Dreamwalker's Tale: The Descent

I was content.

Some minor inconveniences bothered me ever so slightly, but they failed to make a dent in just how content I felt. It was a little bit too warm for my tastes, mostly due to my work and the late afternoon sun. I was sweaty. Very, very sweaty. And shortly after I started working, I had managed to take a very unfortunate step and a jolt of pain ran up my left front leg. That had been a few hours ago, but it still occasionally hurt a little if I put my hoof down just right. Or wrong. I just shrugged it off and continued on. There was enough work to be done, after all.

A loud caw overhead made me pause and look up. White Tip flapped his wings quickly and landed in one of the lower branches of a nearby apple tree. And he stared at me menacingly. I chuckled. “I know what you’re going to say and yeees, I’m going to take a break soon. Sheesh.” I shook my head and moved over to the next tree. I heard White Tip fly off again and gave it little mind. My feathery buddy had been helping out the entire time. Well, as far as he could.

Another tree and another bushel full of apples. I tilted my head to the left and heard a quiet but satisfying pop in my neck. I was about to levitate the full bushel over to the cart when I heard my pet return, his wingbeat indicated that he tried to hover and the explanation for that followed a second later.

A small stream of water splashed on my head.

“Oi!” I complained and looked up as soon as the attack was finished. White Tip hovered over me and still carried the wooden ladle from the water bucket in his claws. “What’s gotten into you? What was that for?” He cawed again, quickly flew back to the cart and put the ladle back into the bucket. And then he sat on the edge of the cart, stared me down and cawed again.

I huffed and rolled with my eyes. “You’re such a menace sometimes,” I grumbled, but I could already feel a smile grow on my muzzle as I picked the bushel up and carried it over to the cart. I placed it down next to the other three. A single empty one remained. I was tempted. I could pick it up, fill it up, and the cart would be done. Ready to return to the barn. To be emptied, before the next round started. It would be a decent opportunity for a break.

But I knew myself. I would not stop. If fatigue or a heat stroke would not force me to do it, I would not take a break. There was always more to do. And I was an avid defender of the ‘work first, fun later’-philosophy. Was it not strange how taking a break counted as fun, apparently?

Thing was, though: White Tip knew me just as well. Thus he looked out for me. Looked after me. And forced me to take a break every now and then. I had tried to ignore him once. It was no fun harvesting apples when the occasional random fruit was dropped on my head like a water balloon. Even more so since I knew that Applejack would give both of us Tartarus if she were to learn of this. Him for ruining her perfectly grown apples and me for being stubborn. Go figure.

So I sat down on the back of the cart and took a breather.

I always underestimated — or simply forgot — how incredibly large the east orchard was. Rows upon rows upon rows of trees. Not all of them were apple trees, just most of them. The sunset in a few hours would be spectacular from that nearby hill I could see. Too bad I had nopony to share it with. Twilight was still busy teaching the Tantabus not to eat books or something, so she could not make it today to begin with. And Pinkie and Rarity had left an hour ago. Both had been pretty worn out. They had worked their pretty rumps off trying to help out. It was such an incredible statement. The three of us worked tirelessly for a good few hours, from early morning to afternoon. And we barely managed to get done what Big Macintosh could have achieved on his own.

Applejack probably would not have asked for our help if the Big Red would have felt up to the task. Especially on such short notice. Rarity had to leave early. There was a fashion show in Canterlot that had a chair with her name on it. Probably literally. And she had to take one of those trains that left so early that I would deem it legitimate to call it a ‘night train’.

And nopony was about to ask Fluttershy. Or even let her, had she offered. She was ten months into her pregnancy. Another two to go. No condition to do hard manual labor.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked White Tip. He had carefully walked along the edge, over to my side and looked out the same direction I did. Fields and more fields. But the orchard had an almost magical charm to it I could not describe properly. It felt like home in a similar manner breathing in the library air of the castle did. Similar to the scent of textile dyes, tea and perfume when I entered Carousel Boutique. Or the smell of critters and flowers when I visited Fluttershy’s cottage.

For somepony with a bad sense of smell, a lot of my memories and stronger reactions seemed to revolve around that particular sense.

I felt the calmness wash over me and closed my eyes for a moment. Each breath became a controlled, conscious affair. I felt the sweat grow colder. Felt it collect and felt a single droplet run down my coat on my left side. I followed the sensation as it crossed the length of my neck, across my shoulder and down my barrel. I shivered a little. I heard birds chirp nearby. Heard the soft breeze rustle in the leaves of the sea of trees surrounding me.

Peace.

When I opened my eyes again, I had a newfound understanding of the phrase ‘getting one’s second wind’. I looked to my left and quickly scanned the bed of the cart for my satchel. I opened the little zipper and levitated some nuts and seeds out before I closed it again. “There, for you.” White Tip cawed happily and pranced over to indulge in his snack. I knew that he could open the zipper all by himself. He was astonishingly smart, being a crow and all. But he refrained from doing so. Usually.

I smiled and watched him for a moment. He even opened his wings and presented his pretty feathering so that I could appreciate it even more. I petted him with a hoof. Those white-tipped feathers were quite an eyecatcher. Once he was done, he looked back up to me. I had a little bit of difficulty gauging the meaning behind it. Was he asking for more? I decided that if he was, he could make it known in other ways. “Alright. I’ve done my obligatory break, am I allowed to continue now? It’s only one bushel more and we’ll head back to the barn.”

He cawed and I nodded and slid off the cart. I did not have to tell him that I intended to go for another full cart after this one. After all, I felt the ache in my legs, sure, but I was still good to go on for another few hours. And I would drop dead this evening either way.

Depending on how heavily laden the branches of a tree were, a single bushel could hold between three to five loads. Four bushels per cart made for a maximum of twenty trees harvested per cart. One cart per half hour made for forty trees per hour, meaning roughly three hundred and sixty trees harvested so far.

The calculation was all kinds of messed up, obviously. Mostly because I had worked alongside Pinkie and Rarity until an hour ago and while Rarity was slower than me, Pinkie was faster. A lot faster. We had a cart full maybe every ten minutes or so? However, getting back to the barn, unloading, waiting for Apple Bloom’s okay — that took time, too. But I was not actually trying to figure out how much work had been done. I merely kept my head busy by pushing around idle numbers. It was fun.

Another tree was done and I levitated the bushel over to the next one. I knew that Applejack had her own routines, refined over years and years of farming experience. She usually laid all the bushels out in one go, filled them all up and then put them back onto the cart. I had tried that myself and somehow always got confused. What I did was less efficient, but at least it worked for me.

I heard a shrill whistle and smiled. She was coming. I smacked my lips together so as to not embarrass myself, even though only White Tip was there as a witness and I doubted that he cared much. And then I tried to whistle back. The first attempt failed and I merely sputtered a little. “Ew.” I wiped my chin with a hoof, tried again and actually managed to produce a decently loud noise this time. And then I continued. After all: Two more trees to go and I could present another full cart.

I actually managed to get that done before she honed in on my position. I loaded the bushel onto the cart and closed the back flap when I saw her orange coat between the tree trunks. White Tip landed on my back as I leaned against the cart.

“Howdy, partner,” she greeted as she trotted over.

I grinned and we hugged for a moment. I could feel the fine layer of dust and grime on her coat. She had been working the entire day as well. “I was just about to take the cart over to the barn.”

She nodded and we wordlessly agreed to do just that. Applejack placed the harness on her back and pulled. I did not mind her taking over that part. While I was able to pull a full cart, I was not exactly keen on doing so. I was not the strongest pony around, not by a long shot, and pulling a full cart was exhausting. She did it without much effort, of course.

“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” I asked in a posh accent as I trotted along the dirt path beside her. “You were worried that I had passed out an hour ago, weren’t you?”

“Nope, not at all,” she replied with a chuckle. “You know Twilight would have your hide for it. And once she got her fill, I would have your hide for it. You know that. And I know that you know that.”

I pouted a little. “And here I hoped you would tell me that you trust in me being reasonable.”

She outright laughed and smirked as she looked over to me. Her gaze wandered along my back to White Tip. “You know as well as I do that your reason sits on your back right now.” My pet happily cawed in agreement, much to my dismay. I would have loved to whisper a little ‘traitor!’, but I knew that Applejack would hear it. “Made him take his breaks, did you?” Another caw. “Good fella.”

I sighed. “Why is everyone constantly conspiring against me?”

Applejack shrugged in her harness with a good-natured laugh. “We wouldn’t have to if you would be less stubborn and take care of yourself.”

Oh you did not! I grinned widely. “Oh really now? Look who’s talking.”

She chuckled and averted her gaze to the ground. “Well… yeah, fine, point taken.”

We walked in companionable silence for a few minutes until the barn came into view. With the cart inside, we unloaded the bushels. “Where’s Bloom?” I wondered. She should have been here to sort the apples. They were not meant to lie on the ground for too long. I did not understand why, or how that worked, but apparently it accelerated them spoiling or getting pressure marks or something.

“I reckon she’s bein’ a good filly and takin’ a break,” Applejack said teasingly and shot me a wink.

I half-groaned, half-laughed. “Would you cut it out already? I got the message the first time. I’ll have you know that I took more than enough breaks the entire time! Not like Rarity would allow for anything else, you know. And she made White Tip swear that he would take over her responsibility with her being gone.”

Applejack chuckled and put the empty bushels back onto the cart. “I should buy her some fancy new hat or somethin’,” she mused with a grin.

I shook my head and decided not to engage that tease any further. Once we were done, I placed the last bushel back on the cart, she put the harness back on and we were on our way out into the east orchard again. There were still a few hours of daylight after all. And Applejack was glad for the help.

“So tell me,” I restarted our conversation halfway to our destination, “how are you holding up?”

She sighed and yet smiled with the fondness of a sister as she looked over to me. “You’re fussing too much.”

“So is that a ‘I’m doing great, thanks for asking’ then?” I teased even though the seriousness in my voice remained.

She grimaced ever so slightly. She was not about to lie to me. “No,” she admitted. “It’s not. It’s hard. And I miss her an awful lot. But we knew what we were gettin’ ourselves into. She’s been gone for a couple of months and it’s goin’ to be another two until she’s back where—“

She cut herself off, but that one word too much had already been sufficient. “Where she belongs,” I finished.

Applejack shot me a wry smile. “Never thought I’d miss that featherbrain. Not like this.”

I smiled and stepped closer to her. She slowed down her walking pace a little and I bumped my shoulder against hers. “You know you can always come to us, right? If you need to talk, if you need company, whatever. Twilight and I would love to have you over for a night or ten.”

She laughed. I could see her spirits rise a little as a grateful smile remained behind. “I know. And thank you. It’s just… with me bein’ gone for ten days, that would leave Big Mac and Apple Bloom in charge of the farm. The whole place would come down!”

I laughed and nodded. “Probably.” Once I put a little bit more distance between us, she sped up again and I followed suit. We eventually stopped, unloaded the bushels and got to work again. I needed half an hour to fill a cart. Together, we took ten minutes. It was ridiculous.

“How is Big Mac doing anyway? Is he feeling better?” I asked. All Applejack had told us was that he was not feeling well. We had been worried of course. It usually took half the world being on fire for an Apple to refrain from working themselves to the bone. Then again, Big Macintosh had always been more reasonable than his sister. Apple Bloom excluded, as she was the most reasonable one of the three, as far as I was concerned. But Applejack had insisted that it was nothing too serious. Nothing that he could not sleep off.

She grinned and shook her head. “Yeah, he’s doin’ great, I’d say. After sayin’ thanks and goodbye to Rares and Pinkie, I went to the house for a breather. He’s takin’ a bath with Marble.”

I snorted. “Is ‘taking a bath’ your code for ‘having sex’?”

She laughed and bucked another tree. “Why would I use code for that? No, they are ruttin’ like a pair of rabbits up there. In the bathtub.” She laughed even harder as I blushed. The mental images in my head were hard to keep under control. Big Mac was almost twice the size of Marble and she was such a cute, sweet little thing…

I shook my head to dislodge the images. “So you just, uh… sat there, sipped your water and… listened?”

She actually had to stop. She held her sides as she laughed and gasped for air. “What, you think I’m some kind of pervert? That’s why I took a little walk outside and came by. To give them some privacy.”

“O-Oh. Yeah. That… that makes a lot of sense, actually,” I mumbled. I thought Granny Smith for a second, but she was ancient and slept most of the day. And she was almost deaf anyway. The more I thought about that, the more I furrowed my brow though. “So you can hear them? I don’t mean, like, this time. In general? Doesn’t that… I don’t know… bother you?”

Applejack walked over to the cart, took a sip from the ladle and put it back in the water bucket. She leaned against the cart and shrugged. “Not really, no. See, we live in a three-generation household. And I bet in a few years time, if we’re lucky and can keep Granny around for that long, it might even become a four-generation household. It’s always been like this. We grew up like this and so did ma and pa and Granny. You get used to it, is what I’m tryin’ to say.”

“And Marble doesn’t mind either?” I asked. I knew how the Apples lived. I had lived with them in prior lives. I had married into their family at some point. But the fractured memories I had of that time did not provide meaningful hints to what the daily life of such a household meant. And I had never really thought about it in depth.

Applejack shrugged again, albeit with a fond smile gracing her lips. “As far as I know, the Pie’s aren’t any different. Their grandparents ain’t around anymore, sure. But they have a small wooden house they all live in. Makes for thin walls, you know? I think that might be why Marble fits in so well. I can’t honestly imagine the other Pie’s bringing home many, uh, visitors from what I’ve heard about their upbringin’. But if they do, it wouldn’t be much different.”

I walked over and took the ladle myself for a sip before I sat down on my haunches nearby Applejack. We were apparently taking a break right now. “What about Apple Bloom then?”

She regarded me with an inquisitive expression for a moment. “You’re not tryin’ to be weird about it, are you?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “No, I’m not. Don’t worry. I’m just trying to wrap my head around it. Never gave it much thought, to be honest.”

“Didn’t you tell me we were a thing once?” she asked and cocked an eyebrow.

I grinned lopsided. “Yupp. Doesn’t answer my question though. You know how it is. Bits and pieces. It’s all just bits and pieces.”

Applejack smiled and I could see her try to remember something. Her smile shifted ever so slightly into something more nostalgic and mirthful. “Well, Apple Bloom obviously got curious quite early. You can probably imagine that if I can hear Mac and Marble, they can hear Dash and me just fine.. And Bloom can hear all of it.” She chuckled and I quickly chimed in. Poor Apple Bloom. “She had a lot of questions, of course. But I like to think we’re a responsible, reasonable bunch. We sat her down and had a long talk with her. And we explained the birds and the bees and all that. Mac and I don’t tend to use many fancy words. We were pretty plain about it, which I like to think helped her a lot more than if we had beat around the bush.”

I grimaced a little bit as I imagined the ripple effects that would have. Apple Bloom was down to earth in very much the same way Applejack was. And the Cutie Mark Crusaders were a very tightly knit group. It could come up by sheer happenstance. She would tell Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. And they would have questions she could not answer. So they went to Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow. Funny. I wondered if Scoots had been part of that whole ‘sitting her down and having the talk’-scenario.

While I daydreamed, Applejack stayed silent. And as time went on, I could feel how she watched me. I blinked and looked up to see her grin a little. “What about Spike?” she asked.

Yes. What about him? I furrowed my brow in confusion. It took me a moment to understand what she was getting at. “Crystal,” I answered with a wry smile and in turn managed to confuse her.

“Beg your pardon?”

“You said it yourself,” I explained, “the walls of your house are made out of wood. We live in a crystal palace. Thick, very solid walls. And the place is massive. As far as I’m officially aware, he doesn’t get any visitors.”

“Officially aware?” she echoed in suspicion. I merely grinned wider and nodded. That was indeed what I had said. She caught on quickly and smirked. “Twilight. Gotcha.”

However, the topic did present an opportunity of sorts. One of the reasons Spike and I got along so well was that I was his buddy. He wanted to keep something secret? He could rely on me not asking too many questions. But I did worry about him occasionally. I was not just nosy like certain fashionistas, no, I was genuinely worried. I had good reason to believe that Spike was romantically involved with more than one pony. Which was still his business and his business alone. But relationship constellations like that were exceedingly complicated. One had to be very careful about how to balance multiple partners. Every relationship depended on a solid basis of trust and open communication. But something as complex as this relied on it even more. And for someone without prior experience with ‘normal’ relationships, it was probably even harder.

I was just worried that somepony might get hurt. Unnecessarily so.

“Applejack, should I be worried?” My smile was gone, replaced by a little frown that perfectly accentuated my inner turmoil. I did not care if Spike was active, or with whom he had his fun. But Applejack seemed to know more than I did. Probably because Apple Bloom idolized her big sister so much and would tell her just about anything if asked. I needed to know that they were doing well so far.

Applejack watched me for a while before she sighed. “You’re a worrywart.”

I sighed as well. “I know. I just… I need to know?”

She smiled after a moment and nodded. “I know the feelin’. I still dote on Apple Bloom every chance I get and she’s a young mare in her own right by now. Well, let me put it like this, then: They are fine. He has been nothing but a gentledrake.”

I smiled and stood back up to hug her. “Thank you.” We pulled apart again and I looked around. “Alright. Back to work, or does your lazy flank require more R&R?”

She chuckled and gave me a good, solid shove towards one of her apple trees. “I’ll show you my lazy flank, you loudmouth!”

I grinned over my shoulder. “Oh, please do! No Dash around to get riled up over it.”

She cocked her eyebrow again and grinned defiantly. “I reckon I could easily kick you from here straight back to the barn. Wanna find out?”

“Oh believe me, I know,” I retorted with a smirk. “Because of those perfectly toned, powerful hindquarters of yours. I can see all the muscles work like instruments in an orchestra, blending into the perfect harmony. It’s a work of art, your body.”

I broke out into uproarious laughter as I saw her blush furiously. I had clearly won that round. She had a decently threatening ‘maybe I really should kick you’ written all over her face. “I don’t usually care about fancy words,” she muttered, “but gosh-darn, I can sometimes see why we could end up together. Is it mean that I sometimes wish Dash would say somethin’ like that to me?”

I managed to dim my amusement down to the occasional chuckle and wiped a few tears away before I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t think so. I mean, remember that song she wrote for you. She clearly can be all mushy and wordy if required. Maybe you should just tell her that she could do it more often.” I watched her mull it over in her head and make a mental note. And I felt a little mischievous. “Let me guess, according to her, your flank is ‘totally awesome’? Oh, no, wait, scratch that! Everything about you is awesome, right?”

She chuckled and shot me another wry smile. “She does know more than one word, you know?”

I smiled warmly. “I know. She’s actually pretty smart. I have no idea why she’s so afraid to show it more.”

“Do you want to discuss Dash the entire time, or do you actually intend to work?” she teased and bucked a tree.

I shrugged with a grin. “I don’t mind discussing Dash’s flank.”

And she grimaced just as expected. “Please don’t.”

A couple minutes later, we had the cart almost full again. Applejack went to retrieve the bushel I had filled while I already walked over to the cart to take a sip of water. White Tip balanced on the cart's edge again and seemed quite content with me actually minding my own break times for once.

“What in tarnation?” I heard Applejack mutter.

“What is it?” I asked, but I did not look or stop. I arrived at the cart, drank a little bit and only then looked over. Applejack inspected something small just beside the dirt road a few dozen feet away. “Applejack?” She did not answer as she seemed to be entirely focused on studying what was right in front of her muzzle. So I shrugged and walked over to her.

There was a little black something on the ground. Or rather, it stuck out of the ground. It looked quite ungainly. “Is that a rotten root?” I asked and furrowed my brow. I knew that there were different kinds of rot that could befall trees. Some made the leaves brown and caused them to wilt. Others made the bark almost stone gray before it fell apart at the lightest touch. As if it crumbled to ashes. But I had never seen something color bits and pieces black as night. The root looked shriveled too. And why was this root sticking out of the ground to begin with? Roots were supposed to grow downwards.

Applejack seemed stumped as well. She eyed the black little tendril for a good while, but she looked almost suspecting. She planted her front hooves to either side of the tendril and closed her eyes. I vaguely knew how earth pony magic worked and suspected that she tried to follow the life essence of that plant. Either to confirm that it was a rotten root, or to know exactly to which of the surrounding trees this root belonged.

While she did that, I could not shake the feeling that this thing looked strangely familiar. I focused on my flashes, on the myriads of forgotten, broken and half-buried memories in hopes of getting anything useful out of them. The closest thing I got however was a vague feeling of dread.

That thing looked strangely similar to the roots Discord had used in several cycles to abduct Celestia and Luna. Plunderseeds, I remembered. He had spread a bunch of those in the Everfree and they were responsible for the forest growing into the chaotic, twisted mess it was today. And they had managed to capture both princesses from miles and miles and miles away, straight out of the palace in Canterlot.

This cycle had no reemerging Discord. But it was likely that he had planted those seeds anyway. The Everfree Forest sure seemed chaotic to me. However, the timing was all kinds of wrong. And why would they emerge here of all places? The east orchard was obviously a lot closer to the forest than Canterlot, but that was still no explanation.

“That’s no rot,” Applejack exclaimed as she opened her eyes again. “And that is no root! I swear I saw that thing wiggle before I came over.” She quickly leaned down, snapped her teeth shut around the black tendril and tried to pull it out.

And that ominous dread I felt surged to the forefront of my mind. I slowly retreated backwards. “Applejack, maybe we shouldn’t mess with the creepy black vine?” I asked her to stop. But she would not listen. Because I’m the stubborn one here, right? I sighed and shook my head. “Applejack, please! Let’s get Twilight and just—“

The ground cracked. Several fissures ran away from that single, tiny tendril. Each one several feet long. The loose dirt of the road started to trickle down into wherever this led. And Applejack let go of the black vine. “Y-Yeah… maybe we should just call for Twi,” she muttered hesitantly as she observed the fissures only growing longer and wider. They formed little side-cracks, like a spider’s web.

“Slow and steady,” I whispered. I did not know why I whispered. Being quiet would do little to keep us from falling however deep the hole beneath our hooves might turn out to be. I slowly walked backwards and Applejack followed me while the cracks continued to get worse. I saw half a small hill slowly trickle away into a nearby rift, exposing some of the roots of the tree that stood on top.

Then I saw it too.

That tiny black tendril in the middle wiggled. Like a tentacle or something. It was so creepy how it moved, it gave me goosebumps. “Speed up, AJ,” I pleaded with her. That tendril wiggled and the fissures got worse faster. And then we both heard that singular, loud crack. “Run!”

I turned and followed my own advice while I heard the ground give way behind me. I managed to reach the edge in time and immediately turned to catch Applejack in my magic. She could not have hoped to make it in time. She had been a lot closer to the center. I saw her jump towards the edge, but she would not make it far enough. So I brought my horn to life and tried to catch her. I only needed to lift her over a couple of feet and we would be good.

Only a couple of feet.

Maybe I should have yelled ‘I got you’ or something. But my mind raced in panic. I was so focused on grabbing her. She realized a second later that she would not make it. Her jump would bring her up short. And she did the one thing I hoped she would not.

She struggled. She wildly flailed her limbs in an ultimately fruitless effort to somehow grab the edge. My magic wrapped around her and I strained as hard as I could to keep it up, but her violent movement broke my spell and she fell.

“Applejack!” I yelled and ran along the edge to the point where she could have landed.

I looked down into a rising dust cloud. The early evening sun was still strong enough that I could see the ground of a cave of sorts. Maybe sixty feet below. A sixty feet drop. I swallowed hard. “A-Applejack?” I asked and immediately hated how scared and meek my voice sounded. “Applejack, please say something…” Anything.

I looked around for White Tip. The ground breaking away gave him a good scare as well and he had flown off. He was smart. Being smart and being brave was sometimes exclusive to each other. But I saw him circle above. “White Tip! It’s—“ I looked around. The edges of the hole seemed to hold for now. No dirt trickled down, no rocks fell, no stone cracked. “It’s safe, you can come down. I need your help!” He swooped in and landed on my back. “AJ fell. I need you to fly down and see if she’s alright, okay?”

He cawed and swooped into the hole as the dust started to settle. It was then that I heard a cough from below. “Urgh… I’m okay,” Applejack yelled. “I’m alright.” I sighed in relief. And grimaced a second later as I heard her hiss in pain. “Crud,” she quietly cursed.

“What’s wrong?” I yelled down. The dust settled slowly and I could make out more and more of what we were dealing with, but I had yet to spot her coat or hat or any other sign of her.

“I reckon I sprained my ankle.”

I sighed in relief. If that was the worst she took away from this tumble, then we were in the clear. “Is White Tip with you?”

“Yeah, he’s here.” And I heard him caw in confirmation.

“Good, good. You keep each other’s backs and I try to get you out of there.” After my last attempt and a whole day of field work, I was less than confident in my ability to levitate her out, especially if something were to intervene. I could not risk her tumbling down again. So I turned to the cart and rummaged through her toolbox. The little chest tugged away on the side contained all the required necessities one might need in a pinch when out in the field and far away from the house. A first aid kit that I already put aside for later, a few tools to fix broken fences and cart wheels and a good, solid, long rope. With one of the trees nearby, I could easily fashion a sling and lift her up that way. So I quickly got to work and made one of the knots she had taught me to secure the sling itself. And I fastened the other end to the tree.

I returned to the hole in the ground. With the dust almost gone, I got my first real glimpse at it and it was honestly terrifying. A solid forty feet diameter of ground was just missing. The hole was in the middle of the ceiling of a cavern below, so no walls would aid in her escape. What I could see of the walls looked like solid rock, so at least I hoped I did not have to worry about more fissures.

And I could see Applejack now. She stood nearby a pile of rubble in a small cone of daylight and faced away from me. “I’m over here,” I announced, “I’m throwing you a rope. It’s secured to a nearby tree.”

I got antsy again as she did not react for a solid ten seconds or so, her ears intently focused on something out of sight. But then she turned, looked up and smiled. “Hey there. Didn’t see you. Do you come here often?”

An odd mixture of a sniff and a laugh escaped my throat and I wiped a tear away and sighed in relief. “No, actually, I usually try not to fall into big holes.”

She nodded and continued to grin at me. “Yeah, that sounds very reasonable. I should try that sometime.”

I laughed and a little bit more of my anxiety bled away. “You totally should. Please do.”

I had to lean over the edge to see her inspect the loop of rope. “Hey, I know that knot!” she announced with pride in her voice. “That’s a really good knot.”

Despite the little pang of guilt and worry when I saw her limp that one step, I still smiled proudly. “That was one heck of a smart pony that taught me that one.”

“I bet.”

But then her head snapped back down and her ears swiveled around. White Tip cawed at something and they both turned in the direction she had looked to prior. It put me right back on edge. “AJ? What’s up? What’s down there?”

She slowly shook her head and whispered something. I had to strain and barely heard it. “We’re not alone down here.” It was that tone of her voice that made my blood run cold. And we both realized simultaneously that getting her out with the rope might not be an option after all. “I could use some help!” she said louder and in the next second turned and ran as fast as her injury allowed her.

“Shoot!” I cursed and quickly looked around. There was literally nothing else to help her.

You’re a guard, are you not?, a voice in the back of my head sneered.

I grimaced. It was true. I could help. Maybe. Hopefully. So I scraped together what courage I had and concentrated. I levitated that spade over the edge and let it fall. It would be a better weapon in a pinch than my bare hooves. Then I levitated myself and carefully lowered my body down into the hole.

As soon as I arrived, I yanked at the arcane thread and summoned my armor. It landed with the by now familiar feel of additional weight and once the enchantments started working, my form was covered by the illusion of just another random batpony and my slitted eyes were enhanced to see in bad light conditions.

The cave was shaped like a hemisphere, with the hole at the highest point right in the middle of the ceiling. I saw no traces of the black vine that had caused this breakthrough. What I did see was some kind of path or road leading down to my left and a railing securing said path on one side while the other was a solid wall. There was a drop there, apparently. And the railing continued into this room, securing the section right in front of me as well. I could even see the pitch-black abyss beyond it.

I did not take my time to make out further details of our surroundings. I spotted what Applejack had meant with her remark.

I did not know what that thing was. Not right away. But it stalked towards me, or maybe towards Applejack who stood a dozen feet behind me. “White Tip, get help,” I ordered my feathery friend. He cawed and flapped his wings and was gone in an instant.

My opponent was a collection of floaty rocks. Some of them sported intricate carvings, like runes or symbols or something. They were clearly hewn to resemble bones. Ribs. Humeri. Pelvic bone. Dorsal vertebra. And a very distinct skull. These ‘bones’ formed the semblance of a diamond dog. A skeletal diamond dog, made out of stone.

My eyes were drawn to its chest. A hoof-sized diamond floated right in the middle of it and emanated a faint glow in a light blue hue. The same hue that danced as little spots of light in the eye sockets of the creature’s skull.

It was an obvious weak spot. Too obvious to go for it. I picked up my spade and placed it in front of me as a defensive measure. I was not naïve enough to hope that this thing was not hostile. The only reason it still stalked around me was… well honestly, I had no idea. I didn't even know if it was sentient and capable of higher thought.

Rarity would kill for a diamond of that cut, clarity and size, I nervously chuckled in the privacy of my head while I waited for that thing to make its move.

I did not have to wait long.

With every step it did to the side, I did one as well. We circled around each other, slowly, with the distance between us never diminishing. I made sure of the latter especially, as I did not know how much reach an assembly of floating rocks had when it decided to lunge.

What I had not considered was that this thing might simply bring me into a position it favored. For whatever reason.

But all of a sudden, it leaped forward and ran towards me. And it was quick. I expected a strike from its impressively sized stone claws. After all, the entire creature was maybe double the height of Celestia. But it did not strike. I realized this too late and could merely brace for impact as it barreled straight into me with its shoulder. I dug my hooves into the ground as best as I could, but the stone would not yield and the stone creature continuously pushed me further and further back. Even as it slowed down, it put all its impressive strength in that one push.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the railing. Now that I got closer and closer, I could make out that it looked distinctly wooden. And very, very old.

It tries to push me into the abyss.

I panicked a little and tried to get away to the side, but as soon as I shifted, it pushed harder and I had to refocus on offering as much resistance as possible. Which was still not enough to force a standstill.

And then a flash hit me.

They always had the most unfortunate timing.

I saw light blue eyes glow in absolute darkness. I saw a city of spectacular industry and a people of impressive ingenuity. I heard their dying screams. Felt their warm blood on my hooves as I ran. Felt my lungs burn as I powered through the fatigue. And due to the smoke. Flames occasionally licked at my coat. I felt the goosebumps as I thought about how I might not make it out of this massacre. And I heard a voice. A single, male, old and decrepit voice. There were too many emotions bound to that voice alone, too many to sort through.

The flash threatened to overwhelm me. I could already feel my knees buckle. I could feel how that stone creature—

Golem. These guardians are called golems, I remembered.

It sped up. It pushed me towards the railing. Every second now, I would break through. I needed to stop it. Our safety depended on that. Applejack’s safety depended on it.

Stop it.

Stop it.

Stop.

Stop.

“Durmak!” I heard myself yell. But my voice sounded strangely muffled. Distant.

The golem stopped. It looked at me. And a second later, I distantly heard Applejack yell “Duck!” I tried. I tried to carefully lower myself, but I simply toppled over. And I saw her grimace even before her powerful rear hooves connected to the golem’s back. Her sprained ankle would not forgive her for that. She kicked the golem as hard as she could. Never underestimate earth pony strength. The thing gave no sound as it flew straight through the rotten railing and vanished into the dark.

She then limped over to me with worry plastered all over her face. I tried to smile and the lights went out.

I sat down on my haunches and sighed. While I was always glad to see the endless beauty of the dreamscape and it rarely failed to put my mind at ease, there were times when I was worried about the circumstances that led to me being here. I was not an adventurer, or a fighter, or anypony else that got knocked out on the odd occasion. No, when I involuntarily entered the dreamscape, it was usually due to one of two reasons. Either I had tried to pull an all-nighter and failed, or a flash of insight had overloaded my brain with too much information.

Neither happened often and it was always an annoyance when it did.

I rubbed my muzzle and shook my head. “She’ll be fine,” I tried to reassure myself. “She’s Applejack. Of course she’ll be fine. She saved the world a couple of times. She didn’t really need me down there.” And then realization struck me. “Ah crap. And now I'm an additional weight she has to haul around. That’s just… just peachy. Urgh.” I had a normal build. I was neither muscular, nor pudgy or slim. But the armor added a good deal of weight and I had not gotten rid of it before I fainted.

Maybe White Tip was smart enough to inform Twilight. She could lift entire houses, one night guard should not pose a problem.

I did not know how long I would be knocked out. And admittedly, after this day of field work, there was a good chance that I would drift into regular sleep once the flash had run its course. I had ignored my fatigue for a few hours already, after all.

“Might as well make myself useful,” I resignedly decided.

I stood back up and focused my mind on finding Luna. The entire disaster had happened around early evening, so I would have been less surprised to find her awake or in the middle of waking up. But no, I walked right up to her as she calmed down another dream with a whisper. “Busy night?” I greeted. I chuckled as she gave a startled yelp and whirled around with her scythe ready to pummel into submission whoever dared to oppose her. “Please don’t strike me down, kitten, that would be so inconvenient right now.”

She sighed, lowered her weapon and pulled me in for a quick kiss and a less quick hug. “Moon and stars, you surprised me.”

I grinned and nuzzled her chest. “And here I thought nothing could surprise you anymore, oh Mistress of the Night.”

She pushed me a little bit away to get a better look at me. I was having none of it, but she simply overpowered me. So I sat there, flailed with my limbs in a futile attempt to get back to her and decidedly ignored her amused grin. “You look tired.”

“I’ve been working in the east orchard all day,” I explained. Her eyebrow rose ever so slightly. The kind of tiredness she referred to was not caused by mere physical exhaustion. “Did I forget to mention that there’s a hole in the east orchard now? And we maybe might have kind of fell into it? And there might have been a diamond dog golem attacking us? And I might have had a flash in the middle of the fight that knocked me out?”

To be fair, I could always count on her playing along with my stupid little shenanigans. I loved that. She stayed serious and gave a curt not in reply. “Yes, you seem to have forgotten to mention that.”

“Oops. Silly me.” She finally allowed me to crawl back to her and press my cheek against her chest. She was warm and fluffy and smelled fantastic. And maybe I was a little bit tired.

“I take it both of you are alright then?” she asked while her hoof stroked down my spine.

I wished I could purr like she sometimes did. I had no idea how she did that. All I could do was sigh happily, but it just was not quite the same. “Yupp, I think so. AJ bucked that thing straight into a giant hole or crater or something. I had already sent White Tip to get help and there’s a rope dangling to the ground. I think we should be fine.”

“It has been months since you had a flash this strong,” Luna mused. “Anything interesting yet?”

I shook my head. “I managed to catch a command word to make it stop, I think. But the rest still needs to sort itself out. If I remember anything concrete at all, it’ll come to me after I wake up. Until then, I’m out of commission. But hey, I’m here, so… mind if I keep you company?”

Luna shifted ever so slightly. She pulled away from me. And I silently sighed. So she was about to wake up. “I fear that I may have to leave you alone for a while. There is a plate full of scrambled eggs with my name on it.”

I nodded and let go of her. I dusted myself off a little, summoned my armor onto myself and half a dozen translucent longswords to my side. “It’s fine. You go have breakfast and I get to work. Mind giving Sunny a kiss from me?” I asked with a smirk.

Luna chuckled and shook her head. “Not the kind you are thinking of. But I will relay your greeting. Maybe I can shuffle my duties around a little bit, start with dreamwalking and hold Night Court later on so you are not alone for too long. We shall see.”

I smiled happily. If my theory was correct and I would be here all evening and all night, then it would help little. She would have to leave at some point to hold Night Court. Buuut… I was not about to complain about having her here with me sooner rather than later. “Have a good morning, Luna.”

We shared a satisfyingly long kiss before she departed. I stared at the point she had vanished from for a few moments before I sighed and turned around to regard the floating sea of dream spheres. “Let’s get to work then, shall we?”