Over the next week, Equestria's transition from late fall to early winter came about. After a couple days of pouring rainfall, the sun disappeared into a heavy cloud cover that seemed to last forever. When it finally resurfaced, the ground was hard and frosty and despite its best efforts, the sun could not warm the air enough to thaw the earth. While there wasn't any snow yet, the pegasi that controlled the weather were no doubt about to get a full, busy schedule.

Colin was having a hard time keeping up.

Twilight was almost always either buried in research or out of the house. Day in and day out, she'd rise from her bed, go to her private library, and from then on she would work tirelessly. Colin could barely understand where she got the energy for it. It wasn't just her working on it either. She often had Colin working just as hard as she was, helping look through various dusty tomes on spells, rituals, magic artefacts… he couldn't comprehend how any of it was supposed to work, but Twilight rarely gave him the time to think about it. Perhaps that was for the best; thinking too much about the impossible and illogical had a tendency to make one's head spin.

The only time he ever got any sort of break was when Twilight wasn't home. Apparently, she had a job to do that required her to walk among the people. Colin had of course figured that, being a political element, she'd have some paperwork and such to go through, but he didn't expect her to go out and talk to others. Or maybe she was just looking for some outside contact and didn't want to hurt his feelings. Regardless, during that time Colin would pick books from the shelf at random and read through their contents to figure out how this world worked. Sometimes he'd be completely alone; other times the little dragon, Spike, would be sitting quietly across the room from him. One day, Colin got up the courage to ask him a question or two.

"Hey, uh… it's Spike, right?"

Spike took a moment to register that he was being talked to. "Yes?" he said, perking his head up suddenly.

"Sorry," the human, Colin, replied, "to bother you, that is, but… I just wanted to know something."

"…Okay, shoot."

"Why does Twilight leave the house so often?"

Spike considered that a strange question, but thought little of it. Colin was a newcomer, after all; still, it felt bizarre having a human so close to him and Twilight after…

Spike drove the thought from his head. "She goes out looking for Friendship Problems," he answered.

Colin stared at him, clearly unable to process what that meant. "…Sorry?"

"When Twilight was first sent here," Spike explained, "and this was wayyy long ago, not aeons or anything but years back, Princess Celestia gave her a… mission, I guess is what you'd call it. Every day she'd look for a problem to solve, usually between friends in the neighborhood, and when the day was out she was to report back to Celestia by sending a letter detailing what she'd learned. Of course, Celestia never told her that the real reason was to make friends herself, but that isn't important. It's more or less been her occupation ever since, except now that she's the Princess of Friendship she does it in her own personal journal."

In response, Colin just stared some more. "…Oh," he replied simply. "So, let me get this straight; Twilight goes out there every few days to solve, what, fights between friends?"

"Yeah."

"And then she documents what she learned in a diary."

"That's a pretty simplified way of putting it, but yes."

"I… wow. That's certainly an interesting job. I've never heard of that before." Colin grinned. "Then again, I've never heard of flying horses moving the clouds around before either."

Spike let out a slight chuckle, as did Colin. Before long, there was a bit of quiet again, and Spike got curious.

"Hey," he suddenly asked Colin. "I was just wondering. Where they come from… they don't have people with wings, do they? Or horns?"

Colin was taken aback by this comment and didn't answer at first. "No," he told him. "Not that I can remember. I can't say I can recall anything from my home, but… I'm almost certain that there aren't any winged or horned humans." He shifted, flipping the page of the bestiary he was currently skimming through, then said, "Why do you ask?"

Spike looked off into the distance. Then he turned back to his own book. "No reason. Just curious."

For a while, the two of them sat alone together, occasionally asking the other questions. Most of Spike's questions were about what he could remember; of course, Colin's amnesia meant that he couldn't answer practically any of them. In contrast, most of Colin's questions were about Equestria, the daily rituals, the people, the places; and for every single question, Spike had an answer. Before long, Twilight had returned, and they were so deep in conversation that they didn't even notice she'd gotten back until she entered the room.

After greeting her, Spike continued his line of inquiry. "So, you were saying humans eat meat, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Colin replied. "Well, actually, humans are omnivorous; they eat meat and plants. Except, I think there's something about that which…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

Curious, Twilight looked over her shoulder from the desk nearby. Colin looked like he was thinking hard about something. "Go on," Spike prompted.

Suddenly, Colin straightened up. "I… I can remember something!" he exclaimed. "About home, about the people there—I can remember!"

Spike grinned at her, a wide toothy smile. Looking back at Colin, he asked, "Well, what is it?"

"Okay," Colin explained, "you know how humans are omnivores? Well, there are a few people who make the choice to not be omnivores; to stop eating meat. We call them Vegetarians. And, because they don't eat meat, they don't get the nutrients that meat gives us, like iron."

"So, they get sick?"

"No, see, we developed these little pills, capsules filled with iron and nutrients for them to swallow with a glass of water. That way they still get the nutrients they need to keep healthy."

Twilight stared at him skeptically. "That's all well and good that you can remember that," she informed him, "But it's little information to go on about your home."

"It's nothing to go on," Colin agreed, rising to his feet, "In fact, it's completely irrelevant to anything. But it's a start at least, isn't it?"

Twilight regarded him. "Maybe," she decided finally.

For a moment, Colin looked around, satisfied with himself. If all he had to do to remember something was talk about things for a while, he'd be on the way to recalling his past in no time. Then something caught his eye. It could have been nothing, but Colin stared at it for a moment, curious of the oddity of it. There was an empty space on the bookshelf; not a large one, and extremely easy to overlook, and likely not important or relevant at all, but it caught his attention because he didn't recall taking a book from there and didn't see any other blank spaces on the shelves.

"Hey," he asked Twilight. "What's supposed to be over there?"

Twilight looked where he was pointing and got worried. That space was where she'd put the book holding her notes on humans. It was a small, black book, held closed with a lock; the book was in her room and the key was in one of the drawers of her desk. It held what little information Equestria had about humans, their physiology and behaviour; of course, since their only contact with a human was James, and he wasn't exactly willing to tell people anything, let alone stuff about him, there wasn't a lot of content the book had to offer.

"It's an empty space, Colin," she lied. "There's nothing there because I haven't found anything to put there."

"But the rest of your library is filled," Colin said, approaching the shelf to get a closer look. "And there isn't any dust there."

"It's nothing," Twilight replied flatly and immediately. "Probably just some children's novel or spellbook that someone forgot to put back. Nothing to worry about."

Colin stared at her. For a slight, unnerving moment, a ghost of suspicion crept into his gaze.

To mask her slight discomfort, Twilight smiled at him. "Colin, come on. Don't be so paranoid; I promised I was going to help you, right?"

Colin seemed satisfied by that answer, but his look told Twilight that he was surprised by how sudden her response was. "Yeah. You're right," he said, going back to his spot and sitting down.

'Stupid,' Twilight thought. 'Careless. Do yourself a favour, Twi; be just a tad more careful.'

Colin picked up the bestiary he'd been reading, and continued reading through an article about some strange creature called a Cockatrice. Apparently they had a magic gaze of death that could petrify an opponent, turning them to stone. He could only imagine a human facing down that.

Wouldn't go well, he assumed.

"Two threes, three fives, one six."

"Four twos, two ones."

"Liar."

"Oh, yeah? Well, I think your lyin' too!"

With that, James and Buddy lifted their cups, revealing the dice lying on the deck of the train car. James had what he'd said he had; two threes, a six, and three fives. Buddy, on the other hand, did not; he had a two, a five, a four and three sixes. Grumbling his frustration, Buddy slid the ten bits he'd bet over to James.

"Don't get too salty, pal," he told him. "You still have the most winnings right now. Besides," he reminded, "there's still gold to be had in the jungle."

That seemed to soften him up a bit.

Fortunately, sneaking onto the train was not as difficult as James had originally predicted. After a short foray into town, James had managed to steal a lengthy bundle of rope from someone's shed. He'd hoped to find some storm matches as well, as the damp rainforest would likely warrant it as opposed to the strike-anywhere boxes he typically carried as firestarters, but no such luck. Before long the train came by, and his theory of the trains carrying military materiel was correct; this time the transport was specifically troops, not just guards, but hired workers to aid in the search and any possible excavation that would be needed. There were no equipment cars, which James took as a bad omen. It could just be coincidence, but if the Equestrians had stopped sending materiel to their dig site that would only mean that they're well enough ahead in the game as to not warrant any further requisition of resources. Instead, he and Buddy had to scamper up to the trailing caboose, the farthest car from the enemy presence, and hide under tarped crates that had been stacked there. However, once they were far from the prying eyes of civilization and saw only the sky above, the rails behind and the canyon on either side, the human-dog thief duo felt comfortable enough to just sit on the back porch of the caboose and pass the time.

"So," Buddy finally asked, "where are you gonna take the shard once you've got it?"

James shrugged. "Could throw them through a loop and bury it somewhere else in the jungle." He lifted his dice-filled cup, rattled it, and slammed it down on the deck as Buddy did the same.

"Seems a bit risky though, yeah?" Buddy asked as he tilted his cup back to peek at his dice.

"Hmm. Two sixes, two twos, a four and a one."

"Four ones, a five and a three."

James studied his colleague. "You're lying," he concluded.

"Yeah?" Buddy grinned as the two lifted their cups.

James nodded. "Huh. You weren't lying. Anyway, what I was going to say was," and he slid two ten-piece gold bags across to Buddy, "that, the way I see it, the Spears aren't too bright. But, I suppose you're right, it does seem a bit obvious. Say, how's about we go out for another fishing trip, just you and I? We'll get home from this little escapade, gather up the shards, and toss them all in the ocean." He sighed. "I probably should have done that when I had the chance."

The two continued their game as Buddy thought up a response for that. "All in," he betted, pushing up his bags, forty gold in all.

"You're on," James replied, pushing in his remaining thirty-gold's-worth bags as the two slammed their cups down one last time.

"I was going to say," Buddy finally told him, "That yeah, maybe you should've tossed them overboard that night. It was too bad though that, if I remember it correctly, you said you had them hidden back at one of your base camps or whatever?"

"Yeah."

"But let's look at it this way; if you just threw 'em all into the sea, who's to say somebody won't go fishing for them? I say you should scatter them all over the place, like you was going to do. Or, better yet, keep 'em. After all, you got that sword of yours tucked away back under that rock in the plains; why not use the other shards too? Make, I don't know, a vest or shield or something…"

"No," James replied. "Buddy, these shards, this metal? It's dangerous. Yeah, it's the bane of Equestrian existence, and if I wanted to, reforging the metal into something of use could make me effectively immune to magic, something that'd probably make a lot of higher ups in Canterlot very nervous. But just having them around makes it possible for… that thing to come back. I told myself I would never let Ophidian corrupt this world like he did to mine. And I don't know if I can destroy them… so I've got to hide them."

There was another long silence before Buddy decided to change the subject.

"When's our stop, by the way?"

James looked around, checking the back window to see if there was anyone approaching before leaning around the side of the caboose and surveying the canyon. "I'd say it's coming up," he said. "So let's get this last game over with and hop off."

"Gotcha. Three fours, three fives."

"One six, three ones, two threes."

James studied Buddy's expression. He had a good poker face. And yet, there was that feeling again, like something stepping on his grave, something feeling off.

"Liar."

Lo and behold, the human and the dog lifted their cups, and James won the pot. Once the two had gathered up their little game, they waited until there was a space of relatively soft ground between them and the chasm walls, tuck and rolled off the train, and scaled the canyon on goat paths.

And just like that, with the railway behind them, the pair had entered the Forbidden Jungle.

In many ways, the Forbidden Jungle was much worse than the Everfree could ever manage.

First and foremost, it was uncharted territory to James; he'd never ended up here before, but he had heard stories of it. Apparently there was also a series of books set here regarding an explorer of some notoriety named Daring Do. If James saw her at some point, alongside all the other dangerous monsters and soldiers, he might have to consider just letting the Equestrians have their damn prize—all those combined forces would bring a metaphorically sweltering amount of heat. And speaking of heat, it was as muggy as James had expected a rainforest would be and then some; the canopy was similar to the Everfree's, with shafts of light filtering through the thick foliage solid enough that James though hee could touch them. Vines and tough roots hindered the advance of him and Buddy, who was always a few steps behind him, and no matter where the two of them went, the swarms of insects and the stink of something James would rather not identify was inescapable.

"You know," Buddy said absentmindedly as he trailed behind, "Maybe I should've made sure my shots were up to date before coming here."

James was too busy slashing through the underbrush to answer him for a few moments. Because of his fear of losing the Spellbane Sword to the Equestrians, he had left it at his halfway house in favour of a heavy-tipped machete, which did better at hacking apart the thick flora anyway.

"Least you get shots," James grunted as he swung the machete down once more, chopping through six vines in one stroke. "I have to just deal with the diseases."

And so it went on like that for hours; never pausing for rest save at a small freshwater pool to drink, James and Buddy marched through the jungle, hacking as they went. The skies above began to darken, and James figured that they'd have to consider setting up camp somehow when it got too dark to see. He hoped they'd find the dig site before then. Onward the two traveled, for as long as James could put off Buddy's protests, until finally the area became so dark that it was difficult to see past ten metres ahead. Grimly accepting that they'd have to deal with the jungle and the beasts that came out to hunt for the night, James was about to decide to set up a campsite when…

"Buddy," he asked, "is it my imagination, or do you hear something?"

Buddy paused, his far more adequate hearing trying to pick something out over the annoying buzz of flies and the dwindling twitters of tropical birds. "I hear something," he confirmed. "It… sounds like…"

"Voices," James finished for him. "We're close. The dig site has to be somewhere nearby."

With that, James was moving quickly ahead, Buddy hollering at him to hold on.

"Shhh!" James hissed back at him. "Will you shut up and follow me? If we're hearing voices that means it can't be far off, and every sentry in the area will hear your yelling!"

Reluctantly, Buddy followed behind, and eventually the two of them found a brightness at the edge of the treeline where the voices were coming from. When the pair reached the divide between where the jungle ended and the bare earth began, James crept to the very edge and, hiding behind a large fern, brushed aside the leaves to get a look at the dig site. The sun was still setting, which cast long, solid shadows on the ground, but the size of the site, and its location, made things all too clear to James what they were dealing with.

When the Spellbane Shards came back down from the sky and landed, they hit with the impact of a small meteor, with force enough to bury themselves deep in the earth. Usually it took weeks to find the shards and days to dig them back up. As it turned out, this shard had landed amidst the ruins of some kind of temple complex. A massive ziggurat pyramid dominated the site, towering over the excavation as it likely did in ancient times when it was a monument of worship to whatever long-lost culture built it. Around the pyramid was a group of unearthed structures, likely tombs extending from the pyramid itself. In the distance, behind the pyramid, James could make out a river rushing past. But most importantly were the more recent structures built on and about the dig. James retrieved a spyglass from his backpack and took a closer look.

All over the area was swarming with a myriad of workers and troops. Ponies, Griffons, and even a few Dogs, likely volunteers or hired from civilian contractors, milled about the torch-lit site, erecting wooden scaffolding and ramps to scale the structure and working at the grounds with picks, shovels and hammers. A sizeable pit had been dug to hold the excess rocks and dirt dug up, with carts carrying off any detritus on recently-laid track to be added to the heap. Tents had been put up all around the area for the workers to sleep in whenever their shifts ended, and guardsponies and griffons in similar battledress marched about the site, supervising the work. There had to have been hundreds of them; not the best odds, but James would have to take them.

Barely aware of Buddy's presence right next to him, James shifted his gaze up to the ziggurat. Most of the action was on the ground, but on the higher level there was a particularly large tent, which was most likely the headquarters for the guard command and mining prefect. And at the edge of that platform, looking down on the scene, were a group of individuals. Gladeshine, in his hooded cloak, the shadows covering his features, a crossbow strapped to his back. One of Thundershield's commanders, forgoing the typical golden hoplite armour for the more conservative and protective iron plate that was standard-issue among Thundershield's troops. A Griffon in a hardhat. And lastly a trio of Dogs whom James had seen before on wanted posters not too much unlike his.

"Diamond Dogs," James muttered. He held the spyglass up so Buddy could look into it. "Am I right, or is the heat getting to me?"

Buddy took a moment to look before answering. "I can't say I've ever met them in person," he said, "but that looks like the spitting image of their warrant posters. Yeah, I'd say that's them."

James grunted. It didn't take much insight to know that Thundershield had hired the thuggish slavers under Celestia's nose; the Princess wouldn't have allowed it if she knew. James collapsed the spyglass and tucked it away.

"Alright, it's still twilight out," he explained, shifting so he was facing Buddy. "So our best bet is to wait until nightfall. Now, considering that these jokers are still here, I'd say that—"

James's plan was cut off mid-sentence by a loud roaring from within the encampment. Everyone, including the workers, seemed to be surprised by it, and for a terrifying moment James thought it had come from behind them. Instead, from the edge of the clearing a massive group of about fifty guardsponies and griffons armed with ten-foot pikes dragged a massive beast by heavy steel chains. The creature looked like some kind of perverse humanoid goat, with massive horns and a single cycloptic eye stared out from its forehead. Gold jewellery was banded around the creature's arms and horns, rings were worn on its fingers and gold was woven into its ragged hair.

"Woah," Buddy breathed. "That… looks like—"

"An Arimasti," James cut him off. "Makes sense; the map I have of Equestria puts their turf right across from the jungle."

"But then why is it so far from home?" Buddy questioned. Below, the creature let out another enraged roar and flung back its arm, sending the troops on one chain reeling. As the guards prodded at the Arimasti with their spears to keep it in line as it was secured, James answered him.

"If I had to venture a guess? The shard. It's valuable, and this Arimasti's greed draws it to it like a moth to a lit candle. Now, maybe it came here of its own accord and just so happened to be captured, or maybe the troops there captured it in the hopes of using it like a sniffer dog—no offense—to find the shard. Either way, it's bad news."

"None taken," Buddy replied. "Okay, so, now that we have all that info down, what's that plan you was talking about?"

James crawled back into the underbrush, Buddy following suit. "We wait until nightfall," he told him. "We go into camp and find out what they've got so far in the means of progress. If the shard's been recovered, we'll get our greasy mitts on it."

"And then?"

James stood then, looking down on the site from the concealing canopy.

"And then, my good Buddy," he said, "we unchain our newfound distraction to wreak havoc and haul ass back up north."