Dreamwalker's Tale: Project Greenwood

I stepped outside, onto the front porch. The door behind me had one of these fancy mechanisms installed where the door did not just slam shut, but instead closed slowly and evenly with a satisfying little click behind me after what felt like half a minute. I closed my eyes as soon as I stepped outside, waited for said click and felt a wave of relief wash over me.

Not just because I was outside again. Not just because I had escaped this building. The smell of medicine and disinfectant and old pony. No, I had reasons much cheerier. Applejack had seen reason. She was coming home. Finally, she was coming home.

“We did it, peanut,” I softly mumbled off to the side. Twilight was not with me, of course. She was not here. She was still waiting for my return outside the retirement home grounds. And I would gladly rejoin her in a few minutes, I just… needed one for myself.

Talking to friends should never feel hard. It should never feel like jumping through hoops. Which were on fire. And rotating. Over a pit. Filled with crocodiles.

Despite what it never should feel like, there were occasions when that was the case anyway. I listened into myself. Listened to my blood rush in my ears with the soft gurgling of a river slowing down to a stream again. I listened for my heartbeat as it calmed down. I felt the soft tremor in my hoofs recede. The latter had been too subtle to even be noticed visually, but I had felt it. And now it was gone again. And Applejack was coming home. That, truly, was the only important thing that came out of all of this. The reason we had come here. And the reason why I smiled now.

The sun baked my coat to a degree that it would eventually become uncomfortable. But for the moment, I merely took it as another pat on the back from my sweet love. You did good, I told myself in an awful impression of her calm and melodious voice. Sunny had ways of expressing pride in ‘her little ponies’ that baffled me.

Eventually, my senses returned their focus outwards again and I heard the faint hustle and bustle of Silver Shoals. A lawn sprinkler went off somewhere to my right, probably watering the communal garden area. Birds chirped somewhere behind me. Their songs were muffled by the building I stood in front of.

And then I noticed hoofsteps. They approached quickly, yet without haste or urgency. Like somepony who was simply used to walking fast. A raspy voice followed as my visitor cleared her throat. Her presence alone made me smile even more.

“Uh… Dreamwalker?” Rainbow asked.

There was some hesitance in her voice when she used my name. Maybe it felt unfamiliar on her tongue. Maybe she was not sure if she had remembered correctly. Thinking about those options hurt a little, but it could not be helped. She was old. She forgot. Such was life. And to be fair, the worst part was not how I felt about it, but that she was well aware of how she lost bits and pieces of herself. I could not imagine how she felt.

I opened my eyes, turned my head towards her and let her know with a warm nod that she had remembered correctly. “Yeah?” It still bothered me a little that she used my full name. It felt so formal and stiff. Almost everypony close to me had at some point resorted to just calling me ‘Dream’, since ‘Dreamwalker’ was such a mouthful. With the inevitable jokes following suit and eventually dying down again.

Rainbow looked up at the building. My gaze followed hers, but Applejack was not at the window anymore. Hopefully, she was busy packing. “I don’t—… I don’t know where… why…” Rainbow growled a little at herself. She was The Rainbow Dash, after all. The Dash never struggled for words. “Are we done here, now?” she finally asked with her impatience on full display. She looked around the place and I could see a certain discomfort in her eyes. Rural town, quiet, off the beaten path, nice little gardens and plenty of opportunity for calm pastime activities. This was probably a nightmare for her. “I-I saw you go in, right? You talked to Applejack? Is she done? I don’t wanna be rude. I mean, it’s… it’s Granny, right? But just… I wanna go home. This place creeps me out.”

I could have melted. Maybe I did. A little. It had taken years after my arrival for Rainbow to feel comfortable enough with me to admit such perceived weaknesses. At the same time, it hurt noticing that she apparently thought Granny Smith was still alive. I wished she would be. I missed her wisdom. The creaking of her rocking chair. Her snarky remarks. But at least Rainbow remembered enough of me to feel that she could be open with me.

That said, it baffled me that Rainbow thought Applejack would haul Granny off to a place like this. Ever. And in truth, I suspected that Rainbow did not assume this at all. But what other explanation was there for them — us — being here?

I tried to keep the sadness out of my features as I smiled at her. “She’s almost done, yes. Actually, she could probably use your help to finish things up. Maybe you should go in and check on her?”

Rainbow eyed the building as if it were an imposing dragon. It was next to impossible to cow Rainbow. She squared up, determination plastered on her face, and nodded. “Will do.”

I managed to catch her before she could march past me. It was a brief hug. Brief, but fierce. “I can’t wait for us to be home either,” I mumbled into her rainbow-colored mane. It smelled of roses, and that was all kinds of wrong.

Rainbow, for her part, had been stumped. Too surprised to really react much, she simply held still and patted my shoulder awkwardly after a moment. When I retreated, I saw a little shimmer in her eyes. Recognition. “You sure you’re alright, buddy? I’m not great with this mushy stuff, but… I can listen, if you need me to.”

I felt my smile widen by a mile and a soft chuckle bubbled up in my throat. “Thanks, Rainbow. I appreciate the offer, but I think I’m fine. Things got sorted.”

She nodded, gave a little salute with her wing and went in. I watched her go and chuckled once more when the door closed again. It was so much Rainbow to not even wonder about what exactly ‘got sorted’. Maybe she would wonder about that when she made her way up the stairs. Or maybe she already forgot. “Featherbrain,” I uttered quietly and with love. Only Applejack was allowed to call her that, but nopony was around to hear me and scold me for it.

I sighed deeply as my smile slowly deteriorated. A brief respite was nice and all, but her overall well-being had not changed much. It was important to treasure these moments, of course. And I did. I just… could not help myself. I wanted more. I wanted her back. For good. I was clingy like that.

I eventually shook my head, freed myself from the useless musings and trotted down the gravelly path towards the exit. Along the sidewalk, down the empty road and around the corner I went, where I found Twilight again. She sat on the stone, with her back leaned into the neatly trimmed hedge and read a book. Because of course she did. Where she had gotten that one I did not even dare to ask. Maybe she teleported it straight out of her library in Ponyville.

Twilight quickly spotted me though. The book was swiftly closed and vanished with a pop and a flash of bright raspberry light. She stood up and met me halfway. “How are they? Did it work?”

I could see more questions bubbling right beneath the surface. And I had no intention of torturing her. “They’re coming home,” I quickly replied.

Twilight let loose a quiet little shriek of joy before she threw herself at me. I laughed and caught her in my hooves before tumbling onto my back anyway. I did not mind her weight on top of me at all. Neither did I mind being peppered with kisses for a solid half minute. “You did it!” she squealed.

I had to actually work to calm down enough. Eventually, my laughter died down to an occasional chuckle and I regained enough control to put my hooves on her cheeks and, despite how lovely it felt, push her away a little. Just a few inches so I could look her in the eyes. “No. Don’t. I know what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate the thought, but I have to be clear on this one. We did it.”

“But I wasn’t—“ even there.

I craned my neck and captured her lips in a kiss. Just to shut her up. She did not protest at all and waited once I retreated down again. “We did it,” I insisted. “You came here with me. You were my support. When I was in there, you had my back. It was… hard. I’m not sure I could have done this without support, honestly.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “Fine, we did it,” she relented.

My hooves slipped from her cheeks to her neck and I pulled her down into a hug. Her mane fell onto my face and tickled my nose. This entire situation was a mess. We probably made quite an embarrassing spectacle out on the streets like this. The sidewalk was hard and cold. And me pulling Twilight down for a hug probably meant that she was face-to-stone with the floor.

Still, I enjoyed this.

I sighed deeply. Twice. And every time, I inhaled the lavender scent of her mane. The familiarity of it helped soothe whatever anxiousness had remained. Enough that I could give her free. Enough that I could sit up and stop making a scene.

A quick look around told me that barely anypony was within sight anyway. Most ignored the display. A few looked on, but smiled. I wondered what they thought about this for a moment, but dismissed it quickly. Best not to dwell on it.

“So, what happened?” Twilight quickly asked once she helped me up onto my hooves. She sidled up to me as we made our way back to the train station.

“I think she just needed time to settle in and calm down. To see for herself that this isn’t where she belongs. To see how miserable this place makes her, despite all its attempts to accommodate her. And it probably helped that Rainbow felt just as unhappy here. I ran into her early on. She’s…” I stopped myself. She’s not doing well. Twilight could probably read it in my face. Her ears lowered a little. Her smile fell away. I sighed quietly. “Let’s focus on the good news.”

And that was what I did. I recounted in as much detail as I could what happened after she lost sight of me, up to the moment I returned. With Twilight by my side, I had no reason to hold anything back. Anything at all. I included my observations as much as my own thoughts, doubts and hesitance. I laid it all bare and she listened.

She obviously drew her own conclusions and shared at least some of them with me. But in the end, we agreed that it had been a matter of time. Applejack needed time. Anypony could have done what I did today. She disagreed with me on that front, on that specific detail, but that was fine with me.

“We need to tell the others,” she concluded while the train was chugging along the tracks.

“What, you think Pinkie doesn’t already know?” I teased. Twilight rolled her eyes and gave me a little shove, but smiled anyway. “Alright, alright, fine, we’ll tell them. To make it all official and stuff. I’m sure Pinkie will want to throw some sort of ‘welcome home’-party.”

There was not much else to say. The conversation fizzled out and we fell into a companionable silence. Twilight leaned against me. Her book had reappeared at some point. I looked out the window to battle my mildly upset stomach. But it helped. Having her here with me, feeling her coat on mine, the warmth her body radiated. It lulled me into a daze. My mind started to drift away. It jumped from one topic to another, peeking at random memories. My encounter with Pristine came up. Which led to thoughts about my own family. I wondered if Arcana was still happy. She had never shown much interest in any serious relationship until one day, she simply presented us with her fiancé. That had been a weird day. He did not even work at the Royal Archive like she did. He had just been there to research something.

It was silly to worry about Arcana. Her job required her to be surrounded by books all day. She was living her best life, most likely. Had been for years.

Stardust was still running around Equestria and the wider world. Griffonstone. Yakyakistan. Even the Arimaspi Empire once or twice. There was a whole world out there, he had said at one point. Why would he limit his travels to just Equestria? It really did not help that his mom told him of all the wondrous and weird places beyond the border. Probably had not helped that I told him of all the weird creatures dreaming up even weirder places, either. Still. I missed him. I was endlessly proud of our little colt, but I missed him. And I knew that Luna did, as well. She never spoke about it, but every now and then, I caught her dragging his dream along on our nightly patrols. I never mentioned it. She never said a word either. Honestly, I was glad she did it. How many times had Luna told me that we had a greater responsibility? That we could not play favorites? That we had to care for the safety and security of all the dreamers? And then she anchored his dream to herself and dragged him along at night. It was fine, I was sure. He would not notice it. Probably.

I had considered asking her for more, of course. But that was a dangerous box to open. Please, Luna — could you pull Arcana’s dream along as well? And Aurora’s? And maybe Twilight’s, and your sister’s? And those of all my other friends? But that would not be fair to all the other ponies of Equestria now, would it? Could you drag them along as well?

I was awful at drawing the line. So knowing that, I never even attempted it.

A faint ghost of a smile graced my lips as I thought about Aurora. My little princess. Stardust kept in contact with us as much as his travels allowed. Which was not a lot to begin with. Arcana usually simply forgot. Not out of malice, never that. But those books kept all her attention hostage. Aurora though, she was around. She wrote letters. She stopped by to visit. Every relationship had its ups and downs. But my filly was still my little princess, even after all these years. Spoiling her rotten had taken on different forms these days. I wondered if she would visit me in Ponyville. Or maybe even Greenwood, once there was a Greenwood to speak of.

That train of thought inevitably led to my to-do-list.

The enchanted sapphire torches were the first step. I had given Pristine my order and everything else would have to wait until those gems arrived at the castle. The invoice would sap all breath out of me, I already knew that. Bracing for that moment was futile though. Big numbers I was expected to pay always did that. It was just such a daunting prospect. Pay thousands of bits. In one go. Yikes.

I mentally shoved the torches to the side. What else was there to do? Well. Prepare for the inevitable. Greenwood always struggled. Always. In every cycle, there was just something messing up a tight schedule. Or messing with limited food supplies. Or messing with the minds of the few loyal workers doing their best to get things going.

One of the biggest issues, the one that always came up, were the changelings.

My eyes trailed off. Away from the window and the landscape rushing past us. And towards Twilight. She was fully engrossed in her book. But I knew that Twilight was capable of multitasking, contrary to my own ineptitude in that regard. “What’s the status of the Everfree hive?”

“What do you mean?” she asked without so much as looking up from her page. She instead flipped said page a moment later and continued reading.

“I mean…” Good question. What did I mean? “How are they? I haven’t really kept up to date with any news from them. I know you tried to keep me in the loop, but… you know. Changelings.” I thought it a great achievement that I did not always call them bugs anymore these days. “Are they still allies?”

Twilight put her bookmark in, but did not close the book. Her brow furrowed as she recalled the latest information she had. I kept quiet and waited patiently. “To call them ’allies’ might be a bit much. We have a signed mutual non-aggression-agreement. And an open trade-contract. Queen Forsestri is a welcoming host and as far as I can tell from personal experience, very reasonable. That said, they fear that their culture might get watered down and eventually swallowed by ponykind if they expose themselves too much to Equestria. They stick to their own and keep to the Everfree for the most part. They are isolationists by choice.”

I nodded and mulled this new information over. Forsestri. A name I would be well-advised to remember for the upcoming months. Also, what Twilight told me did not sound too bad. Surely did not sound like a potential enemy and invading force. “Do you like her?”

“Who? Their queen?” I merely nodded. Twilight's brow furrowed further and she fell silent for a while. “I don’t really know her all that well. I visited the hive only a couple dozen times over the years and she usually kept it to business. She does not seem to begrudge ponykind its success. I think she has a twisted sense of humor, the kind Rainbow would appreciate a lot. And she is very protective of her hive. She strives to achieve the best result for her people. It is an admirable quality in any leader, as far as I am concerned. And she cares for them. She sees her hive as her family, her children. Other than that, I cannot really tell you much.”

I quietly snorted in amusement. She had told me a lot. More than I anticipated after her initial attempt to temper my expectations. Fed with this information, my mind went to work. I tried to twist and bend these news in a way that allowed my image of the enemy to hold true. What circumstances would be required for Queen Forsestri to think that attacking Greenwood would be in her hive's best interest? Would we ‘encroach on their territory’? Threaten their food supply? Would she assume we were merely a forward operating base, there as a launch pad for an invasion? What chain of thought would lead her to lose her mind?

Greenwood always had changeling-issues. In every. Single. Cycle. There was no reason to assume this one would be any different. The changelings would attack.

My job was to figure out why. Because the ‘why’ could give me a hint as to how I could circumvent it. Or prepare for the worst. Or both.

“Why the sudden interest?” Twilight disrupted those quickly spiraling thoughts.

“Huh?”

She closed her book and shifted a little. She looked up at me, her head resting on my lower back. “You said it yourself. You always tried to keep away from this topic. Why the sudden interest in what is happening with them?”

I furrowed my brow as I tried to remember, but I came up empty-hooved. I had not told her why I had returned to Ponyville prematurely, had I? After my arrival, I was dragged off to the party immediately. There had been no opportunity. “I want to build Greenwood.” Her brows slowly crawled up her forehead. This would require some explanation, I realized. So I started from the top, this time with some details omitted, and recounted the last few days that led to my not-at-all impulsive decision.

Twilight remained silent for a while after I had finished. Her expression shifted a couple of times. Concern was a strong contender for dominance. But eventually, her muzzle settled with a mischievous smile. “So you are staying home for a while now, right?”

I chuckled. “Eyupp. I want to talk to Sunny about this again. I really hope I can convince her to use the teleportation stone every now and then. I don’t think I have the willpower to see this through if she decides to not visit at least occasionally. Luna visits the castle often enough anyway, me staying home for a prolonged period just gives her one more reason to stick around longer. I’m sure you’re not too sad about that either, right?”

Twilight blushed, but did not even attempt to deny it. “I could write her a letter, if that helps? I would love to have her visit more often as well. Or… you know… at all. I can barely remember the last time she stayed overnight.” The more I grinned, the deeper she blushed. The deeper she blushed, the more I grinned. Eventually, she put a hoof on my nose and shoved my face away. “Stop looking at me like that! You have a dirty mind!”

“I didn’t even say anything!” I cracked up. I tried to keep my laughter down so as to not disturb the other travelers, but goodness me, she could be so adorable at times. “You wouldn’t have mentioned her staying overnight if you weren’t after something specific, peanut. You’re too lenient with her. If you let Sunny decide if she spends a night with you and too little sleep, or if she sits in her study until her shapely, plush rump goes numb for the betterment of Equestria, her sense of duty will win out in the end. There’s a simple fix though. Don’t let her decide. She can make Equestria better tomorrow morning, when she’s slightly cranky because she hasn’t slept enough. Because she will be in a chipper mood anyway, somehow. It’s a wondrous miracle, really.” I winked at her for emphasis and Twilight, red as a tomato, rolled her eyes. I leaned back to give her a kiss and found her all too willing. When I pulled away, she sighed quietly. It was all I needed to know, really. “You miss her,” I stated matter-of-factly.

She averted her eyes and nodded. “I envy your luxury sometimes. I just don’t have the time to hop over to the castle for a few days. I want to spend more time with her, but I am worried that I would interfere with her work. I know how important that is to her. To everypony.”

I smiled and ran a hoof through her mane. “You’re a silly pony, peanut. I know you can’t just pack up shop and move over. If it weren’t for my dreamwalking, I would have a whooole lot of problems with my time management as well. But you can voice your feelings, dummy. Tell her that you miss her. Sweet Celestia, please tell her. She’s been talking about you a couple of times. Wondering how you’re dealing with all this. If you’re faring any better than she is. She misses you too, you know? She’s had a bad conscience every now and then, because she just can’t help herself and works late into the night instead of what she wants to do — that is, answering your latest letter. Or, you know… causing you sleepless nights.” With every strike, I saw Twilight's eyes go a little wider. This was news, apparently. By the end of it, I could see that she really felt like a silly pony now. “You know what the weirdest part of this is? You were the one teaching me that it is alright to demand attention, or to voice concerns, or to ask for something. You taught me to respect my own time and see worth in my own desires. This switch in position feels unnatural.”

“I thought you liked switching positions every now and then,” she mumbled quietly. And the very moment the last syllable had left her lips, her eyes shot wide once more and she quickly looked around if anypony had heard her while her blush returned in full force.

I just laughed.

This time without any restraint. I had not seen that little remark coming. It was so off-brand. So out of left field. My unbridled laughter caught a few eyes, but nopony seemed bothered enough to say something. I quickly quieted myself down as well and hugged Twilight. Fiercely. I wanted to support such behavior as much as I could. It was such a rarity to coax innuendo out of her, in ‘public’ especially.

“I do,” I whispered into her ear and nipped its edge. A quick glance around told me that the other travelers had already shifted their attention elsewhere again, so I felt free to extend my tongue and lick along the rim of her ear. “You are giving me some ideas how I might help you distract yourself from your longing tonight…” It was rare that I got the opportunity to tease her. Usually, it was the other way around. So I relished every second of this. Especially the quiet whimper she gave in response.

I tried not to overdo it, though. Thus, I retreated before anypony could take offense to our display and hugged her once more. Twilight kept her tail down and still with sheer force of will for a minute or two afterwards. Seeing that was the cherry on top, really.

The rest of our train ride was a quiet affair. After sufficiently calming down, Twilight picked up her book again and continued reading while my queasy stomach demanded that my own attention be returned to the window and the landscape outside of it.

When the train finally pulled into Ponyville station again, I had difficulties exiting it on time. I stood up, stretched my limbs and everything ached. My hooves were a little numb, my head was slow to react and I yawned heavily. Stepping outside meant being greeted by a brisk, chilly wind. That at least helped me wake up again.

We quickly made our way towards Fluttershy’s cottage at the edge of town. It was late, so we both assumed they would be home. And true enough, once we knocked on the old but lovingly cared for door, a couple of voices asked for our patience. The flickering light of a candle closed in on the door and the upper half was opened. We were greeted by Fluttershy.

As soon as she saw us, she smiled fondly. “Oh, hey you two! What brings you around so late?”

“Uh, uh, uh!” came Pinkie’s excited voice from inside. “They have good news! I can feel it! Let them in, Buttercup!”

Following her wife’s demand, she did not even wait for our answer but instead opened the lower half of the door as well. Twilight and I filtered in, closed the door behind us and looked around the cottage. Nothing had changed much since our last visit. Walls full of holes for all the little critters. Many of the open bird cages were decorated with streamers and painted in a variety of bright colors. A couple of really, really tiny balloons floated on the floor, a bunch of larger ones stuck to the ceiling.

Our attention quickly turned towards the seating area. Fluttershy's couch was occupied by Pinkie. She stretched herself lazily until her wife returned to her side and sat down again. At that point, Pinkie seemed to almost curl around her, with her head coming to a rest in Fluttershys lap. Somehow. Because Pinkie apparently had the internal structure of a cat. That was doubly impressive given her age.

“Sorry to bother you two so late,” Twilight offered an apology.

“Skip, skip, skip!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. “What’s the news?”

Twilight and I exchanged a knowing smile as we sat down in the other two wingback chairs. “Applejack is coming home,” Twilight started.

“Ooohhh…!” Pinkie immediately exclaimed.

“Really? That is great news!” Fluttershy softly added.

“Rainbow as well, obviously,” I added.

“How did you do that?” Fluttershy asked Twilight. Because of course she did.

Twilight already inhaled to answer, surely something along the lines of ‘he did it’ or something silly like that. Can’t have that. “After comparing our impressions,” I quickly cut in, “Twilight and I agreed that at this point, anypony could have done it. Applejack just needed some time to cool down.” I grinned a little lopsided when I noticed Twilight shaking her head subtly with a soft smile on her lips. It’s fine, I tried to tell her with a glance as our eyes met, It’s better this way. She did not correct me. “We basically just wanted to come by and tell you as early as possible.”

Pinkie nodded eagerly. “We will tell everypony else! Oh, they will all be so happy! Shy, can I load my party cannon tomorrow?”

Fluttershy looked up in sudden alarm. “We are having a party?”

“Well, duh!” Pinkie hastily replied. “Applejack and Rainbow are coming home! Of course we’re having a party!”

Fluttershy sighed, but she could not say no. Not to Pinkie. Not now, or ever. Not when she got like this. Not when her eyes begged her like they did now. All big and pleading and full of joy. “Of course you can,” she quietly allowed.

“Yaaay!” Pinkie yelled. It was the quietest yell I had ever heard. And Fluttershy appreciated it a lot. As did, probably, all the sleeping animals all around us.

“So, do you already know when that will be?” I dared to ask.

Pinkie stopped, as if she only now realized that there was no fixed date for the party yet. She stuck her tongue out of her mouth, bit down on it and made her best ‘I’m concentrated!’-face. A few seconds passed by and nothing happened. Then her tail wobbled. Her coat stood on end. Her left leg twitched. Her ears flopped. Her tail puffed up even more. “Ten days,” she whispered in an almost creepy sounding voice before she turned to the three of us with a wide, cheery smile. “Ten days,” she repeated, more Pinkie-like. “We are going to start preparations tomorrow and send out all the invitations and the party will start in the evening! We will partey until we can’t sing or dance or drink or stand or talk anymore, wuhu!”

There was a brief moment of silence. Just enough to slip a comment in. “So… about an hour after sundown, when we’ll all get sleepy?”

We all had a good laugh. Once we calmed down again, Twilight took the initiative and stood back up. “Well, we really just wanted to share the good news as soon as possible.” Fluttershy and Pinkie had no issues reading the farewell between the lines. And I knew why Twilight did not wish to linger. I had seen Fluttershy's knitting needles, as well as her current workpiece. It currently lay discarded over the hoofrest of the couch. She had probably been working on it when we knocked. And there was a half-painted birdhouse on the table, surrounded by little pots of paint and several brushes. It was one of those birdhouses Fluttershy loved to hang on the trees all around her cottage and on the edge of the Everfree, to offer good, safe houses to the birds of the region.

I was sure that, if asked, both would insist that we did not interrupt anything important. That our presence was welcome. And that was good enough to burst into their evening plans, cause a little chaos and then vanish again. But they apparently had evening plans. And both Twilight and I were organized enough to respect those. After all, we would not wish for our meticulous plans to be ruined either. Even if the unexpected visit of friends was the best way to ruin plans.

We said our goodbyes and moved on towards the castle. The sun was down. The stars were up. A beautiful crescent moon was visible in the sky. “It’s a nice opportunity,” I mumbled as I gazed upwards and almost tripped on a rock.

“Opportunity for what?” Twilight asked in reply and followed my gaze. Her brow furrowed. That was the sky, yes. A night sky, yes. But there was nothing out of the ordinary, was there? She clearly searched for something I would call an ‘opportunity’ and she missed the forest for the trees. It was endearing, in a way. For someone just as enthralled by the nightly display as I was, she failed to see it.

“For a romantic moonlight stroll, peanut,” I whispered as I sidled up to her close enough for our coats to brush. I slowed down a bit and she followed suit. A darker tint colored her cheeks as she smiled.

“That… is true.” She draped a wing over my withers and we lazily strolled around a calm and quiet town, along the edges of Ponyville until the castle came into sight.

The night is beautiful.

“Hey, uh, Dreamwalker? Could you come here please?” Spike's muffled voice reached my ears through the library door.

I tore my eyes off the pages of my current book and blinked a couple of times. Last night's stroll had led to some other nightly activities and while I was fully content with the direction the night had taken, I was less thrilled about waking up this morning with what felt like two weeks worth of sleep deprivation. Dreamwalking had not helped that at all. I was supposed to feel rested after dreamwalking, just as if I had slept, but on some days, that just did not work out.

Twilight was busy with her princessly duties and probably currently buried in paperwork in her study and I had deemed it a good idea to distract myself by finally working on my ‘read later’-list again. Only now that I thought about it, I could barely recall any of the information I was supposed to have absorbed in the past few hours. I looked down at the book. Page 46. There was a knight. Maybe. And some sort of monster? Maybe?

I groaned quietly. “Oh woe is me,” I murmured.

“Dreamwalker?” Spikes asked again, a tad louder.

“Oh, shoot, right!” I quickly stood up and trotted over to the door, opened it and peeked outside. “Hey buddy! Didn’t hear you the first time, sorry for that. What’s going on?”

Spike stood by the entrance door. Right beside him was a crate, labeled fragile and ‘to be handled with care’.

“Oh, hey you two!” Twilight's voice reached my ear from the other side. I looked left and saw her come down the stairs. She levitated her pot alongside, so she was probably on the prowl for more coffee. She stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked at the crate with her brow furrowed. “What is that? I did not order anything, did I?”

Spike shook his head. “Nope. It’s from Carousel Boutique, for Dreamwalker. And I’m in a bit of a pickle, because it smells delicious…”

I grimaced and quickly came out of the library, closed the door behind me and trotted over to him. I could see him clutching and relaxing his claws. His dragon instincts were playing a trick on him. No wonder, really — the entire crate was probably stuffed to the brim with high-quality sapphires. I had not expected the delivery this fast. Pristine did not even send me a price proposal yet. Then again, knowing her, it would be the best price I could get anywhere.

“Are you good, buddy?” I cautiously asked Spike.

“Yeah, just… you know…”

I nodded. “You got this?” He nodded. “I ordered a bunch of sapphires. A couple extra, just in case. Would you be okay with helping me carry the crate and open it if you get one of the sapphires in exchange?”

His eyes went serpentine and then widened again. “Two,” he growled despite his best attempts to keep himself under control.

I smiled and hugged him. One day, he would be a big, scary dragon. Hopefully, he would still be our big, scary dragon, making him more cuddle for us and scary for anypony else. But right now, despite him towering over me already, I found it hard to be afraid of him. I had already expected him to demand more. I had planned for ten sapphires as a reserve. Him taking two meant that there were still plenty of spares. “Deal.”

He growled again. A deep rumble emanated from his throat. This time, it was one of pure satisfaction. He grabbed the crate without any issues and lifted it. The wooden casing alone might already have been too heavy for my limited telekinesis. “Where to?”

I grinned. Both to him, and a second later in Twilight's direction, who had so far witnessed everything with curiosity and a warm, fond smile. “To the laboratory! There is science to be done!” I pointed in the direction of the cellar door and reared up on my hind legs in what I hoped looked decently epic.

Spike was nice enough to play along. He roared an epic dragon-roar that almost made me flinch and shot a spout of flame into the air, carefully aiming it in a way that it did not light up our banners, bookshelves or, Celestia forbid, the books itself. And he extended his wings to their full, pretty glory. We could have made for great action figures with such poses, a voice in my head noted.

Twilight, however, broke character. When the flames vanished and the roar died down, we both heard her giggle. Faintly. She clearly tried to keep quiet. She had even raised a hoof in front of her muzzle. But we heard her anyway.

“Oh come now, you’re the biggest nerd of all of us!” I teased her.

The giggling stopped immediately. There was a warning glare in her eyes, but it was hard to take that seriously when she still smiled. “Vortex the Gray knows a thing or two about science,” she replied in an icy cold voice in reference to her Ogres & Oubliettes-character. “And neither does true science require striking impressive poses, nor does it profit from extended wings or battlecries!” A soft raspberry glow emanated from Twilight's body. It quickly grew in intensity until a blinding light washed over the entire hallway. When we dared open our eyes again, Twilight stood there in her full ‘mad scientist’-gear. Her white lab coat, stained with traces of experiments that refused to leave the cloth. Her goggles up on her forehead. A mask currently slipped down on her throat. Her hooves covered in isolating rubber horseshoes.

The funny part that never failed to amuse me was: Her ‘mad scientist’-gear was her role-playing gear, sure. But all these pieces of equipment were actual gear. That she actually used. In her actual lab. When doing actual science.

Therefore, I laughed a bit in return as she — obviously — struck a quite unnecessary pose.

“I take it you have some spare time right now?” I asked.

Twilight looked over her shoulder, back to both the floating empty coffee pot and the stairs leading up to her study. “I think so, yes. There is little to be done right now, it is a slow week. And I admit that this mystery delivery intrigues me.”

Hook, line and sinker.

I grinned proudly as I walked down the laboratory stairs. Spike followed me with the crate and Twilight came down as well. “Just put it over there,” I told Spike. He set the crate down on one of the metal tables. The cellar was Twilight's playground. All kinds of weird and quirky looking apparatuses beeped and booped and blinked and hummed down here. Some were shut off and only saw light and life when needed, others just ran the entire time. There was a massive reservoir dam near Ponyville that generated large amounts of electricity, but even after its most recent growth spurt, Ponyville did not use even a quarter of its output.

With all machinery running at top capacity though, Twilight's lab alone could use up half of it.

Several of the tables were made from stone, others from metal. All were kept simple. Functional. Some were inscribed with wards and glyphs to further help catastrophe-proof them, while others were plain. All were bolted to the floor. Wards required lots of time and energy. Or money. Twilight did not have enough time to place her own wards and she did not accept to buy the service from somepony else when she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. In theory.

Then again, with her duties and all that, she rarely got the opportunity to really go to town on science as much as she wanted to these days.

Spike ripped the lid of the crate off and took two of the sapphires from their padding. As agreed upon. It was hard to describe the sound he made in response, but all the more funnier to watch him rub the gemstones in his palm, against his cheek, in front of his nose, before he licked them. The latter especially reminded me of fillies and colts. I licked it, therefore it’s mine! “Satisfied?” I asked with an accompanying chuckle.

Spike put the lid back onto the crate. Just enough that his sight of the other sapphires was blocked. Then he turned to me and grinned from ear to ear. “Very much, yes! Thank you!”

I chuckled a bit more and trotted over. He accepted the hug without complaint. “You’re welcome, buddy.” I pulled myself free after a moment and gave his belly a little shove. “Now get out of here, the grownups want to do some serious science!”

He scoffed, but grinned anyway as he walked up the stairs in haste. There was only so much he could do without running away to add these two gems to his hoard.

Twilight watched him go as well, a fond smile on her lips. Then she turned to me, levitated the lid off the crate again and looked inside. 108 sapphires remained. “Why sapphires though?”

While she inspected the gemstones for cut and clarity, I checked our supply of coal and iron ore. The forge is ready to be used, awesome. I looked up and across the room towards her. “Well, I would usually say something like ‘trust the process’ or ‘trust me’ or something similar, but in this case, it’s actually more like a ‘trust yourself’, really.”

She furrowed her brow. “It is?”

I nodded. “Eyupp. You tried to explain it to me a couple of times. They are more resistant to the chaotic weather effects of the Everfree and other environmental hazards and something about their structure makes it easier to enchant them in bulk. You usually went with ten at a time. I don’t remember all of your explanation, because honestly, I didn’t understand all of it.”

She smirked. “Or you did not listen properly,” she offered her own theory.

I grinned a little sheepishly and walked over to her. “Nah, can’t be. I hang on your tantalizing lips whenever they are nearby,” I teased.

“Mhm,” she replied with half-lidded eyes, “maybe you are just distracted, then?”

I could feel her breath tickle my muzzle as much as she surely felt mine. “Maybe,” I whispered back.

“May—“

I kissed her. I had no idea what she was about to say. I had hoped she would cave before me, but I was not about to let this be drawn out eternally. She giggled softly into the kiss, presumably crowning herself the victor once more. I did not mind. This was a sweet defeat.

When I pulled back again, I smiled. “Sooo… it’s been a while since we’ve done anything like this.”

My little peanut nodded. “A year and a half. Those horseshoes for Luna.”

I grinned as fond memories flooded my mind. “She loves them.”

Twilight grinned a little wider. “She does.”

My eyes were drawn to the side, to the crate. A sigh escaped as my smile dimmed down a little. “This won’t be as much fun as that. But it would help me endlessly. I could forge the torches’ gemstone cages and handles all by myself. And I could probably find someone else who could enchant these things for a reasonable price. I would need to meditate a lot. Try to remember all the details of your enchantment. Because it is your enchantment. I don’t think it exists yet. But… I’d rather work alongside you. If I can have you.”

That mischievous smile was back. You had me plenty last night, or something along those lines. I could see it dance around at the tip of her tongue, yearning to be said. But she did not. Instead she closed her eyes, took a steadying breath and nodded. “I will gladly help you.”

One day, I told myself. One day, I would get her to the point that she played around with innuendo just as freely as Luna did. Then again, I had told that to myself for the last four decades.

“Lovely!” I kissed her cheek and she giggled in delight. “Alright, so, I need to make a couple of drawings.” Because if I was about to forge one hundred and eight iron torches, I needed a mold. And while the enchantment was invented by Twilight, my peanut had not done so yet. I needed to jumpstart her research by giving her all the information I could remember. All the rune patterns I saw on chalkboards, all the snippets of conversations, all the book titles she had used to research the topic. It would hopefully help her replicate the process even faster.

Every batch of gemstones she enchanted took around five to six hours, according to my memories. Two batches per day. Maybe three, maximum. Ten to eleven batches in total. Give or take a few days for interruptions and such…

“We have nine days until Applejack and Rainbow are back,” I offered with a hopeful grin. “We usually manage to cobble these torches together in around ten days. But we have a head start this time. Do you think we can make it? Are you up to the challenge?”

Twilight already poured over my notes. All the little details I had written down, everything I remembered, all diagrams and patterns and book titles. The accompanying books popped into existence seconds later and formed neat little book towers on the table's left side. Her mind was already racing. She connected dots. Formed chains of causality.

It took a moment for my words to register, but when they did, she looked up with an almost frightening enthusiasm and a smile that was truly worthy of a mad scientist. “Oh am I?!” she exclaimed with fervor. It had been a while since she had the opportunity to really sink her teeth into a conundrum complex enough to tickle her vast mind.

The main issue was the required reverse-engineering. I had bits and pieces of the enchantment. Parts of the research material. Some information on intermediate steps. But most importantly: I knew what these torches did. It was a subtle enchantment that generated an area effect. All sentient creatures within the area were subtly influenced and steered towards non-hostility. Predators were less likely to hunt in affected areas, or more likely to give up on fleeing prey. Predators such as timberwolves or manticores. The enchantment was not strong enough to overpower a creature's mind and instinct. It would not stop an already hostile creature from pursuing a perceived enemy and neither would it stop a hungry creature from taking an obvious opportunity. But over time, it should steer roaming packs and lone wanderers off the secured areas.

And knowing what the enchantment was supposed to do, she could retrace her steps.

With Twilight increasingly lost in her own little world, I shoveled coal into the furnace to heat up the forge. A thick leather apron secured my front and I went and fetched my welding mask, pliers and hammer. The drawings of the mold were crude at best and not up to par with technical standards. Luckily, I could count on my memories serving me well. I had done this so many times that I could forge these torches blindly. I simply knew. How long, how wide, how hot, how much. I just knew.

Day one started early.

Day two.

“You’ve seen my pliers?”

“Second table by the forge, left side.”

“Thanks.”

I went to fetch them and made my way over to the stairs. A crate with coal stood there, ready to refill my supply at the forge. I shoveled a bunch of it into my bucket and made the trip a couple of times to refill properly and keep going for a while. Whenever last I had used the forge, I had enough clarity of mind to clean it properly and leave it for next time in a state that could be used immediately, yet I had totally skipped on restocking the fuel supply. Shame on me.

I walked past Twilight's current workbench and saw her progress. She was already enchanting. It had taken her less than a day to recover all the missing pieces and reconstruct the enchantment. It was astounding. Twilight never failed to impress me, by sheer magical prowess or mental capacities. But this speed was something else. “Maybe I should buy you more of these riddle books,” I wondered aloud.

She scoffed with a smile. “Oh please, they are way too easy…”

I grinned and watched for a few seconds. She applied a fine layer of breezie dust to a batch of twelve gemstones. It was an early step in the enchantment process. Delicate, but early. Thus I decided it was worth it. I snuck up to her side, careful to not disturb anything, not even the air. Then I slowly leaned in. I saw her peek at me out of the corner of her eye. I saw how the urge to smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She tried desperately to stay focused on her very delicate task while I was no help whatsoever.

I kissed her cheek.

“I’m concentrating,” she chided me softly. But I saw her beam. She could not hide that. So I dared and leaned in again, and kissed her cheek again. A second time. A third time. Eventually, she got the hint. She paused her current step at a decent point and turned her head. “You are just imposs—“

A bit of her delirious ranting was lost in the kiss, but she quickly eased into it. I did not even dare to flinch when she sucked my lower lip in between her teeth and gave it a warning nip. I had expected as much.

When we pulled apart again, we both grinned.

I took my bucket and left, satisfied. And Twilight returned to her work with a soft head shake. She could not stop smiling for the next hour, though.

Worth it.

Day three.

Some days were just cursed. I was not a superstitious pony by nature, but sometimes…

“Honestly, this has to be a joke,” I grumbled as I opened the mold. I could already see it. No need to take the piece out of there. It was brittle. One solid hit and it would break into pieces. An animal grazing it while running past could do the trick. Maybe even a strong gust of wind. Or a snapping branch that falls down during a storm. This was unusable. Maybe the ore had gone bad? Or the temperature was not right anymore?

I searched for the potential culprit. Time lost on the forging itself.

Two hours later and the next piece was just fine. I had not found my culprit. I had checked everything that made sense and found nothing. I simply tried again and voila — it worked. It made no sense. None whatsoever.

Have you tried switching it off and on again?, a voice in the back of my head teased.

Maybe the lack of me finding anything was the reason. Maybe I had riled myself up over this. Either way, I got sloppy.

I poured molten iron into the mold. I did it too fast and a few searing hot droplets splashed around. My apron caught most of them.

Most.

The immediate sensation of stinging pain almost made me drop my tools. “Fuck,” I hissed as I quickly disposed of the tools in as safe a manner as the pain would allow.

The curse immediately drew Twilight's attention. And quick thinker that she was, she put one and one together. A pop here, a pop there and she was in front of me. She flung a spell in my direction and teleported the first aid kit over. Or at least her version of a first aid kit. Honestly, some hospitals were less equipped than she was.

The spell dimmed the pain down while she inspected the damage. It was not too bad. A few areas of my coat were singed. The coat had luckily taken the brunt of the hit. Burning yourself with liquid metal was never fun. Some smiths might claim it was totally and entirely avoidable. Just work with care and caution. I called bullshit. We were all just ponies. A bad slip, a wrong twist, a moment of slipping attention. Nopony could keep up perfect concentration forever. We were all fallible. Imperfect. That made us unique and special and great, but it also meant we sometimes messed up. And burned ourselves. Quite literally.

“There are easier ways to get yourself a piercing, you know?” Twilight tried to light up my mood.

I sighed forcefully to cover up the hiss of pain as she inspected another burned patch. “And here I thought I’d make myself pretty for you.”

She smiled wryly and focused on her task. I let Twilight do her thing. She knew what to do, and how and when and where. “It was stupid,” I mumbled.

“Are you alright?” she asked instead of addressing my statement.

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my muzzle with the hoof that currently wasn’t under her care. “Yeah. Spell works. Thank you.”

She briefly and quickly smiled at me before her eyes were back down. “It happens.” She applied some sort of ointment on the wound that cooled it down.

I nodded. I knew that. Still felt awful, of course.

Day four.

Work was going great. I was way past the halfway point. The forge hummed with heat and willingness. The metal sang under every strike of the hammer. And it was funny to take a little break whenever I put the hot metal into the acid bath to watch the steam rise up and vanish through the ventilation system.

It was one such break when I once again looked over to Twilight. We worked in comfortable silence most of the time. I loved watching her work. And according to what she had told me, that went both ways.

Her horn was aglow. Her face was a stony mask of concentration. Her eyes closed. Twelve gemstones levitated before her, slowly rotating on a vertical axis, spinning in place. Rune patterns appeared mid-air, shrunk down and stuck to the surfaces of the gems, where they carved themselves into the material without breaking it.

I had always been sensitive to magic. I could feel the vast power that she currently wielded. It flowed out from her like a river. Deceptive in its apparent lack of speed and depth. A naked eye could not tell how much energy currently filled this room.

But it was Twilight's magic. It always conjured a feeling of excitement within me. Not the same kind of excitement as Luna's magic did, though. Excitement and familiarity. Trust. Gravitas.

I noticed a little dissonant note in her magic before even she did.

That alone was enough to spring into action. I quickly looked around and located the ECC. Emergency Containment Chamber. A round tube no longer than a pony's leg. One side was open, but could be quickly closed. I levitated the ECC over just in time. Twilight noticed the impending mishap too, now. She grimaced as the dissonant tone grew louder. A gurgling in the otherwise calm river. One of the enchantments went haywire.

I stepped a lot closer to her workbench, even though its general area was becoming increasingly dangerous with every passing second. I closed my eyes. Trusted my senses. The calmness washed over me, but the dissonant tone remained. On my right. I opened my eyes again, took a really close look at those gems on my right and spotted one which rotated along a ever so slightly misaligned axis.

I grabbed the ECC again and scooped the gem up with it. The lid closed, the security wards sprang to life and the containment field kept the worst inside.

It is never wise to interrupt an ongoing enchantment process. The more energy is flowing, the more dangerous it becomes. The sapphire within the ECC struggled to keep its current form. It floated in the middle of the tube, shuddered and trembled and cracked and then pow…

A fine, blue dust settled within the ECC. But the containment tube itself held. I had levitated it over to the force cage anyway, just to be sure. Even though the force cage was usually more a means to temporarily deal with accidental summons. A force wall could resist as much energy as was put into it. And Twilight had charged these over the years. To the point where I was pretty sure that they could withstand a fully loaded Lord Tirek battering it down for a few hours. Or even days.

“Sorry about that one,” Twilight ruefully murmured behind me.

I turned and saw her place the other eleven gems down. The enchantment phase she currently worked on was done. For these, at least.

I smiled and walked over to her. A little hug to pick her back up already did wonders. “It happens, I’ve been told.”

Her cautious smile turned into a hopeful grin. “Is that so? By whom?”

I shrugged and played coy. “Oh, I don’t know? Just the prettiest, nerdiest big brain I have ever met.”

She giggled and stuck her tongue out at me. “That does not sound like a compliment, you know?”

“It doesn’t? Huh,” I wondered and kissed her nose. “It should, though. I’m horribly, irresistibly attracted to great minds. And amidst a beautiful twinkling night sky full of bright little sparks, she is the overpowering full moon.”

She blushed. And was at a loss for words. Victory! Yesss! What does that make? Two for me, fifty for her? I chuckled and hugged her once more. Then I brought the ECC over. We both looked at its current content. A blue residue with a granulation like fine sand or dust. I turned to her. “Do you think this is still… you know…?”

“Save for consumption?” she asked. I nodded. Twilight furrowed her brow and shrugged after a moment. “I do not see any reason why it should not be.” We both grinned. “He will be thrilled to have a third one.”

“Everything okay here?” Spike's voice echoed down from the top of the stairs.

Both Twilights and my eyes suddenly shrank to the size of pinpricks and we scrambled to hide the ECC. “Everything okay!” she yelled a little too fast and insistent while I stuffed the thing under a table. Spike could sniff out gemstones. I had no idea if the magical field of the ECC was strong enough to prevent that.

When Spike came down the stairs, we stood side by side, turned towards him, with too wide smiles plastered on our faces. He stopped and stared at us with unease. “Alright, that’s creepy. Dude, stop. Twilight. Please.”

We exchanged a look and both sighed in relief. Without actually talking about it, we apparently had feared the same thing: That the little mishap had triggered something upstairs. That Spike had come down here to tell us that another monster was attacking Ponyville. That some goo took over the castle. Or a ghost was haunting the hallways. Or a living spell floated about the place.

But no. He held a silver platter in his claws. Stacked with little sandwiches. Pre-cut into bite-sized pieces.

I regained my composure first and chuckled a little as I dared come closer to him. “Uhhh, food!” As if on command, my stomach grumbled. “Tasty looking food, too. You do spoil us rotten! What is that?” I took a whiff from the platter and could feel my mouth watering. “Tomato, oregano, basil… pickled cucumber… is that baked zucchini?”

“Grilled, actually,” Spike replied with an unmistakable pride. Well-earned pride, given how tasty just about anything he could conjure up was.

Twilight dared to approach as well. “Thank you, Spike. That was very thoughtful of you!”

While she took a dainty little bite, I had to restrain myself to not shovel half the platter down my chute. He chuckled probably because he could see the intention written on my forehead clear as day. I tried to distract myself — and him — with the obvious question. “So I take it we get basement-lunch now? Didn’t you say we would never get basement-lunch though?”

I thought I had him. I was wrong. The way his left brow raised slightly told me that before he even opened his mouth. “First off, this is technically basement-dinner. And secondly, I can take this back upstairs if you’d like? I mean, it’s not like I have been coming down here the past couple of days, more or less silently and secretly feeding you two anyway, right?”

I blinked. For a moment, my head was empty. I wanted to think. Really, I did. But every attempt drew a blank. I looked over to Twilight and she blinked in much the same manner. Well, at least I was not alone. I looked back to Spike and he sighed. “Ah, don’t worry. I know how you two can get. It’s not the worst I’ve seen. But I know I won’t get either of you out of here until you’re done. So I do what I do best, you know. Take care of you.”

“D'awww!” That… noise made it out of my mouth before I could even think again. Not that I regretted making it. Not when his purple scales turned pink.

I quickly exchanged another glance with Twilight. She clearly felt just as touched. And she nodded with a mischievous smile. So we both stepped forward to hug our friend.

“Ah! Food!” he tried to defend himself. He wielded the platter almost like a shield, but Twilight swiftly grabbed hold of it and levitated it out of his reach. Where it was safe and sound and would not fall. Or hinder us.

And when we hugged him. Spike sighed, but ultimately melted into the embrace.

“We love you, Spike,” I offered.

“You are my NOAFAE,” Twilight added with a giggle.

Spike sighed in defeat and slung his arms around both of us. “Figures.”

Day five.

It was the final sprint. A few minor hiccups aside, everything went smoothly. Only two dozen torches more and I would be done. Twilight was finishing up with the sapphires as well. Maybe another day.

She came over to the forge. Some of her reagents required heating. It had taken us an embarrassing amount of time to realize that instead of heating it at her workbench, she could simply use the heat of the forge. Ah well. Better late than never.

I liked having her closer to me. She somehow maneuvered around me even as I was working, without ever getting in the way.

With her ingredients sufficiently warmed up, she levitated them across the room and followed the floating tubes and flasks. As she passed me by, she flicked her tail across my muzzle. Well, not fully. Just enough that it grazed my cheek. I heard her giggle.

“I’m concentrating,” I sang in reply, echoing what she had told me a while earlier.

I put another torch handle into the acid barrel. It sizzled. As I mentally prepared the next required steps — repeats upon repeats of previous ones —, she snuck up beside me. And leaned in slowly. I grinned and contemplated busting her move. I could very easily turn my head and kiss her. Wrestle the initiative from her. But I decided against that.

She kissed my cheek. Once, twice, thrice.

When I did not budge, she placed a little trail up to my ear. “Come ooon,” she murmured.

A pleasant shiver ran down my spine. “Keep that up and I’m going to pounce on you,” I whispered back.

“I can imagine worse fates,” she kept murmuring into my ear.

It was admittedly getting harder to concentrate. Luckily, I did not have a workpiece right now. I turned towards her with intent. There might have been a fire in that forge next to me, but I felt another one roaring in my chest… and loins. I leaned in and kissed her.

Or so I thought.

Because as my lips made contact with hers, Twilight disintegrated into a fine dust that quickly dissolved into nothingness. And while the illusion vanished, the real one stood back at her workbench and regarded me with a very hot smugness. Or maybe my mind was clouded by desire. Maybe.

Either way, I did not fail to notice how her eyes traveled down my barrel and she bit down on her lower lip. Was that regret I saw on her face?

Any other day, I would most likely have been embarrassed to be exposed like that. But it was just the two of us down here. “You sure you wanna stay over there?” I dared to ask.

She quickly took stock of her workplace. And probably reached the same conclusion I had earlier: Almost done. As such, she grinned, blew me a kiss and whispered “soon”.

Enticing. I nodded and tried to get back into the groove. It took a bit of effort.

A few hours later.

“Spike!” Twilight and I yelled in unison. The door at the top of the staircase was ripped open. We heard him run down and seconds later, he barged into the laboratory.

“Help!” I yelled and kicked back with a hindleg, only for my second leg to be caught by some tentacly horror as well.

Twilight shot beam after beam of pure magical energy into the furnace from whence the monstrosity extended its surprisingly sticky and non-slimy appendages. Every shot hit, connected, returned a pained squeal and kept its focus on ‘defending’ itself instead of dragging me into the furnace.

“Fire!” Twilight yelled in Spike's direction.

“But it’ll hurt him!” he replied in a shriek, quickly falling into the same panic I currently desperately tried to resist. And honestly, I did not fare much better than him, helplessly pawing at the ground with my forehooves while I tried to grab anything and everything with my telekinesis. Something that was both incredibly stupid and dangerous and that lucky for me, failed anyway. Because I could not concentrate sufficiently under the current circumstances. My magic simply fizzled out every time I tried.

“He’s fire-resistant!” Twilight yelled back and tried once more to teleport me. Whatever this thing behind me was, it proved once again to be incredibly magic-resistant. It swung one of its tentacles and simply wiped her magic away. Somehow.

“Just resistant? Not immune?” Spike asked.

“Spike!” we both yelled again.

He flinched, then inhaled deeply and shot a burst of green flame just past me. I could feel the searing heat of his dragonfire on my back. Grilled pony, extra crispy, a voice in my head joked. Then I felt the grip of that thing loosen. I did not wait for an invitation. I took the opportunity, rolled sideways, scrambled to my legs and fled to the other side of the room.

The moment all appendages retreated into the furnace, they started to become translucent and vanish. Twilight threw the lid of the furnace shut anyway. Just to be safe.

“What just happened?!” Spike asked in sheer disbelief.

The thrashing tentacles had dislodged two of the tables. Metal ones. Which had previously been secured in place by being bolted to the solid stone floor. Everything on those two tables was now, well, everywhere else. In pieces, partially.

I grimaced just thinking about the amount of bits it would take to replace Twilights custom-made gear. Ah well. It was going too smoothly anyway.

“Take him upstairs for a moment, I need to clear the room!” Twilight instructed her number one assistant.

Spike simply flung me over his shoulder. I did not get much say in this, it seemed. He grabbed me, lifted me off the ground and placed me on his shoulder. And went up the stairs. Two steps at a time.

Once up there, he sat me down again. “Tell me what happened,” he insisted again.

I rubbed the bridge of my muzzle. I felt as if Applejack had run me over with a cart. “I shoveled coal in. We were messing around a little. I know, I know, spare me the tirade. I must’ve accidentally thrown some of her alchemical reagents in, I guess.”

Spike growled. It was not the reaction I had expected. I looked up and almost shrunk away from him. His gaze was fierce. And decidedly unhappy. “Dude! Okay, that’s it, you need sleep. When was the last time you took a break?”

I conveniently chose to ignore the former remark to answer the latter question. “Every couple of hours! Whenever another piece was done, I put it in the barrel and had a few moments to collect myself, get my bearings, take a breather.”

“When was the last time you took a break,” he growled again. With even more ferocity than before.

I cringed a little as a particular question sprang to mind. I wanted to avoid asking it, but I saw no way around it. And Spike did not look like he would be overly patient with me this time. “Uhm… what day is it?”

A puff of smoke exited his nostrils. He shook his head and sighed. At least the ferocity was gone and he was back to being my buddy. “Bed. Now.” He sniffed the air a moment and grimaced. “Fine. Shower first, then bed.”

I sighed. The tone was unambiguous. There would be no discussing this. A decision was made, and I would be better off following along. I sighed. “Fine. I’ll go and fetch Twilight.”

He scratched his forehead. “What? Why?”

The fact that he seemed surprised… surprised me. “Ehrm… Spike? She’s been down there with me this whole time. Just because she hasn’t messed up yet doesn’t mean she had any breaks. Or this ‘sleep’-thing you keep prattling on about…”

“Oh.” He fell silent for a moment, thinking. Then he shrugged. “I’ll go get her favorite Starswirl-book.”

“Huh? Why?” Spike only shot me one of these ‘you ought to know better’-looks. I turned towards the open cellar door and called down to Twilight. “Peanut?”

There was a bit of noise I could not identify properly. “I can fix this!” came her belated answer.

I grimaced. “Maybe you’re right and that book is a good id—“

I turned around, but Spike was already gone.

It took us ten minutes to get Twilight out of the cellar. In the end, Spike simply grabbed her and carried her off. Another half hour went by to get both of us under a dearly needed hot shower. And finally, into bed.

I felt heavy. Like a sack of bricks. Incidentally, I felt like I had been beaten with said sack. Over the head. Because as soon as my body hit the soft sheets, as soon as a cozy blanket covered us, as soon as my head so much as touched the pillow, all the previous days came crashing down.

I scooched a little closer still to Twilight and wrapped my legs around her. Her wings rustled slightly before they relaxed again. A heavy sigh escaped her lips. “I am going to hate my life tomorrow…”

A decidedly quieter, lighter sigh emanated from my throat. I should have expected this. Her mind was still racing. She already prepared for the mess that would await her once she dared to open her eyes again. We had been in the cellar for days, according to Spike. How in Celestia’s grace had we lost track of time this badly?

True, she would have paperwork. Loads. But at the same time, I found it hard to agree with her ‘I’m doomed’-attitude. I had seen the mountains of dead trees coupled with ink that Sunny had to deal with on a daily basis. Twilight's daily paperwork was half a foothill in comparison.

That obviously did not mean that her worries were any less legitimate. So I tried my best to comfort her. “I got you into this mess, I’m going to at least try to help you sort it out. Also, Spike did some stuff, he said. No idea what, but I’m sure we’ll find out tomorrow. Just… don’t beat yourself up. We’ll fix it. We always do, remember?”

She sighed again, but did not dare disagree openly. Instead she crawled a little deeper under the blanket and pushed further back against me. Into me. So I held her a little tighter.

I was dead tired. I knew that all it took was to close my eyes and I would be gone. But I needed to make sure. I needed to ensure that Twilight did not stay awake, plagued by her worries. She handled sleep deprivation about as well as I did. That is to say: Horribly.

My addled mind scrambled to find anything to help her. Eventually, I settled on an idea. Even in my current state, I deemed it a stupid one. But I had nothing better to offer. So I raised my head slightly off the pillow. The curtains were drawn shut. We would sleep until morning, easily. And I sang. A lullaby from a time when Arcana had still been little. When our young bookworm still loved listening to those silly stories and songs her dad made up. Admittedly, this one was not my creation though.

“Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true!
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me!
Somewhere, over the rainbow,
bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why, can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why, can't I?”

While initially she had looked at me like I had lost my mind, she said nothing and remained quiet. Eventually, she dared to close her eyes and truly settled in. And with the faint ghost of a smile and a soft exhale, she was gone. I knew it. Her breathing was calm and even. Her heartbeat was steady. Only then did I rest my head behind hers again. I inhaled the fresh scent of her lavender shampoo. But I could still smell her body scent beneath it. Paper and ink. I always connected that with home. With safety. With trust.

I closed my eyes.

And opened them in the dreamscape.

A disgruntled Luna stood in front of me.

I scratched the side of my head, accompanied by a nervous chuckle. “So, yeah… about those last few nights where I was technically supposed to do my job… ehm… I can explain…!”