Dominic’s boots crunched some dirt under foot as he quietly walked through the freshly dug graves in New Liberty cemetery. His helmet had been removed from his head as he passed numerous markers that’d been made with wood. They weren’t crosses or stars of david, instead most of them were well carved crescent moons or the occasional eight pointed sun. The night before he’d only been able to really look at the graves from a distance, he hadn’t had time to visit them personally as he’d spent most of his time with Chrysalis. Now that morning had come he was out in the field, crouching down in front of the graves to pay his respects.

A crowd had gathered but had respectfully kept its distance, Dominic was glad they had, he was finding it harder and harder to suppress the feelings in him. They were feelings he’d felt before, but never in such magnitude. The chief among them was guilt, he was fairly certain that these ponies would be home with their families if he hadn’t made the choice to rewrite this worlds fate, if he’d told Luna ‘No’. These thoughts haunted him as he came upon the last grave and knelt down, noting several medals had been affixed to the wood, they were medals he recognised as Errant’s.

Dominic bowed his head and rested a hand on the dirt mound, subtly wiping his eyes with his free hand. The man did a sign of the cross over himself and murmured a soft prayer, he closed his eyes as he thought about the mare buried beneath the dirt. She’d been one of his closer friends, even if he hadn’t seen her as often as he saw Luna or Twilight, and now she was dead. Dominic found himself cursing at himself in his own mind, if only he had done something different, chosen a different place to settle or even forgetting about the whole thing.

At the same time he knew it was too late, too many had died to make America live again for him to give up. Dominic opened his eyes and sniffled quietly, grasping the dirt under his hand and lifting the small amount of soil to look at. After a few moments he scattered the dust to the wind and watched it blew westward. The man stood up, silently nodding to Errant before walking towards the exit of the cemetery. The crowd that had gathered watched him closely as he pulled on his helmet and took a cigar from his jacket pocket, he had to admit they were starting to grow on him.

“Sonar.” He called, the spectacled mare began pushing her way through the crowd as she pulled out a pad and pen. “Get me a copy of every railway map in Equestria.” Sonar was gobsmacked, she had thought that the president would ask for some sort of letter detailing how America had failed to be composed, but for once she’d predicted wrong. The other ponies raised eyebrows and murmured amongst each other as they too had heard the order.

“Yes, Mister President.” Sonar ran off to find a way to get every map she could.

“My fellow Americans.” Dominic began speaking, looking to the murmuring crowd, they quickly quieted down. “I have no doubt in my mind you think that we’ve failed in some capacity, is that correct?” There were a couple nods and affirmative responses from the crowd. “You are mistaken, we have not failed in any capacity! The United States has weathered the storm, and yes we are less in numbers, but we are still here and free!” The man adjusted his helmet as he lit his cigar with a wood match, puffing quietly before speaking again.

“We have come too far and sacrificed too much to consider quitting now. Quitting now would be a disgrace to all the brave souls buried here.” Dominic began walking away from the cemetery and into the town, looking directly at the capitol building. He could see the flag flapping upon its flagpole, he exhaled a puff of smoke as he paused to take in the sight. From his spot in town he could see the POW camp, Chrysalis was looking towards him from her bunk house. The man simply tipped his helmet with the faintest of frowns before puffing on his cigar again and walking into the capitol building.

A gust of wind caused the rather battered flag to fully unfurl, Chrysalis could see it clearly, and in those moments she knew that whatever she did those fifty stars would not be too far away. The Queen looked to one of her children, a female drone she’d named Distortion. Distortion was a normal changeling for the most part, the only difference being she seemed to have a knack for observation.

“What’ve you seen, daughter?” Chrysalis asked, Distortion cleared her throat and looked towards the floor.

“Their guards have set up bowls of water outside the fence, we can’t tunnel without tipping them off with the vibrations. As for flying, none of the others have the courage to try and fly out.” She reported, obviously she felt like she’d failed in finding a possible escape route. “Their guards have been nice enough to provide us with enough emotion to survive, even if it isn’t love.”

“It’s not them being nice, daughter. They are bound by the ‘Geneva code’ to treat us as their equals.” Chrysalis replied, continuing to watch the town from her window and through the barbed wire fence. “I have no doubt they will keep us here until either I capitulate or they’re forced to extradite us.” Distortion became quiet at that statement, then moved to look out the window beside her mother. She’d always felt a special connection to the Queen, even when she made boneheaded moves in Canterlot. “You should defect, daughter… Your siblings as well…”

“W-What? Why?” Distortion asked in shock, Chrysalis looked towards the floor quietly.

“Because I must atone for my actions alone…” The Queen muttered.

“Why do you not call the rest of the swarm! We could easily-” Distortion was interrupted as she was pulled into a hug by the Queen, she could feel her mother shaking. “M-Mother… Why are you not fighting them! We can escape here, I’m sure of it!”

“I’ve told you, they will take our lands by force if we escape, we may lose more than land then.” Chrysalis trailed off. “He said we could face extinction, but I do not believe he meant by America’s hooves.” The queen released Distortion from her embrace and looked back to the window. “We changelings have been steadily burning our bridges with the outside world, I’ve only sped up the process…”

“No, mother! You’ve led us to victory and strength! Sure we may have lost once, but we can still come back!” The female changeling tried to cheer up her mother, but it was starting to settle in how right the Queen sounded.

“The Americans are the only ones even vaguely mentioning an olive branch at this point.” Chrysalis looked to Distortion with a small smile. “You’ve served well, daughter. Even in Canterlot when I was blinded by arrogance you stood by me. That is why I give you permission to go. The consequences of these actions are mine and mine alone.”

“Mother…” Distortion began, then the changeling looked to the floor. “If we defect, the war will still rage, the rest of the swarm will come eventually.” Chrysalis nodded silently as she looked back to the window, staring once again at the star spangled banner. “Perhaps… Perhaps we should capitulate?”

“Perhaps…” Chrysalis said quietly, still watching the flag flutter in the breeze. “Please, leave me to meditate, Distortion.” The drone quietly stood from her seat and made to walk for the door. “Tell your siblings they are not to incite the wrath of the Americans, no escape attempts.”

“As you wish, Mother.” Distortion continued walking to the door of the compound and out into the hot daylight. Chrysalis quietly hummed to herself as she watched the town of ponies begin going about a normal day. She’d thankfully convinced a few of them to bury her childrens’ remains properly, it seemed that not all of these ‘Americans’ hated her race, despite her attack. She closed her eyes to think further, the soft sound of the flag flapping seemed to be all she heard after that.

Dominic, for his part, was quietly looking down from the window in his new office at the POW camp with a small scowl across his face. One hand held a smoldering cigar, the smoke wafted up to his nose and around his face. Quietly he puffed on the cigar and turned away from the window, removing his jacket and revealing he seemed to be wearing a sweat stained t-shirt beneath it. Without much care he plopped down into his creaky old wooden office chair and leaned back, then put his boots up on the hardwood of his desk.

[♦]

Luna quietly ruffled her wings as she came back up beside Celestia, the pair of Alicorns had been looking through the forest along with the guards, mainly to keep the guards from going overboard. Solar Elites had a reputation of excessive force complaints and lawsuits, and in all honesty, that was Celestia’s fault. They were her attempt to keep overzealous guards in the service, she’d felt awful about removing them and their pensions and as such she’d created a place for them. A bad company of ruthless jackbooted thugs.

Celestia shrugged her thoughts on the morality of such a military force away, then turned her attention to Luna. It was clear that she’d been off doing something, she didn’t know what, but she was certain that it had to do with the humans they were searching for now. On any other day that may not have annoyed her, after all Luna had a knack for solving problems with cunning rather than force, but the combined heat, mud, and constant bug bites made Celestia an easily annoyed pony.

“Where’d you run off to?” She asked, looking over at her sister with a raised eyebrow. Luna shrugged her wings quietly as the two of them continued walking on.

“We were checking up on a hunch, as it turned out we were wrong.” Luna replied simply, Celestia continued giving her a less than pleased look. “What is it, sister?”

“You were conversing with the humans, weren’t you…” Celestia said in a deadpanned tone, Luna shook her head and ran a hoof through her mane. She herself was adapting much better to the sunlight, as well as the dirt. The bugs didn’t bother her either, as she’d thought ahead and had covered herself in bug spray. The lunar princess didn’t make eye contact with her sister, prompting another question. “Were you talking with them? I saw your mane twitch before you took off, so I assume one of them was having a bad dream.”

“Doth thou not trust our methods?” Luna asked in an even tone, Celestia groaned loudly at the statement. “Fine. Yes. We were speaking with one of the humans. Art thou happy now?”

“No! No I’m not!” Celestia replied, her face gained an annoyed expression as she looked around the forest. “If you know where they are why don’t you tell me or the guards?” Luna sighed and looked towards the ground.

“We promised Dominic we would use discretion.” Luna said quietly, before Celestia could retort she added. “One of them is similar to Dominic, sister. At least… We believe so. Perhaps what we hath said will convince them to surrender peacefully.” The princess looked over at her sister with a hopeful expression. “Would it not be better for them to choose to come to us rather than be brought by force?” Celestia’s gaze shifted from the ground to the trees around them, then back to Luna.

“Once again, your reason is sound…” Stated the solar diarch, Luna smiled. “I suppose that being connected to the sun has a tendency to make my blood run hotter than it should, and with everything that’s happened… I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

“Fear not, sister. Thou art only equine.” Luna gave Celestia a pat on the side, though the alabaster alicorn was trying to make sense of what Luna had meant. Seeing the confusion on her sister’s face, Luna clarified. “Our take on a human saying. Thou art only human. Meaning thou hath flaws like all other humans… Or equines in this case.”

“I see…” Celestia mumbled before looking up to the sky and noting just how high the sun was, her stomach rumbled briefly before she looked to Luna. “Perhaps we can return to Ponyville for a short while? Have a small meal before returning to the search.”

“We agree, that would be prudent.” Luna said with a slight nod, the two of them stopped walking and opened their wings to prepare for flight. Luna gained a happy smile as she looked between her wings and Celestia’s. “Tia, doth thou remember our first flight together?” Celestia smiled a bit at the thought.

“Yeah… You raced me and ‘won’.” She giggled, Luna snorted at the way she’d said the final word.

“We did win! Mother and Father said so!” She said indignantly, Celestia just shook her head and began flapping her wings, Luna followed suit. “Perhaps if our victory is in question a rematch is in order?” Celestia snorted as the two hovered over the forest canopy, then looked to the town in the distance.

“Fine. First to Twilight’s library is the victor?” Her request was reasonable, and so Luna nodded. “Alright then, let’s go!” Without any further discussion the two alicorns zoomed off, flapping their wings like mad and giggling to themselves. The trees beneath them blended together into a beautiful tapestry of greens and browns, the air pushed the fur on their muzzles flat against their skin.

Luna smiled to herself as she beat her wings, gradually pulling ahead of her sister. For the first time in a long time she was having fun for the sake of fun and it felt so good, letting go of the stress of being a head of state made her practically feel like a filly again. The sound of the wind in her ears was something she’d always enjoyed, and mixed into it now was the laughter of her sister that she’d left far behind her.

She took a moment to look around her, time seemed to slow down in that instant. She could see the sunlight reflecting off the buildings in the distance, soft white mist rose up from the forest and birds flapped their wings peacefully in the air. In that moment the fun she felt began to melt its way into something more. As she looked to the mountains in the distance and saw the gleaming towers of Canterlot, she realized just how far she’d come. As time began to speed up for her she let out a quiet content sigh, her mind completely relaxed as she felt a small measure of peace wash over her.

Her wing beats grew faster and more measured, she could hear Celestia’s wings flapping just behind her, her sister was starting to gain on her. Luna didn’t care though, she closed her eyes for a few moments, only opening them when she heard the wing beats right next to her. She turned her head and looked at her sister, her face broke out into a large smile.

“Giving up, lulu?” Celestia asked over the wind, Luna shook her head and turned her face back towards the town.

“Nay, sister… Simply taking in the view.” Luna added an extra burst of speed after speaking, pulling out ahead of Celestia. She tilted her wings ever so slightly and eased into a slight roll, the feeling of her mane whipping back in the wind filled her with a feeling of exhilaration she rarely felt anymore. In those rare moments she was unshackled from her past, unburdened in her present, and undeterred from her future. With her eyes closed once again she continued the roll for a few moments, then leveled off.

Luna could see the town was closer than ever now, she could see ponies going about their daily lives, the guard perimeter around the hospital, the brand new munitions factory that was chugging out small clouds of purple tinted smoke. No doubt a byproduct of the magically designed clean burning coal that powered it. The princess shook her head as those thoughts entered her mind, now wasn’t the time for her to think about factories and fuels, now was time for her to relax.

With the library in sight, Luna angled her nose down and aimed straight for the door. She could hear Celestia flapping her wings faster behind her, Luna needed more speed if she wanted to defeat her sister’s larger wingspan. She flapped harder and to her joy she found herself picking up speed, finally she landed with all the grace of a dainty swan before tapping her wings on the library’s side. She smirked up towards Celestia who had just landed a few feet from her.

“Is our victory in any doubt now, sister?” Luna asked, Celestia shook her head with a small smile. The princess felt a rumble in her stomach and blushed as her sister tilted her head with a smarmy smile. “We suggest that we no longer dilly dally and acquire nourishment before we return to the search.”

“Sugarcube Corner?” Celestia suggested, to her surprise Luna shook her head and looked around.

“I suggest we pay patronage to another establishment, lest we appear to show favoritism.” Luna pointed to an interesting looking restaurant that appeared to have just opened down the street, it was oddly enough located right next to the munitions plant. Celestia shrugged and was about to begin walking, before she took note that they were standing outside of Twilight Sparkle’s home. The mare herself was in Canterlot with Cadence, still running the country so Luna and Celestia could search for the humans in person. However, they knew that a certain young dragon had been left in charge of the building.

“We should at least invite Spike.” Celestia suggested, Luna looked at the building and hummed. She’d heard from Twilight that since Spike had been given more responsibility he’d been growing bigger, perhaps to better protect himself. Apparently he was almost as tall as Dominic, something that had led to less and less ponies frequenting the library. Luna assumed the dragon was no doubt missing some form of contact, and so she nodded to Celestia before raising a hoof to the door and giving three swift knocks. What they heard next was astounding.

There was the sound of something heavy smacking against the floor, most likely on the second story of the tree house, followed by a brief silence. Luna and Celestia picked up on heavy thudding footsteps coming down a set of steps, all the while they were able to make out an annoyed deep voice muttering.

“Why do they always knock? The sign says Public Library… If they can’t read that why are they even coming here in the first place?” The voice grew a bit louder as it got closer to the door, Celestia and Luna straightened up a bit and put on a big pair of smiles, moments later the door opened revealing a rather tall and lanky purple dragon. “Oh, hey, it’s you guys.” Spike said in a rather groggy voice. “Twilight need something?”

“Nay, Spike. We were in the neighborhood and wished to invite thee to lunch.” Luna replied, still keeping up her genuine warm smile. The dragon looked between the two of them for a moment, rubbing his eyes as if he’d been sleeping. Luna picked up faint traces of the dream realm around him, and suddenly she felt a bit guilty.

“Uh… Sure, I guess?” Spike scratched at his belly in a very teenage fashion. “Lemme just take care of a few things, come on in.” He stepped back for the two princesses to answer, then began walking back to the steps in the library. His scaly feet were certainly taking a toll on the stairs, Celestia could see that his growing claws were scratching up the wood. Luna was more focussed on the state of the library as a whole, if Twilight was with them she might have had a conniption. Not because the books were unorganized, they were in fact better organized than ever before, but that wasn’t what stood out to the lunar mare.

The library in its entirety was spick and span, so much so it could pass a military inspection. On the table at the center of the room were numerous papers and newspaper clippings. The princess quietly approached the table and began examining the clippings, all of them seemed to involve Twilight in some way. Her eyes locked on the papers, they looked like documents and such, as well as a brochure. Celestia came up beside her just as Luna used her magic to pick up the pamphlet.

“Be all you can be.” Luna read aloud as she examined the very familiar insignia of her Lunar Guard, she set the pamphlet down and looked over to Celestia. “Sister, tell me these documents aren’t…”

“They are.” Celestia replied, she and Luna heard a soft cough from the stairs to the right. The princesses turned their gaze up to the dragon who was looking at them with a rather even expression, his tale idly sweeping back and forth behind him. “Spike, we were just…”

“Don’t worry about it.” The dragon muttered and began walking down the steps. “Let’s go.” He gestured towards the door, Celestia and Luna nodded and set the papers back down, instead going to walk out. Spike, ever the gentleman, held the door open for them before putting up a ‘Sorry, we’re closed sign’. He closed the door behind them and began walking with them towards the restaurant near the munitions plant. “So aside from inviting me to lunch, what brings you to Ponyville? I assume that commotion at the hospital, right?”

“Yes, certain parties are involved that-” Luna began.

“It’s the human, isn’t it.” Spike cut her off, the princess nodded faintly. “Figures.” Celestia was shocked at how the drake had interrupted her sister, absolutely flabbergasted. Such a thing was extremely out of character, even if he was going through the normal irritation and angst that came from the normal life cycle of dragon growth.

“Twilight’s been well, if you’ve been wondering.” Celestia said, the dragon didn’t respond at first as the group continued walking towards the restaurant.

“I assumed she was, lately she only ever visits when something’s wrong.” The tone the dragon used was quite bitter. Celestia and Luna didn’t really have a response for his statement prepared, they couldn’t believe they were hearing words like that from such a young drake. The group stopped outside the restaurant with a small crowd of ponies looking at them, the guards near the munitions plant seemed slightly on edge.

“Let’s… Go inside.” Celestia coughed into her hoof, trying to shift the topic away from things that may make Spike even more upset. The group entered the restaurant and looked around, it was empty at the moment, most likely because most of its patrons were at work. The building outside had looked like an old train car which had been converted into a restaurant. Those suspicions were confirmed when they caught sight of the seating on one half of the room. Benches from the old railcar took the place of real seats, with sturdy looking wooden tables between them. The other half was taken up by a small bar with red stools and a counter top behind that, as well as a window into a kitchen that had been built on the outside of the existing car. The walls were adorned with numerous pictures and a couple documents.

Standing behind the bar was a burly looking pegasus with coffee brown fur and a shaved mane, in his hooves was a glass that he was scrubbing with a rag. He momentarily looked up from his work at the Princesses and the dragon, blinking for a moment before setting the glass down and walking over to the bar.

“Hey, Spike.” The stallion said in a gruff voice, Spike sat down at one of the stools by the bar and nodded back to the stallion. Luna and Celestia had planned on one of the booths, but instead opted to sit on the stools next to Spike on either side.

“Hey, Bubba.” Spike replied, he grunted and adjusted his positioning before looking at both Celestia and Luna. “I assume you know who these two are.” The stallion looked back to the princesses again before shrugging and going to pour some hazelnut coffee into a white mug.

“Princess Celestia from the Gold Bit, and Princess Luna from the Silver Bit.” Bubba responded, he set the steaming mug down in front of Spike before pulling a notepad from a slightly stained apron. “What can I get my favorite two symbols of currency?” Celestia and Luna blinked a couple times at the odd stallion, somewhat surprised he hadn’t dropped into some sort of over zealous bowing fest. Spike sipped at his mug of coffee as he watched the princesses.

The princesses took note of a big board on the wall that they’d missed on their initial entrance, it was black with food names written on in yellow chalk. Celestia noted a couple different things that called out to her, but one thing was certainly clear to Luna.

“May we inquire, is all thine food either smothered in cheese or deep fried?” She asked, Bubba chuckled and turned to look up at the board himself, revealing his flank to the princesses. They took note of a wrapped piece of bubble gum as his cutiemark.

“Yeah, ‘cept maybe the deep fried nachos. That’s both deep fried and smothered in cheese.” Bubba remarked before turning back to look at the princesses. Spike continued drinking his coffee, for the moment just enjoying the brief moment of quiet. It kind of reminded him of when Twilight used to live in Ponyville.

“We shall have a plate of those nachos then.” Luna said with a smirk, Bubba blinked for a few moments.

“Y’all sure? I always thought you princesses were all into keeping up your figures and such, I could maybe whip up something else.” He spoke, Luna chuckled and shook her head.

“Nay, we are quite certain this is what we want.” Her response caused Bubba to smile widely, Celestia smirked herself as she realized what she was doing. A lot of ponies were nervous around the night princess, yet here she was conversing with somepony as if they were just friends. Well, for the most part, the royal we probably didn’t help. Bubba looked over into the kitchen and cleared his throat.

“Hey! Wake your ass up! The floor ain’t a bed, numbnuts!” The shout caused both Luna and Celestia’s eyes as they watched the stallion go around into the kitchen and pick up a ladle, then begin banging on several pots and pans. “What do I pay you for? If I wanted a floormat I would’a bought one!” Spike chuckled slightly as he set his coffee mug down, both princesses looked at him while the yelling and banging continued in the background. Luna could see that a lanky stallion had stood up and was rubbing his head before quickly going to work on the order.

“Bubba Gum and his cousin Chewy.” Spike said before downing the rest of his coffee and leaning back on his stool. “They’re good guys if you get around all the yelling and fighting.” He let out a small sigh and slid his mug forwards on the bar. Now that it was just Celestia and Luna alone with the dragon, the silence began to reign once again. Thoughts back to what they’d seen in the library creeped forwards once again.

“Spike, can I ask about the papers we saw at the library?” Celestia asked, the teen looking dragon was silent for a few moments before nodding.

“Figured you’d find out eventually, though not this soon.” The dragon sighed and straightened up in his seat. “Look, I know, I’m not the same little Spike you guys remember… I know that because when you have a library to yourself there’s only so much you can do aside from read.” Spike cleared his throat and looked both princesses dead in the eyes. “I found out what kind of dragon I am. I’m nocturnal, I’m growing fast, and I know for sure that I’m not the same naive little lizard you used to know.”

“But… Spike, those papers still need to go through the chain of command, how can you think we would let you make a choice like this?” Celestia asked in a subdued tone, Spike silently looked down at his empty coffee mug for a moment before looking to them both.

“I assumed you would respect my wishes…” He quietly muttered and looked back to the coffee cup. “It seems that the only way I will get to see Twilight on a regular basis will be if I’m wearing a uniform.” Celestia began to open her mouth to speak but Spike held up a silent claw. “Don’t tell me you’ll have her visit more, don’t tell me that I’m not being rational.”

“But you aren’t!” Celestia said in a raised voice, there was a brief pause in the noise from the kitchen before it began again, Celestia didn’t even stop to look back at the two stallions that had peeked through the window to see what was going on. “You’re barely fifteen! You don’t know what you want!”

“Of course… I am young and therefore stupid…” Spike mumbled again as he tapped the coffee mug with one of his claws. “I’ve been told all my life ‘It’s too dangerous’ and ‘You’re not old enough’. Every time I’ve tried to help I end up getting tossed aside, I get left behind to care for a library that nopony visits! My thoughts on what I want are very clear. What I WANT is to be treated like an actual dragon with actual goals and ambitions, not some stupid kid that can’t think for himself.”

Luna and Celestia quietly blinked at the dragon, his position on his stool had shifted from one of a relaxed drake to that of one on the brink of an outburst, the puffed out chest and twitching spines were more than enough evidence of that. The dragon cleared his throat before calling back through the window to the kitchen.

“Hey, Bubba, put the coffee and their food on my tab. I’ve got book stuff or whatever…” Spike stood up from his seat as he got a confirmatory grunt from the kitchen.

“Spike wait-” Celestia began.

“No.” Spike cut her off as he began walking towards the door. “I am young by your standards, but by dragon standards I am more than old enough to know what I want…” He pointed to both Celestia and Luna with a steely expression. “And what I want is not to speak with either of you further on this subject. Good day.” Before Celestia could form her next words the drake had stepped through the door, letting it slam with a loud thud.

Silence reigned over the room for several minutes afterwards, Celestia and Luna both shocked into silence. The silence was only broken momentarily as Bubba stepped out of the kitchen with the food that Luna had ordered. He silently set it down in front of the two princesses and picked up the empty coffee mug, then began washing it with a rag. The stallion looked over the two princesses carefully for a few moments before leaning forwards and sliding the plate closer to them.

“Eat.” He said quietly, both princesses shot him cold glares, to which he did not flinch. “This is comfort food, so eat.” Luna quietly lifted one of the deep fried cheese smothered pieces of goodness off the plate and ate it, then another, then another. Celestia followed suit soon after, a faint smile formed on their server’s face. “Yo Chewy!” He called over his shoulder. “Open a bottle of whiskey an’ get out here.”

Celestia silently looked at Luna as if asking for some form of help in her thoughts, all she received was a similar glance. They couldn’t believe that things had gotten so bad, they couldn’t figure out how it had gotten that way either. In all the years they’d spent ruling together and apart they had never faced so many trials and troubles, it was as if the entire planet was coming apart at the seams. War, disease, cults, destruction and riots. It was easy to trace it all back to the time when Dominic had first come to their world, but both knew that what had happened had been a long time coming… Perhaps Dominic was simply the first in a long chain of dominos that had lead both princesses to be gorging themselves on greasy cheese covered food in a dive diner next to a munitions plant in what had once been one of the safest towns in Equestria.

“We’re fucked…” Seemed to be the only thing Luna and Celestia could say with any certainty at that point.

[♦]

Johnny and Jen sat across from each other in the cave, the soft dripping of water was the only sound present at that moment. Jen had pulled her knees up to her chest into a fetal position while Johnny sat cross legged with his eyes closed and head leaned back against the rocky wall. It had been hours since the mysterious figure had intruded into the cave, since then Jen had pitched her theory on what was truly going on. Needless to say, Johnny had not taken it well.

The screaming match had nearly resulted in their location being found, and so they’d relegated themselves to sitting in silence. Jen’s eyes were red with tears, some of which were still flowing down her cheeks. She couldn’t help but shake silently as she internalized her emotions, the damned dripping noise constantly nagging at her mind. She could only imagine what it was Johnny was thinking of in his current state.

The man had just heard that he had probably been pulled from the jaws of death and tossed into a candy pony cartoon world for reasons totally unknown to him or anyone else. As he sat with his eyes closed he couldn’t help but think of the world he’d left behind, the people that he’d harmed and the people that he’d helped. All of it seemed so pointless now that he sat where he did and had seen what he’d seen. Johnny had always cared about Johnny and very rarely anyone else, he’d been brought here because of selfishness, he’d gotten so good at his job because of selfishness, and now it seemed he would continue hiding and do harm to the one person that had shown him any kindness… All out of selfishness.

“Jen…?” He asked quietly in a shaking tone, his eyes remaining closed. When he heard a surprised gasp from in front of him he began speaking again. “What would you say if I told you that I was scared to go to these… ponies.”

“I’d say that’s understandable…” Jen’s voice was just as shaky as his, Johnny could practically see the tear streaks down her cheeks.

“It just seems that every time someone offers to make the pain go away they give more than they take…” Johnny whispered, he maintained his position seated in front of Jen and opened his eyes, looking at her with red eyes of his own. “I don’t want that to happen to me again, and I don’t want to see it happen to you…”

Jen silently wiped her eyes and crawled across the cave, she sat down beside Johnny and looked him in the eyes. The tired green orbs stared into him, in those eyes he could see all the pain and exhaustion she felt now.

“You won’t be alone this time…” Jen said as she pulled the man into a hug, Johnny was surprised at first, before he returned the embrace and rested his head on hers. “You and I are in this together, and if it turns out that what you think will happen happens… We’ll get out together, or neither of us will.”

Seeing the tiredness in her eyes, hearing the tone of her voice, Johnny could tell she was finished running. In all honesty, so was he, it felt like he’d spent a lifetime running. From running out of fear of prison to running out of fear of death. His eyes turned to the hunting rifle that leaned against the far wall of the cave, he doubted that he’d get more than another month's use out of it without proper care. Without it they’d have no way of feeding themselves aside from whatever they scavenged, and from the looks of it, that too would soon become nearly impossible.

Jen cleared her throat, Johnny could see her confidence coming back, still the look he’d seen earlier was ingrained in his mind. He watched as Jen sat up straight beside him and reached for her bag, the sleeve of the leather jacket hanging limply from the open zipper. Johnny raised an eyebrow as she reached into the bag and rooted around for something, when he realized that she was pulling something from the bottom he realized what she was retrieving. He reached into the breast pocket of his hawaiian shirt and withdrew a small and battered box, then flipped it open to look inside. There were five cigarettes remaining in the pack, he and Jen had been rationing them more than food.

“Ugh… This is heavy.” Jen muttered as she retrieved a small metal lighter from her pack, she paused for a moment to look it over, the scratched metal surface still managed to show her her reflection. “Why don’t we come up with a plan? Just something to help us think things through…” She took one of the cigarettes and put it up to her lips, Johnny followed soon after. With practiced ease Jen lit both cigarettes and the two of them had leaned back against the wall.

“Alright…” Johnny mumbled as he exhaled a cloud of smoke. “We have about five days worth of food left… Seven if we stretch it…” Jen nodded quietly as she looked over to where they had stockpiled their food. “Just... Walk me through your theory one more time… So I’m sure what you’re saying.”

“Okay.” Jen tapped a bit of ash off onto the ground beside her. “We were pulled through some sort of magical portal into a world known as Equestria, which is the setting of a TV show called ‘My Little Pony’. Now the leaders of that country are looking for us, most likely because they want to help us.” Johnny rubbed the back of his neck as he heard the explanation one more time, even after hearing it once before he found it sounded insane. On the other hand, it was hard to deny the presence of small alien horses that magically did things.

“Okay, I buy it.” He said with a nod to himself. He wasn’t totally convinced that Jen’s theory was correct, but it made a hell of a lot more sense than anything he could come up with. “So, assuming these ponies are as nice as you say they are, they’re going to help us if we come out.”

“According to fanfiction... Yes.” Jen sheepishly looked at the floor as she took another drag on her cigarette, Johnny leaned his head back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments. “Look, I know… I sound crazy. Honestly though, with all that’s happened so far, are magical talking ponies really that much of a stretch for the imagination?”

“Nope. I don’t suppose they are.” Johnny sighed as he looked back over to Jen, his cigarette smoke wafting up through the small hole in the roof of the cave that provided light. The dark haired woman looked at him and noted a small smile on his face. “How about we stick it out for another five days and try learn as much as possible about where we are in that time? If all seems well we’ll go out and talk to the ponies.”

“Okay.” Jen returned the smile as she finished off her cigarette and tossed it aside, Johnny let his fall to the floor as he brought his hand forwards and set it on Jen’s shoulder. “You know we should probably wait until tonight, it’ll be easier for us to sneak around.” Johnny gave a slight squeeze on her shoulder.

“What should we do while we wait?” He asked with a knowing smirk, Jen gave him a smack on the nose.

“Down, boy.” Her tone was accented by a slight chuckle while Johnny leaned back and rubbed his nose. “We’ve got work to do, like getting supplies together, figuring out where we’re going to look for answers, and tons of other reconnaissance stuff.”

“Right… Right…” Johnny looked to his own bag and pulled it towards him, it wasn’t nearly as full as Jen’s, mainly because they had steadily been supplementing their diet with the ramen he’d taken. He pushed a few of his personal effects around. “Do you have the binoculars?”

“No, I thought you had them.” Jen replied, Johnny quietly pinched the bridge of his nose and let out an annoyed sigh. “John, take a breath.”

“All the fuckin’ time, if it’s not one fuckin’ thing it’s another. Fucks sake. How the fuck do you fucking spy on people without fucking binoculars…” Johnny muttered to himself for a few seconds before heeding Jen’s words and taking a long deep breath through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. “I’m okay…”

“Good.” Jen smiled as she stood up and pulled her hair back behind her head, she tied it up in a bun before kneeling down to begin going through her own supplies. “We’re going to need to make some camouflage nets like the ones over the cave entrance so we can sneak beyond the tree line, start grabbing vines and such from near the front of the cave.”

“You got it.” Johnny forced a smile as he reached into his bag, from within he pulled a folding knife with a wooden handle and bronze accents. He stood up and gave Jen a pat on the shoulder before walking to the entrance of the cave in complete silence, a scowl formed on his face as he went along. It had been hard to steal those binoculars in the first place, replacing them was impossible.

The man did his best to force his thoughts onto something else, that something else being Jen’s theory once more. Aliens that very well may have been characters from a children’s show were combing the forest looking for them after they’d surived months together after being pulled from a dying world filled with undead monsters. He gave a small cynical chuckle as he reached the end of the cave and peeked through the nets of camouflage that hid the entrance from prying eyes.

“Mom always said I knew how to pick ‘em…” With that Johnny carefully ventured past the nets, unfolding his knife with caution as he looked for the materials Jen had asked for. It seemed there were still more than five hours until dusk, but thankfully it seemed the guard presence in this portion of the forest had died down considerably. Johnny briefly thought that perhaps their luck was beginning to take a turn for the better.

Author's Notes:

Ugh... Writing lately has been difficult, so I'm sorry in advance for errors and such. Been busy with some life stuff that's taken my focus off writing for a short while, hopefully it all works out soon. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter.

Leave a comment, leave a rating, and add it to a bookshelf if you like.

And be sure to have a good one, yeah?