Nopony found us, so either our hiding spot was pretty good, or nopony was looking in this direction. SCaR beeped once, and after I spent a good fifteen minutes keeping my rifle trained on the entrance to our hole in the ground, I finally poked my head out of the shrubbery and saw a bunch of rock runners grazing on the grasses nearby. I considered shooting one for its meat to supplement our rations, but decided against it. In addition to the noise that a gunshot would make on a quiet and calm day like this, we didn’t really have the space to clean the kill, and hauling the carcass around would just slow us down. I did glare at one that was thinking about eating some of the leaves off of our camouflage, though.

Once the sun finally started setting, I gathered up my shit and burst out of the undergrowth. I couldn’t stand waiting in that cramped little hole any longer. If I did, I was afraid I was going to explode. So as soon as I could stand up straight again, I galloped (or hobbled, really) in frantic circles around the entrance on three hooves, just burning off all the excess energy I’d accumulated from spending so long lying down.

I made like five or six laps before finally slowing down. My heart thumped in my chest, healthy and strong. It felt good to feel it beating and not have that sensation tied to fear for once. It felt like I spent too much time running for my life and not enough time running just because I could. The pure joy I felt, even on three legs, was something I hadn’t felt in ages.

When Nova and Gauge finally came out, I was smiling and rolling in the grasses. The two of them just looked at each other and burst out laughing. Finally, it was Nova who, wiping a tear from her eye, came trotting over to me. “Ember, what are you doing?”

I came to a stop with my mane spread out in the grasses, little seed pods stuck in my hair, and just smiled up at her. “I’m fucking living, Nov! We’re out of that fucking shithole, we’re alright, and nopony’s trying to kill us! It feels like it’s been years since we’ve been this free!”

I could tell by the look on Gauge’s face that he was thinking about reminding me that we weren’t home free yet, but at least he decided to keep those thoughts to himself.

Grunting, I rolled back onto my hooves and tried to shake all the seed pods and grass blades out of my mane and coat. I cracked my neck a few times and sighed, smiling at my friends. The setting sun casted its strange display of yellows and blues on the western horizon, and our shadows shot away from us across the pink grass, shining faintly in the dying moments of the day. If I could’ve captured Gauge’s smirk and Nova sitting on her hindquarters, preening her right wing, and just held onto this moment forever, I would have.

But slowly, the giddiness of just being out of the cave and running around in circles began to wear off, and pretty soon, the reality of our situation once more settled itself across my shoulders. We still had a long ways to go to get to the foundry, and we were still (most likely) being hunted by the RPR. If we didn’t get moving soon, we’d either miss Ace entirely, or the RPR would catch up to us again. And I don’t think I need to say just how bad either of those outcomes would be.

So, after one last look at my friends, we shouldered our loads and continued to the south.

The sun had long since fallen, and now all we had for company were the two moons overhead. They provided enough light to see by, which was nice, but they also provided enough light for us to be seen. I kept an eye trained for any pegasi, and Nova flew up a few thousand feet to scout every once in awhile, but we never saw anypony. It didn’t mean I felt any better, though.

But at least that paranoia was good for something, though. Gauge and I kept up a good pace while Nova watched us from the sky. I knew that every mile we put between us and Hole was another mile that the RPR would have to search if they wanted to find us. And even though I was hampered by my leg, I’d figured out a good way to walk so that I didn’t have to lean on Gauge’s shoulder just to move quickly. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, but comfort was a luxury I couldn’t afford to let myself have at the moment.

And then we crested a hill and I actually jumped and shrieked a little at what was on the other side.

Nova must’ve heard my scream, because she came flying down in a second. “What is it?” she asked, eyes whipping back and forth. “What did you—oh my stars!”

Gauge grimaced and stared at the mess the two of us were looking at. “Shit…”

That ‘mess’ may have once been a pony. I think. Maybe several, though it was hard to tell them apart with all the blood and only moonlight to see by. Sitting on top of the hill was a mess of broken and crushed limbs and other pony bits, and everything was covered in blood. The whole thing reeked of death, and the only reason we hadn’t smelled it earlier was because we were upwind. The grass was also dotted with spent shell casings, though I couldn’t smell the gunpowder in the air or on the grass. As far as I could tell, whatever had happened here happened a few days ago.

Nova spun around and covered her face with her wings. “I think I’m gonna be sick…”

I swallowed my own nausea and moved a little bit closer. The blood was dry, and the flies and prickwings were feasting on the rot. It looked like these ponies had been ripped into pieces and then crushed beneath something large. Just what had happened here?

“Was it RPR? Bandits?” Gauge asked, looking like he was trying very hard to keep his dinner down.

“There’s no way it was ponies who did this,” I said, shuffling the remains a little bit with my telekinesis. “I mean, first off, I wouldn’t even know why, and second, these ponies got ripped and torn apart. Bandits don’t do that, and the RPR would’ve just taken them back home to be sold later.”

“Maybe it’s to make an example?” Nova asked, though she had her back turned on the mess and was just sitting down with a hoof over her lips.

I frowned at that. “No, it can’t be that. This is the middle of nowhere, and there’s nothing to tell that ponies even did do this. It’d be a bad way to try and make an example.”

“How about those wolf things? Wargs?” Gauge gave the remains a sideways glance. “They’re almost as big as us, and I’m sure that they’d love to rip ponies apart.”

“Maybe,” I said. “I just hope it’s something like that and not something worse. At least I can shoot a warg...” I turned back to Nova and trotted up to her side; she was still facing away from the mess a few paces away. “Hey, you alright, Nov?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Fine. I’ll… I’ll live, at least.”

I nuzzled her cheek and patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s nasty, I know.” My eyes drifted to the sky, and I nudged her wing. “Think you can be our eye in the sky for us? There’s a lot of hills and trees here, and we don’t want to run into whatever did this. I figure you’ll be able to see it before we do so we can steer clear of it.”

Nova nodded and spread her wings a little. “Yeah, I can do that. I’ll keep my eyes open.” She flapped her wings a bit and hovered a few inches off of the ground before putting an uneasy smirk on her muzzle. “It shouldn’t be too hard to see anything on a clear night like this.”

I gave her an encouraging smile. “That’s the hope.”

She dipped her head once and then flew over to Gauge, and the two of them kissed briefly before Nova shot up into the night sky. Pretty soon I saw her level out and begin to make broad circles above us. I immediately felt a lot safer knowing that she was up there, the moonlight reflecting off of her white coat like a mirror.

Gauge looked at me, and I looked at him. Shrugging, I just continued to the south, giving the pile of pony remains a wide berth. I didn’t hold my rifle per se, because the orange glow of my magic would’ve been a beacon to anypony (or anything) within miles, but I did have the safety off and kept it slung loosely on my back just in case I needed it.

I really hoped I wouldn’t need it.

We stopped after like three or four hours to eat something before continuing onwards. I don’t know how many miles we covered, but it was enough; when Nova flew down to meet us, she said that the foundry was actually within sight. It’d be another hour on hoof, and I would’ve insisted on pushing on if my shoulder wasn’t super stiff again. I had to stop and nurse it for a bit, and I was at least thankful for the rest. Besides, I didn’t know what we’d find at the foundry, and if it was bad news, then I wanted to be at my sharpest. I couldn’t keep Gauge and Nova safe if I could hardly move or focus.

I’d decided to forgo a fire; the night was already warm enough, and the light and smoke were too risky in case somepony was tracking us. Still, I eyed the shadows around us constantly, imagining that at any second Hunter or a warg was going to burst forth and kill us all. Between the two, I honestly didn’t know which was worse. I mean, what would you pick: being sold into slavery for the rest of your life, or being ripped limb from limb by a bunch of big wolf things and eaten alive? They’re both fucking shitty ways to go. One’s just a lot more protracted than the other.

Once we had something to eat and drink, we packed up our things and continued along to the foundry. Nova flew up to keep her watch, and the closer we got to our destination, the more relaxed Gauge and I got. After such a harrowing few days, our nightmare was basically over.

Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy.

As Gauge and I walked past some trees and boulders, the smokestacks of the decaying foundry in sight, I heard this weird clicking noise. I can’t really describe it more than that. It was… I don’t know. But it sounded like it was coming from something big. And something close.

Gauge heard it too, because he stopped and began swiveling his ears, trying to locate the source of the noise. After a second, he looked at me, and I could see his concern. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

I silently nodded and drew my rifle. I looked ahead at the foundry, trying to imagine just how far it was from here to there. It wasn’t more than a quarter mile away. So close to safety. Swallowing hard, I gestured with my head and began to creep up the hill.

That’s when the side of the hill opened its eyes and began to stand up.

I was too shocked and terrified to scream. Instead, I could only watch as this thing stood up taller, taller, taller. Scales faintly tinted pink and brown flexed over muscles bigger than my body as the monstrosity rose onto three pairs of legs. Claws two feet long glistened off of shorter arms it held crossed against its chest. An arsenal of razor sharp spines popped erect on its back, and a head bigger than two or three of me turned in our direction. In it, four eyes glinted in the light of the moon, and scaly lips pulled back to reveal jaws set with dozens of teeth, each one nearly a foot long. A long, bony tail swayed behind it, almost like a counterweight to support its massive head and neck. That tail could probably break trees in one swing.

Gauge and I stood dead still, like we were statues, as it stared down at us. I could see the hunger in its eyes, so primal yet so clear. And the terror that gripped me held me like a vice. I couldn’t make myself move at all. I could only stare at it in horror, my brain completely refusing to work.

Then it started clicking at us, and the claws on its feet gouged the earth as its weight shifted. Its short, clawed arms unfolded from its chest, twitching like coiled serpents ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

We were standing face to face with a tolan. I hope you never have to see one up close. I still have fucking nightmares about it to this day.

The thunderous roar it made as it lunged for us broke me out of whatever stupor I was in. Shrieking and screaming I immediately bolted to my right, while Gauge galloped in the opposite direction. Claws flew through the air and tore the ground where I’d been standing into ribbons, throwing huge clumps of dirt and grass into the air. For a moment I forgot I only had three legs to walk on, and when I tried to put weight on my front right leg I ate dirt instead. I hurriedly scrambled to my hooves, afraid the tolan’s maw of infinite pointy pain and death was about to scoop me up, but I felt the ground shake less as it charged in the opposite direction. Looking over my shoulder, I saw it lumbering after Gauge, who was simply high tailing it in the opposite direction as fast as he could. I don’t know why it went after Gauge instead of me when I was obviously weaker; maybe it saw Gauge was bigger, and therefore better to eat. But whatever the explanation, that’s the only reason why I didn’t fucking die immediately.

The gears in my mind whirred extremely fast. We had to get someplace where the tolan couldn’t get to us. Out here in the open, it’d run us down or tire us out, and it’d be over. For the moment, Gauge was fast enough to outrun it, using the trees to his advantage, but that wasn’t going to last forever. He was galloping as fast as he could, and the tolan didn’t look like it was at top speed. It was spending too much time navigating the woods (and knocking over a few trees in the process) to pick up much speed. And I remembered Zip saying that these things can easily outrun a pony on open ground.

I saw the smokestacks of the foundry further up the hill, and I knew that was our only chance. Stumbling and tripping my way up, I tried to get as much distance as I could while Gauge led it on a chase through the woods. After I picked up maybe thirty or forty yards, I turned around and fired several bursts from my rifle at the tolan’s rear. I actually saw the bullets spark off of its armor like tiny fireworks in the night—what the fuck was it with Auris and all its wildlife using iron in their bodies?!

But at the very least I achieved my intended effect; it stopped chasing Gauge and turned toward me. Even though I hadn’t hurt the damn thing, I could tell I’d pissed it off, and the only warning I had was a violent shriek that rattled the teeth in my jaw before the tolan kicked up plumes of dirt and grass and began barreling towards me. There weren’t many trees between it and me—it’d been waiting at the edge of the woods when we stumbled across it, and I’d run the complete opposite way—and it began to pick up speed frighteningly fast. Suddenly those extra thirty yards I’d picked up didn’t seem like all that much.

I backpedaled as fast as I could (which wasn’t fast at all) and tried to shoot at its eyes. They were probably the only unarmored part of its body apart from its mouth, and I really didn’t want to be given the opportunity to shoot into there. But the thing lumbered and swayed so violently with its strange six-legged gait that I couldn’t put the bullets where I wanted. I saw a few spark off of its nose and brow, but none hit its eyes. Behind it, at least, I could see Gauge galloping for his life toward the foundry, so I wasn’t going to become tolan food for nothing.

Once more it lunged at me, but before it did, I summoned a fireball to my horn and launched it at the monster’s face. I don’t think I hurt it at all, because it didn’t stop its charge or anything, but I momentarily blinded it. Once more I threw myself as far to the side as I could as it blindly lunged for me, claws swinging through the air. I wasn’t fast enough, because one of its claws ripped through my saddlebags and got stuck in it. Next thing I knew, I was violently thrown through the air as it roared and thrashed, and when I finally stopped spinning, I was at least a good fifty feet off the ground, probably more. And I’d lost my fucking gun, though I wasn’t exactly too concerned about that at the moment.

Right at the top of my arc, I heard Nova shout “Ember!” and the next thing I knew, she’d barreled right into my side. It knocked the breath from my lungs and painfully reminded me about my injured foreleg, but Nova was able to carry me back down to the ground instead of letting gravity do it for me. She angled for the foundry and set me down against a wall, then turned back to the roaring tolan down the hill. “Oh no! Gauge! It’s gonna eat him!”

“I lost my gun!” I wheezed, still recovering from being tossed into the air like a fucking ragdoll. “I can’t distract it from here, and I can’t see it to throw fireballs at it!”

“What do we do?!” Nova wailed. I could see her hyperventilating and her shoulders shaking; this was by far the worst shit we’d ever been in. Even I couldn’t help them, and they were so reliant on me to keep them safe. I felt fucking awful about it.

I tried to haul myself back to my hooves, but in the time it took to do that, Nova already snapped open her wings and streaked back towards Gauge and the tolan. I tried to gallop after her, and got to the edge of the compound just in time to see Nova launch herself at the tolan’s face. Her hooves connected with its armored brow, though nowhere near hard enough to hurt it. But it noticed her, because it snarled and spun around, trying to snap her up in its jaws. Nova was too quick, though, and darted back into the sky and started flying circles above it, just out of its reach.

I saw Gauge momentarily hesitate as his marefriend started distracting the tolan. “Gauge! Come on!” I yelled, getting his attention. “This way, before you’re fucking lizard food!”

Thankfully, Gauge lowered his head and began galloping up the hill toward the foundry while the tolan was too distracted to notice. In a few seconds he was at my side, covered in sweat and panting really hard. I gave him a quick slap on the shoulder and pointed to the foundry. “Find a way in! Quickly!”

“But Nova—!”

“Will be fine! Now go!” I gave him a little shove with my telekinesis, and I went down the hill a little bit to get a better line of sight with the tolan. Then, letting mana build up on my horn, I lowered myself into casting stance. “Nova! Fly!” I shouted, right as I loosed a massive fireball at the tolan.

Nova quickly twisted and spun in the air to reorient herself with the foundry and swooped over the tolan’s back right as my fireball hit the ground, throwing up a ton of smoke and ash. I heard the tolan roar in frustration and felt the thundering of its feet as it began to charge out of the fire, searching for Nova. Thankfully, my distraction bought her some breathing room, and she was able to streak back to me long before the tolan could get to her.

But it was still picking up speed; there wasn’t anything between it and the foundry to slow it down, and it could move deceptively fast. As soon as Nova got close to me, I turned around and did that hobbled-gallop thing back to the closest building, where Gauge was trying to force a huge warehouse door open. “Ember! Help!” he shouted, his hooves slipping on the ground as he tried to gain traction. Letting my horn flare up a bit, I wrapped it around the top corner of the door and began straining. The thing was locked from the inside, but if the hinges on the outside were horribly rusted, then the lock inside had to be as well. Even Nova flew up to the corner of the door I was pulling on and wedged her hoof in the gap I’d made to try and widen it some.

Then SCaR began blaring an alarm, and I looked over my shoulder to see the Tolan getting really fucking close. I puffed out my cheeks as I strained one last time, and then I heard the shrieking of metal and the lock shattered into tiny rusty bits. The door flew open and nearly hit Gauge in the face, and then the three of us darted inside and immediately grabbed the door to close it again. With my magic and both Nova and Gauge struggling to pull it closed, we managed to shut it right before the tolan reached us.

Then the doors almost flew off of their hinges when the tolan rammed its armored skull against them. “Hold the door!” I screamed, and we all threw our backs against the bulging doors to try and hold them shut. They were big doors and they weren’t meant to open inwards, so we had that going for us, but I didn’t know how long they’d hold. Instead, my mind started racing as I searched for anything to barricade the door with in the immediate vicinity. My eyes settled on a massive pile of billets sitting near some old machinery not too far from us, and I picked up a couple and floated them over to the door.

Then the tolan’s claws started ripping through the door, and Nova screamed in agony. My blood turned to ice, and I turned my head only to see the tolan’s claws wrapped tightly around one of her wings. “Nova!” I screamed, immediately dropping a bunch of billets on the floor and dashing to her side. Gauge almost shouldered me out of the way as he grabbed a piece of scrap metal lying around and began clubbing the tolan’s claws in desperation, screaming Nova’s name and trying to free his marefriend. But neither his makeshift weapon or Nova’s screeching and flailing made the tolan let go, and even my fire didn’t do anything. Fucking tolans and their armored everything!

The tolan began to pull back, taking Nova’s wing along with it through the deep gouge it carved out of the door. Nova cried out in pain again, tears streaming down her face as she fought and thrashed. Gauge continued to struggle and try to get it to let go, but I stopped as a cold horror settled deep in my gut. There was only one way this could possibly go.

I pulled a rag out of my sliced-up saddlebags and stuffed it in Nova’s mouth. She fought against me, confused and afraid, until I held her head between my hooves. “Nova, bite down, okay? It’s gonna be okay, Nov, I promise, you’ll be fine! You’ll be fine! We’re gonna get you out of here!” Then I turned to Gauge and swallowed the lump in my throat. “Gauge, we need to cut her loose!”

Gauge blinked and looked at me in disbelief. “But her wing—!”

The tolan clenched its claws and I heard bones snap like little splinters. Nova screamed again, muffled as she was with the rag in her mouth. The only reason the tolan hadn’t ripped her wing clean off yet was because of the heavy steel door its claws were wrapped around, but if it took that door off of its hinges, it’d take Nova with it. And I didn’t trust the door to hold much longer. “Gauge,” I said, pleading with him, “it’s her wing or her life.”

The poor zebra stared at me, completely torn on what I was asking him to do. I didn’t blame him; could I have brought myself to do the same had it been Zip stuck in a tolan’s claws instead? But the tolan tugged again at the door, and one of the bolts holding the hinge to the door came flying off. Cursing, he gently pushed me aside. “You cut.” I nodded and stepped aside, and he put his hooves on Nova’s cheeks. “Nova, look at me. Look at me. I love you. No matter what, I love you, okay?”

Nova’s teary and frightened eyes were locked with Gauge’s, and he nodded almost imperceptibly to me. Then, pulling out my hunting knife from my bags, I grimly wrapped my magic around Nova’s wing and began to cut. Nova started to scream and thrash some more, and Gauge wrapped his forelegs around her shoulders to calm her. Her screaming only got worse and worse as I sawed my way through her wing: skin, muscle, sinew, and finally the white shards of broken, hollow bones.

And then, with a sickening tearing noise and a river of blood, I chopped Nova’s wing from her shoulder.

She fell forward with one last muffled cry into Gauge’s embrace, and he carried her away from the door, leaving a trail of blood behind. “We need to get her someplace safe,” I said, glancing at the door and the gruesome sight of a white wing dripping blood onto the floor. “That tolan’s gonna get inside any fucking moment.”

I finally had a chance to look around the room we were in. There were a ton of billets lying around next to some pretty old machinery. I couldn’t make sense of what most of it was for, but I guess it had something to do with refining the steel billets into more useful forms. I will admit that I felt a touch of jealousy in my forgemare heart that there was all this good quality steel just lying in piles on Auris when I’d spent most of my life recycling shitty aluminum satellite dish panels.

In the back of the building, behind all the machinery, was a large foremare’s office that looked down on the production line. “Up there!” I said, pointing to the catwalk that led up to it. Gauge took his attention away from Nova just long enough to nod, and then he went back to kissing her cheek as he carried her on his back across the floor. I felt awful just looking at her, at how a wingtip nearly touched the ground on Gauge’s left and blood just poured down his right. I flung some more billets at the door and then used my telekinesis to put pressure on the wound and stop her from bleeding as badly until we got her someplace safe; there wasn’t even enough of a stump left on her shoulder to put a tourniquet around, so I’d have to stop her bleeding in a much more unpleasant way. I felt worse than the fucking tolan outside for having to do all this to her.

We hurriedly made our way across the building and up the catwalk to the office before the tolan smashed its way through the door. I’d just managed to force the locked door open when the tolan finally broke through, clawing and ripping up the concrete floor as it tried to squeeze through the opening. The wall above it and around it started to cave, and I started to panic again. If this thing was this desperate to get its meal, then simply hiding in this building wasn’t going to be good enough, especially with the smell of Nova’s blood in the air. We had to find some way out of here.

Thankfully, there was another door in the back of the foremare’s office, and when I opened it, I saw it led to a walkway between this building and the adjacent one. “Come on!” I shouted to Gauge, dashing across the walkway and forcing the next door open. “It won’t find us in here!”

I stuck my head through the doorway to make sure that it was safe to enter. I saw a short hallway with a few rooms on either side; it looked like it was a bunch of administrator’s offices or something. At least this would be safe enough. I immediately went for the first door on the right and opened it to find a conference room inside with a big metal table in the middle. Using my magic to sweep away the dust and debris, I cleared a space and pointed to it when Gauge followed me inside. “Put her down there,” I said, “and hold her down.”

Gauge nodded to me, but he looked pretty frightened. Nova was drifting in and out of consciousness, but I knew that what I did next was going to snap her awake pretty fast. Once Gauge was in position and was murmuring things in Nova’s ear to calm her, I grabbed a piece of scrap metal that’d fallen from the ceiling and began to heat it until it was glowing.

“Get that rag in her mouth again,” I said to Gauge, and he carefully put it between Nova’s teeth. He watched me lower the piece of metal, obviously worried but at least knowing what I was about to do, and he went back to petting Nova’s mane. “Nova, bite down hard,” I said. “Please forgive me.”

Then I pressed the glowing piece of steel to the stump of her severed wing, and she immediately cried out and started thrashing again. But Gauge held her down, and I was able to take the metal off after a second or two and toss it away, leaving a charred, cauterized stump on Nova’s right shoulder. Then I pulled out my first aid kid and immediately bandaged it up, tucking lots of gauze and some Stabil-Ice against the wound to try and make it more comfortable for her. Or, as comfortable as having one of your limbs ripped off and burned could possibly be.

Nova passed out at some point during all that, but she wasn’t bleeding anymore, so I hoped that she’d be fine. Once I had everything taken care of, I finally snapped and started jumping around, cursing, and kicking shit everywhere. “Fuck!” I screamed in fury. “Stars-fucking-damn it! Fuck!” I wanted to rip that tolan to pieces, limb by limb. The pain and agony it dealt to Nova I’d deal back ten times over. But underneath all of that, I was afraid. Afraid of how Nova would react when she finally woke up and realized that she’d never fly again. I couldn’t possibly imagine life without my magic. I couldn’t possibly imagine what life without the sky would be like for a pegasus.

By Nova’s side, Gauge laid next to her, forelegs wrapped around her but careful not to touch the bandages. And unlike me, he simply cried in silent sorrow. He nuzzled her over and over again, as much for his own comfort as for hers. SCaR awkwardly hovered behind him, silently looking on apart from the noise of its thrusters.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I dug through my saddlebags, grabbed my box of cigarettes and stormed out of the room.

I only started to cry when I found a quiet corner to myself further down the hallway.