On my way

Chapter 4 - Trails ahead.

As we carried on through the silent black forest, leave it to Twilight to shatter the silence. “So, none of you have been in here before?”

“Ugh, heavens no! Just look at it- it's dreadful.” Rarity commented.

“And it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria.” Applejack replied.

I rolled my eyes, just before I noticed we were on a cliff. I remembered what was going to happen next. I just needed to follow Applejack.

“Nopony knows,” Rainbow said, as she fluttered in from the shadows, trying to scare the others. You know why?”

“Rainbow, quit it.” I nodded my head to agree with Applejack.

Of course, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but continue to pester the others and continued to creep closer to them. “'Cause everypony who's ever come in has never come- “ She jumped up, spreading out her legs and flapping her wings to spook them - “out!”

The weakened ground of the cliff gave way from Rainbow dash bouncing off from it and making the some of the girls rear up in fright. Every mare without wings plummeted down in the landslide under their feet, sliding down to the cavern below.

“Fluttershy! Quick!” Rainbow commanded.

Rainbow swooped in and grabbed Pinkie Pie just as Fluttershy was able to bite down and catch Rarity by the tail. Applejack was lucky enough to slide down by a root hanging out of the ground and caught it in her mouth. No sooner had she saved herself, Applejack noticed that Twilight and I hadn’t stopped soon enough and were hanging off the edge over the cavern.

“Hold on! I'm a-comin'!” She yelled and let go of the root and let herself slide down towards us with her forehooves stretched out for us to latch onto and not fall off the edge.

“Applejack! What do I do?” Twilight asked in a panic, desperately trying to get a footing on the edge.

Applejack looked up to see Rainbow and Fluttershy flying overhead, then relaxed her hold on us and gave probably the most poorly phrased advice on the season. “Let go,” She said with a completely unwarranted voice of confidence.

“Are you crazy?” Twilight grunted, still struggling not to slip any further down than she already had..

Applejack continued to ensure us to take her advice, still not choosing to tell us why or how we wouldn’t freefall down to our death below. “No, I ain't. I promise you'll be safe.”

I already know whats going to happen so I played along, but asked the obvious question. “How?”

No luck on the explanation Twilight needed, instead just an honest Apple’s call for trust. “Now listen here. What I'm sayin' to you is the honest truth. Let go, and you'll both be safe.”

Applejack gave her final say so I let go.

Unfortunately, despite my gift of foresight on the events about to unfold, as well as my faith in Applejack knowing we’d be safe, I still screamed my head off. Turns out, being turned into pony, and ridding myself of my human body, didn’t remove my fear of heights… I really hate hates.

Soon, as in only a few feet into our descent, Twilight was screaming as well.

Actually, come to think of it. I screamed a lot louder remembering Fluttershy had trouble carrying anything heavier than a bunny or two. Pretty sure I weigh a lot more than a bunny.

I soon felt Fluttershy holding me and my rapid fall slow to a gentle glide down below. I wanted to thank her right then and there but she lost a hold of me and I nearly fell to my death a second time. She quickly caught ahold of me again.

“Sorry. I'm not used to holding anything more than a bunny or two.” Fluttershy said meekly.

“Well, thank you anyways, Fluttershy.” I smiled at her, and I got a cute smile back before being safely set down on the ground.

-=-=-=-

“And once Pinkie and Rarity were saved, whoosh… I did a loop-de-loop around and WHAM! Caught you right in the nick of time.” Rainbow boasted about her ‘heroic’ moves.

Only I was far enough ahead to see how unamused Twilight was with Rainbow’s gloating.

“Yes, Rainbow,” Twilight side, restraining her annoyance. “I was there, and I'm very grateful, but we gotta-” She gasped, “A manticore!”

Standing before us, and blocking our path was a brightly colored mythical beast. It reared back on its back legs with its front paws raised up and claws extended as it released a fierce foar.

Twilight gave us an order with determination, “We've gotta get past him!”

Rarity was up first, she dodged a swing from the manticore and double muled kicked him in the jaw with a loud thwack, “Take that, you ruffian!” only for it to roar into the face and frazzel her mane into blue afro. “My hair! Woop!” and she runs away from the battle.

Fluttershy said something in the background, I can’t remember what she said, nor could I hear it.

Next was Applejack pouncing on the manticore. She road the beast as it hoped around and thrashed its body as it tried to buck off Applejack. Another good thrust and Applejack went flying overhead and shouted to Rainbow, “All yours, partner.”

Fluttershy was trying to say something but I still couldn’t hear it.

Next came Rainbow Dash as she saluted and said, “I'm on it.”
Fluttershy says something to Rainbow but she didn’t hear it either.

Rainbow raced in a circle around the manticore, trying to get it dizzy, only to fail with a slap of its scorpion tail.

“Rainbow!” Twilight screamed as Rainbow crashed hard into the dirt and came sliding in towards us. Twilight and the others kicked their front hooves, signaling they were about to charge.

“Wait!” Fluttershy screamed, making them all stop.

With everypony halted, she turned around to the manticore and walked towards it. The manticore readied a swing before Fluttershy calmly hushed the beast, “Shhh... It's okay.”

We all flinched as she leaned forward to nuzzle its paw. In an instant, the beast was calm, almost looking sad or frightened and showed its paw with an oversized thorn jutting out of it. Kind of strange that the thing hadn’t implied itself all the way through for as hard as the manticore was slamming its paw on the ground.

Fluttershy again spoke softly to the creature, sympathizing with its pain. “Oh, you poor, poor little baby.”

“Little?” Rainbow repeated the word as if it were a question.

We all could see the thorn that stuck in the manticore’s paw.

“Now this might hurt for juuuust a second,” Fluttershy cheerfully explained as she looked over the injury.

When she yanked it out, we all heard a roar watched the manticore scoop Fluttershy up and bring her in closer to its gaping maw. In our group panic, we all shouted, “Fluttershy!”

Safe in the manticores clutches, Fluttershy giggled as the creature began to lick her face. “Aw, you're just a little ol' baby kitty, aren't you? Yes you are, yes you are.”

We heard purring over the sounds of Fluttershy’s baby talk.

Seeing our opening, we hurried past the two, but Twilight and I stayed behind for Twilight to ask Fluttershy, “How did you know about the thorn?”

“I didn't.” Fluttershy explained. “Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness.” She finished saying, making Twilight and I smile.

-=-=-=-

“No. My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck,” Rarity whined as it suddenly became darker. “Well, I didn't mean that literally.”

“Wow, it’s darker than my jokes,” I say out loud, only getting a laugh from Pinkie.

“That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn't even know it,” Twilight said.

Rarity bumped into Rainbow. “I didn't see you there, my apologies.”

“Oh wait, I think I stepped in somethin'.” Applejack announced as she stepped into a mud puddle.

We soon heard Fluttershy scream.

Applejack commented over her shoulder as she continued forward on the path, “It's just mud.”

All of us start looking over at the tree Fluttershy was screaming towards and saw a creepy face carved on the tree. Soon everypony started getting scared and was screaming along.

Suddenly, Pinkie’s goofy laugh broke through the screams and all eyes were on her making googly eyes and silly noises at one of the trees.

I knew what time it was. “Awe, crap. I hope she doesn’t expect me to sing along with them… Ah, screw it. I’m already here.”

Now, with the song over and the scary faces vanquished, we all fell down laughing.

I was the first to get up. “Ok, that was fun, Pinkie,” I thanked her happily.

“Ah’ll say that’s for sure!” Applejack agreed as they all got up to continue on our path.

The joy from such an odd obstacle that had been thrown at us was then torn away from me with a frightening thought. I tried not to show it, but I was afraid of what may lie ahead of us. I was afraid of what my trail was going be. They couldn’t know about my past. I hadn’t told any of them. I could only imagine their reactions, finding out an alien had been watching their every move, knowing who they were; It’s straight up creepy!

I had to hope some light could still come out of this.