For once, Maud seemed to be in a hurry, and it was difficult for Tarnished Teapot to keep up with her on three legs. She headed east, through the barren fields of the farm, towards the hills in the distance, each fall of her hoof into the dirt kicking up a cloud of fine grey dust.
As the pair approached the hills, Maud slowed down and Tarnished Teapot could feel a bit of a sugar buzz jittering through his body from the fudge. The grey-brown dirt gave way to gravel that crunched underhoof.
Looking up, Tarnish noticed a faint trail along the gentle slope of the hill, meandering up along the side, forming a switchback, and continuing up the slope. Strange twisted trees were further back along the rolling hills, a peculiar and somewhat warped forest.
“Where are we going?” Tarnished asked, daring to break the oppressive silence that had formed between him and his stony companion. He drew in a deep breath and willed himself to keep going. It was harder going up the slope on three legs than he thought it would be.
“Upstream,” Maud replied.
“Upstream?” Tarnished Teapot blinked, confused, not understanding what Maud meant. There was no river, no creek, no water of any sort. Only dry dirt, gravel, and dusty earth. Everything looked rather dry and the strange twisted trees up ahead looked a little… shriveled. Yes, shriveled was a good word to describe the trees up ahead. They almost looked skeletal. Stunted.
Sort of creepy, now that Tarnish got a better look at them. Almost as if they weren’t trees, but the ghosts of trees. No wonder Pinkie Pie had that song about giggling at the ghosties.
“The Haunted Wood.” Maud looked back as she continued forwards. “Don’t worry, it isn’t haunted. Ponies just believe it is.”
Upstream to the Haunted Wood, Tarnish thought to himself. That wasn’t worrisome at all. Nope. Everything would be fine, everything was good, there was nothing at all to worry about.
“The Haunted Wood can be a little creepy, I suppose. It never bothered me. Pinkie Pie learned to deal with it by laughing at it. I think it changes the magic somehow, but I can’t say for sure. More study is needed.”
Tarnish’s ears perked forwards. “Laugh at it?”
“Giggle at the ghostly,” Maud replied. “Guffaw at the grossly… crack up at the creepy… whoop it up with the weepy… chortle at the kooky… snortle at the spooky… Pinkie Pie figured out by accident that the magic here is raw and malleable because she followed Granny Pie’s advice. At least, I believe it to be.”
“I see.” Tarnish began to look around as he felt the hairs on his back rising. It was creepy here. Tarnish felt threatened enough that the conversation back in the kitchen had vacated his mind. He hobbled faster and got a little closer to Maud. “You said something about going upstream?”
“Thaumaturgic energy flows like a river. It travels clockwise along most ley lines, going westwards, following the sun. The rock farm is just west of us. Ahead of us is another ley line intersection, but this one is off. Most of the longitudinal lines run north to south, but the one up ahead runs south to north. It is a minor line, but it produces weird energy. I think it has an effect upon the latitudinal line that runs through the rock farm.”
Following Maud, Tarnish fell silent, trying to let everything that Maud said sink in. The withered, twisted bark on the trunks of the trees looked like faces, but Tarnish was too engaged in thought to notice.
The pair walked through the twisted trees, the silence between them returning.
There was an almost impossible to spot trail leading off of the main path. Maud turned and made her way into the underbrush with a slow and steady gait. Behind her, Tarnished Teapot followed. A two headed robin trilled in the branches of a stunted, withered tree, singing its song in high fidelity stereo.
The air smelled like a thunderstorm and Tarnish could feel a weird buzzy tingle inside of his ears, almost as if his head was full of bees. He could feel a pressure in his horn, a strange pleasant pressure.
“It doesn’t seem to be bothering you. I tried bringing Pinkie Pie here once, back when I first tried to find this place. Things got weird. We went home and she was fine. You don’t seem affected at all,” Maud said in a flat, bored sounding monotone.
“Oh, I feel something, but it feels kinda good,” Tarnish replied as he followed after Maud, who had slowed down a bit more as they followed the narrow trail.
“I was right about you.” Maud cast a quick glance behind her at Tarnish. “I had a hunch and it seems I was right.”
“Is it my magic protecting me?” Tarnish asked.
“Maybe.” Maud paused and pointed at a leaf that had fallen off of a tree. It was falling up towards the sky. “Almost there…”
The air was filled with a pleasing perfumed scent. Tarnish sniffed, taking the intoxicating scent into his nostrils, and pushed forwards. The trees were thick on either side of the narrow trail, but ahead there seemed to be a clearing in the woods. Maud had stopped at the clearing and was gesturing him forwards.
What Tarnished Teapot saw took his breath away. The trees gave way to an open clearing, surrounded by trees on all sides. The clearing was filled with stones that pushed their way up out of the earth, jagged black looking obelisks, a type of stone that Tarnish did not recognise.
All over the clearing floor was a carpet of blue. The ground was covered with poison joke, which was in bloom. Tarnish came to the slow conclusion what the scent in the air was. He stared at Maud and watched as she wandered into the patch of poison joke. She walked to one of the stones and rubbed her cheek against it.
“These are augites. They vibrate. They go deep into the ground and the magic has done something to them, but I don’t know what. The ley lines intersect here. Due west is the rock farm. Sometimes, at night, these stones glow with a purple-blue fire.”
Tarnished Teapot stumbled forwards into the poison joke, feeling most peculiar. He could feel his cutie marks resonating, an odd feeling that he could not describe. He leaned up against one of the standing stones and the vibration overtook him. He closed his eyes remained pressed up against the warm pulsating stone. The heat coming off was pleasant and the weird vibration did nothing to hurt his broken leg, but provided pain relief.
“I discovered this place because of my education. I had come home from school on a break. I had learned about ley lines and had looked at the thaumaturgical geological survey maps. As I had suspected, our farm was on an intersection of ley lines. But then I noticed that there was another intersection. So I went out searching for it. After Pinkie Pie got sick and had to be taken home. I did more researching after I went back to school, when the break was over. Turns out, this intersection is a class three thaumaturgical hazard. Causes major discomfort in ponies, headaches, nausea, pain, disorientation, nosebleeds, and even psychotic behaviour. I come here to calm down. Something about this place makes me feel better. The vibration of the rocks is comforting.”
Opening his eyes, Tarnish looked at Maud and thought about everything she had said. He didn’t feel sick at all. In fact, he could not recall when he had felt this good. He felt wonderful. He watched as Maud lifted her head and looked at him. Something about her was beautiful, perhaps it was the mystery of not knowing, but he gazed into her half open eyes and got lost.
A gentle breeze caused the poison joke flowers around them to rustle.
“If you can handle this place, it probably means you can deal with even worse places. Some of the places I plan to go to are even worse. Would you like to come with me, Tarnished Teapot?”
“Yes… yes, I think I would follow you anywhere,” Tarnish replied.
“Tarnish, I am sorry your mother treated you poorly. I can’t imagine what it must have been like. It’s bothering me, it is really bothering me, which is why I had to go for a walk and come here. I must say, I am glad you came here with me.” Maud blinked and her ears swiveled forwards.
“We were never all that close. She was a single mom… she had stuff to do, we needed money to pay the bills. She wasn’t a bad mother and she tried to be good to me. She tried to make it up to me when she was home. But when I was about twelve or so, after I had my cutie mark… she just… sort of gave up I guess.” Tarnish laid down on the ground and got comfortable. He pressed his nose into a poison joke flower and enjoyed the sweet, alluring scent. Something about it was calming.
“Tarnish, has it occurred to you that your magic might have affected your mother?” Maud asked.
Lifting his head, Tarnish thought about what Twilight had said, about how his magic might have been affecting her. He thought about what he had just said, about when his relationship with his mother had gone sour. He closed his eyes and shook his head, not wanting to believe such a thing might be true.
“I have some theories, Tarnish,” Maud said as she moved away from her rock, walked to Tarnish’s side, and then laid down in the poison joke beside him. “You’ve been here on the farm using your magic, and not one single accident. Your magic has performed flawlessly. At Rambling Rock Ridge, where there is also a ley line intersection, your magic never once caused you a problem. I was paying attention. But away from the intersections, your magic becomes problematic.” Reaching out her hoof, Maud gave Tarnish a gentle nudge. “I’ve noticed something else too.”
His eyes still closed, Tarnish replied, “What else have you noticed?”
“My family likes you.” Maud scooted a little closer to Tarnish. “This is more important than you realise. I suspect that when you get close to the intersections, your magic levels out and you become normal. But away from the intersections and you bring the chaotic effects of the intersection with you. A unicorn can’t cast magic in these places, it causes them no end of problems. Trixie had some real troubles using her magic on our farm and kept complaining about having to do stuff the earth pony way all of the time. There were times when her magic failed completely and she had to do everything the hard way. Your magic seems to have improved. I’ve been watching. I watched Trixie too. Tell me, have you ever lifted anything so big and heavy in your telekinesis before?”
Tarnish thought about everything Maud had said and then thought about his telekinesis, which had always been weak. He had never been able to haul a bunch of rocks in his telekinesis.
“One of the dangers of a class two or higher thaumaturgical hazard is extreme magical instability. Our farm is listed as a type one, I found that out when I visited the Canterlot Geological Archives. In fact, there are many earth pony settlements located in places with unstable ley lines. The earth pony way allows us to survive there.”
Opening his eyes, Tarnish looked at Maud. “I’m having some trouble understanding all of this. This is a lot to take in.”
“Let me put it to you this way. You are uniquely suited to help me with my life’s work, or you appear to be. That, and I think I like you. I can see your potential. I don’t like admitting it, but life on the road gets lonesome. I go to places where other ponies cannot go, even earth ponies, never mind the problems unicorns have with extreme magical instabilities. Right now, you and I are laying in poison joke together, on top of a hazardous intersection, with no ill effects at all to either one of us. If I was a superstitious sort, I’d say this was a sign.”
“Is… is there a way we can test this?” Tarnish asked.
“Of course,” Maud replied. “We study your magic at an intersection and then away from an intersection. Should be easy to do while we travel the roads.”
“I’d like that… I’d like that a lot… Maud, I must confess, I like you a lot. In the short time I have known you, I’ve come to like you quite a bit.” Tarnish turned his head and looked Maud in the eye, waiting for some kind of reply, hoping that Maud liked him as much as he liked her.
“You like my poetry and you hang upon every word I say…”