Odyssey of my friendship

"Entry 7. I'm not sure what it is about this world I've been transported to. I was glad at first that it was an evergreen forest. But it turns out it's not: the local, ugh, flora is completely unfamiliar to me. There are similarities, but this is different. And the crown is gone again. By the way, it's much easier to breathe here than on the sandy planet. I think it's the abundance of greenery around here. It'll be nice to make ourselves some sort of siege camp here, just to rest and finally eat! And drink plenty of water! The forest is difficult, very thick, you can't see very well where you're going. If you don't have a natural compass, you can get lost literally behind the second tree".

"Is it just me, or is someone following me? The burning sensation of someone's gaze melting the back of my head. Must be my imagination running wild. Speaking of which! There's such a wide variety of flora here! But there's not a single member of the fauna! Hmm, not even any insects."

Twilight reproached herself for putting insects in a separate kingdom, it was wrong from the point of view of biology, but for the less educated this knowledge is vague and meaningless.

"Hmmm... It's worth a snack. I don't know of any edible plants in this place, but I think if I cut off some of this bush... Yeah, with what to cut it off with? Right!" She pulled out a couple of stones from the past world from her bag and created a machete of sorts, though it took a lot of work to make the weapon sharp enough to use transmutation. Cutting down a bush, she picked it up with her telekinesis and studied it with her gaze. "It smelled like grass. Just like in our world, well. Now let's turn this organic stuff into fruit. Well, well... Great! Phosphorus, zinc, most vitamins are present, potassium and even selenium. That's great! The fruit resembles an apple! Eh...apples...reminds me of Applejack, how I long to see you all again, my dear friends...I'll make some fruit..."

Finally filling her stomach to the fullest, she smiled contentedly.

"It's not for nothing they say that life is better on a full stomach. There's still time to make a temporary home. So, sorry, nature, survival is of the utmost importance to me now. The most important task!"

With enviable persistence and enthusiasm she began to clear the clearing and build herself a hut from lianas and wood materials. And it turned out very well. The three foals had taught her a little bit about it.

"She ate, drank, had a warm place to stay. It is necessary to use everything that is available and to the fullest, while it is possible, it is the key to survival on a foreign land."

* * *

This night there was a tropical downpour, luckily, the hut was made on a conscience and did not collapse from the rain. The night on the grass bed was the best night I've had in the last three or four days. The main thing was that it was warm and dry. The temperature seemed to be the same even at night as it was during the day.

"Recording 8. The paranoia is starting to burn me with renewed vigor. It's two o'clock in the morning. And I... woke up not from the rain pounding on the leaves, not from the wind rustling loudly on the edge of the trees, no... I feel like I'm being watched... Goosebumps running across my skin. But I quickly calmed down when, after scanning the area with detection magic for living entities, I found no one and continued my dream."

* * *

The morning was surprisingly pleasant. After eating again, Twilight began to study the plants, and, unsurprisingly, there was nothing but plants.

"There really is nothing and no one here... Should that be strange? In other words, there's an entire world or parallel reality where the entire local, or maybe even planetary biome is a forest. Hmmm... No presence of predatory plants. That's strange too, given the centuries of evolution, at least there should have been a separation of plants into predators, parasites and possibly other species, but no. Plants get along and don't conflict with each other. Hmmm... If you put it that way, just kidding, even now I am the most dangerous species here. Haha. Ohhhh. Twilight... It's not good to go into that kind of reasoning out loud... In case it becomes a habit and I'm considered schizophrenic. The Princess of Friendship is schizophrenic... Ooh..."

"Yeah!" she looked up to the sky and shouted heartily, "What else can I do?! If I'm alone?!" As if hoping for something or even someone, she exhaled, realizing that it really didn't make sense. "Well, what's the condition of finding the crown this time? I... I don't see much of a problem here. Could it be that in this way, the crown is giving me a chance to rest? I still don't understand, if the crown is giving me a vacation, I'd be perfectly content at home! In my home world!"

* * *

"So, I've unraveled about seventy pages from her diary, princess. I'm sorry I couldn't extract more..."

"It's okay, Starlight, I'm very pleased with your efforts and progress, you are a worthy student of your mentor," Celestia smiled at the gesture from Starlight, who was now acting like Twilight when she wasn't doing what she wanted to do.

"Yeah..." Starlight's assistant sighed, proofreading and rewriting something off the pages. - She met someone in the woods, I'd have been sure to run... Though... wherever I went, she would have found me. Strange creature.

"What kind of creature, Sunburst?" Celestia looked at him curiously.

"Read it for yourself, Princess," the stallion handed her a "reprint book" of Twilight's exploits and accomplishments."

* * *

"Entry 9. You know, I didn't get much sleep again today, though I feel just fine. The aching in my wings is gone. My hooves are gone from the desert marathon. I'm eating plenty, filling my belly to the brim and drinking the purest water, which is delicious. But... I can't shake the feeling that I'm being watched."

"Rustling?"

Twilight hadn't expected the sudden sounds among the bushes behind her. Once again, someone's gaze was on her, only this time it pierced through her back. Turning around, she felt... panic? No. A sense of impending death? Perhaps, but no... The look, that damn look again... Was she really that scared of that bush? No, something else entirely. A drop of sweat ran down her face, she couldn't take her eyes off the bush, she felt like if she did, she'd be finished. Accumulated stress? No... Why? The paranoia's kicking in again, though. You know that feeling when you're being watched through a window, but you're trying not to get caught? Well, it's the same feeling here, but through the green foliage.

"Come out, whoever you are! I know you're in there!" Shouted Twilight loudly into the wooded thicket.

Surprisingly, the gaze fell on her after that.

"W-w-what was that b-b-b-been...?" Twilight muttered weakly and sat down on the ground. Her limbs stiffened with fear. Was she scared of the forest? No... Something else was scaring her. Something... Something incomprehensible and something inanimate, she didn't know what or who it was... "Eh... hah..." trying to catch her breath, she waddled with her bags to the camp. "So... Hush, Twilight... You're an alicorn, a powerful being. You're once again, huh... Getting yourself in a tailspin...."

How she wished she could see some pony she knew, someone she could find support in, if only morally or aesthetically, whatever. Just someone to talk to so she could vent and cool off.

"So... I won't sleep a wink tonight, it's worth following this thing..." Twilight began to clear the area around the camp. Making a large circle and trampling the ground, using magic to squeeze it into a dense mass that would not allow plants to grow through. "This way... I'll feel much better both mentally and physically. If that's not enough, I'll put up a fence. Hmmm... It's getting dark, okay... Eat, drink, and do air tests. It's worth trying to find a plant that resembles coffee. Coffee would help me stay awake at night."

* * *

"Surveillance again. Quiet. You know what's missing? Any kind of natural noise from nature. There's insects flying around. Birds singing. Or even monsters howling," Twilight would have been monologuing with herself if she hadn't felt that very same gaze on her skin. He was looking over her back again. "C-c-c-creepy...."

Gritting her teeth and overcoming her fear, she turned slowly and froze in horror. She gritted her teeth with renewed vigor. It was as if her brain refused to work and think rationally, and was generally on the verge of shutting down and saving her mistress from the growing horror. She saw more than just a look, this time two yellow eyes peering out of the bushes, disproportionately large for a normal creature. As if they were just hanging in the air, without a body, this time the creature was closer than yesterday.

"Tuff... faf... fafa... fafa fafa fafa..." the alicorn mumbled.

Staring into it, she was horrified. The magic sensors were silent! They didn't react in any way to the fact that it was alive. It had definitely been watching her in past times. Twilight took frequent and short breaths in panic. Closing her eyes in hopes that it would go away, she opened her eyes - and there were those tracking lights again. The stare wasn't threatening. It didn't even cast a light. The eyes, like drawn or ripped from comic book pictures, were unnatural. They just stood out as a bright color in the thicket.

"N-no... No... No... Shh..." she whispered, trying to keep her panic at bay. "It left yesterday, didn't it? Get away, p-p-please... Please, please, get away! Stop following me!" Twilight spoke as loudly as she could, as if trying to scare the creature away.

She couldn't hold back her tears of terror. She couldn't stand the sight of it. But surprisingly, it worked again. It was gone... Or rather, it dissolved into a green mass. Breathing heavily, she sat down at the entrance to the hut, afraid to feel that alien presence again. Until morning, she did not sleep a wink, nor did she even try to move to change her body position.

As the first rays of the sun came out from behind the horizon, Twilight shook her head.

"So... Let's draw conclusions. Why am I so afraid of this? It's new. It's incomprehensible, and it's also intelligent, judging by its behavior. And the forest looks like an evergreen from my world. So, all of that aside, the following can be put forward: it's non-aggressive, it's not attacking me... But it's scary as hell... Ugh, man. I need to study this."

Overcoming the shaking of her hooves and the rapid heartbeat that drummed against the membranes of her ears, she stood up, slowly opening her eyes, afraid to see something again, and looked out.

"Hey! Whoever you are! I am not hostile! And I don't wish you pain or harm. Come here, please! We'll discuss everything calmly!" Twilight said as loudly as she could, but there was no response.

"Well... I think it will come to me, and as long as I don't show hostility, it will come closer... I'm sure of it. Really... I wouldn't want it to..." she mumbled quietly, but then she cheered loudly, "No! I'm a researcher! I shouldn't be afraid of such things! I'm not a little colt! Get a grip on your hooves and study it!" That's a much better attitude.

After cutting down a couple of plants for lunch and transmuting them, she felt the direct effect of the gaze behind her again, sending chills and goosebumps down her spine.

"Ugh... Okay, pull yourself together..." she turned around slowly and steadily and froze again in horror.

The eyes seemed bigger this time.

"Come here. I... I..." she clenched her teeth to keep them from clattering together and muttered, "I won't hurt you." she held out her front hoof in a gesture of friendship, trying to show him or her that she wasn't hostile.

It showed the ability to move for the first time. And this time in her direction. Fear was replaced by surprise. A creature, completely identical in outward structure to the pony, but with distinct features, was walking toward her. Where there should be a mane, there was grass that hung to one side in strands, like a hairdo. In places, like hairpins, growing flowers could be seen. Was it itself covered in fur? Fur? No... It looked like moss. In our world, there is moss that is little more than one or two centimeters long. The smell of the swamp accompanied the creature, and it seemed to be her after all, judging by the features on her face.

"Wow..." Twilight muttered quietly. The fear was gone, though the look still made her stammer a little. But all in all, no big deal. As she stepped closer, strands of hanging lichen became visible along the sides of the creature. A mixture of mushrooms and algae.

"Hmm, interesting," she peered at her hooves. It was hard to see behind the tightly hanging veil of grass, moss, and other plants, but dark, compacted clumps of wood and apparently dead plants were visible. Though the latter was unclear.

"Who are you? Tell me your name."

She couldn't say anything in response, couldn't make a sound. The creature's gaze was now curiosity in Twilight's direction. Of course, so many years of nothing like this, and here was a creature so foreign to this world. It sniffed at Twilight's hoof and recoiled.

"My name is Twilight, and I am from another world!"

The creature staggered back, glaring at her. Alicorn wanted to move towards it, but it instantly fell into the ground as if there was a hole.

"Wait!" she shouted after her.

But in her place was only a green meadow with flowers growing.

"Hmm... She's afraid of me too, I guess? Well... It's not an animal, it's probably an intelligent plant? But how does it move without a root system? I could chalk it up to being a mutation of the tumbleweed species, but... Does it look like me? To our species... Eh... She won't let me study herself further."

Snacking on an apple, Twilight recorded her observations in her journal. Looking for pertinent information, she searched the farthest corners in the darkness of her brain. And she found nothing possible of belonging to a scientific species there. Soon she came to a section of her memory called Mythology.

"She looked like a... Dryad? Yes... Why not? Is she a spirit of this forest? What if she came from the will of the forest itself? A child born of nature's will. Hmm, well, it's worth analyzing all this data," as she said the last words, the alicorn once again felt a gaze coming towards her. "Oh, she dared to study me again? Well, this time I'll try not to move and scare her off, let her examine me to make sure I'm friendly. Let her get used to me a little bit."

Twilight did just that. She walked out of her hut towards her and walked until she stopped in front of her, the dryad moving in sync with Twilight and stopping as well.

Studying the forest dweller closely, Twilight pretended that her gaze wasn't so frightened now. After two minutes of the staring game, the one started moving towards her again. She got close enough that you could smell her scent. Hmm, it wasn't as inviting as it might have seemed at first. To the smell of the swamp, there were added tinges of smells of tina, moss, and mushrooms...

Twilight calmly let herself be sniffed by the strange creature. Standing up in front of her, she lifted her hoof. The hiker saw shreds of moss and greenery break away from her hoof and reach up to her face. Allowing herself to be touched, the alicorn closed her eyes, ostensibly giving her consent.

'psh...' the dryad hissed softly and let out some dust from her hoof right into Twilight's face.

"Uphhhh! Ugh!"

Twilight drew back sharply, trying to catch her breath while sneezing loudly. Her eyes were watery and itchy, and her nose was filled with some sort of bitterness. Trying her best not to be too loud, she resigned herself to looking at the forest creature with half-open eyes, but it didn't react in any way and watched her curiously.

Soon, it left her alone, falling somewhere underground.

"Where's the water? Oh, that's disgusting, ugh!" Twilight diligently rinsed her eyes and healed them with her own magic. "I didn't know I was allergic to some kind of plant spores. She probably didn't mean to do it or didn't realize that I wasn't a plant like some people, so... I don't blame her for that oversight. Creatures sometimes do strange things when they don't know who or what's in front of them. I'll take that as a sign of friendliness. Ahchoo!"

* * *

The day passed quickly enough. Twilight continued to study the local flora, finding more and more species. Toward evening, after dinner, she felt a little sick.

"I'm exhausted today, I should go take a nap, I'm feeling a little weak. I'll go to bed early."

It was only at night that she realized that something bad was happening to her. Unable to sleep, she got up to check her body and quickly came to some conclusions, which she wrote down in her journal.

"Entry... 10..." the handwriting was a bit illegible, for when Twilight held the quill with her telekinesis, it shook. That pollen that got on my face wasn't as harmless as I thought... I was doing some tests... Nggh!..!! soon switched to hoof input, making the handwriting seem even uglier. She poisoned me, and from the looks of it, it wasn't a harmless fertilizer or feed, but mushroom spores... Like those poisonous ones. They're of the Amanita genus. I don't know...and then the handwriting broke off. And the rest of the text had DNA traces of some kind of scraps, and later tests revealed food residue from vomiting."

* * *

"Where am I?" Twilight woke up somewhere other than her cabin. The smell of mulched grass hit her nose. "It's so hard..." She teleported herself and sat down on the ground, unable to stand on her own four feet. "Detox! Healing! Antidote! At least something would work!"

But nothing was working on her body, this poison seemed to have affected the magical component as well. She was breathing hard and the constant pain throughout her body made her hot and cold.

"Faust, help me. If it continues like this, I'll go crazy... I need to be cured. I can't die here like this... No... Ngggh... What are you looking at me for?" The look of yellow eyes filled with curiosity was directed at her just in time. "Are you waiting for me to die? I thought you were harmless, that I could communicate with you somehow, but you're being so mean and trying to bury me alive in humus. I'm not your fertilizer! OUCH!" her abdomen twisted with pain. "Okay, liver's the first thing to go. Vomiting's a good sign. It means the body's fighting. Chances of survival are one in two. Uh-huh."

He's looking at the sky. The clouds are clumped together, forming rain masses that should be pouring down on the ground soon.

"Soon it would rain, we must get to the hut... And to drink, because I'm very thirsty... Well, diarrhea came too...."

It was fifteen or twenty meters to the hut, but it took the alicorn half an hour to get there. The rain, which had soaked her body and fur to the skin, was getting heavier. She leaned into the puddle and drank greedily. She didn't care if it was dirty or muddy, she needed the moisture. Already inside, the pony lay down on her other side, still holding onto the sore spot. Breathing deeply, Twilight began to think out loud. It seemed like it had been hours, she was getting used to the pains, and they didn't bother her now. The nice thing to do would have been to wash up her own shit, but that was a luxury she could forget about right now.

Twilight's voice was pained and heavy:

"So. Second twenty-four hours. If I pass out now, I may never get out of whatever mire she's burying me in. Okay. Can't sleep. It's good for the body, though. Think, Twilight. Think. Think of all your friends. Think of your family. They're your support, they're your willpower. I will overcome whatever challenges are thrown in my face."

* * *

"Ms. Applejack, this way. Lie down, and we'll get started shortly."

With a brief briefing again, Applejack was plunged into slumber, where she soon met Twilight.

A hesitant walk towards her and a light touch on her back got Twilight to pay some attention.

"Sugar, how are you?" Applejack started the conversation.

"Uh-huh, so they sent you second. Good..."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine! You just need to rest."

I heard a chuckle in response.

"I've been lying here for five or six days. They should have bothered to wake me up or at least try, and they keep trying and trying to study my body. What do they want from it?! What are they trying to do?!"

"Oh, sugar, I mean... I didn't mean to offend you. I'm sorry, just in case."

"They're afraid of me, aren't they?" Twilight, who was now a head taller than Applejack, turned to her. "Are you afraid of me?" She squinted her eyes at her. "You wouldn't lie to me, Element of Honesty."

"I'm sorry, Twi. To be honest, I am indeed a little afraid of you, but that doesn't matter now. I've come to help you."

Twilight didn't seem satisfied with the answer, but more importantly, she didn't make it worse.

"And how is the Element of Honesty going to help me?"

"Well... Huh. Let's start by starting the conversation in a more friendly manner. Twi, you used to have a different way of talking. And you never looked down on us. "The element of honesty." Yeah, I'm proud of it. But my name is Applejack."

"Hmm. There is a difference..." she muttered to herself, making notes in her head.

"Stop analyzing, Twi! You're in your own world! I'm standing in front of you! It's disrespectful to ignore me!" Applejack wrapped her hooves around her muzzle and turned her around.

"Hey, Applejack. I know you better than anyone, and I know what would hurt you the most. You care about your family."

"What?" she pulled away, staring into the abyss of her eyes. They turned black in an instant.

Applejack instantly fell into a stupor, staring into the bottomless darkness. Various moments flashed before her eyes where Twilight had mercilessly killed both her and the Apples from other worlds, including foals and old men. Scenes of their deaths flashed across Applejack's gaze, causing mute horror on her friend's face.

"Mommy, Daddy, little brother, little sister, no..."

She sat there like a zombie, while Twilight's memories slowly flowed into her head. But she couldn't move, she was in shock. And when Twilight finally took pity and stopped implanting those horrible things into her memory, Applejack closed her eyes. Tears pooled on her eyelashes and streamed down her face, colliding on her chin and falling to the floor.

"'It's..."

"It's all me," Twilight turned her back to her indifferently. "Tell me..."

"No, you tell me! Tell me honestly! Please! You killed them out of necessity, that's all you did."

The other exhaled in response and after a pause, said:

"Yes."

"Then... Then..." tears were pouring from her eyes. Twilight nodded understandingly. "Then I have nothing to blame you for!"

Twilight's eyes opened wider at those words, as if a piece of her old self had returned to her mind.

"You saw what a monster I was to them!"

"I'm sure it's all for a reason! And you only showed me moments of pain and loss. I'm sure you've saved many more lives and even worlds!" She sounded so confident...

"But you can't say that without direct evidence..." Twilight turned around and said reasonably.

"But I am sure! Because you are Twilight Sparkle. The Element of Magic! And the Princess of Friendship! And our old friend!" Applejack hugged her tightly, standing up on her hind hooves.

Twilight stared deadly at her orange mane, feeling the memories of the smiles and happiness of all the lives she had saved slowly flow into her head.

"I'm sorry I hurt you."

"It's okay. I won't let them hurt you and I won't leave you. And I won't let you go on any more adventures like this alone!"

Twilight soon hugged her with her hoof. Later, they both pulled away from each other. Applejack smiled as she looked at her and began to dissolve.

"I'll be sure to come to you again, and nap time is coming to an end, sugar!" Applejack smiled cheerfully at her and soon disappeared, waking up.

"And I'll be waiting for you..."

* * *

"Ah!" Twilight smelled the familiar smell of humus again. "How do I explain to her that I'm not fertilizer? Oh."

Her hooves were stuck in utter helplessness, her wings humming and stiff under the weight of the mass. It was hard to breathe.

"Magic doesn't work... And there's no strength to move..."

Consciousness was slowly leaving the alicorn again, so she covered her eyes and resigned herself to the fact that she was remembering everyone at this moment, but for some reason the memories of one zebra mostly came into her head. Zecora, the herbalist and healer who was always talking poetry. Quietly, poems about difficult moments when everything seemed to be over and there was no way out.

"Don't you dare peck the water with your nose, Don't you dare lift your head up, Though it may seem stronger than it is."

"Yes... Zecora, I remember..." his eyes slowly faded, the last breath coming out of his lungs.

"The silent green guardian came, he took what he had and left quietly. Don't let him, even if you suffer, you can defeat the weed, you know."

Her breath caught, similar verses were just right for this situation. She breathed with renewed vigor, and the humus was porous enough to breathe through it like a sponge.

"Am I going to lose to this weed? Never in my life! I'll get out! I'm getting out of here!"

In spite of the pain, she compressed the humus around her with the force of her hooves, creating an empty space to maneuver, began to dig upward. At this moment, apparently anger, rage, and the will to live were sparkling in her eyes. To live and win! To live and not die!

"You can't defeat this mountain by force, you have to be smarter in times of need. I know you, my friend. You can't find a smarter..."

"...in the whole world of me!" Twilight chanted the verse as she climbed out of the soil. A hoof appeared above the ground. It was scratched bloody from moving and digging. Again the look of those eyes, but this time they didn't frighten her. This time they were running away, more in fright. "I will destroy you!!!" Twilight shouted loudly.

It seemed that this scream was no longer from a dying animal, but from a wounded beast that was trying to kill. Raindrops fell on her wet mane, washing the dirt off her body. Turning toward her hut, she walked faster and more confidently. Willpower burned in her heart.

* * *

After sitting up all night trying to make an antidote, Twilight realized that it wasn't easy in the current realities, but she could support her body with some sort of medicine. Liver and kidney support, as well as natural caffeine for wakefulness and herbal antibiotics. That was all she could get out right now.

"Record 12. Today I might not have continued my research any further and might not have come back alive at all. But today I realized...you can't give up! No matter who gets in my way, I'm going to stop him. I'm in pain, I'm in a lot of pain. That's the poison she sprayed in my face. But what she doesn't know is that I've prepared something special for her too, so she won't be left in my debt."

And so it really was. Twilight had concocted an extract from yellow flowers and the rotting remains of poisonous century-old mushrooms that had already grown the size of the local trees. A respirator gathered from leaves and vines saved her from poisonous pores and pollen.

"Uh-huh. That'll do it."

Soon the flask was filled with a yellow liquid. Natural herbicide. Kills plants dead. As the chlorophyll ceases to function, the plant quickly wilts, turns yellow, and eventually dies.

After washing her hooves, Twilight changed her respirator and went outside, holding a glass bottle with a homemade atomizer.

"I can see you, don't be afraid, come here."

The creature clearly must not know what she had in store specifically for her encounter. Just like last time, it began to approach her. Without giving any hint of sudden movements or loud noises. Waiting, waiting. There it was, literally half a meter away from her. Her pupils remained unchanged, still yellow. Twilight's gaze was hard and menacing. And again the same curious expression flashed across her face at the mere sight of the strange contraption Twilight had put on her face. Raising her hoof again, she wanted to spray another dose of venom, but it didn't work. The alicorn literally pressed her plant-like limb into the ground with a hoof. With her second, she sprayed herbicide into the green heap's face.

Now it was her turn to sneeze and wonder until she pulled away and tried to escape in her standard way of going through the ground. But here was the trouble. The surface beneath her was solid enough to prevent her from dissolving on the spot. Then she tried to run away. But Twilight pinned her tail to the ground, spraying more and more from the atomizer right at her.

"Moooooooooh!!!" came from the creature.

"Now you understand how I felt when you did the same thing... I'm sorry, but you left me no choice! But unlike you, I have feelings, regret and sympathy!"

The dryad slowly dried up and turned yellow. You could see that she was in pain and was thrashing in agony. Twilight took her weapon and raised it above her. Without remorse, she stabbed at her neck. With a crunch of sliced cabbage, she pulled away from her body. A blow, another blow. Literally shredding the creature, she soon came to its head and took one last look into its fading eyes.

"I'm sorry-" Twilight let tears fall. She had never killed an animal or another creature. But give her a little more will, and Twilight would definitely not wake up tomorrow. "I'll take care of this forest... Sleep well, Dryad..." she crushed her head with a powerful blow and felt a gust of wind coming from her.

Green smoke rose from her corpse and soon dissolved into the air. Exhaling a breath, the alicorn stuck her weapon next to a pile of dried yellow grass that had once been a forest spirit and guardian of this forest. Taking off her respirator, she went to the hut to finally get some sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Twilight took a handful of homemade pills. They didn't make her feel better, but they did dull the pain, and more importantly, they didn't make it worse. She walked over to the handful of already blackened grass and piled it all up, setting it on fire with magic. But only lightly, so as not to inadvertently burn the forest.

"Rest in harmony... Forest spirit..." she exhaled and left a makeshift cross in the form of two tied sticks. It was probably as a tribute to the dead rather than anything else.

"Entry 13. No more changes I felt and no new things were learned. Today, in the interest of survival, I took a disgusting step... I actually killed a living being. Inside my soul there is only emptiness... Well. I have nothing else to describe today."

Indeed, she often wrote out some data and figures, but today was an exception. She wanted to rest, and after making herself a softer bed and taking a handful of pills again, she tried to rinse and clean herself in some way. Cleaning her machete, she sat and thought while she prepared everything she had. She made some conclusions for herself, which she wrote in her journal.

"In any new world, one must keep one's ear to the ground. Even the most seemingly harmless and lovable creature can be your swift demise."

"Even if you're on the verge of death. Even if you're buried alive. As long as your mind is clear, as long as your will is strong, fight and fight. Good memories will be your best help."

Twilight assembled some sort of shell or something resembling a poniqen out of wood and pieces of plants. And approached it, placing her hoof against its forehead.

"Show yourself, light spirit. My way of life. Come to good service. To you I give this decree. Protect this world, that is my command," Twilight, energized by the magic of the environment, created a golem of wood and branches.

Soon the construct took the shape of Twilight and spoke in a hollow voice.

"Your orders?"

"Guard this forest from its enemies. Do not kill anyone. Help those in need. Study and explore. I give you free will, my golem."

Releasing her, the golem nodded, running off deep into the forest.

Half a minute later, the golem returned on its own for some reason. Twilight was surprised that it was so early, and wanted to ask what was wrong, but the answer was the thing on its head. A crown. The Crown of Harmony. She walked up to Twilight, and with a curt nod she dropped the crown into her hooves.

"So I helped save the world. Heh..." she stroked the cut of the star crystal and thought for a moment. "Apparently, not every condition has to be true to constitute saving or fixing the world. One must overcome oneself and one's limits. Well, my only companion in life. Let's go..."

Taking her bags, pills, machete, diary, food and water, Twilight prepared to leave this dimension. The crown soon opened a portal. A gray color filled the ripples in its middle. Taking a deep breath, she crouched down on the walkway, looking around at the outside world.

"I accept responsibility, what I have done, and realize that sometimes some sacrifices have to be made to achieve my goal. Now I must go."

Stepping through the portal once more, she sank into her thoughts, her heavy musings. It was heavy this time as well. What else awaited her in the future, she did not know.

* * *

"I don't think it's considered open murder. For the good of our lands, we have come to such defenses many times. It's not murder. Twilight, it's taking your own life. My dear apprentice," Celestia said, as if the journal was a letter to Twilight and she had to send her a reply.

* * *

"How is my child doing? Is she still protecting this forest, or has she died trying to do so... I may never know..."