Braeburn's sense of danger was ringing, but he decided to do as the cloaked pony told him and ast down on the chair.

"Good, good. It seems that my offer picked your interest." he said.

"Don't get me wrong, mister. Ah'm not agreein' with anythin' yet! Ah'm just here because ya look a tad suspicious and Ah wanted to make sure yer not lookin' for trouble."

The hooded figure seemed to groan at the word "mister", but it proceeded:

"Anyway, I noticed that your town is having... Food problems! So here's my offer: you help me with a little thing..." a green glow coming from under the hood levitated a bag from under the cloak, placing it on the table. "...you can have this!"

Braeburn cautiously opened the bag; its content made his eyes almost pop out of his eye sockets: bits. Lots and lots of bits. He could almost hear the pony grinning at his reaction. The farmer cleared his throat, recomposing himself.

"This is an awful lot of bits if ya ask me, which leads to the one-million bit - no pun intended - question: what do ya want from me?"

"Oh, nothing much! I just want you to help me with a small task."

"An' what kind o' task is this? Ah mean, if yer offerin' that many bits, it can't be somethin' that simple!"

"As a matter of fact, it is. Are you interested?"

"Ah haven't agreed with anythin' yet, mister."

"STOP CALLING ME 'MISTER'!" the pony suddenly blurted, making Braeburn flinch. It was his - or probably her - turn to clear her throat. "Forgive me for that. I'm actually a female, and it's quite... Offending to be treated as a male!"

"Ah understand, Ah'm sorry. But you still have yet to tell me what is that task!"

"I'm not sharing anything about it unless you agree to help me!"

"And why is that? Is it against the law or somethin'?"

"Rest assured, there is no law forbidding me or you of doing this simple task I want you to do!"

Braeburn crossed his forelegs and closed his eyes, pondering his options. "She is offering a generous amount of bits for a quest that she claims to be 'simple' and 'legal'. Not to say that Appleloosa really needs some monetary help! But, on the other hoof, I have no idea what this task is and she could be lying..."

"I'm waiting, Mr. Braeburn Apple!"

Braeburn groaned and sighed. "Ok, alright! Ah'll help ya! Appleloosa really needs every bit we can get."

"Good, good!"

A green light coming from under the hood illuminated the whole area, forcing Braeburn to cover his eyes with his foreleg.

* * *

Braeburn couldn't open his eyes since they were stinging a little, but he could feel that he wasn't sitting on a wooden chair anymore, but on something soft and very hot. After the stinging was gone and he managed to open his eyes, the apple farmer gasped: he was no longer in an alley, but in the middle of the desert.

"What... How... Why did ya brought me here?!"

"Because you agreed on doing the task. Now follow me!"

"What did Ah agreed to?" he muttered, then sighed before following the cloaked pony - who was probably an unicorn.

After an hour or so following the cloaked unicorn mare, the applebucker was feeling tired. He was a fit stallion, but an hour walking on the desert under Celestia's sun, even though it was almost sunset, can be very tiring. He was surprised that the pony wasn't showing any signs of fatigue. She finally stopped when they reached a rock, almost as large as a mountain. At the foot of the rock was a smaller - yet still larger and taller than both of them - rock, strangely shaped like a griffin's talon.

"We're here!"

"An' where exactly is 'here'?"

"The place where you're carrying the task!"

"So, am Ah supposed to break stones or somethin'?"

"You will soon understand."

She approached the talon-shaped rock and the green glow appeared again. She was also muttering some words Braeburn couldn't understand. Suddenly the sky grew darker, even though there were no clouds on it and the sun had yet to go down. The ground started shaking, making Braeburn lose his balance. He then noticed the rock started raising like a real talon, revealing a small stone with a metal lid.

"Now here's where your task starts. I'm opening that passage and you're going in. Don't touch anything! You will wander through darkness for a while, - don't touch anything, by the way - but soon you will reach the most beautiful of the gardens. No matter what, don't touch the trees, bushes, not even the grass. Stay on the dirt path. You will find there some sort of crypt filled with lit oil lamps, with the sole exception of one. I want you to bring me that one! Don't touch anything else!"

"Huh, seems simple enough. What's the catch?"

"There's no 'catch'."

"Then why don'tcha go in there and grab that lamp yerself? What's so special about that lamp, anyway?"

"It's none of your business!" the green glow surrounded the lid and lifted it. Braeburn heard the mare groan, a sign that either the lid was heavier than it looked or it was a magical lid that was draining her magic.

"Ok, Ah'm goin' in!"

"O-One more thing." she said. From under her cloak, some sort of bracelet was levitated and clamped around Braeburn's left hoof. "Th-This will protect you from the dangers in there!"

"Wait a minute! Dangers?"

He didn't heard the hooded pony's reply, for there wasn't one, since she magically pushed him into the well.

"WHOOOOOOAAAAA!" he screamed as he fell, until he hit the ground, which was strangely made of pure stone, with no signs of sand anywhere. "Ow..."

"Now hurry up!" she said. "I can't keep this open forever!"

"But in here is dark as--" a lit torch fell in front of him. "Well, that solves the problem." the apple farmer grabbed the torch with his teeth and followed the path, a straight way downward. The torch couldn't illuminate much of the tunnel, but it helped a little.

The tunnel somehow seemed to grow darker and darker with every step Braeburn took. But soon the darkness started to fade and a bright light appeared on the end of the tunnel. When he reached the light, he couldn't keep his jaw shut and dropped the torch.

"She wasn't kiddin' when she called it 'the most beautiful of the gardens'..." he said as he strolled through the garden, which was full of fruit trees, had a few fountains and gems on the walls of the cave the garden was located. On the other end of the garden was the crypt the cloaked pony mentioned. Braeburn approached it and opened the stone doors of it. The inside of it had several oil lamps, illuminating what seemed to be coffins. The apple farmer looked around, searching for one that wasn't lit. It took a while, but he finally spotted it, on top of a gold pedestal with gems hanging from it. The lamp was black with white lines on it. With a smile, Braeburn grabbed it with his teeth. "Now to get this back to her and go home!"

Braeburn turned around and trotted toward the exit of the crypt, but he failed to notice his tail getting awfully close to a lit lamp, setting his tail on fire. He felt his flank growing hotter and hotter and turned his head to check what was happening.

"WHOA NELLY!" he shouted between his clamped teeth around the black lamp when he noticed his tail on fire. Braeburn started to jump, roll, squirm, sending all the other lamps flying. He left the crypt and jumped in a nearby fountain, sighing in relief when he heard the sound of fire being put out. His relief disappeared the moment he felt the whole cave shaking. "Whoa Nelly again." he jumped out of the fountain and ran back to the tunnel. He left the torch behind for two reasons: first, his mouth was already busy, carrying the lamp. Second, the path was a pretty straight line, so he wouldn't really need it.

"You touched something, didn't you?!" the hooded pony shouted when Braeburn reached the exit. The lid of the well was almost closed and, if he wanted to get out, the pony would have to squeeze through the gap. "After all my warnings, you went and touched something!!"

"It wasn't mah fault! Mah tail caught on fire, Ah had to put it out somehow."

"Still, you didn't followed the orders I gave you!! You betrayed me!! You ponies are all the same!!"

"You ponies? What do ya mean?"

The "pony" removed her hood, finally revealing her face: her coat - which had no fur and looked more like an exoskeleton - was black, her horn was twisted and longer than an average pony's, her eyes were green and her pupils were slits, like the ones of a cat. She had a green mane, which had a few holes on it, with a black crown on top of it. She also had two fangs in her mouth.

"Yer a... A Strangeling?!"

"Changeling!!" she corrected. "But it doesn't matter. I'm focusing all my magic on keeping this open, and if I levitated you up here, the lid would close for sure. So throw the lamp up here, now!"

"Like hay Ah will! Ya take me with it, or ya get no lamp!"

"You foal! The only way to get you out of there would be through teleportation, but the cave blocks unicorn magic! And Changeling magic too, since they're very similar."

"Then yer gettin' no lamp, missy!"

"Give it to me. Now!"

"No!"

She groaned. "Your life ended the moment you betrayed Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, stupid pony! Sadly this cave will remain sealed for a whole month, but this is just an inconvenient postponing to me. Can you survive that long until I return for you?"

With a laughter, she let her magic go of the lid, sealing earth pony inside the well.

Author's Note

Sometimes I ship couples that aren't exactly "conventional". Well, that's because I like to think outside the box! Also, I like the idea of multiple dimensions where villains are heroes, heroes are villains, and unusual couples get along! LONG LIVE THE MULTIVERSE!
Also, two chapters in a day? I'm spoiling you guys! :3