The smoke choked and burned in Softmane’s lungs as she frantically ran on her tiny foal legs. Tears spilled from the unicorn filly’s eyes, the wide orbs a dirty mud brown color that matched her coat, though by now that coat was so covered in soot she was practically black. Her short messy gray mane was plastered to her head in wet, sweat soaked tangles, mixed with red from the blood of a nasty cut across her brow.

She didn’t know where she was going, only that her mother had told her to run, and she was too scared and confused to do anything other than what she was told. She ignored the screaming and cracking echoes of gunshots. She ignored the pleading and cries of pain interspersed with hacking laughter and high pitched cackles of glee. She ignored the blood she slipped in, face planting in the viscera of a pony whose lower half was missing.

Oh Goddesses, is that Mrs. Patio!? No, don’t look, father said run!
Softmane stepped around the body, too shocked to even feel properly sick at the sight. She was simply numb all over. Again her mother’s words spurred her on; run! Down the street she went, stumbling on her tiny legs, her mouth hanging open from constantly drawing in ragged breaths. Black curls of smoke washed over her path like a river, choking her as she ran through it. She heard horrible screaming to her right, seeing the smoke billowing from Mr. and Mrs. Happy Hour’s tavern, which was alive with fire. The screaming was from inside, and for a horrible instant Softmane saw Peach Cream, the serving mare, crawling out of the tavern door. Peach Cream’s body was charred black, only a few patches of her once clean pink coat still visible. Softmane didn’t slow her run, too terrified to try and help, tears streaming down her face.

The edge of town was just ahead, the black fence of thick forest surrounding the town visible through the haze of smoke. Maybe she’d hide among the trees? But what would she do, even after the bad ponies went away? Surely her mother would come find her? These thoughts were like the last bubbles of hope rising amid the filly’s drowning fears. Hope that gave a little extra strength to her numb, tired legs.

She felt something snap around her hind legs, sending her painfully tumbling end over end, and leaving her face down in the mud. As she coughed, trying to get her breath back, wondering what had hit her, she heard an awful screeching laugh from behind her. The laugh was interspersed with hacking coughs, and Softmane felt a rough hoof kick her over.

“Close, little one, close, but I’m afraid it just isn’t your day,” said the Raider, a bright orange mare with bloodshot brown eyes and a grime strewn black mane. The Raider was pressing one forehoof, clad in heavy rusty metal barding, down onto Softmane’s chest, crushing the filly down into the mud. Softmane tried moving her hindlegs, but found they were wrapped up in some kind of thick wire, two iron balls at either end binding her legs together.

“Hehhey! Ya got the little cunt!” said another Raider who trotted up, a purple mare with a half shaven head, her remaining white mane little more than wispy strands, “Makes the tenth foal we’ve got! Gonna be a helluva haul.”

The orange Raider licked her lips, her breath in Softmane’s face smelling of blood and sour things. “Gotta love slavers. Pay so much to get them young.”

Softmane turned her head away as the orange Raider ran one hoof over the filly’s face, almost delicately, as the other hoof pressed even harder on her chest, making it hard to breath. She wanted to try and look tough, like she knew her mother and father would want her to be. She tried to raise a hoof to push the Raider’s crushing hoof off her, or punch at that leering face, but all she got for her trouble was a sharp jab to her belly that left her coughing.

“Ha! Little bit of fight in that one!” said the purple Raider, “Maybe we oughta keep her for ourselves?”

Orange grinned at that, hauling Softmane to her hooves, only to smash the filly’s face with a quick punch that left Softmane dazed on the ground, blood welling from a split lip, “Might be we could squeeze a Raider out of this one, but nah, ain’t in the mood to break one in- aaaah! Little bitch!”

Softmane had used the Raider’s distraction to sink her teeth into an unarmored portion of the Raider’s leg, using the images of dead Mrs. Patio and the burned Peach Creme as fuel for a burst of anger in her tiny heart. She could still hear gunshots. She knew the ponies of Threestone were still fighting, including her mother! She’d fight too! She’d-

An explosion of pain in her back loosened her grip on the Raider’s leg, and the dirty orange mare, glaring, raised her hoof again and smashed it into the filly’s stomach. The purple Raider was laughing, rolling on the ground as she hooted and hollered, the orange Raider repeatedly bringing her hoof down onto the cringing Softemane. She tried to protect her head as best she could from the rain of blows, wondering if the Raider was just going to keep going until she was turned to bloody mush.

An intense fear gripped the filly then, her anger washing away with the realization that she was going to die. In that moment of absolute terror, Softmane did the only thing she could think of.

She prayed.

Softmane didn’t hear the lightning so much as felt it as a pressure wave of sound that flowed over her. It took several long moments for her ears to stop ringing, and when she opened her eyes, she saw little more than a blackened pile of roughly pony shaped char next to her where the orange Raider had been. The other Raider was being held up in the air by a veil of sparkling blue magic, and Softmane grimaced as the purple mare’s head was twisted around until a loud crack of breaking bone filled the air. The limp body was tossed aside by the magic like it was so much trash.

“We command you stand, tiny unicorn!” said a voice of grand feminine power from behind Softmane, “Stand and behold your salvation!”

Softmane stood on shaking legs and looked with small brown eyes turning wide at the sight of the pony before her. Taller than any adult she’d ever laid eyes on, the mare was an elegantly carved monolith of beauty. A coat of pristine blue and a long smooth silver mane framed a face of regal features, and two imperious purple eyes. Most notable were the massive, arched wings and the long pointed horn the pony bore. Softmane felt her lungs taking in short breaths.

“You... you... ” the little filly kept trying to talk.

The alicorn looked at her, a smugly pleased smile on her features as she struck a pose, “Yes? Go on! We are prepared to accept your words of worship and gratitude!”

Softmane fainted. The alicorn paused, then lowered her head with a heavy sigh.

“Or faint. That works too.”

----------

She didn’t have a name in any normal sense. She was a component of a whole. She could of course differentiate her body from those of her sisters, even understood on a basic level that she was still, in some ways, an individual. Yet that mattered little. The Goddess, the Unity, the chorus of all voices and thoughts and emotions intertwined into a constant vibrating song, this was a constant. The closest she could come to compare it to was like being stuck in a crowded house with no real privacy. You might have your own room, but anypony could come into your room and use your things, and the landlady most of all was always watching.

So she was in her own body, or what her body had become when it had been transformed to join Unity, and she was still, in a sense, herself. However, she shared her body with hundreds, even thousands of others, especially Her. The Goddess. Mother.

Right now the Goddess was paying a miniscule amount of attention to the blue alicorn and her two sisters that had been sent alongside her on this little expedition; a feeling of power tinging her mind but not exerting any force. At any time the Goddess could occupy her, exert overriding will through her body and use it like one might move one’s tail. For the moment, though, she and her two sisters had a certain autonomy.

Her two sisters were of the green variety; two identical alicorns of dark green coats and vibrant darker green manes. Without the Goddess exerting direct control the two greens were a little impetuous and impulsive. So far to the north, the wave of voices, memory, and emotion from Unity was slightly subdued, and it was an odd feeling of consciousness that she hadn’t felt in a long time. It was a novel feeling, but also disquieting, and allowed her to feel irritated at her sisters’ behavior.

“Must we waste time indulging you’re... inquisitiveness!?” she shouted at her two sisters, the pair of greens rummaging around inside a blasted out roadside convenience store. She could hear the pair giggling at each other in there like little fillies. The blue alicorn shivered, disliking the cold of this northern climate. Little wafts of snowflakes touched the dead ground of the mountain road.

“We have found most delightful frozen food items within!” called one of the greens, poking her head up from the broken window of the storefront with a patty of frozen hay in her mouth.

She ground her teeth in annoyance, feeling the Goddess’ own spike of impatience. The greens felt it as well and she heard the two whimper. The Goddess wanted them to return home quickly. She knew the Goddess considered the expedition a failure. All they had found was one settlement, mostly burned by filthy Raiders. After exterminating the filth all they had found of value was one candidate for Unity. The small filly in question was huddling behind her as she watched her two sisters walk guiltily from the convenience store, a few boxes of ancient frozen food hovering between them.

She gave the filly a glance. The small brown foal had been quiet since being rescued. There had been other survivors of the settlement, mostly foals the Raiders had captured, but only this filly had been a unicorn, and hence capable of joining Unity. She and her sisters had taken the filly and left the others, as they had been of no importance. Perhaps the filly was having difficulty adjusting to events? No matter. Soon all the filly’s problems would be over and she’d have a new family with the Goddess and the many souls of Unity.

“We are sorry, but these taste very good for their age!” said the green on the right, while the one on the left snuck out an old frozen bag of something beige with little brown chips in it.

“Look! We suspect this is cookie dough!”

The blue alicorn felt an eyebrow quirk as she looked at the pair, “Two hundred year old cookie dough?”

“Frozen,” said one of the greens defensively, a chorus of agreeing voices through Unity stating that the treat should’ve kept over the centuries, magical preservatives from before the war being of remarkable quality, “The freezer was entirely intact and functioning! Everything is fine! We know it to be so!”

The blue sighed, but more voices in Unity agreed than disagreed and the Goddess didn’t care as long as they hurried up and returned home. The two greens would have their frozen cookie dough and hay patties.

“Very well, We must go, then, now. Tiny pony!” the filly jumped at the commanding tone, “Prepare yourself for travel!”

“U...um...” the filly started to say, looking up at her with wide eyes.

She looked down at the filly, frowning, “What is it? We command you climb upon us and hold tightly as we fly! There can be no delays!”

“...Hungry.”

“Speak louder, tiny pony! We can barely hear you!”

“I’m hungry... c-could I have something, please?” the filly punctuated this question with a particular look; puffed up lips and wide eyes that made the blue alicorn feel quite uncomfortable. She nodded to the two greens.

“Very well, bring forth the cookie dough!” she commanded, lifting the filly with her magic and setting the pony upon her back, “You shall eat as we fly. Do not fall off. We would be very cross with you if we must catch you!”

The filly gave her a weak nod and wrapped her small hooves around her neck.

One of the greens puffed up her cheeks in a look of displeasure, “We do not see why we should give up delicious cookie dough to the tiny one. There are other food items within that could feed her just as easily without sacrificing the deliciousness!”

The blue gave her sister a sharp, imperious look, snatching the frozen bag of cookie dough from the green’s telekinetic grip, “We shall waste no time with further scrounging in the muck! Daylight fades, we fly until nightfall! This is the will of the Goddess!”

There was some further grumbling from the two greens, but little else as the three alicorns alighted into the darkening evening sky, steering a southern course through the mountain valley. Even in this region, less settled even before the war, balefire radiation had done its wicked work. The mountains were dull, brown, lifeless peaks, dotted with thick, deformed forests of twisted trees bearing blackened or browned leaves. As the three alicorns steered through a growing haze of snow from the thick clouds above the blue one used magic to warm the cookie dough and float out a few chunks for the filly to munch upon.

The filly ate eagerly, but the blue alicorn soon felt the small unicorn shaking. The blue frowned, needing a minute to realize the cold was the issue. She quickly redirected her heating spell to the filly herself, and soon she felt the filly relax, letting out a small sigh. The blue nodded in satisfaction that all matters were attended to, but a few minutes later the filly was shaking again. With a snort of annoyance the blue turned her head to recast her heating spell, only to notice the filly wasn’t shivering, but was instead shaking from sobs, small glittering streams of tears pooling from where she’d buried her face into the blue’s neck.

“We... what is wrong with you, tiny pony? We have fed you, you are warm, there should be no further issues!” the blue’s eyes widened, “You do not need to stop to use the tiny filly’s room do you!?”

The filly shook her head, saying nothing. The blue glanced at her sisters, but the two greens looked equally baffled, one of them giving the blue a helpless shrug. The Goddess was no help, barley paying the wing of alicorns any mind, and the blue got the impression the Goddess didn’t care much for crying little fillies anyway. The blue pressed her lips together in a thin line. Evening was soon turning to night, and even alicorns required physical rest and nourishment themselves. Those hay patties her sisters had found did look enticing.

“We have decided!” she declared, “That we shall land and make camp for the night. Sisters, find us a suitable place!”

The two greens exchanged a look, “Why must we do all the hard work?”

“We carry the filly! That is hard work. We are making use of your excessive curiosity to proper advantage. Seek a place of shelter so that we may pass the night in comfort!”

“Bossy blue,” one of the greens muttered as the pair banked down towards the winding mountain road they’d been following south. The blue held a circling pattern, awaiting the two greens to finish scouting a decent place to rest, still not sure why the filly on her back was shedding tears. More bothersome was the thought that she ought to understand the filly’s tears. The normally comforting, if still faint buzz of Unity’s voices held no answer, and there was a sense of displeasure from the Goddess.

The blue alicorn alleviated her anxiousness by focusing on her two sisters. As part of Unity they were linked, and it took only a moment of concentration to sense through their eyes and ears. Sharper than mere impression, it was more akin to having simultaneous images and sounds interposed over her own. To normal ponies it would be disorienting, but for her it was as easy as breathing.

The two greens had found an old log cabin along a dirt road that split off from the main road. The cabin was squat and its windows dark. Piles of metal work and junk dotted the surrounding yard, which was filled with tall yellowed grass. A old wagon, rusted through from the elements, was parked out front. The greens circled the cabin once, one of them noting an outhouse in the yard behind the cabin.

This will have to do, sisters, the alicorn communed to the pair as she tilted downward from her holding pattern and circled down above the forest until she reached the small clearing with the cabin. The two greens met her out front, both them unusually tense in their posture and giving the surrounding forest sidelong glances. The blue sensed their fear, and even the distant chorus of Unity didn’t seem to calm them. She couldn’t deny a strange sense of unease herself.

“We shall use this place to shelter for the night,” she declared to her sisters, then looked at the filly on her back, “You can let us go now. We are no longer flying.”

The filly gingerly slipped off her back, looking at the cabin nervously. The blue alicorn strode towards the porch confidently. If there was anything dangerous within it would discover the potency of three of the Goddess’ children. Inside the blue alicorn discovered that the cabin was cramped and cold. Only a simple cluttered living area with a fireplace and adjoining kitchen was to be seen from the front door, and less than a minute of poking around showed that only a small bedroom and closet were the only other areas within the cabin. The blue sniffed, sneezing a bit at the dust stirred into the air by her movements. It was clear nopony had been here in some time.

Soon all three alicorns and one young unicorn filly were sitting together in the cabin. The two greens had quickly gotten bored and one of them went to rummage through the kitchen, while the other started playing around with a large spherical object she’d dug out of one of the trash piles behind the living room’s single moth eaten couch. A few of the voices through Unity identified the object as a ‘bowling ball’. The blue alicorn absorbed a little knowledge of the sport from Unity and decided it was ridiculous.

“Be careful with that,” the blue said sternly, to which the green gave her a look and started levitating the bowling ball around in complex patterns around her head, the blue sighed, “Fine, but don’t expect us to clean up the mess when you break something.”

The filly was sitting in a corner near the fireplace, shivering, and was looking at the fireplace with a forlorn expression. The blue gave the filly a frowning look, and lifted a wing, “If you require warmth, we shall allow you to sit next to us. It will be easy to maintain a warming spell if you remain close, tiny one.”

“M...my name is Softmane...” the filly said, scooting closer to the blue and hesitantly cuddling up under the alicorn’s wing, sighing as the blue cast her warming charm and bathed the air around the filly with heat. Softmane gave the alicorns in the cabin curious looks, now that she was comfortable.

“Don’t any of you get cold?”

The green playing with the bowling ball, spinning the object around lazily, laughed, “We aren’t bothered by a little cold weather! Our bodies are way better than yours, at least until you join us. Then the cold won’t be a problem at all.”

The green’s stomach rumbled, “Hunger, though, is still a problem.”

The other green raised her head from behind the small stove she’d been poking at. “We have found cans of mystery food,” she declared, raising several small metal cans whose labels had long since become so jaded as to be unreadable, “Shall we prepare them?”

The other alicorns gave silent nods, and soon the cabin was filled with the clang of pots and pans as one the green fumbled about cooking the mysterious contents of the cans. None of the alicorns were concerned with trace radiation in the food, as the residual magic byproduct would only bolster their bodies.

“So...um...” Softmane spoke up, cautiously looking up at the blue alicorn, “What are your names?”

“We have no use for names,” the blue stated as if it the question itself had been pointless, which to her it was.

“How do you tell each other apart?”

The green with the bowling ball snickered at the blue’s clear consternation, the blue replying, “We are not apart. We are of the Unity. There is no need for-”

“What’s Unity?”

“Augh... you will be learning what Unity is soon enough, tiny one-”

“Softmane. I’m Softmane. Mom said it was bad manners not to use a pony’s name, if you know it,” the filly said, seeming to be getting more energetic. A combination of warmth and cookie dough? The energy was dampened by a crestfallen look on Softmane’s features, “Thank you for saving me, but can I go home now?”

The blue alicorn’s expression went stony, “We are taking you home. A new, better home, with a large family. You will join Unity. Rejoice, it will be a glorious new life!”

“But my mom might be looking for me! I have to go back home, because she’ll be worried,” the filly huddled in on herself, starting to cry. The blue hesitantly pulled her wing tighter around the filly.

“It is unlikely they still live. We saw survivors, but not many. Mostly young. None that looked old enough to be parents,” the blue alicorn said with uncertainty. There was nothing in the many voices of Unity that told her to how to speak to a pained, grieving filly. Most emotions and memories dealing with that kind of thing were expunged from Unity as needless. The blue felt particularly out of sorts as Softmane’s crying continued.

“The awkwardness has been doubled,” muttered the green who curled up around her bowling ball. The blue sensed the green fully intended to take the object with her and keep it as a souvenir of the trip.

Soon the cans of mystery food were ready, turning out to be some manner of corn. Not all that appetizing, but it filled the base need to have a full belly, and the hay patties taken from the convenience store were much better. By the time they were done eating Softmane had ceased crying, instead staring blankly at nothing. The blue, not sure if this was a better state of affairs or not, just kept the filly held close to her until eventually Softmane fell asleep.

There was quiet amongst the alicorns until one of the greens spoke aloud, “She won’t feel bad once she is with us. Unity has no sadness.”

The blue stirred, looking down at the sleeping filly, Softman’s face still tear stained even in slumber. The blue wasn’t sad, it was true. There was no room for emotions like that among the churning voices of Unity. Even if one of her sister’s were killed, whatever she might feel at that ‘death’ would be expunged quickly, and tempered by the knowledge that the soul was part of Unity, and never gone. She too needn’t fear the death of her body. It was just a body, after all, and she was part of the Unity. The Goddess, as always, looked after her children. She would look after this filly, Softmane, as well.

Only she wouldn’t be Softmane. That name would cease to be.

She’d not feel sad for dead parents, because she would not remember them.

That was the beauty of Unity. One of its many strengths.

The blue frowned, an uncertainty flitting across her thoughts like an unwelcome fly buzzing in the room. She was mostly certain none of the adults that had survived the Raider’s attack could be the filly’s parents. And even if one or both of Softmane’s parents lived, what kind of life could they offer their filly that matched the unrivaled glory of Unity and serving the will of the Goddess?

The blue repeated that thought, wishing she were closer to Maripony, so that the strength of Unity was such that her doubts would be drowned out utterly by the unifying choir of souls that had given her such comfort before. She didn’t even notice how closely she was holding the filly by her side, or that the filly was holding her back.

----------

The blue alicorn was stirred awakened by the sound of somepony approaching the cabin. The two greens, equally light sleepers, had also awoken, raising their heads at the sound of soft hoofsteps crunching down snow. No words needed to be exchanged between the alicorns, thoughts co-mingling into a plan of action instantly.

The blue cast a spell of invisibility, covering herself and the still sleeping Softmane. The greens stood and moved to either side of the room, horns glowing to erect iridescent shields around themselves.

A moment passed in silence, then the door burst open. An object rolled in, small and gray. The blue recognized a flash grenade from the pool of Unity’s knowledge and closed her eyes and put a protective wing around Softmane just as the grenade went off in a brilliant burst of light. Gunfire followed, as a pony levitated a rifle around the corner of the door and fired into one of the green alicorn’s shields. The magical barrier easily absorbed the shots.

The blue felt Softmane stir awake at the noise, and held the filly even closer to her invisible form as she narrowed her eyes. Dropping her invisibility she cut loose with a blast of lightning from her horn, which shattered the floating rifle. She heard the pony let out a curse and saw the shadowy shape of the pony duck around the cabin.

There is only one, said one of the greens, A unicorn mare. She is running.

She will not get far, said the other green who dropped her shield and trotted to the door.

Wait, it may be a trick, said the blue, but too late. Another gunshot rang clear through the air and the unshielded green’s head jerked to the side with a gaping hole, blood and brain alike spraying the wall as she stumbled to the ground.

The blue felt anger flare, both through her own thoughts and through the quaking voices of Unity. The Goddess might be able to make more of her children, and did not let them fear death, but the harming of one of their own still caused outrage. The blue surged to her hooves, ignoring the confused questions of Softmane.

Renewing her invisibility she strode out the front door, stepping over her fallen sister, and scanning around for the pony that would dare harm the children of the Goddess. She spotted the unicorn mare darting around the corner of the cabin, now with a large revolver floating in her magical grip. The blue alicorn became visible once more and fired another blast of lightning, blasting out part of the cabin in a shower of wood. She heard the unicorn mare yelp in pain and the alicorn grinned, turning invisible again before cautiously moving forward.

She spotted the unicorn mare picking herself up from the fresh fallen layer of snow, hide bloody from wood splinters the size of knives having stabbed her. The alicorn became visible again and blasted the mare’s revolver out of the air, even as the weapon got off a shot that grazed the blue’s cheek. The alicorn snorted.

“That will be enough of that!” she grabbed the unicorn mare in her own magic and lifted the mare up, holding her suspended in the air as she charged up another lightning bolt, “The Goddess will bring down judgement upon those who harm her children!”

“Wait!” a tiny voice shouted before the blue could unleash her lightning.

Softmane had appeared around the corner, her small form trembling, “Don’t hurt her!”

The blue frowned, “This one has brought harm to Unity! The Goddess demands judgement to be swift and-”

“That’s my mom!!”

The blue blinked, and looked at the unicorn mare in her grasp. She noted the brown coat and gray mane, identical to Softmane’s. She looked back at Softmane, then back at the unicorn she held suspended in the air, lightning still crackling around her horn like an eager, living thing.

“We find this circumstance to be extremely off putting,” the blue alicorn declared to nopony in particular.

“S-Softmane, honey, run!” the unicorn said, struggling uselessly in the grip of the alicorn’s magic.

Softmane shook her head and rushed up, “No! I thought you were dead, mom! I’m not going to run away! Please, let her go.”

Softmane was shaking the blue alicorn’s leg. The surviving green alicorn had come outside to see what was happening and was frowning at the scene, hovering her bowling ball nearby as if she intended to use it as a bludgeon on Softmane’s mother. The blue alicorn could feel the green’s thoughts and knew that’s exactly what the green was considering. The blue sent a small mental message for the green to hold off, then fixed Softmane’s mother with a narrow eyed look.

“We are confused as to why you are alive. You were not among the survivors we saw from the settlement! Explain!” she shook the unicorn mare about a bit, partly to emphasis that a quick response would be preferable, and partly because it made her feel slightly better.

“During the fight I had to take cover in one of the houses. Big red Raider mare with a rocket launcher popped a shot right through the door. I managed to dive down the basement stairs just in time, but the whole damn house came down. Pure luck I didn’t get crushed. By the time I dug myself out, the fight was over, the Raiders dead or run away, and my daughter taken by you... whatever in Tartarus you are!”

“We are the children of the Goddess,” the blue said, holding her head high, then quirked an eyebrow, “You followed us all this distance? So quickly?”

The unicorn mare’s brown eyes flashed with intensity, “You had my daughter. I’d have tracked you across all of Equestria, without rest, without fail, to get her back! Besides, three brightly colored ponies stand out against a gray sky. You weren’t hard to follow.”

The Goddess had been paying some minor attention to events, incensed by the death of one of her children, but ever thinking forward, ever practical, the Goddess had a new thought besides punishment. While the Goddess sought magical knowledge to add to the pool of Unity above all else, other traits were of value as well; including determination and willpower. Unity’s voices spoke in a ocean current of whispers, all gradually coming to agreement with their Goddess.

“We see,” said the blue alicorn, receiving her new orders from the Goddess, “Then rejoice. You’re tenacity impresses the Goddess! You shall join Unity alongside your daughter!”

The mare’s eyes went wide, and her features turned into a snarl, “What are you talking about!? I just want my daughter back, you blasted monsters!”

Softmane gulped, looking between the two, “Y-you couldn’t just let us go!? You don’t really need us in this Unity, do you? You could just forget you saw us.”

The blue alicorn, for a moment, considered the option. Not for long, however. The Goddess asserted her will, making any further thought on the matter moot. The blue felt a pang of disquiet, saying, “There is no need for fear. The two of you shall be together in Unity, forever. It shall be a better life than what you would find otherwise. We give you our word.”

Softmane’s mother was less than enthused with that response, and struggled greatly. The blue alicorn had to use the rather inelegant method of blunt force trauma to knock the mare unconscious, then bind her thoroughly with strips of cloth taken from the cabin’s window curtains. Softmane was easier to console, seeming so relieved that her mother was alive that she wasn’t particularly argumentative.

“W...will we really be together, me and mom? We’ll be okay, in, uh, Unity, or whatever it is?” the filly asked anxiously.

“Of course, the Goddess does not lie,” said the blue alicorn said confidently..

Softmane chewed her lower lip, looking at the body of the green her mother had killed, “Um... sorry, about your friend.”

“We do not mourn death, for death does not trouble the children of the Goddess. Our sister lives eternally in Unity, as shall you and your mother.”

Silence stretched out between them as the sky lightened with the gray wash of pre-dawn. The air was frigid, but the blue kept the area warm with a heating spell as she helped her remaining sister secure Softmane’s mother to her back with more strips of cloth. If they flew all day they’d be close to home. The blue couldn’t wait to be back in the safe embrace of Unity’s full presence; mostly so it’d silence the uneasiness in her at the events of this trip. It’d made her think far too much.

As she helped Softmane onto her back, the filly wrapping her hooves around the blue’s neck one more time, she spoke up, “Does it hurt?”

“Does what hurt?”

“Joining Unity?”

The blue looked up, thinking. She couldn’t honestly remember what joining Unity was like. Amid the wash of countless memories from hundreds upon hundreds of ponies that had gone through the process, the actual memory of the event itself was elusive. She was about to say she didn’t know, when the Goddess exerted her control once more, the overbearing presence flowing through the blue alicorn’s consciousnesses like a heavy, wet blanket.

“Of course it does not hurt. You will be fine, little pony. Trust the Goddess..”

The Goddess withdrew and the blue alicorn hid a small frown from Softmane. She had the faintest impression, despite not really remembering the event, that the Goddess wasn’t being entirely truthful about the painlessness of joining Unity. However, ultimately, it didn’t matter. Painful or not, neither Softmane nor her mother would recall the process, and if they did, they would not care. Unity was all that mattered.

They took the sky, the two remaining alicorns now bringing two more candidates to add to the ranks of Unity. As they broke the through the tree line and sailed past low hanging clouds, Softmane wrapped herself up in the blue alicorn’s mane. Before long she felt the filly shaking again, and the alicorn sighed.

“Are you crying again?”

Looking back, she saw that Softmane was indeed crying, but for some reason the filly was also smiling. The blue cocked her head, confused.

“Huh? Uh, yeah, heheh,” Softmane laughed, wiping her face with the blue’s mane, which caused the alicorn to give the filly a cross look. Softmane responded with a sheepish grin, and shrug, “I don’t know why. My home’s gone, but my mom’s okay, so I don’t know what to feel. I’m happy, but I’m crying.”

The blue shook her head, “Strange. There will be no such confusion for you soon.”

Softmane’s hooves clenched tighter around the alicorn’s mane, “What’s Unity like? Is it a town, or what?”

“Ha, it is not a place, but a state of being. You shall be like us! Strong, eternal, and safe under the protective watch of the Goddess.”

“Like you, so me and mom will be all big and horny?”

The alicorn stumbled in mid-air, dropping several dozen feet before regaining her balance and steadying her flight, “Y-yes... in a manner of speaking. We would prefer you do not use such phrases in the future. Or ever.”

Softmane giggled, “Aww, that’s so cute, you get embarrassed! I’m a big filly, I know all about that kind of stuff. What, does the Goddess not let you have coltfriends,” the filly grinned evilly and whispered in the alicorn’s ear, “Or marefriends”

There was now a red alicorn in the sky, instead of a blue one, “We demand you cease teasing us this instant! The Goddess’ wills that dirty minded filly’s behave themselves and act properly!”

“Ooooh, or what?”

“Or we spend an hour practicing our barrel rolls.”

After a frightful squeak and burying herself in the alicorn’s mane Softmane said, “I’ll be good!”

The blue alicorn nodded her approval at the pacified filly and settled into what would hopefully be a relaxing and uneventful flight home to the Goddess. She pointedly ignored the snickering from the green alicorn, nor the amused thoughts from some of the others in Unity. As if any of them wouldn’t have been put off by such comments!

“You know, though,” said Softmane, “I should give you two names, if we’re going to be family together in this Unity thing.”

The blue sighed, rolling her eyes, “We do not need names; we have explained this!”

“Even if you were to give us names, you would not remember them after joining Unity,” pointed out the green, who was back to playing with her bowling ball, floating it between her hooves as she paid half attention to flying.

“I don’t get why I’d forget,” said Softmane, “I have really good memory! Mom never has to tell me the same lesson twice. Well, maybe twice. Once three times, but anypony could mistake rabbit and bear tracks!”

“It is... ugh, nevermind, we are tired of arguing. Name away,” said the blue alicorn irritably, though some part of her was oddly pleased with the filly’s insistence. With no memory of what her name had been before joining Unity she couldn't remember what having a name was like. Something about the notion sounded... pleasant.

Distracted by such thoughts, the blue didn’t notice the unusual black smoky contrail approaching from below until her fellow alicorn sent a mental warning to her. The blue banked hard, narrowly avoiding what looked like a rocket trailing between the two alicorns. Her sharp maneuver caused Softmane, however, to slip right off her back. The filly screamed as she went into freefall, little legs flailing wildly. Clear Tracks, having regained consciousness at her daughter’s scream, began to struggle on the green alicorn’s back.

“Softmane!”

The green grunted and held Clear Tracks down with magic, while the blue’s eyes narrowed in focus as she tucked her wings and went into a dive after the falling filly. The ground rapidly approached, the alicorn’s having not been flying that high to begin with, and the blue alicorn just barely managed to snap Softmane’s tail in a grip of magic just as they fell below the treeline.

“Cease screaming, we have you,” the blue alicorn said as she floated Softmane over to her and started to climb, however sharp retort of automatic gunfire echoed through the forest and the blue felt a bolt of intense, rending pain as bullets ripped through her right wing.

She pitched to the right, slamming into a tree, and spun to the ground, only an extreme effort of focus allowing her to keep Softmane safely in her magical grip as she hit the ground and skidded a good dozen yards through the snow packed ground.

She dropped Softmane to the ground and struggled to her hooves, despite pain lancing through her from what she imagined had to be multiple bone fractures. She felt the thoughts of the green alicorn as her sister descended towards where she’d fallen, sending warnings of seeing movement throughout the trees, approaching fast. The blue heard whoops and eager laughter drifting through the forest and saw numerous ponies in dirty animal hide barding surrounding where she and Softmane had landed. All of them bore weapons in varying states of rust and repair. One of them clearly had a smoking rocket launcher strapped to her flanks via a makeshift battle saddle.

Raiders. Quite possibly from the same tribe that had launched the attack on Softmane’s settlement.

Softmane, terrified, was backing up towards the blue alicorn. The alicorn checked her right wing, wincing at the mangled limb, torn through with massive holes from a high caliber machine gun. She wouldn’t be flying again any time soon. The green descended and landed next to her, Clear Tracks rolling off the other alicorn’s back to land in the snow. Her daughter ran up to Clear Tracks, quickly biting at her mother’s cloth bindings while the green alicorn erected a green shield around the whole group. The Goddess was observing things intently, and with great irritation. Through the voices of Unity the blue alicorn could sense the debate of what to do, whether to leave the wounded blue that couldn’t fly behind and take the two candidates for Unity away to safety, or to try fighting the dozens of Raiders now surrounding them.

Silence! The Goddess’ overriding voice thundered through Unity, We do not abandon our children! Fight, and slay these filthy creatures in pony skins! Assistance is coming!

The blue and green alicorn could feel the Goddess’ plan to send a wing of their purple sisters towards their location via teleportation, though the long distance still meant it’d take some time for them to arrive, but the Goddess was infuriated and dedicated to her children’s survival.

The Raiders looked at the alicorn’s with brief hesitance, but seeing their vastly superior numbers, the dozens of dirty, weapon laden ponies grinned at each with snickers of confidence. The one with the rocket launcher, apparently the leader, strode forward with a swagger of her red flank and planted herself at the head of her pack.

“Fancy glowing shield, but bet it can’t take all of us hitting it at once. Let fly boys and girls, them that die will be meat for months, and any that live, playtoys for us to have a good time with!”

With that the red Raider mare let fly with a rocket and the others opened fire with a deafening barrage of gunfire. The green alicorn grunted in concentration as her shield was put to the test against such a punishing assault. Clear Tracks, free now from her bonds, had drawn her revolver and put her daughter behind her protectively.

“How long can you hold this thing up?” the unicorn mare asked, and the green alicorn blew out a huff.

“Not as long as we should like! If you had not killed our sister we could make it last much longer, foalish pony!”

Clear Tracks frowned but her eyes were belying their fear as she put a hoof around Softmane, “Then what do we do?”

The blue alicorn assessed the shield, realizing that it would only hold for half a minute under this kind of fire. There were about twenty to thirty raiders spread in a wide semicircle in front of them, leaving the area behind them relatively clear. To defeat these numbers seemed... problematic. But hope was not lost. Unity had benefits beyond the obvious. A vast pool of knowledge to draw from was quite useful in the right circumstances. The blue alicorn questioned the vast collective of souls in Unity, and the Goddess herself, on how explosive rockets were when introduced to high electric current.

The answer was a definitive sense of a wide, malicious grin from the Goddess.

The Goddess liked fireworks.

“We have a plan,” the blue said, “Be prepared to fight, once we create a big boom.”

“Big boom, what does that-” Clear Tracks began to say, but the blue alicorn was already channeling her spell. Coordinating with her green sister via their thoughts, the green opened a small hole in her shield, which was already starting to collapse, and the blue cast her lightning spell.

As it happened the red Raider mare was firing her rocket launcher after having just finished reloading it, just as the alicorn’s flashing blue bolt of lightning struck the weapon. Fuses were tripped inside the warhead and the weapon, and Raider, went up in a blazing flash of fire and bloody chunks. Shrapnel caught half a dozen Raiders standing by their leader, and the shockwave knocked down others.

In that momentary gap of distraction the alicorns, plus one unicorn mare, launched their attack. The green alicorn manifested shards of magic, like eldritch knives, and sent them flying into the ranks of Raiders. The blue advanced, despite her wounds, casting more bolts of lightning, while at the same time cloaking herself with invisibility in between blasts to confuse her presence. Clear Tracks stayed near her daughter, using her body as a shield, while taking careful aim and firing off precise shots with her revolvers.

By the ten seconds or so it took the Raiders to recover from the explosion of their leader and her impressive weapon, a third of them had been taken down by the tenacious attacks of their intended victims. However the Raiders got their act together quickly, and viciously returned the favor.

Despite being able to erect her shield once more, the green alicorn found her magic drained quickly under repeated gunfire, especially from a large bay stallion with a belt fed machine gun that gradually wore down the magical barrier. Despite ripping another few Raiders to shreds with eldritch knives, the green alicorn’s shield dropped and she was jerked back by the machine gun fire that peppered her hide. Still refusing to drop, perhaps incensed still by the loss of her sister earlier, the green growled and levitated her bowling ball from where she’d kept it safely tucked up against her side, and sent the thing spinning into the ranks of Raiders, smashing heads and limbs alike.

The blue fared a little better, flickering in and out of invisibility as she lashed out with lightning, but a Raider wielding a large tree trunk with wood spikes wrapped around it got the drop on her and smashed into her side painfully. The blue cried out as the Raider smashed her side again, snapping the bones in a foreleg and bending the limb at an awkward angle. The black Raider mare raised her club to smash the blue alicorn’s head, but instead had her own head blasted apart by Clear Track’s last bullet before the unicorn had to slowly start to reload her revolver.

The green alicorn, fallen to her knees from dozens of bullet holes in her, managed to break the back of the machine gun equipped Raider with one last throw of her bowling ball, before slumping to the snow. The white of the snow was stained red with alicorn blood as the green sighed once, and then went still.

The blue, unable to stand either, still managed to raise herself enough to track the last few Raiders, only four left. A blast of lightning reduced that number to three, but then one of the Raiders lowered a bloody semi-automatic pistol and unloaded the clip at the blue. Most of the shots went wide due to the Raider’s poor aim, but three or four smacked into the alicorn’s hide and she felt a lung puncture clean through. Blood filled her throat and her horn fizzled, unable to conjure any more magic.

By now Clear Tracks had reloaded, and with her remarkable aim put a bullet through the neck of the Raider that’d shot the blue alicorn. The last remaining Raiders were both armed with melee weapons, a spear and a knife, and both were felled by Clear Tracks as they tried to rush her.

The battle had taken less than two minutes, but had left the snowy forest clearing covered in a field of dead bodies.

“Pleasebeokay!” said a fast, frightened voice and the blue alicorn, blood covering her once pristine blue coat, tilted her head to see Softmane rushing up to her. The filly looked over the fallen alicorn with tears in her eyes.

“M-mom! Mom she’s hurt!”

Clear Tracks, miraculously unwounded during the fight, approached, reloading her revolver and looking around. She noted the green, unmoving and unbreathing, then sighed and looked over the blue as Softmane put her hooves over the alicorn’s wounds, trying to stop the blood flow.

“I’m sorry honey, I don’t think there’s anything I can do,” Clear Tracks said, and while there was sympathy in it for her daughter, the blue alicorn noted the undercurrent of relief in the mare’s voice as well. There would be no taking these two to Unity now. The flight of purple alicorns were still some distance away, despite constant teleporting.

“No! No, no ,no, you have to do something!” Softmane pleaded, “Please, mom, she was... she was really nice to me, and saved me from the Raiders before!”

Clear Tracks shook her head, and Softmane’s eyes welled up, the filly trembling even as she kept trying to push her hooves over the bleeding bullet holes. The blue alicorn chuckled, then regretted it as pain filled her chest. She raised a hoof and gently stroked Softmane’s face.

“Dumb... filly. Haven’t listened to a word we have told you?” the blue alicorn said, even as she felt her body going cold and numb, which wasn’t so bad as that meant the pain was fading too, “This body means nothing... the Goddess keeps us, forever, in Unity.”

The blue alicorn shuddered, closing her eyes, her breathing slowing. Softmane let out a choking sob, wrapping her hooves around the alicorn’s neck and burying her face in the alicorn’s mane.

“Warmth!” she said in a whisper, “That’s... what I wanted to name you. Warmth. Because you mane is really warm.”

“Warmth...” the alicorn’s eyes fluttered open, and her blood stained lips smiled, “We think that’s a nice name.”

The blue alicorn, Warmth, took one last shallow breath. Then she became still, eyes staring blankly.

Clear Tracks allowed her daughter to cry for a minute longer, but suspected they didn’t have long before more alicorns showed up. Thankful as she was that these two alicorns had died protecting her and her daughter, Clear Tracks had no intention of letting more such creatures take them captive again. Soon, she pulled Softmane away with a gentle, but firm hoof.

“Come on, honey, we have to go,” Clear Tracks said with a comforting softness.

Softmane let her mother lead her from the clearing, though she looked back once last time at the form of the fallen alicorns. Her small brown eyes stared at the scene, as if trying to stamp it upon her memory.

Her mother’s hooves pulled her close into a hug as Softmane hung her head, and soon the filly was lifted onto Clear Tracks’ back as the mother and daughter left the clearing behind.

By the time the Goddess’ flight of purple alicorn’s arrived on the scene there was no sign of tracks from the captives the Goddess had intended to join Unity. Clear Tracks had covered her trail well and none of the alicorn’s knew how to begin a search. The Goddess considered sending the flight to Softmane’s and Clear Tracks’ settlement, but this expedition had been costly enough already. With a wave of annoyance washing through Unity the Goddess ordered her alicorns to return home, resolving to focus her attentions on the more populated central regions of Equestria from now on and leave these isolated mountains alone. They just weren’t worth it.

Amid the churning chorus of Unity’s many souls, one soul floated in the aether, her consciousness losing almost all sense of individual identity amid the endless hum of her many sisters. But one word remained hanging, clear, despite the buzz of Unity’s other souls. A word that for reasons she was already forgetting seemed very important, and she held onto the word, not letting it be swept away.

Warmth.