The giant blimp touches down after what feels like a solid week of air travel. Luckily, the blimp did not catch fire at any point on the journey, making it somewhat relaxing.

As fun as it was, it’s great to finally get off the thing and get to walk around. Confined spaces aren’t always the best. Especially not with someone your size in a world full of miniature animals.

Not that you have actually gotten off the giant blimp / fire hazard / potential deathtrap. All these other ponies seem to have brought a lot of luggage with them, so moving it all out is holding you up.

After finding a brief opening in the long line of ponies and zeppelin workers who are carrying off their luggage, you and Daring manage to slip through real quick and get to the ground once again.

“It’s great to be on the Earth again,” you say, having had enough with zeppelin rides after the one trip. “I’m almost surprised the thing didn’t blow up, considering my luck.”

“With your luck,” Daring adds, “the zeppelin would’ve gotten lost, forgotten where it was, met up with an awesome, beautiful adventurer blimp who would’ve had to slowly guide it to where it’s supposed to go.”

“That’s funny, Daring, congratulations, I see what you did.”

“I’m the funniest and most creative pony you’ll ever meet, so enjoy my company while we’re both still around.”

“Oh I’m enjoying every second of it, believe me.”

You have landed at an airport, as one may expect, which seems to be just on the outskirts of a sizeable city. What the city is called you do not know and could not care any less. The only thing that matters is where that last artifact is.

The second you get it, you’re gone. So hopefully you can get this one a bit easier than you got the other two.

The first artifact was hidden in an ancient temple that was covered with traps. If you didn’t have to go back in a place like that ever again, you’d be pretty happy.

The second artifact was already possessed by some crazy tribal zebras who really did not like you. You have the scars to prove it. If you never had to go through that sort of experience again, you’d be pretty happy.

But, of course, with the way things have been going for you, you’ll probably have to go into an ancient trap-infested temple filled with zebras who want to torture you.

Something like that will probably happen. And you will not be happy.

But with Daring’s luck, you’ll end up getting hurt, but you’ll both get out alive in the end with the artifacts. If you had to guess what would happen, that’d be it.

As long as Daring’s around.

“So where we off to now?” you ask, the both of you having exited the airport and entered the streets of the unknown city.

“To the nicer part of town right now,” Daring says. “Once we get there, we will find a place to spend the night and map out our plan for tomorrow.”

“How do we know when we get to the good part of this city?”

“Are you serious? Look around, Jay.” She looks at you as though you’re mentally disabled, and it is a look you have received hundreds of times in the past few days. “See these zebras and camels walking around?”

You nod.

“Do they look friendly? Or clean?”

“No, but neither do we.”

“True, but the difference between us and them are that we have a shit ton of cash money.”

“Well don’t just announce that to everyone!” you whisper, getting her to shutup.

“Relax, Jay. You’re always so worried. Does it look like any being here speaks Equestrian?”

“How the hell should I know? I don’t even know where we are.”

“Then leave the worrying to me.”

“But you’re never worried about anything.”

“Exactly. Now neither of us have to worry. Just calm down, dude, when have I ever let you down?”

“I’m sure there have been times.”

“No there haven’t. I’m the perfect companion. But seriously, stop worrying, it’s bumming me out.”

“So we’re going further into the city?” you ask.

“Yep! For now anyways. But let’s just take one step at a time here. We get to the hotel, plan for tomorrow, and that’s all we should be concentrated on right now.”

Seems like a simple enough task.

The streets are not very crowded, which is wonderful, and you continue walking through the bad neighborhoods of wherever you are.

==========

It’s still just as hot here as it was 12 hours ago when you were in your previous desert hell hole. Surprisingly enough, wherever you are right now looks exactly the same as where you were this morning.

For all you know, the zeppelin could have flown over the ocean for eight hours, turned around, and landed back exactly where you started. You could still be in the same city.

“We’re not,” Daring says.

“Are you sure?” you ask, looking around. The architecture and ponies and weather are exactly the same as they all have been for the past few days. And there still isn’t any wind. You would kill for a cool breeze. “Everything looks the same to me.”

“Well, you’ve probably never been here before.”

“Probably.”

“So this part of the world will look a little strange.”

“Every part of this world looks more than a little strange.”

You don’t look like any being you have seen recently. As far as you know, the only human walking around the surface of this world is you.

Surely you were the offspring of beings that looked somewhat like you. That shouldn’t be an especially unreasonable thought.

But there are no beings that even remotely resemble you. Everything that talks is a tiny horse or zebra or whatever. You are in the land of the magical talking midget animals.

“Damn it’s so hot here,” you observe, pulling at the collar of your shirt, which is a little damp from sweating all day.

“You keep saying that as though I don’t know,” Daring responds, equally as tired and sweaty.

“Sorry. It’s the only thing I can think about right now. There’s no escaping it. And I’m tired.”

“Well despite all that, and your constant complaining, you’re moving around really well.”

“Uh, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“... Are you stupid?” she asks, looking at you like you are. “Seriously, do you just say things to mess with me?”

“Not all the time.”

“You had a knife in your back like 3 days ago! What the hell do you mean, ‘why wouldn’t I be?’ You wouldn’t be because you got cut the fuck up!”

“Oh yeah,” you say, having forgotten the terrible ordeal in the heat of the desert.

“Oh yeah!” Daring imitates you.

“It was actually a hook, not a knife.”

“You’re fucking retarded, Jay, like seriously.”

“How? I can’t even feel my wounds anymore. Whatever you rubbed on my back the other day must’ve really worked.”

“That stuff wouldn’t just make your wounds suddenly feel like nothing, though. It was just to disinfect it and help the pain go away long enough for you to fall asleep. And I gave you that a while ago. It should’ve worn off by now.”

“Well, maybe you got the super strength bottle at the pharmacy.”

“I didn’t. You should be in an incredible amount of pain.”

“Do you want me to be?”

“Of course not! But you should be!”

In a flash, Daring rushes behind you and lifts up your shirt, right in the middle of the street.

“What are you doing?!” you exclaim, trying to put your shirt back down. Other ponies on the road look at the both of you like ‘what?’

“I want to see your back! It’ll take like 2 seconds.”

“Look at it later! Wait til we get somewhere maybe just a little more private.” You push her off you and adjust your shirt and she walks in front of you. “If you really want to undress me, then wait until we get to the hotel.”

Her face, as you expected, turns red. You can’t tell if it’s out of anger, frustration, tiredness, the heat, or embarrassment, but you like to think it’s embarrassment.

“That’s not even close to what I was trying to do!” she growls. “I just wanted to see your back.”

“I’m sure you did.”

She grinds her teeth before turning away. “I really do hate you sometimes, you know.”

“I know.”

==========

You can feel Daring looking at you. You’ve been feeling it for like 30 seconds now, which, if you count to 30, is an incredibly long period of time to be looking at someone and not say anything.

You glance over at her, expecting her to look away, but she doesn’t. She’s still just looking at you. No expression can be read on her face.

“What?” you ask.

“How are you even walking right now?”

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

==========

The lobby for this hotel is allright, but not nearly as nice as the one you stayed in a couple nights ago.

But this one is even more expensive somehow.

The hotel is pretty nice, but it ought to be considering the price of a room for one night. Yeah, you have a lot of money, but not for long if this is how much a hotel room costs.

Actually seeing the room will have to wait, as Daring and you have decided to get a drink or two from the bar.

Of course, alcohol isn’t the best thing to have in your exact situation, but Daring says it’s okay. As long as you don’t get incredibly intoxicated, everything is fine, which is good, cause you just want a few enough to unwind a bit.

Daring says nopony will know exactly where the both of you are for another couple days at least. That one unicorn guy Daring threw off the zeppelin will probably tell his buddies where you two were heading, but actually finding your location within this city will take some time.

And she doubts the first place they will look is a luxurious hotel.

It’s almost relaxing; to think that nopony knows exactly where you are. However, you have come to expect almost anything, so there probably is some bad pony out there who does know where you are.

They could even be sitting in the bar for all you know, but that’s probably just your pessimism and paranoia combining.

This hotel does look pretty fancy, and so does the bar, which is pretty crowded. Every pony in the bar looks very clean and they are all wearing clothes. Nice clothes, at that.

You and Daring are both wearing clothes too, but they’re not fancy and you’re not clean. So you stand out a bit, but what else is new.

But that’s partially due to the fact that Daring insists on wearing that hat.

“It’s a pith helmet.”

Most tables are full but the bar itself seems relatively empty so you both head on over there.

You take a seat on one of the barstools.

“I need to use the fillies room,” Daring says, starting to walk away. “Order me something.”

“What do you want?”

“Whiskey.”

Naturally. You decide to get the same.

“Two whiskeys,” you request, turning forward and gazing at the large collection of alcohol on the shelves behind the bar.

The bartender probably doesn’t understand english, but he seems to know what you meant by whiskey and pours it out.

He passes them to you and you take a small sip, breathing in the burning sensation that comes with stronger alcohol.

It’s good.

There is a bit of smoke in the air; not not because there is a fire, but because this seems to be a smoke friendly area. Not that you care. It’s a bar.

You take a deep breath, thinking about how there is only one artifact left. Then all this shit can be over. It’s a nice thought.

But not especially realistic.

There is apparently an entire race of ponies who plan on using these artifacts to conquer everypony else. If they really set their mind to it, they could find the artifacts.

Or you. Or both.

Whatever. That’s not something to worry about at this exact moment. You should just try to relax for the rest of the day. Being constantly worried is going to give you a heart attack.

Everybody goes, but it’d be great if you stuck around for a while longer.

A heart attack sounds painful, too.

As you take another sip of the whiskey, you happen to glance to your right, where you see Daring, who is not in the bathroom.

She is at the far end of the bar, talking to some stallion that you don’t know. You didn’t think she had any friends in this city.

Actually, she doesn’t have any friends anywhere. Except you, sorta, but some might debate that.

Marley, the senile camel, could probably be counted as a friend too. What a group you three are. The cocky graverobber, the lost amnesiatic human, and the senile camel, hunting for ancient buried treasure.

Sounds like a bad movie.

The stallion she is talking to seems to a brown earth pony. Nothing special. He has his back to you, so Daring is facing towards you, but focused on that random stallion.

What really surprises you though, is that Daring seems to be really enjoying herself. She’s giggling and smiling.

In the middle of the stallion talking, Daring smiles and flips her mane out of her eyes. She’s acting all… flirty.

You feel angry for some reason. Jealous, even. Who the fuck is she talking to?

Daring glances at you for a second but then focuses again back on the stallion. Whatever.

You turn to face the bar again and sip your drink.

It doesn’t matter who she talks to. You don’t care. She’s having a good time, and you are happy for her.

“Fuck it,” you say, downing the rest of the whiskey and promptly ordering a second. Meanwhile, Daring’s drink is still sitting right next to you, but you figure she will get it at some point.

You look to the other end of the bar, just to take in the sights.

Where you spot a white mare wearing a red dress sitting all by herself.

And she appears to be looking at you.

You quickly look around you in all directions to make sure it is actually you that she is looking at. After a quick check, and realizing there is nopony in the immediate area she could be looking at, you turn back to her again.

She hops off of her seat and begins slowly walking towards you, her eyes never leaving yours. They’re blue.

You don’t know what to do, so just sitting where you are seems to be the best option. She’s either interested in you or an assassin. With your luck, it’s probably the latter, but you’re hopeful.

Whiskey makes you hopeful.

The approaching white mare has a black, curly mane and a very short red dress on, leaving her back half almost entirely exposed, but manages to cover what ought to be covered.

She sits on the stool next to yours and smiles at you.

Then she says something.

Unfortunately, as far as you know, you speak one language, and that language isn’t whatever this mare is speaking.

You must admit, she is a very attractive pony, and her voice is soft and sweet. She’s been smiling lightly at you for a while, and you can’t help but return it.

But there still isn’t any way for you to know what she is saying.

“Can I get you a drink?” you ask.

She tilts her head a bit to the side, inquisitively. She doesn’t know what you’re saying either. It might be a long night.

“Drink?” you ask again, making the motion of someone drinking.

She says something and nods, prompting you to get another drink.

Daring hasn’t come back for her drink yet, so she probably won’t miss it. She seems busy anyway.

You slide the white mare Daring’s drink, and happen to peak over at your adventurous companion.

She’s still at the opposite end of the bar, but now she is looking right at you. The stallion she is with is still talking to her, but she doesn’t seem to be paying attention as she looks in your direction.

And she looks pissed. It looked like she was having fun talking to that guy earlier.

Oh well. Not your problem right now.

You turn back to your new foreign friend who takes a sip of Daring’s drink. After just a small sip, she coughs a couple times, the drink being too strong for her.

She laughs and says something, but you will never know what it is. You have no idea what’s going on anymore. Life gets a little more confusing every second.

Who is this even?

Somepony grabs your arm and squeezes it tightly. After a glance, you see that Daring is back and has wrapped her forelegs entirely around your arm.

And she’s glaring at the mare in the red dress.

Daring says something in a foreign language, and the mare in the red dress immediately starts to look offended.

Daring says something else, smiling this time, causing the white mare to turn with a huff and leave. She turns once to give Daring the evil eye, but then she exits the bar.

“What the hell was that?” you ask Daring, looking rather pleased.

“What?”

“What’d you say to her?”

“Nothing! Jeez, relax, Jay.” She yawns overdramatically. “Let’s go upstairs now.” She tugs at your arm that she is still wrapped around.

“No, hold on, I want to know what just happened.”

She sighs, tugging even more so on your arm. “I’ll explain later, just c’mon, I’m so tired!”

“Who was that?”

“Nopony.”

“What’d you say?”

“Nothing!”

“Daring I am four and a half seconds away from freaking the fuck out, just tell me what just happened! And who were you even talking to back there?”

“No… pony… And if you ask me again I’m going to headbutt you right in the face.” She moves her face a little closer to yours.

“Domestic violence isn’t a joke, Daring.”

“I didn’t say it was a joke- And it wouldn’t count as domestic violence anyway! What are you trying to say?!”

Seeing as she is making a scene, and drawing a lot of unwanted attention, you decide to appease her. “Nothing, let’s just get out of here.” You glance around at all the other ponies who are looking at you, and think it’s best to just go.

She smiles up at you before letting go of your arm. The stallion that Daring was talking to just a minute ago trots over to the both of you.

“Beat it, Pablo,” Daring says, nudging by him and you both leave.

“Who was that?” you ask, having left the bar.

She shrugs. “Some guy who was hitting on me.”

You’re so confused right now. “At least you didn’t kick him in the nuts.”

“Ha!” she yells the world before chuckling a bit. “Yeah. He has no idea how lucky he and his balls really are. Not like I would’ve done anything with him, anyways. He smelled funny.”

“So do you.”

“Yeah, but it’s not by choice. In just a few minutes I’ll take a shower and smell beautiful. One of us ought to.”

“I only smell a bit. I’ll take a shower too.”

“Not before I get to look at your back.”

“Sure. Why are we heading up so early?” you ask, calling the elevator. “I thought you wanted to drink.”

“Eh, we can drink in the room.”

True, but you also could’ve done that in the first place.

Whatever. You’re just along for the ride.

“You don’t want to sit at the bar?”

She shakes her head, getting into the elevator. “Nah, I guess not. I’d rather just hang out with you than be around a bunch of other ponies.”

That’s one of the nicest things she’s ever said to you, and you make a mental note of it.

==========

The room itself is very nice, but not especially different from the hotel you stayed in a couple nights ago.

The view is also pretty good, but you are on the 12th floor, so it ought it be.

Why are all these hotels so tall?

The room has a small kitchen, a bathroom, a balcony, and the main area with the bed and a desk.

That’s right: one bed again.

“How?” you ask, very quietly and only to yourself. This is like the third place you’ve voluntarily stayed in with one bed. Does every room only have one bed?

“Hey, Daring,” you say, getting her attention and she rummages around the kitchen. “Y’know, we have plenty of money. We could get separate rooms if you want, so we’re not sharing a bed all the time.”

You’re not sure if Daring wants some privacy. She seems like she does, but she’s weird, so you can’t read her all too well.

“Oh, yeah…” she looks down, as though she dropped something and is searching for it. “Um… Well, we shouldn’t do that. We should stay in the same room.”

“Why is that?”

“Heh, uh… Well, we should stay in the same room for security! Yeah. You never know who’s looking for ya, Jay. We’ve stuck together this far and everything’s been semi-successful, so we should just keep doing that.”

Makes sense to you. “Good point.”

“Yeah it is! Always gotta be thinking, Jay. So!” She jumps over the counter and walks towards the bed with a knife in her hoof. “Let’s get a look at your back.”

“What’s the knife for?”

“To cut the bandages. If I was gonna stab you to death, Jay, it would’ve been exactly 3 seconds after we first met in the jungle.”

“I know you’re not gonna stab me, I was just asking.” You remove your shirt and walk over to the bed where Daring is waiting, tugging at the bandages.

“No! Don’t touch ‘em,” Daring says. “I’ll cut them off. Just lie down before you hurt yourself.”

You lie down on your stomach, just as you did a couple days before, and wait for Daring.

You don’t have to wait for long, as in just a second, you feel the presence of your only companion on your rump.

“Comfy?” you ask, your cheeks flushing. She seriously has no concept of personal space.

“Yeah, actually,” she giggles, bouncing up and down a couple times. “Ahem. But seriously, let’s get these off.”

You take a quick glance back at the pegasus to notice she is no longer wearing her shirt or helmet. She is as naked as everypony else, and once again, you are just too baffled to ask her anything.

You saw her bathing a few days ago and she yelled at you! Now she is sitting on you wearing nothing and pretending it’s no big deal. Honestly she has to have a mental problem.

Mares are confusing creatures.

Suddenly, something sharped is pressed against your back. You jolt as though you were struck by lightning you flip over onto your back, not even close to forgetting what happened to you earlier this week.

Daring hops off you for just long enough to land again on your groin with her wings flared out.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” she says, placing a gentle hoof on your chest. “Just relax. Breathe.”

She places her other hoof on your chest to balance herself.

“That was my fault,” she admits. “Should’ve said I was starting.”

“I didn’t mean to flip over like that.”

“I know you didn’t, it’s okay. Now I’m gonna cut the bandages, Jay, alright?”

You nod, looking down at her as she takes the knife in her mouth.

“I’ll go slowly.”

As she said, she slowly slides the knife between your stomach and the bandage itself, cutting it as she moves along. She slowly moves the knife, and her head, up your chest towards where the bandages end.

You can feel the knife move along your skin, but you manage to keep yourself calm.

“There,” she announces, having finished. She picks up her head, which is now only a few inches away from yours, and stops for a moment, just looking at your face.

Her eyes are really big, and they’ve always been the one part of Daring that you’ve never had a problem with. Her hooves scare you because she kicks ponies in the privates, her wings scare you because she sucks at flying and dropped you at the airport…

But her eyes have always been something that calm you down. They’re so red! Who else has red eyes?

“Everything okay?” you ask.

Daring shakes her head out and moves back to re-situate herself on your groin before literally throwing the knife back into the kitchen.

“That’s not safe,” you say.

“And safety is my number one concern. You good?”

“I don’t know I haven’t seen what my back looks like yet.”

“Sit up.” Daring wraps her forelegs under your armpits and physically pulls you into a sitting position on the mattress before she moves behind you.

In the meantime, you stare outside, watching the setting sun and the one cloud that is in the sky lazily float by.

It’s been a pretty relaxing day, if you look at everything relatively. You haven’t been attacked, or have been under the threat of being attacked, in several hours now. It’s been nice while it has lasted.

“Wow,” Daring says from behind you.

“Wow? Why wow?”

You feel her touch your back with her hoof, causing you to jolt again…

But it didn’t hurt. Not even a little bit.

You look over your shoulder and back at Daring who is still just looking at your back. She reaches her hoof towards you again, and you try to relax as she places it softly against your injured back.

And you feel her hoof. No pain accompanies it, it’s just her hoof.

But you should feel pain. You should be in an incredible amount of pain, like Daring said earlier.

She runs her furry hoof down your back slowly. It tickles a bit, but it’s not painful in any way.

“Wow,” Daring says again. As she gazes at your back, and you continue to look at her, her mouth hangs open and her big red eyes shrink to the size of a grain of rice.

“How do you do that with your eyes?” you ask.

“That’s not possible,” she whispers in disbelief, still looking at your back.

“I know it’s not. Your eyes are unnaturally small right now.”

“I was right,” she continues to whisper, seemingly to herself.

“Right about what?”

Daring shakes her head, as though physically throwing something from her mind. Her eyes return to the normal sized red orbs you are accustomed to seeing before she looks up at you.

“What?” she asks.

“What were you right about?”

“Uh…” she continues to stare at you as she things. “Nothing?”

“What did you say?”

“Just.... nothing?”

You get up off the bed and quickly walk towards the bathroom, wanting to get a look at your back for yourself. Daring follows quickly behind, never taking her eyes off you for a second.

You go into the bathroom, turn on the light, turn around in the mirror and see your back.

It’s the exact way it’s always been for your entire life. There isn’t anything there but skin.

All of your skin. No scars, no blood, no pain, nothing.

Everything is back to the way it was before you ever saw a talking zebra.

“How in the hell?” you ask, running your own hands over your back, just to make sure the mirror is telling the truth. “How is this possible?”

You look down at your only friend, who is now standing in the bathroom with you. Her eyes have returned to normal size now.

“Daring, how is this possible?”

She looks you in the eyes for the first time in several minutes and offers a simple shrug.

Great, of course she doesn’t know. The pony who has the answers for everything doesn’t know this.

But who would? This isn’t natural.

You are in a strange world. Once you think you got something figured out, this weird shit happens.

“So it is true,” you barely hear Daring whisper to herself, as her gaze returns to your backside.

“What was that?” you ask, turning to the mare.

“What?” She looks up at your face again.

“What’d you say?”

“I didn’t say anything, Jay.”

“No, I just heard you say ‘So it is true.’ What’s true? Don’t lie to me, Daring, this week has been awful and weird for me and I’m about ready to explode.”

“Jay, seriously, I said nothing, you’re hearing shit.” She turns and begins to walk out of the bathroom.

And as she exits the bathroom, you can’t help but look at her lower half. You’ve never really noticed the casual way her hips seem to swing back and forth.

Her butt is a bit bigger than you thought, now that you’re looking at it.

Stop looking at it.

Snapping yourself at of your stupor, you follow her out into the bedroom, calming yourself down. It’s only a matter of time before you explode in anger or frustration with this mare, but let’s not have it be right now. Not when you’re so close to achieving your final goal.

You take a few deep breaths. “You want to go out and eat or get room service again?” you ask, picking up the knife off the ground that Daring threw earlier.

Daring flops onto the bed, bounces a couple times, and then stops moving, her faced pressed in between a mountain of pillows.

She says something but it comes to you as muffled nonsense.

“What?” you ask.

“Room service, please!” she says, picking up her head for a moment before flopping back down again.

That works for you.

==========

Dinner was all right. Nothing special, not great, but edible and convenient, which is lovely in its own way.

It’s nice to eat and not have to move. Room service is the greatest thing of all time, seriously. In your week of living, it’s the only thing you like.

Actually that’s not true. You like Daring, you guess, most of the time. And the other day you got room service and almost got murdered with a knife.

“All right,” Daring begins sitting beside you on the bed, “let’s get our plan for tomorrow all mapped out so we can just get up and go in the morning.”

“Sounds good to me. I guess the first thing I should ask then, considering you are the ‘expert adventurer’-”

“Damn right I am!”

“-is where should we begin looking? It’s a pretty big city.”

“No, the white eagle should not be inside the city anywhere.”

“How do you know?”

“Because of something called research.” She clears her throat and begins pacing in front of the bed. “Hundreds of years ago there was a small tribe of zebras that lived approximately 30 miles north of exactly where we are right now.”

“And they had the eagle?”

“From what I could gather from old texts and stories, this tribe did appear to have the eagle at some point before they were all wiped out by invading camels.”

“They ‘appeared’ to have the eagle? You don’t know for sure?”

“Pfft! Of course not, Jay! Geez, have you learned anything since you started hanging out with me? There are no certainties in my business. If somepony else already knows where an artifact is, then I wouldn’t be out searching for it. And it wouldn’t be ‘lost’ treasure, it’d be ‘found’ treasure.”

“I get the point.”

“My best guess is that it’s somewhere 30 miles north of here.”

“Unless those invading camels you mentioned took it.”

“I don’t think they did. There’s no mention of a white eagle statue with magic powers in their records, so I assume they never took it.”

“Okay. What exactly is 30 miles miles north of here?”

“Don’t know yet, I haven’t been there before. It’ll be a new experience for all of us.”

“How are we going to get there?”

“We’ll have to take an air taxi,” Daring says, sitting down on the edge of the bed again. “Only way we’ll be able to get there before the sun goes down tomorrow.”

“What time are we leaving?”

“Early.”

“What should we bring?”

“Everything. And water. And then some more water. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of civilization exactly around where we’re going, and being in the desert with no water equals painful death.”

You get the picture. “Is anyone else going to be there? Any of your old friends?”

She cocks her head to the side. “I don’t have any old friends.”

“I know. I meant enemies.”

“Oh. Hopefully not, but who knows? If they’re there, we’ll just have to be extra careful. If they aren’t, then we better find it fast, ‘cause they’re probably only a few steps behind us.”

“After we find this last artifact,” you ask, “what do we do?”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll get us out of here real quick.”

“How?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

There she goes not telling you shit again. You don’t know anything in general, so it really doesn’t help your nerves that Daring doesn’t tell you keep you in the loop.

“Cool,” you say. “As long as you know what’s going on, I’m sure that’s all we’ll really need.”

“Exactly. Glad you’re seeing things my way for a change.”

“Should we turn in, then?” you yawn. “If we’ve got all that shit to do tomorrow, we should be rested up for it.”

“Actually, I was gonna ask if you just wanted to sit and chill on the balcony for a bit. We can just talk. Or stargaze or whatever.”

“Uh, yeah, let’s do it.” Has Daring ever wanted to do anything other than sleep, treasure hunt, or make fun of you?

Nope.

Daring, now with a large smile, hops off the bed and trots happily through the screen doors. You follow behind her outside and take a seat, attempting to enjoy the view. It’s a little chilly out here.

It’s not much of a view. You can tell exactly where the city ends and the vast desert begins. And tomorrow, you’re going into the desert.

What fun.

Why couldn’t you have popped up into a land of happiness and friendship?

“Beautiful night,” Daring audibly observes after a short silence, glancing between you and the pleasant view the balcony offers.

“That it is,” you say, but there isn’t anything ‘beautiful’ about it. This city smells a little weird, it’s cold now, and you can’t even see any stars because of all the lights in this city.

Then there is a silence, and in your peripheral vision you can see Daring twiddling her hooves from her seat.

“Hey, Jay?” she asks.

“Hmm?” You look over at her.

“What do you plan on doing…? Like, when this is all over?”

When what’s all over? “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we’re probably gonna find the last artifact tomorrow; I can basically guarantee it. Ha. I just want to know if you… like, have any plans after that.”

“Uhm. I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it much.” You sit up a bit straighter in your chair. “I guess we’ll go back to wherever it is you come from.”

“Equestria.”

“Right, Equestria.”

“And then what?” she asks, holding her forelegs close to her chest.

“Well, I would’ve held up my end of the deal, which was to help you out in getting these artifacts. Then you’d hold up yours. You’d get all your money and your potential story for whatever books you write, and I’d go home… We’d both get what we wanted.”

You watch as Daring’s ears fold back and her red eyes turn down towards the floor, like there’s something down there worth looking at.

“Yeah,” she whispers to herself. “I’m a little more tired than I originally thought, Jay. I think I’ll get to bed.”

Daring stands up and, without looking at you, begins to make her way back inside.

“Daring? Are you all right?” you ask, getting up to follow her.

“Yeah, yeah. Just tired. You were right, we should probably turn in.”

You walk inside and shut the door behind you. Why did she get all sad all of sudden? Was it something you said?

All you said was what was established days ago. And she was the one who established it! She was the one who made the deal!

This is what both of you wanted.

By the time you fully enter the room Daring is already lying in bed, facing away from you on her side. That was fast.

You get in on your side, still confused as to why Daring is so odd, before turning off the lights.

“Goodnight, Daring,” you whisper, but she doesn’t respond.

After a few moments, you manage to fall into another uneasy sleep.

==========

Of course, as always, you have failed to sleep fully through the night. It’s still pretty dark outside, despite the city lights, but that’s not what woke you up.

Honestly, you don’t know the exact cause of your waking up in the middle of the night again. Perhaps it’s nerves. You should’ve taken a bath earlier, maybe that could’ve calmed you down.

However, upon waking up there are several things that you immediately notice.

The first thing you notice is the one thing that seems to have become a trend with your partner.

She’s fallen asleep on you. Again.

But this is even worse than the other two nights.

Daring has somehow managed to scoot herself over and put her head on your shoulder, as you are lying on your back. Her mane is running down your neck and a little onto your chest. Her fur is short and prickly, which isn’t uncomfortable by any means, but is rather a little ticklish.

One of the stranger things is that you have your arm wrapped around her back, as though you are holding her against you.

What’s even weirder than that, though, is that Daring went to bed on your left side, but she is now laying on the right side of you.

How the hell does that even happen?! Did she decide to change sides of the bed in the middle of the night? Honestly, how the shit did she get over here?

Every night, you two manage to become a little more intimate than the previous night.

This is not how you went to bed at all. How does she manage to be lying on you every single time?

“Are you doing this on purpose?” you whisper sarcastically to the sleeping mare, knowing she can’t hear you but needing to ask anyway.

Should you move your arm from around her then? You don’t want to wake her up. And she does look comfy.

Everybody deserves their rest.

Not to sound weird, but you actually like her lying where she is. She’s soft and comfy, like a teddy bear, except bigger, meaner, has wings, and can curse.

And she’s warm.

You’re both comfortable, so what’s the use in really breaking this up. She has to be doing this on purpose, right? This one cannot be your fault in any way whatsoever. You thought the past couple times may have been partially because of you in some way, but not this time. Not this time.

You know, you don’t want her to get off. At this very second in time, this is the most relaxed you’ve ever been in your entire one week old life. Everything is fine right now, for the first time ever, so why change anything?

You look down at your companion but it’s a little too dark to see much. You can only see her outline, and even that much is difficult to make out.

She might get pissed if she wakes up and you’re holding her like this, but if she does, she can only blame herself.

It would be just like her to get mad over this; she’s violently assaulted a stallion for hitting on her. But she can’t blame you. How the hell did she get onto the other side of the bed, seriously?

You hold her a bit tighter against you, enjoying the feeling of her soft, warm, short fur against your side.

One second after tightening your grip, the adventurous mare reaches a foreleg across your chest and wraps it around you, surprising you considerably.

Your heart rate was at a normal pace for a few minutes there, but not anymore. Is she awake?

She nuzzles affectionately into your shoulder before exhaling.

Your face is absolutely on fire.

“Daring?” you whisper nervously, hoping she doesn’t respond.

And she doesn’t. Nor does she move. Nothing can be heard except her gentle breathing.

“Daring?” you whisper again, but still receive no response.

Perhaps she was just moving in her sleep.

With that thought, you manage to control your breathing again. You can feel Daring’s chest rise and fall with each breath, and that relaxes you back to sleep.

Author's Notes:

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