“Is this what it feels like to not have anypony trying to kill us?” I asked the group once we sat down for lunch. “I can’t remember the last time I felt this way.”

“It’s certainly been a while,” Gauge agreed, placing his hoof over Nova’s. “And even then, shrikes were always trying to kill us back in Blackwash.”

“It wasn’t so bad!” Nova exclaimed, her wings flaring a little with excitement. “They never came to the town, anyway! They only went after you if you were dumb enough to go down the mountainside by yourself or fly too high into the sky!”

Ace chuckled. “They’re big, but they’re dumb. I’ve shot a few because they don’t know when to fuck off. Their skulls have trouble stopping slugs from my rifle.” I noticed that unlike me, Ace had kept her weapons on her person. I wasn’t sure if I should be worried about that or not. I certainly didn’t know what we could expect in this city.

Surge took over for a moment. “I assume by shrike, you mean Aquila montis?”

“Fuck if I know, we just call them shrikes,” I said.

Thankfully, Nova was more helpful. “Yeah, that’s right. They were all over the place where we grew up, to the north.”

I felt Surge poke through my memories a bit to confirm that we were talking about the same thing, so I helpfully remembered the time that one almost killed me after leaving Blackwash. She recoiled a bit from that; I guess I’d managed to capture my terror pretty good in my memory. After a moment to collect herself, she made me nod. “Ah, I see. Thank you for showing me your close brush with death, Ember.”

“Yeah, no problem,” I said. I worked my jaw from side to side and looked around our table. “But like, where the fuck did the waiter go?”

We were seated at a busy restaurant that looked over the big river—creatively named the Main—a bit into the east part of the town. We’d gone there on Ace’s recommendation, as we knew basically fuck all about this city, and it was obvious that she knew where all the good shit was. Of course, it would certainly help if we’d get served, because we were all starving and it didn’t seem like food was coming anytime soon.

At least it offered a good view. Watching the river skiffs paddle upstream on ancient fusion engines that scores of skilled mechanics had probably bashed their heads against to keep running was oddly relaxing. Numerous little docks jutted out from the banks of the river below us, and ponies were constantly loading and unloading crates and goods. The skiffs that returned nearly empty almost always had a couple of strong earth ponies carrying an enormous ammo crate between them, probably filled to the brim with bullets from a trader’s successful haul. I had to wonder just how many bullets were lying around Auris that society could make an economy off of them.

Surge seemed to be wondering the same thing. “Fixing your system of currency around a limited and expendable resource seems like a good way to inflate it to the point of collapse after a few years.”

“It’ll hold for now,” Ace said. “Good thing you fuckers stuffed this planet with billions and billions of bullets. Groups like the Ruin Runners unearth depots all the time and pour cartridges into the economy, usually through the Brass Bank. At least until we finish rebuilding society, we ain’t gonna find a better currency stand-in. Everypony knows the value of a bullet: it’s the price we pay to keep ourselves safe.”

“And the more you have, the better you can theoretically do that,” I finished for her.

“Hypothetically,” Nova grumbled from the other side of the table.

I blinked. “What?”

She waved her wing. “Semantics. What you meant to say was ‘hypothetically’. ‘Theoretically’ relates to something proven through repeated trial and error and backed by data, not a guess.” At my blank stare, she huffed and crossed her forelegs. “At least one pony in your skull understands that.”

“Good to see that the scientific method hasn’t entirely been lost from this planet,” Surge said. “There may be hope for ponykind yet.”

“Unless this code blows us all up or something,” I muttered. I looked to my left and saw the waiter trotting around, so I waved my hoof at him. “Hey! We’re ready to order!”

“You better come fast; she starts getting bitchy when she’s hungry,” Gauge said once I got the waiter’s attention. I yanked on his ear with my magic in response and crossed my forelegs while the waiter made his way over to us.

“I do apologize for the wait, we’re exceedingly busy right now,” the waiter said. His horn lit up and he pulled a pen and a notepad out of some pocket behind his apron. “Welcome to the Main Course. What can I get for you?”

“River craws and something from whatever barrel the house’s got open this month,” Ace said, sliding over her menu without even looking at it. I guess I knew now what she considered the best the place had to offer.

“What’s a river craw?” Nova asked. “That some kind of fish?”

“Soft-shelled crustaceans that live on the bottom of the Main,” the waiter informed us. “A local delicacy. I heartily recommend them.”

“They’re really good,” Ace agreed. “I get them all the time. They just ain’t the same though if they ain’t fresh from Three Rivers.”

I thought that sounded really good, but Nova made a face when she heard that they were crustaceans. “I think I’ll stick with the red salad with stone hare meat,” she said. “And a glass of water, please?”

“Of course,” the waiter said. He turned to me next, being the last mare at the table. “And for you?”

I scanned over the menu to make sure that I knew what I wanted. “A bowl of the sand clam chowder and those river craw things,” I said. I was really hungry, and I hadn’t had a properly cooked meal in forever. Damn if I wasn’t going to stuff my face.

Gauge slid his menu over as the waiter collected mine. “Rock runner ribs and water squash,” he said. “And water.”

The waiter picked up all our menus and bowed. “Your food will be out shortly. Thank you for your patience.” Then he was gone again, and I didn’t know how long it would be until I could feast like a queen.

Ace fixed Nova with a funny look. “You ain’t never heard of river craws before?” she asked. I could tell she was astounded.

“I don’t think any of us have,” I said. “In fact, we’ve never had seafood before. Unless I’m missing something and the Crimson actually gave you two quality rations while they had you captive or something,” I said to my lovebird friends.

“Any rations would’ve been quality rations,” Gauge said, and Nova nodded alongside him. Turning to Ace, he shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you. We grew up on a mountain, so we never had seafood. There weren’t even any lakes within an easy hike of where we lived. We had to harvest rainwater just to have something to drink and keep our crops growing when things got dry.

“Thankfully it rained at least twice a week,” Nova said. “We were lucky in that respect.”

“Until it got to winter and that meant it was fucking snowing constantly,” I grumbled. I mean, I even liked winter because it meant the sun wasn’t roasting me and my black coat all day, but it got so fucking cold on that mountain, and it snowed so fucking much that we wouldn’t be able to leave the house if we didn’t clear it out every day. “Do you know how much snow I had to shovel just so that Mom and me could get to the forge?”

“At least you had a toasty forge to go to,” Gauge countered. “The rest of us just froze our asses off inside, trying to keep our drafty huts warm.”

“I seem to recall the two of you spending a lot of days sitting in the forge with me when I was working,” I said. “You were lucky you knew me.”

I got a sudden sensation of lying on a bed wrapped in blankets, staring at a glowing tablet I supported on my pillow with blue hooves. “I spent several winters through fuel shortages in the war against the Coalition,” Surge said. “Manehattan hardly had any coal to run its power plants, and the military gobbled up all the nuclear fuel it could get its hooves on to keep the war machine running. During blizzards, my apartment tower would drop below freezing, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.” She thought for a moment before adding, “One or two tenants died from the cold every winter. It was just something I got used to.”

Ace shook her head. “Hard to imagine that you still believe in the Synarchy,” she said.

“You weren’t there,” Surge countered. “You don’t understand.”

“All I’m understanding is that I’m glad I weren’t there,” Ace said. She pointed around us, at the busy streets, the strong buildings, the ponies happily eating their lunches at the tables around us. “Three Rivers is everything your damn Synarchy ain’t. It’s peaceful, it’s prosperous, and it’s fucking happy. Ponies ain’t got no fuel shortages here. Ponies don’t freeze to death inside their own homes because the city won’t even provide the power and fuel they need to stay warm. Ponies ain’t getting drafted and shoved into the military when they’re fifteen winters old to go fight and die someplace far from home.” She spat to her right, watching the spittle fall into the river below. “If you honestly believe the Synarchy is better than this right here, even in spite of us having to deal with all your fuckups and all the misery you left for us to struggle through, then I don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry that they brainwashed you so good you can’t see a good thing even if somepony’s gouging your eyeballs out with it.”

I felt Surge sift through a dozen different responses, but she dropped them one by one until she chose smoldering silence as her answer. Ace glanced at me and shook her head, putting an awkward smile on her muzzle. “Shoot, I hate having to yell at you to yell at her, Ember. This shit’s all kinds of fucky.”

“I’ll live,” I insisted. “I’ve had ponies yell at me for worse. I’m a pain in the ass like that.”

“True enough,” Gauge teased me. Nova giggled at his side and leaned closer against him.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up.”

We talked for a bit more until our food finally came out. I swear, I smelled it before I even saw it approaching. The waiter returned with our dishes held in his magic, and one by one, he placed them in front of us. “Enjoy,” he said, bowing his head before he retreated to talk to another table.

I licked my lips and got a good look at my bounty. The chowder was creamy and chunky, and the other plate had ten river craws on it. I felt like they were staring back at me with their six eyes across their red faceplate. Each one curled up was probably the size of my hoof; honestly, I wasn’t expecting them to still look so alive.

Ace licked her lips and popped one of the craws in her mouth. I heard its shell crunch between her teeth and some clear juices dribbled down her chin. After a few seconds to chew, she swallowed it and slouched back in her chair, humming in ecstasy. “It’s been so long since I had a good craw,” she said. “Had a few in other places, but they ain’t like how they make them here.” She poked my side and grinned. “Try one! They’re great!”

I picked one up in my magic and stared at it. Nova and Gauge watched me with curiosity, mouths slowly working on their bites. “Fuck it,” I said, and I just shoved the whole thing in my mouth. Before I could think about it too much, I just bit down hard.

The shell split open, spilling meat and juice into my mouth. It had a salty, chunky taste to it, but that was blended almost perfectly with a little bit of spice and whatever else they cooked it in. When I finally swallowed it, I grinned. “That’s really good!”

“Told you so,” Ace said. “Best damn seafood there is.”

“I hate your body for making it taste good,” Surge grumbled. “It feels wrong.”

“Yeah, well, shut up,” I said, popping another one in my mouth. I already knew these were going to fill me up pretty good. I levitated a spoonful of the chowder to my lips and took a sip of that. “Fuck, this place is so good! What about you guys, how are your meals?”

“It’s good!” Nova exclaimed between mouthfuls of her salad. “I forgot what eating real food tastes like! Can we just retire here and eat good food and not have to worry about ponies trying to kill us all the time?”

Gauge chuckled and brushed her cheek. “If only, Nov. You know I’d love that.”

“Maybe after we kick Reclaimer in the dick,” I said. “For now, we just gotta push on with this code shit.”

“Not right now, I hope,” Gauge said. “I’d like a chance to enjoy our vacation before we have to go back into the wilderness.”

“Yeah, me too.” I shoveled the rest of the chowder down my throat and ate a few more of the craws. “So,” I said, turning to Ace, “what are we doing after this?”

I thought the Brass Bank was big before, but fuck, nothing really gives you an appreciation for something that huge like standing under it in its shadow. I felt like I was going to break my neck just by craning my head back to stare up at this thing.

“Sweet fuck that’s neat,” I said. “How long did it take them to make this thing?”

“Ten years, I believe,” Ace said. “Ten years and hundreds of workers.”

Gauge whistled. “That must’ve been one hell of a construction project.”

“Impressive for a bunch of backwards barbarians,” Surge muttered.

“And they did this all without modern technology or engineering techniques,” Nova said, awestruck. “Amazing.”

“What’s with the statue?” I asked Ace, pointing to the big bullet made out of guns behind us.

She turned around and looked it over. “They built that shortly after opening this building. It’s supposed to be symbolic and shit. Wars are fought with guns, but you ain’t gonna win the war without the bullets. Sure, you shoot them from your guns, but they’re more than that, too. You can buy mercs, supply your troops, pay off towns for support, that sort of thing. If you control the guns, you’re a warlord. If you control the bullets, you’re a winner.” She turned around again and nodded to the huge building towering over us. “The Brass Bank controls the bullets. They’re the winners of this planet.”

Then she gestured to the big doors. “Why we standing out here like idiots? There’s more to see inside, you know.”

I let her lead the way while I stayed kind of by her side. The huge doors must’ve been forty feet tall and they were held open by massive chains protruding from the outside walls. Four incredibly well-armed ponies stood by each door, each looking more than a little bored. A constant stream of ponies went in and out, many of them lugging large ammo crates with them. I kind of really wanted to see the vault where the Bank kept all their bullets. That must’ve been an amazing sight.

Perhaps not as amazing as the interior, though. Whatever I thought about the outside, the interior just blew that away. The floor was tiled and largely open, interrupted here and there by massive columns that supported an impressive vaulted ceiling. The large windows let in a ton of light, keeping the whole place almost as bright as the day outside, and stone statues lined the walls as tasteful decorations. Several long counters had been placed around the edges of the room where tellers worked with the lines of ponies all trying to manage their finances. Up above, ponies with powerful rifles sat on the second and third floor balconies, idly watching the crowd below them with passing interest.

Honestly, the whole place felt like it was a cathedral. This place was built in honor of money, and the ponies who came here did so to worship money. I guess it just proved that after the end of the world, the bullet was king.

“I think we found civilization,” I murmured in awe. “We should just let the Brass Bank rebuild Auris when all this shit is said and done.”

“Something I can agree on,” Surge said. “These ponies have strength and power. They’re organized and orderly. They could rebuild Equestria here if they weren’t so complacent.”

“I don’t get that,” Gauge said. “They’re so well equipped and they seem so strong and powerful. Why aren’t they doing more?”

Ace shrugged. “Something I can’t answer. I ain’t on their council. Probably ‘cause war is bad for business if you’re the one fighting it. They prefer to be the ones fueling it; much more profitable that way.”

I sort of vacantly walked deeper into the building, my eyes flitting from one thing to the next. There was so much to take in, so much noise and movement and color. It felt like I was in Blackwash’s town square, and this was only one building. I had to wonder if the ponies of Three Rivers really knew the struggles that the rest of us faced in merely surviving from day to day when they were this wealthy and this strong.

As my eyes bounced from pony to pony, I did a double take. There, chatting with one of the tellers, was the fucker himself. I recognized that mangy yellow hide anywhere, especially with my family rifle slung across his back. Four ponies wearing white combat armor with gold designs edging the pieces stood around him, their eyes slowly moving across the crowd. They passed over me without any sort of recognition; I almost felt insulted that Yeoman didn’t consider me enough of a threat to tell his guards to be on the lookout for the black mare with the fiery mane.

“You guys should stop Ember,” Surge warned with my own voice. “She’s going to get herself killed.” Even as she said it, I felt her trying to steal control of my limbs to prevent me from just galloping across the place and pummeling him to a pulp.

Ace and Gauge both quickly moved to my sides and put their hooves on my shoulders before I could even start walking. “We should go,” Gauge said, trying to push me back toward the door. “The last thing we need is his attention.”

“We’ll fight another day,” Ace said, tugging on my left. “Ain’t gonna solve nothing here.”

If you know me at all, I think you shouldn’t be surprised when I did exactly the opposite of that. “Yeoman!” I screamed at him, lunging forward a step only to be roughly shoved back by Ace and Gauge. “Yeoman, you fuck! Come over here! Get your ass over here!”

My voice echoed a few times, and the whole atmosphere of the bank changed. The civilians flinched and looked my way, slowly backing into the shadows. The mercenary guards stationed around the building tensed, and I saw a few reaching for their weapons out of the corner of my eye. Yeoman’s guards all formed a protective line between him and me, though they were disciplined enough to keep their weapons holstered. And lastly, Yeoman himself slowly turned in place until we were staring each other down from across the room.

A smile formed on the half of his face that could still move. “If it isn’t my number one fan!” he purred, parting the wall of his guards to walk closer to me. The other ponies on the floor quickly stepped aside, leaving the two of us an open path. Gauge and Ace loosened their grip on my shoulders, but only when they were reasonable sure that I wasn’t going to try to charge across the room and stick my horn in his heart or something. “I do have to thank you for helping me get to the installation in the gorge. You saved me a lot of time and effort trying to open it and trying to get in. I assume since you’re here that you take payment in standard C’s like everypony else?”

I stepped forward but felt resistance at each shoulder. “I’m gonna fucking kill you,” I growled at him. “I’m gonna burn the flesh from your bones. You’re gonna regret ever fucking with me.” I let my horn light up to try to intimidate him, but he didn’t seem all that fazed. Especially when red dots began hovering on all our skulls.

He just leaned back on his hind legs a bit and shrugged his wings. “Am I? Do you think you can burn me before the guards fill you with lead? I’d darken your horn if I were you; I don’t know how long the Brass Bank’s mercs are going to tolerate that threatening display of magic.”

I sneered at him, but with more gentle urging from my friends, I let my mana fizzle out. One by one, the laser dots started to disappear as the mercs lowered their weapons. Yeoman scoffed at me and walked even closer, so close that we were almost muzzle to grotesquely-deformed muzzle. “You’re lucky that the same rules apply to both of us,” he said, smiling. “I’d cut you down right here and put you out of my mane. You’re starting to create a lot of problems for the City.”

“You think you’re so good?” I spat back. “Why don’t we take this outside the city? My team against yours. It doesn’t matter when or where, but I’d be happy to gut you face to face.”

“I prefer to fight at a distance,” he said, leaning in a bit closer. “You saw what I did to your marefriend.”

That finally crossed the line for me. I drove my head forward without warning, crashing my skull against his. The only difference was that mine had a horn and his didn’t. He staggered back and clutched his forehead, while my friends hauled me back and his guards stepped between us with drawn weapons. Once more, the laser sights danced across all of us, and one of the mercenaries shouted at us to freeze. But simply seeing the blood trickling down Yeoman’s face from the gash my horn tore through his skin was worth it.

He growled at me and wiped some of the blood off of his face. “You’ll pay for that,” he threatened. A moment later, he signaled with a wing, and his four guards holstered their weapons. They walked past me and my friends without another word, save one when Yeoman put himself between me and the door. “Enjoy your stay in Three Rivers. The hospitality is nice… while it lasts.”

Then he was gone. I watched the five of them leave the bank while I panted in rage, and only after they were out of sight did my friends finally let go of me. Things slowly went back to normal, and the mercenaries holstered their weapons and went back to watching over everything. But they still kept a close eye on me and my friends, and I couldn’t blame them for that.

And then Ace slapped me across the face, though since she was already with me, I guess the mercs didn’t care that much. While I reeled from the blow (I didn’t think she could really hit that hard), she leered over me. “You trying to get us all killed?!” she shouted, pressing her nose against mine. “You dumb bitch, you almost got us gunned down in the bank! And worse than that, you let that cocksucker know that we’re following him! Now he knows that we’re right on his ass, and he can set the terms of battle, not us!”

“She wasn’t thinking straight,” Surge said, forcing me to sit down in a burst of willpower. “Then again, I’m not sure that she ever does.”

“Fuck you,” I muttered back when she let me speak again. “Fuck all of you. You don’t know what was going through my mind. You don’t know what it’s like to see that fuck that close but not be able to do anything to him.”

“I felt it,” Surge said. “Pure rage. You were blinded by it, and it made you even stupider than normal. Maybe I should paralyze your tongue whenever you start getting furious; it would certainly help in situations like this.”

“I should just cut it out and save us all the trouble,” Ace growled. Even Nova and Gauge looked frustrated with me. But, sighing, Ace sat down across from me and shook her head. “Was it worth it?”

“Not until I kill him,” I whispered back. “He killed my marefriend. Things won’t be even until I tear him to pieces.”

Ace’s features softened and she looked away. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But you still shouldn’t have done that. Now we’re fucked.”

“He can’t hurt us inside the city, right?” I asked her. “They’ll kill him, too.”

“Not if they don’t catch him. You know how easy it is to shoot or stab somepony in an alley and get away without the mercs knowing? And that fucker seems like the kind to have one of his henchponies do it. He ain’t risking shit to kill us here, now that he knows we’re behind him.”

“Oh.” I stared down at my hooves. “I fucked up.”

“And grass is pink,” Gauge muttered.

“It was green on Equus,” Surge countered.

“This isn’t Equus, Sparky. We’ve got pink grass and a blue sun.”

Nova stepped between all of us. “Can we please stop? This isn’t going to accomplish anything.” Looking down at me, she offered me her hoof to help me stand. “Em, that was a really stupid idea, but we just gotta live with it now. There’s nothing we can do except keep an eye over our shoulders.”

Ace grunted and stood up across from me. “And here I was looking forward to a relaxing day or two off. Guess that ain’t happening now…”

I bowed my head. “I fuck up so much that I’m not sure if my apologies mean anything anymore. But I’m sorry.”

“Sorry’s just words,” Ace grumbled. “Actions speak louder. Try to think before you fuck it up.”

“I’ll try.” I looked around us; guess there wasn’t really any point in hanging out here much longer now that I’d caused such a commotion. “Let’s just get go—”

“Ember?” a familiar voice called out of the crowd. My ears perked and I turned in place to see a silvery stallion trotting towards me. It took me a moment to recognize his mustache and fine clothes, but only because I wasn’t expecting to see him here. When I did, though, I beamed and trotted over to him.

“Denarius!” I called back, stopping to shake his hoof. “Fuck, how have you been?”

“Busy,” he said. “Though not as busy as you, I take it. I heard about everything that went down at the Dam. The Brass Bank should give you a medal. You opened a trade line everypony else thought was closed forever. Working with the Sentinels is going to be insanely profitable for the Bank.”

“If only we had the Bank’s help from the beginning,” I said. “It would’ve made that whole thing a cakewalk.”

Denarius shrugged. “The Bank wasn’t going to dump bullets into falling stock. But I’m glad you proved them otherwise.” He shifted the ammo crates strapped across his back, and I heard the jingling of lots of bullets. “I was just off to requisition supplies for the next caravan up there. I came back with a few thousand in profits after we talked last, but most of that’s going right into getting more supplies. The valley is going to need them, and the Sentinels have the funds to buy.”

“Good to hear. The ponies from my old settlement occupy the dam now, so try to be fair with them. You know, as a favor to me.”

The stallion chuckled and gave me a firm nod. “You know I’m charitable when the cause is good. Consider it a discount in the interest of establishing new business ventures with the far north.”

“Who’s that, Em?” Gauge asked, walking up alongside me with Nova not far behind. “You know him?”

“His name’s Denarius,” I said, stepping a bit to the side to introduce him to my friends. “He helped me out when I was trying to find you guys. He was also at the quarry before shit went down.”

Gauge smiled and shook Denarius’ hoof. “Gauge. Glad to see that Ember was making friends out there instead of shooting everypony she saw.”

“Probably for the best that’s how things went down,” Denarius said with a quick laugh. “I had eight mercenaries with me, and they were bored. They would’ve loved the excitement.”

“These are the friends I told you about,” I said. “At least, Gauge and Nova are. I’m just happy I got them out in one piece.”

“I’m happy for that as well.” He shook Nova’s hoof, then looked over her shoulder at Ace, who was sort of hovering in the background. “And you? You look far too experienced to be one of Ember’s friends—no offense,” he added to me.

Ace shook her head. “No, sir. Just along for the ride. Ember needs somepony capable handling a gun right alongside her. Makes it easier to keep her friends safe.”

“Ah,” he said. “Hired mercenary, then?”

“Only thing she’s paying me with is respect and a promise to help stop the Ivory City,” she said, shrugging. “That’s more than enough for me.”

“I can respect that,” Denarius said, nodding his head. Then he looked at SCaR, which was idly hovering around us. “And you have a pet, too. There aren’t many combat drones in working condition these days.”

“SCaR’s helped us out a ton,” Gauge said. He whistled at the drone, and it changed its course to buzz over to him. “He’s more than just a drone. The little guy’s been hanging around with us for six or seven winters now.”

“It’s probably the closest I’m gonna get to a foal out of him,” Nova pouted. I had to try really hard not to laugh at the look on Gauge’s face when she said that.

Denarius gave Gauge a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Sooner or later, that mare’s going to get what she wants,” he said, smiling at him.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Gauge muttered, rubbing his brow.

The merchant chuckled and nodded to me. “Well, it was nice to see you again, Ember. I need to go requisition my supplies before the shops close. I’ll be in town for a few days more before I have everything together to go north. Maybe we can catch a meal sometime.”

“Hopefully,” I said, shaking his hoof once more. “Take care!”

“You too.”

Then he continued on his way. I watched him go for a bit, but eventually the giant doors swallowed him up as he vanished into the vastness of Three Rivers. Soon it was just the four (five) of us inside the Bank, watching the ponies come and go.

Ace brushed shoulders with me and smirked. “Small world, ain’t it?”

After all the bullshit at the Bank, Three Rivers just didn’t feel the same. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting a bullet in the back of the head or a knife in my spine. Every shadowed alley and group of ponies set me on edge, because I was convinced that Yeoman or his goons were waiting to take me down. I just didn’t know where or when an attempt would come from, but I wasn’t about to be caught flat-hoofed. Even if I did end up dying in the street, I’d go down kicking and screaming.

As the hours went on, I felt my edge dulling, and even Ace, usually so attentive and hawk-eyed, was growing more relaxed. Nova and Gauge had gotten over it quickly; I guess being in each other’s company helped with that. Surge largely kept to herself, but I did feel a bit better having another pony processing what my eyes were seeing. Maybe she’d catch something I missed, if there was anything to miss at all.

In the meanwhile, I saw a ton of shit. I could probably go on for a long time talking about everything I saw, but honestly, most of it is probably pretty boring to you. I’d just been excited to see all this awesome, new shit, finally being in a real city and shit for the first time. It certainly didn’t feel like that long had passed, but ultimately, it was Surge who told me that my body was hungry. Almost as soon as she said it, I started to feel the hunger pains, and since it was getting late, we decided to get food.

I was all for going back to the place we had lunch at, but Ace wanted to take us somewhere different and a little classier. We ended up eating at this Bitalian place that Nova and Gauge loved, even though I had no idea what the fuck a ‘Bitalian’ was. I think it was more the atmosphere than the food, really; while I thought the food was good, my mouth was still watering at the thought of getting more seafood from the Main Course. But we ended up eating outside, and there were ponies playing music and singing out there with us, and once the sun started going down, they lit candles at the table to provide us with some light. By the time we had to pay, the two of them were practically all over each other, while me and Ace and SCaR looked on.

Nova must’ve had too much wine, because she was giggling and using her wing to support herself, draping it across Gauge’s back. Gauge was much more sure-hoofed; I guess he didn’t like the wine as much as his marefriend did. I hated it, of course, but I thought all booze tasted like shit. And I couldn’t really tell if Ace was drunk or not; with the amount she drank on an almost daily basis, I figured it’d take a lot more than a couple of glasses to get her over the edge.

We collected ourselves outside of the restaurant, and Gauge and Nova turned to look at me and Ace. “We’re going to go back to our room,” Gauge said, nuzzling his marefriend at the end of the sentence. “It’s been a busy day.”

“Busy…” Nova giggled. “It’s not too late for fun!”

Ace shook her head and held a wingtip to her brow. “Yeah… you two go do that,” she said. “We’ll be back in a bit.”

I winked at Gauge and waved them off. “Be gentle,” I warned them. “Gotta make sure everything works, right?”

“Thank you for the wise words of advice,” Gauge said, shaking his head. Then he turned around, guiding Nova back along the road. “See you in the morning.”

Ace and I watched them go. The outlaw snorted and turned the other way. “He better be careful with her.”

“He will be,” I said. “He’s always treated her right.”

“No, for his sake,” Ace clarified. “That girl’s got a cybernetic death wing attached to one shoulder and she’s sloshed outta her mind. If he ain’t careful, that thing could fuck him up.”

“It takes active thought to activate the wing’s razor feathers and other abilities,” Surge said. “Something that I imagine is difficult enough for her already, and will become increasingly difficult as the zebra pleasures her.” I could feel her practically shuddering in the back of my skull. “If it’s size she’s after, she’d be better off with an earth pony than a stripe’s member.”

“Aren’t you just a lovely little ball of sunshine,” I muttered, turning after Ace. “I don’t know what it’ll take you to understand that they’re genuinely in love, but that’s the truth of it. So you can fuck right off and just let them be.”

“It’s degenerate,” Surge protested. “It weakens our blood.”

“Ain’t you a scientist?” Ace asked over her shoulder. “Hard to imagine you think you’re so smart and you believe in dumb shit like that.”

“Mutts and other half-bloods were euthanized in the Synarchy. Blood breeds loyalty, and an enemy’s blood breeds treason.”

Ace hung her wings and groaned. “Talking with you ain’t no fucking picnic, that’s for sure,” she muttered. “I’d beat some sense into you but I don’t want to smash Ember’s pretty face.”

“Thanks for that,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Can we talk about anything else? Like, literally anything else? I don’t want to listen to more of racist grandma’s life lessons if I can help it.”

“That makes two of us,” Ace said. She raised her head and surveyed our surroundings. “I’ve got an idea. Come this way.”

She started walking down one of the streets without much more explanation than that, so I started following her. “Where we going?” I asked, flipping a cigarette out of my box and sticking it in the corner of my mouth. I’d need to get some more before we left Three Rivers. “Hopefully not to a bar. I don’t drink.”

“Nah, ain’t that,” Ace said, slowing her pace a little so I could pull up alongside her. “An old haunt I used to go to all the time. It’ll let you see the whole city at night. Ain’t something to miss.”

“It’s certainly really pretty down here,” I said, my eyes drifting over the different buildings, weakly lit by torches in streetlights. With the whole town lit up like this, it felt like it might as well have still been the middle of the day. The ponies wandering across the streets this late at night certainly made it feel like the city was still alive and awake. “I can’t imagine what it looks like from afar.”

“It’s the closest thing I’ve seen so far to the Manehattan skyline at night,” Surge said. “Before the wars, they used to call it the city that never sleeps. The lights were always on and there were always ponies on its streets. You could find somepony to talk to or somepony selling something at any time of the day—or night.”

“Before the wars?” Ace asked. “Let me guess. That changed for the worse, too.”

“During the last war with the Coalition, we had mandatory blackouts after sundown. Power rationing meant there wasn’t really much to do after dark, anyway. The city was bombed on occasion, either from atmosphere or orbit, and turning the lights on would’ve made it easier to hit during the night.”

“Thankfully we don’t have to worry about that here,” I said, slipping my tongue and my voice back into my natural accent instead of Surge’s slightly-off pronunciation. “Nopony has any spaceships or bombers… yet.”

“And hopefully it’ll stay that way,” Ace said. We paused at a busy intersection, and Ace thought for a moment and decided on going left. “This way. It’s a bit of a walk, though.”

I shrugged. “Used to it,” I said, falling in behind her. “I don’t remember what it’s like to stay in one place for more than a day.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” Ace said. “I ain’t ever been in the same town for more than a month since I turned fifteen. Got a case of the wanderlust real bad from my Pa; hell, one of the first things I did after I left the Ruin Runners was track that bastard down, figure out where he went to.”

“Track him down?” I asked. “What for?”

Ace shrugged. “So I could look my Pa in the eye and he could meet his little girl? The bastard flew the coop on my Ma before I was even born. Didn’t even know what he looked like until a few ponies pointed me in the right direction, eighteen damn winters later.”

“Sounds like my father,” I said. “Mine hung around until I was two. I barely remember his voice. But he left my mom broken-hearted, so I’m more angry with him than anything.” Sighing, I added, “Is that just a pegasus thing or…?”

“You’re asking the wrong gal, Ember,” Ace said. “I guess it’s just easier to leave everything behind and not look back when you got wings.”

“Statistical data from records collected in the early days of the Synarchy showed that pegasus stallions were more likely to leave their spouses and families than any other group,” Surge said. “There’s probably some truth in what you say, Ace. They were also the worst offenders of our marriage and reproduction laws up to the Synarchy’s prolonged silence.”

Ace snorted. “Stallions,” she said, winking at me. “They knock us up and then leave us to deal with the aftermath. How about that?”

I chuckled. “Ain’t that the truth. At least you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant with another mare.”

“Unless there’s some kind of magic bullshit going on.” Her eyes drifted to my horn. “They have any spells for that back in the day, Sparky?”

I think Surge had just resigned herself to the nickname at this point; after a few days of it, she wasn’t really fighting us anymore. “There were some, but none of them were perfect. They often resulted in miscarriage or other deformities.” She sighed and added, “As advanced as we liked to think we were, there are some things that biology does much better than magic, perfected through millions of years of evolution.”

“Well, that settles that, I suppose,” I said.

“Yeah, guess it does.”

Ace took me out to the north of the city, and we stepped off of the platforms once they finally ended. The ground was a bit higher here, and also a little drier. Long, pink grass blades swayed in a light night breeze, making little shadows on the ground under the light of the moon. Rock frogs whistled around us, and both Ace and Surge made sure I was careful where I stepped; apparently, they were super poisonous, and their backs were covered in spines to deliver the toxins. But they mostly liked to stay down closer to the river, and I didn’t even see anything by the time Ace brought me within the shadow of our destination.

It was a windmill—once. I could tell it was in a bad state of disrepair just by looking at the loose planks of wood covering its frame. Many of them were barely hanging on by a nail; many more had fallen off completely. The actual wheel and blades of the windmill had fallen off of it some time ago, and now they just leaned against it, the tower of the mill resting in the crook of two blade arms. But it was the tallest point within easy walking distance of the city, and when I saw the darkened window in the top, I knew exactly where Ace wanted to go.

“What happened here?” I asked her. “Looks all fucked up.”

“It was struck by lightning some years ago,” Ace said. “Ain’t nopony bothered to fix it up or tear it down. So it’s just standing here. It’s a great place to go when you want to do some thinking.”

“You? Think?” Surge said. “I don’t believe it.”

Ace paused for a moment; I think she was trying to figure out if it was me or Surge who’d said that. “Yeah. I do some thinking sometimes,” she said, choosing a more neutral answer. “You got a lot of time to think when you’re trying to lie low, hiding from mercs who want your hide or waiting for ponies you’ve got a hit contract on to walk by.”

She walked through the door and I followed her. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness inside, and then Surge reminded me I was a unicorn by using my horn to illuminate the interior. A few spider rats scurried to their holes at the sudden light, and Ace fluttered up to the next level instead of taking the stairs. I followed her along the stairs, which wound around the perimeter of the building, out of the way of the gears and machinery the windmill once powered. I could still see enormous, rotting gears sitting in the ceiling overhead.

When we finally made it to the top floor, I carefully tested the floorboards with my hoof before I dared to walk on them. A lot of them were bent and moldy, so I didn’t trust them to hold my weight, but the crossbeams underneath were secure and sturdy. Ace was waiting for me by the window, and when I made it to her side, she sat down with her forelegs dangling off the edge. “Take a look,” she said. “It’s damn pretty.”

And it was. It almost looked like glowing gold was pooled in the bowl between the mountains. The lights of the city danced and dazzled on the rivers, occasionally outlining a boat making its way across the water. And of course there was the Brass Bank, brilliantly lit up in all its glory. I noticed that the lights lining it and illuminating its faces weren’t flickering and wavy, putting it at a sharp contrast with the shiftier lights of the other buildings.

Surge noticed it too. “The Bank has generators and its own power supply?” she asked.

“Don’t know where the hell they got it from, but they do,” Ace said. “You can bring electricity back from the dead with enough bullets, by the looks of it.”

“So it would seem.” Surge seemed impressed by that. “I can only imagine what the Ivory City is like if a backwaters transportation and fishing settlement can grow into such splendor across two centuries.”

“I ain’t never seen the city up close,” Ace said. “You can’t get within a mile of the thing before some marksmare blows your head off. There’s only bad shit there.”

“And we’ll have to go there eventually,” I said. “There’s a code piece there. If we want to get the whole thing, then we’ll have to find some way inside.”

Ace frowned. “That’d be where I draw the line.”

“I thought you wanted to hurt the City?” Surge asked her. “Or do you not care as much as you claimed, outlaw?”

“I want to see the City burn,” Ace said. “Going there by our lonesomes ain’t gonna make it happen. We’d be better just trying to beat Yeoman to this next piece of the code and ensuring them bastards can’t ever finish it.”

I frowned as I stared over the city. It was a reasonable plan—if we wanted to call it a draw. But would a draw help Auris? At best, things would just stay the same. At worst, it’d only prolong the inevitable. I didn’t know much about the Ivory City and how they worked or what their plans were, but I knew that Reclaimer was an evil bastard, and evil bastards are rarely content with what they have. It’d only be a matter of time before he found some other way to brush aside Ace’s hometown and assert his will over the rest of Auris. If he solved the code, then it’d only happen faster.

But if I really wanted to help Auris, there was only one way I knew how to do it. If we could piece the code together and put it in the hooves of the Sentinels, then Fusillade and Sig and the rest of them could put an end to the Ivory City. And given that they’d nearly lost to Carrion and the Crimson despite the advanced tech they owned, I didn’t believe that they could take on an entire city filled with ponies armed and organized much better than bandits. I needed to solve that code, because Auris was just gonna remain a fucking shitty place to live otherwise.

My thoughts momentarily froze as I felt Surge grow interested in them. It was like I had a book in front of me that I wrote my thoughts in and Surge was trying to casually catch a glimpse over my shoulder. But she didn’t press me to know what I was thinking about; whether that was from her respect for my boundaries, or more likely that I’d noticed her peering into my mind, I couldn’t tell.

Ace nudged my shoulder, bringing both of our attentions back to our surroundings. “Thinking?” she asked. “Or are you having a conversation with your imaginary friend?”

Surge didn’t jump down Ace’s throat at that, which was good. The scientist was finally becoming numb to our attempts to annoy and tease her.

“Just thinking about shit,” I said. Sighing, I hung my head and stared out at the peaceful city below me. “Why can’t I just forget about the fate of the world literally resting on my shoulders and just… enjoy my free time without worrying about this shit? This is the first time I get to slow down and take a break in forever, and I can’t stop thinking about what we need to do.”

Ace patted my back. “Just think about anything else. Think about ponies and happier times.” She sighed, and the sound was streaked thick with loneliness. “It’s what I do.”

I bit my lip. “Is that really helping you, though?”

Stark, hollow silence.

I could see Ace’s face outlined in the moonlight. Her eyes stared dead ahead, but I doubted she could really see anything. The corners of her muzzle were turned down, and her ears pointed at the floor. By the way her nose twitched and trembled, she was having difficulty measuring her breathing.

Sliding over a bit, I put my coat against hers for comfort. Then, swallowing, I asked a question I didn’t know how she’d react to. “Do you… want to tell me about her?”

Surge started bracing herself just in case this turned nasty. Ace stopped breathing for a moment, glanced at me, glanced away again, swallowed hard, and tried to sit up straight. She ended with her nose almost resting on her forelegs. “Zephyr,” she said. “We called her Zeph or Z. She really liked that last one. I… She…”

Grain-colored wings shuffled at her sides, one rubbing against my coat. A gentle toss of her head swept her curtain-like mane out of her eye. “We were Runners. Me and her and Lines. We were kids then, so the adults had us get to places they was too big to get to. Me and Lines and Z spent a lot of time away from the rest of the group, trying to figure our way through these old installations all by ourselves. We had a pistol between us, if that; usually we had less. The gaps in vents and shit in some of those places ain’t much bigger than a filly, so we couldn’t take much gear with us. But us three survived. Somehow.”

She breathed, and Surge took the opportunity to answer her own curiosities. “I take it that you would’ve needed more than a gun anyway, many of those times,” she asked. I was surprised at the quiet respect in her voice; maybe our grumpy racist grandma was learning something.

Ace swallowed hard and turned her hooves up like there was blood on them. “You seen a five winters old colt sliced in two by a laser before?” she asked. “Or a little filly who can’t be more than seven scream as acid melts her face off her skull? Even if everything else broke, your Synarchy left security systems and shit lying around that killed children centuries later. Runners didn’t really care much. They’d all done it when they were kids; they were the survivors, grown too big to wander through the maze of hell. When we turned ten, when we were too old to go crawling through vents and shit, me and Z and Lines all got shitfaced to celebrate.” She bitterly chuckled. “First time I ever got blitzed. Guess I started young.”

I tried to share a smile with her, but it didn’t stick. She was finally opening herself up to me, and I was getting a look at this outlaw mare that I hadn’t ever seen before. Her shoulders lazily moved as she attempted a shrug, and I saw her eyes flicker shut as she breathed in and held it for a few seconds. “After going through all that, guess it weren’t much of a surprise to nopony when we started touching and squeezing later on. Maybe Lines; I think he always thought he had a shot with Z before that.” The corners of her muzzle briefly poked upwards. “Poor bastard. Thought he could have one or the other. We ended up fucking each other and left him out to dry.

“Decided we had enough of that shit when we were fifteen,” Ace continued. “Lines went and opened himself an inn with the bullets he’d put aside from running. We gave him shit about it, teased him that he was going soft. He offered us jobs, but that weren’t us. I wanted to wander, and Z wanted to follow me.” Her eyes fell, and her next words cracked in the middle. “Bitch should’ve just stayed with him,” she muttered. “I wouldn’t have gotten her killed.”

She retreated inwards a bit, and I could feel her trembling. My teeth worked on my lip while I put my hoof over hers, and then I squeezed it to let her know I was here with her. “What happened?” I asked, mentally preparing myself.

Her shivers went away, and I could see her looking out over the city and into the distant past. “We were soldiers for hire for a long while. Mercs. Got a contract to go hit a caravan taking arms and bullets to a warlord south of Thatch. It all went sideways so fast.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed her emotions. “I was on overwatch with my rifle. I was always the better shot. Z liked to get messy and personal. She had autoloader shotguns mounted to a harness under her wings. Crazy bitch, but beautiful on the field. So fucking beautiful…

“I saw a glint on a cloud above the caravan while Z was tearing them new ones,” she said, and her eyes moved skyward like she could still see it all replaying in front of her. I didn’t have any doubts that it was probably burned into her mind. “Pegasus with a rifle, and it was sighted on her. I panicked when I shouldn’t have. I shot too soon. I… I missed,” she admitted, closing her eyes. Her short tail swished back and forth. “He took the shot not even a split second later. Bullet must’ve been whizzing past his face as he fired. It was clean, accurate. Hit Z between the shoulders. I killed him on the second shot, but there weren’t nothing I could do. Bullet had already gone through her back and out her throat. She was dead by the time I flew to her.”

She looked me in the eyes, and I could see the tears starting to streak her coat. “My marefriend died because I fucked up a simple shot,” she said, her voice wavering and teetering on the verge of collapse. “If I’d been better, I would’ve saved her. Z wouldn’t be dead. Celestia, she… she trusted me to watch her back. She trusted me!” Her voice started crumbling as she rapidly slid into hysterics. “I let her die, you understand? All because I weren’t good enough. All because I couldn’t hit my mark! Three years, I’ve had that hanging over my head. Three years. I still see her face when I sleep. Them eyes wide in surprise, mouth hanging open, eyebrows pulled back like she couldn’t believe that just happened to her!” She sniffled and wiped her nose. “I killed her! She’s dead because of me!”

She buried her head in her hooves, and her shoulders heaved and shuddered. With no better option or idea, I threw my hooves around her shoulders and just tried to hold her tight. “I’m sorry,” I choked out, feeling my own emotions starting to get the better of me. Stars, her story reminded me so much of me and Zip. “I’m so sorry.”

And then I saw a sight I never thought I’d see: Ace crying. It wasn’t even dignified, either. It was violent and raw. I don’t know how long she’d bottled all this up, but I’d finally popped the cork off it. This mare, this outlaw I once saw as an unshakeable badass of the wilderness, fell apart into a broken, shivering wreck in front of me with just a few words. I honestly didn’t know what to say. Not even Surge had any ideas.

But I did the only thing I could: hold on. I tried to calm her and whisper to her that it’d be alright, but I didn’t even know if she heard my words or not. Probably best if she didn’t; I was really bad at this shit. Despite my poor attempts at calming her, though, she slowly began to calm down. Little by little, the hysterics faded away and the tears slowed. She’d cried herself empty, and now she just seemed… exhausted. Melancholy, but exhausted.

Sniffling, she wiped her nose and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. She held it between her hooves as she spoke to me without looking at me. “I know you think I’m an alcoholic,” she said, staring at the amber liquid between her hooves. “And you’re probably right. I ain’t no paragon of sobriety. But if I don’t drink, the pain comes back. It hurts me. You don’t think a memory could hurt you like a knife, but I feel like a stuck pig when I’m dry. The booze is the only thing that makes the pain go away.”

She popped the cork off with her teeth and tilted the bottle back. It bubbled once or twice as she swallowed several mouthfuls, and then I felt her shudder against my side as she swallowed the poison. “Fuck me,” she muttered when she’d finally had her fill. “I sound like a fucking baby. Fucking bitching and shit about how my life sucks. I probably sound like a hopeless fuck who can’t let go.”

Though I could tell Surge was inclined to agree, I didn’t let her near my mouth. “No, you’re wrong about that,” I said. “I understand.”

Ace piqued an eyebrow but said nothing. She only sniffled a few times and wiped at her nose, staring longingly at her bottle of whiskey.

“There was this girl I knew,” I began, feeling my wounds scar open as I started along the path. “Her name was Zip. She was a Sentinel. She saved my life. And I loved her. And she died.”

Ace swallowed hard. “I’m sorry…” she said.

I shook my head. “Funny how we both loved pegasus mares whose names started with a Z. But I didn’t know her nearly as long as you did. Maybe three weeks, I knew her. Maybe not even that. But we fought together, and she was beautiful. And I thought I loved her.

“Together, we killed Carrion when the Sentinels attacked Celestia Dam. We destroyed the Crimson. We should’ve lived happily ever after, but…”

Tears began to well up in my eyes, so I closed them and focused on my breathing. “That half-faced bastard, Yeoman… he killed her. Right when we were kissing to celebrate our victory. Shot her through her armor with a bullet designed to kill Sentinels. It turned her lungs to mulch and filled her heart with needles. She… she died in agony, but she couldn’t even scream.”

This time it was Ace’s turn to comfort me. I felt her wing around my shoulders, a strong wing that slid me against her side. I dabbed at my watering eyes and sniffled a few times. “When I saw Yeoman today, when he was just right there, I… I lost control of myself. I wanted to kill him and avenge Zip. I wanted to do so many fucking terrible things to him, but I couldn’t. Hell, if it were only me and I didn’t have Gauge and Nova to look out for, I might have killed him anyway.”

“They would’ve killed you, too,” Ace reminded me.

“And I didn’t care,” I said. “I’ve lost so much in the past two months. So fucking much. I lost my town, I lost my marefriend, I lost my mom, I even lost one of my fucking cutie marks!” I slapped the brand over my left flank. “Stars, I’ve lost so fucking much I’m barely even a pony anymore! Just a… just a bunch of depressed bits and pieces trying to act like one because there are ponies counting on me and I can’t let them down!”

Ace pressed her nose against my cheek to try and calm me down. It was a lot more tender of a nuzzle than the one she’d given me way back in Hole. I don’t know why I noticed that. “You’re far from broken… Em,” she said, using my nickname my friends always used. “You’re strong. Something tells me you ain’t gonna cave. You’re too stubborn for it.”

I squeezed a few tears out of my eyes and wiped them away. “Not if I get myself killed.”

“I ain’t about to let that happen,” Ace said. “You can count on that.”

I managed to smile… kind of. It was an attempt at least. “Thank you,” I said. “We’ll get those code pieces and save your home, too.”

Ace nodded, and the two of us went back to looking out over Three Rivers. It really was beautiful at night. After a minute, Ace chuckled. “I’m happy I didn’t blow your brains out back at that mining camp.”

“That makes two of us,” I said with a light laugh.

Surge was confused. “You two nearly killed each other?” she asked. “When was this?”

“Some time ago,” I said.

“She weren’t really in all that good a position to kill me,” Ace said. “It was a bit one-sided.”

“Shut up,” I said. “I saw you before you shot, at least.”

“For all the good that did you. Bullet was already on its way when you saw me. Missed your right cheek by about two inches.”

“Some marksmare you are,” I teased her, sticking out my tongue.

“You try hitting a target from two kilometers out,” Ace grumbled. “I bet you couldn’t get close.”

“Maybe we should try it sometime,” I said. “I’m no slouch with a rifle myself, you know.”

“Yeah-huh. We’ll see about that.”

I felt her wing shift on my back; I’d somehow forgotten about it being there, keeping me warm and safe at her side. It was comforting, and for a moment, I was worried she’d take it away. But she left it there, and I fought for another inch against her side. “It really is pretty, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Brings back happier memories.”

I hummed, wishing I could’ve been a part of those happier memories. But then I realized I already was. We were making them here, now, and doing it together.

I felt like I could see Zip smiling as I curled up against this tender outlaw and listened to her breathe.