The flight back was equally as uneventful. And by that, she meant the exact same things happened. She passed over a stretch of the road. She saw a variety of weird-looking animals from high up, looking down as they went about their business. A few small ruins that stuck out of the trees lack cavities. Oh, and the 'Wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-panting-like-a-dog' type of nightmares whenever she tried to sleep.

Rainbows' eyes drooped as she soared over the trees. Her whole body ached, much more so than her usual flights before this point, even after her exile. Normally she was well rested and well fed when she flew, but she had partaken in so little of either activity that she was running on empty. Even now, her stomach ached, begging for food, and her head ached, begging for sleep. Both she desired, but both she had to deny.

Finally, after almost half a day of flight, she caught sight of Burkesh again. She was finally able to take in the town from above. It was actually pretty big, only being a little bit smaller than Ponyville. Like what she had seen, most of the houses were made out of wood, with basic thatch roofs and stone foundations. She was able to, however, spot many major differences. The first, and most obvious, was the large wall and gate. Ponyville had no such barrier. There was also a lack of fields and farms surrounding the town; just a near-endless expanse of woodlands in every direction. And of course the much larger variety of creatures.

Rainbow sighed. No point in looking back, she thought. No way I'm goin' back anyway. She let loose another sigh, followed shortly by a loud yawn as she touched down outside the Express building. She pushed open the door, trudging along, only barely managing to stay awake. Diana smiled as she fully entered the office, putting down a few scraps of parchment.

"Ah, you're back. Good," she said. Her smile turned to a slight frown as she took in Rainbows state. "Are, you alright there? You look about ready to keel over, for Damocles' sake!"

"Sorry", she said. "I, I just didn't sleep well. It's fine."

"Are you sure? I mean, did you push yourself for the job? Cause if you did, you shouldn-"

"I'M FINE, OK!?", Rainbow snapped.

Diana recoiled, then said, "Ok, ok, ok. I won't push. Anyway, I'll go get your pay. Wait here." With that, she disappeared behind the door.

Rainbow sat down, waiting for her to come back. Her drowsiness came back to her, and her eyelids suddenly had a weight tied to them. She looked over, hoping to find anything to distract her. A plain, boring wall. A simple wooden shelf behind the counter. A plain, boring floor. Rainbow probably would've fallen asleep on the spot, if Diana hadn't come back, holding a crumpled bit of parchment.

"You sure you're not ok? You look ready to collapse."

"Look, I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. Now, you said something about pay?"

Diana didn't look all too convinced but chose to drop it. "Yeah, ok. Here: standard courier fee, plus a little bonus."

She handed Rainbow the paper, which she then turned to study. It was a rolled-up bit of papers, each about the size of a receipt totaling up to about 100 of them. The parchment was rough and coarse, and looked less like paper and more like glued together bits of bark. A line went down the center of the paper, with a half circle on either side of it. Besides that design, there was small amounts of Demosian writing below said design, and another line running horizontally along the center of the bill.

Looking back up from the papers, Rainbow said, "What the buck are these?"

Shooting her a now annoyed look, Diana said, "You shove 'um up your cunt so you don't get pregnant during a nighttime party. It's barter script, for fucks sake! What else could it be?"

Rainbow looked back down at the wad of 'Scripts', then back up at Diana. "I don't know. I've never even heard of 'Barter script' in my life. We use bits where I'm from."

"What's a bit?"

"*Sigh*. A bit is a small gold coin that-"

"Gold!?", she said, eyes suddenly going wide. "You came from a place where the standard currency was GOLD!?"

"Um, yes?"

Diana sighed. "Boy, that sounds nice. Anyway, here we don't have the...Whatever the hell you use to make coins, let alone any large amounts of gold. We got lots of trees though, so yeah. We use those. About five script will get you a meal, or maybe a stim. Other amounts will get ya other stuff."

"Like a place to sleep? *Yawn*."

"Er, yeah. But, well, since you work for us, you can probably just ask the office guy to lend you a spot to lay out your bedroll. Might not be as warm as an inn room, nor as comfortable. But it's still pretty safe. Point is, you can sleep in here."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Although, you did say you had issues falling asleep?"

"Yeah, why?", Rainbow said, her drowsiness starting to make her grumpy.

"Well, you might need something to help you get some sleep. A tired courier is like a pausa without teeth or claws; useless and likely to get itself killed. Point is, you should get something to help you with that."

"Like?"

"Look, go outside and head to the market place. Look for a stand with a red awning and a Terran that looks baked off of his mind. His name's huffer; he'll hook you up with something to help you get some sleep."

"Alright. I'll see you soon." With that, Rainbow walked out the door. She fumed silently to herself; she was Rainbow Dash! The best flyer around! She didn't need help going to bucking sleep! But, well, maybe it would be best to have it. Just in case, right? Either way, it was still daytime, and she didn't feel too much like just going to sleep yet. So, it was a time-waster if nothing else.

So, she entered the market area in the town square, looking for a red awning. She finally spotted one, along with the pony who manned it. She didn't exactly know what 'baked' was supposed to look like, but she guessed this was it. 'It' being a look of being both tired and incredibly happy about something. He wore a red shirt that matched his coat almost perfectly, and had a cutie mark of one of a needle that looks like they were made out of bones. His stand was packed with lots of small wooden boxes, a few of the bone needles, and a whole lot of cloth bags.

Walking flying up to him, she stopped to hover in front of him. Given how rare it seemed to find a winged creature here, she would've expected him to start staring. Instead, he just giggled to himself and said, "Wooooah. Damocles, I need to lower the dosage. Ma'am, I swear you look like your flying."

"I am", she said. She was already starting to hate him.

"W-what kinda shit are you on? I-I want some."

Rainbow patience was worn thin as wire. He was the wire cutter that broke her. "Listen here, buddy," she said, flying up to an inch from his still smiling face. "I've had it up to here with buckers like you today. I just want to get something to help me get to sleep in case I need it. So, can you get it for me or not?"

He just smiled. "Well, why didn't you just say so? Here," he said, sliding a wooden box to her. Opening it, she saw a couple of small multicolored pills in a nearly see-through casing. She didn't want to know what the casing was and defiantly didn't want to know what was in them. "Just take one if you need to be knocked out like the sun at sundown. More then one, and you can have you're self a party, though. Do you want more?"

She snorted. "I'm fine. How much?"

"Oh no. First one's free!" As she walked away, he shouted after her, "Hope you start sleeping well! Have a good night!"

Next Chapter: 22~Stims Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 22 Minutes