The noise from the radio stopped. It hadn’t been the longest interview, but it had accomplished what it had set out to do. Icepick was magnetic. She was humble, yet defiant. She was the mare that would raise a thousand ships.

My legs felt weak as I sat there in a tavern filled with patriotic ponies. Before me was a stout beer. It reminded me of home. Then again, so did the revelry. I had been a student when the war had been declared. We were so innocent. I had sung among the loudest and lost the most in the end. I tipped my glass back and enjoyed the bitterness. No One knew what was coming. It was my burden to bear. A burden that couldn’t change anything. I had found my mark, and I loved her. The mare of my dreams would be the one that damned this world. She was falling in love with it, the freedom, the expression of one’s self. Icepick had pink streaks in her mane and tail.

Even if I told her what was to come, I doubted that anything could be done. Even if all the Rangers and every citizen of Paradise were to take up arms, it would be at most a match for one corp. It would just prolong the inevitable. The question for me was this: should I tell her and risk everything? Or should she find out when the ponies who spoke and thought like me came streaming out of an obsidian mirror?

I took another drink and thought about my mission. I had come here to prepare this place for an invasion. The vaguest of prophecies had been dropped in my lap. I still didn’t know how it was supposed to play out, or my part to play. At this point, all I had done so far is build a legend for my lover, and save her from her enemies at the same rate as she saved me-

“Why do you look so down?” A mare asked me from a few feet away. She had a glass of harder liquor in front of her, and she looked vaguely familiar.

“I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. Or even if there is a right thing to do,” I said quickly, like my guts were spilling out into the smoky room through a massive wound.

“Wait, wait, I know you…” She paused and finished off her drink. “You’re that stallion with the funny accent, the one that got pinged by an Arab and lived.”

“How do you know that?” I asked her, suddenly wary of the other patrons recognizing me.

“Oh, you were being cuddled by the big blonde and getting attention from Rosetta,” She answered without breaking her verbal stride.

“I apologize for only having the barest recollection of you, I was rather indisposed at the time.” The bartender moved by the two of us and filled up our glasses again, with her nodding at him to fill mine.

“I forgive you. I’m Bajada by the way.” She laughed as I downed the first third of my glass in a single gulp.

“Permittivity,” I offered her a forehoof as I tried to remember who this mare was- “You’re Rosetta’s old flame?” She met my hoof and drew it to her lips before leaving a kiss on it. I flushed and looked away as she laughed again.

“Did your knight marefriend not kiss your hoof? I thought y’all were old fashioned?”

“I usually kiss hers,” I looked down as I realized what I had just told this pony.

“Kinky, but uh, I’m mostly just fucking with you. I gotta get that out of my system before they send me out into the desert on a fool’s errand,” Bajada said wistfully, before staring at her glass. “You seem like the only person here who’s immune to the fervor, and you’re not even a Desert Ranger.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I’m only immune because I’ve been through it before.” My words fell out of my mouth, they seemed to dry my throat as they forced themselves past my larynx.

“Pray tell?” She asked simply.

“You don’t want to know. Suffice it to say, I can feel the echoes across time. A peaceful place enticed to throw its blood and treasure into the meat grinder of war for promised glory and riches.”

“Aye, I’ve fought bandits and brigands for a decade. But what she’s talking about is nothing less than declaring war on an entire people, that just doesn’t make strategic sense.” She took a deep drink before throwing the glass down onto the counter, only the thick glass preventing the whole thing from shattering. Her forelegs were shaking.

“It depends on your point of view Bajada,” I took another drink and looked towards the merry ponies drinking away their pay. “Subjugating whole peoples is something empires undertake. Sombra’s attempt at it started the whole war.”

“That’s ancient history, and he lost.” I burst out laughing at that.

“Let’s go for a walk.”

“Can I smoke?”

“Only if you share.”

“What if I told you that Sombra won? That he was the lesser of two evils, or three technically.” I had to pay attention to the rougher roads of the dockside district.

“I would say you knew shit all about ancient history,” she said before bumping into me.

“Are you alright?”

“No,” she said simply before stopping and dropping to her rump and retrieving a package of cigarettes from her pocket. I lifted one of them to my horn and lit it for her. The small trickle of hot magic felt like a second heartbeat as it passed through my horn. “Thanks.”

“Well, would you ever believe me if I told you I came from a world where Sombra won? Where your gods became elemental forces of destruction?”

“I’m drunk, so go on, your voice is nice.” She took very long pulls as if she wanted to burn her lungs. With a flick, I stole it from her and took a conservative pull of my own.

“Well, what if I told you that we were in roughly the same place you were before the bombs destroyed everything?”

“I would tell you to drink and be merry because once that box is opened, the world is gonna get fucked.”

“But what if there was a little bit of time before the other side finds out how to build the bomb?”

“That would change everything, as soon as we found out the secrets to megaspells, the zebras had already made their own.” A gust of wind cut through our meager clothes as she answered.

“So you’re saying those weapons should be used on them before they have a chance to fire back?”

“You know, you sound like one of my privates asking about a ‘friend’ with weird warts on their dick,” Bajada laughed and pulled out another cigarette, waiting for me to light it. “But I dunno, that’s a helluva question. As a soldier, I say fuck em’. Better one side dies so the other lives. As a mare, I think its a fucked up question.”

“Right,” I said before lighting the cigarette and taking the first hit. This time, I wanted to burn myself, wanted cancer to tear into me already. I had everything I truly wanted here, but I knew it would all be ashes in the wind before long.

“Gimme my cig,” she growled at me, before punching my foreleg. I obliged and stared at the streetlight ahead of me. “Ain’t that your little warmonger?” She said as a large shape drifted into the light. The moment it struck her mane I knew she was right. The new colour made her look a bit jauntier. It fit her well, pure blonde was a little austere for her. She had kissed me when I made that observation. Though, I was nearly sure we used any excuse to lock lips.

“I didn’t expect to see you out here,” I yelled towards Icepick. Her head jerked and she looked at me contemplatively.

“Same,” she said before walking over to Bajada and me.

“You know, if you wanna meet your fan club, you can walk right into that bar,” Bajada said with derision clearly evident in her voice.

“I’m okay, I just want to sleep,” Icepick said without any emotion. She looked and sounded exhausted. I wanted to join her. Some part of me wanted this next month to be enjoyable, even if the taint of what was to come would never be forgotten. What would she do, if she knew the prophecy?
I shivered in my jacket as I picked myself up off of the earth and strode towards Icepick.

“I concur,” I said quietly before coming up beside her. Bajada looked at the two of us, but there was no focus in her eyes. “Goodnight, and thank you for the willing ear.”

“Ehh, I’m drunk and your accent is interesting, so we’re even.” Bajada’s words reminded me of just how foreign I was to this place. Even if sometimes I was reminded so much of home that I forgot for a moment what I had come here to do. I said nothing to either of the mares. Icepick and I trudged home in silence. If anything was the base of our relationship, it was our ability to keep pace with one another, even if that was all we could do.

By the time we next spoke to one another, we had already crawled into bed. It felt like several minutes since the lights had shut off, but in a dark room, it’s rather hard to tell how much time had passed. Icepick rolled over in bed and faced me.
“You havin’ a hard time passing out too?” She asked me simply. Her voice was quiet, with just the slightest hint of vexation. Not at me, at her own mind.
“Yes,” I replied just as softly. With a hint of a smile, I grasped her form in my magic and pulled her into my forelegs.
“We haven’t tried rutting yet…” She asked mischievously, to which I pressed my muzzle to her hornless forehead, kissing my mare softly.
“So, I’ve known you for a decent length of time, and I know what your cutie mark means. My question is: how did you ever manage to obtain a cutie mark involving explosives?” I honestly wanted to know. And perhaps forgetting about the present would be a good thing. Even as my own sheath stirred at her offer.
“It’s sweet that you wanna know more about me,” she responded softly, looking away the whole time. I squeezed her and kissed the tip of her muzzle.
“I’ll tell you mine,” my voice had a gentle singsong quality to it, as much as my weary throat could deliver.

“You know that if you do, there’s a good chance I’ll end up calling you sparky,” Icepick answered with a giggle. I had never heard her giggle before. For a brief moment, it felt like both of our years had melted away. My glare was enough of a reply for her straighten up before kissing the end of my muzzle. “I’m just saying. But uh, I can tell you my cutie mark story.”

“Thank you, I’m quite curious about your past. You don’t really talk about it.” I told her simply, to which she frowned before running her hooves up and down my back softly.

“You realize that you’re like ten times more reticent about your past than I am?” I just smiled at her and nodded for her to continue. “You’re impossible.”

Moments passed as out breaths mingled in the small space, Icepick shuffling around to find the most comfortable way to cuddle.

“Alright so, I was only a late bloomer when it comes to my cutie mark. I was the size of most mares by fourteen, and well, I was barely sixteen when I stopped getting taller… So, I was thirteen when they took my cohort out to the range. I will say the introduction to small arms course was the best part of the Ranger educational experience.”

“They gave firearms to children? How is that responsible?” I asked simply, my mind going back to the first time I touched a gun. I had been twenty.

“There were plenty of range officers, usually. Anyway, if you’ll stop being a gun prude-”

“What?”

“You heard me. It was during the second month, we were being introduced to heavy weapons, pony portable missile launchers and recoilless rifles ya know, big boom booms? Anyway, I was at the end of the line, and my partner was a smaller stallion who hadn’t been paying attention to the notes. Maybe you could say he just wasn’t as good at absorbing the facts. Well, he had the launcher set up on his shoulder and he pulled the trigger. Nothing. He got scared shitless because a recoilless rifle isn’t supposed to not go off. Well, I yelled at him to keep it on his shoulder. I went to the ignition box and reconnected the wires correctly. After that, I pulled the trigger for him and the back of the thing spewed flame. Half of a second later it exploded the target at the end of the range.”

“That’s incredible,” I said quietly.

“Yeah, it turns out that there was a good chance that the warhead would’ve exploded in the tube if I hadn’t reconnected the fuse. But the moment after the thing worked as intended, I had that telltale glow from my ass. And for that’s how I got my shrapnel Cutie mark. I helped an explosive explode.” I snuggled her closer as she finished, throwing some light up with my horn and gently caressing the closest shrapnel covered flank. She sighed and pulled me closer with her hooves, before nuzzling my neck gently.
“That’s an impressive talent, and an exciting story,” I told her softly, just before kissing her forehead. “Mine isn’t nearly as exciting. I was in a classroom as opposed to a firing range.”
“Honey, I’m badass and you’re the egghead, we knew that already,” Icepick said after moving her head from my neck to look me in the eyes. My hornlight died as she kissed me on the lips. A moment passed as we kissed-
“As I was saying, we were doing a unit on electricity, having us rotate magnets around coils of wire connected to light bulbs. When it was my turn to spin it, I felt the electrons flow through the wire. When I focused on the wire my horn started to glow. When that happened, I saw all the current flowing. It was like all the wires were filaments. The ones in the walls were bright, the weak currents created by the magnets were barely lit. I got a little caught up on my first magnet though, spinning it with my horn wasn’t something the teacher took into account. I was the only unicorn in the class. When I burned the lightbulb out he took me aside and sent me to the headmaster.”

“That fucking prick!” Icepick said loudly, looking me in the eyes, and even in the dark, I could tell she was angry on my ten-year-old self’s behalf.

“I only realized later that I had gotten my mark using my magic to view the electricity I was creating, that made up for any punishment.” As I said this, she moved a hoof over to my flank, as if she was feeling the contours of my mark. Or it was purely amourous. It was hard to tell with her sometimes.

“So, electricity must have been pretty new to you all,” Icepick said a moment later, a slight smile on her face. “Earth pony engineering at its finest.”

“I mean, rediscovering the old ways-” She cut me off by pressing a hoof to my mouth. Not the one caressing my mark. Her other one.

“Relax, I know about your origins,” her words were as soft as her expression. “You don’t need to hide from me, stallion of my dreams. Gods, that sounded sugary enough to give me a cavity.” It didn’t matter though, my heart rate shot up and my muscles tensed. She felt it as I did.

“I-I…” The moment had happened, she knew. The stallion of my dreams…

“It’s alright, you probably have really good reasons to hide where you came from, first probably being no-one would believe you if you told them.” Icepick paused and nuzzle me again. “It’s okay Perm. I have to ask though, you uh ever have dreams about me?” I sighed and rubbed her back softly, trying to get my breathing back under control.

“Yes, I had many dreams as the mare in the desert. The mare of my dreams,” I managed to say after a silent moment. My voice was faint. Almost haunted. She would know soon, the real reason why I came. She kissed me on the lips and pulled her chest against mine. Her fur was warm against mine, it felt solid, even if nothing else was.

“Aww, so you felt me eat, piss and masturbate too?” She asked with a laugh.

“Um, yes? I take it the experience is mutual?” I said with a nervous chuckle.

“No wonder we’re so good together, walk in another mare’s horseshoes, that kinda thing. I mean, didn’t you wonder how I knew all the right places on you…” Icepick stopped to think and give me some room to reply. She didn’t see why I was here. She would’ve killed you if she knew that. At least, she would’ve then.

“I just assumed you were that skilled in the… coital arts?” She giggled again at me, before running her hoof along my flanks and withers.

“I mean, I am,” she flashed a predatory grin at me for a split second, “but being there when you fucked that cute Pegasus was pretty instructive.”

“Please don’t mention her.” I turned away. Her hooves drifted over me as I moved.

“Why?” She asked with a tone of nonchalance. I sighed and turned to face her once again. My horn lit up with a pale light, nearly glacial. Perhaps it was some fragment of home resurfacing. Some part of me that could never forget.

“It didn’t end well Icepick. For some time, I thought she was the one.”

“Oh,” Icepick sighed and looked me in the eyes. For what wasn’t the first time, I realized that short of albinism, we would have blue-eye foals. Even if she wasn’t the most tacit mare, she had a good heart. Then again, so did Trace. The mare who I had left without a note. What had happened to her? My mind reeled. It was too much. Whatever that necklace had been doing to me, it had helped me focus on the here and now. But, it was gone. And I was left to pick up the pieces.

“It’s not your fault, you only saw bits and pieces Icepick. Suffice it to say, she loved me and I broke her heart.”

“Why did you do that? What did you do?” Icepick asked tenderly. Her mood had shifted, my big mare was trying to soothe me. I hadn’t talked to anypony about it before. Maybe my communications with the doctor and Sombra counted. No, they really weren’t ponies.

“I wasn’t, aren’t right in the head Icepick. I’ve been unbalanced. What I did was easy to explain though. I came here.” I replied, letting my horn wink out even as my stomach churned. The pain was real. I would’ve preferred another rifle wound at that moment.

“You’re a good buck, and I’m glad you came. I-”

“She probably thinks I’m dead. I just disappeared to her, and to him.”

“What? You didn’t tell them goodbye?” Icepick bit her lips and pulled me closer to her again. I acceded to the contact, but I wasn’t truly in the mood to reciprocate yet.

“It was a short term… Offer. And I wasn’t in the right state of mind to refuse,” I said to her. “I’ll tell you why I wasn’t right in the head if you promise to give me time for how I got here.”

“I promise Perm, just tell me,” Icepick said.

“It’s about something you might not understand. I lost my parents in the war-”

“I know about that, you set up a funeral with your brother. Your taller, bigger brother,” She teased. I didn’t laugh though. The reminder that I hadn’t said anything to him either. It was like a lance through my innards. I wanted to get out of bed and hit the bottle of rum in my bag. I would’ve even liked to see my nephew or niece. I could’ve been a good uncle, maybe help shape them into a pony better than their parents-

“He’s a wonderful pony,” I looked up at her. Would I trade it all back if I had the option? Have one world become a dream. No, if things went the right way, the worlds would intertwine. And maybe this wonderful mare could forgive me. Maybe the Empire would build a mighty fleet to cross the sea… “Not without his flaws, but who lacks those?”

“Not me, not you, maybe Rosetta?” Icepick said with a bitter laugh.

“I was wounded at the time, these scars you see were fresh then, and I had just learned of the super bomb. The bomb that ended the war. The bomb that damned my world.”

“That’s why you said…” She asked softly.

“What did I say? It doesn’t matter what I once said. That world is gone, for me at least. I have nothing left there. At least here, I have had a chance to build something worthwhile. Something that can last. I’d love to be part of your life- for forever Icepick. If you wanted me.”

“I do. Perm, I can’t say that I’ve never felt things for other ponies before- but I know you feel the same.” She stopped and looked away. The pink in her mane seemed to glow in the light. “You can’t just leave your home though, it’s a part of you for better or worse. It made you.”

“You say that having fallen in love with this place. You’ve changed your mane, and your ears all to better fit this place. You can even go home again.”

“I haven’t given up my past. I’m still the soldier mare you met, well, either a year ago or about a month ago. Depending on how you count. And I know you like the ear studs, you’ve always loved my ears. That’s not the point, you devious verbal evader-” I stopped her with a hoof to her lips.

“I tried to protect you, and myself from what transpired in that other place. But, I’ll tell you what I tried to obscure: I committed suicide. I nearly succeeded as well.” I looked her in the eyes, and the moment that I saw a hint of wetness in her eyes, I choked up in sympathy. My own breath hitched as I remembered the smell of the coal gas drifting into my flat. “That world killed me. Rather, it forced to make a decision that would’ve been my last. Is that reason enough to forget it? I want to be a new buck. This world is my chance Icepick. Back where I came from, I was merely a casualty. Here, I’m a hero.” She said nothing to that for a long time. All she did was pull me to her warm chest once again.

“No, you were a brother, a son, and a lover.” Icepick said before letting out a long-held breath. There was a halting quality to her words. All of these concepts were ones that seemed alien to her, but she knew they were important to the ponies of paradise. And through them, she knew me.

“Yes, and I failed on all counts. That world is better off without me.” I said to her before letting out a breath. “Icepick, I nearly died in Copper Springs. And it would’ve been a valiant death. I was ready to die, I regret nothing about that night. I spent time thinking about how you would remember me. And to see you build a funeral pyre out of burning bodies for me, it made me feel… Significant. Now, do you see why I want to forget certain things?”

“I do,” she stared me down, eyes gleaming softly in the darkness. “But we can’t do that. Even if you made mistakes in your life, you can’t just give it all up because they’re painful. Trust me, I know how it is to hate your own past. But we have to recognize it, and maybe, just maybe, refute it. Permittivity, I want the wars to be done. I want to hang up my guns. And most of all, I want you beside me, after it’s all over.”

“I’ll do whatever I can to keep that vision alive. Through all the tumult and strife to come.” I kissed her nose lightly.

“We’ve had enough of that already. I just wanna skip to the happy ending.” I forced a smile onto my muzzle. A second later Icepick relieved me from that duty with a kiss. There was no reply in words.

“So did you pull anything out of a patient today?” Icepick asked Rosetta from across the table. The stallion changed from pink in the face to red in seconds.
“N-no!” He sputtered at the question as the rest of the table either chuckled or gave her a critical look. I was in the former category.
“Icepick, you know he of all ponies shouldn’t talk about work at the dinner table,” Page Turner said to Icepick, as she sat there chewing on her noodles.
“I mean he saves lives, let’s be mature,” Icepick replied swiftly.
“Yeah, yeah,” Page just rolled her eyes and refused to take the bait. Dalliance looked over at Icepick and winked at her.
“I discovered today that the fuel for your spark reactors is vacuum potential,” I broke the silence a moment later to everyone’s surprise.
“What?” Icepick asked after a moment’s pause.
“Well, I was reading a technical manual on the subject, and it mentioned the process of energy creation wasn’t dependent on converting, or combusting gemstones themselves. The Gemstones are merely used as a way to guide the vacuum energy into a usable form. Although eventually, the process degrades the conduits, hence their need to be replaced.”
“Oh that, yeah. I had my reactor chamber replaced like a month ago. The buck who did it told me that if you don’t have the conduit calibrated correctly and you turn it on, you’ll explode like a few kilos of TNT,” She spoke mostly offhandedly even as she revealed the fact her armor was a walking bomb.
“They miniaturized the technology to that degree?” I asked with considerable consternation.

“How else do you think they powered the walking death suits? Internal combustion?” Page barked, before rolling her eyes at us.

“It’s just impressive page, how far the old world managed to advance in so little time,” I defended myself with an appeal to ancestor worship, which normally would’ve been taken with some degree of reverence, but I misjudged my hosts.

“It’s not really that impressive. Really, it all comes down to necessity and demographics. They are only about two hundred thousand ponies in all the colonies and in the city itself. And we aren’t in the middle of a multi-decade arms race. Equestria was and had millions upon millions of ponies living within her borders. That’s a lotta scientists, engineers and magicians all working to make things better at killing zebras.” Page finished her explanation with a huff. Her eyes showed an understanding of the past that others lacked. Even if she had never been in a war herself, she knew loss.

“I mean, it wasn’t just killing zebras, it was also to kill Arabs, Dragons, Wendigos, and Buffalo,” Icepick added with a dry laugh. “I mean, you have to give them credit for holding on as long as they did. They were stupid in a lot of ways, but they fought half the world and were in the process of winning with one of their hooves tied behind their back.”

“No, that’s nothing to be proud of. War doesn’t lead to anything worth venerating. War leads to dead people and people who wish they were dead,” Page replied to Icepick in a voice that seethed with an undercurrent of anger.

“Well, Pacifism works great when the other side wants to leave you alone, but that isn’t always the case. Like when a bunch of Arabs trash one of your towns.” I put a hoof on Icepick’s shoulder, to which she shrugged it off and stared at Page.

“Sure, let’s start playing the fucking bugles and flying the flag. Let’s start a war against an entire ethnic group, and you know, the ponies that were here first.” Page had met Icepick’s gaze.

“I agree with my mother, I don’t know if a war is the answer for that attack,” Rosetta added softly.

“What? Rosetta, they burned down your home and killed your neighbors!” Icepick stood up from the table and pointed a hoof at him.

“They don’t speak for all Arabs,” he said simply. “Is killing more ponies really the answer?”

“Of course you’d think that momma’s boy that you are,” Icepick nearly yelled.

“Get out!” Page yelled back. “You come here from the desert, and just because you managed to impress a few ponies with a horrific act of violence, you think you deserve to us to fight a war.”

“Okay, well, when the fucking Arabs come here and start to rape and murder you en masse, maybe you’ll change your mind,” Icepick yelled back before looking at me. “Come on Perm, time to spend some of that war loot on a hotel room.”

“Icepick please, everyone please,” I said to the lot of them. The only pony who didn’t look at me like I had betrayed them was Dalliance. And she was busy massaging Page Turner’s neck.

“What Perm? Are you above it all? Above the anger and emotions on display here?” Icepick asked with venom dripping from her voice. “I’ve lost friends, and what amounts to my family to Arabs. That horrific act of violence you talked about, eh, it wasn’t even my plan. I straight up copied something they did to us. It almost got me too, if I hadn’t been off chasing a couple insurgents.”

“So that makes anything you do to them alright?” Page yelled back. “Because that kinda logic makes the whole world burn.”

“The world would’ve been saved if we had just dropped the bomb as soon as we had it, Perm understands that, even if he has to be drunk to admit it.”

“Don’t bring me into this,” I said softly, yet firmly. “I’m your lover, not your yes mare.”

“Whatever Perm, you know I’m right about the war, about the need to fix things once and for all.” Icepick said quickly.

“No, there will be no crusade. The Ponies here don’t really understand the logistics of war, the sacrifices.” Page stopped speaking for a second as she began to lose her composure. A few tears began to stud her cheeks in the artificial light, our meal forgotten. “I know what the cost is. Icepick, you’re a good mare, but you haven’t lost everything to war. The father of Rosetta lost his life fighting a warband of tribal ponies up in the northern wastes.”

Icepick was silent at that. She sat down in her chair and took a sip of water while looking at the table. After a moment she glanced at me, or rather my still healing chest wound. I didn’t have to dig into her mind to realize what she was thinking about.

“I didn’t know,” was all she said before leaning over the table and kissing me on the cheek. “I did it for him, it was a funeral pyre.”

“I see.” Page Turner said after a minute. The room had a lost its tension, in its place was an enervating stillness.

“I’m going to get a breath of fresh air, if you would like to join me Icepick, I would appreciate the company,” I said after a few moments of oppressive silence. I was not comfortable being compared to a dead husband and father of my friend. I may have been suicidal in the past, and a monster at present, what I couldn’t take was the thought that I might leave a psychic scar on ponies close to me.
“I’ll join you,” Icepick said simply.
“You can come back, I spoke out of anger,” Page Turner said to us as we started down the stairs.

“Alright,” I said to them as we made our way out. The streets would be interesting, as they always were here. Maybe they could shift our mood.

It was late. And I was on my way home from the university library. The moon shone brightly in the cloudless sky. There was just enough light to cast a shadow below me. A reminder of my impact on the world. I tried not to think about it, even as my lungs burned.

The walk home was my time to think. I detested it for that reason. Every moment I had to myself was a moment that I wanted less of. For that reason, I started trotting to and from work. Most ponies thought I was for fitness, hell Icepick thought that too.

‘I should have a monopoly on making you sweat.’ She said the first time I came in with moisture on my brow. She didn’t mind though, she had found a job with that pre-war mall. Icepick the security mare. They didn’t give her a gun or anything, in fact, she just stood around wearing a uniform. It was honestly a great way of advertising for them. That and the one time someone attempted to steal a piece of jewelry from the store, she managed to tackle them to the floor. That was fun to read about in the papers-

“Come here,” A familiar voice said in a harsh tone to me as a trotted past an alleyway.

“What?” I asked loudly as I stopped to look into the alleyway. If the streets in this part of the city were poorly lit, that place was like the void between the stars. Before I could say anything further, she treaded lightly into the street itself, checking to see that it was deserted aside from me, and pulled down her hood. The pony standing before me was indeed familiar.

I did as she suggested originally and stepped into the dark alleyway. The tension on her face as she went back into hiding was palpable. Why was she here if she had avoided taking the trip with us when she had the chance?

“I needed to talk to someone who could help. And you’re the only one I have anything approaching trust.” She stopped and grabbed my hoof, pulling me further back into the alley.

“Help with what? You understand how dangerous it is for you to be here,” I said as she pulled the both of us behind a dumpster. She sat down and I did the same, my eyes slowly adjusted to the low light as my body realized how close this mare was to me.

“I’m not an imbecile. I know that my life is likely forfeit if I’m discovered.” She was quiet, but the intensity of her words would’ve given any pony concern. “No, it is Tegarni that is the threat.”

“Threat how? He’s already attacked a town looking for Icepick and me,” I replied with curiosity.

“He found a zebra submarine from before the war,” She said tersely.

“One ship is a nuisance, not something to turn the tide of a war,” I answered quickly. That couldn’t be-

“It’s not the vessel, it’s the cargo. There’s a balefire missile still in its launch tube. He’s been trying to get it operational for some time, and it needs to be stopped.” She told me with a sober expression, her eyes piercing mine.

“Why did it take you so long to tell me? I’ve been here for over a month.”

“I made my way back to a base for my people, far to the south. There, my friend, the commander of the base, had just received correspondence from Tegarni. He is within Tegarni’s inner circle, hence the letter. It spoke of the missile and its rough location along off the coast. The submarine is beached on the edge of a rocky outcropping.”

“How was it not found previously?” I asked her incredulously.

“It is in the midst of many navigational hazards, rock outcroppings, and sandbars,” she answered quickly, though the vexation was showing on her face.

“I don’t know what I can do personally,” I answered honestly. I was just one pony. And if balefire was equal to the bomb used on the Celestians, then it could be used to change the world with one stroke.

“You’re an intelligent stallion, think of something, some ponies or some ploy. I’ll join you on whatever undertaking you think will work. For now, though, I’ve spent too much time in this alley. When you need to find me, don’t bother. I’ll find you. Just wear something green on your form at night. That will be the signal you would like to meet.”

“Alright,” I let out a deeply held breath. Well, if I wasn’t stressed before… Was this part of the plan? To let Tegarni destroy Ramsgard or Paradise? That would certainly weaken any resistance. “Why green?”

“It’s uncommon, and I like it. Green is rare here. Green is the color of life, and that is the thing that binds us all together.” She said as she turned to leave the alley. With one an indecipherable look, she threw her hood back onto her head and trotted away.

A stiff breeze seemed to carry her away. This time was always going to be an aberration. This was just a crack in the facade and not even the first at that.

“Hey, you’re home!” Icepick said loudly as I entered the house proper. It was late. Page Turner and Dalliance had likely gone to bed already. With a glance towards the kitchen, I spotted Rosetta making a drink.
“I need to talk to you and Rosetta,” I said solemnly. Her face warped when she heard my words.

“What is it?” She asked immediately, even as I started walking towards the kitchen, and our friend.

“Something of a problem,” I said morosely. Rosetta looked up from his shaker, eyeing the two of us critically. He usually liked to drink alone.

“What’s up?” He asked as he poured his concoction into a glass filled with ice.

“I have news from an unlikely, yet familiar source.” I paused and looked at that glass. I knew from experience that the active ingredient in it was liquor made from a desert plant. It was disgusting. “May I have a sip of that?” My hooves shook slightly as my mind went back to the information I had learned.

“Sure?” He knew as well as I did that I hated his drinks. Icepick stood beside me, placing a hoof on my shoulder and looking at me with concern. Neither of them were perfect ponies, but they were my friends. I drank half the glass and sputtered slightly at the taste. Who would add citrus to liquor?

“So, I was trotting home, after the librarians gave me a series of dirty looks. When I heard a voice from a dark alleyway. I stopped and looked at them. They removed their hood-”

“Who was it?” Icepick asked impatiently. The refrigerator opened with a hiss as she fished out a drink of her own.

“It was Crescent Moon,” I paused and took a deep breath. “She found out about Tegarni’s secret.”

“What? She’s in the city?” Icepick asked angrily, before popping the top off of her beer.

“Yes, but what she told me is worth the risk to her. Tegarni found something from before the war, a zebra submarine, equipped with at least one remaining balefire missile.” The was a silence in the room as I told them this.

“He could destroy Paradise.”

“He could blow up Ramsgard.”

They spoke simultaneously, fresh fear on their faces. I looked at each of them in turn. Icepick’s face was writhing in fear and uncertainty. Rosetta’s face was steeled.

“Yes, so we’re agreed that we need to stop it from becoming operational?” I asked them both. Rosetta nodded immediately. Icepick looked down before meeting my eyes.

“I really don’t trust any Arab. But even if there’s a one percent chance of it being real, that’s too much of a chance for us to ignore it.” Icepick said resolutely.

“The only issue is, well, even if we have her with us there’s four of us. And we have no way of getting to the island…” I stopped talking and thought for a second. “We might have a few more ponies we can recruit. I’d need to talk to that one mare, Bajada.” Rosetta scowled involuntarily.

“We can trust her, and she’d be willing to go out with us on this secret mission. Still, we need a fucking boat.” Rosetta said a moment later.

“Or we could tell the authorities in Paradise, or the Rangers, they’ve got to be here soon,” Icepick said with hesitation in her voice. “Hey, I’m just laying the options out.”

“Well, the biggest issue is, we don’t know where the island is,” I paused to let that sink in. “And frankly, I don’t blame Crescent for not trusting either government with a weapon of that magnitude. At least if we and a small group of ponies attack with some degree of stealth we can destroy the weapon.”

“Can we even do that safely? It’s a balefire bomb.” Rosetta asked pointedly, before knocking back the remains of his drink.

“Hey, if there’s a bomb, I’m the way.” Icepick said before turning herself, and pointing at her flank. “Besides, if I remember anything about Megaspells, it’s that they’re really really hard to trigger. Like, other than the egg itself. Those things are bloody dangerous. Or so I’ve read.” Icepick finished with a grin. Some part of her was utterly confident about the prospect of getting up close and personal with the weapon that destroyed the world.

“Sure,” Rosetta replied warily. Icepick just laughed, with a hint of self-consciousness residing deep inside it. Just another reminder that Icepick was well: the Destroyer.

I shivered again and walked over to the cabinet in search of the bottle of black rum I had bought a few days ago.

“I don’t think we can do anything right now. And honestly, the idea of leaving this place and marching in the direction of danger is terrifying.” I spoke honestly, before taking a straight pull from the half-empty bottle.

“Well, maybe for you pansies,” Icepick spoke with a false confidence. Both of us knew well enough to see through it. “I’m itching for some more action. I was getting bored.” Her hoof on my shoulder drifted down to my chin, she turned my head slightly, before kissing me full on the lips. Her tongue drifted into my mouth. “Damn, you taste like sugar, sugar.”

“It’s the rum,” Rosetta said from his position a meter away. The drink did usually make him less flustered. I passed him the bottle as Icepick looked at me lustily. He took a long pull from the bottle as well. Icepick smiled deviously before moving with lightning speed over to Rosetta. Before we could react she pressed her lips to his. Moments passed as I remembered my own past, and Icepick’s. She had a different way of looking at the world, I thought to myself, even as jealousy and arousal mixed in my mind.

“Not bad,” Icepick said after releasing Rosetta to sputter and back up a few feet and shoot nervous looks at me. She looked at me with a curious expression in her eyes. It would be just like her to ask for permission after the fact. “But nah, you’re naturally sweeter.”

I stood there in silence as Rosetta took another pull, he looked like he had done something wrong. I took the bottle in my magic and drank another sip myself after him. Icepick then stole it and took a drink herself.

“Oh come on, I’ve seen the way you both look at each other. And now it’s basically like you’ve kissed already. I just got to be the lucky middle mare.”

“Uh,” was all Rosetta said as he tried to wrap his mind around this scenario.

“Icepick let’s go to bed,” I said as I wrapped a tendril of magic around her shoulders and applied a bit of pressure.

“Rosetta, we’ll talk about this later, when we’re all a little less fucked up,” I said to him as I nuzzled Icepick and continued guiding her back to the room. I didn’t blame her too much, she was from a different culture. And Rosetta was a great stallion. I sighed and pulled the door open, before laying Icepick on the bed. With a hind leg, I managed to shut the door, just before I myself crawled into bed with my intoxicated marefriend.

“You’re a frisky mare tonight,” I said to her as she pressed her face into my chest. One of her hooves slid over the spot where the knife had been buried in my side. I had to stop myself from shaking in remembrance.

“Yeah, sometimes people have funny reactions when they learn their biggest enemy has a weapon of mass destruction,” Icepick slurred her words. Her meaning was clear.

“Yes, that is a lot of pressure dropped upon us,” I said as I stroked her mane softly. I could feel her warm breath being blown against my chest.

“I mean, it’s all gonna feel like a dream soon,” she said plaintively to me.

“What will?” I asked, knowing the answer in every breeze, in my heart, and being reminded of it with every quiet moment.

“This,” she said simply. I said nothing. My hooves continued to stroke her mane, one of them even drifting over to her ears. There was a soft coo from her when I folded her ear down. “It’ll all be gone, one way or another. The stallion of my dreams, disappearing back into the whirling winds… Desert or tundra, it’s all the same.”

“I won’t disappear,” I said. “I have nothing left in that other world. I’ll fight for this one with everything bit of spirit I have left.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Icepick replied. I blinked my horn to light and bent down. My hinds were nearly poking off of the bed, but my eyes were staring into hers. I saw something I had never expected to see in her eyes. Tears.

“I’ll be as careful as can be. Just because someone is ready to lose their life for something greater doesn’t mean they want to.”

“It doesn’t matter Perm,” she tried to blink away the bits of water in her eyes. “You’re flesh and blood, you’re alive. There’s always a risk in that. Being a pony is dangerous. At least when I’m in my armor, I’m protected. Even if I feel less like a pony than a ghost that’s stayed around for a century to wreak havoc on what’s left.”

“I hate it when you talk about yourself like you’re less than pony.” My reply caught her off guard.

“Not less than, just different.” Icepick huffed slightly. “You’re a pony that was made to adapt to war. I was bred and raised for it. And for some reason, the conditioning stuck Perm. Other’s are cowards, or stupid enough to think they’re actually invincible. They die. Ponies like me, we usually live long enough to breed. At least that’s the way it has been for a century.”

“I-” She cut me off with a hoof.

“I’ll be the last generation of them,” Icepick paused to let out a held breath. “Either Tegarni wipes out Ramsgard, leaving us a shattered shell. Or we manage to beat him, and all the normal ponies here breed with us. We start normal families, and we have the strength to defend ourselves from all comers.”

“Let’s aim for winning then, and living to see the fruits of our labor.”

“It’s not gonna happen that way. But, I would like to live another dream with you. Maybe we could raise some relatively normal foals,” She smiled at me with an ornery grin. “You taste like you could give me some kids.” I choked loudly before chuckling.

“You’re a lewd pony,” I told her simply. “Enough thinking for tonight, it’s clearly not good for us.” My lips met hers moments later. The beer and rum did make her mouth a little sweeter. I hoped she knew she was gonna have to cut that stuff out with a foal in her belly…

Relatively normal. That was the aspiration. Fitting for the two of us.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the long wait. The next chapter is nearly ready to be published too though! So you'll have plenty of words to read soon.

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