Rainbooms and Royalty

Swamp Peril

Six ponies and one zebra stood at the threshold of the Everfree Forest. Dinky Doo had been safely ensconced in the home of Carrot Top, a close friend of her mother. Secure in the knowledge that the filly was in safe hooves, there was nothing to hold them back from entering the forest in pursuit of the fabled Elements of Harmony.

Well, almost nothing.

“We have to go in there?” Rarity fidgeted squeamishly. “Ugh, it’s so dark and dank and…dirty!

Rainbow Dash groaned as Applejack shot Rarity an annoyed look. “Ah reckon it is…so? Don’t you think saving your kin and country is worth a little dirtying up?”

“I never said that!” Rarity defended herself indignantly. “For Sweetie Belle I would do anything—but if I could do it and not get dirty, I wouldn’t mind.”

“Well you cain’t so give it a rest. You can’t have yer cake and eat it too.”

Rarity hmphed at Applejack’s curtness.

“That’s true you can’t!” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing around the two. “No wait, you can have your cake and eat it but then you won’t have your cake anymore! What you really can’t do is eat your cake and have it—that’s really hard! Unless you can ‘have’ your cake in your belly, does that count? Ooh! What if you have TWO cakes? Then you can have one and eat the other!” She suggested. “Can one be chocolate and the other vanilla? But which one would you eat? Hmm, maybe if you made TWO chocolate and TWO vanilla—”

“PINKIE PIE!” Rainbow Dash raised her voice in annoyance. The sudden yell made Fluttershy twitch as she barely avoided throwing herself to the ground in fear. Dash’s eye twitched. They hadn’t even set hoof in the forest yet and already things were getting…complicated. “Let’s just go already!”

Twilight suddenly looked anxious. “Shouldn’t we make a plan first? I mean, there are a lot of things in the Everfree Forest to look for. Maybe if Zecora explained them I could make a checklist of them and—”

Rainbow felt her wings unconsciously flex in frustration when Zecora spoke up. “While your idea has merit, I’m afraid I must decline. There are too many dangers for me to list, and not enough time. I can show you how to sidestep the perils on the way—but be warned: follow my lead or the price you will pay.” She cast a severe warning look at Rainbow Dash at that last part before she started heading in.

By silent agreement, Applejack and Rainbow Dash decided that they’d keep an eye out for the less…hardy members of their group. Dash flew above the group, keeping watch from the air while Applejack headed up the rear with the same practiced ease that she’d use to herd a flock of sheep.

Rainbow craned her head back and forth. The trees in the forest had a more twisted, unpleasant look than those she’d seen elsewhere. Moss and vines grew everywhere, with no sense of pattern or purpose. It leant itself to a very wild, unkempt look which she supposed made sense, seeing as nopony controlled how the plants grew in the Everfree. She shuddered. Such an unnatural place.

In all of Equestria, everything was controlled by ponies or pony magic: the plants, the animals, the weather…coming to a place where nothing was controlled, nothing was planned was like stepping back into the distant past when ponykind was at the mercy of the tyranny of the old elements – earth, water, fire and air, before they had been subdued.

This whole forest reeked of anarchy, of chaos. Rainbow Dash shuddered. “So Zecora, what’s the deal with the Elements anyway?” She asked, trying to distract herself. “Where are they?”

“Our destination lies at the heart of the Everfree, the old Palace of the Royal Sisters pony.” Came the accented cadence she’d come to associated with Zecora.