Distances worked strangely in the city. Precious few parts of it had been assembled with any sort of a plan. The rest had been built atop older structures, ever growing as the technology to build higher and higher negated the need for demolition. The city had become through the centuries like a catacomb of dead and dying buildings, some repurposed and many forgotten.

Because of this, distances that were physically short were often drawn out to impossible lengths in practice. A distance that might be tens of meters could take hours or even weeks to cross moving through Bridgeport’s chaotic network of roadways and transit systems. The idea of easily moving from one level to another was likewise seen as something of grave difficulty without the correct knowhow, as the systems to do so were sparse and variable.

The individuals hunting for Morgana Twilight Sparkle neglected to take this into consideration. Their search patterns were governed by logic based on faulty assumptions: they assumed that their quarrywould travel on known, identified paths on foot and never get far. Their rigid thought process did not allow them to consider the fact that she might move a very small distance to an area that their orthodoxy considered impossibly far away.

As such, there were no guards or soldiers around when a large air handling vent suddenly shuddered and was pushed outward from within. No one noticed as corner was forced out, and as a pony dropped from it- -followed by another, and another, and finally as the first pony held the gate open a man.

“Goddamn it,” whispered Morgana. She turned to Elrod. “This isn’t far enough.”

“This is as far as we can go.” Elrod pointed downward toward the cracked and oil-stained concrete below. “Any farther down and we hit dioxin contamination.”

“We are immune to dioxin,” noted Forth.

“I’m not!” gasped Twilight, as though the idea of going into contaminated territory was still open for debate.

“Neither am I.” Elrod shook his head. “I never really bothered to learn human history because it’s basically pointless. But I do know what Agent Orange is, and what it would do to me.”

“Wait,” said Twilight. “What’s a human? Is that what those things are called? Is that what you are?”

Elrod looked at her. “I don’t feel comfortable answering that.”

“Well you’re about to get a lot less comfortable,” hissed Morgana. “Because this situation just went to hell through an expressway built into our collective ASS.” She stepped forward down the long alley, shaking her head. “I can’t get back to my office. I can’t get access to any of my equipment. And now the whole world is trying to kill us.”

“Mostly you,” noted Forth.

Morgana took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I can still do this. First off, I can mask your metadata.” She turned toward Forth and Twilight. “I can change it long-term, but that will take me time. As for you…” She looked up at Elrod. “You mentioned that your kind can shapeshift?”

“I don’t recall mentioning that.”

“Never explicitly, but you implied it. How else did you end up looking like Spitzer?” Elrod seemed to think for a moment, but Morgana continued. “You said you took that face because everyone else did. Can you make a different one?”

Elrod thought for a moment more. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “I’ve never tried it. I don’t think any of us have. I guess it might be possible. But I’d have to know the new face really well.”

“Are there any faces you do know?”

“Just yours. And I don’t think that would help.”

“You seriously don’t know any other people?”

“Dealing with people is what got me into this mess. No. I see no need to be social.”

“Well, fuck me.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” said Forth.

“It’s an expression.” Morgana started walking. “Come on. We need to keep moving.”

“To where?” asked Twilight.

“To somewhere that is not here. Unless you have a better plan.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Not yet, no.”

They group of them continued toward the street. The section they had ended up in was relatively depopulated. From the shape of it, the wide streets appeared to have once been dedicated largely to street vendors. If that had been the case, they had long since departed. All that remained were buildings constructed with long overhangs over empty space. Little light came down from the vast but extremely narrow groove between the buildings above, although the atmospheric conditions were humid enough to cause heavy condensation. The roads were soaked, and drips were falling from the buildings above.

“Are there people here?” asked Elrod.

“There are people everywhere,” muttered Morgana. “Mostly in the resblocks that used to be over the shops, up there. Too high to see much though, and probably too high to care.”

As they walked, though, Morgana began to detect a sound in the distance.

“What is that?” asked Elrod.

“It sounds like an engine of some kind,” suggested Twilight.

“It is,” said Morgana, pulling the collar of her coat higher. “Just keep walking and ignore it.”

They tried to do so, but as the sound rumbled toward them it began to slow and finally stopped. Morgana stopped as well, fully expecting Forth to attack whoever it was who was near them. Instead, though, she just saw Forth staring with a quizzical expression.

Morgana followed her gaze and suddenly found herself staring into the face of a pony straddling a motorcycle- -a pony with a leather jacket, a white skirt, and rainbow-colored hair.

“R…Roxanne?”

Roxanne frowned. “Hey.”

“Rainbow Dash!” cried Twilight, jumping with joy.

Roxanne looked at her. “Um…do I know you?”

“What are you doing here?!” demanded Morgana. She looked around quickly. “You can’t be here! Not now!”

“Well,” said Roxanne, leaning over her handle bars, “it’s nice to see you finally feel the same way about me as I do about you.”

“No! Get out, Roxanne! If they see me with you, if they connect me to you- -”

Roxanne’s eyes narrowed. “They’ve already connected me, Morgana. To the whole bar. It’s kind of too late for me not to be involved with this.”

“How are you even here?” asked Forth.

Roxanne’s large violet irises flicked to Forth. “I got a tip that I should go for a ride over here. So I did. And suddenly my day got a whole lot worse.” She sighed and then leaned back. “But I can help. I know a place where you can hide out.”

Morgana’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you helping me?”

“What? Do you think it’s a trap?”

“No. If it was a trap we’d all be dead already. But you hate me.”

“So you noticed. Yeah, I do. But despite how bad you treated me, I did love you once.”

“Element of Loyalty!” cried Twilight. “Element of Loyalty!”

Roxanne rolled her eyes. “Ugh. When you put it like that it sounds so…dorky. But yeah. You might be a cold-hearted bitch, Morgana, but I’m not. I can’t leave you out in the cold when things are this thick. It’s just not in my nature. I’m just that awesome.” She slid forward on her bike. “I can carry one of you on this. The rest of you have to follow somehow.”

“Take her.” Morgana shoved Twilight forward. “It’s stupid to travel in a group anyway. I’ll tack her. Forth will track me. You,” she pointed to Forth. “Go with the starchman.”

“But that will leave you alone and vulnerable.”

“I’ll manage. I need to do some thinking anyway.” Forth continued to stare at her, and Twilight put her arm on the younger pony’s shoulder. “I’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m going to leave you behind.”

“I wouldn’t believe her on that,” mumbled Roxanne. She helped Twilight onto the back of the motorcycle. “You. What did you say your name was?”

“T- -Twilight Sparkle. Is this- -”

“Just hold on to me. Don’t worry, I’m not going to charge you. But if your hooves go low I’ll throw you right off. You have a face that I really, REALLY hate.”

“Um…sorry?”

Roxanne accelerated and elicited a surprised squeal from Twilight. Elrod and Forth looked at each other, and Forth looked to Morgana. Morgana nodded, and the other two left her alone. When they were out of sight, she remained on the wet street, standing just under the alcove were the condensation droplets were beginning to fall harder.

Without a word, she lit a cigarette and adjusted her hat to keep the water off of it. Then Morgana began to walk slowly and alone into the fog and rain.