//------------------------------//
// Chapter 68: Deeper Dark 
// Story: The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse: The Equestrian Adventure 
// by wingdingaling 
//------------------------------//







	Chapter 68: Deeper Dark


The bounty of the ibhuqu flowers was cherished by all. From the moment the sun appeared in the little clearing at the heart of the jungle, all feelings of animosity and predation were forgotten. The ant dined with the aardvark. The mice were ferried up to the trees by the talons of eagles, where they could feast upon the bounty.
In one corner of the grove, a family of spiders yanked down their web to allow passage to a swarm of flies. Upon entering the grove, they buzzed directly over to the open ibhuqu and the leftover fruits that were lying about.
Truly, there was no happier part of the jungle that day.
Up in the branches, a family of monkeys stamped on top of a hanging fruit, until it fell from its branch. The fruit bounced off of the nearest branch, landed and rolled along the undulations of a python’s body, and had bites taken out of it by any animal that was in its path, until it was nothing but an overly large pit. Once that was all that was left, the python flipped its tail up, sending the pit into the air, then dropped to the ground and was embedded into the soil by a troop of ants.
All was well in the world. Their own little patch of heaven. And it was all theirs. But as it is with all good things, this happy time had to have an end.
It started when a bird realized that it could no longer see the little worm that was crawling around the outside of an enormous fig. The bird pipped an alert to any animal around it who could hear, and they all turned to face the source of the sudden darkness.
High above, the sun was moving away from the little window in the canopy. In only a short time, the light would be gone from their home. 
Silence filled the little grove. Any joy that had been felt was fading slowly with the sun.
Gentle rustling sounded through the underbrush. After what sounded like some struggle, a harried-looking porcupine emerged. His breaths were shallow and his quills were stuck full of twigs and leaves. And for all his hurrying, he was dismayed by what he found.
The light grew dimmer by the moment in the grove. For too long, he and all the others lived in the darkness of the abyss. Too long they had waited for the light to return. Now that it was going, despair settled in. Even with the bounty of the ibhuqu, it would be another year before they were ever going to see much of anything again.
As it was, the animals all huddled slightly closer to the middle of the grove and resumed their feast.
In the middle of it all, the crystals reflected the light, which seemed to flicker like a dying candle. It wouldn’t be long now. It was just a matter of time.



Nearly nothing could be seen beyond the light of the grove. Only vague outlines of anything that could have been a branch, or a trunk, or a flower, or anything else that didn’t move. Anything that did move was seen for only a second, before it was swallowed up by the dark again. Or by anything else that was lurking in the darkness.
A gentle breeze swished through the leaves of one of the platforms. One moment, its general shape was seen. The next, it disappeared completely.
From the dark beyond the branch another shape appeared. One that unrolled like a carpet and secured itself to the one visible branch. Moments after, the thing began to shake and other figures began to cross it. The first was small, simian and held a delicate bundle in her arms. On her tremendously long tail was her offspring. After the little family came a diminutive reptilian form, who stopped briefly on the bridge. He turned around, his green, slit-pupiled eyes catching what little sun there was.
“Careful when you cross. I don’t think the hooks snagged too deep on this branch,” said the little figure.
“Thank you for the warning. Make sure that they don’t slip while I’m crossing,” said the round-eared figure as she carefully crossed.
What Spike said was perfectly apparent. The moment that Minnie was at the middle of her portable bridge, she found her weight made the bridge wobble slightly.
“Years of yoga and aerobics. And look where it’s gotten me,” Minnie thought to herself, cursing her own weightier frame.
At the other end of the bridge, Spike and the family of monkeys all waited until Minnie safely crossed over. Once they were all across, the mother monkey wrapped the end of her tail around Minnie’s wrist, and Minnie took Spike’s claw in her hand. A gentle tug signalled that the mother monkey’s tail had gone taut, and Minnie and Spike both followed after her.
“Where do you think we’re going?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know. I would say that we’re going someplace to help the baby girl. But, I can’t imagine anything like a doctor or a vet being this deep in the jungle,” Minnie replied.
Spike began thinking about all that he had learned of other nations and kingdoms from studying with Twilight for all those years. Anything that he had ever learned about the jungles of Zebrica or the wildlife that lived there. Only then did Spike realize that he knew practically nothing about Zebrica. After all, he was as scared as everypony else when a Zebrican immigrant came to Ponyville.
A small twinge of despair settled into the little dragon’s mind when he realized just how little he actually knew about anything. Growing up with Twilight, there was only her and the books that she would study. Always about magic, history, politics, science, prophecy and other academics. Never a thing about the other creatures of the world. Never once learning to understand anypony else.
Of the two of them, Spike had always been the more sociable. It was always him who was sent out to get any supplies that Twilight needed (mostly more books), and who was talking with the other ponies of Canterlot. But up until the move to Ponyville, that was all he had known. Nothing from those days would have prepared him for the danger he would face, the culture shock of going to another country, or the heartache of losing a friend. What more could he have learned if he had a different life? How much more could he have known to have possibly helped the others he met on his travels when they needed him?
As he mulled over these thoughts in his head, Spike nearly walked into Minnie’s back, when the mouse suddenly stopped.
“Hold on, Spike. We need to go up now,” Minnie said.
In the nearly non-existent light, Spike saw just the outline of the bundled up bridge as Minnie threw it upward to another branch. Once the bridge was secure, Minnie let go of Spike’s claw and lifted him up to the bottommost plank.
Minnie needed to squint in order to see Spike’s progress up the improvised ladder. She heard the rustling of leaves, and moments after could no longer see Spike at all.
“Spike? Are you at the top yet?” Minnie called.
A moment more of rustling, and the answer came.
“Okay. I’m up now,” Spike’s voice called.
“Good. And here I come,” Minnie replied.
She jumped up and grabbed the bottommost plank before making her own ascent. As she climbed, Minnie was aware of all of the creatures that were moving about herself. Every shadow seemed to be several times larger than what it actually was, and every noise was somehow amplified by the vast emptiness of the dark.
The cool, smooth sensation of leaves tickled against her arms. The cover of branches that Spike had disappeared past was upon her, signalling her approach to the top.
“I think I’m almost to the top. How much further through these leaves?” Minnie asked.
“It’s about ten or eleven more steps up. You should be at the top then,” Spike replied.
“Thank goodness. It feels like climbing through a feather pillow,” Minnie said.
Her ascent stopped abruptly when something snagged onto her collar. When she tried pulling past, Minnie felt something small and sharp dig into her shoulder.
“Hold on. I think I’ve caught on a twig,” Minnie said.
She reached over her shoulder and snaked her hand through the many other leaves and twigs. But for all of her effort, Minnie could not seem to grab the one that had caught her.
“Uk-ka-kak-kee-oo?” said the mother monkey.
“I’m trying--But this branch doesn’t seem to want to let me go,” Minnie replied.
Instead of trying to reach for the branch itself, Minnie put her hand on her own shoulder to find what was holding her back. And she found it. A small, sharp digit in her left shoulder, stuck into her collar. Upon finding it, she plucked it out and resumed her climb back up. When another twig next to it stuck into her collar.
Reaching back, Minnie removed the hindrance, and another grabbed on.
“Rrrm..” Minnie growled to herself.
“Is everything okay?” Spike called.
“No. This branch is starting to get on my nerves!”
This time, Minnie whipped her hand over her shoulder to jerk the branch off and fling it away. Except, it was not a branch that she grabbed on to. Whatever it was, it was too broad to be any branch that was that far off the tree. And the texture was nothing like bark or leaves. Whatever she had grabbed was covered in some sort of fuzz. Lichen, or moss. Or whatever else grew on trees.
With a slight gasp, Minnie tried to pull herself free from the thing, and suddenly realized what was happening when the thing grasped tighter.
“Oh!!” Minnie yelped.
“What’s going on!?” Spike called.
Minnie flung the other end of the bridge up and around to the branch where the first end was secured. And with a shake of her body, Minnie unhooked the first end and flipped herself around.
The bridge was between her and the branches. Minnie righted herself and peered through the planks. For just one moment, she thought that she saw a yellow gleam in the leaves, before they were obscured by another shadow. And then it was gone.
“Spike, I need you to follow the monkeys the rest of the way! Someone else is here!” Minnie shouted.
To Minnie’s surprise, no answer came. And when she squinted, she could not make out his silhouette, nor any others on the branch.
From somewhere to the side, something moved into view. At first, Minnie thought it was the mother monkey. It took less than a second to realize that the form was much too large. Though she saw no movement from the shape, Minnie heard the sound of something sharp piercing the topmost plank.
There was a sudden pull on the bridge, and Minnie felt herself sharply ascend. Not wanting to face who or what was up on the branch, she climbed hurriedly down the planks, until she was at the bottom.
Dangling from the bottommost plank, Minnie knew she had nowhere else to run. Her assailant was pulling her slowly up, and there was no telling how far down it was to the next foothold.
Before the bridge was yanked again, Minnie cracked her body and sent a wave through the length of the bridge, all the way up to the top where the unseen assailant was swept off their feet and let go.
Minnie yelped as she went freefalling through the darkness, and spun her body to spread the bridge out beneath herself.
By some stroke of luck, the bridge caught itself on two anchor points, allowing Minnie to land on its length.
At the opposite end of the bridge, something else landed hard on the planks. Not about to find out what it was, Minnie unhooked the end of the bridge nearest to herself and swung down, hooking her end of the bridge into a tree trunk as she did.
The unseen assailant swung down and hooked their end of the bridge onto some lower point, and ran up the planks.
Minnie quickly unhooked her end and swung through a cluster of loose leaves. Sensing danger ahead, she stuck her feet out in front of herself and felt her soles plant on the trunk of a tree.
Keeping her momentum going, the mouse ran up the trunk and jumped onto another leafy platform.
In her hands, Minnie felt the other end of the bridge unhook from its opposite end and swing in the same direction that she just had. Gripping the bridge, she began shaking it violently and swinging it in the first direction she could think.
But, she had needed not to.
A sudden weight was released from the bridge, which went careening to the side under Minnie’s swing, until it hit another tree trunk.
Not wasting a second, Minnie jumped and swung away, just as a shadow pounced the exact spot where she was.
Minnie felt as if she were swinging for far longer than she should have been, and soon felt her momentum going upward.
Stretching her body out as far as it could go, Minnie just barely felt her heels touch down onto the edge of another leafy platform. But, her heels nearly slipped off when she felt a weight upon her bridge. And it was growing closer.
There was nothing else to do. Minnie let go of her wooden bridge, just as she was about to fall off of her platform. She didn’t even wait to hear the clatter of wood against wood and scrambled to haul herself up by the tips of her fingers.
She was alone now. No friends. No way through the jungle. No clue of where to go next. Instead of worrying about any of those crucial details, Minnie charged onward, hoping not to meet her invisible attacker.
Not five steps onward, Minnie nearly felt her boots plant on a branch before she lost her footing and fell on her face. Her head was suspended over the side, facing her with an infinite void of darkness beyond.
Somewhere down in the dark, so faint that Minnie thought she imagined it, a light shone from somewhere. Though dim, the presence that abated the dark was the most welcoming sight she had seen since entering the jungle.
The branch vibrated as something made the platform behind her shake. Whether it was desperation or temporary insanity, Minnie’s next move was to slide over the edge of the branch and trust herself to the void.
Minnie became totally unaware of herself. The branches whipping her arms. The leaves brushing her face. The roar of the wind in her ears. The rustling of the jungle. Nothing was felt or heard. She was not even aware if her eyes were closed, or if she was staring straight into the darkness.
Her hands reached out in front of her on their own. And without her knowledge, her fingers clasped around an outreaching branch.
She swung around and around, then let go.
The mouse sailed upward and onward, until she was caught on some vines. As soon as she hit them, Minnie’s weight pulled them loose and swung her through the forest.
As she sailed, Minnie twisted and turned like a gymnast, until she was released from the vines. It was not a far drop when she next landed on an enormous flower petal and slid down its side to another leafy platform.
It took a moment, but Minnie was able to collect herself. Spike and the family of monkeys were still nowhere to be seen. But, neither was the mystery assailant. What was seen was the small patch of light Minnie had seen earlier. There was no mistaking it now. Something was definitely there. Something that she knew she had to reach.
Before her first step forward was completed, Minnie saw a shadow against the distant light. And it was swinging toward herself from somewhere above.
She reached out her hands to catch the shadow, and was puzzled to find that it was the bridge that she had discarded only moments before.
Just as it had been before, Minnie felt a weight on the bridge, and it was sliding down rapidly toward her.
As if by a reflex, Minnie tossed the end of the bridge up and made it roll itself into a tight bundle.
The passenger on the bridge jumped off, before it was caught in the planks, and the bridge unhooked itself when it reached the end of its length.
Minnie caught the bunched up bridge as she ran and immediately unfurled it to swing closer to the light.
In and out of view the light came as Minnie passed tree after tree. And in every unknown shadow she passed, the mouse felt her heart jump. Attackers were everywhere, waiting to pounce. If only they would just.
On the very edge of her vision, one shadow was keeping perfect pace with her. What it was, or how it was doing it, Minnie did not worry. What did worry her was that it was getting closer to her.
The shadow was upon her, and Minnie swerved herself around to the other side of the bridge just as something nearly slashed at her side. Through the planks, the mouse just saw a gleam of a yellow light, before it disappeared.
A sudden impact on her back knocked the wind out of Minnie. Somehow, she managed to keep her grip on the bridge, and limply secured the end that she held to the trunk of the tree that she just hit.
Keeping the plank just in front of herself in her grip, Minnie unhooked the far end of the bridge and let its length slide through her palms, allowing her to slide down the length as easily as rappelling down a rope.
She reached the bottom of the bridge. And the moment that she was dangling from the last plank, the mouse felt something solid beneath her boots. Something like a large wooden slope that slanted gently downward. In the dim light that shone closer now than ever, Minnie saw that there were other slopes just like that nearby.
“Roots!” Minnie exclaimed. Finally, after so long, she had reached the ground.
From the wavering light in the distance, Minnie saw something else that made her heart leap. Silver specks of light were dancing about, bobbing up and down as if to beckon forth any wayward souls from the dark.
So often had Minnie seen the very same, and felt the same within herself. Wasting no time, she darted forward toward the light.
Any danger that she had faced was sidelined in her mind. She knew that whatever was out there would still try to attack her. But, in the presence of such a concentration of her own magic, she knew she would be safe. All she had to do now was to reach the haven.
As Minnie was running, the jungle seemed to come alive as the trees one moment blocked the view of her goal, and suddenly shifted aside to show it closer than ever. And the closer she got, the more concentrated the silver specks of stardust became.
One last gigantic root stood in her way. Without stopping, Minnie threw one end of her bridge over the side of it, and when she felt it anchor she climbed immediately over.
She landed on the ground just as the bridge rolled up behind her, and caught it before it fell. Putting her arm through one of the ropes on the side, Minnie gaped in awe of what she saw before herself.
More animals than she could name were gathered in that faintly lit grove. All of them were eating fruits that looked too big to exist. Most of all, Minnie noticed the faint light that they all seemed to be gathering around.
Before Minnie could investigate the source of the light, a sudden rustling in the bushes sounded somewhere to her side.
Surprised, but otherwise undaunted, Minnie readied to run or fight. Whatever was coming, she knew it could be nothing good.
“Keeko-kee-kee!”
Minnie lowered her guard when she saw her simian friend trot through the foliage, breathing heavily and glancing worriedly around. Behind her, her impossibly long tail still waited in the greenery. Cradled in her arms was her injured daughter. After a moment, the mother monkey’s face changed when she saw Minnie.
“Kee!” the mother exclaimed. She looked behind herself and reeled in her tail. “Kee-ko-koo-koo-ak-kee!”
As her tail reeled in, her green son was seen hanging from his mother’s tail. When the end of her tail was pulled into view, there was Spike holding onto the very tip. Though his scales were filthy and his face looked like it had been scratched, his demeanor immediately brightened the moment he saw Minnie in the grove.
“Minnie!” he greeted. “Where’d you go?”
“I don’t know. There you were on the branch one moment. Then the next, you and the monkeys were gone,” Minnie answered.
“It was so weird. All of a sudden, the mom grabbed me around my wrist and pulled me through the jungle with her. What happened to you?” Spike said.
For a moment, Minnie was silent. She debated whether or not to tell him that the panther they had met was now most likely hot on their trail, but didn’t want to worry him any more than was needed.
“I was...just a bit delayed,” Minnie said.
Before Spike could ask what she meant, he and Minnie both noticed something.
The mother monkey was walking slowly through the group of animals, who were all parting for her to walk past them. Once they had cleared a path, the strangers in the kingdom saw many crystals jutting out of the ground, the largest of which was almost as tall as Minnie was. 
Though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, Spike thought that he had seen something like those crystals before. Something he had seen before that had been around longer than even the Royal Sisters could remember. Whatever they were, the mother monkey laid her injured child down before the crystals.
The green child scampered around his mother’s side to look at his sibling.
The black monkey was breathing heavily. Her cries had stopped and she looked up at her mother, who was gathering up handfuls of something from the ground.
“Kee-kee-ukee,” she said, showing the handful to her green child.
The green monkey looked at the handful and started darting around to collect more of what his mother told him.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Minnie wondered, though she didn’t expect any definitive answer.
“Kee-ku-ku!” the mother said to Minnie and Spike.
“What?” Spike asked.
“Kee-ku-ku! Kee-ku-ku!” the mother chattered over and over, showing what was in her hands to her friends.
Though the light was dim, a closer look and Minnie and Spike both saw that it was a tiny handful of the silver specks that had been floating around.
“Do you think she wants--?” Minnie asked.
“C’mon! Let’s get some more!” Spike said, hastily trotting off to collect more of the glittering dust.
Minnie barely had time to tell him to slow down, before the little dragon began scavenging for the dust. So, making her own way through the crowd of animals, Minnie began catching the silvery specks in her pith helmet.
On his own end of things, Spike was trying to gather as much of the specks as he could. But no matter how he tried, he could not get his claws around them.
His efforts took him nearly to the edge of the grove, where he suddenly found himself showered in the silvery dust. Looking up, Spike saw two small jungle cats batting a flower with their paws. From the flower came more of the silver specks. Not about to pass up the opportunity to collect so much at once, the dragon opened up his backpack and collected as much as he could, before the cats stopped shaking the pollen from the flower.
Once they had all collected as much as they could, Spike, Minnie and the monkeys returned to the injured baby by the crystals.
“I’ve got what you wanted,” Minnie said, presenting her glimmering pith helmet.
“Me too. Is this enough?” Spike said, presenting his backpack.
“Kee-kee! Uk-ko-ko-keek-ee!” the mother said, gesturing her friends closer.
She looked down to her injured baby, who looked back up at her. It was now or never. The mother began sprinkling the silver pollen over her baby. Following her exemple, the green baby started sprinkling his own handful of pollen over his sister, who sniffled slightly when a tiny bit of pollen got into her nose.
Minnie too was sprinkling the pollen that she had collected over the monkey. Though she had no idea what they were doing, she felt as if somehow these animals knew what they were doing.
Spike sprinkled pinch after pinch of pollen onto the little monkey, until he realized that he was not getting as much of it as he had collected out. Reaching into his backpack, Spike pulled out one of the sandwich bags full of gems that he had packed, and brushed off the pollen that had collected onto that. Next, he produced the ‘Power Ponies’ comic he had brought with him and gently flipped the pages over the monkey, spreading the pollen that had collected between its pages over her. After that, he produced the brown shoes that he collected in the Manor Serpente and tapped the heels to pour out any pollen that had gotten into them.
He hesitated a moment when he took out Caru’s red coat, and briefly recalled her last moments in Blaiddru. Shuddering momentarily at the memory, Spike began gently shaking the coat over the monkey, hoping that somehow it would prevent a second life from ending.
As she was sprinkling the last of her own pollen, Minnie glanced up and saw the red coat juxtaposed to the brown shoes. Her mind conjured up a silly little image of Spike wearing both, looking rather silly in the clothes that were too big for him. In fact, if he were a little bit taller, Spike might have looked like Mickey during his days as a student. All of a sudden, it hit her like she had swung through the jungle right into the side of the biggest tree.
“Spike, where did you get those clothes?” Minnie asked. 
“Huh? I found them,” Spike said.
“But, where? How? Those belonged to--”
Before she could finish, the mother monkey chattered something unintelligible. All attention was drawn to the scene before the crystals.
Everything went quiet. Not even the wind was heard in the distance, as the entire grove stopped to watch.
The green baby tugged on his mother’s fur, squeaking quietly as he watched his motionless sister. His mother didn’t even look at him as she gently pulled him closer and embraced him in her tail.
Spike’s eyes never left the young monkey, even as he scooted closer to Minnie’s side and put his hand in her’s.
For many moments, all life in the grove had ceased. The sun above was growing further away from its little window in the canopy. With it, the light from the crystals was leaving too. And before the crystals, seen by what little light was left, the little monkey’s breath had stopped altogether.
The green baby pointed to his sister and looked up to his mother. The only answer to any questions his young mind may have concocted was a sorrowful gaze from the mother monkey, as tears welled up in her eyes.
Minnie felt Spike sink into her side, and heard his quiet sobbing. She knelt down and pulled him into her shoulder, cradling him there. After all their travels together, everything was taking its toll on Spike. How she wished for some way to get him back home, where he would be safe from the danger and grief that he constantly faced.
Just then, another light shone in the grove, illuminating the world around them ever so slightly.
Minnie looked up, and her face morphed to an awed stare.
“Spike. Look,” she whispered.
Spike looked up and saw what she did.
From the crystals, a single, focused beam of light was shining on the silvery form of the baby monkey.
The baby’s whole body seemed to glow from within as the light spread over her. Nearby, the green baby chattered excitedly and tried to bounce up and down, only to be stopped by his mother, who watched on.
Soon, all the light in the grove dimmed to almost nothingness, and the light from the crystals dwindled away.
The black monkey was silent and still beneath the crystals. An eternity passed, until the mother monkey cautiously walked up, followed timidly by her son.
The mother looked over her daughter, hoping for the best but not daring to discover otherwise.
The green baby reached down with his tail, scooped up a pinch of ibhuqu pollen and sprinkled it over his sister’s nose.
“Kee!” the mother scolded, as she pushed away her son’s tail.
*Sniff*
Any agitation the mother felt left her in an instant. Her gaze snapped immediately to her daughter, who laid as still as ever.
“Ah-choo!” the black back sneezed, blowing dust across the grove.
“KEE!! EE-KO-KAKAK-KEE-KEE!!” the mother chattered excitedly, taking her daughter in her arms and holding her close.
All around the grove, nearly unseen, the other animals cheered as loudly as the mother.
Spike and Minnie cheered too. After all the perils that they faced to get where they were, they managed to save a life in the balance.
The celebration ended suddenly when a cluster of silvery starlight violently plummeted from above and enveloped the crystals, illuminating the grove in an ominous, dim glow.
“What’s happening!?” Spike said, clinging to Minnie.
They had seen it before. The Massster had used similar magic before, and there it was now. And the caster of the magic made herself apparent.
Dropping in from above and landing with nary a sound was the same panther who nearly captured them back in the abandoned village. Against the glow of the cluster of magic, her yellow eyes sparkled malevolently as they locked onto Minnie.
“Funny meeting you here, girl. You’re not after my goods too, are ya?” she asked.
“What are you doing here? Get away from those crystals!” Minnie demanded.
“Get away? Girl, I know people who’d be real interested to see what these rocks can do. You saw what happens when they mix their voodoo with these flowers. Think about what that could mean for magic like what you an’ me got,” the panther said, cocking her head toward the ibhuqu flowers.
“These ‘rocks’ are what’s making life so good for everything living here! You can’t just take that away from them!” Spike asserted.
“I think that’s all the more reason I should,” the panther said. “You ever wonder what it is that makes magic like that in your world? I don’t. But, I got friends who do, an’ can find out. So, it doesn’t matter how stubborn these things are to go. I’m takin’ these rocks out o’ here, whether you like it or not, lizard boy.”
“Then, we’ll just have to make you leave without them!” Minnie said, readying to attack.
Beside her, the family of monkeys chattered angrily, the mother jumping up and down with her teeth bared.
The panther smirked at the sight before her. There were her opponents, a mouse with a portable bridge, a pint-sized dragon and a family of lower lifeforms.
“Works for me. My pal’s got business with you anyway, girl,” the panther said, pointing to Minnie.
There was no time to ask what she had meant, before Minnie needed to shield herself with her bundled up bridge.
The panther’s claws glanced off of the planks as she pounced on Minnie, then disappeared into the shadows beyond the grove.
Many of the animals had run for cover, leaving Minnie, Spike and the family of monkeys alone to face their opponent together. Somewhere in the shadows, the panther waited to strike again.
There was a rustling of leaves, and a rush of shadows. The fight was on.