Bathed in the soft red glow of the emergency lights, Andrew looked over the breaker box with a flashlight in one hand and a soldering iron in the other. Tucking the flashlight under one arm, he used his now-freed hand to tug lightly at the wires he had just replaced. When they didn't fall out or come loose, he knew he'd placed them where they needed to be. He grabbed the flashlight again and held it directly in front of where the stripped ends of the wires touched.

Taking care not to burn himself, Andrew pressed the iron against this point and held it there until the silver lump of solder locked the two wires into place, then pulled it off with a satisfied "hm." Then, with the tip of his flashlight, he flicked one of the box's switches.

The fluorescent lights surged to life, casting bright, cold light on the machine room's steel-gray walls and the exposed copper pipes that snaked their way across them. Andrew smiled, snapped off the flashlight, and clicked off the iron. All of his repair jobs should be this easy.

"Oh, Andrew! That didn't take you long at all!"

Andrew's head snapped towards the doorway. He knew the others had been waiting for him to finish, but he was still rather surprised to see Ice Breaker coming in.

"I...yeah." Andrew wasn't really sure what to say. Yes, he had forgiven Ice Breaker. Yes, he was a card-carrying member of the HSR. Yes, he refused to blame ponykind for what had happened to Eddy. Their speaking terms were still tenuous, though.

"I'm just glad you're okay," said Ice Breaker. "How does it feel to be back at work? I really did hate seeing you like that, you know. Just drinking your life away like that, because of...because of me."

"I was for the idea too, you know. We all thought the same thing. We thought he'd come out good as new. You just happened to be the one to give it to him." Andrew smiled. It was clearly at least a little forced, but there was an earnestness to it. "Besides, taking a sledgehammer to those Potion bottles felt good."

Ice Breaker slowly trotted into the room, weaving between the machines and pipes that lined the walls. "Yeah, did you see when Karen smashed hers? She's quite strong for a h...ehm."

Andrew nodded, acting as if he didn't hear what Ice Breaker was about to say. Even so, he had to admit there was truth to it. The pony did plenty of heavy lifting for his work at Halley, and he'd pulled plenty of hauls a human could never manage, and did so without much apparent strain. Such, he understood, was one of the magical abilities of earth ponies. Much as he hated to admit it, such strength coupled with such a caring, friendly personality was something he admired.

"Got it from her rugby team days back in university. Talked to her about it?"

Ice Breaker sighed. "She still doesn't want anything to do with me. It hurts, but...but I can't blame her. I have a fillyfriend back home, and if something like that happened to her, I'd..." He trailed off.

For a moment they both just stood there awkwardly, not quite looking at each other - though Andrew looked slightly bothered about something he'd said - until Ice Breaker took the opportunity to change the subject. "So, you uh, still wanted to try darts tonight? A couple games with me? I just had a round yesterday with Diana, but she's on kitchen duty this evening. And...well...I'll probably have to leave tomorrow..."

Andrew briefly grimaced, and Ice Breaker could tell he'd been hoping he had forgotten about it. "Well..." Andrew turned and stared at the breaker box as if he would find the answer on it.

"Sure thing."

Ice Breaker smiled slightly. "Thanks, Andrew."

They were interrupted by the thumping of heavy boots in the nearby hall, followed shortly by a wiry, middle-aged man slipping through the doorway. It was Lawson, the current base commander, bundled up heavily in olive drab winter gear.

"Good job getting the lights running again so quickly, Andrew. Glad to see you back on your feet." He touched the bridge of his glasses. "Ice Breaker, it's time. Both of you, get to the garage building. I'll be waiting for you there."

With that, Lawson was gone, leaving only the echoing sounds of his boots.

A few minutes later, Andrew and Ice Breaker had dressed themselves in their own winter gear and were crunching through the snow to the garage building. The sun shone overhead, the snowdrifts shining brilliantly in its light, but despite this the weather was bone-chillingly cold. Their destination loomed ahead, its cheerful red paint job making it look comically out of place in a landscape dominated by snow and steel.

"You know, I never did ask how you got your cutie mark," Andrew said with no apparent lead-up.

Ice Breaker looked up at him through the hood of his heavy, dark brown wool coat. His cutie mark was concealed now, of course, but Andrew had seen the wooden snowshoe plenty of times before. He smiled; talking to Andrew was still difficult, but at least this was something he was comfortable with.

"Oh, thanks for asking! I actually got it when I was on vacation with my family up in northern Equestria, near the gryphon lands. It was about a century ago, so I was only a young colt at the time..." Andrew twitched oddly, and Ice Breaker cringed. He'd forgotten about their lifespan differences, and they were a touchy subject. "...sorry." Ice Breaker cleared his throat.

"Anyway, there's not a lot of pegasi to regulate the weather there, so it can get pretty fierce. That's what happened. I was out for a hike in the woods with my parents, there was a huge blizzard, and I got separated from them. At first, I was lost and scared. I didn't know what to do.

"So I wandered around the woods for awhile. I didn't see my parents, or the cabin, or...anything!" He shuddered a bit. "I honestly thought I was going to die. I kept my head, though, and I focused on survival. I managed to stay warm, conserve energy, even got a fire going. I was actually stuck there overnight, but by morning the blizzard cleared and I could recognize my surroundings now that I could see them clearly. From there, it was actually pretty easy getting back.

"I got my cutie mark when I opened the cabin door. They were in tears when I came in. Then they heard the door open, and they saw me, and in no time at all they'd grabbed me and gave me a huge bear hug. Between my return and my new cutie mark, pretty soon they were in tears for a very different reason." He laughed.

Andrew smiled faintly. "Always will be a strange idea for me, just knowing what you'll do in life. The universe sure gave you guys all the easy routes, didn't it?"

Ice Breaker opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and looked away. Andrew was sure Ice Breaker was wondering the same thing he was: why did ponies have it so much easier than humans, right from the outset? It was as if the universe had stacked the deck before dealing out cards to the two worlds. Andrew wondered if humanity would be good enough at bluffing to overcome its terrible hand.

When they arrived at the garage, the first thing Andrew noticed was that all of the vehicles had been moved outside. The station's snowmobiles, boxy orange cabs on hulking metal tracks, had been haphazardly parked by the shuttered vehicle entrance.

As Andrew stepped inside, it became clear why all of the equipment had been moved; the room was nearly full. It had been hastily converted into an assembly hall; folding tables had been carefully moved into a formation that would allow them to seat what was clearly everyone living at the research station. In the center sat eight ponies, Thunderhead among them, encircled by the base's fifty or so human occupants.

Everyone in the room turned their heads at Andrew and Ice Breaker when they entered, and there seemed to be a collective intake of breath from them Lawson, who had been typing away on a laptop, peered at the two over the rims of his glasses.

"Ah, good. Have a seat, you two. I'm sure you know where to go. Once you've done that, we can start."

The two quietly took their seats, Andrew taking the only empty chair and finding himself seated between Richard, a climatologist he wasn't particularly close to; and Diana. Each gave him a brief glance before returning their attention to the ponies in the center.

Then, Lawson cleared his throat and those in the room turned to face him.

"I'm sure you all know why we're here, but I'll make this official. Tomorrow's the seventh of March, and that means the boat arrives to ship off the winterers. That leaves the question of what we're going to do with all of you." He looked squarely at the ponies.

"You got a week's break because the ship had to work around a dozen different navies, but now your time's up. If we decide you're going tomorrow, that's final. You will be taken aboard and left to the mercy of the British government.

"SAS will be in the ship to make sure you comply. If you resist, they will take you in by force. If you attack them when they arrive, or attack us at any time, they will kill you. You will be given a chance to present your side of this case, but we humans have the final say. Is that clear?"

The ponies slowly nodded. Some looked indignant. Others, Ice Breaker among them, looked frightened. Thunderhead seemed near tears.

"Then let's begin." Lawson stood up.

"Firebrand, you're the leader. Answer for what you've done to Edward Pearson."

A broad-shouldered, deep red pegasus with a regal, golden mane stood and locked Lawson in his eyes..

"What we've done to him? He's right there - " He gestured to Thunderhead. " - and as you can see, he's just fine. We saved him from the cancer that you couldn't cure. We gave him wings to fly, something I'm sure you noticed he enjoys doing. And finally, we've given him the ultimate gift - the chance to live in Equestria. Would you mind telling me, Mr. Lawson, what exactly we're supposed to have done wrong here?"

"That's not Eddy."

Karen was standing at her desk, her fist pressed against it and her breathing shaky. There was a murmur of assent from the other humans. Firebrand leered at her and opened his mouth to say something.

"Karen...why..." Sobs punctuated the words; it was Thunderhead. He was staring at the floor, his head hidden behind his vibrant yellow mane.

"It's...it's me? Why can't you see that? I'm just...I'm just better now...they made me..."

Karen slammed her fist against the table. "Shut up. I knew him. You aren't him."

There was a whoosh as Firebrand flared his wings. "How can you say that? Just because he has a new body and his mind is pure, he's dead to you?" His hoof banged against the metal floor.

Karen was silent, her face wooden. Her only reply was to slowly, with a trembling hand, dig into her pocket. A few seconds later, a flash drive clattered onto her table.

"Lawson, there's a video on this drive. Play it. Make the ponies see it. Please."

Lawson adjusted his glasses and leaned over to peer at the drive. "Pass it here."

Karen threw the drive to him from a few seats over, and he caught it in midair. He slid it into the laptop's USB port with a click, waited, clicked around a bit with the touchpad, waited, then grabbed the laptop by the base so the screen was facing the ponies. A video began to play.

The recording is timestamped 1:52PM, July 19, 2016. In the same garage the meeting is being held, a man in his early twenties sits by a snowmobile with a broken track, shaking his head. He holds a pneumatic hammer limply in a grease-caked hand, the floor around him littered with other tools.

"Should've just left the fucking thing in the snow," he says to the camera. The camera operator laughs; it's Karen.

"Look at this! Look at the track! Just...god damn." The camera zooms in on the broken track, revealing many of the metal plates and rivets to be badly bent.

"Probably have to weld it..." He turns to face someone off-camera. "No, seriously, Jim, how did you wreck a Sno-Cat this bad?" There's an indistinct reply from the adjacent room, eliciting a laugh from Eddy and Karen.

The tape abruptly transitions to the next scene, which takes place in the rec room and is timestamped 8:54PM, October 3, 2017. Andrew and Eddy are playing table tennis. The ball is coming towards Eddy, who wildly overswings and stumbles, nearly losing his balance. The ball flies out of frame.

"And, shit, that's game," he says. "That's what I get for playing drunk."

"Ed, you couldn't win a game sober," Karen says with a laugh. She is holding the camera in this scene as well.

Andrew sets his paddle down on his side of the table with a chuckle. "So that's why he always drinks before he plays me. Anyway guys, I'm out." He starts for the door.

"Wait, already?" Eddy sets down his own paddle and glance at the clock on the wall. "It's not even nine yet!"

"I had a long day," says Andrew. "Besides, you know I don't like being filmed."

"Come on, Andy, we're just having fun," says Karen. "It's not like my camera's a CCTV."

"I'm sorry, I just really don't want-"

Eddy cuts him off, and the camera shifts to him. "Speaking of the CCTVs, that reminds me, you know what I heard they're doing with the footage?"

Andrew stops in his tracks and turns on the spot. "Well, uh, no, actually."

Eddy shakes his head. "Craziest damn thing ever, but it makes sense. I heard they're gonna stick them in this massive database-"

The tape abruptly transitions again. This time the focus is on a cloudy gray pegasus with a yellow mane. This one is timestamped 7:36PM, February 24, 2018. The bottom of the view is obscured by the green felt and wooden siding of the rec room's pool table, which it is sitting on.

"It's my night to pick, and I'm picking Equilibrium. Don't like it, don't watch it," Andrew says from somewhere off-camera.

Thunderhead paws at the ground. "But Equilibrium is bloody, it's violent, it's-"

"It's everything you used to want in a movie." The sentence hangs in the air. Thunderhead's wings flutter.

"I...I can't, Andrew. I can't."

The tape makes a final scene change, once again showing the inside of the garage. The timestamp is 3:01PM, February 26, 2018. Thunderhead is on the floor, next to a snowmobile and surrounded by tools. He's holding a screwdriver in his teeth.

"Any progress?" Karen asks from behind the camera.

Thunderhead spits the screwdriver out and turns to the camera. "It's been two hours and I still can't get it to lock in."

"You must be pretty pissed."

"Yeah, you could say I'm pretty mad."

"But you're pretty pissed, right?"

Thunderhead looks away. "I'm...yeah."

"Then say it."

Thunderhead shakes his head. "Karen, we've been over this, I can't talk like that. I...I can't say mean things."

"Oh really? And why'd you decide to stop? I've seen you work with stubborn Sno-Cats before."

"Look, the Potion changed me. I was wrong, I was bad, I was human."

"And you're still going to try to pass yourself off as Eddy?"

"I told you, I am Eddy! Just-"

"Prove it. Say the words. Tell me you're pissed."

Thunderhead closes his eyes and inhales sharply.

"I'm p...." He breathes deeply, then pauses for a few seconds.

"I'm p-pi...I'm pissed." He shudders and winces as he says it, as if it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. The recording ends.

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the scrape of the laptop as Lawson rotated so it was facing him again.

"Don't even try to tell me that pegasus is Eddy," said Karen. "Do not fucking tell me, after you just saw the video, that he's still alive."

Firebrand stomped his hoof. "I've heard enough! Look at these humans, they're beyond reason! If they'll take us away for uplifting one of them, then I say let them take us away! We're obviously too good for the ones here!"

"I've got a better idea," said a black unicorn next to him. His forelegs were rigid on his desk and his head was lowered, as if about to charge. "How do we know these guys coming after us are tough enough to beat us? We're at war, aren't we? I say we fight 'em for the station!"

"Eclipse, stop," said Firebrand. "It's their station, and their rules, and they're free to run it how they like. Watch it, you're acting like a human." He took a breath.

"Look, he only had a few months anyway. What did we have to lose?"

"He deserved to know!" Ice Breaker burst out. "You didn't tell them what it'd do to his mind! You didn't even tell me!"

"I certainly didn't know either," said an ice-blue unicorn with a dial barometer cutie mark and a black mane pulled back in a bun, looking at Firebrand coldly. "Why didn't you tell me? You asked for my vote of confidence after all. You never told me what I'd be endorsing, and I never would've gone through with it if I'd known. But you knew that, didn't you?"

"Don't you know how much trouble you caused?" asked a rust-brown earth pony through clenched teeth. "This is all your fault! You killed him! I don't care what you say about them or me, he was my friend just the way he was!"

Firebrand blinked and his eyes flicked between the two. "No, listen, listen! Quantum Leap, Axle Wrench, I was saving his life, he just looks different now! He might not have been alive at all if we hadn't!"

The discussion continued in this fashion for awhile, the hours wearing on everyone. Firebrand and Eclipse stood by what they said, continuing to argue their points; everyone else, with the exception of a few ponies who remained silent, sided against them. Eventually, it became painfully clear that they were just talking in circles and recycling the same points over and over. Finally, Lawson stood up.

"I think we've heard enough. It's clear that we're going to have to vote individually on each pony for this. I'm going to call your names now, and we will vote on whether you stay. If you get more than half of us, you don't have to leave when the ship comes.

"Flitter Dance." A pale green pegasus shuffled her hooves nervously. About half of the people raised their hands. The room filled with the sound of whispers as some of the humans deliberated, and by the end a few more had taken her side. Lawson's eyes swept the room, a tally running up in his head as they did so. In the end, Flitter Dance could stay.

"Sky Aurora." About half of the hands went up, but not enough. She would have to leave.

"Axle Wrench." Jim's hand shot into the air as soon as the name was called. Many others followed in short order, including Andrew's and Diana's. Andrew could tell before the count finished that he'd get to stay.

"Nurse Tendertouch." A few vouched for her, only to quickly lower their hands when they realized they were a small minority.

"Quantum Leap." She was allowed to stay by a wide margin, mainly thanks to the unanimous vote of the scientists present. Andrew realized they were the only ones who had spent a significant amount of time with her.

"Ice Breaker.” Lawson didn't even have to count; there couldn't have been more than ten hands lowered.

"Eclipse." No hands went up.

"Firebrand." No hands went up.

"Thunderhead."

This was the moment the entire room had been anticipating and dreading. At first no one moved save for Thunderhead, who only clenched his eyes shut.

It was true, even now Andrew could barely stand to look at Thunderhead. It wasn't as if any of this was his fault, though. He was just an innocent victim, a pegasus who had risen from a human and didn't know why people he considered his friends were repulsed by him. A pariah because of how he came into the world. But at the same time, he was just a mockery of Eddy. An insult to his memory. He shouldn't be here...should he?

Seeing traces of tears in Thunderhead's eyes, he raised his hand.

He wasn't the first, and he was far from the last; all around him hands raised, even more than had for Ice Breaker. Karen's understandably, did not, but so many others did. Among those who vouched for him were Lawson, whose face had the faintest shadow of a sympathetic look; Jim, who seemed to be looking at him proudly; and Diane, whose narrow figure strained against the edge of her desk. Finally, Lawson's voice clinched the moment.

"It's decided. Thunderhead, you can stay. That concludes the meeting."

Thunderhead's eyes and mouth popped open in shock. Chairs scuffed against the floor as everyone pulled themselves away from their desks. Many turned to leave, but some had gone over to visit with the ponies they had vouched for - consoling those who had not gathered enough votes or congratulating those who had. Thunderhead was difficult to talk to, since he was letting the tears he had been holding back flow freely.

Meanwhile, Lawson's attention returned to the laptop. Tabs popped up on the screen and vanished almost as quickly, needing only a flick of his eyes. Then, suddenly, he stopped dead and stared at the screen.

"Something happening?" asked a middle-aged man, leaning to look over his shoulder. Lawson tilted the computer over to give him a better view. Once the man registered what he was reading, Lawson spoke loudly enough for the room to hear.

"They're hitting the bubble."

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