To Whom It May Concern

by Wheller

First published 8th of November, 2011

When Derpy Hooves takes a delivery job to a far off land, she quickly finds herself wrapped up in the local's conflict.

After Pinkie Pie is kidnapped, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch and Surprise race to the southern border of Equestria to rescue her.

Chapter 1

Chronology notes:
Stop! You are reading the sixth story in the Bonds of Eternity Series.

The first story in the series is Family found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1307/

The second story in the series is Nihil Novi Sub Sole found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1444/

The third story in the series is Friends in High Places found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1716/

The fourth story in the series is Trust found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1973/

The fifth story in the series is Domino Effect found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2151/

Derpy Hooves adjusted her flight goggles as she decreased altitude, nearly there, she told herself. The flight had been a long one, an entire day, as the Pegasus flies from the Pony Express outpost on the border between the open countryside and the southern Everfree forest.

Pony Express was a package courier service run by an older earth pony by the name of Earl. Earl had been long time friends with Derpy’s boss at the Post Office, Pete. Earl had apparently come to Pete looking for a long distance flier, and Pete, being the good boss that he was, highly recommended Derpy for the position.

Derpy was happy to take the job; she jumped on every chance that she could to take on more complex jobs to prove her worth to the rest of the town. Pete had given her leave to take the job, and had gotten Raindrops to cover her mail route for her.

Derpy was rapidly approaching the southern end of the Mohoofie Desert; soon enough, she’d be hitting the Divide, her destination. The Divide was aptly named, for it was the southern border of Equestria and the wild lands, an uninhabited stretch of land that went on for many hundreds of kilometres south.

Derpy made her descent, and thought back to the first time she met Earl and had taken the Pony Express job.

...

“I just want to thank you again for taking this job on such short notice, Miss Hooves. Pete and I are old buddies and you came highly recommended.” Earl said.

Derpy couldn’t help but notice that Earl looked a lot like Pete, except for the fact that he was wingless. Hell, they could have been twins were it not that fact. The only real difference being that Earl looked like he was ten years older than Pete, and had a saddlebag for a Cutie Mark, rather than Pete’s shipping crate.

Derpy sat quietly while Earl continued to speak.

“Honestly? You’re doing me a big favour, first deadbeat we hired to do the job cancelled. Hope a thunder storm strikes him something fierce.”

“He cancelled?” Derpy asked.

“Yeah, Pete had already given me a name for all his long distance certified flyers; he looked at it and saw your name on the list, perked right up, asked if your name was for real. I said ‘Well yeah sure, she’s one of my buddy Pete’s flyers...’ then he turned down the job just like that, I asked him if he was sure, its good money. ‘No, let Derpy Hooves carry the package.’ Like he knew you or something... then he just upped and walked out. Tell you what; this job has been nothing but strange since that older earth pony in those dark sunglasses put down the deposit on this job... My gut’s been telling me to pass this one up, but I can’t afford to turn down the money that feller was offering,” Earl said with a shrug.

Derpy looked at him oddly. “This other guy? Did he tell you his name? What did he look like?”

“Uh...” Earl said, wracking his brain for information. “Heck, I’m old, I don’t remember! It was something weird though... like it was from some other language I’d never heard before... maybe... oh I don’t remember his name. As for what he looked like... Pegasus...”

Derpy waited for Earl to offer up more, but when he didn’t Derpy continued to question him. “And...?”

“Uh... I don’t rightly remember... grey coat? Or maybe it was crème? Heck... had his mane in a real funky way too. Don’t know exactly how to describe it,” Earl said.

That was completely unhelpful, grey or crème, mane in a funky way. With a description like that, that had to have described at least a third of the population of Cloudsdale. Derpy dropped the issue and went on with the business.

“Well. Here’s the package,” Earl said, sliding it over to her, along with a Pony Express mailbag to carry it in. “Remember, you’re not only representing yourself, but all of Pony Express! And go easy on the package, I’ve been told it’s fragile.”

...

Derpy followed instructions to the letter, she had just touched down on the ground and was about ready to enter the narrow passage way. The client’s instructions were clear, take the package to the edge of the Divide, set down on the ground outside the narrow path, and walk the rest of the way.

They had talked about the Divide in Flight School. It was well known for its rogue weather patterns. Blizzards, cyclones, monsoons, hail, sandstorms, all of them sprung up out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. There was a reason that nopony went this far south, it was a death trap.

So one could very easily imagine Derpy’s shock when she learned that ponies not only lived here, but actually had been living here for quite some time! Long enough for two settlements to have popped up, the package that Derpy was carrying was bound for a place called Ashville in the extreme south of the canyon.

It turned out that while the weather patterns above the canyon were insane, the canyon itself shielded Ashville from nearly all of it. Rain water would roll into the canyon itself, on occasion, and Ashville would apparently have a waterfall running in front of it for days, dumping water into a river that carried it away, quite oddly towards the north.

Derpy figured that Ashville had to have been an interesting place to live, not only was the town situated behind a waterfall sometimes, but it had the only river in Equestria... maybe on the planet, that flowed from south to north, rather than north to south. Needless to say, Derpy Hooves was very interested in speaking to the inhabitants of Ashville.

Derpy jumped as she heard a rock bounce along the passageway wall, she looked up and then all around her. Hoping that rogue weather had not decided to spring up while she was in here. She stopped for a moment, and gave the area a quick glance, and then looking upwards. The sky was clear; Derpy sighed in relief and went about her way.

As Derpy continued to follow the passageway, she couldn’t help but feel as if eyes were upon her. Somepony... or maybe someone... or something, was watching her.

No! That was silly! Derpy told herself as she continued on her way, nopony was watching her, and likely neither a someone nor a something was watching her either. She was just nervous because she’d never been here before... and Flight School had talked about the Divide’s weather patterns a lot.

Derpy eventually decided that she was making herself nervous because of thoughts of Flight School. Flight School had been a terrible time for Derpy, because she’d been picked on repeatedly by the “dumb jocks,” Hoops, Quarterback, and Dumb-Bell. Thanks to her eye condition, as a result, Derpy had had rather poor attendance during Flight School and had not really gotten the best education that she could have. She had eventually failed out of school completely due to a lack of attendance, poor depth perception, and an overall “below average” flying ability. The only reason that she had been able to get a job was because Pete was a good colt and had decided to give her a chance. He’d even been able to get her Long Distance Certified.

Derpy smiled, if anything, that had proved to her that not all ponies were heartless bastards, and while Derpy would never be able to get a job in Cloudsdale, because of her failure at Flight School, it didn’t matter, because Ponyville was where she wanted to live and work anyway.

It was a place where she could raise Dinky to be a good mare, and while it wasn’t always easy, it was right.

Derpy heard another rock fall and jumped again. She glanced around. Now she was sure that something was watching her. Derpy continued onward, keeping her mind focused on the task ahead.

Another rock fell, Derpy was scared now. She was regretting taking this job at all, she shouldn’t have left Ponyville, and she shouldn’t have left Dinky! She shouldn’t...

Derpy had found her way through the narrow passageway; she was now in the Divide proper. She was high up, and she could see Ashville on the far side of the canyon.

However, she did take notice that there was another settlement here. Earl had not spoken of it much; maybe he didn’t think it was important. Derpy looked at the sign on the edge of the settlement. “Hopeton,” it said.

Before Derpy had even registered all her surroundings, maybe a dozen ponies leapt from their hiding spots around her, a combination of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, all of them wearing crude metal plates around their bodies, fashioned into a patchwork of barding.

Each of them had some kind of weapon on them. Some of them had knives, some of them had spears, and Derpy noticed that the unicorns were levitating firearms. Of which Derpy had only seen before in a magazine from South Island that Vinyl Scratch had given her.

Derpy swallowed hard nervously, and noticed that another pony was walking towards her. This one was different, rather than wearing metal barding, this one was wearing a green greatcoat which covered his entire body. As for his race, all Derpy could tell was that he was not a unicorn. (The coat covered everything else that would identify his race, as such.)

Derpy noticed that his coat was a beige colour, and his mane was a dark chestnut, but what stuck out to Derpy Hooves the most were the eyes.

They were blood red.

The great coat covered pony smiled at her eerily. “Welcome to Hopeton, package courier,” he said noting the Pony Express bag on her flank. “The name’s Métis Trotter Retslaf, though it’s just Retslaf to you. We really hope you enjoy your stay with us! Because it’s going to be for quite some time.”

Derpy gulped loudly with fear. What had she gotten herself into?

Chapter 2

“No! Stop, you can’t do this!” Derpy cried out as two metal armour clad ponies dragged her along. “That package doesn’t belong to you!”

The two ponies didn’t particularly seem to care; rather, they opened a large metal cell door and tossed her inside without another thought. The door slammed shut and Derpy leapt to her hooves, rushing towards and banging on the bars of the cell.

No one came, everyone just ignored her. Derpy slumped to the ground. She had failed, she let Pete down, she let Earl down, and she let herself down. And now, here she was, letting Dinky down too because she had told her that it was a quick trip, there and back. She wouldn’t be gone long. I’ll be back before you know it.

That was about the time that Derpy noticed that she was not in the cell alone. Out of the corner of her eye, Derpy looked and there he was. Derpy jumped in surprise, her heart began to race, but she forced herself to calm down and then got a better look. It was an earth pony, he was sitting quietly, barely aware of her, reading a book. What really had startled Derpy was the fact that he was covered from head to hoof in bandages. He also seemed to be wearing riot barding. Derpy took a closer look, it was definitely riot barding. Derpy looked closer and read what it said on it. “CPS C019.”

“That’s ‘Canterlot Police Service’” the earth pony said without even bothering to look up from his book.

Derpy practically leapt into the air at the bandaged pony’s speech. He did not look up from his book.

“Calm yourself,” the earth pony said simply. “You are among a friend.”

Derpy took a deep breath, and sat down on the ground. “I’m... sorry, you just startled me is all...”

“I tend to have that effect on ponies,” the earth pony said without looking up.

“I’m Derpy Hooves; I’m a package courier with Pony Express.”

“I’m Graham Cracker; I suppose you could call me the mayor of Ashville,” Graham said simply. He shut his book and looked up at Derpy. Graham Cracker’s bright blue eyes were all that she could see of him. “I was expecting a courier... just not you, though; I suppose he wouldn’t have walked through the passageway.”

“I was carrying a package to Ashville, Retslaf took it,” Derpy said. “I’m going to admit... I’m not entirely sure at what’s going on here...”

“Isn’t it simple? Hopeton and Ashville are at war with each other,” Graham said, like it was obvious. “The inhabitants of Hopeton hate us because we’re better off than they are. We’re sheltered from the Divide’s rogue weather patterns, they are not. So they wish to destroy us and take our town for their own... We tried to be reasonable, tried to reach a peaceful solution... it did not happen, now, we fight. It’s the way of life.”

“I see...” Derpy said. She kind of regretted that she had asked. “What were you reading?”

“The book of Nephi,” Graham said simply.

The book of Nephi... that sounded familiar, Derpy had heard that from somewhere before...

That was when it hit her. The Book of Nephi was the holy book of the nephites, a religious group that shunned Princess Luna and Princess Celestia as deities. They weren’t exactly popular in Equestria; many had taken to dubbing them “morons.” Many called them worse.

“So... uh... you’re a moron huh?” Derpy said, then the thought of exactly what she had said hit her, and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves. She could not believe that she had just said that out loud.

Graham Cracker looked right at her, his bright blue eyes felt as if they were drilling through her skull, but what bothered her the most was probably the fact that she couldn’t see Graham Cracker’s face, she had no idea what the expression that he had under those bandages was.

“Well... considering my current situation, I’d say yes, I am a moron,” Graham said with a chuckle. That was a joke. Graham was smiling at her under those bandages. “I do not take offence; many of us have even started using the name ‘moron’ as a badge of honour.”

“Still... I don’t want to imply that you’re stupid... I know what it’s like to be called things that I’m not,” Derpy said.

“You are kind,” Graham said simply. “Come, stand with me, it’s almost meal time.”

As if on cue, a unicorn levitating two trays of food and a pistol appeared into view, unlocked the door, and walked in. She set the food down on the floor and pushed it towards them.

“Heavenly father,” Graham said, bowing his head. “I thank thee for the food that thou provides for us. I thank thee that our captors are not so brutish to have denied us our basic needs...”

The unicorn looked particularly annoyed, and glanced around the corner, looking bored. That was when Graham made his move; he leapt out and tackled the unicorn to the ground, promptly snapping her neck, causing her pistol to fall to the ground.

“And I ask thee’s forgiveness for what I have done,” Graham said, finishing his prayer, and picking up the fallen guard’s pistol and spare ammunition. Derpy’s mouth dropped wide open in shock. Graham looked back around at her and waved her on, “Come Derpy, we’re leaving.”

Derpy followed, and watched as Graham attached the pistol and the extra ammo to a harness on his flanks that Derpy had not noticed before, a small metal arm extended out in front of him as he trotted out of the cell. “Schäferhund Storm Harness,” Graham explained. “I can’t exactly use my teeth as most would.”

Derpy watched in awe, she was frightened, to say the least, but she figured that she was better off following Graham than staying here, she slowly followed him out, taking care to step around the dead unicorn and out of the cell door.

“Stay behind me, you’ll be fine,” Graham said as he casually strolled away from the holding cells. They rounded a corner, and into the field of view of two other earth pony guards, Graham fired the pistol, two shots, enough to bring down the two guards without incident.

Graham looked back to the frightened Derpy Hooves. "I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other," he said simply, and continued to trot out towards the back entrance to the holding facility.

Graham pushed open the door quickly, catching two more guards by surprise. One of them being an earth pony with a spear, and a unicorn with a pistol just like his own, two more shots rang out and the ponies collapsed to the floor. Graham quickly picked up the gun and its ammunition and gave it to Derpy. They were outside the holding facility and into the open air of the Divide itself.

“Come! We need to get as far away from here as possible before they realise we’re gone. Most of Retslaf’s guards are eating. We won’t get a better chance,” Graham said.

“What about the package?” Derpy asked.

“We’ll worry about it later, your life is more important than the package, don’t forget that,” Graham said, he waved her on, and without another word the two ponies galloped away into the sunset.

...

Graham Cracker and Derpy stopped after twenty straight minutes of running. Derpy was exhausted. Graham on the other hoof didn’t seem to be at all phased. Derpy had taken notice that the Divide was littered with old, ruined buildings between the two towns of Hopeton and Ashville, and as such, they had stopped just outside one. Graham pushed open the door to reveal what had once been somepony’s residence, though it looked as if it had not been occupied as such in quite a long time.

“We can stop and rest here for tonight. It’s not safe to continue on during the night,” Graham said simply as he sat down on a poorly aged sofa. “I have to change my bandages; you’re not going to want to watch this part.”

“Why...?” Derpy began, but Graham cut her off.

“The bandages are for burns. The price of failure,” Graham said simply. “There is a time and a place for everything. For that tale, this is neither the time nor the place. You should try to get some rest; we’ll be waking up early tomorrow.”

Derpy nodded and went into another room and lied down on the ground, she closed her eyes and tried to do her best to sleep.

Sleep did come quickly, her dreams, however, were haunted by the pony that had helped her escape. Graham Cracker frightened Derpy Hooves, despite his calm, and collected demeanour, the holy pony’s quick resort to violence had rattled Derpy’s mind.

Her dreams were filled with Graham Cracker mercilessly killing the inhabitants of Ponyville. Derpy Hooves would get no rest that night.

Chapter 3

“GRAHAM CRACKER! WE’RE GOING TO FIND YOU, AND WHEN WE DO, WE’RE GOING TO KILL YOU, SLOWLY.”

Derpy Hooves leapt into the air upon hearing the voice over loudspeaker, she smacked her head hard on the ceiling and fell back down to the ground with a hard thump!

“I’m not cut out for this...” Derpy mumbled to herself as she got back up to her hooves, she trotted into the other room and found Graham Cracker sitting calmly on the old sofa, reading the Book of Nephi.

“Good, you’re awake,” the earth pony stallion said, closing the book tightly and slipping it back into his saddlebags. “I take it you’ve heard the death threats?”

Derpy nodded in affirmation.

“Pay them no mind, the Hopeton ponies don’t know where we are, and they won’t venture out this far. My fellow nephites are superb marksmen, and would take them down without issue,” Graham said, rising to his hooves.

“They’re not going to...” Derpy began, only to be quickly interrupted by Graham.

“Hurt you? No, of course not, not as long as you stay close to me,” Graham said, smiling with his eyes through the bandaged that covered his head. “Come. We’ve got a lot of walking to do today.”

...

If there were any around to see it, the spectacular sight of a kangaroo scout car ramping over one of the Mohoofie Desert’s many sand dunes would have been one to have remembered for ages to come... if viewed from a distance.

The occupants of said scout car, however, wanted nothing more than to forget it entirely. Twilight Sparkle felt as if she was about to vomit. Rainbow Dash held on to the pintle mounted Sen Gun for dear life, fearing that if she released it she’d be bucked clear from the car entirely. Even Surprise, fastened in by restraints held onto her seat like it was the only solid bit of the world left to grasp. In fact, the only pony who did not seem worried was Vinyl Scratch, who was sitting in the driving seat, goggles over her eyes and a grin on her face, wearing a kangaroo Brodie Helmet on her head. Her companions were not screaming, but they were holding on for dear life itself.

The scout car vaulted over one last dune, landing hard on the ground before Vinyl Scratch put on the breaks before putting on the breaks and bringing the scout car to a halt.

Sighs of relief, and mild praise to be alive rang throughout the car.

“Oh come on! My driving isn’t that bad!” Vinyl said in mock annoyance.

“Vinyl Scratch...” Twilight said, poking her head forth into the driving compartment. “When the psychopath is freaked out by your driving... don’t you think that tells you something?” Twilight said, pointing a hoof towards Surprise.

“I... I’m f-f-fine! Th-h-hanks for ask-k-king!” Surprise stammered, still not releasing her hold on the seat.

“Nope! Doesn’t tell me anything about Surprise that I didn’t already know!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Out of the car lemon head! We’re stopping for a while.”

Surprise did not respond to the insult, rather she just climbed out of the seat and out of the vehicle, tripping over a rivet on her way out and receiving a round of chuckling from the others. Surprise picked herself up and began to wander about the local area around whence they stopped.

“Don’t wander off too far marshmallow mare!” Vinyl called after her. “I’d hate to have to clean you up should you melt!”

Surprise gave no response, merely continuing to tumble across the open landscape every two metres or so. Vinyl turned her attention away from mocking the Pegasus and pulled a map of Equestria out of her saddlebags.

“Do you know where we are?” Twilight asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Exactly where we are!” Vinyl proclaimed loudly. “We’re in the middle of nowhere!”

Twilight gave Vinyl an annoyed look, however the off white unicorn continued to grin without saying anything. “The middle of nowhere being roughly thirty six degrees fifty eight minutes forty seven seconds north, by one hundred nine degrees three minutes twenty seven seconds west,” Vinyl eventually added.

“How do you know that?” Twilight asked.

“Because I’m amazing!” Vinyl said with a bright grin. “... in bed!”

“Stop that!” Rainbow Dash said as she adjusted the brodie helmet that she was wearing as she hovered above them. “She’s taken, and so are you!”

“Yeah well, I’m hoping I can convince Derpy into a foursome, if I can do that, I can convince you two no problem!” Vinyl said with a grin.

Twilight deadpanned her. “You know, all things considering, I would have expected you to be less on the humour, and more on the anger.”

“Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I’m fuming!” Vinyl said with a grin. “I’m saving it all for the one who deserves it the most!”

“Speaking of...” Twilight said, glancing around. “You’d have thought that we would have caught up to Pinkie Pie and Pips Domino by now...”

“Oh, we likely have. Actually, we probably passed them a while ago,” Vinyl said. “Doesn’t matter! We know where they’re going, and they don’t know that we know where they’re going, which means that we can get there first and set a nice trap for a certain bastard!”

Twilight nodded. “We should probably get moving again... where’d Surprise go?”

They glanced around; Surprise was nowhere to be found. They began to panic; a Surprise unsupervised was an unwelcome surprise waiting to happen. The two ponies rushed over to the top of a sand dune and discovered that Surprise was off smelling the flowers of one of the more exotic cacti growing in the Mohoofie Desert.

“Hey!” Vinyl called out.

Surprise snapped to attention and turned around to face Vinyl and Twilight.

“Get over here!” Vinyl called out.

Surprise rose to her hooves and trotted over towards them.

“You are not allowed to be out of the direct line of sight of any of us, ever! Do so, and you’ll find yourself tied up and buried under two metres of sand where nopony is ever going to find you, get me?” Vinyl snapped at her.

Surprise nodded and hung her head low; she slowly trotted back towards the scout car and got inside it.

Rainbow Dash, who had been flying above them landed softly beside her two friends, who watched as Surprise climbed back into their vehicle. “Don’t you think that maybe you’re being a little too tough on her?”

Twilight and Vinyl looked at Rainbow Dash; each of them raised an eyebrow. “With Surprise? I don’t think we’re being tough enough,” Vinyl Scratch said. “Not after what she did.”

“Which you two refuse to tell me about!” Rainbow Dash said. “I get it, it was bad, but if she’s as bad as you say she is, don’t you think that maybe agitating her is probably not the best idea? What happens when you make her snap, huh?”

Vinyl and Twilight looked at each other for a moment. Rainbow Dash was right, Surprise was a dangerous psychopath with an incredibly long history of violence, agitating her was probably not the best idea.

“All right, I’ll lay off,” Vinyl said. “You’ve convinced me. Doesn’t mean I’m going to start liking her or anything.”

“That’s not what I’m asking you to do, I’m just asking you to be the better pony,” Rainbow Dash said and trotted back towards the scout car. Man, you know things are messed up when I’M the voice of reason around here.

Rainbow Dash trotted into the back of the scout car and poked her head into the driving compartment. “Hey!” she said, getting Surprise’s attention. Surprise looked up and peered back blankly at the pony addressing her.

“Listen,” Rainbow Dash said with a small sigh. “I don’t know you, and Vinyl and Twilight won’t tell me what you did to them, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m sticking my neck out here for you, if you make me regret this? Anything that Twilight or Vinyl has threatened to do to you is going to sound like paradise compared to what I’m going to do to you, got it?!”

Surprise nodded in affirmation. “I... I promise that I won’t let you down Firefly!” she said.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side slightly. “Firefly? Who the heck is Firefly?” she asked.

Surprise did not answer right away, as Twilight and Vinyl climbed back inside the Scout car and took their seats. She leaned in close and whispered to Rainbow Dash. “You can count on me, bestest best friend!”

Rainbow Dash recoiled slightly, but shrugged it off as nothing; she climbed back up through the top hatch and grabbed a hold of the pintle mounted Sen Gun, knowing that she was definitely going to need it, if Vinyl’s previous driving record had been any indication.

Vinyl started up the scout car and with a toothy grin, she stamped down hard on the accelerator, and once again, they were off on their way.

Chapter 4

Derpy Hooves and Graham Cracker trotted at a fair pace through the ruins of the Divide. Derpy found herself looking around, incredibly confused at the situation that she was in. She had known that there were two settlements in the Divide, Hopeton and Ashville... yet they seemed to have been built on the ruins of a third. One that looked incredibly old.

“Graham Cracker?” Derpy asked as they trotted along. “I don’t understand...”

“Please, no need to be so formal, call me Graham,” Graham said simply. “The ruins were here when we got to this canyon five years ago... as were the residents of Hopeton. We used our knowledge to build a new city, clearing the way of the old; the Divide would become our Maneaan. The land promised to us by God. Hopeton is a town of scavengers, raiders; they don’t know how to survive on their own. So they pillage the past, and they steal from us to live. We are not exactly sure what happened here, or what became of those who lived here before, but the ruins are at least a thousand years old.”

Derpy was shocked at such information. She could hardly believe that buildings so old were still standing at all, considering the age of everything around them.

“Hold up,” Graham said as he stopped short. He looked around and addressed the open air. “In him was life, and that life was the light of ponies.”

Derpy looked at Graham with confusion, and nearly leapt into the air when a response came back.

“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

Out of their hiding places, nearly a dozen ponies appeared, each of them dressed simply. Yet, unlike the ponies of Hopeton, the nephites were clean, and didn’t smell so horrid, but probably the most important thing about the nephites was that all of them were wearing Schäferhund storm harnesses with a variety of rifles, submachine guns, and pistols attached to them.

“Graham! Good to see you again!” the pony whose voice matched the response that Graham had asked for said. “We feared the worst when you did not return!”

“I escaped my bondage just at the right time, and freed another from hers,” Graham said, looking at Derpy and smiling at her with his eyes. “Everypony? This is Derpy Hooves; she is a package courier with Pony Express.”

The pony who Graham had been speaking with extended a hoof towards Derpy. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Bishop Hoof,” Hoof said with a smile. Derpy looked him over. Bishop Hoof was an older looking stallion, his coat of crimson stuck out among the bleak ruined background of the Divide, much like his chestnut mane stuck out against him. His eyes were blue, not unlike Graham’s, but somewhat darker. Derpy couldn’t help but notice that the Bishop did not have a cutie mark. As a matter of fact, when she looked around at the rest of the nephites, none of them did.

Derpy looked back at Graham. The place where his cutie mark should have been was covered by bandages, so she had never really thought to ask about it.

“It’s nice to meet you Bishop Hoof,” Derpy said, accepting Hoof’s offer to shake.

“Please, please, just Hoof!” Hoof said with a smile. “You don’t need to call me Bishop unless we’re in church! Come! Come! If we hurry, we can be back in Ashville in time for supper!”

...

The scout car skidded to a halt outside the entrance to the narrow passageway. They had reached the Divide. Vinyl Scratch grinned brightly at the prospect, they had definitely beaten Pips Domino and Pinkie Pie here. Now it was time to set a trap.

They found a small cave some two hundred or so metres up the perimeter of the canyon from the entrance to the narrow passageway to tuck the scout car into, the car was way too big to fit inside it, and there was no way that Vinyl was going to let Pips see it.

“Okay! Let’s split up,” Vinyl said. “Rainbow and Twilight? Head around the canyon and see if you can’t find another way in.”

Rainbow Dash nodded in approval and she and Twilight began walking away from the meeting place, heading north around the circumference of the canyon.

“Guess that just leaves you and me, freak of nature.” Vinyl said with a grin. “Keep in front of me at all times.”

Surprise frowned, but otherwise said nothing, and trotted along slowly back south towards the entrance to the narrow passageway. Surprise stopped short of the entrance to the passageway, standing and staring blankly at it for a few moments, before she turned to Vinyl. “I don’t like it,” she said with a frown.

“Yeah, and I don’t like you,” Vinyl said crossly. “But I learn to deal with it, now march!” Vinyl reached out a foreleg smacked Surprise on the arse. She promptly snapped to attention and began walking forward, with Vinyl Scratch following close behind.

They made it through the passageway without incident, and made an immediate right, staying along the canyon wall and tracing the interior circumference. Surprise said nothing, Vinyl said nothing. Both of them couldn’t help but notice the eerie silence of the canyon, but said nothing about it. Surprise didn’t want to agitate Vinyl by talking. Likewise Vinyl didn’t want to agitate herself by hearing Surprise’s voice.

The two ponies came across narrow ledge, and began to cross it. Then, true to its reputation, the Divide struck, out of nowhere, a strong gust of wind forced Surprise to the ground, Vinyl did her best to maintain her footing, but found herself blown towards the cliff edge ever so slightly.

And then, true to its reputation, the wind died down, Vinyl was near the edge of the cliff, counting herself lucky that she hadn’t been blown off. She sighed a sigh of relief and took a step back towards where she had been before.

True to its reputation, the Divide struck again. Vinyl Scratch had taken no more than a single step before the ground beneath her began to shake, and then it subsided just as quickly.

Crack!

Vinyl looked down, that was the worst sound she could have ever heard, and the visual that had gone along with it was just as bad. The ground suddenly gave way, tumbling down a fifty metre cliff. Vinyl leapt as hard as she could, and caught the newly formed edge of the cliff.

“S... Surprise!” Vinyl called out. The Pegasus turned her head to find her companion was now dangling off the edge of the cliff. “Surprise! Help me!”

Surprise continued to stare blankly at Vinyl, and then a small, eerie smile formed on her face. Vinyl Scratch’s eyes widened in fear, Surprise was going to let her fall.

Vinyl’s grip slipped, she lost her hoofing and began to fall.

It was not the end however, and Vinyl Scratch had noticed that she had fallen no more than five centimetres. She looked over her shoulder to discover that Surprise had leapt forward and had grabbed her. The pegasi’s wings flapping at high speed as she struggled to pull Vinyl Scratch back up.

Surprise grunted loudly and yanked as hard as she could, utilising every bit of might that she could muster, she pulled the unicorn back up onto the ledge.

Vinyl Scratch began to pant heavily, her heart was racing; she had nearly met her end on the edge of that cliff. She looked back at the Pegasus pony that had saved her. Surprise was smiling brightly.

“I... I thought you were going to let me fall...” Vinyl said.

“What? No! I wouldn’t do that!” Surprise said, latching her forelegs around Vinyl Scratch, giving her a tight hug. “Besides! Even if you did fall, I’m a Pegasus! I could just fly and catch you!”

“You just...” Vinyl said. “That smile... I thought...”

“I thought the situation was funny, that’s all, I mean; you hate me!” Surprise said. “And there you were, asking me for help, it was kind of ironic, you know?”

Vinyl found lips curling into a small smile at her Pegasus companion. “Well... if it means anything to you? Right now, I hate you just a little bit less,” Vinyl wrapped her forelegs around Surprise, returning the pegasi’s embrace. “Thank you, Surprise.”

“You’re welcome Vinyl Scratch,” Surprise said.

They continued to embrace for a few more seconds, before eventually releasing each other. Vinyl got to her hooves and extended a foreleg to help Surprise up. “Come on, we best get moving.”

Surprise took the hoof and got up. The two mares started walking.

Chapter 5

Derpy Hooves trotted into the Ashville town limits and looked at her surroundings in awe. She had seen Ashville from a distance while flying towards the Divide. It had been impressive then, and it was still impressive now.

Unlike Hopeton, which was little more than a collection of ruined buildings, Ashville was a properly built town; in fact, Derpy might have mistaken it for Ponyville if it weren’t for the shingled roofs and the canyon wall visible at the far end of the town. The streets were paved with asphalt in the Manehattan fashion, and the town was surrounded by a large concrete wall. (Graham explained that the wall was a more recent addition, one that had proved to be necessary after repeated encounters with Retslaf and his Hopeton ponies.)

But what Derpy noticed more than anything was the pony inhabitants themselves. All of them, every single one, were without a cutie mark. She had not yet asked Graham about this yet, deciding to hold off until Bishop Hoof and the rest of his party had parted, figuring that there was a chance that such talk would offend the nephites.

Most of the nephites were earth ponies. There were possibly two or three pegasi that she could see, as for unicorns, Derpy didn’t see...

Derpy’s line of thought dropped off as a unicorn mare stumbled around the corner, tripping and falling face first into the street. She was levitating a glass bottle above her, and somehow the shock of falling did not break her magical hold on it. This unicorn was clearly not a nephite, because she had a cutie mark, a magic wand sprinkling pixie dust. Her azure coat stood out among the mostly earth toned earth ponies, as did her silvery mane. She picked herself up and took a sip from the glass bottle.

“Trixie...! Is okay!” she announced, hiccupping slightly, and continuing to stumble onwards. She trotted close, noticing Derpy’s cutie mark and stopped to gawk at it. She smelled of alcohol, and it was not surprising, considering that the glass bottle that she was holding was a whiskey bottle. “Hey...! Trixie... doesn’t think... that Trixie...”

Trixie stopped mid sentence to take another swig from her whiskey bottle before continuing. “You... are not... a moron!”

Were this Ponyville, Derpy would have likely taken that as a complement, however, as this was Ashville. Derpy knew that Trixie was referring to the fact that she wasn’t a nephite. The nephites of Bishop Hoof’s party were all groaning loudly.

“Not this again,” one of them said.

“Didn’t we take the alcohol away from her?” another one asked.

“She must have more hidden all around town!” another one exclaimed.

Trixie either didn’t hear the other ponies, or didn’t care; instead she just took another swig from the bottle.

“Trixie...” Bishop Hoof began. “How much alcohol have you drunk?”

Trixie seemed to be thinking hard about the answer to that question, she stood silently for a moment before giving her answer. “Six... hold on,” she said, tilting her head back and emptying the bottle, tossing it over her shoulder haphazardly where it smashed on the side of a building. “Make that... SEVEN! Bottles...”

“Today?” Hoof asked.

“In the last...” Trixie said, being interrupted by a hiccup. “In the last... half hour!”

“Trixie...” Graham Cracker said as he approached.

Trixie let out a scream of terror. “It’s a mummy!” she said and turned to run, not making it a single step before collapsing on the ground, having tripped over an invisible turtle. (As Trixie would later claim as the cause.) Graham Cracker picked her up and placed her on his back. He grimaced slightly in pain as pressure was applied to a place where he had been burned at, and began to trot.

“You need to be put to bed, Trixie...” Graham said simply. “Come along Derpy, I will show you around town after I take her home.”

“Help! Trixie is being... ponynapped!” Trixie called out, but was far too drunk to put up anything that even mildly resembled resistance.

“Who is she...?” Derpy asked. “She looks familiar...”

“Then you might be able to tell more than I,” Graham Cracker said. “One of our trade caravans found her around Appleoosa, lying in the desert, alone, with only saddlebags filled with some sixty bottles of whiskey, and no water, they took pity on her and brought her back here. One of the tenants of our faith is abstinence from alcohol, but as she is not a nephite, we decided we would not force her to conform to our beliefs... we eventually discovered that that had been a mistake. Such manner of tomfoolery that you have just witnessed is a regular occurrence, and she has gotten into a lot of trouble because of it.”

Derpy blinked, processing the information, and then she remembered. Trixie had been the name of the unicorn magician that had visited Ponyville last year, made an arse of herself, and then run off leaving a giant mess that required Twilight Sparkle to clean it up.

“But...” Derpy began, pausing slightly to look at Trixie again; Trixie had long since passed out, and dangled limply over Graham’s flanks. “With the rate of consumption, shouldn’t she have run out by now?”

“One would think, one would hope,” Graham Cracker said. “However, despite the scene that you have just witnessed, Trixie is actually quite a bright young mare. She has learned how to make more... and has, there is no telling how many bottles of whiskey she has made and hidden all around Ashville... Though, best estimates place it at somewhere in the range of eighty decalitres.”

Derpy’s mouth fell wide open.

“Our thoughts exactly,” Graham Cracker said, smiling with his eyes at her. The two ponies entered Trixie’s home, which too, smelled strongly of alcohol, and placed her in bed.

“Is she going to be okay?” Derpy asked.

Graham looked at her and shrugged. “In the short term? Probably. Though, at the rate that she consumes, I’m somewhat surprised she hasn’t had her liver fail yet.”

...

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had found another way into the canyon. A long dark, system of tunnels carried them along inside the cliffs of the Divide, with only the light of Twilight’s horn to guide them; they couldn’t help but feel as if they were on a snipe hunt of their own.

“Don’t suppose you’ve read much on the Divide, eh egghead?” Rainbow Dash asked hopefully.

“Not really?” Twilight said apologetically. “There aren’t that many books on it in my Library. Honestly Dash, you’re the expert on the Divide when it comes to us.”

“I don’t know anything either!” Rainbow Dash called out. “Just that weather is freaky here!”

“Exactly,” Twilight said.

The two mares found themselves nearly running into the stone wall, as the passageway of the cave that they were exploring turned sharply to the right with no warning. They stopped to get their bearings for a moment, and then continued on their way.

Twilight found herself glancing around, examining the stone walls closely, and at the same time, taking light away from Rainbow Dash, who would then start complaining loudly. After the fourth such instance, Rainbow Dash had had it.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “What is so interesting about the cave wall that you have to keep looking at it?!”

Twilight glanced at the wall and then back to Rainbow Dash, she didn’t answer right away, and instead she continued to study the cave wall again for about thirty seconds more, Rainbow Dash waiting impatiently to get an answer.

“Something isn’t right about this cave...” Twilight said. “Look at the walls!”

Rainbow Dash looked at the walls, nothing jumped out at her. “I’m looking at the walls... and you know what I see?”

“What?” Twilight asked. “What do you see?”

“Walls,” Rainbow Dash said flatly. “Clearly you’ve made some brilliant deduction, nerd, so how about you fill me in?!”

Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dash with annoyance. “I do hope you know, that’s costing you snuggle time!” she said. “Anyway... the walls are far too smooth to be a natural formation so that means...”

“So that means?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Don’t keep me in suspense here.”

Twilight gave up on getting Rainbow Dash to come up with it on her own. “That somepony dug this,” Twilight said simply.

“Awesome,” Rainbow Dash said, clearly not seeing the significance. “Good for them! What does it mean for us?”

“Well... I’m not sure, I mean the last time I saw something like this...” Twilight’s voice began to trail off, and a look of horror began to form on her face. Without another word, she took off running, galloping at full speed down the tunnel, hoping to Celestia that she was wrong.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash called out, going off after her.

Twilight rounded several more twists and turns before finally reaching the end and skidding to a stop. Rainbow Dash quickly found herself crashing into the back of her.

The two of them looked up at what they saw. It was a door. A big, metal door in the shape of a gear, painted on the front of the door in big white letters “HVMB.”

“Oh no,” Twilight said quietly. This discovery changed everything.