It was gloaming, and had been for the last day; their sky had come to seem something apart from that which they knew. Above, the stars turned in dim, egg yolk-yellow light, while a tarnished floor of fog filled the gaps between the hills rolling out west of Roan. In the far distance, the peaks of the Friesian Mountains occasionally beckoned between clouds.

On the deck, Rarity paced back and forth, sometimes stopping to look out at the land, but mostly keeping her eyes on the floorboards. Octavia lay on her back near one gunwale, where she had lain for most of their short trip, looking into the sky, sharing nothing with those who asked. More and more, the others were avoiding her, or speaking about her in the cabins, where she did not go. She slept on the deck, when she slept.

“I’m sure she won’t be much longer,” Fluttershy finally said as Rarity crossed in front of her.

“She’s been in there an hour already,” Rarity said. “The water must be freezing by now.”

“Looks like we’ll have plenty water in a few here,” Vinyl said.

“Ah, yes, well…” She sauntered over to Applejack. “Dear, you’re not thinking of taking us through that, are you?”

Applejack cocked her hat. “Ah assume yer referrin’ to yonder storm front? That what lies between us an’ our destination?”

“Yes, that.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Yes, well. May I ask why?”

“‘Cause we’re in a hurry, an’ you know that. Those Elements ain’t waitin’ fer us to take the scenic route.”

“I thought Vanilla said he was going to move them just as soon as they were made,” Rarity said. “So they won’t be there anyway. We may as well take the safe way around.”

“We’re going that way just in case he was wrong,” Vinyl said. “You know, in case that jeweler took longer to make ‘em or something. We might be able to swoop in and grab ‘em before they go anywhere.”

“An’ barrin’ that, it’s as fine a place to start lookin’ as any other,” Applejack said. She grinned at Rarity. “Here y’are, itchin’ to get in the shower, but a little wet up on deck has you spooked.”

“It’s more the lightning than the rain,” Rarity said.

“Well, those ain’t lightnin’ clouds.”

“How can you tell?”

“‘Cause Ah don’t see any lightnin’ in ‘em.” She chuckled, and Rarity rolled her eyes. “Aw, c’mon, Rare. If it helps, Ah’ll set us down somewhere an’ we can fill our water tanks.”

"Can we stay inside and play cards and stuff?” Pinkie cried, bolting up the stairs from the cabins, spraying water from her mane. “It’ll be just like Furnace Creek!”

“We are not staying anywhere,” Octavia croaked from where she lay.

“Yeah, Pinks, you heard the corpse,” Vinyl mumbled. “We’re in a hurry.”

“We can at least get out and stretch our legs a little,” Rarity said.

“Ah’m all fer that,” Applejack said. “Y’all get to walk around this deck, at least. Ah gotta stay put.”

“You can control it from anywhere, though,” Fluttershy said.

“Sure, but Ah still gotta stay where Ah can see everythin’. Speakin’ of, while Ah do love you girls’ conversation, can you take it somewhere else fer the time? Ah don’t wanna be distracted when we’re goin’ through all this.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” Vinyl said, rising to join the others.

“Ah’ll holler when Ah’ve got us a place to rest.”

Rarity’s voice receded to the back, formulating a mild upbraid to Pinkie for hogging all the warm water, and Applejack doffed her hat, placing it on a peg down by the wheel’s base. She stood and braced her front on the wheel’s spokes, letting its gentle vacillation be hers as well, trying to keep herself upright and the ship straight. Twilight had mentioned it once, a strategy airship helmsponies sometimes used to keep their courses true.

The wind was kicking up, and Applejack leaned into it, letting it pick up her long band of hair. Somewhere along the way, she had lost the tie, and though there was some pleasure in letting her mane blow wildly, it still felt wrong to her. She shook her head with a sneeze when her bangs brushed her muzzle.

All of them looked different, and though to one another the differences were hardly notable, she knew others would remark upon their return. Their manes and tails were longer, unkempt—even Rarity’s, though hers had been the last to become permanently frayed—and their coats shaggier. The clothes they wore, though infrequently, had become worn and frayed as well.

However, the change that Applejack only seldom noticed, and which she found more interesting, was the subtler change in bearing, tone, and personality. From many of them, the brightness had gone from their eyes. Twilight’s once free and warm curiosity had hardened, had become professional and blunt, and Rainbow’s loyalty had lost its vocabulary. When Applejack looked at her, less and less frequently did she see the spark in her friend, the little fire in her heart that tied her to the others. It, too, had become something hard, a resigned shard of trust and devotion, still unbreakable and still as much a part of her as ever, but lost of its spirit. Applejack supposed that her honesty had taken some similar form, grown quiet and serious.

Rain hissed on the balloon and on her head, and she closed her eyes for a second, enough to put her back on the farm. The feeling of fresh tilled earth under her hooves, the smell of compost and young trees, the warmth of the springtime sun on her drowsy face, the smell of her brother’s coffee. It had been replaced by the sound of engines, the feeling of wind, the vague lightheadedness of air travel, and the feeling of processed wood beneath. These, too, had their charm, but they were not for her.

“We’d know if we had,” Fluttershy said from the back. “Like I’ve said, I check every day, and multiple times a day when we’re traveling.”

Fluttershy had lost her quiet streak, but Applejack could not place when or by what impetus. She imagined, as she did with all unaccountable changes, that it had taken place in her brief period of death. She knew that it was not the answer for all, for there were too many things she had not noticed before; the few days she had been gone could not possibly have played host to all her friends’ changes, but she preferred to think that that were the case, rather than admit that these things had transformed before her eyes, unnoticed.

She looked at Octavia, and Colgate standing sentinel nearby, quiet and unmoved by the cold rain that pelted them. Octavia’s chest labored up and down on the deck, her breathing looking like an effort all its own, her ribs visible and her mane a patchy fan of shadow on the floorboards. Colgate, meanwhile, looked hollowed out, her eyes slow and unfocused much of the time, her teeth crooked and lips scarred in one spot. No one had asked about it, and Applejack was sure they would not get the truth if they did.

Not all changes were bad, nor even many of them, she reminded herself as she adjusted their direction into an air current. Where once there was naïveté and fear of the unknown, there had emerged resolve and courage, and something very much like wisdom. In short, they had matured, and Applejack knew that she had too, had likely done it without realizing it, had likely done it even before what she thought had been the turning point for her. Whether they had matured correctly and become the sorts of ponies who might reenter society occurred to her, but she dismissed the concern. There was no point wondering about it—“especially since there’s no guarantee we’re comin’ back from this,” she thought.

According to their map, they were somewhere in the vicinity of Creation Lake, a massive and deep lake not far from the country’s southern border, fed by an offshoot of the same river that ran through Applewood. The lake was within sight of the southernmost mountain in the Friesian chain. They would land nearby and refill their water tanks, Applejack thought, and possibly set in for the night if the storm persisted.

Her thoughts were divided, half watching the world outside, half tending to the world of mechanical pieces inside their ship. In the wind and rain, they were yawing back and forth gently, and Applejack was alert, ready to correct any sudden shifts in the weather. She wondered why Rarity hadn’t raised a shield, as she often did.

A starburst of light moved in the corner of her eye, and she frowned, glancing back at Rarity. “Anyone else see that lightnin’? Rare?”

“I’m sorry?” Rarity asked.

“Shield, Rarity. Ah think we’ve got lightning.”

“Land us!” Pinkie said. “You know what’ll happen if Rarity’s shield gets lightning-ed!”

“Shoot, right,” Applejack said, fumbling with the wheel. The ship bucked to one side, and she corrected them. “All right, Ah’m takin’ us down.”

The lights moved again, farther off, a pattern of speckles that held her gaze for a moment. In the wind, buried, she thought she could discern a lower pitched sound, a wail or cry, ghostly and singular. Not lightning, and not thunder accompanying. She tapped into the ship and slowed the propellers, then up to the balloon to vent some hot air.

“Can you make a shield that’ll stop the wind, but lets the lightning pass through?” Vinyl shouted in Rarity’s ear. Rarity shook her head.

“How close are we to the ground?” Big Mac asked, approaching.

“Not,” Applejack said. “At least, Ah reckon not. This altimeter thing here says we’re up a bit still.”

He peered over the edge. “Fog.”

“Yeah, Ah know. It’ll be touch an’ go fer a while. Uhhhh…” She looked into his eyes. “Ah can do it, Ah’m sure. Maybe no one talk to me fer a while, though.”

He nodded and went over to Octavia and Colgate. Octavia had turned over, showing the sky her bad ear, and Colgate was at the torch, sitting close and trying not to look worried.

Pinkie darted to the back and went into the captain’s quarters, where Twilight had been spending more and more time. They both emerged a moment later, Twilight wearing a face mask and a pair of goggles. She made sure the door was sealed tight before coming out to the deck.

The sound repeated, drawing closer, and Applejack reflexively edged their ship away from it. Again, the speckles glinted, barely visible through a swell of cloud.

She looked out front, searching for a weaker point in the clouds where they might be able to find temporary lee. At her hooves, her hat was flapping on its peg.

Wood splintered with a sound that jerked her head back and a force that sent her body slamming into the turning wheel. The clouds spun around them and her friends cried out, and she could hear the balloon groaning and its tethers grinding in their eyeholes, but she could not see where she was or what had happened. For a second, her hooves quit the deck, and she flailed wildly, thinking that something had cast her overboard. Her body struck the deck and her jaw clacked painfully, and she was scrambling back up before she knew what was happening, dizzied for a second. In her eyes, there was only the wall of spinning clouds, and in her ears, the rush of cold air, all the worse for she could not keep her balance.

It took her a second, stumbling to stay upright, to notice the others. They were all in similar states, regaining their hooves and helping one another up, some looking around in a daze and others looking around in fear. For another second, that was all she saw; then, she saw the smoke.

Then, she heard the rattle and whine.

Then, she felt them pitching to one side, the wind cutting on her face.

“There!” Rainbow cried out, flapping and running madly around the deck, port to starboard and back again, pointing at the thing sharing their sky. Applejack followed her with her eyes for a moment before slowly dissociating back into the ship, though she did not need to know what was wrong.

“It’s that whale thing!” Rarity screeched. Applejack could hear its cry distantly, under the wind, the rain, the malfunctioning propeller and the uproar of her friends. They pitched to the side once more, their ship seeming to jerk and shake, the entire structure shivering inside itself. The engine was rattling too, and Applejack, her thoughts loose inside, could feel it, laboring to move parts that were no longer where they should be.

Something twanged, but no one else heard it.

“Applejack!” Twilight shouted above the din, and Applejack wanted to shove her away. Her thoughts scrambled and collected themselves, rearranging back into her skull as Twilight shouted once more.

“What?” Applejack asked. In a moment of anger, she wanted to yank Twilight’s goggles off and throw them out into the weather. “Ah’m doin’ the best Ah can!”

“We need to land,” Twilight said simply, her voice even. “Rarity’s going to put up a shield, but—”

“Don’t do that.” She looked over Twilight’s head, catching a glimpse of the cetus in the back, moving behind and not particularly close. “Rare! No shield! No shield!”

“Applejack,”

“We’re ridin’ this wind, Twi,” Applejack said, wanting again to push her back, to give herself room to think, to breathe.

“Yes, which is why—”

“Ah said no!” Applejack shouted. They were already in the wind, and she was already accustomed to correcting for it, to using it to move them; if that were to go away suddenly, she would over-correct and send them careening off. She did not have the presence of mind to explain.

Twilight jogged off, horn alight, and Applejack braced her hooves on the decking, again vanishing into the airship’s guts. Two of the port-side propellers had been knocked loose, one almost ripped out of its socket, and she could feel them both overheating as they struggled to turn where they no longer fit. She cut the power to both, knowing that it did not make them safe, that the damage had been done and they could not stay in the air.

“Celestia, the fog,” she thought, coming back into herself.

She looked around and spotted Twilight on the poop, the others watching her, calmer but not at ease. The balloon was rippling and rumbling above them, its cables scratching and shaking, one flapping loose in the wind. The entire ship shuddered again, and one of them ran to the side, putting her face into the smoke for a moment.

“It’s hanging off!” Pinkie cried. “Not supposed to do that!”

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted. Twilight did not look back, but Rarity went to her and touched her shoulder.

“I’m scaring it off again!” Twilight shouted.

Applejack fell to her knees as the ship shook again, turning abruptly to one side, and screams lit the sky as their twenty-degree tilt became thirty. Applejack threw herself back into the ship, collapsing where she stood and sliding down the deck. Someone cried out, and Applejack slammed the rudder into place while slowing the other propellers.

She waited until they were level before pushing herself up again and looking at the others, all of them standing there, Twilight with her magic up and the others watching.

“Hey! Ah need some help, all right? Celestia’s wings.” She ran back to the wheel and checked the altimeter. The fog was coming close, and she smacked the wheel with a growl. “Twilight, get over here!”

“Twilight!” Pinkie echoed.

Twilight jerked her head and galloped back to Applejack, stumbling as another burst of wind moved them in a different direction. Applejack wrenched the wheel to correct their course, fighting it as it tried to spin out of her control. They could not hear the rudder banging in the back, but Applejack felt it in her forelegs, and its echoes in her mind.

“What?” Twilight snapped.

“We’re landin’, an’ Ah need to know where we are under that fog.”

Twilight looked at her, wide-eyed. “I don’t know what that means!”

“The lake!” She frowned, and, lacking something else she could strike for emphasis, hit the wheel again. “We’re near the lake. We gotta land there!”

“Can we not—” She looked around. “Okay, yes, fine, yes.” She got on the prow and lit her horn, creating a cone of light that swept the rapidly ascending floor of fog. “Straighten us out, Applejack, we’re not close enough.”

Applejack frowned at her and dissociated back into the ship. She knew the cetus would probably be returning with Twilight no longer producing the sound to frighten it, and, safe inside the ship, she nonetheless dreaded another impact, dreading that it might hit the balloon, or somewhere in the back to cleave them in two. Much worse, however, was the knowledge that if it did, her passing would be without strain.

“Fire!” someone else hollered, and Applejack looked in at the ruined propellers, seeing whether she might do anything to abate the stunted flames.

“Bring us up!” Twilight cried, shaking Applejack’s body. “There’s a hill right below us.”

For a moment, Applejack’s disembodied mind paused. She was innately aware of their speed, much slower than it felt on the deck, dragged as they were by their balloon, but Twilight’s order made no sense. She could raise them, but not quickly, not immediately. She almost pushed herself back into herself to ask for clarification, but realized she might not have time.

She tilted them instead, moving the uncomplicated ballast system entirely to the starboard, then port a second later, where they already had dead weight with the broken propellers. Above and around her, her friends yelled and scrambled, and Twilight’s voice pounded on her deadened ears.

The altimeter had them barely eighty feet off the ground and descending steadily. If she had use of her eyes, she would have squinted at the sudden rush of freezing fog in their faces, and would have thrown the wheel to the side at the silhouette that hove up from below and solidified.

They struck again, the bottom of their ship clipping a finger of stone on the hill and narrowly avoiding the tops of pine trees. Her entire attention on rudder and functional propellers, Applejack did not know they had hit something else immediately; she thought, more likely, they had been pushed by another blast of wind. With incomplete control, she guided them in the direction she believed to be the lake's.

“Hard port, Applejack,” Twilight said, trying to reassert calm. Somewhere nearby, Big Mac was calling for order and telling everyone to prepare for a water landing.

Forty feet and closing, and Applejack had only to trust. She could not return to her body for even a moment; she would lose control entirely, for even though the winds had slowed close to the ground, the rain had not, and the ship was out of control. It wobbled on its trajectory, and Applejack had to keep the rudder jammed as far as she could to balance their bearing, switching between sides for even slight changes in direction; this, too, was growing difficult. One of the propellers in the very back was beginning to falter as well, and the ship’s parts were beginning to move sluggishly. She could feel metal grinding, belts coming loose or stretching taut on overworked sheaves. She thought she could hear it in her distant way, the ship losing its life.

“Here it comes!” Pinkie shouted, and Applejack felt her body be tossed into something soft and warm. Twilight cursed and picked herself up, and Applejack reluctantly regained her body. She could feel water flooding the smaller spaces of the ship’s mechanics as she pulled her mind out.

The rain could not be immediately distinguished from the spray of chilly water as they had hit the lake, fast but nearly level, scraping their shattered bottom across it but keeping the deck upright. Nervous but relieved chatter began as they slowed, and around it, there was finally the soft hiss of water hitting itself, uncontested as the ship quieted. Applejack blinked slowly, retrieved her hat, and looked over the edge.

“Twi, Ah need to go back an’ see if Ah can’t seal us up. Ah need you to—”

“I’ve got it already, dear,” Rarity said.

Applejack looked at her for a moment before understanding hit her. “Ah. Never mind, then.”

“We have a different problem,” Big Mac said, his long neck arching over the gunwale. “Driftin’ out.”

“What?” She looked again, glaring at the water, the uproar of rainfall on its surface.

“I feel it,” Fluttershy said, wings up against the rain.

“Shoot. Okay.” She looked back at the shore. “First thing first, is everypony okay? Ah know that was a bumpy ride.”

“We clipped something on the way down,” Rainbow said.

“But we’re fine,” Twilight said. “At least, not hurt.”

“Rattled,” Rarity said.

“It was kinda fun,” Pinkie said meekly.

“Ah know what to do. Least, Ah think Ah do,” Applejack said. “Ah’m goin’ back in, an’ Ah’ll get us over to shore with the propellers we got left. Rare, how long on that shield?”

“As long as you need,” Rarity said.

Applejack nodded. “Good. That’s good. Dang, that crash hurt. All right, Ah’ll be back.” She lay down and once more disappeared into the ship.

Twilight crossed the deck and looked at the others, then out at the lake. To their backs, the shore was gray and shrouded in fog, fenced with pines, and itself like a minor cliff face. On both sides, it rose up like no shore they had seen before, a wide rim of wet stone and dark sand that subtly moved with rainwater, even from their distance clearly insurmountable with hooves alone.

“This is that lake,” Vinyl said. “The big one on the map. Creation Lake?”

“That sounds right,” Twilight said.

Colgate made a worried noise in the back of her throat.

“I remember this place,” Octavia said softly. “I have played here.”

“If this is Creation Lake, we shouldn’t be here,” Colgate said.

“Why?” Vinyl asked, not looking at her.

The engine was making an unhealthy sound, chugging and intermittently stopping; after a while, Applejack managed to catch it on something, and their ship fought the hidden current with the bubbling, diseased sound of their propellers spinning underwater.

"Oh, crap!” Twilight said. “I know exactly why we shouldn’t be here!”

“Gateway,” Colgate said.

“A gateway?” Pinkie asked.

“She means a Tartarus gateway.”

“What!” Fluttershy blurted.

“We can’t see it,” Colgate said to Rainbow, racing to the bow for a look. “But the water’s flowing through. That’s why we’re moving.”

“We’re in a draining bathtub,” Rarity said.

“No, no, hold on,” Twilight said. “AJ? Faster, maybe?”

The ship gave no response, and none was truly expected.

“We need a plan, then,” Rainbow said, flapping back to them. “Maybe if we stay here long enough, it’ll all drain out? We can just climb out after that.”

“It won’t empty,” Colgate said. “The gateway will be near the surface. I bet it’s only draining right now ‘cause of all this rain.”

“So then… Well, Twilight can teleport.”

“Can’t we climb out?” Vinyl asked.

“I don’t think we can get close enough to those shores in this,” Twilight said. She looked over the edge again, down into the dark waters. She tried not to think of what might be swimming just below, misplaced from Tartarus; if not that, how many fathoms of freezing, crushing water there were below. She gave Rarity a smile, painfully aware in that moment of the delicate magic keeping them from sinking.

“Twi, you teleport,” Rainbow said. “Then Fluttershy and I can just carry the rest of you out.”

“Geez,” Big Mac mumbled.

“I’m not saying it’s a great idea, but hey, we could do it.”

“Let’s call that plan B,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s foggy out,” Pinkie said. “What about that cloud-walking spell of Twilight’s?”

“This stuff is too thin,” Twilight said, waving a hoof in front of her face as if to prove her point. “It would be like trying to walk on paper.”

“Well…”

“Get the Elements off this ship first,” Octavia said. Her voice was dry and quiet, and she coughed.

“I need to be last, for the shield,” Rarity said.

“Applejack needs to be last to keep us actually at the shore,” Vinyl said.

“You’re Elements now too,” Twilight said. “Don’t forget that. None of us are expendable. Not that any of us were in the first place, but—you know what I mean.”

Pinkie glanced at Colgate, who appeared not to notice.

“Ah’d like to go first, if no one else’ll,” Big Mac said. “Wanna get this over with.”

The shore was creeping closer, and Rainbow stood at the rail to watch. “I guess it is kinda steep, huh?”

“We’re gonna be okay, right?” Pinkie asked.

“As long as we keep calm,” Fluttershy said.

“Exactly,” Twilight said. “We’ve dealt with worse than this. Just thank your stars we had this to land in in the first place.”

“We could bounce across the desert inside Rarity’s shields,” Rainbow said.

“We wouldn’t bounce for long,” Rarity said.

“Well…”

“I like bouncy things,” Pinkie said quietly.

For a time, they simply stood together, watching the lake, the shore, the rain, the clouds. Applejack had settled the ship into a steady pace, but for all their forward motion, the current sucked back at them, and the sound of the engine and propellers did not inspire confidence. Every time they shuddered or stalled, someone gasped.

“Do we have an anchor to drop?” Rainbow asked.

“No,” Twilight said. “No need on an airship.”

“Right.”

The lake was visibly shallower where they were, but the shore’s slope was steep and bleak, its face worn almost smooth by untold years of exposure. Imbricate, rounded stones formed a textured bowl to the lapping lake, mortared with gray sand and mud, slimy with moss and lichen, twigs and leaves and other decomposing materials sticking out in places like hairs. Above them, the pine trees formed an unbroken line, barely moving in the wind. Like Celestia’s crater in the east, they had found their own crater in the frosty west.

“This looks like about it,” Vinyl said, nervousness entering her voice. “I say let’s get going, if we’re going."

"Big Mac? Your call,” Rainbow said.

“We won’t drop you,” Fluttershy said.

“Obviously.”

Fluttershy flicked her eyes at Rainbow.

“But yeah, we won’t,” Rainbow said soberly.

Big Mac looked back at the shore, expanded his chest with a large breath. “All right.”

The pegasi maneuvered around him, wings flared, legs braced, eyes averted politely, and Big Mac kept his face to the sky. Through his fur, no blush was visible, but his clenched jaw and knit brows disclosed his feelings.

When he was aloft, haltingly and with much groaning and grunting from Rainbow and Fluttershy, Pinkie could not repress her laughter at the scene. She wound up on the floor, giggling and rolling about, and had to take a minute to calm down before she could be carried herself when the pegasi returned.

After Pinkie followed Vinyl, then Twilight, teleporting up the banks and coming to rest right between her friends. The ship stalled, and those remaining waited, ears up, for it to come back on, but it did not.

The engine struggled and turned itself over, but yielded only a dead, watery sound. Applejack stirred awake at once, and Rarity helped her up.

“It’s done,” Applejack simply said. “What’s goin’ on? The plan, Ah mean.” She looked at the small crowd. "Looks like ya got one."

Rarity ran to the rail to look down. “Are we sinking?”

“We’ll be driftin' out there soon.”

“C’mon, Rare,” Rainbow said.

“Me?”

“Octavia and Colgate are light enough, Fluttershy and I can take ‘em both.” She looked at Applejack, who looked back, realizing what Rainbow was going to say. “We should probably get AJ last. Since she’s, you know, the captain.”

“You heard her,” Rarity said. “The ship’s done. She can’t do anything.”

“Let’s not argue ‘bout who’s gettin’ saved last,” Applejack said. “Go, Ah’ll be okay.”

Rainbow cast a glance back at the shore, already visibly farther away. “Don’t worry, AJ. We’ll get you.”

“Ah believe you, RD.”

They lifted off with Rarity, and the shield around their ship, already waterlogged, faded. In the resulting quiet, Applejack stood on the slick deck with Colgate and Octavia and looked around. She had been only intermittently feeling the rain, and had not realized exactly how cold it was on her skin.

To hear something besides the rainfall, she said, “You two ladies are goin’ next. You ready?”

“We can’t salvage this ship at all?” Colgate asked.

“Ah sure can’t.”

Octavia sat down and rested against the gunwale.

In the distance, between lake and shore, Rainbow and Fluttershy were struggling with Rarity, their forms slowly sinking toward the shore’s upper lip. The others were cheering them on, and, after a few seconds more, Twilight enveloped Rarity in magic and eased her from the pegasi, who went to the ground and rested. They stayed only a second before taking off and flying back to the downed ship.

Applejack trotted back to the prow, dashing through the curtain of water pouring off their balloon. The ship’s nose was down, its small bowsprit almost parallel to the lake’s surface, and she stood past the wheel to see if she could spot the Tartarus gateway. She had seen the one in Moondrop as it spread, a faceless black spot that reminded her of the tarps they would spread over their apple trees, lain across the ground. The thought of one in water, endlessly drinking away a lake, made her uncomfortable. She poised her front hooves on the balustrade and scanned the water, but only saw a thin line of black, possibly the gateway and possibly a reflection.

She didn’t hear Rainbow and Fluttershy land for the storm, and Rainbow had to yell. Both pegasi were nearly exhausted, lying down, spread winged, letting the rain soak into their fur.

“AJ… this ain’t gonna be easy,” Rainbow said.

Applejack bit her lip as she looked at the receding shore. Her friends were no longer visible there; the lip had risen from their angle to cover them. She quickly estimated the distance between them and the land.

“You can still do it, right?” They were half an orchard’s length away, and as she looked back down at her friends, her blood felt thick and useless, for she knew the answer before Rainbow had even opened her mouth.

“We’re gonna do it,” Rainbow said.

“Yer… gonna have a hard time,” she said at last. She knew they could not do it; their wings would give out before they were close, even close enough for Twilight to lift their burdens away. “It might not be possible.”

“No.”

“She’s right,” Fluttershy said. “We have to do it.” Her wings flexed gently, and she moaned.

“We need an anchor,” Applejack said, turning from them and running her eyes across the deck. “We’ll stall ourselves here, let you get yer wind back up.”

“Twilight said we don’t have one,” Rainbow said.

“Well she’s wrong!”

She pushed through into the captain’s quarters, momentarily disoriented as she walked into a cloud of acrid smoke. She coughed and recoiled, using her hat to fan the air, already dampening. When the room had cleared, she stepped around Twilight’s abandoned setup as she searched for something she could use. Her eyes fixed on the large desk, and in her imaginings, she thought that it would have to do.

“We’re not gonna do that!” Rainbow cried out.

“What other ideas do you have?” Colgate said.

“That’s suicide!”

“I don’t think so.”

“What? Someone got an idea?” Applejack asked, stepping out. Her nose burned from the smoke.

“Colgate wants you to fall through,” Rainbow said.

Colgate looked sullenly at Applejack. “If we go through the gateway, in the ship, then all we have to do is wait for the others to get us. Rainbow and Fluttershy can rest, the rain can stop, whatever. They can even get a proper boat if they want to, and they can haul us back out.”

“Ah ain’t steppin’ hoof in Tartarus,” Applejack said. “Rainbow’s right, that’s suicide.”

“It isn’t,” Colgate said.

“And how do you know?” Rainbow asked.

Colgate only averted her eyes.

“Now ain’t the time to get cagey, Cole,” Applejack said.

“If you know something…” Fluttershy started.

“I’ve got reason to know that it won’t kill us,” Colgate said. “We’ll have to survive the initial fall, that’s it.”

“There’s a fall involved?” Applejack asked.

“Go, go back to the others,” Colgate said. “Tell them we’ll wait for them in Tartarus. We’ll stay just inside.”

“I’m not gonna do it,” Rainbow said.

“You should do it,” Octavia said, again on her back. “It is a good idea.”

“Means so much comin’ from you,” Applejack wanted to say, instead giving her a dirty look.

“You’re not gonna carry us all the way back,” Colgate continued. “Do it, tell the others.”

Fluttershy pushed herself up. “Maybe we should,” she said slowly.

“I…” Rainbow got up and flexed her wings. “Damn it, AJ.”

“If you can’t do it, you can’t do it,” Colgate said. “Don’t push yourself too far.”

Applejack turned and looked back, and the line of black was faintly visible through the twin walls of balloon water. She could feel them sliding back. “Ah don’t like it, but it might be the only thing to do. Ah know y’all ain’t flyin’ the rest of us back.”

“We can do it,” Rainbow said, pushing her wings slowly. “Just gotta find my rhythm again.”

“You need to go,” Colgate said, lifting Rainbow’s tail in her magic and squeezing some water out. “We’ll be okay. Trust me, I’m a doctor.”

All five sets of eyes looked at one another for another moment, and then Rainbow jumped off the edge and took back to the air. Fluttershy struggled over and then followed her, and that was that.

“Get inside and shore up all entry and exit points,” Colgate said, heading for the captain’s quarters.

“You mentioned an initial fall,” Applejack said, helping Octavia up.

“Water’s flowing into the gateway, which means it’s going somewhere on the other side. It’s not just hanging around, it’s not just submerging the other side.”

“What if the other side is a larger lake?” Octavia asked.

“It isn’t.”

“How do you know?” Applejack asked.

Colgate looked at them. “Let’s seal this door.”

Applejack grabbed the desk and wedged it against the door while the others pushed chairs and larger decorations against the walls. Colgate latched the windows and drew the shades, and Octavia, stumbling, upset Twilight’s experiment to release another bowl of smoke into the room. They retreated downstairs to the cabins. Applejack went into a room, and Colgate held the door after her.

“We’re staying in the main hall,” Colgate said. “These cabins are closer to the sides, more dangerous in a crash.” She thought for a second. “Let’s get these mattresses out and push ‘em against the doors.”

Octavia did not wait for consensus. She pushed open the door nearest her and grabbed the mattress inside, trying to yank it through and into the hall.

In the other cabin, Colgate helped Applejack drag the mattress off its wire frame. She tossed the pillows out with her telekinesis, but used her hooves and mouth for the rest.

"Any…” Applejack maneuvered herself under the mattress, to push it against her back. “Reason yer doin’ it the earth pony way?”

“Weak magic.”

They heaved and shoved, and eventually got the mattress out into the corridor with Octavia’s help. The two collapsed in a pile as it was pulled away from them, and Colgate scrambled up quickly, eyes wide and breathing shallow. She stood, frozen, for a moment while Octavia and Applejack positioned it against the doorway.

“Windows,” Colgate said.

“Huh?”

They paused, aware then of a hissing sound, louder than the patter of rain above. Then, a moment of weightlessness, and then all three of them fell and were thrown against the walls, the mattresses, the floor. All around, the sound of crashing and crackling sparked, and the ship rocked back and forth. A mattress fell down to pin Applejack in a corner, where only her head was free to smack up and down against the floor, rattling her teeth. Colgate, nearer the back, was sliding and continually falling down as their ship bucked, smashing through an impediment that they could not see.

When they stopped, with a gut-clenching crack that Applejack could tell immediately had snuffed out any life left in their machine, all three mares simply breathed for a minute. No one moved; they were waiting for the crash to continue, for some unseen parapet to give way and send them plummeting once more, or for some unseen beast to come and savage their wreck. Distantly, the rush of water was audible, but after several minutes, it stopped.

“I hate to say it, but that was probably the best move,” Rarity said. “You wouldn’t have made it.”

“Yeah.” Rainbow lay in the mud and sand.

“I hope they’re okay,” Pinkie said. “I don’t see ‘em out there.”

Twilight was pacing nearby, and Big Mac watched. “What are you thinkin’, Miss Twilight?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Twilight said. “We need a boat, I guess, or another airship.”

“What’s one more, right?” Rainbow asked.

“It’s not that. It’s just discouraging. Just… discouraging.” She walked a space toward the pine trees. “One step forward, two steps back, one step forward, two steps back.”

“As far as setbacks go, this one is pretty minor,” Rarity said. “We’ll have them out in a few hours.”

“If we can find a boat.”

“There’s a river that runs into this lake,” Vinyl said. “I’m sure we can find a boat somewhere. Now, getting it running, and getting its owner to lend it to us…”

“I’m not worried about that.”

Vinyl’s horn glowed soft purple. “I suppose not.”

“We might see if we can find a way to communicate with them as well,” Rarity said. “Just in case.”

“If you gimme like half an hour, I can fly out there and look in on ‘em,” Rainbow said. “Maybe forty minutes, actually.”

“Don’t push yourself, dear. You’ve both already done your part. I think we should focus on getting that boat, as Twilight said.”

“Let me do that,” Twilight said, looking back at them. “I like the idea of establishing communication, though. See if you can think of something while I’m out.”

“Yer not goin’ alone,” Big Mac said.

“I’d like to.”

“You know we can’t let you,” Vinyl said.

Twilight nodded. “I guess so.”

Vinyl trotted up to her, and Twilight, after a moment of thought, turned back to the trees. “We won’t go far. Hopefully.”

“Dear,” Rarity said.

“What?”

Rarity looked at them both. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

Twilight smiled. “I won’t.”

The two walked into the forest as Twilight put up a thin shield for the rain. “I know we’re already wet, but I’d like to maybe dry off today.”

“No objections,” Vinyl said, coming up close so Twilight could hear her. She smelled the air. “This takes me back.”

“You’re from this area, right?”

“Close. My town—if you can call it that—is a stone’s throw north.”

“Hm. Maybe we’ll see it on our way back.”

“It’s fine if we don’t.”

Twilight nodded, and for a time, they walked in silence, Vinyl occasionally pointing the way. When they found the river, they stopped at its banks and watched the water flowing. They watched for several minutes, and then Vinyl spoke up.

“I thought they’re not supposed to flow anymore.”

“I think…” Twilight set off along the bank. “If my geography is correct, this river is fed by the Whitewater Stampede, the one that goes through Applewood, but also glacial runoff from near Snowdrift.”

“The glacier made it up with us?”

“Apparently.” Twilight thought back, far back. “I think it’s hanging partly off the edge.”

“So we must be all unbroken up to Snowdrift, huh? If this is flowing from all the way up there.”

“There are other ponies out there repairing the gaps, yes. I wish we’d known that earlier, it could have maybe saved some time.”

“You did the cities, though.”

“Yes.” She sighed. “You’re right, I suppose. Probably best we did the cities. We did those first.”

There was a muddy trail along the riverbank that they kept, winding between trees and ducking underneath branches. There was no wildlife to be seen, nor any sun from behind the clouds, and Vinyl occasionally gave off a beam of light. The river boiled and flowed, never out of sight, and Twilight paused occasionally to look at the scenery. She felt curiously at peace, though her intellectual side was at work examining why that might be.

“I’m sorry, Twilight.”

“Hm?”

“About the circumstances of my involvement in this mess. I know that was kinda crappy of me.”

“Not kind of, Vinyl.”

“Right.”

“Tell me about these friends you abandoned.” She looked back at Vinyl, her goggles spattered with mud and water droplets. She cast a small spell on their surfaces, clearing them. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound cruel. I guess I’m still a little ticked about it.”

“You’re in your right to feel that way.”

“I am sorry, though.” She sighed. “I’m trying to stop being a nag to you all.”

“You’re doing better.”

“Yeah?” She watched as a clump of leaves made its way down the river. “I don’t see much improvement on my end.”

“Well, we can all see it. You’re less temperamental, you’re isolating yourself less.”

“That’s progress, I guess.”

“It is, absolutely. If you don’t mind me asking, though, why did you want to do this alone? It’s not like you.”

“Honestly, Vinyl,” Twilight said, “I kind of do mind you asking, but I’ll answer anyway. I needed to be alone.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll let you in on something,” Twilight said quietly, and Vinyl moved a step closer. “I presented a confident face back there, but I’m…” She had to clear her mind suddenly, and select the appropriate word. “I said I felt discouraged, but it actually feels more like despair. Plain and simple, I don’t really know how much longer this can go on.”

“We’re so close, though. Three more Elements, which Vanilla said he’d help us find, and then Discord. We’ll be a month? Probably less, ‘cause I wouldn’t be shocked if he just moves us to where we need to go.”

“I don’t know if I can do another month of this.”

“…Really?”

“Vinyl, we’ve been traveling all around this country, dealing with problem after problem after problem, getting into trouble pretty much everywhere we go. It’s to the point now where I’m not even scared of Discord anymore, not really. If we get the Elements, then we’ve got him. Easy.”

“So what are you scared of?”

“Everything else. We’ve made some enemies besides him, and… I don’t know, I just feel like we’ve crossed this line sometimes. Like when we get back to Ponyville, we’ll never truly be back.”

Vinyl nodded. “You’ve been in the air too long.”

“Much too long.”

“Well… I’m sorry, I don’t really know what to say.”

“I don’t expect you to say anything. I know you can’t do anything.”

“Hm.”

They crossed a bare spot of riverbank, and Twilight slowed to watch a dragonfly darting among the reeds. For a second, she had another flash of peace.

“So, your friends?”

“What do you want to know?”

“What were they like? Just tell me about them,” Twilight said.

Vinyl thought. “They were all musicians, like me. Not surprising. Doggy was a psychedelic musician, she was my first new friend in Applewood.”

“I assume that’s a stage name?”

“Yes. I don’t know her real name; I’m not sure I ever knew it. It doesn’t matter. She was… actually, quite opposed to my decision. You would have liked her.”

Twilight nodded.

“She was real serious, but real smart. You’d be amazed at how much theory and detail went into her music, given how it all turned out sounding. She always had at least one wall in her flat, just dedicated to ideas. She’d put ‘em on note cards and pin ‘em on the wall, just blanketing it. She loved to talk about her ideas for new music, but I couldn’t follow a lot of it. Very visual, that mare. Every type of sound ‘looked’ a certain way, or at least called to mind a certain image.”

“Synesthesia,” Twilight said. “That’s a rare mental disorder.”

“No, it wasn’t that. I asked her that too, but it’s not that. She just has a visual mind, is all.” She thought. “She spent a lot of time looking at wave-forms, or playing with old tape recordings.”

“She sounds interesting.”

“Like I said, you two probably would have got along. She was a heavy drinker, that was the only problem. Like, really heavy, and very privately.”

“Oh.”

“No one really talked about it,” Vinyl continued. “You know, we were all wrapped up with our own things. It occurs to me now, I’m not sure if I ever saw her completely sober. Some ponies are like that, you know, always chasing something. I was like that once.”

“Really?”

“When I was younger. Nothing serious, but I’ve woken up in a few strange beds.”

“That sounds serious.”

Vinyl only smiled. “Not if you make your living in Applewood. Hard drinking is the least of it, count on that. You ever drink?”

“I had a drink in Applewood. One. Or was it two? I think just one.”

“You’re not missing much, if you ask me.”

“No, I expect not.”

Vinyl kicked a pine cone off the path.

“She was pretty upset about you leaving, then?”

“Promised to never talk to me again,” Vinyl said. “Which was a lie. She was there for my last show. We, uh, didn’t talk about it then, though.”

“I hope she’s okay.”

“She’ll make it. She’s probably got my face on a dart board, but she’ll be fine.”

“I see.”

“As for other friends, there was Frozen Front; he went by ‘Ursa Major’ on stage. I met him in Snowdrift, but we traveled to Applewood together. He was the opposite of Doggy in a lot of ways. Very eager to go out and do things, loved drinking and dancing, but in moderation. He had a day job, or at least he always said he did.”

“What kind of music did Ursa Major produce?”

“Nothing you’d hear on the radio. He was mostly into ambient music. He did a lot of work with static and distortion.”

“Like elevator music?”

“No, more like.... It’s hard to describe. I’d have to play some for you.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“It’s not for everyone. His shows were always real low-key affairs. He liked to dress up in street clothes and have ponies arrange flowers on stage while he made his music.”

“Was it digital?”

“Some of it was, some was analogue. He had a bunch of busted machines, like tape recorders and stuff, that he could use to get a lot of the sounds he wanted. Sometimes he let Doggy warp one for him, if he needed a certain sound but didn’t have time to get it himself. Ursa and I were real close.”

Twilight looked at her.

“At least, I felt close to him.” Vinyl paused. “I don’t know how he felt about me. He didn’t get angry like Doggy did, when I told him I was gonna leave. He seemed upset, but more like in an inconvenienced way, you know?”

“Do you wish he had been more upset?”

“I do, yes.” She sniffed. “I’m sorry, I don’t want this to turn into a therapy session for me. I made my own bed.”

“We all make choices.” They came to a small clearing, and on the other side of the river, they could see a weathered shack beside a small pier. “Let’s check that out. Can you teleport?”

“No, never.”

“Here, take my hoof. I’ll do it.”

On the other side, Twilight crouched behind a stump, and Vinyl stood to the side under a large, drooping branch.

“What’s the plan?” Vinyl asked.

“I’m trying to see if there’s even anyone in there for now. Then we search for a boat.”

“What if there is?”

Twilight just shook her head, and after several minutes, she slowly but confidently approached the shed. Lighting her horn dimly, she paused in an overgrown tangle of grass, then called to Vinyl.

“No one here.” She gestured to her horn.

“You have a spell for that?”

Twilight shrugged, and they walked the shed’s short perimeter. On one end, by a miniature side room, a metal door was held ajar by a cylinder of chicken wire. They could smell wet dust and mildew within, but amid the clutter of shadows, Twilight could only see silver drapes of old cobweb. They walked to the pier, where Vinyl sat and looked out at the water while Twilight regarded the tall grass. She cast a magenta wave of magic to flatten the lawn, but nothing hid in the tall grass. She thought for a second, then checked the side room again, piercing its filthy darkness with a beam of light.

“Here we go,” she said, grabbing the shape within. “Should have checked this first.” With a little maneuvering of door and wire, Twilight was able to drag a small, plaster boat out into the open, its motor tumbling on the floor, dirtying itself in a wobbling pool of muddy water. Twilight removed the motor, dumped the boat out, and set it gently on the river’s surface, holding her breath. It floated.

“So far so good,” Vinyl said. “We’re just gonna take it?”

Twilight didn’t answer as she busied herself with the motor, eventually affixing it to the boat’s back. She gestured for Vinyl to climb in, and she followed.

“Do you know how to drive one of these?” Vinyl asked.

“I’m sure I can figure it out.”

“Let me. I used to go boating a lot when I was a filly, I bet I can get us going.” She switched places with Twilight and studied the motor. After a second of fiddling, she shook her head. “No gas.”

“Mm.” Twilight climbed out onto the pier. “Should’ve guessed.” She searched the side room again and came out with a sloshing gas can, its cap rusted on. It took a couple moments of magical exertion for Twilight to snap it open, tearing a small line down the thinner metal side as well.

“Geez, be careful with that,” Vinyl said, unheard, as Twilight handled the gas can.

They got the boat moving with a sound that reminded both of their own airship in the lake, and they moved scarcely faster than it had. Vinyl kept looking back, waiting for someone to return home and find their boat stolen. She knew she could not voice her concerns to Twilight between the rain and the motor, so had to settle for aiming her skeptical look at the back of the unicorn’s head.

The river ran on a steady course southward through flat, forested land. The pine branches were bowed and defeated in the downpour, and the river seemed equal parts water and mud. At a bend, they saw another pier, blackened and covered in moss, almost claimed by the land.

When the water slowed, Vinyl knew they were approaching the lake, and Twilight directed her to stop. They let the river carry them to a clearing in the trees, and Twilight teleported out and grabbed the boat in her telekinesis, holding it within view of the edge, where river met lake and briefly became a thin tumble over exposed rocks. Vinyl looked at her.

“I’m going to gently lower you into the lake,” Twilight said, “then teleport down myself. It’s easier on me to not have to lower myself too.”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow, but did not object.

“Crouch down. Ground yourself.” Twilight took the boat again and lifted it, sure in her magical strength. It floated over the lake’s gray rim before pausing above its angry waters, and Vinyl peeked out to look. Twilight envied her the view, and gave her a second to take it in before bringing her down, slowly again. When the boat was jostling on the surface, she teleported down into it.

Vinyl tapped her, and Twilight leaned in close. “That was amazing!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Twilight said, servicing a smile. “Let’s go.”

They puttered forward again, and after a minute, Twilight realized that something was amiss. She looked back at Vinyl. “Where’s the current?”

Vinyl looked around.

“This lake had a current before; that’s what pulled the airship back.”

Vinyl shook her head.

“Faster,” Twilight said, looking forward. “I don’t like this.”

It was not long that, in the fog and the rain, the high shores disappeared from them entirely, and they had only their little boat and the cold waters. The clouds gave no sign of the sun’s position.

Vinyl, at the motor, wished again that she could speak normally. She had never before seen a body of water so vast, and never so intimately. She was reminded of the night sky, which was, for her, often a dark and smudgy aspect with only the faintest hints of stars. Others, rhapsodizing about the night and its majesty, spoke often of the stars, those markers of infinity, those unknowable but beautiful symbols; for her, the night was an inscrutable wall, always changing subtly but, ultimately, foreign and cold. She gained no comfort from it, no encouragement or validation. No romantic feeling had spoken to her that she had a place in the world, or that her destiny was outlined if she could find it in the stars, as it seemed to have for so many others. These feelings, instead, she had found in music and in the natural rhythms of life.

On the surface of Creation Lake, bobbing up and down and looking into the deep, freezing waters, was like floating on the night sky. She was close to that inscrutable wall, and, so close, found that it did not disclose its details to those who simply brought their eyes nearer. What might be taken for detail was instead the constant shift of water striking itself, meaningless and dangerous. Only the sound, the roar of moving water, suggested deeper meaning to her.

She fixed her eyes on the lake and gently eased her goggles up, holding them up for a couple seconds before acceding to the pain already starting to throb behind her eyes. With no purple tint, the lake reminded her of a graphite rendition of itself. The sky, the rain, and the water, all were gray and gloomy, as if the sky were staining the earth with more than precipitation.

Already, a song was forming in her mind, and she suddenly wished she had not come with Twilight.

“This isn’t right,” Twilight said. “This is too far.”

Vinyl looked at her and popped a color on her horn, hoping Twilight would get its meaning.

“Too far, I said.”

Vinyl got to her ear. “Are you sure?”

“I mean, not completely, but look at it. We’ve been out here for almost twenty minutes now, and nothing. No current, no gateway, nothing.”

“We should keep going.”

“I’m sorry?"

Vinyl jabbed toward the far bank, not visible.

“Oh, yeah. We will, we will. I don’t feel good about it, though.”

Vinyl lit another circle of color on her horn.

Twilight looked at her. “I don’t know what you’re saying when you do that.”

Vinyl waved her off and looked back at the motor. She was too old to get angry when ponies didn’t understand her, but she still sometimes found herself frustrated. She had wanted to ask what they would do if there were, inexplicably, no gateway. She supposed it would be a pointless question; she doubted Twilight would have any ideas.

“Maybe it moves,” Twilight said suddenly. “They can do that, sometimes. Well, it’s rare.”

Vinyl looked at her, acknowledging that she had heard.

“If we just had the airship, this would be a cinch. Ugh, I hope they’re okay. Tartarus isn’t a place ponies can just go.”

Vinyl put a hoof to her back, and Twilight started. Vinyl lit another color. “Sorry.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen, Vinyl. None of this.”

She nodded.

Twilight sighed. “Nothing. I don’t see anything out here, just water. How big is this lake anyway?”

Vinyl spread her forelegs, balancing on her haunches, to indicate its size.

“Yeah, I know that.” She thought for a second. “When we have time, we should work out a color code or something for your lights. Simple stuff, like ‘I agree’ or ‘I have something to say’. Did you do that with your other friends?”

Vinyl shook her head. She had had the idea before, but never truly needed it. The only places where she could never be heard had also never required it.

“We should do that sometime. Or heck, just get you a little notebook or something.”

Vinyl shrugged.

“Think it over.” Twilight looked back out at the lake.

Vinyl leaned in. “I’m worried too.”

“I know.” She pushed her mane out of her eyes. “I had a divination setup in the captain’s room when we crashed. I’m trying to find a way to spy on Discord without his knowing it, but it’s hard, way harder than I expected it to be.”

Vinyl nodded, not interested, but aware that Twilight was speaking to keep her mind off the worry growing in them both.

“I think I need to find a way to keep everything steady. The ship is pretty steady, but it’s not perfect, and I guess a lot of this magic requires a perfectly level surface. I also need to pick up a gas mask.”

Vinyl tilted her head.

“For the smoke. I wear a regular cloth mask right now, but it’s not enough.” She paused and, after a second, brought herself higher on the boat’s prow, forehooves balanced and trembling on the front. The boat leaned down slightly, and Vinyl looked at the water level.

“There!”

Vinyl stirred.

“Shit, this is not good.” Twilight got back down. “The other side.”

Leaning in, Vinyl said, “You’re sure it’s the other side? Not the gateway’s edge?”

“I can see the trees.” She flared her horn, but extinguished it. “Damn it! Now what?”

Vinyl had no thoughts, and simply looked at Twilight.

“I need to think.”

They cruised, and soon, Vinyl could see the trees as well, pushing through the fog and through the dimness of her goggles.

“It either moved, or it’s closed,” Twilight finally said. “I doubt it moved, but I don’t see how it could have closed either.”

“So what do we do?” Her voice was carried away, and Twilight did not hear.

“Well… shit. Just shit.” She wiped her mane out of her eyes again. “All right, let’s go back. We need to get out of this, figure out what to do next.”

Vinyl nodded and turned them in a slow circle, putting the visible shore behind them and the massive expanse of water back before them. Neither spoke as their boat moved across the featureless lake, bearing yet more dread news.