Though a sense of duty prompted the three to search the rooms of the long-dead inhabitants, they did so reluctantly and without a word. A few unenthusiastic grunts and murmurs made up the extent of their conversations, and even then they were quiet and forced at best.

Perhaps, at some point, the rooms may have been filled with useful and valuable loot; a few were still home to the starved corpses of imprisoned crystal ponies and changelings. Colts and fillies, hatchlings and grubs, it made no difference. The few who had not escaped from their rooms still had succumbed to the same cruel and horrific fate as their comrades.

It made Blue feel sick.

Neither she nor the filly, however, could claim to be nearly as pained by the entire experience as Thorax was. The sight of each downed crystal pony made him whimper a little, and whenever they stumbled upon an empty room semi-ravaged by bite marks he would freeze in the doorway, only able to stumble forwards numbly and murmur a few words of quiet, near-incomprehensible gibberish. But when the room was home to a changeling? Well, he did not react at all; he merely glanced about the room and blinked a few times, then sluggishly hauling his hooves forwards into the room. He would only manage to get a few steps away from the door, however, before his wings and tail and ears would droop and his eyes would lose any trace of shine they may have had before.

Despite the fact that she had lived out here all of her life, Coalburst, though not looking as miserable as her companions, was more than a little depressed herself. It was a fact of which Blue could understand oh so well; her excitement when they had arrived outside was so great, so genuine, only for it to be torn to shreds by the reality of this place. Truth be told, she was completely wrong now to have thought so poorly of her facility; their intention had not, she presumed, been to kill her outright. It was only when she outlived her use there that they decided to do so; here, every pony who stepped hoof through the door was doomed from the get go.

Except Thorax, of course, but it was hard to say that he was not doomed. His face, so lacking in any form of emotion, was surely evidence of his great suffering. Nevertheless, he followed the pair without question and did as he was told; after half-heartedly changing into a fly and floating out of the facility, he then returned slowly and morphed back into his standard form, panting a little but without much other reaction. He was simply quiet.

“We’re clear,” he grunted. He then turned tail once again and crept out through the charred hole in the wooden door; after a moment’s hesitation, Coalburst and Blue crept after him on their bellies. The former, taking up the rear—after all that she’d seen, Blue had refused point blank to leave last, though it was quite clear that there was nothing alive left to haunt them—couldn’t help but falter before she finally slipped out with a sniffle and sigh.

After being in the facility for hours, or weeks in Thorax’s case, the cold air of the outside world was unpleasant to say the least. Each little drip of water on the floor of the rocky tunnel sent chills through the spines of each pony. Every gentle, stray breath of wind made them whimper and cringe. It wasn’t long before they mutually agreed on ascending to a gentle trot in order for their muscles to simply produce a little more heat; Blue had fluffed up her feathers almost instinctively the second she stepped away from the facility whilst her teeth chattered rapidly.

The burn of lactic acid rose up quickly, though the delay was longer than it would have been the few weeks ago when Blue left the facility. As she fought to ignore the pain, it was that which she focused on; how long, exactly, had she been outside? She’d spent a week at the village, about a week getting there, and it had probably been close to a week since RipEar had disappeared. The thought of him was unpleasant and she gritted her teeth so as not to let herself think on his fate too much; he was strong, and he was not as inexperienced as she. He had lived outside for his entire life, just as she had done, but the key difference was that he knew of his past. He would remember how to survive.

"Um, e-excuse me?" Thorax whispered as he fell backwards—his longer legs were a bonus in the speed department—so that he trotted slowly by Blue's side now. He panted as he did so and his voice sounded pained, but he didn't stop. "Are you alright? I mean, I don't want to just butt in but... well, you look pretty down."

"Oh. No, no, I'm fine." Blue's smile was forced, at best. "Just... I'm worried about my friend is all."

Thorax frowned and cocked his head a little as his eyes darted between his two companions. "What, you mean Coalburst? She looks alright, y'know, but I'm s—"

"No, no, no," Blue cut in with a shaking head, her smile only slight less fake—but it was an improvement. "Another friend. He... he ran out on us a week or so back, probably."

"But... why would he do that? Doesn't he realise how important it is to have friends out here?"

Blue whimpered quietly. "That's not it. It... it was my fault. He was deaf, but I never actually... I never realised it, Thorax. Can you imagine how hard it must have been for him, living with such a massive secret on his shoulders?"

Thorax whimpered slightly and hung his head, a few tears glistening in his eyes. "Yeah, I can imagine... just how awful that must be. Poor stallion."

"Thorax?" A frown emerged on Blue's face as she slowed her trot and then took slowly to the air, her wings feeling ever so heavy. Similarly to her legs, though, they also had strengthened over the weeks. "Are you..."

"Oh, don't worry about me!" Thorax said with a gasp, his eyes suddenly wide after he brushed the tears out of them. He buzzed his wings and grinned. "I couldn't be happier to be out of there, y'know?"

Coalburst glowered slightly from her position a few metres away and stuck her nose up in the air slightly, her ears fallen but, significantly, not pinned. Her reaction was not one of malice. She could be dealt with later, though; clearly she was happy to wallow in her own pity for a little while. It would probably do her good; help her to accept the harsh reality. And so instead, Blue fluttered closer to Thorax and said, in a slightly shaky squeak, "Well, I never realised. He... He was ashamed by it, but if I'd known I could've helped him! But I... I never realised. I never realised. And I shouted at him for never letting me have a say, never letting me know his plans, when all along he was just trying to keep me safe..." Coalburst, though still a way off, had pricked a single ear at Blue's speech. In turn, she took a deep breath before she then continued in a  whispered voice, "It was my fault he was deaf. I don't know why, but he said something about... about it being my fault for not being able to cope alone, or something. I don't know why he said it and why it makes a difference, but... but he blames me. For some reason. And I..." Blue whimpered a little before she began to sob, her words somewhat hard to hear when she at last finished with, "I can't remember. I can't remember anything."

Thorax's eyes widened and he glanced over Blue's body, his eyes then darting between her mane, her eyes and her covered flank. In a quiet but somewhat firm voice, he then whispered, "You're a part-amnesiac." It was not a question. Before she could reply, though, he finished with, "You can't remember anything. But you can remember, if you try to. And I..." He lowered his head and looked away as he said, "I can help you remember, if you want?"

Blue's wings slowed almost instantaneously and she dropped from the air, landing with a painful thud on her chest. She winced as she then jumped unsteadily back up to her hooves and beamed at Thorax, her pale grey eyes now shining not with tears but with glee. "You know how?"

Thorax grinned and stepped backwards slowly, accepting Blue's eager hug after he had nodded. He then sighed and held her there for just a moment before he said, in a much more confident voice than before, "I know how, sure. Or, I know how to make remembering easier, anyway. I... I used to help my h-hivemates." He gave an explosive laugh. "When they were alive, anyway."

There was silence for a few moments before Thorax sighed and began to heave his legs forwards again, but he was groaning by now. Hardly a moment later his overworked legs gave way under him and he found himself laying rather painfully on his stomach in the thin cover of grass, his eyes dull once again. Blue was still for a moment before she then approached, but the words which came next were not from her.

"You feel guilty, right? Like it's all your fault, like you mucked up... all the things." Coalburst stepped forwards, now sniffling a little. Even with him laying down, she was still shorter. "I'm right, I know I'm right. 'Cos I can see it in your eyes and everything."

"It doesn't matter."

"But—"

Coalburst trailed off when Blue trotted to her side and placed her hoof on the filly's lips. She then turned to Thorax and stared at him directly, eye to eye; a moment later, she tried to smile and fell down on her rump. After she had glanced about herself quickly, scanning the just-about-grassy landscape before she sighed and lay down. With a wing, she then dragged Coalburst to her side and pulled a few loose twigs and scraps of dry grass to her side, placing them between herself and the changeling. She nodded to the pile before she let her eyes come to rest on Coalburst; after a few moments, the filly caught the silent command and made a small spark. The sticks immediately burst into flame. With both the magic and the fuel to keep them burning, they were warm and bright against the bleakness and crackled reassuringly, encasing the trio in warmth and warding off almost any stray beasts that could wander near.

"You don't have to talk about anything if you don't want to, Thorax. Not yet, at least." Blue gave Coalburst a pointed scowl. She then returned her attention to him, his face slightly obscured by the fire, and she beamed; doing so seemed to draw out a little of the gloom from his face. "But... I need to remember who I was—who I am. And I would love it if you could help me. One friend to another."

"Really?"

Blue nodded, joined soon after by an only-slightly-reluctant Coalburst. "Friends."