Temples were one of my favorite places to be in.
Don't get me wrong, I completely understood the danger they posed to the unprepared explorer. Filled to the brim with deadly traps built by Celestia knows who, home to countless deadly and likely ancient creatures very unfriendly to ponies, and quite a few set to self-destruct as soon as their priceless artifacts are taken by the creature lucky enough to have survived the first two threats. Anypony with a good survival instinct would know that the more time you spent out and away from your standard Tenochtitlan temple, the better it is for your health and safety.
The atmosphere of the places, however, could not be beaten. Everything about them just felt so unique, so ancient and mysterious. And besides, when you're Equestria's greatest henchpony like I am, there's no need to worry about traps or animals. All I needed was my trusty instincts.
Well, that and a few friends to save my flank from time to time when I needed it. Those helped too.
Much like many I had seen before, the temple before us didn't look very imposing. It was embedded within one of the cliffs, the entrance a staircase downwards into the earth and dimly illuminated by whatever stray sunlight leaked inside. The three of us - myself, good old Biff, and the one and only Doctor stared resolutely at the task before us.
"I don't suppose either of you brought a torch with you?" I asked, making a show of checking my pockets and saddlebag. "I forgot mine."
Doctor Caballeron merely raised an eyebrow while Biff pulled out one from... somewhere. I hadn't quite mastered the art of being able to pull out the essentials for adventuring out of thin air yet. What I did remember to bring however was a box of matches, of which I stuck and lit one before moving to set my fellow henchpony's torch aflame. "After you," I offered, politely waving a hoof towards the entrance.
Biff only made a grunt of annoyance before beginning the trot downwards. I followed right behind him, with the Doctor taking up the rear. One might think that being at the back would be too dangerous for him given the threat of an ambush, but time and time again had it been proven that the more bodies he had between himself and the front, the safer Caballeron was. Monsters were typically not very smart when it came to tactics.
The sole exception to that rule was that time with the giant snake, but we don't talk about that adventure.
"So, any idea what kind of traps we'll find down here?" I didn't expect an answer, since every temple was different in its methods of keeping out intruders. One of my personal favorites was the massive rolling stone ball. My ears perked up a bit as I surprisingly heard a response from behind me.
"Poison darts, false floors, and most likely a trapped pedestal for the diamond. Ahuizotl will be too busy attempting to stop Daring Do from reaching the key for the amulet, so we should remain unaccosted."
I raised an eyebrow, knowing that Caballeron wouldn't be able to see it. "So we're backstabbing him now? Can't say I disagree, but that sounds dangerous."
"I prefer the term 'distracting'. And it will never matter so long as we are not caught. But you are right; though he pays well, he is a bit too... dangerous for our tastes, no?"
Both Biff and I gave grunts and nods of agreement as the stairs finally flattened out into a pitch-black hallway, the only light coming from the torch Biff held, lighting up the intricate walls and tiles of stone on the floor. The animal-like faces etched into the stone that surrounded us were vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had seen them before. The perfectly lined square shapes beneath our hooves were ringing through my memories too...
The realization hit me right as I watched the tile Biff just stepped on sink beneath the floor with a foreboding click. Without thinking I dived forward, forcing the other henchpony to the ground as poison darts shot from the open eyes of the faces on the walls. Both of us ducked our heads as the only sound we heard was the air being parted above our heads and the once-held torch clattering against the ground. Only after a few seconds of silence had passed did we dare to look around again, quickly getting back up on our hooves.
"You saved me," Biff said with an expression I had never quite seen before on him as he patted himself down to make sure all his parts were still intact. "If you hadn't pushed me out of the way..."
"Don't sweat it," I answered, waving him off. "I'm sure you would have done the same thing for me. Besides, us henchponies have to stick together, right?"
A cough echoed from behind us, and both of us looked back to see Doctor Caballeron, looking impatient. "Yes, yes, very impressive," he said with the most respect I've seen him put on in a long time, which was still very little. "Good work, Jungle. But we still have no time to lose! I would prefer to have the diamond and be back to civilization before dusk."
Yes, I'm sure you would. Somehow resisting the urge to step on the trapped stone again and watch the good Doctor try and dodge the darts, I simply nodded and picked up the torch before taking the lead this time. Biff seemed all too content to fill the position in the middle now, remaining visibly shaken. "I owe you one," I heard him whisper to me as we finally made our way out of the hallway.
It got darker. The walls to our sides fell away, leaving only a blackness that not even my torch could burn away. The floors were gone as well, a thin walkway leading forward between two holes to the unknown. I made the mistake of looking over the edge into the abyss; there was nothing. Just a cold, uncaring void staring back at me.
"Watch your step," I warned the ponies behind me as I shook the thought of falling out of my mind and continued onward. "This bridge looks a little unstable. One wrong move and you could slip and-"
I slipped.
Tumbling forward, my front hooves met open air as the darkness below approached to envelop me. I put my hooves in front of my face, expecting to hear the cold howls of wind as I fell downwards, but something caught on my outfit. Looking behind me I saw Biff, struggling to hold on to the back of my collar as the only thing keeping me from a one-way ticket into the deep dark. I could barely see the outline of his face from the now-distant flames of the torch I still held in my front hoof.
Trying to keep as still as possible to avoid making the situation worse, I heard the faint scratches of sliding hooves against stone as the pony behind me desperately attempted to pull me back to safety. "Get him back up, quickly!" Doctor Caballeron said with a surprising hint of urgency in his voice. "This bridge will likely collapse if we do not hurry!"
As if right on queue, more of the bridge gave way and crumbled beneath my hind hooves, causing me to yelp as I fell even further down despite Biff's efforts. His grip failed on my collar, but I was just able to twist myself to grab onto his outstretched limb with my open front hoof, clinging on for dear life. He was using both of his front hooves now, lying on the bridge and keeping a steady hold on mine as I dangled over impending doom.
"Hold... on..." the fellow henchpony told me as if I needed a reminder. "If I can just..." I could see him trying to pull me upwards but to no avail. I was just too heavy to lift from such a position. Those snacks I had on the regular at Sugarcube Corner were seriously coming back to haunt me now.
Ancient stone and bricks continued to fall around me as the bridge fell apart, the faint echos of the debris cracking against something coming from below. At least I knew there was a floor... eventually. Caballeron looked over the edge at me, his eyes filled with fear. "We must go!" he yelled, jumping to avoid a patch of ground that broke away beneath his hooves. "Now!"
"It would go faster if you would help me pull him up!" Biff shot back, which shocked me. Talking back to the Doctor? I could not remember a single instance of hearing him do that before. Unfortunately said pony did nothing but stand there, either in fear or in shock at being talked back by somepony other than Daring Do.
It was just not my day.
"Let go, Biff," I said with no small amount of reluctance. Falling into a massive unknown pit of darkness was not on my bucket list, but we can't always get what we want anyway. "Take Caballeron and get the diamond. I'll find another way out of here."
Dust was getting into my eyes. I hated it when that happened, especially when everything started getting blurry because of it. Still, it was good enough to see the shaking head I got in response. "We aren't leaving you behind," I could hear over the sound of cracking stones and falling rocks.
I loved the loyalty. Rainbow Dash probably would have as well. Not a good time for it. "Better one of us falls than both," I answered, coughing as more dust got into my mouth. The stuff tasted horrible, with just a twinge of ancient. Pinkie would have been better at explaining than I. "Here, you'll need this more than I will."
With a swing of my body, I stuffed the torch being held by my dangling hoof in place of the one being held by Biff, pushing myself away from him and into free fall. The wind howled in my ears as the darkness pushed forward to envelop me, and the outline of Doctor Caballeron grabbed the one of Biff and dragged him out across the shaking bridge.
The fading light was the last thing I saw before my head hit solid stone and I blacked out.
It was cold.
I opened my eyes to a blurry world of teals and blues. There was light coming from somewhere, that was for sure. I opened my mouth to cough out the dust that had entered my lungs... only for it to be greeted with a mouthful of water. Almost choking on the liquid, I snapped awake and began desperately swimming upwards, or at least the direction I could only assume was upwards. The only thing that gave a clue as to where was what were the various shades of colors I could perceive.
Finally, right when my lungs felt like they were about to burst, my head breached the surface and I gasped for air. Stale, freezing air, but air nonetheless. My eyes could make out two things with me above the water's edge; my hat, floating next to me forever loyal, and a small island in the distance. After grabbing the former, I paddled over to the latter using what little strength I had left, heaving myself onto the dry land and laying on my side, eyes closed.
There was a noise behind me. I moved my head to look up towards the middle of the island, where a small colorful bird watched me with curious eyes from a few hoofsteps away. "What are you looking at?" I asked in a tone I already knew was completely pathetic and tired. Even so, the bird flew off, outwards and upwards through a hole in the stone ceiling.
So that was where the light was coming from. I had to squint to stare up at it with the sunlight streaking down through it. And given that, with a quick look around the otherwise dark cavern, there were no other obvious exits, it seemed that it would be the only way out of this place. There was just one very small, almost inconsequential problem.
It was way too high up for me to reach. Even if I was fully rested and ready to give it my all (which I most certainly was not) I highly doubted I would get anywhere close to reaching a wall I could theoretically climb. In essence, I was stuck.
But hey, at least I was alive. That had to count for something, right? Even kept all my limbs intact, and my hat too. If I ever got out of here, this would definitely be a story for telling around the campfire to the other henchponies. It certainly isn't every day that you get to fall down the classic endless pit of darkness and live to tell the tale.
Shifting myself further onto the island, I laid down on my side and relaxed on the soft bed of... some kind of plant material. It was green, and that was all that mattered to me. I felt oddly relaxed, given the situation I was in. Satisfied. Fulfilled. Even if I had fallen, Biff and the Doctor were no doubt getting the Diamond of Lapis Lux and planning a way to escape themselves. They would never come back for me; after all, that would require intentionally jumping into the pit of darkness and even Biff was sane enough not to do that. But they had done it because of me. I had done my job, and that was what mattered to me. After letting out a long drawn-out breath I didn't even know I had, I settled in and prepared to take a nice nap for all my efforts and sacrifice.
Something moved.
I shot up, all intentions of sleep instantaneously forgotten. There was a ripple in the water, small waves moving outward from a place too dark to see clearly. But something was moving there, something big in the water. It disappeared beneath the surface, the water settling back into place.
Still, I scooted a little further back towards the center of my small haven of land. "A water guardian?" I asked myself. "That's a new one. It doesn't look like it's seen me yet, but then again... why didn't it attack me when I fell in the-"
"Hello?"
My head snapped upwards towards the sound. It was coming from above me: coming from above the hole. I saw the shadow of a pony in the sunlight filtering in, slowly getting larger, and I finally perked up. My savior had arrived! Surely if they were this far out in the basin, they would be prepared enough to bring a rope or something that would help me get up. I stood up on all four legs, ready to greet the pony of the hour...
...only to be disappointed when a head the color of butterscotch appeared, blocking out a good part of my sunlight. It was Fluttershy. Again.
Wonderful.
"Is somepony down there?" She looked through the hole and her eyes widened, despite my best efforts of blending in with my blue coat into the green of the plants below me. "Jungle? What are you doing down there?"
"Nothing," I responded, lowering my head back down to the ground. "How did you find me anyway? Do you usually look down every hole you find in the ground?"
"No, but a little birdie told me that somepony needed help, so I followed him all the way here. I didn't realize it was you who needed it." Said bird landed next to Fluttershy and chirped at me; I was tempted to throw a glare back but restrained myself. It at least had good intentions, even if it also brought the worst pony possible for this.
I grabbed my hat that was lying out on the greenery and stuffed it over my head, looking away from the sunlight and towards the darkness of the cave's edges. "I don't need any help," I shot back bitterly. "I can get out on my own."
"Oh... Are you sure? I'm sure there's a rope or something up here that you can climb up..."
"I said I'm fine!" Fluttershy flinched, or at least I assumed she did from the sound of little pebbles falling and hitting the water. At least I didn't feel any of them hitting me. "Why don't you just go away? Go back to town like I told you or something. I don't need your help, alright?"
There wasn't any movement I could hear, so I guess that meant she wasn't going to listen to me. At the absolute least, there was a bit of silence for a while so I could be alone with my very jumbled thoughts in peace. That didn't last forever, though; there was a small voice from above a minute or so later. "What happened, Jungle?" Fluttershy asked in a tone timid even for her. "You were so nice and calm this morning, and now..."
That did it. Roughly shoving my hat back out of my eyes and storming up to all fours, I looked up to give my worst possible glare at the pegasus above me. "What happened?" I asked, with an equal mix of seething and mocking. "You happened, Fluttershy! This trip was supposed to be nice and easy, just doing my job and going back to Ponyville with no trouble, and then you came along to ruin all of that! All you do is keep getting into trouble, keep making me look like a fool of myself, and then think you can act like everything is fine when you appear out of nowhere to save me! I'm the one that's supposed to know what they're doing! I'm supposed to be-"
I stopped. I couldn't continue that sentence. It was about to end with 'be the hero', but why? I was no hero. I had never tried to be the hero, because I didn't need to be one. I was an adventurer, right? A henchpony. A jungle explorer, just as much as Fluttershy was a caretaker of animals. I was good at what I did. I didn't need help. I had friends, but I could do things on my own.
My anger evaporated as I realized how pathetic it all was. Fluttershy didn't deserve that. She had asked for my help as a friend, and all she was trying to do was try to help me. "...I'm supposed to be worth something," I quietly continued, looking away toward the ground in shame. "But all I've done for you today is yell at you. Is that who I am? A fraud?"
No response. I didn't deserve one anyway. She was better off just leaving me here and finding someone else. Maybe one of her real friends, so they could do what heroes do. There was a quiet flap of wings next to me, a pair of butterscotch hooves sitting beside me. A gentle hoof wrapped around my back.
"You're my friend, Jungle," Fluttershy told me despite the fact I still refused to look her in the eyes. "And it's okay to have to ask for help, even at things you're good at. Applejack had to ask for help from us once when she was gathering apples because even she couldn't do it all by herself. She got so tired once that she scared all the bunnies when I was trying to do my bunny census, and they stampeded into Ponyville and ate everypony's flowers!"
I gave an involuntary laugh at imagining that. "Even Applejack, huh?" I said. "And here I thought she was the perfect farmer."
"None of us are perfect, Jungle. Twilight isn't perfect at magic, Rainbow Dash isn't perfect at flying, and I'm not perfect with my animals. There are always things we can learn from our friends. And you're more than just what you're good at." I looked up at Fluttershy, who gave me a smile in return. "And besides, I didn't just ask for you to come because I needed help."
What? I blinked, tilted my head, and then blinked some more. "You... didn't?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"Well, I did need help," she responded a bit more nervously. "But it just gets so lonely when I go on these kinds of trips by myself, and it's too dangerous for me to bring my animals with me. I just wanted to spend time with you, since you always seem so busy all of the time."
Right, busy. Not just relaxing in my house whenever I wasn't off working at Sweet Apple Acres or lending a hoof to a friend. I liked to maintain what I called a healthy work-rest balance, something which certainly did not exist when I was out regularly sleeping in the wilderness. My brain ran through about a thousand witty or comedic remarks to Fluttershy, yet the only thing that spilled out of my mouth was a quiet "Thank you" with a grateful nod.
And to me, that was enough.
"...Do you hear something?" My ears perked up, and I listened in to whatever had caught Fluttershy's attention. She was right; there was something faint, but audible coming from elsewhere in the cave we were in. It also sounded strangely familiar to me...
"Is that... screaming?"
A fair distance away, there were two loud splashes in the water and the shape of two ponies breaching the surface and gasping for air. Both Fluttershy and I shot up to our hooves, and I waved my hooves back and forth gesturing for them to come over onto our little island. It was only when they saw us and approached that I recognized the two and took a step back; it was Biff and Caballeron, the latter looking much worse for wear than the former. However, he was still swimming along much better than his henchpony, who I suspected was not much of a strong swimmer. I helped drag Biff onto shore, while Fluttershy made sure the Doctor was alright.
"What are you two doing down here?" I asked, both curious and worried as Biff continued to cough. "I thought you two had made it to the other side. Was the diamond there?"
Caballeron shook his head in disappointment. "It seems that some other adventurer had reached it before us, for all we found was an empty pedestal and a giant boulder." I mentally gave myself a high five for getting my favorite trap in this temple. There was no way that it didn't scare whoever had gotten here first and taken the diamond. "Since there was no way out, he-" Caballeron gestured to the recovering Biff "-was certain you were still alive, and that we should follow you down the hole. I can see he was correct."
"Of course I was right!" Biff raised his hoof and slapped me on the back, much to my complete surprise. "Jungle here would never let one of these temples get the better of him! Especially not when I still owed him one!"
I looked at him with a strange sort of expression. "You believed in me that much?" I asked, shocked. "You willingly jumped into a massive pit of darkness just for me?"
"When you put it like that, it makes it sound stupid. But you saved me from that dart trap! There was no way that you would just go out like that."
Wow. There was the number one henchpony, at least in my books, telling me how good I was at his job. I sneaked a quick look at Fluttershy, who nodded encouragingly with a slight smile. It brought a real, genuine smile to my face too, and a bit of that old confidence back which I sorely needed.
"Well, yeah. I mean, going out to a classic endless pit without anything fancy? Ancient temples are going to have to try harder than that to take me down," I said putting my signature flair back on in full force. "And you two are in luck, because I just happened to find an exit out of this place. All we have to do is find something to get up to the ceiling and-"
Our island haven started to shake, forcing all of us to our knees. The water rippled, and Doctor Caballeron was the first to notice the large tentacle rising out of the water. "Sea monster!" he yelled as he scurried to hide behind the rest of us, taking refuge at the center of our patch of land away from the edges. Fluttershy, Biff and I could only freeze and stare in terror as the end of the tendril revealed itself to be a large eye, which opened to stare at the three of us. It blinked.
Extremely slowly and gently, I nudged Fluttershy forward towards the eye. "Do you think you could... you know?" I whispered to her, motioning with my head towards whatever the thing was. She seemed to get the message and took another step forward of her own accord, staring at the tentacle head-on.
"Um, mister sea creature? We're all very sorry for disturbing you... can you forgive us for falling into your home?" The eyeball recoiled back, before shaking itself up and down in a hopefully agreeing manner. "Oh, thank you! We'd like to leave, actually, but we can't reach the exit up there. Can you help us?"
As the waters shifted again to reveal another tentacle, Doctor Caballeron slowly approached me from behind to stand beside me. "Who is she?" he asked quietly to me, pointing at Fluttershy. "And how is she doing that?"
"Oh, that's just Fluttershy," I casually responded, which I knew would confuse him even more. "She's one of my friends. Good with animals, too." His jaw seemed to drop further than it already was as we both watched her half-encourage, half-tug Biff onto the waiting tendril of the sea-whatever it was, his legs shaking more than a building during an earthquake. As soon as he got on, the creature slowly raised him to the hole in the roof, where he was able to jump up to the surface and solid ground.
Two more limbs sprouted out of the water, and this time I was the one gently nudging my employer along to get on one before I jumped onto the other waiting for us at the shore. Caballeron was all the while staring at me like I was insane, which I couldn't entirely blame him for. I looked stoic, calm, and collected, and even only had one shaking leg instead of all four as we were lifted upwards through the cavern. There was no reason to be afraid, at least for me, since I trusted Fluttershy and by extension this creature.
Couldn't blame Caballeron for being the first one to hurriedly jump out and collapse in the sweet embrace of a real floor, though. He tended to lose his courage the closer he got to real danger, which might have been what set him and Daring Do apart. I liked to imagine that we made up for it with teamwork when it counted.
"Thank you, mister!" Fluttershy said as she finally joined the rest of us above ground, waving to the various limbs below which waved back. "I'll try to visit you again sometime! Nice to meet you!"
Suddenly, I was struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration. It was crazy, it was completely out there, but if I was right... "Hey Fluttershy," I said quietly to her, which caught her attention, "do you think you could ask your, uh, friend down there if he's found anything else that fell underwater? Maybe like a treasure, or something along those lines? Just out of curiosity."
Fluttershy looked at me with a weird expression of confusion, but the thing below us seemed to hear what I was saying. It completely disappeared beneath the water, leaving us alone in near-silence with the only sound being the faint water lapping against the cave edges. A few seconds later a single tentacle reappeared, holding something bright and shining in the sunlight. It was only when it was offered to me that all of us saw what it was; a small diamond, most likely of Lapis Lux. I had to say I was rather disappointed since it was rather small for the great artifact that Caballeron had been hyping it up to be. Nevertheless, I grabbed it and gave back an appreciative nod to the waters below as the creature finally returned to the depths it came from, deep beneath the cold waters of the cave.
"Here, catch." I lightly tossed the diamond over to Caballeron, who fumbled with it for a few moments before getting a proper hold of it and stuffing it in one of the many pockets he had. "Guess you were lucky in pulling me back into this thing again. I doubt you would have found that diamond on your own underneath the waters."
"I am sure we would have gotten it eventually," he shot back, before begrudgingly giving a bit of ground. "But your help is greatly appreciated, Jungle Trek. I remember again why I continue to pay for your services." Reaching into a different pocket, he pulled out a not-insignificant bag of bits and tossed it back to my waiting hooves. "Now, let us return to town and enjoy our victory. Jungle, would you and your friend like to join us?"
Looking over at Fluttershy who was doing her best to remain out of sight and out of the conversation, I saw her very nervously shake her head. "Actually, I think the two of us will stick here for a while longer," I answered while weighing the bag I had with my hooves. "We'll head back on our own. If you ever need me again, you already know how to find me."
"Don't worry, with what happened today? I'm sure the Doctor will be grabbing you as soon as we get back to work again!" Biff gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder, and I gave him a friendly laugh and a smile before I watched him and the Doctor wave goodbye and disappear into the jungles of Tenochtitlan.
Fluttershy and I looked awkwardly at each other, the silence between us looming like a dark cloud over our heads. "So..." I finally said, being the icebreaker of the two, "I'm sure you knew who that was. I'm surprised you didn't say anything, considering last time."
"Well, Rainbow Dash has told me a lot about Mister Caballeron from her Daring Do stories, but since you were here I thought I would give him a chance. He seemed a lot nicer than what the books said."
I tilted my hoof in a so-so manner. "I wouldn't say 'nicer'. He likes to put on a show of professionalism when he isn't gloating over beating Daring Do at something. It's all about his mood." My eyes narrowed as a thought popped into my head. "By the way, you aren't going to tell Rainbow Dash about this adventure, right? We're cool with each other now, but if she heard I was still working with the Doctor..."
The pegasus giggled, which I wasn't sure whether to take as reassurance or just her finding humor in the situation I was in. "I won't tell a thing," she finally said, letting me breathe a sigh of relief. "It'll be our secret."
Secret. Those were piling up on me in the past few weeks now. This one sat a bit easier on me since the worst thing to happen if it got out would be an earful from Rainbow Dash about working with what was according to her the worst villain in the history of Equestria. The other one would be a lot worse. But that would be for getting back to Ponyville, and this was now. With a smile on my face, I offered a hoof to Fluttershy. "Well, since we still have time, do you want to see what other animals we can find in the jungle?"
She beamed at me before taking my hoof. "I'd love to! I'm still just shocked that you found a baby Kraken all the way out here! I never thought I'd ever get the chance to see one up close, especially in such a unique environment!"
"...wait, what?"
A few hours later Fluttershy and I were back in town, enjoying the comforts of civilization once again. It had been pretty standard, at least for a hike in the Forbidden Jungles; she saw plenty of wildlife, I only almost got bitten by a snake once, and both of us had plenty of scratches to show for our trouble. Now, she was regaling me with a story of some big thing I had missed in Ponyville, probably while I had been out working on the farm.
Rule number one of working at Sweet Apple Acres: Never give Applejack a reason to have to come and find you. The results are almost never pretty.
"...And then I had to be Princess Celestia so that Rainbow could learn the history of the Wonderbolts for her exam! She looked so happy when she told us that she passed, and it was kind of fun to pretend to be a princess too!" I gave a low impressed whistle at Fluttershy as the two of us trotted back into our room in the inn. We had been trading tales back and forth with each other for a while now as we had made our way back from our little Tenochtitlan excursion. A jungle trek, one could say.
Yes, thank you, I'll be here all night.
Anyway, both Fluttershy and I flopped onto our respective bedrolls, completely tired from the day's events. Or rather I tried too, but found myself with a sharp pain in my flank due to landing on something hard and extremely uncomfortable. It was the bag of bits, the thing I had come all this way for in the first place. I looked at it, then at Fluttershy, who seemed to be staring off into the ceiling.
"Here," I finally said after deliberating for a long time, lightly throwing the bits onto her bed. It landed right next to her, and she looked at it before turning to stare at me. "I don't need it, and you can probably use it better than I could."
She pushed the bag away, rapidly shaking her head in near disbelief. "No no no, I can't take this!" she responded, treating the bag of money like it was something poisonous... and not an animal. "Jungle, you worked hard for it, and I don't-"
"Oh come on, taking care of all those animals can't be free," I countered back. "I get plenty from working with Applejack already. Plus, it's not like there's much I want to spend my money on back in Ponyville anyway, except maybe another sofa." Fluttershy remained frozen as if she had just stopped functioning. I gave a long, drawn-out sigh. This was what I got for trying to be too nice with ponies who were just nice by default. "Look, how about you take it for now, and when we get back to Ponyville we'll split it in half. I mean, I owe you for saving me about a million times out there."
That finally snapped her out of it, and she looked torn between my offer and her brain probably screaming at her as loud as Fluttershy could yell (which was to say about the same as a heavy whisper) before she finally gave up and took the bag. "Alright, I guess it would be nice to get the animals something nice."
"That's the spirit!" With that settled I resumed flopping back into bed and in a few seconds, the lamp between the two of us went out. I guess she was just as ready to pass out and get some sleep as I was. It was familiar, laying here in darkness with just my thoughts. Just like yesterday. I waited for the words.
"Good night, Jungle."
And this time, I didn't hesitate to respond as I pulled the blankets closer to me, already drifted off into the realm of dreams.
"Good night, Fluttershy."