To the Flamespire!

by Vivid Syntax

7: Beware the Jungle’s Vines (Right, Up, Up, Right, Up, and then Left)

It had been over a day since the two of them had abandoned the Mare Stream. Starlight panted. “Hoo! Let me tell you, after years in academia, you forget how to watch for twisting tree roots every step. Yeesh!”

Zipp remained focused, her head on a swivel. Her eyes scanned every tree from trunk to top, looking for any sign of danger. Her head throbbed, but each needle of pain only increased her focus. “No time to slow down, Starlight. We can break out of the jungle in a few hours if we keep up the pace.” She wiped the sweat from her brow without breaking her stride.

“Sorry, Zipp, but I need some water.” She sat down and pulled out her canteen.

“Just a little further!” Zipp pivoted and trotted a few steps back. “If we can push through a little longer, then maybe we can get through the day with one less break.”

Starlight sucked down her water quickly and wiped her mouth. “Being early won’t do us any good if we’re exhausted, Zipp. From everything you’ve said, we’ll need to be at our best to face Opaline.”

“But my friends are suffering! Or worse!” Zipp was in the air, and her eyebrows were knit. “We can’t slow down!”

“Your tenacity is admirable, Zipp.” Starlight’s voice was stiffer, and she calmly stowed her canteen. “But we need to be ready when we get to the Flamespire.”

“I don’t even know what ‘tenacity’ means!” She threw her hooves up. “Can we please just go already?”

Standing tall, Starlight recited like a school teacher, “Tenacity means that you never give up. And it’s–”

“Well I’d love a little more tenacity from the whole team. Let’s go!” She turned, landed, and walked back towards their goal.

Starlight tensed, but she reminded herself of the stakes from Zipp’s perspective. She took a deep breath and followed despite her aching hooves.

They traveled in silence, save for the occasional grunt from Starlight or the low rumble of a growl from Zipp. Even under the shade of the dense canopy, the air was oppressively hot and wet. Vines draped down, slapping their faces as they tried to move through, and with every fourth step, they needed to readjust their hooves to keep from falling. Half an hour later, Zipp grunted. “The trees are getting thicker. We haven’t heard any Windegos in a while, so I’m going to fly up and get an aerial view. There might be a faster route.” Before Starlight could reply, Zipp flapped her wings and ascended through the twisting branches.

She took rough, deep breaths and tried to focus. “Chill out, Zipp. Snapping at Starlight isn’t going to get us anywhere.” She broke through the tops of the trees with her head and felt a hot wind behind her. “Besides, the Flamespire can’t be… far?” Her view was full of endless trees with no mountains in sight. “Wait… what?” Her wings hitched up, and she looked left and right, but there were nothing but trees. “No… No, this isn’t happening!” Her hooves flew to her cheeks, and her teeth ground together. “No way no way NO WAY!!!” Another hot wind buffeted her sweaty mane, and she looked behind her to see… the Flamespire far behind her. “How in Equestria have we been going backwards!?”

Zipp dove down into the jungle. “Starlight, stop! We’re going the wrong way! We’ve probably lost—” Her hooves hit the jungle loam, and nothing but her own voice echoed in the trees. “Starlight?”

There was nopony in sight. Worse, when Zipp looked around at the jungle floor, she couldn’t find any hoofprints despite the moist earth. No branches were broken, no stray purple hairs were caught on twigs, and the smell of black coffee that she’d gotten used to was completely gone.

“I’m… alone?”

Her rear end hit the dirt, and her jaw sagged as she stared at nothing. Zipp’s breathing stopped. Large white feathers brushed against the dirty jungle floor. A small rattling caught her attention, but she realized it was just her teeth chattering as her jaw quivered. Her eyes burned.

“I lost another pony.” Zipp blinked, and the world was blurry. Her heart rate and breathing picked up. “Because she was following my…. My plan…” Zipp shook, and she was dizzy. “I have to find her. I have to find her!”

She bolted towards the sky, not caring about the scratches and bruises from the branches of the trees, and she emerged from the canopy. “Starlight? Starlight!” Zipp shook her head as, once again, the Flamespire was in a completely different direction from what she was expecting, and the warm air buffeted the side of her face. She saw the tower: glowing with malevolence and taunting her, and yet, there was something so tempting about it.

She grit her teeth. A nagging itch bothered the back of her mind. “Starlight knows to meet me there, right?” With each heartbeat, she could feel her brain rationalizing away what she knew was right. “I probably wouldn’t be able to find her anyway. This jungle is practically made to turn you around.” She felt almost possessed by her frustrations and the desire for a simple answer, and she looked again at the Flamespire. “We’re close. She’ll be okay.”

Zipp took off for the Flamespire, flapping hard against the wind that didn’t let up. She was already exhausted from their days of hiking in the jungle, but she told herself, “No. Don’t quit. This is my fault, and I will fix it, and no stupid wind is going to stop me from saving all of them.”

Zipp flew onward, but with every flap of her wings, the wind blowing her away from the Flamespire grew stronger. It never let up, and whenever she faltered, she lost ground against the force of the gale. Gritting her teeth, she ducked into the canopy for water, only to find that her canteen had been damaged and had leaked dry.

Tears fought their way to her eyes, but Zipp fought just as hard. “No!” she yelled before taking off again into the impossibly strong wind. After half an hour against a wall of wind, she was close. Just two hundred feet separated her from the clearing at the base of the Flamespire, but the canopy was so thick that she wasn’t able to climb down through it. “Grr…” She strained and strained, trying to make progress, but it took all her flapping to keep from going backwards. Dust bit at her face, and as she winced and turned away, she saw something a half mile behind her.

It was a bright, lavender light, pulsing below the canopy. At that distance, it was easy to miss, but it could only mean one thing. “Starlight!” Zipp’s heart felt lighter.

…but only until she realized how far back Starlight was. She looked at the Flamespire, so close, and she swooped down to the treetops. The hurricane-force winds kept up, and she clutched to the branches, looking between the Flamespire and the beacon of light behind her.

“Starlight, I’m so close!” she shouted. “Why did you have to get lost!?” Zipp faced the Flamespire and tried to crawl closer. She climbed on the trees like ropes, grasping at each one as the hot wind burned at her eyeballs. “I’ll come back for you, Starlight, but I have to save my friends!” Another few inches, and her muscles were on fire. “I can’t give up! I can’t!”

But she cast another glance at the flashing light, and the weight of her decision settled onto her back. Zipp could barely hear herself think over the roaring of the wind, but she stared back at Starlight’s signal. “I’m… leaving her behind.”

Zipp looked back and forth between the light and the Flamespire, as opposite as hope and despair. Her goal was right there, and she would be able to save her friends. “But… I’d have to abandon another one in the process. Is it really worth it?”

Zipp paused.

And she considered.

And she thought of what her friends would want her to do. “No. It’s not.”

As much as it pained her, she let her forelegs go slack and she spread her wings. She was ripped from the tree and tossed into the air like a kite in a tornado, thrown backwards by the intense wind. She blinked away a tear as she watched the Flamespire grow further and further away. Softly, she said, “I promise, guys, I’m coming.”

With a twist of her body, Zipp righted herself and flew away from the spire. The wind was manageable as she got further from the tower, and as she neared the glow, she found a hole in the canopy and dipped below the leaves. She came to a running landing and dashed through the trees. “Starlight! I’m here! Are you okay?” She rushed forward, nearing a break in the trees and a small clearing. “I’m sorry I left you! I thought I could make it there faster myself, but it wasn’t worth it! I want us both to make it to—”

She burst through the trees towards the light, where she saw Starlight…

…smiling and standing at the base of the Flamespire.

Zipp’s eyes were the size of the Mare Stream. “We’re here!?”

“Mm-hm!” Starlight mumbled brightly. “I’m glad you found your way. I was starting to get worried.

Zipp looked back behind her at the jungle, then to Starlight, the spire, and every which way. “What? How? Huh? What? …Huh!?”

Starlight laughed. “Magus Melody’s Mystifying Maze.” She floated her canteen over towards Zipp, who took it.

Zipp collapsed on the ground. “Okay, you’re definitely making that up.” She opened the canteen, and it hit her how sweaty she had gotten during her flight. As she quaffed the water, she realized the wind was completely gone in the rocky clearing around the spire.

“Nope! It’s an old spell, but it doesn’t see a lot of use, since it’s only really good for being left alone.” She nodded at Zipp. “I actually have you to thank. When you flew upwards, I saw the world around me spin just a little as you peeked through the trees. When you didn’t come back, I realized there was something going on, so I walked backwards and realized the trees had changed places.”

Zipp took a deep breath and sat up. “You walked backwards?”

“Yep! And it only took about ten minutes to get here. That’s how the maze works: you have to go the opposite direction of where you want.”

Zipp’s head hurt. “That seems… really dangerous.”

“It’s even more nefarious than that.” Starlight’s voice had darkened. “The maze works both ways. It doesn't just keep ponies out. It also keeps them in.”

Zipp’s ears flattened. “So if somepony escaped from Opaline and tried to run away…”

“...then they’d find themselves back in this clearing before long. Exactly.”

Zipp looked up at the imposing tower made of black rock. “Just how powerful is she?”

Starlight forced a smile. “The good news is: there’s no way Opaline is doing all of this herself. I’m guessing the Flamespire it a place of power in and of itself.” She pointed a hoof at it. “I mean, seriously, just look at that thing! Black obsidian, eternal fire, nothing alive within a hundred feet of it. It practically screams ‘ancient, evil artifact.’”

Zipp felt her resolve begin to rebuild itself. “And we’re going to climb it.” She looked at Starlight and smiled. “But not until we’re rested and ready.”

Starlight nodded back at her, and she retrieved some rations from her bag.

Comments

[Draco Dei]

Her rear end hit the dirt, and her jaw sagged as she stared at nothing. Zipp’s breathing stopped. Large white feathers brushed against the dirty jungle floor. A small rattling caught her attention, but she realized it was just her teeth chattering as her jaw quivered. Her eyes burned.

Opaline and/or Windigoes can use the spell Sombra put on that door?
At end of chapter:
Ah, not quite...