Patch coughed loudly, feeling her body shiver as the cold set in. She rolled to one side in the bed and sighed. It had been weeks since Starry and Lightning had left. Lilith had done her best to track their PipBucks to a point, but at some part after leaving Equestria, she’d lost them entirely.

Now… there’d been nothing. Patch worried. Not just about them, but about herself. Her heart had been getting worse. The coughing had started. Her body felt perpetually cold. There were times where she could barely move without the aid of the Med-X the doctors were keeping her on. She knew what was coming.

She was dying, and she knew it. And somewhere out there were her children, the two reasons she kept going. Searching for something she didn’t even think existed, let alone would even help keep her alive for long.

Time was running out. Time was always going to run out. As Dusk would have said, it was only a matter of time.

Dusk. Patch’s nose cringed at the mere thought of his name. The stallion had come to her ages ago while she had been resting in Ponyville, right before Steeljack… before he had died. He had told her that she needed to get to her husband, that she would set things in motion that would help save the world. She had arrived to get him killed, burned to death by a dragon.

After she had arrived back in Chicacolt with the twins, Dusk had appeared again. She’d attacked him out of anger, berated him for making her watch the love of her life perish before her very eyes. Surprisingly, Dusk had hugged her, consoled her, and offered apology for what had happened. He’d explained that one day, she would understand why things had happened the way they had, that she needed to prepare for the day when it would all matter.

He’d explained that she would need to prepare her children for this as well. That she would need to train them in everything that she could possibly think of. And then he left her that information to begin. After that, he disappeared, promising to check back in. He never did.

Until Starry mentioned his name. Somehow he had contacted her, but not physically. Patch scowled, worried what the mysterious stallion wanted with her children, with Starry. He was trying to stop something, something major. Patch could never put a hoof on what that was.

A knock came at the door. Patch groaned and sat up in her bed as Lilith and Apple Danish entered.

“To what do I owe the pleasure today?” Patch said with a cough. “Come to pay your last respects?”

“Ever the light-hearted one,” Danish said. “But alas, you’re going to have to wait for that. We’re here on business.”

“Business? The council can meet just fine without me,” Patch said. “Unless… there’s been word from the kids.”

“No. Unfortunately not,” Lilith said with a sigh. “We’ve heard nothing from them since their signal disappeared into the Badlands.”

“Then why are you here? I’m a little busy… napping,” Patch said with a sigh, resting her head back on her pillow.

“One of our patrols outside of the city to the north was attacked,” Danish said, taking a seat next to the bed.

“Attacked? Raiders? The Cult?” Patch said, taking interest.

“Not exactly,” Lilith said. “Whoever this patrol was… disciplined. Efficient. Ruthless. They left exactly one pony alive, and then they gave him this to bring back to us.”

Danish lifted a device with his magic into the air. It was a portable screen, almost like a terminal in a sense. He pressed a button and it flared to life, displaying the image of what appeared to be an alicorn with glowing red eyes. Her skin was desiccated, her horn cracked in places. As Patch looked on, she began to speak.

“Ponies of Equestria. I am speaking to you on behalf of the newly returned Crystal Empire. I am Queen Crystalis, supreme ruler of all that I see. None of you likely know who we are, but you will soon enough. This message is being disseminated by my forces in every major settlement in the Equestrian Wasteland. Hear me, Equestria, your judgment is at hand,” the alicorn said before pausing.

“Long ago, my people were shunned for attempting to mediate love and prosperity amongst Equestrians and the Zebra. I was shunned by my own family by choosing to remain neutral, to manufacture our own weapons and technology in the event of the very end,” the alicorn continued. “My people and I paid the price for Equestria’s sins. I watched as balefire rained upon your world, and I chose to halt it before it reached my own doorstep.”

“It has taken my people a long time to return back to this world, but we have watched and observed what has happened since the Great War. We have watched as your kind have taken up arms against each other, how you have scavenged the treasures of yore, and how you believe that you can return to the glory days of old Equestria. Ponies of Equestria, you are fools, and you will pay for your foolishness,” the alicorn said before stopping. Her eyes glowed fiercely as the recording cut off.

“That’s where it ends… and then it gives us a set of coordinates,” Lilith said. “It’s… it’s a targeting system coordinate. It points directly to the center of Chicacolt.”

“You’re saying…” Patch said, her eye wide with fear.

“They intend to bomb us,” Danish finished for them. “They intend to bomb all of Equestria. They want to kill us all.”

“Why tell us where? That makes no sense,” Patch said frantically. “Why tell us so we can evacuate the city?”

“Because maybe it doesn’t matter,” Danish said. “Even if we evacuate the city… maybe we’ll all still die anyways.”

“Then what do we do?” Patch asked. “Shouldn’t the Council see this information?”

“They have, and they think this is fake. A sham. They don’t see that it’s most certainly real,” Danish said. “There’s one detail in the video that I think you might notice.”

Patch cocked her head and was about to say something as he started playing the video again. Her singular eye locked in on it, looking behind the alicorn in the video. And then she saw it. A unicorn stallion in the background. Her voice caught in her throat.

“You see him don’t you?” Danish said. “I may not have a good memory, but I do remember that unicorn coming and seeing you after you got back with the kids. Who is he and why is he there?”

“Dusk,” Patch uttered. “His name is Dusk. I don’t understand why he’s there. I haven’t seen him in well… a long time.”

“I believe this lends to the credibility of the video,” Danish said. “That means this threat is very real. That’s why we came to you, to get the evidence we need to make the Council understand what we’re up against. I’m going to go take this straight to Gluttony.”

He stood, heading towards the door, leaving Lilith alone with Patch. The pegasus grimaced and glanced at her old friend. Patch appeared to be in intense thought.

“Lilith,” she said.

“You’re leaving,” Lilith said with a grimace.

“How did you know?”

“It was the way you said my name. I’ve been your friend a long time now. I know you,” Lilith replied with a wry smile. “Why? You can barely move.”

“If Dusk is captured by this Crystal Empire… then that means the kids are heading there too,” Patch said. “I don’t know how I know that, but I do. Dusk was helping them along… he has to have been in contact with them.”

“And you think going there will get the kids back,” Lilith said. “Right. You’ve officially cracked if you think you’re going there alone.”

“I’m not going there alone. You’re coming with me,” Patch said with a grin.

“You’re serious about this,” Lilith said, her eyes narrowing. “Then how do we get past their patrols without getting captured? How do we even find them in the first place?”

“There has to be some sort of reverse metadata in that video,” Patch replied. “Or rather in the device itself. Of course, we need to acquire it from Danish.”

“Won’t he find out once it goes missing and stop us from leaving?” Lilith asked.

“That’s why we need to be out of here by the time he does,” Patch said. “I’m gonna need for you to bring Para Bellum with you when you do. She’s at the apartment.”

“And how are you going to get out of here without the doctors knowing?”

“Leave that to me.”

Lilith grimaced, but nodded. She stood, heading towards the door. “I’ll see you in fifteen?”

“Fifteen. At the abandoned warehouse just beyond the northern border.”

The door closed, leaving Patch to her own devices. She climbed out of bed, quietly making her way to the cabinet where her medicine was stored. She pulled out several vials of Med-X and a vial of Hydra. She’d heard the doctors say it was a last chance if things got severely worse. Patch sighed. She was willing to take that chance if it meant seeing her children again.

Within moments, she was gone.

“Patch? Patch, are you there?” Lilith called softly in the darkness.

“I’m here,” Patch said, emerging from behind the abandoned warehouse. “Did you bring what I asked?”

Lilith nodded, motioning to the case on her back. Patch removed it with her teeth and opened it, revealing a disassembled sniper rifle. Lilith also produced the tablet device.

“Good,” Patch said, lifting the device. “We’re going to have to figure this thing out on the way. We know the Empire is to the North, so we’ll start that way.”

With practiced ease, the earth mare quickly assembled her weapon, strapping it to her sidesaddle to be used at a moment’s notice. A bit on a cord wrapped around her neck, the firing mechanism for the gun. At one time, she could fire the gun standing straight up without the aid of the mechanism, but old age had put a damper on that.

“Just like old times,” Lilith said with a slight chuckle as the two started walking northwards. “Now all we need is Star’s fat ass being silly and Violet telling her to stop.”

Patch said nothing, her gaze carefully trained on her destination. Nothing was going to stop her from getting her children back. Not the Crystal Empire, not anything.

“If you seek peace,” she muttered under her breath. “Prepare for war.”