It took us a few minutes to figure out how to establish a connection, but once Surge managed it, I almost couldn’t hold back my tears. “Ember?” A voice asked, so familiar but so, so far away.

I wiped my eyes with a fetlock, almost glad he couldn’t see me. “Sig… you great, feathery bastard…”

“By the spirits, it is you!” Sig exclaimed, somewhere on the other side of a radio set and so many miles away. “It’s just… it’s been so long, I was starting to wonder if…”

I beamed, even though I knew he couldn’t see it. “I’m not dead yet,” I told him. “Still alive and kicking.”

“Been shot a few more times?”

“How’d you know?” I asked, and we both chuckled. “Yeah, yeah, but nothing too bad.”

“And Nova and Gauge?” he asked me. “Are they still…?”

“They’re getting food and stuff right now,” I told him. “But they’re alive, too. Nova got a badass metal wing at the last installation we were at. She’s scary.”

“Scary?” Sig asked. “From what little I got to know of her, I doubt even a metal wing could make her look scary. She’s too happy and cuddly.”

“That’s the problem,” I said. “You ever try to get a hug from a pegasus with knives for feathers?”

Sig laughed again. “No, I can’t say I ever have.”

“That’s what I thought.” My eyes slowly began to fall, the excited smile on my face starting to give way to something else. “So, uh, how are things going back at the Bastion? Recruitment drive going full swing?”

“We renewed our efforts to pick up more Sentinels a week or two ago,” he said. “Up until then, we were mostly focused on cleaning out the remains of the Crimson in the valley. Most have gone into hiding now that Carrion’s dead, but a few local warlords held strong positions for some time. We eventually overwhelmed them, but it was slow going. We couldn’t exactly afford to take any more losses.”

“Is Fusillade doing good?” I asked him. “I bet losing her eye didn’t even faze her in the slightest.”

“She was ordering us around within hours of getting it removed,” Sig said with another chuckle. “Glass hadn’t even gotten the seat warm before she chased him out of his temporary position.”

“That sounds like her. Is she around?”

Sig’s feathers rustled—I assume he shook his head. “No, she’s out inspecting the Dam. She’s taken a personal interest in making sure your fellow survivors from Blackwash are whipped up into top fighting shape. They’ve been doing well, I have to say. Brass Casing makes a damn fine captain.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course, I’m with the Sentinels for a few weeks and I only hit sergeant, but Brass gets to go all the way to captain?”

“It’s largely a formality,” Sigur said. “He’s your people’s leader, so he needed a rank befitting that status. But thank the spirits for them. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to hold the dam, the outpost, and the Bastion all at the same time. Your neighbors are helping to make the Valley a better place, Ember. I can’t stress enough how proud of them we all are.”

Tears again pricked at my eyes. “That means so much to hear that,” I said. “Things have been so hard lately I… I’m glad to hear a bit of good news.”

“What’s been going on, Ember?” Sig asked, his voice dropping to a concerned note. “I can’t imagine being out there without support has been easy for you.”

“It hasn’t,” I admitted. “There’ve been points where I’ve wanted to give up and I almost died several times. It’s just… just…”

“Tell me all about it,” Sigur said. “Consider it your official report.”

So I did. It was a little hard to start at first—the journey was pretty boring until the storm that nearly blew us off the mountain pass—but once I got through that part, the words just began to tumble out. The shit that went down at Hole. The lost foundry and the tolan, and how I’d almost ended up as a wailer. Bluewater Gorge and the Three Rivers, and everything that had happened to us since entering the Spines. I don’t know how long I blathered at him for. I didn’t hold anything back, detail after detail piling up as I felt the stress begin to melt off of my shoulders. It was therapeutic, just getting to talk about everything I’d been through with somebody willing to listen. It was something I had needed for a while now.

And then I came full circle. “There’s more to this code than we ever thought,” I concluded. “This thing isn’t about awakening some spaceship or opening a vault full of weapons and tech. I mean, maybe it is, but there’s a lot more going on that I don’t understand. This whole ‘Dusk Protocol’… these installations… they’re all part of something huge the Synarchy had planned. Some sort of worst-case contingency plan. And we’re out here chasing the pieces of the code like a bunch of idiots, not knowing what we might be doing in the process.”

Sig was quiet for a while, but when he finally did respond, it was with that same calming, authoritative voice I’d known from him. “Whatever we’re doing cannot be anywhere near as bad as what Reclaimer is trying to do,” he said. “He might know what this code is about. That’s why he’s so adamant on getting it. But right now we’re even with him. We each know what four of the seven fragments say. But with a cipher like this, it wouldn’t be too hard to break the code if you’re only missing one piece. He could easily get the remaining two pieces and then he’d have enough to figure out what it is. So we have to stop him.”

“Right,” I said, nodding even though he couldn’t see me. “Which is why we’re going to the Ivory City.”

“Are you sure?” Sig asked me. “If you wait a bit, we might be able to get you at least a little backup…”

“We can’t wait,” I said. “You know that as well as I do. The longer we wait, the longer Reclaimer has to find what he’s looking for. And he has a lot more resources than we do. If we don’t move fast enough… we could lose everything.”

“Mmmm.” A moment of silence stretched between us, and then Sig roughly cleared his throat. “Then I guess that’s your next objective, sergeant.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, giving a salute for my own amusement. “We’re going to be moving to Thatch first and then onto the City. Hopefully it will be a friendly place to resupply before we go into the prickwings’ nest.”

“Hopefully. And if they’ve opposed the Ivory City for this long, they may be willing to work with you. It’s worth a shot.”

“I’ll give it my best. I leaned back in my chair and a feeling of dread settled in my gut as I realized I wouldn’t be able to speak to Sig again for a long time. “It… I-It was good talking to you again, Sig.”

“You as well,” he said. “You don’t know how much it means to hear your voice again.”

“Yours too.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and reluctantly stood up. “I… I guess I shouldn’t keep you busy any longer.”

I heard him breathe out, and I took it as a reluctant agreement even if he didn’t actually say anything. “Find a way to contact us again when you’re in Thatch,” he said. “And next time, I want to hear all of your voices. Understood? That’s an order.”

“Sir, yes sir,” I said. Then, lingering by the ruined laser projectors a little longer, I added, “Please let everybody know I’m alive and well.”

“You can count on it,” Sig said.

I felt my throat seizing up, and it took all my effort to force the next bit through. “Well… goodbye, then.”

“Goodbye, Ember,” Sig said. “Stay safe out there. It’s only going to get harder from here on out.”

“I know.” I swallowed hard. “I miss you, Sig.”

“I miss you too, Ember. But we will meet again, right? It’s going to happen.”

“It will,” I said. “You can count on that.”

“I will, Ember,” he said, softly, mourning that our time was coming to an end. Finally, he said the words I hoped would somehow never come. “Bastion, out.”

The line went dead, and I hung my head. Surge was quiet for a few moments before the speakers crackled to life again. “You’ll meet him again, Ember,” she said. “If there’s one thing I’ve gotten to know about you in our short time together, it’s that nothing can stop you when you go after something.”

“Thanks,” I said, and I finally lowered my horn to the terminal. The familiar rush of vertigo shook my limbs and made my head spin for a moment, but then it went away as Surge settled once more into my brain. I gave one last look at the place, at Hozho’s skeleton left lying on the floor, and let my eyes commit it to memory. “Well… let’s get going.”

We made our way back out of the installation without any detours. I had to hunch down to scramble back out of the hollow leading down to it, and my eyes hardly had to adjust to the dim light beneath the Spines’ canopy. In front of me were my friends, bundles of supplies at their hooves, and Ace sitting off to the side, looking considerably less wobbly.

Nova trotted up to me and looked me up and down. “You find what we were looking for?” she asked me.

I nodded. “I did… and then some.” At her peaked eyebrow, I waved it off with my hoof. “I’ll tell you all about it on the road. Stars know we’ll have plenty of time to talk.” I looked around for Sandy’s body but noted it wasn’t here. “What happened to Sandy?” I asked Gauge.

“Some of the Feati came and took it,” he said. Then he angled his head to the side. “They… they also brought her with them.”

I blinked and craned my head in that direction. Her? Who did he mean by her?

My heart did a flip when I saw Teka sitting at the base of a tree, the hair over her cheeks matted with drying tears. She looked crushed, defeated, broken. “What happened to her?” I whispered to Gauge, dumbstruck. “They didn’t…”

“They did,” Gauge said. “Lento’s an animal, casting away his own sister like this.”

I felt a fire burning inside my gut… but there wasn’t any fuel to feed it. Instead, my shoulders merely sagged as I nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less,” I said. “But we’ll be better.”

Nova nodded in agreement. “She deserves more than what her people have given her.”

I walked over to Teka and sat down in front of her. She sniffled and looked away, unwilling to meet my gaze, at least until I lifted her chin and made her look at me. “Tekawenye,” I said, trying to give her a friendly, comforting smile. I considered trying to say something, but what would be the point? The language barrier was too thick, and no matter what I did, words wouldn’t get my meaning across.

So instead I drew her close and hugged her. I gave her as tight and as loving an embrace as I could, because I knew she needed it. She needed it more than anything else in the world right now. And as I felt her legs slowly tighten against my body, I also felt her begin to sob. I didn’t say anything or do anything else as she broke down in tears. I just held her until they stopped, and then held her a little longer.

Finally, we parted, and I helped her stand. She didn’t look that good, what with her eyes all red and puffy, but she could at least stand and walk. In time, she’d get better. But right now, she wasn’t okay… and that was okay. “Come with us,” I told her, even if the words were lost. “We’ll look after you.”

I patted her once more on the shoulder, then made way for Nova to comfort her. Nova would be better at that than I would, anyway. Instead, I walked past Gauge and SCaR and set my sights on my outlaw marefriend, who was currently using her mane as sort of a visor to block the light.

I smiled and pulled it back with my magic, and she cracked open a pale blue eye to look at me. “Fuckin’… what do you want?” she grumbled, though I could tell from the rosy color in her cheeks that she didn’t actually mind.

“Get up, gorgeous,” I told her, and I helped her stand as well. “It’s time we hit the trail.”

“Already?” She rolled her neck and arched her back, eliciting a few cracks from her spine. “I was just getting comfortable.”

“No rest for the weary,” I told her, bumping my shoulder against hers.

“We sure as fuck ain’t nothing if not weary,” she said, returning the contact.

I giggled a bit and rubbed my cheek against hers. “Come on,” I said, leading her back to the rest of my friends. When we approached, I picked up all our things in my magic and helpfully distributed them to my friends. As they did the straps on their bags, I snatched some of the food they’d brought with them and crammed a bit into my gullet. Humming in satisfaction, I pocketed the rest of the bread and looked them all over.

“Well,” I finally said, pulling a cigarette from my supplies and lighting it. I stuck it between my lips, took a long drag, and blew a jet of smoke from my nostrils. I let the rush of nicotine flood my veins, and it was enough to pull a smile to my face. “Looks like it’s time we get back on the path, don’t you think so?”

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJHQ4AL2MUo