As advantageous as it would've been to listen to the government agents pick Celestia's brain, I already knew she was after me. It just didn't seem worth it to wait around in their air ducts for information about how much they hated my guts.

Besides I hated my own guts enough for all of us.

I shadowed my way down the air ducts, pushing against the wind current. It was getting more intense the closer I got to the air unit. From there it should be easy to find and push myself out of the intake, which should, if this unit was like every other bulk air conditioning unit, lead to the outside. If I got that far it would be simple to pick a direction and fly, preferably sticking to the wilderness and as close to the ground or tree tops as I could to avoid radar and other common detection methods. Although I couldn't stick to one place for too long because apparently they had a way to track me anyway.

Fuck.

The current was really strong now. And I hadn't passed a vent covering in a small while. I had to be close.

I came to a four way intersection, the air was blowing from the left. I didn't waste anytime to follow. Finally I came on a fan that was furiously churning. Fwimpfwimpfwimpfwimp.

A thought came to me. If any part of my gaseous shadow cloud was sliced away by, for example, a fan blade, would that portion be lost as if I had actually been sliced? I mean sure, evidently being shot with bullets didn't do anything to me as a shadow, but a bullet passing through a gas didn't really slice anything away.

I extended a tiny tendril towards the spinning blade, feeling like I was about to do something stupid.

I brushed the tendril over the whirring fan, as if feeling the very edge of where the blades extended like it was a single solid surface. I barely felt even that, just enough to know I was purposefully touching something.

I tried to surprise myself by sticking the tendril in before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.

The blade didn't even slow down. Although now that I thought about it, what else did I expect?

The tendril was cut. But surprisingly, I felt nothing. Additionally, the portion of shadow that was cut away seemed to float briefly before it began to drain away. It was like the top portion of an hourglass, where the shadow did get smaller, but the "grains" of shadow that were coming off the portion floated over and around the spinning blades like they had suddenly formed a miniature, localized sandstorm. Those granules of shadow then rejoined my central mass as if nothing had happened.

I guess that answers that question.

Now marginally reassured that I wasn't about to seriously maim myself, I pushed through the spinning blades. Perhaps not surprisingly, it felt just as weird as you'd think, if you were to suddenly be painlessly assaulted by a bunch of knives.

I now knew what it was like to be a milkshake in a blender.

Now slightly blended, I passed through an opening into a sort of chamber. It wasn't large enough for even a short pony like me to stand upright, but it was large enough for air to collect to keep a whole section of a large building cool. Along the bottom of the chamber, were the endothermic coils that leeched heat from the air, arranged neatly in rows. Another fan that blew directly over said coils revealed the way out.

If I hadn't been a cloud of shadow I would have grinned.

I pushed myself through the second blender, knowing freedom was not far away.

True to my prediction, the new vent was not long at all. I pushed my way around an upward turn and the short vent lead to a simple vent cap.

I poked a viewing tendril up through the generous vent opening.

The vent lead outside alright. But to my chagrin, the only thing that told me the time was the hint of light against the navy blue of a dark sky over the horizon. There was no way to tell if it was dusk or dawn, or how many days had passed since I had been captured.

More concerning though, and maybe I should've predicted it, but the intake vent sat directly in the middle of a bustling military installation. Squat concrete buildings were surrounded by armed soldiers who were alert and on-guard. An American flag could be seen fluttering in a slight breeze, illuminated by spotlights. A jeep painted in the trade marked "notice me not" green rolled by.

A few other intake vents were around in my vicinity, along with a few small machines that looked like billing meters; but ultimately whose purpose was unknown. All fenced off and illuminated by bright street lights that were nearby.

The irony that this was a similar situation to how I was captured was not lost on me.

Of course I couldn't wait here for some twit to stick his face into the vent for some reason. That meant I had to try and redeem myself of my previous fuck up. Thankfully, I had learned from last time.

Instead of pouring myself out of the Intake onto the ground, I let myself float up and away into the dark sky like a cloud of smoke. While it was a risky maneuver while fully solid, it was one I was much more comfortable with taking as a shadowy gas cloud.

If anyone noticed that one of the air conditioners had started, and just as suddenly stopped, smoking it was hard to say. I quickly gained height, enough that it was difficult to spot expressions on individual faces. Thankfully, no one rushed to turn on the AA so I figured I was safe for the moment.

But that's when I saw a sight I had not been expecting.

Far below, armored quadruped shapes mingled and spoke with human soldiers.

Celestia had not been lying. She had not come alone.

What's more, the pony and human forces were not being hostile with each other.

Ponies in golden solar armor stood around and discussed things with human soldiers around Pegasi chariots loaded with crates and supplies. More golden armored ponies sat in a parade formation, sitting idly and at ease. The only pony forces I didn't recognize made up only a small portion of Celestia's forces. Their armor was almost a one for one with human equipment, matte black and nonmetallic. The human soldier's reaction to these ponies was much less relaxed. With the solar guard, they seemed to act like they were around children playing at being soldiers. But there was clear tension between the human soldiers and these "neo-guard". And despite these black armored ponies wielding weapons similar to their solar counterparts, the human guards had their weapons clutched tightly when dealing with these strange ponies.

At first I worried that somehow the Americans had somehow started to arm the ponies with "updated" equipment. But that didn't make sense. Say what you will about the military industrial complex, but mass producing armor for ponies within only a few hours at most was absurd. Regardless of what deal Celestia had cut with them.

That meant these black armored ponies had brought their equipment from Equestria.

So why were these ponies armed with armor on par with a human military, yet Celestia had brought her royal guard clad in gold?

Something wasn't right here. This didn't add up.

If Equestria had the economy and technology to produce something like Kevlar, than why did Celestia bring her "golden cohort" at all? Even assuming Celestia had no idea what Earth would be like, Kevlar was a much better choice. Easier to repair when damaged, easier to make air tight if the atmosphere wasn't good, and a much better choice as a protective material, even with "enchantments".

Why bring anything armored in gold to an alien planet with unknown dangers?

Just who were these strange ponies? And why were they better armored than the other ponies?

Seeking those answers would have to wait. I was over the edge of the facility and just a few more minutes before I could drop back to the ground to reduce my visibility. That didn't mean I would solidify quite yet, because of course a serious military base like this one would be surrounded with minefields.

I floated past the very edge of the spotlights, waiting for a few more minutes beyond them to finally dropping to the ground. So long as I didn't actively press on the ground and set a mine off, I was free.

Hours passed. And it was clear I was no where near "home". The Midwest of the United States was covered in fields and woods, where ever here was was dry and arid. Cracked dirt and dry sand dominated the landscape, interrupted intermittently by small shrubs and cacti. The light on the horizon I had seen earlier must've been dusk, because it was gone now and the darkness was unrelenting.

I briefly solidified into my blue self to drink out of a small creek that I had crossed, but I still was paranoid enough to hide as a living shadow again as soon as I left.

I almost panicked when I saw headlights on the horizon.

But then I remembered it had been hours since the military base.

Surely if they were looking for me they would still be looking in the immediate vicinity right? I didn't think they knew about my "get out of jail free" spell. They could still be looking for a physical Luna.

Was this a highway?

I decided to risk being a bit visible and flew upwards. A long line of asphalt carved its way through the desert. Not able to be seen from the ground. Still a fair way in the distance, a semitruck and trailer barreled down the tarmac.

An opportunity!

I pushed myself towards the road as fast as I could manage. If I could get into the trailer, I'd have somewhere to rest for a while.

I dove down towards the moving vehicle as it passed underneath. When I was close enough I hooked what felt like my hooves onto the trailer's door handle, the locking bar looked sufficient to hold onto.

I imagined I looked terrifying, a spectral image of a winged horse with shadows streaming off as I was pulled by the moving trailer.

There was no way these huge trailers were airtight. This one especially now that I was close enough to inspect. This trailer had likely crossed this desert hundreds of times, and was decrepit enough to look like it.

I pulled myself up and streamed my way through one of the many places where the door had warped. When I was fully inside the trailer, I dropped the shadow spell for the first time in hours.

"Phew..." I breathed out in relief. The air in the trailer stank like chemicals, but not too obnoxiously enough for me to abandon this truck and wait for another. But otherwise it was half full of pallets neatly stacked with cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic wrap.

Now certain no one would be listening, I didn't feel bad about responding out loud.

"Section thirteen it and shut up." I grumbled, bending over to see if I could make sense of the shipping label of the nearest pallet. I couldn't, so I ignored them.

"Ughhhh..." I groaned, enjoying being able to talk outloud again.

"Almost as if I had just escaped what actually might've been Area 51 and crossed the desert..." I brushed past the pallets towards the back of the trailer, where it would be difficult to see me if the doors opened.

My wings were really starting to bother me so I sat down and did my best to relearn how to preen.

"If yoo want to tes' 'er patience yoo go righ' ahead" I stated around a mouthful of feathers.

I stopped preening for a moment.

I didn't trust anything it said. And yet...

As strange as it sounded, I didn't want to fight Celestia. In fact I wanted nothing to do with her. She could go on a shark fishing expedition armed with nothing but a string of raw steaks tied around her neck and I still wouldn't care. But knowing her she'd follow me to the ends of the Earth if I said nothing.

I had to tell her to go away and stay away.

And the Other was right. I did have a way to talk to her from an advantageous position.

I thought about what I wanted to say as I sat there, continuing to preen.

Did I want to be mean? Did I want to be pleading?

How much rancor and venom did I want to put into my words?

Or could I just... Ask to be let back into her life?

All too soon, I felt like I had finished taking care of my wings. And with nothing better to do, I laid down on my right side and closed my eyes.

The Dreamscape was dull compared to what I expected. The only stars I could see were very far away. The immediate void was almost barren, with only the faint glow of nebula breaking up the monotony. What the nebula represented I had no idea.

A question for later. For now, I had a task that needed to be dealt with.

I concentrated on my large Alicorn sister, trying to locate her if she was dreaming.

At first nothing happened. She must still have been awake. Goodness knew how her circadian rhythm had been set, or even more unknown was what she was discussing with the upper echelons of the U.S. military.

Never before had I been so bored and yet so hellishly anxious at the same time.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Celestia began to dream.

This was it.

Heeeeere we go!

'cord!
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