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The forest is dark (Clarity and Guiding Star light their horns to see by, but it's almost worse than nothing, making the distant shadowed spaces darker by comparison; they soon give up). The plants that make it up are closely spaced, not all of them have friendly textures, and it is full of scary noises, only some of them the harmless snapped twigs and disturbed leaves of their own passage.
Before they've fully adjusted to the darkness, and are aware via anything but the feel of earth under their hooves that the path has sloped downward a little, it has given way under them, some of the flora and some distressingly large rocks along with it. Clarity can't even teleport. It's too dark to see where she might be going.
allcomplete
joyfulnoise
Joy happens to be the farthest one down the slope when it starts to go, and right next to one of those distressingly large rocks. Consequently, he is the first one off the edge of the unseen cliff below, and not conscious at the time.
on-what-wings
Luckily for him, Brightblaze is second. She dives, gets herself under him - and finds out that dragons are heavy, even pony-sized ones, and she needs all four boots to achieve stable lift and get him safely to the ground. Which means not a hoof to spare to hang onto him, which means some very delicate balancing that's going to take time, which means she'd better hope Streak can take care of the three non-fliers by herself.
allcomplete
Clarity's next to tumble down the hill, yelping, trying to resist the urge to light her horn and see where she's going because that will just ruin everybody's vision -
clearthestorm
- and in between them, Silver Streak, fighting the whole way to get her hooves on the ground and her wings in the air. She only manages it at the last second, catching Clarity's forehooves just as she clears the edge. Past Clarity, she sees the whole cliff below them - Blaze and Joy halfway down, thoroughly occupied; miscellaneous debris still on its way to the bottom; a tree knocked half loose from its stubborn perch in a cliffside crevice, swinging back and forth in slow wobbly arcs. And she can hear Guiding Star coming up behind her, and she hasn't a clue in the world where Cherry Cordial might have got to, and she can't carry two ponies in the air by herself, and if Clarity were to hit that swinging tree just so it would wedge itself between those rocks and hold her for long enough...
"I don't have time to explain," she says as rapidly as she can, "but if you let go exactly when I say, you will reach the ground safely. Trust me?"
"I don't have time to explain," she says as rapidly as she can, "but if you let go exactly when I say, you will reach the ground safely. Trust me?"
allcomplete
Clarity gulps.
- solves mysteries, finds out facts - has no reason to want to harm her -
"Yes," she squeaks.
- solves mysteries, finds out facts - has no reason to want to harm her -
"Yes," she squeaks.
clearthestorm
"Good. Now," she says, and lets go and spreads her wings and leaps to catch Guiding Star just as she hurtles over the edge, while beneath them the tree swings its stately way over to catch Clarity at just the right place and time to take her weight and hold it. The leafy branches are quite comfortable, certainly in comparison to just about anything else she could have hit.
allcomplete
Clarity falls. Clarity lands on the tree and hangs onto it for dear life.
follow_polaris
"AAAH - oh hi - fancy seeing you here," says Guiding, laughing nervously, when caught.
clearthestorm
"Yes. Hello," she says dryly, taking them to the ground in a reasonably paced dive. They reach the bottom slightly before Blaze, who is still going slowly to keep Joy safely on her back; as soon as Guiding Star has all four hooves underneath her, Streak springs into the air to go back for Clarity.
She takes the extra second to poke her head up above the cliff edge and look for any trace of Cordy in the path of the landslide.
No such trace exists where she can see - but she can tell the path splits halfway up, around a harder shelf of rock. Logically, therefore, Cherry Cordial must have gone the other way. If she had been flattened in any visible area, there would be signs.
Down goes Streak to extract Clarity from her tree.
She takes the extra second to poke her head up above the cliff edge and look for any trace of Cordy in the path of the landslide.
No such trace exists where she can see - but she can tell the path splits halfway up, around a harder shelf of rock. Logically, therefore, Cherry Cordial must have gone the other way. If she had been flattened in any visible area, there would be signs.
Down goes Streak to extract Clarity from her tree.
allcomplete
Clarity is nervous about being carried but lets go of the tree anyway.
"Thank you," she says, shaking a little.
"Thank you," she says, shaking a little.
clearthestorm
"You are of course welcome."
Being in less of a hurry this time around, she can carry Clarity down more sedately.
Being in less of a hurry this time around, she can carry Clarity down more sedately.
allcomplete
"Where's Cordial?" she asks when she's on the ground and has done a headcount. "Is Joy okay?"
clearthestorm
"Cordial was carried a different way by the landslide," says Streak. "I don't know where she is exactly, but it's likely to be that way." She points in the appropriate direction.
on-what-wings
"I think Joy's okay," says Blaze. "I hope Joy's okay." She pokes him with a tentative hoof.
allcomplete
"Here, I know a little healing magic, everypony close your eyes if you don't want to have to readjust to the darkness -" She bends over Joy, shuts her own eyes, and casts a spell good for blunt trauma.
allcomplete
"Hi. Better?" she asks, dimming her horn and opening her eyes. "You caught the landslide worst."
allcomplete
"Well, you do have scales. Okay, let's see if we can find Cordial, I guess - unless anyone else wants a healing spell?"
