The River Rising (Iota Force Issue #7)

by The Iguana Man

Chapter Three: Hot, Cold and Wet Pursuit

Icy, Archer and Lance traversed the massive cave system in a silence that bordered on uncomfortable without fully crossing over into it. It wasn't that anypony was looking for things to say and coming up empty or even that there was a sense there should have been any conversation. It was simply that none of them had anything to say, whether verbally or in Lance's usual method of silent communication. However, it was prevented from being a comfortable silence by the fact that they were heading towards danger, even if they had a long way to go before they reached it.

Archer was in the front of the group, occasionally looking at the laminated map she'd brought with and using it to direct the group along the maze of winding passages, while Lance took up the rear. It had been agreed that, while most of the more unpleasant inhabitants of the Everfree would be far closer to the surface, if they were in these caves at all, there was no sense taking chances. As a result, Lance was keeping up a vigilant rear guard in case they ran across any, trusting Archer's reflexes to handle any head-on threats. This possibility was another reason they kept quiet, since any sound too loud would echo down every cave for quite a distance.

This unfortunately left Icy in the middle, fully protected but unable to contribute much to the journey or do anything to distract herself from her thoughts. There wasn't even much to look at – only what their chest-mounted flashlights illuminated, which consisted mostly of plain, round walls. The lack of anything real to look at or think about left her imagination to run wild and, at that moment, her imagination was firmly fixated on the deluge far above their heads, the rushing water that was flowing along the ground and into the raging river and her inevitable terror at it.

It was a curious feeling, being terrified because of the inevitability of the fear itself rather than what you were going to be afraid of, but Icy wasn't in a frame of mind to appreciate it at the time. She wondered once again if this had been a terrible idea – a thought she'd had so much it had never felt like the hundredth, thousandth or millionth time she'd thought it, just that it was one of a never-ending, amorphous sea of such thoughts, which was an image that certainly didn't help her anxieties.

It was certainly possible that her phobia wouldn't interfere with the mission. After all, while the water piling up and flowing along the ground would certainly set her highly on edge, it probably wouldn't paralyse her and, if she could keep any massive bodies of water out of sight, she could probably just about manage. And, if the worst came to the worst, she could simply find some high ground, far above where any floodwater would reach, and wait while the others confronted the pony responsible. It would probably be fine. And yet...

And yet she couldn't shake the image of herself, shaking so hard and fast that she was drilling herself into the muddy ground, as if to submerge herself and provide a physical reason not to move, as the water rose around her and her teammates struggled in vain to force her forward, both verbally and physically. The thought that they might be busy dealing with her stupid phobia instead of what they had come for, let alone the possibility of her dragging them down into the depths with her, was enough to bring the suggestion that she go back unbidden to her throat, even if it wasn't hard to clamp her mouth shut and stop it from escaping.

Thankfully, after a long while of such thinking, a click roused her from her thoughts. Looking up, she saw that Archer had turned off her flashlight, making Icy blink in confusion. She opened her mouth to ask about this when it registered that, despite that light source being gone, she could still see Archer and the area in front of her clearly, the shadows having failed to swallow up the area her own light didn't reach.

Looking around, she quickly saw why – dotted all around the cave walls were small points of softly glowing white light. At first glance, they looked like oddly shaped light bulbs that had been melted onto the wall. However, after a moment, she realized that they looked closer to some sort of fungus, with little bumps and mushroom-like protrusions covering them.

“What are these?” Icy asked, keeping her voice down even in her astonishment.

“Glow-mold,” Archer replied as she looked around. “They tend to grow in some caves, 'specially in areas with a lot of wild magic. They're one of the nicer things in the Everfree – they'll only kill you if you lick 'em. So, yeah, be careful with your mouth around 'em, but otherwise, they're nothing to worry about.” She began walking on again. “Well, as long as they're white.”

Icy looked up after turning her light off, puzzled at Archer's amendment. “Huh? Why only if they're white?”

As Icy trotted to catch up, Archer looked over her shoulder. “Yeah, if you see any that glow green instead of white, you wanna keep as far away as you can. Those are Radiashrooms and they are not nice.”

Icy blinked, the word bringing to mind some of the heroes and villains of her comics. She didn't know much about radiation (though to be fair, she often wondered if the writers did either), but she knew it was a tricky thing to deal with and not to be taken lightly, whether or not you could get superpowers from it.

Not that we'd need to, a small voice in the back of her mind said, its confidence providing a sharp contrast to the rest of her thoughts and, in doing so, sounding less like Icy herself at that moment and more like Archer or Scootaloo. Still, it got her to flex her wings, reminding herself that, whatever tried to assault them, be it solid, liquid or energy, there was a better-than-even chance she could freeze it or block it with ice.

Her self-assurance lasted for about another fifteen seconds of their walk before a quiet rushing sound started echoing towards them, sending an instinctive shiver through her even before her ears had fully registered the sound of flowing water. Her wings flopped back against her sides as she continued, taking a deep breath as she tried to keep her composure.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before they saw what was making the noise. Icy wouldn't have thought that would be a good thing but, as it turned out, the fact that they only heard it once they were so near it was an indication that it wasn't nearly as large or intimidating as she feared.

In fact, it was simply a small stream of water flowing across their path, from one of the exits of a rough five-way intersection to another, with a few splashes creeping into the other exits, but nothing major. The tunnels the water was flowing from and to were significantly steeper than the others around it, so the water was simply following gravity.

Still, while it certainly wasn't any kind of danger, the presence of enough water to flow so smoothly did make the tension creeping through Icy's body freeze in place, making her feel somehow stiff and wobbly at the same time.

However, she wasn't so overcome with anxiety that she failed to notice how the tunnel didn't look like a regular stream. She didn't know much about lakes and rivers, for what she would consider obvious reasons, but she knew that water tended to make the ground under it wear away. That was how river valleys were formed – even if a flow of water started on relatively level ground, it would make itself a river if it continued hard or long enough.

“Should this be here?” she whispered, causing Archer to look back languidly and pull the rolled-up map from a pocket on her quiver.

Flicking it open, she studied it for a moment before giving an “ah” of understanding. “Well, it's not anything unnatural, if that's what you mean, but it's not normally here. See that tunnel?” She pointed down towards the source of the stream before stepping back towards Icy, her voice lowering even further. “Leads to a big open area just underneath Carte Canyon. The ground above it's pretty thin, so the rain'll be soaking through and flowing down. On the upside, the Canyon's one of the branches of the Everfree Ravine, which means we're close to the exit.”

“Uh huh,” Icy replied, unsure whether that truly was good news. However, that thought was somewhat subsumed when she looked along the stream's course, seeing the water disappearing down into the depths of the cave system. “Um, where's the water going, do you know? I mean, I know it's probably not going to be enough to fill the caves, but...” she trailed off, leaving unspoken the unshakable image of the tunnels flooding completely and cutting off their only connection back to Ponyville. She knew it was a silly idea, but that didn't stop it from sticking in her mind.

“Hmm, hold on,” Archer replied, holding the map up to a nearby chunk of glow-mold to get a better look at it. After a moment, she nodded firmly and rolled the map up again. “No worries – that tunnel goes down towards an underground river – it'll all just join up to a bigger flow.”

Icy hummed in thanks, only the slight quaver in it any indication that she wished Archer hadn't finished with that exact wording.

After waiting a moment for Archer to stow the map again, the three walked through the shallow water. Icy felt her breath freeze in her lungs as she walked, having to plant her hooves down firmly to stop herself instinctively walking on her hooftips to keep the parts of her hooves that could actually feel the water out of it. Oddly enough, though, she found that the parts that were submerged felt slightly better than the parts just above the water – it felt like she could feel the water with her whole body, but the submerged part at least had the feeling more concrete and understandable.

Still, that didn't mean she wasn't immensely thankful once they had passed beyond the stream. She shook the water off her hooves as they walked away from it, trying desperately not to think of how hard the rest of their journey would be.

Fortunately, she was distracted from such thoughts a short while later when Archer suddenly stopped and held a hoof up sharply, bringing the group to a halt. Icy opened her mouth to ask what was up when Archer pressed her other forehoof against her lips, silencing her.

Coming back to all fours, Archer pointed downwards, indicating for the others to stay here, then scurried silently forward and around a corner.

Icy turned to Lance, a questioning look on her face. She knew that, as counter-intuitive as it sounded, Archer was rather better when it came to stealth than the mute Lance. Not only was Archer's clothing lighter and less bulky but, while Lance was incapable of speaking, he had a way of drawing attention with his actions.

However, her look wasn't returned or even acknowledged, as Lance was gazing intently down the corridor, his ears twitching as they tried to pick up sounds from ahead of them. Curious, Icy also tried listening hard. For a few seconds, she didn't hear anything of note but, after picking apart the general noises of the cave – the wind rushing and the occasional drop of water that sent a tiny jolt through her heart – she could just about make out something else. It was hard to pin down, but it sounded almost like some kind of growling.

Before she had a chance to listen or think further, Archer came back around the corner, waving a hoof forward to indicate for them to go back down the tunnel. Fortunately, she wasn't sprinting, meaning there probably wasn't anything chasing her, but it was still worrying.

After the group had retreated a fair distance down the tunnel, Archer stopped them and waved the others towards her. Putting her head forward, she formed the three of them into a huddle, their head right next to each other before whispering, “Timberwolves. There's a pack of ‘em between us and the exit.”

Icy frowned, perturbed at this news. While she'd never personally encountered timberwolves, she'd heard plenty about them and knew of both how deadly and how vicious they were. “Do,” she began in a hushed voice before a mild glare from Lance brought it down even further. “Do they normally live in caves?”

Archer shook her head. “Not as far as I know. Guess they're as spooked by this weather as we are. Still, gonna have to deal with them – the nearest other exit's practically halfway back towards Ponyville.”

Lance tilted his head and tapped the frog of his hoof three times in rapid succession.

“Ten of 'em, I counted,” Archer answered. “Seven adults, three cubs. Not that it makes a difference with timberwolves – all it does is change how big the claws they're ripping you apart with are.”

Icy winced at the image. “Well, it might make them easier to deal with, right?”

Archer sighed. “Yeah, would if they didn't reassemble themselves after they're smashed. And that's if you're lucky – they might just combine to make a King. That’d block up the tunnel something awful. Oh, and it’d kill us easier.”

Icy nodded as she thought. “Is there anything that can stop them from putting themselves back together?”

Archer thought for a moment. “Well, fire can if it's big enough – one thing I know that scares 'em. Trouble is, I got nothing that can make a fire big enough to worry 'em.” She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Would do, but the guard still won't give me fire arrows. Figures.”

Icy tilted her head. She knew that Archer wasn't allowed explosive arrows, so it made a kind of sense that she wouldn't be given incendiary ones, but still, it seemed odd. “They don't trust you?” If they were talking about one of the Crusaders, she could maybe understand it, but she didn't think Archer was that irresponsible.

“Guess not, not enough to let me play with fire like that.” Archer sighed before shaking her head. “But enough about my problems, we need something to deal with the wolves.”

Icy scratched her forehead with the tip of her hoof, trying to think about what resources they had. “Well, what kinds of arrows do you have?”

That got a smirk from Archer. “Well, it's not like I'm wanting for choice. Got normal, impact, smoke, flashbangs, snares, stick-n-stays, grapple-headed, blade-headed, blunt-headed...”

“Okay, okay,” Icy waved the list down, satisfied that they had considerable resources. One of the items twigged a thought, though. “The flashbang arrows? Do they have any...”

Archer shook her head. “Don't have any kind of fire in 'em, no. It's all magic, just makes light and noise – you don't use fire for that.”

“I know, I know,” Icy replied – she was just checking there wasn't a little bit of fire involved. She knew that the flash and the bang themselves weren't caused by an explosion. Although...

She smiled. “I know that, but they won't.”

Lance's head turned sharply towards her in query.

“Well, they live in the wild, right?” Icy explained. “So, when they see a flash and hear a bang, especially in a storm, what are they going to think?”

There was a pause before Archer nodded. “Hmm, I see what you mean – could make 'em back off a bit. Trouble is, it'd only work once or twice – wolves ain't stupid, they'll figure it out soon enough – and only for a moment. Might help, but it's not gonna be enough to scare 'em away.”

Icy exhaled, a little deflated but still encouraged by the idea. “Well, I could maybe freeze one or two long enough to get past them, but not all ten of them.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Archer replied, though not with any kind of snideness – she'd simply already thought about the idea and evaluated its use. She looked up briefly to see Lance's stance. “Yeah, and you could probably hold off one or two. Three if it's the cubs, but even then, that's only half. And even without making 'em run, I could maybe stun some with a flashbang – they've got real sensitive hearing, that's why we're whispering – but that still won't get all of 'em.”

Icy nodded along as she thought about the problem. “What we need is to get rid of some of them.” She paused for a moment but opened her mouth quickly as it registered how obvious that statement sounded, cutting off any reply. “I mean separate them, break some of them off so we can deal with less of them at the entrance.”

Archer nodded, her mouth closing as, presumably, any snark died on her tongue. “Yeah, a distraction could work, but what?”

Icy hummed for a second before an idea struck her. She breathed in sharply, remembering that they were whispering a fraction of a second before she made an exclamation that could have echoed all the way to the wolves. “Could you maybe send a flashbang down the opposite tunnel from where we're coming from – get some of them to investigate?”

Archer shook her head. “Nice idea, but no. I mean, I'm good, but even I can't steer an arrow in midair to go along the tunnel path. That means I'd need to be close to 'em to do it, so they'd hear the bowstring before they heard the arrow hit. Besides, I could only send the arrow a little ways down the other tunnel, so the ones that break off'll still be nearby. Heck, they'll have us in a pincer movement if we do that.”

Icy wilted a little. “Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Sorry.”

Archer shook her head. “Oh, nothing to be sorry for – you've got the right idea.” She looked down the tunnels, a smile coming to her face. “In fact, I reckon we don't need to get any closer to 'em to thin the pack. Come on!”

Without another warning, Archer suddenly dashed off back down the tunnel, moving as quickly as she could while keeping her hoof steps silent.

A moment later, Lance followed, leaving Icy to take a moment to register what was happening before hurrying after them.

When the three had reached a small intersection, where another tunnel joined the way they were going to form a Y-junction, but ended in a dead end a short distance away. Archer pointed down the new tunnel. “Wait down there, I'll be back in a bit,” she whispered, unslinging her bow from her back.

She was just about to rush off again when Icy managed to hiss out. “Hey, wait a moment!”

Archer started slightly, as if genuinely surprised someone wasn't just going along with whatever she was doing. “What?”

Icy sighed. “Could you maybe tell us what you're planning to do? You know, so we can be prepared to do... whatever we need to do when we have to do it?”

She could see Lance nodding firmly in her peripheral vision. She didn't know whether it was one or both of them that seemed to get through to Archer as she gave the matter a moment's thought.

“Fair point,” she whispered back. “Sorry. See, I was gonna send a flashbang down into the cavern down there,” she pointed down the way they had originally come, “make a noise they'll hear. With any luck, a few of them'll break off to investigate. Once they do, we can hide down that tunnel, then slip back behind 'em while they're sniffing around the cavern. If it works, it might reduce the number at the entrance enough that we can get through.”

Nodding in satisfaction at her explanation, Archer turned to walk off again. However, something Archer had said gave Icy an unpleasant thought that cast doubt on the idea. “Hang on, don't wolves have a really good sense of smell?”

Archer turned back to her, a slight bit of confusion on her face. “Er, yeah, but what does...” she trailed off as her face fell slightly, though less into despair than into contemplation. “Oh, I see what you mean – they'll probably smell us. Hmm...”

There was a long moment of silence between the three teammates. Or, at least, the two fillies, since Lance was usually silent anyway.

Which made it odd that he was the one to clop a hoof lightly against the ground in realization. Catching the others' eyes, he mimed a burst with his hooves, then waved his hooves slightly as they went outward.

Archer smiled. “Good thinking – a smoke arrow should cover our scent enough they'll miss us.” She pulled an arrow with a thick, blunt head covered in grey markings from her quiver.

“Are you sure that won't scare them off?” Icy asked, feeling a little guilty that she kept finding potential problems with the plan.

Still, Archer didn't appear to mind. “Nope – this smoke's nothing like the stuff you get from fire, doubt it'll send 'em packing. Though if it does, hey, maybe it'll get 'em out of a cave after all.”

Icy thought about this for a moment, nodding at Archer's logic.

Archer smiled as she grabbed the arrowhead in both hooves. “Okay, I'm just gonna pop this. When I do, Icy, I'll need you to flap up enough of a wind to thin it and send it down the tunnels – don't want them to catch wind of it before we're ready, huh? Can you do that?”

Icy nodded, satisfied that they'd dealt with all the obvious problems with the plan.

Smiling, Archer pressed her hooves on either side of the arrow's head, applying enough force that it quickly started bulging outwards before bursting completely. Without being fired and impacting something, the popping noise was surprisingly quiet, further muffled by her hooves. However, there was little time to consider that as Archer's form got near-instantly subsumed by the rapidly expanding cloud of smoke.

Flaring her wings, Icy began flapping hard, halting the cloud's progress towards them and sending it spreading twice as fast down the tunnel. After about a minute's flapping, the cloud had thinned enough that she could see down the tunnel again, though it quickly curved away from them, meaning she couldn't see Archer anymore.

As she and Lance scampered down the opposite tunnel to hide, the amusing possibility that Archer had used that whole idea as an excuse to run away from the mission in a variant of the “smoke bomb and run” trick flickered briefly through Icy's mind. However, she just as quickly dismissed it – Archer would never do that, if only because she'd never acknowledge that a situation was enough of a threat to worry about her safety.

Unlike you, a nasty little voice hissed from the back of her mind as she was briefly reminded of exactly what they were there to stop.

Fortunately, a boom from down the tunnel distracted her from those thoughts and, a few moments later, Archer came racing silently around the corner, managing a dead sprint towards them while keeping completely quiet.

She waved her hoof forwards as she came up to them, urging them further back down the tunnel even as she smiled to let them know of a job well done.

The three scurried back down the tunnel until they could only just see the junction they'd come from. Once there, Lance slashed a few spots of glow-mold off the walls around them and flicked them far behind them, plunging the spot they were in into shadow. A glance at his silhouette-of-a-face told her of his reasoning – no sense in taking chances.

Nodding in agreement, Icy flapped her wings towards the now-loose mold, sending it tumbling further back until it was around the corner and out of sight.

That done, the three crouched down to the ground. Archer was the furthest forward, her sharp eyes making her the best lookout amongst them and her dark-blue outfit providing the most camouflage in the darkness. Icy was next, her pale blue blending adequately into the shadows and the rock walls and her wings giving her a good way to shield the bright white of Lance's fencing outfit should she need to. As such, Lance was in the back, his wide-brimmed hat held in his hooves to shrink his silhouette as much as possible.

The three of them all had their eyes firmly locked down the tunnel before them and sat there, waiting in total silence.

Icy took a long swallow, trying to stretch the process out to both keep it as quiet as possible and to give herself something to focus on other than the sharp tension in the shadowed air. She had no idea if the timberwolves had any interest in such a sound down the tunnels or how quickly they would move to investigate. Come to think of it, she didn't know anything about timberwolves besides what they looked like, and that was because she had seen a picture in a book. For that matter, it was entirely possible that said picture was exaggerated or inaccurate, so they could look like anything. For example...

A sound caught Icy's attention before she had a chance to go off on a mental tangent – something she would be the first to admit was quite a feat. Looking up, she saw a shape moving across the end of the tunnel far in front of them. It was hard to tell due to them being silhouetted by the lights in the tunnel, as well as Archer being in the way, but it certainly looked like the picture she had seen.

Raising herself slightly to see above Archer, though not enough to be in danger of being seen past her, she saw several more shapes joining the first. She counted four of them, all roughly the same size, moving with a distinct sense of purpose past their hiding spot.

The instant the last of them had passed out of sight, Archer waved the group forward gently and started leading the way. She moved quickly and carefully, her limbs darting quickly through the air before slowing down the instant they came near the ground. As a result, she soon outpaced Icy, who had less experience with such motion, and Lance, who was wearing clothing that made such movement difficult and required a slightly slower pace.

However, they did catch up to her after she stopped at the end of the tunnel, peering out at a sharp angle and clearly ready to dart back into cover the instant one of the wolves started to turn around.

Icy almost opened her mouth, but quickly clamped down on the impulse to ask what was going on. This did make the next few moments rather awkward as she waited for any sign, positive or negative, from Archer.

A moment later, however, such a sign came as she smirked and pulled back slightly. She turned to the others and gave them a silent nod before holding up a hoof. Her eyes went up as she held her position, clearly waiting for something, though Icy had no idea what.

A splashing sound suddenly echoed down the tunnel, sending an unpleasant chill through Icy's wings – far colder and nastier than the kind she consciously channelled. However, that was clearly what Archer was waiting for as her hoof dropped in sync with it. A moment later, another splash sounded, followed by a whole cluster more of them.

Icy took a deep breath, understanding what was happening – the wolves were going up the passageway where the water was flowing – and tried to channel that understanding into her body to unclench it from its tension. It wasn't totally effective, but it did seem to free her up enough that, when Archer started moving forward along the path the wolves had taken, she was able to follow without too much difficulty.

Of course, the instant she moved out into the corridor, there was another thing she had to worry about. As she threw a hoof across her muzzle in a desperate, but fortunately successful, attempt to suppress a disgusted cough, she recalled that she had heard something else about timberwolves, albeit in a slightly roundabout way.

Apparently, when Spike had talked about a certain somepony's morning breath stinking like a timberwolf's, it was most definitely not a compliment.

Still, she managed to keep her mouth closed and her eyes from watering enough to interfere with her vision as she and the others pushed through the stench.

They made their way down the tunnels, following Archer's lead in regards to their speed, as she had been the one to scout out the area. When she sped up slightly, once they were far enough away from the group that passed them by that the slight extra noise wouldn't endanger them, they matched her speed, and when she slowed down as they neared the exit, they slowed down with her.

And when she stopped completely, pressing her back against the wall just before a corner, Icy and Lance darted to the wall as well, crouching down while Archer peeked briefly past the corner. The stink had intensified, indicating that they were worryingly close to the pack.

After a second, Archer turned back to them and put her hoof out. She moved it sideways, lowering it slightly three times as if patting the heads of three creatures, then lowered it further to half its previous position and repeated the gesture.

Fortunately, while Archer wasn't quite on Lance's level when it came to silent communication, she was no slouch and managed to get her meaning across well – there were three adults and three cubs.

In her peripheral vision, Icy could see Lance nodding. As she turned toward him, she saw him slowly and silently draw his sword before slashing it gently along the lower height that Archer had indicated – he would take the cubs.

Once he had got that across, he adjusted his grip on his blade and crouched down lower, ready to spring up and into a fighting stance at any moment.

Turning back to Archer, Icy saw that she had already drawn her bow and an arrow with a thick head, the angled point of it a different material from the thick cylinder attached to the shaft.

She looked to the others and tapped her hoof against her foreleg three times, indicating that they could move on the count of three. Icy nodded, flaring her wings and beginning to gather her energy as Archer turned back and reared onto her hindhooves. Once ready, she began tapping her left hindhoof silently against the ground.

One... Two... THREE!

Archer's hoof hit the ground for the third time, but rather than giving it a light, silent tap as she had the previous two, she drove it hard into the ground, creating a loud, deep thump and driving her forward out of hiding. Fortunately, Icy was focused enough that she was able to follow almost instantly, with Lance leaping out behind her. Archer, it seemed, had made allowances for this by leaping far past the point where she would become visible so that the others had room to come out behind her without having to bunch up or awkwardly move around her, even if it meant she had further to move and would act slightly later.

However, she was still fast enough that, by the time Icy had turned around and readied her wings, the thick-headed arrow was already flying towards one of the timberwolves – the one just past the closest one.

It impacted the wolf's upper torso just as it was getting to its paws, showing the purpose behind its construction – the instant the tip of the arrow met the wood of the wolf's hide, the material that made up the point shattered. This left only the blunt head of the arrow to smack into the wood, meaning the impact didn't penetrate the wood, but knocked the wolf aside as if it had been punched hard, but without having sacrificed much of the arrow's aerodynamics as an ordinary blunt head would have.

All this occurred in the back of Icy's mind, to be called to the front and analyzed later. In the moment, she was far more focused on gathering her energy and, seeing the opportunity when the wolf Archer had hit was knocked into the wall, sent a wave of freezing energy over the nearest wolf, hoping to catch both it and the arrow-struck wolf behind it in one ice block.

It worked partially – the nearest wolf, having been looking away from them when they revealed themselves, still had its back to them as it was just getting to its feet, so it got frozen from its head down to the top of its hind legs.

The other wolf, however, was far more on-the-ball, even after having been knocked off-balance by the arrow. It darted backwards, its reflexes as sharp as its fangs, able to get all but one of its paws out before the energy impacted the wall. Still, that one paw getting frozen was enough to halt its backwards momentum.

Growling, the wolf abruptly swung its free front leg towards the ice to smash it, only for a two-pronged arrow to envelop it and knock it up and aside the ice, pinning it to the wall. The wolf began to flex its muscles, pulling the arrow slightly out of the wall. However, before it could free itself, another blast from Icy impacted it, freezing its entire front half in place.

Icy didn't have time to appreciate the victory, however, as a thick flash of movement pulled her gaze in front of her again to the final adult wolf barrelling towards the group, liquid sap and visibly putrid breath from its mouth streaming out behind it.

However, just before it reached them, Lance darted out in front, ready to intercept. As the wolf landed for a final leap at them, the white-clad colt whipped his hat from his head and threw it up into the air in front of him, sending the thick brim spinning along its axis like a buzzsaw. However, the purpose wasn't to cut, as the brim wasn't even a little sharp, let alone enough to cut through a timberwolf's hide. Instead, he had spun it to keep it hovering in the air long enough for him to swing his sword into the side of it, driving it forward to impact the wolf with the full width of it.

To someone who didn't know Lance, the hat, like his scarf, might have seemed just for show – a little bit of style to compliment his image as a dashing swordstallion. However, one couldn't know Lance for long without getting a sense of just how little he wanted to do with that sort of frivolity or, for that matter, anything that might get in the way of his job of protecting others. As such, just as his scarf was intended for use as a whip or rope in a pinch, his hat was magically treated to be usable as a shield should he need it.

This meant that, when his sword-pushed hat hit the wolf in mid-leap, it impacted hard and deflected its jump completely, driving it into the currently-unfrozen wall of the cave.

However, it didn't remain so for long, as Lance gave the wolf one slash to stun it a little longer and twist it onto its back a little, then waved his hoof at the creature, indicating for Icy to freeze it. Icy wasn't sure if she needed the command, but appreciated it anyway and certainly didn't need to be told twice. With one heavy flap, she froze the wolf with its back to the corner of the floor and the wall. Its legs were free but pointed up into the air to wave uselessly.

Another, slightly less uniform movement drew Icy's attention back towards the mouth of the cave. The whole attack on the adults had taken about six-to-ten seconds – Icy had neither the time, the ability nor the inclination to tell exactly. However, as impressive as that was, it had given the three cubs enough time to get to their feet and rally themselves for a charge. Fortunately, Icy's heart was already racing from the combat, so she wasn't really surprised and neither of the others seemed bothered by it.

On the contrary, Lance charged forward to meet them, tossing his sword forward to run on all fours before leaping to his hindhooves a fraction of a second before they reached each other. Snatching his sword out of the air, he swung it in a wide, backhoofed arc, impacting the side of the leftmost wolf and driving it to the right, straight into the side of the middle one and sending them both into the right wall.

The rightmost wolf, though, had enough time to see what was happening and leap up as it charged, managing to sail over the sideways movement of its fellows, coming at Lance with its claws outstretched. However, before it could get close enough to impale him, an impact arrow struck it under the chin, bursting into a flash of light as it did. As always, the arrow did very little damage but sent enough pain through the wolf's jaw to stun it and send its leap tumbling slightly, allowing Lance to get his hat between them and catch it on the brim. Spinning around from the impact, Lance carried the momentum of the wolf's landing around before turning it back to the side, throwing the wolf off and into the other two, where they landed in a tangle of jagged limbs.

The instant the wolf left his shield, Lance flicked his tail forward hard, commanding the others to run past him while the cubs were stunned. Had Icy been alone, she might have spent a second too long appreciating what had just happened, but seeing Archer dash forward spurred her hooves to move even as her mind remained fixed on the situation.

She briefly wondered why Lance hadn't told her to freeze the cubs before a loud crack from behind her reminded her that freezing the adults had been a distinctly temporary measure, not to mention how they didn't know when the wolves they'd sent on a wild goose chase deeper into the cave would return and she wasn't confident she wouldn't catch Lance in the blast. It was obvious that the less time they spent in the cave, the better. Besides that, taking out the timberwolves had never been their objective, just to get past them. If nothing else, the fact that they were hiding in the cave in the first place suggested that they didn't want to go out into the rain.

That thought briefly reminded Icy that she didn't either as they charged past the wolves, Lance lingering slightly to make sure the cubs wouldn't be able to intercept them before sprinting to catch up with the others.

Fortunately, Icy's fear took a moment to reach her hooves, during which time the group reached the mouth of the cave and burst out into the open air. Had their position been the only factor, Icy might have been shocked into slowing down, which might have allowed the wolves to regroup and catch her, plus the others if they stayed to help.

However, both that possibility and the additional fear caused by her realizing it were dispelled by one simple fact – they were now not only in the open air, but in the fresh air. The close quarters of the cave had meant that the collective breath of the timberwolf pack had been concentrated into a small area and, while Icy had been distracted enough to get used to the stench, as well as her slightly watering eyes, it had still been horrific.

Now, however, the sheer impact that the not-completely-rotten smell of the forest and rainwater had on her senses was blissful. As they ran out into the forest, she took a deep breath and felt a surge of energy rush through her hooves as they carried her far away from the cave.

This was very fortunate because, just before the impulse to slow down and appreciate the sensation finished being formed, she heard a loud snap from behind the group and felt that good feeling suddenly dim somewhat.

“Are they...” she began, focusing that newfound energy in her hooves into accelerating her running.

“Following us? Looks like it!” Archer replied, turning her head only slightly, enough to see their pursuers in her peripheral vision. “Just the cubs, though. Guess they're not as scared of the rain as we thought.”

“So what do we do?” Icy asked, swallowing hard and focusing, keeping her hooves from tripping over themselves when she heard another couple of snaps.

“What else?” Archer asked, smiling even as she ran. “We lose 'em!”

At that moment, Icy desperately wished she wasn't running for her life, not only because that would mean safety and rest, but so that she could give a proper hum and sigh to fully encapsulate her skepticism at Archer's statement. Of course, if she wasn’t, she wouldn't need to, but...

A thick root brushed against the underside of her hoof, not hard enough to trip her up, but solidly enough to provide some friction and resistance and to knock her out of her thoughts before they started. It did bring to mind something else to mind, though.

“Problem,” she said in between breaths, “they know the area better. They'll be better at dodging trees and stuff.”

Archer's shoulder moved a little oddly as she shrugged into her hoofbeats. “Then let's get out of the trees.”

Without warning, she veered to her left in Icy's direction, forcing her and Lance to turn with her to avoid running into her. The group turned slowly, keeping their momentum but still allowing the pounding paws behind them to get a little closer, sounding a little louder over the rain.

It didn't take long for Archer's meaning to become clear as the edge of the treeline came into view. At first, while the sight was still slightly obscured by the falling water, it looked like a huge clearing in the trees. However, as they approached it, it became clear why the trees stopped – about five metres after they did, the ground dropped away into a sharp cliff – no doubt the Everfree Ravine they would have to follow.

Admittedly, Icy was a little hesitant to run along the cliffside in a rainstorm, but there looked to be enough space between trees and canyon for them to stay safe and stable.

Of course, as they turned back to run along the clear path outside the trees, the ever-louder pounding noises behind them brought that into question, the ponies' changing trajectories having allowed them to catch up a little.

Lance appeared to notice this too as he turned to the others and jerked his head back, silently asking if anyone had any ideas what to do about that.

“Sure thing, one sec,” Archer replied before shifting her shoulders slightly as she ran. A moment later, as one hoof hit the ground to continue propelling her forward, she shoved it backwards hard, both increasing her speed for a fraction of a second and sending the hoof to her lower back, where she swiftly pulled her bow down, the hoof then going forward to place the bow in her mouth before returning to its running duties.

Her other forehoof, however, picked up off the ground, leaving her to run three-legged, her other hooves speeding up to compensate. Her free hoof, however, quickly pulled an arrow from her quiver and loaded it into the bow. Pulling back sharply, the arrow fired up and in front of the group at a very steep angle.

Icy swallowed hard between breaths before asking, “How was that supposed to...”

“Wait for it,” Archer replied as her free hoof re-slung her bow before returning to the ground.

Icy spent a good few seconds 'waiting for it', unsure exactly what 'it' was or why Archer thought it was okay to wait. However, the sound of something falling behind her just about managed to be heard over the rain and the hoofbeats. Icy had just had the thought that she might want to turn around to see it when a colossal bang sounded from the ground behind her, with a burning white light flashing in her peripheral vision and making her very glad she hadn't turned around.

A brief, high-pitched whimper could be heard tailing off a moment after the bang, along with the skidding of clawed feet coming to a stop.

Icy smiled slightly as she turned to Archer. “Flashbang?”

“Flashbang!” Archer smirked, seemingly more satisfied with the idea of using one to scare the wolves than the incredible calculation that would have been necessary to fire so the ponies would overtake it, but the wolves wouldn't. Still, the loud howling behind them suggested that it had just given them more of a lead rather than scaring their pursuers off.

It seemed the others realized this as well, as Archer jerked her head back towards the wolves. “Anyone got any other ideas?”

Lance thought for a moment before pointing his muzzle towards his sword, suggesting he could hold them off while the others got away.

Archer rolled her eyes. “Anyone got any good ideas? You could maybe keep one of 'em occupied, the rest'd just run past you and keep on us. We'd be in the same boat and down one of you – ain't happening. Anything else?”

Icy thought about the situation, finding the rain pouring onto her muzzle an oddly helpful presence, as it also kept her nerves just on edge enough to ensure she kept focused.

Thanks to Archer, they had a good lead on the wolves, but only for now. The wolves were barely faster than them, but they were a tiny fraction faster, so in a straight-line chase, they would catch the group sooner or later. Icy could only feel grateful it was only the cubs chasing them – she wouldn't like to imagine how short this chase would have been if the adults had joined in.

Still, the speed of the wolves did present a problem, as did their familiarity with the terrain – while they might be able to use the woodlands to their advantage somehow, the wolves would undoubtedly be better at it. Plus, the cliff beside them was a consideration as it stretched out before them. The group was far enough from the edge that they couldn't see down to the bottom and Icy thanked heaven for that – she wasn't notably scared of heights, but it still couldn't do her nerves any good.

Looking ahead, she saw that their escape track was limited anyway, as the cliff started turning a couple of hundred metres ahead of them, sweeping around to block off their escape. Or, at least, turn it into a different kind of escape – an unpleasantly vertical one.

Icy shook her head, not particularly enamoured with the idea of jumping off a cliff to escape her pursuers. Not that it would be much of a danger to her, as she could probably glide to safety, but she didn't know how the ones in the chase without wings could...

Wait a second... that could work...

“Guys,” she said, swallowing to gather her breath for a moment before continuing, “I've got an idea, but we'll need to come right at the cliff edge to do it! Does the cliff curve around enough to do that?”

There was a pause before Archer grinned at her.

“I think I see where you're going with this and I like it. It sure does, but we'd need to head back into the trees to get to a good position. That'd mean another swerve, so we'd need another way to delay 'em. Anyone got any ideas?”

Icy thought over the resources they had, quickly coming back to the list she'd heard Archer give... well, start, at least, of her arrows. “Could you use one of your snare arrows?”

Archer shook her head. “Not on all three while they're running – they'd be able to dodge. Maybe if they were in midair, though.” She thought for a moment before nodding. “Either of you able to make 'em jump?”

Icy didn't have long to think about ways to do this before she saw Lance nod firmly to her side.

Archer gave a single, brief chuckle before nodding back. “Alright, then. Let's do this!”

The instant she finished saying that, the group turned and darted back into the trees, far more in unison than the previous time they'd changed courses. Icy smiled to herself through her breaths, both at being attentive enough to move with the others and at the slight sounds of surprised and off-rhythm steps behind her, indicating that the wolves were caught by surprise and would take a moment to readjust themselves.

However, the sounds soon started to get closer to the group as they again adjusted their trajectory, the snapping of jaws beginning to get worryingly close.

However, that was when Lance went into action, accelerating his pace to pull a little in front of the others. Turning his head towards a pair of adjacent trees just to the left of the path he was taking, he shifted his run to leap at the slightly further tree head-on. A moment before he collided with it, he leapt, one forehoof darting to his scabbard while the rest of his hooves braced for impact.

As they made contact with the trunk, his hooves grasped the bark of the tree for a moment as his legs bunched up before springing backwards off that tree and into the one just behind it, twisting his body round in midair to spring off of that one too.

As he hit the tree and drew his sword, he moved his left hooves outwards, making him land against the tree at more of an angle and allowing him to leap out and into the path again. Icy briefly wondered what the purpose of this was before his sword swung through the base of a large branch just above him, shearing easily through it and causing the branch to begin to fall before a kick from his hind leg as he sailed past sent it flying at the wolves.

Icy chanced a look behind her to see that, as Lance had predicted, the three wolves were already landing into a crouch in order to leap over the wide projectile. However, as her head was turned over her shoulder, she could also see Archer whirl around, readying her bow once more and pulling three arrows out of her quiver.

As she nocked the first two simultaneously, Icy was reminded of something Archer had once told her – that the oft-fictionally-repeated idea of firing two or more arrows at the same time was, while not technically impossible, usually rather pointless. Not only was it difficult, even for her, to aim two arrows loaded like this and almost impossible to aim three or more, but the force from the bowstring remained the same no matter how many arrows were loaded into it. That meant that if you fired two arrows at the same time, this force would be divided between them and each arrow would fire half as fast and as hard, meaning they were far easier to dodge and wouldn't penetrate anything or impact with any real force.

However, it soon became evident that this wasn't a problem with the arrows she fired – not only was she aiming at creatures in mid-leap, meaning they couldn’t really dodge, but the head of the arrows splitting in midair into a set of bolas made clear that penetration or impact weren't priorities. The only important thing was that they went fast enough to wrap tightly around whatever they hit, which they clearly would.

Of course, the aim issue was still relevant, but as Icy could almost imagine her saying, this was Archer she was talking about. So one of the arrows hit home, wrapping a wolf's front paws together and sending it tumbling through the air for a rough landing, and while the other did miss one front paw of another wolf, it caught the other paw and, because it only had to wrap around one leg, went far enough to catch the back paw on the same side and tie those two together, making for a heck of a consolation prize.

After this, it seemed barely notable when Archer, skidding back through the mud on her rear hooves, loaded the remaining snare arrow and hit the last wolf just as it landed, making it tumble forward and sending its face crashing into the mud.

Icy smiled as her teammates re-sheathed their weapons and rejoined her, pulling away from the disoriented and bound wolves. She almost had to stop herself from turning around and freezing the wolves in place in the hopes of stopping them then and there and making her whole plan unnecessary. However, she didn't trust herself to be able to freeze all three of them thick enough that they wouldn't break out easily.

The brief sight she saw as she turned back to the front – the wolves reaching their hindlegs or free forelegs forward to slash through the bola wires only validated her decision. Besides, it was probably best she didn't remind them of what she could do.

Whatever the case, they had gained some considerable distance from the wolves by the time they had freed themselves to resume the chase, giving Icy confidence that they could keep out of their reach long enough to reach the cliff edge.

As she thought about this, she looked at the others. “Okay, so you probably know... what you need to do,” she said between breaths, “but when I say “now”... you jump up into the branches. Okay?”

“You got it!” Archer replied with an easy smile, echoed by Lance's nod.

Icy turned one exhale into a slight chuckle. “Okay. And Archer? Need you to tell me... when we're getting close to the...”

“Yeah, will do, but we got a few hundred metres left before then,” Archer replied, her eyes firmly forward and her voice not betraying enough fatigue to hinder her observational skills.

Icy nodded before another thought occurred to her.

“Hey, do you think you could use another flashbang to blind them?”

Archer hummed as she kept her eyes forward. “Well, couldn't do it like I did before.” She jerked her head up towards the forest canopy. “Tree cover'd block it. Could maybe use my hoof to strike one hard enough to set it off, but it'd be tricky while running and risk blinding us too. ‘Sides, they may be animals, but they ain't stupid and they'll probably see it coming.”

Icy frowned, putting aside how impressed she was at Archer being able to say all that while running as she tried to think of another way of stopping the wolves from seeing her plan coming.

However, a movement from her other side drew her attention back to Lance, whose hoof briefly pointed towards himself before resuming running.

“You're sure you could?” Icy asked, though mostly as a formality – she knew Lance wouldn't have suggested that he could do something to blind them if he wasn't fully able and confident to.

Sure enough, Lance nodded before jerking his head back towards the wolves. Once he'd indicated he was talking about them, he tilted his head towards them before jerking it forward.

Icy gulped hard. “You're sure they need to be closer?” She thought for a moment, fighting past the fatigue that was beginning to blanket her thoughts in fog. “I guess that'd make it easier to pull this on them anyway, so sure.”

She kept her eyes on Lance as the group began to slow down a little – not so much as to seem suspicious to the wolves, but enough that the pounding paws and snapping jaws behind them started getting very loud and, while it could have been Icy's imagination, the sharp chomping seemed to be getting more rapid too. It would make sense, of course – if they did notice the group slowing down, they'd probably attribute it to them getting tired, meaning the chase would soon be over. And that was assuming they didn't realize they were heading for a cliff and think that that would mean their quarry would be cornered.

A smile managed to poke slightly onto her muzzle just as Archer called. “Okay, getting close now, get ready!”

Looking up, Icy could just about see the edge of the trees coming up just ahead. Nodding, she drew in a long breath to speak.

“Okay, Lance, when I tell you, blind them. After that, when I say “now”, you grab a branch and get up into the trees, okay?”

She saw movement to either side of her and knew her teammates enough to know they were nods. She took a deep breath – this was the moment of truth.

“Okay, Lance, do it!”

To her side, Lance flashed a hoof to his side, still running with the other three, and pulled out his sword. However, rather than twirling it around into a ready position or raising it to hit something, he swung it down and across his body until it lightly struck the ground next to him. Once there, he pressed it slightly into the ground as he ran along it, carving a slight gash into it and, more importantly, sending a huge spray of mud out behind him.

The spluttering and confused whimpering behind them told Icy that, even if the wolves weren't blinded by the spray, they were certainly disoriented enough that they would be unprepared for what came next. Icy flared out her wings and began gathering energy as she cried, “NOW!”

Lance and Archer both leapt up on her cue, grabbing onto overhanging branches and swinging up. Icy didn't get a chance to see any more as she passed them a moment later, but she had faith they would be safe. Besides, she had other priorities.

As the cliff edge came rapidly towards her, she flapped her wings hard, angling them down and in front of her. This did have the effect of massively slowing her forward momentum, but also lifted her high enough into the air that she was in no danger from the wolves. And, more importantly, froze a wide path up to the precipice that the wolves would be far too bewildered to avoid.

Sure enough, as she looked behind her at her pursuers, she saw them just beginning to shake off the mud and their confusion as they pounded onto the ice, their confusion rapidly returning as their paws slid out from under them and they found themselves hurtling forward with no control.

One of the wolves swiped a paw across its face, throwing off the mud completely and getting a look at exactly what was happening. Unfortunately, by the time it had, it was almost to the edge and had only the time to change its expression.

While Icy was by no means an expert on the expressions and feelings of animals and magical creatures, she got a distinct, gratifying sense that it was going “Eep!”

A moment later, the trio of wolves plunged off the cliff, a helpless whine sounding out from them and fading slightly as they fell. Icy followed their path down as she glided, tracing their trajectory down to the river belo-

“AH!” Icy's body locked up as she caught sight of the pounding rapids. The adrenaline of the chase, combined with the constant fall of rain around her, had meant that she hadn't especially noticed the feeling of the rushing water far below her, but the sudden sight of it sent a wave of panic through her limbs, including her wings.

Her glide quickly tailed off as her wings started folding and quivering, sending her into a tumble that soon had the rest of her limbs flailing and her body as a whole plummeting. She started scream-babbling, the fear and her helplessness forming a vicious cycle that soon eclipsed her mind completely. She caught a brief sight of the cliff edge coming up towards her position – though enough to the side that she would miss it completely, and had a brief extra surge of panic before she suddenly felt something wrap around her midsection,

Looking down as her fall stabilized and the wrapping yanked her backwards hard and far, she saw a thick wire attached to a set of bolas clinging tightly around her, the pulling from behind telling her that the wires were attached to a long line – a literal lifeline, currently.

As she fell, she started swinging down towards the treeline, the force pulling her back and up never reducing. As the river was blocked from view by the cliff edge, she just about regained control of her mind enough to note how that must mean the thing on the other end was pulling the line in as she was falling. However, she had little time to consider this further as she swung down, missing the ground by centimetres, before swinging back up into the treetops, where a hoof grabbed her and yanked her onto a thick branch.

“Icy! You okay?” Archer asked, holding Icy firmly by the shoulders and pointing her head into eye contact. “You're safe now, don't worry.”

Icy swallowed hard, trying desperately to convince her shaking limbs to believe Archer. “I... I was... sorry.” She looked away briefly, only for a shake of her shoulders to bring her back to looking at Archer.

“It's okay, don't worry about it. You wanna take a moment to rest and find your hooves again?”

As she felt Lance climb onto their branch, Icy felt herself nodding a pathetic nod, a wave of shame running through her as she did.

---

“Yep, that's it!” Sunny said with a smile as she looked over the ponies building that section of the sandbag wall. “Stack them like that and it should keep the water at bay. You need anything else?”

At the ponies' collective shaking of heads, Sunny turned around to return to the centre of town, only to see Princess Twilight galloping towards her, waving a wing to get her attention while her magic formed an umbrella of force to keep her mostly dry.

“-nny!” she began to hear as the Princess approached close enough to be heard over the rain. Humming a little in curiosity, Sunny trotted up to meet her.

“Prince- er, Twilight!” she called back as she approached, remembering the alicorn's insistence that she be referred to by her name and not her title. “Need me for something?”

“You could say that,” Twilight replied as she reached Sunny. “I was wondering if I could have a word about something.” She paused for a moment before adding, “In private.”

Sunny frowned slightly as she tried to think what such a talk could be about, but shrugged after a moment. “If you like.” She pushed up the hood of her waterproofs to look for a good, out-of-the-way spot to talk in, soon hitting upon a small alley between two houses. She nodded over towards it and, once Twilight nodded back, they began walking over there.

As her hood began to droop again, Sunny noticed the Princess's bare back and tilted her head slightly. “Where's Dinky?” Sunny couldn't help noticing Twilight's instinctive smile at the name any more than she could help getting one of her own.

“She's just resting for a while,” Twilight replied, looking over to her back, where the little filly had been perched not too long ago. “I was giving her power, but she still had to craft and cast her spells, so she got a bit tired and she... Well, it was decided that she should rest.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow at the conspicuous use of the passive voice. She always thought a Princess would, or at least should, be good at hiding things and talking around things they didn't want to say, but she supposed Twilight was still learning. Still, she felt compelled to say, “She didn't want to stop and rest, did she?”

Twilight gave an endeared chuckle. “I spent half an hour while we were working convincing her. I was worried I might have to put my hoof down, but she relented... eventually. Still, I can't really blame her.”

Sunny nodded. “She's a little trooper, that one. Then again, so's most of the town from what I've seen. I mean, considering Ponyville's reputation for disaster, I guess I shouldn't be surprised how well everypony's taking to these preparations, but still, it's amazing how prepared they all were to drop everything and put their all into it, not to mention how effective it's all been.”

“I know,” Twilight replied as the two entered the alley. Once inside, Twilight brought the two of them to a halt before lighting an extra corona around her horn. The wide umbrella above her quickly expanded out and downwards, covering the two of them in a cone of force. Another brief flare of magic sent a wave of dark grey through the shield, making it a far more muted purple. Curious, Sunny lit her own horn and performed a quick scan of the magic around her. She wasn't nearly experienced enough to discern the intricacies of the spell that had just been cast, but it seemed to be designed to stop any sound from penetrating or escaping their little bubble.

A moment later, Twilight's corona diminished again and she turned back to Sunny with a smirk. “I hope you'll forgive me if I'm being presumptuous, Sunny, but I'm guessing that even you haven't encountered anypony who, when presented with a barrier, would think to fire somepony through it with a ballista.”

Sunny started slightly at the reference before she remembered. “Oh, right – Pinkie brought the idea to you first, didn't she? You still think it's going to work?” she asked, a touch worried by the fact that Twilight was bringing it up.

Her worry didn't abate even as Twilight nodded, as her expression remained serious. “Well, I've just come back from checking it over and, well, unless something major changes or comes up, I think it'll still work. However,” she fixed Sunny with a stern glare, “Pinkie also shared another little tidbit with me. She told me you'd requested to be the first pony sent through.”

Sunny hummed as she met Twilight's eyes without flinching. She'd locked eyes with polar bears, tigers three times her size and all the heads of a hydra, she wasn't about to back down or look abashed now. Particularly if the Princess was going where Sunny was afraid she was going.

“Well, you say ‘requested’... I'd say I told her I was going and I'm not about to change my mind on that. Why? Is there a problem with that?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Well, that depends. How much weather magic do you know?”

Sunny blinked at the apparent non-sequitur. “Er, what? What does that...?”

“Please, just tell me,” Twilight interjected.

After a moment, Sunny shrugged. “A little, not much. Mostly to do with making or deflecting wind. Why?”

Twilight shook her head. “In that case, no, you're not going through first.”

Sunny scowled at the princess, a slight growl forming in her throat before she suppressed it. “And just why not?”

Twilight sighed, not rising to match Sunny's glare but instead giving her a sad look. “Because whoever goes first needs to be able to do something to deal with the weather over there. That's the whole point of sending someone through.”

“Is it now?” Sunny said, unable to keep a sneer from flashing onto her face for an instant. “And here I thought that helping Ic- helping to take care of the source of this whole thing might be a worthwhile thing to try.”

Twilight sighed. “Well, of course, that's something we should do if we can, but it's a secondary priority – not only have we already got some ponies working on that as you well know, but taking out the pony responsible won't do anything to stop the weather that's already been unleashed. Whoever gets sent through has to be able to do something about that.”

Sunny exhaled sharply, trying to calm herself down or, at least, stop herself from getting any more agitated. “You're talking as if we'll only be able to send one pony through! Obviously more can come after me, it's not like I'm gonna smash the thing on my way out!”

“But we don't know that for sure,” Twilight replied, remaining infuriatingly calm and soft-spoken. “I mean, we might not even be able to send one pony through – and if that happens and they can't get through the wind wall, it'll need to be a pegasus just so they can ride it out to the end – but if we can, we don't know if we'll be able to send a second.”

Sunny scoffed. “And just what do you think is going to happen, huh? One shot and the whole thing breaks?”

Twilight grimaced as she answered. “I don't know, but just because we don't know what can go wrong doesn't mean nothing can. There's always a chance something will go wrong and I'm not willing to risk the town by ignoring that chance.” She reached a hoof forward to put on Sunny's shoulder, only for her to jerk away.

“And if it breaks after that pony goes through?” Sunny asked, still meeting eyes with the Princess. “If no one else can go through after them? What then?”

“Then they'll have a chance of dealing with the wind wall and allowing others to come through normally,” Twilight replied without missing a beat. “And if that fails, they can try and deal with the rain and if that fails, then they can help deal with the instigator.”

Sunny sputtered for a second before shaking her head slightly. “But you don't know that they'll... it might not work – you can't know for sure...”

“No,” Twilight interrupted gently, “but the chances are far greater than if we sent you through first.”

“But... but...” Sunny swallowed, finally finding herself looking away from Twilight. “But my little filly's out there... probably scared out of her mind...”

Twilight sighed and, again, put a hoof on Sunny's shoulder, this time without Sunny recoiling. “I know. Believe me, I know. For what it's worth, I don't like the idea of leaving them out there alone either – I even looked into the possibility of sending two ponies through at once.”

Sunny blinked in surprise, though how much was because Twilight had seriously considered that and how much was because she cared enough to spend time calculating it, even Sunny didn't know. “Really?” she asked, looking back up at Twilight, though with far less force than a moment before.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. It didn't pan out, but I tried. Listen, I know you're worried about Icy...”

Sunny snorted. “Worried? That's...”

“Putting it mildly, I know,” Twilight finished for her, her hoof still resting on her shoulder. “But, from what little I've seen of her, I think she can handle herself.”

“Of course she can,” Sunny interjected with a soft sharpness. “But that doesn't mean she should have to.”

Twilight smiled at her. “Well put. But... well, obviously I don't know her nearly as well as you do, but I've talked to her a bit and, well...” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, clearly not relishing what she was about to say. “Tell me something: what do you think she would say if she found out that you'd risked the town to help her?”

Sunny's mouth flapped open and closed a couple of times as she desperately searched for a satisfactory answer and came up empty.

With a sigh, she nodded. “You're right, Princ- Twilight.” She kicked a hoof against the ground in frustration.

Grimacing a little, Twilight finally took her hoof from Sunny's shoulder. “I'm sorry.”

Sunny shook her head sharply. “Don't be. Like you said, if we can send one through, we'll probably be able to send another. Not fond of relying on “probably”, but it is the best choice. Besides,” she gave Twilight a slight smirk, “you shouldn't feel sorry for showing the Princess of Ponyville is actually pretty dang good at the whole leadership thing.”

Twilight chuckled awkwardly. “Well, I'd say I'm competent at best, but thanks.” She rubbed the back of her neck as she thought of something. “Although, considering what you've probably heard about me, I guess that would be a big step up.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow at that – she had been implying the contrast between Twilight's actions and her reputation, but only a little. “So, you know...”

Twilight nodded as she smiled the joyless smile of somepony who hated something, but had long since accepted that she was helpless to do anything about it. “Yes, I'm perfectly well aware that I have a reputation for being... irrational.”

Sunny's eyebrow remained raised as she breathed out a slight chuckle at the wording. “That's one way of putting it,” she said, thinking about some of the words she'd heard to describe Twilight, few of which were kind or delicate.

Still, Twilight chuckled as well, albeit without any real humour. “Again, putting it mildly. And, well, sadly that reputation is... not without basis. Much as I'd like to say ‘you start one magically-induced town riot over a doll and people think you're a lunatic’ but, well,” she shrugged, “yeah, can't really blame them, can I?”

Sunny nodded, suppressing the urge to ask her to elaborate – it was clearly a pretty sensitive topic.

Still, Twilight straightened up. “However, just because it has some basis in reality doesn't mean it's accurate. There have been some... incidents, certainly, but they've also been emphasized and distorted by time and retelling. And, while I obviously can't judge myself with complete objectivity, I'd say that my reputation, while understandable, is hardly fair.

“Rest assured,” Twilight gave a mildly melancholic smirk, “no matter what you've heard, I don't go insane at the drop of a hat.” She thought for a moment before the smile became more genuine, if sardonic. “Unless it's Trixie's hat, but that doesn't count – she's so annoying I think anypony would go insane.”

Sunny laughed at the image, unfamiliar with the name but appreciating the feeling. “I'll take your word for it.” She looked behind herself at the field of magic surrounding the two and pulled her hood down again. “Anyway, should probably get back on top of things. I'm guessing we've wasted enough time with my own... issues.”

“Not at all,” Twilight replied as she drew in her magic to form a personal umbrella once more. “I factored a good half hour into the schedule for intra-administrative arguments. We've got plenty of time.”

Sunny turned around and gave Twilight a questioning look.

Twilight, however, just shrugged with a smile. “I did say that my reputation for neurosis has some basis in reality.” Laughing a little, she joined Sunny in exiting the alley. “Still, don’t worry. I think we'll be able to send you through with plenty of time to spare.”

Sunny nodded firmly – if whoever was doing all this thought that a snag like this would stop her, then they had another thing coming.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

“Guess not, not enough to let me play with fire like that.”

As in, that's literally an idiom.

As such, just as his scarf was intended for use as a whip or rope in a pinch

Note that this is also how the swashbucklers would have used them, or as a feint in a similar vein to bullfighters' capes.

she wasn't notably scared of heights

That would be rather strange for a pegasus.