Dreamwalker's Tale: The Descent

We walked down now partially lit stairs. It felt strange after all these hours in the dark. I suspected that our time here amounted to two days, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. But we had traveled with only Twilight’s light for the entire time and now the city was lit up. Sure, there were still plenty of dark spots or areas of dim light due to some street lights being busted or their light flickering unsteadily. But it was still such a huge change, it made such a vast difference. I could not help but perk up a little. The prior darkness had not felt all that oppressive but now that it was pushed back, I did feel like I could take easier breaths. Strange how that worked.

We left the stairs behind and looked at the third layer of the city. And boy, did we have a good view. We could see almost everything, from one side to the other. We saw a few structures I immediately called farmhouses in my head, because they were surrounded by fields and gardens and in a rare few cases even orchards. They had underground orchards. There were trees growing down here. Somehow.

The only less lit areas were due to smashed street lights or said trees obstructing the view, but these places were so few and far between that it was hard to feel wary of them. Maybe that giant spider hid somewhere in those trees, or back there where we could barely see anything, but it seemed so unlikely. Maybe that golem hid in one of these houses and waited to ambush us. They were built out of square hewn stone and therefore once again gave off an entirely new atmosphere compared to the other layers, especially with all the greenery surrounding them. It almost felt like this could be a place on the surface. A rural area like Ponyville, maybe.

Everything has purpose, everything is in order.

This layer was obviously all about food supply. Relaxation might have been a nice bonus on top, as I could imagine it would be nice to visit this place just for some good, old-fashioned R&R. But as much space as possible had been filled with dirt and plants and pastures. A city of this size needed massive amounts of food. Even with the entire layer being farms and such, I still had my doubts if this was enough. Maybe they had cultivated some kind of superfood that could be harvested once per week or something ridiculous like that, I could not tell. There were no flashes, no memories telling me in detail of how this part of the city worked.

I followed Twilight over to the first field. It was one of the ones I had initially considered empty because it was brown. It was everything but empty. Mushrooms grew over the entire thing in such a density that the dirt beneath was barely visible. They even grew on top of each other in places.

A familiar light encased Twilight’s horn and she looked at those mushrooms with focus. A small smile tugged at her lips a few seconds later. “They are edible. Well, correction: They are not poisonous.” A neat little trick she taught herself after the whole baked-bads-incident a few years prior.

She giggled faintly as she saw me grimace. I despised mushrooms. How they smelled when Spike cooked them. How they tasted. How they felt on my tongue, no matter if raw, cooked, grilled, stewed or whatever. She probably remembered that one time a few years ago when we had a nice little sleepover with Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applejack and Apple Bloom. With that many hungry mouths to feed, we decided to make pizza. Three plates. I had shared mine with Sweetie Belle and Spike and they both liked mushrooms. It was a learning experience. I gagged and almost vomited, it was a bit embarrassing.

Despite this, I grabbed a few of these awful little things and stashed them in my saddlebags for later. Twilight was not exactly an avid mushroom-fan, but she did not mind eating them either. And they would most likely serve as a nice addition to whatever meal we would make.

Of course she packed one into her sample box as well.

We moved on and she scanned several other plants we came by. I had tried to reign in my hopes, but every single time she came up with the same result. Nontoxic, potentially edible. Even when she scanned the fruits of these strange bioluminescent trees.

We had found a fully stocked pantry.

After what felt like an hour or two, we reached the staircase that led further down, but we certainly had no intentions of rushing there just yet. We now had a decent feel for this third layer and we saw a great opportunity to get ourselves a breather. And we were not going to waste it.

I could see her struggle though. She had her journal out and tried to fill in another sketch of the layout of the city. She sketched one of the nearby farmhouses. And one of the trees. And I just knew she was eager to continue her work here. This place ought to be a treasure trove for new plants. Or really, really old ones. Mutated versions, maybe. “Tell you what,” I addressed her, “why don’t you take more samples, whip your equipment out and go bonkers with it and I fix us something that will hopefully be edible, hm?” I certainly was no Spike. My cooking skills would never reach the level of divinity he had achieved. But I was decently confident in my ability to create something that would not offend our tongues. Twilight was hesitant of course. For obvious reasons. So I tried to reassure her. “We stay in earshot of each other of course. No solo adventures, you hear? And if something happens, anything, you call. And so will I. Sounds good?”

Of course there was the obvious flaw in the plan that maybe something would happen so quickly or unexpectedly that we would not be able to call for help. But I was willing to take that risk and she seemed to agree as she nodded with a grateful smile. “I will start over there and go clockwise around the house.”

I stepped up to her, gave her a quick peck on the cheek and grinned. “Have fun, peanut.” And I chuckled as I saw her prance away.

A breather, yes. We desperately needed one.

“You got my back?” I asked White Tip. He cawed and trained his sharp eyes ahead of us as I walked towards the house. First point of business was to secure the building. The entrance door was smashed in and long gone, as was the case with almost every building we had come across so far. Many of the windows had been smashed as well at some point and I took great care not to step into broken glass.

The ground floor was a simple layout not dissimilar to the Apple family homestead. The entrance led into a hallway. A large living room with a fireplace was situated to the left and a decently sized kitchen to the right. I was tempted to give the faucet a test, but delayed that for once I was done. The hallway had a door beneath the staircase that led into a small broom closet and all the bedrooms and the bathroom were upstairs. I did not get jumped by anything or anypony and neither did I find anything spectacular that was worth bothering Twilight with. Just scraps of rotten bed frames, scraps of rotten doors, scraps of rotten tables and chairs — the wooden furniture really seemed to be the last remnants. No pillows, no mattress, no pictures in the rotten wooden frames on the walls. Luckily most parts of the kitchen were made of stone like the house itself. And I had a good, large worktop of solid granite.

White Tip hopped over from my saddlebags and sat down on it. I finally went over to the sink and stared at the faucet. “Please have water, please have water, please have water,” I mumbled as I turned it on. “Yes!”

I finally put my own saddlebags down, quickly rummaged through them and captured a sample of the water for Twilight to test. After all, I still needed to know if that stuff was contaminated with something we would not want in our food. Broken pipes could lead to metal contamination, or maybe some poisonous bacteria had made the pipe system their home, there were too many options to risk it. I turned to my feathery buddy and beamed at him. “Alright, here’s the deal. I’m going to find Twilight and let her do her thing with the sample. You keep watch over the house and if anything happens, you know what to do. Sounds good?” He cawed once. “Great.” I had almost left the kitchen when I stopped, returned to the worktop and petted him. “You’re doing great, buddy.” I smiled as I noticed how White Tip leaned into my hoof.

Confidence or not, we all needed to hear those words from time to time.

I left the house shortly after and it was not surprising at all how quickly I managed to find Twilight considering the impressive mass of technical looking doodads she surrounded herself with. “Hey peanut, how’s it going?”

She looked up, her furrowed brow smoothed out and she beamed at me. “I have barely started yet. But this is so exciting! I have found more mushrooms in this field and I want to test my theory that all these plants are connected by a network of roots and mycelium. I think the mushrooms actually help the other plants survive in this environment.”

I grimaced a little. “Nice mushrooms,” I offered.

She giggled softly. “I know, I know, you do not like them. You obviously do not have to eat them. But you have to agree that—“

“I do,” I cut in with a grin. “It sounds reasonable, judging by what I know about mushrooms and symbiosis. Because honestly, I can’t imagine this being a form of parasitism. Anyway, can I quickly take a few seconds of your time?”

“Oh, of course. What do you need?” She put her clipboard down.

Wait, she packed a clipboard? I rolled with my eyes, but smiled anyway. It was a Twilight thing to do after all. “The house actually has running water, but I wanted to make sure we can safely use it.” I levitated the sample over to her. She took it, looked at it intensely and immediately got to work. I had no idea what all those tests were that she did in the following few minutes. It gave me enough time to come up with a different idea though. Something I decided to keep secret from her for now. If it worked out, great. If it did not, well… then she would not have to be disappointed.

“Can I get a sheet of paper, that second inkwell you undoubtedly packed and a feather?”

She levitated the writing supplies over without getting distracted from her task at hoof and another minute later she levitated the empty sample vial over as well. “All clear. The water is a little more acidic than we are used to, but I could find nothing dangerous.”

I grabbed my stuff and grinned. “Thanks. And again, have fun.”

“Oh, I will!” she reassured with a grin of her own and went straight back to the mystery of the mycelium network.

I walked back to the farmhouse, into the kitchen and over to the worktop. “I have a top-secret, super-important mission for you. Are you up for it?” White Tip crowed. “Nice. I’m going to write a letter. I want you to take that letter, fly up to the exit and deliver it to Spike. I’m asking him to give you a bunch of stuff for you to deliver back down here. You still think you’re up for it?” He crowed more insistently this time and I chuckled quietly. He was eager to help, I liked to think. Maybe he still felt bad about scratching my back up, even though I had already told him not to worry about it. But that was an issue I could relate to quite well – no matter who said what, he still felt guilty.

I sat down on my haunches, put the paper on the stone slab and dipped the feather into the inkwell.

Hey buddy.

You thought you’d finally gotten rid of us, haven’t you? But no, no, no, we’re not that easily beaten. We shall resurface and thwart your evil schemes… eventually.

In all seriousness though: I’m sorry. I told you we’d probably be back by sundown and while it’s hard to gauge how much time has passed down here, I’d say it’s been two days, give or take. I hope you haven’t gone all Twilinanas on us. I’m inclined to assume that, seeing as AJ hasn’t busted down the plug just yet to bring down the cavalry.

We had some issues down here. That golem seems really keen on making our acquaintance and keeps stalking us. Twilight doesn’t want to demolish that thing, because it could be invaluable and we could learn so much and if only we could disable it somehow, yadda yadda yadda, you know Twi.

We’ve run into a massive spider, too. And I don’t mean the kind you can still squash with your hooves, but the kind that squashes you. It got away, so that thing is probably still somewhere down here as well. Yay. But I don’t want to have to tell Fluttershy that I killed it. Not if I can help it. Same goes for Twilight, I presume.

Anyway. It seems like we will need a few days more. There’s a city down here and it’s massive. I doubt we explored even half of it yet. We could use some supplies, so I am kindly asking you to get a little care package together and give it to White Tip. He can’t carry much, so I’m obviously limiting myself to the utmost essentials.

I stopped and mulled over what to ask for. There were a great many things that could make life easier for us, but I had to consider our means of transportation. White Tip had limited strength. Adding to that was the fact that I had seen how he got past the wooden plug at the exit. Something that was light but bulky would still prove to be a problem.

I shifted slightly on the stone tile. And the movement made me aware of the aching in my rump. And my shoulders. And my everything.

First off, we could really use some of that ointment Celestia and Luna had packed for our respective adventures. Sunny told me its name, but honestly, I have forgotten already. I’m not sure we are stocked with that stuff. She said it's rather pricey and usually used in hospitals. I already checked our first aid kit, but we don’t carry that. As far as I can tell, the cans all look the same and there should be an almost empty one on my bedside table. If we don’t have any stock of it, give him the almost empty one. Still better than nothing.

That would probably go a long way to help Twilight with her issues. I still felt incredibly guilty about the whole affair, but I knew she would try to disperse these feelings somehow. Maybe I ought to let her.

I sighed and refocused my attention on our current needs. We had usable running water. We had food. With that, two of our most significant issues were taken care of. Everything else felt like luxury. But having a little bit of luxury was not a bad thing, was it? I grinned as I dipped the feather back into the ink.

I’m pretty sure Twilight will be forever grateful if you include some instant coffee crystals. Enough for a pot, if possible. And I know it’s out of season, but do we still have a few strawberries?

She loved those. The thought of cooking with all these weird diamond dog vegetables was something interesting in much the same manner Twilight was interested in these mushrooms and all her samples. It was an experiment. But it could not measure up to Spike's cooking. But then I switched that mental image up by presenting her her favorite fruit as a desert. And I really looked forward to seeing that delighted smile become reality.

My thoughts jumped around a little, spurred on by my vivid imagination. And I landed on the recent memory of that first sip taken from her gift. The Neverend bottle she had bought and refilled. How she had watched me. How she had smiled.

Another jump and I landed on a memory a couple of days ago. It was just days ago, I reminded myself with astonishment. It felt like weeks, somehow. I had proposed to her. In the midst of us fooling around, I had felt like I needed to take that step and had asked her to marry me. Even though we would not be able to in any official capacity. Not yet anyway, but things were put in motion.

I received my gift early. It was only fair to return the favor.

And seeing as I’m already sending you into my room anyway — mind checking under the bed? There’s supposed to be a large suitcase. If you open it up, it should contain my armor. And inside my helmet should be a plush tiny black box. Yes, it’s exactly what it looks like.

Oh and could you maybe include a few headache pills? I’m getting a bunch of flashes down here and I don’t appreciate that nauseating thumping in my temples.

As I said, we will most likely take another few days down here. If anything goes awry, Twilight will bust us out. I will keep her safe, she will keep me safe, you know how it goes. Enjoy a couple of ‘free’ days, don’t party too hard and don’t worry too much either.

Thank you, Spike.

See you soon, buddy.

I read the entire thing once more, but ultimately shrugged. I was not writing any official reports or something like that. It contained everything necessary. It was good enough. I rolled the letter up after the ink had properly dried and hoofed it over to White Tip, who took it in his claws and let me levitate him ahead of me as I exited the house. “Thank you. Now, I don’t want you to take any risks, you hear me? If that golem shows up, you give him a wide berth. If you see that spider, doubly so. And if they try to cut you off, you return here, to me, instantly. Don’t play the hero, don’t try to push your luck. It’s a silly little letter asking for silly little things, it’s not worth risking injury over, got it? And if you’re on your return trip and something happens — abandon your cargo if necessary. Drop it like a hot potato. You are more important. Are we clear on that?” He looked at me like a foal annoyed by an overbearing parent spouting warnings. “I’m serious,” I insisted. “I don’t want you to get hurt!”

He cawed quietly. I usually just assumed what he tried to say with that. If it was right, everything was fine. If it was wrong, he would show me. But that still left a wide field of possibilities in between. And right now, I really wished I had Fluttershy’s gift to properly talk to animals. I levitated him over and nuzzled his feathery little head. “I’m serious, White Tip. Don’t make me regret this,” I mumbled quietly. He brushed his head along my cheek and after I sighed, I finally let him go. I threw him into the air and canceled my levitation. His wings shot open and he flapped them. “Be quick and be quiet,” I sent after him as he vanished into the upper parts of the city. “And stay vigilant.”

I stood there for a few moments longer and watched. As if I expected to see him fall down or hear a nasty crunching sound or anything horrible like that. And in truth, my head spun with a lot of horror scenarios. As per usual.

Come back safely please, I pleaded one final time before I turned with a heavy heart. I tried to distract myself by walking through the gardens and fields and started to plug vegetables. The kitchen had a few decently sized pots and pans. I vaguely remembered that some of the stoves in the residential district were powered by electricity or gemstones, but the one in our current hideout was old-school and used wood. Which I had plenty of, considering all the scraps and pieces of broken furniture.

“And what might you be, hm?” I asked the row of greenery. Small, thin and long protrusions that did not quite look like leaves shot out of the dirt and once I pulled one free, I stared at a purple onion. Or what I believed to be an onion anyway. Sure smelled like one. “Jackpot. You come with me. And you, and you, and you.” I was excited to see something strangely familiar, even if the coloration was not. And only a couple of rows down the line, I found another familiar sight. Sweet potatoes.

The bushy leaves over in another field turned out to be carrots. And I found what I assumed was some kind of asparagus. And tubers. Though I had no idea what those were exactly. They were gray as stone and I immediately assumed that they were rotten, but on closer inspection it quickly turned out that their skin was just colored that way.

Despite my initial hope to find some regular old potatoes, I had no such luck. And I did not want to stray too far from our hideout. There was an entire city layer full of who knew what and surely the former inhabitants had craved a certain variety in their diet as well. I was certain that there was plenty more to find out there. But I restrained myself and decided to work with what I got.

I returned with a decent haul of sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, asparagus and tubers to the kitchen.

The latter I inspected more closely first. I cut one open with a knife I found in a drawer. The knife’s handle was gone, but I did not require one. Thanks, magic. The gray skin was surprisingly thin, almost like a sheet of paper. Beneath lay whitish-yellowish flesh that offered some resistance to being cut. The entire thing was crunchy and smelled faintly sweet. I peeled the unappealing looking skin off, shrugged and took a bite. It tasted as it smelled. Faintly sweet, with hints of something I had no decent comparison to. It very vaguely reminded me of… pears, maybe? Apples.

This thing reminded me of apples.

They clearly were not apples of course, but they would still make for good provisions. I decided to put the tubers off to the side to later fill our saddlebags with them and turned my attention to my other ingredients. One of the onions was tested in much the same way. It really was just that. An onion. Albeit a surprisingly spicy one. I wheezed a little as tears shot to my eyes. “Oof, gotta be careful with you guys,” I croaked and put the knife down for safety. Once I got myself back under control, I cut off a piece of carrot and tested that. My stomach slowly started to realize that there was a realistic prospect of food on the table and growled loudly. “You wait your turn,” I growled back.

The carrot was good. Crunchy, rich in flavor, a little sweeter than I had anticipated. Maybe diamond dogs just liked sweet stuff. And lastly, I tested the sweet potato. No surprises there, they were at least meant to be sweet.

I had sweet, sweet and spicy ingredients so far. And something that looked and smelled like asparagus. “Yeah, sorry, but you’re not going into my pot,” I apologized to the long vegetable before I furrowed my brow. “You could make a decent side dish though.” Nothing stopped me from simply putting two pots up on the stove after all. And the mushrooms. Two pots and a frying pan, fine.

With my decision made, I started to work. The pots and pans needed a good rinsing first. I filled them with water afterwards, scraped together enough wood to load the stove, used some flint and steel to get a fire going and I washed the vegetables. Then everything needed to be peeled and cut to pieces. Washing, peeling, cutting – the three work steps that took most of the preparation time with just about any meal, in my experience. The water was already boiling when I was done.

“Off you go.” Asparagus into a smaller pot, mushrooms into the frying pan, the rest into the big pot. I had my doubts that we would have enough time to make a thicker stew out of it, but I did not mind vegetable soup either. Right now, any food was better than no food. I just wished I had some spices. Salt, pepper, paprika, maybe curry. I shook my head as I realized that I started to drool.

I went back outside to gather some more tubers while the soup was doing its thing. I briefly considered fetching more vegetables to get some samples for Twilight, but she worked in this area anyway and would probably be thorough with it. So I returned to the kitchen once more, placed our additional provisions by the first batch and took care of our meal.

It would work wonders to have a warm meal. I was decently sure of that.

The potatoes slowly started to dissolve in the soup a good while later. I considered calling for Twilight when my ears caught the sound of flapping wings. Please let that be him and not the next monster, I silently prayed as I armed myself with my trusty handle-less kitchen knife and went outside. And I sighed in relief and smiled as I saw White Tip carry a bundle towards me. He landed just in front of me on the stone porch and hopped off his carefully placed cargo. He looked at it, then at me, then back at it and cawed contentedly.

“Hey buddy. Welcome back!” I greeted him and petted his pretty little head. Another wave of relief washed over me. As if he could have been a mere illusion, a hallucination of my stressed, worried, overbearing mind. But touching him was real enough. He really was here and he seemed fine. A little exhausted, but fine. He must have hurried for most of the way.

I put him on my back, levitated the cargo bundle and went back inside. “As my guest of honor, you are hereby treated to the best our humble abode has to offer!” I played it up a little as I simply filled the smallest available pot with water, put it down on the worktop, opened my little satchel and put a good helping of seeds and nuts down next to it. And just because he might like it and because I knew that he was always curious, I had cut a few pieces of my ingredients off before throwing them into the soup and placed those down next to his little pile of spoils. “Stuff yourself to the brim, you deserve it.”

He cawed happily and hopped onto the worktop to dig in. I watched him for a moment with a big, fat smile on my muzzle before my attention was finally drawn back to the bundle he had brought along. After opening it up, I found everything I had asked for. And more. We had these little salt and pepper shakers that were specifically designed for longer travels. A gift from Rarity. It was unexpected to find them here, but not unwelcome at all. “Oh Spike,” I cooed with a smile, “I will hug you so much and you will have no choice…”

I did not wish to go overboard with either, so I took a ladle and cautiously tested the soup sip after sip. That’s one way to appease your hunger. I grimaced a little and tried to tell myself that this was necessary. To guarantee top quality. For Twilight.

Only after I was satisfied with the soup did I sort the other stuff. Spike had actually managed to find a full can of the ointment. I found the headache pills and immediately took two of them with a big gulp of water. Actually a good idea. I refilled our two waterskins. Something I probably should have done as soon as it became clear that the water was usable. But oh well, better late than never.

And I regarded the instant coffee crystals with a smirk. If I were to make her a pot, she would smell that from a mile away. I put them aside for now. She could have her disgusting favorite drink later.

Four large, juicy looking strawberries were packed into a small transparent box. Just opening the box permeated the room with their delicious scent. It was perfect. I quickly closed the box again and put it into a drawer. A nice little surprise for later. And I put the black box right beside it.

That left me with a letter I had completely overlooked so far. “Oops.” I looked over to White Tip, but my pet was already fast asleep. I smiled lopsided and put whatever he had not eaten into the pot. A few harder pieces would not matter much, I presumed. And then I sat down to read Spike’s answer.

You have no idea how lucky you got, dude! White Tip arrived while I wrote a letter to the Princess.

I stopped after the first line and furrowed my brow. Why was he—

Oh, right. Most of our friends were still out of commission. I grimaced a little as I imagined what the result would have been had he gone through with his intention. A letter to Celestia. Depending on how bored she was, how serious she took his concerns, how worried she would be… I could imagine her closing Day Court early and teleporting over here. Worst case scenario, really. Or maybe she would send Luna. That way, she would not need to close Day Court. And we would have to deal with a grumpy warrior princess deprived of both sleep and coffee, two of her most favorite things. I shook my head in an effort to dislodge the thought and read on.

It sounds like a rough time down there. Are you sure you two got everything you need? Or that you are okay with this at all? Wasn’t the plan for you to come back home every evening?

I grimaced again. I had decided not to tell him of Twilight’s current issues with something unknown interfering with her magic. Then again, it was not her magic per se, was it? She formed the shield spell perfectly that saved us from that spider. Her light spell worked fine as well. Her levitation was not affected either. It really was just her teleportation. But I did not wish to worry Spike more than he already had. We were okay so far, that was the important part.

Anyway, I got you your stuff. And a little extra, I hope that was okay. Doesn’t weigh much. And I dusted your suitcase. Do you ever clean beneath your bed? I almost died of pneumoconiosis.

Pneumo-what now? Some kind of lung disease, I assumed. I wondered if he had taken the time to research that word or if Twilight had used it so many times that he actually knew it.

Anyway, I’m going to write to Luna to let her know that Twilight might not make it in time. They had a date in three days or something like that.

Hug Twilight from me. And keep her safe. And watch out for yourself as well. And

You know what?

Please just return safely. I don’t mind having a free afternoon, but the castle is kind of creepy if I’m the only one in it for days.

No greeting phrase, no complimentary close, no signature. I chuckled and held the letter to my chest for a moment. “Don’t worry. We’ll be home soon buddy,” I mumbled. It felt nice to be missed. I put the letter down on the table and walked outside. It was still easy to find Twilight, she had rotated around the house roughly two hundred and seventy degrees. The circle was almost full.

“How's science progressing?” I asked as I came closer.

Her stomach growled and she smiled sheepishly. “Good, good. Many samples collected, many tests done, but I am getting a little… distracted.”

I smiled in reply and told her exactly what she hoped for. “How about you pack up then and let me treat you to a proper meal?”

“That sounds lovely.”

I helped her put all the sciency gear back into her saddlebags and we walked over to the house. “Any breakthroughs I need to know about?”

I immediately caught that almost feverishly glint in her eyes as she nodded in excitement. “Oh yes! But I think that can wait for after the meal, if that is alright? I would like to show you instead of telling you.”

I shrugged. “Fine by me, sure.”

Once inside, I ushered her to the kitchen and in front of the worktop. She giggled quietly as she saw White Tip sleep on it. I used the little distraction to fetch the last available pot and filled it with a decent amount of soup before I levitated it over to her. With a ladle. I grinned. “We don’t have spoons. Or bowls. So this will have to do.”

“I could make some?” she offered with a smirk.

“I know, but why bother?” I retorted. “Then again, I’m not stopping you if you mind the setup.”

Her smirk smoothed out into a warm smile and she shook her head. “Not at all. This is fine.” She took her pot and smelled its contents and her stomach immediately growled again. “I feel like I am starving.”

She ogled the soup. The only two reasons she did not immediately dig in were a) that it was still very hot and b) that her manners demanded to wait for me. So I finally sat down, armed with my own ladle. “Go ahead.”

How relieved she sighed and how vigorously she nodded. The effort had been worth it in that moment alone. More so once she had her first taste and smiled happily. “It is good, really good!”

I chuckled lightly as I was decently sure that right now, just about anything would have been fine for her. And me. But I did not hesitate either and dug in as well. I had made a large pot. Enough soup with enough vegetables for four, maybe six servings. When we were done, the pot was empty. The asparagus alone would have been enough for two servings as well and that was gone too. And even those pesky little mushrooms I had brought along just for her were finished off.

We both leaned back, rubbed our slightly bloated bellies and sighed in contentment. “That. Felt. Necessary,” I quietly mumbled. Twilight agreed with a nod before the tubers caught her attention. She did not even have to ask. “No idea what they are, but they taste like apples. And if they share more similarities with them, then they would make for decent provisions. Right?”

“We should take some carrots with us as well,” she added. “For variety reasons.”

I nodded and made a mental note to fetch some of those once we decided to depart. I really would have liked to do more in this house. Take a bath, for example. I felt dusty and grimy. But while we had running water, I had not found any bathtub. Maybe it had been wooden in nature and rotted away long ago, I could not tell. I would have loved to have a decent sleep as well, but whatever beds they had upstairs were obviously moldy and in a state beyond repair. Sleeping on dirt was better than sleeping on stone, but not by a lot. And I was not too keen on sleeping outside in an open field.

Still. Even with those luxuries still out of the question, this hideout had provided us with enough to be grateful. And I scraped together my remaining force of will as Twilight battled her post-meal-sleepiness. I stood back up, took White Tips water pot, filled it with new water after rinsing it and put it on the stove. Twilight lazily watched some of those steps, but it was clear that she had to fight hard not to doze off entirely. That only changed once I gave a few of the crystals into the pot. It took mere seconds for the acrid smell to permeate the entire room and I wrinkled my muzzle in disgust the very same moment I heard Twilight inhale deeply.

“Is that—?” she asked hopefully.

I turned around and presented her with the pot. “It is. I took the liberty to write a letter to Spike while you were out and had White Tip deliver it. That should be worth one mug. We have enough for another two later on if you want to ration it. Or I could make more now. Or I could simply throw them in there as well to make a stronger one. Whatever you like.” I saw that greed in her eyes. She wanted coffee so badly right now. But Twilight was a very reasonable mare most of the time and this was no different.

She sighed heavily, longingly, but shook her head. “Thank you. Keep them safe for later.”

“Safe from what?” I asked with a knowing smirk.

“From me,” she replied with a wry smile and I chuckled.

“Will do,” I promised and watched her as she drank the repulsive brew. Well, she liked it. That was enough for me. Instant coffee was a rather poor substitute for the ‘real deal’, but it did its job just fine in a pinch. And I cherished seeing her smile in such utmost satisfaction. “Hey, uhm… are you back with me again? Because I might have another surprise or two.”

“I am fine. More surprises? I have not been out that long, have I?”

I grinned and shrugged. “Can’t tell. I don’t have a clock. But the meal preparation surely took an hour or two, so… I don’t know. Does that count as ‘long’? How stuffed are you?”

“Pretty stuffed,” she replied with a smile. “It was really, really tasty. Thank you.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Thanks, but that’s not what I’m after.” I grabbed the drawer with my levitation, opened it up and brought the strawberry box out. I levitated it over to her muzzle and opened it right in front of her nose.

Her quizzical look turned into delight as the intense sweet aroma hit her nostrils. “Oh sweet Celestia, that is…”

She cut herself off as I closed the box and let it float back to my side. “What a shame that you’re sooo stuffed, right? Can’t have them spoil after all. Guess I’m going to have to eat them all by myself.”

I laughed so hard as she sported the cutest pout ever. “You are being mean again.”

Despite my initial urge to tease her some more, I simply placed the now opened box in front of her and smiled at her. “No I’m not. I’m spoiling you rotten.”

She once again hummed in deep satisfaction as she relished each and every little bite she took. We had both wolfed down the soup and side dishes despite our initial attempts of self-control. And I was pretty sure that we both had burned our tongue at some point. But eating four strawberries? That took almost half as long. And I had to admit that even though I should have been utterly satisfied after yesterday, seeing her lips tenderly close around those fruits, seeing the tip of her tongue trace along her lips to catch the smallest droplets of tasty sweet juice — it was an incredible turn-on.

And that hurt.

Literally.

“Ow.” I half-chuckled, half-groaned as I tilted my head forward and placed my forehead against the cool granite of the worktop.

“What is wrong? Are you okay?” I heard her worried voice from the other side.

“I’m fine. Eat,” I tried to dissuade her from bothering with this. Buuut that could only be futile of course.

I heard her stand up and she walked around the counter. She undoubtedly saw the issue at hoof. I sighed, opened my eyes and looked up. One strawberry was left. Well. Maybe that was good enough for now. That one could wait until after the next thing on my agenda had been taken care of, right?

“Would you do me a favor?” I asked Twilight and turned to look at her.

“Of course,” she immediately confirmed.

I allowed myself a little tease and grinned. “Mind turning around and lifting your tail for me?” And just to put emphasis on the ridiculous nature of my request, I winked at her.

She grimaced anyway of course. “You don’t want that,” she stated matter-of-factly.

My grin only widened. “And how would you know? I saw you nibble at that strawberry and got envious!” She blushed a little and I had to laugh. I shook my head and leaned forward. Enough for her to understand the intent. We met halfway for a kiss and I addressed the issue at hoof once we parted again. “But seriously, I had White Tip bring us that burn ointment. It should help our aches and skin regeneration. And I think I might be better at applying it to you compared to you doing it blindly.” She had not noticed the can off to the side before. The food had drawn too much of her attention so far, but now that she became aware of it, she nodded. And then blushed, and then grimaced. It was a hilarious little display. “I promise not to peek too much, if it helps. Even though I love every inch of you. And know every inch of you. Very intimately.”

She sighed and rolled with her eyes. “You are the worst.”

I blew her a kiss. “Love you too, peanut. Now please, turn around.”

She complied and hesitantly lifted her tail. And I brought the can over and opened it up. It was time to treat her sore rump. But before I actually applied the first bit of the ointment, I took a good, long look at what damage I had done the prior day. After all, I had not given her that promise, I had only offered it.

And I had every reason under the sun to grimace.

Walking around like that could not have been comfortable. I saw tiny lacerations on her sphincter and her labia. And a few patches of skin were chafed here and there. “Sweet Celestia, Luna is going to flay me alive,” I mumbled quietly. And right now, I felt she had every right to do so. I once again felt incredibly guilty. I was just grateful Twilight had not heard me. I got to work before she could grow more uncomfortable or start to worry about this. The first application went to her dock and I meticulously worked my way inwards from there. The ointment had several benefits. It cooled the aching patches, it numbed the soreness down a peg or two, it would increase the speed at which the skin recovered.

A date in three days. Even if we were to make it out of this city in time, I had my doubts this date would go according to Luna’s plans. Not with the amount of damage I had caused. Not every date had to end in sex, of course. Obviously.

But it was Twilight. It was hard not to desire her. I struggled with that on occasion when the most mundane situations suddenly became incredibly sexually charged without her knowledge. And I knew that Luna felt much the same way. It was just that—

Twilight hissed quietly in pain.

“Sorry, sorry!” I quickly mumbled. Focus, you idiot!

“It is alright,” she assured me. “It was just… unexpected.”

I shook my head, banished my musings and forced all my attention to the task at hoof. I had caused her enough pain and trouble. It was high time to do something about that. So I applied the ointment cautiously and generously. That stuff was obviously ill-suited for internal application, but I simply hoped this would be enough. “How are you feeling?” I asked as I closed the can and put it aside.

She took the question as a sign that I finished my work, lowered her tail again and turned around to face me. “A lot better, thank you. But you really need to stop blaming yourself. You were as little in control of yourself as I was.”

“Was I, though?” I immediately shot back and cringed shortly after. “I should have had better self-control. I’m a trained guard. I am a dreamwalker. I should—… ah. Screw it, doesn’t matter.” She sighed and as I tried to avert my gaze, she put her hoof below my chin and forced me to look at her. I saw nothing but trust and love and forgiveness in her eyes. And for some reason, that hurt. So I closed my eyes. Only to feel her lips against mine a few seconds later. That was admittedly something I could never resist and it was so calming and just… nice to kiss her. I followed her muzzle for a few inches as she pulled away, but our kiss ultimately broke. I sighed.

“It does matter. It matters to me,” she insisted. “Because I care about you. And I don’t want you to beat yourself up over something that you had no control over.”

I wanted to argue about that point so badly. But I refrained from doing so. It was unreasonable. I was unreasonable. I sighed and gave in with a nod. She came another step closer and we put our foreheads together, with our horns crossed. It felt so nice. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she replied. “Now I hope I am doing this right,” she started again after a few seconds while she retreated half a step from me, “after all, I am still learning.” She cleared her throat dramatically. “Be a good little colt and lie down on your back!”

I had not expected her commanding voice. My eyes grew wide as certain impulses within me wanted to do nothing more than comply immediately. Maybe I even gave a quiet whimper, I was not entirely sure. I stared at her and she grinned so smugly. She radiated authority at that moment. My coy little bookworm was gone, replaced by this confident powerhouse of an enchantress. “Lie. Down,” she repeated.

I numbly nodded and let myself fall onto my back. Her spell was broken the moment I heard her giggle. And how silly I felt. Yet despite that, she was utterly satisfied with the results, which included my member emerging from its sheath. She grabbed the can, opened it back up again and got to work much the same way I had done for her. I had not spared a single thought to that.

I had to inhale deeply a few times. Sometimes due to a sudden pinch of pain before the cool balm numbed it, sometimes due to simply arousal. I was very much on display and she was so incredibly delicate with every touch. The fact that she sported a faint, but noticeable blush throughout the entire process only contributed to the allure.

I had been right in my assumption that I had gotten off way easier than her in the end. She did not say so, but I noticed that she had less need of the ointment when treating me than vice versa. And since I knew she would want that, I tried not to dwell on it too much. I simply accepted the fact that we still had half the can left and that I could repeat that treatment tomorrow or whenever we would have a decent, longer break next.

I rolled over on my belly and stood back up in an effort not to waste her work immediately. “As I was saying, I have another surprise in store.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I think you did more than enough.”

“Eh. Maybe. Don’t care.” I shrugged with a grin and opened the drawer again to levitate the black box out. “It’s exactly what it looks like,” I let her know and floated it over to her.

Her eyes had grown to the size of dinner plates as she saw the box, and she watched it come closer with rapt attention. No doubt that she thought back a few days ago when I had proposed, much the same way I had done so earlier. “Why?” she quietly asked. “Why now?”

I chuckled bashfully. “Well it seemed only fair, you know. I got it done two days before we went down here and since you had to spoil your surprise with the Neverend bottle, I present you with this one.”

She would of course insist that this was not necessary. I was having none of that and opened the box right before her eyes. Inside was a small silver horn ring. Two purple amethysts shaped like our cutie marks were embedded in the silver band on opposite sides. The gemstones were the only intricate part, the rest was a relatively simple affair. As engagement rings were supposed to be.

She stared at it in admiration. “How did you do that so quickly? You told me you had nothing prepared!”

I walked over to her and kissed her again. “Let me put it like this,” I offered as I pulled back, “After that day, inspiration struck and I knew exactly what I wanted. Spike helped me get in contact with a jeweler in Canterlot and Luna helped me with the enchantment.”

She furrowed her brow and looked at the ring with a critical eye. “Enchantment?”

A part of me wanted to be mad about me blurting that out. But I quickly realized that it would have made no difference. She would have learned that long before it was time anyway. “The ring can adapt its size within certain limits. If you would allow me?”

I was certain that she had noticed the ring was currently being a little bit large for her horn. But once I asked, she blushed deeply and nodded. And I smiled happily as I floated the ring out, she lowered her head a little and I put the ring on her horn. It felt great doing this. It felt right.

As soon as she raised her head again, I had to laugh a little. She had gone cross-eyed in an attempt to see the enchantment work. Which I could not imagine being all that successful. But I saw it work. The silver band tightened around her horn to fit it perfectly.

Enchantments like these were practical for obvious reasons. It became a lot harder to lose the ring. But that alone would not have warranted the effort, of course. She knew that. “And no,” I preempted her question, “I’m not going to tell you why this one needs that enchantment. You’ll find out next Hearth’s Warming.” I was utterly satisfied with my tease and grinned. Which quickly turned into a laugh as she pouted again.

“But you said—“ she started and I quickly cut in.

“I know what I said! One surprise for one surprise. Fair trade.” She pouted harder, so I laughed harder. I would lose this battle, I knew that. To circumvent the issue, I simply kissed her again. That really was a cure-all. “I take it you like it, then?”

“I love it,” she replied in a whisper and kissed me again for emphasis.

We fell silent for a moment and simply enjoyed each other’s proximity. But I knew that this would not help us in the long run. She already started to lean more heavily on me because she was sleepy and I felt a deep-rooted tiredness in my bones as well, only emphasized by the looming food coma. “Twilight?”

“Mmm,” she quietly mumbled.

“Hey, peanut,” I tried again and kissed her neck.

“Mhm?” she mumbled a smidge louder than before.

“As much as I hate bothering you right now, we need to decide what to do next. We’ve been down three stories and haven’t found anything soft aside from dirt. There are no beds left. I don’t think we’ll find any further down either. You have a date in three days. I don’t intend to turn this trip into a forced march or anything, but we probably shouldn’t dawdle along either. And you mentioned that you wanted to show me something. So… do we stay for a break or do we move on?”

I actually feared she had fallen asleep on me because she remained silent for so long. Eventually though, she sighed and pulled away from me. “You are right. We should probably move on. The longer we remain down here, the more we will have to fight mounting exhaustion alongside whatever else may come up.”

“How is your equipment doing?” I asked as I already busied myself stashing the ‘apples’ away in whatever nooks and crannies my saddlebags had to offer.

“Half of my sample containers are filled and it is getting a little heavy,” she admitted. “I thought about leaving some of my gear here in the upper city parts. I could retrieve them later.”

I mulled it over and nodded. “Sounds reasonable enough. You’re a decent flier, you could easily retrieve stuff from around these parts. Maybe sort the filled samples out here? This layer is good for both landing and taking off, you can see potential ambushes and have enough room to defend yourself if necessary and barely anything should be interested in this house anyway, right?”

She smiled and we spent maybe half an hour rummaging through her saddlebags and sorting out equipment she had no further use for. And then we filled that space right back up with carrots. And a pot. I insisted that we bring a single pot along. They were quite sturdy and could easily be used as an improvised weapon or shield or as a paperweight or a water container, it really was a multitool.

And then she wanted to show me her discovery.

“I noticed a few patches of this black substance while we walked along the road. Did you notice them?” I grimaced slightly but shook my head. Honestly, I had been so fixated on vegetables, fruit, any food at all, that I had barely any attention left over for anything else. Twilight simply nodded without any judgment in her voice or eyes. “I did not think much of it at first, but I am now convinced that there is a reason why all of these patches — on this layer anyway — are on or around the pastures and barns.”

And it was a barn she led me to. The building had little in common with the strikingly red ones in Sweet Apple Acres. It was another stone building cobbled together from square blocks and mortar. Its entrance loomed darkly until Twilight cast her light spell and her horn chased the gloom away. I stopped almost immediately. The entire inside was covered with the black goo.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured me, “as far as I can tell, it is completely harmless. Even though I have reason to believe that it was not, at some point.”

I hesitantly followed her into the barn and closer to the goo. The layer was maybe half an inch thick. The tarlike mass did not wobble or show any signs of movement or life at all. It just stuck to the floor, the walls and the ceiling like glue. “Go a few steps further in,” she nudged me, even though she herself had stopped.

I grimaced and looked at her. I did not feel comfortable in this barn, with this stuff. I had no precise memories. There were no further flashes. But I knew that this was dangerous somehow. Or had been at some point, as she had said. But Twilight seemed quite confident and assured me with a smile that everything was fine.

Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

I stepped closer and shrieked like a filly as several spaghetti-like tendrils suddenly shot out of the goo and attached themselves to me. I quickly jumped backwards and landed ungracefully on my rump. Despite my wild flailing, I failed to dislodge the tendrils.

Because they were already gone and slowly retreated back into the goo.

“Twilight!” I hissed her name as I heard her giggle softly behind me.

She stepped up to my side and stroked a hoof down my back. “Sorry, sorry, I just…” She snickered. Had she just pranked me…? She recollected herself before I could vent my indignation and effortlessly turned her lecture-mode on. “See, I believe that this growth is some form of predator. Its presence in the pastures and barns as well as its absence in the gardens leads me to believe that it cannot digest plant matter, but it at one point hunted all the animals to extinction. This organism might even somehow relate to what happened down here in the first place. When I came too close earlier, it tried to pull me in. Probably in an attempt to feed. But as you just noticed yourself, these thin strands lack any real strength, despite how numerous they were. And they are easily detached as well. I believe this organism is dying. Starving. It lacks the strength to properly feed itself anymore. I don’t yet understand how it moves. Maybe it is some kind of airborne infestation. My initial analysis tells me that it is different from both plants, animals and fungi. The most thrilling part is that it has an astonishingly deep magic reserve.”

“Wait,” I immediately cut in, “that thing can cast magic?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think so, no. It shows no signs of sentience. I believe it passively absorbs magic over time from its surroundings and can actively hunt to increase its gain of magical essence and it feeds not on the actual creature it devours, but on the magic it thereby absorbs. My readings indicate that it has vast magical reserves, but those reserves are almost empty.”

She almost sounded sad about that. While I could understand why on a scientific level, I still shuddered and was glad about that. Her nonchalantly offered theory about the airborne infestation might have contributed to that. We had been breathing that air for days now, after all.

A creature that survived by feeding on magic should be hard to kill. Magic was all around us, contained in everything from rocks to air. In varying density of course, but still. The obvious implication was that we could learn a lot from this thing that we could then immediately apply to the teleportation stone. It could further our understanding of passive magic absorption and might even cause leaps in our general understanding of magic as a whole.

Which perfectly explained why she looked like she was silently squealing like a little filly in a candy store.

And while a hungry or even starving predator was usually the most dangerous kind, an already almost-dead one weakened to the point that it had to hope for prey to drop dead right on top of it was less so.

She has taken a sample of this goo, hasn’t she?

The question was rhetorical at this point. For obvious reasons.

“My experiments also showed that it can sense its surroundings in different ways. After my initial shock, I tested what it would react to and what it ignored. I found that it is not movement alone that triggers its grab attempts. It must be a living creature.”

I sometimes worried about her. While I cooked and thought everything was just dandy, she had been out here poking hungry magic goo with a stick. Or Celestia beware, her hoof. Well probably her hoof in a sterile glove. She was a proper scientist after all.

Learning more about that organism was probably a good thing, no matter how much I wanted to imitate a cat by bristling my fur, arching my back and hissing. This stuff was all over the lower levels. And if Twilight was right, which was usually a reasonable presumption to make, then it was a predator. One that might still pack a punch further down where it was spread more heavily.

“Alright, fine. Any good tips on how to deal with this… stuff? Thing?” I asked.

She smiled. “Well you have seen its reach for yourself. As long as we stay far enough away, we should be fine. It does not seem to have any ability to move aside from growing in a certain direction.”

I recalled the image of the completely overgrown lower levels.

Stay far enough away.

Eeeaaasy.