Author's Note

I would not be surprised if this chapter kills this fic. I wrote it after about 3 cups of coffee! I apologize in advance for anything that makes you absolutely despise this fic.

Life is not a game of Hide and Seek

The Last of the Soul Crusaders

Life is not a game of Hide and Seek

I instinctively woke up when I smelled smoke. That wasn't good. Lucky for me, it was only the dying campfire. It was morning anyway, we needed to get moving. Rainbow’s head still rested on my shoulder. Has she been like this all night. I still found it strange, she had just met me the day before, and she was already treating me like her best friend. Then again, she said I was the only friend she had left, I guess that does make me her best friend. Was she my best friend, however? By default, she is, after all she is the first friend I’ve ever had. Enough of this, we seriously needed to get moving. We were still on the edge of the Everfree, my back, and hers evidently, still rested on the tree I used to take cover from the arrows. I needed to wake Rainbow. I looked over at her, she looked so peaceful like this. What was I to do? She probably needed more sleep than I did to heal from her wound. But if we stay any longer, the guards might come back. I could carry her, as strong as I was, I could do it with one hoof. I’m not sure how well she’d take to that, but I have no choice. I put my left hoof on her back and slowly lifted her so I was carrying her almost bridal style. She wasn’t stirred from her sleep however, just gave a small snort and changed positions. Most notably, she leaned her head against my chest. Most notably? What am I doing? Falling in love with her? I lived all my life without friends, yet in a day, I was already falling in love with somebody! This could seriously compromise our friendship. The last thing I need right now is more enemies. I just have to play this slow. I began to walk further and further in the Everfree, carefully placing each step, so as not to wake Rainbow. What I was looking for was a clearing or a hollowed out tree to plan my next move in. From the look of this forest, I’d they were say they were in short supply. If Rainbow was right, this forest has little to no habitation. That means no-one to hollow out trees or make clearings. But I had to find one, for the sake of me or Rainbow, I couldn’t tell. Why is this place considered dangerous? As far as I could tell, I wasn’t being watched.Then again we were relatively close to the treeline. As I made my way deeper into the Everfree, my hope of finding a safe place diminished. This forest, I wouldn’t even call it a forest, more like a jungle. Be that as it may, it looked massive. I had little to no hope of finding anything in this maze. As I would soon find out, something would find me. My heart leapt as I found what appeared to be a clearing. Rainbow was still asleep, I suspected the she was in a coma-like state to heal her arrow wound, perhaps it was more serious than I had thought. As I charged into it, only to be met with a sight that still haunts me to this day. A full nest of timberwolves. One or two of them would’ve been fine, but a full nest? I was certain I was going to die. I followed my father's teachings, I didn’t make eye contact and slowly backed out of the clearing. To my absolute horror, three timberwolves jumped down from the nest and advanced toward me in an arrow formation. I knew what I had to do. I placed Rainbow, who was still somehow sleeping, on the edge of the clearing. I removed to pendant my father had given me and placed it on her chest.

“In case I don’t make it.” I whispered. I knew it now, I was in love with her. I wasn’t afraid of it either. I walked far away from her to keep the timberwolves away. I realized the absence of any weapons I had. I summoned my two swords, they were replicas of the swords my father used. Double sided, curved like a coltana. But it had some unique modifications. The hilt and guard were spiked, so that only a unicorn could use them. Inscribed on one blade was, “Victory” on the other, “at any cost.” Today, Rainbow would not be the cost of victory. I raised my blades over my head, the tips of them pointing at the nest. The timberwolves growled and moved ever closer to me. I stood on my hind hooves. My father taught me to fight on four hooves as well as two. I hunched my back forward, ready to lunge at a moment's notice. This didn’t deter the timberwolves however, they kept moving dangerously close to me. When they were about ten feet away, I knew it was time. I held my breath and launched myself in the fray. The timberwolf on the left attacked first. I lunged forward again, I now had one behind me and two in front of me. I threw my left coltana behind me. I heard a single yelp and the clatter of bones. Two left. I backed up, intending to pick up my other coltana. I got maybe three feet before the timberwolf on the right advanced towards me. Its’ front claws sank into my shoulders and threw me to the ground. The timberwolf was now on top of me trying to snap at my neck as I held it at bay with my hooves. With my left hoof holding its’ neck, I grabbed a timberwolf bone from behind me and jammed it into the timberwolf’s mouth. It yelped multiple times and backed off of me. I slashed its’ throat with my remaining coltana. One left. I backed up further and grabbed my left coltana. The timberwolf directly in front of me advanced. Instead of simply tackling me, which didn’t seem to work for its’ brother, it leapt over me and sprinted toward Rainbow.

“NOOOOOOOO!” I roared. I shot towards the timberwolves. I heard the remaining timberwolves leaping off of their nest behind me, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was the one I was chasing. It stopped directly above Rainbow and raised its’ neck to deliver a killing blow. I smashed into the timberwolf, launching me and it over Rainbow’s body. I dropped my coltanas, rather stupid of me, and beat it to death with my hooves. Even after all the remained of the timberwolf was green goo and bones, I beat the ground where it once laid. What am I doing, I have to kill the others?!, I thought. I once again vaulted over Rainbow’s body and advanced toward the surviving timberwolves. There were around six left, I still haven’t seen the alpha yet. They advanced toward me one by one, and one by one I cut them down, rage fueling my strength. At last, after there were no other wolves left, the alpha emerged from its’ nest. As big as I was, this thing had to be twice my size. It threw itself off of its’ nest, shaking the ground as it landed. Its’ claws had to be a foot long. It darted towards me, each step causing thunderous sounds. At this moment, I knew true fear. Lucky for me, I had a guardian angel. A rainbow flew past me like a laser. The alpha was launched to my left. It's’ prone body was surrounded by a tornado of rainbows. The trees around me swirled in different directions, some colliding into one another in the chaos. Seconds, maybe minutes passed before the tornado began to recede. When it finally did, I saw Rainbow standing upon a very large pile of bones.

“Looks like you needed some help!” Hearing her raspy voice pleased me more than it should’ve. I smiled, more than I ever had. Oh, cut me some slack! I was just glad she was okay.

“Oh yes I was… moments from death!” I said, still panting from the fight. I was being sarcastic of course. Rainbow looked at me, clearly not convinced. “Okay, fine! In all honesty, you probably just saved my life.” I admitted. That seemed to satisfy her. She jumped down from Mt. Bones ,as I cleverly named it, and trotted over to me.

“That’s more like it.” She looked around, “Where are we? I know we’re still in the Everfree, but where are we exactly?”

“I don’t know, it’s just some clearing I carried you to.” Yeah, I didn’t mean to say that last part, but she would’ve found out how she got here eventually.

“You carried me here?”

“Yeah I did, believe it or not I can find my way around a forest.”

“Why?”

“You needed sleep. Besides, it took an alpha timberwolf to wake you up, it’s not like I could’ve done anything!”

“Okay, if you were just carrying me here, what’s this?” She held up the pendant I handed her before the battle. My heart sank and I could practically feel my pupils shrink.

“Oh that? I uh… well uhh… uhhh safekeeping!?” I blurted out. I was getting worse and worse at hiding my emotions.

“Why did you give it to me for ‘safekeeping’? You did just fine!”

“Are you kidding me?” I looked down at my hooves. They were almost entirely red from the gashes in my shoulder.

“Oh my gosh! Are you ok?” She asked. I honestly didn’t register the pain of the wounds during the fight. I only felt them afterwards. And pain wasn’t just the only thing I was feeling.

“Oh yeah… I’m just a little… lightheaded” I managed to say before my head hit the ground. I was out cold.

I woke up maybe three or four hours later to Rainbow sitting next to me. I just sat there, staring at her, for who knows how long, debating whether or not this was a dream or if I was dead. And she stared right back. I snapped out of my trance when I realized something, she was wearing my father’s pendant.

“Why are you wearing that?” I asked.

She snorted, “Safekeeping?” If it were any other pony, I’d rip their head off. After snapping their neck of course, or not, it all depends really. But this was Rainbow. All I did was lean up to check my wounds. My hooves were clean, there was no blood on them anymore. There were also leaves wrapped around the wounds themselves.

“Leaves? Really?” I asked.

“Oh I’m sorry, I’ll head to the store and get you some proper bandages, ya wimp!” She hit me on the shoulder and laughed. I laughed too, ignoring the pain she caused in my shoulder. I looked around. My coltanas were at my side. Rainbow had managed to build a fire and construct a crude fence around our camp.

“How did you do all of this?” I asked.

“Watching you.” She replied. She was watching me when I built that fire? I suppose she had nothing else to look at. I mean she could’ve looked at her wound or the fire itself. Why was she watching me? I stood up and tested my hooves. I could walk, but I probably won’t be doing any fighting for a while.

“I don’t suppose you also learned how to fight by watching me?” I asked.

“I got the basics!” She replied. I doubted it, it takes years to learn “the basics”.

“My hooves will take about a day to heal. We should stay here until they do.”

“And what are we going to do after that? Don’t we need food?”

“Let’s hope we don’t stay here long enough to need to worry about that.”

“What, we’re leaving?”

“Eventually. We can’t stay here. Like you said, it’s the most dangerous place in Equestria!”

“Where will we go?” It was a good question. One that I didn’t have the answer to. After attacking a princess, the search for me, or us as the case may be, will double in size.

“As far as Equestria knows, we’re lost in the forest. We could go anywhere we want really, as long as we don’t draw any attention. Do you know anywhere where no-one will find us, safer than here preferably?” I asked

“Not really.”

“Ok, so if we can’t hide out of sight, we’ll have to hide in plain sight.”

“What do you mean?”

“We have to go somewhere so obvious that no pony would think to look for us there. Manehattan, Canterlot, the Crystal Empire”

“The Crystal Empire is pretty far away. News about us probably hasn’t reached there yet.”

“Good point. Then again, two members of the Royal Family live there, they might've been the first ponies to be notified.”

“Well Canterlot would be too, after all, Celestia lives there!”

“That leaves Manehattan. But how will we get there?”

“Ummmmm,” Rainbow put her hoof on her forehead, “if we travel south…...east, we can take a train from Dodge Junction. Or we could build a raft, follow the river east, and take a boat from Horseshoe Bay.”

“Well, the royals probably have the rail lines heavily guarded, we’ll be spotted instantly.”

“Plus, I’m literally a walking rainbow, how are we not going to get spotted anywhere?”

“I could put a reverse spell on you, it’d rearrange the colors on your mane.”

“Sounds like a good a plan as any.” I placed the spell on her, the yellow on her mane turned red, the red turned yellow, the colors of her mane and tail had been reversed, hence the name of the spell.”How do I look?” she asked.

“Great, it’s a small change, but it makes you almost unrecognizable”

“Okay, that works, but even if we get to Manehattan, what are we going to do once we get there?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hiding. I want to take Celestia down. I’m tired of playing Hide and Seek with her.” I said.

“We’ll never be safe with her on the throne. I don’t like it, but it’s the only thing that will make us safe.” This was probably going to be very hard for her. She’s revered Celestia all her life. All of this would have to wait until morning however. The forest’s tall trees were blocking out the sun, causing an early night. We’d be safe in this clearing, no animal would go near a potentially active timberwolf nest.

“It’s getting close to nightfall. We need to rest. Even I’m feeling tired.”
I said.

“You clear the ground and I’ll put the fire out.” Rainbow said. I pulled a downed tree for me to lean against. It was easier for me to sleep sitting than lying down. I cleared away the leaves and wet dirt and formed a small, clean circle for Rainbow to sleep in. I leaned against my log, and fell asleep.

I awoke in the middle of the night. I checked my surroundings. There were no animals I could see, and I could tell we weren’t being watched. However, when I went to check on Rainbow, I realized she was gone. I looked to my right, she wasn’t there. When I looked to my left, I found her once again leaning against my shoulder. Was she going to do this every night? I put my left hoof around her shoulder, I leaned my cheek against the top of her head, and fell asleep in ten seconds flat.