Lost put the supplies for sweets away and began to draw out a different sort of food -- namely vegetables -- that she began to set up by the fire to roast a little. "You three are quite the group. I love seeing so much genuine affection."

“Pft, you like it and you know it, Wave,” Tom blew her off earlier threat, looking down and rolling his eyes at her before looking over to Lost. “Genuine affection? I guess having folks help save your life from a temple of death and a dragon goes a long way to bonding, huh.”

“I’m not hard to make friends with, in general,” Eric said. “Though I do think these two have a surplus of affection. Wink, wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more.” Eric grinned teasingly at Tom.

Footnote looked  up, sniffing the air. "Is that almost done?" The real food interested him quite a bit more than the sweet distraction. "Oh, the papers I'll write about this. We're going to go down in history!"

As if his enthusiastic comment were enough to summon it, a small whisper tickled at Eric's ear, murmuring a little bit of discontent, "Why didn't the ponies bring any real food?" it complained. "They're going to get rich off of you and you won't get anything at all."

Flipping Eric the bird, Tom let his eyes close and he focused on the crackling of the fire, finding it rather hypnotizing as he drowned out Footnote’s enthusiasm. It was a bit grating, truth be told, and unlike Eric, Tom really wasn’t all that great at associating with others.

Eric glanced around, wondering about the source of the whispering, but seeing nothing obvious. The mention of ‘real food’ got him to dig out a bit more beef jerky and nibble on it while he waited for the vegetables to roast. “I trust it’s not too much trouble to bring us back to town with you two? I’m sure we can figure out something from there.”

The mare nodded. "Certainly, no trouble at all." But that's not what Eric heard. To his ears, "If we have to, I suppose we can manage it."

Wave turned to face Tom and looked him over a moment. "Are you still tired? Did you sleep yet?"

Tom’s head jerked up a bit as he took a few seconds to catch what Wave had said. In that short time he’d already started to drift off. “Yeah, still wiped, and no, haven’t had a chance to catch some sleep yet… could probably fall asleep here and now, Wave,” he tiredly replied.

Eric glanced over at Tom. “Go ahead and get some sleep, I’ll stay up and keep watch for now.” He bit off a larger piece of the jerky, looking at Lost a bit suspiciously before shaking his head, and staring at the fire some more.

Lost began to pick out finished bits, offering up a big head of cabbage to the distracted Footnote. "Here you go, eat before you get sucked back in." In Eric's ears, her words were distorted. "Here, take the best, the guests can have what's left." She gestured at the rest of the food and grabbed a large carrot for herself, chewing contently.

Wave let Tom settle at least, pulling herself forward and grabbing a tomato and making it practically explode in her mouth as she chewed it savagely in a spray of fruit juice and pulp.

Eric picked out a few vegetables for himself, eating as he watched the flames. He didn’t know why Lost was wording everything so harshly, but set it aside. He really had bigger and more important things to brood over than a rude mare who was at least feeding him. Like… the massive self-loathing and guilt of realizing he had abandoned his wife and child, and arguing with himself over whether it was actually his fault or not that he was here.

The idle banter between the equines faded in Eric's mind as thoughts of his guilt built, and a new thought bubbled up. Perhaps he could still salvage something. If he came, he could draw her, or get back, if only he had the power, and the knowledge.

"The power I could give you," whispered nothing.

“Are you in my head?” Eric thought to the whispering nothing, not wanting to start talking out loud if he didn’t have to. His mind strayed back to his D&D character, and the sword he wielded that could cut paths from one world to another. Power like that… he could return to his wife and children, and then come back here, or bring them, or something. Meet his obligations while still getting to live in a magical world. It would be more dream and less nightmare.

"So clever, of course I am, and we're here to help you. The crystal ponies fear us. They believe in 'harmony', but that same harmony says you should just be happy that your wife and children are dead to you, gone forever, and never to be seen again. What sort of god is that? We don't accept that. You want it. You have the will for it. You should have it."

Eric pondered. A part of him really did want to leave his responsibilities behind and just enjoy living this new life. But he also knew he would never fully forgive himself, not if he never tried to get home. Or tried to bring them here. Besides… what was the point of living in a magical world without magic of your own. “What power can you offer, and what is your price? For that matter, what should I call you? Give a name or I’ll give you one…”

"They call us the shadow, but that is something of a slur. We are not just where the light doesn't reach. We are darkness, the void that can push back against the light, even in its face. We can seep between the cracks between worlds. All you need do is open yourself to us, and this power is yours. In return, you will need do little. We want to be more than a whisper in the arctic wind. You will help carry us where you go."

“So you will be more than a whisper,” Eric thought. “But how much more, and in what fashion? If I become your host, will I have to fight you to control myself? Or will you let me wield you like a tool or weapon of my own?” Less to them and more to himself, Eric wondered if they would have a contract, and what would be in the fine print. Was he a skilled enough rules lawyer to twist this safely to his advantage? With every objection he raised he grew closer to convincing himself to do it.

"We are an elemental force. How well you wield the power is in your hands, but you are driven, and willful. Surely you will have little issue with it." A little bit of flattery never hurt. "Close your eyes and think of the darkest place you've been, imagine that darkness becoming one with you, and it will."

The flattery, actually, was the only thing that put Eric on edge, nearly pushed him off of complying. It rang alarm bells in his head, but the guilt of not even trying finally quashed them, and he did as he was told. He imagined a starry night, far from the cities whose light washed out the sky, with no fires or flashlights, or lanterns. It didn’t feel dark enough, so he imagined tree cover blocking out even the trees, and then simplified it all down to a simple, absolute black. And then he imagined it all collapsing into him, until there was nothing but himself, the blackness held within, while neither light nor darkness surrounded him.

Back in the waking world, Lost blinked, unsure of what she just saw. A faint shimmer of darkness creeping over one of the human's skin. It was gone before she could confirm it, and she shook her head, dismissing it as a little something playing with her head in the arctic snows. "Are you alright?"

The darkness flowed into Eric, filling his body and caressing his mind. His eyes began to bleed, only visible to those with magic sight just yet, with soft wisps of darkness and a promise of further taint as he grew used to its presence and power. "We are yours. You should teach that mare a lesson for being so rude to you."

“I’m fine, just worried a bit about those I left behind. I need to find a way home as soon as I can, or at the least a way to bring my family here. Other than that, why wouldn’t I be fine?” Eric asked, wondering why she was questioning him all the sudden. Couldn’t a guy introspect in peace? Rudeness didn’t call for anything too drastic, but he did wonder just what his powers could do. Perhaps a subtle prank, something that couldn’t be easily traced back to him, could easily have been nothing at all…

Lost bobbed her head. "Your family? Where are they, if not here?" She glanced around, as if a human village would appear out of the snow somehow. "Were they in the temple?"

Footnote waved a hoof idly. "Don't be absurd! A lost species in a lost temple? How… The odds are so far against it." He trailed off, muttering as he made new notes.

“Tom and I aren’t from this world,” Eric began. “Our entry point was near the temple, but I don’t think there’s any way back there. The… god? whatever, that brought us here didn’t mention a way back at least. Q. I’m calling it Q, unless and until I get an actual name from it.”

Footnote looked up from his scribbles. "Q? Why a letter? Why that letter." He put the scrap down, his attention focusing on Eric. "Is there a meaning behind that."

Lost laughed at his intense focus. "Why not Q? Better than A, I suppose."

Eric paraphrased, “There was a story, a legend if you will, about an all powerful but sort of capricious being called Q that would teleport people from place to place, world to world, or otherwise make impossible changes. At the time, to those involved, it all seemed arbitrary and senseless. But listening to the story, taking a step back and thinking, you could see that maybe he had a greater plan, or thought to teach some lesson in a needlessly complicated way. According to the legend, while only one such being typically interacted with our people, there were more of them, also called Q, so it’s fair to assign that name to another.”

Footnote tapped at his chin softly. "Like Discord?"

Lost nodded. "Sounds like Discord to me. You don't want to associate with him too much. He'll give anypony a splitting headache in no time at all."

Wave looked back and forth between the two equines and Eric. "What's a Discord? Sounds like the opposite of Harmony."

Eric thought, trying to dig out what little he could remember about My Little Ponies. “Like… someone with Discord’s power, perhaps even acting a bit like him on the surface, but with the knowledge, foresight and awareness to predict the effects not only of what would happen with his inaction out to thousands of years in the future, but also what impact his actions would have, on every single pony. And an agenda that is only really understandable from that perspective, well hidden from those he teases and prods into line with his plans.” Playing up Q’s traits seemed fun and harmless enough. Though he honestly had no idea if any of this applied to the being that had brought him over to this world.

Wave shrugged. "And if this Discord could do that, but didn't tease so much about it, how would we know? He sounds like someone I want to meet. Maybe he remembers the time when the temple was still full of ponies." She smiled hopefully.

Footnote tilted his head. "Even if he did, I doubt he'd share the information easily. Don't get your hopes up that easily."

“Only if it suited his purposes to do so. Maybe he’s the reason the temple was abandoned, because he thought this was a better direction for things to go? Or maybe he sent Tom and I to meet you, knowing now was the time for the next chapter of your story? Who knows. It’s kinda pointless to try to understand what a Q or Discord is thinking.” Speaking of thinking, Eric thought it would be a nice, simple test of his powers to see if he could relocate all of the chocolate from the remaining s'mores supplies to Footnote’s pack unnoticed. Perhaps some form of teleportation? He focused on the darkness, seeing if he could guide it thus.

Next Chapter: 9 - Always Coca Cola, or is It? Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 32 Minutes