The Worlds End

by Alcatraz

XI.

We kept on walking through the jungle, stopping every so often to correct our path and to remain on our planned north-west bearing. With nothing to do but cut a trail and keep walking, the three of us got increasingly bored. Hey, at least we're doing more in the jungle than on the ship. Well, except a shower. I could really go for one right now.

All the sweat my body was producing was weighing me down. I had thought about going back to the spring we found earlier and taking a dip, but we'd lose too much time. We weren't making the progress I expected, and I was already slightly mad because of that factor. Not to mention, I was still a little miffed at Bullseye for what nearly happened to Luna. To us.

My mind was distracted by thoughts of home, my parents, Bullseye, and Luna. Clouding my eyes in front of me, so much so that I didn't notice what was at the base of my feet. I was walking, using the kukri to hack at some vines when one false move and I lost my footing. The ground swallowed me up as darkness started to engulf me, falling with my hands above my head as I lost my grip on the kukri. I could hear Luna's voice crying out for me, as I could just imagine what being swallowed up by the forest floor would look like to her. I tried grabbing the ledge, but as I fell my chest hit the other side of the opening and I fell backward, into an inky abyss. All I remember after that is wishing that I would stop falling. It must have been a second. Or an eternity? I don't remember. But then I felt a thud at some point and blacked out.

Eventually, I came to. I looked around, but couldn't see anything. Darkness covered my sight like an impenetrable veil. The smell of gas permeated my nostrils, making me wretch. It smelled like something is decomposing. The sudden stench caused me to hack and cough, with the sounds of my own throat echoing all around me.

I slid off the backpack, undoing the straps and felt around for one of the flashlights I had stowed away. I found one of them, and pushed the button on the base to turn it on. It lit up the room, turning the darkened room into a series of walls all around me. I turned the focus knob so it casts a wider area of light. I turned it back up to the hole from which I fell, and could see the tiniest pinprick of light at the top.

I called out for Luna and Bullseye, my voice echoing as I shouted. However long I waited, I got nothing in return. I let out a deep sigh. Luna was probably worried sick about me. She didn't have to be, but it would make sense why. I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I didn't need anyone to babysit me. I caught myself wondering what they would be doing. Luna was probably spending every second looking for me. I knew that I'd need to be doing the same for them, or at least trying to find a way out of here first.

It was then I noticed a strange glow emanating from my left arm. My eyes looked down and noticed the Time Gem, shining brightly. It must have somehow activated when I fell. I wondered if the glow from my arm would light up the room as my flashlight would. For a few moments, I switched my flashlight off. While the glow from my arm did feel warm, and although it was a bit comforting, it did little to light anything but the immediate area around me. I swapped my flashlight back on and started to examine the room.

The room itself was just... Wow. A circular room with niches set into the walls. In a few of the niches, sat a few odd objects, but most of them were bare. There was about two-dozen niches with only about six items between them. Below each item, carved into the rock, there was an inscription. It was in a language I wasn't familiar with. I thought about picking them up, as if something was compelling me to do so. I tried to distract myself by thinking of where to go next, but there was something about the items. Moving closer to one of the items, I wondered what would happen if I just examined one.

Suddenly, I heard a voice, almost like a witch's voice; thick with hatred as it dug into my mind. "Like what you see?"

I spun around in shock. "Who's there?" Quickly, I pulled the tanto from its sheath across my chest. No sense in being helpless. I wasn't sure if this voice was out to hurt me or not, but I wasn't about to leave it to chance.

"I think the better question is; who are you?" came the reply. The voice felt like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. A high screeching sound that morphed into a voice. I cringed as I took a step forward.

"I am an explorer, I mean no harm. I fell through the hole in the roof."

"It's not often I get visitors."

I imagine not. Not with that voice. I thought to myself. "Yeah, well maybe if you opened up shop over the hole, instead of underneath is, for whatever it is you have down here you'd get more customers." I was hoping whomever it was, wouldn't see how terrified I was of some mysterious stranger coming from the dark. I shined my flashlight to where I thought the voice was coming from, but there didn't seem to be anything there. Still, the voice came piercing through the air, scratching at my ears.

"What is it you have come here seeking?"

"I tripped and fell. So, by way of answer, it's not what I seek that lies in this room, but what lies elsewhere." I looked back over the alcoves set into the wall. The items still allured me with what they held. What would a mysterious voice want with a seemingly random set of items? Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked; "What do you have here?"

"Magical items of unfathomable power. Pick one."

Pick one? I asked myself. It was obviously a trap. It had to be. I didn't know too many creatures who would just give up a valuable treasure out of the goodness of their heart to complete stranger. The voice was up to something. I didn't know what, nor did I have anyway of finding out. Still, the items did silently call out to me. As if they wanted me to pick them up.

Turning my head back to the alcove, I saw a scroll that had been wrapped up. I reached out for it, but hesitated. I had seen enough movies to know that magical items were almost always booby trapped. I knew that this would be no exception. I examined the area around it again, taking it every single detail of the alcove before even daring to touch the scroll.

"What is the matter, boy?" The voice echoed. "Don't you want it?"

I shook my head. "I'm just not exactly a fan of falling victim to a trap!"

There was a slight chuckle in the air around me, echoing a hundred times before stopping. "Would I lie to a handsome, young man like you?"

Of course you would, I internally snapped. My hand wrapped itself around the scroll. My reflexes were ready for anything. Any trap that this feminine voice could throw at me, I was more than prepared. I pulled the scroll from its resting place and waited. Moment after moment passed and nothing came. No trap, no tricks, nothing. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"That," continued the voice, "Is a Spell Scroll. You can have any spell on it you want to. It requires next to no magic to use, but once you do, it burns up; it's a one-time deal. It can even send you home."

That last word really made got my blood pumping. A chance to send me home? Is this what I've come here for? Is my journey really complete? Have we found the Breach? These questions flooded my mind as my eyes widened. If this... 'voice' wasn't lying, this spell I found could give me the closure I wanted. Then a thought crossed my mind. "Come out now! How do you know I'm not from here?"

The far wall began to fluctuate, like a pond having a rock thrown into it, with ripples emerging from central point in the wall. A figure stepped through, causing more ripples to scatter all around the point of entry. An old, boney, foul-looking creature dressed in tattered rags appeared before me. Brown dusty rags covered her body, a hood covering most of her face. Only two hands appeared from her robe. Long fingers that looked as if the skin was the only thing stopping the skeleton from reaching the outside world. The skin stretched over the skeleton like elastic, sending a cold chill up my spine. Her fingers touched one another as she held them up in an almost scheming gesture.

One could almost describe her appearance like that of an anorexic witch, except what could loosely be called her clothes didn't leave much to the imagination. Oh god, how I wish I could change that. If her fingers were any indication of what her body looked like, that was something my mind could hardly prepare for. I prayed she wasn't a mind reader.

"I've been alive longer than you can imagine. Longer than your precious princesses."

I can see that. I really hoped she wasn't a mind reader. I could hardly control my sarcastic, smartass mind. The initial shock from the old woman's appearance made me forget about the scroll in my hand. As tempting as its power was, perhaps there was something here that was even more useful or maybe something else that could tell me more about this banshee of a woman and her plans. I knew she had plans of her own. Why else would she help me? I just wasn't sure what they were yet. I put the spell scroll back in its place and picked up another item; a ring.

"That ring grants you the appearance and abilities similar to a thestral, or what you would call a, ugh... bat pony."

I hadn't seen too many of those, but they looked like Luna's night guard without the fancy getup. They were as peaceful as the ponies, but they lived in another land and rarely visited. The thought was tempting. To be a bat pony and become one with the night. Just like Luna. Then, maybe, I could see the night the way she had always seen it. Maybe it would bring us closer together. I looked at her, showing her the ring.

"And what abilities would that be?"

"Draconic eyes that give you unparalleled vision in the darkness. Bat wings that you use to fly, fangs largely for aesthetics, and your outer appearance changes too." She looked up, finally revealing her face. It was just as I had come to imagine it. A wrinkled, bony face staring at me. The wrinkles near her eyes and lips spoke of her age. Her eyes had lost all of their color. Whatever color her eyes were, they were long since gone. She gave a smile, and that is when I noticed voids in her mouth where teeth should have been, with the ones remaining a dull yellow and black color. "But be warned, with some items comes a cost. The scroll burned up, but if you wear the ring for too long you will become stuck in that form, and the longer you wear it, the harder it is to take off."

As bad as that sounded, it really wasn't as bad as she probably made it sound. Would being a bat pony forever be a bad thing? How would a human-turned-bat pony even look? I had nothing left in the human world. There was nothing for me there, just one thing. Once that was taken care of, there was no other reason to go back. "If I take it off what happens?"

"Everything returns to normal. You only change when you put it on."

"Explain to me what each of these are." We went to each alcove in turn and the entity explained the uses of the items.

She made a gesture to a piece of folded leather. Where the hell did leather come from? "This contains a piece of paper that will fool anyone that looks at it to what you tell them is on it." Sweet, my own psychic paper! The next couple of alcoves were empty. I placed my hand in one of them, and I felt a feeling of calm wash over me. I couldn't believe my luck. Any of these items would come in handy any time I would need them. This was a tempting thought.

"Who else came here before myself?"

"Many others. One individual chose an item that corrupted him, giving him the mind of a mad man and powers to match."

Something about that short story made me think that there was something this woman wasn't letting on. I knew that, for some reason or other, she wanted me to take the items. But giving me such powerful items for no reason? There was an ulterior motive. I knew there was. Then there was the others, the individuals who came before me. I knew what had become of one of them. But what of the others?

The next item looked like my compass. "This is the Homeward Rose Compass. It points the way to any place you have already been if you wish to return. It also functions like a normal compass." The ultimate way to bring you back to a safe zone. Anyplace you have been and want to revisit, or if you need a place to get back to for supplies or a safe haven would be at your fingertips. I thought about this one probably more than the scroll. This would get us back to the airship with no difficulty, the spring, even Equestria if we became that lost. This item was a definite runner in the list of items that would be useful.

We skipped pass an empty alcove, skipping to the next to the next one. "A Soul Gem." She stated.

"Sounds pretty." I said.

She gave one of her chuckles, a weak series of laughs that were better at sending shivers up your spine than comforting you. "You would be mistaken." She extended her hand out and slowly clenched it into a fist. I thought she might make a move to attack. Not that I was worried I couldn't take her. She was just a frail old woman. I would kill her before she could do whatever it was she was planning. "If you stab a target with this gem, it absorbs the soul of the individual, temporarily giving you the ability to summon and control both flesh and bone golems." Holy shit! Why something that gory exists in a land of sunshine and smiles is an utterly horrifying thought. Stealing souls? Summoning their corpses as guardians to fight for me, as if it was a reminder of who I had killed in my quest for the Breach? That was a thought that made me a little sick.

"I think I'll pass on that one."

"Very well." We went to the next alcove. "This is a chunk of Star Metal." The irregularly shaped chunk of metal glowing with a sparkly blue hue is huge. I picked it up and found it easily weighed about two kilos. Considering the size of it, it seemed rather light. "Any blade that gets forged from it will be unbreakable, and will possess untold sharpness. Armor that gets made from it will never get penetrated or damaged by any weapon in existence."

A suit of armor that couldn't be damaged, or a blade that could cut through anything? Now there was something in this pile of junk that was actually useful. I was surprised at how light the metal was. Wielding a weapon forged from it would be an easy chore. It could offer me either the best defense or an extremely powerful offense. This one jumped to the top of my list.

I stepped back into the middle of the room.

"Make your choice." she said, spreading out her arms in gesture to the six items.

Even after hearing everything that was said, I still had an unsettling feeling in my gut. "Interesting collection." I turned towards her and took a step forward. "Why did you show me these instead of shoo-ing me off?"

"These artifacts are doing nothing but collecting dust down here. You are the only person in over fifteen-hundred years to come down here." Fifteen hundred years? That was longer than Luna had been alive. At least, as far as I knew. If this woman had been down here that long, alone, then maybe there was more to her than just being a creepy corpse of a woman. "The last... Well, she was an interesting case. There are those whom can't resist temptation; like the individual that got corrupted. But that's enough of that. None of these things will ever do anything useful down here. Don't you think that's due to change?"

There was a certainly sincerity in her voice, as if she was begging me to take them. "So... You want me to take them?"

She leaned forward suddenly. "Don't be greedy," she snapped. I took a step back and palmed my knife again, as if to warn her not to take a step closer. She gave off a chuckle and her toothless grin came to her face once more. Her eyes met with mine, causing me to take another step back, the knife still pointed at her. "I will let you take two. If you could have any one of them, which would you take?"

I raised my eyebrow. It was all too good to be true. "Is there a cost?"

"Would I have told you price at some stage had there been one?"

My brow narrowed as I gazed directly at her. "You didn't exactly say there isn't a price."

A smug grin found its way onto her face. "There is no cost."

I looked over each of the items in turn. The spell scroll is a one-time deal, so that dissuaded me, despite whatever spell it can have. The powers of the night would be something sweet, but the thought of transforming into a bat creature with little way to go back caused me to look away. I don't know who I would be trying to trick with the psychic paper anyway, despite the fact that it made me chuckle. Would the compass even work between dimensions and universes? I asked myself. Lastly, there's the soul gem. There was no way I was using that. The Soul Gem is just pure evil.

There was only one choice left. The Star Metal? I could make a freaking awesome blade from it! Now, that would be something useful. I couldn't pass up the Star Metal. I went to the alcove and picked it up. Suddenly, two of the remaining five items vanished, leaving just three. I turned back to the entity. "What did you do?"

The old woman chuckled. "When one item is taken, the choices are further reduced."

I looked back to see the ring, soul gem, and spell scroll still there. I didn't particularly want any of those. The spell scroll, with its one time spell could be useful if we got into a jam, but there was no guarantee we wouldn't run into trouble again soon after. The Soul Gem was out of the question. Leaving only one option. I begrudgingly went and picked up the ring, then the other two items vanished.

"You know, most people; people, ponies, whatever, that entered this place would ask what the purpose of this room is, and what I am. You didn't."

Wait what, people!? "I think you just asked them for me." I glared at her only for her to return with a smile.

"This room wanders throughout the lands, waiting to be found, only to move again. I am its protector."

I thought that I should ask who she was or why she was here, what she wanted from me and why she would just willingly give me these items. But, the truth was, I just wanted to get out of here. "So... Can you tell me how to get out of here?"

"Use the gem you cut from the Beholder. Levitate one of the stones in the floor with yourself standing on it. Doing that will take you back to the surface."

I stood back in the middle of the room and pocketed the ring and hunk of Star Metal, making sure I picked up everything I dropped. I focused on the gem in my right arm, and my whole arm began to glow a ghostly white. I looked down at the circular stone I'm standing on, and it started to glow as well. My gaze turned skyward towards the hole as I began to feel myself move upwards. The ground shook for a moment, nearly causing me to tumble. I quickly caught myself as I felt the wind rushing down past me. I looked around, watching the dirt, rocks and various roots whiz past me as the platform took me high above the ground floor. High above the mysterious figure.

My left arm is still glowing yellow though. I must remember to somehow turn it off when I get to the top. Eventually, I reached the top, where the stone I stood on closed the hole with a hollow thunk.

I looked around and saw Luna and Bullseye staring down towards my feet. Luna had a hoof stretched outward with her mouth open and a look of horror on her face. She was still, like a statue. Her body didn't move, she didn't blink. It was like she was stuck in a single moment in time.

What in the world..." I asked myself, staring at her. What if this was what that woman was up to? If anything happened to Luna, I would make that woman pay.

I turned towards Bullseye. He didn't have much of an expression on his face. Perhaps a slight hint of disdain. As if he wanted me to fall, as if there was something about me he couldn't stand. Was it because I yelled at him? How childish! I thought to myself.

I turned my focus to my arm, taking a deep breath and letting it out, clearing my mind as I willed the yellow gem to turn off. It worked that way with the levitating gem, so why not with the time gem? The golden glow receded up my arm and back into the gem.

"...OOOOOOOOO!!!" Luna cut off her scream. She stood with her hoof still stretched out, and her gaze slowly climbed my legs before settling onto my eyes. Somehow, time had stopped for them, but not for me nor for the strange old woman. I wondered if it had something to do with the light on my arm when I felt, but then how was the old woman not affected? I shook it off, hoping that Luna wouldn't notice.

I give her a smug smile and a wink. "Miss me?"

Her mouth dropped and she looked at the ground where the hole once was, snapping her head back and forth between us. "But you... fell... how did you? One moment you fell down the hole and the next moment you're back here!"

I turned to Bullseye. "You didn't look nearly as concerned as Luna."

He shrugged. "I haven't known you as long as she has." Dick. That was something I was going to remember. It still didn't excuse the fact that I could have possibly been killed and he didn't even bat an eye. What was going through his head? I wondered. I decided to ignore him for the time being.

"To answer your question, Luna, I managed to activate the time gem in the same way as the levitating one. But both cases were accidental. The mechanics of turning them on and off are the same; I just need to will them on and off if I concentrate hard enough."

She let out a heavy breath I didn't realize she was holding. "Well... I'm just thankful you're alright." Silence came over us, save for Luna breathing in sighs of relief.

It might have been only second, but I could tell Luna was just as afraid of losing me, as I was of losing her. Maybe, even more so. "What was down there?"

I turned my gaze down to where I stood and used a nearby stick to poke at the ground. A solid stone blocked my path down to the shaft. "A room. It's gone now."

"What kind of room?" Bullseye asked.

I glared up at Bullseye. "The kind with immensely powerful magical artifacts."

Luna's eyes widened. "Show me." She commanded. "I want to make sure what you took isn't cursed."

Maybe that was a good idea. I took out the ring and lump of Star Metal and she took them in her aura, using her magic to scan them. It was several moments before she opened her mouth wide as if there was something there that surprised her.

"I haven't ever seen something like this, although I can say it's Star Metal from what I've heard in rumor. It fell from the heavens on a ball of fire. If you own a weapon or something crafted from it, it's nigh indestructible and will cut anything without growing dull." That was a relief. It was good to hear some actual sense after dealing with that mad woman. "The ring is cursed, however. It's a transformation ring, but if you wear it too long you become whatever it is you turn into."

"I know, that much got explained to me."

"By who?" Bullseye asked.

"The guardian of the room, perhaps?" I shrugged and took the ring and lump of metal back, putting them in my bag. I took out some food which I then gave to Bullseye and Luna to snack on. "Anyway, let's take a short break here. I've got a plan in mind for that metal for when we make camp." I took the opportunity to sharpen the kukri with the ceramic rod while some chocolate hung out my mouth. Satisfied with the edge on it, I sheathed it, finished the chocolate and washed down the heavy tasting cacao with some water from the bladder in the bag.

I figured once everything was over and done with I'd have Celestia take a better look at the ring or give it to some of her unicorn professors to study. No way in Tartarus I'm going to use something that risks turning me into a bat creature. That would be way cool though. I'd be bad-ass. Or at least, I'm sure I would be. Unless the old witch was lying and I would turn into an ugly blob thing. That was something I didn't need. Even though Luna did scan it, I still didn't feel safe putting it on.

Could Celestia or Luna reverse it? I turned towards Luna. "Hey Luna, if I were to put that ring on, would you be able to reverse the effects it they were permanent?"

She shook her head. "I've not encountered artifacts like that before; the magic is foreign to me."

We kept walking. Not much else to do, really. I kept looking at the watch hanging off one of my bags' straps, keeping an eye on the time to make sure we had at least two hours to stop and make camp and to get something cooked before we settled down.

That reminded me. I stopped and turned to look back at Bullseye. "Here's the chance to redeem yourself from last night." I snarled. "Keep watch tonight—since you failed last night—and you'll have redeemed yourself."

He was silent, looking down at the ground. I couldn't see his eyes, couldn't tell if he was glaring at me or if he was sincere about his mistake. Either way, he was going to stay up or I'd make him.

"I understand." Came the reply.

"Good. Let's keep moving." I moved passed Luna, not even giving her a glance. There was no way of knowing how she felt about the situation with Bullseye. She was angry with him, that must was clear. But I wasn't sure if she agreed with my decision to do what I needed to if he failed again.

We kept trudging through the humidity, and eventually I depleted my water bladder of its contents. Two days had passed since we began this journey. Night was falling and it wouldn't be long before we would need to make camp. I thought of all the water we all consumed and how much we still had. We cut down on our water consumption, which is good, but it leaves us at risk of dehydration at this stage.

I almost regretted not taking the compass with me. It would have been useful for getting us back to the spring and setting out again. Maybe. I don't know if it would have made a difference, but it was certainly in my mind.

I checked with Luna and Bullseye, and they each only had a dribble of water left in their bottles. With the water left in the bottle in my satchel for cooking purposes, we only had about a liter between the three of us, and in this kind of heat, it usually comes down to drinking about a cup of water every twenty to thirty minutes. Although we have gone this long because water is scarce. We needed to find a spring, and fast.

I checked my watch at one point to find the time to have just passed three-thirty in the afternoon. I sighed and kept moving. "We're going to need to stop in about another hour or so to se-" the kukri I was swinging to cut a path through the foliage hit something with a resounding metallic clang. We all stopped dead in our tracks and turned our gazes to my knife. Holding it in my left hand, still in the position it was when it hit whatever it is.

I pulled some vines out the way to see a rusted, wrought iron ring attached to moldy, decrepit wood door. I looked back at Luna and Bullseye with astonishment and we began tearing down vines and overgrowth. How many ruins are in this jungle that are completely covered with vines!? I swear if we didn't run into these...

Eventually we pulled down enough to reveal sixty percent of a huge door, then Luna spoke up. "Stand back, let me just..." He horn glowed and the remainder of the vines around the door got pulled off with her magic, revealing a thoroughly rotted door rimmed with iron to hold the wood used in the construction of the door, in place. More iron braced the door; a flat beam ran across the mid-section of each door for added strength, I assumed.

I tried pulling on the rings to get the door open but it wouldn't budge. So I took out my tank of a bush-craft knife, held it in the reverse grip and dug the stout tip into the wood, prying out a solid chunk of wood. That was easy enough, I thought to myself. I kept digging chunks out, not knowing how thick the wood was. Soon enough I had a decent sized hole being carved out of the door without so much as going through.

Luna tapped me on the shoulder with her hoof. "Need some help?" She said with a giggle.

I put the knife back in its sheath. "Be my guest." I stepped out of the way and gave a mockingly polite gesture towards the door for her. In good humor, of course.

Her horn glowed again, enveloping the doors. Slowly, they began to crumble away, splinter by splinter, leaving a nice pile of wood on the ground. She gave me a smug smile as if to mock me.

I replied with a slight chuckle. "Yeah yeah, I'll have you know I weakened it."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oh hush up," she replied playfully.

As I looked upon the pile of wood at my feet, one thought came to my mind. Hello firewood for tonight! As the wood laid upon the ground, an all too familiar smell washed over my nostrils. I inhaled deeply at the smell.

"It can't be..." I said incredulously. "In Equestria of all places!?" The deliciously skunky scent reached my nostrils. The scent wasn't exactly akin to that of a skunk, but that's the better way to look at it. The truth was, there was no other smell so welcoming.

"Can't be what?" Luna said. I looked back at the two and saw her and Bullseye holding a hoof over their noses.

"Let's go inside."

"I'll rid the place of that stench!" proclaimed Luna.

I put my hand on her back and shook my head. "No, wait, I want to see how much of it there is!"

"How much of what?" asked Bullseye.

I began giggling like a kid in a candy store. "Trust me on this." I began walking into the relative dark of the ancient stone building. I pulled out my flashlight and began scanning the corners of the room we stood in before my light settled upon the source of the smell.

A cluster of white plants grew out of the stone at the end of the room. My grin widened exponentially.

"Father, what is that? I've not seen, or smelled, anything like it before!"

I giggled like a child as I rushed over to the white plants with spots of green barely making its way through it, like a leaf with snow on it. "Back on earth, we called it weed."

"Isn't that an unwanted plant that grows in a garden?"

"In one sense of the word. A weed is something that will usually grow anywhere. The generic term for this plant is cannabis, or marijuana." Although marijuana was originally the name for Mexican wild tobacco... I turned back to Luna. "Put it in your pocket thing. I have an idea."

"Pray-tell, what idea is that?"

To which I replied with a smug grin; "We gon' make some brownies when we get back to Ponyville!"

Luna raised her eyebrow. "How do you plan to make pastries with such awful smelling plants?"

My smile faded to a frown and then I unleashed a cackle. "Never mind that. Let's just harvest this stuff."

Luna shook her head, but she complied all the same. She got rid of all available plants—and smell—that lingered in the room. Luna and Bullseye were giving me peculiar looks because of all my excited giggling. Before I got into that, I told Bullseye to pile up all the rotted wood from the door into a few piles for the camp fire, and to get a few sticks for the billy can and began the cooking for the evening.

"About this plant you were excited about." said Bullseye after some time.

"Back on Earth, it was prohibited for ridiculously contrived reasons. Firstly, have you got anything that could be called a drug here?"

Bullseye shrugged. "Salt? That usually puts a few ponies into a weird state. There's even salt-lick taverns that some visit."

"Then that would be the human equivalent of alcohol. This has less adverse effects. It mellows you out, increases appetite, and gives you an awesome buzz that lasts anywhere between two to three hours."

Luna piped up. "Why was is prohibited?"

I shrugged. "Because the government is fucktarded. They would rather spend millions of dollars in man power and put the efforts into keeping something illegal rather than legalizing it and profiting off it like a sane person would do."

Bullseye's eyes almost fell out of his head. "Millions!? We could buy a decent house for about 900, up to 1500 bits!"

"We have a different monetary system. We have what's called dollars in my country, and you have bits. Although different countries have different currencies."

"Anyway, what's so good about it?"

"It's a relaxant, increases appetite for the most part, make you feel good, makes mu sic sound so much better, increased visual stimulant amongst others, as well as reduced cognitive function."

"There's ponies that develop a dependence on salt. Can the same be said for this... drug?" Asked Luna.

"Oh sure. You can develop a dependence—healthy or unhealthy—on anything, really. When people don't like something, they'll jump at any excuse and spin contrived reasons of their own why it shouldn't be allowed. Anyway, something else I've been meaning to bring up. We've only got enough food left for tomorrow, and we've got next to no water left until we can find a spring, or find a way to somehow collect some more."

The idea bulb went off in my head. Why didn't I think of this before? "Could I just write Ratchet and ask her to send us another couple days worth of food and water?" I pulled out the folded up paper I tore from my journal during the first night I wrote to Ratchet, asked how progress is doing and to send a bit more food, if possible, with the note. I didn't mention the hole or the building we're in.

Ten minutes later, we got a reply, and some more supplies. "It says they've got everything structurally sound, and now are working to repair the gash in the side and the balloon. They both wish us luck." I erased the ink and folded up the paper and put it back in my journal, putting that back in my bag, then asking Luna if she can give me the book we got from the library.

Instead of flicking randomly through it, I decided to start from the beginning and work my way through it by flashlight to pass some time while Bullseye sat out front of the building by the fire to keep watch. If he falls asleep again, so help me...

The illustrations in the book really are spectacular to look at, so much so that I can't stress it enough. This book must be damn ancient, but the colors are as vibrant as modern ink and paint from Earth . It reminded me of something called 'The Voynich Manuscript' on Earth; a mysterious book found by a researcher. It had elaborate drawings of flowers and other flora. No one knew what they were, as they didn't match any visual details of any known plants to date. The writing was equally as confusing. While some scholars managed to decipher the author's name, nothing else apart from that was known, and the name is only a guess too.

That would be my best guess about this book I'm holding. Mysterious writing, beautiful pictures. I've never been so close to learning about an ancient civilization but it's all a matter of deciphering it. So close, yet so far away.

Comments

[Alcatraz]

4852972

The beholder is not an owl...

[Zathras]

Good story so far. Just waiting for more chapters.

[Alcatraz]

4853995 Awesome, glad you like it!

The next chapter is being edited, expect it the greater part of a week.

[Surferguy007]

Was the madman discord by any chance?

[Alcatraz]

4857109

Maybe...

[Alcatraz]

5090371

He's just collecting useful items, not combining them to craft specific items like Jason does in FC3.

[Ninjahzzzz]

5090395 ...As if he knew eyeballs would be useful.

[Alcatraz]

5090433

Well he just held onto those out of reflex when he was running from the Beholder

[Meridiana]

I really love this, please more

[Alcatraz]

5096094

Well, good news is the next chapter is ready to go. I'm just waiting for site traffic to increase before I publish it.

[Snyperwulff0]

*Makes a face* Pot.. I hate the stuff. Did nothing good for me when I tried it but give me panic attacks and make me incredibly paranoid. *Snorts* But to each their own. I have no right to dislike someone who does it.

[Reishin Amara]

6660800 ha,last time i heard something like that reaction was in the series 2 Broke Girls...only the Blonde Rich girl turned out to be one of those very rare people who hilariously becomes depressed instead of happy while High.