//------------------------------// // Welcome to the Past // Story: Spike's Doom and/or Destiny // by terrycloth //------------------------------// The Well of Demons looked disturbingly like an ordinary well – it had a well-worn but intact little roof, and a bucket and rope to lower down into the dark depths. It was located in the center of a small field on a promontory overlooking a large lake, with ponies playing frisbee and picnicking all around. Nopony paid any attention to them as they were led to the well in hoofcuffs, although the couple reading the informative sign moved aside to give the police priority. They were unceremoniously tossed inside, one at a time. Derpy’s wings were tied, since apparently you had to fall into the well to trigger the magic. Spike had expected some sort of magical portal effect, but if there was a portal in the well it was awfully subtle, and he slammed into the rocky bottom of the well exactly as hard as he’d been expecting not to. It hurt, and probably did a bunch of damage, but the hospital stay must have been good for something because he didn’t feel anywhere close to going down. Not even after the ponies landed on top of him, one after the other. Fortunately, Derpy had been the last one in, and after several minutes of wiggling and cursing, she managed to get the rope tying down her wings into position for Bon Bon to chew it apart, and then it was just a matter of airlifting them out. === Derpy closed her eyes in concentration, and a muffin descended from the heavens into Spike’s grip. “So… time travel, huh,” he said, nibbling on the muffin as he took a look at the park. It was the same field they’d started in, but there were twice as many trees, arranged in geometric patterns – some sort of orchard, maybe? It wasn’t exactly the same as they’d left, at least, so they were probably actually in the past now. “Do you think we’re here to accidentally change the future in some plot-critical fashion, or just to learn more backstory?” “I have to admit, this was a very plot-convenient punishment,” Moondancer said, levitating her own muffin up to her mouth. After a few bites she was able to move her head around, although the cast around her neck was still restraining her. Spike walked closer to help break it off with his claws. “Thanks,” she said, stretching it this way and that. “And thank you, Derpy. I don’t want to think about how long that would have taken to heal naturally.” Derpy smiled. “Don’t thank me, thank the Great Muffin!” “Thank you, Great Muffin,” Spike said, tilting his head towards the heavens, then turned back to Moondancer. “Can you imagine if they’d put us in prison? We’d just done a jailbreak, so a second one so fast would have started getting boring.” “We still need to go back for the rings,” Bon Bon said, trotting back over from the edge of the bluff, her injured eye healed as well. “But this should be a chance to replace our equipment, and maybe hunt some demons to restock our golz stores.” “Hopefully in that order,” Moondancer said. “I’ve still got my magic, and Spike has his firebreath, but we’re really not ready for a fight.” “The village is right down there, by the lake,” Bon Bon said, pointing towards the cliff. “We’re probably already inside its boundaries.” Derpy gnawed on her cast, trying to get it off now that the muffins had healed her leg. “Let’s not wait around then,” Spike said, slicing into the cast with his claws. “I feel naked without my armor.” === The burned out farmhouses between the well and the village suggested that they were not in a safe zone, but nothing attacked them before they made it to the village. A pair of griffons were circling overhead, and swooped down to intercept them as they approached. “Mortal or demon?” one of them asked, pointing a spear at Spike. “Isn’t it obvious?” Derpy asked. “Demons are tricky,” the other one said. “And earthbound travelers are rare. The roads aren’t safe.” “We’re mortal,” Bon Bon said. “Do you want to kill one of us to prove it?” “Just not me!” Derpy said, backing up a bit. “I have to do the resurrection!” “You’re a shrine maiden?” the first griffon asked, looking over at her. “If you can demonstrate some holy magic, that’d be proof enough for us.” “Um… Great Muffin, heal me…” Derpy said, pressing her hooves together underneath her chin, then holding one out to catch the glowing muffin that slowly descended from a crack in the sky, tinkling harp music playing as it descended in a column of golden light. “Wow, it’s been a while since you did it with all the effects,” Spike said. Derpy offered the muffin to the griffon, who stared at it suspiciously before prodding it with his spear. When it failed to react, he nodded. “Welcome to the Village of Flock. Due to the demon attacks, we’re under a strict curfew – nogriffon on the streets after nightfall. So I hope you brought some gold to pay for an inn.” Once the guards were back up in the air. Spike whispered loudly, “So… I didn’t say anything with the guards there, but aren’t we broke?” Bon Bon shook her tail until a small sack of coins fell out. She kicked it to Spike. “I managed to hide most of our money.” “Didn’t they search you?” Moondancer asked. Bon Bon shrugged. “Not well enough. We’ve only got a couple thousand golz left, so I doubt it’ll get us decent equipment, but it should be enough for an inn.” === The innkeeper, another griffon, looked bored. “10 gold per night. How many rooms do you want?” “Just one,” Spike said, counting out 10 shiny yellow coins. The innkeeper peered at the coins suspiciously, then picked one up and bit it. He spat it onto the floor. “What is this? You think I was born yesterday?” “It’s golz,” Spike said. “You know, money?” “This isn’t money,” the griffon said, slamming his talon onto the counter hard enough to make the remaining coins bounce. “It isn’t even gold-plated.” “It’s money where we come from,” Bon Bon said. “Then maybe you should go back there and buy some feathering gold,” the griffon snarled. “What’s the exchange rate?” Moondancer asked. “We’ve got more.” The griffon turned slowly to glare at her. “The exchange rate between gold and pyrite?” Derpy hovered up next to the innkeeper, and batted her eyelashes. “I don’t suppose we could pay in… some other way?” “Oh yeah,” Spike said. “Do you have any giant rats in the basement for us to go kill?” The griffon put one talon on Derpy’s muzzle, and pushed her back until she was on the other side of the counter. “I don’t do charity. Or ponies. Get out of here, you bums!” === The village didn’t have a job board, so they asked around until they annoyed enough griffons that they were sent to see the mayor. He seemed sympathetic, as griffons go. “So you want to earn some gold,” the massive griffon said, eyes hard and squinty. “Apparently, our money’s no good here,” Bon Bon said. “So we need some money that is.” “To spend locally,” Moondancer added. “Uh huh,” the mayor said. “What’s your trade?” “We’re heroes!” Spike said. The mayor just stared at him. “Adventurers?” he tried next. “That’s not a trade,” the mayor said, scowling. “It’s a long, drawn out form of suicide. If you’re lucky. Do you have any useful skills?” “Um…” Spike said. “I can cook?” Bon Bon suggested. “I specialize in candy, but I’ve had general training as a chef.” The mayor nodded at her. “Alright. There are several places in town that might use another talon in the kitchen. What about the rest of you?” “I’m mostly a scholar, I guess,” Moondancer said. “Although I don’t have any of my reference books with me. And most of them wouldn’t really apply to this world.” “I spent most of my life as an assistant librarian?” Spike said, trying to smile. The mayor rubbed at his forehead with his talons. “I said useful skills.” “I’m a mailmare!” Derpy said proudly. “Um… and I’ve got my cart license, and…” “And you can summon healing muffins,” Bon Bon said. “The guards called her a shrine maiden?” “Interesting,” the Mayor said. “Our shrine’s been vacant since… well, since we lost our last shrine maiden. It’s not a paying job, though.” “So the healing here is free?” Bon Bon asked. “We’re set for magical healing,” the Mayor said. “It’s the wards I’m worried about, and I don’t think that sort of magic even works if you pay for it. It’s based on purity, after all…” “I probably can’t do it then. My god pretty much works on money,” Derpy said. “And I’m not exactly a maiden.” “Shame,” the Mayor said. “Well, we’re always looking for new messengers, I guess. It’s technically paying work.” “Technically?” Bon Bon asked. “Nogriffon’s actually gotten a message through in about… three years?” He smirked. “It’s easy on the budget. Their bodies are never found, so we don’t have to officially declare them dead. We just fire them for being extremely late.” “No thanks, then,” Derpy said. “I don’t work well with time pressure. Or being eaten by monsters.” “So they stay dead?” Spike asked. “I’m guessing there’s no Giant Floating Crystal to tag here.” “Yeah, we’ve heard about those from other time travellers,” the Mayor said. “Must be nice, not to have to worry about dying.” There was a moment of silence. Spike eventually broke it. “I guess we weren’t really trying to hide it. But if it’s so awful here, why not just go through the well?” The Mayor lifted an eyebrow. “Because it’s one-way?” === In the end, the mayor placed Derpy on garbage hauling duty, since she knew how to pull a cart. It was still a little dangerous since it involved leaving the city limits, but she’d be in view of the air patrol the whole time. Spike was fireproof, so he was sent to help out at the forge. ‘Apprentice blacksmith’ wasn’t usually a paying position, but the forge-griffon grudgingly agreed to give him a few gold coins instead of providing the customary room and board. Moondancer eventually remembered that pottery was an actual job and not just something used for making firebombs. The potters were impressed by her attention to detail, and wanted to know more about the flammable concoction she usually filled her pots with. Bon Bon, of course, would work at the bakery. So with jobs lines up, they could stay in the village, provisionally at least. Unfortunately, none of the jobs paid any wages on the first day, especially when the first day was basically over by the time they’d worked everything out, and the innkeeper wasn’t about to let them stay on credit. They tried to set up camp in the darkening town square, but one of the guards came up to them while they were still gathering loose wood for a fire, and explained that even if they’d had tents and bedrolls, it would still be vagrancy. She helpfully offered to let them stay the night in jail… and an indefinite number of nights after that, until they could somehow earn enough money to pay the fine from their cells. They took the other option. “Why are all the griffons so mean!” Derpy pouted, after they’d cleaned up their attempted campsite and headed out of town. “She gave us a warning before slapping us with the fine,” Bon Bon said. “By griffon standards, she’s a saint.” “So now we’ve got to survive the night with no equipment,” Spike said. “I’m really not liking this time-travel sequence.” “The Well of Demons is supposed to be warded,” Moondancer said. “We’ll be fine.” “Or else we’ll die, and wake up back home,” Bon Bon said. “Or else we’ll die,” Moondancer said. “I don’t think getting out of here is going to be that easy.” “I really don’t think the game has perma-death,” Spike said. “We’d probably end up in Hel or something.” “Let’s not find out,” Moondancer said. No one argued with that. So they set up camp in the little orchard by the well. It certainly looked warded – not only were the plants green and healthy, compared to the rocky terrain all around, but as the sun set and the moon rose, the blossoms started to glow softly, no brighter than the moonlight but in a rainbow of colors. It felt safe. “So once we’ve resupplied here, how do we get back to the future?” Moondancer asked, as the heroes waited for sleep to take them. “Since we can’t just jump back in the well.” “We should have guessed it wouldn’t be that simple. I don’t think they’d leave the well unguarded in the future if refugees from a demon-haunted world kept popping out,” Bon Bon said. “I don’t know,” Spike said. “When we banish people from Equestria we don’t magically restrain them from coming back.” “We should check,” Derpy said, leaping into the air and grabbing Spike by his shoulders. He barely had time to say, “What?” before being dropped into the well. After a short fall and a loud crunch, he added, “Ouch.” Derpy called into the well, “Are you in the future, Spike?” “No, I’m just in a mucky well,” Spike said. “There isn’t even a magic sword in this one.” === “Hey!” came a loud shout, waking them all up. The sun was still beneath the horizon, but the sky was brightening with the imminent dawn. Spike groaned and sat up, stopping there as the pointy tip of a giant bone sword poked at his nose. Following it back, he saw it held in the teeth of a wine-red pony with an off-white mane and tail. “I thought I told all you demons to stay out of the orchard!” the pony growled around his sword. “We’re not demons!” Derpy said. “Don’t kill Spike!” “I don’t care what you are,” the pony snapped, sheathing his sword across his back. “This place is under my protection.” “And who are you?” Moondancer asked. “Where did you get that sword?” Spike asked. “How do you even lift it?” Bon Bon asked. “Do you want a muffin?” Derpy asked. The pony paused, then sat down in front of them. “Yeah, sure. I could go for some breakfast. And you don’t look much of a threat.” Derpy summoned a muffin for him. As it floated down from the heavens, his mouth whipped to his sword and started to draw it, only to stop halfway. He let go, and made loud sniffing noises in the direction of the muffin. “Holy magic… but it’s not purity,” he said, then snatched it out of the air with his teeth. He bit down, and went a bit crosseyed. “Mercy?” “They’re supposed to be used for healing,” Spike explained. “But if we’re too lazy to cook we just eat them for meals sometimes.” “The Great Muffin doesn’t mind!” Derpy said. “As long as everyone loves muffins, it doesn’t matter why.” “Are you a demon?” Moondancer asked. “I’m Night Dog,” the pony said, narrowing his eyes. “The demons know my name.” “I’m Spike,” Spike said. “That’s Bon Bon, Derpy, and Moondancer. We’re not demons.” “But we knew some demons,” Moondancer said. “And we traded Mercy Muffins to them. I haven’t seen anypony else call them that.” “So you’re in league with them,” Night Dog scowled. “Not yet,” Derpy said. “That’s all waaaay in the future.” Bon Bon nodded. “We’re just here to re-equip after the jerks in New Mech City stole our stuff.” “Are we just telling everyone that we’re time travelers now?” Moondancer asked. “I’m not complaining, I’d just like to be clear on this.” Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “He guards the well. I think he knows.” “Does he know how to get back once we’re done here?” Spike asked. “Yeah, of course I do,” Night Dog said. “But you can’t. Only Twilight can open the well from this side.” “Twilight?” Spike asked. “You know Twilight?” Night Dog nodded. “She’s the shrine maiden who keeps this well running. She was from the future too.” He held out a hoof towards Derpy, who looked at it for a little while and then filled it with another muffin. “She used to go back and forth a lot, but since the last thing she did with it was go back in time, that’s all you can do with it until she switches it back.” “So to get back, we have to find her,” Spike said. “Thanks! Now we know what our quest is.” “You don’t have to find her,” Night Dog said. “Everyone knows where she is. You just have to defeat the invincible demon holding her prisoner.” “And how do we do that?” Spike asked. “You don’t,” Night Dog said. “He’s invincible. You think I haven’t tried?”