Saving Jade

          "C'mon Dash." a confident Jade said "let's do something fun." Smiling at her remarks Rainbow flew to catch up with the beautiful gold pegasus in front of her. "Don't you just love it?" Jade said admiringly.

"Huh? Love what?" Rainbow said unable to gather all of her thoughts.

"The sky above you, the wind in your fur, the clouds softer than silk, and most of all the freedom the sky provides with such care." Jade said losing a bit of her smile a tear rolling off an eye.

Unable to see the the fading expression on Jade's face Rainbow replied a bit lazily "Yeah... I guess." Rainbow had been in the skies all her life so she took them more for granted than anything else. Looking around she couldn't help but remember her first flight. It wasn't at flight school like most pegasi it was with her dad. He was always there as she jumped off the tree branch over a hundred times trying to hover as long as she could and when she couldn't hover any more he was always beneath her with a comforting smile. Rainbow found herself wishing she had spent more time with him since no more than a year later she was an even stronger flier than either of her parents. She knows they enrolled her in flight school for her own happiness but she still wanted more time, but when she returned to her parent's house she found them gone without even a note.

"RAINBOW!!!" a voice screamed her awake. Rainbow immediately stood and searched for the source to see a huge shadowy figure flying away with Jade restrained in it's grasp.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing with her!" Rainbow yelled to the creature. It turned its head and glared its red eyes at her. She couldn't see it's face because it was shaded by it's hood. After a moment a magical blast shoved Rainbow away and the creature began to twirl in place momentarily. Seeing this as a chance to strike Rainbow threw herself as hard as she could at the thing. A bright green light emanated from it and as Rainbow was sure she would have hit it straight on she felt nothing. All she could see was white for a moment.

After a moment she found herself in a forest she had never seen before. She stood up after realizing she was on the ground. Rainbow then looked up to see the creature still holding Jade. "Help, it can't take me back." Jade screamed again as it began to fly off.

"I'm coming, just hang on." Rainbow yelled back. She tried to lift her wings to fly after them to find her right wing had been broken and she yelled in pain. "Ahhh Errrruhhh!!" Rainbow yelled in anguish. She looked up again to see the creature heading away from her. "Hey come back here." Rainbow yelled as she tucked her wings at her side and ran after it as fast as she could possibly go. Rainbow felt a sense of hopelessness as the creature and the screaming of Jade's voice continued to disappear into the distance. Eventually she couldn't see or hear anything but that didn't stop her.

Rainbow ran through the miles of forest no thoughts of getting lost ringing in her mind at all. "I'm already lost because that thing took us here." Rainbow thought to herself. It wasn't long before she came across a flaming swampland similar to the one Applejack described when she told us how Applebloom had attempted to pass through one when trying to prove she was all grown up. This one just like the forest was different, though only in that it was't nearly as small as the other, this one was huge and she could hear faint growling and hissing usually followed by a baaa. "Great of course it had to have Chimera in it." Rainbow said aloud. Without another thought she ran into the swamp just to be stopped by a gout of flame bursting from the ground. Rainbow backed away out of the swamp frustrated. "How am I supposed to go through that she exclaimed.

"You should not be here." a low almost squeaky voice stated. This voice didn't sound like any Chimera she had ever heard.

"What, who's there? I'm not afraid of you." Rainbow said truthfully her mind set on saving her love.

"You should not be here." the voice repeated again.

"Show yourself!" Rainbow said more agitated. A rustling of some bushes came from behind her and she turned around to see weird, short, wrinkly, and light brown hairless creature standing in front of her wearing weird green clothes accustomed to his small stature.

"Well met." It said.

"Who are you." Rainbow asked more confused now than angry with it.

"The name's James o'Grady m-lady. he replied.

"Why were you watching me?" Rainbow asked a bit suspicious of James' behavior.

"Well I couldn't let a poor lady like yourself go running through such a dangerous place as that there swamp." James said smiling.

"Stop calling me lady and I have to find Jade. Some creature in dark clothes took her from me after we fell asleep." James immediately lost his smile upon hearing this.

*Snap* with just a snap of his fingers Rainbow and himself were teleported into some dusty old cottage. "Wha..where did you take me." Rainbow questioned more confused by this thing than ever.

"That creature you speak of much more than something you can handle by yourself." James told her. Remembering how suddenly she left her home when following that thing here she found herself wishing her friends were here to help her save Jade. They were always around when someone needed help.

All she could manage to say was "I have to help her."

"I understand lass, love is a powerful thing. Even more powerful than most people think." James tried to console her.

"Wait what's does people mean? How do you know?" Rainbow wondered.

"You really are far away from home aren't you lass. The world around you isn't what you remember. People are like me except much bigger, paler, and way more greedy. They only care about material things and go about their lives tricking one another out of their possessions in one way or another. But the creature you're chasing is worse than anything on this planet. It sucks the very love and happiness out of anything it finds power in then feeds on the energy within you." James said looking at Rainbow concerned.

"Wait i'm not even on the same planet anymore?" Rainbow said anger welling up inside of her.

"Oh, no I didn't say that. You'r world is only one part to this amazing planet. You see this planet is essentially a multiverse but not. In other words our worlds look entire but there are hundreds of hidden worlds that think it is their own themselves and none know the others exist."

Rainbow's mind was lost at the weird explanation he had given her. "But that swamp is exactly like the one where I come from." Rainbow said.

"That's because were all on the same planet. The inhabitants that live in each magically separated part is just different." James told Rainbow.

"But I heard a Chimera in the swamp. You know Lion, snake, Goat?" Rainbow said confused. "No, there are snakes in the swamp, but you likely heard the mountain goats on the hill next to it, and as for the lion an old hermit lion tamer lives right outside that swamp." James informed her."

"Oh." was Rainbow's only reply.

"Then again he may still live in there." James said quietly.

"What? Rainbow asked as she saw him say something.

"Never you mind that. Now, just hold still I've taken care of many a bird in my life lemme take a look at that wing of yours." Remembering that Jade had healing abilities she silently hoped James did too as she reluctantly showed him her wind and he began to reach for it.

But Rainbow abruptly said "Hey no touching."

"How else am I supposed to help lass?" James responded. After trying again Rainbow let him examine her wing. Through many yipes of pain James had splinted her wing and put it in a makeshift sling neatly.

"Wait how did you know my wing was broken in the first place?" Rainbow questioned.

"Well a being with wings should have half a mind to fly over a dangerous swamp like that not go runnin through it." James said content at his intelligent statement. He laughed to himself a bit. "Anyway, you best be goin if you want to find your friend. Oh, and I only have two but you can have these flame resistant boots and a coat I took from one a them hunter people." He put the boots on Rainbow's back hooves to find they were too big, she wouldn't be able to walk in them. Walking out of the room and returning with a bit of metal wire he tied it around the top of the boots tightly and began putting the coat on her but the drawstring at the bottom made it so much easier to tighten it on her.

"What, about my flank and front hooves?" She asked looking at her backside.

"Sorry aint nothin I can do about that lass. Now go." he replied.

*Snap* After James snapped again she found herself back at the edge of the swamp once again but this time James didn't appear as well. Determined to find Jade Rainbow began trudging through the swamp on two legs. At first she was a wobbly mess but it didn't take long  for her to pick up on it thanks to her light bones and muscular athletic build. A gout of flame hit one of her boot covered hooves. Ignoring the smell of singed fur from her face she turned her head to wait for the flame to die and it did quickly. Rainbow was thinking over and over about the horrible things that creature was doing to the love of her life. With more intensity she began to speed up slightly despite the suction cup effect the mud under her boots made. "Must find Jade." She said aloud to herself.

It was getting late and Rainbow knew this as she saw the sun nearing the backside of the distant mountains. "Great it had to start getting late didn't it?" Rainbow muttered to herself. Despite the help of the clothing from James a good amount of her fur on her flank and face was burned and smelled horrible. This didn't sway Rainbow in the slightest however. With her mind set on on Jade she continued to move forward and she saw the edge where the mountain and the swamp meet and headed for the closest patch.

"Gruuuhhhh!!" an unusual sound filled Rainbow's ears.

She looked all around her but couldn't see anything. "James if that's you it's that's not funny." Rainbow yelled into the swamp. *stomp*, *stomp*, *stomp*. Hearing this stomping behind her Rainbow turned around to see a large creature walking towards her. It looked like a green, unusually fat, ugly faced thing that walked on two legs like James and had huge fingers that were dragging a huge tree trunk behind it. It wasn't wearing clothes like James though, it only wore a leaf loincloth around its waist. Rainbow couldn't decide if she should dare attempt attack it or run for the mountain. "What would my friends do, think, think, think." she said in her mind. "Wait, they would try to reason with it or most of them anyway but just look at it does it look reasonable?" she argued with herself about what to do as the thing neared her. With a swallow as a bead of sweat ran down her muzzle she uttered. "H-hi there big guy, hows it goi..." She tried to say before being cut off by a deep, loud, slow, rustic voice.

"What Are You Doing In My Swamp?" it asked her eyeing her closely. Relishing the fact that he or at least what she thought was a he didn't try to pummel her as soon as it came within reach she decided to try harder.

"Uhh, just passing through." Rainbow replied her confidence building as he loosened his death stare.

"There Are Many Human Here You Should Go Back Where You Came From Little Pony." It said as it began to study her as best a dull creature like it could.

"I'm looking for somepony, her name is Jade. She was taken by a creature from your world that wore a long black cloak and could fly. It was carrying a pegasus pony like myself except she was gold. Did you see where they went?" Rainbow asked intently.

"Pegasus Pony? What That?" It asked looking like she just asked it a physics question.

"Ugh, like me she looks just like me, but gold." Rainbow said trying to hide her impatience with this dangerous thing. Before saying anything else it picked her up with two fingers and looked closely at her.

"Hey! Put me down." she said.

"Creature in cave this way I take you." It said. Despite its rough behavior she let him take her because if he really knew where she was it would make saving her love all the easier.

"Could you at least hold me differently you're really hurting my broken wing." Rainbow said as the pain in her wing intensified at the things unusual movement style.

"You Hurt?" It asked as it set her down.

"Yes." Rainbow replied as she showed it her slung wing. Without another word it laid it's hand down flat for her stand on. Rainbow reluctantly walked into and sat on it's hand.

It was completely dark by the time it made it's way out of the swamp. Surprised at the sudden increase in the sound of the thing's footsteps when it reached solid ground Rainbow woke up without realizing she even fell asleep. "Pony Awake?" it questioned her.

"Yeah sorry, guess i'm just a bit exhausted." Confused at her long word it ignored her apology and continued walking. "Soo... do you have a name big uhhh, fella?" she asked trying to distract herself from getting lost herself in thoughts of Jade again, knowing that was why she fell asleep in the first place.

"Brago My Name." It stated.

"Well, Brago thanks and all for the help." Rainbow  said. Again it ignored her and continued along it's way. Rainbow sat up so as not to fall asleep again. Looking to her right she saw the endless waves of distant tree covered mountains. To keep her mind temporarily off the possible horrors Jade is subject to Rainbow decided to do one thing she never thought she would do in her life, she started counting trees in her head.

Rainbow had a surprising amount of focus as she reached two thousand eighty three trees so far. The sun was already up and looked to be around six as far as Rainbow could tell. Rainbow's new friend-ish thing suddenly came to a stop at a large boulder near a rock face in a mountainside. "Creature Here." it said with its usual tone. It lowered its hand to the ground for Rainbow to climb off of and that's just what she did. Without a word it walked over and lifted the huge boulder over it's head like it were a wooden crate, this revealed a hidden cave. It then threw the boulder far down the mountainside and began walking away.

"Wait! Where are you going. You're not leaving me here alone are you." Rainbow called to it. All it did was grunt in reply. "Well thanks... I guess." she yelled as it disappeared in the tall trees. Turning back to the cave entrance she poked her head inside yet she couldn't see anything but darkness. She then remembered she was wearing that uncomfortable garb that James gave her. Reaching down she unbuttoned the coat and laid on her back to get the arm sleeves off her legs and hoof. She then tossed it to the ground and it landed with a loud *Clank*. "Huh?" Rainbow said aloud. She quickly took of the boots and first looked at how different her cyan fur coat looked from under the coat compared to her singed smoke covered flank. She looked back at the coat and looked at a lump of which seemed to be the source of the loud clank noise.

She found a large pocket where the thing resided, it was a lantern with a note on it. "It'll get dark." it read and was signed "James." Flicking the flint carefully with her hoof it immediately lit good and bright. It must have been full but she couldn't tell because the fuel containing bottom was made of copper. "I've got to hurry." She said to herself as she ran straight into the cave.

Darkness consumed Rainbow's every thought as that was all she could see beyond the bright flickering light of the lantern hanging from her mouth. Following the many winding corridors she couldn't tell if she was even getting anywhere. It just seemed to go on forever until she saw a flame light off in the distance ahead of her. As she approached she found out it was just a torch hanging from the wall, but it was freshly lit so she must be getting close. Looking ahead to see her path was relatively well lit she blew out her lantern but set it on her back in case the torches ended. She followed the rows of torches passing many dark corridors that didn't have any torches lighting them.

"aaaooowww!...." Rainbow could hear Jade's voice screaming off in the distance down the way she was headed and she sprinted faster than she ever had before.  As she was sprinting she came across five different corridors all lit with torches and she couldn't tell which the screaming had been coming from.

Rainbow could feel her heart beat faster than ever before and she knew. She didn't know how she knew but she just did "This one." she said in a low voice as she chose to follow the second corridor. She did not slow down even after running into some more multi-corridor passages she knew where to go in her heart. Jade's screaming was so loud now that it felt like Rainbow was right next to her. She stopped in a big open room with a large decorative wooden door on the far end where Jade's voice was coming from. Despite the doors great size and weight she managed to open it just enough to squeeze in.

"Jade!" Rainbow yelled as she spotted her love.

"Rainbow." Jade said weakly before her head dropped from exhaustion revealing her beaten, lashed, bloody body. Before Rainbow could begin making her way to help Jade the creature that took her stood between the two. It laughed a deep crackly laugh before removing its hood to reveal nothing but a weird skull without a muzzle much like what Rainbow imagined James' skull to be like without flesh.

"YOU LET HER GO! Rainbow yelled as she felt her rage boiling inside of her. It just laughed again. Rainbow could feel her rage becoming unbearable her head ached, her muscles trembled, and she slammed her hooves into the ground staring into the empty eye holes of the creature with a hint of fear Rainbow quickly pushed it aside as a plume of steam came out her nostrils. Out of nowhere Rainbow's hooves left the ground. She looked at her wings to find them still neatly at her side. A faint swirl of rainbow colors began to emanate around her body. With another wave of rage at seeing Jade in such a condition made the colors swirling around her brighten till it completely encased her body in it making her unable to be seen on the outside. The creature took a step back in bewilderment at the sight before it. So much power came from that small pegasus mare. Before it could do anything more Rainbow flew at it so quickly it did not have time to react initially. Rainbow struck it right in the skull that so easily mocked her. It felt it's skull to find a large crack running from it's eye socket to it's jaw.

Seeing Rainbow coming in for another strike it quickly put up some sort of shield made out of the shadows from the room that blocked even a powerful attack such as this. No matter how fast Rainbow went or how many times she tried to break through the creatures defense it was always stopped by the creature's shield of darkness. Rainbow flew around the creature trying to hit it from as many possible directions as she could before seeing it pulled a large metal scythe off the wall much like that of which Applejack used on her farm, but this one was much bigger, glowed red on the blade, and was decorated with bones of what Rainbow assumed to be it's victims. Ignoring the danger Rainbow lunged for the creature again but this time it did not block instead it swung it's great scythe and struck the rainbow vortex that protected Rainbow's body. Despite the fact the weapon did not hit her she found herself crashing into the wall of the cave. The vortex fluctuated slightly at the impact but remained strong. Rainbow went in for another attack prepared for his swing and managed to slip past hitting it square in the chest. It stumbled backward before bursting into flame burning its cloak to ashes revealing it's skeletal body.It let out a loud scratchy screech before it kept on attacking Rainbow as if the flames on it's bones did not faze it, Rainbow could feel the rainbow vortex around her fading at the repeated blows from the creature's weapon hammered on it. It let out another loud deep screech as it brought  the weapon's hilt firmly against the underside of the stuttering rainbow vortex destroying it and hitting Rainbow in her chest sending her into the wall again without the comfort of her rainbow vortex to cushion her.

She fell to the floor and tried successfully to barely stand. Rainbow tried to restart her power only to see it stutter and fail. The creature neared her still engulfed in flame. One teardrop fell from Rainbow's eye which fell to the floor after rolling down her muzzle. The creature reached up and backhanded her across the floor making her crash into another wall against her injured wing. Rainbow ignored the pain and tried to stand again but was too weak to do so. She looked up to see the creature standing over her again. She watched as it raised it's scythe preparing to execute her right there on the cave floor. All rainbow could think of in that moment was all the fun she had with Jade in that one day. All she wanted was more time with the one pony that ever made her feel special for reasons beyond her abilities. She began crying making the creature stop momentarily but it swung it's weapon at her anyway with no regret. It felt like hours but she never felt the pain of the creature's weapon cutting her open. She looked up to see all of her friends standing over her creating a barrier of friendship between themselves and the creature. Rainbow felt cold and the adrenaline running through her veins was running out and the pain of her injuries overwhelmed her as she passed out on the cave floor.