Trail Blazer

by MagicS

The Night

Rain. A seemingly unending torrent of rain had plagued them all day. They were traveling through a forest most of the time so they were able to avoid the worst of it thanks to the trees but it still slowed their progress and within minutes of it first starting they were all completely soaked. They had nothing like umbrellas to protect themselves from the deluge so they’d just have to deal with it until Trail Blazer had decided they’d gone far enough for the day and set up the tent for the night. Lustrous hoped that came soon. The water dropped with such pounding force on the forest that they may as well have been under a waterfall. Thick drops that fell in such tight numbers it was impossible for anything short of total cover to block them out completely.

The once solid dirt ground had been reduced to mud that itself was covered in an inch or two of water everywhere. One of the reasons why they kept moving now was that this was no place to put down a tent. The whole forest they were in was practically flooded by this heavy rain and they needed to find higher ground or something that if it wasn’t dry at least wasn’t sunken.

What was good was that the downpour kept any possibly dangerous animals inside their own dens, and it wasn’t particularly cold either. They were close to the middle of Equestria now and things were neither too hot nor too cold this time of year in this part of the country. It was a welcome change after the extreme weather they had been through previously. Unfortunately that kind of made the rain even worse since this should be a place where they wouldn’t have to deal with the local climate but they just so happened to have the bad luck to arrive right as a storm was starting up.

So instead of a pleasant afternoon stroll through the forest they struggled through the worst rain any of them had ever been in. There wasn’t much thunder or lightning but occasionally the wind would blow in and blast the rain into their faces. Their vision was low thanks to the rain and murky weather even though it wasn’t dark yet, more than just a few trees away everything became a wet blur.

“How long do you think until the pegasus come out here to take care of the weather?” Lustrous loudly asked the others to make sure his voice carried over the rain.

It wasn’t easy considering how loud the drops pounding against the water was but both his companions managed to hear him.

Trail Blazer shrugged, the mare had run out of any alcohol the previous day and thus was even more miserable than she normally would’ve been. “You’d have to go back and ask Thunderstorm about that. Probably not for a while, they haven’t even got the east done with yet.” After that she just ignored him and kept walking through the rain.

Lustrous had half a mind to think she was happy to see this rain, since if she was sober it would mean that being stuck in a storm like this was sure to make the both of them as miserable as she was.

“It will take some time but the central area of Equestria is the next planned space for the weather team to take care of.” Steel Wing also answered Lustrous. “Thunderstorm and the others wanted Princess Celestia to have good weather and she’s just a bit north of here.”

“But for now it’s nothing but random, inclement weather.” Lustrous said to himself as he looked up at the treetops and the clouds beyond them.

The beleaguered party continued its way through the rain soaked forest still with no signs of it letting up any time soon. It would be bad if they actually couldn’t find any good place to settle down for the night, Trail Blazer might make the call for them to keep going even in darkness until they found a spot that wasn’t flooded. At the very least they didn’t have a problem with drinkable water. Trail Blazer would trade it all for a shot of whiskey though, the mare was constantly checking into her bag to feel for her flask, empty as it was.

A few gusts of wind buffeted the ponies and made their search just that little bit harder. In fact the wind was picking up quite a bit more than it had been earlier.

“Has the storm not even gotten to its worst yet?!” Lustrous yelled.

“It’s possible. We don’t know how powerful a storm out in this part of Equestria can be.” Steel Wing said back as loudly as he could without shouting.

“Who cares?” Trail Blazer snapped from in front of them. “Let’s just keep moving and find someplace where we can stop for the rest of the day. I’m not getting anything else done for my map with this weather. It’s a page in my notebook saying “big forest” and “rain”. Not much else going on.”

Our Queen has spoken. It was something Lustrous didn’t dare say aloud to her at this time.

Steel Wing decided it would be best to placate her quickly so he flew up above their heads for a bit to try and gain a larger view. The heavy rain and wind made flying a little more difficult but he was a powerful pegasus and was still able to fairly easily keep flying. So he scouted ahead as best he could while Trail Blazer grumbled about everything annoying her and Lustrous grumbled about Trail Blazer.

“I think I see something,” Steel Wing said after a few minutes.

“What is it?” Lustrous asked him.

The red pegasus pointed ahead. “I can see the land inclining a bit, we’re coming to a hill.”

“Good, maybe that means we’ll find a spot up it that isn’t flooded,” Trail Blazer picked up her pace.

Lustrous and Steel Wing both followed her in the direction of the hill. Sure enough to what Steel Wing said the land started rising in a low and still mostly flat hill, but it was enough where the top half wasn’t submerged by the heavy rain. As good a place to camp as any in this storm.

“Alright, here’s where we stop for the day. Who knows if we’ll find somewhere better before nightfall.” Trail Blazer said and dumped her large backpack onto the ground. Opening it up she started to remove her tent regardless of the rain still beating down on them all.

“Let me help.” Steel Wing said and moved to her side, doing his best to use his wings to cover her as she got the tent ready.

The ponies worked together to get the tent set up, it was unfortunately going to be wet and cold on the ground and them not having any way to dry off before they entered meant is was gonna be wet on the inside too. But that was just the best they could do right now. Trail Blazer finished getting it ready and ushered them inside. It was still far too early for any of them to sleep but at least now they could take a little breather and avoid the rain for the rest of the storm. Not having anything to do though the three ponies sat crowded together in silence, listening as the rain pounded against the canvas of the tent and watching as droplets of water dripped from their fur and pooled into the bottom of the tent.

“If the storm lets up anytime soon do you want to start moving again?” Lustrous asked Trail Blazer.

She shook her head. “No. We don’t know how big this forest is. It’ll be best to stay here for the night.”

Lustrous nodded, happy to hear that even though he had other concerns. “Good, I just wish I was the least bit tired. We have nothing to do but huddle in here, cramped and wet, until we eventually pass out from exhaustion.”

“I’m not any happier than you are about it,” Trail Blazer grumbled. “I wish I had something to drink right now...”

The bespectacled unicorn closed his eyes and tried to just focus on the sound of the rain. It was part of the “nature” that he was trying to enjoy and study more now after all. Maybe he could just meditate and appreciate it and before he knew it he’d be drifting off to sleep? If the rain was softer it would probably be pleasant background noise.

But due to a variety of factors just closing his eyes wasn’t helping him. The water pooling at the bottom of the tent was soaking his flank and making sitting there dreadfully uncomfortable, Trail Blazer was grinding her teeth over who knows what, Steel Wing was like a statue and the fact that nothing seemed to be bothering him actually kind of annoyed Lustrous, and the rain was anything but soft. The wind was howling now and the rain might as well have been a monsoon pouring just on their tent for all the noise it brought with it.

After a hopeless couple of minutes Lustrous sighed and opened up his eyes. “If we just had something to pass the time with until it was night this would be much more bearable.”

“Well I left my banjo at home,” Trail Blazer sarcastically remarked.

Lustrous was just about at wit’s end with her and he was gonna let her know it when the quiet voice of Steel Wing spoke up.

“Um, I may have something,” The reticent pegasus said. “Something to pass the time with, that is.”

Both of the other ponies looked at him in surprise.

“What?” Lustrous asked.

Steel Wing pulled his own smaller saddlebag into his lap and started looking through it. Finally he pulled out a small rectangular object wrapped in a sheet of cloth.

“I’m glad the rain didn’t soak through my saddlebag,” He said, unwrapping the object.

It was a deck of cards. Steel Wing showed it to them while looking away in embarrassment.

“I brought this from home but I was worried that if I asked either of you to play you’d say no,” He hesitatingly explained. “We didn’t really know each other that well for a while and things have been kind of strained most of the time.”

Lustrous and Trail Blazer both kind of stared at him for a second before a smile broke out on Lustrous’s face. The unicorn reached forward and took the deck of cards from his hoof, getting the pegasi’s attention. Lustrous shuffled the cards with a smirk on his face.

“You should have mentioned this a while ago, I’d have been happy to play,” The unicorn told him. He glanced at the grouchy earth pony. “Trail Blazer? Care to play as well?”

The map mare looked between him and the cards for a second, probably wishing the cards were alcohol, before sighing and shrugging. “Sure, why not? We’ve got nothing better to do.”

Lustrous smiled. “Great! Mind if I deal?”

The three ponies sat crowded in their tent playing poker with each other as the time and the storm outside drifted on by. It started kind of awkwardly as Steel Wing was still unsure of just how “close” they all were and was embarrassed to have them know he was carrying around a deck of cards in the hopes they could eventually play together like this. Trail Blazer also at first seemed determined to not enjoy herself. Lustrous was the only one who was ecstatic from the beginning, this is just the kind of thing he wanted for all of them to do together. Some way for them to have fun and just relax with each other. Something to break the ice with. He only wished he had talked more with Steel Wing sooner or that the pegasus had revealed he had a similar desire.

The cards were dealt and the rain pounded on the tent. But after an hour it wasn’t as hard as it had been before. While they were lost in their playing the storm was starting to let up the closer it came to night.

Now although the atmosphere in the tent had lifted a bit, especially for the two stallions, Trail Blazer still looked more bored than anything, as if this was only slightly better than sitting around stewing in a puddle of water. She wanted to be drunk and the poker wasn’t quite taking her mind off of whatever negative thoughts filled up her head when she was sober. So Lustrous attempted to at least make things more jovial.

“Have I ever mentioned that my cousin is allergic to apples?” Lustrous said.

Both of the others perked up at that.

“No, I had no idea,” Steel Wing answered.

Lustrous chuckled. “Well he is. Only slightly but it still makes him puff up and get sick. Now I don’t know if you realized this, since we joined up with you a bit later, but I didn’t exactly have the most positive of relationships with Bright.” He smiled at the memory he was thinking of. “Once when we were kids he had especially annoyed me over something, I can’t remember what, so I decided to get back at him.”

“Well, it just so happened that our maids were preparing some pies that evening for the family’s feast. One pie was apple and two were pears,” Lustrous grinned. “You can see where I’m going with this? Everyone sits at the same spot at our dining room table and the maids know to place one of the pear pies by Bright. So once they were done preparing things but before anyone else had come in to start dinner I snuck in and switched the pies.”

“He must have been awfully mad about that,” Steel Wing said, although he had the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Lustrous glanced at Trail Blazer to see how she was enjoying the story and he was delighted to see that even she was almost smiling.

So the unicorn continued. “He was a bit preoccupied at first to be mad. You see all it took was a single bite and his eyes bugged out in realization. He glared at me, because he knew for certain that I was behind it, but before he could do or say anything else his cheeks puffed up like a balloon. It was hilarious! Of course my family was rather upset with me after that. That was pretty much the last time I ever did anything like that, I think their punishment of confining me to my room with nothing but books to read turned out fine in the end for me though.”

“Heh.”

Both stallions turned to see a slight smile on Trail Blazer’s face as she laughed at Lustrous’s story.

“Not bad Lustrous, not bad,” She said, shuffling around her cards. “Dealing again?”

Lustrous and Steel Wing both smiled back at her. “But of course,” The unicorn said and started getting the deck ready. “And I must say it’s nice to see you smile. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you do that while sober.”

He peeked back at her and was about to say something more when he noticed the smile had fallen off her face. Replaced with a stony and blank expression as she looked down at the floor of the tent.

“Trail Blazer?” Lustrous asked in concern, sharing a worried look with Steel Wing.

“Yeah.” She said, the hoof holding her cards shaking. “Yeah I don’t smile much, do I?”

“Miss Trail Blazer, are you alright?” Steel Wing reached out a hoof to steady her shoulder.

She flinched away from him. “Fine, I’m fine...” Her breathing got heavier and she dropped her cards. Now instead of rain dripping from her fur a cold sweat had started breaking out on her brow. She tried taking a deep breath but it came in ragged and her heart was pounding in her chest. “I gotta get out for a second!” She quickly said and pulled open the flap to the tent, running outside and back into the dark forest.

“Trail Blazer!” Lustrous yelled as he went after her. “What’s wrong?!”

The rain had stopped completely by this time, they hadn’t even realized it. But Trail Blazer’s running hooves still sprayed mud and water everywhere she went. The forest was dark but the clouds had lifted enough for the moon and stars to give Lustrous just enough light to follow her.

“Stop!” He called out to her, fearful of losing her.

Maybe it was his plea or maybe she was just tired but the map pony finally came to a halt. She sunk to her knees in a puddle of filthy water and started to breath harder and faster than she had been before. Lustrous ran up beside her and attempted to see what was wrong but she waved him off with a hoof.

“Stop… stop...” She weakly told him. “I just needed to get some air… this happens to me sometimes...”

“I-I don’t understand,” Lustrous nervously tittered about, not sure if he should listen to her or try to help her to her hooves.

“It’s alright...” She fought to get her breathing back under control. “My old village’s apothecary called it anxiety or something. It’s not a big deal if I keep my mind off… things,” The map pony slowly returned to a calmer state.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want to talk about it?” Lustrous asked. His worrisome suspicions about her were starting to grow stronger.

“No. I’m fine.”

You most certainly are not. Lustrous thought. He frowned, there was no way he was just going to let her brush this under the rug.

“Trail-”

“Trail Blazer, Lustrous,” Steel Wing said from above them, the pegasus landing in the water next to them. “I’m glad I found you.” There was a sense of uncharacteristic urgency in his voice.

Lustrous rolled his eyes, not happy at being interrupted. “Yes, I’m glad you found us too. Trail Blazer is… alright, so she says. We can head back to the tent.”

The red pegasus shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. We’re not alone.”

The flapping sound of much heavier wings caught the attention of the unicorn and the earth pony and the two looked up to see four large creatures descend in a circle, surrounding them. They were brownish in color, with feather colored bodies and heads ranging from stark white to a dirty orange. All of them were carrying large, full bags.

“Griffons?” Lustrous said in surprise as he looked around at the four newcomers.

Steel Wing stayed silent, his eyes ever shifting between each of the four griffons while Trail Blazer got back to her hooves and frowned at the turn of events.

“And what are some ponies doing out here?” One of the griffons asked. He had a crest of white feathers and piercing yellow eyes that he narrowed at the ponies.

Lustrous raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What are you talking about? This is Equestria. A better question is what are you doing here? Griffonstone is quite a ways away.”

“Equestria huh?” The griffon continued. “So you say. I say this is where we’ve been traveling through for generations.”

“Traveling through for what?” Lustrous asked.

“None of your business,” The griffon snarled. “All you need to know is that you ponies aren’t welcome here, not in this forest or anywhere else. This is our territory.”

Well that didn’t exactly sit well with the unicorn. Trail Blazer and Steel Wing were both silently begging Lustrous to keep his mouth shut but this was the kind of thing that really set Lustrous off.

“I’m afraid I can’t take that sitting down. These lands were claimed in the name of ponykind. Our three tribes came together to make this our new home and Princess Celestia is the rightful ruler of it,” He told them.

He saw Trail Blazer’s mud covered hoof smack her face out of the corner of his eye.

The lead griffon clicked his tongue and the four of them started closing in on the ponies. “That so?” He reached into his bag and pulled a knife out, pointing it straight at Lustrous. “You willing to die for ponykind then?”

Lustrous paled and backed up on shaking legs. “W-Wait, hold on, I didn’t want a fight or anything.”

“Well too bad, you got one.” The griffon raised his knife.

Thirty seconds later four griffons were dead and Steel Wing was slightly tired.

“Dear Celestia, did you have to do that?” A Lustrous on the verge of fainting asked Steel Wing.

“I’m sorry, it was the quickest way to make sure the both of you were safe,” Steel Wing replied, a hoof on the neck of one griffon to make sure the last of them had been neutralized.

The unicorn shook his head and sat down. “I need to get some rest...”

Trail Blazer meanwhile had fully recovered from her attack and was hectically looting through the bags of the griffons, looking for something. She was tossing out all manner of things and smaller bags and boxes, it made Lustrous think that these griffons may have been illegally smuggling things across Equestria. But to where and for who he had no idea.

“Yes!” The map pony yelled out, startling Lustrous.

He looked over to see her grasping a box whose lid had been torn off, six bottles of an amber liquid rested inside it.

“Ale! Finally,” She grabbed one of the bottles and immediately pulled off the cork, downing the alcohol as quickly as possible.

Lustrous sighed. What else could he do?

Comments

[Dashie04]

Plot twist!

I just have to say, given that this is one of the only stories I want to update that actually does consistently enough is great. Even on slow weeks, I can always rely on this story updating and giving me a snile.

[MagicS]

9809509
Thanks, really makes me happy to hear that. Updates might slow to once a week later but I should still be able to keep a good pace.

[redmar]

They seem to be getting to know each other a bit better.

[Dashie04]

Here’s a drinking game: take a shot each time Trail Blazer says she wants a drink.

On second thought, maybe don’t, lest you become as drunk as Trail Blazer herself.