Getting dressed for a trip into the arctic chill of winter was never easy for an earth pony. True, her clothes were specifically made for one of her race. There were pull-tabs and clasps large enough for hooves or mouth to operate. Even so, a process that might've taken ten minutes with hands took over an hour without them.

She dressed Ezri first, then closed off access to the city's heat system for good. The old mansion had pre-Event insulation and held heat far better than their new buildings, yet still she could feel the chill seeping in as she dressed herself. Alex donned thin underclothes, a dense thermal layer, socks on each hoof, a waterproof layer, then the enchanted coat and jacket. The spell was intelligent, it wouldn't bake her alive if she was inside. That was why she could watch little Ezri bumble around the house, flailing and falling over and over like some kind of stuffed doll, without fear that the drone might overheat while Alex dressed.

The last step had been the hardest. Last night, Alex had trimmed her mane to a boyish shortness. She hoped she would seem like a stallion to anyone they happened to meet. She had burned the excess, though the length upbraided had grown well to ground level in her many years. It was going to take many years more to grow back.

"Alright Ezri, come here," she called, once she was dressed. "I'm going to put your saddle-bags on." The drone wasn't particularly obedient, but she wasn't very good at escaping when so awkwardly dressed, so Day was able to wrangle her back without much difficulty. "Here you are." She lifted up the little bag, not unlike what many schoolchildren wore. It contained a basic survival kit and a little money, though she was fairly certain Ezri had no way of making use of either. "Your very own saddlebags. We all carry them when we travel."

When it became clear to the drone that these were a gift Day had specially prepared just for her, then Ezri didn't struggle but instead stood perfectly still and accepted her love with greedy eagerness. She was starting to look a little rounder around the edges from her week in Alexandria. Somehow Day doubted she would stay looking that way once their trip actually began. Love had been a good way to win her loyalty, but... would it be enough? "We've got a few weeks to find out," she said, even as she turned away and approached her own saddlebags.

Though as old as the Event itself, these saddlebags were utterly untouched by time, the stitches as crisp and the fabric as soft as the day they had been given to her. Each side bore the cutie mark of one of the Equestrian diarchs, each concealing its own spatial claudication. As such, her bags were even emptier-looking than Ezri’s. Hopefully that meant she wouldn't look like she was worth robbing.

That was all. Everything they would need was either in the saddlebags or in her brain. "Alright Ezri. Do you need anything else?" Of course the drone didn't answer, though she had an eager look about her. Even the changeling could tell they were about to do something important.

"Alrighty!" Alex flicked off the last of the lights and made her way to the door. Spell or no spell, she was warming up in these clothes. The sooner she started, the less likely she would change her mind. "Say ‘goodbye house!’" Ezri didn't say anything, though she did imitate Alex's exaggerated wave to the empty interior. "Close enough." She shut the door, but didn't lock it. The city would have the mansion now, just as her friend had wanted. Foals' voices would fill the space again soon.

Not Alex; if she had her way she would never see the mansion again. It would hurt too much.

It was still early morning as they made their way down main street, then turned on the highway that had once been the 133. Few ponies were out and even fewer said anything to her, robed as she was. The streets were salted and clear, and nothing stopped them. They turned again onto the road that had been the 16 highway, walking through the post-Event suburban sprawl for another hour or so.

The road got worse the further they got, but neither noticed. Their boots had been specifically designed to give grip on icy roads, and their outfits would keep the snow out even if it rose to their shoulders.

It was noon by the time they reached city limits, and the guarded gate that separated Alexandria from the smattering of smaller settlements beyond. Alex slowed as they neared the gate, waving politely to the city guards on duty.

There were two she could see, each with a firearm slung over their shoulder and a wintry version of the regular uniform, white fabric with the black logo of the college set upon it like some medieval coat-of-arms. The P90s were ancient history now, replaced with a greatly simplified version of the Standard Equine Rifle. The guards were a unicorn and a pegasus, though it was the unicorn who approached her.

"Stand next to me, Ezri," she whispered, meeting the drone's eyes as she always did when she gave an important instruction. The changeling had learned by now that, while she could get away with disobedience and causing trouble while they were alone, Day didn't tolerate it when they were around others. If she wanted any love to eat the rest of the day, she would cooperate. Her plumpness attested to how well she had learned over the last week.

"Afternoon young lady," the unicorn stallion said. "You two look prepared." Up close, his reddish mane was swept back, only partially visible from within his hood. "Headed out of Alexandria?"

"We planned on it," she said, as politely as she could. It didn't seem like she had been recognized yet. Maybe shaving off most of her mane had been a good idea. He had still been able to smell she was a mare though. She would have to figure out something to do about that too. "I've heard the roads are safest in winter."

"Safest from bandits maybe," the pegasus called, alighting momentarily through the air and landing down beside her comrade. "But there are never very many of those even in summer. Maybe in other regions, but not so close to Alexandria." She spoke with pride, pride Alex couldn't help but share. It was her city they spoke of, her city that had driven out banditry and protected all the lands round about. "The cold, though... that's everywhere."

"Minors aren't allowed to leave Alexandria during winter unaccompanied. If you need to get to Clarksville or Westfield, I think there's a caravan headed that way next week or so." He glanced once at her saddlebags, eyes appraising. And she knew they didn't look like most travelers' saddlebags did, not well worn from the trail, with bedrolls and tents strapped to the outside and weighing down at odd angles. The "rule" they discussed didn't exist, Alex knew that well. These guards were just trying to stop a pair of cushy-looking city ponies from wandering out of Alexandria to freeze to death.

"I'm not a minor. Ezri is, but she's with me, so..."

"Really?" The pegasus raised her eyebrows, looking her up and down. "What are you, fifteen?"

"If you want to leave, we'll have to see your ID," the unicorn said, smiling politely. "It's for your own safety. Underage ponies shouldn't be wandering the wilderness alone."

"Fair enough." Alex sighed, but it wasn't like she hadn't been expecting this. She didn't even have to reach into her saddle-bags, just reached into a pocket with her mouth and offered the wallet to the unicorn. He took it with his magic, opening it up so that he and his partner could both see. Alex watched his mouth gape slowly open, and she pulled down her hood so that he could get a better look, and compare it to the photo inside. Black and white though it might be, and with far longer hair, it would be impossible to mistake her.

The pegasus recovered first. "Y-You're Lonely Day?"

She nodded.

"I learned about you in local history, back in grade school." The mare's ears pressed flat to her head in embarrassment. "First and longest-running mayor, right? I didn't think the part about you still being alive was actually true."

Day smiled, "It was last I checked." Her ID was as official as any, albeit with a few more signatures than were usually present. She had the stamp regularly reserved for dragons, which roughly translated to "this individual is older than she looks." Unlike most Alexandria IDs, which listed either the date of arrival or the date of birth, Alex's had her pre-Event birthdate, and no age written at all.

Ponies usually dealt with her immortality better when not directly confronted with it. The unicorn handed the ID back after another full minute of inspection, lowering his head politely. "Forgive me, Lonely Day. If I'd known it was you..." again his attention fell on her saddle-bags. "Of course you're free to leave, but you probably shouldn't with so little supplies. Even with snowshoes, the trip to Westfield takes two days in this weather. There's going to be another storm around then, so if you don't make it..."

"Why are you walking?" The mare stared at Ezri, but didn't dare ask about her. "If you can't afford a train ticket for wherever you're going, I'm sure the city would-"

"The city probably would," she interrupted. "It's not that I can't afford the tickets. I just want to walk."

"During winter?" The male was indignant. "Even the militia doesn't send ponies to travel alone this time of year. You really ought to take a caravan."

She shrugged. "A caravan wouldn't go all the places I want to go, or at the pace I want to go. Those ponies are in a rush, but I'm not rushing anywhere." She gestured. "My... apprentice and I know what we're doing. We're in no danger from exposure." She gestured at the gate. "Please let us through, officers. We have a long way to travel before dark." At their further hesitation, she added, "Unless you're going to arrest me."

The guards hesitated for a few more moments, then the unicorn shrugged. His horn glowed, and the gates began to swing open. "It's nothing personal, Lonely Day. It's not like there are bandits to fight in the dead of winter. We're out here to protect you, and the other ponies of Alexandria."

"I understand, officer. You can alleviate yourself of worry. I've packed well for the journey, and I have three centuries of practice surviving in the wilderness." She gestured with one hoof towards Ezri. "My young changeling friend has a terminal injury. We're going to find the cure for her."

With the gate of the city open, the pegasus kept her rifle ready, no longer watching either of them but instead scanning the surroundings with her eagle-sharp eyes. "You're not taking her to the hive?" The unicorn gestured east. "It’s the other way."

Alex gestured, and Ezri started walking. They couldn't go very fast; she had short legs, and would sometimes bumble in her clothes and fall over. That was the price of warmth. "They don't have the treatment. Queen Blacklight sent Ezri to me so I could find it."

They passed the gate, passing the heavy wood with its potent enchantments. In the early days of Alexandria, she had seen Joseph's spells, woven into a chain-link fence, bring a speeding semi-truck to a dead stop without denting the fence. Considerably more magic had been woven into them now, and she could feel the warmth of them as she passed. More than just vigilance kept bandits at bay; they also had the most powerful magic in the formerly-human world.

"What are you looking for?" the unicorn called, though he made no effort to follow her past the threshold. Without a credible threat, that would be leaving his post.

"A soul!" Alex called back. "We're not coming back. I've already filed travel plans, but... please don't tell your superiors to send a rescue party! We're going on to St. Louis, so we won't be coming back!"

She couldn't hear the unicorn over the sound of the gate rattling closed, though she made no effort to listen. Outside the gate, the road was another beast. Snow and ice rose several feet, packed down in a single lane wide enough for the caravan sleds. There was no salt here, no streetlights.

Unfortunately, there were also very few hills, so Alex had to settle for clambering up onto a big pile of snow beside the trail, lifting Ezri onto her back as she did so.

Only a few of the buildings were tall enough to see at this distance. Slowly rusting silos stood off to one side, emerging in twisted orange wreckage from the white of the snow. In the distant gloom, Alex could make out the tallest structure in Alexandria, the Spire. Joseph had been its architect, though it was crafted by magic and not engineers. The work of hundreds of unicorns and several decades culminated in the creation of a single twisting spire of blue crystal, nearly ten stories tall.

It served mystical purposes, though Alex didn't know what those were. She had only known it as a symbol of the city, more potent than their walls or the streetlights that worked. The world's magical capital ought to look a little magical.

"Say goodbye to Alexandria," she said gesturing towards the Spire. "You probably won't see it again."

"Say goodbye-" the changeling mimicked, imitating Alex's intonation perfectly, even if her voice was a full octave higher and echoed strangely.

"Goodbye." Alex lifted her head a little, touching the underside of Ezri's neck in what she hoped was a loving way. The emotion was such that she almost failed to notice the importance of what Ezri had done. "Goodbye my ponies, my friends."

Alex turned her back on the city and started to walk away. She slipped, but not violently enough to dislodge her passenger.

"Friends-" Ezri repeated, her voice a little louder, her grip tightening enough on Alex's back that she could feel it there.

"Oh!" The tears were freezing to her face in the chill wind. She brushed them away, then looked up. "You're speaking, Ezri!"

"Ezri!" she mimicked, beaming.

Alex met her eyes for a few more moments, trying to convey just how pleased she was without saying anything. Changelings were better about that sort of thing than regular ponies were. It helped when the drone could literally eat her appreciation. "That's very good, Ezri. We might have good news for Queen Blacklight yet. Can you say anything else? Other than... imitating me?"

"Imitating me!" She bounced up and down, giggling.

"Well, that's something." The intellectual development of a dog or a parakeet was better than where she had started a week ago. "I wonder how much is instinct." The path stretched empty before her as far as she could see. Alex pulled her hood back on, sheltering against the wind. The spell couldn't protect her face when the hood was down.

"Well Ezri, we've got a long way to go. More than a thousand miles. It would've taken us six weeks to walk straight there back when there were roads, and it was summer. With the highways buried... it will probably take most of the way through spring."

"Spring!"

"Yeah." Alex did not let herself feel exasperated. Even if it seemed the changeling might not actually understand what she was saying, she would send no hint that she wasn't overwhelmingly pleased with her. "Let's find spring."

Even with magically-insulated clothes, they could only travel so far through winter. Little Ezri's legs could put up with far less exertion than Alex could, both because of her age and because she lacked the strength of the Earth to keep her moving. When Ezri could walk no further, Alex carried her on her back. She continued like that until her own strength was drained. She didn't fight when that happened, since of course she intended to be traveling for several months and a few more miles each day wouldn't be worth the misery. If she'd cared about being timely, she wouldn't have decided to walk.

There was little to see. This close to Alexandria all the fields were cultivated, but in winter they were as covered with snow as anything else and impossible to separate from the flat, featureless plane. There was still a semi-groomed path here, kept clear by the caravans and the motorized ploughs they used. When it came time to rest, Alex left the path, carefully covering their tracks until she found a ravine among the snow. There she first removed her weary passenger and then her saddlebags. The second she concealed in the snow so that they would be out of sight from the road, then flicked the side with Celestia's mark open with her mouth.

Warmth and light came from inside in a rush. Inside was practically another world, at a perpendicular orientation to the one she was standing in. Day lifted Ezri in her mouth, clambering inside like one climbing the crest of a cliff. She deposited her cargo beside her, then tugged down at the tab to close the saddlebags behind her. Ezri stirred with a sound like surprise, though it was hard to tell for sure. She couldn't sense emotions like her friend, but... that seemed like the right choice. She had been pretty surprised the first time she had seen this place.

The library had been built by Equestrian crafts-ponies from the wood of another universe. Three levels it was, with a tall balcony overhead ringing the circular space, rows of shelves on the ground floor, and a small basement with even more shelves. The entire area was lit by brilliant glowing blue crystals mounted like torches from walls or hung in chandeliers. The entire library had been built with the precision of a Victorian pocket watch, and just as much subtle beauty and grace. It had hurt when she tore out most of the shelves: they had been works of art.

The entire library had been transformed into the interior of a small cottage. The books and shelves were all gone from the ground floor, replaced instead with a little sealed coatroom, a grate and a tub to catch the snow. Another wall had coiled tubes and pipes, but she ignored these in favor of helping Ezri and then herself out of their snowy outer layers. Once boots, jacket, and trousers were hanging to dry, she pushed over the glass door beyond into the ground floor. It was amazing how open the space could look without the shelves. The original Equestrian tapestries and crystal lights adorned the walls, along with several new mirrors Alex had mounted to make it feel more open. "Pretty neat, huh?"

"Neat huh," Ezri repeated, fully awake. She wandered into the thickly-carpeted sitting room, passing the cold and dark electric fireplace. She hopped up onto one of the squishy couches, then onto the desk by the wall.

Alex ignored her, heading instead into the little kitchen that looked like something out of history. Well, they were out of history. She ignored those things for the control panel. Hydrogen tanks read full, power nominal. She flicked on the heating system, which would be required to run constantly so long as they were inside. Alex understood very little of the claudication, but she suspected the entire area was in some kind of temporal stasis when it wasn't open. On the other hand, once somebody went inside it couldn't ever be properly closed, and the outside would leak in. Hence the thermal glass and insulation around the entrance.

"I want to be conservative with our power until we get out from where there might be other ponies," she called, then pulled open the pantry door with her teeth. "No cooking our food or using anything but the heater until we're into the wild. I'm... not sure you care. Once we're done with dinner, I'll give you the rest of the tour. You'll be using this thing with me for the next few months, so..."

Ezri said nothing to that, though she did gradually make her way back towards Alex at the mention of food. Alex lifted out a jar of Sky's vegetable soup and set it on the counter. Ezri didn't seem particularly pleased with it, but she ate it anyway. Alex's appreciation depended on her good behavior.

When they were done, Alex took her down the stairs to the basement level. Most of that was sealed away, filled with the equipment that kept the shelter running, but the bedroom and bathroom were accessible. The bathroom had a working sink and shower, though such limited water that they didn't use either one. Lonely Day had already reconciled herself to the frequent company of long-distance travelers: odor.

When she had shown Ezri the facilities and repeated several times her standards were the same as they had been back in Alexandria, she took the exhausted drone into the bedroom. The bed was another relic, an HPI foam mattress adorned with pony-woven sheets. The bedroom itself was small and cramped, most of the space occupied with shelves and other storage. It was like the interior of a submarine, which wasn't far from the truth. This too was its own self-contained world. "I hung up another hammock for you right there, see? You'll be right next to me, just like you seem to like for some reason.”

Ezri hopped up towards it, but her underclothes kept her wings from doing more than making her back twitch. She kept at it without a word, bouncing up and down until Alex noticed and caught her out of the air. "You've got to learn to use your words when you need help, Ezri." She set the changeling down on the bed, then helped her squirm out of the lower layer. Ezri buzzed up and into her hammock the instant she was free, wrapping herself up until only her face poked out. Alex had transferred all her blankets and pillows from the house, so they would all smell right. Ezri seemed to approve.

There was no way to turn out the lights: the Equestrian torches glowed no matter what you did. As such, the ones in the bedroom were enclosed in a little metal housing, which she rotated to cut out the light. That left only a little slit from outside. Alex climbed up into bed, and lay awake long after Ezri drifted off. This would be her life for the next several months. She wondered if the guards had listened to her, or if they would send ponies to track her down.

I hope I can do this, she thought, staring up at the lump of Ezri's hammock above her. Cloudy Skies, help me. Maybe she would've been better off to ask for Adrian's help. Hadn't he been the first one to be kind to Riley? Well, it had been rotten of him to leave Sky the way he had. He didn't have Oliver's excuse of being in a relationship with an ageless immortal.

Did she really expect her friends could hear her somehow? No, but it would've been nice. It would make her life less lonely if she thought that. Guess it won't be that lonely. She had plenty of practice raising Cody; she would do much better the second time.

It was hard to say when she made the transition from awake to asleep within the little Equestrian library. She went from an empty library to a big one, filled with every book she ever read. She wasn't alone; tonight she saw an old friend. A living friend this time, if such beings could be said to live. "Is what I'm doing really helping?" she asked the woman.

"What do you think?" she replied, gesturing all around her. "You've done this for thousands of years. The magic changes less than you think."

"I don't understand."

"Even you must have heard the stories. Your children escaped into the wild, raised with dogs or bears or some other animal. Gone feral. Does that mean they never had a soul?"

"That's absurd! Of course they did! They were ordinary children before they got lost! They could've been-"

"Left alone during their earliest years, your kind lose much of what makes them unique."

"This doesn't help Blacklight. Or Ezri."

"Doesn't it?" The tall woman didn't seem interested in the books, but she did reach out towards one of the wilting flower pots. The pale forget-me-nots bloomed again, brilliant in the world of her dream. "Many reactions are reversible with the right conditions. The wilderness creates animals. What does a family make?"

Archive watched silently for several moments. "You think I'm enough family for Ezri?"

The Keeper nodded. "Far less than the love of a species has been enough for the least among these beings before. If you understood, you could have woke the sleeper in moments." She faced Archive directly. "My servant Riley Owens was not honest with you. She couldn't bear the pain, yet she would tell you if she could."

"Blacklight doesn't lie to me." Yet even as she denied it, Archive recognized it far more as a truth she wished than a truth she knew. Being able to recognize the difference between truth and belief was part of her office, even in herself. No race could live long that lied to itself.

"Riley Owens contends against her nature. She has rejected it to serve me, but that does not mean she has overcome it. Riley could not tell you because it would reflect upon her weakness. No wolf dares bear her throat to a rival. Even if you aren't one; live among them for three centuries and see if everyone you meet doesn't look like a predator."

"I still don't see the lie," Archive said. "Or what this has to do with helping the changelings."

"The drone you call Ezri wasn't the dullest of her drones. See, Riley hasn't told you the most important thing. The reason she values the results of your experiment so much. For centuries she looked out into the empty faces of her hive, but she can bear the agony no more. She decided it was better to birth no children than to bring them into a life without hope of becoming individuals."

"But she... she did create at least one. Ezri's young, just a few years."

"She failed to give the drone sapience, though she was liberal with her time and with glamour, short of making her into a nymph or a male. She abandoned hope of ever having another child. If you do not succeed, her hive will wither away. Young queens lack the willpower or the courage for such a choice. Though powerful among her kind, she would rather become the least than see them in pain. Is that familiar?"

Archive thought over the Keeper's words. It felt like hours before she replied. "You think I'm enough. Even if I can... wake the sleeping soul... will that make a difference? I can't raise all of Blacklight's daughters."

"No. But you're no different from my other children. There's just more of you in one place. What you do in a week, they do in a year. So succeed. Give my servant hope again."

"You think I can," she repeated, mostly to herself.

"Isn't that why you're here?"

Alex woke the next morning to the sound of a literal gale from outside, along with the roar of thunder and the pounding of what sounded like hail. Worse than either of those sounds were the frightened sounds Ezri made, and the tightness of her grip on Alex's side. No sound could wake her, not when she was having that dream. "Shh... it's okay, Ezri. It's just weather outside. It can't get us in here." Maybe not, but that didn't mean it wouldn't have an impact. Fabric shook somewhere far away, and the temperature was ten degrees lower than what it had been when she slept. Well within acceptable parameters for an earth pony, but for a drone...

She understood what had driven Ezri into her bed. Just as they depended on other species for glamour, they relied on their environments for heat. Death was certain without either one. Alex tried to get the drone to stay safe in her own still-warm bed, but she refused to let her leave without thrashing and crying out with all the violence of her first day. "Fine, suit yourself. I'm just trying to help."

Alex hopped out, but didn't fight her off, letting Ezri cling to her back. "Damn weather report didn't say it was coming this early in the morning. Come on." She pushed the bedroom door open, then hurried up the stairs. It got colder the closer to the entrance they got, and the ground floor was even chilly enough to make her shiver. It got worse as she made her way to the entrance.

The library could not be moved so long as living things were within it, not by any strength of ponies or any magic. Indeed, she had once put the saddlebags on a large pile of sand, had Huan climb inside, then shut the pocket and removed the sand. The library had hung in the air, as though suspended on an invisible hook. Alex didn't know how much weight the spell would support outside, but she hadn't ever tested further.

She wasn't worried the storm would blow them away. Bury them, maybe. But not move them. The wind couldn't blow open the entrance, for only Alex's will could open it. Yet a little air must circulate, because the temperature would change and ponies never suffocated who visited. It seemed to transfer fastest around the entrance, because when she opened the thermal shield she was plunged into an arctic wasteland.

Ezri cried out as though she had been struck, clinging all the tighter to Alex's back.

"I know! This will only take a second!" The gale outside must've been truly remarkable, because she even felt some of the breeze when standing beside the entrance. Alex pulled down on a thick layer of reflective plastic and canvas, until it completely covered the entrance. She zipped all the way around the edge, then pulled down a thick blanket to cover that. The wind stopped.

Even so, she returned to the relative warmth of the interior, making straight for the kitchen and turning the heater system up all the way. She could practically hear the hiss of her hydrogen burning away downstairs, and the gesture cost her a little... but not nearly so much as it would cost if Ezri got hurt. "Let's find somewhere more comfortable for you," she muttered, wandering over to the fireplace. She turned this on too, cranking the heater inside all the way up and sitting down beside it.

Within a few minutes Ezri released her death grip on her back, spreading herself on the floor in front of the fireplace like a cat. "Can I get up now?" The drone didn't object, so Alex rose to get them both dry cereal and milk for breakfast. Neither one would last, so she wasn't conservative with their portions.

"Guess you must not get much of storms in your hive," Alex murmured, over the crunching of the cereal in Ezri's mouth. She still hadn't managed to get the little drone to eat with a spoon. That was hardly at the front of her mind today. Today she didn't even bother to make her sit at the table, but ate beside her on the floor in front of the fireplace.

"Or maybe you're too young to have seen any really bad ones. I thought about staying behind and waiting it out in Alexandria, but... things always break in big storms, and one way or another I always get roped into helping fix them. Not this year."

Ezri moved a little closer, resting against Alex's side. She shivered violently with each and every boom of thunder. A pity it was so cold; Alex would've loved to go up there and see it for herself. Alex loved storms. Cloudy Skies had loved them too. "Don't worry, Ezri. It can't get in. I won't let it get in." She gestured vaguely around them. "This library was made by Equestrian wizards, and they made their spells to last."

"Last," Ezri whined.

"The fancy stuff is mine, so it's sturdy too. Did the conversion into a house..." she shrugged. "Well, I guess I started over a century ago. But don't worry... things in here aren't old. There's some kind of stasis spell on it. Part of how I was able to get things that work."

The drone showed no sign of comprehension. She fawned in the heat and reveled in the attention, but said nothing. In time she had relaxed enough to get up, which was good because Alex was practically baking in the heat.

It took three days for the storm to pass, three days spent with the distant roar of wind and rattling of fabric. As much as the ordeal was difficult for Ezri, she was relieved by all the noise. Noise meant they hadn't been buried, which was the only thing that could give them real trouble. How much damage could ten feet of snow do if she opened the door too suddenly? Alex tried whatever she could think of to pass the time with Ezri, but the drone had no patience for video or board games, no desire to watch movies, and no interest in music.

In the end, she did find something the drone appreciated. Books. She couldn't read, no more than Alex would've expected a three-year-old pony to be able to read. Yet she could listen, or at least sit still while Alex read. Actually holding the book seemed important too: while Archive could call up anything she had ever read and recite it perfectly, Ezri only paid attention if the prop was in front of her.

Lonely Day didn't question why this might be, nor did she complain. The top floor was still a library, even if only a third of the shelves held Equestrian books. That collection had been spread and copied many times throughout the world, leaving only a few hundred of the originals. Archive had kept the originals of the most esoteric or dangerous books of magical instruction, those complex enough to offer her some help in understanding her own nature.

Most of the Equestrian books still in the library were copies, not originals, with the standard block letters of an Alexandria printing press and pre-Event leather covers. Yet these books too pushed her drone to boredom. Only one genre was diverting enough to keep Ezri from noticing her fear of the storm: fantasy. In three days, they made it through The Fellowship of the Ring and started in on The Two Towers.

Once the storm had finally passed, Ezri went from bored to delighted at Day's ability to recite without a book in front of her, and became antsy whenever she went more than an hour of their walk without more of the story. She never spoke when Day read, but walked along with rapt attention.

Their fifth day on the road, they passed through the wreckage of their first village. "Kansas" had only ever had a few hundred people living in it even before the Event; while a population like that would make a very respectable town these days, it was so small as to make it likely that not a single person who had lived in it had returned. In three centuries it had been almost completely reclaimed by nature, save for the shells of brick buildings, along with the occasional spire of a telephone pole somehow standing despite the odds.

The caravan route followed the same path the road had gone, though the cheap asphalt of the road had long been devoured by plants. Many trees now grew here, leafless Alders and Maples like the skeleton of a forest to be reborn a few months hence. Lonely Day slowed their pace as they moved through the trees, with the respect she might've shown in a graveyard. "People lived here once," she told her companion, her voice sad. "It hasn't taken very long for nature to take the houses back, can you see?"

"See." Ezri didn't seem to understand the abstraction, but she didn't try to speed their pace again and she did look whenever Alex pointed. Every day the little drone became more animated, though she had yet to say anything that Alex hadn't said first.

Alex nodded. "Lots of the planet is like this right now. It used to be there were people almost everywhere. Now all the places we used to live are fading away."

Ezri seemed to consider that, though it was hard to tell what the drone was thinking. Yet if she was thinking at all, it meant Lonely Day was beginning to succeed in her purpose.

"You'll see some real ruins in a few weeks. Just you wait until we get to St. Louis. You'll see some of what humanity used to be like."

But that was several weeks yet, weeks of cold days and warm nights. Her conservatism let their hydrogen last a full two weeks before it was time to charge again. That meant walking well off the trail into the hills, unrolling the solar mat, and letting the whole thing recharge over the course of a week. In theory her shelter could recharge in a day, but... that took a full day of summer sunshine.

When they reached Charleston, they stayed three full days in a traveler's hostel. Three full days of hot meals every night and hot showers every morning. Charleston wasn't even half the size of Alexandria, but the ponies were kind to travelers and didn't ask too many questions. Alex even dared to use the time to charge the shelter, exposing what she could of the solar mat through their single window.

Before they left, Lonely Day penned a letter to Riley, and paid two whole chits to have it flown by pegasus messenger back to Alexandria. She didn't write much, not daring to allow any of what she knew (or suspected she knew) from her strange dreams to get into the hooves of rival changeling clans. Was it possible her mission was known among them? She hadn't tried to hide Ezri the day she left. Changeling drones were not strange in Alexandria, but seeing one so young was practically unheard of. Everypony she spoke to in Charleston just assumed she was a returned human unlucky enough to be a changeling but lucky enough to have an older sister who would look out for her. Day did nothing to discourage this belief.

English was still the written and spoken language, though some words had drifted towards other meanings and numerous new slang terms had appeared from nothing. Day wasn't sure if Riley knew any other languages, so she was stuck having to write as vaguely as she could.

"Remember the day Adrian found you in the City Museum? He heard you crying and came running. We never expected to find anypony new so fast, let alone in there. It didn't take you very long at all to impress me. In the end, we all really depended on you, and you saved our lives.

You did good work then. I haven't thought about that for a long time. I wish I could ask Adrian what was going through his head when he first saw you. I'm pretty sure he'd have given me an honest answer, even if he did end up treating Sky like a dick and run off on her.

I'm safe and well. Travel is slow, but that's by design. How many ponies are going to get to say they watched the country rot away before their eyes. Figure if I'm alive I might as well take a look. Be safe until I write again. If you want to write back, send telegraph or pegasus to the "Old Boot" hotel in St. Louis, by my birthday. I won't wait if I don't hear from you. I think Adrian would've really liked it there.

-Day"

Was she being paranoid? Maybe. But if this whole situation was as important as the Keeper and Blacklight herself had made it out to be... maybe a little paranoia was warranted. Pity Ezri couldn't shapeshift yet: a little of that and they could've been practically invisible. They encountered nothing even hinting at danger for themselves that wasn't natural in Charleston, or during the next few days into Mattoon.

When the danger finally came, it had nothing to do with changelings.