Misadventures of a Henchpony

by Big Saij

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Slice of Life, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character
Length: 53397

After finally saving enough money to buy his dream house, a simple (definitely literate) pony finds himself tied up with much more than he bargained for.

The pony known as Jungle Trek hasn't had the luckiest life so far. Being born in the Tenochtitlan Basin far from the oversight of Canterlot, his "adventures" have consisted of bouncing from one occupation to another, holding himself together while other foals did things like "make friends" or "get an education". Well, Jungle needs none of those things, when he has bits instead!

...Okay, maybe working for Doctor Caballeron isn't exactly a dream job. It does pay well and the archeological stunts are always exciting, but Jungle needs a break from all that. That's why he has his eyes on a new house all for himself, located in a nice, small village called Ponyville. With a full bag of bits in tow, he's ready to start a new life, one far more peaceful than constant trap-dodging and fighting Daring Do.

After all, Ponyville can't have anything special or strange about it to pull him into more adventures, right?

...Right?

Published 2021-09-11 07:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-11-30 16:00:01 UTC

Daring Do Not

The pebble I kicked rattled as it landed in the can, giving me a score of twelve.

My success at the game that I had created gave me a slight sense of pride, though it was quickly replaced by the ever-consuming boredom that had made up the past hour. Sighing, I trotted over to grab the pebble out of the can before walking back and starting to kick again.

Many ponies assumed that the henchpony life was exciting. That we got to aid our employers in their nefarious schemes, fight off the valiant heroes inside collapsing temples, engage in exciting banter with each other as plans came to fruition.

In truth, that was only a small part of the job. Most of the time we sat here, waiting for the next artifact to hunt down or the next adventurer to combat. In my case, it was playing guard duty at base camp while Doctor Caballeron and the other henchponies went out to raid Daring Do's hideout.

I saw it coming, since this has always been the case when we have to set up camp here in the Tenochtitlan Basin. Biff was his second-in-command so he always went along with the Doctor, Rogue was the hired muscle so in jobs like these he was necessary, and I was fairly certain by now that they liked Withers because he had cool shades. So that left me here, sitting here to make sure our supplies weren't stolen by the natives or common thieves.

Taking the job had its perks, I guess. I got to eat hay whenever I got hungry, lay on an actual cot whenever I got tired, and even got some shelter on the off chance that it rained. But sources of entertainment were not a part of our essentials, so I had to make do with whatever the area around us gave me. In this case, it was a tin can and some rocks.

Yay. One of my favorite games.

Times like these were why I had plans, however. Big ones. The kinds of plans that usually the Doctor thought of. Back down the hill, in the place I was renting in town, I had a large amount of bits stockpiled. And after this job, I would finally have enough to pursue my dream.

It was quite fortunate that I got paid well in that regard. We even got bonuses if we actually were successful in our plans to auction off valuable artifacts. When Doctor Caballeron was in a good mood, he could be quite generous with the earnings. Those moments had become much harder ever since we crossed paths with Daring Do, though. Ever since he had gotten his offer to team up with her turned down, his annoyance with the rival treasure hunter only grew, especially when he had thrown in with Ahuizotl and still lost.

Huh. I guess that was why he had taken up the job to find the last "Ring of Scorchero" so easily. Ahuizotl had said that Daring Do was in possession of it, and offered quite a hefty sum in return. It did take a bit of searching to find her abode, but now I was sure that we would finally get our hooves on that ring.

And speak of the Nightmare. Out of the bushes walked the Doctor himself along with my fellow henchponies. And judging by the large golden ring he was carrying, my assumption had been correct. "So we got it?" I asked, motioning towards the artifact.

"Indeed," Caballeron replied before looking up at the setting sun. "However, it seems we are too late to meet with our buyer today."

Turning my attention to the other three who had arrived, I noticed that all of them had taken quite the beating. Withers himself had a large bruise forming on his face. "Daring Do give you trouble?" He nodded, wincing from the pain. "Told you I should have come with."

"Nonsense, we got the ring just fine," Caballeron dismissed. "Now, let us eat. Tomorrow, we become rich!"

Making my way back to the ration setup, I dragged the hay bales out to the center of the camp. Wordlessly, we all started digging into dinner, with myself having the decency of taking off my hat before chowing down.

Oh right, my hat. It was probably my most valuable possession, along with my forest-green vest. Many ponies confused it with Daring Do's pith hat, and though it did have the same color, the key difference was that mine had a brown stripe running along the base of the dome and nothing else. It was a gift from an old friend, somepony I had lost contact with long ago.

Yes, I know, taking off my hat isn't exactly the shining beacon of courtesy when eating. But I wasn't raised in a particularly civilized part of Equestria, so practicing my dining habits wasn't very high on my list of importance.

What was high on that list was noticing ponies watching me eat from the bushes. And there a pony was, stepping out of them and dropping a single bag at their hooves. The sound of bits clinking against each other immediately got all our attention as we stared at the massive amount of wealth in front of us, hay still in our muzzles.

"I have been lead to believe you have in your possession an item of significant importance that might be... for sale," the newcomer said. They had a beard that looked like it had seen better days, a crushed hat, and an oddly familiar vest, mane and tail. The pegasus wings and coat color were coming up in my memory as well for some reason.

That, of course, didn't stop me or the others from rushing forward to greet the wealthy pony, grins plastered on all our faces. The last two words they had said shook the Doctor out of his stupor, as he looked back and forth with his ears slightly drooped.

"Oh, uh, well. I did have another buyer lined up but he's not here, so... sounds like we have a deal!" And just like that, he stretched his hoof out to who I could only assume was an archeologist or explorer of some sort, the ring hanging from it. Us henchponies looked on in surprise. That was it? No haggling, no negotiating, just a plain and simple deal for bits?

Unfortunately, no. Things were never that simple. A guttural and primal roar sounded from the jungle, making us all flinch and scaring Biff's hat right off his head. Like the epitomes of bravery we were, all of us quickly ran into the bushes while Doctor Caballeron was stuck shivering in place, the ring still dangling from his hoof. We watched from the sidelines, collectively deciding to cheer him on from a safe distance.

The sound of trees crashing came closer until a familiar monster emerged above the two ponies. Ahuizotl, our current employer. "CABALLERON!" he yelled, giving an intimidating glare at the stallion, "THE RING!"

His tail, a third paw at the end of it extended itself towards the Doctor, but he was having none of it. Apparently regaining his survival instincts, he grabbed the bag of bits and ran for the treeline where we were all hiding, and dropping the ring behind him.

As soon as he passed us, we all followed close behind with our tails between our legs, galloping even faster when we heard another, even greater enraged roar behind us. All of us only stopped when we collectively ran out of stamina, panting as we desperately looked back to see if we were getting chased. But fortunately, there was nothing but the oppressive darkness of the jungle.

"Well," Doctor Caballeron started, returning to his confident tone and posture, "at least we have our payment." He lifted the bag of bits in one hoof, clearly excited at the future prospects that it entailed.

I, however, clearly being the brains of the group, rubbed my chin with a hoof. "But what about Ahuizotl? He's the one who always pays us, and I don't think he's too happy with us bailing like that..."

We all thought about that for a moment. "Excellent point," the Doctor finally stated. "So, you have volunteered to go and negotiate our next... payment."

"What? No, I-" But it was already too late, as everypony was staring at me expectantly. Absolutely wonderful. This was just proof that thinking was clearly overrated. "Fine, I'll go to the Fortress of Talacon and "negotiate". But I expect a bonus for this!"

No response from Caballeron. I didn't expect one anyway. Sighing, I turned and slowly started the long trip back to the temple.

This was the exact reason I wanted to settle down...

"Halt!" The stallion, one of the natives armed with a spear pointed it at me as I tried to enter the temple complex. "None may disturb the sacred ceremony!"

I rolled my eyes. Ahuizotl and his ceremonies. Wouldn't it just be easier to do whatever he needed to and be done with it? "I'm Jungle Trek, working for Caballeron," I explained, wanting to waste as little time as possible on idle chatter. "You know, he collaborates with your boss? Ahuizotl? I've been sent to meet with him."

The guard eyed me suspiciously before moving to allow me entry. "Very well, second corridor on the right. Do not enter the central chamber. He will meet you in the hallway."

"Thank you." Trotting into the fortress, I looked around at the ancient stone carving while I walked. There were lines of images and carvings on some of the bricks; words in an ancient language, no doubt. I made no attempt to try and decipher them since they would have been just as useless to me written in Ponish.

Not one of the things I'm particularly proud of.

Once I reached the second hallway that the native had mentioned, I heard the faint sound of familiar maniacal laughter approaching. That was good. If Ahuizotl was in a good mood, there was less chance that I would be thrown into whatever traps he had planned for Daring Do. If there was a time to negotiate, it would be now.

Rounding the corner, there he was. The beast of the basin himself. Stopping once he saw me, Ahuizotl drew himself up to his full height in a clear attempt to intimidate me. "What are you doing here?" he asked threateningly.

I, while feeling very intimidated and threatened, continued regardless. "Caballeron sent me to negotiate our next job and payment. While he understands that you now have the last Ring of Scorchero, surely there are other artifacts that you wish to gain, or perhaps regain from Daring Do?" The lines included some of my best strategies, like saying I was speaking for someone else to shift blame and trying to lay anger at somepony else. In this case there was an easy target.

Ahuizotl thought for a second. "Hm, Daring Do still has the stolen Sapphire Statue... very well! We shall speak after I finish the ring placing ceremony. Wait here!"

"Of course," I answered, moving out of the way to let him pass. He was very scary. But he was also surprisingly smart, and that meant that I didn't have to worry about betrayal of some sort now. He didn't seem like the type to do that, anyhow.

That wasn't important now, though. What was is that now I got to partake in my favorite activity of all time once more. Truly ponies would stand in line all day just to have moments of what I was about to experience. Surely even the Princesses did this from time to time.

Waiting.

I sat down against one of the temple walls, my legs sore from all the walking. The distance wasn't too far to reach the fortress, but by Celestia the terrain was a nightmare. I must have tripped at least seven times. Having nothing to do was usually bad, but in this case I actually did appreciate the opportunity to just relax and take in the cool air.

...I'm not sure which deity I offended in my life, because they just were not content to let me get off at all.

Two pairs of hoofsteps were getting rapidly louder and louder. Stumbling, I quickly got back up through the soreness and readied myself. More natives? Adventures? Perhaps just some tourists who were in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Nope, it was worse than all three of those combined.

Daring Do came barreling down the hall, stopping only a few feet away once she had noticed me. A cyan, rainbow maned pegasi was close behind, hovering above the ground. Both were looking at me, and I stared back.

"Oh great, another one of Caballeron's goons," Daring Do remarked. "We don't have time for this, we need to get to the ceremony!"

I looked behind me, then back at the two. "No way, I'm not getting beaten by you again!" I readied myself into a fighting stance, remembering all the hoof-to-hoof combat methods I had learned just for this moment. "You're going down, Daring Do!"

She only rolled her eyes before dashing towards me, slamming my face with a swift uppercut. I flew upwards, gaining at least three feet of air before slamming back onto the stone floor, the wind knocked out of me. "Ouch..." I was barely able to wheeze out.

"Ha, that was awesome!" I heard an unfamiliar voice say. Must have been the rainbow one. What was she, some sort of Daring Do fanmare? A wave of blue rushed past me as Daring Do just walked past like I was nothing. Gathering what remained of my energy, I was just able to grab onto one of her hind hoofs.

She politely responded by bucking me in the face.

Getting hit in the muzzle with a stone is not how I wanted to wake up. By alarm clock standards, it was probably on the lower end of my preferred methods.

I still appreciated it two seconds later, however, when I saw that the entire temple was shaking.

"Oh n- I GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Scrambling onto all four hooves, I started galloping back the way I had originally came before I had gotten un-consensually knocked out via buck. Shards of stone fell all around me, forcing me to swerve more than once before I reached the end.

A group of five colorful mares went right past me, clearly too busy making their escape to give me any sort of attention. I looked after them, then back the way they came. And there they were.

The Rings of Scorchero. All laid haphazardly around the altar, where Ahuizotl was attempting to grab Daring Do and the rainbow mare who were flying out through the ceiling, all while the natives ran around fearing for their lives. Acting on instinct, I grabbed the ring closest to me, which was fortunately one of the smaller ones, and put it on, letting it hang on my neck. Then, once again demonstrating my status as a paragon of bravery and heroism, I immediately turned tail and ran for my life, just barely making it out of the front entrance sheer milliseconds before the entire structure collapsed in on itself.

As the ponies I had seen earlier along with Daring Do and her "sidekick" made their escape, I saw Ahuizotl from the corner of my eye emerge from the rubble and shake a paw at them. "DARING DO! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!"

Yep, I had overstayed my welcome. Time to leave. With no time to rest, I continued galloping away from the now-ruined fortress, not stopping until I had gotten far back into the thick jungles of the Tenochtitlan Basin. Only then did I take off my prize and admire it.

Definitely solid gold. Also completely useless for its intended purpose according to legend now that the temple had collapsed. Could still fetch a fair price on the market, with the right bidder. My first thought was to take it back to Doctor Caballeron, but then I stopped. Wasn't I going to semi-retire anyway? Why not take a nice memento along with me? Nopony could stop me, all I needed to do was grab my belongings back in town, leave a note telling the Doctor where I was going to be, and that was it. He didn't have to know that I pilfered one of the rings.

And just like that, my mind was made. Stuffing the artifact into my saddlebag, I tilted my hat downwards, imagined myself as looking really cool and adventurer-like, and then started the long walk back towards town. And believe me, it was just as annoying as the first trip from camp.

I'll spare you the details of what happened during it. Describing my completely uneventful trek through the Basin would honestly be a waste of words. Suffice to say that I returned to the familiar sight of buildings and ponies unharmed, albeit even more tired than usual. After getting to the local inn and nodding to the innkeeper, I half-walked, half-stumbled up the stairs until I reached my room and flopped down onto the comfort of an actual bed.

So that was it. My last adventure. Within my nightstand, in the bottom drawer was a bag containing at least a hundred bits, all towards the projects that I had dreamed of.

Finally owning a real house.

After past me had undergone much deliberation, I had picked out the nice village of Ponyville. There was a house for sale there that I had scouted out and found to be quite peaceful, quaint and affordable. The deal had been struck with the previous owner, and now all that was needed was the payment.

Honestly, it could not come fast enough. I was tired, and not just in the sense from all the running and walking and getting beat up. I wanted to move on, start a new chapter in my life, find a new calling instead of just being a henchpony for Doctor Caballeron. I owed him a lot for taking me in for the job, so I would certainly help him out when he needed me, but not having to worry about the animals or vicious plants or the risk of Daring Do would do wonders for my lifestyle. And my health.

The name Jungle Trek would finally be something other than a footnote in the adventures of a mare. He could finally be somepony. Somepony with a peaceful, benign life.

I mean, how hectic could Ponyville really be?

Welcome to Ponyville

"Well, here I am."

Ponyville. I had already visited once before, searching the little town quite extensively to find the home I was looking for. Still, it was always surprising to see just how quaint and friendly the village looked. It was picturesque, almost looking like a scene on a postcard. Ponies of all three races walked and talked on the streets, idly going about their day completely carefree. It was beautiful, peaceful and fresh.

Fresh for a pony used to the oppressive humidity and constant danger of the southern jungles, at least.

But still, this was it. The change of pace I was waiting for. The bill had been paid, the house was already set up and furnished, and I had the key tucked in my saddlebag. As soon as I took my first step across the bridge over the river flowing just a few hoofsteps away, a new life would begin. Closing my eyes and waiting a few seconds for imagined dramatic effect, I reached out my hoof and put it down in front of me.

"Hiya!"

"Wha- AAAAA!"

I opened my eyes again to see a pink pony staring me right back in the face, causing me to jump at least five feet in the air backwards. "Who are you?" I asked, blinking.

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" She rushed up to shake my hoof, doing it so violently that my entire body went up and down along with it. "I'm so excited that you're moving to Ponyville! I always throw a party for everypony new who comes here, but I guess this is your second visit here so I'll have to throw you your "Second Visit to Ponyville" party instead!"

Pausing her rapid, energetic speaking, I narrowed my eyes a bit. "How did you know I already came here? I don't remember seeing you around last time."

"Well of course not, silly! I was in the Crystal Empire with Twilight, Cadence and Shining Armor! But my Pinkie Sense told me that someone new was in Ponyville so I was ready to throw a party when I came back but you were already gone so I had to wait until now for you to come back!"

"So you're throwing a party... just for me?"

Pinkie nodded her head with a smile, one so infectious that it even made me start to smile along with her. "Tonight at Twilight's place! It's the big tree at the center of Ponyville!" She pointed with a hoof down the street, where the lush green top of said tree could just be seen over the roofs. "I have to get everything ready now and send the invitations so I'll see you there! Bye!"

Just as quickly as the mare had come, Pinkie Pie sped off, becoming a blur for just a moment before disappearing around a corner into town.

"A party, huh?" I thought to myself. "Probably not the kind I'm used to, but it would be nice to meet the neighbors... sure, why not? Should definitely get my things settled in my house first, though."

There was something else that was incredibly familiar about that extraordinary pony, but I couldn't place my hoof on it. Had I seen her in the past few days? Maybe she had been a tourist visiting town back in Tenochtitlan. A lot of them were also easily excitable and energetic, so she would have fit right in.

She brought those terms to a whole new level, though...

Oh well. Even if I had seen her before, I just wanted to put everything from the past behind me. She wasn't the "normal" that I had in mind, but if one crazy pony was the price I had to pay for a lifetime of peace, then I would gladly take it. As long as we weren't actual neighbors. If she threw a party next door every single time a new pony walked into Ponyville, I would probably lose my sanity faster than I would prefer.

Anyway, that was enough time wasting. Continuing my formerly-abandoned trot forward, I pushed onwards into the town of Ponyville, following cloudy memories of my past visit towards my new home. The party wasn't going to be until sundown if Pinkie was to be believed, so I still had plenty of time before then. For now, settling in and getting my belongings sorted was my primary objective.

Eventually, the road opened up to a more open courtyard, where a small market had been put up. I walked through and observed the ponies as they went about their day, buying produce and other such products. I saw an orange earth pony and a yellow filly selling apples across the corner. A white unicorn and a butterscotch pegasus idly talking. Everything was just so... normal? Standard? Whatever it was, it set me on edge. I expected something terrible to happen any second, for some accident to occur that would send the carefully constructed order into complete chaos.

And yet I made it to the other side without a single piece of trouble. Wow. It was legitimately refreshing. I wasn't a pony to let my guard down; doing so in the Tenochtitlan Basin was a surefire way to meet an unfortunate fate. Here, though, I was finally unwinding, my hooves and body becoming less tense. Everypony around me acted like I was already a friend, waving a hoof while saying hello or giving a polite nod. I even waved back a few times, losing myself in the crowd until before I even realized it, I was at my destination.

My house was like any other in Ponyville, completely unremarkable. Thatched roofing, wooden frame, and a tan color that matched that of my pith hat. Grabbing my key from my saddlebags, I unlocked the front door and made my way inside.

The term "barren" would be putting it mildly. Other than the bare necessities, like a table, chairs and such, the rooms were completely empty. A staircase led upwards to the second floor, which I remembered contained a bathroom and the bedroom. The bed in it came free, thank Celestia, so I didn't have to worry about that.

Time to get started. Grabbing the bag which contained the rest of my hard-earned bits, I opened the most nondescript cabinet I could find in the house and stuffed it inside. Then I put the remaining rations I had from the trip, mostly canned foods into the kitchen drawers, along with my one set of utensils, my single plate, and dinner cloth. A ball I liked to play with to kill time I placed on the center table along with my hat. Finally, I took out my Ring of Scorchero and hung it from the far wall as an ancient decoration of sorts.

And done. Wow, that was a lot more depressingly short than I thought it would be. First thing tomorrow, I was definitely going to go out and buy some new furniture or something. Hopefully that would help quell the crippling feelings of loneliness that were now rapidly encroaching as I sat down alone in my chair.

"You're not alone, silly! I'm here!"

I fell out of my chair backwards upon seeing Pinkie Pie sitting across the table from me, slamming onto the floor. I could have sworn that she wasn't there a second ago... "What... how did you get in here, Pinkie?" I asked, still groaning from the pain and shock of my harsh landing.

"I came in through the door!" I traced the path from the pointing pink hoof to the door, which was left wide open. Had I forgotten to close it when I walked in? Huh. That was a real safety hazard, I guess I would have to be more careful about closing and locking doors behind me. Not that the party pony's uninvited entrance was entirely unwelcome.

"Okay, so what are you doing here?"

Pinkie came over and extended a hoof to help me up as she spoke. "To get you for your 'Second Visit to Ponyville' party, of course!"

I blinked. Looking out the window, I did in fact see that the sun was already setting over the horizon, creating a brilliant display of vibrant oranges and greyish-blues. "Well, that was conveniently fast," I said aloud to nopony in particular.

"Are you coming?" The other earth pony was bouncing up and down like a spring, the excitement plastered on her face as obvious as the fact that she was pink. I sighed with a slight smile before grabbing my hat off the table I had placed it on when I sat down. "Ooooh, nice hat!"

I nodded politely as we both walked out of my house, double-checking to make sure the door was locked this time. "It has... sentimental value to me. This old thing has saved my flank more times than I can count."

"Just like Daring Do's hat?"

I stopped in my tracks and stared at Pinkie. How did she know about Daring Do? We were fairly far away from the fringes of Equestrian civilization, where most of her adventures were. Maybe word has just gotten around? Yes, it was probably just the work of rumor-spreading, that was it. Satisfied with my own explanation, I lightly shook my head around to get focused again and continued my trot. "You could say that."

"Cool!" The silence that followed was extremely awkward, and strangely uncharacteristic to the pony I had seen and heard for the day. It was so strange that I didn't even notice when she stopped in front of me, and ended up tripping over her hind hooves and falling flat on my face. "We're here!"

After getting back up again and rubbing the end of my face with a hoof, I looked up at the large tree before us. Next to it was a sign that had both a picture of an open book and a few words that I couldn't make out, but assumed was something along the lines of 'library'. "So... Your friend Twilight lives in the town library?" I asked, confused.

"Yep! If there's a book you need, she's got it! Ooooh, that reminds me!" Pinkie reached into her fuzzy mane and pulled out a brightly colored book. "I need to return 'A Frosting Guide for Dummies' to Twilight!" Her eyes widened. "Wait, but I also forgot to go get the cake! Here, you can give Twilight the book for me while I go back to the bakery!" She all but shoved the hardcover literature into my hooves before galloping off in the opposite direction from where we came, quickly becoming a pink dot before going out of sight.

A brief period of standing dumbfounded appeared before my brain kicked itself back into action. I faced the library again, giving myself a quick few words of reassurance ('It's a library, I'm sure that the party will be nice and orderly') before taking a deep breath and opening the front door.

While I have been wrong many times in my life as a pseudo-adventurer, this particular moment goes close to the top of the list.

The party was in full swing already, with what seemed like the entire population of Ponyville in attendance. Music was being played from somewhere I couldn't see while ponies danced along to the beat, while others just talked with one another in pairs or groups. Pegasi flew around, doing aerobatic stunts or simply using their wings to avoid pushing through the crowd. There was even free food and drinks, with cupcakes, soda and what looked like hot sauce on the table.

Relief was not what I was feeling. Neither was disappointment, which was surprising. I just felt confused. This party was nothing like I had hoped, but also nothing like I had feared. It wasn't going to be a boring formal party, but it was certainly larger than I anticipated. I blinked once, twice, a third time. Then, having regained basic motor control, I trotted over to the back of the room with the bookshelves.

Standing there, looking frantically at all the booked stored was a single purple pony, who I assumed was a pegasus from the wings. "Spike!" she called out, "did you find it yet?"

"No, Twilight!" a voice from upstairs answered back.

Ah, so this was the "Twilight" that Pinkie had told me about. Not wanting to wait around trying to get her attention the hard way, I just cleared my throat loudly. "So you must be Twilight. Pinkie told me to..."

My voice faded as she turned to face me, her horn now in full view. Oh boy. A horn and wings. That only meant one thing. As my higher mental faculties began shutting down, my voice was left stuttering. "To... to..."

The alicorn just sighed. "What did Pinkie do this time? Unless it has something to do with my missing book, I'm a little busy!"

I mentally kicked myself in the flank. Get yourself together, Jungle! You can't let your brain fall apart whenever you see a Princess! I tried to find my vocal footing again. "Actually, uh... she told me to return this copy of-"

The book I had been holding up got snatched out of my hoof as Twilight practically forgot my existence. "A Frosting Guide for Dummies! Finally, I had been looking for this for hours! Pinkie really needs to learn to ask before borrowing a book..." Turning back to me, she gave a slight smile. "Sorry about that. So, what are you doing around here?"

"I'm actually moving into Ponyville. This is my 'Second Visit to Ponyville' party." In that moment I felt really proud of myself for actually remembering what the party was called. Maybe my memory was actually improving!

Twilight's smile turned sheepish. "Oh! And I haven't even introduced myself! Sorry about that. I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship!"

"And I'm Jungle Trek..." Quickly, I tried thinking of some sort of fancy title I could strap on to the end as well. "...Explorer and Adventurer!"

The Princess raised an eyebrow. "Really? Where did you explore?"

Well, there was no harm in telling her half the truth. "Tenochtitlan Basin. Lots of jungle out there, you know."

She nodded along with me. "Yeah, my friends and I went there just a few days ago. You should try talking with Rainbow Dash sometime! She loves the Daring Do books, maybe you could tell her about your adventures too!"

"Hey Twilight, who're you talking to?"

My blood ran cold. I recognized that voice. Silently, I begged to the sun, the moon, Twilight, and anypony else who could have heard my prayers that it wasn't who I thought it was. It wasn't usually my style, but there's a first time for everything.

In this case, apparently beginner's luck was not on my side.

"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash! I was just talking with our new neighbor, Jungle Trek! He's an explorer in Tenochtitlan." As Twilight spoke, I mentally tried telling her to shut it. Without my mouth to use as a communication device though, it was extremely ineffective.

Rainbow Dash turned to stare at me. "Cool," she said absentmindedly, seeming to be more focused on my outfit. "You look familiar... have we met before?"

I had heard somewhere before that there was a three-step process to not looking suspicious. Step one was playing it cool. Don't lose your composure, don't lose your temper. And most of all, don't- and I was already sweating. Great. Step two, don't just stand still and stare... I'll get to that one later. Step three, craft a believable and relevant alibi. Now that was something I could do.

Grasping at straws, I said the first thing that I could remember. It was heretical, it was something I would hate myself later for, and it was absolutely going to bite me in the flank at some point, but to me at that moment it was the only way out.

"We might have at a Daring Do event. I'm a big fan."

Several seconds ticked by in silence as we stared at each other.

"Well why didn't you say so?" Rainbow Dash flew over and threw a hoof around me, acting like we were already best friends. "I know A. K. Yearling, you know, and I got the next book a week before anyone else! Twilight already asked to borrow it after I'm done reading it, but you can totally have it after her if you want!" The mare continued droning on as I tuned out, only being brought back to reality when she was interrupted by somepony else.

"Who's your new friend, Dash?" Whoever was speaking had a violent country twang. When I looked, I saw an orange earth pony with a stetson approaching, alongside a yellow pegasus and white unicorn. I recognized these ponies instantly, which was a nice change; they were the ponies I had seen earlier today in the marketplace.

Using this opportunity to get some distance from Rainbow, I put my full attention on the newcomers. "Name's Jungle Trek," I answered simply, giving a tip of my hat. The orange one tipped back, and I immediately began to like her.

"Applejack. Pleasure to meet you. This here's Rarity-" she pointed at the unicorn "-and Fluttershy. So, this your 'Welcome to Ponyville' party?"

I nodded. "Well, technically it's the 'Second Visit' party, but pretty much." My mind went back to seeing Applejack at the apple stall. "So, you run the apple business around here?"

"Eyup. Me and the Apple Family run Sweet Apple Acres outside of town. You should stop by sometime, we're always happy to have visitors!"

So she was a country farmer and hospitable. Huh. Something told me that Applejack and I were going to be close friends fast.

The front door slammed open, causing me to jump. "I'm baaaack!" Pinkie sang as she wheeled in a cake behind her. It was double-layered, colored the exact shade of blue as my coat with reddish frosting that matched my mane.

"I only got here like an hour ago, how did she..." I got a look from Twilight that said "don't question it", and I wisely decided to listen.

Pinkie, meanwhile, had gotten out a large cake-cutting knife and was hoofing out slices on plates she was procuring from her fuzzy mane and tail. Pinkie was just gonna Pinkie, I guess. Twilight trotted up to her, levitating the plate offered onto the table so she wasn't distracted.

"Pinkie, as much as I love you reading books, you have to let me know before you borrow one from the library! Do you have any idea how long Spike and I were looking for it?"

The party pony just gave a small giggle. "Sorry Twilight, but I really really really needed it, and both of you were gone! I did leave a note where I took it, though!"

"A note? Where did you..." Twilight trailed off as she finally noticed the big poster on the wall that read "BORROWED BOOK, WILL RETURN. -PINKIE". "How did I not notice that earlier..."

"Because you were too busy looking for the book, silly!" Pinkie put the final piece of cake on a plate and held it out to me. "Here, Jungle! ...Uh, Jungle?"

I could faintly hear her offering the cake, but I was too busy staring at all the ponies arranged in front of me. The six of them, all close to each other talking had finally sparked my memory on why more than three were so familiar. I had seen them before, and not just in the marketplace, or in a good way.

These ponies were the ones I had seen at the Fortress of Talacon. They lived here in Ponyville. The group also included the pony who had watched me get absolutely trounced, and would probably do it again herself if she figured out who I was. And now I was moving into the exact same village with all of them and would probably see them every day for as long as I lived.

I took the plate in hoof and quickly had a bite of cake. It was delicious, but the flavor barely distracted me from the one thought running through my head over and over again.

...Why can't anything be easy?

Return to the Castle

"Thanks again for helping me move all these books to the Canterlot Library, Jungle. I tried asking around Ponyville for help and you were the first pony who wasn't busy!"

I gave a grunt in response as I lugged a massive stack of dusty tomes onto a wagon, where dozens of their kin were already stacked. "No... problem... I have nothing to do these days anyway..."

The labored panting made Twilight pause and look over at me in concern. "Are you alright? You know its fine to take a break, right?"

"Yeah," I responded, waving a hoof, "I know. Just uh, give me a minute or two to catch my breath."

So, this wasn't exactly how I was planning to spend my first few days in Ponyville. However, after said past days, I could comfortably say that being out in the Castle of the Two Sisters, in the middle of the Everfree Forest, helping move books with the Princess of Friendship was just another Tuesday for a Ponyvillian. The last few days were hectic.

Applejack had become a regular in my schedule, usually at the apple stall in the market whenever I was out for lunch or buying food. Her honest attitude and hard-working personality were refreshing, especially after almost all of the ponies I had known in my life weren't actually known for possessing those traits. She had introduced me to her little sister, Apple Bloom, who had starting asking about my cutie mark. I had explained that the map flanked by trees symbolized my love of exploration, and that I had gotten it out in Tenochtitlan. I also successfully dissuaded her and her friends from going out on their own adventure to the basin, which was fortunate for just about every pony potentially involved.

Rainbow Dash was proving a fair bit more difficult to deal with. Whenever we happened to cross paths she always starting talking about the Daring Do series and her latest adventure, which I was just able to sidestep with a few well-timed nods and grunts of agreement. It's clear that I need to find some way to get her off my tail, but such a solution hasn't shown itself yet.

Fluttershy, I haven't seen much of. She mostly either remained in her cottage near the Everfree or was with the others. Apparently somecreature named "Discord" lives with her, who is apparently a big deal around here. He called me "a wonderfully chaotic addition to the cast", which I wasn't sure to take as a compliment or an insult.

My relationship with Rarity is... different? Special? I'm not sure how to call it. We both seem to dislike and like each other at the same time. I can't stand her dignified, pseudo-noble attitude, and she can't stand my casual speech or attire. But she demanded that I let her make an actual piece of clothing for me, free of charge. I'm not one to turn down or not appreciate that level of generosity, and I have a feeling that she'll enjoy making a new tuxedo as well. The suit and tie she drew as a concept was a true work of art.

Finally, and most surprisingly of all, I hadn't seen much of Pinkie Pie since the party. There were glimpses of her here and there around Ponyville, but nothing she had done yet had directly affected me. It was offsetting and weird, and something told me that it wouldn't last, but I almost looked forward to her next antic.

Now, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Or rather, just Twilight, as she told me to call her. She had asked me to help her out transcribing and transferring books to Canterlot, or something like that. Apparently they were planning to renovate this old castle, but couldn't start until copies of all the ancient books were created and transferring to the royal library for safekeeping. Seemed like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me, but who was I to say anything about literature? It wasn't like I had read much of it.

And now you know why I'm in the middle of nowhere. After wiping some sweat off my forehead with a hoof, I grabbed the next stack of recently-copied books to carry over to the wagon, my legs shaking under the strain.

"Hey, Twilight!" I groaned; it seemed like help had arrived. "Sorry I'm late, there were a ton more clouds out today than usual!" Rainbow Dash flew down from the hole in the wall and hover over the ground, looking as smug as usual. "So, how can I help?"

Twilight looked up from her transcribing. "Oh, Rainbow Dash! Thanks for stopping by, I was just about to move on to the restricted section of the old library!"

"There's a restricted section too?!" I made my displeasure at this new fact very much known through a much more audible groan. Twilight rolled her eyes before her horn lit up, tilting one of the chairs at the nearby table backwards. Then, just like clockwork, two bookcases slid in opposite directions, revealing a passageway into another room filled with, you guessed it, more books. And a bed.

I immediately got into a defensive position, expecting something else to happen, like a dart trap or a Daring Do to appear. A few seconds passed, in which nothing happened. Okay... Twilight hadn't noticed and was too busy trotting inside the secret room, while Rainbow Dash was looking at me like I had grown a horn and a pair of wings. "Uh, is something wrong?" she asked.

A bit embarrassed, I got back into a normal standing position and gave a sheepish laugh. "Nah, it's nothing. I've seen much scarier in Tenochtitlan."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, putting on a slight grin, and I immediately knew I was in for trouble. "Oh really? Then why don't we do a little exploring?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You and me, going down and looking for the trapdoors and hidden hallways. Unless you're too scared..."

Oh boy. "Look, just because you were terrified when you and Applejack explored here doesn't mean you have to try and make me have the same experience." That was just a complete guess. I had no idea whether they had ever come here before, and my part with Applejack was just from picking up a slight rivalry between the two mares. It was a complete shot in the dark, and yet it seemed to be a bullseye. Rainbow Dash sputtered a bit, landing on the ground looking a little peeved.

"Fine!" she said with just a slight edge on it, walking a bit closer to me. "Then I guess we'll have to find something else to do."

This time it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. It didn't sound like she was asking me for an idea. "Like...?"

Rainbow continued to approach until she was almost muzzle-to-muzzle with me. "Tag!" she yelled, half-punching me before flying away so fast she became a blur. "Catch me if you can!"

My fuddled brain tried kicking into overdrive, the competitive side clashing with the voice of reason and laziness. The former eventually triumphed over the latter, as I began galloping down the hall I saw Rainbow fly through. Any thoughts about helping Twilight were pushed to the backseat as I rounded the corner, seeing the end of a multicolored mane disappear down a spiral staircase.

Well, that's just unfair. She gets to just fly down the open center while I have to take the stairs. I almost fell over and took a tumble halfway down, but caught myself just before my face hit the stone. As soon as I reached the bottom I poured on the speed again, ignored all the torch-wielding pony hooves on the walls. The halls began blending into each other, becoming less and less noticeable until I finally came to a stop in a large room.

The pipe organ was the centerpiece of it all, looming high above me as I walked in. Stone statues of pegasi holding the candles that illuminated the room flanked it, while purple curtains were hung all around from open windows. I heard a single snicker as my hoofsteps echoed throughout the chamber, inching closer and closer to the organ.

"Rainbow Dash?" I called out. "I know you're in here! Stop hiding and come out!" There was no response. I continued my cautious approach, keeping my breathing calm and collected until finally, I saw just the tip of a teal pegasi wing appear from behind one of the draperies. Allowing myself a small smirk, I hurried over to the cloth in question and flung it out of the way.

"Found y- OW!" I was interrupted by an open book being slammed into my face, and the sound of laughter fading away. I pulled the offending piece of literature off and was about to throw it aside when something caught my eye on the page.

It was a simple diagram, with few words which I appreciated. A sketch of two books, one emblazoned with a sun, the other with a crescent moon and the stars. When pulled back simultaneously, the entire bookcase would slide aside to reveal a passage, much like what the chair upstairs did.

Certainly an interesting mechanism, but not one that was prevalent or important at the moment. I filled it in my mental storage cabinet and placed the book closed on the seat of the pipe organ before once again giving chase after Rainbow.

Or rather, I was, until I met an unfortunate case of realizing that there were more stairs. Losing my balance, this time saving myself was not an option and I tumbled down the second spiral staircase, taking quite a beating. My eyes rolled around my head as I finally landed, vision blurring showing only the color of cyan.

Cyan. Quickly, I reached out with a hoof and grabbed onto whatever was in front of me. "Tag," I said, weakly smiling.

Purple irises swung around to meet my own, and for a split-second, everything changed. The crumbling grey walls became tan, the rainbow mane faded to various greys and blacks, and the cyan turned into a familiar beige. I reeled backwards, instinctively protecting my face with both hooves as I expected a buck in the face again.

But nothing came. Only the faint sound of a familiar voice. "Uh, hello? Are you there?" My hooves lowered, and the scene was gone. There was no Daring Do, only Rainbow Dash who was looking both concerned and confused at me.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine." I got back up onto my four hooves, brushing myself off. "Just took a good beating from that fall and got a little confused. Don't worry about it."

"Riiiight."

All Rainbow got in response was a shrug from me. "We should really be getting back to Twilight," I said, sensing the impending awkwardness. "I'll, uh, see you back up there."

The mare nodded. "Yeah, sure." I began the trot back up the stairs. The last thing I heard, most likely only because she thought I was out of earshot, was something simple yet ominous at the same time. "There's something weird about him..."

Time was running out. I quickened my pace.

Twilight did not have a look on her face that I enjoyed by the time I got back to the library. "Where have you two been?!" she asked, annoyance clear. "Do you have any idea how long it took to transcribe and get these books sorted by myself onto the wagon?"

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "Yeah, well, uh... Rainbow started it!"

Yep, she didn't buy it. After taking a deep breath, she grabbed my tail in her magic and dragged me towards her across the floor. "Well, since you're here now, you can help me bring these books back to the library in Ponyville! We won't be able to make the last train to Canterlot today, so I'll store them overnight for tomorrow."

At this point the groans I was making were legendary. If historians were there I was sure that they would mark it as one of the greatest in the history of Equestria itself. "Stupid princesses... making me pull the wagon..." I muttered as I freed myself and tried latching myself into the harness to start pulling before realizing that it wasn't there anymore. "Uh, Twilight? Where's the wagon?"

"Oh, I teleported it outside. We can't have the books falling out dragging it down the stairs!"

I blinked. That was oddly both efficient and sensible. "Why don't you just teleport the whole thing to Ponyville then?" I asked. "Or even better, Canterlot?"

From Twilight's look, somepony might have thought I was insane. "Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how much magic it would take to teleport something that big all the way to Ponyville? I'm not even sure I could teleport myself!"

Taking a few steps backwards, I raised my hooves defensively. "Alright, I get it! Jeez, don't get so worked up. I'll get everything ready." I trotted out of the room at a pace slightly faster than normal and was just about to close the ancient doors behind me when something caught my ear.

"Twilight, we need to talk. It's about the new stallion."

Believe me, I'm not normally one to eavesdrop. Respecting people's privacy is very important, especially since I care about my own. But when I'm involved in it... I remained right by the door in the next room, listening in carefully.

"...Don't you think he looks kind of familiar?"

"What do you mean, Rainbow?"

"That's just it, I don't know! He keeps acting weird around me!"

A moment of silence. "I guess we could have seen him in Tenochtitlan?"

From the echo, it sounded like Rainbow Dash had stomped the floor with a hoof. "Maybe he's one of Caballeron's goons, sent here to get revenge!"

I rolled my eyes. That was such an incredibly un-Caballeron thing to do that I couldn't even imagine it. The only pony he cared about getting any sort of revenge on occasionally was Daring Do, for good reason. Still, the fact that I was formerly employed by the archeologist may not go over so well if they found out, hence why I had kept silent.

Oh, and Rainbow also forgot to call him Doctor Caballeron. He would have been fairly annoyed if he had heard.

"Don't you think that's a little crazy? I think we would have noticed by now if he was up to something."

"Fine. Just keep an eye on him, okay?"

The sound of hoofsteps approaching my little listening post, so I quickly and quietly sped off to the front entrance of the ruined castle, making myself look busy hooking myself up to pull the waiting wagon all the way back to Ponyville.

"Well, we're all good here," I told Twilight, not looking at either of the two mares out of fear of giving some sort of tell. "Ready to go?"

Rainbow Dash said something unintelligible from my distance and angle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nod to Twilight before taking off, flying high into the sky and back to Ponyville. I shrugged; she was probably up to something, but at least the pegasus was out of my mane. "So," I began, letting the Princess take the lead while I took up the rear with the wagon, "Canterlot tomorrow? Don't suppose you'll need my help again?"

"Well, we'll be able to take the Canterlot Express most of the way, and Spike should be able to help this time, but I wouldn't mind a helping hoof. Are you sure you're not too busy though? It'll probably take the whole day."

"Like I said, nothing to do these days. Besides, visiting Canterlot has always been on my bucket list. Wouldn't mind going to finally see the city itself."

Twilight tilted her head slightly. "You've never been to Canterlot before? I can introduce you to Princess Celestia if you want-"

"Don't care, no thanks."

The alicorn looked like I had just slapped her. "What?! But she's the Princess! Why wouldn't you want to meet her?!"

I shrugged. "Why would I? Tenochtitlan isn't exactly a place she visits often, and if she does things for Equestria then they haven't helped me. She's my Princess, sure, just as much as you are, but I've no interest in seeing 'Her Highness'."

Sneaking a quick peek back at Twilight, I was not surprised to see her wearing an expression as if a horn was growing out of my skull. I guess she doesn't meet people who don't care for the diarchs often. But it was the truth; all my life it had been just me looking out for myself, and nopony else. There had been no help from faraway Canterlot. I held no ill intent or anger towards her, in fact, I still respected her somewhat from all the praise other ponies had said of her on my travels. But at the same time, I wasn't raring to go and see the ruler of all Equestria in person.

Alas, such an opinion put me firmly in the minority of Equestria's ponies.

A small bit of uncomfortable silence proceeded my breaking of said silence. "Thanks for offering, though." Didn't want to appear rude, after all. "Maybe you could give me a tour of the city after we've gotten these books sorted instead? I'm sure you've been there quite a few times."

And just like that, Twilight did her rapid switch from what I could only assume was silent thinking to fast excitement. "Been there? I've lived there almost my whole life! There are so many places to see, so many things to do, and I can show you all my favorite books! Oh, and we can stop by Pony Joe's for lunch too! We can even visit my old library, I'm sure there are some things I left behind that I can talk about..."

As Twilight continued to talk on and on, I relaxed back into the gentle rhythm of pulling the cart along.

Ponyville wasn't proving to be so bad, after all.

Moments of Quiet

The bell above Sugarcube Corner's door rang as I made my way inside, pulling myself a seat at the table. "Hiya Jungle!" Pinkie greeted from across the counter. "What can I getcha?"

"Mint milkshake, please."

No sooner had the words left my muzzle before a light green milkshake had appeared in front of me, the blur known as Pinkie Pie standing right beside it. "Uh, thanks," I said, a little jarred before pulling it close and taking a sip from the pink straw.

"Rough day?" Pinkie asked, her voice still its usual chipper tone. I shrugged, pulling my hat off and setting it next to me.

"A bit, yeah," I replied, getting words in between sips. "I've had worse."

Pinkie grabbed her own milkshake, a pink one which I could only assume was strawberry flavored before taking a seat across from me. She opted out of using a straw, instead just drinking straight from the glass before comically licking the frosting off her face. "What kind of worse?"

"Ever been to Tenochtitlan?"

The mare hyper-nodded. "Yep! My friends and I all went there just a week or two ago! Why?"

Oh, right. I mentally kicked myself for that off-hoof remark. Sometimes I had a tendency to speak before thinking of what I was saying. And in this case, reminding some particular ponies of the Basin was not the greatest of ideas. "Oh, well, it's just difficult in there, you know? There were plenty of days where the gang and I struggled to get by when we were far from town."

"What gang?"

And there I went again. Darn you, brain! "Just some fellow adventurer friends." Yeah, real smooth. Smooth as sandpaper. "You tend to find those kinds of ponies a lot out there if you look."

"Cool!" Just like that, her milkshake was empty, rattling on the table. "So how is Ponyville?" I opened my muzzle to respond when she cut me off. "Oh wait, I never asked you how you thought your party was!" Pinkie's face pressed against mine as she leaned forward out of her seat. "Did you like it? Huh? Huh?"

Lightly pushing the pink earth pony off of me, I nodded. "Yes, Pinkie, I liked it. I have to admit, I've never had a party like that before."

The party pony gasped. "Really?!"" Zooming around the table, she pulled me into a massive hug, making it difficult to breathe. "Well, I Pinkie Promise you that I will make sure you get the best parties ever! You're going to party like you've never partied before!"

"I'm looking forward to the next one. Speaking of, when is that exactly?"

Pinkie tapped her chin with a hoof a few times before reaching into her mane and pulling out a calendar. "Hm, let's see... We already had the Summer Sun Celebration, so assuming that nothing happens that I don't know about, which happens a lot but I can't know that so I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to, it would be Rainbow's birthday party!"

Oh. How inconvenient. "Well, uh, I see," I said lamely, rubbing one of my front legs.

Her eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't miss Rainbow's birthday, would you?"

"No no, of course not!" I put my hooves up defensively, worried about what would happen if I didn't. "Just... it's complicated, okay?"

"Okay! But you should get going, you're going to be late for your meeting with Rarity!"

I blinked, checked the time, and realized that she was indeed correct. "How did you- you know what, I really need to stop asking that. Thanks, Pinkie, gotta gallop now!" I shoved my hat back onto my head as I pushed the door open and began the journey across Ponyville.

"Bye!" I heard faintly behind me. "Say hi to Rarity for me!"

"Oh, by the way, Pinkie said hi."

Rarity nodded as she used her tape to get yet another measurement of my form, obviously too involved in her work to pay much attention. "You know darling, I still don't quite understand why you only want one suit. I could have a whole ensemble made for you if you wanted."

"Meh." I would have raised a hoof to emphasize my lack of enthusiasm, but unfortunately both of said body parts were very much in use. By Rarity. Being measured.

Did I mention that this had been going on for at least fifteen minutes?

"I just don't see the need to have multiple suits I'm never going to use," I finally answered as the white mare moved around behind me. "You know I'm almost never going to use them, I know I'm almost never going to use them, so what's the point?"

"What's the point? What's the point? Appearance is everything, darling! Why, I wouldn't want to be caught dead outside Canterlot wearing the same thing twice in a row! And you are going there tomorrow!"

With one finally free, I waved a hoof around dismissively. "Impressing high society isn't what I'm there for, you know. If you hadn't offered to make one I would have just gone in my normal vest outfit. Oh, and thanks for that, by the way."

Now it was Rarity's turn to wave a hoof. How unoriginal. "It's my pleasure. I can't have you looking like a complete ruffian out there. In fact, I'll make sure all eyes are on you!" The mare stepped back, finally putting her equipment away. "Finished!"

Oh, thank Celestia. Trotting off the stage, I took a seat and let myself recover from all that standing around while grabbing my hat from the nearby coat hanger. "You know, I'm actually looking forward a bit to what you have planned," I admitted while instinctively shaking my hat to check for any insects or spiders before realizing that I was inside a building. "Usually I- well, you saw what I was wearing at the party."

"Hm, quite. Jungle work, I suppose? Must be simply dreadful, having to be out there all the time. I could barely stand the time Dash and the rest of us had to go to Tenochtitlan for a day!"

And there went my temporary positive feelings towards Rarity. "You get used to it," I responded in a flat tone, getting up and making for the door. "Well, I really should be going. As much as I'd love to stay, I would prefer to get to Sweet Apple Acres before sundown."

Rarity was already once again too enveloped in an imagination bubble to hear me. "Yes, yes, alright. I'll make sure to have your suit delivered before tomorrow morning. Say hello to Applejack for me, will you?"

Huh. Was this gonna be a chain or something? Hopefully not, considering I wasn't planning on going anywhere but home after seeing Applejack. After giving a hidden eye roll and a mock salute, I pushed the door open and headed back out into the bright afternoon sun.

"Just watch, Applejack. I'm sure I'll get it this time!" After making sure my back hooves were lined up correctly, I reared up and bucked the apple tree behind me as hard as I could. Yet, despite the entire tree shaking, only a few apples fell from the branches above into the bucket. My disappointment manifested in its usual audible sigh.

"Keep practicin', sugarcube," the apple farmer said encouragingly as she bucked her own tree, every single apple falling neatly into another bucket. "Took me a while to get the hang of things, too."

"Yeah, I know. It's just... I'm an Earth Pony, I'm supposed to be good at things like this! Sometimes it just feels I got the short end of the three tribes... no offense."

Applejack put her filled bucket of fruit next to the others neatly stacked nearby before trotting over. "None taken, partner. We might not have magic or wings, but we have each other, and that's what counts!" Her hoof shook my shoulder. "Now how about we go have some cider?"

My dour expression immediately brightened up. "Yeah, that sounds good. I think that's enough work for today for me."

After I had heaved my own apple bucket onto the pile, Applejack and I started the not-so-long trek back to the farmhouse. Time must have gone by faster than I thought because the sun was already well on its descent towards the hills by the time I had gotten my mug of cider and was sitting down watching the brilliant hues it made. The cider's taste was absolutely legendary as well; it had to sell well.

"You know, Applejack, this is the kind of life I've dreamed about," I said after taking another sip from my drink. "Simple farming, watching the sunset, the whole thing. This is what I wanted."

"Really?" the orange pony replied, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, you just don't get these views in Tenochtitlan with all the jungle, and at this point I'm just tired, you know? Tired of action, tired of crazy adventures. It's just nice to relax and unwind sometimes."

"Yep." She took a drink from her own mug of cider. "It may not be much, but I wouldn't trade Sweet Apple Acres for the world."

A silence followed those words, as both of us just took in the peaceful nature of the farm. The fresh air with just a hint of apples, the trees still lightly adorned with apples, the farm buildings with apple images on them... did I mention that Sweet Apple Acres was pretty heavy on apples? I guess it was a dedication to the craft or something.

Finishing my cider, I put the mug on a nearby outside table. "Well, it was nice being here, but I really should start heading back to Ponyville. I would rather get back home before sundown."

Applejack opened her mouth to respond, but somepony else beat her to the punch. "Oh, and here I thought that I was going to have to watch you two propose!"

I didn't recognize the voice, but Applejack clearly did. "Discord!" she shouted to the air.

The air in front of us flashed, and a creature I had never seen before materialized before us. "Why, Applejack," the being I assumed was Discord said, "whatever may be the reason for calling me? I'm a very busy Lord of Chaos, you know."

"Don't play dumb with me, Discord! I know you're the one who said that just now!"

"Said what?" A massive fan appeared next to the long, slender mismatched creature, who began blowing in the wind like a flag. "It must have just been the wind, my dear. Oh, and I see you have a new friend!" Both he and the fan disappeared, with Discord reappearing wrapped around me, a claw under my chin. "You must be the pony Fluttershy was telling me about! We simply must have a little chat at her cottage before you go."

If Discord hadn't been holding me in place, I would have taken a step back. "Oh, uh, I really should be getting back, it's getting late..." I stammered, not quite sure what was going on anymore.

"It'll take just a moment. Goodbye Applejack, you've been an excellent host!" He tipped his Stetson goodbye, which Applejack quickly recognized was her own, and snatched it out of Discord's lion paw.

Then with a single snap, the world went white.

Given that I wasn't usually in contact with many unicorns in Tenochtitlan, the act of teleportation immediately left me feeling nauseous as I sat on the floor. Discord was sitting a few feet away in a cushioned chair, a pair of reading glasses on and reading a heavy leather-bound book.

"You know, when Fluttershy told me about you I was quite surprised," he started, adjusting his glasses with a claw like a professor. "Your appearance here makes this entire script completely obsolete!" Slamming the book closed, he tossed it over his shoulder, the piece of literature making an explosion behind him. "But then again, when is knowing everything fun?"

My mind was still a little addled, but even if I was at full mental capacity I was sure that I still wouldn't understand what the heck Discord was saying. I just shrugged, getting up and taking my own seat on a nearby couch.

Discord tipped his reading glasses down at me. "Not much of a talker anymore, are we? Perhaps you'd like a good book instead? I'm sure I have a 'Beginner's Guide to Chaos' copy here somewhere..." He reached his lion paw through a portal, rummaging around. I heard a cat screech and a dog bark from the other side.

"Well, actually..."

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Discord teleported right in front of me, floating upside down. "How silly of me, I almost forgot about that! Apologies, it won't happen again. Though I suggest you don't tell our little Princess Twilight about it; why, who knows what she'd do if she found out!"

At this point I had fully recovered from my brief stint of confusion, though what he was saying still wasn't making any sense, just like I had expected. "What are you talking about, Discord? I made sure to specifically say that Twilight can't go into my-"

And then it hit me like a brick. I knew exactly what he was talking about. "Yeah... you're probably right on that one. For a second I thought you might have meant my-"

"Yes, yes, your nice golden ring. I suppose you should keep that under wraps as well."

"You're not going to tell them about it, are you?" I asked with just the slightest hint of suspicion in my voice.

Discord looked both offended and shocked at the same time. "Moi? Why, I would never! Your secret is safe with me." His mouth became a zipper, which he promptly zipped closed before very obviously pointing at it with both paw and claw.

Yeah, okay. That was definitely enough reality-breaking for one day. "Well, guess I couldn't stop you if you wanted to tell, so I'll believe you. I really should be getting home, though."

"Ugh, fine! And here I thought that we could have a nice pleasant conversation. Oh well, maybe next time!" A floating limb appeared by the front door of Fluttershy's cottage across the hall, opening it. "And remember, don't blame me if someone spills the beans!"

I completely expected there to be some sort of bean-related activity as I looked behind me after walking to the door, but nope. In fact, Discord was gone entirely. I gave the cottage one more look-around to make sure everything was normal (and that it couldn't be blamed on me) before I stepped out and closed the door behind me.

"Um, Jungle? What were you doing in my house? If you're okay with me asking, of course."

"Discord," I replied flatly, hoping that Fluttershy would understand. She nodded, just as I hoped she would.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that. Sometimes Discord just does things like that. I could talk to him about it if you want." Well, at least we were having an actual conversation now. Last time we had talked, the butterscotch mare had gotten so reclusive that by the end of it I could barely hear what she was saying. Apparently it was something normal for her.

"Nah, it's fine. He just needed to ask a few things. I'll see you around, Fluttershy."

She nodded. "Okay, see you later!" And as she retreated back into her cottage and I crossed the bridge back towards Ponyville, I could finally cross that little detour off my list. And with that, I got everything I needed to do in Ponyville done! Once I got a good night's sleep, it would finally be time to hit the road again with Twilight.

Next stop, Canterlot!

A Canterlot Tour

"So... how are you doing?"

Spike didn't even look up from his comic book as he answered, "Fine, I guess. Can't believe Twilight roped me into this, though."

Twilight was in fact gone, busy somewhere else on the train. I assumed it was something to do with Princess duties, though she had been oddly vague on what exactly she had to do. So, that left just me and Spike. Well, us and a large number of books all over the train car.

Yeah, Twilight had gotten us an entire car for ourselves. It might have been impressive if she wasn't, you know, royalty. Still, it did mean that while we did have our privacy, the sound of silence was the only thing accompanying us on the tracks up to Canterlot.

And Spike was unfortunately not the greatest conversationalist at the moment.

"What are you gonna do once we're in Canterlot?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the precariously stacked books close by.

"I'm going to visit the House of Enchanted Comics after we're done in the Canterlot Library to pick up the latest Power Ponies issue!" The dragon put down the one he was reading and tucked his stack of comics under his seat. "No offense to Twilight, but I really don't need another tour from her in Canterlot."

I simply nodded, not really sure how to continue.

Then the train car hit a bump, and both Spike and I went flying. Along with the books. The baby dragon landed flat on his face, looking up only to see a massive piece of literature falling right towards him, ready to also smack him in the face.

Or at least it would have, had I not put my hoof out just in time to stop it. The book bounced harmlessly against my outstretched limb, hitting the floor in front of both of us. "Thanks," Spike said, pulling himself up and already moving to grab what fell off the stacks of reading material.

"No problem. You, uh, need help with that?" Getting no response, I took that as a yes and started gathering the books back into stacks and filing them neatly. The two of us worked in silence, occasionally keeping each other's stacks steady whenever the train hit another bump in the tracks. Slowly but surely, the mess was cleaned up until finally, everything was back where it belonged.

Once that was finished, both of us took our seats again, sitting a bit closer to each other than we had before. "Thanks for the help," Spike finally said. "Guess I'm just used to Twilight being too busy with her princess duties."

"Well, I'd imagine you'd be pretty busy too, being the assistant of a princess," I answered, staring intensely at the books mentally willing them not to fall again. It seemed to be working... or maybe it was the fact that the train ride had finally gotten smoother.

"I was busy before Twilight was a princess too! I'm either doing everything or just waiting around." I heard a sigh and turned my head around to look at the dragon. "I bet you had fun out there, being an adventurer and all that."

Tentatively, I placed a hoof on Spike's shoulder. "You'd think so, but nah. I had a lot of doing nothing too, you know. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get your chance in the spotlight one day." He looked at me, as I stared right back at him. "We all get one someday."

Spike didn't answer. I put my hoof back down, my head and eyes moving again to stare at the floor. Weeks passed. Or maybe minutes. I couldn't tell either way; handling boredom was not one of my strong suits.

"Well, I'm bored," I finally admitted, standing up to stretch my legs. From the corner of my eye, I saw Spike roll his eyes before pointing at the books arrayed before us.

"Why don't you just read one of those?" he asked. "I'm sure there's plenty of exciting stuff in there."

Oh boy. That was not exactly a question I wanted to answer, but I couldn't just let it go unanswered either. These binds were both annoyingly difficult to get out of and annoyingly frequent. A truly brutal tag-team combo.

"Well... you see..."

And at that very moment, the forces of Equestria finally chose to grant me mercy as Princess Twilight walked through the car door with a clipboard in tow within her telekinesis. "We're almost there," she told both me and Spike. "Princess Celestia is busy so she'll be a little late meeting us at the library. That means that we'll have time to explore!" Twilight's attention focused from the two of us to just me. "I'll get to show you all my favorite books there too! There are some great reads, particularly the ones written by Star Swirl the Bearded about the theories of magic and-"

Yeah. Little too dense for me. I tuned out the rest of the alicorn's babbling, giving a small nod now and then to make it seem like I was paying attention. By the fifth nod she seemed to realize what I was doing and started glaring at me, but I was saved by the jolt of the train finally putting on the brakes as it reached the station.

"Welp, looks like we're here!" I said overly cheerfully, relieved that the optimal exit out of the situation has presented itself. "If you can get the books back on the wagon I can hook myself up to it-"

Twilight waved a hoof. "Oh, now that we're in Canterlot I can just teleport all of them! Besides, I need to work with the librarian on getting all these books sorted, so you and Spike can go explore for a bit while I get that done! Just make sure not to take too long."

I shrugged. "Fine with me. You alright with that, Spike?"

The dragon looked up from the comic he had started to read again. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, whatever."

"Great! Then I'll see you two at the library!" And with that, Twilight teleported out of the train alongside all of the books. After lightly tapping a hoof on Spike's shoulder and motioning with my head that it was time to go, the two of us exited out the side door, getting the first real good look of Canterlot.

...It was big. Really big. I would have expected as much from the capital of Equestria, but having never seen any cities other than small villages, the sheer size of everything astounded me. The many towers that rose high into the sky were the most eye-catching parts, with their gold-adorned rooftops and extravagant design, but they were not the only things I was in awe at. Even the simple buildings that were just a few hoofsteps away were fancier than any building I had ever seen before, though that probably wasn't saying much considering my standards.

I both loved it and hated it at the same time. Feelings are complex like that.

"So," I began, looking at Spike who had finally snapped back to the real world at this point, "how about we go to that comic book store you wanted to visit first? I'm sure that we'll have time for the detour."

"Really?" When I responded with a nod, the dragon started jumping up and down, much to the slight amusement of the ponies trotting nearby. "Great! C'mon, let's hurry and get over there!" Spike started half-waddling down one of the streets of Canterlot, surprisingly fast for his size. I gave a slight smile before following close behind.

I mean, how far away could the store be? Canterlot couldn't be that big, could it?

"You're LATE! Do you have any idea how long you two took? Celestia could be here at any minute!" Twilight looked incredibly annoyed as both of us rushed through the front doors of the Canterlot library, completely out of breath.

Yeah, so it turns out that Canterlot was in fact that big. The shop had been all the way across the city, and it had taken Spike a good amount of time just to buy the comic he wanted. Couple that with getting lost once or twice and having to retrace our steps, and you got yourself one very angry Princess.

Oh well. I'm sure I had heard the term "fashionably late" before somewhere, so it was fine. Or maybe not. It sounded like something Rarity would know anyway, being heavily into the whole fashion stuff.

"Relax, Twilight," I said breezily. "If Celestia isn't here, it isn't a big deal, right?"

My lax attitude only seemed to fan the flames of Twilight's anger, until finally she closed her eyes, took a deep breath in and out, and relaxed her posture a bit. "You're right," she responded to my semi-shock. "Why don't you look around a bit until Princess Celestia gets here? I need to talk to Spike here about unnecessary detours."

Ah. So it was less her being less angry and more aiming it at the unfortunate dragon. Well, I never was one to just ignore a chance to skirt blame. With a simple nod, I trotted off towards the nearest aisle of books, taking just a second to shoot a sympathetic look at the soon-to-be tortured soul I was leaving behind. Spike looked too invested in his new comic to notice both my departure or his impending doom. The last thing I saw before the many books lining the corridors obstructed my view was Twilight approaching her assistant menacingly.

So, there I was. Now in a library, stuck with a ton of books to pass the time. Not very helpful, to be honest. I took more notice of the colors and symbols that the books had than the actual words on them, actually finding some slight enjoyment seeing the reds and blues and greens and all the other colors blend together in an orderly fashion. Sorting through all this must be a nightmare for the librarian.

My distraction proved a bit of a hindrance, however, when I slammed my face into one of the many shelves. The path I had been taking was a dead end. But just as I was beginning to turn around, something caught my eye above me. Or rather, two somethings.

A pair of books. One was larger than the other and was yellow with a picture of a sun on it, while the other was blue and had an image of a crescent moon. Two nondescript novels compared to their surroundings, yet there was something so familiar about them...

...

...a sketch of two books, one emblazoned with a sun, the other with a crescent moon and the stars. When pulled back simultaneously, the entire bookcase would slide aside to reveal a passage...

...

Well, it was worth a shot. On a hunch, I got up on my hind legs and reach upwards to grab a hold of the two books. Then, using my awkward position to my advantage, I leaned backward, letting gravity do the pulling for me.

As soon as I let go, the two books snapped back into place, and just as the diagram back in the castle had shown, the entire bookcase slid to the left, revealing a hidden passage downwards. My jaw dropped in shock. Honestly, what were the odds?

After collecting myself and my growing excitement, I carefully walked forward, the library walls giving way to old chiseled stone and torchlight. The stairs led downwards, only spiraling around twice before flattening out at a set of heavy ornate double-doors. And I do mean heavy. It took me a solid ten seconds just to push those things open.

Was it worth it? The short answer; no. The room beyond the doors was certainly cool-looking enough, clearly older than the library above it and filled with tomes I could only assume were ancient and likely forbidden for eyes such as mine. To be honest, however, I was kind of hoping to find some sort of cool magical artifacts here instead. Maybe like a staff or something with a blood red gem, or a large magical sledgehammer. This... was disappointing.

One thing did pull me to the table closest to me, though. It was a large book, simple and nondescript, only having a large image of the sun printed on the cover. A bottle of ink and a quill were still next to it, and it looked recently used. Pulling up a chair to the table, I took a seat and had a closer look.

"Now what do we have here?" I asked myself while opening the book. The pages were filled with writing I couldn't make out, the words illegible for a pony like myself. What was more interesting was how they were formatted. It was almost like whoever had this book was writing... letters. But to who?

I turned the pages until finally, the first blank page was reached. Now, what I planned to do next was incredibly stupid. Somepony had obviously been writing, or at least reading this recently, and they were probably going to come back eventually. I wasn't even supposed to be here. But, curiosity clouding my better judgment, I moved the ink jar and quill closer before grabbing the latter with a hoof and, with great dramatic flair, drew a single straight line downwards.

"Jungle?! Jungle, where are you?! Princess Celestia is here!" Twilight's voice startled me so hard, my legs bumped upwards into the table. The ink jar went flying, and to my abject horror, landed on the pages of the book and permanently stained the ones I had opened them to.

Oh no. Oh no no no no. This was really bad. The time for rational thinking was over. I grabbed the tipped-over jar and placed it with the quill back where it belonged, then got up and set the chair right where it was before. Then, in a misguided move fueled by absolute terror, I slammed the book shut and stuffed it into my saddlebag before running as fast as I could out of the room and back up the stairs.

There must have been some sort of magical tripwire or something, because the bookcase hiding the hallways slid shut right as I galloped back into the public part of the library. And just in time too, as Twilight rounded the corner immediately afterward, even more annoyed than when Spike and I had first arrived here.

"There you are!" Her horn glowed as I was grabbed by her telekinesis, floating up in the air towards the central open area of the library. "Celestia has been waiting for you for an entire minute! Where even were you?"

"In a secret part of the library you probably don't even know about ruining someone's writing," I mentally said. "I don't know, I guess I just got lost," I responded in words, as my mouth was being much smarter than my brain at this point.

What I said probably didn't even matter, as Twilight paid no heed to my words. With an air of tension, she dropped me onto the library floor, my reflexes just fast enough to catch myself. "Well, you didn't have to do that," I said while giving my own look of annoyance at the purple alicorn, who was very pointedly motioning towards something in front of me.

That thing happened to be a very large, very white, and very royal Princess. I guess Twilight wasn't lying. After giving the smaller Princess one last glare, I sheepishly turned my attention to Princess Celestia, who was looking at me with what I was really hoping was slight amusement in her eyes. I dipped my head in respect, which to be fair was a lot more than I gave most ponies I met.

Twilight now looked even more peeved. Did she expect me to bow or something? Well, guess you can't win them all.

"So, Twilight, this is the new friend you were speaking of?" Celestia's voice was serene and almost impossibly calm, though her intent behind the question was impossible to read. Twilight, in typical Twilight fashion hurriedly nodded.

"Yes, Princess. Though he wasn't supposed to be this late." Oh come on, how long was she going to hold that over my head? I had done much worse things in my life in Equestria... none of which I was going to tell her about.

Celestia gave a small laugh. "Well, I can think of quite a few times I've had to find you in this library, Princess Twilight." Said Twilight immediately started blushing as she looked away. I, on the other hoof, was too busy being surprised by Celestia's sense of humor, or more accurately the fact that it existed.

"Yes, ahaha..." Twilight trailed off, still sounding very embarrassed. "Well I might have gotten carried away in my studies a few times..." I raised an eyebrow at her, but she intentionally decided not to notice it. Or so I assumed, You could never tell whether something she ignored was intentional or just caused by her obliviousness.

Just as I was about to bail her out, Celestia looked up towards the clock hanging in the library. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, but I must return to court now. You are always welcome back, Twilight. And you too, mister..."

Right. Hadn't even introduced myself yet. "Jungle Trek, at your service," I said, tipping my hat with a flourish. "Or rather, I would be, if you weren't leaving."

That actually got a small smile out of the Princess. Look at me, the master of comedy. "Yes, you are welcome back at any time too, Jungle." After one last graceful nod to each of us, Celestia teleported away, the flash of gold light being the last thing we saw of her.

"Welp," I said, perhaps a little too loudly for a library, "that was fun. Time to head back to Ponyville, right Twilight?"

She just looked at me with a confused expression. "Already? But I thought you wanted to see Canterlot?"

"Yeah, well..." The technically-stolen book in my saddlebag grew even heavier. "It's been a busy day and I'm already tired. You wouldn't mind if we cut things short and just took the next train back, right?"

She blinked a few times before nodding. "Well, if you want to go back already, I guess we can leave now. Spike!" The baby dragon waddled in through the front doors, meaning he was probably just waiting outside while Celestia was here... for some reason. "We're leaving Canterlot now. Do you have your stuff ready?"

Spike just looked like she asked him whether the sky was blue. "Twilight, all I brought is my comic book, and I have both that one and the one I bought right here." He held one in each of his claws, very clearly showing us the covers.

"Oh, right. Let's go, then." Twilight sounded kind of... disappointed? I guess she expected me to want to stay longer. And I had wanted to, at first. But the whole mess I made that shall not be named, and just the day in general was already starting to take its toll on me, and I was starting to feel tired. In fact, by the time we had gotten back onto the Friendship Express I was ready to lay down and close my eyes.

I really hoped that this was going to be the end of everything. That nopony would notice my little theft, or that I hadn't accidentally started some large adventure that was foretold by some dusty old scroll somewhere. All I was looking forward to was some rest, some familiarity, and maybe that suit that Rarity was making.

"But we're never that lucky, are we?" That was my last slightly-depressing thought as my mind slowly faded out of consciousness.

Fight or Flight

"Jungle? Jungle!" I woke up, nearly taking a tumble off the seat of the train. "We're back in Ponyville, it's time to go."

I wiped my eyes with a hoof blearily before focusing on who was talking. When my vision cleared, I saw Spike tugging at my other hoof, trying to pull me off the seat I was sleeping on. Brushing him off, I got myself back onto all fours on the floor before following him through the open train doors into the familiar Ponyville train station.

"How long was I out?" I asked him, curious.

Spike shrugged. "You slept through the entire train ride, dude. Probably a few hours at least."

Wow. No wonder I felt refreshed. And the sun wasn't even close to setting yet, so I still had a few hours left to kill. "Alright, where's Twilight?"

"Over there."

I looked where Spike was pointing to see the Princess talking with, to my disappointment, the one and only Rainbow Dash. Deciding to just get it over with, I trotted over to the two of them, who were standing only around 15 hoofsteps away. Dash noticed me first, giving me a downright nasty look of suspicion.

"Hey, Twilight. Hey, Dash. What are you two talking about? Did something important happen while we were gone?"

The purple alicorn opened her mouth to respond before Rainbow Dash cut her off. "Nope, nothing at all! Twilight and I were just talking about stuff. Private stuff. So, uh, if you wouldn't mind..." She gave me a pointed look that in no uncertain terms was telling me to go away.

Sheesh. So this was the reception I was getting for my glorious return? "Alright, alright," I said, waving her off. "If you need me again, Twilight, you know where to find me. See ya." And with that, I walked off, taking the thankfully short trip from the station to my own home.

Well, moderately short, anyway. It was still enough time to ruminate on my most recent act of thievery (something that I had plenty of experience in before) currently sitting in my saddlebag. Everything about that still confused me. Why had every page been written in letter format? And why was such a book kept in the restricted section? Obviously somepony important had written in it, though from how it looked the last time they had was some time ago. Maybe it was a magical book that sent messages to a magical being from another dimension!

...Or maybe they were just lonely and pretended they were. Who knows? Because I certainly didn't. Still, this was now my number one priority to keep a secret from Twilight, and everypony really. If she had gotten that mad at us being late to the library, well, I did not want to see how she'd react to not-so-petty book theft.

As soon as I got to my home and opened the door, I immediately pulled out the book and set it down on the table before heading to the fridge and pulling out a can of apple juice. It cracked open with a quick tug of my hoof, and I took a sip before sitting down and laying on my new couch.

Wait, a couch? When did I get a couch? Narrowing my eyes at the unfamiliar piece of furniture, I eventually shrugged and laid back in it again. My current state of mind meant I could not care less where it came from.

And yet, something else felt off. There was something different about my home, and it wasn't just the couch. As my eyes scanned the walls of the room something felt missing, the barren walls feeling plainer than usual. Especially the one spot with the nail where I used to hang my-

Hold on.

Where in Tartarus was my ring?!

The audacity! This was an outrage! How dare somepony steal what I rightfully stole already?! Furious, I stormed back out the front door, anger inhibiting any sort of common sense. I didn't even know what I was going to do, but I knew that it would be better than just sitting down on the mysterious new couch doing nothing.

"There he is!"

I whipped my head around, the beginning of a snarl dying immediately in my throat alongside my rage. Rainbow Dash was flying just a few inches off the ground while slowly making her way towards me, my Ring of Scorchero hanging from her neck. She wasn't alone either, as all her friends were with her. Princess Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, the whole gang. All of them were looking fairly peeved at me, save for Fluttershy.

Given the situation I was in, I did what any sane pony would do. I gave a little wave to all of them, tipped my hat to Rainbow Dash, then started running as fast as I could in the opposite direction. "He's getting away! After him!" I heard Dash's voice yell behind me.

Fortunately for me, the replacement of anger with fear also returned my process of semi-logical thinking. I knew I could never outpace Rainbow Dash; she was too fast, especially when she was flying. Tight spaces and corners would be my friend. The first chance I got, I ducked into the nearest alleyway, and just in time too. I could feel the wind caused by Dash soaring right past me, flying too fast to make the sharp turn.

Putting it straight, I had no idea where I was going, or where I was. But I must have done something right, as there were plenty of turns and crossroads for me to try and lose my pursuers on. Every time I looked behind me, Twilight and her friends were a little further behind, until finally they were out of sight. As soon as that happened, I found the nearest barrel (honestly, there were way too many of these things around Ponyville) and hid myself inside it. It was a bit snugger than I had hoped, but I was still able to fit.

And just in time too, because the sound of hoofsteps rapidly approached until they stopped only a few hooves away, from what I could guess. "Where did he go?" I heard Rainbow Dash ask.

"I don't know," Twilight's voice responded. "We'll have to split up and look for him. Applejack and Pinkie, you go left. Rarity and I will go right. Rainbow and Fluttershy, you two fly up and see if you can spot him from above."

A chorus of affirmatives rang through the air before the sound of both hoofsteps and wingbeats filled the air again. Slowly, they faded away, until finally, there was silence. I relaxed in my hiding space, taking as deep a breath I could in my confined space.

Normally, them splitting up would be a good thing. It meant that I would have to fight less of them should it come down to it. However, the pegasi complicated things, as it meant that even trying to leave the barrel would get me spotted immediately. I'd have to be sneaky about this.

"Whatcha doing in there, Jungle?"

I jolted forward, the side of the barrel slamming into something next to me. I heard the distinct sound of a body falling to the ground, which I assumed was Pinkie Pie from the voice I had heard. "Sorry about that, Pinkie!" I shouted as I ripped off the barrel, making sure to put it somewhere where it wouldn't hit her again. "Gotta run!"

"Wait!" Pinkie yelled behind me. "You'll still come to my parties, right?!"

"Sure!" I responded.

"Great! See ya!"

Rounding another corner, I barely took another step before I slammed right into the front of an orange Earth Pony. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me-"

"I found 'em!" Applejack called out, already getting her lasso out. "Just hold still," she told me, "and I promise we can talk things out."

"Like that's ever going to happen!" I retorted, pulling a one-eighty and galloping off the other way. Making sure to go a different direction from where I left Pinkie Pie, I could see light from the end of the alleyway back into the streets of Ponyville. Putting on a burst of speed, I almost made it before Rainbow Dash slammed down onto the ground in front of me, blocking my path.

"Gotcha!" she said, lunging forward to grab me, but this time I was just a bit faster. Sidestepping out of the way, I dodged her entirely and continued my escape out of the maze of buildings. The last thing I saw looking behind me was Rainbow stuck in Applejack's rope, meaning I could only assume she had tried lassoing me at the exact time Rainbow had jumped forward.

Emboldened by my stroke of luck, I pushed onward, now having a set destination in mind. If I could just make it to the edge of the Everfree Forest, I could lose Rainbow Dash for good. Seeing that I was already close to the river crossing that led to the Everfree, I tunnel-visioned so hard that I didn't even notice the white unicorn running beside me until she was practically on top of me.

"You've led us on quite the chase, but it's time to give up, you ruffian! Don't make this difficult on yourself." I responded in kind by taking off my hat, hooking it onto her horn, and pulling it down. It had the intended effect, as the sudden movement caused Rarity to stumble, then tumble. Judging by her cries of anguish, it sounded like she wasn't too happy about that.

I, on the other hoof, could not care less.

Leaving Rarity in the dust, I finally made it to the bridge leading out of Ponyville. There, who else was waiting for me but Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, wings spread and horn lit. Fluttershy stood behind her, staring at me with a look I couldn't quite describe.

"Jungle, this has gone on long enough! You have some explaining to do!" I couldn't tell if Twilight was trying to pull off the royal voice, but if she was, it was failing miserably. The pose was fairly intimidating though, I had to give her that.

Well, even if I knew it wouldn't work, I might as well try the peaceful option. "Look, Twilight, I'm sure this has all been one big misunderstanding. Can you please just let me leave for once?"

She shook her head, exactly like I expected her to. I shrugged. "Well, it was worth a shot." Pulling off my hat once again, I threw it straight towards her face. Twilight however remained unfazed, simply catching it in her magic a few inches away from her muzzle.

What she didn't see coming was me running straight towards her right after, taking a hold of both my hat and one of her front hooves. Then, finally getting the chance to use my Earth Pony strength, I swung her up and around in a circle, before letting her fly off over the bridge's guardrail. With her bad angle and her inexperience in flying, Twilight was unable to stop herself from splashing into the water, temporarily dealt with.

I didn't bother with Fluttershy as I ran past her to the other side. All she did was give a slight "Eep!" while I passed her. While a nice friend she was, a fighter she was not. The yellow mare didn't even try to follow me as I approached the forest edge.

But, on the very edge of escape, on the cusp of my victory, something gave me pause. I turned and looked back on the small village of Ponyville, the sun finally beginning to set over the horizon. The place that I had, or maybe still called home. Did I really want to give that all up already?

My gut instincts said yes. Every bone in my body was telling me to disappear into the Everfree Forest, to cut my ties and find someplace else to start fresh. The adventurer instincts that I had followed for so long were all pointing for the easy way out... but there was something else. My heart was telling me to stay, to stop being a coward and face my problems head on.

I had friends here. Real, honest friends, something I hadn't had in a long time. Sure, I had my fellow adventures in Doctor Caballeron's little group, but I always saw them more as associates than friends. Here, I had a home, I had a life. And I didn't want to give that up.

So, I just stood there. I stood, and waited. It wasn't long before the ponies I had shaken off not long ago were approaching me, even more peeved than they were before. Well, except Fluttershy, but you probably assumed that.

Twilight reached me first, still dripping water from her surprise bath. "What. Was. That?!" she asked, punctuating every word. "You just threw me off a bridge!"

The Princess had just finished talking when a lasso wrapped itself around my legs, making me fall to the ground. I didn't struggle, just laying there as the rest of her friends looked down at me.

Rainbow Dash remained unfazed. "Alright, now talk!" She shoved the golden ring that had been hanging from her neck for the entire chase in my face. "What is this, and where did you get it?"

"It's a Ring of Scorchero. Duh." I kept my voice level, almost taking on a bored tone. As you know I'm usually a pretty funny guy, but right now I wasn't in the mood for jokes. Or laughing.

Dash took that as an admission of guilt. "See?!" she told her friends. "I was right! He's probably spying on us for Caballeron, who's plotting to get his revenge right now!" She poked me with a hoof multiple times. "Isn't that right?"

"Nope."

"I told you! He's- wait, what?" She stared at me, confused, which I almost found amusing.

"I never lied to you girls, you know. I just never told you the full truth. In fact, I was surprised none of you recognized me from the Fortress of Talacon back in Tenochtitlan. I'm just here to start a new life and leave the past behind. Is that too much to ask?"

Rainbow was starting to sputter, losing ground to my argument. "But what about the ring?"

I shrugged. "What about it? I picked it up while the fortress was collapsing, and decided to keep it as a memento. It's not like it belonged to anypony anymore." Wiggling my hooves, I held them out towards Applejack. "Now can you please untie me? The rope is starting to chafe."

Luckily for me, she complied, either satisfied with my answers or just believing I wasn't going to go running anywhere again. I hoped it was both. "Sorry 'bout that, Jungle," she said, offering a hoof to help me up. "Seems this was just one big misunderstandin'."

Apologies of similar caliber spewed from the rest of the ponies nearby, save for Rainbow Dash who just crossed her hooves while hovering above the ground. I rubbed the back of my neck with a hoof, feeling a bit awkward now. "Look, this is on me. I should have been honest and told you about the ring and my past from the start, but I was too afraid of what you would think of me. I'm sorry."

A few seconds passed as we stared awkwardly at each other. "Oh, and Rainbow Dash?" I added on. "Please don't break into my house again."

"Yeah yeah," she answered, swinging me my ring back. "I get it, don't touch your stuff."

The snark in her voice caused me to smirk a little. "Just don't touch my stuff without asking first. So, if that's all, can we head back to Ponyville? It's getting a bit late now." I pointed towards the sun in the distance, which was very clearly setting now.

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, it's been a long day, hasn't it? C'mon girls, let's head back." And so, as a group, we began the short walk back to Ponyville. Or, in Pinkie's case, the bounces back to Ponyville.

My house was the closest to the bridge, so we stopped there first. "Well, I can't say today was fun, but it was certainly interesting. I'll see all of you tomorrow, alright?"

"Okie, bye!" Pinkie started waving rapidly at me as I opened the door and stepped back into the now-familiar comfort of home. "Oh, by the way, did you like the couch I gave you? Did you? Did you?!"

I froze. "Yes, Pinkie, I like it," I finally responded. "Thanks for the couch."

"Anything for a friend! Okay now bye for real this time!" And on that note, I shut the door, and slumped to the floor.

Today was too much. Everything today was too much. But I did it, I had confronted them about my past and gotten my ring back. Ignoring the rest of the day of me running away, of course. At this point, with how tired I suddenly was with the rush of today finally taking its toll, I was half-zombie as I got back up to hang the ring back where it belonged before taking a seat on the couch. Finally, with that out of the way, my adventure was over.

I mean sure, there might be other stuff going on, but there couldn't be anything the scale of that happening again. I was sure of that.

Or at least I hoped I was. But right before I passed out right then and there in my living room, the only illumination coming from a single lamp in the room, I noticed one last thing on the table a few feet away.

The book, the very one I had stolen from the Canterlot Library, was vibrating.

The Pact

The sun shined through the window as I awoke on the couch, hitting my eyes and making me wince as I moved a hoof to block it out. Darn Celestia, having to raise the sun at this hour. Couldn't I just have five more minutes of sleep before having to start another hard day of most likely doing nothing?

Well, I guess there was that book thing I had to investigate too, but that could wait until-

Oh wait, it is tomorrow now.

This absolutely stunning revelation caused me to fall off my couch and onto the hard floor, landing on my side and sending a spike of pain up my spine. The next several minutes were spent hissing out loud while rolling on the floor, which may have been a little over the top. But hey, it doesn't matter if nopony is around to see it, right?

Or maybe that makes it even stupider. I didn't know, and I didn't want to think too hard about it either.

After my award-winning semi-acting was over, I pulled myself onto all fours and trotted over to the book, still sitting where I had left it on the table. It had stopped vibrating, which was nice, but that didn't mean that I wasn't still going to treat it like a bomb. For all I knew, opening it now could unleash horrors untold upon all of Equestria, dooming ponykind to a new age of darkness and despair.

I, however, am not a pony who knows how to disarm a bomb, or a magical artifact, and so just decided to get it over with and open the cover up. Darkness did not spill out of the pages, which was a relief. I guess ponykind would live another day.

As I turned the pages, everything seemed exactly as I remembered it. The words still looked the same, though I couldn't tell for sure being honest. All the pages of writing were still pages of writing, up until my single line of ink and the sizable splotch of ink I had spilled yesterday, which fortunately only seemed to have bled through a few pages.

Something caught my eye just as I was about to close the book again, however. On the very next page past where the ink bled, there were words. Words that were definitely not there before when I had read the book in the Canterlot Library. There were only a few of them, and it looked like a question from the symbol at the end of it. The hoofwriting was very neat and formal as well.

And that's when my brain decided to turn its gears for once in my life. This wasn't just a normal magical book. It was a book of magical letters. Somepony somewhere could write letters, which would show up here to be read by somepony else. It likely worked the other way around too.

So basically, I had messed up real bad and now had a probably-annoyed pony on the other end waiting for a response I couldn't give.

Oh boy.

I weighed the options I had at this point, many of which weren't that great. I could try to put the book back where I found it the next time I visited Canterlot, but with how much I had already tampered with it that was unlikely to solve my problems. Theoretically, I could come clean directly to Princess Celestia, but that didn't exactly seem like the best idea either. Telling Twilight would get her in a fit and lead to the same problem as Celestia, given how she would almost certainly send her a message about it. And telling any of Twilight's friends would have them tell Twilight, which keeps leading back to the first problem.

What I needed was somepony I could trust, who was reliable and close by. Somepony who knew what they were doing, but could also keep a secret. A reliable, dependable and most importantly, friendly somepony.

...Yep, I knew absolutely nopony who fulfilled all of those requirements. But I did know one who was close to them, so I would have to settle for that. Shoving the book back into my worn saddlebag, I readjusted my hat for probably the millionth time this week before heading back out into the streets of Ponyville.

By now I was a regular sight to the locals, so most just gave their standard friendly wave as I passed by. And I, the ever courteous gentlestallion, either tipped my hat or waved back, depending on what I was feeling. A few still gave me an odd look after what had happened yesterday, but that was fine. I couldn't blame them.

After all, I would probably be doing the same thing if I had seen a stallion run down the streets while being chased by a bunch of mares.

My destination was a familiar one; the Golden Oaks Library. I needed the help of one of its residents, and a quick knock on the door revealed exactly who I was looking for. "Hello, Spike," I said, looking around inside the library. "Twilight wouldn't happen to be here, would she?"

Spike shook his head. "Nope, she's out getting the girls ready to fix up the Castle of the Two Sisters. Do you need her for something? She should be back soon..."

"No no," I quickly answered, "that's fine. I actually needed your help, Spike."

"My help? For what?"

I opened my mouth to respond but failed to find the right words to adequately explain what I needed. "Can I come inside first?" I finally decided on asking.

"What? Oh, yeah, sorry." He got out of the way and let me into the library, closing the door behind me. I noticed the slight bags under his eyes and his yawn as he walked to the central table, taking a seat on a stool.

"You look tired," I commented, grabbing my own seat next to him.

The dragon just nodded. "Yeah, I stayed up late last night reading the new Power Ponies issue I got back in Canterlot. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Okay," I commented, shrugging. "If you say so."

A few moments of awkward silence followed. "So, about that help I needed," I finally said, pulling out the book from my saddlebag. "It's pretty simple. There's this book I have, and I need you to one of the pages for me. I think it might be magical, since the words on it definitely weren't there when I first saw the pages it's on."

Spike's eyes widened as he saw the cover. "Isn't that Celestia's cutie mark?" He stared at me, with an expression somewhere between surprise, worry and confusion. "Where did you find this?"

"Not important." I flipped to the page right past my unfortunate accident and pointed at the words printed there with a hoof. "Read, please."

"Fine, fine." Grabbing the book to get a better look, he cleared his throat before beginning to read. "Princess Celestia? Is that you?" Lowering the piece of literature, Spike's eyes were even wider than they were before. "Jungle, I don't think this is yours."

I snatched it back from him. "I don't think it's mine either," I grumbled as I set it back down open on the table. "Right, well, this isn't exactly the situation I had hoped for, but we'll have to make due. Spike, I'll need you to write a response."

All Spike did was fold his arms at me. "Nuh-uh, I'm not getting into something like this. You stole this book from Princess Celestia, didn't you? And why don't you just write it yourself?"

"Yes, I did steal it, okay?" I said, gritting my teeth. "And that's not important, so could you just write what I tell you to?"

"You can't just dodge the question like that! If you want it written so badly then why don't you do it?"

"BECAUSE I'M ILLITERATE, OKAY?"

My outburst silenced Spike, as I breathed heavily while glaring at him. That anger quickly subsided into both regret and melancholy, as I sat back down again. "I can't read or write. I was never taught how in Tenochtitlan. That's why I brought this for you." I looked up at him. "That's why I need your help."

Spike's jaw hit the floor. "Wait, so let me get this straight," he started, presumably after he had gotten over the shock of my admission. "You've never read a book? Like, ever?"

"Never."

"Wow." Spike entered a deep state of contemplation, which I could tell from the fact that his face looked like it was thinking really hard. "Wait, why don't you just ask Twilight to read this? Why me?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Spike, Princess Twilight literally lives in a library. Do you have any idea what she would do or how she would act if she found out I couldn't read?"

"Oh... fair point."

"This has to just be between you and me. I know I'm asking for a lot, and I'm going to owe you for this one. But somepony on the other end of that book is expecting a response, and you're the only one I trust to give one."

Well, that technically wasn't true. I knew a few other ponies who I could sort of trust, but not a single one was reasonably reachable at this point in time. That made it a little true, and hey, it made Spike feel a little better about it. Or at least, he looked like he felt better about it.

"Alright, I'll do it," Spike finally said, pulling out a quill. Where did he get those things anyway? It was like he always had one close by whenever Twilight said to write something down. "Just tell me what you want me to write."

Taking a deep breath, I mentally sent a quick thank you to whoever was watching before going over what I wanted to say. It needed to be concise, but not too concise. Blunt, but not too blunt. Truthful, but not- you get the idea. Ink was permanent, so I was only going to get one chance at this.

But right as I was going to open my mouth to speak, there was a knock at the door.

If I had liquid in my mouth I would have spewed it. Spike dropped the quill and almost fell from the stool while I rushed over to the book and slammed it shut before shoving it quickly into my worn saddlebag. Just the second after I had regained my composure the door opened, and I absolutely expected it to be Princess Twilight.

Nope, it was just some random pony.

"Oh, hey Beacon," Spike said, obviously familiar with them. "Do you need something?"

The stallion nodded. "Yeah, just a copy of Rules for Bodyguards. Do you have one?"

Spike immediately went over to a shelf and picked one off the second level. "Here you go, just make sure to return it by the end of the week. I'll tell Twilight when she comes back."

"Thanks Spike!" And just like that, the door was shut and the newcomer was gone.

"He's a regular," Spike explained as he walked back over to the central table, readjusting his stool and climbing back on it. "You're really jumpy, you know that?"

I scoffed. "I am not," I denied, before thinking it over for a few seconds. "Okay, maybe a little bit, but that's not a bad thing! It kept me safe back in Tenochtitlan."

The dragon shrugged. "We aren't in Tenochtitlan, but whatever. So, what were you gonna tell me to write?"

Oh yeah. I still needed to get that done. Semi-reluctantly pulling the book out for what must have been the fiftieth time this week, I reopened it back to the blank page and handed it to Spike. "Alright, so this is what I want you to write..."

...

Dear whoever is writing in this book,

I regret to inform you that I am not Princess Celestia, though I wish I was. It'd be really cool for me to control the- wait a minute, you're not supposed to be writing this! I was going through the Canterlot Library when I stole accidentally took your book with me. If I could return it right now I would, but unfortunately, I am not in a position to do so.

Should this book belong to you, I would be happy to return it if you want. Otherwise, feel free to send me more messages if you want. I'll respond to them whenever I can.

From, Jungle Trek

...

"...That's it?" Spike asked me. "That's all you want me to write?"

I looked at him indignantly. "Well what else did you expect me to write? I don't know anything about this pony, I don't want to end up giving them a grudge against me or something! If they want to have a conversation they'll write back!"

He shrugged. "Whatever you say. Here's your book back. If they write back, just let me know and I'll find a time we can meet so I can read it and write back."

Nodding, I took the offered book and shoved it into my muzzle. Just kidding, it went back in the saddlebag, as usual. Right before I could say goodbye to Spike, however, I heard the door open behind me again. This time there was no knock, and my intuition served me well this time; it was Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh, hello Jungle. Sorry if you needed anything from me, I had to go get everypony ready to head through the Everfree Forest to get to the Castle of the Two Sisters. Speaking of that..." The mare turned to her assistant. "Are you ready to go, Spike?"

"Yep! I was just helping Jungle out with some things." He hopped off the stool but stopped before he took a single step forward, looking nauseated. I was about to ask if something was wrong when out from his mouth came magical smoke, which condensed into a scroll with a golden seal.

Sometimes I completely forgot that Spike also served as a direct mail line to Princess Celestia. I know it seems like one of those things you would remember, but trust me, in Ponyville you tend to get distracted by other things. Like Pinkie Pie. And wondering if Rainbow Dash stole your last mug of cider. You know, important stuff.

Spike unfurled the letter that he had just, uh, what would be the term? Magic-ed? Flamed? Whatever, the point was that he read the letter he had just gotten from the Princess. After a few seconds, he made a passing glance at me, which did absolutely nothing to help my nerves before saying the contents out loud for me and Twilight.

"Dear Twilight,

I regret to inform you that while you and I were busy in Canterlot, somepony has broken into the library and stolen a very important book. While the Royal Guard is working to track down the thief, I ask you to keep a lookout for it as well in Ponyville. Should you find it, please return it as soon as possible. It's something very close to me. Until then, continue with your work on the Castle of the Two Sisters as we continue the search from Canterlot."

Both Spike and I looked at each other at the same time. The situation just got a lot more precarious, and both of us knew it. For a moment I was worried that the dragon would sell me out, especially when Twilight turned to me and said, "Jungle, you didn't happen to take a book while you were gone in Canterlot, did you?" Her voice was deadly serious.

Maintaining my composure, I did my best to try and appear like my normal lighthearted self. "Come on, Twilight," I said, "does that really seem like something I would do? I know I don't have a great history when it comes to theft, but I wouldn't steal a book of all things. Too much work for no reward."

Twilight looked skeptical for a few moments before relenting. "I guess you're right," she admitted, and I gave a sigh of relief internally. "Well, if you see anypony suspicious either, make sure to tell me. We should all keep a lookout."

I gave a mock salute. "Of course, Princess," I declared in the best "guard" voice I could.

She just rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Spike, let's go tell the girls. We can explain on our way to the castle, anyway."

Twilight walked back out the door, and the dragon followed close behind. When he crossed the doorway, he looked back at me. I nodded at him, he nodded back, and at that moment a pact between us was made. It had no words, nor official terms, but we both knew it existed nonetheless.

Spike and I were in this together in the end. This was a secret between the two of us, and both of us would take the fall if it came to it. There was no backing out now, and both of us would do our best to keep this book, and admittedly my mistake, under wraps. And while the future was uncertain, there was one thing I was sure wasn't.

...The next few months were going to be long ones.

Author's Note

Take a look at the original fic mentioned, it's worth a read.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/486757/rules-for-bodyguards

Special thanks to ShiningBeacon for actually motivating me to finish the chapter.

Time Alone

Never in my life have I ever been glad to have been so completely wrong.

While I was expecting Twilight to be hot on my tail the following weeks, it turned out she was too busy dealing with other issues to even try anything of the sort. Soon after they made progress on renovating the Castle of the Two Sisters, a vampire fruit bat infestation had hit Sweet Apple Acres and they had to go solve that issue. It seemed to me like everything turned out fine in the end, though apparently something had happened with Fluttershy that I wasn't told of. I'm sure it wasn't anything important.

Right after that, Rarity had to go to Manehattan for some kind of fashion show. Twilight and all her friends were going with her, and for a second I had thought it would be a perfect time to meet up with Spike again to discuss the book more... until I realized he was leaving as well. That did mean I had a bunch of time to spend for myself, but at the same time, I couldn't do anything with the new writing that had shown up.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. Less than a day after that whole pact thing with Spike was made, a new message appeared in the book. Ever since then, I had tried to get Spike alone again to translate and write back, but no dice. And while I wasn't exactly on a time limit here, I didn't want to keep the pony on the other end waiting.

Fortunately for me, the perfect opportunity was presenting itself for me today. Rainbow Dash and the Ponyville team were going to Rainbow Falls to compete for the chance to participate in some competition called the "Equestria Games" or something. Twilight and the rest of her friends were also going to cheer her on.

All of her friends, except for Spike.

That was why both of us were standing at the station, waving at the train as it slowly left Ponyville station. As soon as it was out of sight, and more importantly out of earshot, I turned to the dragon standing next to me. "So, did you not get invited, or..." I asked, a bit hesitantly.

Spike just looked at me strangely. "Really? All I did was tell Twilight that I had plans to do stuff with you today, dude. She asked me if I had wanted to go."

I held my hooves up defensively. "Alright, jeez, I get it. Sorry for asking."

We stood there for a few moments. I stared at him, he stared back. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, and he did the same. "Well, this is awkward," I said.

"Yeah," Spike replied back.

"You want to head back to Twilight's place so you can take a look at the newest entry?"

"Sure."

"Cool." And that was that. We walked as a pair out of the train station, back across Ponyville to the Golden Oaks Library. The odd looks from before had already dissipated, probably from all the crazy stuff that this place seemed to attract. My shenanigans were old news at this point for the average Ponyvillian.

So, once we got to the library and I had shut the door behind us, I pulled out the good old journal and laid it out on the table, quickly flipping through the pages. "Honestly, with how long we've taken to get together again, I'm surprised I haven't gotten another message asking where I've been," I half-joked, trying to put a light mood in the air. Spike didn't take it, instead turning his attention straight to the passage.

"Ahem. 'Dear Jungle Trek, I don't know how you got your hands on this book, but I guess that doesn't matter anymore. With everything going on recently here, it's nice to have someone to talk to, even if it is just a pony from another world. My name is Sunset Shimmer, by the way...'" Spike trailed off.

"What?" I questioned, curious. "Also, what are hands?"

"Hands are- you know what, that's not important. Twilight and I know Sunset! Me and her went through this big magical portal in the Crystal Empire a while ago to get her crown back from her!" The dragon lifted a page of the book, looking at it from all angles. "But the portal closed a long time ago! I have no idea how Sunset is managing to get messages to us here."

"Wait wait wait," I said, holding a hoof up. "Let me get this straight. This 'Sunset Shimmer' is on the other side of a magical portal that doesn't work anymore, in an alternate world full of ponies, and you and Twilight met her in that alternate world to get her crown back." I lowered my eyebrows. "Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?"

Spike shrugged. "Hey, you get used to it. Also, it's a world full of humans, not ponies. They walk on two legs and have these weird 'hand' things, and we spent the entire time there at a high school called Canterlot High. There were even versions of Twilight's friends too!"

...Yep. The universe officially did not make sense anymore.

After running mental gymnastics in my head for a few moments, I brought myself back to reality and lightly rubbed my hoof against one of the pages. "I don't know much about magical artifacts," I admitted, "or really magic in general. But if she expected Celestia to be on the other end-"

"Oh right, Sunset was Celestia's former student before Twilight!"

I turned to look exasperatedly at Spike. "Is there anything else I should know before I continue?"

He thought to himself for a second. "Nope, I think that's it."

"Okay. So, if Sunset was Celestia's former student, then I'm guessing these books were so that they could keep in touch. And whatever... magical connection the copies have must be breaking the... the fourth dimension or something, and allowing us to still write to each other."

"Twilight would have put it a lot smarter and more complicated, but yeah, that sounds like it."

Considering that Twilight put everything in a really smart and complicated way that not many other ponies did, I chose to take that as a compliment. Well, it was either that or admitting that I probably had really low bars for compliments, which I definitely did not want to do. Not that my self-esteem needed any reinforcing, or anything, since I was of course the greatest henchpony to ever walk Equestria.

...

...Anyway. I pointed a hoof at the open page, motioning towards it with my head. "Well, while that solves a lot of questions I have, it sounded like you didn't finish what was written on it. Do you mind if you, uh..."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Spike rubbed the back of his head with a claw before turning back to read the rest of the text. "'...My name is Sunset Shimmer, by the way. I wish we could meet in person, but with how things are over here, I don't think we can do that any time soon. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'll always be here, even if I'm kind of new to this whole "friendship" thing. Anyway, I need to go, so I'll talk to you later! Your new friend, Sunset Shimmer."

I put my hoof to my chin in a thinking gesture. "Is the second time saying her name redundant, or..."

Spike rolled his eyes. "It's how you write a letter, Jungle. You did it too when you responded to her."

"Yeah, but I didn't introduce myself before that point, so it made sense. She already said her name this time, so I don't know why she'd need to again."

Clearly unable to find a flaw in my unbreakable argument, Spike shook his head and turned back to the book, flipping through to early pages to read the letters on them. I knew I probably should have stopped him, considering it was neither his nor my book, and it might have had things Sunset or Celestia didn't want anyone else to read, but I was too busy thinking about what my newfound friend from another dimension had said.

The whole 'can't meet' thing made sense, since Spike had mentioned some kind of portal closing after he and Twilight had apparently gone to the other world. But there were two pieces that fit together in a weird way. The phrases 'new to friendship' and 'nice to have someone to talk to' insinuated that she either got a few new friends who were "humans", or whatever Spike had called them, or that she was trying and failing. I really hoped it was the former, because the latter... would be kind of depressing.

But how could Sunset be new to friendship? Even I wasn't new to friendship, I mean I had friends before coming to Ponyville. Well, kind of. I mean they were more "colleagues" than anything, and Doctor Caballeron was our employer first and anything else second, and everypony else in Tenochtitlan were basically all enemies...

Okay, maybe Sunset had a fair point on saying that. She had stolen Twilight's crown, which effectively guaranteed she was both on the wrong side of Equestria and that she had no respect for property rights, not that I had much respect for that either until I gave up the henchpony life. But still, something didn't add up.

And to give up something like being Celestia's student, you either had to have a major grudge or be a massive prick. Or both. Both were possible too. There was clearly a piece I didn't know about that was missing, but I didn't know what. And I sure as Celestia wasn't about to go asking about it.

"Wow, Sunset sure went to a lot of places when she was Princess Celestia's student." Spike's comment snapped me out of my introspection, causing me to look up to him offering me the journal again. I took it as he started talking again. "Manehattan, Hollow Shades, Tenochtitlan... from this it sounds like she went all over Equestria!"

"Tenochtitlan?" I rubbed my chin with a hoof. "Huh. Maybe I saw her while I was there? What does she look like?"

Spike thought for a moment before beginning to list things off with a claw. "Well, she's yellow-orange, a unicorn, has a yellow and red mane and tail, and red magic. She has this sort of, uh sun kind of thing for a cutie mark? I dunno how to describe it." I raised an eyebrow at him, causing the dragon to just fold his arms and stare at me.

"Meh, doesn't matter. I've never met any kind of pony like that in my life. I guess she probably stopped by while I was somewhere else off adventuring or something. The basin is a big place, after all."

"Yeah..." Spike trailed off, probably not sure how to continue. And neither did I, to be fair. The atmosphere getting uncomfortable, I took a seat in the chair closest to me, Spike doing the same across from me. We sat looking at each other, just sort of staring into each other eyes.

I blinked first.

"So, about earlier..." I said, rubbing my neck with a hoof anxiously. "I'm sorry for assuming that you weren't invited and all, I just... I'm not really used to things around here, you know? It used to be that it was every pony for themself unless you had a group job or something."

He took a few seconds to respond. "Yeah, it's fine," Spike finally answered. "I don't blame you for assuming that."

"What do you mean?"

The dragon sighed, holding his head up with his claws as he slouched over. "It just kind of feels like I'm left out, you know? Like I'm the sidekick. The adventure in my Power Ponies comic helped show me that I'm still important to everypony, but still..."

"...You still have a feeling like you don't belong, or that they leave you behind?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Oh boy. The situation had escalated from awkward to kind of sad now. And trust me, I was not the pony you wanted when it came to being mushy about feelings or talking things out. At the very least, I had some experience in this type of thing, so I got off my chair and sat down on the floor next to Spike.

"Look, Spike," I said, making sure to choose all my words very carefully for once. "I'm not going to try and pretend to understand what you're going through. I mean, you're a dragon and I'm a pony; you're Twilight's assistant and I was Doctor Caballeron's henchpony. We don't exactly have that much in common. But I can give you some advice, at least."

"Yeah?"

I nodded sagely like I was one of the ancient wizards of old. I may know when to be serious, but I wasn't going to be too serious. "Don't worry about what others are doing. There's always going to be somepony better than you, and that's okay. I mean, unless you're Princess Celestia I guess; everyone seems to think she's perfect or something. But you just gotta keep moving, and do the best that you can, you know? Everyone's time comes eventually."

Spike looked at me. "Has yours come yet?"

Thinking for a moment, I shook my head. "I don't think so. I mean, maybe moving here was my big moment, but I gotta hold out hope that there's something more to me than just stealing some artifacts or making a few new friends. Maybe I'll be the hero sometime." I gave a small chuckle, smiling to myself. "Those mares certainly have their hero quotas filled and then some."

"Oh yeah, those girls save Equestria all the tim-" I interrupted him with a yawn, causing the dragon to look at me strangely. "Dude, how are you tired already? The sun's not even close to setting!"

"Well I, uh..." I rubbed an eye with my hoof. "I stayed up late last night looking at the stars and all that, so I'm a little tired. It's so much easier here than it is in Tenochtitlan, you know, since there's no jungle."

"You should probably get some sleep. It doesn't look like Sunset's going to be responding anytime soon."

I looked at the book. "Yeah, you're probably right," I conceded, getting up. "Hey, do you want to stargaze with me sometime? Living out as a henchpony means you sleep outside a lot, and the sky at night is really nice if you get a good view-"

"No thanks," he responded quickly. "Trust me, Twilight's already done a ton of that. I don't think I need any more time looking at stars."

It was only at that point that I remembered that Twilight owned a telescope. "Oh, right," I said, giving an awkward smile. "Well, uh, it was nice talking to you again, Spike. I'll, uh, let you know if another message pops up, alright?"

He gave a mock salute. "Yes, sir! And, uh, Jungle?" I turned from the doorway to see Spike standing there, looking at me. "Thanks for the talk, and everything."

I hesitated. "Yeah, sure," I finally said. "No problem." I gave one last wave before closing the door behind me, taking a deep breath and starting to walk down the street. I pulled out the journal I had about halfway down it, looking at the image of Celestia's sun on the cover.

"Sunset Shimmer, huh?"

Colors of Loyalty

Being a farmer was nice.

Well, it probably wasn't nice all the time. I was used to waking up at dawn already, but it certainly wasn't preferred. And I was pretty sure that there was more to it than just kicking trees. But personally, at least for the moment, watching the apples all fall into the buckets below was incredibly cathartic.

I was no Applejack, but I was adequate, and that was good enough for me.

Right, so maybe a bit of context on why I was working at Sweet Apple Acres was needed. After the revelations that were the pony on the other side of the book, things had remained quiet for a few days. And I don't just mean "quiet for Ponyville", I mean it was genuinely peaceful. The journal remained silent, which had been a bit disappointing, but there were also no crazy adventures that those mares were going on all the time. It was just us living our normal lives again, or about as normal as ponies like Pinkie Pie could live. But given how things usually went, I was just trying to relax and enjoy the peace as best I could before it was inevitably broken.

Unfortunately, such peace had forced me to come to a terrible realization of my own, that being that my bits stockpile was running low. Years of experience had allowed me to live a relatively frugal lifestyle, but even a resourceful and clearly brilliant adventurer like myself had to buy things sometimes. And with my henchpony and theft life over, I knew I couldn't just wait until the next job from the Doctor back in Tenochtitlan.

I would have to find actual employment.

That was a problem for multiple reasons. Under normal circumstances, it was obvious that I would make an excellent employee. My hours were flexible, I wasn't that lazy, and I had quick wits for any similarly-quick problems. However, there was still the glaring issue that jobs usually required the pony to be literate, which as I'm sure you know, was a bit of an issue in my case, particularly since I wasn't keen on the secret getting out.

So, the only options left to me were to find jobs that both did not require me to read anything to apply, and that did not require reading in the job itself. It was a bit difficult, to be honest. Why couldn't ponies think of the illiterate in society? I had to think of some task, some sort of manual labor that was simple and verbally communicated, that could be done by any sort of pony with four working legs.

A job where my earth pony skills could come in handy...

Yeah, I'm sure you can see where this was going.

Applejack had been fairly understanding about the situation. The farm had needed an extra hoof for a while, and even though she made clear that the pay wasn't much, the farmer knew how much I didn't want to just ask around and freeload for bits from friends. There technically was a case to be made that my entire last occupation was stealing from other people in Tenochtitlan, which is much worse than freeloading, but that was different. Those artifacts were just sitting in their temples, collecting dust. At least I, or perhaps a better description would be the Doctor was putting them to some use.

Use filling our bags of bits to spend on more important things! Fish gotta swim, ponies gotta eat.

But anyway, we had settled my new employment with a spit-covered hoofshake, which while slightly disgusting was what I assumed was an earth pony thing. Today was actually my first day on the job, and I was trying to make a good impression to the entire Apple Family.

However, as I carried the literal fruits of my labor back to a wooden cart nearby, my incredibly observant nature caught something strange. A cloud, roughly the size of a few ponies was floating overhead, alone. One which I could have sworn wasn't there before. I narrowed my eyes, my brain running through all the possibilities.

Acting on a pure hunch, I yelled out "I see you, Rainbow Dash!" There was a not-insignificant chance that I would just look like an idiot, but not this time. A pair of magenta eyes appeared above the white fluff, following a prismatic mane and teal coat.

"Is he gone?" she asked, eyes darting back and forth.

My expression was one of disappointment as I sighed. "If you mean Discord, yes, he's presumably gone," I answered tiredly. "Nice job leaving your friends out to dry back there, by the way."

"Hey, I'd do almost anything for my friends, but putting up with him when I don't have to isn't one of them." The only response I gave was a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Element of Loyalty, huh?"

The look of exasperation I got could have won awards, and probably did. "Come on, are you really gonna-" She stopped for a moment, realization setting across her face. "This is still about the ring, isn't it?"

I shrugged. "I'm still a little annoyed by that, yeah."

Right, right, I hear you. More context. So, I'm sure you're wondering by now where Applejack herself actually was. The answer was in her bed getting over a sickness, and it wasn't one that was her fault. It was entirely on one creature, which I'm sure is obvious who.

If you guessed Discord, congratulations. Fluttershy had just left for some sort of important event elsewhere in Equestria, as part of the "Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures". Personally, I had never heard of it, but it sounded like something that would exist so I didn't question it either.

Initially, everything had been going well. She left without any major complications, Cadence arrived soon after to greet Twilight for a visit, I argued with Rarity a bit as usual, and Applejack was showing off her violently country mannerisms. The two Princesses had walked off to see a museum exhibit it took me about five seconds to forget about, and Applejack and I were just about to head back to the farm to start our work.

And then he arrived.

Discord turned out to be sick with something called the Blue Flu, which I had to admit was accurately named. He was definitely a shade of blue, or cerulean if you wanted to be particular like Rarity. We had wanted him gone and nowhere near us, but he didn't seem very keen on listening. The situation had only continued to escalate until Rainbow Dash had bailed on us, Pinkie Pie was distracted and ran off, and both Rarity and Applejack had caught the same sickness Discord had.

Seeing both of the mares blue was a bit amusing, it was true. What was less amusing was having to help Applejack get back to the farm without catching the flu myself, which did take a bit of effort. Rarity seemed to have better luck moving herself so I let her be, plus I didn't think she'd appreciate my assistance very much. Technically I should have been more worried about Discord going off after Twilight now, but that was her problem, not mine.

Still, you should get now why I was still a little peeved at Rainbow Dash.

"Come on! I thought we were over that by now!" The rainbow mare dropped her hooves in emphasis, letting them hang as she flew downwards until she hovered only a hoof or two off the ground.

I shook my head, a small reason why being disbelief. "Dash, you literally broke into my house and stole the one valuable thing I had. Just because we aren't enemies anymore doesn't mean I can just forget about it."

"But I was right!"

"Right about what?" I challenged. "That I was employed by somepony you didn't like? That I was paid to fight somepony you admired? We can't all be heroes, Rainbow Dash. We all need to live our lives, and sometimes that means being the villain in someone else's story." Wincing at my own statement, I quickly turned away, moving to continue moving the apples back towards the barn. "I'm working a normal job now, anyway."

The sound of hooves finally touching the ground emanated from behind me, as did the faint noises of hooves tentatively following me. "Speaking of that," she said hesitantly, which given that it was Rainbow Dash was a rare occurrence, "what are you doing working at Sweet Apple Acres anyway? And where's Applejack?"

Rainbow Dash's question only got a grunt out of me at first. "Sick in her room. After you left Discord got her. I'm getting paid to cover for and help her on the farm since I need the bits." I was mentally slapping myself the moment the last part fell out of my mouth.

"Oh." Not very tactful, but still a bit more than I expected out of her. "You need money? I mean, the weather team pays a lot, and I don't need all the-"

"I am not a freeloader," I said firmly, and perhaps a bit more harshly than I intended. I half-expected Rainbow Dash to recoil a bit from my response, but she took it in stride.

"Of course not! Look, I still owe you for the whole "ring" thing, so how about we go grab something at Sugarcube Corner? It'll be on me."

My first instinct was to reject it again, but I paused. A break at this point did seem a bit nice, and if she was paying for it... "Alright, fine," I finally relented. "Just let me finish up here and I'll take a break."

"Cool! See you there!" And in a single rainbow that trailed off into the sky, she was gone. Shaking my head, already getting the sinking feeling that I was going to regret this, I turned my head again and put my focus back on the task at hand.

The apples weren't moving themselves, after all.

"Here you go!" Pinkie Pie cheerfully handed both of us our drinks before bouncing off, grabbing more food to pass out to other customers. It seemed that she had already completely forgotten about the incident from earlier today, instead being her normal, crazy self without a single red balloon in sight. I wasn't too fazed by it; all my attention was solely on trying to make sure things didn't get awkward between me and the mare across the table.

On her part, Rainbow Dash was very much failing at trying to remain normal in many senses of the word. I could occasionally catch her fidgeting as she held her milkshake in her hooves, her eyes torn between rapidly looking everywhere but me and staring at me.

I paid her no heed since personally, I didn't care how the conversation went. I was just in it for the free drinks.

"So..." the teal pegasus finally said, for once clearly out of her element. "How was it?"

"How was what?"

Rainbow Dash waved a hoof around in a circle, finding the right words. "You know... being an adventurer! Getting to fight Daring Do and all that. Was it exciting?"

Now that question required a bit more than a simple yes or no, even if it would have technically been adequate. Proceeding to take a large sip out of my chocolate milkshake, at least twenty percent of my brain activated as I thought up a vaguely satisfactory response.

"Well, having you watch as I got my flank handed to me wasn't very enjoyable," I started, leaning backwards in my chair as I tipped my hat up. "And given the stories that she's probably written, you've probably figured out that it happened often after she and Doctor Caballeron started fighting over artifacts. But other than that..." Staring off into the distance, I lost myself in the moment for a while. "Avoiding traps, dodging boulders... yeah, it was fun sometimes. When you're actually exploring one of those temples, there's never a dull moment. It got a bit old, which is why I'm here now, but it was exciting while it lasted."

"Cool." She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, her wings ruffling themselves a bit. "Sorry about cheering for Daring Do back in the Fortress of Talacon too. Guess I was just too excited getting to see her, you know?"

I blinked, confused for a second. "Oh, that," I said, finally realizing what she was referring to. "To be honest, I had completely forgotten. It was kind of strange seeing you around there, but I didn't know Daring Do had actually written books about her adventures too."

"What, are you gonna write your own?"

The sheer absurdity of the question made me break into a smirk, despite Rainbow Dash not knowing why I found it humorous. "Believe me, I'm no writer," I said back, more honesty in those words than most would expect. "And I like living in the present, not thinking about the past. Can't get stuck in mistakes we've made, especially since I've made a lot of them."

Rainbow blinked. "Like what?"

"Like accidentally finding a secret part of a library and reading a book that doesn't belong to you but then you spill ink all over it and you don't want anyone to find out so you just take the book and hide it somewhere but it turns out it's Princess Celestia's and now you can't give it back because you're afraid she'll be mad at you?" Both of us looked at Pinkie Pie with various levels of incredulity. I hadn't even noticed she had come over again.

"Where did you get that idea from?!" I asked, perhaps a little too defensively to not be suspicious.

Pinkie only shrugged. "Just a guess!"

Meanwhile, my multicolored pegasus friend nervously laughed. "Ha, nice one Pinkie. But it's not like Jungle here would ever steal from Princess Celestia of all ponies, right?" She looked at me, evident on her face that she hoped I would agree with her, that it was all wrong. And I wanted to tell her what she wanted to hear, I really did. But Pinkie saying the truth out loud already made me want to just come clean, at least for these two. There was still absolutely no way I was going to tell Twilight, at least not yet. I wanted to keep all my limbs intact. But maybe if I got two of her friends on my side at least, when the time inevitably came for her to find out, I could soften the blow a bit.

I sighed. Life was hard. "Well... I didn't do it on purpose," I responded, much to the absolute horror of Rainbow Dash.

"You WHAT?!"

"Listen, it was a total accident and I didn't know what else to do-"

The pegasus was too busy hyperventilating, looking at me with an equal mixture of shock, terror and anger. "You can't just steal from Princess Celestia! Do you have any idea what could happen? She could be looking for you right now!"

"Well technically it's the Royal Guard that's looking for it-"

"That's not any better!" I had never seen Rainbow Dash look so frustrated before. I had seen her angry, back during the ring incident, but this was something else. It was like she was at her wit's end with me. "What kind of book did you even take?"

I instinctively reached back for my saddlebag, only to realize that I had left the book back at my house. It was the sane and logical thing to do, but I guess I had just gotten used to its weight that I still expected it to be hanging there. After a second of annoyance at myself, I thought up a way to explain. "So, have you heard of a pony named Sunset Shimmer?"

"Uh, yeah. Duh." Her attitude shift was a bit insulting, with how I had just found out who she was, but I brushed it aside given the circumstances. "She stole Twilight's crown and went into some portal that Twilight had to chase after her for. But what does she have to do with a book?"

"Everything. It turns out she was a former student of Princess Celestia, and that they used this book to talk to each other while she was away. She can see whatever I write in it, and I see anything she writes from across the portal."

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, looking more confused and intensively thinking than annoyed for a moment. "Well why didn't Twilight get one of those, then? Oh wait, Spike." Her momentary lapse in thought resolved, the mare turned her attention back to me. "You're gonna tell Twilight about this though, right?"

My head shook rapidly in denial. "Are you crazy?" I asked, which looking back was probably not the best question in that situation. "Twilight would go straight to Celestia assuming she doesn't kill me first, and I'd rather not have to explain how I ended up with a stolen book."

"But you have to tell her eventually!"

Eyes faltering, I looked down at the table, finally starting to break down from the argument. "I know," I said, conceding a bit of ground. "I can't keep it a secret forever. You taught me that well enough. But she doesn't need to know yet, and I'm not ready to tell her. I was barely even ready to tell you, and Pinkie practically said the whole thing for me!"

Said party pony waved excitedly at me from a few hoofsteps away, a wide smile plastered on her face. "You owe me anyway," I continued on, regaining steam and pointing a hoof at Rainbow Dash. "If you promise to keep this a secret until I'm ready, I'll forgive you for the ring thing."

Groaning loudly, Rainbow threw her hooves up into the air. "Fine!" she finally said, giving up. "I won't tell Twilight unless it's an emergency. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." The last phrase was accompanied by its own movements, a hoof crossed across her chest before covering an eye with a hoof.

"What are you doing?" I asked out of confusion.

"It's a Pinkie Promise!" Pinkie Pie bounced over to our table, finally putting full attention on our conversation. "And you can never ever ever break a Pinkie Promise! That's how you lose a friend forever!" She mimicked Rainbow Dash's movements, only this time shoving an actual cupcake into her eye.

Alright then. I guess it was another one of those "Ponyville" things. Or maybe a 'Pinkie Pie and Friends' thing. Either way, she sounded serious about it, so it was probably good enough. "I'll take it," I said while shrugging before getting out of my chair. "Well, I would say it was nice talking with you two, but... yeah. Probably should get back to work on the farm."

"Oh, and Rainbow Dash?" The mare looked up at me expectantly. I gave a smug smirk back at her. "If you ever need the real stories instead of those Daring Do books, feel free to ask me sometime. I can tell you an adventure better than that 'hero' ever could."

She only responded with a smirk of her own. "We'll see about that, Jungle." That smile plastered on her face almost made me do the same, until I saw it quickly fade as she looked behind me, eyes widening. "Uh oh..."

I looked behind me to see a very angry and a very no-longer-blue Applejack. 'Uh oh' was definitely the right term for that. "Just what do y'all think you're doing?!" she asked, mostly to me. "You think me catching a cold means you can skip out on helping the farm?"

"It'sherfaultdon'tblameme!' I said quickly, pointing at Rainbow Dash trying to throw her under the bus. It didn't seem to work, as the farmer's dirty glare remained fixated on only myself.

"You're the one supposed to be helpin' out, not her! Now come on, break time's over!" With a single swing of her lasso, she caught both of my hind legs and pulled me to the ground, tugging and dragging me across the earth away from Sugarcube Corner. I tried waving a hoof at the two slowly receding ponies before my chin hit a rock and my vision immediately started blurring.

The last thing I saw was the vague outlines of teal and pink shapes waving their hooves back at me, one much faster than the other.

Spells to Inspire

"So, what do you need me for again?" I asked Spike while perusing through the various dusty tomes on the bookshelves, taking a look at the covers and pretending to be able to read the titles. While a help I wanted to be, a good looker for books I was not. It's why libraries were up there as some of the most boring places for me, along with empty rooms and large deserts.

Spike sighed, putting his book back where it belonged on the shelf. "We're trying to find something that can help Rarity make something in time for the fair. You're the only one I could trust to keep this quiet since I don't want Twilight finding out I was here alone." The dragon paused. "Though I know you can't be much help, since, you know..."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But look at you, going behind Twilight's back." He couldn't see my slight smile since my own back was turned to him, but I was sure he got the idea. "Heading out to the Castle of the Two Sisters with just a friend and an owl, looking for something useful like a true adventurer. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I'm rubbing off on you!" When I looked up after finishing my little comment, I saw said owl staring down at me, looking quite annoyed. Probably. It was hard to tell. "Fine, two friends," I corrected, grumbling.

"Well we're not looking for something for me, we're looking for Rarity," Spike responded, a bit exasperated. I didn't blame him very much; it had already seemed like we had been searching for hours. "As her favorite dragon, it's up to me to come through for her in her time of need! And I can't let her down!" I saw him hop on a ladder and roll down towards the other end of the bookshelf, pulling out yet more spellbooks to look through.

Getting back down from the stool I was standing on, I followed him down the aisle, shrugging. "Personally I wouldn't use a spell to solve a problem like Rarity's, but what do I know? I'm not a unicorn." Blinking, I stopped before backing up a bit. "Hey, wait a minute..."

That got Spike's attention. "Did you find anything?" he asked, hurriedly getting down from his ladder and walking over. I was staring at a single book, nondescript and lonely upon its shelf. Spike looked at it from all angles, seeing if there was anything special about it. "Jungle, this isn't even a spellbook," he said finally. "How is this going to help us or Rarity?"

"It's not," I answered flatly. "But look at it. It's standing all alone on the bookshelf. Books don't usually do that. Which means..." I tried pulling on the book, not surprised in the slightest when it hinged backwards like a secret lever. In fact, it even gave me flashbacks to my incident in the Canterlot Library with the two books.

Good times, those were.

Much like any secret lever in a library ever, the trigger caused a nearby wall to slide away, revealing a locked gate. Behind it was an ominous staircase over a great chasm, the top of which held a pedestal with a single book. The cover looked to be made of stone, and spikes formed a circle around the image of a star. "Bingo," I said, impressed with myself, which didn't happen often considering how used I was to my stunning greatness. Truly, I had outdone myself yet again.

Owlowiscious flapped his wings and gave a few warning hoots while Spike and I approached the new hidden room, our curiosity getting the better of both of us. "I'm guessing that's the kind of thing you're looking for?" I asked, preemptively assuming an affirmative response. "We'll have to find the key to unlock the gate first, though. Do you think it's still somewhere nearby?"

"We could go looking. Or, we could do this." Breathing in deeply, Spike exhaled fire all over the lock, causing it to glow orange before it melted off the hook keeping the gate shut. I blinked; sometimes I honestly forgot that he had those dragon abilities, despite still remembering he was a dragon. He wasn't helping me send letters through dragonfire, after all. That was a Twilight thing only.

Spike pulled the gate open, but I stuck a hoof out to keep him from walking forward. "Excellent work, Spike, but I believe this is a job a bit more suited for me. No offense." After probing the ground a bit to make sure it was solid, I began my trek up the stairs, being careful not to put too much weight on a single hoof. Bats flew around me and towards the now-open gate, doing little to dissuade me from reaching the top. Looking down into the endless void of darkness was a terrible idea, which is why I definitely did not do it. Nope. I was also absolutely not sweating or letting my eyes dart around before focusing on the prize in front of me.

Studying it a bit, the book seemed fairly normal, at least by magical artifact standards. It was certainly heavy, judging by its stone casing. Readying my hooves, I could hear Spike's teeth chattering from far behind me while Owlowiscious gave more hoots of alarm. Then, quick as thunder and fast as lightning, I grabbed the tome from its pedestal, sliding it into my saddlebag.

"See," I said as breezily as possible, "no problems at all. Piece of cake."

And it was only at that moment that I noticed Spike pointing at the ground beneath my hooves, and just a moment after that where I realized it was shaking and cracking. Yelping, I jumped upwards and forwards, getting off the platform and running down the stairs as fast as my legs would take me. The chunks of stone were falling into the abyss right behind me, and as I tripped near the bottom I just barely rolled out back into the library as the remainder of the staircase disappeared into the darkness. The stone slab that once hid the entrance slid back into place, making it seem like the hidden room was never there.

While I was still recovering from my tumble, Spike wasted no time snatching the book from my open saddlebag, flipping it open to the first page. "Inspiration Manifestation," he read aloud to both of us. "Instantly bring ideas to life!"

"That sounds like what we're looking for." I got up and brushed the dirt and dust off my clothes and hat before taking a closer look at our newfound spellbook. "But are we sure we want to give this one to Rarity? I mean, it's pretty obvious that whoever put that book there in the first place didn't want it easily found..."

Spike waved a claw dismissively. "Psh, it'll be fine. Rarity just needs a way to get something done for the fair! Besides, it's not like this is dark magic or anything like that."

"If you say so... Just remember, you're the one giving it to her, not me."

"Yeah. Duh." Now I was actually offended by that, considering I had just risked my life to get him that book, but considering he was still being my reader and all I let it slide this one time. It probably was only because Rarity was involved, anyway. Literally anypony could tell that Spike was madly in love. "Just promise not to tell anypony about this trip, okay? I can't have Twilight finding out."

I smirked. "Familiar much? Sure, I'll keep this secret. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Yeah, I still remembered that little thing that Pinkie Pie had shown me. It was weird though, having the feeling as if I had just signed a contract with my soul. I felt shivers crawl up my spine at the mere idea of breaking my word, the whispers of unimaginable punishment should such an act be committed. Ponyvillians weren't joking when they said it was the most unbreakable promise one could make.

"Thanks, Jungle."

"Don't mention it." Tipping my hat, I began walking away down the long hallway of bookshelves, before turning to look at the dragon one last time.

"No, but seriously, don't mention it. We both have secrets to keep now."

Being ever an optimist, I was really hoping that nothing bad would come of that book. Giving it to Rarity of all ponies didn't exactly inspire the most confidence, but surely Spike was reasonable. He'd stop things if they got out of hoof. He'd keep it under control.

My assumptions were immediately broken only a few hours after we had returned from the Everfree Forest by an owl slamming against my window. Being startled from the nap I was having on the couch, I almost fell on the floor before catching myself on all four hooves. Owlowiscious was flying outside, giving multiple hoots in an attempt to get my attention.

After taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and groaning heavily, I trotted over to the door and let Twilight's pet inside. "What is it this time?" I asked, even though I could make a pretty good guess what it was related to. "I was trying to get some extra sleep."

"Hoo."

"I don't speak owl." How Spike was able to get meaning from his hooting, I had no idea. Maybe it was just experience. Or educated guesses. Either way, I would need a non-verbal solution to whatever he was trying to tell me, and I thought of one pretty fast. "Look, why don't I just follow you and you take me to wherever you need me to go? I'm sure this has something to do with Spike and that book, right?"

"Hoo." That was definitely an affirmative hoot. Nodding, I grabbed my hat off of the stand on the wall (which I made myself as a home improvement, thank you for asking) before going out the door, making sure to close it behind me. Owlowiscious guided me down the street, taking me through an alleyway and out into one of the countless Ponyville courtyards.

And that was when I immediately saw the first problem.

Applejack and Granny Smith were busy staring at their apple cart, which I was fairly certain was not always made of solid gold and encrusted with jewels. Standing close by was Rainbow Dash, wearing a purple dress that she would absolutely never be caught out in the open with if she could. And there was only one pony I knew who would be able to pull off such horrors of fashion.

"Oh, hey Jungle," Applejack greeted as I made my way over, taking a closer look at the scene before me. "Say, do you have any idea what could have caused this? One minute I was selling apples as usual, and the next our cart turned into whatever this is!"

"Yeah! I was just trying to do my cloud-busting, when all of the sudden I was wearing this dress! I can't even take it off!"

I resisted the urge to laugh, which was quite a feat considering how Rainbow Dash looked. "I might have an idea," I said nonchalantly. "You see, a few hours ago-"

My sentence was interrupted by a familiar feeling. The chills crawling up my back, the dark sensation of a promise close to being broken. Darkness approaching, danger looming. I silently berated myself for my slip-up; both in almost breaking a Pinkie Promise and making one to Spike in the first place. I should have known better.

"...Yes?" Applejack prodded me forward, causing my voice to stutter for a second. "What happened a few hours ago?"

"Well, uh..." Backing away slowly, I got ready to make my quick escape from the awkward situation. "Actually, I just remembered I have something very important to do, so I'll talk to you later. Good luck finding out who did it!" Then, like any brave and daring adventurer obviously would, I turned around and galloped away from my two friends, Owlowiscious fortunately following close behind.

"Hoo."

I brushed the owl away. "Yeah yeah, I get it. Laugh it up. Just lead the way already."

The situation did not get any better from there. As we continued through Ponyville, the crimes that Rarity had left behind were on full display, as befitting of the fashionista. Fluttershy was busy trying to help a bird get out of an overly-elaborate birdhouse, and Pinkie Pie was attempting to fix a birthday party that looked more like a gala in Canterlot. Honestly, anypony who couldn't figure out the culprit from that alone might not have all their marbles in the right bag, if you get my drift.

Then again, I already knew who was behind it from the beginning, so maybe I wasn't the best pony to judge.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before I found at least one of the creatures I was looking for; Spike, dressed up in some overdone crystal costume, along with the Princess of the day, Twilight Sparkle. "Jungle!" the latter exclaimed, seeming a bit more enthusiastic about seeing me than usual. "Thank goodness you're alright. Have you seen anypony suspicious around?"

"Nope. I'm guessing you mean all the weird changes going around though, right?"

Twilight nodded. "Whatever's going on, it's making Ponyville fall into chaos! I've already had to help six different ponies out of dresses they said randomly appeared on them! It's only a matter of time before-"

"Princess Twilight!" Mayor Mare galloped over to our group, looking quite worried. "The gazebo has been turned into solid crystal, and two ponies are now trapped inside its walls!" The Princess nodded before flying off, the mayor following close behind on hoof.

A few seconds passed for that to sink in before I turned to look at my one remaining non-owl partner. "Spike, this is getting out of hoof. If Rarity keeps going somepony is going to get hurt, or worse. We need to stop her."

The dragon was having difficulty in just getting up with his heavy crystal attire, and I had to offer a hoof for assistance before he could respond. "But I promised Rarity that I'd keep the book a secret! If I break that promise, I'd lose her friendship forever!"

"Is that really a bad thing?" I thought to myself. I wouldn't say it out loud, since I knew Spike wouldn't be happy, but suffice to say that my opinion of the unicorn hadn't exactly gone up today. "Right," I said carefully, "so we have to stop Rarity together. Just you, me and Owlowiscious. I'm sure we can think of some sort of plan if we all put our minds to it."

All of us put on our best thinking faces. Owlowiscious gave a single hoot, which caused Spike to roll his eyes. "Yes, I know that the spellbook is the problem. How is that supposed to help-" He stopped short, his eyes widening. "The spellbook! If we can get it away from her, I bet she won't be able to use its magic anymore!"

"Worth a shot." I looked around. "So, uh, where do we find her?"

The pained screams of ponies caused us all to turn our heads, seeing them blinded by the glare of a perfectly golden and shining road. It seemed that Rarity's fashion sense was deteriorating by the minute along with her sanity. I mean come on, that sheen just did not look good in broad daylight.

Spike pointed a claw. "I'm thinking she's heading this way," he said, stating the obvious.

"Yes, I agree," I replied with a fake posh accent. "Now, shall we be off on the yellow road to save Ponyville?" Both Spike and I snickered as Owlowiscious rolled his eyes before the three of us began the walk to face the most daunting trial of our entire lives.

The rampaging fashionista.

Maniacal laughter was our first warning as we hid behind a bush, watching Rarity look out upon the vandalized Ponyville. "So, uh, what's the plan?" Spike asked me, making sure to keep low so the unicorn wouldn't see him. "Since you're the adventurer and all."

Oh, right. I was supposed to have the plan. Usually that was somepony else's department, like Doctor Caballeron's. Or Twilight's. Really, anypony that wasn't me. But alas, I was the last option left, so it was up to me to utilize my genius to halt this menace to society. Thinking with as much of my brain as possible, I formulated a strategy.

"Alright, here's the plan. Spike, you're going to be the one to go up and try to grab the book from Rarity's saddlebag. If you get caught, you'll probably have the best chance of explaining since you two are already close friends. I'll hide behind that nearby tree, and when you get the book you'll toss it to me so I can hide it in my saddlebag. Owlowiscious, you stay up high in the branches and provide backup support. Any questions?"

I got nothing, not even a hoot, so I assumed that we were in agreement. "Alright then, let's do this."

While Owlowiscious flew skywards and perched on one of the offshoots of the tree, I stayed low and kept myself behind the trunk. Peeking out, I watched as Spike slowly approached the unicorn, reaching a claw out to grab the book tucked away neatly in its bag...

And then Rarity turned as fast as lightning, face to face with Spike, her eyes glowing a sickly green. "What do you think you're doing?!" she asked, glaring daggers at him. I started shaking nervously; this was it.

"Uh, me?" the dragon stuttered. "I was just, uh, basking in your creative radiance!" We all held our breaths as nopony moved, waiting to see what would happen.

Slowly, the green faded from Rarity's eyes. "Oh, Spike, you do say the nicest things," she cooed, patting him on the head with a hoof. I sighed in relief, internally thanking Spike's great and experienced skill in flattery. He must had practiced before, because even I had to admit that I could probably never come up with something like that in time. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, gold-plated rooftops for everypony!"

This was bad. Looking up at our owl friend, I motioned with a hoof to move in. Winking at me, Owlowiscious flew downwards and began to harass the white unicorn, flying and hooting rapidly to cause a distraction. While she was preoccupied trying to wave him away, Spike was just barely able to reach out and grab the spellbook with a claw, hurriedly throwing it back to me right before Rarity looked back at him. I twisted myself completely out of view behind the tree, shoving it into my saddlebag and hurriedly closing the flap on it.

"Spike!" I heard a cry from behind me, and though it was obvious that it was Rarity I couldn't see what the situation was. "I have just had the most marvelous idea!"

"Of course you have," I heard Spike respond. "You're Rarity!" Wow, laying it on a little thick there, huh? Especially since we already got the book back.

"My work here in Ponyville is nearly complete. Don't you think it's time the rest of Equestria benefited from my creative vision?"

Oh no. No no no no no. Absolutely not. I was already imagining the Tenochtitlan Basin redesigned according to Rarity's standards, and I did not like it at all. There would practically be nothing left that made it what it was. Thank Celestia that we had stopped her when we did, or else there would be a real crisis on our hooves. Now that we had the spellbook and she didn't, though, I felt comfortable finally leaving my hiding spot, approaching Rarity and Spike from behind.

"Oh," Rarity was saying, "I'm thinking we go by chariot! Or as everypony will soon be calling them, Rariot!" Her laugh was still slightly unhinged, making me think that just maybe taking the book didn't completely restore her sanity just yet.

Spike didn't seem very concerned. "Oh yeah, we should definitely go by-" His sentence immediately dropped upon seeing a flash of green light, and a jeweled golden chariot appearing out of thin air. Both of our jaws dropped; it seemed our plan had completely backfired. Rarity was still creating as much as she was before, even without the book.

Welp, we were done for.

"How... how did you do that?" Spike asked in complete disbelief. Rarity seemed mostly confused by the question, raising an eyebrow.

"Why, whatever do you mean?"

"The book! It's-" I made a cutting motion through my throat, making it clear not to let our plan slip despite its failure. He got the message. "I mean... you don't... it's gone! The book is gone!"

"Gone?" She seemed incredulous at the mere notion of such a thing. "Why, it's right there." She looked at her empty saddlebag. There was a full two seconds of silence between all of us, as the absence of her precious tome seemed to need to register in her mind. Then, just as quickly as before, she turned on the dragon, furious. "I need my book, Spike! What have you done with my book?!"

I saw Spike start to sweat, cracking under the pressure. "Why would I do anything with your book?" he asked, trying to find an escape. "We're friends! It... it was probably Jungle!" He pointed at me, and I saw a very angry Rarity now glaring daggers in my direction instead.

Way to sell me out, Spike. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate it.

The only thing that saved me from certain doom was a sudden introspection by Rarity. "But wait," she said aloud, "I don't seem to need it anymore, do I?" In the blink of an eye, the green glow was back, lighting up her horn and irises in unnatural colors. "Yes... yes! I can feel its magic flowing within me now! I'm so excited... I'm so excited!"

"I'm so scared," both Spike and I said simultaneously, as if we had read each other's minds. It wasn't hard with how our once-friend was acting, though. She had completely lost it, become a full madmare on the loose.

"Oh, and Jungle, I'm so glad you stopped by! I really do think you could use a little... accessorizing!" I backed away, but it was too late; a flash of green blinded my eyes, then faded just as quickly as it came. With a sinking feeling I already knew what she had changed, with her many criticisms of the past involving my 'style' as she called it being centered on one piece of clothing in particular. I took off my hat, already feeling that it was not my own - the classic pith I had known and cherished for so long was gone, replaced with gold and jewels and sparkles in the same shape. It was a mockery of my closest possession, a defilement of the gift I held dear to me.

I was beyond annoyed by now. I was downright furious. Slamming my hoof down, I walked towards Rarity slowly, blood boiling in my veins and pure rage being the only thought in my mind. I would make her regret ever setting hoof in Ponyville. To take the one belonging I cared about most from me, just as an idle thought or a fashion statement; it was absurd. She would pay.

But as I got close to her, I felt resistance in my front hooves. Looking down, I saw Spike pushing me back, trying to stop me from looking forward. I know he saw the anger in my eyes, and I saw it too in my own irises reflected in his. But instead of fear, either of me or of Rarity, the only thing I saw on his face was grim determination. There was a silent message, a silent request passed between the two of us. He understood my fury, but this was his battle to fight, not mine. He nodded once at me, waiting for my response.

I stood still for a few moments, unblinking. Then, I nodded back.

Spike turned to face Rarity, his arms straightened downwards and his chest puffed out. "Rarity, you need to stop," he said loudly, in the hardest, most confident tone I had heard all week. He never faltered as the mare turned to face him, nor when she gave her harshest glare.

"What did you say?" she asked, her tone razor-sharp like a knife's edge.

"You have to stop, Rarity." You've been changing things, but you haven't been making them better! You trapped two ponies in crystal, you blinded them with a golden road, and you even took away something Jungle cares about a lot! He doesn't want this, nopony does! Not even me." He looked down, almost ashamed of himself. "I should have told you at the very beginning, but I didn't because I was trying to be a supportive friend. But instead... I let you become something awful."

Rarity's death glare never faltered until the very last word. Her expression immediately changed, first becoming confused, and then a bit aghast. "Awful?"

Her eyes completely glowed green, and she began to float in the air, the color leeching out and becoming a swirling cloud around her. Then, it whisked itself away, leaving the unicorn to return to the ground, a bit groggy and worse for wear. Rarity shook her head, disoriented. "Wha... what happened?" she asked, eyes tired.

"Rarity! You're okay?"

"I... I think so." She looked away from Spike, seeing Ponyville in all its new, golden-covered, crystalized terror. "Though by the looks of it something quite terrifying has happened to Ponyville."

"And my hat," I said harshly, anger still burning hot within me. "You made Ponyville look like a laughingstock, you ruined all of your friends' days and you ruined the one thing closest to me. Is there something you didn't do wrong?"

"What?" Rarity looked flabbergasted, indicating that she had absolutely no memories of her prior crimes. Absolutely delightful. "I did all that? But I... I couldn't have..."

"You don't remember?" I threw my hooves up in the air, fed up with it. "Great. Just great! Why don't you and Spike sort things out instead. I need some time alone." Storming off, I noticed Owlowiscious following close behind, which I didn't mind. He wasn't the one I was angry at.

Sitting down in a small clearing a good distance away, I sighed and set down my former hat on the grass. From an objective perspective, it was still beautiful. Perhaps a little flashy, but stylish. The Canterlot elite would have loved it, if my guesses about them were correct. It still retained its pith nature, fitting snugly on my head.

And yet it wasn't mine anymore. It didn't feel like mine, it felt like Rarity's. It was theft in all terms, by all standards. And yet, there might be a way to reverse it. Hesitantly, I pulled out the spellbook Spike had stolen from Rarity, staring into the cover. Owlowiscious gave a hoot of alarm, a clear warning. I paid it no heed, opening the book to the page that looked like the words of a spell. I knew I couldn't read them, but I also knew it was dark magic that paid no attention to the rules. And as I hoped, the symbols rearranged themselves to something I somehow understood. I could see what I needed to say in my mind, shadowy tendrils lurking at their edges.

"Jungle?" I heard Spike's voice say from a distance. "Jungle, where are you?"

"From in the head, to out in the world," I began uncaring, "every thought to action. Hold close this book and through its spell you'll start a chain reaction. Projecting forth whatever beauty you see, only when true words are spoken will you finally be set free."

I expected some sort of green mist or something, perhaps some shadows or darkness coming to grab hold of me. But instead, there was nothing. I tried concentrating on my hat, picturing in my mind how it looked like before. Still nothing. It was a failure, a dead end.

"Oh, there you are." Spike and Rarity appeared out of the bushes, the former immediately becoming alarmed upon seeing the open book in front of me. "Jungle, did you read the book?!"

Looking up at him, I rolled my eyes. "Yes Spike, I 'read' the book. I could see the words to the spell somehow. But it's no use. Without a unicorn horn, the magic doesn't work. I'm never getting my hat back."

"Oh, Jungle..." That was Rarity's voice now, sounding almost genuinely heartbroken. "I'm so sorry, I never meant for any of this to happen... I know how much that hat meant to you from your past, I never wanted to take that away! I just... Oh, I wish Spike had never given me that book in the first place!" Out of the corner of my eyes staring downwards, I saw the unicorn turn on the dragon. "Where did you even get that? Wait... did you steal it from Princess Celestia? Was that the book from the library in Canterlot Twilight told us about? Spike, how could you?!"

"What? No, but I... He... I didn't-"

"It wasn't that book, Rarity," I said, my tone remaining defeated. "I stole that book from Celestia. It's still sitting in my house back in Ponyville. This one I helped Spike get from the Castle of the Two Sisters, as a gift to help you with the fair." I chuckled, though there was no joy or emotion behind it. "Guess I have nopony to blame but myself for this."

"Don't say that." Rarity's tone was unusually firm, and I looked up to see her eyes staring into mine, full of care and compassion and yes, generosity. "You can't blame yourself for my mistakes. I let things get out of hoof, not you. You just wanted to help me as a friend in need." A hoof gently tilted my face up just a bit further. "And if there is anything, anything I can do to help you in return, I will."

I forced my head back downwards. "...Thank you, Rarity," I finally said. It was times like these when I realized why these ponies were my friends. It wasn't because they were heroes, or because of mere chance. It was because every single one of them, like Rarity just now, cared about friendship. They cared about keeping that friendship alive. And that friendship was a two-way street. If they were willing to give, I had to be willing to take too. "Well... I guess I am going to need a new hat now, since I don't really want to wear this one. Do you... think you could make one for me?"

Like the flip of a switch, Rarity's excitement immediately returned, though in a restrained matter. "Why of course, Darling! It would be the least I could do. Believe me, I do have an eye for these sorts of things, and I'm sure I could make it exactly like your old one was-"

She was stopped with a dismissive wave of my hoof. "If you want to make a few changes, that's fine. I trust you. Just... don't go too overboard with it, alright?"

Rarity blinked. "Oh! Yes yes, nothing too different. Perhaps a slightly darker shade of brown on the band? Oh, and I can finally add those little holes for the ears! It'll make wearing it so much more comfortable, what with no longer having it completely covered. Now come, we still have so much to do!" I took her extended hoof, and let her help me up off the ground. I closed the book of dark magic that had started this whole thing, and shoved it back in my saddlebag. Suffice to say that I would not be letting that thing see daylight for a long time.

"One more thing, Rarity," I said as the three of us, plus Owlowiscious began walking down the hill back towards the village of Ponyville. "About that book I mentioned that I stole from Celestia... can you keep that a secret, at least for a bit? I know I have to tell Twilight eventually, but-"

"Don't you worry, Jungle. I won't say a thing. When the time comes, I know you'll make the right decision."

"Thanks." And that was that. The rage, the sadness, the emptiness, it was all gone. Happiness wasn't quite the word I was feeling now, but it was something. Gratitude, perhaps? Newfound optimism for the future? Something along those lines. It was still very conflicting, but I felt like a page had been turned in my book of life, that perhaps Rarity and I could have a stronger friendship than ever before. That no matter what, we could always work past our differences. And that... that was comforting.

Still, there was one last thing I needed to address. Leaning down towards Spike, I whispered a single thing to the dragon, something that made his eyes widen in fear.

"By the way, you're on your own dealing with Twilight."

Reflections

Green hills and snow-topped mountains were all I could see as the Friendship Express chugged down the rail line, the gentle rhythmic bouncing keeping me alert as I stared out the window. "You know," I said to the other ponies in the rail car as I stared more at my reflection than the scenery outside, "I've never actually been to the Crystal Empire before. Is it nice?"

"Oh darling, you wouldn't believe what beautiful decor they can do there!" Rarity answered as I pulled myself away from the window to take a seat again. "There's simply nothing like it. Why, I could only wish to replicate their unique style back in Ponyville!"

"They're just crystals," Applejack argued flatly. "Nice looking ones, sure, but I don't see why you couldn't just put one on one of those dresses of yours."

Pinkie Pie, who had been standing across the car, bounced her way over and onto a seat next to the farmpony, almost making her bounce out of the booth herself. "They're special crystals, Applejack! It's the Crystal Empire, they wouldn't just name it that if they didn't have any! Oooh, do you think I can take one with me back to Ponyville this time?"

Now, one might expect that the rest of our little group would be present to add to the conversation. Alas, Twilight had her duties as a Princess and was forced to go ahead of our train ride to ensure preparations went smoothly, and both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had a separate car as competitors on the Ponyville team, alongside the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike.

Preparations and competitors for what? The Equestria Games, of course. Don't worry, I had never heard of it either until Rainbow Dash mentioned it coming up. Apparently, it was some big event where ponies from all over could compete athletically to win medals for their town. It was also another one of those things that everypony seemed shocked by my ignorance about until I once again reminded them of my former residence in a backwater jungle of Equestria.

Sometimes you just have to drill this stuff into ponies' heads, you know?

But back on the topic. There was something that Pinkie Pie said that stood out to me, the part at the very end. "You girls have been here before?" I asked, curious. "What did you all do?"

Rarity thought for a moment, putting a hoof to her chin delicately. "Well, the first time was of course when we had to help Twilight save the Crystal Empire by finding the Crystal Heart. Oh, and there was that time we had to convince Ms. Harshwhinny to have them host the Equestria Games in the first place."

"And don't forget that time with Twilight and the mirror. Whew wee, now that feels like a long time ago!"

Pinkie Pie, Rarity and I all looked at each other before back at Applejack. This was what Spike had told me about. And while the majority of ponies present were in on the secret, I still had to feign ignorance for the one that wasn't. "What are you talking about, Applejack?" I questioned, trying to put on my best 'interested' face.

"Some pony named Sunset Shimmer went and tried to steal Twi's crown," the earth pony explained. "She and Spike had to go into some sort of mirror world to get it back. Apparently, there were even copies of each of us there!"

Right, the alternate versions that Spike had mentioned. "But the mirror is closed now, right?" I asked, keeping the false curiosity as high as possible.

"Yep. Gonna be another twenty-five or so moons until it opens again, if I remember correctly. Twilight seemed a mite bit disappointed that she wouldn't be able to see them again for a while, but being honest it's almost like she's forgotten about them by now." Applejack seemed to think for a second. "Huh, guess she really wasn't in love with that 'Flash Sentry' or something."

I blinked. In what with who? The idea of Twilight, Princess Twilight in some sort of serious romance completely baffled me. Rarity, absolutely. The others, maybe. But Twilight? Absolutely not.

Rarity coughed to get our attention again. "Well darlings, at least that's all in the past now. No point in dwelling on that, yes?"

"Yep!" Pinkie Pie agreed. "And look, we're almost there!" She pointed a hoof out the window I was previously looking at, where a great palace loomed in the distance. Made of tinted crystal, it rose high in the sky above the similarly-crystalline buildings, which formed the city in a variety of colors. It was on a scale I had never seen before, not even on my trip to Canterlot. The gleaming from the sun off the structures, the polished nature of the palace, the original and beautiful form of the city... it was obvious now why they called it the Crystal Empire.

"It's beautiful," I said breathlessly.

"There sure is nothing like it," Applejack agreed. We all bunched together as a group and stared outside even as the Friendship Express began to slow down, pulling into the station. And before you ask, yes, it was also made out of crystal. Put far outside the city, a trail led uphill from the tracks towards the city proper, going under hanging crystals dangling from a rope held by two crystal tower formations.

The door out of the car opened, and a loud whistle sounded to let us know it was safe to get out. "Mares first," I said, waving a hoof to allow my friends out first, in a rare display of generosity from me. Really, it was just wanting to put on a show. Rarity looked charmed, Applejack only rolled her eyes seeing right through my act, and Pinkie, well... acted like Pinkie as she bounced out the door.

"So, do you think we're going to win?" I questioned as we started our walk on the trail, the four of us all together making our little group. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and the rest of the team were still at the station, seemly making sure they and their stuff were all accounted for before beginning the walk themselves.

An awkward silence followed for a few seconds. "Well, I certainly hope so," Rarity responded, finally breaking the rhythmic beat of our hooves on the dirt. "Our friends have been training for quite a while for this, and I'd hate to see them come home disappointed."

"Don't worry about it," Pinkie added with her usual cheery attitude. "There's no way they can lose! Rainbow Dash is like, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"

"Not all the games are about flying, Pinkie." Applejack seemed oddly contemplative as if something was on her mind. "And there's a lot of events to get through, so who knows how many medals we'll get?"

"You know, if I was on the Ponyville team I'm sure-"

"Don't even start, Darling/Sugarcube," both Rarity and Applejack said simultaneously. I wisely chose to shut my muzzle. The last thing I needed today was the two mares I was likely going to be sitting next to for the entire Equestria Games being annoyed at me.

Speaking of which... "Hey, do you know how long these games are going to take?" Yes, it was me trying to change the subject, but it was also a legitimate question. Some spare time to explore the Crystal Empire would be nice, but I didn't want to have to stay the entire week or something along those lines. Any work we missed on the farm during our little trip I knew Applejack would probably make up once we got back, and pulling a double shift as a part-time helping hoof was not fun.

I liked getting a good night's sleep, thank you very much.

"If everything goes well they should be over by the end of today," the fashionista answered, which I took as proof of the success of the diversion. "Of course, we don't have to watch every single event since our team isn't competing in all of them. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for you to look around today if you wish, even if everypony will likely be busy with the Games."

Any possible response was cut off immediately by the thundering of hooves coming from behind us. Looking behind me, I saw two Crystal guards beelining straight toward us, carrying some sort of chair between them. Despite the obvious danger, I took a second to squint; was that... Spike? What was he doing sitting in some cool-looking seat?

"Get out of the way!" the dragon cried out to us. The plea snapped me back to reality and fortunately got Applejack moving too. I dived to the side of the road, pushing Rarity out of harm's way, while my farmer friend did the same with Pinkie Pie. We all watched as the guards rushed by, paying us little heed as they galloped with their seemingly non-consenting cargo toward the Crystal City. It wasn't long before they disappeared over the hill.

Needless to say, Rarity was not very happy at getting pushed around. "Sorry," I said apologetically as I extended a hoof to help her back up. "Better than getting run over though, right?"

"Hmph. Perhaps you could put a bit more delicacy into saving me next time? I don't need my mane ruined right before the Games, you know."

Right. I'd make sure to try and be as delicate as possible the next time I save her from danger. That was sure to be the first thing on my mind next time. I was almost tempted to make some witty remark in response, but given... recent events, I held my tongue for once. The last thing I needed was another argument. "Well, you still look just fine to me, Rarity," I remarked back, trying to placate. "And besides, I'm sure most of the attention will be on the competitors, anyway."

The fashionista seemed mollified, refuting my attempts to help brush her off with a hoof and doing so herself. "It is still worth making oneself look presentable at these sorts of occasions, darling."

"Whatever you say."

Once we had made ourselves presentable again (to varying standards), the rest of our little walk was relatively uneventful. The dirt road eventually made way for actual paved streets, the ground giving off a similar sheen to the rest of the Empire. Countless buildings made of crystal, once only seen from a distance, became what surrounded us as crystal ponies left their homes to join us in walking across the city. Far above us, the Crystal Palace only loomed taller and taller as we approached it, taking its place at the center of the city, both a metaphorical and literal heart of the Empire. The Crystal Heart, a magical artifact I had gotten the quick rundown from Twilight on, slowly spun in place beneath the tower, itself on a diagram of a snowflake.

There was something else, too. A statue to be specific, one that caught my attention almost immediately. I almost couldn't believe it at first, it was impossible. But those two legs, that familiar shape, the head that I had seen many times since moving to Ponyville...

"Is that... Spike?"

We all stopped to gawk at the crystal recreation, which was definitely of our very own dragon. He held a larger version of the Crystal Heart in front of him, and I could see multiple crystal ponies pointing and taking pictures. "Wow!" Pinkie exclaimed, as she usually did. "I don't remember that being here last time!"

"Neither do I," Rarity agreed. "Though I suppose he did save the Crystal Empire, and it is quite beautifully designed. I'm just glad our little Spikey-wikey can finally have his moment to shine."

I visibly winced at that nickname. While I understood that the unicorn had her little nicknames, especially for Spike, it did not make them any less painful for them to hear. There was no way that I'd ever be caught out in broad daylight calling him that, and I was sure that he would not be happy if I tried it either. I suppose it was one of those things that only Rarity could get away with due to Spike's obvious infatuation.

Oh well. It certainly wasn't my business to get involved with someone else's love life if I didn't have to. Still, I was a bit miffed at the statue itself. I knew that Spike probably didn't know about it until now, given how heartfelt that confession of his a while back was, but still. He had a literal statue of himself in the Crystal Empire. If he wanted to be and be seen as a hero, this was it.

But anyway. After that slight detour, our course remained steady along the streets until we finally reached the stadium where the Equestria Games would be held. It was a massive structure, set a fair distance away from the palace, and no less impressive due to its sheer scale. I gazed in wonder at the walls towering high above our heads, the long corridors that brought us within the coliseum, and the impossibly long field that stretched from one end to the other.

And to think, the crystal ponies had built it all just to host the Equestria Games shortly after their long banishment. Yes, I had actually paid attention to Twilight's lecture for once. Needless to say, my opinion of their dedication and work ethic just skyrocketed.

We took our seats in a small area on one side of the field, settling down and making ourselves comfortable. Looking upwards out of our box, I saw the nobility and royalty of Equestria and beyond sitting in their little spots, and special thrones made for each of the four alicorn Princesses. Twilight Sparkle had just arrived and was taking her place next to Celestia; I waved a hoof at her, and after a few seconds she finally noticed and waved back. The others noticed what I was doing and joined in before we finally all turned our attention back to the field.

"Well, look at Twilight," I remarked snarkily, "getting her special place with the crown. Guess we have to be left with the cheap seats, huh?"

"Twi has her own Princess duties to deal with," Applejack answered, having absolutely none of it. "I'm sure she'd be down here with us if she could."

Jeez, tough crowd. "I know that," I said defensively. "It was a joke, alright?"

An eye roll was the only response I got as we were interrupted by an announcement from Shining Armor, the Prince of the Crystal Empire. All the crowd cheered as the first team of competitors, this one apparently from Appleloosa, came out onto the field. The collective noise was almost deafening; with ponies filling up the entire stadium, there must have easily been thousands in attendance from all over Equestria. I had never seen so many in one place; these games must truly be something to watch if they drew in this many ponies.

All of us clapped politely for each team as they came out, but we all knew what we were really waiting for. When Shining Armor announced the delegation for Ponyville and we saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders come out with their routine, all of us got up and started cheering as loud as we could. I wasn't usually one for that, but there was something about the competitive spirit in the air that made me want to yell out praise. To show my spirit and pride for the ponies we were sending as our best.

Excluding myself, of course. Having me participate would just be unfair to the other teams, so I understood why I should just sit on the sidelines.

Scootaloo planted the Ponyville flag (which I didn't even know we had until a day or two ago) firmly in the ground next to the flags of the other delegations, and the crowd roared as every competitor got in place for the lighting of the torch, the last part of the opening ceremony.

We waited. A few seconds passed, then a few more. Time continued to turn, and the flame remained unlit. Both athletes and audience turned to look at each other in confusion; where was the torch? Shouldn't it have been lit by now? I was no exception, looking at Applejack and Rarity wondering if it was supposed to take this long. They both shrugged back at me, clearly as bewildered as I was.

It was right when I was beginning to worry that something had gone wrong that the torch burst into flames, a great pillar of orange quickly turning blue. We all gave one last cheer as Shining Armor came out onto the field and gave the last announcement for the ceremony.

"Let the games begin!"

Surprisingly, the Equestria Games did not hold my attention for long. Partly because there was something else that was taking up more and more brainpower, and partly because everypony else had dragged me out to congratulate the Cutie Mark Crusaders on their performance.

"You know, out of all the openings for each of the delegations, your display definitely made Ponyville's entrance the most memorable," I said to the three fillies as they each took their praise from their older sisters (or mentor, in Scootaloo's case). I also purposely neglected to mention the fact that I wasn't really paying attention to any other team, so I had absolutely no standard of quality to go by.

Some things were better left unsaid.

"You three really were wonderful," Twilight agreed with me. "But does anypony know what was going on with Spike?"

I blinked. "Wait. Spike was supposed to be the one lighting the torch?"

Everypony nodded back at me. "Come on, Jungle," Applejack said in an ever-so-slightly annoyed voice. "Weren't you even listening to us before the ceremony?"

No. The answer was no. That response was not a good one if I wanted to save face, though. "Look, I was a bit distracted by the stadium and everything. Besides, Spike lit the torch in the end, and that's the important part, right? So what if it was a little delayed?"

"Yeah, about that..." Uh oh. Whenever somepony said those words, it never meant anything good. Especially when they were rubbing the back of their neck like Twilight was. "He didn't light it. I did. I didn't want him to be embarrassed, so I cast a secret spell to light it for him."

That made me grimace. Yep, that was worse than I thought. To mess up a simple task in front of thousands of ponies, and have somepony else have to bail you out... "Does he know yet?" I questioned lightly.

Twilight gave a very unhelpful motion of her hoof. "Maybe. I don't know. He might have figured it out by now. I know I still have to tell him, but I'm just afraid of how he'll take it. I know what pride he takes in a job well done."

I knew what pride I took in a job well done. There were a lot of reactions I could imagine from learning about Twilight's save, and very few of them were good. Anger, resentment, shame... I knew Spike and I were very different creatures, but still.

Rainbow Dash nudged me back to reality. "Hey, here he comes now!" she pointed out quite literally with a hoof towards an approaching Spike. "Act casual!" While the rest of us awkwardly stared at the dejected dragon, Dash pulled out a pair of sunglasses that made me instantly jealous and put them on, crossing her hooves and leaning back. "Sup," she said with a level of coolness that I could only dream of attaining.

Perhaps one day I could have my own pair of sunglasses to pull out at any time. Alas, today would not be that day. Instead, I heroically chose to save the mares from the fate of having to speak first and stepped forward, metaphorically speaking. "How are you doing, Spike? Did the torch-lighting go well?"

"I don't know," the baby dragon responded, seeming confused. "The weirdest thing happened down there. There I was, trying to light the torch, with all of Equestria watching, and then the thing just lit! It was amazing!"

Absolutely not. I was shutting this down right here and not. The sooner he got the hard dose of reality, the better off we'd all be. Plus I could hoof off the problem to Twilight, which was one of my favorite things to do at this point. "You do know Twilight was the one to light it, right?"

Spike immediately froze. "I... she lit..." he stammered, any illusions he previously held shattered. "In front of thousands..."

"Yeah, I'll take it from here, Jungle," Twilight butted in, clearly ungrateful at the hard work I had done. "Spike, can we talk for a moment?"

"You're welcome!" I called after her as she trotted off with Spike, leaving the rest of us either watching her or looking at me with expressions of annoyance plain on their faces. "What? Somepony had to tell him."

"Yes, but you could have used a bit of tact," Rarity responded airily, to which I would have probably fired back with a rebuttal if she didn't have a point. Or the loud voice of Shining Armor echoing outside the stadium.

"Our next event... the aerial relay!"

We all started. "That's Dash and Fluttershy!" Applejack said. "Come on, we gotta get back to our seats!" The group of friends began galloping back to the entrance, the farmer taking notice that one within their ranks was not present. "You coming, Jungle?" she asked me, seeing I had stayed where I was looking the opposite way at the Crystal Palace.

"Huh? Oh, uh, I'll catch up." I waved a hoof to dismiss her concerned and slightly suspicious look. "Just need to check something really quick. Don't worry, I'll be right there."

The farmer's skepticism deepened, but she nodded in the end and galloped after her friends. With the mares finally gone, I could turn my attention to my new interest in the Crystal Empire; not the stadium, but the large gleaming tower in the sky. With the Princesses all at the games, there would be no better chance.

All the streets were deserted on my walk back the way I had come this morning, which wasn't surprising. I could still hear the cheers from the ponies behind me, though it was slowly fading with distance. Houses were empty, row after row dark all the way up to my destination. The statue of Spike was still there, and so was the Crystal Heart, spinning faster than it was before. Perhaps it was from the events; so many ponies with their spirits bright in the Empire had to be doing something.

Either way, the situation looked exactly as I has expected. Not a pony in sight, save for a few crystal guards at each entrance to the palace. Getting past them would be the tricky part, and likely require more than just brute force, especially if I didn't want to spend a night being questioned about why I tried to assault a guard. No, this would require a bit more persuasion.

And as I'm sure you all know, I was very persuasive.

"The palace is off-limits today," one of the armored stallions said sternly as they blocked my way forward. "The Princess is currently attending the Equestria Games."

Right, time to pull out the ace in the sleeve. "Oh, of course," I responded, trying to sound and look as nervous and innocent as possible. "I was just wondering if I could use the bathroom quickly? The last one I checked was closed and I really need to go..."

They looked at each other and then back at me. I stared back. "...Second door on the left," one of them finally responded. "Make it quick."

"Thank you."

Honestly, you'd be surprised how reliable that technique was. What's also surprising is how many times I used it because I actually needed to use it. Very rarely was I lying to get somewhere else like now. But among the more civilized parts of Equestria, it was very effective in getting my way into places I probably shouldn't be.

Up the stairs I went, the staircase spiraling up the leg of the tower going all the way to the first main floor. All the hallways were long, the doors stretching onto seemingly endless rooms. I saw the one the guard has told me of, the second one on the left.

And at that very moment, I felt a very sudden urge to actually use it. Really, the timing of these things is just never great, aren't they? You need to go to the bathroom for five minutes, and when you come out all the exciting things have already gone down. It's something that's happened to me more than once before, unfortunately. But hey, at least it meant I wasn't completely lying downstairs.

After I did my business, my walk further down the hall was fairly quick. Or rather, halls, I should say. There were a lot of them. A lot of stairs and floors too. Really, they should put up signs on the halls telling ponies where to go with how maze-like this place was. How anypony remembered how to get around here astounded me.

"Sir?" I whipped around out of shock from the silence being broken to see a mare in a staff uniform looking curiously at me. "The palace is closed to visitors today. What are you doing here?"

Great. This time I was way past the bathroom, so that excuse went flying out the window. I needed something new, and fast. "Princess Twilight!" I finally blurted out, perhaps a bit too loudly for the situation. "She asked me to travel here to check on something quickly. Do you know where the room with the, uh, big mirror thing is?"

Real smooth. About as much as sandpaper, one would likely say. Whether I was actually charismatic or they were just gullible, I would never know, but they nodded and pointed in the direction opposite the way I came. "Just turn left at the end of the hall, the storage room should be at the end of that. If you reach the throne room, you've gone too far."

"Thank you!"

Not wanting to waste any more time or have any other unnecessary encounters, I quickened my pace to a fast trot. Usually, I would have been impressed by the construction and decor of the walls, but my position was in no way a time to be admiring the immaculate architecture. I had things to do, mirrors to see, and guards that were probably wondering why I was taking so long.

Speaking of things that were taking long, I was finally at my destination. The doors at the end of the hall, both tall and yet not exactly the most sturdy things. You'd think that if there were magical artifacts stored here they'd put a bit more into protecting them. Pulling on one of the door handles, I even found it was unlocked.

When you see better security in literal ancient temples in Tenochtitlan, you know there's a problem.

Or there would be if the so-called 'storage room' actually had something interesting in it. But other than a few trophies, some paintings and maybe even a statue or two... there wasn't really much. Even the restricted section in the Canterlot Library was cooler, and that was filled with nothing but books.

Still, the prize I had come for was right in front of me at last. It was a bit taller than I had expected, and certainly much more ornate. In fact, if you had asked me what it was with no context, I probably would have said 'magic portal' before 'mirror'. If the intention was to try and hide its true purpose, whoever made this thing really botched that. Like really, what kind of normal mirror has some sort of pony emblem on top of it? There was nothing wrong with being discrete sometimes.

"Thought I might find you here."

I jumped in fright as a familiar voice rang out behind me, serious despite her country accent. "Applejack!" I said, turning quickly to greet her. "I was just, uh... shouldn't you be at the Games?"

"Dash and Fluttershy finished second already." The farmer walked forward to get muzzle-to-muzzle with me. "Why try and lie to me, Jungle? And what do you want with the portal?"

This was probably one of the only drawbacks to having a friend like Applejack. She could sniff out my lies from a mile away, even the harmless ones. It wasn't really surprising, what with her being the Element of Honesty, but by Celestia was it annoying on occasion. There had been many a time when I had been caught trying to skim an apple or two while working on the farm.

"Well you see, when you were talking about the portal on the train I-" Her eyebrow raised and I threw my hooves up in surrender. "Fine. It's because of a journal I kind of stole from Princess Celestia."

"You WHAT?!"

"Huh, Rainbow Dash had that exact same reaction too."

Applejack didn't look quite as angry as the prismatic pegasus had, but she was still certainly not happy either. "What in Celestia's sake were you thinking?! You can't just steal from the Princess! Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get into?!"

"Yes," I answered flatly. "And I'll deal with it when that day comes. But this journal... it's connected to somepony on the other side of this mirror. Her name is Sunset."

"Who cares what kind of pony this journal is- wait a minute, did you say Sunset Shimmer?" I had already turned back around, but I could guess that she looked surprised as I walked toward the mirror. "How's she getting messages through? The portal is closed."

"I don't know." Seeing my reflection staring back at me, I let a hoof glide over the glass, the hard surface giving no leeway. "Finding out the how or why would be Twilight's thing more than mine. The reason I'm here is because... I just wanted to see what this was for myself. You said it was twenty-five moons until this opens again?"

Turning back I saw she was nodding, the earth pony's expression a much more mellow melancholy now. "Yep. That's a long time, sugarcube. You friends with her?"

That notion got a subdued laugh out of me, with very little actual emotion in it. If Pinkie Pie were here it would probably instantly send her into a spiral of trying to cheer me up. "As friendly as two people who've never actually met can be, I guess. She seemed nice, but also... distant? Like there was something on her mind."

"If I was in a whole different dimension, I'd sure as Celestia be figuring things out too." Applejack kept pace with me by my side as I walked out of the storage room, my curiosity at its contents sated now. "So what are you planning to do now?"

"Wait. And work on the farm, of course. But if twenty-five moons is how long it's going to take, then that's how long I'll wait."

I didn't expect the stairs in front of me. Putting my hoof forward expecting solid ground, I tipped over and almost fell over, just barely caught by Applejack who pulled me back upright. With a grateful nod, we continued both walking and talking. "And what about that journal?" she asked. "I'm sure Twilight would want to look at it even if you didn't take it from the Princess."

Shrugging, I almost instinctively reached for my saddlebag, just barely remembering that I had purposely left it back in Ponyville and stopping myself to avoid looking like a fool. "I know she would too, but I'm not ready to tell her yet. Someday, I will. Just... can you keep this a secret until I spill the beans?"

"Jungle, you know if Twilight asks me anything about it-"

"Yeah, yeah, you're no good at lying." It was the one flaw I did find comedic about Applejack; while she could sniff out lies better than anypony as befitting her Element, she was also absolutely terrible at telling them herself. I wasn't sure if I should chalk it up to inexperience or something to do with her natural disposition too, but either way, it was fairly humorous. "I don't expect you to do that or to put anypony in danger, just try not to let it slip on accident."

"I think I can do that, Jungle." We both stepped out into the open, the sunshine now illuminating the square as opposed to the crystals themselves. The guards from before let us pass, probably more because of Applejack than because of me. I assumed she didn't have too much trouble getting in just by being recognized, given her whole status as a hero of ponykind. And an excellent farmer. If there was an Apple somewhere in the Crystal Empire, I would frankly not be surprised at all. "Now, how about we get back to our friends and finish watching the Equestria Games?"

"Sounds good to me."

And so my employer and I started back down the street I had walked twice already today, ready to get back to the roaring crowds and hopefully spectacular sports that the finest sportsponies would showcase. Though, far behind me, I did hear the crystal guards talking to each other, believing we were out of earshot.

"What kind of stallion needs a mare to get him from the bathroom?" one asked the other, both snickering afterward.

...Really?

Back to the Jungle - Part 1

There was something off today.

Exactly what was different, one would likely have to guess. The lights being left on as I walked into my home? The doorknob looking like it had been used recently? The open window letting the breeze in despite me clearly remembering that I had closed it? These were all possibilities.

Or, it was the shadowy figure standing in the corner of the room, waiting for me expectantly. I would have been worried, what with my history of break-ins and thefts now, but in this case, I recognized this pony. It was hard not to with his signature fedora, light-brown coat, and red neckpiece.

"Biff," I said nonchalantly as I took a seat on a couch, trying to relax. "Doctor C send you?"

A nod in response. "He got your note. Never would have guessed you had gone back to living the civilian life." The stallion looked around, sizing up the room, doors, furniture, and everything in between. "Nice place you got here."

"Thanks. Managed to get the last owner down to a lower price, since he seemed pretty desperate to get out of here. It's no Manehattan, but this village is still safer than the Basin." Sighing, I stretched out on the couch before getting back up again. "Cut to the chase, Biff. We both know you aren't here because you want to be."

I knew Biff pretty well already. He was probably the one I had gotten along with best out of my fellow henchponies, despite technically being my boss as second-in-command. A bit rash at times, but that made him a quick thinker, and he knew his way around a temple or two. Definitely an adventurer through and through, more than I ever was. The very model of a good, competent henchpony. Biff had even been a sort of role model of mine for a while, while I was still new to the whole job and hoped to one day take his place.

Hey, I never claimed to be the henchpony. Just a henchpony.

The visitor of mine adjusted his fedora. "Doctor C's got a new artifact he's on the trail of, and he needs backup. You'll still get your usual share, but he expects you back at the town in Tenochtitlan in two days."

"Fair enough." Grabbing my hat from its rack, I motioned for Biff to follow. "Any idea what kind of job we're looking at?"

"You think he tells me that kind of stuff?"

"No, but it was worth asking."

After grabbing my saddlebag, I opened the door and the two of us stepped out into the daylight. It seemed to be fairly busy out today, with plenty of ponies making their way up and down the street while chatting with their friends or just humming various sorts of catchy tunes. Fortunately, none I could recognize were nearby. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get in anyway?" I questioned, curious.

"You left the door unlocked," he said back. "Didn't I warn you about that already?"

Stomping the ground with a hoof, I let out a quick exhale. "Look, it's not my fault locking the doors doesn't do anything to keep Pinkie out. It just seemed redundant at this point."

"Who?"

"Nevermind. Look, why don't you go get us our train tickets for the ride to Dodge Junction? I'll wrap up some business here and then catch you there."

A nod and he was gone. Biff was a great stallion, don't get me wrong, but I was grateful this was only a temporary thing. His adventurer blood and loyalty to the Doctor were way deeper than mine was, and I didn't want to spend the next day or two explaining all the stuff that had happened lately. I had already gotten a minor miracle in him not recognizing where the ring that was hanging on the wall back home had come from.

Plus, if he stayed here he would end up cribbing my style, and I couldn't have that. It was one of the few things going for me, alongside my interdimensional journal and a few friends. And my job, which was the next thing to deal with on my bucket list. Not telling Applejack I'd be gone for a few days would be the fastest way to have my trip cut short with a lasso dragging me back all the way to Sweet Apple Acres.

"Oh, Jungle!"

As usual, I didn't see Fluttershy until I almost ran into her. She had this tendency to escape my focus until I was basically two hoofsteps away. It had resulted in a crash or two on occasion, but it was fairly rare. I had a better sense of spacial awareness than that, I'll have you know.

"Hey, Fluttershy," I greeted back, tipping my hat. "What are you doing out here today?"

"Oh, just getting a few things for the animals." She noticed my saddlebags, looking curiously at them before doing the same at me directly. "Um, if you don't mind me asking... are you going somewhere out of Ponyville?"

Well, no point in being dishonest. Applejack would approve. "Yeah, I am. There's some business in Tenochtitlan I gotta go deal with. Shouldn't take more than a few days, but I figured I should probably tell Applejack ahead of time just to be safe."

"Tenochtitlan? You're... going back there?"

"Yeah. Anyway, gotta run. Nice seeing you again." I stepped to the side to move past her, continuing along the road to the farm. What I noticed, though, was the distinct lack of hoofsteps behind me. Instead, wingbeats gradually got louder until they were coming from right behind me. "What?"

The sound of hooves quietly tapping together told me exactly what Fluttershy was doing. "Well... I was wondering if I could maybe... go with you?"

I stopped dead in my tracks before turning to face the pegasus again. "You. Want to go with me. Back to Tenochtitlan?" As you could probably tell from my pauses, I was both confused and surprised in equal measure. "You do remember that it's dangerous, right?"

She nodded. "Oh, of course! But one of my friends at the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures was telling me all about the flora and fauna they were studying there, and I knew I just had to see for myself! Think of all the rare wildlife that's still living out there!"

"I'm well aware of the wildlife," I grumbled. "But your meeting with the society was a while ago. Why haven't you visited yet?"

"Are you kidding? It would be way too dangerous for somepony like me to go there alone. But you've been there before, so you can help me find all of the plants and animals I'm looking for! Please?"

Now, this was a dilemma. On one hoof, it was an objectively terrible idea. I'd have to deal with keeping Fluttershy safe in addition to myself, which was already hard enough. Not only that, but I'd also need to figure out how to do that while simultaneously fulfilling my henchpony obligations to the Doctor. He hadn't seen her at the Fortress of Talacon, thank Celestia, but the two of them meeting would seriously complicate things for everypony involved, especially me. And I liked keeping things as simple as possible.

But on the other hoof... she was my friend. And one giving an awfully convincing pleading look too. That second part was doing some real heavy lifting, despite all rational thoughts screaming at me to say no.

Being honest, I never had a choice in the matter.

"Fine. But I have stuff to do on the trip, so you'll need to go solo at least until Dodge Junction. There's no train that goes into the basin, so-"

"Oh, I know," Fluttershy responded, stopping me. "Rarity said the stagecoach ride was absolutely dreadful for her mane."

Right. I kept forgetting they had all already gone to Tenochtitlan before. Bad memories and all that. "We won't be taking the stagecoach. Once we're at the end of the line, I'll meet up with you so we can go on this 'nature quest' or whatever of yours, okay?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Thank you, Jungle. And good luck with Applejack!"

"Applejack is the least of my worries now," I muttered as I waved goodbye before turning around to resume my journey. I had wanted to make our chat as short as possible, but now I was almost hoping she'd have a two-hour argument with me.

Something told me this was going to be a long train ride...

"You're late."

I rolled my eyes. "I know I'm late," I responded to Biff, grabbing one of the tickets from his hoof and giving it to the conductor before trotting aboard the train. "But if the train's still here it doesn't matter, does it?"

"You know Doctor C wouldn't take that answer."

The two of us took our seats across from each other as the train began to move forward from the Ponyville station. "I am well aware of what the boss would and wouldn't take. I know you, however, are not Doctor C."

"Fair enough."

Biff wasn't a very talkative stallion. A great contrast to me, I know. As I'm sure you've noticed, I can keep a conversation going for a long time. He, on the other hoof, preferred to keep his words few and his impact high. He kept his thoughts hidden, and rarely spoke his mind unless it was a suggestion on how to proceed or something important. I had always respected that, being able to keep silent. Sometimes saying nothing at all was the best way to talk.

...Looking back, it was probably one of the reasons why Doctor Caballeron had chosen him as his right hoof.

Outside the window, the plains of Ponyville slowly shifted to the trees of the bog. The change in scenery almost surprised me; I had forgotten life outside the picturesque parts of Equestria already. The train trips to Canterlot and the Crystal Empire were much more beautiful than the ones heading southward. Unless you had business in Dodge Junction or Appleloosa, there was little reason to take this line.

Well, either that or you liked looking at deserts. To each their own, I suppose.

"So, what were you doing in there?" Biff's comment came out of nowhere, causing me to almost bump my head on the window. "Didn't seem like the kind of place for someone like you."

I resettled into my seat before responding. "First, that just means you don't know me that well. Second, I'll have you know I'm supposed to be working as an apple farmer now. Pays much more regularly than henchpony work, and is much less dangerous too. I did tell you I wanted to settle down before I left, right?"

"Yeah, but... it seems a little boring for somepony like you."

Bursting out into a laugh, I leaned forward towards him conspiratorially. "Between you and me, living there is anything but boring. Between mirrors, castles, the capital, and the ponies, it's almost just as dangerous there as in the Basin. I almost feel like I should be getting paid there too."

"Then why don't you come back?"

A shrug in response. "It's been fun, meeting them all. Not that you guys weren't, but there's something special about them. And besides, I think I'm in a bit too deep to leave now." I saw his raised eyebrow and snorted. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

There was a nod, and that was that. We each sat back in our seats, both pulling our hats over our eyes. Both of us knew it was smart to try and at least get some sleep on the train before the trek from Dodge Junction to Tenochtitlan since there was no direct railroad there. It wasn't particularly hard, but it was long, and from the current time it would definitely be night by the time we got to the village.

Yet out of the corner of my eye, I saw something through the door to the next train car in front of me. A yellow pegasus, Fluttershy. We locked eyes and she gave a little wave at me. I risked one back, hoping she saw the small gesture before turning back to my seat.

"Who are you waving to?"

Celestia darn it. "Just an old acquaintance I saw. Don't worry about it."

Biff grunted and looked back down. It was a good enough explanation for him... at least for now.

And yet, as I knew very well already, it would only be the first of the difficulties to come.

I didn't like Dodge Junction. One would never suspect that a desert town would be the last stop before heading into a jungle, but that was just how things were. Whoever made the geography of Equestria really should have put more effort into it. Ponies from the jungles like myself would just never get used to the dry and dusty nature of these types of settlements, and I'm sure it worked both ways too. Seldom did I see residents come into Tenochtitlan, or familiar faces here.

Well, basically nopony went to Tenochtitlan. Only the occasional tourists. Why you would visit the dangerous basin over places like the Crystal Empire, I would never understand. Maybe they enjoyed taking risks?

Anyway, back to the journey. Stepping off the train onto the station, I spotted Fluttershy waiting for me at the other end. "Oh, there you are," she said while approaching me. "I thought you might have left without me. Where's your friend?"

"Him?" I paused, trying to think of a believable excuse. "He left the train before I did to go where he needs to. Don't worry about it, it'll be just us two until we get to the Basin."

Technically, it was all true. I had told Biff to go on ahead and take the next stagecoach to Tenochtitlan while I picked up some personal supplies in Dodge Junction. If you couldn't tell, that was obviously a lie to him. But I felt a lot better about that than lying to Fluttershy. He didn't know about my secret methods going south, either, and I didn't really feel like telling him about them.

And besides, I would see her and her friends a lot more than I would be seeing my fellow henchponies now, so it was definitely the right move. Probably. Hopefully.

"Okay. So, you said something about not taking the stagecoach?"

I nodded, pointing my head towards where I saw a few stallions loading up a carriage with barrels and crates. "The supplies to the city in the basin take the same route. The drivers will almost always let you hop on for a few bits. Way cheaper than taking an actual ride."

The two of us began walking towards the said carriage, myself taking the lead as usual. "But... isn't that dangerous?" Fluttershy asked, trying her best not to stir up dust with her hooves while I was kicking up a storm.

"Relax, they have everything tied down. It isn't like a crate is going to fall on you or something." I heard the pegasus cough and looked behind me to see her trying to shield her eyes from the dust clouds. "Oh, sorry," I apologized, trying to trot more carefully. "Guess I'm just used to not walking in the front... or walking alone."

"Oh..." We both trotted on in silence, making our way to the back of the carriage. "Well, at least you can lead me when we get there, right?"

It was an attempt to make me feel a bit better about it, not that I needed it. I had come to terms with my last place position on the henchpony hierarchy a long time ago. Now, I was free to be my own pony, and follow my own path. Or, in other words, the path that my friends usually told me to walk down.

I felt a tap on my hindquarter. "Jungle? Would you mind if I... go for a second? There's somepony I saw in the crowd I want to talk to."

"Huh? Oh, sure. I'll go and pay the driver, don't worry about it." Making my way up to the front, I looked up at the pony sitting atop the wagon. "Two extras," I said, tossing a couple of bits up to him.

He counted them out before giving me a level look back down. "For two?" he asked, deadpan.

Sighing, I pulled out a few more bits and tossed them up. After making sure he looked satisfied, I walked back and hopped up onto the wagon, taking a seat on one of the shorter containers. It certainly wasn't as comfortable as the train, or an actual carriage, but I wasn't looking for comfort. After all, I wasn't Rarity.

And this time that comment wasn't unfair, given what Fluttershy had told me.

Speaking of Fluttershy, the pegasus came trotting back and just jumped onto the wagon before it started moving forward, the sound of hooves synchronized in the front as they pulled it along. Glancing up worryingly at the crates which wobbled back and forth with every bump on the dirt road, she eventually settled in and put down a box full of cherries.

I blinked. "Where did you get that from?" I asked, leaning in to get a closer look.

"These? Well, we met Cherry Jubilee here a while ago while we were looking for Applejack, and when I said hi again she gave me these to thank us for helping Applejack come back to Ponyville."

Wow, these mares did travel a lot. And meet a lot of ponies, too. It would make sense, given they were heroes and all that, but most of the time the places they went to had nothing to do with that! And here I was thinking that I was the well-traveled one.

"That's nice," I commented, not sure what else to say. "Guess we should make sure they don't go to waste." Grabbing a few of them, I made sure not to crack my teeth on the cherry pits (a mistake I had made once a long time ago) before spitting them back out onto the road behind us. Fluttershy seemed mildly disapproving, but really, where else was I supposed to put them?

"So, if you don't mind me asking... what are you going to do in Tenochtitlan?"

"Nothing much," I answered back between cherries. "Just tying up a few loose ends and all that. Turns out I had moved to Ponyville in a bit more of a rush than I should have, so once I finish up a few things we should be good. And you finish your nature stuff, of course."

"Right..." Uh oh. The pegasus was giving me a look, which meant I really fumbled somewhere on the evasion. Twilight was one thing, but if even Fluttershy was smelling something fishy that wasn't her cottage pond, then it meant I dropped the ball somewhere big time. "This wouldn't have anything to do with those friends we saw you with last time, does it?"

I nearly choked on a cherry pit, stumbling backwards into a tower of crates while trying to cough it back up and just managing to launch it out of the carriage. "N-no," I sputtered, recovering from the temporary blockage of my airways. "What makes you say that?"

We hit a bump in the road. Fluttershy's eyes, full of concern for me, turned skyward and widened into fear. "Jungle, look out!" she said, pointing a hoof upward. I traced it to where it was pointing, seeing the highest crate of the pile I had stumbled into tilting over me, before starting to fall downwards.

"Oh, horseapples-"

And then I blacked out.

"...Jungle?"

My head hurt. It was a simple observation, but with my eyes closed it was the only thing registering in my brain. Groaning, I slowly opened my eyes, and saw myself staring right into a pair of teal eyes.

"Jeez!" I reeled back, hitting my head back against the ground. Hissing, I waved Fluttershy away as I rolled over to get on my hooves, the pain slowly receding again after a second hit."How long was I out?" I asked, shaking my head lightly to reorient myself.

Fluttershy looked up. "Well, it is night now, so..."

"A couple hours, got it." Blinking a few times, I half-stumbled off the wagon, which had stopped. The driver was busy with a few other ponies unloading the crates and bringing them to a nearby building. It seemed we had already arrived at the city.

Well, I use the term 'city' generously. It was smaller than Ponyville, and only had the bare necessities. A general store, maybe a clothes shop or two for would-be explorers, some tourist attractions, you get the idea. All of the houses were sort of like Ponyville's, only much less uniform and... tidy, if you get what I mean. They blended in much more with the jungle, and the colors were much more subdued.

Basically, it wasn't as bright and cheery as Equestria usually was. Go figure.

"Huh, I thought I would be less tired from all that downtime on the ride here," I said, noticing I was already starting to struggle with keeping my eyelids fully open. Making sure I didn't stumble over any of the many rocks that littered the roads, I gave Fluttershy plenty of time to catch up and keep pace as I walked towards where I knew the only inn in town was.

"The ride here was awfully bumpy..."

Grunting in response, I reached the building I was looking for and opened the door, walking inside. "Welcom- oh, it's you," the innkeeper said. He was a stallion I had known for a long time, with a light green coat and a subdued blue mane and tail. "I thought you were moving elsewhere."

"Last minute business." I stopped in front of the desk, Fluttershy taking her place at my side a hoofstep behind. "Two."

"Two, huh?" Thank Celestia he was not the type of stallion to make those types of jokes; I was not in the mood for dealing with that kind of thing. "Is that going to be one room with two beds or two rooms with one?"

"Two rooms," I said almost instantaneously. "Two nights."

"Right, that'll be forty bits."

That price tag almost jarred me completely awake by itself. Forty bits?! It did match up, since each room was ten bits a night, but still! I guess that was what I got for not liking mental math. And plus, usually I paid upfront per month for a discount. Made it a lot cheaper, especially back when this was basically where I lived when I wasn't actively sleeping out in tents on adventures. Despite my title of henchpony, I did not enjoy only having a cot at best outside in the cold.

Fluttershy seemed to notice my alarm at the price tag. "You know, Jungle, I don't mind sharing a room," she said, basically offering the cheaper way out. It was a way out I usually vastly preferred, but in this case... my mind weighed the options, the pros and cons until finally, my frugal nature won over my aversion to sleeping with others. "Alright, we'll take the two beds," I said, surrendering to the whims of the bit and market.

I swear I saw the innkeeper trying to suppress a grin as he hoofed over the key. "It's nice having you back, Jungle," he told me, accepting the small bag of bits I had pulled out for him.

"Yeah, yeah." Back up the stairs. Past the usual doors. Except for this time, I walked past the room where I had slept for so many moons. I was almost tempted to try the door to see if someone had booked it in my absence, but my common sense won against that impulse. No need to possibly wake somepony up and start yet another problem.

Instead, our room was a door over. Two beds, the setting sparsely decorated save for a single lamp. Just like how I was used to. I all but flopped onto my bed, sighing as I relaxed into a comfortable, familiar bed. A home away from a new home.

My ears heard Fluttershy gently get into bed, pulling the covers over herself. The light from the lamp went out, and everything went dark. A few seconds of rustling from sheets, and then quiet. I slowly began to nod off, tired from the entire day of antics. Despite knowing that tomorrow would only bring even more trouble, I was certainly ready to finally end today with a good night's sleep.

And then I heard the words. "Good night, Jungle." It had come from Fluttershy, obviously. And I knew how I should respond. I knew what was courteous. But the words were so foreign, so new to me, that I was actually at a loss for words. I lay there in silence, staring into the darkness and the wall.

Minutes passed.

And quiet ruled for the rest of the night.

Back to the Jungle - Part 2

Usually, I was the first pony to wake up in groups.

This wasn't always the case, of course. There were some occasions where I was just too tired to get up at a reasonable time, or if I had a real reason to sleep in. But since I had almost always been the one nominated to get up early and set up breakfast at camp as a henchpony, it came with the routine. Applejack I would expect to get up even earlier, but her routine was even more set than mine was and really, being a farmer was basically cheating.

What I wasn't expecting, though, was to see Fluttershy's bed empty when I woke up at the crack of dawn.

The most plausible explanation, to me at least, was that she was ponynapped in the middle of the night. However, I was still too sleepy to go running down and trying to find her, so I didn't worry too much about that. Instead, I yawned, got out of bed, grabbed my hat, and walked out the door and down the stairs.

"I got to say, that's some pony you've got traveling with you, Jungle," the innkeeper said as I took a seat at one of the tables, holding back a yawn. "Don't think I've ever seen anyone wake up before you while you were here."

Ah. Well, at least that solved one of my worries. That meant I could afford to relax at least a little while longer. "Did she tell you where she was going?" I asked, mostly just to make sure she hadn't tried going off on an adventure without me and forcing me to save her.

"Yep, to the general store to pick up some stuff she said she needed. She told me to tell you she'd be back soon."

"Fair enough." I'd have to note Fluttershy's early wake-up time in my mental storage somewhere. It was probably because she had to take care of all those animals. "Well, seeing as how I might be waiting here a bit, how about a drink?"

All I got in response was a look I was all too familiar with. I sighed. "You're a real pain sometimes, you know that?" I said as I tossed two bits towards him. He caught them while giving me an infuriating grin before nodding his head.

"Just got a new shipment, actually. Apple Cider, different from the usual stuff."

Darn. For once I was actually hoping for the usual stuff since I was pretty sure I already knew where that cider came from. "Let me guess, Sweet Apple Acres cider?"

I watched as the innkeeper stopped to check the labeling, looking back up at me surprised. "How did you know?"

"Just a feeling." Sighing, I motioned with a hoof for him to pass a mug of it over. It was still worth the bits, but a pony can not live on cider alone, you know? Despite what many ponies believe, there can be too much of a good thing.

After hoofing over the cider, the innkeeper sat at the table across from me, drinking from his own cup. We both sat there in silence, looking into our drinks and occasionally taking a sip. I supposed it was a slow day for him; either we were the only ones here or the rest of his patrons hadn't woken up yet. He had already told me many times that I was his best customer; the rest of the Doctor's henchponies preferred roughing it out in the wilderness for free.

And yet despite that I had never learned his name. Huh. I remembered telling him mine at some point when he asked, but I couldn't remember him returning his in kind. I didn't find it a big deal, though, since keeping things business on at least some level was fine by me.

"So... how has life been treating you?"

The great question. I made the usual response, an iffy motion with my hoof. "Same as usual. Having fun, making bits, and getting into trouble."

"Trouble?" He raised an eyebrow, curious. "I thought you were trying to stay out of that."

"I am!" I responded indignantly, waving my cider around. "I've been doing my best! But trouble just keeps finding me no matter where I try and go!" Taking another sip of the drink, I put the mug down and rubbed my forehead with a hoof. "I never should have gone to Canterlot..."

Now the innkeeper looked impressed, putting down his cider as well. "The capital, huh? Not every day that a pony like you gets to visit a city like that. What was the occasion?"

"Books."

He blinked. "But you're-"

"I know," I interrupted, not wanting to hear it. He was well aware of my inability to read, at least ever since he tried giving me a dinner menu once. "One of the princesses had me moving them over to the big library they have over there. So there I am, just trying to help, and I apparently end up taking the one book I shouldn't have."

"And why do you say that?"

Looking to my left and right, I double-checked to make sure that nopony was nearby before leaning in conspiratorially to continue. "It turns out the book I took belonged to the one and only Princess Celestia-"

"What was that about Princess Celestia?"

My hoof instinctively banged against the table as I raised it upwards, knocking over both our ciders as I turned to look at the new voice. "Oh, Fluttershy!" I said, trying to sound relaxed and not at all nervous about her overhearing our conversation. "You're back!"

"Yep!" The mare put her saddlebags on a different table from the one I was sitting at and pulled out various ingredients. "I was going to make breakfast for us... if that's okay with you."

The innkeeper and I looked at each other, the former raising an eyebrow. My response was the faintest hint of a smirk before I turned to Fluttershy, nodding appreciatively. She smiled before turning to my drinking partner. "Um, do you happen to have-"

"Kitchen is in the back. Knock yourself out."

"Oh, thank you." She disappeared through the doorway behind the counter, and I heard a very faint humming as the rattling of metal started ringing out from the kitchen. I also failed to suppress a growing grin as my friend sitting across from me held an expression best described as a mix of exasperation and jealousy.

"Before you ask," I said after finally finishing my cider, "I was not the one to choose my friends like that. If anything, they chose me."

"I know. What I'm wondering is what they could have possibly seen in you."

We didn't speak again for the rest of the morning.

"I swear, that pony sometimes..." Fluttershy and I trotted forward through the trail winding through the Tenochtitlan Basin, the former taking the rear and remaining quiet while I muttered to myself. "Thinks he can get away with saying something like that to me... I'll show him!"

The pegasus behind me cleared her throat softly, barely loud enough to get my attention. "Aren't you two friends, though?" she asked politely, trying her best not to offend me.

"Kind of." I stopped walking to wave a front hoof around for emphasis. "Have you ever known somepony that's really nice but also knows exactly how to get on your nerves and does it a lot?"

"Um... maybe?"

"Well, that's him. He's great, but he also loves to annoy me to Canterlot and back. I just... ugh!" I stomped the ground with my free hoof before continuing the walk forward, a bit more annoyed than before. On the upside, it also meant I was moving a bit faster too. I felt a little bad for forcing Fluttershy to pick up the pace, but I wasn't exactly in the most considerate mood either.

I heard the hoofsteps quicken behind me until my companion was walking right beside me, narrowly remaining on the thin jungle trail. "Well, what did he say that made you so angry?"

One of my front hooves hit an exposed tree root, making me stumble forward and almost fall over. Fluttershy was just able to catch me in the nick of time, and I gave her an appreciative nod before remembering what she asked me and returning to my sullen mood. "Don't want to talk about it," I responded, trying to think of something to finally switch the subject. "Listen, Fluttershy, I might have to... go for a little bit on occasion during this trip."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Well you know, the jungles out here are pretty dangerous if you don't know where you're going." The two of us came across a small river; I used the rocks to jump across while Fluttershy hovered over the waters. "I might need to scout ahead on occasion to make sure everything is safe. Just for a bit though, I promise. And I'll come back as soon as I'm sure the coast is clear."

"Oh, okay." Fortunately for me, she didn't sound too disappointed; I might not have been able to find the will to actually leave her if she had. "So I'll just wait here, then?"

Nodding, I took my hat off and held it over my heart to prove my honesty. "You'll be safe since I know this basin like the back of my hoof. As long as you know where not to go, there's nothing to fear."

"Why would I be afraid? You're here!" Fluttershy said it with such confidence and kindness that it shattered my heart and ego in a single blow, then instantly mended them back again. I was right; I needed to leave now before I was mentally incapable of doing so.

"Thanks, Fluttershy. Be right back." After tipping my hat and giving a signature smile, I foraged ahead along the path, quickening my pace as much as I dared to within this jungle. The irony was not lost on me for the role reversal; where I first believed she would be the burden to assisting Doctor Caballeron, now it was vice versa. Friendships were weird like that.

And speaking of the good Doctor...

"Ah, there you are!" Caballeron said as I stumbled into their makeshift camp, already in the process of being dismantled. " was starting to think you did not get my message."

"I'm surprised you remembered that I existed," I thought silently before pushing those feeling down. No sense in needlessly antagonizing my semi-former employer. "Sorry for being late," I responded, putting on my henchpony ponysona. "So, what kind of artifact are we after today, and how many times will we have to fight Daring Do to get it?"

It was a bad joke, but one rooted in truth nonetheless. I was not particularly enthused by the prospect of getting my flank handed to me on this trip. "Nothing less than the Diamond of Lapis Lux!" the Doctor responded, putting on his usual flair. "As for Daring Do, we do not need to worry about her. I have sent others to distract her and make her believe we are after the key to the Amulet of Culiacan instead."

Huh. So Rogue and Withers were both gone. That just left me, Biff and the Doctor himself for this little excursion. If I had known that it was going to be going like this, I might have actually had the spine to tell Fluttershy I couldn't take her with me. "Don't we want the Amulet of Culiacan, though?" I asked, only semi-interested in the answer.

"Of course, but the amulet can wait until later. Besides, it will be easier to have Daring Do find the key and take it from her later. The defenses in the temple guarding it would be... difficult for us to navigate. Now, to find the Diamond we must-"

The Doctor was interrupted by a shrill scream echoing through the jungle, emanating from behind me. I screamed internally as well; there was only one pony that it could possibly be. "I'll check it out," I said trying to appear reluctant, while at the same time readying myself to race towards Fluttershy as fast as possible.

"Do not take too long!" Caballeron called out after me as I galloped back the way I came, curving towards where I had heard the scream. Of course Fluttershy had moved from where I had left her. Now, if something dangerous had come along and forced her to move, I wouldn't blame her, but come on. How would I be able to find her if she hadn't screamed and tried breaking my eardrums?

Especially since the path I now had to take was going into the more dangerous parts of the Basin. Not exactly a place I wanted to be in, considering the consequences of venturing through it in previous expeditions, which were generally bad for my health and well-being. I wasn't really into that pirate aesthetic, despite how cool having an eye patch and a peg leg might look.

The rock under me moved.

On pure instinct I jumped backwards, just narrowly avoiding the cragadile snapping its jaws at the exact place I was a moment ago. As soon as my hooves touched ground I turned and galloped as fast as possible in the exact opposite direction, hearing the roar coming from behind me. There was no stomping, which indicated to me that the cragadile was too lazy to actually give chase, but I was also willing to take no chances. I hopped over a tree root, ducked under a vine, dodged a tree trunk...

...and tripped on a rock, tumbling forward down a hill head first. Down and down I rolled, only being able to hope I wouldn't hit my head on something hard until the ground gave way beneath me and I fell into waiting treetops. Vines snagged around my back hooves and my barrel, snapping tout and leaving me elevated a mere hoof or two off the ground.

I tried moving my back hooves. Nothing. Tried my front hooves too. One was completely stuck in the vines above me, and the other I could barely use. Twisting myself around was out of the question with how tight things already were. And I already knew how strong the plants were; I had used them as a replacement for rope many a time in my misadventures.

In essence, I was stuck. Typical.

There was a rustling in front of me. At first, I thought the cragadile might have returned to finish me off now that I was incapacitated. Fortunately, it was just Fluttershy instead.

Unfortunately, that meant I had some explaining to do now. A prospect that sounded about as bad as facing the cragadile, all things considered.

"Oh, Jungle!" Fluttershy approached me, looking curiously at the situation I was in. "I was just about to look for you. What, um, happened to you?"

Grunting, I tried to position myself to look at the pegasus better, failing miserably in the process. "Just the usual," I groaned, blinking hard. "Why didn't you stay where I left you?"

Fluttershy looked at the ground, nervous. "Well, I was going to, but then some animals came along and told me that one of their friends needed help. I didn't know when you would be back and they said it would be really quick, so..."

"Why did I hear you scream, then?"

That made Fluttershy look even more embarrassed. "I slipped and started falling down one of the trails. Sometimes I, um, forget I have wings when I'm scared." My eye-roll was legendary as she flew upwards out of my sight. I felt one of my back legs shift before the vines holding me up gave way and I unceremoniously fell to the ground. "Are you alright?"

Getting back up onto my hooves and brushing myself off, I waved her away with a hoof. "I'm fine," I responded with a bit more aggression than I probably should have. "Did you at least find any of the plants and animals you were looking for?"

"Oh, yes! There was plenty of flora and fauna on the way that I had never seen before! A lot of them were scared by a big mean cragadile nearby, though."

I flinched before stretching out a leg, trying to ignore the pain remaining in it. "Yeah, I think I figured that out too," I answered, eyes already scanning the surrounding jungle to try and find a way out. "Anyway, it isn't safe here. We should probably head for higher ground, which should be over-"

"Hey!" I froze, recognizing the voice. Knowing I had to act fast, I grabbed Fluttershy's hoof and raced down a nearby trail, hoping my memory would prove itself in my time of need. Fortunately, it did; there was a cave right where I expected, a perfect haven for my non-henchpony friend. "Can you wait here for a bit?" I asked her, half-shoving her inside.

"Well, okay, but who was-"

"Thanks, be back in a minute!" I immediately ran back up the way I came, hoping I wouldn't be caught acting about as suspicious as a pony could be in a deadly and hostile jungle environment. Right when I got back to where I had fallen, Doctor Caballeron and Biff stepped out from the shadows of the tall trees and plants, looking rather annoyed.

I tried putting up a hoof to speak first, but the Doctor beat me to the punch. "There you are!" he said, acting like he was actively looking for me when we both knew that he had definitely just happened to run into me again while knowingly leaving me behind. "I am sure you dealt with the situation, yes?"

Shrugging, I fell in line behind Biff as we continued onward. Also something very expected of the Doctor; situations like this did not require any delay in artifact hunting more than necessary. "They won't cause us any trouble," I vaguely responded in my usual style of expertly crafted half-truths. Or assumed half-truths, at least. There was a small possibility that Fluttershy would come crashing out of the trees any second now with an army of snakes or something crazy like that, but I was willing to hedge my bets against it.

"Good! The Diamond of Lapis Lux awaits!" The most surprising part of this so far was the fact that Doctor Caballeron did not have a map out to look at as we trotted along. Usually, those were a solid standard for charting our misadventures through the basin. It meant that either he was confident enough in knowing the location of the diamond that he didn't make one, which was my hope, or that whatever gave him the information in the first place was sketchy enough that he couldn't make one.

That was the worse, albeit more likely option.

"So, uh," I started awkwardly, "anything special about this diamond? Any magical properties that we should probably know before we take it?"

"Like what?"

"Like dooming the basin to eight hundred years of unbearable heat," I answered flatly, keeping my usual charm and humor out of my voice for once. "It would make it a bit difficult to keep finding artifacts."

That actually got the Doctor to stop dead in his tracks and look at me. He contemplated, deep in thought, which I really wished he would do more often. He's generally more pleasant to be around when he's not talking. Then, he shrugged and turned back to continue walking. "The Rings of Scorchero were an... unfortunate misunderstanding. The diamond has no magic, save for its high price to the right ponies. And besides," he added, twirling a hoof for added emphasis, "Ahuizotl is not our buyer this time."

My response was interrupted by a familiar shrill scream. I slapped my forehead with a hoof as Doctor Caballeron looked at me with a look best described as pure annoyance. "You said they would not cause any trouble," he said, his tone exactly matching his expression. And in this case, his complaints were regrettably valid.

"I'll... handle it. Again." This was already extremely tiring. Though being fair, I'm not sure with the benefit of hindsight whether I would have said no to Biff or Fluttershy. Something to ponder on.

And so, I began to wander off from the group. Again. Into yet another dangerous part of the Tenochtitlan Basin that I would have rather avoided. Again. "Why do I even pay him again?" I heard Caballeron mutter to himself as they headed in the opposite direction, which did absolutely nothing to help my mood. I was just about ready to find Fluttershy and shove her on the first carriage back to Ponyville.

Or at least I would have, if my face hadn't run straight into a tiger.

Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Oh, Jungle, isn't that one of Ahuizotl's minions? It's on your side!' While that may be true, either you're thinking of the wrong tiger, or the aforementioned beast completely forgot about my work with said guardian of the basin. It also could have been that it didn't like my face, but I doubt it. What mattered was that it growled and swiped at my muzzle in a very unfriendly manner, my sharp reflexes just barely saving me from an unwelcome scar. Unimaginable amounts of pain too, but it was mostly the permanent damage to my perfect appearance that mattered, you know?

To the detriment of said appearance, I was still in a bit of a sticky situation. Namely, that I was trapped by a very unlucky placement of trees and shrubbery, the only exit being blocked by the tiger. At least I would be able to go down fighting. A great and climatic ending to the tales of Jungle Trek, defeated by a fearsome beast of the Tenochtitlan Basin-

"And just what do you think you're doing, mister?"

My inner monologue about my impending doom was interrupted by the surprisingly angry voice of Fluttershy. Turning my head to explain that I was being viciously attacked by a wild animal, I fell silent when I realized that she was looking at the tiger, not me. Said tiger was also looking ashamed of itself, which was quite the odd look for the animal.

"Having a bad day is no excuse for scaring ponies, mister tiger! Now what do you have to say for yourself?" It was actually a bit humorous, seeing such a dangerous animal wilt under the sheer pressure of a disappointed pegasus and make a few sad noises before hurrying away. I was smart enough not to laugh, of course; even with Fluttershy, that typically wasn't a smart thing to do towards something like a tiger. "Are you okay? The basin can be pretty dangerous sometimes..."

And there went my mood again. Having somepony else lecture me about my home away from home was enough to put a damper on all my internal comedy. "I'm fine," I replied roughly, getting a sense of déjà vu. "Why did you scream again? I thought I told you to stay in that cave."

"Oh, um, I thought I saw a monster in the cave, but I think it might have just been my own shadow..."

Alright, that's it. I was officially done. Throwing up my hooves, I pointed an angry hoof at Fluttershy, causing her to take a step back. "Fine," I responded, "then you're on your own. If you want my help, go back to the town and wait until tomorrow. I have actual things to do today."

Fluttershy blinked. "I-is something wrong, Jungle? I didn't mean to interrupt something of yours..."

"Yeah, but you did." Beginning to walk away, I didn't even bother looking back as I continued. "Do whatever, but don't expect me to come running again if you need me. I'm needed somewhere else."

"And you probably wouldn't even need my help anyway," I silently added on, the voice in my head quickly turning depressive. At least with the Doctor, I knew I was needed, that I was helpful. Here? There was none of that.

"Jungle, wait!" But I paid her no heed. I only quickened my pace, taking a path through the trees specifically so that she wouldn't be able to keep up. I saw the direction Caballeron and Biff were heading, and though they knew these jungles well, there was a reason I was the one with a map on his cutie mark. Nopony was able to navigate this place through pure instinct and memory as well as I did. And if they kept going in the direction I think they were, and I took the shortcut here and ignored the trail there, then it should put me right in the path of-

I slammed face-first into Biff, causing both of us to fall over. It was a much better alternative than running into the Doctor himself, since he didn't enjoy that sort of thing. "You're finally back," he said, some level of displeasure remaining in his voice. "Are matters finally resolved, then?"

Quickly getting back to my hooves, I gave a mock salute as my fellow henchpony shot me an angry glare. "I got the message across a lot clearer this time," I responded, remaining serious. "She will cause us no more trouble."

Doctor Caballeron studied me for a moment before finally letting the last traces of annoyance disappear from his muzzle. "Good!" he declared in typical Caballeron style. "We are almost to the diamond! Let us make haste, for fortune favors the bold!"

I did not look back as we marched forward again.

Back to the Jungle - Part 3

Temples were one of my favorite places to be in.

Don't get me wrong, I completely understood the danger they posed to the unprepared explorer. Filled to the brim with deadly traps built by Celestia knows who, home to countless deadly and likely ancient creatures very unfriendly to ponies, and quite a few set to self-destruct as soon as their priceless artifacts are taken by the creature lucky enough to have survived the first two threats. Anypony with a good survival instinct would know that the more time you spent out and away from your standard Tenochtitlan temple, the better it is for your health and safety.

The atmosphere of the places, however, could not be beaten. Everything about them just felt so unique, so ancient and mysterious. And besides, when you're Equestria's greatest henchpony like I am, there's no need to worry about traps or animals. All I needed was my trusty instincts.

Well, that and a few friends to save my flank from time to time when I needed it. Those helped too.

Much like many I had seen before, the temple before us didn't look very imposing. It was embedded within one of the cliffs, the entrance a staircase downwards into the earth and dimly illuminated by whatever stray sunlight leaked inside. The three of us - myself, good old Biff, and the one and only Doctor stared resolutely at the task before us.

"I don't suppose either of you brought a torch with you?" I asked, making a show of checking my pockets and saddlebag. "I forgot mine."

Doctor Caballeron merely raised an eyebrow while Biff pulled out one from... somewhere. I hadn't quite mastered the art of being able to pull out the essentials for adventuring out of thin air yet. What I did remember to bring however was a box of matches, of which I stuck and lit one before moving to set my fellow henchpony's torch aflame. "After you," I offered, politely waving a hoof towards the entrance.

Biff only made a grunt of annoyance before beginning the trot downwards. I followed right behind him, with the Doctor taking up the rear. One might think that being at the back would be too dangerous for him given the threat of an ambush, but time and time again had it been proven that the more bodies he had between himself and the front, the safer Caballeron was. Monsters were typically not very smart when it came to tactics.

The sole exception to that rule was that time with the giant snake, but we don't talk about that adventure.

"So, any idea what kind of traps we'll find down here?" I didn't expect an answer, since every temple was different in its methods of keeping out intruders. One of my personal favorites was the massive rolling stone ball. My ears perked up a bit as I surprisingly heard a response from behind me.

"Poison darts, false floors, and most likely a trapped pedestal for the diamond. Ahuizotl will be too busy attempting to stop Daring Do from reaching the key for the amulet, so we should remain unaccosted."

I raised an eyebrow, knowing that Caballeron wouldn't be able to see it. "So we're backstabbing him now? Can't say I disagree, but that sounds dangerous."

"I prefer the term 'distracting'. And it will never matter so long as we are not caught. But you are right; though he pays well, he is a bit too... dangerous for our tastes, no?"

Both Biff and I gave grunts and nods of agreement as the stairs finally flattened out into a pitch-black hallway, the only light coming from the torch Biff held, lighting up the intricate walls and tiles of stone on the floor. The animal-like faces etched into the stone that surrounded us were vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had seen them before. The perfectly lined square shapes beneath our hooves were ringing through my memories too...

The realization hit me right as I watched the tile Biff just stepped on sink beneath the floor with a foreboding click. Without thinking I dived forward, forcing the other henchpony to the ground as poison darts shot from the open eyes of the faces on the walls. Both of us ducked our heads as the only sound we heard was the air being parted above our heads and the once-held torch clattering against the ground. Only after a few seconds of silence had passed did we dare to look around again, quickly getting back up on our hooves.

"You saved me," Biff said with an expression I had never quite seen before on him as he patted himself down to make sure all his parts were still intact. "If you hadn't pushed me out of the way..."

"Don't sweat it," I answered, waving him off. "I'm sure you would have done the same thing for me. Besides, us henchponies have to stick together, right?"

A cough echoed from behind us, and both of us looked back to see Doctor Caballeron, looking impatient. "Yes, yes, very impressive," he said with the most respect I've seen him put on in a long time, which was still very little. "Good work, Jungle. But we still have no time to lose! I would prefer to have the diamond and be back to civilization before dusk."

Yes, I'm sure you would. Somehow resisting the urge to step on the trapped stone again and watch the good Doctor try and dodge the darts, I simply nodded and picked up the torch before taking the lead this time. Biff seemed all too content to fill the position in the middle now, remaining visibly shaken. "I owe you one," I heard him whisper to me as we finally made our way out of the hallway.

It got darker. The walls to our sides fell away, leaving only a blackness that not even my torch could burn away. The floors were gone as well, a thin walkway leading forward between two holes to the unknown. I made the mistake of looking over the edge into the abyss; there was nothing. Just a cold, uncaring void staring back at me.

"Watch your step," I warned the ponies behind me as I shook the thought of falling out of my mind and continued onward. "This bridge looks a little unstable. One wrong move and you could slip and-"

I slipped.

Tumbling forward, my front hooves met open air as the darkness below approached to envelop me. I put my hooves in front of my face, expecting to hear the cold howls of wind as I fell downwards, but something caught on my outfit. Looking behind me I saw Biff, struggling to hold on to the back of my collar as the only thing keeping me from a one-way ticket into the deep dark. I could barely see the outline of his face from the now-distant flames of the torch I still held in my front hoof.

Trying to keep as still as possible to avoid making the situation worse, I heard the faint scratches of sliding hooves against stone as the pony behind me desperately attempted to pull me back to safety. "Get him back up, quickly!" Doctor Caballeron said with a surprising hint of urgency in his voice. "This bridge will likely collapse if we do not hurry!"

As if right on queue, more of the bridge gave way and crumbled beneath my hind hooves, causing me to yelp as I fell even further down despite Biff's efforts. His grip failed on my collar, but I was just able to twist myself to grab onto his outstretched limb with my open front hoof, clinging on for dear life. He was using both of his front hooves now, lying on the bridge and keeping a steady hold on mine as I dangled over impending doom.

"Hold... on..." the fellow henchpony told me as if I needed a reminder. "If I can just..." I could see him trying to pull me upwards but to no avail. I was just too heavy to lift from such a position. Those snacks I had on the regular at Sugarcube Corner were seriously coming back to haunt me now.

Ancient stone and bricks continued to fall around me as the bridge fell apart, the faint echos of the debris cracking against something coming from below. At least I knew there was a floor... eventually. Caballeron looked over the edge at me, his eyes filled with fear. "We must go!" he yelled, jumping to avoid a patch of ground that broke away beneath his hooves. "Now!"

"It would go faster if you would help me pull him up!" Biff shot back, which shocked me. Talking back to the Doctor? I could not remember a single instance of hearing him do that before. Unfortunately said pony did nothing but stand there, either in fear or in shock at being talked back by somepony other than Daring Do.

It was just not my day.

"Let go, Biff," I said with no small amount of reluctance. Falling into a massive unknown pit of darkness was not on my bucket list, but we can't always get what we want anyway. "Take Caballeron and get the diamond. I'll find another way out of here."

Dust was getting into my eyes. I hated it when that happened, especially when everything started getting blurry because of it. Still, it was good enough to see the shaking head I got in response. "We aren't leaving you behind," I could hear over the sound of cracking stones and falling rocks.

I loved the loyalty. Rainbow Dash probably would have as well. Not a good time for it. "Better one of us falls than both," I answered, coughing as more dust got into my mouth. The stuff tasted horrible, with just a twinge of ancient. Pinkie would have been better at explaining than I. "Here, you'll need this more than I will."

With a swing of my body, I stuffed the torch being held by my dangling hoof in place of the one being held by Biff, pushing myself away from him and into free fall. The wind howled in my ears as the darkness pushed forward to envelop me, and the outline of Doctor Caballeron grabbed the one of Biff and dragged him out across the shaking bridge.

The fading light was the last thing I saw before my head hit solid stone and I blacked out.

It was cold.

I opened my eyes to a blurry world of teals and blues. There was light coming from somewhere, that was for sure. I opened my mouth to cough out the dust that had entered my lungs... only for it to be greeted with a mouthful of water. Almost choking on the liquid, I snapped awake and began desperately swimming upwards, or at least the direction I could only assume was upwards. The only thing that gave a clue as to where was what were the various shades of colors I could perceive.

Finally, right when my lungs felt like they were about to burst, my head breached the surface and I gasped for air. Stale, freezing air, but air nonetheless. My eyes could make out two things with me above the water's edge; my hat, floating next to me forever loyal, and a small island in the distance. After grabbing the former, I paddled over to the latter using what little strength I had left, heaving myself onto the dry land and laying on my side, eyes closed.

There was a noise behind me. I moved my head to look up towards the middle of the island, where a small colorful bird watched me with curious eyes from a few hoofsteps away. "What are you looking at?" I asked in a tone I already knew was completely pathetic and tired. Even so, the bird flew off, outwards and upwards through a hole in the stone ceiling.

So that was where the light was coming from. I had to squint to stare up at it with the sunlight streaking down through it. And given that, with a quick look around the otherwise dark cavern, there were no other obvious exits, it seemed that it would be the only way out of this place. There was just one very small, almost inconsequential problem.

It was way too high up for me to reach. Even if I was fully rested and ready to give it my all (which I most certainly was not) I highly doubted I would get anywhere close to reaching a wall I could theoretically climb. In essence, I was stuck.

But hey, at least I was alive. That had to count for something, right? Even kept all my limbs intact, and my hat too. If I ever got out of here, this would definitely be a story for telling around the campfire to the other henchponies. It certainly isn't every day that you get to fall down the classic endless pit of darkness and live to tell the tale.

Shifting myself further onto the island, I laid down on my side and relaxed on the soft bed of... some kind of plant material. It was green, and that was all that mattered to me. I felt oddly relaxed, given the situation I was in. Satisfied. Fulfilled. Even if I had fallen, Biff and the Doctor were no doubt getting the Diamond of Lapis Lux and planning a way to escape themselves. They would never come back for me; after all, that would require intentionally jumping into the pit of darkness and even Biff was sane enough not to do that. But they had done it because of me. I had done my job, and that was what mattered to me. After letting out a long drawn-out breath I didn't even know I had, I settled in and prepared to take a nice nap for all my efforts and sacrifice.

Something moved.

I shot up, all intentions of sleep instantaneously forgotten. There was a ripple in the water, small waves moving outward from a place too dark to see clearly. But something was moving there, something big in the water. It disappeared beneath the surface, the water settling back into place.

Still, I scooted a little further back towards the center of my small haven of land. "A water guardian?" I asked myself. "That's a new one. It doesn't look like it's seen me yet, but then again... why didn't it attack me when I fell in the-"

"Hello?"

My head snapped upwards towards the sound. It was coming from above me: coming from above the hole. I saw the shadow of a pony in the sunlight filtering in, slowly getting larger, and I finally perked up. My savior had arrived! Surely if they were this far out in the basin, they would be prepared enough to bring a rope or something that would help me get up. I stood up on all four legs, ready to greet the pony of the hour...

...only to be disappointed when a head the color of butterscotch appeared, blocking out a good part of my sunlight. It was Fluttershy. Again.

Wonderful.

"Is somepony down there?" She looked through the hole and her eyes widened, despite my best efforts of blending in with my blue coat into the green of the plants below me. "Jungle? What are you doing down there?"

"Nothing," I responded, lowering my head back down to the ground. "How did you find me anyway? Do you usually look down every hole you find in the ground?"

"No, but a little birdie told me that somepony needed help, so I followed him all the way here. I didn't realize it was you who needed it." Said bird landed next to Fluttershy and chirped at me; I was tempted to throw a glare back but restrained myself. It at least had good intentions, even if it also brought the worst pony possible for this.

I grabbed my hat that was lying out on the greenery and stuffed it over my head, looking away from the sunlight and towards the darkness of the cave's edges. "I don't need any help," I shot back bitterly. "I can get out on my own."

"Oh... Are you sure? I'm sure there's a rope or something up here that you can climb up..."

"I said I'm fine!" Fluttershy flinched, or at least I assumed she did from the sound of little pebbles falling and hitting the water. At least I didn't feel any of them hitting me. "Why don't you just go away? Go back to town like I told you or something. I don't need your help, alright?"

There wasn't any movement I could hear, so I guess that meant she wasn't going to listen to me. At the absolute least, there was a bit of silence for a while so I could be alone with my very jumbled thoughts in peace. That didn't last forever, though; there was a small voice from above a minute or so later. "What happened, Jungle?" Fluttershy asked in a tone timid even for her. "You were so nice and calm this morning, and now..."

That did it. Roughly shoving my hat back out of my eyes and storming up to all fours, I looked up to give my worst possible glare at the pegasus above me. "What happened?" I asked, with an equal mix of seething and mocking. "You happened, Fluttershy! This trip was supposed to be nice and easy, just doing my job and going back to Ponyville with no trouble, and then you came along to ruin all of that! All you do is keep getting into trouble, keep making me look like a fool of myself, and then think you can act like everything is fine when you appear out of nowhere to save me! I'm the one that's supposed to know what they're doing! I'm supposed to be-"

I stopped. I couldn't continue that sentence. It was about to end with 'be the hero', but why? I was no hero. I had never tried to be the hero, because I didn't need to be one. I was an adventurer, right? A henchpony. A jungle explorer, just as much as Fluttershy was a caretaker of animals. I was good at what I did. I didn't need help. I had friends, but I could do things on my own.

My anger evaporated as I realized how pathetic it all was. Fluttershy didn't deserve that. She had asked for my help as a friend, and all she was trying to do was try to help me. "...I'm supposed to be worth something," I quietly continued, looking away toward the ground in shame. "But all I've done for you today is yell at you. Is that who I am? A fraud?"

No response. I didn't deserve one anyway. She was better off just leaving me here and finding someone else. Maybe one of her real friends, so they could do what heroes do. There was a quiet flap of wings next to me, a pair of butterscotch hooves sitting beside me. A gentle hoof wrapped around my back.

"You're my friend, Jungle," Fluttershy told me despite the fact I still refused to look her in the eyes. "And it's okay to have to ask for help, even at things you're good at. Applejack had to ask for help from us once when she was gathering apples because even she couldn't do it all by herself. She got so tired once that she scared all the bunnies when I was trying to do my bunny census, and they stampeded into Ponyville and ate everypony's flowers!"

I gave an involuntary laugh at imagining that. "Even Applejack, huh?" I said. "And here I thought she was the perfect farmer."

"None of us are perfect, Jungle. Twilight isn't perfect at magic, Rainbow Dash isn't perfect at flying, and I'm not perfect with my animals. There are always things we can learn from our friends. And you're more than just what you're good at." I looked up at Fluttershy, who gave me a smile in return. "And besides, I didn't just ask for you to come because I needed help."

What? I blinked, tilted my head, and then blinked some more. "You... didn't?" I asked, flabbergasted.

"Well, I did need help," she responded a bit more nervously. "But it just gets so lonely when I go on these kinds of trips by myself, and it's too dangerous for me to bring my animals with me. I just wanted to spend time with you, since you always seem so busy all of the time."

Right, busy. Not just relaxing in my house whenever I wasn't off working at Sweet Apple Acres or lending a hoof to a friend. I liked to maintain what I called a healthy work-rest balance, something which certainly did not exist when I was out regularly sleeping in the wilderness. My brain ran through about a thousand witty or comedic remarks to Fluttershy, yet the only thing that spilled out of my mouth was a quiet "Thank you" with a grateful nod.

And to me, that was enough.

"...Do you hear something?" My ears perked up, and I listened in to whatever had caught Fluttershy's attention. She was right; there was something faint, but audible coming from elsewhere in the cave we were in. It also sounded strangely familiar to me...

"Is that... screaming?"

A fair distance away, there were two loud splashes in the water and the shape of two ponies breaching the surface and gasping for air. Both Fluttershy and I shot up to our hooves, and I waved my hooves back and forth gesturing for them to come over onto our little island. It was only when they saw us and approached that I recognized the two and took a step back; it was Biff and Caballeron, the latter looking much worse for wear than the former. However, he was still swimming along much better than his henchpony, who I suspected was not much of a strong swimmer. I helped drag Biff onto shore, while Fluttershy made sure the Doctor was alright.

"What are you two doing down here?" I asked, both curious and worried as Biff continued to cough. "I thought you two had made it to the other side. Was the diamond there?"

Caballeron shook his head in disappointment. "It seems that some other adventurer had reached it before us, for all we found was an empty pedestal and a giant boulder." I mentally gave myself a high five for getting my favorite trap in this temple. There was no way that it didn't scare whoever had gotten here first and taken the diamond. "Since there was no way out, he-" Caballeron gestured to the recovering Biff "-was certain you were still alive, and that we should follow you down the hole. I can see he was correct."

"Of course I was right!" Biff raised his hoof and slapped me on the back, much to my complete surprise. "Jungle here would never let one of these temples get the better of him! Especially not when I still owed him one!"

I looked at him with a strange sort of expression. "You believed in me that much?" I asked, shocked. "You willingly jumped into a massive pit of darkness just for me?"

"When you put it like that, it makes it sound stupid. But you saved me from that dart trap! There was no way that you would just go out like that."

Wow. There was the number one henchpony, at least in my books, telling me how good I was at his job. I sneaked a quick look at Fluttershy, who nodded encouragingly with a slight smile. It brought a real, genuine smile to my face too, and a bit of that old confidence back which I sorely needed.

"Well, yeah. I mean, going out to a classic endless pit without anything fancy? Ancient temples are going to have to try harder than that to take me down," I said putting my signature flair back on in full force. "And you two are in luck, because I just happened to find an exit out of this place. All we have to do is find something to get up to the ceiling and-"

Our island haven started to shake, forcing all of us to our knees. The water rippled, and Doctor Caballeron was the first to notice the large tentacle rising out of the water. "Sea monster!" he yelled as he scurried to hide behind the rest of us, taking refuge at the center of our patch of land away from the edges. Fluttershy, Biff and I could only freeze and stare in terror as the end of the tendril revealed itself to be a large eye, which opened to stare at the three of us. It blinked.

Extremely slowly and gently, I nudged Fluttershy forward towards the eye. "Do you think you could... you know?" I whispered to her, motioning with my head towards whatever the thing was. She seemed to get the message and took another step forward of her own accord, staring at the tentacle head-on.

"Um, mister sea creature? We're all very sorry for disturbing you... can you forgive us for falling into your home?" The eyeball recoiled back, before shaking itself up and down in a hopefully agreeing manner. "Oh, thank you! We'd like to leave, actually, but we can't reach the exit up there. Can you help us?"

As the waters shifted again to reveal another tentacle, Doctor Caballeron slowly approached me from behind to stand beside me. "Who is she?" he asked quietly to me, pointing at Fluttershy. "And how is she doing that?"

"Oh, that's just Fluttershy," I casually responded, which I knew would confuse him even more. "She's one of my friends. Good with animals, too." His jaw seemed to drop further than it already was as we both watched her half-encourage, half-tug Biff onto the waiting tendril of the sea-whatever it was, his legs shaking more than a building during an earthquake. As soon as he got on, the creature slowly raised him to the hole in the roof, where he was able to jump up to the surface and solid ground.

Two more limbs sprouted out of the water, and this time I was the one gently nudging my employer along to get on one before I jumped onto the other waiting for us at the shore. Caballeron was all the while staring at me like I was insane, which I couldn't entirely blame him for. I looked stoic, calm, and collected, and even only had one shaking leg instead of all four as we were lifted upwards through the cavern. There was no reason to be afraid, at least for me, since I trusted Fluttershy and by extension this creature.

Couldn't blame Caballeron for being the first one to hurriedly jump out and collapse in the sweet embrace of a real floor, though. He tended to lose his courage the closer he got to real danger, which might have been what set him and Daring Do apart. I liked to imagine that we made up for it with teamwork when it counted.

"Thank you, mister!" Fluttershy said as she finally joined the rest of us above ground, waving to the various limbs below which waved back. "I'll try to visit you again sometime! Nice to meet you!"

Suddenly, I was struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration. It was crazy, it was completely out there, but if I was right... "Hey Fluttershy," I said quietly to her, which caught her attention, "do you think you could ask your, uh, friend down there if he's found anything else that fell underwater? Maybe like a treasure, or something along those lines? Just out of curiosity."

Fluttershy looked at me with a weird expression of confusion, but the thing below us seemed to hear what I was saying. It completely disappeared beneath the water, leaving us alone in near-silence with the only sound being the faint water lapping against the cave edges. A few seconds later a single tentacle reappeared, holding something bright and shining in the sunlight. It was only when it was offered to me that all of us saw what it was; a small diamond, most likely of Lapis Lux. I had to say I was rather disappointed since it was rather small for the great artifact that Caballeron had been hyping it up to be. Nevertheless, I grabbed it and gave back an appreciative nod to the waters below as the creature finally returned to the depths it came from, deep beneath the cold waters of the cave.

"Here, catch." I lightly tossed the diamond over to Caballeron, who fumbled with it for a few moments before getting a proper hold of it and stuffing it in one of the many pockets he had. "Guess you were lucky in pulling me back into this thing again. I doubt you would have found that diamond on your own underneath the waters."

"I am sure we would have gotten it eventually," he shot back, before begrudgingly giving a bit of ground. "But your help is greatly appreciated, Jungle Trek. I remember again why I continue to pay for your services." Reaching into a different pocket, he pulled out a not-insignificant bag of bits and tossed it back to my waiting hooves. "Now, let us return to town and enjoy our victory. Jungle, would you and your friend like to join us?"

Looking over at Fluttershy who was doing her best to remain out of sight and out of the conversation, I saw her very nervously shake her head. "Actually, I think the two of us will stick here for a while longer," I answered while weighing the bag I had with my hooves. "We'll head back on our own. If you ever need me again, you already know how to find me."

"Don't worry, with what happened today? I'm sure the Doctor will be grabbing you as soon as we get back to work again!" Biff gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder, and I gave him a friendly laugh and a smile before I watched him and the Doctor wave goodbye and disappear into the jungles of Tenochtitlan.

Fluttershy and I looked awkwardly at each other, the silence between us looming like a dark cloud over our heads. "So..." I finally said, being the icebreaker of the two, "I'm sure you knew who that was. I'm surprised you didn't say anything, considering last time."

"Well, Rainbow Dash has told me a lot about Mister Caballeron from her Daring Do stories, but since you were here I thought I would give him a chance. He seemed a lot nicer than what the books said."

I tilted my hoof in a so-so manner. "I wouldn't say 'nicer'. He likes to put on a show of professionalism when he isn't gloating over beating Daring Do at something. It's all about his mood." My eyes narrowed as a thought popped into my head. "By the way, you aren't going to tell Rainbow Dash about this adventure, right? We're cool with each other now, but if she heard I was still working with the Doctor..."

The pegasus giggled, which I wasn't sure whether to take as reassurance or just her finding humor in the situation I was in. "I won't tell a thing," she finally said, letting me breathe a sigh of relief. "It'll be our secret."

Secret. Those were piling up on me in the past few weeks now. This one sat a bit easier on me since the worst thing to happen if it got out would be an earful from Rainbow Dash about working with what was according to her the worst villain in the history of Equestria. The other one would be a lot worse. But that would be for getting back to Ponyville, and this was now. With a smile on my face, I offered a hoof to Fluttershy. "Well, since we still have time, do you want to see what other animals we can find in the jungle?"

She beamed at me before taking my hoof. "I'd love to! I'm still just shocked that you found a baby Kraken all the way out here! I never thought I'd ever get the chance to see one up close, especially in such a unique environment!"

"...wait, what?"

A few hours later Fluttershy and I were back in town, enjoying the comforts of civilization once again. It had been pretty standard, at least for a hike in the Forbidden Jungles; she saw plenty of wildlife, I only almost got bitten by a snake once, and both of us had plenty of scratches to show for our trouble. Now, she was regaling me with a story of some big thing I had missed in Ponyville, probably while I had been out working on the farm.

Rule number one of working at Sweet Apple Acres: Never give Applejack a reason to have to come and find you. The results are almost never pretty.

"...And then I had to be Princess Celestia so that Rainbow could learn the history of the Wonderbolts for her exam! She looked so happy when she told us that she passed, and it was kind of fun to pretend to be a princess too!" I gave a low impressed whistle at Fluttershy as the two of us trotted back into our room in the inn. We had been trading tales back and forth with each other for a while now as we had made our way back from our little Tenochtitlan excursion. A jungle trek, one could say.

Yes, thank you, I'll be here all night.

Anyway, both Fluttershy and I flopped onto our respective bedrolls, completely tired from the day's events. Or rather I tried too, but found myself with a sharp pain in my flank due to landing on something hard and extremely uncomfortable. It was the bag of bits, the thing I had come all this way for in the first place. I looked at it, then at Fluttershy, who seemed to be staring off into the ceiling.

"Here," I finally said after deliberating for a long time, lightly throwing the bits onto her bed. It landed right next to her, and she looked at it before turning to stare at me. "I don't need it, and you can probably use it better than I could."

She pushed the bag away, rapidly shaking her head in near disbelief. "No no no, I can't take this!" she responded, treating the bag of money like it was something poisonous... and not an animal. "Jungle, you worked hard for it, and I don't-"

"Oh come on, taking care of all those animals can't be free," I countered back. "I get plenty from working with Applejack already. Plus, it's not like there's much I want to spend my money on back in Ponyville anyway, except maybe another sofa." Fluttershy remained frozen as if she had just stopped functioning. I gave a long, drawn-out sigh. This was what I got for trying to be too nice with ponies who were just nice by default. "Look, how about you take it for now, and when we get back to Ponyville we'll split it in half. I mean, I owe you for saving me about a million times out there."

That finally snapped her out of it, and she looked torn between my offer and her brain probably screaming at her as loud as Fluttershy could yell (which was to say about the same as a heavy whisper) before she finally gave up and took the bag. "Alright, I guess it would be nice to get the animals something nice."

"That's the spirit!" With that settled I resumed flopping back into bed and in a few seconds, the lamp between the two of us went out. I guess she was just as ready to pass out and get some sleep as I was. It was familiar, laying here in darkness with just my thoughts. Just like yesterday. I waited for the words.

"Good night, Jungle."

And this time, I didn't hesitate to respond as I pulled the blankets closer to me, already drifted off into the realm of dreams.

"Good night, Fluttershy."