Snowbound

by NightScript

First published 27th of March, 2018

When a signal fire in western Equestria goes out, Nightfall and his team are sent to investigate. What they find will send them through the dead sectors of Manehattan and could even rewrite history itself.

For hundreds of years, there have been stories about Equestria's once great past. Long ago the ponies of the land lived in the sun and were ruled by gracious alicorn princesses. That time is long gone though. Now Equestria is a barren land of ice and snow, with only the signal fires to fend off the windigos and dangerous creatures that now roam the land.

When one of these fires in western Equestria goes out, a disgraced thestral seeking redemption is sent out to investigate. What he discovers could reshape the history of Equestria or destroy it entirely. His journeys forward will take him not only through the frozen wastes, but into the heart of the Manehattan dead sectors.

---

A rewrite of my first ever story.
Voices for characters can be found here.

Chapter 1: Signals

It was cold. It was always cold in this harsh land. The blizzards were seemingly non-stop and each flake of snow stung like a piercing needle until numbness came and finally death overtook whatever poor creature found itself out here. It would be a terrible way to die, no doubt. Lost. Alone. Cold. Those weren't even the worst parts. With each blizzard came a fresh layer of snow, covering whatever was left unattended during the last. To be out here, was not just simply to die. It was to disappear. To be forgotten.

Nightfall had learned this lesson many times before. He'd be out on an expedition and watch as a friend or stranger wandered to far from the group. Visibility was often at near zero and he'd call out into this white void in an attempt to retrieve the pony who had strayed. They wouldn't respond, no matter how many times he or the other group members would call. No matter how hard they searched, the pony would never be seen again.

The unfortunate truth was this. When traversing this forsaken land, it was best to keep moving. There were far worse things than just blizzards out here. Windigos were the most prominent of beings to be wary of, but rumors had it that much darker forces hid in the snow, waiting for victims. For these reasons, it was best to spend as little time as possible out in the open. Anypony who got separated, was ultimately destined to be left behind. This is why many only traveled in small groups.

If you were out here, it meant that you were either stupid or you had a very good reason for leaving the relative safety of the city walls. Nightfall was one of the latters. He had a purpose out here. He had a very important mission. A signal fire on the western side of Equestria had gone out. Each city and town in Equestria had one or several of these fires. They were vital to the survival of the ponies who lived there and if one were to be extinguished, it would spell disaster for the inhabitants.

These fires were important for many reasons. The greatest of these was because of the nature of the fire itself. It was not natural. It did not burn and continue to consume fuel, rather it was sustained by crystals found deep underground. These fire crystals had been nearly worthless in an earlier age, but thanks to their arcane properties they were now immensely valuable. The fires they created had the unique property of warding off the windigos which were drawn to magical signatures. A single bonfire from these crystals could keep an area the size of a city block safe.

There was another great advantage too though. The fires produced smoke, large columns of it. From high atop Mt. Canter, at the highest lookout post in all of Equestria, nearly every signal fire's smoke column could be seen, at least on clearer days when the storms died down. And so from Canterlot, each town was able to be monitored to some extent. The black smoke that rose into the sky universally indicated that everything was all clear. When a fire died though, it was taken very seriously.

Anytime a town went dark, it was handled by a team dispatched directly from the fortress city of Canterlot. Nightfall was the lucky soul given the assignment to investigate. He was experienced in surviving in the tundra, having successfully carried out hundreds of supply runs for the last several years. By now, he was a veteran, one of the best. He was not alone though. Such an idea would have surely been considered suicide. His team was comprised of three ponies: a young, free spirit of a unicorn named Paper Cut, a strong, but kind hearted earth pony by the name of Bastion, and himself, a thestral.

The three ponies now found themselves trudging through snow that was up to their bellies. Their journey had been long, having taken about three days to get where they were now. The trains did not run all the way out into unprotected land and most of their travel had been spent on hoof. They couldn't exactly complain though. Being from Canterlot, they had access to some of the best gear. Their snow suits kept them warm and their helmets sealed water tight with the rest of the suit at the neck. The biggest threats to them here were being attacked or getting lost.

The weather today, was especially bad. A blizzard had blown in from the north and snow now swirled all around them, keeping the visibility levels so low that they would lose each other if they did not stay within a meter or two of one another. The wind blew violently and if it had not been for the snow beneath them that provided some semblance of an anchor point, they would no doubt have been blown away with the storm.

"I'm getting some blips on the scanner," Nightfall said from the front as he looked down at the small hoof held device that now pinged several large objects ahead. Despite the sound of the rushing wind, the short range radios in their helmets made communication quite easy. "Probably a few buildings. Don't think they're big enough to be part of the main settlement though."

"Oh, good," Paper said. "I'm starving. It'll be nice to get out of the wind and in somewhere where I can enjoy a sandwich without it instantly freezing."

"I'll second that," Bastion voted. "I've got this new sandwich combo that I've been dying to try out."

Nightfall chuckled as he rolled his eyes. "Well if Bastion's got a new sandwich, I guess we have to stop. Don't we?" He put away his scanner and checked the time on his wrist display. "Okay," he said after seeing that it was nearly six in the evening. "It's unanimous them. We'll stop up here. Probably a good idea to do so before investigating the main settlement site."

"Awesome," Paper said.

The buildings in question were nothing more than what seemed to be a few abandoned supply sheds and it took several extra minutes for the group to reach the top of the small hill on which they sat upon. When they did though, they were able to walk along the side of one of the sheds to take cover from the wind. Conveniently, the door was on the side away from the wind, keeping the snow that blew horizontally from building up in front of it.

Paper took point when they got to the door only to find it was frozen shut. "Hmph. Figures," he said before tilting his head down. He cranked a small dial on the side of his helmet and the top piece that encased his horn began to glow the same blue color of his magic aura. With a quick spell the ice on the door began to evaporate and turn to steam, before refreezing on the ground. He slowly opened the door and headed inside the darkened shed.

The inside of the shed wasn't nearly as cold as it was outside, providing just enough protection from the wind to allow everypony to remove their helmets. The one window, though it was heavily iced over, provided just enough light for them to see. As the three all cleared a place out for themselves to eat, a shuffling noise was heard from the darkest of the corners. Each of the ponies shot up, instinctively brandishing their guns and swords.

"H-hello," a voice sounded from the darkness. Stepping forward from the shadows was a changeling. He wore a coat, but it was not even close to being as heavy as it should have been to be out in this type of weather. His body shook violently under a thin layer of frost that had accumulated over the past several hours. His eyes seemed as if they were frozen shut.

The ponies put away their weapons and Bastion immediately sprung forward to catch the changeling as he fell over. He was soaked.

"Hey, hey, now. You cant just die on us already," Bastion said. He looked back to Nightfall who was already unscrewing the top of a thermos. After pouring a bright yellow glowing liquid into the cap, Nightfall gave it to Bastion who in turn put it up to the changeling's lips. "Here, drink," he said. "Don't worry. It's ignis... liquid fire."

The changeling drank and managed to open his eyes.

"There we go," Bastion said as he gave the thermos lid back to Nightfall who traded him a knife. Bastion took the knife and began cutting the soaked clothes off of the changeling. When the changeling was completely bare, he was carried over to spot where Paper had used another spell to clear the ground of snow. This time, the intensity of the spell and been increased, charring the ground beneath to create a warm pad of scorched earth for the changeling to sit on.

When the changeling was down, a thermal blanket was thrown over him and he was given another cup of ignis. "T-Thank y-you so mu-uch," he said. "I-I thought-t I was going to d-die."

"You're welcome," Bastion said with smile. It always felt good to save someone. "Happy to help."

"Alright," Nightfall interrupted, wanting to get straight to the point. "I need you to tell us what happened here. The signal fire went out. Why?"

The changeling drank the rest of the ignis and handed the cap back to Nightfall before answering. He had stopped shaking and as a result his speech became more clear. "Somepony made off with our stockpile of fire crystals," he explained. "We were already running low and about to send out a signal to get more, but when we went to the reserves, they were gone. Then the fire died and the windigos showed up."

"Any idea why someone would do that?" Nightfall asked.

"No," the changeling answered. "We're at peace with all the surrounding settlements and there hasn't been a resource dispute for at least a decade or two."

"So basically, someone was just being a dick," Paper pointed out.

"Not so simple," Nightfall said. "There has to be some kind of motivation. You'd have to be pretty bold to steal a fire crystal stockpile and risk getting frozen by windigos yourself... or y'know, completely stupid." He leaned back against the far wall, keeping an eye on what little could be seen from the window.

"Either way, dick move," Paper pointed out again.

"Well crap," Bastion complained. "How long ago did the windigos show up?" he asked the changeling.

The changeling seemed to be surprised by the question. "I don't know," he answered. "It's been at least a day, maybe two. Why?"

Bastion looked to Nightfall. "We need to get moving," he said. "If any of the townsfolk have been put on ice, it's only going to be a matter of time before the MISA wears off and they begin to suffer from hypothermia."

"Agreed. Paper, pack up and get the changeling on his hooves," Nightfall ordered.

Paper simply replied with a casual salute.

"Wait, what's going on?" the changeling asked as he stood from the heated ground only to find that the air above was still much to cold. "We can't just go back there. It's too dangerous!"

"For one pony alone, maybe," Nightfall began, "but you've got us. So don't worry about it. We'll make sure to keep you safe." As he loaded up his gear, Bastion handed him his flair rifle, which Nightfall proceeded to load and cock. "You'll see. It'll be fun."

"Alright, buddy," Bastion said. "There's no way you'll be able to walk through the snow bare hoof so you're going to have to ride on my back. I'm an earth pony, so can handle it. If you feel like you're going to get sick though, lean out and throw up onto the snow. It doesn't mind, but I won't be very happy if it goes all over me."

The changeling was hesitant, but complied nonetheless. After the ponies dawned their helmets again, he was given an extra blanket to further wrap himself up in. Once they were all ready, they headed out into the storm again.

For the most part, the wind had subsided and the snow now only fell diagonally, instead of coming directly from the side. Immediately, Nightfall pulled out his trusty scanner and began to take readings. Sure enough, there were several more blips on the display, each being quite close together. Certainly, it was the town.

Despite the poor visibility, the glow of the storm spires that surrounded the town quickly came into view. These tall structures were essentially enchanted metal rods that stood up from a stone base. Each rod glowed a faint white and was inscribed with a series of runes that ran from the very top, twenty feet up, to the bottom. When a group of these spires were aligned in succession, it would create an invisible barrier between them that would halt both air and snow, creating a sort of safe zone that a blizzard could not affect. Of course, they were mostly useless against windigos.

Upon passing these constructs, the weather immediately cleared up. The snow on the ground, which could have drowned a pony, was now nothing more than a few inches in depth. The wind had nearly completely stopped as well and only a light dusting of snow flakes fell from the sky. It was peaceful again.

This, of course, left them just outside the town wall, which was a small log rampart with only a few exposed watchtowers. The gate, for reasons that were still unknown, was left wide open. Without so much as a word, the changeling was let off onto his own hooves and the three ponies stacked up on the gate. On the count of three, they barged in, guns and swords raised, ready to fight.

"Well that's anti-climactic," Paper said.

"Yeah," Bastion agreed. "There's nopony here."

Nightfall looked around, not entirely convinced that they were alone. "Well, if there's one thing I know, it's that an entire town's population doesn't just disappear. They've got to be around here somewhere. Let's search the houses." And so, they split up.

The town itself was not large at all. It was much more of a compound than a town. There was a sizable courtyard surrounded by several log cabins and a two story building with a stone base that served as a sort of town hall. All together, there was only around fifteen to twenty buildings, each being a couple hundred square feet. At the center of this courtyard, was the pit for the signal fire. Over the course of the last few days it had grown cold. Despite this, residue from the burnt up crystals was still present on the inside and edges.

Nightfall studied the fire pit with great interest while also keeping his flair rifle ready. The fire had gone out nearly four days ago. If the windigos didn't arrive until day two or three, then surely there would have been time for the townsfolk to find shelter. A town of this size should have had at least one emergency bunker that they could have gone to. The only question was where that would be. Nightfall looked to the building with the stone base. It would be a start.

Upon entering, the first thing noticed was that it was empty. The entirety of the downstairs was nothing more than a single room with some tables, chairs, and a stage at the far end. This must have been where they held town meetings. The most notable of the interior's features was the fireplace. The room was a mess. Many pieces of furniture had been knocked over and there was paper strewn about, but the fireplace was completely clear of clutter. It was so clean, in fact, that it almost seemed out of place. Clearly, it had not seen use in years. Further investigation revealed the reason for why it had been kept clear. Inside was a hatch.

"Hey, Bastion, Paper," Nightfall called over the coms. "You guys find anything."

"I've checked five houses," Paper answered. "Nothing. Even the cellars were empty."

"Bastion?"

"Yeah, the changeling and I found a filly hiding in an attic. She's scared, but she'll be alright."

"Okay," Nightfall said. "If you find anypony else, go ahead and bring them to the building with the stone base. I think I found the emergency shelter."

"Roger that."

After disconnecting, Nightfall leaned his flair rifle up against the stone of the fireplace before attempting to open the hatch inside. The handle wouldn't budge and after several more attempts it became clear that it was locked. If the hatch had a keyhole in which to insert lockpicks, such a matter would be trivial. "I guess I should try knocking," he thought. After giving three knocks in moderate succession, he waited. There was no response. "Hey, anyone in there?" he finally called out. This seemed to do the trick, as the sound of grinding metal was heard from the other side and the hatch popped open.

"Oh, thank goodness," the pony inside said at the sight of the armored thestral. There appeared to be an entire group of at least twenty all squeezed shoulder to shoulder inside.

"You guys are safe now," Nightfall said. "Everything is going to be-"

"No, no," the pony interrupted nervously. He shook, not from any cold, but rather from being scared out of his wits. "You don't understand. They're in the mine. You have to search the mine."

"Who, the windigos?"

"Yes," the pony confirmed. "Something drew them inside and they've been there ever since they arrived. We've been terrified that they'd come out."

Nightfall looked around for a moment as he thought, before looking down into the darkened hole that all the ponies were huddled in. "Where's the town guard?" he asked.

"They went in after those foul things," the pony explained. "We have an emergency stockpile of fire crystals down there. They had hoped to recover the stockpile, but never came back. We're not coming out until those things are gone."

"Okay," Nightfall agreed. "Stay here and keep your people safe. I'll be back."

The pony just nodded and resealed the steel hatch without question. Clearly, he did not need to be told twice.

Nightfall grabbed his rifle, slung it onto his back, and walked back outside. "Paper, Bastion," he said as he reopened the com channel. "You guys still with me?"

"Affirmative," Paper replied.

It took a moment, but Bastion also checked in after a few seconds.

"I found the townsfolk," Nightfall began. "They're saying that the windigos came and got drawn into the mineshaft by something. Not sure what, but the town guard went in to retrieve a fire crystal stockpile and haven't been heard from since."

"They probably got frozen," Bastion theorized. "I've got a group of medical staff here in the hospital basement. I'll have them begin preparing the facility to treat MISA exposure."

"You do that," Nightfall replied. "You got anything, Paper?"

"No, just a bunch of overturned furniture," Paper answered. "These ponies may not have been very good fighters, but they sure did gtfo quick."

"Alright. Well, I'll meet you guys at the mine." With that, Nightfall hung up and began to follow a set of rails that ran into the side of a cliff face.

The mine itself wasn't anything special. Really, it was nothing more than a simple hole in the side of the mountain that overlooked the town. It didn't even have a door. Instead, it was simply left open with a set of cart rails running into the darkness. When the other two team members showed up, they wasted no time getting inside. With weapons out and heads on a swivel, they made their way into the darkness.

Both Bastion and Paper had to make use of the night vision goggles mounted on their helmets, but being a thestral, Nightfall had a distinct advantage in the dark. For this reason, his helmet lacked this piece of equipment. Instead, he had a second visor that was much more heavily tented than the first. Without it, any light from the sun would quite literally burn his retinas. The glistening of the snow only amplified this.

"You'd think, being underground, this tunnel would be a bit warmer than it is outside," Paper said, "but my temperature gage says it's freezing."

"That just means we're on the right track," Nightfall replied, his eyes darting around the tunnel to observe the ice crystals that clung to the walls and ceiling.

Paper chuckled to himself after noticing that they were literally following mine cart rails.

The ponies advanced slowly and carefully into the darkness with Nightfall at the front with his scanner. Bastion had repossessed his flair rifle and provided cover while Paper kept an eye on their rear. It didn't take long before the scanner began to ping objects ahead.

"We've got something thirty meters ahead," Nightfall said. "Should be around this next bend."

"You think it's the town guard?" Paper asked as he adjusted his goggles.

"Only one way to find out," Nightfall answered. "Just be ready."

Upon rounding the corner, the group realized that it was exactly as they had predicted. Standing before them were six ponies, all frozen solid in blocks of arcane ice. Each stood in a fighting pose as if they had been in mid battle when suddenly they were turned to ice. Even their weapons had been frozen solid. Some lay on the ground, others in the air where they had previously been held by unicorn magic.

"Well, would you look at that," Paper said as he inspected one of the guards. "Don't even have NVGs. Hey, look at this," he said after looking around on the ground only to find a wooden rod. "It's a torch. What is this the medieval age?"

Nightfall just rolled his eyes. "One of these days you're actually going to have use the torch in your survival pack and then we'll see who's laughing."

"Meh. Until that happens, I'm still going to make jokes about it." He tossed the torch over his shoulder carelessly.

"You know," Bastion chimed in. "He does have a point. These guys are running gear that should have been updated ages ago. Can't say I'm surprised they ended up the way they did."

"Do you think that's all of them?"

"I'm not seeing anything else on the scanner," Nightfall answered.

"So then, where's the windigos?" Bastion asked.

Nightfall thought for a moment, looking over the frozen ponies and trying to determine in which direction their eyes were looking. He stared out deeper into the cave, trying to see just a bit further than his natural night vision would allow. "I think I've got some idea," he finally said. He motioned to Bastion, who just replied with a knowing smile.

Bastion sat back on his haunches and shouldered his rifle. With a single pull of the trigger, a bright red flair was sent screeching down the tunnel, illuminating the darkness as it went. In response, there was a sound from where the flair had finally impacted the ground at the end of its arc. The noise that came next was loud and high pitched. It was something that never failed to send chills down Nightfall's spine. It was something unholy.

From the shadows, burst three windigos. Their spectral manes flowed wildly as they rushed forward from the darkness. Their piercing blue eyes were fixated on the small group of ponies, their next prey. As they flew, the walls around them became covered in an even thicker layer of ice crystals and a great freezing wind blew through the tunnel.

Bastion pulled his trigger once more sending out another flair directly at the lead windigo. It made contact, striking it in the chest and lodging itself deep in the windigo's ghostly body, which reacted violently: twisting and contorting as arcane fire shot from its orifices before finally exploding in a shower of sparks. Despite this display of power, the other two were undeterred and continued their charge toward the group.

"Anytime now, Bastion!" Nightfall said as the earth pony began the process of reloading.

"I got it! I got it!" Bastion exclaimed as he loaded the last cartridge into his weapon.

"Too late!" Nightfall dove, tackling Bastion to the ground as the windigos came mere inches from them. As they hit the ground, Paper sprung up into the air, catching the first windigo across the belly with his sword, before being snap frozen in a block of ice by the second.

Had it been a normal creature, the windigo's insides would have spilled out and left a mess on the ground. Instead, it tumbled to the floor, writhing in pain as the fire enchantment burned away at it.

Bastion instinctively sat up and pulled his rifle trigger. The flair shot out, screeched across the tunnel, and pegged the final windigo in the back of the head before it could escape. It's body went limp and finally burst into sparks after coming down hard on the ground.

"Damn," Nightfall said. "Nice shot."

"Thanks," Bastion replied. "I've been practicing."

The two ponies laid there for a moment, allowing their adrenaline to subside before attempting to stand. They looked over to see that Paper was still frozen solid in a block of ice.

"We should get him out," Nightfall pointed out.

"Good idea."

Both ponies dug into their supply bags and pulled out small paper sacks that they proceeded to tear open. Inside was a finely ground red powder, which they began emptying out onto Paper. The powder, being made from fire crystals and few other materials, reacted as it made contact with the ice, producing a large steam cloud.

"Alright!" Paper exclaimed as he was freed from his icy prison. "Ranger squad: three. Windigos..." he looked to his wrist display as if it had a scoreboard on it. "Oh no. Big fat zero. What is up?!" He stumbled forward suddenly as Nightfall wacked him upside the head.

"Dammit, Paper!" the thestral scolded. "That was reckless and you know it!"

"Hey, I'd rather take one for the team than see us all get put on ice," Paper complained. "Besides, the suit keeps me warm until you guys can thaw me out."

"Yeah, well I'd rather not see my friends get frozen."

"That's exactly why I did it!" Paper countered. "I'd take a bullet for you guys. You know that."

Nightfall sighed. He couldn't help but to lighten up a bit after hearing that. He pressed his forehead against Paper's expressing comradery in a way that only brothers in arms could. "Paper," he said, patting the unicorn on the shoulder. "Good work."

Suddenly, they were ambushed by Bastion, who grabbed them both and pulled them in close. "Group hug!" he yelled.

"Okay, okay. Enough of that," Nightfall said, pulling away. "We still got a job to do."

"Y'know, Nightfall," Bastion began, "you may act all badass when we're out here, but Meadow has already told us all about how you're just a big softy. Plus, I've seen you after downing a few ciders."

Nightfall just rolled his eyes before all of their attention was caught by a rustling noise coming from behind them. The last windigo was still lying there on the ground, mostly motionless, but alive. Paper poked the creature with his hoof, causing it to flinch slightly. Other than this, it did not react or even try to lash out at them. It was dying and it knew it, and clearly it was in great pain.

"Wow, I almost feel bad for the poor thing," Bastion said. "You really messed him up good." He pointed to the spot where Paper's sword had sliced the beast open.

"Yeah, me too."

"I don't," Nightfall said. Without a second thought, he pulled the flair rifle from Bastion's back, shoved the barrel in the windigo's mouth, and pulled the trigger.

Bastion and Paper just stared at Nightfall as he resumed the delve down into the tunnel.

"Well damn, Nightfall," Bastion said, still in shock at what had just transpired. "I take back everything I just said about you being soft."

"Yeah," Paper agreed. He saw his chance and went for it. "Nightfall is what you would call... wait for it... weathered."

Nightfall and Bastion both groaned, smacking themselves in the face with their hooves.

After the small skirmish, among other things, it didn't take long for the group to get back on track. They ventured deeper into the mine and after a mostly silent walk, found a mine cart filled to the brim with fire crystals. Other than that and what they had already come across, the tunnel was empty, and by extension, now secured. Nightfall gave the order for Bastion and Paper to return to the surface with the stockpile and start getting the guards thawed out and treated for MISA exposure.

"What are you going to do?" Bastion asked.

"I want to see what lured the windigos down here," Nightfall answered. "They don't just bypass an entire town and fly down a mine for no reason."

"You think they found something?"

Nightfall shrugged. "Maybe. I'll call you if I find anything."

With that, Paper and Bastion took off back towards the entrance, while Nightfall delved deeper into the tunnel. The mine itself was for coal, which was often used for the heating of furnaces and homes. While not as efficient as the fire crystals used in the signal fires, it provided a perfectly adequate means of producing heat, and universally it was accepted that the burning of coal was much wiser than using the only thing that kept the windigos at bay. Had it not been for these mines, Equestria's fire crystal supply would have gone out years ago.

This mine in particular, was nothing special though. There were only a few tunnels that branched off of the main shaft and none of them went more than a few meters. The equipment here was outdated as well. In Canterlot, sophisticated magic run machines operated day and night to dig up valuable resources from the caverns below the city and deep within the mountain. The ponies here were operating with nothing but pickaxes and push carts. Everything about this place was unremarkably standard.

Nightfall spent a good ten minutes examining the walls only to come up with nothing. He could see in the dark just fine and according to the ranger medical examiner he had 20/20 vision, something that he actually hadn't known. Yet, whatever it was that he thought he was searching for alluded him. Surely there had to be something down here though. Why else would the windigos come down here? They were known for relentlessly hunting their prey, no matter where they had been barricaded or hid. Why had they left the townsfolk alone?

After growing frustrated from a lack of answers, Nightfall finally decided to try something that he hadn't done in quite some time. Being a thestral, he had some unique advantages over other ponies other than being able to see much better in the dark. It was just like how unicorns could use magic, pegasi could cloud walk, and earth ponies connected with the earth, except his ability boiled down to evolution rather than magic. It was also something that had to be practiced many times over and required complete silence to affectively execute.

Nightfall removed his helmet before looking down into the tunnel. He closed his eyes and drew in a calm breath of air through his nostrils. After holding it for a few seconds, he let out a smooth, high pitched, but faint whistle. He held the note for some time, before letting go to listen. The note, which had been barely audible to anypony other than a thestral echoed softly in his ears as the sound waves bounced around the cavern, creating different pitches based on material that they hit. The sound resonated especially within a mine cart that had been cast off to the side of the rails. From just these noises, he could tell that the rock became more and more dense the deeper the mine went, but there was one thing quite strange and out of the ordinary. From the end of the tunnel, a tone returned that seemed to suggest that the rock ahead was indeed hollow.

"Well, hello there," Nightfall said as he opened his eyes and made his way to the end of the tunnel. He ran a hoof along the wall. It was smooth, perhaps some kind of igneous or metamorphic rock. It didn't much matter. To Nightfall, rocks were rocks. He placed an ear to the wall and tapped it hard with his hoof. It was definitely hollow.

He looked around before finding a pickaxe. Replacing his helmet back on his head, he took the pickaxe in his hooves and carefully began to chisel away. Initially, it resisted firmly, but with several more strikes, the rock wall gave way and a new chamber was revealed. With each swing of the pickaxe the hole between the two chambers grew until finally there was enough room for Nightfall to squeeze through.

Upon entering, the sight before him was something that he could not seem to explain to himself. Before him, was an alicorn. Or at least there was a statue of one, a strange one at that. Nightfall had seen depictions of the alicorns who supposedly ruled hundreds of years ago, but never any so lifelike. Usually they were found in books or on the stained-glass windows in Canterlot palace that had been preserved from a long forgotten age. These depictions had always been stylized and artistic, but clearly the sculptor had gone for accuracy in this piece. Truly, it was fine work as well, as if nature itself had carved it.

The alicorn in question was tall and of a slim build. Her main, although long and flowing, was neatly kept. She wore metal shoes and a sort of large medallion around her neck. A crown sat upon her head, signifying the status of a ruler or at least someone politically significant. All of these were covered in a thick layer of dust, but further inspection proved that they were indeed made of gold.

Other than the painstaking attention to detail and the seemingly one to one scale, there was one more oddity. This was the pose. Statues of leaders that Nightfall had seen always showed the figure in stoic or heroic stance. The pose here was entirely different. Instead of standing with her head held high, the alicorn sat back on her haunches with her head turned to the side. Her eyes were closed and she held her hooves up as if trying to shield herself from the blinding beams of a floodlight. Nightfall could only guess what this piece was supposed to be depicting, but without the corresponding pedestal, there was no way to know who had created it or what their vision for it was.

Although interesting, the statue was not the only thing of note. The chamber itself was perfectly spherical and was imprinted with all manners of magical runes all along the walls. The runes ran like tracks all around and in different patterns. Different lines and shapes swirled around these runes, but all met at the very top, just above the statue, connecting to each other via a large circle. At the center was a much larger runic symbol. Nightfall recognized it. It was one of the few that he actually knew: the Old Equus symbol for 'Time.'

After a few more moments of thought, Nightfall buzzed his radio. "Hey, guys. I've got something... interesting over here. You'll want to see it."

"Copy that."

Nightfall wandered around the chamber for several minutes as he waited. Surely, there was a reason for such a statue to be down here. He inspected it closely, searching for any identifying marks or indication of where it may have come from. He wiped the dust from the shoes and medallion. Despite the intricate engravings, there were no clues. The lack of a pedestal only caused his confusion to grow.

Finally, Nightfall looked to the crown. It was more of a tiara really, but it too was made of gold and was adorned with all manners of masterful engravings. As he attempted to wipe away even more of the dust, in search of a signature, he found that it was not even attached to the head it sat on, gravity being the only thing to keep it in place. "Well, how about that," Nightfall said to nopony in particular as he removed the crown from the statue.

Suddenly, there was a flash. Nightfall jumped back in surprise, dropping the crown as he attempted to cover his eyes, allowing it to hit the ground with a clang. His second visor had been up and he now found himself blinded. As he stumbled, the rock melted away from the alicorn's form. Small sparks of yellow magic flowed upward from the statue like bubbles underwater and the chamber was filled with light.

Nightfall fell back onto his haunches as water seeped from his eyes. "Gah!" he exclaimed, throwing off his helmet. For a moment, the world seemed to fall away, blurring into one solid color.

"Hey, Nightfall," Bastion called from just outside. "You in there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Nightfall called back. "I found a statue, but something happened. I'm blind now. Just give me a minute." He heard Bastion and Paper both enter, crawling over the rubble that had fallen. Then everything went silent. "Hello?" he said, still rubbing the stars from his vision.

"Um, Nightfall?" Paper replied as he removed his helmet and lit his horn to provide greater visual clarity.

"What?"

"That's no statue."

Nightfall opened his eyes, which had been closed for some time now. As everything came back into focus, he searched the room. Paper had indeed been correct. The statue was gone. In its place sat a pony, not one made from stone, but a living breathing pony. More specifically, it was a living breathing alicorn.

Her coat was snow white and her mane was a soft pink. Her mark adorning her flank was that of a sun or some other star like entity. Not a single one of her delicate feathers was out of place and her polished horn would have no doubt reflected the light around her had they not been in relative darkness at the moment. She twisted her body, stretching her aching muscles and popping joints as if she had just woken from a long nap. Meanwhile, the three rangers just stared at her in dumbstruck awe.

Upon noticing them, the alicorn opened her mouth to say something, but the words never came. She looked down toward her snout, as if baffled by her own inability to create speech. She tried again. Still, nothing, but the dry hissing of broken vocal cords. She coughed loudly several times, before finally getting the words out. "Hello," she barely managed to say in a rough voice that strained her throat to no end. She coughed violently again.

"Uh..." Paper droned, completely bamboozled by what he was seeing.

"This is... very unexpected," Bastion added as he too removed his helmet.

"Um, hello?" Nightfall greeted, still confused by what exactly what was happening. "You... uh, you were a statue just a second ago."

The alicorn made a confused face before peering down at her hooves and looking them over with great interest. She looked back at the ponies with the same puzzled expression as before. They just continued staring at her as if she was an other-worldly being so she instead began to observe the chamber she was in, before returning her gaze to them. "Where?" she asked, her voice still scratchy.

"I think she wants to know where she is," Paper whispered.

"I know that." Nightfall finally stood up and collected his helmet. "Okay, okay," he said. "Enough of this standing around with our hooves in our mouths crap. It isn't getting us anywhere. Who the hell are you and how did you get down here?"

The alicorn just blinked, looking even more befuddled than she had before. She pointed to the ground. "Down here?"

"Yeah," Bastion answered. "You're about a quarter of a mile underground, just past the Unicorn Range to the east."

The alicorn seemed to think for a moment, putting her hoof to her chin. Clearly something was off. After a moment of thought, she took a few steps forward, stumbling slightly as her legs gave out from under her. Both Bastion and Paper rushed forward to aide her. When she was up, she gave a smile and a nod, as if trying to express her gratitude. "I don't know-" She coughed, cleared her throat, and tried again. "I don't know what's happening," she managed. "My name is Celestia."

"It's nice to meet you, Celestia," Paper said. "I'm Paper Cut. This hunk of meat next to me is Bastion and that guy over there is our glorious leader, Nightfall."

Celestia smiled. "It is very good to meet you all," she said, her voice returning and beginning to clear. Though it was still scratchy, there was a soft and comforting, almost mother like, tone to it.

"Well, this is just great and all," Nightfall interrupted, "but, Celestia, do you have any idea how long you've been down here?"

Celestia just shook her head.

Each of the rangers exchanged glances, a sudden feeling of dread building in each of them.

"Excuse us for a moment," Nightfall said. He waved his teammates over, away from Celestia for a moment. "Paper, find out as much as you can from her, but don't tell her a thing yet. This might all be a little overwhelming."

"Gotcha," Paper said, before breaking off to talk to the alicorn in question.

Before Nightfall could even turn to Bastion, he was bombarded with a question from the panicking earth pony. "What the hell are we going to tell her?" Bastion blurted out in a yell of a whisper.

"I have absolutely no idea," Nightfall answered. "This is all beyond me. We cant just go up to her and be all like "Oh, hey, you've been frozen in rock for the last thousand or so years. Can we?"

"Sure, if you want to give her a heart attack."

"Well, she's got to find out at some point," Nightfall argued. "It might as well be from us. I just don't know how you're supposed to break that kind of news to someone."

Bastion sighed. "So what's the play here then?"

Nightfall looked over his shoulder, back to where Paper was keeping Celestia occupied. The unicorn, just like he always did, had been taking notes in the journal he carried around. Now though, he and Celestia were exchanging jokes. They both seemed to be taking great pleasure in their shared sense of humor. Nightfall just sighed. "For now, let's just keep it simple. We'll get her back to town and tell her everything she needs to know. Once the storm clears, we'll head back to Canterlot and go from there."

Bastion hesitated, but eventually nodded in agreement. "Let's make sure we can find her a soft place to sit down when we do break the news," he said. "She'll need it."

"Yeah," Nightfall said, turning to the others.

Paper was still talking to Celestia. Despite the fact that they seemed to be getting along, the alicorn wore an expression that showed something was clearly bothering her and it seemed as if Paper was faltering in his attempt to keep her from asking certain questions.

"Well, alright," Paper said as his teammates joined them. "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that Celestia here is a princess."

"And the bad news?" Nightfall asked, bracing for what would no doubt give them all headaches.

"Her magic may be burnt out."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bastion asked.

"It means it's burnt out," Paper repeated. "Gone. Kaput. Won't work. Right Celestia?"

Celestia nodded. "I am afraid this is the truth," she said. Her voice had only improved slightly and was still but a whisper. She pointed up towards her horn. Despite being nearly a pure pearly white for most of it's length, there was slight discoloration towards the top that darkened into an ash gray at the tip. "It's complicated," she explained. "I don't entirely understand it myself, but I believe it may be my own fault."

"How so?" Paper asked.

Celestia sighed. "It is a long story, but if I am here, it can only mean that our spell did not work as intended." She took on a sad tone. "Please, tell me. How long has Equestria been without me?"

The rangers all just looked at each other, not really knowing what the answer to the question was or how they should go about answering it to begin with. As the leader of the group, the responsibility ultimately fell on Nightfall and he knew it. He took a second to collect his thoughts.

"Well," Nightfall started, scratching the back of his head. This was going to be bad. He just knew it, but continued anyways. "None of us have ever heard of you. Rumor has it that the alicorns ruled anywhere from one to two thousand years ago. So... I guess it's been quite some time."

The tunnel fell into dead silence. Celestia just stood there after hearing the words. Her expression was not sad, although her eyes had grown wide she looked as if she had simply fallen into deep thought, trying to piece together whatever it was she knew beforehand and what she had just been told. As she thought, her eyes began to dart back and forth between the floor and the ponies before her. It would seem she was about to need that soft spot to sit down.

"I take it you don't know about the blizzards," Nightfall said.

Celestia shook her head. She seemed to know something related, but didn't say anything. Instead, she remained silent, preferring to avoid before jumping to conclusions and overcomplicating things with unnecessary questions.

Nightfall just turned and waved her over as the group now began the short trek towards the surface. It was a quiet one, with only the sound of their hooves making contact with the ground to break the silence.

"How bad is it?" Celestia asked sadly as they neared the entrance.

No one said a thing. Instead, they just showed her. Stepping out of the mine, an evening breeze brushed passed them, the crisp air chilling Celestia to her core and burning her lungs with every breath she took. The puffs of white from her muzzle grew with every second as reality began to set in.

Around her was not an Equestria she knew. The sky was covered in complete overcast, the grey clouds diming any and all light from the sun that sat at the end of the horizon. The snow mixed dirt beneath her hooves was hard and frozen over. No grass, or any plants for that matter, naturally grew here any longer. In the distance, just beyond the storm spires, she could see a seemingly endless, swirling void of white.

Suddenly, Celestia began to feel a bit dizzy and she fell back on her haunches as if she had been knocked down by a punch in the chest. "One thousand years," she muttered.

Nightfall gave a sad nod. "Give or take."

"I'm really sorry, Princess," Bastion said. "I really wish we had better news for you."

"Yeah," Paper echoed. "I'm trying to find a bright side to point out, but..." He didn't finish as he got dirty looks from both Nightfall and Bastion. He responded only with a sheepish grin.

Celestia just sat there, staring up into the sky as if trying to force it to clear with her gaze. "No," she said. "This can't be happening. We were so careful in our preparations. Twilight even checked the list a tenth time to make sure we had everything we needed. This has to be a mistake. I can fix this though. There has to be a solution." She took a second to gather her thoughts, before her expression slowly grew into that of a scowl. "Or maybe that damnable draconequus made us a warped focusing crystal. That's it! Discord, if this is your idea of a joke then you are going to have Tartarus to pay!"

"Whoa there," Nightfall called out as he grabbed Celestia to keep her from storming off. "What are you even talking about?"

Celestia sighed as she tried to calm herself, her long pink mane falling into her face as she held her head low to the ground in grief. "Nothing of any consequence," she replied sadly. "Not anymore at least."

Nightfall stared down at the broken mare for a moment before returning his gaze back to his team. They all seemed just as confused as he did.

None of them had any idea what was actually going on here, but if there was one thing that they could all agree on, it was that an explanation was in order.

Author's Notes:

12/26/2018: Hey there. Thanks for reading the first chapter of my story. It means a lot to me. I have a quick favor to ask though. As of writing this, the story has 340 views but only 14 ratings (13 upvotes + 1 downvote). I'd really appreciate it if you took the extra second to click on one on of those thumbs. Every rating really helps me to get a feel for how I'm doing. Thanks a ton!

Chapter 2: Days Gone By

It had been a long evening, a very long evening. The rangers were more than used to staying in less than ideal conditions while operating on what little sleep they could get and Celestia herself was no stranger to staying up passed the setting of the sun, having ruled an entire country for a thousand years on her own. Upon exiting the mine tunnels, she had attracted quite the crowd, having nearly the entire town follow her around everywhere she went. They had many questions, many of which she did not have answers for. Even now, they crowded around outside the small hospital that she found herself in. The window to her room was not spared attention as the ponies peered through to get a glimpse of the princess, the last rays of sunlight now beginning to duck behind the horizon as they did.

Paper chuckled as he motioned towards the window. "You've got quite the following," he pointed out.

Celestia answered with a smile of her own as a doctor took his stethoscope from her chest and began to write down notes. "They are simply curious," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I can say with certainty that I myself would react in a similar manner if a being who existed a thousand years ago suddenly showed up on my doorstep."

"Speaking of which," Nightfall began from the darker corner of the room. "You were kind of vague in your explanation earlier. We're all a little curious as well."

Celestia sighed as she looked away towards the window, a small frown on her face. The ponies outside were a diverse group. There were unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, two changelings of blue and green, and a hippogriff. All of them took great interest in her, paying close attention to every move she made. A small sincere smile touched her lips before she looked back over to the thestral before her. "I'm afraid you must forgive my hesitation to share information," Celestia began apologetically. "It's just..." she trailed off before seeming to make up her mind on what she should say. "I find myself in a strange situation now. I am entirely ignorant of Equestria's current state of affairs and I..."

"You don't know if you can trust us," Nightfall finished for her.

Celestia just nodded, as if not wanting to fully admit it. "I know it must seem absurd to you, but when you live as long as I have, you begin to think in terms of hundreds of years if not thousands at a time. I have-"

"Wait a minute. Hold on. Time out," Paper interrupted, crossing hooves into the shape of a T. "Something is not making sense here. Exactly how long do alicorns live to be?"

Celestia looked at the two ponies with a blank expression. Her eyes darted between the two for a moment before she finally chuckled to herself a bit. "You may find it hard to believe, but we are immortal, although I myself believe that all things must come to pass. Only time will tell which is correct."

Nightfall just stood there in contemplation while Paper's eyes grew large and his eyebrows rose to top of his head. "Immortal?" he breathed. "That's crazy. That's... that's..." he ran a hoof through his mane as he tried to comprehend what he had just been told. Suddenly, something seemed to click inside his head. "Hang on a second. If that's true, then where are the rest of you? Why aren't there anymore alicorns in Equestria now?"

"There were only two of us to begin with," Celestia answered. "There was one naturally born later on, but five in total if you count the ascended, although I do not know if they share our life spans."

"So they're dead?" Nightfall asked suddenly.

"Goodness, no!" Celestia answered in a shocked tone. "At least, I pray that they're not. They shouldn't be."

Nightfall thought for a moment before continuing "And were they royalty like you?" he asked.

Celestia nodded. "Yes. My sister and I ruled over Equestria for many years together. Her the night and I the day. The ascended were students of mine. One was originally a pegasus who went on to rule the Crystal Empire in the north. The other was a unicorn who worked to spread Harmony throughout not only our own land, but to others as well. Then there was Flurry Heart who was one of the kindest souls I've ever had the pleasure of knowing."

"Sounds cool," Paper said.

"Indeed," Celestia replied happily. "They were all very..." She rose a hoof to her chin, as if thinking her word choice over. "...cool," she finally said.

"So what happened?" Nightfall asked bluntly.

Celestia looked down toward the ground after hearing the question. She fiddled with her hooves as she thought, before finally looking over at the window. The ponies outside took notice and all greeted her with warm smiles. Celestia couldn't help but give them a soft smile of her own. This seemed to extract some heartfelt joy from the crowd, but the conduit to the outside world was cut off as Nightfall abruptly shut the curtain.

"Doc, is that everything or do you need some more time?" Nightfall suddenly asked. "We're going to need a moment here."

The unicorn at the other end of the room who had been simply watching the three for some time now suddenly snapped to attention, nearly fumbling his clipboard as he did. "Oh, uh. Y-yes. As a matter of fact, there is much to do." He began looking over his notes, but didn't sound too certain of himself.

"Really now?" Nightfall responded with a bemused look.

"Absolutely," the doctor responded. He frantically flipped through the sheets of paper on his clipboard in search of something to do. "There are many tests I still need to run. It's important to her health." Despite this claim, he couldn't seem to find what he needed in his notes.

Nightfall put a hoof on the clipboard and lowered it out of the doctor's face. "Look, I know what's going on here and I get it. We all want to gawk at the alicorn princess, but right now Celestia and I need to have a talk in private."

"But I-" the doctor protested.

That was all he had time to say, before Nightfall rushed him out the door. "But nothing," Nightfall said, cutting him off. "Last time I checked a good chunk of the town's guard force was recovering from being put on ice and we all know that MISA burns don't turn out well when not properly tended to. So, you know, get going." With that, he closed the door.

"That was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Paper criticized.

"I must agree with Paper," Celestia said. "I don't think it was necessary to treat him in that manner."

Nightfall rolled his eyes. "He'll be fine," he replied. "Now, please Celestia. I need you to answer my questions. It's important."

Celestia looked around the room in a thoughtful manner for several prolonged moments, as if trying to decide what to say and what to omit. "Before I begin," Celestia started. "Please, tell me what Equestria is like now. You claim that centuries have passed and I have seen for myself the conditions of the outside world, but I do not yet fully comprehend the entirety of the situation. I suspect an understanding of it may be necessary for me to adequately explain my own side."

Nightfall sighed, but not in agitation. He made his way over to the corner and took a place on a chair. "Geez, where to even start," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof. "I'm not really much of a history buff. Paper here is far better suited for that. As for current events, well..." Nightfall paused, taking a second to collect his thoughts. "Do you know what a windigo is, Celestia?"

Celestia just nodded in response.

"Well, it's widely believed that they're what's causing all these blizzards," Nightfall continued. "I don't know what Equestria was like back in your time, but we've always known it as a cold and unforgiving place, along with the rest of the world. The windigos make everything worse though, and no matter how many of those damn things we put down, more just seem to pop up."

"I see," Celestia said, a contemplative look on her face. "You said the rest of the world has these issues as well?"

"Yeah," Nightfall answered. "I don't pay much attention to political matters, but I do know for a fact that Equestria works closely with the Gryphon Kingdoms to ensure security. We supply them with magical means for combating the cold and in exchange they craft some of the finest weapons in existence. Most of it has to be adapted for the use of hooves, but you wont find a rifle that shoots straighter in all of Equestria."

"I am glad to see that Equestria still gets along with its neighbors," Celestia said. "What of the changeling hive and Crystal Empire?"

Nightfall and Paper both looked at each other, exchanging puzzled glances before turning back to Celestia.

"That's the second time you've said Crystal Empire. You're not referring to the crystal ponies," Paper enquired, taking notes as Celestia gave her side of the story. "Are you?"

"I am, indeed," Celestia answered.

"They had an empire?" Nightfall responded, sounding more than a little surprised. "The crystal ponies actually had their own empire?"

Celestia nodded. "Indeed they did. In the modern era, they were more synonymous to a city state. The word empire was more of a formality, but they did enjoy self rule for a number of years after their return."

"And what about the changelings?" Paper quickly asked, fully entranced by the stories of the past as he wrote every word onto his notepad. "You said they had a hive. Now a days, they're a minority that's thinly spread across Equestria. My old senior year history teacher was one, but never said anything about there ever being a changeling hive."

"It was on the edge of the Badlands," Celestia explained. "It was ruled by a malevolent queen for many years, but after its liberation, it became a place of great beauty." A sad frown began to spread across Celestia's muzzle as her brain processed the information she was receiving. Her eyes stared down to the floor, before finally returning to the ponies before her. "I do believe I am beginning to understand the broader scope of the situation and Equestria's current state. I have but one more question for you. Then I promise to tell you what I know."

"By all means, ask away," Nightfall said.

"Who do you work for?"

Nightfall and Paper looked at each other for a moment with mostly neutral expressions on their faces, before turning back to Celestia.

"We're the good guys, if that's what you're worried about," Paper assured. "I promise."

"By that, he means we work for Equestria," Nightfall clarified. "More specifically we're a part of the Tundra Recon and Special Tasks Initiative. Although we're not officially a part of the Equestrian Guard, we work closely with them to carry out special missions in the tundra where rule of law doesn't exactly exist. Most just refer to us as rangers. Since we operate outside the chain of military command, we're not bogged down by a bunch of rules and regulations so we're far more adaptable. We basically work for the Equestrian government as a sort of special agency."

"Do you like them?

Celestia's question was simple, but was aimed at extracting a great deal of information.

"I think we're all glad to say that Equestria's government is doing pretty good," Paper said. "If you're afraid that some tyrannical dictatorship took over in your absence, then I can tell you for sure that you don't need to worry about it."

"But do you like them?"

Paper just thought a moment, not entirely sure where he stood on the topic. "I mean, I'm not saying that everyone always likes the decisions that parliament makes or who they appoint into the chancellorship, but elections are held every few years for certain representative seats and for the most part we all get a fair say in how we're ruled. I don't think we could really ask for much more, all things considered."

"I'm inclined to agree with Paper on the matter," Nightfall added. "I've never paid too much attention to politics, but I've never had much to complain about either, so..."

The room fell quiet as Nightfall trailed off. Celestia used to be the leader of all of Equestria. Telling her she was basically obsolete, although not directly, had now made things slightly awkward. "I see," Celestia finally said after a prolonged silence.

"You don't believe us. Do you?" Nightfall replied.

"I don't think I have much of a choice in this instance," Celestia answered. "For now, I must play this by ear. At the moment, that means cooperating with you."

"Good," Nightfall said simply. "Now, about you're side of the story. Go ahead. We're all ears."

For what felt like the hundredth time that day, Celestia sighed yet again. Before she began, she took a deep breath and found her center. "As you know, it was a long time ago," she started. "Equestria was far different than she is now. Back in my day, she was a beautiful land of rolling hills and dense forests, caught between the frozen snow covered mountains of the north and the barren deserts of the badlands to the south. The windigos that have plagued the land in this time were kept at bay by a magical force that we called the Fire of Friendship."

"I take it that something went wrong," Paper said. "With the Fire I mean."

"Yes," Celestia answered. "Tell me, are you familiar with Hearth's Warming?"

Both of the rangers just shook their heads.

"It was a holiday," Celestia explained. "It celebrated Equestria's founding and the original defeat of the windigos by the Fire. You see, windigos feed off of hatred and negativity towards others. The magic of this Fire expelled the windigos when the three tribes, the Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies, came together for the first time and founded Equestria. Every year, for thousands of years, ponies would come together in the winter to celebrate and keep the windigos at bay."

"That's great!" Paper said suddenly. "All we have to do then is re-establish Hearth's Warming and we're good. We can get rid of the windigos. Right?"

"Something tells me it isn't that simple," Nightfall countered.

"I'm afraid so," Celestia nodded sadly. "You see, the magic that our very world is founded upon, Harmony, was dying. We didn't know how, but it was. We could feel it. It was gradual and so slow that we thought that it had to be a mistake, but it was confirmed when we found the Tree of Harmony itself had begun to shrivel up. At first, we thought it was a plot by Discord, the Spirit of Chaos. He had been reformed a number of years before and we feared that he had gone back to his evil ways, but upon confronting him, we discovered that we were wrong. Chaos is the direct opposite of Harmony, always in conflict with it. Naturally we assumed that any discrepancy in Harmony was the result of Chaos, but Discord was able to show us that Chaos too was fading from existence. He was forced to isolate himself to his own dimension, lest he fade away completely. It would appear that with the death of Harmony, so too has the Fire of Friendship faded. I fear that without Harmony, there is no way to bring back the Fire."

"How did it die?" Paper asked.

"I have not the slightest idea," Celestia answered wearily. "Perhaps it was just time. As I said, all things must come to pass. Even the things that your entire world is built upon it would seem."

"But you did try to fix it, didn't you?" Nightfall said. "You said something about a spell earlier, something about a focusing crystal if I remember correctly."

Celestia nodded. "Yes, but we failed. We thought we could repair and restore both Harmony and Chaos temporarily by sacrificing a portion of our alicorn magic. It wasn't to be a permanent solution, but it could have bought us time. Twilight spent months working tirelessly on a spell alongside some of the greatest minds of our time. Each of us made further contributions in its creation and Discord provided us with a focusing crystal. We spent another several months testing and perfecting the spell, making sure that everything about it was perfect, but when we finally attempted to cast it something happened. The spell destabilized and began to rage out of control. Then there was a flash and..."

"Now you're here," Nightfall finished. His eyes had grown wide and his mouth hung open slightly. Paper dawned a similar expression, his pencil having stopped moving across his notepad.

Celestia just nodded.

As they all sat there in silence, the atmosphere around them seemed to grow heavy and no one seemed to know what to say. That was until Nightfall finally broke this silence. "Well shit."

The small hospital in the middle of this settlement wasn't much to look at. It was but one floor. A small reception area with a couch and some magazines connected to a short hallway that ran on the right to the back wall. On the left wall of this hall were five doors. One lead behind the reception counter which doubled as a pharmacy. The other four each lead to individual rooms where patients were treated. The equipment here, while perfectly adequate at fulfilling its role, was outdated by several years. All in all, the hospital was simple and affective only enough to help a small number of inhabitants at a time. They would stand no chance if there was a major disaster, like the one they had nearly had.

As an earth pony who had grown up in a small fishing village one the east coast, Bastion more than understood how hard it could be to get proper medical care all the way out here. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather were all fisherman, having to construct large platforms out on the ice without the use of magic in order to perform their trade. It was a hard and often dangerous job. Many inexperienced, reckless, or sometimes just oblivious individuals lost their lives on the ice plains. The hospital there was similar to this one here. It all reminded him of home.

After pushing his way through the crowd, an older unicorn in tow, Bastion was finally able to make it into the small hospital. Upon entering, he noticed that the facility was completely void of normal ponies. Instead, it was occupied only by the medical staff who were now working tirelessly to treat the town guards who had been frozen. His attention was caught when one of the doors down the hall suddenly opened and what appeared to be the head doctor was somewhat forcefully thrown out.

The doctor grumbled to himself for a moment as he returned to the reception area and began to file his notes behind the counter. "Kick me out of my own hospital," he complained to himself. "Who does he think he is?"

"He's a hardcore son of a bitch," Bastion answered jokingly with a smirk as he approached the desk. "Pardon my language."

"You've got that right," the doctor replied absentmindedly, without looking up from his notes. He took a second to finish sorting the files in front of him, before finally returning to Bastion. "Sorry about that," he said. "What can I do for..." The words suddenly died in his throat as he noticed the royal patches on Bastion's armored suit. He silently mouthed the words 'Oh shoot.'

"It's alright," Bastion assured. "I get it. Don't worry. The mayor and I are just here to see the princess."

"O-of course," the doctor stammered as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He gave a nervous chuckle before pointing them to the correct door. "Right through there."

Bastion gave a grateful nod before heading to the door in question. Before entering though, the unicorn spoke with the doctor for a few minutes to make sure everything was going okay. With the guard force currently being thawed and treated, the town's defenses were weakened, and he needed to make sure that their guards were going to make a full recovery. He was relieved when the doctor informed him that they would and that they would be back in action soon enough.

After the short chat, the two finally headed into the small room where Nightfall and Paper sat with Celestia. The three had been sitting in silence, each in deep thought about the current situation and how they were to move forward. Each was pulled from these thought as the two stallions entered.

Nightfall rose from his seat and immediately addressed the older unicorn without hesitation. "I take it you're the mayor?" he asked, but received no answer.

The mayor just stood there, his mouth open slightly to match the astounded expression on his face. "I didn't believe it when they told me," he said as he just stared at Celestia. "But here you are alive, well, and very much real.

"So it would seem," Celestia answered with a weary smile. "To whom do I owe this pleasure?"

The mayor stood there in a dumbstruck manner for a moment before answering. "Gale," he suddenly sputtered, managing to find his tongue. "Mayor Gale. And please, you're majesty. The pleasure is all mine." He suddenly threw himself down before her with a respectful bow. This got an eye roll from Nightfall.

Celestia gave a respectful nod of her own. "I assure you, there is no need for such formalities, Mayor Gale," Celestia said with a friendly smile that nearly made Nightfall sick.

He didn't know what it was, but something about Celestia bothered Nightfall. It bothered him even more because he couldn't quite put his hoof on it. Something just didn't feel right. It almost felt to him as Celestia had done this before. It was almost as if this exact conversation had been rehearsed and now Celestia was simply reading off her lines from a mental sticky note. He waved the thought away as he tried to focus on what was actually being said.

"I do hope you're stay so far has been a pleasant one," Mayor Gale said. "I would like to formally welcome you to our humble town and extend to you any service you may require."

"That is very kind of you, Mayor," Celestia replied, her demeanor remaining kind and friendly. Surely she knew this pony was but putty in her hooves. Nightfall sure did. She could get anything she wanted from him right now. Instead, she simply respected his own authority as the leader of this small town.

"I will not be staying long though, it would seem," Celestia continued. "Come morning, I will be making my way to Canterlot with these rangers. Until then, all I require is a roof."

"Of course," Mayor Gale eagerly replied. "I'm sure we can find you a more than sufficient place for the rest of the night."

"That's actually what we brought you here to talk about," Nightfall informed. "We need a place that's close to the center of the town. Sturdy, obviously, and not too crowded. I noticed you had a building with a stone base near the signal fire pit. Has a emergency bunker and everything."

"Yes, yes. The town assembly hall," Mayor Gale said. "Please, be my guest."

"Thank you," Nightfall said, before turning to his teammates and motioning towards the door. "Go get set up for the night," he ordered. "I've got some things to go over with our friend here regarding security."

Bastion and Paper both nodded casually, both complying without hesitation. They began to pack up the little gear that they had left in the room before heading out the door. Celestia followed close behind, but stopped to address Mayor Gale before leaving.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality," she said.

"It has been an honor, your highness," Mayor Gale replied with a respectful bow. "If there is anything, anything at all that I can do, please, do not hesitate to find me."

With that final pleasantry exchanged, Celestia followed her escorts out of the hospital while Nightfall went to work with the Mayor.

Outside the small hospital, it was now dark. The sun had fallen below the horizon nearly an hour ago and now the moon could barely be seen through the blanket of clouds. Despite the current time, there was no shortage of activity around them. A crowd of roughly thirty ponies had gathered around the hospital and now followed the group curiously as the made their way to the other side of the town.

Along the way, there was no shortage of invitations to dinner and to bunk at a pony's residence. At the moment, there is nothing that Celestia would have enjoyed more than a nice dinner with one of these families, especially after the recent revelation, but she knew that she could not. For now, it would be best to avoid distractions and cooperate with these rangers.

Despite the fact that she had not yet made up her mind on whether or not they were trustworthy, she did note that the ponies around her regarded them highly, not out of fear, but out of respect and some level of what seemed to be admiration. It brought comfort to her. From what she had seen so far, they did indeed seem to be the good guys that they claimed to be. Still, she was not letting her guard down.

When the group finally arrived at the building that Nightfall had spoken of, they quickly made their way inside. The downstairs area was even darker than it had been outside, but upon turning on a light, it was revealed that the room was still a mess. The room was littered with papers from a stack that had been knocked onto the ground and the furniture was toppled in a way that suggested somepony had deliberately thrown it aside to get it out of the way.

"This was definitely an out of control party," Paper joked. "I'm going to check the up stairs." Without waiting for a response he took off towards the stairwell. "See if you can, y'know, clean up."

Bastion just rolled his eyes as Paper disappeared up the stairs.

As Bastion began to pick up the papers and correct the furniture, Celestia looked around the room with great curiosity. Along the far wall was series of picture frames that immediately caught her attention. There had to be at least a hundred of them, each one of a single or several ponies. They seemed to be a historical collection, each depicting something different from the town's history. The most striking of these was the row at the very top. Each picture was of a group of young ponies in their late teens or early twenties. At the bottom of every frame was a small gold plaque that read 'Class of' followed by what appeared to be a date. The picture farthest to the right was dated with the year '937 SE.'

"What does SE mean?" Celestia asked, looking back to Bastion as he flipped a table back onto its legs.

"Uh, southeast?" Bastion replied, not entirely understanding the question.

"No, I mean when applied to year."

Bastion gave Celestia a confused look, before walking over and examining the picture frame for himself. "Oh, that means Snow Era," he said after realizing what Celestia was referring to. "This must be last year's picture. This year is 938 SE."

"Hmm, Snow Era," she said. "That's appropriate I suppose."

"Yeah, but in case you're wondering, the year's number isn't exactly what you would call accurate," Bastion continued. "For all I know, you disappeared another thousand years before they started calling this the Snow Era. Paper would know more about that kind of thing. He's kind of the historian of the group."

"So I have been told."

"What are you guys talking about?" Paper suddenly asked, his head popping out from the stairwell after the mentioning of his name.

"Nothing, you big nerd," Bastion replied. "You find anything up stairs?"

"Actually, yes," Paper answered happily. "There's a couple of couches up here and think one of them reclines into a bed."

Just then Nightfall stepped through the door, looking more than ready to fall down on a sack of hay and pass out right then and there. He placed his helmet down onto a table and began to undo a few of the tighter straps on his snow suit, allowing it to loosen and become much more comfortable. "Settle in, everyone. Tomorrow's going to be another early morning." He threw a few of his tools and weapons down on the table, next to his helmet.

"That was pretty quick," Bastion pointed out as Nightfall began packing the rest of his gear away for the night.

"Yeah, thankfully the guards here are somewhat competent and had the sense to not all get frozen by windigos," Nightfall replied.

"Does that mean nobody has to take lookout duty tonight?" Paper asked as he began to recline the first couch into a bed. Somehow he had managed to fit both couches down the narrow staircase with the use of basic levitation.

Nightfall gave Paper a knowing smile before flopping down on his bedroll. Usually, he was the one to take first watch, but tonight was different. And just like that he was out only a few minutes later and began to snore quietly.

Celestia giggled a little at this. "Well, it certainly doesn't take him long to fall asleep."

Before long the remaining three had for the most part settled in. Celestia had removed her shoes, chest ornament, and crown and set them on a table. Bastion and Paper had both removed their gear and snowsuits the same way Nightfall had. All their equipment was kept together, but was carefully organized to prevent certain parts from getting mixed up between their kits.

Bastion and Paper both agreed to share the bed, believing that it wouldn't have been right to make Celestia share with one of them. This did not prevent each of them from making a joke about the idea of sleeping with a princess though, something that neither of them could resist despite their efforts. What they didn't expect was for Celestia herself to join in on the fun with a joke of her own that was just a bit more suggestive than anyone had seen coming. This caused both stallions to grow red, only bringing satisfaction to Celestia's already teasing smile.

After finding her place on the soft couch, Celestia's mind began to wander. She quickly realized that this was the first time that the four of them had all been together alone after exiting the mine. It had indeed been a hectic evening, what with the navigating of crowds and medical examinations. She couldn't help but feel that despite this confusing new world she was now in, her escorts had now become sorts of friends to her.

The earth pony of the group, Bastion, had quickly made Celestia feel welcome with his kind demeanor and willingness to share a smile. He had a dark crimson coat and a dark brown mane that was so short it was barely visible, but his eyes were a gleaming light blue, that shone with life and optimism. The unicorn, Paper Cut, somewhat reminded her of Twilight with his energy and eagerness to gain new knowledge. He had fiery orange eyes, a cream coat, and brown mane that was just a bit lighter than Bastion's. The primary difference was length. Paper's mane was much longer and actually quite a mess at the moment, having been matted against his head thanks to his helmet. Then there was the batpony, Nightfall. He was far more strict than the others. He was focused and calculating and though he didn't show it, she could see it in his brilliant emerald eyes that he cared deeply for his teammates. His own dark blue mane was of medium length. Any shorter and it could have been considered a military cut. His own coat was of a dark bluish grey. One thing that they all shared, Celestia noticed and actually found quite amusing, was that their coats were much thicker and poofier than the ponies of Equestria she had left behind, clearly an adaptation from the cold.

When everyone had finally settled down, the room was silent. The only sound was that of breathing and the occasional hoofsteps of a patrolling guard outside. For just a moment, it seemed as if everything was normal and there wasn't a raging blizzard outside. Celestia was fully aware that she was in a land that she no longer recognized, but just for tonight she could pretend that she was still home. For now, all was quiet and all was at peace. She could take solace in that.

It was dark and it was cold in the place that Celestia now found herself. The snow swirled around her in a relentless torrent of ice that stung her face and brought only numbness to her hooves. The once endless expanse of sky was now fully obstructed by a thick and intrusive layer of clouds that mercilessly poured more and more snow upon her. That which had accumulated on the ground was well above her knees and encumbered her to the point that she was barely able to walk.

Three dark and mostly silhouetted figures surrounded her, moving slowly through the snow as the group trudged on to Canterlot. They were not at all recognizable through the fog like snow that obscured her vision. For some reason, she could not remember which one of her escorts had taken which position and the blowing wind was far to strong for her weak voice to overcome. Despite this, she too marched on.

In this frozen hellscape, seconds seemed to go by like minutes and minutes went by like hours. Hours were an eternity. It felt like they had been going on for days without any recognizable landmarks to provide them with some idea of how far they had come. Their surroundings were nothing but flat, snow covered tundra. Celestia could not even see beyond a few meters, making her feel as if she was in a void. For all she knew, they had been walking in circles, quite literally going nowhere.

Something suddenly caught Celestia's attention. She had gotten a sudden glimpse of movement on the edge of her vision, causing her to stop and look out in that direction.

"Celestia," a hushed voice that echoed just slightly said from somewhere beyond the veil of snow.

Celestia jumped in surprise at the mentioning of her name. She turned and faced the direction that she had come from, before looking back to see that her escorts were continuing on through the blizzard. She returned her attention back to where the voice had come only to find that a dark figure now stood before her, just at edge of visible range. The figure was that of a pony, but whoever it was did not move nor did they say any other words.

Celestia looked back again, but her escorts had disappeared, having been swallowed whole by the blizzard that they ventured into. She tried to call out to them, but found that yet again her voice had left her. Only the painful vibration of her mute vocal cords came, no matter how hard she tried. When she turned back to the figure before her for a final time, the pony had begun to recede back into the snow.

"Wait. Who are you?" Celestia's voice had not come from her mouth, rather it had come from the sky. It was if her thoughts had been translated for her by some unknown entity.

The pony only continued away from her.

"Wait." Celestia rushed forward, taking several large bounds through the snow.

Suddenly and without warning, the wind picked up, violently blowing more snow into her face. The figure then disappeared, having been blown away with the wind as if they were made from dust.

Celestia was now alone. She took several double takes at where the pony had once stood, but the wind only continued to build. The snow swirled around her, the blizzard raging harder than it had before and the wind began to blow so hard that she felt like she would surely be swept off her hooves. That is when she realized what had happened. She had gotten separated from her group.

The thestral had stressed the point to stay close so many times and yet here she was, all alone like a child that wandered off from their parent at a clothing store. Panic started to set in and her heart began to beat loudly in her ears. She looked around frantically trying to remember which way her group had gone. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have allowed this to happen?

Operating on pure instinct, she began to run, leaping in and out of the snow as she tried to desperately catch up. On her fifth jump, she stumbled and fell to the ground.

Celestia grunted in discomfort as her body came down onto the hardwood flooring of the town assembly hall. She moaned before finally opening her eyes to see that she had in fact rolled right off of the couch where she had fallen asleep that night, the short drop having woken her from her dream.

Seeing as she had become entangled in her blanket on the way down, it took Celestia a moment to make it to her hooves. Upon doing so, she looked around the room. Each of the ponies were just as she remembered. Nightfall was still on his bedroll while Paper and Bastion laid on the bed facing away from each other. All of them were still sound asleep.

Celestia sighed as she crawled back onto the couch and covered herself with the blanket. For now, all she could do was attempt to fall back asleep and hope that the morning would bring a new day. Indeed, in this world, one could only hope.

Author's Notes:

I decided to release this chapter earlier than expected, because it's done and there really isnt any point in waiting. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 3: Through Ice and Snow

It was early morning, far earlier than anypony should have been willing to wake and yet here Nightfall stood. He had only been up for a few minutes, but had already begun to collect his gear and put on his snow suit. After spending five years as a part of the TRST Initiative, he had grown accustomed to wearing it for long periods of time. The spots where it felt just a little tight no longer bothered him and he often thought of it as a second coat of fur.

Being based in Canterlot, the Initiative was known for having access to some of the best equipment in Equestria and that extended to the snow suit. It was light weight despite the ballistic weaving in the torso that was often used in heavier military vests. The thick insolation kept the wearer warm in even the heaviest of snow storms and the watertight seal at the neck prevented snow from making its way into the suit itself. A hard-case helmet with extra space for the ears protected from any blunt force trauma that one may acquire in the tundra. Snow shoes that folded up around the legs, plenty of velcro pockets, and a stylish fur collar made the snow suit the prized and most essential piece of equipment in a ranger's kit. The best part was that the Gen V Mark II was standard issue and there was plenty of space for additions should one chose to spend their field credits on such things.

It didn't take long for Nightfall to put on the suit. Unlike the last generation, the zipper was on the front and one pony was able to put it on without assistance. He left his weapons and survival kit on the table though, along with his helmet, instead taking along a fleece winter cap that did just fine in keeping his ears warm.

Paper and Bastion were still asleep, but that was okay. Nightfall was actually up much earlier than usual. Unfortunately for Celestia though, she would need to accompany him outside for a while.

"Princess," Nightfall whispered softly after making his way to her side. "Celestia. Wake up."

Celestia rolled over to face him before pulling her head from the couch. "Nightfall?" she said sleepily as she rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes. She looked around the room to see that it was still mostly dark, the dim light from the windows being the only thing that allowed her to see at all. "Is something the matter?"

Nightfall shook his head. "No," he answered. "Everything's fine. I just need to you come with me. We have some things to take care of before we head out." He motioned towards the door. "I'll give you a second to wake up. Find me outside when you're ready."

"Should we not wake the others?" Celestia asked.

"Nah, let them sleep," Nightfall replied. "This wont take long." He wasn't even to the door yet when he found Celestia trailing directly behind him. "That was quick," he said as he opened the door and a few flurries of snow made their way inside.

"I am used to it," Celestia explained. "Having ruled a country, I've become accustomed to early mornings." She followed the thestral outside. A light dusting of snow was falling within the town, but was not much stronger outside the storm spires. Despite the improved weather conditions, the clouds had not dispersed at all. "Where are we going?" she asked, noticing that a few ponies were already up and about. Most were guards, donning full body coats similar to the one Nightfall now wore.

"We're going to get you outfitted real quick," Nightfall replied as he threw on a heavily tented set of shades. "You'll need a snow suit if you want to survive beyond the walls. Of course, it wont be as nice as the one I've got but it will keep you warm enough that your hooves aren't falling off from frostbite. You'll also need a survival kit."

As the two continued through the streets, Celestia began to take note of everything around her. In the night before, she had had little chance to just take in her surroundings. A mix of confusion, shock, stress, and darkness had prevented that, but now that the dim light of morning allowed her to see, she was quickly making observations about this new world.

The town itself was unlike anything she had ever seen. Of course, the building were nothing strange. Most of the houses were made of stone and logs with wood shingled roofs. They could easily be compared to those of her own time, but they lacked the same architectural style. If anything, they were just plain. It was the way the town was arranged that struck Celestia as odd. Despite its small size, it was very dense in the sense that all the houses were very close together, creating long narrow alleys that served as the main road system. The overhang on most roofs simply ran together in some places. Around the entire town was a small wall, composed of logs and stone, with only a few towers.

The only open space within these walls was from where they had just come from. The small town square, just outside of the assembly hall, housed a large pedestal on which a large fire burned. Around this fire, three large brick smokestacks rose into the sky, a black cloud billowing from their tops. From what Celestia could infer, it seemed that this was the signal fire that Nightfall had spoken of the previous day.

After their short walk, the two stopped at a small building by the gatehouse, where a couple of town guards sat drinking coffee and gazing out into the tundra beyond the storm spires. It was a relatively clear day, and from here Celestia could see that the world beyond these structures was one of ice, snow, and endless cold. She sighed a tired sigh as Nightfall opened a door for her.

Celestia and Nightfall now found themselves in a small cabin, lit only by hanging candles and a large fire from a stone fireplace. There were several guards seated at tables, either eating breakfast, drinking, or playing cards. A staircase on the right that led to a basement seemed to suggest that this was a combination of a tavern, barracks, and, if the crates scattered about were any indication, a warehouse.

Nightfall casually walked up to an older stallion seated behind a desk. The unicorn looked over to the thestral over his book before looking to Celestia and back to Nightfall again. He just sat there for a moment before something in his brain connected and he realized who was standing before him.

"Oh shit," he said, jumping to his hooves and throwing the book under the counter. "You're the alicorn, aren't you. No, no. Don't answer that. I'm partially deaf, not partially blind." He chuckled a bit. "You're probably here for the requisitions order, aren't you?"

Nightfall nodded, before pulling a paper slip from one of his suit pouches and sliding it across the counter to the quartermaster.

The unicorn took the slip in his magic and glanced over it once. "Yep, that's it," he said, before stamping it with a seal and neatly laying it in a stack. He turned and began rummaging through some boxes. "I tell you," he continued, "when I found out that this order was for an alicorn, I didn't believe it. It was horse shit, had to be. Alicorns are just fairy tales we tell the kiddos so they sleep well at night. Of course, when I get an order I make sure it goes through regardless of how ridiculous it sounds. Here you are though. Absolutely miraculous!"

He finally found what it was he was looking for in the organized chaos of crates, weapons, and armor. Using his magic, he dropped two duffle bags on the counter, one being a bit larger than the other. "This is everything you need. We didn't have anything for a pony in her size, but I did manage to get my hooves on something for hippogriffs," he said gesturing towards the larger bag. "Should fit just fine. Had to replace the shoes with something more suitable for hooves, but it was any easy fix. You've even got some extra wing space." He disappeared behind the counter again as he ducked down to grab something, returning only a second later with what appeared to be a helmet... a very strange looking helmet.

Nightfall and Celestia both gave each other skeptical looks.

"I know. I know," the quartermaster said, raising his hoof to keep them from saying anything. "You're probably thinking this helmet is really happy to see you. Well, it is." A large grin spread across his face. "I assure you, though, an extended horn cover is more than necessary. Take it from someone who's experienced it firsthoof, you do not, I repeat, you do NOT, want to get frostbite on your horn. And yes, it is a little top heavy, but it's all for the greater good." He dropped the helmet on the counter with the rest of the gear, before turning to the smaller bag.

"Here, you've got a basic survival kit. Emergency rations, first aid, spare matches, personal heater, you get the idea."

Nightfall took the larger of the bags into his hooves and turned to the door allowing Celestia to take her supplies and helmet. Before leaving though, Celestia slipped off two of her golden shoes and left them on the counter. The ground outside, being frozen, had been quite cold. She had decided to leave her crown and regalia back at the assembly hall, but had worn her shoes to stave off the cold of the stones beneath her hooves. She slid them to the quartermaster. "Here you are," she said with a grateful smile. "Thank you for all you've done. It is very much appreciated."

In return, the quartermaster gave her nothing but a blank stare before finally taking the shoes and feeling them in his hooves. They were somewhat heavy. "Holy hell," he whispered to himself, before looking back to Celestia. "Is... is this real gold?"

"It is indeed," Celestia answered with a satisfied smile. "I do hope that it may help you in acquiring what you need in the future."

Yet again, a dumb look was displayed. "Y-yes," the quartermaster said after finally finding his tongue. "This will do wonders for us. I can afford to upgrade our suites to the next gen. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"You are welcome."

And with that, Celestia and Nightfall were out the door and on their way back toward the assembly hall.

"That was awfully generous of you, Celestia," Nightfall pointed out as they made their way through the streets. "Now that I think of it, those shoes must be worth a fortune."

"These ponies need it far more than I do," Celestia said. "They have been more than hospitable thus far, despite their own hardships. It would be wrong for me not to repay their kindness in some way."

Nightfall did not offer a response, instead favoring silence as he thought things over a bit. Eventually, the two made it back to the assembly hall. Bastion had woken up in their absence and begun to gather his gear. He was halfway into his snow suit when the two entered. Paper Cut on the other hoof was still sound asleep, or at least he was until Nightfall dropped the unicorn's gear on him.

He moaned in clear annoyance, before rolling over onto his other side, causing his helmet to roll off the bed and onto the floor with an audible thud. He sat up and threw the covers off. "Morning?" he groaned, making it more a statement than a greeting.

"Yep," Bastion said as he pulled the last of his legs into his suit and zipped it up. A bit of fur got caught in the zipper and he was forced to adjust the collar slightly. "Get you're breakfast while you can, sleepyhead."

Paper just rolled his eyes before hopping out of bed and beginning to dig through his gear for an apple. "Hey, that looks pretty good," he said to Celestia after seeing that Nightfall was helping her put on her own snow suit. "A little dated, but it suits you." Although it hadn't been intentional, his choice of words caused him to smile.

"Yes," Celestia agreed. "I must admit, it is rather comfortable, but..." she frowned as she took her helmet in her hooves and looked it over. "I'm afraid I fail to understand the geometry of this helmet. How in Equestria is one supposed to put this thing on?" She ran her hooves along the horn cover and snout. "It's impossible."

"Here, let me see," Nightfall said, taking the helmet from Celestia. "Ah, yes. The good-ole Gen IV. These things were standard issue for a year after I got stuck in the Initiative." He fiddled with it for a moment. "There should be a..." With a few cranks of a twisty bit up near the ear, a series of clicks sounded before a satisfying pop. From the rear, the helmet split apart, opening up with the use of a spring hinge at the mouth. "Here you go," Nightfall said, holding the helmet back up.

Celestia lowered her head, allowing Nightfall to place it on her. With it sliding down onto her horn, Nightfall helped her clamp the sides and bottom of the helmet onto the upper plating. Now, the helmet fully covered her head, all the way down to the thick collar at the top of her neck.

"I must say," Celestia began. "I'm surprised by how breathable it is. Somehow, I also expected a strange smell, but it has the odor of a new carriage." She inhaled deeply, taking in the pleasant smell.

"I think I read an article once about the Gen Is and all the problems they had," Paper said, as he too began to gather his gear. "Apparently, the wearers nearly suffocating was a big issue. Saw one in a museum once."

As everyone continued to get ready, Celestia walked a few slow laps around the room, testing out her new suit and getting a feel for the weight. "So, how I do I take this off," she eventually asked, pointing to the helmet that now snuggly sat around her head.

Over the next few minutes, Nightfall gave Celestia a quick lesson on how to use all the features in her snow suit, including a small radio unit that had to be plugged into the back of her helmet, which Celestia simply clipped to her hip to be worn later on. Once everyone was set, the small group headed outside.

The sun was now about halfway up passed the horizon, casting an array of color through the cloud cover. Had it not been for the dreary atmosphere of the tundra below, the scene would almost have been beautiful. Instead, it only served as a reminder to Celestia of her current situation.

Once outside, they wasted little time getting through the town and to the front gate, where a small group of guards had now taken their posts. Along the way, a small crowd had formed in the same manner as before, when Celestia first arrived. There were far fewer of them now, but they took great interest in her.

"Princess," a voice called out, causing the alicorn to stop and look for its origin. Sure enough, it was Mayor Gale, trotting along at a brisk pace. "Hello, Princess," Gale said, taking a respectful bow.

Celestia gave him a acknowledging nod. "Hello, Mayor."

"I'm glad to have caught you," Gale began. "I wanted to say farewell before you departed and wish you luck on your journey."

"Thank you, Mayor," Celestia replied. "I too am glad to have run into you. I wanted to give you something."

"Really?" Gale said, sounding more than surprised at the idea being given something by the Princess.

From her back, Celestia retrieved her large chest ornament that she usually wore. It was much too large for her to wear underneath her snowsuit, and it had become somewhat troublesome to carry around. "I wanted you to have this," she began. "For all that you've done. I know that you think that it may not have been much, but you have been a more than gracious host."

Mayor Gale just stopped and stared at the golden item that had been placed in his hooves. It was large, but not nearly as heavy as he had imagined. No doubt, it was worth a fortune, especially considering that fact that it belonged to an alicorn princess, nevermind the skyrocketing value of gold. "Princess... I..." the words seemed to die in Gale's throat, but he eventually found his voice. "It was only the right thing to do, Your Highness. I cant accept this as payment."

Celestia only smiled. "Then please, accept it as a gift. Though I have been here less than a day, I have seen that your town goes through hardship. This is the least I can do."

"I don't know what to say?"

"You dont need to say anything. Just do me one favor. Continue to be good to your constituents. They are fortunate to have such a kind heart leading them."

"I will, Princess," Gale replied. "I promise."

And with that, final farewells were exchanged before Celestia found herself heading out beyond the city walls, passed the storm spires, and into the frozen lands that she used to call home.

Three hours. The group had been walking for three long and tiresome hours. Nightfall, Paper, and Bastion had all had little trouble keeping pace with one another, as they trudged on through the snow. The storm from the previous day had passed on and the weather was now mostly clear, with the exception of the flurries of snow that fell every so often, making their journey much easier than it had been on the original trip.

Celestia was a different story. Her legs burned and her neck had become sore from looking down so often. She was no where near being used to walking in snow shoes, and found herself having to watch her step every time she lifted her leg. The added weight from her snow suit and helmet made her wish she had done more cardio and eaten far less cake in the past. She hated feeling like she was slowing everyone down, but given the relatively clear weather, nopony really seemed to mind too much.

The worst part of it all for Celestia though, was not the physical exertion or the cold that nipped at her exposed face. Rather it was what surrounded her. All around her was a barren, featureless snowscape of white. As far as the eye could see, there was absolutely nothing and it was everywhere. There were no trees, no grass, no houses. There wasn't even a discarded wagon wheel or some kind of rough evidence that a civilization once existed here. Everything was just white and void of shapes.

Celestia, in an attempt to distract herself, had engaged in casual conversation with her new friends. She was only mildly successful. She had thought it best to bring Bastion up to speed on the current situation, seeing as he was absent during her original explanation to Nightfall and Paper. This subject matter did little to keep her mind off of all that had been lost.

"So you're telling me, that you would raise the sun all on your own?" Bastion asked, after being a given the run down on what had transpired a thousand years ago.

"I did," Celestia answered. "It was my responsibility to do so for over a thousand years, along with the moon until my sister returned from her exile."

"And she did that all on her own as well?"

"Yes, she did indeed."

Bastion thought for a moment, before looking back over to Celestia. "If you dont mind me asking, why did she get exiled?"

Celestia hesitated to answer, but gave one nonetheless, though it was somewhat less than truthful. "She was... corrupted by a dark magic. It took control of her mind, twisting her will into its own, and ultimately attempted to bring about eternal night. Imprisoning her in the moon was all that could be done."

"Wasn't there a cure or a remedy?" Paper asked.

"I'm afraid not," Celestia answered sorrowfully. "Not at the time at least. It would be a thousand years before the bearers of the Elements of Harmony could cleanse her."

"Elements of Harmony," Paper stated. "Most of what I've read about those is just myth and stories. I'll have to bust out the old history book when we get home and get your take on all of it. It'd be interesting to see how much of it is accurate."

"I'd be more than happy to take a look," Celestia replied. "It will be fun to see what has survived the ages."

"Awesome," Paper replied excitedly. "You said the Elements had bearers didn't you? What were they like?"

A small smile grew across Celestia's expression as fond memories returned to her from a time long past. "They were kind and generous. Loyal, honest, and made ponies laugh. Although they began as my subjects, they grew to become my peers and my very best friends. Twilight Sparkle, my own personal student who ascended to become an alicorn herself, was the Element of Magic. I was so proud of her."

"They sound like they were wonderful ponies," Bastion added.

"Yes. They were."

It was warm and cozy inside the diner, a stark contrast to the frozen and unforgiving land outside. It was now the middle of the morning, the sun having now risen well over the horizon and doing its best to shine through the cloud layer.

Each of the ponies of the group now sat around a small table, silently enjoying coffee and preparing for the rest of a long day of travel ahead. Celestia still wore her Gen IV snowsuit and consequently did not draw too much attention from anyone around the outpost that she now found herself in. Of the few ponies who were here, a few noticed that she was rather tall, but did not question it.

After having walked for so long, it was simply nice to sit down and enjoy a hot drink for a moment. All was quiet. There wasn't really much to talk about anyways.

Celestia lit her horn with a golden aura, as she absentmindedly levitated her coffee mug to her lips, before placing it back on the table and continuing to stare at the ponies passing by outside the window. This action quickly drew the gazes of her escorts as she repeated it a few more times.

Eventually, Celestia noticed their stares and returned them with a confused look of her own. "What?"

There were now five ponies in the group. Four of them trudged on through the snow, their snow shoes keeping them from sinking to far into it. The fifth simply hovered along, growing in size every so often as more and more snow was added to the snow pony that Celestia had begun to form with her magic. She lacked any additional materials to make it into a true piece of art at the moment, but it was coming along nicely regardless.

"Okay, okay," Paper began after watching Celestia form her snow pony. "I'm dying to ask. You claimed that you could move the sun, right. Soooooooo..." He looked up to the sky before casting his gaze back to Celestia.

Celestia returned this with a skeptical look. "Are you asking me to move the sun simply for entertainment?"

"Of course not!" Paper defended. "I'm not asking you to do anything, but seeing as you have your magic back, if you wanted to... I dont know... celebrate a little by showing off, I certainly wouldn't mind."

Celestia's expression turned into one of mock offense. "Well, seeing as you've previously informed me that a council of unicorns is now responsible for the raising and lowering of the sun, I do believe that the tampering of such an entity without informing them ahead of time would be nothing short of reckless and irresponsible." A playful smile suddenly spread across Celestia's face.

In one clean motion, Celestia took a stance, raised her head toward the sky, and lit her horn.

...

Nothing happened. She tried again.

...

Still nothing.

"That's strange," Celestia said. "This usually works."

"Well, at least you can still-"

"Everyone down! Now!" Nightfall suddenly whisper yelled.

Without even a hint of hesitation, the three rangers hit the deck, their snow shoes folding up around their hooves and their legs burying into the snow below them so that only their heads stuck out. Celestia mimicked this action, but was several seconds slower due to having to fiddle with the latch on her somewhat outdated gear. "What's going on?" she asked after finally getting herself tucked into the snow.

Nopony replied, but she was able to understand from the looks of her escorts that now was not a time to be talking.

Nightfall had brought a set of binoculars to his eyes and was peering out at something far off in the distance. Bastion and Paper had both gone to work clearing out the snow around them to form a little foxhole as inconspicuously as they possibly could.

"Rifle," Nightfall whispered, before trading his binoculars with Bastion for the flair rifle that he had been carrying.

"What do we got?" Paper asked as he unloaded a few black boxes from his pouches.

Bastion took a look through the binoculars before tossing them over to Paper. "See for yourself."

Paper too took a look, before allowing Celestia to see as well.

"Are those... timberwolves?" Celestia asked, a little confused by what exactly she was seeing. "That cant be. There are no forests here. How have they survived into this age?"

"They probably didn't," Paper answered. "Those are ice wolves."

"Yeah," Nightfall added. "Looks like they got their paws on a caravan too. Poor bastards probably never stood a chance."

Celestia took another look through the binoculars. Downrange was a scene that did not sit well with her stomach. There appeared to be three carriages of some sort, each having been adapted for use in the tundra. Two were toppled over. The third seemed to have tried to escape, but failed to get very far before also being flipped. Around each were several bodies lying in the snow which had been turned red with the blood of the ice wolves' victims.

These creature were large, being about the same size as the timberwolves that Celestia was familiar with. In fact, they appeared to be exactly the same in everyway other than their color. Gone were the colors of brown and green bestowed on them by nature. In their place were whites and blues, their bodies being transparent in some places due to their icy composition. The only other color was the crimson that stained their muzzles and paws.

Currently the beasts were stalking around the site like the predators they were. A few were scratching at the carriage at the front, attempting to get to the cargo inside. Some others were eating their freshly caught prey. Two towards the rear were fighting over a single corpse, pulling in opposite directions until it gave way and burst open, its insides spilling out onto the snow.

Celestia ducked back into their hole as her stomach did a one-eighty inside of her. She grew pale and felt as if she were going to throw up. Her heart raced and despite the cold she began to sweat furiously. "We have to help those ponies," she suddenly muttered.

"I dont know, Princess," Nightfall replied. "There's seven of them and only four of us. Trying to fight them would be suicide. It would be best for us if we moved on."

"What? No," Celestia protested. "We cant just leave ponies to die like this. There could be survivors."

"You don't know that though," Nightfall countered. "Those carriages could just as easily be empty."

"We dont know that either," Celestia pointed out.

"She's got a point, Nightfall," Bastion added. "We cant assume anything either way, but we should at least take a look. Not to mention, if we leave them be, they'll just attack the next caravan that passes through."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything," Nightfall said. "I'm just... trying to figure out how to go about this." He popped his head out of their foxhole for just a moment to further scope out the situation. Two of the wolves were still trying to get into one of the carriages. The other five seemed too caught up in eating to care.

"We might be able to sneak past the ones around the perimeter if we circle back from the rear," Paper said, looking through the binoculars to look for entry routes.

"That still leaves the two at the carriages," Nightfall continued. "We cant take them out without making too much noise, so we'll have to draw them away somehow."

"Well whatever's in that carriage must have quite an interesting scent for them to be scratching at the doors like that," Bastion said as he too joined his squad mates in scoping out the situation.

Nightfall thought for a moment, pondering everything that he had just heard. They needed a distraction, something that could draw them away from the scent of the gruesome scene around them. Scent. Nightfall's eyes widened as he suddenly had an idea, one that he almost wished he hadn't had. "Paper, how good are you at cooking?"

"I cant believe we're doing this," Paper said in disgust from within his helmet, trying his hardest to stave off the pungent smell of death and bleeding flesh. "This is so wrong. This is so wrong. This is so wrong." It was about to get much worse, as the young unicorn reluctantly ignited his horn.

"Keep it together, Paper," Nightfall said, his own insides feeling as if they were doing gymnastics within him. He resisted the urge to gag as he flew up off the ground to raise the torn open corpse by its forehooves.

Since formulating their plan, the group had circled around to the other side of the wolves and had dug themselves into a position not too far away. After that, they were able to drag off one of the corpses without being spotted. Celestia had originally gone against their current course of actions, using words to describe it such as barbaric, disgusting, and unethical. Nopony disagreed with her on that, but this was the only thing they could think to do and time was running out.

Paper lowered his head and conjured up a tongue of fire from his horn. While it did not initially catch to the corpse, it did eventually catch to the uniform the once living pony wore. The fire slowly spread creating a small cloud of dark smoke that smelled of burning hair and cooking meat.

Paper quickly ran off, hopping into the small trench with Bastion and Celestia, away from the repulsive smell.

Nightfall on the other hoof had been elected to do the hard job, being the only one among them with wings other than Celestia, and they weren't about to let her put herself in harms way. He had had to undo a couple of zippers to expose his wings to the elements, but all he could do was ignore the chill and hope they didn't go numb.

As quickly as he could, Nightfall made his way toward the wolves nearest to the carriages. "Hey there," he said nervously as he approached, roasting corpse still dangling from his hooves. "Look what I've got," he continued in a sing song tone. "Big, juicy, delicious-" He nearly vomited in his own mouth.

The two wolves did not notice him at first, until the smell of charred flesh reached them and they began to sniff the air. Then they saw him, the first beginning to walk towards him as the second jumped down from on top of the overturned carriage. They began to approach him, snarling and growling as they split up in an attempt to encircle their new prey. Only now was Nightfall beginning to realize just how big they were.

"That's right, you mangy mutts. Come and get me!" Nightfall took off, away from the carriages as the first wolf jumped out at him. The wolves barked ferociously as they chased him off into the tundra, able to keep pace with him, but not quite fast enough to catch up. Nightfall stayed low, giving the wolves a reasonable chance of catching him so that they would not lose interest.

The others watched from their foxhole in the snow as Nightfall's silhouette grew smaller and smaller on the horizon.

"Let's go," Bastion said, jumping out of the hole and staying low to the ground.

Paper quickly followed behind, but not before turning to Celestia. "Stay here," he ordered. "Don't go anywhere until Nightfall gets back."

Celestia just nodded before anxiously watching the two go to work.

They crept towards the caravan slowly but carefully, using the snow to mask their approach. When they finally reached the first of the carriages, Bastion placed an ear to the side and listened. Nothing. Not a sound. At the same time, Paper peeked around the corner to see, but quickly brought his head back in at the sight of the giant wolves only meters away. Each of their hearts pounded in their chests and sweat dripped from their brows, threatening to drown them in their own helmets.

"Ready?" Bastion whispered to Paper, who replied with a simple nod. Bastion then took his position, allowing Paper to step up on him and climb to the side of the carriage that now pointed straight in the air. With his magic, Paper opened it up and used the door to hide from view, before looking down into the haul. It was empty with the exception of wooden crates full of silk, spices, and other goods.

"It's empty," Paper called back down to Bastion as quietly as he could.

Bastion cursed under his breath before the two moved on to the next carriage, repeating the process from before. It too was empty and yet again Bastion cursed. Then they moved to the third.

"Third time's the charm, right?" Paper whispered. He climbed up again and peered inside.

Nightfall beat his wings as hard as he could. His breathing had grown heavy and the cold air stung at his lungs like a series of freezing needles. His wings burned even worse as the chill of the air seared into his flesh and began to form a thin layer of ice. He had dumped the charred body long ago and was now making his way back to their rally point as fast as he could carry himself.

The wolves had chased him relentlessly, but after dropping the corpse and taking off, they easily favored staying and devouring it, the burning flesh being far too savory of an opportunity to pass up.

As Nightfall got closer and closer to where he had initially taken off from, he began to swear internally as more pain crept into his body. Finally, he found the point at which he was to meet his squad, just beyond the wreckage of the caravan. Sure enough, there were three ponies there waiting for him. He landed, misstepping as a result of his exhaustion and pain, causing him to take a dive face first into the snow. He groaned in annoyance before lifting himself up.

Paper, Bastion, and Celestia all stood there before him. They each wore sad smiles.

"Good to see you again," Bastion said as he helped Nightfall to his hooves. "Paper and I had a little wager going to see if you would make it back in less than five minutes or not. I won... as usual." He chuckled a little, trying to mask grief that was apparent in his tone.

Nightfall looked around them. It was just them. The team that he knew and Celestia. There were no others. "Let me guess," he said sadly. "No survivors?"

Bastion just nodded.

To this Nightfall only replied with a sigh, before tucking his wings back into his suit and zipping up the sides. "Well," he eventually began. "At least we tried. Let's go."

Bastion watched as Nightfall began to walk off. "Nightfall, you're not even going to-"

"There's nothing more we can do," Nightfall interrupted in a depressed tone. "Hell, we just desecrated a corpse. If anything, we've done too much already. Best thing we can do now is get home." With that, he turned and resumed the journey.

"I'm sorry," Celestia eventually said in a seemingly deflated tone after a long moment of silence. "That was an unnecessary risk. I shouldn't have gotten us off track like that."

"You weren't wrong to want to at least try, Celestia," Paper replied. "It was the right thing to do. We just weren't lucky this time around."

Celestia sighed, looking back in the general direction of the caravan. "Nopony was."

The team had now marched on for another day. They made it to an outpost late in the evening where night had fallen and the sun had then risen to begin the next day. A new day, a new snow storm it seemed. All Celestia could see beyond the spires was white. The sight did little to preserve her already failing sunny disposition. During their time at this outpost, Nightfall had used the radio tower to contact Canterlot just before the storm moved in. Celestia had listened in on the call, where Nightfall had informed them that a VIP was currently in their possession, although he intentionally left out the part about her being an alicorn. He had also taken the liberty to request medical personnel to be onsite upon their arrival. Celestia had insisted that there was no need, but Nightfall naturally ignored her, much to her annoyance. Meanwhile, Bastion had taken part in a snowball fight with some of the local children who described his gear as being "really cool" and "awesome." Paper simply sat back on some stairs while writing in his journal.

After the dawning of morning, the team did not stay in the relative safety of the outpost for very long. Instead they opted to head out into the tundra again. It was best to keep moving if they wanted to maintain their current timetable, despite the less than favorable weather conditions. Despite the low visibility and strong winds, the group continued forward as best they could, passing the time with casual conversation.

"So you're telling me that you used a floating city to manufacture your own... weather?" Paper asked, not entirely believing the stories that Celestia had been telling.

"We did, indeed," Celestia answered. "Every region of Equestria was mostly responsible for controlling its own weather, but Cloudsdale played a significant role in coordinating these efforts and producing the required materials."

Everyone just went quiet for a moment after hearing this.

"No way," Nightfall eventually said. "You're pulling our legs."

It seemed as if there was no end in sight of the snow that had been falling for the last day. No matter where they went, it seemed that it followed them. The world had been bleak before, but now it was just an endless expanse of white. It would have been miserable for them had they not currently been on a train headed towards Canterlot. They had made it to the station at a rather large outpost earlier in the evening. Among the much smaller ponies, yet again Celestia had drawn some attention, but the presence of her escorts had dissuaded anypony from interrupting them though she did get more than a few curious stares.

Celestia had never cared too much for trains. Having had a chariot, train rides were few and far between for her back in the old days, though she did have a private train car for the rare occasion in which a chariot would not suffice. Now, a chariot it seemed was completely obsolete. There was no doubt that the poor pegasi pulling would freeze to death.

She leaned her head again the glass of the window. It was cold, but strangely comfortable. She closed her eyes as she allowed her mind to fall in line to the rhythm of the wheels rattling against the rails.

"So, Princess," Bastion began.

"Hmm?"

"I've got to ask. If you're here, do you think that means that the other alicorns are as well... somewhere out there frozen in stone, I mean."

Celestia thought for a moment before answering. "I see no reason to assume that they aren't. It would certainly make some sense. Given the circumstances of how I was found, I do believe that when our spell failed, it discharged a great amount of magical energy to send me where I ended up. It would only stand to reason that the others were sent off in a similar fashion."

"Exactly how many ponies were involved in your spell," Paper asked curiously.

"Just the five of us," Celestia answered. "Twilight, Cadence, Flurry, Luna, and myself. Discord supplied us with a focusing crystal, but he was absent at the time of its casting. More than a few mages helped in the spell's overall design, but only the four of us were required when it came time to use it. Why?"

"Just curious I suppose," Paper said with a shrug.

"What were the others like?" Bastion asked. "If you dont mind me asking."

Celestia thought back to before everything went crazy. Fond memories returned to her as she called upon the times she had spent in the company of the other alicorns. "Twilight was a student of mine ever since she was a little filly. She was brilliant and eager to better Equestria with her knowledge. She was also anti-social and somewhat paranoid until she discovered her destiny as the Element of Magic. Upon her ascension, she was crowned the Princess of Friendship. Cadence was similar, although much more outgoing. She was somewhat of a sister to Twilight, even more so after marrying her brother. I still remember the day she became the Princess of Love. She eventually went on to rule the Crystal Empire with her husband. Flurry Heart was their daughter and did eventually take over. She did well as a ruler, especially for being so young. I think the whole situation worried her the most though. She most certainly took after her aunt in that regard."

"Hearing you say Empire when referring to the crystal ponies still feels weird if I'm being honest," Paper said. "I've never met a crystal pony who wasn't a complete doormat."

Bastion suddenly thumped Paper upside the head before turning his attention back to Celestia. "What about Luna?" he asked. "What was she like?"

Celestia smiled as the memories came to her. "She was my sister and best friend for many years..." Her expression turned to that of a frown. "That was before the dark days. When she did return to me, I was... so happy. She was a much more direct kind of pony than I ever was. Strict. Over concerned in many matters. A bit blunt, but graceful most of the time. It had been a thousand years when she returned from exile. I guess I'm kind of experiencing what she went through." Celestia thought for a few moments in silence before finally turning back to the ponies before her. "What about you?" she asked. "Do you have any family?"

"I do, actually," Bastion answered. "My old man and mother live over on the East coast in a fishing village. I left home to join the Guard in Canterlot. That's where my wife is. We're... um... expecting soon, actually."

Celestia's expression suddenly lit up from somberness to one of delight. "Congratulations. That is wondrous news. Have you decided on a name yet?"

Bastion chuckled. "No, not yet. But we've still got six months to think about it, so..."

"I'm sure you will come up with a beautiful name for your foal."

"I've already offered suggestions on multiple occasions," Paper pointed out jokingly. "Of course, Bastion here thinks that all my ideas are silly. There's nothing wrong with naming your foal after a fictional character, especially one who wields the mighty weapon, Mulenir."

Bastion just rolled his eyes as Paper continued to smile at him with a troll like grin.

"So why leave the Guard for this?" Celestia asked. "Law enforcement is an honorable enough role."

"Yeah, but it's redundant as all hell," Bastion pointed out. "You solve one problem and another takes its place. Society doesn't really improve and ponies dont change. The Initiative may be extremely dangerous, but I'm actually making a difference out here. With every mission we complete, things get a little bit easier for the ponies living out on the edge."

"I see. What about you, Paper?" Celestia eventually asked. "What is life like for you?"

"Well," Paper began. "There's not really much to tell. My parents own the printing press in Canterlot. I used to work for them, but now I'm over with the Canterlot Times as a journalist."

"How did you end up in the TRST Initiative?"

"It was my own brilliant idea," Paper answered sarcastically. "I write articles about things going on out in the tundra. We have it really good in the city. I dont think ponies understand just how good. From what you've told me about the old Equestria, I'd guess that you'd probably think of life in Canterlot as, quote unquote, normal. I figured that taking field notes would help me shed some light on the daily lives of ponies out in smaller settlements and bring attention to their struggles, maybe even encourage some charity."

"That's very noble of you, Paper," Celestia assured.

"I'm glad you think so," Paper said in a cheerful tone. "There's a few at the Times who think it isn't worth while. They're only concern is where the money is, so to speak. You know how tabloid journalists are."

Celestia stifled a small laugh. "Yes, there were more than a few in my time. You wouldn't believe the things that I would read on occasion." As the group shared a quick laugh, Celestia took notice of the thestral at the other end of the empty train car. Nightfall had fallen asleep nearly an hour ago, stating that one had to catch it when they could. "What is Nightfall's story," Celestia asked in a somewhat concerned tone. "He said earlier that he got stuck in the Initiative, as if he is here against his will."

With the exception of the soft click clack click clack of the wheels against the rails outside, the train car grew deafeningly silent. Bastion and Paper both exchanged nervous looks, each hesitating to finally address Celestia's question with an answer.

"It's complicated," Bastion finally said as he scratched the back of his head. Meanwhile, Paper opted to shut up, allowing his friend to do all the talking on this matter. "If you really want to know, you'll have to ask him yourself," Bastion continued. "It's better that way. Nightfall's had it pretty rough and I dont think it would be wise for us to run our mouths on matters like that... sorry."

"It's alright," Celestia acknowledged, as she looked over to the sleeping thestral. "I understand." She didn't know why, but a thought suddenly came to her. It had just dawned on her that she had never once seen Nightfall smile, not genuinely at least. She had seen a few acknowledging nods and smiles here and there, but every conversation she had had with him lacked the life and vitality of those she had shared with Bastion and Paper. Even now as he slept, Celestia could tell that something was distressing Nightfall. She could just see it on his face.

Celestia sighed softly. She didn't know what it was but her heart went out to him. Clearly there was something there that burdened his very soul.

Bastion and Paper both seemed like wonderful ponies and she was more than happy to be able to call them friends. Though she did not yet know Nightfall as well as the others, she hoped that one day that he too could be called friend. For now, Celestia was content to just sit and talk, until Canterlot finally came into view.

Author's Notes:

Suddenly, a wild chapter 3 appears.
I'll have chapter 4 out before the end of the month. Chapter 5 should be out within a week after that.

Chapter 4: Sanctuary

Canterlot. The Fortress City. The Heart of Equestria. The Jewel of Pony Civilization. The city had been given many titles throughout history, each one conveying some form of significance. Celestia stared in awe of the city that was no longer familiar to her. In her time, Canterlot had sat comfortably on the side of the mountain. Now, it was as if the city itself had swallowed the mountain whole, engulfing it in a blanket of stone and wood.

From the base of the mountain, massive towers stood, connected to one another by walls that formed a perimeter around the entire mountain. Near the top, where the royal palace once stood, a castle of great magnitude took its place. Gone were the fantastical architectural feats from an age long ago. Gone were the large stain glass windows that depicted Equestrian history. The city had become ridged and ordered. Swirling domes had been replaced with flat topped defense towers and lookout posts. Each tier of the city had its own secondary defense wall. The once free flowing architecture of Canterlot had been replaced with a design that favored security.

There was one thing that remained though. This was color. In a world of endless white, Canterlot was a beacon that called forth every color of the rainbow and beyond. Large banners hung from everywhere and everything. Wondrous works of art expanded across every structure. An entire side of the mountain had been dedicated to creating an expansive port where massive airships of every shape, size, and color transported goods and ponies. Currently, each was docked given the current weather conditions, but the oversized storm spires that surrounded the entire city protected them from being violently thrashed around.

Despite the city's new castle like appearance, it quickly became clear to Celestia that this was indeed a place of culture. The ponies of this era had not only survived, but they had thrived in a way that the old Equestria had not yet seen. A small smile came to Celestia as she looked out on the great city.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Bastion said after noticing Celestia's hopeful look.

"Yes," Celestia answered as their train entered the outer perimeter. "It is certainly a sight to behold."

Suddenly, the train's breaks began to squeal as it passed the last of the outer walls and pulled into a station within the city itself. From the window, Celestia could see several full squads of soldiers marching down the platform in every which direction, each wearing a specialized snow suit similar to those of her own escorts. A small team of three was waiting outside the door of their own train car, ready to meet them. Two of the ponies were what appeared to be medical staff, no doubt a result of the call Nightfall had made earlier that day.

The thestral in question now stood at the door, having been awoken when the train made it through the first of the checkpoints.

When the doors finally opened, they all stepped out where they were greeted by a pony with a tray, four hot beverages sitting upon it. Once the tray was cleared by the small group, he took off to the next platform to meet another team of returning rangers. The drink was hot chocolate, a simple recipe in Celestia's time, but there was something far different about what Celestia was currently bringing to her lips. This drink was incredible. It was if the gods themselves had dropped chocolate from the heavens just so it could be mixed into a liquid for pony consumption.

"It's good, right?" Paper asked, his expression lighting up into pure joy at seeing just how happy the drink made the alicorn.

Celestia smiled gleefully with a few nods, a brown mustache forming under her nose, which she hastily cleared with her tongue. "It has been forever since I last had hot chocolate, even not counting the years I was away. This is far better than I remember though."

"Just goes to show you," Nightfall began. "If you want quality, you go private sector."

"Indeed," Celestia agreed.

Though they were enjoying the moment, they were interrupted only seconds later as one of the medical ponies began to address Celestia. "We're going to need to get you checked out. If you'd please follow me to the aid station."

"Whatever for?" Celestia questioned.

"It's just precautionary, ma'am," the mare answered with a smile. "We just need to run some tests. It will only take a few minutes. Then you can be on your way."

"Sounds reasonable," Celestia replied. She suddenly glanced back at Nightfall who seemed not at all interested in sticking around. "Could you... give me a moment?" Celestia asked the nurse.

"Certainly," the nurse answered cheerfully.

Celestia turned back to Nightfall. "You didn't tell them?"

"They'll figure it out," Nightfall dismissed with a shrug. "I figured it would be best if we avoided a crowd directly out of the gate."

"Are you all not coming with me?" Celestia asked, noticing that Nightfall, Bastion, and Paper did not seem to be following her any longer.

"This is actually where we split up," Bastion informed. "We got to head to debriefing, before we can go anywhere else."

"Dont worry, Princess," Nightfall said. "Someone will meet you at the medical facility. You can reveal yourself to them however you like."

"I see," Celestia began after thinking for a moment. She wasn't sure why, but she felt almost sad at having to part from her escorts. Over the last few days she had come to know them on some level. She would dare say that they were the closest things she had to friends now. No. As a matter of fact, they were her friends. "In that case," she continued somewhat sadly, "it has been a pleasure making your acquaintance."

"Likewise," Bastion replied happily.

Nightfall just gave a nod.

"Celestia wait," Paper suddenly called before the alicorn could take off. "Before you go..." He reached into one of his pouches and handed her a small slip of paper with a ten digit number written on it. "Here. This is the number for the Canterlot Times. It will probably be a while, but once you're ready, give them a call and ask for me. We can have that interview we talked about. That is... you know... if you're still interested."

Celestia smiled down at the unicorn. "Of course I'm still interested," she said. "I look forward to seeing you again."

"Oh." Paper said in surprise, perking up a bit as he did. "Good. I'll uh... I'll see you then."

And with that they parted ways. Celestia knew that what came next would not be easy. There would be much work to be done in the coming days. For now, there was little she could do, but once she got herself acquainted with whoever it was that was currently running Equestria, gears would begin turning very rapidly. The only question she needed to worry about at the moment, was how were they going to react?

Self propelled carriages were something that Celestia had somehow expected to see at some point. What she did not expect was to find herself in one so soon. It was no bigger than a normal carriage from her own time and the overall aesthetic appeared to be mostly the same. The only real difference was the fact that this one ran on rails and nopony was pulling. Instead, a motor of some sort was fixed to the front, quietly humming away as it applied power to the wheels. It was a very simple design, truth be told.

Within, Celestia was accompanied by four guards, two across from her facing her, and another two, one on either side of her. Though she had revealed herself only a few minutes ago, the ponies in charge at the rail station had wasted little time in getting her to where she desired to go, and where she currently desired to go was the palace, or castle as everypony seemed set on calling it. She couldn't help but wonder if her new escorts were aware of who she was, as they remained completely silent and stoic.

She was completely unsurprised to see that their armor had changed quite a great deal since her vanishing. The plating had gone from reflective gold to a matte navy blue with a grey under suit underneath. The geometry was much less free flowing and much more ridged, just like the city they guarded. Each guard had their own personalized configuration of pouches, pockets, and patches. All in all, the armor had gone from a ceremonial design to one of functionality. That was not to say that they did not look good. Though it was somewhat smaller, the crest along the top of the helmet had remained, though it was now full metal without the hair. Celestia couldn't help but to feel somewhat happy about this choice. She liked her guards, and some familiarity was certainly welcome.

As their horseless carriage passed through the city, what Celestia saw only brought a smile to her expression. Life. It was everywhere. From the window, she could see ponies carrying on with their lives as if it were any normal day. It was cold and the way in which they were bundled up reflected this, but she could see that most were happy. There was commerce, gatherings, and smiles. The world around Celestia may have changed, but she knew in her heart that these were the same ponies that she had come to love.

Eventually they did reach the castle at the top of the city, filing out into the courtyard that was surrounded by towering walls and... well, towers. A line of guards had formed on either side of the stairs that led to the front door. At this door, three ponies stood. One was a unicorn guard, though his uniform seemed to be much more ornate than those around him. The other two were earth ponies who wore formal wear, each of them looking quite nervous.

As Celestia made her way up the stairs toward the welcoming committee, the guards began to fall in line behind her, forming a sort of protective barrier between her and the main gate from which they had entered. When she made it to the top of the stairs, the two earth ponies threw themselves before her.

"Welcome, your highness," one of the ponies greeted, bowing far more dramatically than was needed. "We are so pleased to see that you have arrived safely. My name is Lucky Charm."

"And I am Platinum," the other said with an equally dramatic bow.

Celestia simply returned the pleasantry with a nod to each of them. "Greetings, my little ponies. I was told that I would be meeting the Chancellor."

"Yes, yes, of course," Platinum began. "Please, your highness. A thousand pardons, but the Chancellor was quite busy and will have to receive you directly in his office, your most gracious excellency."

"If you would please follow us, your royal majesty," Lucky said, exuberantly bowing every time Celestia was addressed. "It would be our highest honor to lead your most spectacular splendidness to him."

Celestia gave the two a skeptical look. She was beginning to believe that they were going to just keep making up titles at this point. "Please," she said suddenly. "Princess is more than adequate."

From there the two led Celestia through the castle to the upper floors. Despite the complete makeover in her absence, Celestia noticed that the layout of the halls was more or less the same as when she had left, with the exception of a few added halls and rooms every so often. The overall aesthetic had not changed much either. It was a welcome sight. She must have gotten caught up in her own thoughts, because she didn't even notice that they had stopped at a rather large oak double door.

"Right this way," Lucky said, opening a side of the door for Celestia.

"Please, allow me," Platinum insisted, pulling open the other side of the door.

Celestia sighed, and with a roll of her eyes stepped into the large office space. It was dimly lit, the rays from the setting sun and a few candles being the only source of light. At the far end was a large wooden desk with a countless amount of papers strewn upon it. An older gentleman of a stallion was currently making it his impromptu pillow, as he laid his head on it, now fast asleep.

Before either of the earth ponies could say anything, and they certainly were about to, they were pushed out of the way by the unicorn guard who had been following close behind the entire time. He made his way to the desk and gave the stallion a few pats on the shoulder, waking him from his slumber.

The two exchanged a few quiet words, ones that Celestia could not hear over the sound of Platinum and Lucky complaining amongst themselves. Then the guard returned back, grabbing the two by their collars in his magic, and quite literally dragging them out the door, which shut behind them.

"I'm terribly sorry about that," the older stallion began. "I had sent the captain of the guard to receive you, but it would seem those two let their ambition ruin even a simple greeting." He coughed and cleared his throat before continuing. "Please though, do come and have a seat. I sense we have much to discuss." When Celestia had made her way to one of the two seats across from him, the stallion peered through his spectacles at her. "My, you are a sight to behold. Oh, but of course, a proper introduction is in order. Isn't it? I am Chancellor Cobalt."

Celestia smiled. "It is very good to finally meet you, Chancellor. My name is Princess Celestia."

"I must say," Cobalt said, "when I received word that an alicorn had shown up on the city doorstep, I didn't initially believe it." He coughed violently, before pardoning himself and taking a sip of water. "I thought for sure it was another noble pony wasting time with absurd claims, but here you are. Safe, sound, and very much an alicorn. A princess no less. I do hope that your stay thus far has been a pleasant one."

Celestia nodded. "Indeed it has. I had the great privilege of traveling with a group of TRST Initiative Rangers from western Equestria to here. After everything that I saw in the tundra, I feared that pony society had fallen into disarray. I am pleasantly surprised that the case is just the opposite."

"Yes, well, we have had great fortune in the past few years," Cobalt replied. "Now that you are here though, we can begin the process of getting you reinstated. There is so much that you have yet to see if you are to be an effective ruler."

Celestia stopped and just stared at Cobalt for a moment. She somewhat surprised that he had been the one to bring up the matter so willingly. Her arrival certainly implied many things for Equestria's government. "I assure you, Chancellor," Celestia began. "I am not here to relieve anyone of their position. As far as I have seen and heard, Equestria has been ruled quite well in my absence."

Chancellor Cobalt sighed. "You are a blessing unto us, Princess. More than you know it would seem. I am going to be perfectly honest with you. I may be Equestria's ruler today, but my health is declining. I fear what may come tomorrow."

Celestia suddenly felt very sad. "You're dying," she stated, her ears splaying onto the back of her head.

Cobalt nodded. "It would seem my time to leave is drawing near. I have done many good things with this life. Lived it the best I could for the betterment of those around me. I could not ask for a better run, but... I do not know if I can trust that my successor will be able to humble themselves to serve Equestria as I have striven to do so."

"You fear corruption, don't you?"

"Yes," Cobalt answered. "The problem with the parliament these days is that there are too many private interests. I have been able to stave off the worst ideas, but... I dont know what will be unleashed when I am gone." Yet again, he coughed. "What Equestria needs is a guiding hoof, now more than ever."

Celestia thought for a moment about the current situation. "Does anypony else know... about your health, I mean?"

"No," Cobalt answered simply.

"In that case, I am honored that you would share such information with me."

"Thank you," Cobalt replied. "Now. Enough of this unpleasantness. Let us get down to business."

Celestia nodded in agreement. There was much for them to discuss."

The sun had now begun to touch the horizon as it continued to fall in the sky. The Chancellor now knew Celestia's story and she knew a part of his. Seeing as how late it was getting though, they both agreed to meet in the morning and discuss the remaining details over breakfast.

Celestia had been given a vacant bedroom for the night. Despite her own tiredness, she found herself drawn to the balcony.

She leaned up against the balcony railing, looking out as the sun continued to set on the land she had inherited. It was white. Every square inch of it, with the exception of the colorful city below her. She sighed, knowing full and well that this was her life now. The old Equestria was gone. There was no turning back. All she could do now, was move forward. The large puffs of white from her breathing did little to console her.

"Nice night, isn't it?" a voice suddenly asked from the shadows.

Celestia nearly jumped out of her spot in surprise. She was not alone. She looked over to see a familiar thestral leaning over the railing, just as she had been doing. "Yes, I suppose so," she finally answered after composing herself.

Nightfall gave just a bit of a chuckle as he joined her. "Sorry if I startled you. Didn't mean to."

"It's quite alright," Celestia dismissed. She stared Nightfall down for a moment before looking back to the door. It was still closed. Then she looked to him again. "How... did you...?"

"Get in?" Nightfall finished, keeping his eyes fixated on the horizon from beneath a pair of heavily tented shades. "This room is usually vacant. I got here an hour or so before you walked in."

"I see," Celestia said, not entirely sure where to go from here. In truth, she did not much expect to ever see him again and he was the last pony she would have expected to find in her new bedroom. She hesitated, but did eventually break the silence that fell between them. "So, what brings you up here this evening," she asked, curious as to why the thestral was on her balcony.

"I come up here to think on occasion," Nightfall answered. "I'm not really supposed to be on castle grounds, but rules have never really stopped me before, so..."

"Is that why you're here now," Celestia asked, "to think?"

"I guess," Nightfall answered, not sounding so sure of himself. "I'm actually here on "official business" this time though. Some higher ups wanted to talk to me personally since I led the team that found you. Wanted to do a comprehensive debriefing and all that jazz. It basically boiled down to them telling me to keep my mouth shut. I'm just waiting for them to finish the paperwork, then I'm free to go."

"Speaking of official business," Celestia began. "How exactly did you end up with the Initiative. Back in the tundra you said you got stuck, like you didn't want to be there."

Nightfall just sighed before thinking for a moment. He played with the idea of keeping her entirely in the dark on the details and even juggled it with the idea of just giving her false information, but decided against it. It was probably best if he told her himself. "You're gonna hear somethings... about me at some point. I guess I might as well tell you myself."

"It certainly wouldn't hurt to hear your side of the story."

"Yeah, my side... if that's what you want to call it." Nightfall stopped for a moment to take a deep breath, taking in the crisp night air. As the sun finally began to dip below the horizon, he was able to remove his sun glasses. "I made some mistakes a number of years ago. I ended up with the Initiative by court order. It was that or spend twenty something years in a cell."

"What did you do?" Celestia asked calmly.

Nightfall looked over, half expecting to see Celestia recoiling in disgust, but she didn't. Instead, the alicorn simply leaned in, clearly just curious. It was comforting. "I got caught," Nightfall joked, before turning gravely serious. "I took part in a few robberies over the years. Heists, really. Banks, penthouses, mansions, all really high profile stuff. We didn't steal from the poor or anything like that. Of course, we didn't give to the poor either, so..." He trailed off before going silent again.

"How did you get involved with that?"

To Nightfall, Celestia sounded almost like a disappointed mother. It was a weird feeling even talking about this to begin with. He remained quiet for a more than a few moments. He just looked down in deep thought, memories of a long time ago coming back to him. Finally, he answered. "I... um..." He rolled a few words around his mouth, trying to find a way to say what he wanted.

Celestia frowned. She could see it in his eyes there was pain he was not ready to talk about. He hid it well, but still she could see it. It was the same look she had seen in her sister when reminiscing about the past. Because she was experienced in that sort of thing, she called off her question. "Forget I asked," she suddenly said.

Nightfall looked to her, somewhat surprised, but also grateful, before returning his gaze back out into the night. "Thanks."

A silence grew between the two, as they each sat on the balcony, each lost in their own thoughts.

"When do you get out?" Celestia asked. "Of the Initiative I mean."

A smile cracked across Nightfall's expression. "That was my last mission, believe it or not. Now I'm just waiting for them to get finished downstairs so I can head home. It will be... nice... to just be able to relax for once. No more worrying about some next big assignment. No more annoying brass shouting at me. I can finally breath again." He took a deep breath and let it out. "Feels good."

"What will you do now that you're out? It seems to me that you have a very particular set of skills that you can no longer use. What now?"

Nightfall's expression grew thoughtful. "I'm not sure," he answered. "I've got some friends in a few places that could help me out. Nothing illegal this time around though. I think I'm ready to start over. Being out there in the tundra, it's... well, it's given me some perspective on a few things, y'know?"

"What about family?" Celestia pried.

"A few," Nightfall answered.

That was the only answer Celestia got, before silence grew between them yet again.

Canterlot was the same city that Nightfall remembered. Anytime he returned from his travels in the tundra there would always be something new. Either it was road construction, a building renovation, a completely new construction project all together. This time was no different. One of the guard towers on the outer walls had some scaffolding around it as part of a restoration project and one of the mid tiers was getting a new bakery, but it was still the same city.

Nightfall didn't really care to look and see what had changed in his absence this time though. He had a destination in mind and was more concerned about getting there than taking in whatever new sights Canterlot had to offer. Besides, he had spent nearly his entire life in the fortress city and would have plenty of time later to catch up. Right now, he just wanted to get where he was going.

It was a small bar called The Hideout, that was only open from the evening until morning. It was in one of the lower tiers, on the edge of a residential district just above one of the city's main industrial tiers. From the castle, it would have only taken him a few minutes to fly down, but he was tired enough at this point that he instead opted to take one of the cable cars that ran between the city tiers.

After exiting the cable car station, it was only a few blocks down, about a ten minute walk. The Hideout was usually his first stop after returning from the tundra. It was a warm and familiar place where he could grab a drink, greet a few friends, and hopefully meet a specific pony, assuming she was working a shift that night. He had actually been one of the founding employees. In a way, The Hideout was his home.

Upon entering The Hideout, a warm and relaxing wave of air brushed over Nightfall. His nose was met by the smells of food and drink and his ears were greeted with the sounds of a busy kitchen and ponies socializing. The lights in this place were much dimmer than the stark white light that gleamed from the snow outside. There were no actual electrical fixtures here. Rather, the entire place was lit with candles. Each table had at least one and the rest were mounted on the walls. It was all very easy on the eyes, a consequence of being a thestral run business.

Nightfall could still recall back to when they first opened The Hideout ten years ago, back when there were barely any lights at all. Originally, the bar had been meant for just the thestrals here, but as time went on more and more ponies began to show up. It was because of this that they were eventually forced to install these candles.

Business had started out slow. There had only been four employees at the beginning. First there was Scotch. He could make just about any thing into a palatable drink. Even when the stocks ran low, he kept them afloat with his skill for drink mixing. In their marketing sector was Grey. He was a young thestral with little experience out in the real world, but he knew how to sell an idea. His experience as a graffiti artist had come in quite handy when coming up with ways to promote the business. Nightfall's brother, Specter, was considered to be the brains and had spent countless nights over a law book, learning all manners of rules and loopholes that could be exploited to give them an edge. And of course, there was Nightfall. At the time, he was what one would have called a procurement specialist. If there was something that they needed he could get it by any means necessary, legally and otherwise.

The climb to success had not been simple though, or even easy for that matter. There were those in the higher tiers of Canterlot that wished only to see the thestrals fail. It was a common belief amongst the high class ponies that thestrals were all unethical and usually up to no good. The last thing they wanted to see was an organized group of thestrals taking refuge within the city walls. And so they attempted to wage a war on the small enclave that had popped up seemingly over night.

Health inspector after health inspector would show up outside the door, always unannounced, and each time The Hideout had passed with flying colors. Even the fire marshal had been called in in an attempt to close them down, but they had been ahead of the game with renovations that kept the dream from sinking right there and then.

It wasn't long before ponies started catching on to what was actually going on between the thestrals and the aristocracy and as if in an act of defiance the bar began to get more and more business. Occasional customers became regulars and before anyone knew it the thestrals had found solid footing.

Of course, the thestrals recognized what the nobles thought of them and to some extent there was some truth to their accusations. They would only be lying to themselves if they said they never served more than a few ponies who didn't exactly have spotless records, but they were never given any trouble. In fact, the thestrals were now virtually untouchable as their feud had earned them the respect of the common pony. In one final act of defiance, the bar, which had previously gone unnamed, was named The Hideout. It had been Grey's idea, meant as a taunt.

Nightfall always enjoyed hearing the story of how they had essentially told the nobles to 'stick it.' Anytime he entered he was reminded of the events and couldn't help but wear a smile. There had been rumors at a time that the nobles took their claims to the highest levels of the government and been left only disappointed. Nightfall didn't really believe this, but it made for a good story nonetheless.

Nightfall sighed after closing the door behind him, finally able to take off his scarf and remove his sunglasses. This was home for him and it was good to be back. He scanned the room, looking for any familiar faces. Despite the fact that the majority of the clientele were thestrals, there were more than a few other types of ponies strewn throughout the bar. In one of the far corners a group of gryphons occupied a booth, telling jokes and sharing drinks. A few tables down, a changeling played cards with a friends. A zebra couple had taken a table along one of the walls a few tables over from that.

In this setting, non-thestrals stuck out like sore thumbs and of course they were glad to have them, but there was one pony in particular that Nightfall kept an eye out for. He walked over to the bar only to be greeted by an old friend.

"Hey, hey, Nightfall," Scotch called from the other side of the bar in an accent quite appropriate for the setting. "Long time no see. How's the tundra been treating you?"

"Same as always, Scotchy," Nightfall replied with a smile. "It's still cold as all hell and the windigos still try to kill me, so I guess I'm doing something right. How have things been here?"

Scotch motioned Nightfall over. "Things are going great," he said, leaning across the countertop. "Just last week, we got a new contract with the brewery up in the third tier."

"Wow, that's great," Nightfall said. "Look at you moving up in the world."

"Ah, you give me too much credit. You cant forget that you helped to build the old girl. Now she's growing up," Scotch reminded. As their conversation continued, they were forced to walk back and forth along the bar so Scotch could tend to the empty glasses of a few pegasi. "Any chance you'll come back and join us now that you're sentence is over?"

"I don't know," Nightfall answered as he scratched the back of his head. "Now that I'm done, I think I want to try something honest."

Scotch just chuckled. "I'm sure we could put you to work in the back. Maybe you could be a cook."

"I dont know," Nightfall replied with not much confidence. "I'm not all that great at cooking."

"No better time to learn," Scotch pointed out. "We'd love to have you."

Nightfall chuckled. "I'll have to think about it," he said. "Speaking of work, is Meadow on shift tonight? I was hoping to meet up with her as usual."

"Nope," Scotch answered simply. "But, she is upstairs. She took a day shift today. Been waiting for you up there ever since she got off. Now that I think about it, I probably should have opened with that. Anyways, I wont keep you any longer. You two have a lot of catching up to do."

Nightfall had practically jumped off the bar stool after hearing that Meadow was present, a gleeful smile cracking across his expression like the opening of a chest filled with silver. "Yeah," Nightfall said. I... uh..." He fumbled his words before finding his tongue. "I should head up there." After taking a few steps towards the door that lead to the stairs, he
turned back to Scotch for a moment. "Oh, Scotch. Thanks."

Scotch just gave him a nod, before sending him on his way.

As Nightfall opened a door upstairs, he found that the room beyond, despite being furnished, was mostly empty. There was a pony at the far end of the room gazing out the window, waiting for something. The fading light from outside cast her long shadow across the floor and she appeared only as a silhouette from where Nightfall stood.

He closed the door lightly and cleared his throat. The mare at the window jumped in surprise at the sound from behind her. She turned and walked out from the beams of the sun to see the thestral waiting there for her. Neither pony made a sound. They just stood there staring at each other for a moment.

"Nightfall," the mare finally said. She looked tired. Her voice was soft and there were bags under her eyes.

"Meadow," Nightfall replied. He sighed and chuckled a little. "It's over."

Meadow's eyes grew large as she processed the two words that had just been spoken. They were two little words, but they meant the world to her. It was all finally over. For a moment she tried to say something, but the words were never able to come before her eyes filled with tears of joy. She tried to wipe them away and finding that it was no use she darted across the room to receive Nightfall with a hug.

Nightfall staggered back a bit as Meadow practically launched herself into him. He laughed and returned the hug. "Did you wait for me up here all day?"

Even with the tears still flowing from her eyes, staining both of their coats, Meadow began to laugh. She had indeed waited for him here all day long, taking an extra shift just to do so, and the way Nightfall asked made it all sound so ridiculous, but this moment made all the others that she had spent just watching the snowflakes fall and wondering if she'd ever see him again feel worth it. "It's over," she repeated with a smile.

"Yeah," Nightfall said in a voice barely above a whisper as he caressed the back of Meadows neck. He planted a single kiss on her head. "It's over."

The two remained this way for some time, each being content with simply being with one another in total silence. At the moment, they didn't need any words. It seemed as if they could both stay there for an eternity and given the circumstances, Nightfall wouldn't have minded. He was just happy to be with her.

As the hug prolonged for several more minutes, Nightfall eventually found himself looking down only to find that Meadow had, in fact, fallen asleep. She had nestled herself into his shoulder and had fully drifted away. "Poor girl," was all Nightfall could think at that moment. She had spent the entirety of the day working and waiting for him to return and now that he was here, she couldn't even stay awake.

Nightfall took Meadow in his hooves and carried her to the bed only a few meters away. He gently placed her down and sat next to her. She was adorable when she slept. He couldn't help but to wonder how he could end up so lucky. After all the messed up and backwards relationships he had been in, Meadow was a godsend.

She was kind, smart, and she always understood. No matter what, she understood him and even when she didn't, she'd make the extra effort to at least try. He loved her for that. She had the patience of a saint and at times Nightfall felt as if he wasn't worthy of that. He certainly hadn't been as good towards her as he would have liked. That was all going to change come morning. Now that his sentence was over, it was time for him to fulfill his promise to her. It was time for him to be there for her.

As the last of the light faded from the room with the setting of the sun, Nightfall laid down next to Meadow. He put a hoof around her and pulled her in, before grabbing the covers and throwing them overtop of them.

Nightfall was more than happy this way, just being with her. Finally he was out of the harsh cold world and in a warm place where he belonged. As he wrapped his hooves around her and held her close, he relaxed, letting his guard down for the first time in what felt like an age unending. He closed his eyes and let the rest that he so desperately desired overtake him.

Meadow Spring slept soundly on the bed, warm air from under the covers enveloping her in comfort. The mattress was just the right amount of soft and firm. She could have stayed there and slept for an eternity had she not been roused from her slumber by a sudden shifting of weight on the other side of the bed.

"Meadow," a familiar voice whispered in her ear.

"Uhh," she groaned as she rolled over towards the center of the bed, burying herself deeper under the soft blankets. "Nightfall," she moaned without even opening her eyes. "It's too early."

"I know, but I want to show you something," he said from the side of the bed.

Meadow rolled back over and opened her eyes. Sure enough, Nightfall stood there, wrapped in a coat and scarf. His emerald green eyes watching her behind his heavily tented shades. She sighed. "Where are we going?" she asked, sounding less than enthused at the fact that the alarm clock only displayed '5:49'.

"It's a surprise," Nightfall said with a grin.

Meadow returned the smile. "Well," she said, finally pulling her head from the pillow stack. "I do like surprises."

"Good," Nightfall said as Meadow quite literally fell out of bed and slumped across the floor towards her winter apparel. Nightfall just rolled his eyes at her exaggerated exhaustion. "I'll get us some coffee," he said, heading for the door. "Meet me downstairs when you're ready."

Meadow just nodded as she found her way to her hooves. After dawning a coat, scarf, and hat with a little puffball on top, Meadow headed for the ground floor, where Nightfall was waiting. She was met with a cup of hot coffee on the counter. Scotch was behind the bar, serving a few thestrals at the other end.

"Does he ever sleep?" Meadow asked.

Nightfall just shrugged, not entirely sure if he had ever seen Scotch behind the bar since they opened.

When the two were finished, Nightfall called over a unicorn, a pony Meadow recognized as their friend Astral. "You ready?" Astral asked as his horn began to charge with a yellow magical aura.

"For what?" Meadow asked nervously.

Astral looked to Nightfall. "Wait, you didn't tell her?" he asked.

"It's a surprise," Nightfall answered.

"Ah," Astral replied. "Okay don't worry. Just sit still and relax. This wont take long."

Meadow gave a nervous laugh as Astral pointed his horn at her. "Uh, Nightfall. What's going on?" Suddenly, she was hit with a wave of magic that caused her body to jolt slightly, although that may have just been the caffeine. She felt warm and her hooves tingled, but after a few seconds, she went back to feeling normal again.

"There," Astral said happily. "You're good to go. Have fun."

Meadow gave Nightfall a confused look, who thanked Astral and gave him a hoof-bump. "What is going on?"

Nightfall smiled and headed to the front door leading her outside into the city streets of Canterlot. It was still brutally cold. The air seemingly pierced straight to their skin and sent chills through their bones.

"Okay," Nightfall said as he shook slightly, more than ready to get this show on the road. "Relax. Close your eyes," he instructed.

Meadow sat down, closed her eyes, and waited, only to feel Nightfall wrap his hooves around her midsection. She giggled, being just a little ticklish. The more she waited, the more the anticipation grew inside her.

"Ready?"

Meadow just nodded with excitement.

"Oh, and one more thing." Nightfall put his muzzle to her ear and whispered. "Don't look down."

Meadow's eyes opened suddenly and she looked over her shoulder to the thestral behind her. "Wait, wha- HOLY SHIT!" she screamed as she found herself being rocketed up towards the sky.

"I told you to close your eyes," Nightfall laughed over the sound of air rushing passed them.

For a moment, Meadow thought that surely this was all just a joke, like the many they had played on each other over the course of the last several years. But as Canterlot grew smaller and smaller below them, Meadow found herself shutting her eyes and covering her face with her hooves. "You are in so much trouble!" was all she could think to say, as she felt them shoot closer and closer to the stratosphere. Seconds later, she could feel their climb slow and before long, they had stopped. This was no comfort to her though.

"You can open your eyes now," Nightfall instructed.

Meadow shook her head, keeping her hooves clamped over her face. It took several more tries of Nightfall reassuring her before she slowly accepted that she was safe and peeked out from under her hooves. Before her, was a vast cloudscape of white rolling puffs. Though it was still cold, her body began to feel at ease and her adrenaline gradually subsided. She looked up. The sky was still just dim enough to provide an everlasting clear view of the stars, each shining and sparkling in its own way. For a moment, she was speechless. And then, against her protests, Nightfall let go. Her body tensed only for a second, before she found herself sitting on the very clouds themselves.

"Easy," Nightfall cautioned. "The air is thinner up here, so you'll need a second to adjust.

Meadow closed her eyes and with a single deep breath, took in the crisp sky air. "This is incredible," she finally said. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"You haven't even seen the best part yet." Nightfall pointed to what could be considered the horizon. "Sun should be rising in a few minutes." He sat down next to Meadow. The cloud beneath them gave way just slightly as his weight was added. He could feel Meadow shaking just slightly, still somewhat unnerved by the fact that they were currently 6,000 meters up. Of course, this explained why Meadow's breathing was slow and heavy.

Nightfall took her hooves in his own, but before he could say any of the things that he wanted, she nuzzled up against him. Nightfall wrapped his hooves and wings around her, pulling her in closer; their combined body heat more than enough to fend off the chill in the wind.

"I love you, Meadow," Nightfall said, finally breaking the moment of silence. "I wish we could stay this way forever."

Meadow looked up into Nightfall's eyes and for a few moments it seemed as if their hearts beat together as one. "I love you too."

It could not be said who had begun to kiss who first. They had both slowly, but surely, gone for it at the same time, each leaning in and giving themselves freely to each other. This was not the first time they had done this. The words had been spoken before and a kiss had been exchanged on several occasions, but in the past it had always been a casual thing. It was as if it were merely something ponies in a relationship did just because the status demanded it. Not this time though. This time was different. The inflection in their tones was one of pure emotion and their kiss was full of life and meaning, like a spark that had always been there, but only now did it take to its kindling and produce a flame.

As the two continued, the sun began to rise over the clouds, and they were washed over by a wave of warmth. When their lips finally parted, their bodies stayed intertwined on one another. Hoof in hoof. Fur on fur. They were illuminated by the large orange star, that cast an array of colors through the clouds, turning those under them into a cherry blossom red.

"I've never even seen the sun this clearly before," Meadow said.

"Most earth ponies haven't," Nightfall said, a contemplated look on his face. He smiled down at her after a quick thought.

Meadow returned the smile as she placed a hoof on his chest. She buried it into the warm fur, feeling the steady beat of his heart, before running it upward towards his neck. She hooked her hoof under his scarf and pulled down, bringing him in for another kiss. This one was short, not lasting nearly as long, but it was still full of fire and passion. After parting, she nuzzled up against him, humming softly in delight as she leaned in.

Nightfall's wings flared outward before coming around and wrapping around Meadow to keep her close in their own little world, even if only for a moment. Together, they watched as the sun slowly rose into the sky, beginning the first day of their new lives.

Yet again, Celestia found herself surrounded by snow. It blew harshly across her body, chilling her to the very bone. There was something very different about the tundra this time though. Unlike her past experiences, she was not trapped in what seemed like an endless void of white. Instead, large featureless concrete structures arose around her, creating a seemingly infinite treeless forest.

"Celestia," an indistinguishable voice echoed from somewhere.

Celestia looked around her, trying as hard as she could to find the source of this mysterious call. It was for naught though. The storm was blinding as the wind whipped around her, changing directions every so often and blasting her in the face with snow. "Hello! Who is there?" she finally called out.

Suddenly, Celestia felt a presence near her. She turned to see that just beyond where she could see clearly, a tall dark figure stood, staring at her.

"You must help us," the figure managed to say before dissolving with the wind and disappearing once more.

"Wait," Celestia called out. Then, without warning, the storm grew in intensity and everything went white.

It was the dawning of a new day in this strange world that Celestia now found herself in. She still had not gotten used to the sun rising without her, the Unicorn Council going to work to move the star above the horizon while she lay there in bed, her magic still mostly burnt out from the failed spell.

Celestia shifted under her covers uncomfortably as the rays of light shown through the window and began to warm the room. For thousands of years, she had gotten up early every day to raise the sun. There were plenty of times she wished she could just stay in bed and she would only be lying to herself if she said that she hadn't raised the sun a few minutes late from time to time, but now the responsibility fell on somepony else's shoulders instead of her own. For the first time, Celestia was simply allowed to lie there and relax. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to do so.

She slowly rolled her tired body out of her unfamiliar bed, which sat in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar castle. Even the sun itself seemed different somehow, as if her absence had caused it to grow even farther away. Or perhaps it was just the layer of clouds that covered the entire sky in a blanket, dimming the sun's light slightly.

Celestia made her way to the balcony where she took a seat, still covering herself with a thick blanket to stave off the cold morning air. She looked out over her once great kingdom that had seemed to fall to ruin. The city below her was far different than the Canterlot she once knew and the land beyond the walls was one of pure white. Gone were the green rolling hills. Gone were the dense forests. Gone were the fertile farm lands. This was Equestria, the land of her ancestors. And yet, she could not recognize a single part of it.

Her head fell into her hooves as she leaned against the cold metal railing. It all felt like a dream to her, a terrible dream. But it was not a dream. It was real. There would be no waking up.

"How am going to fix this?" Celestia muttered to herself as she ran her hooves through her disheveled mane. It was a question she did not know the answer to. She didn't even know how to start going about answering it. Harmony was gone and so too it seemed was any hope of reversing the damage done. Despite this, she knew she had to do something. She wasn't about to give up on Equestria. She wasn't going to give up on her home. Much had changed in the last thousand years, but this was still the land that she loved and these were still the ponies that she cared for deeply.

She sighed. "I wish you were here, sister." Having Luna here with her would have made everything much more simple, or at the very least, far more bearable. This was not the case though. For now, Celestia would have to tough it out. With one final glance towards the sky, Celestia left the balcony and headed back inside. It was time for her to join the Chancellor and go to work.

"I'm really glad you're back, Nightfall," Meadow said as the two walked down the street. "And yes. I do realize I've said that like twenty times today already, but I like saying it."

Nightfall smiled as they continued onward. "Good," he said simply. "I like hearing it. I also like that fact that you agreed to come with me."

"Well, of course I agreed to come with you," Meadow replied. "You just got back."

Nightfall continued to smile happily. He did just get back and things were only going to get better for him. The two eventually made their way out of the main city districts on the mountain, talking about what ever came to mind and enjoying the relatively nice weather as well as each other's company. Then they entered the large residential district at the foot of the mountain, that spread out for a few miles. The area was comparable to a suburb, but was well within the main walls of the city itself.

"Here we are," Nightfall said as they came across a medium sized house in one of the many large neighborhoods that stretched across the land.

"You seem nervous," Meadow pointed out.

Nightfall sighed. "It's been a few months since I last saw them. A lot of things can change in that time."

"So?" Meadow replied. "Your family loves you, Nightfall. That's something that will never change."

"I know," Nightfall admitted a bit bashfully. He let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding, before hopping up the steps to the front door. He gave the piece of oak a couple of sturdy knocks before stepping back next to Meadow and waiting. There was nothing for a few seconds, before the sound of the lock's mechanism turning met their ears.

The door opened and the two were greeted by the sight of a thestral similar to Nightfall in stature and height. His bright golden eyes suddenly widened at the ponies before him. "Nightfall!" Spectre practically shouted in excitement as he pulled his brother into a quick hug. "It's good to see you, brother."

"You too, Specter," Nightfall replied, letting his brother go after returning the embrace for a moment. "Sorry I didn't call. It's been an... exciting past few days."

"Bah, nonsense," Specter dismissed. "This is your house too. You don't have to call to come here." He looked to Meadow and wrapped a hoof around her. "Neither do you, Meadow. You're practically a part of the family at this point. When are you two getting married again?"

Meadow went completely red after hearing Specter's words. No matter how hard she tried to hide behind her mane and hooves, she just couldn't stop smiling at the idea. Nightfall gave a bit of a nervous laugh, a blush of his own quickly spreading across his face.

"I'm just teasing you guys," Specter said. "Come on in. Get out of the cold. The kids will be happy to see you both."

The small group of three entered the house where Nightfall and Meadow could hang up their coats and scarves. It was warm and smelled of cinnamon inside, a result of breakfast having just been finished. Large sofa, Fillyco cabinet radio, an open kitchen with all the necessary appliances, and a set of stairs that led to the upstairs bedrooms. It was all quite cozy really.

"Doppler, Dimmet, Snow," Specter called up the stairs. "Breakfast is ready and we've got a surprise for you."

The sound of small hooves running two and fro suddenly came from upstairs, as three young ponies began to make their way down to the kitchen. Nopony could resist finding amusement in the rumbling sound coming from above and a few snickers escaped each of their mouths.

"They'll be down in a moment," a female thestral began, as she made her own way down the stairs to join the others. Lullay gave her husband, Specter, a kiss before turning to greet Meadow and Nightfall. "I'm so glad you two are finally able to join us," she said, pulling Meadow into a hug.

The four began to talk a bit amongst themselves before they were finally joined by the children of the family, the sound of their hooves on the stairs alerting everyone to their presence. The first down was ten year old Doppler, followed by eight year old Snow Gloom. Lastly was six year old Dimmet, a stuffed pony by the name of Floof Hoof, firmly clutched in her hooves.

Doppler noticed both Nightfall and Meadow, but waited patiently for Dimmet to get to the bottom of the stairs. The little colt, despite his eager and adventurous personality, was very protective of her and refused to go any further before he was certain that his younger sister was safely down the stairs. Snow Gloom was a different case. "Daddy!" Snow squealed in utter glee with the energy that only an eight year old could muster at such an early hour.

Nightfall caught Snow as she launched herself up to him from a dead sprint, using her wings to slow herself just a bit. From there, he flung her up onto his back where she sat happily before wrapping her hooves around his neck in a small hug.

"Daddy! Daddy! Look!" Snow Gloom excitedly began. "My fangs came in while you were away."

"What?" Nightfall asked with excitement of his own to match that of his daughter's. "No way, Snowy. My fangs didn't come in until I was nine. Are you pulling my leg?"

Snow Gloom proudly opened up her mouth, displaying her new teeth for her father to see. Sure enough there were four sharp teeth at the corners of her mouth, framing the other flat ones. "I'm going to crack open a coconut!" she exclaimed.

"That's my girl," Nightfall replied enthusiastically. "Already eager to take on the hard stuff." Of course, as a thestral himself Nightfall was fully aware that attempting to crack open coconuts at such a young age was a terrible idea, unless one wanted to lose their teeth. Snow Gloom would need a little practice and some growing before she was ready to move on to coconuts. Nightfall was more than ecstatic at the fact that he would get to help his daughter learn to use her fangs effectively.

Meadow giggled at the idea of seeing Snow Gloom crack a coconut in two with her fangs. She was pleasantly surprised though when she found herself being pulled into a hug by the little filly who was just as happy to see her as she was her own father.

At seeing this, Nightfall felt a warmth grow inside him. Despite their differences or even the fact that Meadow was an earth pony and Snowy was a bat pony, the two embraced each other as if they were mother and daughter. And in that moment, it seemed as if they were just that: mother and daughter. Nightfall could feel it in his heart that everything was going to work out for them. He was suddenly pulled from his thoughts as he was ambushed by an overly excited Doppler.

"Uncle Nightfall! Did you kill any windigos?"

Specter suddenly gave a his son a critical glare, but the look that Nightfall sent back his way assured him that there was no harm in asking about his work with the Initiative.

"I sure did, kiddo," Nightfall answered after returning his attention back to his nephew. "We took down three of them on this last mission. They had taken over an entire town too."

"Wasn't it scary?" Dimmet asked, still grasping Floof Hoof.

"Nah, not at all," Nightfall answered. "Dangerous, but not scary." He looked back to the kitchen where Lullay was now depositing a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls on the breakfast table. "How about we get some breakfast and I tell you guys all about it?"

"Cinnamon rolls!" Snow suddenly exclaimed from atop Meadow, whose back she had climbed up to.

"They're more than ready, everyone," Lullay said cheerfully. "Come and get them while their hot." That was all it took to get the kids moving towards the breakfast table.

"They certainly dont waste any time when it comes to food," Meadow pointed out, a playful smile taking over her expression. She leaned up against Nightfall, nuzzling him lovingly.

Nightfall returned the affection, giving Meadow a soft and drawn out kiss, before the two found themselves at the table with the rest of the family. Family, that's exactly what they were. Truly, it was good to be home.

Author's Notes:

A bit longer than expected, but on time. That's a first. Usually it's shorter and late. Now nobody has to beat me with sticks.

Chapter 5: Theft

White. Celestia was very quickly beginning to get sick of the color white. It was absolutely everywhere she looked. The raging storm swirled around her, sending chills to her very core and blasting her in the face. The wind blew her mane around, but she quickly brushed it out of her eyes with a hoof. Yet again, the alicorn found herself in the tundra, surrounded by the massive concrete pillars that reached into the sky to touch the clouds. This time though, it was different. The pillars were no longer pillars and instead they had taken on detail to reveal that they were in fact building made by the hooves of ponies. They were not familiar to her in any way, but she now recognized that she was in a city, one that had been lost to the elements long ago.

This was a dream, all of it. It had to be. Celestia very clearly remembered going to bed after her conversation with the thestral who called himself Nightfall and she hadn't woken up since.

"Come on out," Celestia called into the storm. She waited a moment, but there was no response. "I know you are here. You might as well show yourself." Still there was nothing. The shadowy figure that had appeared to her in her previous dreams now alluded her and it seemed as if she were alone.

Suddenly, the wind shifted violently in several different direction, nearly throwing Celestia off her own hooves, before it finally ceased. The blinding torrent of snow and ice calmed and settled into a gentle dusting. Then, Celestia felt a presence.

"Sister," a familiar voice called from behind.

"Luna!?" Celestia replied, frantically spinning around to find her sister.

Sure enough, there she was. Standing before her was Princess Luna, but not as Celestia remembered her. She looked tired, her mane having lost all of its magical luster and dark bags forming under her half lidded bloodshot eyes. She seemed more than tired. She looked absolutely defeated. "Hello, Celestia," the princess of the night barely managed.

Celestia rushed forward and met Luna with a hug. "I am so glad to see you again. I've been so worried." Her expression suddenly grew very grave. "Please tell me you are safe! I can-"

"Sister, please," Luna replied, cutting Celestia off. "There is not much time and my magic is beginning to fail me. I believe I am in Manehattan, but everything is wrong. You must come and find me so that we may correct what has happened, but whatever you do, do not trust the Warden. He is-"

Without warning, Luna's body began to evaporate from her hooves upward. "No, no, no!" she sputtered panic clear in her voice. "I still have so much I need to say!" She looked back to Celestia again. "Please hurry! We can still-" That was all she managed to get out before she was gone completely, having been blown away with the wind that now began to pick up.

Celestia was only able sit there as she tried to comprehend what she had just been told. Her sister was alive, that much she was certain of, but Luna did not seem to understand the larger scope of the situation. At the same time, Celestia herself did not understand what it was that Luna was experiencing. She had not had enough time to relay her message.

Before Celestia could even begin to ask herself the important questions, the storm picked up yet again, Luna no longer being around to hold it back. Celestia held her hooves over her eyes to protect them as everything went white one final time.

Celestia practically shot up out of bed like a rocket. Her breathing heavy as her heart furiously thumped away in her ears. She took several deep breaths as she tried to steady herself, soon finding that she was drenched in a cold sweat. She had been correct. It had indeed been a dream, but not a meaningless one. Luna was out there somewhere. Lost, cold, and probably scared.

Celestia sighed after finally finding her composure. She was overjoyed at the fact that she had seen Luna again and that she was alive, but she could not rest easy. Not yet. She did not feel that she could rest at all even. Not until Luna had been reunited with her. Not until she had found her. "I'm going to find you, sister." That was a promise.

Three days. It had been three wonderful day since Nightfall returned from his last assignment with the Initiative. Usually, after coming home, he would have to get in as much of his old life as he could before shipping back out in a week or two depending on his next set of assignments. Now? Now there was no rush to try and live like he wanted. There was no next deployment hanging over his head for him to worry about. Now he could just take it slow and do just that: live.

Each morning he had woken up next to Meadow in a bed that he recognized. He'd eat breakfast with Spectre, Lullay, Meadow, and the kids before taking Snow Gloom to school. Then he'd be free to spend the next few hours with Meadow. Readjusting his sleep schedule yet again would be tedious, especially now that he was back home, but would be well worth it. The true challenge though was finding work. Scotch had repeatedly offered it to him at the Hideout and Nightfall would only be lying to himself if he said he wasn't beginning to consider taking him up on the offers. Working with his old friends and Meadow would certainly be a comfortable position.

This morning had begun like any other. He had woken up at a reasonable time and was now downstairs finishing off a stack of pancakes with the rest of the family. He couldn't help but wear a content smile on his face as he looked around to see everypony at the table. Spectre was telling another story from him and Nightfall's younger days, one that was a bit more on the lighthearted side of the spectrum at least. Snow, Dimmet, and Doppler were all captivated by the tale of the daring escape, which of course had been exaggerated to no end by Spectre simply for their amusement. Over night, Meadow and Lullay had become like inseparable sisters who told each other everything. And Nightfall? He was just happy to be here.

For the first time in what felt like forever, all was right in the world. And there was peace in his life.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door.

Nightfall and the guards, who's company he now found himself in, had gone through nearly half the castle on their way to wherever it was he was being taken. He didn't like this, not one bit. Something was very wrong about all of it. He hadn't committed any crimes since he returned and although he was being led around, there had been no effort to restrain him. No cuffs. No magical bindings. No use of force. This was all very strange indeed.

They wandered down endless hallway after endless hallway, passing both castle staff and high profile figures alike. As they did so, Nightfall couldn't help but to wonder just how much gold must be stashed in a place like this, a reflex left from a time now long gone. He had tried to suppress the thoughts initially. That wasn't the kind of pony he was anymore. He was an honest worker now. A loving father and one day he hoped, a loving husband as well. Despite this, numbers were now rampantly running through his mind as his wildest dreams laid just outside his grasp.

Eventually, Nightfall managed to fight these thoughts off and they came to a large oak door. Other than its scale - it was oversized in every since of the word - there was nothing particularly special about it. Large, sturdy, same carvings as all the others. The only difference was that it was the one the guards chose to open for him.

As Nightfall passed through the door and into the large dining room, he couldn't help but feel like someone was about to make him an offer for his soul over dinner, or in this case breakfast. The room was dimly lit with candles and the neo-gothic furnishings made everything seem just a little too medieval for his liking.

"Welcome, welcome," a voice sounded from a pony seated at the other end of a long table, which was covered in all manners of exotic foods and fruits. "Please, do have a seat," the finely dressed pegasus continued, gesturing towards the place at the other end of the table.

One of the guards placed an armored hoof on Nightfall and gave him a slight shove towards his seat.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going," the thestral snarled. He sat and the two guards took their posts at the door behind him. He looked around for a moment. From the masterful portraits hanging on the walls to the sparkling silverware on the table, the room was loaded with all types of valuables. If it hadn't been for the stiff security, he probably would have hit this place years ago.

"It's a pleasure, Mr. Nightfall," the mystery pony said with a noble accent. "I hope the guards weren't too rough in getting you here."

Nightfall crossed his hooves and leaned back in his seat. "I'm afraid we haven't met," he said with an accusing glare.

"You're quite right," the pony replied. "We haven't met, not face to face at least, but I have read much about you." He pulled out a large yellow file from under the table and began to read. "You've been a part of the TRST Initiative for the last five years now, correct? You have quite the list of commendations. High mission success rate. An impressive windigo kill count. You even made it to a leadership position despite only entering the initiative by court order." He put the file down and just began to smile at Nightfall.

"I'm was good at what I did," Nightfall said with disinterest as he examined his surroundings. " Now, is there some kind of point you're trying to make?"

"Tell me, Nightfall," the pony began. "Who exactly do you think I am? Why would I go through all the trouble of tracking you down and bringing you here?"

"Let me guess," Nightfall said, not looking to excited about his current situation. "You're some noble with connections to the Equestrian chancellery who wants to make me a job offer, but it's something you cant have your little minions do because it's outside the law and you need someone to take the fall incase it all goes sideways. Am I close?"

The pony chuckled and sighed. "Only partially... My name is Solaris Luminis. Perhaps you've heard of me. I currently act as head director of the TRST Initiative and serve on the high advisory council for the chancellery."

"I don't think I like where this is going," Nightfall pointed out.

"Well, that's because you haven't heard the offer yet," Solaris said. "You see, Nightfall, Equestria is in need of your assistance. It is my understanding that you and your team were the ones that found our dear Princess Celestia. We believe that by analyzing the spell along with the runes found in the cave, we can trace the spell and the other alicorns who assisted in its casting can be located."

Nightfall put a hoof up to cut Solaris off. "I'm going to stop you right there, Sparky, because I'm not interested. You can find somepony else for your suicide mission."

"I can assure you, it would be anything but," Solaris countered. "Once these alicorns are located, we'd simply need someone to retrieve them, something I'm sure you're more than capable of. We have both Princess Celestia and our best mages working on where they may be. If anything, you have the easy part. Of course, you wouldn't be working alone and the compensation from taking on such an assignment would be more than reasonable."

Nightfall sighed. "Look, I get it. I really do. You're trying to minimize the number of ponies who know about all this alicorn business. The less ponies who know about this the better, but I'm done. Okay? I'm not going back out there."

"Yes, well. You're also one of our best, Nightfall. There are plenty of others who can keep a secret, but we need someone who gets results."

"Not happening."

Solaris frowned. "You don't even want to consider it? After all this time you've spent out of normal society, don't you think that a large lump sum would go a long way? I know you crave it. The thrill. The danger. And of course, the reward. Back in the old days, you had quite the reputation, still do in some places."

"Yeah, well. That was a long time ago," Nightfall said, looking away uncomfortably. "I've finally got my life back. I'm not going to be doing that anymore."

"Oh, yes. I'm certain of it," Solaris said sarcastically. "I'm sure you've learned your lesson and that you'll have no trouble finding honest work. Be honest with yourself, Nightfall. You need this."

"I don't need a damn thing from you," Nightfall snapped. "Now if there's nothing else, I'll be going." He stood up to storm off, but only made it halfway to the door when Solaris pulled out several more yellow files.

"I guess it's so long for your friends at The Hideout then, isn't it?"

Nightfall stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face Solaris who just wore a smug grin on his face. "What the hell did you just say?"

"I said that it's so long for The Hideout," Solaris repeated. "Y'know, that little bar you and your friends created down in the lower district. With all of it's employees behind bars it will be quite hard for it to remain open. It would truly be a shame. And then there's you're brother, Spectre." He held the stack of files up.

All of what was being said caught Nightfall's attention, his ears perking up and eyes widening in alarm, but he quickly relaxed and casually slumped down in his chair. "You're bluffing," he said, pointing an accusing hoof at the pegasus.

"No, I'm not." Solaris motioned to one of his guards who brought the stack over to Nightfall and dropped it onto the table causing the silverware to rattle.

Nightfall nervously looked over the first few files. Sure enough, they were legitimate. Name after name of ponies Nightfall knew and worked with showed up, some being from The Hideout and others being old friends, each with a different condemning crime listed. It wasn't just a few. There were thirteen of these files in total. He closed the one he was reading and looked up to Solaris.

"I may have had some of my agents keep tabs on your friends and coworkers," Solaris explained with a devilish smile. "You see, I needed a little dirt in case you ever got out of line. I must say though, I am impressed. Your lot is certainly a cut above the common gang of thieves."

"You son of bitch..." Nightfall breathed. He felt his blood boil and began his march down towards Solaris with anger in his eyes. He didn't make it far, before he found himself being restrained by both of the guards in the room. Despite his advance, Solaris continued completely unfazed by the aggressive thestral.

"Forgery of legal documents. That's a big offense," Solaris said. "I cant help but wonder what kinds of things Specter's been doing with all that false information. Without him, your bar wouldn't have stayed open for more than a week. It's been convenient having him around. Especially to watch over poor Snow Gloom while you were away. Tell me, who is her real mother? You and Meadow Spring hadn't met yet when she was born."

Nightfall felt fire rush through his veins. He so desperately wanted to break Solaris's neck, but struggled to get away from the guards so he could do so. The more he fought them, the more they held him in place.

"Ah, speaking of Meadow, did you know there's sufficient evidence to put her behind bars? Turns out she's quite resourceful when it comes those little operations of yours. I guess that's what happens when you hang out with criminals though. With her in prison, I'm sure it will be quite hard for a single father to support his daughter with no employment or previous job experience. And let's be honest. Not many ponies are interested in hiring thestrals."

"I'm going to rip your head off!!!" Nightfall shouted, no doubt waking up just about everyone in the castle.

"Please Nightfall, I'm trying to be civil here," Solaris said. "If pointing out the fact that you'll have to resort back to crime to make ends meet offends you, that's hardly my fault. It truly would be a tragedy if you were caught again. Then little Snow Gloom, with no grandparents to speak of, would be put into foster care. I doubt you'd even see her again after that."

With merely the mentioning of that, something inside Nightfall broke. His willpower to do something only grew, but it did not direct him to fight. He stopped resisting and his body went limp. "Stop," he begged. "Just stop... please."

Solaris gave a wave of his hoof and the guards let Nightfall go, who dropped down to the ground.

"Isn't blackmail a bit far below you," Nightfall asked angrily.

"I would hardly call this blackmail," Solaris answered. "We've had these documents for quite some time now to ensure that you didn't try anything while we let you loose out there in the tundra. If anything, I should be having all your friends arrested right now."

"I don't see how this isn't blackmail."

"Well that's just it," Solaris continued. "If you accept, I'll burn these documents upon the completion of your assignment. Hell, I'll let you be the one to throw them into the fire if you want. All their criminal history will be erased just like that and you'll have nothing else to worry about." He held up a quill and piece of parchment. "All you have to do is sign on the dotted line."

Nightfall just laid there on the ground, looking off in the distance as if in deep thought.

At the thestral's silence Solaris just sighed and his expression faded from one of smugness to one of pity. "Believe me, Nightfall. I take no pleasure in this, but if there is one thing I am more than anything, it's a scout for talent and might I say, you are quite talented. When you joined the Initiative five years ago, I was the only one who saw your potential. They all called me crazy for putting so much stock in you, but look at all you've accomplished. You're one of the most successful rangers to ever join. You're too valuable to go to waste, Nightfall."

"I don't like being someone's puppet," Nightfall muttered.

Solaris shook his head. "I dont want to use you like this, Nightfall," Solaris said with some semblance of sincerity. "But think about everything that is happening. The world is changing and it needs you. Equestria needs you."

Nightfall took a second to compose himself. He sat up and got back to his hooves. The two guards that flanked him both seemed to stiffen a bit, preparing to pounce on him if need be. Instead of aggressive actions though, he simply returned to his seat. "Fine," he said unhappily. "I'll do it, but I get to pick my own squad."

"Of course," Solaris said, a satisfied, but in no way sinister smile spreading across his face. "I'm glad we were able to come to an agreement."

Nightfall just sat there for a moment, glaring angrily at Solaris, casting his gaze over to the guards around him every so often. They stared at him right back.

Eventually, one of the guards dropped a sheet of paper in front of Nightfall and handed him a quill.

Nightfall snatched the quill from the guard's hoof and began to read. He knew how this worked. He would sign, perform the indicated task, and then they would pull something out of their asses to keep him longer than agreed upon. It wasn't going to go down that way though. Spectre had taught him about how contracts would often be worded in ways that could often be misleading or interpreted differently depending on the point of view of who was reading. Usually it was something that happened with contracts that used very generalized terminology, but this one was actually very specific in what it indicated.

He made sure to read it thoroughly and as far as he could tell there was nothing in it that would come back to screw him later. Despite this, he froze. He thought about everything he could lose, everything he loved and held dear. He thought about Meadow, Snowy, and Spectre. Images of all the hard work he and his friends had done to open their own business flashed through his mind. The warmth he felt when he was where he belonged instead of the harsh cold of the tundra filled his body, only serving to remind him of all that was at risk. His hooves began to shake and his breathing grew heavy. He hesitated, but finally signed.

He dropped the quill and slid the paper away from him. He sunk down into his seat and just like that he knew, somehow, that his soul was no longer his own.

Solaris smiled triumphantly from the other side of the table. "Excellent," he said, but his expression grew into concern as he laid eyes back on the thestral. "Nightfall, I dare say you look a little sickly. Are you feeling alright?"

"How long do I have?" Nightfall just asked, mostly ignoring Solaris' question.

"A month," Solaris answered. "Possibly two. I was blessed with a pair of wings, not a horn, so I dont know anything about magic. Those were just our current estimates."

"In that case, I'll be in touch." He got up to leave. Neither one of the guards attempted to stop him. They had since returned to their posts at the door.

"Oh, before you go," Solaris called out. "Do see to it that you're friends stay out of trouble from here on out."

Nightfall just rolled his eyes before exiting the room. On the other side of the door were three more guards who began to escort him out. They made their way down hallway after hallway before finally reaching the large oversized doors leading to the courtyard. From there, it was just a small trek to the front gate. As usual, it was snowing, but not very heavily. A light dusting was beginning to accumulate over the already frozen ground.

After being let outside the walls, the gate closed shut behind him with an audible thud. Nightfall took off down the road as quickly as he could. The cold day air stung his lungs and his face felt like it was going to freeze as the air rushed passed him, but only for a few moments as he stopped at the first phone booth he came across. He shut himself inside and caught his breath, before digging out a few bits and putting them into the slot.

"Hello?" a familiar voice answered on the other end of the line.

"Scotchy, it's Nightfall. Call everyone in. We've got a major problem."

There were ten individuals in attendance, not counting Nightfall himself. They all sat around the long table in the basement of The Hideout. Most of them were thestrals who worked there, with the exception of a few day ponies and a rather large griffon who sat in the corner. An emergency meeting had been called and now they all sat around anxiously waiting for Scotch to take the podium and get things moving.

"Is this everyone," Nightfall asked as he slipped in the door at the last moment.

"Yeah, that should do it," Scotch answered, trying his best to look more comfortable than he currently was. The truth was, he was actually terrified. Last time an emergency meeting of this size got called in, things didn't turn out too well for a few of them. "Mind telling me what this is about? You were pretty vague over the phone."

Nightfall sighed. "To put it lightly, I'm being blackmailed. If I'm not careful, it could bring down everything we've built here. It's a bit complicated though. I figured it would be best to let everyone know so that things dont spiral out of control."

"Who's the guy and what does he have on you?"

"Like I said, it's complicated," Nightfall explained. "It's not so much about what he has me as it is about what he has on all of us. I'll explain it on the podium."

"In that case, I'll get us started." With that, he headed to the head of the large table at the center of the room and took his place a small podium that allowed him to stand where he could be seen. "Alright, alright, everyone," he called over the chatter. "Everyone settle down. I know you're all curious to know why you've been called here."

As Scotch started the meeting, Nightfall moved to take his position so he could make the bomb shell announcement that all they were being blackmailed, but was stopped by a pony he was more than glad to see.

"Nightfall," Meadow said, as she appeared out of seemingly nowhere. "What's going on? You were taken away by armed guards and now we're having some kind of emergency meeting. What's happened? Are you okay?" Meadow's tone was frantic, but not frightened. She just sounded confused.

Before Meadow could say anything else, Nightfall took her hooves into his own and brought her into a hug. "Everything's okay... for now, at least. I just want you to know, whatever happens, I love you so much."

Meadow suddenly felt her breath catch in her throat and she looked up to him with a look of pure terror. "Nightfall, you're really scaring me now. What's going on?"

Nightfall sighed, a look and mood of pure anguish overtaking him. Without a moment of hesitation, he pulled Meadow in closer and planted a prolonged kiss on her lips. When they finally parted, Meadow just stood there, sorrowfully staring into his eyes as she failed to find her voice. Then Nightfall let her go and took his place at the podium.

"Okay," Nightfall began, taking a few deep breaths as he tried to calm his nerves. "So, as most of you may know, I've just returned from spending five years serving in the TRST Initiative." There were a few cheers from the group, before the room returned to relative quiet. "As much as I was looking forward to retiring from such a dangerous job, it seems that that wont be happening for a while." He quickly cast a glance to Meadow, who looked at him like she had just seen a ghost, her ears now firmly flattened against her head.

"Earlier today, I was detained by the guards and brought to the castle where I met with the head director of the Initiative, Solaris Luminis. He informed me that there is an operation coming up in the next month or so, in need of extra hooves. He made me an offer. I turned him down. Turns out though, he has dirt on all of us."

Whispers suddenly broke out around the room. The things that had been done years ago to build what they now had was a secret to no one. Before then, many of these ponies had already had criminal records. The Hideout had been their chance to get clean, relatively speaking. Despite this, Nightfall continued.

"As you can probably guess by now, I'm being blackmailed into joining another assignment in the Initiative. He knows about the things we did when we were first getting started and he knows about what we did to get started here and he knows about our projects. That said, if I hadn't accepted, it would have been the end of everything we've built here together. I couldn't let that happen to you guys."

"Damn right!" the large griffon called out, suddenly leaving his dark spot in the corner and stepping out into view. "But that doesn't mean we're just going to let him screw you over. If this Solaris wants to dance, then lets give him a dance. Show him what happens when you try to lock us up." This got a few cheers from the surrounding thestrals.

"Easy there, Galen," Nightfall scolded. "Believe me, I want you to get a chance to crack a few skulls more than anyone, but I dont think brute force is how we get out of this one."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Galen asked as he began to cool off. Nightfall and the rest of the thestrals were his friends, his family, and he wasn't about let some stuck up noble take them from him.

"For now," Nightfall answered. "For now, we lay low. That's the reason I came here tonight, to warn you. The last thing we need is for us to draw more attention. You guys had a right to know that something was going on. That's all I've got for you." With that, he stepped down from the podium, finding himself face to face with Meadow.

She just stared at him in utter disbelief. The expression she wore was as if this was the last time in her life that she would ever see him. Her mouth moved to form some words, but they never actually came. Instead, she just stood there, her eyes glued on him as if she was trying to memorize every one of his features before she lost him. Then the panic set in. "No," she simply said as tears began to form. "No, no, no, no, that's not right. They cant do that. This isn't right. It has to be some kind of mistake."

"It's going to be okay," Nightfall tried to assure her.

"No!" Meadow practically yelled, slapping his hooves away in denial. "This isn't supposed to happen!"

"I know," Nightfall whispered to her after successfully pulling her into a hug. He stroked her back as he tried to comfort her. "It's not fair, but I have to do it."

"There has to be another way," Meadow argued as she tried to rationalize what she was hearing.

"There isn't, Meadow. I know this is hard to hear, but there really isn't." He ran his hooves up to her shoulders, placing his forehead against hers and stared directly into her eyes. "It's just one more assignment, Meadow."

"No," she protested. "No it really isn't. They wouldn't be doing this to you if it was just another assignment. This is the big one isn't it?"

Nightfall sighed as he tried to look away and compose his thoughts, but was stopped when Meadow wrapped her hooves around him again. She buried herself in his chest fluff, running her hoof down his torso, feeling both the old and new scars hidden under his coat. "Every time you come back," she began, "you have a new scar. Every time you go back out, I wonder to myself if this is the time that the bullet, or sword, or windigo comes just a few inches closer and takes you from me."

"That's not going to happen, Meadow," Nightfall suddenly replied sternly.

"You dont know that, Nightfall," Meadow countered. "There's no way you could." It was then that she began to break down and her tears now flowed freely, staining her cheeks and dripping down to her hooves.

Nightfall wrapped his hooves around her to hold on tighter. His dark leathery wings unfurled and covered them, creating their own little pocket of security. Despite the warmth, it did nothing to stave off the wave of guilt that now washed over him. In all the time he had spent with the Initiative, fighting bandits, banishing windigos, and working in all around hostile environments, never once did he ever consider how his own injuries affected the ones who cared about him. To him, it had always been just another bruise, just another scar, or just another broken bone. His world had become one of pain, but he had been far too blind to ever realize that that pain was bleeding into the life of the one he loved.

He rested his head against hers. "I'm so sorry, Meadow. I've been a damn fool."

By now, everyone else had dispersed from the basement in order to take care of whatever business they needed. For now, Nightfall and Meadow were left in relative privacy. The world itself, it seemed, was falling apart. In this empty room, they were all they had to stave off the collapse of all they treasured. Two pillars, each too worn and broken to go on without the other in this moment. One more blow and the roof would come down on top of them. For now though, they stood.

Things had calmed down around The Hideout. It was now noon and most thestrals were now asleep or off somewhere else. Currently, the bar was not open, but that did not prevent the small group of four within from taking care of some business. Nightfall, Meadow, and a younger thestral by the name of Gray all sat at bar stools, while Scotch stood behind the counter polishing glasses. They were all tired. For the most part, they had all grown accustomed to being nocturnal, though Meadow and Nightfall were constantly readjusting their sleep schedules.

Nightfall anxiously tapped his pencil against a notepad as they tried to figure out where they were now at. They had made a list of all the things that could possibly be used against them and of all the ways the fallout could be minimized. Given how much Solaris had, it wasn't looking good.

Gray groaned, rubbing his hooves through his disheveled mane. "I dont have enough bits to pay for all those fines," he moaned, plopping his head down on the countertop.

"Better start saving," Scotch replied. "It's either that or jail time for vandalism."

"I dont get it. Those buildings look way better with those murals. Why cant ponies just appreciate art?"

"Nopony's denying your artistic skill," Nightfall answered. "But from now on, you'll have to limit that creativity to a canvas."

"I feel like saying something about how the world is my canvas and I must be the brush, but all those zeros have more or less killed my sense of humor." Gray's head fell into his hooves again. "I wont even have enough bits to get a drink."

Scotch slid him a small shot of clear liquid. "Here," he said. "Strongest we got, on the house. I think we all need a little something." He began to pour a few more glasses, but Meadow and Nightfall both inevitably passed. Something Scotch just shrugged to, before downing his own share.

After checking over their list several times, Nightfall couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Meadow. Since the meeting, her demeanor had gone from sad to just straight depressed. Her ears splayed back across her head, dark bags formed under her eyes, and she more or less hid behind her mane at this point. She cast her gaze downward, continuously rubbing her hoof against the countertop as she absentmindedly played with a knot in the wood, never once looking up.

Nightfall felt absolutely terrible for her. Why did he have to bring her into this? How could he have been so stupid? When they had first met, he had been the one that introduced her to the lifestyle that he once led. Climbing through windows, sneaking through darkened halls. Picking locks and running down alleyways to escape the guard. He had tried so hard to go legitimate before meeting her, but the excitement, the thrill, it was all so... intoxicating. And now she too was paying for his failures.

In his chest, Nightfall could feel the cracks in his heart grow with every breath that she took. He could feel the bandages that had been there for so long, slowly begin to slip. Meadow had saved his life as far as he was concerned, and now he felt as if he was potentially ending hers. What was he supposed to tell her even, that everything was going to be okay? That there was no need to worry? If only things were so simple.

All he could do now was reach out to her and take one of her hooves in his own. She didn't look up, but he could feel her grip tighten around his own. For now, that was enough.

Chapter 6: Briefing

Paper Cut and Bastion sat patiently in their chairs as they waited for the briefing to begin. Bastion was currently going through an information packet about their next assignment, an expedition straight into the dead sectors of Manehattan, a practically ancient city lost to the elements long ago. Beyond a location, the packet didn't tell him much more. Next to him, Paper leaned back in his chair, half asleep.

At the far end of the room, an older stallion shuffled some papers at his podium and sipped a cup of coffee as he too waited for the last ponies to take their seats so that they could begin. Beside him, a large white screen hung on the wall, just across from a projector at the back of the room.

Thirty or so ponies had already amassed in the room, a collection of different patches from across several ranger companies within the Initiative adorning each of their jackets. The wide range of rangers present was strikingly odd to Bastion, who was more used to working with ponies within his own company. Even in joint operations, there was some sense of order that was severely lacking here.

A last few ponies filed into the room, the door being shut behind them as they all made their way to their seats.

"I don't believe it," Bastion said to no one in particular.

Paper, who was already half asleep in his chair, was suddenly jolted awake as Bastion delivered a push against his shoulder. "Gah! I'm awake! I'm awake," the unicorn said in surprise. After Bastion didn't say anything, he followed the earth pony's gaze downwards towards the base of the stadium style seating.

Bastion stood up and waved down to the thestral who had caught both of them a little off guard. Nightfall waved back before making his way up the steps and taking a vacant spot next to his friends. He did not say anything initially.

"Uh, Nightfall?" Paper said, trying to wrap his brain around why in Equestria he was here. "What are you doing here?"

Nightfall sighed, but answered without looking at them. "I'll tell you later," he said, sounding somewhat unhappy.

As the last of the ponies took their seats, the older stallion at the podium took one last sip of his coffee and called the meeting to order. "Good morning, everyone," he began. "Before we begin, I'd like you each to look around you. You may notice that our group here today is not comprised of a single company, but several. This will not be a joint operation though. Each of you was picked by hoof for this mission, because you are our most reliable and quite frankly, our best. This mission is heavily classified and you are all expected to perform it while maintaining full confidentiality during and after. Should you wish not to accept it, you may leave now without penalty." He stopped and looked around the room, a satisfied smile forming as everyone remained seated.

Nightfall just rolled his eyes. He was the only one here who didn't have a choice. He always had been and it seemed he always would be. The smile on the pony's face only served to annoy him even more.

"Very good then," the stallion continued. "Now, as many of you may have noticed, the information packets provided are very light on details. Joining us here today is Senior Mage Etcher of the TRST Magics and Special Artifacts Division. He'll be breaking down this assignment."

As the older stallion stepped down, Nightfall narrowed his gaze at the mage from behind his shades. He was a mage alright, sporting the signature robes that everyone in the MSAD wore. Other than the robes, Etcher seemed a lot less fish-out-of-water-ish than other mages who found themselves amongst rangers. He took his place at the podium confidently, looking out to the crowd with a satisfied smile.

"Hello, everyone. It's good to see you all and I look forward to working with you," Etcher began. He suddenly took on a very serious look. "Now, down to business." He pressed a button on the podium, triggering a projector to display images on the wall behind him. He flipped through slides as he spoke. "Two weeks ago, a team of our rangers discovered an artifact of great historical and magical importance in western Equestria."

Nightfall received a few looks from Bastion and Paper, but he simply motioned for them to continue listening to the briefing. Yes, Etcher was only speaking in partial truths, but given what he knew, Nightfall really wasn't surprised.

When Etcher finished making things up about this so called "artifact," he continued. "After extensive field studies, several crystalline fragments were also found near the initial site of discovery. It is our belief that hundreds of years ago a powerful spell caused this artifact to be randomly teleported to its resting place after a focusing crystal in use during said spell overloaded and discharged unexpectedly. Upon attempting to reconstruct this crystal, it was found to be incomplete, leading us to further discover that the aforementioned spell had in fact scattered several artifacts across Equestria. We believe that a small cluster is currently located in the north eastern dead sectors, specifically the old city of Manehattan."

"Now," Etcher continued, a new slide on the projector taking the place of the previous one. "Our ultimate goal in this operation is to locate the exact location of this artifact. This presents a unique challenge, as locating it will be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. Fortunately, the crystal fragments have an identical signature which can be used to narrow down the search area."

Etcher then went on to explain the scientific process of how they had narrowed the location of one of the other "artifacts" and its corresponding cluster down to Manehattan, along with how finding the crystals would help. This involved many large words that nopony really understood. At this point, nearly everyone in the room seemed bored out of their minds, except Paper who looked more confused as he tried to wrap his head around what he was hearing, scribbling a few things down as the went along.

Despite his limited knowledge on such advanced magics and Etcher's own inability to water down the topic so that the common pony could understand, Paper was able to cobble together a basic idea of what was going on. Essentially, the crystal fragments would be scattered in a circular like pattern with the "artifact" being roughly in the center of this pattern. Finding multiple crystals would give them some idea of where that center area was. The more crystals they found, the better the estimate.

"Be warned," Etcher began, his demeanor growing even more serious than it already had. "These crystals are volatile and are not to be tampered with. If you find a crystal, do not attempt to move it. Physical contact alone is enough to destabilize them and magic manipulation is not advised. The MSAD has already lost one pony to vaporization. We do not wish to see this tragedy repeated."

Everyone sighed a bit in relief when Etcher finally stepped down.

"Thank you, Senior Mage," the older stallion said, trying his best to hold his forced smile as he took back the podium. "Now, if you look in your packets you'll find a roster along with a map of Manehattan. Our friends with the local restorative project, Project Reclamation, have been gracious enough to allow us to use their base of operations as a staging area for our own. This operation will consist of six teams of five. Each team has been assigned to search several sectors within the city. Study this map. Commit your sectors and the ones surrounding them to memory. Furthermore, each team will be provided with a device capable of detecting the unique magical signature of these crystal fragments. Once you receive a reading, you are to mark your location and attempt to confirm the presence a crystal. The mages will take over from there. Any questions?"

Everyone just sat in silence, either reading over the rosters or studying the maps they had been given.

"Good. Get your gear packed and assemble with your assigned teams at the train platform. We move out in an hour. You are dismissed."

"So, I guess they're not going to tell everyone what these artifacts are then?" Bastion said as everypony began to get up and leave.

"I can understand why'd they want to keep it a secret," Paper said. "What I don't get, is why you're here, Nightfall. Aren't you supposed to be retired now? What happened to settling down?"

Nightfall sighed in annoyance. "For now, let's just say Initiative command screwed me over and get on with this."

"You got," Paper assured. "We can just focus on the mission for now."

"Yeah, looks like we all got matched up together in team one, along with Foxtrot and someone named Star Mist," Bastion said as he looked over the roster.

"Who's Star Mist?" Paper asked.

"Beats me," Bastion answered with a shrug. They both looked to Nightfall who simply returned the gesture.

"I'm sure we'll meet them at the platform," Nightfall said. "Let's get our gear together."

Before the three could make their way to the door, they were suddenly confronted by Senior Mage Etcher himself, who was now staring at the group in a cold analytical way that put Nightfall on edge. "Team One, correct?" Etcher began, without even so much as a hello. "You're the ones who found our original *ahem* "artifact" if I'm not mistaken."

"That's us," Paper declared proudly. "It is a real honor to be working with you, sir. I've admired the work that the MSAD has done ever since I was a little colt."

"You must be Paper Cut," Etcher replied. "I'm glad to see that some rangers have taken a proactive interest in magic. Your file made it very clear that your magical ability has contributed greatly to your team's continued success in the field. The Archmage will be happy to know you're on board with this mission."

Paper beamed with delight at hearing the mage's words.

"You read our files," Nightfall stated.

"I did, indeed," Etcher answered. "I must say, I'm glad to have such a diverse set of ponies on this mission. It will be interesting to see how certain..." He looked to Nightfall, "skillsets contribute to this operation as a whole. I'll be sure to keep an eye on you, especially. I'm not exactly fond of the idea of letting criminals in on such delicate matters. I'm trusting that none of our instruments will end up on the black market."

At this point in his life, Nightfall was more than used to these types of jokes. Though it was not appreciated, he would not have been bothered by it had something not clearly been off about the exchange. Etcher's lips did not curl, any trace of a smile being painfully vacant from the unicorn's expression. He was serious. "Well screw you too," Nightfall thought to himself. His own gaze narrowed at the mage. "I'm sure."

Suddenly it seemed as if there was a great tension in the air between the two and for a moment one could have cut it with a knife, but before anything else could be said, Etcher simply smiled. "Well, this has been a pleasure, but I shouldn't keep you any longer. There is work to be done after all." And with that, he took his leave.

Nightfall huffed, before turning and beginning to make his way to the door.

"Something tells me you don't like him," Bastion said to Nightfall, as he began to follow the thestral.

"Yeah, well something tells me that he doesn't like me," Nightfall answered.

"You guys just need to get to know each other," Paper said. "I'm sure once you guys have worked together a little, all those bumps will be smoothed out."

"Pfft," Nightfall replied, blowing hot air. "I know his type. Everything he wanted to know about us was in our files. I hope you like the photo in that yellow folder, because that's what he'll be basing all his judgments off of."

"Oh come one, man..."

"No, Paper," Nightfall harshly refused. "I'm not just going to just "come on." Let's get to the platform and get this over with."

Paper and Bastion both looked to each other as Nightfall took off towards the door. It was clear to them that frustration had already set in and that he needed some space to cool off. Once they got the show on the road, he'd settle into his role and things would be fine. Hesitating only for a second, they each followed their thestral brother out the door to get their equipment.

The group was now on the train platform amongst a few other teams who were preparing to head out as they waited for their train to arrive. Every so often, a train would come and go, dumping off teams fresh back from a completed mission and gathering a new one to take their place. The track that the current group waited at had been kept clear of any traffic so that the train could arrive to pick them up.

All their gear had been gathered in large duffle bags. Guns, ammo, blades, special equipment. It was all there. As they waited, they did some last minute checks.

Bastion habitually and repetitively opened and closed a lighter with an audible click each time. He finally got bored and laid back on his own bag, which made a lousy cushion, but worked fine as a back support. Paper read a copy of the day's newspaper, a small frown forming on his face as he found that there was nothing interesting going on other than the same boring junk that got written when he was away from the office.

"Are you guys team one?" a mare suddenly asked the group, catching each of their attention.

"That's us," Paper greeted happily with a hoof shake. "You must be Star Mist."

"That's me," her happily toned voice came from beneath the hard-case helmet she already wore. It was worn and full a scratches, a testament to the number of assignments she had clearly been on. Her snow suit was equally as worn, but seemed to be well maintained. This was a good sign in each of the team member's books, being a clear indication of experience and discipline.

Other than that, her suit configuration was remarkably standard. Basic utility pouches on her right side, a small med-kit on her lower back with a holster for a standard issue flare carbine, a relatively simple flare based weapon, just above that, and the Initiative patches on her shoulders. She appeared to have seven ammo canisters along her left side. She rounded out her kit with a sidearm and extra magazines. The rest of her molle was left mostly open on the chest and abdomen. All in all, her loadout was a well rounded one, if not a bit lack luster, and despite the fact that she seemed to have no clear specialization in mind.

Nightfall himself tended to focus on versatility in a more close to medium range engagement. Four incendiary grenades, at least twenty something throwing knives, and a few other surprises in his bag of tricks, along with a more personalized version of the flare carbine. Bastion was a completely different story. He was the big man with the big gun and enough ammo to unthaw a city block. The MK-V Flare Rifle was a bit larger and heavier than the MK-IV and most definitely less versatile than the MK-VI or MKVII, but the earth pony insisted that it hit harder and truer than any other version in the armory. Paper preferred to rely on magic, something he had excelled in ever since joining up with the Initiative and getting into offensive spells, though he did carry an arming sword as well. He also carried all the extra medical supplies. Lastly was Foxtrot. As an accomplished marksman, he tended to go relatively light on gear, usually carrying just ammo and a precision rifle. It was very specialized role, but invaluable when needed.

On top of their own personalized gear, each member of the team carried their own med-kit, a comfortable sidearm with extra magazines, and a few other tools. Any and all blades, with the exception their utility knives, bore fire enchantments that burned through windigos like hot knives through butter.

"Welcome to the family," Bastion greeted the new mare. "I'm Bastion. That's Paper Cut, Foxtrot, and Nightfall," he continued, pointing to each respective pony. "Nightfall's team leader, so he'll be calling the shots."

"It's good to meet all of you," Star Mist said.

Suddenly, one of the gates at the far end of the platform opened, allowing flurries of snow to blow in along with a chilling breeze as the train rolled into the station. It was specially marked with long blue stripes, designating it as one of the MSAD's.

"That's our ride," Nightfall began, as he gathered up his bags along with the rest of his team.

"It's about time," Foxtrot complained.

As the doors opened, everypony filed into the train cars, noticing that the inside was nicer than the usual transports. They were much nicer actually. There were actual chairs instead of benches, with enough room for one to stretch out if they wanted to. Of course, this resulted in the train being longer, but it was a welcome change.

Paper smiled. "Now this is what I'm talking about," he said as he flopped down into one of the padded chairs. They were soft too. Working with the MSAD certainly had it's perks. Once everyone was situated and the door finally closed, a few ponies entered from the rear and began handing out fruit and refreshments. "Oh, yeah. I could get used to this."

Not even an hour later, the train was moving at a quick pace, already beyond the outer walls of the capital and out into the frozen unknown.

Before the train had even passed through the first checkpoint, Paper had fallen asleep in his chair. It reclined. The thing actually reclined. They had been doing trains wrong for the entire time they were in the Initiative. This was how you were supposed to travel. As for Bastion, the earth pony was just looking out the window, watching snow as they passed.

There were a few other teams in the same car as them. The others were packed full of the other teams along with the mages and what seemed like an exuberant amount of support personnel. What they were for, Nightfall didnt know, but what he did know was that there were a few too many ears around for what he needed to say.

He looked over to his right where Star Mist was sitting in the seat next to him. From under her helmet, he couldn't tell if she had fallen asleep or not, so decided to give her a pat on the shoulder to get her attention. She hadn't been, and responded accordingly.

"Yes?"

"We need to step outside for a moment," Nightfall said as he stood and grabbed his helmet.

Star Mist suddenly grew tense at the implications at was going on. She did her best to hide her nervousness, but the fact that Nightfall did not notice it did little to put her at ease.

As the two headed to the front of the train car, Nightfall signaled for Foxtrot to follow. He too grabbed his helmet and put it on before stepping outside with the others.

As Star Mist noticed her temperature gage drop from a comfortable 70 degrees down to a frigid -2, she couldn't help but think to herself how grateful she was that she wasnt the one who had to maintain the rails beneath them. The combination of the cold and stress made basic enchantments a must, but recharging those enchantments, or even replacing the rails when needed, was no doubt a tedious job. And that was on top of the dangers that they already faced with being out in the tundra.

The three of them stood there a moment, each fully covered in their snow suits, as the door closed behind them. Nightfall checked the door to the next car to make sure no one would interrupt them. Once he was certain they were alone, he began.

"So what's up?" Foxtrot asked after they had all plugged in their radios so that they could hear each other over the constant 'click-clack' of the wheels against the track.

"Do either of you know anything about this mission beyond the briefing?" Nightfall asked casually.

Both Foxtrot and Star Mist just shook their heads no.

Nightfall swore inwardly, not entirely sure if he should be doing this or not. "You can probably tell by the fact I'm asking that they didnt exactly tell you everything. Hell, I dont even know if I'm supposed to tell you any of this so this stays between us."

"So what is it then?" Foxtrot asked. "This whole operation is some kind of front for something else? I'm guessing we're actually all lab rats and the mages are here to study how well we play scavenger hunt in a dead sector."

Nightfall couldn't help but smile, but shook his head regardless. "No. It's the artifacts. They didnt say what they were during the briefing."

"I noticed."

"Now that you mention it, it would be nice to know exactly what we're looking for," Star Mist added. "Or why they're important."

"That's above our pay-grade," Foxtrot reminded with some annoyance at the secrecy.

"We found the first one," Nightfall began. "Paper, Bastion, and I. It wasn't an artifact. 'It' was a 'she'." He sighed. There was no real easy way to drop this kind of bombshell announcement on someone, so he was just going to say it. "What I'm about to say is going to sound ridiculous, but that spell they mentioned? It didn't just scatter pieces of the focusing crystal, it scattered the casters as well."

"You're saying that this spell shot a bunch wizards forward in time." Foxtrot concluded.

Nightfall shrugged. "She was a statue when we found her, but turned back to normal upon physical contact. So forward in time or stuck in a stone shell for the last thousand years. I don't know which one."

"So this is a rescue op then," Star Mist said. "We're trying to find the other casters."

"Yes."

"I dont see how this changes things," Foxtrot pointed out. "If they're trapped in stone, then finding the crystals is still our best bet."

"Unless they're not trapped in stone anymore," Star Mist thought out loud.

"This whole damn thing better not be a wild goose chase," Foxtrot said somewhat angrily. "How are we supposed narrow down they're location if they're moving!?"

"We dont know that she's been thawed out yet, Foxtrot," Nightfall said. "We're just thinking out loud here."

Foxtrot hmphed, clearly not happy with the current situation.

"She?" Star Mist questioned.

Nightfall nodded. "There were four of them, is what I've been told. They each controlled a different aspect of the spell, but they weren't just normal mages. They were alicorns. The alicorns. Apparently, they were trying to repair some magical cosmic force or something. It didnt work and they ended up here. That's what Celestia told us at least."

He went on to describe the events that had transpired before stumbling upon her in the mine. Both Star Mist and Foxtrot had gone quiet upon hearing this revelation and bounced back and forth between trying to listen and keeping track of the questions that were stacking up in their heads.

"Hold on," Star Mist interrupted. "An alicorn princess? Weren't they gods or something?"

"Yeah," Nightfall confirmed. He swore that in that instant, he could see Star Mist's eyes light up from under her tinted visor. "But with like a lowercase 'g'. Beyond that, I know about as much you guys."

"What was she like?" Star Mist asked suddenly, all too entranced by the story.

"She was generous. Soft-spoken, but she had this authority about her that made just about everypony around her melt like chocolate in her hooves. It was actually kind of unnerving. She was also really tall."

"Are the legends true? Can she can control the sun?"

"She claimed to able to," Nightfall answered, "but her magic was burnt out when we found her. It will probably take a while for her to recover."

"Sounds a little too convenient if you ask me," Foxtrot said suspiciously. "Anyways, I'm freezing my ass off out here." And without so much as a farewell, he turned around marched right back into the warmth of the train car.

"Well, he sure is blunt... and kind of rude," Star Mist said, only to tense up when she realized that he had probably heard her through his headset. Foxtrot made no indication that he had, much to Star's relief. He more than likely had already turned off his radio.

"That's just his way," Nightfall began, "I wouldn't worry too much. He's good at his job and he'll watch your back."

"Yeah..." Star Mist hesitated, but went back to the conversation only moments later. "So, about these alicorns..."

The conversation ended up not being too long of one, seeing as Nightfall himself had little information on what was actually going on. Naturally, the subject matter shifted from being about the job to more personal matters. The two had not yet met properly and now was as good a time as any for them to get acquainted. Nightfall actually found a great deal of enjoyment in this. Star Mist was certainly excited about this assignment, but in a much more calm way than others. She had a relaxing way of speaking and seemed more than comfortable being casual around him. This was good.

They had only stayed outside for a few moments, being able to go back in when the conversation had switched to much lighter and far less secretive topics. Bastion inevitably joined in along with Paper when he finally woke up. In a way, it was strange. Nightfall had actually missed this to some degree. The comradery was only strengthened by the dangers that they all faced together. For now, it was enough of a distraction from the fact that he was here involuntarily.

Manehattan. The lost gem of the east. The city was practically ancient at this point, but many of it's structures still stood tall and true despite the harsh elements. It was clear that the ponies who built this place, built things to last. Though many of the towers were weathered down, their windows having been shattered long ago and their insides gutted by the chilling wind, they still portrayed an image of power. It was haunting though. Like the skeleton of a god still looking down at the world and judging from above.

According to many history books, the city had been in the middle of a technological revolution before its decline and inevitable downfall. Most of this had been destroyed by the weather over the course of hundreds of years. But down, in the depths of the deepest vaults, below the snow, below the ice, it was rumored that treasures and technologies beyond ones wildest dreams lay waiting, beckoning anyone brave enough to claim them.

"Oh, bullshit," Foxtrot claimed. "There's no way any of that stuff could be considered treasure. Outdated junk, maybe. But I don't believe for one moment that some machine that can cure cancer or a bionic microwave oven is hidden away in some vault."

"What makes you so sure, Foxtrot?" Paper asked. "Some of those corporation put a lot of money into research and development and just as much keeping their inventions safe. There could be all kinds of things hidden below those buildings that we dont know about."

"Fifty bits says we dont find anything worth while."

"You're on."

The two shook on it, before going back to simply watching the city grow closer and closer as they approached. A long time ago, the train would have gone over the bridge and straight into the city itself, where the largest of any station in Equestria waited. Now, no sane pony would set a hoof on that rickety old bridge, no less send any kind of locomotive over it. To do so would have been suicide.

The bridge was large and ominous, it's horseshoe shaped supports being a sign of a better time when engineers had the time and resources to pull off such feats. The marvel now barely stood, crumbling and wasting away, letting out terrible wails of rusted iron on rusted iron as loose pieces rubbed against each other under the influence of the wind and hundreds of years of stress. The structure was on its last legs and soon it would collapse entirely, meeting its watery grave in the frozen river below.

Fortunately, the train had been divorced from this suicidal route long ago and the rails guided it away. About half an hour after the city had initially come into view, the train pulled into a station that was disproportionately smaller than the outpost that surrounded it. Most outposts in the tundra were small compounds. The standard setup usually included a TRST station, utilities, greenhouse, and some form of lodging. This outpost was much more like a small town of its own.

From the window, Star Mist could see dozens of ponies going about their business, most being agents for the local restorative project, though there were a few civilians in the mix. If she had to take a guess, she'd say there were about 400 ponies living here, mostly project staff and their families.

When the train finally came to a stop, everypony filed out onto the platform, each of them being more than ready to get out of the train cars they had been cooped up in for nearly two days of travel. From the platform, the ranger teams were directed to an area on the edge of the residential district where a series of cabins stood, seemingly for the purpose of accommodating guests. There was just enough for each team to have their own.

"Tops! Called it!" Paper declared, throwing his bags on the upper bunk of one of the four bunk beds in the cabin.

"No one cares," Foxtrot groaned in annoyance.

Everyone was jet lagged from the trip and consequently they had all been given the rest of the day to rest before their real mission began in the morning. They had an hour to get settled and familiarize themselves with where they would be staying. Then they would assemble to go over the equipment that would help them locate the crystal fragments. It had all been shipped over, along with a few MSAD mages, a few days in advance. After that, the few remaining hours of daylight would be theirs for whatever they wanted to do. Not that there was much to do. The town was severely lacking in recreational activities.

"We could stop by the labs," Paper Cut suggested, "maybe see what kinds of things the researchers are working on."

"I wouldn't mind going," Star Mist replied as she deposited her own bags on the bottom bunk below Nightfall.

The thestral jumped down from his perch. "Oh why the hell not? Not like there's anything better to do."

Nightfall looked over the large scanner that he now held in his hooves. It was similar to the small one that he usually had with him, with the exception that this one had about a hundred more buttons and switches, none of which he knew the function of. "Where's the power button on this damn thing?" he asked, turning it over in his hooves.

"Please, be careful!" the MSAD assistant warned. "This is very sensitive equipment."

"If it wont survive me turning it over, it isnt going to survive out in the city." Nightfall passed the piece of tech off to Paper, who had always had much better luck with these sorts of things.

The teams had all gathered together in the outpost's assembly hall. From there, they were instructed to gear up and head outside where they were each assigned an assistant from the MSAD to teach them how to use the equipment required to locate the crystal shards.

Paper looked over the scanner closely, taking note of each button's position and label. Following the assistant's instructions, he found the power button on the back and proceeded to boot up the piece of tech. It proceeded to make a series of hums and buzzes as the screen came to life, displaying a list of incomprehensible codes that scrolled up across the screen before there was even a chance to read them. Then the screen fell dark for a few seconds before loading up what appeared to be a start menu.

"Very good," the assistant began. "Now, this system is very sensitive, but also very simple." He pointed to an area on the side where several scroll wheels and switches were highlighted in yellow. "Go ahead and flip the first two switches."

Paper did as he was instructed. A series of lines, each with a corresponding number and a unit of measure that he did not recognize, appeared on the screen. The MSAD assistant pointed to another button, which Paper hit.

The screen now displayed several squiggly line that ran horizontally, each vibrating at different frequencies. "This scanner will pick up both active and leftover energies from spells and magical phenomenon." He pulled out a tennis ball and proceeded to levitate it up and down slowly. Each of the lines consequently jumped to different values. When the assistant cut off his magic, the lines all dropped back to zero.

"When your search begins tomorrow, these machines will be calibrated to pick up the unique signature of the crystals, but for now they'll pick up any kind of magic so that we can practice. When you get a reading in the field, you will need to mark your location and write down all numbers on the screen exactly as they appear."

From there, the scanner was passed around the group so that each pony was able to get a feel for it, the last of which was Nightfall. The MSAD assistant seemed to watch him much more closely than the others, which only annoyed him when the unicorn started literally watching from right over his shoulder.

The next few hours after that were spent with each of the ranger team wandering aimlessly around an open area where a few "magic hot spots," as the MSAD mages referred to them, had been created for the rangers to find. Sure enough, from time to time, the lines on the screen would jump around sporadically and the numbers would be marked down before moving on. This was repeated several times by each member of the team until they had all completed the training in a way that the MSAD found acceptable.

It was unanimously decided though that Paper should be the one to take care of the scanning duties once they were in the fields, seeing as he seemed to have the greatest understanding of how all this worked, along with the most interest in getting to hold a machine that he described as "a wonderful little invention."

And so, with some daylight still left to spare, training was completed and all ranger teams were dismissed for the day. That is, all but Nightfall, Paper, Bastion, Foxtrot, and Star were dismissed. Given what they knew, this came as no surprise to most of them.

The MSAD mages waited for a moment for the rest of the teams to get out of range of earshot before continuing. "First off, we are happy to have you with us, Team One."

Nightfall rolled his eyes. Foxtrot didnt care much for the formalities either.

"There are some details regarding this mission that you are not yet aware of. Foxtrot. Star Mist. Have you two been filled in on what it is that we are doing here beyond what you were told in briefing?"

"Yes, sir," Star answered somewhat nervously as Foxtrot merely responded with a nod.

If the mages were displeased with this, they didn't show it. Instead, they simply continued. "Then we are sure there are no end to your questions. Once all is said and done, we will be happy to answer those, but for the time being this following information is all that can be disclosed. You will all want to hear it."

They had all known that something was being hidden from them and they were sure that the other teams were probably picking up on it as well, but now was not the time to complicate things by getting involved in whatever motivations the MSAD had for being so hush hush about it all. They simply listened.

"We know which of the alicorns we are looking for here," the mage began. "Her is name is Princess Luna and we know that she is here in this city because she made contact with Princess Celestia through her dreams."

Dreams? Certainly, no one in the group had expected this and it showed.

"We know it sounds strange," the mage explained, "but in her own time, Princess Luna was a very gifted dream walker. We believe that she used the last of her magic to contact Princess Celestia in her dreams. Knowing this, we can reasonably say two things. One, when you awakened Princess Celestia, Princess Luna was also awoken. And two, finding the crystal shard will not lead us directly to Princess Luna."

"So why use them as reference points?" Paper asked after allowing this information to sink in.

"There is no other option. These crystal shards will lead us to the site where Princess Luna was sent, but there is a chance that she will no longer be there. In her message, the princess made reference to an individual that she believed to be a potential threat, someone she referred to as The Warden. We have done a search and found no information on this name. Whoever this Warden is, he or she is not to be trusted. The princess made this clear."

"You think this guy has Luna?" Nightfall asked.

"There is a possibility. When the princess's original location is found, a team of mages will be tasked in tracking her down. You will provide support during this phase of the operation. Paper Cut," the mage suddenly said, catching the young unicorn's attention. "Given your... personal experiences with Princess Celestia, we would request that you lead this particular phase and act as the greeter for our official introduction."

Paper's ears shot up and his eyes went wide. Sure, he had had several long interview sessions with Celestia, but never imagined that that meant he would be the one addressing Princess Luna on behalf of all of Equestria. "I-I... I'd be honored," he stammered. "But, Nightfall. He's usually squad lea-"

"We'll make sure everything goes smoothly," Nightfall interrupted. "Is there anything else?"

"Only one thing," the mage said. "All this information is to remain a secret. You will carry out the mission as previously instructed and be briefed when the time for the final phase has come. If there are no questions, you are dismissed."

There were no questions and the team left in silence.

"We are putting a lot of trust in that thestral," Etcher suddenly spoke up along side his peers once Team One was out of sight. "I do not feel that this is wise."

"There is little reward without risk," the highest ranking among them answered. "Besides. That one will not betray us. Of this I am certain."

"Yes, of course, Archmage," Etcher replied. "My apologies. I just hope for Equestria's sake that this all goes according to plan."

Author's Notes:

I've probably written, rewritten, edited, and re-edited this chapter five or six times now trying to get it just right. Chapter 7 will be out before Christmas. I'm hoping to have Chapter 8 out before February.

Chapter 7: Unravel

Paper Cut had never been to Manehattan and was very quickly beginning to realize why this place had been designated as a "dead sector." Nothing lived here. Any and all signs of life had been long covered by the snow that buried entire buildings up to their fourth or fifth story. The buildings themselves were so weathered at this point that they seemed more like natural formations rather than things that were built by the hooves of ponies. The glass that once occupied their windows was gone leaving behind only the dark unseeing sockets of their skeletal remains, towering over the ponies ominously and proving to them just how small they were in comparison.

Dead. That's exactly what this place was. The buildings were dead. The ponies that lived here long ago were dead. The society that had once existed was dead. And yet Paper could not shake that cold feeling that they were being watched, followed, and stalked. It didn't help that Manehattan had been the setting for many horror novels that he had regretted reading late at night.

"You okay?" Bastion asked, noticing his friends shaky breathing.

"What? Yeah! Totally. Just.... nervous is all."

"First time in Manehattan?" Foxtrot asked.

"No! Of course not," Paper answered a bit too quickly. Nightfall and Bastion both knew otherwise. Paper had been a member of their team ever since he joined up a year and a half ago, and they had never come here with him before, but they knew that he'd never admit that this was in fact his first time, especially not to Foxtrot.

Nevertheless, Paper couldn't deny the fact that he was uneasy. Something about this place was wrong. He could feel it in his bones.

"If it's any comfort," Star spoke up, "this is my first time in Manehattan as well." It really wasn't any comfort at all. If anything, it only annoyed Foxtrot, who now felt like he was baby sitting.

"Just make sure to keep an eye on the rear from time to time," Nightfall instructed. "There are plenty of places for something to sneak up on us from."

Yeah, no shit. Thanks for the reassurance. Despite his doubts, Paper kept on trudging through the snow, shaking the excess build up of ice free from his snowshoes whenever they cut through a building. Upon doing so, he couldn't help but stare down into the darkened corners and what was left of stairwells that lead down under the snow. What secrets lied below their hooves, he wondered.

In the time of their construction, the interior walls of these buildings would have been made of wood and drywall, but the elements had seen to it that all of that was swept away long ago. Now all that remained were empty concrete husks, gutted and abandoned.

"I wonder what this place used to be," Paper thought out loud as they made their way through the remains of the fourth floor of a skyscraper.

"There's no treasure hidden in the basement," Foxtrot said coldly. "Let it go."

"That's not what I was getting at," Paper defended. "I'm just curious."

"What is down there?" Star asked.

"Don't know. Don't want to know," Nightfall answered. "Probably nothing good though."

"Official doctrine forbids anyone from going down there," Bastion said before listing off several possibilities. "Windigo nests, feral ice creatures, maybe even wraiths."

The group suddenly fell silent, more silent than anyone would have liked it to be. None of them knew what dwelled beneath the snow. Very few had ever been brave enough to venture down that way and even fewer had made it out alive. The most common stories were those of getting lost, only to either find a way out by some miracle or die alone, cold, and in the dark. What would bring about that death was anyone's guess, but they knew that Bastion probably wasnt far off. What they didnt know though, was what scared them most of all.

"Are we even supposed to be going through here?" Star asked in a concerned tone.

"Probably not," Nightfall answered, "but it's faster than trying to trudge through the snow all the way. Just keep an eye out and we'll be fine."

As much as they hated to admit it, Paper and Star both knew that Nightfall was right. After making it to the far side of the room, the group stopped. Nightfall stuck his head through the window and checked to make sure the coast was clear. It was, but it was a bit of a ways down from their current position, the snow being a floor lower on this side of the building than on the side where they had entered. For this reason, the scanner was given to Foxtrot who glided down right after Nightfall had landed.

One by one, the others jumped down from the window, landing and sinking into the snow a meter. Buried but unharmed, they were helped out before moving on. This process was repeated several times as they moved from building to building. When unable to get inside, they moved low and quickly along the walls, trying their best to minimize their exposure to the outside and anything that may have been watching them.

The sectors that they had been assigned to sweep were on the east side of the city, opposite from where the base had been set up in the west. It had been agreed upon that it would be best to search the sectors farthest out and then work their way back, decreasing the distance they would have to travel each day. They would start at the southern most part of the coast and then head north to the top of their assigned sectors. From there, they would cut inland before heading south.

Nightfall and Paper had been the ones to formulate the overall plan for their search pattern the night before, just after briefing. Paper had been certain that as long as they went down every street, that it would be sufficient enough to get good readings. After going through each sector, they could go back through, heading east to west rather than north to south, if need be.

Bastion had been the one to suggest bringing along extra food, as they would most likely be out all day and didnt want to have walk back every night just to resupply. He promptly went out to raid the MSAD's stock, something that ended up drawing a few mages to their cabin later in the evening complaining about stolen booze. Star had barely been able to contain her laughter when Nightfall told them to go away and slammed the door in their faces.

If there was one thing that the Project knew how to do right, it was how to treat guests. The high standards of the MSAD had only made things better. Breakfast had consisted of eggs, wheat cakes, hash-browns, fueling up the rangers for their long expedition. They had been advised to eat lightly, but temptation had ultimately been the victor of the day. Consequently, the group didn't need to stop when they reached the coast at noon.

From the last line of buildings, the land extended out a good hundred or so meters, before the snow began to decline in depth, ending at the frozen plains of ice that covered the ocean as far as the eye could see and passed the horizon. Bastion had wasted little time racing out of the snow and onto the ice, it apparently reminding him of home. "I wonder what kind fish are down there," he thought out loud.

Nightfall pulled out a small map from his pack and unfolded it, looking it over and figuring out exactly where they were before planting a small orange flag in the ground to mark the southern border of their sector. From there, the group headed north, slowly making their way across the open ground.

Up and down. Up and down. The process was agonizingly monotonous. Conversation had been relatively light, each member of the group focusing as best they could on the hundreds of possible places where danger could be lurking, watching, and waiting to strike. For as long as they were exposed out in the open, an attack never came. Instead, they were simply left with the ghostly silence of the dead city.

A cloud of snow shot forward into the intersection, the wind whipping the white flurries around in a spiral as the spectral forms of the windigos glided wild, yet gracefully along the ground and through the air. Their movements brought the snow, which had remained undisturbed, up into the air where it was surrendered to their whims. Every surface was iced over in frozen crystals as the creatures passed, as they worked to channel their miniature storm through the streets and into a small open plaza. All at once they flew into the swirling torrent and in circular patterns formed it into a small white tornado that suddenly dissipated as it hit the side of a building, much to what seemed to be the creatures' annoyance. And so they tried again and again, each time their little storm growing more and more perfect until it inevitably fell apart.

From a street corner at the edge of the plaza, Nightfall watched through his binoculars as he laid prone on the third floor. Next to him, Bastion had shouldered his rifle, the end of the barrel only a few inches from sticking out a twenty meter wide hole in the wall that completely exposed the room to the elements. On his other side, Foxtrot laid with his own binoculars, watching everything unfold.

"What are they doing?" Paper asked from his own concealed position.

"I have no idea," Nightfall answered, motioning the unicorn over.

Paper dropped to the floor, leaving a majority of his gear behind as he crawled along to join Nightfall. Taking the binoculars from Nightfall, he held them up to his eyes and began to observe the creatures as they continued on with their display.

"I count twenty-three," Foxtrot indicated.

"Make that twenty-five," Paper corrected as two more windigos appeared, another cloud of snow in tow. The two added theirs to the storm, before diving in to form the small cyclone yet again. "Looks to me like they found something?"

"You think it's the crystal?" Star asked, as she too crawled along to join her teammates on the floor.

"Maybe," Paper answered. "When we found Celestia, a small group of them were waiting for us. They had passed over an entire town and raced straight down a mine shaft where she had been buried. I'm guessing with the signal fire out they were attracted to the magical signature from her spell. This might be the later stages of whatever we stopped them from doing in the mine."

"Now if only we knew what it was they were doing."

"All that matters is that we get rid of them," Foxtrot said. "I just don't think it would be wise to anger these things when their in such a large pack."

"Agreed," Nightfall replied. "We should split them up before we start picking them off."

"I don't know, Nightfall," Bastion began with no small amount of concern in his tone. "That's a lot of windigos and there is a lot of room for them to maneuver. If they trace a shot back to us, they'll be on us before we can relocate."

Bastion was right and he knew it. With all that open ground, it would be hard to take down any of them without the others taking notice. Trying to take them all out at once would be near impossible and dangerous, not to mention going loud may attract more. They're only option it seemed was to wait them out, which meant staying hidden until there was an opening and moving fast enough to get in and get out without being seen. Easier said than done, but Nightfall was confident that he could do just that.

"Paper," Nightfall called over his shoulder. "What kind of readings are you getting on the scanner?"

Paper looked down at the small screen, wiping the frost that had accumulated from its surface. "It's not much, but there's something there. I don't know if it's from the windigos or-"

KRAKOOM!!!

The entire city block was suddenly shaken by a massive explosion of orange and red fire, the windigo created cyclone seemingly having detonated out of nowhere when no one was looking. The windigos at the center perished immediately as their spectral forms were incinerated by the intense heat. Those that survived were dispersed in every direction many of them falling to the ground as the sound of automatic weapons fire opened up around them.

The shockwave visibly rushed across the ground, shooting up snow and dust, a light gray cloud forming. The shockwave hit the group head on, their current position doing little to shield them.

Nightfall stumbled to his hooves as the dust cloud washed over the group. Despite his near total loss of hearing, he managed to latch onto the nearest body and pull them up. "Everyone up," he groaned, knowing that every windigo within a mile radius would soon be converging on them. "We have to go."

In his own attempt to gain some sense of direction in the fog, Paper smacked clean into the wall behind him, causing him to stumble back, lose his footing, and drop off into the snow outside.

The group was only barely able to file out the door into another room, racing to the other side where the dust had not yet reached.

Bastion and Foxtrot both collapsed on the ground and leaned against the far wall where they removed their helmets, shaking the dust and snow from their collars. Nightfall looked around urgently after doing an incomplete headcount. His nerves were calmed somewhat when Paper made it in only a few seconds late.

One by one, the others all removed their helmets, rubbing their ears and taking a second before they were forced to move on. Star kept her helmet on, instead simply trying to steady herself and not puke from rapid swaying of her vision. She was unsuccessful, having to unlatch the lower plate of her helmet and throw up over in the corner away from the others.

"What the hell was that?" Foxtrot asked, but too loud, his ears still ringing and in pain.

Bastion took several deep breaths as he tried to calm himself, but the hoof that he held to the right side of his forehead told the others that he was not okay. His helmet had been struck in the corresponding spot and though small the dent may have been, a large area of the helmet's surface had been relieved of the winter camo pattern that was painted on.

"I'll live," Bastion said confidently as the others began to give him alarmed attention. "Scared the shit out of me though." On that, they could all agree.

"That's the reason you wear a helmet," Paper pointed out.

"One of them anyway," Foxtrot retorted. "Now will somebody please answer me?"

"There's no way that was caused by the windigos," Paper began, rubbing out the last of the pain. "An icy explosion, maybe. But that had heavy ordinance written all over it."

"Agreed," Foxtrot replied. "Too big to be any kind of hoof thrown ordinance and an IED wouldn't have exploded that high up off the ground, which means we're looking at an airburst weapon."

"Something with a heavier payload too. Shoulder mounted rocket, maybe?" Bastion speculated.

"More like a god damned missile launcher," Foxtrot said. "I didn't hear much of anything after the initial blast, but I swear there were some secondary detonations in there."

"If that's the case, we need to get back to base," Nightfall began. "If somebody's out here with that kind of ordinance taking pot shots at windigos, there's a large chance that someone is going to get killed." There was no disagreement in the group, but they needed to get moving now. The area would no doubt be saturated with windigos soon and that meant that setting up camp for the night would be impossible. There was still plenty of time left in the day though. If they left now, they would be able to come within radio range of teams in other sectors and pass the message along.

Recomposing themselves, the group dawned their helmets again and quickly found their way outside. In the distance, the shrill cry of windigos could be heard, never failing to send chills down all their spines. The creatures were not upon them yet, but they were somewhere, licking their wounds and regrouping. They may have been feral beasts, worthy of neither pity nor mercy, but saying that they were not clever beings would prove to be a fatal mistake. Unlike many of the creatures that lurked in the tundra, windigos showed some semblance of intelligence. Ice wolves were deadliest when hunting in packs, but windigos were equally as dangerous in small groups due to their crafty and almost organized nature. This behavior had already been on display once today.

Progress was slow and each step came with the knowledge that it could be the last. Crossing the street. Ducking into buildings. Hiding under the snow. Every move was a risk.

They now found themselves in hiding as yet another pack passed by on the streets. It should have been like any other. Stay still. Stay quiet. Stay hidden. The pack would move on and the ponies would be once again to be able to move. How wrong they were though. This pack stopped.

Nightfall internally cursed at their situation. They were stuck, the only way out being through the windigos. They were still deep in over run territory and a fight would no doubt only bring more of the creatures upon them. And so they hid, but not quite well enough.

From under her helmet, beads of sweat poured down Star's face as one of the windigos began to wander too close to where she laid on the floor under the window sill. Icy crystals began to cover her body, the cold threatening to seep into her suit and overpower the insulation that kept her warm. "Please go away. Please go away. Please go away," Star repeated to herself over and over in her head as she slowly unsheathed a curved blade, a fresh fire enchantment ready to go.

The windigo did not leave though, instead drifting closer and closer as it stared into the window with great curiosity, completely unaware that its prey was right below its nose. The windigo finally stuck its head through the window, a film of ice forming on ever surface inside the room.

Star shot up suddenly, her blade hooking the windigo under the chin and piercing up into its head. She yanked back, causing the blade to glide through the windigo's flesh toward its chin where the sharp metal caught, pulling the creature's entire body through the window as Star let herself fall onto her back, bringing the windigo down with her.

Nightfall dashed forward, grabbing the windigo by its tail and pinning it to the ground. Star wasted absolutely no time rolling on top of it and ripping her blade out sideways, before slashing it back across the windigo's neck in two swift and clean swipes that left its head snapped back farther than it should have naturally been able to.

Nightfall let go as he felt the body below him go limp, but quickly grabbed a hold of Star's hoof and yanked her back down under the window sill to hide in the shadows yet again. The kill had been quick, clean, and mostly silent. The windigos outside made no indication that they were even aware of what had just unfolded. Had it not been for a series of firecracker like pops in the distance drawing them away, they surely would have noticed that one among them was missing, given enough time.

On the floor, Nightfall stuck his head up slowly to see that the windigos had moved on. "They're gone," he said quietly, prompting everyone to emerge from their own hiding spots. Underneath him, Star still had her hooves firmly wrapped around his waste and her head resting on his chest. "You can let go now," he said, planting a hoof on her chest and pushing her away.

"What? Oh, sorry," Star apologized sheepishly, a nervous chuckle leaving her mouth.

"Sure," Nightfall replied nonchalantly as he got up off the floor. "Good play."

"By that, he means nice work," Foxtrot said, placing a hoof on Star's shoulder as he passed. "And it was a good kill. Do that more often."

Star looked over her shoulder at what remained of the windigo corpse. The fire enchantment on her knife had gone to work burning away at the ghostly flesh, white smoke rising from the wound that she had left behind. "Thanks."

It had taken the group a considerable amount of time to get out of their sector and into an area that wasn't crawling with windigos. The exact amount of time it had taken, no one really knew, but several hours had been spent hiding or searching for routes to evade detection. There were a few more close calls, but none nearly as close as the first, in which Star had had to get her hooves dirty. By now, the sun was beginning to set, casting the city in an eerie light and lengthening the shadow of every building, somehow making them even more ominous than they had already been.

"Team 2, this is Team 1," Nightfall began over the radio, now that they should have been in range. "Team 2, you there?" There was no answer and he repeated himself.

"Maybe they dropped back into another sector?" Paper guessed.

"Or something happened to them," Foxtrot said.

"I'm sure they're fine," Bastion assured. "You got to have a little faith in the ponies you're working with from time to time."

Star remained silent on the matter, seeming somewhat perplexed by something.

Nightfall looked down the street at the setting sun, before looking back to his teammates and then back to the sun. It was getting late and they would need to find a place to set up for the night. He could see it on each of their faces as well and in their eyes. They were all tired, including himself. And despite his own desire to complete the mission as soon as possible, he was more than ready to call it a day.

The place they found was not the most ideal, as most places in Manehattan weren't, but it had four wall a roof and would be sufficient to shield them from the wind. It was the sixth floor of what was probably an office building, being three floors up from the snow. The inner room they had decided on would conceal them from anyone or anything outside, but as a precaution both Foxtrot and Nightfall had taken a few incendiary grenades and some string to booby trap "ground level" entrances and halls.

"That should be good enough," Nightfall said, dropping the leftover bundle of string onto a blanket where the rest of his equipment laid. Finding his helmet, he picked it up and placed it back onto his head, neglecting to clamp up the lower jaw plate. "Team 2, this is Team 1. Where are you guys?" he tried again. Still no response.

"Give it a rest already," Foxtrot complained as he made himself as comfortable as possible, leaning against his supply pack. "It's already dark and they probably headed back to base to sleep in a cabin."

Nightfall just sighed, removing the helmet and replacing it with a beanie that covered his ears, before finding himself a cup of strawberry yogurt and plastic spoon.

The group was quiet for a while as they each found themselves something to eat, before Bastion finally spoke. "So, any theories?" he asked, referring to the question that currently weighed on all of their minds.

"Raiders?"

"If raiders have access to that kind of ordinance, we're all screwed," Foxtrot told Paper. "My money is on a mercenary group. Probably came out here to test some new toys or got a contract that involved killing windigos in mass. Sure, it might be forbidden to come to this city without official business, but I've never known a merc who didn't have some level of disregard for the rules."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but weren't you a mercenary at some point?" Bastion asked.

"Sure was," Foxtrot answered, seeing no sense in trying to hide it. He was proud of his work and was fond of many memories from that time.

"Why leave to join the TRST?" Paper asked.

"Easy. It's a more stable line of work. As a merc you could go a full week without getting a contract and at times there were jobs that we just couldn't ethically take. Sure, mercenary work may have paid better, but at least with the Initiative you know for certain that you're going to have work and some money on the way. Not to mention the benefits are way better."

"Do you ever miss it?"

Foxtrot just shrugged.

As the group talked quietly amongst themselves, Nightfall stood and took Bastion's flare rifle. "I'll take first watch," he said, not waiting for a response before heading out the door and into the outer hall where the moonlight shined through the windows. He deposited the rifle against one of the inner walls, sitting down and simply staring out the window.

It was a quiet night for the most part. The wind was calm and the snow remained undisturbed on the ground. The far off howling of ice wolves could be heard off in the distance, a sound that was somewhat comforting because it meant that the windigos were not around. Being competitors for food, the two creatures didn't get along very well.

Not even an hour passed, before Nightfall was visited by the one mare of the group. Star Mist took a seat next to him. "You doing okay?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Nightfall answered. "Just tired is all." It was the honest truth, even if it was only partial. At this point in his life, the thestral was more than used to living like this. He had done it nearly everyday for the last five years. One more mission wasn't going to kill him... he hoped. More than anything, he just wanted to go home.

"Good... good," Star replied trailing off before figuring out exactly what she wanted to say. "Listen, I just wanted to say sorry about earlier, y'know with the whole latching onto you thing. That was kind of..."

Nightfall let out a slight chuckle. "Dont worry about it. Though I will warn you," he continued jokingly, "I am a married stallion. So don't be getting any ideas."

Star's attention was suddenly caught by his attempt to ease some of the tension. "Really now?"

"Well, sorta. It's not exactly a done deal."

"So you havent asked her yet?"

"No, but I plan to. First thing when I get back." He paused for a moment, pulling his eyes away from the outside for the first time and looking over to Star, before looking away again. He suddenly had a great desire to change the subject. "You want second shift?" he asked, his tone turning from casual to serious.

"Um, sure," Star answered.

"Go get some rest then. I'll come and get you in a few hours."

It was now 1am and Star Mist found herself in the hall, staring out the window just as Nightfall had done before her. The night had been totally uneventful, which was a welcome change of pace after the hectic and tiresome day they had all had. For her, it was nice to just be able sit back and think for a while. And she had been given plenty to think about.

Bastion was nice enough to her, treating her as an equal despite the fact that he clearly had more experience in the city. It was little comfort, but it also being Paper's first time here helped her to feel a bit more secure in her role, especially when Foxtrot would cast sideways glares at her whenever he apparently felt that she was slowing them down. She wasnt quite yet sure how to feel about him, though she hoped that she could eventually earn his respect, even if that meant that he only tolerated her.

Then there was Nightfall. Oh, dearest Nightfall, how she wished he could have just stayed at home. Every part of her heart broke when she saw him taking the daily abuse that their mission entailed. The running. The jumping. The sound he had made when he was hit by that shockwave. All of it took a toll on each of them, but she felt worst for him. Then there were those words he had spoken and the things he had shared with her.

For the first time since arriving, Star removed her helmet fully, running a hoof through her long mane. Though matted and disheveled it may have been, she was perfectly content for the moment. She probably didnt smell that great either, but she figured that a shower was a luxury she would be able to afford once they decided to head back to base, whenever that may be.

She sighed, leaning her head back against the wall, a stupid love stuck smile still plastered across her muzzle. She couldn't wait for this mission to end. She couldn't wait to get home. For now though, she was stuck here.

Meadow Spring placed the helmet back on her head and became Star Mist once again.

Paper stared at the blank screen as he held the scanner down low to the ground, before raising it up higher above his head. He got the same result. All the lines simply stayed where they were. He rubbed his chin before pressing a few buttons, hoping that he had merely forgotten to adjust it or... something.

"Anything?" Bastion asked, his rifle still shouldered as he continued to scan the outer edges of the plaza.

"Nope," Paper answered disappointedly. "Whatever was here, it's gone now."

"Maybe it was just the windigos screwing with the system?" Star suggested, her own weapon shouldered as she kept an eye on the opposite side of the plaza.

This was the first time since arriving in the city that the group had actually been on ground level, the blast having cleared the plaza almost entirely of snow and pushing what remained out to form a large crater. Around them, the snow had been pushed up to the sixth, possibly seventh, story of some buildings. In the center, where they now stood, the ancient concrete that had not seen daylight for centuries was now exposed, a thin layer of ice having glazed over it last night.

"No, windigos shouldn't have had that much of an effect on the scanner," Paper replied, as he tried his best to figure out why the piece of technology wasnt working. "Whatever this was, it was much more in line with what MSAD described."

"But they were still affecting it," Star inquired further, "right?"

"Sure," Paper answered, his eyes still glued to the screen. "It still picks up active magic, but..." he used his magic to pick up some snow, causing a few of the lines on screen to jump up just slightly. "It did the same thing whenever windigos passed too close on the streets yesterday. Something was here, but it's gone now."

"So what does this mean?" Bastion asked.

"It means that someone else is after the crystals," Nightfall said, his tone dripping with annoyance. Of all the things to happen. Of all the things that could go wrong. Of course someone else had to show up and steal the prize right out from under them.

"Why would someone else be after the crystals?" Star asked.

"They're probably pretty valuable," Paper speculated. "I mean, I dont know how valuable, but given what they are, I'm sure someone somewhere is probably willing to pay for them. God knows what they'd use them for though."

"Everything has a market if you look hard enough," Nightfall confirmed.

"I really dont like the sound of that," Bastion said, his leftover instincts from his days in the guard kicking in.

"Me neither," Nightfall mumbled under his breath, before turning to his radio. "Foxtrot, you there?" he asked waving a hoof up towards the fifth floor of a building on the opposite end of the plaza.

"Yeah, I'm here," the pegasus replied, still scanning the outer edges of the plaza through his rifle scope. "You guys got anything?"

"No," Nightfall answered disappointedly. "Whatever was here is gone now. We're thinking whoever caused the explosion yesterday must have taken it." Foxtrot cursed under his breath. "You got anything for us on your end?"

Foxtrot looked down to his team through his binoculars and then up to something he had taken note of a few minutes ago. "Look to your current seven o'clock," he instructed. "In the street at the north end of the plaza, I got eyes on a lot of upturned snow. Looks like someone was moving through there recently, a lot actually."

"Thanks, Foxtrot. We'll check it out."

"You want me to stay on overwatch?"

"If you got an angle, go ahead. If not, come join us. Shouldn't take too long."

"Copy that."

Nightfall watched as Foxtrot began to hop down from his perch, undoing the zippers in his suit and allowing himself to glide down to the others. At the edge of the crater, where the snow had been piled up from the shockwave, the group found that Foxtrot had been correct in his observation. While the snow at the other edges of the crater had been undisturbed since the explosion, here there was clear indication of heavy hoof traffic, the snow being trampled across all throughout the street. There were far too many hoof-prints for a single pony to have been present. Bastion had already begun counting and figured there had to at least be fifteen sets, maybe even more. It was hard to tell.

"Now, what do we have here," mumbled to himself as everyone began to examine the scene before them.

"Damn," Paper muttered. "There are a lot of spent casings here." He enveloped a few of the small brass casings and held them up to show the others. He dropped all but one and began studying it curiously. "Hmm. Standard universal caliber."

"I take it that they were automatic weapons," Bastion commented, taking note of the literal thousands of rounds that littered the ground.

"I dont get it," Star began, picking up a discarded magazine. "Why use conventional firearms? Wouldn't flare based weaponry be far more effective against windigos?"

"Yeah, normal rounds are just about useless. Incendiary works better but they're terribly inefficient. Whoever this was though, had enough firepower that that should have been negligible."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, windigos are spectral beings, right?" Bastion stated. "So killing them is all about exposure rather than physical damage. An incendiary round would move through a windigo's body far too fast for the enchantment to actually work. That's why we use specialized weapons." He pointed to the flare rifle on his back and then to Star's own smaller version.

"I guess that makes sense," Star said.

"Shouldn't you know this stuff already?" Foxtrot asked harshly, shooting the mare an unamused glare from behind his visor.

Star just shrugged. "I dont pay much attention to the science. I know that fire kills them and that's enough for me."

Foxtrot just huffed loudly, not at all happy with Star's apparent lack of knowledge. He went back to inspecting the casing on the ground, finding that they were all exactly the same.

Nightfall looked to his wrist display, finding that it was only a few minutes until 9am. He looked around some more, finding nothing else of significance. Someone was here. The sheer amount of casings and hoof prints made that clear. Not to mention the huge snow crater behind them. Who was here, was far less clear. When the top of the hour came, he made the call. "Well, if there isn't anything else, we should head back. Command still needs to know that someone else is out here and that they might not be friendly."

Everyone in the group agreed and without anymore investigation, they headed out of the street, across the plaza, and back into the western sectors, completely unaware of the eyes on the back of their heads.

From their place in their improvised trench, the group watched as a pack of ice wolves wandered only a few intersections down. It had been several hours since they left the plaza and they had seen very little activity from just about anything since. No windigos, no ponies. The ice wolves ahead were the first things they had come into contact with that day.

"They still there?" Nightfall asked as he readjusted some of the straps on his gear.

"Yeah, they're still there," Foxtrot answered as he watched the pack through his binoculars.

"What are they doing?"

"Nothing."

This came as no surprise to anyone. Ice wolves were known for making their dens in the city from which they would travel to the country side to hunt. It wasnt uncommon to see a pack or two stalking the streets from time to time. This particular pack seemed to be doing just that. The group would only need to wait a few minutes for them to move on. Until then though, they sat quietly in their trench just waiting and watching.

The way they walked. The way the sun reflected light across their bodies. They're was something undeniably beautiful about their icy and predatory forms that no painting could ever truly capture.

Nightfall's ears suddenly shot up and he turned his head to check over his shoulder, having sworn he had heard something moving in the snow behind them. "Paper, check our rear," he said, shouldering his own weapon and watching carefully.

Paper followed Nightfall's lead, unsheathing his sword and preparing a spell. "What do you got?" he whispered, scanning the open street.

"I'm not sure," Nightfall replied. He tapped Bastion on the shoulder, motioning for him to take cover in the building to their right, which he did quickly and without hesitation. Star Mist did the same on the left. Nightfall then continued forward, slowly and silently climbing forward out of the trench and taking a few paces before stopping, his weapon readied. He let out a few nervous breaths, a gut feeling telling him that this was no mere animal. "Who goes there?" he called out.

There was no reply at first, but then slowly yet surely a pair of empty hooves began to raise out of the snow some thirty meters out. "Friendly!" a pony called back as he clambered out of his own trench. He must of felt that there were currently three rifle barrels on him, because he remained still and kept his hooves up high. "Dont shoot."

"Identify yourself," Nightfall demanded.

"Agent Striker, Equestrian IGS," he replied, turning so that the rangers could all see the patch on his shoulder. "I'm with the project, reporting on conditions inside the city. You're one of the ranger teams tasked with securing the crystals, right? I've got intel for you."

Nightfall relaxed lowering his weapon and motioning for the others to come out. He looked back to see that the ice wolf pack was still there and that Paper and Foxtrot were both still sitting in their trench. "Not here," he said, turning back to Striker. He motioned for everyone to follow and they hurried into the nearest building.

Striker took a seat against the far wall, unloading some of his gear and placing his own weapon against the wall. He waved the others over so that he could show them what he had.

"Alright, what's this intel you got for us, Agent?" Nightfall asked after everyone had gathered around.

"So you guys probably already know this," Striker began, "but you're not the only ones in this city."

Everyone just exchanged glances, each of them recalling the events of the previous day. "I think we figured that out," Nightfall said.

"Well, what you probably dont know is that all communications across the eastern side of the city are being jammed. The west side is still okay, but no signals are passing in or out of the city. Someone doesn't want us communicating with the outside world. I've also got some... grave news." He hesitated for a moment, before pulling an envelope out of his bag. "The team tasked with searching this sector is KIA." He noticed the shocked expression spreading across everyone's faces, though the thestral and pegasus both seemed a bit skeptical.

Striker opened his envelope and gave the contents to Nightfall. They were pictures. Pictures of bodies laying in pools of their own frozen blood that leaked out from gunshot wounds. They were passed around.

"Oh my god," Star breathed as she looked over the gruesome images.

Nightfall sighed as he passed the last picture over to Paper who in turn passed it on. "God dammit," he cursed under his breath.

"Now, whoever this is, it seems that they're after the crystals we're currently tracking," Striker continued. "And they're clearly not above using lethal force to prevent us from getting them first."

"Any clue who might have done this?" Nightfall asked.

Striker shook his head. "I've seen them, but havent been able to identify them yet. Whoever they are though, they're heavily armed and well equipped. The gear their toting is high grade."

"Any uniforms or distinguishing marks? Patches, maybe?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Striker answered, sounding sad. After being handed the photos back, he divided them in half and gave one set back to Nightfall. "I need you guys to deliver these photos back to command and warn them about what's going on here. Right now, everyone is at risk."

"We'll get it done," Nightfall assured.

"You're not coming with us?" Bastion asked, his voice taking on a concerned tone.

"No," Striker answered, placing his photos back in their envelope and then stuffing that back into a bag. "I've got to go track down the other teams and warn them before it's too late. With any luck, I'll be able to send them back to base before anyone else is killed." He collected his rifle from where it had been leaning against the wall and proceeded to head to the window.

"You're going alone?"

"I've got a team out there, tracking down leads," Striker assured. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Just get those photos delivered and I'll see you again soon."

Nightfall nodded and bid Striker farewell, also wishing him good luck. With that, the unicorn hopped through the window and back into the snow, making his way up into the northern sectors. Nightfall looked back down at the photos in his hooves, before sighing and placing them securely in a pouch.

"I don't like this," Foxtrot voiced his thoughts suddenly. "How do we know we can trust this guy?"

"I guess we dont," Nightfall said, stepping out of the building and dropping down into the snow.

Foxtrot simply stood there in disbelief as one by one his teammates walked passed him, simply shrugging. Star kept her head low as she passed, more than eager to rejoin Nightfall and get back to base. Everything about this just seemed fishy to him. How were they supposed to know that he wasnt the one who killed Team 2? What if this was a trap?

"He gave us the pictures, didnt he?" Bastion said, as if having read Foxtrot's mind by analyzing his facial expression.

"Blind trust is going to get us killed," Foxtrot scolded.

"So is staying here any longer. We need to go now." Nightfall put his binoculars away, having observed that the pack of ice wolves was now gone. Without so much as another word, he began march to forward through the snow, followed closely behind by Paper, Star, and Bastion.

Foxtrot opened his mouth to say something else, but suddenly thought better of it, instead deciding to catch up with his team.

Together, the group carried on towards base, the city now seeming more dangerous than it ever had. Each window was an eye watching them. Each rooftop was a position from which they could be attacked. A somber mood came over them as they walked on in total silence, each knowing that they were now being hunted and that any mistake could possibly be their last. Manehattan had always been dangerous, but now it was a hunting ground and they were the prey.

Author's Notes:

I honestly didnt think I'd get done with this chapter as quickly as I did. I thought for sure it would be another week, but I've really been in the mood for writing lately. I hope you enjoyed reading it, because I really enjoyed writing it.