Out of Body

by zaponator

4 - Inclement Weather

They set out at first light the next morning. According to Daring Do, there was a lot of forest between them and Hoofington, and she wanted to cover that ground as quickly as possible. That was hard to do when they were bushwhacking through thick undergrowth, but just a short ways into the forest the two came along a worn dirt pathway that seemed to head in the direction they were going.

The hard-packed path allowed them to pick up the pace, and soon enough they were moving along at a decent trot. Rainbow Dash passed the time by scanning the woods around her, and she was intrigued by what she saw.

Rather than the bare-trunked and leafy trees of the Whitetail Woods they'd passed through on the first day, this forest was made up of thick coniferous evergreen trees. The forest floor was covered in old fallen pine needles, at least wherever it wasn't hidden beneath tightly grouped ferns. Instead of birdsong filling the air, Rainbow's ears constantly twitched to the sound of cicadas’ distinctive songs with the occasional squirrel or other small critter chiming in.

Old fallen logs, overgrown with massive mushrooms and other fungus, rotted away in the shadows provided by the thick evergreen cover. The sky was almost completely hidden, visible only in small patches between the needles here and there. Of course, now that Rainbow was alert to the possibility of unwanted eyes spotting them from above, she was glad for the concealment.

Sunlight managed to stream in through the cover, tinted dim green by the needly filter. The air was still, free of even the slightest breeze within the thick trees. Rainbow Dash could see motes of dust or fungal spores passing through shafts of green-tinged sunlight as they floated aimlessly about on stale air. The whole place felt quiet despite the chirping insects, dim despite the scattered lighting, and overall it felt utterly still.

There was a sort of beauty to it. The stillness wasn't oppressive, even to a pegasus as in-tune with the sky as Rainbow Dash. While most enclosed spaces did tend to make her uncomfortable—not that she would admit it—the forest somehow didn't feel enclosed. It was the sort of natural wonder that made Rainbow Dash truly appreciate what Fluttershy had fallen in love with on her first trip to the surface.

Rainbow Dash was truly amazed at how different things were when looked at from the ground. If she'd been flying at cloud-level, she wouldn't have been able to discern any meaningful difference between the forest she was currently traveling through and the Whitetail Woods.

From the ground, however, the two places shared next to nothing in common. Needles replaced leaves, ferns and fungus replaced flowers, insects replaced birds, and a thick overhead covering replaced what had been a relatively unobstructed view of the sky.

When she thought of it like that, Rainbow realized that the Whitetail Woods sounded more appealing, but in all honesty she found her current environment more appealing. There was just something about it, a quality that she couldn't define in simple terms. Whatever it was, it put a wide smile on her face as she trotted through the thick forest along the worn-down pathway.

When lunchtime arrived, Rainbow Dash once again ate from her supply of pre-made sandwiches. As beautiful as the forest was, the lack of wildflowers meant there wasn't really anything decent to eat around.

"We've still got about a full day's trot before we hit Hoofington, if I'm figuring it right," Daring Do said from where she sat in front of Dash.

Rainbow nodded. "So we should get there by midday tomorrow if we stop and sleep tonight, yeah?"

"Yeah, though it's safest to assume some sort of delay." Daring shrugged. "Probably get there sometime in the afternoon, hopefully before the general store closes. If we're lucky, we can buy what we need, rest and then move on at first light without having to wait around for the shop to re-open." She sucked in a breath. "I'd really rather not stay there any longer than necessary."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at that. "…why do you say that?"

Daring Do only scowled harder. "Look, let's just say not every small town is Ponyville, kid."

As unhelpfully vague as that answer was, Rainbow could see it was all she was going to get. Shrugging, she decided to change the topic.

"I think you should fly up past the trees and try to gauge the weather."

Daring fidgeted. "Uh, why?"

"I dunno, I just feel like it's gonna storm." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Either way, it couldn't hurt to have a basic forecast."

Strangely, Daring only looked more uncomfortable. "Erm, yeah, I… guess that does make sense. Technically…"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Come on! It'll take two seconds. Just get up there and give me a forecast for the next day or two, jeeze."

"S-Sure… I'll just… do that," Daring Do mumbled as she slowly flapped into the air. Even slower, she rose and rose until disappearing above the tree cover.

Rainbow Dash tapped her chin as she stared up after the older adventurer. "What in the hay was that all about?"

Moments later, Daring dropped back down to land silently in front of Rainbow Dash. She still looked uncomfortable, but put on her best confident smile and inhaled a deep breath in preparation for her weather report.

"There's clouds'n'stuff up there."

A beat.

Rainbow Dash squinted. "Okay, define clouds'n'stuff."

"Y'know, clouds…" Daring Do shrugged, "and stuff."

Rainbow glared.

Daring threw up her hooves. "What do you want from me? I'm not a weatherpony!"

"Not even—"

"No! I never even had elementary weather courses. Happy now?"

Rainbow Dash merely rolled her eyes, then quickly scanned the tops of nearby trees. She selected one that seemed tall enough, then approached its base and stood on her hind hooves while bracing her forehooves against it.

"You know," Rainbow Dash chirped as she unfurled her wings and gauged the distance to the lowest branch. "One of these days, you'll have to explain to me how you managed to grow up a pegasus that knows nothing about weather or Cloudsdale."

Rather than the quick rebuttal Rainbow had expected from her little jab, Daring was silent for a moment before quietly muttering, "It's really not all that interesting…"

Rainbow blinked, but chose not to follow that up as she spotted the perfect branch overhead. She coiled her hind legs and sprung into the air. At the apex of her leap, Rainbow Dash gave one powerful beat of her wings. It was enough to launch her high enough to grip the branch with her forehooves and pull herself onto it.

Daring sat on the forest floor, shooting a proud smirk Rainbow's way. "You're not bad at improvising, kid, I'll give ya that much."

All trace of whatever malaise had plagued her tone a moment ago was gone, and so Rainbow Dash decided not to press the earlier issue. Instead, she offered a jaunty half-salute and leapt towards the next branch. The small hops were putting a lot less strain on Rainbow's wings than outright flying would have, but it did take a little longer to reach the top. Still, Rainbow Dash did eventually ascend to the highest stable point on the tree, and she sat upon a branch there overlooking most of the forest.

It wasn't the highest tree in the woods, but it was high enough for Rainbow to see the sky. That was all she needed. Strictly speaking, Daring Do's assessment had been right. Scattered puffs of white cloud drifted airily across a wide open blue sky like icebergs gliding through a deep and calm ocean. The surface world hung in a dim grey haze, and Rainbow looked up to find that the sun, still only halfway up in the eastern sky, was mostly hidden behind a single poofy cloud.

Then the cloud moved.

Rainbow Dash's gaze slid downwards as the treetops of the entire forest suddenly exploded in vibrant colour. It was a sea of gold and green, an ocean more choppy and erratic than the sky but no less beautiful. Birds flitted between the tops of trees, appearing for a brief moment in ecstatic bursts of flapping feathers, before diving back down to be hidden once more in the deep green sea.

A chill breeze blew across Rainbow's feathers. Her treetop perch swayed in the wind, and the entire forest swayed with it. While the sky was calm and still but for its drifting white icebergs, the forest was alive and moving, shifting and tumbling almost like waves made of evergreen needles and branches. For the briefest of moments, Rainbow Dash forgot why she was up there. She simply observed, lived on the surface between two seas, silently soaking in the perfect contrast.

Then Daring Do floated up on silently flapping wings.

"See? Just a buncha clouds and stuff!" Daring Do declared, utterly shattering the moment.

Rainbow Dash sighed and ran a forehoof across her face. "Would you stop saying that?"

"Why?" Daring folded her forelegs. "It's accurate."

"It's dumb."

"You're dumb!"

"Look," Rainbow Dash groaned. "Just, like, shut up and listen, alright?"

Daring Do grumbled, but nonetheless gave a nod for Rainbow Dash to continue.

Rainbow Dash took another moment to examine the sky, before nodding and declaring, "We're gonna have a major storm within 24 hours."

Daring blinked. "That's it? You can just tell that? We've been up here for, like, three minutes. Don't you need some sort of device or something?"

Rainbow shook her head. "Nah, just look over there." She pointed a forehoof towards the northern horizon.

Daring Do squinted, then squinted some more. "I don't get it."

"Ugh," Rainbow Dash groaned. "Come on, all that grey right on the horizon?"

Daring Do slowly tilted her head until it was almost at 90 degrees, then broke into a crooked sort of smile. "Oh yeah! I see it! Jeeze, that's barely a smudge though, I don't really see how you noticed it so quick."

"Practice."

"Okay, but still, how is that our problem? That's, like, a bazillion miles away isn't it?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Sure it is, right now. Just look at all the other clouds though. They're all drifting southwards, and at the speed they're going I'd give us 24 hours until that massive cloudbank on the horizon hits us."

"Oh…" Daring's ears folded.

Rainbow Dash wasn't finished. "Not to mention the fact that we're in thunderstorm territory right now."

"Thunderstorm territory?"

"Yeah, it happens. Weatherponies gotta keep the weather perfect for most places, but all that bad weather has to go somewhere right? There's a lot of excess heat pushed down here from Canterlot and a lot of excess moisture from those hick towns in the swamps out east. All of it mixes together in this real nasty concoction right here in the area east of Canterlot. There's really nothing the weatherponies could do to fight against that mix, so they generally just let any storms that build up run their course."

Daring Do cocked an eyebrow. "You're weirdly knowledgeable about this stuff, kid."

"Hey, I was a manager myself you know." Rainbow puffed out her chest. "Weather-making may not be a glorious job but I take pride in my work."

"And I respect that, but if we've got less than 24 hours then I suggest we get moving." Daring winced. "I doubt we're gonna make it to Hoofington before that hits us, but I suspect you want to spend as little time travelling through a thunderstorm as possible."

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. "Right." She jumped from the tree and spread her wings, allowing herself to glide to the forest floor without flapping them, though even that short glide was not without a twinge of pain up her back.

Rainbow touched down on the crunchy bed of pine needles that coated the ground and looked up to see Daring descending towards her. Daring landed without a sound, and the two of them trotted back along the path through the woods.

While the path was clearly maintained at some point in its history, it had fallen into some level of disrepair. The width varied depending on how much the ferns on either side were encroaching in any given area. At times the path was four ponies wide, while at others Rainbow couldn't even trot down the center without her wings brushing against plant life on either side.

Here and there, fallen branches coated in age-old moss were scattered across the hard-packed dirt. Rainbow nearly tripped over the first branch she came across, but kept a more careful eye out after that.

After an hour or two of walking, with only bits of small talk interspersed, a thought struck Rainbow hard enough to make her blink.

"Hey, uh… Daring?" Rainbow Dash hesitantly began.

Daring turned around to fly backwards in front of Rainbow. "Something on your mind, kid?"

"Yeah, uh, don't freak out or anything—"

"Always an encouraging start."

"—but, like… how's your body supposed to drink water and stuff?"

Daring came to a halt so fast that Rainbow trotted right through her before realizing she had stopped. Rainbow Dash shivered slightly and turned around. Daring Do was flapping in place, staring at Rainbow Dash with an odd look Rainbow couldn't quite place.

"That's… really dark for you, kid."

Rainbow winced. "Ah, jeeze, forget I said anything. Let's just not think about it, right? We'll get there as fast as we can and everything'll be awesome."

"No, no," Daring waved off Dash's frantic blathering. "You just… caught me off guard s'all. Didn't really expect such morbid thoughts from you. Heh, thought that was my job…" The last part was mumbled so low that Dash wasn't sure she was supposed to hear it.

Rainbow Dash stared expectantly as Daring flapped in silence. Finally, Daring gestured for them to keep walking before she spoke up.

"I know I said the Mirror was an obscure and unknown artifact, but that doesn't mean I knew nothing about it." She paused while Rainbow clambered over a fallen mossy log before continuing, "I was able to find bits and pieces of info along my journey to track it down, but most of it made no sense without knowledge of what the Mirror actually did."

Rainbow Dash nodded, hopped over some branches, and returned her gaze to Daring Do. Daring's ears were twitching as she spoke, but Rainbow's were pointed directly at the older adventurer. She had the feeling what Daring was saying was important, and wasn't about to miss a word.

"From what little I could gather, I was able to find constant mention of a 'user'." Daring shrugged. "At the time, I didn't think much of it, because I was more interested in the Mirror and its location, not whatever schlup was supposed to be using it. Heh, funny how it turned out to be me."

Rainbow was starting to see where this was going. "Okay, so you found info about the user, and I guess it mentioned—"

"That the user would be kept 'safe and sustained for the duration of use', yes." Daring Do nodded. "So, uh… we totally don't need to worry!" Daring grinned crookedly. "My body is safe and sound or whatever."

"If you say so." Rainbow Dash nodded. "You're the expert here."

"Damn skippy." Daring grinned for a moment, but then that grin faltered. "Of course, we do still have to make it there before some griffon merc manages to track down the temple…"

They trotted in silence for a few more minutes, but Rainbow Dash noticed that Daring seemed more forlorn than before. As chipper as she acted, it seemed the macabre subject matter had affected her mood more than she would admit. Dash smirked as an idea came to mind that might fix the situation.

"Say, Daring, what can you tell me about this place?"

"Huh?" Daring started as if broken from deep thought. She glanced around. "What about it?"

Rainbow Dash weaved around a particularly large boulder that had found its way into the road, then said, "Y'know, everything! The history of this place and whatever. Hay, I don't even know its name."

"Well, it's funny you should mention the name of all things. This particular forest has quite a history with names, as it so happens. In pre-Unification times, this was actually the whereabouts of the earth pony capital city."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Wait, really?"

Daring nodded. "Yeah, you remember that old Hearth's Warming story right? The unicorns settled in a gem-rich mountain, the pegasi in their cloud city, and the earth ponies on a great fertile land. Well," Daring tapped a forehoof against the ground, producing no sound. "This is it!"

Rainbow Dash glanced left and right of the path they were trotting down. They were surrounded by thick trees and undergrowth, with nary a space for crops to grow or cities to be built. She turned back to Daring with one eyebrow raised.

Daring Do rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, this was a long time ago. There's a forest here now because the land is so fertile. Let's start from the beginning!"

And then, something Rainbow Dash was very familiar with took place. She'd already seen Daring do it before when discussing the hills they'd travelled through, but the novelty of seeing anypony but Twilight enter 'lecture mode' was still enough to make Rainbow stifle a giggle.

"So when the earth ponies first settled this place they called it, big surprise, Earth. This entire land would've been filled with towns, villages, and castles belonging to the kingdom of Earth, but their pride was the capital city, which they called Terra.

Daring Do gestured around them with her forehooves as she talked, pointing at seemingly random bits of the forest. "Terra was massive, a great city of stone and iron. Hard and enduring, like the earth ponies themselves. Of course, nopony could match the pegasi militarily, but even they would've thought twice before attacking the earth pony capital.

"Of course, all things fade with enough time. Post-unification, there wasn't really any need for militaristic fortress-cities, and Terra was abandoned. Without their capital, the earth ponies saw less reason to stick around here at all. The kingdom was dissolved, so this great expanse of land was nameless for a good hundred years."

"Seriously? This place had no name at all?" When she got a nod in response, Rainbow Dash continued, "What changed?"

Daring Do smirked, stretched her forelegs out, and spun in place. "This forest happened. Within a short hundred years of the earth ponies abandoning their kingdom, this forest had grown up to replace them. Some say the soil was full of earth pony magic, some say they left behind a fertility artifact and its power grew trees like grass. Personally, I think somepony dropped a pinecone.

"Whatever the case, the old earth pony capital was lost somewhere along the way. They named the forest Terra in memory of the city it had swallowed up, but time changes everything. A few hundred years later this place was the Terran Woods. A bit more time and they called it Terrawood. Another several hundred years and the name had been diluted even more. Ponies had started calling it the Terrible Wood, and there were all sorts of pony's tales about the monsters and spirits that inhabited this place.

Daring Do chuckled. "It's funny how what had started out as a beautiful and fertile land turned into a place of legends and horrors given enough time." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, then came Nightmare Moon. She actually had a staging base set up in these woods—she played off their reputation for scare tactics—and during that time she called it the Night Terror Forest.

"As catchy as that name was, it didn't stick. As soon as Nightmare Moon was banished, ponies came up with a new name for this place. Now, during those first few years post-Nightmare, there was a whole lot of Celestial patriotism going around, so it's little wonder this place got a name like the Sunwoods.

"Ponies did eventually realize how inaccurate that was, and a couple hundred years later this place was renamed again to the Shadewood. Why? Because the royal map-maker decided he could get out of the hot summer sun by sitting beneath these pines. Now it's been Shadewood for the past… 600 years, I believe. Give or take a decade.

"The funniest part about the name is that it has absolutely no trace of the original earth pony name. Just like the forest itself lacks any of the original earth pony kingdom. They built a city that would last until the end of time, but that city was lost. They named the forest in honour of the city, and that name was forgotten. All of these grand gestures that were supposed to last forever, and the one thing that stuck was a lazy pony's name for a good place to nap.

Daring grinned. "Just goes to show, you can't try to write history. History writes you."

"Wow," was all Rainbow could manage after almost a full minute of silent gawking. "I can't believe that super hardcore earth pony fortress just up and disappeared like that. Swallowed up by time."

"Oh, I actually found Terra."

"What!?"

"Yeah, a few years back I set out to retrieve this so-called fertility artifact. Turns out there was no such thing." She shrugged. "I told you, somepony probably just dropped a pinecone somewhere. I did find Terra though. Really cool place, and the single best benchmark for pre-unification architecture I have ever seen."

Rainbow Dash stared in silence again, but could only hold in a moment before breaking out into barely-stifled laughter.

When she finally caught her breath, Rainbow said, "You know, Daring, you're different from what I expected after our first impression."

"…oh?" Daring looked apprehensive.

"Yeah, but not in a bad way." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I guess I didn't realize you had all that… booksmarts. I mean, when we first met we basically kicked Ahuizotl's butt and then said 'see ya later'. I didn't really realize you had more going on than butt-kicking."

Daring giggled. "I write a book series, kid. That's a pretty 'eggheaded' profession."

"Yeah, but you don't just write books."

"True," Daring conceded, "but not all of my expeditions are as exciting as all that either. At the end of the day, I'm an archeologist. My job is to unearth and protect ancient ruins, treasures, and artifacts. Sure, nowadays I mostly go after artifacts that require some butt-kicking to retrieve, but there are other much more boring excursions, mostly from my early career, that I never bothered writing about."

Rainbow arched an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Daring put on a mock storytelling voice as she said, "How about The Adventure of Daring Do and the Tomb of the Horse Emperor!" She paused dramatically. "We dug in the sand for three days to locate the entrance, and when we did, it opened easily without any traps! OooOOOoooH! Then we collected the Emperor's belongings onto a wagon and brought them back to the Trottingham Museum of Natural Hiiistoryyy!"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "You know, one of these days you're gonna have to tell me how you got into the whole 'adventuring' thing in the first place. Sounds like a lot of the stuff you did is totally… not adventuring."

Daring grit her teeth in a poor facsimile of a smile. "Heh, one of these days I might just tell you that story, kid. But… not today."

They trotted onwards in silence for a while longer. Rainbow Dash found herself looking around at the forest with a newfound sense of appreciation. As much as she would never admit to enjoying a history lecture, she couldn't deny that the place felt so much deeper now that she knew of its past. She could almost imagine a time when the thick trees were replaced by rolling plains dotted all over with farming villages and stone forts.

In a way, she almost felt sad that a place with such vast and storied culture could be so utterly forgotten after enough time. Rainbow Dash thought of Daring Do and her expedition to uncover the lost city of Terra. Daring hadn't let it stay forgotten. As long as there was somepony willing to remember the ponies and places that history forgot, then maybe it wasn't as bad as all that.

Rainbow was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a flowing river just up ahead. Her ears perked, and she remembered that her canteen was mostly empty. Rainbow Dash sprung into a gallop that brought her to the source of the sound in a few moments' time.

The trees didn't really thin out so much as stop entirely. One minute Rainbow was weaving between thick evergreens, and in the next blink she stumbled out into the bright sunlight, only barely catching herself before she would've faceplanted into the running body of water before her.

"Heh, gear down there, kid," Daring Do said, chuckling as she walked nonchalantly out of the trees behind Rainbow Dash. "All good things come to those who… whoa…" Daring Do trailed off as she took in the scenery set out before them.

The river was flowing southwest, cascading and tumbling over stones worn down by countless years of water until they were as smooth as silk. The sunlight sparkled off each undulating splash along the river's path as the crystal clear water flowed inexorably along its way. The bank on either side of the gentle water was covered in soft emerald grass right up to the river's edge, and for the first time since entering the Shadewood Rainbow Dash saw wildflowers all along the riverbank.

Yet none of that was what had captivated the pair of travelers.

While on their side of the river, the trees had stopped several feet before the water, the other side of the river had no trees at all. Brilliant green grass extended north of the river for a couple dozen feet, and then it stopped. A jagged line of rock and gravel marked the edge, and beyond that lay the world.

The cliff ran parallel along the same path as the river, jagged and sharp like the earth had been broken rather than cut. The drop was at least a hundred feet, but the forest below was identical to the rest that they had seen. From their position at the top of the cliff, the land seemed to stretch out before them like a vast, prickly green blanket.

The forest stretched on and on and on before them, laid out as if the entire world was covered in dark green. To the northeast, in the direction the river was coming from, a great green mountain range loomed, its peaks low and unimposing compared to the likes of Canterlot, but still towering well above the forest. Even the mountains were covered head to toe in evergreen woods. Their squat and sturdy forms could almost be mistaken for hills in every way but sheer size.

To the northwest, the forest continued almost to the horizon, except for a patch of hazy tan that could be seen straddling the line between earth and sky. Directly northward, the forest continued all the way to the edge.

The sun was moving downwards in the western sky, lighting the side of the mountains visible to Dash in its brilliance, and casting a slight golden glow across the ocean of treetops laid out before them. The sky was spotted all over with clouds, until Rainbow's gaze focused on the northern edge of the great blue expanse.

There, directly ahead of them, a massive dark grey blur was consuming the entire horizon. It was close enough now for them to see how the edges roiled and tumbled through the sky, and the occasional flash of blue light within its gigantic body. It looked almost alive, and filled with a malevolent energy intent on covering the entire land until not a single ray of sunlight could get through. Even though it was still countless miles away, the great storm seemed big enough to swallow the mountains Dash had seen. It wouldn't even notice a morsel such as herself.

"Well, on the bright side," Daring chirped through a forced grin, "this place has a fantastic view!"

Rainbow Dash slowly turned to glare pointedly at the older adventurer.

Daring's smile only grew. "And hey! There's Hoofington!"

Rainbow blinked and snapped her gaze around to see where Daring was pointing. Sure enough, due north of them several columns of smoke were visible breaking through the canopy and drifting lazily towards the clouds. They were close, but so was the thunderstorm. Rainbow Dash wasn't sure if they could afford another night in the woods unless they wanted to be woken up by crashing lightning.

"We need to go straight there," Rainbow Dash declared determinedly. "The storm is moving even faster than I thought, and stopping for the night just isn't an option at this point."

Daring Do raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that, kid? I mean, you're the weatherpony here so I'll trust your judgement on the storm, but you're also the pony that actually needs to sleep."

Rainbow Dash winced, but quickly shook it off. "Doesn't matter." She stooped to fill up her canteen, an old metal Wonderbolts canteen she'd had since flight camp, then looked up with her jaw set. "Come on, let's get moving."

"Lead the way, kid." Daring Do gave a mock salute. "Honestly, it sounds to me like things are just about to get interesting." She grinned widely. "I like that!"

---

The sun was cresting the edge of the horizon, and still Rainbow Dash trekked through the thick forest with no break in sight. The road she'd been following had been left at the top of the cliff an hour or two ago.

Daring Do hovered just behind on slowly flapping wings, occasionally casting glances towards the ever-darkening sky and the ever-increasing number of clouds that occupied it. Even from what little they could see through the forest canopy, the change in weather was becoming increasingly apparent.

The temperature continued to drop as the light faded. It was amazing what a difference lighting made, as the trees seemed much more sinister and foreboding in the dim light of nightfall without a crackling fire to illuminate their surroundings.

Daring Do, however, seemed unaffected. She flapped along with a content smile between her skyward glances, looking right at home while Rainbow Dash shivered and glanced into the shadows between trees with every other step.

"Is this storm even gonna affect us?" Daring's question came out so suddenly that Rainbow Dash took a moment to realize it was addressed to her.

"Wait, what?" Rainbow tilted her head.

"I mean, we've got all these trees and whatcrap, right?" Daring Do shrugged. "Why are we worrying about a bit of rain?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "It's not 'a bit of rain'. This isn't the sort of storm you anchor your house for and wait out. This is the sort of storm you fly your house away from."

"Pshh, you and your cloud houses. Couldn't you just say 'it floods the basement'?"

"The hay is a basement?"

Daring blinked. "Wow. You know what? Forget I said anything."

Rainbow Dash hopped up onto a fallen log as wide as a dragon's leg, then glided down on the other side before saying, "Whatever, the point is that it'd suck to be caught outside in it any longer than we need to. I'd rather, like… not be that way."

"Real poetical, kid." Daring smirked.

They trudged on as the sun disappeared completely. The moon tried its best to shine down on the forest with cold blue light, but more and more clouds were filling the sky. Only scant bits of light made it through the mostly-covered sky, and even that was filtered by the tree cover.

Still, Rainbow Dash pressed onward. The wind was picking up, biting and chilling through her feathers. The occasional flash of light would illuminate the entire sky in stark white for less than a blink, only to be followed several seconds later by a world-splitting crash. More than once, Rainbow Dash stumbled and barely avoided tripping over a root or a stone that she hadn't seen in the darkness. Eventually, she didn't manage to avoid it.

"Oof!" Rainbow Dash cried out as she landed roughly on her chest on the cold damn bed of pine needles.

A long sigh from Daring Do wafted over Rainbow's prone form. "Come on, kid. It can't be much farther now. Up and at 'er."

Rainbow Dash groaned. It was well into the middle of the night now, and the fact that she'd already been walking for days didn't help matters. Her body ached, her hooves throbbed, but above all else her head felt like it was splitting.

Something flitted past the very edge of her vision.

Rainbow's heart skipped a beat. She shot to her hooves and spun to the left with a sharp breath, faster than she would've thought she was still capable of moving. Something was moving, out there in the jungle. She was positive that something was there, but her vision was hazy and out of focus. Her head hurt, and it was almost as hard to see as it was to think.

"Kid! We gotta get goin' already!"

Rainbow Dash blinked. She stared straight ahead at motionless ferns and unoccupied forest. There was nothing there. There was never anything there. The wind tossed her mane, but the full-body shiver that rolled through her had nothing to do with the chill.

"R-Right," Rainbow muttered as she turned around. Daring was staring at her with both eyebrows raised. Rainbow tried to put on a confident smile. "Let's move. We're probably almost there."

Daring stared in silence for another moment before slowly opening her mouth. "You sure you're okay, kid? Maybe you did hit your head a little harder than—"

Crak-BOOM

They both jumped at the sudden blast of eardrum-splitting thunder. It was closer than ever.

"Don't worry about it!" Rainbow Dash realized she was shouting to be heard over the wind now. "Just go!"

They broke into a gallop northwards. The storm hit them moments later, and within seconds Rainbow Dash couldn't see three feet in front of her. She was grateful for her well-honed sense of direction, without which they could've easily gotten lost in the sheets of unrelenting rainwater.

The sky exploded with blinding brilliance in the exact same moment her eardrums felt like they exploded from a massive peal of thunder. Rainbow Dash stumbled for a moment, but saw the form of Daring Do, somehow visible through all the rain, gesturing encouragingly for her to keep moving.

Gritting her teeth, Rainbow galloped onward. On and on through thunder and lightning and torrential downpour. Her mane clung limply to the side of her neck and her feathers were matted and clumped. The ground was growing ever more slick and treacherous as rivulets of rainwater flowed every which way in and around the trees.

At one point, a bolt of lightning struck so close that the hairs on Rainbow's coat stood up. She could've sworn she saw a brilliant orange flash at the top of a nearby tree before the light faded and all was darkness and water once more.

The sky was gone entirely. No clouds and no stars were visible to guide their path. Even Rainbow's ineffable sense of direction was beginning to give her doubt as the storm tried its best to disorient her.

At one point, Rainbow Dash nearly trotted past Daring Do before noticing that the other mare had stopped under a large evergreen. Rainbow turned around and joined the older adventure, noting that Daring's coat looked stark dry within the pouring rain in a way that made Dash's brain hurt.

Under the tree, the rain was lessened, but not stopped. Enough water still made it through that Dash remained soaked to the bone, and the wind still assaulted her mercilessly to ensure all traces of warmth had fled from her fuzzy blue body.

The wind and thunder were so loud that Rainbow Dash couldn't hear her own voice. She was pretty sure that she shouted something along the lines of, "What!?"

Not her most eloquent moment.

Daring Do mouthed one word at Rainbow Dash.

"…What!?"

Daring rolled her eyes, then tried again even slower. One word. Blanket.

The older mare gestured emphatically at Rainbow's saddlebag, then mimed wrapping a cloak around her body.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, to which Daring only nodded seriously. Another flash of lightning and the subsequent thunder caused Dash to pin her ears against her head, and only made it clear there was no time to argue.

With a resigned shrug, she withdrew her blanket from her saddlebags. While they weren't totally waterproof, they did a decent job at it. The blanket was only wet, which was a step up from Rainbow herself who was drenched. Wrapping the blanket around herself didn't make much of a difference at that point, but at Daring's continued level stare she did just that.

When she was finished, Rainbow Dash was wrapped head to hoof in a plain brown cloak. She'd even managed to get it over her head in a sort of hood. She wasn't any dryer, but she had to admit it helped slightly against the wind. Even so, Rainbow Dash shot Daring Do a skeptical look from beneath her brown hood.

Daring smirked. She carefully mouthed trust me, and then pointed northwards.

Rainbow Dash followed Daring's hoof, only to squint into darkness and rain for several moments. Just when she was beginning to give up, lightning flashed once more, and then Rainbow Dash saw it. She let out a tiny gasp as that brief moment of light caused something in the distance to become visible.

It wasn't much, just a dull orange glowing speck through the trees, but it was all Rainbow needed to see to burst into a huge grin. That light could only mean one thing, there were ponies there.

Hoofington.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to those that helped with pre-reading:
Skeeter The Lurker and Aatxe.

Comments

[alamais]

As beautiful as the forest was, the lack of wildflowers meant there wasn't really anything decent to eat around.

Too good for pinecones, eh? Piffle.

[One Lucky Gamer]

YAY, the story isn't one of those dump posts and forgotten about. You got a fan here mate, keep up the good work. :D

[FreedomFiend]

Even though it was still countless miles away, the great storm seemed big enough to swallow the mountains Dash had seen. It wouldn't even notice a morsel such as herself.

[Revan]

Hmm...

Daring is hiding something major...

Assuming that she's not simply a figment of Rainbow's imagination, of course.

[Real_Atomsk]

Orange flash? How long until the rest of them meet up? Actually that is kind of bugging me that RD didn't go talk to Twilight, this might be strange but not really compared to everything else.

Feels like only stargate ever really got into how to deal with and explain things that only one character could see

[FloydienSlip]

Good stuff.

[Ryvaken]

6418284 Jack, don't be an ass.

[Legoliam1235]

6427609 yes but that makes to much sense and i'm not arguing that pinkey is nomal

[Pyromitsu]

Glad that I finally caught up with this.

Great work as usual Zap. Can't wait to see where this goes.

[Celefin]

A fine specimen of the rare good Daring Do story. Very nice setup, very nice character interaction and very, very nice history/worldbuilding. Let's see where this goes.

[Norad2]

"I doubt we're gonna make it to Hoofington before that hits us, but I suspect you want to spend as little time travelling through a thunderstorm as possible."

You know, they say it's always raining in Hoofington.