> The Worlds End
>  by Alcatraz
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Map
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For all intents and purposes, and so you don't get confused with the geographic layouts, I will be using this map as the reference for this story.

Click this link for a better view of the map.



I explain more about the map in this blog post.
> I. 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Breach.


I've studied lore, myths, and many legends before, but all of them pale in comparison to what we know as ‘The Breach’.

Nopony knows exactly what it is, or has any knowledge as of how it came to be-all we know is that it's a giant chasm Celestia-knows how long that is debated to either lead into, or come from, ‘The Void’. The Void is a hole; a supposedly bottomless hole from which seemingly limitless energy, or what unicorns call "Ley" comes from, with a similarly limitless supply; never ceasing.

One legend says that the crack, ‘The Breach’, was formed when the creator of the world, the 'God' if you will, had been slain. Another stipulates that a demon aviation rose from the core of the planet from the chasm, hence the name ‘Breach’.

There's even one that pony-kind consider to be the most conceivable explanation; conveying an image in many imaginations that it came to be through a fierce battle between ancient alicorns and a tyrannical god."

There's only one thing we know for certain about The Breach and The Void, being that they both leak a strain of magical energy. Unicorns, pegasi and earth pony alike draw in this energy to use at a whim, most notably in unicorns for their outright display of it. Pegasi use the ambient Ley in the atmosphere to fly since, anatomically speaking, wings of their size would not be able to support flight otherwise. They also use it to manipulate and control the weather.

But Earth pony magic is more... discreet They can't use it in a manner that unicorns and pegasi do, but for reasons that are still being studied, It is ascertained that it allows them to be such excellent farmers."

Closing the book I placed it on the growing pile on my desk. Feeling the light and ambient heat given off by the desk lamp, I heave a sigh. Nothing! Well, nothing worth while, I thought in my head. Huh, that's curious. That passage doesn't have a name attached to it, even though it's written in first person. In all the other books I borrowed from Golden Oaks this is the only one that gave me any relevant information about what I'm after.

I look to the small clock sitting on the desk and can't help but be both unsurprised and startled at the time. "2am!? I gotta stop doing this to myself..."

The house that I was allowed to live in was signed over to me by Celestia so long as I proved a productive member of society. She offered to let me stay in the castle with Luna, but I politely turned her down and opted for a place in Ponyville. Luna was a bit disheartened that I didn't choose the castle so I could be around her, but after a while I started getting homesick and time to myself is something I decided I needed.

The house itself is, for the most part, identical to one on Earth. The only difference being that everything is more spaced out to allow for the larger equine beings to move around in. Ponies don't exactly cram into rooms the same way that people do, but I digress. The shower and restroom is what intrigued me the most. What would be the faucets or knob for the shower are recessed into the walls so the ponies can put their hoof into them and turn, effectively turning on the water. The toilet is a squatting toilet, and I found them to be much like the ones I encountered while in Japan however many years ago that was.

Walking up the stairs from the ground floor study and into my room, complete with over-sized bed fit for one pony or about three people, and lazily hauling my plot into bed, closing my eyes and instantaneously falling asleep.

The next morning saw yet another trip to the library to return the books I borrowed and seek out new ones.

Knock knock Knock. Silence.
Knock knock knock. Silence.
Knock kno- "SPIKE, door!" screeched a voice from within.

Yeesh, cut the little guy some slack would you, you ride him harder than a pack muel. Not surprisingly the door opens to reveal Twilight's green-and-purple draconian assistant.

"Oh, hi, Midnight." he said after giving a friendly chuckle. "What were you after this time?"

Ever since coming to Equestria, I tried using my real name to introduce myself to the other ponies after I was deemed non-hostile by Celestia, but it didn't quite stick. Something about trying to pronounce a name from another world didn't sit right with everyone, nor did it roll off the tounge quite right. I discussed this with Luna, and she suggested I give myself a name. In honour of Luna I gave myself a name after one of my most favourite times of night. That was easier for them all to pronounce, but it didn't stop Luna from calling me by my Earth name from time to time when she visited. Not that I minded, it was nice to be reminded of who I was and where I originally came from.

"Hey, Spike, just came to return these. I've fished out all I can from them but no other books from here has given me any useful information to what I'm after."

"And that would be..." Spike ventured with a curious tone.

"The Breach." I replied flatly. All that could heard at that point was a loud crash and scraping of hooves on the wooden floor. Twilight appeared at the door with heavy breaths.

"How could you possibly know about The Breach!?" She commanded.

I held up the book with the nameless passage, opened it, and pointed to the same page and passage and shoved it in her face. "There, that's how I know. Honestly, you have a book with information about the literal end of the world with Celestia-knows what coming out of it and you're surprised I know about it? Just think how many others have checked out this book and how many more know about it!"

Her mouth opened, but no words came out. I experienced the feeling one gets when they win an argument with somepony and put them in their place.

It was short-lived, however, as Twilight huffed and cleared her throat, finally retaliating with a response. "Why do you want information on The Breach anyway?"

"Back on Earth, we have no magic. Anything that someone claimed to be the former was either trickery, science, or something that was yet to gain an explanation. I have a genuine interest in your worlds use of magic."

"Uh-huh..."

"Anyway, Twilight, you can explain why this book has no name attached to the two paragraphs. They're written in first person, so I can confidently say there is somepony that knows quite a bit about it, and what it is specifically."

"Ok, fine, you got me there." The defeated look on her face only lasted a second, but for somepony that radiates pride in their knowledge, I relished the brief moment. "I don't know who wrote it, somepony from generations ago maybe but as for the name, I'm as puzzled as you are. Since this is the only book with any relevant information, I would guess it's restricted knowledge. In fact, I don't even know why this particular book is even available to the public, it should be in the basement."

She levitated the book with her purple aura, flicked through the pages cover-to-cover. "Nothing out of the ordinary, but..." Turning the book over to its back, down in the bottom-right hand corner, a simple golden ‘S’ was literally engraved in the fibers. "Huh, I wonder what that's about?"

"Maybe Star Swirl? Since, you know...the ‘S’. It was basically his job to make notes on this kind of thing. Besides, if anypony got their hands on the location of The Breach, everypony who wants more magic from the leaking Ley coming out of the crack is going to be all over it."

From my research, I've managed to understand, or barely, that their magic is a measurable force, almost like radiation, or gravity, and ponies have become a living conduit and have learned how to manipulate it. The proper term for it in research terms is 'Ley', but everyone is just so used to calling it magic. It leaks from a crack on the opposite side of the globe, almost as if there's a rift in time or something that's allowing this. 

"The only other place that would have that kind of information is in the Royal Archi-" Twilight cut off her sentence; obviously she knows more about this than she's letting on and wasn't supposed to say anything. "Oh dear..."

When the book is finally lowered from in front of her face, she can see the biggest grin on my face stretching from ear-to-ear. The look on her face further widened my grin just from seeing her expression at the realization of the words she spoke, and the horror of the inevitable consequences that would ensue from uttering those, shall we say, forbidden words.

"I bid thee farewell Twilight. There's plenty of things to do and books to read!"  Turning to leave with my grin in tow accompanied by a chuckle, I begin walking back to my house to gather a few things. All I could hear after the library door slamming closed was a muffled "GGAAAHHH!" followed by "Nice going Twi." At that point I started laughing, looking back over my shoulder at the library. When I turned my head forward, my cheery mood was met with a familiar pink mare’s unexpected presence some meters to my left.

"Watcha laughing at?"

"Oh shi-," I felt numb as I struggled to gasp, stumbling back at her sudden intrusion of personal space. "HOW DID YOU EVEN?!"

"How did I what?"

Picking myself up off the dirt, dusting off and straightening myself out and readjusting my hat, I step to her side and continue walking back to the house."Doesn't matter, I've got places to be." Never apply logic to Pinkie, never apply logic to Pinkie, I kept telling myself. Applying logic to her will surely lead to confusion on every level, kind of like when Luna and I watched Doctor Who back on Earth. She loved the show and could follow it well enough, but if you thought about certain things hard enough then your brain would begin to sizzle.

I decided to stop by Sugarcube Corner on my way home to pick up one of the renowned pastries that the bakery/confectionery sells. Not surprisingly, Pinkie had somehow got to the store before me with her freaky teleporting ability. Even though she's an earth pony, it both fascinates and leaves my mind reeling about how she can move so quickly. A lot of the ponies I met there recommended their personal favourites. Derpy said Blueberry, Raindrops said Lemon Surprise, but Pinkie said she was willing to let me try one of her special muffins. Mind you, when I was on Earth I read the 'Cupcakes' fanfiction story. When she offered this particular cupcake to me, you could imagine I was rather apprehensive about it. I politely declined and opted for my usual Ginger Chocolate Sponge with Minted Icing. The flavour balance was perfect; delicate notes of ginger and cocoa, and a thick, simple icing with mint that wafted into your nose when you ate it.

I made my purchase and turned to leave out the door after greeting some of the ponies out at that time of morning. Being of English heritage, it was the norm to say to people whom were walking down the street in the opposite direction to you, "Top of the morning!", which is basically saying "I hope you have a good morning." Traditionally the other person would respond with "And the rest of the day to you!" which is a follow on meaning "And I hope the rest of the day goes well for you." It took a while and some misunderstandings for the ponies to cotton onto my peculiar behaviour, and I was eager enough to share some of the customs from earth.

Lyra always listened with such intent, much to my amusement. Bon Bon wasn't too far away from her either, and she just either rolled her eyes or facehoofed every time Lyra wanted to ask me something.

Back at home sitting in the study with paper and pen, or rather quill, I plotted out what I would need for the journey ahead. From maps I've looked at, Equestria itself is coastal for the most part which stretches across the eastern part of the country itself, and it has territory stretching up to the north east. There is a huge, lawless mountain range between Equestria and another country, Ib'xian, which is the empire of the Ibex. 

What I found most humorous from looking at the map is the location that Appleloosa is in. On the map, it's like a tendril of coloured land territory snaked its way out into the Mild West, which is buffalo land, for the sakes of saying that thin stretch of land that the train tracks are on is sovereign land.

Almost nothing else is known about the lands out to the north and out west, which is where The Breach is, but geographically speaking The Breach lies directly north-west of Equestria. The only known countries in that direction are Heliopolis, a desert country with a single river flowing down the middle of it. Not surprisingly, a lot of the settlements can be found along this river because it's essentially the only source of water.

South of there lies two countries. Vaporia. A small settlement of dragons populate one area, while large populations of griffin and pegasi inhabit some of the more well-known regions of the hovering city. And then there's Hosstralia, a nation founded by outlaws and exiles.

Folding the map up and putting it safely into it's waterproof sleeve, I glance down at my checklist of gear I plan on taking. Most of this stuff is what I brought with me from Earth to Equestria. A backpack with two changes of clothes which included socks and underwear too, copious amounts of rope, several different ways to light fire in the form of lighters, ferrocerium rods, and storm proof matches. Seriously, those bastards won't go out even when you dunk them underwater. Food sprung to mind, and I thought of a large billy can I bought with me that has non-perishable food in it. Knives too. Can't have too many knives. Luckily I bought enough with me.

My planning goes well into the day, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door mid-afternoon. It's time for a break anyway, so I gladly get up out of my custom-made chair and answer the door. To my delight, Luna decided to drop by.

"Greetings, Father, may We come in?"

She had regained much of her formal/archaic way of speaking, much to my bemusement.

"Of course, you are always welcome here!" I let her in and close the door, turning to walk in the kitchen. Opening the fridge and getting out two bottle of Apple Family’s nation-renowned apple cider, popping the lids off them both and setting them down on opposite ends of the circular table in the middle of the kitchen. Luna sat and used her magic to raise the bottle and take a generous swig. I followed suit.

"So, Luna. What brings you here?"

She looked at me for a few seconds, as if she's studying me with her deep azure eyes.

"Twilight Sparkle informed Celestia that you were wanting to venture to The Breach." Her tone wasn't accusatory, challenging, and it didn't appear as though she was accosting me just yet.

"I... yeah." There wasn't any escaping this.

"May We ask why?"

"You see, Luna, I've been thinking. I came here to be with you, that means leaving everything behind that I had on Earth; friends, family, and so on like that. As impossible as it may seem to do, I've been looking for a way to get back to Earth so I can get some closure and see what has happened to everyone in the mean time. I also wanted to visit my parents graves."

Luna's eyes widened before they turned toward the table as she spoke, "I... Understand your predicament. When I became Nightmare Moon, those thousand years spent on the moon had the same effect on me. I got so alienated and forgotten by the people I cared about for so long, I couldn't help but wander what they were going through, and what was going on in their lives."

When Luna got back to Equestria with me, Celestia did her best to restore Luna's memories that were locked away. It was a tricky progress, only some were restored. One could appropriately describe the situation as having missing pieces from a ten-thousand piece puzzle

Her mentioning of her time as Nightmare Moon made me curious. "How do you remember something like that anyway? I thought the Miasma amplified your jealousy and hate for Celestia?"

"Indeed... it did, but allow me to paint you a greater vision. "I began to listen more intent than I normally did, even for her.” When I transformed, the parts that furnished and retained the transformation were kept, while the rest of my psyche was locked away. Strictly speaking, I was aware of what was going on. I was able to see, hear and speak, but I could not control the rest of my actions. It was like being a prisoner in my own body. I was the puppet and the Miasma was the puppeteer."

The revelation was not an easy one to grasp, but it made enough sense to me.

I take another generous sip of the cider and continued. "Anyway, what did you say it was you were doing here?"

Her mind snapped back to attention. "Ah, yes. I can't stop you, but I can't condone your choice. Indeed The Breach has many properties, only a couple of which are known and haven't been fully explored at all."

"Pray-tell, what properties are known?"

Luna raises a hoof under her chin to ponder the question. "If I remember correctly, it is the source of a powerful magic, and it's where magic comes from... Ley, I think the term might be. They might be one in the same; something so powerful that it radiates energy without end. But that's about all I know. My memory... isn't so good."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Like I said, I can't stop you nor condone your choice. My only wish is to join you on your journey to The Breach."

I had to admit, I was a little shocked at the offer. Very shocked, I could say, actually.

"Father, have you even thought about exactly how you were going to get there to begin with?"

That question knocked me out of my seat, metaphorically speaking of course. I had been so preoccupied planning the trip that I forgot about that formality. "I..."  I almost choked on my tongue. "You're right. If we plan to make this journey, and it goes without saying we have absolutely no idea what will be waiting for us, Where the World Ends."
> II.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When I was on Earth, I took quite fondly to watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I couldn't help but notice that, during my—perhaps too many—viewings of its first two seasons, I noticed how Rarity had broken a champagne bottle over some kind of airship when Fancypants was courting her around Canterlot

I was getting lost in thought, as random as it may have been...

I gathered up all the equipment I knew Luna and I would have needed, then we headed way to Canterlot via a train, affectionately named 'The Friendship Express'. The seats on the Express all looked like chaise loungers that one would find in a psychiatrists office. Except these were designed for ponies to lay down on because, if they chose to sit on their haunches, and it was a bumpy ride at any point, they would be susceptible to loss of balance and falling off, looking rather clumsy.

Almost everypony we saw aboard the express were pleasantly surprised to see a princess among their numbers, not to mention a human alongside her. Normally, Luna would just simply teleport from place to place or fly whenever necessary. Even considering the fact that she can teleport herself, carrying another person with her was rather risky, especially with me, being a human. Riding the train gave us plenty of time to relax, and so we spent that irreplaceable luxury together. However, we avoided talking about the task at hand, with the consensus of not drawing in any unwanted attention. After all, there were ears literally all over the place on the filled cars, and if someone ever did catch wind of our intentions, it could lead to a whole new mess...

I sat across a table between the two of us, writing in a journal I bought from one of the stores in Ponyville a while back. It was going to be meant for something, and this journey was going to be its subject of record. Fortunately, I had the sense to bring a pen with me, so I wouldn't have to rely on both a quill and some ink in this situation. And though I didn't use a pen too often, I already dreading when it would run out of ink. I didn't remember if I brought more or not...

The notebook was simply bound and made with paper that I had decided looked like pulverized wood compressed between two plates, then dried and finally cut to size to fit inside a leather wallet of sorts. Then again, that's basically the entire process of making paper, but on Earth, the process involves the use of several different types of chemicals.

What certainly struck me about the leather is that it had a symbol stamped into the leather tome with the image of a unicorn silhouetted against the moon creating some sort of recessed design that reminded me of Nightmare Moon. It also had a thin strip of leather that could wrap around from top to bottom, holding it all together.

It was just a nice little thing to have with me all the time, is all.

After a long journey and much thinking about the adventure ahead, we stepped off the train onto the platform.

Finally, after a long journey and considerate thinking about our adventure ahead, Luna and I stepped off the train onto the platform below.

“Princess Luna!” A familiar voice shouted over the commotion on the station. It was recognizable even to me.

She looked up to watch its owner step out of an elegant carriage. Fancypants, simply dashing as always, wore a navy blazer and a captain’s hat perched jauntily atop his head, complete with an embroidered anchor on the front of the hat.

He merrily trotted toward her with his customary jovial smile and a twinkle in his blue eyes. I raised a hand up to both greet and show him where we stood, but that was nowhere near necessary, and just merely a force of habit—anyone could spot Luna, the night-blue alicorn, unless it was literally night-time. But even so, their silhouette is recognizable to anypony, especially with a human from another universe standing next to them.

"It's so good to see you two!" He bowed at Luna, then shook my left hand. I smiled sheepishly. Shaking hands, or rather hooves, is a tad awkward.

"As it is you, Fancy Pants." Luna replied.

"Now, are you ready for a glorious afternoon among the clouds?” Fancypants gleefully asked.

“Ready, Mon Captain,” I replied, and Luna following the affirmation with a gracious smile.

"Oh, so this must be your human companion, if I'm not at all mistaken?"

For something as alien as I was, in every sense of the word, princess Celestia had to announce to the entire nation that I was a non-threatening being. Most of the populace acted quite indifferently...

"Indeed I am, Fancypants." I nodded at him. "Now, you have an airship to show us?"

“Right then, let’s hop to it!" As we approached the open door of the elaborately decorated carriage, Luna gratefully braced herself against Fancypants’ extended hoof and stepped up and into the passenger compartment, while I entered upon my own accord and removed my bags, somewhat organizing them so I would be able to sit down.

The compartment was incredibly luxurious, I thought anyway. I wasn't at all surprised either. It's interior was filled to capacity with several plush cushions and various expensive fabrics laying around in a very neat mountain of clutter. Decorative gold filigree and gems were among some of the things to be more neatly exhumed from the impressive pile. Yet another thing to take note of was how, unlike some carriages that were used for taxi services, such as those open to and largely used by the Elements of Harmony, this one was completely closed off in exclusion to the door and two windows opposite from it.

“To Canterlot Skyport, Jaqcues!” Fancypants declared our destination after he pulled himself into the vehicle and magically closed the door behind us. There was a miniature door with an equally small knob on it directly behind the place Fancypants' seat across from the bigger door. He used to communicate with the driver, opening it whenever he wanted to say something.

But it was shut for now.

"Right. Now, it's time to get down to brass tacks." he started off. "I've received word that you wish to use service of one of my airships, but might I ask what for?" I looked at Luna with a questioning glance, and she gave me a simple nod. Fancypants looked at the two of us with curiosity written all over his face. Luna gave me the cue to let him in on our intentions.

I pulled out the very map that I first used to get around Equestria with. It was a complimentary gift from the Golden Oaks library. The whole thing was very large and even more detailed; it easily stretched my entire arm span. After I found the exact section I was looking for I folded the map in half twice in two different lengths needed for the pointing out our visionaries of explanation, specifically the north west portion of the whole top of the map.

Fancypants borrowed the map, grasped with his sky-blue magical aura, took it close to his face and scanned it over. The map then lowered. He stared at me and Luna for an awkward amount of seconds, considering his assumption. Then he started darting his eyes between us, still fathomed by the possible reality.

"The Breach?" He slurred with a raised eyebrow, blatant disbelief in his voice.

"Correct," I confirmed for him. I folded my arms together as we got to starting a discussion.

"We will pay you handsomely for the services provided of course, and any losses that might incur, knock on wood."

"While I appreciate your concern for the possibility," He cleared his throat. " ahem, there are some things you should know, Princess."

Suddenly, during a very unexpected stop, some of the carriage's weight came thrusting back as I slumped about two feet forward due to the stop. Fancypants was the first out the door, opening it for Luna and I. Then, without saying a word to us, he led us into a large building a minute after getting out of the carriage.

It reminded me heavily of an Air Force base.

One out of many garage-style roller doors at a far end of the building was half open, with an emblazoned number '1' only partly visible, There was also a copious assortment of equipment on the walls and scattered around some unnamed projects. Also, as we were being led inside the building, I was able to see the base of one of the his airships tethered to the workshop floor with thick, heavy rope. When we were actually inside, I couldn't help but marvel at three specific airships inside.

The one on the far right, hanger three, was completed, and it appeared that the centered one, inside hangar two, was as well. But down a the the left end sat the construction of a third, inside hangar one, still in the process of construction. At its rear lay a large wooden crate. Seeing as how the rest of the items were out and being used, I assumed that the box contained the balloon that was to be fitted at a later point in time.

The layout of its interior construction brought the immediate image of a pirate ship.

I found it rather common to think of such a thing, but hear me out: The front of it had a spoked steering wheel attached to a column in the middle of the platform, and it looked like the forward area had various instruments used for navigation.

On another note, if somepony followed through the door at its rear, they would find what looked like a communal area. It felt largely unfinished, but I could have been wrong. A staircase at the back of that room went into the bowels of the ship and, down in the bottom, there was what could have been a tubular boiler among two smaller round chambers, with even smaller doors containing viewing ports.

"The airship that you recall, Sir Human..." Fancypants broke me from my observations for a moment. "That was merely a prototype. It had a wood boiler and a water feed, much like a steam engine train. But it was only capable of being neutrally buoyant which, given the goals which I was trying to shoot for, was greatly counterproductive. So I just simply put it into storage—and that's what you're seeing here." He explained his experiment with a wave of his hoof, indicating the three massive ships in their garages.

"Now these..." he began again." Thank to a huge advancement in technology, we managed to find a way to enchant peculiar gems to provide a continual flow of heat and water to the boiler to provide the means to power the flight systems."

Fancypants made it all sound like a place, probably like a nuclear power plant back on Earth, that would use uranium rods to super heat water to run a turbine, distributing outputs of electricity to its users. It got me a little uneasy, to be honest. All that pressure, hot water, not to mention possibly unstable gems...

He then lead us over to the ship in the middle of the second, wide-open hangar. "This will be your transportation. You will be accompanied by a navigator to pilot the ship and work the instruments, and an engineer that will maintain the ship. So, you understand all of what's at stake here, not only being this airship?"

"We understand, Fancypants." affirmed the Princess. "And rest assured, nothing ill will become of your crew or your precious ship."

"Thank you Princess. Now, I must ask of you and your friend to accompany me to the office for the usual tedious paperwork routine. Oh, but only after you've had a chance to put your things in the ship of course! And feel free to have a look around as well!"

With a suggesting nudge and an excited smile, Luna and I briskly walked up a cold metal gang plank that lead up to the operating room for the ship, through a door halfway up its side. Our new surroundings were breathtaking, and I was pretty sure the feeling was mutual between us. The bow of the ship was lined with dials and knobs, and some other unidentifiable devices. They curved the tables around the room in a semi-circle all the way back down to the door. Sitting in the middle of the room lied wheel itself--again, reminiscent of the stereotypical wheel from a pirate ship.

The room itself went back around six or seven feet, and there was a set of gray double doors towards the starboard side, that of which was a third of the way along the wall. And even further along that direction, there was a single door before the rectangular room curved again. I planned on exploring the ship a bit more, but I wasn't sure which way I even wanted to go, then upon a vague and uncertain instinct, I opened the single door and walked through its base. Quite unexpectedly, there was a corridor leading down a few meters with a bend off to the left.

I'm an annoyingly curious individual, so I couldn't help but want to explore every inch of the vessel as quickly as possible. But the majority of it could wait, for now, anyway. As I rounded the corner at the end of the hall, however, the area we found ourselves in was more open and plain, but one of its features was a large table that folded down on the starboard side of the room, big enough to seat four. The staircase directly its right ran adjacent to the table,and went below deck. The atmospheric ambiance of the room was bleak-- just plate metal riveted together, and no decorations whatsoever. Rarity would probably have some sort of mental breakdown if she saw how bland this is.

Finally, after taking the spiral staircase down, Luna and I were introduced to the sleeping quarters. Just seeing the two pairs of bunk beds made me feel exhausted. I looked down at Luna, but by the time I did, a flash of light signaled me that she had disappeared telepathically. When I looked forward again, an acoustic pop in the air led her to appear again. She was laid on one of the bunks and eyed me like a cat watching its prey. The reason she gave me a soft chuckle was because she knew I had been beaten to the top bunk.

For a regal princess, she sure had the humor of a six year-old child, not that I'm complaining or anything. It's actually very adorable.

I felt an expense of weight finally relieve itself from my arms as I unloaded our baggage. I set some of it under the bunk Luna and I chose to share, and the rest on the set of beds we would not be using. Then, promptly, we went back out to join Fancypants in his office, retracing our steps. The paperwork there was indeed tedious and redundant , but it was for insurance purposes after all.

Because the ship was brand-spanking new, he requested a monetary deposit, as security against any and all damages. I tried offering something I wouldn't end up missing dearly, but almost everything I brought into Equestria had strong sentimental value, as they were my only physical memoirs of Earth. Luckily, Luna was already prepared with a bag full of gold bits she had retrieved from one of her bags I was carrying earlier.

What I found strange was that, when I watched 'Friendship is Magic' on Earth, I understood they only had a single coin to use for any purchase, or any amount of currency, really.

But... There was no question about it: I was sorely mistaken.

There were large numbers of gold, silver, copper, and other financially valued coins, each bearing different denominations. There were ones, twos, fives, tens, and twenties, among larger values. The thing I found irritating was that I was unknowingly lugging around a heavy bag of coins, and also, how I found myself fishing around for the right ones, whenever I needed to buy something.

Fancypants was blatantly more than pleased upon comprehension of both the coins' values, and Luna's insistence to take extra collateral. He happily gave us the option to stay overnight in the ship to help with preparations and such. He also offered us residence at a comfortable inn nearby at his expense, since Luna intentionally and gratuitously insured his airship. We accepted his offer for the inn, so he escorted us to a cozy little place about thirty minutes away from his shop.

The Inn felt very inviting and homey, with creature comforts and all. Fancypants told us that, once all of our preparations were ready for the trip, we could leave anytime at midday tomorrow. A lazy part of me later suggested to Luna that we could sleep in and have a light breakfast followed by a decent lunch for the trip, and the time in-between then could be spent gathering more incidentals for the trip. The only hitch with that, though, was the fact that she had to lower the moon in the morning so Celestia can make way for the sun, and that would be around six in the morning.

So we decided we would get to sleep early. Then, after getting that extra rest we wouldn't have gotten otherwise, we could go and look around Canterlot.

It was mutually decided that we would stick with the latter plan.

The beds in Equestria were all manufactured for the comfort of the resident ponies and not for humans. But it wasn't at all a bad thing. To fit a human, they would need to be bigger to allow for the larger body size, but the fact that they didn't fit me meant that I could stretch out to my hearts content. When I stayed in the Canterlot castle with Luna, during the first month of my new life in Equestria, I often watched Luna raise the moon in the evening and then lower it the next morning, and so on. And sometimes, after she raised it in the evening, we would spend a good amount of time out on the dais that her bedroom opened out onto, and we would just gaze up at the stars.

Something that could probably explain her love for the night was that, when I was raising Luna on Earth, she had developed a fascination  with them, fueled from watching too much Doctor Who. But I really couldn't blame her. In my own way  I found the cool night sky  to be highly serene and beautiful. Now that I think about it, she still had the Sonic Screwdriver toy I got her one year at Christmas, as well as the old blanket she slept with in her bed too.

When the morning rolled around, I followed my normal, simple morning routine. I opened my dreary eyes, only to be assaulted the abnormally bright sun coming through a window at my right. I covered my eyes and became adjusted to it underneath my hands and the first thing that came to mind was my journey with Luna, our organized plans, and literally everything in between. At that point, all I did was groan and feel lazy, laying in bed a little longer. It meant leaving the comfort of that warm bed, but it was going to happen in time anyway.

Luna and I needed to get up and get moving.

First on our agenda, both chronologically and thrust by our growling stomachs, was breakfast. While my usual meal would comprise of meat, almost entirely. However, the consumption of flesh and the act of 'savagery' was extremely frowned upon in this society. Everyone got their dietary needs from whatever they were able to grow from the ground and the trees, including dairy products such as milk, eggs and cheese. I questioned how I could get by without the taste of a delicious steak once in a while, but found myself experimenting with other substitutes nonetheless.

At one of the roadside cafes that dotted the streets of Canterlot, I went with a choice of poached eggs on toast with sauteed tomatoes and capsicum to boot. Then later, I realized neither of us had brought any soap or shampoo with us, so Luna suggested we stop a specialty store that sold scented soaps and related products. Apparently, she shopped there a lot of the time for her sanitary needs, and that would explain why her mane and coat both smelled of a combination of blueberries and blackberries all the time.

I just simply opted for a single bar of lemon scented soap, but it also came with a little cloth bag that was meant to put it in. It fit snugly inside of it, but there was also a plastic case to hold it into stop the soap from getting on everything else. It was really a pleasantly clever design, I thought.

Going further down the list, we needed to stop by the Royal Archives. Fancypants did say that everything would be ready at midday, and we could leave at any time after that time, so we had some extra time. I remembered that there was a 'Star Swirl ' wing, and that's where Luna and I found ourselves immediately lost in.

We spent the good chunk of a single hour trying to fish out any more books or articles that might have have any more information about The Breach. But to my disappointment, there wasn't anything to be found. But we did find the remains of spare time we had left, and our decision to leave for our trip on the scheduled time was of further importance. Eventually, we retraced back to Fancypants' shop. I called a Pegasus taxi to fly us there as quickly as possible. Fortunately, all Pegasi-driven taxi's come with seat belts, because without them, I would have probably fallen off, save for Luna, who could fly.

We walked back into hangar, ready to depart on our rented airship. As we walked the platform, we saw Fancypants farther ahead of us. He looked as if he was prepared to see us off.

"Welcome back, you two! Everything is all prepped and ready to go. There's food, drinking water, and many other provisions." he happily stated with a cheery smile. "Oh, there's also a hot shower on board too, if you didn't notice that before!"

Honestly, that was an extremely liberating thought. I didn't know how long the trip was going to be, so it was very comforting knowing that we wouldn't start to reek anytime soon.

"The crew has been informed of your destination and are ready to depart when you are!"

"Wonderful, Monsieur Fancypants!" Luna happily exclaimed. "Let us depart this very instant."

"Ah hah, you two must be eager! I wish you the best of luck on your trip, and with... Heh, whatever your goal may be!"

Walking up the gang plank for the second time in two days, we stood in the control room and looked out the viewing windows at the proceedings ahead of us. With a jolt, the ship suddenly began sliding out from the hangar accompanied by the sound and sight of mechanical whirring, the small conduits tethered to the platform with ropes. It took the platform several minutes to fully extend out, but when it did it, the whole thing came to an abrupt halt.

"Inflating the balloon!" called the engineer. He magically threw the double doors open and enthusiastically threw a nearby lever, setting several mechanisms in motion. I could see through the window of the housings that contained the blue and red gems.

They were iridescent, their faint glowing hues indicating they've begun to serve their purposes of providing heat and water to the ship, electricity too. Then, located somewhere on the ship, large metallic bangs were heard, followed by the nostalgic sound of balloons rubbing together, telling me the gigantic balloon was being filled up with purposely fed gas.

As exciting as the whole process was, the length of time it took to prepare the ship for departure was somewhat anticlimactic. I just knew that I would be glad when the ship takes off and our adventure can finally start.

At long last, after almost thirty excruciating minutes of waiting for the balloon to fill, we were finally ready for takeoff. Back outside, I saw the ropes that were keeping the ship to the platform suddenly glow with magic, then the ropes began to slack, one by one. I just had to watch, with how excited I was as the ship finally lifted off from the platform.

The ground below us... It was getting smaller and smaller.

"Well Luna," I started. "No time like now to get cozy. There's telling how long this ride is going to be..."
> III.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Finally, Luna and I had set off into the air, already plenty of distance between us and the Royal City of Canterlot. I told myself I would do this later, so I set about my feet to explore the rest of the luxurious ship. Apparently, I hadn't noticed a door earlier, one that faced out to the room with the table and the stairs that led below deck, so I curiously opened it.

Inside was a tall but thin room, that of which I strongly assumed was the bathroom, because inside,  I found shower furnishings in the farthest-right corner. There were two knobs (if you want to call them that) close to each other, a faucet head, and another one of those infamous toilets... The showers here weren't hard to use at all; I just had made fists and stick them in the recessed regions to turn the water on, although the height of the shower head nosed above them left something to be desired.

You see, the shower back at my Ponyville residence was custom built, and by that, I mean that the only difference was how the shower head was moved three feet up the wall. Apart from that, any shower I used up until that point forced me to sit on the floor underneath it, so I could get proper water coverage. It left me wandering how one would use the bathroom in a place this cramped. Like, if somepony was showering, but I really, really needed the toilet...

Awkward...

Moving on, when I went downstairs earlier to offload mine and Luna's things, I didn't venture beyond that entire room. There were two doors, both opposite each set of bunks. First I went through the door on the left, finding it to be stocked with the various provisions that FancyPants had spoken of earlier. Food and water, and many other essentials we would use to last us over on our journey--it was all stuffed there. The food was at the very back of the hall-like walkway, and it was accompanied by a refrigeration system. I'd say a simple plug-in boxed freezer would have been more space efficient, but hey, kudos for making it look neat.

Most of the food there were prepackaged, freeze-dried items that needed to be reconstituted with water and heat. Mostly with heat, though. Thank goodness for the microwave at the start of the room.

All of these items were, more or less the same kind of items I packed in my billy can, which was also unnecessary now.

Moving on once more, I moved through the door at the right, and it led me into a rather cramped space. I could have thought of it as a kitchen, but it would have fit very loosely. There wasn't a conventional oven or a range top, or even a combination of the two. Or, truly, I didn't think there were really any indications that hinted toward a kitchen. There were only two switches fixed to the far wall, with a small door above them. The compartment looked like it could probably fit a small pizza from Earth by comparison, at most.

Other than that, there were a couple of drawers at the side walls for utensils, and a cupboard with a couple of pots and pans, with a shelf above it for any herbs and spices that could be used in food preparation.

I thought it was all very impressive, no matter how simple it really was, but the ceilings were also a lasting impression on me.

Being six foot tall meant I had a height advantage over the majority of creatures living here, but the ponies were, for the majority of them, not much taller than four feet or so. This left me at a disadvantage when it came to ceilings, but I was glad that my head was just an inch or two shy of most of the ones I've encountered on the ship thus far, and thankfully I still had plenty of room to continue getting around.

I went back up to the control room, and I saw Luna looking out at the passing clouds, almost daydreaming while the pegasus pilot steered and the unicorn engineer fiddled with all of the ship's innards behind the double doors.

The pegasus pony pilot stood on his hind legs, leaned toward the wheel he was rotating, his beautiful violet irises made visible as the sun moved from the clouds, shining gently on him. His coat was a of a very pale sky blue hue, similar to his rugged-styled mane and tail, but they were of darker saturation, with two different colored streaks of the same general shade running through the middle of them. He possessed no Cutie-Mark from the looks of it, although his taller and thicker horseshoes were something that really stuck out. Since he was [leaning] up on his hind legs, he was around my height, probably a single inch shorter than me.

"If I may ask, Princess," he started, still very focused on the route ahead, "but what's so important this far out for you and your friend here to brave these uncharted lands and skies?"

"We're looking for answers." I replied rather quickly. I didn't want to spill too much, if any, and as far as I was concerned, they would just as much be in the dark as Luna and I were about our destination. The Princess gave me a curious look with somewhat pursed lips, seeing as how the question was originally directed towards her.

"Answers, huh?" The pilot acknowledged my physical presence with a quick glance at my face, then turned back to the sky and chuckled a bit. "Hehe, sounds like an adventure to me!"

Luna had to somewhat think about her next response. "Well, to answer your question, my father wishes to seek out the means to return to his home world for... personal reasons. If curiosity approaches you, then it is up to him if he wishes to share "

"You're quite right." he nodded at the two of us. "You know, I never tell my clients anything like this, but I would actually like to learn more about your friend, princess, as well as your goals...if it's not at all too much to ask." Luna and I then shared a mutual feeling of both reluctantly and caution upon our meeting eyes.

"Well, we're not gonna doing much of anything here aside lounging around." It was a good thing the pilot didn't see me wink at Luna, who nodded back at me, following my lead.

"I don't see why not. You are helping us a great deal, here."

Acting casual while keeping a major secret is much, much harder than everyone makes it out to be.

"Great, thank you!" the pilot exclaimed, slightly stuttering. "It's a real, real honor to get to know the father of the great princess Luna! The dinner period is coming up, too. Would that be a good time to start?

We both nodded again. "Mmhmm!"

"You know..."

Great. I had already slurred ourselves into what I feared would be a disaster of a conversation. I swear, it just slipped out--I was busy thinking about how we would slither our way out of suspicions later on. "By all means...I didn't catch your names earlier. I don't really think Fancypants mentioned them either. What are they again..?"

"Heh, it's no problem. I understand excitement can take over. " The vigilant pilot shared an enthusiastic smile with us. . "My name's SkySurfer, and over there behind those doors is my trusted colleague, Ratchet, she works the machines." We looked at the compact work station Ratchet had, and, though we couldn't see much through the tinted windows, we did see the silhouette of somepony operating various mechanical anatomies.

The thing about their names brought back a perplexing revelation: A pony can have either have two names, or just one. They can gave a given name preceded by a surname, or just a simple name.

For instance, Pinkie Pie was a member of the Pie family and she had a surname, and Applejack was from the Apple family but she didn't have a surname, with their heritage often naming someone after something related to apples. Rarity was simply named Rarity, despite having a sister with the last name of 'Belle'. Naming systems were extremely contrived in this world, so I took it as they came and tried not to think about them too much.

SkySurfer locked the steering wheel in place with the steel rod that leaned on its pedestal. The ship was now headed on a bearing of three-hundred and two degrees towards Alexmanedria, Heliopolis.

Just then, Ratchet was seen hopping off her seat through the glass, and then she opened the double doors to join us.

But actually, Ratchet was a female! Surprising, as my consensus of an engineer was a male profession, but I was terribly wrong, it seemed. This girl looked, literally looked, like a machine.

Her four legs made no mechanical whirring, but they pivoted and bent back and forth as she walked out, kicking one of the open doors behind her shut. Her coat consisted of a pattern of seductive brown satin-like fur and, in very few areas on her body, metal scraps that looked to be in place of flesh. These areas included the right side of her neck, nearing her throat, her entire left rear leg, along with her left flank. There was no skin there at all. The mechanical joint that allowed her to trot toward us was covered by a thick metal plating, but the joint could still be seen if somepony was short enough, while the others couldn't. Her other rear leg was partially replaced with ores, but not as much and in less areas.

She is a Unicorn, and her horn was shorter than most of her species was, but for some reason, I was left pondering what her magic was like, because, also for whatever reason, she has a ring with some sort of decoration on it, on her horn. I had a feeling that it meant something, though.

"Hey, buds!" she greeted us with her comfortable, inviting demeanor. We all exchanged a few greetings afterward, and then we agreed to adjourn to the table.

Suddenly, I felt a little bad for having to hide the truth from them...then we adjourned to the table. The stop there was purposed to let the gems recharge as Ratchet had said at one point.

There was one more reason to stop and schedule our meal for the time, aside from the fact that we were all fairly hungry. The gems that provided energy for the whole ship needed to take their well-earned break and recharge, as Ratchet was mentioning as we took our seats. I was listening to her more than Luna or SkySurfer was.

This gal was a maniac for what role she did on the ship. They already knew how it worked.

"If you run them for too long without stopping," she explained, "then you also run the risk of burning them out. If we give them a chance to rest every so often, I can juice them up with a little magic and refresh or, making more sense here, 'recharge' them."

Yet another explanation for her energy came from the fact that we had already taken out precooked dinners, heated them up, and finished them on the way to the dining room. The way this was all working out was definitely out of the normal notion, but it worked nicely at the same time.

"So," kindly asked Sky, cutting Ratchet off in the same manner. "I believe you were going to share your story, mister Human?"

Having a rather blunt smartass attitude, I only chose to exert that part of me when I chose to: This was one of those instances. I also really did love being deemed politically correct, and thus, a miniscule grin spread onto my lips.

"That was an implication just made by yourself. I merely agreed to talk so we can better know one another, as you said originally." I gave him a dirty scowl as I leaned back in my seat, and my unexpected words made Luna and I chuckle. "But yes, since you asked, I will tell you all of what I feel comfortable sharing."

I took a drink of water to moisten my parched throat. Then I began.

"I'm from a planet called Earth. Just simply... Earth. Luna had somehow made her way there, but she was just a filly at the time. Neither of us know how she got there..." With all three sets of eyes on me, and still surprised at how fast Ratchet had become friendly toward me, I continued on. "I raised her until Celestia was able to find her, and yeah, it was the last place she looked, I'm sure... Anyway, that's why you heard her call me father earlier. But up until that point, I had some family members pass away in an accident; the details of which I won't go into..."

Luna saw my face, weary from explanation, and took over for me.

"When Celestia did manage to find me, she allowed my him to come back to Equestria with me, largely because he didn't have too much holding him back, after keeping me alive until she found me there."

Ratchet leaned back in her seat, forehooves leaned against each other on the table, purely interested in the story. It looked like SkySurfer had the same, if greater, expression as Ratchet did. "While he have other family, he couldn't see or visit them on a regular basis, or any basis, really."

"All I want to do right now is travel back to Earth so I can pay my respects to the ones I lost and get some much needed closure with them, and everyone else who has no idea where I am right now."

When I finished, silence approached all of us for a brief moment before Ratchet spoke up.

"I, uhm... Wow." She seemed rather stunned at my story. Though, I wasn't really expecting a different reaction at all.

"So... You're from another planet." quizzed Sky.

"Not just a planet, but a different universe entirely." I said. "Not to sound patronizing or anything, but you do understand the concept of a universe?"

"I do, matter-of-factly." Sky spoke. "The universe is a collection of planets, stars, and other celestial bodies that float around up inside it."

"Bluntly put, yes, but strictly speaking, no." I countered. "A better way to put it, I feel, anyway, would to be to blow some bubbles. Each bubble is one universe, and inside each universe is an innumerable amount of planets and stars and galaxies. I'm from one, and you're from another. That's also what's called The Multiverse Theory; the idea that there is more than one universe floating around."

"So...how can you plan on getting from one to the other? How is that even possible?" remarked the confused unicorn, keeping her gaze on me.

Following her inquiry, I slung my bag forward to my chest and pulled out the plastic sleeve that held the map. I unfolded it, sliding my finger across the rough, reinforced parchment until I found the same depicted region that I showed to Fancypants. Again, with the map being its ridiculous size, I refolded it to accommodate the area. Then, I pointed at the furthest northwestern geographic images on the map.

"This," I emphasized with a few taps. "is a crack in the surface of your planet. It's called The Breach. What I've only managed to turn up about it...is that the crack is the source of all magic in this world. Unicorns learned to manipulate it with their horns, Pegasi use it to fly and manipulate weather, and Earth Ponies... It's still kind of a question on how they really use the magic."

"So are you able to explain how this helps you get back to Earth?" asked Sky, also pointing at the five earthly masses.

"I don't know how or why, but if this is so incredibly powerful for it to relay magical energy all across the surface of your planet which it sounds like it already, then I figured the source of it would be strong enough to transcend spacial matter and take me home, and then come back later."

Ratchet's horn radiated a golden aura as she magically picked the map from the table to took a closer look at it. "Something about these islands doesn't sit right with me," she commented. "I mean, look at 'em."

She physically placed the map back down on the table and used a hoof to indicate the five islands. "This one... Eden, the map says, looks like the rest of the other land masses. But it's these four; Elir, Edonna, Ert, and Evisica, that look a little odd. It looks as though they could be floating." I had to take a second glance at the map. That was something I should have picked up from the beginning.

"You're right. The surface looks normal but it looks like you can see the underside of the islands, like they've been ripped out of the ground." Ratchet must have had to have an extreme eye for details, considering her unexpected profession. I looked at it and laughed. "Heh, how about that, floating islands. Now I've seen everything."

After the whole conversation was said and done, I was still surprised at how SkySurfer and Ratchet didn't think I was crazy, considering my human species and where I came from, as well as the explanation I gave them. A few intentions behind our lengthy excursion had Sky telling Luna and I how he had to make sure everything was still running smoothly--This particular ship had only been airborne a couple times.

The first occasion was after its completion, launching so every pony could see how it functioned. The second time was during a journey around the mountain Canterlot had been built into. It was actually involved in the construction of the city's foundation!

He confirmed over the intercom--all of the mechanisms checked out and ran smoothly. Sky and Ratchet also mentioned how they needed to take shifts to make sure the ship kept working throughout the night. Ratchet worked until two in the morning, at which point he would wake Sky up for him to cover her and continue piloting us in the right direction.

I, on the other hand, retired to my bed at the same time Luna decided she was beat for the day. She flapped her way up to the top bunk of the bed as I pulled another one of my bags from underneath mine and pulled out my collection of various knives. I brought a few with me, to say the least, and by far, the largest one I owned was a Kukri, my utmost favourite out for them all. It wasn't one of the traditionally modeled ones, but a it was a modern reproduction.

I had a bit of a propensity for collecting bladed implements while I was on Earth, and they all served a practical purpose in Equestria. A couple of times, I had taken them into the Everfree Forest to keep them in attentive use, hacking at some of the dead limbs that had fallen, and it proved to be of it's worth when some of the ponies needed favors from me related to needing use for that wood. Because of that, I used a couple of straps to tie and secure it to my leg, largely because, if the handle rode on my belt, it would prove to be frustrating, poking me in my side all the time.

Another one of my favorites was a Tanto-style blade with serrations down toward the hilt. This one had been designed specifically for tactical and covert use, but I still managed to use it on wood well enough. I found this one more convenient to carry on a strap slung across my chest so I could draw it easily with my right hand. The fact that I had to draw it upside-down was a little unconventional, but I liked the idea. One of the others I owned is a simple Mora knife, used for the more finer tasks of carving and whittling. The fourth and final one I brought with me is an absolute beast of a bushcraft knife made by a well known knife company back on Earth. My time in this land gave me many opportunities to use all of them, but that meant vigilant sharpening and cleaning, too.

Speaking of that, I reached for a diamond rod I had earlier earlier used many times and began to work on the Kukri, keeping my eye out for any nicks in the blade's edge. Diamond rods were meant for profiling and removing nicks, but for finesse I used a ceramic rod to hone the edge. I started going over all of the knives, sharpening them and making sure they were in my select order before putting them back in their sheaths. In turn, I neatly slid them back in the bag and pushed it under my bed again.

"Hey, dad?" came Luna's voice from above me. I thought she would have been asleep by now.

"What's up, Luna?"

"Why now?" she simply asked.

I blinked in confusion at her vague question. "What do you mean by that?"

"When we were on Earth and you were taking care of me, why didn't you visit your parents' graves then? I do realize this is a loaded question, but know that I mean no harm by it."

Well then. If that wasn't the most saltiest thing ever, coming from sweet little Luna. But really, the more I thought about her inquiry, the more I saw the point she was getting at.

"I don't know how to answer that..." I said. "Part of me wants to say that I was busy taking care of you, but I guess the real reason was that I was afraid of what would resurface if I thought about it. You know me; if something bad happens, I just deal with it in my own way, even if that includes forgetting about it." I was careful not to raise my voice too high so I wouldn't wake SkySurfer, and Luna followed the low tone, but continued conversation eventually led to him stirring in his sleep.

"Would you two mind?" he slurred, taking pauses in between his sentence. "I have to get up in five hours, you know."

With unspoken gestures of our own, we decided that now would be a very opportune moment to get some sleep. Since this was my first time on an airship,  flying thousands of feet in the air over Celestia-knows where, I doubted I would get a good night's sleep from the developed sense of unease I had from thinking head-on about our journey...

I did manage to drop off to sleep at some point, only to reawaken during the middle of the night to use the restroom.

I really found it annoying; how during the day, any and every action barely seemed to register on the scale of volume, but as soon as the sun went down, that was somehow a cue for all noise made at night to be amplified... Thousandfold. Opening and closing the door to my highly desired destination was like a grenade going off right next to a megaphone, and that lead Sky, now awake in the control room keeping the heading, to come down and investigate the sound.

After whispering a silent apology and relieving myself, I returned to bed and didn't reawaken until about nine A.M. the following morning. Luna had already been awake at the time I did, still in the process of lowering the moon. Her tenacious habit of ending the routine at about that time was also a way for her distant sister to know that Luna was safe, in a sense. If Celestia found the lowering and raising of the moon to be later than scheduled, then she'd know something was wrong.

We later spent the morning going over the map trying to discern what we were going to find on those floating islands. It was concluded that nobody would know, seeing is how the lands were largely unknown, but that didn't stop us from having a laugh or two guessing what could be lying in wait for us. Our wild assumptions got to the point of being rather asinine when I said,

"Maybe a giant floating head with one eye and more eyes coming out of tentacles on its head!" I followed with a gesture that included me flailing my fingers on my head and closing one eye. Pretty much just having fun.

The next couple of days were spent in  the same relative fashion; just doing whatever we could to keep ourselves entertained while we flew to Alexmanedria.

I decided I would mostly be in charge of meal preparation an hour before its provocative dinner period, seeing as I worked in a cafe and restaurant on Earth and had adequate experience. Making the meals especially tasty while retaining enough herbs, spices and seasonings was something I felt I was good at, and it proved to be true for two out of three days, minus the first night. An incident involved with failing to check the little door oven thoroughly left us to fend for ourselves with about three 'Cup-Whoa-Noodles' each for the night. It was crazy that night.

By the fourth day, major cabin fever began to set in. Being enclosed in a small space for a lengthy period of time really can do a number on one's sanity. Sky and Ratchet had the duties of the ship to occupy themselves with, but for the most part, I didn't bring a lot along in the form of entertainment, so I just spent most of the days' time making sure the things in my bag were in good shape, taking a daily shower, and writing in the journal I brought along.

A few handwritten thoughts literally had me questioning how good of quality my life in Equestria would be if I had also lived here without wearing clothes. I actually thought about it, but ended up crumpling up the paper and laughing for a good few minutes.

Then, on the morning of the fifth day, Ratchet came down to the sleeping quarters to inform us that land was in sight. And, as excited as ever, I grabbed my binoculars and bolted up to the control room's panoramic viewing windows. I went right up to the front and peered out the window using the high-powered tool. I spent about a minute studying the oncoming land and noticed something peculiar beyond the island adjacent to the mainland I saw, as on the map.

"Hey, Luna," I called. "What do you make of this?" I handed her the binoculars, and she levitated it up to her eye level. She too stared at it for a while before speaking up.

"I am not sure, it looks like some sort of monument."

Being our fifth day into our super boring trip, I just about had it with this wait, and to prove my vigilant patience any good, I stayed at the window to help keep sight over the huge mass we were approaching. Eventually, a stretch of water popped up through the clouds, and after that, a better view of the monument.

Sitting in the middle of the ocean, with us now above the land mass, we all saw two 'islands' that looked like they were connected by a bridge, all above the body of watered. One of them was Heliopolis, but the other was definitely Alexmanedria.

We passed over the monument after a while, but it would have been another half-days' journey to cross the large bay between the two floating island. My increasing became restless to the point that my heart needed a break from it all. And seeing as I had to wait only a little bit longer, I decided to strum up that earlier conversation with Luna below deck.
I laid my back on my bed head hung over the side looking up at the dark ceiling while Luna looked down on me from her point high up on the bunk bed.

"You know, Luna," I began. "After my grandparents and immediate family died, I kind of alienated myself from the rest of my extended family at that point. I dunno why, really. We often didn't see or speak to each other outside of family gatherings and the like, which were few and far between."

Luna looked a little down at this point in time, but she was listening. I continued though, concerned with the look on her beautiful face.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is...I shouldn't have been so quick to leave. Not that I regret my decision or anything, but I should have gotten the closure I needed before coming here to stay with you, and if I did do that, we wouldn't be here right now...together. So It's kind of my fault we're both far from home in every sense of the word."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, dad." I loved it when Luna called me 'Dad'. It always brought a smile to my face always and made the homesickness ease up a bit. Equestria was my new home now, and I would have to start getting used to it at some time in the long run. "You didn't want to lose me after spending a lifetime bringing me up, and I respect that. But don't beat yourself up about any of that. It's not your fault your parents passed on, and neither is it your fault how much younger you were at the time." She took a pause.

"...When all of this is over..."

And then a single tear dripped down from her right cheek.

"And when we're finally there... We can all go home, happy together."

I stood up on the bed to reach up and caress Luna's saddened face. Then she came down to my bed and curled up right next to me, rubbing and nuzzling my face with hers. In turn, I appropriately hugged her body tight and close to mine.

Hugs always made me feel better, and Luna was definitely no exception. I've hugged my fair share of ponies, and by far Luna was the best, and I'm not even playing favorites. Her coat was just soft and silky enough to lose myself in, and her astral mane felt absolutely amazing to run my fingers through. It almost felt like I was running my hands through water, but without the resistance.

Luna's mane wasn't like that on Earth. No. That came later after she returned to Equestria She explained how it was an extension of magic, so much so that it manifested itself as its aura-like appearance. Her normal mane and tail still resided underneath the layer of magic, and she could revert the appearance at any time, but the need never really came up, and neither of us ever saw a problem with it. While on the topic, I tried asking Luna what Celestia's natural hair color was, and she 'accidentally' let the secret slip: it was apparently only the lightest of pinks.

Now, I'm not going to lie; I could just picture a white filly mare with a light pink mane bundled up under a fluffy blanket, sleeping. I told Luna that it sounded like the most adorable thing ever, and she had to agree, but it didn't stop her from giving me the 'Did you just hit on my sister?' look. I fell for her trap and stammered and repeatedly swore how Luna was the most incredible mare in all of Equestria, and other such ridiculous compliments. She always managed to get those kinds of words out of me every now and then. I spoiled her so much.

Eventually, towards the late evening, we noticed another island off to our left through the windows up in the control room. From the map, we ventured it is Hosstralia.

"It's a nation founded by outlaws and exiles." explained Ratchet. "Basically like an island prison We'd best give it a wide girth so not to draw unwanted attention towards us, and trust me, you don't want that. It'll add more time to the journey though, but we should arrive midday tomorrow."

Just great. Just freaking great. Another day spent on this sordid ship bored out of my freaking mind.

I spent a chunk of the remaining time just pondering the things I could do to kill more time. The capital of Heliopolis, Alexmanedria, which reminded me of Alexandria, was the location of the Great Library, I once again realized. Perhaps we might find a library with more information if that one didn't prove sufficient? Who knows.

The book I loaned from Golden Oaks about a week ago said that this whole country is populated largely by Earth Ponies, Minotaurs and Canids, which were like Minotaurs, but more dog-like. Those guys can dig something fierce too. They've dug innumerable amounts of tunnels underneath the place leading who knows where. One could easily assume that they're the ones responsible for the giant crevice in the middle of the continent, digging so many tunnels before the Earth collapsed upon itself.

Sleep didn't come easy that night. I was too worked up with how close we were to the rest stop, yet how far away we were at the same time. But when I did eventually force myself to sleep, it wasn't for long. I woke up about six the next morning and instantly went up to the bridge to see how far we had flew over the land.

It turns out that, since the first time I saw the city from the sky, we passed over its coast an hour ago and should be ready to land in Alexmanedria by eleven or twelve in the afternoon. You could imagine how melodious that was to my ears after spending damn close to a week on this ship. So I figured it would be a smart idea to tidy up my things, but I also planned on leaving my heavily-used knives and a few other bits and pieces behind, for the sake of saving some room in my bag in case I might find something of use or importance in the city.

After all of that plus a shower, I went up to the bridge to spend the rest of the time before we would touch down to Alexmanedria. I felt like an astronaut. I still don't know how Luna felt while she was on the moon, but still.

After all that, plus a shower, I went up to the bridge for the remaining time as we made our descent into Alexmanedria.

I figured to think that the residents here would be strangers to a giant floating balloon with a metal cage on it's underside carrying a human, but again I was dead wrong. The people here actually had several of their own ships of many different designs than ours, anchored to the ground, much to my surprise.

We docked at the closest available station guided by Sky and were finally able to depart off the ship. I had no words at all. My heart was beating rapidly as my eyes instantly went sightseeing. It was as if I was scared, but I wasn't at all. I thought they would be scared me for the sole reason of my species, because I had no idea if the residents here had heard of me yet. But really, I wasn't that much different than the Minotaurs and Candis here, who were also bipedal. I just assumed they thought I was a different breed or whatever.

Something that I thought really stuck out to me with his place is its unquestionable resemblance to ancient Egypt. In every direction I looked, the city was dense with the themes, decor, and just the all around atmosphere. There were some stone temples, some statues, and a few palatial buildings for the more higher class citizens. Rugs hung at at stands of some of the roadside shops, and most of those shops included the sales of food and pottery stands. Some popular trading posts hid well within the crowds of citizens. They sold clothes, (some secondhand), fine jewelry, and more of the stapled decorations I was already weeing along the buildings we walked past.

Most of the places we landed eyes on looked like standard bazaars that carried nothing particularly eye-popping. But of course, there was still some modern technology similar to what was used back in Equestria. It was re-purposed to fit the aesthetics of their culture, even though there wasn't  much of it in this country.

Luna seemed pleasantly surprised about the scenery nevertheless, turning her head left and right frequently.

"Haven't you been out of Equestria before?" I asked her.

"I went out of town once but I didn't particularly like the destination."

"Oh? And where was that, pray-tell?"

She turned to look at me with one of her signature, most devious smiles.

"The moon!"

I mentally facepalmed and Luna just giggled at the both of us. At least she still had a sense of humor at this point in time, not that she could remember too much of what happened. You know, missing puzzle pieces and all...

"What's first on the agenda then, Luna?" I asked once more.

"What do you say we find a local around here who can educate us on the city? Or maybe just ask them where we could find a library?"

"Not a bad idea at all. I'd like to think that most things we're looking for right now pass through word of mouth at restaurant and stuff. Those places are like magnets for out-of-towners, and maybe we'll hear about the library while we get some real food. Hehe."

I can share his as a fact: if you want to know the juiciest gossip around town, or figure out whatever the word on the street is, just work in a restaurant. The waiters and waitresses overhear all sorts of things all the damn time, and they don't even try to--it just gets drilled into their heads enough to where it simply becomes common knowledge.

We managed to track down what looked like a fairly busy cafe. Instinctively, we then proceeded inside and sat down sipping from the two complimentary goblets of water while we waited for someone to come by and take our order.

"So... What do you think of this place?" Luna asked me. "This is only my third time here."

"Your third time? Wow, heh. I think it's a nice escape from what I'm used to in Ponyville. And back on Earth too, definitely."

"I think it beats the moon, no doubt." Luna smirked at me again, knowing I despised falling for those loaded questions from before.

Eventually, a blonde mare with a tan coat with a toga draped loosely over her quadrupedal form came over to us

"Oh wow!" she called, turning all heads we were near. " Oh gosh! I-It's an honour to meet the beautiful princess, let alone serve her at my shop!" I think after that, she calmed down after taking a deep breath in. "Hehe, to what do I owe the pleasure, your majesty?"

Luna blushed quite a bit, and then spoke proudly. "My friend and I are just passing through on a stopover. We were hoping that you folk had a library we could browse, if you know of any around here."

The mare paused for a moment to ponder the question. And in that time, Luna apologized.

"I'm sorry if that came out of nowhere."

"We do have one, but it's pretty much only got the local history. But they say that...to the north, I think, there's some kind of old, ancient library."

And to think, that all this time-all we had to do was ask the right person. "Where is it located?"

"To the north as I mentioned, but no one really knows where it is. There's speculation that it's at the bottom of the chasm that's up that way, through a cave down, but no one whom has ventured out that way has returned. Er, that is to say, even if some of them have, they're keeping quiet about it."

I had a big grin on my face at that point, but, from the looks of Luna's expression, I had already forgotten that my stomach wanted to speak too.

"Now then, what can I get you two to eat-oh my gosh, I'm so excited."

I ordered something completely random, considering how there were no menus available. A huge veggie wrap stuffed with tomatoes, sliced onions, fresh mushrooms, lettuce, and further down the line, that was my choice, with a few sauces that could be described as chunky pureed beetroot, hummus, and tabbouleh. It was just too delicious; it reminded me of classic Turkish cuisine.

Luna had a salad of some description that could only be labeled as exotic. It had a lot of the local produce tossed together in a light balsamic vinegar dressing. But man, I could smell it from my place across the table!

After eating, we left a gracious tip and left our seats, asking around a few more locals to try and narrow down the search for the library the waitress told us about.

It was a bit of a mission to find, since all of the stores located in the stone and clay-built buildings looked pretty much the same, save for a few bits and pieces in the windows. But eventually, we found a decent lead. We tracked it down by keeping on the city streets, following snipped directions from everyone we asked. When we walked as far as buildings and stone walkway ran, a single ran-down looking stucture sat, but the possibility of its closure debatedly came to mind. Luna asked a wanderer near us, and he just pointed at the building.

"Are you blind or something?" he said, rather rudely.

I shook off some embarrassment and went up to the door to knock. I ended up pushing it open and calling out into the seemingly empty room.

"Hello?"

At my echoed call, a Minotaur flipped the beaded curtain behind him as he walked through it. He did nothing for a while but stare at my figure, I assumed. Everything about him led me to think back to the days of Iron Will.

"Hello!" he exclaimed in a very rugged voice. "I am Karrun, what can I do for you? What books are you be after?"

"Well  for starters, what's your oldest book you have? I'm looking for some specific information about a certain location in the northwest."

He raised an eyebrow at me and stared blankly for a few seconds, pondering my words. "I know what you speak of, and I don't have anything of that exact nature, but...I may still be able to help." He got my attention already. "To the farthest North, at the bottom of a crevice, is a library guarded by a creature."

I gave Luna a nudge as she entered the inside of the building with me. "If the librarian and the waitress know about it, then there's got to be some truth to it!" But...the word about the creature was fairly disconcerting.

"What... What kind of creature are we speaking of?" spoke Luna.

"No one really knows." Karrun replied. "The Canids dig tunnels to the bottom of the continent, as is their nature, but they're often not heard from again. It's useless going straight down into it from the surface. "Nobody is willing to take that route, and the pilots for the airships we have don't want to risk it. I don't blame them though."

Well that was a bit of a blow to the purpose and self-esteem of the journey. I started to feel a little devastated inside.

"But..." Karrun continued. "I heard you have a ship of your own, do you not?" Luna and I gave him an honest and hesitant nod. "Excellent!" the Minotaur bellowed. "My son, Jahurl, can be your escort there, he knows the way to the chasm."

I should have taken the warning as he deeply inhaled.

"JAHURL!"

At the dangerous call of his son's name, another minotaur came from behind the beaded curtain. His physiology was almost exactly like Karrun's, but in a slightly more compact build accommodating his smaller, more adolescent body.

"Escort these two to the chasm, they wish to visit the library it contains."

Jahurl raised an eyebrow too. Heh, like father like son. "What information do you seek, travelers?"

"The Breach." I deadpanned. Jahurl didn't seem to bat an eye.

"When do we go?"

Subtle much, don't you think?

Either way, I explained how our ship was currently getting restocked with a few fresh supplies, and that we would be ready to go by the morrow so there would be plenty of time to get there and back by the day's end. Jahurl said he'd meet us at our ship in the morning, ready to go at our earliest convenience.

I had a good feeling we could rely on him. Our lives might just be very well at stake.

After visiting the library, Luna and I spent the rest of the day looking around the various markets, some shops and some lone stalls. We didn't venture out too far from the ship as assurance for familiar ground and to avoid getting lost.

Some of the things these guys had were amazing. There were some intricately woven rugs that even Rarity would make a fuss over "how she simply must have it to show it off", pretty much. And what was even more-like, way more impressive was how these guys didn't even have magic either; they did everything with their hooves and the minotaurs used their... hands? We awed at samples of exotic cuisine that included some of the local fauna. It was cooked using various styles and pots, and lock chests, local clothing stores... It didn't end!

We later saw the sun depressing into the close mountains West of us. Luna and I decided that, after we grabbed dinner, that would be a better time than ever for us to retreat to the ship. She needed to get to raising the moon anyway, without focus on anything else. Both SkySurfer and Ratchet were aware that we were staying in the city all day and coming back close to dark, so we went back to the same cafe-turned restaurant for evening service, and were greeted at the door by the same mare that waited us earlier on in the day.

"Greetings again, princess and friend! Are you here for dine for Supper?"

"Indeed we are." Luna confirmed.

"Excellent!" The waitress just beamed overwhelmingly. "Just follow me to your table and we'll get started!"

She lead us to the same table we spent our last visit at and handed us two scrolls between Luna and I. We unfurled them and discovered they were menus. I didn't notice these before, but nevertheless, the meal more than made up for me having to come up with it.

In Ponyville, the menus were often on parchment with a thin wood border like a picture frame. The catalogs here were the same, except for the fact that these ones added to the authenticity and atmosphere of the place, the the themes actually matching the culture and environment. It was definitely a breath of fresh air, a break from the monotony of some other cafes.

Some of the menu's choices were odd, to say the least. Since there wasn't any meat on the menu, they substituted for other protein-based items, namely some of the locally harvested--shall I say--insects. Not to say that's all that was on the menus; there were other choices as well, but those were the ones that stuck out at me the most. We watched a few plates of those peculiar selections come out of the nearby kitchen doors, and we were rather impressed with their wafting scent that filled the area. I had to say, it made me want to try some!

And so, I ended up ordering a couple skewers of crickets with some heavily salted potato wedges and a salad on the side. Luna got the ants, much to my amusement. I couldn't help but joke about how horrified Fluttershy would be if she knew we were eating other (formerly) living things. We laughed about that a bit. I'm going to pony hell for laughing at that

My were surprisingly delicious. They had just the right crunch factor with some kind of saucy, savoury glaze to boot. Luna's ants had a powerful aroma to them, telling me they had been cooked with spices rather than herbs. She was highly satisfied with her exotic meal, as was I, very much so.

Then finally, after our debatable last meal of the day, we began to making our way back to the ship when I bumped into a rather peculiar individual. He looked like an okapi--having the form of a horse with zebra stripes with normal fur covering their bodies. But the thing is, back on Earth they're actually a type of giraffe!

So weird, man...

I noticed that his coat had swathes and patches of black and white zebra fur with brown fur swirling around and mixing with the zebra patterns. I couldn't see his cutie mark either; that region of his body was purely just covered in stripes.

Luna and I were brought about some rather pleasant news as we entered the ship's side door. Ratchet had just finished charging the gems, and that meant we were ready to take off with no problems tomorrow. Luna had gone to find a quiet place for her to raise the moon, and as she left the room for that purpose, I informed the engineer how we were changing course for a different destination to the North, also adding our explanation about how Jahurl would be coming alongside us as a guide, seeing as how he knew the area much better than we did.

With full stomachs and a chance to explore an ancient library, a few thoughts lingering in the back of my mind told me that Twilight Sparkle would most likely kill to be in my situation. I managed to get a peaceful nights sleep at that thought. I wasn't particularly fond of her...

I involuntarily woke mid-morning at around nine-thirty AM to the sound of my name filling the air.

"Hey, MIDNIGHT!"

Over the intercom, Sky told me that our Minotaur guest had arrived to escort us to the chasm. He wasn't kidding at all about the earliest convenience either. I told him, over my own personal microphone at the front of my bed (also very convenient) to let him on board and take off as soon as all preparations were made. I got up, took a quick hot shower, then immediately climbed up to the bridge to meet him.

"Welcome, Jahurl!" I happily greeted him. "Please, follow me so we can talk."

I led him down the corridor and to the furthest left turn, where Luna was eating her breakfast. She didn't mind at all. I went and got the map from my bag to show him, and then I took us to my map spread across the table. I pointed at our general location, as of now.

"There," said the Minotaur, directing my finger at something that I should have noticed before. I guess I wasn't much of one for details.

There was a giant crack in the middle of the country, in plain sight now that he pointed it out to me.

"At the bottom is your library." he explained. "But I must warn you, it is said to be guarded by a creature of legend called The Beholder."

"What does it look like?" I asked.

He only shrugged. "No one who has managed to come back is willing to talk. Figure it scare them pretty good."

So there have been explorers trying to get to the library. And some even have...

"How many that go... come back?"

"Not really sure. We only hear few rumors floating around here and there, but nothing that gives credence to the legend."

"The legend of what?" asked Luna, finished eating.

"Legend say that long ago, there existed a great library. One day, planet started shaking violently, earthquake if you will. Big crack opened up and swallowed library into it. Since then, no one heard of or seen it."

I've always been intrigued by the idea of stories making it out despite very few eyewitness accounts. "If there's no one that ever talks about it, and the ones who go searching go missing... Where do these stories some from?"

"All of it is purely gossip. Everyone hear different things so they make up own stories about library and anything else they hear. If one person read a book and tell it to someone, eventually you make up a different story entirely down the track." I couldn't help but snicker at that.

What he described was exactly like Chinese Whispers, a game I played when I was in school. The basic idea was to sit in a circle, and a designated individual would whisper a word into someone's ear. The process would repeat until it reached the last person in line, where he or she would announce the word. The fun of it all was seeing how much the word changed as it spread through other ears. There was one instance where a girl had begun with sunflowers, and ended up with something completely different. I remembered that same girl crying at the end because her word got twisted. Gossip; the most destructive force in the universe.

"So what you're telling us is that... we don't know what we're going to run into down there, or even if the library is still in one piece?" I just realized how stupid of a question I proposed to the table. Of course the library would be nothing more than rubble after an earthquake.

"Yes. But that also mean we don't know if Beholder is real or not too."

He got me there.

The remainder of the conversation we had as we walked back on the bridge was spent with Jahurl briefly telling us about is himself and his family, and he then asked me about Earth, my planet. I told him all that he needed to know for the time we were allowed. The ship had started moving again about half an hour ago, and we arrived to meet Ratchet and Sky at the perfect time.

"Holy crap..!"

What was right across the glass was awe inspiring to say the absolute least. This crack wasn't something small, or a simple chasm, it rivaled the grand-freaking canyon!

"Man... That's huge..." I muttered

"That's what she said." Ratchet replied dully, eyes still on the Great fault.

I wasn't sure if anything in this world--or even mine--could rival this monstrosity.

When we descended low enough, we all saw how the earthly anomaly had gone all the way through the floating continent! We flew over its edge, but, past its cliffs, it was essentially pitch black leading down inside.

"Only time sun shine in is morning or evening. Apart from that, nothing but shadow."

Well damn, that window already passed out of easy reach. It was early afternoon and the sun had just gone overhead. And as we went down even lower, the winds really started to pick up and threatened to throw the balloon around, possible leading to our early demise. They died down after one lengthy minute, but we still had every reason to be cautious-there was possible a monster down here with us.

"Hey Luna, no chance of you making the Sun go back over this thing for a couple extra hours, is there?" My proposal was more of a joke than anything. She had no control over the Sun.

"That is an interesting thought, but I'm afraid I can't do that. Not really sure if I would be could be trusted with something like that. Because... You know... "

"Hey Ratchet," I called. "Does this thing have any external lighting?"

"As a matter of fact, it does. I was just about to turn it on too."

The high beam lights at the ship's front instantly sliced through the blanket of darkness. All we could see so far was mere earth, as blank and featureless. as it was. But still, the lights cut us somewhat of a major break.

"Okay Sky, can you take us as deep in as you can?"

"Anything you want, sir!" And so, the pilot nodded and we felt the ship moving forward faster.

"I will let you know when we are near." said Jahurl, excited by my own leading energy.

"And I'll do my best to watch for any hazards, and any leads we might be able to take" added Luna. "You're aware of how well I can see in the dark areas"

"Yes I am... " I paused, closing my eyes and soon realizing how I was on my way home, step by slow step. "Thanks guys... Now we've got a library to find!"

We spent a good portion of three whole hours scouring the nooks and crannies of the rigid walls the chasm possessed.

"This thing must go on for freaking miles and miles." I said. "How in the heck are we supposed to find a library in a place like this?"

"Some Candis that dig down here have also tried to find the library. Look for their holes on the edge." Jahurl mentioned a very good point. The only problem with mentioning them in the manner that he did was that we would have no clue where those holes might begin, and even end.

A few seconds after that thought, Ratchet turned the outside lights off and suggested that we hug the rails outside and look out with a pair of binoculars she lent me and Jahurl. We took them and opened the door to the small hull, scanning the desert-like area for any telltale signs of where to begin. I thought about looking for tracks in the sand, but the circulating winds would have easily blown the dirt back over them.

Looking over some holes we found in the walls, we saw that they were as rough and sloppy as rough and sloppy could get. There really was no other way down or into this place without digging your way to the bottom as Jahurl said the Canids do, and even that proved, by a few examples we saw, to be extremely difficult. Pegasi were out of the question for sure, for venturing down here; even if they resided in the country, they would just get trampled by the winds down here. Their bodies were too fragile. Gryphons wouldn't make it either. Dragons might have had a good chance, but their population here was lower than the other races hat lived up there, and their nature would prove difficult just to get them active.

If Spike was able to fly, and had much more muscle on him, then maybe... Maybe he would make it inside.

"There!" I shouted, very much to everyone's surprise.

"Do you see the holes?" asked Luna.

"Well... Not exactly, no, but I see something else that looks worth searching."

"If not holes, what do you see?"

"Well, it looks like the ruins of a building, if you want to call it that. I mean, there's a portion of what could be a foundation on a ledge to the right of us. And...." Another discovery."Yes, holes. There's a lot of holes."

Sure enough, as approached the structure based on my direction, the started becoming more and more visible. The ruins were held inside a cornered stone structured that couldn't be more than ten meters long on each segment. Holes littered the walls around it, and they were grouped more towards the building itself and fanning out from it.

"Sky, take us down into the chasm through that area!"

He begrudgingly began to lower the ship back down into the chasm and Ratchet knew it was time to shed light. It was mid-afternoon at this stage, so while sunlight did enter the chasm, it didn't reach our specific area, just the top-most portion of the chasm's opening, so artificial light was still very necessary.

"Ratchet, is there a way to control these lights or do they just sweep back and forth?"

"Over on the second panel from the left, near the front, The two knobs." I followed her instructions gratefully.

Sure enough, there were two small joystick-type knobs. I used them to guide the spotlights around the walls. And halfway down, I saw something interesting...

"Guys, guys, I see something!"

Everyone rushed over to the window to see what I shined the two lights on. We all stared in awe at the bits and pieces of an old building. Domed spires, remains of raised walls and granite floors, sections of towers, and stray bricks all littered the area, among many other things, most notably those special things we were really looking for all this time.

"I think we just found our library."
> IV.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In less than a second after we made our discovery-

"Take us down there, Sky!"

We touched town in the bottom of the canyon upon my command. Then we actually landed, and everyone had grown anxious just to walk on the ground of the hidden cavity of land. But before the entry hatch would open, Sky moved in front of it and spoke a few words. Luna, Jahurl and I stood perpendicular from his facing direction.

"Okay," he started. " We're all aware of this Beholder character we've all heard so much about. So let me just share a few words of wisdom." We all knew where this was going, but we listened nonetheless.

"Princess Luna. I know you're older than me for sure, but for you two, you may be surprised by the fact that I'm fifty-four years old, and yes, I do know my stuff." Physically, he looks as old as the rest of the ponies I've seen!

We all let him continue.

"First things first: in the event of trouble out there, be the noble gentlemen I know you are and keep the princess safe from harm. Especially you, Midnight, being her father and all. I expect the best from you two. Ratchet and I will stay close to the ship for safety measures, but we'll help out with anything you need, but only if it's absolutely necessary. I bet you could give me one of those blades you've got there, mister Human, and we could have a pretty good sparring session."

As a precaution, I had my the tanto across my chest and the kukri strapped to my right leg. I wasn't really expecting an orientation on basic survival, though, especially since that's my field.

Boy, I could sure be an arrogant ass sometimes.

"You know what? This is actually really pointless. You all know this already; I'm just big on safety, that's all."

With no further words and a humble few chuckles, Sky made way from the hatch as Ratchet threw down the controls to lower it.

Finally, the three of us departed the ship. Ratchet flipped on the exterior lights that would give us all much more to work with. I also made sure that, on my way out, I had two blades with me, in addition to a bulky stiletto-like carving knife. But I didn't think I would be using it toward its basic purpose anytime soon. I mean, I brought my whole bag with me, but I felt it was safer to have my knives at my hips.

The place was a total wreck, so I guess that much of the legend seemed to be true. Jahurl, Luna, and I followed the trail of rubble while Sky and Ratchet stayed behind to look after the ship, as they said they would. We were paying them to take us places, not join in on the journey too, although if they wanted to do so, they were all the more invited to, just not in an unknown situation like this.

The amount of bricks and pieces of building strewn around the scene was phenomenal.

"How big could have this place been?" I asked no one in particular.

But of course, Jahurl had the answers. "This library was once site for more than twenty-thousand ponies."

"At once?" I asked again. He nodded.

"Pretty big place, huh?"

Following the grotesque amount of shredded wall scrolls, various sizes of grounded cement chunks, and most of all, books, I bet Twilight would think of this as literary murder, we found something very assuring.

"The Library of Alexmanedria." An embroidered rectangular plaque laid on the ground, barely visible from its heavy beating. I corrected it's wording aloud. "The Lost Library of Alexmanedria..." But then, when we looked up forward, the shuddering remains of a standing building towered tall. The entire dome and spire-like roof looked like a mountain range; it had fallen off entirely, and the rubble surrounded the base of the building.

The rubble from the library; the domes and spires, the wide pillars, and the various material laying around must have only been a small portion of the entire place, namely what would probably would have stuck out from the roof, but it could have been different, too.

At this point, we were starting to walk up the wide set of stairs leading up to the entrance.

Much to my surprise, the building itself was about seventy-percent intact from what I could make out that's illuminated by the ship's bright lights.

The base structure was essentially a large, multi-chambered cube with chamfered corners, forming an unequal octagon. On the side that we could see, two mutilated spires framed the main entrance, which had a vaulted archway. The main building sat on top of vast, four-sided cement structures with more destroyed spires on each corner.

The door for the entrance had remained closed for who knows how many years. This was probably a silly idea, but I would have never known the answer otherwise. I grasped the large wrought-iron rings on each side of the door and pull hard. It didn't budge.

Well then...

"Here, let me." Jahurl came up at my side and tried opening the door himself, but to no avail.

"Hey Luna, do you think you could use your magic to somehow unjam these doors?"

She nodded, happy to try and help. She stepped forward, enveloping the massive wooden doors with her magical navy blue aura.

"The hinges are rusted, and it's locked from the inside," she told us "Maybe I can..." She grunted and strained, and then I came to her side. I got on one knee and cradled my hand over her back, staring at the afflicted door as she was flinching at its difficulty. Eventually, we heard clicking and the distinct sound of a metallic clang resonate from behind the door. Luna magically pushed Jahurl and I to each side before the door could fall down and crush us.

"I got them! I pulled out the pins! " she beamed.

"A little bit of warning next time though, don't you think?" She giggled pleasantly.

We ventured inside our dark, dank destination, and were immediately greeted by the very same inky blanket of black that afflicted the hidden land outside. The air here was even more unmoved than that of outside as well and it felt adequately suffocating. Dust and expiration littered the air, trapping the scarce oxygen molecules too close to each other.

Jahurl reached at his back and pulled a torch from the tight strap he wore across his chest and quickly ran it across his horn, sparking a flint that caught on the torch and ignored the top. Apparently, Minotaur's and Canids fought with each other quite often, and Canids hated fire, so he was ready for anything, it seemed.

To help us with visibility, I reached behind my own back and slung it forward, using Jahurl's light to locate my own light source. I pulled out a hefty flashlight and zipped my bag up, throwing it back again. I clicked the button at the base preceding the head and toggled the focus by twisting the actual head to my desired lighting. I threw a wide beam of light at our surroundings, highlighting most objects enough to comprehend whatever we saw in the direction.

From what the both lights allowed us to see, we could make out a rather well kept interior. The main entrance from our position seemed intact, and we could even make out the main desk inth end center of the room, presumably used for thousands of transactions. We walked down the corridor past that desk, and from there the interior exploded outwards into rows upon rows upon more rows of scrolls, books, tomes, and other material. In all directions, not to mention.

"Woah..." That was all that managed to escape my mouth. It would take us a literal lifetime to look through all of these things.

"Check the front desk for an index system," Luna thankfully suggested. "It may have something that we could use to find out more about The Breach."

"You're probably right. Let's have a look." The three of us went into the circular desk area, of which is dotted with about four writing stations and dried up ink pots attached to the desk. In some of the drawers that lined the majority of the desk, there seemed to be a rather primitive filing system.

From what I could understand, there were different wings that held different subject and topics; art, magic, history, and so on like that.

I had no idea how to get to half of the places that were listed, let alone find what I was after.

"Well," I admitted. "I've checked all these files for anything. What about you two? Find anything?"

"Nope..."

"No."

"Well shit... What do we do now?"

"WHAT IS IT YOU SEEK IN MY LIBRARY?"

I froze on the spot. Paralyzed. Unable to move. An unknown voice boomed and bellowed behind us with enough resonance to make us all mentally shake. It was an utterly terrifying; a voice that could have probably dripped with venom whenever it spoke. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Part of me wanted to run in the opposite direction of the source-part of me wanted to turn around and see what that same source is. But seeing as how something or someone still lives here, we were still technically trespassing. I did what came by instinct at the sound of a voice from behind. Then, on the spot, I slowly turned around to face the thing that accosted us.

In the far black of my sight, there wasn't nothing there, but when I shined a beam of light upon it, the creature became visible. It made us all jump about a foot up from where we stood. It was the most horrifying creature I had ever seen.

It was just a head, levitating in the still, unmoving air. But it obviously wasn't a kind of prank someone could pull around Nightmare Night. This thing had a mandible that was loosely hinged to the rest of its jaw through thin webs of skin and flesh, and its mouth was lined with rows terrifying, dagger-like teeth protruding from overly red—almost bleeding—gums.

In the middle of it's face sat a single, abnormally huge eye, but it had much more than just that one. From the bulbous, fleshy meat that covered its head rose several eye stalks, all a different colors. Red, blue, white, green, yellow, purple...

I wasn't going to die here...

"I AM, THE BEHOLDER! GUARDIAN of this ancient library. State your business here or I will FEAST UPON YOUR BONES!"

"Feast!?" I exclaimed. This guy doesn't have a god damn stomach, or throat, even!

I was too busy meeting the Beholder's many eyes in front of me. Some of the smaller ones glanced at each other occasionally, giving off their own unique, deathly glow. I couldn't say anything; I just couldn't bring myself to say or do anything except stare and think about the possibilities my actions could hold.

Across from me, though, Luna spoke up, giving me strength again.

"We come not of ill will,but to explore your most wonderful structure! We come with the intention of acquiring knowledge that would aid us on our journey!"

"What is it you wish to learn, mare?"

"Information," Luna continued. She had to swallow her pride at the obvious disregard for her regal form and title. "Information about The Breach. Are you able to help us?"

"That I am. But if you wish to remove a book, you MUST replace it with another piece of knowledge."

Suddenly, an idea washed over my head. It was really at that exact moment where I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of the three BIC lighters I had on my person. I was terrified by the thought of making this beast think that I was going to attack it, but it did nothing more than observe my actions carefully with its myriad od eyes. I didn't hesitate a bit as I shifted it in place in with an outstretched arm.

 "Hm?" The Beholder seemed puzzled. It was understandable, though, even if it was him. "What is this object you present to me?"

I slid my thumb over the wheel above the little tab that preceded it. Then I flicked it down, spinning the wheel and, in turn, sending a shower of sparks to an open flow of gas. A kindled flame erupted from the nozzle and flickered in what little draft there was.

"What magic is this?" He asked in what I assumed was partial awe.

I simply replied. "No magic. Just science."

"This is a work of artificiality?"

"Yes. I came from a world where science and magic are essentially one in the same."

An entire stalk of his eyes wormed its way over the Beholder's head, glowing more fiercely. Then, with a warm white paled light, the lighter levitated out of my hand.

"This is your offering to me?"

"Is it acceptable enough?"

He further studied the lighter, taking no time to get the sparks ablaze. It is strangely fascinating. "You may browse my collection as long as you wish, but I shall be watching. I have eyes everywhere."

What are you, my mother?

"Would you be able to direct us to the wing where we may find information about The Breach?" Jahurl asked the beast.

"Yes. Follow me."

A particular stalk of eyes, glowing a deep amber-red unexpectedly rose high above the rest and glowed with a fierce intensity, that illuminated the entire room we heading into. It highly resembled an artificial, electric light that was intended to mimic the radiance of a real flame. He lead us through several rooms, all littered with both an odd amount of rubble combined with an even odder collection of pristine kept books and scrolls that lined the impossibly high shelves.

How the hell could anyone even get those books all the way up there?

Eventually, we were lead into a smaller room after about ten minutes of walking through the illuminated darkness. I swear, Twilight would want to spend all eternity in this place. I wondered how she would react if I ever told her about this place

"Here. You will find what you seek in this room."

I set my bag down on a visible part of the floor and pocketed my torch while the light from the Beholder's eyes lit up the room with great intensity. The room itself wasn't all that big, but I could tell, from the condition of the tomes and scrolls that it was much, much more visited than the others I had seen on our way here. I didn't say anything, but my lips moved on their own, speaking an inaudible expression.

"Wow..." I was too amazed for actual words. Tens of thousands of books and scrolls and tomes... All at my fingertips. I abandoned my train of common sense and found myself caressing the spines and covers of a few of the dusty books I was able to reach.

"Tens of thousands..."

One book in particular stuck out at me. It wasn't much like some of the other leather-bound books on the decrepit shelves. It had a hard wood cover on the front and the back, with a curious symbol emblazoned on the front. The emblem was framed with a square diamond, and metal arms flared out from each corner point on the diamond, both vertically and horizontally.

It's spine, though, was what made it stand out to me so much. The hard wood covers seemed to be set into a metal cylinder that made it up, and there were rough skeletal-like knobs on each end.

"I think that's it," commented Jahurl. "Just a hunch, though, probably."

Curiosity and suggestion compromised a big part of me and led me to open it. I was amazed with what I saw inside, but I was more mystified by it than anything. Various brightly inked colors painted onto the paper, depicting.... something... I couldn't tell what exactly, but it looked like it could have been a journal, maybe. Possibly a diary?

The words inside were unlike anything I had normally seen in Equestria. Granted, some other countries spoke different languages and dialects, in addition to their own written words, but that's besides the point. It could have very well been from an age long past.

I called Luna over. "What do you make of this?" I asked, showing her the illustrations and the images. Her eyes grew wide and her brows ascended in interest.

"Tis an ancient dialect, a dead language!" She sort of took over as she leaned her head over across my chest. I still held the book for her, but with one hand."But it appears to be a depiction of an ancient civilization that worshiped some sort of crystal."

Over the next few pages, depictions of ponies and other creatures kneeling down in a circlar formation were depicted. They all prayed to a giant diamond-looking object, bowing and on their knees. The next page showed a diagram of a room—A simple, circular room—with the giant gem sitting in the middle, with a door guarded by two human-like statues.

"Do you know what any of that is?" I asked once more. "If it's relevant at all?" I pointed to the statues. "Those are humanoid, Luna. Even with the minotaurs and canids, this trumps them as being the most human thing I've seen since I've been here!"

"I have way too many theories." she said. "I fear to say anything and cause further questions to become apparent. What do you think?"

I totally wasn't expecting her to speak my own thoughts on the matter.

"Uhhmm... Either these people found a giant crystal that they worshiped, or it's their version of a deity? It's like..." I was kind of embarrassed, subliminally. "Back on Earth, people worshiped all sorts of things, believing it held some sort of power, or even it held their god in some form or matter, but as science eventually showed us, everything had a logical explanation."

Luna gave me a curious glance at my last word. I shrugged at her and gave the book to Jahurl so he could have a look at it. have a look at. He was the one who really brought me to picking it up anyway, so why not have his opinion?

"Earth pony find giant crystal, believe it to have mystical powers." I liked where he was going with that already. "Other ponies wanted to use it for evil, to gain Ascension. Crystal gave them all power."

"Wait, what's ascension?" I asked.

"Using magic to become an alicorn," dripped the Beholder's venomous voice. "That is Ascension."

With an accusatory look, I turned to Luna. She seemed to cotton onto my stare. "My sister and I were born like this," she admitted. "Ascension is earned nowadays. Anyone can become an alicorn, they just have to prove themselves."

"So then. Where did first alicorn come from?" asked Jahurl, again, putting Luna in the hot seat.

"Ponies most likely used magic to gain Ascension, or use powerful spells to grow themselves wings or horns, or even both. Because those actions rewrite the genetic code and introduces new muscles, the brain needs to teach itself how to use them, effectively becoming a genetic trait. If there is two powerful individuals, be it two Unicorns, a Pegasus and a Unicorn or vice versa, and they have a foal together, there's a chance—albeit a very slim chance—that the residual magic could turn the offspring into an alicorn."

"Correct you are... princess," the Beholder confirmed, with that last word hanging on a note of contempt with me.

I swear to god if he keeps disrespecting Luna... "Hey, do you mind keeping your snarky comments to yourself?"

The fleshy, floating head came to close in on me, with all of his eyes studying my rebellious stature. I tried my best not to flinch, but his breath was so terrible, I just had to shut an eye at it. I slid my hand over the hilt of my tanto knife, ready to draw it and stab his eye if I had to. "Two words buddy: Breath. Mints."

"I am an older being than she is. I can speak to whomever sets foot in MY library in whatever manner way I choose. What are YOU going to do about it?"

I slowly returned to my former, unthreatening stance, picking my bag up from the ground and tucking the book inside a loose pocket.

"I'm glad you asked." I then withdrew another equally fragile book from the shelf I partially leaned on. "You see this book?" The Beholders eyes all looked at me, both with suspicion and ferocity as I slid my other hand in my left pocket, pulling out another of the BIC lighters. I held it close to the dusty book, with my thumb threatening to descend down the wheel.

"Father, don't!" called Luna.

"You already got what you came for!" followed Jahurl. "Don't try to be a hero!"

"Keep talking the way you are and I'll give you no reason to stick around this place, if you catch my drift."

One of the eye stalks snaked its way forward to my face, and it was one that glowed a baby blue hue. It shot a wide gust of wind that extinguished my flame

"Well then. Hehe..."

"Leave my library now before I kill you. Your Minotaur friend is right... You've got what you came for."

"Not just yet." I replied. "You owe Luna an apology."

"Human has point, ugly!"

Jahurl was in on it too then! That made me smile.

Suddenly, another glow began emanating from behind us, one that the Beholder did not emit. Everyone looked in the direction of the source, we were absolutely surprised to see a corner of the room on fire.

The beast was obviously more concerned than we were; he shoved his way across Jahurl and I, using several groups of his eyes to try extinguish the flames. But he ended up turning it for worse, the air shooting from his eyes spreading the flames to the flammable wooden shelves and books. When he figured out that there was just nothing he do, and with the ancient library burning in all directions he faced, he turned to face us this time, murder in his eyes. All of them. He growled and screamed at us at the same time.

"Uhm, time to run, don't you think?!" He charged at us just then. And in exchange, the three of us turned hard tail and ran in the other direction.

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

With the Beholder hot on our tails, we twisted our way around debris that would soon be devoured by flames, and ran down a set of halls with my flashlight illuminating our way. It was so hard to see an escape route with the light bouncing around all over the place, but any direction would have done us good, preferably finding a way out of this maze.

A beam of green energy shot from behind, followed by a couple dozen more hitting almost every wall we were dashing past as a mistaken target. One of his shots shattered an already weak but enormously huge stone pillar, causing the insane force to push it across our planned route, allowing gravity to then take over from there. I only barely avoided the impact, throwing myself forward and rolling underneath it. Jahurl easily leapt over it, and Luna galloped underneath it, ducking her head as to avoid possibly having her horn snapped off. I was forced to pick myself up from off the floor, and I struggled to do so because of all the obstructions in my path that I didn't see at first.

The Beholder continued his pursuit, but slowed down when he approached the obstruction he created from the use of his own magic. I shuffled back on my ass and saw the demon head using his primary eye, glowing a deep mint saturation, to retract the pillar back to its original place.

"Did you honestly think you would get away?!"

"I know we can, you Nightmare Night reject! " I spent a moderate amount of energy to antagonize him.  "Your fault for being big! How do you even eat? You don't have a fucking stomach!"

"Did you ever wonder about the Canids that dug their way down here? I drained their life and fed on their energy. Just like I will YOU THREE!"

"Not a god damn chance!"

"It's been so long since I've tasted a woman!"

You aren't getting anywhere near Luna! A different colored eye slithered forward from him; and I kept glancing  at him to see it. The single eye—comprised of many—resonated a breathtaking purple glow.

With that thought in mind, and with the eyes creeping up on me, there was the sudden, brief sound of the air being pierced many many times, but all with a single 'schwing'. And then, even more abrupt, I saw that Luna and Jahurl had stopped as I fixed my beam of light on them. They were looking in the direction of the Beholder.

"Look!" shouted Luna.

"Someone have good aim!" Jahurl followed.

"Was that you, Father?"

I assumed they were joking about how I somehow left the decor around the room in such a way that I caused the Beholder to be considered majorly hindered. Or some other explanation.

Either way, I turned back to the Beholder, and-

"Holy hell!" I was looking dead-on at a spear sticking out of the bastards main eye! "Where the fuck did that come from?"

A voice then shouted out from the darkness "Get up and run!"

The Beholder was screaming in agony. He tried closing his punctured eye, but his lid didn't quite come down all the way—the spear shaft was blocking it. I then saw the opportunity to unsheathe my kukri machete. I ran up to the demon and leapt off of an illuminated table. I grabbed two of its eye stalks in one hand and, in one fell sweep, cut them clean off with the knife in the other hand. On my way down, I shaved a few more of the stalks from his head at random.

I fell to the blood-pooled floor and put the flashlight in my mouth, biting down on it hard. Finally, I picked myself up with difficulty and ran for it.

I had no idea who or what saved us, but I needed to make sure I thanked them later.

I was now dashing behind Luna, who, in turn was being Jahurl. The Minotaur was being led by a burning fire torch, presumably being held by our rescuer. It was strange because we didn't see a moving torch before Jahurl decided to follow it, but I chose not to question survival any further.

Weaving in and out of of corridors and between bookcases, trying to keep up with everyone wasn't very easy when you're holding a twelve-inch razor sharp machete in one hand and you can barely see. Sometimes, it was like running with scissors. Oh yeah, not to mention having a flashlight jammed in your jaw your mouth. I changed that part by taking it back in my free hand.

Finally, we exited the library through the front entrance, guided by the airship's floodlights, later assaulting our eyes. We all ran up the gangplank as fast as we could, then Luna magically hauled it back inside. And then, after declaring his commands in an appropriate sense of urgency, SkySurfer started to lift us all up from the bottom of this forsaken canyon. It was a slow and agonizing process, but we could gladly see smoke billowing from the libraries broken ceiling. I think we were all pretty convinced that the Beholder was dead.

But...

"Tens of thousands of years of knowledge and history up in smoke..."

"Is everyone in one piece?" Ratchet called out to us all. It was a real pleasure to hear her voice again.

"Check!"

"Check!"

"Check!"

"Eeyep."

"Huh?" Both of the engineers noticed the fourth cover, deeper than any one of us. I had completely gotten carried away, with my heart beating the way it was, that I forgot that our savior had boarded the ship along with us!

"Well, you're a new one!" said Sky. "Who are you?"

I took a minute to calm myself down when the character walked into view, out from the light shadows.

It was that Okapi that bumped into me in the streets! What the hell? His features were still equine, as one would expect, but with the bright flames of the library lighting up the ship, we could see him more clearly.

His authentic zebra stripes and coat color were partly spotted and majorly swirled together in some areas of his stature. He had a canvas or some kind, or just simple thick cloth coat covering his body, held in place by a bow strung over his back and a few spear heads poked out from under the cloak.

"So that's where that came from." I said to no one inparticular. "I owe you my thanks, man. No, I owe you my life!"

"Me too, brave sir," bowed Luna courteously.

"And I as well." said Jahurl. "My father will remember this act of graciousness."

"Hehe, sounds like a party!" commented Ratchet.

"So...what's your name?"

"My name is Bullseye, and I am here to help."
> V.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was later unraveled that, unbeknownst to Luna and I, Bullseye had be following us. He stalked us through Alexmanedria's city streets, cloaked deep within it's crowds. He spied on us at the cafe, sitting only a few seats behind us, and, eavesdropping on our conversation.

He also knew about the legend of the library, and, when he got wind of someone actually looking to find and explore it, he swooped in and took his chance to follow us down into the chasm. I asked of him; "But how did you get to the bottom?"

"The tunnels that the Canids dig go all the way to the bottom, don't they?" He gave me a witty smirk. "I used some of those, but it really took a while to find you in the dark, I didn't want to draw attention to myself while you distracted the Beholder."

"Why did you need us to distract him?" inquired Luna

"There are so many stories about others going missing in search of that place, and I just had to find out what it could be. And why do you think I needed his attention at you? So I could kill him."

"Well it's sure a good thing you did!" I concurred. "Thanks again, man."

"Don't mention it any more than you have to. Hehe."

"Besides, thinking about all the ones who never got to make it down there kinda got me super excited about actually going there, although I had an ulterior motive too. A more important one, no offense to them at all. I'm pretty sure you know that much too, huh?"

"Actually, no." Bullseye said. "I heard a bit of a crystal when I was making my way inside the building, but that was about it. It's really none of my business though, pardon me."

"Ah, it's no problem at all. I'll explain it later. But meanwhile, I need to clean my... My poor knife... " I said, holding the sticky, stained blade up to the light. I excused myself while Bullseye made himself acquainted with the rest of the group on our way to drop Jahurl back on the surface to his father.

It was the late evening. I looked at the loose watch I kept in my bag's side compartment and saw it to be one quarter past seven in the evening. We should have Jahurl back in town by midnight.

I went to the showers with my bar of lemon soap that- "Huh?" It shrunk! It just grew smaller!

Wait... How does something grow smaller, if that was even the present case at all? Doesn't it have to shrink? I sighed softly. Oh well, more confusing things to think about later on...

I turned the water on, which ran out of the faucet a few seconds later. I proceeded to groove my hands along the soap, lathering them with a thick coat of suds and a heavy lemon scent. I easily slid the goopy shit off of the face of the blade, and it satisfied my mood when I began to see its shiny surface again. I polished off any other marks, then slip it back in its sheath and stowed it under my bed with the others. Then, sitting back on my bed, my focus turned to the gore-drenched eyes I managed to cut off the Beholder's head.

I had no idea why I actually took them back with me. It was probably just something I wasn't thinking about back then.

Now that I had the chance to get a better look at them, I found that each of their stems were about the size of my index and middle fingers when I scissored them together. There was also the giant fucking eye that was about the size of my fist when my other hand was clasped over it. All the other eyes, though, suddenly opened, startling me and they were still glowing with the same a significant bit. They all radiated with the same intensity they had when the Beholder had wielded them. How could that be happening if the beholder was dead? Didn't he control them? How could they still be glowing after being cut off?

A thought the dawned upon me: I might be able to use the remaining—if any at all—magic in them. But then again, I had no idea how to do that, or if it was even possible.

The two I managed to cut off were separately glowing different colors. One was of a yellowish hue, kind of like what the morning glow of the sun looks like. The other one was emanating nothing but a pure, ghostly-white glow, and it was also the one I saw the Beholder levitate my lighter with. I had no idea what the yellow one did, or was able to do.

Maybe they work like a wizard's staff, I thought again. And, being the comical genius I am, I picked up the limp eye stalk and thrust it out in front of me, complete with super cheesy dramatic pose. Nothing happened.

"Huh, no surprise there." The stalk just hung limply in my grasp, the eye staring at the floor. Can a dead eye even stare at something? The silly thought was disrupted  as I heard Luna coming down the stairs.

"Are you alright?" she asked me.

"Peachy, just peachy. I'm fine. Although I am beginning to question why I got the bugger's eyes. They're not going to do me any good."

"Don't be so sure. We were there long enough to see how he was drawing from their magic, much like Unicorns and Alicorns do their own horns."

"But how does that work? I don't even have a horn."

"Hehe!"

"Luna..." I secretly blushed, but suggested my sarcasm openly to her as I pat her on her upper spine. "Your mind can be so filthy sometimes."

"Great minds think alike." She let out a light giggle. "But really, these aren't just mere eyes. They're gems!"

"Gems..." I said with disbelief. "Really?"

"Gems, yes." Luna confirmed.

"But how in blue blazes did they get inside these eyes?"

"Same way that the first Alicorns were created; magic."

"So did that Nightmare Night reject have magical gems surgically implanted in his eyes or something?"

Luna tapped a hoof to her chin to ponder the statement. "More or less. He used their magic the same way that any other magical creature does; by learning. You saw him blow out the fire dongle you presented to him, and what he did with the big pillar he shot down."

She sat down on the floor at the foot of my bed and levitated the two eye stalks over to her. Using her magic again, she pulled out my Mora knife, arguably one of my most sharpest. And then, very much to my horrifying surprise, she stabbed all the eyeballs inside the pupil! Just thinking about it over and over and over and over and over made me squirm through to my core. More goop sprayed everywhere from them both, but after the scene that I just couldn't bring myself to witness, Luna magically pulled out two gems that were about the the size of golf balls. They separately radiated their corresponding colors: a bright yellow, and a pale, ghostly white. She floated them over to me, but I started to freak. I took a loose piece of cloth and held the goo-coated gems, immediately heading upstairs into the bathroom to commence with their cleaning.

I returned downstairs to our little room a couple minutes later. Luna spoke to me, seeing how I was observing the cleaned gems with much intrigue.

"Do you wish to learn their magic?"

My mind reeled at the question. "I can do magic!?" I... Uhm... How? I don't have any catalysts or anything. I'd definitely be an Earth pony, if I was a pony at all."

Luna giggled, standing up and taking the two gems from me in her aura. "I can turn these into jewelry if you'd like?"

"Like an earring or a ring for my fingers?"

She nods. "Anything you want. I can also cast a perception spell on them, making them unnoticeable to everyone, save the two of us."

A prospect then dawned upon me—the thought of being able to control magic... Somehow.

"I don't even know what these gems do, except for the white one, maybe. The Beholder used it to take my lighter, so it might have something to do with moving things around. But I didn't see which one he lifted that pillar with, though. That might have been a different one entirely. Whatever the yellow one does is beyond me, unfortunately." Luna took a scrutinizing glance at the yellow pulsating gem, furrowing her eyebrows and giving her nose a scrunch.

"I am not sure either," she said. "Now, placement of these items. Where and what do you want them to be?"

"Well, I've worn rings before, and I didn't like the way they felt on my fingers. I've never had my ears pierced, or anything pierced for that matter. I don't like piercings at all, I'm more of a tattoo person," I ranted. "The only thing worth being called jewellery that I wore was a pendant that I regrettably left on Earth."

But then an idea struck me.

"Do you think you could carve them in the shape of Celestia's cutie mark sun and your moon?"

Luna cocked her head to the side. "Where is it that you're going with this?"

"You know anesthetic spells, right?" Her gaze toward me became even more disturbing in nature, but she gave me a simple nod nonetheless. "Well, uh..." I started to hesitate, fearing the message that her curious face was could have been sending me. "Can you carve them into each of those shapes, and then, maybe, apply those images to my shoulders under an anesthetic spell?"

I didn't know whether or not if physically phasing or getting something phased through you would hurt, but I'm wasn't about to take any chances with it. Besides, I didn't want physical jewelry, as I would probably end up losing it, so I decided on something different. Since they glowed with such intense light (especially considering how clean they were now), I preferred the idea of a permanent, glowing, tattoo.

I've always had a thing for tattoos, I've even got a couple on Earth. One on my left shoulder, and one on my chest. Now that I think back on it, I never had anyone/anypony bring them up before, or bought them up myself. I did get asked by a certain trio if I had my cutie mark at one stage, and I had to sway them from showing them my thigh/ass to prove otherwise. But, I digress. I've never gotten any body modifications, nor did I really want any. So I figured that this is something I wouldn't necessarily regret. I couldn't lose the gems, I might be able to learn to use magic, and as a major bonus, they'll look like glowing runes or something cool like that! That was the most appealing thing to me right now, I admitted to her. And in turn, she sarcastically called me a silly child.

After I indicated the desired size by clasping my thumb and my index finger together, the gap about the length of a single high value bit, she worked her magic toward crafting the gems into those shapes. I thought it would involve cutting some of the material off, but I was mistaken. She simply molded them like playdough!

She tried assuring me that phasing things didn't hurt at all, and I affirmed I was going to take my chances. She gave in and cast the spell on my left shoulder, inserting the flattened sun underneath my flesh, slowly proceeding to insert the moon into my right shoulder directly afterward.

"See? You don't feel a thing, do you?" she might have already subjected me to the drug without my awareness, because I really didn't feel a anything.

Earth's concoction of Anesthesia wore off in about two to three hours, but when a Unicorn, or Alicorn in my case, would use a similar spell, they could just simply remove it when it's served its purpose. It's a pity really. Also on Earth, and shortly before I found Luna, I had to go to the dentist to get two root canals, and I spent the following three hours slapping my face afterwards, not feeling a bit of the action.

So basically, This was kind of the same feeling.

When Luna was done with me, she had an intriguing look on her face, as if she wanted to see how she had done. Ultra curious myself, I rolled up my T-shirt sleeve to have a look at each image. Sure enough, the sun could clearly be seen glowing just as bright as the moon, but the glow of both wouldn't penetrate my shirt for whatever reason. Oh well, no biggie.

"This looks absolutely fantastic, Luna!" she lightly blushed as I primped my shirt back down as far as it go.

"Thanks, dad."

"Now, uh. How do I use magic?" I wondered if I was going about this too fast.

"Learn to concentrate..." she simply said. Now where to start with that, heh, easier said than done. "Feel the magic. Channel it. Through your veins."

I tried using my right arm to raise my pillow off of the bed, but nothing happened. I acted as if I was physically lifting it up, but that might have been why. I tried and tried for the next several minutes, Luna admittedly giggling out loud, but with nothing to show. At least if they didn't end up working, I still had some pretty awesome looking tattoo-esque designs on my arms.

I presumed that my failed attempts could have been because of how less oriented I was. It is pretty late at night after all, and I am pretty tired. I decided I would try it again in the morning and just hit the hay for the night.

Luna didn't know what to do either, she told me as I laid stretched out on my bed.

"All Unicorns and Alicorns are required learn how to use magic," Luna explained. "There are Unicorns that are born with no magical abilities at all, but they can even learn magic with focused study down the road. As with Twilight, she was born with a morbid disposition towards magic, but she had to learn to control it rather than learn from birth."

I couldn't really decide if it was comforting to hear that or not, but I felt some sort of inherent undertone to her last sentence. I shrugged it off and, rather restlessly, decided to head up to the bridge. I felt is was really rude of me to just up and leave Bullseye up there while I escaped the scene for less important purposes. Luna followed me up, despite how quickly she admitted; "I really don't want to get up."

We were greeted by the four characters seated down on the floor at a miniature stage that sat right below the huge window. I noticed how Jahurl was staring back towards the direction of the library. He saw some pretty scary stuff down there, and although he was a really tough guy, even the best of us can get to missing their parents. Anyway, Luna and I politely joined them and took nearby seats.

"Sorry about that," I started off. "I had to use the restroom."

"Me too," followed Luna. I had no idea why I said that, and I was also baffled at how Luna copied my words! It was funny, though.

I told him about myself, and it was more information about myself than what everyone else knew. I told some jokes too, just to make conversation, more or less. But I had to be careful with what I said, as my sense of humour was rather twisted, so I just cherry-picked some more... tame words. SkySurfer and Ratchet took their turns to get into our aimless conversation, coming with questions for Bullseye, such as, and related to: "Do you have family in Alexmanedria?" followed by the assumption that he was from the city. He decided not to share for reasons we did not know, and respectfully refrained from asking about. Jahurl commented every now and then, but he also chose to refrain from most curious ideas we had in mind as well.

Eventually the topic came around to Luna and I, and everyone mutually decided that they wanted an in-depth tale of how we came across each other. I broke it down into segments, detailing the circumstances from my initial discovery, the accident involving my family, moving up to the farm, and most of what followed afterward. Then I cut to the debacle I had with Luna almost becoming Nightmare Moon on my world. That portion had everyone rather intrigued; more so than the rest of it.

In hindsight, I found it funny that a Night of Eternity could be imposed on a planet where magic doesn't exist, from what I knew of, anyway. The whole scenario ended with me convincing Luna how bad things are going to happen, no matter what.

"...But you can always get up and rise above your challenges," I reassured her. Talking about her 'other side' always seemed to get her really upset, but and with an extra hour being added onto the night, I subtly emphasized how she was alright, and how everyone has demons buried inside them.

I sure did.

She told me, for the thousandth time, that it would never happen again, and, for the thousandth time, I believed her. We embraced each other as she got to letting tears roll down her cheeks. Everyone else watched and consoled her too, but their words couldn't do as much as mine did.

I loved Luna like a daughter, sometimes more than my own life on Earth. And nothing was ever going to change that.

Hours later, we reached Alexmanedria's surface. The decision at the time was to dock there for the rest of the night so everyone could get a solid night's sleep. Bullseye elected to leave the ship for the night, the reason being that there was no room for him to sleep. He insisted to take the floor and save us all the trouble of waiting for him the next morning but then he unexpectedly took his words back and decided to go on his own to find a place to sleep. Fair enough, but he sure was an awkward guy.

He said he would be back tomorrow morning before we departed. And if he wasn't, he asked us, very politely, to wait for him. He must have been really eager to join in on our journey.

Later, I stepped out onto the docks and watched Luna raise the moon for the night. It was always a very simple task for her to complete, and the only real bother was having to keep vigilant for the rest of her life. I don't know if she saw me, standing only mere meters from her, and I kept thinking about it as the chilly night air appeared, driving me back inside.

Back on Earth, the habit of wishing a 'goodnight' to all of my friends, grew to the effect of; "May Luna watch over your dreams." for my brony friends. I thought it was a nice sentiment, considering how Luna watched over all dreams, and, maybe it's just me here, but I would normally have a good night's sleep by saying that before I went to bed. But seeing as how the Princess of the Night is bunking with me, that concern wasn't even needed! Heh, it was a given!

It was really nice to be sleeping grounded for the first time in over a week or so. All the other days and nights were spent in a sort of half-asleep state, and while I slept through the whole night, the apprehension about sleeping way up in the air was enough to knock off enough of what would otherwise be complete refreshment by morning.

I woke up the next morning, thoroughly refreshed and ready to tackle the day. I pulled out the map from my bag and charted for our next course, directly northwest to Evisica. Jahurl had probably already left and got back to his place. It was really too bad that I forgot to thank him one last time. My mind went back to the other day where Ratchet pointed out how the islands looked as though they were floating up in the air. I still couldn't believe how I didn't see that.

I failed to notice that Sky and Ratchet had gotten up earlier than I did to prep the ship for departure. I caught Sky at a good time and casually reminded him of Bullseye's return, even if he already remembered on his own. And it really wasn't too long after I woke up when he arrived at the wide open bay door.

"What's up guys?" he called, causing us to turn our heads and greet him. He boarded the ship, hauling on two full, rather overly-stuffed looking saddle bags, with his small spears and his bow tucked underneath.

He seemed to have really jumped the gun with the concept of joining us on our quest. I mean, not that I didn't want him to or anything—I'm pretty sure ALL of us owed him our asses—but when I conceived what this quest was really about, I felt it as being a rather rude gesture. I heaved an excruciating sigh before finally admitting it to him.

"Look...Bullseye." I paused, and he listened. "I owe you so much gratitude for saving our butts in the library, but don't you think that self-inviting yourself along is... I don't know, a bit-"

"Presumptuous?" he intruded.

"Well yeah, to say the least. But I'd expect you to ask before you rudely expect to join a voyage."

He responded to me in a rather calm demeanor. "I just figured with me saving your lives and such, you could use the extra pair of hooves. Allow me to finish by saying that I've bought enough of my own food for a return trip-" He really was hell bent on this. "-plus my own bedding. I can sleep away from you in the room above your sleeping accommodations."

He did have a good point. If he kept out of our hair, he'd be a nice addition to have.

"That's acceptable, but there are a few guidelines the operators need you to follow. One," I said, sternly holding up my index finger. "You live strictly on your own provisions. Don't mooch off of us, cuz we've only just got enough for the four of us. Two," I added, holding up another finger this time. "If you want to do anything that involves our belongings or the facilities, including the shower, all you have to do is ask. Three, you're still on thin ice for reasons I stated earlier. One step out of line and Luna won't hesitate to toss your ass out the door. After all, there's no official record for you being on this vessel. Jahurl's was only here because he led us to the library. And hey, in no way do I intend to be a dick by saying all of this, they're just rules."

"Understood, Mister Midnight, and thank you for your concern." he nodded in complete comprehension. "Now lead the way!"

I led him to the semi-innards of the ship and showed him where he would be sleeping. I told him he could sleep at the rear of the ship, in what could be described as a corner of sorts. It was the previous room where I showed Jahurl the world map. Where the railing of the stairwell met the wall, there was a bit of it that stuck out about two feet or so. Everyone considered the point past it to be a corner.

Bullseye laid his bags down there and pulled a thick blanket from the bulkier of the two, which he unfurled onto the floor, presumably to sleep on. Then he sat on it, stretching out till he was on his stomach with his legs curled up tight next to him. He closed his eyes and then started periodic, rhythmic breathing.

Is he meditating?

I thought about it for a little while, but quickly shrugged it off and headed below to see how Luna was doing.

"Well, it took us one week to get here, but it's looking like it'll take a little bit longer to get to Evisica."

"Tis true. With no other civilizations on record that we know of, there might not be any more places to stop and restock."

"Yeah... " I agreed, a hint of dismality in my cracked voice. "We got what we've got from here on out."

"You're nervous, aren't you, father?"

"Luna, my dear." I cleared my throat. "I am positively scared shitless."

After we cast off, we made haste to Evisica. The idea we all had at this point was to run the ship as long as we could, but without straining it to the extent of catastrophic failure. We were trying to cut the time taken to get to the of the northern-most floating island in half. Being in the air most of the time, Luna had to be careful about how she raised and lowered the moon. While she could do it from inside the cabin, she would occasionally fly out the door and take the moment to stretch her wings and legs, taking the time to do her nightly duties more freely.

After Bullseye used the shower towards the end of our first day back in the air, I decided to ask him why he meditates.

"It calms the body and mind. The extents that I go to though, would usually overload the normal person with visual, mental, and audible stimuli, but for me, it helps me relax and keep calm about everything during stressful times."

"I bet'cha it makes you a better shot with your spears and arrows too." I couldn't help but give a slight chuckle. "Maybe I should've done that every day before I worked at my last job."

"What did you do for work before you came here?"

"I worked as a breakfast and lunch chef at a cafe for a few days a week, and then I washed dishes at another restaurant across town."

"Dishes?" Bullseye questioned with a cocked eyebrow. "Aren't dishes easy to do? I used to do dishes for my family back at home!"

"And how many plates and pots did you clean at home?"

"Usually about a dozen plates and typically about half a dozen pots and pans alongside all the cooking implements."

"Okay, now try cleaning all that amount within the time span of two minutes, for as long as eight hours a day." His eyes widened. "Not to mention I had to help the other chefs, prep food, and do other things that didn't involve dishes. Honestly, those that do dishes in a kitchen environment are some of the most under-appreciated roles in the industry."

"How... How many people would visit in a day?"

"The most I ever battled with was about... Uh, maybe five-hundred people at once, I think, in the small beach-side cafe I used to work at." If his jaw could drop any lower it would have dislocated. But on a particularly bad day, we only did as much as ten."

"There you go, buddy, now you have a new sense of respect for me!" Of course, I was kidding with that. I wasn't expecting him to be too fond of me at the start.

"Most definitely!" He said.

After my pleasant chat with Bullseye, I took my turn in the shower. Then after that, I decided to surprise everyone by making them dinner. The items were still simple, but it's the thought that counts. And after we finished eating, I asked Bullseye if he wanted to do the cleaning up. He looked at me with a couple of mixed expressions, the combination being something I simply couldn't begin to know how to describe. He gave in after everyone else joined in, giving him expectant, teasing looks, much to my amusement

We moved to the back of the dining area. I gave him a decent sized pot of extremely warm water with a bit of dishwashing detergent in the mix to clean everything with. Forks, knives, plates, the utensils I used to cook.

I didn't watch him clean them; that would be weird, but I swept up the area where we all dined to pass the time. Then when I heard the thump of the heavy bucket hit the floor, I returned to him. Bullseye was done with his duty, and the dishes he washed were damn perfect and so shiny I saw my figure from three feet away, off of a few skillets he hung up on a wall-mounted rack.

I decided to joke around with him once more.

"If it were me doing this, I would have been done three times over in a little more than a minute. How long did it take you?"

"Uhm..." He looked like me when I first began my job.

"A little over five minutes. But don't worry, there's always time for improvement. That's actually not bad, cuz I did use up a lot of bigger things." This is just me, but sometimes I loved being a patronizing bastard. In a strictly friendly, humorous sort of way. "You're not bad!" I told him. He returned his attention with a sincere smile. I pat him on his back. "Keep it up, buddy."

At the very peak of that night, we joined the club with the others and went off to do our own thing. Ratchet headed back up to the bridge, staying up to do her duties with the ship. Sky decided to go to bed early, and I didn't blame the dude. Bullseye went right back to his meditating, hopefully with a better idea of me in mind. The only outcasts were me and Luna, lounging in our bunks.

Nothing much happened between us—I laid on my stomach above the sheets, writing this entry in my journal. I couldn't really tell what Luna was doing, but I could see her astral mane flow over the side of the bed so I knew she was up there, and it was comforting to have that in mind.

...And at some point in my writing, I nodded off to sleep.

I woke early enough to see, when I went up to the bridge, the sun rising out of the port side of the ship. It was the first thing I saw, as it was immediately a little blinding. Then I managed to see the outside door fly open with the use of a familiar blue aura, then Luna flew back inside, closing it behind her.

The fresh morning air must have been so liberating to feel at the rushing velocity it blew against her.

"Morning!" she called out at me.

"Feel good?" I asked her, getting a waft of the crispy fresh air as it blew my way, thanks to the door's closure.

"Very much so!"

The whole day went without incident. Mid morning on day three we were all up in the bridge swapping more stories. It was actually fairly agonizing, considering it was one of the only things we could do, but it was pleasant at the same time.

I was recounting the incident where I introduced Rainbow Dash to hard liquor. Now, the story there was rather recent--

"After I ran out of the whisky I bought with me to Equestria, and seeing how Applejack knew how to make cider, I offered to teach her how to make the harder stuff. We constructed a small still from some copper pipes and hoses laying around or recycled from older equipment."

I don't know why, and maybe it was just my imagination, but Ratchet always seemed more interested in my stories than anyone else.

"Anyway, I went to town to get plenty of yeast and sugar while Applejack provided the sweetest apples I ever, ever tasted. Plus the water. Then later, after we cooked everything, we let it brew for like, two weeks, then we made it into what we called Apple Moonshine." I had to explain what moonshine was, and everyone vocalized their ideas of rednecks making this stuff in their backyard, providing a few rather placid expressions with them. Looks like these guys will never know the comical nature of rednecks. Pity, really... "We invited Rainbow Dash along to taste test some. Applejack and I had a hard time keeping a straight face. I guess we gave her a bit too much. I mean, we did fill a pint-and-a-half mug up with the stuff. She drank it all within the space of twenty minutes. After the liquor settled, AJ and I decided to test the effects on Rainbow. Most notably, her inhibitions and inability to keep her mouth shut. Applejack dragged her brother, Big Macintosh, in the picture to try flirting with her, but she let it slip that she wasn't interested in stallions."

At that point, Luna and I started laughing. The others didn't personally know Rainbow Dash like we did, so we understood why it wasn't as funny to them. But when they thought I was finished, I continued on.

"After that, Big Mac wanted to try some as well, and he ended up getting drunk off his ass too, but he's a bigger guy so it took substantially more to get him drunk, then we left the pair in the barn to sleep the rest of it off. I think I remember her complaining to me about how she woke up with a splitting headache and no memory at all of what happened."

There ya go! That hit up a few giggles. When they subsided, though, SkySurfer pointed a hoof out towards the front of the ship, past the looking glass.

"Looks like we've got another ship coming towards us. I'll take the wheel and move us to the side."

When it got closer to us, it quickly became apparent that it wasn't a friendly ship, nor did it like ours in any sense.

It was a simple wooden construction like a small boat with several big, tatty, balloons on it. As it also curved around to our opposite side, I saw a ballista with a Minotaur seated in it, aiming straight at us. Up the front of this ship stood a ragged looking gryphon, eyeing us down, it looked like.

Luna nudged my side. "Who are they, and why do they have that thing pointed at us?"

I simply whispered back, "I'm guessing..." Well shit. "They're pirates..."
> VI.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Sky," I ordered the captain. "Slow down and stop! If we run away they'll probably end up either shooting us out the sky," if they had guns which I doubt, "Or tearing our balloon and send us plummeting."

I knew, through the look in his eyes, that he wasn't happy taking orders from me but knew it is for the best regardless. He locked the wheel and threw a nearby switch that shut off the rear propeller, bringing us to a drifting stop an agonizing minute later. Throwing an anchor was out of the question. What the hell would it have caught on?

"Luna, take everyone else and go downstairs. Let me and Sky handle this."

"What?" Luna froze, aloof in her confusion. She was sure she could fix this scene on her own. "But I-"

"Please! Just go downstairs!" I snapped. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh in saying that.

"Fine!" She seethed her obedience harshly. "Just promise me you'll be okay."

"I will... But all of you also have to promise me the same thing for yourselves."

"I can fight, Midnight!" said Bullseye.

"Me too!" Ratchet also called out.

"Are you sure? I don't even know exactly what we're up against."

Ratchet puffed her chest up a little. "It's nothing we can't handle. I've dealt with pirates alongside Sky before. We have been working together for about five and a half..."

"Alright, fine. Let's get this over with, guys. Luna," I repeated. "I can't let you get hurt! Get down below."

In a burst of mental frustration, Luna hesitantly obliged to my command, taking shelter downstairs alone. She was alone, but she was not scared in the least bit. As if everything was normal, she climbed onto my own bed and tried to utilize the situation as an inspiration to meditate. The method Bullseye explained to her seemed like a much better way to organize the current frustration she was containing within herself.

Luna loved her father so, after all he did and all the sacrifices he made to raise her, to love her, and even keeping her from turning back into Nightmare Moon for Celestia's sake! But a part of her pulsed with an intense anger, stemmed from how he just treated her like a foal; like she was the child she once was, barley able to wield her own magic.

"Why can you not see, father?" she asked herself. "While I am still your daughter, I am no longer the filly I one was, tormented by all my nightmares..."

Back up top, the gryphon captain at the front of the ship signaled for our door to open. Sky hesitantly pulled a switch Ratchet would normally be in control of, but he was closer to it. Then, as it was slowly opening, we all saw two Diamond Dogs appear from a hatch below deck, one holding a wooden board in his paws. The other one, the bulkier of then, carried up the full length of a rope with a grappling hook at the end he was holding.

"Looks like they wanna board us." Ratchet said, full of confidence. "I hope these guys will actually be willing to negotiate... I'm so sick and tired of running into pirates."

"How many have you run into, exactly?" I asked, perhaps rhetorically, as I tightened my grip on my knives, figuring out which position would be best to hold them. I held the Tanto in the reverse grip in my left hand, while my right held the Kukri. I left the sheath to my Kukri at the side of the room, next to where my bag laid. But the sheath for the Tanto I still wore across my chest.

"You know it. I swear, that's an actual reputation we have." Sky answered my question proudly.

Finally, after having exchanged a few wordless words [from our perspective] with the Gryphon captain, the Dog with the rope tossed the hook inside our ship, through the progressively widening gap that the lowering door provided. It caught on one of the pipes about twenty feet away from it, and it was observed, as a heavy example of cause and effect, that they were pulling their ship close to ours as far as distance would permit. The other Dog laid its board across the gap between our ships, at which point afterward, four more of the bastards stormed from below of their ship and rushed the door to get onto our ship. They were all bipedal, wearing ragged and torn pants and spiked collars around their neck.

Why the hell can't pirates be reasonable people? They have nothing at all, they should know how to appreciate that.

As the total of seven assailants came rushing over the sturdy board, our ship filled with a thick, noxious-tasting air. I found it really hard to breathe at first, but it wasn't enough to keep me from fighting.

Thanks to our tinted window, they couldn't see how prepared we were. And, despite the heavy smoke, I managed to swerve to the farther side of one of the Dogs and buried the Tanto into its chest as he ran past me. He was charging recklessly like a fool. I listened to the satisfying sound of it tearing through his flesh. With plenty of force behind him, he started to flip over it, and I managed to lift him up using the blade, digging inside him even more and throwing him the way he came from a short ways. Not that I could really see where anyone else was anyway, but I hoped I would hit one of the other pirates.

"Ugh! Get off me!" I certainly hoped that wasn't my doing. I heard Sky cry out for help as I heard a quick 'THUMP', followed by his voice. Then, miraculously, Ratchet bumped into me. There wasn't much time to talk.

"Sup, buddy," she backed up to me as we braced ourselves with the emergency around us.

"Hey."

"To your right!" she suddenly told me. Just as I caught partial sight of her, she moved again, yet I still followed her command, keeping an eye out to my right, more than anything else. I started to move with much caution as I peeled my senses.

Far in the same direction, I managed to see of the Dogs wrap its arm around Sky's entire midsection, constricting his movements as the Dog withdrew and held a filthy, rusted looking knife close to his throat. That thing is just loaded with tetanus... 

The smoke was beginning to clear, but I started to feel a choking feeling in my throat. Slight, but enough to be a bother. When I saw him being attacked by a second Dog, I started running toward him. Bullseye was far to my left. A Dog to my right had thrown a larger-sized dagger my way, but that's when the Zebra called out to me;

"Midnight, DUCK!" And so I did, avoiding the flying blade I didn't see. It flew right above my head as I ducked my head down and kept running forward toward Sky. Lesson number one: When someone tells you 'Duck', don't ask 'Where?' just crouch. Very rapidly, I might add.

Bullseye was being approached by a thin, more shaped Dog wielding a hatchet and a makeshift wooden shield of sorts. As the Dog tried to swing at him, Bullseye took advantage of his own light stature and avoided the hasty horizontal slash, leaping up high with a push at the Dog's back, sending him on his ass. Then, as the Dog got back up, Bullseye caught the approaching blade in midair, swinging his body around to curve the sharpest point of the dulled blade across his neck. He fell again for the last time. Continuing his momentum, he swung around again and threw the dagger at his original attacker, the tip of it puncturing the Dog's cheekbone, and the toughness of his skull caused the tip of the blade to break. But that Dog ended up falling too, for the last time.

Ratchet passed by Bullseye, high-hoofing in approval, and then she ran at Sky's stalkers along with me. I prepared myself for a full fledged blood-bath, holding my weapons in both hands. Bullseye followed us too, but right at the very moment he started pursuit, one of the pirates pulled out a stick that had a metal cylinder attached to it. He pulled a cigar from out of his mouth and I could see the target of the cigar's burning ember. The rear of the metal cylinder. I've seen enough TV and movies to deduce this is a primitive type of hand cannon. The sound of the weapon was clue enough, but we didn't intend on dropping everything to find out.

"Fucking freeze! ALL OF YOU!!"

It was the Gryphon. The pirate captain. Ratchet and I saw the two Dogs ahead of us let their paws off Sky, eyeing them hatefully and breathing heavily. The toxins from the gas in the air had been dissipated by all the moving bodies, but it was still enough to make him get on his knees, coughing up a storm. Soon after taking a moment to catch my own breath, I started coughing too, and so did Ratchet. Then, as vulnerable as we were, the captain approached me.

"You," he ordered either of the two Dogs surrounding Sky. "Make sure the girl doesn't try anything that may get herself killed."

Upon command, a Dog moved over to Ratchet, picking her up with with one hand and pitting her against the wall. Sky was in no condition to fight back; As one of the Dogs restrained him and muffled his cries for help, the other had repeatedly punched Sky in his stomach, keeping at it until the Gryphon ordered the ceasefire.

And Bullseye? The shot from the primitive cannon weapon left him completely helpless, groveling all over the floor as blood escaped through his multiple gashes. It looked as though the mixture of what I can assume is poorly made black powder wasn't concentrated enough to be as powerful as it could've been. The schrapnel that was stuffed down its barrel had only caused shallow flesh wounds on Bullseye, but that's cause enough for blood to start trickling down him.

Finally, he walked right up to me, and I couldn't do much other than resent him and ask myself.

"Why us?"

He pressed his taloned foot on my chest, pinning me down to the floor. I didn't say a word as much as I wanted to—I was too busy trying to keep the poisonous cloud out of my lungs. He watched me struggle, and he must have been enjoying my suffering. Then, with one eye blind, he lowered himself to my level, proceeding to sit on my torso, pinning me down with even more weight on top of me.

"So, freak, where is the princess at?" He barked at me with his cracked, yet fluent voice.

By now, the toxins in the air had been completely inhaled by everyone. It had no effect on the Dogs or the Gryphon, it seemed. But even so, I refused to answer his insensitive question. Instead, I stared at him with a burning fever in my eyes. I tried to catch him off guard and unravel my arms from underneath him, but it was of no use as he just gave me a restless smirk that refused to leave his face. He reeled his clawed hand far back and halfway spread open. Then he struck me, his sharp talons making me writhe in pain at the top of my lungs, and doing so caused me to momentarily lose consciousness as the mild amount of toxins from the cloud began working their way through my system.

"Damn you to HELL!" I rasped.

"Don't make me ask again, you dirty ape. Where is the god damned princess?! We know she's on board!"

I spat in his face. I was disgusted though, when it dripped back on me.

"Insolent bastard!" He reared up his other hand, readying a full-frontal strike with his fist. I prematurely flinched and closed my eyes, but the strike never came. I cracked an eye open to see a Dog holding his fist back, blocking the strike with his own paw.

"We were told not to harm any of them, stand down!" he said.

"And why should I? Look at what they've done to our numbers." He didn't sound at all empathetic toward his Dogs. Between Ratchet, Sky, Bullseye and myself, we had taken out three of his crew. But three still remained, in addition to the firearm-weilding captain.

"Do what you always do, just recruit more."

The Gryphon looked as if he had actually gotten off track for even a mere second. "Fine," he said as he loosened his tightly clasped fingers. He started to get back on his feet, and he grabbed me by my shirt and walked me over to the wall. I couldn't try to fight back. "Try anything stupid and you and your friends will die." He told me. "I don't care what anyone says..."

"No need to ask him where she is, commented a Dog as he headed toward the ship's corridors. "Just keep these guys busy till we find her. There isn't any place outside this ship she could've gotten to."

All of us who could protect her were up here on deck, beaten down and unable to stop them. Luna would have to live up to her claim, that she could defend herself and fight. It was our last hope.

The captain picked Ratchet up on our trip to the wall and smashed our faces in it.

"You have no hope, lovebirds."

The three Diamond Dogs went below deck to search for Luna, and it was quite a while until me and Ratchet did in fact hear some sort of hope. It was the sound of a small explosion, and the Dogs were the victims. But I guess it didn't matter because a feminine scream entered our ears afterward.

"Luna!" I helplessly called out her name, and then, fearing the worst...

I stared crying. I feared so many things, but protecting Luna was the only thing I didn't fear. It was the only thing I knew I could do right. "Luuunnaaaa!"

I reached my breaking point easily. I bent my right leg and pressed my foot against the wall, pushing myself back with enough force to make the Gryphon budge and stagger behind me. With Ratchet out of range, I swung around and withdrew the sheath from across my chest. I took my aim low and swung the heavier end up at his chin. At least, that's where I hoped I would end up hitting him. Without a word though, he lifted his left leg up and launched it at my weapon, pushing it down to the floor. The force put a significant strain on my wrist.

"Are you quite done?" He questioned me simply, as if his automatic counter was normal. Then, pretending to suffer an exaggerated pain to my wrist, I quickly swung at him again, but he was even faster to counter my attack once more. This time, he stole the sheath from my weakened grasp and counteracted the original measure I had taken. He smacked the side of my face with the very end of it, and before I even lifted an arm in defense, I suddenly found myself looking up at him from the floor.

"Stop!" Sky called from his distance. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Just tell us what you want, please! Just not the princess!" Ratchet dragged me up to the base of the wall and lifted me up.

I didn't think these pirates would be such a hassle...

Luna's screaming instantly subsided as the three Dogs made their way back up to the bridge with the princess in their combined grasp. One of the Dogs got so irritated with Luna's 'bitching' that he held his paw pressed tight against her mouth.

Luna looked different, as we all saw. She didn't have her flowing astral mane like directly before, but her regular haired mane and tail in its place. My vision turned toward her head, and I spotted a small ring on her horn.

"Luna..."

It was a magic inhibitor. I wondered where the hell could they have gotten one of those.

"Noooo!" I cried her name. It was one of the only things I could have done.

This was all making less and less sense. These pirates would have had to know where we were going and who was on this ship to know exactly what to do and exactly what to bring.

And... The question. "Where is the princess, freak?!"

Why would they be looking for Luna??

"You two," spoke the Dog whose paws were free. He was talking to the other beasts. "Take her to the ship and keep her bound." And so they continued heading back to their own ship.

Luna's especially desperate eyes turned to me with a look of abstract horror in her eyes.

How could I have been so reckless. So careless...

As the Dogs escaped with Luna, the Gryphon captain gave commands to the last remaining, living Dog in the room.

"After you three get the princess settled in the ship, I want you to shoot this... ape with the cannon. All of them, in fact. But keep the girl, though." After that, he picked up the wooden board they brought in and exited.

What the frack?? I thought that was just a ballista that was on the deck, but apparently not. It was a full-fledged cannon! That or they had both, and the cannon was somewhere else on board.

I wasn't exactly keen to go out with a literal bang. But by the looks of it, with all of us beaten to hell like we were, it was going to be tough luck getting out of this.

I struggled to my feet,  trying to make a grab for one of the dog's broken knife on the ground. It was pretty far, but it was worth a shot as I pretended to obey orders to 'get my goofy ass up'. He caught me though, as he turned around.

"Hey!" I froze and dropped it, stopping all movement entirely, minus the enormous thumping going on in my chest. "What in the world do you think you're trying to do?"

I saw the Dogs from out the door. The two that were carrying a struggling Luna hopped down the trapdoor and inside the ship. The third Dog stopped next to the door to talk with the minotaur sitting in the ballista's seat. I saw him motion his arms in a circular direction above him, in a way that most likely indicated the explosion that would send me, Sky, and Bullseye, flying. I caught the look the Minotaur shot at me from across the way.

With a smirk, the Dog headed back down below deck. Their ship then briefly pulled away from ours, raising up high enough so the side of their hull directly sided along the open door to ours.

Bullseye and Sky were forced to cluster up with me. The Gryphon grabbed Ratchet's neck and cuffed us guys up tightly together. He then had us all follow his lead onto their ship.

"Bullseye... Sky..."

"Y-Yeah?" they answered in the same speech.

"I'm sorry. I'm so...so sorry you guys got wrapped up in this. You too, Ratchet." she didn't respond, probably couldn't anyway.

"It's... Not your fault," they said. "It's not over yet, you know."

"I know. Hey, they could slip up at one point or another. And we'd have a chance at something."

"Yes," flaunted the Gryphon, making Ratchet whine through his clawed grip on her. "Say your goodbyes while you still can."

Sky continued while I tried to resist understanding the cruelty of fate. "But what if they separate us? Will you be alright, both of you?"

"Wait a minute." the Gryphon interjected the louder part of our conversation. We were just about to step into their ship when he stopped us. "You three stay here, I've had a bit of a change of heart." That didn't get my hopes up at all.

It didn't get any of our hopes up.

"I want to watch you burn down."


~~~***(Luna's POV)***~~~


So, it was certain that these Dogs wanted to ransom me off for, what anyone would assume, their own financial gain. But to whom they would auction me off to, I could not exactly fathom. Father and his new friends all did what they could for my sake, and I appreciate it. But curse them, they almost killed themselves for me! Father cried my name as I passed his presence earlier, and I wish I could have said something. Done anything...

"Just throw her on the mattress over there."

As crude as all pirates were, the Dogs underneath me had literally thrown me down on a weak, embarrassing excuse for a mattress. It was so terribly filthy, with rust creeping its way across the surface of the metal frame and the torn up box-spring mattress. But, then again, they didn't care about my comfort. The Dogs immediately shut and locked the door they brought me through afterwards. Then they pulled the light switch hanging above them, attached to a ceiling fan that just then started to cycle with its blades

Now that the thought of studying my surroundings approached me, I scanned the room. And though it was nothing more than a plain dead end room meant for who knows what, maybe the ship's magazine, the fact that they slapped an attached metal roof over me brought the peculiar thought that they were going to stick to their word of holding me for a ransom.

Even though the estimated ten other Dogs in the room detested.

"Aawww, why'd you put her in a cage?"

"You said something about we could like, touch her, iight?"

"Look at dat plot, dude!"

It was certainly a good thing I was in a cage. These beasts were incredibly repulsive, from making snarky, nasty comments all the way to discussing how they would torture me or... do something highly undesirable to me.

And it was before the last Dog finished his comment that the burliest one—the one who helped carry me—stuck his paw through the cage and removed the gag, a bandana, from my mouth that he had shoved in there earlier. I tried to crunch down on his arm as he removed it, but he avoided me and flicked my face hard as he spoke.

"Hey guys. Why does it always take one of these to shut a mare up?" He held the item up and threw it to the back of the room. No one responded to him; everyone's eyes were laid on me for reasons I suspected to be more vile than what I originally thought. "Hey, I don't know either. Heh."

"I know another way I can shut her up..." perked a Dog I could not see through the crowd.

"Shut your mouth, all of you!" I gritted my jaw as I tried to intimidate them with a weakened variation of my Royal Canterlot Voice. "What is it exactly that thou wants from us?"

"Us?" the bulky leader responded. "You mean... Those guys weren't also holding you hostage?"

"Of course not, you feeble minded dog. Those are my friends!"

"Even the Human?" another Dog asked. "What's his relationship to you?"

"The human is my father!"

Everyone started laughing in disbelief, and I started writhing with the insatiable urge to magically blast some posterior. Fortunately for them, though, my magic was bound just like my body was.

"Your dad, huh? Tell me then. What became of King Cosmos?" My eyes widened. They should not know that name. One of the Dogs on my left made his way to the front of the crowd. He tugged hard on the end of my tail, dragging me to the farthest end of the cage, and then started to stroke my own posterior with his rough paw. His jagged claws scathed the flesh closest to my uncomfortable stimulated entrance. The unusual, unforgiving pain made me want to break out crying. "Looks like you're still tight as ever, little lady. I can be your daddy, though..."

"I will NOT have you speak to your highness like this!!" I roared. "Now order your godforsaken captain to let us all go! We have committed NO felony!"

Suddenly, a few Dogs on the other end of this dirty cage started pulling on my now-haired mane, and my tied legs with enough force to knock me around every corner. One of them begged; "Come on, Jay! Let'er outta the cage already!" But the supposed leader of their group responded in deniable modesty.

"Okay, I get it. She's hot. She's incredibly freaking hot. But we can't do this to her. It'll affect our pay like nuts!"

"Dudebro, they'll pay so much more if we put her through shit. Like, lotsa shit. The kind of shit that breaks the regular mares."

"But guys," he interjected. "None of you saw the cute ass girl up there. Let's leave Luna alone, alright?"

Just then, at that moment, the door started to creak open, heading back along its loose hinges. But then it suddenly swung back, and the hugely built Minotaur from inside the cannon walked into the room, looking behind him with slight frequency.

"Come. In." he commanded with a shrill of aggression. And then, a quadrupedal figure entered behind him. The dim light was barely enough to identify who it was at first, but that quickly changed.

It was Ratchet. She was blindfolded, the loose knot visible as her head was down, following the Minotaur's voice and nothing else. Her horn had the same ring around it, but there was an addition above it. Was it another Magic inhibitor ring?

"This chick?" chirped one of the identified twelve Dogs as he ripple a glance at her rear end. "Damn, she is hot!"

"Hell yeah!!"

"I swear..."

"Man."

"This is seriously the best day of my life..."

After Ratchet entered the room and was surrounded by a fraction of the Dogs, the Minotaur spoke.

"Don't you guys wanna come up and see the big show?"

"Big show?" I asked aloud. "What is this 'big show' you speaketh of?" Then, responding to me, the Dog known as Jay furnished an answer.

"This guy, right here," The leader of the Dogs patted the Minotaur on his shoulder. "is gonna blow your daddy up, honey. Sorry you or your friend can't watch, but we've got plans for the two of you."

"No!"

"Yep!" said the Minotaur. "See ya!"

"NOOOOO GET BACK HERE, PLEEEASE!"

When the Minotaur actually did leave, though, all of the Dogs' attention fell to Ratchet. She looked and sounded as if she was sobbing, and when one of other bulkier Dogs untied the blindfold with little care, we all saw that she was.

Was this the end?

"Ratchet!!" I called out at her. She quickly raised her head and saw me, helpless in that cage.

"Luna!" She tried to launch herself at the closest pirate, but she was quickly slapped aside and knocked to the floor. Then four of them swarmed her in her even weaker state.

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HER!!"

"DON'T DO THIS TO US!! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!!!" Good Lord, did that expletive come from me? I must've picked it up from Father when he let it slip on occasion.

"STOP!" Jay threw his lackeys aside as he rescued Ratchet from the many paws on her and the bodies around her. He lifted her up and led her through the crowded room, and finally in front of the cage. She looked at me with a hint of soulless desperation in her eyes, and I met her gaze, feeling the same exact way, in all honesty.

"...What happened to us?" That was all that slurred from her bruised lips.

"I don't..."

"Listen... Girls," Jay started,in a softer, quieter voice than before. "I really, really hate the life that I live. I hate being an Air Pirate, and more than anything... I hate having to take orders from my fucking boss."

What the the right Hell was he going on about? What suddenly gave him the sudden courage to speak up?

"Well... You know." I started, calming down significantly. "There are ways to change your life for the better. It's not too late."

Then, Ratchet looked at him. "It's never too late."

"Maybe you're right... "

"What the hell are you doing, man?" called a few Dogs in different variations. At the moment they suspected something, Jay whispered a single word to me and Ratchet.

"Thanks." He made sure no one saw what he did next, as he feigned an act of a certain unwanted advance that no mare should ever be victim to, against me and Ratchet. But what he was really doing was cutting my binds loose with his sharp claws. He freed my cramped legs, and I just continued to stare in awe as he reached for my horn

"Is this how you jerk unicorn girls off?" He spoke louder and faked further as he removed the Magic inhibitors from both Ratchet and myself. Then finally, he reached on the opposite side of the cage and clicked the simple lock open. In this case, he announced the revoking of his orders and the return of his original plan. The plan mentioning how all of these Dogs were going to force themselves onto and Ratchet and I.

We were the only ones who knew of his true intentions, though. We needed a scapegoat of a reason to be surrounded by these monsters. He led me out of the cage and threw me aside Ratchet, where we both were pushed by Jay into the middle of the room, with male stimulated males all around us. Not one of them were remembering one tiny detail, though...

Several seconds passed before the first Dog made his move toward Luna, and that's when Ratchet cast a spell that grappled the ceiling fan with the magical grip she wielded. She swing the poorly kept decor around both herself and Luna in small, circular motion, the metal blades also swinging the opposite direction. Many of the Dogs were disoriented by their filthy hopes.

She cut through most of them;  the insane whirring of the fan's thick blades literally sliced through all the thinner bodies, and also inflicted a significant amount of hurt on the crazily built Dog that the contraption flew into. It threw him back to the wall, making a deep circular crevice in it. And when he fell, the remaining Dogs, regardless of how scathed they had become, charged at us.

"Nice moves!" I complimented her as we prepared ourselves for their split-second assault.

"Thanks!" At that moment, Ratchet threw herself one way, and I threw myself another. One of the remaining six threw himself onto my horn, probably unsuspecting of my sudden movement. As I quickly swiped my body back, also dodging some of the dirty knives that the others tried to thrust at me, I threw the body off of my horn and then stole the knives from two of the Dogs with my magic. Three of the others were occupied with Ratchet, and the last one was sparring with Jay through hand-to-hand combat. I slipped the glance of him busting his opponent's face in with the uncomfortable looking brass bracelet he wore on his paw. And as I continued to avoid the grasps of my own two opponents, Jay's powerful aggression gave me inspiration as to what I could put these monsters through.

But suddenly, as I was preparing my move, I heard Ratchet call for assistance, so I decided to settle for a simpler plan of attack as I dropped the knives.

Since I was close to luring them close to the corner wall, I swung around them as soon as they were close enough and then I picked the knives up again, launching two each into their chests with more than enough force to pin them to the thick walls.

"I hope you BLEED OUT!" I was so furious right now, I didn't even care about speaking properly. I just needed to save my father I needed to save everyone. I knew they were still alive. I felt them, my father's comforting nearby presence, most of all.

"Get of me, NOW! Before I acquaint your facial features with a fundamental item used in the construction of buildings. Repeatedly." I headed over to Ratchet, who was being attacked by all three of her assailants. One of them had her whole body pinned down with his a single arm. Another one was preparing to position himself lengthwise along with her body, and the last one was looking as if he was going to kneel in front of her head and steal the knife he held through her upper body. I quickly came to her rescue when I angrily used my magic, clearly pushing my limits as I picked up the knife that the Dog at her front wielded. I shoved it in his chest and then tossed him toward Jay, who was now ready to pulverize another victim. Then, as I came closer to the one at her back, I switched routes and moved to the side, giving all of my absolute mental might to push the Dog holding her down back onto the other one.

"Luna! Help me, please!!"

And so I did help her. I screamed as my mind peeled at the unusual density of the Dogs' body, but I managed to toss him off of Ratchet's midsection and topple the other one off of my friend.

My friend...

The Dog that tried to have his filthy way with Ratchet was toppled and crushed by the terrible weight of the fattest one in the room. The engineer regained her hooves with haste.

"Oh god, that was close! Luna, you're a lifesaver..."

Jay was now near the corner, staring at the dead bodies that hung on the wall. They had bled out entirely, just as I hoped they would. Then, he came over to us.

"Damn..." he started. "If I hadn't changed, I'd be dead too, huh? Heh." Me and Ratchet couldn't respond immediately, as we were catching our much needed breath. "Hey, your legs weren't like that before, were they?" He continued, and I was suddenly drawn to a relevant difference in Ratchet's appearance out of the corner of my eye, now that it was mentioned.

All four of her legs looked as if they were split into two halves, heading up and down vertically. But what was really going on was-

"They're blades," Ratchet explained as she closed them up with no physical action at all. "Super sharp blades in my legs." No question; that was a bit strange to hear about. But then again, Ratchet was essentially half machine, physically speaking.

"I assume you didn't have the chance to use them." I assumed.

"Yeah. I'd have been fine if they didn't jump me."

"Now we've only got the captain to worry about," said Jay. He had fully caught his breath at that point.

"Shit! They're still up there, aren't they? I didn't hear cannon go boom or anything."

Ratchet pleaded to me that we all head up to the bridge and 'murder the crap out of everyone'. But I explained I already had plans to that regard.

"I'm trying..." It was a vague message, but with how much I was struggling with a new use for my magic, it just might have been message enough. And it just might have saved their lives.

My father and our friends...

"Ready to fire on your command, sir!" The Minotaur seated behind the cannon announced the completed preparations for our execution. Me, Sky and Bullseye all stood in our own ship, tightly bound together and without hope. The harsh evening sun preyed on us as we tried to look below the clouds, hoping that some freak miracle would save us.

"Are ya guys ready?" the captain teased. "Why don't you just kiss each other goodbye or something? It'll give you plenty of time to get me off!" His maniacal cackles actually echoed throughout the air, and haunted us as we faced the inevitable.



~~~***(End Luna's POV)***~~~




"I'm sorry for what I said," I said to Bullseye. "You know, about the dishes."

"Aw dude, don't worry about it. I'll have plenty of time to improve to your level."

"I know you will..." I lied through my teeth. I knew nothing was going to be alright.

"Always look up," said Sky, literally doing as he said. He closed his eyes. "Always have faith. Always believe..."

What were these guys talking about? Were they going crazy?

This was the end! There was no faith to be had! There was nothing to believe in. Nothing was going to save us.

So much for my title as a father...

As soon as I had given everything up, just waiting to die, a searing sensation suddenly tore at the back of my consciousness. My entire mind just went blank, completely blank and overwhelmed with a certain nothingness.

"Midnight??" On the outside, Sky was insanely concerned with my condition. I was just standing there with them with my head limp and staring at the floor

"Midnight wake up!" Bullseye cried.

Then...

"Father." I don't know if I was already dead and merely having my life flash before me, or whatever, but... I saw Luna.

"Father," her figure spoke once more, and I heard her as clear as a whistle. "I am down here inside the pirates' ship. Ratchet is in good shape down here, as well as a pirate who has decided to turn himself around and aid us. But don't worry, he isn't hostile anymore."

"Luna. Hold your humans." I was totally lost as I found myself speaking too. How the heck was she talking to me? "What the heck is going on?"

"What's he doing? Who's he talking to?" Bullseye was freaking out, just a little.

"The princess, apparently." Yet SkySurfer was calm cool and collected.

"Should we do something to wake him up?

"Nah..." Perhaps he was way too composed, actually. His sigh sounded exhausted and defeated. Then he gazed up into the sky as he took his next, and possibly final breath. "Don't. Let him die in peace..." Finally, he reached his right foreleg over to me, holding onto my dangling arm. Bullseye did the same, reaching and hugging with his left, and he closed his eyes just as SkySurfer did.

The cannon fired four seconds after the sentiment.

"I am speaking to you through your deceased state." Luna told me.

"So... I am dead? The pirates made off with you two?"

"No, we'll get out of here. And as for your current stature...physically, you still live and breath, and are merely under my influence. But mentally, you've thrown all of your hope away, and thus, allowing me to see what you're seeing."

"But Luna, I can't see anything at all except you. What are you really talking about?"

"Your desperation and lack of faith has left you unable to see my own sights. I am practically blind at the moment as I am lending you my Alicorn magic, which you should feel coarse through your veins. I am doing my best to help you understand the most important lesson in all of existence. "

"Really?" I replied simply

"Open your eyes, Father. That's all you must do."

I didn't know exactly how I managed to comply my body with her suggestion. But I did. I opened my eyes.

"Midnight!" Sky and Bullseye were both relieved and frightened. "Are you... The one doing this??"

With my head staring down, I opened my eyes, somewhat inspired by Luna's hopeful insight. One of the first things I saw was my wrist, guiding my whole hand up with my fingers spread as wide as they could be. My hand wasn't shaking at all, but... I wasn't even lifting it up at all. Luna must have been in control of my body, as crazy of a thought that was. But I believed it.

But then, suddenly, the mindless sensation had become evanescent as I seemed to feel the ripping of my own reality tear back into me.

"Luna..." I muttered as I decided to look up, following the conventional wisdom.

The cannon had indeed fired, but the gigantic iron ball just levitated there in front of the three of us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bullseye leaning his head back, calling out to Sky. But I couldn't hear anything he was saying, and his expressions and lips moved slowly.

What the hell was really going on?

Focusing back on the ball in front of us, I tried moving my hand around—just as a thought—to try and control the absurd mass. But sure enough, my slight doubt proved wrong, as I really was in control of it! As it continued to spin in the air, I closed my fingers to see if I could stop the movements. And I was able to do that too! I looked down to my right shoulder to see the intense glow of Luna's moon. Well, more specifically the gem.

I was using Magic! Holy hell! I started to laugh happily in pure and utter excitement.

"Alright, enough messing around."

I looked ahead, past the cannonball. I saw the slowed, futile attempts of the pirates to load another hunk of ammunition into the weapon.

But I was in control now. That wasn't going to happen.

I curved my hand so it pointed upward at a diagonal angle, picking the cannonball up so I could get a perfect view for where to launch it. But I needed no exact aim. This was sure as hell going to end them.

I swung my hand forward, throwing the cannonball back at the cannon, and it wasn't long before impact, because the explosion that followed had completely filled the sky, with my view as narrow as it was. Time's flow also seemed to return to normal then, as Bullseye and Sky screamed aloud.

"How in the world did you do that?!"

When I thought all hope was lost before, I would have never ever expected this sort of miracle, or any at all.

The massive explosion of blue fire massacred the ship into innumerable pieces, the sky now adorned with azure ribbons that would torch anything they touched.

It took a moment for the blissful state to wear off before I realized something important... "No, LUNA!!" With the three of us bound, we all moved our legs in unison as the immediate threat of their attack-gone-wrong put their Luna's and Ratchet's life in potential peril. We leaned against the wall that held the bulky ligaments that held the ship's door down and open

"Do you see anything??!" Sky asked me and Bullseye with much haste. And I didn't blame him."

"Not yet..." I heaved.

"I think I do see them!" Bullseye called out.

"Where?" We shouted out at the sky, scouring the scene for anything that moved, and it was hard because there was just so many things. But finally, after studying the scene enough, we saw something moving upward instead of plummeting downward.

"Looks like her!" I shouted excitedly.

"Ratchet better be with her... I'm not losing her." Sky continued to wear an improving smile on his face, but still remained doubtful of his own treasure, possibly lost. As Luna flew up closer to us, we saw her struggling to keep her flight track.

The Pirate captain had his right hand's talons dug deep in Luna's right hind leg, and we saw him start to climb up her body using his other arm. Ratchet lay hugged on Luna's back, kicking at the Gryphon's face. She kept on yelling;

"Get the hell off!" His pursuit was one to certainly be noted, though. He ignored her assaults and reached up for Luna's tail, the intense tugging now fully weighted on it. Luna's wings couldn't hold her up anymore with all this resistance, and she began to descend. But it was only for a short while, because Ratchet spread her right leg to the side and then swung it back behind her, cutting her bladed leg deep in the Gryphon's cheekbone, but not deep enough to hold him there, No, he fell, for the final time. The impact had killed him instantly.

As he descended, a major lift was given to Luna's continued ascent. And soon enough, the princess flew in the door with Ratchet.

"Luna!"

"I knew you guys would be alright!"

"I'm so glad you two are alright!"

"Yeah, you guys look great, too!"

Ratchet gave a witty smirk as she hopped off of Luna's back and freed us of our old bonds. She simply just ran her bladed foreleg through them with only a hint of force. Then, I hugged Ratchet, thanking her to no end. I rushed over to Luna's afterward as Sky met back up with his lifelong partner.

"Are you alright?" I kept on asking Luna in different variations. She was busy catching her breath at the moment. "What happened? How did you get free?"

She struggled to fully get back on her hooves, sputtering a couple of coughs as she nodded at me in approval.

"I... am fine for the moment, but next time this happens, don't you dare send me into hiding. This only proves to you that I can surpass your expectations when it comes to combat."

"I know, I know... And I'm so sorry!" I buried my face atop her back and felt a few tears come forth again. "I'm just so glad you're safe."

"So how've you been while I was gone?" Ratchet joked. But SkySurfer ignored the majority of the humor—sharing no smile as he hugged her tight.

"Ratchet..." he started. "I was so worried about you. As wimpy as that sounds... I'm not gonna lie.  I was scared."

"Awwww, you big baby." Ratchet hugged him back. She was scared for him too, but she chose not to admit it. Those two were inseparable. Ratchet was like a tough little sister for Sky, and Sky was a sensitive big brother to Ratchet. It broke my heart to see the incredible love they shared for each other.

I called aloud, for every one to hear.

"Hey, let's get a head count here." I noted everyone in the ship, pointing to each individual as I affirmed their name. " Okay, we've got Bullseye, Sky, Ratchet, Luna, and myself. Good, that's everyone. I know that was pretty pointless, but I felt it was needed. Who's hurt?"

"Aside from a sore throat, I'll be fine." commented Sky.

"Hey, I'm pretty good for the most part," said Ratchet, her arm still over Sky's back. "The most I'm really worried about now is the damage done to our ship."

"Luna," I started again, "Didn't you say something about how one of the pirates helped you escape? Where is he?" Luna put on a somberly portrayed face.

"He jumped off of the ship before it exploded. He did help me and Ratchet out of a very tight situation as I mentioned, and it really saddened me how such an insightful creature had to go out like that."

"Wait, so he just jumped?" we all asked, almost one after the other.

"Yes... I wish him the best, for he had resolved to turn his life around."

"Me too." Ratchet almost shed a pair of tears. And we all agreed.

"Yeah..."

"Now that I have the opportunity... I think I'm gonna go... Lay down." He started to turn away and head down the corridor at the back. But that's when I stopped him.

"Bullseye... Can I do anything at all to help you?"

"You're in a horrendous shape! What happened to you?"

"I..."

"The Gryphon dude shot him." I finished.

Sky then solemnly intervened. "I'll get back to flying the ship so we can get moving again. Don't want to hang around and have anyone in the area asking exactly why a whole ship was falling down in flames."

"I'll take care of that," said Ratchet. "The way Bullseye's looking right now, you'd probably need to help Luna and Midnight take him down and patch him up. Besides, if anything really is broken, I'll fix it. It'll speed up our way outta here."

"I've seen all the pain he was in... Alright, I'll do that. But be safe."

"I will," she sympathized. "I promise."

So Sky came our way, with me and Luna already helping Bullseye keep his confident hooves weighed on the floor. When he came over to us, he helped me support the Okapi's right side.

The poor guy...

"Thank you... So very much." he murmured. As the adrenaline from the earlier events subsided, it allowed all his pain and suffering to come back and haunt his built body.

"We're here to help you," said Luna. " If anything, we need to thank you."

"He was a real badass back there," Sky explained to her. I concurred.

"Yeah, you were. We'd probably be in way worse shape than we are now without you."

I felt Bullseye's heart thump through every part of him, and he started to excrete blood from his wounds again, dipping a weak trail of blood down the route we took down to our beds. He mentioned that he needed nothing from his own possessions as we carefully made it down the staircase.

"OH MY GOOOOD!"

"I'm sorry..."

"OoouAAH! FUCK!"

"We are sorry, Bullseye..."

We laid Bullseye down on my bunk bed. Laying on a few thick layers of medicine-drenched bandages that wrapped around his entire waist and midsection. The treatment seemed to be powerful at first, but then it came to wrap it around his body. He didn't scream out bloody murder, and he instead gritted his teeth, taking in many breaths and heaving those powerful breaths out as Luna took a few strands from the bandages and stretched the over his legs, covering some of his other, more critical wounds, such as the ones closest to his neck.

"Hey... Bullseye." I repeated his name for the third time straight, earning no response back. We all sat in chairs, close to him, monitoring his behavior. He was breathing, but he said nothing for a while. Until finally-

"Thank you... So much for helping me." He muttered through his lips.

"No, you're the one who needs to be thanked." I reached my hand behind his head, gently scratching my fingers at the skin underneath his mane.

"You're so brave," Sky told him. Bullseye smiled sweetly at us, telling us his wished he could get up and hug us both.

This guy was only a kid. He had his whole life ahead of him. He might not have known what he was exactly getting into by coming with us on our adventure, and his eagerness to join may have gotten me a little uptight, but now... I know what he was after.

He wanted to explore the world. He wanted a family he could call his own, he even told me. As we were washing dishes just last night, how his whole family left him not too long ago. He told me how they had no remorse at all. He told me how he was abused as a child. In a sense, he got the short end of every stick he caught.

But then, as a thought out way to die in peace, he left his secluded home near Neighagra Falls. He came across another Zebra named Zecora in the evergreen forest, just as he was about to fall asleep for the last time.

She saved his life back then, and  I remain forever grateful to her.

I heard something behind me, and I looked back to see Luna, staring at us and crying her eyes out.

"Father..." She got up from her seat and sat right back down on my lap, wrapping her hooves around me. Her tears went away after she saw Sky and Bullseye giving us both a great smile.

"Luna." Bullseye starting perking up with his voice. "You're lucky to have him as a father..." Luna lifted her head from my shoulder and stared at him with admiration.

"Oh Bullseye..."

"Hey, dude." I spoke softly to him. "I don't mind calling you a part of this group now. Not one bit."

"Really, Midnight?"

"Me neither!" Sky said, assuring Bullseye's dream.

Silly question. "But why...? What did I do?"

"You do enough just by being there with us." He knew exactly why he was loved, but he just wanted to hear it from one of us. Me, Luna or Sky.

"Oh hey, Midnight." Bullseye spoke to me once more, after the incredible bonding experience we all shared. "How did you save us earlier?"

"Huh?" I couldn't recall what he was talking about.  Unless... What happened before wasn't a dream or a mirage at all.

"Oh yeah! I was meaning to ask you that too!" Sky added.

But then, Luna spoke for me, and I closed my mouth and listened to her.

"In the simplest of terms, I used my father's desperate state of consciousness to send him into a dream-like state, more akin to a near death experience, and then I gave him a few words of encouragement—ancient Lunar words that allowed me to take control of his body and lend him some of my magic. And the way he was able to apply physical manifestation of that magic was through the gems he had me instill inside him."

Sky was more thrilled by the explanation than Bullseye seemed to be. The okapi had a more concerning looks on his face, perhaps questioning how I survived that process.

"Yeah Luna, I get it," I joked. "I can't use magic on my own just yet." In all honesty, it really was disappointing that, given the occasion, I was merely a vessel for Luna to use.

"You can't use it, yet, and only when my presence is close will you harness an incredibly powerful magic, just like me."

"But you're also saying... he can learn it over time, like, if he practices with it?"

I lifted the right sleeve of my shirt and showed Sky and Bullseye the image of Luna's white moon Cutie Mark on my shoulder. It wasn't glowing anymore, but when I tried to magically grab the single pillow off of my own bunk, it radiated an ambient turquoise shade as I lifted the pillow,  setting the top of it on my shoulder so Luna could lay her head on it.

"Man..." Sky seemed especially impressed, as Bullseye could not exert himself as strongly as our pilot could. Nevertheless, they spoke at the same time, completing each others' comments. "That's so cool!! Congrats!"

I blushed a tiny bit as Luna proudly looked at me and began to nuzzle my left cheek.

"May I see the other one?"

I pulled back my other sleeve and showed him the glowing, crafted sun that resided under my other shoulder. His eyes widened in surprise. "And...did you use the gems you got from the Beholder to make these?"

I nodded at him. "Kinda hurt like hell, though. Or, it would have, had Luna not anesthetized my shoulder." His expression then evolved into what could have been described as 'obsessive'.

"Holy crap, man. That's time!"

"Time?" I asked, he explained, and we all listened.

"Legend has it, but we know it for a fact now, that the Beholder wielded magic in his eyes, what we now know to be the gems. He had different kinds of magic, he could control earth, air, fire, and water. He also had a kind of parasitic magic that would drain the life from others, and that power was formed using both the time stopping gem and levitation gem, which of both you now possess. No one really knows what they all are. He had dozens of them."

"Are you saying...that I can stop time?"

"More like you can pause it. The magic in the gem pauses time inside a bubble that surrounds you. and You can move around in it while everything passes by super slowly."

"That was probably happening back up there too," Sky surmised, and he was correct.

"Yeah, it was, but he would need to be using a heavy degree of magic to be able to slow down time. The sun-shaped gem in his shoulder is the one that controls that power, but he can only channel magic through the moon gem, cuz the other one can only have its power harnessed through magical prowess."

"I wonder if there was a gem back down there that could let me go back in time or something. Or even accelerate it!"

"That is a rather nice proposition, and now that we're on the subject, I have something I would like to ask you, father." My eyes turned to Luna with a questioning gaze. I had a feeling I knew where she was going, despite her hugging me tighter. "Why did you order me downstairs when my magic could have helped you from the beginning?"

She was right, why couldn't I have seen it? I threw my head over Luna's shoulder, letting out a deep breath while I tried to make my explanation sound more reasonable than anything.

"I... I guess I was trying to protect you. I figured that they could have been deadlier than I thought. I'm sorry." I sat up further and wrapped my arms around Luna, repeatedly nuzzling her chest with my cheek.

"But yeah, seeing as how they made it out with you... I guess that wasn't the best decision." explained Sky.

"Oh yeah, totally," I replied.

"Listen... I'm just happy I'm still able to feel your heart beating, much like I am right now." Really, my heart was thumping out of my chest, even still. "I forgive you with ease, dad."

"I should have had more faith in you. I just didn't want you to get hurt. Next time you almost get mare-napped by pirates, we'll both fight, okay?"

She giggled sweetly. "Sure thing!"

Even during the late, dusk-ailed evening, tensions still ran high with all of us. We were still very on edge about the pirate incident, but the best thing we could do was just try to forget about it and carry on with the journey at hand. And I know, easier said than done, but there was definitely no harm in trying

With the last of the fresh food we picked up in a few of the market stalls in Alexmanedria, I cooked up a vegetarian curry, despite how tired I was feeling. I just wanted the day to be over. It wasn't what it could've been by any stretch if I had access to a wider variety of ingredients, but it did good nevertheless, as it helped alleviate the stress of the earlier events. Upon my own insistence, I took the duties of cleaning up once again.

Besides, this was the easy part. We all decided to save the battles' cleanup for another day.

As the evening wound down even further, we all went and did our respective activities alone. Ratchet and Sky were just finishing the repairs toward any internal parts of operation that sustained damage. Luna had also just finished raising the moon for the night, too. Bullseye laid in the bed behind me, in a deep sleep as indicated by how his pillow was locked in his gentle embrace. And I just sit against the wall, writing today's events in my journal as I listened to the okapi's quiet mumbles.

The journey was still going to be a long one, and keeping a log of it was, so far, helping me maintain some bit of my sanity, so I don't end up going completely crazy. Although I did kinda wish I bought along something to read.

Oh my god. The book I got from the library! Holy crap!

I honestly had no freaking clue as to how it slipped my mind so easily, considering how we all went through so much trouble to get it. At first, I thought I would find it in one if my bags, at the very furthest reaches under my bed.

"I really need to tidy up under here..." But I didn't even have to think twice as I felt a weighty rectangular object inside the bag. I wiggled it out of the pouch and brought it out with a two-handed grasp, looking the book over before I sat it down on the bedsheets. When I opened it to where we last looked inside, assuming my memory wasn't failing me, the illustration of a giant crystal in the middle of a room got me right back into it. I read forward from a random sentence that accompanied the image. But then I remembered how the language was foreign to me...

"Well damn... I can't read this", I admitted out loud, to no one in-particular. However, I just elected to look at the illustrations, surmising my own take on the events that were transpiring on the pages I was suddenly flipping. I thought about asking Luna to translate for me, but she still struggled to read that of what she was able to decipher.

Some of the pictures were right in the middle of the paragraphs. Strange symbols and depiction of bipedal creatures and other illustrations took up roughly half the page.

From the looks of some of the pictures, this book seemed to hold the story of some sort of ancient civilization that worshiped the crystal that was becoming more and more redundant with each image. I think I may have said that already, but... why?

What was so important about it?

I gave up trying to make up any more stories about it and decided to sleep on it instead. I slipped the book back in one of my bags that was easier to reach and stuffed the rest of my loose clothes in along with it, telling myself I would organize everything tomorrow.

It would give me something to do during the day.
> VII.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	If memory served me correctly, we were a little over two-thirds on our way to our next destination. The floating region of Evisica. But...recently, things have quite honestly been a little too placid to be comfortable, lately.

The closer we got to Evisica and the Breach, Luna kept telling us how she felt the raw power of the Ley getting stronger and stronger. It was an almost intoxicating sensation coarsing through her. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her interesting choice of words, but, what can I say. I felt the same way about smoking marijuana back on Earth when I could get my hands on it.

I had tidied up my bags and cleaned everything under the bed the day after I told myself I would, and that took all of two hours for my own belongings.

All of us who weren't managing the course of the ship took it upon ourselves to clean up the mess that was left over from three days ago, when we had that big pirate scare. Yeah, we were only cleaning up the bridge, but the blood that was spilled on those metallic floors was enough to make us all have to combine out efforts to clean up as much as we could, as quickly as we could, so it wouldn't rust. I remember seeing where that god damn Gryphon threw his talons over my face. Those cuts were deep, and so were the bloodstains, but thanks to some healing magic from Luna they healed right up.

Aside from that, though, I had to keep myself occupied so cabin fever wouldn't set in again, but there was only so much I could do. My blades were sharpened and oiled the very morning after the battle, and my bags and all my possessions were organized. The kitchen, and only very loosely could you call it's setup a kitchen, was spotless, as was pretty much everything else for the most part. And over the time I worked at cafes back on Earth, the habit of keeping everything clean and organized grew hard on me.

Okay, so... Back to thinking of stuff to do. Unless I wanted to go polish over every single surface again, I was pretty much stuck. I didn't know what to do, like, at all. Luna often took me out on her back to fly around within close distance to clear my head as well as get a breath of fresh, free air for the both of us. But aside from that, she kept her activities personal, to herself, as did Sky and Ratchet. They had plenty of things to do already, with keeping the ship up and running. I don't think they had to worry about staving off boredom.

"God damn, man."

It's on my one of many meanderings around the ship that I found Bullseye sitting or laying down with legs at his side doing his meditating. Seriously, how would you even describe a pony sitting down?

He had really recovered quickly, not to my surprise at all. I'm sure that taking your state of mind to an altered state has benefits that majorly outweigh the injuries he suffered. His thin gray coat covered most of the many wounds that afflicted his body. But the biggest bullet hole, the one nearest to his neck, still required him to wear a thin brace that would cover the wound, most likely for the rest of the trip, until we would be able to walk on land again.

But other than that, he remained his normal self, gladly warming up to us all. It made me happy to think about how important he must have felt. Both curiosity and boredom got the better of me in this instance. And, it wasn't that I minded at all, but I decided to join him

He opened his eyes suddenly. I worried that I drove him out of his peaceful, tranquil state.

"Oh, I didn't mess you up, did I?"

"Nah," he smiled and looked up at me. "You're good."

"May I join you?" I next asked, taking a seat close to him.

"Of course!" he beamed brighter. "I was wondering when you would take interest."

My ear caught an emphasis on just one of those words. Jeez, I felt like such a douche right then, sounding as if I never had any interest at all.

"I've always been interested in what you do here. Hehe." Just as long as he didn't take me as a liar, I was good.

Bullseye just chuckled to himself, then he repositioned his back up straight again and crossed his legs again, tighter this time. "Close your eyes," he told me." Empty your mind of all things, keep a still posture and take deep breaths every three seconds. Holding, then exhaling for the same amount of time. Relax, let your mind slip away. After a while of setting yourself in this scene, you'll notice that things won't begin to feel real to you anymore, you enter your own mind palace where you can do anything and everything you wish." He shared all of those details with his eyes closed, without moving a muscle.

Well shoot, this was almost too familiar to how Luna described taking magic into my blood. Probably just as complicated, too.

Regardless, I followed his advice, leaning up against the wall. I closed my eyes, I relaxed, and I let my mind slip away. It was really very easy, not to my expectations. I began by taking in the rhythmic breathing patterns, and I noticed how things just...started to slow down. My heart rate had dropped, my muscles began to relax, and everything just became so tranquil. Everything temporarily became so meaningless.

I don't know how long it was after I started, but I could feel myself become weightless, in a sense. Like, I knew I was sitting on the floor hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air, but that fact downgraded to theory when my questioning vanished. By comparison, though, it was almost like flying through the air with nothing in your way. No air currents, clouds, and no creepy crawlies getting into your mouth. Just pure, uninhibited flying through some internal sky in your mind.

Perhaps searching for something new.

I tried picturing various things against the inky black canvas of the realm that my subconscious had transcended to.

The first thing that came to mind, in all sense of the phrase, was Luna. The image that followed was of when she was just a filly, right before I found her in that shed during that horrendous storm. Her image looked like she was laying on something, without anything actually beneath her. That tiny little filly, scared out of her mind by the thunder and lightning going on outside. I continued to see only her figure, now curled up into a ball and shaking from the fear. She had no idea where she was, and she had no idea what was going on outside of that weak structure. It broke my heart to see her like that, but it made me happy at the same time.

That was where I found her, and it was also when my life changed forever...

Eventually, the scene floated past me and disappeared into a pinprick.

The next thought I conceived was of Luna, several months down the track when we moved to my grandparent's farm. I pictured her sleeping in the little bed I bought her, complete with blanket and the miniature Sonic Screwdriver I gave her for Christmas the year before. She looked so adorable like that, just as she always will be. Her mane falling around her head, framing those great big puppy-dog eyes of hers.

The next image that came floating my way was of Luna again, but she was all grown up this time in her regal beauty. Her flowing astral mane fell to the right side of her face, with a lock of it coming over the other, and her royal appearance was complete with her tiara and the trademark moon necklace she wore. This time, she didn't float across my sight, passing it. Instead, the imaginary construct walked up to me and took a seat, staring at me. I blinked a few times in surprise.

How is this even possible?

She giggled at my uncertainty. And the she spoke.

"You having fun there?"I could only stare in disbelief.

"This isn't just a meditative state," she added. "It's more of a manufactured dream. You can do whatever you want in here because you're the one making it."

With that, her tiara exploded in a shower of party ribbons and confetti, and in its place sat a party hat. She magically tossed it away with a cute smile as she rolled her eyes in my general direction. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Come, you've been out of it for longer than you might think." She leaned her head down to me and touched her glowing horn to my forehead, and I felt a rush of...I had no idea. And before I felt anything at all, I was pulled back to reality.

I opened my eyes suddenly, drawing in a sharp breath. Luna sat in front of me, but bullseye wasn't on his blanket where she sat."How long was I..."

"A little over a day, give or take."

My eyes really widened just then."A whole day...? Holy... What's the time?"

"It was about an hour to noon when you sat down with Bullseye, so... seven-thirty in the evening the day after."

I gasped, more in a confused awe than anything."I was asleep for twenty-eight hours!?"

"I... thought it as an idea to leave you be. You do get bored pretty easily during the day, and the meditation helped while away the time."I was sure hit with that realization. By now we are only a day and a half away from our destination. By the time you sleep during this night and make preparations the following day, we'll arrive the day after."

"What about dinner?"

She levitated a bowl of chunky, steaming soup over to me. "Bullseye tried his hand at cooking for us after watching you mess around for a while."

I got up on my feet. "Where is he now?"

"He's outside. Or at least I think he still is. Either that or he's asleep down below. He's taken quite a liking to that bed."

I took the bowl from her aura, sitting down at the table and taking in a mouthful with a spoon. I was very surprised, as mean as that may have sounded.

"Oh man. This is so good." I took spoonful after spoonful in my mouth until the heat actually got to me. I didn't know he could cook, either! "What's in it?"

Another voice came from below, speaking as it made its way up the stairs. "Pasta, lentils, and vegetables, in a pureed tomato soup with some herbs." Bullseye was the owner. He came into view, coming up the steps and wearing a rather smug grin.

"It's almost like a minestrone."

"What's that?"  he asked.

"It's the name of a type of soup back on Earth. What do you call it?"

"Vegetable and pasta soup?" The tone of his voice told me that the name of it sounded rather peculiar. He gave me a laugh nonetheless.

I finished eating, thanking him on multiple occasions before I actually finished. Then I took the porcelain bowl down to the kitchen's back room, washing it and putting it away.

The remainder of the evening consisted of chatting with Luna and Bullseye, as well as noting my past experiences, and everything else up to this point, in this journal. Though, that part didn't exactly take too long.

And neither did the conversation.

"Bullseye?" Luna heard no audible response.

"You still awake?" I asked him. I didn't hear anything immediate either, but I gave it some time before I heard him whisper into his fluffy pillow.

"You're the best, Midnight," he muttered in his half-asleep stupor as we heard his head fall hard onto his pillow with a feathery thunk. I blushed beneath my hand, shielding the red on my face. It was a bit of habit to do that, regardless of whether it was necessary or not.

But Luna saw through my obstruction as she looked back down at me. "He really likes you." she said.

"Yeah..." I replied to her as I fully lied on my bed, my feet at the foot of it. I was crying, just a little bit. "He really is like the little brother that once was."

"I'm glad you feel that way."

"But you'll always be my little Luna. Never forget that."

She blew her mane out of her eyes. "I'm not worried about that, Father."

"In fact, we've already become good friends with everyone on this ship. I think..." I paused for a few seconds, trying to find the right words to use.

"You think that... What?"

"Oh, nothing. It wasn't important." With that, Luna tried to respond, but her mouth hung open for a second. Then she explained how she couldn't stay up any longer. Then she took her head back to her bed and curled up to go to sleep.

I might be overreacting, but... Did I say something wrong?

It was easy enough, as all my belongings were merely under my bed. Nevertheless, I felt a compulsion to pull them out and atop my bed. I was mostly interested in the bag that was more like a small briefcase, with concentric, smaller pouches on the front.. I released the simple locks at its top and opened it, laying it down, with the my awesome knives sitting at the base. They pretty much took up the whole bottom space, accompanied with a whetstone laying horizontally alongside the blades. It was older fashioned, but sometimes, there are things that are better off unchanged, like a way to sharpen knives.

At the top, spare batteries for all three of my flashlights hung underneath plastic clamps, along with a few books of matches, lighters in waterproof containers, too. Intact and restocked medical supplies took up p the top left corner, directly above a few dry matches, all the straps and belts attachable to other pieces of equipment. And on the right hung rope, a can of adhesive spray, and three rolls of duct tape. There would

Indeed still be some times where none of this stuff would be of use, I knew that much, but, for the most part, I thought I was fairly prepared.

Another bag I pulled up was only purposed to hold a few miscellaneous items. It was a simple, over-the-shoulder canvas bag that I bought from an army surplus store on Earth for less than twenty dollars. It was old and stained, and the buckle was rusted enough that, when Rarity first laid eyes on it, she instantly turned her nose up at the sight. She kept complaining how 'ghastly' it looked. I tried to explain to her why I bought it, but I just couldn't stand her nitpicking over every single detail, especially how it didn't go fit with any outfit I wore every time I saw her. I think I hated her.

"But it's old and dirty!" she whined.

"Yes it is. But do you know why I got it?"

"Why in Equestria would you buy such a horrid thing!?"

"Think about it. Yes it's dirty looking, yes the buckle is rusted and the leather used to hold the flap closed is cracked. Most importantly it's old."

"How is that a good thing?"

Honestly, sometimes you have to spell things out black and white. "It works!"

"Not with that outfit it doesn't!"

Oh. My. God. "My point is this. It stood the test of time! If you have something for who-knows-how-long and it still functions correctly, what reason is there to throw it away? It still functions perfectly well." I hadn't really had it for THAT long, but the point remains nonetheless. Rarity said she stood corrected on how horrible it looked, but I honestly didn't care.

We'd need to bring other food with us while exploring the island, So I emptied the pocket in my bag that had the ropes, unused roll of duct tape (much to my surprise after all this time) equipment straps, zipties—essentially things that tie other things together­—and put those in the satchel, putting high-energy foods in, rice, and some freeze dried vegetables. That also means I won't need to go digging for rope if and when I'd need it.

Up until now I had used a little ceramic rod to keep my knives sharp, but since we're going bush-whacking It's important to keep knives razor sharp and not just touched up with a small tool. I got the fine-grit whetstone I used on the kitchen knife, and used it to sharpen the tanto and mora. The kukri and bushcraft knife have huge forward bellies, so I could only sharpen about two-thirds of it before turning back to using the ceramic rod on the recurved portion. Satisfied with the hair-shaving edges, I strop and clean off any excess material, sheathing the knives and putting everything back under the bed for the time being.

That managed to kill a few hours. I signed and fell back onto my bed trying to figure out what to do for the next 24 hours. Nothing, really. Everything is pretty much sorted on my end, Luna needs to sort her things, and so does Bullseye. It suddenly occurred to my that I didn't see Luna bring anything with her on the trip. Although why it took me this long to figure that out is beyond me.

"Hey, Luna, did you bring anything with you, like, provision wise?"

"Oh yeah, I have some things in my pocket."

"...What?"

Ponies don't have pockets unless they wear clothes. And she never wore clothes. She was always...naked. I wasn't sure how to respond to her.

"But... you don't... have pockets?"

"Singular, not plural."

"That's besides the point. How do you even have one pocket? What do you even mean?"

She stuck her head over the side of her bed to look at me. "Do you ever wander how I managed to pull things out of thin air?"

"Magic?"

"Yes and no. You're from another universe, so I'm assuming you know what pocket dimensions are, correct?"

"Single universes of varying sizes that lay empty, void of anything at all."

"More or less. If you know the right spell, you can unzip one of those voids and use it for storage."

"Hehe, now it makes so much sense why you pulled stuff out on thin air when I watched your character, or Discord's, on TV, on Earth." Then again, I can't really argue with cartoon logic at this point since I'm basically living in a cartoon universe.

She added, "So long as you remember what it is you put in there, all you have to do is use magic to 'unzip' the dimension—for lack of a better word—and mentally recall what item it is you want."

"Luna, you just blew my mind. But more to the point, what did you bring with you?"

"Not too much. Sanitary items for the most part. A few books to read while on the ship." Well that explained one way she kept herself busy all this time. "Ink and quills to write anything I might need to remember, and not much else in regards to this trip."

"I think you came under-prepared. You should always come prepared, cuz you never know what might happen. Don't worry though, because I'll...help you out." I didn't want to bring up the word 'protect', as that was still a sensitive subject between us.

She deadpanned at my choice words regardless. "I...cannot argue with the former. Is that why you bought so many bladed implements?"

"In a sense. Back on Earth I had a decent sized collection of knives as you've seen, but only bought these ones with me because they're the only good quality ones I had at the time. That, and they've served me well thus far." I said, running my hand over the glowing moon under my shirt sleeve.

"It was actually quite impressive."

"Also, do you think you could hold onto my little diary thing? I don't want it to get ruined in my bag or anything. You know, safe keeping." I grabbed the notebook from between the bed and it's frame and held it up to her. It quickly disappeared from my grip with a pop, and Luna shared a sheepish grin with me.

"Just let me know when you would like to use it next. I...promise I won't look inside."

"I don't mind if you do or not, I've got nothing to hide. It's just a detail of the journey so far."

Just a short time after I fell for Luna's little game once more, Ratchet came running down the stairwell, but she stopped where her legs were visible and ducked her head down a little. There was a smile on her face that looked as if it was plastered on her face.

"Guys, you're gonna wanna see this!" She beamed.

I gave Luna a quick glance as she did me. We both got up from our beds and ran up the stairs onto the bridge. Then, power walking through the corridor.

I couldn't see anything but clouds from the panoramic window. I could have had to get closer, too. I saw Bullseye trying to get a view, too.

"What is it?"

Sky reassured my curiosity. "Just wait for a break in the clouds, you'll see."

I stood in front of the window squinting my eyes at the scene of nothing but dark gray clouds move aside for a solid two minutes, but then they started to get thinner and thinner... but in due time, the clouds gave way to the most spectacular of views.

"Hey look guys!" Bullseye called.

Luna and I were amazed at the sights.

"Evisica." We all chorused.

Mere words would fail to describe the absolute beauty and wonder of what my eyes were feasting upon. The map I now I had a mental image of showed islands floating, and I'd have been damned if they weren't.

From my viewpoint, it was almost like this hunk of land had been pulled right out of the ground from far below. Nothing but the green color of life gave way on the surface of the mass, and it simply cut off at the edges. I could see a waterfall crashing down, almost buried in the plantlife I saw. Then I saw another fall, and another, then a third.

The three newest falls I saw were all cascading over three separate sides of the island, the water evaporating half way down the rock face, with the vapor forming two rainbows that I could see. But what I couldn't see was the taper of the bottom of island, if at all there was one at all.

A picturesque rainforest stretched before me like something from a touched-up tourism brochure. In one of the furthest distances laid a lush, green jungle and a dramatic mountain rising from the heart of the island.  All around it flew the beautiful, sparkling, blue-hued ambiance created by water trickling off the sides of the island with a lovely distinctive smell to accompany the scene. I wouldn't mind spending summer vacation here at some cabana or relaxing on a beach towel. Provided it even has a beach.

My somewhat pleasant ideas, though, were then suddenly interrupted by an unquestionably unpleasant, deep, eerie, metallic groan that resonated throughout the room.

"What the hell?..." I audibly gulped. "...What was that?"

Several seconds passed without another sound, and I heaved a sigh of relief, but only for the opposite to occur.

But then, even more abruptly, the ship was intensely and violently impacted by something, sending everyone inside tumbling to the floor.

Shit just got serious.

"Sorry to do this again, Sky," I stumbled to my feet as I grabbed one of the navigation modules and pulled myself up."But hurry up and get us over to that island so whatever it is that just knocked us around doesn't get the chance to do it again!"

He was still regaining his ground as well. "Ratchet!" he called."We're close enough to put this thing into overdrive without completely fucking up the systems, right?"

"Yes sir!" she answered as she overlooked the modules and displays in the engine room. "Your call!" she added.

"DO IT NOW!!"

Ratchet threw open the doors on the row of mechanisms that me, Luna and Bullseye were holding onto. She revealed the ultimate controller and immediately threw a couple of levers and twisted a couple of knobs. "Sky, press the button!"

By now, Sky was at the front control panel, awaiting her orders. And when he got them, he didn't hesitate at all to press a bulky button that hung over the end of the table. We all felt the ship lurch forward with gusto, but it wasn't enough to knock any of us off the floor again. At least we got some speed out of it; Not as much as I would have liked, but any advance would help at that point.

I saw something out the window, like something was... crawling on the ship. I ran over to the door and grabbed one of the pipes running down the wall. I threw open the door, only to be assaulted by the winds pushing past us as we sped towards Evisica. I scanned the general area around me and tried to find out where whatever it was I saw headed this time.

Then, when I looked down at the bottom propellers, I had just enough time to see a giant black, almost fish-like tail to go under the ship. It was quite a ways below us, but that was only what I saw from the door frame.

"Luna." I said calmly, as she was now at my side. She looked at me, then I headed back inside with her. "What's about twenty times the size of this ship and black?" Everyone else looked at me now as I shut the door. "Book, please." I said, holding out my hand. She made the big book appear in my palm. I don't know why, but I should have given it more thought as to what these illustrations of strange animals could be.

I flicked through the pages until I found the most relevant one I was looking for. Situated in the middle of the page with two paragraphs of the mysterious text above and below it sat a crude illustration of this thing. The drawing had what could be described as a fish tail at the end of a lobster's tail, leading up to a non descriptive-body that had a single drawn eye and two "great big scorpion-like pincers." Hey, don't blame me, the drawing was pretty vague.

"Well, we're fucked."
> VIII.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I really had no idea what to do at that point stage. Like, none at all.

"I, uhm... Bullseye, you still got your bow and arrows. And all those spears?"

"I got a dozen arrows and half a dozen spears," the zebra answered me proudly. "And I'm pretty sure you want me to get them, huh?" He had already started his way down the main corridor before I answered this time.

"Get them, and some rope from my bag, please." He heard that last bit, and called in response. Then I turned to Luna. " If you don't mind, Luna, Bullseye's gonna ride you." She only nodded, knowing what needed to be done. "And we're going to tie him to your back so he doesn't fall off. Work your own magic to help keep whatever that thing is out there away from us."

From that point onward, I was solely speaking my quickly manufactured thoughts, coming straight from the book as I observed the anatomy of the creature and basing them off whatever form it was that I made out. I was clueless, really.

"Aim for the face and head, the rest of his body probably has some sort of armor to deflect the spears." But hey, I'd love it if he tried.

Bullseye came back up with much haste, as well as his spears, plus the rope from my satchel. However, the creature also knocked the ship around again when the he reached Luna and I, sending us tumbling across to the starboard side of the room in a bundle. We quickly righted ourselves, with Bullseye now straddling Luna on her back. I tied his legs together underneath her stomach so he wouldn't fall off, and then I cut the excess rope hanging from them. I opened the door for them, and Luna dove out into mid-air with an eager but intimidated ally on her back.

"And what of you?" asked Ratchet, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Good question. Make us go as fast as you can towards the island, keep doing that and steer clear of the thing if you can at all, we don't want to risk damaging the ship any more than it already has been."

"That's probably the best bet we can take." She then headed to the control panels.

"Oh, and me? I have no bloody idea yet."

Sky was still at the helm, taking care of the actual steering part as a big help to the situation, and Ratchet joined him by working her profession. They were both confident, and I knew they would perform above average.

Right from below the ship, I heard a deafening roar come from the that thing, presumably a painful screech. Luna and Bullseye must have been doing well out there, nailing the monster in the face with one of his spears, I gladly imagined

Screw it, I'm just going to call that thing the Leviathan for now. Maybe Luna knew what it really is. Though she probably would have mentioned that beforehand.

I glanced out the front most window to see the beast--the Leviathan--flying out and back towards us. The drawing in the book made it seem rather tame-looking, but up front, like, straight up front, was a completely different story.

It was utterly horrifying! It looked like a hammerhead shark, only the two ends of it's flat head was bent forward, and two glowing red eyes sat recessed in the middle of it's face. And just below his head, on it's neck and downward from that point, there were about half a dozen nasty, pointy looking feelers.

It dipped and rose in the air as if swimming on the air currents, and the rest of it's body followed. As it did, I caught a better look at it's anatomy before it disappeared from sight again.

It was mainly a shell, if you could call it that. Like an ocean crustacean. It looked as if it was all one huge mass that shielded the middle of it's body, but it moved and rippled as the rest of it swam through the air, ignoring the immense weight that it's rocky armor must have held.

It's feeler things eventually slid forward out of it's face all meeting at one point.

"Aw shit," we all slurred off our tongues. The Leviathan started to look as if it was charging some kind of energy while it flew through the clouds. It was now starting to fly through them more frequently as Bullseye and Luna shot at the it. Every time it reappeared, though, I saw a red ball of energy grow ever bigger at it's chest.

"Holy!" We saw Luna and Bullseye come in from the right as we all caught them just at the right moment. Luna shot a beam of her magic at it's creepy looking head, but it merely bounced away, her shot curving around it and going off in the sky.

Magic resistant armor? Hmmm...

I saw the Leviathan's body dip down just in time after the attempted attack to it's head. But before it delved down, the giant red ball it now held was thrown with an outward push of it's feelers. The shot was aimed below the ship, and it missed us entirely, but not by much.

"NOPE! All aboard the nope train to Fuckthisshitville!" I watched the spectacle in a mixture of absolute horror and wonder. We were barely scathed, but it was enough push to shake us form our standing again.

The leviathan then swam under the ship and disappeared from view with Luna and Bullseye following it, and not two seconds later we felt it knock the ship to the side again. This time it wasn't just a bump, though.

It... It picked us up from our place in the air!

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU UGLY ASS SHIT?!" The ship was more than hallway from being tilted a complete ninety-degrees upward. Sky tried shaking us out of the Leviathan's grasp loose, but he just couldn't

"CELESTIA DAMMIT!" He screamed/ The flip made all of us have to find new footing. That part was easy enough, but maintaining our duties was harder than the latter.  

"It's taking us away from the island!" shouted Sky.

Thinking rather bluntly, I carefully ran below the bridge to get the longer length of rope out from my bag, uncurling it and tying one end around my waist and belt as I ran back up.

"Wait!" Sky called at me, but I kindheartedly ignored him. I hastily headed through the tall door to the outside where I finished making the knot around my waist, with the other end of the loose rope tied securely to the pipe I used to brace myself on when I would ever look out to feel the clean air out there.

"What in all of Tartarus are you doing?!" screamed Ratchet, holding onto the control panel tightly. I had to shout back to her over the sound of the metallic screeching as we continued to be carried away from Evisica.

"Probably something I'll regret!" I took the tanto out from it's sheath on the small of my back and opened the door again. I looked below, and I could see the bottom of the ship a few meters below me, and beyond what I could see the gleaming black skin of the Leviathan's tail. I jumped out with my arms and legs splayed, falling down and landing on it's tail a couple of seconds later.

I don't think the Leviathan felt me, because it was busy carrying the ship and launching attacks of it's own In a possibly futile attempt. I really struggled to climb over to it's back, but again, with every step I took up it's body, I stabbed it with the knife, and the the beast didn't respond. Finally, I reached the lowest region of it's back where I plummeted the knife into it's back. Much to my surprise, it sunk right in. The leviathan cried out again. This rocky shell must have been more sensitive than I originally thought; either that or Bullseye nailed him again.

Amongst the tense, high-altitude temperatures of the engine's exhaust, I repeatedly stabbed his pliable shell, carving out a large square section.

"You may be resistant to magic, but you sure as hell aren't resistant to close-quarters shit!" I would have thought the beast would be bleeding something fierce, but it wasn't. It must have had a thick hide, even underneath it's crustacean shell.

I still kept stabbing away at a square section I selected, trying to remove it as a whole so Bullseye could try and get a hit on the softer parts of his body. Thinking about it, it was an enormous task on my part but the armor was coming off with less effort than I may have really been. Face shots and energy beams are only going to go so far.

I scraped off the heavy layer of rocks and looked underneath. The flesh resembled the appearance of drawn muscles tightening around the Leviathan's spine, like rubber bands would—by way of comparison. Then I put my thumb and my index finger in my mouth and whistled as loud as I could. I also raised my blade up high, hoping that the sun would reflect off of it, or some light, being under wide shade. I was trying to get Luna's attention again.

She must have immediately seen or heard me; she flew around to my side only seconds later, the Leviathan still seemingly roosting under the ship and taking a break. She saw me clutching a large piece of skin, as well as the gaping hole in the side of this thing. I made motions resembling the shooting of arrows from an imaginary bow, pointing at the exposed area.

With a nod, the duo suddenly flew around the creature, making a bee-line for the general area, and the next thing I saw on the beast's body was a spear jutting out of it's other side, accompanied by a deafening roar.

I decided to get on my feet, crawled over to the spear's shaft and put all my weight on it, pushing the spear deeper and deeper into the monster. Then they came about again and Bullseye shot another spear into the flesh, followed my my insistence to push this one deeper in, too. After the seventh spear, the Leviathan started to descend lower and lower, slowly parting it's feelers from the ship and leaving it's control back to Sky.

I put my knife back in it's sheath on my back and waved my arms frantically as I too was drawing further from the ship. The rope attached to my waist snapped taught just a second later, and then I watched the Leviathan fell away and flew forward, away from the ship.

I just hung from the rope, watching it sink and scream in the agony it was in. Then Luna came around, her and Bullseye giving me a hilarious look. I snickered along with them.

I threw my arms around Luna's neck she and Bullseye tried to make a seat for me on her back, but that would have never worked.

"We'll just tell someone to pull you up. Hehe. We promise." And so I waited for them to get back inside, and soon enough, I felt a tug on the rope that held me up thousands of feet in the sky. Then I felt a stronger tug, pulling me up a foot more. But the last tug was continuous, pulling me closer and loser to the ship as I had observed behind me.

I caught the edge of the door after about a minute of them pulling and me climbing up the thick rope. I pulled myself onto the damaged platform with the help of Bullseye, Ratchet and Sky.

"So, I take it you still regret that decision?" the pilot asked. I  just sighed, taking in a whole gust of air.

"Yes and no. That was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time." Then Ratchet came up to me and gave me a quick hug with one hoof before looking away for a second. But then her head came back to me.

"Dude, that was insane! We probably could have gotten him off another way, you know. Hehe."

"Yeah, well...I guess it just came to me." I pulled the rest of the rope inside just then and shut the door behind us as we all entered. We had all collapsed, sprawled on the floor for Celestia-knows-how-long just gasping for air, from the ordeal that was a gigantic creature we fought against.

"What... Was... THAT!?"

All of us were still wondering the same exact thing, pretty much. Even after fifteen minutes of just recovering, the sudden feel of a threat was still there.

Luna had recovered faster than the majority of us, and she told us that she also had the answer to our unanimous inquiry. She pulled the book back from her little pocket, holding it in her aura and flicking over to the page with the illustration of the beast that I called the Leviathan.

"I cannot read that passage," she said. "Tis an old language and I can barely make it out." However, the picture of the thing was more than enough to know that it was bad news.

"Well then, let's just call it the Leviathan, I guess." They all nodded.

After a few seconds Ratchet turned to me and said, "What's a Leviathan?"

"Hell if I know, but doesn't it seem fitting?"

"Oddly enough, it does," added Bullseye.

On another distant note, I called out to Sky in an authoritarian voice, "Damage report captain." He answered.

"Nothing major. Distending on the bottom and a few busted pipes, but nothing that won't hold until we get to the island."

I turned to Luna. "Luna, can you fly outside and use your magic to turbo charge the propeller?" She looked at me like I was crazy. She was still catching her breath a little bit.

"Sure..."

She flew out the door without saying a word, and the next thing I felt was my ass on the floor. I fell backward onto the floor as we sped back to the island with all due haste towards. I grabbed a random pipe that laid on the floor from after the ship flipped twice, and I used it to steady myself as I clambered to my feet.I made my way to the front window.

"Holy hell! This IS fast!" I could already see the island rapidly approaching, and judging by the distance we were closing, we would make it in twenty minutes ,as opposed to... however long it would have taken the ship running on it's own full speed.

The time soon grew closer, and eventually we passed over the edge of the island and now were officially over it's land. I could feel the ship start to slow down.

"Alright, we're slowing everything down. We'll drift for a while to cool the system off." Ratchet informed us of our advancements and went into the double doors. I heard the audible flicking and twisting of various buttons and switches. I heard various groans and whirrings of machinery as everything slowly turned off.

Then the other door, the one to the outside platform, flew open and Luna landed in the doorway, just looking at me. Then she immediately closed the door behind her as she entered.

I felt like a total douchebag. I had been thinking about Luna ever since she worked her magic on the propellers.

"I'm sorry, Luna... For getting snippy just before. It was just, kind of a..."

"Stressful moment?" she finished my sentence for me. "I understand, and you are forgiven. No harm done. None at all."

I heaved a sigh of relief and began to untie the rope from my waist. When I did, I curled the rope around my arm in as many sequences to fit it's length. Then I slipped it off and bundled it up tightly.

My sense of sight had been turned to the slab of the skin on the floor the whole time I was turning the rope. One could almost describe it as a volcanic, obsidian-black in color; it was that dark and shiny. Everyone else's line of sight followed mine. Sky and Ratchet eyed it with morbid disgust, and Luna just... looked at it. Expressionless and blank.

Finally, Luna was the first to say something about it spoke.

"Why did you take this with you? You could have thrown it away."

I shrugged, with an answer suddenly coming to me. "I saw what it did to your energy beam, so I thought I'd keep some in case the need for magical resistant armor came along."

"And what, pray-tell, do you think is going to happen?"

"I don't know, but be prepared. 'Cause you never know." I patted my knife sheath. "Anyway, are you able to use your magic and clean it off?"

"I really wasn't planning on it, but your explanation proves a valid precaution. What do you plan on doing with it?"

"Well, I was thinking of making it into a vest of some description."

You'd expect her to ask what that is, but within the first few weeks of my arrival in Equestria, some of my clothes were getting worn down and old. So I went to visit Rarity and ask her if she could make me some more clothes, and she was more than willing to, given her Element. She made repairs where I asked, and went a little bit overboard very quickly. She managed to stock the closet back at my house with clothes I could wear every day, including shorts, trousers, shirts, t-shirts, jerseys and so on, which is what I wanted.

Then she had the brilliant idea—although that was highly debatable—to make me clothes for every event and holiday Equestria observes. Vests included for Hearth's Warming. Luckily they weren't the horrid, wool-knitted ones your grandmother would make you...

Luna enveloped the slab of skin in her aura when she started to work on the rocky slate, and the fat attached to the underside of the skin disappeared.

Wow. That was sure fast.

"Keep that, it might come in handy."

Sky shot me a disgusted look. "What could you possibly use that gross stuff for?"

"You ever wander where glue comes from?" He shook his head at me. "Rendered animal fat," I deadpanned. His disgusted look changed to a horrified expression.

"What? Really??"

"Back before we had any modern glue that's made with chemicals, people made it out of fat. They would collect the fat and melt it, that's what rendering fat means. They would then apply the stuff to whatever the use was, and leave it to dry. Viola, glue!"

"And what uses are you going to have for glue?"

"Not just glue, fat has a myri-"

A massive, and I mean massive roar resonated through the air with no warning at all. It loud enough to break the smallest widow that gazed outside, louder than the ones we heard before.

My gut dropped like the weight of a certain sinking cruise ship that traversed the ocean. We all heard a metallic ripping sound as the ship rapidly began to descend to the jungle canopy below us. We were quickly engulfed in shaded green leaves. I could see various operational instruments going nuts; with dials in the red and blinking lights going off all over the instrument panel.

The sudden shock sent us all stumbling, and out the corner of my eye I see the Leviathan fly by the windows and off into the distance.

That bitch.

I grabbed another pipe so I wouldn't fall over as I regained my footing once again. I barely saw Ratchet as she hastily ran down the corridor, reappearing moments later.

"The fucktard tore a huge hole in the left side of the ship! Ripped through some of the gas lines that feed into the balloon!" She was absolutely devastated.

"Well at least he didn't actually rip the balloon, we'd be dropping like a stone otherwise..."

Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say directly to her. Ratchet loved this ship.

Glancing out the huge looking glass behind me, I saw a break in the canopy, a clearing. "There!" I shouted, pointing a finger. "Land us in that clearing if you can!"

"On it!" he screamed in struggle.

Sky tugged and pulled at the wheel trying to keep the nose of the ship pointed towards the clearing, flipping his own set of knobs and switches. Ratchet also threw open the doors to the boiler, diving inside. I'm assuming she wanted to make sure nothing came loose and everything would remain to run fine—very loosely put—after the blow the hull took.

Luna held Bullseye in her aura as she herself was thrown across the room. She didn't want him to get hurt and get knocked around, being there nothing for him to hold onto, nor could he have really done much in the situation anyway.

The whirring, beeping, and otherwise extremely loud noises from all the instruments going nuts flooded both my ears and mind, making thinking rather impossible given the circumstances. All I could do was just hang on for dear life and wait for all this to come to an end.

And come to an end it did.

We were dropping too low too fast. The bottom of the ship's hull was scraping against the top of the trees. And eventually, we made a final stretch across some bordering trees and fell into the clearing, making a nose dive onto the forest floor.

Everything went black.
> IX.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I didn't know how long it was before I woke up. I didn't know how long it was before everyone else woke up, too.

I cracked my eyes open only to be greeted with hazy vision. I caught the glimpse of a huge electrical spark though, and I hurriedly shut them again through my own reflexes. I didn't want to get anything in my eyes.

A few seconds later, after some of the audible cackling of electricity faded, I reopened them, looking away from the source of the other sudden spark that decided prolonged itself It gave me a tiny bit of light to look around with. Even with that much, I still couldn't see much; there were things thrown everywhere from the crash landing we had no choice to take. Among the major debris I did see, though, were some support beams, paneling, stray wires and a few other parts of the ship's anatomy.

My legs? I tried moved them to make sure I could both feel them and make sure neither of them were missing. My left leg was slightly spread to the side and it had a heavy pipe laying over it, and though it hurt like hell... Legs, I've still got legs!

What about my arms and hands? I wiggled my fingers, and yep, they were still working and there was nothing sticking out of them, or my arms. I told myself I wasn't hurt, because I really didn't feel pain other than the beam on my leg and a few slight bruises on my body.

I honestly really struggled to lift the cylindrical girder off of my leg, but when it clambered onto the floor with a loud clang, it rolled away and I eagerly patted myself up from the floor, realizing a horrid weakness in the same leg that carried the weight of a ton just a few seconds ago.

"Luna!" I called out for her. "Luna, are you okay!?

Nothing.

"Can you hear me?"

"Where are you?" she called back, bringing me a huge relief.

Right, like I know... "I don't know. just follow my voice and come here. Everyone, in fact." No one else responded until just a few seconds later, as I heard Luna asking for my voice repeatedly.

Sky was relatively close to me, his voice coming from below. He had just regained consciousness seemingly just as soon as I asked where anyone else was.

"I'm...here." he slurred weakly. I heard him getting to his hooves, taking much caution as he attained balance. "So you and Luna are here, still."

"Me too, Sky. Bullseye's voice began to travel to me faster, as he was most likely following the pilot's own voice.  I tried to use the white gem imbedded in my arm to move some of the debris from around us, but, for one, I couldn't see much of anything, that, and I couldn't concentrate enough to will it to move. My primary concern was relevant with everyone's well being.

Luna was the first to find her way to me, and she hugged me close. "Father..."

"Luna!" I gasped as she pulled me insanely close. I couldn't blame her though. "Would it be at all possible...if you could teleport us all out of this wreck and onto the forest floor? That would be easier than digging through everything trying to find the others."

"I agree, but I wouldn't be able to do that unless we were all in close quarters to each other." At that point, Bullseye came to us too, and all Sky had to do was take a few steps to his right to be able to see us in this darkness.

"Ratchet!" Sky called. His desperate voice only seemed to echo in the ship, and no response from the darkness made it grow even more desperate. "RATCHET! Where the hell are you??"

"Is there any way you could trace her?" I asked Luna, but she frowned at my suggestion.

"I'm afraid not. But maybe you can, I don't know."

"Really?" I asked, honestly surprised she would suggest that.

"Maybe. Try it."

So I took Luna's advice and tried using my own new magical abilities plus the extra Ley that soaked the area. I imagined Ratchet's image and thought about a few of the things she has done since we met. Suddenly, when I conceived a thought of her location, my eyes saw—in a hazy aura, her bloodstains. I looked around to the leftmost corner of the ship—where Ratchet had earlier been buried under debris—and I saw how rubble was spread out around a disturbingly large sized puddle of blood. That alone caused me to sprint along the trail, Luna instantly following my pace.

I reached the wall where the blood stopped advancing, but Ratchet was not here. I stopped my own advances as well, looking over the scene with my heightened vision

"Take down all of that!" instructed Luna, worried about her just as much as me. Sky and Bullseye then caught up behind us. They saw sunlight leaking through some cracks in the debris that was in front of me. But I couldn't, though; I was in tune with Luna's subconscious mind and could only see through the darkness.

I tried to move it without a word, but I couldn't help any, and that's where Luna took initiative. She pulled me back with her magic and shot a small azure blast at the rubble. It didn't break, but instead, Luna was holding it in her aura like it weighed nothing and was pushing it outside as she herself went into the back splotch in my vision that must have been the sunlight. My vision gently returned to normal just then, not at all blinded by the light, and I headed outside with Bullseye and Sky.

There was still no sign of Ratchet, and we saw that her bloodstained trail ended as it started to head into the lush forest. Out there, we also saw the further detailed shape of the ship when we looked back at it. It was still  standing upright, that it was, but the whole balloon was torn to shreds, presumably from the crash we took. I remember us flipping around and upside-down a few times. The trees were what tore it up, them and their many ligaments. A large opening torn from one end to the other hung over the side that we were able to see. Dents littered the hull like dimples on a golf ball, and green streaks were present everywhere from the greenery scraping across the metal.

I honestly forgot something.

"Shoot, my bags."

"Oh?" said Luna. "Do you need your things?"

"I think so, yeah" I teased her, and she knew I was, because she was doing the same thing to me. "Can you teleport all my bags out nine and Bullseye's, actually? I don't want to risk climbing through there and getting hurt."

"Thanks," called Bullseye as we were all still looking around for a route to take into the green woods. "Heh, I just might need my stuff too." Sky was trying to make his way into the maze of trees on his own, but his desperation wasn't of much use, as he couldn't get through the thickets; some of them like razorblades. With a spark and a pop, my canvas satchel and backpack appeared right before my feet, and Bullseye's most needed possessions appeared right in front of him, too. He threw his bow over his shoulders and strapped the bag containing his arrows around his left foreleg, tying it tightly. His spears were in a different bag entirely, one that he threw over his other shoulder. They weren't too big up close, and they stayed intact, attached to the bag as tight as it's knot was.

"Hehe, there you are, guys!" Luna said. "Now Sky... I wish I could help him out..."

I reached into my bag to pull out all four of my knives. I strapped kukri to my right leg, the bushcraft knife on my belt at my left. I cut a sliver of rope from it's worm-like structure and used the thinner twine to tie the sheaths of the two blades to each leg. The mora I tied with a length of string around my neck. The sheath was made so I could easily hang it there, and it was a small knife anyway.

We all made efforts made an effort to keep the crashed airship in our sights. It was pretty big, though, and with the swaying of the torn-up balloon still visible in the far distance we were slowly attaining, it would be no task to retrace our steps at all.

But I spoke too soon, because as we delved further into the jungle, the trees towered far over our heads, and soon enough, our shadows no longer existed below us and the ship was long gone behind us. However, we did manage to find several large wooden limbs and dried sticks, which we bundled up and tied together. We placed every one of them behind us about four feet at a time, hoping that they would be enough to lead us back to the ship when the time came. It took some effort to drag them some of them out in a somewhat single-file sequence, and it took a seemingly gratuitous amount of energy to do so the entire way to the actual walls of the tall thickets. Then, satisfied as how we had a good enough backup trail behind us, I reached down for the kukri and began to chop through the tall barrier of plants that would hinder any further progress otherwise.

There was still no sign of Sky at all.

"Sky! Ratchet? Anybody out here at all?" Bullseye called out loud, his voice making no effort to emanate through the empty shaded jungle.

And just some sort interval later, we heard his voice met with a response. Except it came from all the way behind us.

"Guys, get over here!" It was Sky's powerful voice. It beckoned us into thinking he was in trouble. Even if he wasn't though, we would still join back up with him.

Lucky we had already made a trail to find our way back. Again.

We started to see Sky inside the broken entrance to the ship. He heard up coming and he turned his head to look at us.

"There the hell you are!" I called.

"What's the matter?" shouted Luna. "It sounded like you were..!"

Then we saw his situation. He moved to the side, where we saw Ratchet laying  on the lighted floor, as the sun was now shining down on it overhead,

It also shined down on her unconscious body. We couldn't see where the primary wound that made her lose so much blood earlier was, but enough scars and bruises littered her figure to the point where I instantly ran up to her and knelt down above her level.

"I found her all the way it there..."  muttered Sky, blatant concern in his softer voice. "I just barely saw her."

"Dammit..."

Ratchet's machine-like rear legs were were evidently damaged, some of the internal parts to the gears and artificial joints missing or deformed in some way. It didn't look like she would be able to walk, very easily least. Her whole body was mostly free of any physical damage, but when I overlooked her face, the only kind of damage I saw was emotional, with dried out tears that made their trail through the splattered blood on her face, now also dried. It became evident that the 'blood' I saw earlier was a mixture of oil, and other fluids that operated the mechanical portions of Ratchet's body mixed with blood.

"We need to take her inside," I said, not really thinking too much anymore.

"What, while we move into the forest or whatever you wanna call it? What if something comes along and looks inside? If this really is a jungle, then there are more than likely plenty of beast out here, looking for food." It was hard to tell if he had a little humor in his voice. I mean, not to sound like a dick or anything, because the situation was more like an emergency. But it was also just then when she began to twitch and move her legs around.

"Wait! She's coming to-"

"Hey...Sky?"

The pilot responded immediately. "Ratchet. You alright?"

"What happened, exactly?" Luna and Bullseye asked.

"I remember trying to push her out of the way when a shitton of the ship was gonna fall on her," started Sky. "But we flipped over so fast that something else must have hit me and pushed me out of the way. Even though I tried tom save you, I still feel...really bad."

"Damn," I awed. "I would have done the same if it weren't so hectic."

"Me too," Bullseye added.

"Well hey, I'm not dead yet." Ratchet looked us all over, huddled together in front of her. She laughed gently and tried to get herself on her hooves.

"You can't possibly be serious about coming along with up right now." Sky launched himself at her to support her. And indeed, Ratchet did shout in terrible pain as she stood halfway upright, whereas Sky was there to help her, with my own addition.

"Hold on, guys..." Ratchet gently shook herself out from mine and Sky's grasps. "I can't thank you guys enough for your concern, but I think my legs were just disjointed." Regardless, Sky still held onto her, making sure to be there if anything happened to her. She took a few steps forward, using all four of her legs, and the news was clear.

"Hey, what do you know! I can walk perfectly!"

"Perfectly?" I asked of her.

"Well, I can still feel a bit of friction between my bones and rods, but yeah, I can come with you guys." She started to head outside now.

"We never said you couldn't!" Sky said, darting his eyes to everyone except her.

"Yeah yeah, I heard that much before you knew I was awake. Now let's get going." She smiled at all of us and waited for us expectantly. I think it was safe to say that we were all insanely taken aback by her stamina and her energy; every other time, yes, but right after she just woke up from a severe fate?

"Even I am impressed by her recovery," whispered Luna.

Yep.

"But what about the ship?" Sky and Ratchet discussed the topic as soon as we caught up to her.

"Whelp, unless mine and Luna's magic is enough to make all the repairs it needs," She turned around and looked at the ship for two seconds--as did Sky-- and deduced an assumption. "It'd take forever to fix it, one problem at a time."

"Would it help if I headed in there and assess the damage done?" he offered.

"It actually would do us some good. Not sure if it'd be a good idea, though..."

I heard this far into their conversation, and I really had to agree with Ratchet. "Unless like, one of us goes with you."

That's when Bullseye piped up. "I'll go with you, Sky! I still need to get my favorite blanket and some other stuff in there." And then he looked at Luna, who in turn gave him a totally hilarious look, quirking her head and eyes up while sporting a teasing grin that curved it's way across her muzzle. It made him giggle and look away for a brief second. "Sorry Luna."

"Hehe, it's alright. Honest mistake, right?" She patted him on his shoulders. "Don't let him get hurt anymore than he has been. And don't hurt yourself anymore in there, either."

With that, Sky and Bullseye both headed into the wreckage, the dark shadows of the interior casting their visible presences out from sight.

About twenty-minutes later, they both returned from the ship. Sky had brought back a bag full of tools and nothing more than that. Bullseye had found some more of his provisions and possessions too, and there he was, a few feet behind the pilot, catching up to him. It didn't take them very long to reach us, as they knew we would wait for them.

"Damn, it's a real mess in there," said Bullseye.

"He's got that right." Sky also had to agree. It didn't look like either of them had earned any injuries at all, and then, thinking back to his earlier offer, I questioned him about it: "Damage report, Sky?"

As Bullseye rejoined the group somewhat silently, muttering something under his breath, Sky gave me his full attention with his report.

"Well, thankfully the boiler is still working, as are some of the instruments I grabbed to repair the ship with." He looked inside the toolbag he had salvaged, reviewed it's contents, then closed it, smiling just a little bit. But I think I saw it go away immediately. "The only thing that's probably gonna be on my mind from this point on is the actual job of fixing it."

"Well," I started to speak, but Sky must not have heard me. I wasn't very loud either, to be honest.

"I mean, there's spare paneling stored in the floor of the ship, some of it, at least, to repair something as big as that gash in the side of both the balloon and hull. That part shouldn't be too much of a problem, but as for flying home..." he paused and gave an uneasy groan.

In his pause, I spoke to him again. "Well, you might like the fact that Ratchet and Luna together might be able to repair the ship, or at most, do a whole ton of it.

"That much I can't be certain about. It's possible, but we'd have to take it easy for fear of everything ripping apart. All that aside, besides dents and scrapes everything else is pretty much alright."

I asked. "Is that good news, then?"

Sky replied with, "It's as good as it's going to get in this situation."

"Now's the time to go take out everything you need, I don't trust sleeping in those beds in case something else collapses, or at least until I know it's safe back in there."

"Where do you suggest we sleep, then?" asked Luna

"This is going to sound rather unbecoming, but... Pick a spot." I used my hand not holding the kukri to gesture to the debree-strewn ground.

She shot me a flat look "You can't be serious."

"I've got more than enough means to make shelter and beds, but it will be rather uncomfortable. I'm almost about to make a fire to keep away any nasties that come awake at night." Speaking of which, it's getting rather late. I might as well light the fire and cook something for us to eat. Looks like we'll have to begin on the dehydrated and sealed foods.

I went to the edge of the jungle to collect a few stones. There weren't that many, only half a dozen or so. I made them into a circle big enough to contain the fire. I got a clump of dried grass, put it in the middle of the circle, and made an upside-down 'V' shape with some of the smaller sticks and twigs. I got out my tanto and ferro rod, placed the end of the rod into the dried grass with a cotton wad from my bag, and used the spine of the knife to send a shower of sparks into the cotton to light it on fire. It took a few tries, but eventually I managed to get a small flame going. It took a minute to catch everything else, and when it did I went about putting some of the thicker sticks and twigs on. The logs were for when we go to sleep.

Food is next on the list. I found the three straightest, longest sticks I could and tied them together to form a pyramid of sorts above the fire, which I then hung the pot over. I added some rice, and put in a few sachets of pre-made, vacuum-sealed vegetable stew of some description to heat and eat. I went back to chopping the remaining log into sections and putting the rest of the short logs next to the fire so they could dry out somewhat before they go on the fire. I managed to get about two and a half dozen logs from the three bigger ones. Plenty of wood to keep going through the night if used sparingly.

After the rice cooked and the vege sachets heated, I drained the rice from the water, but kept the water, mixed everything up and gave it to Luna, Sky, Bullseye, and myself. I made sure to save some for when Ratchet wakes up though, no telling when she would.

I told everyone I would keep first watch while they slept. Bullseye made a bed out of what I could best describe as Heather, and lay his blanket over that and went to sleep. Sky, being a pegasus, went and pulled a cloud down to a few metres above ground to sleep on. I've never slept on a cloud before, but I'm guessing they'd be comfy as hell. I know Rainbow Dash likes napping on clouds. And on tree limbs. And everywhere else. For... some reason.

All I did was pull a tarp out of my bag, unfold it, peg one end to the ground and used a couple more sticks to prop up the other end as a makeshift shelter of sorts. It doesn't look like it's going to rain tonight, but I'm not going to take any chances. Throughout the night, I kept my eyes peeled as best I could while watching over Ratchet.

Around one thirty in the morning, she began to wake up.

"My head... What-"

"Shh!" I cut her off before she could make any more noise. "Everyone is sleeping. The ship crashed and it's night time." She looks into the glow of the fire.

I heard her stomach growl. "Dude, got any food?"

I handed her the bowl of veges and rice I prepared earlier. "It's cold, hope you don't mind."

Her horn began to glow and she leant down to the bowl. A few seconds passed and I felt heat radiate from it. I looked at her with mixed expressions, but primarily one that said 'What the hell was that?' I didn't need to ask anyway, she answered regardless.

"Just a spell I learnt while in college. Came in handy heating up leftovers." I snickered and she giggled. "How long was I out, anyway?"

"Not really sure, but would have easily been seven to ten hours, somewhere in that region.

"Heh, I was always the type to sleep in." I didn't find that hard to believe.

"Me too." I added. "On Earth, my sleeping pattern was always fucked up. Sometimes I wouldn't get to sleep until three in the morning, other times I'd get tired as early as ten-thirty at night. I guess it depended on when I was working I guess."

"Heh, yeah..." she replied, looking down at the ground.

While poking the fire with my stick, I gave her a friendly nudge. "Hey, you okay there?"

"Well it's just... After college there was this accident."

I looked over the machinery that covered her body. "What... what did happen."

"I don't remember much of what happened. I was working in a machine shop one day, but that's all I can actually remember. The next thing I know I'm waking up in a hospital bed with a tube down my throat and a numb feeling over half my body. It wasn't a totally dull can't-feel-anything pain, it was more of the everything-is-excrutiatingly-painful-so-my-body-shuts-down kind of deal. That, and the painkillers the doctors pumped into me. After the first instance I woke up, I feel back asleep and didn't wake up for... Months... It wasn't until later that the doctors told me what happened; That I was in an accident and they had to rebuild parts of me. I can tell by your look too; Of course we have technology to rebuild legs and so on, then magic gets used to integrate muscle, nerves, and tendons etc into the mechanical parts so they behave in a biological manner. From there, I just tried living a normal life as best I could. But, since the skin that had my cutie mark was gone, I went through a bit of an identity crisis afterward."

"I must be devastating to lose something that made you who you are."

"Yes, but not entirely. You get a cutie mark when you realize what your special talent is supposed to be. Mine is engineering, so my cutie mark was concentric cogs with a screwdriver and wrench overlaying them. As saddened as I was with that loss, I learned to accept it. Besides," her magic lit up and the ring she had on her horn floated off. "I had this beauty made."

I took the ring from the aura and looked it over. The decoration I noticed on the ring when we first met turned out to be her cutie mark. I don't know why, but I never payed much attention to it. In response to seeing her cutie mark on the ring, I got accosted by different feelings. Empathy, sadness, happiness. I don't know what I should be feeling towards this. "I... Don't know what to say. I feel sorry for you because you lost your cutie mark, but at the same time I'm happy because you have this wonderful piece of jewellery to remind you of it."

Ratchet gave a half-hearted smile. "Call it being sanguine. Even though I don't have one that's part of me, I can still be happy knowing I have one."

I slipped the ring back on her horn, then added another couple logs to the fire. "Why don't you get back to sleep, eh?"

With a smile, she lay down next to me and eventually dozed off.

It was hard trying to stay awake all night, not to mention boring too. With basically nothing to do but poke at the fire and play the staring game with glowing eyes that stared at me through the trees and bushes. I saw Luna get up while still dark to lower the moon to make way for the sun. At least Celestia knows Luna's ok. After that, she came and sat down next to me and gave me a cheeky look.

"So... What's for breakfast?"

I shot her a, You cheeky little shit, look. "Cereal and powdered milk. Mix water into the milk, pour over cereal, and enjoy." She did. During breakfast, the others woke up of their own accord and I told them to hang around so I don't have to repeat my plans three times. They all got something for breakfast and sat down in front of Luna and I, and the fire.

"So this is the plan. Luna and I came here for a reason, and we're going to keep going." Sky opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. "Ah ah ah, let me finish. The way I see it, there's not much point in us staying here. What I'm thinking is that Sky and Ratchet will stay behind to repair the ship while Luna, Bullseye and I continue looking for the Breach. Questions?"

Sky raised his hoof. "Yes, Sky?"

"Why should we stay behind while you three go gallivanting off into the jungle looking for something that might not even exist?"

"Because when we find it," and I stressed when, "we could possibly use it to fully repair the ship too."

"How?"

"The Breach contains the source of this worlds magic. Luna can feel it, I'm thinking Ratchet can too." Sky turned to Ratchet. She nodded at him. "If it's that powerful, then between the two of you, you could have more than enough magic to pour into the repair of the ship. Heck, Luna and Ratchet might even be able to conjure up a teleportation spell powerful enough to take us all home without having to spend the return trip on the ship."

"I still don't understand why Ratchet and I have to stay behind."

Ratchet face-hoofed, then slapped Sky across the back of the head. Or however you slap someone across the back of the head with a hoof. "Because we're the only ones that know how to repair the ship you idjit!"

"..." Sky just got told! We could practically hear the ellipsis in his silence.

With a smug grin I finished with, "Any more questions?" Silence. "Good then. Sky, Ratchet, begin fixing the ship. You can send messages via magic can't you, Ratchet?"

She nodded. "Yup! Not much different from dragon fire."

"Good. Just remember to keep the fire going, although mainly at night, and to take breaks every hour so you're not over-exerting yourself. Eat and drink plenty of food and water too. Bullseye, Luna, get all the things you'll need. We move out in an hour."
> X.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I put on my backpack, secured the waist and sternum straps, donned the canvas satchel with rope and water bottles. As I started to pack my supplies together, I began to wonder just how long this trip was really going to be. A day? A week? A month? Maybe longer? No one knew. I certainly didn’t know either.  If the answers we sought were really here, I had to find them.

I never really thought about the closure I wanted until Luna and I finally arrived here, and how late I was to seek it. Now that we were this close, I couldn’t stop thinking about my parents. How they raised me, the holidays, the cold evenings we spent near the fireplace. I would be consumed in some book or new toy, with my parents sitting on the sofa, just watching me without a care in the world.

I needed the closure. That is what I kept telling myself. That’s what kept me going, even after everything that had happened. Even after Luna and the others had been put into danger, I still needed to say goodbye. God that makes me sound selfish.

I wasn’t sure why it took me so long to remember why I came. I was so consumed by everything around me, I hadn’t even thought about my parents. This was the whole reason for going to The Breach, wasn’t it?

Maybe that’s what tried convincing myself. Perhaps, I was only fooling myself. Could it have been there was another reason for me to want to keep going? A curiosity about the Breach, maybe? It was the only explanation I could come up with.

We said our goodbyes to Ratchet and Sky, although they weren’t exactly happy about us leaving. Sky was pretty adamant about him and Ratchet coming along. He went on about how we were nearly killed by those pirates from before and that he had a fear that something bad would happen without him. While I wasn’t pessimistic nor did I doubt my abilities to protect Luna, I could say his concerns weren’t completely unfounded.

Fortunately, Luna and I were able to convince them to stay here and make repairs on the ship. The ship hadn’t been damaged to the point that it was beyond repair or that we would have difficulty finding replacement parts for anything. By what miracle that happened, I’ll still never know.

However, Ratchet made the suggestion we keep in touch via messages at the end of every day detailing progress on both our parts. I couldn't argue with that and it was the only way that Sky would have ever let us go it alone. I told her I'd send her a message in the evening when we settled down to camp, when she received it, erase the ink and write her own message. I advised her to erase my message, so we don't waste paper. The journal I was writing all this down in only has a finite amount of paper, and I didn't want to keep tearing out pages for a new message every day.

I stayed out in front, cutting the trail, using my compass to keep us on the north-west bearing toward the Breach. Bullseye brought up the rear with Luna between the two of us. I had the idea of Luna flying above us in an attempt to discern any other clearings or breaks in the trees, and that proved to be fruitless because of the jungle canopy. For those that don't know, a tree canopy is what results when trees grow enough branches and leaves at the top that the resulting thickness obscures any kind of vision, both looking in from above and looking out from below. Sunlight still got in, so that is a non-issue.

The other issue that we quickly discovered is the humidity of the jungle. I didn’t notice it at first. My thoughts were concerned with… other things. By the time, an hour, I think, had passed; my shirt, specifically my back and pits were already soaked with sweat. My forehead was dotted with tiny beads that ran down my face as I took in heavy breath after heavy breath. Wiping my brow, I could feel my warm sweat rub off onto my forearm. I don’t know why I wiped my perspiration away. It was replaced only a few moments later.

It wasn't as bad as some tropical rainforests on Earth, but it was still bad. We were burning through our water supply surprisingly fast. It was my latest fear come true. In the three hours of progress we made, we had polished off three of the five water bottles we had. For me, that's understandable but rather ridiculous. As warm as it was, we shouldn't have been going through that much water that quickly. I thought that it was not just because we were getting dehydrated, but to stave off boredom and help the food we're snacking on move through us. I had a three-liter water bladder in my bag, so I was pretty sorted.

Not exactly the lightest of weights, however. The weight of my back began to drag my footsteps, and resting became a necessity. I found it difficult to keep up with Luna and Bullseye. Their equine stamina made it easy for them to carry their extra luggage. Luna had attempted to help me, but I politely refused, stating that I wasn’t growing weaker. What? I wasn’t. It was just surprising how trying this new task was. But I wasn’t growing weaker and even if I was, I couldn’t let Luna know. She’d worry about me.

Besides, I already had enough on my mind, with my parents, the Breach, the leviathan, Sky, Ratchet and of course, Luna. I didn’t need to add trying to make sure she wasn’t worried about me to the list.

Despite their stamina outperforming mine, however, I could tell that the humidity and the distance was draining them as well. Their movements became sluggish like they had rocks tied to their limbs. Yeah, they pushed forward, but it wasn’t the vigorous march that I expected from them.

Fearing for them and for myself, I proposed, that, when we found another source of water that we each be responsible for our own water That is… if we found another water source. For now, we had to deal with what we had. There was no telling when, or even if, we would find another water source. For now, we kept our drinking to a minimum. There was no use taking the risk of losing it all in the first few hours of our journey.  If you drink all of yours within five minutes, tough shit. We also needed water to help cook with later when we stopped to make camp.

Tough shit? I had hoped that was the humidity talking. Or maybe I really wanted them to monitor their water supply. I don’t know why I said it. What if something did happen? What if something happened to Luna and she did run out of water before we reached our destination? Would I really be able to just move on with her being drained by this heat, with not even a drop of water?

The more I kept thinking about what I said, the worst I felt. Luna must have thought poorly of me right now.

The long trudge through the forest didn’t help make things better for us. Bugs of every size, shape and color attacked us, forcing us to spend half of our time swatting them away. Luna’s magic gave her an unfair advantage against the little pests that were constantly biting us. I would have given up a lot just for a can of insect repellant.

Between the heat, the distance, the bugs, and the water situation, none of us were in our top condition. Our energy and our patience were slowly withering. We were easily irritated and there were no conversations between us. Even Bullseye’s normally upbeat personality seemed to be sucked out of his body by the conditions.

We sat down for a resting point in an open grassy area. A small patch of grass with the trees and brushes all around us. As we sat, I glanced up at the small opening in the sea of trees. I almost thought about Luna flying up and trying again, but what good would it do? There was only one opening in the trees and we already knew what was there. Maybe I thought I wanted to get out of this place. Hoping that there was some exit nearby that we could use to get out of this damn jungle.

I looked down at my pack by my side and started to dig for my water bottle. As it appeared in front of me, the bottle’s half empty contents looked at me. It was as if the bottle was taunting me. Like I knew nothing would please me more than to empty its contents. However, I resisted the urge to pour it all over my face and took a quick swig.

A thought then just occurred to me. What about the return trip? It hadn’t even occurred to me. My mind was so preoccupied with everything else, I hadn’t even thought about what would happen if we hadn’t found water by now. Most, if not all of us, were on our last bottle of water. There was a little left in my pack, making me wonder how long we had been walking for. If we didn’t find water soon, we would never have enough to make it back to the ship without suffering for it. Maybe we would pass out before we even got there.

Maybe Sky was right. Maybe this was too dangerous for us. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this. I mentally berated myself for being so reckless and now Luna might have to suffer for it. What kind of father would put their child in danger so recklessly?

I looked over to Luna and Sky who were keeping a good distance from each other. Not that I entirely blamed them. It was a rotten situation we were in and if they realized what I realized, they knew we were in trouble.

We broke camp after a few minutes. I couldn’t believe how silent it was between us. Save for the insects, the occasional bird and our dragging steps in the grass, there was hardly any noise being made. I looked up to the sea of trees above me, as if there was someone or something watching. But of course, no one was. At least, I didn’t think so.

Still, I was worried about Luna. If we didn’t make it and she got hurt, I’d never be able to forgive myself. Another hour passed, at least, it felt like it, and we were still staggering. Our water supply was dangerously low. While each of us still had at least one bottle left, it wouldn’t be enough to get us back to the ship. We needed to head back. I cursed myself under my breath. I refused to head back. We had to press forward.

But was that right for me to do? Did I really have the right to force everyone to follow me like this? I wanted to see my parents so badly that it put us all in danger. For the first time on this quest, I felt like a damned fool. My priorities had never been this bad.

I thought about how I had taken every precaution for this journey. Taking careful analysis of every situation we came, or might have come, up against. And now, that we were so close to our goal. After everything we had gone through, we had finally come into a situation where we might not make it out.

Because of a combination of heat, distance and poor planning, it's beginning to look like we were almost about to die from heat exhaustion.

No. Not Luna. Not today. She was going to make it out. If the three of us pooled our resources to Luna’s pack, she would make it back to the airship. If somepony was going to make it out of this alive, Luna had to be the one.

I had just made up my mind, when suddenly a sound came to my ear. It was a rushing sound followed by a thunderous crash. It nearly escaped my hearing. I picked myself up off the ground and race towards the sound. I think I heard Luna call out to me, but I wasn’t paying any attention. Perhaps it was because I was hoping against hope. Perhaps my mind was yelling for what I thought it was.

As I passed through another section of the grassy area, I could hear the sound growing closer. Cutting through the jungle, my eyes widened at the sight that I beheld. A glorious spring that seemed to shine as I set my eyes upon it. The thunderous waterfall fell into the little pool below, the sound of falling water overpowering the insects around us.

A smile spread across my face as a loud cheer came from my throat. Luna and Bullseye appeared behind me with the same overjoyed expression that I had. Our luck was finally turning around.

After filling up our bottles with as much water as we could, and having our fill of it, I decided to go for a quick dip to sooth my body. The water wasn’t too warm, but it wasn’t too cold either. Perhaps it was because of the humidity in the jungle. Either way, I didn’t care. It was just water. That is what we needed the most.

I sat in the pool, clothes and all, minus my bags, thinking to myself how fortunate we were. If this spring hadn’t been there or we would have missed it, we wouldn’t have made it back. At the very least, Luna would have been safe. That was all that mattered.

But what if something did happen and Luna was in trouble? What if she got hurt on this journey? She already suffered from those pirates, who did god-knows-what to her. I couldn’t imagine how frightened she was, how terrified she must have been. It was something I tried not to think about.

And yet, as I sat in the pool, the tepid water soaking me, I found myself thinking about it more than ever. I should have never allowed Luna to come with me. Whether it was her choice or not, had I known she would have to go through all this, I probably wouldn't have let her come.

After a quick swim, I filled up the bottles plus the bladder in my bag. I gave two to Bullseye, and two to Luna. I kept the largest one in my satchel for cooking with later on, and I took small mouthfuls of water every twenty minutes. I suggested everyone do the same.

Every couple hours, I had Luna fly above the canopy to check the position of the sun. When it began to get into the afternoon, I had her take me up to see how much sunlight we had left before needing to set up camp. Sure, Celestia raised the sun and Luna raised the moon, but they're on a cycle of sorts. When Celestia raised the Sun, it follows a pre-determined path across the sky until it hits the horizon, then the cycle of the sun comes to an end. At that point, she uses her magic to fully lower the sun to make way for the moon. The in-between doesn't need magic.

Anyway, there’s a little trick to check how much daylight you've got left in the day if you don't know how to read clocks, make a sun-dial, or have a watch. I have a watch, I just don't want to go digging through my bag to find it and risk losing something in the process, but, I digress. Hold your hand up to the sun, sideways, between the bottom off the sun and the horizon. The number of fingers there is, for example six, means that there is an hour and a half until sun-down. We're in the clear, I've got eight fingers, or two hours. Fifteen minutes per finger. So that means we should have enough time to clear a small area, set up shelter and have a fire going to cook.

I managed to use my magic, rather the gem in my arm, to pick up all the dead leaves, sticks and stones that littered the floor and made a nice little clearing in five minutes as opposed to what would have taken upwards of ten minutes. The magic was difficult to perform and yet it was a simple task of clearing debris from our camping spot. I felt it would have been easier to move them all by hand rather than magic. The strain it put on me felt like a boulder crushing my arm. But, Luna said I ought to practice my magic. She was right. I did need the practice. If I was going to protect her, I needed to know how to use magic to better myself. So, I persevered.  

As the debris started to clear, I found myself thinking about the firewood. How long had we been in this stupid forest? A day? I lost track of time, I suppose. I don't know why I didn't use it yesterday when I was gathering wood. Stupid me.

I couldn’t blame myself too harshly for that. There were more pressing matters on my mind and I only just discovered these magical powers that I could now utilize.  

I had Bullseye go and get wood for a fire while I began work on making a shelter. It wasn't much, just a two-metre by three-metre slate made out of strung together straight branches propped up by a couple sticks with leaves thrown over the top and underneath for insulation. The idea is to keep us covered, but still allow for room to move around in.

Bullseye came back with ample amounts of wood tied together in bundles. How an earth pony, for lack of a better word to call him, manages to tie a knot without hands or magic is beyond me. He couldn't bring back larger wood, so I went in to get some more manageable logs. Not the huge ones from yesterday that took me an hour to cut. I've got the time, in a sense, but not the energy, I only bought a finite amount of food to last us Celestia-knows how long. The logs I found were of varying sizes, some twice as long as others, but I had no problem cutting those.

The food was another issue. If we didn’t find this place, we would need food to keep us going. However, I thought about the animals we could eat in the jungle. There were birds all around us, I could hear them chirping. However, I doubted that Luna and Bullseye would go for that kind of thing, so I dismissed it from my mind.

I wondered what kinds of plants were edible in this jungle, if any. If so, I had no way to identify them. I sure as hell wasn’t an expert in plants and I’m pretty sure Luna wasn’t either. Bullseye? Maybe. I honestly didn’t know much about him to make heads or tails out of him. He seems loyal, that much was clear, but as far as what he knew, that was still a mystery to me.

I dismissed it from my mind, figuring that we would figure out something and made my way back to camp. I got a fire going, eventually, with just enough wood to keep the fire going until morning broke. We'd need to get up and go early if we want to make enough ground. I emptied my billy can of its contents into my bag with the rest of the food I bought with me, half filling it with some water, pasta, then adding a couple smaller packets of a thick tomato soup to mix into the cooked pasta to make macaroni soup.

I served up Luna and Bullseye a portion and we sat around the fire in the middle of the growing darkness, the clinking of spoons on metal being the only noises for now. At least, within our little confines.

Inside it, I was still arguing with myself about the wisdom of bringing Luna along. About endangering everypony around me. Sure, we got lucky this time. But what about next time? What if we weren’t so lucky and Luna was hurt, or worse?

The thought seemed to overtake everything else in my mind. I could barely concentrate on the food in front of me, no matter how good it tasted. Luna finally took note.

“Father, are you unwell?” She asked.

Her voice snapped me out of my trance as I looked up to her, laying across from me. I gave her a weak smile. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Luna lowered her head and glanced away. “It’s just that… you have yet to touch your food.”

I looked down and saw my meal staring straight at me as if to tempt me from my thoughts, even for a few precious minutes. I gave a fake chuckle, hoping that it would fool Luna into thinking I was alright. “I’m fine, Luna. Just... thinking about stuff.” Finally, my food reaches my mouth as I dig at it, hoping that maybe it will keep my mind off what has happened, even for a moment.

Eventually, Bullseye finished his dish and put it to the side, being silent for a few minutes until he finally spoke up. "Since we're in the middle of the jungle, how's about we tell scary stories?"

I was grateful that Bullseye broke the silence. It was getting to me. It was causing me to think about what I could have done better. Any conversation would be a great relief from my own mind.

"I don't really know any scary stories. Luna might, since she watches over dreams. You're bound to have seen a few bad dreams, right?" I reply. I turn to Luna, still carrying a smile on my face. I wasn’t sure if Luna had bought my lie from earlier or not, but she certainly didn’t question it.

She shook her head. "I don't give people bad dreams, nor do I prevent them. I just simply give them good dreams, so they don't have bad ones."

"So... Does that mean no scary stories?" Bullseye almost sounded disappointed.

Luna pointed a hoof at me while looking at Bullseye. "Father knows some good stories." She turned to look at me. "You used to tell me lots of bed time stories when I was a filly!" Her smile grew into a heartwarming nostalgic memory.

I scratched the back of my head. Her smile made me feel a little better. Seeing her bright face with such an innocent look on her face almost made me sigh. And yet, at the same time, did it make me feel worse, to see her innocent face in the face of such peril? Hell, I couldn’t tell. "You mean like the one about Ugly the Cat?"

“Nooooo!” she winced. Her voice squeaked like a rubber duck back home. It sent a tingle up my spine as her cute little voice that reminded me of the little filly that looked up to me a long time ago.  "That story, while good, was so sad!"

Bullseye's gaze turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you tell a story about an ugly cat to somepony so young?"

"It's a story with a moral. At the time, I was trying to teach her the value of being kind and nice. It worked out for the most part."

Luna scowled at me. “What do you mean ‘the most part’?!”

My voice chuckled and my face delivered a nervous smile. “It’s just an expression.

Luna gave a disapproving grunt. Being a smartass is a love-hate kind of thing.

Bullseye let out a chuckle. That didn’t seem to improve Luna’s disposition very much as she gave him a dirty glance. "I'm intrigued. If you wouldn't mind recounting the story for me?"

I sighed and began to tell him the story. Mind you, when I told the story to Luna as filly I left out all the... bad stuff. I told her I am going to tell the story how it was originally written; with everything included and not watered down for a child's hearing. I began by reciting it from my memory as best as I possibly could, recounting how the person whom originally wrote it always saw an ugly cat roaming the alleys.

As I told the story, I continually remembered how Luna would always want me to tell that story again and again. Every time she did, I would always think about the more disturbing aspects of the story. Would she like the story as much if she knew the truth about it? The truth I had always been keeping from her. I know she was a child, but was it still the right story to tell a child? Looking back, maybe it wasn’t. But, she turned out just fine. So, maybe, I was being hard on myself.

By the time I finished telling the story, Luna was looking at me with a pained expression almost like she was about to cry. It broke my heart a little.

"Remember, I left out the gross bits because you were young. What did you think?" I said, turning my gaze to Bullseye, who is looking at me dumbfounded.

"I... Don't know what to say. It's heart-wrenching, but it teaches a valuable lesson at the same time." He didn't sound very empathetic. It made me wonder about his demeanor as a whole. I thought about how little we actually knew about him. It was clear he was keeping secrets from us, mostly about him and his motives. Whatever he was up to, if he was out for Luna, I would take him out.

"Okay then, tell us one of your, 'scary' stories." I used air quotes when I said scary. Ponies used hoofs when they said that kind of thing. Either way, it denotes sarcasm. When I think back on it, it makes me wonder how they can stand on their back two legs while doing air quotes with their front hooves without falling forward and face-planting.

He gave a devious grin. "One day this mare went to foal-sit some fillies-"

"And she kept getting calls or messages telling her to check on the kids?"

"How did you-"

"We had a similar story back on Earth!" He harrumphed and Luna just giggled. "Let me tell you a scary story. One day this woman went to babysit these kids for a couple while they went out on a date night. After a while she put the kids to bed and turned on the television."

"What's a television?"

I realized that this story wasn’t going to hold much weight if he didn’t realize what a television was. It was going to be completely lost on him, but I didn’t really have any other ideas. So, instead of bowing out, I moved on.

"A box with moving pictures. Luna could make you dream of one tonight if you remember much of them." She nodded. "Anyway, after a while watching TV and going to check on the kids every so often, she noticed a stone angel statue staring at her from the corner of the dining room, in the other room opposite her. It kept bothering her, so she called the parents and asked if she could cover it up or move it somewhere else. Do you know what they said?"

"...No?"

"Take the kids and get out of the house. We don't have an angel statue." Bullseye's eyes widened and Luna just shot me a horrified look. I continued the story. “The children ran out of the house with all speed, turning their backs to the angel. As they ran, they heard the sitter scream. The children turned around, seeing only angel statue standing proudly, no dead body in sight. It looked so welcoming, with its arms wide open and its gentle face. It was anything but.

“For you see,” as I leaned forward towards the campfire, “these angels were evil. These angels sought the destruction of others. But they could only move when someone wasn’t looking at them. The children notice the statue move several meters towards them, as they eyes shut for a mere moment. In a frightened panic, they ran down the street, screaming. That’s when they saw another angel statue. It was still and lifeless, but it had the same welcoming arms and same tranquil face. They blinked, and the statue grew closer.

“Faster and faster, the children ran, but the angles were always catching up to them. They sprinted down an alleyway hoping to avoid the creature’s grip. However, they ran into a dead end. They turned around to see the statues, gathered at the entrance to the alley. The children shivered in terror as waiting for them to make their move. They blinked, and he statues moved several meters, coming closer to them, their welcoming features still dominant.

“They waited until the statues moved to run. However, as they gazed upon them, they were as still as stone. They blinked and the statues moved again, their faces now with sharpened fangs and demonic eyes. The children closed their eyes fearing that the end was near. Little did they know that to survive, all they had to do was keep their eyes open. But, when they opened them again, they found themselves standing in a completely alien place centuries in the past.”

I looked over to see Luna shivering, her head buried in her shoulders. "Please tell me that wasn't real?" begged Luna. "You remember showing me that episode and you know it scared me! I was just a filly at the time! Well, older than a filly, but that's beside the point!"

"Doctor Who? Of course they're not real. Well, at least not from what we've seen. They could be, but we don't know because we haven't seen them. Or at least no one lives to tell their encounter with them." The two of them looked utterly horrified, and I just gave them a shit-eating grin before laughing to myself. "I think you might want to make sure Bullseye doesn't have nightmares when he falls asleep!"

"Thank you very much, hyooman. I already offered to take up first watch tonight because you did the last one, now I'm going to be jumping at everything that moves."

"Just remember one thing."

"What?"

"Don't blink!" A smug grin appeared on both mine and Luna's face, and I just began laughing hard. He shot me the most venomous look ever. "Besides, you've got your spears and arrows. You'll be alright."

He heaved a sigh before turning his back to Luna and me. I couldn’t help but laugh. Here he was trying to be tough and a simple story made him shiver in terror. Admittedly, the Weeping Angels, as they were called, were pretty terrifying. I guess one could only imagine what his imagination was conjuring up.

I barely remembered to tear out a page from the journal and scribble a note telling Sky and Ratchet that we made good ground and that we're settled down for the night. I left out the parts about the how much danger we would have been in if we hadn’t been so lucky had we not found the spring. However, I did make sure to give them details about how to travel and what to expect if they made the unlikely decision to trek from the ship.

I had Luna send it to Ratchet, and not ten minutes later we got a reply back saying they had cleaned out everything from the ship, and tomorrow they're going to begin strengthening the supports. My heart felt relieved to hear from them, especially so soon. They were making good progress, and hopefully, after we found the Breach, we’d be on our way back home.

We both curled up on the pile of leaves covered by the tarp I used the other day. It was a makeshift mattress, so sue me. I was tired from staying up all night last night, so I was asleep faster than you could say so.

The next morning, I got woken by shouting.

I bolted upright as my senses tried collecting themselves before setting upon Bullseye and Luna staring each other down and screaming something at each other. “Irresponsible! That’s what that is!” Luna shouted.

“Look, I’m sorry. I dozed off before I knew it,” Bullseye replied.

Luna shook her head violently. “And that is an excuse?! You put us all in danger!"

Bullseye shook his head. “I said I was sorry!”

“Is that supposed to comfort us when we are bleeding out from Celestia-knows-what is out there?!”

I got up and walked over to remedy the situation. "Woah, woah, woah! What the hell is going on?"

Luna turned her gaze to me. "When I got up to lower the moon, I found him sleeping!"

My head turned, slowly, to look down at Bullseye. "Is this true?" He looked down in shame and nodded. "I'm going to tell you another story." He audibly gulped. I put my hand under his muzzle and lifted it up to look in his eyes and began talking in an almost threatening tone. "Back on Earth, there was an ancient city called Rome. Whenever this city has fighting going on, it sent out troops toscout ahead, and they often made camp. The leader of this camp would always put people on guard. One night, one of the guards came storming into the tent of one of the officers telling him he had a dream that they were going to be attacked. That very night they were, but, because of the guard's warning, they managed to fend off the attackers."

"What happened to the guard?"

"Protocol dictated he got put to death."

"WHAT!? But his vision saved lives!"

"That maybe so, but do you know why he had that vision?" The color drained from his face. "That's right, he was sleeping. The punishment for being caught sleeping while on guard duty was death. By way of answer, he turned himself in. I don't like killing things, but for you I won't. You're only here because you saved us back at the library. But if you fall asleep again, I'm going to hog tie you and leave you to fend for yourself. Just remember; there's no official record of you ever going on this voyage." I ended that sentence with a firm poke on his chest. "Pack your things, we're moving out."

Luna's mouth hung open, but I just turned away from them both and put out the fire. And when I say put out the fire, I mean peed on it. Then I buried the embers so they wouldn't accidentally ignite anything else. We ate breakfast in silence, and Bullseye looked rather shaken while eating. After cleaning up and dismantling the campsite, we kept walking north-west.

The only sounds I could hear were the birds and the various insects still pestering me. But I was hardly paying attention to them. My thoughts were on Bullseye. That idiot could have gotten us killed. He could have gotten Luna killed. I’d had never forgiven him if something bad happened to Luna because of his negligence. I’d've probably killed him on the spot.

Part of me hoped that was just my anger talking. That, after a moment to cool off, I’d be fine. But he did endanger my daughter. My little Luna. That was unacceptable.

I checked my watch which I put on the strap across my chest. The strap that otherwise would go around my wrist broke not long after I came to Equestria, and there wasn't any leather around town or that I could get a hold of to replace the strap. We were walking in silence for two hours before Luna came up beside me and started talking.

"You... weren't being serious about leaving him behind if he fell asleep again, were you?"

I gave a curt,  stiff nod. I hated the idea of leaving him behind. He was a good warrior, but he endangered us with his negligence. That was something I couldn’t allow. I was too careful for that. "I wouldn't hesitate to as much as I don't like the idea. People that hindered the group or posed any sort of threat were often left behind. They weren't needed if they proved to be as useless like that."

"I... understand, I suppose." She didn’t sound convinced, like she wouldn’t do the same given the situation. Yet, she was the one who was yelling at him. And when I threatened Bullseye, she became very quiet and very reserved. It wasn’t like her at all. Did she… disagree with me? I’m not sure I liked that.

"Not to place blame elsewhere, but if he was asleep surely he would've been dreaming, and you could have woken him up. Just saying." She seemed saddened by that, so I knelt down and gave her a soft hug. "Sorry. I guess I was still annoyed a bit."

Luna put her leg around me to return the hug. "It's alright, I understand." I couldn’t tell if it was meant to convince me or not. Maybe it was still the anger swirling around in my head. I hoped it was. Luna needed to know that I would always protect her. I didn’t want to her to question that. I needed her to trust me, like she had before.

Bullseye kept walking past us, getting a few meters ahead before I heard him stop. "Princess?" He called. "You might want to come take a look at this."

We needed only turn around. I didn't notice it before because my mind was elsewhere, and it was covered in enough brush to easily miss without a second glance. Bullseye only found it because he was too busy watching his footing and bumped into it.

It stood over fifteen feet tall, a seamless stone slab with rounded edges and corners. The image carved into it, a sight to behold. Straining my neck to look up at it, I began pulling vines and leaves off of it to fully reveal it. It bore the image of an alicorn with flared wings standing on hind legs reared up as if it's about to stomp something on the ground. The details of the carving are exquisite; sharp angled spirals and odd looking markings covered the body, almost like a circuit-board diagram. I couldn't tell if the carving is of a mare or stallion, it seemed to be a gender neutral for whatever reason. That, or I simply don't know what it's supposed to be.

I took out my chunky bushcraft knife and used the pommel to tap at the stone. A few pieces flew off. "It's just normal stone by the looks of it. Luna, can you scan it to see if there's something magical about it?"

She stepped forward and her horn lit up, moving her head up and down the stone slab in a scanning motion. She stepped back with a neutral expression. "It's just stone from what I can tell. Everything around here radiates magic, so it messes with my magic to a degree. Unless the ambient magic is covering up any magic that is in the stone, it's just a normal slab of stone."

I put the knife back in its sheath. "So what do you think it means then?"

"It's ancient, that much is certain. Most likely carved by the inhabitants long past."

"Do you think we'll find remnants or artifacts of them?" asked Bullseye

I gave him a puzzled look. "Firstly, it's a possibility, but there would have to be ruins between us and where we're going so that much seems unlikely. Secondly, why would you want their artifacts?"

He shrugged. "No reason. It's always interesting to see what past civilizations left behind."

With a smile I said, "That's pretty much the backbone of reason behind archeology and why they do it. That, and to better understand exactly how past generations did this and that. Back on Earth, people would say all sorts of retarded things about how the ancient built things. Some claimed aliens built them, some said wizards. The consensus was that people found the construction of these buildings so hard to grasp they had to believe there was outside intervention. But as science progressed, it pretty much destroyed conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory."

I pulled out the diary I've been detailing this adventure in and scribbled a quick drawing of the figure on the stone. It wasn't good by any means, but I didn't want to stay in one place too long and it's something I can cross-reference in the journal we got from The Library later on when we make camp for the night.
> 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.
> XII.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I got to a portion of the book where it had depictions of various buildings. Some looked strangely familiar, some didn't. Then I got to a depiction one of the buildings looked like the one we're in.

With renewed intrigue, I kept reading. I say that very loosely though, I'm just looking at the pretty pictures at this stage. The drawing had the door, and on the next page had some kind of orb atop a pedestal. I looked to the end of the room to see there is such a thing present, but no orb.

I wasn’t sure what the orb could possibly be for, what is was, but as I glanced at the next page, I began to realize that there might be more to this orb than I originally thought.

Turning the page, I saw an image of some kind of humanoid figures holding this orb. I had more questions than answers at this stage, I want to know where the humanoid influences for these drawings came from. What was the orb? What was so important about it? How does it connect with the rest of the... temple, is it?

Under that, a depiction of a chest of some description. What did the chest have to do with anything? I kept looking back at the stone pedestal at the end of the room and back to the book several times before Luna saw what I was doing.

"Something wrong with your neck?" she asked.

"Well no, it's just that..." I showed her the pages. "This looks like the door to the building we're in. And this," I turned the page. "Is the same pedestal at the end of the room. What do you notice about it?" Her gaze shot between it and the page, then I pointed out the drawing underneath. "This is a chest. I'm assuming it's what they kept the orb from the drawing in, but it's not on the pedestal as you can see. And where are chests that have valuable items in them usually kept?"

She cocked her head and made an idle comment in passing, "We usually keep anything of value in vaults underneath Canterlot."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that's where Celestia kept the treasury for Canterlot—and possibly Equestria, too.

It took a while for what Luna said to sink in. Her eyes widened and I stemmed her growing desire to jump up and run off to find some sort of treasure room underneath this place.

"Calm down, sweetie," I said with a smile, "let's both go looking together." I got one of the flashlights from my bag and turned it on. Thankfully, it still has a wide beam from back in the library. I shined it around the place to get a better look. It's surprisingly well-preserved for how old it is—however old that is.

Everything in this building was screaming at me to recognize it, something deep down in my bones was telling me that I should know this kind of architecture. Arched windows and doors, the stone and brick construction... Like a child shouting for its parent, I felt that there was something I should know about it.

And yet, I wasn’t even sure where we were anymore.

We headed down one of the doors off to the side of the end of the room after telling Bullseye we're going to take a look around. I just hope he's not tempted to 'rest his eyes' because we're not there. I made sure to emphasize that before we left.

Luna and I went through the stone archway of the door-less door, down a corridor that lead off to the immediate left of the door, and down a long hallway dotted with even more doors. We checked each door as we went, but not finding anything but scraps of whatever had decayed in that room; small animals scurrying around, wood/furniture, or some other smears and unidentifiable masses I probably don't want to think about.

We got to the end of the hallway, the door had long since fallen from its hinges by whatever means and rotted away (I wondered how the other doors would keep) and descended down a flight of spiraling stairs until we came up on a pitch-black room. The flashlight illuminated the room though, and I saw four, unlit fire-torches. Two on each wall at opposite ends, and at the end of a room was nothing. Nothing, save a ring set into the stone brick wall with an iron handle bisecting it. I took out a lighter and went to light each of the torches. It took a few moments for them to catch, and then the torches burst to life, their flames hypnotically dancing in the air around us.

I turned off the flashlight and pocketed it along with the lighter, turning my attention back to the handle and wall. It's just a simple looking handle with a ring to frame it. What's so special about it, and where's the chest? I looked to and from the book and the wall, but nothing else was written there. The instructions were probably written in that damned dead language. I reached out and put my hand on the ring, but one of my fingers hit another rod behind it, running perpendicular to the handle. I felt around for any sort of seem between the two pieces of metal and couldn't find one. These two pieces of iron were probably forge-welded.

I gave the handle a push and nothing happened. I pulled it out with a hard tug, and it slid out with ease, the sound of various stones—and possibly metal—clinking together, blatantly letting us know we triggered some kind of mechanism.

A shiver slid up my spine. I couldn’t help but feel that something bad was going to happen. "Get ready to run, Luna, this could be a trap." She nodded.

I pushed the handle back in, but nothing happened. This time, I pulled it back out and tried twisting it left, then right. The handle turned to the right and I heard more noises boom and resonate from the walls. I tried pushing the handle back in, and that's where things got interesting.

A section of the brick wall jumped forward with a centuries old hiss, dust billowing from the seems and settling on the ground. I looked back to Luna with a mixture of surprise and curiosity on my face. She gestured back towards the wall. I put my hands on the sides of the stone-brick that came out and stared pulling. It came out with a generous amount of coaxing and tugging. When it finally fell free, I buckled under the weight of the brick, catching it in my arms and almost falling on my ass. With a grunt and strain, I put the... Box? on the ground and gazed in the opening cut into the top, only just illuminated by the flickering orange glow of the torches.

Inside lay a small, spherical object wrapped in some kind of cloth, bound and tied with twine.

I picked it up and scrutinized it before pulling the knot free by a loose strand of the twine, letting the string and cloth cascade down over my hands to reveal the glistening golden orb inside. Luna and I shot each other 'What the hell is this thing?' looks before we looked back to it. I turned it over in my hands looking for markings of any sort, but all I could see were six dots about the size of fingers. Four of them were arranged in a square, with the fifth sitting above the other four, and the sixth on the bottom opposite the other five. I tried pressing them but nothing happened. A pony couldn't press these buttons.

"What do you suppose it is, Luna?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the pedestal upstairs?"

She nodded at that, and we followed the stairs back up top. I left the brick-box on the floor, and the torches burning, mainly because I didn't know how to put them out, nor did I have a means to. I figured I'd let them burn out. Besides, this building is made of stone. How is it going to burn down?

When we got back up top, I called out to Bullseye to come inside and showed him what we found. He asked what it was—not surprisingly—so I showed him the pages in the book. We went over to the stone pedestal at the end of the room, and stood behind it facing the entrance to the building. Then, I noticed something I missed. Not surprising when this whole building is overgrown with weeds. The moonlight was shining especially bright tonight, and as a result I saw a little blue glint from behind some weeds atop the door's archway.

"What is that?" asked Bullseye.

I shrugged. "Not a clue." Holding the orb... thingy, I sat it on the pedestal. Nothing happened. I kept rotating it to no avail, then I lifted it up and looked into the small dish it sat in and saw a little raised nub. Maybe that's where the button on the base is supposed to go? Well, I don't have anything to lose in this case, so I put the little button on the nub and press down on everything.

Again nothing happened. I growled, frustrated. At that point I nonchalantly rotated the orb on the spot until it clicked into place—much to my surprise—and a beam of white light shot out and hit the gem that sat atop the door frame. The bean was strong enough to char and burn through any weeds in its way. The door itself is what changed. A pool of white something flowed down over the door, turning it into a mirror from which we could see ourselves reflected in.

We all stared in awe until Luna broke the silence. "Try pushing one of the buttons on top." she said, clearly mesmerized by the door-turned mirror.

I pushed the button on the bottom right, but nothing happened. I looked at the buttons more, and noticed something in passing. I pulled out the map from my back pocket and folded it to the section of the five islands.

"See here?" I pointed to the islands and to the top of the orb.

"Five islands..." began Luna.

Bullseye finished with, "Five buttons."

"One button for each island." I pushed the button at the top and the mirror rippled to give a view of a lush island strewn with flowers and brightly colored flora. I pushed the button down the bottom left, and the mirror rippled again, but all I saw is an inky black curtain, then  dozens of pairs of red eyes started appearing.

NOPE!!! I quickly pushed the same button again and the mirror rippled once more, showing a different scene. It's dark where ever that last place was, as it is for us now. Although why the scenery was brightly lit on the first button, I don't know.

I pushed the bottom left button another three times with moderate speed before it skipped past one image that made my gut drop. I frantically pounded the button like the fist of an angry god (much to the humour and confusion of Luna and Bullseye) until I found it, and when I did...

I stared back at the mirror, at first unsure of what I saw. The grey stones were weathered from what we could see, atop the steeple was a cross, the left edge of the building seemed to have turned to rubble, crumbling away from the rest of the building. My heart raced as I ran at the mirror, leaving Bullseye and Luna behind as I tumbled through the mirror. I found myself standing in the middle of the now-familiar architecture.

"Father?" Luna asked, stepping out from the mirror. I heaved a pained sigh as I nostalgically placed a hand upon the wooden door, not entirely unfamiliar from the last one.

I turned down to look at Luna. "Could you... open the doors? Gently, please." Her aura enveloped the door, and the rotted doors swung inward with the sound of rusty nails running down a chalkboard—the hinges were that old.

I took out my flashlight, turned it on, and stepped inside.

What greeted me was the sight which I never would have expected on this planet in this universe.

Bones.

But these weren't just any bones, these were human bones. The skulls looked like they're human, at least to me. They littered the room, as did various arrows protruding—more like leaning between the bones of the ribs, and other once fleshy limbs. Some arrows lay on the floor around the skeletons, and I swear I saw one sticking out the side of some poor bastards skull.

I didn't know what to say or do at this point. My gaze turned from the littered remains to the end of the room which stood a carving of Jesus Christ on a cross. A single piece of seamless stone, carved into the likeness of a historical figure and set into the walls. It made me wonder how long these people were here before they...

Luna came up behind me, and audibly gasped when she saw the remains of the dozen or so bodies with arrows sticking out of them. She went back to the doors and closed them, and I heard her mumble something to Bullseye about waiting outside the doors for a few minutes.

From what I could see, their clothing seemed to be from the sixteenth or seventeenth century. I got to the end of the room and I saw something unexpected lying next to one of the skeletons. An old, old rifle. I picked it up and looked it over with the flashlight. It looked like an old matchlock rifle. These things began to go out of style in the early sixteen-hundreds! The pan and pan cover was still here, the serpentine, and a grimy old match still in the serpentine. This must have belonged to someone important, seeing how there were no others laying around As I looked it over, I saw how the wood hadn't decayed much, if at all. Its owner must have taken good care of it to last this long.

I put the rifle back down to the body, tapping my forehead, chest, and shoulders to make a cross out of respect for this individual. I'm not religious by any means, but if someone is it doesn't mean I can't pay them respect in their customs. They deserved that much dignity.

I turned back to look at some of the bones more closely. Some of them were black, brown, and green with various kinds of grime and moss while others were pierced and scratched with arrows or spears, this was a battle with no winner.

I looked around for something—anything—to tell me what the people here called this place. I got up and carefully stepped over and around the remains when I got to the altar at the end of the room, spying rosary beads on the altar. I picked them up, glancing down the room at Luna and saw a sign above the door. I shone my light on it, and the word made my heart skip a beat.



New Roanoke.



"Roanoke..."  I said, walking back down to the end of the room where Luna stood. A quote from a movie long forgotten rang through my head. What once was lost may finally be found.

"Father, we should go. We have a mission to finish. This place makes me uneasy."

"Luna, when this is done, we need to come back. We need to learn what happened and..." I trailed off, whispering; "bury the dead. They deserve the dignity."

"Of course we shall. Who are they, though?" Luna questioned, looking uncomfortable around all the death.

"Let’s go back to the other building. I don't like it here anymore than you do. I'll tell you there."

We went back out the closed door, carefully shutting it behind us so Bullseye couldn't get a peek in.

"What was all that about?" he said.

I just shook my head and walked past him. I didn’t think seeing so much death would affect me so. And now, out of nowhere, I suddenly have no idea what to think.

"And what's up with him?"

Luna shot him an extremely evil look that told him more than I dared say. We went back through the mirror, and I removed the orb from the pedestal, effectively turning off the mirror, and put it in my satchel.

"Father, if I may ask?"

I cleared my throat before talking, taking a swig of water.

"People talk a lot about humans who disappear under mysterious circumstances. If I remember correctly, we called one of the 'The Lost Colony of Roanoke'. One day in the year 1588AD on Earth, there was a colony of people living ordinary lives with their friends, family, crop and livestock. Then one day, just... poof. The people just vanished, up and left without a trace, no signs of struggles, no bodies, they literally just vanished overnight. It was like they just up and left everything they owned.

"To this day on Earth, no one knows what the hell happened, but I think we just found out where they ended up." We shared a collective silence for a tense minute. "Although how a colony of hundreds of people vanished overnight and ended up on that island, we will never know. There was one thing that stuck out as obscenely odd. On one of the trees was carved the word; 'Croatoan'."

"What does that mean?" asked Bullseye.

I shrugged, not entirely sure but gave my best answer. "The Coroatoans were a tribe of natives that lived in the area."

"Maybe they joined that tribe? Or maybe that tribe dragged them off somewhere?"

I just snorted. "Bullseye, if you saw what Luna and I did then you wouldn't have said that."

"So what do you want to do now?"

"Tomorrow we go back to the church and respectfully bury them. I doubt they would have died with much dignity considering what happened to them. I owe them that much; being from my world and all."

When, or rather, if I get back to Earth, at least I'll have a log of what happened to them. It'll be my word only though. When I say it like that, people are going to think I'm insane. Note to self; Take evidence. Now I just need to find something to take back too. Maybe if I took back the 'New Roanoke' sign?

We settled down for the night, but I didn't get a good night’s sleep by a long shot. My mind was full of what could have happened to the Colonists.

Why the hell would I have such a reaction to their death? It made no sense, even to me. I didn’t know them, didn’t care much about them, despite knowing of them. I had never even given them any thought until now. So, what in the nine circles of hell made me upset so much over learning their death? They had been dead for hundreds of years and even if they hadn’t, who knows if the they would have lasted this long anyway.

I think I was more concerned with my reaction to Roanoke, to tell the truth.

Normally I'm a heavy sleeper, but after the fact of my worries I kept tossing and turning against the ground trying to get comfortable. It wasn't long before I woke up and went out to the door to see what Bullseye was up to.

I found him seated on a couple of large bricks, and off in the distance are a couple of forms with spears sticking out of them. I leaned on the stone door frame looking out at them, barely illuminated by the fire. I stoked it with a bit more wood and turned to Bullseye.

I pointed to whatever it is they were and asked, "What are those things?"

He jumped around in shock and almost fell off his seat. "Oh sweet Celestia! Don't sneak up on me like that, dude!"

"When you're sitting in the jungle alone during the dead of night, you'll jump at pretty much anything that makes a rustling noise." He didn't respond. "Now, what are those?"

"Timber wolves."

"You know, I've always wandered about them; how do they even live if they're made of nothing but wood? For that matter, how did you kill them?"

He shrugged. "Not entirely sure. All I know is that there's some sort of magic that uses inanimate objects and makes constructs out of them. A wooden golem of sorts."

"So... How do you kill them?"

"They seem to go down easily enough like everything else."

"How does that even make sense?" I swear, the more time I spend around magic the less sense it makes. Like Pinkie. Pinkie Pie is a mare that often gets on your nerves every once and a while. Sometimes she can be so completely random that you'd lose all sense of rational thought if you attempted to rationalize what she did. She has a sense of humor that can be so juvenile at times, you'd swear she was a six-year-old trapped in an adult body. In most situations, you'd be so annoyed by her that you'd wish you could duct tape her muzzle up. Duct tape is silver, silence is golden.

I just shrugged off the thought, sat down on the grass and leaned against the vine-covered bricks, watching the ambient glow of the fire as it began to grow from the added wood. I've always had a bit of a fascination with fire. Ever since I was a kid I'd take my mums lighter and watch the flame dance from the nozzle. There was an instance when I was at a bible camp that my parents sent me to, and they had a rather large open fire place. A few of us had gathered in there with some snacks and were tossing the refuse into the fire. Fizzy drink cans, candy wrappers and thinks of that ilk, watching them burn with different colored flames.

Then someone ad the not-so-bright-idea of putting an empty deodorant can into the fire, and we cleared out into opposite corners of the room. One tense minute later, and the can shot out and, I shit you not, hit me in the damned shin. It hurt, but not by much though. It was more the surprise than anything. I was holding my shin and hopping around like a pogo stick while the others were laughing with tears in their eyes at my misfortune.

It wasn't long before I caught myself in a smile at the memory, nodding off to a peaceful sleep for the rest of the night.
> XIII.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Have you ever had that perfect moment of waking up? I know I just did.

On Earth, I would often curl up in bed with a nice cool pillow, cuddled up with my Luna plushie while I read some fanfiction on my phone. The following morning, I would just lay in bed half-asleep still cuddling the plush until I wanted to get up. I still had the plushie, but I largely neglected it after I found Luna. Anyway, this is one of those mornings where I would slowly wake up and just idly lay in bed while the sun seeped through the curtains shining ambient sunlight around my room, as opposed to getting a face-full of white light and waking up because of it. That much is unpleasant.

I slowly woke up, taking in a deep breath of the delicious, crisp-morning air, savouring the aroma before exhaling.I sat up to stretch my arms and popped the joints in my back, neck, and arms to loosen them up a bit.

I saw Bullseye asleep across the room from me in a still-dark patch of the room. My mood soured a bit at the sight. I got up with a huff and went to find Luna, whom was outside basking in the glorious morning sun next to the dying fire, still radiating a small amount of heat.

With indifference in my voice I said, "Why's Bullseye asleep? Was he like that when you woke up to lower the moon?"

She just shook her head, a small smile appearing on her face. "No, he was faithful and stayed awake through the night. I told him he could go to bed when I woke up so he could rest for a bit while we... took care of business."

I had forgotten about that. The sourness at seeing Bullseye asleep faded when Luna told me her reasoning, replaced with the empathetic notion of burying people. "We'll have breakfast when he wakes up. When we get to the church, I'll use the gem to pause time while we bury those people. That way we don't lose half the day to digging."

She nodded. "Tis a good plan."

I went back inside and got my pack, and the orb out of the satchel, placing it back on the pedestal and then following the same routine from last night. When the mirror shimmered over to the now-day image of the church, we stepped through. When I got through, I struggled for a few minutes to use the time-gem to pause time, but eventually I got it. I just made sure I had my hand on Luna so the magic would pass to her and not just have me frozen in time. I saw the trees and plants weren't swaying in the wind from the morning breeze, telling me time had indeed stopped.

I had a bit of an internal debate about where to bury them, so I decided at the back of the church seemed appropriate. I went around the back, put the pack down, unzipping one of the compartments and pulling out a collapsible shovel, often referred to as an E-Tool. It has a shovel and a pick-like spike. You'd twist a nut at the top and fold up either the shovel or the pick, and then tighten the nut back. I pulled out both the shovel head and pick into a 'T' shape, and used the pick to get started digging on the firm ground to loosen the dirt before using the shovel head to scoop the loose dirt out.

To save a bit of time, I had the idea of shoveling just one hole then laying all the bones in it, finally covering it back up. It's not as ceremonious as I'd've wanted it to be. Eventually, I dug a hole about three feet deep and six foot long. It took a few hours, less if I had a proper sized spade, but we were stuck in time so time was a non-issue. What appeared to be a few hours only took a few seconds. When the hole was finished, Luna went inside and levitated out the bones with her magic, minus the arrows and spears, neatly laying them in the hole with just barely enough room to spare. She then magicked the dirt back over the hole, letting it fall over the bones as it got packed in.

When everything got done, there was a church stripped bare of its previous inhabitants and respectfully buried. I cut a three foot long stick and a foot long stick, using a couple of zip-ties to hold them together, forming a make-shift cross which I then hammered into the ground with the back of the spade head. I stood over the grave with a sorrowful expression on my face. I tried thinking of words to say, but I came up a little short. Not knowing what to say, I hung my head in respect for a few minutes before another idea came to mind. I asked Luna if she would go back inside and retrieve the placard that is above the door. She nodded and came back out half a minute later, levitating it in her magical grasp.

I pulled the mora knife from the sheath that hung around my neck and began to etch three little letters into the small area underneath the 'New Roanoke' name. When I had finished, I leaned it up against the cross with the new addition visible to those whom would see it.


New Roanoke


R.I.P


I went back inside and picked up the matchlock gun at the end of the room, still on the ground. I asked Luna to put it in her pocket for later if I managed to return to earth. I hadn't entirely figured out the plan on what I planned on saying if I got back to Earth, but I imagined it would make me sound insane. All I'd have is artifacts that people would claim I stole from somewhere and are trying to sell. Fair enough, I suppose. There's only so much you can do to convince someone of something. The most infuriating thing in the universe is losing an argument because the person you're talking to is too stupid to understand what you're talking about. The rifle would be my best, yet futile—chance to convince someone. With the rifle tucked away in Luna's dimensional pocket, I took a minute to cast a long look around the building.

It looked like any other church from Earth. Pews, the podium at the end, all one room. Well, churches usually have more than one room, and it's usually to store things in like the seats or other things. This place might give up some last minute secrets if I went looking for them.

"Hey Luna, what do you say to having a look around before we leave?"

"What is it you are looking for?"

"Nothing in particular, but we might find something interesting."

The first place to look that came to mind was the podium that stood at the end of the room. The minister would stand there and preach to everyone in the congregation, so it's plausible that something might be there. I went up to the decaying wooden construct, and put a gentle hand on it. Almost immediately the wood split under my touch it's that old and worn and ridden with mould. I picked off a large chunk and crumbled it in my hand with ease.

"How long has this place been here?!" I screamed. I saw Luna flinch at my shout and I could tell from her expression she wanted to tell me what happened, but not knowing herself is part of the reason.

With a frustrated kick, I sent the thing flying across the room, exploding in a shower of splinters as it hit one of the long pew seats. I looked at the wood for several seconds before I noticed Luna staring intently at where the podium was. I looked down too, and saw a familiar sight.

Another handle like that in the building we got the orb from.

I crouched over the handle, brushing a hand over it. "I wonder what secrets this one has been holding, eh, Luna?"

She beamed like that of an excited five-year-old when he lays eyes on a new toy, and I say that by way of comparison, loosely speaking. "Are you going to pull it?"

I grinned. Such a perfect setup! "I've been pulling it for a while." I just giggled to myself as I reached down and grabbed the handle, seeing Luna's confused expression as I brace my legs, arms, and back to pull on the handle. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but the ease still caught me off guard and I fell on my ass, much to Luna's amusement.

I picked myself up and remembered to turn the handle right, and doing so elicited more sounds of mechanisms being woken up from centuries of being covered with dust. I pushed it back in, and off to my left a section of wall slid back with a hiss-like opening, sliding back to the left behind the wall itself. This just keeps getting better; more hidden things. This is a treasure hunt come to life!

Luna and I went over to the wall, and I slid out the flashlight I've been using mostly, turning it on, sticking my head through the door and using the light to shine left and right to see if there's anything I should be worried about. To the left is just a dead end stopping two metres from the wall, and the right has a passage that goes on for about five metres and then descends into steps from what I could see. After all, the light had to get swallowed by something going down.

With cautious footing, I inched towards the stairs and peered down the steps, craning my neck so to not get too close and risk the steps collapsing into a fun-slide. Luckily there's little more than a dozen and another turn of the corridor going right, and under the church itself. I placed my left hand on the wall, exploring the top step with my right foot to check for any traps and triggers. After about two minutes of testing each brick in the steps on our way down we got to the bottom and let out a thankful sigh.

We went around the corner, and saw another bend right what would put us somewhere under the middle of the church. When we got to that bend, my eyes widened in amazement as the stone-brick construction ended and the floor gave way to a naturally formed cave opening right underneath the church. The moist cave walls (giggity) lead further underground. I had to be careful with my footing on these wet floors strewn with pebbles and other things. I could, as my mother would say, "Fall and break your neck".
The cave went several metres underground, evening out to a wider tunnel/room with a weird-looking stone formation at the end accompanied my stalactites and stalagmites, dripping water with a resounding drip, drip, drip. With the light fixed on the stone at the end of the room, I inched closer with both apprehension and morbid curiosity. Eventually the light painted a better picture for my eyes to see.

It wasn't a rock formation.

Someone had died down here, and the dripping water eventually petrified the bones, depositing more and more minerals over the years. I just stared in horror. We just buried a load of bones so it shouldn't really come as too much of a shock right now, but the sad feeling returned at the sight.

"What in Equestria is that?" asked a horrified Luna.

"Do you know what petrification is?" She shook her head. "You need at least read more. Petrification happens when bone minerals get replaced over time with minerals that make stone grow, like the stone spikes you see around us."

"...Okay?" That sounded more awkward than understanding. "How long does it take?"

"I don't really know. Petrification can take anywhere from five years all the way up to hundreds of thousands and anywhere in between." I knelt down to the stone-coated bones, flicking them in a few places with a nail. "But it depends on how mineral-rich the water is. The richer it is, the less time it takes. I'm no scientist, but I venture that a body in a moist environment like this, and the mineral-rich water, he could have been here anywhere from fifty to six-hundred years." That's just a totally wild speculation based off stuff I learned in passing browsing the internet or watching documentaries, I had no idea nor any means to validate what I said, but it's just to give me some sort of closure/rough guesstimate of how long they've been here.

I looked over the petrified skeleton, poised in a way that indicated whomever this was, died, slouched up against the cave wall with their torso hung forward slightly. I saw something glowing a cosmic-blue, imbued with jagged veins of red underneath the pelvis of the skeleton. Whomever this was, it appeared they died sitting on it. Protecting it, maybe?

I called Luna's attention to it. She was looking at me looking at the skeleton, a 'What are you doing?' look on her face "Hey, Luna, do you see that?" She came over and glanced down through the rib cage to the pelvis below.

"What is that?"

"I don't even know. I can't get it because the stone and bone have 'grown' over it, making retrieval impossible. Can you use magic and teleport it out?"

Her horn lit up and her tongue poked out, as is the tendency to do so while in thought or attempting to act cute. She does that quite often too, but that's a digression for another day. Her aura covered the object and it disappeared with a pop, reappearing with another pop just behind us before it clattered to the ground.

It's pointy. Very pointy. Did I mention sharp? The blue and red material had an extremely fine tip that widened out slightly towards the handle, curving back with a slight bend before it met two sandwiched pieces of wood, wrapped in some kind of string to hold it together. It almost resembled a karambit knife with the cutting edge on the convexed portion of the blade. Those knives looked like ferocious claws, and typically had a ring at the end of the handle for holding in the reverse-grip for fighting. This one had a handle of wooden slabs bound with sinew and hide glut to the tang of the blade.

The blade itself looked like it had been chipped with another stone in the same manner cavemen would knock off flakes of stone with another stone to make both axes, knives, and arrowheads. By no means is it sharp by the standards to which I sharpen my knives, but it could still shiv you if you were on the receiving end of the point. Jagged edges cut too, you know. Serrations, like in some survival knives, are designed purely with that purpose in mind: To cut with jagged edges on material that a straight-blade would have difficulty cutting through. Even if they did chip or get blunt, attacking someone with it would mess them up pretty nicely.

Goddamnit, I'm getting off track again.

I dare not try to see how sharp this thing is, so I pull out a bandana from my bag, wrap it up and hold the cloth together with a rubberband, stashing it back in the bag to look over later. Could this also be one of the artifacts from that roaming room?

Honestly? It's disturbing. How could have several humans have found their way to a universe that was supposed to have existed in a cartoon show!? As much as I want to know, that gut feeling is telling me that I never would. At least not to the degree that I would understand. The multiverse theory is fickle, but not entirely impossible.

I-, no, Luna and I paid our respects to the petrified individual and made our way back to Bullseye. I had no idea how long he had been waiting.

However, when we got back, through the mirror, we found him hunched over a book. No, not the journal we got from the library, but a different book. It looked like a normal hardback.

"Hey, Bullseye, whatcha got there?" I asked.

He didn't even bat an eye. I half expected him to drop it like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Oh, this is just a book I got from the library." he replied nonchalantly. "Although this one is actually readable."

I went over and knelt down beside him to find that indeed it is readable. At least I could only just make out the arcane scribbles. I find it amusing that the only literate people back in the day had handwriting, or, mouth writing as the case might be, this messy. Same goes for old, and ancient scripture from Earth. Even though Bullseye could read it, I couldn't. It's taken me a while to adjust to their way of writing, but fortunately we share the same spoken language.

I shrugged off the book and began cleaning up the campsite, leaving the orb on the pedestal for the time being. When everything got packed away and the fire got put out and its ashes buried, I got out the map and gave it a cursory glance over.

"So, we're here." I pointed to Evisica. "The church is here." My finger moved to Ert. "If the orb does what I think it does, it projects a gateway to these other islands." My fingers tapped  Edonna, Elir, and Eden, respectively. "So that means we just need to use this method to travel between the islands. As it stands, we have no other way to cross between them."

"Why not just skip right to Eden, father?"

"Because we've found a human settlement. There might be another one on subsequent islands. If there are, we might find useful information in them or other artifacts."
"All good points. Which island do we go to next?"

I folded the map up and tucked it back in its protective sleeve, walking over to the pedestal. Bullseye and Luna followed, standing on my left and right respectively. I put my finger on the button representative of Edonna, and pressed it. The mirror rippled over to reveal a scene reminiscent of the jungle we're currently in.

I pressed it again. More jungle. Another press revealed a waterfall. The third and final press revealed something... interesting, shall we say. From the perspective of a river delta snaking through wind-blown, cavernous crevasses carved through rock, stood the strangest looking tree sitting in the middle of a lagoon I had ever seen.
	
> XIV.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The roots twisted and bent around the centre, buried beneath the water from which it grew. No land, all water. Imagine the Grand Canyon with an abundance of water flowing through every nook and cranny of the vast maze, and in the centre of these winding, water-filled paths sat a tree. This tree looked like a mushroom of some screwed-up description. Hundreds of feet tall, appearing to be made up of gnarled roots and vines twisting around each other to form branches rather than solid wood. From the centre upwards the vines bloomed out to form the top of the tree.

But...

The tree top is square, sheared off flat. Almost like a hedge.

From my position on the other side of the mirror-portal, the top has even, perpendicular square sides, and, on the corner facing us, it looked as though a piece had been taken out of it, giving the corner a two-pronged appearance. From the two of the three remaining corners I could see, it didn't appear as though there was more pieces missing. That told me this is the front, and, looking down, this got further accentuated by a cavernous opening at the tree’s base where the roots parted.

Hello ominous entrance. You tempt me like a candy store would a fat kid.

I couldn't tell if there is any solid ground outside of the mirror that we could step onto so we wouldn't fall into the water.

I went forward and poked my head through the portal and looked immediately down. Much to my satisfaction, the portal opened up just slightly back from the waters edge. I managed to gingerly put one foot out onto the edge before the water, and stepping through and put my other foot down on the sand. Any further and I would have fallen into the water. There's what, maybe a foot of sand before the water? I'm going to take a random guess that the portal opens up in random locations. Press a button corresponding to the island on the orb, and portal exits/entrances randomly shuffle around. I could press one button a million times and get a million different exits on the same island. Some would have the same view for sure, but just be a few inches to the left or right, up or down, forward or back.

It's almost like the portal moved along a four-dimensional plane. Up, down, left, right, forward, back, and through time and space itself.

I steadied myself as I exited the portal, crab-shuffling to the left, leaning around and putting my head back through the portal and motioned for the other two to come through, and adding they should be careful not to fall into the water.

Luna decided to be a cheeky little shit and fly through with Bullseye on her back so they wouldn't have to do what I did.

I should have thought of that...

Only once they were through and on dry land did my attention turned to the myriad of scrap wood and grassy knolls behind the portal. I walked behind the portal and found that the portal surface only shimmered from one direction, the opening we came out of and not the back. Knowing full well where the portal is, I put my hand through and saw that it disappeared and looked as though it got cut off. You could walk right through it and not even know. Or accidentally walk into it and end up somewhere completely different.

The wood is from dilapidated, run-down, broken, old boats. Some of the boats are simply lumps of hay and grass tied together with string or twine like the Egyptians used to do. The scrap wood was from more expertly crafted boats that had time and effort put into them We had the idea of taking some of the old grass boats, tying them together and using some of the more fresher grass still growing on the bank to lay underneath for a bit of extra flotation and durability. THere wasn’t enough grass to create a raft big enough for the three of us. We didn't bother with the wood though. The planks were too rotten, small, or otherwise beat-to-hell to be of any use, although a couple of them might make a good paddle.

The next challenge would be crafting a paddle. In a river that doesn't have anything close to resembling a ripple, and there was no breeze this far into the canyon. We couldn't rely on getting blown by the wind into the opening at the base of the tree. I got a long pole, and used the mora knife to dig two holes either side the centre of a few planks of the decaying wood and used a few zip ties to secure them to the pole. I made two, one for myself and one for Luna. It took about an hour to fix up the makeshift boat and craft the paddles.

Before we left a thought occurred to me. "Luna, do you think it would be possible to levitate–slash–teleport the orb through the portal, and bring it with us?"

"It might be. But I'm not sure if the portal will stay open, or if we'll be able to get back that way. Why do you ask?"

"Security, I suppose. Doesn't hurt to have it with us, and I’d rather not leave it behind. Besides, every other time Bullseye was guarding it no one and nothing would try to take it. For whatever reason they'd want to, anyway. Then again those timberwolves he killed could have been after us. Not that anything was either alive or around to. First, lets get the boat in the water."

Luna enveloped the boat in her aura and levitated it onto the water.

Out of reach for myself and Bullseye to get on.

"And how do you expect me to get on now that it's in the water? I can't jump on it from here now, can I?" Luna's horn lit up, and I felt myself suddenly lose a lot of weight, then put it back on not half a second later. When my vision cleared, I found myself standing on the boat. Two seconds later, she teleported Bullseye too and simply flew over to us.

"Hey, Luna? I thought you had trouble teleporting others?"

"This... place, is saturated with magic. I can feel it coursing through me. From each island we've been on, it's gotten progressively stronger. My only thought is whatever is leaking that much magic much be more powerful than anything anyone could have ever imagined. Period."

"That... makes sense, I suppose. Now, the orb?"

She made the orb appear with ease, and I looked back to the shore from which we previously stood. I could not see the portal anymore. "Well, it looks like we're going to need to find another way back."

"Back to where, exactly?" asked Bullseye.

"..." I was dead silent at that moment, so much so that you could hear the ellipsis on my breath. "I had not thought that far ahead. The ship, I guess? Equestria? Home?"

Wherever the hell home might be...

Silence consumed us at that point. No one said anything after my passing comment. I stood at the back of the boat to steer, keeping our direction true to the opening at the base of the tree. Bullseye sat in the middle, and Luna stood up front using one of the paddles in her aura, and began to row us towards the tree. It was largely made in silence, out necks craned skyward to visually study the massive tree.

As we got closer, I could discern some more details about the tree. While vines made up the vast majority of the tree, some of the vine clusters had begun actually fusing together to form thicker branches. Leaves grew from other vines and what could be loosely called the 'branches’. Other vines hung off of various points like a mangrove hangs over a river.

Not knowing how old this thing is bugs me greatly. It must have been growing for thousands of years. If memory serves me correctly, trees grow concentric rings on their main stump at the rate of one per year under the right conditions. The oldest tree on Earth was purportedly about five-thousand years old. It didn't grow these rings every year because of how remote the location was. I'd like to know how long it would take something like this to grow, who planted it—if that was the case, and why. You don't plant something like this in the middle of a maze of water without trying to hide something... big, in every sense of the word.

About half way across the lagoon, we passed under its shadow. The colossal shadow cast by this tree filled me with an overwhelming sense of trepidation, almost as though the shadow itself was weighing down on my very soul, crushing it in a sense.

It took longer than I'd've liked to get to the opening at the base of the tree. That was largely because we took our time rowing, overwhelmed by the presence of the tree.

I heard of a legend on Earth. The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui. In the Scottish Highlands exists a mountain where many have felt dread unlike anything else they have ever experienced. As the fog and mist rolls across the land, they say there lurks a creature huge and terrifying. The creature does not threaten with a display of physical force, the beast instills a suicidal sense of depression, panic, terror, and foreboding. There were some people that said that atop the mountain was a portal, or gateway, to another world, or dimension. If his role really was a gatekeeper, he's doing a mighty fine job, but that’s just what I felt by way of comparison to this tree.


Eventually we passed through the opening of twisted roots, leaves and vines, entering the inky black interior of the tree. I reached into my bag and pulled out my heavy-duty maglite flashlight, pressing the button that sat just below the head of the torch, its 250 lumen beam illuminating the interior like daytime.

I was half expecting what I saw.

The makeshift boat bumped into a platform that sat flush with the water. Steps ran up the interior of the trunk in a spiral. I shone my beam up high, but it disappeared, as if the stairs were never ending. I bought my light back down to the bottom, and followed the spiral of the stairs, twisting my body as my eyes followed them around.

"What is this place..." I uttered out loud, to no one inparticular.

Bullseye didn't quite seem to think that it was rhetorical. "Maybe another human building?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't like the looks of those stairs. I've seen enough movies to know that when you step foot in a seemingly innocent spiral staircase with steps jutting out from the wall, you just know they're going to retract back into the walls."

"...You watched too many movies back on Earth before you found me, didn't you?" deadpanned Luna.

I couldn't help but giggle, and nod, recalling the fourth Indiana Jones movie. Then another thought hit me. “Hey, could you, I don’t know, shoot a flare or something up to see how high it goes?”

Luna didn't say anything. She charged her horn with a ball of sparkling energy and let it loose from her horn. It flew higher and higher, the little ball snaking and twisting its way to the top before it exploded with a shower of blue fireworks against something at the top with a muted pop, what would have been a rather loud bang had it been closer to us.

“OK, so we know there’s a top. Can you fly up and tell us what’s at the top, Luna?” I dug out another of my smaller flashlights, turned it on and handed it to Luna. She flared her wings, took the flashlight in her teeth and leapt off the jetty flying. There's enough space for two pegasi, alicorns, or one pegasus and one alicorn—depending on how you want to spin it—to fly up with wingtips touching, so Luna had no trouble ascending the cavernous stairwell.

I turned off my flashlight so I could see the light from the other torch, and all I could really see was a tiny, insignificant pinprick of light; akin to a star against the night sky. Several minutes passed between my giving Luna the flashlight, and her returning to us.

"Find anything?" I knew she'd tell me, whether or not I asked. Call it habit. I took the flashlight out of her mouth, turned it off, and put it back in my bag so Luna could speak clearly.

"Where the stairs end at the top, there's a hole in the ceiling of this place where the stairs come to an end. I've got more just enough magic to teleport both you and Bullseye up.”

I readied myself to be teleported. The most important thing is to keep your sense of balance, because you never know where you might end up that could throw your balance off. I kept a low centre of gravity and found my footing easily enough, and I found myself teleported some ways down from the opening in the ceiling.

I started walking up the spiral stairway, carefully, bracing my hand on the vine and leaf covered wall, shining the maglite up ahead of me. I heard another pop and turned to see Bullseye in the same place I was. Turning back, I kept walking up to the top.

I went around about three turns in the spiral of the staircase before I got to the opening in the top. Fortunately the cutting in the ceiling acted as a wall of sorts where I could brace both hands against both sides of the opening, both for stability and the mental security that comes with it. You know, the kind of mental security that comes with the feeling knowing you're not going to fall down thousands of steps...

Bullseye got to me in due time, followed by Luna bringing up the rear.

"I don't know what to expect," I began. "But be prepared. I don't know what, or if, there's going to be anything in here." They both nodded in agreement, and Bullseye readied one of his spears.

I took the Tanto out of its sheath slung across my chest and held it in the normal grip in my right hand. The maglite I choked up, holding it at the base of its head (giggity), resting the bottom of the metal tube on my collarbone with the beam pointing forward. The purpose of holding the torch like this is so I can bring it down in an overhead strike like a club, as opposed to using the bulbous head for the club and risk cracking the lens, breaking the bulb and so on. It also amps up the PSI in the narrow edge of the base of the torch when you strike someone, or something, with it.

When I poked my head up the top, the corridor seemed to come alive. The vines and leaves glowed blue with cracked ribbons of red running through them. I froze.

"What is it?" asked Bullseye.

"Your satchel!" cried Luna.

I glanced down at the shoulder slung bag to find that the orb within had begun to glow with the same eerie colours. The polished surfaces glowed blue, while the cracks and lines running around the buttons and across the orb are glowing red. I looked it over intently, then held it up into the corridor where something interesting happened.

As if part of the tree itself, the corridor widened to allow us through.

"Stick close to me," I warned. I put the orb back in the bag and continued walking forward.

I tried keeping a straight path, but the corridor curved now and then and even had a couple sharp turns in it. It's almost as if it, or the orb, is trying to lead us to a specific destination. That made me nervous on several levels. It could be a trap to lure us to our death, or it could be taking us to a place of great importance. Either way I didn't like it.

Eventually after about ten minutes of taking careful steps throughout the passageway, the vines parted, giving us exit to a massive room. The place is just beyond words, like the tree's Inner Sanctum. I could see the ceiling of this place, but the room is more spread out than it is high. The ceiling is, pfft, maybe ten metres, if I had to guess? The room itself however...

As if of it own volition, vines snaked their way up from the middle of the room to form a pedestal.

Maybe that's where I put the orb? I sheathed the knife, pulled the orb from the satchel, and just simply dropped it into place, not caring about orientation. I was too apprehensive about the vines accidentally grabbing my hand The vines came alive again to orientate the sphere upside down with the base button pointing up. I looked back to Luna and Bullseye, whom just returned my equally incredulous look.

"Press it." They both echoed at the same time.

Hesitantly, I reached forward, put my finger on, and pressed the button.

I expectantly thought that a laser would shoot up from the button, but instead the whole pedestal exploded with a brilliant blue light, and dozens of little blue lines shot out from the base of the column. They snaked their way to the far walls of the circular room, crawled up the walls and across the ceiling back to the middle of the room where these lines 'fell' back onto the orb. It pulsed red, and sent out a radiating wave of red light that bathed the room in a light-red colour, strewn with random particles.

One by one, golf-ball sized  blue orbs [contrasting the reddish cloud] started popping up, but they were much more than that. I squinted at one in front of me.

One planet.

Two planets.

Three planets.

More!

The room started getting flooded with hundreds of tiny little planets all blinking to life one by one, and all I could do was stare in awe, turning my body and craning my head as hundreds of the little things started filling up the room.

"Planets," I said absentmindedly. "They're planets. Hundreds of planets."

But that wasn't all that was there.

I noticed several somethings of a darker red and blue popping up too. I walked to one a few metres away, and only saw half a planet sticking out of it. The thing itself looked like an oval with pinched ends eating half the planet.

"What do you suppose this place, thing, is?" Luna asked.

"It looks like a holographic map of various planets. Maybe if I..." I went up to one of the random spheres and clasped my fingers around it, and in one motion opened my hands. I thought of the idea of making the projection bigger like a picture on my old smartphone.

Lo and behold it worked.

Some of the rest of the planets moved out the way to accommodate for the much larger holographic projection, and we all stepped outside of it to get a look at the rotating sphere.

"What planet is this?" asked Bullseye.

"You're guess is as good as mine, buddy," I replied.

"What are those little dots all over the place?" he said again.

"Pardon?"

"Look, there's loads of tiny little dots all over the planet." He reached up to poke one with his hoof, and an electric blue beam shot out from the dot and hit the wall, enveloping the whole room in a serene rainforest.

"I don't even... Press it again," I said. He did so, and the room went back to normal. "What... was that."

"This room appears as though it functions in a manner such as the orb, but on a galactic, and planetary scale," came Luna's voice. "It's not as precise, but it's the the same principal."

"What about these other planets? What do you suppose they are?"

"That's a good question." I wandered up to one of them, and expanded it. I couldn't see any discernable features, it looked like a barren planet. I bought one of the dots into view and expanded the area around it. More details became apparent. Two mountain peaks, with a large temple between them, The mountains dwarfed the pyramid, though. The pyramid itself looked as like a step pyramid from Egypt or Teotihuacan with an archway on top. It was there the dot itself is present.

"What is that place?"

"Bullseye, you've got quite the curiosity. I don't know, but it reminds me of a legend on Earth."

"Which one is it this time?"

That kid's got a sense of humour... "It vaguely reminds me of the City of The Caesars. Basically, a temple that was situated between two mountains, like these ones. The city itself came and went periodically, and it came to be called The Wandering City. Everyone wanted to find it, because it was rumoured that the two mountains housed a horde of diamonds in one, and gold in another." His eyes widened like saucers. "Don't get any ideas, either," I glared at him.

Remind me to not tell Rarity about that place, she would likely tear the universe to shreds to get to it.

"Oh, oh, this planet is full of those pyramid things!" Luna was over the other side of the room when she called out in earnest.

"What are you talking about, Luna?"

She expanded the planet to cover the entire room using her magic, and I saw what she meant. The planet is just littered with pyramid-esque designs, although these ones seemed... familiar?

I pressed a button on the largest city. I guess you could call it that. The room glossed over with the magic from the holographic projection, and what happened made my jaw drop.

Gold.

Lots of gold. Lots, and lots, and lots of gold.

An entire planet, with buildings made of gold.

"It can't be... It's impossible."

"What is? Midnight, is something wrong? Is it another legend?" asked a concerned Bullseye.

I nodded absentmindedly. "Un huh. The City of Gold. Some called it El Dorado, some called it Cibola. It was an Aztec treasure, supposedly.” I wondered why the construction seemed familiar.

Right then and there, a person walked into the room through the portal looking into the city or planet, and froze when he saw us.

That's right, an alive, and all grown up human. He stared for what seemed like an eternity, shouted something incoherent, then disappeared from the room. I quickly pressed the button on the projection again and the room quickly returned to its normal leaf-and-vine construction with the hazy red hologram.

"I don't believe it... All this time there's been other people living in this universe? First Roanoke then now here!?" I'm beyond confused at this stage. "HOW!?" I turned to look at Luna and Bullseye, but they each seemed dumbstruck as I.

"I don't know, but maybe it has something to do with these." Bullseye pointed at the planet I saw earlier that was half sticking out of the oval thing. "What do you suppose is happening there? And look, there's dozens more of them scattered around the room." My head craned and my body turned. Sure enough, several darker red and blue holographic constructs were still present, some rather close to other planets.

"I don't know, but I really don't like it. At all."

"Father, you don't think it could be... You know, do you?"

"I don't know, but part of me thinks it would explain the vast majority of missing cities, civilisations, and everything else. Hey, do you see Equestria anywhere?" Rather, Equestria is the name of the country, not the planet. Much like New Zealand is to Earth. You know, I never did ask the name of their planet. I must get around to it. One day.

Luna wandered around the room a while, then stuck her horn into one of the planets, then expanded it with her magic. It's Equestria all right, it looks exactly like my map, at least some of it does. There's portions of the planet that don't correspond with the map I have, but I just chalked those down to the map being incomplete. I doubt anyone would have the capabilities to map the ENTIRE planet just yet.

I tried manipulating the planet with my hands and found I could do so easily enough, so I spun it around to the island group we're on.

"Evisica, Ert, Edonna, Elir, and Eden." I said, pointing to each island in turn.

"Yes, but what's that got to do with—"

"Just look at them, dude," I interrupted Bullseye. He took his time to look at them, as did Luna.

"They have their landmarks visible on them," said Luna.

"Right you are, Luna. So not only does this map-thing show us a huge amount of planets fuck-knows how far away, it acts like a gateway between them too." A thought crossed my mind. "Let's try something else." I pulled up the Island of Elir, the next one on our stop across these five islands, and enlarged it.

"It cannot be," said Luna

"No way," echoed Bullseye.

"Well guys, it looks like we've got another building on our hands." Sure enough it is another building, but this one looked more like a huge-arse temple than anything else. "Who do you think built it? Bullseye?"

"I'm gonna say humans."

"Luna?"

"I second that."

“I find that assumption to hold water, but it isn't quite gospel just yet. Let's go check it out. Shall we?"

"You bet!" said an enthusiastic Bullseye.

"Woah there cowboy!"

"You mean cowcolt."

"Whatever. Listen, I don't know how this place works so I'll need you to stay behind to keep it open for us. Can you do that for me, Bullseye?"

His breath caught, hung on a tone of silent disbelief escaping his agape jaw.

"But I got left behind on the other island when you and the Princess looked into the other building, Why can't I come with you this time!?"

To which I replied through gritted teeth; "That's because the church, as it's called on Earth, was loaded with human remains. It’s not something I want you seeing, nor should you."

I could see his expression drop from annoyed and irritated, to one of disbelief.

"I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"So can you stay here, please?" Saying please wanting to be polite, it was more for the emphasis of having him stay behind.

"I..." He hesitantly paused. "Uh, yeah, sure..."

"Good. Now Luna, press the button and let us be on our way." She reached out and pressed the button with the tip of her hoof. The room glossed over and I saw a cobblestone path overrun with vines, weeds, and trees. I stepped through, expecting to find more human remains at the temple up ahead.
	
> XV.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Before we left the room, I took some rope out of my bag and tied it to the pedestal with the orb on it, running it through the portal-wall and tying it to a tree with my neon-orange bandanna at the end. You couldn't see the portal itself unless you’re looking directly at it to a degree, and I did that to make sure I could find my way back to the portal room. I decided to call it that for ease of naming purposes.

We wandered up the cobblestone path and it didn't take long for us to be accosted and attacked by various kinds of biting insects. I was slapping at them left and right when they tried taking a mouthful of me, but I wasn't having it. I pulled out an insect repellent bracelet I kept in an airtight container—rather there's a half dozen of them all in their original packaging to preserve them, I just keep them in the container for the extra freshness—and slipped it around my wrist.

They didn't seem to bother Luna all that much, she just used her tail and swatted at them like a normal horse would do on Earth and kept grinning at my misfortune.

"They seem to find you delicious," she smirked.

"What can I say, bitches love me," I replied indignantly. The majority of the insects were kept at bay by the scent of the bracelet but others seemed immune. It warded off the mozzies and sand flies, but I had started becoming increasingly worried about the ones that I wasn't familiar with. They could carry some sort of disease!

That actually made me wonder; am I susceptible to diseases on this planet? Granted humans had lived here previously, but I didn't know whether or not the diseases they may or may not have brought with them or had at the time evolved to different carriers or simply died out. I did take precautions though, but it didn't stop the latent fear of catching something that couldn't be cured with the medicine and magic.

I kept walking in front of Luna, but at some point I only heard myself walking, and not the clip-clop of her hooves on the stone pathway. I turned to look back at her. "Luna, something wrong?"

"Don't... Move..." She stood stock still, only her flowing astral mane making any kind of movements.

"What's the matter?"

"Stand still!" she ordered through gritted teeth.

I stood facing her, and kept a low voice. "What's the matter, you're scaring me!"

"Slowly, very slowly, turn around."

I didn't move my head, arms, body or anything else. I shifted my right foot ninety degrees, followed by my left foot. Another ninety degrees and I'm facing the opposite direction I once was.

"What am I looking at?"

"The end of the path just ends some ways ahead, then look left and right of the vines covering the rest of it."

I must've been too busy worrying about the insects biting me to have seen that the dilapidated path before me indeed come to and end; swallowed by a waterfall of vines, leaves, and bushes. I looked where Luna told me to, and I saw several somethings contrasting against the jungle and its foliage. I slowly bent over to my right leg to undo the velcro strap that held the Kukri in its sheath, then all of a sudden a wooden shaft tipped with a stone head shot out of fucking nowhere and buried itself inches away from my side.

"Bad idea. Don't move!" she echoed.

"Who's there?" I said aloud. "Come out so I can see you."

I heard rustling of the bushes everywhere from around me, and several humans all wearing garments spun from leaves, tanned hide, wielding spears with god-knows-what plastered on their faces. Looked like some kind of war paint or camouflage paint.

They inched their way towards me, keeping me at length with their spears.

"Friends of yours?" Luna smirked.

"Yeah, totally. Relatives from sodding 1592!"

"You speak our language," bellowed a voice from somewhere. Just as whoever said that, a figure jumped down in front of us from atop the end of the path. I had no idea where he came from: he jumped out of nowhere. Possible hiding in the branches of the canopy

This individual had seen better days; covered in dirt and scrapes, scratches, even a few scars here and there. He seemed to be more... modern? I suppose. He wore... Oh sweet mother of Celestia he wore fucking PANTS!

"Who the hell are you, and why are you wearing pants?"

"What, can one not cover up their jewels?"

Oh great, he's sarcastic too. "What I meant to say is, who are you, how did you get pants, why are you here, and how did you get here?"

"I am from Great Britain, it is the year of 1942."

"How long have you been here?"

"Too long. Come, you must meet the Grand Master."

"Who?"

"The Grand Master. He's the one in charge here. The rest of these people you see have been here far longer than me, I just lead them, but everything gets run by Grandfather."

He turned and walked further along the path towards the end of it. "Woah woah woah, Which is it; Grandfather or Grand Master?"

"All will be explained in good time. You must be hungry and tired. Come with me and you'll be taken care of."

I relaxed my position, letting out a long held breath I didn't even know I was holding, and began to walk towards the end of the path. The human that spoke with me reached into the wall of vines, buried his hand within the wall of vines and gave a sharp tug on something. The sound of stone grinding on stone echoed as the doors slowly began to open. The rest of the people behind us relaxed also, using their spears as staffs and followed us inside the gate.

What I saw made my jaw hit the ground.

Ancient, old, crumbling ruins of a temple. This place had seen better days for sure, but for the condition it's in right now, it seemed remarkably well-kept. Luna and i followed the guy down a long corridor lit by several stone columns that held bowls of fire. The walls had creeper vines all over them, just as you'd expect to see from a temple in the middle of a jungle from a movie.

We came to a door at the end and the leader pushed it open with quite  bit of muscle. We entered, and two more people clad in grass and hide clothes pushed it shut behind us, standing with their back to it.

The corridor is very long, it has a few doors dotted along the walls. The first door we walked by is on our left, and it had what looked like clay ovens built into the walls of the far room, with several tables all loaded with food.

"Our kitchen," he declared.

"Do you have fridges or even a freezer?" I asked. Seemed a bit ridiculous to ask, but not entirely.

"Not as such, no." We stopped and he took us inside, to the far right hand side of the room as you walk into the door and pointed at another door. "That's our cool room. It functions in the same manner as a fridge. Stairs lead down to an underground river that runs through a cave. The river's cold enough to keep most food chilled for up to five days."

’Clever’, I thought. We went back out and continued walking up the hall. The next door we passed is on our left, and I took a moment to glance inside. This room has two rather long tables with maybe half a dozen people sitting up and down them, doing I don't know what.

"Eating hall," was all that got said before we started moving again.

We walked for another twenty metres towards the final door before the end of the corridor, which branches off to the left and right. Inside the door is just bunk beds, hammocks, cots and other sleeping arrangements. I didn't think this one needed any explanation, so we moved on, around the corner to the right.

"We hope to have metal forges up and running at some point. We only have one forge right now though, but we're working on it."

"Where did you plan on getting your metal, and for what purposes are you wanting to use whatever you make?" Luna asked with a hint of trepidation and scepticism..

"Better quality tools, mostly. Knives, axes and so on. As for the metal, we found a rather large deposit of ore some ways away of here."

"Can we just stop for a second, please?" We stopped, and all eyes turned to me. "Firstly, you do know that this island is floating, right?"

"Our scouts have reported that they found the edge of the world, but I already know that there's other islands out there. So, in a sense."

"So," I continued, "Don't you think that digging up the metal might upset the literal balance of the island?"

"That does raise an interesting point, but the deposit is huge. I doubt that we would use enough to upset the balance."

"You said you're from 1942, right?"

"That's the current year."

"I... What?"

"It is currently 1942, last time I checked."

"Buddy, when I came here it was November of 2013." His eyes widened like saucers, and he suddenly became more tense.

"How is that possible? I've been here nearly twenty-five years!"

I continued. “I think it better we go meet with the Grand Master, or Grandfather. Whatever you want to call him. Then we'll continue talking."

"Fine," he seethed. He gruffly turned tail and began to walk forward with the same pace as before. As we did, I noticed that the people that were staring at me looked away from me one by one, almost as in disbelief. I knew they could understand me, They just hadn't bothered to say anything just yet.

This corridor is substantially longer than the entrance hall, but with only one door that I could see. It took nearly two minutes of walking down the straight corridor to get to it. When we did, whatever his name is stopped and turned to face us.

"This is our training room, if you want to call it that. We spend a good portion of our time in here for a variety of reasons. Sparring with staffs and what weapons we have managed to craft. It's also good to help stay in shape, stave off cabin fever, and hone skills."

All of a sudden, a massively loud DONG rung out. "What in gods name was that!?"

"The bell. Used to indicate morning and breakfast, noon and lunch, night time and dinner. Plus emergencies if we need to."

"What time is it now?" Luna asked.

I looked at my watch, and he did too. "That's a fancy little time piece. But to answer your question, Miss, dinner is almost ready. That's what everyone would have been doing in the kitchen we just passed."

"Heh, the time specifically is just gone six in the evening. How do you keep time here?"

"Sun dial on the roof for the clear days. Shall we keep moving?"

"Yes, lets." And so we kept moving.

"Some of us," he began, "Managed to channel a latent energy from a nearby island up the north-west. I don't know how to channel it, but some of the people that were here before me learned how to. That's how they ring the bell; shooting compressed air blasts from their hands."

"Wait... What? How do you shoot compressed air from hands?"

"Magic!" Luna chimed in, much to everyone's bemusement.

He snickered. "Ma'am, I don't know about you, but I don't believe in magic."

"You've been here twenty-five years, how could you not believe in such things? Surely you'd've witnessed inexplicable feats that not even you could explain. I've been here for, what? Not even a year and I take the notion of magic with a grain of salt until such time is I know otherwise what I'm dealing with, as I do everything."

He reached out with a stern finger pointed at me. "Listen here you insolent little—"

"Grandfather told you not to harm them. You shall do as he asks," one of the people behind me spoke up, apparently to stop this guy from trying something. I could see him glance behind me to whomever spoke up. He just grumbled under his breath and turned on the spot.

He didn't say another word as we reached the end of the corridor, taking a left, continuing on down another corridor until we came to an intersection, taking another left. Before us stood two doors not unlike the one we passed through initially. There stood before them two people wielding spears, dressed in more ornate items. Higher class guards, I'm assuming. They exchanged nods with the man leading us and he turned and nodded to the people behind Luna and I. They scattered, going down different corridors, presumably to do their own thing.

The two guards pulled the door open and motioned to Luna and myself to go in. Whoever that man is, stayed outside either of his own volition or because he's not allowed in. Once we were in and the doors shut behind up, my attention turned to the rear of the room.

My jaw dropped. Again. Looks like I'm going to have to duct tape my mandible to my skull before it falls off one of these days...

"Welcome..." same a voice, "To the Inner Sanctum of this temple. I am known as Grandfather, but others call me the Grand Master."

This was unlike anything I had ever seen. Right out of the stone itself grew a tree, radiating an ambient glowing blue-ish colour. In the middle of this cluster of vines and branches sat a man. I took careful steps closer, glancing back to Luna whom seemed to choose to stay back and let me talk to him instead.

When I got closer, this man looked as though vines and branches were growing either from him, or into him. He sat cross-legged, frozen in place. He glowed too, but much much more faintly than the tree that he sat in.

He looked like a Spanish Conquistador. The helmet, plated chest armour… all of it riddled with scratches and holes, and even he is missing a gauntlet and the boots, everything else seems to be period correct for something of the 16th century. Some of the branches grew into the metal it by the looks of it, some through the clothes, and directly into his skin. Luckily none went into any orifices, that would be a whole other can of worms, and make this encounter all the more uncomfortable on my end. I shuddered. Too much internet back on Earth...

The person under the helmet looks like a bag of bones, like an anorexic supermodel from what I could see. It didn't look like he had any muscles, and the skin on his legs and face, and hand—the parts exposed—looks like a very tight, stretched fit. Like, take a plastic skull and stretch skin-coloured gladwrap over it and that's about as close as you'd get to this guy.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is all but forgotten to time. I have been here many centuries."

"How did you get here?"

"I was leading a group on a search for the City of Gold. One day, I went to sleep and woke up in an unfamiliar place, such is this."

"Hate to break it to you dude, but you were a few planets off." I pointed upwards.

He didn't say anything.

"I found my own way here, with magic, as your subordinate denys exists."

"Yes, Rupert is too caught up in his faith. I was a Christian myself. I held a deep-seated belief in God, and would preach to the various tribes we encountered on our voyages. I have since lost that faith, stuck in this prison for hundreds if not thousands of years. But these people depend on me for guidance. Some view me as a God in my own right, but all I am is a person trapped within a tree, unable to move anything."

"Then how do you speak?"

"The energy that comes from this tree sustains me, and allows me to communicate through telepathy, as some might call it."

"Where does this energy come from?"

"You have many questions. I will not be able to answer them all, but I will be able to provide you with that which you seek."

I shot a hopeful glance back to Luna. "How do you know what I seek?"

"Everyone that we bring back here seeks to return home. Some choose to stay, others we never see again."

Ominous as fuck if you ask me. "How do you know where to find a way back to Earth?"

"Have you seen the cracks? The scars in that mysterious room?"

I didn't know how he could have possibly known about my being there, but I decided to humour him. "I have."

"In my time here, I have learnt that people get swallowed up by these cracks. Through them exist other planes of existence."

"So you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, then? What about the other planets that seem eerily similar to cities of myth and legend from Earth"

"More or less, and you shall find that out in due time. Meanwhile, I shall tell you how to get back to Earth. Every day at noon on Eden, the sun shines on a temple, opening a portal to other planes of existence. It is through this you will be able to get home. But it only opens for a few moments each day."

I turned back to Luna with an ecstatic smile forming on my lips.

"Until then, I bid you farewell."

I tried coaxing more answers out of him for several minutes, but he just evaded the questions and began to monologue about things from his experience both on the island, and in the tree. I still had loads of questions; how old he is, where he came from, what year it was when he got here, how he ended up in the tree, but after he stopped talking Rupert came back in to collect us.

"I've been instructed to feed and house you for the night. Come, we shall eat."

With my mind running a thousand miles an hour from what I wanted to ask him, I begrudgingly followed. We were nearly at the dining hall when a realisation hit me. "Bullseye!"

Rupert turned to look at me with a puzzled expression. "...What?"

"We have another companion whom we left behind, to... hold the door open, shall we say. I hate to be rude, but may we got some food to takeaway with us? We have accommodation, so no need to worry about that."

"Very well. Follow me."

Instead of the dining hall, Rupert lead Luna and I into the kitchen itself. He told one of the women there to: "Wrap up some food for the guests." She didn't bat an eye and went into the back of one of the room, emerging a few minutes later with two warm parcels wrapped up in what looked like banana leaves.

They don't have tupperware, can you blame them?

As she handed them to me, she said; "It's some fresh meat and vegetables."

A horrified look appeared on Luna's face. "Meat!?" Everyone in the kitchen looked at her.

I took the food from her with a gracious smile, putting my arm around Luna and gently lead her out the door. The looks subsided when we exited into the hall, the food tucked away in my bag.

"Luna, sweetie, sorry to have to break it to you but you do remember that humans are omnivorous?"

"Oh, yeah..."

"Back on Earth, people whom didn't want to eat meat, or related products, could find sufficient nutritional replacements in certain plants, vegetables, and vitamin supplements. That's all good and well for them, but I love a good steak. I know this isn't exactly something you wanted to hear, but in conditions like these, these people won't be able to get all of their nutrition and sustain themselves from plants and vegetables, strictly speaking, for very long."

"I... Understand... Even though I don't like it, I'm not going to come between what you like to eat."

We started walking down the corridor back to the entrance of the temple. "There's different kinds of vegetarians too; Lacto-ovo vegetarians, which means they don't eat flesh itself, but would eat products that come from animals such as milk, cheese, eggs, and so on. I'd put you ponies in that area."

"Is that all?"

"Not really, but it's trivial to get into at this point."

We rounded the bends and got to the door being guarded by the two people from before. I gave them a nod, and they heaved open the doors to the outside. It's beginning to get dark, so we made haste down the path in an attempt to find the bandanna tied to the rope. It wasn't too dark that we'd need to go by flashlight, but it's dark to the point where we could easily lose sight of the neon-orange cloth. I should have tied a glow stick to it too.

Yes, I bought some of those with me too. I came prepared, and it's served me well thus far, can you blame me? Number one rule of survival; Be prepared, because you never know what might happen. Unfortunately half the stuff in my bag won't be replaceable when it runs out, but maybe if I hand off a few of the items to scientists or whomever, and maybe they can make a few more?

Maybe that's something I can look into when I get back.

I need to stop getting off track so often.

We kept a sharp look out for the orange cloth, and eventually found it, and Bullseye, whom was half sticking out of the wall-portal.

"Hey guys!" he said, waving an eager hoof to indicate his position. Honestly, who wouldn't miss half an okapi waving at you next to a bandanna flailing in the breeze? "Over here! I saw it getting dark, so, I thought I'd wait to see if you walked by so you didn't miss the rag that Midnight tied up."

"Thanks, dude. I guess..."

We all went back in the room, and I had to figure out a way to turn off the holographic projection from the orb. All I had to do, as it turns out, was press the button and everything got sucked back inside the orb. I pocketed it, and bought out the two food parcels.

"What did you do get up to while we were gone?" asked Luna.

"I just read a bit, and maintained my things. What did you guys find, apart from hot food, which, by the way, smells delicious!"

We sat down just off centre from the middle of the room, and began to unwrap it, letting the delicious smell waft into the air.

"I'll be sure to convey your thanks to the people that made it."

He looked up from giving the vegetables a sniff. "Woah, you found more people?"

I removed all my gear from by body and set it off to the side, opening my bag and pulling out the swiss-army cutlery tool. It's got a knife, fork, spoon, awl, and corkscrew. Handy for camping! I popped out the fork and stabbed a piece of meat with i, and stuffed it into my mouth, then spoke with half a mouthful.

"We sure did, turns out there's this old as hell dude that's grown into the tree, and that magic keeps him alive. He’s called Grandfather or Grand Master, and finds people that have wandered here by accident and takes them into his temple, where he gives them a choice." I swallowed the mouthful and continued. "He lets them find their way back home by pointing them in the right direction, offers them hospitality, or just lets them do their own thing for the most part."

"Huh, that's interesting. Who knew there was a human colony living here all along, eh?"

"Not me, but if someone did and didn't tell me, I'm gonna be hella pissed."

I took another piece of the meat. I didn't know quite what it was, but the flavour seemed comparable to beef, and it was moderately tough, so I had a time and a half chewing it—truth be told.

"What is that you're eating? I recognise the vegetables, but not that stuff."

"Wanna try a piece?" I asked, offering him the bit on the end of my fork.

"Don't mind if I do." He leant forward to take it off the end of the fork.

"NO WAIT!" Luna screamed.

As Bullseye began to chew, she just sat there, unpleasantly awestruck as he chewed away. I just sat there and chuckled to myself.

"Whart?" He said with his mouthful. After a few moments of chewing, he swallowed and smacked his lips together. "Rather salty and chewy for my liking. What is it anyway?"

"Meat..." said Luna, a heavy breath escaping as she uttered that word.

I looked in Bullseye's general direction. He didn't flinch, bat an eye, he just returned Luna's dead-panned look and eventually gave a shrug.

"I'm no stranger to it, but I do tend to avoid it for the most part."

"And that, Luna, is what we call a flexitarian!"

We ate the rest of the food in silence. Bullseye and Luna shared the vegetables while I ate the meat side of things. Honestly, I didn't know what animal it was from, but it's meat, so I ain't complaining.

As time drew on in the evening, we decided to get some rest. I wrote my little note to Ratchet, whom replied with the update. "They've got the majority of the ship repaired," I read aloud, paraphrasing, "Now they're just working on the instruments repaired with what they can salvage, focusing on the more important parts."

In my notes, I've been deliberately neglecting the parts about finding the human remains and the colony today. I didn't want too many questions from too many people.

Finding a soft spot on a floor covered in vines and leaves is rather difficult, so I laid out the tarp from my bag and spread out a few clothes on it as a bit of cushioning against the rooty floor. It did its job, but I could still feel imperfections here and there. A pillow is another problem I've been having these last few days.

I didn't exactly have one, so I had been resorting to using the padded rear portion of my backpack, but that does a number on my neck in the mornings. I found myself cricking my neck like one would do with their knuckles to get it loosened up. Tonight I tried being sneaky and, while Luna rested, I laid my head on her stomach. She cracked an eye, as did I, we exchanged a wink of mutual understanding and comfort, then quietly drifted off to sleep with me cuddling up to my favourite pony in the entire world.