“How’d it go? How’d it go?” Pinkie asked, bouncing on the bed beside Dr. Whooves, who only looked at them pensively.

“Huge waste of time,” Vinyl said.

“They seemed to already know everything about us, and where we’ve been. I think they just wanted to show it off,” Twilight said, sitting heavily on the other bed.

“What did they know?” Fluttershy asked.

“They know about Applejack, which didn’t surprise me, but they also know about Applewood. Rather, that we were there for the dam incident.”

“I got the impression they weren’t clear on what happened,” Rarity said.

“I as well,” Octavia said. “Fortunately, it does not matter. Princess Luna should be arriving tomorrow.”

“Thank Celestia,” Rainbow said.

“I think we are all ready to put this city behind us.”

“I’m not!” Pinkie said.

“I’m more than ready,” Vinyl said. “Never want to be in the same room as those ponies again.”

“Were they that bad?” Big Mac asked.

“I’d say so,” Twilight said. “Every time I said something, I felt like I was just digging myself deeper into some kind of hole.”

“Did better than I would’ve,” Vinyl said. She looked at Whooves. “Okay, doc? Sure are quiet.”

“Oh, hm, hm, it’s nothing,” Whooves said, twirling a hoof. “Just soaking in the conversation, so to speak.”

“Do we know when and where we are to meet the princess tomorrow?” Octavia asked.

“Oh, no, I don’t think so,” Twilight said. “I’ll send her a letter.”

“We should probably meet her out… well, out there,” Fluttershy said.

“In the desert, you mean?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, there.”

“You know, it didn’t occur to me until recently, but it would be really easy to follow us out there,” Twilight said, hunting for a quill.

“Always encouraging to hear,” Whooves said.

“I mean, realistically, though.” She sat down and started on her letter. “We should probably start watching our backs. I don’t like these Mansels, and I don’t think they liked me very much either.”

“Psh, so what? We’re the Elements of Harmony,” Rainbow said. “What’re they gonna do?”

“They can’t harm us, sure, but there’s other things.”

“You’re suggesting us four be more careful,” Vinyl said.

“Ya think they might try to hurt us?” Big Mac asked.

“If they thought they could use you as leverage against us, maybe,” Twilight said.

“You are assuming that they want to stop us or hurt us because of this one meeting,” Octavia said. “It did not go great, yes, but there is no reason that they should assume any direct antagonism.”

“I just want to cover all my bases.”

“Can’t blame you for getting into the habit,” Vinyl said. “Is there anything we can do?”

“Anything that needs doin’?” Big Mac asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Twilight said, quill tip between her teeth. “This is about as good as it’s going to get for us, I think. Let’s try to get a good night’s sleep though. I want to set out pretty much as soon as we get Applejack back, if possible.”

Big Mac woke up on the floor and sat up. Pinkie and Rainbow shared the bed beside him, the sounds of their breathing the only noise inside the room. He had woken from a dream, but it faded away before he could think straight. The fact that it had happened at all piqued his curiosity; he was ordinarily a heavy sleeper.

After a minute of quiet sitting, measuring time by Pinkie’s breaths, he recognized what he felt. Since arriving in Roan, he had felt only slight impulsions to action, but had not given them any thought; his deceased sister took full priority, although he knew he could do little to help bring her back.

He rested his head against the table leg and let the feeling unfurl in his mind and quicken in his heart. They were never strong, but he had learned to recognize them all the same, the works of Vanilla’s glamour, meant to impel him into acting to befriend the Elements and endear himself to them. He could not remember feeling so before he was aware of the glamour, though he could point to specific times when it must have been at work in him; cognizance had truly made all the difference.

At first, he thought that it was important that he clear his mind of his own biases, but it was not so. He simply sat, eyes closed but wide awake, thinking of nothing in particular, knowing that the idea that was not his would not lose potency with time.

When he got up, his course of action was clear, and he left the room, grabbing the key for the other one. He needed specific ponies, but, for what, he was not sure. He did know that he was one of them.

In the other room, he found Vinyl and Fluttershy sharing a bed, and woke them both. It was not as difficult as he had expected to get them to follow him. He looked around, frowning, and found Whooves at the foot of the bed. He nudged him awake, and he started up with a small yelp that made Twilight, nearby, stir and mumble in her sleep. Awake, he allowed Big Mac to lead him out into the corridor with the others.

Outside, Vinyl tapped him on the shoulder. “What’s up, Big Mac? Is something wrong?”

“Ah don’t think so. This is one of those…” He shrugged and twirled his hoof in the air, and Fluttershy nodded.

“I’m not following.”

“It’s his glamour,” Fluttershy said. “What’s going on? What’s it saying?”

“Old chap, you’d better have a good reason for rousing me from my beauty sleep,” Whooves said. “Although perhaps I owe you a debt of gratitude instead. You saved me from a truly perilous dream.”

“Let’s do this elsewhere,” Vinyl said. “Outside okay?”

They went to the bottom floor and out to the hotel courtyard, where they sat at the small, marble fountain. Goldfish moved lazily beneath the surface.

“Ah’m not sure why Ah wanted to get us all together, but Ah know it’s us four,” Big Mac said.

“And it couldn’t want ‘til tomorrow?” Vinyl asked.

He shook his head. “Mm, nope. That idea feels real bad to me.”

“So what’s the story?” Whooves asked. “What’s so special about us?” He looked at them. “Only one is an Element of Harmony, so it’s nothing to do with that.”

“You’re sure you can’t tell anything else?” Fluttershy asked, ruffling her wings. “It’s cold out here.”

“Right here, my dear,” Whooves said, scooting closer to her.

“Ah don’t think we have to do anythin’,” Big Mac said, trying as he spoke to focus on the vague idea stuck in his head. He felt calmer that the four of them were together, as if he had accomplished an important step, but nothing concrete manifested to him.

“Commonalities,” Whooves said. “What do we have in common?”

“Two stallions, two mares,” Vinyl said. “Two of us are close to Applejack, two not so much. May be something there.”

“If we’re not doing anything, then why are we together?” Fluttershy asked. “Are we here to see something? Is—oh, Big Mac, please tell me something bad isn’t about to happen.”

“Ah doubt it,” Big Mac said, internally wondering the same thing.

“Mayhap it’s like a puzzle,” Whooves said slowly, hoof to his chin in a thoughtful pose. “We each hold a piece of something, and it’s our jobs to put it together. Why does this need to be tonight? Don’t misrepresent me, I’m not cross for being awoken at such a time, but I have to wonder about the urgency at play here.”

“Ah woke up with this thought, and, as Ah said, waitin’ ‘til tomorrow seems like a right terrible idea to me. That’s as much proof as Ah need.”

“I like doc’s idea,” Vinyl said. “What do we have that needs put together?”

“Information,” Fluttershy said. “That would make sense, right?”

“Perfectly,” Whooves said. “I’m sure it’s not concerning the location of an Element of Harmony.”

“I wouldn’t keep something like that secret. I’ve been sweeping the city every morning and every evening.”

“Ah’m glad someone does it,” Big Mac said. “As fer me, Ah don’t know what Ah’ve got. Ah am a part of it, though. Ah’m more’n the pony that gets you three together.”

“Information about the Mansels?” Whooves offered.

“Doubt it,” Vinyl said. “What about the city? Maybe there’s an unknown threat.”

“Octavia would be better for that than me,” Fluttershy said. “She’s been here before.”

“It has to be something we share,” Whooves said. “Some well of knowledge or experience, something shared by us four and no one else.”

“We’ve been left back at the hotels each time Twilight went out to… deal with the body,” Vinyl said.

“Not me,” Fluttershy said. “I was there when she was buried.”

“So that’s out,” Whooves said. He looked at the sky and dangled his hoof in the water. “My, that is cold, isn’t it?”

“Winter’s approaching. Vanilla told us that yesterday.”

“Maybe it has to do with him,” Big Mac said.

“Still haven’t met this guy,” Vinyl said. “Kind of looking forward to it.”

“He never deals with us one-on-one, from what I’ve heard,” Whooves said. “Anything concerning him would involve the whole crew, would it not?”

“I think so,” Fluttershy said. “What about Applewood, though? He told us we should be looking back at the battle.”

“That happened to everyone too,” Big Mac said. “We were all involved.”

“We saw the conclusion,” Vinyl said. “That’s something.”

“Mm, maybe.” The feeling in his head was unchanging, something he hated. In his experience, he never knew when he was on the right track, only when something needed to be done or was completed.

“So did Rarity and Rainbow, though,” Fluttershy said. “And Pinkie, I suppose.”

“Pinkie,” Whooves said.

“We are all clear on what happened, right?” Vinyl asked.

“You mean her standing by while we lost everything?” Fluttershy asked.

“Er, yeah.”

“Ah didn’t see it, but Ah was there,” Big Mac said. “Ah heard her say she couldn’t help.”

“I as well,” Whooves said. “Is that it?”

“Twilight was passed out, so was Octavia,” Vinyl said. “Rarity and Dash were elsewhere, and Applejack was right up next to it. Yeah, we were the only ones who saw.”

“We’re the only ones who know what she did,” Fluttershy said, nodding. “Well, except Pinkie, herself, of course.”

“You felt no urges to invite her?” Whooves asked.

“Nope,” Big Mac said. “She don’t feel important to me. Erm, not like that, but important to this conversation.”

“Curious.”

“Of course,” Fluttershy said. “I get it.”

“Share, my dear!”

“Um, can you not do that right in my ear?”

“Oh, sorry.”

Fluttershy frowned for a moment, ordering her thoughts. “We four know what Pinkie did—what she didn’t do, I should say. Only us four. It’s serious enough that, if word got to the others, some of us might not be able to accept her as a friend anymore, which means the Elements would be fractured.”

“So if Big Mac didn’t feel the need to include Pinkie in this,” Vinyl said, “then can we assume that we don’t have to worry about her spilling those beans herself?”

“That sounds right to me,” Big Mac said.

“But what to do about it?” Whooves asked. “Talk to her about it?”

“No, bad idea,” Vinyl said. “She’d hate that.”

“Rightly so,” Fluttershy said.

Vinyl looked at her, horn alight with silver. She lifted her goggles and rested them on her horn, only opening her eyes after its glow had faded.

“Strong opinions incoming?” Whooves asked.

“She let us die,” Fluttershy said. “Metaphorically speaking, she stood by and let us get defeated. There was nothing left to give, except what she had, and she pretended not to have it.”

“Is it possible she wasn’t pretending? I haven’t been with you as long, I know, but—”

“In the first couple months of this adventure, Pinkie’s magic was what helped to put back all the pieces of land that were shoved apart. It had to be helped a little, but she had all that potential. We’ve seen it there, and we saw some of it the first night as well.”

“She could have at least done more than nothin’,” Big Mac added.

“So she let us die, and she also let a lot of Applewood die too.” Fluttershy sighed. “I’m amazed she can still show her face around us.”

“Have to assume she doesn’t recognize the severity,” Vinyl said.

“How could she not?” Whooves asked. “Seems pretty cut-and-dry to me.”

“But what do we do?” Big Mac asked.

“I know what I’d like to do,” Fluttershy said.

“What’s that?”

“Well… I shouldn’t say. It’s very unkind.”

He nodded. “Ah feel similar.”

“I can tell you, if the others find out about this, it’s gonna be Tartarus,” Vinyl said. “Octavia’ll flip her lid, and so will Twilight. Probably in that order.”

“She’s turning into quite the formidable mare,” Whooves said.

“We all know you’re scared of her now,” Vinyl said, playfully nudging him.

“She is, though,” Fluttershy said. “And you’re right. Those two alone would run her out of town. I’m not so sure about the others. Rarity might, and Rainbow… well, she’s the Element of Loyalty. Which side would she be loyal to?”

“This is startin’ to make sense now,” Big Mac said. “We need to keep this information away from the others.”

“You’re proposing we all keep mum about this and pretend nothing happened, for the sake of keeping the Elements together,” Whooves asked.

He smiled a little. “Eeyup.”

“No way, no how,” Vinyl said. “Terrible idea.”

“One of us will want a juicy confrontation,” Whooves said. “Plus, who’s to say it would be all bad? Maybe a bit of clarity is just what this needs. We can shock her into an apology, I’d wager.”

“An apology wouldn’t be enough,” Fluttershy said.

“What would be?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Maybe nothing,” Vinyl said.

“Yeah, maybe nothing,” Fluttershy said.

“Seems to me that Fluttershy’s the only one this is important fer,” Big Mac said. “She’s the only Element. Us three can go off an’ fergive her or not, it don’t matter, ‘cause we won’t be givin’ our energy at the very end.”

“I thought that was the whole reason you joined us,” Fluttershy said.

“Beg pardon?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be here to try to get us to add an Element to you, to buy Discord time?”

He chewed his lip and looked at himself in the fountain’s reflection. “Ah didn’t know Octavia told you ‘bout all that.”

“Um… oh, well, no, she didn’t. I thought of that on my own.”

“Brava, Miss Shy!” Whooves cried, patting her on the back. His hoof remained where it was as he continued. “A truly astonishing feat of analytical thinking, wot?”

“That’s enough,” Big Mac said calmly. “Yes, that is my purpose. Ah ‘pologize, Ah’d rather not talk ‘bout it.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” Vinyl said, and he gave her a flat look.

“Back to the matter, then,” Whooves said.

“Fluttershy’s the only one who needs to forgive Pinkie. Us three just need to keep quiet, which we can do. Doc?”

“Me?”

“You got the biggest mouth outta all of us,” Big Mac said. “Can you keep this secret?”

“It does affect the core of our friendship,” Fluttershy said.

“Well, when you put it that way, my dear, I suppose I’ve no choice,” Whooves said.

“And we don’t mention it to her either,” Vinyl said. “Unless she approaches us about it first.”

“That might be hard,” Fluttershy said.

“You can do it,” Whooves said.

She moved away, getting his hoof off her back. “I’m actually not sure if I can.”

“Why ever not?”

“You’re running out of patience,” Vinyl said.

“Yes, that’s a good way of putting it,” Fluttershy said. “Pinkie also has access to the Element-finding spell that I use every day, and she hasn’t touched it since getting it. She claims to have her Pinkie Sense, but none of us have seen her use it in forever. Even before this, she almost never helped in any meaningful way.” She shuddered. “I hate this. Please, this needs to be confidential.”

“Of course,” Big Mac said.

“At this point—and I’ve thought this for a little while—she’s basically just a warm body to convey the Element.”

Whooves whistled. “Ouch. Now that’s—”

“Again, I hate that I feel that way. I used to think of her as a best friend, but now…” She shook her head. “That’s what I mean when I say I hate this.”

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game?” Whooves offered.

“I at least respect Discord. He’s terrible in his way, but he has a goal, and he’s a worthy opponent. Pinkie’s become… well, just a waste.”

“That’s how you see her?” Vinyl asked.

Fluttershy’s voice was small. “Basically.”

Big Mac nodded. “Ah can understand that easily enough. Ah’m not sure if Ah share yer opinion, but Ah get it, as far as Ah can.”

“But, again, what to do about it?” Vinyl asked. “My understanding is you can’t win like this. You need to be in, well, harmony, right?”

“The Elements don’t work if there’s a buried grudge in the mix,” Whooves said.

“That’s right,” Fluttershy said. “So how to fix this? I don’t know.”

“What could Pinkie do to earn your forgiveness?” Vinyl asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Well, think about it.”

“The fate of the country hangs in the balance,” Whooves said.

“Thanks for the melodrama, doc.”

“She’d need to save us from something,” Fluttershy said. “Actively, not with a warning or premonition. She’d need to pull us out of a situation. Unasked.”

“Much as I fear to open myself to ridicule, I must ask: can we simply invent something like that?” Whooves asked.

“Only if I don’t know about it,” Fluttershy said. “But if we’re at that point, we might as well alter my memory. That would be safer, at least.”

“That’s possible?” Vinyl asked.

“Sure.” She glanced at the row of dead windows on the hotel’s upper floors. "Let’s keep that as a failsafe. In case we get to the end, and I still haven’t forgiven Pinkie, we can wipe my memory.”

“Miss Vinyl, the honor is yours,” Whooves said. “Unless Miss Shy can wipe her own memory?”

“I’d guess that’s dangerous,” Vinyl said. “Even more dangerous than leaving it up to an amateur like me.”

“Ah don’t like it at all,” Big Mac said. “But Ah realize it’s the best we got.”

“Again, a failsafe,” Fluttershy said. “I’m going to try to forgive her on my own.”

“You are the Element of Kindness,” Whooves said softly. “So you’d be the most qualified one to do it.”

“Kindness and moral decency don’t always guarantee each other. I’ve been learning that a lot lately.”

“Suppose we all have,” Vinyl said.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Big Mac asked.

“Aside from keeping silence on this, nothing that I can think of,” Fluttershy said. “I’ll need to reach that point on my own.”

“It’ll take a while,” Vinyl said.

“It will.”

They looked at one another, Whooves offering an uncomfortable smile all around.

“That was it, by the way,” Big Mac said. “That was the thing we needed to talk ‘bout.”

“I still wonder why it had to be tonight,” Whooves said.

“Luna’s coming tomorrow,” Vinyl said. “I bet she’ll want to ask us what happened to get AJ in such a fix.”

“And if we all didn’t know to keep a unified front, someone would let it out,” Fluttershy said. “That makes sense.”

“And blow up the whole friendship in the process,” Whooves said.

“Which means Pinkie’s not going to reveal it on her own,” Vinyl said. “If Big Mac didn’t feel the need to include her tonight, then she’ll keep quiet without help.”

“No surprises there,” Fluttershy said.

“I sense bitterness,” Whooves said.

“In a way, it’s good,” Vinyl said. “If she’s too ashamed to say anything, it means she knows she did wrong.”

“Quiet,” Big Mac said. “Ah hear someone.”

They all looked around, each one affecting their idea of casualness, but it was only Octavia who slunk into the courtyard. She stopped before them with a slow intake of breath. In the starlight, Big Mac thought he could make out dark patches under her eyes, but her voice betrayed no emotion.

“I did not expect to see anyone out here.”

“We just thought we’d enjoy Luna’s night,” Whooves said, hopping up to greet her. “And what a night it is, if I may say so myself!”

“I as well.” She stepped away from him and trotted past to the lobby doors. “Please, carry on.”

“Good night, Miss Octavia!”

She disappeared into the hotel, and Whooves angled his head to try to watch through a window.

“Never saw someone get spooked so easy,” Vinyl said.

“That’s just our Octavia,” Whooves said. “She’s not the ordinary type. I never noticed how well she wears the darkness, though. That penumbral shade to her mane is—dare I say it in the company of such strong feminine competition?—enchanting at this hour.”

Vinyl laughed, a gusty sound that made Big Mac furrow his brow. “Go to bed, doc.”

“Alone?”

“I’ll be staying up,” Fluttershy said. “I need to think.”

“Ah’ll go back,” Big Mac said. “My business here is done. Yer stayin’, Vinyl?”

“If Fluttershy doesn’t mind,” Vinyl said.

“You don’t need to,” Fluttershy said.

Vinyl shrugged, replaced her goggles, and followed the other two back to their rooms.

A light drizzle cooled their coats and dampened the dust as the nine friends marched into the desert. Roan was graying in the shadow of the coming storm, which had not yet reached its borders. Twilight led them along an empty set of train tracks, paying close attention to her map, which she kept dry in a tiny shield.

The burial site was obvious even from a distance. She had done nothing to disguise the fact that the ground had been recently dug up and replaced. A dark patch of red, muddy soil spread like a bloodstain under loose stones, and there they sat, each with eyes fixed on the northern horizon, where a small, dark shape moved laterally to the approaching storm clouds.

It took thirty minutes for the airship to complete the distance. It landed silently between a pair of large, jagged stones at the foot of a hill, and Princess Luna disembarked first. She was quickly followed by an elderly mare, pastel pink with a thinning mane and large spectacles. She hobbled behind with a smile on her wrinkled face, until she stopped a short distance from the Elements, suddenly unsure.

“This is right?” she asked in a worn voice.

“This is correct,” Luna said. She nodded to Twilight. “You have the body?”

Speechless, Twilight lifted the dirt out of Applejack’s grave. A small headache sent its first barbs behind her eyes as she set it aside and lifted out the casket, brushing it off as best she could with her spare magic.

“Look away, Applejack,” Luna said, and the elderly mare looked at her for a moment before doing so. The princess approached and unlatched the casket without looking at the silent ponies around. It swung open on fresh hinges, revealing Applejack’s bloated, blackened face, and Luna looked at Twilight. “You forgot to lay her on her back.”

“I… we did the best we could,” Twilight whispered. Under Luna’s eyes, tired but not fatigued, she felt defenseless.

Luna’s horn lit softly as magic caressed the corpse. “Other than that, you did fine.”

“She’ll be okay?” Rainbow asked.

“Shortly. The body needs restored, as I knew it would.” She lifted Applejack’s body from the casket and held it before her face. “Where is the blood?”

“Inside,” Twilight said.

Luna looked again inside the casket and pulled out two pouches of dark fluid, as dark as the ground they stood on. “This will be upsetting to watch.” She didn’t look at the Elements as she said it.

After a second, a light blue droplet of magic appeared at the top of Applejack’s chest and pulled downward, leaving behind an incandescent trail of light. Thunder rumbled as the light dissipated, and Luna held the body before her, splayed open from sternum to stomach. Her face devoid of emotion, Luna flashed her horn once, softly, and magic began to dribble out of the body. Glowing globes of blue fire streamed gently out from the hole’s edges, leaving faintly smoking impressions on the ground. Applejack’s shriveled heart and yellowed ribcage resembled a rotten beehive caught in tree branches.

“What are you doing?” Whooves asked at last.

“Removing the embalming fluid,” Luna said. “She can’t return to life with it still inside her.” For a minute more, fire dripped out of Applejack’s chest, and then Luna brought up the bags of blood. She sliced both down their middles and sent the black fluid into the cavity, sides of a delicate helix twining together to vanish into Applejack’s body.

Still without a glance in their direction, Luna drew her magic back up Applejack’s chest, sealing it with neither scar nor singe. She gently placed the body on the ground and motioned the elderly mare, who had been looking away, over. Twilight had been so transfixed by the scene, so appalled at the display of power and gore, that she had not noticed that, as Luna was returning her blood, she had restored much of Applejack’s former vitality at the same time. She looked nearly asleep in the mud.

“Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” the pony said, looking warily at the orange body before her. “You won’t lose me?”

“I promise it. Now close your eyes.”

The pony did, and Luna bowed her head, her horn tip glowing almost white. The transition was fast and invisible, but they all knew when it was complete.

Applejack jerked and opened her eyes, as if returning from a nightmare. She breathed, and all Twilight could look at was the rise and fall of her chest, simultaneously astonished that she was finally alive, and fearfully expecting to see some painful evidence of Luna’s work.

Applejack nearly overbalanced in her haste to get up, her legs jutting awkwardly and forcing a faltering limp toward her friends, none of whom moved, so petrified from the shock. Even with the expectation, seeing Applejack rise to her hooves and approach was enough to make their enthusiasm waver for alarm. Applejack’s eyes squeezed shut, but no tears leaked out, and her voice was a rusty croak. It was obvious to them what she was trying to say.

Applejack shambled down the line, embracing everyone with newborn ferocity. Big Mac cried and held her for a full minute; by the end, Rainbow and Pinkie were crying too, and Vinyl was tearing up, though no one could see it. When she hugged Twilight, Twilight felt the beginnings of pride in her heart. “Luna’s magic, but my work.”

“Drink this,” Luna said, offering her a canteen of water. “You’re dehydrated.”

Applejack drained the canteen, and, after a couple attempts at speech, managed words: “starvin’ too.”

“We can eat on your new ship.” She cast her eyes around the desert and then flashed her horn once. A large airship materialized out of a dark blue mist and settled on the damp dust. Six turbines turned slowly in their compartments at the back of the ship, leaning to one side on a long, elegant shark fin stabilizer.

They boarded and sat on the deck while Luna conjured up plates and food, everyone still speechless.

“It’s nothing fancy.” She placed plates before everyone, Applejack’s with half portions. “You need to ease back into eating, Applejack. You can have a luxurious meal in a few days, but, right now, too much will shock your body.”

“Anythin’s better than nothin’,” Applejack said slowly, grinning at her food.

“As for the rest of you, this is now your ship. Please try to take care of it.”

“How’d you know we’d need one?” Rainbow asked hesitantly.

“I guessed. You tend to go through them.”

They all looked at Applejack, who watched them back openly, her eyes glinting with a small smile.

“So what’s it like to be alive again?” Pinkie asked.

“Ah’ve been alive fer a while now, actually.” She worked her jaw with a queer expression. “Did my teeth always feel this small?”

“You’ll get used to it,” Luna said.

“Anyway, Pinks, Ah couldn’t be happier.” She paused, chewing thoughtfully. “Ya know, Ah think Ah’m startin’ to remember some stuff.”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.

“Even though she was alive, she was confined to the other body,” Luna said. “In such a state, she only had access to her strongest and most recent memories. Different brains.”

“Yeah, Ah’m gettin’ it now,” Applejack said. “Doc, Ah even missed you.”

“Why, I never doubted it for a second, my dear!” Whooves said.

“It’s funny how much stuff Ah fergot, though. Yer parents’ names, Twilight. The name of yer favorite Wonderbolt, Rainbow. Ah guess it was names an’ places, mostly.”

“It’s truly wonderful to have you back,” Fluttershy said.

“Trust me, honey, Ah’m just happy to be done with all this. Ya know, once Ah had a body to call my own, at least fer the time, it was more of a hassle than anythin’ else. Oh, Princess, pass on my thanks to the mare who let me use her body fer a while, would ya?”

“As soon as I bring her back,” Luna said.

“Um… do I want to know what you did?” Twilight asked. “Not to dampen the mood or anything, but… that was all really weird.”

“You’ll sleep more easily if you don’t,” Luna said, and turned to Applejack. “Just as you will sleep better if you don’t ask them what they did to keep you preserved.”

“Yeah, Ah dunno if Ah wanna know ‘bout all that,” Applejack said. “Let’s keep it a mystery fer today, at least.”

“Probably for the best,” Vinyl said.

Applejack nodded to her. “You might be happy to hear that Ah did remember you in that other body. You were important enough fer that.”

Vinyl blushed. “Thanks.”

“Are you feeling better now?” Luna asked.

“Well, you know. Kinda,” Applejack said.

“It will be between two and four days before you’re fully acclimated, I think. You’re going to spend a lot of time in the bathroom.”

“Yeah, Ah can already tell. My guts ain’t too happy right now.” She sniffed the air. “Is that me Ah’m smellin’?”

“It’s really not that bad,” Rarity said quickly. “Considering everything that’s… well, yes, considering. The earthiness is almost tolerable.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t you worry about it!” Pinkie said, sliding over for another hug. “We’re just happy to have you back, stink or no stink!”

“We’re quite desensitized to it by now,” Whooves said. “After all the quality time with Twilight’s chemicals—”

“Whoa, whoa, doc, that’s enough,” Applejack said. “Chemicals?”

“Another time,” Twilight said. “Princess, I can’t thank you enough for this.”

Luna nodded. “I’d be lying if I said it was my pleasure, Twilight.”

“I, uh, did get the feeling you weren’t exactly… happy.”

“I’m substantially less than even that. A lot of it is disgust with Discord and his thrall, Pure Waterfall. A lot, but not all.”

Twilight hung her head.

“I’m not going to reprimand you. You know what happened better than I do, and you know what needs to happen. You’ve known for a long time now.”

“We have,” Fluttershy echoed.

“Moreover, there is no punishment I could realistically mete out that will compare with what you’ve gone through for this moment.”

Twilight gave the princess a smile, which went unreturned. She averted her eyes, wishing consciously that Applejack had come back differently. After all their work, Twilight had expected a joyous reunion, something prompting a spontaneous Pinkie party. She had expected laughing, jumping in the air, cheers and a revivified sense of solidarity.

“I do have some business to discuss with you, though.” She produced a thin scroll. “I received this yesterday. Some of my ponies have located another Element in Trottingham. It seems it’s fallen to someone else; fortunately, it doesn’t appear that that pony knows what it is.”

“How’s that possible?” Rainbow asked.

“The other point is for Twilight and Octavia only.” She fixed them in her strong gaze. “We’ll discuss it later this evening. I’ll find you at your hotel when I’m ready.”

“Will you want us to leave?” Vinyl asked.

“No. We’ll be going elsewhere for this discussion.”

“Who’s got the Element?” Rainbow asked.

“My ponies didn’t give me a name. They only assured me she seems ignorant of what she possesses. I think it’s strange as well, but my sources are trustworthy.”

“You’re sure?” Pinkie asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Oooh, Ah think Ah know why you had me eatin’ so little,” Applejack said, leaning back. “This thing has a bathroom, Ah take it?”

“Downstairs at the end of the hall,” Luna said.

Applejack rushed across the deck, gagging, and everyone watched her. “Couldn’t do anything to help the transition process?” Vinyl asked.

“The magic I used to heal her body is at work now easing her symptoms, but there’s only so much I can do. If you were comfortable letting her sleep for a few days, I could make the process almost painless, but I believe you have places to be. Is it not so?”

“We would like to leave today, yes,” Octavia said. “If that is possible.”

Luna nodded, thinking. “I’m not sure if it is. It depends on how you and Twilight respond to what I tell you later.”

“Is it about the Mansels?” Rainbow asked.

Luna’s serious expression twitched, and a smile appeared and quickly vanished. “You’ve met them?”

“Twilight and them did.”

“Rarity, Octavia, Vinyl, and I,” Twilight said. “We went to their office last night.”

Luna chuckled.

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“I’m not surprised that it happened at all, but that it happened so quickly. What did they want?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight said. “They said they wanted to know what I was doing around a—a mortuary, but then they said they knew about Applejack, so I don’t know what the real reason was. They were asking about Applewood a lot, right before the meeting ended.”

“What happened to Pure Waterfall,” Octavia said. “Princess Luna, Vanilla Cream told us that Pure Waterfall laundered money for the Mansels. Were you aware of this?”

The deck went silent, and Applejack came out of the hatch in the back.

“This is a good place for that tact I mentioned,” Vinyl said. “For the future.”

Luna sighed as Applejack took her seat again. “I did not know that, Octavia.” She thought, looking at Twilight. “That would be why they were so interested in what happened to him. You moved here instantaneously, courtesy of Vanilla—I’m keeping an eye on him, by the way—but other ponies can’t do that. News of his… to put it delicately, involvement with Discord will not have traveled this far yet.”

“Seemed to think we were responsible somehow,” Vinyl said.

“Well, we were, weren’t we?” Whooves asked.

“Indirectly,” Twilight said. “We were there, but we didn’t kill him.”

“Is it true that they’re dangerous ponies to cross?” Rarity asked.

“Not for you,” Luna said. “Being the Elements of Harmony gives you a certain amount of immunity. Now, friends of the Elements are another story.” She nodded to the other four. “In your cases, yes, the Mansel family can be dangerous. They have a wide range of influence, and a lot of powerful friends.”

“How wide?” Octavia asked.

“They have connections all across the country.” She held up a hoof. “I can’t say more.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Applejack said. “Soon as we’re outta here, it’s off to good ol’ Trottingham. Hey, did they say which Element it is?”

“It doesn’t say,” Rarity said, reading the note Luna had given them. “Although, that does remind me of something. Applejack, dear, look at your chest.”

Applejack looked down, where the Element of Honesty still hung, dirty and tarnished, but unharmed. “Well Ah’ll be! If that ain’t the nicest ‘welcome back’ gift Ah’ve ever received, then Ah don’t know what is!”

“I really am glad you’re feeling better,” Rarity said.

“Ah got a wicked stomach ache, my heart’s not quite right, an’ Ah feel like a stranger in my own body, but Ah feel better’n ever.” She sobered. “Ah thank each an’ every one of you fer what you did, makin’ this possible.”

Colgate lounged on the bed, one eye on the TV and one eye on Rouge. She had taken her final three pills at once hours ago, and sat on top of the sheets with an angry expression she didn’t try to conceal. She felt affronted wherever she looked, as if every single object or aspect in the hotel room had taken up a grudge against her. The knowledge that she felt so, and was powerless to temper it, blighted her mood further. She wanted to cry out, but had nothing articulate to say.

Rouge hauled out a makeshift set of saddlebags, fashioned from one of their sheets and a twisted coat hanger. It draped over her sides like soaked wings, clanking gently as she dragged it across the floor.

“Not bad, huh?”

Colgate didn’t respond. Among the many things that offended her, Rouge’s calm was among the worst. While she could feel every passing minute without her painkillers, Rouge seemed to feel no worse the longer she spent sober. They had agreed that they would return to the house and collect everything they could as soon as the police let up a little, but, until then, it was a dry spell.

“Yo, Cole? You still with me?”

“It’s fine,” Colgate said, not looking at her. “A very fine saddlebag indeed, Rouge, very fine.”

“Okay, okay,” Rouge said, wriggling out of her drapery. “Wanna swim real quick before we head out? We have about an hour and a half before we have to catch our train.”

“Sure. Fine.” The newspony once again pulled up Colgate’s face and explained that she was still at large, and still dangerous. “What a bunch of crap,” Colgate said, her heart quickening. As soon as she was on her hooves, she staggered, and threw a hoof out to catch herself on the wall.

“You all right?”

Her mind flew in two directions: one, screaming “poison,” the other calling “heart attack.” She groped for the nightstand.

“What’s up, Cole?”

“My damn heart, you boob!” She sunk to the floor, clutching one hoof to her chest while the other pressed and tilted the nightstand. “Celestia, I think I’m dying.”

“You look fine. Can you breathe?”

“Of course I can breathe. Of course… okay, it’s passing.” She frowned and spat on the carpet.

“Withdrawal?”

“I haven’t had enough to experience that,” Colgate said quietly.

“I saw you suck down like a dozen today, Cole.” Her eyes wandered across the far wall. “Not that I’m complaining or anything.”

Colgate shook her head and pushed herself up. “I’m fine, now. See, this is why I need to keep my prescriptions up. One mistake, and I could end up facedown on the carpet, with you just standing there, grinning.”

“Cole, c’mon, let’s just swim.”

Colgate whirled on her, and Rouge took a step back. “Just like you. Just like you!”

“What? Cole, c’mon!”

“I almost died just now, and all you can think about is swimming!” Her voice sounded rough and alien in her ears, compressed by the hotel room’s close quarters. All the irritation and anger from earlier seemed compressed as well, a marble of ugliness that had somehow managed to roll up and pin her under its weight.

“You did not almost die. It was probably a gas pain or something.”

“You can’t tell me what it wasn’t, you cur! You, you stupid, uncivilized…” She advanced, her eyes wide and wild, her heart pounding in her ears, and Rouge backed into the wall.

“Cole, buddy, I’m warning you.”

“Nopony warns me,” Colgate snapped. She turned and delivered a kick to the bedside lamp, shattering it on its table and across the wall. In the suddenly dim room, Rouge looked like a wax figure to Colgate, who grabbed the lampshade in her magic and made to slap it into Rouge’s face.

Rouge ducked the blow and popped up, standing momentarily on her back legs to strike Colgate in the throat. The lampshade dropped as Colgate coughed and stumbled back, and Rouge flipped open the makeshift saddlebags to pull out one of the pulse crystals Colgate had stolen.

It attached easily to her hoof, its magical straps hugging her flesh gently but firmly, so that she was able to point the dark blue crystal directly at Colgate’s upturned, expressionless face.

“I forfeit,” Colgate said.

“Cole, are we gonna have a problem? I don’t wanna report you to the Pants, but I might have to if you try that again.”

Colgate stood up, looked at the pulse crystal around Rouge’s hoof, then at the one in the saddlebag. “I’m fine. I got a little heated there.”

“Uh, a little? Hey, Cole, ponies don’t just attack each other out of nowhere.”

“I’m sorry, Rouge.”

“Huh.”

“Lower that crystal.”

Rouge, balanced easily on three legs, relaxed, but did not lower her weapon. “We’ve gotta get out of here for that mission.”

“And we’ll leave the crystals here.”

Rouge thought. Though she didn’t show it, her own thinking was muddied as well. She had gone too long without a drink. “How will I know if I can?”

“Look at me,” Colgate said, coughing for effect. “I’m a unicorn, and you still put me down with a single blow. You don’t even need that thing.”

Rouge smiled a little.

“You’ve got years and years on me, you could probably kick my butt with a blindfold.” She turned her other side to Rouge. “I’m better now, so let’s just calm down. We can take that dip, if you’d like.”

“Why are you the way you are?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means what’s up with the mood swings, you noodle-head,” Rouge said, throwing the crystal back into the bag with its twin. Colgate’s eyes never left her face as she did it.

“Maybe you’re right about withdrawal. I’m irritable, and I apologize.”

Rouge stood beside the saddlebag, her eyes sharp in the darkness. Colgate’s, meanwhile, had lost their spark.

“Pool?”

A smile seeped out from between Rouge’s lips, and she hated herself that she couldn’t control it. The two trotted out of their room to the tiny hotel pool.

The Canterlot Express clattered along at a leisurely fifteen miles per hour, taking Rouge and Colgate slowly out of suburban Canterlot and into the wilderness beyond. The train was ultimately bound for Appleloosa, carrying its cargo, mostly lumber, over thousands of miles of grassy plain, dusty plateau, and countless reinforced bridges. In the past months, Canterlot had partnered with Fillydelphia, managed strictly by the mayor’s former assistant, Lowercase, to resurrect the major arteries of cross-country trade. Nearly half a year after The Crumbling, major trade routes were returning alongside the smaller rail systems of public transit. Of these, the Canterlot-Appleloosa route was among the most important, and the second to be completed, after the Canterlot-Manehattan expressway.

Colgate read a magazine, perfectly at ease, while Rouge stared past her reflection at the thinning city outside. Canterlot was built like a dollop of ice cream, with most of the infrastructure and population inside the central ninety percent, within five or ten miles of the mountain. After that point, there was a clean, noticeable division between the city and the outskirts. Trees began to overtake sidewalks, traffic lights vanished in place of stop signs, and the roads were suddenly left neglected. Houses shrunk and yards grew, and carriages disappeared entirely. No one was willing to pull a carriage all the way out of the city, and so the only ponies to be seen in transit were either the parallel travelers by train, their faces wan ovoids in windows just like Rouge’s, or the odd car driver. With so few intra-city gaps healed over, and so few bridges save for use by trains, Rouge could not imagine where the drivers were going.

If she angled her head, she could see the approaching city limits, the point at which the last house’s yard gave way to trackless, beautiful wilderness. A small ridge of mountains stood just in sight, their lower peaks obscured by yellowing trees. Their destination would be past those trees, deep in an abandoned, fallow farm.

Watchpoint sixteen was built into a decaying house, disguised as the structure’s chimney. There were fifty-one such Datura locations around Canterlot, some within sight of the city limits, some as far out as sixty miles, and each one laden with passive enchantments. Rouge had never visited any of the Canterlot ones, but knew the sorts of magic they used from her work outside Applewood. From any watchpoint, one could magically see all of the others, and teleport to any one as well. A pony could detect a spell from over a hundred miles away and could also watch the socialites mingle in the palace courtyard.

Rouge had explained this to Colgate as they were first departing, trying, as she did, to not picture her partner as she had been an hour before.

“How much longer, you think?” Colgate asked.

“I think we pick up speed once we’re out of the city, so probably forty minutes or so,” Rouge said. She didn’t move her head, but could see Colgate through the window’s reflection.

“And it’s Grass Graves, right?”

“That’s right.”

Grass Graves, their stop, was the name given to a small, semi-functional vacation spot built into the husk of a ghost town, its only fixed population consisting of the ponies who ran the ramshackle hotel and gift shop.

“Can’t wait,” Colgate said.

Rouge watched one color of tree give way to another as the last tattered edges of the city faded behind. Distantly, she could see the golden splinter of a wheat field, which she knew would eventually overtake the grass and shrubbery that accompanied their train so close to Canterlot.

“I’m sorry if I came across poorly today,” Colgate said.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Rouge said, meaning it.

“I didn’t mean to let my emotions get out of control. You know that.”

“Of course.” She looked away from the window to face her friend. “We all have our days, Cole. You mind if I call you that?”

“Sure, why not?”

“No, it’s just the last couple times I’ve called you that, you seem to get kinda irritated.”

Colgate thought, her magazine still propped up against a hoof. “Not my intention. No, Cole’s fine. I kind of like it.”

Rouge nodded, relief trickling into her. “Good.”

Colgate didn’t smile, but, in her eyes, Rouge could see contrition. Though she had not known her long, she had quickly learned to read Colgate’s variations of inexpressiveness.

“So, if you don’t mind, what is going on?”

“With the pills.”

“Yeah, and maybe beyond that too. You’ve been kinda kooky since the start, Cole.”

Colgate closed the magazine. “I consider you my best friend.”

“Yeah. Uh, I mean, I know. I think.”

“I have a short temper.” She shrugged. “Simple as that. Even as a filly, I had trouble with it.”

“That’s why they had you on crazy pills when we met.”

“Exactly. I’m not sure what triggers me, if there’s even any consistency in it.”

“And the pills?”

“They keep me calm. Painkillers are great for dulling the senses, and that helps a lot.”

Rouge smiled. “I wish I was like you, Cole.”

“Why?”

She glanced out the window. “You make being honest look so easy. If it was me in the hot seat, I’d just make something up.”

Colgate smiled back. “So what would you make up if I asked why you drink so much?”

Rouge winked. “A lady never tells.”

“You’re no lady, Rouge.” They both laughed.

Someone knocked on their door, and Colgate magically slid it open. The pony with the trolley smiled cordially. “Can I get you anything?”

Rouge’s eyes glinted as she saw the samples of liquor on the trolley’s bottom shelf.

They were the only ponies to get off at Grass Graves, doing so with a string of strange looks trailing behind them. With one clearly improvised bag between the two, and Rouge visibly tipsy, they made a strange picture to the other travelers.

The train rumbled into the night, and the two mares stood awkwardly under a canvass awning, bathed in amber light. A quartet of flickering torches indicated the path down from their platform and to the ruined village of Grass Graves, many of its buildings partially overtaken with grass and weeds.

Rouge sat heavily on a wooden bench and looked uncertainly at the ghost town. Between them and it, a green-gray expanse of grass clung to a smoothly steep slope. One torch wavered in the distance, and Colgate thought she could see the suggestion of another in a window.

She searched their bag and pulled out the horn-drawn map. Watchpoint sixteen was past Grass Graves, three miles north and across an overgrown field. Fancy Pants had wanted them there that night, but, looking at Rouge, she wasn’t sure whether they would make it.

“C’mon,” she said, prodding her pale partner. “Let’s go.” Uncertainly, she added, “We’re Daturas, not tourists.”

Rouge got to her hooves and moved toward the four torches. “Sure, right. Real professional-like, I gotcha. You got the map?”

“Right here.”

“Cool. You lead the way. I think let’s just pass right through here, as the crow flies, you know?”

Colgate began their descent, stepping carefully on tilting, wooden stairs that soon became almost too dark to see as they put the torches behind them. Grass swooped over to hide the stairs’ edges, and sometimes, they stumbled on a loose step. Crickets sang all around, and their train whistled in the far distance.

“Canterlot looks so big,” Rouge said. “Look, Cole.” She laughed. “It’s kinda awesome.”

Colgate looked obligingly, not caring about the view. Lower Canterlot, their home, was a flat line of light, neither grand nor interesting, serving only to brighten the opalescent veins of streetlights that covered the mountain and coalesced at the artificial promontory on which was built the seat of the royalty. Canterlot Palace appeared as a flawless, white toy castle on its clamshell above the rest of the city. Far off to one side, Colgate could see the dim bubble of light that was Ponyville.

“Mad awesome,” Rouge repeated, grabbing a blade of grass and chewing it.

Colgate said nothing as she continued down the stairs, thinking. Her apology to Rouge had felt genuine, but her explanation for herself had been a lie. Of the two, only the apology bothered her.

“But Rouge is a friend, as I know, and friends don’t take advantage of other friends. She wouldn’t try anything with me, because we care about each other.” She slowed slightly as her muscles contracted and chills swept over her. She was sweating in the crisp evening, and, though her skin felt cold, she felt too hot inside. Her head throbbed, and her tail and flanks felt tense.

“That doesn’t stop her from making mistakes, though, like sending me to that hospital. She’s a friend, but she’s also stupid and easily misguided. Remember that, Cole.” She thought of the pair of pulse crystals in their bag, left at the hotel, and wondered again whether she might want to start sleeping with one when they got back. Ever since leaving home, her enemy’s identity had seemed more and more insubstantial to her. Perhaps the identity is shifting, she had thought earlier. It seemed possible.

“Cole, what do you say to spending the night here and getting a fresh start tomorrow?” Rouge asked. “I’m not feeling too hot. I think I drank too much.”

“You sound fine.”

“I can hold my booze, good buddy. Still, I’m not feeling great.”

Their path evened out as they stepped onto a packed dirt road. The only buildings in sight were overgrown with cat-claw and morning glory, one with a collapsed roof and the other with a porch banister that leaned into the yard as if punched out long ago. Chipped paint exposed dry wood in walls, porch steps, and a broken down cart in the grass beside a well. One wheel lay on its side, a tomato plant growing through its spokes, like a period to the sentence of neglect and decay before them.

“Where’s that damn hotel?” Rouge grumbled, pushing sprigs of grass out of her way as she walked on one side down the hoofpath.

Colgate followed her, taking in the scene with disinterest. To her, the buildings did not mean anything, did not suggest that ponies had once attempted to live where they walked. It was a fact of history only, a quirk in the region’s geology, something to be navigated and left behind. She did not pause, as Rouge did, to look closer at the preserved architecture that became prevalent as they moved closer to the hotel.

One thing she did notice, and knew that Rouge did not, was the dim shadow of an equine head thrown against a bare patch of ground beside a darkened general store.

“One thing I forgot to tell you earlier,” Luna said, dropping the bellhop disguise in their room, but keeping the false voice, “is to stop worrying so much about bringing pieces of land together. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the south is in a less dire position than the north?”

“Fewer gaps, bigger slabs, and all that,” Whooves said. “Noticed, yes, but not thought much about.”

“Speak for yourself, dear,” Rarity said.

“There are ponies in this region who are actively working on restoring the countryside. Snowdrift and Roan are already mostly or completely whole.”

“Is that because of your ponies?” Octavia asked. “These unnamed ponies that seem to belong to you?”

“The same ones who found this next Element,” Rarity said.

“Yes, they are the same. Rather, they belong to the same class of ponies. I employ many of them around the world.”

“Equestria, you mean?” Vinyl asked.

“I mean the world.”

“So focus on finding the last Elements,” Pinkie said. She was giving Applejack a back massage. “Can do, Princess!”

“Pinkie, not in my ear,” Applejack said.

“How quaint,” Whooves said. “I was admonished for the selfsame transgression not twenty-four—”

“Shut up,” Big Mac said patiently.

“Er, yes, quite.”

Luna looked at Twilight, then Octavia. “Ready? I’ll teleport us there.”

“I’m ready,” Twilight said. “What is it, anyway?”

Luna’s horn glowed, and Twilight closed her eyes as she was sucked away from the hotel. The sensation did not even make her waver, and she stepped out of the spell as easily as leaving their airship, though Octavia needed a moment to collect herself.

“Maybe this place is familiar to you, Octavia?”

“Vaguely. It reminds me of the route to the Mansels’ office,” Octavia said.

“It’s not far off, but no, this is where you were shown Twilight’s angel.”

“My what?” Twilight blurted.

“That horrible airship in the mountains,” Octavia said.

They walked through a granite slab of a door, into a narrow corridor, and then through another stone door to a busy vault. Ponies moved across the floor in droves, up steps to doorways that lined the room all the way to its unseen terminus, all of them speaking, many with one another or to glowing balls of light on their horns. Luna parted the crowd without a glance in either direction, and Twilight noticed, while they moved politely aside, no ponies bowed to her.

She took them down a set of stairs to a door with a simple 109 carved on its face.

“What in the world is all this?” Twilight asked.

“These are some of the ponies in my employ,” Luna said, taking them down the thinner hallway. Twilight could just make out a tall, seedlike shape at the hall’s end, jostling awkwardly against titanic chains that disappeared in huge, dark holes bored in the faceless stone. Sparks flew as a sickle-like wing scraped down the wall, and the pony standing beneath didn’t even look up.

“Luna, good to see you,” the mare, a pegasus, said. “Miss Twilight, Miss Octavia, a pleasure.”

“You’re dismissed, Feather Frame,” Luna said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

The three of them stood before the angel, two of them gawking up at it as it strained against its chains. Its broad, asymmetric wings had worn black grooves in the stone, and years of grime had turned its searchlights opaque, like blind spider eyes.

“This is mine?” Twilight asked in a small voice.

“To activate a machine of this sort, one needs to touch it in a specific place with their magic. I don’t know when or where you found this, but you must have gone aboard at some point and woken it up,” Luna said. “Having done so, you took command of it—which, of course, you didn’t know.”

“How did it get here?” Octavia asked. “We discovered this in the Friesian Mountains.”

“I don’t know the details. Someone from the mines beneath probably discovered this, doubtless while investigating the racket a living angel can make when it’s been abandoned, and they decided to send it here.”

“Why am I only hearing about this now?” Twilight asked.

“A matter of courtesy,” Luna said. “I knew you were dealing with your own difficulties with Applejack, so I told my ponies to leave you alone until my say-so, and simply contain the angel.”

“One of them actually found me and took me down here the first or second day,” Octavia said. “She wanted me to bring you here as soon as possible, but you were indisposed.”

“And I told her to stand down and let you take care of your affairs in peace,” Luna said.

“Well… well,” Twilight said. “Thanks, I guess?”

“So now what, your highness?” Octavia asked.

“Ordinarily, we destroy them,” Luna said. “These machines are illegal in Equestria, as you know, Twilight.”

“Except for the Astra crow,” Twilight said.

“That’s a special case.”

“Shall we assume this is as well?” Octavia asked. “Since you are showing us, rather than quietly destroying it.”

“Don’t take me for an impulsive pony, Octavia. I gave this matter much consideration before acting. Ultimately, though, yes, I figured it would be best to have you both at least look at it first. I needn’t tell you how perilous our position is with Discord right now, and something like this could have its uses.”

The angel batted its wings against the wall, jangling its chains fearsomely and momentarily deafening them with the sound of its heavy wings slamming against stone. Grit and dust trailed down from the boreholes, and another shower of sparks dissipated over their heads as a wing scored a line down the rock.

“How do I deactivate it?” Twilight asked. “If it’s in my command, can I just ask it to?”

“Address it, and say ‘sleep’. All angels have names—at least, they’re supposed to—but I don’t know what this one’s is. Just call it ‘angel’.”

Twilight looked at the princess doubtfully, then at the vertical airship, all six wings creaking and groaning in their sockets. The machine’s outer shell was devoid of design or ornamentation, heavily scarred and battered from its time in the mountains. Dark oxidized patches spotted its front, the upper deck, like wounds.

“Speak clearly; no need to shout. It will respond to your voice.”

“Um… angel, sleep.” She backed away, but the angel’s only response was to sag in its chains and allow itself to hang limply. Like an exhausted body, it steadily came to leaning rest, throwing an ungainly shadow all the way to the corridor’s exit.

“I cannot believe how easy that was,” Octavia said.

“Easy for you,” Luna said. “It was a waking nightmare for my ponies to contain this.”

“It must weigh more than a thousand pounds.”

“Several times more, yes. Almost everyone you saw coming in was involved in some way, putting this angel into captivity.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said. “I had no idea. If I did, I wouldn’t have… well, left it.”

“I know. Frankly, Twilight, the chances of you finding this were very slim. Part of me wonders whether Discord may have planted it for you, but I suppose it doesn’t matter now.”

“So it’s done?”

“The angel sleeps, so, yes, it is done.”

“What about Discord?” Octavia asked. “How do you intend to use this against him?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Luna said. “I have a couple ideas, but they’re risky. Of course, making this machine my own would be ideal, but I can only imagine his reaction if he saw me piloting it. It could well be just the prompt he needs to drop pretense and do something truly cataclysmic.”

“Can he do that?”

“My sister and I have to assume so. With an ally like Vanilla Cream, and even his limited access to Tartarus, and the gateways there, he could do some real damage.”

“A Tartarus gateway in the middle of Canterlot Palace, for instance,” Twilight said, nodding. “Right?”

“Never. But somewhere nearby, or somewhere in the city, is possible. Goddesses or no, we cannot cover our entire city in the same magic that protects our inner sanctum, and still have enough left over to fight.”

“And he is on his way for the third time,” Octavia said. “Is he? Or is he still preparing?”

“That is what I will be investigating as soon as I’ve left you. If he is not ready, he will be soon.”

Octavia looked up at the inert hulk of machinery. Her tired eyes traced the scratches in the stone, the brutal cudgels of wings. She closed her eyes, and Twilight glanced at her, recognizing her expression at once. It was the expression that frequently heralded a barb of uncomfortable honesty, or a dangerous idea.

“Could one conceivably use this angel in combat?”

Luna shrugged. “Sure. It would be awkward, though. This isn’t the most graceful beast I’ve seen.”

“But it could be done.”

Luna smiled slyly. “What are you suggesting, Octavia?”

“Octavia, don’t do something you’ll regret,” Twilight said.

“It is because of me that we lost in Applewood,” Octavia said. “I could have given more, and I was weak instead.” She looked up at Luna, who looked back with matriarchal patience. “Suppose I were to wake up this angel and take it to Canterlot. Could I help?”

“Octavia, you can’t be serious.”

“You could,” Luna said. “How much, I cannot predict. I hypothesize that Discord had a part in this angel’s discovery, but I can’t discount the possibility that he didn’t, and if he didn’t, then this would be the single biggest surprise we could hit him with.” A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth. “It’s been a long time since angels have been used, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s forgotten about them, or simply never factored them into his plan.”

“Suicide,” Twilight said simply. “That’s all I’m hearing.”

“No need for drama, Miss Sparkle,” Luna said. “I understand Octavia has some experience with the Astra crow as well. You rode it once, did you not?”

“I did,” Octavia said. “Your highness.”

“Which ironically gives you experience that relatively few of my ponies have, and none in this city do. However, Twilight does raise a strong point.”

Octavia was a minute in responding, and did so tentatively. “In the coming battle, I do not believe my safety should be of particular importance.”

“Come on,” Twilight said. “Come on, your highness. Talk some sense into her.”

“You did not let me help you with Applejack. Let me help with this.” She softened. “This is what I want to do.”

“This is the wrong place to make a decision,” Luna said. “Let’s do this, girls. We’ll go back to the hotel, and you can talk it over with everyone there. When you do make a decision, have Twilight write me, and I’ll take you back here if you need. I’ll instruct my ponies to keep the angel safe and secure for now, and you can wake it up if you choose.”

“Very well,” Octavia said, and Twilight only rolled her eyes. When they returned to the hotel room in a flash of light, Luna was not with them, and their friends encircled them, asking for all the details. As Octavia explained what they had seen, and what it meant for the coming battle at Canterlot, Twilight studied her expression. Octavia spoke of needing to come to a decision, but Twilight could see that she had already reached one. Some of her friends’ faces suggested that they could see it too.