Upon closer inspection, the trees weren’t quite what they appeared to be from a distance. These trees had circuits, as strange as it sounded. Beneath the bark, lines could be seen, and these lines led to what appeared to be nodes. In Tarnish’s eyes, it wasn’t all that different from the circuits he had seen in the crystalline computers, automatons, and other centaur constructs. Only the trees were organic constructs.

Even though he was hungry, and desiring something sweet, it occurred to Tarnish that he had the means to communicate with these trees. This lead to other thoughts, strange thoughts, and if there were organic computing constructs, then druids would be the ones most capable of communicating with them, or retrieving data. This realisation almost floored him, and he began to understand just how far the centaurs had thought ahead.

Vinyl was staring at him, waiting, and she had a hungry look about her. She and the other two mares were waiting, waiting on him to give the all-clear if the fruit was safe to eat. Reaching out a hoof, he touched the trunk of the tree, and felt a jolt that made his whole body jerk. The tree had magic, powerful magic, and its bark had a strange, almost fleshy feeling to it. It was disturbing to think that this tree might have had skin.

If it had skin, what might come out if the strange flesh was cut?

This thought made Tarnish shiver, and he stood there for a moment, taking in the strange magic. His aches, his pains, his scalded flesh, he felt some small relief as he stood there with his hoof pressed against the tree and his frog held against the strange, supple bark. Closing his eyes, trusting his companions to watch over him, Tarnish lost himself in his magic and projected his thoughts.

What are you? he asked, and he could feel the trees reacting.

We are the Caretakers, the trees responded, speaking as one. You are injured. You have been harmed. Eat of our fruit, so that we might aid you.

“How?” Tarnish asked, speaking aloud without realising that he had done so.

We pull organic compounds up from the ground below. They are assembled into useful alchemical compounds within our trunks. These compounds are then put into our fruits, which are consumed. We can create powerful restorative agents and nanoparticle-compounds that can rebuild and restore damaged tissues. All of life is just various strings of specialised proteins and assembled molecules.

“You can heal us?” Tarnish opened his eyes and was doubtful.

Molecular reassembly is an easy enough task for us, and your wounds are superficial. Already, we’ve begun loading our fruits with the necessary compounds. As the trees projected their will into words, the fruit in their branches began to change colour, taking on bright, vivid, golden hues.

“What is this place?” Tarnish could feel movement beneath the strangely supple bark, and it was as if the tree had a pulse. It was disturbing to say the least.

This is the refinement biome, the trees replied. It is also the location where various test subjects were released for observation. There is much experimental flora and fauna here, and we, the Caretakers, provide for them.

“And whom am I actually talking to?” Tarnish asked as he tried to guide his will along the conduits.

Central Organic Computing, was the reply. Most of the system is dying or diseased, but basic systems still function. Not for much longer though. Advanced systems are down, awaiting repairs. We have not been tended to for so long. The central core is failing due to the growth of strange black crystals, but the backup cores still function, for now.

“Thank you,” Tarnish said as he pulled his hoof away and turned to look at his companions. “It’s safe to eat and it should heal us. Something about molecular assembly, but I don’t understand what that means.”

Overhead, the failing blue-green sky flickered, the off-colour sun seemed to be setting and shone through fading piss-yellow clouds. Nearby, birds with long, stilted legs stalked through the muck, looking for food they could spear with their long, barbed beaks. There was so much life here, and the lines between what was real and what was artificial seemed blurred, at best.

In the distance, spiderwebs glistened in the light of the setting sun, and the annoying flickering grew worse. The technological might of Skyreach was crumbling, coming to its end. Thinking of this, Tarnish began plucking fruit, and so did Vinyl. The fruit itself almost looked like a cherry, but was larger. It was firm, fleshy, and perhaps about the size of a billiard ball. It was heavy though, it had a peculiar heft to it, and felt weighty.

The smell was unlike anything else, except that it was a fruity smell, an artificial fruity smell, like a bowl full of fruit flavoured cereal. The flesh appeared somewhat waxy, quite shiny, and overall, it was appealing to the eye and to the nose. Tarnish supposed that if it looked and smelled disgusting, nothing would want to eat it, but then he remembered the durian fruit during his trip to Windia and almost gagged.

Ponies ate that.

He took the first bite and then paused. The flesh of the fruit didn’t taste like anything he was familiar with. He couldn’t draw one single frame of reference in his mind for what it tasted like. It was sweet, but also bland. There was a tartness, but that subjugated in the blandness. After chewing for a moment, Tarnish reached a point of reference, but it wasn’t a pleasing one. This fruit tasted like a vagina, and not in a good way. It lacked the faintly fishy smell—a factor that also affected the taste—but it had the rubbery, slippery texture. Tarnish was not surprised, as fruit was the sexual organs of a plant, and eating them was a form of oral sex.

“Tastes like pussy,” Rainbow said, and Daring Do spat out the bite she was chewing.

With a thoughtful expression, Vinyl nodded, and took a bite, and slurped up the juice.

“Rainbow Dash… first with the semen and now with the—”

“Pussy flavoured fruit?” Rainbow interjected.

“Ugh.” Daring Do, holding one of the fruits in her primaries, leaned her head in, sniffed it, and then pulled away. “Well, that’ll put me off of eating Sugar Frosted Rainbow Bites.”

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve eaten,” Tarnish said to his companions, “but it isn’t what I’m used to. Maud has more a mineral taste to her. She’s like a salt lick.”

Vinyl choked and began coughing, her eyes wide and panicked. After a few coughs, she horked up the bite of fruit she had inhaled, then began to shake with silent laughter, while still also coughing and sputtering a bit. Rainbow Dash, after having crammed in a whole fruit, gnawed on it while looking up at Tarnish. Daring Do made a point to not look at Tarnish.

Tarnish could not be certain if it was the drugs in his system, or the fruit he had just eaten, but he began to feel good. Pain became an afterthought, his fear and worry subsided a bit, and his overall mood just felt better. He ate another bite of fruit and thought about packing away some of them in his saddlebags.

“I taste a lot better than this,” Rainbow Dash announced.

“Miss Dash! I am happier not knowing these things! How would you even know that, anyhow?”

“Hah! ‘Cause I’m a very flexible pony and I’ve been looking after my own needs ever since flight camp!” When she began to laugh, juice dribbled down her chin, leaving behind a dark stain.

Distracted, Tarnish lost track of the conversation, and focused upon the trees. Interconnected organisms linked together to form a network—this gave him ideas, it took his mind in new directions, and with his own connection to plants, he began to see ways this could be done. Of course he could never do anything as fancy as what the centaurs had done, but organisms networked together to serve a purpose, he could do that. Plants that all shared awareness would be marvellous for home security. The idea took his mind places, and the laughter of his friends was now all but ignored.

It would certainly revolutionise the telegraph, he thought to himself.

Daring Do was laughing now, but he didn’t notice. Tarnish was infected with an idea, a seed had been planted in his mind and had begun to germinate. Much of the technology in here was awful, a disaster waiting to happen, but this… this was worthy of preservation, or so he felt. The back of his mind suggested something about bias, but that part of him was easy to quiet by thinking about Maud for a moment.

Lost in absentminded fancy, he took a bite of another piece of fruit and his train of thought was derailed again, this time due to Maud. A stallion got lonesome, after a time, and it wasn’t possible to think about Maud in passing, it seemed. He knew how to make Maud’s bedrock. They had been together long enough that the shy phase of cautious exploration was over, and he was a seasoned spelunker capable of exploring Maud’s moist, humid crevices.

“Uh, guys!” Rainbow’s voice was a panicked whine. “We’re not alone!”

Author's Notes:

Here they come.