The strange figure did not falter, even as it continued to seemingly defy the laws of reality itself. Its raised limb did not even twitch. Its wisping form didn't fragment itself more than it already had. Mira did not lower his guard, let alone his blade and claw. Save a brief flaring of nostrils, he too failed to move. The barren desert of snow outside continued to twinkle, though it did nothing more save dance under the occasional gust of wind.

Mira blinked just once, before he could stop himself. The creature took three steps closer, moving between the reaches of the harness, then stopped and raised its leg again in the time it took him to fully complete the motion. Another blink, and it came closer still.

Odd. It wasn't this statuesque when it was farther away from the carriage. Perhaps it was trying to pass under the guise of a bluff; if it was such, then the bluff was failing. "Great. It wants to play red light, green light," he mentally hissed. He kept his eyes open for longer that time, but alas, the longer he stared the more his exhausted eyes began to hurt. The blinking, inevitable though it was, only brought the figure even closer to the window.

For less than a minute, or perhaps longer than an hour, this unorthodox staring contest continued, broken up only by his blinking. Time was turned on its head as far as Mira was concerned, seeing as something completely out of the ordinary was gradually approaching his temporary sanctuary. And it kept stretching on until, at last, the thing was effectively face to face with him. Only the glass kept them apart, and Mira didn't want to find out if it could somehow bypass the pane altogether.

Its glowing lights drilled into him, but they had not narrowed or widened one little inch. Other than his blinking, which increased in frequency as his body started demanding sleep, he did not falter. Then, the creature tilted its head to its right, and Mira canted his in turn—opposite its tilt, and he made sure to tilt the blade likewise just to make sure the whatever-it-was got his message.

It drew in air from around its head and blew it onto the window, then used its raised leg to draw in the resulting frost. From Mira's perspective, it looked to be writing backwards—and he rubbed his eyes with his other, still-empty claw to try and grasp whatever the hell it was conveying as it was etched onto the glass.

Once it lowered its leg, Mira studied the scribbling left behind on the pane. He took a long moment to process the scrawling, and yet some part of his brain just refused to function properly—and as a result, his eyes saw naught but symbols passing off as gibberish. Foreign language, or his eyes deciding to opt out of the translating job to conserve energy, he didn't know and care for. He did find it odd, however, that the creature outside went this far just for the sake of written communication instead of breaking the glass outright when it had the chance.

That's what trouble did. This thing screamed trouble, yet its mannerisms were anything but. Something did not add up, no matter how hard his mental gears span in an effort to find an answer as to why.

All Mira could do was shrug and shake his head either way, and hope that was answer enough. The strange… thing flinched back, orbs flickering wildly as orange overtook them for a brief moment, and just stared at him with pools widening once the green returned. The motion wasn't quite blinking, but that was the closest thing he could chalk it up to.

Minutes passed, and it continued to stare at him in its equivalent of bewilderment. A multitude of emotions flicked across its orbs, making them flare and dim as they passed. It erased its scrawling with its raised limb, leaving behind a clean circle with a fogged edge. Against all explanation, it then moved into the carriage, phasing right through the pane headfirst, front legs shifting to hook onto the otherwise-barred edge to look him square in the eye.

The cab chilled for a brief moment at the intrusion, then warmed with its presence. Its orbs flitted to Tsih, then back to Mira once it confirmed she was asleep. He continued to stare this thing down; even struggling against the encroaching tide of exhaustion, his mind started to babble at half a mile a minute that a strange ethereal being should not have made access for itself in a closed vehicle. He hissed in a sharp whisper, "Who are you… what are you… the fuck do you want?"

The figure, after taking a second to blink again, replied in an equally-hushed, echoing voice laced with a feminine tone and a very distinct accent, "I asked if you and yourn were the ones who entered the Castle."

Mira frowned, and decided to backpedal. "Ah. In that case, yes we are," he grumbled. "Couldn't friggin' read whatever you've made…"

The figure nodded with a faint groan of annoyance, orbs turning into half-domes with leveled tops. "Guess you don't do Equestrian," she muttered.

Mira shook his head that time. "Never majored in pre-Clash linguistics," he snarked, still frowning. He waved the blade again, but now it had occured to him that maybe this stint wouldn't do any good in this instance. He ruefully considered the fact that, if the visitor struck here and now, he mused that he may as well have retaliated at thin air given the stunt she had just pulled.

Which, by itself, wasn't a particularly pleasant thought to even entertain. Tornados wouldn't cut it either; such a feat would probably launch the carriage somewhere else if Mira tried that. The only thing left for him to do was see what this crazy figure wanted, and pray for her to go away. His tail lashed in irritation.

The thing kept her orbs in their half-lidded state, but did not dip them enough to avoid seeing Mira's tail trying to imitate a whip. "Why's it always the soldiers…" she grumbled. That made Mira lower his blade a little.

"We take it we weren't the first visitors?" he asked.

The figure shook her head. "Eenope. But yer the first batch who didn't kill each other first chance ya got," she replied rather blithely. "Don't surprise me none that ya still fought, though. Y'all musta had burrs wedged mighty tight under yer fancy new body parts."

"We have our reasons," Mira grumbled, raising the blade again. "Who, what are you, and what do you want?" he repeated, tensing slightly.

"Who I am probably won't matter much to you, or most anypony else that sticks around out here this long. But I guess I could tell ya the what at least." The figure pulled the rest of her spectral body in, and Mira moved to give her the space to land on all fours. She turned to him as soon as she was fully inside, half-orbs still not shifting. "I was one of six who held the Elements of Harmony." She saw his mouth opening and cut him off before he could speak, "That probably won't make much sense to ya, so lemme keep it short: the Elements are magical artifacts, made way 'fore even the Clash came 'round. They're keepin' me on this blasted winter wonderland until me and my friends can find some new bearers."

That time, Mira's blade hit the floor with a soft thud. His claw followed shortly after. He then took a second to look at Tsih to see if she had woken up yet, and relaxed when the quick glance gave him his answer: nope, she was still down and out for the count. So he turned back to the spectre and pressed, "And…?"

"The other soldiers who done visited in the past weren't even the least bit Element material. Sad to say, but you and yourn are the closest thing we got," the thing said, orbs narrowing into tiny slits, as if that very thought irked her in some way. Considering the mumbo-jumbo she was spewing a mile a minute, Mira wagered that he'd be a little irked too. If, of course, he were stuck in her constantly-disintegrating horseshoes rambling about something the pony he spoke to didn't understand a lick of.

Mira sighed and shook his head. Pity he wasn't in those wispy frogs, because then he'd have even less care to give to this wretched world. "Gonna have to pass, whatever that garbage was," he stated flatly. "Kinda want to live to see another day, thank you."

The figure sighed, in a slow manner that almost seemed rehearsed and left without anymore crap left to give. "Was expectin' as much." Then she straightened her posture. "In that case… you and yourn can help find new Element bearers, so this world'll keep runnin' smoothly… at least, as smoothly for whatever ponies are left when all's said and done."

Mira's shoulders sagged, and his wings spread behind him across the floor. "Us? Help find new bearers?" Now, he was pretty sure the spectre was trying to sell him a bridge of some sort with a few strings attached. "Pretty tall order, since there aren't many cities even left standing, and we don't know what the fuck the Elements of Harmony are or even mean."

Now, it was the figure's turn to sit down and wilt. Another irritated sigh left her wisping muzzle. "Don't need to remind me of that," she grumbled, orbs slanting a little mournfully and tiredly. Exhaustion seemed to warp her face into something more equine, and sorrow further sculpted it into an age-old expression that must have been worn numerous times, with how damnably well it dulled her whole body as it passed. "Already done seen the damage to my home. 's been wiped off the map."

Mira made his blade vanish, then shifted to lay down and tuck his head between his forelegs. "And we've helped wipe towns from the map whenever the higher-ups wished it. Fucking crazies, making suicide bombers because of bullshit…" he muttered disdainfully, eyes closing as sleep started winning its little war with his body. The figure huffed and the temperature shifted again. That made Mira crack an eye open to look at her. "Still here," he hissed. "Just dead on my claws."

"I see that," the figure replied, dipping her head a little. "Listen… yer friend…"

Mira jerked his head up and his other eye opened. Alarm bells started ringing in his head, and his claws began to tap a muffled tune as confusion took hold. "What friend? Apart from Tsih, we don't have any," he snapped, raising his voice just a little. Something about the figure's statement seemed a little off, and his brain struggled against sleep in an attempt to figure out what the hell that was.

The figure blinked and sagged a little more, before shifting to kneel at his eye level. "Frozen, torn in pieces… pink mane?" she retorted.

Mira's wings stiffened. His gut twisted, and his encased boosters flashed once in unison. One word left his mouth in a disbelieving tone, eyes widening as it rolled off his tongue before he could stop it, "Alte?"

The figure nodded once, firmly and slowly. "Yep. Me and my friends are why she's one of those unlucky folks who're on a rock now. Nopony else was gonna bury 'em, so we did," she replied bitterly. "She told me to watch the castle last night, and I did, and saw with her what had happened—includin' you blazing outta it." Her gaze hardened, but her orbs widened a smidgen.

Now, Mira snorted as his brain ran all that through its many filters before reaching a conclusion. "Excuse us, but we're calling horseshit on that," he stated, lowering his head again.

"Then what explains the Castle takin' damage on its big star?" the figure retorted, almost rhetorically.

Mira snorted. Even in a snowstorm wrought from the seven hells, something like that would have been highly visible if given enough time to let the weather clear up first. Begrudgingly, with legs shuddering, he sat up again, the muffler slipping off of his snout as a claw snagged onto it. "Listen… have you heard of the shit that's hit the fan lately?" he asked, at least wanting to make sure the figure understood the ramifications of the recent shenanigans he had caught wind of first. At the very least, they'd be on the same page then.

The spectre nodded. "Uh, kinda saw the airship," she muttered, a faint twinge of dismay in her tone. "So, yeah, didn't need to hear much—just saw the evidence."

Mira huffed and put the muffler back on his snout. For once, and only once, he could sympathize with this ghost, because the same had happened to him not even a day ago. Still, the mere thought that this ghost somehow—if he could even bring himself to believe it—knew Alte irked him a little. "And you are aware," he spat, eyes narrowing again, "that we have a harbinger with us?"

The figure blinked, orbs widening. "Of what?" she asked, canting her head a little.

Mira threw a claw in the air and waved at the ceiling as frantically as exhaustion would let him. "The apocalypse, the end times, world smouldering in fire?" he retorted. Dropping the claw, he scathingly added, "Yeah, as far as 'closest material' goes, she ain't it, whatever it is. All she knows is how to destroy shit."

The ghost wilted. "Well there goes that plan…" she muttered, low enough that Mira had to strain his ears to hear her. She straightened and stood up again. "In that case, the winter wonderland's gettin' bigger, so me and mine'll just follow y'all until you find some new bearer material or y'all reach the edges of the wonderland—whichever comes first. We'll get outta your manes, keep our distance, all that."

"You know what to look out for; we don't," Mira retorted, nodding in agreement. He laid down again, and closed his eyes as the figure sighed and excused herself via phasing through the glass of the frontmost window again.

Sleep claimed him as soon as the cold left the cab, but not before he checked up on Tsih again. She was curled up, still dozing, though her murmuring had hushed.

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

The following morning, Starbreaker had awoken with a drawn-out yawn leaving her mouth seconds before her eyes opened and a bleary cab seat greeted her. Slowly, she raised her head and blinked the fog away prior to scanning the cab. Omega was asleep on the seat, sitting upright with his fronts slack at his sides and his back pressed against the rear wall of the makeshift bed. A soft snore left his mouth, and a small river of drool meandered its way down his branded chest.

She turned to the curtains at the back, and lifted a hoof to part them and gauge the weather outside. Clouds were returning, but also let sunlight filter through; the weak rays shined in her face, making her wince and squint slightly as their warming touch slowly faded and shrank. She dropped her hoof a few minutes later, rustling the curtains as the clouds overtook the skies once again.

Her stomach rumbled a bit, though that wasn't enough to claim her attention. She turned back to the dozing Omega, who lolled his head back onto one of his shoulders and snorted a few times doing it. He seemed so deep into sleep that, were he to fall here and now, he wouldn't have woken up from the impact.

Starbreaker frowned and, quietly, shifted her hooves to the floor one at a time in order to stand. "You idiot," she hissed in a low tone, face contorting in a glare leveled at Omega as her voice distorted. "You'll die out here if you sleep with both eyes firmly shut like that." Then, a small but wicked smirk crossed her face, and very slowly and dimly, her horn went alight with its hideous red aura. "But then again… you've probably been stuffed in those damned Corps walls your whole life…"

Slowly, ever so slowly, her dimmed magic lanced out and dragged itself to the prone Omega, gently grasping him by his hind hocks and his tail with such softness he didn't even register the touch. Then, with such care that kept him asleep, she lifted him off of the seat by his hinds and tail, holding him headfirst over the floor and letting his front legs dangle at the sides of his face. For a moment, she admired what she had done and was about to do. Some part of her, small yet stirring nonetheless, found the poor bastard adorable when strung up in such an unorthodox manner. Though, the illegible branding and the stitches that ran amok made another part of her stir, and her eyes shifted red with a faint whir that still didn't rouse him from slumber.

She let him dangle like that for perhaps a moment longer, but set him on the seat with a jerk once she heard the sound of glass being tapped at. She glanced around for a bit, before her eyes fell on parted curtains revealing the middle cab, and a bleary-eyed, groggy Sora with one hoof raised on the pane. A firm frown of disapproval stretched on her rather reddened muzzle, and though they were clouded with the fog of sleep yet to be dispelled, her eyes were slightly narrowed in a look Starbreaker knew all too well.

They stared off like that for a moment, before Sora shifted to lay on the seat and pull up some quilts to cover her body. Starbreaker glowered, though the small part of her that found the initial amusement piped up in her head with a tiny voice, "Let's not make the married weirdo mad." So she watched her nemesis intently, ears turning back as her husband woke up and rose to stretch his legs. He looked at her, shrugged his shoulders, magically readjusted his glasses and turned to knock on the frontmost window with a hoof.

In seconds, curtains parted with the aid of claws, and Mira stared back with a tousled mane and his muffler askew. A minute after, Tsih rose up with a reddened face and some matted fur around her snout and eyes. Another snort left Omega's snout, and Starbreaker turned to him as he, finally, woke up and turned to look at her. "What time 's it?" Omega croaked, voice hoarse.

"Waking up time," Starbreaker scoffed, and turned to open the door with her magic. Rolling her eyes and then using said magic to sling Omega over her back, she trotted out into the snowfield before then turning to the carriage as Yukito, Mira and Tsih followed suit. Strangely, Yukito was not accompanied by Sora, who herself had shifted closer to the door to do little more than poke her head out. Frigid air greeted all of them, though a faint warmth was now stirring within the frozen hellscape. The five gathered around the middle cab's open door, closing the doors adjacent to it with magic, and silence held for maybe a half-minute before Mira got up in Yukito's face and started squawking.

"We don't know what the flying fuck is going through that screwed-up noggin of yours, and we're of a mind to knock some damn sense into you!" Yukito simply stood up on his hinds to look Mira dead in the eye as he continued his tirade. The warmth left the area, and even Starbreaker shivered as the temperature dropped enough for clouds to form from her breath. "Truth be told, you're better shredded to fine ribbons of meat!" Sora winced as Mira raked his front claws across his metal pasterns, causing two cacophonous scrapes to wail in the air. "And if nopony else is gonna do it, then we will!" Mira raised a claw and aimed it at Yukito's face, but a half-metal front leg blocked the attack before it could connect. Another claw rose, thrust towards Yukito's stomach, but that was blocked by his other front leg in short order.

With a hard shove, Yukito sent Mira stumbling back on his hinds, and he in turn stumbled into Starbreaker, who shoved him away with a jerk of her shoulder. Both stallions regained their balance, and Mira rushed forward once again to rend flesh from augments and bones bare-clawed. Yukito teleported, and Mira flapped his wings and skid to a hard stop before he could accidentally graze Starbreaker. "Watch where you're going, you walking pile of shrapnel!" Starbreaker screamed, sclera turning black as Mira huffed and waved her off with a claw.

Two flashes of light from behind had Mira whirling around and charging once again, though now his claws met with the elongated shaft of Alte's axe, with Yukito's own fetlocks clutching it tightly as both tried to push the other away with the weapon. For a few seconds they struggled, swaying on their hinds as they made every effort to throw the other off. Though with sheer size on his side, Mira was able to shove Yukito back and seize the axe with a push fueled by augments and wings flapping to add extra force.

Yukito windmilled his forelegs as he wobbled back a few steps, and was only just regaining his balance when Mira charged yet again, axe raised to cleave him in half. He teleported out of the way, reappearing behind Mira as the axe landed in and sent snow everywhere with the unsuccessful strike. He whirled around once more, axe lowered to swing at hind hooves, but Yukito simply jumped back past the carriage's central door and summoned the rifles with barrels pointing at Mira. To keep him from charging, he made certain to magically pull the triggers just a little bit, enough for the raging lunatic to actually see them moving.

The Buster model conjured a small orb of light, no bigger than a frog, as its trigger was just barely pushed. It held steady, and at this Mira faltered, causing the axe to lower further and then raise a little past his shoulder as he reconsidered the situation. Starbreaker moved to flank Yukito, burning red eyes alight with fury and fire circling around her horn to match her anger.

Tsih galloped to Starbreaker, then leapt with tiny hooves outstretched and aimed for her face. Starbreaker snorted, and merely stepped aside a couple of paces with thunderous stomps that shook the snow and made new craters into the ground below it, which caused Tsih to faceplant in the snow. Omega yelped as he was jostled by this, but hushed his protests when crimson magic worked to keep him anchored. Mira rushed again, axe raised, but a volley from the rifles struck the weapon's head with just enough force to tilt it to one side, allowing Yukito to sidestep harmlessly out of the way as the head crashed into the snow where he stood.

The temperature dropped further, and the clouds of breath merely thickened with its decline. Mira, still within range of Yukito, turned and stretched out a claw in another attempt to tear his face off, but his target simply bounded away to return to the carriage with another volley of lasers being fired in his wake. He snarled as two lasers grazed his right shoulder, leaving burnt flesh and singed fur that smoked a little and stung quite a bit against the cold. He charged once more, wings flapping and eyes glinting dangerously as the axe was once more raised in another attempt to bludgeon somepony.

Mira was stopped when he heard Tsih screaming, and turned away from the carriage to find she had been sent flying to him from the side with the aid of crimson magic. He could not react in time; she came in too fast, causing both to crash in the snow and the axe to drop from his grasp. He got up and reclaimed the weapon with one claw as soon as he landed, picking Tsih up with the other claw to hold her to his chest as Starbreaker came towards him with hooves stomping and face contorted in delightful wrath.

Mira flapped his wings and flew up and above Starbreaker, making her skid to a stop under his shadow. He swung the axe, sliding down the shaft with his claw to let it get closer, but she spotted the incoming attack and darted off a trot's length to avoid it. Mira made to swing again, but he heard a loud pop and suddenly felt weight on his back where there was none before. Hooves grasped his barrel, something yanked on the muffler from both ends of the cloth, and Mira could only tilt and wobble in the air as his balance was compromised.

"Going somewhere?" Yukito taunted, smirking as Mira turned his head as much as he could to glare at him.

Tsih clambered onto Mira's free foreleg and reached over to sock Yukito in the mouth, but a rifle had her stop her advance when she suddenly found it in her face. Mira span in the air as if on an axis, hoping to dislodge his adversary, but he held tight with a grip bellied by his natural, seemingly weak hooves. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Yukito reprimanded, before using both guns' butts to clock Mira upside the head mid-spin, with enough force to disorient him and send all three plummeting to the thankfully-close ground. Yukito teleported just before the landing, leaving the pair to faceplant in the snow and alighting on his hooves next to the carriage.

Mira scrambled up again, Tsih still on one leg and the axe in claw. Starbreaker returned to flanking Yukito, grinning tauntingly. Yukito piped up, "That the best you've got? My wife's quicker with her blades."

"He's gotcha on that one," Omega added.

Mira barked, "That's because she's fucking augmented!"

"Yeah, but so are you! You could do better yourself, Daddy Long-Legs!" Yukito replied with sass in his voice.

Mira snapped, "Can it, you teleporter!"

"Why don't you come over and make me?" Yukito fired back, blasters still raised. "You've been doing a particularly shoddy job of that for the last five minutes!" Mira huffed and started to check Tsih over to see if she was alright, but she wordlessly hopped off and landed on her hooves with a roll of her shoulders and legs tensing. Yukito charged another laser volley with both rifles, and Starbreaker conjured more flames, both evidently itching for a round two. Mira swung the axe once in front of him, going wide and above Tsih as she charged her horn.

Yet before they could start the fight again or even let things escalate from there, Sora carefully stretched her wings out from under the quilts and thrust them forward with blades straight out. Willing her mana to charge the blades, she waited until only crackling reached her ears. Her command was uttered in a weak whisper, but it was firm, as blunt as her boots, and carried across to the would-be combatants with a heavy weight. "Stop."

Yukito took the chance to make the axe vanish, but he kept the blasters at his sides. Slowly, though, he warily lowered them, easing pressure off the triggers and causing the blasters' charge to shrink and die with little more than a series of soft snaps. Starbreaker stopped casting her flames, allowing them to dim and wither, with only weakened embers glimmering as they showered lightly around her hooves. Mira hesitated, claws still raised until Sora lifted a hoof and stomped it upon the floor of the cab. It was then that he reverted to all fours.

Tsih piped up, trotting over to Sora as she stopped charging her blades and pulled them back. "Why not let us sort it out?" she asked.

Sora turned a not-so-amused look at Tsih and shook her head. "We can't afford it," she said tersely.

Yukito trotted over, making the rifles vanish once he was sure Mira wouldn't brazenly gallop towards him with the intent to kill again. "Unfortunately, she is right… if we spend too much time screaming and throwing punches, we'll just make ourselves bright red targets," he grumbled, snout wrinkling slightly as that unsavory statement left his mouth. Mira winced and snorted, but trotted over with nothing more than a firm frown on his face as Starbreaker did likewise, her eyes reverting to their usual rainbow but still fixed in their narrow glare.

"But isn't that how most ponies sort things out these days?" Tsih asked, the question eliciting a groan and a facehoof from Sora. "I mean, it's not like anypony really gets along anymore… and those who do just end up as cannon fodder anyway..." That made her wilt a little, ears turning back as she continued to stare at Sora.

"She has a point," Mira sourly added with another wince, earning him another groan in short order.

"Yeah, and I'm ruling governess-in-chief of the whole galaxy," Sora hissed, hoof sliding down the bridge of her snout. When her hoof dropped she leveled a firm glare at Mira, willing her ocular augments to work and glow. For a moment she kept drilling into his soul with the expression afterwards, before abruptly closing her eyes and turning away with a hoof lifting to her snout as she started to huff. A second after hoof and snout made contact, she sneezed and shuddered her wings, retreating a bit into the quilts and opening her eyes again.

"Bless you," Yukito muttered.

Sora nodded to him with a faint smile, before glowering again and redirecting her ire at Mira. "Attack him unprovoked again, you'll not only have to deal with dismemberment, but your hide will be used to sheathe my blades." Her eyes narrowed to thin, glowing slits, and her blades rattled against each other, producing a noise between whistling and scraping. "Is. That. Understood?"

Mira flinched and tried to keep his composure, but then he remembered Starbreaker's presence very close to him, and heard a scraping of snow and the faintest pop of crackling fire. Tsih sighed, shook her head, and looked up at him with a small frown. "Sorry, can't help you if you become somepony else's wing warmers. Besides… she kinda beat our asses silly when we got deployed. Doesn't that make her top gun?" she muttered in a low voice, somewhat apologetically but with enough weight to her words that Mira had no chance of misconstruing her meaning.

Mira sagged, wings dropping and unfolding to let the primaries touch the snow. "Fine," he grumbled. He mentally faceclawed for not seeing that one coming sooner, much less from Tsih of all ponies. Then again, he ruefully supposed, this was his just desserts for trying to attack Yukito out of the blue. What a day this was turning out to be, and as far as he knew it wasn't even noon yet. He had none to blame but himself for even deciding to stay with these loons, though.

He could hear Brother chiming in now, with all the sarcasm he could muster, "This is our hole. We have to sit in it."

Yukito turned to Tsih and, after deciding against kneeling to her eye level, asked her in a level voice, "What all do you have in the way of supplies?"

Tsih turned to Yukito, still frowning. "Not a lot... " she grumbled, lifting a hoof and pointing it at Mira. "He made our ride vanish, and that had what little we've held on to… that aren't his knives and plasma chakrams." She considered his question and proceeded to retort, "Why? You want to share or some shit like that?"

Yukito sighed and slowly drew in a deep breath. "We'll need to ascertain food stock," he replied calmly. Mira winced again, horn glowing as he summoned the wooden carriage he had been using yesterday. He pulled it up, turned its rear to Yukito, and turned to the ride as it jostled into place. Now that he had a better look at the thing without it going at blinding speeds thanks to a lunatic driver, Yukito found that it was scratched and beaten and wobbling in place ever so slightly. No doors or hood to speak of besides the reaches; it was as basic as they came, just large enough for maybe two adults if he had to hazard a guess.

Leaning over its pitiful bed to see what it had in store, Yukito found more boxes within the first; metal, scratched, blackened, and taking up a lot of what little room the ride had to begin with. Many of the boxes had patchy brackets anchored onto both them and the floor of the vehicle, though none were flung open thanks to latches and padlocks that kept them shut and their contents sealed. The wood was splintered, and the job looked very much rushed overall…

Something told Yukito he was about to enter a makeshift lottery. He turned to Mira. "You have a key?" he asked.

Mira nodded to Yukito, and lit his horn again to conjure a small key anchored to a silver ring and a black cube. "Made damn sure to keep the cargo safe. You show us the rest of yours, we'll show ours. Fair trade?" he asked.

Yukito nodded and turned to Sora. She nodded in turn. "Done deal," she said, unaware of what she was about to delve into.