I turned away from the city and began to walk back to the shack. Even from a distance, I could see that nopony had been idle in my short absence. The girls appeared to be eating some food rations brought along with the other supplies. By their sides, saddlebags rested, ready to take places on their backs. One more lay forlornly on the ground; it was waiting for me, no doubt. Trixie and Dash were quietly arguing about something over the map projected from Rainbow’s helmet.

As I came closer to the girls they gave me wary glances, but said nothing and returned to their meal. Judging by the lack of joy on their faces, those rations were supposed to only nourish – tasting good wasn’t an option.

I approached Trixie and Rainbow. While Trixie gave me a short neutral look, even a little sympathetic, Rainbow gave me a long hard stare, though I had trouble reading her expression.

“By my estimation we can reach the Badlands in a week. We are going to take a rest at midday and another at night,” Rainbow stated, pointing with her hoof at the map, where a glowing line marked our route on the translucent landscape of Equestria.

“I’m not sure the others will be able to keep up with that pace, Dash,” Trixie objected as soon as Rainbow finished.

She had a point: we were about to cross half of Equestria and reach its southern border. I glanced at the girls, who met my glance with questioning expressions but continued to silently munch on their food otherwise. I suspected they didn’t really have an idea of how much ground we had to cover.

“They are Edge kids, and that Moth is a pegasus, they have more than enough endurance for that mission,” Rainbow retorted, though she didn’t sound so sure. Covering that distance in one week on hoof with saddlebags full of rations required no less than a military marching speed.

“Rainbow,” I began, “I’m not really sure–” But she didn’t let me finish.

“Listen, I’m not saying we absolutely have to meet that goal, alright?” Rainbow’s expression softened. “We will proceed as fast as we can, but I’m not going to run us into the ground. I just want us to get there as soon as possible. We have enough food for more than a week from what the Crown supplied us, and Trixie fetched some from her contact here.”

“After I got the blueprint, I swung by Scuff Gear’s place.” Trixie made a sound somewhere between a gag and a chuckle. “Just as disgusting as ever, but he shared some canned goods. It will give us a few more days.”

That explained the sack Trixie brought with her. However, it made me think about any other sources of help we could appeal to.

“Why doesn’t the Crown help us?” If I had no other choice but to serve the Swarm’s goals, they could at least make it easier. “We could use some kind of a ride.”

Rainbow scowled and shook her head.

“If it’s spotted by the TCE, and I’m sure it will be, they won’t leave us alone. I’m not eager to find out if they have more than just prototypes of that coilgun,” she grimly explained.

I turned to the girls once again. They had finished eating and were exchanging nervous glances. Maybe they were beginning to understand what they had gotten themselves into; I was pretty sure Delight was already regretting the life decisions which led her into this mess.

Rainbow and Trixie hauled their saddlebags on their backs. A few moments later, the girls followed their example. I walked to mine as well. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected, though it was twice as big as those of the fillies or Delight. I guess it wasn’t its weight, but rather my perception and the strength granted by my pneumatic limbs.

As I shifted the supplies on my back and sides, trying to position the voluminous bags so they wouldn’t hinder my movement too much, Rainbow Dash approached Flower and Wire.

“Hey, kids, since you know the Junkyard the best, can you lead us out of it?” she asked, trying to sound as polite as she could.

Despite arguing about Rainbow’s ‘coolness’ just yesterday, there was a noticeable hint of apprehension in Flower’s eyes. Wire still glared daggers at Rainbow. Receiving a meal from the Crown had weakened her enmity, but not by much.

I met Flower’s eyes and gave her a nod.

“Yup, we can do this,” she finally answered. “Where do you want us to end up?”

“Right between the Abandoned Mines and the Junkyard – there is a direct route from there to the old roads.”

Flower nodded to Rainbow and nudged Wire’s shoulder, and together they trotted away from the shack into the narrow paths amongst the heaps of metal scrap.

Silently, we waded through the labyrinthine desolate landscape of the Junkyard. Flower and Wire led the way while Trixie and I followed them in a row, occasionally joined by Delight – when she could, she soared from one hill to another. Her injured wing prevented her from actively flying, unlike Rainbow who circled above us.

At some point we passed not so far from the smelter. I noted how, despite filling the air with smoke and heat, it stood still – the furnaces burned fiercely, but their hunger was denied. Pepper Mercury was dead, but the sector had yet to return to what it once was. If it ever would, of course. The things I heard during our visit to the Well spoke of change coming, though it was uncertain if it would be for the better.

We trotted for another hour, too busy evading protrusions of metal which posed a considerable threat even in bright daylight. Despite my best efforts, I already had a few deep marks left by the rusty claws and even more places where my already peeling paint was scraped off clean. However, it was no problem for the fillies. Their smaller size combined with the experience of an entire life spent in this place were serving them well.

So it was a bit of a surprise when Flower suddenly stopped like she was yanked by something. She turned around with a frown and squinted. Then she headed to the mound of scrap some steps back. Even more surprising was when she began to dig into it, using her metal hoof to shovel the rusty remains aside and her other hoof and mouth to throw them behind her shoulder.

Wire gave her a skeptic look for a few moments, but then her healthy eye went wide and she started to use her magic to help Flower remove the debris.

Trixie and I, confused as ever, approached them and soon we were joined by Del and Rainbow who landed behind us.

“Flower, what are you doing?” I asked, trying to look over her shoulder and see what she was searching for in that heap of scrap, but saw nothing of value – not to me at least.

“I’ve found something…” she huffed and puffed as she tried to haul away a particularly large piece of metal – a girder. Even with the help of Wire’s magic it was too much for two fillies. I wrapped my telekinesis field around its end and dragged it aside. That became a signal for the others, who joined the fillies in dismantling the pile of metal junk. Rainbow and, to my surprise, Trixie used their hooves powered by cybernetics to shove and push the scrap from the heap, while Del and I moved it aside to free the room.

After a few minutes, the top of the mound was removed, and I saw our goal: the relatively well preserved remains of a cart! I would have never noticed it there, so deep inside it was buried, but it appeared it wasn’t an issue for Flower.

Another dozen metal remains were thrown aside, and joining our forces, we pulled out the carriage.

The wagon design was very simple, basically a metal box on wheels. Since it was entirely made of metal and didn’t have any kind of seats or even their remains, it suggested that the cart was purely utilitarian in purpose and not supposed to be a means for transportation of ponies but only materials. Its hull was generously perforated by time and rain, but still held together strong enough. The wheels were worn and slightly rusty, but they managed to move with a loud groaning. Flower and Rainbow were already half-hidden by its bottom side checking on the axis and other inner workings. Soon they emerged, both beaming wide.

“Well, isn’t that a Hearth’s Warming miracle – a working cart!” Rainbow joyously exclaimed, dusting flakes of rust from her armored hooves.

“What’s ‘Hearth’s Warming’?” Flower scrunched her nose in confusion, taking Rainbow by surprise and making me wonder if Tin Flower didn’t know about it because she was born at the Edge or because that holiday was no longer celebrated.

“It must be from the Abandoned Mines, the TCE just dumped most of the stuff there after they were done with them,” Trixie commented, rescuing Rainbow from this awkward moment.

“Anyhow, with it we can save a lot of time and make it even faster than in a week.” Rainbow was quite eager to change the topic. And as she said that, I critically examined the cart again. It could certainly help us; however, there was one important question...

“Fair point, but who is gonna haul it?” Trixie beat me to it.

“You and Twi. I will be checking our path from the air.”

Trixie pursed her lips – it was obvious she wasn’t eager to act as a beast of burden. And a body mostly made of arcanium must be a bit too valuable for such things. Though, she did remain silent as Rainbow explained, “It has a harness only for two and it will surely break if we try to haul any of your metal asses anyway.”

I had nothing against pulling the cart, not when my body felt no fatigue, and Rainbow was also making a lot of sense. While she certainly could take Trixie’s place in the harness, that would leave Trixie just galloping along with us. Same would go for me if I were to not pull the cart. Delight wasn’t the kind of pony who would be very effective in doing such a job, despite Rainbow’s reassurances. Flower and Wire were out of the question, obviously.

Anyhow, now wasn’t the time to use it. With all the metal scrap in our way we would spend way too much time tearing the cart’s bulk through it. So I was left with only one option: I levitated the carriage above us. It was quite heavy, but considering how the metal junk began to thin out, we likely weren’t very far away from the Edge’s end, so I wouldn’t exert myself too much. Suddenly, I felt it become lighter in my hold, and as I raised my head to the sky, I saw Rainbow Dash holding the wagon by its corner with her hooves and smiling at me. I smiled back.

“Let’s get out of here, already,” she shouted to the girls, “I’m sick of all that rust.”

“You don’t say,” Red Wire grumbled loudly, and with Flower she began to weave our path between the metal refuse once again.

As we trotted, our surroundings started to gradually change. The hills of discarded and twisted metal remains began to lose in their height and eventually they became nothing but uneven patches atop the dirt, so decrepit that barely any scrap had any distinguishable form – they were just reddish-brown flakes now. On our right I could see peaks of the ridge becoming less and less prominent and yet closer to us. And on our left in the distance I could make out the charred wound in the earth that was the Toxic Dump.

After some more time, the surface we walked on became even enough for a cart, so I tugged on it, giving Rainbow a hint to let it go and lowered the humble transport to the ground. There was a moment of indecision which I spent looking Trixie squarely in the eyes. She grimaced, rolled hers, and together we approached the carriage to discard our saddlebags into it.

We began to fumble with the harness, or rather, it was mostly me – once again I noticed that Trixie was either avoiding using telekinesis or completely incapable of it. Meanwhile the girls climbed into the cart and were patiently waiting for us to finish. At some point a loud bang signified the moment Rainbow decided to drop her saddlebags in the wagon as well.

Finally, it seemed we were ready to embark; however, one more question remained. Before us, a vast sea of withered grass stretched away, desolate and depressing. Nothing else could be seen. In a moment, Rainbow landed in front of us with the map almost instantly being projected from her helmet.

“We should head that way,” -she pointed with her hoof to the distant horizon and slightly to the right- “there should be a bridge over the river,” she explained, using the same hoof to trace our route to the river.

“Should?” Trixie frowned. I couldn’t help but join her – the Black River’s torrent, originating from Mount Diamond Point then strengthened and made wild by the Everfree, was no joke. Of course Rainbow could carry us over it, but that would mean losing our cart, and I didn’t know the exact toll it would take on the energy reserves of Rainbow’s suit.

“Our scouts haven’t flown south for a while, so we don’t know for sure.” Rainbow paused and squinted at the horizon where our passage should be waiting for us. “Even if it’s not there, the river is the most narrow in that place, we have to cross it anyhow,” she finished resolutely.

With that, Rainbow rocketed to the sky leaving Trixie and me looking at each other. Without any word she began to slowly walk, and I followed suit. After a few steps she started to speed up until we reached a pace and continued to gain velocity for a few more moments.

The grassy plain was flat enough for the carriage not to jump on hillocks or dents at the speed we achieved, and luckily the cart’s suspension was functioning well enough to compensate for any other roughnesses of the earth.

I briefly glanced back and caught the sight of Flower and Wire looking around with eyes full of constrained curiosity. The scenery wasn’t very impressive, though it was still novel for them and likely a significant difference for somepony who spent her entire life amid deteriorating metal. Delight, however, was wistfully looking at the clouds.

I turned back to pay attention to the path but only a few moments passed before I heard unsteady flapping of wings behind me and a shadow passed over, soon followed by a white figure bolting towards the heavens – it seemed Del wasn’t able to resist their call. She dipped momentarily, making me tense up, but then continued to gain height steadily.

I returned to watching carefully where I was putting my hooves, but I could still see how she unsuccessfully tried to race Rainbow across the sky. Though I wasn’t a pegasus, I could understand her – the city was confined more than anything else and even the skies above it were cramped either with obstacles or with other countless fliers.

Hours passed.

Trixie and I were still steadily pacing across the monotonous landscape of the semi-dead plain, however, sometimes I could see a silver stripe of the Black River gleaming in the far distance, but I couldn’t make out the bridge – I hoped that it was simply too far.

We left the curtain of clouds, a skein from which pegasi wove storms to assault the Thunderspires, and the sky above our heads cleared, giving way to the warming rays of the sun. It was very welcome, not by me of course (I cared not for the cold or warmth anymore) but I could tell that the air had become noticeably more chilly since we left the outskirts of the city. So Flower and Wire made a bed from saddlebags on the sunny side of the cart and were dozing off there, bored by the dull scenery a long time ago.

Delight spent all the time spiralling in the sky, soaring high above us on outstretched wings, and she didn’t seem to be heading back to the earth any time soon. Rainbow was yet to touch the ground as well; however, her flight was very different from Del’s lazy sailing on the winds. Rainbow was racing across the firmament so close to the clouds she was sometimes disappearing in them, keeping a steady speed and making wide circles, observing the plain below and the path ahead. Sometimes she flew right above us barking an instruction to change our course a bit to the left or right, but those occasions were few and far between.

Not so long ago she had suddenly dived and headed towards the river, so now I was awaiting her return – she must have decided to check the place where the bridge ‘should’ be.

I wish I could say I did some thinking over those hours of travelling, but in fact focusing on keeping constant speed and avoiding tripping over my hooves was taking much more attention than I expected. The other reason for my unproductivity on that front was the fact I didn’t have the information to develop any thought I had without delving into the area of pure speculation. ‘Nightmare’ Princess Luna was a mystery to me just like Queen Chrysalis in her current state, which I was suspecting had to be somewhat different from the monster she was when I met her for the first and last time. So I had those semi-coherent fragments circulating in my mind like a skipping record, useless and annoying. With the scenery being the same, save for the different kinds of wilted grass periodically appearing under my hooves, I sunk into a state of trance. This was why it took some time before I realized Rainbow Dash had landed beside the cart and was barking my name at me as she cantered along.

“Twi, slow down, damn it!” Trixie yelled right into my ‘ear’.

I heeded her call and decelerated into a measured trot.

“Huh?” I swirled my head around, almost catching my hoof. “Is something wrong?”

“Not quite,” Rainbow grumbled, obviously annoyed by my lack of attention, then she cleared her throat and added in a more neutral and loud voice, “We are nearing the bridge and I have some good and bad news to report.”

I wanted to flick my ear in response, but realized it wasn’t an option for me. Nodding would go unnoticed just as well, since my gait already required moving my head. Anyway, while I was trying to figure out the way to answer Rainbow non-verbally she took my silence as a sign to continue.

“The good news: it is intact. The bad news – it seems we’ve got a case of squatters.”

Well, the fact that the bridge still stood fast was some great news indeed. The second part, though… I had some trouble gauging how bad that news could be.

“What should we do?” I asked Rainbow who was cantering by my side squinting at the distance where the bridge presumably awaited us.

“Nothing,” she said after a few long moments of silence. “They aren’t the Butterflies, so they aren’t likely to attack us on sight and will let us through.” She paused and somewhat menacingly and grimly added, “They will have to.”

Then she shot upwards, leaving me to contemplate on her last words. I definitely didn’t want some kind of fight to ensue, but we had to cross the river and keep the cart as well. It was past afternoon already, but without the cart we would have been lucky to reach the bridge by sunset and not be almost dead from exhaustion.

With Rainbow returned to the sky we had no need to keep it slow, so we sped again to pace and continued at it. And soon enough we reached an incline leading towards the river itself.

The Black River sparkled, reflecting the azure sky and the blazing sun, however, there was noticeable darkness to it. Something in the Everfree forest made the waters that way, churning with the twisted soil of the somber wilderness. Above those tenebrous depths I could see an equally dark bridge, made so by the dingy makeshift buildings covering it. Whoever had built them surely wasn’t a master architect; the entire settlement perched atop the bridge arc seemed to be ready to collapse into itself, holding together by some miracle – it was obvious even from such a great distance.

When we were somewhere around twenty minutes away from the bridge, Rainbow landed near us again and instructed us to slow down, taking the lead of our procession. I didn’t miss that the guns mounted on her shoulders came to life.

Delight had landed in the cart, and I could hear the quiet murmur of hushed conversation behind my back. Though the exact words evaded me, the intonation didn’t – concern and unsurety held reign. As we got even closer to the bridge, that mood only grew in power, and there was a very good reason for that.

The pass of the bridge was obstructed by a wall which looked like it was made from metal scrap hauled all the way from the Junkyard – rusty and falling apart. Uneven and skewed gates were the only way through. On a rickety catwalk on top of them, half a dozen hunched equine figures bristled with gun barrels.

They seemed to quiver; it was hard to say for sure from such a great distance, and whether it was from the cold wind wailing over the tumultuous waters or from fear was even harder to guess.

I heard a rustle behind my back. As I slightly turned my head – I didn’t want to let the ponies with guns out of my sight – I saw the fillies moving the saddlebags under Del’s command to make an improvised barricade along the front board of the carriage.

When we were close enough so I could almost make out the facial features of the ponies on the gate, Rainbow gave us a single wave of her hoof, signaling to stop, while she continued to advance forward.

The squatters looked clearly terrified by Rainbow’s approach and aimed the barrels at her form, however, she didn’t pause nor slow down, only stopping when she was halfway between our cart and the gates.

“Lower your weapons, citizens, assault on the Crown is a capital offense punishable by death,” she boomed in a commanding harsh voice, something I had never heard from her before (except for the case when she was shouting at Flower). The most unsettling thing was how perfectly that tone suited her and that I couldn’t tell if it was amplified by her helmet or it was that thunderous and menacing naturally. The fact that she appeared to be a heartless bringer of the law ready to dispense justice without a hint of hesitation would have sent chills down my spine.

“We left your cursed city, we are citizens no more!” one of the ponies, a stallion, desperately cried from the gates, pointing to his neck where I could see a badly healed burn.

“As long as you are on Equestrian land, you are to abide by the Crown’s law,” Rainbow stated emotionlessly, but her next words carried with themselves a not so subtle tone of threat, “Lower your weapons. Now.”

However, it had no effect on the squatters perched atop the gateway – if anything it seemed to only bolster them.

“What difference will it make? You came for our village anyway,” another settler, a mare this time, yelled.

I couldn’t help but wince from the pure despair in their voices. Those ponies were inclined to fight to the death and they knew the futility of their goal.

“Your illegal settlement is not our interest, we are going to pass through.” This time Rainbow’s voice wasn’t as intimidating, though still far from sympathetic. “A reminder – obstruction of justice is a major criminal offense. However, cooperation with the Crown won’t go unnoticed either.”

That finally had a somewhat positive effect on the ponies guarding the gates. They huddled together even closer than before and spent about a minute discussing, or rather, arguing about something judging by the hooves frequently thrown into the air and the angry voices carried on the wind. Then they suddenly disappeared from the gates and a few moments later the half-doors swung open with a loud creak.

Rainbow turned from them and cantered towards us, starting to speak and motion with her hoof to follow her as soon as she was within earshot.

“Alright, let’s just go through this settlement real quick before they decide to change their minds.” Although I couldn’t say Rainbow looked nervous, she certainly appeared ready for events to go bad, which wasn’t very reassuring.

“Um, Miss Dash?” Tin Flower’s timid voice suddenly came from the wagon as Trixie and I began to move.

“Hm?” Rainbow turned and paused in her trot towards the bridge, letting us catch up with her.

“We have to stop – I’d like to check Twilight's joints, I don’t like the scraping sound they make. And I’m pretty sure the axis of the cart needs another look too.” I winced inwardly – I noticed it more than once and long before Flower did, but forgot to take care of that issue when I had the chance. My knowledge regarding cybernetics might have been very outdated, but I was pretty sure the fact that ungreased metal parts would wear down, or even break, didn’t change no matter how many years had passed. At best we covered only one quarter of the distance to the Badlands, and at such a rate it would be my hooves which would fall apart before the carriage did.

Rainbow hesitated for a moment, but when it became clear to her that we had no choice she grimaced and gave her grudging answer: “Fine, but make it quick.”

It didn’t take us long to reach the gates – we moved hurriedly, following Rainbow’s advice and worried by the settlers’ inhospitality. On the inside, the settlement met us with its miserable appearance: one-story huts made of driftwood and rusted metal plates heavily perforated by the constantly high humidity. Aside from the movement and gleam of fearful eyes inside those dwellings, the only ponies who could be seen were the seven who were guarding the gates. They were standing and sitting in a small group, two unicorn and earth pony mares along with three earth pony stallions. All of them wearing dirty rags, clutching improvised guns in their hooves and glaring at us.

We stopped in the middle of the settlement, and I began to remove the harness from myself with Trixie soon following suit, mumbling something about scratches and polishing. Meanwhile Rainbow headed towards the gate guards. I saw how one of the earth ponies began to raise her gun with shaking hooves, but it was slapped down by an elderly stallion whose features were discolored by age.

“What else do you want from us?” he grumbled, fearlessly staring at Rainbow’s face.

“A repair kit and machine oil,” she demanded in a nonchalant and quite unceremonious manner making the entire group harden their glares at her. However, they remained silent, and the elderly stallion disappeared into one of the shacks only to return a few moments later with a rusty metal can and a bundle of greasy cloth, rattling with tools wrapped in it. He threw them on the ground in front of Rainbow Dash and hobbled away to the railing of the bridge, leaning on it and turning his gaze towards the horizon.

I knew, or rather, I really hoped that Rainbow didn’t mean to be that cold and was just acting like this to maintain the face of the Crown as an absolute law (which I didn’t like at all, to be honest). Anyway, I felt bad for those ponies and that elderly stallion in particular. I could very well understand their desire to flee from Canterlot and live their lives free from the predatory ways of the merciless city. So, after freeing myself from the harness, I left Tin Flower to take care of the carriage first and headed towards the grey-maned stallion.

I planned to excuse Rainbow’s attitude and explain in vague terms our situation and the circumstances making us act a bit harsher than we should have, but as I came closer to the stallion, he spoke first.

“Roped yer poor accursed machine kind into that, too, didn’t they?”

I was taken a bit aback with that question, mostly because I couldn’t discern the stallion’s feelings toward me – he sounded both sympathetic and mocking at the same time, resentful even.

“I’m sorry?” was all I could say, trying not to jump to any premature conclusions.

“Ain’t your fault, bucket, don’tcha take it personally, you didn’t do nuffin wrong,” the stallion bitterly grunted leaning from the rail to look me square in the eyes – with pity usually reserved for somepony who couldn’t be helped. “Twas’ ‘em who shouldn’t make sumthing like ya.”

I frowned. Was I facing a pony who was the opposite of Alnico Sermon? Disliking the equinoids just for what they were? But there was something more to it, something more complex… He didn’t hate me after all, but rather ‘them’. The Crown? The TCE?

“Why?”

The elder snorted and spat into the river before answering, “Making new life is fer the gods, not fer ponies,” the stallion ranted, coughing and scowling at both his failing throat and the things he was saying, “And we are gonna pay fer that, like ‘em Neighponese cock-horns did fer their folly – those damn winters will undo Equestria.”

What did Neighponia do? Was it equinoids of their own who brought their small nation to ruin, forcing them to flee to Equestria which they had considered, if not a rival, certainly not an ally for many centuries? Though it was not the mysterious tribe of unicorns and their grim fate that troubled me the most right now – this stallion’s fatalistic resignation to defeat and bitterness did.

“Don’t you think it’s too early to give up?” I could agree that climate change was one of the biggest threats the remains of Equestria were facing, but it was far from over; ponies had survived the Exodus after all. “Ponydom has gone through many hardships before and…”

“Nah,” the stallion cut me off. “When the cold winds begin to blow from the north I can feel it in my bones, the inky darkness seepin’ from ‘em right into my mind and whispering to me the truths.” I wish I could see insanity in the stallion eyes as he spoke, but he seemed to be quite lucid and serious, “We’ve betrayed our land and it rejects us now fer our insolence, tinhead. But what would you know...”

The elder stallion scoffed and turned away from me, turning his gaze towards the distant place where the sky meets the earth, as if waiting for the future he was foretelling to appear there. I was preparing to leave as he fell silent for more than a minute, but then he suddenly spoke again.

“We were meant to fall,” he sighed for the first time letting sorrow be heard in his rasping voice instead of vitriol. “Everything has to come to an end – now it’s our time, though I know it’s a thought such a hollow thing as you can’t ever comprehend with that bucket of yours.”

The frown returned to my face. I was aware he couldn’t possibly know that I was not really an equinoid, but his condescendence still nagged at my mind. He didn’t see equinoids as tools like they were treated by the law, but he seemed to consider the artificial life as something inferior nonetheless – unnatural beings of lesser minds, lacking awareness of how the world worked and failing to understand the idea of finality due to their quasi-immortality.

“Then why are you here?” He was making little sense – he and the other settlers came through a lot of trouble and were living at the risk of prosecution despite considering the entirety of ponydom doomed. “Why run?”

“I don’t run from my fate,” the stallion bristled, “I just want to spend my last days in peace, you metal fuck,” he scolded me like a foal who was asking silly questions, giving me an irked sidelong look. “Leave me, machine, go with your cretin masters, where you belong. Meet our fate with ‘em.”

I stood near the elder for a few more seconds, not really sure if I expected him to say more or if I wanted to say something myself. Realizing that he was not going to change his mind, nor were there any last words to have after the things he just told me, I left.

Disturbed and distressed, I approached our wagon. Tin Flower was nowhere to be seen, but judging by the grunting and the quiet curses coming from under the carriage, it was her who worked on its innards. Trixie stood with an utterly bored expression, holding the cart with her hoof to prevent it from falling – one of the wheels had been removed. Del and Wire were sitting not so far away, their heads leaned to each other in a private, inaudible conversation. And finally, Rainbow Dash stood like a statue with her head held high, guarding the cart.

As I came closer and sat down to watch them, Tin Flower began to bark something from under the carriage’s bottom, and after a few moments Wire dragged her out by the hoof with her magic, accompanying the whole motion with a roll of her eyes.

“Well,” she mumbled, wiping her grease-covered hooves on her coat, “The chassis isn’t in the best shape, but it will hold together for a little while longer.” Her eyes fell on me. “Let’s take a look at you now, Twilight.”

Since Flower was already standing by me, she wasted no time and began to use a screwdriver somewhere near my shoulder. Suddenly I started to fall down – Flower had removed my entire front right leg! Fortunately, Del was quick enough to catch me mid-fall, and with her help I steadied myself. Meanwhile, Flower, oblivious to my discomfort, was twirling my limb in her hooves, deftly removing plating until only the metal skeleton twined in cables and tubes could be seen.

“Your joints aren’t grinded off too bad…” she trailed off with her verdict, probing and scraping something unseen to me in the heart of the mechanism, “but not from the lack of trying – say thanks to all that old metal,” she finally concluded.

Flower proceed to silently clean the joints, removing grit and grease mixed together in blackish tar-like mass, which she was wiping off on her coat until I reprimanded her. After that, she applied some oil using the can borrowed from the squatters and assembled my limb back before reconnecting it to my body.

“Something’s weird about this place,” Delight suddenly whispered into my ear. After she helped me back to my hooves she continued to stay by my side, assisting me in staying upright.

I knew exactly what was wrong, but the question was how did Del notice it? I spoke with one of the settlers, but she was seeing something, maybe not even related to the bitterness and fatalism ruling the minds of the local dwellers. So I looked around trying to notice something I had missed before.

Makeshift houses, everything old and worn out… lots of nets and other fishing gear… but they lived above the river so it wasn’t so strange. Though eating fish wasn’t common to pony diet, it didn’t strike me as something out of place – there wasn’t much vegetation around, after all. I tried to make out the silhouettes hiding in the shadows and after some time the realization struck me.

“There are no pegasi…” I whispered back.

“No, it’s not that,” Del objected with a frown. “It makes perfect sense, actually…”

“They are working for the Butterflies,” Rainbow Dash said grimly, making me and Del gasp despite the quietness of her words as she took us by surprise. I still couldn’t fathom how she managed to move so silently in her armored suit.

“How do you know?” I asked, listing all I just had seen in my mind and trying to logically connect any of it to the group of terrorists.

“No tech,” Rainbow began, and I instantly reprimanded myself for missing it – there was not a single electronic device in sight, no prosthetics either. “Way too much fishing gear and barrels for such a small settlement,” she continued, “and they somehow manage to survive winters while being within reach of the Everfree.”

“Does that mean we’re trapped, then?” Red Wire joined the conversation with an alarmed voice, her eye wide from concern. Now that she said that, I couldn't help but feel fear rising inside me.

“Negative.” Rainbow shook her head, glaring back at the eyes sparkling from the shadows, making them retract deeper. “They seem to be just left alone in return for food, nothing more to that aside from any technology forbidden, though I doubt they had much of it to begin with.”

Rainbow’s response dispeled our collective worries about our hosts, and the conversation was effectively snuffed out. Wire began to help Flower by passing her my plating and the oil can with her magic, speeding up the process. Trixie appeared to have missed our entire exchange, as she went into some kind of melancholic trance some time ago. All of a sudden she came to life, perking up and looking around, as if woken up by me focusing on her. However, it wasn’t me who got her attention, but Dash.

“Rainbow, ask them about Dodge City,” Trixie mumbled groggily, still affected by her daydreaming, her body and the wagon she was holding shuddering from a mighty yawn.

“It’s most likely gone, I told you,” Rainbow snapped back with unexpected annoyance.

“Asking costs nothing,” came Trixie’s snarky retort.

Dumbfounded, I shifted my gaze between them – I was obviously missing something.

“What’s all that about?” I asked Trixie who was closer to me and now busy glaring daggers at the back of Rainbow’s head. Judging by her strained posture she either was somehow aware of that or expected the conversation to go on.

“Our route goes through Dodge City and we have a bit of a disagreement on its fate,” she explained, her voice bearing the same caustic quality. Now I remembered Rainbow and Trixie arguing when I came back following my tantrum right before the journey.

“It’s gone like any other settlement to the south, the Butterflies took care of that long ago,” Rainbow turned her head back and commented in the same irked and yet tired tone, as if she were exhausted from stating her point over and over.

Now that I thought of it, we indeed had to pass Dodge City, though I had completely forgotten about its existence. It was a very small town, created as a working base for building a vast branch of railroads connecting southern Equestria; however, that plan came to a screeching halt when it became obvious that the Hayseed Swamps were much more of a problem than they seemed at first. Trixie said that all of the major cities in Equestria had been destroyed, but Dodge City certainly wasn’t major. Stuck in the middle of a desert and far away from any other cities, it was heavily reliant on support from the capital – did she think it could actually survive alone?

“Well, what would you call where we are now?” Trixie inquired with flat out sarcasm as she motioned with her hoof around, presenting the entire settlement we were in as proof of Rainbow’s error.

Anger flared in Rainbow’s eyes and she pursed her lips, squinting at Trixie. She then turned away and made a sound, something in between a sigh and growl.

“Hey, old guy,” Rainbow called, addressing the elderly stallion shuffling across the bridge to one of the huts. Though her tone was level, that form of address still sounded rather impolite and disrespectful.

“What do ya want now?” the elder croaked and after spitting on the ground added in a quiet, but still discernible, grouchy voice, “I hope ya ain’t gonna ask to stay fer the night, cos we ain’t have no food fer ya lot – ya seem to have more than enough yerselves.”

Rainbow's face once again become a dispassionate mask of sternness.

“Tell me about the territory south of the bridge,” she ordered, completely ignoring any of his words.

“What,” jeered the old stallion with a scoff, “don’t ya have a fancy map telling ya this?”

Despite the clear taunt in his words, Rainbow’s expression remained unwavering.

“I asked you a question, citizen,” she stated in that clear and slightly menacing commanding tone.

“There ain’t nothing,” the elder barked, with another spit on the bridge.

“What about the city?” Though Rainbow was doing a formidable job maintaining the perfect picture of a cool-headed officer of the law, I could hear impatience growing in her voice.

“What city?” the old stallion asked in a display of obvious faux puzzlement.

“Dodge City,” Rainbow glowled, “Stop playing dumb.”

“Just ruins – a safe passage to the same nothing,” he sneered with another disgusting snort and spit sequence. “The winters ya fucks brought upon us took it many years ago.”

“You are relieved,” Rainbow barked and turned away.

“Oh thank ya so much yer Excellency,” the elder sassed and bent his knees in a mock bow – maybe it was a good thing Dash already wasn’t looking at him.

Judging by the way she clenched her jaw it took all her force of will to ignore the stallion. Flower finished oiling my limbs and other moving parts somewhere in the middle of that conversation and was already working on putting the wheel back on, much to Trixie’s relief. Del and Wire were busy moving saddlebags back into the cart, from where they were temporarily removed to make Trixie’s job as a lifting jack easier. It appeared we weren’t going to spend more time at this bridge than was necessary, and I couldn’t agree more.

With the wheel taking its place and Flower nodding, signifying the carriage’s readiness, Trixie and I began to harness ourselves back into it.

Our leave was abrupt and silent – Rainbow stood up and began to trot towards the other side of the bridge, leaving me and Trixie not much choice but to follow her. By that moment the girls had taken their places in the wagon and were slightly crouching, as if ready to dive behind the protection of the hull at any moment.

As we walked across the bridge, our procession was met by the hidden yet acutely perceptible glares of the squatters, and we were followed by the gate guards, though they kept quite a distance between us.

The gates, just as decrepit as on the other side, were already thrown open, waiting for us. We passed them and I turned to look back.

My eyes went wide as I saw most likely the entire population standing on the bridge – a mass of dirty and ragged ponies, all without exception glowering at us. And the elder stallion was above them, sitting on the gateway and smirking.

We continued to pace across the plains, the carriage bouncing behind me. Its lamentable creaking and the staccato of my and Trixie’s hooves against the dry earth were the only sounds permeating my hearing. The atmosphere was strained and somber – the impression left by the grim settlement was still fresh on everypony’s minds. Delight even abstained from flying; with her ears pressed to her skull, she was sitting along with the fillies in the cart. I was sure we were far enough from the bridge, but I could still feel their judging glares on my back.

In retrospect it was making sense – I had witnessed just another flavor of madness, ponies broken by this world. I didn’t want to linger on that thought, however. Not only did I find it unpleasant, I also couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something.

As before, there wasn’t much I had to think about, and what I had to weren’t the nicest thoughts either. Once again I went into a trance-like state, where I paid attention only to the ground.

It was hard to say how much time passed, but eventually I began to realize that my shadow had grown in its length considerably and it had also become harder to discern where I was putting my hooves. The veil of the night was slowly approaching from the east horizon.

On one hoof we could continue to travel at night – neither I nor Trixie could tire. On another hoof moonlight most likely wouldn’t be enough – even with the landscape gradually becoming that of the arid southern lands, it was still treacherous if not paid attention. Not to mention that the wagon began to shake more violently as the soil became rocky, making it impossible for our passengers to catch any sleep.

I glanced at Trixie and it appeared she had already been awaiting some decision from me – she readily nodded and we began to slow down, looking for a place to settle. Unfortunately, it seemed we would have to stop right in the middle of an open field with nothing to serve as a cover, and that also meant that there would be no timber to make a fire. With no clouds to keep warmth between them and the ground, the heat given to the earth by the sun was quickly vanishing. As I turned to the girls, I saw their breath come from their mouths in little clouds as the fillies huddled together under Delight's generously offered wings.

With a soft ‘thump’ Rainbow Dash landed beside me, just as wordless as the others. We gave each other a brief look and she silently headed towards her saddlebags, to my, and more importantly the girls’, joy producing a small lamp. It wasn’t as much the promise of light, but the heat which it would emanate during the night which mattered.

Our small company gathered around the weak source of light. The fillies scuttled very close to the gleaming motes dancing inside the glass tube. To make the magical lantern last more than one night, it wasn’t working at full power, producing no more light than a candle, though heating the air much more noticeably. Delight kept a little farther back to allow Flower and Wire more access to the heating device, though judging by the way her feathers were fluffed, the night cold was slowly getting even to her.

As for Trixie, Rainbow and me, we were like sentinels, sitting outside the circle of light. The metal of our unmoving bodies reflected light and shadows as the girls despondently munched on the rations. Now that I could take a look at that food, I understood why it brought no joy to their faces. Discolored dry waffles, paste of a greyish color reminding me of plaster and what I supposed was pressured ‘synth-hay’. The only merit these rations seemed to possess was their ability to fill the stomach for a while and make a pony lose any appetite. And they were probably very cheap to produce.

The nature of the food and the weariness of the journey kept the meal from lasting long, and very soon the girls began to settle in for the night, using the emptied saddlebags as mattresses.

After a short and hushed discussion, it was decided that I would hold watch this night. Rainbow and Trixie spent the previous one awake and needed rest, especially Rainbow. Her suit empowered her immensely, but I doubted it could absolve her body from the common plight of flesh, fatigue – unlike me and Trixie, she was still a living pony under all that metal. I, myself, could stand a couple of nights without sleep, and it would hardly take a noticeable toll on my consciousness. There wasn’t much argument from Rainbow or Trixie on that matter; the latter was openly dozing off at any available occasion, and Rainbow had noticeable bags under her eyes, not to mention the sluggishness of her movements.

The night took full reign over the land, any traces of the sun drowned in the void between the stars. However, it wasn’t pitch black, nor was I alone on my watch – the moon, unhindered by clouds, bathed Equestria in its soft silver glow. I wondered what Princess Luna would think when she found that the Swarm had controlled her celestial body for centuries. How furious she would be. How fast she would kill them.

I was speculating again. It wasn’t a nice thought to admit, but this entire mission was nothing except a shot in the dark and quite literally in one sense. Instead of imagining the ways it could go wrong with Princess Luna, I focused on what I had on my hooves – two ponies from the same time as me, though they barely held any resemblance to those I remembered.

What culled Trixie’s ego? She was part of the Coven, in theory a place where she could fulfill her ambitions. But something had happened, something that was connected to her becoming cursed and losing her body. She didn’t seem to be eager to talk about that, however. I could feel she wasn’t lying to me, the things she told me were making sense, and I was sure that Rainbow – or anypony else who knew about them – could confirm her words. Only, there were things Trixie wasn’t telling me. A lie by omission is still a lie. Knowing all about her life would not only be interesting but also spill light on events not many ponies knew and even fewer could speak about.

But in the end only one question mattered. Why was Trixie doing this? Who was she?

A pony who was owning her misdeeds and seeking redemption?

Or a dark mage, who had yet to reach that dream of hers – to become great and powerful?

I watched her silhouette, a statue of arcanium, absolutely still, even her everflowing face, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to answer that question until it answered itself. I could only hope.

My gaze drifted to Rainbow Dash along with my thoughts. She was resting in the cart’s hull with her helmet-clad head on her hooves. The glass of the visor was lazily blinking with indicators and lines of text too small to discern. That suit cut her off from the world, saved her even from the inevitability of time, but it couldn’t prevent her from changing. And while I had my doubts about Trixie’s motives, I did enjoy the change in her personality. In Rainbow’s case the aggravating quirks were erased by time as well, but I had a great trouble liking her new behaviour – or even recognizing her.

When we met the night before, she was friendly and almost the same Rainbow Dash I remembered, but since our journey began she had started to become more distant and heartless. I only hoped that it was the pressure of the task affecting her and it wasn’t just how she actually was now.

Trixie was a vigilante from what I could tell, but her part was a bit easier – she answered only to herself, she could always choose who to fight. From the sound of it, her choices were pretty much obvious – other dark mages, ancient eldritch spawns of magic unearthed by the excessive curiosity of ponykind…

Rainbow had no such privilege. Her enemy was the city itself, the flaws of ponies.

The Great War had already changed her, blood and fire reforged her into a soldier – a stalwart grim survivor of the Crystal Empire, returning to battlefields time after time to challenge death for the sake of her country. And after she had not just woken up, but been resurrected, much like me, the metamorphosis was complete. It didn’t happen overnight, of course. But I had seen Canterlot, how low had it fallen. Even a decade would be enough to rip out any mercy from even the kindest of hearts.

The Rainbow I witnessed for the last two days scared me with her coldness. But more than fear, I felt pity towards her.

She was a soldier no more. A soldier was somepony who would leave their home to protect it. For her there was no home anymore – only war, and it had no end. War and home merged together into something horrible without name and became her world. And yet I struggled to say what she was now. An angel of blind justice? An embodiment of the law? And what law? The changeling law?

There was only one pony who ever had more righteousness, loyalty and responsibility. We both saw how she was murdered with our own eyes. And now Rainbow was serving the murderer.

Much like with Trixie, there was one question which held importance above all.

How much of Rainbow Dash was left inside that suit of armor?

The moon wasn’t my only companion this silent night. Hundreds of stars shone brilliantly from the darkness, no longer hindered by the blinding light of the never-sleeping Canterlot. It didn’t take me long to notice the subtle changes in the constellations brought by the centuries-long absence of their mistress. However, it wasn’t the unkempt firmament which was making me bitter, but my memories of how I used to stargaze. It was something I had done a lot, and yet it felt appropriate no more, as if it all took place in another life which was mine no longer. Of course, my life belonged to me right now, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t the same life as I thought. So, tortured by melancholy, I spent the rest of the night futilely trying to understand why the twinkling stars failed to pluck my heartstrings.

Rainbow was the first to wake up. She yawned widely, fogging up her visor, and stretched like a cat, making the plates of her armor softly clink. That sound yanked Trixie from the depths of her slumber – with a mechanical jerk she came to life, her liquid face becoming a surreal mass only loosely resembling a muzzle as she couldn’t decide what expression she wanted to show. She settled on the slightly discontent grimace of somepony who didn’t enjoy mornings and desperately needed a cup of coffee.

The clop of metal hooves against stones disturbed the girls’ sleep. They stirred, blinking profusely. Tin Flower wriggled, massaging her back, stiff from sleeping against the lamp, while Red Wire was rubbing her healthy eye. Del’s wing, which the filly used as a blanket, was still draped across her shoulders. Delight herself was the only one yet to stir – she was prostrate on the folded saddlebag, but she had her eyes closed, though the occasional flicks of her ears were signifying that she was already awake, just too lazy to get up.

Rainbow Dash gave them three ration packs and bottles of water from their pile of supplies, and, after some thought, added a can of preserved carrots to the miserable breakfast – it instantly brought smiles to the girls’ faces.

While they were enjoying their meal, spicing the tasteless rations with soggy carrots (it wasn’t much of a treat by itself, but compared to the rations…), I put the rest of the rations back into the bags. Rainbow was beside me, fighting with her own saddlebag, trying to fit the lantern into it with her hooves. And Trixie was already putting herself into the harness in a very unhurried fashion.

The night of rest and an unexpected but still welcome addition to the breakfast lifted spirits quite noticeably. I even heard another of Tin Flower’s horrible and not-so-subtle, yet lighthearted jokes aimed at Delight’s previous occupation and its connection with carrots.

It wasn’t long before the emptied boxes left from the rations found their place in the corner of the carriage and the girls climbed in alongside them, including Delight. Yesterday’s flying session was much more prolonged than she had had in a while, resulting in soreness in her wings. That statement earned a scoff from Rainbow Dash when she heard it, though she abstained from giving any comment and I suspected she wasn’t actually displeased with Del, she was just being her ‘old’ self.

Anyhow, with the girls in the cart ready and chatting quietly, I hurried to fasten myself and continue our journey. We still had a lot of distance to cover and our supplies weren’t limitless, not to mention we also didn’t really have that much time to spare – Canterlot wasn’t going to wait for us on its own journey to Tartarus.

The only two differences from the previous day (not taking into account the generally improved mood) were in the ground and the sky. As I already noted yesterday, the soil had become more rocky – the irrigation provided by the Black River was gone as we ventured far enough from its banks, and without any other sources of water nearby, the dry merciless winds coming from the south were desiccating the ground, carrying any humidity into the empty skies. However, it was the firmament which was different from that of yesterday and also contradicting my knowledge of those lands – it was filled with clouds now. They weren’t cumulus clouds, carrying the promise of rain with them, just a thin layer of half-hearted disordered vapor barely hiding the sun and the bright blueness. It was most likely the remains of a thunderstorm that had strayed over the Everfree, where they gained a will of their own.

One more difference, though hardly major, was that now we were corrected on our path by Rainbow Dash much more often. She was making brief flights ahead, low to the ground, to determine if the path wasn’t too rocky and slightly changing our course if needed. It wasn’t as much about comfort as to be lenient to the old cart and our hooves – both would suffer greatly from prolonged pacing across patches of gravel, not to mention that we would be slowed down as well.

It was when Rainbow was returning from one of her scouting trips that I noticed something was wrong. She was moving much faster than before and the trademark resounding roar of her main turbine could now be heard. As she came closer I saw that the visor of her helmet was obscured with the metal plates. It didn't take me long to realize what it meant: she was ready for combat. Panic flashed through my mind – she was going straight for the wagon, guns on her shoulders coming to life, extending and beginning to glow. I knew I was wrong, I hated myself for thinking it, but I couldn’t stop myself from repeating one sentence in my mind over and over – “She’s after me.”

I couldn’t say why exactly I moved and where I tried to go – it was something between an attempt to turn back and at the same time to leap from Rainbow’s path. As my head and torso were rotating, making the steel of the harness cry in protest, and yanking on Trixie, waking her up from a trance of her own, the sane part of my mind finally understood one thing: there must have been something right behind us. As much as it was possible against the momentum I had already gained, I turned my head back to see what or who Rainbow was about to attack.

But all I saw was a bright flash of light instantly followed by a cacophony of explosions and the girls’ cries.

The blast didn’t hit the cart directly, however it was close enough to send its rear up into the air, pelting the exposed bottom with shrapnel of rock shards torn from the ground. As if in slow motion I watched as the bent hull went higher and higher – the wagon was about to overturn. The girls yelped in terror, trying to hold onto the saddlebags until Delight grabbed them – Tin Flower in her hooves and Wire by the scruff with her teeth – and bolted away from the to-be-wreckage, frantically flapping her wings above my head under the strain of the fillies’ weight. I tried to follow them with my gaze, but I found my body moving on its own – I was still connected to the thill and it was about to slam me into the ground where I would be buried under the heavy metal carcass.

In a momentary panic I blasted the metal pole with all my magical power, since there was absolutely no time to unfasten myself properly. I could only guess how Trixie was dealing with that problem – she was right behind my shoulder, but I couldn’t see her.

I was only partially successful in my goal – I was no longer steadfastly bound to the thill, but I still had some reins loosely connected to it. And it was those which sent me sailing through the air when the metal of the thill twisted and jerked up under the sheer mass of the crashing cart.

Luckily, my forced flight was brief and I wasn’t sent too far or too high. With a loud thud I landed on the hard ground, rolling a couple of times before I stopped, ending up in a tangle of limbs. I had to spend a few seconds regaining my bearings – even though I felt no pain and my head wasn’t spinning, I was still disoriented and had to check if all my legs could move.

I rose to my hooves unsteadily and whipped my head around, trying to find out the fate of my friends. However, assessing the damage was the first thing I could do – the cart was nothing but a heap of scrap metal, our supplies strewn all over the stone around it as they spilled from the saddlebags. Behind the bent and irreparably damaged wagon, the crater blasted into the earth smoldered, a pillar of acrid thick black smoke rising from it.

I gasped in shock. Only now did I notice the gleaming remains half-buried under the twisted hull. Trixie’s body was still bound to the thill and wasn’t moving. The metal from her face slowly dripped onto the cracked ground from a metal pole piercing her skull right between the sparkling eyes bleeding oil.

I took a step toward her body, a muffled sob escaping the speaker in my throat, but before I could begin to break down I noticed movement through the plumes of smoke. It wasn’t the oil bleeding from Trixie’s eyes, but an oily pitch black darkness. It began to coalesce into a coiling shadow darker than the fumes, and a moment later it was soaring across the sky towards where silhouettes flared under the clouds, gunshots filling the air with distant cracks of thunder. Two winged creatures – likely griffins – and Rainbow Dash circled each other, her pelting them with fire. But I couldn’t pay that fight attention right now. I was incredibly happy with the fact that Trixie did survive, more than I imagined I would be. She simply left her body like she had done before. In retrospect, it wasn’t the first one she had lost from her own words, so it was unlikely she could be killed that easily.

However, I was yet to see the girls – I didn’t fear for Rainbow Dash. If the armor she wore was true to my design, even ten times the number of griffons here wouldn’t be a threat to her. As I cast my gaze away from the crash site and to the direction where we were heading, I saw them – Delight driving the fillies towards the nearest hill which could serve as cover. While Wire was galloping to it ahead of her two friends, looking back and encouraging them, Del and Flower lingered behind, due to the latter trying to fight (rather successfully, judging by Del’s pained screams) her way back to the wagon – to me, I realized.

I quickly glanced at the sky one more time – even a few seconds was enough to see that it wasn’t as much a fight happening there but Rainbow chasing the griffins who desperately tried to flee, weakly and futilely lunging at her from time to time. With Trixie closing on them, the battle wouldn’t last long. I had no reason to stay where I was, nor could I help my friends under the clouds (not that they needed my assistance anyway), but if I didn’t want to leave Delight covered in bruises, I had better head to her and the fillies, so Tin Flower’s worry for me would be placated.

As I galloped towards Flower, she finally broke from Delight’s hooves, leaving her clutching her muzzle with a grimace, and ran to meet me. She all but slammed into me, embracing me with her hooves, accidentally hitting my side with her metal leg so hard that my body rang from the impact.

“I thought.. y-you died in there!” she squeezed through her sobs, still pressing herself to my chest.

“I told you she didn’t!” yelled Delight in a nasally voice, who reached me thanks to her wings only a few moments later. She was still clutching her nose, drops of blood falling to the ground from it – on purpose or not, Flower’s metal hoof had found its mark. Though Del didn’t look mad, only concerned and a bit annoyed.

I hugged the crying filly back and turned my head to look at the battle. And just in time – Trixie’s shadowy form finally reached one of the griffins, and in an eldritch display of her power the half-eagle half-lion simply dissolved into dust, which was carried away by the wind in the next second. A few moments later Rainbow’s guns fired for the final time, making me and especially Delight cringe – it tore off one of the remaining griffin’s wings. However, Rainbow didn’t leave the body to fall, she hooked it under the neck and to my horror headed right towards us at a high velocity.

Before I could decide anything, Rainbow sailed over us, and mere moments later the mangled corpse fell from the sky a few paces away. It rolled and tumbled with clearly audible cracks of breaking bones and squelches, smearing blood everywhere and raising clouds of dust until it finally stopped. As I avoided directly looking at it, I saw Delight shrinking back and heaving, trying to keep the contents of her stomach inside. Wire and Flower simply turned away from the sight with grimaces.

With the roar of the turbine winding down, Rainbow soared above our heads, making a couple of circles to slow her speed. She landed near the griffin’s body and I had no choice but to look at it.

I still had no idea how exactly Rainbow’s guns worked, but regardless of their principle they were powerful and extremely deadly. The corpse bore the mark of a single shot, and yet it was enough to disfigure half of the body even before it hit the ground. The projectile came from the side, grazing the griffin’s skull and eventually penetrating the abdomen, leaving a long burned streak in the fur and a charred hole with viscera hanging from it. And it smote off the wing – with a shudder I realized it still faintly smoked. The fall from the sky was the final assault on the griffin’s remains, leaving them a heap of blooded feathers, broken bones and charred flesh; I couldn’t even tell if it was male or female.

Unlike us, Rainbow wasn’t recoiling from the sight – I could see her face absolutely dispassionate through the visor. Her indifference towards the bloodied carcass went even further, as without hesitation she approached it and began to roll it over and tear at it in a gruesome examination. Her search didn’t last long, and she stepped back holding two objects. One I instantly recognized as a metal breastplate, once polished but now covered in grime and bent all over. The other looked like a long narrow plank wrapped in strips of cloth. She held it a strange way and I realized what was happening only when I caught it mid-flight as it was tossed towards me.

I brought the mysterious item closer with my magic and saw that I was holding a scabbard before my eyes. I glanced at Rainbow, wondering why she would give it to me, but she was too busy fumbling with the armor piece which she was studying closely. I looked at the sheath once again. Perplexed, I pulled on the handle and witnessed myself in the perfectly polished sword. I rotated the blade along with the scabbard – I didn’t want to pull it entirely – and saw reflections of Del and Wire behind my back, frowning with the same confusion I felt. Flower had calmed down and was squinting at the weapon from under my chin. I noted that the edge was razor-sharp. It was apparent even by the meager amount of steel visible that it wasn’t much of a sword, but more of a dagger – the blade was considerably narrower than its sheath. My gaze slid towards it again and I realized why Rainbow gave it to me – the weapon didn’t belong to the scabbard and I doubted there was any left that would. An emblem depicting two alicorns, one made of gold and the other of silver (though both quite tarnished even after the obvious attempts to polish it) adorned it – a sign of the ancient era when ‘...there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land...’. There was only one place in Equestria where such relics could be found, and that meant only one thing…

“It was the Pink Butterflies…” I mumbled, stunned by the revelation (though it wasn’t really a very shocking fact when I thought about it).

Rainbow didn’t reply verbally to my guess, but then our eyes met and it became obvious that I was right and she wasn’t happy about it. She turned the dead griffin’s breastplate to me so I could see three butterflies scratched on it and crudely painted with pink – a cruel mockery of Fluttershy’s cutie mark which made me scowl.

“Those fucking squatters must have ratted us out!” yelled Wire a couple of seconds later – commendable thinking on her side. I would have chosen different words, but I could understand her anger very well. It was a miracle nopony ended up hurt. Well… except for Trixie’s body. Remembering her, I turned my head back and saw her shadowy form at the wreckage, quivering on the wind as she sat silently, watching the crater spew plumes of smoke into the sky. I felt an urge to approach and comfort her – I could see she was obviously distraught, with her shoulders and head hanging low – but the conversation I was in had yet to end, it seemed.

“Negative,” Rainbow dryly stated with her eyes still locked on the chestpiece.

“How do you know?” I inquired, aiming to beat Wire to the punch – the filly puffed out her cheeks, the fire in her eye betraying her intent to say what she thought about the settlers in the most colorful of expressions.

At last Rainbow left the corpse and hobbled towards us – the armor was still in her hoof, pressed to her chest.

“Even over the Everfree, the only place where they have any tactical advantage over us, two against one Royal Guard have as much chance as a fart in a windstorm.” She sat and motioned with her free front leg to the sky in a wide arc. “Here – it’s suicide.”

Rainbow paused and gave each of us a glance, but no pony interrupted, allowing her to continue with her explanation.

“My guess is that we were spotted by a random patrol of two rookies who didn’t know better than to attack without assessing the situation first.” She scrunched her nose and continued, “Though, now that I think of it, that fossil at the bridge could have dispatched them after us. Though it seems like he accidentally forgot to tell them about a Royal Guard, effectively sending these trainees to a sure death.”

A heavy silence hung over our company. Neither option was good news, though it was mostly the fact we began with that was most troubling. We weren’t dealing with some random griffin attackers – they had a whole organization behind them.

“What should we do now?” Delight asked in a worried voice, glancing at the corpse and wincing. I briefly wondered if we should bury the remains.

“Nothing different from what we were doing.” Rainbow shrugged and it a swift motion put the breastplate she was holding vertically between her hoof and the ground. “This smoke is too far from the Everfree” -I glanced at the barely discernible dark stripe on the south-west horizon- “to be noticed, and even if it is, we have a couple of hours to clear the combat area.”

“But the Butterfucks will notice them missing, won’t they?” Wire observed as sharp as before, pointing at the griffin’s body.

“Eventually.” Rainbow nodded in apparent approval of the filly’s quick thinking. “We will be too far away by that point.”

I began to open my mouth because that implied one very important question: what were we supposed to do on our way back? But I had no chance to voice it.

“Alright, gather that we have left and proceed with our task – we are burning daylight,” Rainbow barked in a bit too commanding a voice. All the time she spoke she was looking me straight in the eyes with a hard impression – she knew what I wanted to ask and she didn’t want me to, though I could only guess her reasoning. Most probably, with how uncertain and varying the possible results of our expedition could be, she didn’t want to worry about that matter herself and make others worry until we faced it. And, honestly, I couldn’t disagree with her on that.

Grumbling, the girls began to walk toward the crash site while Rainbow lingered behind, still studying the chest piece, contradicting her own words.

“Rainbow, are you coming?” I called to her, taking a step closer – I was starting to become very curious about that armor as well, Rainbow was paying an unusual amount of attention to it.

“Take a look at this.” She extended her leg with the metal piece towards me and I took it in my magic. “See something wrong?”

I twirled it my magic. That breastplate was a single piece of metal with buckles for leather belts to secure it in place. It was dirty, marred with a mix of blood, rock dust and soot. In the middle it was somewhat clear, where Rainbow cleared a patch to reveal the emblem. Aside from the three butterflies there wasn’t anything else notable I could tell about it. Well, it was bent and scratched on top of being grimy, but that was it.

“No?” I half-said, half-asked, continuing to rotate the metal in my magic in the case I was missing something.

Rainbow started to walk towards the wreckage and motioned with her head to follow. I tarried for a moment, deciding if I should take the armor or leave it.

After a few seconds I caught up with Dash, the metal piece levitating by my side.

“It’s manufactured, not smithed,” she finally stated.

Unfortunately, that fact changed nothing to me.

“So..?” I asked slowly, rising my brow.

“No shit is manufactured in the Everfree,” Rainbow grumbled as if it was something that should be obvious, giving me a sidelong glance.

It took me a few moments to realize what it meant – that armor was made in Canterlot!

“But who would supply them? And isn’t that against their views?” Those were only a few of the many questions starting to rise in my mind, one after another.

“Apparently it isn’t,” she began with an answer for the second question. “There are breadcrumbs all over the city, but that scheme runs too deep, even for Chrysalis’ best spies. We don’t know who, only that somepony supports the Butterflies.” She scoffed, “Or they wouldn’t have survived that winter.”

When we approached the broken cart, the girls were already gathering the rations strewn around into a distressingly small pile, my only hope that its size was due to them beginning the process not so long ago. Though our provisions were a very important matter, there was one thing that bothered me much more right now.

I slowly walked to Trixie, and for the first time I was able to witness her up close in her ‘true’ form.

She was so small. I couldn’t tell if it was because I had already gotten used to her towering above me, almost as tall as an alicorn, or because of her peculiar appearance. Her body was a little bit of translucent coiling darkness, the inky wisps perpetually evaporating from her evershifting coat. Constant quivering was the defining feature of her look, as if she was a leaf in the wind – always slightly shaking, but never falling off the branch of reality. As I squinted (a useless motion, but the habit was stronger than my memory), I could swear I saw her body had two outlines.

Trixie turned her head to me and our eyes locked. Hers were just circles glowing with soft white amidst the blackness with no pupils or eyelids. It was making her look as surprised as I was.

She held my gaze for a long time, making me wonder what was she thinking. And to be honest, I didn’t know what to think myself. What to feel.

I was looking at… something – neither a ghost, nor a pony. And yet I knew Trixie, at least I hoped I did. She was my friend right now as much as she was when she ‘wore’ her body – the only difference was in appearance. But as I was looking at the inky apparition, only two urges were competing in my mind: attack it or flee. All I could see right before my eyes was a pure manifestation of dark magic, something that had always threatened me and those whom I loved – I couldn’t allow any harm to fall upon those dear to me. However, it had been so long since I won that fight for the last time.

I felt bad. I felt bad because I couldn’t help but feel that way about my friend. I felt bad for Trixie, because it was unjust – for all I understood it wasn't her goal, no matter what intentions brought her to that hard choice. I felt bad because I knew she could see that on my face.

I could barely read Trixie's expression, but her sorrow was apparent enough. There was also a mix of disappointment and understanding, but I couldn't tell for sure, so ambiguous were her shadowy facial features and eerie eyes.

I braced myself, for I would not do what my mind screamed at me, but what was right.

By the time I came close to Trixie she had returned to gazing forlornly at her body half-buried in the wreckage. I waited for a few moments for her to say something, but as the silence started to become awkward, I realized it was up to me to speak.

“Can it be fixed?” I asked looking at the metal skull, now completely without its liquid ‘skin’, gazing blindly at the sky with its charred eyes.

She didn't answer me, but after a few seconds I saw a movement, though I couldn't tell what exactly was moving. I glanced around, confused, and finally I realized – it was the shadows! Every nearby object casting a shade lost them, gaining a weird look of an incorrectly painted picture – without shadows everything around us lost its third dimension, at least in appearance.

That darkness coalescenced into black stripes slithering like snakes on the ground until they reached Trixie's body, winding around its limbs. I noted how the metal cart tarnished where the shadow ribbons touched it, turning into flakes when they lingered longer. It was then I understood why Trixie's body was made of arcanium – not as her caprice and certainly not for protection, but to simply allow her to interact with the world. And it was also an explanation as to why Trixie couldn’t use telekinesis. The only time I witnessed it was when she took that horrid book made of leather, and that made me realize I probably was lucky not to open or touch it.

Embraced by the inky tendrils, Trixie's body started to slowly slide from under the hull. Whenever it caught some protrusion, Trixie willed a shadow to dissolve the impediment into fine dust.

A minute later the lifeless body hung before Trixie like a marionette on black strings. She raised its head by the chin and with the help of one of the stolen and enslaved shadows she unmade the pole which pierced the skull into dark powder. Before it could be carried away by the wind, a trickle of oil rained upon the heap, scattering it on the ground.

I noted that her tattered cloak actually looked no worse for wear as it flapped in the breeze. Despite Trixie’s frame being singed and bent (which was no small thing, considering it was made of arcanium) the ancient piece of cloth attached to it remained the same - dirty and ragged. Obviously it was enchanted and possibly inlaid with arcanium thread.

“Not here,” Trixie quietly said, startling and confusing me – I didn't realize immediately that she was answering the question I had almost forgotten.

At least her voice remained the same, still strangely echoing.

“We can't leave it here either,” Rainbow voice came from behind me, nearly making me jump. Her habit of sneaking up on me was becoming quite aggravating. “I don't want the Butterflies to get their hooves on that much arcanium or any of it for that matter”, she explained, completely ignoring my glare.

“Do you want us to take it with us then?” I asked incredulously, raising my eyebrow. Even with enchantments reducing Trixie’s body weight it was still quite voluminous, meaning that carrying it would leave no room for anything else. Considering that Trixie couldn’t carry saddlebags anymore, that would be two metal backs worth of provision out of commission – and that was a lot.

“Negative, I’m calling the Command Center to pick it up.” With those words she began to tinker with the panel on her front leg.

The frustration which I fought back at the Junkyard, right before this journey began, returned with the new force.

“Strange,” I hissed, coming closer to Rainbow, stopping her from that she was doing, “that you can ask them to lug a heavy metal corpse all the way back to Canterlot, but for some reason we have to trudge across half of Equestria on hoof risking our lives.”

Looming over me, Rainbow met my glare with a level stare, continuing to impassively look me in the eyes for no less than half a minute until she spoke again, her voice stern and even scolding.

“No more than a dozen trusted ponies know the truth about the Crown, but that doesn’t mean that half of Canterlot isn’t onto us.” She leaned to me so her visor was almost touching my muzzle. Instinctively I tried to lean back, but my body lacked the agility to do that. Dash continued, each word hard and merciless, “The last thing the city needs to know right now is that a half-insect queen and her swarm, who virtually rule Equestria, are trying to bring back one of the Princesses, who didn’t actually die, with the help of two ex-Bearers.” If I could I would have gulped – not because of how intimidating Rainbow Dash was, but because I had never really thought of how thousands upon thousands of ponies would react to any part of those facts. “We are too deep in shit already for mass hysteria,” she concluded and turned away from me. I could say that she was trying very hard not to look utterly disappointed with me.

After Rainbow took a few steps towards the girls, she stopped and turned her head to me and threw over her shoulder, not bothering to hold the disdain this time, “And you know what goes on the list before that?” Her face became distorted with a snarl. “Arcanium bombs.”

I kept company with Trixie for about a minute while trying to decide what I should feel: anger at Dash for trying to intimidate me or embarrassment at her being ultimately right. In the end I settled on both, which resulted in them cancelling each other out – I shouldn’t be angry because she was right and I shouldn’t be embarrassed because she could have been more friendly and understanding. It wasn’t the most solid logic, but I didn’t have that much time to contemplate on such matters – we had to leave this place as soon as possible.

After a momentary thought, I left the griffin’s breastplate, which I hadn’t realized I was still holding, behind near Trixie’s body. The Crown might want to take a look at it, though it felt very bizarre that I was actually helping them.

With the solemn and silent Trixie following me, I trotted to the pile of rations which were still intact. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, actually. From what I could see, we hadn’t lost even a fifth of it to the attack. There was, however, the question of if we could take it all with us.

Rainbow and Del were already packing them and the bottles with water into saddlebags. It seemed, however, that the preserved vegetables would be left behind, which was a real shame. Wire and Flower, well… they were outright staring at Trixie. With awe and distrust, respectively and unsurprisingly. Del was giving her wary looks as well.

Five more minutes later we were all trotting away from the almost no longer smoking wreckage in a small procession led by me. Trixie and Rainbow were at the tail of it; the former volunteered because of the visible discomfort of the girls and the latter was watching the northern horizon since she was now grounded by the bags.

After about an hour, tired of constantly looking back to make sure I didn't outpace the short-legged fillies, I let them in front of me. As another hour passed, we gradually broke the formation, the strict line we were trying to keep dissolving into pairs walking in a vague resemblance of a group.

With enough time passed since the incident and the scenery being as boring as ever, quiet talking began to take place, gradually becoming lively conversations. I tried to tune into the one Flower and Delight were having, but it proved an impossible task – they were jumping from one topic to another, heavily relying on slang, making me sometimes fail to grasp even a little sense.

I glanced at Trixie and Wire, but decided to check on Rainbow first. She wasn’t a mare to hold a grudge for long, least of all towards me – we had argued a lot in the past, especially after the Great War began, but it never affected our friendship in the end.

Unfortunately, the only communication I got from Rainbow was the silent look she gave me – apologetic yet still stern, but in another way than before, and a slow shaking of her head. She was implying that while she might have wanted to chat a bit, her duty as a pony watching our backs wasn’t to be distracted from.

A bit distraught I returned to Trixie and Red Wire – the filly was absolutely undaunted by my friend’s appearance, and she even looked more at ease than before. Their voices, the echoing of Trixie and Wire’s silver rang above the hushed conversation of Flower and Del. I had a suspicion it could be so quiet because it was revolving around Delight’s previous job, but I was sure I wouldn’t be able to catch them on that if I wanted.

Anyhow, curious where a Former One and a filly had found common ground, I approached them and began to listen.

It was mostly Red Wire who talked, asking Trixie about her body – I learned that Trixie didn’t use it in the way equinoids did, she was rather possessing it, as if wearing it like a suit of armor in some sense. Gradually the conversation began to shift to the enchantments the armor held and then other vaguely magic related topics, making me tense up. I was pretty sure Trixie was aware of me listening to them – more than once I felt her glowing eyes on me before she gave a reluctant and clumsily ambiguous answer.

There was a slight pause in Red Wire’s fruitless barrage of questions and then she asked her one more, carefully and unexpectedly shyly.

“Um... Miss Lulamoon?”

“Yes, Red Wire?” I again sensed Trixie’s gaze on me, somehow we both knew what that filly was about to ask next. I could guess it from where the conversation was going and wasn’t liking it.

“Could you teach me your magic?” Wire asked in an even more timid voice, sounding very hopeful, almost wistful.

“Absolutely not!” I barely let her finish – it was exactly what I was expecting her to ask. Still, I was very disappointed.

However, I forgot who I was talking to.

“I didn’t ask you, Twilight!” Wire snapped at me with the most venom in her voice I had ever heard from her. “You are not my mom, you don’t get to tell me what to do!”

Though she didn’t use any strong language, her insolent tone and the baleful glare from her natural eye generously compensated for that. For a single moment I thought of letting that go, but then I felt anger well inside of me – it wasn’t only about her pursuit of that vile knowledge. The way Red Wire acted towards others was unacceptable, but first I had to finish that business with Trixie’s potential tutelage.

“I’m not going to allow you to learn dark magic!” I barked at her a bit harsher than I intended.

“And why the fuck not?!” Wire yelled back at me, bristling.

From the overwhelming bitterness I was feeling – this filly just couldn’t understand – I barely noticed how Del and Flower’s conversation died out and in the corner of my eye Rainbow was coming closer.

“It will turn you into a monster!” I said loudly, stopping myself in front of her and stomping my hoof, preparing for another tirade from that toxic filly. I wasn’t going to give up.

Unexpectedly Trixie stepped between us and looked me right into the eyes, though I again had great trouble discerning her expression.

“Erm, Twilight, I hate to tell you this,” she calmly began, “but if this filly is inclined to learn such magical practices she most likely will do it anyway – I’m not the only one in Canterlot who can pass her that knowledge, though you would prefer me to do it.”

I opened my mouth to protest – she wasn’t helping the issue at all by telling Wire there were others who could teach her, but Trixie spoke again.

“And, secondly – how many dark mages have you faced in your life who were actually monsters?” I frowned – she didn’t need to remind me of that. All of them.

“We are on a journey to save Princess Luna who isn’t famous for keeping to conventional magic – is she a monster?”

I tried to speak again, but Trixie raised her voice, preventing me.

”Queen Chrysalis keeps Canterlot from its fall and while you could surely call King Sombra not the nicest pony who ever lived, tell me…” -she slightly tilted her head- “Am I a monster to you too?”

I was stunned by that question. She wasn’t… or was she? The memory of my mind demanding me to either blast her or grab the fillies and run away was still fresh. And the fact that she was part of the Coven once, and how she was hiding truths, and her voice…

Too late I realized that I had already given my answer – by not giving it.

I could see clearly her expression now. She was hurt.

“I… you… it’s not about that!” I futilely tried to amend the situation, but Trixie was already turning and walking away from me.

As I was met with Wire glowering at me, I grasped at straws looking for an opportunity to change the flow of conversation and save my face, not to mention that it was why it all took place – to prevent Wire from doing something that not only she would regret, but also many others.

“Wire, you already act so mean, and to your friend, no less!” I pointed at Tin Flower. To my surprise I didn’t see any support in her, she just looked… sad? I went on, “Dark magic will only make it worse, amplifying that like what it did to Nightmare Moon.”

“Twilight…” Tin Flower softly said, reaching out to me with her hoof.

“Well, I… I…” Wire suddenly began to stammer, a single tear glistening in the corner of her eye. “I’d like you to look at yourself, Miss I-am-a-good-pony after you lose so many ponies you love!” she spat in my face.

I felt my proverbial blood freeze in my just as proverbial veins. Dark fury washed over me.

I slowly lowered my head, almost pressing my muzzle to Wire’s. She cowered before me, tears openly streaming from her eye now – I couldn't tell if it was from fear or something else... I didn’t care.

“You know nothing about loss, Geode.” I said clearly in an icy and deliberate tone, turned on my heels and stormed away.

As I was stomping from her my outburst of rage began to rapidly wind down as I heard Red Wire sobs ring through the air. I didn’t mean to do that… I just wanted to protect her. But… Trixie’s words start to sink in – what if I was wrong? With the sole exception of King Sombra, anypony who I knew used dark magic at some point wasn’t pure evil manifested. More often it was their circumstances, rather than their choice of magic, making those mages look like bad ponies.

I didn’t agree with Trixie’s every word, but I wasn’t right either and even less right to go on Wire so hard. The anger I felt abated completely and the only thing I was feeling now was deep shame.

I didn’t go that far away and despite my back being turned to the company of my friends I could hear their voices, mostly Delight cooing, comforting the crying filly. I sat down on the ground and let out a deep sigh. Then I heard rasping whispering voice of Rainbow, but she was trying to keep her voice low so I could discern only some phrases.

“Twilight… Didn’t mean…” Her tone wasn’t scolding, but rather patient. “...Those who used dark magic… Canterlot wedding… Celestia… Sister-in-law… Then the Great War with the Ebony Warlock… Lost almost everypony…”

Trying to hear what exactly Rainbow was telling to Wire was an attempt to distract myself from the crushing guilt I was feeling I missed somepony approaching my side until I heard the scrunch of rocks under a metal hoof, betraying who it was.

I turned to look at Tin Flower who stopped hesitantly by my side. She met my eyes with a frown. I could tell she was obviously disappointed with me, but she didn’t want to be and show that. She was looking up to me and yet I acted like a complete jerk. Feeling a new pang of shame, I turned away.

“Twilight…” she spoke uncertainly, and I turned to her again only to see her looking for the right words as she sat beside me.

“I… I don’t want to say that you’ve lost less than any of us,” Flower paused taking a deep breath, “for all I know you’ve lost the whole world.” No filly of her age would speak like that back in my time, but no filly had to fight for life on a daily basis five centuries ago. That wisdom had come with a horrible price.

“But,” she hesitated again, grimacing and her tone gained notes of accusal and sympathy, though the latter wasn’t meant for me, “there is a difference between simply losing somepony – I have lost my parents – and seeing your mother suffering everyday from the wounds she got protecting you. Why else do you think Red Wire hangs at my shitty place all the time?” She paused again, more to come up with what to say next than to let her words sink in. “And she watched her younger brother slowly die from pneumonia, I was there when he grew cold in her hooves.”

I winced, the guilt I felt became almost overwhelming. I hurt Wire so bad… What was wrong with me? I wasn’t even there when those I knew died, with one single exception. And even so, it wasn’t a competition of who had lost more loved ones and in a more heartbreaking way.

After a deep shuddering breath Flower continued, “I don’t blame Wire for being a jerk to me, because I know she doesn’t mean it. If anything, it helps her to deal with all... that.

“She acts tough and I do too, but in the end we are just fillies, Twilight,” she concluded in a sorrowful, way too sorrowful tone.

“I’m so sorry, Flower,” I squeezed from myself. Any frustration or anger I had felt towards Red Wire was gone without a trace.

She looked me in the eyes one more time, sadly, but with understanding. Then she nodded and slowly walked back to the group, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I didn’t want to think about anything, however.

I stood and turned towards my friends, but remained in my place.

Trixie was far from the group, sitting forlornly, a black silhouette gazing at the horizon. Rainbow stood with a dispassionate face, waiting near the piled saddlebags, temporarily discarded from most of the backs. Del sat with Wire and she was glaring daggers at me with her single eye. And Wire herself… my proverbial heart died – she was simply sitting with her head and shoulders slumped, so fragile and small.

She was too young to deal with all that pain. On second thought, scrap that – there was no age good enough to go through what she had to experience.

Wire lifted her head to look at me and I was met with two eyes, a crude artificial one and her natural swollen from crying, with a streak of still-wet fur across her cheek. There was no more defiance, no more arrogance on her face.

She rose to her hooves and began to walk towards me. For a single moment I panicked – I wasn’t quite ready for that conversation – but I had to own my mistakes and there could be no better time than now.

Letting out a deep sigh followed by just as deep a breath to bolster myself (though both were nothing but symbolic), I headed in Wire’s direction.

We met halfway and stopped in front of each other, awkwardly avoiding making eye contact. The silence stretched out; steeling myself, I decided to be the first to speak.

“I’m so sorry, Red Wire, I…” my voice trailed off. I wanted to say I didn’t mean to say those things, but we both knew I truly meant them. “I shouldn’t have said what I said and I’m genuinely sorry for your loss,” I lamely finished. With how badly I screwed up, there was no way I could come up with a graceful apology.

“I’m sorry too, Twilight.” She sniffled and continued, “I shouldn’t have said those things to you either. I’m sorry for your loss, too.”

I thought of offering her a hug, but she seemed to have something else to say on her mind.

“I know that you see me as spiteful, but… I just…” she trailed off and I saw fresh tears glistening in her eyes. I reached with my hoof to her, but she shied away, though reluctantly – she simply wanted to make her point.

“Flower must have told you about my mother, my brother... “ She began to sniffle again, but regained composure and continued after a deep breath, “...my family.” Her face sombered. “There is one more thing, something I’m not sure Flower will be able to understand – after getting this,” -she pointed at her artificial eye- “I have lost some of my magic and my only chance to get out of the Edge. I don’t want to hurt anypony or conquer anything… I just want to learn from Trixie to be able to help my family again.”

I hung my head in shame. Red Wire’s desire to learn dark magic wasn’t fueled by malevolence - she had the most genuine aspirations, not to mention that I could very well understand how hard it was to have your magic impaired. And the pragmatist in me knew that both Wire and Trixie were right: I was neither Wire’s mother to stop her, nor would it change anything if I did, since Canterlot seemed to be housing a plethora of warlocks these days and somepony else would become her teacher.

“I’m sorry, Wire, I didn’t know.” Though in retrospect I should have realized that the Transference Paradox had to be affecting her rather severely – an eye prosthetic had a high coefficient.

For my next words I had to steel my heart because it went against everything I believed. “I’m not going to prevent Trixie from teaching you, but,” -Red Wire frowned, more confused than angry- “I want to supervise your study.”

For a few moments she was silent, evaluating those conditions as she stared at the ground with her forehead creased in deep thought. Then she looked up at me with a wide smile on her face.

“Deal.”

With Red Wire, who looked happier than I ever remembered her, despite the tear trails on her cheek, I returned to the group patiently waiting for us to resume our journey. My first thought was to talk with Trixie about the arrangement I had made with Wire, but it seemed that amending the rift between us wouldn’t be so easy – she was avoiding me, turning and walking away when I tried to approach.

Delight was still giving me discontented glances, but she didn’t seem to be as mad as before. Rainbow simply handed me my saddlebags with a stone-like face – she either didn’t truly care for all that transpired or was too focused on the task at hoof.

In a bit of awkward silence we proceeded to walk across the rocky steppe. This time nopony talked, making me feel even worse because I had effectively soured the mood for everypony with my actions. Not to mention Trixie, who now sulked far behind our group, and making amends with her didn’t seem to be that simple.

A few hours later we made a brief stop with the girls having a quick meal and letting them have time to rest their legs. By that time the sun was no longer high in the sky, though we still had enough time before we would have to camp for the night.

Eventually, the plain became more of a desert – sand crunched under our hooves and the girls were bringing the bottles of water to their lips every so often – the air became arid and filled with dust, conjuring thirst even without heat. The rare patches of dry crusty grass were gone and replaced by even more dessicated bushes clinging to the shadow of brownish red rocks, unpleasantly reminding me of the Junkyard. Absentmindedly I thought that my recent experiences would never let me look the same way at the red spectrum of colors.

As the sun began to close to the horizon, painting everything in orange hues, there appeared a few additions to the dreary scenery.

First, on our left, green darkness started to mar the horizon – Hayseed Swamps. A mighty bulk of rotten woods forever drowning in the poisonous mire was looming in the far distance. It was a dangerous place, filled with many kinds of creature that could make the Everfree look like a normal forest, but fortunately our path lay far enough from it.

But much more importantly, Dodge City, or what was left of it, could be seen ahead of us.

Delight, as a sharp-eyed pegasus was the first to notice it or, rather, to note – I was sure Rainbow saw it first, but just didn’t speak. That lifted the collective spirits considerably, because that meant the camp might take place not under the open sky (with the lantern having been broken in the attack, it wasn’t something anypony was looking forward to). However, I wasn’t so eager – something about the ruins at the horizon was giving me a bad feeling.

As we drew closer and the sun began to settle, that sensation only grew in strength – I could now see why. The air above Dodge City was quivering, as if there was a boiling mirage. I would write it off as a natural phenomenon, but the weather wasn’t that warm…

When I mentioned it to the others, nopony else agreed with me and Wire jokingly suggested Flower check on my eyes when we stop there. She might be right about it, since even Rainbow hadn’t confirmed my concerns. For a while I relaxed – after all, I was nothing but stressed by our journey and could be simply imagining things.

However, by the time we were about an hour’s walk away from the edge of the city, I approached Rainbow again – I could feel something. My horn was slightly tingling, as if the magic around was somewhat off – even Wire agreed with me, though she told me that her horn was itching around me all the time anyway and dismissed my worries. I didn’t dare to try approaching Trixie on that matter, though I was sure she wouldn’t be silent if something was wrong.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t shake it off.

“Rainbow, maybe we can go around the city,” I said as I pulled level with her.

“Negative.” She sighed. “We can’t really go around even if we actually wanted to.”

As I gave her an unsatisfied look, she groaned.

“Not without coming too close to the swamps and at night, no less,” she explained. “And on the west from the city there is a large quarry – it will take us days to make a detour.”

With my lips pursed I left her side and took the lead of the procession – I wanted to be the first to enter the city, just in case.

Despite the darkness descending on the land as the sun was half-submerged over the horizon I began to see another thing, much more real this time, that started to bother me.

Dodge City was nothing but ruins as I expected, but it wasn’t ruined... enough. I could assume that the city wasn’t abandoned the same time the Great War ended, but for four centuries it looked too well preserved, unless, of course, it was still inhabited. And I doubted that was the case – there was not a single light in sight or any other signs of civilization still lingering in that place.

Finally, my hoof stepped onto a street of decrepit one-story wooden buildings. I stopped – that feeling of wrongness I was having was almost unbearable right now, as if something was crawling under my proverbial skin.

And finally a missing piece of the puzzle clicked in its place in my head.

Why would the elder stallion at the bridge tell us it was a safe passage if all he wanted was for ponies and equinoids to be gone along with Equestria? Why was he smiling when we left?

All of a sudden, my vision seemed to crack, reality splitting without a sound. At first I thought of my lenses giving up for whatever reason – maybe Wire was right after all. But I knew it couldn’t be the case – the cracks weren’t moving along with my eyes.

My head swam and through the confusion I instantly felt intense panic rising inside of me – it happened before, deep under the city. No… not again… The images before my eyes began to shake and blink with colors as I fell to my knees – I couldn't tell if from despair or if it was my body surrendering to the plight of living nightmare.

Wave after wave of the endless tide of desolation began to crash against my mind – I couldn’t go through this one more time. I thought it stopped affecting me, but in truth I was just ignoring how damaging it was to my consciousness – maybe I should have talked to Delight back then...

But this time it was different – I wasn’t alone. They would help me...

Struggling, I turned my head back – my body was refusing to answer to my will – and froze.

As suddenly as it came, the sensation of reality falling apart was gone...

...Along with Red Wire, Clandestine Delight, Rainbow Dash and Trixie. Only Tin Flower stood behind my back, as stricken as I was – it was apparent she felt it all too, though maybe in not the same way. But even that wasn’t as shocking as what I saw.

A sunlit street with ponies going about their business between intact buildings lay before my eyes, divided from the ruins I was at by absolutely nothing. Night and day existed in my field of view like it was something normal. It was strange and preternatural, and yet it wasn’t the most shocking part...

A group of hauntingly familiar mares – two pegasi, two unicorns and two earth ponies were talking with another mare, a cream-colored earth pony with a cherry-colored mane.

One of the pegasi was Rainbow Dash, but she wore no suit of armor.

And I was one of the unicorns.

Tin Flower turned to me with wide eyes.

“Twilight,” she whispered, her voice quivering and full of terror and confusion, “what is happening?”

Author's Notes:

Well, if it wasn't one huge chapter. I hope that it wasn't a problem and that it lived up to your expectations.

The only news I have are regarding the future chapters: chapter 14 is finished and being edited, chapter 15 is being written. Not much outside of that, at least for now. As I said, there was one unfinished side story of Aftersound which fate hinged on chapter 14 and things mentioned in that. Good news: I'm going to finish it and it is already ~3k words long. Bad news: it ain't gonna happen soon. But it will happen.

Aftersound Project Discord server - it's a little community dedicated to discussion of the story and whatnot. Everyone is welcome to join.
As you could note – one more person joined the editing team, DuvetofReason (suffering me being a dum-dum, so you don't have to), who hails from Pony Tales, a quite welcoming place dedicated to disscussing and working on many great stories (now including Aftersound). I think you may also find it interesting.

If you notice any mistakes sneaked in through the editing, let me know.
I hope you enjoyed reading this story so far.
Stay awesome.