Repercussions (MLP)

[Hiver]

"Brace!"

"Brace!"

The word came from all through the airship as each crewmember repeated it loudly when they heard it.

I lit my horn and wrapped myself and the five closest changelings and ponies into my shield as I held on tightly.

Shield wouldn't do much for the impact itself, but it would help with potential flying debris.

Amber had one foreleg around me, her other three legs planted firmly on the floor as she held on tightly.

I wrapped her tightly in one wing for extra support.

The ship suddenly rocked slightly and there was the sound of impact over the howling wind outside.

"Brace!"

Something hit metal and there was a crashing and ripping sound and the ship kind of vibrated beneath our hooves, tilting slightly before it suddenly jerked with the sound of impact.

Another impact rang through the ship, something scraped across the hull in a horribly screeching sound followed by another impact and then another and then…

It was over.

I slowly raised my head without lowering the shield, "...That's it?" I asked, "We don't seem to be moving much."

Another bang, but this one much softer and was more you could hear it more than feel it.

There was a whine and then a bang from the rear of the ship, the sound of the rear hatch banging open.

I dropped the shield and looked to Tempest and Amber as the three crew members quickly galloped off to where they were going before the brace order came, "Come on, let's check it out!"

Amber looked like she wanted to protest, but still nodded and let go of me.

We headed for the hatch at a bit more sedate pace. Whatever was happening was clearly mostly over.

The exit of the ship was filled with ponies passing lines along and being lowered out by unicorn crewmembers, pegasi jumping out and flying back in to get more equipment or tools, clearly fighting against the howling wind outside.

"What's going on?" I asked the closest unicorn.

He looked to me for a moment, "We need to tie down, My Lord, or the storm is going to crack us open against the forest.

"Anything we can do to help?"

He shook his head, "You're not trained, sir."

"Fair enough, we'll stay out of your way."

He looked to me in slight surprise as he kept preparing a set of rope with his magic before he gave me a nod and trotted over to the edge to hand it over to one of the pegasi.

I took a breath and then shook my head and looked to the other two, "Come on, let's get going. We shouldn't be in the way."

Tempest shook her head, "This is something I 'am' trained for, Commander," she said and crossed the chamber to the earth pony that was clearly in charge.

"Well, we useless ones should at least get out of the way," I told Amber, "But there is something we can do."

It was the middle of the night, it was raining hard and when it's over, everypony was going to be freezing and starving.

I'm going to the galley.


XXXXXXXXX


It took a bit of work to figure out how to use the magic powered burner and a some more to figure out where everything was and how to lock the large pot down to it.

Then it was simply the task of locating all the ingredients and getting to work.

I'm hardly the best chef in the world, but there is only so much you could buck up making soup.

"What in Celestia's name are you doing in my galle-" an angry voice asked as I added some more pepper before it broke off as I looked over to the speaker and the earth pony cleared his throat, "I mean, may I ask what you're doing, Lord Page?"

"The one thing I can actually do to help," I said and turned the heat down a little, "My apologies for borrowing your equipment, Biscuit, but we're going to have a lot of hungry ponies soon."

He nodded, "Which is why I'm here. Now, out of my kitchen!" he said and trotted over.

I obediently got out of his way and he sniffed the soup before picking up a spoon and trying some.

Biscuit frowned and then looked to me, "Is that goulash?"

"Ish," I said, "Goulashish. It has a lot of the same things in it, but it's a soup not a stew. Need another hour to get ready."

Biscuit nodded and looked at the puttering pot, "Very well," he said and then looked at Amber and me again, "That's going to need time to work and we're going to need some bread and something else as well. I have dough rising for tomorrow, we can use that a bit early. I get to work with that. Changeling, how are you with a knife?"

"I can use a knife," Amber said and eyed him warily.

"There is a barrel of carrots in the storage room, get five pounds, peel and grate. Lord Page," he then continued and turned to me, "Same deal, twice as many potatoes."

I saluted him.

Let's get some ponies fed!

 

[NHO]

I think Biscuit is having a day, despite everything that's happened.
High Nobility! Who's knows what he doesn't know! Who's competent enough to help!

 

[Hiver]

The next morning the storm had dissipated and I stood with Moon Dancer, Midnight and Tempest in a small group, looking up at the ship.

"Well," I said and shifted my wings, "That could have been a lot worse."

The ship looked mostly intact, ignoring some buckles in the lower hull where it had… convinced… some trees to get out of the way. One engine nacelle was outright blown in half, but the other one looked somewhat intact. The propeller was missing which considering we went through a forest before stopping wasn't surprising, but the rest looked okay.

Even the windows of the bridge were intact.

"Could have been," Midnight said and sank down to sit, "Thank Celestia nopony died."

"Anypony get hurt?" I asked.

She nodded, "One engineer has a broken rear leg and a pegasus broke two ribs and had her wing dislocated while trying to tie the ship down," she said, "But it could have been worse. A lot worse."

I just nodded and sighed in agreement and slowly looked around the clearing around the ship. The guard was in full process of fortifying the area around the ship, using the trees cut down around the ship after the forest.

The sound of splitting trees and digging filled the air as a thick wooden barricade was being quickly erected in a circle around the ship.

As I watched, a thick tree came crashing down.

Which considering the thick jungles all around was something I approved of. Because who knew what lurked out in that thick vegetation?

I fully approved of their wariness.

What I found slightly more annoying was the way that Tempest stuck within three hooves of me at all times, her eyes constantly scanning the forest around the clearing.

I already had Amber doing that from hiding somewhere, I didn't need a third shadow!

She wasn't even a member of my Guard.

But considering the possible danger of the jungle, I didn't complain too hard about it.

I turned to Midnight, "...So… how long would it take to fix you think?"

Midnight shrugged, "Don't know yet. I talked to Sparkgap, she thinks we can get it up and running again. But we need a new propeller for the engine that's still there. We also need to fix the mana capacitor for the engines or best we'd be able to do it short hops."

"And everything else that's broken," Captain Jetstream said as he approached us, giving Midnight a slight bow, "Your Highness," he continued, "While those were the major items, we've taken more damage than that. The landing put a lot of strain on the lifting magic as well, it was not made to have power pulled from it like that. We're going to get it seen too before we're going anywhere to make sure we don't have a leak."

Midnight nodded, "We're going to be stuck here for weeks," she said and ears drooped slightly before she straightened again, "We'd better get to it then, Captain."

Jetstream grinned briefly, "I think you may be a bit pessimistic about our timeframe, your highness. I have the best engineering team in Equestria."

"And outside, considering we are in the jungle now," I mused, "We're no longer in Equestria."

He chuckled and nodded, "Right you are," he said and then looked to Midnight, "With your permission, Princess?"

Midnight motioned for him and he retreated and headed back to a group of his engineers pointing towards different parts of the ship.

I looked up at the ship for a moment, stretching my wings, "Well… we better go be useful instead of standing here like a bunch of… nobles. I'll go help build the fortifications, I can at least help with the heavy lifting or digging."

With that, I headed over towards the group of ponies sticking split thick wooden quarters of three or so pony lengths of tree trunks into the ground to form a barricade.

Moonglow was overseeing the work and I moved up to her, "So, what can I do to help?" I asked her.

She glanced at me and shook her head, "That's not necessary, sir."

"No it's not, you're doing a good job and making amazing progress," before I moved a bit closer, "But I'm feeling a bit useless here. I can't help fix the ship, but I can help with heavy lifting."

Moonglow smiled and then gave me a nod as she shifted her wings, "Very well, sir. We could use somepony to help with the splitting of the trunks. How's your cutting spells?"

"Good enough for that," I confirmed, "Tempest?"

"...I'll help lift," she said and then continued quietly, "I can't hardly break a tree while picking it up."

"Not with that attitude you can't!" I told her with a grin and Tempest actually chuckled.

I smiled and stretched my wings for a second, "Come on, let's go do something useful."

 

[Hiver]

The moon shone far above among the twinkling stars and the air was filled with the sound of the jungle outside the camp.

The airship was visible mostly as a pitch black silhouette against the stars behind it. The camp had been set up at one side of it, tents stretched up as Captain Jetstream had set the ship as off limits for everypony that didn't absolutely need to be onboard until the full inspection of the lifting thingamajig had been completed.

It was still gas, but it wasn't a lifting gas, it did something to air and it sounded at Midnight's explanation like it reversed gravity on the air or something.

To be completely honest, I didn't quite follow her explanation, what i got out of it was that thing do thing to air that make it lift.

All I knew was that they wanted to be sure nothing would break and have the ship roll over and explode before they let more ponies than necessary onboard.

Something howled out in the darkness and everypony in the camp jerked up slightly, ears turning in all all directions.

I tried not to roll my eyes.

Ponies could really be such nervous herd animals sometimes. That wasn't even close. I yawned and looked around the camp. The tents were gathered in groups around the crackling fires and ponies were gathered in groups around the fires other than the guards patrolling the edges of the camp.

We got almost half the walls installed during the day and quite frankly, my horn hurt from cutting tree trunks into quarters all day.

I had never practiced magic like that in the past, casting such a high power spell all day really did take it out of you.

I now understood fully why they normally used saws instead of just hiring a unicorn for the job even if it took longer.

I reached up to touch my horn with a small cringe before I sighed and dropped my hoof again.

"Smarts?" Midnight asked from across the fire from me, glancing up from the crate she had put laid out a map and a couple of books on.

"Yeah," I admitted, "Not used to casting like that."

I had spent all day casting cutting spells strong enough to split tree trunks. I was not used to casting like that, it was exhausting.

She nodded, "I know how that feels, done that more than once myself," she said and shrugged her wings, "Well… I confirmed Captain Jetstreams estimation of our position."

"Far off course?" Tempest asked from next to her.

Midnight shook her head, "We did drift quite a bit," she said, "But we're only a day of our estimated course and about a day and a half of flight out from where we planned to start."

"But that was only an estimate," Moon Dancer told her from the right, "We're already in the search area so as soon as the camp is secure, we can send out the scouts."

"That's good, isn't it?" I asked, "I mean, the ship's not moving for… what, two weeks? We'll need that much to do a grid search of this area anyway, won't we?"

Midnight smiled and nodded, "It is," she said and sighed, "While I'd prefer a bit of a gentler way of getting here, at least we're in the right place."

I slowly got up, "I'm going to stretch my legs a bit," I said and when Tempest moved to get up, I motioned for her to lay back down, "Relax, I'll stay inside the perimeter."

Like Amber wouldn't tackle me as soon as I crossed that invisible line anyway. Or at least look at me disapprovingly.

Tempest looked at me and then sank down again.

I smiled at them and then I turned and walked away from the light of the fire. The night was cooler than the day, but nowhere near cold which suited me just fine.

The air was filled with scents and sounds and sadly insects.

Luckily at least one of us has planned for this(Midnight) and thought ahead to bring enough bug repellant potion for everypony as part of the expedition supplies.

So at least the buggies weren't interested in me, they just buzzed around annoyingly, making me flick my tail in their general direction when they got close.

Now away from the fire, my eyes easily adapted to the darkness and I could see clearly. I sniffed the air as I slowed slightly. I could smell so much of the forest, even if my ability to smell wasn't that much better than a normal pony.

Something was decomposing in the distance. Something was giving of a sickly sweet smell too. I could still smell the moisture from the rain last night, but now the sky was clear as far as we could see.

"Best stay inside the perimeter," Swift said as he walked up to me from the side, "Predators hunt during the night."

I shook my head and looked at him, "They mostly come out at night. Mostly."

"Yeah, which is why we're doing eight hour shifts," he agreed and blinked at me, "...Your eyes are kinda glowing."

"It's the nightvision. Thestrals see a lot better than other ponies at night. Most night predators have the same thing."

"Like a cat?"

"Like a cat," I agreed and nodded, looking towards the edge of the cleared area and the jungle there, "Swift, have a look towards the edge. What do you see?"

He turned his head to look in that direction, "Dark jungle."

"Don't turn your back to it," I told him casually, "Because I'm seeing five sets of eyes reflecting light."

Swift froze and I could see him swallow, "Big?"

"No, smaller than a pony but not by much. Might be wolves. But let's not tempt them more than we need to, shall we?" I said before I half closed my eyes to protect from the glare before I lit my horn and sent a flare of light in their general direction before detonating it in a small thunderclap of sound.

The eyes instantly disappeared and there was a sound of breaking branches and rustling leaves.

That'll make them keep their heads down for a bit.

 

[Crazael]

I shook my head and looked at him, "They mostly come out at night. Mostly."

Click to shrink...

The downside to being in an alternate universe is no one gets your movie quotes.

 

[Hiver]

Day 11

I don't know if you ever slept in a tent or not, you might have been living in a city all your life, but let me tell you that all those adventure books… well, they skip over some things and make it sound a bit more glamorous than it actually is.

Oh, a nice warm night and all you have to deal with is a bit hard of a place to sleep which can be fixed easily enough.

Not so nice when it's absolutely pouring down outside because you have set your tent up somewhere with feral weather. Even if you set everything up right and don't have things pool into the tent, everything just gets kind of a bit moist, just from the moisture in the air.

Then there is the sound. Oh, the sound of the rain is calming. The wind and trees and everything else? Not so much.

Then add animal sounds or as your mind thinks up in the middle of the night, horrible pony eating monsters…


XXXXXXXXXXX


I pushed my bleary eyes open and yawned wildly as I glared up at the sun lit canvas of my tent. Oh now you decide to leave? Just in time for Celestia to make things hot and bothered?

Stupid feral stormclouds. I miss the tame variety.

Groaning, I rolled over and flicked my wings until I got my blanket off myself. I was already spoiled by ponies having control over weather normally.

Struggling up to sit, my ears brushed across the still wet canvas and sending a shudder down my spine.

I quickly ducked and glared up at my tent.

Camping sucks so hard.

I hissed at it and then moved to crawl out of the tent, careful to use my magic to open the tent so I wouldn't have to touch the stupid wet thi-GAHH!

I opened the tent flap and got a facefull of sunlight.

Clamping my eyes shut until I got used to the light, I squinted and slowly exited the tent.

Only to put my hoof into a puddle.

Sigh.

One of those days, huh?

Shaking my hoof to get the worst of the water off it, I made my way over to the closest fire and sank down on a somewhat dry spot.

"Not a morning pony, are you, sir?" Moonglow asked cheerfully. I forgave her for it though as it came accompanied by her pouring me a cup of tea, handing it over to my magic field.

"Not even before I become... " I started and then suppressed a yawn and sniffed at my tea, "...naturally nocturnal."

Moonglow nodded, "Princess Midnight thought it was best to let you sleep."

"Anything happen?"

"Not much," Moonglow admitted, "The Airscouts had been sent out but other than that we'd just resumed construction of the barricade and the repair of the ship."

"Give me five minutes to wake up and I'll go help," I said and sipped my tea.

Damn it, my horn still hurt from yesterday. Not bad, but it was an ache that seemed to pulse with my heartbeat.

But then again, it was good practice and nopony else was slacking off, so why should I just because I had a headache.

Moonglow shook her head, "Don't worry about it, sir," she said with a smile as she poured hot tea into several large thermos flasks, "We got it well in hoof," and then moved to carry them over towards the construction team.

I sipped my tea and looked over towards the ship. It looked pretty okay actually from this angle. It was still floating just as high as it did when we landed two days ago.

Well, for some degree of landing at least.

So the floaty thing was likely okay but I couldn't exactly blame Captain Jetstream for being careful and wanted it checked out before finding out after everypony is onboard and have something burst just to have the ship fall down, roll over and explode, killing everypony.

But the moment I could move out of a tent… well, I'm doing that. Come on, there has to be a better way of doing it than sleeping on a ground on a thin pad with a blanket.

I glanced back at my tail, shifting it a bit. It was much more prehensile now than it was before… and bats sleep upside down…

...Nah, that'd just be silly.

But maybe I can improvise a hammock or something.

I finished my tea and stood up, yawning and stretching my wings and back before I shook my head and started towards the construction site, pausing to reach up to touch my aching horn for a second.

Ow. Well, it'll be fine, I'm sure it'll calm down when I get into it.

That's for later though, let's split some trees in half!





AN// Tomorrows part a bit early as I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

A pair of pegasi beat their wings hard, holding the quarter of the trunk segment steady as a pair of earth pony on a scaffold took turns hammering it's pointed end further and further into the ground with heavy thunks.

Everypony was watching the big wooden hammers slamming into it again and again until it got level with the ones next to it for a pair of unicorns to bind it into place.

"And we're done!" Moonglow exclaimed, raising one hoof into the air.

There was a general cheer going through the work part and I grinned, holding my hoof up for the pegasus next to me.

Dee Dee, as she wanted to be called as she claimed not to like her actual name, grinned back and tapped her own hoof against mine. She was a dark yellow pegasus and she had her black and gray mane pulled back in a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes. She was wearing a shirt with a bunch of pockets which almost felt like something I should look into for myself.

I miss having pockets sometimes. I should get something with pockets!

She had been the spotter for my spells all day today as well as yesterday.

Letting my breath out, I sank down to sit on the ground, reaching up to touch my horn again before quickly pulling it away.

Ow.

Two days of casting a heavy cutting spell and my horn just ached constantly now, not just in time with my heartbeat as this morning.

"You okay?" she asked with a small frown, shifting her wings.

"Is my horn glowing?" I asked in turn, "Because it feels like it should be glowing. And possibly smoking"

Dee Dee grinned, "Well, you managed to keep casting for longer than any of the unicorns, so I'd say you earned yourself some rest," she said and nodded towards where the fires had been started to get set up again.

The sky was already starting to go dark above, we had been at it all day.

"You know what?" I asked her, "That sounds like a great idea."


XXXXXXXXXX


The fires crackled in the darkness and somepony had found a guitar somewhere and were playing by one of the other fires.

There was a bit of a feeling of celebration in the air. The barricades were set up around the entire camp.

It had been a long day of hard work but we got it all done. The guards were still patrolling, but with the walls up everypony could relax slightly.

I glanced to the side and then quickly returned my attention to my current journal entry with today's details. Midnight was giving Tempest another magic lesson in the light from the fireplace and the light from Midnight's horn.

They were laying awfully close to each other, obviously to make it possible for Tempest to see what Midnight was pointing out in the book.

Obviously the only reason.

Damn Cadance, you scary.

I better stay on her good side because seriously, that was almost Chrysalis level of manipulation.

Her danger level in my mind was now about level with Luna and below Sunshine only because I was pretty sure Celestia was just as sneaky when she wanted to be and could set things on fire with her mind.

Still, she seemed to use her powers for… good? Goodish at least.

Midnight seemed happier at least and Tempest seemed happier so I wasn't about to complain as long as she didn't try to set me up with anypony else.

Sighing, I put my pen down and touched the base of my horn again. The throbbing pain had gone down to a dull ache by now but it'd likely be a couple of days before it was back to normal again.

Luckily using something as simple as telekinesis didn't seem to bother it overly much, at least it didn't hurt more than usual, but I didn't dare try any other spells at the moment.

So glad that I didn't need to do that again tomorrow.

Stretching my wings for a moment I rolled my neck before I yawned and closed the book, putting my pen and ink away in my satchel. Well, at least getting some sleep tonight won't be a problem, achy horn or not. I'm exhausted.

Finish my tea and then sleep I think, I may sneak over to see if Sunset was asleep. I was fully aware that I had decided to not do this because it wasn't fair to everypony else in the expedition, but after today, I needed some Sunny time I think.

Besides, I should likely report back what had happened. They couldn't do anything about it really, but I knew that if I didn't at least let Luna and Sunset know about it, I'd be in serious trouble when I got back home again.

And I wanted to see them both so badly right now.

Reaching for my tea, I then paused and looked down at my cup.

The dark surface suddenly rippled from the edges and in.

I frowned at it.

That's odd.

Then it happened again and my eyes went wide as something clicked in my tired mind, "Alarm!" I yelled and surged onto my hooves as my wings raised high, "All guards to their sta-"

An earsplitting roar filled the air followed by a crashing and snapping sound as something absolutely massive just completely ignored the barricade we had spent so much time to build and charged into the camp.

 

[NHO]

I better stay on her good side because seriously, that was almost Chrysalis level of manipulation.

Click to shrink...

While true, such thoughs are unlikely to get you on her good side.

 

[LordEdric]

T-Rex incoming, or maybe a hydra, some other dinosaur?

 

[Hestia&theCourt]

T-Rex incoming, or maybe a hydra, some other dinosaur?

Click to shrink...

Hydra with T-rex heads?

...actually, that'd be terrifying. T-rex bite strength on multiple heads? That thing would have a non-zero chance of being able to tear apart an airplane.

 

[LordEdric]

Hydra with T-rex heads?

...actually, that'd be terrifying. T-rex bite strength on multiple heads? That thing would have a non-zero chance of being able to tear apart an airplane.

Click to shrink...

Needs dragon wings to fly, maybe toughness too since dragons swim in lava

 

[Hiver]

I would have been glad if what came at us had been a t-rex. Buck, I could handle a t-rex. This was not a t-rex.

It looked somewhat like a rex at the head. If it only had one of them.

Instead it had two and instead of the little piddly arms, it had a pair of massive wings folded along its sides.

It was still bipedal, it's tail covered with what looked almost like razor blades almost as big as a pony.

I shied back and dumped as much magic into my horn as I could in an instinctive reaction to just blast the thing with my strongest cutting spell I could possibly cast.

I took aim at the neck of it's left head as it charged towards u-.

Next thing I knew, I was on the ground struggling to stay conscious as a spear of pain exploded like a spear of molten metal passing through my horn and further straight through my head, in too much pain to even scream.

I had to fight just to stay conscious, getting back up was out of the question no matter how much I commanded my legs to do it. Unable to even breath, to even think. So intense was the pain that the edge of my vision started to grow dark.

A beam of purple power erupted from my right.

It hit the thing in it's chest and splashed against it. The only effect it had was to cause it to shift course directly towards us instead after a slight stumble.

Oh, so it's magic resistant. Enough so that the Princess of Magic couldn't casually blast it at least.

Well, isn't that just fucking swell.

Move.

My body didn't want to move.

Another roar shook the world.

Move!

I managed to kind of flop in place.

There was a sudden bright flash of white and purple and then I was suddenly falling in darkness.

I screamed, somehow managing to get my breath back before I crashed through a couple of branches with heavy impacts. Something hit me and everything turned to stars and then darkness.

Not sure how long that lasted. For a long time or an instant there was nothing but silent darkness.

I slowly opened my eyes as I started to return to reality.

I quickly regretted that fact as my everything hurt. My horn was killing me, feeling like it was on fire, and my head hurt like a bad, bad hangover.

The rest of me didn't feel much better. I felt like I had fallen out of a tree.

What was worse, I was looking up at the teeth filled muzzle of some sort of lizard thing filled with big sharp teeth. It was nosing at me.

Somehow, I'm still not sure how, I managed to resist the urge to blast the thing with my horn and instead I bared my teeth and hissed at it, kicking out.

The thing jerked back and ran for it, crashing away through the underbrush.

My everything strongly protested the movement and I collapsed back against the ground, gasping for breath and trying not to pass out again.

I forced my eyes back open and looked up at the green leaves of the tree above me. What in the fu… wait…

It's light. The Sun is up.

When..

Shit!

I surged to my hooves and quickly regretted doing so as my head protested the treatment with a very strongly worded letter.

I leaned against the tree for a long moment, gasping for air and trying not to throw up as I fought about the darkness creeping in from the edges of my vision as it felt like somepony rammed a glowing hot iron rod into my head through my horn, trying not to throw up.

Ok. Let's review.

Rexosaurus attacked camp.

Resisted Midnights zappy thing.

Midnight… teleported me out of there? Teleported everypony out of there? Or just me?

No way for me to know, but either way that had to have been almost an instinctual reaction for her, no way she'd be able to just pick a safe location for everypony. She must have just teleported me or everypony just away from the camp.

Which while not exactly safe, did sound better to me than being rexy food.

Now, the question was… did she drop us all in more or less the same spot or did she just teleport ponies at random?

The fact that I woke up having a 'whatever it was' thinking about eating me instead of Amber hissing at anything that got anywhere close to me indicated that Midnight had just shotgunned us all across the countryside.

I pushed carefully away from the tree and looked myself over. I had some scratches, but everything seemed to move right if twinge a bit, so nothing outright broken.

I slowly glanced up at my horn and then reached up to feel it.

It looked intact, but I almost slapped my hoof away as soon as I touched it when it caused a spear of pain to stab through my head and I almost threw up as it drove me off my hooves.

Okay.

Note to self. Don't touch that. And Absolutely No Magic. Not sure if broken somehow or just horribly overstrained, but until I have a doctor look at it, I'm essentially a batpony, if one with earth pony strength.

I needed to find the others. But just walking around calling out names seemed like a horribly bad idea if things like that rexosaurus wandered around the jungle and I was fairly sure that it was far from the only horrible pony eating thing here.

WIth my magic out of service, meeting one of those seemed to be a baaad idea unless you counted falling over unconscious in front of a predator a good thing.

Okay.

...Okay...

I can't worry about the others right now, they could take care of themselves. I just needed to find the group.

I could alert Luna to send help, she'd be asleep at this time, but falling asleep right now seemed like a bad move and without my sleep spell, it would take too long anyway. Especially with my head reminding me that it was in horrible pain at every heartbeat.

That has to wait until tonight or if I find somepony to watch my back.

Okay. Find everypony else. To do that, I had to find out where I was.

I glanced up at the tree next to me as I slowly struggled back onto my hooves.

Yeah, that'll work.

 

[Kitty S. Lillian]

Airship disabled? Check. [Fortifications demonstrated useless? Check.] Magical trump strength foolishly pushed way past usable? Check. Separated from powerful comrades? Double check.

Were the wings not a point of commonality with the locals, and also already incapable of getting him actually To Safety by virtue of distances, I'd be asking how long they have left intact. (Really, the teleport-to-fall would've taken them out, but "nothing's broken".)

 

[Hiver]

Before starting my climb, I took a moment to test my wings low to the ground to make sure that I wouldn't pass out with the effort.

When it seemed like it worked and I didn't black out, I flew up as far as I could before the branches got too thick and after that it was a mix of climbing and flapping over to a different thick branch as I made myself up through the thick crown of the tree.

It took me a while as it got pretty thick at times, but soon I reached the highest branches and could look out across the sea of green of the jungle.

I couldn't see shit, nothing but green in all directions all the way to the horizon.

Well, buck that.

I moved a bit further out on the branch. I just needed a better vantage point to see the landing spot. I mean, it was a white and pink airship with a big golden royal seal in front, it couldn't exactly hide!

I spread my wings and took to the air, working my way up into the air into a spiral, working my way up higher and higher into the air as I scanned the forest and the horizon as my head throbbed from the effort, my horn feeling like it was mildly on fire.

Nothing but a green mat of jungle stretching out in every direction.

"Seriously!? How far did you bucking teleport me!?" I yelled as I scanned the horizon once more.

I knew the general direction of Equestria because of the movement of Celestia's sun, but my exact position was completely beyond me. Who knows which direction the camp was in?

I flew a bit higher and then gave it up as a bad idea and just started to circle back down again. If Midnight really teleported me randomly, I'm likely lucky to be on the right continent. But I had no idea which direction back to the camp.

What to do, I needed a plan.

Back to the camp and airship at least. But how would I do that, especially with my horn out of order at the moment?

I went in for landing again in my tree before setting down to think. Rescue flares were out of the question because casting one might actually outright kill me right now. Or explode my horn or something equally not nice.

I needed to find a safe spot where I could sleep and call for help. It'll take a rescue expedition from Canterlot to get here at least a week, possibly more.

Luna could guide them to me, and…

Yes!

I quickly raised my wings in triumph! I could find ponies in the dream realm! That'd give me the position of everypony! It'll give me everypony's position and if I had been the only pony teleported out, it'd give me a clump of them for the position of the camp!

Then again, if I had been the only teleport, I imagine Midnight would have been more careful with the placement.

Okay. So I had a general plan. I just needed to find a safe spot for tonight and I couldn't just stay in this tree. Besides, it's going to start to rain sooner or later and I really didn't want to be without cover then.

Yeah, it was safe now, but who knew what things roamed the tree crowns in this place? Jaguars were a thing on earth and they really didn't mind climbing trees.

Without my magic, I really didn't want to fuck with any predators.

...Wait… no magic? My horn hurt.

"Discord!" I yelled, "Discord, get your scaly tail out here! You owe me, you chimeric pile of parts!"

No reaction other than scaring some birds away from the next tree over.

Oh well, it had been a long shot anyway. I suppose even he had a range limit on his hearing… and not like I was actually his favorite pony in the first place so he might not show even if he did hear me.

I glanced down and then started to climb back down.

Flying would let me cover more distance, but without knowing what direction to move it wouldn't help me and the jungle was too thick for me to be able to see anything useful on the ground as I did.

Which meant going down into the predator-filled underbrush or at least far down enough to fly between the lower branches like some sort of big tree squirrel.

Well, the squirrel thing sounded a lot more attractive than sneaking around playing tag with invisible velociraptors or whatever bullshit existed down among the bushes, if I could pull it off at least.

Turns out, there was a good reason ponies didn't expand into the jungle and a lot of those reasons had big teeth.

I slid down the trunk to the lowest branch and looked around.

So… which direction to go? No downhill, no uphill, nothing but bucking trees and the sound of the jungle all around.

I sighed and leaned against the tree trunk. Amber would have to be absolutely apocalyptically worried right now. Poor 'ling, if I could just let her know I was okay.

The brush rustled below and I froze pressing closer to the tree trunk as I stared down into the dimness of the jungle beneath the thick tree crowns.

Suddenly a pony pushed through into sight, ducking beneath a low branch.

"Hey! Dee Dee!" I called out as I recognized the pegasus.

The pegasus jumped and almost fell over in surprise, her wings beating in shock before looking around before finally looking up and spotting me, "Lord Page!"

 

[NHO]

This expedition just straight goes from bad to worse, isn't it?

Now he needs another Changeling Hive, whose Queen mothers him instead.

 

[Michaelsuave]

My bet: He is going to find a lost tribe of thestrals and be seen as their alicorn god, however will have to deal with reverse racism towards non-thestrals and protect dee dee from an entrenched groupnof elder thestrals who hold power and don't want to let it go. Might even be a jungle temple with a prophesy about a thestral alicorn returning to them, which is really lord page who was briefly sent back in time and created his own prophesy... so a few tropes there.

 

[IvanDead]

My bet: He is going to find a lost tribe of thestrals and be seen as their alicorn god, however will have to deal with reverse racism towards non-thestrals and protect dee dee from an entrenched groupnof elder thestrals who hold power and don't want to let it go. Might even be a jungle temple with a prophesy about a thestral alicorn returning to them, which is really lord page who was briefly sent back in time and created his own prophesy... so a few tropes there.

Click to shrink...

And because of his horn being out of commission, he could end up in a somewhat similar situation for Tulio's and Miguel's from The Road to El Dorado.

 

[Hiver]

I spread my wings and took to the air, gliding down to her, "Have you seen the rest?"

Dee Dee shook her head, "Not since Princess Midnight teleported everypony out of the camp," she said and shifted her wings, "I hid in a tree to get away from the predators during the night."

I nodded, "Good idea."

"What happened to you?" she asked and frowned, "I saw you go down when it attacked."

I grimaced, "...Well… yeah. I overworked my horn during the day and then tried to push one of my strongest spells through it to cast at the Rexosaurus. My horn strongly objected and still feels like somepony kicked it. Several times. And then set it on fire."

"So… no magic?"

"Sadly, yeah," I admitted and shifted my wings, "Wings and hooves only, I'm afraid. Have you even seen any sign of anypony else? Tracks or anything at all?"

Dee Dee shook her head, "Not so far, you're the first one I found. But I can only assume everypony will try to make their way back to the camp… or whatever remains of it."

I nodded, "You think the thing took it's anger out on the ship?"

She shrugged her wings, "No way to know," she admitted.

"Yeah…" I said and shifted my wings, "You have an idea on how to get us back there? I have no idea where it is."

The pegasus nodded with a smirk motioning with a wing towards her compass point cutiemark, "Definitely. Buuut…" she continued, "We'd need to wait for the stars to come out."

"Same for me," I said, "I can find everypony, but they and I need to be asleep for it and most will try to sleep at night. But with you here to watch my back, I can call for help from back home."

Dee Dee looked at me in surprise and then nodded, "Even if the airship is still intact… yes, that would be good, wouldn't it?"

Yeah, no kidding.

"Come on, let's get into a tree."

We flew back up to my tree and I found a spot between two thick branches where it looked like I wouldn't fall off, "Okay, I'm going to take a nap. If something tries to eat us, poke me."

Dee Dee nodded and settled down to wait as I closed my eyes.

My worry for everypony else and the pain throbbing through my head meant that actually falling asleep took a while.

But in the end, I slipped off into the dream realm and I was surrounded by darkness and the sparkles drifting through the not-air.

I instantly shifted over to Luna's dream portal and touched my horn through it, stepping into her dream.

It revealed Luna laying on soft grass by the edge of a cool lake by the base of a snow covered mountain.

She looked up as soon as I entered, "Pag-" she started before she saw my expression and she quickly got to her hooves, "What happened?"

I moved up to cuddle against her, "Luna…" I said and took in the scent of her coat before I looked up to her and I told her everything that had happened.

Luna held me close and listened before she looked down to me with determination, "We're coming for you."

I nodded, "I'll update you when I can," I said and then shifted my wings, "You know where I am and most ponies should be somewhere in the general area, geologically at least. But I should likely wake up now before something sneaks up on Dee Dee and me."

Luna nodded and then pulled me into a deep kiss before she rested her forehead against mine, "Stay safe, My Page."

"I will, My Sky" I said and exited the dream. I didn't leave the dreamscape instantly though, instead I did a shuffling of what little dream portals there were active and sorted them according to distance from me physically to see if anypony else was asleep close by.

Nopony was.

Well, that wasn't that big of a surprise, I'll try again tonight after dark so I pushed to wake up.

I quickly regretted it as it caused my headache and the throbbing of my horn to return unpleasantly and with a vengeance.

Oh buck, can I go unconscious again please?

Wait, why am I…

I quickly opened my eyes and almost panicked when I found myself looking at the forest upside down and slightly swinging.

But I wasn't falling.

I blinked and looked around only to find Dee Dee looking at me from a nearby branch. I blinked again and looked up only to find me hanging from my tail, my tail wrapped around the branch I had been laying on.

What in the world…

I then looked to the dark yellow pegasus in surprise, "...What in Equestria…"

She shrugged her wings, "Don't ask me, you're the bat-pony. You slipped off the branch soon after going asleep, but your tail did that and you seemed okay, so…"

I looked at my tail again. It has never done that before…

...Then again, I never tried sleeping in a tree before either and it was more mobile than before all of this.

Now, how in Equestria do I get out of this? I couldn't just let go, I was fifteen meters off the ground!

Yes I could, why wouldn't I be able to? I had wings!

Unwrapping my tail from the branch, I dropped and quickly spread my wings and pulled up before smacking into the ground. I winged around a tree trunk and flew up to land on the same branch as Dee Dee again, "They are on their way," I told her.

She nodded, "Good. We should find some water, some food and some cover. We'll likely be fine for a couple of days without food, but in this heat we'll dehydrate in a day or two. And I don't know about you, but I would rather not be out in the open when the next rainstorm hit."

"Good point," I admitted, "But, well… we're not going to find where we are before nightfall anyway, so we might as well get going and find some water. If we navigate by the stars, we should be able to get back to the camp by morning so helter isn't that required."

She shook her head quickly as she got up, "No way. We're not traveling by night through a jungle, that's just begging to have something jump you, break your leg down a hole or fly into a branch. We'll hunker down for the night, find out our location and then move tomorrow towards the camp."

I flicked my ears and nodded. She made sense. I might be able to see in the dark, but she couldn't.

"Done this before?"

"Once or twice," she said with a slight grin, "Come on, let's find something to drink."

 

[Krazyfan1]

Page is totally going to pull a spiderman kiss on Luna

 

[Stratagemini]

"Done this before?"

"Once or twice," she said with a slight grin, "Come on, let's find something to drink."

Click to shrink...

I swear, if this is all a plot by cadence to get more mares into pages bed...

 

[Hestia&theCourt]

...wait, hold on, is Dee Dee Daring Do?? And if so, did we know this already and I'm just oblivious?

 

[Captainwolf]

...wait, hold on, is Dee Dee Daring Do?? And if so, did we know this already and I'm just oblivious?

Click to shrink...

yes, although it wasn't explicitly stated. Page doesn't know, though.

Dee Dee, as she wanted to be called as she claimed not to like her actual name, grinned back and tapped her own hoof against mine. She was a dark yellow pegasus and she had her black and gray mane pulled back in a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes. She was wearing a shirt with a bunch of pockets which almost felt like something I should look into for myself.

Click to shrink...

 

[Byzantine]

He'll probably figure it out and will feel like an idiot after, though.

 

[Hiver]

A branch came slashing towards my face.

Good news, I managed just in time to stop myself from grabbing it with magic.

Bad news, I also didn't manage to get out of the way and it smacked me across the face and what's worse, my horn.

I stumbled and choked out a sound of pain as I felt on the verge of passing out.

"Oh buck!" Dee Dee cursed and quickly ducked back to press her side against mine to keep me from falling, "I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine," I choked out, "At least I didn't try catching it."

"I'm so sorry! I usually do this alone!"

"I'll be fine," I said calmly and squeezed my eyes shut for a long moment, definitely not trying to avoid crying, "...I should have watched where I was going anyway."

Dee Dee frowned, "Let's rest for a bit," she said, "We can spare twenty minutes."

"I'm fine."

"If we need to fly, I can't have you pass out on me. We're resting for twenty minutes."

"...Yes, ma'am…" I agreed and sank down onto the ground. If I could just be rid of this accursed headache it wouldn't be anywhere near as horrible. Also, would make it less likely for me to throw up. Because I was on the brink of it right now.

"Any idea where we're going yet?" I asked once I dared to open my eyes again to look at her.

The pegasus nodded, "I think so, the ground is going down. If we're lucky, we'll find a stream or at least somewhere we can dig up some water."

"...Sounds good."

I raised my head and sniffed the air. It just smelled like jungle, something I had gotten progressively more used to since we arrived and especially since we… left the camp.

I slowly turned my ears, "I'm not hearing a stream," I said after several long minutes and listening.

"Your hearing is better than a pegasus?" Dee Dee asked as she watched me.

"A bit," I said.

"Well, keep an ear out, any warning we get to something tracking us would be good."

I glanced around, "You think something might be?"

Dee Dee shrugged her wings, "We're in the jungle and of the right size for a lot of things to consider dinner… and you're a lot less 'all powerful alicorn' than usual."

"Alicorns aren't all powerful," I said and glanced at her, "We're simply stronger in a specific way according to our talents. Well, other than having the usual gifts of the other tribes."

She frowned at me, "Really?"

"Really. Especially me. Sure I'm at the upper range of unicorns normally, but in the real world I'm only about as strong as Cadence. The rest come with experience and the ability to match any of the tribes," I explained, rubbing my head just beneath my horn.

"So, you're... Alicorn of Stories, right?"

I chanced a nod, "Yeah. Which so far mostly translates to giving moderately good speeches and being decent at dream magic."

"And bat wings."

"And bat wings," I said and got back onto my hooves, "Let's get moving."

Dee Dee nodded, "Still, keep an ear out and get ready to use those earth pony strength legs in case you need to buck something in the nose."

"Yep. All ready."

Assuming I could do a movement like that without passing out, that is. I really needed to step up my non magical combat. I should ask Tempest for lessons.

I followed Dee Dee through the jungle, this time a lot more careful to avoid any more sudden branches. To be fair, Dee was a lot more careful in turn with keeping them from slapping in my direction, making sure to keep them to the side with her wing until I ducked under them.

We slowly made our way slightly down the slight downhill before Dee suddenly stopped suddenly enough that I almost ran into her, "What?" I whispered, my ears quickly turning.

"Look at this," Dee Dee said and shifted to the side to let me look at what she had spotted and motioned what she had put her hoof on.

It was a flat stone at a bit of an angle with wavy lines engraved across the surface of it.

"This is…" I said and then looked at her.

Dee nodded, "Construction," she confirmed and looked around for a second, "...Come on, this way."

I moved to follow her but kept my head and ears on a swivel.

It only took a couple of minutes until we found a collapsed structure. Dee gave it a once over before she led the way along and we stepped into a slight clearing that brought us to a break in the tree cover.

Before us was a massive temple built in plateaus, to me it almost looked Aztec… or similar at least in it's construction. It towered before us, well over thirty meters tall.

"That's amazing," I said and looked up towards it.

"I think we found our cover for tonight," Dee said and spread her wings, "This is an amazing find, this is the first temple ever found this far south!"

"...You sure about that being a good idea?" I asked and finally looked away from the temple to turn to her, "Are these things usually trapped? Or is that just in adventure books?"

"Can be," she admitted with a sudden smile, "But that's deeper in, we'd stay by the entrance or by the upper chamber, those are usually clear."

I eyed her for a second, "You know an awful lot about these things."

"Hey, I'm an archaeologist," she said with a smile, "I have seen similar structures before. Now, this thing is a bit different from any I have ever seen before, it has more layers for one thing, but any traps that are out in the open would have malfunctioned by now anyway, going by the style on this thing, I'm estimating… six… six and half thousand years from the style. I mean, look at the weathering on the steps alone, this thing is old. As in, likely pre-celestial."

I slowly nodded, "So this might be part of what we're looking for."

Dee frowned and glanced up against it, "...Maybe. Doesn't look like it's unicorn-made though. But we can check it out later, we need to find some water and preferably some food."

"...Yeah, let's keep going."

"This is a good sign though," she said and smiled at me, "If ponies lived here once, that means there is likely to be water somewhere around here. Let's see if we can find it."

 

[Finagle007]

Five gets you ten that Dee Dee is short for Daring Do.