Rainbow Dash and Flash Magnus set hoof inside Iron Ore Outpost, the giant walls standing proudly around them, as if they were in a giant pen, surrounded by other ponies and buildings. The sheer size of the structure and how it dwarfed the two of them gave them an abnormal feeling. Despite their bravery, the both of them felt their cores rattle as they took their first quiet steps forward.

Taking the time to look around, they could see that the ponies were all wearing what looked like rags. Rags coated with thick clumps of ash and dust, with a few rips and holes here and there. Despite how gnarled and mangled their clothes were, the ponies were still working hard, playing with their children, or shopping for goods at the market. Though the land they stood on was rough and uneven, and faint residues of ash and smoke filled the air, they were all carrying on; as if none of it fazed them in the slightest.

“Well... This was not what I was expecting...” Flash was the first to break the silence between the two of them. “It was just a little door to a bunker a thousand years ago.”

“Well, a thousand years ago is a thousand years ago. Times change, Flash.” Rainbow Dash was more focused on looking around than looking into his eyes. “The generation you came from is long gone. Here in the new Equestria, there’s gonna be a lot of places, ponies, and stuff you’ll never have seen before. And, heck, lots of other ponies are gonna be stunned just from looking at you and the other Pillars. You’re like, the most FAMOUS ponies of all time!”

“Famous? Well... I don’t like to brag much.” Flash gave a lame chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head. “Let’s just say that a lot of ponies knew me back when my batalion was still around.”

“Well, yeah. You fended off ENORMOUS dragons with nothing more than a shield. And it wasn’t even a massive one either. That alone should get ponies talking.” Rainbow Dash playfully slapped Flash’s stomach. “I mean, I’ve done a ton of awesome things in the past, but not even I’ve been able to stop dragons like you have. You should be proud of yourself, Flash.”

“Don’t go comparing feats of heroism, Rainbow Dash. Heck, not even half of the stuff I’ve done compares to what you and your friends were able to do.” He said, slapping her back. “All this stuff about monsters and beasts you battled with nothing but friendship? A whole new world beyond our own? Things that I can only assume are new in this new Equestria. It makes me seem like I’ve gone rusty.”

“Rusty? Doubt it. You’re a great pegasus, Flash. Much faster than some of the other ones I’ve seen flying around Ponyville and Cloudsdale that is." Rainbow Dash just pushed her chest out with pride. "If you could, you could easily whoop the Wonderbolts at both speed and toughness. You did it to those dragons, so I'd say you can handle anything."

"Focus, Rainbow Dash. I know that you're in awe of me, as I am of you and your friends. But pride goes before the fall. And that's why I always put the mission over that." Flash nodded, and pulled his helm off, revealing the rest of his mane to her. "First things first. We should ask around and see what's become of this place. As well as any interesting leads we could look into. After all, the Dragonlands are always full of adventure and action, so I say that it's the perfect stomping ground for me."

"Right. Got it." Rainbow nodded her head as she started to search for the nearest townspony she could find, only for one to walk up to her and examine both her and Flash. "Excuse me, miss? Can you tell us a bit about your... town? Village? I'm sorry, I'm having trouble finding the right word for it."

"It's no town. It's a lifeline for ponies like us, lost and stuck in this cruel world," said the mare, her voice hoarse and raspy. She reached for a small capsule and opened the cap, taking a vigorous drink of water from it. Coughing and clearing her throat, she spoke again. This time, in a much less scratchy voice. "Sorry about that. There's no water springs here in the Dragonlands. There's the sea, but that's far too salty for us to drink and enjoy. And the nearest supply of water is miles away from this place."

"We want to get more water, but the trips are so long." A little filly with a pink coat and yellow bangs waddled out from behind the mare. Her cutie mark hidden behind her cloak. "And often, when ponies try to come back, they get attacked by monsters and lose all the water they gathered."

"So your town's running low on water, is it, little one?" Flash approached the filly and knelt down to her size. "Well, I'm sure that we could find a solution to that. Who runs this place?"

"Yeah. We wanna talk to 'em so we can see about fixing up the water here." Rainbow Dash showed herself to the child. "Nopony should have to have a water shortage; especially not in the Dragonlands." She shuddered, already thinking about the harsh lava flows and volcanoes that plagued this area of the world.

"If you're looking for the mayor, she's currently in her office, handling a lot of papers and requests." The mare pointed towards a much larger building to the rest. Though it was constructed through misaligned bricks and mortar, it was still structurally sound, and had a solid roof of thick metal. "Her name is Twinkling Sky."

"Twinkling Sky. Got it." Flash gave them a quick nod and turned towards the place. "Thank you for your help." And he trotted away, with Rainbow Dash in tow.

"We'll make sure you get some clean water in your bellies pretty soon, everypony," Rainbow said back to the mare and her child. "Don't you worry about it."

Both Rainbow and Flash walked into the building and approached a receptionist pony handling documents. She had silver eyes and a bright blue coat with pink and yellow hair. Though the papers on her stack were small, she was writing at a slow pace. She had to check and recheck the words at regular intervals to make sure that she was working on the right paper and not accidentally making the mistake of having a gardener be put on out of town duties. The sweat on her forehead was minimal, despite the amount of time she was spending focusing on the papers alone.

"Uh... Hi." Rainbow waved at the mare. "We're looking for mayor Twinkling Sky. We're new to the place and we wanna know a bit more about it. As well as do a little bit of work for her too."

"If you're looking for a job on the mayoral team, I'm sorry to say that all the slots have been taken." The mare rolled her eyes upwards and briefly slid her paperwork away, speaking in a monotone voice. "And at the moment, the mayor's been swamped with her own problems ever since she arrived."

"That's why we're here." Flash put his hoof on the counter. "We were going to assist the mayor with a water run that she and her crew were working on, since we heard reports of how it's been running on droplets. That, and I do kinda wanna see how this place grew since the last time I was here." He put his helm back on, getting the mare's eyes to widen almost immediately. "Flash Magnus. Pillar of Bravery, soldier of the Royal Legion. At your service."

"It... It's you!" The mare immediately threw all her work to the side and leapt on to the counter. Her tail wagged back and forth as she looked down at the living legend before her. "I... I can't believe you're alive and well! The Flash Magnus, who held off a horde of dragons with nothing more than a below-average-size shield!"

"Below average?" Flash tilted his head.

"Oh, I've told ALL of your stories to my little ones, and they told all their friends at school, and then they went around to tell everyone else in the village, and now, practically EVERYTHING has been devoted to you!" Her voice was barely recognisable anymore due to the spike in pitch. "The fields, the police, the houses, it's all for you. Still, I can't believe you're actually alive, after a thousand years!" She slipped off of the table and stood on the tips of her hooves as she beamed in his face. "What's your secret? How did you managed to stay alive for so long?"

Both Rainbow and Flash shared glances at each other as they looked into the fangirl mare's eyes. Even in the most barren, inhospitable, and harsh climates, there were still ponies that respected and revered the Pillars of Equestria and their heroic deeds. And though only they knew the real story, they felt like that the both of them would have to share it soon with the rest of the world.

Taking some deep breaths, the receptionist stood back upright. "Okay, I usually don't do this, and it would get me totally fired on other occasions, but just because it's you and you alone, Flash, I'm willing to make an exception." She started to walk down a corridor, making a motion with her hooves for the two pegasi to follow her. "I'm taking you straight to Twinkling Sky. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!"

"Wow. Look at you, getting all the special treatment." Rainbow snickered and jabbed at his shoulder with her own. "Looks like being a part of thousand year-old history gets you everything these days. Meanwhile, just look at me and my friends. All we do is save the world, and then nopony ever thinks that we're special ever again." Rainbow just crossed her arms as she flitted across the corridors. "Even Rarity and Pinkie Pie should be living cushy lives given how many times we've stuck our necks out for the world. But nope! Even after we save the world, everypony just carries on like it never even happened..."

"Maybe you just need to give it another thousand years." Flash just chuckled at Rainbow's mini-rant. "Or try doing something like what we did with the Pony of Shadows and hold whatever new bad guy comes your way in Limbo for that long."

"Yeah." Rainbow's tension was immediately dispelled and replaced with small giggles of her own. "Or maybe we need to have another Tirek-scale fight. That'll get ponies talking again."

"Tirek-scale?" Flash Magnus cocked a brow at Rainbow's comment. "What do you mean by that?"

"Trust me, Flash. You don't wanna know. Tirek makes the Pony of Shadows look like something out of a silly kid's book." Rainbow shuddered, thinking back to the time when he went on his ramapage, siphoning everypony of their strength to feed his own. "Not in how creepy or menacing he looked as a villain, but just for the sheer power. Like, seriously, if he got a hold of you and the other Pillars, not even we'd have been able to beat him. Magic box or no magic box."

All three ponies stepped into the mayor's office, greeted by very familiar sights. More and more paperwork littered a single desk, with a pony frantically typing away at a typewriter. Pounding out word after word with her hooves, often making mistakes in her haste, which lead to the paper being scrapped and replaced with a new one. It was much more papers than what the receptionist had on her plate, but it was also being backed up by the lack of free space Twinkling had on her own desk.

As for Twinkling herself, she was a white unicorn with purple, swirly hair and a cutie mark representing a night sky with many stars shimmering in it. A pair of thin-rimmed glasses lay on her muzzle, and there was much more sweat dribbling down off of her head and body.

"Excuse me? Mayor Twinkling?" Said the receptionist as she took a few steps forward. "I've got some visitors for you. Some ponies that I know you won't say no to."

"Silver Crystal, I don't care how many protesters I get today, I'm still not going to put their requests through until I'm done with all my... other—" Her voice trailed and faded when she saw Rainbow Dash and Flash Magnus standing before her. Her jaw immediately dropped straight onto her desk and she had to physically move it back up to the rest of her head with a hoof. "Is... that... FLASH MAGNUS?!"

"Yes. Yes it is." Silver's smile was just as wide as Twinkling Sky's was. "Look. No silly ponies in cosplay either. He's the real deal." She had to pull and tug at his face, hair, and the rest of his body to prove that he was real.

"Sweet... Celestia... in the skies above." Twinkling pulled herself away from her work and trotted around her desk. She walked up to Flash and placed a hoof on his chest, rubbing it up to his neck and then to his nose. "It's really you. The heroic pony from the Royal Legion who fended off the dragon horde with nothing more than a shield."

"I know! Isn't it amazing?!" Silver's fangirl form returned, as she galloped on the spot, letting out a squeal. "After a thousand years, he's back from wherever he was, back to save us all!"

"Is this how... everyone's going to react to me now?" Flash asked, laying his hooves on the two mares. "Because if it is, then I'm sure that I could get used to it. Given time, that is."

Both of the mare swooned and collapsed to the ground, leaving a bewildered Rainbow Dash to just stare at the both of them as they woozily stood back up and walked Flash to the windows.

"Anyway. I wanted to talk to you, Twinkling Sky." Flash took his helm off and gave it to her. "I heard that your ponies were having trouble getting clean water back to the village, and that there's no proper water springs here in the Dragonlands. Is there anything that me and Rainbow Dash here can do to help?"

"Rainbow Dash? Hey, aren't you that kid who recently joined the Wonderbolts as a full-time flier?" Silver turned towards Rainbow, lifting a brow at her.

"You didn't notice me until now?" Rainbow deadpanned, almost peeved that she had been thrown to the wayside in favour of Flash. "I mean, given how my mane and tail is nothing but rainbows, I thought you'd confused me for somepony else for a moment."

"So not only do we have a legendary hero from a millennium ago coming back to our modern day and age, but we also have a Wonderbolt joining us? This is going to work wonders for us and the townsponies!" Twinkling came over and patted Rainbow on her back. "Ooh, they said that things weren't going to get any better, but now I beg to differ with them. Soon, Iron Ore Outpost will become the greatest—even though it's the first—place to live out here in the Dragonlands!"

"Yeah. An old-timey hero and a modern-day superstar pegasus! The town's going to get so much attention now thanks to your help. Both inside and out!" Silver was jumping around the room, unable to contain herself any longer. "We'll quickly turn this place around and get everypony super-happy, they won't even notice all of the other problems this place has!"

"Problems?" Flash asked, lifting a brow, before frisking all the documents that were left on the table. "I guess you mean this, right?" He placed a hoof at the top of the stack.

"Yeah. The town's been through some... rough times since I became mayor. But, now that's all in the past. With you and Rainbow Dash here, we'll make this whole stack of ink and tedium go away. Forever!" Twinkling's tail was now shaking at the idea of the both of them helping out.

Rainbow Dash and Flash were thinking the exact same thing as they gave each other one last stare. What in the hay happened to this place? And what did we get into this time?