Lost Summer

The Sadddlevale train thumped along as Rarity poured over her mother's journal for clues about who she was or what she was getting herself into.

There were no cabins on this train so she was forced to sit with the general passenger populace. Her bulging pack sat beside her, occupying the seat to its fullest. Occasionally her eyes would flick up to scan the scant number of ponies riding in the car to see if any of them were suspicious but she had yet to see anyone strange since the attack.

Rarity studied the name tree of significant government and military Kirin of the Lightning Clan. “Princess Summer Storm… Princess Gale Force… Royal Consort Cloustrike. Are those my parents?” she wondered aloud. They almost sound like pegasus names.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest as she tried to envision them in her mind's eye, some idealized visage based on the regal ponies she'd hobnobbed with at formal events. What were they like? Were they still ruling? How would they react to seeing her again? Maybe they'd have a celebration, a huge banquet.

She found a diagram of the Lightning Clan's castle with labels for patrols, garrison and the keep. This was where she would have lived in another life. She wouldn't know ponies or pony culture very well if at all. She probably wouldn't be a designer but at least she could afford the most tasteful and stylish things.

It was impossible for her to wish she had that life instead of the one that she knew but she still felt a profound longing for it that she couldn't quite explain. Like losing a memento she didn't know she had. Rarity stared blankly through the image as she suddenly remembered the sight of her father still and unconscious on his hospital bed. Surrounded by monitors, bandages on his head and an oxygen tube jammed down his throat. It was such a soul-rending nightmare.

She snapped out of it and checked her watch. By her estimation it was almost time. She closed the book and stowed it safely. Watching closely through the window she spotted what had to be Rain Bird Pond sliding past a backdrop of endless trees beneath the orange glow of a setting sun. That still body of water was the landmark she was waiting for, her best indicator that she was nearing the right spot to get off of the train.

Rarity got to her hooves in the aisle and stretched. She slipped on her pack snugly and then walked to the rear-most window of the car. She watched and waited a bit longer before deciding that this was the right spot. She tracked a lone shrub in the grassy field and teleported from the train.

She appeared outside, some distance from the track. The clickety-clack of the passenger train slowly tapered off behind her into nothing and suddenly she was completely alone in a strange place she'd never been to. Her sense of isolation was immediate and profound. Although there was a train track here, that was basically it as far as signs of civilization. She saw no buildings anywhere. No roads went through the forest, it was just wall to wall trees and wilderness untamed by ponies.

Rarity stared into the imposing wall-like treeline and exhaled. “Well it's big and primordial looking but at least it's not the Everfree.”

She dug inside the smaller satchel she'd packed for easy access and got out her compass and map, floating them into the air. The needle wavered on north and she oriented the map accordingly. Then she adjusted the dial, glancing at the sight. Theoretically if she followed this heading it was a straight shot to Sky's Edge but in the back of her mind she had doubts it would be that simple. The direction was an educated guess, not an established fact.

“Here we go,” she declared with put-on vigor, trying to talk herself up. She teleported straight to the edge of the forest and walked right in as if on a leisure hiking trip.

It wasn't long before all around was a steady, robust trill of crickets that nearly drowned out her own hoofsteps. With the sun setting and the forest canopy blocking out much of the light it wasn't long before Rarity found herself in a twilight environment quickly fading to black.

By the time she was using the light of her horn to check the compass, she decided it was time to set up camp before it got too much darker. An owl hooted high in the trees as she unfurled the tent on an open spot and spread it out. She'd done this part many times before but not with anything so modest in size and structure. Room for one, just barely even space to stand up.

Rarity pitched the tent and took a small sip from her cantine. “I suppose I just… go to bed now,” she muttered, realizing that her night routine had been paired down to brushing her teeth. She strung what she was now fairly certain was tripwire over a low branch of one of the tall trees. Then she hoisted her pack in the air like a piñata so that any creatures visiting in the night would be unable to access the food inside.

Rarity crawled into the pup tent and plopped on the ground with an uncouth grunt before closing up the flaps.

“Oh, well. Early to bed, early to rise.”

She shivered, not knowing if it was from cold or anxiety. What a day. She'd spent hours on trains crossing Equestria. It felt good to be walking around in nature even with a hefty load on her back.

Rarity closed her eyes and listened to the crickets and was once again reminded of how isolated and alone she was. There could be anything or anyone out there in the dark. She'd been on dozens of camping trips before but they were always either in large groups and or at an established campground.

She rolled over and bit her lip as her anxiety began to swell over every little sound she heard.

“I like camping,” she whispered. “But not completely alone in places where no one else ever camps. I just wanted to make dresses. Sweetie Belle was right, this is completely insane and all I'm doing so far is camping alone.”

Rarity tossed and turned for what seemed like hours as her imagination ran wild. She wondered if things would have worked out better if she'd brought her special pillow or if her brain would have kept her awake regardless. At least it was definitely dark enough. She rolled over again, all the while hearing every snapping twig, rustling leaf and chittering nocturnal creature encircling her tent. - - -

Morning came and birdsong replaced the crickets. It took Rarity several minutes of staring at the dappled sunlight on the roof before she could muster the energy to rise. With heavy eyelids she lowered her pack from the tree. She lethargically ate a bag of vegetable chili and a couple of crunchy cheese wafers, using them as a sort of spoon.

She looked into the bag with raised eyebrows. “This is… actually decent? They must have improved these since last I had them.”

She almost regretted not scraping together a small fire to warm it up but she was already going to lose significant progress from a late start and a lack of energy.

Rarity broke camp and rolled up her tent and bedroll. She rewound her tripwire, checked her compass and set out.

“Here we go. One entire day of just walking… alone. One entire day of at least a few.”

Her watch said ten forty-one as she started off at a brisk pace.

The forest wasn't spooky and threatening in the daylight the way that the Everfree was. The trees were large and far apart which made for easy walking but the canopy above was thick, often blocking out much of the sky and she certainly couldn't see anything ahead beyond a couple hundred feet in any direction. Everything looked basically the same including the terrain. She just had to trust in her guesswork combined with her mother's guesswork and follow the compass.

Rarity walked for two hours straight before taking a short break where she sat on a boulder and drank water. With no visible landmarks to gauge, she could only guess how far she'd gone and how far she had to go.

There were features and details on her mother's maps that weren't on Equestrian ones, a division between pony and Kirin cartographic knowledge, she was sure. The mountains had different names depending on who you asked. There were bodies of water, a stream and a lake that she hoped to use as signposts on her journey.

Rarity ate a cold late lunch and kept walking until the light began to dim. The place where she stopped for the night scarcely looked any different from the place she'd stopped the previous night except for the trees being older and thicker. Rarity made a fire and cooked a curry MRE in her pan. She kicked dirt over the flames before going to bed.

Night was equally as terrifying if not more so now that she was so deep in the woods. In the morning it felt as if she'd at least gotten more sleep this time likely because of how exhausted she was. She made hot oatmeal over her firepit and packed up again.

She carried onward, checking the sight on the compass to stay vigilantly on track with her heading. Today she felt better and more energized. Occasionally she'd see deer grazing on shrubs or squirrels scurrying up trees but other than that there wasn't a soul around. The nice part of that was that she didn't think she was going to run into any pursuers out here.

That evening Rarity came upon a small creek flowing slowly across her path. She checked the map in the journal to find that it was the first of two features she expected to encounter.

“Deserter’s Creek,” she gasped. “This has to be it. It seems right. This means I'm about a third of the way there.” Her smile faded. “This means I'm only a third of the way there…”

She stopped and boiled enough water to refill her cantine and then continued until it became too difficult to see.

On night three she fell asleep not worrying about things outside her tent but about her parents in the hospital and Sweetie Belle in the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse going ‘Wanna see something cool?’” - - -

The next day the terrain finally began to change. It became hilly and seemed to rise gradually.

Rarity squinted at the contour lines and strange color gradations on the Equestrian map.

“Oh… is that what that means? Changes in elevation?”

Suddenly she realized she hadn't taken into account anything like that while plotting her route to the Kirin. She didn't even think about the weather. Things had all happened so fast. Luckily it had been mild in the shade and the path didn't look like it would get too arduous.

By lunchtime she had come to the small lake she'd been awaiting, a sight few had ever seen. “I'm most of the way there,” she rejoiced proudly at the edge of the water. She could see a cluster of ducks floating on the still surface some distance away.

Although she was no fan of bathing in lake water, Rarity took off her pack and walked in to her neck to cool off and wash the sweat that had been building up the last couple of days.

She got out refreshed and shook off. Then she checked the journal map again while she brushed her mane. By her estimation, if she kept up her current pace, she'd get to Sky's Edge in about two to two and a half more days of travel.

By twilight Rarity had long circumvented the lake and pitched her tent on the most level patch of earth she could find.

On the third full day of walking, the terrain became rockier with a few less trees in her path. Progress was mildly more difficult but Rarity kept pace. There were no real landmarks left to help validate or adjust her course.

At night she thought about how she was theoretically almost there and she could possibly be there tomorrow. Her water was running low and if she didn't find anyone out there she'd have to hope that there was at least another source nearby or she'd be backtracking to the lake with a dry throat.

The next morning she packed up and was nearly galloping toward the finish line. She ate and drank as she walked, forgoing her usual breaks even though her legs hurt.

By the end of the day she was quite exhausted and had seen no signs of civilization, Kirin or otherwise. Determined and becoming more desperate she kept going even after the sun had set and the frogs and crickets were singing their songs. She let her horn go dark and looked around, hardly able to see a thing now.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” she breathed.

She lit her horn once again and shrugged off her pack. She needed a higher vantage point to see but there never were any. If her heading was off by a few degrees, she could just pass by her destination and not even know. She looked up into the nearest towering tree. That was as good an option as any. She focused on the lowest hefty branch, which was still quite high, and teleported on top of it. She wrapped her forelegs around the trunk as she wobbled precariously.

“Don't look down,” she gasped, trying to find her next branch.

By the light of her horn she teleported up again and again. The trunk got narrower and the branches got flimsier until she had to stop for fear of them snapping under her weight. She doused her light and took a deep breath.

By chance she had climbed one of the larger trees which offered a modest view over the tops of most others. There was a host of bright stars and a half moon in the sky and when she looked out ahead into the great valley of trees she could see what looked like lights in the distance.