Forged in Fire, Tempered by Time

Twilight Sparkle was in a jungle. The heat and humidity were intense, and a gentle pitter-patter of condensation, or rain, she couldn't tell which, dampened her coat. Animals and insects squeaked, squawked, buzzed, growled, or otherwise vocalised themselves all around her. It formed a not-unpleasant backing track perfectly suited to her surroundings.

The centuries old trees towered on either side, their dense canopy allowing only dappled light to reach beneath their leaves. Her hooves sunk into the thick leaf litter as she turned around to survey her surroundings. She couldn’t see very far; the thick undergrowth and eerie lighting made it all but impossible to see more than a few metres. Craning her head back to follow the ascending trunk of a massive buttress tree, Twilight’s eyes grew wide as it just kept on going. This particular tree stretched out past the main canopy making it impossible for her estimate its true height. Having read about it in a book (naturally), Twilight knew that such a tree - part of the emergent layer - could be as much as eighty metres tall.

As she gazed upward, still attempting to see the top the colossal tree, the sound of something crashing through the ground level flora reached her ears. Twilight quickly turned to face the sound which, now that she paid close attention, was definitely coming towards her. A list of the various predators that inhabited the rainforest streamed through her head, each worse than the last. She backed nervously up against the tree, and prepared to defend herself with magic.

With a fierce laugh, Rainbow Dash burst out of the dense foliage in front of Twilight. She skidded to a halt in front of her, leaves flying everywhere. Standing proud with wings flared, she wore an immeasurably cocky grin on her face.

"C'mon Twi, they're coming again!" Angry voices echoed through the dense jungle now, the source was quite clearly behind the pegasus. "My surprises won't keep 'em for long."

Twilight was about to ask exactly what Rainbow Dash meant by 'surprises', when there was a loud "TWANG" from behind her, swiftly followed by the sounds of panic.

"HA, that'll be one of the traps! Come on Twi let’s go!" with that she disappeared off into the jungle again.

Twilight's initial fear vanished the moment the Rainbow appeared. She felt reassured and almost immeasurably pleased to see her friend. Without stopping to think, she dived after Dash, her own laughter echoing the pegasus'.

She followed Rainbow Dash by sound as much as by sight, the dim lighting conditions and the dense ground level brush meant that half the time she couldn't see her at all, despite her being only metres in front.

As Twilight came around a bush with leaves nearly as big as her, she saw rainbow had stopped and was rapidly gathering up vines.

"Come on Twi, help me set this trip line," Rainbow Dash managed through a mouthful of vine.

Twilight grabbed one end of the vine with magic, the telltale diffuse purple glow girdled the length of vine, and deftly wound it between two trees, just at ankle level.

"Not a bad trap Dash, but a little simple. Now, let me show you how it's really done!" the gleeful unicorn declared.

Concentrating briefly, the glow around her horn intensified and a perfect cylinder of soil, two metres across and five metres tall, lifted itself out of the ground. It was like when Pinkie Pie pressed a cutter into pastry. All the roots in the soil were cleanly cut and the magic maintained the structural integrity of the cylinder, not letting so much as a speck fall.

Her frown deepening, Twilight summoned several branches and laid them across the top of the newly created hole, embedding them slightly below ground level. Then Twilight cut off a slice of the cylinder she held and placed the circle of earth back in its original position over the hole, neatly resting it on the branches. It was as if the ground had never been disturbed. The remaining cylinder of earth vanished in a purple flash. The whole process took less than a minute. Rainbow stood gaping at the perfectly normal looking piece of ground that she knew concealed the trap.

"There!" Twilight declared, a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Woah..." Rainbow managed after a few seconds of staring. "...Now that's what I call a trap! It's like you never even touched it!" she marvelled, still examining the ground for any sign of the pit she knew was there.

"Magic does give me a bit of a leg up on you," Twilight teased as she carefully walked around the invisible pit.

"Wait a sec'," Rainbow called, struck by a sudden thought. "Where did the rest of the dirt go?"

"Oh, I just teleported it a couple of hundred metres in that direction," she explained, indicating left with a hoof as she did so.

"Ooooof course you did."

"Weren't we running from somepony?" Twilight queried suddenly.

"Oh right, that." Rainbow suddenly jerked upright as she remembered why they were laying traps in the first place.  "Ahuitzotl's henchponies are trying to stop us getting to the Midas Menhir! Twilight, I know where it is!"

"Well why didn't you say so!" Twilight exclaimed. "Let's get moving!"

With that they both set off into the jungle again, Rainbow leading the way. They'd barely gone a dozen steps before they heard  the unmistakable sound of a small pony pile up as the lead chaser caught his hoof on the trip wire. More angry shouting followed, and Twilight distinctly heard the words 'clumsy idiot'. A few more steps and they would hit the pitfall trap. She listened eagerly for the telltale sounds. Before long was rewarded with the crack of branches and cries of several ponies as the false floor gave way. Rainbow obviously heard as well, because she turned her head to look at Twilight, a mischievous grin gracing her lips.

Before she realised what was happening Twilight ran straight into the back of her friend who had stopped dead. Before them stood another collection of henchponies and several of Ahuitzotl's pet predators. All of them were growling menacingly.

"Your journey ends here, Daring Do!" the lead pony stated with a tone of utmost confidence.

"HA, you bunch of incompetents haven't been able to stop us yet. What makes you think you can now?" Rainbow declared, every bit her usual confident self.

Twilight couldn't help but smile at this. The pegasus' confidence and self-assurance was infectious.

Talking out the side of her mouth, Rainbow asked, "you ready Twi?"

"Of course," Twilight replied eagerly.

The two groups stood sizing each other up for a few more seconds, although the time seemed to stretch to minutes as Twilights blood thrummed with adrenaline. Her magic was straining at the bit, ready to be unleashed on the ponies who dared stand in their way. As one, the two groups pounced.

Twilight took the predators first. A purple shroud encompassed them and unceremoniously flung them back into the jungle to heavily strike trees. They crumpled to the ground. She spun and bucked just in time to catch a charging earth pony in the jaw. He cried out in pain and fell to the side, dealt with for now.

Rainbow had leapt into the air as soon as the fight kicked off, her powerful wings swiftly taking her clear of the ponies that charged at her. Before the henchponies could get their bearings again, she dived back down hooves first, like a comet from on high, and landed right on a unicorn mare that was trying to focus her magic on the pegasus. She never stood a chance. The impact drove her into the ground with a sickening crunch. She did not get back up. Twilight was half expecting dash to blow out a crater when she hit the floor. Dash proceeded to spring off her downed opponent and somersaulted over another earth pony, kicking out as she did so to catch him just on the back of his head. He staggered forward and tripped over a branch, sending him sprawling.

Twilight couldn't afford to stand and stare at the acrobatic pegasus for long though, more opponents were advancing on her. Planting her hooves, she concentrated her magic and the vines and branches around her sprang to life. The surprised ponies tried to dodge and dive out of the way. One unicorn summoned a shield to deflect the marauding foliage, while another swung a telekinetically held machete, trying to slice the vines before they reached her. It was no use though, the vines grabbed the unicorn mare and pulled her up into the branches to entomb her in leaves and vines. The earth ponies didn't stand a chance against such magic and were quickly brought down.

Rainbow kicked out left and right, fending off blow after blow and bringing down several of her opponents in return. She tried to leap into the air again, only to be immediately tackled by a flying pegasus. The two ponies slammed to the ground and rolled through the leaf litter, throwing blows at each other. With a flick of magic, Twilight griped the other pegasus and flung him across the small clearing. He landed heavily and rolled through a large bush before coming to rest, stunned.

"Nice one Twi!" Rainbow yelled as she jumped to her hooves and dived back into the fray.

Twilight quickly turned back to her own encroaching enemies. She was just in time to throw up a shield which two dive-bombing pegasi slammed painfully into. A shove of magic sent the prone ponies rolling along the floor, tripping two charging earth ponies.

Behind her, a grass green unicorn stallion shimmered back into the visible spectrum and, having levitated a huge log, flung it at the purple unicorn that was causing so much havoc. Twilight, being quite thoroughly distracted by the foes in front of her, and already coordinating several different spells at once, completely failed to notice.

"TWILIGHT!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she dived and tackled her to the ground.

The log smashed into a tree just behind the space Twilight had occupied only seconds before. By the time the two ponies where back on their feet, a lot of their enemies had gathered around them. Even some of the big cats had recovered. The two ponies, unicorn and pegasus, stood back to back, ringed by opponents. They looked back at each other, smirks on their faces.

"Enjoying yourself, Twi?"

"Oh, you have no idea."

The ring of enemies charged. Twilight’s considerable mental discipline was pushed to its absolute limit as she battled against the unicorns of the group. Jabbing this way and that with magic, countering spells, shielding both Dash and herself. Sweat beaded on her brow, her horn was incandescent. She still managed to find a sliver of spare attention to pay to Rainbow Dash. Her sleek, athletic body was poetry in motion. Dodging like a weasel, striking like a cobra, every blow precise. It was like a scene from the best action movie that Twilight had ever seen, only she was starring in it.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, the pair pulled of a move that she felt sure should have been the sole province of choreographed fight scenes. Dash made a flying leap over her head to slam into an earth pony that was getting a bit too close. At the exact same moment, Twilight spun round blasted away a leaping jaguar that was mere inches from tearing open Rainbow's flanks. They turned to look at each, having reversed their positions; adrenaline fuelled laughter burst forth as they realised just how incredibly awesome that had been. They really made a grea-

***

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

***

Twilight fell off the sofa and hit the floor of the library. She let out a small groan. The storm still raged outside, if anything it was worse than when the three of them had fallen asleep. Rainbow still lay sprawled across her own sofa, the knocking completely failing to reach through her own dreams. Spike lay curled up on the rug in front of the now dwindling fire. She smiled at his peacefully dozing form. She glanced at the clock, noting they had been asleep for a little over three hours.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

She jumped, and realised that the sound that had roused her from her dreams had, in fact, been someone knocking on the front door. It sounded rather urgent so she scrambled to her feet and quickly went to answer it. As she opened the door a ferocious blast of wind blew into the library quickly followed by a sopping wet pegasus stallion.

"What's going on?" a startled Twilight asked.

"This storm, it's not ours. It's from the Everfree, and it's infused with wild magic. You're the Element of Magic and Rainbow Dash is always saying you're an egghead, no offense, so you're the only pony any of us thought would be able to help!" the stallion said rather breathlessly.

"A wild storm infused with free magic?!" Twilight almost shouted. "Oh, this can't be good."

She beckoned the yellow pegasus inside and hurriedly closed the door, once again shutting out the storm. He nodded gratefully and jumped as he noticed Rainbow asleep on the sofa.

"Rainbow Dash was here? We've been looking everywhere for her!" he exclaimed as he went over to her. "We need every weather pony we've got for this, and she's one of the best."

He roughly shook her awake, while Twilight darted from shelf to shelf, pulling down a multitude of books.

"Wha-what, I'm awake, I'm awake, stop shaking me," Dash said sleepily, as she looked up at her tormentor.

"Squall? What the hay are you doing here?" she asked when she noticed who it was that had awoken her.

"Emergency call up, Dash. You and your friend," he explained.

"What? Why?" Dash demanded.

"This storm isn't ours. Blew off of the Everfree," he explained yet again.

At this revelation, Rainbow jerked awake quite suddenly. This was an unusual occurrence at the best of times and, from Twilights frantic activities behind her, this must have been an extraordinary event.

"SPIIIKE!" Twilight shouted behind them, causing the little dragon to jerk awake.

"Huh, what?" he drawled sleepily.

"Spike, where's that copy of 'Meteorological Magic' that I was reading last week?" she called over distractedly, still furiously scanning shelves.

"Oh, er..." he thought for a few seconds. "Oh! I didn't get around to re-shelving it, so it's still in that pile on the table." He gestured over to a corner, eyes half lidded.

Twilight grabbed the whole pile in her telekinetic grip, running them past her eyes one by one as she continued over to yet another book shelf. Finding the one she wanted, the others were haphazardly discarded. Twilight would no doubt berate him later for not keeping the library clean, Spike thought.

"Ponyfeathers! How could I forget!?" Squall suddenly shouted. "The storm targeted a pegasus with lightning; it blew him clean out the sky! Nurse Redheart requested your aid as well, Twilight! Something about magic in the wounds."

At this, Twilight practically fell over.

"Why did you not say that first?!" she exclaimed, her face contorting into a horrified expression.

"I don't have time to gather books! Spike, get any and all material that pertains to free magic and wild weather and place them in the middle of the floor in a neat pile, I'll get them later. Now," she turned to the Squall, "tell me precisely where this pony is!"

"Er, we managed to get him back to the weather headquarters on the edge of town. Do you know the one?" Squall managed, startled somewhat by the unicorns almost ferocious look.

"Yes, I know the weather headquarters. Right, you two stand close and lay a hoof on my back," Twilight ordered.

The two pegasi looked like they wanted to ask questions, but the expression on Twilight's face brokered no argument. They both nervously did so, not sure quite what to expect. Rainbow had a suspicion and braced herself accordingly. She had no time warn Squall though, as Twilight immediately concentrated her magic and the trio disappeared in a bright purple flash.