The longer she met his eyes, the more she recognized. The glove might’ve changed, but the hand underneath was exactly as it had been. “Fine.” She gestured back at Ezri. “Just between us. I’ll cooperate, but only if you leave her out of it. She’s not involved.”

He shrugged. “If that’s what you want. I’m sure I could improve her as much as you. But if it will speed things along…” Alex felt something stir at her back. The straps came loose without a glow of magic, sliding clean off to the floor. Ezri squealed and kicked as something picked her up by the scruff. The bag opened, and she was tossed squealing inside. It shut just as definitively. “Happy?”

Alex’s mouth hung open. “You… opened them…”

“Well, yes.” He walked past her, nudging the faux-leather with one hoof. “I did help make them. Only fools make weapons that can be turned against them.” He frowned. “Yet here you stand, proof we don’t always follow our own sound advice.”

She didn’t argue, or point out that being put into the saddlebags was no safety if he could still open them. It would have to be enough. “Why are you here?” she asked, sitting back on her haunches. “Disarm.” The gun loosened, sliding down off her leg. Alex nudged it aside: there was no use holding an umbrella in a hurricane. “Why the charade? You could’ve come upon us on the road just as easily as lured me in here. It would have been less work than restoring all of this.”

“Perhaps.” He turned tail and walked away from her down the aisle. He seemed to grow with each step, though the effect was subtle. “But who ever told you I did things the easy way? Don’t confuse chaos with entropy, they’re not as closely related as many people think.”

She followed. What else could she do? “You’ve already said why you’re here. But how? Aren’t you back in Equestria? Or are you… this universe’s version of whatever you were…”

The form in front of her rippled and shifted. Cloak became scales, and it rose up on its hind-legs. Limbs became mismatched, each from some other creature. Its eyes were still red though, the space around it seeming to contract somehow, darkening. It was similar to what Archive had seen when she had looked at Sunset Shimmer under the effect of her magic, seeing through her into someplace beyond. She saw somewhere else reflected in that darkness, a gulf vaster than the distance between stars.

“Sound guess, but your assumptions are wrong. From over there, I went back to Equestria several centuries ago.” He stepped back into the light of a large stained window. “From where I’m standing, my tour of your world has scarcely begun.” He waved one paw in a vague circle. “I’ll have to loop around and go back eventually.”

She still didn’t know why Discord would’ve gone to all this trouble, but she was too frightened to ask again. Something had prompted him to take the time to speak with her. Creatures like him did not act randomly, however much the Equestrian stories about him represented him as entirely beyond understanding. Archive had met him; she knew better.

“Last time we met…” She hadn’t had a perfect memory then, but she wouldn’t have needed it to remember that experience. “You told Princess Celestia to kill me. Did you come to make good on your advice?”

Discord was far larger than she, and he leered down at her from before the alter. “You wound me, Archive! Why would I need to kill you? The princesses took my advice, didn’t they? We need to move past the past if we want our relationship to get anywhere.” His grin widened. “If you want my help, I’ll expect you to be a little kinder.”

“Your help.” She sat down again, trying not to quake on her hooves. “Will it hurt as much as the last time you helped me?”

He shrugged. “Growing usually does. Ponies always misunderstand that.” He was behind her, suddenly small enough to reach down and easily rest a paw on her shoulder. “A comfortable pony isn’t getting any smarter, any stronger, any better. A comfortable pony is complacent. Sometimes it takes a little chaos to jar them loose.” He shoved, but not hard enough that she fell over.

“Is that why you came?” She stepped forward. “I’m already leaving my home behind. My friends, relatives, colleagues…”

“A thousand miles west, yes. What a trailblazer.” He rolled his eyes, in ways eyes were not meant to move. “I want to like you, Archive. Yet three centuries go by, and you’re exactly where I left you. No growth beyond the expected. What happened to your capacity for the unexpected? Of all the humans I meet, I would expect you at least to impress.”

Archive glared. “How was I supposed to grow, exactly? Celestia never even hinted it might be possible to be an Alicorn, if that’s what you’re implying. I never even guessed it until I met Sunset. She wouldn’t tell me how to do it, or at least not anything helpful. Everything anypony says about it is always vague and confusing! Unless you came to be straightforward.”

Discord shook his head, grinning proudly. “Oh, I’m going to be worse. But I’m doing it on purpose, so there’s a difference.”

She sighed, but didn’t object. Considering all the suffering he could cause for her (and the rest of mankind) if he wanted to, it was best to humor him if she had the choice. She had said she was going to cooperate. “Why do you care?”

Discord moved past her, resting one paw on the alter. As he did, it looked to Alex as though time began to flow rapidly, catching up to the point in time the alter ought to occupy. Candles burned down in seconds, dust piled up, all the wood became moldy and rotten, and some of the stone tumbled down. The rest was slowly covered by plant-refuse, soaking up the sun from a hole in the ceiling that hadn’t been there a moment before.

Alex shivered, retreating a pace.

“Don’t mistake me as an ally. The particular circumstances of your civilization…” The pews started to rot, eroding away to diffuse piles of detritus, and the plantlife spread. “That’s your problem. However, I consented to help because some of our enemies overlap. The world they would create, well…” He gestured around them, at the actively rotting building slowly filling with snow. “Maximum entropy is universal order, the end of chaos. I simply cannot stay to fight your enemies indefinitely.”

The ceiling groaned, and a beam crashed down behind her. A stone saint exploded as it struck, making her ears ring. The roof tumbled down all around her, though a little circle that contained Discord and herself remained clear. She saw no shield, yet no brick or shingle hit her. She could only hope Discord accorded her saddlebags the same protection, or else she was in for a lot of digging.

“Don’t think you’re my only answer. I find it’s best to run every possible solution together, especially the ones that might interfere. Just because Celestia thinks…” He stopped, closing his claws around her forehead. “No matter. Hold still.”

Alex was stiff when she awoke, particularly around her hooves where her boots should’ve been (but weren’t). A combination of cold and blood-loss had killed her before, but this time her protection was better and there was no blood. If she’d had little toes or fingers, she might’ve lost a few to the chill. Hooves were a little tougher, particularly when an earth pony was on the ground. Her legs ached terribly, but she would live.

She felt magic burned into the air, thick enough that even without being a unicorn she could sense it there. As she opened her eyes, she saw that the burning was literal: the earth itself was scarred with several layers of intricate runes. She spent several seconds taking them all in, memorizing the pattern for future reference. Alex had an encyclopedic knowledge of magic, but only of the basics Equestria had given them books about. She knew all ten schools of magic, and recognized some of the symbols as belonging to “fate”. Beyond that, she couldn’t hazard a guess. Maybe she would understand when she was older.

At least in the short term, it didn’t seem to matter what Discord had intended. She felt no different. Nor could she remember anything from when the pain had started. This lapse terrified her almost as much as the being itself. Had he taken away her memory, and made her job impossible? No, she could still see the runes in her mind if she wanted to. She could still call up any one of the Equestrian books, or any moment from the movies she had seen, or what she’d eaten for breakfast one hundred and twenty years to the day ago (oat flakes with orange juice).

Aside from the portion of the floor Discord had kept clear for her, the church was in ruins. A few of the walls were intact, but the wooden roof had fallen in, and the ceramic tiles with it. The destruction of the church yielded no clues as to why Discord had chosen it to deceive her in the first place. Had he been mocking Old Earth’s religions? If so, Alex couldn’t imagine why he would do so to her. She had shown what she had thought of those in her human life by leaving as soon as she was old enough and never looking back.

Why go to all this trouble? Why not just take her on the road and cast his stupid spell? She would keep turning over that question in her mind until she got an answer.

But it wouldn’t be her first concern. She couldn’t just spin off a thought-thread to think about it like Blacklight. She would have to put academic questions on the back burner before more important questions, like “what had Discord actually done to her?” And before those questions, more practical concerns.

She had to dig her saddlebags out of the rubble, as Discord had taken no effort to protect them. She was fortunate that they had put their boots outside the building, because he had also not bothered to protect the gun. It was crushed beyond usefulness.

At least being buried under the rubble meant an overly-inquisitive Ezri couldn’t have found a way to escape and get hurt while Alex was unconscious. Just how long had it been? Long enough that she had to use the light from her gauntlet to illuminate her way through the digging. Mostly she crushed and shoved with her full earth-pony might, confident that she could not damage her true target.

Eventually she reached the faux-leather at the bottom, and she dug it out from under the rubble. As soon as she had it exposed, Alex flipped open the bag and clambered inside.

Ezri was waiting for her. She hadn’t torn apart the entire house, not like last time. This time she had built a nest of pillows on the ground floor, but had taken no further items. She wouldn’t have any repairs to make. The little drone emerged at the sound of the inner door, darting over to her and inspecting her thoroughly as she always did. “Hey squirt.” Alex held still, though she was anxious to get her weight off her hooves and get them near some warmth. “Didn’t miss me too much I hope.”

Squirt she might be, but Alex could not shake the feeling the drone looked a little different. She was… bigger, there was no way around it. She couldn’t dismiss it as some failure of her memory, not when her memories were so clear. She was closer to six now, and had picked up a few inches in the hours Alex had been gone. She could only hope showing love for Ezri wasn’t also prematurely aging her.

“You’re not hurt this time,” she said, seeming concerned. Not disappointed, but something similar. “Why were you so afraid? You were more afraid than with wolves!”

“Because the one we found was much more dangerous than wolves.” Alex nuzzled her, though only for a second. It was aching terribly to stand up. Just as before, having the magic of earth gone suddenly brought all her pain and weakness crashing back down. So she pushed aside the pillow fort, turned the heater up to high, and rested on the couch so that her hooves could rest in the airflow.

“It was pretending to be a pony,” Ezri said. She looked a little crestfallen at the ruins of her fort (blocking the vent though it was), but she said nothing and did not attempt to rebuild it. Instead she climbed up beside Alex, careful not to touch her injured legs. “How come it could trick you?”

She shrugged. “How could you tell he was just pretending?”

It was Ezri’s turn to look confused. She did her best imitation of a shrug, though it was clearly not a gesture she had understood until just then. “He was fake. Now you smell different too.”

“Am I fake?” She couldn’t keep the worry from her voice. After all, Discord had been responsible for some significant portion of the Preservation Spell. If his skills with magic had a match in all of Equestria, it had none here. Nor did they have any Elements of Harmony to capture or reform him. He might’ve eventually returned to Equestria, but… what state had he left the future in?

Ezri shook her head. “Of course you’re not!” She bared her teeth. “You think somepony could trick me after I learned how you taste?”

Day had to suppress a shiver. She had to remind herself that it didn’t matter if the Changeling ate her emotions. Was it really all that different from what a regular child did? Strip away the magic, and any kid needed love. Most foals don’t think of you as food for very long… She banished that thought too. Ezri couldn’t help that she depended on emotions any more than Alex could cure her own dependence on air.

Still, maybe the Drone could see more than she could. “How am I different, then?”

Ezri shrugged again. “I never tasted this before, Momma. You’re still there, but something else too.” She sniffed, looking away, and seemed as though she might be about to cry.

“Don’t worry about it, Ezri.” She reached over, running a hoof down her side despite the pain it caused. “Just tell me if you think of anything. If not, don’t worry about it. Otherwise, we’ll just have to take things as they come. It’s already dark outside, so we’re done walking for the day. I might not be able to go anywhere tomorrow either… but that’s fine! We’re not rushing… it’s fine, everything’s fine. We’re on track for St. Louis, now. Maybe I’ll be able to show you the place we found your mom. Have I ever told you that story?”

Ezri shook her head, though she seemed confused. “I thought you were my mom!”

“I… I am! Of course I am!” Before Ezri could really get going with whatever tears were coming, Alex pulled her into a hug and held her there. She always felt a little difficulty when it came to overcoming parenting challenges with Ezri, since any affection she showed was essentially dunking the drone’s head into a tub of ice-cream. But what else was she supposed to do, not love her?

“Nevermind that story anyway. Maybe you’d rather hear about where we’re going? I’ve been every few years, so my memory’s pretty fresh. Does that sound interesting?”

Ezri nodded, relaxing against her. Chitin had felt strange against the fur of her coat once, but not anymore. It wasn’t as hard and unyielding as it had first looked.

“Alright, so the city really got started fifty years ago, when a whole bus--”

The trip to St. Louis took another few weeks, weeks of eating plain food and melting snow to drink and spending every fifth day recharging. They encountered no more evil spirits, few caravans, and no predators earth-pony magic or rifle couldn’t deter (she had one spare). Ezri made no more quantum leaps, though her constant questions grew more complex. Alex spent the stationary days teaching her to read, which she attacked with no small enthusiasm. Whatever fears Day had left that her young companion would lose the will to live and shrivel away faded by the time they reached their destination.

Having Ezri reminded her of the joy she had felt caring for Cody when he had been this young, though in some ways there was even more. Pony foals had their own interests, at least as much as their age permitted.

Changeling drones were different. Ezri adapted Lonely Day’s own interests with genuine enthusiasm, and developed none that didn’t have her explicit approval. She was like an obedient child, but far more obedient than children she had ever known. She didn’t even seem to want to think about things that didn’t please her guardian.

This worried Lonely Day, but the drone had only been confused when she asked about it. The very idea that she would investigate interests that Alex herself hadn’t chosen for her seemed foreign. But if the problem had a solution, she didn’t discover it during their trip to St. Louis.

As in the early days of human settlement, you could always spot a city in winter by the smoke. The old city had been massive, surrounded by huge sprawls of suburbia both wealthy and impoverished. Housing projects and old-money mansions alike had largely gone to rot by now, except where maintained by living occupants.

Alex had to work to keep little Ezri from exploring far off the path as they approached the city, for fear of buried ruins waiting to cut through clothes and living armor. Wood may’ve rotted and brick may’ve tumbled, but glass and steel would still be sharp, hidden as it was in the snow.

It wasn’t like walking through a small town, where the trace of humanity could’ve been mistaken for slightly unusual rock formations and particularly sparse trees. Here the power of statistics alone meant a few structures had remained more or less intact. Even those buildings that had not survived contributed so much rubble that nature simply couldn’t cover it all. Sections of the massive highways were visible too, huge flat sections that resisted the return of forest far better than the land around it.

Ezri grew more subdued the deeper they got into the old city, as they walked on old streets again and more of the old buildings remained intact. “Was ‘St. Louis’ an important place? There’s so much more here than… anywhere! More than home even!”

Alex couldn’t help but grin. “Ezri, before the Event this city had more people living in it than the whole world does today. The place we’re walking now would’ve been filled with cars, day and night.”

She nodded, seeming satisfied. “What’s that?”

Lonely Day followed the gesture of her leg to the downtown skyline. After three centuries they hadn’t changed much, at least not at this distance. Like the roman wonders of old they rose up among the wreckage to mock the primitives who took possession of the land when their dominion ended. Alex squinted against the sun, and she saw Ezri had a specific structure in mind.

The Gateway Arch still stood, though it had seen better days. Its stainless steel surface was covered in dust and grime. In more than a few places panels were missing entirely, and the steel interior had begun to rust. Needless to say, they didn’t send ponies up to the observation deck anymore.

“People like to call it the Gateway Arch, or just the Arch.”

“What was it for?”

She shrugged. “Nothing, really. Mostly they built it because they could. Humans were like that, always pushing the limits of how tall things could be, or in what harsh conditions. Lots of people thought it wouldn’t work, but… there it is.”

“It’s so big.”

“Not even close to the tallest building in the city. Would you like to climb to the top of one? I guess it might not be the same for somepony with wings, but…”

“Yes!” She grinned pointed teeth at Alex. “I wanna see what’s inside them!”

“We will.” Alex could see the city gate not much further down the highway, and beyond it the crowds of a living city. “The lower floors have ponies living in them, I think. The upper ones… I think only pegasi use ‘em, and even then just the ones with balconies. They used to have machines that could take you from the top to the bottom very fast, but those are gone now.”

“Why hasn’t anypony fixed them?” Ezri hopped down from the wall she had been climbing, walking beside Alex again. “You know how to fix things, other ponies must too!”

“There are lots of ponies who can fix things, Ezri. But when you build a city this advanced, you need millions of different kinds of things. Ponies can only keep fixing the same things so many times, eventually you just need to put a new one in. They stopped making new ones, and ran out of all the ones they’d stored away. Nowadays if something breaks, it probably can’t be fixed. They just have to give it up.”

“That’s not fair.” Ezri pouted. “People so long ago could do all this, but we can’t.”

Day nodded her agreement. “It’s not fair, but it’s the world we have. If ponies like us want to be able to do the things humans did, we have to rediscover it. Learn how to make the things they made. It will take a long time.”

“That’s why you read old books!” Ezri beamed, or at least it seemed like she did. “You’re going to figure it out, aren’t you?”

“One pony isn’t enough Ezri. We have to advance everyone if we want to do the things humans used to do. But… enough about that.”

She stopped walking. There was no walkway on the wall, not like Alexandria. Nor was there a formal watchtower: why build them when there were dozens of buildings that could’ve housed scouts ready to sound the alarm. “Listen Ezri, I’ve been putting off telling you this…” She frowned. “Alexandria’s attitude spread to the other little villages we’ve been through so far.”

“But there are ponies down here…” She wanted to protect Ezri’s little mind from what was waiting for her inside. She wanted to, but she wouldn’t. “Changelings are citizens in Alexandria. Further away, they’re sometimes less kind. The point is, ponies don’t always like them. While we’re in town, ponies might treat you like an enemy. Don’t listen to what they say, alright?”

Ezri’s ears flattened, her whole body drooping. “I… Okay, Mom.” She rested her head briefly on Alex’s side. “I still want to go in one of the big buildings… do we have to stay after that?”

She shook her head. “We’ve got to buy food, spare parts. I have to send a letter back to Alexandria. Once we hear back, we can move on. If you want, I’ll set up the saddlebags and you don’t ever have to leave.”

Ezri didn’t argue, and soon they were walking again. Alex approached the gate and knocked several times, only slightly muffled by the rubber soles of her boots. Snowshoes weren’t necessary this close to the city. Voices muttered beyond the gate, which had been made of a pre-Event gate of some kind strengthened with sheet metal. A retractable slit opened and a face glared out at her, suspicious. “New arrival?” she asked, gruff. “You’d have to be to be traveling without a caravan through the dead of winter.”

“No.” Alex reached into her pocket, flipping open her Alexandria identification. “I’m from Alexandria. I haven’t come to glut upon your city’s resources, I’m just passing through.”

“Hold that a little closer.” She did, though she had to put it in her mouth and prop her forelegs up on the gate to do it. The guard grunted. “Very well. What about the little varmint? Did you pick up a stray on the way down?”

Alex wondered what had happened that changelings could now be called “varmint.” It couldn’t be good. “After a manner of speaking, yes. Her mother passed her onto me. She’ll behave.”

The guard grunted again. “I’ll get my supervisor. You wait here, ma’am.” The slit slammed closed, and stayed that way for a few minutes.

“She didn’t like me,” Ezri whined. “Really didn’t like me. But I’ve never seen her before!”

Day lowered her voice to a whisper. “Just stay with me, Ezri. I haven’t let anything hurt you this long, I won’t let anypony hurt you now that we’re in civilization.”

The slit opened again, and this time it was a male voice who answered. What little Alex could see of him showed her he was wearing at least a little armor. Probably not enough to cover anything, though it was impossible to be certain. What had happened in St. Louis since her last visit? “Ma’am,” the voice said, “I’m afraid we’ve had a spot of difficulty with raiders in the last few weeks. A pony traveling alone… with respect, it’s frightful country out there, and you don’t look the sort to make it so far without an escort. I’m afraid we’re going to need proof you’re not a changeling if you want to enter the city.”

Had there been changeling raiders? Had Blacklight’s experimenting with sapient drones somehow affected the balance of power in Missouri and Illinois? “I’m not, but my ward is. I promised her mother I would take care of her. Will she be turned away? Come here, Ezri.” The drone obeyed, standing before the slit. Alex drew back her hood with a flick of her mouth, so that the guard could see her face. “You are aware changelings cannot imitate other changelings, correct? Will you allow me to bring her if I prove I am who I claim to be?”

The guard considered this a moment, then: “Who do you claim to be? I’m told you’re a citizen of Alexandria, correct?”

She nodded, though she resisted the temptation to point out she was the one the village had been named after. Instead she lifted up her ID, this time passing it through the opening towards him. He took it, and spent several moments inspecting. Eventually he passed it back. “The Alex Haggard, eh? You’ve got quite a reputation Miss Alex.”

She shrugged, tucking the ID back where she had gotten it from. “What demonstration would you like? I didn’t think changelings were that easy to spot.” Though other changelings could do it better than ponies could, if Ezri’s behavior was any guide.

“You’re an earth pony with a reputation.” The guard almost smiled as he said so. Alex became conscious then of dozens of eyes watching her. Guards climbing up to the wall at various points, rifles not ready but not out of reach. “Everybody knows changelings can’t do earth magic. Show us some, and you can come in. Otherwise…” His voice got lower. “If you captured a citizen of Alexandria and you’ve come here to impersonate her, you’ll find we aren’t kind to criminals.”

“Right.” Alex slid her hooves out of her boots one at a time, resting each one on the unprotected snow. “Earth pony magic. I’ll show you something I’ve been practicing lately, but it takes some effort. Give me a minute…”

They did, though the crowd continued to grow by the moment. Apparently word had gotten around that someone was outside with a changeling, because the faces she started to see in the windows of the nearest buildings mostly just looked like regular civilians. More than one pegasus briefly peeked above the wall for a look before settling back down. Of course Lonely Day could’ve given them a demonstration by knocking that gate in on their smug faces, but she didn’t think that was the sort they would appreciate.

Instead of that, she banished the voices and retreated deep into herself, focusing on her ties with Earth below. For some reason, it was getting harder and harder to call upon the Earth lately, as though she was sucking through a smaller and smaller straw. Maybe the Keeper was actively monitoring her and wanted her to practice her magic more mindfully. Maybe she didn’t like that Alex had taken her for granted and used her as a substitute for being a unicorn for so long. Even so, the effect wasn’t too noticeable, and not if she made a concerted effort.

She inhaled the crisp breath of winter, but in her imagination she saw spring’s thaw beneath her hooves. The snow getting soft, then melting away before the wave of plantlife. The whole state turning green, over every field and road and space large enough to fit a weed. Trees growing over her head, huge and strong. Lonely Day saw all of this, even as she called upon the memory of what spring felt like. She did not speak to the plants sleeping beneath the snow in the place she indicated, such a vulgar expression of her powers was no longer necessary. She just touched her hooves to the edge of that location, and showed what grew there her memory of spring.

Minutes passed before the first shoots poked above the ground, as lush and green as the first day of spring. The wild grass kept growing, up and up to its full height (nearly equal with her own). Several wildflowers appeared to have had seeds waiting there, because these too rose, their petals as red as blood.

Alex turned away from her work, frowning to herself as she did so. Her magic couldn’t keep off the chill when she left, permanent change took weather magic. By tomorrow, everything she had grown would die. “Someone ought to enjoy that,” she said, with a flick of her tail. “It’ll all be dead anyway.” She shrugged, approaching the slit again. “Will that do for proof?”

The gate opened, creaking and straining as it did so. No electric motors here, just raw muscle working together with pulleys and wheels. She used the time to put her boots back on, though she didn’t tighten the straps as far as she would’ve while actually traveling. Alex turned to see Ezri standing right before the patch of ground she had changed, sniffing. “Come on, Ezri. We’re going in!” The drone looked up, then turned to obey without saying a word. She pressed herself to Alex’s side, drew up her hood, and proceeded to pretend she was invisible.

“Your reputation was apparently earned.” Alex could see the guard now, an earth pony like herself wearing some kind of fusion of thick cloth and chain-mail. He had no rifle, though he did have a saber of some sort on his side. “Everyone hears stories about what they teach in that college, but… some of it seems so hard to believe.” He stared openly at the patch of ground fully exposed by the now-open gate. “How did you learn that? It must not take long… unless you’re older than you look.”

The crowd started dispersing, few as impressed with her work as the guard had been. Impressed or not, earth magic like that couldn’t be faked. “There’s no class on it, unfortunately.” Alex stopped in front of him, lowering her head shyly. “Practice for a century or two, you’ll get it. Or get somepony with a special talent for it. My first-” She stopped, almost choking on the word. “I had a friend who could do it before he turned forty. He was always way better at the growing part of being an earth pony. Took me longer.”

The guard wasn’t alone, though he was the only one wearing chevrons on his uniform. Yet he seemed too stunned to respond immediately. Alex didn’t wait. “Say, sir… is there an inn where I can stay with my ward here?” She gestured at Ezri, though she didn’t force the drone to show her face. “If we got this kind of reaction at the gate, I have to think there’s been trouble.”

“Trouble, aye.” Whatever stupor her words had thrown him into, he had recovered by then. With a gesture, ponies on either side started pulling the gates shut, creaking and grinding all the while. “Her kind, from somewhere down south. We think there must be a nest within a hundred miles or so… but things have been quiet all winter. If they’ve discovered how to travel through the cold-”

“They’re as smart as we are,” Alex interrupted. “Or at least the queens. Probably they don’t bundle up because they don’t have the materials, not because they don’t know it can be done.” She frowned. “Ezri here is from Alexandria’s hive. She’s a citizen, same as I am, and won’t be causing any trouble. Will you, Ezri?”

At her question, the drone nodded vigorously several times. The guard’s eyes remained wary, but he shrugged. “If you’re looking for somewhere to stay with one of those, you best head for the ‘Old Boot.’ Any freak ‘at gets off a boxcar can find a room if they’ve got something to trade for it. It’s just down-”

“I know the way, thanks!” Alex started off at a trot, not needing to prompt Ezri to follow her. The streets were cleared and salted here just as in Alexandria, though in places they were brick instead of pavement. Even so travel was easy. The city was far more active than Alexandria even though it had less ponies living in it: St. Louis was a trading town even now, and the most important railway hub this side of the Mississippi. As such, she needn’t have worried. Once they were away from the gate, they could slip into the crowd of visitors. Ezri might not be a spy sent from down south to find a way to break into the city, but might just as easily be the child of some important queen back east, as cultured and refined as anypony.

There might only be ten thousand or so ponies permanently living in town, but that was quite a sizable number by modern standards. St. Louis was no primitive backcountry, likely to break into a pitchfork-wielding mob. Or so it seemed during their walk to the Old Boot. The worst Ezri got were stares and ponies moving out of their way as they walked. So far as Alex was concerned, anypony who tried to lay a hoof on her would have it snapped off.

The Old Boot wasn’t far from the rail station, in the part of town most frequented by visitors. Indeed, the population grew more diverse as they walked (though nowhere near as much as Bountiful). The “Boot” was apparently an old factory, which she guessed from the signage had made shoes at one point. Its walls were dirty bricks, construction like something out of the forties or fifties. Perhaps every third window was boarded or covered some other way, and smoke rose from several makeshift chimneys.

The place felt seedy, and as they walked she realized she was drawing more stares than Ezri. She ignored their stares, and refused to slow for whatever attention. When a rough-looking stallion said something rude and stepped into her path, she shoved him aside like he had been made of papier-mache. Which of the two of them had spent hundreds of years flying around the world to fight dangerous creatures? Not him.

Once they actually got inside the inn, it got better. Like many of the revived institutions, the Old Boot had a sitting room with open kitchen and hearth for visitors to eat the meals which were generally included in the price of staying. Most staying in the hotel would spend their days in this room when not on other business, in pleasant conversation with other visitors. This one had an honest-to-God radio belching slightly distorted music that Alex assumed must be coming from their destination. There weren’t many other stations still broadcasting these days; what was the point when so few ponies had the hardware to listen? Radio Springs still made radios, but the expensive novelties fell out of favor the further east you came. What was the point of spending all that money on a machine with only one station?

The sitting room was also filled with smoke, rising from a dozen pipes and cigars. Fortunately her height meant she wouldn’t have to breathe much of it in. So long as she could keep herself from choking on the stench, she would be all right.

The room was arranged like a semicircle, with tables arranged around a hearth. Instead of taxidermied animals, the walls held dozens of different pre-Event shoes, of every imaginable style and size. There was also a single “guard” sitting by the hearth, a shotgun across his lap and an ale in front of him. Golden griffin eyes watched every corner of the room. He alone gave them more than a passing glance, his attention lingering particularly on Ezri.

Only one pony approached her, an older stallion ambling calmly towards her from the direction she smelled baking bread. “Welcome friend,” he said, smiling politely at them. The unicorn was taller than any stallion Alex had ever seen, probably close to five whole feet with the horn, his hair like flowing gold. “You here for a meal or a bunk? We’ve got both.”

She didn’t hesitate. “Both.” She didn’t want to be public about what she was carrying, and just now she was standing almost in the center of the room, with each patron pretending not to listen. “We’ve been traveling all day, have you got hot cider?”

“Of course.” He turned, hooves clopping on the swept brick as he led her to what she took for the reception desk. An old-fashioned key rack hung on the wall behind it, numbered and with glittering metal keys hanging on pegs. Most pegs were bare. “Honey!” he called back into the kitchen. “Pint and a half of cider for our new guests!”

“Right!” The kitchen was set a little back from the sitting room, and a bar made simply walking there impossible. Even so, she could see a pegasus moving about, with the same faintly gray look that accompanied a pony nearly ready to leave middle age.

She returned her attention to the innkeeper, and spoke again. “Do you have any rooms with electricity and running water?”

The stallion made no obvious sign of surprise, though his eyes widened a little. “The mare has expensive tastes. We have a communal bathroom and bathing area. The water’s only got a little ice on most days. Only the suites have human-style plumbing or electricity. There isn’t much of a demand for luxury from most travelers who stay here.”

“But you still have it?”

He grinned. “You wouldn’t understand, young friend. Grow up with something, and it’s hard to let go. I probably could’ve opened three inns with all I’ve spent keeping our system running. Like our own little world.”

His wife arrived then, a motherly-looking pegasus holding a tray in her mouth. Two mugs of steaming cider rested on it. She set it down, then smiled down at Ezri. “Well isn’t she just the cutest thing you ever saw.” She looked up toward her husband. “Dan, isn’t she the cutest?”

“Like an adorable little Zergling.” If Ezri understood, she didn’t seem to mind, because she bloomed like a flower under the attention. She released Alex’s side at long last, and let her hood uncover her face.

“How much?” Alex asked, then added, “And do you take chits?”

The innkeeper, Dan apparently, nodded. “We’d be in a sorry spot if we didn’t, Alexandria so close and all.” He seemed to think. “Be considerate with the water, and we’ll make it reasonable. Three chits a night.”

Alex deflated. There was no chance of restocking for their trip if she blew almost everything she had left just paying for a bed they wouldn’t sleep in. Besides, it would still be warm-ish upstairs. “What about your other rooms? Nevermind that there’s two of us, squirt and I can share a bed.”

Dan seemed to relax more than balk at the request. “Good idea, miss. Not that I don’t enjoy when my customers spend, but…” He glanced at her torn jacket, and their shared bedraggled appearance. “You didn’t seem the type. We charge a chit a week for bunk and breakfast. Extra for supper. You’re welcome to share the bunk with your, uh, little sister there.” She didn’t correct him, and he went on. “She looks small, so I’ll call it another chit for all her meals. Up front.”

That was much more within her range. Alex had budgeted five chits to stay a week, not counting all the supplies they would buy. She reached into a pocket with her mouth, setting down one at a time until she had three. “One more if you give us the wifi password.” She had already zipped the pocket shut though. It wasn’t as though she expected one.

The innkeeper took her chits in his magic, and held each one up to the light coming through the window. The hologram became visible, not to mention the precision microcircuits within. It wasn’t as fool-proof an anti-counterfeit as scanning the RFID code with an HPI issued validator, but few of those still worked outside of Raven and Bountiful. He froze as she spoke, then smiled. “You a Refugee, kid?” At her nod, his face grew more sympathetic. “Hell, I’m sorry.” He put one of her chits back down, pushing it towards her. He lowered his voice to a dangerous whisper. “You tell anyone I did that, and I’ll call you a liar to your face.”

Then he turned around, levitating a key down from the rack and setting it on the counter beside her chit. “This is your key, for room 302. Third floor, second door. Fourth floor and above is off-limits. Bathroom is on the first floor, through that door there.” He gestured. “Breakfast at sunrise, supper at sundown. Bread and cheese for lunch if you want it.”

“Ale?”

He raised his eyebrows. “You old enough to drive, kid?”

She grinned back at him. “You’d never believe me if I answered. Cider at least.” The smell was heavenly.

He ignored the remark. “Showers for mares are at five o’clock. Someone’ll shout. You miss it, or a meal, you get to wait ‘til the next one. Anything else you need, you ask me.”

She slipped the chit back into a pocket, along with the key. “You wouldn’t know anyone who wants to buy working pre-Event hardware, would you?”

Dan glanced at her saddlebags, flat and empty-looking as they were. “You come back with a cell phone or something, kid? I’d trade you a month’s lodging for it, if the touchscreen still works. Probably no good to you, even in Alexandria. I understand their grid is too variable. Unless you blew it out trying to run it on today’s electrical grid… I can’t use a souvenir.”

“I would want hard currency, though it wouldn’t have to be chits. Anything a general goods shop in town would take.”

“I’ve got a friend who owns a shop, another Refugee. He might take some working tech straight for goods, if it’s interesting enough. Mike’s Imports, a block that direction.”

“Thanks, I’ll look him up.”

They found an empty table by the fire to enjoy their cider, which proved to be as delicious as it smelled. Alex couldn’t taste much alcohol, but the rich warmth of apples felt like it was doing almost as much good for her as the hot shower she had wished she could’ve had whenever she wanted. They would have to be incredibly conservative about the shelter's amenities here, since she couldn’t dare leave it open where anypony might discover it. That meant no recharges and no flushing waste, or melting snow to refill the tanks.

In short, they would be showering in frigid water for the next week or so. Alex hadn’t decided if she wanted to extend the visit or not; that depended on the treatment Ezri got from the ponies in this district.

One did not sit in the common room of an inn without attracting attention. Yet for all the looks, they were left alone. Thus was the unspoken code of any inn worth the bricks it was made from: ponies left you alone until you had settled in. After that, they had a legal right to all the gossip in your brain. They hardly spoke, and finished off their beverages around the same time. Alex returned them to the bar, accepted half a loaf of steaming bread in exchange from the innkeeper's wife, then took bread and changeling alike up to inspect their temporary home.

Once out of the cozy warmth of the common room, the haphazard nature of the inn became clear. The upper floors weren’t heated nearly as much as the rest of the building, though they were still well above freezing. While the building appeared to be made of sturdy brick and concrete, newer walls were built of thin wood or metal scrap. The rooms themselves were a little more sturdy, but not much.

Ezri started to buzz with excitement as soon as they were free of the common room, grinning at Alex. “They’re not all bad.”

“No, they aren’t. The innkeeper and his wife are from the old world, that’s what ‘Refugee’ means. Most ponies like that are a little more accepting of ponies who don’t look quite the same than people born in the new world. One kind of Equestrian seems as strange as the next, so there’s no reason to single one out.”

“Is that why you love me?”

She shook her head. “That was how I first tolerated Queen Blacklight, but… I’m not the same pony I was then. I love you because you deserve it.” She nuzzled her, not climbing another step until she had finished. “Don’t ask me to explain why, Ezri.”

The drone didn’t argue. “I love you too, Mom.”

Staying in St. Louis was as much a joy as Alex remembered, even if she was staying in the part of town that made her uneasy about walking at night. The next day she sent a telegram back to Alexandria with a message for Riley, which was faster than messenger (if not much cheaper).

The innkeeper’s friend proved very interested in pre-Event technology, even more than Dan had let on. Alex traded him a working projector, plus a twenty-watt solar blanket from Raven, and got enough food to stock her saddlebags, plus enough of St. Louis’s gold “mark” to get a tailor to make her jacket look like it hadn’t been fixed by an auto mechanic.

She got a return telegram the next day care of Alexandria: “WAIT IN ST LOUIS STOP. SENDING REPRESENTATIVE STOP." So they waited. Alex took them up several old buildings, at least so far as their internal stairwells let them travel. Structural damage made some floors less stable than others, and some of the buildings had started to develop their own ecosystems, with occupants less than pleased to be intruded upon.

They spent nights in the common room, and Alex generally sat with her fellow Refugees. She never bothered trying to convince them of her age, so she accepted their pity at being an unsuspecting “teenager” thrust from the world.

After another week had passed, they received a letter by messenger summoning them to what proved to be an empty warehouse. The letter had Riley’s signature, but even so she wore her gun. Whatever intrigue might or might not be happening between the changeling hives, she refused to give up Ezri. Did she think St. Louis’s security would keep them out? Not for a second.

The building wasn’t far from where they were staying, in the seediest part of downtown. Even so, the warehouse hadn’t been left to decay. It stood beside the rail-yard, with a padlock facing the street. Alex found the lock wasn’t actually closed. She had to pass it several times before the street was deserted enough not to attract attention by walking inside.

“Ezri, you’re better at this. Tell me if anypony tries to sneak up on us.”

She nodded. “Course, Mom. I’m paying attention.”

“Good girl.” She raised her leg. “Rifle, arm.”

It clicked in response, the sight flipping up. “Armed.”

The warehouse had skylights, letting faint winter light beam down on the largely empty space. Sturdy metal shelves rose around them, making it difficult to see far in any particular direction. “Hello!” she called, voice echoing in the cavernous space. “I got your letter, and we’re both here. No sudden moves, now! Anything that tries to sneak up on us, I shoot!”

She slid her leg to one side, so she could look through the window at the brass. It was full, twenty-four rounds. If this was a trap… could they have more than twenty-four people? She had another magazine, but swapping them would take precious time they might not have.

She need not have worried. “Don’t shoot Alex, it’s me.” Riley’s voice, reverberating even more strangely than usual within such a tight space. It was hard to judge a direction, but Ezri could. She pointed, and Alex followed her gaze. Queen Blacklight stood in the center of the room, with a thick cloak about her shoulders but no hood to cover her face.

She could only pray that she had been right about changelings not being able to copy each other. “Riley, remind me what your favorite movie was…”

The queen’s expression became difficult to read as she considered. “Coraline. But that’s not a fair question, since I was so young. I might’ve changed my mind if I’d grown up properly.”

Lonely Day lowered her rifle. She didn’t disarm it, but she didn’t expect to need it. “You’re going to talk to me about not growing up properly?”

She stopped about ten feet away, which seemed to be as close as Ezri would come. Her companion had started to shiver, and refused to look directly at Riley. No amount of prodding would get her to walk closer. “I didn’t believe your letter when I got it. Did you really…” Even the queen couldn’t keep back her eagerness. “Could you really have solved my deepest despair in under two months?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know if my solution is terribly useful to you. I couldn’t give more than one drone at a time the attention I gave Ezri. I think whatever solution you were looking for would have to work for more than just me.” She reached over, pulling the drone’s hood down and exposing her face. She still wouldn’t look up.

“First, let me see that it worked.” Alex was confident with her gun; she had centuries of practice, practice that she never forgot. She liked to think she had quick reflexes, as quick as she could be without actually being a pegasus. Queen Riley moved so fast she nearly blurred through the space. So fast that Alex never could’ve gotten off a shot, even if she had wanted to. The motion was not hostile, however, nor was her attention even on Alex.

“17,305, do you recognize me?”

Ezri whimpered, huddling closer to Alex, hiding her face. She was shaking so much Alex was a little afraid she was having some kind of fit.

Riley did not press her, however. Instead she retreated, looking down. Her voice was almost ashamed. “I hope you will forgive me one day, 17,305. What I did, I did because I hoped it would help you discover who you were. Any price would’ve been worth paying for that.” She blinked, and her voice cracked a little. She did not cry. “I love you. Even if you never see my face again, know you have my approval and my gratitude.”

Ezri looked up, her whole body tensing as she did so. Alex couldn’t judge the emotion she was feeling, for whatever the feeling was it had no parallel in ponies or humans. She still didn’t say anything. She just backed away again, putting Alex and another twenty feet or so between her and the queen.

“That’s it? She didn’t even speak for you!”

Blacklight shrugged. “Why would I need her to speak? She has feelings of her own, she has clearly had enough to eat that she has developed tremendously. You have solved both difficulties: starvation and stagnation. Explain your methods.”

Alex nodded. “Ezri, could you watch by the door? Yell for me if you see anything.”

The drone nodded and hurried off, her little wings twitching in her eagerness to get away from Blacklight. Only when she was out of earshot did Alex continue. “I just treated her like I would’ve any other filly. Well, badly behaved at first, but not all that different. Parenting has always been about love.”

“Yes.” Riley’s voice was pained. “I was afraid that would be your solution. You offer a uniquely concentrated form of nourishment, like an Alicorn would.” She sighed. “We breed them by the hundreds, then marvel when they grow like insects. I just… I suppose I hoped you might’ve had some secret spell. Tear the scales from their eyes by force.”

“Is that what you tried with Ezri?” She had assumed Riley had been doing what she had, but now that she considered it that hypothesis did not match with the horror Ezri associated with her home.

Riley didn’t answer her question. “It may still be soluble with your method.” It seemed like she was speaking out loud. “We would need drones raised to ignore their instincts. Organize family units… increasingly optimal as we scale the number of ordinary ponies.”

Alex shrugged. Whatever Blacklight might be planning, it had nothing to do with her. Except in one respect. “Do you need Ezri back? She would… rather stay with me, I’m certain. I’ll take good care of her!”

Blacklight stopped in her musings. “I already said goodbye to 17,3- to Ezri. She is always welcome in the hive, but I don’t expect her to want to.” She smiled weakly. “You love too easily, Archive. You already see her as a daughter.”

She didn’t bother asking how Blacklight could tell.

The queen advanced a pace, lowering her voice to a faint whisper. “She isn’t a queen, Alex. Drones are not long-lived.”

Her words were like the kiss of steel between Alex’s ribs, as much because they were true as because they hurt. She didn’t have to ask how long “awakened” drones lived, she already knew. So far as she knew, none had ever passed a century. They got closer the younger they awakened, which meant Ezri had even chances of making it that long.

But what was a century to Archive? Soon enough, she would be holding another vigil at another grave. Unlike Cody, Ezri couldn’t even have a family. Drones were universally sterile, no matter the form they imitated.

She felt a hoof on her face as Blacklight wiped her tears aside. She pushed Riley away with all the force she could muster in a leg. Not much. “I g-get it, you don’t have to remind me. I know I can’t stop time. The people I love won’t live forever.” The second half of that statement went without saying: but I might.

“You know, but you forget. Being mother to so many who live for such a short time never let me forget.” She paused, glancing once in the direction Ezri had gone, towards the door.

Alex followed her eyes. “Are we safe? Do I need to keep her home secret? Or… does nopony have any reason to hurt her. It would be easier to travel if I didn’t have to keep looking over our shoulders.”

“The other queens are as practical as I. Once I explain the results of my experiment, they will have no reason to destroy a single drone. Be cautious for another few days, but after that you should be safe. From that hazard, anyway. You escaped danger pretty well by staying away from civilization: we do very badly in isolation.”

“That’s not why I wanted to walk, but it’s a nice side-benefit. It’s amazing, how lonely it felt when I woke up the day after the Event and thought I was the last pony on Earth. But live there a few centuries, and…” she shrugged. “Guess anypony can get tired of a place if they stick around long enough. Hey… make sure they don’t tear down my house, okay? I gave the lawyer pretty good instructions, but could you keep checking up on it for me?”

“Sure Day, but… I won’t live forever either. My complexity appears to be unbounded. I try to restrict my development, but I cannot. The more complex a system, the more prone to failure.”

Lonely Day only knew one way to respond to that: she hugged her. “If I ever find your parents, what should I tell them?”

She hadn’t expected the question to bring up much sentimentality in the queen, and it didn’t. She smiled. “Try to explain the quality of life I had. Make sure they understood my friends never let me feel afraid or lonely, and that I would very much have liked to see them again.” She released her. “I won’t expect you to deliver that. How would you even know if you found them? Wives lost their husbands and husbands lost their children the whole world over. You’re a pilgrim, I’m a stranger.” She lifted a hoof in a polite wave. “Take good care of mine.”

The air she occupied shimmered, flickering briefly with greenish magic. The air came down with a harsh crack, and she was gone.