This story was written as a commission for FrecklesFanatic, based on a character of his from the "Stole My Heart at Cornerstone" FOE Tabletop PnP game (the same one Flintlock from the previous story was from.)

The clattering of the wagon's metal studded wheels passing the gate's bottom rim rang out into the air, while the rustling of a small mountain of goods atop it was enough to wake anyone in the vicinity. Orange sparks flared as its heavy weight dropped onto the layered steel plates on the ground behind the town’s gate, as Dusty Trail's ride rolled onto the flat ground within. Its occupants, his family, bounced atop it as they dropped down one final time from the rocky entrance.

Situated on the very outskirts of Manehattan, it was an ugly little town to Dusty's point of view. Enclosed, dense, and built of whatever could be pulled from the old wartime scrapyards a few hills over. Its high walls rose twice above a normal pony's height, but the squared, multilayered buildings squeezed into its small square interior were packed so tightly that he felt like his wagon was intruding upon the one open space it had in the centre. Ponies looked down from walkways on the second or sometimes third level of buildings. They came in only ones or twos, mostly older of age, wandering out of thin passages between dwellings to look at who had come to visit.

Above them, though, was what always caught his eye. Chickenwire had been strung up to long poles mounted on the side of the container like buildings, forming a cage-like ceiling above the entire town.

Tincan, it was called. When he'd first heard the name, he’d thought of the endless cans that had been pried open, found in ditches and abandoned shops. But whenever he came here, it reminded him that once upon a time those cans had been closed over, sealing whatever was inside them.

With the clunk of an iron brace, the gate closing behind him only reinforced that viewpoint, the rollers supporting the heavy barrier scraping over the metal plates on the ground. He'd often wondered about those metallic slabs, until the headmare of the town had finally informed him of their purpose. Pull them away from the entrance, and it would leave a ten foot pit beneath them inside the gate, in addition to the ones outside as well.

The product of a paranoid mind, he felt.

Dropping the reins from the brahmin, he stepped off the platform and dropped to the ground, before offering a hoof to help his wife down behind him. He caught a glimpse of green out the corner of his eye, turned, and found a familiar sight approaching from one of the cramped passageways they called ‘streets’.

"Light Beam! Golly, aren't you a buck and a half now? C'mere!"

He met the young earth pony mid-way across the dry mud of the town's center, and flung his forelegs around the green coated colt in a big bear hug of a welcome. Lifting him off the ground, he squeezed tight, before holding him out to look at. The foal offered only a nervous smile and a quiet 'hi' in return, before being put down and clearing his throat. His voice was every bit as hollow and breathy as the scant wind in this cramped little town.

"Mom'll be out in a bit, she said. I've to take you to her."

"Handling guests now, huh? Growing up quick. Well, let's go see what Meadow has to say. Wander?"

Dusty turned his head and shouted back to his disembarking family. Behind his wife, his eight year old son perked up, his bushy mane up the first thing seen on the back of the wagon; the foal sat atop its canvas cover.

"Da'?"

"Watch the cart, your mother and I are gonna go arrange trade tax with Meadow, ok?"

The sandy coloured colt gulped and nodded. This was his responsibility now, and he'd been promised he'd get to do it this time. Wringing his hooves amongst the canvas of the wagon's stock cover, he nodded again. And then a third time, just in case those eyes his mother always said she had in the back of her head were watching.

Dropping down on his haunches to watch his parents trot away, Wander began to feel an odd sensation. Seconds suddenly felt longer, like when he stared at the cooking pot to try and predict when it'd boil.

Around him, most of the town's quiet inhabitants were idle. Older ponies rested on walkways and balconies. Some even waved at him, but he didn't wave back. He had to look guard-like. The guards around here weren't waving, after all.

Shifting on the top of the wagon, certain he was sitting on the uncomfortable construction planks they'd found and hoisted into it, he rapidly came to the conclusion that guard duty was boring.

Really boring.

Beyond boring.

Sighing, he opened his mouth.

"Guarding stuff is so boring..." He muttered, just to confirm the fact out loud.

The blue filly beside him stuck her head up from rummaging in the wagon, his father’s hat from inside it on her head, and some faded jewelry both in her hooves and looped over her muzzle.

"I hate it too, just so boring! And every time I ring the bell to warn everypony I'm told they expected who it was I saw! Why even have the bell then?"

"Yeah..." Wander muttered, before his eyes shot open, his head turned, and he yelled. Floundering backwards, he scampered and fell from the wagon, landing upside down on his father's seat at the front. Upending himself, he yanked his head back up to her level to catch her laughing. Her high pitched voice drove a gigglefit of epic proportions.

"Where did you come from!?" His own voice broke, squeaking the words out. "How did you-"

The filly spluttered and fought to calm her laughing for a second, before waving at him with both of her small -yet undeveloped- wings. Her body was a navy blue, while her mane was streaked in white and a lighter, clear air blue. "Just glided down, silly! That's my house over there and-ooh!"

She never even got to pointing out her home, instead diving her small, skinny body head-first back under the wagon's canvas, amidst a clattering of metal and wood.

"You've got spray paints in here? Oh! And there's a mirror! Is that a treasure chest? What's in the chest?"

Her grinning head, somehow wearing an entirely different hat from his father's stock on her head already, popped back up from where she'd undone the straps on the cover to look at his gaping face.

Wander shook his head in disbelief.

"My da' says I've to watch the cart!"

"My mom says I've to watch the town! Hey, you got any firecrackers? Someone told me traders had firecrackers."

She gave him a toothy and hopeful grin.

Looking back at the one pony wide 'street' his parents had gone down, Wander felt his mouth hang open in confusion and worry. What was a guard meant to do? Was he even supposed to do anything?

Eventually, he mustered his resolve and clambered back up to look at her. She seemed about the same age as he was. Swelling his chest up, he planted his forelegs on the wagon’s backboard and sat before her.

"Are you stealing? 'Cos I'm Wander, and I'm the guard of the wagon. And your cutie mark looks like its opening locks. That means stealing right?"

Turning an old tourist map over and over in her hooves, presumably trying to find Tincan on it, the filly eventually gave up and dropped it back in the wagon. She didn’t look at him as she rambled. "Nuh uh. I got this for picking a lock on a chest. A trader had left by accident once, so we needed his info in it to find out where he was going next. Mom said it was to find things out and reach what I needed, not steal. And, um…”

She briefly looked at him.

“...is it still stealing if I just use something for a little while?"

"Da' says that's borrowing. He told me that when we took some ammo for his gun from the griffon who shouted at us in the last town while his back was turned."

Seemingly pleased with this answer, the filly shook her mane out, and settled down to play with a set of kitchen tools she'd found, swishing them around in her mouth like a sword. Within seconds, she spat one of them away after getting a taste of the frayed rubber mouthguard on a spatula. Her attention quickly moved on to something else. Him.

"So you know how bad guarding is? 'Cos I hate it. I'm Night Sky. What's your name?"

"I'm Wander Leaf. And it's my first time guarding, I don't like it already, I just want dinner now...hey, are you sure if you're allowed to be up here, cos da' told me to-"

She looked up sharply, her head cocking to the side. "You've got a dad? What's that like?"

He had to pause on that one. That was a weird question.

"He's nice, and, uh...he's teaching me what everything is. Like where towns are. And he likes to make me laugh with jokes. Like, a sandwich goes into a bar to get something to eat, what did the bartender say?"

Night Sky had her attention all on him now, leaning forward with the corners of her mouth curling upwards.

"I dunno!"

"Sorry, we don't serve food here!"

There were a few seconds as her big eyes clearly betrayed her thinking about it, before the little pegasus burst into laughter, falling backwards onto her back, hooves and wings waving amidst squealing little chuckles. Wander snorted and smiled, stepping up after her.

"We don't serve food here!" She cried.

"'Cos he's a sandwich!" He cackled, laughing again.

The pair drew more than a few eyes at their loud guffawing atop the trader's wagon, laughing for far longer than was really necessary. Eventually, still getting little hiccups of mirth, they both sat back up.

"Your dad sounds cool."

Wander felt proud of someone saying that, and nodded, finally getting a moment to ask what had been on his mind. "I ain't ever seen a pegasus before, where'd you come from? Above the clouds? My da' says there's a magic world up there."

Sky shook her head, "Nuh uh, I was born here. My mom's the head guardmare of Tincan."

"Ooh, cool, the one da's talking to. Is she a pegasus too?" Wander's excitement gave him a hushed tone. "Is this a town of pegasuses?"

Sky's shaking of her head grew more forceful. "Nope! Nope! She's an earth pony! And that was my brother he went with, Light Beam! He's an earth pony too!"

"So was your dad a pegasus? How else did you become one?"

Sky continued shaking her head for a third time in a row, but this time it was slower, and accompanied by her hoof coming up to scratch at her chin. She looked around for a bit, across the tiny windows that served as outlets in Tincan, or at the chickenwire rustling above them in the wind.

"Dunno."

"You dunno?"

"I dunno."

"Why not?"

"Gone. Mom doesn't talk about him. Tells my brother not to as well. I tried reading Light's diary once to see if he said anything there, and he said he wants to go find him someday, but other than that he just talks about wanting a terminal every Hearthswarming and promising he's good."

Wander screwed up his face. "He let you read his diary? I'd never let anypony read mine."

Sky whirled her hooves in a little circle, "Well, uh...he may not have 'let' me so much as...well, I borrowed it."

The trader's son gasped, both hooves to his mouth. "And he never knew?"

Biting her lip, Sky blushed and bobbed her head side to side. "Nah, he found out."

"He caught you?"

"Not really..."

"So how'd he know?"

"I drew him with stink lines in it."

Gaping at the proud, cheeky grin on her face, Wander could do naught but burst into laughter again, making Sky light up in pride at her grand plan.

Their laughing, chattering and playing around on the wagon echoed through the small town, bouncing from rusted metal walls into the cramped little alleyways leading to sliding doors for individual housings. The sound of mirth made several of the ponies smile and cast an appreciative glance at the childlike fun.

It was a rare sight in Tincan, for such an isolated and usually self sustaining town tended to demonstrate a monotony that gradually wore on its inhabitants. Many of them bore the trademark blank stare, but some took a moment to watch the foals and feel content. Tincan might be boring, with rooftop farms and only the very basics, but it was safe with Night Sky's mother in charge.

Grinning and happy to have found somewhere to pause for a few days, Dusty re-emerged from between two buildings, shifting his rotund midsection awkwardly around until standing in the square again, followed by his wife and, behind her, the very mare herself, the head guard of Tincan.

Dark blue by coat and mane over a strong, wiry body, her face bore a stern, accusing look seemingly just by default. Tight layers of leather formed up on her upper body, slung with a wooden semi-automatic rifle, two knives, and hanging set of hoofcuffs. Far from the look of a sheriff, she wore the appearance of a weathered adventurer past her heyday about her face and attire.

She was Silent Meadow, and those watching the foals knew only too well what was about to happen.

Ignoring Dusty's delighted proclamations of his goods, Meadow accelerated her gait and sharply marched across Tincan's square to the wagon. Biting upwards, she grabbed Sky's tail in her mouth and yanked hard. Yelping, the filly was dragged from the top, wings flaring to land unsteadily on her hooves. Looking up, she found the all too common look of her furious mother. Behind her, Light Beam poked out of a doorway, a meek look on his face.

"Aah! Wait, Mom! I was-"

"Was nothing! You are supposed to be on the south lookout! Why are you out here messing around with Dusty's wagon?"

Sky backed off, hunching her hooves, ears, and wings all close to her little body, looking away from the withering stare of her mother.

"I-I-I-"

Dusty stepped forward a little, investigating the undone canvas on his wagon, and giving a little questioning look to Wander. The colt shook his head, and his father turned away.

"Now, now...nothing's damaged. She’s just a filly. I'm sure she was just curi-"

Meadow cut him off through volume, not even acknowledging the trader's voice.

"Why did you leave it?"

Cowed, Sky mumbled something.

"Speak up, Night Sky!"

"To look at things, was getting bored..."

Meadow lowered her eyes, sighed deeply, and then stepped forward.

"Dusty, I'll be back in a minute. Sky, come on!"

Her hooves pushed the filly ahead of her, and again when she delayed. Hustling, chiding and hurrying her along. Sky had never so much as received even a quick smack on the flank, not even when she had 'borrowed' a picture book from a neighbour without telling, but she hardly wanted to give her mother reason to reconsider that position. Looking behind herself, Sky quickly cantered along, catching the confused and guilty eyes of Wander watching her from the wagon.

"I'm going, Mom! I'm going!"

She rushed ahead of her advancing mother, turning her lithe pegasus body into the thin gaps between buildings to go up the south stairs. Meadow was not far behind, clumping up the metal steps to the walkways on the first level above the ground, her intimidating gaze chasing Sky to the lookout porch on the wall.

"This is not acceptable, Night Sky! What will it take to keep you doing as you're supposed to? What will it take?"

She pushed the filly out onto the wall itself, where a small parapet jutted out. The chickenwire ran down from above, before being twisted into bracers on the edge of the thick steel sheet that functioned as cover in the event of a defence.

"I don't know, I...I just wanted to see who was there and I was trotting before I knew and-"

Meadow took a quick stare out the plains beyond the town, scanning the low, open roads that stretched toward the slow slope down to Manehattan's suburbs. In the other direction, small clumps of dead trees folded together in neat rows from what had once been pony-made forests. Tincan was isolated, despite being on a trade route. It could see for miles around, but had very little to see until someone a good ten miles from it, where one would finally enter more 'interesting' country. Ponies had once farmed here, leaving little room for post-balefire worth.

Analyzing the horizon, Meadow saw nothing. No rising dust from hooves, other than a wagon she knew was still leaving from hours before. No glint of telescopes. More importantly, no shapes in the sky.

Satisfied that nothing had snuck close during the lookout's time being absent of a pony, she turned to Night Sky once again.

"I've told you before. Lookout duty is important. It only takes one observant raider to see if we've got a lookout who's bad at her job!"

"But there's never any! And I'm a good lookout!"

"The hell you a-" Meadow stopped herself, took a deep breath, and growled. "We've all got to do our part. Why do you think I put up the chickenwire? Why do you think I dug that pit? You've got to learn to be disciplined; no outside flying time for a week."

Sky leapt up to her hooves. "Mom!"

"No protests, it'll teach you a lesson. We're not Tenpony! Foals have to help as well. Now you get back to your job, and so help me if I catch you away from here again until sundown, all right?"

Sky didn't reply. She just hung her head, the blue and white mane drooping.

"All. Right?" Meadow insisted.

"Yes, Mom..."

Meadow stared at her daughter for some time, before turning and leaving the lookout, her hooves making the sheet metal they'd built the town from crash and clatter, until Sky was finally alone.

Slumping at the parapet, she sighed and looked out at...nothing, really.

And that was the problem.

Two days later, seemingly little had changed. Sky's mother had kept her on lookout duty more than usual, leaving her sitting in what quickly began to feel like a cage poking out of the side of Tincan. On her mother’s orders, she was not just grounded from having any time to fly outside the town, but also from seeing Wander; on account of her 'reckless mischief'.

Now, as night fell and she entered the final hour of her watch, the young filly leaned her body on the same section of wood on the parapet she always did, and watched the same direction she always did. Already, the plank had a Sky shaped mark in it, growing as she did.

Quickly, Sky realised that two days could have been any amount of time. It just all folded together after a while, punctuated only by gut-punching moments of frustration and helpless impatience that she couldn't get to hang out of the only other foal in the town right now who wasn't her brother.

It had always been this way. Her mother was strong; a survivor. She had turned Tincan from a vulnerable place, one that had suffered at the hooves of raiders twice before Sky's birth, into a resistant little bunker of a town capable of warding away roving bands. Sky could still remember hiding in her bedroom, hearing the shouts as a gang was warded away with a few warning shots, and that was as close as Tincan had ever come to another attack in her lifetime.

Groaning, rubbing her head with both hooves and feeling her wings stretch with stiffness, Sky watched the darkening plains as the edge of the sun's light folded back over them like a retreating glow, running away from Tincan. There were little pockets of interest out there. Small barns, hovels, farms, thicket, and on clear days she could even see what looked like an out of town supermarket still gleaming from broken glass in the distance. Occasionally, she'd write wishlists of all the things she imagined might be in there.

She couldn't help it. Anything new. Anything different. Anything to ward off the boredom of Tincan set up some involuntary twitch in her mind.

And yet as she drew her eyes backward, she could see one line of dead trees perhaps five hundred meters from the walls. They were special.

Those were as far as she'd ever been allowed to fly out to.

From behind her came a series of shouts, breaking through the quiet of residents shutting themselves indoors for the night. Feeling that very twitch inside kicking up, she moved back a few steps to listen at the edge of the stairs.

It was her mother.

"Good luck, Dusty. You won't wait till morning?"

The jovial tone of the trader replied after a short pause. Hunching close to the ground at the sound of her mother, Sky figured he must have been shaking his head first.

"Gots to arrive before the brahmin herders do. Don't worry, with your maps and routes we'll be safe."

There were pleasant goodbyes, and she even heard Wander being asked to say goodbye to the 'nice mare', before the clatter of metal studded wheels on steel plates announced the family's departure from Tincan.

Rushing back to her perch, Sky pressed her little face against the chickenwire and tried to get a glance down the side of the wall at the road.

Eventually, cast in the swaying and soft orange glow of a gemlight lantern, the wagon rolled out, drawn by the lethargic yet powerful bovine ahead of it. Wander and his wife sat up front, and Sky bit back a mutter of annoyance that she'd never even learned the mare's name, no thanks to her mother.

But behind them, as the wagon wheeled around and passed her perch, she saw Wander on the back of it, half covered by the canvas, scanning the walls.

"Oh!" Sky gasped, and drew herself up, waving as frantically as she could. With both forelegs. And both wings.

After a few seconds, the sandy coloured colt jolted up and saw her, before beaming back. His smile looked enormous on his face, but it only lasted a few seconds, as he realised that the wagon wasn't going to stop. Even so, he waved enthusiastically.

Sky kept waving to him, throwing her hooves back and forth as though they were trying to outwave one another, and she heard his silly laughter on the wind.

But then, he was gone, too far off to see her against the black rust behind her body. She could blend in well, and in this case had no say in whether she did. She loved sneaking up to surprise some of the nicer old ponies in the town, or ambushing her brother, but now she wished she were glowing green if it meant enjoying one silly little waving game with a friend her age for a few seconds longer.

"Night Sky, what are you doing?"

Silent Meadow marched into the lookout, clearly having come here to watch the trader's progress, and Sky whipped her hoof down like it had been burned.

"Just waving?" She answered, nervousness in her voice.

Her mother sat down, eyes staring at the wagon with experience and wariness beaten into them. Sky knew her mother had once travelled the wastes before coming here, but she really never talked much about it all. She never talked about much of anything outside the here and now.

Now, she seemed to be judging Sky's actions, before finally abstaining.

"All right."

The filly let out her breath, and waved again. It was permitted, and she was going to take all advantage she could of anything. Only, with her mother seeming calmer now, she felt a little more courageous inside to will herself to raise her voice.

"Are they coming back?"

"The traders?" Meadow didn't look away from the plains.

"Uh huh."

With a slow nod, her mother sank down onto one of the watch stools, and left her gun by the ledge.

"Every few months. Bought our stocks well. Reliable. No danger to us. They can come back."

Feeling her sunken heart lift again, Sky let herself smile. Wander would come back, so she had a playmate to look forward to!

She joined her mother in watching the wagon go, before daring to speak again.

"Mom, why are there no other foals here other than I and Light?"

"Light and me." Meadow corrected quickly.

Sky blinked, confused. "But you're not a foal."

The sideways glare made her realise that perhaps she had missed something, and Sky quickly looked back to the wagon again.

Dusty's family were just shadows atop it now, highlighted against the fading orange and purpose of the twilight hour. She could see the little shape of Wander pushing up front between his parents, and his father's foreleg wrapping around him against the cold. Both parents leaned in to their son together.

Night Sky bit her lip, tapped her hooves idly, and started feeling the air becoming uncomfortably thick.

"Mom?"

There was only a hint of a sigh, but Meadow's voice was level.

"Yes, Sky?"

Taking her time, allowing a few breaths to pass through her lungs, Night Sky sat back and over thought every word she could say, before finally continuing.

"I know you don't talk about it but...but was dad like Dusty?"

Even in the open expanse of the Equestrian Heartlands, where the plains they were situated in were quiet at the best of times, the silence that followed felt somehow emptier. Silent Meadow, living fully up to her name, stared down at her daughter; her eyes were caught between surprise and anger.

Following a low growl, she shook her head, her short mane only bouncing slightly in its tight knot behind her head.

"No. He wasn't."

Despite the news, Sky couldn't deny feeling her chest push out and her habitual interest in learning new things about others kick in. Those three words were ones she had suspected for some time, but never before had she heard them directly.

Hearing a pony approaching, her replacement for the watch, Sky elected to try and keep talking, to hear more before someone else ruined the quiet moment.

"What was he-"

"Enough, Sky. Time you were in bed. You know the rule: eight o'clock for eight year olds. Come on."

Taking up her gun and returning it to her side-saddle holster, Meadow ushered her out as an old stallion limped his way into the lookout. Giving Meadow a thin smile, and Sky a pat on the head, he sat down and rested his cane by the edge.

Working her little legs ahead of Meadow's intense strides, Sky felt disappointment grip her heart.

"Mom, what I was gonna say-"

"Inside, now."

Moving around the outer rim of Tincan, the walkway only just more than a pony in width between homes and the outer wall, they took the stairs down, before rounding back underneath them and stooping to open the sliding door to their own windowless lodging. Built from two old cargo containers, it was almost completely hidden between other homes on all sides, contributing to the blocky, stacked look of the town. They had to squeeze in one by one.

Silent Meadow went in last. She could hear Light Beam muttering to himself over his workbench within, and ignoring the protests of Night Sky. She stopped in the doorway and turned, before returning outside and glancing upward at the chickenwire roof to the town. She scanned it, and beyond it to the clouds.

Her eyes narrowed. She ran through a mental checklist private to only her mind. Eventually, satisfied, she turned and went indoors, pulling the container's sliding entrance shut behind her. As the air turned to a still heat, she began hustling her daughter through the first container to the second one, divided into two rooms. Her own, and Sky's one shared with Light.

Sky tried again. "About-"

Meadow stopped her with a raised hoof at the door, and turned off the buzzing, soon to fail lightbulb that hung from a rope on the ceiling. Finally, seeing both of her children's bright eyes staring at her in the dark, she let her shoulders slump and the softer side finally came out. Offering a weary smile, she began closing the door, watching Sky crawl under the covers with a frustrated grumble.

"Maybe when you're older."

Times in Tincan went slow, and one year might feel like a generation.

Ponies came and went. Residents moved on from the dull life, or came anew to seek cheap taxes for accomodation. Within a year, the entire town could replace itself easily.

The only constants were Silent Meadow, as she kept building her little fortress in the wastes day after day, and her foals.

A constant that remained. And remained long through the winters. While the days dragged into becoming five long years, Night Sky did only what she could. To endure the crawl of lookout duty. To save up slowly to afford a radio off Dusty to help those lonely nights. To endure the increasing pressure of her mother's demands on life, learning, and law.

And yet for how slow it went, every one of those rare days in which that Wander came back to play with always seemed to go by too quickly. Fleeting moments of joy, months apart, as they would play at being adventurers in the thin streets, or laugh at Dusty's jokes, until the wagon would once again depart and the grind resumed.

And then, inevitably, the itch to do something -anything- to get a thrill or a rush would grow, and she would turn to hunting for prizes once again; continuing her adventures alone without her partner.

And occasionally, discovering secrets.

The vicious hellhound was unaware of her presence.

Huge, hunched over, it snorted and shook its head, and Sky froze on the spot. Fear and exhilaration coursed through her every vein, and yet she held herself still. She was good at that. Years of watch duty had given her that power. The power to slide unnoticed below the fiercest of creatures' gazes.

The power to take the item that would save Equestria forever from right under its nose.

Holding her breath, she leaned forward, creeping with soft hooves past its stench and its heaving back, until she saw her goal before her eyes.

Gleaming gold, bright as Celestia's sun, it rested behind an alarm system of diabolical ingenuity. The evil minotaur wizard had chosen its guardian and hiding place well.

The hound shifted, turning to look to the side with sudden attention, and its big mouth creaked open, after inhaling with a searing wheeze.

"Afternoon, Skip."

"Aye, aye. Going well?"

"Can't complain, mate. Far as Tincan goes."

A lucky break! Sky slipped her hooves between the hanging beads and slid the item of her dreams off the shelf. Padding carefully, she backed off, leaving the unaware gaurdian behind her. Moving through the shopkeeper's housing, she peered out his door, before finally winding her way into the thin alleyways at the edge of town, barely controlling the gleeful beating of her heart.

Equestria was saved, for now.

Punching the air, Sky sat down, letting her fantasy go in place of a shivering excitement.

"Yes, yes! Finally!"

With an excited flurry of her hooves, she drew out the item. The one she'd always needed.

The brass casing on it was rusted and marked; dented too. But the slightly hazy glass in the middle revealed its secret. A truth pointer! The small clock-face like object inside swung its way around four letters; but always seemed to point in one steadfast direction. Manehattan.

It made sense, she figured. Ponies said that the voice telling them all the truth came from Manehattan, after all.

Sky walked on toward a place to hide and play with it, rushing below a set of stairs to squeeze into a gap below a raised shipping container.

She was so entranced by the wavering device, that she didn't even notice a pony was already in her hiding spot, until her head collided with theirs.

The sharp knock on her forehead drew a sharp yelp from her, as the lance of pain shot through her skull enough to make anger briefly flare.

"Hey, watch it you-"

"Sky, watch where you're going!"

Her anger overridden, Sky looked up.

Light Beam sat rubbing his head, an infuriated look on his face. But even as she blinked and stared at him, her brother was frantically pulling items of clothing and food up off the ground to try and stuff them once more into a bag. His journal, amongst a stack of papers, had exploded from his hooves, landing between them, while the off-white sheets of ancient printer paper fluttered down slowly in the air.

"You're staring down so much you just ran into me!" Light cried out, wincing.

Picking herself up, and hurriedly grabbing the pointer from the ground, she just stuck her tongue out.

"Well you should...should...keep your thick head higher up!"

"What does that even-hey, isn't that Relic's compass?"

Sky looked side to side, before finally tracking her brother's own eyes to the pointer in her hooves. Pouting, she held it protectively to her chest, twisting away and stuffing it within a sweater that was far too large for her skinny body.

"No, this is the truth pointer."

"Sky, you're fourteen, you know what a compass is. Mom taught us. She also taught us not to steal."

"I'm not-" Sky raised her voice, before suddenly blushing at the cheeks, holding herself off the ground by flapping her wings, to match his taller stature and look him in the eye. She grabbed his face. "I'm just borrowing it, really!"

His face squished in her hooves, Light gently knocked her away and fixed her with a stare his mother would be proud of. "Just like you 'borrowed' my sweater."

"And you got it back!"

"You're wearing it right now!" Light's voice pitched up in exasperation.

She briefly paused and looked down, "...I was cold? What are you doing here? This is my hiding place! You haven't used it in years. What is this anyway?"

Leaning down, Sky snatched one of the pieces of paper from the ground that Light's frantic recovery hadn't gotten to yet.

"Don't!"

He reached for the paper, but Sky bounced away, falling onto her back. Yelling at her, Light Beam dove, and they tussled, with Sky using her hind legs to kick and ward the larger earth pony away, even while she cast a look at the stolen document.

The paper bore her brother's oddly neat drawing. All straight lines with careful writing. Even while thrashing and fighting, twisting her body to keep peering at it, she realised what it was.

It was a map.

And at the top of the map, near a town she knew was on the route to Manehattan from here, the word 'Dad?' had been written.

"Dad?"

She breathed the word, her ceasing of kicking giving Light pause.

Running a hoof across his own face, dragging his features downward and squishing his muzzle, Light groaned. "Sky, I just...it's not-"

Night Sky backed off until she could look out through the gaps in the stairs they were hidden below, before quickly returning to him once she was certain her mother wasn't approaching at the sounds of their bickering. Suddenly, the items strewn around his hooves made a lot more sense.

Food, clothing, maps, the suppressed pistol their mother had given him for his sixteenth, waterskins, a sleeping bag.

Wide eyed, hooves shooting to her mouth, Sky gasped. "You're going to sneak out after dad! I knew it! You said it in your diary years ago and now you're gonna do it!"

Guilt was written all over Light's face, leading him to idly look at the wall. Yet at Sky's more direct accusation, he shook his mane, and wiped his sweating brow. The small space down here was nothing but dull metal and earth under a hot summer heat; but it wasn't the stuffy atmosphere making him perspire at the moment.

"No! Not sneak! It's not like that! It's just a...I've been stashing stuff here for years so if I ever...urgh, why should I even have to explain this to you? You know what mom's like! If I ever wanna see him, I'll have to do it myself some day! I'm waiting for a job out there, Sky! Could be today if news comes in, could be next year, could be when I'm old enough to just walk out the door. I dunno, okay?"

Turning her head away, she peered at the gate, where ponies were pulling the steel plates back into place. They were expecting someone today, and she knew who. Sky would never miss knowing when Wander would come back with Dusty's caravan. And the gatekeeper had said today might be the day. Her mind whirled; surely Light couldn't mean a job with-

Outside of his diary ramblings as a foal, this was the first she'd even seen of him taking action. Their father had always been a curiosity to one day hear more about from their mother, not someone to go out and actually find.

"You promise not to tell mom?" Light had returned to his normally quieter tone, tinged with a wavering fear.

"Sure, but..."

She took a long breath, and stared at him, flaring out her wings. This could be it. Something to finally let her spread her wings outside this caged little town.

Until this moment, until seeing a path, she hadn't even known that urge had been growing steadily inside. A rebellious little feeling, a daring compulsion. And briefly, the thought of her mother didn't even cross her mind.

"I wanna come with you when you do."

There was a silence. Sky and Light had never seen eye to eye on many things, and their father was one of them. They each knew the other had always been curious, but every talk had ended badly.

Light Beam slowly gathered the rest of his things, and bit his lip.

His eyes hardened.

And he scowled.

"No."

Shoving his astonished sister away, he marched past her with a gait that he could only have learned from his mother. Tossing his bag through the hiding place entrance, he squeezed through and made off down what passed for the main street in Tincan, carrying any evidence with him.

Sky's mouth hung open.

"No?"

Frantically, she scampered forward, lithely pulling her bendy body through the small gap and catching up to him with ease, cantering behind her brother's determined pace.

"NO?"

"NO!"

"Why not!?"

Light Beam didn't even stop, "Because! This isn't your thing!"

That last sentence was it. Sky felt a bubbling anger boil up inside her, and she surged off the ground. Flapping her wings, she flew down the thin gap between homes and dropped down in front of him.

"What do you mean isn't my thing! He's my dad too!"

Light stopped short of barging into her, but his nose came frighteningly close to hers. He was a quiet buck most of the time, but he could muster a terrible anger.

"You never even knew him, Sky!"

"Basically neither did you! And what, you're wanting to go with Dusty? Good! 'Cos then Wander's there and-"

"That trader's son again? The one you're always running around playing at adventurer with?"

Sky shrank back, then fluffed up her wings in annoyance at the accusation of her friendship being anything but a good thing. "He's not just some random person! I've known him since I was eight, remember. He's my best friend every time he comes, 'cos unlike you he actually plays and hangs out with me, and I'd spend time with him and not bother you if we went! Because he doesn't just sit in his workshop all day and I know he'd help us! We could do it!"

Light Beam rolled his eyes, snarling his words.

"You're not coming. I don't want you with me there. I’ll find him alone. You might be surprised what I'm actually doing to prepare if you'd ever stop getting yourself into damn trouble all the time for stealing, or wasting time having a stupid crush on some trader, Sky!"

The sudden aggression in his reply caught her off guard enough that she dropped out of the air and hit the wall behind her.

"I don't-I...well what else am I meant to do for fun around here? Mom doesn't let me do anything! Ever! She won't even let me out to fly if the clouds aren't thick now! And...and you don't know anything about Wander! You never make ANY friends! So how are you ever gonna find dad if you can't even properly talk to-"

Both of their voices were just as equally interrupted. The one voice they both responded to by sheer habit was calling from nearby. In a town only big enough for any voice to carry to every resident, that wasn't hard.

"Light! Sky! Come help make dinner! Hurry up, come on!"

Their mother's voice brokered little room for arguing further; and glaring at one another with heated eyes, the siblings wandered off in different directions back home.

The main room of Meadow's home was as tightly packed as any other location in Tincan. The single folded-out table pushed the three folded-out chairs around it back against the folded-in wall grill and folded-in kitchen top, and left the three ponies somewhere between about three feet of space between hard oak and metal bulkhead.

The room was dark, for they had no windows. A sealed little home, anything but cosy. A perpetual game of fitting and changing the given furniture to occupy the scant space was the only way to make it work.

They sat in silence under the whirring of a small fan fed through the wall for airflow. The silence was not unusual.

Yet Night Sky was mostly prodding and pushing at her food, and not wolfing it down to get back outside to play with Wander as fast as was possible.

Now that, Meadow knew well, was unusual.

Narrowing her eyes, Meadow remained quiet. She hadn't heard their argument, but any mother could tell the signs when her children had been bickering again.

Minutes passed, with nothing but the pregnant quiet, waiting for an icebreaker. Nothing but the clink of mismatching cutlery on a mixture of metal and wood. Light acted normal, but Meadow could see he was glancing toward herself every time she put down her fork.

Her beady eyes never missed that. He was waiting for something. His back was tense.

Silent Meadow never did miss those details. Little clues. Little hints as to what was to come. They mattered. Don't look and assume normal. Look and assume what it meant.

Thankfully, she knew what it meant, and what he sensed she had to say.

"I talked to Dusty."

She only had to say the word 'talked', and Light's entire body jolted upwards. Yet to her surprise, Sky's eyes blinked around just as full of interest. Had Light told her?

"Mom?" Light Beam was leaning forward.

Meadow took a second to finish her mouthful, reached over to turn up the gas lantern, and dabbed her mouth with a faded napkin. One of two dozen identical ones from the old diner five miles to the east.

Night Sky wished she knew why her mother was hesitating. It was a yes or no question, but their mother always chose the same answer every time they asked about the topic.

Light was going to be disappointed, she never let them have any real freedom.

Silent Meadow closed her eyes, opened them, and reluctantly spoke.

"He's agreed to allow you to join his caravan as a guard."

The slam of cutlery was synchronised from either side of the table.

"He did!?"

"You're letting him do it!?"

Light's face was matching his name, beaming a surprised grin like he'd been told Hearthswarming was coming early.

"Mom! Thank you! Thank you! I'll go see him tonight!"

Meadow raised her hoof, chiding him. "Tomorrow morning. Let his family rest. We'll work out what you're taking, what he'll provide, and what you are to be doing for him. Dusty is a good stallion, he'll teach you more than I can here, and his route is very safe now."

"Can I go too?"

Sky's voice broke into the conversation with such haste that she nearly tripped over her own words, and had to swallow her mouthful before it sprayed out.

"Can I...go?"

Meadow's eyebrows raised, and hardened. Across the table, Light Beam was giving Sky a harsh look, one that spoke volumes about annoying their mother right now.

"No." Meadow's voice was curt. She looked back down to her meal.

"Come on! I can help, you know I'm really good at spotting stuff and staying hidden, and I'm better at meeting new peo-"

"No, Night Sky!" Her mother interrupted with a stern use of her daughter's full name. "You are not ready to go out there."

"Yes I am! And if it's with Light, we can help each other!"

Meadow shook her head. "He's a guard, I've trained him to fight. Not you. You wouldn't be able to handle raiders."

Sky, desperate, let her mouth run before her mind.

"I...I've handled raiders before!"

Meadow, surprised, fixed her with a stare. Sky gulped.

"I-I mean I've stopped a raid!"

The intense glare from the older mare could corrode metal. Sky looked down.

"Okay, I stopped Light raiding the fridge once. But c'mon! Can I join him next year then? You can teach me to fight like you did for him!"

Meadow again went back to her food, as though it was already settled. "No, you're a lookout. You stay here. Enough of this curiosity, Sky. You've gotten yourself into too much trouble as is lately. Maybe when you're older."

Nothing about that sounded even vaguely like what she wanted. Light was getting to go with Dusty, and as a result carry out his wish to look for their father, and she was being told to go to the same parapet, under the same chickenwire, in the same town.

It was beyond unfair, and Sky felt the bile rising in her at this. Moreso as she saw Light refusing to meet her eye. He'd just ignored her.

Sky quickly finished the last of her meal, eating between grumbles as her mother told Light of some of the responsibilities and routes he'd most likely be on. After they were done, Meadow took the washing, telling the two to head out while she reset the room for the evening.

Light didn't waste time, marching to the door. Sky wasn't far behind. Her anger had been building throughout this. Light was only a couple years older, and Wander was the same age as her. Now both of them got to go out there, but she couldn't? Why couldn't she at least go on the caravan once? Why always just lookout and staying inside this boring, cramped town?

Using her wings, she zipped through the thin streets to catch up with Light.

"Hey!"

He didn't look around as he answered.

"Not now, Sky! You've embarrassed yourself enough. Why did you have to try that? You almost messed it up for me too if it looked like I'd planned it with you! You're always trying to ask her about dad, and she could have spotted it! You know how mom seems to do that!"

Sky ignored his protests, rushing up and blocking him, before prodding his chest with a hoof.

“Why shouldn't I? You didn't even try to help me! You didn't even say a thing when I spoke up! We're brother and sister, we're meant to look out for one another! We coulda done this-"

"Because I don't want you to go, Sky! I told you! I'm going alone, and that's it!"

"What have you got against me? Why do you keep wanting me to not do it?"

"Because I don't want you with me! You just make things worse! You always do, ever since you were born!"

Sky gritted her teeth, shoving his chest to knock him into a wall. The corrugated metal warped behind him, and she barked her words out.

"How could you say that!? That's awful! We both want to find him! Dad left both of us!"

Light snarled, and knocked her back so hard that she slammed into the opposite wall.

"Dad left because of YOU!"

The words hit her like a harsh slap across the face. Sky curled back against the metal, away from his furious, accusing look, the heated words catching in her throat.

"Wh-what-"

"My dad disappeared the DAY you were born! You're the reason I never had him around! You're the reason I don't remember him! I was...I was only two!"

There were angry tears in his eyes, dripping over his cheeks, a contrast to the ones of horror that now emerged on Sky's face.

She couldn't believe this. She couldn't.

"Light...no. No, that's...why? Why would you say that...it's not..."

Light pushed her aside, Sky's limp body offering no resistance, and continued on his way to the workshops, muttering.

"I don't know. I just don't know..."

Pausing, he looked back at her, fury on his face.

"But I know that means I don't want you anywhere near me when I find him."

He left, departing on shaking legs around the corner.

Sky felt herself curl up under her wings in the alley, shivering with envy and fear. But mostly a cruel, deep pain that no matter how hard she gripped herself, wouldn’t stop squeezing her heart until it hurt.

Wander was crouched under the wagon, stumbling and pushing to get the replacement wheel spoke to snap into the frame. Scraping his hooves, grunting, he felt it crack into place.

He only heard the fluttering a second before a pegasus careened into him, driving them both against the wheel as little but strong forelegs tried their very best to squeeze the life out of him.

"Wha? Sky?"

She didn't say anything, but he felt her bury her face into his shoulder, and let the tears in her eyes seep into his coat.

"Sky...what's wrong? Sky?"

Light Beam left that week. With his secret maps and clues stuffed in his bag, he mounted Dusty's cart and, for the first time, truly left Tincan.

Night Sky had spent the days leading up to the departure around Wander, trying in vain to explain to him what was going on. He'd said he'd talk to his father, but Dusty wouldn't be moved to oppose Meadow. All the same, Wander's presence had been her sole comfort. She'd never let him see her cry before, but his unjudging eyes, and the careful hug he'd given her had allowed Sky a chance to try and recover.

All the same, she didn't wave from her lookout to the wagon this time, as she saw her brother sitting upon it looking back at the town he no longer had to worry about.

Tincan soon changed its population once again, as residents came and left.

But this time there were only two remaining who didn't leave, and Sky's world grew ever smaller.

Two years later, the rains came.

Months of horrendous weather were lashing the wastes. The clouds turned to black, and took what faint sun was left away from the denizens of the Manehattan outskirts. Night turned to grey, and grey turned to night.

The thin streets of Tincan became small rivers heading downhill to the gate, and filled Silent Meadow's defence pits with a goopy, brown water. The main square was a quagmire of fetlock deep slush, and more than once the entire town had to unite and messily help wagons get back out their little home.

Soaked through, Night Sky was sheltering beneath a wooden palette on the rooftops, just beneath the chickenwire mesh. She gloomy handed tool after tool to her mother. Meadow hung from the supports, welding vicious spikes into the top of the wire, pointing upward.

When questioned why, she refused to answer, as always.

She'd done the same when connecting spark batteries to the metal gates, electrifying them at night when they were shut and inaccessible.

She'd done the same when denying Sky from flying any higher than twenty feet off the ground now.

Tincan was ever more fortified.

Sky was ever more enclosed.

Yet as she handed another sharpened piece of rebar to her mother, she saw a figure come from the rains. Trotting through the clinging mud, pulling his hooves free with sucking, wet sounds on every step, Light Beam returned home through the gate.

He'd had a growth spurt in his time away. He looked stronger, and more hunched at the shoulders. His mane was longer. He carried weapons he hadn't possessed when he left.

Meadow stopped, and gazed down from behind Sky, her face inscrutable.

Looking up from below his flattened, soaked mane, Light spotted his mother and sister up above, paused, and then silently began limping toward their home.

Halfway there, he threw down his newly acquired rifle into the mud, and tossed his saddlebag aside, the look of failure about his being.

Light Beam never spoke about his journey to Sky. He recounted the caravan job to his mother, but nothing of what else he'd been up to.

Sky knew what must have happened, but something about the quieter, matured look in her brother's eyes gave her pause against even her curiosity inquiring further. Oddly enough, he never bickered after that, and would just sit with a sad look on his face as she and their mother were at odds.

All she knew was that he hadn't found who he wanted and, after two long and hard years, he had finally come home in disillusionment.

He went back to guard duty, and took the lonely, silent shifts during the night; the opposite of Night Sky's own ones for the day.

Sky occasionally thought to ask if she could join Dusty's caravan, but every time the answer was the same, even when she had long passed the age Light had been at.

"Maybe when you're older."

When she grew to be yet older again, she asked again.

"Maybe when you're older."

And on her nineteenth, asked again.

"Maybe when you're older."

Along the way, along the years, she stayed in touch with her only friend. Sky and Wander had scant moments in every year, three or four times, to be around one another. To share problems, to share the fun. He began bringing her things every time he came back, and she began trying her best to return the gesture from the goods other traders bought.

He grew, as did she. So did their friendship, and their bond.

"Oh, it's so cool!"

Sky held the gift in her hooves, a gasp and a smile competing for space on her face.

A dark grey bandana stared back up at her, sitting upon the brown paper it had been contained in, prior to her frantic unwrapping.

She hugged it to her chest, wings flapping furiously behind her in excitement, and a high pitched squeal of joy shaking through her.

Wander was sat on her bed beside her, and mid-way through his bashful shrug found his upper body grabbed and yanked nearly sideways. Sky's wiry legs squeezed around him, and her short mane rubbed into his chest.

"Thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you!"

Cheeks red, Wander held her tightly, grasping around her back and rocking side to side.

"Aww, you're welcome, Sky. Da' saw it, but I knew it would suit you."

Enjoying the comforting warmth of another pony who actually wanted a hug, Sky felt reluctant to let go. Leaning her weight in, she sighed and looked at the bandana again.

"I'm gonna wear it on watch tomorrow, it'll be so good for the winter. So, uh, how long are you here for this time? Last one?"

The young trader took a deep breath, settling his body and rubbing Sky's back as he did. Morosely, he nodded.

"Yeah...last one before winter sets in. We'll be here for a couple more days, just the usual."

They separated slightly, yet he couldn't bring himself to uncurl his forelegs, instead letting her rest back against them. After an awkward second of silence, he saw her blush and chuckle as she realised how long they'd spent in contact, not letting go.

He liked that look. Sky had grown into what Wander’s mother had teasingly described to him as a 'cutie'. Looking at her now, he could hardly disagree. With her maturing through her teens, the aloof silly-filly was now a quirky silly-mare. He knew people mistook that whimsical personality of hers for being naive and daft, but he'd spent enough time around her to know she was clever. Maybe not educated, maybe not sagely, and prone to what could charitably be described as 'alternative logic', but clever at what she knew, and a burst of happiness to be around.

He knew well that he was about the only source of outlet for that delightful joy that she held inside. And while he felt lucky to be the pony that could experience that, he felt bad for her being so cooped up and grew impatient to see her each time.

Just until his last visit, he hadn't realised that the time apart had built up so much fondness, perhaps more than fondness. He'd left wishing his goodbye hug had lasted longer.

It was about then that he realised they were still holding on to one another.

Sky had realised too. Feeling her heart start accelerating, she saw his eyes staring right at her. She felt surprised, and then more surprised that she actually felt safe and comfortable with it. Nopony had ever looked at her like that before, with trepidation and a nervous hesitation.

After a moment, she realised that was exactly the look that was on her own face, and felt her forelegs around his midsection re-tighten.

"So uh-"

"Known each other a long ti-"

They spoke at once, and quickly apologised at the same time.

"I meant-"

"Was thinki-"

She bit her lip, feeling very silly, but breaking into laughter all the same. “Why can't we talk now? We managed it for ten years."

Wander chuckled, and shifted to get comfortable, pulling her hip in comfortably against his. "Heh, yeah...true. I just...what you told me last season, the issues and...and you're really fun whenever I'm here. And how you always sneak up on me. Feels good to know there's...uh..."

Sky snorted. "There's?"

Wander looked away and rubbed his mane, before bringing the hoof back down to her cheek.

"That there's someone who wants to be around me as much as I want to be around them, that they'd sneak up on me just to surprise me. And how much I like that. Guess then you know its someone real special that you got there to feel close to."

Her eyes lit up, the thumping in her chest threatening to make her wings start twitching. She saw his eyes briefly glance at them, and batted the side of his head with one to hide her cheeks furiously blushing.

They both paused again, but she felt his forelegs tighten, along with her own, as they drew closer. Her eyes began to close. Things, for once, felt a little daring. A little break from the monotony and imprisonment. A rebellion into her own feelings. No need to ask. Nopony to complain about it this time.

Why not try?

In long, aching seconds, she felt him nervously shivering just as much as she did, and felt the hot air of his breath on her lips, and-

The door to her room opened slightly, and then burst open the remainder of the way a quarter-second later.

"OUT!"

Sky and Wander burst back from one another, just in time for a dark blue foreleg to grab and drag him off of her. This was no stern pull, Wander was thrown off the bed, staggering and falling onto his rump.

"Hey! That's not-"

"I said, OUT!"

Silent Meadow had a look of cold fury on her face, placing herself between Sky and Wander, hounding him, shoving him, and grabbing him to drag and usher him out of Sky and Light's room, and out the front door to her house.

"MOM! No!"

Meadow didn't turn around at Sky nervously running after her, shouting and trying to get her attention. Her focus was on Wander.

"We bring you in here to our town, but I do not give you permission to intrude on my daughter!"

"That's not your choice for he-"

The door slammed shut in his face, and Meadow turned to face Sky.

"And you..."

"What the hell was that? Mom, he's been my friend for like ten years! Why can’t-"

Meadow stepped forward, pressing her face to Sky's. The two were the same height now, much the same colour, but Meadow's weathered face bore a heavy, intimidating focus.

"I will not have my daughter gallivanting off with some trader's son! He'll only give you reason to try and sneak out with him. That's the last you'll see him. Dusty's contract is terminated this season. Come spring, he will not be back here."

Sky gaped, and actually took a few seconds to process the whirlwind of consequences that had just been dropped on her. A hollow feeling came over her.

"WH-WHAT!?"

"You heard me. Now go get your kit ready, you're on the lookout tonight, Light's come down with something. He's at the healer no-"

Sky didn't bother to listen to the rest.

"That's bulls-"

"Language, young mare! Now do as you're told."

Sky stamped their metal floor, and snarled.

"NO! No! I'm going to go out there and find him again! He's the only friend I have in this damn town, and he's never even here! At least he would give me a hug every now and then. Unlike YOU!"

There was a stark, yet violently charged silence. Meadow closed her eyes, and sat down, carefully pulling out a contract from her filing cabinet with a shaking hoof. Night Sky seethed, slamming her hooves up on her mother's desk in their front room. She couldn't hold it back any longer.

"Just because of whatever it was Dad did to you, doesn't mean you should do this to me!"

Then, Sky fell silent, and she felt her rage snuffed.

Her mother's head had turned to face her, and it bore a look that she had never seen before. Cold. Intense. A look beyond anger.

Silent Meadow rose up, and her hoof came up sharply with her, raised up ahead of her head, tensing and swinging viciously down...only to pause in mid air, a hoof’s breadth from Sky's face. Sky shrank back in shock, eyes wide, backed and huddled into a corner.

The look on Meadow's face slowly shifted, her hoof shaking violently. She looked to it, as though in surprise, and her voice was straining to stay level.

"I. Will. Protect. You. If you go out there to follow him, if you had wanted to go with him...you may be seen. I won't let that happen. I can't trust you not to be tempted. Go...go to your room."

"I-"

Meadow’s voice erupted in volume. "Do not test me, Night Sky!"

"But-"

"DO NOT!"

The hoof finally came down, slamming wickedly hard into the very edge of the desk. Pens, books, and the failing terminal bounced with a clatter, and the bang shattered Sky's remaining nerves. She fled back to her room.

Shuttering the door behind her, she dove into her bed, sobbed, and pounded the pillow again and again.

Later, she heard the argument between her mother and Dusty in the distance, before the sound of metal studded wheels on steel plates rung out an hour later.

Probably for the last time.

During the event, outside their home, and sniffling from the mucus in his nose, Light Beam saw the young stallion run past in tears back to his wagon.

He heard the shouting from within, and quickly knew what had happened.

Remaining where he was, he just sighed and shook his head, turning around to instead go to the parapet, where he rested his head in his hooves and gave little thought to the job at all.

Sky didn't bother getting up to do lookout that night.

And yet, nopony came to fetch her for it.

It hurt. It hurt so very much. Frustration welled up, but had nowhere to go. Guilt crept in and was cast away again and again. She knew it wasn't her fault, but it couldn’t stop feeling like it was. Eventually, she began to recognise what the true feeling was.

Hopelessness.

It was one she didn't like. She felt sick. She had a headache. Her eyes stung.

How did it happen that she was stuck here? How was this protecting her? It was just a cage that grew more encasing with every passing year, as her mother's imagined threats became only more looming.

Why? Why so much? Why only her? Why not Light Beam too?

So many questions. And she could only think to a single answer.

It took her an hour to build the courage. An hour of shaking and worry. An hour waiting to hear that one sound: That of her mother leaving the house again.

And then she made her move.

She had to know. After all this, she had to. This wasn't normal. This wasn't right.

She had to.

Opening the door to Silent Meadow's room felt like peering past the gates of Tartarus itself.

Even as her skin tightened at the loud creak the door made, Sky's breathing grew ragged and inconsistent. She had always felt the thrill when stealing from someone she didn't like, or borrowing just for fun in Tincan, but this was different. This was very different.

There were real consequences now.

Her mother's room was small. Just a bed, and a couple feet of space to stand up in to one side of it. The walls were filled with crude sketches on yellowed paper, depicting enhancements to be made to Tincan. She saw plans for a wider external ditch, a second layer of wire atop, and even to add shielding metal plates on top above their house, and Sky's lookout spot to block sight from above.

An old diary lay open, its days instead used for notes.

'First day of Autumn. Cloud conditions: Light. Horizon conditions: Clear. Keep inside. Give night lookout only.'

'Second day of Autumn. Cloud conditions: Heavy. Horizon conditions: Fog. Allow short flight. Give day lookout.'

Heart thumping, she turned some more pages.

‘Fifteenth day of Autumn. Cloud conditions: Heavy. Horizon conditions: Light Mist. Allow sunset flight only.’

‘Sixteenth day of Autumn. Cloud conditions: Light. Horizon conditions: Clear. Keep inside. Give night lookout only.'

The entries only continued, and she recognised every one of the shifts.

"Mom...what?" She barely dared breathe too loudly, but the words crept out all the same.

Frayed clothing, disassembled weapons, stocks of food for their home, and little else populated the shelves above. The ground held a torn piece of carpet laid over the cold metal.

Shivering as though stuck on lookout in blizzard season, Sky began to hunt.

Boxes of trinkets. Folders of old trade contracts. A pile of blankets. There were hidden stocks beneath a panel on the floor. Emergency food, lighters, water. More than any one pony would normally have. All of it in pre-packed saddlebags, ready to grab in a hurry. Enough for three ponies.

She came across an old locket in a drawer. The drawer was locked, but that hadn't stopped her with some dextrous use of the surrounding tools.

She'd gotten her mark for finding out things, after all. She wasn't about to let simple locks stop her.

Popping the locket open, she saw it contained no photos. No surprise, she knew her mother had no camera, but it did contain a message.

'To my love, for helping me find my hooves here.'

She stared at it for some time, tossing the sentence over and over in her head, before hurrying it back inside. He'd been in Tincan, she knew that already.

Down below the drawers, she found something more promising.

A small safe, bolted to the floor and covered in a muddy set of overalls. Only big enough to contain perhaps a helmet at most.

Holding some safety pins, sewing needles, and a metal rod meant for cleaning a pistol, she set to work.

The work was excruciatingly slow. Every minute passing felt like a chance to be revealed. Her mother was on her rounds. She never had a defined time for them.

Click. Click. Click.

A pin broke, and she exchanged it with a thicker needle, sweat dripping into her eyes from the concentration, and horrible sense of tension growing through her whole body at the tiny movements it needed. This was the hardest lock she had ever tackled.

Click. Click. Click.

Click.

Breathing in sharply, she felt something shift, and warily pulled at the door.

It opened quietly, on well oiled hinges. So easily, in fact, that she banged it into the desk beside it.

Heart in her mouth, Sky threw her shaking hooves inside. She had to know. She knew it would be something. Somehow, she just knew.

It was.

A sealed bag was contained inside. Nothing of strict value, unless that value was information on her father.

It was everything.

Eyes widening, Sky laid it all out on the floor.

A well crafted uniform. Beige and grey, with black highlights. Made of loose and yet tough material.

A beret, light brown in colour, bearing a winged symbol.

A cap badge for the beret, scarred and blackened. Its old symbol soldered over, disfigured into the shape of a cloud and a lightning bolt.

A small note, stitched to what looked like an identification card.

The card had the words 'Grand Pegasus Enclave' stamped onto it, along with numerous numbers, and a scored out area where a portrait might have gone. The note was handwritten.

'My dearest Meadow, I am sorry. I am so very sorry. They will be watching, and they won't abide new pegasi being created by a Dashite. I have to go.'

Sky read it five times, feeling like she was skipping over words in her haste, never able to read the entire short message in one go. She got into a muddle, until finally, she grasped the meaning.

Light hadn't been incorrect.

But he had been wrong.

"Dad..."

"Night Sky." Silent Meadow's voice was low.

The young pegasus' blood froze. In her stupor, she had missed the gentle sound of the door opening. Shock running through her, she turned, the note in hoof, and saw the silhouette of her mother in the doorway. Imposing and still, eyes glinting down to look past her nose.

Sky could find no words, other than a scared gasp.

Meadow stepped forward, bringing a regretful look into view of her room's own weak lantern. The soft orange wavered back and forth, casting her eyes into shadow for a brief moment on every swing.

"I am surprised. Surprised only in that you hadn't done this years ago."

Her mother sounded exhausted, and Sky was certain she saw marks below her eyes. Her hooves dragged on the floor, and her words took effort.

"Your father, my husband, abandoned us, Sky. Too scared for his own hide that another pegasus might attract them to him. A coward, who left us all behind, left me with the job of raising both of you in the Equestrian plains alone; with nothing but a useless, little, and defenceless town to hide us from the threat he fled from."

Meadow advanced, and knelt down beside Sky. She was breathing hard, and Sky could only guess she had been torn over their argument earlier. This was a side she hadn't seen before.

Sky remembered the raised hoof. Her mother had never struck her. Never. The shock of having almost done that must have been terrible to a mother. Now, vulnerable, she seemed too mentally tired to be angry about what Sky had now done.

Meadow hung her head.

"I should have told you years ago. I didn't want to scare you of what's above us. What can't learn of you, or they'll come. But I'll protect you. Don't worry, my daughter. I'll protect you, even though he didn't. But you must stay here."

Suddenly, so much made sense. The cage. The spikes. The records of the clouds.

But she didn't agree.

"Mom..." Sky felt like her voice was tiny, "...I think he left to protect us. They looked for him, so he left to take their eyes off of us. It's been nineteen years, mom...they aren't coming."

A flash of determination, of hardness, came over her mother's face, and she gripped Sky's cheeks in both hooves.

"You're safe because you haven't been seen. They hunted him before we found Tincan, Sky. We ran from them together. We fought them together. We lost our friends to them. We saw them die around us. We lived off nothing to evade them. I refuse to let you have that life. I won't let them have my daughter. I won't."

Her mother hung her head, those last words sounding so very tired.

Sky shook her head, feeling guilty at having come in here, and struggling to keep her face dry.

"I'd rather that life, and be with you both, as a family; than live in a cage, Mom..."

There was a long silence, as Sky realised she had no idea what else to say.

"Go to bed, Sky. Don't worry about lookout tomorrow. I'll do it. Maybe...maybe when you're older..."

"But-"

"Not now, Sky. Please."

With surprising gentleness, Meadow guided Sky to her own room.

Sitting on her bed, Sky sank down and looked up as her mother slid the door over, unable to make eye contact with her daughter, leaving Sky in the flickering light alone.

There was a gap of a half hour before Sky heard the clunk of the safe closing again in the next room.

Night Sky didn't know what to do.

The soul crushing argument, the loss of Wander from her life, and the revelations about her father were only one side of the cap.

The confusion and rampant emotion of what her mother was going to do was the another.

It was playing havoc on them all, just like Light Beam had felt a year ago.

Pacing in circles, Sky felt her breathing rise again. Anger rose, and she threw her pillow. Ten minutes later, sadness took over, and she sank down in tears. As night fell, an empty shiver led her to sit and do nothing, until impatience led her to demand questions of anything she could possibly talk to.

Unfortunately, none of the furniture had any answers for the distraught pegasus.

'When you're older'.

She'd heard it dozens of times. It was the excuse every time. The reason to undermine her. The placebo to the next year. The endless promise.

Now she believed one thing about her father, and she knew that this knowledge would not rest easy. Sky couldn't know for sure. Her mother couldn't know for sure either. She couldn't.

What was the truth?

How could she even find it out? But Sky knew, that was what she did. She found things out, and her curiosity would never let her stop thinking about this. It was terrifying to imagine this from now on; the thought of this on her mind for so many days, unable to stop playing the words over and over until they drove her to not even knowing at all what to believe any more.

The same way they had hurt her mother.

Shivering, holding herself, Sky looked up to where she'd always wished she had a window.

And sitting on the panel that would have been the windowsill, was the truth pointer, its metal arrow sticking eternally in the direction of Manehattan.

She stared at it for some long minutes. She couldn't, could she? Was that even possible for her? Could she dare go that far?

"I...I..."

She stammered, not knowing what she even meant to say, as she stood up and took it in her hooves, wings drooped behind her. Years before, she'd been convinced she could go with Wander and Light.

Now, Sky wondered again over the aching hours, could she do it alone?

As she thought of those around her, she knew she had to. Light Beam had retreated from the urge, defeated by failure. Her mother had been pushed to damaging levels of worry and hurt.

It had to be her. She was the only one left who could find the truth before it was too late for all of them.

Two hours later, the truth pointer was gone.

And so was Light Beam's travel bag.

She wore the bandana Wander had given her to cover the white streaks in her mane, Light Beam's thick sweater to ward off the chilly wind, and his saddlebag tugged to its tightest strap around her.

Food would soon be discovered missing from her mother's emergency stocks, as would a blanket, and a map.

In the lookout above her, she could hear the radio she'd bought muttering away, a DJ's drawling voice recounting events from across the wasteland. It gave her the confidence to keep moving. Keep pushing past every fear that crept in. That someone who knew the wastes was out there. Someone who might be able to help her find her father.

Sky crawled through her hiding place, squeezing between the bottom dregs of Tincan toward the edge of the wall where she and her mother had been fixing the chickenwire. She knew it was easier to undo there.

Ducking below the light from windows, using every ounce of stealthy care she had learned in her misadventures, Sky approached the little gap between the town healer's house and the wall itself, flew up, and began to undo the twisted wire; hoping that the sounds it made wouldn't carry too far.

Yet mid-way through, she heard the sound of hooves approaching, and hid.

Squeezing below the healing house's back steps, she was surprised as a strong flashpoint cast directly on to her, and the instantly recognisable voice of her brother, Light Beam spoke up from its source.

"I know your hiding places, Night Sky. We both used them."

Wary, guilt on her face, Sky sucked in air and stepped forth from the small gap. As she did, the light switched off, revealing the quiet form of her big brother standing behind it. Her eyes took time to adjust, but she could see he had a suppressed pistol on him.

"And I also know what you're doing, Sky."

She shook her head, backing away as he advanced, until her back was against the wall. His bigger frame became clear, mouth idle on his ever-neutral expression.

"I...I..." Sky began, but couldn't find much to say. "I need to..."

He stopped in front of her, and took his pistol up in a hoof.

"I can't let you go into danger, Sky."

"Light, please...don't take me back. It’ll only hurt more, hurt Mom more if..."

He paused, raised an eyebrow, and sighed, before hoofing the pistol over to her.

"So I can't let you go unarmed."

The world fell quiet to Sky. The small pistol, its barrel shrouded in a thick suppressor, fell into her hooves, its click of the metal on the hard edge of her hoof all that she could hear.

"Light?"

He stepped back, and sat on the steps, sniffling from his illness. He didn’t look at her, only at his own hooves.

"When I left, I was with Dusty and his family. I watched them from afar most nights. I saw them laugh, share jokes, and make Wander smile. They were all excited when his wife became pregnant again. I...couldn't believe what I was seeing."

Light leaned on his hoof, and rubbed his long, drooping mane. He'd kept meaning to cut it.

"Then I came back and remembered just...just how far we were from all that. Our family. Neither Mom or Dad are blameless in this, and I should have understood earlier that it's both of us, brother and sister, that its hurting. Instead, I blamed you. Way I see it now, Mom had her opportunity before, and I had my chance..."

He rested a hoof on her shoulder, not looking directly into her eyes.

"I suppose it's only fair you get your shot too. I'd rather risk her wrath letting you go to do whatever you have planned, than let this family stay broken any longer."

Sky's mouth hung open, before she launched forward and hugged her brother around his neck. A few seconds later, his large hooves settled on her thin back.

The pair stood and rocked for some moments. The first true embrace they'd shared as siblings in their lives that she could remember.

"You know she'll come after you, right?"

"I know...but I can fly faster. I just...I'm a bit scared."

Light Beam released her, and took the map sticking out her saddlebag.

"Head north. Keep heading north until you find the river, then follow it left. That'll take you to the trade routes. It's about three days, so stay hidden when you sleep, and stop in every settlement you can. Speak to ponies. I failed because...because I didn't. But you, you're not like that. It should have been you who left with Wander. Not me."

"Light..."

He pulled her head down to the map, using his torch to illuminate it.

If you're lucky, you'll find Friendship City along the way, but if not, then there's a new place that's been made. Look for Cornerstone. It only set up rather recently, but I hear it's safe on the way to Tenpony."

She followed his hoof on the map, before he packed it away for her. Tucking his pistol away, she took a long breath.

"Thank you, Light. Thank you, just...thank you."

He made a rare gesture. A smile.

"Get going, Sky."

It was a monumental effort for her to turn, fly up, and crawl through the gap she had made. Turning at the top, she offered a small wave, and dropped into the blackness of the empty plains outside Tincan.

Suddenly, she felt unrelentingly isolated. She'd been outside before, but never at night.

It was a void, a dark and empty world past the light of her home. Her skin felt clammy immediately, like her limbs were locking up. But as she gripped the compass, her truth pointer, and spotted its glowing tip, she knew what she had to do, and what direction to fly.

Trying to convince herself, Sky reasoned that she had been living in the hope of doing this. To fly. To move in the dark. To seek a meaning, and to find it.

Spreading her wings, she took off. Flapping furiously to propel herself up off the ground. The cold air flowed beneath her, and soon, the wind caught her wings, helping her to surge forward, catch a current and glide into the night, passing by the small forest outcrop that had once been her limit, without even realising it had just gone by her. Her focus was only on what was ahead, for it couldn't rest on what was behind.

In the dark of the evening, with her family needing her, even if her mother wouldn't see it...Night Sky finally lived up to her namesake, and set out to find her father.

And the truth.