From the journal of Maud Pie—
Tarnished Teapot continues to grow and mature into the pony I knew that he could be. He still has moments where he doubts himself, and, truth be told, I have those moments as well, but his confidence is getting better.
He has become quite bold now. He’s gone from being shy about kissing me to surprising me. He still watches everything I do, which still flusters me. Last night he grabbed me with his magic, pulled me close, lifted me up, and then danced with me. He’s becoming a better dancer but still needs a lot of practice. We still have a lot of starry nights ahead, so I think he’ll have plenty of chances to improve.
I cannot help but wonder if the extra added weight of a phonograph would be worth it.
We have almost reached the Crack of Doom. Tomorrow, we will arrive, if this rain and hail lets up. Already, the land around us is strange. The trees and vegetation are twisted. Some of the rocks have glowing crystal formations, which are new. Testing them with the thaumaton reader produced a reading of twelve bars. I was saddened by breaking off one of the crystals for study, but science demands sacrifices. The magic generated by the crystals falls within safe and acceptable levels, and the glow generated by the crystal persists after being broken off from the cluster and placed into a sample box. I do not know how long the crystal will keep glowing. I have made extensive notes about the appearance of the crystal in my research journal.
Boulder tells me that the land feels weird. I’m inclined to agree. I studied the area surrounding the Crack of Doom while I was in school, along with other students in my class. The land has changed. It’s become far, far worse. Something has changed, but I don’t know what. I am hoping I will find out more when I arrive. I hope I can find the cause for the worsening of the land. The plants are far more hostile and Tarnish is finding new plants that are not listed in his books, which worries him. He’s been in contact with Princess Twilight Sparkle, and she has been looking for references for the plants that Tarnish is describing.
She has found nothing. She and Tarnish both suspect that we’re seeing a rapid burst of mutation and magical evolution, which is producing new strains of flora and fauna. Tarnish might be recognised as the discoverer of the Tentacle Grape plant. This is a pretty big deal for him, as it will give him some much needed scientific credibility for his career as a field botanist.
I wish the rain and the hail would let up. We’ve been trapped inside of this wagon for almost twelve hours.
From the journal of Tarnished Teapot—
Today I had a good conversation with my mother. I think she’s getting better, she said it was getting easier to have conversations with me, and I agree, we’re finding more to talk about. I’m getting to know her as a pony, without the influence of my magic. She is quick to laugh, she loves to make jokes, and she is very lighthearted and silly. I can see where a lot of my own equinality comes from.
I also had a chat with Twilight. She wants me to study magic more. I’m trying, but the books don’t always make a lot of sense. Sometimes, when I study from a book, I get it, but like when I was pushing the wagon up the switchback, that taught me more than any of my books. I guess I need to keep using magic in real world situations and then be observant about the results.
Speaking of observation, my studies of the curious earth pony known as Maud Pie continue to yield results. Little things that are hard to notice can help to indicate mood. Quivering muscles, flaring nostrils, ear movements, the direction that her tail moves, all of these things are observed behaviours. Like when I surprised her with a dance, her eyes widened for a moment, a good sign of surprise. Her ears pivoted forwards from their normal almost sideways position. They also perked forwards. Her pupils shrank down for a moment and then became dilated. I have no idea what this means, but I watched it happen. She wears her smock all the time, so that makes it difficult to observe what the muscles on her body are doing.
I do know that the subject is ticklish, even if she doesn’t laugh. She’ll sort of make a face, but it's hard to describe. She’ll begin breathing heavy. She’s ticklish on the inside of her thighs, just behind her front legs, and on the spot between her navel and her breastbone. If I blow a raspberry on any of these areas, the subject will make a strange noise or sometimes, she’ll let out a squeal, and then will begin to attempt escape without bringing harm to me, though one time she almost crushed my head between her thighs when I got a good raspberry in on the flesh just above her hock. She’s on to me now though, any sudden or sharp intake of breath from me causes her to become wary.
Subject will run if she is chased, but only if she is in a playful mood. Otherwise, she wants to be caught or sees no point in running.
Also, as an important note to mention, I finally got Flamingo to talk. She doesn’t always like to be reminded of her past. She has different moods. Since I was stuck in the wagon while it was raining and hailing, I got her talking and we had a long conversation where she said many inane things, but one thing stood out. There is a talking tree in the Everfree. She said that she used to go and talk to the tree about pretty rocks. She wanted to be the pretty rock of pinkness. I don’t understand what she’s talking about. She freaked out though and started screaming about some big meanie named Nightmare Moon that came along and gobbled up poor Commander Luna… I didn’t bother correcting her, she was far too upset, but she tried to pick a fight with Nightmare Moon for hurting Luna. She doesn’t know what happened next, or maybe she does but she was too upset to continue. She flew back into her sheath and when I pulled her back out, all she did was sob. It was heart breaking. So I put her away. I shall have to try and speak to her again.
Picking a fight with Nightmare Moon. I think I now understand why she fears the darkness so much. You’d have to be incredibly brave or fantastically stupid to pick a fight with Nightmare Moon. I would like to chose to believe that Pink Flamingo was brave.
I hope the rain and the hail lets up soon. I am eager to keep travelling.
Peering out from beneath the tent that covered the wagon, Tarnished Teapot turned a wary eye up towards the sky. It was still grey, but the rain had stopped. The ground was muddy, but not too bad. The area where they had parked had good drainage and did not flood. He was shoved aside, which almost caused him to fall out of the wagon, and Maud jumped down so she could stretch her legs.
The grey earth pony landed with a moist splat and then took off at a trot, her tail streaming out behind her. Tarnish watched her from the wagon, marvelling at her movement, the easy grace that she had when she walked. She was a perfect, beautiful creature. She walked with her head high, lifting her hooves in a high step as as she trotted around in a circle around the wagon.
Tarnish’s belly rumbled. He wanted food more than anything, even more than he wanted to chase Maud around in a circle. He needed to get a fire going, but he had no clue about what it was he wanted to eat.
He turned around in the wagon, lifted up the lid of the food storage trunk, and began to dig around on the inside, looking at various tinned goods. There were tins of fruit salad, tinned bread, tinned soups, tinned chili. He paused, licking his lips. Chili sounded good. Monty Puma’s Revenge Chili. He grabbed several tins, feeling hungry, grabbed a tin of corn, and then grabbed a box of instant cornbread mix—just add water. Only Tarnish hated the cornbread mix with water, which is why he grabbed a tin of corn. There was plenty of flavourful salty liquid in the tin of corn, and he would only need to add a half a cup of water or so to the cornbread to cook it.
He grabbed the pots and pans he needed and then lept out of the wagon.
“So we’re here,” Tarnish said to Maud as he ladled chili over his slab of cornbread.
“And here is not as I remember it. Things have changed here. It worries me, just a little,” Maud replied. “I wish I knew what changed. The Crack of Doom was dangerous, but the land surrounding it wasn’t all that bad. We did many a school project here. I almost don’t recognise this place.”
Tarnish lifted up a spoon and frowned. He dug into his chili, which set him on fire. In a pleasant way of course. It was chunky, thick, and hearty. He watched Maud sniffing her food and as she did so, the skies overhead parted, allowing brilliant beams of sunlight to shine through the purple grey clouds.
“There is a big, beautiful patch of poison joke a little ways west of the Crack of Doom. We should stop there and have a look around. It was like looking upon an endless sea of blue.” Maud lifted up a spoon with her hoof and poked at her food to make her cornbread crumble.
“What in Tartarus?” Tarnish set down his chili on a large flat rock by the fire and watched as a melon went crawling through the camp. He blinked a few times as it scurried past on six insectoid legs. A little section of dried up vine trailed behind it.
Reaching out with his magic, Tarnish went to work to pull the camera from it’s storage box in the wagon and watched as the melon beetle crawled about. The strange fruit bumped into his leg, and then it backed up, kicked its legs, and then charged once more.
As Tarnish began to take pictures, Maud said, “I think it wants to be eaten.”
“Maud, not that I doubt you, but what makes you say that?” Tarnish asked.
“Earth pony instincts. That melon wants to continue with its cycle of life,” Maud replied. The earth pony tilted her head and watched as Tarnish took more photos. “I suppose it is counting on you eating it and dispersing the seeds elsewhere with some fresh fertiliser.”
“What should I do?” Tarnish looked down and snapped one final picture before he began to put the camera away. “I mean, what do I do? I’ve never had food want me to eat it before… I don’t even know if it is safe to eat.”
Maud shrugged. “I had no instincts about the tentacle grapes, but I think that’s an evolutionary adaptation. It didn’t want to be discovered.” Maud eyed the strange and somehow insistent melon beetle that appeared to be rather impatient. It banged on Tarnish’s leg and tapped at his hoof with its little bug-like legs. “This wants to be eaten. It’s food.”
“Okay, fine, I trust in your earth pony instincts.” Tarnish lifted up the sharp knife used to cut the cornbread, levitated it over the melon beetle, took a deep breath, steadied his nerves, and then made a clean downward chop.
The sharp knife cut the melon beetle clean in two, slicing through the pale green rind. Inside, the flesh was yellow and full of seeds, very much like a cantaloupe. The melon’s little wriggling legs continued to kick for a few moments, but then went still. Tarnish, feeling a little sad, lifted up both halves of the melon, and offered one half to Maud.
“I kinda feel bad and I don’t know why,” Tarnish said. He watched as Maud shrugged.
“It wanted to be eaten. It fulfilled its purpose and you helped it along. You shouldn’t feel bad.” Maud set down her spoon on the rock beside her, took the offered half of the melon into her hooves, and then looked Tarnish in the eye. “I’ll admit, this is kinda weird.”
Tarnish nodded. “I’m glad I got pictures. I doubt anypony would believe us.”