Forbidden Land

Somewhere in Undiscovered West, 8:27 am

The sun got up in those unknown lands, just like the creatures roaming them. There were no birds to sing nor a creature to make a single noise in the morning. Mane opened his eyes and curiously the sun didn't shine a lot in that place, being the only noise around him the wind in the grass around him.
He looked at Pinkamena, snoring loudly, with part of her sleeping body out of her sleeping bag and next to an empty bottle. Mane approached her and shook her gently.

"Hey, drunken beauty. Wake up." He ordered.

"Hmm... wa..?" She moaned in a tired whisper.

"Drunken beauty. Come on before you puke in your bed." Mane insisted.

"Dunken beuty..?" She babbled trying to open her eyes. "Da fack is dat supposed do mean..?"

"I'd call you sleeping beauty, but given the circumstances." The stallion giggled, shaking her more. "Get up! We have exploring to do. Caves to dwelve! Secrets to reveal!" He cheered.

"Help me then. And stop screaming." Diane begged.

"I'm not yelling." Said Mane while helping her get on her knees. "Want a pill?"

"Gladly..." Diane opened her eyes slowly. "Two. For my stomach and my head."

Mane opened her backpack and searched for the medicine and the water, while Pinkamena tried to get up. A struggle in her stomach made her have a choking reflex but she managed to keep It inside. The grey unicorn passed her the pills and the water bottle which she took in a hurry and waited the effect.

"Coffee?" Mane asked readying the kettle.

"I dispense. No sugar, no coffee for me. I'll content myself with a can of conserved fruit." She moaned still half asleep with the pills making effect slowly. "We don't have a lot of water anyway. I didn't see any river in our way here, I think we should save the water for now."

"True..." Mane putted the kettle back in the backpack. "Give me a piece then."

One hour later they lift the camp and explored the area for some hours checking the ancient maps. The grass was darker in those lands with pine trees being the majority specimen among trees, and the strange wild life for such environment composed by animals who should belong to the Forbidden Jungle south of Baltimare in the extreme south-east of Equestria.

"What is that?" Pinkamena asked pointing to a striped creature in the distance.

"I think It's a tiger." Mane focused in eyes, but then looked back to the old map. "The map points to a place alone in the north mountains, but has no name."

"I wonder what It is." Pinkamena took a look too. "Maybe It's the said pony dwarf civilization." She moved her eyes around the old of piece paper looking at the villages and city's names that existed at the time. "This english is so weird."

"Ancient times." Mane commented. "And even Celestia and Luna are older than these."

"I wonder if they are vampires..." Pinka giggled with a funny expression.

"No! Vampires don't exist anymore. They were all eliminated in the middle ages." Mane imagined Princess Luna as a vampire for a moment, with a goth dress, showing a pointy smile and a glass not of wine but blood, while keeping her beauty. "She would look even more beautiful though." Mane whispered with a grin.

"What?"

"Nothing. Erm..." Mane focused on the map again. "We are pretty much in the same spot where we were camping, but probably a kilometer away."

"Mane..?" Pinkamena poked his arm.

"Wait, I'm trying to think." Mane answered.

"Mane!" She called again.

"Wait!"

"MANE!"

"WHAT?! I'm trying to not get us los-" He looked in the direction she was pointing and what he saw but the tiger from before slowly approaching and showing his fangs. "Don't... move..."

"C-can I shoot It..?" She whispered reaching to one her flintlock pistols in her belt holster.

"Don't. It's just an animal on his life." Mane answered.

"He's coming towards us." Pinkamena raised her voice.

"*GROAAAR!!!*" The giant feline roared at her.

"Don't do anything." Mane turned his body into black smoke in surprise and glanced at the tiger. "AAAARGH!" He screamed.

The unexpected happened when the tiger charged at him, but even if he moved out of It's path a claw went through the smoke body while the creature regained his strength for another attack.

"Attack or run..?" Pinkamena asked while stepping back.

Mane returned to his normal body next to Pinkamena. Killing or hurting the animal would be wrong against nature doing It's own life.

"Attack or run?!" Pinkamena screamed while the tiger kept advancing at them slowly.

"RUN!" Mane yelled. "NORTH!"

They started sprinting full speed while the big feline gave them a chase. Running was a minor nuisance thing to Shaker but when adrenaline would take possession of him, almost nothing could stop his running. Pinkamena's psycho sense make's her lethal to a fierce fight without getting tired, so speed was on her side most of times. The keen mind of an unicorn, the strength of an earth pony and the speed of a pegasus like Mane once thought about her.

"HE'S GETTING CLOSER!" Pinka yelled in anger.

"I'll wrestle him if I need to!" Mane answered.

"What is that noise?!" She asked while they both started feeling the ground beneath their hooves tremble.

"It can only be one thing!" Mane looked to the right, and saw not one but a pack of seven gigantic grey creatures with big long pointy tusks, heading in their direction at full speed. "ELEPHANTS!!!" Mane screamed on top of his lungs.

"We are gonna die if we don't fight back!"

Slowly, the pack of pachyderms changed their course. The leader of the pack lowered his head and rammed his ivory tusks in the tiger, and the feline flew in an arch leaving behind a trail of blood in the air. The victimized animal rolled on the floor trying to crawl his way to safety, but the rest of the pack surrounded him and started stomping his body to a mangled mess, until he was beyond recognition.
Mane and Pinkamena stopped running to see the bloody pounding the poor animal was taking.

"My God!" Pinkamena baffled seeing the tiger being beaten to a pulp.

"That's nature for you..." Mane sighed sadly. "We should take advantage and go. Elephants can be peaceful but if something approaches them, they can be deadly. I don't think a crystal fist would stop them."

"Neither a normal bullet. Their skin looks thick." Pinkamena added agreeing with him. "Let's go."

"Scout pace? Twenty running, twenty walking."

"I think we need a bigger number in the running part or else we might end up like that poor tiger."

They ran normally and then taking the resting phase without stopping. Pinkamena kept an eye over her shoulder while Mane kept facing forwards to where they were heading. The landscape started to have a grim look around them, with the plants around having a dying look and the trees looking even balder the more inside the land they walked.

"I think we lost them." Said Pinkamena, stopping to catch her breath with Mane doing the same.

"Good." Mane breathed heavily. "Quite a welcome!"

"I know right?"

"It's like the animals here have a blood lust." Mane looked in the distant mountains. "The tiger attacked me when It was supposed to be intimidated, even if It was just a bit he would have stepped away before charging."

"Wise words. The way the elephants killed him was exaggerated." Pinkamena took out the water bottle and took a sip. "Where are we?"

"Let me check." Mane took out the map with his magic and opened It in front of him. "We are on the other side of the dirt road. I think..."

"Are we lost?" She asked worried.

"Not entirely. I remember we came across It and we just kept going forward." Mane analyzed the map closer. "We got sidetracked while running away.

"The scenery looks... dead." Pinkamena took a look around. "What happened here?"

"I don't know, but It wasn't work of nature." Mane looked around too. "I think we are here." He pointed on the map floating in front of him.

"Where do we go?" She asked, while moving her ears around paying close attention to the surroundings.

"North-west. The said ruins are there somewhere in the mountains, giving we are looking for a lost dwarf pony civilization."

"Silence." Pinka ordered.

"What's wrong?" Mane looked at her by the corner of his eyes.

"Sush!" She gestured without looking at him. "My senses are picking something..."

"Is It bad..?" Mane whispered impressed by his friend's capabilities.

"I guess..." The ground beneath her hooves started to shake smoothly, and slowly became stronger. Mane picked It seconds later and looked around. "They found us." Pinkamena's eyes were washed by fear.

"Who?!" Mane panicked for a bit, and a sound started forming in the distance. In a distant hill, a group of gigantic tusked beasts showed up running in their direction. The same pack now was eleven elephants, aiming at them with their tusks and those beady black eyes looking looking at them with rage. "OH FUUUCK!"

"SCREW THIS!" Pinkamena screamed, grabbing her pistols and shooting the two bullets at the pack, but none of them stopped. "Damn!"

"At this distance and their thick skin, It's pretty ineffective! Start running!" Mane ordered.