The Final Element: The Guardian of Equestria

The Seventh Chapter

After what seemed like an eternity of walking, and listening to Pinkie Pie recount story after story about her adventures in sweets, Eli felt as if they weren't making up enough time. Absentmindedly reaching into his back-pocket to retrieve his cell-phone, he brought the display up, just in the off chance that he had managed to get another impossible text message. The time on the display indicated that it was half past twelve noon.

He doubted seriously that the same hours applied in Equestria, but considering the sun didn't actually move until compelled to do so by the Princesses, it was actually anyone's guess as to the exact time.

"What's that?" asked Rainbow Dash fascinated with what he had in his hand.

"It's my cell-phone," he told her holding it out to let her get a better look.

"What's it do?" she said giving him a raised eyebrow.

"It's sort of like the stones that Twilight gave us before we left, only this one doesn't use magic to work; it uses science and technology." Shutting it back off. "It also runs on a battery cell that gives it power, and that cell is almost used up. I imagine it'll be useless after another day."

Placing his phone back in his pocket, and reaching in the sack for the map, Eli stopped momentarily, and scrutinized the approximate distance the four of them had traveled. Taking this as a good time to take a breather, Applejack motioned to the edge of the path, and announced that any pony needing to pee, should follow her.

“Pass,” said Rainbow Dash. “I've got a bladder like a Rhino.”

“I'm pretty sure I was doing just fine never knowing about something like that,” said Eli, frowning as he rustled the map for emphasis.

Dash just laughed at him, as she flew up a few feet to give her wings a stretch, and have a look around. “You getting anywhere with that map?”

“I hope so,” Eli said. “That is, if we assume the gate is in the center of the forest, we're going to need to go West from here.”

From inside the woods Applejack yelled out, “Hey Eli, you're gonna want to take a look at this!”

“No, thank you!” he yelled back. “You've seen one, you've seen 'em all!”

“No, you're gonna want to see this,” said Applejack as she re-entered the path from the woods.

Folding the map back up, Eli motioned for her to lead the way, as he and Rainbow Dash fell in behind her, and entered the thick brush.

“I overheard you talking to Dash about needing to go West, and if'n that's the case, y'all are gonna have problems,” she said as they reached a small standing tree-line.

Moving the brush aside with the back of his hand, Eli cautiously stepped through, and looked around.

“Yeah, this is a problem,” he said as he peered over edge of a massive canyon, the bottom of which seemed more than three hundred feet down, ending on jagged rocks and dead trees.

“It's not a problem for me,” said Rainbow Dash, as she leapt from the edge of the canyon and hovered near them out in the open maw.

“Ooh, I wanna do that too!” yelled Pinkie Pie as she tried flapping her front legs, in a vain attempt at flying.

“That's not gonna work sugar cube,” said Applejack as she pulled Pinkie away from the edge. “And unless you feel like hoisting us all over, you're flying does none of the rest of us any good Rainbow Dash.”

“Can we get around it?” Eli asked Dash.

“Hmm, give me a minute,” she said before flying off ahead of them down the length of the canyon.

After a few moments, Rainbow Dash returned, and landed back at the edge.

“Good news and bad news.”

“Give us the good news,” Eli said crossing his arms over his chest.

“Good news, is that there is a way to cross about half a mile down that way,” she said, pointing in the direction to their right. “A huge tree is laying over the canyon. It's big enough for you three to cross over.”

“Well, that's cartoonishly convenient,” Eli said. “What's the bad news?”

“We have to go past an Ursa cave.”

“I'm out,” said Applejack, as she took a step back. “You'll have to find another way.”

“There isn't for about four miles,” Dash said with frustration.

“What's an Ursa?” asked Eli, looking from Applejack to Rainbow Dash.

“Only 'bout the biggest bear you ever saw in your life, and meaner than a mess of hornets with a stick up their backsides,” Applejack said.

“How big?”

Lifting her hoof above her head as far as she could, Rainbow Dash flew straight up about twelve feet, and stopped as she made a horizontal slicing motion with her hand.

“Shit.”

“You can say that again,” Applejack commented as she nervously shifted back and forth on her hooves.

“We should be able to get around them if we're quiet,” said Rainbow Dash. “Ursas mostly come out at night.”

“Mostly,” said Eli skeptically.

“I don't think you have much of a choice,” Dash said. “I mean we want to get to the gate before a bunch of those Dark Baddies come through right?”

Eli knew that given the terrain of the forest, four miles would translate to eight hours of lost time, meaning they wouldn't make it to the other side before they had to make camp for the night.

“Alright,” Eli said, “we take the short-cut, and make for the crossing.”

Applejack looked unconvinced, and Pinkie Pie didn't seem to care, but Eli had a gut feeling that if things took a turn for the worse, this bear cave would be the least of their problems later on.

“I guess we'd best get this over with then,” Applejack said as she adjusted her hat.

“I'll be right back,” Dash said heading for the thick part of the woods.

“Where are you going?” Eli asked. “I thought we were going that way.”

“We are,” said Dash, “but if we're going past an Ursa cave, then I'm gonna go take that pee now.”

~   ~   ~

It was slower going than Eli had calculated in his head. And the path next to the canyon edge was more harrowing in places than he would have preferred.

He had insisted that everyone stay as quiet as they could, so as not to alert the sleeping Ursas as they neared the cave. Though he feared that if any one of them would be the one to make noise, it was certainly going to be Pinkie Pie.

He looked back to see her bouncing along the path, with a huge grin on her face, as if it were a game, instead of a life and death ordeal that the four of them had found themselves in.

He tried several times to motion for her to remain as calm and unexcited as possible, but to no avail. She only responded to his gestures with gestures of her own, and even a few goofy facial expressions.

“We're nearing the cave,” Rainbow Dash said quietly, as she turned her face toward Eli. “We have to calm Pinkie down, or we're all going to be lunch.”

“I'm trying,” Eli said. “It's like dealing with an Edward Cullen fan-girl.”

Taking matters into her own hooves, Applejack grabbed Pinkie and plugged her mouth with her leg.

“Now y'all listen here Pinkie. We gotta walk past that Ursa cave, and if'n y'all keep up your jitter-buggin' we're all gonna get a first hoof look at the inner workin's of an Ursa'a belly.”

Pinkie said something, which was muffled by Applejack's leg, and Applejack gave her a stern shaking. “I don't care about none of that. Y'all don't make a peep! Y'all listenin'?”

Going limp in defeat, Pinkie said something else which was muffled, and looked sternly at Applejack.

“We're good here,” said Applejack as she let go of Pinkie.

Taking it a sign that things were under control, Eli motioned the group onward, and they quickly came to a slight clearing near the edge of the canyon, that opened up to reveal the cave in the side of the mountainous landscape.

Eli was grateful that he was in front, but still overly cautious as he inched along. He was hoping that Ursas were like most nocturnal creatures, and wouldn't be overly sensitive to noise, though since they mostly came out at night, he clearly interpreted it to mean that they also came out in the day.

The cave was monstrously huge, as the four of them passed in front of it. And try as he might he could not see far into the interior of the cave, though he was glad, debating if he really wanted to see what one looked like.

Applejack was breathing hard, as she gingerly placed one hoof in front of the other, and Rainbow Dash was hovering quietly off the path, to minimize the possibility of noise.

No sooner did they reach the exact middle of the cave, then Eli looked down at his feet to notice a large green snake had coiled itself around his shoe, and he instinctively kicked it away and screamed a scream that would make the Wilhelm Scream pale in comparison.

Instantly, the four of them froze, as the scream reverberated inside the Ursa cave.

Holding their breath, the three ponies looked from the cave, and then back to Eli, as their very blood seemed to run cold in their veins.

“Well at least it wasn't me,” said Pinkie, as she defiantly folded her hooves across her chest.

As the seconds passed, Eli strained to listen, and finally the four of them exhaled in unison. Eli looked back at the others and gave them an apologetic expression, just as a faint rumble began emanating from the interior of the cave.

“Shit,” was all Eli could muster, before a louder rumbling, followed by crashing noises and rocks falling came from the inside.

“Run for your lives!” Rainbow Dash yelled, as the first Ursa appeared enraged from the cave.

At once, the four of them bolted as fast as they could.

It's difficult to properly describe the sheer terror that coursed through each of the four as they scrambled and sped perilously along the path, and even with Eli leading them ahead, his own heart pounding in his ears, he felt an indescribable fear, the likes of which he hadn't known since his early days in combat.

The Ursa that erupted from the mammoth cave at once began charging after them, and though Eli didn't want to see the terror behind them, he had no choice but to look, to adequately gauge the distance placed between it and them.

Breathing hard and running as fast as she could, Applejack felt the rocks and stones under her hooves breaking and flinging away from her like small projectiles. She saw Eli turn his head, and she too looked over her shoulder to see that the Ursa wasn't alone anymore, it had been joined by two more, and while every thought in her head was to freeze in terror, her desire to get away from it overpowered her fright.

“Keep running!” yelled Dash as she swooped down to the ground and hoisted up a bunch of rocks, and began pelting the Ursas with them.

“That's not really helping Dash!” Applejack screamed at her over the roar of the Ursas hot on their tail. And being hot on their tails was something of an understatement, as the Ursa closest to them, took a swipe at Applejack, stirring the wind behind her.

“There's the tree!” Eli shouted, as he reached behind him, and pulled his gun. He was hesitant to start shooting off his only rounds of ammo, but figured the situation actually called for it.

Slowing just enough to let Pinkie and Applejack pass him, he swung around and took aim at the closest Ursa's leg, and squeezed off a round.

Incidentally, it's worth noting that mechanical objects and magically born creatures have something of no effect on one another. The bullet from Eli's gun, which would have been enough to cause mild to moderate injury to any normal creature that size, did little more than the rocks that Rainbow Dash was heaving at it. So that in the end, the fury of the Ursa only gained greater purchase, and the roar increased its volume.

Deciding it was time to take things to the next level, Rainbow Dash abandoned the idea of the rocks, and instead swooped into the dense foliage of the jungle next to the canyon, and emerged with a huge vine clutched in her teeth. She figured that if she couldn't slow them down one way, maybe the situation called for more creative means.

Flying as fast as she could, Dash cut across the path in between Eli and the first Ursa, and shot in front of him just as he was about to fire another round. Fortunately, he held his fire as he caught on quickly to what she was doing, and it seemed the best idea to him as well. It might not stop them, but it would certainly buy them time to make for the tree.

Bringing the vine down level with their feet, Dash pulled as hard as she could, stretching the vine taunt as the first Ursa's leg snagged the vine, and careened forward. The force of the creature was enough that it jarred the vine clear out of Dash's grasp, and she lost control and slammed against the inner wall of the ravine.

Eli barely had enough time to see Rainbow Dash hit the canyon wall, before he was already running to the other two, who were already at the foot of the fallen tree.

To his surprise, it was a lot larger than he thought it was, and neither of the two Earth Ponies were capable of making it onto the tree's trunk to cross.

Chancing a quick glance behind him, to see the whereabouts of both Rainbow Dash and the three Ursas, Eli noticed that she was already back in the air, and sailing toward them, and the Ursas were a mass of glowing blue fur, entangled by one another on the top of the canyon.

“We need a bit of help here,” said Applejack, as she jumped a few times to try and reach the landing of the tree side.

“Hang on!” Eli shouted at her, as he hoisted her up in his arms and tossed her, where she instantly began scrambling for secure footing on the old tree.

As soon as Rainbow Dash appeared, she assisted by grabbing Pinkie Pie and lifting her to the tree, while Eli scrambled as best as his arms and feet could carry him afterward.

The roars of the three Ursas was a jumble of bellows and rage fulled anger, and Eli was sure, that Dash's stunt had only served to provoke them further. He just hoped that Ursas were afraid of heights. Which very quickly proved to not be the case as he reached the top of the tree side and looked back to see them charging directly for them.

At first glance, it didn't seem that either Pinkie or Applejack were surefooted enough to cross the tree, but as soon as the first of the Ursas reached the tree, they abandoned their uncertainty and started  hustling across the divide. Rainbow Dash was doing everything she could to distract the Ursas, by flying in their way, dodging their swings when the first Ursa shoved on the tree, and caused Eli and the other two to momentarily lose their footing, and fall to their sides.

Rainbow Dash looked with horror as her friends fell and started sliding down the edge of the tree's side. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both managed to slide right into the cleft of one of the tree's broken branches and wedged themselves in firm, but Eli slid off and grabbed on with one arm to a smaller branch, and dangled precariously.

“Alright that's enough!” shouted Rainbow Dash, as she charged the first Ursa and sent a high-speed kick straight for its snout, causing it to stumble backward into the two behind it. It was a good move, but it came too little too late, as the Ursa had managed to weaken the tree from its position, and the whole object began sliding into the canyon.

“This is bad! This is bad!” was all Pinkie could say, as she latched onto the branch she and Applejack were wedged in.

“Eli! Do something!” Applejack shouted at him, not sure if he was still with them, or if he had fallen to his oblivion.

“I'm working on it!” he shouted back up at them. Then turning to Rainbow Dash, he shouted for her to keep the Ursas away from the tree as long as she could.

Three more fast strikes at the Ursa's face, and the three of them were once again a tangled mass, though a lucky swipe from the second Ursa caught Rainbow Dash in her midsection, and sent her catapulting across the canyon.

The tree slid for a ways until it came to rest on a small rocky outcrop six feet down the inner side of the canyon, giving it an almost thirty degree pitch of ascent to reach the other side, which Eli knew was just enough to get them to safety.

He had climbed back just enough to get his foot on the solid body of the tree, when the second Ursa appeared over the side of the canyon's edge and swiped at the end of the tree, in one last effort at reaching its prey.

“No!” was all that Eli managed to get from his mouth, before the tree lost its security on the side, and slid down gaining speed.

“Hang onto something!” was the last thing he was able to shout, before the tree came loose and plunged into the canyon.

The swipe which the Ursa gave the tree, was low enough that it set the huge creature off balance, and it too lost its footing and went over the edge behind them, twisting and growling as it fell.

~   ~   ~

Rainbow Dash lay on her side gasping for her breath, as the impact against the opposite side of the canyon knocked the wind out of her, and she landed on a small ledge twenty feet from the top of the canyon wall.

Immediately upon gathering her wits, she looked across from her to see the Ursas bellowing in fury, and noticed that the tree was missing from where it was supposed to be. Her heart leapt into her throat as she peered down into the canyon and saw the tree at the bottom.

“oh no, oh no!” she cried as she took a deep breath and launched herself down at full speed toward where she hoped her friends were.

Applejack was lying on her side in a large mud-hole, which had miraculously cushioned her landing between two jagged and gnarled rocks jutting from the ground. Above her, she noticed that the tree had fallen and came to rest straight down like a javelin in the bottom of the canyon. She looked around, swiping the mud from the left side of her face and eye, and immediately looked for her friends.

The mud was like half-dried glue, and it took all her effort to get her hooves through it, as she made her way out to examine the surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was Pinkie Pie bobbing her head up from a large bush that was clinging to the edge of the canyon. She looked unharmed, but Applejack asked her anyway if she was okay.

“I'm okay,” she said, dragging the oh sound out.

“Have you seen Rainbow Dash or Eli?” she said, rubbing at her flank with her hoof to remove more of the gooey mud.

“Nope,” said Pinkie as she reached in her main and pulled Gummy from the pink wiry tangle, and began petting him.

“Hey, are you guys alright down there!” shouted Rainbow Dash out of breath and in a fright as she swooped down towards the two of them.

“We're okay, but I can't find find Eli,” said Applejack with some worry to her voice.

Flying back up, Dash examined around the other side of the tree, and noticed the body of the Ursa where it lay mangled and speared through on a old near petrified tree. Just past it, lying on the ground on his back Eli was unmoving.

“Over here!” Dash shouted as she sped to the fallen human's side, and began checking him for signs of life.

Rushing up to Eli, Applejack knelt down and pressed her ear to his chest to listen if he was breathing. She knew Earth ponies could take a bit of a pounding, but she was unsure of what extremes a human body could endure before it broke.

“Is he alright?” asked Pinkie Pie worrying her tail in her hooves as she and Rainbow Dash gave Applejack space to examine him.

“I don't rightly know,” she said. “Come on Eli, please be alright.” She nudged him with her muzzle a few times.

With his eyes still closed, Eli opened his mouth and began singing; “Take me home, oh muddah, faddah. Take me home, I hate Granada. Don't leave me out in the forest, Where I might get eaten by a bear!”

Opening his eyes, he saw that each of the ponies were wearing a look of shock and bafflement.

“Are you alright?” asked Rainbow Dash as she rushed to him and grabbed him by his shoulders and started shaking him. “You're not brain-damaged are you?”

“Rainbow Dash! That shore is a good way to give him brain damage!” Applejack rebuked. “Y'all alright sugar-cube,” she said leaning close to give him a good sniffing.

“I'm fine,” he said lifting himself up on his elbows, “just got the crap kicked out of me by the ground is all.”

“You guys had me scared out of my mind,” said Rainbow Dash sitting back on her haunches, and finally breathing normally holding her side.

“I guess being big comes as a disadvantage,” Eli said looking at the body of the dead Ursa. “You're right, Applejack, that thing was meaner than any bear I've ever seen in my life.”

Applejack didn't want to see the dead Ursa, but she couldn't look away from it either. She felt sorry for it, that it was dead, but it was now that she understood what Eli meant earlier about the difference between saving those you care about, and those trying to harm them.

“Hey Eli,” said Rainbow Dash pointing at something metallic on the ground a ways away from them, “isn't that your gun thingy?”

Turning to follow her gaze, Eli told her it was, and that he must have lost it from his holster when he fell. Then as if a new thought occurred to him, he jumped up into a standing position, and began to pat down his jeans, and pockets.

“Aw, son of a bitch!” he growled as he began to frantically look around the ground in the canyon's bottom.

“What's wrong?” Applejack asked frowning. “You lose something?”

Stopping momentarily from his looking, he turned to face the three ponies. “I don't have the key.”