One of the worst aspects of portal travel, particularly to the uninitiated, is the nausea inducing sensation of being ‘outside’ of what one would consider as the more typical three dimensional space we are used to – that being up, down, left, right, and finally forward and backward. Some would debate that there is another dimension to be added to this list, that being the concept we know as ‘time’. Whether time is an actual tangible reality or simply a metaphysical construct of intelligent beings to measure the progress of existence is probably best left to scientists and philosophers to contemplate. The concept of portals however, at least what mages throughout the ages have theorised, is relatively simple; it allows the user to pass through one point in space and emerge through the corresponding portal at the other virtually instantaneously. Note the use of the word ‘Virtually’. Variations and complexity in the portal network certainly exist, however little is known of the specific mechanics of how such magics work in actuality. The knowledge of how this incredible magical feat of thaumaturgical engineering was achieved has, regretfully in any meaningful sense, mostly been lost to the ages. Little to no records now remain, and those portals that have been uncovered intact are either permanently deactivated or else dangerously erratic to the point of being unusable in any sense of the term. It has been rumoured that the act of wanton destruction of what scholars refer to as the ‘Portal Network’ was commenced during the wars of the three tribes to prevent the danger of a foreign aggressor appearing in their enemy’s midst unexpectedly and in near silence. Although understandable considering the nature of that continent wide conflict, the loss of such a magnificent piece of magical architecture was a terrible, and seemingly unrecoverable blow to ponykind. Today journeys of what was once mere seconds now take hours, days, or even weeks to complete. Sky carriages, locomotives and dirigibles offer some semblance of rapid transit, however they are little more than a rather sad and unfortunate attempt to repair what we once took for granted. As any portal discoveries are reportable by law and, perhaps even more draconian, that any research into portal technology is banned by royal decree, it is unlikely we will ever see a return to the glory days of high magic that was once such a staple of Equestrian life. For now at least the arcane concept of portal transportation has been relegated to little more than flights of fancy and stories told to fascinate the imagination of foals.

Professor Cinnamon Crackers (Ret)

Royal Equestrian College of Art and Science

Department of Historical Studies

Lyra thought she was dying. Or dead. Or at least something that was almost as bad as the former two options. Whatever it was that was happening to her right then she wanted it to stop. Now. Dear gods, how long had this been going on for?! Perhaps it was just as well she’d had her eyes closed when the last of that blindingly bright silvery light blinked out, plunging her into an abyss of absolute darkness. Darkness and silence. Instinctively she’d opened them again only after the blast of flame appeared, hurtling towards her at terrifying speed. Expecting a horrifying, searing death engulfed in merciless fire, Lyra had squeezed her eyes shut once again and waited for the end. And yet… nothing happened. Nothing at all. Instead it just hung there; a broiling, burning mass, impossibly suspended in space only a few yards away from the helpless mare. It was oddly reminiscent of a highly realistic painting of fire, only… only it was still moving, just… really slowly. At least it wasn’t getting any nearer now, or so she hoped. As for herself though, she was just as helpless. Hanging there in a black space of nothingness she had no way of determining what was up, down, or in fact any true direction whatsoever. She’d thrown up too, only to find that the unpleasant mass of vomit had stayed with her, floating around her body and making her feel as though she wanted to add yet more to the bilious mess. Fear quickly overcame any sense of curiosity regarding her situation, although she was somewhat surprised to discover that she hadn’t broken out into a blind panic. Well, not yet anyway. That would probably happen in a moment or two - when she’d finished screaming.

Oh, and perhaps it would be an idea to mention here that sound doesn’t work in portals either.

Another aspect of portal travel which Lyra was not privy to was what happened at the other end. What felt like hours in the void between portals, which although in truth was probably no more than a few seconds, ended with another burst of silver light and the ejection of the green unicorn, backwards, onto a thickly forested floor.

“Oh… Oh, gods...” Burning bile surged up in Lyra throat, threatening another surge of vomit. Dropping to the ground, the alien sounds of strange birds, the rustling of unfamiliar trees, plants, and brightly coloured insects, distracted her. That was when she heard another sound. Lyra looked up to see the silver light of the portal hanging only inches from her muzzle, ready to discharge its other passenger. Instinctively Lyra rolled aside, covering her face with her forehooves. She was just in the nick of time. Barely had the young mare begun her life saving movement when the fire that had been following her inside the space between the portals burst forth into the world with a deafening boom of ear shattering sound. Bone blackening heat followed in its wake, cruel yellow flames and dust savagely lashed out into the lush greenery like a living beast, tearing and incinerating everything in its infernal fury. Then, as fast as it had appeared, the hellish conflagration vanished as though it had simply never been. As too did the wan silvery light of the portal. Shaken, frightened, and not a little singed, Lyra warily got to her hooves and stared about herself in bewilderment, her unfocussed gaze taking in the portal from which she had just emerged. To her dismay it was no different to any of the others she’d encountered during her career. Right then she wasn’t sure exactly what she’d expected, other than her body torn apart and thrown to the four winds by unstable ancient magics of course, but surely there had to be something, anything that might suggest it was still active, right? She tried to focus, using her own abilities to see if there was any way the portal could come back to life and… and then what? Take her home? But there was nothing. Normally after an energetic thaumaturgical event there would be high levels of magic radiation in the immediate vicinity, often taking weeks if not months to fade completely away. Yet incredibly there was no magical residue emanating from it whatsoever, a situation made all the more incredible considering she’d just been thrown through the thing followed by a blast of explosive force which filled the air around her with the heady smell of burnt wood. It was as though somepony had simply switched the ancient portal off and the very magic which powered it had vanished without a trace. In actual fact there was more background magic coming from the surrounding trees than from these weathered old stones. The stone archway, as impossible as it seemed, stood there as quiet and as innocent as nothing more than a curious assemblage of stone blocks with a perfect view of the forest through, and around, its ancient architecture. Lyra brushed the moist leaves and… ‘things’ from her coat and stood up, tapping the portal.

“Gods above,” she muttered. “Guess I’m not going back that way any time soon.”

Mind you, somepony would come to collect her soon, wouldn’t they? After all, Twilight Sparkle had known she’d fallen into the portal, right? She’d seen her coming towards the dig site, and then there’d been that… that explosion. Oh no… Oh no! She wasn’t dead, was she? She’d heard about the Eternal Herd of course, they all had, but… but was this it? She certainly felt alive, and… No. No, she’d fallen into the portal just as those lunatics had set off the charges. It was only by sheer luck she’d not been blown into tiny little Lyra chunks. But… but where was she? And not only that, but if they’d blown the portal, then how could she get home? How could Twilight Sparkle, for all her magical ability, bring a dead portal back to life and get her home? There was no more portal at the site! She could be anywhere! And… And this sure as hell wasn’t Equestria!

Panic gripped her.

It was hard enough to breathe as it was in this moist, oppressive heat, but with her heart trying its best to burst out of her chest and the strong desire to run gripping her, blackness started to press in on the edges of her vision. It was too much to take in. Horribly Lyra knew she was going to pass out, but what would happen to her if she did? That tiny piece of calm at the back of her mind was screaming at her to calm down, but… but how could she? She had no food, no way of calling for help, or… or…

Crack.

“Oh, no!” Lyra gasped, covered her mouth with her hooves.

Something was walking through the undergrowth. Something big. Whatever it was huffed the air around it as it walked, no… stalked, through the thick green vegetation. Lyra held her breath, her eyes wide as the beast passed her by no more than a few feet away. And then it stopped, snuffing the ground before the portal. Lyra could swear the thing was looking at her hoof prints, at the pile of vomit that had followed her out, and-

A scream.

Lyra threw herself back against a tree, stifling her own shriek of fright. The beast turned and lunged, its needle-like teeth sinking into its prey in an instant. A tussle, a shake, and it was all over. The small pig, or whatever it was, grunted once, then merely twitched as its nervous system began to shut down. Lyra could only watch in horror as the creature began to devour its prey. Celestia’s rump! Lyra thought wildly, What the hell am I going to do now?! She had no idea what to do in situations like these! Where she came from the nearest you got to wild animals was in the forests, and nopony in their right mind would go in there. Stories abounded about the showed denizens of those forbidding depths. The timeless forests of Equestria were the home of nightmarish creatures like timberwolves, cragadiles, ursans, and according to one story, even the occasionalpassing hydra. But nopony went into the forest willingly for goodness sake, so why… go… Oh, Luna, it was the Everfree! The damned portal had dumped her right into the bloody Everfree! Fetlocks and feathers, she had to get out of here or that pig wouldn’t be the last innocent on the monsters menu today. And so, carefully, slowly, Lyra crept back into the concealment of the undergrowth. Praying that the ever present sounds of the forest would mask her laborious movement, the green mare didn’t slow, and she sure as hell didn’t speed up either. The beast, even if it knew she was there, was busy gorging itself on its kill anyway, so Lyra wouldn’t be high on its priority list even if it had noticed her. She hoped. But gods was it hot in here! And humid too. Sweat soon began to pour down Lyra’s back with her efforts, and after a while she decided to take a chance, to stand up, and put as much distance between her and that thing as possible. Of course she had no idea which way was ‘out’ in regards to her current position in the Everfree, but even that enormous place didn’t go on forever. With any luck she’d be out by nightfall whereby she could simply stop at one of the many villages and hamlets that bordered it. Perhaps she’d find an inn or a tavern keeper who’d be willing to put her up for the night. She had a few bits in her panniers, and even a packed lunch she’d made for her non-existent musical adventure. As for water, that could be a problem. Her flask held a small amount of sweetened tea, but other than that she’d have to find something more substantial. Despite the humidity the cloying heat was causing her to perspire, her fur steadily wicking it away from her skin. She’d be losing fluids at an alarming rate, however it was likely there’d be streams here and there surely?

“There you are. About time too!”

“Eep!”Lyra’s heart leaped as she span to find herself face to face with a yellow coated mare, an earth pony as it turned out, her green eyes looking half at her and half at a large pack which hung over her back. The newcomers rich orange mane effortlessly caught the dappled light as it passed through the canopy. It was the same light, incidentally, that illuminated the well worn track which lead down to a breath taking panorama of the most beautifulbeach Lyra had ever seen. Golden sand, completely devoid of bathers, joggers, ice-cream salesponies, and all the other flotsam and jetsam so typical of Equestrian holiday destinations, spread out along the edge of the forest like the border of an old master’s oil painting. It was, in a word, breathtaking.

“Tch! Come on, shake a tail will you? I didn’t lug all this crap here for nothing. There’s work to do.”

Dumbfounded, Lyra followed. Who was this? She obviously thought Lyra was somepony else, and she looked like she was familiar with the area too. All things considered did it really matter who she was? She knew the way out!What a relief! Before longLyra would be back home safe and sound, spilling out the story of her adventures to Bon Bon who would doubtless think it was all some sort of drunken fantasy of course, but then that was Bon Bon for you. What the hell had been her problem lately anyway? The cream coated mare had been distinctly off colour recently and Lyra had noticed her throwing up in the sink early the other morning too. Ha! If she didn’t know better she’d think she was pregnant! Yeah, like that would happen with her! Still, it was more than a little worrying. The two of them had spoken about it of course, or rather she’d tried to. Bonnie had been evasive to the point of blowing up on her for even so much as mentioning it. In the end however she’d agreed to go to the doctors, on her own of course, but again, that was Bon Bon for you. Anyway, after all that it had merely ended up with Bonnie confirming it was nothing more than a tummy bug and her friend was worrying unnecessarily. That might be so, but did she have to be such a bitch about it? Would she have preferred it if Lyra had simply ignored the whole issue and carried on as though she didn’t give a toss about her friend’s suffering? Lyra sighed; she knew the answer already – she probably would. Bonnie could be secretive, she’d known that all the time they’d been friends, nearly a lifetime in fact when she came to think about it, but there were days when she really came close to knocking some sense into the stupid creature. Damn, she could be so stubborn sometimes!

Crunching under hoof caught Lyra’s attention. The track they’d been following from the forest had opened out, changing from rich soil to sand, and from there for the second time that dayanother incredible sight was laid out before her. It was the sea. That enormous expanseof water lay like a heavenly carpet of purest blue, the faint movement of the waves shimmering with the light of a billion silvery sparkling gems. The wind was barely noticeable too, gently teasing at her tail and mane. It was all so beautiful she had a sudden urge to run into the water, shouting and leaping with the sheer joy of life.

“Hey, are you a dullard or something?” The newcomer glanced over her shoulder at Lyra, grumbling about something that she was pulling at in the sand. “Give me a hoof here will you?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah… hang on a min.” Lyra hurried over to see the earth pony digging at a piece of metal half buried in the sand.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” The yellow mare waved Lyra aside, lifting the metal object before her. “Very niiice!” she beamed.

A spherical golden locket hung from her hoof trailing a long golden chain. It was incredibly fine work, and in remarkable condition considering it had been dropped in the sand. That said the climate here was hot and dry, unlike the muggy heat of the forest, so corrosion probably wasn’t that much of a problem. If it was gold, and from here it certainly looked like it, then that in itself would explain the state of preservation.

“May I?” Lyra asked.

“Yeah, sure, knock yourself out,” the mare replied casually.

“Cheers!” Lyra’s magic glowed, reaching around the object and floated it over to where she could take a better look. “Looks like a pocket watch,” she said, carefully turning it this way and that. “See, here’s the catch.” With a click the timepiece popped open revealing the water stained face and rusted hands inside. “Ah, that’s a shame. Still, bit of TLC and you could get this baby working again I reckon.” She frowned in thought. “Very small though. Intricate work for any horologist. Magic I suspect. But still… Hmm, I wonder if-” Lyra brushed away some on the damper sand from the back. “Ah, now that’s a shame.” She held up the watch in her magic so it caught the light. “There’s something written here, but I don’t recognise the language. Llamalian, maybe? They had a particularly weird old script back in the day which-”

“Oh… Oh, Creator!”

“Huh? What?” Lyra’s mind immediately conjured up an image of the beast in the forest. The snapping jaws, the teeth! Gods, those teeth! Her heart thumped and she turned, expecting to find-

“Your… Your head!”

Lyra froze, her hooves slowly, carefully moving upwards. Her head… Had she cracked her head in the portal? Oh no, her horn! She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and reached for… “Phew!” Lyra exhaled, flopping onto the sand in sheer unadulterated relief. “Oh, thank Celestia it’s still there,” she breathed, “and in one piece too! Gods above, I nearly crapped myself.”

“You-” The newcomer swallowed and backed up a step. “You’re a… a unicorn!”

Lyra barked out a nervous laugh. “No shit, Sherlock! What gave it away?” She motioned towards the object of the mare’s stare, “It works and everything, see? BZZZT!” She burst out laughing as she jabbed her horn towards the strange girl. The way she leaped back was comical to be sure, but the expression of genuine fear on her face gave Lyra pause. “Hey, are you okay?”

“O- Okay?!” the yellow mare stammered. “How the hell haven’t you been purified?! Oh, Lode’s breath! The Zeks will take me for this!” She stared around herself in alarm. “Lode preserve us, what the hell am I going to-”

“SIX!” A voice called out from behind them. “Six, are you there?”

“Oh, no!” The yellow mare, Six apparently, suddenly leaped forward and grabbed Lyra. “Quick, get behind that rock there, and for Lode’s sake don’t make a sound or it’ll be the tower for both of us!”

“Tower? What the hell are you- Ooof! Hey, watch where you’re shoving girl!”

“Move it you idiot or I’ll-”

“Six?” A stallion, not much more than a colt by the looks of him, trotted onto the beach beside the mare he called ‘Six’. “Are you alright? Where’s Eighteen?” ‘Six’ went pale. “Hey, you okay?” The chestnut coated stallion leaned forward, clearly concerned. “You don’t look well.”

“I’m fine!” Six squeaked. A moment later she cleared her throat and lowered her voice back to normal. “I’m fine, Fourteen” she clarified. “I’d just found something amazing and you made me jump when you called me, that’s all.”

The new fellow, Fourteen apparently, watched her a second before shrugging, “Hm, sorry about that. What have you found?”

“This.” Six held up the watch which had been unceremoniously dropped back onto the sand. “Nice, eh? The Zeks will be over the moon with this I reckon.”

Fourteen frowned, “You shouldn’t call them that, Six.”

“Oh, come on,” Six huffed. “Everypony called them that before Ninety Nine started up with that weird cult of hers.” She rolled her eyes, “The ‘Lords’ for goodness sake.”

“Whichever way you look at it, that’s what they are,” Fourteen replied shortly. “With the following Ninety Nine has I don’t think it would be wise to keep using words like that. You know how it gets her riled up.”

“Pah!” Six snorted bitterly. “She’d be better off getting herself felt up, the stale old bint. What that mare needs is a good stallion to give a damned hard pounding. Who knows, itmight even knock some sense into her.”

“That’s disgusting!” Fourteen took a step back, his ears flattening.

Six only laughed, “Oh, come on! Anyway, how about you, eh? Why don’t you ‘sacrifice yourself for the cause’ and take her for a ride?” Six chuckled lasciviously, “She’d be butter in your hooves after that, perhaps even get you some extra medicine.”

The stallion sighed. He’d clearly dealt with Six before and quickly changed the subject. “What about that thing though?” he asked. “What do you think it’s worth? A weeks supply? Two maybe?”

“Balls!” Six snorted, “A month at least! ‘A week’ for Lode’s sake!” The mare shook her head. “Anyway, what are you doing down here? Your crew aren’t scavving until tomorrow if I remember right, and I guess you didn’t come all the way here just to pass the time of day.”

“Oh, right.” Fourteen rolled his shoulders. “Yeah, it’s Tru- I mean, Eighteen. He went missing from the village this morning. The elders think he’s turned runner, but Twenty Four said he heard him saying he was going to come and give you a hoof.” He shrugged, “You know he has a thing for you.”

“Hmph!” Six snorted loudly, “Yeah, like I’m into cradle snatching!” She shook her head, “Nah, I spoke to him this morning and said he could come and give me a hoof if he had permission from Ninety Nine. Actually I thought you were him, sneaking up on me like that.”

“Hardly,” Fourteen replied drily. “Damn… So if he isn’t with you, then...”

“Guess it’s the Seekers then.” Six shook her head sadly, “Poor kid. Look, he’s probably just skived off somewhere or got lost. If they find him, put a good word in for him will you?”

Six grimaced, “I’ll do what I can, but you know what happened to-”

“Yeah, I do.” Fourteen fixed him with a look, “I don’t want to think about it, so if you don’t mind, you’re in my patch?”

“Oh!” Fourteen gave himself a shake. “My apologies.” He let out a loud sigh, “If he turns up, keep him with you, will you? It’d be easier to explain if he’s with a Finder than ambling around on his own.”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to worry about that.” Six pocketed her latest treasure and rolled her shoulders. Casting a backwards glance, she watched quietly as Fourteen slowly disappeared back up the track. She let out the breath she’d been holding in, “Oh, thank the Creator! Hey, you still there?”

A green horn appeared over the edge of the rock not six feet away. The sand covered visage of Lyra soon followed. “Believe it or not, yes, I am.” She didn’t look happy, nor did she feel it either. The mare strode over to Six, “Right then, ‘Six’, wasn’t it? I’d like some answers, missus, or more specifically I’d like to know where the hell I am and better still, how I can get back home!”

Six blinked, clearly warring with some internal struggle. Finally she stated, “I’m not saying anything else. So far as I’m concerned I don’t know you, I’ve never seen you before, and you were never here.”

“EH?!”

The yellow mare flicked her mane out of her eyes and walked around Lyra as if she were no more than another rock.

“Hey! For buck’s sake, don’t you just walk away from me like that!” Lyra turned to face the retreating mare. “Celestia’s arse, at least tell me how to get to Ponyville! HEY!” Lyra broke into a jog, catching her up.

“Look, just piss off, will you?” Six hissed. “I’ve got a job to do, and if the seekers are out looking for Eighteen they’ll be all over this area in the blink of an eye. They find you then they’ll likely net me in with you, then we’ll both be well and truly bucked.” She glanced up at the sky, “Go back to the forest, or the wrecks, or wherever the hell it is you tainted lot call home!” She barked out a laugh, “Ponyville!”

“What’s so funny about that?” Lyra asked, keeping pace with her. When she received no response she added, “Twilight Sparkle lives there, and she’s Celestia’s personal student. You’d have to have been living under a rock not to know about her and her pals.”

“Oh, Lode! You don’t give up, do you?” Fourteen growled low in her throat. “Heresy now, is it? The only gods we have here are the ones in the tower, tainted girl, so why don’t you do us both a favour and go hoof yourself in and maybe they’ll take mercy on you. Personally I doubt it,” she shrugged, “but that’s our lot in life. Lode, chapter three, verse four.” Six began to mutter under her breath, something about ‘Ours is not to reason why,’ or some such rubbish.

“Our lot?” Lyra echoed. She looked up, noticing that Six was quickly widening the gap between them. “Hey you, you’re really starting to get my goat, you know that?” Lyra called after her. “Luna’s ears, I’ve been blown up, thrown through some sodding archaic portal into only the goddesses know where, nearly eaten by a thing that was all teeth and attitude, only to be shoved muzzle first behind a rock and then told to ‘piss off’! Some bloody world this is when a girl can’t even get directions home!” The green mare stood tall, brushed the sand off her chest and nickered loudly. “Well, buck you, you stuck up bitch!” she snapped. “I hope a bloody timberwolf buggers you senseless and turns you into burgers. I suppose I’ll just have to find my own way home then, and I tell you now, when I get there I’ll be writing to the papers about you and your dimwit muppet mates with their stupid bastard bingo names!” She turned to walk away up the beach, raising her voice to heavens, “Eyes down for a full house! On it’s own, number SIX!”

And so that was Lyra’s introduction to the equine population of wherever ‘here’ was. She had no idea of which direction to go either. Like most ponies she knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west, but was home west or east or where she was right now? The beach seemed to run north to south, disappearing around some headland after a distance in both directions, forming a shallow bay of sorts. Six had wandered off to the north, and since Lyra had absolutely no intention of following that selfish creature, then south it was. One thing was for sure, she wasn’t going to put so much as a single hoof into that damned forest again! She would probably be seeing those teeth in her nightmares for years to come, not to mention the cries of that pig-like thing. Gods! It had sounded almost… A shiver ran down her spine and she stopped in her tracks. Slowly, Lyra turned to stare back up the beach to where Six had been. Hadn’t she thought she was somepony else? That stallion, Fourteen wasn’t it? He’d said a young lad had come after Six. Eighteen? Bloody hell, what was with these numbers?! And who was this ‘Lode’ she was droning on about? Lyra snorted, it wasn’t like even half of what that nut case had said made any sense, but then… the monster in the forest, the thing that it had leapt on… Was that… Had that been a pony? Suddenly a thought burst into her head. Parchment. Oh Celestia! Parchment! With all the horror of her ride through a portal, not to mention narrowly avoiding death and meeting religious fanatics, she’d completely forgotten about what had started all of this! What had happened to the useless sack of… Oh, no… Maybe it wasn’t Eighteen in the forest? Maybe… Maybe the hapless creature had been…

“You there! Halt!”

Lyra flinched at the voice, “Eh?” Was somepony shouting at her?

Another voice, louder this time, called, “STAY WHERE YOU ARE, TAINTED!”

Tainted? Lyra’s mind reeled. So far as she could see she was the only one on the beach, which meant… She looked up shielding her eyes, and sure enough, silhouetted by the intense sun, were two pegasi. They were just hovering there, staring at her. At least she thought they were, from this angle they just looked like black shapes. Surely they didn’t mean her though, right? ‘Tainted’? Sure she was a bit mucky after landing in the forest following her unexpected journey through the portal, but she didn’t small that bad. She sniffed her coat; definitely needed to have a wash off, especially as some of last nights consumables were still stuck to her. But… Hang on, hadn’t that weirdo Six called her that when she’d first bumped into her? Tainted girl? Stupid things, they were all absolutely nuts around here!

Something twanged like a badly tuned guitar string, immediately followed by a thump of something else impacting into the sand not two feet from her muzzle.

“The next one will end you, Tainted.”

Lyra froze. Just like it was in the forest when the beast had appeared, part of her wanted to break into a blind run, heading for the trees where the pegasi could not so easily follow. On the other hoof she was certainly no athlete, years of pounding the stage combined with too much alcohol, fast food and late nights had seen to that. Could she seriously outrun these two? Could she outrun a… Hey, that was an arrow! Realisation dawned as her brain picked up where her instincts left off. They’d shot an arrow at her! Good gods, these primitives were like something out of the bloody stone age! Fear warred with anger, her natural sense of self preservation temporarily halted whilst the indignant green unicorn glowered up at her attackers.

“What the hell are you dickheads playing at?!” Lyra shouted. “You could have somepony’s eye out with that! You two sod off right now or you’ll be sorry you messed around with this Ponyville filly.”

She was rewarded with another arrow, this time narrowly missing her neck, but so close shefelt the fletchings skim past her ear.

“Right you little shits, you’re going to get it now.” Grumbling under her breath, Lyra glared up at her antagonists, her horn glowing with a golden aura of power. It wasn’t much of a shield, in fact she’d only learned it after some drunken fool in the audience had thrown a bottle at the stage some years ago. Another artist had shown her how they worked, but whether it was effective against an arrow she wasn’t so sure. She was about to find out however.

“She’s using magic!” the first pegasi shrieked in what sounded like near hysteria, his voice cracking to such a degree it almost made Lyra chuckle. “SHOOT HER! PUT HER DOWN OR THE MAESTER WILL HAVE OUR HIDES!”

That did it. Another arrowed whistled down, ricocheting off the shield effortlessly. Lyra felt quite proud of that, although what they did next didn’t bode too well.

“Swords! Move in close. Take the bitch from both sides!”

“Uh, oh…” Although by no means a push over, Lyra was certainly no fighter. In fact the forest was starting to look like a distinctly viable option right now, monsters or no monsters. Thingshere were moving way faster, and far more deadly, than she’d ever experienced in her lifetime. What was worse was that these guys really meant it too. “Get back!” Lyra snapped. “Get back or I’ll turn you inside out, you flying ratbags!” Of course she had no idea preciselyhow she could manage that intriguing proposal, in fact the most she’d ever managed to turn something ‘inside out’ was her washing, but these clowns didn’t need to know that. Whether they believed her or not may make the difference between life and death in this madhouse. For one of the pegasi, the nearest to her who had just landed, it seemed a very real possibility. By their expressions they had little to no experience of magic and fear was making them hesitate. It was time, she decided, to give them a little taste of it.

The two pegasi stood in front of her, lengths of glistening steel held in the mouths. They wore what looked like flight jackets at first glance, not that dissimilar to the ones Lyra had seen worn by pegasi back home during aerial displays. What was different about these guys was that their jackets looked as if they were made of furs. Very fine furs, but fur nonetheless. If she wasn’t sure she was far from home before, she sure as hell did now. No equestrian would ever wear anything so vulgar. The two had close cropped manes and tails too, with what appeared to be war paint, red and white stripes to be precise, under each eye.

Lyra took stock of her location. The sea was on one side, the forest on the other. Behind her was a long stretch of open sand, and before her the two pegasi. Uncertainty of what the green unicorn could do to them warred within the two be-winged ponies. Should they rush her? They’d heard stories of what the tainted could do to a pony with that evil power. Who hadn’t? The village soothsayer and storytellers had warned them time and time again, but to see one now, and fully grown at that, was a different matter. The masters though… They had no choice. They couldn’t flee, or else… or else…

“Twenty?” the younger one asked.

Twenty swallowed, nodding to himself as he tightened the grip on his sword. “Be brave, brother. Evil has to be vanquished no matter what the cost. They will sing songs of- ARGH!!!”

“TWENTY!”

Chaos broke out on the beach together with a scream of outraged fright. In a gust of sand the elder of the two stallions leaped into the air, his eyes bulging. From under his tail a strangely formed glowing construction, one Lyra had put together from the drawings made in Hidden Path’s book, made its sudden appearance well and truly felt. The green unicorn mare grinned wickedly as the pegasi howled in pain, struggling to get away from the magic’s grip. But Lyra wasn’t finished with him yet. Not by a long shot. Quick as a flash she snatched the pegasi’s bow, yanked him up into the air by the most tender part of his anatomy, and began to thrash his backside raw. Each stinging whallop of the wooden shaft across his buttocks elicited a gutteral howl, and with each outraged shriek the younger pegasus turned ever paler.

A pair of yellow eyes bored into him. “YOU WANT SOME TOO?” Lyra lowered her head, her horn pointing right at him. “Do you buckers know what a eunuch is? All I need to do, just one more little twist, and I’ll tear them off and make you eat them!”

“No!” The younger stallion shook his head desperately, “Please! Let him go, we’ll not say anything, I promise! We’ll… We’ll leave you alone!”

“Don’t be a fool!” Twenty shouted down at his comrade, “We can’t! Kill the- OH LODE! NOOOOO!”

A yellow glowing digit extended, thrusting down into a dark place where no magic should ever shine. “Had enough yet?” Lyra said coldly, “Or would you like me to show you… what comes next?”

It was enough. The younger stallion turned tail and ran, launching up into the air a moment later. Lyra watched him go. “Just you and me now, boyo.” The green mare moved closer, her muzzle moving up to the inverted pegasi’s own until they were nose to nose. “You know, I’d recommend you keep still If I were you,” she grinned. “Too much movement could throw me off my game, and if that happens, well… who knows? They could come right off in my hand.” Lyra chuckled, she’d always wanted to say that!

The stallion went still, sweat pouring down his muzzle and dripping onto the sand. “What… What do you want?” he breathed.

“Quite simple really,” Lyra explained quietly. “I want to know where I am, and which way is Ponyville?”

“P- Ponyville?” The stallion swallowed, “I’ve never heard of such a place. Ah- OOOOH!”

Lyra couldn’t help but grin at that sound. She gave him a shake, but not too hard. “I’ll ask you again. Where is-”

“I don’t know!” Twenty squeezed his eyes shut, dreading another… another one of those! “I’ve never heard of Ponyville! I only know of the village and the citadel, that’s all! Please, I’m telling the truth!”

The village or the citadel, eh? “And what’s the name of this ‘Citadel’, then? Hmm?” She gave him a shake for good measure.

“It… It’s just called the Citadel!” came the strangled reply. “It’s the home of the gods, our masters.”

“Your ‘masters’, eh?” Lyra shook her head in amazement. “I thought there was some kind of ‘S and M’ thing going on here.” There was one more thing she wanted to ask him, “Have you seen another pony here? Unicorn stallion, purple coat, black tail and mane, blue eyes, goes by the name of Parchment?”

“Who-?” The stallion froze, staring at Lyra’s horn. “There… There was another. He appeared some time ago. He was taken to the citadel where all the other tainted are taken.”

Oh, thank Celestia he was alive! “What do you mean, Tainted?” Lyra frowned, “And what the hell have you got against unicorns anyway?”

“Unicorns are tainted by the foul one’s magic!” the stallion shouted. “You’re all freaks of nature! Monsters!”

“What a crock of shit!” Lyra yelled back, “Equestria has ponies of all stripes in it. Celestia and Luna-”

It was all too much for the pegasus. Something snapped inside him and he took a deep breath before screaming, “HERESY! You foul, loathsome, HERETIC!” With that one word and a great sweep of his wings he broke through Lyra’s magical grip and threw himself on her in a fury of lashing hooves. “Die, spawn of darkness!”

Wild eyes stared with unmitigated hate into Lyra’s as he struck. In the blink of an eye the stallion had the shocked mare pinned down into the sand, his forehoof lashing out with snake like speed, knocking her head back with a sickening thump. Winded and taken by surprise, as much as Lyra struggled to free herself she couldn’t budge him even an inch. Fear snaked its insidious way into her heart as her magic faltered in the absence of concentration. He had her. He had her and there was nothing she could do to stop him. She saw him reach for a dagger, the blade raised into the air above her. Gods, what a way to go… Lyra’s eyes followed its arc. The way the metal caught the sunlight along its keen edge was quite beautiful in its own way. She just wished she’d been able to save the lad she’d come here to find. And what about Bon Bon? Her best friend would be worried sick about. She wouldn’t have a clue where she’d gone, whether she was alive or dead, and-

All of a sudden there was a blur of black, mottled fur. The weight was gone. The pegasus was gone. There was a scream – a terrified, blood curdling scream. Panting for breath, Lyra blinked at the bright blue sky… and the oddly familiar face looking down at her.

“What are you waiting for, you idiot? GET UP!”

Lyra coughed sand out of her mouth, “What? Wha-?”

“Just run, stupid!” Six grabbed the befuddled Lyra, yanking her to her hooves with all the grace of a sack of potatoes. Shocked into inaction, Lyra went to turn her head towards the shrieks of pain, the snarling, the crimson shower of- “Don’t look at it!” Six snapped, slapping Lyra with a hoof. “Follow me and don’t stop running until I tell you to!” Lyra stared at her. “RUN YOU FOOL!”

Despite the heat, raw, primal fear gripped Lyra in its icy embrace, her mind reeling with everything that had happened and what was happening right at that very moment. Up until then she’d survived by not really concentrating, not even thinking, about what had happened to her since she’d been flung bodily into this nightmare world. If she had then she would have become a gibbering, helpless wreck. Now however, right when she needed to dump everything in her head and simply run… she froze.

“UNICORN!” Six called over her shoulder. “What’s wrong with you? Run! Come on, girl, move it!”

“I… I...” Lyra’s throat was dry, her legs as heavy as lead weights. “Gods, come on, come on!” she hissed to her unmoving hooves. Slowly, as if dragging through thick molasses, one of them hauled itself painfully forward. Come on, COME ON!She was going to die. That thing, that monster, would be on her and all she could do, all she was capable of doing, was standing there waiting helplessly to be torn apart. “Bastard, bucking well move, you stupid bucking things!” Another moved. Slowly. Lyra cursed her lineage, that herd mentality, those blasted prey animal instincts that should be working right now and propelled her into a gallop. Instead she was here, moving like… A howl cut through her like a knife. Whatever it signified, whether the beast had taken its fill or was now advancing on her, the effect was instantaneous. Something snapped. Magic flowed, her hind legs digging into the sand, finding purchase, and then… then like a djinn from a bottle, Lyra broke into a full on charge.

She never knew why she did it.

Was it simply adrenalin, or blind stupidity?

Whatever it was, the creature tearing into the mangled pegasus was picked up and slammed into the ground by a glowing ball of yellow magic. Hooves followed. Lyra kicked out wildly, her mind a complete blank as she bucked the beast full in the face. Something soft gave, a sound of bone cracking and the monster ducked away, shying from her, scrambling back towards the safety of the darkness and shadows from whence it had come. She didn’t have time to get a good look at it, but what she saw was enough.

And what it had done.

The stallion, the pegasus who had tried to kill her only seconds earlier, stared up at her now with lifeless eyes.

Lyra barely noticed the sound of hooves approaching. All she could see were the huge rents in the poor creatures coat, how its wings had been reduced to-

“Oh, Lode, what a mess...”

Lyra turned incredulously to stare at Six. “A mess...” she managed past her dry lips. “A mess?”

Six dipped her head as she caught her breath. “Listen, I don’t know who you are or… or what you are, but if you don’t follow me now his friends will be back and when they see him they’ll think you’ve done it.” She frowned, “or me for that matter.” Six closed her eyes, “I’m not going to say this again, so if you’re done follow me or stay here and wait for the others. It’s your choice.”

Lyra stared at her, then down at the body. “He… He could be… I was just talking to him.”

“He was trying to kill you, you idiot!” Six spat. “The Chock saved your life, maybe in a roundabout way before you kicked its head in, but...” She sighed, “Listen, you’re in shock, I know what it looks like and you’re definitely there right now. So, since I’m not a doctor or a healer, then all I can do is offer you safety. At least until the heat dies down, understand?”

“But… He could be-”

“He’s dead, dummy!” Six shouted, bopping Lyra on the head. “Haven’t you seen a dead pony before? Get a grip girl, and shift those legs!”

Lyra shifted her legs. The earlier fear had gone, replaced by a strange calm and empty headedness that left her able to act without the inconvenience of any actual thought getting in the way. She did as she was told and ran, running as fast as she could after the surprisingly swift Six who in turn made her way into the edge of the surf before heading back along the beach.

“We’ll use the damp sand to mask our trail,” Six called out. “As far as anypony knows you’ve been dragged off by the Chock for dinner.”

Lyra didn’t reply.

Zeks. Lode. Chock. Citadel. Tainted. What did any of it mean? Did it mean anything at all? As much as she tried to ignore it, the image of that torn body kept intruding into her mind. She’d never seen a dead pony before. The most she’d ever seen of death was a sparrow which her neighbour’s cat had left on the door mat. It had turned her stomach at the time, but had also seemed… ‘clean’ somehow. The bird wasn’t covered in gashes and rents with guts and blood pouring out everywhere and staining the sand. It was just… dead. It’s eyes were shut, the little body still and silent. It didn’t stare at her with dead, accusing eyes that were glazed over with the haze of death. She hadn’t heard it screaming in pain, writhing as the beast tore and…

“What the-? Hey, don’t stop now we’re nearly… Oh.” Six stopped, turning to watch Lyra throwing up into the surf. She walked up to her, giving her neck a gentle nuzzle, “Come on now, run it off. We’re nearly safe.”

“S- Safe?” Lyra gasped. Wiping her mouth on her foreleg she picked up the pace once more, half picturing an image of that vile beast charging after her. Despite the cramping pains in her stomach she was quickly back to a full gallop. “Where’s safe here?”

In answer Six nodded her head, indicating something gleaming on the headland. “There,” she called. “Whatever you do, stick to the path I take. Don’t wander off, don’t ignore me and think you know a better way, and do exactly as I tell you. Do you understand me?”

Lyra nodded. Her throat was burning uncomfortably from the acidic bile but she didn’t dare waste another second to stop and take a drink. As much as she tried to ignore it she was horribly thirsty, tired, and teetering on the verge of mental as well as physical exhaustion. “Yes,” she croaked. Lyra doubted Six had heard her, but then she had no intention of doing anything but follow the directions of the strange mare to the letter. At least until they were as far away from that gore soaked sand as equinely possible. After all, what else could she do? Where else was there to go? She had no provisions, no idea where in the hell she was, or how to avoid being eaten alive by the apparent swarm of ravenous monsters that inhabited this awful place. Initially she’d believed the thing that had killed the pig, or… or whatever it was back in the forest, to be confined therein. Oh, how naive she was! After what had happened to that pegasus it only served to show her how pathetically clueless she was as to how to survive here. Walking along the beach alone, pegasi notwithstanding, that thing, or one of its kind, would probably have jumped her sooner or later. Now, running for all she was worth along the sand, she could feel eyes boring into her – eyes from the forest, and from the sky. Imaginary or not, the mere possibility of it added a fleetness of foot to her race across the virgin sand.

The salt air was refreshing it had to be said. Lyra had never seen much of the sea despite having travelled to the coast many times as a youngster. She’d been once, several years ago, with Bon Bon on a weekend trip. A trip, she recalled, that had taken far too long. They’d gone by train, and Bonnie had been travel sick. In regards to which she wondered whether it was related to the latest sickness she’d been suffering from. She seemed okay in herself, well, if you discounted the shortness of temper and moodiness of course, but that was life. Wasn’t it? Moodiness, temper flare up and sickness… Where had she read about that? She-

“OKAY,” Six shouted. “Okay...” She was slowing down, allowing Lyra to come alongside. “Good spirits, I haven’t… I haven’t run like that in ages.” She glanced over her shoulder, “Not much further now.” She let out a loud snort, “Right, here’s where it gets tricky. Remember what I told you. No matter what you want look at or if you see something that’s really interesting, just ignore it and follow my lead.”

“Why?” Lyra asked, curiosity peaking its head through the haze of fatigue once more. “Are there more monsters there?”

Six shook her head, “No, or at least not ones that pose a danger particularly.” She fixed Lyra with a look. “The wrecks are a strange place, full of… full of weird stuff which can lead you into a maze you may not be able to find your way out of. Right now I don’t have time to go hunting for lost fillies, so stick to my arse like glue, understand?”

“Received and understood, Ma’am,” Lyra replied.

Six gave her an odd look, suggesting she was no fan of sarcasm, “Just so long as you do… smartarse.”

“I wasn’t trying to-” Lyra stopped mid-sentence as Six increased her pace again. “Ah, sod it,” she mumbled. “What’s the bloody point.”

Six kept running, and Lyra followed hot on her heels. They’d long since passed the point where Lyra had first met the strange mare, the two of them racing full pelt along the wide ribbon of golden sand and hugging the rocks which slowly but surely began to form an ever increasingly tall wall of light grey stone. They leaped over a rivulet, splashing through the surprisingly chilly water, their hooves kicking up clods of wet sand as they went. The seawater was nearer to the cliffs here and there, the irregular landforms looking increasingly as if… Lyra stared, her eyes widening as what she had at first believed to be natural rock formations turned out to be anything but.

“Oh. Oh, Celestia…!” Lyra’s mouth hung agape, her heart pounding in her chest no longer simply as a result of her exertions. “My goddesses!” They were… Well… They were ships, weren’t they? But what ships! These were unlike any ocean going vessel she’d ever seen before, and she’d visited ports the length and breadth of Equestria. Everywhere she looked, great masses of steel sat silently resting upon the sand with the ever present waves lapping at their sterns as though slowly attempting to devour them, dragging them back into the depths. There were wooden ships amongst the metal giants too, many of them green with algae, their hulls thick with barnacles and seaweed which flowing about their hosts like long, green hair. Their sails, most of which had long since rotted away, hung in rags, draped about with rotting skeins of mouldy rigging. Some of the vessels were clearly far newer, wrought from great sheets of riveted steel or iron, painted black, grey, blue and white. There were colourful pennants hanging from some, faded from the sun and sea, but there too – flags! There were none that Lyra recognised, but amongst those tattered and faded pieces of cloth were clearly emblems that had once meant something to somepony. And there up above! There were… there was… writing? Yes! The names of the ships, or at least she thought they were. They were hard to make out, and not in any language that she was all that familiar with. They weren’t all the same either. It looked like-

“Whoop!” Lyra’s hoof caught on something and she nearly tripped. Six had grabbed her just in time to stop her plummeting muzzle first into the wave swept chasm no more than a few feet in front of her.

“I told you to follow me, didn’t I?” Six chided angrily. “I can’t keep stopping to make sure you’re still there. One false step out here and gchk!” She made a cutting motion across her throat. “The next time you blunder into something I might not be in time to stop you, so get a grip!”

Lyra nodded, swallowing hard. Six wasn’t exaggerating either. That had been a close call alright. A few more steps and she would barely have had time to see her life flash before her eyes before ending up as a smear on the rocks far below. Carefully she moved to one side, navigating her way onto the rope bridge strung between the wrecks. Six trotted across first, clearly used to the disturbing way the contraption bucked and swayed with every step. By comparison Lyra’s heart leaped, the fear she had felt earlier creeping back to the forefront of her mind as she started to-

“Don’t look down!”

Lyra froze, her head snapping up.

“Keep looking ahead of you,” Six called. “It’s easy, just look at where you want to go and keep going in a straight line. We’re nearly at my camp now. It’s just a little further.”

Her camp? Lyra felt hope flicker within her. She was exhausted, and her frayed nerves were already stretched to breaking point as it was. She took a breath, focussed on the end of the bridge, and pressed on. Keeping her eyes locked on Six, a few more tentative steps and the sound of rock under her hooves told her she was on the other side safe and sound. Oh, dear goddesses, she’d actually made it! But.. made it to where? Lyra looked around at the towering walls of rusting metal, the rocks, and… Where was Six? There was scuffling sound above her, followed by the clatter of wood knocking into metal.

“Come on up!” Six called, her face peering down at her. “Up here.”

Somehow the strange mare had managed to scale some kind of scaffolding made from metal pipes and wooden planks, the unlikely construction held together with rope. How in Equestria had she moved so fast?! Lyra had barely taken her eyes off her for a split second, yet Six had managed to climb up that high? That was no mean feat for a normal earth pony, although Lyra doubted Six was far from your common or garden variety equine, and that was putting it mildly. As if in answer to her unspoken question, Six pointed to a ladder hanging beside one of the supports, one which looked almost as bad as the rope bridge but mercifully one that didn’t come with a plummeting fall to certain death this time. In any case, since Lyra had come this far already she’d be damned if she’d give up now. And so, with a lot of huffing and panting, she clambered up to join Six at the top.

“Give me a hoof here, will you?” Not waiting on ceremony, Six motioned to a heavy metal sheet that lay against a hole in the hull of one of the enormous ships. Numbly, Lyra complied, gripping it in her magic.

Six didn’t really need to help haul the covering as Lyra’s telekinesis was more than capable of shifting several times her own weight. In truth she seemed more interested in seeing unicorn magic at work and watched it with fascinated, if somewhat wary, eyes. With a loud grating sound, the metal moved, allowing access into the darkness beyond. Six wasted no time in trotting inside and motioned for Lyra to do the same. The metal sheet was slid back into place behind them. And there, in the darkness, Lyra Heartstrings finally collapsed onto her rump, leaning against the cold steel… and breathed.

“Bonnie? What’s going on? Is everything-”

“Yes, yes, it’s fine, Lyra.”

“Well it’s obviously not now, is it? Otherwise I wouldn’t find it necessary to keep asking you every five minutes.”

“Oh goddesses, not this again...”

“Yes, this again! You’re working all the hours Luna sends and then you’re hardly in bed five minutes before you’re running for the bathroom chucking your guts up! You can’t keep this up, Bonnie. Something’s wrong. This isn’t normal.”

“I said, I’m fine! Gods above, don’t keep going on about it all the time.”

“I don’t go on about it ‘all the time’, Bonnie! And in any case, if that was me in there throwing up every morning wouldn’t you be concerned? Or do you care so little about me you’d simply wave it off and pretend everything’s hunky dory?”

“NO! I mean… Oh, goddesses, yes, Lyra, of course I’d be concerned, but I keep telling you I’m okay.”

“Bonnie, look, you’re my best friend, you’re like a sister to me. We’ve been through some serious crap over the years and now I’m asking you, no, begging you, to go and get yourself looked at. Please, it’s frightening me!”

“Tch! Good grief, you don’t need to ‘beg me’, Lyra. That’s just being stupid.”

“Is it? Is it really? So you think a friend would just write it off as ‘one of those things’, eh? That a friend would say, ‘Throwing up every morning? Hey, not a problem! Everypony does it, right? You know, get up in the morning, puke up in the toilet, and then off to work as fresh as a daisy. What a great way to start the day.”

“Oh, don’t be so flippant!”

“And don’t you be so dismissive!”

“LOOK! I’m sick of this shit every day, Lyra! What’s it going to take for you to get off my back about it, huh? It’s driving me up the damned wall!”

“Simple. You make an appointment to see the doctor, get yourself looked at, and then tell me what they say. If it’s just a tummy bug then we can get you sorted out in no time. If it’s anything more serious then at least you’ll have access to professional help instead of buying tonnes of antacids and stomach medicine from the bloody pharmacy. And don’t say anything, I’ve seen all the empty packets in the bin. So, no putting more it off, and no more excuses!”

“I’m not making excuses.”

“Like bollocks you aren’t! Do you remember what happened to my aunt, Bon Bon? She had that problem peeing, yeah? Kept putting it off because she ‘didn’t want to be a bother’ to anypony, and every time you mentioned it you were ‘causing a fuss about nothing?’ Do you remember what happened to her?”

“The tumour.”

“Yes, the tumour. The hospital told us that if they’d seen her sooner they could have done something. But no, no she had to be her usual stubborn self and put it off until it was too late to have the surgery that could have saved her life. Now she’s dead, and I’ll be damned if I see another member of my family die because of casual bloody-mindedness!”

“Ugh! I’m not going to die, Lyra.”

“Aren’t you? Because from where I’m standing I don’t know, Bonnie. I’m not a doctor, and unless you’re hiding something from me, then neither are you. So please, get yourself booked in and we’ll get this whole business put to bed, yeah?”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I really will ‘go on about it all the time’ until you do.”

“Oh, Celestia give me strength…. Fine then, I’ll book an appointment in the morning.”

“Promise?”

“Not that I really need to, but yes, yes I promise.”

“Thank you. I’m glad to see common sense can prevail… on occasion.”

“Humph!”

The smell of herbs tickled Lyra’s nose enticingly. The dream, or whatever it had been, gradually fading away with her wakefulness. She blinked, looking up into the eyes of Six.

“You okay now?” the yellow mare asked.

“Hmm?” Lyra groaned, reaching behind to rub her back. She was surprised to find a pillow there. That was thoughtful of her. A cup of what Lyra presumed was herbal tea, was passed to her as well. She took it gratefully in her magic.

“You looked all in,” Six explained. She jerked a hoof towards the entrance, “You collapsed right by the door so I tucked you in to let you have a rest. By the looks of things, you needed it.”

Lyra looked down at the blanket that had slipped from her as she’d sat up. “Thank you...”

“You should be thankful too,” the yellow coated mare said plainly. “You’ve put me in a hell of a bind, girl. You and that bloody horn of yours.”

Instinctively Lyra reached up to touch it. “What’s...” She groaned, “You know, I’m not sure I even want to ask anymore.” Six raised an eyebrow and turned away to potter about with something on a wooden workbench. It was one of the few organic items in the room. The rest of it was metal, dark and shadowy in the gloomy light filtering through several dirty portholes. “So, you want to start with the questioning or shall I?” Lyra offered.

“Why would I want to question you?” Six asked quietly.

“Because you obviously rescued me on the beach for a reason.” Lyra blew on her tea to cool it down, but kept a wary eye on her host. It was true that Six did intrigue her, but she was still aching from all the running, not to mention the magical expenditure. “I saw the look on your face,” Lyra continued. “You were quite happy to leave me there to your pegasus pals while you went off on your merry way. Hell, you could have left me to the tender mercies of that huge wolf thing to finish me off too.” Lyra took a tentative sniff at the tea, then put it down. “But you didn’t. And that begs the question – why?” Six paused, glancing over at her but said nothing. “You see, the way I look at it is this: You could be hoping that your flying buddies come back with reinforcements, comb the beach, and assume I’ve been dragged off or eaten by our furry friend. Or else...” She took a breath, feeling around herself for something she could lift. “Or else there’s something in it for you if you hoof me in. A reward maybe? Recognition for surrendering, what was it now, a ‘tainted’ pony? Oh yes, and a ‘heretic’ apparently, let’s not forget that little gem.”

The atmosphere in the room seemed to drop several degrees. It was cold enough in there as it was in the shadow of the cliffs, but what made it worse was the long pause which hung in the air between the two mares. Six pushed up the goggles she was wearing up onto her head and brushed some of her orange mane out of her eyes. With a flip of a switch a light came on in front of her. “There are no rewards for surrendering the tainted,” she said, her voice surprisingly soft compared to her earlier brusque manner. “I had thought you’d know that. But...”

“But what?”

“But now I don’t think you would somehow.” Six lifted something from the desk, turned it over in her hoof, and put it down again. Whatever it was ‘clicked’ with a sharp metallic sound, “It was something you said, or rather, the things you said.” She opened a drawer and took out a small cardboard box. “You’re not from around here, are you.”

“Well obviously!” Lyra’s hoof caught on something long, cylindrical, and decidedly heavy. She’d keep that in her metaphorical pocket for later in case things got… well, let’s just say she knew where it was if she needed to defend herself for any particular reason. All she’d need to do would be to snatch it up in her magic, bring it round in an arc, and-

“So if you’re not from the village, then that means you’re from the citadel,” Six reasoned. With surprising speed she opened the box, flipped some small shiny objects into the item she had on the workbench, and in a few seconds had the whole thing attached to her foreleg and hoof. Lyra didn’t know what it was, but the tube shaped protuberance was suddenly pointing right at her. “Do you know what this is?”

Lyra couldn’t take her eyes away from it. “No. But I’m guessing I’m not going to like the answer, am I?”

Six raised an eyebrow, “That all depends on what you say next.”

Lyra let out a chuckle, “Gods almighty, can this day get any worse?!” She stared at Six, her ire rising. “So let me get this straight; you abandon me, then save me. You make me comfortable, make me a cup of tea, then threaten me with… with whatever that thing is? Am I in the right ball park here?”

“If I knew what a ‘ball park’ was, then maybe,” Six replied coldly. “Let me make myself perfectly clear here, whatever your name is-”

“Lyra,” Lyra said, lifting her muzzle. “Lyra Heartstrings.”

“Number?”

“Num-” Lyra hesitated, “What, like, of my house?”

Six clucked her tongue, “No, you idiot! Your birth number!”

Lyra frowned, “I don’t have a ‘birth number’. Well, not unless you’re talking about my social security number, but who the hell remembers that? I mean, I think I’ve got a card with it on at home, but it wouldn’t do you any good if you’re-”

“For Lode’s sake, shut up!” Six glared at her. “You’re telling me you weren’t given a number at birth, yes?”

“Pretty much,” Lyra said calmly. “Nopony is where I’m from.”

“And where did you say you were from again?”

“Um, Ponyville?”

“And where is this ‘Ponyville’ exactly? One of the islands? Or one of the citadel sectors maybe?”

“It’s in Equestria,” Lyra replied wearily. She couldn’t help keep the sarcasm from her voice as she added, “Big place, run by a couple of tall scary alicorns? They’ve got the whole palace thing going on with royal guards and the like. You can’t miss it.”

“Can’t you?” Six didn’t seem to see the funny side. “And I suppose you don’t know where you are right now then, right?”

“Haven’t got a clue,” Lyra said honestly. She shrugged her shoulders for emphasis.

“So you just happen to appear out of the forest, right when Eighteen disappears, claim to be from ‘Equestria’, and you’re a unicorn?” Six’s expression hardened, “You seriously expect me to believe all that?”

Lyra felt her grip on the metal tube tighten. She didn’t like the way this was going at all! “I don’t give a toss what you-”

There was a bright flash followed almost instantly by a deafeningly loud CRACK! Lyra ducked on instinct, squeezing her eyes shut and let out a shriek of fright. Stars burst in her vision, even with her eyes tightly closed. Her ears screamed with a high pitched whine that was far worse than any Saturday night gig she’d ever been to, and she’d been to some real ‘roof raisers’ too. A few seconds later she tentatively opened one eye. Six was still there, watching her as she had been all along, only this time with smoke rising from the end of that thing on her foreleg.

“I’d suggest you don’t lie to me again, ‘Lyra Heartstrings’. My aim is not quite as good as it could be, and the shadows in here play hell with my eyesight.”

“You-?!” Lyra swallowed, “Celestia’s arse! You’re a bucking lunatic! I thought you were going to help me, and you nearly...” Her eyes moved to the small hole behind her. Whatever it was, that thing had put a hole mere inches from her head. “You nearly killed me!”

“Better you than me,” Six said simply.

“What do you want from me!” Lyra gasped. “For Luna’s sake, I don’t want this, I just want to go home!”

“To Ponyville?” Six sneered. “Yes, you already said.”

“YES!” Lyra heard a click, her eyes locking onto the cylindrical shape before her. “Please, Six, I don’t know what’s going on or what you want, I just-”

“How did you get here?” The yellow mare asked suddenly.

“-to get…” Lyra hesitated again, her mouth had gone horribly dry all of a sudden. “How? I… Through… Through the portal. The portal in the forest.”

Abruptly, Six put her hoof down and leaned forward, narrowing her eyes. Lyra noticed the mare’s ears prick up. Now she really had her attention. “What portal?” she asked.

This could be the defusing element of the situation Lyra had been hoping for. There was no point lying about it, so honesty, she hoped anyway, would be the best policy if she wanted to get out of this in one piece. “I’m an archaeologist,” Lyra began. “We were working on a dig site and one of the volunteers accidentally activated some kind of ancient portal we’d uncovered. He went missing that evening, we believe through that very same portal.”

“And you came looking for him, did you?” Six asked.

“Well, not exactly,” Lyra huffed, scratching her head. “They blew it up just as I fell backwards into it. The next thing I knew I was face first in the middle of a forest and that thing, that ‘Chock’ I think you called it? It appeared out of nowhere and nearly had me for dinner. If it hadn’t gone for that pig I wouldn’t be here talking to you now. While it was distracted I slipped away to look for a way out and that’s when I met you. The rest you know.”

“Yes… Yes, I’m sure I do.” Six stayed where she was, staring at her, and then suddenly let out a pent up breath as she sat back in her chair. “What colour was this ‘pig’ you saw?”

“The pig?” Lyra blinked in surprise at the question. “Um, I’m not sure, a dark chocolate brown maybe? It was quite a size, and…” The look on Six’s face confirmed her fears. “It wasn’t a pig was it. It was-”

“Eighteen,” Six finished for her. The mare leaned her head back and let out a loud groan. “Oh, that stupid kid… If I’d told him once I’d told him a dozen times not to take that damned shortcut, but he always liked to break the rules. He liked to go and stare at that old portal too. There’s a reason why we avoid the place.”

“I’m not surprised if that ‘Chock’ thing lives in there,” Lyra nickered. “How the hell can you survive in this place with four legged murder machines lurking in the trees like that?”

“Because they rarely come anywhere near our settlements,” Six said flatly. She lifted her foreleg with the device attached to it, “and because we kill them if we do.”

Lyra looked at the hole next to her head again and winced. “Well at least Parchment didn’t end up in that thing,” she said with a hint of relief in her voice.

“How do you know he didn’t?” Six asked. “Magic tell you that, did it?”

Lyra snorted, “Hardly. One of those pegasus nutters told me he’d been found and taken to that citadel thing of yours.”

“There was another one of you?!” Six jumped out of her chair making Lyra push back into the pillow. “Another tainted?”

There was that bloody word again! Lyra could feel her teeth grinding, her anger rising as she said, “He’s not ‘tainted’, and neither am I. He just so happens to be a unicorn too, just as you happen to be an earth pony and some happen to be pegasi. All of us have equal value.”

Six’s mouth opened and closed, her eyes becoming uncharacteristically distant. She looked deflated, and her ears drooped as she turned away. “Not here we don’t.”

“Eh?” Lyra slowly got to her hooves, brushing off the dust from her coat. “Of course we do, it’s just-”

“You don’t understand,” Six interrupted. “Unicorns, or ‘tainted’ as they’re called here, are considered spawn of the dark one. If any are born into this world they’re given to the zeks lest they contaminate the rest of us. It’s a legacy from the first days.”

“First days?”

Six nodded, “Some believe our people came through the portal from another land, to settle this one and to work as servants of our masters, the zeks. Others say the zeks created us, caring for us as we care for them.”

“Who are these ‘zeks’,” Lyra asked.

Six froze, her hoof twitching as she lifted her foreleg. Lyra’s blood ran cold, but the yellow mare merely climbed back onto her stool. “You can drink the tea,” she said simply, “it’s not poisoned.”

“I didn’t think it was,” Lyra lied.

“Ha! I’m sure you didn’t.” Six rolled her shoulders, her ear twitching as if she’d heard something coming from the darkened doorway behind her.

Lyra blinked, alarm gripping her, “Something there?”

“No.” Six turned back to face her, took up her own cup of tea and took a sip. “I think you’d better tell me your story, Lyra Heartstrings” she said. “From the beginning.”