1 year, 2 months, and 3 days since exile.

Rainbow flew on her way to the next assignment. It was, supposedly, going to be one of the more difficult runs for other couriers. However, she should be able to complete it with little effort. Both because she could fly, and therefore avoid the dangers of the region, and because she was just that awesome.

She was, however, given a special mask she should wear in this area. It was by far the oddest looking thing she had ever seen. It was a canvas or linen sack that would fit around her mouth, secured in place by a small leather cord. In the front of the sack was a large T-shaped structure, the ends of the T tipped with a black can, studded with holes. He would've given her some goggles, but she already had a pair, so that wasn't necessary. He called it a respirator and told her to put it on when she got the area.

She stopped to hover in the air, then pulled out her map. Diana, in her spare time, had taught her to read the map legend and a few of the common signs, and so she was finally able to fully check her location. She had gotten lost one time not being able to do that. She read over the direction, then shot a somewhat worried glance at the map. If the area around this place looked like on the map, she couldn't imagine living there.

Sighing, she put the map back and resumed her flight. It was always a feeling that she reveled in. As she was unable to fulfill her dream of making it into the Wonderbolts, couldn't see her family again, couldn't see Scoots again, COULDN'T!!!..... Another sigh. Sometimes, even just thinking about it could get her into a frenzy. Anyway, as all that was gone to her, she had only really two things from her old life: her ability to fly, and the goggles.

Finally, after another hour of flight, she came upon the edge of her destination. A large, black mountain, sticking out of the woodland stretch below her like a horn-less unicorn. Flying past it, she finally laid her eyes on a massive landmark of the Demosian Peninsula, and by far the scariest piece of geography Rainbow had seen: the Teufel River.

She had heard the story from the guy at the chapel, whose name she had learned was Brother Dietrich. Supposedly, long ago, during the reign of some old Emperor, he had offended Damocles the Uniter somehow. So, as punishment, he had sent down the Sun Daemon to teach him a lesson. She supposedly made the sun go black, then sent the captive elements of the sun up through the earth, sending ash and fire into the sky over the old empires' capital and a massive city besides. This was the Scorching she had heard so much about, and it had destroyed the old Demosian empire. Or it went something like that, anyway. She wasn't entirely certain as she had lost interest about halfway through.

However, she could definably say that it did look like something went down here. From the base of the mountain all the way to as far as she could see stretched a featureless plain of swirling black ash. Cutting through this plain was a long, slow-moving river of lava. The thick, viscous liquid flowed down the worn rock canal it had made for itself, glowing and splitting as if marched ever onward. It looked nearly inhospitable.

And yet, she saw a small series of buildings along the edge of the river, like a fishing town, would sit. The buildings were box-shaped with tall, hole lined windows chimneys and many windows. A few silhouetted figures stood along iron docks on the riverbanks, handling boats and large cauldrons. A few smaller ones even looked to be wading in the lava, splashing it at one another like it was water.

Before she could go any closer, however, she felt a massive wave of coughing coming her way. Though she tried to fight it, she couldn't and her lungs were racked with vicious wheezing. She then remembered what Steven had told her: The air there is thick with sulfur and other volcanic shit. Locals breathe the stuff, but we can't without out lungs bloodily poppin' out of our mouths. Remembering her mask, she pulled it out, then slid it over before she could start to hack again. Instantly, her breathing slowed and she was able to breathe normally. Sliding her goggles back over her eyes, she dashed down toward the buildings, wanting to avoid the 'river' altogether.

As she got closer, she was able to make out more of the locals; Saurians was what Tyler had called them. They were large, bipedal reptile-like creatures with flat, boney crested heads. They had nearly pitch-black scales, obsidian like claws and toes, and dagger-like white teeth. They had thick tails, long spines along their backs, and a sloping, somewhat hunched over looking posture. Most looked nearly identical, with only the various shades of red, orange, yellow, and dull silver eyes setting each one apart.

One of these creatures greeted her, armed with a curved sickle sword and a small round shield. "Halt. State your business," He said in a calm, authoritative manner.

"I'm a courier. I have a package. Now, can you tell me where I can find one-" She paused, pulled out and looked at the box, then finished, "Savatra Trenth?"

The guard softened, then said, "Of course, courier. Follow me."

He lead her down a rough street lined with the blocky houses. Many of the Saurians stopped what they were doing to look at her. She took the attention in stride; she was used to it after all. Both back in Equestria due to her awesome stunts, and out here for being the only Pegasus, or even winged creature, any of them had seen. So, she simply sauntered on, her cocky grin spread out beneath her respirator.

Finally, they reached a large crack in the side of a ledge. A smooth path of hardened volcanic glass ran down into darkness. A few saurians came up and went down the tunnel even as they walked up. Just before the mouth of the crevasse, her escort stopped. "Wait here, I'll go get Trenth."

"Hold up. Why can't I come down to him?", she said.

The guard just shot her an irritated look. "So, in addition to being able to fly and being a color that I'll admit I've never seen before, you can also survive upwards of 1000 degrees? Because I somehow doubt it."

Rainbow suddenly became aware of just how hot it was out her. Pegasi were naturally able to resist colder temperatures due to having to fly and often live up in the air but had a less serious tolerance to heat than other ponies. And while she was sweating out here, she didn't want to take her chances below ground. "On second thought," she said. "Yeah, I'll, uh, let you handle that. I'll wait here."

The guard grunted and trudged into the cave. Taking in the plains of ash and volcanic rock, she was suddenly aware of a small saurian, about up to the base of her neck, staring at her. It had silvery eyes and a missing tooth, which was apparently due to its dumbfounded look. He (Her best guess; it was kinda hard to tell) then said, "Pretty", and tried to touch her.

Now, Rainbow didn't know. Maybe it was the resident heat of the place that the kid had absorbed. Maybe he had been one of the smaller ones bathing in the river. Who knew? But, what she did know, was that when he touched her mane, it began to lightly smolder, smoke rising from some of the strands.

Rainbow shot into the air in alarm, looking at her hair. The smoldering had stopped, with only a few strands of hair burned away. Looking down, she saw the kid still looking up at her, the same dumbfounded look on his face. Then she saw her client had come out of the tunnel. She raced down, completed the transaction, and got out of the area as soon as possible. She didn't want to come back here anytime soon.

Next Chapter: 28~Final run Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 43 Minutes