The Hag, the heroes, and a few other things

by Amaranthine Thought

Undying Loyalty 1

“Wandering is so fun, wandering in the sun. Just the two of us, it’s so fabulous, wandering is fun.”

Spring had finally arrived, leaving the land green and warm once again. It had been one month since I had seen Rose Bush and her new husband Honest Cloud off on their voyage.

“Meeting new ponies everywhere, places I’ve never seen oh look over there! Something new to see! Someplace new to be! Wandering is fun.”

I decided to travel inland in Eaglemount, wanting to learn more about griffons. The desire mostly sprang from the idea that I might discover the dead griffon’s past, and bring his tale to a satisfactory end so that he could move on.

And yes, I did make the enchantment to make the skull’s eyes glitter if he was looking.

He usually was.

“It’s just me and her, that’s all it ever were, I hope that we can get some more, wandering is fun.”

And I might just strangle Pinkie in her sleep. She had been constructing that tune ever since we first left and she has expanded it to fill hours of travel. It stuck in the head. But I couldn’t just deny her. It made her happy.

“So off we go! Onward through the snow! Onward through the forest the fields and the flowers, onward past the mountains just like towers.”

“We’ll find what we seek, just wait we’ll find it this week! Just the two of us, it’s so fabulous! It just Pinkie and Hag!”

“Pinkie?”

“Yeah Hag?”

“Why don’t you talk to Feathers for a while?”

I passed her the griffon’s skull and she happily put it on her back and settled into the endless chatter she was so fond of. It was quieter than her singing, and easier to endure.

Eaglemount was deceptively large. Mountains and valleys and hills made traveling on hoof an extremely long journey where a griffon could just fly over the obstacle. That was not a difficulty, as I was used to wilderness and travel and Pinkie seemed impossible to tire.

What was a difficulty was the skull we had with us, as griffons apparently have an extremely violent reaction at seeing their dead. They don’t attack, but they do thrash and scream and rip feathers out like they had been possessed or something. An issue that came up from time to time as griffons flew and had great vision.

And worse, beyond that, was that griffons are apparently the most pig headed people I have ever had the displeasure of knowing. They were rude, insulting, and arrogant creatures, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure why.

They lived in shacks that any breeze could destroy, and their towns were disasters with garbage and debris scattered without care. Most of everything was falling apart, and the griffons themselves were often disgusting, filthy things.

If Pinkie was not somehow capable of making them tolerable in behavior, I would be leaving a trail of beaten and bald griffons behind me.

We had managed to gain some information on the fallen griffon at least. Apparently, message griffons could only ever be found at their capital nowadays, and that is where we were headed. High Peak loomed over us, and I could just barely see a crumbling castle high atop it.

For a griffon, the flight would take an hour or less.

Since the ground went straight down some ways, and then had a winding path leading to and up the mountain, we were going to be spending a long time getting there.

We had camped just above the cliff, in preparation for the long trip down into the dark chasm. I often ate food raw when traveling, but one of Pinkie’s redeeming features was her cooking. She could make grass taste good.

So there we were, me resting by the fire with Feathers at my side, his eyes alight with a faint glitter, while Pinkie tossed and stirred and glared at the salad that she was making.

It was fairly peaceful. Nice even. Not that it lasted very long.

---

Rainbow had made it all the way to the edges of Eaglemount in only a month, drawn there by the faint tug of Twilight’s search charm. Everywhere she had looked, there had been no sign of Pinkie, or me.

She was taking this as a good sign; she hadn’t found our corpses, therefore we must be alive.

Other ponies would have given up long ago, but Rainbow kept going, and kept searching. An honorable trait, and once again, a mare that had more guts than most stallions.

By chance, she found her way to Mountainside. She got lost in a storm, and she found and stopped at the town because the pouring rain and driving winds made it unsafe to continue. Ponies being ponies, one of the townsfolk let her inside their home, to wait out the storm.

In particular, the pony’s name was White Cloth, and she was the one who had supplied the cloth for Rose’s dress.

After Rainbow was settled and dry, she asked her, “So, where do you come from? I’d bet Thunderhead, right? You look like a pegasus from there.”

Rainbow shook her head, “Ponyville.”

“That’s… really far away, isn’t it?” Rainbow nodded. “What are you doing all the way out here?”

“Looking for a friend.”

“Can you tell me about it?”

“Well… sure, why not.”

“Her name is Pinkie Pie, and she’s an earth pony.”

White Cloth hesitated, remembering the wedding. “Does she have a pink coat and mane, and always bounces everywhere?”

The question made Rainbow freeze. Everywhere else, she always got ‘and what does she look like?’ followed by ‘never seen her’. White Cloth had just renewed her hopes, and destroyed her fear that Pinkie might be gone, and Rainbow’s spirit soared.

She jumped and whirled on White Cloth, making the pony step back slightly. “You saw her!?” she yelled. “Where!? When!? I need to know!”

“It… it was a while ago, just a month ago. She was helping somepony set up a wedding here, just over on the cliff. It was really nice too, and I made the cloth that made the bride’s dress!”

“Is that it? You don’t know anything else?”

“You’d have to ask Foundation. He’s our town reporter, and if anyone knows what happened and what happened after, it’s him.”

The instant the rain stopped, Rainbow went to visit that pony. I had never paid much attention to him, busy with preparations, but Pinkie always had time for ponies.

He knew her, and knew where she went. But first he had regaled Rainbow with the tale of the wedding, and told her about Rose and Honest, particularly Honest’s scale mail. Then he mentioned me, and though Rainbow tensed, he didn’t notice, and told her that we had gone deeper into Eaglemount, bound for parts unknown while Rose and Honest had set sail for Ponyville.

Some might have been torn. Rose and Honest might know a lot about me and Pinkie, and they had gone to Ponyville, where Rainbow could rest and resume her normal life.

But Pinkie was out there somewhere, with me, and Rainbow was certain that I was forcing her. She even imagined some kind of chain and collar attached to Pinkie so I could drag her. Not that that would work, as nothing stopped Pinkie from doing anything she wanted to if she didn’t want it to.

She decided to get Pinkie, and tell Twilight when she got back, with Pinkie, and maybe even me, bound up behind her. Her spirit as hard as iron, and now it was renewed with fire. She was going to find us.

---

The next morning, Pinkie and I were descending into the gorge, slowly picking our way down the winding trail along the cliff side. We had a ways to go yet, and Pinkie was ahead of me, helping me to find a trail.

I was very worried about this. I never liked heights, and there was no forest either near or in the gorge in case of accidents. Far below us, I could see the bottom, where a river ran through it. It looked like a blue thread with spots of green that I was all too aware were a few trees. So I picked my way after the pink mare and prayed that I or her wasn’t about to slip off.

Pinkie hesitated ahead of me, and began pawing at the trail, tossing loose rocks from the stone. She had a real talent for rocks, and was exceptionally experienced in climbing for some reason. It didn’t make sense why she would be at the time.

I stopped behind her and relaxed slightly. And that is when Rainbow spotted us from above.

I am sure that she didn’t mean to, but when she swooped down at speeds that made her a blue blur and snatched Pinkie, she rammed into me in the process.

I was thrown from the cliff, but I acted fast, and grabbed her tail with all of my strength. That threw her off balance, and all three of us slammed into the opposite rock wall with some force, and then we were all falling.

In our fall I grabbed her barrel, and managed to get a hold on Pinkie which encouraged Rainbow to try and hit me. Pinkie had taken the worst of the rock wall, and she was dazed as I fought Rainbow, attempting to manually flap her wings while Rainbow tried to throw me off midair.

Yes, that was incredibly stupid, but again, I am afraid of heights, and very afraid of falling. I wasn’t thinking at the time.

It is a testament to Rainbow’s abilities that we didn’t all die. As the ground rushed at us, I managed to summon a brief updraft, which helped very little, and Rainbow somehow turned a plummet into a crash, getting just enough lift to throw us sideways, instead of straight down.

She plowed me into a tree, and I was knocked unconscious.

---

“Hag… Hag…” something called.

My head felt like it had a wolf inside it. I was certain I was bleeding and my bones and muscles felt like they burst into flame at my wakening. I began regretting doing so, but the voice wasn’t stopping.

“Hag… Hag… Hag!”

I opened one eye to a blurry sight of Pinkie, gently tapping me with her hoof. As my vision returned, I noticed that she seemed dirty, and scuffed, and for a moment, I wondered why. Hadn’t we walked down there?

Then I remembered and I was on my feet in spite of my body. Then I fell over again because one of my legs chose then to tell me it was broken.

“Hag!” Pinkie called happily, seeing I was awake. “You’re up! How do you feel?”

“Like I fell off of a cliff.” I groaned. “Where is that pegasus?”

“She’s over there, and I need your help Hag. Can you get up?”

I shook my head. “Find me a sturdy stick, and get the bandages from my pack, and we’ll see.”

Pinkie had little knowledge of healing, and setting your own bone is difficult, but I managed. My leg set, and the stick to help support me, Pinkie led me to the still unconscious Rainbow. She was on her front, but her wings were awkwardly bent. I knew what I was looking at.

She had landed on them, heavily, and probably crushed most of the bone. I stared at her, and decided that she deserved it; she nearly killed us.

“Can you fix her Hag? She’s hurt bad, but you can do it!” Pinkie said.

I turned and opened my mouth and I would swear that she read my mind. Her eyes turned misty, and big, and wobbled, with her mouth doing the same and I felt like I had almost done something unthinkable to her.

“I can.” I said, getting her to stop. “But it’ll take a while, and I’m going to need time, and a patient that isn’t struggling.”

“Nurse Pinkie, here to help!”

Rainbow was lucky I was a hag. Her wing bones were powder, and if anyone else tried to help, she would never fly again and I would recommend losing the wings. But I was a hag, and the life of a forest would remake them, so long as they didn’t heal badly.

So I bandaged them carefully, bound them to her sides, and made absolutely certain that the bones wasn’t going to try and form again on their own.

Then Pinkie began construction of a stretcher, so we could drag her, and I looked up and my weak hopes were dashed.

The rock wall we had hit had been the path leading up. I could see a gaping hole high above us where our impact had pulverized the path and made a fair bit of it drop into the ravine. We were currently stuck down here.

I looked over at Pinkie, who was shifting Rainbow onto a bed of sticks and leaves. “Who is she Pinkie?”

“Oh! Right! This is Rainbow Dash, one of my bestest friends! She doesn’t really like you, but you’re helping her which means she will!”

Rainbow Dash, the pony who Scootaloo admired. The one in the Wonderbolts, one of the element bearers, Pinkie’s friend. The pony who bucked me in the head all that time ago, and now, the pony who very nearly killed me.

Based on Scootaloo’s words, Rainbow Dash hated me, and hated me very strongly. I had severe doubts about that changing after what happened, even if I was going to fix her wings (for Pinkie, not for her.).

“She might.” I told Pinkie, “But for now, we need a way to get to High Peak, so we can solve the mystery of Feathers.”

“Is he alright?”

I checked. My pouch seemed to have protected him, the skull undamaged despite the fall and crash. “He’s fine, sleeping right now.”

Pinkie nodded, and because of my broken leg, volunteered to drag Rainbow behind her. With only two ways to go, I decided to go west, where the land seemed to get smoother. It might have a way up, or an exit of some kind. It was possible anyway.

I suspected that things were going to get worse. Something was nagging at me, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Sometimes I really hate not being able to tell what I am worrying about until it's too late.

Comments

[Alitaher003]

fucken rainbow crash

[Pensive]

9800939
Never been so true.

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

9800939
10235183
Hey! That Rainbow Crash prevented them from being a rainbow splat.