Sora's eyes zeroed in on the distant form—as she and Yukito drew closer and closer to it while Starbreaker rushed through the forest. She heard the rifle being cocked, hoping the imminent confrontation wouldn't turn deadly as, with a blue flash of light, the miles-away figure just... melted into thin air. Nothing more than that flash of light left any trace as testament to their existence. She shook her head, blinking her eyes to confirm what she had just seen, then lifting both hooves to rub at them as the stretch of open skies ahead suddenly became dubiously empty.

Her eyes, though augmented, did not deceive her. Starbreaker's attackers, presuming it was indeed them, had up and vanished. "Great, now we've got magicians to contend with," she muttered dismally.

Yukito nodded. "It's bad enough the Corps and those cloaked ponies I keep hearing about are on our tails," he agreed. "Still… a good a chance as any to find suitable shelter."

Sora nodded. She started scanning the forest below, watching for any clearings or signs of foul play. Yukito lit up his horn and teleported off to reappear atop the carriage, then used his magic to forcibly slow the still-charging Starbreaker down. The carriage screeched as its wheels were gripped in magic, and Starbreaker herself reared up with hinds skidding and fronts poised to block an incoming tree, whinnying in alarm.

Once fully stopped, mere inches from the tree that would've otherwise been toppled, Starbreaker craned her neck to glare at Yukito. "What was that for?!" she growled.

"Your attackers have flown to the mountains, and possibly over them with some sort of spell or technology that made them vanish! We can't find them!" Yukito replied, brow furrowing. "We'll have to stop for the night; we're burning enough energy as it is."

Starbreaker huffed, lashing her tail. "Why can't you just teleport to them, and bring them back here?!" she barked.

"Because, at this point, I don't know where they've gone!" Yukito replied, lifting and then waving both front hooves and the borrowed rifle erratically in the air.

Starbreaker glowered, and snorted from flared nostrils. She moved to stand on all fours, scraping the ground with a hoof. "Fine…" she hissed. She looked up and found Sora starting to fly in wide, loose circles above the forest; it was only thanks to her gleaming blades she could spot her through the canopy. "What is Bright Idea doing?"

"Scouting the area for shelter," Yukito replied nonchalantly. "We should wait here until she comes back." He waited for the tell-tale sound of whistling blades and flapping wings, and hopped down to land on his hinds after five minutes passed without a sign nor sound to indicate her return. Taking a moment to reorient himself to make sure he didn't fire the gun on accident, he strode over to Starbreaker with a groan of irritation. "So… is this the woodland you've grazed in, before things took a downturn?"

Starbreaker nodded. "There should be a cave nearby…" She turned to scan the surrounding woodland, before her eyes fell on the slightly-busted carriage. "But I doubt Bright Idea can see it from above."

Yukito frowned. "Are you suggesting it's hidden?" he queried. That got a nod. "How so?"

Starbreaker turned to him and pursed her lips for a moment. "It's… under a very… strange tree," she muttered. "Stayed green when it got very cold."

Yukito's frown deepened. "Can this cavern fit our carriage?" he asked.

Starbreaker nodded again. "You'd need to teleport it inside, though," she answered.

Yukito groaned; the information was more vague than he'd have liked. The forest was full of trees, and any number of them could still harbor green leaves all the way into early winter. Adding to that the fact he knew exactly nil on where the cavern even was, just that they had to teleport the carriage into it… he had to resist the urge to drop the rifle and facehoof. Then he registered the hole where the little black stone used to be, and turned to her again. "Where is the sablestone fragment?" he asked.

"The what?" Starbreaker replied, turning to Yukito with a frown. Yukito lifted one hoof from the rifle and gestured behind his horn, and it took several seconds for Starbreaker to understand what he'd asked. "Oh, that thing…" she muttered, and willed her horn to glow before conjuring the hunk of sablestone in a flash of light. "Why?"

"Because… we may still need it yet," Yukito replied glumly. "Just not for you, since you've circumvented it." His face hardened, and Starbreaker found another steely glare being leveled at her. "There's… something you should know, by the way."

Starbreaker's ears turned back. "What?" she asked.

"You… overheard everything that happened that first week in? When Sora was assaulted?" Yukito asked. Starbreaker took a moment to scrounge from memory, then nodded. "Listen… I haven't killed any patients… but I'd gained a bit of notoriety in the Corps."

"Notoriety? What's that?" Starbreaker asked, tilting her head a little. Yukito internally facehoofed, and outwardly sighed.

"Basically, most of the few ponies in the Corps who like me at this rate… are already long gone. Only… Omega and Sora are left," Yukito replied, face hardening and darkening as he said that.

"And what about your other patients?" Starbreaker asked, the question blunt and yet holding a distinct air of both innocence and contempt with it. Yukito gave a slight flinch at that, in addition to a meager hiking of his tail.

"... quite simply, until you came along, I had no other patients to treat…" Yukito replied, his ears folding back. "The Corps wouldn't… let me treat anypony else once they started their ultimate weapons programs… and almost all of their ultimate weapons, before Sora, simply died within days of being deployed..."

Starbreaker frowned at that, tail swishing. "And why not?" she asked.

Yukito turned away, pursing his lips for a few seconds as he heard, at long last, the distinct whistling of blades. "... because I was… instrumental to them—it was only thanks to my efforts that Sora survived…" he muttered. "Why the Corps turned around and let me treat you, I'll never know…" He looked up as he heard branches stirring and breaking, and the whistling hushed as Sora tumbled through the canopy to land on the carriage's roof clumsily—hooves spread, wings lopsided, and twigs poking out of her mane. "Find anything?" he asked.

Sora turned and shook her head. "Nothing," she reported, hopping down from the carriage to land at its side with both wings jutting right up to avoid scratching it. "Not so much as hide or hair of our mystery assailants. Much less viable shelter. Most I found was a single green tree at the foot of the mountains." She awkwardly folded her wings, and wilted a little. "Our best bet is to reach the mountains before sundown at this rate, and camp out there."

Yukito nodded, and gave a groan of resignation. "We'll need plenty of firewood tonight…" he muttered. He turned to Starbreaker again, just in time to see her make the sablestone fragment vanish in another burst of light, and used the rifle to gesture to the surrounding grass shoots that poked through the fallen leaves. "And… grazing rations…"

"So… you want me to help you find what's good to eat here, and what isn't?" Starbreaker asked, realization slowly dawning as she turned to the shoots of grass the rifle was pointing at.

"I'm a medic, not a gardener," Yukito replied with a tired nod. "And at the rate the weather's progressing, we won't have much left to graze on before long."

"Much less accounting for the food I got from what was our pantry," Sora added with a sigh. She turned to the carriage and trotted to the first door to open it with a hoof, finding Omega on the floor of his section. "How are you holding up?"

"Like shit," Omega replied, kicking out with his hinds with augmented fronts barely moving. "I don't think I'll ever get used t' being… rewired, f'r lack of a better word…"

Sora gave a sympathetic wince at that. "I know that feeling all too well…" she muttered dismally. "You hungry?"

Omega shook his head. "Got… my muzzle stuffed at th' base. Don't ask with what," he muttered, turning a little green in the face at the mention. Sora gave another wince, imagining some very… questionable things going into his mouth. Part of her wanted to immediately abort that disturbing picture, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Well… let us know when you're hungry, and we'll gather extra food in the meantime," Sora stated with a sigh. Omega nodded in understanding, and moved to rest his head in between his augmented forelegs. She gently closed the door and turned to Yukito, frowning. "You heard all of that?"

"Clear as crystal," Yukito replied with a nod, tail swishing. "Truth be told, I'd rather not ask about what was forced in his mouth." He turned to the surrounding wilderness and resisted the urge to bash the rifle against his face, but his tail twitched when he heard the sound of leaves rustling. "And if need be… we may well have to kill some wildlife just to eat dinner."

Starbreaker smiled at Yukito, eyes glinting crimson. "Now you're talking!" she cried, horn starting to crackle as excitement coursed through her body. Her tail and hooves twitched with only a meager hint of restraint as, slowly, Sora and Yukito turned to her in unison.

"You… eat meat?" Sora asked slowly, pupils shrinking in bewilderment. Starbreaker eagerly nodded, smile growing.

"Only because I had to; not much to graze on when it got really cold," Starbreaker replied, still twitching in place.

"Ponies eating meat is practically unheard of nowadays... guess that explains her aggression," Yukito muttered with a tired sigh. "Looks like we'd better start the hunt for timber and food." And with that, he cocked his rifle and took point, walking deeper into the forest. Starbreaker trundled along behind him with the carriage rattling, and Sora moved to walk behind it to watch for anymore surprise attacks.

As they trotted, though, the forest grew uncomfortably still and quiet. The few clouds overhead slowly, but surely, grew in both number and size, darkening as they did.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

It began to snow that night, the flakes landing with a very faint crackle on the fallen leaves and twigs that dotted the forest floor and the grass that made the Crested Plains. All fauna slowly, surely shriveled under the freezing might of the incoming storm, thunder crackling and rumbling above as the party and their stolen museum piece stumbled their way out of the forest in a bid to reach the mountains. Resting atop the carriage, arranged into a triangular formation and held in place by crimson magic, were a good dozen fallen trees, each rotting away and moss-covered with a few fallen twigs and leaves thrown on top for good measure. Insects skittered across the whole mass, ranging from beetles to spiders to grubs that the crimson magic prevented from getting away.

The sun had already set, taking with it the last of its warmth for the day. Sora shivered, wings rattling and crackling with warmth as her mana-pumped blades started to generate light and heat. Breath clouded in front of her face, and her bell delicately jingled as she continued to follow the carriage, watching for any fallen trees that might have considered jumping ship. Starbreaker marched on, undeterred by the cold thanks to her augments doubling as insulation, one eye on the stack of trees and the other looking dead ahead. Yukito had slowed a little, the cold getting past his augments, and in response he lit up his horn and conjured weak embers to both warm himself and to light the way.

Yukito waved his borrowed gun at his side and stopped when the party was only a mere fifty feet from the woods. He shivered, turning to Starbreaker with teeth chattering. "D-do you kn-know where th-the cave you m-mentioned is?" he asked, turning a slightly darker shade of blue as the cold started to get to him. At Starbreaker's nod, he dispelled his own embers, only to replace it with building light. "I-I'll get in the c-carriage then." With that, he vanished in a flash of light, and reappeared in the middle section of the museum piece with another burst of magic.

"Weirdo," Starbreaker muttered under her breath, and she continued to trot towards the mountains. She frowned when Sora trotted faster, around the carriage, and came in to go shoulder-to-shoulder with her. "What?" she asked.

"How are you holding up?" Sora asked, her blades tapping their tips together as she trotted.

"Still want to annihilate you," Starbreaker replied, fire starting to swirl along the length of her horn. "Why would you want to help me? I can only destroy everything I come in contact with if I wanted."

Sora sighed, seeing Starbreaker's rather tragic point. "I… had a suspicion the Corps might try to use you the second you were given the all-clear," she muttered. "Seeing you alive, when that shouldn't have been possible… just sparked something in me."

"Use me? For what?" Starbreaker pressed, eyes narrowing at the thought.

"I don't know, attempted world domination?" Sora shrugged, sighing again. "You're basically a trotting powerhouse of immense potential—potential that could be used for… horrible things. I couldn't… leave you to the wolves, as it were. And Yukito saw that too, and he and I came to the conclusion that you'd be better off elsewhere, still in our care. I mean, if you can get out of bed on three legs after a mere week into your treatment... then what else could you do in the meantime? What could possibly hold you back even then?"

"And how would you know?" Starbreaker shot back, the question causing Sora to tense for a moment.

"... I speak from experience," Sora mumbled in reply. "That's all ponies with immense potential are ever born for, when war rages—they go to the front lines, either snapping or turning dead inside. And… I guess you could say I have reached my breaking point, even though the Clash is already over."

Starbreaker's frown eased at that. "So you're becoming less weird in the head?" she translated.

Sora nodded. "Or more weird in the head, if you bothered to ask anypony else before torching them," she stated. "If not for Yukito… I'd have probably wanted to destroy everything by now. Or I could still be hibernating—both of which are neither here, nor there, yet are equally… terrifying."

Starbreaker smiled. "That's part of your talent, isn't it? Destroying things?" she asked.

Sora shook her head, a wry smile coming onto her face. "Not really, but I can destroy if I need to," she answered, smile falling a second later. "I just don't find enjoyment in destruction, and in most situations, I'd really rather not."

Starbreaker nodded, smile receding as she started to see Sora's point. "But what happens when you want to destroy something?" she asked.

A ghost of a wry smirk returned on Sora's face. "Well… the things I want to destroy usually end up in chunks," she replied in earnest. "And they're few, far in between, and otherwise not worth my time."

Starbreaker's smirk fell again. "Feh. Now you're just going back and forth—still being weird in that damned head of yours, and it's driving me nuts! I might torch you sooner, just to get it out of your skull!" she declared with a surprising amount of sincerity, which caused Sora to look at her with both brows raised.

"You want to purge my particular brand of crazy?" Sora translated, eyes widening at what her ears had just heard.

"Yes!" Starbreaker said emphatically, nodding with her horn alighting in fire once again. Her eyes narrowed and flashed orange as she added, "And I'd gladly do it here and now, if you didn't carry that stupid bell of yours!"

Sora simply rolled her eyes at that declaration. "I could just cut your horn off if you tried yanking my bell," she muttered, spreading the wing opposite from Starbreaker to wave its blades for emphasis. "Bone's easier to cut through than solid metal, and your horn's not augmented in the least." She closed her wing, watching as Starbreaker shrunk back a little and dimmed her horn with a wince.

Starbreaker snorted, but said nothing more on the matter, and turned to the mountains up ahead with ears pinned back. She scanned the foot of the mountains carefully, as even in the low light of the gathered storm clouds, she knew they had to find shelter before it could get any dimmer. One of these days, preferably when everything wasn't going to the seven hells in a hoofbasket, she made a mental note to remind herself to punch Sora in her muzzle.

Sora looked towards the sky, blinking as she saw the clouds give way for the briefest of moments. The moon, bright and full, glowed with a crimson light that sent its rays down onto the land. The snowflakes these rays touched shimmered with its glow as they danced past, almost like burning ash that didn't break apart as the wind carried them. She ceased channeling mana into her blades, staring at the red moon as she continued to trot at Starbreaker's side. In front of the moon, three silhouettes darted across the clouds, all floating with what looked to be rigidly-stiff wings.

Two of the silhouettes, one upright and the other on all fours, paused for a second—the third, going ahead of them, stopped to wave them over with a limb. The other two took notice and followed, vanishing into the cold darkness of the gathered storm clouds. Just a second after they left, the clouds closed again, shrouding the red moon and absorbing its light. Sora frowned, wondering what they were doing up there, where she could not see their features from ground level. Still… she couldn't dwell on it for a second longer.

She turned to Starbreaker again, finding that she was also looking skyward. "Have you ever… seen a red moon before?" she asked, hoping it wasn't just her imagination going wild again.

Starbreaker turned back to her and shook her head, and oddly, a small smile was on her muzzle. "I wonder… if I can make the moon turn red one of these days," she muttered. Sora smiled, internally giggling at that absurd thought, deciding she'd tell Starbreaker that was impossible at a later time.

So she settled on the more logical answer, "It only goes red by itself whenever the planet aligns with it. I guess we lucked out seeing it."

Starbreaker's smile didn't fall; instead, it widened. "Oh? And how often does that happen?" she asked.

"Every few years or so," Sora answered with a shrug. "But most ponies won't see it." She turned ahead to scan the foot of the mountains, and spotted a distant pine tree standing tall and proud between the feet of two mountains, branches a-waving in a passing breeze like a neon sign.

Starbreaker turned to it as well, giggling and pausing to clap her forehooves on the ground repeatedly. The ground split and cracked a little at her stomping, and the dying grass crunched at her enthusiasm. "That's it! Right there!" she cried, and surged forward to get to that lone pine tree. Sora rolled her eyes and sighed, and galloped after her to investigate why this tree had sparked this reaction from her. Behind them, the clouds parted again, and the blood moon shined its light on the distant base and city of the Umbralium Corps as the flames of its Protocol finally died in a burst of smog. That smog rose gradually, tinted red, and so did a few airships that whirred to life with a distant, terrible roar.