Maud awoke, feeling confused, disoriented, and in pain. A wet cloth was over her face. It was cool, soaking wet, and felt good. She had no recollection of passing out or falling asleep. Her lungs burned, ached in the most horrible way, and her nostrils felt as though boiling water had been poured down inside of them. Licking her lips, she tasted blood, it was crusted on her upper lip.
She tried to talk, but all that came out was a wordless croak. She tried again, trying to say Tarnish’s name. She felt a soft touch and then the soaked cloth over her face was peeled away. She had trouble seeing, something was wrong with her eyes. Water was poured over her face and she opened her mouth. The cold liquid hitting her tongue and her throat was painful. The water had a strange metallic taste, but she didn’t care. She swallowed, trying to gulp it down, not caring if she might throw it up. She was parched.
“Try not to talk, love,” Tarnish said in a raspy, watery voice. “Hey there, love”—Tarnish prodded Maud with his hoof—“could you drink a little more water for me? You’ve been out for about two days I think. I can’t tell if it is night or day outside. Drink for me, please.”
Maud obliged. She coughed and sputtered, her whole body racked with pain. She gulped down water, holding it in her dried out mouth for a moment until it began to feel warm and then swallowing. Her guts ached and clenched.
“We’re in a little cave I found. We’re safe, sorta. Outside is real bad. I got in touch with Twilight Sparkle with the mirror. She’s gonna try and send help, but outside is a real nightmare. There are strange crystal things growing everywhere. A lot of the trees and plants have been turned into crystals and they all glow.” Tarnish laid the cold wet cloth back over Maud’s eyes and nose, but kept her mouth uncovered so he could keep giving her water.
When Maud could drink no more, she rolled over onto her side and curled up into a fetal position. She couldn’t recall feeling worse in her entire life. She was blinded and everything hurt. She coughed, tasted blood when she did so, and then shuddered in revulsion from the coppery taste welling up in her mouth. She felt Tarnish beside her and took a bit of comfort in both his touch and his presence. At least they were together.
“Maud, I know that Twilight means well, but I don’t think she can rescue us. I grabbed the thaumaton reader when we left and stuffed it into my saddlebags. I’ve been taking measurements. It’s deadly outside.” Tarnish broke into a fit of coughing and it took awhile before he had it under control. He wheezed for a bit and then continued:
“As hard as it might be, I think you and I might have to hike out of here. I know something is wrong with your eyes, but I can still see… I put on my goggles that came with my pith helmet. They’ve protected my eyes. Breathing out there is nasty though. You did a lot more heavy breathing than I did. I don’t know what to do, Maud.”
Hearing the fear and uncertainty in Tarnish’s voice, Maud felt a swell of painful emotion. She reached out one front hoof and flailed around, blind, unseeing, and then, much to her relief, she felt Tarnish’s fetlock wrap around hers. She loved him so much and right now, she was unable to say it, even though she wanted to. She coughed and tasted more coppery blood.
Maud felt the hitching in her chest and realised that she wanted to cry. She felt it like a terrible ache. Crying was something that other ponies did, but never her. But now that she wanted to cry, she was too dehydrated to do so. She gave Tarnish a squeeze and trusted in his ingenuity. He would find a way out of this situation somehow. If Tarnish was anything like poison joke, then some of his talent had to be for survival. She placed what little hope she had in that thought and then just lay there, limp, and unmoving. She didn’t know how to tell Tarnish that she couldn’t walk in her condition, even if she wanted to. She felt a horrible pain in her guts and she gasped in pain.
She had no way to tell Tarnish to leave so he could save himself.
The thought made Maud want to scream, but all she could do is lay on the ground, struggling to breathe through her burned throat. Tarnish needed to leave now if he had any chance of hiking out of here and making it to someplace civilised. She wasn’t certain if he would even go. He might just be stupid enough to stay here with her—and then it would be over for the both of them.
Overcome with emotion, Maud sucked in wind and tried to scream, she just had to let it all out, but she started coughing instead. She hacked and coughed until her mouth was filled with the taste of blood. Multicoloured starbursts exploded in her vision. She felt a strange thudding inside of her head. She coughed and strangled on the fluid rushing out of her lungs.
It felt like mercy when the darkness took her.
“Psst, Maud… hey, Maud, wake up!”
Maud opened her eyes and saw Pinkie Pie, her little sister. The little filly was standing on her hind legs and had her front legs resting on the edge of Maud’s bed. Maud blinked and then reached out to touch Pinkie’s straight, heavy mane.
“Pinkie?”
“Maud, it’s under my bed again,”—Pinkie Pie whispered and then pointed at the door with her tiny little hoof—“I can hear it breathing!”
“Get in my bed, Pinkie,” Maud commanded in a flat, steady monotone.
Pinkie did as she was told, getting into her sister’s bed as Maud was getting out of the bed. Maud pulled the blankets up over Pinkie and then leaned her head down to kiss her sister.
“Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie are gone… Mommy and Daddy don’t believe me.”
“Hush now, Pinkamena,” Maud said as she touched her sister’s cheek, “you just hush and wait here.”
Turning tail, Maud left the room, leaving her sister tucked into her bed. She walked on almost silent hooves. The last thing she wanted was to get in trouble. She ducked down the hall, moving from shadow to shadow, the moonlight pouring in through a window. Her shale grey hide allowed her to slip through the darkness like a phantom.
She pushed open the door to Pinkie’s room, mindful to do it slow so it wouldn’t squeak. She avoided the creaky floorboards. She crossed the room until she reached the leaping point, the place where her little sister Pinkie lept up into her bed so she wouldn’t have a hoof grabbed. Getting too close to the bed was stupid and every little filly knew that.
Except for Maud. Maud made her own rules. She walked with her head low, her tail tucked between her hind legs, she was more afraid of her daddy—whatever was under the bed wasn’t even half as scary as he could be when he was angry.
Reaching the edge of the bed, Maud dove down and kicked her legs out, sliding over the floor. She went right under the bed. There was a thump, then a growl, then another thump, and then another growl, and then the sound of Maud snarling could be heard.
A second later, something was dragged out from beneath the bed. Maud had it in a headlock. She punched it over and over. It was a disgusting thing, something made of nightmares, the literal monster under the bed. This one looked like a piglet mixed with a cockroach and a bubble eyed goldfish.
“Leave my sister alone!” Maud’s voice was a low gravel filled rumble as she punched the gross creature a few more times. There was a pained squeal, then a chittering sound. “She’s special… whatever you things are… you need to stop scaring her.”
Maud punctuated her words with a vicious uppercut that impacted with a wet smack. “Never touch what I love.” There was another wet, squishing crunch. “Never touch what I protect.” Maud rammed her hoof into the creature, drawing out a pained wheeze. “Never try to take what my heart holds dear.” Maud let go of three rapid fire punches, one right after the other. The creature she had in a headlock went limp and the sounds of its breathing ceased.
Something dark and sticky had splashed over the floor. Maud realised that she was going to have to do some cleaning up. She had gone too far, hit too hard, and there would be no releasing this one by tossing it out the window or shoving it out of the back door, then telling it not to come back.
Much to Maud’s surprise, the overhead light turned on. She looked up from where she was sitting on the floor, still holding the thing that had been under Pinkie’s bed. She relaxed her grip and let it fall to the floor.
“Daddy, I can explain—”
“Maudlin, baby, step away and come to Daddy, and you do it quick,” Igneous said in a firm voice as he stood in the doorway. “I owe Pinkie an apology… come here, Maudie… let Daddy clean you up… are you hurt?”
“No, Daddy, I’m The Rock.”
Drifting in and out, Maud felt water being poured over her lips. She felt hot, too hot, and everything hurt inside. Her backside felt raw and chapped. Her stomach was twisted into knots. A little voice inside of her head said that some ice cream might be nice, too sweet or not.
“—I know I keep saying this but we’ve got to hurry,” a familiar voice said.
Maud could feel herself being rocked back and forth, as if somepony was trying to put her to sleep. She was in so much pain… too much pain. It was easy to slip away, and so she did, returning the realm of dreams.
“Heya, Pinkie.” Maud looked at her sister, who had just returned from Ponyville. Pinkie was now a little older, her mane was a little more curly, and her sister looked happier than she had ever been. “Glad to see you home.”
“I had to come back, the best big sister ever is about to go away to school!” Pinkie squealed as she rushed forwards and tackled Maud. She almost bounced off the stony pony, but clung to Maud’s neck and began to squeeze. “I missed you so much… I miss home… but I gotta keep doing what I need to do… something big is about to happen, I just know it! I don’t know what, but my Pinkie Sense is screaming at me… it feels like the biggest monster under the bed ever is about to make an appearance. Maybe even the Queen of the Monsters Under the bed.”
“Do I need to go clobber it?” Maud asked in a flat voice.
“I don’t think you can, Maud. But everything is going to be okay. I’ve grown up, Maud. I can giggle away the ghosties now. Whatever is about to happen, I’m about to be a part of it, I just know it. I think it’s going to be dangerous though.” Pinkie Pie gave her sister an excited, slobbery kiss on the cheek. “My Pinkie Sense tells me that I’m going to make some special friends and everything is going to be okay.”
“Laughter is one thing, a jaw shattering uppercut is another,” Maud said in monotone.
“One day, Maud, you’re going to be part of something big as well, I just know it. There is going to be an epic adventure, and you’re going to fall in love, and there is going to be danger, and romance—”
“Pinkie, please… don’t make jokes about that. Let’s be honest. That’s not going to happen. I know it, you know it, and all the kind words in the world won’t make me feel better about it.” Maud stepped back from her sister and looked into Pinkie’s blue eyes. She saw tears.
“Why is it that you can believe me when I said that there were monsters beneath my bed, but you won't believe me when I tell you what I just told you?” Pinkie asked, her lower lip quivering.
“Monsters under the bed are real. Everything you just said was a fantasy,” Maud replied.
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Time will prove me right, just you wait and see, Maud.”
Once again, Maud awoke to water being poured over her lips. She swallowed, let out a croak, coughed, and then stuck out her tongue as she tried to get more water into her mouth. She felt water hit her tongue and swallowed.
“I think she’s recovering a bit now that we’re in better air,” Tarnish said.
“Good,” a deep voice rumbled back.
Cool water splashed over her face and Maud took shallow breaths, trying to minimise the pain of breathing. There was a rag tied over her eyes. She was laying in something, and Tarnish was beside her. It was like… a hammock or something. She lacked the focus to try and understand her surroundings.
“Maud, we’re going to be okay… you’re going to be okay. We’re out of the blast zone and heading to a place where you and I can get help.”
She felt the canteen press up against her lips. She drank, swallowing the water down in greedy gulps. She felt her stomach lurch, but she needed water and she refused to throw up.
“Twilight found a way to help us.” There was a long pause as Maud coughed, and her ears strained to listen. She desperately wanted to hear Tarnish’s voice. She needed to hear it as much as her body needed water. “She flew high overhead, outside of the range of the deadly magic, and she dropped Spike into the blast zone to look for us. As she dropped him, she hit him with a growth spell. He’s huge.”
Hearing Tarnish’s voice, no matter how raspy, made Maud feel better.
“Best part is, Spike, being a dragon, is utterly impervious to poisonous vapours or lethal levels of magical radiation. He’s carrying us out. Maud, you missed it, but an entire forest turned into crystal trees. It was amazing. We walked through it and Spike ate some of the crystal trees because he was hungry.”
“They were spicy,” a deep voice growled.
“I just need to start brewing up a whole bunch of poison joke tea and you need to drink that stuff by the gallon so we can flush out the magical radiation you’ve absorbed. When I checked you with the thaumaton reader, you hit a hundred bars. We’re out of the hot zone, but everywhere that Spike goes, he’s leaving behind a trail of poison joke and crystalised plants. I think it’s because of you. And me of course… the poison joke is my fault, no doubt about it.”
Maud felt herself pulled into Tarnish embrace and she kept drinking, ignoring her roiling guts. It took all of her strength, but she managed to hook her foreleg around Tarnish’s neck. She held him, clinging to him, thankful to have him.