When they were sleeping, the sun had climbed into the noon position, turning the Snowdrift cloud cover into a leisurely, white and gray whirlpool. It had broken apart by seven in the morning, and the night’s snowfall had reduced to sludge in the gutters as they walked together down a crooked street, following the sounds of music and conversation toward Umbrella Park. Fluttershy had chosen to stay behind and keep Applejack company, grateful for the excuse to avoid the crowd that gathered for the Contraction.

Twilight, in the middle of the pack, explained her plan.

“So as we know, the hazard is sort of like a giant amoeba; it sucks nutrients out of organic materials, usually enveloping them first. It didn’t get anypony when it showed up, thank Celestia, but it’s only a matter of time at this point.”

“Well, ‘cause it can just use our ship as a stepping stone to the rest of the town now, right?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s right. It can’t do it immediately, but it probably will soon-ish, so we need to be fast. I haven’t gone over the precise details with Lotus yet—Aloe told me she’d be by later today for that.”

“Joy for all,” Rarity said.

“But this is what I’ve got. The hazard is actually a really simple organism, when you think about it. It’s big, and it’s magical—comes from Tartarus, that’s why—but it’s pretty dumb.”

“How dumb are we talkin’?” Big Mac asked.

“About as smart as a spider. I mean, it doesn’t have what we think of as a brain, so…”

“Why exactly can we not just blow it up?” Vinyl asked. She looked at Octavia, who pretended not to notice.

“The main reason is because it lives in the warehouse,” Twilight said. “And we can’t destroy that. I mean, we could, but—”

“We’re not savages,” Pinkie said.

“Exactly. We could also light the warehouse on fire, but we’re not going to. Also, think of it this way: because it’s such a simple organism, because it’s basically water, a membrane, and some connective tissue, blowing it up wouldn’t do as much as you might think. It might reassemble.”

“It might?” Big Mac asked.

“Aloe doesn’t know. There hasn’t been a lot of testing done on these—they don’t even have a proper name—but she says it seems like a reasonable precaution. Blowing it up might be like trying to blow up a swimming pool.”

“How do you fight a pool?” Pinkie asked.

“Exactly.” Twilight smiled for a split second, then frowned. “We’re going to dry it out.”

At this, Rainbow laughed, and Pinkie joined in; Twilight glared at them both.

“Sorry, just wasn’t what I was expecting to hear,” Rainbow said, wiping a tear. “You’re gonna evaporate this monster?”

“Did I say evaporate? I said dry it out, Dash.” She cleared her throat and gestured the group to come in closer. “You might be wondering how to dry out something that big, what possible materials I might need. I…” Suddenly glad that Fluttershy was not with them, she said, “look around you. We’re surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of square miles of forest.”

“Sawdust,” Vinyl said. “Like when you barf at school.”

“I hate that idea,” Rainbow said. “Sorry, Twi.”

“I don’t like it either,” Twilight said. “I live in a tree, if you’ll remember. Lived, I mean. Aloe and I discussed that too, and we’re going to use as much dead stuff as we can find first. Then, there’s a lumber yard in Little Snowdrift, and Aloe said we could use them too.”

“Little Snowdrift?” Pinkie asked.

“That’s where we found the ponies in the observatory,” Big Mac said.

“Ooh, yeah.”

“Only after we’ve used that up, will we start cutting live trees. So it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

“Okay, that is better,” Rainbow said. “I guess. But what about delivering it? We’re not just gonna march in with saddlebags full of sawdust and dump ‘em.”

“That’s what Lotus and I are going to discuss later today. We need a delivery system, and we’re probably going to need to get the roof off the warehouse, so it can’t just hide in there. We’ll need a team of decoys as well, to lure it out.”

“Dashie’s fast, she can do that!” Pinkie said.

“Uh, no,” Rainbow said.

“Can any of this be done quickly?” Octavia asked.

“Again,” Twilight said, “depends on Lotus. Aloe assures me she’s got resources, but I don’t know what specifically. I’m sure I’ll have help getting sawdust, and I’m reasonably sure we can set up a way to get the roof off without too much trouble, but the rest… Yeah, I’m a little foggy. I think if we can get three or four wood chippers, like the huge, industrial ones, we can find a way to rig them up to spray our sawdust.”

“You’re gonna need to suspend those,” Colgate said. “They won’t reach from the perimeter, not unless your nasty is right there.”

“I know that. In a perfect world, I’d just get a system of wires strung up over the warehouse area.”

“Like the cables we used to secure those towers in Manehattan,” Pinkie said. “Gee, where’s that cable pony when we need him?”

“Rotting in Tartarus, I hope,” Rarity said. Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged.

“Cables or cranes, something like that,” Twilight said. “If worse comes to worst, I can just get in a balloon and carry the whole thing out over the fields, and dump it that way.”

“See, now that sounds way easier,” Rainbow said.

“She’d rather be on the ground, overseeing things,” Vinyl said.

“That’s exactly right,” Twilight said.

“Kitty litter!” Pinkie cried, and Big Mac leaned away, ear flattened.

“What about kitty litter, darling?” Rarity simpered. “Oh, wow, look at that!” The first details of Umbrella Park came into view, its entrance a curving bowery resplendent with glistening, dripping magic, as if the sun had not touched the ice there. Each tree was bedecked with magical icicles, each shrub with twinkling scales, the path between frosty white. Strands of magic broke into finer strings across the ground, like braided jellyfish tentacles, while others pooled in the stiff grass. Casting a glare, it did not allow a good view of the claustrophobic mass in the park, but with the stellar light at either side, they could see the ebbing crowd of black and brown-clad ponies in an open space just down the way, shifting before a group of food stands. The smells of salted pretzels and grilled vegetables hit them in a wave, and they all paused, for a second transported back home. The cold air gave a peculiar edge to the county fair scents, sweetened by the smell of so many brooding trees, not dampened but sharpened, bitter with salt and oil.

Mingling with the food smells so long forgotten and the hiss of steam, the ponies and griffons struck them as comically out of place. Everyone in the park was dressed as though for church, subdued in color and shape with dark layers that fattened and softened bodies, widened movements. It was on their heads and, less commonly, their backs that the certain partygoers showed their personalities: long, black ribbons flowed out behind bobbing tails; or wicker ornaments balanced stiffly on heads. Some chose not to adorn themselves at all, and to appear in tuxedos, bulky suit jackets, or false fur coats. Some appeared sunken into their high-collared vestments, while others showed off leg wrappings or high boots with bracelet-sleeve jackets. The Elements exchanged silent, self-conscious looks.

“Kitty litter dries stuff out,” Pinkie said at last. “Duh! It dries out kitties’ wee-wee all the time. Maybe Twilight can throw that on the monster instead of sawdust.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Twilight said, taking a tentative step toward the crowd. “The problem is… Well, I have to talk to Lotus about it later. I don’t know how much of whatever material I’m going to need. The hazard’s pretty big, so it would have to be super-absorbent kitty litter.”

“Morning, gang!” a loud voice said from the side, and up trotted a grinning, manic-eyed pony; it took them a second to recognize her.

“Versus, right?” Pinkie asked. “Applejack told us about you!”

“Ah, little ol’ me? I’m touched,” Versus said, putting a hoof to her heart. “Did you just get here?”

“Sure did,” Rainbow said. “Is that a sack race back there?”

“We got sack racing, corn hole—I just came from there—ring toss, throw-balling, food, music, you name it!” She dug inside a pocket and produced a stuffed blue fish. “See? She’s going right on my headboard.”

“Twilight, are we done for now?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight smiled faintly. “Go have fun, girls.”

Rainbow and Pinkie shot off into the park, their flopping manes out of their hoods and marking them immediately in the sea of covered partygoers. Versus herself was dressed in a trim, brown pea coat with silver buttons and a floor-length godet skirt, black with gold pinstripes, and her entire body rustled as she moved among them, shaking hooves and paying polite compliments.

“It appears we missed something important when dressing this morning,” Rarity said.

“It’s okay,” Versus said with a smile, exposing her long teeth and brightening her eyes. “It’s tradition to dress up for the Contraction, that’s all. I don’t think anyone’s gonna get on your cases.”

“Not much color variance, I’m seeing,” Rarity continued, scanning the crowd. “Lots of… earth tones.”

“Nothin’ wrong with that,” Big Mac said. He had not taken his eyes off Versus the whole time, and she did not appear to notice. Under her single coat, she vibrated and trotted in place to keep the blood flowing.

“We’ve got an hour or two ‘til the Contraction,” Versus said, and, casually looping a foreleg over Vinyl’s back, pointed to a grove of trees blocking their view. “That’s what they’re saying. Past there’s the music, I dunno if you can hear it yet. We got three groups to play this time, which is pretty good. We only had a couple days’ notice on this one.” She shook her head. “Those precogs are slacking, I tell ya.”

“Who sets all this up?” Twilight asked.

“Everyone! As soon as word gets out that a Contraction is coming, everypony pitches in. Oh! Twilight, you gotta get one of Baker’s Dozen’s stuffed funnel cakes!”

“Pinkie’s sorry she ran off so early,” Vinyl said with a laugh.

In the semicircle of food stands, they waited in the longest line for what Versus described as “the tastiest, guiltiest thing you’ve ever eaten,” and watched the party expand around them. The trees’ magic lights steadily grew more numerous, and were joined by an occasional ornament of orange fire, wobbling in place like ball lightning when untouched and zipping away with a mean sizzling sound when a curious pony got too close. Fillies and colts played in the grass and begged parents for treats, all of them unfailingly swathed in black or brown, occasionally gray or white. More and more, the Elements felt uncomfortable in their department store sweaters, though no one looked at them with the remotest surprise. Twice, Vinyl was singled out and asked for an autograph, which she happily provided.

From the funnel cake counter, Versus led them between two tinkling fountains and across a parquet of grass and clover to the bandstand, where Pinkie joined them, panting from a run and grinning ear to ear under an overlarge black and purple top hat that kept slipping over her eyes. The air was filled with the gentle motion of bells and airy woodwinds, performed by a somber sextet of elderly stallions, all wrapped so tightly in oaken coats and huge, furry hats as to resemble a family of giant groundhogs that had come up between the bandstand’s tiers. Under their auspices, a thin group of dancers moved languidly and close together, silent and seeming to have only eyes for one another.

At front, a seventh, younger stallion stood inside the spacious coils of a free standing, metal horn, his forelegs on the outer surface to manage a panel of valves and slides while he blew into the mouthpiece. The instrument’s mouth was angled up to the sky, wide enough to admit its minstrel if he were to jump in, and from it emitted an almost subsonic hum that they felt more than heard, a deep-sea tone that filled their chests and the backs of their eyes.

“And that, ladies—and gent—is a groan horn,” Versus said, smiling at their puzzled looks. “We got ‘em nowhere else but here.”

“I have seen these,” Octavia said. “I have always wanted one, but I do not think I could play.”

“You need lungs of iron to play them.” She hooted a compliment and pitched a bit into a bucket beside the groan horn, and the stallion nodded absently. She craned her neck. “I’m trying to see the other band. I saw ‘em a couple minutes ago.”

“I’m not seein’ the appeal of this one,” Big Mac said. “That horn’s impressive enough, Ah s’pose.”

“No, they must have run off already,” Versus said. “Maybe they’re getting snacks.” She poked Pinkie’s hat. “How many tickets did that cost you, Pinks?”

“None! The pony gave it to me for a kiss!” She giggled at Rarity’s frown. “Just kidding. Sixty! No, sixty-five.”

They edged away from the bandstand as more dancers filled the lawn, twirling silently in swaying cloth. In the eerie music, it was not hard to imagine them as ghosts summoned up by some necromancer’s magical tune, or as nobility that did not yet know it had been stolen from its ballroom. For a time, Versus watched, a fixed smile on her face, but when she noticed Big Mac’s expression, her smile became animated as she grabbed him and entered into the dancing, a laugh in her eyes. The two moved awkwardly for his bulk and shyness, out of step with everyone else, but her radiant expression did not flag, and the mares clapped for them when the song was over and Big Mac was released. Seeing how it was done, Pinkie jumped in next, at first spinning on her own and then dragging Rarity into the mix. The band struck up a less somber tune, and one of the dancers on the other side of impromptu floor let loose with a hearty laugh at something her partner said.

When the band had paused, the Elements found a place at one of the long picnic tables on the far side, nearer the park’s edge, and rested while Twilight got them more food. When she got back, Rainbow had returned and Colgate had left.

“She said she saw Lotus in the crowd,” Octavia said. “I do not know what she wants with her.”

“I do,” Rarity said. Nodding thanks to Twilight for her vegetable skewer, she said, “shop talk.”

“That makes sense.”

“What is this music they’re playing?” Rainbow asked.

“Dancin’ music, Dashie!” Pinkie said, swaying next to Versus.

“Pfft. As if.”

“Try it,” Big Mac said, his red color hiding his blush. “It’s not that bad.”

Versus laughed and looked at him.

They ate and watched the crowds shift, the dancers clear off, the musicians confer and rest. The groan horn player removed his scarf and climbed out of his instrument, revealing himself to be a young stallion, not even as old as the youngest Element, overweight and puffing with the exertion. He sucked greedily at a water bottle for several seconds before getting back into the horn and fiddling with the valves until he had the setting he wanted. A pair of griffons landed in front of him and tossed a pair of bits in his bucket, and he smiled at them.

On the other side of the park, through a copse of trees, they could see more magical lights and hear the sounds of growing revelry, then a shout of gleeful alarm as a lone firework shrieked into the sky and turned the clouds’ bellies a royal purple. More laughter rolled over the grass and frost.

They got up after a time and went to an uneven patch of tuffets and miniature fountains, frozen over, their concrete rings frosty and brittle-looking, and watched the fair games. A griffon with too-long coattails, wavering with the effort to keep himself standing on his back legs, hefted a sledge hammer and attempted to ring the bell, falling several feet short. In the severe clothing of the occasion, it was odd to see ponies and griffons at play, throwing balls and bean bags, jumping with legs tied together, laughing and eating, wiping condiments off lapels with napkins. Pinkie and Versus ran up to a stallion in a fat, black trench coat and signed up for the sack race, on the other side of the park.

Colgate caught up to Lotus in the middle of the glowing trees, just past a quieter picnic table, farther from the band. Lotus smiled emptily at her, and Colgate matched her expression. They looked at each other for a minute.

“Yes?” Lotus finally asked. “Do you need something?”

“I just wanted to say that I figured out why you…” She looked around and lowered her voice. “What we talked about yesterday, the thing that happened in Canterlot, the thing I shouldn’t know about.”

“Yes, I know. What about it?”

“I know why it had to be that way.”

“Okay.” She resumed her walk, in the direction of a pair of outhouses.

“Ponies with memory problems don’t show up frequently, so a glut of them like that—even if you spread it out across the country, which would be a pain to do—would be easily noticed. You could take a couple years to do it, but then even those rejects would notice something weird going on. I get that now, you had to make it look like a tragedy, ‘cause that’s way more believable than a bunch of randomly appearing memory ponies. Right?”

Without looking at her, Lotus smiled and said, “congrats.”

Colgate’s heart quickened, and she pressed on. “I’m still working on why it had to be Fleur there, to knock it out of the sky, instead of some bombs.”

“Aw, Minuette, that’s the easy part.”

“Is it ‘cause the marks might notice something squirrely with the way the ships flew or looked?”

“Think simpler,” Lotus said, shaking her head. She had stopped under a string of jade lights, all slowly following one another in an analemma several feet off the ground and casting its awed watchers in a sickly green. She gave Colgate a smile, a little more of her face showing than the day before, and Colgate tried to think even as she locked onto a strand of pink mane that had come out from under Lotus’ hat to brush her eye.

“I… I can’t just turn it on and off.” She knew she made no sense, but nothing else came to mind.

Lotus shrugged. “The ships would have been too heavy with all the extra materials for a bomb.”

“Oh. Yes, that follows.”

“Minuette, I must ask, why are you doing this? I would think, after yesterday, you’d want to stay as far away from me as possible.” She brushed the pink hair back into place.

“I wanted you to know I’d figured it out.”

She shrugged elaborately. “Okay.”

Colgate looked around. “Where’s Aloe?”

“Checking the safety zone around the hazard. She’ll be back soon, I’m sure. You need her?”

“No, just asking. She and Twilight have a plan.”

“I know, she briefed me on it. Twilight and I are gonna talk after the Contraction.”

“What do you think?”

Lotus closed her eyes and breathed through her nose.

“Of their plan I mean, sorry.” She forced a laugh, her heart racing, her cheeks aflame.

“Mm. From what I hear, it sounds solid. I can outfit Twilight with the resources she needs to get it done quickly, which I know is more important to her right now than anything else.”

“She actually wanted to be done by today.”

After a second of cloud thinking, Lotus said, “She learned about how ponies use the Contraction to shoot across the country, and wanted to catch a ride on this one. Yes?”

Colgate smiled. “Congrats.”

Lotus laughed, and for a second, Colgate warmed.

“How powerful is the cloud?”

“Ugh.”

“I’m not gonna test you,” Colgate said. “That’s not my way.”

“Forgive me,” Lotus said, “if I decline to talk about it. I’ve heard that line before; seventy-eight times this year, if you want to know. Yours is seventy-nine.”

“Oh.”

Lotus sighed. “I don’t mean to be abrupt with you, I’m sorry. I’m not a morning pony, and I… You know how I feel about the cloud.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“No one does.” They walked to the other tree inside the analemma of lights, and Lotus chatted with an acquaintance while Colgate stood by, shuffling through her own thoughts. Lotus carried herself like many of the doctors Colgate used to work with, relaxed and assured, used to being the biggest pony in the room. For some, it allowed for unselfconscious friendliness, and for others, aloofness or coldness. How Lotus moved between the two, formal for Colgate and warm and open to the acquaintance, Colgate could not fathom. She tried to read Lotus’ body language, noticing only that she shifted her weight twice as she spoke, and, learning nothing from it, looked behind her, thinking of escape.

“Sorry about that,” Lotus said. “That was Spinning Ribbons, he’s the son of one of the event coordinators in charge of all this. He’s a nice boy.” Leaving it at that, she looked at Colgate expectantly, as if she had not been the one to break off their conversation.

“Uhh. Wanna hear about Tartarus? You probably should, it being… your business.”

“Sure, but not out here. We can do that at the hotel, if you’d like, after I’m done with Twilight.”

“Yeah, great.” She raised a hoof to catch a spiraling leaf.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think to ask earlier. How are you today?”

“I’m fine.”

Lotus paused. “I’m happy to hear it. I am, Minuette.”

In a flash, Colgate realized what she meant. “My crying from yesterday, right. Uh, that’s better too. I don’t know what that was.”

“Everything okay with your friends?” Lotus had drawn closer, and Colgate shifted nervously.

“They’re fine too.”

“What’s going on? All I know is what Twilight’s been up to, with her plan.”

“She’s probing for information,” Colgate thought rapidly. “Spying is good, but this is better.” Conscious, as well, that Lotus might just be asking as a gesture of concern, Colgate took several seconds to respond.

“We’ve got a new friend in the mix. Her name is Versus, she’s the concierge at the corkscrew hotel.”

“I like Versus. You all have nothing to fear from her.”

“Thanks.”

Reading her sarcasm, Lotus said, “I know that’s a common worry among you, and rightly so. Versus is fine. A little friendly advice, though, don’t ask her about her time in Fillydelphia. She had to move out here for work reasons, and she’s sensitive about it.”

“Sensitive,” Colgate said, unexpectedly derailed by Lotus’ use of the word “friendly.” Were they friends? The thought set her heart to hammering again, and she edged away.

“I like Versus,” Lotus said to herself, nodding. “She’s not one of us, though. Anything else? Sorry, you can tell me if I’m asking too much, I won’t mind.”

“You’re fine,” Colgate said automatically. She shook her head and reached for another leaf. By the tiny action, she was able to focus her mind somewhat, to fool herself that catching the leaf was the primary object of her being there with Lotus, and the thought calmed her. Lotus waited patiently, seeing that Colgate was nervous, respecting that feeling—which Colgate did not notice, and would only wonder about later.

“We got an invitation to a dinner party,” she said at length. “Just us non-Elements.”

“I take it you mean you, Octavia, Vinyl, and Big Mac?”

Colgate’s mouth went dry.

“We know about the new Elements, Minuette. Rather, I know, and a few other ponies. Luna knows, and she… Has opinions.”

“What are those opinions?”

“I can’t disclose that to you, I’m afraid.”

“Fantastic.”

“A dinner party, though, that sounds nice. Fan wanting to meet the Elements, but knowing she can’t, invited the next best thing?”

“Something like that.”

Lotus looked at her, and Colgate felt small under her gaze. “You’ll want to get some new clothes for that, probably. This is a party, this is fine, but dinners in Snowdrift are a lot stricter with their dress code.” She held a hoof to her forehead, and, smiling, said, “I see… I see… suit jackets in your future!”

Colgate shivered in a breeze between trees.

“Bring Rarity, it’d make her week.” As if remembering something—Colgate did not know how someone like Lotus could forget something in the first place—she said, “How’s Rarity, anyway? Aloe tells me she’s not happy with us. Understandable, if true.”

“I really don’t know. She doesn’t tell me about those things.”

“Shame.” She sighed again. “I’ll have to talk to her too. Twilight first, then you, then Rarity.” She gave a smile. “Busy life, Minuette!”

“You do a lot,” Colgate said, nodding, not sure what else to say.

“Sure do.” They spent a minute looking at each other, looking at the lights, feigning interest in the festivities they could barely see from among so many trees. Finally, Colgate said “seeya later, then,” and took her leave, feeling like she had wasted an unforgivable amount of Lotus’ time.

“Bye, Minuette,” Lotus called, and Colgate shuddered.

When she got back to the Elements, Versus was still there, and another pony as well, who stood up to shake Colgate’s hoof without missing a beat in the conversation. She was a small, snowy unicorn, her face lightly peppered with darker gray spots of fur, her mane darker still. To Colgate, she resembled an illustration who had stepped off the page before her creator could color her in. Her head and neck were uncovered, but Colgate counted three layers on her body and legs.

“Partial Thoughts, Colgate. Colgate, Partial Thoughts,” Versus said.

“What do you think, Colgate?” Pinkie asked. “Partial Thoughts loves this music, we all aren’t really into it.”

“I like the ambience,” Partial Thoughts said in a sibilant monotone. She licked her top teeth slowly, as if preparing further words, but eventually closed her mouth.

From the hotel room, Applejack and Fluttershy could see an arc of the Contraction party, lurid but small with the magical lights; to them, the lights could have been torches or electric lanterns on loose wires. It was eleven o’ clock when they heard the beginnings of music from the party. A trumpet’s thin wail sounded in the cold air, and then the clatter of drums, and then the rest of the brass band.

Applejack smiled to herself, wishing she could be closer, imagining the girls’ surprise at the music, how loud it must be to them, and the dancing she knew she was missing. She had already thanked Fluttershy for staying behind to keep her company, but did so again.

“I’m happy to do it,” Fluttershy said. She was flipping through the channels, but there wasn’t much to see. Some cross-country power lines were up, but none had yet made it down to Snowdrift, so she only had five channels of local TV from which to choose. For a while, she had left it on a game show where contestants vied to throw pumpkins the farthest without busting them, but when that ended, there was nothing of interest.

Not wanting to talk of home again, Applejack was at a loss. She would travel between window and TV, sometimes going through the brochure or the room service menu, though neither were hungry.

“We can play cards,” she said, though she wasn’t interested in that either. “Ah think they’re in the other room.”

Fluttershy shrugged.

“We can explore the hotel. That lobby’s pretty neat.”

“We could.” She got up, looked at the door, and sat back down. Applejack went back to the window.

“So, how you been?” she finally asked.

“Good,” Fluttershy said.

“Yer distracted too.”

“I’m preparing to do something I don’t want to do.”

“Ah.” Reflecting for a second at the fact that the statement did not faze her, Applejack pressed on. “Anythin’ you wanna talk about?”

“Not really. I have to talk to Vinyl about it later, though.”

“Gotcha.”

“It’s not crucial to what we’re doing. It’s… Well, it’s not crucial. It’s personal. I hope you understand.”

“You don’t need to worry ‘bout me, sugar. We got our secrets, Ah respect that.”

“Do you? I mean, being the Element of Honesty. I’ve never understood that. Can you have secrets?”

“Sure Ah can. It’s just, bein’ the Element of Honesty, as you said, Ah have to be ready to tell ‘em if somepony asks. Which means the secrets Ah choose to keep, they can’t be too serious, ‘cause Ah have to be able to sleep at night not afraid of revealin’ everythin’ to someone. It keeps me honest, not that Ah need help with that, Ah like to think.”

“That’s interesting,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s the Element that feeds itself. In a way, they all do, but mine is a lot more internal than the others.” Seeing Fluttershy’s blank look, she said, “Rainbow’s an’ Rarity’s, fer instance, those rely on other ponies’ reactions. Those two can be loyal an’ generous if they want, but it’s when other ponies respond positively that they’re encouraged to keep doin’ what they’re doin’. Kindness fer you, same thing, Laughter fer Pinkie, same there too. Mine, it’s like Ah keep honest in anticipation of bein’ called on it.”

Fluttershy frowned.

“Ah ain’t sayin’ that’s what keeps me honest, Ah’m sayin’ that’s what it looks like, if you look at it on paper.” She looked through the window again. “Just interestin’, is all.”

“What about Twilight, the Element of Magic?”

“That one’s weird. Ah don’t really know what to make of it. Part of me wonders if the princesses just ran out of ideas for Element number six. That ain’t the nicest thing, but it’s what Ah think.”

“What about tact?”

“What d’ya mean?”

“Where does the Element of Honesty end and tact begin?”

“Oh, like if Rarity asks if she looks okay in a dress, an’ Ah think it looks like butt, do Ah have to tell her so?”

Giggling, Fluttershy nodded.

“Ah can sugarcoat it if Ah want to, or Ah can just do that thing—‘hmm, Ah dunno, maybe, Ah gotta see it from more sides’—you know that trick.”

“Oh yeah.”

“But no, Ah can’t just tell her Ah like it, not without feelin’ like a bum later.”

“Have you ever lied?”

“Course. Have you ever been unkind? Has Pinkie ever been sad?”

“I guess I see your point.”

“No one’s one thing all the time, that’s not how life works. Ah wish ponies realized that more. We’re just like them, end of the day.”

“Do you think so?”

“Ah do think so. What’s that?” She stopped Fluttershy on channel four, where a griffon was gesturing wildly at something she had found under a rock in a dry stream bed. The camera zoomed in on a mound of lichen.

“It’s just mold,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t see why she’s so excited.”

“Maybe it’s the color,” Applejack said, laughing, jumping on the bed with Fluttershy. “That nice, egg yolk yellow. Mm-mm, good eatin’.”

“And we can hope to find many more samples all along this area,” the griffon said before Fluttershy changed the channel. It was an infomercial for a pasta maker, and they watched it for a few minutes.

“Ponies are paid to fill out the crowds for these,” Fluttershy said. “They’re paid to go crazy for whatever product’s up there.”

“It’s kinda mesmerizin’, how they got it spinnin’ like that.”

“That’s how they fool you,” Fluttershy said, nudging Applejack.

“Ah can feel myself bein’ drawn in,” Applejack said, adopting a faraway voice and leaning toward the TV. Fluttershy changed the channel, and Applejack flopped back. “Ah, you saved me. Ah was gonna pick up the phone in a couple seconds an’ order some.”

“We can just put them on the room tab,” Fluttershy said, and Applejack laughed. “You want to hear something kind of weird? You might actually be interested in this.”

“Shoot.”

“I think Snowdrift is a religious town. Rarity and I saw some churches yesterday, on the gateway side.”

“That is interestin’. What denomination are they?”

“Oh, I have no idea. We didn’t go in any. We both assume Luna is the main focus, though.”

“Is that ‘cause of all the dark magic associations?”

“I think so.” Fluttershy could tell from the way Applejack had straightened in bed, and from her tone, that she had said something of more than passing interest, and regretted it, for she did not share in her friend’s enthusiasm.

“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Applejack said. “Then again, this is a very Celestial region. Lots of weather fluctuation, geographic variation, that stuff.”

“Ummm…”

Smiling, Applejack began to tell her of the two classifications theologians used to describe the world in terms of its relations to the princesses, and Fluttershy tried to keep her eyes from going empty. Why harsher climates or more geographically unstable areas were more like Celestia, and why safer and more predictable places were more like Luna, she did not care to know, but Applejack was not hindered. Fluttershy just smiled and nodded, and Applejack paused.

“With me so far?”

“Oh, um, sure.”

“This is where it gets fun, ‘cause there’s different schools of thought on whether it’s the ponies placin’ value on the land, callin’ it Celestial or Lunar, or whether the land has its own inherent magical properties that we don’t understand yet. Personally, Ah think…” So she went on, for twenty minutes unbroken, describing the differing opinions of religious figures whose names Fluttershy remembered very distantly from her grade school days. At first, Fluttershy didn’t notice the queer sensation of teleportation, and when she did finally feel her body sucking away, she flared her wings and almost fell off the bed in fright. The Contraction was over before she could untangle herself from the sheets, and Applejack helped her, laughing all the while.

“I’d forgotten that was going to happen,” she breathed.

“Listen to that, Fluttershy. The park’s goin’ absolutely crazy!”

Fluttershy settled her fur back into place indignantly. “I was right to stay behind.”

More than half the partygoers stayed behind to enjoy the afternoon in the park, but the Elements, with Aloe and Lotus, started back toward the hotel. Versus and Partial Thoughts said goodbye, the former with a quick hug and a wink to Big Mac.

At the instant of teleportation, a cheer of physical volume rippled through the park, and everypony stopped what they were doing to let the moment pass. The band faltered noisily, and everyone laughed and joked good-naturedly as they got themselves back together. A convoy of airships, hovering in the distance, shot off in a web of smoke as the Contraction, working with the magic the ships’ captains had placed, squeezed them out of Snowdrift and off to the rest of the world. As the friends were leaving, they saw ponies with bits of paper queuing up at a pair of booths. Betting slips, Aloe explained; ponies could bet on the hour, or even quarter hour, of the Contraction. Precogs, naturally, were not allowed to join in the gambling.

“How often do Contractions happen, roughly?” Twilight asked.

“They’re erratic,” Lotus said. “We had two last February, but before that, there was nineteen months of nothing. You never know.”

“What causes them?”

“Changes in Tartarus. It’s pretty complicated. I can recommend some reading, if you’d like.”

“I want to hit the library this evening,” Twilight said. “If you could just write down a couple titles, that’ll be great.”

They walked past a bakery, which was just beginning to fill up with hungry partiers, and at the intersection, they saw down one road a crash site. A carriage had rammed into one of the corner clocks, bending one of its axles at an odd angle, its wheel drooping off pathetically.

“If this is the precog capital of Equestria, how come stuff like that happens?” Rainbow asked. “Can’t they just tell the driver to take it easy on…” She looked around for a street sign. “Whatever street this is?”

“You’d think so,” Lotus said, shaking her head. “That’s not how it works, though.”

“I can explain,” Aloe said, and Lotus gave her a quick look, nonverbally thanking her. “It’s kinda counterintuitive.”

“We’re used to that,” Rainbow said, giving Twilight a look, at which Twilight smirked.

“This is how I was taught, long ago. Let’s take one, single precog and put her in a town. Say she’s the only precog in Snowdrift for now, okay? One day, she has a premonition that Rainbow here—”

“Hey.”

“That Rainbow here is gonna, I don’t know, go to the grocery store and buy a big sack of candy. So she has that premonition, and that’s that. She’s free to act however she chooses with that information. Simple enough.”

“But we don’t have just one precog here.”

“Right. So now let’s put two precogs in our city. They both have that premonition, but while one doesn’t care about you getting candy, the other one does. ‘No, I can’t let Rainbow Dash eat so much candy in one sitting,’ he says to himself. ‘However will she keep that tight, flyer’s body?’ So he tries to intervene and keep you from going to the store. What does the first precog see? Well, depending on how accurate her premonitions are, she might see you trying to go to the store, she might see you being stopped, or whatever. Still okay?”

“Still pretty simple,” Pinkie said.

“Let’s get three precogs. First precog stays out of it, she doesn’t care either way. Second precog, he doesn’t want you to go to the store. Third precog, why, she wants you to go to the store. ‘Miss Dash is a grown mare with her own money, and if she wants to buy an unhealthy amount of candy, then that’s her right,’ she says. So what does the first precog see?”

“Well, she either sees me getting to the store or not,” Rainbow said.

“Those are two options. She might see you going to the store later, foiled the first time but going on a different day.”

“Which,” Lotus broke in, “depending on if she can discern sequences of events from her premonition, might look identical to seeing you getting to the store the first time.”

“She might see you noticing two strangers seemingly at odds about whether you should go to the store, and getting sidetracked by them, and never making it. She might see the third precog buying you the candy and giving it to you as a way to undercut the precog who wants to stop you. But then, what if the second precog sees that, and tries to stop the third one from buying the candy? Maybe they just see themselves reacting to what the other one does. What then?”

“Well, now we’ve got an infinite loop,” Twilight said. “If they each see what the other one’s going to do, then they can react to it prematurely, and they’ll just keep recursively reacting. Nothing gets done ultimately. It’s the chess problem.”

“That’s where it leads in a classroom, but this is a little more complicated in practice.”

“Chess problem?” Big Mac asked.

“Back to my candy example,” Aloe said, “how does this look to the first precog, the one who’s seeing without acting? Does she even see anything anymore? Is there even anything to see?”

“A similar thought experiment, which Twilight mentioned,” Lotus said. “Two precogs of equal seeing ability sit down to a chess game. Who wins?”

“Isn’t it a draw?” Rarity asked.

“Not necessarily.”

“If they can each see the other’s move in advance, though,” Pinkie said.

“They can see what their opponent will do, but only so far in advance. Since each move is a response to a previous move, unless one player starts the game with every move of hers planned out in advance, neither of them can trace the game perfectly. One might know who’ll win, maybe with an idea of how, but the path to that victory is clouded because of the sheer number of possible moves involved. It’s in that fog that the outcome can change, the players can take each other by surprise.”

“But if they just go step by step, and only pay attention to the very next move and nothing else, then won’t it always end in a draw?” Rarity asked.

“That would cancel out their precognitive powers,” Twilight said. “At that point, it just becomes a question of who’s the better chess player.”

“That’s basically right,” Aloe said. “The chess problem is used to illustrate how precognition breaks down in sufficiently complicated situations. Now let’s take my candy example again, but instead of three precogs, try sixty-five.”

“There’s sixty-five precogs in this place?” Rainbow asked.

“Sixty-five registered precogs, I should say. There’s also a smattering of postcogs and intuiters. You can see, though, with so many ponies with foreknowledge, how things can get stalled. That’s not even factoring in the fact that no one has perfect precognition, that everyone sees different things, and so on.”

“Five precogs can see the same event, but in different contexts,” Lotus said, “and not know it’s the same event until after it happens. That’s the problem with having so many seers in a city. I’m sure someone did see that crash before it happened, but that doesn’t mean anything if she didn’t know when it was gonna happen, or on what intersection, or whatever.”

“You all seemed to agree on when the Contraction was happening, though,” Vinyl said. “What’s up with that?”

“The Contraction’s different,” Aloe said. “Ponies can’t change when it happens, so there’s none of that cross-talk of different reactions muddling the waters of foreknowledge, so to speak.”

“Are there any precogs that can just see through all that confusion and get to the end result?” Pinkie asked.

“Intuiters,” she said with a shrug. “But they only have access to single events in time; they never get the context for what they see.”

“Intuiters are good for getting a sense of which precog is most on target,” Lotus said. “I’d be reluctant to rely on one alone, though.”

“Another thing, a precog has to at least know about whatever subject she’s seeing,” Aloe said. “‘You have to be cognizant to be precognizant’.” She smiled. “And since they all live in good ol’ Snowdrift, it’s pretty easy for all of them to see a Contraction when it’s coming.”

They arrived at their hotel and, entering, Big Mac looked to the check-in counter, though Versus was still back at Umbrella Park. They went to their rooms, freshened up, and then Lotus took the floor. They discussed the finer details of sawdust accumulation and delivery, assigned deadlines, and wrote down names of helpful contacts. Lotus’ cloud was invaluable, calculating the amount of lumber and trees they would need to process, the amount of kitty litter Pinkie would need to find, the likely ratio of the two. Aloe said she could get them their wood chippers and wood cutters, and then the whole crew was able to see Lotus’ cloud in much more impressive action. After several minutes of intense thought, eyes closed, Lotus grabbed a sheet of paper and drew a diagram, with exact measurements, of the warehouse and parking lot around it. She added in little pony figures on the fringes, where decoys would stand to draw the hazard into the open, and then, on a second sheet, indicated where cables or balloons would need to be to support their wood chippers. On a third sheet, she drew the same diagram, but with the cranes and cables moved to allow them to remove the warehouse roof. With another several minutes of thought, she was able to list and itemize the endeavor’s price—which was no sweat for their treasury slip—and the number of ponies they would need to carry off the plan in a safe time frame. They ended the conversation with a sheaf of papers listing every single step, every contact associated with the steps, and the materials required.

Looking through the lists, Twilight smiled and nodded to herself, as though she had done more than watch in envious amazement. “Where have you been all my life, Lotus?”

“I need a break,” Lotus said. “That was a lot to think about.”

“I hope you factored in equine error to all this,” Rarity said.

“I did.” She got up and stretched her legs. Below, another live band was starting up in the hotel bar. “One last thing I’d like to do, I want to see the fields on the south side of the warehouse. It’s been a while since I’ve scoped them out, and they might be helpful for our approach.”

“Better than the nice, flat parking lot?” Colgate asked.

“It’s more to make sure there aren’t any sufficiently sized weeds or saplings for the hazard to latch on to out there. Plus, I need to compare how the field looks this time of year to how it did the last five years—unrelated project, boring stuff. I’ve been putting it off.”

“Can you give me about half an hour?” Twilight asked.

“By all means, rest, all of you. I can keep busy.” She glanced at her sister, then at Colgate. “Minuette, do you want to come with us now?”

“Huh?” Colgate asked. “Oh. Tartarus.”

“Tellin’ ‘em yer story?” Big Mac asked.

Aloe just smiled as Lotus walked Colgate out, and then left herself.

“It is their business to know about Tartarus,” Octavia said. “I accept that.”

With a quick glance around the room, Rainbow turned on the TV, and, flipping through all five channels, left it on the griffon documentarian. She had moved down the riverbed and was exclaiming about a stunted grouping of mushrooms near the stain of the former waterline.

“Did anybody else totally not understand her example about the precogs?” Vinyl asked.

“I was not paying much attention, I am sorry,” Octavia said.

“I think I get it,” Pinkie said.

“It’s simple when you break it down,” Twilight said. “You know how you can get a bunch of ponies together, and it gets harder and harder to reach a common decision? It’s the same with precogs; the more there are, the harder it is to figure out the future, because there’s conflicting visions, and ponies reacting to their visions. It’s too confusing.”

“You coulda summarized all that, and you didn’t?” Rainbow asked. “What is wrong with you?”

“It ain’t that simple,” Big Mac said. “She’s just boilin’ it down.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said. “Besides, I need to know as much about precognition as I can, particularly how it fails. That’s why I asked Lotus for those book recommendations. Which…” She flipped through her checklist. “Oh, she did put them in here. Ugh, no line break though.”

Vinyl’s horn squirted a dot of color. “Sounds like you have a plan. Share?”

“Later. I need to do some reading. Actually, I’m going to be busy later. If one of you could go to the library and get these for me, that would really help a lot.”

“I can do it!” Pinkie said. “I’m going out tonight for kitty litter anyway!”

“I’ll go with you,” Vinyl said.

They watched TV and made small talk until the sisters returned with Colgate, who went directly to the bathroom and switched on the shower.

“We’re ready to go when you are,” Aloe said. “We’ll head to the fields and just look around. Twilight, I got in touch with a friend, she’s gonna put her logging team to work for you. They’ll be ready later tonight.”

“You girls work fast,” Vinyl said.

Aloe smiled.

When Colgate was done, they got their things, put on some extra layers, and walked into an arctic wind outside. Above, through the hotel’s spiraling contours, the wind howeled and rattled sun screens, and their clothes flapped noisily. Rarity grumbled as she tried to smooth her lapels, and accepted help from Octavia.

In the space of only an hour, the sky had become almost black with weather, bloated clouds like ropes bunching up over them, breaking on the glacier in the west and slowly churning to the south, where they would reach the fields.

“Now this is Snowdrift weather,” Lotus said with false cheer. “Ladies, let’s pick up the pace. I don’t want to get caught in this when it cuts loose.”

“We’re not going to delay our wood cutting for this, are we?” Twilight asked, and Rarity looked at her, horrified.

“It’ll be fine,” Aloe said.

“Applejack, what are you doing?” Octavia asked.

“Ah wanna feel the wind,” Applejack said, opening her coat and letting it fly apart at her chest, her mane released and her head up to feel it all.

“Bracing!” Pinkie said. “I wanna try!”

“You’re gonna get sick,” Colgate said.

With a smile, Applejack said, “You ain’t my mom,” and Colgate laughed, and let it be.

They walked a slow, broad circle around the southern part of town, catching occasional looks from passers-by hurrying to shelter, not stopping to answer questions or take succor when the wind was blocked. Behind a recently evacuated house, Vinyl paused to inspect a battered carriage, but Lotus urged her onwards.

“Don’t get it into your heads we can use transportation for this,” she said. “The object is for ponies to not notice what we’re doing.”

“Is this so bad? We are only looking at the field,” Octavia said.

“Anything that can lead to questions is best avoided, if possible,” Aloe said.

“That’s your way, is it?” Applejack asked.

“Yep.”

“How come we’re allowed to know about this?” Fluttershy asked. “We’re not one of you.”

Aloe sighed, and Lotus said, “Because you all figured it out on your own. I mean, being the princesses’ friends, you get some special privilege anyway, but this is really beyond that, I think.” She turned away at a dusty gust as they crossed into the tall grass. The warehouse was in sight, and their ship close by, tipped over at some point by the wind, balloon deflated.

“So if we didn’t know what we know, would you have even met us here?” Rarity asked.

“We might have said hi,” Aloe said. “But as tourists, or unlucky travelers.”

“How nice.”

They quietly picked their way over ridges in the field, waiting always for the first peal of thunder or the onslaught of hail, but neither came. Ceaseless wind bent the dark grass, and Applejack quietly zipped her coat back up, and the warehouse circled always on their left sides. The ground was uneven and soft, and they unconsciously got lower to the ground to better traverse the rises and dips. Lotus looked from side to side with each step, murmuring to herself, occasionally stopping to check something in the grass or on the ground, and Aloe just smiled at them as if to say “you get used to it.”

Rarity kept to the back, where she could glower and feel sorry for herself without interference from her friends. She knew she was being petty, but couldn’t help it; the fact that no one else shared her anger at the twins’ secret lives only hardened her feelings. Affronted, insulted, and scared too of what there was in her world that required ponies such as the twins, she tried to justify herself in her mind. The only thing she could conclude was that, at times, she could be just as small and irascible as the next pony, a confession that stung when she made it alone.

She shook her head angrily as the wind plucked at her mane, and she raised a hoof to her ear to pin it there for a second as they paused. Her glare lingered on Applejack, standing near the front with her tail billowing behind her, a soft grin on her face like it was nothing more than a midafternoon stroll to her. Pinkie imitated her, and Fluttershy stood to the side with her own sour expression. It was not the first time Rarity had noticed Fluttershy apparently put off by Pinkie’s good mood.

When the warehouse stood directly between and town, and all they saw of Snowdrift was its silhouette behind a thin sheet of fog, they stopped again for Lotus to survey the area.

“I had the craziest dream last night!” Pinkie said.

“Do we all need to be here?” Octavia asked.

“I dreamed I was a giant, and all the buildings in town were made of cake! All the ponies were like little plastic toys, but I didn’t eat them. You were in it, AJ!”

“What an honor,” Applejack said, laughing. “Was Ah big too?”

“I don’t know.”

Rarity scowled harder, taking minute pleasure in the pressure on her face as the frown lines etched themselves deeper, imagining from her dark mood a sort of determined energy. No one was looking at her, and she was free to indulge the feeling, but Pinkie’s story had caught her ear. Pinkie rambled about how one cake building seemed more like fudge than cake, and Applejack engaged her in the differences between the two. Aloe looked on, and Lotus’ expression, when Rarity saw it, had grown tired.

Thinking of dreams, Rarity remembered how, months ago, their dreams had slowly converged upon the image of the white stallion, Vanilla Cream. It had seemed to them for a time that Discord communicated primarily through their dreams, but he had long ago stopped, neither noticed nor remarked upon.

“Dreams can be funny things, can’t they?” Vinyl said, and Twilight glanced at her, not hearing.

They had all had strange dreams in their time, some prophetic, some strongly referential, some intimidating, some confusing. One particular night stood out in Rarity’s head, something that had never seemed quite right, had never been fully addressed before being dismissed. One of their first nights back in Ponyville, someone had had a nightmare, complete with melodramatic screaming and a tired, but compassionate session of tea and solicitous questions from concerned friends.

“Was it Fluttershy?” She looked at Fluttershy, who had moved the subject of her glare to the warehouse itself, a black cube under black sky. “She doesn’t scream, she cries. I remember screaming for sure.” She looked at Pinkie, and the memory snapped into place, and she looked around. Of details, she recalled next to none. Pinkie had insisted it was cold in the dream, and they had been in a large group, and they had been approaching something.

“Let’s get closer,” Lotus said. “I need to see more.”

“We’re not getting too close?” Twilight asked.

“See that warning tape up there? That’s too close; this isn’t.”

“Just asking.”

Rarity advanced with the rest of them, all eleven others: six earth ponies, three unicorns, two pegasi.

“I don’t remember how the dream ended, but then I woke up and I had just the biggest hankering for cake, you wouldn’t believe it!” Pinkie said, the wind carrying her voice all the way back to Rarity like she was standing next to her.

“Comin’ from you, Pinks, Ah would believe it,” Applejack said.

“Grass is moving,” Colgate said from the middle of the crowd.

“Yep, wind does that,” Lotus said.

Colgate mumbled something, and Rarity looked at her, then back to Pinkie, who was gesticulating energetically as if to indicate the size of the cakes she had dreamt.

She thought of the dream, and of cake, and the feeling that night in Ponyville. Everyone had woken up thinking that Discord was in the library with them, the way Pinkie had panicked. That a nightmare could elicit such a response seemed to them all strange, but when talk turned to her Pinkie Sense, the feeling had gone from puzzlement to dread—then, to nothing, as months passed and nothing came of it. More than likely, whatever Pinkie had foreseen had already taken place. Thinking of the cold, Rarity immediately went to the incident in Cloudsdale.

“Closer, ladies,” Lotus said, pushing through a clump of grass stalks. Damp burrs stuck to her coat and her hooves squished moist earth. The fog had come on gradually so thin that its only trace was the delicate moisture imparted on their clothes and the swaying blades of grass.

“I think we should stop here,” Rarity said. “I really think so.”

“As I said, the warning tape—”

“I said I think we should stop.” She stomped the soft ground once.

“I only need to approach by twenty more feet. We’re fine.”

“Nooooo, I’m not sure of that.” Her eyes went to the sky, its thick clouds appearing to fray over the warehouse, covering the sun and rendering the country in varying shades of gray and green. Around her, the eleven others, and before them, the warehouse, and inside her, fear that had taken hold and urged her backwards.

“I am sure, hon.”

“What’s wrong, Rarity?” Vinyl asked, sidling up to her. “Scared of the dark?”

Rarity looked at herself in Vinyl’s goggles, the sight of her own face disquieting. Letting the frown set back in, she said, “Pinkie, remember that dream you had in Ponyville? Think back, darling.”

“I had lotsa dreams in Ponyville!” Pinkie cried.

“This one was a nightmare. You woke up screaming. Does that ring a bell?” Part of her hoped Pinkie would scream afresh; she was standing close to Lotus.

“Oh, crap!” Twilight shouted. “Girls, she’s right! Everypony back, right now. Lotus, that’s you too!” She stumbled in the grass and came up panting, trying to push through, hindered by the weight of her clothes and the wet grass clinging to her.

“What is with you all?” Lotus shouted. “There’s nothing—” She nearly fell back, would have were it not for Aloe there to catch her, as a wave of magic expanded from Twilight’s horn. The field flattened as one, then a second passed in which all eyes searched the ground, and then the panic started, with Colgate leading.

Her hooves flew up from underneath her, her face drawn under lit animal eyes, and she crashed into Big Mac, who started just after. Not five feet from where Aloe and Lotus stood, and from where Rainbow hovered, a glistening mass covered the ground like varnish, tiger-striped with flattened grass and lurid with Twilight’s spell, an eerie stain stretched all the way from the warehouse. Wind rippled its surface, though none of them saw it as they bolted from the spot, a disorganized mob of hooves and clothes, and Applejack’s coat that she had unzipped again and now caught her off balance on the springy grass.

Like a tide, the mass crept after them, and Rarity was in the back again, frozen longer than the others. It oozed and expanded, covering grass. Rarity thought she could hear a faint slopping sound as she turned to run, like a monster licking its lips, and looked back despite herself to see it keeping up. Ahead of her, voices were urging one another on, and Rainbow was complaining, and Pinkie was hollering something.

“How far?” Rarity called, but she was behind them, and in the wind and sound of twelve sets of hooves, her voice was lost. She conjured a shield behind them, but it was weak without her taking the time to look at where she was placing it, and she was not surprised to feel the static electricity sizzle on her horn as the shield was eaten away.

From the town, they had seen the warehouse framed over light, and with her back to it, Rarity was amazed at the contrast: the Equestrian south was dipped in shadow, coniferous teeth on the ground and sweeping, black clouds around that, with a sliver of glacier reaching into view like displaced sheet metal. The field beyond, in the wind and the hail that had finally begun to thunder down on them, was like the bottom of the ocean, endless and wild.

Twilight released her spell on the grass and Rarity brought up another shield for the hail, but it did not last, and she was frozen for a second, the shock of another shield lost driving a spike of confusion into her head, a microscopic headache that made it impossible for her to see the peril of her situation, but which Lotus did. “Faster in the back there!” she shouted. “Let’s go!”

When the grass tugged at her hooves, she jumped up and scrambled her legs, as if dancing on a hot plate, fearing with each landing that she would feel the cold goo weigh down her fetlocks. She ducked and fell as a black shape flew past her head, and for a second, saw only the close-up forest of grass: lines of shadow between dark green briers, speckled with dirt, waving with wind, and seeming to close in on her as she tried and failed to gain her hooves. When Fluttershy’s magic grabbed her, she screamed and flailed, thinking the egg white hazard had leapt over her.

Another black shape whipped past her as she was borne up and away from the grass, and she recognized it as one of their coats. Applejack ran ahead of them, bright orange and free in the wind and the hail, nearly dancing across the field so as to not get bogged down in the tall grass. Aloe was struggling to remove her own coat and run at the same time, but eventually got it, and with an angry flick of her head, gave it to the wind, where it settled on the grass four feet away.

When they stopped, half were undressed and shivering, and the others were unzipping their coats, overheated. Twilight flattened the grass again to confirm what Lotus had called out, that the hazard was receding back toward the warehouse. Lotus herself was busy looking at the field, committing to the cloud the precise distances where they were safe from the hazard, that she could establish a new ring of warning tape.

“We need to get rid of this as fast as we can,” she shouted at last when they were able to walk, heads bent under hail. “With its new range, there are six or seven potential anchors for it to find in the countryside, a couple of which can lead it into the forest. If that happens…”

“So no explanation for it coming at us before the warning tape, then?” Rainbow jeered.

“I was getting to that,” Lotus said. “How many ponies can you spare from Twilight’s sawdust project?”

“A couple, I guess,” Aloe said.

“A couple?”

“I’m thinking, hang on!”

“Anyone willing to part with their coat?” Lotus asked, glancing at Rarity.

“Take it,” Rarity said bitterly, shuffling out of her coat and laying it on the grass. “It’s ruined anyway.”

“I appreciate it,” Lotus said, looking back at the field. “We’re gonna cut those trees first and make sure it doesn’t get to the forest. Take as many ponies as you can off Twilight’s operation for that.”

“Sure,” Aloe said.

Lotus got into Rarity’s coat, a little big for her, and frowned at the line of forest to their east, pausing to hold a hoof to her eyes, wincing from the hail.

“Are we all okay?” Octavia asked.

“Just tired,” Pinkie said.

Rarity only shook her head. She had been in the back, so she had been the closest to being caught, but did feel like mentioning it. She, too, turned to frown at the forest. She was conscious enough of her mood that she did not want anyone to catch her glaring at a specific, equine target.

“It was that night in Ponyville that Pinkie woke up screaming,” Twilight said. “She dreamed of this place. I remember researching it the morning after, figuring it was probably Snowdrift.”

“My Pinkie Sense,” Pinkie said reverently. “How come it didn’t come up now, though?”

“Didn’t you say it was broken?” Big Mac asked.

“We can talk about that later,” Lotus said. “How much food did you have on the airship?”

“Food?” Fluttershy asked.

“And how was it contained? Did you have it in bags, cans, what? Was it loose?” She was still not looking at them, and Rarity resisted the urge to lob a rock at her. “We just nearly died, and you want to talk about food?”

“I don’t remember exactly what we had,” Twilight said, and Lotus rolled her eyes. “I know we were planning on stocking up here, so not a whole lot.”

“There were five packages of dried salad,” Colgate said. “Only one had the blueberry vinaigrette left. That one’s my favorite.”

“We had a couple apples,” Vinyl said. “They were kinda going bad, though.”

“You had to have more than that,” Lotus said.

“We don’t remember,” Rainbow said. “We don’t have a freakin’ cloud of thoughts, you know.”

“Yes, yes, I know.” She softened visibly when Aloe went to her and put a hoof on her back. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“Oh, ‘cause the hazard probably got on our ship and ate our food,” Colgate said. “That’s how it got bigger.”

“Gold star,” Lotus said.

Rarity turned from her, breathing through her nose, and counted to ten.

“Did you at least get what you needed?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, but now I have to formulate a whole new plan of attack, taking into account its new size. Just great.”

“We can take a break,” Aloe said. “Actually, I think we should. How about some time in the steam room back at the hotel?”

Lotus stood, shivering, for several seconds before answering. “Got it. Twilight, I’ll draw you up a new checklist later tonight. Let’s get back.”

They trudged through the field back toward Snowdrift, heads down as the hail grew. Rarity was too tired to raise a shield, but no one appeared to mind. Applejack took the lead again, from her gait clearly not under the same pall as the rest of them. Rarity watched her hips sashaying through grass, her head swinging to take in the dark world around them, and she occasionally caught her face in profile, where she could see Applejack’s eyes glinting and her mouth drawn up in a satisfied smile. With her own mane lank and too long, filthy and tangled with grass, dirt, and prickles, Rarity silently cursed Applejack. She cursed Applejack’s good mood, her newfound spiritual fascination, her apparent peace of mind. She looked inwards and saw her own dour heart throbbing with anger and self pity, and, forgetting that only a day before she had been happy to explore the town with her friends, envisioned herself in all manner of vindicating positions. By the time they were entering the hotel, she wanted only to crawl into bed and hate the world on her own, and, after a steaming shower, that was what she did.

Though the twins elected to stay in the steam room the whole time, the others moved to the sauna, where, alone, they were able to finally unwind. No one said it, but Lotus’ irritable presence made relaxation impossible.

Octavia lay on her back on the floor, her dark mane stretched toward the drain, and Colgate kept looking at it with a strange expression. Of them all, her mane was the shortest, and she kept trying to arrange it to a more comfortable position between her shoulders.

“So do you think the hazard has a big yolk in the middle?” Pinkie asked suddenly.

Applejack guffawed, and when she didn’t stop, the others joined in, until even Octavia was chuckling to herself.

When they quieted, Rainbow, remaining where she had fallen from the laughter, said, “good on you remembering that Pinkie Sense, Twi.”

“Did you see how close it was?” Pinkie asked.

“It was Rarity who made me think of it,” Twilight said.

“What’s with her today?” Vinyl said.

“She gets moody sometimes,” Rainbow said. “Lotus is getting on her nerves.”

“Gee, can’t imagine why. That cloud really changed her.”

“Wouldn’t it change anyone?” Twilight asked. “I don’t blame her.”

“We’ve all got hardships,” Applejack said. “How we deal with ‘em, that’s what shows yer character. Maybe Lotus just ain’t made of the same stern stuff as some of us.”

“Too true,” Fluttershy said, looking at Octavia, who looked at her at the same time. Fluttershy blushed.

“That’s why they stayed in the steam room,” Colgate said. “They can’t see as much, so there’s less for Lotus to have to take in.”

“That makes sense,” Twilight said.

“So walk me through this plan of yours for dealin’ with the egg white,” Big Mac said. “Is there anythin’ we need to do to help?”

“The plan is, I’m going to meet up with Aloe’s ponies later tonight and start gathering sawdust. We’re going to find the dead trees first and use the lumber yard in Little Snowdrift, and we’re going to process it all down to dust.”

“Where are you going to store all of that sawdust?” Octavia asked.

“I’ll have to pick up some bags or something on the way down there. I can store the bags in my magical space for now, until we find something better. I just don’t want them to possibly leak, not in the weather we’ve been having.”

“And I’m gonna get the kitty litter,” Pinkie said. “Right?”

“That would be great. If you and someone else can go into town tonight and buy up all the cat litter you can find, that would really help. I don’t remember the exact number, but Lotus did the math and found out I’d need something like nine thousand boxes.”

“Nine thousand?” Big Mac asked.

“That’s one big kitty,” Pinkie said.

“That’s just if we used kitty litter on its own. With the sawdust, it’s less than that.”

“So we can pretty much take as much cat litter as we can, and still be nowhere near the target,” Rainbow said. “That makes our job easier, anyway.”

“Let’s leave some for the others,” Vinyl said. “I’m sure there’s plenty of cats in town that actually use the stuff.”

“I have a question,” Fluttershy said. “Why can’t you use a magical drying spell on the hazard? I know you know one.”

“Lotus said we shouldn’t be using magic on it because we don’t understand it properly. It came from Tartarus, which means its magic is entirely different from our own, and we don’t know how they’ll interact.”

“If it’s anythin’ like how ours did when we were down there, would it be so bad?” Applejack asked.

“You were immersed in it, though,” Twilight said. “I think that makes a difference.”

“Well, plus, this is alive,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, that too. That’s why we can’t use potions, like some magical desiccants or something.”

“Those are expensive,” Colgate said. “They might not have enough here.”

“Also possible.”

Everyone looked at Colgate, who sat back into the wall. “What?”

“Nothin’,” Big Mac said. “You bein’ a secret agent makes these interactions a little more interestin’.”

“Are you on duty here?” Rainbow asked.

“I got no duties,” Colgate said. “Not here, not anywhere.”

“Are you on vacation or something?” Vinyl asked.

“I don’t know. I was, uh, I was in a confusing spot in Canterlot. I don’t remember a lot of it.” Octavia nodded, knowing what Colgate meant, but neither of them divulged more.

“What did you tell ‘em about Tartarus, Cole?” Applejack asked. “Just outta curiosity.”

“I told ‘em some things,” Colgate said. “They were pretty interested in the gateway closing behind us.”

“Did Lotus have an explanation for that?” Twilight asked.

“Actually, she did.” She fell silent for a minute, lost in thought. “Let’s get out of this room.”

“Feeling okay?” Vinyl asked.

Colgate got up and went to the door, and they followed her out, down a tile hall and around a corner, where those that knew her better saw immediately the object of her interest. Before anyone could make a joking comment, Colgate had launched herself into the pool, legs splayed and mane and tail flying out behind her in a perfect picture of released inhibition. The hot tub bubbled cheerfully nearby, but the pool was freezing, and Colgate splashed and tumbled for a moment before reaching the surface, treading water finally with a look of total, dissociative pleasure on her face.

“Me next!” Applejack cried, jumping in after her with a whoop of delight.

“Is it cold?” Fluttershy asked.

“You get over it,” Colgate said, face composed again, and ducked and laughed when Applejack splashed her.

“I will take the hot tub,” Octavia said, and Vinyl joined her and a griffon who obligingly made room for them in the little well of warm water to the side.

“Anyhoo,” Colgate said, flopping halfway up onto the dividing line between pool and hot tub, splashing Octavia a little as she did so, “The gateway. Lotus said it’s ‘cause we accidentally broke the thing holding it open. That big bone tower was like a magical doorstop for the gateway, and since we smashed it, the gateway was able to slam shut behind us.”

“How does that work?” Twilight asked.

“The way she says it, a gateway can be opened from either side, you just need a concentration of the right stuff.”

“Well, that clears that up,” Vinyl said, grinning.

“On Gaia side, magic is scarce.”

“No it ain’t,” Applejack said.

“Compared to Tartarus?” Octavia said. “Yes it is.”

“Right,” Colgate said. “Too much magic in one spot will put a hole in the barrier between us and Tartarus.” She looked at the griffon, who did not look back, but was obviously uncomfortable. After a moment, the griffon got out and slunk away. “That’s why there’s a big ol’ hole in Moondrop now,” she continued in a murmur. “Celestia’s magic. That’s a lot to put in a small space.”

Twilight nodded.

“In Tartarus, it’s the opposite. Lots of magic, not so much order, or technology. You girls remember. Down there, we didn’t see many tools or things. Their buildings all looked crappy and amateur-ish.”

“The ramps on the canyon walls spring to mind,” Octavia said.

“Yep. That big bone tower, on the other hoof, was apparently a pretty intricate design.”

“Sure was,” Applejack said, nodding appreciatively. “Ah don’t mean to be morbid, but it was quite a sight. In a way, it was beautiful.”

“You, morbid,” Vinyl said with a chuckle. “Now I’ve heard it all.”

“Now that I think about it, that’s where the Snowdrift gateway comes from too, I bet,” Colgate said. “You remember that wire stuff we were standing on?”

Applejack smacked the surface of the water. “Sorry. Ah just got it. All those wires were arranged so tightly, an’ Ah remember ‘em goin’ down fer miles.” She paused. “That’s all it takes to open a gateway? A design bein’ too orderly?”

“On their side, I guess so.”

“Where did the bone tower come from, though?” Fluttershy asked. “The wires, I can understand.”

“You described ‘em as the forest’s roots,” Vinyl said.

“They grew that way,” Colgate said. “Which is why this gateway is so old. Those roots came up and made the gateway, then they grew and became the canyon, then eventually the forest where we found the sphere house.”

“I wish I could see it,” Fluttershy said. “Safely, I mean.”

“I remember someone walking toward the tower when we were in the desert,” Colgate said. “Maybe they were gonna die there and add their bones to the pile. Could be a magical beacon or something, like they couldn’t help being attracted to it.”

“Now yer the morbid one,” Applejack said, and Colgate shrugged.

They looked back at hoofsteps, and the mood subtly changed when they saw the sisters. Aloe and Lotus, both looking hardly more relaxed then when they had come in, stopped at the pool’s edge. “Let’s go. Forestry team should be ready for you, Twilight,” Aloe said.

Reluctantly, Twilight left the spa and went back out into the weakened hail. She grabbed a package of bags for the sawdust and met Aloe’s team at the forest’s edge on the east side of town. In the distance, she could see a spare few others working on isolated trees, those too close to the warehouse. Aloe introduced the team leader, who would take orders from Twilight and relay them to the loggers, the truck drivers, and someone from the lumber yard in the next town over. She gave Twilight a map of the forest that Lotus had drawn up, showing the parts where they would find more dead wood, and when she had gone, a pair of workers showed Twilight how the wood chippers worked.

With thunder crackling in the distance and three magical shields over their heads to protect against lightning, they started into the vast pine forest outside Snowdrift. Safe from the hail, but never the cold, Twilight restlessly walked between logging teams to keep her blood flowing, though they did not need much help. Professionals, and not interested in Twilight’s designs or her need for so much sawdust, they were happy to go to work on whichever spot Twilight pointed them to. She had no one to talk to when not giving directions, and could only go over her checklist so many times before she was bored, yet she did not feel she could leave them so early in the project. She was their manager, she thought, and it did not speak well of her to abandon the site. In time, it would be a sign of faith in her workers, but so soon, it would just indicate disinterest. She sighed and tried to look attentive to the small group of ponies stacking branches and logs onto palettes, which were slowly being dragged by magic or muscle to the forest’s edge, where the wood chippers buzzed like cicadas.

By hour two, they had cleared the area of its dead wood, and Twilight, more interested in getting done quickly, gave permission for them to cut the living trees as well, rather than move the operation to another spot.

At a safe distance, she watched the first mighty cedar fall before its time. Chainsaws snarled and workers bantered, clapboard palettes slapped, and the forest creaked and crashed. In her time, Twilight had seen buildings collapse, and she was surprised at how much the falling tree reminded her of it; the branches rising briefly in free fall, the explosion of needles and mud, the twang of chains. She watched how the workers cleared debris, how they efficiently removed branches and sectioned tree trunks into workable sizes, reducing the forest before her eyes. Knowing what they were doing, she could faintly imagine her friends’ objections, and the objections of her past self with them.

“Why are we taking time to clear out all this brush?” Twilight asked a nearby worker, who leaned in and tapped his ear at her. Chainsaw deaf, Twilight realized, and repeated herself.

“Gotta clear this stuff,” was his response. “All this, you see? It dries out in the summertime, and we can have forest fires.”

She nodded. “Continue, then.”