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The Eternal Lonely Day

by Starscribe

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Spring Day (292 AE)

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They left St. Louis the next day, by the first light of morning. Nopony tried to stop them like in Alexandria. She pushed Ezri to her best possible pace, even covering a little more ground in the dark. They were walking west instead of south, but even so… she didn’t want to be anywhere near the city when night fell. If word got around there were a pair of young ponies traveling alone, there was no telling what “accidents” they might have on the road.

There were others they passed, but none turned into anything hostile. Just as in Alexandria, St. Louis was surrounded by several smaller areas that farmed the produce consumed by the city, and the populations of these little hamlets were generally friendly. It was hard to say if their supplies would carry them through until spring: all the planning and reading in the world couldn’t really prepare somepony for a trip like this.

Ezri did not learn to fly or use unicorn levitation, but she did learn to read as they went, with school in session every fourth day and most nights too. Alex found the teaching was as rewarding as it had been with Cody, and wondered if she could be a teacher when they got to Radio Springs. She had her doubts: how could a student respect a teacher who looked to be their own age? Maybe she could teach elementary. Did they even have elementary schools in Radio Springs?

She knew little for sure about the settlement, only the word of gossip that had spread east. Apparently it was mostly a mining town, and had a bigger government than most settlements. Beyond that, she could say very little. Maybe she wouldn’t like it when she got there, and she would carry on somewhere else. Lonely Day needed no infrastructure to stay self-sufficient, not while she could graze for food in a pinch and had spare parts to replace anything that went out in her backpack. If things got really serious, there was always the HPI, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t be too happy to bail her out of something her own stupidity had gotten her into in the first place.

Ezri kept growing, but more in the way that children always grew: iteratively rather than by quantum leaps. She still wouldn’t talk about her home or her childhood, whatever she remembered. Alex neither pried nor tried using whatever strangeness about her nature allowed her to see into the minds of those who admitted her. Such dishonesty was no way to raise a child.

There was no changing Ezri’s fundamental nature, but she never tried. Alex patiently persisted in discouraging predatory behavior while encouraging its civilized counterpart, and over time she continued to see Ezri improve. The drone no longer sniffed at her when she entered the shelter, nor was she totally dependent on sleeping in the same room or having a hammock in order to get her rest.

They left Missouri behind, passing into Kansas and the rolling prairie. Here Alex could no longer depend on firsthand observations, as she could with the route between Alexandria and St. Louis. Even so, she had committed topographical maps to memory just as much as those that had cities and highways. Under the winter snow and three centuries of growth there was no trace of the old interstate system. Within a few days they made the switch back to snowshoes, and their pace continued to get slower.

Alex tried not to show it, but something else was bothering her during the trip, besides the weakened heating spell that physical damage to the coat had caused. Her connection to Earth continued to be fading, and she could think of only one power strong enough to do it. Each day that passed made her feel more like she was on the wrong side of a pressure seal, threatening to burst with even the slightest perturbation. Magic was building up, fighting to get loose, and she couldn’t tell what it was or what its effect might be when it happened.

Of course, Alex was a pony with a built-in reset switch: death. Whatever Discord had done might self-terminate if she died, preventing whatever spell he had intended from completing. Of course, it might be the spell was actually intended to help her, and fighting it was only taking away an advantage she might’ve been able to use.

Fortunately, there was a pony Alex could ask. Sunset Shimmer seemed utterly unsurprised to hear about Discord’s appearance, which she found reassuring. Discord had been clear about the fact his presence here was intended, and any other reaction from Sunset would’ve implied at least one of them was lying. But she couldn’t offer any advice, besides pointing out that Discord was always unpredictable and actions intended to prevent him from carrying out his purposes might actually play right into his claws.

Her other warning was even more sobering. “Day, don’t… I’ve never met an Alicorn who treated their own life as recklessly as you do.”

She shrugged into the camera when Sunset said that. “Why shouldn’t I? I got into all kinds of accidents when the change first happened, and nothing killed me then. Shouldn’t I use every resource I have?”

The Alicorn shook her head, her eyes harder than ever Alex had seen them. “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed yet, Day. Mortals aren’t meant to keep coming back. It gets harder and harder each time you do it. If you keep going this way, you’re going to die one day and not have the determination to come back. Is that really the way you want your vigil to end?”

“I…” She thought about all her dead friends, then shook her head. “No, of course not.” She swallowed. “Will it get easier when I’m an Alicorn?”

Sunset shrugged. “I’ll let you know if I ever find out.” She hadn’t had anything else useful to say, not even when Alex tried to dig out more about what being an Alicorn actually meant. Right now her clearest insight had come from Discord of all people. “An Alicorn is a multibody system, all of its parts in constant opposition to itself. All that magic in any other configuration would explode. Catastrophically.”

Was that what he had done, shoved her full of so much magic that she would either figure out how to be an Alicorn or explode? It did seem like the sort of “teaching” an immortal spirit of chaos might try. Either she would come out “complete” or there would be an awful lot of chaos, either way he would win. But she had no way to be certain. She had only Sunset’s caution against suicide, which she followed. When magic strayed into domains she didn’t understand, that seemed the only logical course.

Besides, there were plenty of other things to worry about. Machinery occasionally broke down, requiring a few days and sometimes some creative jury-rigging in order to get her system running again. There were predators to evade or kill (she preferred the former, but wouldn’t hesitate from the latter). Once, bandits came upon them, when she was setting up the pocket-dimension for the night.

Winter turned into spring around the time that Kansas turned into Colorado. Snow melted in patches, and prairie grass slowly poked its way through. The air filled with birds and insects, with an absence of airplanes and passing cars.

The whole world reveled in the season, but Alex felt like she was feeling the whole thing through gloves. The magic was there somewhere, but she couldn’t get at it. Her endurance was taking a hit, too. If she got into a tussle without her gun, she would lose, even if she was naked on bare ground.

But she couldn’t worry about it, not when there were so many more important concerns at hand. Ezri ranked top of her list. Her questions had been simple when she first learned to talk: “What is that?”, “When can we eat?” and so-on. But as time progressed, her mind expanded, and her questions became more abstract. “Why is it so cold?”, “Why do we live in saddlebags?”, and the hardest of all to answer: “Why did ponies hate me so much in St. Louis?”

“It’s complicated,” Alex had answered one spring morning, as they left the pocket-dimension to graze. Well, Alex grazed. Ezri couldn’t eat grass, or couldn’t force herself to attempt it. Rotten vegetables, sure… but grass she wouldn’t touch. So Alex walked, no longer wearing anything on her body but the saddlebags and her gun, and even that wasn’t armed.

Eating grass was about as demeaning as it sounded, and about as appetizing. Yet as Oliver had taught her many years ago, not all grasses were created equal. What was wheat, after all, but a particularly freakish strain of grass? She enjoyed the not-grass the most, flowers and clover and the tops of root vegetables that grew wild where farmer’s fields had been. They strained so much at their supplies that she had no other choice: she could eat the grass, and that would leave more granola and oat-paste for Ezri. It was all that was left after the whole of winter passed them by.

“I know it’s complicated, you always get uncomfortable when I ask. But I deserve to know! You never give me a proper answer.” Ezri followed her through the grass, only a few inches shorter now. She was also a little less quick to discard her clothes, and still wore a thin jacket against the occasional breeze. It still wasn’t quite warm enough for her drone body to be comfortable.

“Alright.” She looked up, swallowing a mouthful of clover. “Many animals are social, not just ponies. Humans, dogs, mice, even insects. All social creatures, whether they know it or not, sort all other beings into two broad categories. Either a creature is part of its group, or it’s ‘other.’”

“We all treat ‘other’ creatures differently, you and I aren’t exceptions. When those wolves tried to eat us, what did I do?”

“You tried to get them to go away, and when they wouldn’t…” Ezri’s eyes darted to the gun, then back up again. “You killed them.”

“I did. What about when we were in St. Louis, and that shopkeeper wanted to give me way less money than I wanted? Or… an even better example, what about when people were mean to us on the street? Did I kill them too?”

“No!” Ezri was indignant. “You wouldn’t do that!”

Alex nodded. “Of course I wouldn’t. But why?”

The drone opened her mouth to answer, then shut it again. She had to think for several seconds before she tried again. “Because you see ponies as part of your group?”

“Yes, very good!” She sat down. “But the real world isn’t that simple. Griffons and minotaurs aren’t ponies, but did I treat them any differently?”

“Not that I saw.” She frowned. “So things that aren’t the same as you can be in your group, if… if they’re close enough? Griffons and minotaurs must be close enough.” She whimpered. “And changelings aren’t?”

Alex reached out and drew Ezri into a hug. “There are ponies who think they aren’t. But those ponies are falling into the same exact mistakes that some humans used to make.”

Ezri relaxed. “They’re… being mean?”

“Yes, but that’s not what makes it wrong. It’s wrong because those ponies are sorting you based on assumptions. Changelings living nearby tried to hurt them, so they assumed all changelings were bad too. They’re deciding whether to treat you like one of their group or not because of what you are, not what you do.

“That’s not fair!”

“No, it’s not. All those ponies are missing out on getting to know you.” She gave Ezri one last hug, then let her go. “Not every pony will treat you that way. If we went back to Alexandria, the ponies there accept and even respect changelings.”

“What about where we’re going?”

Alex shrugged. “Radio Springs doesn’t have a hive.” She turned, walking back to where she had left her saddlebags. Once she had shrugged them on and tightened the strap, she was ready to go. The prairies might’ve been man-made, but that didn’t mean they didn’t suit ponies just fine. She might’ve run for days at a time just for the joy of it, if Ezri had been able to keep up.

She led them down where the road had been, or close enough. The highway system had been largely buried, with only the occasional concrete overpass or rusting call box to mark its passing.

“Do you think ponies will ever change?”

“I dunno, Ezri. Being able to judge between ‘us’ and ‘them’ is what lets us survive. You have to know when you can trust one individual and not another. I do… I do hope…”

“Me too.”

And so went the remainder of their trip. The worst difficulties were over with the winter, and so they were able to make good time without much stress. Occasionally they encountered other caravans, or walked alongside the passage of the railway. Alex continued to teach Ezri the basics of what she considered an education, expanding to include figures as well as reading. To her surprise, she found the drone even better with numbers than she was with words, and they soon expanded into broader dominions of math.

But for every minute they spent covering some practical pre-Event topic, they devoted another few to enjoying cultural artifacts. Alex had working hardware, and so she shared movies, music, all the sorts of entertainment she had enjoyed growing up but that most foals these days wouldn’t have. In particular she focused on the animated films which depicted humans, since these seemed to demystify them for Ezri without being too strange.

Granted, it had been an awkward series of explanations to get her to comprehend the relationship humanity had enjoyed with horses. How was the drone supposed to cope with the fact that today’s intelligent citizens had been yesterday’s beasts of burden?

They overcame these and other difficult issues along the trip. Ezri began experimenting with her magic, though on that front Alex couldn’t provide much help. She could explain what others had said about levitation, or recount things Riley had explained about the sensation of changing forms, but none of this seemed to offer her much help. With as quickly as she mastered mundane subjects, Alex didn’t doubt she could’ve easily learned flight or levitation within a year’s tutorage at Alexandria’s University.

But they weren’t going back. The school had no equal, so they would have to be content with what Alex could teach and whatever services Radio Springs might offer. As the weeks of spring passed, they passed again into cultured lands. They passed through farms, with fields freshly planted or with farmers sowing the first crops. They traveled from one farm to the next, volunteering their labor in exchange for food and news.

It took a little negotiation, but also a little pity on behalf of the farmers. Alex’s earth pony talents couldn’t be easily ascertained simply at a glance, and a single drone on her own was very difficult to pass off as anything other than the forward scout of a queen not present. Whatever little ponies might know about the reality of changelings, they seemed to know it was the queens that really controlled them, and that they could somehow share information and command at a distance. Ezri’s intelligence did not prove anything to the skeptical except that she was being puppeted by an active queen.

They learned more up-to-date news about Springs than Alex had enjoyed up until that point. The city was presently in a large mining boom, and every pair of hooves was needed to extract coal and other ore at one of the many “boom towns” that surrounded the central settlement. Anyone could make their way there just fine, so long as they had a brain between their ears and a willingness to work hard.

Alex didn’t think very highly of black lung as a way to die, so she resolved either not to go to these towns, or at the very least to explore other options first. Ezri’s future was her own, but she wanted to give the drone a better start than a miner, as well.

That meant they were unwelcome at some farms, whatever stories she might’ve heard about the tolerance here. This was no terrible trouble: they had dealt with worse than a few unfriendly ponies. So long as any true agents of other queens didn’t come for Ezri, they ought to be fine.

And they were, all the way to Radio Springs.

The town was clearly visible, even at a distance. It seemed to Alex as though she had been transported back in time five hundred years, to some fort on the edge of what some called the frontier. What she saw looming in the distance could easily have been built back then, and it wouldn’t have stood out much from what she saw now. Homes were made of logs or adobe and sometimes both, connected with some kind of dark concrete. Rail ran into town, and she could make out the pipes of the aqueduct in the distance as well.

Even as they walked, she could see a train filled with ore belching steam as it made its way into town from the south. Carts of ore rode exposed, probably from one of the mines she had heard about. There were foundries in town, easy to spot since they belched black coal-smoke and weren’t made of logs. She had heard so much about this town, known its founders just as with so many others. Did any endure? She didn’t intend to find out.

Her companion followed, and they joined a stream of traffic moving into the city. It had no walls as some eastern cities did, but it did have uniformed militia inspecting all who entered with an eye of suspicion. As the two of them were clearly unarmed civilians and their bags couldn’t have held more than a few pounds with as empty as they looked, they didn’t attract even a little scrutiny.

As they passed into the town, Alex’s ears noticed the shouting of a cryer, and she turned her attention to listen. “-any freshly from the United States, anyone without a job or without a roof, listen here!” She moved a little closer, and wasn’t the only one. More than a few people she had passed lacked well-fitting pony attire, or had a slightly starved look about them. Evidence that the outreach program here in Springs was having some success?

The cryer was an earth pony stallion with a louder voice than any she had met, his mane like coal dust and his coat dirty brown. “The Frontier Mining Corporation is offering lodging, food, and education for all who sign a contract of at least five years! Transportation by protected caravan to one of our respectable mining outposts is included!” The group got a little smaller as time passed, but more flocked in and out all the time.

Alex moved on, passing onto Main Street and through an area of slightly more finished frame homes plastered with something the same shade as adobe. Soot covered a great deal in a thin layer, but these streets at least seemed to have been recently scrubbed. She made out a general store and several other mercantile businesses, but these too she passed on her way towards city hall.

She was here on a very specific mission. It was the reason they were wearing ill-fitting human clothes, the reason the recruiters had given them so much attention, and the reason the ordinary citizens now kept their distance. She had already found a pony she had taken for a constable, who had directed them here.

This was the subject of her investigation, and at least part of her reason for coming to Radio Springs. How did the other successful settlements treat Refugees from Old Earth? She joined a little crowd waiting outside the squat concrete building, and took a number. Two hours later, she found herself at the citizenship desk.

A grizzly mare with a missing wing and a stern expression greeted them there, in a room lit by flickering electric lights and no windows. There were plenty of posters on the walls, depicting smiling ponies and breaking down the “benefits” one might expect to receive.

Alex took her form in her mouth, setting it down at the desk. She had written as messy as she could, but most of it was bubbles and in only a few places did she have to fill anything in. “Preferred Name” was the worst; she wasn’t sure if the poor mare would even be able to read what she had written.

She hadn’t lied more at one time in her entire life. The forms identified her as one “Kristy Saludiv”, a high school student at the time of the Event who had been visiting family in one of the state’s small towns. It listed no previous citizenships anywhere else, no useful skills of any kind, and no stated bodily proficiency except moving around.

This last she had begun to suspect with some fear might actually manifest, as her earth pony magic drifted further and further from her easy use.

The pegasus scanned her form from behind spectacles, then flipped to Ezri’s form. It contained similar information, and identified her as Kristy’s younger sister, Leah. She set the forms down. “Is this information correct, accurate, and complete to the best of your knowledge?” Alex nodded. She couldn’t look the mare in the face as she did so. She would probably lose sleep over this moment. “What about yours?”

Ezri did not have the same trouble. “Yes.” Her little voice didn’t even waver.

“Very well. On behalf of all of Radio Springs, I pronounce you two as official citizens.” She moved the forms into a pile on her desk, and drew an old-fashioned typewriter closer to herself. Rather, it looked similar to a typewriter. It had far fewer keys, though they seemed to pivot in several directions. They were purely mechanical, with inked tape and lots of little gears just as typewriters in the ancient past.

The mare slid a perforated form inside, and typed rapidly. She did so with dull, mechanical speed, as though it was something she had done so many times she no longer needed to look. She frequently moved the head, or fed more of the form inside, working quickly. “Did you read the resettlement information posted outside before entering my office?” she asked, mostly directing her words to Alex. “Radio Springs understands Refugees returning from Earth will be unable to fend for themselves, and as such has provided certain benefits to assist their integration into society. These benefits are not indefinite, and they are conditional. Do you fully understand the programs and options available to you?” For all she spoke of compassion, Alex had rarely heard a pony so mechanical.

She shook her head. “Maybe you should give me a high-level view.” She’d changed her accent, imitating a little bit of a drawl. She was pretty good at it, but not as good as Ezri. “What are two kids like us supposed to do?”

“Well, your ‘sister’ is young enough that she’s eligible for the orphanage system. One signature from you and she’ll be taken care of. Right now I think the turnover between adoptions is about…” she glanced at something “two years.”

“No!” The two of them spoke in unison, practically screaming together. Ezri had dropped her fake accent and even sounded a little panicked. She slid a little closer on the single polished wooden bench, clinging to Alex.

Alex squeezed her once, as reassuringly as she could. “No.” She spoke more calmly this time. “We lost everything else, miss. We’re going to stay together.”

“Right.” She sounded utterly unmoved by the display; if anything, she was a little annoyed. But then, how many displays like this did she see every day? How many Refugees did Radio Springs take in? “Well, you didn’t have a degree, or else I’m sure one of the recruiters would want you. Our school system isn’t the same as yours: you’ve already graduated. Congratulations.”

Was it just a coincidence, or did the mare specifically time a carriage return so that her gesture of “congratulations” matched perfectly with the loud “ding!” of the typewriter? Either way, it wasn’t much of a celebration. Not that Alex thought the imaginary Kristy would’ve wanted to go back to high school. “Anyway, there are two main options. Either you stay in town under the housing authority, or you volunteer with one of the mining companies.”

She shivered. “W-What’s the difference?”

“Either one is hard work. If you stay in the city, you’ll be living in one of the old tenements. You can put yourself in the labor pool, hope to God somebody likes the look of you.”

“Mining company would pay you right away, train you. They haven’t turned away a pony I sent their way yet. Earth pony like you would be good for that sort of work. Educate your sister there while you work. I’ve got a flier here somewhere…” She ruffled the papers on her desk, then passed it to her.

The flier was printed on irregular paper, in simple black letters. She read quickly, then pretended to read in the time it would’ve taken a regular pony to process all of it.

Well Alex, you wanted to see what happened to the worst-off ponies there were… She passed it back. “We want to do it. I just take this to one of those ponies at the front of the city?”

She nodded. “That’s right. I put on your form here that you’re going to be living out of the city. You come back a year from now and report on your progress. Simple.”

Alex rose. “Go ahead.” She look down. “Come on, Leah. Your sis’ is gonna be a miner.”

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time they had found their way to the gates. Traffic had dwindled a great deal, but the recruiters were still there. Alex did her best impression of nervousness, but she was a bad actor and a worse liar. Of course, it helped that she didn’t actually have to lie that much.

The dark-furred stallion looked them over as she approached, taking the flier from her and glancing over it. “You just registered today?” With just the two of them, he didn’t shout. Quieter, she imagined his voice would’ve fit perfectly well on the parking lot of any used car dealership in America. If… either of those things had still existed.

“We did.”

“And you’re both from Earth.” He narrowed his eyes, inspecting their mismatched clothes. They might look stupid, but they didn’t look quite as fresh as someone who just came back. They weren’t that new.

“We are. We had to walk a very long way to get to Radio Springs, though. When we heard the broadcasts… it was hundreds of miles…” She hoped that didn’t seem unbelievable. An earth pony could go further through spring, even carrying a little drone.

“I see. You have to understand, the Frontier Mining Foundation enjoys protections as a charitable organization, and to do that we have to take a specific number and proportion of Refugees. If you’re not actually from Earth, we won’t be able to take you. We have a test for you. Your sister is young enough that we aren’t required to test her, but you’re not.” He gestured to an unmarked storefront not far away. “If you wouldn’t mind. It’s quite quick. Just a few minutes, and you can catch the train for Motherlode with the rest.”

“Okay.” Alex would’ve felt better about this in Alexandria, or if her strength had remained as accessible as it ought to be. She drew Ezri close, then started walking.

She needn’t have worried. The shop building was empty except for another bored stallion and a few tables and chairs. He sat down across from her and asked a few questions about Earth, where she had been born and so on. Asked her to identify a few illustrations of various brands and intellectual properties that had been popular right before the Event. She threw a few questions, figuring that they would expect a teenager not to have a score that was too good.

The stallion signed off on her performance, and directed her to the train station with a pair of tickets. They would be riding back on the train that had brought coal in earlier. Soon enough they were loaded up into an empty boxcar, packed in beside boxes and crates. There were only a few other passengers.

“I don’t like this,” Ezri said, when they were alone.

“Why?”

“The ponies we talked to, they’re…”

“Yeah?”

“They’re too excited about us. Some ponies like to help others – like you! When you helped me, it tasted one way. They aren’t thinking about helping, they’re thinking about how great it is for them. Does that make sense?”

“Oh yeah.” Alex sat back against the rough wood of the crate, watching the outside go by. “It makes sense. Before the Event, there was a word for someone like that: ‘slimeball.’”

“Then why are we trusting them?”

She raised her eyebrows. “I’m not trusting them, are you?” Ezri just looked confused, so she went on. “I want to see what they’re trying to trick Refugees into doing. When one of us comes back, they’re scared, they’re frightened, their whole world and everyone they know is gone. Desperation like that can get a pony to do things they wouldn’t. Honestly I’m hoping they just got some nasty people to do the recruiting because they’re good at it, and the organization itself will be solid.”

“After all, Refugees can be kinda useless. They’re awkward and clumsy, they often don’t have any skills that matter, and they’re all tied up in the past. If there’s a group that’s teaching them a trade and taking care of them until they get their hooves under them, then it doesn’t matter if their recruiters are a little slimy.”

“What are we gonna do if they’re all bad?”

Archive’s eyes darkened. “You’re gonna go somewhere safe, and I’ll take care of it.” She might not be an Alicorn, nor some supernatural force like Discord that could spread its influence over all the planet at once. Even so, she would be damned if she wasn’t going to protect her people wherever she went. Let a few miners try and stop her.

The train didn’t appear to be heading into Motherlode so much as through it. There was little more than a raised platform waiting for them, with a single guard sitting in the only chair with a rifle over his knee and a bored expression on his face. He hardly gave them a second glance as they formed up with several ponies, which she hadn’t had the chance to meet during the trip.

Alex kept her “sister” close beside her at all times, as they moved down the darkened platform. Motherlode wasn’t a town so much as an outpost, with the forest on all sides looking as though it were trying to claw it back. Rough log structures mostly, with sheet metal roofs and firelight flickering inside. If the dust had been bad in Radio Springs, it was much worse here. She no longer doubted whether this was actually a mining town.

They had a guide, the same pony who had recruited her. “This is the main barracks,” he was saying. “Watering hole is on the bottom floor, showers too. Dorms on the second and third floors.” They moved past it, towards the open doors of another building, only one story but nearly as large. “That’s the company store. Easiest way to get anything, short of hiking through the mountains back to Radio Springs.”

“Couldn’t we catch the train?” Alex asked, stepping out towards the front of the group. “It goes into town with coal and ore, doesn’t it?”

“You could, if you wanted to blow some of your hard-earned wages on train tickets. The only complementary ride was getting you all out here. If you want to go anywhere else, you’ll have to buy tickets like anyone else. Which we sell in the store, too.” They kept walking down the gravel path, stopping more than once for a refugee to stumble and fall. Alex helped a unicorn mare about her age to her hooves, mostly just by being a stable something she could cling to. The orangish unicorn grinned sheepishly, but didn’t say anything. Neither did she.

“This is the company office,” said their guide, when they were standing outside the last and smallest of the buildings. “We’re going to go inside now and get all your papers taken care of. A few quick signatures from each of you, and then we’ll get you off to bed. Early day tomorrow.”

She only saw two rooms of the company offices. One was a waiting room of sorts, with a single secretary’s desk. A young mare sat there despite the hour, with a stack of blank contracts and pencils.

Archive felt her blood boiling as she read the contract’s terms in a few blinks. Everything about what this mining company had done became obvious to her then, and she wondered if she could even let these others who had joined sign in clear conscience. Even if there was no global government to enforce these terms, the idea that they had tricked so many people into… She didn’t say anything. Cause trouble now, and she might just be thrown out. No chance to figure out how widespread the exploitation might go, or learn how to undermine it all from the inside. She signed her name, and tried not to wince as the other adults followed her example.

They didn’t have much of a tour after that. A meal of plain oats, and they were separated by sex into either of the bunkhouses. She had to do a little arguing not to get separated from Ezri, but on that she would not budge. So she got them a bunk bed, off in a corner room with only one other occupant.

Alex realized at a glance why the bunkhouse matron had looked so smug when she passed her off. As she passed wearily through the door, she saw the unmistakable slit-pupils and huge ears of a thestral, her eyes almost glowing as she stared around the corner of her bed at them.

“Hi.” Alex raised her hoof, then lowered it again, not making eye contact. Without easy access to her earth pony magic in this wooden building, she felt too weary for much enthusiasm. “You must be Jackie. Matron Rivera just assigned us in here.”

The thestral stared at them, unblinking. Then she grinned, rolling sloppily out of the bed. She ended up getting one leg tangled in the thin blanket, and landed on the ground twisted into a swearing bundle. Alex couldn’t make out many of the words through the shouting, but she supposed it didn’t matter. Ezri retreated a pace, shielding her face with her wings even as Alex moved in to help the struggling young mare.

It wasn’t hard to see the part of the blanket where all the tangles centered, and she bent down to tear it up. It fouled her tongue with coal dust and sulfur. No sooner had she tugged it free than she dropped it, gagging. At least the taste was enough to make her not feel asleep.

The thestral looked as relieved as she did embarrassed, shying suddenly away. “I-I...” She wasn’t wearing anything. While that would’ve passed without a glance in Alexandria, here among the recently returned was something else.

That made Alex blush, looking away. “Sorry. My sister and I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble.”

“It’s these damn hooves that caused me trouble, as usual.” The thestral rose, somewhat unsteadily. “It’s good you didn’t laugh. If you’re new, you’ve probably only been around a little while, right? You’ll be tripping all over yourself in no time.” She extended a hoof, no longer blushing. “Name’s Jackie all-right, miner extraordinaire! You won’t find a better spotter on any crew in the camp.”

Alex took the hoof in the familiar gesture, finding the thestrals mood just the slightest bit contagious. Poor nocturnal creature in the world of daylight. “I’m sure we couldn’t.” She gestured towards Ezri. “My sister, Leah.” Ezri was more than a little hesitant to advance, but she returned the gesture just the same.

“Hah.” The thestral grinned, fangs and all. “You and me kid, magical lottery losers 2015.” She slapped Ezri on the shoulder with one hoof, not very hard. “Us losers stick together. Your big sister wouldn’t understand.”

Alex shrugged out of her saddlebags, too tired to make it look like she was struggling. “Said the flying, dreamwalking, super senses pony to the earth pony.”

She hadn’t tried to sound confrontational, but even so all the humor went from Jackie’s face. Her eyes narrowed. “So the newcomer learns what we’re called and thinks she knows it all.” Jackie shoved with one hoof, though not hard. “It’s bullshit, all of it. They give us the same fairy tale here they spun in Radio Springs. The love and tolerance is for the ponies like you; it’s a freak’s life for the rest of us.” She sat back, chest heaving from the intensity of her fury. “Your sister will know what I mean… in a few days… mark my fucking words…”

She dissolved into horse coughs then, covering her mouth with one hoof as she hacked and wheezed. Her wings spasmed and twitched with each cough, barely under her control.

Ezri had retreated to the edge of the room by then, and Alex couldn’t help but step between the stranger and her ward. She waited for Jackie’s coughing to subside. “Sorry.” She sighed. “I didn’t mean anything by it. You obviously have more experience with all of this than I do. I’m sure Leah and I can learn from you.”

Jackie eventually stopped coughing, her wings folding awkwardly at her sides. “Yes. You can.” Her smile returned, a little forced. “You will.” She sat back, leaning against the bed. “We could start right now.” She glanced briefly at the open window. “Another seven hours until sunrise bell! Maybe we can cover enough that you two won’t be completely useless then.”

“We’d like to.” Alex yawned. “But we’ve been up all day. Maybe tomorrow?”

Jackie looked away, frowning. “’Course. ‘Course you want to sleep. Go ahead then.” She took the blanket in her mouth, and hopped back into her bed with the crunching of straw from inside her mattress. “Sleep away.” She pulled the blanket up over her head, vanishing into the folds.

Ezri seemed to have no desire to sleep apart from her, and tonight Alex didn’t discourage the behavior. Alex wanted to climb into the pocket-dimension with Ezri and sleep where they could both feel safe, but couldn’t dare it in the company of a stranger.

Their roommate kept Alex from getting much sleep, whimpering and moaning against some terrible nightmare. More than once she wanted to get up and help, to find out what the batpony knew about dreamwalking and what distress she had gotten herself into. Yet after such a confrontational first meeting, she couldn’t throw her cover away and expect her secret to be respected. Besides, it might’ve been an ordinary nightmare. Those still happened, as Alex knew better than most.

The next day came rising with dawn, just as Jackie had suggested. Everypony ate breakfast together in a common hall, bland food that felt a little scant from Alex’s perpetual teenage ravenousness. Jackie proved herself right in more ways that one: Ezri did attract uncomfortable stares. Anypony they passed seemed friendly enough until they saw the child. Mecca of multicultural tolerance Motherlode was not.

Everypony wore standard miner’s jumpsuits, which covered far too much for Alex’s taste and restricted movement a little, but it was either wear one or stand out even more than they already did.

Their contract included classes, and those classes began immediately. A little under half the ponies she had seen at breakfast stayed around for the class, such as it was. They pushed the rough benches into a semicircle, then sat around as one of the mining supervisors read a presentation from cue cards.

In honor of the new arrivals, the presentation was one of the “reintegration” pieces. There were perhaps a dozen different versions she knew of, and probably just as many she didn’t. Alex had written several, and been part of the team that revised and improved them over the years.

But that had been in Alexandria. Here those with the greatest influence had resented Archive, and so resisted her contributions. She recognized this presentation before the second sentence. It was an old one, written by one of the founders of Radio Springs sometime in the second decade AE.

“You’ve been stolen from your life,” it began. “Your world was taken from you, and you don’t know why. You feel trapped in your own body, and confused by new thoughts that come from nowhere. You’re probably missing family or loved ones, and maybe you’re not sure why it’s worth going on. It’s time for you to get some answers.”

Alex had seen the pony deliver this once, all full of passion. There was nothing in the presenting pony’s voice but boredom as he read. She sat with the group she had come in with the day before, and she felt their attention on the presenter. She heard their pain when they learned what they must already suspect by now: that they couldn’t ever get their old bodies back. She nearly screamed at the callousness she saw in the presenter.

She studied his face more than listening to the words, an overly rounded stallion with distant eyes. Archive’s eyes looked into his past, and she saw only an emptiness there. No human could feel nothing as he damned these newcomers to a lifetime in a strange body away from their loved ones.

Nopony had done anything wrong, yet to Archive the thought of who knew how many ponies brought here almost infuriated her even more than the slavery they had signed themselves into. Almost.

She comforted the unicorn as best she could, since she happened to be on her other side. She shared the tears, having no trouble finding some to share. Though none of the leadership knew it, the memory of Old Earth was strong here. Archive no longer felt tired from her restless night.

She could work no magic at their lesson, much as she wished to. Guilt burned, but not enough to prompt her to give up her disguise. The will of Archive surged briefly against Alex. Alex won.

The presentation concluded and they separated into groups. Not by species as she had expected, but by “months since return.”

There was no point in pretending to trip over herself, even if it would get her out of mining for awhile. She took Ezri into the 6-12 months group, and sat down beside Jackie there.

The thestral noticed her, even over the murmur of activity. “You sure you wouldn’t rather be with the newcomers?” She grinned proudly. “There’s no reason to lie. If you need to learn the basics, this isn’t the right class. We’re doing mostly fine dexterity stuff with Mr. Morse. You’re probably not ready.”

Alex ignored the question. “If you’ve been back for six months, why aren’t you learning to fly?” Indeed, the distribution of species in their corner of the room was about even. Shouldn’t the unicorns and winged ponies have been sorted into classes for their unique abilities?

“Psh.” She rolled her eyes. “Shows how much you know. Flying isn’t ‘workplace applicable.’ Our classes focus on skills that help us earn more. Advanced classes aren’t free. I’m saving…” She lowered her voice, suddenly looking away. “Six more months…”

Alex forced herself to do the same, her blood boiling. She lowered her voice, and could not keep the fury from it. “Have they not even taught you the basics of dream walking?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jackie lowered her voice just as Alex did, though she didn’t seem to know why. “Dream-what?”

There was no time to answer, as the aforementioned Mr. Morse made his way over to the class pushing a cart of mining tools. It was the stout stallion that had given the presentation. “You’re new,” he said, indicating Alex and Ezri. “Came in yesterday?”

“Yes, sir.” She stepped forward. “I’m Kristy, and this is my sister, Leah.” She gestured.

He looked them up and down. “This is an advanced class, Kristy. How long have you been a pony?”

“Nine months,” she offered, using the number she had given the Radio Springs people. “My sister and I showed up in a small town. We figured most of it out on our own.”

The class, perhaps a dozen ponies in all, had all hushed. Dusty mining ponies all stared, with much more compassion than their teacher. At least some of this group had probably gone through the exact same thing she pretended to.

“In winter?” He raised an eyebrow. “What’d you eat?”

Alex wasn’t a very good liar, but she had rehearsed the details in case they were questioned. “My family had an orchard. Some of the trees were still there… all wild, of course. But it wasn’t winter yet when we showed up, and…” She lifted her hooves. “Things grew really well.”

“Interesting.” He was barely looking at her. “Well, show us what you’ve learned. Pick up that pickaxe. Don’t drop it.”

This was more difficult than just lying: she would have to seem skilled, but not too skilled. Lie with her body as well as with her words. Archive was not well suited to it. Ezri, though. “Leah’s about as good as I am,” she said, looking down at the child. “Why don’t you show them?”

There were no objections. The drone’s wings buzzed a little under her jumpsuit, uncomfortable with all the attention. Yet she advanced all the same, took the rusty pickaxe by the shaft in her mouth, and lifted with just the right mixture of uncertainty and confidence. Imitated a swing, faked a stumble, but didn’t drop it. Alex wouldn’t have known she was acting, were it not for the precisely focused expression on her face.

“That’s enough.” He gestured back to the box. “You should fit into our class just fine.”

Ezri joined her back at the wall, eager to slip back into the shadows. Alex didn’t say another word during their lesson, which proved to have very little to do with being a pony and almost everything to do with mining. Alex practiced dexterity by taking apart and re-assembling a “Davy lamp,” how to replace the wick or remove the metal screen. They worked their endurance by pushing a heavy cart, and she learned to attach a pickaxe to a single leg and swing it hard enough to break ore.

After a light lunch, the rest of their class went off to their mining shifts. The contract's terms gave them two weeks before their own duty shift: practically a vacation for the two of them if not nearly long enough for ponies who were actually new.

This was the first time they were left alone, fallen through the gap between newcomers who knew and those who didn’t. It was their first chance they had to go back to their room, make sure the door was sealed, and open up the Equestrian pocket-dimension.

They only used the lights: there was no telling when there would be another chance to recharge. Ezri dropped weakly onto the couch. She didn’t even bother opening her eyes as she spoke. “How long are we going to live here?”

Alex sat down beside her on the couch, patting her head. “Until I get proof of what I think they’re doing and come up with a way to stop it.”

“I don’t like how they feel when they look at us.” Ezri rolled, tugging at the jumpsuit. Alex lowered her head to help with the zipper, tossing the whole thing aside and letting Ezri escape her confinement.

“Everyone?”

She shook her head. “Just the ones in charge. They…” She frowned, and seemed to ponder for several seconds before answering. “They think about the ponies how you think about this.” She gestured around them at the library. “We’re an important secret that nobody else knows. But how can that be?” She sat up, tilting her head to one side. “Everypony saw us leave the city. Everybody comes from in there, so shouldn’t they know we’re here?”

“Of course they know, Ezri. Having a place for Refugees to come and work and learn to be ponies is a good thing, not a bad thing! That’s not the secret.”

“Then what is?”

It was Alex’s turn to flop onto her back. “Money and isolation. Humans did it to each other once, and now ponies are trying it. They trap you here so you can’t buy anything except from them, and then can set their own prices so that you have to spend more money than you earn to survive. Nopony is going to notice when they first get here, because they give us such a large sign-on bonus. But if you…” she trailed off, realizing she had lost the changeling.

Few children would count “accounting” among their interests, and it seemed Ezri was no exception. She shrugged. “Before I can be sure, I have to see what working conditions are like. If they take good care of the ponies here… we’ll probably just tell the Springs government about it and be gone.”

“They won’t,” Ezri squeaked. “I can tell.”

“If that’s what I discover…” Archive rolled off the couch and onto her hooves. “They’ll wish they had.”

* * *

The next two weeks passed much the same as the first day. Ezri was added to the daycare/school in camp, though she only attended after the morning “pony classes” were over. Alex spent her time getting to know the other Refugees and as much of the staff as she could, trying to do so in a way that wouldn't attract overmuch attention. What she learned did little to reassure her: poor Jackie appeared to be indicative of a general trend. So far as she could tell, the miners went underground with little more than damp bandannas to protect their lungs, and no more than their lanterns to burn off mine damp.

Jackie’s problems went further than a lack of safety equipment. Her inability and even unwillingness to sleep proved to be a nightly event. It took nearly the full two weeks for Alex to muster the courage to broach the subject with her, sometime around one or two in the morning on the night before her first day in the mine.

After awaking with a scream, Jackie vanished into the hall for her usual post-nightmare trip to the bathroom. “You up, Ezri?” Alex whispered, while she was gone.

“This room has so much stinking fear I can barely breathe,” came the little voice from above her. “Like every night.”

“I’m going to talk to her.” Alex extended one hoof over the edge of the bed, where her saddlebags hung. She flipped them open. “Why don’t you sleep in there. Put your pillow under the covers first.”

Ezri sat up. Her eyes seemed almost to glow in the gloom, though Alex knew as well as anyone it was only reflected light. “Really?”

“Yeah squirt, you’ve earned it. Two weeks and you rarely complain, that’s more than lots of ponies could manage. Now hurry before she comes back.”

“Right!” Ezri showed no sign of drowsiness, just flung the covers over the pillow and then hopped down, buzzing into the opening and out of sight.

“Be ready on time!” Alex whispered in behind her. “Wait for my sign before you leave in the morning. I’m not sure if I’m going to tell about this yet.”

“Night Mom!” Ezri waved as Alex shut the opening, the beam of artificial light from within fading away.

Alex got out of bed, taking her notebook from the bedside and a pencil and starting to draw the rune-patterns they would need. She had never used these patterns before, but that didn’t matter. Every book from the Equestrian library was as fresh as the day she had first read it.

About twenty minutes went by before the mare finally returned. She didn’t wander in any distance before she saw Alex: her own reflective eyes cut through the gloom like it was day and fell on her immediately. Her huge ears pressed themselves flat to her head, and she looked away. “I’m sorry… I woke you again, didn’t I? Fucking fantastic.”

“You did,” she admitted, dropping the pencil back to the bed. “But it’s not your fault.” Alex waited until Jackie had shut the door behind her before continuing on in a whisper. “Would you believe me if I told you there was an easy way to stop your nightmares?”

Jackie’s eyebrows went up. “I’d ask who your pharmacist was and how you were getting sleeping pills out here to the ‘old west.’”

She shrugged. Alex did have sleeping pills in the bag, along with the rest of her drugs. That wasn’t what she had in mind though. “Nothing like that. Closer to unicorn magic.”

“Magic, right.” There was just a faint note of scorn in that voice, as though she didn’t quite believe what she was saying. “If there was a unicorn spell for it, the camp doctor would’ve given it to me. Instead of bad advice.”

There were unicorn spells for it, which made Alex’s whole body tighten with brief anger. But that kind of magic was fairly advanced, so it was possible that he just didn’t know. She had seen the doctor once, and he had seemed nice enough. “Look.” Alex turned the notebook around so she could see what she had been drawing. An intricate, interweaving circle had been drawn there, a vague crescent-moon of runes and flowing English words. Alex was proud of how much her writing had improved, and was now as graceful and practiced as any convenience store greeting card’s printed letters could be.

Even a newcomer like Jackie could not mistake an imitation of runes for the genuine article. Some of the mining equipment worked on enchantments, and they saw runes every day. The old Equestrian alphabet was not easy to forget. She took several steps forward, staring. “Where the hell did you get this?”

“I drew it while you were gone. It’s really standard, actually… it’s copied straight from Luna’s: A Novice Oneiromancer’s Exploration of the Skien.”

“So what, I put this funny thing under my pillow and the nightmares go away?” She made to take the notebook.

Alex pulled back. “It will help you understand. If I explain why you’re having nightmares, you won’t believe me. But if I show you, you’ll be able to deal with them yourself.” She offered Jackie the notebook. “You read this. I have the English version of the runes underneath.” She hopped up into bed, resting her head on the pillow, still looking up at Jackie. “You read it, then get in bed and leave it touching your body. I’ve got my part memorized. After that…” she shrugged. “Just don’t get out of bed. You’ll fall asleep pretty quick with one of these charms, faster than any sleeping pill I’ve ever used.” She sat up, watching expectantly. “Simple, yeah?”

“Completely pointless.” She tossed the notebook onto the bed at Alex’s hooves. “Unicorn ‘magic’ I’ve seen. Reading spells off paper when you don’t even have a horn…” she trailed off. “It won’t do a damn thing. How would you even know all this, anyway? You’re as new a I am!”

She ignored the second question. “You’d take a sleeping pill if I had one for you?”

“Hell yeah. Pills put you out, no dreams.”

“And a pill would work whether you believed in it or not, wouldn’t it?”

Jackie sat down a few feet from the bed, shrugging. She didn’t seem in any rush to get back to bed, but it wasn’t as though Alex didn’t know why. “I guess.”

“Well, this is just as objective as a sleeping pill. If you do what I say… you read it, you go to bed, and don’t fight sleep when it comes… you’ll know.” Alex leaned closer, lowering her voice. “How about this. If it doesn’t work, I’ll give you my first week’s pay.”

“I…” she hesitated. “You swear? Not that I understand why you care so much… it’s my fucking problem.”

Alex extended a foreleg. “I swear.” She shook the thestral’s foreleg. “If you let me help, you’ll understand. Just… isn’t it enough that I want to help a friend?”

“If I was a better friend you wouldn’t have had to bribe me.” Jackie scooped up the notebook, took it over to the mostly open window and the source of light there. “I just read this, then get in bed? That’s it?”

“You read it, then I respond, then you get in bed. I have a part of the spell too. I just didn’t have time to draw it out. It’ll work just as well so long as I hold them in memory until I fall asleep.”

Jackie glanced again at the pattern, her eyes getting wider. “Hold something like this in your memory?”

“Faster that way.” She gestured impatiently. “Get to it, Jackie. Don’t screw up a single word, or you have to read the whole thing over from the beginning. I’ll be listening.”

It took her three times to get the enchantment perfect. “As a child of the moonlight, I offer up my vow of solemn protection to you this night. My presence shall shelter you, soothe nightmares and grant clarity in prophecy. Across the furthest reaches of the Skein I will watch over and protect you, no matter how far you wander.”

Alex started in at once, before Jackie could say anything else and force another repetition. “I take thee for my patron, favored daughter of the night-blessed princess. I swear to grant you my strength this night, to uphold thy instructions and share my gifts with thee. Upon no other will I rely, until sunlight banishes us.”

She took a deep breath, hoping that there were no unicorns in the nearby rooms awake enough to feel the brief surge of magic that passed through the room as they spoke. Granted, few unicorns in the mare’s bunkhouse were likely to have the sensitivity to identify such a faint spell. But what would the administration do if they discovered dream-magic going on under their noses? “You can talk now, but don’t put the rune down or leave the room. You’ve got to stay near me, or it won’t work.”

“Of course I do.” Jackie clambered up into bed. Her voice came a little halting, as though she had just climbed several flights of stairs instead of a foot. “I… feel so weak. Are you sure you didn’t… slip me something?”

“Positive.” Alex felt no tiredness beyond the natural. The magic to travel into somepony’s dreams did not come from her, though. “You’ve just… never used these muscles before. It’s going to be hard until you get more practice.” She closed her eyes. “That spell is more expensive than it has to be. Lots of clauses and protections you won’t need when you’re better. With more practice, you won’t even need to read anything. You’ll just will yourself around.”

“Shows… how much you know,” Jackie’s voice still came out in a pant. “Only unicorns-”

Archive awoke in her library.

This was nothing new for her; she spent much of her existence here. It was home, so far as Archive could ever be at home in a universe that no longer wanted her.

The library was vast around her, shelves as tall as skyscrapers and without obvious means of accessing what they contained. The entire shape was really a single spiral, with a floor that sloped gradually up and down. Shelves grew more sparse the further up or down the ramp one traveled, and were thickest several hundred feet back from where she found herself. Archive could no longer number the artifacts her mind recorded. Accessing all of them at once, or counting them in any meaningful way, had become impossible even for her.

Sometimes she knew things she never learned.

The whole place was as much art as practicality. The subtle shading of the wood indicated the part of the world knowledge had come from. Tapestries depicting living pictures hung where there were not shelves, and frequent landings spilled out into warm sitting rooms, cafes, and boulevards. In the very center around which the stairs circled was a constant flow of water, curling and twisting and changing color to match the sparkling lights on every level.

Archive herself appeared different here: older, more mature, more solid. She also wasn’t incomplete. Here at least in dreams she had wings and horn to match her earth-pony strength.

There was only one human here today. Archive knew where to find her without having to search. Though she had wings here, she would not use them. There was no hurry.

So maybe she had been a bit hasty when she had called Jackie human. She found the young woman dressed in plain jeans and tank-top, only half watching one of the many films stored here. Her shirt had to make way for a pair of gigantic wings, which stretched out awkwardly behind her and made it impossible for her to find a comfortable position. Her ears were wrong too, which even Archive found adorable.

“Inception?” As she asked, a blaring horn echoed through the viewing room around them, loud enough that both their ears pressed momentarily flat against it. “Your first time lucid dreaming, and you watch Inception?”

Jackie looked up, met her eyes. Not nearly the disparity in distance there would’ve been. “I dream about my friends sometimes. You feel different than they do.”

Alex sat down on her haunches beside the television. With a faint effort of magic, she shut the movie off. “That’s because I’m not a figment, Jackie. I’m as real as you are. Well… more so, since this is my dream.” She gestured around with a hoof. “I couldn’t craft a dream as you can, but I come here more often than anywhere else. It seemed like a stable place to introduce you to your powers.”

“Your dream?” Jackie stood up, her wings stretching out behind her. She was taller, but not overwhelmingly so as she would’ve been of her present true self. “How can a dream have accurate movies and books inside? I’ve tried to read in dreams before, and it always comes out nonsense. I’ve tried changing the details of the dream, too.”

Jackie’s outline shimmered for a moment, and she shrunk down into her proper form. Whether because Archive wasn’t wearing anything or just because she hadn’t thought to bother with the details, she was entirely naked as her pony self. No stupid mining jumpsuit. “That’s all that works. When I try to stop bad things from happening… they happen anyway.”

“In your own dreams, it’s just about willpower and practice. I’ve been working on this place for centuries. Lots of revising, lots of improvements. As to the books…” She shrugged. “I’ve got one of those photographic memories.” She levitated another DVD off a nearby shelf. “When you look at these, you’re not looking at something I dreamed up, you’re seeing my memory. But that’s not really important. Let’s go upstairs. I think that’s where you’ll want to be.”

“I think I’ll be fine just about anywhere.” Jackie followed close behind, grinning at her. “There aren’t any monsters here, I can feel it. It’s safe.”

“What kind of monsters keep you up every night, Jackie? It’s not your past. Your return to Earth and your history before that wasn’t that traumatic.” She made no attempt to explain how she knew that, nor did she falter or look away. They continued up the ramp, out of the part of the library where books were thickest and into the sparser shelves of the upper levels.

“I…” she hesitated, then stopped walking. “I get an answer first.” She tore a random book off the shelf, flipped through it, then tossed it on the ground at her hooves. “How does someone as fresh as you know all of this? Wait, don’t tell me. You lied, and you’ve been around longer. Are you some kinda prodigy or something? Spent your whole life in some college somewhere. You can’t be older than… fifteen? Still doesn’t answer what a kid like that would be doing in a mine.”

Archive shook her head. “I came because I was worried ponies were abusing Refugees coming back from Old Earth. But… let’s not make this about me, Jackie. If you care I’ll answer all those questions later. For now, you need to learn more important things.” She started walking again.

The mare groaned, then started to follow. “Like what?”

“How to stop having nightmares.”

Author's Notes:

A huge thanks to the fantastic Zutcha for coming back and doing the art for this chapter! I know he's going through a lot, and it means a great deal to me that he took the time out of his day to art for me. Zutcha's as unpaid as I am in all this, so it means a ton to me.

Next Chapter: Chapter 15: Dream a Little Day (292 AE) Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 37 Minutes
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