Endesque was lower in the sky that night, heralding the coming of darker nights ahead. Soon, the massive purple globe would rise in the day, leaving the night to be lit by the lesser celestial objects.

The Prowler moved through the night, able to continue on without much difficulty on the simple road to Ser'ta'al. Myrrh usually didn't run it, since she needed to sleep, but Pinkie had promised she'd keep watch and start banging cymbals if they were about to run into anything. They would sleep in shifts.

That was the plan, anyway. Crypt should have been asleep right now, but he was watching the road ahead just as Pinkie was, squinting to see the shapes of pushes and trees under Endesque's pristine glow.

"If you're going to stay up I should just go to sleep," Pinkie commented.

"You'll be able to?"

Pinkie nodded.

"You are a better pony than I."

I have a feeling that isn't that difficult to do... Pinkie thought. "Yeah, not the first time I've had to give the big blaring boast. Won't be the last."

"Mhm..."

"I am sorry for getting them locked onto us though." Pinkie looked into the distance. "You can get off whenever you want, you know." Looking back at Crypt, she found his face to be just as inscrutable as ever. Not even an external reaction to her words beyond the slightest knitting of the brow.

He gave no response.

Pinkie sighed, deciding not to push it. He'd be who he'd be, and there wasn't anything she could do about that.

He'd probably get off at the next town unless he had some unknown personal reason to find the Technician. As much as she knew, she had no idea about his relationship to the being. Or what the being even was.

She shook her head and yawned. "Night, Crypt," she said, producing a sleeping bag from nowhere and tying herself to the back rim of the Prowler. "Don't let us crash into anything."

"I won't," he assured her.

At least when he spoke he meant what he said...

Pinkie woke up with the light of the sun - and Myrrh staring her in the face.

"...Hi," Pinkie said.

"AUGH! Y-you're awake!" Myrrh quickly scrambled backward, falling on her back. "I thought you were, uh..."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Myrrh. I don't mind people watching me sleep."

Myrrh flushed. "I... That's not, well, um."

"I doubt Crypt will take to it as well as I will, so you might want to watch yourself around him."

Myrrh nodded vigorously. "Of course!"

Pinkie facehooved. "It's too early in the morning for this..."

"Whatever you say!"

"You don't even know what I'm talking about."

"Well, I, uh, don't know what you're talking about half the time!"

Pinkie blinked. "Touche." She stretched her legs. "How close are we?"

"Enough," Crypt called from the front of the Prowler.

Pinkie bounced out of her sleeping bag and landed at Crypt's side. "Enough?"

"Enough that we can see Ser'ta'al," he said, pointing ahead. It was still a bit far away, but Pinkie could make out similarly constructed buildings to Ser'ta'ta, with the addition of a few structures with more stories and a large, dominating clock tower.

"Cool! I wonder if we'll have some time-related shenanigans over there!"

"Just because there's a clock tower does not mean there will be time shenanigans."

"Aren't all shenanigans time shenanigans, if you think about it?" Myrrh asked.

"Siding with Myrrh on this one," Pinkie said. "All shenanigans are time shenanigans."

Silence fell over the three of them as the Prowler moved on, it's inner clickety-clankity noises seemingly getting louder the longer they went without talking.

Myrrh noticed a river nearby. Without a word to them, she flew over to it and started drinking like a ravenous dog. She returned, mouth dripping with excessive amounts of water. "T-that wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be."

"Dragons need to cool down their fire?" Crypt asked.

"Man, I've got so much fire the water could never put it out. I can flap these girls and boil it alllll away."

Crypt decided he was done talking to her.

"...I am making no progress."

Once again, there was silence, and the clanking threatened to drive them all insane.

"...Are we just going to pretend like nothing happened?" Pinkie asked, suddenly. "Because there was definitely an attack on Ser'ta'ta, we definitely had to fight, and there was definitely a lot of destruction. We were there and we haven't said anything about it since we left!"

Crypt made no response. Myrrh opened her mouth to say something, choked, then looked away embarrassed.

Pinkie looked from Crypt to Myrrh and sighed. "...I'm sorry."

"W-why?" Myrrh asked. "We're the ones bei-"

"I'm expecting you to be like my friends. But you aren't. I shouldn't put you in their boxes just because they're empty." She tossed her mane back. "If you don't want to talk about it, I have no reason to make you. Just be on guard for the Sky King, okay?"

Crypt and Myrrh nodded - the first with little energy, the other with far too much.

Pinkie let out a chuckle. "You two really are different than what I'm used to... That's a good thing." She leaped up on to her hind hooves and pointed. "NOW, ONWARD!"