Purple magic was wrapped around a battered and creased map, keeping it hovering out of reach of the water lapping at the sides of the boat as well as within a purple unicorn’s eyesight.
The purple unicorn’s forelegs were wrapped in stained strips of fabric, the map being surrounded by a cloud of the same transparent sparkling purple that hovered around the mare’s horn, sticking up through a matted violet mane.
The vessel she had chosen for this river cruise was constructed from scraps of light metal, kept above the river’s surface by the seemingly impenetrable balloons that were strapped to the sides.
There was a large mass of soil and rock to one side of the river, and what looked like an unending sea of foliage and trees to the other.
The branches of the trees from both sides were largely undivided by the water, instead twining together above the boat to create a patchy canopy of leaves that tried and failed to block out the sky and it’s wispy white clouds above them.
The unicorn wasn’t alone on the boat. There was an orange earth mare taking up the back seating that was just a random cushion that survived the impact and blazing fire that most of the others had not.
The mare was observing the greenery and river beds around the vessel with rapt attention, ears swiveling at the very smallest of moves from the local wildlife. None seemed quite eager to add the two ponies to their menus as of yet.
If any did, the mare had her hoof pinned over a small firearm to dissuade them.
The unicorn lowered her map and glanced around at the area around her. She did make a mental note to find something to write down notes on when she and her companion returned to camp.
“So, ah, what are we lookin’ for?” The mare finally broke the silence the two had been sharing. It had been exclusive only to them, of course, as the things around them did not care for silence if the obnoxious humming of bugs was anything to go by.
“Some sort of sign for civilization, or hell, maybe even some intelligent creatures.”
“Well, ah’ mean, any of those critters could be considered intelligent.”
“I mean intelligent like on the level of a pony, Applejack.” The unicorn grumbled back, rolling up the crude map and tucking it into the saddlebags that had slipped down to her flanks, half hiding her star shaped cutie mark.
“Ah know that. Just tryin’ ta’ make a point.” Applejack rolled her eyes and threw her gaze over to the back of the boat.
“Well, you can make a point when we figure out where in Faust’s name we are.” The unicorn snapped back. Applejack wasn’t sure if it was stress or lack of sleep that made the unicorn so snappy, but she really didn’t think it’d be good to ask.
“How far do ya’ think we crashed?”
“Not sure. The auto-guide doesn’t make a lick of sense and the auto-pilot program was blown up in the initial impact.” The unicorn grumbled, rolling up the map and tucking it into her saddlebags.
“I wasn’t askin’ for fact, ya know.”
“Well, I think we crashed pretty far away. Our route was directly to the settlement and we crashed a quarter way there.”
“Ah’m surprised nopony has sent out a search party yet.”
“It’s unexplored territory, Applejack. Of course they would be hesitant to send ponies out after us, especially if they didn’t know why we crashed or if we even survived.” The unicorn shivered at the sudden thought of her family mourning over an empty coffin.
“So ya don’t think help is comin’?” The unicorn swallowed as she tried to find a less negative way to word it other than ‘of bucking course not’ which would do no good for anypony.
“Well.. I can’t say I see the likelihood being very high.” Applejack didn’t give a response to that other than a nod, her gaze turning back to observing the wild around them.
During their conversation, the river had grown narrower and the tree canopy above them had grown thicker, large swaths of leaves filtering the sunlight into glowing green patches on the land and it’s inhabitants beneath them.
“Hey, Twilight, how do ya plan on gettin’ us back to camp?”
“Well, if we can’t find an easier route, we can just paddle back.”
“And how do ya propose we do that?” There were no paddles or oars of any sort on the boat, just a couple canteens of clean water and a bag full of food rations meant to last a couple days at minimum. Just to be prepared.
“Just make some out of a tree branch. It’s not that hard if you know what you’re doing.” Twilight gestured with a hoof to the trees around her, even though the earth mare wasn’t looking at her.
“I never expected ya to know so much about makin’ things out of wild-stuff.” Applejack commented, her gaze following a small animal as it jumped out from a bush and then jumped back in at the sight of the two ponies.
“Well, it’s not like they have ‘How to Survive Crashing in the Jungle’ guides back home, but I managed to pick up some information from some old-time books.”
“Old-time books?”
“Books about the times before all that tech we got… I think we should go ashore here.” Twilight muttered, pointing with a hoof to a shallow pool filtered into through the river, a small tree sapling growing right on the edge of the sand.
“We can grab a vine and tie the boat to the tree.” Twilight continued, picking up one of the many branches drifting down the river with the vessel in her magic and using it to push the boat into the small pool.
Applejack leaped out of the boat first, holding her firearm between her teeth, her tongue wrapping around the trigger. It was a weapon design with a non-magic user in mind.
The mare wore boots on her forelegs, protecting them from the possible stones and sharp sticks half buried in the dirt.
Twilight yanked a vine free from one of the tree branches, disrupting several colorful avian creatures who took flight when their branch was jerked away.
The unicorn used her magic to tied the vine to a hook she had attached to the front of the vessel and tossed the other end to Applejack who set down her firearm and tied the vine to the sapling.
Twilight felt the vessel’s bottom scrape up against the sand and she leaped over the edge and onto the sand, the feeling of it alien to her hooves.
Applejack watched as her companion lifted the food rations over to her, strapping them to the earth mare’s back. She didn’t complain. She had carried heavier loads before and didn’t want the unicorn to break her back trying to carry what was probably half her small body weight.
That was probably an exaggeration, but Applejack didn’t care.
The two started trotting alongside the river, looking around for any possible way towards an invisible vantage point. Climbing one of the many smooth-bark trees was difficult and not something Twilight was interested in putting energy into.
Soon, the two ponies found a cluster of jagged rocks on the shore, several inches of the stone was dipped into the river. Twilight decided to turn here, noticing that there was a good patch of rocks slowly sloping upward.
Their environment gradually morphed into stone and dirt, the canopy of jungle trees growing patchier as the trees were scraggly and looked similar to the stones around them except for their thin leaves.
“Where do you think this leads, Twilight?”
The unicorn shrugged as they kept walking, levitating out a canteen and taking a sip from it before putting it back around her neck. She was sure that they were making progress and that gave her the urge to keep going up, despite the dull ache spreading up her legs.
Eventually, the came up against a large wall of reddish stone that curved in a shape that Twilight assumed might be a circle. She trotted along the natural path, looking out at the jungle view that they were granted. She couldn’t see much outside of the forest, as the view was only a couple yards above the main jungle canopy but she could still see the faint blue line that she assumed was the ocean.
As they kept walking, the unicorn noticed the rocky wall was slowly going lower and lower. Twilight picked up her pace, trotting on the verge of a gallop. Soon, the wall was no more and the unicorn stared down at what had previously been invisible to her.
There was a large circle shaped dip into the ground, a crater of sorts. It was full of bubbling orange and red streams, a large river of the bubbling red and orange cut directly through the large expanse of open space.
Twilight felt her breath hitch in her throat as she saw something fly into one of the many different bubbling pools.
Using her magic, she pulled out a pair binoculars from the saddlebags and held them to her face, her jaw dropping as she saw the many different colored creatures that were milling around in the canyon.
They all had characteristics of reptiles that Twilight would read about. Sharp teeth, scales, and long tails. But these were huge, bigger than the average pony, with horns and large snouts, some having more beak-like snouts.
“W-What the hell are those things?” The mare hissed, eyes wide behind the binoculars.
“What the ‘ell are what?” Applejack asked, confused.
Twilight could make the very educated assumption that those things were carnivorous, judging from their sharp teeth and claws.
One of the creature’s nostrils started flaring as it’s head pivoted around in the two ponies’ general direction.
A small bud of fear began to bloom in the unicorn’s stomach and she stashed her binoculars back into the saddle bag.
“We should get out of here.”
“What? Why?”
“Something tells me that those things don’t feed on plants.” The unicorn started backpedaling before spinning around and turning into a full-on gallop down the path they had taken.
Without repeating her original question on what Twilight was talking about, Applejack followed, casting a confused look over her shoulder before the two returned to the relative safety beneath the jungle canopy.