Dreamwalker's Tale: Project Greenwood

The day before…

Once all preparations were done, smithing became a waiting game. Not entirely, of course. But one had to wait for the forge to properly heat up, for the base material to melt, for the liquid metal to cool — there were just a couple of steps that involved standing around and looking sharp. I did my best to do just that when a familiar voice reached my ear and made me smile. The kind of fond smile I always got when somepony I internally labeled as ‘sweet, must protect’ came to me.

“Uhm, Dreamwalker?” she said.

I turned ninety degrees and my smile grew into a grin. “Hi, Whisper. How may I help you?”

She fiddled around with her hooves, rubbed her forelegs together and her wings rustled occasionally. She was building up courage to ask for something, I could tell that much already. But instead of backing her up, I waited. She got this.

“So, uhm, I was thinking that, maybe, I could take the cart and go to Ponyville and get us a few supplies?” She was so incredibly hesitant to even ask.

And of course that made me wonder why. So I looked over to the barn where we stored the cart whenever it was not immediately needed and I saw the barn doors wide open. The cart stood at the ready, and Pristine currently inspected the harness and fiddled around with the straps.

I grinned even wider and allowed myself a little fun with Whisper. “Well, I would love to, but you see, it appears that Pristine had the same idea and since she technically isn’t part of the project, I can’t order her to stop. I mean, I suppose I could forbid her from using our stuff, that cart technically belongs to Hefty and Honey… see, that’s the thing though, it belongs to them, technically I can’t order anything here. If they gave their permission, she’s free to do whatever. She’s an investor after all, not one of my ‘employees’.”

And just as expected, Whisper retreated half a step, slightly overwhelmed by the response she got. “O-Oh, uhm, I mean, uhm, i-it’s okay, I can just—“

Sweet and lovely Celestia, she’s just too kind for her own good. I chuckled briefly and dropped the act. “Hey, don’t worry. What I meant to say is this: As far as I am concerned, you are free to walk over there and ask Pristine in a nice and polite manner if she would be fine if you tagged along. Given that she wants to take the cart and visit Ponyville to begin with, I mean it’s still a possibility that she just inspects it for potential upgrades or whatever. Does that work for you? If she’s okay with you tagging along, you may go. Just be back tomorrow, eh?”

And with that, her frayed nerves calmed down, she sighed in relief and went in for a hug. I snickered as I embraced her and could not help myself. So I added a little something extra. “You know, there’s this new Prench restaurant, Heure De Minuit, it’s two streets down from Café Hay. It looks super-fancy and the food is great, but they are relatively new and still worried about establishing themselves, so their menu has quite affordable prices for now. Just saying.”

With Whisper's hot pink coat color, it was always hard to tell if she blushed or not. But I liked to think so as she clearly averted her gaze and retreated while mumbling a ‘thank you’.

She had been here with us for a few days now. In that time, she constantly ventured out into the woods in search of animals. Neither Spike nor I were a big fan of that and we both offered to accompany her, but she declined with the same explanation each and every time. The more of us would go into those woods, the harder it would get for her to find and talk to those she searched for. She had found a couple of tracks from several timberwolf packs, but they seemed to stay clear of the village for now. Which was already good and solid information. But Whisper was not satisfied with just that. She wanted more. She searched for manticore tracks and so far, she had found none.

It was highly likely that Greenwood lay smack dab in the middle of at least one manticore’s territory. She just had to find him. And ask forgiveness instead of permission, because we were already here and we would not leave either.

A soft rumble shook me from my daydreaming. I grimaced slightly. In the past couple of days, we occasionally felt these earth tremors. There was no pattern to them and Graphite reassured me that we would not have to deal with tectonic plates or volcanoes or the like. But she was stumped as to what caused them. So I did what I could. I asked Spike yet again to fly around a little, watch for changes in the landscape, anything out of the ordinary. But I already expected the same result as the last couple of times: Nothing.

Only a couple of minutes later my expectation was confirmed. And I noticed Pristine march up to me. That should serve as a good distraction. And indeed, marching she did. Not a leisurely walk, not a relaxed stroll, oh no. She looked like a mare with a mission, and nothing would stand in her way. Unfortunately, she fixed me with a glare that made very clear that she currently considered me standing in her way. I had no idea how or why, but I would find out soon enough — if I wanted to or not.

“Dreamwalker, we need to talk!” she opened our conversation while she was still a couple of feet away.

Despite having a hunch about what was going on, I still could not help but gulp. She used that tone that made me feel small and somehow guilty. And she knew exactly what she was doing. Why did she think she had to bring out the big guns right from the start?

Despite her best efforts, I still remained outwardly unfazed and even managed to plaster a smile across my muzzle. “Hey Pristine, how nice to see you! You look lovely today! Especially what you did with your mane.”

She raised an eyebrow, but smiled nonetheless. “I brushed it. You should try that, the results are magnificent.” She reigned herself in somewhat, sighed and shook her head ever so slightly. “Thank you, however. I appreciate the compliment. Now, will you allow me to take the cart to Ponyville to fetch some essentials? And I would love to take Whisper along for company if you don’t mind.”

No further explanation given. Just straight to the point. She clearly tried to steamroll me and it was funny in a way. I had no objections to any of that. That said, she was a little too confident for my tastes. “Well, I’d love to, but no.”

She blinked. Stared at me in disbelief. “No? What do you mean, ‘no’? We are talking about essentials here! I thought I was doing you a favor!”

I chuckled. “Right. About that. What exactly are these ‘essentials’ anyway? We did make a supply run a couple of days ago, I believe. Mostly for ores, coal, tools and such. What came up now? Without me knowing about it, no less?”

Gotcha! I knew it the moment her smile wavered ever so slightly. Pristine was good. Really good. But she was no Rarity quite yet. Catching Rarity off-guard was next to impossible. “Well, you see, we-I mean I… am still working on the finer details,” she answered. “I am currently compiling a list. So if you have anything you need, or maybe want…?”

I laughed quietly. Straight to bribery. Hoo boy, Rarity and I would have a great time talking about this. “Well, we shouldn’t splurge all our money on what we want, should we? But! I can see the point in occasionally getting something as a treat. Especially in those rough first months. Everypony is working their rump off here. Alright, fine.” I looked around the village. Took stock of what we had. What we needed. What some of our current residents might want. And time and time again, I came back to the same wisdom: good food was food for the soul.

“Alright, got it,” I announced. “While the vegetable fields come along nicely, we’re still lacking in other departments. If you could fetch us some fruit, that would be nice. A bushel of apples or two, maybe some strawberries. Whatever the market has to offer, basically.” Pristine acknowledged my wish and made a mental note. And with her distracted for a second, it was a perfect opportunity. “The cart belongs to Hefty and Honey, I fear. So you will have to ask those two. Most of us treat it as a communal property, but it really isn’t and we shouldn’t without their explicit permission. That said, I already gave Whisper the go-ahead to visit Ponyville alongside you. But it’s great to see you two communicate so clearly and openly with each other.”

That got her attention. She snapped out of her thoughts and stared at me. The tint in her pristinely white cheeks grew more pronounced as the meaning of my words slowly trickled in. “Oh. Well. That is… nice, certainly. Thank you.”

I grinned from ear to ear. “You’re welcome. Now shoo, off you go. And have fun!” To my surprise, she actually nodded and retreated without complaining. And judging by the wide smiles Derpy overhead, Spike from the sidelines and even Honey leaning against the wall of her workshop had, we all knew what was going on. They would get to Ponyville via a leisurely stroll through the woods, safe and sound, then arrive in the evening with perfect timing for a romantic dinner, maybe rent out a room somewhere, fetch supplies in the morning and be back around midday or afternoon. Tasteful fade to black for everything in between.

None of us minded to give them a little nudge in that direction.

The midday hours had come and gone, similar to how Whisper and Pristine had come back and gone to work. Everypony had noticed their beaming smiles, how they glowed from within. It seemed like it had been a very successful evening. Full of essentials.

I had already cleaned up the forge for today. Work was done as far as I was concerned. Or at least I was done —I needed a break.

So I snuck up to the barn where they were still busy debating over what would best be stashed where and I noticed two particular items I had a growing interest in. A couple of minutes later and I snuck back out of the barn with a piece of cheese the size of a foal’s head and a bunch of grapes. It was perfect.

A little detour to my house to fetch both our book and that precious, precious letter Pristine had brought along and I was on my way to my ultimate destination. “Dawn, balcony!” I yelled into the ruins as I made my way across the courtyard. “Celestia knows where this stallion is,” I muttered as I crossed the threshold, went left in the main entrance hall and up the stairs. I reached the balcony first. And since we always came here and made it our ‘usual spot’, we had opted to bring a couple of seating cushions up here. So, with my cushion in my telekinetic grasp, I settled down and made myself comfortable. I put the book down in front of me, put the small bowl of grapes and the plate with the cheese off to the side and waited.

A chilly breeze swooped by. I closed my eyes and inhaled. And for a fraction of a second, I felt peace fill my very being. Peace and silence. A different kind of silence, considering the Everfree forest was never truly silent to begin with.

As I opened my eyes again, I saw. Not just staring ahead, navigating the environment. I saw trees decades old, maybe even centuries. They had stories. Down below in the courtyard, I saw the strangely ill-fitting apple trees from Sweet Apple Acres, my pal Bruno among them. I saw Spike, all grown up into a smart and tough gentledrake, as he ushered around a couple of ponies. I saw Derpy fly around over the canopies with her weather machine strapped to her back, battling away a pesky Everfree cloud. I saw a speck of order in a sea of chaos. And yet, somehow, the order was winning. It was persistent. Stubborn. And even though I could not see the soft blue glow of those enchanted torches, I could imagine them. Like a lifeline, a trail to follow in the dark beneath the treetops. I saw infrastructure. I saw a future. I saw Greenwood, full of plucky ponies, fortune hunters who were willing to get their hooves dirty for the betterment of everypony around them. A community forged by adversity. A home for many. And maybe, one day, a town, or even a city. Right next to a magnificent castle. Who would live there, I wondered.

“You are far, far away, my friend,” I heard Dawn say in mild amusement.

I blinked a couple of times to free myself from my imagination. The unicorn settled on his cushion beside me, with the book laid between us. “Whisper and Pristine went to Ponyville,” I explained without addressing his initial statement.

“I know. I saw them leave yesterday,” he replied and eyed the plate and bowl on my other side.

I grinned, grabbed both and offered them to him. “Grapes?” He picked a couple and popped them into his mouth. And just seeing him chew made me want to have a couple more myself. So I placed both down between us and switched the book to the other side. “I usually prefer red or blue grapes over the regular ones because they are sweeter, but the sour punch these have is a nice change. We had a lot of Sugarcube Corner-stuff recently.”

“I will freely admit that I cannot remember when I last had grapes,” Dawn replied. He levitated one in front of his muzzle, close enough to inspect it, close enough that he had to cross his eyes a little. He seemed satisfied when I giggled.

I grabbed the knife from the plate and cut a piece of cheese out. “This one’s from Sweet Apple Acres. They don't make cheese regularly, so this is a real treat.” And it was perfect. Soft, smooth, just a tiny bit chewy, like cheese should be. In my humble non-gourmet opinion, at least. There were so many cheeses to pick from. Pepper cheese. Salted cheese. Curry cheese. Ponies mixed all kinds of stuff into just about anything, but Sweet Apple Acres cheese was plain. No frills. That made it perfect to combine with whatever else one wanted.

However, I noticed that Dawn never did. Never even hesitated to consider the possibility. He ate a couple of grapes, then ate a piece of cheese and then he just… stopped. “Have you ever tried to combine the two? In general?”

Dawn stared at the food and furrowed his brow in thought. “No. Have you?”

I could almost see his thought process. Is that even edible? How would that taste? Doesn’t that feel weird on my tongue? I chuckled. “I used to despise the mere thought. Grapes are sweet, or sweet and sour, depending on the kind. Cheese is, well, it’s cheese. Certainly isn’t sweet at all. Ergo: Those two things don’t belong together. Right?” Dawn vaguely nodded. “A close friend of mine, Pinkie, she urged me to try it. She was so insistent over years, made up all kinds of weird rules and pranks and party games. At one point, she compared me to cheese and herself to grapes and let me tell you, that analogy went weird places.”

We both laughed for a moment. “I can imagine,” he stated.

After I calmed down, I continued. “Anyway. I resisted her, let’s call it ‘superior persuasion’, for quite some time. However, unbeknownst to me, she also tried to convince Twilight. Pinkie is… she’s smart like that. She knew that we would only reaffirm our beliefs to each other if we knew. So she kept it a secret. Successfully. She managed to convince Twilight to at least try it. And after she didn’t keel over in disgust, Twilight then asked me to give it a shot.”

“And now you are asking me?” Dawn concluded with a wry smile.

I silently offered him the cheese knife and the grape bowl. He complied, cut a small piece free and, after a final moment of hesitation, ate it together with two grapes. I watched him closely and I had to make use of every ounce of self-control I had to not laugh. His expression went through so many changes that it became hard to read. And Dawn rarely had that lively of an expression to begin with. But I kept silent and awaited his final verdict with bated breath.

“It is… weird, I would say,” he started and licked his lips. He also eyed both the cheese and the grapes in thought. “Not in an unpleasant or unwelcome way, however.”

I grinned from ear to ear. “You’re welcome. Also: It gets better with time. You get used to it and eventually, you’ll grow to like it. That actually happened really quickly for me. Usually when ponies use the term ‘an acquired taste’, I think of something revolting. Something that is so bad that I question why anypony would want to grow to like that. Like coffee. Just utterly disgusting stuff. But this?” I popped another piece of cheese and a couple of grapes into my mouth. “This is great.”

Dawn tried it a second time. It was still weird, I could see it on his face. Still not bad. But weird. “I must admit, I do not experiment much with my food. Not anymore.”

While his eyes spoke of fond memories, of nostalgia, his voice betrayed a sorrowful tone. “You did at some point?” I dared to ask. And it was a dare, really. Talking to Dawn was fun. It always felt like this massive well of unfathomable knowledge, so deep one could get lost in the pitch-black down there and never reemerge. But he was a close-guarded pony with many secrets, a very cautious pony to boot. Asking direct questions always entailed the risk of scaring him off.

“I—… yes,” he answered after some initial hesitation. “I loved to cook, actually. To try out new spices from foreign lands, to see how they fit in with the cuisine I knew, but… back then, I cooked for someone. That made it special. And different.”

He regarded the grapes once more. There was something familiar in his eyes. An old, weary indifference. It took me a while to identify it as such. It was a feeling I had been spared this cycle, for the most part. But I remembered it from other lifetimes. He gave the cheese the very same look. And although he tried to keep it hidden, I noticed that silent sigh of his. “You don’t enjoy food anymore, do you?” I asked.

His shoulders sagged a little. “There are a great many things I do not enjoy any longer, my friend. I dread to put it into words, but the truth of the matter is that I eat to sustain myself, my body. Fuel to the furnace, and little else.”

I sighed. “That… is sad. And it sounds a lot like somepony else I know.”

Are you talking about me?

Take a guess.

“You are talking about Void, are you not?” Dawn asked. He saw how surprised I was that he even knew that name and he smiled lopsided. “You mentioned him. And without wanting to brag: I am a smart unicorn. I had my suspicions and I think I figured it out.”

You mentioned me? Are you dumb or something? Me being a hidden secret was one of our best strategic advan—

I faded his voice out. Just white noise in the background of my own thoughts. He was pissed, he would be for a couple of days, probably. It was fine. We never agreed on how much trust was too much trust. His opinion on the matter was clear: Any. I disagreed. And that was that.

“He has difficulties enjoying the smaller things in life as well, yes,” I reiterated.

“Tell me about it,” Dawn replied. When I kept silent because I misunderstood the meaning behind his words, he rephrased it. “No, literally — please, tell me about it.”

Void would have a field day. Me spouting all his dirty little secrets? All the private information I had? All his weaknesses and vulnerabilities? It mattered little that what I talked about was none of that. In his opinion, any information could be turned against him. Against us. So sharing none of it would be beneficial. For our defense, our survival.

But what worth did survival have when the life it allowed was so dreary?

“For him, everything just seems… dull, somehow. Bland,” I explained. “The colors are muted. There is no joy in sounds. No melodies in running water or the breeze in the woods. Yet at the same time, his emotions can be devastatingly volatile. They flip-flop between extremes. There is either only true neutral indifference, or extreme spikes of searing passion. And this passion I speak of doesn’t just concern desire. More often than not, it is anger. And there is little else in between. Flatline or spikes off the charts. No middle ground. He too cannot cherish simple joys of life, like eating good food or enjoying somepony’s company. That’s why he can be so incredibly clingy and fiercely protective towards all he perceives as ‘his’. And when he defends such ‘possessions’, he does so with disproportionate force. It’s… it can be scary.” Without realizing it, I had pinned my gaze to the Everfree forest below us again. Stared at the seemingly endless green of the trees, without seeing any trees at all. Now back from my small monologue, I turned my attention to Dawn. “Sounds familiar?”

He intently stared at the weathered stone beneath his hooves. Beneath us. The balcony was in bad shape, crumbly in places, the stone railing broken apart and almost gone completely. “No. Not at all,” he answered. Then he turned his gaze to me and smiled. “However, it is nice to learn new things about a friend.”

I grinned and agreed. “I tried to teach him a couple of times, but it’s just… it’s not that easy.”

“Such things rarely are,” Dawn agreed.

“How about you, then?” My question lingered in the air like the echo of a particularly loud yell in the middle of a massive, snow-capped mountain range.

Yet instead of the dreaded cracks and sounds of impending doom, I heard a soft sigh from him. “It is only fair, is it not? I wonder, though — and please forgive my rudeness by asking a question in reply first: It is noticeably rare that you ask me such questions. You must know that there is more to it, yet you never inquire about my past. Why is that?”

I chuckled. That was at least a question I could answer. One where I felt quite comfortable with the answer as well. “It’s simple: I don’t want to force your hoof. I don’t want to corner you. I don’t want to force you to lie to me. You have secrets. A lot of them. I don’t mind those. Keep them if you wish. I want to be your friend. I want you to feel safe with me, comfortable. I want you to share information in peace. Whatever you feel like sharing. At your own pace. Everything else wouldn’t be very friendly, you know?”

I quietly laughed. He did not chime in. Instead he furrowed his brow in thought. And then nodded, after making whatever decision he had to make. “We hail from very different worlds, you and I.” The very moment he said that, my eyes lit up in excitement. If he was really ready, if he was willing to talk about his past… I was here for it. I had been curious for a while and it seemed now was the time that my patience was rewarded. So I settled in and made myself extra-comfortable.

“I am sure it comes as no surprise when I say that I am a lot older than I look. Much older. Enough so that I did not expect to find ponies in this region of the world. What you ponies call tribalism is, if I understand it correctly, something deeply frowned upon, as it endangers the unity of the three pony tribes. But you have to understand: For me this was merely everyday life. And in the unicorn culture of old, knowledge was everything. You wanted to prove your worth? You better get your muzzle glued to those books. Precious books. Rare books. Back then, they had been so much rarer than they are these days. We did not have book presses, print media, magazines. Each book was unique. written by magic and the force of will of a single unicorn. And we felt superior to those earth ponies who conveyed all their knowledge via folk wisdom, who talked instead of writing, who spun precious lessons into elongated tales. If you wanted your voice to be heard, you had to prove yourself. Write your own book. Fill it with worthwhile knowledge. Or better still: Learn spells. As many as you can. Knowledge is power, but spells are worth so much more than just understanding the fundamentals of engineering or botany. That said, you still had to be cautious. Learn too much magic and you may qualify yourself as a viable candidate for raising the sun. No unicorn wanted that position. It was a grueling task, it cut your life expectancy short by a couple of decades. It was considered an honor, but only so unicorns would not constantly shirk their appointed duties.”

I knew the Hearth's Warming Tale. I watched the play every year. I sang the songs alongside Spike, Twilight and my other friends and family members. I knew them by heart. I believed in them. With passion and fervor. I hated singing. I disliked hearing my own voice. But that one evening in the year, excluding birthday songs, I really, truly sang.

And every year, the storyteller in me sighed with a heavy heart as he tried to imagine. As he emphasized with ponies long dead and gone. How hard that life must have been. How different. We had so many amenities these days that we simply took for granted.

“I was ambitious back then,” Dawn continued. “Our civilization formed us that way and if one wished to become anything other than ambitious, he really had to struggle hard from the very beginning. I wanted my voice to be heard. I wanted to change things, I wanted power and influence. In retrospect, I was a young fool. I craved things I did not understand and I lacked the foresight to realize that I had no goal in mind beyond acquiring what I was denied. Had they given me power and influence — I would not have known what to do with it. But that was just one of many problems unicorn society had back then.

I thought my time had come when a unique opportunity arose. A proposal was made and accepted, and many spells were employed to construct one of the largest ships ponykind had ever seen. Several of the storage rooms were enchanted to keep the supplies of food and water fresh. Supplies that would last almost four dozen unicorns several months. We would ride the waves, with magic billowing in our sails, and we would venture to new coasts and foreign lands. We would be the first unicorns to set hoof there, to learn of new varieties of stone, to see and study and collect samples of new species of flora and fauna, and maybe, just maybe, we would even encounter other civilized races, other kinds of magic, new spells. It was daunting. It was an adventure of life-changing proportions. And I fought tooth and hoof to get in.

Life on a ship is… a strange mixture of boredom and exhaustion. Either your work is done for now and you feel just how much your tasks have drained from you and you are faced with not being able to do much aside from staring out into the water or interacting with your fellow unicorns, or… or you are busy doing said tasks, which require constant concentration and the expenditure of magic. Each spell drains your reserve, your energy dwindles until you are spent and you are faced with the same issue again and again. Card games can only help you so much. It was forbidden to remove any scrolls or books from the secured vaults, as no unicorn wanted to endanger them by exposing them to the salty sea air. And keep in mind: While you work with those unicorns day in, day out, side by side… they are still your competitors. No matter your friendly rivalry, at the end of the day, you all aim for the same goal. It was still a hard-fought competition.

It was a small miracle that we had so few fisticuffs. And that none of us went mad.”

That as well served to inspire my imagination. The storyteller within me gave a wistful sigh as I dreamed up a truly massive three-master. How many decks would it have? Was only one single captain responsible for it all? I almost imagined this thing as a floating city, but four dozen crewmembers actually were not that many.

And the endless sea could surely be both frightening and enthralling. Had they encountered whales? Dolphins? Sharks? The legendary carcinus? Or a kraken? I sighed deeply. Today was not the day — but one day, I would ask him about his travels. What he had seen and encountered. All the creatures of the wild. I was sure Fluttershy would love to hear all about them. And Whisper too, of course.

“At the end of our journey, we all breathed a sigh of relief when the scout yelled: Land, ho! Some of us had lost their faith that we would ever reach another shore. Our maps, supported by dozens of tracking spells, marked out our journey and ensured us that we truly had reached an entirely different landmass. A new continent.

And what a land it was!

Wild and untamed beasts the size of houses roamed these coastlines. Fish large enough to swallow a unicorn whole swam in the deeper waters. The mountains rose high and spewed fire and brimstone. Cracks in their sides were plainly visible at night due to the lava constantly flowing from them. There was little in terms of vegetation. Mostly rock, with the occasional hardy shrub. We learned about cacti. The hard and very prickly way.

We learned that some of these creatures shared the same magic resistance some earth ponies had developed. These magnificent, enormous beasts. Everything in this strange new land seemed oversized.

We ran our ship onto the shore. With our combined spellpower, it would be easy to get it back into deeper water. And we swarmed out. A few were designated to stay behind to keep an eye on the ship, just in case. The sore losers of a lottery. But the rest of us? We were explorers. Researchers. Pioneers. A few first days went by with us constantly coming back to the ship to load off a new saddlebag full of samples. The laboratories on the lower decks, unused to this point, were constantly churning out new information about the geology of this land, about the mixture of its air and the processes happening in its plants. And I was at the forefront of it all.

And then we encountered our first dragons.

Ponykind had not known such beasts. We were utterly caught off-guard by their fire breath. They too were towering beasts, easily double or even triple the size of a pony. It took us a while to realize that those were still considered young, barely adolescent. But a group of them formed and hunted us for sport. They seemed less interested in ending lifes and devouring us and more in studying us, in their own cruel, primitive way.

We retreated to the ship in a hurry, fools that we were. Of course they followed us. And the first assault was a brutal battle. Many of the beasts of this new land had proven considerable vulnerability to mind-affecting magic. They were tough and strong and resilient, but their minds were small and fragile, easily controlled. These dragons however, they were cut from a different cloth. Attempts to control them were made and while some succeeded, we quickly learned that failure backfired horribly as it enraged these creatures.

Half the crew was put into shifts of six hours to maintain a force shield around the ship. After all: If we lost the ship, we would be lost as well. With this ongoing assault, we could not hope to ever build a new one to cross the ocean. Especially since our supplies had almost run out and we needed to restock in his hostile place.

But our foes were sloppy.

What we perceived as an act of war, as pure unbridled aggression, was merely playful ribbing from their side. Came nightfall, they retreated to sleep. And they squabbled amongst each other so much. There was no rhyme or reason to their attacks. No emerging patterns, no commanding officers.”

I snickered. And I was deeply grateful that Dawn did not seem to mind, he smiled even.

These ponies arrived in the dragonlands. The dragons of old were probably a bit different from our modern allies as well and I could not help but wonder what Ember would have to say to this story. Would she be proud of her ancestors giving these pony intruders such a hard time without even trying? Or would she berate them because they were not trying?

I also wondered if dragons knew. If they remembered these invaders. I assumed that the three tribes, fleeing the Wendigos, arrived in today's Equestria a long, long time after this first encounter. Did the dragons see these new neighbors and thought: ‘Ah, those guys again’?

“We used whatever advantage we could get,” Dawn continued. “We coordinated snoop troops. Yes, laugh all you want. Some of us lost a little bit of sanity and deemed this a good name. These groups were to sneak out after sunset to retrieve food and water to restock our supplies for our eventual departure.

Venturing out at night came with its own risks, of course. Different kinds of predators roamed these lands at night and even though these were oversized as well, they were still a lot sneakier than their daylight brethren. It was rare that we actually lost somepony. But it happened. And every loss was a hard hit for morale. Despite this, it made the workload for the rest of us a little easier. One mouth less to account for when it came to water and food. We knew now how long we would travel. How much we needed. And we tried to work with as little surplus as possible.

That said, we were still unicorns. We were still ambitious. Many of us who went outside at night still sought what we had come for initially. Samples of strange things. Traces of new magic. Knowledge.

It just so happened that I was part of almost every team that went outside the shield. I had a really lucky hoof in the lottery. And I did not make myself any friends with that. And one night, we overstayed our welcome. The sun was rising in the east and we were still half an hour away from the barrier. We could make it just in time if we hurried.

And I got stuck. Twisted my ankle in a bad way when I stepped into a crack. They did not even blink, they just… left. I was furious, of course. Not disappointed, no. But furious. But I was a lucky fool back then. I was eventually discovered by a dragon, and it was the one dragon who did not care about attacking our ship or its crew. Hm. Maybe I should be clear here: I learned later on that there were several dragons who had noticed our ship drawing closer before we even set hoof on the shore. The larger ones just did not care much as long as we stayed clear of their volcanoes and hoards.

She was different though. She helped me. Saved me in more than just one way. She freed me from that crack and took me to her lair, where she nursed me back to health. I thought she held me prisoner, but I was free to go. When I demanded as much, she even flew me back to the barrier and left me there. Although she made sure that neither my people saw her, nor hers. And when they asked me how I survived, I failed to give a proper answer. I just snapped at them for leaving me behind.

And the next night, I went outside again. This time in search of her, and nothing else.

We stayed for weeks. Weeks turned into a few months. The ship was fully restocked, but we waited. Since a predictable pattern had emerged, we were fine with keeping that routine running. Defend the ship throughout the day, gather knowledge and samples at night. I went out to meet up with her every night. Talked to her. For hours and hours and hours. She told me so much about her homeland. About these wild plains and fire-spewing mountains. About her kind and the many beasts roaming around. She never asked for such knowledge in return. What she did ask though… was why I was the way I was.

She was unhappy with her own kindred. Their greed and unruly behavior irked her, even though she felt the pull of gold just as much and her manners and politeness had very harsh limits. But she asked me and in turn made me question myself. Why was I so ambitious? What was my ambition? What did I wish to accomplish in my life? Was power and influence really what I wanted? What for? What would I do with it?

Things changed almost a year after our arrival. These teenage dragons had a gathering of sorts. For the first time since we ‘invaded their lands’, they actually shared their observations and information about successful and failed tactics. And they decided on a coordinated attack by their entire force. Even with all crewmates jumping in, we would not be able to hold the shield against that attack.

I only learned any of that because she told me. We would all perish. And she was averse to such wasteful treatment of life. I immediately informed the others and within one day, they prepared for our departure. I snuck out in bright daylight and managed to make my way across the plains, past beasts and dragons alike. I would not have succeeded then were it not for the vast knowledge she had so freely shared with me.

Weeks and months of her intriguing company, plus the exotic beauty of this strange land and a lot of soul-searching.

I could not tell when exactly I had fallen for her. Me, a unicorn. In love with a dragon. It was ridiculous. And I don’t think I ever told her with plain words. What I assumed would be our last goodbye was in fact the start of a new life for me. I just could not. I looked into her eyes and I… I could not leave her.

But I could leave the academy. I could leave what little family I had. I could leave my colleagues, as I had no friends. I could start over. A new beginning. Find out what life had to offer. What I truly wanted. Where I truly belonged. It would be hard, of course. The only unicorn, small and squishy, in this land.

We were happy.

For years, we were granted a blissful, happy freedom. The other dragons did not dare bother her. She was fierce when she defended her own. Her passion was unrivaled by anything I had ever witnessed, and she directed it towards me.

And all too soon, she was… taken from me. Ripped out of my life.”

I swallowed. My throat felt dry and itchy. And my vision became a little blurry as I imagined that, too. I knew loss. I had lost so many over so many lives. Such accidents happen, a doctor's voice faintly rang in my ears. Stunt flying is extremely dangerous. Rainbow. I shook my head. I did not wish to know. I did not need to either. I suppressed the memory as fast as I could.

Love can only hurt you, somepony said to me once. I defied that sentiment back then. I could only agree now. I knew that. Yet still I believed, hoped with desperation, that love was worth the pain.

The pain was inevitable.

It was a trade-off. Always.

To dare to love. And to make it worth it with the time we got.

Because not loving at all, well — that was not an option either. We were not built to have that option.

“I am so sorry,” I whispered half-choked.

Dawn had better self-restraint. His expression was neutral and remained so. He faintly nodded. “So am I. After I lost her, I started traveling. The events that ripped her from my side seemed so arbitrary, so meaningless. I needed to understand. I was so intent on finding her again. Obsessed, one could say. Nothing else mattered anymore.” Dawn sighed and his shoulders slumped a little. It must have taken a lot to talk about this story. “I lost interest in the ‘finer things in life’, as they say. Food, water, sleep, those became base requirements at best, and obstacles at worst. Weather was either a hindrance or unimportant. Landscapes lost their grandeur and splendor and simply became obstacles of various shapes and sizes.”

It tickled the back of my head. There was a song about that. I could almost remember it. What really stuck with me was that one line from the refrain. Because nothing else matters. I usually tried to be careful with my usage of superlatives. Nothing, always, ever, never. Those were dangerous words. They were meant to have a profound meaning because they encompassed so much. Using them willy-nilly made them lose meaning.

Nothing else matters.

A scary thought.

“I cannot imagine being that driven,” I murmured.

“Oh, I think you can,” Dawn replied quietly.

The silence stretched. It was not uncomfortable per se, but it certainly was heavy. My mind tried to dissect his story and I had a hard time stopping that. At the same time, I felt empathy for him. I wanted to comfort him, to make him feel better — but I knew that it was not quite that easy. He had lost his center. And he desperately scrambled to regain it. Probably by any means necessary. And for who knew how long.

“You came by a little early today,” Dawn spoke up, much to my surprise. “May I ask why? Surely you did not just wish to share cheese and grapes?”

I looked down at the bowl. The fruits seemed less appealing than they had earlier. I sighed. “Why not? What’s wrong with cheese and grapes?”

“Nothing at all,” he reassured me. “However, you do not tend to do things without reason.”

I furrowed my brow, but had to concede the point. “Fair enough. We got our first letter today. It’s from Periwinkle. Apparently she’s ready to move, has all her stuff packed up and she will arrive here soon. I think. She just wrote, and I quote:” I unfolded the letter again and searched for the correct line. “Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.” I shook my head and put the letter away again. “I don’t think she means Baltimare. Or Appleloosa.”

“Unlikely, yes,” Dawn agreed.

And another rumble went through the ground. It was actually more pronounced here on the balcony, as we could hear some stones crack and dust fluttered from the ceiling. “Right. And then there’s that,” I continued once the tremor settled and everything went quiet again. “They’ve been occurring for the past two days now, maybe twice a day, roughly. I talked to Graphite and she’s clueless. No volcanoes, not anything else she could identify. Did you notice anything? Does your vast knowledge offer any suggestions to a plausible cause for this?”

Dawn mulled this over for a moment before he shook his head. “I fear I cannot offer you any explanation either. That said, the Everfree forest is a very chaotic place and usually abhors the infringement of order. Maybe this is the chaos revolting against our presence?”

I grimaced. “Ew. I sure hope not. I’m not sure how we’re meant to battle earthquakes. Or chaos itself. Well, they’ve been small and rare so far and nothing got damaged. It just spooks ponies. Guess we’ll hope for the best for now. Still, it was worth asking, right?” I shot him a wink.

Dawn replied with a smile. “Of course. Say, how are you doing? Overall, I mean?”

I knew exactly what he meant. And I grimaced because of it. My immediate impulse was to snap. To hiss the obligatory ‘I’m fine!’ in his direction. But I did not want to snap at him. “Better actually. Thanks for asking,” I answered instead. “I think I’m actually going to start work on the castle again soon. Map out the floors, mark down traps, maybe see if I can clear rubble here and there. My magic isn’t exactly the strongest, but it’s worth a shot, right?”

Dawn furrowed his brow. “Are you not busy forging items for the village?”

“Oh, I am,” I replied quickly. “I could go on for weeks and months at the current rate. We will need to fetch ourselves an actual smith sometime soon. After we built an actual smithy. But I need a bit of a change of scenery every now and then or I will go mad. Unsurprisingly, smithing usually isn’t exactly the most riveting stuff.”

Dawn tilted his head slightly, deep in thought. “I see,” he mumbled.

The bait is laid out. Let’s see what happens next.

I sighed. I did not like this, but neither could I reason with him. So I kept quiet for the most part and ate a few more grapes…

We were granted peace and quiet for two days.

It was early midday when the tremors started. The difference was: They did not stop. Not this time. Instead they got stronger and stronger. Most of us gathered inside the village walls. Hefty came back from the woods, the golems were commanded inside by Spike, we all felt it in our bones. Something was happening. Something was coming.

“… the bell!” I heard a faint voice. I turned around to see Dawn running towards the open backside gate. Even despite the distance, I could tell that there was urgency in his face. “Ring the bell!” he yelled again. So I did. I quickly grabbed my forging hammer, cantered over to the bell and gave it a couple of solid strikes. The bell was of good enough quality to withstand the blows and it rang loud and clear. Whoever was not within the village proper was called back by the emergency signal.

Graphite and her escort golem were the last to make it in as far as I could tell. Dawn had almost reached us in the center of the village when the ground beyond the western wall suddenly just exploded. Cart-sized chunks of raw earth flew through the air and rained down, entire trees sailed across the landscape. One of them smashed straight into the workshop, breaching the building's roof like it was made out of thin paper.

“Take cover!” I yelled. Everypony scrambled to get to safety, close to house walls but not inside them.

And in the midst of that eruption I saw a glimpse of color.

Oh no…

An enormous body snaked its way higher and higher into the air. Violet scales hid layers of muscles, protecting them like impenetrable armor. A slick, dark-red mane sprang from beneath its head, it was folded along the body. Massive tripartite jaws split a pinkish head and tiny white pupils stared out of pitch-black eyes.

A tatzlwurm.

I only knew of these creatures because of an encounter Twilight and Cadance once had. They were massive, subterranean beasts that tunneled deep underground. They had eyes, but their eyesight was so bad it was practically nonexistent, only capable of noticing quick movement and differentiating between light and dark.

The creature’s maw split wide open and with a dozen black tentacles inside it, it roared. Then it reoriented itself. Towards us. Towards Greenwood.

The jaws of that thing could easily bite through armor, bone, wood. Its body weight would crush every building we had. It would hunt down any stragglers and escapees relentlessly. It moved underground as fast and effortlessly as a pony in the plains.

The long and the short of it: We were done. We would all die here.

While I started to feel light-headed, I looked around. Looked for an easy fix. A way out. A solution, an idea, anything. And my gaze quickly settled on Dawn. Who stared at the beast in bewilderment and shock while he himself stood out in the open. “Help us,” I asked. I was not sure if he had heard me. But as the tatzlwurm reared back to attack, I yelled at the top of my lungs: “Dawn, help us!”

He flinched. And within seconds, he lit his horn in a sickly-pale purple aura. A massive dome sprang from nothing. A translucent hemisphere that encapsulated the entire village.

And just in time.

The maw of the tatzlwurm crashed against the magical shield, gnawed at it, scraped its many razor-sharp teeth over it, but the shield held up. As it realized this new obstacle, the creature instead decided to smash its considerable bodyweight against it, again and again.

“Whisper! Can’t you talk him down?” I asked, but Whisper was not exactly in any condition to do anything, let alone square off to a giant angry monster. And honestly, I had no idea if it would have worked anyway. I knew that she had never learned The Stare. It was an ability her mother alone wielded.

We’re missing one.

An ice-cold shudder ran down my spine as I heard those words echo in my head. “Everypony to me! Headcount!” I yelled. Five golems, easy enough to spot and count. Hefty, Honey, Kaleb, Roseluck, the Doctor, Graphite, Gabby, Spike, Aurora, Whisper, Pristine, Dawn… and I.

Derpy.

“Where is Derpy? Everypony, please, focus! I know that’s kinda hard right now, but where is Derpy?!” I grabbed the Doctor, shook him. It would not help. But I just felt the need to do something. Lest my own imagination would drive me insane.

“She’s outside,” Roseluck confirmed my worst fears. “She was about to wrangle up some clouds for rain.”

Half of us immediately looked up. It was harder to spot anything through the purple shield. Harder still because we all tried to ignore the massive beast smashing its entire, enormous body against it again and again and again, sending vibrations of the impact through the air itself.

“There she is!” Gabby screeched.

We all saw her. Derpy hovered a bit above the entire scene. Stationary. Hesitant what she should do.

That thing can jump, she’s an easy target!

I turned around and wanted to ask, but Spike already spread his wings. “I got her,” he muttered to himself and pushed himself off the ground. With strong wingbeats he raced towards the shield.

“Dawn, can you time it?” I asked as Spike rapidly approached the barrier that kept us safe.

“It is one-sided,” he informed us. “So please do not leave the barrier if you intend to return!”

I had no idea if Spike simply trusted that I would get this done in time, somehow, or if he simply assumed the shield would let him pass. Maybe he had heard Dawn, although I doubted that with the constant violent noise. Either way, he did not slow down, quite the contrary. He picked up more and more speed, shot straight past the barrier, dodged two of the tentacles lashing out in his direction and grabbed Derpy midair.

It took a massive load off my mind to see him barrel into her, grab her and just continue to fly up. “Higher!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I had no idea if they heard me. Probably not. Either way, Spike did it with or without my input. Maybe he remembered Twilight's recounting of this experience as well.

At least those two were out of harm's way. Safe, for now.

And I was pretty sure that Dawn could hold his own against a tatzlwurm if need be. That said, the rest of us were in trouble. “How long can you hold this shield?”

“Indefinitely, if I can stay awake. However, I mentioned its one-sided property. Air is currently free to leave, but cannot be replenished.” I looked around. The dome was huge. I was pretty sure that we would die of thirst and starvation before we could use up all that air. Spike was outside. So, worst case scenario: We would have to wait until he flew to Ponyville to fetch Twilight. And she would fix this. Right? Right?

“Alright, that buys us some time. Guys, ideas!” Nopony reacted. Of course not. Some of them were frozen solid in horror and the others could not tear their eyes away from the enormous creature fully intent on killing us all.

It was especially hard, seeing as this ‘indefinite’-shield showed cracks where the tatzlwurm repeatedly smashed against it.

“Hey, come on folks! Attention!” I commanded. That seemed to do the trick and at least some of them snapped out of it. “Hefty, where’s your axe?”

He had trouble remembering. And I would not have put the spotlight on him if I had not been confident that he could deal with it. He stumbled over his words the first two attempts to form a coherent answer, then he shook his head. “Outside.”

I nodded. There was no need to tell them that it would not have been of any use anyway. Twilight and Cadance were both alicorns and they had barely managed to keep that thing at bay and force it to retreat. That axe would probably break before it managed to even scratch one of those scales.

“Does Kaleb have any offensive abilities?” I continued down the line.

“No!” the Doctor immediately replied. I was confused by his insistence, but this was not the time or place to dwell on it.

“Graphite, could you—“

“I’m not touching that thing!” She cut in with such a harsh tone that there was no doubt that she would rather fight me over this thing.

I looked at Gabby. She was a griffon. Her claws were sharp, her beak was pointy. Her wings would allow her to attack from different angles and aim for this creature’s head instead of having to make due with whatever was closest to the ground.

But Gabby was old. Way past her prime. She was not as fast or agile as she once had been. Worse still. Were I to ask… she would try. Because she was Gabby. She loved to help. Even if it was to her own detriment. No, I could not justify even asking her. Not in front of myself.

And one look at Whisper made clear that she would not be any help in this situation either. I wanted to ask her so badly what she needed to talk to that thing, but I dreaded the answer would be: For it to be calmer than it currently was. And we had no idea why it was so pissed to begin with.

That left Pristine and Aurora. Both powerful unicorns. Not alicorns though, but still. Maybe we could work with some diversion and subterfuge? They are very sensitive to vibrations, Twilight's voice rang in my ear. They use it to track prey and orient themselves.

I grabbed Aurora and Pristine. “Can you cause tremors?” Both stared at me blankly for way too long, I did not have that kind of patience, not right now. “Can you blast the ground and make it vibrate?” Both exchanged glances with each other and nodded faintly. “We might be able to use that to distract it!”

“I can help with that,” the Doctor said from the sidelines.

“Great! Dawn?” The unicorn stepped up and nodded. Between the five of us, maybe we would be able to make enough noise to distract this thing from how angry it was. We ran as close to the shield's outer limit as we dared and started to fire bolts of pure energy, not into the tatzlwurm itself but the surrounding area.

It did not seem to have any effect at all. “Keep at it!” I still yelled.

It seemed like we kept our barrage up for minutes, even though it was most likely a lot less. We were suddenly interrupted by a new noise, one very different from the constant crashing of the beast against the shield. A rising crescendo from within the forest.

We heard a horn. Several, in fact. Mixed in with other strange and very loud instruments.

We stopped with our barrage and looked down the road. And for just a moment, I wanted to sob in relief, even though we were far from safe. A single pony barreled down the road. Her caravan bobbed and swerved behind her as she ran towards us at breakneck speed, pulling the entire wagon along. Dozens of organ-like flutes shot fireworks into the air. Each rocket detonated with a loud bang.

Periwinkle came to save us.

Please, please, please, heaven have mercy, please be half as good at magic as your moms are and we’re good, I silently prayed. That said, I was utterly unwilling to leave anything to fate if I had a choice.

“Dawn, keep the others safe!” I ordered him and slipped out of the barrier before they could disagree. With an almost violent tug at the magical string around me, I summoned my night guard armor to me. It landed on my body with a comforting weight, even though I knew that it would do absolutely nothing against the enemy we faced.

“Void, we’re going to use your ice magic to slice it open! Channel it along my beam, are you ready?”

Sounds all kinds of messy, I love it, I’m in!

I nodded as I ran at top speed towards Periwinkle.

The tatzlwurm had already changed course. It was not just distracted by Periwinkle's massive performance, it once again roared in anger. And traces of agony, I hoped. For a creature sensitive to vibrations, this fireworks display must have felt like torture. And I was decently sure that Periwinkle was burning through a decade’s worth of firework supplies.

I would make it worth her while once this was over, and if we were still all alive by that point.

“Now!”

I focused energy into my horn and shot a single, weak, continuous beam at the side of the creature. It did nothing, as expected, but then I felt Voidwalker’s ice magic flow through me. Like a rapid quickly overtaking the still river, it surged along my spine, up and down my legs and focused along my beam like a beacon guiding it to its destiny.

It was painful. The ice slowed me down as well, it threatened to freeze me over, my muscles ached as if I was running a marathon in the deepest winter, and worse still — the plan failed. We could not penetrate the tatzlwurm’s scale armor.

Slice and dice is not an option, but I might be able to slow it?

I considered if it was worth it when Periwinkle yelled something. It was impossible to hear over the ruckus however, and she seemed to quickly realize that as well, because next thing I knew, her voice was inside my head, clear as day. “I have a plan, but I need you to buy me a couple of seconds!”

I did not know how. But I nodded and gave it my all. “Void, spears!” It almost felt like a relay race. I cast telekinesis to grab a bunch of rocks and threw them with precision at the tatzlwurm’s head. The moment the projectiles were thrown and my magic died, his magic lit up and manifested a dozen lances of pure ice. The moment they were on their way, I was ready to grab a bunch more stuff from our surroundings. I made myself into a nonstop catapult. It was trash, of course. It was nowhere near the amount of annoyance Periwinkle had caused with her caravan hurtling towards town. Or with her massive firework show.

But I tried.

The tatzlwurm reared back for an attack, still focused on her wagon..

“Ground spears!” I yelled and slammed my forehooves into the dirt road.

Gotcha!

With blinding speed, a frozen trail shot out of my hooves towards Periwinkle and several almost needle-like ice lances shot out of the dirt road. They reached almost thirty feet height when the wide-open maw of the tatzlwurm came down.

And then they pierced its flesh.

I could feel him pouring every ounce of magic we had left into generating more and more of those needles. He used up his own magic and mine in tandem, and the creature reared back with a pained cry.

I spotted maybe a dozen glyphs rapidly circling around Periwinkle. Then her horn exploded with magic, a massive corona of blinding energy as she cast a spell powerful enough that my entire skin became so itchy that I wanted to scratch it all off.

Yes!

And a second later, the entire spook came to an abrupt halt.

The dancing glyphs around her vanished, and a single one remained on her forehead. The same one I could vaguely spot on the head of that beast, right between its eyes.

The world itself seemed to have stopped. Everything stood still. The forest held its breath. As did we all. Even Periwinkle cautiously regarded the enormous creature that, just a few seconds ago, had been about to devour her and her entire caravan in one fell swoop.

But the tatzlwurm did… nothing.

With the realization that maybe, hopefully, we were out of danger, my legs started to tremble like crazy. I sat down on my haunches and after just a second, had to sit down entirely. And I did not leave that gargantuan thing out of my sight for even a second.

But it remained frozen.

Periwinkle slowly started to pull her caravan up to my position. She smiled. No, grinned. From ear to ear, in that strained ‘this is normal’-way. “I promised my mum not to use any of her various mind-control spells. Worked out great so far. So, uhm… this won’t be an issue, will it?”

She looked up ahead. I had no idea how far exactly I had managed to run before I stopped to stupidly square off against a tatzlwurm. But it was clear to me that she was worried about the others. “Don’t worry, most of them don’t know anything about magic to begin with, and the others… you just saved their hides. Mine included. As long as you don’t use it against us, we’re golden. Oh and… thanks, by the way.”

“Puh, great, that’s a relief to hear,” she quipped. “You’re welcome!” Quipped. How. Just how could she be so jovial about all of this?

“You got many tatzlwurms in Las Pegasus?” I dared to ask, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.

“Oh, no. No, no, no. Not at all. This is the first one I encountered, actually,” she replied.

“How?” I asked and blinked, as I heard the same question echoed from behind. I turned around to see Dawn standing a few dozen feet away. For somepony who usually had such a guarded expression, he seemed completely baffled.

Periwinkle chuckled uneasily. “Oh, you know, just the usual, uhm, behavior-altering spell, nothing too out of the ordinary! It’s actually very useful for brutish beings such as this one. Because as my mum used to say: The bigger their body, the tougher they are, the smaller their brains. And small-brains can be easily con-uhm, discouraged. To attack. For instance.”

She offered me a hoof and I let her pull me to my hooves again. “I—… we just… I feel like I need to sit down.”

“But you just stood up?” she asked in confusion.

“I know,” I replied and tried very hard not to whine. “We just almost died, altogether, all of us, and you came by right on time to save us, a few minutes later and there might not have been a Greenwood anymore, I just… I feel sick.” And appropriately, I puked. Off to the side, because I had manners. And I dismissed my armor again in hopes that I would not spoil it.

I was surprised to feel Periwinkle's hoof rub down my back. “There, there.”

This felt so surreal. “How are you so calm?!”

“Hm? Oh. I don’t know, actually. I never freak out. It’s just how I am,” she answered.

Desperate to talk about anything else, I looked over to her caravan. And that actually managed to make me smile for a brief moment. It looked so much like Trixie’s old wagon. The star-strutted roof with the crooked small chimney. The window on the side with currently closed shutters. A half-glass door with a fake balcony out front and a proper door with a ramp out the back. The picket fence-design on the lower half. Even the color scheme seemed almost identical. The only thing that was noticeably different was the presence of two distinct cutie marks. Both Trixie’s and Starlight’s.

“Is that your mom’s old wagon?” I asked. Because as far as I remembered, when I met Periwinkle at the Blue Moon Charity Ball, I went with the story that I was a huge fan of her mom’s performances as a street magician. Which was not even a lie, Trixie’s performances were something to behold, even if her personality was an acquired taste.

“Oh, yes, it actually is. A new layer of paint does wonders, doesn’t it?” She tapped the wooden front a few times and then looked over to Dawn. “So, while he seems a little scatterbrained for the moment, why don’t we introduce ourselves. I’m Periwinkle Lulamoon, nice to meet you!”

Dawn stared at the tatzlwurm. Then managed to tear his eyes away and bowed his head slightly. “My name is Dawn, the pleasure is all mine. You are a unicorn of marvelous potential, if I may say so. How long does your hold on his mind last?”

Periwinkle looked up to the tatzlwurm. “I’m not entirely sure. It’s the first time I’ve used that particular spell. I would guesstimate… an hour, maybe?”

Dawn nodded. “Impressive. Well, we best be off then to make good use of that time! The others will surely want to know that the danger has passed and that we are safe once more. And I should probably take down the shield now.”

One and a half hours later, a decidedly unfrozen Whisper returned to us. We were still all gathered in the middle of Greenwood as none of us were particularly keen on venturing out anywhere, especially alone. That monster attack had been one heck of a scare. And all our bones were rattled. Even though I suspected Dawns for slightly different reasons.

Whisper on the other hoof seemed content now. Almost happy upon her return. And the tatzlwurm was right outside the village walls. It had mostly retreated back into the ground and only its head peeked over the palisade. Which meant slight unease for all of us, but Whisper assured us that further defensive measures were no longer required.

And we put a lot of trust in her word.

Like, a lot.

“So,” Whisper started as she settled down in our midst, “this is Peter. He’s very, very sorry for being so cranky earlier. But he says there was this pony who just would not let him sleep. A very bulky earth pony with a gray coat. He followed him in this direction, but somehow lost his tracks. And when he went further this way, he noticed us and thought that we probably harbored the one responsible for disturbing him. I told him that we do not. Because we don’t. Right?” Suddenly stricken with doubt, she looked at all of us and one after the other, we shook our heads. None of us had ventured that far west. “Right. Good. So I explained that he could have caused a lot of damage—“

“He did,” a disgruntled Honey cut in and pointedly raised a hoof towards the collapsed roof of their carpentry.

“Right,” Whisper admitted. “I explained things to him and he saw reason. He would be willing to help out if we ever need him.”

Spike whistled. “A favor from a tatzlwurm. Not bad.”

The longer we talked about this, the queasier my stomach felt again. Maybe that was whiplash from the sudden arcane exhaustion. I had been in considerably better shape. And they just kept talking. As if it was the most normal thing in the world. I knew that I should be tougher, that I should be able to just move past this. I was a Ponyvillian as well, was I not? Monster attacks happened all the time. Half the town got rebuilt on a monthly basis. One of the reasons why buying property in Ponyville was so dirt cheap.

But the fact of the matter was: We had not had any major monster attacks in years. And I most certainly had never faced off against a foe like that in… ever.

My legs trembled again.

“Dream?” Spike asked and put a claw on my shoulder. “Dreamwalker? You okay?”

I had grown soft. What a nasty realization. I grimaced. “Oh I’m fine,” I said as I fainted.

So unfair…