as Lightning landed back on his fore hooves he felt jarring pain and immediately had to take weight off the right hoof.

Rare Charmer had taken the opportunity to hide in the bushes while the fight was going on, seeing as every time she was attacked Lightning had thrown himself in the way of it and gotten hurt. She watched now, unable to stop the tears as she saw him get hurt and burned in so many places. He was trying so hard to protect her.

Lightning now laid prone on the ground, unable to hold himself up. He could see the hoof that hurt was cracked, the split going right up the middle. 'This is it.' He thought, knowing the end was coming. 'So much for being a knight for the princess; I can’t even protect one pony.' He looked around, wanting to see her one last time, but couldn’t find her. 'Good,' He thought. 'she must have gotten away.' Lightning closed his eyes, a small smile on his face, knowing he’d at least done that much.

It was strange, really. He didn’t feel the hoof hit him, but he heard it, and it sounded weird, like a blast of magic and angry shouting. He supposed that’s just the way the mind played tricks on you as you were dying. Loud hoof beats filled his ears. This must have been the others coming in to do whatever it is a Nightmare did to its victims. He had the startling thought that Dream Dasher must have fallen as well, or maybe he had gotten Rare away after all. More of those strange sounds, like magic,

And then blackness took him.

“Is he going to be ok? He’s hurt so badly.” Rare Charmer asked, still crying. She hadn’t stopped, even after they had been rescued. The four ponies, Rare Charmer, Dream Dasher, Lightning Shaker held on Dream Dasher’s back, and the pony that had saved them, exited the Everfree forest and headed towards Ponyville.

The Unicorn that had saved them looked down at Rare Charmer. “What you did was very brave, and very foolish little filly. Had I not come along they would have hurt you, and probably worse.”

Rare Charmer, her eyes still filled with tears looked up at him with an apologetic frown. “I know that. Logically, I should have stayed hidden, or even tried to run away, but they were hurting him, and he had tried so hard to protect me.” She sniffed loudly and looked away from him.

The Unicorn nodded, apparently satisfied with her answer and looked to the Earth pony. “And you, I am curious how you managed to take one of them out yourself. That is no small feat.”

Dream Dasher shrugged, careful not to let his cargo slip off. “Wasn’t a big deal, that’s life. Get used to it.”

The Unicorn chuckled, his blue eyes losing some of their hard edge now that they were out of the forest. “I’m White Star, by the way.” He said, almost as if he felt obligated to tell them, as he absently looked over his purple coat and checked his mane and tail for any marks that would show from the fight.

“I’m Rare Charmer.” The young filly said, still looking down.

“You can call me Ser Dream Dasher.” The Earth pony boasted, grinning.

They finally made it to the Ponyville hospital. Before they took Lightning inside, White Star looked down at them, a sudden thought occurring to him “Where are your parents?” He asked with a frown. “We’ll need to contact them. They’ll want to be here, at least your Pegasus friends parents will.”

Rare Charmer looked apprehensive, Dream Dasher just shrugged. “Lightning and I don’t have parents; we live with a guardian who takes care of us. We live in a house just off of Maple Park with her.” White Star looked sympathetic. “I’ll take you there once we get the doctors looking at Lightning.” Dream Dasher said, continuing into the hospital.

Lightning Shaker woke up in a white room; the smell of disinfectant and his own sweat making him feel queasy. He looked around the room, wincing as movement hurt; he saw a machine with tubes that ran from it to beneath the blanket he was under, likely going into him. He heard soft snoring coming from behind him, and turned his head slowly as it was very painful to move. In a chair by the bed was Melody Spring. The mare that had raised Dream Dasher and himself slept in an uncomfortable position, the fur beneath her eyes discolored from crying.

Lightning felt a pang of guilt knowing she had cried because of him, and hating himself for it. He tried to get up, but lacked the strength to move properly. He tried to call out to her, but his throat felt raw and only a slight rasp came out.

Dream Dasher came walking into the room, and then he grinned, seeing Lightning awake. “Hey man, how are you feeling?” He asked, whispering so as to not wake their guardian. Lightning frowned, pointing a hoof to his throat. He noticed the hoof was heavily bandaged and felt like it was splinted. “Yeah your hoof was cracked, almost split in two. You want a list of all your injuries?” Lightning Shaker shook his head and pointed to his throat again. He looked around, and seeing what he was looking for, pointed to a glass of water. “Thirsty? Alright, I’ll go get you something, I’m supposed to let the doctor know when you wake up, anyway.” He said, not waiting for the look of appreciation in his friend’s eyes as he walked out the door.

A few minutes later the door opened again Dream Dasher; the doctor, a Unicorn stallion wearing spectacles; and an Earth pony with a nurse’s cap came in. The Earth pony was carrying a tray with a pitcher of water and a glass on it; she set the tray down on a table and poured some water in a glass she smiled at Lightning as she stepped back.

The doctor, after a quick look at Lightning, levitated the glass to him. “Careful. You won’t be able to grip it as well as you are used to with that hoof bandaged." He said. He began to further examine his patient’s injuries.

Lightning drank the water in big gulps. His throat was so dry, it burned as the water hit it. “You’re finally awake; you’ve been asleep for days.” He looked over at Melody Spring, who had woken up and was looking at him, her emotions clearly somewhere between the joy of him being awake, and the sadness over his injuries.

“You have a split hoof, and some pretty severe burns, and some of your flight feathers were damaged. It’ll take some time before we know if it will affect your flight. You’ve cracked three ribs, and your left wing is dislocated. Frankly you are lucky to be alive, what were you doing in the Everfree forest?" The doctor asked, adjusting his spectacles.

Lightning never took his eyes off Melody Spring. “I’m sorry.” He said earnestly. “We didn’t think anything bad would happen.”

“Miss Spring, could nurse Redheart and I talk to you alone for a minute?” The doctor asked, motioning towards the door, a blue aura of magic turning the handle. She got up from her chair, still looking at Lightning as if she were on the verge of tears.

After they had left and the two colts were alone together Lightning finally asked. “How is it that we are still alive? I was pretty sure I was going to die back there.”

Dream Dasher shrugged in a non-committal sort of way. “When you went down, that filly came out of her hiding spot and started using magic on the one attacking you, and shouting at it like it would listen. I guess it wasn’t for nothing, as she got the attention of a Unicorn named White Star who had been traveling to Ponyville from Fillydelphia. If he hadn’t come along, I don’t think you would have made it. I would have been fine though.”

Lightning sighed and rolled his eyes, though the truth of what was said still struck him. “What about Rare Charmer?” He asked, worried.

“She’s fine, we decided not to mention that she was there; seemed easier. You know, the doctors say it could be months before you fully recover, if at all. I may have to start going on adventures without you.” Dream Dasher had something of a smirk on his face, but his eyes showed differently, he had been worried. Lightning Shaker decided to let it go. It was fine; he would get better, and they would become the knights they had always dreamed of.

Comments

[Lightning Shaker]

Whew, ok finally got this published, sorry this took so long, I've been really nit picky about it. Still feels off to me, but I don't know what to do with it. Hope you guys enjoy, also yep, totally adding the Dark tag to the story for this. But that'll be remedied by Scootacute!

[Solid 6GEAR]

I like this. Definitely reads very well and flows just right, even with the slight timeskip in the middle.
I can't wait to see what's in store for those two, there's certain to be a lot of stuff to happen I imagine...

[Lightning Shaker]

Yeah, and it's almost as if I wrote in a reason for Lightning and Solid to meet... weird.

[Inspira Flash]

Do like. The beginning kind of starts off a little slow, but if you pound through it, the story opens up nicely.