Dreamwalker's Tale: Project Greenwood

I was grumbly the entire way over to Fluttershy's cottage.

“I should’ve fetched you a proper contract,” I reiterated not for the first time.

Aurora walked close beside me. She tried to bump her shoulder into mine in an effort to cheer me up, but I dodged it. I did not wish to be cheered up. I wanted her to comply! “Dad, I’m trying to help you,” she insisted. Not for the first time either, or even the second.

“I know, I know.” I sighed. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see my resistance slowly wearing her down. I did not wish to crush her spirit, of course. I did not wish to burden her mood. But this was important. To me, at least. “And I’m trying not to take advantage of you, sunshine. You have to understand that, right?”

She rolled her eyes again, but a small smile accompanied the gesture. “I do. But I am your daughter, am I not? I’m allowed to help you. Free of charge.”

It would have been fine, had she not once again insisted on the latter. “That is not a discussion we will have. You will take my money. I’m not going to let you labor away for days, weeks, months without any significant payoff. Without any counterweight whatsoever. No, no, no. Not gonna happen. It’s bad enough that I let Spike get away with this nonsense just because he tricked me by showing up in some stupid roleplay gear… he basically charmed his way out, the sneaky little lizard!”

The more outrage found its way into my voice, the more issues Aurora had to keep her amused snicker quiet. To the point when I eventually took note of it in a manner that made it hard to further ignore the noise. “What’s so funny about that?”

She laughed for a brief moment, dropping all pretenses. Then she stopped, and I followed suit. She leaned against me — as much as our bulging saddlebags allowed — and nuzzled my neck. It was a familiar gesture and coaxed an appreciative hum from my throat despite my remaining grumpiness. “He’s a good friend of yours. He wants to help you. As much as I do. And I’m your daughter. Do you really think I couldn’t charm my own dad if I wanted to?”

And just to make her point, she looked at me. Out of those big, biiig eyes, glistening with untold wishes and innocent desires, so gosh darn pleading that it was impossible to stare into them for long without caving in.

So I averted my eyes and growled a little. Just because.

“That is so unfair,” I murmured.

Aurora giggled and bumped my shoulder. This time, I did not avoid it. “It’s how family works. At least that is what mom told me.”

“She doesn’t fall for your wily tricks!” I disagreed immediately.

Aurora giggled a tad louder. “Not as hard as you do, no.”

I sighed and shook my head. And I tried to find a baseline of seriousness. We had been squabbling about this the entire way, but now Fluttershy's cottage was within sight, as were all the others with their surprising amount of luggage. I had to tie this up neatly before we got there.

“Aurora, seriously though. I love you, sunshine. But I cannot live with myself knowing that I don’t at least pay you properly for your work here. It’s one thing to, I don’t know, help us reshelve the library for the umpteenth time. Or help Spike move his outrageously huge comic book collection. But this is serious dedication. This is actual work. And it will be for weeks and months. You have bills to pay. Taxes and stuff. We won’t pay for rent or food most of the time, sure — hopefully, anyway. But that doesn’t cover everything. So please, please, please. Let me at least cover your other expenses.” I had accounted for a dozen ponies and a few months before my bits would run out. I had to find an investor. Quickly. I knew that. Somepony who was willing to fill a similar role as Filthy Rich back in the days when Ponyville was just a single hut. But even if every single bit counted, this was not the right moment to start being stinted.

Aurora considered my almost desperate plea and finally gave a sigh of her own. Her gaze drifted over to the group waiting for us. She knew why I needed to get this sorted now. It was highly unlikely we would get a proper chance to talk in the coming days. Everything would be so busy. And with everypony tightly packed, there would be a lot less room for private talks like this.

“I do have my own savings, you know?”

Like Tartarus you will…! I shook my head. Quickly. “No.”

Her gaze was still fixed on our merry little band of weirdos. She did not flinch or even bat an eye. She had expected as much. Another silent sigh and she smiled and gave a nod. “Fine. I’m just glad you let me come with you at all.”

I flung a foreleg around her withers and pulled her into a hug. With all the saddlebags colliding, it was a bit awkward, but we managed. “Don’t get me started. In most cycles, Moondancer was the one delivering the blueprints for walls and houses and such. She researched those in the Royal Archives. Never left Canterlot. She didn’t have to. We sent proper ground samples to Maud for analysis, she sent her results to Moondancer, who in turn developed our whole infrastructure. It was an impressive network. I won’t say that I did not consider sending you to Canterlot to ‘research stuff in the Archives’.”

Aurora smiled. Beamed, even. We pulled apart again and slowly walked towards our current destination. “What made you change your mind?”

Many things, I thought. My connection with Maud was not nearly as developed this time around. Moondancer was too old. And despite my best efforts, those awkward moments never fully faded. There was always a certain tension in the air. And I never quite understood its nature, or source. Of course I could have tried to find a different librarian. Somepony else who would be willing to participate in Project Greenwood from afar. I was decently sure that it would not have been that hard to find somepony who was willing to take a safe library job while still helping out with such an adventure. Least of all because I would have been thrilled to fill that position, given the chance.

But I was not smart enough to become an architect. Not my field of expertise. At all.

I could have tried to explain all that. But there were other reasons as well. One of them was a lot simpler and a strong factor as well. “I just… I like the idea of having you around again,” I explained with a shrug. “It’s been ages since we really got to spend time. You’ve been busy with your job. Such is life. This was… an opportunity. It’s deeply selfish, but I jumped at it the first chance I got.”

My little princess grinned from ear to ear. “It’s okay to be selfish from time to time, you know?”

There was resistance within me. The urge to object. I sucked at finding that middle ground. Thus I very much preferred to stick to the extremes that best encapsulated my beliefs, even if they were extremes and therefore occasionally made me prone for less than ideal decision-making. Give an inch and your base instincts will take a mile. It was a slippery slope. And I tried to remain as steadfast as possible.

But Aurora did not need to know that.

I simply enjoyed how happy she was, just because her dad said he wanted to have her around.

Roseluck. Doctor Whooves. Derpy. Hefty Pine. Honey Maple. Graphite Pie. Spike. Gabby. Aurora. Me.

I placed a final check mark on my list and then stared at the weird… thing. It was not the first time I openly stared at it, but so far, neither Roseluck nor the Doctor saw any reason to explain its presence. Or function.

I decided again to let it be for the moment and instead turned my attention to our luggage. Hefty and Honey had not been exaggerating when they told me they would bring half their workshop along. Two carts of impressive size, pulled by these two themselves. One cart was almost exclusively filled with wood. Logs and planks and disassembled chairs and tables. Half the interior of their home, I assumed, plus the ‘remaining stored raw materials’ they had mentioned briefly.

Apparently there had already been a nice round of greetings and welcomes and whatnot. Everyone here already knew the names of each other and I spotted a few saddlebags and such on that second cart, saddlebags that clearly did not belong to Hefty or Honey. One such pair had Graphites cutie marks embroidered.

“So am I right to assume that I dawdled enough that everypony already knows everypony?” My answers were a few chuckles and giggles as well as some grins, smiles and nods. I sighed and nodded. Serves me right. I just had to argue with Aurora the whole way, didn’t I?

That said, maybe it was a good thing. They got to know each other on a surface level without me immediately tinting the first impression by offering my totally not biased opinion alongside.

I shook my head and finally decided to address… the thing.

“Okay, I’m just… I have to ask. What is that?” I pointed my hoof at the thing while looking at Roseluck. After all, she stood closest to it. However, her gaze wandered over to the Doctor, and mine followed.

“That is Kelab. Remember how I mentioned a farming assistant for Roseluck? That would be him.”

I looked at the strange thing again. It was shaped so weirdly. A floating tower with a slightly tapered base. Three horizontal lines of weird hemispheres stuck out from that base like bead chains. Two jointless, armlike protrusions stuck out from the middle section. One looked like a plunger and the other like a mixer. The top section was a hemisphere with a couple of horizontal slits below it. I assumed those were ventilation holes. Another plunger was built into the top section, and two little protrusions stuck out like ears or horns and gave off a faint flashing light every now and then.

“So… it’s a machine?” I dared to ask. I did not wish to look like a fool, but I was so utterly baffled by what I saw that I did not assume to know anything about this.

“A robot,” Spike chirped in with a manic grin. Of course he would be thrilled by this. How many of his comic books featured some kind of advanced technology like this? And here it was, finally a real life example of it.

And it had a name, too.

I dismissed my previous question. “How does it float? It looks quite heavy…”

The doctor smiled. It was rare to see him so serene. “He is quite heavy, let me tell you! I would not recommend somehow getting under him. As for his ability to keep aloft, he mimics pegasus magic via a series of internal crystals that resonate with a frequency that—“

“Doctor,” Roseluck cut in with a fond, yet lopsided smile.

I quickly noticed why. My own mind was about to go blank, but I saw the eyes of all the others glaze over as well. None of us here would be able to follow his in-depth explanation fully. “So it uses pegasus magic?”

My crude oversimplification seemed to cause him almost physical pain. He sighed and tugged at his scarf. Twice. “I suppose that would be one way to… break it down.”

“But there’s no cloud beneath it?”

The doctor smiled the same way Sunny did whenever I asked something that I could have understood, had I been more patient in my pursuit of answers. “Clouds are nothing more than condensed water held aloft in the sky. Kelabs systems work a lot more efficiently than pegasus magic and require considerably less fluid. Regular air humidity is perfectly sufficient.”

It can airwalk. It was a simple thought on a surface level, but I tried to imagine this thing flying across the sky and somepony calling it walking. Somehow, it just did not fit together in my head. That said, I still thought I got the gist of it and more importantly, I understood the basics. “And why ‘Kelab’?”

Roseluck shrugged and answered. “It’s just a name. I chose it.”

“Can it speak?” Spike wanted to know.

Roseluck turned towards ‘Kelab’ and nodded. And for the first time since we all met up here, the thing moved on its own. Its top section rotated until its plunger was directed at Spike. “Affirmative,” emanated an almost comically robotic voice.

The doctor grinned from ear to ear when a couple of ‘oohh's and ‘aahh's followed. This ‘Kelab’ was clearly his pride. Probably his creation. How this thing was supposed to help farming was beyond me, though. For a farming robot, I would have assumed something with legs and jointed arms would have been better. I was still curious. A lot. But I knew we were wasting time at this point.

“Alright, alright, Spike — stop. You can ask later, there will be plenty of time.” He slowly lowered his claw again and bit back the flood of questions that were undoubtedly on the tip of his tongue. “Does everyone have everything they need? Are we set on camping gear? Tents? Food? What’s the status?”

The Doctor, Rose and Derpy had a medium-sized tent that apparently was large enough for the three of them. I could imagine it would be quite a tight fit. I also imagined that none of them had any issue with that.

Hefty and Honey had their own tent as well. A larger one. But not only were they larger themselves, they aimed to store some of their tools in their tent as well, to keep it sheltered from rain and such.

Graphite had her own. Spike and Gabby had their own. Aurora had a larger one, which spared me the necessity to carry one myself. Everyone was covered, great. That left food. Eight ponies, one griffon and one dragon. That was a lot of mouths to feed. I had my Neverend bottle ready to go, which would take care of any water requirements, but we had to make a little detour back into town to stock up on provisions. I had simply forgotten about this part. It was luckily a quick trip Spike and Hefty were willing to do. I gave them bits and told them to come back without them. And that second cart was filled some more. Those provisions would probably last us for a few days. Not enough for Roseluck to have a first harvest ready, of course. But enough to establish a camp and send someone back the then hopefully secured road and make a dedicated shopping trip to Ponyville's market.

When we finally started our way towards the Everfree forest, we ran roughly an hour late. Which was still within the margins I had set, so everything was still working out according to plan. Neat.

With two large carts hauling a lot of stuff and so many ponies accompanying them, it almost seemed like we were one of those traveling merchant caravans of old. Especially since Spike and Gabby still wore their outfits. A great conversation topic, as it quickly turned out. Doctor Whooves did not quite understand what ‘roleplay’ even meant, it seemed. Or maybe he did and was just baffled by the appeal of it — I had difficulties following that conversation.

‘Kelab’ seemed to analyze our surroundings the moment our group started moving. It was a constant stream of information, presented by his monotone, robotic voice. I figured it would eventually become quite difficult to focus on it instead of just thrusting it into the background as just another noise in the mixture of forest-y ones.

Aurora stuck to my side as if she was glued to me. I was grateful for that, especially once we reached the edge of the forest.

“Is this the spot?” she asked quietly.

Everyone else was merrily chatting away. They moved at a leisurely speed and did not take notice of how I slowed down and eventually stopped. I looked around and nodded. “Over there,” I replied quietly and pointed with a hoof.

My eyes scanned the tree line. That damn bird. Every time. I still heard birds chirping from within the forest. But it was different. Their songs were different, the distance was different, everything was different. It was not that bird.

“I don’t come here often,” I remarked. Fluttershy was a dear friend of mine who I visited quite a lot, but this spot… I avoided it. Even when I wanted to visit Zecora — something that happened rarely to begin with —, I always made sure to walk a good distance around this spot.

I could not even tell why.

I did not despise it. It did not make me angry. Or fill me with despair. It certainly was not sacred to me. Or filled me with joy. Or hope. This spot was of great significance to me. And yet there was no special feeling I connected to it. I treated it as special, without knowing why. But it felt wrong to just… walk here. As if this was just like any other ordinary piece of ground.

Grass. A path. A small ditch. There really was nothing special to observe for the naked eye. Twilight had scanned this patch as well, with all her many machines and technical doohickeys. No results. She scanned it with a wide variety of spells. No results.

It was just grass. And a dirt path. And a small ditch. An ordinary patch of land.

“Come on. We can’t let them get away, can we?” Aurora urged.

I looked up and saw our group march into the Everfree. The faintest shudder ran along my body, right under my skin. I nodded and followed her. And I was grateful. Because she pulled me out of that swamp I had been sinking into. Yet I still wondered what I might find at its bottom. As usual.

We quickly caught up to the others and Aurora made sure that we inserted ourselves into their chitchat. I gave Spike some tips on how he could maybe improve his costume. Pardon, his armor. I asked Roseluck about her seed collection, because it certainly would be interesting what we were allowed to cook with, given time.

I tried to let their enthusiasm and good mood infect me. But eventually, I drifted into the background again and simply walked in front of the group. Their chitchat made me smile. I still listened, caught the occasional piece of information that was of interest, or funny. But conversations were draining. Exhausting in a way I found hard to describe. Luckily, none of them seemed to begrudge me fading into the background.

Every few minutes, we slowed down and stopped for just a moment. After the third or fourth time, conversations did not even stop anymore. I simply needed to retrieve one of the enchanted sapphire torches and slam it into the ground. My telekinesis was not strong enough to pierce the more rocky terrain enough, but that was not the point. The enchantment just needed a trigger to realize: Ah, this is the spot where I’m supposed to do my thing.

The moment I used force to place it, the first layer of the enchantment triggered. The torch aligned itself perfectly vertically and then placed itself into the ground just enough that it would hold. Even if it was surrounded by loose dirt and nothing more, it would stand and hold. And if necessary, it drilled through solid rock. As soon as the torch was placed, the enchanted sapphire started to glow.

The faint blue light that emanated from it would have been a spectacular sight at night. But even in the dingy, dimly lit Everfree forest, daytime offered too much light for it to be properly impressive. There were parts of the forest that got as dark as night of course, but since we traveled along the path to the ruins, we were nowhere near those areas.

We traveled for a few hours without being disturbed by any beasties. The Everfree forest was loud though. I knew from my participation in the Running of the Leaves that Whitetail Woods was loud as well. Which led me to believe that the ambient noise was just a forest thing in general. But with all the bushes rustling as little critters scurried about and all the birds chirping and the occasional screech of something bigger, it was just a cacophony I needed to get used to at some point. It actually reminded me a lot of my vacation with Sunny, when we visited the Forbidden Jungle.

It baffled me that some ponies thought forest noises were relaxing. I could understand that when it came to beach noises. The soft splash of waves rolling onto the beach and then retreat back into the sea. That was relaxing, yes. This? This was a madhouse and everything that had a voice was just screaming at the top of its lungs to get attention.

I tried to listen a little bit closer to what Kelab had to say, because at this point, his analysis included identification of most of these animal sounds. In a way, it was calming. I learned a lot of scientific sounding names of birds. And apparently, we even passed by a nest of cockatrices. However, they were half a mile deeper into the forest and their cry had apparently been one of warning. I asked Kelab if they tried to warn us away — which would have made the most sense to me. But no. According to that farming machine, they warned each other. Of us.

It inevitably led to a little lecture about the habitat and behavior of cockatrices in general. Kelab seemed to have a great deal of knowledge stored within him. For as interesting as this was, it still just served to make me miss Twilight. She made sure her lectures were fun. Speaking to Kelab and learning from him was comparable to one of those Kirin librarians droning on and on with their monotonous voices…

It’s too quiet.

It was a simple observation. Sadly, it had not even been mine. His voice rang out in the back of my head like a thorn stuck in my side, reminding me of a pain I had forgotten about. That said, it was somewhat normal that he was more observant than me. And he was right, of course. I had failed to notice how the bird songs had stopped. Not all of them, of course. But those I could still hear seemed to be miles away. And in the same manner, I barely noticed any movement within the bushes to the sides and the tree canopies overhead.

It really was too quiet. Which, within the confines of the Everfree forest — or any forest, really — usually meant one thing. A predator.

Don’t just sto—

I stopped. And I ignored the frustrated sigh in my head as best as I could. My group had not noticed the silence that followed us. They were still talking among themselves about all kinds of nonsense, getting to know each other and such. “We’re being followed.”

Within a heartbeat, everyone fell quiet and our little caravan stopped dead in its tracks. Ears swiveled in all directions, honing in on every sound. Eyes traced the lines of the gnarled and twisted old trees around us.

A soft rustling of leaves to the left caught the attention of all.

“More like we’re being hunted,” Spike growled.

“Spike, would you?” I asked. He did not need any explanation. Hefty clearly wanted to help and quietly asked Honey and Derpy to help him out of his harness. Gabby carefully climbed up on top of Luggage Mountain to get a better view of the area. It was probably a griffon thing, this impulse to always have the high ground.

Spike walked a little bit off the path. Just to the side where we had heard the rustling. He unfolded his wings to their full span to make himself appear even larger. And then he roared.

I had lived with Spike for my entire life. In this cycle and many others. And I usually arrived at a point when he was still a bit shorter than me. A little bit chubby. Sometimes even without wings, prior to his first molting. His roar though, it shattered this illusion of my little buddy still being little. He was still a massive nerd, sure. But fifty years later, he was significantly closer to a ‘young adult dragon’. He unleashed the roar of a truly fearsome predator. Of a powerful and mighty creature. It echoed throughout our part of the Everfree forest and silenced even those last few birds that had continued to sing their tunes far away from us.

And Gabby made all kinds of lovey-dovey eyes on top of that cart. Seeing her so smitten made me smile and almost forget the tense situation we were in.

Roseluck and Honey managed to free Hefty. He picked up his axe from the trunk of his cart and decided to secure the other side — just in case that whatever was out there was clever and used a distraction. Some of the beasts of the Everfree were smart enough to deploy such tactics. It was a smart decision on his part and once again gave me hope that this camping trip could work out.

My thoughts were thrown into chaos when I suddenly heard a challenging roar.

I whirled around and noticed the bushes giving way. Something came. It had given up on hiding, on prowling and sneaking. It rushed forward, towards us. It charged.

“Brace!” I cried out as if that was any help.

“I got this,” Spike growled and readied himself.

“Be careful!” Gabby pleaded with him.

And before he could answer, an enormous, massive manticore breached the final line of underbrush. How it had been able to hide in the bushes at all was a mystery to me. Maybe just another indication that the Everfree had a mind of its own, a spiteful and malicious one.

The creature threw itself against Spike. Its claws tried to dig into the dragon's flesh, but they were repelled by hardened scales. Spike for his part managed to grab the manticore's forelegs and keep it at bay. The creature in reply started to snap at him, clearly aiming for his face.

It was a difficult wrestle. The manticore was larger than him. And apparently stronger, too. But Spike was smarter and more agile. He leaned back to keep his head away from those powerful jaws and kicked the lion-like creature in its stomach. After the third kick landed, it recoiled a little and instead tried to pierce his scales with the large stinger on its tail.

Spike answered the new attack with a breath of flame. The manticore cried out in pain when the flames engulfed its tail, only to then assault him once more with its claws.

This time, Spike failed to get a proper grip on the manticore. He managed to dodge one slash, but the second tore his armor in half and drew blood on his chest.

His opponent seemed almost desperate in the way he behaved and attacked. Frantic movement and a nonstop assault without any regards for its own safety. Something about this felt… off.

Hefty had decided to switch sides and was waiting for an opening. Any opening to make use of his axe, to help our defender out. But it was such a whirlwind of limbs that he did not dare make a move, lest his good intentions would serve to harm the one who was supposed to protect us.

When the manticore once more advanced and snapped after Spike, he managed to thrust his arm in between the creature's jaws. The manticore's teeth failed to piece the dragon scales, but as it yanked its head around violently, Spike still cried out in pain. He hit the lion in the head twice before he tried to grab the creature by the throat, but all the fighting came to an abrupt halt when another war cry erupted.

The screech of an eagle.

Both Spike and the manticore stopped and looked up. Many of us did.

Gabby stood atop Luggage Mountain. Her body tense. Her wings proudly displayed. Her claws dug into the ground. And her eyes. Sweet, merciful Celestia. Her eyes.

I had never seen Gabby angry. Not just frustrated or annoyed, but truly enraged.

Her piercing gaze transfixed the manticore.

It carefully opened its jaws and gave Spikes arm free. It retreated half a step.

I had difficulties believing my own ears when I even heard it… whimper? About a second later, Gabby cried out once more and flung herself into the air in a powerful display of what her body was capable of. And she quickly arched down, claws first.

The manticore was not willing to find out if she intended to land right beside him, or on him. He turned on his heel and jumped back into the bushes.

Gabby landed right in front of Spike and sent another screech after the creature.

“I’m fine,” Spike said calmly while he clearly mourned his shredded ‘armor’.

Gabby glowered towards the trees for a moment longer before all tension suddenly bled out of her. It was such a disturbingly quick change. The ferocious predator was gone and we had our lovable, easily excitable friend back. She turned around and inspected Spike for herself and gasped in shock and horror when she saw blood on him. “You’re not fine!” she insisted and quickly turned to Derpy. “Can you fetch me that first aid kit please?” She turned back to Spike. “I got you, don’t worry. Sit down please.”

“Gabby, really, he barely even—“

“Sit. Down.” For a fraction of a second, her fierceness was back. Just long enough for Spike to immediately shut his mouth and sit down as if a sack of flour had been dropped. “Thank you.”

The rest of us exchanged glances of various emotions. Most were simply relieved. Some were worried about Spike, or Gabby, or both. Derpy rummaged around in the cart and then carried the kit over to Gabby, only to sit down and help her without uttering a single word. She just smiled. And Gabby smiled in return. They got along well.

I stood frozen. Which was something I would need to address at some point. Not with the others, but with myself. I was a night guard. I had been trained for years. Admittedly, that was some decades ago. But ever since, I was in battle. Nightly patrols in the dreamscape. Fights against nightmares and dreamscape monsters. Those were regular occurrences for me.

I had no right to freeze up in the face of an enemy. The nightmares I fiercely battled were no more or less ‘real’ than this manticore had been. The thought of summoning my armor had not even crossed my mind — and that was utterly unacceptable.

“You know,” Roseluck tried to restart a casual conversation to help us all get back to some normalcy, “that manticore probably wanted to save you from that big, scary dragon.”

“It did?” I asked in confusion.

Kelab’s little horn-bulbs lit up. “Body language indicates a sixty-four percent chance of intended initiation of the mating process after rescue.”

Nopony present knew how to take that. What to do with that information. So we simply did what Gabby did. We ignored it.

Even so, I could not help but wonder. Maybe it would have been better for me to wait until I got some recruit who could fill the position Fluttershy usually took. Some ‘wildlife negotiator’. Maybe that could have prevented this incident.

I walked over to Spike, Gabby and Derpy. “How does it look? Will he survive?” I asked with what I hoped was a funny undertone, while I winked at Spike.

He rolled with his eyes and grinned. “I doubt it will even leave a mark. What a bummer. I thought I’d have some cool scars someday, to impress the ladies, you know?”

Gabby punched him. Not with full strength. Just enough to make him feel it. And Spike grinned. Probably exactly the reaction he had hoped to coax out of her. “I like you just fine without scars, please and thank you,” she murmured. After his chest was sufficiently cared for, Gabby inspected his arm. “That was reckless,” she softly chided him.

Spike sighed. “I knew what I was doing. It’s fine. I had a good chance he wouldn’t be able to bite through it.”

She nodded. “And what if he had been able to?”

He grimaced. “That… would have sucked.”

“And hurt. A lot,” Derpy chirped in, helpful as always. I snickered a little and tried to hide it behind a hoof, with little success. Gabby threw me a nasty look and I cleared my throat and apologized. She did not do the same with Derpy, of course. Because she had helped to patch Spike up.

“You should probably not overexert yourself and keep that arm still, if you can,” I mused.

Spike chuckled and nodded. “Yes, doc.”

After Gabby was satisfied, she packed up the kit again and stashed it away. We resumed our travel and nopony made any remarks, seeing how closely she stuck to Spike's side.

We arrived safe and sound at the old castle ruins in the late afternoon hours. There was a large clearing right in front of the ruins, with a river nearby. It was a perfect spot to set up camp, so I placed the last three torches in a triangular shape to give us as much secured area as possible.

Setting up the tents was a drag. It became quite apparent who was an experienced camper and who was not. Hefty's tent was up in no time, even though it was the largest of them all. But once it was up, they were busy shoving all their delicate equipment in there. It meant unloading almost everything from both carts. And once that was done, he and Honey constructed a little shelter out of the wooden planks they had brought along. It was basically just a roof on stilts. It would not help much against strong wind or critters and its purpose was shrouded in mystery until they started to sort things between tent and shelter.

Most of the wood they had brought along went there. As well as some of the provisions, which they secured in little bundles hanging from the roof's middle. It increased their chances to stay dry. Same for the wood.

Again: Smart ponies. And I was glad to have hired them.

Spike had been on enough camping trips with Gabby, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Ember, Thorax and Celestia knows who else to know a thing or two about setting up a tent. He was no camping enthusiast like Hefty, but more experienced than the rest of us. He set his own tent up, then helped Roseluck and Derpy.

The Doctor and Kelab were already off to inspect the surrounding area, the tree line, to take soil samples and water samples and whatever else scientific-y was going on over there.

And Aurora and I, we struggled.

I hated camping. I had been on a few trips regardless, and I was just smart enough to read instructions, but I still ran into difficulties following them. And Aurora, being daddy's spoiled little princess, had taken after me in that regard. While her dislike of camping was not as strong as mine, she had the same issues. We eventually begged Spike to help us.

“How did you even… those poles are not supposed to go through there, how did you get them through?” Spike asked and stared at our not-tent in disbelief.

I shrugged. “Talent?”

He laughed briefly and then shook his head. “Off with you two! Let me work in peace.”

I grinned and pounced on him. Aurora quickly joined the hug. “Thank you, buddy.”

“Thank you, Spike!”

He sighed and returned the hug, but shooed us off after a moment. I took the opportunity to collect a few larger, loose stones from the riverbed and fashioned them into a campfire circle in the middle of our collection of tents. “It’s the centerpiece,” I explained to Aurora. “It really does bind the whole room together, doesn’t it?”

She giggled quietly and nodded. “I am sure you had a promising career as an interior decorator.” She made a point of looking at the nonexistent walls and roof. “And you clearly are a visionary for having such a unique interpretation of ‘interior’.”

I snorted and laughed. Aurora quickly joined in. After we calmed down again, we went for a little stroll around the camp. We looked at the other tents. At the ‘resource pile’, as I dubbed Hefty's shelter. And eventually, we stood in the direction of the ruins themselves.

“So,” Aurora's voice reached me. She spoke quietly. As if she was about to breach a sensitive topic. “That’s what this is really about, right?”

I stared at the ruins. The castle of old lay in shambles. Its glory days long gone. Its splendor lost. “Yes and no,” I answered just as quietly. “Greenwood is close to my heart. As is this castle.” And I could see it. Before my mind's eye, the structure rebuilt itself. As if somepony just reversed time. Centuries in seconds. Walls crumbled to the ground lifted up again, piece by piece, reinserted into solid foundations. Banners, moth-riddled and faded, regained their vibrant colors. I closed my eyes, but I could still see it. Maybe I could even see it better now. I saw small little huts, crafted from wood and with thatched roofs. I saw stone houses with proper tiled roofs. I saw so many overlapping iterations of the same village, town, city.

Their names were Greenwood.

I simply called them: home.

But not this time, I tried to remind myself. I already had a home. I was not here to build a second one.

“With the town being built once more, there’s a high likelihood that the castle will be rebuilt as well. At some point, the residents will grow tired of looking out the window and seeing that spooky old ruin over there. More so if that could instead be a piece of history, restored. Or a tourist magnet. Maybe they will make it into a museum. Maybe someday, Flurry wants to live there. Or maybe Discord shows up again, gets reformed and is granted domain over the forest. It’s basically more or less his mess anyway. I don’t know. With every cycle, there are… distinctions. Details that change. Some of them have a massive impact. Like… I remember a cycle where Queen Jetha never managed to cross over into our world from the dreamscape. Thus changelings as a race were never created. I remember a cycle in which Lord Tirek found the Idol of Boreas. It led to a massive war between the Arimaspi and the griffons. Equestria tried to stay out of it. We tried to negotiate peace. I don’t remember how that went for us. There’s… holes. Large enough to shove a moon through. And then there’s smaller details. Like Twilight basically being raised by Celestia, because she moved into the castle when she became her protégé. Or Twilight stayed at home with her brother and her parents and only ever visited Celestia like a regular student visits school and his teachers. Derpy's favorite color. Rarity's favorite dish. Who Spike ends up dating. Even such smaller details have effects. I always know, but I never truly know. It’s maddening, sometimes. But Greenwood is a constant in all of these cycles. It’s there. It’s always there. It needs to be there. At least that’s what it feels like. I can’t offer you any reasonable explanation. I can give you no logical reason why we are here, why we are doing this. I just… it needs to be done. There will be adversaries and mishaps and hurdles and they will need to be overcome. Greenwood must exist. That's all I know for sure.”

Aurora stayed quiet for a while. She followed her own thoughts, and I continued to follow my observations. A city sprang to live around me. Roads of paved stone. Neatly trimmed front yards with patches for vegetables and flowers. And eventually, if I concentrated hard enough, I could even see the inhabitants.

I saw Lightning Dust, captain of our weather team. She flew past overhead, leading a charge of her subordinates towards an encroaching thundercloud from the south.

I saw Whisper, Fluttershy’s and Pinkie's daughter. She walked along the street, a shy smile gracing her lips as she followed a pretty, colorful butterfly.

I saw Flim and Flam cough up a storm once they exited their engineering workshop. Swaths of dark brown smoke emanated from the opened door. Another one of their inventions had self-destroyed. They would fix it, of course. In time, they managed to fix just about anything. Greenwood was nothing to them if not a consistent challenge to their technical ingenuity.

I saw our tavern. The Great And Powerful (And Only) Watering Hole (Name Pending). It had been the butt of many jokes. And for good reason. But the name stuck and became as beloved as its owner. Everypony loved Trixie. She was a joy to have around. Her boisterous nature kept everypony's spirits up. Her shows were always worth a watch. And she loved the attention. She loved that everypony here needed her. To keep sane. She had taken to this job and its massive responsibility like a fish to water.

“Is it safe?”

Three little words.

My imagined Greenwood collapsed. The illusion, conjured up from memories past, fell apart and I returned to this cycle, this life, and to the side of my daughter. My smart little sunshine, light of my life, who reminded me so much of my love, my Sunny Skies. To this very day, I had to grin in amusement whenever I thought about her silly name. The name she introduced herself with, wearing her disguise. It was baffling to think that she was the epitome of subtlety.

“Sorry, is… is what safe?” I asked and shook my head to clear it of the remnants of forgotten thoughts.

“The ruin. If at some point ponies are supposed to rebuild the castle, it needs to be safe, right?”

I looked towards the ruins once more. Now, it hurt a little. Seeing them in such a state of disrepair. “Oh. Yes, sure, it’s perfectly safe. Well. I mean. It’s still a ruin though. You need to be careful with your steps, obviously.” I sighed. “You know what? You make a good point. I’m gonna take Spike with me tomorrow and we’ll take a peek. Just to make sure that nothing dangerous decided to make it its lair. I don’t think so, because for some reason, no wildlife ever chooses the ruins as their home, but… I shouldn’t rely on this knowledge.”

Aurora smiled and shrugged. “That was not my point. But it’s still a good idea to check, I think.”

We turned around and returned to camp to check up on the others. Hefty and Honey were at the edge of the clearing and inspected the trees, probably to get a first feel for the wood they would be working with. Roseluck and Kelab sat in between the tents. The machine spewed a string of nonsense words that apparently had meaning to Roseluck, as she periodically nodded and asked another strange question. I assumed this was all somehow related to the soil quality or something like that.

The Doctor was busy with Derpy. He had another strange machine strapped to her back and was in the middle of switching dials and making little lights blink. Probably the calibration of that weather manipulation device he had mentioned. I just hoped it would be safe for Derpy to use, otherwise I would need to have some strong words with the good Doctor.

Spike and Gabby meanwhile had busied themselves by collecting some firewood. They managed to get that going with a little spout of good old dragon fire and shortly thereafter, they placed a massive cooking pot over it and filled it with water.

The crackling of the fire, the scent of burning wood, the warmth and the warm, flickering light — with the afternoon hours slowly crawling away from us and the day's light receding, it was a focus point for all campers and slowly caught their attention. Enough so that, in time, we all sat together around the fireplace, with our tents in our backs serving as a dividing wall.

“So, exciting question:” I asked, “Who’s the best cook here?”

“Spike,” came Gabbys immediate answer.

“Spike,” Hefty and Honey agreed with a lopsided smile.

“Rose?” the good Doctor threw another contender in.

Roseluck herself however giggled and shook her head. “I have been to Twilight’s Hearth's Warming Eve parties. Spike makes these incredible cookies with a liquid chocolate core… if he cooks even half as good as he bakes, I cannot hold a candle to his craft!”

“Spike,” Derpy chirped in as well.

With every vote of confidence, my little buddy blushed a tad deeper. Until I joined the chorus. “Spike?” He looked over to me and I presented him with an apron and a cooking spoon. “Do you heed your calling?”

He chuckled, grinned from ear to ear, and went down on one knee so that I may knight him. “We honor the tragedy of this day, when our noble protector Spike the Brave and Glorious lost his trusted armor to the vicious attack of a mighty manticore. We honor his sacrifice of at least forty hours of hard work and dedication to keep us safe. And another ten hours for painting it, if I remember correctly. And we bestow upon him on this day a title fit for such a valiant defender. Rise, ser knight.”

He grabbed the offered spoon, quickly donned the apron with the incredible speed of someone experienced with such matters and struck a heroic pose.

And the audience went wild.

We all applauded by stomping our hooves, Gabby screeched a little and the only one who seemed utterly bewildered by this whole impromptu spectacle was the good Doctor. Again.

Maybe he would learn to appreciate this someday. Maybe. Or this was just the obvious reminder that out of all of us, he was the normal one.

“T-Thanks, guys,” Spike stuttered a little as he rose and rubbed the dirt from his knee. “That said, uhm… thanks for the vote of confidence and all that, but… you guys do realize that I can’t work miracles, right? I mean, I’ve seen what we have in terms of ingredients. I’ve been the one who bought them. And I picked those for their longevity. And don’t get me started on spices.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “You don’t work miracles? I beg to differ!” I gestured towards the pot and with a chuckle, he shrugged and went to work. Of course we helped when we could. If something needed to be cut down, somepony grabbed a knife and saw to it. But it was still very much Spikes ‘magic’ that made rather bland provisions into an unexpectedly tasty stew.

“No miracles, my ass!” Hefty exclaimed after his first try. He looked up from his bowl and stared at Spike with as much surprise as Spike stared back with.

And so, we chatted over dinner. After the initial rounds were made, everyone had something to share, it seemed. The soil was rich and fertile, perfect for farming. For now. Knowing the Everfree forest, it could probably turn sour overnight. In the same vein, the wood was solid to work with and obviously plenty. The trees had grown less straight than what a carpenter would wish for, but both Hefty and Honey were still fully convinced that they could make it work anyway. And the Doctor was fully convinced that he would have the proper calibrations of his weather machine done by the time Roseluck had her first field set up.

It was a good start.

An hour later, the sun was down. Another hour and we decided to call it a day. I crawled into Aurora's tent after her and wiggled my way into my sleeping bag. The campfire still crackled outside, the fire painted an evermoving stage play of dancing shadows and licks of orange onto the canvas of our tent. We heard everyone else slowly coming to a rest. A round of ‘good night’s were exchanged. Tomorrow, work would start. I still wondered if any of us, myself included, had even the slightest clue as to what we were up against here.

Then a quiet rustle caught my attention. Aurora was still awake.

“You never asked, but I figured you should know anyway. Just in case.”

“Hm?” I dared to question.

“I filed and filled out all the building permits. And the other legal mumbo jumbo,” she explained.

The what now…? “… you did?” I had never even considered that this was a thing. I understood perfectly well that, if I wanted to build a house in Ponyville, I would need to talk to the mayor. And I would need to fill out permits, yes. That made perfect sense.

But this was the Everfree forest.

And again, I could not help but compare: Had the Apples ever filed proper documentation for building Ponyville? Somehow, I had my doubts about that. Then again, in every version of that story, no matter who told it or when or where or why, one thing always remained the same: Princess Celestia herself granted them this land.

“Yes,” Aurora emphasized. “There are actually severe penalties ranging from fines to prison for building something someplace you’re not explicitly allowed to.”

I grimaced. And I hoped that she could not see it. Because frankly, I felt embarrassed enough as it was. Luckily, I knew that she was not cross with me. Therefore, I could afford a playful reply. “… oops?”

Her soft sigh was interspersed with her quiet giggling. “You know, surprisingly, ‘oops’ does not hold up in court as well as you might think!”

“Really?” I emphasized. “Huh.”

Now I had her laughing quietly behind her hoof. I saw her mane bob up and down as she nodded. “Yeah, strange, right?”

I scooched over with my sleeping bag. It was a bit of a mess, really, as I wriggled around in it until I lay significantly closer to her. And I pressed a smooch to her cheek. “Thank you, sunshine.” A moment later, a groan escaped my throat.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a twig poking my rear. I hate camping.” While I tried to reposition myself, I heard giggling. Not just Auroras, but I could have sworn I heard it from other tents as well. Gabby? Derpy, maybe? I tried to find a comfortable sleeping position for what felt like ages until I simply gave up. According to my body, I had managed to get rid of the twig, but my barrel now rested on top of a rock. Greaaat.

I just held still in hopes I would get used to it. And to give everyone else a chance to fall asleep before I would inevitably start to shift around again.

After a couple of minutes, I tried. And I got rid of the rock. With no replacement. Yay, go me. Yet despite now lying somewhat comfortably — even if it was by no means capable of competing with a decent bed —, I still failed to fall asleep.

The day replayed in my head.

Spike’s little decoy. Meeting Aurora again. That strange, tingly feeling in my belly when we all stood together at the edge of the forest, waiting for Hefty and Spike to return with our food. I was suddenly part of this group. And it did not even feel like they needed me to be a leader. It did not feel like they looked to me for leadership. They were all so… capable. On their own. It was great. It allowed me to be just another pony, helping out with this stupid project. And it was stupid, wasn’t it?

Spike had handled that manticore attack well enough. But I had seen how he grimaced ever so slightly when he rubbed over his arm at dinner. When he thought nopony was watching.

What if there was another manticore attack tomorrow? And that one got lucky? Or a cockatrice came by? Could Spike and Gabby really handle a whole pack of timberwolves just suddenly charging into the camp?

I was worried. I told myself: Of course I am. It’s what I do. I worry a lot. But that was not the whole truth. And the wrong mantra.

I tried to keep silent as a long sigh escaped my lips. The ambient background noise of the Everfree forest at night certainly did not help to put my mind at ease. With the daylight still present, we heard birds chirping. So. Many.

But those were asleep now. Instead we heard… goodness, I didn't even know what that was. Other birds? Owls? Bats?

Even the rustling of bushes as smaller critters scurried around seemed more threatening at night than it did in daytime. It was irrational, I knew that. I was almost tempted to just leave the tent and gaze at the night sky. Lunas' pretty displays usually put my mind at ease.

“Tell me a story.”

I bit down on my bottom lip with enough force to draw blood. A nasty, metallic taste. I put a hoof to my mouth to keep the pained hiss in. Aurora probably tried to help, she did not need to know that she startled me like this.

I tried to see her, but the fire had died down and it was pitch black in here.

“Please?” she added as I failed to answer.

“You can’t sleep either?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

“Not really. It has been easy to put up a tough façade when the sun is still up. But Luna told me too many spooky stories about the Everfree forest, I suppose.” There was some amusement in her voice. She deemed it silly to be scared of the forest. It was just another indicator that she had never encountered a timberwolf. Or a cockatrice. Or any of the other horrors that freely roamed these woods.

I sighed. “Alright. Come here.” Instead of waiting for her, I wriggled closer. I freed my foreleg from my sleeping bag, grabbed hers and pulled her in. Enough to hold her. Like in the good old days, when she was still little. I considered what kind of story I wanted to tell her. She had asked for it in hopes that it would distract me. And offer me a chance to fall asleep. But I wanted her to get that chance just as much. I needed a story that would keep her mind running, but in a different direction. Something to occupy it, to supersede Luna’s spooky stories.

“Have you heard about Discord?” I asked. I felt her nod more than I could see it. “He is Chaos Incarnate. But despite what many believe, he is not malevolent per se. One day, Discord appeared to an elderly couple of ponies. Trickster that he was, he spoke to them: Fear not, for it seems to be your lucky day! I will grant you two three wishes. Speak — what do your hearts desire? Both ponies had grown old side by side. The mare looked to the side and into the standing mirror. And she saw her grayed hair. She saw those many wrinkles in her face. And she still remembered the beauty she once had. She followed the sudden impulse and said: I wish my youthfulness back! Discord grinned and snapped his lion paw. With a flash of bright white light, all the wrinkles were gone. She felt alive and strong again and not a single hair was gray. Her husband though, he watched in marvel at the miracle Discord so effortlessly performed, but then his expression soured. Enraged, he stormed over to her, grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her. What a dumb goose you are!, he yelled. You could have wished both of us young again! In his rage, he turned towards Discord and uttered their second wish. I wish for her to be smart enough to see how foolish she is! With a manic grin, Discord once again snapped his fingers and the veil of ignorance lifted from the mare. Now she saw the truth. She understood how they had poisoned each other for years and years with snide remarks barely veiled as compliments. How much he resented her, and she resented him. How habit and the fear of being alone had kept them together despite all the toxicity. And she grew angry with him. Angry that she had not seen it, angry that she had spent all her best years with such a miserable fool, angry that he tied her down like this. And in their anger, both turned to Discord and uttered their third wish. I wish he gets exactly what he deserves!, cried the mare. I wish she gets exactly what she deserves!, yelled the stallion. Discord chuckled. He bowed low and offered his gratitude for such a fine play, and he snapped his dragon claw. Both mare and stallion went back to the way things were before, old and ignorant and resentful beneath a thin veneer of routine. And neither remembered Discord ever appearing before them.”

Aurora was quiet. Quiet, but not asleep. I knew my little princess enough to know that she would never fall asleep during one of my stories. She was mulling the story over. Searching for clues and lessons. Because I had taught her that. There were always lessons to be had. In every story, no matter how unlikely it may seem.

“What happened to the old couple?” came the sudden intrusion from outside. The whispered voice of Honey was nothing I had expected, and Aurora probably noticed how I winced in surprise.

“You tell me,” I replied after a moment, after I had regained my composure.

“What does that even mean?” came Graphites voice.

It almost made me laugh. I kept it in and took a steadying breath. “It means that I told one story and a frankly astonishing amount of still awake ponies heard it, but no matter my intentions, everypony will still understand a different tale and may learn a different lesson from it.”

“Careful what you wish for,” Hefty concluded his lesson.

“Think before you speak,” Roseluck offered.

“Intelligence can be as much a hindrance as a blessing,” was Graphite’s submission.

“The obvious answer is: Never trust Discord,” the Doctor murmured.

While a discussion about the story and its potential meaning broke out in hushed whispers sent back and forth between the tents, Aurora almost inaudibly whispered into my ear. “Is that better for falling asleep?” I grinned and nodded. And I kissed her forehead as a silent thank you. She giggled softly, turned back around and snuggled against me.

And it was easy to fall asleep after that.

Only a few minutes later did I open my eyes on the dreamscape. Luna was already waiting for me. I grinned and sidled up to her side. “Hey kitten. Out of sheer curiosity — would you mind if I tell you a story, and then you tell me what you think it means?”