Dreamwalker's Tale: The Descent

I knew for a fact that it was ‘just one minute’. And were it not for the ice-cold puddle we lay in or the uncomfortably hard andesite beneath that, maybe this moment could have been relaxing in its own way. We heard tons and tons of water rush by. The softest drizzle sprayed us. And the noise tried to lull us into a false sense of security. It was decently easy to imagine how we just plopped down on the stony shore of a river and listened to its flow.

But the mechanism for the emergency shutdown eventually worked its magic. Heavy metal sheets were put in place and sealed the entire building off. And the roaring water became an ever-shrinking trickle, until all we heard was the faint noise of drops hitting the ground on multiple layers.

Yet we continued to lie still for a few minutes more.

You’ll get hypothermia, a grumbly voice chided me.

I sighed and stretched my neck a little, just enough to reach Twilight’s ear. And I nibbled on it a little bit. She flicked it once, but I stubbornly persisted. I eventually heard her giggle softly. “Is there a reason you’re snacking on my ear?” she asked in such a soft voice that I could easily have believed we were in a much more intimate setting.

I grinned and traced the tip of my tongue along its edge. “No particular one, no,” I replied and just for good measure slowly exhaled onto it. I grinned as I saw it flick again and briefly considered another comment about how delectable she looked, but to be honest — right now did not seem like the best moment to even attempt that kind of mood. So I sighed yet again. “Well at least the shower is taken care of.”

She chimed in with a sigh of her own and I felt her shift ever so slightly. She backed up a little, right against me. I did not mind, seeing how I still held her tightly. “I kicked you, didn’t I?” she asked quietly.

Kicked and punched, a voice in my head corrected her. But I knew that she felt bad about it already. I had no intention of making that worse. She was right of course. I could feel the few patches she had demonstrated her earth pony strength on. They remained quiet for now due to the numbness the ice-cold water had caused. But I was decently sure that they would make themselves known more firmly as soon as my body managed to reestablish a decent body heat. “Maybe,” was the best I could offer for now. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

“I am sorry,” she insisted anyway.

I swallowed the urge to sigh in exasperation. I instead lowered my muzzle to her neck, sucked a little bit of her lovely coat in between my teeth and gave her a decently sharp nip. Not enough to actually draw blood, but enough that it should hurt a little. And just as expected, she hissed in pain. “Ow. What was that for?” she demanded to know.

I immediately kissed the very spot, just out of sheer bad conscience. “Well, now we’re even. That’s how it works, right?” I chuckled a little as I heard her soft groan. “I said: Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. And I meant that. I freaked out as well. Less in a flaily, kicky way than you and more in a desperate, clingy way, but I panicked just as much.”

With the cold slowly receding from our bodies, it became harder and harder to ignore just how uncomfortable the andesite road was. Which eventually led to me following my own advice. It was still hard to let go of Twilight. As if a part of me still feared for her life, still feared she could vanish into the dark pit below if I let her go.

I felt like I had to groan as old stallions did when I finally stood up. Every muscle protested the decision, every joint ached a little and my knees felt dangerously wobbly. I realized that despite my hope, this was no condition to merrily continue on. We needed a break. A hideout. Again.

I lit my horn to spend a little bit of light for us and my attention was initially drawn to the rubble slide we had come down on. With Twilight’s telekinesis being affected, it would pose too much of a risk to even attempt to get back up. And I had honestly little inclination to do so to begin with. We missed out on a few blocks of the upper city layer as well as almost three quarters of the one we were currently on. Because the majority of this district was on the other side of the slide and while we could easily climb over it and explore the area we missed backwards – why would we? We could do so easily on our way back up.

I noticed how Twilight rose as well and she grimaced in much the same way I had. It only further cemented my notion of giving her a massage as soon as we found a decently safe spot to rest. She came over and sidled up to my side and we both walked a few steps towards the edge of the road. “What do you think, how much water that was?” I asked out of idle curiosity. “Do you think the lower levels will be flooded now?” Just because it felt and sounded like several lakes worth of water had come through did not mean that my admittedly crappy ability to gauge these things was even remotely close to the truth.

Twilight furrowed her brow and I could almost see the numbers swirl and twirl around her head as she put them into place to form complex formulas. “Well considering the exit size the water had to push through and assuming the buildings entrance really was the only exit point, then factoring in the amount of time the water had until the shutdown closed the leak, plus the amount of water in the reservoir, and finally the pressure with which the water pressed past the gap, I should at least be capable of roughly estimating the amount of water we have to deal with at the bottom.”

I stopped a few feet away from the road’s edge and looked at her. I waited for her to finish her calculation, but a few seconds later Twilight started to smile and I knew I was had. I asked anyway, if only to offer her a proper setup for whatever thought made her smile. “And?”

And she gave her cringy, decidedly non-scientific answer with confidence and pride. “Lots.”

I could not help but laugh. Her smile grew into a grin and she giggled alongside me as I slowly regained my composure. “I see. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have such a knowledgeable and fast-thinking sweetie with me. I would be totally screwed without that information.”

She nodded, but failed to force a decently serious expression on her muzzle to properly support her act. Only after we both grinned once more did she sigh and shake her head slightly. “It does not really matter how much water it was. It should not have been enough to flood an entire city layer. Especially if I consider the technical prowess and foresight the diamond dogs demonstrated so far. They will have some kind of drainage in place, I think.”

I shrugged. Maybe they had. I could not tell, at least not right now. No flashes offered further insight and the old ones did not tell me about that specific detail either. We took those last few steps to the edge and Twilight relit her horn to spend some more light. As usual, her horn glowed a lot brighter than mine. And much to both our surprises, we saw a wet floor at the bottom of the city pit. Sure, that deepest layer was wet. Dripping wet, with puddles just about everywhere. But those were flat and wide. It basically just looked like it had rained for a couple of minutes.

“I will admit, that is impressive,” I heard Twilight mumble beside me.

What truly surprised us was not the fact that they had some sort of drainage in place. As Twilight already said — these diamond dogs were a smart bunch. But the fact that we saw barely any signs of flooding at all, that was unexpected. Where had it gone so fast?

Twilight was puzzled. And as usual when that happened, she furrowed her brow, intently stared down into the pit and her gears screeched as they went into overdrive. While I was just as confused, I had a much easier time dismissing the mystery of the vanishing water as useless. I instead inspected the district we were in, given the fact that we had arrived in a less than controlled manner and so far had not had the chance to just take a look around.

It was important to keep an eye on our surroundings, of course. We had flushed the hunter down here. Or maybe even further down, who was to say. Either way, we were still better off sneaking around than becoming too comfortable and bold.

Few street lights still worked. Those who did made three facts crystal-clear. Firstly, we were in a rich, rich, rich district again. The buildings were placed with a decent amount of space between them. A few gnarled, dead trees were visible. Probably the kind that actually needed light and therefore had died a long, long time ago. A city built in the underground could not afford to waste space like that. It was hard to dig out enough room, it was a waste of time, effort, tools and workforce. Unless wasting space was the point. A demonstration of wealth in a different manner. Look at us, we can do this! It was about bragging rights.

The residential district had been built out of diorite. Harder to get as a building material because of the vast quantities required. But the houses had been packed. One right next to the other. Multiple stories. These structures down here reminded me of churches. I had read about those but could not remember who built them. Griffons, maybe? Large houses intended for the worship of gods. They were built this large so that visitors would feel small in comparison. Small and humble.

And these houses of gods were built from diorite as well. The spotted stone did have a nice interaction with light, which made the buildings sparkle a little. It gave them an almost otherworldly feel. I was sure that back in the heyday of this city, this place had been beautiful. What subtracted from that beauty right now was not only the ravages of time, the missing maintenance and general lack of life. It was the other two facts the light made visible.

The goo was basically everywhere. As a rough estimate, I suspected that about half the entire district was covered. ‘Half’ as in: Half of every surface. Every roof, outside and inside. Every street. Every street light. Every wall. The ceiling of the city layer included. Massive stretches of the district were just black, with a faint reflective sheen.

And whatever else was not covered by goo was covered by enormous spiderwebs. They were too numerous to belong to a single spider. We had encountered one. We had seen its impressive, terrifying size. And yet I could not in good conscience lie to myself and pretend that this would be even remotely possible for a single arachnid of that size. We were dealing with some kind of giant spider nest here. However, there was a glimmer of hope among the bad news. These webs looked tattered. Old and discarded. Maybe the goo and the spiders had fought for dominance over this place a long time ago. Maybe the goo had won. It could explain why it covered so much of this layer.

The other explanation was a lot more uncomfortable. It only grew where it found food. Either magic, or meat. And faith… faith drew in the desperate, did it not? How likely was it that in their panic and cut off from any escape routes out of the city, many of the diamond dogs fled into these houses of their gods? To pray for aid. And help. And salvation.

I shuddered and decided not to follow that chain of thought.

Spiders. The goo had eaten all the spiders. That was such a preferable scenario to believe. Of course that did not mean that I allowed myself to get sloppy. At least one spider was probably still alive and that hunter was still somewhere.

I scanned the rest of the district and tried not to get lost in the sad, sparkly beauty of these ruins. Goo, webs, goo, webs, the occasional street light. That was everything I noticed until I turned around and let my gaze wander over the parts that were technically ‘ahead of us’.

There was one of these churches that drew my attention. Several of the street lights surrounding the building still worked, for whatever reason. The goo infestation was manageable, as was the amount of spider webs. The roof and parts of the outer wall were actually completely clear as far as I could tell.

It posed a bit of an issue in my head. Either this place had done something very, very right to avoid getting into the same state as the rest of the district, ooor… it was a trap. It had done something quite wrong. “Twilight?”

“I think those concentric circles contain outlets, but they must contain some sort of turbine to drain that amount of water this quickly,” she offered her thoughts.

I chuckled and nodded. “Maybe. We’ll find out later, I suppose. We’re not that far off anymore. However, I wanted to direct your attention to that building over there.”

She followed my gesture and studied what I pointed at for a few moments. And eventually grimaced as well. “I see.”

I nodded. “Could be a trap,” I stated the obvious.

“But we do need a break and most of the other buildings seem to be out of the question. And taking a break out in the open might be even more dangerous,” she replied with the other obvious part.

“Right. So do we take the risk?”

She sighed. “It is close by and close to the staircase as well. It is… convenient. To be honest, I feel a little worn down again. We do not know what to expect further down and I really like the idea of getting some sleep, maybe? I would like to take that chance.”

I smiled and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Exactly what I wanted to hear. Let’s check it out then and make sure that we don’t run into a trap.”

Our initial search outside offered little to worry about. The back half of the building was entirely goo-covered. And due to Twilight’s stronger light, we did notice a few strands of webbing connecting the district ceiling and the roof. But despite us walking in the open, we saw no trace of the hunter, we did not get attacked by spiders and even the golem did not show up again. I almost did not dare to even think about it, but the area was peaceful.

In addition to that, there were only two entrances. A regular-sized wooden door on the back of the building, halfway covered in goo. It was rotten, sure, but still remained intact. And an intact door meant that nopony had tried to flee through it, or break in through it. At least that was what I hoped for.

The other entrance faced towards the andesite road. It was illuminated by two street lights and had a little walkway leading up to a massive, grand double door. And these doors were still intact as well. It was a good sign, I told myself. Despite my stomach twisting itself into knots.

The main door was slightly ajar. The gap was large enough for us to slip inside one after the other. And once we were in, Twilight powered her horn even further to properly illuminate the entire massive room.

Rotten pieces of fabric remained on the floor. Patches of it that had yet to crumble to dust. They indicated some form of carpet leading across the entire length of the room, up to a few flat, wide stairs. On top of them was some kind of altar or lectern. The broken down remains of wooden benches lined in neat rows to either side of the carpet would serve as a good fuel if we decided to stay and get a fire going. We found no bones at all.

But the main attraction was the grandeur of the hall.

“Wooow,” Twilight mumbled quietly as her gaze drifted upwards.

I could understand the sentiment. Massive statues lined the walls of the building. They were probably around thirty feet tall, if not more. And while the walls consisted of diorite, these statues were cleaner. Nobler. Alabaster, if I had to guess. They depicted diamond dogs, of course. And the phenotypic diversity of their species was on full display. One on the right was so burly and massive that his arms blocked parts of the equally impressive stained glass windows. The roof seemed to rest on his shoulders while his head was tilted a little forward. The statue right next to this one was on the other side of the spectrum entirely. A sleek and lean body, short in height. She stretched her arms high up to the sky to support the roof with her paws. She actually reminded me of Silver. A lot.

Twelve diamond dogs were made immortal here. Six on each side. Master masonry on full display. And in between, high stained glass windows. They did not seem to recount any historic events like the ones in Canterlot Castle did. But goodness me, were they pretty. The arrangement of their parts caused a kaleidoscope-like effect.

The statues carried the roof and the roof in turn was painted like different parts of the world. Some statues carried the sky. Others carried the earth. And some carried heavy stone, probably representing the underground.

Their heroes carried their world.

Or something like that.

It all led to that back wall at the other end. Behind the altar-lectern-thingy, a single statue stood against that wall and faced the entrance and all the devout visitors while simultaneously backing up the priest or cleric or whatever they called them.

With all the craftsmanship on display, that last statue seemed strangely out of place. My initial assessment had been that this temple had not been entirely finished yet. But on closer inspection we could easily see that it was. It was done. It was supposed to look like that. Not a diamond dog at all, not a meticulously crafted depiction of their god or goddess or whatever they believed in, but instead a very rudimentary creature. Four limbs that could not decide if they wanted to end in hooves, claws or paws. A head that did not sport a muzzle, or a snout, or a face of any kind. No eyes, no nose, no lips. Not even ears. No mane or fur either. It was a strange thing to behold.

After we made our rounds in the main hall, we quickly searched the backrooms. A single door tucked away to the side of the main hall led into a couple more rooms, probably meant for preparation and study. We found the single, closed backdoor again and tried to ingrain the route into our memory. Just in case we needed to make a quick exit ourselves.

We then returned to the main hall. Right at the base of the main statue was as good a point as any. Twilight started to collect some of the wood pieces from the broken benches while I carefully closed the main door. I would have worried about the smoke of a fire, but this room had such a high ceiling that it seemed silly. And there was no fire hazard to worry about either with almost the entire structure built out of diorite.

We sat down side by side after she shot a few sparks into the wood. It was as dry as a veldt and we had a merrily crackling fire within a few seconds. We discarded our saddlebags off to the side. White Tip hopped off as well and sat down nearby them. I could tell that he was just as worn down as we were. He was silent, he barely made his presence known and he already had difficulties staying awake as the warmth seeped into his plumage. “It’s alright, buddy. Rest up. You did good.” I petted his little head and he finally closed his eyes.

I considered if maybe it had not been such a great idea to bring him along after all. He was a pet. He was not trained for any of this. And up until now, he had lived a very comfortable, stress-free life. Nopony meant him any harm, no creature was hunting him and his survival did not depend on how attentive he was. Maybe I was projecting onto him too much, but I could almost feel his opinion about adventuring sour now that he had his proper first one as well.

I eventually sighed and looked over to Twilight. She had watched the exchange as much as my rumination afterwards with a smile. “He will be alright,” she assured me. I had no idea where she took that certainty from, but I was grateful nonetheless.

“We have a couple of things to talk about,” I changed the topic after I nuzzled her cheek as a sign of my gratitude. “This latest… incident has taken a lot out of us. Both of us, it seems.” I looked at her. Waited. Gave her ample time to object. But she did not. “So with that in mind, I dare to ask again: Is it time to turn around and head home?”

I fully expected her to grimace. But again, she did not. Twilight instead furrowed her brow and started to sort through all the pros and cons we had accumulated. “The organism still interferes with my stronger spells, so teleportation is still out of the question.”

“Does it, though?” I asked.

She knitted her brows in confusion. “Do we have any reason to believe otherwise?”

I shuffled a little around and laid my head on her back. It was not exactly ideal to have a conversation, but it just felt better. I felt better. “No. Not really,” I mumbled. “But that’s just it. I can’t help but think about all the things we just assume at this point. The organism eats magic. Alright, fine. But that doesn’t mean it is the reason you can’t teleport. Like… your shield worked fine. Your light works fine. My light works fine. Your telekinesis was wobbly when we reached the chasm, but I could lift White Tip just fine. Why does it interfere with your magic, but not with mine?”

“It is true that it was merely our leading theory,” Twilight admitted. “We do not have solid evidence. And I fear we might not get that without proper research. Something I cannot do down here, without most of my equipment."

I shook my head and tilted forward to kiss her back. “I’m not complaining, peanut. I’m not accusing you of anything.”

“I know, I know,” she quickly cut in. “It is just that… we have to work based on something. My current expanded theory, if you want to call it that, is this: The organism feeds on magic and is capable of converting meat into magic through unknown processes that exclude the digestion of plant matter or non-living materials. It usually absorbs magic by establishing direct contact. Either by enveloping the creature or object in question entirely with its body mass, or by connecting as many of its tendrils to the creature or object as possible. The latter is less efficient already as it requires precision. And I suspect that the effect is similar to drinking from a glass directly with your muzzle or drinking from it through the medium of a straw. The latter limits you in how fast you can drink. Following that theory into admittedly more speculatory areas, I suspect that the organism is capable of accessing potential food sources remotely, even without physical contact. I also suspect that this process is arduous and might even require the expenditure of significant amounts of energy. It would therefore need to decide which potential prey to target. I have demonstrated my ability to cast high level magic, which usually requires a lot of energy. While all you did was cast light and levitate a small creature or small objects. Maybe it learned from observation of these demonstrations. Or maybe it can simply feel the difference between our magical reserves. When I used telekinesis to lift you, I had to expend more energy than when you used it to lift White Tip. I furthermore suspect that physical distance is still a factor in that it becomes easier for the organism to access and drain my magic the closer I am to it. We would get a further indicator for that being true if we were to encounter a stronger presence of the organism and see you struggle with your magic as well.”

I grimaced the moment she noted that possibility. “I’m not looking forward to that.”

“It does feel uncomfortable,” she admitted even quieter. It was enough to stir me from my daze. I lifted my head off her back to avoid any further risk of falling asleep on her and shuffled around again.

“Are you alright?” I asked as soon as I could see into her eyes again.

She sighed. “I am fine.” She was not. But her intonation was enough. It made perfectly clear that there was simply nothing we could do about it. Well, aside from leaving.

“But there is still the option that a machine of some sort is responsible for the effect, right? There could be an ongoing ritual at the bottom, or maybe some kind of magical creature. Another artifact. Heck, I still wonder about that collar the golem is wearing and what it does.”

Twilight did not discard my objections immediately. Or at all, really. And I was grateful that she listened, even if all I did was to destabilize what we believed to know. “Those could be true, yes. But given the circumstances and what we know so far, it seems unlikely. I will continue to work on our theory based on new information, but so far, I would say that this is our best bet.”

“You could fly out.” It was a stupid offer. I knew that from the start, even before I phrased that small sentence in my head. But it brought us back on track and more importantly, it reminded us of an option that was silently on the table and we all just decided to ignore it because it was uncomfortable.

“No,” she quickly shot the offer down, “I will not leave you here. Adding to that is the fact that I have not tried to fly in a while. We do not know if the organism can only access certain actively cast spells or if it can access all kinds of magic.”

“You’re afraid you might drop out of the air like a rock,” I noted with a wry smile.

She grimaced a little and nodded. “I am,” she admitted. Rainbow always had fun teasing Twilight about her flying. She was not exactly the most graceful of fliers, even though she had gotten considerably better at it and Rainbow was the one we usually first thought of when somepony mentioned somepony else having had a bad crash.

There was an interesting, albeit slightly scary thought to be had here though. “If it can access ‘all kinds of magic’, then there’s nothing stopping it from accessing cutie mark magic, is there? Or our passive magic? I mean, the teleportation stone we crafted accesses that. And we worked hard and for quite some time to ensure that it does not, under any circumstances, access a pony’s passive magic. Because that would potentially mean draining life force.”

Twilight grimaced as she became aware of what I tried to get at. We had been fatigued the entire time, had we not? The further down we went, the more we felt this exhaustion. And even Twilight’s usual earth pony endurance or alicorn resilience did not help her much. A bigger straw for a bigger glass, then?

“I cannot rule that possibility out,” she replied with a sigh.

If this goo was feeding off our magic, we were in trouble. I looked over to White Tip, who was still fast asleep. “I’m not sure if I subscribe to my own theory though,” I admitted. “If I were a predator and had the ability to feed on prey without it noticing for a while, or even without it being able to do anything about it, just by proximity. Why would I limit how fast I ate? Why not drain the smallest, weakest creature as fast as possible and then move on to the next weakest one? Either that thing would be a lot more intelligent than we currently give it credit for, or there are other factors limiting its ability to access passive magic.” White Tip was fine, I told myself. A little tired, sure. But was that really a surprise after the recent events? He had been hunted. He had almost drowned. He’s fine. “I could send him up again,” I offered. He would be safer up there. “I could write another letter to Spike, asking him to call in the cavalry. Luna would gladly smack that hunter around a bunch just to vent some of her recent frustrations. Maybe they’d call the girls and you would just rainbow-power the heck out of that golem or whatever evil lurks down here.”

Twilight smiled wryly as she leaned over and returned the previous favor by nuzzling my cheek. “It is alright to be scared.” I was not scared. And yet I released a slightly shuddering breath and leaned into her intimate gesture as much as I could. She withdrew eventually, no matter how much I wished for her to stay this close. “I still think we are the best equipped for this mission. You joke about Luna smashing that creature, but you know just as well as I do that she would most likely seek out a peaceful solution first. And she has the means to enforce one as well. But just like Princess Celestia, Luna is busy. And so are the girls. We are tired and we have been pummeled by a few misfortunes, but there is still little reason to believe that we are not perfectly capable of finishing this mission. As for the Elements of Harmony, I do not believe they work on mindless constructs.”

Which perfectly led to our latest discovery. “And it might not actually be an enemy to begin with.”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, its behavior has been puzzling. In many encounters it seemed like it was hostile and aggressive. But maybe we simply misinterpreted diamond dog body language. It seemed like it was about to attack or strike, but we never gave it a chance.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “Nope, and that’s not going to happen either. If something, anything, comes straight up charging at me with claws the size of daggers and an open mouth full of sharp teeth, you can bet your lovely rump that I will treat it as an enemy! If it doesn’t want to appear as one, maybe it shouldn’t be charging!” I huffed and closed my eyes for a moment to calm myself down again. There was no reason to get so defensive about it. Twilight did not fault me for how I had acted so far. The only one accusing me of rash actions was I. I sighed deeply and shook my head slightly. “It did save us from that fall. But just because it is not our enemy does not necessarily mean it is our ally.”

“I had a little bit of time to think about this since it pulled us out of the water,” Twilight started and her brow furrowed once more. “When I asked Applejack about what had happened down here, some details just did not quite add up. I suspected that she might remember them wrong. Which would have been perfectly fine. It was a stressful situation. But now I am not so sure anymore. He did save us three times already.”

I blinked and stared at her in surprise. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait. What? Three times? No. What. How?”

“The first time when we were… uhm… busy in the laboratory,” Twilight started to explain. Her wings rustled a little. “He smashed through the wall, remember? I must admit, my own memories of that time are a little bit foggy. But I am certain that there was nothing we could have done to get out of there. We were not in control of ourselves. Only once he startled us did we snap out and managed to flee out of the contaminated area.”

“Yeah, maybe, but he was hunting us!” I objected.

“Was he, though?” Twilight immediately shot back. “We think so. We assume as much. But he did not follow us after our escape, did he? You were the one questioning my theory about the interference with my magic. I question why you insist on him being an enemy. Is there anything in your flashes that suggests that?”

“I don’t know!” I burst out and cringed as the massive hall threw a tiny echo back. “Sorry, sorry. I don’t… yeah, I don’t know. There’s nothing in my flashes, no. I just…” I was at a loss for words. I could not answer her question, not even for myself. So I shrugged helplessly. And I was relieved that she did not dwell on it.

“The second time was when we left the treasury. You said it yourself. He lunged. You assumed he lunged at you, but you noted his timing was off. And you observed how he tilted his head and engaged the hunter.”

“Well…” Well. Well indeed. She was right. “He did stave the attack off until we managed to flee,” I relented.

“And here is the missing piece,” Twilight continued. “In Applejack's retelling, it sounded very much like it tried to keep her down. Down in the cave. It sounded like it tried to intimidate her into going further in. Even when she told me about your altercation with the golem, she mentioned how it navigated the room until you were with your back to the railing. And only then did it charge you.”

“To throw me into the pit so that I might break all my bones. Lovely,” I shot back, but all Twilight had to do was to slightly raise an eyebrow. I grumbled a little, but sighed. “Fine. If it wanted to, it could probably somehow save me from my doom.” I remembered that bit. It charged me full force and barreled straight into me. Had I not offered all I had as resistance to its assault, it would have flung me way beyond the edge. And even with me pushing against it with all I got, it would still have thrown me at least one or two layers down.

“That begs the question then: What does it want?” Twilight concluded. “It is willing to take up a fight on behalf of our survival. A fight in which it could sustain considerable damage itself while being almost completely unable to defeat its opponent. I suspect that it is aware of our location most of the time. Which leads me to believe that it grants us time for recuperation, breaks and sleep. But at the same time, it is unwilling to let us leave.”

“I don’t know,” I replied for what felt like the thousandth time. A headache quickly grew in my temples. “It wants us down. Alive,” I offered the obvious conclusions of our conversation.

But Twilight was not after the obvious stuff. “Why?” she asked.

“Maybe he recognized my diamond dog? I did speak a single word of it, I think. I made it stop,” I half-whimpered and withdrew a little. My head felt like it would split open any second now. “Maybe it wanted to deliver the last inhabitant to a safe place?”

“I do not believe it stopped because of your command,” Twilight remarked. “I think it stopped because you used that command word and that surprised it. And what safe place would that be?”

“I don’t… know… Twilight, please, I…”

“Silver, get back,” I hissed. Red grabbed her and pulled her even further back. I readied my sword and levitated the container that had fallen on me as an improvised shield in front of me. I looked over my shoulder and exchanged a grim nod with Red. Whatever was on the other side… it would only get to Silver over our dead bodies.

I turned my attention towards the door. Deathly silence had befallen the room out there. Then a creak. A groan. The metal wheel controlling the internal mechanism of the vault door was turned. I didn't even try to stop it. I had seen what that thing could do. I would break my legs trying to stop it from getting in.

The mechanism snapped open. The thick metal bolts unlocked. The door slowly opened.

A tiny gap grew. Light fell in. My sword wobbled a little in my levitation. I was scared beyond belief and ready to die at the same time.

Then the door swung open further, quicker. Three stone golems stood there.

Their eyes glowed red from the finely cut rubies in their sockets. Their chests contained a swirling diamond of impressive size. I sobbed uncontrollably as the three golems stood aside and made a little alley for us.

We were saved.

I walked out on wobbly legs. Every step felt stilted. And I hugged the first golem I reached. “Thank the goddesses,” I mumbled as I pressed my cheek against the cold, uncaring, floating stone. “Red needs help. He can barely stand. His shoulder was pierced by something and he lost a lot of blood. Can you get us to an exit?”

One of the golems turned towards Red as he stumbled out of the vault. He was pale. Sickeningly pale. The golem focused his magic and pressed a claw to Red’s shoulder. He hissed in pain and fell to his knees. I saw the magic transfer. I felt it flow freely. All the gemstones were drained. They cracked and splintered and crumbled away. And in time, the golem broke apart. The floating pieces of rock fell to the ground.

But Red’s shoulder was cared for. His wound was closed. He was not quite as pale as he had been before.

All that remained was the tingling I felt from the magic. One golem down, but Red would make it.

Suddenly something crashed through the wall of the treasury.

A cloud of dust obscured the enemy for precious few seconds.

Then a barrage of tendrils shot out of the dust cloud like spears. A dozen of them, maybe two. They pierced one of the golems and pulled it into the dust cloud before it could react. As the dust settled, we saw what awaited us. Three hunters. One of them was busy draining the golem and fighting a second one over its prey. The third one though…

“Run!” I yelled.

Red and Silver were quicker than I was. I looked over my shoulder. Saw the tar-like ball of goo roll towards me. Saw how it wobbled as it formed several spear-like tendrils. I saw them shoot towards me.

Then my sight was obscured.

I saw stone being pierced by the black, shimmering spears.

I saw another defender fall to the enemy.

I returned with a gasp.

“Fffudge,” I hissed and shook my head to get rid of the images. A waterskin was offered to me. I gladly took it and gulped down half of its remaining content. My temples hurt. My entire head hurt. It took a while until I felt fully like myself again. A few seconds, half a minute, two minutes — I could not tell.

“Anything?” Twilight asked in that innocent, hopeful tone that made me feel bad for ever suspecting that she might have triggered that flash intentionally. She sounded way too guilty for that.

I groaned quietly and rubbed my temples. It lessened the feeling of needles being pierced through them. “Nothing useful,” I announced before I recounted the short bit I could add to the story that unfolded previously.

“So there was more than one. And they were defenders of the city,” Twilight remarked as she finished her notes.

“Yes, but as I said: Nothing useful,” I insisted. “The latter we already suspected by now and the former doesn’t matter. If there were more golems once, they’re all gone by now. I have no idea why this one survived, maybe out of sheer luck, maybe the goo started to starve and lost its capability to hunt him down. I don’t know. But I highly doubt there are any other golems around anymore. We’ve been through most of the city by now and haven’t seen any signs of another one. And each layer only gets smaller and smaller.”

“Well it is still fascinating to learn more about—“ She cut herself off as I shot her a disgruntled glare. I felt bad to make her shut up like that. I usually really appreciated it when she had fun, but right now, I just could not deal with any of this. “I am sorry,” she apologized, “I did not mean to appear so callous. How are you feeling?”

I sighed deeply. “I’ve been better,” I admitted. “To finish up with this dreadful topic… I don’t see us going back up anytime soon. We started this, we’re going to finish it. We’re not quitting this close to the finish line. Did I get that right?”

Twilight hesitated. She was probably not exactly thrilled about my phrasing, but hey. “Yes,” she ultimately answered. And I suspected she kept it short and straight for my sake. For which I was quite grateful.

“Alright. In that case, I’d like to just… pretend to have a nice evening with my special somepony now. We have a campfire in a dusty old ruin. We’ve been exploring all day long. I feel like it’s time for some quality snuggling and maybe a little small talk.”

An amused smile spread on Twilight’s lips as she leaned over and we shared a brief kiss. “I think I like the sound of that.” She extended her wing and draped it over my back. And I immediately felt a hundred times better.

I sighed contentedly. “This is heaven.”

Twilight giggled quietly in reply. “Is it now?” We remained silent for a few moments as each of us searched for a decently harmless topic. “Whisper’s birth is due in less than two months.”

I grinned. It was fun to speculate how she had arrived at that statement. Maybe she thought about how much she missed our friends. Which could have led to all the reasons why they could not be here right now, which led to Pinkie being the only one ‘available’ were not for whatever mild complication had doomed Fluttershy to a hospital visit. Or maybe she thought about her schedule and what larger events were coming up in the next few days and weeks. Or she was just worried about those ‘mild complications’.

Usually I was the one panicking over the tiniest things. And I was not a fan of her encroaching on my territory. “Are you worried?”

She took her time to answer that question. Simple as it was, the answer or at least the way leading up to her answer apparently was not. “I guess so, yes.” There was obviously more to this, so I waited. Twilight chewed her bottom lip a little until she finally sighed. “It is exciting to think about little Whisper running around soon. And I cannot imagine how happy Fluttershy and Pinkie will be. How happy we will all be. But at the same time, it marks another moment of change in our lives. All our lives. And change can be scary. When I was Princess Celestia’s pupil, I wanted nothing more than to make her proud by being the best student ever. By finishing with a degree so ridiculously good that… I honestly do not even know what exactly I hoped would happen. But when she sent me to Ponyville… I don’t know. I have become one of her best students. I have graduated with all honors. But those were such massive shifts in my life. Coming to Ponyville was the best that ever happened to me, no questions asked. But it was scary all the same. And not being Princess Celestia’s student anymore was scary too, in a different way. And now this. Two of my very best friends will have a lot less time soon. Because they have their own little family now. I cannot imagine the map will call them for missions either. They are needed at home. Their daughter needs her moms present. They cannot just abandon her for a few days or even weeks to solve somepony else’s problems. They have… responsibility. A daughter.”

It was weird to hear Twilight ramble a little. Endearing in its own way, like most of her quirks. But still weird. And I could not shake the feeling that there was a different reason lying right beneath the surface. “Do you feel old, by any chance?”

She rolled her eyes as I smirked at her. “Not quite yet,” she answered and gave me a peck on my nose. I wrinkled it in reply as her warm lips tickled a little. “But with the date relentlessly coming closer, I cannot help but wonder. Rarity has been engaged for years. Applejack will try to tie the knot with Rainbow sooner rather than later, I feel. And in due time, they might all start to found families of their own. They will follow in Fluttershy’s wake and… I don’t know… I fear I might feel left behind?”

“That’s… not how it works. You know that… right?” I bumped her shoulder a little as she averted her eyes. There was no reason to feel guilty or silly or whatever nonsense currently spooked around in her head. Even though I could admittedly understand her predicament. We were more than six and a half years in. It felt snug. Comfy. Everything was nice and warm and stable. Reliable. We had a decent, steady income. We had responsibilities and weekly hobbies and schedules. We were grown adults. It was the prime time to do something like this. Found our own family. Get pregnant, have a foal. All the resources were there. Available. Waiting. And some of our friends took that leap before we did. Which not only forced the question upon us if we wanted to take that step. But it also marked… well, not exactly the death of our youth. But certainly the beginning of a new chapter. Potentially.

It was difficult to let go. Difficult to accept change. Especially if one was quite content with how things were.

“I know,” Twilight replied quietly in barely a mumble.

I leaned back a little to watch her. To really look at her. It was easy to see that fondness in her eyes and get lost in them. Easy to see her lips and desire to kiss them. But there was so much more than just that. She did not give up. On anything or anypony, ever. She would have my back. And I would have hers. Even if I considered the complexity of our chosen relationship constellation, I still felt like I could entirely depend on one thing: We would pull through. Always. Somehow. We would make it work.

“You know,” I started as a grin spread across my muzzle. I leaned in and was delighted as I heard her stifled giggle as my breath tickled her ear. “I wouldn’t mind having a family with you.”

I slowly pulled back, brushed my cheek along hers and stopped briefly to kiss her. Her eyes remained half-lidded for a moment longer before she sighed. “Considering how much I have to do these days, that is probably not a good idea,” she replied. But I saw her grin. And more importantly, I heard that almost regretful undertone. She feared she would get left behind. Or that she might miss out on something. Maybe that feeling was already present. Maybe it had been for the past months, festering in the recesses of her mind ever since Pinkie’s party to announce Fluttershy’s pregnancy.

I knew my peanut. She had decided on this and she would stubbornly insist on it for the moment. But the more I thought about it, the more I fell in love with the idea. We had had a family of our own in many cycles. And I loved her to bits. I would not mind having another one. She always was an amazing mom.

There were obviously some minor hurdles to take, mostly due to the aforementioned relationship constellation. I could honestly not even fathom how Sunny would react to such a proposition. Would she be envious if Twilight got pregnant before her? Would she be outright against it? If so, what then?

I smirked and pushed those thoughts to the back for now. Something to mull over later, when I had a proper bath, a proper meal and a couple nights of proper sleep.

“You’ll come around, you’ll see,” I ominously promised and threatened Twilight as I once more leaned in and kissed her. When I pulled away again, I grinned and slowly stood up. “Now. As far as I can remember, I — loudmouth that I am — promised you something.”

“You do not have to—“

“Ah, ah, ah!” I quickly cut in. “I want to,” I insisted with a grin. Only after she acknowledged that was I satisfied and continued. “Now that being said, I’m lacking my usual supplies. We’ll have to make due with the basics.”

She smiled and apparently saw the opportunity for a compliment. “I remember your so-called basics being very impressive and pleasant.”

I could not help but grin proudly in return. “Why thank you, mon amour!” Rarity would be proud.

And I got to work. It was no surprise to quickly realize that just about every inch of her body was tensed up. I really had my work cut out for me. But hey, it was rewarding work as well. The first round was usually the uncomfortable one where everything still hurt a little, but as soon as we took that hurdle, I was met with soft sighs and hums of appreciation. Her back muscles offered the most resistance to being loosened up. Even her legs relaxed quicker. And I grinned knowingly when I massaged her hooves and the softest moan escaped her throat. They had been begging for any kind of attention of this magnitude for a while, it seemed. And as a decent finisher, I slowly and carefully extended her wings and took care of them as well. She had barely used them ever since our descent into this Celestia-forsaken pit of a city. There had been no reason to fly. That being said: Dust, grime, sweat, water and stale air had done their part to give me something to do. And I was delighted by that little shudder I saw running up her body.

When I was done with her right wing, I cautiously folded it against her now relaxed back again and moved over to her left wing to repeat the process. “Still feeling good?” I asked, just to see in what state of mind she was.

The vaguely mumbled “Mmm” I got as a reply told me everything I needed to know. She was almost done — in more ways than one. I finished my work and refolded her left wing as well only to find her fast asleep. Sleeping on marble tiles would still be considered sleeping on a stone floor, which in turn still meant that most of my work would be undone by the end of our rest. As far as I was concerned, that was okay. She had very much enjoyed the attention and maybe she could go into tomorrow with a little bit more energy.

Tomorrow.

I had honestly no idea how long we had been down here. Three days? Four? Five? It felt like weeks, honestly. Was I still on track to get Twilight out of here for her originally planned date with Luna? Did I still have a chance to make that happen?

I pondered that as I laid down beside her, snuggled against her side and grinned as her wing extended all on its own to wrap around me like a blanket and at the same time pull me in almost possessively. It was almost like an ingrained reflex of hers after all these years and I loved it. I sighed happily. The fire crackled. The light flickered across the massive diamond dog statues. They would keep watch over us, right?

Give me a few hours, I begged whatever higher force was willing to listen. A few hours and we can move on and hopefully finish this misery. It ain’t that much left, right? Just a few hours of sleep. I was not even asking for a proper bed at this point.

Reflex.

I woke up the very second White Tip started to make a ruckus.

I grabbed my sword and wielded it long before my mind even realized what was happening. I almost literally sprang to my hooves, the veil of sleep ripped off violently and thrust the blade forward. The massive spider made no sound. Had I expected a hiss? I felt like I might have expected it to hiss.

But I only heard its pointy legs clacker on the marble floor tiles.

I thrust the blade in its direction again. It recoiled, retreated a little. Then it went on the offense. Its massive mandibles looked intimidating, but it had to get close to make use of them.

I swiped at its legs. The blade effortlessly cut through the first and a second one made a nasty crunching sound. The spider aborted its attack and recoiled once more. Blue blood on the once white, now dusty gray floor. A trickle of it escaped the severed stump.

It was a predator. I was prey. Very dangerous prey, as I had proven right now. Was I really worth the effort? Worth the injury? Just to help its thought process along, I swiped at its legs again. It retreated quickly, skittered to the side, out of reach, but I let my blade float after it.

I lit my horn. Poured more and more energy into it to make the light brighter and brighter. These creatures were used to the dark. Maybe light scared it. And I charged. I charged the spider with my lit horn while my floating blade hacked at its legs and White Tip made a ruckus behind me. It finally got the message and fled. And I noticed where it fled to.

Above one of the statues must have been a hole in the ceiling. I could not see it. The spider quickly retreated up a wall, crawled into a thin slit above the statue’s head and I saw its legs vanish into the ceiling.

I heard my blood rush in my ears. Heard my heart thump away with the power of adrenaline. For several seconds, I did nothing but stare at the spot where it had vanished. My blade floated right under the ceiling. Ready to stab it should it get any funny ideas about returning immediately.

But after half a minute, I accepted that it might actually be gone for good. For now.

And then came the sudden realization that despite White Tip crowing the entire time, Twilight had not involved herself in the fight at all. I turned on my heel and hurried back to the campfire. A bunch of embers and little more remained. A couple of hours of sleep? We sure had gotten those, it seemed.

Twilight did not move.

White Tip sat right on top of her. He made me aware that her chest was still rising and falling. At least something. I nevertheless brought my muzzle down, put my ear to her nose. Her breathing was ragged. Harsh and erratic. I looked her over with as much light as my horn could produce. And I noticed it.

Her left rear leg. It almost looked like she had been stabbed. Which, considering the size of these mandibles, might hold true. More important was the poison running through her veins right now. Bigger creatures have less dangerous poison, right? It was a desperate plea with myself. A useless one to boot.

I shook her. “Twilight! Twilight!”

No reaction. She groaned faintly, but she did not wake up. She did not even open her eyes.

But I could feel it. Feel the heat radiating from her leg. How it crawled up her body. She was burning up. And a faint shaking started soon after.

“No, no, no, no, no! Come on, don’t do this to me!” I shook her again. Alicorns were almost immune to any and all poisons, were they not? What was going on? Why was she affected at all? What kind of spider was that? Or did that goo really—

Does it matter?, a harsh voice asked me. She might be dying. You can’t do shit about that. So move your sorry ass and get someone who might!

Someone who—? It clicked. Defender of the city and all. They had healed Red, right? There was a good chance they were capable of healing in this cycle as well. I jumped to my hooves again and ran towards the door. “White Tip, keep her safe!” I ordered him.

He was just a bird. A smart crow, sure. But just a tiny bird. What was he supposed to do?

I grabbed the door as soon as I came close enough and ripped it open without any hesitation. My sword floated alongside, just in case any more spiders would show up. But the outside remained as we had found it. Silent and decently lit and empty.

I begged whoever was willing to listen, whatever higher power was out there, that Twilight was right about her theory as I drew breath deep into my lungs until they burned. And I yelled. I needed to be heard. I had no idea where he was. How far away he hid. “I know you’re out there! I need your help! Please!” I felt like the city cave should throw an echo, but it did not.

I stood still for several seconds. I counted them. Ten. Elven. Twelve. I reached twenty-two when I tried again, but my voice broke down as my vision became blurry. “Please.” I hated that tremor I heard.

Thirty-six. A soft, reddish glow emanated from somewhere off to the side.

In a silent prayer, I raised my head. And my breath caught in my throat. I saw legs. Disgusting, spindly, thin and pointy spider legs. Up on the ceiling. They were being pulled in by the goo. I saw how one of the legs was cut off at the halfway point. Serves you right you damn piece of—

I cut myself off.

And looked down again. In the direction of the glow.

The golem appeared and it came towards me. It did not run, per se. It certainly did not charge. It walked at a brisk pace. And I hated it for that. This was an emergency. Every Celestia-damned second counted.

And it walked.

It stopped less than five feet away from me. It easily, effortlessly towered over me. “You want us to go down there?” I asked and pointed towards the pit. I had no idea if it understood my language or not. I did not particularly care at this point. “Then help her! Or I swear by sun and moon, I will do anything and everything within my power to get her out of here!”

And I will seal this place forever. I will make the very earth above your head break and crumble. I will make this cave come crashing down and I will bury everything under tons and tons of rubble.

The golem rose up further. It squared its floaty rock-shoulders. It could not produce sound, as far as I knew. But it tried to intimidate me. It was successful, obviously. But I denied it what it truly wanted. I was scared, sure. Scared because of that golem. Because of those claws it lifted. Because of the attack it implied as it swooped them down.

This is it, I thought. This could very well have been the end.

But it was not.

The claws stopped a few inches away from my neck. My knees wobbled. I had not even noticed the blade falling to the ground with a soft thud as it landed in one of the dirt patches that once upon a time probably sported a lovely array of flowers or some other greenery.

“Help her. Please,” I stared at it. Begged that thing that I somehow still considered an enemy.

Seconds passed by. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

The golem moved.

It walked, then ran. It ran past me. Into the temple. Church. Whatever. It ran down the aisle and past the lectern. I followed it as fast as I could, but it was so much faster than me. It grabbed Twilight with its stony claws. White Tip complained loudly and flew over to settle on my back again. “Careful!” I yelled as I saw how it placed her onto its back like she was some kind of sack of flour.

It ignored my complaint completely, turned around and made for the exit. I grabbed our saddlebags. They were heavy. Or maybe my telekinesis was affected now. I did not care. I dragged them across the floor as fast as I could, went outside after the golem and picked up my sword as well.

The golem led us to a small building. One story, no frills. Certainly no balconies or pompous pillars, no flower gardens or trimmed hedges and trees. A healer’s hut, maybe. Hopefully.

The golem was too large to enter. It merely pointed inside.

I discarded our saddlebags next to the entrance and only threw the sword inside. White Tip knew what to do and swooped into the building, looking for traps and unwelcome inhabitants while I grabbed Twilight in my levitation and pulled her down onto my own back. I walked in and looked back over my shoulder. The golem peeked in as best as it could and pointed with its stony claw to the broken remains of a cupboard.

White Tip returned. No ruckus this time, so no enemies present. Good. Be grateful for small mercies.

I rummaged through the rubble. Broken bits of glass pierced my hooves. I hissed, but tried to ignore it as I shoveled more and more of the debris to the side.

I found a strange device right at the bottom of the pile. Some kind of syringe. I turned around towards the golem. “That?” I asked.

A nod.

That Celestia-damned thing understood my language perfectly.

I ignored any and all potential revelations. The syringe was empty. Please don’t, I begged. I rummaged around in the wooden remains. Vials. Broken vials. Lots of broken vials. Would any liquid even remain after all this time? Would it not spoil?

I got my answer. To the left side of the pile was an intact vial. Intact. Filled with a toxic-looking green liquid. But I knew how Zecora’s brews and concoctions smelled and tasted and looked. Don’t judge a book by its foul and disgusting cover. I turned around again. “That?”

Another nod.

You sneaky bastard.

I shoved the thought away. It was difficult to fill the syringe. Difficult not because I had issues understanding how it worked. Difficult because Twilight was pale. Because her whole body shivered. Because occasional spasms shook her. Because a small area around her bite wound looked almost black in what little light my horn could produce. Just an optical illusion, I told myself. A trick of the light.

Because I needed to properly concentrate to lift several objects and move them in different directions from each other.

It took me three attempts to finally put the stupid needle into the stupid vial. I drew the liquid into the syringe and as soon as the vial was empty, I walked over to Twilight.

A heavy thud from outside made me jump. I looked over. The golem had smashed its claw onto the ground. Why? Was there a spider? It stared at me. No, it stared at the syringe.

I looked closer at the device.

It looked fine to me.

Then I remembered what Nurse Redheart did every time I came by for a shot. She wasted a little bit of the vaccine. Just squirted a few droplets out.

If you inject her with any air in that thing, you will kill her yourself.

I almost lost my grip on the syringe out of sheer panic. I eyed it critically. There was an air bubble in there. Tiny. Miniscule. Completely harmless, right? Just air.

I pushed a little. Until some of the liquid came out.

I looked back to the golem.

A nod.

“Here goes nothing.” How long had this stuff been lying around here? Would it still work?

I injected Twilight. I had no idea where to place the needle. Did it matter? Was it better to stab her near the wound? I went for that. I knew I had to search for a vein or artery. But I barely knew how to properly locate those. We had a few courses for first aid in training. I knew a bunch of stuff about first aid. I had learned so much about it for our foals. But my mind was panicky and I felt like I barely held onto my remaining shreds of composure. I drew blank after blank. “Please work, please work, please work, please work, please work, please work,” I mumbled as a prayer.

I did no longer count seconds. I counted repetitions.

I looked over my shoulder, back to the golem. He was gone. Of course he was.

I briefly considered dragging our saddlebags in. But I had my sword nearby and White Tip sat in front of Twilight. Everything that was strictly necessary was here. Screw the rest, at least right now.

I turned back and watched Twilight. Watched her shaking. Watched her pale face. Watched her cold sweat.

It felt like hours.

But it did get better.

The shaking receded. A little bit of color returned to her. She stopped sweating so profusely. It was enough that I managed to tear myself away from her side. I finally retrieved our saddlebags, if only to rummage through them and get the two waterskins ready. One was almost empty, the other one was three quarters full. I used what remained in the former to wash her face, her brow, her neck. And I used the first aid kit to properly disinfect and bandage Twilight’s leg while she was still out cold.

I worked feverishly. I checked her pulse and breathing every minute or so. Felt her brow and neck for excess heat. And once her leg was taken care of, I returned to my favorite new pastime.

Waiting.

“Did somepony see who pulled that cart?” Twilight’s hoarse voice asked barely above a whisper. “I bet it was Applejack.”

I gasped and had to fight the urge to fling myself at her. Which would probably have done a lot more damage than good. I instead carefully and slowly crawled up to her and nestled closely against her. I felt like my voice would break any second. “Don’t ever do that again,” I demanded.

Twilight sighed. “Duly noted.” She pulled me even closer and kissed my forehead. I replied with a shuddering breath and little else. I could almost feel that barrier between me and everything else. Maybe I was still in shock? How rude would the awakening be? “May I ask what actually happened?” she whispered.

And I immediately shook my head. Violently. Because I was so incredibly scared of popping that bubble of numbness I existed in right now. I was eternally grateful that she did not push it either. She just accepted my answer and for another minute or so, we just lay there.

She was back. She talked. She was fine.

She was fine.

She’s fine.

I sighed and tried to ignore the spilled tears. “We should move. This house is an easy target. Too many entrances, bad defensive position. C-Can you walk?” A single stutter aside, I was almost proud of myself. I kept my cool, I remained decently calm and I tried to keep a level head.

“I… I am not sure,” Twilight admitted. “Everything feels either numb or hot.”

I nodded. “We should try anyway. I can help you.” I was not entirely convinced that I actually could, but I would certainly try. And true to my word, I pulled away from her, no matter how much my heart cried out, and I got up. We used the next few minutes to get her back up on her hooves as well. We took a ‘slow and steady’-approach, which seemed to work out best. And I did not even bother asking her if she was able to carry her saddlebags. I just took them all.

They still felt like they were filled with bricks.

I offered her the remaining waterskin and she gladly emptied it in one go. Although there was not much of the city left to explore, we still had a few layers ahead of us. We would need to find another water source. Or would White Tip maybe be able to refill a waterskin? He should be able to use his claws to open the tab at the sink. If he could clog the drain then maybe he could fill up the waterskin and if he only carried one, he should be able to bring them back full. A decent idea for later consideration.

I fully intended to tell Twilight about the events. About my less-than-epic fight against the spider. How I stood my ground against the golem. How that Celestia-damned thing apparently understood every word we said and might have listened to our conversations for who knew how long.

I fully intended to have a proper freakout as well at some point soon.

But both things would need to wait for now. It felt almost funny to state as much, but we once again required another hideout for yet another break. It was almost funny. Almost.