Brave the Ulvenweald

by Silvermyr

2. The Crossing

The next morning, Twilight and Fluttershy stood with Waxing and Waning at the threshold of the Ulvenweald. Twilight had imagined it to be a formal decision from some cartographer in Canterlot: ”Here the White-Tail Woods ends and the Ulvenweald begins.” What she saw made that notion redundant though, as the two forests themselves seemed to have made their borders very clear. The four ponies practically stood in front of a wall. Behind them was the light, airy White-Tail Woods with its birches, birds and friendly mice waving goodbye.

The Ulvenweald was as different from that as the night is from day. It was made up of towering pines and firs. The undergrowth was a thick mess of struggling saplings and twisted blackberry thickets with thorns the size of a unicorn foal’s horn. There was no apparent way forward. Every inch of ground was covered by twisting roots, making Twilight unsteady on her hooves by just looking at them. In between the thick tree trunks clung a wispy, sliver-like mist. The forest was silent.

”Well… I guess that now you know why my brother and I almost never go in there,” Waning said humorlessly. ”That place is a nightmare to get around in, even for us bat ponies who usually fly without seeing.” She flicked her tufted ears meaningfully. ”You really sure you want to go in there? Like, absolutely sure?”

”Yes,” Twilight said as she scoured the ground for the best place to enter the dense forest. ”If the pony we are looking for is in there, then we need to find him. Or her.”

”Suit yourselves,” Waxing said. ”I would recommend that you try to keep straight to the West from here. If you fly up over the treetops you will see some low mountains. There is an earth pony hollow by their slopes, marked on your map. They send a few merchants every year to trade for supplies, but that's all I know. Strange bunch, but maybe they are a bit more open to a princess. And if there are any who knows this tangle of a forest, its them.”

Twilight nodded and continued to glare at the foreboding forest. The place looked just as Celestia-forsaken as The Everfree. There was an unnatural gloom to the trees and the mist. This forest was darker and the trees were taller than any Twilight had ever seen before. She found herself shying back slightly from it. She suddenly felt very small compared to the vastness she was about to enter.

She pushed the errant thoughts back into her mind’s depths. She had to stay rational. She could not freak out before they had even gone inside the woods. ”Well, thank you both, Waxing and Waning for your hospitality and supplies. Hopefully Fluttershy and I can stay a little longer on our way back, when that time comes.”

”Try to come at night then,” Waning squeaked happily, interrupting Fluttershy’s silent ”thanks.” ”But not this next night; my brother and I have a whole lot of sleep to catch up on after being out looking for you yesterday. Cya and good luck!”

The two bat ponies took wing and silently flew back the way they had come, towards Hollow Canopy. Fluttershy and Twilight looked after them. ”Just one thing before we get underway,” Twilight said and turned to her timid friend. ”Fluttershy, the pony we are after is likely one of the most evil and powerful mages in history. It will be dangerous at times. Are you really sure you want to come with me? I would fully understand if you would rather turn back; no good friend can ask another pony to follow her on this mission.”

”I will follow you, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, for once not overly nervous. She even flashed a small, cheeky grin. ”I think I will have a better chance than you to navigate a forest, actually. No offense!” She added in a hurry, causing Twilight to laugh slightly.

Thus, in the best of moods, the two young mares stepped into one of the last unexplored regions of Equestria; the mythical forest known as the Weald.

*****

A few hours later, most of that good mood was gone as Twilight suddenly felt like somepony was trying to bite her wing off.

”Wait, let me help,” Fluttershy said as she gently tried to untangle Twilight’s wing from a blackberry vine that would put a barbed wire to shame. Tough, long and with barbs as thick as her covert feathers.

”Ouch, and I could have sworn there were no blackberries here,” Twilight said as some of her feathers came lose. Fluttershy tried not to stare as they grew back. Twilight had briefly explained that an alicorn’s body used magic to regenerate any injury, but seeing it like this still felt… wrong. Feathers were not supposed to sprout and grow like that. ”I would use magic, but I don’t want to tire myself out more than necessary. If this cultist is anything like Golden Heart, then he won’t go down easily.”

”I understand,” Fluttershy said, looking away from the new, bright feathers. ”Just hold still for a moment and… you are free!” Twilight carefully folded her wing back out from the blackberry tangle. She backed away and surveyed what was in front of her. This particular thicket was even darker than the surrounding wood thanks to a large fir, and the blackberry vine was clawing its way up the surrounding branches towards what little light there was. For a moment she thought of long, groping arms reaching out from the ground to snag the trees and pull them under.

”I don’t know why I’m asking, but did you see any blackberries in front of me when I flew? I mean, of course they are there, obviously, but… you know what, forget it. Come on. The ground should be relatively free if it is this dark in the middle of the day.” Twilight carefully stepped forward, ears up and twitching at every rustle of every branch. Fluttershy followed, treading lightly on her hooves and with her wings spread, ready to launch her into the air. While she was at home in forests, this one was older and quieter than any she had been in before. The sheer size was enough to put anypony on edge.

They went on in silence, until Fluttershy spotted a large spider’s web. She whimpered, for in the web sat a spider larger as her hoof. It was rapidly tangling up a robin in a cocoon of strong silk. She knew the bird was dead by it’s stillness, and she knew that the spider had to eat too, but it still made her sad to see something like this. This poor little bird who would never come home to its nest.

”That is a very large spider,” Twilight said uncertainly. ”I have never seen them capture whole birds before.” The lilac alicorn was just as unnerved by the display as she was, Fluttershy could tell.

”Let’s go on,” Fluttershy mumbled and ducked under the spider web without looking at it again. She brushed some low hanging branches away.

And stood in front of a chasm.

Sunlight glared down through the trees, appearing unnaturally bright after the gloom in the forest. To the left and right of her was a thin stretch bare ground alongside the chasm, as if the trees were all afraid it would swallow them. Just in front of her was a bridge. Carefully she went out from beneath the trees and peeked over the chasm’s edge. Far down, a thin stream of water flowed like a slash in the ground. Around it the chasm walls were covered with long shards of rock jutting outwards, like long claws reaching from the walls.

She did not have the time to see more before a sudden gust of wind hit her face with the power of Harry’s uppercut. With a squeak, Fluttershy was sent tumbling head over hooves until she landed in the velvet grasp of Twilight’s magic. ”So, I take it we won’t be flying over?” Twilight asked and looked along the chasm. ”I guess the wind can pick up here, where there is nothing stopping it for miles.” She continued in a progressively lower voice. ”Maybe we could stay and research the wind phenomenon a little bit… should be able to afford the time… Sombra’s maniacal cultist can’t really hurt a lot of ponies in here… should research… must research!”

”Ehm… Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. She shook the alicorn gently. After a second, Twilight snapped at attention again, a blush spreading across her face.

”Right, on we go.” Twilight chirped. She cautiously set hoof on the bridge and started walking out on it. It creaked slightly, but the wood looked strong under her hooves. She stomped a few times, but the bridge remained completely still. While it might not see much use, it was clear that whoever built this bridge had built it to last.

Halfway across, Twilight tripped and fell. Confused, she looked back and saw her hind leg was stuck in an off-white paste slathered over the bridge. ”What in-” A rustle made her look forward again.

A cloven, jagged and blackish brown root had appeared at the side of the bridge. As Twilight tried to figure it out, another, identical root appeared nearby, followed by two more. ”Uh… Fluttershy, do you know what this is?” Twilight asked, her voice several octaves above normal.

The roots were each followed by a heavy, hairy branch. Only when the flat, eight-eyed head appeared in the middle of the four branches did she understand. The roots were claws and the branches legs of a spider three times as long as she. It slowly crawled up on the bridge with a hollow, creaking sound before it fixated all eight eyes on her. They were piercing green and below them twitched two massive mandibles. A gleaming red liquid dripped slowly from them.

Twilight screamed, flapped her wings hard to get away, and slung a beam of magic at the spider. She lurched uncomfortably and fell on her stomach when the hoof stuck in the slathered spiderweb pulled her down again. It had stretched briefly and the yanked her down, like she was caught in a rubber band. She could not get back up. She had fallen on the spider web and her whole underside was now glued to the bridge. The magic beam hit the spider’s head with a dry, hollow sound and the spider stopped momentarily. It seemed almost confused for a moment before it continued to advance.

”Stop!” Fluttershy screamed harshly and landed in front of the giant spider. ”That’s not very nice, now is it?”

The spider clicked sharply with its pincers and rose up on it’s six back legs. Slowly it stretched the forelegs out above it as if it was going to fall forward and completely impale the small pegasus. The mandibles glistered, dripping with red venom.

”Now that is rude, mr. Spider!” Fluttershy called up at it. ”We were just walking by and you decide to pick a fight! How would you feel if we just came by and ripped your web down when you were minding your own business? Did you ever think about that?”

The spider clicked pensively, dropped down on all eight legs and stared at Fluttershy. She flew up to its head and patted it. Apparently the fangs did not disturb her as much as they did Twilight. ”See, you are not all bad, are you mr. Spider? You can be kind if you want to.”

The spider made a sound that was equal parts hiss and click before it began climbing off the bridge and down the cliff face. In a way, Twilight was unnerved seeing it go. It was almost worse not seeing it than seeing it. For all she knew it was peeking up over the bridge edge behind her, preparing to sink it’s fangs into her back. She swallowed and fought harder against the glue-like spiderweb.

”Twilight, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. ”It didn’t get to you, did it?”

”No, but maybe you could get me get out of this web before it comes back?” Twilight asked with what she hoped was an unconcerned smile. Fluttershy’s stifled giggle told her that she had not quite succeeded.

”Let me look if Waxing and Waning packed something,” Fluttershy said. She wiggled out of her saddlebags and looked through them. After two endless minutes she produced a bottle with a clear liquid in it. She uncorked it and poured it carefully over the webs, which immediately curled up and fell of her.

”Thanks. Now let’s get off this bridge.” Twilight said hurriedly. Against her better judgment she carefully peeked out over the bridge edge first. She could not see the spider, but quite a number of birds hung suspended in midair, ensnared by invisible threads. Twilight praised her luck she had not tried to fly over the canyon.

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