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“We should've brought a machete! We should've brought a hatchet or an axe!”

I was cursing and being generally unhappy as I tried to find a way to squeeze through the intertwined branches to reach the sky in my Equestria dreamscape. It was hard work and on top of it I was starting to feel the claustrophobic effects of being under this dark, oppressive forest canopy.

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At the same time I was painfully aware that the very stuff we were on this quest for was something that if it came into contact with pegasi had the ability to temporarily rob them of their flight magic.

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That same stuff often grew in the very tree limbs I was now scrambling up and over. Even if it was only for a short while I was in no mood to experience that!

Finally I broke through the canopy and felt the afternoon breeze on my face. Unfortunately my eyes had grown accustom to the dark, dismal forest floor so for several seconds the glare was blinding. Even with my flight goggles on. Finally I could see again and enjoy the wonder of Celestia's glorious orb. Wiggling a bit more I was able to finally get my wings clear of the branches. However before I took off I tied a large, bright, garishly patterned scarf to a high hanging limb so I could remember where I had departed from. Then called out to my party below.

“Okay! I've found a way through and I've marked the area. I'm going up! Then I launched myself into the sky.

Once airborne I grabbed the brass whistle that I had hanging by a lanyard around my neck and gave it a quick series of blows. From beneath the tree canopy I heard muffled reply. This was how I was going to alert them if I discovered any Fading Dream Mushrooms. With something resembling a line of communication established I began my search pattern.

The trick was that I needed to be thorough with my search, but at the same time I wanted to stay away from the spores that our prey created it. Also I needed to not fly too far away from my starting point or else Zecora and Death Cap might not hear my whistle.

So I began flying back and forth over the Everfree Forest canopy. Fortunately it was not windy and the wild weather of Everfree was not causing mischief today. Within a few minutes I spotted the first telltale poofs of shimmering, iridescent color floating above the trees. Once I had determined it location I started circling the area and began blowing a series of long whistle notes. From below I heard a whistle reply. Death Cap was wearing climbing spikes on her legs and for a pony she scrambled up the limbs with surprising speed; although she had to change the branch she was climbing on several times when she found herself on the wrong limb. However I soon heard a hoot of joy as the mushroom hunter found her quarry.

This process repeated itself over the next several hours as we hunted our elusive prey.

Eventually Death Cap and Zecora had filled their panniers with plenty of prime examples. Now with the sun beginning to set toward the western horizon we decided to start making plans for the trip back home. After all the forest was already dim and it would be pitch black well before sundown and we didn't want to be caught in the forest after dark if we could avoid it. We had lanterns but as Zecora pointed out the lanterns would attract almost as much trouble as they would help us.

I was back on the forest floor and was stowing some my gear when suddenly I heard Death Cap exclaim.

“I don't believe it! Quickly she trotted down to one of the smaller stones at the center of the grove. “Glamorous Green Caps! You never see these things!” Quickly she pulled a small mouth trowel and began removing the tiny mushrooms at the base of one the boulders.

Zecora turned and saw what the the light grey mare was doing and shouted. “Death Cap! I told you don't disturb those stones!”

Death Cap finished stowing the last mushrooms. “I didn't touch them Zecora I just dug around them. That shouldn't…”

Suddenly there was a deep rumbling sound and one of the great boulders on the edge of the grove began rolling down the gentle slope toward Death Cap. The mare saw this and easily dodge the lumbering stone, but no sooner had it passed did another stone started moving toward her. Death Cap was now galloping toward the edge of the grove but the first boulder was now arcing around the edge of the grove obviously intent on intercepting her. To make matters worse a third great stone was now rolling ponderously toward her.

Zecora started galloping around the edge of grove blowing her whistle as loudly as she could. Obviously she was trying to attract the attention of some of the stones away from the earth pony unfortunately she only succeeded in peeling one off of Death Cap. To make matters worse a fourth boulder started chasing her.

As soon as the stones started moving I had taken to the air. I could only fly about fifteen feet off the ground but that was enough to avoid the wrath of the rampaging rocks. However it was obvious that Death Cap was being boxed in as a fifth boulder joined hunt. She wasn't even able to make toward a tree to scramble up for shelter and soon her luck would run out. Zecora seemed to be keeping her two pursuers occupied by leading them on a weaving path through the trees but as I watched in horror a sixth boulder came to life and started rolling toward Death Cap. The mare was fast running out of options.

I had an idea. “Death Cap run in a straight line!” Fortunately she heard me and did as I said. I dove on her from behind and reached out and wrapped my front legs around the barrel of her chest. Then poured every ounce of flight magic I had into my wings and hauled her into the air.

Now I had picked Sweetie Belle fairly easy once, but I'd never attempted to fly carrying a grown mare. We were airborne but just barely in fact it was only by sheer luck that I was able to avoid colliding with an oncoming rock. Several more frantic flight maneuvers followed, however it quickly became obvious that the boulders were blind and without hoofsteps they couldn't sense their prey.

Zecora had sought shelter in a nearby tree and Death Cap and I soon found a sturdy limb for ourselves to. For the next couple minutes the boulder crashed around the undergrowth but eventually gave up and went back to rim of grove away from us.

After about thirty minutes we carefully scrambled out of the tree and headed away from the grove down the game path we had arrived on. For several minutes all we were concerned with was putting as much distance as we could between us and the grove, but final Death Cap called a halt.

“Okay I don't think they are interested in us anymore!” She glared at the zebra. “You know something about those stones? Don't you? Sun and moon! What were those and how did you know they were dangerous?”

Zecora gave the earth pony a smug smile. “Did I not warn you not to approach those stones? Did you not see the trampled foliage? Did you not notice that those stones had no moss on them?”

The zebra turned around and started trotting down the forest path. As she did she called out.

“Those my little ponies were the things that legends speak of. Some of the greatest rocks of all time. And the those stones in the center were their young in their nest.”

“What kind of rocks were they anyways?” Asked the mushroom hunter.

Zecora stopped and looked back over her shoulder and smiled. “Those my little ponies were the Rolling Stones!”

Death Cap growled in frustration and I just stared dumbfounded at the zebra for several seconds then we took off after her.

To be continued.

Upvotes at import: 93 | Stars at import: 52
Posted previously at: 2019-10-29T19:49:54 | Posted previously by: dontebell