“What happened in there?” I asked Icepick as she led the column of ponies out of the hull of the long beached ship.

“War,” Icepick said bitterly. “Not all the casualties are easy to see.” At the end of the line was Permittivity, looking just as exhausted as I was. That wasn’t all that was different about him, he looked devastated, but also relieved.

“Well, the ones that are obvious I can take a look at,” I said with a bit of a bite. She only laughed a little before shrugging.

“As for me, I need to deal with the part no-one thought about, well, something I didn’t think about… Also, we need to talk after that. I have a favour to ask of you,” there was a blackness in her voice as she said that last part. Some part of her beyond pain, beyond reassurance, and beyond any guidance from others, that was what I heard speaking to me then.

“What’s the favour,” I said blankly, honestly worried about what she would ask for.

“If I know anything about magic or ponies, then you’ll need your rest if you wanna help me. So until then, don’t worry about it,” Icepick finished, before walking off. The moonlight glinted off of her scarred armour. If nothing else would heal, it would be that hunk of steel and circuitry. What did it say when ponies built things that would outlast them? That we were fleeting, or that we had the power inside of to change the world?

“Alright,” I said as I looked over at the other soldiers. Most had either expired from the wounds they had sustained or barely been scratched. They either needed a necromancer or a fucking bandage. I scowled inwardly. I spun around and started towards our little collection of tents we had carried with us…

“What are you doing?” I heard a familiar voice ask me as I stalked the darkness of the early morning.

“I can’t sleep,” I replied honestly.

“I can’t say I don’t understand,” Bajada said before dropping from her perch above the trench line facing the water.

“What?” I said blearily. Just because I couldn’t sleep, didn’t mean I felt alert.

“Basically, you’re traumatized, and you’re probably wondering what comes next. When you’ve been in a real fight, with real stakes, everything else feels unreal. Sometimes you’ll be standing in the middle of the street and realize that nothing that ponies worry about normally, none of that matters, you become numb to the bullshit, even if that bullshit can land you in trouble,” She said softly, and in that moment, I realized why I had once loved her. There was compassion in her, and she freely gave it.

“So, can I do anything about it? Other than drinking and fucking?” I asked her suddenly, my mind wandering down several dark alleys at once.

“I mean, those things kinda work, until your liver and dick both rot off,” Bajada said with a laugh. “Nah, you’re gonna be dealing with it for the rest of your life. Therapy helps a little though, so don’t lose, like, all hope. Just uh, keep your expectations reasonable.”

“It’s the nightmares I’m scared of most,” I said in a low voice. The next gust of wind felt colder than the last.

“Well, having white noise helps with those,” she said quickly, before looking out over the water. “You’ve got to be shitting me!” Bajada yelled before starting towards the camp. I should’ve followed her immediately. Instead, I leaned against the nearest set of sandbags. The machine gun nest was mostly intact, with the belt of ammunition still inserted in the gun.

I heard the sound of a hatch opening, and I looked away. It was nothing but darkness out there, the moonlight glinting off of nothing at all. But then, on the horizon, I spotted the vaguest outline of something, something big. And then, after straining my eyes, I spotted a second large thing. Ships, big ones…

I followed the open doorways and lights left on inside the ship. When I turned one of the tight corners of the submarine I heard Bajada yelling and a huge crash. I huddled against the wall and crawled forward, for the tenth time in the last few hours, I wished I had taken to carrying a gun. When I finally made it close enough to the room to see inside, I spotted Reflex and Bajada slowly circling the room. Bajada was stuck, and the desk to her left was already sporting a massive hole in it. The steel of the desk was rent apart.

“You know, it all would’ve worked out very nicely if you had just let me take it,” Reflex said with a smile. His helmet was off, and there was already a fresh bruise on his face.

“So you could what? Hold all of Paradise hostage with it?” Bajada shot back before seeing my outline along the wall. Her eyes widened for a second before she caught herself. He hadn’t seemed to notice.

“That’s a good idea, use it for a bloodless annexation,” Reflex said before raising his hoof in the air and stomping down at the ground. “But that’s for the future, now would you like to reconsider your course of action Bajada. I would rather not have the blood of an equestrian on my hooves. So, let’s just say I lock the door behind me as I leave, and you wait to be rescued by Steel Rangers that aren’t in Icepick’s camp.”

“Like fuck, I’m gonna do that,” she said before jumping atop the damaged desk and then jumping through the air and avoiding his attempt to stop her with a hoof. She was behind him and the door was so close. Without thinking, I picked up the desk in my magic and rammed it against him. It threw him slightly off balance, throwing his hind leg buck off. It was only a glancing blow that threw her through the passageway and against the opposite bulkhead. I could see where both of his hooves had connected, her left hind leg was pointing in the wrong direction, and her ribcage was broken.

“You’re fast, but speed only counts for so much in this world,” He said as he looked over at me. “Hello there!” Reflex said with false cheer. He grinned and stepped over to Bajada, who was trying to pull crawl away. I was frozen in place as I watched him stand over her. One of his hooves came down in a stomp and broke her other hind leg. “So, he was the one you talked about being with. The one who loved you. Well, you can sort your relationship out with him-” He paused and lifted his hoof from her leg, before lightly setting it on her back. I grabbed for what I had in my pocket. All I had with me was a thermometer.

“Run! Tell everypony-” Bajada managed to say before his armoured leg crushed her barrel. I threw out my Thermometer with as much force as I could manage. My horn flared like the sun at noon in the dark corridor.

The thermometer struck the back of his head and bounced off. He turned around and looked angry. “That almost hurt, doctor!”

I turned to run and managed to get a head start. In my haze of fear and guilt, I turned the wrong direction and ended up in the sleeping compartment. I hadn’t gotten very far when I heard the sound of steel clanging against steel. The only place that seemed open was a small closet. I threw myself inside without thought and closed the door as quickly as I could without making noise.

He laughed as he came into the room. Then I felt it. There was another pony in this closet. And they were sticky with blood, that smell, I knew all too well… I turned around and realized I couldn’t see the other pony. Maybe they had something better than a thermometer to fight with. I felt around the body, wincing internally. All they had on them was a thin robe and a necklace made of polished glass. I moved as quietly as I could and found a metal device on the ground. The whole time, I could hear his stomping around in the room, looking for me.

Then, I found it. A gun was had fallen to the ground, probably the weapon that he had used on himself. I tried to pick it up with my magic. My horn only sparked a little. Fuck!

A moment later, he smashed open the door as I leaned down to grab it in my mouth, the thought of picking up a dead person’s gun with my mouth nearly making me retch. I turned around and pointed it at him. He didn’t even flinch as he ducked down and threw his hoof out. I jumped back and fired blindly at him. I missed and he charged at me. I ducked to the side and fired, this time I managed to strike him in the leg. It did nothing to him. I was in the corner now. With a wild hoof strike, he smacked the gun out of my mouth, my jaw only unclenching a millisecond before he would’ve broken all of my teeth.

At that moment, I knew I was going to die. I looked him in the eyes and threw my own hoof out. I managed to strike him in the throat, he looked at me with wide eyes and started choking for breath. A moment passed as reflex recovered.

“That actually hurt, doctor,” Reflex said as he looked down at me in his armoured suit. It certainly made him look like more of a stallion than he actually was. Then again, a soldier with years of combat training was going to beat me, the doctor who could barely throw a punch, regardless of the suit.

“Icepick is going to kill you,” I said with my eyes meeting his.

“No, she’ll be court-martialed and shot, because, she’s still naive enough to believe we give a shit about her,” Reflex said with malice in his eyes, and also pain. He swept the latter thing from his face before looking down at the gun I had tried to kill him with. “I give you credit though, I never thought you would have the balls to shoot at me.”

As he aimed his final strike at me, I felt a pulse of something from the body in the corner. The open door let in just enough light for me to see details about the dead pony. He had been an Arab. He had been Tegarni. Something Permittivity had told me came to mind. The stolen necklace, the talisman. That was what I had felt-

“Icepick is going to mourn me more than she ever would mourn you,” I said with a note of finality.

“Maybe,” he winced before looking at me with rage filled eyes. “But your funeral is gonna be first.” Just as he said that I threw everything I had left into my magic, trying to grab for the necklace. The moment my magic touched it, I felt a flush of energy fill me. I didn’t just pull it over his head, I ripped through the cord and pulled it to me, before holding it near my body with my new reserves of magic.

“A trinket? I never took you for that kind of fool,” Reflex looked at me and laughed before winding up a big punch. A final blow. My death. Something in me snapped and I stuck my hoof out, touching the shoulder that was swinging at me. My horn pulsed with light powerful enough to blind both of us. Reflex screamed and looked down at his leg. It came down at an angle and he screamed again before managing to steady himself on his armoured legs. I pressed my hoof to his forehead. My horn pulsed again, and his hind legs buckled beneath him. He fell to the ground, before looking at me with horror in his eyes.

“No more! I’ll call them off!” He yelled at me, fear in his eyes.

“No,” I said simply. I felt powerful in a way I never had before. I was like a child that had run for the first time. “You killed her. You’re going to die.”

“Icepick will die because of you!” He yelled as I lit my horn again, this time remembering to close my eyes. His last leg broke. The bone setting spell cracked the bones in his limbs into about a dozen pieces.

“No. But you will,” I said as I snapped three of his ribs. Then I stopped and watched his face. The pain subsided as his armour injected him with painkillers. But I was a doctor, the spell matrix was designed for battle injuries, not surgical damage.

“That’s a wonderful piece of technology,” I said before grabbing that gun from the floor. I smiled at him. I lifted it in my magic, before pressing against his jaw. The gunshot tore through his lower jaw. He couldn’t speak now. It wasn’t a shame. I picked up the gun one last time, before pulling the magazine out and racking the slide like I had seen Icepick and Permittivity do. I tossed each part to some other part of the room. Before looking down at tear-filled eyes. Blood was spewing from his wound. Maybe a minute passed before he fell into unconsciousness.

It was the painkillers, the things supposed to keep him functioning, that stopped his breathing, not me… I left the room. The talisman was in my inner pocket. Whatever else it was, it let me avenge Bajada. Before I left the bunk room, I closed the door to that closet with my magic.

Two bodies, two villains, both slain by their own actions, lay in that room. No-one would ever find out what happened to them…

“What?” Icepick yelled as I told her what had happened. There were a few lies of omission in my telling.

“We don’t have much time,” I said to her. “Where’s Permittivity?”

“I don’t know where the fuck he is, as long as he’s not around, I can keep my thoughts straight,” she paused and realized she was basically shooting the messenger. “Fuck! Why did that son of a bitch set us up!”

“I don’t know, devotion to duty?” I replied before meeting her gaze.

“He’s always been a true believer,” Icepick said in a tone that told me she was barely keeping herself under control. “Was a true believer. Fuck!”

“What’s the matter?” A bleary-eyed Steel Ranger said from the next tent over.

“Uh, if you can get everyone awake on the double, that’d be great, have them assemble,” Icepick said before looking at that ranger in the eyes. “Long story short, shit is fucked-”

“Alright!” She said before saluting Icepick.

“Find Ironsight,” She said to me, before running off along the opposite way. I nodded at her and started off towards where I thought her tent would be.

“I’m going to disassemble the balefire bomb, and then we’re gonna run into the jungle,” Icepick said to the assembled ponies, some of whom were already off manning the machine gun nests that were left. The remaining howitzer was also being checked off on, by Permittivity and a pair of desert rangers.

“Why are we even worried, I’m sure Churned Waters would just want that kind of bomb destroyed-” A steel ranger stallion said a moment later.

“Reflex said he was going to threaten Paradise with it,” I spoke up. Everyone looked over at me, startled by me speaking up. Or by the mention of their dead commander. Maybe it was both?

“Yeah,” Icepick said as she looked over the mixed crowd of ponies, and Crescent Moon standing off to the side. “For a lasting union, we need to bring our peoples together peacefully. So, we’re gonna play keep away with the bomb, and if they want to get it, they’ll have to get past us, and hunt down two small objects in a fucking massive jungle.”

“How are we getting off this rock? I heard something about more of those Equestrians with the funny accents coming after Paradise,” A desert ranger by the name of Serenity said.

“Honestly, I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure the crew of our ship will stay on our side. After we get out of here, with the parts of the bomb, we’ll head back to Paradise.”

“Can we trust the council of Paradise with the bomb either?” Ironsight said loudly. There was immense pain written across her face, but she kept her head up.

“No,” Icepick said with resolve. “But I don’t see much any other choice, if it was up to me, I’d ram it up the ass of the real enemy, but apparently that isn’t the right thing to do either. Or, honestly, he doesn’t have an ass-”

“Who the fuck is the enemy then? All the Arabs I know have asses!” A steel ranger stallion said. He looked over at Crescent Moon before adding, “No offence, I mean, you have an ass-”

“I understand what you meant, and I’m curious as well as to who we’re fighting,” Crescent Moon said with a slight flush at the stallion’s words.

“His name is Sombra, yes, that Sombra, kinda, it’s complicated,” Icepick said as confusion spread throughout the ranks of the ponies. “As I understand it, those ponies with the guns, tactics and artillery are from another world, a path not taken where Sombra killed the princess a thousand years ago-”

“King Sombra? The dude that enslaved the crystal empire and then made it disappear for a thousand years?” Ironsight asked incredulously.

“Yes, but it isn’t him exactly, it’s his soul that was transferred into an obsidian mirror, a mirror built to cross the spaces between worlds,” Icepick shrugged and met my eyes. “We’ll be learning as much as we can from our source of intel.”

“You mean your boyfriend? He does kinda talk like the prisoners we captured,” Serenity said without any hint of accusation.

“Fuck, I’m not gonna try to hide something that anyone with a brain can figure out. So yes, we’re gonna be asking him many questions. And before anyone asks, he hid his origins from me, and his connection with Sombra, however, when it counted, he spoke up and pushed me to do the right thing. Anyway, we’re short on time, so get everything ready that you can, food, ammunition, equipment, maybe those machine guns if we can carry them,” Icepick finished with a shout. “For Equestria!”

“For Equestria,” the assembled rangers yelled. That was one potential issue taken care of…

“Rosetta, is your magic okay?” Icepick asked as she trotted over to me. “I know it took a lot out of you healing me.”

“I’m not ready to stitch another bullet wound shut with my horn, but if you let me look at your leg, I can probably help it along,” Her eyes opened as I said this.

“Uh, only if you can use your magic to go through Permittivity’s memories too,” Icepick looked down as she said that. “He’s already agreed to it.” She tried to downplay her distaste for the whole thing.

“I can do both,” I said before meeting her eyes. “I’m tired of not being able to do enough, I wasn’t even able to save-”

“I know,” Icepick said before putting an armoured hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t go hurting yourself though, you’re only a pony. Anyway, we’re gonna want to put distance between ourselves and those fuckers before we do anything,” She said before turning herself around and walking to the submarine.

I looked out over the submarine and its remaining fortifications. Whatever secrets lay inside, well, they weren’t long for this world. We were past the treeline now, and the ships were getting to within range to dispatch landing craft. And as much as we wanted to try and make a stand here, to do enough damage to make them rethink the whole thing… We were wounded, exhausted and not at all ready to take on a steel ranger force.

“Just wait till their techs touch the terminals aboard the submarine,” Icepick said with a smile. Something told me she wasn’t all that happy to kill and maim rangers.

“It will send a message to those that wish to take possession of the weapon,” Permittivity agreed, but he was biting his lip. His posture was limp like he was being weighed down by the truth of what he had done.

“What does it make us though?” Icepick said without looking at Permittivity.

“The weaker force,” Permittivity said plainly, “if we wish to stand a chance we need to fight like your enemies because now, you’re an enemy of the Rangers.”

“Your lover is right,” Crescent Moon said darkly. “Even with all the prisoners we took and arms we managed to carry, we’re outgunned and outnumbered. At least we had numbers on our side.”

“For now,” Icepick said with a slight smile. “Once those factories in Paradise get pumping, once we start training more soldiers from raw civilians, we’ll have the advantage.” Her grin grew broader as she imagined the ponies of Paradise giving their all to a war effort they didn’t know existed.

“That’s assuming those fuckers don’t shell the city into rubble and send in the shock troops to secure said rubble,” Serenity said to us. Her own saddlebags were bulging with food and other supplies. She was the highest ranking desert ranger left. The other two higher ranked ponies had either been shot to death or crushed by an armoured sabaton. I shivered as I remembered that moment. And something told me I would never forget it…

“Ehh, if I were them-”

“There are ways around-”
Icepick and Crescent looked at one another, both urging the other to speak first, and both flushing a little.

“No, no, finish what you were gonna say, you helped a lot with the logistics and the trap setting,” Icepick said to the Arab mare.

“I’ve done a lot more than that,” Crescent said with a hint of annoyance, but she seemed to want to make their relationship work. “If I were the ponies of Paradise, I would use their resources and the overconfidence of the Ramsgard flotilla.”

“That was basically what I was going to suggest,” Icepick said with a shrug and a bit of amusement.

“They’ll have to fight like us though, through traps and deception,” Permittivity said.

“It’s just so counterproductive,” I said to the other ponies. All of them looked at me in surprise or waiting for me to say more. “What we need to do is unite all of the ponies in Sall’han, ready them for the war to come.”

“Yeah, and that’s really easy to do!” Icepick replied sardonically, false cheer dripping from her words.

“But not impossible, at least in theory,” I said. “I mean, you’ve already gotten large parts of Paradise behind you.”

“Right,” Icepick said before looking at me curiously. “But their government hasn’t done much to officially support me, and now that the Rangers tried to take the balefire bomb, they might just see me as another one of those warmongers.”

“You aren’t a warmonger though,” Permittivity said. “Far from it.”

“Exactly, we’re the ponies who protected everyone from the greatest threat posed to Sall’han in centuries, well, right until we learned about Sombra and his armies,” I said to the other ponies.
“Yeah, we’re big damn heroes, but that doesn’t make us any better equipped to fight Sombra, or the rangers,” Icepick said with exasperation.

“I mean, we still have a balefire bomb,” Ironsight said before everyone gave her a shooty look.

“And a bunch of prisoners with broken spirits,” Crescent Moon spoke up a moment later.

“They’re good soldiers, members of the first imperial guard division,” Permittivity said with a sad expression. “They’re strangers in a strange land, fighting a war they didn’t even want to be a part of.” The rope bound and disarmed prisoners amounted to about thirty odd Imperials and a dozen Arabs.

“Have you tried to explain to them who they’ve fought for? And who we are?” Icepick asked before looking at Permittivity, the closest thing to a liaison with the Imperials that she had.

“Yes,” Permittivity said with a sigh. “To no avail.”

“Why the fuck is that? Do they want to fight for a soulless monster that’s lived for a thousand years?” Icepick replied to him with an edge of anger.

“Sombra isn’t soulless, and he hasn’t been technically alive,” Permittivity said before seeing Icepick’s expression of annoyance. “I did tell them that we don’t intend to harm the empire.”

“I mean, how the fuck would we?” Icepick spoke up again before looking at him with tired eyes.

“Just see if you can get them to commit to helping us fight the Rangers, promise them freedom once we get back to the mainland,” Icepick said before turning to me.

“How are the wounded doing?” Icepick looked at me hopefully.

“Most of the wounded Rangers are doing well, and the few Arabs and Imperials we captured that were shot to pieces either expired last night or are being carried on the litters we made before leaving the submarine,” I reported to her before giving her a more negative look. “Even if it’s necessary, marching this many wounded ponies isn’t good for anyone.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Icepick said before looking over at Serenity. The yellow mare met her gaze. “How are supplies looking, ammunition and food especially?”

“After looting that camp, lock, stock and barrel, we have food for a few weeks, if we ration it.” Before Icepick could say anything else, Serenity bit her lip and continued. “Our heavy ordinances are scarce, and your light machine guns are down to a few belts a piece. On the bright side, we managed to get three of those heavy machine guns on our backs, and we have more than enough bolt action rifles for our prisoners if we need to arm them.”

“What about the Anti-Armour weapons?” Icepick asked after a few seconds of consideration.

“We recovered both of the rifles capable of piercing powered armour, and we have three dozen shots for them,” Serenity, the pony put in charge of logistics said dourly.

“Those rifles are meant to take down light armoured vehicles,” Permittivity opined. “It’s more surprising that they took them at all-”

“They knew that rangers could be a problem,” Icepick intruded. “Whatever else Sombra is, he’s not stupid. Now the only good part of the whole thing is, we have them now.”

“You-we lost many good ponies to those weapons. I suggest we use the terrain to our advantage and launch harassment attacks, ambushes set to catch patrols, and we employ those weapons to their greatest effect,” Crescent Moon suggested.

“Good idea. Actually, since you’re the best at setting ambushes take whoever you think you need and be ready to launch those attacks,” Icepick said before looking over at the group of ponies walking near her. “After we get deeper into the interior, we’ll have our radio ponies work on establishing communication with our ship.”

“Won’t they be able to pinpoint the location of the transmissions?” Serenity asked in a sour tone. She thought she was the bearer of bad news.

“Not until they encircle the island, and even then, we can put our radios significantly outside our base camp,” Permittivity explained to the desert ranger. “It was a good question though.” His smile wasn’t forced, he had such an easy manner around mares.

“Thank you, I’m just doing my best sir,” Serenity replied a moment later.

“We’d rather learn about an issue as soon as someone realizes it, we don’t shoot the messenger,” Icepick added a second later, with a bemused look at Permittivity and the desert ranger.

“One of the many ways you display wisdom more becoming than your stock,” Crescent said to Icepick, a slight smile visible on her chestnut cheeks.

“What-?” Icepick looked confused and at the beginning stages of anger.

“She’s saying you’re wiser than your fellow rangers,” Permittivity said diplomatically.

“T-thank you,” Icepick said to Crescent after a moment’s thought.

“I wonder what Bajada would’ve said in my place,” Serenity said a few minutes later. If the topic had been anything else, I would’ve been happy to have something to talk about.

“Probably the same things you said, minus the worry about the radio triangulation, and she probably would have brought up something not that important, but interesting,” I said after a moments thought. I still couldn’t believe that she of all ponies wasn’t here anymore. At least I had said something before we buried her. A rifle and helmet were buried alongside her.

“What we call ourselves,” Icepick spoke up slowly. “That’s what she would’ve asked.”

“Good question,” Permittivity said to her. “Having two different cohorts of Rangers is confusing. And if we can add the Imperial Guard prisoners to the ranks, it will become even more confusing if we continue to go by Ranger designations.”

“We already have a de facto command structure,” Icepick said to him. “But make it known that we’re taking suggestions on that issue.”

“Doesn’t it all depend on our goal?” Crescent Moon said to Icepick, the lankier mare managing to meet Icepick’s gaze. “Other than protecting the bomb and defeating the threat to everyone in Sall’han, what is our goal?”

“To bring peace,” Icepick answered instantly.

“Peace can occur under a lot of different circumstances,” Crescent Moon reminded Icepick. “I say that because if we broaden our goals, we might broaden the coalition willing to fight with us.”

“I think that honestly, the only thing all of Sall’han can agree on is not wanting to be conquered by an immortal despot,” Icepick said a moment later.

“As opposed to a mortal one?” Permittivity quipped.

“Churned Waters is at least the devil we know, and he’s willing to listen to reason, especially if we hold a big enough gun to his head,” Icepick said a moment later.

“And what manner of gun are we going to use on him?” Permittivity asked, his expression darkening at her words.
“Not what you think, because, he might call us on it-” Icepick started but was interrupted.

“You aren’t willing to use that weapon on your own people,” Crescent Moon stated.

“Yes, would you be able to?” Icepick asked with a anger dripping from her voice.

“Never,” Crescent Moon said instantly. “Icepick, the only reason I’m willing to help you now, is because you didn’t use the weapon on us. If you were willing to use the weapon-”

“You wouldn’t follow her,” Permittivity jumped in with a harshness to his voice that startled everyone. “Those weapons have killed civilisations stronger and grander than any in Sall’han. It would be the height of arrogance to believe that we can tame such power.”

“Arrogance was Tegarni’s last, middle and nickname,” Icepick added a moment later.

“He was able to craft a vision that many believed in,” Crescent Moon said neutrally. “He squandered many lives.”

“Tegarni left himself open to the control of Sombra because he didn’t believe in anything, just power,” Permittivity said somberly.

“The more power a pony uses from Sombra, the more power Sombra has over them?” I spoke up, my own nervousness at the talisman in my pocket overriding my fear.

“It’s my best guess,” Permittivity answered, “it’s a shame we weren’t able to toss that Talisman into the ocean.”

“Yeah,” I answered simply, my head dipping down slightly as I thought about the power I had used on Reflex. “If we’re going to be here for a while, would you teach me how to fight?”

“Yes.”

“For sure.”

“Indeed.”

“Fuck yeah!”

Everyone answered near simultaneously, and the laughter that followed the similar yet distinctive replies continued for a long time. Maybe, just maybe, if ponies this different could get over their differences, maybe there was hope for all Sall’han…

“Alright, boys,” Icepick said as we all sat on the floor of the tent. Beside me was my bag, which contained a couple memory orbs. Those same orbs given to me by that strange stallion ages ago…

“I understand you have certain abilities,” Permittivity said to me, meeting my eyes and seeming to bore past them.

“Yes,” I replied, before hefting out a memory orb. I was careful not to focus on the orb itself with my magic, or else I would enter it. I had already made that mistake before, twice actually.

“Yeah, Rosey here can peer into a ponies memories, check em’ out,” Icepick added a moment later. “He helped me understand you-”

“He was able to trace back my origins to the Empire, beyond the obsidian mirror,” Permittivity said neutrally. “And now, you need him to ascertain whether I’ve lied about other aspects of my purpose.”

“Yes,” Icepick said while not quite meeting Permittivity’s eyes. “If you want to save what we had-have, then you’ll need to let him in.” Her eyes were watering and she had to look away for a second.

“I understand,” Permittivity said resolutely. “Though I swear by Bajada’s memory that I’m wholly committed to the cause of stopping Sombra.”

“I want to believe you,” Icepick said a moment later. Before throwing herself forward and wrapping her hooves around him. “But I can’t, not after-”

“You’ve changed me Icepick, I’m willing to fight for the slimmest chance of a future, my own future,” He stopped and looked Icepick in the eyes, even as her face became speckled with tears. “That’s why I’ll do it. For our future.”

“Our future, you mean the white picket fence and a coffee maker that gets used every morning? The sound of annoying little shits running around on Hearthswarming Day, but it’s okay because they’re our little shits? A world at peace and a little less fucked up than it used to be?” Icepick said before pressing her neck to his.

“Yes, and I believe in all of that thanks to you,” Permittivity said quietly, before patting her back and squeezing her tightly to him. “But, let’s get this over with.” Permittivity said with resolve overpowering the fear still evident in his voice.

“O-okay,” Icepick said before releasing him. She met my eyes, her expression unreadable. “I’ll be in the room, the whole time.”

“Thank you,” Permittivity said with the voice of someone facing the gallows with a smile on their face.

It didn’t take long to set up everything. Permittivity laid on his back, his head laying on a bound up bedroll. Preparations for mind magic was a lot faster than the preparations for a sterile operating room. Icepick sat beside him, her hoof wrapped around his. She was tense as hell. The orb sat beside me, my magical connection to it maintained by familiarity and concentration.

“Are you ready?” I asked my friends, the same friends who had been with me since my home was destroyed, the same friends who were doing everything they could do to avenge Bajada. Around Perm’s neck was that same scarf that she had given him. Green and black. We were in a green place, our campsite deep in the rainy jungles of this large island. But more than that, we were all united behind a common goal. Our enemy wasn’t even alive, and here we were fighting for the future of our little piece of the world… I’d talk to them about this later.

All I got from the two of them was a series of nods. Permittivity’s smile was pursed. I lit my horn and dived inside…

It was dark in the first memory I jumped into. The process of memory viewing was often random, pushing you along the tides of a person’s brain, sometimes they had things they wanted to show you-

I was in a dingy building, poorly heated, and in front of me was a pair of ponies, one was a pegasus mare, the other a large earth pony stallion. They both looked angry, screaming really. Then the memory started properly. I was on the ground, my face hurt. I had cheated on both of them, and they had found out.

The mare was a comforting sort, turned angry by my actions- Perm’s actions. The stallion was already walking away, our relationship collapsing into nothingness like a black hole. Something about my magic had changed, I was having trouble maintaining distance from the subject. Our consciousness were shifting into some kind of union-

“He’s so big and so angry…” I heard someone say, in the back of my mind.

“He’s like you,” I managed to say to the other voice.

“I know,” Icepick said as she shared the vision too. I guess the contact of him and her locked us all in together. “That mare is soft-spoken, kinda like you.”

“It kinda hurts, doesn’t it?” I said suddenly as we watched the scene play out. Permittivity was alone now. He found the strength to leave the room though, and start walking towards a place with determination… Icepick stayed silent as we felt the pains and cold winds biting into us. It was always so cold inside Perm’s memories. Maybe that was what made him like he was, being from such an icy realm…

“No!” Icepick spoke up again, as she watched Permittivity open up the shoot to his oven, before turning it on. The pilot light wasn’t lit. Permittivity picked himself up and walked into the living room, before sitting down.

“-Then you simply turn on the gas.” A single thought hit the both of us as we smelled the first tang of coal gas entering the living room. It would be a while before we were snuffed out by it. “Maybe I’ll see my parents, my friends, and someday, maybe I’ll make peace with Head Wind and Trace…”

“No!” Icepick yelled in her mind, but there was nothing that could be done. Perm was locked in the past, merely reliving memories. Painful memories. “Stop it!” Icepick yelled in her mind, as I tried in vain to short-circuit the memory.

“I can’t, we’re locked in for the ride,” I said to her. There was no reply but a whimper, and I couldn’t tell if the whimper was from Permittivity in the past, or from Icepick’s captive mind. The pace of thoughts died down as Perm’s lungs started to take in the carbon monoxide.

“Head Wind? Traceline?” Permittivity thought as we all heard the knocking from the door. His eyes opened, and with great effort, he managed to get to his hooves. Walking the few steps required strained every bit of strength that we-he had- “Maybe the mare of my dreams, my Valkyrie?”

“My Valkyrie?” Icepick echoed quietly.

The door opened, and we caught a glimpse of a dapper looking earth stallion… Just before hitting the floor outside the apartment and passing out from the gas.

The moment the memory ended, all three of us started a coughing fit. It lasted for at least half a minute, half a minute of horrible gagging as our lung tried to purge the gas that we thought was in our lungs.

“Do you understand why I don’t talk about them?” Permittivity said as he recovered from the gas.

“You fucking idiot!” Icepick yelled a moment later, her hoof was still clasped in his.

“On which count are you speaking?” Permittivity replied as I finally got my lungs to cooperate.

“Oh, like, all of them!” Icepick responded angrily.

“And yet I found something to anchor myself to, several somethings, though you’re the best of them,” he replied with a sincere looking smile, but both of us knew he was faking it.

“You ready to jump back in?” I finally spoke up.

“I’m not sure,” Icepick admitted. “That was way too intense-”

“Seeing me nearly die by my own hooves?” Permittivity said darkly.

“Yeah, that,” Icepick said with a shake of her head and a shiver that was hard to tell if it was forced.

“You don’t need to be here, I can conduct this by myself,” I said to Icepick.

“I still want to be here-” Icepick shot back but was interrupted.

“-I trust Rosetta, and so do you,” Permittivity butted in. “If it’s as painful to you as it seems, then you should go elsewhere, if I survived it once, I can survive it again.”

“Perm-” Icepick started.

“I don’t want to hurt you, I never wanted to hurt anyone, but if we can avoid adding pain to a life filled with it, then why shouldn’t we?” Permittivity said loudly, before picking himself up and embracing her.

“Because we do things together, that’s the whole point, Perm. We’re both weaker by ourselves. And, I know you would watch all of my painful memories. You’re strong like that, willing to put yourself in harm’s way for others,” Icepick finished before looking at him. “You may be an idiot sometimes, but-”

“I can handle this, Icepick, you’re our leader now, you have more important things to do,” I said to them. My words caused Icepick to stand a bit straighter.

“Alright, if anything else comes up, just tell me,” She said, before meeting Perm’s gaze. Then she kissed him, her lips meeting his as they embraced. I looked away, but I couldn’t help but hear the noises. I noted the double meaning in her words. A few moments later, she was gone, and we were alone.

“Your memories scare me,” I told him, as I realized that until I had met him and Icepick nothing within an order of magnitude of pain and unpleasantness had ever hit me. Excluding my father’s death. But that had happened when I was only a foal. A young foal. Now, I had memories that would make others question my sanity. My morality. My medical credentials.

“I believe in mercy. My past drove me to attempt a merciful end. Do I wish I could take all of those memories away? The time I had to execute young stallions and mares, children really, though I was nearly as young as them, for fighting the ponies occupying their homes. My memories of trodding upon the minced remains of both sides of the bloody conflict. Perhaps.” He paused and pressed a hoof to his heart. “It’s necessary though, you need to know that I’m on your side.”

Someone this broken, this damaged, could they ever be trusted? For all I knew, even if I knew every moment of his past… Could we ever trust someone that warped by their experiences? I met his gaze. I could solve this problem. That stallion who gave me the tools of my peculiar trade, he had equipped me for a different kind of surgery. The removal of cancer, with its own anaesthetic.

“For what it’s worth, I wish I didn’t have to do this,” I said to him.

“I’ve said those words to others many times, and even more times to myself,” Permittivity said before taking a deep breath. His eyes closed. I lit my horn, the glass orb glinting off of my light.

Author's Notes:

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