I’m so glad to hear you’re all okay and that both One-One and Eleven managed to follow our tracks.

Looks like you’ve both been having significantly more luck than One and I. So far, our trip has been just endless plodding forward through more and more unstable tunnels. It seems that wherever the old dwarves originated from, it wasn’t Zebrica, although they definitely did spread that far south, as the tunnels indicate. We’ve been going slowly for the past few days because we found a huge staircase leading down under the ocean floor. Air is an issue, especially for the elderly, but the filters, generators, and supplies have been enough so far.

Unfortunately, not everything seems to be sunshine and happiness, as Eleven reported seeing Crystal and Royal Guards in the tunnels under Vanhoover. That leads me to believe that Three’s mission hit the worst-case scenario - no, not THE worst-case. I doubt ponies would have the heart to hurt or… kill Three, not even in these rough times. However, I’m fairly sure that he’s being detained and ponies know at least some access paths to the dwarf tunnels. According to Eleven’s observations, they have no clue how to navigate the tunnels, so that’s a plus.

I wish I could just grab One and go kick some well-deserving ass but I have responsibility. The mood of the dwarves is still okay but I’ve been hearing voices calling for the return to Brauheim and preparing to fight a war. Your good news does bring some hope and I’ll be able to send those dwarves with some supplies and equipment to you with One-One and Eleven. Hard Reset, after he woke up from passing out thanks to your news, wanted to head off to you immediately but I told him he still had to organize the ranks of the rest of us. That way, those who remain with me will be the curious explorers ready to go deeper south. We still have several locations to explore under Zebrica and getting there is going to take some time. As for your alicorn video, I really can’t tell you much more other than to be careful, really. The good part is that if the section of the city they were spotted in self-destructed then it’s less likely they’ll be exploring further.

Now, about Seven. He’s never been the kind to fare well without a clear goal so I’ve got a special mission for him that might alleviate two problems at once. You’ll understand when you see what One-One brings you. Seven will be too busy figuring out a way to teleport things across a corrupted landscape without a fixed point to worry about his crushing guilt… which should be on me anyway, really. I’m also sending the updated map to both of you and tasking Seven to organize building a fixed teleporter between your two cities after he’s done with my mission. That’s bound to take resources you don’t have in your travel backpacks so it’ll be a big project to occupy his mind.

Hmmm… now that I think about it, if the city your group discovered, Two, is as large as you think, it might be a good idea to straight up just cross under the ocean, set up a base under the northern coast of Zebrica, and sending out specialized scout parties instead of continuing the migration. That way, I could return to you with One sooner and we can start working on Three’s situation.

Anyway, good luck to all of you, and thank you for the excellent job you’re doing.

Bossdad. Dadboss? Baddoss? Ossdabd?

That overgrown drone pretending to know what he’s doing.

“This place gives me the creeps,” grumbles Magpie, leading the group as usual with his headlamp.

“What? Scared of a little dark?” Thirteen can’t help taking a well-deserved jab at him.

“Scared of a thousand tons of rock crushing me to dust any second,” Magpie frowns without even bothering to look back at her.

The group finally made it to Canterlot few hours ago. Despite Magpie’s objections, Gem’s final word was that they’d be stopping in lower Canterlot no matter what. Granted, with their supplies thinning rapidly, even he wasn’t objecting too much. Harriet was ecstatic from the idea that she’d be able to take a hot bath after over two weeks on the road, Thirteen was super curious about the lights covering the side of Canterlot mountain, having never seen the capital city before, and Three was mostly focused on walking straight ahead without passing out.

Of course, entering lower Canterlot set at the base of the mountain through the main gate would be unwise, to say the least, for such a recognizable group so Gem decided to lead them through the abandoned mines crisscrossing the entire mountain. Funnily enough, Three was the only other one with hooves-on experience with the place.

And so, as they trudge through the wet darkness, Three, Gem, and Thirteen are sharing a hive mind map of the mining complex inside the mountain, Harriet is still walking in the back, suspicious of the stability of every tunnel, and Magpie is in front, listening to Gem’s directions. Underground really isn’t his thing. You can’t fight a sudden cave-in.

The tunnel opens into a darkness that even Magpie’s headlamp can’t penetrate. Temperature drops and the still air of the previous tunnel turns into a slow, consistent draft.

“Bloodstone, we have a problem,” he turns his head back to the others, “There’s a massive hole ahead.”

“Massive asshole ahead,” Thirteen thinks to herself as she gives Magpie an innocent look.

“Be very careful here,” warns Gem, “In fact, use the big lamp, Mag.”

“I’m not a fan of the new nickname,” mumbles Magpie without any real venom in it this time as he immediately starts rummaging in his backpack for the long lamp.

“You’re not a fan of new anything,” Gem shrugs, smirking, “Harriet, how well can you see down here?”

“See isn’t the right term, but I can feel the area around me just fine with only Magpie’s headlamp as insurance. The whole mountain is tainted with corrupted biomass, rocks, and everything.”

“Good,” Gem nods, “That means we should be okay. Magpie?”

The griffon lights the big lamp the light of which gently flows all over the area, revealing what has to be only a tiny fraction of it despite the intensity.

They’re all standing on a ledge the width of just over a standard Canterlot sidewalk overlooking a circular hole which seems to be crossing the mountain from top to far underground. From what they can see and the sloping of the ledge, it must lead up and down the whole height of the mountain, its wall dotted with tunnel mouths and shiny with old, rusty metal signs.

“This is the central air shaft,” explains Gem, “Long time ago, Canterlot mountain used to be a mining complex until a set of accidents killed a lot of miners and the mining was stopped on royal orders. There’s mining equipment as well as tracks for the carts all over the place, so be careful where you step because sections of the railing are rusty or completely gone.”

“How stable is this place?” asks Magpie.

“I must admit I haven’t been here too often in recent years, but as far as I know there are several collapsed sections underground from the mining, one escape tunnel on the ground floor which Comfort tore down on a squad of paladins when we were escaping from Canterlot during our first time here, and one section of this ledge on the level of upper Canterlot sewers, so waaay up there, which is Cromach’s job,” looking from side to side, she points to the left and starts walking, “We just need to get two levels down and use a tunnel that connects to lower Canterlot sewers.”

“Is Shuffles still around?” asks Three.

“Shuffles?” Thirteen gives him a quizzical look. She hasn’t even heard of anything like that but it does sound like something Three would name.

“I haven’t met or felt it during my last two trips through the tunnels,” Gem shrugs, “I’d rather avoid doing so this time as well.”

“Awwww...” Three pouts in disappointment.

“I realize I’m going to regret it, but who or what is ‘Shuffles’?” asks Magpie.

“A life-draining mass of black smoke, dark magic, and pure evil that devoured a unit of expert paladins and which, for reasons beyond me, is Three’s friend,” explains Gem in a carefully measured tone of someone who has her own opinion but doesn’t want to express it, “It’s significantly less friendly to anyone else, to say the least.”

Magpie turns his head, giving Three a long, frowning stare to which Three responds with a bright, friendly smile.

“Do I want to know how that happened?” asks Magpie after looking forward again.

“He gave it a hug,” says Gem, “Told ya you wouldn’t believe half of the things I could tell you about him.”

Thirteen doesn’t need to see their expressions to know Gem must be wearing the smuggest grin in the history of smugness and that at least one of Magpie’s eyes is twitching.

“Shuffles?” Three raises his voice in a weak call-out, “Shuffles!”

No answer, no usual mass of furious hissing voice, nothing. There’s only silence.

“I can’t hear anything,” Harriet looks down from the ledge into the abyss, “Though I’m not sure we want to meet this Shuffles anywaaa-haaa--?!”

The edge crumbles under her weight. Thirteen only manages to grab one of the flailing tentacles which in the tiniest instant shows her that she has neither the grounding, the weight, nor the strength to pull Harriet up and that the only thing her holding on would cause is her falling down as well.

Unfortunately, unlike everyone else in the group, Harriet can’t fly.

“HARRIET!” both Gem and Magpie lunge to the edge and look down, “I can’t see her!” says the griffon, shining the light straight down.

“Miss Harriet?” Three’s staring down, wide-eyed.

“I… just let her go...” Thirteen’s standing there and watching her hoof in shock and horror.

Sudden squelching noise from the wall makes everyone look at a mass of wriggling tentacles appearing from the tainted rock and then inch by inch, wriggling out in the form of black goop that eventually reforms back to Harriet gasping for breath.

“Wha- Who- Wh-” she’s just breathing, blinking in confusion, “That was… something...”

“I’m so sorryyyyyyy!” Thirteen lunges at her, latching onto her neck, “I almost caught you but-”

“Yeah yeah,” Harriet breathes out, patting Thirteen with one foreleg, “Don’t worry about that. It was stupid of me to look over the edge. I don’t know what happened. One moment I was falling and in the next everything is… blurry and then I’m back here.”

“Maybe a Corrupted reflex?” asks Gem, poking Harriet’s slowly flailing tentacle in sheer curiosity, “You haven’t travelled through the biomass yet?”

“Well excuuuuuse meee,” Harriet rolls her eyes with a growing smile of relief at being alive, “It’s not like I’ve had a Corrupted mentor to teach me what all this is about.”

“Understood, understood,” Gem pats Harriet’s head, “If you’re okay, then let’s move. The sooner we’re out of here, the better.”

With Harriet now shuffling by the wall, the group resume moving. Three’s walking in front of her, muzzle pressed against the ground, sniffing and poking the tainted rocks but still moving quickly enough not to hinder the group.

“What are you doing?” asks Harriet, poking Three with a tentacle.

“I’ve never really examined any tainted underground,” he explains, “The rocks feel completely different from any formations up north. Different density, different strength, different resistance to digging, it’s a whole new material! Now I regret boss didn’t send me to help dig the long tunnel between the hive and Pine Hills.”

“I thought everything in Equestria was tainted these days.”

“The north isn’t,” Gem joins in, “The tundra north of the Crystal Empire is the last place with some sense of taint but the Everhoof range and the underground isn’t. Corruption doesn’t seem to thrive in extreme cold or in dry underground. My best guess is that it’s related to it being part moss, part mushroom, and part something that does bend the laws of physics a little - so magic.”

After descending on the ledge around the abyss, Gem leads the group into a tunnel which eventually turns from hewn rock to smooth, worked stones, and soon connects to familiar circular tunnels with a small walkway on both sides and a corridor for waste between them - Canterlot sewers.

“I’ve cleaned the little sewer system we had in Windy and that had the same amount of mess in it,” comments Harriet.

“There aren’t that many ponies who live in lower Canterlot these days. Most still prefer the upper city closer to the well-protected castle,” sighs Gem, “You’ll see when we get to the city itself. Corrupted wiped lower Canterlot clean because it didn’t have so many magical protections as the upper city and even that was overrun. The only place that survived the first onslaught of Corrupted was the castle and the courtyard. Celestia’s and Luna’s ancient wards coupled with Twilight’s research helped save the few hundred ponies who remained there. These days, both the upper and lower cities are recovering but we’re still far away from the bustle of old times. The sewer system was built for that. On the other hole, Ponyville has grown easily ten times larger than it used to be pre-corruption.”

Eventually, Gem touches several stones in the wall in sequence, making a whole section slide back and reveal a narrow, winding staircase up into which Harriet can barely fit. However, the cellar on the top of the stairs hidden behind a wall in the same way as the bottom is wide, dry, empty, and smells much nicer.

“We’re home,” Gem breathes a sigh of relief as she leads the group a shorter set of stairs up.

“Wait… is this…?” Three’s looking around with a look of disbelief.

“The ‘haunted house’ we occupied when we first got to Canterlot? Yes, it is. The crown rebuilt it as an orphanage and I bought it after corruption hit and everyone was moved east to Manehattan,” smiles Gem, “So I assume you know your way around, Three. Everyone else, feel free to explore. Magpie, Harriet, you’ll have to stay in I’m afraid. Three, Thirteen, you’re free to wander around in a disguise. I have a few errands I need to run, so we’re going to be here a day or two.”

“No problem,” Magpie shrugs, “That’s exactly why I took the full night watch last night.”

“Umm, shower?” asks Harriet, “I’ve been feeling a bit… oily since I got sucked into the ground and rebuilt,” she shudders.

“Upstairs, second door to the left,” says Gem, “Magpie, bedroom is upstairs too.”

“Are you leaving right now?” asks the griffon.

“Yeah. No rest for the wicked, as they say.”

“And where should we look for you in case someone sniffs you out?”

“Pfff. Sure, that’s going to happen. First, I’m going to visit Packy and see how he’s going on his own. Afterwards, I’ve got something special.”

“Riiiight!” Magpie snaps his talons, “They didn’t put him in prison with us. I was wondering why.”

“He didn’t get involved with the dragon thing, so I asked Promi to let him go unlike us. She agreed. As far as I know, he’s back in upper Canterlot and hopefully not drugging his brains out like before.”

“Say hello from us, will you?” says the griffon. Him saying something this warm makes Thirteen furrow her brows in confusion.

“Yeah, definitely!” adds Harriet.

“Don’t worry, I will,” Gem concentrates and green shimmer passes through her body, leaving behind a smaller, pink, green-eyed pegasus with a two-tone navy blue and yellow mane. All in all, she looks vaguely similar to princess Cadance now, “Lock the door behind me. If you’re going out, Thirteen, Three then someone will have to let you back in. See you later,” she waves at everyone, spits out a key made of goo, unlocks the main door, and leaves, locking it behind herself.

As Magpie heads off in search of a kitchen and Harriet looks for the bathroom, Three and Thirteen are left alone by the door.

“So, what do we do?” asks Thirteen, trying to lighten the mood by striking a conversation with eerily silent Three, “Do you think Gem has love crystals in the fridge like in the Crystal Empire? I’m starving.”

“Definitely,” replies Three.

“Is something on your mind?”

“Yes.”

“Come oooon, I worry about you when you’re this quiet,” Thirteen boops the drone.

Three sighs.

“How do you know what the right thing to do is?” he asks out of nowhere.

“What?”

“How do you know what the right thing to do is?” Three simply repeats.

“I… well...” Thirteen scratches her head, “I dunno? Most of the time I just did what I was told and after I messed it up I ran off to some dark corner to cry until I was ready to try again. The right or wrong thing never really came into question. I believe that mom and dad wanted what’s good for me so I just did it. Well, tried to do it and failed miserably. If I think about it now, though, I doubt even mom knew what the right thing to do with me was. I’m not sure anyone can know what’s the right, or the best thing to do is in each situation. I’m sure they both did their best the only way they knew how. I’m trying to do what little I can, even though it amounts to nearly nothing. I just think that not doing anything is the worst way, way worse than trying and failing and making things worse,” she giggles nervously, “I’m blathering nonsense, sorry.”

“No, no,” Three shakes his head and stands up, gritting his teeth in a determined expression which almost makes Thirteen squee with its adorableness, “That’s pretty much the same opinion I got from an older friend. Do you mind grabbing few love crystals from the kitchen?”

“You want to go outside, don’t you?” Thirteen winks at him, “And it’s for more than just sightseeing.”

Three nods.

“Yes. We’re going to look for a wizard to get us to Tartarus. I need to know the truth about what happened. I don’t know why but I feel like everyone is thinking completely wrong about the entire situation.”

“Well, I’m coming with you, obviously. Dad would kill me if I lost you in Tartarus. Or Canterlot for that matter, really,” replies Thirteen in complete seriousness while heading off where she can hear Magpie munching.

When she enters the kitchen, she jumps and punches the air in victory, startling the griffon who gives her a narrow-eyed frown with his beak full of jerky.

“Yessssss!” she squees.

“What?” grumbles the griffon after swallowing.

Thirteen sticks her tongue at him, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a stack of green crystals.

“He’s glowing again! Not much but it counts.”