I'll Bring You Home

by Kodeake

Chapter Three; Road to Nowhere

I’ll Bring You Home

Chapter Three; Road to Nowhere

It was the little things that reminded Rainbow Dash where she was. Reminded her that this wasn’t all a dream or just a strange part of Equestria. Once she’d wandered far enough from the pit the wailing sound faded and silenced, replaced by nothing at all. The landscape was even more barren than the badlands, and twice as rough and rugged. No winds at all blew across the rocks, despite the constantly swirling clouds above. Day or night were equally meaningless when the sky could not be seen; she could have been in a cave for all she knew. One of the strangest things was the total lack of shadows, as though there were no light source at all, despite her being able to see everything just fine.

It was unnerving; things that would usually look ordinary and unassuming took on a creepy, unnatural feeling without a shadow.

Rainbow rolled her neck, hearing a few tell-tale pops and cracks that told of how long she’d been flying, tensed and alert to her surroundings. As she flew steadily a few feet above the ground she was careful to stay low, just in case. Many stories had mentioned undead guards and monster roaming the underworld, ready to attack any unsuspecting travelers. So far, though, she’d seen nothing at all. Except rocks and dirt. While she didn’t know how long she’d been flying in a straight line - time was hard to track and held little relevance to her anyway - she knew it’d been a while. The rumbling of her stomach told her as much. The request was ignored, however, as Rainbow gained a little more altitude to check over the next couple hills, only to find more, slightly taller hills. She groaned.

“Just how big is this place?”

There was nothing around to answer the question. At the very least the terrain seemed to be growing rougher, as though she were approaching a mountain range. If she was, it was still hidden beyond the horizon.

Her stomach growled again, and her wings seemed to give an aching pulse in agreement.

With a sigh Rainbow Dash relented, banking around in a tight corkscrew and landing in the dirt, a cloud of dust kicking up beneath her. No one rock looked any more or less interesting than another, so she picked one at random and dropped her saddlebags next to it. After rummaging around for a moment she withdrew with a canteen and two granola bars. The more substantial food would have to be saved for when she needed to sleep if she had any hope of her supplies lasting. Celestia had said three weeks.

Three weeks…

Rainbow scanned her surroundings. Featureless rocks and dirt, a dull sky filled with swirling clouds and a total void of sound. There were no signs of life anywhere around her. The realm of the dead lived up to its name. Three weeks in this place? Absentmindedly chewing on one of the bars she reached inter her bags and took out the compass, flipping it open. The needle shifted slightly, but didn’t turn.

Three weeks in this place was a small price to pay.

As she stared into the compass, out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash saw something shift. It was small and fast and hardly there at all but it made her jump back, holding her compass tight to her chest. She focused, ears swiveling around searching for whatever had moved, but there was nothing, just her saddlebags in the shadow of a rock. Had she imagined it? Rainbow turned around, carefully scanning the surrounding hills.

Nothing.

“Get ahold of yourself, Dash,” she scolded herself, shaking her head. “There’s nothing out here; it’s in your head.”

Despite the certainty in her words, she couldn’t shake the anxious ball building in her gut. She reached for her bags while keeping her eyes on her surroundings. Despite the ache still pulsing through her wings she got the distinct feeling she needed to be moving on. Now.

Her heart dropped when her hoof swiped through empty air. Where were her bags?

Rainbow turned fully. Her bags were gone. How? They’d been right there just a second go. She knew she’d left them in the rock’s… shadow…

The rock’s shadow was gone. Nothing had a shadow in this place. Not since she’d arrived had she seen a single shadow. Had the shadow somehow taken her bag? Just to be sure she circled around the rock, inspecting it carefully. No shadow, no bags, nothing. Just a rock.

Then she noticed something that made her heart stop cold.

She had a shadow.

“O-okay, that’s weird…” Rainbow trailed off after hearing the high-pitched squeak in her voice. She waved her hoof, watching as her shadow acted like a shadow, following her movement. It was as if she could feel its eyes on her, watching her. There was no way it was an ordinary shadow.

“...”

Rainbow jumped and spun around, crouching down defensively. “Who’s there!?” She demanded, noticing nothing. At least, at first. The more she looked, the more she realized the problem, as several of the large rocks scattered across the hill had shadows. As she watched more shadows grew right before her eyes, stretching out from the bases of rocks and mounds until they mirrored the objects casting them. They all pointed in different directions, or rather, they all pointed towards her.

Backing up, Rainbow’s heart leapt into her throat as she felt her flank press against a rock. She glanced back just long enough to confirm the boulder once again had a shadow.

“Rainbow Dash…”

There was a definite voice now, right in her ear. Rainbow jumped, fanning her wings and launching a few feat into the air. “Who’s there?” She asked again, unable to keep the tremor from her voice. The shadows followed her as she flew slow circles around them, looking for the source of the voice. It had a familiar ring to it, and her every instinct was telling her to run, but she couldn’t. Not without her bags; she’d be helpless without them.

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” the voice answered, and a shiver ran down Rainbow’s spine as she recognized the voice this time; it was her own. She watched as the shadows disconnected themselves from the rocks, flowing along the ground towards her. No, not her; towards her shadow, still cast below her on the ground. Her shadow seemed to absorb the others, growing larger and blacker with every passing moment until once again the landscape was devoid of shadows. All except Rainbow’s own.

Then, it stopped mirroring the flapping of her wings. It grew upwards, emerging from the ground until it was a fully formed pitch black pegasus pony. Except the light blue saddlebags it wore. It lifted its hooves and examined them as though they were alien to it. Rainbow could do nothing but stare as it looked itself over, nothing but a silhouette of a real pony, before it turned a looked up at her. “I’m Rainbow Dash,” it repeated, glancing between Rainbow’s wings and its own.

Rainbow saw what was coming next and decided it was time to put an end to it. Holding her compass tightly in her hoof she flew down, hind hooves outstretched and lined up with its head. Her hoof made contact, but it didn’t feel like anything she’d ever hit before; it molded around her hoof and was sticky like tar. She pulled away when she felt tendrils of shadow crawling along her leg. When Rainbow landed she turned just in time to see a hoof-shaped dent in the thing’s face fill, the shadows flowing like liquid. She snorted.

“Alright, you’re the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Gimme back my bags and I’ll be outta here. I don’t want any trouble.”

The thing tilted its head, its face blank and featureless as it regarded her. It looked to the saddlebags on its back. “I am Rainbow Dash,” it said as it turned to her again. “My bags.”

That voice was hers, but it sounded wrong. Alien. The thing’s jaw didn’t move at all, its copied voice without inflection or emotion. Rainbow snorted. “You are not me, and those bags aren’t yours. Last chance; hand ‘em over.”

“You are not me” it said, flaring its wings as Rainbow Dash did the same. “It’s your fault.”

Rainbow hesitated for just a moment. “What?”

The thing took a step forward. “It’s your fault,” it repeated in Dash’s voice. “You killed her.”

Rainbow growled, launching herself forward and punching the shadow across the face again, keeping contact to a minimum as the shadows tried to crawl up her foreleg. “You asked for it,” she barked. The thing seemed unphased as it returned a similar blow that Rainbow just barely managed to duck under, returning a swift kick to the gut.

The shadow pony stepped back, grabbing Rainbow’s leg and pulling her off balance before delivering its own kick. Rainbow felt the air forced from her lungs as she staggered back, remembering the compass clutched in her hoof. Whatever happened, that thing couldn’t get it.

“You asked for it,” the shadow said and launched forward, and Rainbow recognized the punch to be her own too late as she dodged the wrong way and got a faceful of shadowy hoof. It stuck to her cheek and the tendrils of shadow squirmed along her fur. She tried to pull away but the shadow grabbed the back of her head and held her. A cooling sensation spread out from the point of contact, washing slowly across her face.

Rainbow screamed, punching into the thing’s chest fruitlessly as shadows covered her eyes and her vision was lost in darkness. In a panic she flared her wings and took off, feeling the shadow lose its grip as she shot off into the sky. Slowly her vision returned as she felt the shadow flowing off her face like drops of water. She looked down just in time to see the shadow pony take off as well and give chace.

“Oh no you don’t.” Rainbow banked around and flapped her wing harder, rocketing off into the distance as she spared a glance to her compass. She was still going the right way. Behind her the shadow gave chase, though it visibly struggled to keep up and globs of blackness seemed to be flaking off of it and falling away. It slowed down slightly as a particularly large blob of shadow fell away, and Rainbow took her opportunity to flare her wings wide and stop her momentum, making a hairpin turn and soaring back towards the shadow. It too flared its wings, but it stopped to slow; Rainbow rocketed past and her leg kicked out. She smashed into one of its wings, the joints pulling apart like taffy before snapping apart completely, the black wing and pony falling to the ground.

Circling around, Rainbow dove down and snatched her bags from the thing’s back. Before she could pull away it grabbed her leg. “I am Rainbow Dash!” It screamed in her voice. “You are not me! It’s your fault she’s dead! I am Rainbow Dash! I am-” It stopped as it hit the ground. Hard. The shadows splattered across the ground like drops of water and once more became the flat silhouettes they came from. Rainbow, having just barely stopped herself before she hit the ground, shuddered as the shadows slithered along the ground in multiple pieces, trying to form back together.

Deciding it best not to stick around, Rainbow flew quickly away, double checking her compass as she slung her bags back over her shoulders. She glanced behind her in time to see the shadow start to rise up, only for it to fall apart again. Breathing a deep sigh of relief Rainbow focused ahead once again, slipping the compass into her bags and ensuring the straps were tight around her barrel. Her heart still hammered in her chest, and she was constantly checking behind and below for any shadows. Thankfully, she saw none.

The thing’s words still danced in her head. “It’s your fault.” Rainbow frowned, shaking her head sadly. She chuckled humorlessly to herself. “As if I didn’t know that already.” Looking back again, there was still nothing there, and no shadows marred the landscape. Allowing herself to push the thing’s accusations out of her mind, Rainbow Dash focused back on the task at hand as the ground flew by beneath her.

She didn’t know how long she’d been flying, but eventually her wings ached too much to keep going. Rainbow knew pushing herself beyond her limits wouldn’t help anypony. Despite the lingering memory of the shadow creature, she touched down on the ground and continued on hoof. Every sense stayed on high alert as the hills became more akin to small mountains and valleys, gradual slopes giving way to steep drops and a few sheer cliffs. Still, the compass pointed ever onwards, and so Rainbow Dash pushed forward. Time had lost all meaning; for all she knew she could have been wandering for days. She’d had to eat by now, some canned vegetables that looked much more appetizing on the label, but she kept moving while she ate. The terrain became more and more rough until she was forced to fly more than walk. Her wings complained with every beat, and she couldn’t help but feel sluggish in the air. It was as if this place was sapping her strength every time she had to fly.

Rainbow groaned as she forced her wings to carry her just a little higher over the edge of a cliff, collapsing at the top and panting heavily. Again she wondered how big this place was. Ahead of her looked like the mountain range surrounding Canterlot. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered, wiping the sweat from her forehead. The thought of continuing was halted as her wings twinged painfully. She sighed, looking back at her ruffled and matted feathers.

“Maybe it’s time for a quick nap…” Trailing off, Rainbow glanced around the small outcropping she’d landed on; it was almost perfectly flat, and about as big as a hoofball field. There were no other rocks or any features to cast shadows, and that alone calmed her some. Whatever that… thing was, it seemed to need to be cast by something to stay together; the second it moved away from the rocks it started to fall apart.

Rainbow Dash sighed, trying - and failing - to shake the lingering fear as her bags were set on the ground. Despite how much she told herself that thing was miles away by now, she couldn’t help but see it out of the corner of her eye, no matter where she looked. Every dark patch of dirt or rock was a shadow just waiting to attack. It didn’t help any that her exhausted mind was playing tricks on her. The deafening silence was starting to get to her, and she could’ve sworn she’d started hearing things that weren’t there. This place wasn’t natural.

A dark blue sleeping bag was pulled out of her saddlebags and unrolled on the softest-looking rock. Clouds would’ve served her just fine, but there weren’t any as far as she could see except the ones swirling high above. She didn’t want to take her chances messing with those. Another can of preserved fruit was downed, and Rainbow took a moment to sit atop her bedroll. She absentmindedly gazed out across the mountain range she found herself in, somehow just as featureless as the hills before. Just… taller, now. More of an obstacle to overcome than just terrain to pass by.

Out of the corner of her vision she caught a metallic glint, and she looked down at the pendant resting against her chest. She held it up, examining the gem in the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark. Celestia said it would be important, eventually.

“Twilight…” Rainbow dropped it, feeling it bounce against her fur. She smiled despite herself, pressing a hoof against it. “I’m coming for ya, Twi. I dunno how much longer but… I’m coming.”

With that she crawled into her sleeping bag, laying on her back and staring up at the sky. Her eyes were drooping before she knew it, her body’s exhaustion catching up with her all at once. But just as she started drifting, her body jolted awake. There, out of the corner of her eye, she’d seen something. Or… thought she saw something. Rainbow sat up, swiveling her ears. The only sound was the crinkling of her sleeping bag. Nothing moved. Nothing cast a shadow. There was nothing there.

She sighed and laid back down, eyes following the gentle swirling clouds. Suddenly she didn’t feel all that tired, despite the exhaustion wracking her body. Huffing, Rainbow rolled onto her belly, ruffling her wings gently before settling in and closing her eyes. And holding them closed. And not falling asleep. She groaned. The ground wasn’t that uncomfortable. She’d slept in worst place - Applejack’s tress coming to mind - but for some reason it eluded her.

Well, not just any reason. Really, she knew why she wasn’t about to fall asleep that easily.

With another groan Rainbow slid out of her bag and sat atop it. She went to reach for her bags but paused, glancing over her shoulder and catching sight of her wings. More specifically, the disastrous state of her feathers. Cringing, the pegasus extended one of her wings out to gauge the damage. Sure enough, her wing looked like it’d been through a tornado. Going to sleep with her feathers that bad usually only made them worse by morning. At least, that’s what she told herself as she occupied her mind with the monotonous task of preening. Her thoughts wandered even as she tried to keep focused.

Rainbow Dash laughed, shaking her head slowly. “Twi, please, you’re killing me.”

The alicorn blushed, glancing all around her for whatever it was Rainbow had found so funny. “W-what?” She asked eventually, a blush forming the longer she was laughed at. “You said to meet you here at noon, right? Is… am I late?”

“No, Twi, you’re not late,” Rainbow said, able to contain her laughter to the occasional chuckle. “I said to be here ready to practice.”

Twilight again glanced around the clouds she stood on, just out front of the pegasus’s cloud home. “And… I am?”

For a moment, Rainbow’s mirth seemed to die, and she regarded Twilight curiously. “No, Twilight; you’re really not. Look.” She motioned with a hoof to something behind the alicorn.

Turning around, Twilight eventually did a full circle. When she came back around the growing frown on her face had officially stretched to a properly concerned look. “What? What am I missing?”

Rainbow’s own face fell. “Twi, your wings. They’re a mess.”

“My… wings?”

A cyan hoof met a cyan face at the genuinely confused tone. “Don’t tell me Celestia didn’t teach you anything about having wings?”

Twilight rubbed one of her forelegs awkwardly. “Not… really? She offered, but I told her I could get you and Fluttershy to help. I don’t… what’s wrong with them?” The alicorn spread her - admittedly pretty impressive - wings, glancing them over. “I just had a shower last night, they should be fine,” she muttered, more to herself as she leaned in and sniffed herself skeptically.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Rainbow’s hoof dragged down her face almost comically slowly. “Twi, do you even know what preening is?”

“Preening?” Twilight echoed, glancing between her friend and her wings. “It’s something birds to, they use their beak to straighten their… feathers… oh. Wait, pegasi have to do that too?”

Rainbow could only sigh and nod her head. “Yes, Twilight, pegasi have to preen. Gryphons, too; anything with feathered wings. How did you not know that?”

Blushing self-consciously, the alicorn folded her wings back against her sides. “Hey! It’s not like I was born with these things, and there aren’t a lot of pegasi in Canterlot. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I didn’t think you’d need to be told! You…” Rainbow trailed off, staring at her friend as something occurred to her, and she grimaced at the thought of it. “You mean… you haven’t preened once since you became an alicorn?”

“I didn’t know I had to!”

Rainbow Dash pinched the bridge of her muzzle, hissing through her teeth. “Alright, let’s see the damage. Spread ‘em.”

Cheeks still glowing a dull shade of red, Twilight complied, once more fanning out both her wings as the pegasus approached. Rainbow ignored the alicorn’s eyes on her as she gently grabbed a wing, running a hoof through the lavender feathers. She whistled lowly. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she mumbled, folding that wing and circling around to the other. After giving it much the same treatment, Rainbow groaned.

Twilight adjusted her wings slightly and turned to face the pegasus when she didn’t say anything more. “Rainbow?” She asked carefully. Rainbow just sat there, scratching the back of her head. “Is… is it bad?”

“Yeah… yeah it’s…” she winced sympathetically. “Pretty bad. Come on, let’s get you sorted.” Rainbow turned, motioning with a wing for Twilight to follow as she lead the way towards her house. “You can’t fly in that condition. Well, you shouldn’t, at least.”

Hesitating only a moment, Twilight walked alongside the pegasus. “What are we going to do, exactly?”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Apparently I’m going to teach you how to preen yourself. Because that is totally what I wanted to do today.”

“H-hey! It’s not my fault!”

Frowning at the actual hurt in Twilight voice, Rainbow glanced back over her shoulder with a light smile. “Relax, Twi, I’m just messin’ with you. I don’t mind. Now come on; it’s gonna take a while.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled at the memory, carefully examining her wing before folding it back against her side. Twilight had gone almost three months without ever preening, and her wings had shown it. It had taken almost an hour to get just one of her wings even resembling proper shape, and that was before Twilight had started asking all her question. If she had to give the alicorn one thing, it was that Twilight was as good a student as she’d always been.

She frowned as she looked out over the mountain range awaiting her, and found herself yawning. Rainbow once again crawled into her sleeping bag, some of the ache having drained from her wings after her careful preening. At least she’d be ready to set out first thing when she woke up. She closed her eyes and focused on her memories, ignoring the lingering shadows in the corners of her mind as she fell into a somewhat peaceful sleep tinted lavender.

---

Some time later Rainbow jolted awake, a cold sweat covering her body and her heart hammering in her chest. She didn’t remember what had woken her up, but she didn’t waste long in packing up. Double checking her bags, Rainbow stopped just long to eat something before checking her compass and setting out again over the mountains. When she looked back, she didn’t see anything there, but once again there was the feeling in her gut that told her she needed to move.

Still that little compass pointed ever onward, past the increasingly rocky slopes and the deep valleys far below. Rainbow flew steadily, careful not to over exert herself. She didn’t know how much time was passing, didn’t know how long she’d been in the land of the dead. She knew she’d had to sleep once, but she didn’t know how long she’d been asleep. Time was meaningless here, and the last thing Rainbow wanted was to burn herself out without the faintest idea how much farther she had to go. Nopony had told her the underworld would be so expansive. The landscape had been nothing but rocks and dirt for so long now, the idea of a grassy field seemed almost like a dream. The silence was deafening, swallowing any noise she made. Not even an echo of her voice came back when she shouted into the valleys.

It was so endlessly quiet that, when she did hear something, for a moment she thought she’d lost it. When the noise persisted she instantly went on high alert, constantly scanning the mountains passing by below her in an effort to spot anything out of the ordinary. There was nothing, but the sound continued and grew louder. Until she recognized what it was; water. Somewhere ahead, there was flowing water. Rainbow lifted her head from watching the ground to watching the horizon. Beyond the mountains, there was a thick, grey fog that seemed to swallow the horizon. It stretched on endlessly in either direction, more like a wall than anything else. She double checked, and sure enough her compass was pointing straight into it.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” she mumbled to herself as the wall of fog grew closer, filling her entire view as the sound of rushing water grew louder still. At the very edge of the fog the mountains stopped abruptly. The entire world seemed to just disappear into the dense vapour. Before long she was right in front of it, touching down on the flat terrain. Just before the fog the earth gave way to a jagged cliff, dropping straight down. From the depths of the chasm rose the sound of rushing water, deafening in volume this close if only due to the surrounding silence.

A chilling wind rose up from the shrouded river below, blowing up out of the abyss and swirling the fog. Rainbow stuck her wing out, gauging the strength of the wind. She withdrew it quickly, staring wide-eyes down the pit. If she so much as tried to fly anywhere near the wall she’d be tossed around like a ragdoll at the air current’s whimsy. She looked left, then right, the fog endless in both directions. However, far in the distance to her left she could make out… something. It looked to be a pole of some kind, sitting just barely at the edge of the fog.

Without a better option and with no other visible marks, Rainbow set off towards it. The rushing water drowned out her hoofsteps, but she was thankful to finally be able to hear something. As she drew closer the pole became more defined and she spotted a second one behind it, and it wasn’t long before it clicked.

It was a bridge. A rickety, rotting, wooden suspension bridge.

“You have got to be kidding.”

She approached the thing skeptically. Sure enough, it was a simply bridge, wooden planks held aloft by two ropes attached to either pole. No side rails to speak of. It swayed gently - suspiciously so given the strength of the wind coming up from the gorge - and was visibly wet from the fog. The wood was cracked and rotting, many boards missing from the walkway and the rope was in much the same condition. At the very least, the poles anchoring it to the ground seemed strong enough, but it was a small comfort.

There were very few things Rainbow Dash would cross that bridge for.

The compass helpfully pointed into the fog.

She sighed.

“I’m gonna be so mad if this kills me,” Rainbow grumbled, hesitantly moving a hoof out over the chasm. The wind rushing up set her coat hairs on end as she set it down on the bridge. It gave a very unhelpful groan. With most of her weight still on her hind hooves Rainbow shuffled closer, her other front hoof coming down on a board. At least this one didn’t creak.

Her wings sprang open for balance on instinct alone, but the wind nearly sent her toppling over. Rainbow jumped back onto the safety of the ground, breathing heavily and shooting a glare back at her traitorous wings. For a moment longer she looked for another way around the fog, but something told her crossing that bridge wasn’t optional. She took a few deep breaths, shimmying up to the bridge again and once more lowering her front hooves onto it, slightly faster this time. The bridge swayed slightly, but held as she slowly put some actual weight on it.

Rainbow pressed a hoof to the lavender star dangling around her neck and took a full step, all four hooves hitting the wooden boards. They protested, but held fast. She let out the breath she’d been holding. “Okay, not so bad, right? Just… one hoof at a time.” True to her word, one step at a time she pressed into the fog. The sound of rushing water filled her ears and overtook even the sound of her own thoughts. The bridge swayed, but she pushed forward. Glancing back, the edge was still just barely visible.

Then, something occurred to Rainbow Dash: Why was she crossing the bridge? She was… looking for something, right? She frowned, her hooves halting their progress. What was she looking for? It was something important, wasn’t it? Why did she feel like she needed to cross this bridge, no matter what? Rainbow didn’t know. The boards beneath her let loose a cracking, splintering sound, and she turned and ran back to the edge of the cliff, all but jumping from the bridge.

Breathing heavily, Rainbow held her head in her hooves. What was she doing, crossing that thing? She must have been crazy to try that! Whatever she was looking for on the other side wasn’t worth it. There was no way-

Rainbow gasped as she felt the six pointed star bounce against her chest. Twilight.

She looked down to the pendant, then back to the bridge. How had she forgotten? She’d never just… forget like that. How could she? But… she had. Something about that bridge - or maybe it was the fog? - had made her start to forget things.

The compass still pointed firmly across the chasm.

Was this supposed to be one of the trials Harvest had warned her about? Wasn’t it supposed to be trial by combat? Not this… whatever this was. She sighed, debating looking for another way around the fog, but something deep inside her already knew it would be a fruitless search. Somehow, she knew that she needed to cross that bridge. No matter what it did to try and stop her.

“C’mon, Dash,” she chided herself, hopping from hoof to hoof to get her blood pumping. “It’s a cloud that’s gotten too big for its own good. No matter what, you’ll never forget.” Rainbow looked down to her pendant, a crooked smile on her muzzle. “I can’t forget.”

The pegasus took a few more deep breaths, shaking out her hooves and wings. A thought struck her, and she grabbed the necklace in her teeth. No matter what, she wouldn’t forget. With a nod to herself, Rainbow charged forward before she could give it a second thought. The bridge creaked and groaned but held fast under her hooves. The fog all but swallowed her, but she didn’t even look back to check. Her eyes were set forward in a determined glare, watching the boards pass by beneath her. The wind and water howled in her ears and seemed to actively block out all other thoughts. Her mane and tail billowed wildly, whipping around in the intense winds.

For a moment she wondered why she was running across a bridge, but when her jaw clenched she felt the lavender star in her teeth. She smiled. Rainbow pushed forward without relent. The bridge was long, and she realized she didn't know how long she’d been running. Didn’t remember.

But she remembered why she was running. Everytime it tried to make her forget, she felt that necklace in her mouth, and remembered. Her mind fogged like the air around her, and she was aware of things slipping from her grasp. Still, Twilight stayed firm. Nothing could take that from her.

For Twilight she thought, as the fog started to brighten gradually. Growing thinner with every step. A light shone from ahead of her, bright and blinding. Rainbow ran towards it, her hooves relentlessly beating against the wooden boards. She could see the far side of the chasm now. It was covered in a layer of bright green grass, waving gently in the wind. With a final leap, Rainbow jumped from the bridge, eyes firmly set on the other side. Her jaw clenched around the pendant.

Author's Note:

Hullo Hello faithful readers. As promised, another week another chapter. Only a day or so late. Yeah, I totally forgot what day it was. Oops. Oh well. This is here. Editing was a little bit sparser than intended but I want this out today.

Two bonus points; name the river Rainbow crossed and catch the reference in the title. It's not the song.

As always, thoughts in the box below, and I'll see you all next weekend (Hopefully on time).

Comments

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

The river has to be the Lethe, with the forgetfulness and all that. As for the title, if it’s not the song, the only thing that I can think of that might be relevant is the Road to Nowhere in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

[Kodeake]

9516226
One outta two's not bad. Indeed, the Lethe, literally "oblivion", washes away one's mortal memories of life on earth. As for the title reference, it's actually to one of my favourite levels in one of my favourite games, but I'll leave out specifics if anyone else has a guess.

9501692
I haven't read a proper adventure fic in... gosh.. ages? Mostly because I don't really have the time any more, and partly because I basically only read Twidash unless something really catches my attention. Indeed, it seems Twidash adventure fics have been sparse as of late. I'm glad to be able to bring something fresh to the table.

9496648
Greek mythology has been one of my greatest loves ever since I read the Percy Jackson series as a young teenager, and I sincerely hope to be able to do some of the concepts justice, while still adding my own spin on things.

9496234
An age of drought washed away by the sweet waters of Twidashy Goodness, indeed. I hope to meet your expectations.

9491806
My return from the dead may have been the reason this fic was written to begin with. Spike remains my favourite side character to write. I see a lot of myself in him, and he's fantastic to use both as a straight man in comedy and a more grounded voice in serious works. But that shouldn't diminish his ability to be an emotional heavy weight when it comes to Twilight. Or any of his friends. We'll be seeing him again in this story.

9488722
I'm a sucker for happy endings, don't you worry.

9487782
Here's hoping I live up to those expectations. It's always a compliment when the writing/plot is good enough to allow for enjoyment of a premise/ship one usually doesn't enjoy.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

9517918
With that hint I got it immediately. The Crash level, has the bridge and everything. I really should have got that considering I played the hell out of those games as a kid.

[McRandom]

The River is clearly the Lethe

The title? I honestly don't know...