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I - Camponotus leonardi2,971 words
II - Sequoia sempervirens2,307 words
III - Armillaria mellea3,091 words
IV - Xanthoria parietina3,547 words
V - (untitled)973 words
VI - Ophiocordyceps unilateralis3,023 words
VII - Equus ferus caballus2,226 words

III - Armillaria mellea

“What kind of spell do you think did this?” Twilight asked as they neared the base of the stairs.

“I believe it was no spell at all.”

“But… but there’s no plants in Equestria—in anywhere—that can grow so quickly! This couldn’t have happened in one night.”

“It could,” Luna said, “if the night were long enough.”

Twilight voiced her sudden realization. “If our magic doesn’t work, then the moon can’t be lowered and the sun can’t be raised… Wait, so we might have been asleep the whole time while the plants took over Canterlot? How long would that take?”

“It is difficult to estimate. Many years. Possibly lifetimes, if the tree from the Everfree Forest grew naturally.”

Lifetimes? “Does that mean that everypony else could be…” She couldn’t bring herself to say what she was thinking. “…Gone?”

“That is unlikely.” Luna stepped around the remains of a stain-glass window without taking her eyes away from the path ahead of her. “Without the cycle of the moon and sun, life remains in stasis. There is no decay, no entropy, no passage of time. Even if we were asleep a thousand years, it would still only be a single night that passed when the sun is next raised.”

Twilight suddenly felt very small, the way she did sometimes when she watched the stars. “I didn’t know that.”

“Few do.” Luna looked at Twilight. “There are now three ponies that know what happens when the moon is not lowered to make way for the sun.”

Twilight lapsed into silent contemplation. An uncomfortable image was stuck in her head of a fly drowning in honey; first struggling, then tiring, and finally sinking, all at an impossibly slow pace. Suspended. Preserved. Had this happened to Equestria? Maybe a brief resistance, and then… nothing?

That might be why everypony else is missing, the dark part of her mind insisted.

But if everything’s suspended… then why…?

“Princess Luna—” Twilight began.

“Luna.”

“Hm?”

“You need not maintain the formality,” Luna said, “of addressing me as ‘princess’.”

“Oh. Sorry pr—” Twilight shut her eyes and sighed, then looked at Luna. “Sorry, Luna.” She briefly wondered if Cadance had suffered a similar problem.

“There is no need to apologize. You were about to say something?”

Twilight remembered what her thought had been. “The trees.”

“What about them?”

“If there’s no change, then how did the trees grow?”

Luna paused in her stride. “This I had not considered. Ponies and other creatures, yes, but the plants themselves…” Her voice was grave, ominous. “This makes the matter of their growth all the more worrying.”

The covered section of the walkway came to an end, torn down by a sea of kudzu. Rainwater washed over the uneven path, flowing down from the mountain and through the broken sections in the crumbling low wall on the other side. Twilight and Luna exchanged a glance, then stepped out into the rain together.

The walkway overlooked the levels of city built into the side of the mountain, each growing broader and wider as they descended down. Under normal circumstances it would have been faster to travel through the city rather than over it, but with the inner hallways turned into tunnels filled with roots, the longer route had seemed the most direct.

Somehow, neither of them had considered the rain as a factor.

Twilight flicked her mane out of her eyes and angled her head away from the direction of the downpour. The rain was as cold as the wind that came with it, but she wasn’t about to let it beat her. It wasn’t like she had never been wet before.

Luna, meanwhile, managed to keep facing rigidly forward into the torrent. Aside from her mane pooling close to the ground, heavy and slick with water, she looked unchanged.

They were about halfway to the sheltered passageway on the other side of the open section, stepping carefully through rushing water, when Luna asked, “Do you hear that?”

For a moment all Twilight heard was the rain, but then she was able to pick out a second sound: the low mournful howl of timberwolves. The two ponies turned in unison to see a mass of dark shapes descending down the slope of the mountain. It looked like the forest had come to life, liquid as the pouring rain.

“If we make a loud noise,” Twilight said, trying to keep her voice calm, “and focus all our attention on the alpha of the pack, we might scare them off again.”

The timberwolves spread over the path, blocking the way Twilight and Luna had come. The largest, the alpha striding at the head of the pack, locked eyes with Twilight, its rumbling growl mixing with the sound of drumming rain. For a moment all Twilight could see were its ethereal green eyes, level with her own with its massive bark head lowered.

Without needing a signal, she and Luna acted. Twilight reared on her hind legs and roared, an incoherent primal noise that took the fear sitting in the pit of her stomach and turned it outwards against the timberwolves. Luna flared her wings and used the full power and majesty of the Royal Canterlot Voice, commanding the alpha with reverberating imperatives of GET BACK and STAY DOWN.

For a second, Twilight thought they had been successful. Then the alpha snapped its gnarled jaws and snarled, making a noise of pure aggression, and the rest of its pack responded in kind. In the throne room, Twilight suddenly realized, sound could echo. Here it will all just vanish in the rain.

“What’s our plan B?” Twilight asked, taking a step backwards away from the advancing horde.

“Flee,” Luna said without hesitation.

So they did.

Twilight’s hooves pounded on the path, sending bursts of water into the air as she ran. The noises of the timberwolf pack baying and snarling sounded like they were surrounding her, but still she galloped without looking back. Her eyes were focused on the entrance to the building at the end of the mountain path. It was only a few furlongs away. If she and Luna could get there, they might be able to get behind a door, or lose the timberwolves somehow. They had to be able to. Had to.

The sluicing rainwater hid a traitorous obstacle course of thick weeds and vines. One of Twilight’s hooves caught on something and she went sprawling on to ground. As she scrambled to stand Twilight saw she had outpaced the timberwolves more than she had thought, but they were still near enough to close the distance in mere seconds.

Almost to the building. Twilight chanced a glance behind her and looked into the baleful eye of a timberwolf. She had to twist her body to move her hind leg out of the reach of its jagged maw. The sound of its jaw snapping shut was audible over the pouring rain and the grunting and growling of the pack. Luna passed beneath the ivy-clad archway in a single graceful movement and Twilight followed, steps behind her. Right inside the structure was a stairwell. There was no time to take each step gingerly; Twilight collided with Luna and they both slid down the stairs on a chute made of slick vines as if it were a helter skelter. Twilight spilled onto the lower level, ready to keep running, but Luna turned and stood her ground. Wings outstretched, she issued a deafening challenge to the first timberwolves starting down the overgrown stairwell.

“The first down shall receive a sound thrashing! I will kick your pack to splinters wolf by wolf! Hear the command of the Princess of the Night and obey! BEGONE!”

The timberwolves could only descend the stairs single-file, and with Luna guarding the exit, their prospects must have suddenly looked a lot less appealing than chasing down two ponies in the open. But they couldn’t stay here with Luna shouting up at the pack, Twilight realized. The stairwell exited out to a pavilion filled with trees; at its edge ran a wall topped with the walkway they had just galloped over. The timberwolves could just scale down the vine-covered section of the wall, and once they realized that, the little alcove at the base of the stairs would offer little protection. They could make a dash across the pavilion, but with all the trees it would be an environment more suited to the timberwolves.

Or, Twilight realized as she noticed the faint glow of mushrooms coming from a passageway leading into the mountain, they could disappear into the tunnels.

“Luna!” Twilight shouted. “This way!”

She ducked into the passageway, not thinking about what would happen were it to be a dead end or if the roots grew too thick inside to pass by or a million other things that could go wrong. Following the fungus-lights along the passage, Twilight was quickly reduced to edging along with her head lowered in the dark. She heard a dull knock, followed by a sharp intake of breath: Luna was right behind her, not managing to duck under a root Twilight had passed beneath.

The passage hooked to the side and opened into a wider chamber. Roots and moss covered the walls, and a giant luminescent mushroom grew from the ceiling like a natural chandelier. Another flight of stairs leading down began at the far side of the room, and a second passageway led back outside. Twilight crossed the lit chamber to inspect it, wary that the timberwolf alpha might be out there, waiting to catch sight or scent of them. Roots grew around a stone bench in the passageway, blocking any access.

Twilight turned back to Luna, who was looking at the mushroom on the ceiling. “I think,” Twilight said, pausing to catch her breath, “we lost them.”

“It would seem avoiding open terrain is the safest option.” Luna tilted her head, her damp mane falling to one side in a straggled rope. “It will be fortunate to also avoid the weather.”

“I think I might be able to do something about that,” Twilight said, then when Luna glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, she clarified: “Your mane. Not the weather. Could you kneel down a bit?”

Luna did so, her curious expression never wavering. Twilight went to her side. “Just look forward, and keep your head still. Now, how did this go…?” She took Luna’s mane and began coiling it into a thick wet rope. The large mushroom made seeing what she was doing easy, but the silence filled only with the sound of distant rain caused her to fumble. “That was really impressive,” she said, trying to imagine they were somewhere more normal—the library, for example—and were having a normal conversation. “With the timberwolves.” A little scary, her mind insisted on adding, bringing with it the image of a little colt from Trottingham, but impressive.

“It is your quick thinking that should be praised. Were this an ordinary night, they would not dare challenge me in such a fashion in my domain.” Twilight could feel the change in Luna’s voice when she spoke next, her flash of anger turning to introspection. “But, this is no ordinary night, and I fear it is my domain no longer. Tell me, Twilight: stripped of my magic, my subjects, and my kingdom, can you still believe me a princess of Equestria?”

“Your kingdom is still here,” Twilight said, “underneath the trees. And you still have one subject.” As she pulled Luna’s starry mane into place, she added: “You’re still my princess.”

“Perhaps that is enough.” Twilight couldn’t be certain, but it sounded as if Luna were smiling.

After a long pause, Twilight said, “I fixed your mane.” She had wound Luna’s mane into a tight knot at the back of her head, folding it over itself and using its own weight to hold it in place. Luna shifted her head from side to side, testing her new manestyle, then probed it carefully with a hoof.

“Most practical… how came you by this talent, Twilight?”

“I read it in Slumber 101: All You Ever Wanted To Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid To Ask. It said, and I quote, that giving a pony a new manestyle was is expression of trust, and an important bonding ritual. But this is the only manestyle from the examples I could get right every time when I practiced.”

“How fortuitous.” Luna got to her hooves. “Do you wish to lead the way?”

The flight of stairs that led them even further into the mountain Canterlot Castle was built upon was free of creepers and vines pushing their way in from the outside, and only in one place did the roots become difficult. Instead the stairwell was covered in the luminescent mushrooms, glowing and pulsing across a wide spectrum of color. Twilight had been to this area of Canterlot before—the day earlier it had been a shopping district, with an open market in the pavilion and niche boutiques and specialty stores branching off the subterranean passageways—and she had always found it stuffy and claustrophobic, even the bookstore with its collection of first editions displayed proudly in a glass case above the counter. Under the light of tens of thousands of mushroom caps instead of a dozen or so candles, the Canterlot hallway was transformed to a tunnel from an alien world.

“Such abundant growth…” Luna mused as they followed the passage along the curve of the mountain. “What causes them to thrive?”

“We must be near the roots of the bigger trees,” Twilight said. “Lots of fungus needs other plants to feed from. Maybe there’s more mushrooms because there’s more trees?”

“Perhaps,” Luna said, her eye catching on a sizeable orange mushroom, “but this still leaves us the problem of the size of the trees.”

“Or,” said Twilight, brightening suddenly, “or, what if it’s the other way around? What if the fungus makes the trees grow? Before I left Ponyville, I saw an ant with a strange fungal growth on its back. I’d never seen anything like it before, and I’ve never heard of mushrooms like these either. It’s a bit of a longshot that they’re connected, but…”

“No, it is a reasonable hypothesis. The fungus appears omnipresent among the flora. But if it is stimulating the plants to grow—”

“That would put it outside of the normal cycle of growth and decay, wouldn’t it?”

“It would.” Luna’s voice darkened. “Which raises some very troubling questions on its origins.”

“How do you mean?”

“The cycle of night and day, life and death was a creation of my sister and I. We—”

Twilight was floored. “You…” She had always assumed that universal concepts like that were… well, that they came with the universe. “How is that possible?”

“During Discord’s rule of Equestria, his intrinsic opposition of reality permanently altered reality. With him having free reign to do as he would, the laws of time, space, matter, magic, they ceased to be laws, reduced to mere suggestions. Celestia and I, using the combined magics of the three pony races to tap into the source of that magic, created a new set of fundamental underpinnings of Equestria, beginning with the cycle of the sun and moon as the cause of time passing. With a framework established, it became possible to reduce Discord's sphere of influence, and eventually unseat him and cast him in stone.”

As far as revelations Twilight had experienced went, this one rivaled both getting her wings and becoming Princess Celestia’s personal student. “But,” she protested weakly, “there’s history that goes back pre-Discord…”

“Fragments,” Luna said, “relics recovered from the chaos, distorted by word-of-mouth legend. There is no clear picture of life in Equestria before Discord’s reign.”

“You don’t remember anything from before Discord?”

“I do not. It is possible my sister and I were six separate ponies fused during the period of chaos, or that we were beings completely different from our current forms. Equestria may not have even been populated with ponies, even if it were anything like the Equestria we know. I may have never existed before the moment I suddenly appeared in the broken universe.”

“And you’re… alright with that?”

“I have had many years to accept that some things are unknowable. Ultimately, Twilight, origin is irrelevant. Action is what is important.”

Twilight nodded her head slowly, feeling unqualified to add comment. She had known alicorn magic was extremely powerful, beyond the scope of what even the most talented unicorns were capable of, but to reshape the world… to dictate the logic of the universe…

“But if the fungus comes from outside the natural order of things,” Luna said, picking up the thread of their previous conversation as if it had never strayed from the original topic, “then it is likely to only have one origin.”

“What?”

“Chaos.”

“You think Discord did this?”

“No, not precisely. Some aspects of his chaos lingered after Equestria regained structure. There was one place in Equestria that refused to obey order, and so retains a hint of that former chaos. A place that ignores the command of ponies.”

The similarities Twilight had hoped she had only been imagining suddenly seemed undeniable. “…It’s the Everfree Forest, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Untamed, untouched. Ever free. Canterlot was purposely placed within watching distance. Though, “she said, eyeing one of the larger mushrooms, “perhaps we did not watch close enough.”

They found a chamber similar to the one with the great mushroom on a lower layer to make camp, though this one was lit by a faint glow from beneath the roots that neither Twilight nor Luna could determine the direct source of. Twilight lay down on a nest of roots to sleep, while Luna stood facing the passageway they had crawled through.

In her dream, Twilight was back at the Ponyville library. She was reading aloud from a book entitled Princess 101: All You Ever Wanted To Know About Alicorns But Were Afraid To Ask, but all the pages were blank. When she lowered the book, she saw she was standing in front of the mirror she hardly even used that hung on the back of her closet door. From inside the mirror, Nightmare Moon looked back at her.

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