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// 17 - Cover of Darkness 
// Story: An Undertale of Equestria 
// by David Silver 
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Trixie conjured a blue tent with stars just barely large enough for us all to settle in and wait for darker hours, It wasn't terrible, so long as one didn't mind being squished between two horses. At least they were warm.

I don't think I had many opportunities to snuggle before. I had that roomie, but I was fairly sure we didn't do that kind of thing. Did I date a lot? Sometimes. I could remember that as a moderate selection of women, most of whom  only appeared once in my life, though there were two exceptions that dimly floated around my still recovering recollections. 

One of them I met when I was very young. Thinking of her freckly face made me sad and happy all at once. What happened to her? Oh, right, her parents moved away, and that was that.

The other one was older, a proper woman. We were together a while before she moved on. She had ambitions and goals, and a little thing like a boyfriend wasn't going to hold her back. I was happy just doing my job, and that wasn't the fast track for advancement.

And there I was, on an alien world in an alien body, trying to solve their problems. It was almost certainly the most daring thing I'd done. I'd never been so determined to get something done, and just right. My hand clenched, getting some of Trixie's fur and flesh. The ponies had been nice and accepting, overall. Even the 'bad guys', I think, wanted to do this a better way, but they didn't know how.

I must have slipped into a proper sleep, because I felt Trixie gently shaking me. "Wake up, familiar. It's time for us to be astounding, in quiet. Not one of Trixie's favored ways of dazzling a crowd, but being seen means we failed."

I opened my eyes to see the flap of the tent was already open. Sweet was outside, doing slow circles with a look of wonderment on her face. Her glasses were taken off, allowing her brilliant green eyes to almost shine in the light of the moon and stars. "Come here!" she whispered to us. "Have you seen this all before? It's amazing! The big white thing's a little bright, but I can see clearly now, and there's so much to see!"

Trixie lifted me to my feet with her magic before she stepped free of the tent. With the way clear, I followed after her and looked where Sweet was desperately trying to draw my attention, upwards. The stars were brilliant, and there were more of them than I remembered seeing back home. Maybe it was because there was less light out here? I wondered how many more would be visible if we were even further away from the Crystal Empire. The moon was large, but alien. I couldn't get a clear mental image of what the moon used to look like, but I was pretty sure it wasn't that.

Sweet waved a hoof slowly across the sky. "What are all the smaller twinkles? Each one is wonderful, but there are just so many of them! Sometimes moss would glow on the ceiling of our caverns, but it didn't look like this." She jumped suddenly. "That one moved!"

With a patient smile, Trixie banished the tent to wherever those things went, then nodded at Sweet. "Those are stars." She raised a hoof to the moon. "That white spherical one, the biggest thing in the sky, is the moon. The moon is like a star, but much closer. They're all very far away though. Even the Great and Powerful Trixie struggles to imagine the distances involved."

A memory of looking up at the stars came to me. I was with a gaggle of childhood friends. We were in someone's backyard, with a tent not too dissimilar to Trixie's and we spent some time just gazing up at the sky. We had talked about a lot of things I couldn't remember anymore. Bringing my thoughts back to the present, I nodded towards Sweet. "You look more comfortable."

"Oh! I am!" She suddenly jumped over me, just to grab me up and squeeze me against her fuzzy chest. "This 'night' thing is wonderful! It's not perfect, but compared to 'day', I'll take it every time, and it's so pretty!" She waved a hoof up at the sky, her other forearm holding me. "The day doesn't have all of this, not that I could see much even with the glasses. The poison gas is even calmed down."

I gave a little cough. "About that. We really should put that straight." Sweet tilted her head at me, but looked curious. I gave a little smile. "There is no poison gas. It's just the bright light from the sun."

"... Oh. That actually makes a lot more sense." She set me down gently. "They said it was gas, a long time ago. But they weren't here. What did they really know?" She frowned a little. "I feel silly now."

Trixie waved it off. "We've all made mistakes before, even Trixie. The important part is how we react to it." She leaned towards Sweet. "If she may be frank, one time..." Trixie glanced around. "One time, Trixie did not react very well, and made a mess of things."

Sweet put a hoof over her mouth as she gasped. "You? I find that hard to believe."

"Trixie knows! But it is true." She smiled gently. "You're doing very well. Now, let us proceed." She turned back towards the farmland. "Our target is somewhere in that direction, and she's relying on your keen senses to guide us to it."

Sweet lifted her snout high into the air, sniffing around before she put it to the ground and snuffled again, like a bloodhound. She began following the scent only she could detect, leading us right through the berry patch. For a change, I was allowed to walk alongside them. Sweet's pace while following the scent was slow enough to make keeping up with her easy.

Even more like the dog she was acting like, her tail went up and started wagging eagerly. She pawed at the ground and began digging without prompting, and the starlight from above actually dimmed around us, plunging us into proper darkness, only for it to fade moments later to the loud sounds of crunching and slurping coming from Sweet. "Mmm, it's just like I remember it."

That wasn't right, I didn't think. "Sweet, next time you find one, pull it out but don't eat it."

Sweet blushed at the tips of her ears, unlike Trixie's cheek blushing. "Oh! Did you want some? I didn't mean to be rude like that. I'll share the next one, promise."

Trixie shook her head. "Trixie thinks he would like to inspect your discovery before you enjoy it."

Sweet gave a firm head bob before she began to sniff along the ground, slowly stepping away from us. We followed after her and ended up going halfway through the field before she began to dig with a big grin. Darkness descended quickly as she pulled something free. "Here you are."

I felt the thing being pushed into my arms. It was like a giant millipede, all scuttling and armored. At least it didn't immediately bite me. It wouldn't stay still and I ended up juggling it from one hand to another, and I still couldn't see anything, just feel its countless legs scuttling across my arms and hands. "Mother, can you see it?"

"Trixie cannot." Her horn became visible in the gloom, if dimly. "There, that's  better."

The beetle, and it was a beetle, with a lot of legs, was a dull red color, except its mandibles, which were black. I had a feeling there was something about it... "Hey, sorry for digging you up."

The thing stopped crawling around and faced me directly. "You speak click? I didn't expect that."

Sweet tilted her head at both of us. "Are you talking with it?"

I nodded at the beetle. "Yeah. We're trying to find the source of the shadow here. You're dark, not shadow. There's a difference, right?"

"Right!" The beetle wagged some of its legs at me. "You know a lot for a top dweller. The shadow lets us live close to the surface, where food's easy to find."

Trixie looked over at Sweet. "He has many amazing tricks. I'm sure he's handling this."

Hmm. "Do you see the black pony there? She's from the old city of dark ponies. She used to raise beetles."

The beetle turned around to look at Sweet a moment. "She looks right. I've never heard of a dark pony living on the top."

"It's true, I swear." I smiled at the beetle. "We're going to get her a home, and it'll be nice and dark. She'd gladly take care of you all, so you don't need the shadow. Like the old days."

He? I think it was a he, wagged an antenna lightly. "Well, alright, but my grandfather said that the dark ponies didn't just take care of us, they also... demanded sacrifices."

Thinking on it, that was kind of true. "Answer me this. How many beetles get snapped up by predators?"

His legs quivered, in fear I thought. "Too many! Good friends, gone before their time."

I gestured at Sweet. "She's like a super nice predator. She'll make sure there are plenty of beetles left, and treat you nicely and keep you all fed and happy. If any other predators threaten you, you can tell her and she'll take care of them."

He went quiet a moment. "I need to talk to my friends."

I set him down on the ground. "Go ahead, we'll wait here." While he scuttled off, I looked back to my two pony friends. "He's going to get his friends in on the deal."

Trixie raised a brow. "What deal? We don't speak bug, familiar."

I waved in the direction he had fled in. "If they agree, they'll come with us back to the Crystal Empire and live with Sweet. Sweet, you'll have to take care of them and keep them safe and fed, but you get to eat some of them."

Sweet perked up at the news. "I'll get my beetle farm back? This is the best news I've heard all day, and this is the day I saw the stars for the first time!" She grabbed me up and squeezed tight. "Thank you! I'll take good care of them, promise. Do you think the crystal ponies will learn to like our treats? It really is delicious."

Trixie waved a hoof dismissively. "It will take time to warm up the local ponies to the idea. Even Trixie admits to being hesitant to snack on bugs."

Sweet began extolling the virtues of her preferred beetle diet as we waited for the beetle to return. I felt we were closer to finding the shadow lurking in this farm.