“And we’re sure this is the right way?” Applebaum asks, scratching at the feather tucked into her mane. In front of them stand the aptly named Cliffs of Moderate Psychosis, which have a plethora of hoofholds until you get about halfway up the dizzying heights, and then peter out, or crumble under the pressure, leaving an intrepid climber stranded or worse. She stares up at several columns of stone, each taller than the last, that sprout from a pool of clear water like a series of cups for some drinking game of Trixie’s. It seems like the only way up the solid red wall for earthbound creatures such as they. “Seems a mite… difficult.”

“Their directions haven’t steered us wrong yet,” Totem answers from the edge of the water, watching a squirrel wrestle with a pretty blue-and-white petaled flower.

Applebaum huffs. “You’re just sayin’ that ‘cause you like to get told where to go.” She squats down next to him, washing off the dirt caked onto her hooves. “Come on, wash up.”

Totem dutifully complies. “Hey, if you want to wander around the jungle?” He theatrically looks to the left, then to the right, overgrown trees and vines and underbrush in every direction, and no easier way up the cliff. “Be my guest.”

“And you’d rather ask the squirrels for help,” Applebaum accuses, sticking her tongue out. Her voice raises to a mocking falsetto, “Hey, mister squirrel! Do you know how to get to the Kirin?”

The squirrel chitters madly, tugging at the flower, but can’t uproot it.

“Yeah, that’s what Ah thought.” Applebaum flicks water off her right hoof before hopping to her pack and getting out a few haybars and a bottle. “Hey! Stop helpin’ the squirrel and come get a bite to eat!”

Totem spits the newly cut flower out for the squirrel with an apologetic smile, then scampers over to Applebaum. “You’re just jealous that Arimaspi gal thought I was a hunk.”

“A hunk of meat,” Applebaum retorts, hoofing over a haybar. She ignores how he flexes his muscular foreleg, totally not interested. “Ah bet she was tryin’ to decide if you’d sizzle up better’n that griffon.”

“Mm, makes you wish you got a piece of these flanks!” Totem shakes his tail over Applebaum’s head while she tries to take a bite.

She growls, drops her haybar and tackles him while his back is turned. “Do not!”

“Do too,” he retorts, spinning around and locking limbs.

“You two bicker worse than an old married couple,” Radiant Hope remarks, but there’s mirth behind her smile while she watches the two tumble around.

“Do not,” Applebaum pouts, her lip sticking out. She twists, dropping him to the ground and pinning him on his back.

“We kind of do,” Totem admits, struggling for a moment before giving up and wiggling his eyebrows.

Applebaum sinks a little lower, glaring at Totem. “Do not,” she tries again, but it’s weaker, more sullen. He leans forward to steal a kiss, and she shoves him away to sulkily munch on her haybar, glaring at him.

“Besides,” Totem continues, acting like he won the wrestling match - and, in a sense, he did. “There’s plenty of these flanks to go around.”

“Sorry,” Radiant Hope apologizes, a glimmer of a twinkle in her eye. “That meal didn’t sit well. I’m not sure I could take any part of a stallion right now.”

Applebaum growls at Totem, who looks all too eager to object, only for Tempest Shadow to interrupt.

“Make up later,” the imperious unicorn orders, her own meal complete. She judges the distance from the edge of the water to the first column of stone, which is nearly twice as tall as a pony. She charges and leaps upward, intentionally landing with her barrel against the edge so as to not skitter off the opposite side. She climbs up easily, digs two shallow depressions to brace her back hooves, and turns to the youngsters. “Can you levitate them?”

“Hey, Ah can make it on mah own,” Applebaum contends defiantly. She stretches out her hind legs, the jump nearly four times her height. She finds a mound of dirt slightly higher than the rest, lines herself off, and springs upward. She barely hooks her forelegs over the edge, having to scramble to keep from slipping, and manages to drag herself up without assistance. “See?”

Radiant Hope, though, grimaces. She’s not as athletic as the others, though by no means out of shape. “I might need help.”

Tempest Shadow grumbles, looking up at the rising columns of stone they would need to climb. Slipping on the first one would merely deposit you into the shallow pool, but as they get higher and higher failure becomes much less of an option. “Applebaum, get my legs.” She walks forward and lays down, front hanging off the edge and offering her hooves as Applebaum sits on her outstretched back legs. “Grab hold.”

Radiant Hope frets for a moment before gulping, then jumps forward. It’s awkward with the saddlebags at her side, but that’s true for all of them, and she relies almost entirely on Tempest Shadow hauling her up and climbing on the prone unicorn. A flick of a hoof and Totem follows, the circular rock crowded with all four.

Tempest Shadow gauges their progress with an unhappy sigh. “Applebaum, I’ll boost you up.” When the earth pony opens her mouth to protest she quells it with a firm shake of the head. “Quiet. Be glad I am not throwing you. After you get up, we’ll pass our saddlebags up to you. Then Totem and I will boost Radiant Hope, then Totem, then myself.”

“Sure,” Totem answers, not mattering to him.

Applebaum huffs. “Fine.” She looks up at the red stone. There are plenty of hoofholds, it wouldn’t be that bad. “Ah’ve got some rope packed, too.”

“Good idea,” Tempest Shadow grudgingly admits. She moves to the edge. There is a several foot gap between columns, and the next one is taller than she can leap to by herself. They would need the rope, or a boost, or superb climbing skills in order to progress. “Too bad we don’t have any pegasi.”

Or a unicorn who can levitate her own mass. “Yeah.” Applebaum gulps as she moves to position. Once she gets lifted up, it would be as easy to keep going as risk coming back. She focuses on the next ledge, and where her hooves would end up. “Rarity, my dahm, has a climbing wall in her shop, though she’s got it covered up most of the time.” She gamely keeps her smile from faltering. “Ah wish Ah practiced on it a bit more.”

It’s an odd sensation, being lifted up. It reminds her of when her sire would play Pegasus!, tossing her high up into the air and then catching her before she hit the ground. It’s exhilarating, or at least it was when she was a yearling, and he would mix it up by carrying her around above his head or laying on the ground and letting her ride on his feet as he pumps his legs up and down. Now that she weighs almost as much as him? He can still pick her up and toss her, but just to the second story of a barn, and even that’s a struggle.

The first attempt has plenty of power, nearly too much, and Applebaum easily crests the top. She sighs in relief; the rest of the rocks leading up are much more closely spaced and not nearly as tall. She catches the saddlebags that get tossed to her, pulls the rope out, and lowers it so Radiant Hope has something to grab onto. There isn’t a place to secure the rope, or herself for that matter, so she braces as best she can. Radiant Hope isn’t all that heavy, Totem downright easy, and the three of them chip together to assist Tempest Shadow.

The rest of the climb passes without incident, as though only the first set of steps is necessary to keep out the most easily deterred. After all, anycreature that could leap once, or fly, could just as easily leap again, though the heights do get a bit dizzying.

They get a brief respite before the next stage, the swamp. The canopy is sparser than the jungle below, with far less undergrowth, just the trunks of trees and occasional sapling. Once again, Tempest Shadow’s keen eye spots a cloud of buzzing insects, sure to assault them as soon as they leave the sweltering rocks for cooler shade.

“Ah don’t suppose that insect repellent works on those,” Applebaum asks Radiant Hope, dreading tackling the next section. She sighs when the purple unicorn shakes her head, nearly a pant with her tongue lolling out. “Well, can ya at least tell where they are? Maybe we can avoid ‘em like that.”

“I can try,” Radiant Hope states, concentrating. “It’s mostly to detect parasites inside a pony, how badly they’re infested. The range isn’t all that good.” She points out a section, not terribly confident. “That way seems to have less.”

“Still,” Applebaum encourages, “it’s impressive ya can do it at all!” She takes a swig of her water before donning her saddlebags again. The swamp reminds her of the Canterlot apartment, never a quiet moment, an ever-present drone in her perked-up ears. It feels weird, trampling through muddy water up to their knees when the ocean is a hundred feet below them.

Applebaum jolts at the first nip to her flank. “Ow!” It stings, a lot, enough to make her think Totem bit her. She turns, glaring, to find the colt lagging behind, staring to the side and muttering to himself. Her tail flicks back and forth, trying to sweep away the tiny black dots, but he seems impervious to the annoying bites. “Come on, Totem!”

“Twenty more,” Totem states as he hurries to her side. “To that tree, then we turn to the sun. That’ll get us to the vines.”

“Again with the directions?” Applebaum scowls. “Then let’s go!” She picks up the pace, mud sloshing back and forth and working its way into her coat. “Ah’m sick an’ tired of these A. B. I. O. U. S.’s!”

“Those aren’t the A. B. I. O. U. S.’s,” Totem counters, pointedly staring forward as he comes to a stop. “They aren’t big enough. I don’t think they exist.”

Applebaum rolls her eyes, exasperatedly looking anywhere but the frustrating colt. “Then why…”

She trails off as she spots something lumbering through the swamp. Insectile, not equine like a changeling but nearly as large. At least six armored legs churn the mud, the back half snaking up like a scorpion’s tail. It cleans off vicious mandibles (the kind she doesn’t want to be bit by) with long scythe-like forelegs that remind her of a praying mantis, able to close on themselves to grasp their prey while it devours them. Black, pupil-less eyes turn this way and that, and she has a chilling suspicion that it spots them.

“N-no, you’re right,” Applebaum forces out, picking up her pace even more. She doesn’t care how much it might tire her out; she can see the edge of the swamp and the start of the next wall through the sparse trees. “These little guys? Definitely not the A. B. I. O. U. S.’s. Still, we should go. Come along, Totem.”

He dutifully follows after, Tempest Shadow now far in the lead and impatiently waiting for them to catch up.

“Careful,” Radiant Hope warns as they pass her, breathing hard. “There’s lots of roots hidden in the mud, you wouldn’t want to trip.”

“Ah’m not worried ‘bout roots,” Applebaum states, glancing back. The creature has disappeared, and she has no idea where it could have hidden itself. The biters are back in full force, even with them hurrying along. She waves a foreleg to try to swat them away, buy herself a moment of respite, only to eat her words along with a mouthful of swamp water when she slips on the slick mud.

Her hoof twists under her, pain lancing through her leg, her tortured scream briefly silencing the everpresent buzz. She can’t put any weight on the leg or she might collapse, her muzzle dipping under the water when her good foreleg can’t find purchase on the slick ground.

She sputters, trying to clear her mouth of the foul liquid, flailing around wildly. She can’t breathe, she can’t lift herself up, she’s going to drown in a foot of water, she’s-

A strong leg grabs her around the barrel, hauling her out of the water. She takes a gasping breath, sounds difficult to make out with the water still in her ears. “Hey, I got you,” Totem reassures, holding her up. She swings her bad foreleg around his barrel, hugging as tight as she can.

“What happened?” Radiant Hope demands as she catches up. She moves to inspect the leg draped over Totem’s back. “Where does it hurt?”

“Ah think Ah sprained it,” Applebaum explains, the pain lessening now that she’s not putting weight on it. “But we can’t stop, we gotta keep goin’!”

“I’ll need to immobilize it,” Radiant Hope says, going to her saddlebags. Her horn flares, soothing the worst of the pain. “And wash it off, just to make sure.”

“Not yet,” Tempest Shadow cuts in. She has taken a defensive position at their rear, closely watching something. “It’s not too far to go. But we need to move.”

Applebaum looks back, spotting the mantis from before. The upper half is dropped back and submerged, emotionless black eyes barely visible. Ripples spread as it glides closer. “Hurry!” she screams, pushing as hard as she can with her hind legs.

“Where?” Totem asks, moving enough to keep her upright but otherwise not cooperating.

“There!” Applebaum points to what looks like a dry clearing, more red walls looming ahead, seemingly endless. “Go!”

“Don’t worry,” Totem says as he matches her stride, grinning like there’s nothing chasing them and he’s just happy to hold onto her. “I’m not going to leave you behind!”

“Back!” Tempest Shadow shouts, slamming her hooves into the water. The spray doesn’t seem to deter the incoming mantis at all, but it does draw its attention. She backs up, along with Radiant Hope, easily keeping pace with Totem and Applebaum as they hobble along. She reaches past a set of four obsidian orbs to grab a steel telescoping pole, a necessity for any adventurer, and extends it to the full ten feet. “Stay back!”

Applebaum can’t watch, she has to focus on her hooves and make sure she doesn’t slip again. But she can hear the fighting, the slap of steel against water and chitin and wood, the screech of fury and rage and an echoing summons that rattles her teeth against her skull.

And then, like flipping on a light, they’re out of the swamp and onto a brief stretch of dry ground. It slopes upward for a short bit before going to a hundred foot vertical wall. Her cutie mark throws a fit when she tries to inspect the red stone, telling her that nothing is structurally sound, that any hoofhold is as likely to collapse as to hold her weight.

“Move!” Tempest Shadow bellows as she catches up, not even giving them a second to catch their breath. Radiant Hope struggles after, looking ready to puke, and Applebaum nearly tells her to, if just to give the insects something else to focus on. And there are insects, plural, two healthy while one hobbles forward on three broken legs. Despite all the distractions, Tempest Shadow looks up the solid wall, scanning for any way to get over. “There!”

Applebaum grimaces at the vines Tempest Shadow indicates. They don’t look any better than the wall itself, and she has no idea if she can climb a rope like that, much less with her injured foreleg. She locks in place, not sure what to do, until she again finds herself lifted up and practically punted high up and into the wall.

There would be no landing for her, not without breaking something, so she does the best she can: grab onto the nearest vine with both forelegs, ignores the pain threatening to rip her head apart, and jams her hind hooves into whatever crevasse she can find until it stops crumbling and holds her weight. Finally it holds, but for how long? And, more importantly, how long until those things catch her?

“Come on, Totem!” she bellows, knowing the others wouldn’t be able to get the colt moving just by telling him where to go. “Climb!” She doesn’t trust herself to look down, instead up the remaining seventy feet. Treacherous, the lot of it, and any misstep could easily prove fatal.

She hears the others begin climbing, cursing as bits and pieces of stone clatter on the rocky ground below. They come closer, but so too does the sound of claws stabbing into the rock, their pursuers undaunted.

Then she spots, up at the top, a pair of curly manes, one red and one tan. The Kirin! They’re saved!

Except they’re just standing there, staring out over the edge. Their looks of sheer indifference startle her. That somepony could have so little regard for another equine’s life to watch, uncaring, as they get ripped to shreds, and not lift a hoof or light a horn to help?

Next Chapter: Ch. 104 - Rolling Flames, Part Two Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 31 Minutes