I am far from blessed, when it comes to an accurate memory.

Even with all the thoughts I am sure have slipped my mind, I often find myself tuning out the rest of the world to wander in them. As much as I would prefer not doing so, it has taken up far more time than I would like to admit.

When the door closed, I realized that the sound would more than likely remain with me the rest of my life. Even if I lose the finer details, its very hard to forget that. Why is it some of the worst things that can happen in your life are the ones that you refrain from losing? I can still hear that damn thing now, just thinking about it.

The sound of that whirring, flashing, yellow light that had not turned in centuries in it's chipped and nearly broken plastic hull came first, then that hissing sound as heat swept out of crooks and cranny's when the machine roared to life a second time. Metal screeched into metal while a half-dead alarm tried to announce 'last chance for your survival!' in its over-sized alarm-clock mimic.

The wheel turned.

I didn't need to look behind me. I didn't want, or need, to see her face again.

She can wallow alone in her guilt, I wont give her pity. Buck her, and buck that noise. ( Literally! )

I think it was the last sound that really drove it home for me. ( Very funny, brain. ) I have yet to figure out how one accurately describes the sound made with the closing of a life chapter and the opening of another, specifically those exact terms in my position. I'm sure that sound is different for everyone, and everyone must remember it slightly differently.

Mine just happened to be the sound of large lump of metal falling into place.

The alarm goes silent, and I am alone.

We had left the gruesome pile behind the building a few moments ago. Our random troupe had meagerly made our way back out to the center of the main road in the town, with most of the other ponies keeping a disturbing distance away from me. I should have been more worried about that, but I was far more concerned with what I had seen only moments before.

I knew that brand, I knew why it was given to certain pegasi that had decided to leave the clouds, what I didn't know was why it had been branded onto a colt of all things. A colt! How in Celestia's sunny polished plot did it even occur to someone to brand a colt?! What was he even doing down here in the first place?!

Shaking my head to clear away the exasperated thoughts I decided, first things first. Take stock of the situation at hoof. Currently I was standing by myself, Light was off to the side nearer the buildings speaking softly between Tech, Cleave, Mist, and Pyro. Psych stood near by them, though was not putting any input into the conversation, and Static was standing near Light, listening. It was then I noticed Karma slowly heading her way back towards the front part of town, hooves dragging slightly in the dirt. Right as I was about to take a step towards joining her to get some many questions answered, Stan came out of no where and blocked my path.

He didnt say anything, as usual, and didn't look too threatening overall, but the casual glance under the rim of his hat was more then enough for me to slowly back mentally down and give up on reaching out to Karma, for now. Guessing my decision, he simply nodded his head, and moved to walk in the same direction she was headed, though was making no effort to really catch up to her.

Well, so much for a brilliant plan of action.

The soft crunching of hooves in the dirt covered road brought my attention back around to the earlier group. Tech, and Cleave, had turned to make their way back as well, but Light and Psych had decided they did actually want to have words with me, with Static fumbling behind them as he darted his eyes around at the other buildings, while Pyro was making his way back around the main town hall structure. Mist was...somehow gone again. I fought down the urge to back my ears in a slight feeling of dread, and raised my head while squaring my stance when they approached.

"We are going to try to assume that you still have absolutely no idea what is going on." Light stated once he was able to stand fully in front of me. Psych on the other hoof stayed back and gave me that same narrow-eyed expression of distrust that I had been getting used to, not that it wasn't unwarranted I suppose, Static had decided to remain quiet, per-usual.

"You would assume correct, then. I am just as shocked as the rest of you. I really have no idea what is going on...but I can tell you I do intend to find out, soon as I can get to the tower." I tried to make my voice sound as confident as possible.

Light quirked a brow in thought, Psych rolled his eyes, and Static...remained pretty much 'static' to the response. I had a feeling I wasn't going to get much of an argument out of him anyways. After a moment, Light let out a small sigh and raised a hoof to brush back his fluffy mane.

"Alright then. We are just going to stay on schedule. We are staying here the night, you and Karma leave in the morning. Tech says there is more than enough room in that hotel they were having ponies living in."

"Um...what about...you know?" I nudged my head in the direction Pyro had headed.

"He is going to take care of their situation. We cant stick around for a proper burial for them all, but...Pyro can at least take care of their bodies. I doubt they did anything to deserve just to rot there." Light replied, with a slight grimace.

As if on que, a burning smell slowly folded into our standing area. Its sickening now to think about how the smell wasn't that bad when one may not have known exactly where it was coming from, and why. Turning my head, I could already see plumes of dark black smoke rising into the air.

"Aren't you worried someones going to see that?" I couldn't help myself from asking.

"Let them see it. I hope they come back so we can kick their flanks so hard, they'll wish their parents never bucked uglies." Psych decided to answer, with a soft growl under his breath. That pony was particularly good at making that noise.

"...fair enough." I quietly said to myself, while the three of them turned and headed in the same direction with the others. I found my attention pulled back to smoke filling sky, feeling a bit bad for Pyro having to deal with it, even if he was the best pony to get the job done in a timely manner.

Continuing to gaze, my mind wandered along with the tendrils of soot snaking and puffing into the air with gasps of undercurrent heat, a black mockery to the clouds I was used to. I could only hope those poor souls would find some sort of peace as their last testament to life was transformed to ash, merging with the sky they never had a chance to truly see or enjoy.

That poor colt, I wonder if he ever got to enjoy flight.

Soon after we found ourselves at the hotel looking building that we had passed by before. Our earth pony companions, hopefully Mist included, had all left to go get Rainy and Happy, so that they could also hitch themselves up to the wagons to bring them inside the town. In the mean time I had placed myself by a front bay window of what would have been a area where morning ponies would have enjoyed the scenery of the town outside. Instead, I simply got a view of the cracked and dirt filled street with rows of empty businesses and houses.

Behind me, Light was carrying on a conversation with Psych, while our other unicorns, minus Pyro, were slowly going through the different rooms up the stairs. Already they had brought down a number of different belongings, mostly canned food and bottled water, along with a few glass bottles of brightly colored liquid and a pile of those little metal disks I had seen them play cards with.

"Going to check to see if they have a medical place tomorrow." I heard Psych say to Light. Turning my head I saw the pink pony nod his head in agreement. Around the same time I saw Tech trot halfway down the stairs and peek around the wall at the two of them.

"Is Stan back yet?" He questioned them. Once he had a duo shake of heads he darted back upstairs in a bit of a rush. Tilting my head I was able to hear him shuffle something plastic-sounding before he came back down stairs with a small magically held pile of little cakes, all wrapped up and still looking in decent condition. "Lets eat these up before he gets back, then" He said with a small smirk.

His yellow magic easily tossed individual cakes in Psych's and Light's direction. Both Unicorns switching their magic over to catch the treats once Tech had released them from his own. He then tossed one over in my direction, which I swung out a wing to catch it against the back of my feathers before it fell onto the floor. Tech then, with the rest of his prizes walked back up the stairs, more than likely to make sure that Cleave got a share as well.

Watching Psych and Light open theirs with their magic and take bites out of the two hundred year old pastry made me look down at mine curiously. The top of the little cake had been smooshed in the plastic clear wrapper over the many years, but strangly didnt look very bad other than that. Tilting my wing about I let it slip to the floor, and with using a hoof and my teeth I ripped the plastic back. Giving it one last concerned look, I tilted it so the cake slipped forwards partially outside the wrapper and took myself a small bite.

Oh...sweet glorious goddesses.

After years and years of the most blandest food the cloud fields could provide, I found myself unable to resist the urge of instantly chomping my jaw down onto the rest of the cake. Finishing it off in the single bite as I chewed ecstatically. Despite the once silky covering of the pastry having turned slightly flaky, and the outside of the cake itself only being slightly stale, it was absolutely delicious. New flavors exploding into my muzzle when the inside of the cake burst in a gooey center. I had no idea what it was that I was tasting, but how in the world Stan could be terrified of something so wonderful was just something I couldn't mentally grasp.

After I licked the inside of my mouth once I had swallowed to chase the flavor, I brought my head back down and eagerly attempted to lick the inside of the wrapper, trying to get every last bit that I could of the snack. It was only a few moments before I realized the strangely quiet atmosphere around me that I looked up at my other two companions in the room.

Both ponies still held their own snacks mid-air, bites taken out of each, but they had stopped to look at me curiously. Light simply stared, but Psych quirked an eyebrow in scrutiny.

"Sweet tooth, much?" He asked me, pointing to my cake's wrapper with a hoof.

"Um...heh, yeah. I guess." I shrugged at him in equal reply as I did my best to salvage whatever dignity I had left in the current situation. Slowly pulling my head back up and pushing the wrapper away from me. It was a war not to lick my lips again with both ponies watching me. But I did make a mental note to snatch up as many of those delicious treats as my hooves could hold in the future.

With that thought in mind, I realized I had been thinking of a future based around even being near the surface enough to be able to obtain such treats again. The feeling of wanting to sigh was just as much sudden on coming to that conclusion. Turning to ignore the other stallions I went to looking back outside the window, just in time to see the two wagons being pulled in our direction from down the road.

"They're back." I mentioned to Light and Psych before heading to the one open doorway, stepping out onto the porch and waiting patiently while the wagons pulled directly up to the building. There was Mist Blade, despite not having seen him leave, hitched up with Static. Behind them were Karma and Stan, once again hitched to their own wagon. Rainy, with her daughter on her back again, had just finished releasing those two before moving to help the blue-toned ponies, when I walked along the side of the front wagon towards the back.

Stan stood quietly next to Karma, who raised her head to peer at me for a moment before breaking into a tired looking smile towards me in welcome.

"Sorry we're a little late." She mentioned, rubbing a hoof back through the fallen strands of her mane that has escaped her pony tail. Stan nodded in agreement to her statement, the three of us turning again to head to the front of the inn, where Rainy, Mist, Static, Light, and Psych all stood on the front porch. I saw Pyro making his way up from down the road, guessing that he had finished the work he had been left to.

"So, they explained?" Light was asking Rainy, whom nodded her head with a sorrowful look across her face. Her daughter was clinging to her neck and trying to look over her shoulder at Light, eyes wide as she listened. Though I hoped they had left her out of the explanation as to what we had found. "Well, were going to go ahead and stick to the plan...while Karma takes Cloud to the pegasus tower, we'll stay here and salvage whatever we can." Pyro had finally made it to the rest of the group.

All the ponies around, minus myself, nodded in agreement. I couldn't help but feel a little badly for the former ponies of the town, but I supposed that either the ponies currently here take it, or the next group to come through this way would. Either way, the townsfolk sure couldn't use anything here anymore.

Cleave, suddenly peeked out from behind the one closed door to look at our group, motioning for us to come inside.

"I am about to start dinner." He said, simply, before disappearing back inside while the others moved to follow their dark-toned companion at the mention of food.

I stood in place, letting the others move ahead of me, as I had meant to speak to Karma, but Stan stopped right as he walked past me. Blinking, he turned his head in a mimic movement of my own and I suddenly found his muzzle near inches from mine. He glared from under his hat for a few seconds, and I felt the skin under my fur turn hot in a uncomfortable blush. He only had to sniff once, before darting his head back like he had been stung and was startled enough to quickly trot inside to leave me behind. I could only stand there wondering what the issue was before Karma stepped to my side, and again I found myself with another nose pushed way too far into my personal space bubble.

"Looks like they found cake." She said, after having sniffed a few times and leaning her head back into normal its normal position.

"Yeah...I don't understand though, it was wonderful..." I replied back, wincing inwardly at the accidental emphasis on wonderful.

"He'll get over it. Just don't bring it up to him. He hasn't even told me why." She turned her head and looked into the building. I was about to open my mouth to start with my further questions about earlier, but she seemed to realize this and quickly interrupted my chain of thought. "Lets go inside and grab dinner before Static eats it all."

With that said she walked past me and inside, I stood for a few extra seconds as I quietly scolded myself, before following. Inside, the entire group was lounging around the common area. Rainy and Psych were going through the supplies that Cleave and Tech had brought down, while everyone else but Cleave was either sitting down watching, or quietly speaking to one another. Cleave himself was hovered over what looked to be a cooking pot he had just pulled out from the fireplace to taste the contents before placing it back inside with his magic. A metal spoon was lifted next from beside him, and it began stirring while following the metal rim.

Karma was sitting on the floor watching Cleave, with Stan laying down nearby, and Pyro was sitting by his other side. I made my way over and sat down on her other side and looked about the room once more, trying in vain again to bring up the subject of the pegasus colt, but I was doomed hence forth when Cleave took the pot from the fire again with another taste test, turning around after to address us.

"Sorry all, its beans, but I did add a can of green beans in the mix. Couldn't hurt." Everyone turned to watch as he emptied the contents of the pot with the spoon into a number of small bowls he had also found earlier. As each bowl was filled, it was magically lifted to separate ponies about the room.

"I am sure it tastes great, dear." Rainy told him as her magic enveloped the steaming bowl to replace Cleave's own magic, and then grabbing a second for her daughter. With that in tow she moved to sit near me and Karma, sipping from the rim. Happy slid down her back once she sat, to sit with her own bowl that Rainy had given her, only lifting her bowl just slightly off the floor with her wavering pink glow to eat.

Oddly enough, I wasn't the last pony to get their food. Four bowls had lifted in our direction to give Karma, Stan, Pyro and me our share, before Static got his. Which was grabbed with both front hooves as he balanced himself into leaning up from his own sitting position, happily licking the sticky food from inside.

Karma rolled her eyes as she moved to sit in a similar manner, quietly eating her own food as she held it in both hooves as well. Stan on the other hand leaned down to eat directly out of the bowl that had been placed on the floor in front of him, having not bothered his laying position in the slightest. Using my right wing I scooped up the bowl with my tougher primary feathers and began taking small licks of the brown substance.

It was equally sweet as the cake I had tasted earlier, with a earthy aftertaste under the syrup covering the beans. The added green beans gave a crisper taste among the other softer materials, and I quickly found myself ignoring my companions again to enjoy Cleave's cooking. Even the stuff from the two hundred year old cans these surface dwellers salvaged tasted better than the cloud food I was used to eating on a normal basis.

After we had all finished, and the bowls were haphazardly tossed into a far corner, the coals in the fireplace had burned down some. Pyro couldn't help a grin as his horn lit up orange and the flames burst through the black, startled back to life. Sadly, Cleave had been sitting a little too close and very nearly caught his own tail on fire. The heat was the only thing that saved him as he jumped back, and instantly glared in Pyro's direction. The fire-loving pony only grinned wider and shrugged in silent reply.

Looking out the window, I saw that it was already growing dark. That, and Mist giving a yawn followed by most of the other ponies catching the dangerously infectious disease I guessed we would be getting ready to go to sleep. Light stood up, giving himself an all-over shake that only caused his already poofy mane to stick out even further.

"Alright, I believe its...Pyro's turn for first watch, but..." He was remembering what Pyro had to do today I guessed, and he looked across the rest of the group.

"I'll take his place." Stan decided for him, lifting a hoof.

Light only gave a nod, this seemed to give the rest of the crew a silent que to start heading outside to their wagon. I stood in the doorway as they all were tossed their sleeping partials from the second wagon. Mostly rolls of blankets they had acquired from somewhere. Stepping back some as they headed back inside, Karma tossed me her own roll, which I just barely caught with my teeth.

"I don't normally get cold, so feel free." She mentioned before picking a spot out near the window, where Stan had moved after placing his own blanket roll beside him, to then begin watching outside the window. The rest of the ponies made their way upstairs, to try to pick sleeping spots inside the different hotel rooms. Pyro stopped to give Stan a quick hoof-wave.

"Thanks, bro. Just come get me in awhile to switch up." He said while Stan nodded and gave a small smile in reply. Pyro simply grinned once again in return and followed the rest up the stairs.

With the blanket roll still lodged between my teeth, I now looked around the empty room. I didn't feel quite comfortable sleeping off by myself, so I decided to make a spot to lay closer to where Karma and Stan had placed themselves. Sitting the cloth down and pulling at the string to undo the knot. After a few minutes I had made myself a nice nest, where I was able to both lay down on the rough cloth of the blanket, and using a wing, pull the rest of the blanket over my back.

Once comfortable, I looked back over to the window to see Karma having laid down in a similar position, except without a blanket. Hooves crossed in front, she lay her head down atop them, peering out the window. Stan had sat down, but made no other move to lay down, and continued to look out the window as quiet as ever.

I opened my mouth for the third time now, but after a moment decided against bothering Karma now. It was late, I had food in my stomach, and Stan was watching out for anything outside the building. Laying my head on my hooves I thought to myself, buck it, I'll just ask her later...I think I yawned...

"What is this? 'You the runt's flank-friend now?"

"Dont pick on him!"

"Yeah? And what are you going to do about it?"

"You...you just shouldn't be picking on him. It isn't right. He was just talking to me."

"I can take care of myself..."

"Your mommy tell you that, runt?"

"No, I told myself that."

"Whoa! Look at the runt's flank...!"

"Hah, maybe the runt is looking for something to romp."

"The romping runt, hahaha..."

"..."

I must have shaken my head in my sleep, because I suddenly was aware of the dark room feeling like it was swirling inside of my skull. It took a few moments, but eventually my surroundings came back into structures that weren't hovering beyond my blurriness of sleep. The room had gone dark, except for a light green glow that was coming from the direction of the window.

Karma had moved slightly, she now lay closer to the wall, where she could lift her head and place her chin on the window sill to keep her head propped up. She was currently looking at me from the corner of her left eye, lazily. The glow was apparently coming from her pipbuck, so she was easily noticeable compared to Stan, whom had laid down to sleep at some point. He was under his blanket, just barely snoring.

"Bad dream?" Karma asked me, bringing my attention back to her. She had barely turned her head so she could speak, though kept her head on the windowsill.

"Yeah, something like that...isn't Pyro supposed to be on watch?" I replied with a question of my own to side-track the subject.

"I wasn't sleeping very much anyways." She answered with a lift of her shoulders in a shrug. "Besides, I like the quiet, and Stan here could sleep through an earthquake."

"I cant blame you there, I guess." I let the thought drift on my own thoughts for a second while taking a chance to try to look out the window. But the green glow along with the darkness outside made that pretty much impossible. Reaching a hoof out of the blankets I ran it through my ruffled mane, before looking back to her. "About today..."

"Hm?" She interrupted, lifting her head and looking directly at me.

"Well...the colt. What was that about...? What was he even doing here?" I couldn't help but lean forwards, in my interest to figure out what she knew. I'm unsure why I thought she knew more than I about pegasus affairs, but it had been bothering me since the day before.

She didn't answer me at first. Instead, she looked down at her pipbuck thoughtfully. Lifting her other hoof and rubbing it across the top screen which made our green light source flicker slightly. I stayed quiet though, patiently, and eventually she did look back up to me.

"From what I was told, back before the war, all three ponies lived together perfectly fine. I'm sure you know that. Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasus ponies lived however they wanted. Coupled, however they wanted. My guess is, that colt was born here, to whichever parents he had. Even though its been hundreds of years, I'm sure nearly all of us if it were possible, could be traced back to a ancestor that wasn't originally our primary species."

"Okay, I can understand that. But..." I couldn't bring myself to ask, but she seemed to understand regardless. Those eyes of her's, almost black in the dark, narrowed.

"Think about it. Your kind do not like surface dwellers. We are inferior because we cant go above the clouds. They come here, looking for you, and instead not only do they not find you, they find a pegasus colt. A pegasus colt who's parents are not only not pegasi, but of the 'dirt pony' breed."

I winced at the term I had not only used myself once or twice, but had heard plenty throughout my life above the clouds. I had never heard it said with such contempt though, and only now with being around the others did I realize just how...wrong the word was. I didn't like it, at all. Karma must have noticed my internal conflict, for her expression softened slightly before continuing.

"So, they came here, and were going to end up empty hoove'd. It would have been frowned on, as I am sure you already know. They had to save face somehow..." She let the sentence drop off, to an even quieter tone.

"That...but, the entire town? And branding the colt? They couldn't have..." At this point, I think I was more talking to myself, then speaking to her.

"Couldn't have? Maybe they could have got away with never mentioning the colt, but they still didn't have you. Their superiors wouldn't have been pleased regardless. Not including what would have happened if they didn't tell anypony else about the colt and he was then found out. They might have even been branded themselves."

"No." I hoof stomped on the floor suddenly. Startling myself and quickly looking over to Stan, still fast asleep. I guess she had been right about that.

"No? How would you know? I mean heck, look at what has happened on your first mission down here." She stated, looking at me with a dead-pan expression.

"Just...No. We are not like that. Someday, we are going to save everypony." I said the line like I had heard it a million times, but...even I felt a little off, repeating it. Something wasn't right.

I was expecting a follow-up argument, but Karma simply smiled at me. Though, it was far from a warm one, it only made me feel colder as she regarded me, sadly.

"When we deserve to be saved, I'm sure." She turned her head back towards the window. "Don't let us trouble you, till then."

Well, what could I say to that? I didn't like hearing, let alone thinking, that my entire livelihood was nothing but a big ruse. We were a proud breed of pony, we had survived for over two hundred years above the clouds while the world died. We were told we would be the ones to save ponydom, when the world was able to be saved. When...that word, was what made this entire situation seem almost...commonplace. It was a dark thought.

With what little I had experienced in two days, could I really distrust what had kept my kind alive?

Regardless, if it all added up or not. Regardless, if all of this was coming from a Earth pony.

...an Earth pony that really shouldn't have known any better.

Just as I was about to confront her knowledge on the subject, she looked back over at me from the side as she had done earlier. Catching me slightly off guard.

"Go back to sleep, feather head. We got to walk to the tower tomorrow." And with that, she was back to looking out the window. Though I doubted she could see any better out there than I could.

I didn't reply, again. She had pretty much let me know that the conversation was over. Backing my ears against my skull, I crossed my front hooves and laid my head down. This entire situation was leaving a sour taste in my mouth, and with that, I thought back to the cakes from earlier. One of those really sounded good about now....

I was woke up, to a little ball of dry grasses being plopped onto my nose. Causing me to sneeze myself fully awake with a startle. I found Karma standing above me, her own small group of grasses held in her muzzle before she sat down and started to chew on it, watching me. She was wearing her outfit from before, the ragged pieces of cloth covering almost her entire body. The hood of the piece was pulled back so she could eat though, the goggle-portion laying across the back of her shoulders. It was light out, just barely.

I raised a brow at both her, and the grass I'd been given, after. Sniffing it and getting a closer look showed that it was different types of some sort of grass material bundled together, and then tied with more of the longer strands to keep it in place. An odd breakfast, but...I was hungry.

"Hurry up and eat, we're leaving. Your bags are outside." Karma said to catch my attention, she had finished her own breakfast and was looking down at me. After I gave her a nod, she shifted up to her hooves and walked out the door.

I took a chance to look around, and noticed only that Rainy Day, and Psych seemed awake. Rainy was currently drinking from a cup as she stood near the stairs, while Psych was going through the supplies from yesterday that they had found and brought downstairs. He refused to acknowledge me, but Rainy gave me a small smile.

Reaching my muzzle down I grabbed the grass bundle and began to chew on it thoughtfully, sadly this didn't have much taste to it, but with the three swallows to put it down I realized it was just filling enough to get me moving. Giving myself a shake under my blanket dislodged it quickly enough, and I stood to take a moment to attempt to fold it up.

Placing it next to the still sleeping Stan, I looked back over to Rainy and gave her a hoof-wave, which she replied to with one of her own. Psych, was still ignoring me though as he pulled bottles of purple and red liquid from the pile to push them into their own pile.

"Better go before 'Appy wakes up with hugs...good luck, Cloud." Rainy told me, quietly, and I gave her a nod of my head and a smile in thanks, before stepping to the main doorway and out into what was considered the morning light in the wasteland.

It wasn't much, if anything it just seemed to make things even more gray. But it didn't seem to bother Karma while she stood next to my bags, one of them I knew held my armor, the other was obviously holding both of my rifles just barely, with their ends sticking out the partially tied top.

Karma hoof-pointed at the one containing my armor, before leaning down to grab the bag with my rifles in her teeth, and tossing it haphazardly onto her back, while also looping the main strap around her head and down onto her neck. Looking back at it, she wiggled her flank to make sure it would stay in place without any other help, and the rifles rattled slightly.

"Good enough...your turn." She said, watching me. Not to disappoint I did my best to mimic her action, though with wings in the way it made the process of getting the full bag onto my back without squishing any important feathers in the process. But, after I did get it in place, along with the strap over my head, I was able to angle my wings slightly out for better 'grip' on the bag, to keep it from falling off.

With that finished, she turned to move into the street, and I followed. We made our way out of town, with her staying in front, from the way we had originally came into the settlement. Once we reached the last building though, she made a right turn to head what I think was west, towards the tower.

We didn't really talk much. Besides the "hole" comment from her every once in awhile so I wouldn't trip. Otherwise, we quietly walked to our destination while the light around us grew brighter. Looking upwards, I could see the mental image of the sun rising above the clouds. It was a shame no pony else here could see it.

I frowned at that thought...it really was a shame.

Author's Note

"Do not go gentle into that good night" is a villanelle written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

Flank-friend. - A name I am using to term the quote "friend with benefits".

Again, for those of you that do take the time to read this, I thank you, and I hope that my mistakes are not too hard to deal with. As I move this along I find it harder and harder to deal with my slight dyslexia. I keep using words in the wrong way, or replacing words with entirely different ones, heh. But, I keep trying. I hope to eventually be able to catch as much as I can.