Equestria Exiled

Chapters

Chapter 2 - A Night on the Town
Chapter 3 - Urgent Care
Chapter 4 - Plots and Machinations
Chapter 5 - Loyalty
Chapter 6 - Choices
Chapter 7 - Departure
Chapter 8 - A Little Trouble
Chapter 9 - Together and Alone
Chapter 10 - The Nature of Magic
Chapter 11 - Ponyville
Chapter 12 - Instability
Chapter 13 - A Little Fall of Rain
Chapter 14 - Problems
Chapter 15 - Flim Flam
Chapter 1 - The Cellist and the City
Chapter 16 - The Element of Magic
Chapter 17 - Rude Awakenings

Chapter 2 - A Night on the Town

Octavia’s music washed over the catwalks, the upbeat melodies dancing gaily through the air. The ponies that made up the unending crowds passed her by the same as always, but her smile remained. Today she played what she wanted. No covers of modern nonsense, no foolish flourishes, no pleas that the citizens of Manehattan spare her a few Bits, just her and her music.

Cheer and good spirits might not pay the bills, but today? She did not care. She simply played on, hitting each note with absolute perfection and a serene smile.

Nothing had really changed – she was still hungry, she was definitely still tired, and the muscles in her hind legs were already burning – but the simple kindness of that unicorn last night buoyed her up. In the back of her mind she knew that cold, hard reality would reassert itself soon enough, but, for now, she wanted to savor the feel—

“Oh no, oh no, oh no! Watch out down there!”

Octavia reacted quickly, dropping to all fours to cover her instrument. Boxes and envelopes rained down around her, many of them bouncing off her before hitting the walkway. The vast majority of them were lightweight and harmless, but that did not stop a few from stinging. Nor did it dull the pain from the crowd’s chortles and sniggers.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" a pegasus blurted out as she landed in front of Octavia, scrambling to collect the scattered parcels. One of the pegasus’ eyes seemed unfocused, making it hard to tell whether Octavia or the mail was her bigger concern. "Are you okay?"

Restraining a growl proved far more difficult than Octavia expected. She was in a good mood. She was happy. She was having a good day. She wouldn't let this ruin it. Besides, trying to kill this pegasus in view of a few hundred witnesses probably wouldn't go over well. "I'm fine," she managed in a tone that probably approached civility.

“That’s good!” the pegasus said, relief replacing concern on her face. "I’m really sorry! I don’t know what went wrong! I just lost my grip on my bag and then fwoosh! Unscheduled package shower! I was worried you might have gotten hurt.”

“Just my dignity,” Octavia mumbled as she unruffled her coat and picked her cello up. The pegasus seemed to be investing a lot more effort into the package collection than necessary: darting here and there, scrunching up her muzzle in a look of unnecessarily deep concentration, sticking her tongue out to focus... the pegasus looked absolutely ridiculous. Despite herself, Octavia chuckled.

"There! That’s the sound I wanted to hear!" The pegasus started collecting packages much more efficiently.

"What?"

"If you can still laugh, then you really are okay." The pegasus jammed the last of the parcels into her bag and offered a smile. "Super sorry!" she shouted, before launching herself off the catwalk and back into the air.

True enough, Octavia supposed. Even a belated chime from her BitCard didn't bother her as much as it had a few moments ago.

As she tried to stand up, something moved underhoof. Only a moment of desperate hoofwork and the support of her cello kept her standing. She drew her hoof back to send the offending object off the catwalk, but hesitated for a moment. She had expected a can or bottle, not a little, spherical stone. What little stone the station saw tended to be used for statuary on the hundredth tier.

The little stone fit comfortably in her hoof. It definitely seemed ponymade, and the lightning bolt carved into the dull, grey surface confirmed it.

Lightning. That brought back memories. She must have been a filly living on Trottingham Station that last time she had seen it. The pegasi tended to let storms wear themselves out on the agricultural stations before importing them to the big cities, ensuring the upper tiers never dealt with anything worse than a light drizzle.

Octavia considered tossing it in the nearest trash chute. It might be worth something at a pawn shop, but that made her responsible for it. She could turn it over to the guards, but she knew they would pawn it, then blame her for it disappearing. That made disposing of it the best choice.

It briefly crossed her mind that the pegasus might have dropped the rock. Unfortunately, if that was the case, she had no idea how to return it. Ask around the courier offices? Manehattan, big as it was, could not have too many wall-eyed pegasi in it. She just needed to figure out where the postal offices were and the best way to get to them.

She sighed and shoved the stone into one of her cello case’s pockets. Throwing it away just felt wrong after this recent outbreak of kindness she had encountered. Maybe later in the week, if things continued to be slow, she might be able to hunt down one of the offices and ask about the courier. At the moment, she needed to get back to work.

The rest of the day failed to yield even half as much as the impromptu comedy act with the pegasus had, but she could live with that.

Tonight she planned on eating for free.

~~~~~

"Delivery!" Ditzy Doo declared as she approached the reception desk. She'd been inside the council offices before, always with some parcel or another in need of delivery, but this place somehow never ceased to amaze her. So many ponies and so much effort, all dedicated to making sure the whole Empire worked.

"Great! Right on time!" A guard – she recognized him as Flash Sentry – rushed forward. He looked frazzled, his mane and wings appearing completely mussed. “You have the package, yes Ditzy?”

"Got it riiiiigh..." Ditzy continued to draw out the word as she rifled through her bag. After holding the word for a long moment, she stopped vocalizing and started digging more frantically. Another moment passed before she stopped completely. "Uh oh."

Flash's eyes widened, but he bit back an immediate response, first checking to make sure nopony else was nearby. Then, moving closer to her, he hissed, "What do you mean 'Uh oh,' Derpy?"

She cringed at the use of that title. "I, uh... I can't seem to find it..."

He dug his own forehooves into the bag to help her, pulling parcels out and dumping them on the tile floor. "Look harder! It has to be in here! It absolutely has to be!"

"I know it does! I made sure I packed it this morning! I triple checked that I had it!"

Flash finally pulled his hooves out of the bag. "Derpy, Councilor Shimmer is literally going to kill you,” he said, sitting back, “Right after she finishes with me. Think! Where could you have lost it? Is there any chance you just left it on your ship?"

"I—” Ditzy trailed off as she tried to think of where and when it could have vanished. “Oh. Oh! Oh! I know! I uh... I dropped my bag on the way over here. Maybe I lost it then?"

"You didn't check for it?" Flash snapped, slamming his hooves on the floor, the sharp crack overtaking the room’s noise for a moment.

Ditzy stepped back, folding her wings tightly against her sides. "I… I was pretty sure I counted them right..."

It took several deep breaths before Flash spoke again, “We need to find it as quickly as possible. Did you see anypony who might have picked it up?"

Ditzy had never seen Flash so worked up. Being a councilor’s personal guard must be pretty stressful. "Um. Well, nopony stopped to help me pick everything up,” Ditzy said. “Oh! But I did drop them on some street musician! Maybe she picked it up on accident?"

"That's... something I guess. Description? Please, please tell me you saw her cutie mark."

"Yeah!" Ditzy might not have been great at names, but, despite what people assumed, she at least had a talent for remembering ponies. "It was a... swooshy thing." She wilted under Flash’s glare. "Well, it was! I don't know what it's called. I could draw it for you."

"Fine. Let’s head up to one of the offices and see what we can figure out."

~~~~~

Octavia stared out the train’s window, watching the city pass by at a breakneck pace. She smiled as ponies passed by her seat, unwilling to try and fit next to both her and her instrument. Rude or not, she appreciated the small amount of personal space that her instrument protected.

She yawned and wondered once more if going out made sense. The morning’s euphoric joy had long since given way to lethargy, and the thought of spending an entire evening enduring flashing lights and magitronic noise played by some disc jockey with delusions of talent in some hole-in-the-wall near the shuttle docks did not exactly excite her.

At the same time, free food still sounded quite nice. An hour or two of moderate discomfort for the chance to gorge herself to her heart’s content – and maybe sneak a little home with her – sounded like a fair exchange.

As Octavia disembarked and struggled to force her way through the crowds, she remembered the adage about pride going before a fall. The club’s sign took up the entire width of the block, proudly declaring in shimmering, kaleidoscopic light that she had found Club Crazy Horse. That monstrosity put all but the most ostentatious displays in Eons Square to shame.

And the crowd! The walkway must have been expanded at some point to accommodate the hundreds of ponies waiting for their chance to reach the door. She doubted that she had performed for even a tenth-as-many ponies during the whole of her professional career.

Well, it was far too late to tuck her tail between her legs and canter home. Besides, she reasoned, trying to silence the voice that called her a vocation traitor, a club like this might have real food.

Putting on every air she had left, Octavia forced her way to the front of the line.

"Hey, little miss fancy pony," the bouncer grunted, noticing her much faster than she’d expected, “Back of the line.” He was a very, very large stallion and probably quite well-qualified for his job. Angry would not be a sufficient description for her feelings if the note didn’t work. She could only endure so much humiliation and embarrassment in a short span.

The bouncer sighed as Octavia presented the note. "Yes, that's this club. You can tell by the giant sign. Now if you would—"

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Other side," she said, her teeth still clamped around the paper. She tilted her head to the side to try and make it easier for him to read. Or encourage him to take it. Whichever ended this faster.

It took a moment of paper juggling, but the bouncer’s eyes finally opened wide and he nodded. "Sorry 'bout that, miss.” He stepped aside, ignoring the protestations from the ponies still trapped in line, and gestured at the double doors. “Head on in and they'll get you a badge."

“Thank you very much,” she said, smirking at the crowd as she walked in.

~~~~~

The evening continued to turn for Octavia. Despite her initial reluctance to even approach the club, her treatment so far brought back memories of better days. Skipping lines, instant and complete attention, ponies dropping everything to help her, free food and drink, badges that identified her as a very important pony…

“Is there anything else we can help you with, Miss Melody?” the attendant asked.

When was the last time someone had called her that? “Where would I go if I wanted to get something to eat?”

“Just turn left or right once you get inside and you’ll see some ramps up to the second level. We serve both food and drink at the tables up there. Anything else, Miss Melody?”

“No, that’s all. Thank you.”

“Then please, enjoy yourself!” the pony at the counter said.

The first thing that hit Octavia when she entered the club was the sound. Literally. The rolling waves of bass nearly knocked her off her hooves. Or maybe the lack of balance came from a stroke caused by the roving, strobing, chromatic light show that bathed the club floor. Add the pungent scent of sweat and alcohol to that, as well as the fact that the floor felt unpleasantly sticky, and this place managed to be an assault on almost every one of her senses at once.

Hopefully taste would work out better for her.

For just a moment her eyes fell on the stage, a raised platform in the center of the two story room, surrounded on all sides by ponies dancing with reckless abandon, and she caught a glimpse of the current act. Even at this distance she easily recognized the unicorn: same ridiculous blue mane, same stupid shades – did she ever take them off? – and the exact same obnoxious music.

Thanking her benefactor for her kindness before anything else was the polite thing to do, but, all things considered, Octavial felt it could wait.

She managed to make it across the club floor with minimal difficulty. The VIP badge possessed a magic all its own, causing ponies to step out of her way and make room. A few even smiled at her and offered a hoof in greeting; earth ponies, pegasi, and even unicorns all looked at her like she actually mattered.

To her surprise, the club’s noise slowly faded as she ascended the ramp. A barely visible shimmer in the air indicated the presence of magic, causing Octavia to recall the unicorn’s mention of a sound dampening spell. Maybe they used something like that here, too? By the time she reached the second level, she could actually hear snippets of conversation over the music.

She seated herself at an empty table near the railing where she could watch the stage while she ate. The unicorn might not have been an artist like Octavia, but she still deserved at least this much respect.

Barely a moment passed before a server trotted over to her table. "Hey there! Welcome to Crazy Horse!" the mare said. Her smile broadened when she saw the VIP badge. "Oh! I didn’t know we had a special guest tonight! Well, my name is Berry Punch and I’ll be taking care of you, okay?"

Octavia opted to cut straight to the heart of the matter. “This badge means I eat for free, correct?"

"Yes! Would you like me to fetch you a m—"

"Surprise me, please. Whatever you think is best."

"Gotcha! Drinks too?"

"Please."

“Great! That’s my specialty! You won’t be disappointed!”

Ignoring the grumble in her stomach, Octavia stared out over the club floor, watching ponies of every race dance to the pounding beats with the same reckless abandon that the unicorn on stage used in operating the multitude of devices on stage.

With the bombast dulled to the point Octavia could actually hear it, she had to admit that the unicorn on stage had a modicum of talent. She might not have been a musical genius, but she certainly had passion. She worked the devices on stage like a mare possessed, and, as the thunderous basslines gave way to softer, more delicate sounds, she even found herself enjoying the atmosphere. Between the hypnotic patterns of the lights and the trance-like melodies, she began to appreciate why so many ponies enjoyed this club. It was as if that unicorn on stage could make every other thing in the universe disappear...

"'Scuse me, miss?" Berry Punch said in a tone indicating she’d asked at least once before.

Octavia started. The server stood at the edge of the table, clutching a tray overladen with food in her mouth. “Oh, my apologies!” she said, moving her legs so the tray could be set down, “I was… I was lost in thought.”

“No worries! Happens all the time around here!” Berry Punch quickly shifted everything from tray to table. "Here you are. The house special salad, made with only the freshest greens and fruits from Ponyville Station, our cherry tomato and pepper pasta, and a selection of freshly baked breads and butter. Accompanying all that is a bottle of Sweet Apple Acres’ Reserve Cider, a bottle of Jubilee Cherry Cider, and, of course, some of our very own sparkling water! If this all doesn’t blow you away, your taste buds are defective!"

Octavia wondered if the server could even do anything other than smile. It actually bothered her a little. Had Line’s dour countenance really become her measuring stick for customer service? "I’m sure it will. Thank you."

"No problem! Remember, you need anything, just holler, okay?"

"Yes." The response sounded more curt than Octavia intended, but she could barely keep her mouth from watering as she stared at the heaps of food in front of her. The salad was enormous and the components... it all looked like actual, honest-to-Celestia greens. It even had fruits and flowers in it! And every inch of it was drenched in a delightfully fragrant raspberry vinaigrette. And the bread! Wonderfully soft and warm... there was even real butter with it. Real butter!

As she sampled the delicacies laid out before her, Octavia felt she could die happy, a mare completely satisfied with her life.

She could worry about how pathetic that seemed later.

~~~~~

"Alright my little bronies!" Vinyl shouted, the speakers making sure she could be heard over the tail end of her last track, "You're all too bucking much for me to handle, so I'm gonna turn the stage over to Neon Lights!" The roar that tore through the club could probably be felt all the way at the top of the city. "Don't let him off easy!"

"As if a quiet crowd like this would be a problem for me!" the unicorn said as he stepped up on stage, loosening the top buttons on his shirt. "What do you all say? Are you ready to really bring the noise?"

Vinyl couldn't contain her grin as the crowd endeavored to be even louder this time.

She hoof-bumped Neon as he took control of the turntables and switchboards with his magic, completing the transition without dropping a single beat.

Her legs shook as she stepped offstage, the strain of managing the club’s lighting and sound system catching up with her. She’d nearly used up her magic and her voice was on the verge of giving out, but she didn’t care. If she hadn’t promised to give Neon some extra stage time this month, she’d have gladly stayed up there all night.

One of the bouncers caught her attention and waved her over.

"Yo, Aces! What up?" She had to shout to have a chance of being heard, even this far from the stage.

He pointed at the upper level. "That mare you asked us to watch for turned up! She's upstairs right now!"

"Awesome!" Vinyl felt a second wind coming on. "Bucking great! Thanks!"

"No problem!"

Vinyl couldn't contain her grin. She liked bringing new ponies to Crazy Horse. Everypony deserved to have a little fun, and that mare? Probably needed it a bit more than most. Waving off all the attempts by various ponies to catch her attention, she quickly trotted up the ramp.

She figured it'd be tricky to spot her target in tonight’s crowd, but, by Luna, that grey mare stood out. Sitting at a little table all by herself, with a perfectly groomed mane, and pink bow-tie? Vinyl could have picked her out from across the room.

As she approached, she noticed the giant instrument case sitting next to her. The mare played music too?

Vinyl hesitated when she saw the mare eating. She might have looked like one of the station’s many snobs, but she ate like it was the first meal she'd seen in ages. Her grin faltered and, for a moment, considered just letting the mare eat. At the same time, it just didn’t seem right to let her personal VIP eat alone.

"Looks like you're enjoying yourself!" Vinyl said, claiming the seat next to her. She offered a couple friendly smacks on the the mare’s back to keep from choking as she inhaled a bit of food.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" the mare managed, still trying to catch her breath.

"I wasn’t exactly sneaking, you know."

The mare took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "I suppose you're right."

Vinyl nodded, offering her hoof. "Anyway, since we never got a chance to do this right last night. The name's Vinyl Scratch. Or DJ Pon-3. Whichever you like better!”

"Octavia Melody, Miss Scratch. Thank you for inviting me."

"Vinyl’s fine,” she insisted. “Anyway, it was no big thing, Octavia. Besides, if I hadn't done something nice for you, I might not have survived last night!"

Octavia's face reddened.

"Not too often I get some strange pony pounding on my door, threatening to kill me. Physical advances? Sometimes. Physical threats? Very rarely. All the news programs would have had a field day, though. Manehattan’s best DJ strangled by… crazed fan? Ex-lover? Insane stalker? Not really sure what they’d label you as. Probably depends on which one picked it up first.”

"I did not actually intend to hurt you. It was simply a bit of necessary hyperbole to express my dissatisfaction with the incredibly vexing manner in which I was awakened."

Vinyl stared at Octavia over the top of her shades.

"Oh! Sorry. Do you need me to define any of those words for you?" The corners of Octavia's lips were turned up in the barest hints of a smirk. “I’d be more than happy to.”

A short burst of laughter escaped from Vinyl. "You’re funny! I wouldn’t have expected that!" She poked at the badge dangling from Octavia's bow-tie. "You do remember who got you that badge, right?" For just a fraction of a second, Octavia looked worried, but her smile returned when she realized Vinyl’s own grin hadn’t dropped. "Anyway, you having fun? Enjoying the food?"

"It is much better than I would have expected."

"I bet that’s quite the compliment coming from you." Glancing out over the railing, Vinyl asked, "You been out on the dance floor yet?"

"No." Octavia tried to be subtle about it, but Vinyl noticed her continuing to pick at the nearly empty plates. "I wasn't really planning to."

"Really? Because I noticed your hoof has been tapping along to the beat since I sat down."

The way Octavia glared at her treacherous limb amused Viny. “I will admit that, despite my initial misgivings, I have found the music here to be a little catchy.”

“If you think Neon is good, then you must have thought my set was mind blowing.”

“You were passable.”

"Oh, wow. That cuts deep, Octavia.” Vinyl mimed a pained expression. “You know what?” she said, poking the badge dangling from Octavia's bow-tie again, “You seem way, way too refined to refuse an invitation from such a gracious host as me."

"A gracious host would respect their guest enough not to ask them to do something they did not want to do." The smile that continued to hang around Octavia’s lips told a different story, though.

Vinyl shrugged. "Your mostly gracious host then. How about I treat you to some dessert and a couple more rounds, and then we appreciate Neon’s music the way it was meant to be appreciated?"

“Wasn’t all my food and drink already free?”

That actually gave Vinyl a bit of a pause. “Well, uh... since this is my club, they’re technically on me to begin with. So how about it?”

“How about we see how I feel in a little bit?”

“Good enough for me! Hey, Berry! Couple more rounds over here! And some cake!”

“Sure thing!” the hostess called back.

After a moment, Octavia’s eyes narrowed. “Wait. Did you say this was your club?”

“Yep! Crazy Horse is all mine.” Vinyl nodded her thanks to Berry as the drinks were delivered, then continued, “You thought I was just a headliner, huh? I can’t blame you. Musical genius, a keen business sense, and good looks? Too much for one pony to have.” After a moment of thought, Vinyl added, “And I’m a beast on the dance floor.”

“Humble too.”

“Yeah.” Vinyl cracked the top off one of the bottles and passed it over before taking one for herself. “Though, seriously, I mostly just handle the beats. There’s no way I’d be able to run this place without a lot of help.”

Octavia took a long drink before she spoke again. “Let me get this straight. You are a unicorn.”

“Last I checked.”

“You own what appears to be a very popular club.”

“Number three on the station, according to Manehattan Night Life.”

“You can afford to give away fresh food like this.”

“On special occasions.”

“Do you mind if I ask why in Tartarus you live in the same housing block as me?”

“Oh.” That question caught Viny off-guard. “Well, you know. Lot of snobs live up near the top of the city.” Noticing the odd look from Octavia, she just waved the question off. “Anyway, I’d much rather know more about you.”

“Me?” Octavia looked taken aback.

“Yeah! Like, are you a musician?” Vinyl asked, pointing at the case that was leaning up against the railing. “Where do you play?”

“Oh.” Octavia fell silent, staring at the half-empty mug in front of her. “Well—”

The club went silent.

Vinyl whipped around in her seat, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Had the system shorted? No. Each piece of the sound system had been enveloped in a magical shell. It looked like a much sloppier version of her own dampening spell. The crowd hadn't needed magical intervention; the sudden silence stopped them dead in their tracks.

A moment later, the lights all flicked on and assumed their neutral settings, allowing Vinyl to find the source of the problem: a group of guards stood near the front door, with a familiar blue unicorn at their head, berating one of her bouncers. "Bucking Tartarus,” Vinyl groaned. She turned back to Octavia and offered the mare an apologetic smile. “‘Scuse me, Octavia. I have some other guests who are going to be far, far less fun to talk with. I’ll be back in a flash!"

Vinyl swore repeatedly to herself as she descended the ramp. Of all the nights for her to show up, she wished it had not been tonight. Someponies had no sense of timing.

"The great and powerful Commander Lulamoon demands that the owner of this filthy establishment—"

"Yo! What is it, Trixie?” Vinyl interrupted, pulling the unicorn’s attention from a very grateful Aces. Nopony wanted a member of the Council Guard shouting them down. Rumors persisted that if you talked to one of them the wrong way? You disappeared. “You do know you and your thugs are kinda killing the mood here, right?"

"Oh. Right. Commander Lulamoon had forgotten this little hole was yours, Vinyl." Trixie stepped forward, stopping just short of touching Vinyl’s muzzle with her own. "We're here to arrest a criminal. Some filthy groundling mare."

Vinyl's eyes narrowed behind her shades. "I don't want to hear that kinda bull in my club, Trixie. The rules apply to everyone here.”

"That is Commander Lulamoon to you, Vinyl."

Vinyl knew she was pushing it, but she wasn't going to let this arrogant little bully have her way. "Fine. I don't want to hear that kinda bull in my club, Commander Lulamoon," she said, practically spitting the word.

The guards watched stoically as Trixie tried to stare Vinyl down, an impossible feat given the protection her shades offered. "Trixie recommends you watch your tone."

“And I recommend you hurry up,” Vinyl countered, tapping her hoof impatiently. "I don't have all night, Commander Lulamoon. You were looking for an earth pony? There's a bunch here, so I’m gonna need a bit more than that to go on."

"A grey mare. Dark mane. Treble clef for a…” Trixie trailed off and sighed. “Right, you are an undereducated hack. You wouldn’t know what a treble clef is. Does one of you have the picture?”

“I know what a treble clef is. Some sort of musical note thing.”

“Fine. A treble clef cutie mark. We believe her name is Octavia Melody. Have you seen her?"

Vinyl glanced up at the ceiling. She hadn’t expected that. Did the mare upstairs really seem like the sort to be getting in trouble with the Council Guard? "Nope. Can't think of anypony matching that description."

~~~~~

Octavia strained to hear the conversation, absolutely dumbstruck. The Council Guard wanted her? Her heart pounded and her chest felt tight. Ponies they arrested tended to vanish.

She could feel eyes on her the moment Commander Lulamoon described her. She did her best to keep her cutie mark out of sight, but it was probably too late for that now. Eventually somepony would work up the nerve to get Commander Lulamoon’s attention and point her out, then she would be—

"Maybe you should go," Berry Punch whispered, nudging her.

"What?"

"I really doubt Vinyl would want her special guest to get in trouble, and you look an awful lot like that mare they're after." She winked and waved a hoof towards the kitchen door. "There are some stairs back there that'll take you down to storage. There’s a door down there that lets out onto the next tier."

~~~~~

Vinyl smirked as she continued, “Guess you got your information all wrong, huh?” Watching Trixie get annoyed amused her.

"Everypony is to exit this club right now!" Trixie shouted, raising her voice to make sure everypony in the club heard jer. "You will be questioned as you leave and then—"

"No they won't, Trixie," Vinyl growled, keeping her own voice much lower. "You are way out of line here. You might be able to intimidate them, but I'm not an idiot. I've answered your questions. You're done." Vinyl prodded her in the chest for emphasis as she continued, "Get out before I report you for harassing my customers." Turning and offering a disrespectful flick of her tail, Vinyl started back towards the stage. The lance of magical energy that crackled by her, gouging away a chunk of the laminated floor, came as an unwelcome surprise. "What the—?"

Trixie said, grinning as crimson magic crackled around her horn. “That was a mistake, Vinyl. Commander Lulamoon shall arrest you on charges of obstructing justice, assaulting a guard, and whatever other offenses she can come up with!"

Panic erupted behind Vinyl as ponies hit the floor, looked for cover, or tried to make it out the door. “What the buck are you doing, Trixie? You’re gonna start a freakin’ riot!”

“So?” Trixie gestured and the guards behind her dispersed to try and corral the panicking crowd. "Now Vinyl, since you were once Trixie’s friend, she'll give you one more chance. Where is the groundling?"

Vinyl didn't have a lot of magic left, but if Trixie wanted to charge her with assault, then she might as well enjoy it. Besides, she wasn’t about to let that slur pass again. "Fine. You win. I'll tell you. Just calm down, okay?"

"Oh? Trixie did not expect you to see sense, Vinyl. It seems you've gotten smarter."

"Yeah, yeah, I’ve definitely learned a thing or two since school," Vinyl grumbled, watching carefully as the guards reigned the crowd in with a minimum of fuss. Hopefully somepony on staff took care of Octavia while she had Trixie’s attention. "All right, if you go look on stage? You’ll find the mare you’re looking for right next to my BASS CANNON!" Vinyl emphasized her point by conjuring a rolling wave of sound directly at Trixie, the floor buckling as the deafening roar passed over it.

Which is why Vinyl’s jaw dropped when the wave hit Trixie and dissipated harmlessly. She smirked as the magic around her horn crackled and the clasp she wore on the front of her cloak glowed.

"Buck me," Vinyl managed before the retaliatory blast from Trixie hit her.

~~~~~

Things were moving too fast for Octavia to deal with. One moment she’d been enjoying a nice dinner and conversation, the next she’d been ready to bail out the back to save her flank, and the next the club had descended into pure chaos. This was ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous!

She glanced back at the kitchen door. She had to get out of the club as quickly as possibly. The longer she stayed, the more her chances of escape declined. But... She watched as the magical blast slammed into Vinyl and sent the unfortunate unicorn flipping into the air. The sound of her limp body hitting the floor with all the grace of a rag doll seemed to drown out all the other noises in the room.

Octavia turned away and looked at the door again.

Vinyl made her choice. She decided to mouth off to the commander of the Council Guard. That mistake was fully, completely, and absolutely on her. Octavia did not owe her a single thing. Nothing. She needed to worry about herself. Experience had taught her that doing anything else just came back to kick you in the flank.

She just needed to sneak out that door.

Just trot over to the door and leave.

She sighed and hefted her cello case.

~~~~~

Vinyl's world spun sickeningly as she struggled to get her hooves back under her. The problem was she couldn't figure out how many of them there were. Or how they worked. Or which ones were hers. Somepony spoke.

"Trixie figured you would try something stupid, Vinyl. She just didn’t expect it to be quite so pathetic."

There was some sort of prodding sensation in the area of what was probably her face.

"Poor little Vinyl. Trixie wonders how sad it must be to not have a friend left in the whole Empire. So many ponies in your little club, and not a single one of them is going to bail you out this time.”

Some small part of Vinyl's brain managed to fire correctly. She offered a lopsided smile as she stared past the irritating blue shape in front of her. "Nuh uh. I gots a pretty alicorn princess lookin' out for me."

Trixie sneered as she leaned closer to Vinyl. "Oh dear. Trixie must have overdone it and scrambled what little brains you have in that thick skull of—"

~~~~~

Despite herself, Octavia smiled as her back hooves connected with Commander Lulamoon's side, lifting the unicorn off the ground and sending her tumbling across the club floor. She would be much less satisfied when the comeuppance for that decision arrived, but at the moment? This little strike back at society felt immensely satisfying.

Leaning down, she offered Vinyl a hoof. "Come on, get up! We really need to go!"

The unicorn smiled inappropriately as she responded, "How many ponies got a pretty alicorn lookin’ out for ‘em, eh?"

Octavia gritted her teeth. They needed to run before the guards noticed what had just happened, or worse, Commander Lulamoon got back on her hooves. Thankfully, being an earth pony actually came in handy sometimes. "Hold on as tightly as you can, okay?" She hoped that the noise Vinyl made was some sort of agreement as she slid her hooves under the unicorn and hefted, throwing the unicorn onto her back.

Octavia then took off at a full sprint. Out the door, through the crowd of stunned onlookers, and into the city’s ramps and walkways.

She felt a foreleg tighten around her neck. Great. She might manage to avoid bouncing Vinyl over a railing. She wondered how long she could keep this pace up, though. Her legs were already starting to burn. Vinyl might have been lighter than she had expected, but she was still dead weight.

They needed to get lower as quickly as possible. Headed towards their housing block seemed stupid, but she barely knew anything about this side of the city. Navigating Manehattan required patience, experience, and time to visit the kiosks that littered the city.

Her eyes lit up as she spotted a welcome sight in the distance: a lift shaft. Judging by the size, it must have been a worker lift too. Large, fast, and, most importantly, limited stops on the way down to the city’s bottom level. The descending lift had perfect timing

She redoubled her pace, ignoring the protests of her body.

"It'd be a lot easier if you just flew," Vinyl mumbled.

"It would be a lot easier if you carried yourself," Octavia gasped. "Now, for the love of Celestia and Luna both, hold on!"

The only response she received was legs tightening wherever they could on her body. Please, Celestia, let that be enough, she prayed as she summoned up the last of her strength and hurdled the catwalk rail as the lift passed it.

Her legs buckled as she hit the lift’s metallic floor, but she managed to keep her hooves under her. Ignoring the pain, she glanced back to make sure both her loads remained safe and sound.

“See? Flying: easier,” Vinyl mumbled.

With nowhere to run for a few moments – not that she could even if she wanted to – she tried to take stock of the situation. It was tough between the ragged, heaving breaths and the shaking of her legs, but she had an easy starting place at least: the half dozen dumbstruck ponies staring at her.

"You... uh... really could have just used one of the normal lifts, you know," a large, ruddy stallion said, eying her.

"Nice jump," another offered.

"Doctor," Octavia managed between breaths, "Emergency." Running from the guards only made half a plan. She did not know much about medicine, but she knew enough to know that Vinyl sounded like a pony who needed her head examined.

"For the horn? You could do us all a favor and just dump her off the l—" the mare stopped short as Octavia's eyes narrowed. "Uh. I mean that I dunno. All the clinics are gonna be closed this late."

She could feel a bit of space open between her and the other ponies as she looked at each in turn. She probably looked like a mare possessed at the moment.

An older, ash colored stallion finally broke the silence. "I think there's a pony down on the third tier who takes late night emergencies sometimes? Not a real doctor, mind you, but beggars can’t be choosers. My cousin told me he took his son there once. Building C, room one, I think?"

That did not sound particularly promising, but like he said: beggars could not be choosers. Besides, if she wanted to lay low, nothing beat the bottom of the city. “Thank you,” she said, slumping to the floor of the lift.

Chapter 3 - Urgent Care

Octavia staggered down the walkways of the third tier, struggling under the twin weights of her instrument and the barely-conscious DJ. Most of the lights – the ones that hadn’t burned out already, at least – flickered incessantly, casting strange shadows on the walls around her. The few ponies that she saw laying in alleys or staring out over the railing turned to watch her pass with uncomfortably predatory eyes.

The stories that she heard about the bottom of the city were probably exaggerated, but the gap between “probably” and “definitely” remained quite significant. Still, it did not look like ponies were laying dead in the alleys, nor had a single pony tried to rob her or push her over the railing. Yet.

She bit back a startled yelp as the walkway shifted and groaned underhoof. Did maintenance teams ever come down this far? Based on the heaps of trash and the slick, stained metal beneath her hooves, it looked like the waste crews didn’t.

Great, Octavia thought. I can add that to the list of things that might go wrong tonight. Commander Lulamoon might catch up with us, somepony might mug us, the walkway might collapse…

"What sort of feeble-minded fool picks a fight with the Council Guard?” Octavia grumbled, glancing back at Vinyl. “Most ponies would have just turned me over to Commander Lulamoon. But no. You. You didn’t just lie to her: you actually attacked her! You’re lucky she didn’t kill you!"

"Ya know, you're kinda cute when you're mad,” Vinyl mumbled, smiling vacantly as she poked Octavia’s snout.

Octavia’s cheeks flared red as she struggled with a response, eventually settling on, "You are an idiot." She sighed. "I swear to Celestia, if you are not okay after this, I will throttle you. Do you understand? I am not kidding." After a moment of silence she added, “How are you feeling, Vinyl?”

“S’okay, I guess. Riding you is fun, but I bet you’re getting tired.”

Octavia’s cheeks reddened further. “I am getting tired of carrying you, yes.”

“Want me to walk?” Vinyl offered, swinging her legs wildly.

And here Octavia had thought the pain in her back and legs couldn’t get worse. “Stop that!” she growled through clenched teeth. “We should be there soon, so just stay there and do not move.”

“‘Kay,” Vinyl said, going limp once more.

Arriving at unit one, Octavia decided to take the fact that the door was the only one in the hall neither covered in graffiti nor caved in as a positive sign. Ponies down here probably respected a doctor willing to work with them quite a bit. Even the discount clinics charged a hoof and a leg if you tried to get help. She knocked, her legs shaking as she endeavored to support Vinyl and herself on three legs.

No answer came. Of-bucking-course things could not ever be easy for her.

She pounded on the door harder, the plastic shell starting to buckle under the weight of each blow. "Please! I was told a doctor lived here! We need help!"

“I’ll be there in a second,” came a muffled reply. The door opened, revealing a stallion in the process of trying to stifle a yawn. "I'm the doctor," he managed, before frowning and shaking his head. Rubbing his eyes, he continued, "A doctor, I mean. How can I help?”

“Thank Celestia,” Octavia gasped, shifting so he could get a look at Vinyl. “She… she was in a fight with another unicorn. She hit her head quite hard after being thrown around by some sort of magic.” That seemed close enough to the truth.

The stallion studied the pair intently for a moment, then stepped aside. “That does sound very serious. Come in. I’ll take a look at her.”

~~~~~

"Tea?"

Octavia opened her eyes, surprised to see a mug filled to the brim with steaming liquid in front of her. Much like her, the mug sank into the depths of the room’s hideous and shaggy, but surprisingly comfortable, carpet.

The doctor pushed it a little closer to her before he sat on the floor across from her.

The liquid looked more like dirty water than tea, but she accepted it all the same. Besides, the smell reminded her of Earl Grey. "Thank you. This is too much, though. You are already—"

"Don't worry about it. What's mine is yours." He glanced around the barren room and offered a tired smile, continuing, "Not that I have very much to offer. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes. I am just very, very tired." Every muscle twinged as she sat up, but that was no excuse to abandon her manners. "Is Vinyl okay?"

"More or less, I’d say. She probably does have a concussion, but I don’t think it’s too severe. Aside from that, a few scrapes and bruises. I’d like to keep an eye on her for a little while, but I don't think there’s anything to worry about."

"That is good," she said, sighing. "Thank you, Doctor...?"

"Hooves. Now then, while I do have a few questions I would like to ask you, it is my professional opinion that you need to rest. It isn't much, but I laid out some blankets on the floor near your friend's bed. Go use them. I have some errands to run tomorrow, so feel free to make yourself at home as long as you like."

"I shouldn't, really. You have already done—"

"I insist. Trust me, I’m a doctor.” He nudged her gently, prompting her to stand. “Come on, I'll lend you a hoof if you need it."

She shook her head, restraining a yawn. "It’s fine. I can make it on my own.” As she padded across the floor, she glanced back at Hooves and added, “Thank you. For everything."

~~~~~

Octavia awoke on a cloud.

Her hooves sank gently into the springy substance, but it still supported her just like she was a pegasus. A quick look around told her she was no longer in Manehattan.

There were no more buildings and walkways caging her in, no more dome obscuring the stars, no more gritty, metallic tang to the air… Just the cool breeze, the scent of rain, the pillowy softness beneath her, and an endless azure expanse as far as her eyes could see.

She could hardly ask for more.

"That. Was. So. Awesome!"

Octavia started at the unexpected outburst, the cloud rippling beneath her, as she spun in place. A pegasus stood directly behind her, grinning broadly. If it hadn’t been for her rainbow mane, she might have blended perfectly into the blue that surrounded them.

"That part where you actually kicked Trixie’s flank? Amazing! Oh, and that jump onto the lift! Only I could have done it better."

"Who are you?" Octavia asked.

"The name’s Rainbow Dash.” She glanced down at the cloud they were standing on, then frowned. “Horse feathers! I really wanted a chance to talk with you, Octy! You're a lot cooler than I was expecting."

"I am cooler than—?” Octavia stopped short, shaking her head. “No. Wait. That is not what’s important right now. How do you know who I am? Where am I?"

“None of that’s important right now either!" The pegasus hopped into the air, hovering right above the cloud. "Look, just don't lose the Element, okay? We'll talk again, I promise!"

Octavia opened her mouth to ask what in Tartarus the pegasus meant, but the cloud beneath her dissipated, dropping Octavia into the unending blue.

She jerked awake, barely containing a panicked shout. Despite the plush carpet and blankets promising that an eternity of falling into empty air could still be avoided, it still took a few moments for her heartbeat to slow to healthy speeds.

A clock mounted high up on the wall, informed her that morning had long since passed. It was hard for her to recall the last time she had slept this late.

She cringed as she stood up, her muscles exacting revenge for the suffering she put them through last night. No doubt she would spend the next few days aching. Then she'd probably spend the rest of her life paying for kicking Commander Lulamoon. On the bright side, she had heard that ponies working in the Everfree Asteroid Colonies got regular meals.

A soft murmur drew her attention to the bed. Vinyl was still asleep, her legs wrapped tightly around a pillow. Somehow, her already messy mane had found a way to look even more disheveled. Another barely audible sound issued from the DJ as she curled tighter around the pillow, nuzzling it.

Octavia smirked. So much for Vinyl’s rough and tumble party pony image: the unicorn looked positively angelic while sleeping. Heat began to creep into Octavia’s cheeks as she realized she was staring. She turned away. Had the doctor come in or, Celestia forbid, Vinyl woken up, she would never have been able to live it down.

A sigh escaped from her as she sat back down. She was just putting off trying to think about her situation.

Why had the Council Guard wanted to arrest her? The stone jumped to mind, but that was ridiculous. The Council Guard consisted of the Empire’s most elite soldiers. Them hunting her down to retrieve some stupid, ornamental rock made no sense at all.

Unfortunately, no other explanation came to mind. With most of her time being spent on the walkways – and the remaining time usually used for sleep – she simply lacked the chance to get in trouble. Aside from her meeting with Vinyl, the stone marked the only unusual thing that had happened in weeks. Remnants of the dream floated back to her. The stone being some sort of magical item would explain a lot...

She sighed. Once again she was trying to put off thinking about the real problem. The most important thing she could do right now was figure out how to deal with the Council Guard.

It didn’t matter how hard she thought though: an answer that didn’t involve ending up in the Colonies continued to elude her. The instant the Council Guard had gotten involved, she had become completely and utterly bucked. Turning the stone over might have gotten her off the hook if they were feeling particularly generous. Bad luck for her that assaulting Commander Lulamoon had destroyed even that slim chance. That alone constituted enough to have her banished to the Colonies for life.

Basically her life had come to an end.

Octavia froze, finally realizing that she had started pacing the little room at some point. Getting worked up helped nopony, least of all herself. She needed to relax.

After spending a few moments assuring herself that her cello had survived their flight undamaged, she picked it up and moved it the unit’s main room. With the doctor out for the time being and Vinyl still sleeping off her injuries, it felt like the perfect time to calm her nerves by playing.

It took more time than she expected to move to the unit’s main room – lifting the case, let alone quietly, was barely manageable – and get herself properly positioned. Standing only exacerbated the aching of her muscles, but she pushed through and started to play.

~~~~~

Vinyl groaned as she tried to wake up. She felt awful. Her head throbbed, her ears rang, her mouth tasted sour, even her horn ached... All of this added up to it being way, way too early to wake up. Still. Something seemed off. Her bed, to start. Her sheets weren’t this coarse. Music playing somewhere in the unit sounded right, but classical? She didn’t even know the network addresses for any classical stations.

She tried opening her eyes and instantly regretted it. Light shouldn’t hurt that badly.

“What the hay did I do last night?” she mumbled, reaching for her shades on the endtable. Unfortunately, both the shades and table were gone. Vinyl decided that this probably wasn’t her room. Had she gone home with somepony last night?

She wracked her brain, trying to remember what’d happened last night. Her set had been awesome, she’d met up with that mare – Octavia? Yeah, that sounds right. – who’d threatened to kill her, they’d talked, drank – Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad… – Trixie had shown up and… Oh.

That explained her head, at least. Vinyl decided that staying in bed until either the pain stopped or somepony kicked her out would be best. Which left her with the question of what to do. Laying in bed with her eyes closed wasn’t very entertaining, but every other option hurt like Tartarus and would probably end up with her being sick all over some other pony’s stuff.

A sudden shift in the music’s tempo caught her attention. She might not have liked classical much, but she definitely ranked listening to it above doing absolutely nothing at all.

Vinyl had always felt that music should say something besides “Look at how long I’ve been practicing this same, stupid, old song that ancient ponies wrote!” Vinyl could make ponies dance, make them happy, make them fall in love… What could a concert pony do? Impress a bunch of snobs with their perfect pitch and excellent timing?

This was different though. This was raw emotion in musical form. Whoever was playing this didn’t care about bull like perfect form or whatever else Vinyl had ignored back in class; this pony wanted the whole universe to know how angry and upset they were.

Vinyl continued to listen, losing herself in every furious crescendo and sad refrain. Whatever pony wrote this needed a stiff drink and a hug. Maybe a few of each.

After several minutes of awestruck listening, it finally occurred to her that this couldn’t be coming from a console. The acoustics weren’t right for speakers, and the sound quality was way too good anyway. This was somepony playing live. Right here in this unit.

It took a few false starts, some cursing, and no small amount of pain, but she managed to get out of bed. Whoever this pony was, Vinyl wanted to meet them. A quick peek would be enough, then she could stumble back to bed and lay down until the world stopped hurting. She glanced around the edge of the doorway.

Octavia stood in the center of the room, with her… viola? Double bass? Cello? One of those big stringed instruments. It didn’t actually matter. Nothing but the mare and her music mattered. Vinyl just sat and stared, unable to pull herself away, all thoughts of returning to the bed abandoned, her discomfort forgotten.

As Octavia lowered her bow and brought the piece to a close, finally breaking the spell that had held the DJ, Vinyl blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "That was bucking great."

~~~~~

Octavia almost dropped her cello as she whirled. Vinyl was sitting right in the middle of the doorway, wearing that ridiculous, lopsided grin of hers. Blood rushed to Octavia’s cheeks. Had that blasted unicorn been there the whole time? This is what she got for playing something private and shamefully melodramatic with somepony sleeping just a room away.

Vinyl took a few unsteady steps forward as she continued, "Why didn’t you tell me you were so good with that thing?"

“I’m not that good,” Octavia mumbled. She set her instrument against the wall and dropped back to all fours, deciding that a change of subject was best. "You should be in bed, Vinyl. Doctor Hooves thinks you have a concussion."

Vinyl's grin transformed into a smirk. "Oh ho! Is somepony worried about me?"

"After the effort I went through to get you to a doctor? Yes. I would be quite put out if you were to die now."

"Am I blushing? I think I’m blushing."

"I am serious. Get back to bed!" Octavia started to push her, but quickly realized Vinyl was barely managing to stand on her own. "You are lucky that a concussion is the worst you got. What possessed you to pick a fight with Commander Lulamoon?"

For her part, Vinyl at least chose not to put up a fight. "Pffft. Me and that bully go way back. Besides, I’d had enough of her bull and she had a flank kicking coming. You don’t come into my club and start insulting my guests."

Octavia simply stared at the unicorn. There was no way Vinyl could be serious, but it certainly seemed like she was. "You do realize you are now in as much trouble as I am, right?"

"Nah. I'll be fine." Octavia caught Vinyl as she nearly fell trying to get back into the bed. The unicorn reddened a little as Octavia helped her up, adding, "Eventually. Anyway, I figure I should ask at some point. What'd a fancy filly like you do to piss off the Council Guard?"

"I… am not one hundred percent sure. I think it might be—" Octavia trailed off, finally noticing the intensity of the unicorn’s stare. The glasses had concealed them before, but Vinyl had amazing eyes: a vivid shade that hovered somewhere between crimson and cerise. Open, too. Octavia often heard that a pony’s eyes served as the window to their soul, but this might be the first time she actually believed it.

Vinyl must have realized she was staring, because she suddenly broke eye contact, instead finding a spot on the wall to look at. "Right! That reminds me! Have you seen my shades?"

"Not since we were at your club. They probably fell off when Commander Lulamoon’s magic hurled you through the air."

"Damn," Vinyl grumbled.

"Do you really care that much about your glasses?” Octavia asked, rolling her eyes. “I would think your head would be the larger concern."

The unicorn fidgeted. "I just don't like not having my shades. Ponies always get weird about my eyes. I don't like 'em."

"That’s a shame. You have very pretty eyes."

To Octavia’s surprise, Vinyl blushed. Then she pointed an accusatory hoof at Octavia and said, “Oh! I am onto your game, little miss fancy filly! Trying to seduce me so I’ll forget all about my question! Flattery won’t get you nowhere with me. Spill it! Why’re Trixie and her goons onto you?”

Octavia decided to let both the DJ’s fantasies and butchering of proper Equestrian grammar go. “I was trying to tell you that I found a little rock on the walkways yesterday. I think a courier pegasus dropped it. The problem is that—”

“They wouldn’t have Trixie hunting for some stupid rock,” Vinyl finished for her. The unicorn narrowed her eyes, staring at Octavia. “You sure that’s all? You’re not a changeling infiltrator or something?”

“Why would a changeling infiltrator bother spending the night at a—” Octavia stopped herself. “You are going to respond with something like ‘Because not even a changeling infiltrator could resist my charm!’, aren’t you?”

“It’s no fun if you do it. I was kidding anyway.” Vinyl flashed her a grin. “I believe you.”

“You do?”

“I consider myself a pretty good judge of character, and I’ve got a good feeling about you. Anyway, it prolly wouldn’t be the first time a councilor sicced ‘em on somepony for something stupid.”

"She's right, you know,” Doctor Hooves said, startling the both of them. “There are a number of councilors who use them as their personal errand ponies. I’ve heard of them doing everything from hunting down dangerous criminals to picking up take-out."

Despite the doctor’s warm smile, Octavia’s ears flattened. “Welcome back, Doctor Hooves. Sorry, we didn’t hear you come in.”

“I noticed.” He shrugged his saddlebags off as he continued, “Had I known I was harboring a fugitive, I probably would have waited until after you woke up to run my errands.”

She cursed her inattention for the second time that day. Having to run again so quickly would not be pleasant. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but—”

“I’m kidding. Don’t worry about it.” He put his saddlebags on the table and began rummaging through them, extracting a few packets. “You wouldn’t be the first ponies I’ve helped who were on the run, and I doubt you’ll be the last. Your secret is safe with me. All I ask is that you ask me before stealing anything. It makes it easier to keep track of what I still have and what I need to scrounge up again.”

Octavia stared at him, her mouth hanging open.

“Thanks,” Vinyl supplied, nudging Octavia. “And thanks for taking care of us. I seriously appreciate it.”

“I didn’t do much. You should save your thanks for your friend,” Hooves said, mixing something into a cup of water. Once he finished, he brought it over to the bed and offered it to Vinyl. “Drink this and do your best not to spit it out, please.”

Vinyl grimaced as she sniffed the cup, but drank it dutifully. She even kept her gagging to a minimum. “This is possibly the worst tasting thing I have ever drank. And that includes FlimFlam Super Cider.”

“It’ll help with the pain. Now, how about some breakfast?” He paused, looking up at the clock. “Or lunch, I suppose.”

“We really couldn’t impose further,” Octavia protested. “You’ve already done so much.”

“Well, even if she’s not hungry, I certainly am,” Vinyl said.

Octavia shot Vinyl a glare, which the unicorn took great pains not to notice.

“You both need it,” the stallion said. “Besides, I imagine neither of you has anywhere else you can go at the moment. Eat, mend, and take some time to decide what you want to do next.”

“We appreciate your generosity—” Octavia started, but was cut off.

“And that’s why we’ll take you up on that,” Vinyl finished. The unicorn grinned as Octavia shot her what most ponies would call a “look”. “He’s right, Octavia. I’m hungry, I bet you’re starving, we can’t go back home, and the diners down here probably suck. Look, I’ll make sure I pay him back as soon as I get my hooves on my BitCard again, okay?”

The growling of Octavia’s stomach reminded her that, while pride and principal were worthy things, neither did much for hunger. “Fine,” she finally relented.

Chapter 4 - Plots and Machinations

Lyra yawned, trying to blink the tiredness out of her eyes as the train jerked to a halt at the Council Hall station. Today had not started well.

She had just settled into bed after another all-nighter at the library when her personal console had started to chime, alerting her to a new message. Despite her valiant attempts to ignore it, repeat chimes eventually forced her out of bed and to the machine. Based on the dozen or so messages received, Councilor Shimmer apparently needed to see her at the Council Hall as soon as possible, which, in Shimmer’s special language, meant drop absolutely everything you were doing and get there right now.

Ignoring the request and going back to bed had crossed her mind at the time, but pointlessly antagonizing Shimmer struck her as stupid. Not only would she continue the deluge of messages until she got a response, but Lyra also doubted Shimmer would reach out to her unless it was really important. The last time they’d spoken had been after Shimmer had voted to give Lyra’s council seat to Sombra.

So here she was, half-awake and with a stomach intent on punishing her for a dinner-slash-breakfast that consisted of nothing more than a stale doughnut and several cups of coffee, wondering what Shimmer could possibly want with her.

"Madam Heartstrings?" a guard at the base of the stairs asked, saluting smartly as his silver armor shone almost as brightly as the palatial council building.

Lyra cringed as an image of pegasi soldiers clad in gold guarding an alicorn princess flashed briefly through her mind. Hopefully whatever Shimmer wanted wouldn’t eat too much of her time. The sooner she could sleep and get back to work, the better.

"Madam Heartstrings?" the guard repeated, concern overtaking stoic professionalism, “Are you okay?”

"Sorry," she mumbled, shaking her head, "My breakfast isn’t sitting well with me. Is Shimmer ready to see me?"

He hesitated. "Councilor Shimmer is... well, technically she’s waiting for you. She just has a little bit of business she’s finishing first. If you’ll follow me? We should head up to her office."

Lyra put on a happy face. "Of course."

Business, based on what little she could make out from the hallway, consisted of berating and browbeating some poor, unlucky pony.

"I see Shimmer hasn't changed much," Lyra said, trying to drown out the muffled shouts with small talk.

"Well, you know, things are very difficult in Manehattan right now," the guard mumbled.

"They always were. It does sound like her temper has improved a little, at least. I don't think I've heard anything being thrown yet." She was sure that she saw the slightest brightening of the guard's expression. "Any chance you know what she wants with me? Her message wasn’t exactly informative."

"Sorry, but I’d rather not say," he grunted, gesturing at the door with his wing.

"Fair enough. I can’t say I blame you. Now does not seem like the right time to get on her bad side."

The office door finally opened, dispensing a rather gloomy looking pegasus. She certainly looked like a pony harangued by Shimmer: her eyes were downcast – rather, one of them was – and her wings hung limply at her side.

She offered Lyra a faint smile. “Don’t worry. Her voice was starting to give out near the end there, so you shouldn’t have to worry about too much yelling.”

Lyra returned the smile. “Thanks for wearing her out for me.”

“No problem.” The smile became just a little more earnest before she walked away.

The guard recaptured her attention with a polite cough. "Councilor Shimmer will probably want to see you now, Miss Heartstrings."

“Wish me luck?”

The guard offered no immediate response, but Lyra thought she heard him mumble “Good luck,” under his breath as he shut the door behind her.

Despite her exhaustion, Councilor Fancy Pants sitting behind the desk beside Shimmer did not escape Lyra’s notice. Today delivered bigger and bigger surprises. Shimmer contacting her out of the blue was one thing, but finding Shimmer and Fancy Pants in the same room and not at each other’s throats? Lyra dreaded to think what the rest of the day might hold.

“Good afternoon, Miss Heartstrings,” Fancy Pants said, inclining his head in greeting. “You are looking well! Life outside these hallowed halls seems to have agreed quite nicely with you.”

"Lyra," Shimmer grunted.

"Councilors," Lyra said, bowing. Definitely too much strange happenstance all at once. She doubted all of it could be coincidence. "What can I help you with?"

“One moment,” Shimmer grunted, her horn glowing softly.

Lyra barely managed to stop herself from jumping as the door behind her locked, the heavy bolts sliding into place with loud snaps, followed quickly by every surface of the room beginning to emanate a faint teal. She recognized it as a soundproofing spell. “A lot of eavesdroppers hang around your office these days, Shimmer?”

"We apologize for this,” Fancy Pants volunteered while Shimmer completed her spell, “But the matter we wish to discuss with you is a delicate one. We would not want anypony to... accidentally overhear us. We are simply taking some preventative measures to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I see,” Lyra managed, wishing that she’d slept. She was out of practice with political intrigue, and trying to handle it while half-asleep did not appeal to her. “And what exactly is this matter and, more importantly, what does it have to do with me?”

Fancy Pants looked to Shimmer. “Shall I?”

"No. I think we can cut straight to the heart of the matter instead of wasting time listening to you talk around it," Shimmer said, her horn returning to normal. "Sombra is making a bid for power. A big one. He wants the council completely under his control."

"I seem to recall somepony telling you that Sombra was going to be trouble when he joined as a representative for the Crystal Empire," Lyra said, unable to fully restrain her sarcasm.

"Yes Lyra, you’re practically a master of divination.”

“Sunset,” Fancy Pants chided, “Mind your manners.”

Shimmer rolled her eyes. “Look. This isn't like the petty politics that got you thrown off the council. This is serious. Sombra is pushing for the council to take direct control of every station in the Empire. No more station governments, no more stations laws, no more station trade, no more independent stations. You get it? The council would command everything, and Sombra plans on being the pony calling all the shots."

"That… that’s ridiculous!” Lyra protested. “Even if he wanted to do something like that, even if he controlled every single member of the council, he couldn’t. Not even Cloudsdale would tolerate that! It’d be civil war!”

Fancy Pants cleared his throat. "Unless he had the tools to make sure such efforts were futile. A legendary magic relic, for example."

Silence filled the room as Lyra stared at the two of them, letting the implications of that statement sink in. They couldn’t be serious, but neither pony would dare joke about something like this. The thought of that vile unicorn having even more power sent chills down her spine. “Is that why you called me in?”

Fancy Pants held up a hoof. "Before we go any further, I think you should understand the severity of the situation we are—"

"Please don’t patronize me, Fancy Pants. I was on the council. I understand exactly what is at stake. Anything we do at this point is going to be, at best, just shy of treason. If any of this goes wrong or gets out, serious trouble will not even begin to approach an accurate description for what we will be in."

"That's... accurate, yes," Fancy Pants said, taken aback.

Shimmer tapped her hooves impatiently on her desk. “Is everypony on the same page? Great. Now, tell me Lyra: what do you know about the Elements of Harmony?"

"A little bit." Lyra couldn’t tell if she kept the surprise off her face. She hoped she did. Trying to explain the fact that, yes, she’d just started reading about them and it had triggered repeated hallucinations would probably be difficult.

"Well, I need to know absolutely everything you know about them. Right now. Then I need you to go scour every book and every terminal and every bit on the network for more information on them."

“You really think he’s trying to find the Elements of Harmony?”

“We’re sure,” Fancy Pants said.

Shifting from hoof to hoof, Lyra considered her options. This didn’t seem like the right time to tell Shimmer that she had already already been looking into the Elements, or that she had started hallucinating right then. “All right. I’ll need some time to put what I have together, though.”

“Fine,” Shimmer snapped. “Just do it quickly and send it to me. Oh, and one more thing before you go.”

“Yes?”

"Are you still friends with that idiot DJ-what’shername?"

Fancy Pants cleared his throat. "Pon-3. Her actual name is Vinyl Scratch, I believe."

Shimmer waved a hoof dismissively. "Yes. Her."

"Vinyl? No, not really. We haven’t talked in forever. Why?"

Sunset tapped a hoof on her desk, studying Lyra closely. She finally said, "We think she might be with somepony who has one of the Elements."

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “You actually think somepony has one of the Elements right now?”

"They have something that might be one of the Elements. Some magical object or another was discovered while they were remodeling the Wonderbolts Academy. It matched what few descriptions of the Elements we had, so I called in pretty much every favor I could to get the thing delivered to me before Sombra could touch it.” The rapping of her hoof on her desk intensified. “Unfortunately, the courier I hired to deliver it lost the damn thing in the city. Did you see the news this morning?”

“All I’ve done this morning is eat breakfast and rush on over here,” Lyra grunted.

“Long story short: We think some groundling ended up with the Element, Sombra sent the Council Guard to deal with it, they made a mess of that DJ’s club, and both her and the groundling who might have had the stone disappeared. Unfortunately for us, when it comes to a citywide hunt, Sombra’s going to have an easier time than us.”

Lyra sighed. Some things never changed: Vinyl never knew when to keep her snout out of other ponies’ business. "I'll be sure to let you know if I hear anything from her.”

“Good. How soon can you give the two of us a briefing on the Elements?”

Lyra stifled a yawn. “Is tomorrow morning okay?”

Shimmer prepared to object, but Fancy Pants spoke up first, “That will be fine, Miss Heartstrings. We both appreciate your willingness to assist in delicate matters like this.”

“I’m sure you do.”

~~~~~

Octavia had not expected the doctor to have much to offer for breakfast, but the ancient box of Full of Oats oatmeal came as an unwelcome surprise. The dust covering the box did not worry her, as she knew from experience that they remained perfectly edible – quite possibly literally – forever. Unfortunately, she suspected that their amazing shelf life came from the fact that they consisted entirely of synthesized starches and cardboard.

The thought of eating junk like that again disgusted her, but she knew it would at least fill her grumbling stomach. Besides, she could see the Doctor’s bowl held barely half as much as theirs. Complaining would be unfathomably rude.

“I’ve gotta say, Doc: this stuff is awful,” Vinyl said after a few bites. “Quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“Vinyl!” Octavia snapped. She lowered her voice and added, “He is giving us food he probably can’t afford to spare! Appreciate it!”

“I do appreciate it. It still tastes like soggy paper.” She pushed the half-full bowl towards Octavia. “Want the rest? I’m not really hungry, and this stuff ain’t helping.”

Octavia glanced questioningly at Hooves.

“A loss of appetite for a few days wouldn’t be that unusual,” Hooves said. As if anticipating Octavia’s next question, he added, “And don’t worry too much about me. I ate while I was out.”

“Fine,” she grumbled, taking the bowl from Vinyl and finishing it in sullen silence. Even if it tasted awful, wasting food deserved to be a crime.

“Do you mind if I ask you both whether you know what you are planning to do next?” Hooves asked.

Vinyl shrugged. “Not really. I kinda figured we’d just chill here until my head stopped hurting and Trixie got bored of whatever little errand she’s on. If you didn’t mind, of course, doc.”

“There is no way we could do that,” Octavia said, frowning.

“Why not? I mean, I’m still a patient, he’s still a doctor, and you’re still… something funny and flirty.”

“Vinyl!” Octavia snapped again, the carpet absorbing the impact of her hoof on the ground. “This is not a joke! We are in serious trouble and we should not be bringing it down on innocent ponies! If Commander Lulamoon found him housing us—”

“Chill, Octavia,” Vinyl said, cringing as she flattened her ears, “Or at least yell more quietly. Damn, now my head really hurts.”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, softening her voice. “I just… I am just trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do now.”

The unicorn shrugged. “Just gotta lay low for a bit, Octavia. This sort of thing always blows over if you give it enough time. Then you just put in a few words with the right ponies, spend a few bits, show ‘em a good time, and everything is cool again.”

“Yes, and I am sure that works fantastically for a unicorn. I highly doubt they’ll be so happy to let an earth pony off that easy, especially when she kicked Commander Lulamoon across your club’s floor!”

“You what?” Vinyl burst out laughing as she continued, “And you’ve been calling me an idiot! What in Tartarus would convince you to do that?”

“Because it was the only thing I could think of to save your stupid flank!” Octavia snarled.

Vinyl’s laughter stopped abruptly. “What?”

“I didn’t know what Trixie was going to do to you and I couldn’t just let her hurt you after how bloody nice you’d been to me! But no, of course, I forgot for a moment that you’re some stupid, rich unicorn who can just do whatever she wants without any repercussions! I am incredibly happy I wasted whatever slim chance I had of getting out of this helping you! But I do suppose it is not a total loss! At least you find the fact that I’m going to be spending the rest of my life working in the asteroid colonies hilarious!” Her chest heaved as the words spilled out of her, and it took a moment for her to realize that she had advanced on the abashed Vinyl until they were muzzle-to-muzzle.

Hooves cleared his throat politely.

Octavia sat back down, her cheeks burning as she turned away from Vinyl.

“I… sorry. I didn’t know. I just—”

“Forget it, Vinyl.” Taking a deep breath, Octavia tried to calm herself down. Yelling at the unicorn – in front of a pony who was graciously sheltering them, no less! – would not help anything.

“I really didn’t—”

“I said forget it. I need to worry about my problems right now, okay?”

“Could I interrupt for a moment? I might have an idea.” Hooves asked.

Octavia nodded. “I would certainly appreciate the advice of almost anypony at this point,” she said, looking askance at Vinyl.

“Miss Scratch, you went to the Celestial School for Gifted Unicorns, correct?”

The unicorn stopped staring sullenly at Octavia and glanced up. “Huh?”

“I assume you went to the Celestial School?” Hooves asked again, though Octavia got the impression he just wanted to confirm something he already knew.

“Oh. Uh, yeah, my parents made sure I got in. I didn’t do very well or anything though, so don’t expect any magical miracles from me or anything.”

“But that does mean you know some important ponies, right? Ponies who might be able to, say, take the stone from Miss Melody and smooth the whole issue with Commander Lulamoon over? Or at least run interference until she can take an extended vacation outside of Manehattan?”

“Well, I mean, I know a lot of ponies but… I don’t think many of them could or would do me any big favors right now,” she mumbled. “Lyra maybe? She might still talk to me, and she has a lot of friends in the government.”

“Lyra? As in the former Councilor Lyra Heartstrings?” Octavia asked, hope swelling in her chest. If anypony could help her, it would be a pony with connections to the council.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up..” She must have caught the dangerous look Octavia shot her, as she quickly added, “I mean I’m totally happy to talk to her or anypony else I know to try and help you out, Octavia. I just…” She offered a limp grin and continued, “Nevermind. The doc here is right. I’m sure if I harass enough ponies, somepony’ll help just to shut me up.”

“I appreciate it,” Octavia mumbled.

“I believe it might be better if I were the one to approach your contacts, Miss Scratch. Setting aside the fact that you should spend today resting, my understanding is that you might also be in a little bit of trouble?”

Vinyl hesitated before answering, “Well… sorta, yeah, I guess.”

“Then you should probably keep your head down as well. I imagine it would be quite difficult to help Miss Melody while trying to talk your own way out of custody.”

“Yes,” Octavia answered, enunciating carefully in the hopes that Vinyl would understand. “It would be very difficult.”

“Don’t worry about it. There’s no way that—”

“No, Vinyl. I will tell you right now that if you get yourself imprisoned or do something similarly stupid trying to help me, I will quite seriously never forgive you. We should just do what Hooves suggests.”

The unicorn sighed and then cringed, before laying down. “Ugh. I think all the yelling did a number on my head. It’s really starting to hurt again.”

“Then I think it’s time you got back into bed, Miss Scratch,” Hooves said. “I’ll mix another draught to dull the pain and help you sleep, then see if I can get a hold of Miss Heartstrings.” He stood up and stretched his legs, before turning to Octavia. “I assume you know better than to answer the door for strangers?”

Despite herself, Octavia smiled. “I believe I can handle it. Are you sure you’ll be alright, though? I… we are asking a lot of you.”

Hooves returned the smile. “You have actually asked very little of me, Miss Melody! I’ve practically had to force my help down your throat.”

Octavia’s eyes flicked between Vinyl and Hooves. “I suppose I am just not used to ponies being so kind or generous to me. There always seems to be a cost for help.”

“There usually is.” Hooves set his hoof on her shoulder, “But you don’t always have to be the one to pay it. I recommend you simply take your breaks where you can get them. You never know when you’ll get another. ”

~~~~~

Hooves whistled to himself as he ducked between a pair of buildings, hopped a rail, and started trotting across the narrow maintenance ramp with practiced ease. He preferred not to use this route too often, but the paths he had to the hundredth tier were limited.

In retrospect, he wondered if it might have been better to tell Miss Melody that she wasn’t actually Manehattan Station's most wanted at the moment. Unfortunately for her, as stressful as her position was, Hooves considered a false sense of security far more dangerous.

Hooves snorted, remembering the network news program he’d caught while shopping. Sombra himself had appeared to represent the council and speak to the ponies of the Empire.

“...the incident last night at Crazy Horse was an unfortunate tragedy, but I am happy to report that nopony was injured and the damage to one of Manehattan’s most beloved clubs was kept to a minimum.”

“While I cannot condone Commander Lulamoon’s actions – and will be discussing them with her directly to ensure that such a thing does not happen again – I ask that all of you join me in attempting to understand them.”

“When the Council Guard receives information about a threat to the Empire and its citizens, they must take quick and decisive action. The slightest delay could result in a tragic loss of life and property, and that is something we will not allow. That is why the Council asks that all citizens of the Grand Equestrian Empire comply swiftly with any and all requests from a member of the Council Guard.”

“In this case, Commander Lulamoon’s zeal for protecting the citizens of the Empire caused her to act without complete information and, as a result, she and the guards under her command inconvenienced several innocent ponies. I’m sure we can all appreciate that Commander Lulamoon simply wants to protect the citizens of the Empire, but, to reiterate, I will be discussing the Council Guard’s current methodology directly with Commander Lulamoon and other members of the council to make sure that we can avoid similar disturbances in the future.”

“Finally, let me say that, like so many of you here in the Manehattan Station, I hope for a swift reopening of Crazy Horse. In fact, I will be extending a personal offer of assistance to the club’s owner, Miss Vinyl Scratch. I would hate for her to have to reschedule Sapphire Shores’ upcoming appearance. I can’t be the only pony looking forward to it, can I?”

Hooves had made the connection between that announcement and the two mares quickly enough; even ponies in the lower tiers liked Crazy Horse and Miss Scratch featured prominently the advertisements. The only question that had remained was the circumstances that led to the two of them ending up at his clinic instead of somewhere more appropriate. Luckily for him, walking in on their conversation had clarified that.

The path got a little tricky up ahead, forcing him to navigate a complicated array of pipes, wires, and narrow squeezes between buildings. These maintenance ramps were intended to allow access to the station’s inner workings, but they didn’t make it easy.

He shook his head as he finally reached the maintenance lift and stepped over the chain that blocked the gate, ignoring the rusty and battered “Out of Order” sign.

If Hooves trusted his instincts, then Miss Melody’s situation was even more dangerous than she thought. The entire thrust of Sombra’s speech seemed to be that everything on the station was fine and that the Council Guard had just made a mistake. Hooves knew that that treacherous unicorn wouldn’t say something like that unless he planned on using it to blindside you later.

He wanted Miss Melody to think she was safe and the rest of the station to know nothing about her. Add the offer of peace to Miss Scratch that he’d made, and it all added up to a set of circumstances in which it would be very easy for a single earth pony to disappear without any fuss. Unfortunately for Sombra, like most unicorns, he wasn’t half as smart as he thought he was.

Giving the lift’s maintenance panel a swift kick caused it to slide open, allowing Hooves to reach the magic circuits that powered it. Most magitech devices weren’t that complicated. A little reading, a little hooves on practice, and anypony could hack most of the hardware on the station. Re-enabling the lift, making sure it still wouldn’t be picked up by any of the station’s systems, and setting it to ignore the ID check for the hundredth tier only took about ten minutes of work. Then he simply leaned against the lift’s wall, whistling and watching the city crawl by.

This plan wasn’t foolproof, of course. No plan was. But Sombra had plenty of enemies on the council, and as long as the stone went to one of them, he would have much more important things to be concerned about than Miss Melody.

Hooves had expected Miss Scratch’s pool of contacts to run a bit deeper, but that couldn’t be helped. Miss Heartstrings worked as well as anypony.

The lift jerked to a halt as it reached the top and Hooves stepped off. The maintenance ramps up here were much easier to navigate, but he decided against using them. Actual maintenance happened this high in the city, and explaining his presence to a workpony would be tricky. They didn’t tolerate other ponies messing with the delicate hardware that kept the hundredth tier comfortable and beautiful.

He squinted as he escaped the tunnel-like confines of the maintenance ramps and stepped into the brilliant lights of Eon’s Square. Crossing the tier was easy, at least. Despite the number of pegasi and unicorns surrounding him, the ramps up here were broad enough that twenty ponies could stand shoulder to shoulder and still leave room to walk around them. Besides, most of the ponies that lived in the upper tier stayed out of his way; if an earth pony was up here, they were usually taking care of some mild – and probably filthy – irritation that more important ponies couldn’t be bothered with.

The apartment block Miss Heartstrings lived in sat on the backside of the square, buffered from the noise and lights by a towering mall. The building’s security barely existed, but, to most ponies, living in the hundredth tier proved security enough. Still, he couldn’t help but flinch as his hoofsteps echoed through the hallway. Old instincts died hard.

The risk here felt minimal, but Hooves had long ago learned that feelings were poor substitutes for vigilance. Still, the odds that Miss Heartstrings would collaborate with Sombra were unfathomably low.

He’d paid a lot of attention to the debates leading up to her dismissal from the council: Sombra had done everything short of publicly crucifying her to prove he made more sense on the council than she did. Her history, her hobbies, her relationships… absolutely everything had been spilled to the general public in an effort to discredit her and give the new liaison from the Crystal Station a seat of power.

Humiliations like that rarely faded.

Rounding a corner, he spotted the correct apartment. The console set into the wall had been covered by the overgrowth from a few potted plants – apparently Miss Heartstrings did not care much about receiving company – but a little foliage could hardly deter him.

Taking a deep breath, he tapped the console with his hoof and waited. After a few moments the console’s screen blinked on, revealing the countenance of a haggard unicorn staring blearily into the monitor.

“Yes?” she asked, barely keeping her voice from dipping into a growl.

“Miss Heartstrings?”

“Yes?” she growled.

“I am sorry to disturb you, but I was asked to deliver a message. From a Miss Vinyl Scratch?” He studied the screen, watching as the irritation vanished into her wrinkling brows.

“Vinyl?”

“Yes, Miss Heartstrings.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, Miss Heartstrings. She was hoping you might be able to help her out. A friend of hers is in a little bit of trouble.” The fact that she didn’t seem that surprised told him more than she’d probably intended. Her hesitation to respond only further confirmed it: she already knew something about the situation. “We don’t have to talk about this right here. You could invite me in if you liked? Where we could talk privately?”

That gave her pause. “Yes,” she said after a moment, “I suppose I could.” She pressed a hoof to the panel and the screen went dark as the door slid open.

The interior put Hooves in mind of the library’s stacks; no other place on the station would have held even a fraction this many books. Most ponies preferred reading on consoles. Besides, even if they did own books, they certainly would take better care of them.

He stepped carefully over the piles that littered the tiled floor, struggling not to demolish one of the precariously stacked piles or step on the pages of an opened book.

“Sorry about the mess. I’ve been too busy to clean lately. Lot of work to do.” She levitated a stack of books off of a cushion. “Would you like to sit?”

Hooves shook his head. “No, but thank you Miss Heartstrings.”

She released her magical grip on the books, letting them fall unceremoniously back onto the cushion. “Snack then? Something to drink? I could use coffee.”

“No. I would rather just discuss Miss Scratch and her friend. Mostly whether you think you can help them.”

Shrugging, Lyra trotted to the space that apparently served as the apartment’s kitchen and began fussing with a dispenser built into the wall. “So, why does Vinyl need my help?”

“It is a little forward of me to ask, but can we do this without lying, either directly or indirectly?” Hooves asked. “What happens next depends a lot on trust. I’m reasonably certain you already know what this is all about.”

Lyra turned away from the dispenser. “Who are you?”

“Just somepony who wants to help Miss Scratch and her friend. That’s all.”

Lyra bit her lip and stared at him, no doubt trying to penetrate the placid smile he met her gaze with. Finally relenting, she sighed and asked, “Her friend is an earth pony? Named Octavia Melody?”

Hooves nodded.

The dispenser chimed, the metal panel sliding back to reveal a steaming black mug. Lyra levitated the drink to her as she found a cushion to sit on, nearly dropping it as a yawn broke her concentration. A long swig delayed her next statement. “Do you know the Council Guard is looking for her? And do you know why?”

“Perhaps,” Hooves said.

She threw up her hooves. “Are you going to tell me anything at all?”

His smile broadened a bit. Ponies tended to be so impatient. “Maybe.”

“Fine. Unfortunately, I can’t help them myself. I know somepony who wants to help them, though.” She glared at him. “See, I can be vague and irritating too.”

He let Lyra’s snarkiness slide. The earnestness of it all helped set him at ease. She seemed to be being straight with him. “That’s fine. I think that’s enough to come to an agreement. A meeting between our mutual friends, perhaps? On my terms, of course.”

“I can’t promise anything, you know,” she grumbled, taking another sip from her mug. Her eyes were looking brighter and more alert already. “Well, nothing except for the fact that I doubt they’ll like the idea of a meeting on your terms.”

“I suspect they’ll find a way to work with them.” Hooves finally sat down, though he kept the front door in the corner of his vision. “Your friends – who I expect are on the council – will meet us at a location of my choosing, at a time of my choosing. They will send a message to the network account I give you by nine on the day they want to meet, and I will respond with the time and place of the meeting. They may bring one of their personal guards with them. I won’t accept any intermediaries. If they meet our conditions, they can have the stone.”

“And I suppose you’re all going to want, what, a million bits or something?”

“No. You can let your friends know that our requests are quite simple: pardons for Miss Scratch and Miss Melody, as well as a little assurance that Miss Melody will be safe once the stone is out of her hooves.”

Lyra stared at Hooves. “That’s all?”

“That’s all. I’m sure Miss Melody wouldn’t mind a million bits, but I feel the less we ask, the more we’re likely to get.”

“Probably.” She let the mug float to the floor, every ounce of liquid drained. “I’ll need—”

“I’m reasonably sure you can get me at least a yes or no tonight, particularly if you let them know that my best advice to Miss Melody would be that, if your friends can’t help, she toss the stone out an airlock.”

“Don’t do that!” Lyra shouted as she jumped to her hooves, knocking the empty cup aside.

Hooves watched her horn carefully as he gestured for her to sit back and smiled reassuringly. “I promise you, I would much rather not do that. I just think it is important to impress upon you and your friends the reality of the situation. Obey a few simple precautions and smooth things over for a pair of ponies that have nothing to do with whatever this little game is, and you all get exactly what you want. Don’t, and you might force otherwise reasonable ponies to take desperate measures. Okay?”

“Fine,” Lyra grunted, “I’ll get you an answer tonight.”

Chapter 5 - Loyalty

Vinyl rolled over in bed, still adrift in a warm, hazy feeling thanks to whatever the doc had put in that nasty drink. A little pain still lingered in her head, but it seemed like a faraway thing that she could let future Vinyl deal with. Present Vinyl just wanted to lay here and feel fuzzy.

She’d have to ask the doc what he’d given her. It tasted bucking awful, but she couldn’t argue results. It had even let her manage to drift off a few times. She usually paid a hoof and a leg for sleeping pills that didn’t work half as well as this. Now if only they could do something about the silence and the boredom...

Octavia brushed past the room’s curtains, heading straight for the pile of blankets on the floor.

Glancing over as the mare dropped onto them, Vinyl asked, “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” Octavia grunted. After a moment, she added, “Hooves thinks that Lyra will come through for us. We just need to wait for her friends to reach out.”

“Well, that sounds like things are going pretty well.”

The mare sighed. “Yes, but I find that tends to be the case right before everything starts to go horribly, horribly wrong.”

“Duh. Of course that’s going to happen if you keep thinking like that.” She rolled over so she could look at Octavia while she spoke. “You gotta stay positive!”

Octavia did not even try to hide her eyeroll. “How about you, Vinyl? Are you feeling any better?”

“Pretty good! A lil’ uh…” Vinyl waved a hoof in the air to fill in for words she couldn’t think of, “But it beats feeling like my horn is inside out.”

“I’m glad.” As an afterthought, she added, “Hooves said you might want to try eating something again.”

“Don’t feel like getting up. Besides, I don’t think I could stomach more of that bull. Seriously don’t know how someponies eat it day in and day out.”

“When the choice is that or go hungry, it really is not a difficult choice to make,” Octavia said, her formerly friendly tone chilling.

Vinyl silently cursed the fuzziness in her head. Of course, she’d probably have said something just as stupid even if she were thinking perfectly clearly… “Sorry. I get it. I really, totally do. It just sucks that there are ponies who have to live like that, you know? It’s why I run Crazy Horse the way I do. Everypony – unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies alike – should get a chance to chill, eat good food, drink to their heart’s content, and listen to great music.”

“It was a very nice club.”

Vinyl watched as Octavia kept shifting on the floor, apparently struggling to get comfortable between the carpet and the tangle of thin blankets the doctor had provided. After a few moments, she finally offered, “You wanna sleep with me?”

“V-Vinyl!” Octavia sputtered, looking up at her. The mare’s cheeks reddened furiously. “I… I am absolutely aghast that you would suggest such a thing! You’re injured! This is somepony else’s home! And besides, no!”

Restraining a smirk proved impossible. “While I’m totally flattered that’s the first thing that came to mind, I just meant in the bed with me. It’ll be a lil’ crowded, but I bet it beats the floor.”

Somehow the mare’s face actually managed to turn a deeper shade of red. “You could have phrased that much less ambiguously,” she muttered.

“Prolly. But this was way funnier.”

With a sigh, Octavia forced herself to her hooves. “It seems you are absolutely incorrigible, Vinyl.”

“Maybe?”

“But I think I will take you up on that offer. If you really don’t mind, of course.”

“I dunno, kinda thinking it might be a bad idea now,” Vinyl said, unable to stop herself. “I mean, what if you try taking advantage of me while I’m all weak and helpless?”

Octavia eyed her. “Vinyl?”

“Yes?”

“Please just shut up and move.”

It took a few moments to get things situated – even Vinyl could tell that Octavia was careful about climbing into the bed in an effort to avoid jostling her too much – but, just like she’d thought, there was just enough room for the two ponies to fit without needing to cuddle too much.

“Hey, Octavia—”

“I swear to Celestia, if you ask, ‘Have you ever slept with a mare?’ I am going to kick you out of this bed.” Despite the annoyance in Octavia’s tone, Vinyl caught the barest hint of a smile as the mare laid her head on the pillow and closed her eyes.

After a moment of silence, Vinyl asked, “Have you?”

The hoof that hit her side was just strong enough to make a point without actually hurting.

“Seriously, though. Thanks for what you did.”

“I am sure one of your adoring fans would have helped you.”

The chuckle that escaped from Vinyl was not a very nice one. Unpleasant thoughts were starting to cut through the pleasant haze. “I dunno about that. Most fans don’t really give a buck about the ponies they dig. They’re there when things are great, but nowhere to be found when it ain’t.”

“I suppose that is true,” Octavia mumbled.

Vinyl looked over at the half-asleep mare. Shutting up made the most sense – Octavia clearly wanted to sleep – but the thought of letting the room go silent again bugged her. “Once all this bull is cleared up, think you’d wanna visit Crazy Horse again? Wouldn’t be too tough to hook you up with another VIP badge since the owner thinks you’re pretty cool.”

A smile crept across Octavia’s face. “I am not so sure. What would I even do? That is not really my type of crowd. I am not much for dancing, and most of the ponies there did not seem much for talking.”

“Well, you know, I’m not on stage all night all the time. Neon’s been wanting more time up there, and I host all sorts of guests, so I could always take an hour or two to grab a drink with you. Besides, we never got those last drinks. Or dessert. And we definitely never hit the dance floor like you promised. So, basically, you have to.”

“I may be half-asleep, but I do not recall ever agreeing to do any of that. But I suppose I may well have accidentally obligated myself somehow.” Octavia struggled to speak around a yawn, her voice slurring as she slipped closer to sleep, “In which case my only polite option would be to go back.”

“Definitely,” Vinyl said quietly, before lapsing into silence. Keeping Octavia up wasn’t really fair. Besides, something about the soft, almost musical sound of her breath as she slept helped keep Vinyl’s anxiety at bay. It wasn’t as nice as a rumbling bassline or a some hypnotic synths, but it was nice to know that somepony was there.

~~~~~

Lyra’s hooves shook as she magically flipped through the pages of the books that she’d spread out on the floor around her. The fourth cup of coffee had probably been too much. Or maybe it had been the second energy drink. Or that bag of leftover doughnuts she’d found and eaten. And, of course, the occasional, magically induced – she still held out hope on that point; her faculties still seemed intact aside from the visions – hallucination did not help.

But, regardless of the havoc being wreaked on her body right now, they’d all worked together to make her an impromptu expert on the Elements of Harmony. At least insofar as one could be an expert on a set of supposedly mythical relics that the Alicorn princesses had plucked from the Tree of Harmony.

She sighed. The idea still seemed absolutely ludicrous. The Elements were things from storybooks. Sure, some ponies believed in them, but some ponies also believed in Alicorns.

Magic made it too easy to believe in the strange and impossible, but magic had rules and limits. You couldn’t do just anything with it. Even the most powerful unicorns in the Empire could only perform very specific tricks, and even those took their toll on the caster. But everything she read about the Elements? It all seemed to defy that.

They could seal evil creatures away on distant moons, purify the wicked, lock the embodiment of chaos in stone, transform ponies into demonic entities, create castles from nothing, and even utterly obliterate those they were turned against. They were… well… legendary.

But something else nagged at her. The stories mostly talked about the Elements as they were used by the Alicorn princesses, but a few of them mentioned the Elements being wielded by six ponies. And her hallucinations…

Six ponies. The books left them unnamed, but names came to mind anyway. Twilight Sparkle. Rarity. Applejack. Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash. The representations of the Elements of Harmony. Not just the wielders. The ponies who perfectly embodied the core of the Elements.

Based on the pictures Shimmer had given her, the design on the stone they were looking for was a close match to the cutie mark on the one named Rainbow Dash – the Element of Loyalty.

Between the shaking of her hooves and legs and the lightness in her head, standing proved more difficult than expected, but she managed to make it to her desk without tripping over anything or having a heart attack, so things were probably okay for the moment. The console still had several windows open – stories from several entertainment bloggers and news organizations. They had been a serious pain in the flank to hunt down, but they did seem to support her current line of thinking.

A few references to an earth pony quartet that had taken the station’s music scene by surprise, a few mentions of Octavia Melody by name as a standout, some discussion of Octavia Melody being invited to play in the Manehattan Grand Symphonic Hall, and then… nothing. She couldn’t find another mention of Octavia anywhere. It was as if the mare had simply disappeared.

The potential story didn’t take much imagination to create. A star musician who outstripped her companions, had the chance for solo fame, and then didn’t follow through for… reasons. Lyra could not think of many things that would make an earth pony turn down a chance at stardom in Manehattan.

Maybe unswerving loyalty to her bandmates?

She knew it was a stretch, but it just fit far too well. Everything fit far too well. Which, despite the utter impossibility of it, meant that logically it had to be the case.

“Probably time to stop putting it off,” Lyra grumbled, opening the console’s call function and inputting Shimmer’s network code. After just a few seconds Shimmer’s face appeared on the monitor. She must have been waiting for the call.

“About time. I was just getting ready to call. What do you have for me?”

“A few things,” Lyra said, deciding that she should have worked out the order of this before calling. Too many thoughts were swimming around in her head. “I guess I should start with the fact that a stallion came by here, claiming he knew where both Vinyl and Octavia were. And he seemed to know, at the least, that the stone existed.”

Shimmer frowned. “And what did he want?”

“To meet you and Fancy—”

“You told him about us?” Shimmer snapped, slamming her hooves down on her desk.

Cringing at the sudden increase in pitch, Lyra gestured for Shimmer to lower her voice. “No, but he assumed I had friends on the council, and that there must be some who were interested in what was happening and not working with Sombra. Let me finish before you snap next time, okay?”

Shimmer glared at her – it was a rare few ponies who dared take that tone with her, but Lyra didn’t really care – but remained silent.

“He wants to give you the stone in exchange for getting Vinyl and Octavia in the clear. That’s all. Though he was very insistent that my ‘friends’ meet him in person at a time and place of his choosing. He also expects an affirmative answer tonight, otherwise he said he’d tell Octavia to hurl the stone out an airlock.”

To her surprise, Shimmer seemed to take all that information in stride. “It certainly doesn’t sound like a trap laid by Sombra. About the only thing he could do with a setup like that would be kill us, and I sincerely doubt he’d stoop to something like that. Can you tell me anything about the stallion?”

Lyra rubbed her eyes tiredly, trying to recall the conversation. It seemed like so long ago already. “He was some sort of brownish, with a darker brown mane? His cutie mark was an hourglass, I think? Maybe?”

“Mm,” Shimmer grunted, a frown crossing her face very briefly. “All right. What else did you have for me?”

The sudden shift in subjects caught Lyra off-guard. She had figured that the next ten minutes were going to be dedicated to grilling her over the stallion’s identity, not just hearing a bleary description and moving on. Did Shimmer know something she didn’t?

The impatient clearing of Shimmer’s throat pulled her attention back. “I assume you managed to do more than just talk to this stallion?”

“Yes,” Lyra said, doing her best to ignore the snideness of the comment. “The Elements, if the legends are at all true, are probably some sort of magical conduit. It makes the most sense, given how many different powers they’ve supposedly demonstrated. They simply act on something like a pony’s heart or their desires or their nature, but their power is probably limited by the pony that has it.”

“So we don’t have to worry about the groundling accidentally destroying the station or something equally stupid. Great.”

Lyra hesitated. Shimmer was not going to like the next part, especially since it was about ninety-nine percent speculation. Still, the cutie mark on the hallucinatory pegasus and the design on the stone were too close for it to be coincidence.

“Are you telling me you think she could?” Shimmer asked, the hesitation not going unnoticed.

“No. Well…” Lyra sighed. “I don’t think the stones are the actual Elements. At least, I don’t think each stone is the whole Element.”

Shimmer frowned. “What?”

“The Elements… they’re a sort of universal concept. If you look hard enough, you can find stories where the power of the Elements is used without having access to the stones. So it makes even more sense to think of the stones as conduits to an even greater power. But if somepony can harness that power without the stone, then that means the stones just act like doorways or something. Which probably means that, while anypony can sort of use them, certain ponies might be able to really use them.”

“Maybe I should have let you sleep before asking you to explain this to me.”

Lyra rubbed her eyes, trying to sort the thoughts spinning in her head. Books, films, and visions swam before her, all swirling around one very unfortunate grey mare. “I think there are ponies that embody the Elements, and that what they could do with the stones would absolutely dwarf what somepony like you or me could do. Just like the stones, they’re conduits to the true Element or whatever.” She knew she was rambling, so she tried to cut straight to the point. “I think the stones are drawn to them. The Elements want to be whole, so the stones, and the ponies, and the power all try to connect.”

“You think the stones are drawn to certain ponies and vice versa?”

“Yes! And I think the owners will be drawn to each other too.”

Shimmer tapped her hooves on the desk, studying Lyra through the screen. “You think this groundling is one of them.”

“I do. You know that, despite every weird accident Ditzy Doo has been involved in, she has always made her deliveries successfully. Always. And this stone is the first thing she actually loses? And it ends up in the hooves of some random earth pony? And that that pony—”

“That is all a stretch Lyra, and you know it.”

She sighed. Shimmer was always a pain in the flank, and that was the last thing she needed right now. The thought of discussing this further made her head pound and her hooves shake harder. Sleep needed to happen, and it needed to happen soon, but she couldn’t afford to lose this argument. “Look. You wanted my opinion on this subject, and you know I’m good at this sort of thing.” After a moment’s pause and the spastic firing of a few neurons, she added, “Besides, if I’m right and the Elements do call to each other, then having Octavia around might help you find the rest of the stones before Sombra.”

“All right,” Shimmer said. “Give me that stallion’s network address. I’ll send him a message and let him know that we agree to meet on his terms.”

Lyra blinked and stared vacantly at the screen.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Shimmer quirked an eyebrow at her.

“I… just expected you to argue more.”

Shimmer rolled her eyes. “Look. One way or another, I want to know where the stone is. That means meeting with the groundling and her keeper. We can worry about your theories after that. I’ll call you once we have this sorted out. Until then, keep working.”

As soon as Shimmer ended the call, Lyra’s head dropped to the desk. The caffeine and sheer, dogged determination had finally run their course, leaving an exhausted husk behind. Getting out of bed at any point in the next three days seemed unlikely, if she could even make it all the way across the unit to lay down in it.

She didn’t even bother powering her console down before shutting it off. It was rough on the magic circuits, but she didn’t feel like wasting the extra minute or two it would take.

Now all she had to do was get up and go to bed. Less than a couple dozen feet away. Just needed to get up and...

~~~~~

Octavia shifted nervously from hoof to hoof, flinching at every flickering light and metallic sound echoing through the tunnel. She had never seen the station’s first tier, and now she understood why. These overglorified pipes were not a place where ponies belonged.

“Try to relax,” Hooves said, not looking up from the tablet console that had been engrossing him since they had arrived at this particular junction. “They’ll be here soon.”

“That is not what I’m worried about,” she mumbled.

“I know what you mean,” Vinyl said, brushing up against her. Lowering her voice conspiratorially, she continued, “Feels like some horrible alien creature is going to suddenly crawl out of one of the vents or pop around a corner and eat us. I’ve heard about all sorts of weird things happening Manehattan’s lowest tiers. Ponies disappearing, or mutating, or just straight up going crazy!”

Octavia rolled her eyes, but chose to stay silent. Stupid as it sounded, she could understand the view. There was something abnormal about the bowels of the city. Maybe it was just that it was all wires and machinery and Celestia-knew-what down here. Maybe it was the odd mechanical noises and magical crackles that echoed around them from every angle. Or maybe it was just the tightness of the tunnels squeezing in around her as the entire weight of the city bore down. Regardless, believing in monsters was something she felt she could do right now.

“I doubt any of it is true,” Hooves offered, continuing to tap his tablet. “Focus on remembering the way back to the lift, just in case we have to leave in a hurry.”

“I’m pretty sure I forgot how to get out of here four intersections back,” Vinyl grumbled.

“I am surprised it took that long,” Octavia said absently, watching Hooves work.

“Hey. I have an excuse. I was concussed.”

He had been checking it repeatedly since they reached the first tier. Tension had kept Octavia quiet initially, but now, having been sitting in the same junction for over an hour, doing absolutely nothing besides feel tense, it had started to wear on her. “What are you doing, Hooves?”

“Checking some of the bio-sensors. It should help me determine whether our new friends are holding up their end of the bargain.” He smiled. “I don’t expect too much trouble, but a little caution never hurt anypony.”

“No. It has not.” Octavia stared at the little tablet. Magitech like that was expensive. Very, very expensive. While the generosity of the doctor had certainly not gone unappreciated, she could not shake the feeling that another horseshoe was waiting to drop. Still, if Hooves wanted to turn them over the Council Guard, he could have just done it while she and Vinyl were asleep.

The bulk of the instrument case on her back reminded her that sometimes ponies simply lucked into nice things.

After gesturing for Octavia to come closer, he moved the tablet so she could see it. Of course, it did not really help, given the screen seemed to mostly consist of lines, boxes, and occasional dots. “See,” he said as a section of the screen flashed, “The sensors scan these tunnels at regular intervals, then attempt to identify any living creatures they detect. They were originally installed to help during the Changeling Incursion, but most of them have been removed or disabled.”

“Is that why you chose this location? Because it still has working sensors?”

Hooves’ smile grew a little, but he shook his head.

Octavia looked back down at the tablet. “Right. You would not be able to access the sensors on your own tablet so easily, would you? That means… you must have reactivated the sensors yourself?”

“You got it. ”

Vinyl chuckled. “Doc and techie? What’s next? You gonna show us some sweet hoof-to-hoof fighting moves next?”

The fact that Hooves did not actually answer that question with anything but that small smile of his bothered Octavia. The questions had started to form in the back of her head last night, and had continued to fester there: why did Hooves, an earth pony living near the bottom of the station, seem to know much? Arranging clandestine meetings, repairing and hacking station equipment, medicine… what sort of life had he led? And why was he just helping them for no reason?

She would have suspected trouble if it were not for the fact that he could have sold them out or taken the stone any number of times since they had shown up at his door.

The tablet chimed, attracting the attention of all three ponies. Four blips had just appeared at what Octavia guessed was a few junctions away.

“Well,” Hooves said, “It looks like our friends will be arriving shortly. Now remember. At the first sign of trouble, run. And make sure you do not tell them where the stone is. As long as they don’t know that, you have power.”

Despite the churning in her stomach, Octavia nodded. “I understand.”

“Got ya!” Vinyl said, far more upbeat than she should be.

Seating herself near Hooves, Octavia watched the end of the tunnel, waiting for the inevitable appearance of the ponies who would either save her or end her. She stiffened as a hoof touched her back.

“Hey, Octavia, relax,” Vinyl said quietly, offering her a reassuring smile. “Everything’ll work out. I’m sure!”

“And what makes you say that, Vinyl?”

“Because if they try to screw you over, I promise that every pony in the Empire is gonna hear about it. And I won’t shut up about it until the entire council gets… I dunno, recalled? Whatever it is when they throw somepony off the council.”

A genuine, if tiny, smile came to Octavia’s lips. Staring into Vinyl’s wide eyes, it was easy enough to believe that the idiot would do just that. “I think you may be overestimating exactly how many ponies listen to your music.”

Clearing his throat, Hooves shoved the tablet into his saddlebags and stood up. He nodded at the end of the tunnel where four shapes were barely visible in the dim light. “I do believe our friends are here.”

Octavia stood up as well, hoping her shaking legs were not too obvious.

The four ponies were dressed in hoodies – not a poor choice, considering how cold it got this low in the station – but she suspected the hoods were the important parts, especially considering how quickly they shed them as they closed in. She recognized two of them instantly: Councilor Sunset Shimmer and Councilor Fancy Pants. That did little for her nerves. They were two of the most well known members of the council and known for being unicorns of extraordinary power.

The pale pink unicorn and orange pegasus with them did not seem familiar. Presumably the guards Hooves had allowed them.

“Good evening, Councilors,” Hooves said, inclining his head slightly.

“I was wondering if this was your work, Hooves,” Councilor Shimmer snapped, looking past him and right at Octavia. “I thought it had been suggested you move to one of the other stations after your debriefing.”

Octavia’s ears pricked. Hooves knew the councilors? And more important, they knew him?

“Now Shimmer, there is no need for that,” Councilor Fancy Pants said. He bowed deeply towards the group, then offered a smile that rivalled Vinyl’s for warmth and sincerity. “Hello, Hooves. And if I’m not mistaken, your lovely friends would be Miss Octavia Melody and Miss Vinyl Scratch?”

“Yo,” Vinyl offered warily.

Octavia nudged her before bowing back and returning the greeting, “It is our pleasure, Councilor.”

“Yes, yes, we’re all polite and cordial,” Councilor Shimmer grunted. “Now let’s get down to business. You have the stone, we want it. Yes?”

Octavia took a deep breath. Before they had left, Hooves had told her that this would need to be her show. The only way to ensure that the councilors respected her was to handle this part herself; if she left the negotiations to Hooves, they might think they could trot all over her once they separated them.

Still, even if she had to do this herself, the presence of Vinyl and Hooves helped buoy her confidence. She barely knew these ponies, but here they were, helping her at what she hoped would be the lowest moment of her life.

She knew calling them friends went too far, but they were something close enough for the moment.

“That is right,” she managed without a quaver in her voice. She had dealt with entire crowds of unicorns who wanted to see her fail, so she could handle this. “I have the stone and I will be more than happy to return it to you. Provided, of course, that you are willing to help with the current situation. This stone has gotten me and Vinyl in a lot of trouble, so I feel it is only fair that you do something about that.”

“That’s all you want?” Shimmer asked.

Octavia nodded. “That is all.”

“Well, that seems like a perfectly reasonable—” Councilor Fancy Pants started, before he was interrupted.

“We won’t be able to do that,” Councilor Shimmer said.

Hooves’ eyes narrowed.

“What the buck, Shimmer?” Vinyl growled. “Why come all the way down here just to say the deal isn’t going to work?”

“I am not talking to you, Vinyl Scratch!” Councilor Shimmer snapped. She glared the unicorn into silence before turning back to Octavia and repeating, “Like I was saying. That deal is not going to work.”

Clenching her teeth and doing her best to control her temper, Octavia asked, “Then what deal are you willing to make?”

“We’ll clear things up for you, Octavia. I will get the Council Guard off your back and make sure that Sombra loses interest in you. I will provide transport to another station, and a new BitCard account with enough in it to get you settled. But that’s it. Vinyl is on her own. Getting just you out of the way is going to be hard enough, and frankly? Nopony on the Council is a fan of that outspoken brat. It might actually make things a bit easier to let Commander Lulamoon have her for a while.”

Vinyl looked utterly taken aback, while Hooves watched the councilors and their guards suspiciously. Even Councilor Fancy Pants looked surprised.

“So, that’s the deal we’re prepared to offer. We help you, Vinyl worms her own way out. Take it or leave it.”

“You should probably take it,” Vinyl mumbled. Despite her smile, Vinyl’s eyes belied the fact that she was shaken. Nevertheless, she continued, “I think I can handle whatever bull goes down after. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to get myself out of trouble, definitely won’t be the last.”

Octavia stared at the councilor. She knew Vinyl was right, of course. Looking out for herself was what she needed to do. The entire reason lived just above the city’s slums was that she had wasted all her chances looking out for other ponies.

Making the wrong decision back then had condemned her to this bloody awful life. Fame and fortune might be fleeting, but it turned out that, apparently, friends were too. The right choice was obvious. Vinyl was a rich and popular unicorn. She would probably be fine without help.

Besides, even if Vinyl did get in some sort of trouble, it would probably be far less than Octavia did. They couldn’t just make her disappear.

Anyway, they barely knew each other. Having a couple fun hours at her club did not an unbreakable bond of friendship make.

Octavia sighed, wishing that, for once, the right answer was the one she could give. “No.”

Councilor Shimmer raised an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me?”

Octavia swallowed. Even the whirr and hum of the machinery around her seemed to quiet in anticipation of a clearer answer. “I said no. That deal is unacceptable. I will not leave Vinyl drifting. It is both of us or nothing.”

“I am sure we could work out a way to—” Councilor Fancy Pants tried, but again lost to Councilor Shimmer.

“I would think very carefully about absolutes, Octavia.” The councilor’s voice hardened as her ears flattened. “I did not come down here to negotiate. Helping you is a favor to appease Fancy Pants and his delicate sensibilities.”

Out of the corner of her eye Octavia saw Hooves edge closer to the councilors and their guards.

“If I decide that I want the stone, I really doubt a pair of groundlings and a magic school dropout will be able to keep it from me for very long.”

“Octavia—” Vinyl started.

“Then why don’t you bloody well try and take it!” Octavia snapped, bringing her hoof down sharply on the metallic floor panels.

The words hung in the air, echoing up and down the tunnel, drowning out the sounds of the station’s heartbeat. But not Octavia’s. Her heart thundered in her chest as she held Councilor Shimmer’s gaze.

The unicorn broke it after a moment, sighing as she sat down. “Fine. You win. Take your new mare-friend with you.”

The tension flooded out of the air with almost tangible force, leaving Octavia – and probably everypony else in the room – off-balance.

“You should warn me before you do something like that,” Councilor Fancy Pants muttered.

“What the buck Shimmer?” Vinyl managed, managing to elegantly summarize Octavia’s exact thoughts at that moment.

The councilor rolled her eyes. “Helping you is going to be a serious pain in my flank, but not half as much as trying to find and take the stupid stone from the lot of you would prove to be,” Councilor Shimmer said, glancing not-so-subtly towards Hooves.

The doctor just stared thoughtfully at her.

“So, you will help us? Both of us?”

Another sigh escaped from the councilor. “Yes, but we can discuss exactly how that will happen somewhere else. I’ve spent enough time in the station’s bowels for one day. Assuming, of course, that that’s okay with you, Hooves?”

“That should be fine.”

Octavia frowned as Councilor Shimmer’s attention shifted away from her completely. Just a moment ago the unicorn had been bearing down on her like a comet, and now it was like she didn’t exist...

“Thanks, Octavia,” Vinyl said quietly, nudging her with a hoof. Her eyes didn’t quite meet Octavia’s as she continued, “You really shouldn’t have done that though.”

“No, she shouldn’t have,” Councilor Shimmer agreed without looking, “She should have made my life easier and left you to rot.” Under her breath, she added, “The Element of Loyalty, really?”

“What?” Octavia asked, the strange admixture of anger and relief bubbling inside her temporarily tempered by curiosity.

“Something we can discuss when we’re somewhere that doesn’t reek.”

“Just a moment, please,” Octavia said. Ignoring Councilor Shimmer’s eye roll, she pulled the recalcitrant Vinyl over to Hooves with her.

Hooves offered one of his little smiles to the pair. “Well, I suppose this is where we part ways then?”

“Yes,” Octavia said.

“A little word of advice, if I may.” He lowered his voice as he continued, “Fancy Pants is a good stallion and you can probably trust him, but be careful around Shimmer. She likes to get things her way.”

“We will,” Octavia said. ”And thank you for everything.” Questions still lingered in her mind, but now seemed like the wrong time to ask them. Besides, the important thing was that, at least as far as she could tell, he had done nothing but go out of his way to help them. He had earned more than a little trust.

Vinyl nodded. “Seriously. You really saved our flanks. I’ll drop you a line as soon as I can lay my hooves on my BitCard again.”

“Just be sure to take care of yourselves. I’d say the worst thing as a doctor is ever having to see one of your patients again.”

“Are you ready yet?” Shimmer snapped. “I have already wasted enough time today.”

Octavia smiled warmly at the doctor, then turned back towards Shimmer. “Yes, yes. Let’s go, Vinyl.”

Chapter 6 - Choices

Two years. It had been over two years since Octavia had last set hoof in Manehattan’s hundredth tier. Two years since its warm and brilliant light had last shone on her coat. Two years since she could walk without having to step around trash or homeless ponies. Two years since she could take a breath and not be nauseated by the stench of oil and filth.

Of course, the impact was a little muted when experienced sneaking through back alleys and hidden behind a magical shroud, but still. Even at its worst, the hundredth tier was a paradise compared to Octavia’s home.

The trek through the station had proven surprisingly dull. Octavia had not known what to expect, but silently trotting through the station’s maintenance areas and hidden ramps while concealed by some magic glamour or somesuch just did not seem to fit with the hectic nature of her last escape.

Councilor Shimmer’s insistence that the six of them walk in silence despite their apparent safety irked her, but, ultimately, did not really matter. Silence simply gave her time to think.

Vinyl, on the other hoof, had nearly gone stir crazy. It did not surprise Octavia: even in the short time she had known the unicorn, Vinyl had never managed to keep quiet for an extended period of time. Still, despite her apparent discomfort, even she had decided to give up trying to speak around the third time Councilor Shimmer fried her into silence with a glare.

Their eventual destination proved to be the station’s unofficial top tier: Central Park Heights. Octavia had only seen the small cluster of buildings from a distance, since, despite being located right above Central Park, the city guard maintained an around-the-clock watch on the lift. It made sense, of course. Only the very richest ponies lived in the Heights.

They probably considered the unicorns and pegasi that lived in the hundredth tier as only marginal improvements over ponies like herself.

“Well, Sunset, it has been a pleasant excursion, but I have some work I must complete before the next council meeting,” Councilor Fancy Pants said as they stopped in front of one of the buildings. Despite ostensibly talking to Councilor Shimmer, his gaze fell into the space where Octavia and Vinyl stood. “Perhaps lunch sometime later this week? I feel we have been working far too hard lately.”

“There will be plenty of time to rest after we take care of the council’s current business. Until then, I think we should stop messing around and just concentrate on our own work.”

“Are you sure? I feel the last few weeks have been rather fruitful.”

“Yes, I am sure,” Councilor Shimmer grunted. “You should focus on your own work. If I need help, I’ll let you know.”

“If you insist.” He nodded at one of the guards. “Let us go, Fleur. I’m sure a veritable mountain of messages have accrued on my console while we were gone.” He smiled at the empty space where Octavia and Vinyl stood and said, “Best of luck to you,” before walking off.

Councilor Shimmer sighed and opened the door to her home, flicking her tail in its general direction. “Okay. Flash? I’m exhausted from Fancy’s stupid errand, so I’m taking the rest of the day off. Fetch Lyra and bring her back here, then go stand in for me at the council building.”

“Okay, Councilor Shimmer.”

“You can contact me if its important, but—”

Octavia worked out what the councilor wanted quickly. Nudging Vinyl to make sure the unicorn followed, she trotted through the door while Councilor Shimmer spoke with her guard.

Her hooves clicked across the floor – even the floors here were infinitely nicer than the stained and scuffed linoleum she was used to – and Vinyl’s echoed right behind her.

“Do you suppose we can actually talk now?” the unicorn grumbled.

The door slammed shut as Councilor Shimmer came in. Her horn flared brightly as she dismissed the magic, then she sagged. “I’d rather you didn’t, but I don’t have the energy left to stop you anymore. Even with Fancy helping, maintaining that spell so long is a pain in the flank.”

The rumble of Octavia’s stomach interrupted the councilor’s grumbling. Her face reddened slightly, particularly under the inscrutable gaze of Councilor Shimmer and Vinyl’s amused grin. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

“While I wash the first tier’s filth off, feel free to eat. I assume at least one of you knows how to handle food that doesn’t come in a box?” She did not even wait for an answer as she continued, “Once Lyra gets here, I would like to speak with you and her. I’m sure Vinyl can find a way to entertain herself while the grown-up ponies talk.”

“I can prolly find some way to manage,” Vinyl said with a smile.

Octavia ground her teeth. The councilor reminded her more and more of Concerto by the moment. She had managed to avoid throttling him, but she was not sure she if she would be able to replicate that feat with Councilor Shimmer. “Thank you. Is there somewhere I could store my cello?”

“Sure. There’s a couple small guest rooms down the hall you two can use. Use separate rooms, please? Whatever bonding you two have been going through, I’d prefer you not do it on my beds.”

The blush on Octavia’s face deepened and she found an interesting floor tile to stare at, not at all willing to see whatever lewd expression Vinyl was making. She might not be able to avoid eliminating Councilor Shimmer at this rate. The rest of her life being spent mining on a distant asteroid had to be better than this.

“Oh, and please. Stay inside, don’t use any of your accounts on the network, and try not to mess my home up too much.”

Vinyl’s hoof on her back stopped her from snapping at the councilor as she started up the stairs. “Relax, Octavia. Shimmer’s an ass, but I think you’ve pushed her enough for one day. I think you seriously pissed her off when you forced her to bring me along.”

Octavia deflated, letting her breath out. “Dealing with you is the least of what she deserves. She may well be the rudest, most insufferable—”

“Like I said, Shimmer’s an ass. But she has a damn nice place, doesn’t she? And I bet she’s got some great stuff in her kitchen. Come on.”

Luckily, Vinyl did not seem to have much trouble navigating the labyrinthine interior of Councilor Shimmer’s home. To Octavia, the amount of space in the house was absolutely overwhelming. Each room – and there must have been nearly a dozen of them on this floor alone – could have comfortably fit two of Octavia’s units.

What really stung was that most of them looked like they were barely used. What was the point of taking up so much bloody space if you were not going to actually do anything with it? The kitchen was the worst part, though. She was sure that there was more food here than in entire shops near her housing block. And, of course, every single bit of it was fresh, green, and glistening.

Another surprise came as Vinyl proved herself quite adept in the kitchen. She had figured the unicorn was the type to eat out every night – probably junk only slightly better than what Octavia herself ate – but she actually seemed familiar with the various magitech devices arrayed on the steel counters.

“Is there anything I can do?” Even if the last time she had even considered cooking real food had been as a filly, she figured she could still lend Vinyl a helping hoof.

“Nah! I got this. Just a bit tricky trying to do it without magic, you know?”

Octavia stared at her for a long moment, but let it pass. It probably was a lot worse for somepony who normally had magic to take care of life’s tedious banalities. Like picking things up.

Octavia opted to let Vinyl handle the cooking herself, since she seemed to be enjoying herself. Besides, there was a certain sense of novelty in having a meal prepared and served to her by a unicorn. And, she had to admit, something about this little, domestic quality amused her. Somepony like Vinyl enjoying it while she loathed it just simply struck her as... uncharacteristic.

But it made sense in its own way. If she could afford appliances – or even actual, honest-to-Celestia food – to cook with, she might have learned to enjoy it too.

~~~~~

The meal did not amount to much more than a salad, but, even as she struggled with the third piece of lettuce that had escaped Vinyl’s ragged and desperate knife attacks, she felt it was a very nice salad. A little sweet, though.

It reminded her of the one she had tried at Crazy Horse, but, where that chef had simply used the fruit as an accoutrement, the unicorn had decided, between the salad and the dressing, to use what must have been every fruit Councilor Shimmer owned.

“It okay?” Vinyl said between mouthfuls.

“It is surprisingly good,” Octavia said.

“Surprisingly?” Vinyl quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Well, based on my experience with you, I assumed hayburgers and cider made up most of your diet.”

Vinyl shook her head in mock disappointment. “I’ll have you know my tastes are exceptionally refined. I only do the hayburger and cider thing every couple days.”

Octavia restrained a chuckle. “Where did you learn?”

“Here and there,” she responded, waving a hoof idly. After shovelling another mouthful of fruits and greens into her mouth she added, “You learn a lot of random bull running a club. Would you believe I also know how to manage finances, all the legal crap that goes into running a business, and how to make ponies fall in love with me?”

Octavia smiled, taking a much smaller bite. “No.”

“Ouch. Not even after I cooked you a nice dinner?”

“You did not technically cook anything, Vinyl.”

Before the unicorn could respond, Councilor Shimmer appeared in the doorway, flanked by a mint green unicorn that she did not immediately recognize. It did not take much of a jump to guess who it was, though. “Octavia, meet Lyra Heartstrings. She is our expert on that rock you found.”

She stood up, bowing slightly as she said, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Heartstrings. Thank you for everything you have done for us.”

“Yo, Lyra. Long time no see! Glad we got a hold of you!”

“Vinyl,” Lyra grunted. Her tone warmed substantially as she turned to Octavia and said, “You’re welcome. And the pleasure is all mine, I assure you.” She even offered a thin smile.

“Let’s go up to my study so we can talk,” Shimmer said. She must have caught the slight look of disappointment from Octavia, as she added, “You can finish eating later.”

“Stay here,” Vinyl said, pushing a still surprisingly full plate towards Octavia, “I’ll move. Makes more sense, I think. You got a console I can use, Shimmer? Don’t worry, I’m not gonna get on any of my accounts or anything.”

Shimmer gestured vaguely outside the kitchen. “You can use the one in the rec room. Down the hall, right by the guest bedrooms. I’m sure you can find it.” As Vinyl trotted past her, she added, “And I am dead serious! Do not use anything on the network associated with your name!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it, I got it.”

Octavia reseated herself at the table, surreptitiously taking a few of the choice morsels that Vinyl had left behind. As the two unicorns pulled up cushions at the table and sat, Octavia said, “To be clear, I have no intention of telling you where the stone is until I am sure you are helping us.”

“That’s not why I wanted to talk to you.” Shimmer looked over at Lyra who nodded. The councilor’s looked around the room before she finally sighed and said, “We think you might be able to help us with what we’re doing. Maybe.”

Octavia nearly choked on an orange slice. “What?”

“We think the stone you have is one of the Elements of Harmony, and Lyra thinks that you might be able to help us find the other five of them.”

Managing words proved too difficult under the circumstances, so Octavia opted to stick with stunned silence.

“I’m going to be frank with you. I don’t like this. Frankly, I’d rather take the stone and have you off the station and out of my mane as quick as I could, but Lyra is well read, overly educated, and she’s got more useless myths and stories crammed into her head than anypony else I know, so I’m willing to cede that she has something akin to expertise in this area.” Councilor Shimmer shrugged. “So, here we are.”

Two words finally came to mind. “Why me?”

Lyra cleared her throat and, after a slight nod from Councilor Shimmer, she started to talk. About Sombra’s plot to rule the Empire. About the Elements of Harmony. About how she thought they worked and how she thought they called out to each other.

And about how she thought Octavia was the Element of Loyalty.

“That… that’s ridiculous!” Octavia nearly shouted, her hooves hitting the table. It seemed so unfair that, just as she had finally come to grips with the situation, it somehow turned completely on its head. “You think I can help you scour the entire universe for legendary magical relics or, what, fight one of the councilors? All because some clumsy pegasus dropped a rock on me? I’m not an explorer! I’m not a fighter! I don’t even have magic! I’m a bloody musician!”

“Yet for some reason you keep doing stupid things to help a pony who, what, got you drunk and took you dancing? Either you are an absolute idiot or you have a severely overdeveloped sense of loyalty.” Councilor Shimmer didn’t give her the chance to retort before continuing, “Either way, let’s focus. I’m perfectly content to just take the stone and send you on your way. But if there’s any chance that you could actually help us get a leg up on Sombra, then I’m willing to give it a shot too.”

“And what exactly do you think I can do?”

Lyra managed to speak up before Councilor Shimmer did, “Has anything strange happened since you found the stone?”

“Yes!” Octavia snapped. “My life has gone straight to Tartarus!”

“Anything more specific?” Lyra asked patiently.

Octavia took a deep breath as she struggled to compose herself. No matter how stupid this sounded, being belligerent would not help matters. Still, the idea that she had anything to do with this rock... “I… I did have a weird dream the night I found the stone. There was a pegasus who told me…” She trailed off, hoping the memory that drifted up would change.

“Told you to...?” Lyra prompted.

“To make sure I didn’t lose the Element,” Octavia finished, all hopes of that being nothing more than a simple dream dissipating. “She called herself Rainbow Dash, I think?”

Lyra started. “Rainbow Dash?”

“I take it you know the name, Lyra?” the councilor asked.

“Sort of, yeah. I think she might have been the previous Element of Loyalty.” Her attention returned to Octavia as she continued, “Did she tell you anything else?”

“Just that we would talk again.”

Councilor Shimmer waved her hoof vaguely in the air. “Then I think we have an answer for what you can do. Find some way to talk to this pony again and get her to tell us where the rest of the Elements are.”

“And what if I don’t want anything to do with this mess?” Octavia asked.

“Then just give us the stone and we’ll send you on your way like we agreed.” Councilor Shimmer shrugged. “Either way works for me. Just make a choice. Sooner rather than later. I need to make plans for what we’re going to do next.”

Lyra cleared her throat. “Maybe you should give her a chance to think? Let her sleep on the decision? We are asking a lot of her right now.”

“Just a little,” Octavia mumbled, not quite under her breath. Both unicorns seemed to ignore it.

“Fine,” Councilor Shimmer said. She stood up, but her eyes never left Octavia’s. “You can give me your answer tomorrow. Do take some actual time to think about it, though. While I’m not exactly eager to bring some groundl— some earth pony fresh off the ramps into this, we don’t exactly have much in the way of options either.”

Octavia somehow managed to meet the councilor’s gaze levelly. “I’ll think about it.”

~~~~~

Octavia stalked back towards the promised guest rooms, struggling to control the anger building inside her. Councilor Shimmer represented everything she hated by unicorns: the casual sense of superiority, the unwarranted smugness, the way in which they thought that they were simply better than earth ponies because they had not been born with the gift of magic…

Every time Shimmer had taunted her or made some snide remark about Vinyl, she had wanted to ram her hoof down the mare’s throat. Then that arrogant, insolent, insufferable unicorn had the audacity to ask for her help like that?

It all seemed like a bad joke. Or maybe just a bad dream.

“Yo, Octavia! You done with Shimmer and Lyra already?”

Octavia nearly jumped. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she had not even noticed the open door or the open door beyond it. Vinyl was sprawled out on a large sofa, bathed in the pale light from a massive console screen, the noise of some network show or another barely audible in the silence. She nodded.

“Figured. You look pretty pissed, which is about how everypony looks after five minutes with Shimmer. Wanna come chill?”

“No, but thank you. I... need some time alone.”

The look of disappointment that crossed Vinyl’s face was obvious, but brief. “Oh. Well, no prob! I’ll be here for a while if you change your mind.”

Octavia offered the unicorn a forced smile and continued on, entering the guest room she had chosen and kicking the door shut behind her. All thoughts retreated as she flopped down on the bed – sinking far deeper into the soft, pillowy mattress than expected – and stared out the window opposite her.

Outside she could see the darkening dome and the brilliant and beautiful lights of Manehattan’s top tier. They didn’t allow garish neons or flickering fluorescent lights up here, just gentle, pure white lamps that lent the tier an ethereal quality.

It really looked like another world.

And, for all intents and purposes, she supposed it was. One that she did not belong in. Even the idea that something on the station could be worth looking at – let alone having a window to do so – seemed so alien. She had given up on the idea of ever belonging here, but now this world that had chewed her up and spit her out suddenly wanted her back because… because some idiot unicorns with too much time on their hooves thought a stupid magical rock wanted her to find a bunch of other stupid magical rocks.

And what did they offer her in return? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Buck that,” she mumbled. This mess had nothing to do with her. Councilor Sombra, Councilor Shimmer… In the end, what difference did it actually make to her?

She knew it was smarter to get up and try to clear her head, but she simply couldn’t find the energy to do so. Even her cello seemed to hold no appeal. All she wanted was this ridiculous day to end.

~~~~~

The Empire burned.

Beneath the domes of a half dozen stations, plasma fires raged out of control as the Council Guard marched across the ramps, herding hundreds of ponies before them. Some stations were less fortunate than others, the fires igniting the magic circuits that powered most of the city’s infrastructure and blowing out the sides of buildings.

She watched in horror as a few of the towering structures shuddered as they lost stability, eventually collapsing, bringing down the walkways and ramps along with them. It only took a few collapses to set off an irreversible chain reaction that ended with the entire station disappearing in a brilliant flash of light.

“I don’t know that that is what is going to happen,” Octavia growled.

“Hey,” Rainbow Dash said from somewhere behind her, “This is your dream, so don’t complain at me.”

“The Empire is not going to fall to pieces just because I refuse to get involved in some dispute between councilors. Death or slavery are not going to be the only choices. Bloody well nothing is going to change.”

“Again. Your dream, not mine, Octavia.”

The nightmarish image faded and gave way to the soft clouds and the endless azure that she remembered from last time. With a sigh, she glanced back at the pegasus behind her. “Are you real?” The question sounded ridiculous the moment it left her mouth. What sort of answer was she expecting?

“Real-ish, I guess? I don’t really know either,” the pegasus said with a shrug. “I’m pretty sure I wasn’t always the actual, literal, honest-to-Celestia Element of Loyalty, but my memory is a bit fuzzy on how exactly I got here.”

A frown crossed Octavia’s face. “Fuzzy?”

“Yeah.” The pegasus sat down next to her, stretching her wings idly. “I dunno, it’s like I can sorta remember my friends and using the Elements to save Equestria like a dozen times, but when I really try to think about what happened or how I ended up here, I just draw a blank.” Despite Octavia’s flat stare, she grinned. “Totally not helpful, I know.”

“So you really have no idea why you are… in the stone? Part of the stone?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Not really. Your best bet’d be talking to Twilight. If anypony knew what happened, it’d be my favorite egghead.”

“Is she another one of the Elements?”

“Yep!”

Octavia stared off into the unending blue, her mind drifting back to the images of the stations torn apart by fighting, of the Council Guard corralling ponies like property, of entire populations disappearing in a moment. She wanted to believe that the Elements didn’t matter and that nothing would change no matter what pony found them. But she knew that wasn’t true, and hated herself for not being able to believe it. “Do you know where to find the other Elements?”

“Not really. I’d guess Ponyville is a good place to start, though. It meant a lot to us.” For just a moment the pegasus’ voice turned wistful, but she smiled as she spoke up again, “Look, I know things are tough and it’d be easier to just run away, but from what I’ve seen? You’re the kind of pony that doesn’t run just because things are hard.”

Octavia grunted as she lay down on the cloud. “I am sick of being that pony, though. The only thing it ever seems to do is make my life worse.”

“Yeah, it sucks. But that’s who we are. And hey, it isn’t always bad, right?”

“No.” The cloud began to sag under her, signaling that this particular encounter was drawing to a close. “Ponyville, you said?”

Rainbow Dash flashed her a grin. “Yeah.”

The cloud gave way.

~~~~~

Vinyl stared at the console screen, idly humming along to the Power Ponies theme. It was nice to have access to the network again, even if she couldn’t do any of the things she actually wanted to. Things were probably fine at Crazy Horse – it wouldn’t be the first time she hadn’t come in for a couple days – but it was the first time a member of the Council Guard had actually taken a shot at her in the club. Checking in to make sure everypony was cool would be good.

She’d have to ask Shimmer if she could do anything later. But, for the moment, she’d have to settle for using the network to kill boredom. And what better way to do that than by watching a few old, cheesy, pulp network serials?

“Vinyl,” Lyra said from the doorway.

“Hey,” Vinyl said, not looking up at her.

The mare sighed and stepped into the room, her horn briefly lighting up to pause the video and flick the room’s lights on as she continued, “We need to talk.”

“Just you and me?”

“Shimmer preferred I talk to you alone. You irritate her.”

“I do my best.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “What will probably happen is that, in a day or two, we’ll turn you over to Commander Shining Armor to make a statement. If you get vetted through the city guard it will probably be too much of a hassle to bring you back. The story we’ll use is that you ended up stumbling up to find me after you got left at a clinic in the lower tiers. Then you’ll do a quick interview with one of the network sites and apologize for your own part in this mess. You’ll likely face a few fines, but, provided you play along, everything should be okay.”

“And Octavia?”

“We’ll take care of her.”

“Lyra…”

“Think for a second!” she snapped. “If you know what’s happening to Octavia, you’ll probably get drunk and blab it to the first pony you find. It’s safer for everypony if you don’t know anything else.”

Vinyl let Lyra’s snappishness slide. “Guess you’re right. You really don’t think Sombra’ll randomly arrest me?”

“Shimmer doesn’t think so. You’re lucky that club of yours is half as popular as it is. He already went on the network news sites and publicly apologized for Trixie’s antics, so, as long as we make sure ponies know you’re okay and back out there, he probably won’t bother.” She must have seen the change in Vinyl’s expression, as she quickly added, “But he might still try to talk with you. Or maybe he will just have you arrested anyway. Either way, best for Octavia that we don’t take any risks.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I am sure you’ll get on fine without needing to know how things go for her.”

That particular barb found its mark a little too easily. “Look, Lyra—”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Particularly not tonight.” The mare stifled a yawn and leaned against the room’s doorway. “Just thought I’d fill you in. So start practicing for the inquiry. It should be pretty cursory, but it’d be easier for everypony if you did it right.”

Vinyl stared at a spot on the doorway, unable to decide whether she wanted to be annoyed or apologetic. Time apparently did not heal all wounds. “Alright,” she eventually mumbled. “Anything else you need?”

“No. Just take it easy and don’t do anything stupid for a couple days, then Shimmer will kick you out when she’s ready.”

“Sounds good. Could you flick the lights back off and the vid back on before you go? Doc said I should avoid magic for a couple days, so…”

The lights turned off and the vid resumed as Lyra walked out.

“Thanks.”

~~~~~

Octavia groaned as she woke up, the brilliant light from the window cutting through the haze of sleep and directly into her retinas. The hundredth tier was entirely too bright. She could go to sleep or wake up at any time and it would be pitch black in her unit. Stuffing her head under a pillow did not help much, but it did allow her to endure the brilliance until she was ready to handle it. Unfortunately, no amount of lazing about in bed – no matter how delightfully comfortable it was – would make her ready for today.

It might not have been much of a life, but throwing it away because of a magic rock, a couple weird dreams, and the words of a pony she would sooner push off one of the ramps than spend another five minutes listening to was not at all appealing. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash had been right: she was not the sort of pony who could, in good conscience, leave things alone.

She might not have liked the Empire or the Unicorn Council, but it was her home and she happened to like some of the ponies that lived there.

Despite the pillowy embrace of the mattress, the smooth and cool silk sheets, and the perfect, climate-controlled air, she managed to extract herself from the bed with minimal fuss. She grunted as she stretched out, glad that the pain had faded to nothing more than a little residual stiffness.

All she needed now was the chance to wash the greasy feeling out of her coat, style her mane, and she would feel like a brand new mare. Being unable to shower for a few days was not the absolute end of the universe, but she hated feeling dirty. It would have been nice if Hooves had had a proper shower...

Her face warmed a little as she considered that she had spent an entire night sleeping next to Vinyl looking like this. Not that the unicorn had looked much better, now that Octavia thought about it, but still.

Unfortunately, nothing could be done about it now. The best she could do is ask Councilor Shimmer where her bathing room was, get cleaned up, and then forget about having a normal life. She doubted being clean would do much to improve her standing with the councilor, but to Tartarus with her and her opinions.

Stepping out of the room, she started down the hallway and paused at the rec room, where the door still hung halfway open. She peeked her head in, curious if Vinyl had actually gotten up before her, but found that the unicorn was actually sleeping peacefully on the sofa with some network vid or another still playing quietly on the console.

She briefly considered stepping in and turning the screen off, but decided against it. Vinyl looked too peaceful to risk disturbing. She did opt to shut the door though. If Vinyl wanted to sleep in, then she should sleep in. It was not as if anything from this point forward really needed to concern the mare. Provided Councilor Shimmer held up her end of the deal, it would just be a matter of time until Vinyl could forget all about this mess, forget about Octavia, go back to her club, and…

Octavia sighed, walking to the kitchen. To her surprise, the councilor was sitting at the table, studying a tablet while she levitated a steaming mug in front of her muzzle.

She did not look up as Octavia entered, instead taking a sip from the mug before asking, “Did you make a decision?”

“Is that coffee?” Octavia asked.

“Yes. The dispenser is on the wall. Just hit the button. Be careful, because it is much stronger than instant mixes.” After a moment she added, “And if you want to clean yourself up, the bathing room is just down that hall.”

“Thank you,” Octavia said, pressing the button a little harder than needed as she glared at the inattentive unicorn. She had wanted to know that, but something about Councilor Shimmer’s tone set her on edge.

Probably the implication that Octavia did not know she was a mess.

Moving the mug to the table took a little effort – it had not been designed with earth ponies in mind – but she managed without spilling or burning herself. “I decided I will work with you as the Element of Loyalty.”

Councilor Shimmer looked up from her tablet. “You do understand that, if you do this, you aren’t going to be getting to stay here in my apartment and freeload, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you do realize that you might end up spending the rest of your life in Everfree or worse?”

“Yes.” Her answer was a little more curt that time.

“And you get that, once you’re in, there’s no way out? I can toss you off to another station easily enough right now, but if you start actually playing these games against Sombra—”

“Yes! I get it!” Octavia snapped, bringing a hoof down on the table. Coffee sloshed over the edge of her mug. “Is there a particular reason you are trying to talk me out of this now?”

Councilor Shimmer shrugged, taking a sip from her mug. “I’m trying to make sure you’re sure, because, frankly, only an idiot would want to get involved in this.”

“Then let me make this as clear as I can: I dislike you, Councilor Shimmer. I think you – and most unicorns, really – are insufferable, arrogant, and just plain unlikable. But that does not mean that there could not be worse ponies ruling the Empire.” She knew it was stupid to actually say all this to the councilor’s face, but she needed to show Shimmer that she would tolerate being pushed around like this. “Besides, maybe I can help make the Empire a better place with this power.”

To her surprise, Councilor Shimmer seemed nonplussed, simply taking another sip from her mug. “Alright. Do you have any idea where we should be looking, then?”

“Ponyville Station,” Octavia said, finding some perverse pleasure in the fact that that answer actually caught Councilor Shimmer off-guard. “I spoke with Rainbow Dash last night. She is not sure exactly sure where the other Elements are, but she does think that Ponyville Station is the right place to start looking.”

Councilor Shimmer finally lowered her mug to the table. “Well, I suppose it’s better than feeding off the scraps of Sombra’s investigation. Getting the Element of Loyalty first was fortunate, and I doubt he’ll let us get that lucky again.” She slid out of her chair and levitated the tablet into the air as she continued, “If that’s the case, I will arrange for a shuttle to take you to Ponyville Station in a couple days. Until then, I suppose you can make yourself at home. Don’t make a mess, don’t be stupid, don’t go outside, and don’t let Vinyl do anything stupid.” Seemingly as an afterthought, she added, “In fact, don’t tell that idiot about any of this. The Elements, you working with us, Ponyville Station… any of it. The less she can accidentally blab when she gets drunk or bored, the better.”

Chapter 7 - Departure

Octavia stretched out on the couch, resting her head on one of the multitude of pillows that Vinyl had collected in the rec room over the past few days. Getting up and tuning her cello would be the appropriate way to spend her time, but...

“Okay, this part? Seriously great.” Vinyl said, nudging her and pointing at the screen. “I’m not kidding! Pay attention, ‘cause this was the best scene in the run!”

Octavia smiled and refocused on the screen as one of the ponies – Matterhorn, if she remembered the impromptu lecture Vinyl had given correctly – launched into a soliloquy while using her magic to coat the room around her in ice as a bomb sat on the floor and ticked ominously.

“So what if I die here? Sometimes protecting the ponies we care about means paying the ultimate price! And you know what? I’m fine with that! Our legacy is the memory we leave behind and the feelings that we etch into the hearts of other ponies! No matter what happens, my spirit will live on through everypony who believed in me!“

The bomb politely waited until the end of her speech to detonate, the ice walls containing the brunt of the blast. Unfortunately, that probably did not do much for the unlucky Matterhorn.

“That speech gets me everytime,” Vinyl said with a faux sniffle. “Of course, she comes back in the third run, so it kinda reduces the impact of the whole heroic death thing, but hey. Still cool. And the group’s chemistry kinda sucked without her anyway.” The unicorn grinned brightly at her. “Oh! You know I based my first hit track on this episode?”

“You did?”

“Yeah. Lemme find it on the network, hang on.”

Councilor Shimmer stepped into the room, her face bearing an uncharacteristic smile as she seized control of the console with her magic.

“Hey! Hold on a minute!”

Vinyl’s protest was lost as Shimmer simply spoke over her, “I am happy to announce that, at long last, it is time for you to go, Vinyl.

Vinyl faltered. “Huh?”

The councilor sighed. “I thought Lyra already explained this to you. You give a statement to Shining Armor to clear up what happened, go get interviewed by some gossip hungry reporter so ponies know you’re alive and Sombra can’t make you disappear quite so easily—”

“She did, she did,” Vinyl interrupted, weathering Councilor Shimmer’s glare. After stealing a quick glance at Octavia, she continued, “I just sorta expected a bit more warning than that, you know?”

Octavia cut in before Shimmer could speak up, “Could we have a few moments, please?”

Rolling her eyes, Councilor Shimmer turned around and started out the door. “Fine. Make it quick? He’s handling your case personally as a favor, and I’d rather not keep him waiting.”

The two ponies, left alone, sat in silence, staring at the console’s frozen screen.

“Well, guess I gotta get going, huh?” Vinyl asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Yes.” Octavia had also expected a little bit of warning. Silence overtook them again. “Do you think you will be okay?”

Vinyl smiled faintly and shrugged. “Prolly. Things always work out okay for me. Advantages of being awesome and all. How about you? You think Shimmer’s gonna find you a new place to crash soon?”

Octavia hesitated, staring at the unicorn. Vinyl, I’m not going into hiding. Since I am an idiot, I agreed to help Councilor Shimmer find the other Elements of Harmony. I know we have only known each other for a few days – and you spent the majority of them concussed – but I was hoping: could you possibly throw away your home, your business, your art, and your future to come join me? was what she did not say. She settled for saying, “Hopefully.”

“This is gonna sound pretty dumb, but, despite the injuries, the near arrest, and being forced to spend a few days under the same roof as Shimmer, I’ve had fun. I’m glad you came over to my unit and threatened to choke me.”

“And I am glad you were too incompetent to maintain the spell that kept you from enraging every single pony living on the same housing block as you,” Octavia responded with a smile. “I really am. I do not think I could have handled these last few days without your immature and overly lax attitude.”

Octavia had expected the unicorn to feign indignation, but, to her surprise, Vinyl remained silent, her face reddening. The blush deepened when she realized that Octavia had noticed it. “Gonna need to get a new pair of shades,” she mumbled, finally moving towards the door. “Just lay low and stay safe ‘til this whole mess blows over, okay?”

Octavia hesitated for a long moment, that speech still sitting at the tip of her tongue. “I will.”

~~~~~

Octavia’s bow sawed across the cello’s strings, filling the guest room with music. Or, at least, something resembling music. Despite her best efforts, the bow seemed to have a mind of its own, repeatedly slipping and destroying the fragile melody with discordant tones.

Disgust overwhelming her, she threw the bow on the bed. Focusing seemed impossible. She had grown used to the idea that ponies did not really care about her music, that the money she earned on the ramps would likely have been given to anypony doing anything. The only relevance that her music held was to her and that had been enough, but Vinyl laying idly about and listening had, unfortunately, reminded her of something she had forgotten. Or maybe something that she had just willfully ignored.

A song was not complete until somepony heard it, and a musician without an audience was nothing.

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” she said, leaning the instrument against a wall before dropping back down to all four hooves. To her surprise, the pony that entered was not Councilor Shimmer, but Lyra.

The unicorn offered her a wan smile. “Good afternoon. I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing while Shimmer was out.”

“I am surviving,” Octavia said. “For now, at least.”

“We plan to keep it that way. Trust me, we don’t want anything bad happening to you.”

“Yet.” Octavia sighed, shaking her head. “Please excuse me, but I am a little stressed and it is making me feel belligerent. Is Councilor Shimmer always so…” she trailed off, struggling to think of a polite description, “Off-putting?”

“No. She’s usually worse.” Octavia had expected Lyra to smile or otherwise indicate that she had been joking, but the unicorn’s expression remained flat. “Look, I understand that Shimmer is completely intolerable sometimes, but she’s an absolute princess compared to that megalomaniacal ass, Sombra. If one of those two ponies has to end up with the Elements, she’s the better choice.”

“I don’t suppose you already know where at least some of the other Elements are?”

Lyra shook her head. “No. Unfortunately, your guess is probably better than mine at this point. But I would be happy to answer any questions I can. I suspect, with Vinyl out of the way, she’s planning to move you soon too.”

Octavia had not considered that, but it made sense. The councilor seemed to like moving quickly; it is hard for somepony to catch up when you keep moving. “Do you know much about what she’s planning?”

“Aside from praying that I’m right and that you can find the other Elements? No.” Lyra took a deep breath as she sat on the floor, then continued, “I suspect she’ll provide an escort to make sure you stay out of trouble while you’re off the station, as well as keep her informed of whatever’s going on. As long as you look busy and don’t cause trouble, she’ll probably let you remain mostly autonomous.”

“Is it going to be you?”

“I doubt it. Shimmer knows that I’m not particularly thrilled with the idea of either her or Sombra getting the Elements. Letting me spend too much time with you is basically asking for trouble, from her point of view.”

“Do you know how the Elements work?” Octavia asked, changing tracks abruptly. That line of conversation was not making her feel much better about the choice she had made.

“I think they draw power from some sort of universal, abstract concept, allowing ponies to harness power way beyond what they’d normally be able to. Where the energy comes from is anypony’s guess, but…” she trailed off as Octava stared vacantly at her. ”If you’re asking me if I know how to make the stone work, I don’t have a clue either. None of the stories I’ve read ever went into detail about the exact mechanics. The ponies needed the Elements to work, so they worked.” She must have caught the look of annoyance that crossed Octavia’s face, as she added, “Sorry. Up until a couple days ago, I thought they were just legends. I’ve been working my flank off to learn what I can, but the Elements don’t have instruction manual. At least, not that I’ve found.”

Octavia sighed, sinking to the floor. Of course getting actual answers would have been too easy. It only made sense that she had access to a magical item of legendary power and absolutely no way to use it.

“The only thing I know for sure is that the Elements are strongest when they’re all together. That is one-hundred percent consistent between every story: the true power of the Elements only appears when all six are united.” She stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. “If I’m right about them being magical amplifiers, it might not even be possible for an earth pony to use just one of the Elements. No offense, of course.”

“Of course,” Octavie echoed dully. She chose not to ask Lyra if she actually had any useful information. The unicorn was trying her best, and blaming her for that felt unfair. “Will the other Elements look like mine?”

“They should, although the designs will be different. I’ll make sure I get you images of what I think they’ll look like.”

“And what about the ponies they belong to?”

“Just worry about the actual, physical Elements first. If I’m right, the stones will be drawn to the right ponies. Or maybe it’s the other way around?” She hesitated for a moment, her gaze dropping to the floor as she lapsed into silence. A small noise from Octavia caused her to refocus, continuing, “I guess it doesn’t really matter which way it works. Just worry about the stones. It’ll keep Shimmer happy and prevent Sombra from getting them.”

Both ponies started as the door was shoved open and Shimmer entered, levitating a bag in front of her. She started to speak, but stopped short when she noticed Lyra. “Oh. I thought I’d have to call you in. How convenient.”

“Did everything go all right with Vinyl?” Octavia asked. For just a moment, Lyra seemed to perk up.

“I did everything I could,” Councilor Shimmer said dismissively.

Octavia narrowed her eyes and sat up.

“Look, I opened all the necessary doors for her. If she screws it up, that’s on her.” She dropped the bag on the floor in front of Octavia. “Let’s forget about your marefriend for the moment and focus on more important things, okay?”

Biting back a retort, Octavia nodded.

Councilor Shimmer levitated a number of items of the bag as she spoke, “The shuttle I’ve arranged for you should be arriving sometime tonight. You’ll be boarding and departing for Ponyville station as soon as it gets here. My guard, Flash, will be accompanying you.”

Lyra offered a knowing smile from behind the councilor.

“I’ve got a new BitCard for you and I’ve hooked the account up with fifty-thousands bits or so. Try not to waste them. I’m not going to—”

“I won’t,” Octavia interrupted. The best part of the last few days had been the fact that Shimmer had spent most of them working. “What else?”

The councilor’s eyes narrowed, but she continued, “I also got you a tablet so you can keep me updated on your progress. I’ve already loaded it with all the software you’ll need.” As she set the device on the ground in front of Octavia she added, “You do know how to use a console, right?”

“A little. I use public terminals every once in a while.”

Shimmer sighed. “I will have to have Flash teach you then. Here are the basics: don’t drop or lose it. Most tablets are pretty fragile, and this one is quite expensive to replace.”

“Of course,” Octavia said, trying not to let too much exasperation creep into her voice. “Is there anything else I should know before you throw me to the wolves?”

“No. I’ll let you know when the shuttle is expected.” She offered a faint smile at Lyra. “And remember, we’re all in this together. We agree that Sombra shouldn’t have the Elements, so let’s cooperate long enough to finish that much.”

Octavia snorted as the councilor walked out of the room. “It might be easier to do that if you were not such a condescending ass,” she muttered.

“It really would be,” Lyra said. “But what can we do? The enemy of my enemy is my ally, as the saying goes.”

Looking at the floor, Octavia could feel her cheeks start to warm. She had not meant to say that out loud.

“I suppose I should make sure I get you those files before you have to leave.” The unicorn yawned and stretched out. “I’ll send you everything I know and highlight all the important bits for you. I’ll also provide you my network address so that, if you have any other questions, you can send them directly to me to be answered.”

Octavia smiled tiredly. “Will the answers be any better than the ones you had earlier?”

“Probably not,” Lyra grunted, glaring at her.

“Sorry. That was meant to be a joke. I understand that you are trying your best, and really do appreciate it.”

“Oh.” Lyra rubbed at her eyes with her foreleg and yawned. “I have not slept nearly enough in the last few days, so my sense of humor is missing.”

“I know the feeling.” Octavia let out a deep breath. For better or for worse, this was the choice she had made, and now she would have to live with it. Or not, as the circumstances might well turn out. “I know it’s asking a lot, but do you think it would be possible for you to do me a little favor?”

~~~~~

Lyra sighed as she adjusted her bite on the package. The idea of being back at her unit and curling up in bed sounded so much more pleasant than fighting her way through the evening crowds at the Eon’s Square Arcade, but this is what she got for agreeing to a favor before hearing it out.

Anyway, she thought glumly, it might well be that poor mare’s last request.

She shook her head as a few ponies shoved past her, cursing the melodramatic turn her mind had taken. Between erratic sleep, endless intrigue, and magical visions, she felt like she was living out one of Vinyl’s stupid pulp vids.

Thank Celestia that was where the similarities ended.

Life on the run wasn’t for her. Just surviving her removal from the Council had been hard enough, and she imagined that coffee and energy drinks were way harder to come by while dodging guards and hiding out. She wished Octavia all the luck in the world, but couldn’t silence the little voice in the back of her head saying, Better you than me. The visions might have been annoying, but at least she could have them from the comfort of her home until she figured out why she was having them.

For the moment, though, she would just head home, have a bite to eat, and figure out when she felt enough like seeing Vinyl again to drop the package off. Lyra snorted. Something to repay Vinyl’s kindness. The mare gets access to more money than she’s probably ever seen and the first thing she—

Kindness. A yellow pegasus with a butterfly cutie mark.

Lyra stopped dead in her tracks, causing a pony to run into her.

“Oh buck me,” she muttered, ignoring the glares. It could not possibly be that simple. It really couldn’t. But “kind” was always a description that had fit Vinyl well, and it did fit her theory that the Elements would be drawn towards each other. Besides, a pony like Octavia associating with – let alone enjoying the company of – somepony like Vinyl seemed unlikely without magical intervention.

Her teeth tightened around the straps of the bag, her mind racing. If Vinyl really was the Element of Kindness, what was should she do with that information? Tell Shimmer? Probably not. While she was right that they should be working together, the ultimate fact was that, if the Elements were really as powerful as the legends claimed, she really didn’t want Shimmer to have them either. Her and Sombra were cast from the exact same mold.

The Elements belong together.

That’s what she’d told Octavia, and she still believed it, but this was a wild guess at best. Of course, Octavia being the Element of Loyalty had been a wild guess too. But what kind of pony would she be to encourage Vinyl to join this suicidal endeavor even?

Or to saddle Octavia with that moron, for that matter?

A bad one, obviously. But if there was one thing she had learned from Shimmer and Sombra, it was that sometimes being a bad pony was the only way to get things done. And if the Elements really belonged together and not in the hooves of megalomaniacal, manipulative jerks, then she had a responsibility to do something about it.

Even if it meant throwing a former friend right back to the wolves.

~~~~~

Vinyl sighed and stared up at the ceiling of her unit, the light of her console screen dimly illuminating the room while her speakers filled it with the hum of a deep bassline. It was good to be home.

Or, at least, it should’ve been.

The sorta distant feeling that’d taken over when she’d been auto-piloting through the interrogation and interview had stuck around, leaving her without the energy to do anything. She’d dropped by Crazy Horse long enough to let them know she was alive, but it turned out Neon had things completely under control.

She’d done a good job training the staff: it hadn’t even mattered that she’d be gone.

She flattened her ears as the sound of a hoof hammering on her door somehow managed to trump her music. The sound dampening spell was definitely in place, the tabloids probably wouldn’t come by her home and knock this late, and if the Council Guard wanted to arrest her it didn’t make much sense to open the door and make it easy on them, so she had absolutely no reason to get up and open the door. She rolled over.

The knocking repeated and was joined by the muffled sound of Lyra’s voice. She sat up on the bed, her magic silencing the console, flicking the lights on, and unlocking the door in rapid succession. “Come on in.” As Lyra entered, she added, “Yo, Lyra. What brings you down here?”

The bag would have hit her right in the snout if she hadn’t caught it.

“Uh… thanks, I guess? Presents are cool, but what’s the occasion?”

“Octavia wanted to do something to thank you for helping her out before she left. And since she couldn’t very well bring it down her herself, she asked me to do it.”

“Oh.” She turned the little package over and over in her hooves. “Well, tell her thanks for me.”

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to. She’s leaving the station tonight. For all I know, she’s already gone.”

“Oh.” Vinyl sighed, setting the package on the bed. “Anything else, then?”

“You’re ridiculous, you know that Vinyl?”

“Huh?”

“You’re upset because… why? You liked hanging out in a nice unit again? You thought it was exciting to be on the run? Or was it because you liked pretending you had a friend again.”

Vinyl glared at the mare. “I’m getting real sick of ponies talking bull about me. If that’s all you wanted to do, then just buck off, okay?”

Lyra sat down near the door and shrugged. “Guess Octavia wasn’t that different from me or Trixie or Bons, huh? A friend so long as it’s fun and convenient for you, but you bail the first chance you get.”

“What the buck are you talking about, Lyra? You and Shimmer were the ones who bucking told me to leave. Octavia’s gotta go lay low for a while. I’m not gonna be much good for that. This—”

“You really couldn’t tell that something was up?” Lyra asked. “You’re just a oblivious as ever, too.” Before Vinyl could get another word in, she continued, “Octavia isn’t going into hiding: she’s working with Shimmer. They’re going to try and find the Elements of Harmony before Sombra.”

Vinyl stared at her, her muzzle hanging open. “I… What? What’re you talking about?”

“Just what I said. Shimmer thinks Octavia has a connection to the Elements and that she’ll be useful for finding them. Octavia agreed, so she’s headed to Ponyville Station tonight. Alone.”

Vinyl’s shoulders twitched in something like a shrug as she stared at the floor. “Well? I mean, if she wanted my help she could have—”

“She could have what, Vinyl? Said, ‘Hey, wanna throw your life away and come join me on a stupidly dangerous mission, despite only knowing me a couple days?’ I could see you doing something like that, but she actually thinks about other ponies.”

Vinyl went quiet. It was true: asking her something like that would’ve been insane. Octavia’d been amazed that she’d done something as simple as not ratting her out to Trixie, and even then, when Vinyl really thought about it, she hadn’t thought of it as a big deal. Neither Guard had ever given her much trouble, and they’d certainly never taken a shot at her before. “Why’re you telling me this?”

“She needs somepony to help her, and right now? You’re pretty much the only pony in the universe who might actually care about her welfare. Shimmer will just use her until she’s not useful anymore, Sombra will get whatever information he needs out of her and that’ll be that, Fancy Pants is just letting Shimmer run the show, and, honestly? I’m happy as long as Sombra loses out.”

Somehow, Vinyl just couldn’t muster up much anger at Lyra’s claims.

“I don’t really care what you do, but I figured you’d appreciate the chance to not let somepony down for once.”

“Just get out,” Vinyl mumbled without looking up.

Standing up, Lyra shrugged again and headed for the door. After a moment, she added, “It was good to see you again, Vinyl.”

“Back at you.”

The click of the door was swallowed by the silence filling the room.

Vinyl sighed, dropping back down onto the bed, her hoof hitting the bag that Lyra had brought. Tearing it open with magic was no problem, and the box inside was similarly easy to open without needing to move.

A pair of shades sat on a pile of tissue paper. The frames were nearly a perfect copy of the ones she’d lost back at the club. The lenses were a different color though. Rather than the familiar purple, the new ones were almost a perfect match for her eyes.

“Damn.”

~~~~~

Octavia glanced nervously from side to side as she trotted down the catwalk towards the space docks. It was bad enough being out in the middle of the night – too many years living in the station’s lower tiers had made being out late a worrying prospect – but the dress that Shimmer had lent her added to the discomfort. It concealed her cutie mark well enough and helped make her coat harder to identify at a glance, but it was too tight in all the wrong places.

“Don’t look so worried,” Flash said. “Ponies assume you’re up to no good when you seem nervous. Just trot around like you own the place and you’ll be fine.”

“I am trying.”

“Well, try harder.”

She glared at the guard.

“That’s more like it,” he said, smiling at her. “That’s the exact look Councilor Shimmer uses to shut ponies up when they question her. Master something like that, and you can get away with anything.”

“That is not a very flattering thing to say about your boss.”

Flash laughed, but she heard an edge to it. “Anyway, there’s no reason to worry. You’ve got me here if there are any problems.”

“Does she really now?” came a voice from behind them.

Octavia stiffened. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t possibly be.

Flash turned, offering a faint smile. “Oh! Commander Lulamoon! Out for a late night walk? I’d love to chat, but I’m sort of busy right now.” He jerked his head meaningfully toward Octavia.

She noted, with relief, that aside from the crimson clasp around her neck, Commander Lulamoon seemed bereft of her Council Guard regalia. This was probably just an unhappy coincidence.

Maybe.

Possibly.

The smile the commander returned to Flash was equally distant. “Trixie noticed, but Trixie must ask: what are you doing with this groundling?”

“I was asked to escort her to the shuttle docks.” He sighed and shrugged. “You know how the councilors can be, I’m sure. Go investigate this, go interrogate that, get me lunch, get me coffee, etcetera, etcetera. I swear, Councilor Shimmer would have me cleaning her home and doing her laundry if she could fit it into my schedule.”

“Trixie understands. Her work is never done, so far as the council is concerned. Why, they even force her to work during her time off! Did you know that Sombra made her spend the last several days staking out Councilor Shimmer’s residence?”

Flash glanced at Octavia out of the corner of his eye. “You do know that a fight here would be a really bad idea, right Commander Lulamoon? You’re looking a bit like a civilian right now, and I’m here on a councilor’s business. You wouldn’t want to embarrass Sombra again, would you?”

“That would only happen if somepony found out.”

It only took an instant for Flash to close the gap between the two of them, a hoof upraised and its metallic hoof guard crackling with electricity. Unfortunately for him, Trixie was ready for him. The blast of raw magical force that took him in the chest dwarfed the one that had incapacitated Vinyl, lifting him off his hooves and throwing him against the railing.

Then through the railing.

Octavia ran. Or, at least, she tried to. Something frigid and crimson wrapped itself around her and threw her heavily to the ground. Her cello case absorbed the worst of the impact, but it still knocked the air out of her.

“Not this time, groundling,” Trixie growled, walking towards her. “Trixie is still quite upset about the way you humiliated her, but, luckily for you, Trixie is a forgiving pony.” She smiled grimly and added, “Also, Sombra would toss Trixie out an airlock if she didn’t bring you back alive.”

“Lucky me,” Octavia grunted, trying to push herself up again. She had almost gotten her hooves under her when Trixie’s magic threw her back to the ground, the world starting to spin as her head bounced off the metal of the ramp.

“There are a lot of states that Trixie believes would still qualify as ‘alive,’ so do not try her patience.” Almost as an afterthought, she prodded Octavia with her own metal-shod hoof.

The world went white for Octavia as electricity arced through her, stripping her of any desire to try moving again.

“See? Now as long as you stay down, Trixie won’t have to do that again.”

As she struggled to breathe, Octavia opted to stay silent. Everything she wanted to say would probably earn her another shock.

Commander Lulamoon sighed. “Trixie doesn’t suppose that, once you are able to feel your hooves again, you would be willing to simply walk with her? Having to carry you feels like a waste of her talents.”

Octavia made a noncommittal noise. Stalling seemed like the only option. Maybe Flash was okay and would swoop back in to kick the bloody unicorn in the head. Then again, based on how he went through that railing and off the edge of the tier, Princess Celestia appearing and banishing Commander Lulamoon to a distant moon seemed like the more realistic hope.

“Trixie really does not have all night, little groundling. Either stand up, or Trixie will—”

“You won’t do a bucking thing, Trixie,” came the voice of Vinyl.

That was an option Octavia had not considered. It was also one that made the situation even worse. She tried to crane her neck to see around Commander Lulamoon, but her muscles refused to cooperate.

“I was headed up to the docks and saw a giant magic blast and thought ‘That looks like the spell Trixie hammered me with at Crazy Horse,” the mare said, trotting closer, “And hey, looks like I nailed it.”

“Vinyl, don’t—” Octavia managed, but Trixie’s hoof slammed onto the metal just a centimeter from her snout, silencing her.

“Shut up, groundling.”

There was a noticeable change to the set of Vinyl’s stance that Octavia desperately wished she wasn’t making. Thoughts of Vinyl and the way Commander Lulamoon had casually dispatched Flash overlapped unpleasantly in her head. “Vin—”

“You don’t need to say anything, Tavi,” she interrupted. “Don’t worry. Trixie’s too much of a coward to mess with another unicorn.”

Commander Lulamoon laughed. “Really? You think Trixie is scared of you? A third-rate unicorn who only made it through the Celestial Academy because her mom and dad paid her way through it?”

“Can still kick your flank.”

“That’s funny, Vinyl. If Trixie recalls, the only reason you are even here right now is because this little groundling saved you. Trixie completely negated that pitiful spell of yours and then—”

“Blah, blah, blah.” Vinyl waved a hoof dismissively. “I was tired, I’d used up most of my magic, and I was a bit drunk. So yeah, congrats, you whooped me when I was totally out of it. Go you.”

“You really want to challenge the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

Vinyl grinned. Or, perhaps more accurately, her mouth made the shape of a grin. Her rigid posture and the slight shaking of her legs indicated something else entirely.

“Fine. It will be your funeral.” Commander Lulamoon wrapped her magic around Octavia again, sliding her aside like a heap of rubbish.

Octavia could barely think over the frantic pounding of her heart. She had what was supposed to be one of the most powerful magical relics in the universe in her case, but the best she could do was watch in numb horror as Vinyl got herself killed.

“Now then, Vinyl. Show Trixie what you’ve got.” The crimson blast Trixie unleashed was small and slow compared to the one she had used against Flash, but Vinyl still only barely managed to scramble out of the way as the blast tore another railing in half. “Come now, Vinyl. Trixie thought you were going to kick her flank.”

“Yeah, I am!” Vinyl’s magic wrapped around the commander and dispersed almost instantly.

“Really? Trixie has seen foals with stronger levitation.” She sighed, and shook her head. “She cannot believe she used to be friends with such a pitiful unicorn.”

“You’ll change your tune after you see this trick,” Vinyl growled, the dispersed magic condensing into a number of hoof-sized, glowing spheres that floated above the catwalk. They bathed the walkway in kaleidoscopic light and, as far as Octavia could tell, did absolutely nothing else.

“What’s this?” Trixie asked, temporarily delaying her retaliatory strike.

“Awesome, aren’t they? I’ve used them to make some pretty sick light shows in the past.”

Commander Lulamoon deflated, the magic gathered around her horn fading, and glanced back at Octavia. “Do you know if she suffered brain damage? Trixie doesn’t think she put that much force into her spell.”

“Go buck yourself,” Octavia snarled, finally managing to get a leg under herself again. Now she just needed to find the strength to stand. And figure out how to beat one of the strongest unicorns in the Empire.

“Take it easy, Tavi. I still got this. Gotta pay you back for the new shades.” The unicorn grinned madly. “I’ll give you one chance to apologize and walk away, Trixie. Take it, or I’m gonna make you sorry you ever laid a hoof on Tavi.”

The crimson magic swirled around Trixie’s horn again, darkening as she gathered it. “I have had enough of you, Vinyl.”

One of the orbs turned white.

Octavia closed her eyes just in time, the orb exploding with a cacophonous blast of sound and a blinding flash that burned through her eyelids. The second blast was much quieter – hopefully not because the first one had deafened her – though just as bright, as was the third, the fourth, and the fifth detonation.

“Yo, Tavi, can you walk? ‘Cause we should move. Like, now,” Vinyl said, though it was a bit hard to make out over the ringing in her ears.

“Maybe. Can you help me up?”

“No time for maybes,” Vinyl said, her horn glowing.

Octavia started as the warm glow enveloped her and lifted her off the ground.

“Sweet Luna,” Vinyl grunted, “You and that case are heavy. Not that I think you’re fat or—”

“Not the time! Just support me, okay?” Octavia growled, dropping a hoof around the mare’s shoulder. “I think I can manage if you help.”

“Gotcha, gotcha.” Behind them Trixie made an indistinct sound, to which Vinyl responded by detonating another of the spheres. For just an instant, Octavia caught a faint glimmer of blue in the air as the muffled roar rolled over them. “Which dock are we looking for?”

“Six-hundred twenty-four.”

It was neither the swiftest nor most elegant escape as the pair hobbled along the ramps, pointedly avoiding anypony who seemed to be heading for the source of all the disturbance, but it got them to the right dock ahead of Commander Lulamoon or any other apparent sign of pursuit.

“I-is this it?” Vinyl gasped, trying to catch her breath as she gestured at a small, grey shuttle parked at the dock.

“It says Drifter on the side, right?” The shuttle looked like one of the cheap charter shuttles poor ponies used when they needed to travel: old, boxy, worn, scuffed, scratched, and stuck together with metal patches and tape. It would certainly look like it belonged on one of the more distant agricultural stations.

“Uh… yeah, I think. It’s, uh… it’s mostly scraped off but it might say that.”

The two dodged past ponies as they approached the boarding ramp. There was that, at least. It did not matter whether it was day or night: ponies always needed to use the docks. Even if Commander Lulamoon caught up, she probably wouldn’t try to kill them right here. At the very least, she would get in trouble if she tried.

“Yo!” Vinyl shouted up the ramp, “You’re here for passengers, right?”

“One second, one second!” came a voice from inside the ship. A moment later, a pegasus stepped out onto the ramp, smiling warmly.

It only took a second of incredulous recollection for Octavia to recognize that grey coat and the wall-eye, but she let it pass.

“Captain Ditzy Do, at your service!” She paused, finally noticing the pair. “Oh! You’re that mare I dropped all those boxes on! Wow, small universe, huh?”

“We can talk about that later. We need to leave. Right now.”

The pegasus stared at the pair of them, perhaps finally registering the fact that both ponies looked on the verge of collapse. “Sure! But wasn’t Flash supposed to be coming with you?”

“He will not be coming.”

The pegasus’ brow creased, the cheerful smile dropping away. “Is he okay?”

“I don’t know!” Octavia snapped. “But I do know we’re not going to be if we wait around here!”

Vinyl smiled weakly. “We really need to leave. The Council Guard is gonna have some really awkward questions to ask us if we don’t hustle.”

Barely a second passed before the pegasus’ face brightened again. “Okay! Come on, I’ll get the ship prepped to launch.”

The two of them followed the pegasus up the boarding ramp, past a small cargo bay, through the shuttle’s main corridor, and up to the cockpit. The pegasus gestured at a row of benches along the walls, indicating they should seat themselves, before stepping across the boundaries of the control ring.

Octavia gratefully collapsed onto one, with Vinyl following suit. It was not very comfortable, but it beat trying to stand.

The array of panels – most of them, at least – and the control ring itself lit up after a moment. Stretching her wings, she pressed a button on the panel in front of her. “Manehattan Station dock, this is the Drifter, registration DRP-467954. I am requesting clearance to depart immediately.”

The voice that returned over the radio was rough and garbled, but slamming her hoof on the control panel cleared it up, “...repeat, we have been asked to hold all departures at this time. We will provide clearance to depart as soon as we are able.”

Octavia hit the wall with the back of her head.

Ditzy glanced back at them. “Don’t worry! I know how to handle this sort of thing.” Her hooves tapped a few different buttons on the control panel and the ship suddenly shuddered, several red lights turning green. “Dock, this is the Drifter. I’m having some comm issues, so that didn’t come through clearly! But I see you’ve released the restraint field on the ship, so I’m clear to go, right?”

“What? No! I… who the buck released the restraint field on DRP-467954? Drifter! You are not clear to launch! We repeat—”

The message ended abruptly as Ditzy turned the speakers off. “Still having trouble hearing you, but my systems are showing that I’ve received clearance to use port...“ she paused, fussing with the controls for a moment before she continued, “Port 17! Thank you!”

Octavia stared at the pegasus, her mouth dropping open.

“W-wait,” Vinyl said, bolting upright. “Y-you’re gonna launch without clearance? Seriously?”

The pegasus smiled. “You said we needed to go, right?” She spread her wings as the flight matrix materialized around her. “No worries, I’ve done this before! Worst that’ll happen is we accidentally bump into somepony because they aren’t paying attention.”

“Oh sweet Luna…” Vinyl moaned. She jumped as the ship rocked and lifted off the pad.

Octavia prodded her with a hoof, eliciting another jump. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah I’m t-totally fine,” she said, squeaking as a small movement of Ditzy’s wings caused the ship to turn. “Oh buck me…”

“Drifter to Manehattan Docks. Your signal is still getting a little bit scrambled, but everything on my end says I’m good to go! Thanks for your help!”

The entire ship shook as the engines activated in time with a flap of the pegasus’ wings.

Vinyl hunkered on the bench.

“Oh… it looks like they really, really, really don’t want us leaving,” Ditzy said. “They’re actually closing the port.”

“What?” Octavia asked, focusing on the viewscreen. Just as the pegasus had said, the normally green gateway through the dome was starting to turn purple, signifying it would soon be as impermeable as the rest of the dome.

“You’re going to want to sit tight, because this will be super bumpy!” The ship accelerated, dodging between a pair of freight shuttles that had been levitating, waiting for a chance to land.

“Wait!” Octavia shouted, sitting up. “You’re going to hit the dome!”

“Don’t worry! It’ll be fine! I’ve done this before! Though last time it nearly tore—”

Whatever else she wanted to say was lost in a thunderous screech of the ship slamming into the magical gateway, the violent shuddering of the ship, and a yelp from Vinyl. For a brief moment, as all movement seemed to stop, Octavia wondered what she had done to deserve all this.

Then, like a rubber band snapping, the ship suddenly lurched forward, and sent them into empty space.

Vinyl slumped over against her.

“Are you both okay?” Ditzy called back.

“I… am as well as could be expected,” Octavia managed, wondering if she could be heard over the sound of her heartbeat. Shifting gently, she guided her friend down onto the bench proper. “I think Vinyl might have fainted though.”

“Sorry about scaring you both like that. You just said we really needed to go so we went!” She looked over her shoulder to offer a smile and continued, “Let me set our jump coordinates so they can’t follow us, then we can get her some water and talk, okay?”

Chapter 8 - A Little Trouble

Octavia took a deep breath before allowing herself to collapse onto one of the cockpit’s benches. It felt good to still be breathing.

“Are you feeling okay, Miss Octavia?” Ditzy asked, hopping onto the bench beside her. Or, at least, she tried to. The pegasus’ back hooves did not make it all the way onto the bench, forcing her to scramble desperately to avoid falling.

Octavia gave her a moment to actually situate herself on the bench before she answered, “As well as can be expected.”

“And your friend?”

“The same. She was probably already exhausted from fighting Trixie and helping me to the docks, and then our departure ended up being quite...” she trailed off, not wanting to be too rude.

“Exciting? Thrilling?”

“Harrowing,” she finally admitted. “It was probably just too much for her. I know it was nearly too much for me.”

The pegasus tapped her forehead with her hoof and stuck her tongue out. “That’s fair! But you have to admit, I did get us out of there in one piece!” She must have caught Octavia staring at the console whose front panel had fallen off, because she quickly added, “I broke that last week, so it doesn’t count!”

Despite everything, a quiet chuckle escaped from Octavia.

“Got you to laugh again!” Her voice softened and the cheery imbecility fled her face as she spoke up again, “Now that we’re clear of Manehattan, do you think you could you tell me what happened to Flash?”

The dull thrum of the ship’s engines filled the space left by Octavia’s silence. She wondered if the two pegasi had been friends. “I... am not absolutely sure,” she finally mumbled, staring at the ship’s scuffed and battered floor. “We ran into some trouble and then... then we... then we got separated.”

The pegasus’ smile returned, as if trying to coax the words out of Octavia. “I may seem a little silly, but I’m not stupid. Is he dead?”

Octavia cringed, unable to look up from the floor. She had not expected the question to arrive so bluntly. “I don’t know. He might be.”

“But you don’t know for sure?”

“No. Commander Lulamoon knocked him off one of the tiers. I know he’s a pegasus, but the spell she used… he might not even have been conscious after he got hit.”

“Oh, is that all?” Ditzy asked, her mellow smile brightening, “ I’m sure he’s fine then. Flash is really tough! You should have seen some of the accidents he got into at the Wonderbolts Academy, especially when he was partnered with me! But, no matter what happened, he always managed to walk away.” She glanced at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Well. Not always walk. He had to crawl away in a couple cases and roll away at least once, but you get the idea.”

Octavia searched Ditzy’s face for any sign of the pony who had just asked her point-blank if Flash was dead, but gave up. At the moment, the pegasus just looked even more pleased with herself than even Vinyl tended to.

“You still want to go to Ponyville Station, right?”

“Well, probably,” Octavia started, taken aback by the sudden change of tracks, “But are you sure you—”

“Yes!” the pegasus interrupted. “I agreed to deliver you to your destination! As a professional courier, I can’t very well abandon my job right after starting it, can I?”

“Yes. Yes you can.”

That caused Ditzy to pause for a long moment before breaking into laughter. “Well, you got me there. I technically can. But I won’t! I have a reputation to maintain!” She spread her wings suddenly, almost hitting Octavia on the snout, and continued, “Ditzy Doo: She always delivers! Eventually! I’m not going to let a little trouble ruin that.”

“It is more than just a ‘little trouble,’” Octavia grumbled, choosing to not bring up the Element of Loyalty that the pegasus had accidentally burdened her with. “Are we even going to be able to dock at Ponyville Station after what you did? I have to imagine that every station in the Empire is just waiting for your registration number to show up in their systems so they can be the lucky ones to arrest us.”

“Oh, that? That’s not a problem. Drifter here has, like, a dozen different reg numbers it can display. As long as I remember which one I used in Manehattan, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“It… what?”

“Private couriers have to be really careful, because ponies tend to use us for jobs they don’t want going through the Empire’s couriers. So, reg masks, departure hacks, and all that is kind of important!” Sheepishly, she added, “Plus I’ve accidentally broken a few docking clamps, and, while I’m really, really sorry about it, I really, really can’t afford to replace them.”

Staring, mouth agape, seemed like the right reaction. It made sense that the shuttle that the pilot taking them to Ponyville Station would be one willing to take on what was, essentially, smuggling. But that did not make it any less surprising to hear her admit it so brazenly.

Ditzy stifled a yawn with one of her wings, her smile turning apologetic. “Oh, excuse me! I guess time is finally catching up with me.” She glanced over at the flickering consoles, then nodded. “We’re still on track for Ponyville Station, so why don’t you go make yourself home while I take a nap? You’ve already seen the passenger cabins, the bathroom thing is right by them, there’s a little kitchen-slash-dining area down the hall, this is the cockpit-slash-meeting room, and that’s probably everywhere on the ship that’d interest you!”

“Do you know how long it will be until we reach Ponyville?”

“Two more jumps should get us there, so forty-eight hours or so?” She must have noticed Octavia’s displeasure as she continued, “Sorry! Drifter’s got an old jump drive, so it takes a while to recharge.”

A number of questions floated to the top of Octavia’s mind, but she quashed them. Councilor Shimmer had vetted this captain, and, more to the point, even if she was actually untrustworthy or incompetent, Octavia had exactly zero options aside from riding it out until they reached Ponyville Station.

Besides, as odd as the pegasus was, Octavia could not deny that she had gotten them off the station. It just took effort to reconcile that competence with the image of the clumsy pegasus who had dropped the Element of Loyalty into her life.

“That is fine. And thank you.”

“No problem! If you need anything, just come bother me up here, okay?” Ditzy said, stretching out on the bench.

Heading back into the belly of the ship, Octavia nudged open the door to the cabin she had left Vinyl in.

The mare sat up on one of the room’s three wall-mounted beds, staring resolutely at her own hooves. While Octavia couldn’t see Vinyl’s face, she could see her trembling slightly, her ears and tail twitching whenever the engine’s rhythm changed.

“Are you okay, Vinyl?”

“Great! Fantastic!” she said with forced cheer, turning just enough to see Octavia out of the corner of her eye. She shuddered as the ship bounced, squeezing her eyes shut. “Totally awesome!” she squeaked.

Despite everything that had happened, a tiny smile crept across Octavia’s muzzle. She knew it was cruel, but the fact that the seemingly unflappable Vinyl Scratch apparently had a weakness somehow comforted her. “Not a fan of shuttles?”

“Y-you think?” Vinyl growled, the sudden ferocity surprising Octavia. “Buck me, this was a stupid bucking idea.” Another tiny rumble caused her to hunker even lower.

“It was,” Octavia said softly, laying a hoof on her back. “In fact, that seems to be the gold standard for your ideas.”

The mare laughed weakly.

“Still, I am glad you showed up when you did. What were you even doing there?”

Vinyl seemed to relax a little under the pressure from Octavia’s hoof. “I was looking for you. Lyra… Lyra told me what you were doing, the whole helping Shimmer find the rest of those rocks thing, so I decided I’d help you.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause that’s what good friends do: help when you’re in a jam.”

“Then you have a very different understanding of that word than I do.” She sighed, staring at the mare’s back and trying to sort through the emotions swelling inside her. “You do know you are in this as deep as I am now, right?”

Vinyl offered her another uneasy – nearly manic – laugh. “Well, hey, at least you’ll have a friend in Everfree? Maybe they’ll even let us share the same cell!”

Octavia stared intently at Vinyl’s mane and sighed, but her smile lingered. “I need to let Councilor Shimmer know what happened. Do you think you could help me figure out the tablet she gave me?”

“Sure. Probably.” She blanched and curled up a little tighter as the ship groaned. “I might get sick all over the pad, but as long as you’re cool with that, I can probably help.”

~~~~~

Lyra couldn’t sleep. Despite the distinct lack of caffeine or sugar in her body, she still felt wired. Thrashing about under her sheets, counting sheep, reading a book, and even staring vacantly at the ceiling failed to help. Ultimately, no matter what she tried, her mind kept returning to the challenges that bearers of the Elements of Harmony had faced in the past.

With a sigh, she crawled out of bed, struggling to find somewhere she could actually feel carpet.

Manipulating Vinyl had been depressingly simple. Lyra had half-expected her words to just roll off her old friend, but no. Barely five minutes after leaving Vinyl’s unit, she’d seen her run out the door and sprint for the lifts.

She told herself it was for the best, but part of her wished Vinyl had been the same lazy, self-absorbed mare that she had known. If that were the case, maybe she’d be able to sleep.

She flicked on her console’s screen, cringing as the brilliant light temporarily blinded her, filling her head with thoughts of a sun she had never seen. Rubbing her eyes with her hooves, she forced the thoughts to the back of her mind.

Focus on the world around you, not the magic messing with your head.

After she had gotten home, she had spent her time researching all the ways that the Elements of Harmony had been used in the past, referencing as many sources as possible. At the least, since the hallucinations had started, the feeling that the books were trying to hide things from her had faded.

Which, in retrospect, might not actually be a good thing.

She shook her head. Focus!

The Elements always seemed to end up being used to purge or purify creatures that threatened the safety of ancient Equestria. Nightmare Moon. Discord. Tirek. Every story that featured the Elements followed the same basic structure: a bad thing appears, the Elements appear, and then the chosen ponies use the Elements to defeat the evil abomination.

Which is exactly what worried her.

Her hooves tapped on the desk as she read the entries for the dozenth time, the text refusing to lead her to a different conclusion. Whenever the Elements appeared, it was because Equestria had been in danger and their power was needed to stop it.

Lyra laid her head on the desk and sighed.

Sombra wanted them for whatever plots he was hatching. Shimmer wanted them because Sombra wanted them. But neither of them actually needed the Elements: they just wanted new toys to use in their stupid power struggles. The significance of the Elements’ appearance, the ponies who were supposed to carry them, the implications that rose from them even existing… they didn’t care about any of it.

If somepony was going to make sure the Elements stayed safe and were used correctly, it apparently had to be her. The only problem was that it meant she was going to have to outplay the councilors at a game they’d already crushed her in, and she would have to do it on her own.

Her eyes caught the messenger window where she still had Hooves’ network address saved.

It was a long shot, but what did she have to lose? The stallion had certainly seemed sympathetic towards Octavia and Vinyl, he seemed to understand the Council, and he either knew something about covert operations or had watched far, far too many spy vids.

After quickly composing the message and sending it on its way, she laid on the cushion, wondering if her brain would finally give in to exhaustion. Unfortunately, just as she settled comfortably into her new position, the console chimed, causing her to sit bolt upright. A new message already? She hastily brought it up.

Madam Lyra Heartstrings-

Your presence is requested at the office of Councilor Sombra tomorrow afternoon. Please respond to this message at your earliest convenience so that we can arrange an exact time for the meeting.

We appreciate your swift response.

She stared at her screen, her mouth hanging open and her tail swishing manically. The immediate question was what kind of slave driver was Sombra to have his staff still working at this hour, but it was drowned out quickly by more relevant thoughts. Why did Sombra want to talk to her? Did he suspect she was working with Shimmer? Did he know that she knew about Octavia and the Element of Loyalty?

She ruffled her mane desperately with her hooves, trying to think, a strangled noise escaping from her throat. She wanted to scream that things could not possibly get worse, but challenging the universe at this moment seemed like a bad idea.

Turning the invitation down wouldn’t work, but it was difficult to imagine any conversation with Sombra going well. On the other hoof, he could probably just send the Council Guard to drag her if he really wanted to talk, so, despite knowing Shimmer would chew her out for it, replying was probably in her best interest.

A glance at the clock told her it was nearly five in the morning.

She needed to think things through, but that was growing increasingly difficult. The right thing to do at this moment was hold off on replying until she could talk to Shimmer. The more open and straightforward she was, the more likely it was that Shimmer would continue to trust her. The more Shimmer trusted her, the easier it would be to get Shimmer to do exactly what she wanted.

She didn’t know if Shimmer would pick up a direct call this early, but Lyra did know she tended to work late and rise early, so it was worth a shot.

To her surprise it only took a few seconds for Shimmer’s image to appear on the screen, looking only slightly less haggard than Lyra, her mane in uncharacteristic disarray and her coat strangely scruffy. “What is it?” she growled.

“I just got a message from Sombra’s office. He wants to talk with me tom— later today.”

Magic flared around Shimmer’s horn and, for just a moment, it looked like she might destroy her tablet and the table it was resting on. “That smug, self-serving, bull-headed… he has been playing with me this whole time!” she snarled, slamming her hoof into the table. “Damn him straight to Tartarus! I am not going to lose!”

Lyra stared vacantly at the screen. That reaction was a little more extreme than expected. “Are you okay?”

Shimmer took a deep breath, the swirling energy around her horn dissipating. “No. I got a message from Octavia a little while ago. Trixie ambushed them. Apparently she had been watching my home for the last several days in case I did something stupid like listen to you and let Octavia out and the Element out of my sight.”

A cold chill ran down Lyra’s spine. Perhaps they had both been taking Sombra too lightly. If he really ordered surveillance on Shimmer’s home, than he wasn’t that afraid of the Council or the public turning against him. If he ever felt comfortable enough to drop the gentlepony mask and act directly against them, than all the plots in the universe weren’t going to save them. “But they did get off the station?”

“The groundling got off the station. Flash didn’t.”

“Is he…?” she trailed off.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I haven’t heard from him. I’m just going to have to hope that he manages to drag himself into a clinic somewhere.” Shimmer’s eyes dropped to the floor, but the moment of weakness vanished as her hooves slammed onto the table again. “Celestia damn Sombra and his pet guard!”

“Well, if Octavia got off the station then we’ve still got something over him, right? He wouldn’t have had to set Trixie up like that if he knew exactly what we were planning.”

She sighed. “Right. And he wouldn’t have just asked to talk to you.”

Lyra nodded vaguely, her throat tightening. She wouldn’t put it past him to invite her for a pleasant chat and then arrest her the moment she set a hoof outside his door. From everything she had ever seen, Sombra was all smiles and friendliness right until the moment where he went for your throat. “What do you think I should do?”

“Go talk to him. You don’t really have a choice in the matter, do you?”

“No, I guess not.”

“And don’t even think of trying to sell me out to him, Lyra.”

Gritting her teeth, Lyra glared at the monitor. “What?”

“I’m just warning you: if you even think about trying to cut a deal with him, I’ll make sure you regret it. You’re in this as deep as I am, and I still have a lot more friends in the Empire than you. If this goes bad, I’m not going to be the one left drifting.”

Sombra did have that going for him: he at least dangled a carrot in front of you. Shimmer seemed to prefer just using the stick. Swallowing the bile she wished she could hurl at Shimmer, she said, “All I want is to find the Elements and make sure they’re used correctly.”

“Good. Call me when you get back from your meeting. I’ll let Fancy Pants know what’s happening and see if we can’t come up with some counterplay.” The call disconnected before Lyra could get another word in edgewise, leaving her staring at the black screen.

Her hooves shook, though she couldn’t decide whether it was because she was afraid of what the next few hours held or because she was furious. If anypony was going to go crawling to Sombra, Lyra would bet everything she owned on it being Shimmer. The idea that that pony had friends was laughable: to her, everypony was either a tool to be used or an obstacle to be overcome.

Rubbing her eyes with the back of her leg, she ran through the conversation one more time. Octavia and the Element of Loyalty were probably safe for the moment, as was her destination. Vinyl remained a mystery, though. She hoped the mare had managed to find Octavia, but it didn’t seem like Octavia’s message had mentioned her. That could go either way.

Lyra yawned hugely, her jaw cracking.

She hastily composed a response to the message from Sombra’s office, letting them know that she was available to speak anytime after two. It gave her a few more hours to try and get some sleep, or, failing that, get food, get cleaned up, and pretend to be a civilized member of society instead of a mare teetering on the edge of a breakdown.

~~~~~

Vinyl glared at one of the cabin’s running lights. Despite keeping her ears flat against her skull, the old light’s faint hum found a way into her ears. It was the perfect icing on her misery cake.

“This was so bucking stupid,” she mumbled to herself for about the thousandth time since she’d gotten on the ship, trying to drown the noise out. She’d been pretty awesome when she totally managed to save Octavia and give Trixie a much deserved flank kicking, but now…

Her stomach rolled and her heart pounded as the ship trembled.

“Hey, Oct… Tavi, you awake?” she asked, raising her voice slightly.

The mare on the bed across the narrow cabin grunted and stirred. Even in the dim light, the flicking of her ears was easy to see. “No,” she muttered.

“Sorry, j-just can’t s-sleep,” she said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.

“Neither can I, apparently,” Octavia grumbled, shifting slightly before finally raising her head.

“I seriously screwed up, huh? Not even like, five hours into joining you on some epic, awesome quest and I’m a total wreck.” She sighed, trying to force a smile. “Pretty bucking embarrassing, huh?”

“Yes.” Her voice softened as she continued, “But, then again, you did manage to look almost competent while dealing with Commander Lulamoon. That probably balances out against a little space sickness.”

Vinyl laughed weakly. “Yeah. Every amazing hero has gotta have some sorta weakness, right?” Like not being able to stop shaking since I realized we were off the station. “Since you owe me for saving your flank again, you can’t tell anypony about it, ‘kay?”

“No promises.” Yawning, Octavia rubbed her eyes with the back of her foreleg and asked, “So is there anything I can do to help?”

“Prolly not.” Vinyl dangled her hoof over the edge of the bed, watching Octavia blink blearily in the cabin’s faint light. It felt stupid complaining about all this, but talking helped distract her. “I usually just pop a Lunasta, throw on a vid or some music, and zonk out whenever it happens.” After a moment of judgmental silence, she added, “I just don’t usually sleep super well, okay?”

“You seemed to sleep just fine at Hooves’ home.”

“Well, you know, I was sorta concussed and high. Besides, even when that started to wear off, you were…” Vinyl trailed off, realizing how dumb the end of that statement was going to sound.

“I was…?” Octavia prompted impatiently.

“It was just easier to fall asleep when you were laying next to me,” she mumbled, embarrassment somehow managing to briefly overtake her discomfort. “It just sorta helps to know somepony is there and all.”

Octavia made a sound that sounded distressingly close to a suppressed laugh.

“Forget it,” Vinyl grumbled. “There are two passenger cabins, right? I’ll go sit up and entertain myself in the other so you can—” She stopped dead as Octavia slid off of her own bed, grabbed her tablet, and then put a hoof on Vinyl’s bed.

“Scoot over a little,” she commanded.

“Huh?”

“Scoot.” She nudged Vinyl in the side for emphasis as she continued, “It will be a little cramped, but you are probably more comfortable to lean against than the ship’s wall anyway.”

“Oh. Uh. Okay.” Vinyl pressed herself against the wall, providing just enough room for the two to fit on the bed. She could feel her face heating up as Octavia’s body pressed against her. Was Octavia teasing her? Because this was way less fun than when she did it.

It took a few moments of fidgeting before they were both satisfied, after which Octavia pushed the tablet forward and leaned it against the head of the bed where Vinyl could reach it. “There. Better?”

“I… y-yeah.”

Yawning, Octavia laid her head down and closed her eyes. “Good. Then you should try to sleep. You can put on music or something if you would like, but try not to pick something too awful, please.”

“Thanks, Tavi.”

Author's Note

Before naming it Lunasta, I just had it as a generic sleeping pill.

One of my proofreaders suggested Mareatonin.

I just felt this needed to be known.

Chapter 9 - Together and Alone

Octavia shifted on the bunk, trying to find just a little extra space. While she did not mind sharing the tight quarters with Vinyl too much, the fact that the mare had managed to trap her with a foreleg and nuzzle up against her at some point during the night was a little much.

She sighed, allowing a small smile to creep across her muzzle.This still beat her unit back in Manehattan. And, all told, she did have to agree with Vinyl on one thing: it felt nice to not be alone.

The smile fled as the door to the cabin was pushed open and Ditzy stuck her head in. Catching Octavia’s open eyes, she started, “Hey, just wanted to let…” but slowly trailed off as she noticed the two of them sharing the same bunk and wrapped in what must have looked to all the galaxy like an intimate embrace. “Oh.”

Heat filled Octavia’s cheeks – only increasing as Vinyl’s grip on her tightened – but she suppressed the urge to throw herself out of bed and instead gestured for the pegasus to lower her voice.

“Sorry,” Ditzy whispered. “Just wanted to let you know I’m going to make some breakfast since it’s getting pretty late, but I can see you’re busy right now. Whenever the two of you feel like getting up, just come by the mess. I’ll make plenty, so don’t worry about rushing!”

Octavia forced a smile and nodded before mouthing “Thank you.”

As the pegasus retreated, the door clicking shut behind her, Octavia wondered why she ever allowed herself to believe that the tiniest good deeds or momentary pleasantries would somehow go unpunished.

Food sounded nice, though. Besides, as much as she liked the idea of just one or two more indolent days, she needed to plan for their arrival at Ponyville Station.

Trying to get out of bed proved more difficult than expected, with Vinyl resisting any attempt to move her leg. Octavia finally settled on just sliding out of the bed, but she stiffened as her friend’s muzzle pressed against the nape of her neck.

“Don’t wanna get up yet,” she mumbled.

“You can keep sleeping, but I want to get up,” Octavia whispered, relaxing as Vinyl’s hold on her loosened and finally allowed escape.

Vinyl curled up tighter on the bed, sighing. Hopefully she would be all right when she woke up.

While the promise of food tempted Octavia, other business needed to be dealt with first. Trotting along to the washroom, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it contained a small shower stall. Unfortunately, she was less pleasantly surprised to find that even the hottest setting barely broke ice cold. It was better than nothing, though. The universe felt easier to face when clean and groomed.

She found Ditzy, as promised, in the mess, enjoying a plate of what vaguely resembled fried hay and eggs, but smelled distinctly like their synthetic counterparts. It made sense to stock a ship with food that would likely survive the heat death of the universe, but she still could not manage to restrain her sigh. After a week of real food, she did not relish the thought of returning to her old diet.

At least there seemed to be plenty of it.

The pegasus looked up from her food and grinned as Octavia joined her at the table. “Good morning-ish! And sorry for barging in like that! I didn’t know you two were—”

“We were not anything except sleeping,” Octavia grumbled, not wanting to hear that thought finished. “She was still feeling sick and laying next to me helped.”

“Well, that has to be the weirdest cure for spacesickness I’ve ever seen. I bet a lot of ponies would love to try it, though.”

Another sigh escaped Octavia as she served herself. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sorry.”

“It is fine. Just, please, do not encourage Vinyl with talk like that. In fact, please do not even mention you saw us sharing the bed. She will not let me live it down if you do.”

Ditzy chuckled as she pushed her nearly empty plate aside. “Shouldn’t she be the one embarrassed she had to snuggle up to you like a scared little filly?”

“She should, but somehow she won’t be.”

“I won’t be what?” Vinyl said from the doorway. While she looked a little better than she had last night, she still seemed rather listless.

“Nothing at all, Vinyl.”

The mare simply grunted, a definite sign she was still uncomfortable. “Is that breakfast? Is it even breakfast time?”

“Yes and close enough that it doesn’t really matter!” Ditzy chimed in. “Glad to see you’re feeling better. Not a big fan of ships, huh?”

Vinyl took a seat at the table next to Octavia and laid her head on it. “Don’t say that word. I’m cool as long as I don’t think about it.”

Octavia nudged her. “You should actually introduce yourself.”

“Huh? Oh. Right. I guess we didn’t actually do that, eh?” She managed to lift her head up long to flash a sickly smile. “I’m Vinyl Scratch, the absolute best DJ in Manehattan. Get us to Ponyville soon and I promise I’ll sign anything you want.”

“I will do my best!” Ditzy said, offering a mock salute. “Though if I try to go too fast, poor Drifter might just fall apart.”

The little bit of food Vinyl had levitated out of the mountain splattered onto the plate in front of her as she breathed in sharply.

“Poor phrasing?” Ditzy said sheepishly. “Don’t worry! My ship is totally, perfectly, absolutely, one-hundred percent safe. Nothing’s broken in—” Octavia’s look must have been enough of a warning, as she finished, “In a very, very long time.”

“Great,” Vinyl mumbled, picking daintily at her food.

“Do either of you know anypony who lives on Ponyville Station?” Octavia asked, changing the conversation’s course.

Ditzy shook her head.

“I prolly know a few ponies. Why?”

“Lyra’s notes indicated that they found my stone buried in a storeroom in Cloudsdale Station. I am hoping that the other Elements might also be hiding in plain sight. If they are, it is entirely possible somepony has seen them.”

Ditzy’s plate clattered as she stood up and dropped it into the washer. “I think I’ll go make sure we’re still on course. I’d like to be able to pretend I wasn’t totally aware I was smuggling criminals and such.” She smiled and pointed at the still substantial pile of food on the table. “Eat as much as you want, but please put whatever you don’t finish in the cooler.”

“Of course,” Octavia said, watching her go. That served as an excellent reminder that she needed to be very careful. There were very few ponies she could trust, and, even then, it would probably be safest to watch what she said around most of them. After all, today’s friend might well abandon you tomorrow, she thought bitterly. Still, the only way she would be able to get anywhere would be to take risks; there was no way Octavia would be able to scour the whole of the Empire herself.

“You okay there, Tavi?”

She started, realizing she had been staring at her food. “Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking.” She smiled at her friend. “Do you think you could you contact any of them and ask if they have seen anything that looks like my stone?”

“Probably. Dunno if they’d know anything, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” Vinyl pushed her half-empty plate towards the center of the table and sighed. “You mind getting the tablet?”

“Not feeling much better?”

“I’m totally awesome as long as I try not to taste the food, don’t move much, and avoid thinking about where we are right now.” She smiled weakly and continued, “But thanks for asking. And, you know, for last night.”

“You’re welcome. But please, for the love of Celestia, do not phrase it like that.”

Vinyl was silent for a long moment, the smile slowly strengthening. “Oh. I get it. I get it. You don’t want the captain to know what we did last night, eh? No worries. I don’t consider what we do in the privacy of our cabin to be anypony’s business but ours.”

Octavia rolled her eyes. She had brought that one on herself. “Keep it up and it will just be your cabin tonight, Vinyl,” she grumbled. Still, it was nice to see that, despite the threat lacking heart, the mare still acted appropriately cowed.

It only took a minute to fetch the tablet and return, a question rising to the forefront of her mind. “What are the biggest news sites besides ENN?”

“EQD, OCN, and MT, I guess. Why?”

“We should check all of them and make sure we are not the headlines.”

“Think we would be?” Vinyl asked, pulling the tablet closer to her.

“You have assaulted Commander Lulamoon twice. I am carrying around an ancient and powerful magical relic. We are both on the run from incredibly powerful and influential ponies. I would not be surprised if we were listed as the Empire’s most wanted criminals.”

“I guess you got a point. Not seeing our names anywhere, though. Actually, doesn’t look like there’s anything about the fight at all. Guess they wanna keep Trixie getting her flank kicked all hush-hush, eh?”

“Maybe,” Octavia said. That news proved much less comforting than she had expected. While having ponies know about them would be rather inconvenient, it was much easier to disappear when nopony knew you existed.

“If I call and do an intro, you mind taking over from there? Not really up for talking, plus you know way more about what you need than I do.”

“I believe so.”

“Great. Let’s try Filthy Rich then. He handles all my business on Ponyville. Oh, and he’s an earth pony too!” After setting the tablet up so Octavia could see it but was out of view of the camera, Vinyl opened an application and dialed out. After just a few moments the window opened to the face of an older and tired looking stallion.

“Good aftern— Oh. Vinyl.” He peered closely at his device for a moment and frowned. “Did you change your network address?”

“Hey Filthy! Yeah, sorry, didn’t think about that. I’m actually on my way to Ponyville Station right now, so I had to use a different device.”

A brief look of annoyance crossed the stallion’s face, but curiosity quickly replaced it. “You actually left Manehattan? What in Celestia’s name could be important enough to get you to do that? Is the universe ending?”

Vinyl’s laugh had a slightly manic tone to it, but she kept it under control. “Nah, nah, nothing like that. It’s a super secret project that I’m helping a friend with.” Wrapping her foreleg around Octavia, Vinyl pulled her in front of the screen. “Filthy, this is Octavia. Octavia, this is Filthy. She had a few things we were hoping you could help with!”

He cleared his throat and smoothed his mane back before speaking up again, “A pleasure, Miss Octavia. I would prefer if you called me Filthy Rich. Or just Rich. Vinyl is chronically incapable of using the right part of my name.”

Octavia smiled, struggling to maintain her composure as she gently pushed Vinyl away. “It is my pleasure, Mister Rich.”

“Wonderful, it has been ages since I dealt with a pony who had a sense of decorum,” he said, returning the smile. “What can I do for you?”

Octavia hesitated for a moment, working the story out in her head. “I am helping a collector from Manehattan find a few relics from old Equestria and am hoping that some of them might just be cluttering up station storages or decorating units. They are spherical stones about the size of a hoof and have a variety of designs carved on them.”

He looked away from the screen for a moment, his eyebrows knitting in thought. “They’re made of actual stone?”

“Yes.”

“Well, nothing jumps to mind immediately, but there are a few ponies I could ask. A lot of them have lived on this station for ages, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find that all sorts of curiosities have piled up over the years. Going through the station’s storage records is an option too, but that will be a bit of a slog.” He rubbed one of his temples. “How long until you arrive at the station?”

“We are about two days out, but please, don’t rush on our account. We have time.” In fact, the more time we spend on the fringes of the Empire, the better. “Besides, rather than rushing things, I would much rather you kept your investigations discreet. I can afford time, but competition would be a problem.”

“Of course. Well, things are a little busy because we have a harvest coming up, but I will do what I can. Any friend of Vinyl’s is a friend of mine.” Raising his voice slightly, he added, “But I do expect her next order to properly express her gratitude.”

Vinyl remained silent, only responding once Octavia nudged her. “Huh? Oh, right, yeah. Definitely will double up next time I order. Probably tip too.”

“I will hold you to that, Vinyl.” He refocused his attention and continued, “Should I send any information I turn up to this network address?”

“Yes, that will be fine. Thank you very much, Mister Rich.”

“Thanks Filthy. We owe ya.”

“You are quite welcome, Miss Octavia. And you definitely do, Vinyl.”

Octavia closed the window, letting out a deep breath. “I wonder if that was a good idea.”

“It was. I mean, Ponyville isn’t huge or nothing, but searching it ourselves would be a serious pain in the flank. Besides, Filthy’s reliable. It’s why I go through him directly instead of dealing with Flim and Flam.”

“Still, we should be careful.” Despite the taste of cardboard still lingering on her tongue, Octavia helped herself to another plateful of food. “I suppose I should also spend a bit of time staring at the Element and seeing if I can learn anything about how it works or how to talk to it or anything really.”

“Oh.” Vinyl’s ears flattened. “You think you’re gonna be at it for a while?”

“I don’t know. But I could use a helping hoof. I really know next to nothing about magic.”

“Not really sure I’d be much help there.”

“Really?” Octavia asked, prodding Vinyl’s horn.

“Hey, magic is some complicated bull! Just ‘cause I can do it doesn’t mean I know all the fancy mumbo jumbo about how it works.”

Octavia smiled. “Well, I am still reasonably sure that even a complete dunce knows more about it than me. Besides, helping a poor, silly earth pony try to figure out a magical item beats doing nothing, right?”

~~~~~

Lyra stood in front of the council building, shading her eyes against the light reflecting off the building’s brilliant surface. Despite the crowd flowing endlessly around her, filling almost every available inch of space, she felt completely and utterly alone. Inside that building was the pony who’d ruined her life, and there was a good chance he was going to finish what he‘d started when she stepped inside.

Doing this after a full night’s rest would have been much more pleasant, but there was no putting it off.

Marching into the building, she approached the reception desk and smiled at the pony sitting behind it. “Lyra Heartstrings, here to see Councilor Sombra.”

The stallion at the desk glance up from his console and stared at her for a moment. “You have a meeting?”

She sighed. The gatekeepers of the council’s bureaucracy were the worst. Summoning up what she remembered of a councilpony’s airs, she said, “Yes. He specifically asked to speak with me. And, if you waste time with questions like that, you are going to keep him waiting.”

The pony at the desk blanched, glancing at the screen in front of him. Barely five seconds passed before he said, “Ah! Yes, Miss Heartstrings, you are correct. Please forgive me. Councilor Sombra is indeed waiting for you.” He waved desperately at a guard. “Please escort Miss Heartstrings to Councilor Sombra’s office.”

She followed the guard quietly as he led her through the building’s halls. Watching the stern and silent mare, her mind drifted to Flash. Despite working for Shimmer, he somehow managed to retain a much brighter disposition than most of the ponies that worked with the council.

Hopefully he was okay.

“You may enter, Miss Heartstrings,” the guard said, the door sliding open as she pressed her hoof to a panel.

Taking a deep breath, Lyra stepped through the door.

~~~~~

An hour later, Lyra staggered out of the council building, the station spinning around her. The meeting with Sombra had passed by in a blur, leaving behind memories that were quickly melting into the soup of exhaustion and visions that made up her mind. Still, one thought managed to dominate her consciousness, rising above the tumult: Sombra wanted her help.

The stallion who had humiliated her and ruined her life wanted her, of all ponies, to help him find the Elements.

She had expected the meeting to consist of subtle threats and blatant cajoling, but he had done nothing of the sort. He’d just politely asked for her assistance. He’d even invited her to lunch tomorrow to discuss it further. He wanted to close the rift between them. He wanted her to help him protect the Empire.

The last two blocks to her home proved two blocks too many, forcing her to step into an alley and lean up against a wall, trying to regain control.

She felt adrift. The station seemed to pull away from her as she squeezed her eyes shut, straining against confusion and exhaustion and magic and what still felt like madness. The noises all around her dulled and the reports of her body became fainter as if her mind had finally decided to take leave of the long abused vessel.

Everything Sombra had said during the meeting had been true. The council needed strong leadership and guidance. Most of the modern councilors use the position to play games. The Empire was rotting. The Elements were a force that could protect it.

“Damn him,” Lyra growled, bouncing her head against the wall in the hopes that it would magically clear her thoughts. Sombra made it so easy to forget how he had mercilessly torn her apart on the network stations, how he’d laid her life bare for the entire Empire to see, and convinced ponies she’d thought at least respected her to turn on her.

Maybe he was right, though. She had never wanted to be on the Council. The only reason she’d even cared about losing her stupid seat in the first place was because it had made her into a pariah.

Pushing off the wall, Lyra resumed the arduous walk, drifting through the crowds like a phantom. She needed to get home and clear her head. She had already agreed to meet him again tomorrow for lunch and provide an answer that there was no way she would be ready to give.

She slammed the door to her unit shut and threw herself onto one of the cushions hiding amongst the stacks of books. If she didn’t want to work with Sombra, she could just notify the stacks and pass the books over to his aides.

A chime from the desk drew her attention. Even from her low position, it was possible to see that she had acquired a half-dozen new messages while absent.

Standing took more effort than expected, but she managed to make it to the desk without tripping over a stack of priceless tomes. The messages proved to be mostly what she expected: an official invitation from Sombra, a pair of annoyed demands for an update from Shimmer, junk messages… the only surprise was a response from Hooves.

The console chimed again, a notification that Shimmer was trying to reach her appearing on the screen. Against her better judgement, she decided to stop the noise by answering. “Yes, Shimmer?”

“About time. I heard you left the council building ages ago. What happened?”

Lyra rubbed her eyes. Just the sound of her voice was grating. “He knows I’ve been looking into the elements and wants my help.”

“And you turned him down, right?”

“No, I didn’t turn him down yet.”

“What?” The near scream reverberated painfully in Lyra’s ears. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I don’t have any reason to turn him down yet. Why not hear him out?”

Shimmer brought her hooves down on her desk. “Because he’s a snake, Lyra! He’s a manipulative sociopath with all the moral fiber of a changeling! If you—”

“As opposed to you, Shimmer?” Lyra snapped. “What makes you any better? You both play games with other ponies, you both want power, and you both screwed me over, but at least he actually seems to have an actual goal! A vision for the Empire! Something beyond just amassing power for power’s sake! Maybe I’ve been wrong this whole time about which of you is the lesser of two evils.”

Shaking furiously, Shimmer opened her mouth to speak again, but Lyra put an end to it by killing the console’s power.

“I feel much better now,” she mumbled. The consequences could be future Lyra’s problem. For now, a nap felt like the best course of action. Sleep to drive away the memories and hopefully get her head clear enough to decide what to do next.

Chapter 10 - The Nature of Magic

Octavia lay stretched out on the bed opposite Vinyl, watching as the mare turned the Element over and over in her hooves. After what must have been the hundredth rotation, Octavia finally spoke up. “Well?”

Vinyl shrugged and tossed it on the bed. “You got me! Seriously, the best I can tell is that it’s a magic rock. No idea how it works, and nopony bothered to write instructions anywhere on it. Did Lyra and Shimmer really not tell you anything?”

“No. They weren’t sure how it worked either.” Octavia laid her head down on her forelegs, grumbling. Asking Vinyl had been a longshot, but that did not make the plan’s failure any easier to endure. She needed to figure the Element out, and she needed to do it soon. “Explain magic to me.”

“Huh?”

“How does a unicorn actually cast a spell? Maybe understanding that would help me understand how that damnable rock is supposed to work.”

“Uh… Well, it’s kinda complicated.”

Octavia allowed herself a small smile. “Vinyl. If you can do it, it cannot be that complicated.”

“You got me there! But, like, okay. Can you tell me how your legs work?”

“I…” Octavia started, but lapsed into silence. She vaguely understood that the process involved energy, contractions of the muscles and tendons, and signals from the brain, but actually vocalizing it was another issue altogether. “I understand the basics of it, but—”

“Well, that’s what magic is. Just another leg. Except it’s about a billion times more complicated to deal with and a serious pain in the flank to actually explain.”

“Could you try? For me?” It was a touch shameless, but she suspected that Vinyl would be more cooperative if she made it into a game of sorts. She looked up at the mare with wide eyes as she added, with just a touch of pleading, “Please?”

Viny just stared at her, tilting her head to the side. “Are… are you trying to give me puppy dog eyes? Because if you aren’t, the only other possibility is some horrible space monster somehow snuck up behind me and is preparing to bite my head off.”

Heat rose to Octavia’s cheeks as Vinyl broke into uproarious laughter. “Just forget it,” she grumbled.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” Vinyl gasped, trying to compose herself in the face of Octavia’s spirited glare. “You win. I can’t possibly resist if you ask like that.”

“So, magic. It’s this kinda special energy thing and unicorns store it in their bodies. But it isn’t like, uh, calories or whatever. Though maybe they help create it? Like, if you’re burning yourself out and not eating or whatever, you have less magic. I dunno exactly how it works. Whatever. We use our horns to control it.”

As if to punctuate her point, Vinyl’s horn started to glow a familiar electric blue.

“Like this, you see? And then we just sorta… make it do things. Like, Levitation. You just wrap your magic around something, solidify it a bit, and lift!”

Octavia watched as Vinyl’s magic took hold of the tip of her tail and moved it a few inches before dropping it.

“See? That’s pretty much the simplest magic there is, so it’s the first thing most unicorns learn.”

“Why is your magic so much weaker than Commander Lulamoon’s?” Octavia asked.

Vinyl snorted. “Weaker? I bet Trixie can’t do half the bull I can. But yeah, apparently when it comes to magical death beams, she’s got me beat.” She shrugged as she said, “Different unicorns’ve just got different specialties. Like, I’d probably break your instrument if I tried to play it, right?”

“Undoubtedly,” Octavia said with a nod.

“Well, you’d probably ruin my setup if you tried to mix a new track with it. And sure, either of us could prolly learn to do each other’s thing if we worked really hard at it, but I’m cool without learning to play your string thing and you’d probably get all snobby trying to produce a track on a console, right?“

“My cello and yes.”

“Well, magic is the same. What’d my tutor always say... ‘A unicorn’s magic is a perfect expression of themselves’ or something? It’s why unicorns have different colored magic.”

Octavia stared at her, debating whether to let the tutor comment go. She eventually decided to. “So you are good at…?”

Even behind the glasses she could tell Vinyl was eyeing her. “I’m pretty bucking awesome when it comes to light and sound. Like, I could honestly run the whole show at Crazy Horse myself if I wanted. The tech just makes it easier for me.”

“And Commander Lulamoon specializes in magical assault?”

Vinyl opened her mouth to speak and then shut it abruptly. “You know, she didn’t used to be. Like, she knew how to do tons of little tricks and stuff, but she used to get made fun of for being a bit of a lightweight.” A frown crossed her face. “Her magic wasn’t red, either, now that I think about it.”

“Does that matter?”

“Not really, I guess. Could explain why she got good at the whole magical beam assault thing, though. Like I said, a unicorn’s magic is basically part of the unicorn, so when something big happens that changes the way they think about themselves? Their magic can change color.”

“And, if the change was that big, it might well change how they use their magic?”

Vinyl nodded. “You got it!”

The logic followed, she supposed. Continuing Vinyl’s previous metaphor, her preferred musical motifs had changed significantly after moving to Manehattan and again when she had been reduced to playing in the streets. It was not that the nature of her abilities had changed, but rather that her focus had.

It also served to at least partly explain the Elements. If magic was shaped by the user and connected to their spirit or whatever unicorns wanted to define it as, then the Elements being connected to specific ponies made sense.

Of course, the problem was that knowing that still did absolutely nothing to help her figure out how to use the bloody thing. She did not have some well of magic inside her, nor did she have a horn to control it.

She had a rock.

“Why’re you so interested in magic anyway?”

“Because I am hoping that the more I know, the easier it will be to find the rest of the Elements.” She sighed. “Besides, it would be nice to maybe be able to use the Element to defend myself if somepony like Commander Lulamoon attacked again.”

Vinyl’s ears pricked. “You do know that’s a pretty crap idea, right? That magic she was throwing around? Serious stuff. Damn near brained me without trying. Pretty sure most of the guards’d be hard-pressed to stop Trixie if she went on a tear.”

“I know.” The image of Flash going through the railing was still fresh in her mind. She shivered slightly. “But what choice am I going to have? I need to find the Elements, and I have no doubt that means running into the Council Guard again. I cannot imagine they won’t find some way track us down.”

Vinyl rolled the stone under her hoof. “Do we have to go looking for the Elements? I mean, roaming around the Empire, checking stations, digging through storage rooms, and talking to ponies? That was one thing. But if Shimmer wants somepony who can tangle with the guards? Then there’ve gotta be better choices.”

“I told her I would help, Vinyl. That stupid rock is my responsibility. If there really is some magical connection between the Elements, then I really do have the best shot at finding the rest.” Octavia sat up, a bitter chuckle escaping her. “Besides, even if I wanted to run, it isn’t really possible now. Having every unicorn on the Council after me would not end well.”

“Prolly not,” Vinyl said, her entire body slackening as she lapsed into silence.

“Are you okay?” Octavia asked, already knowing the answer. Of course she wasn’t. The idiot had jumped headlong back into a situation that she had even less business being part of than Octavia did, and now she had no way out.

“Fine, I guess. Kinda wishing things had gone down differently. Already missing Crazy Horse and home and all that.”

Octavia was silent, unsure of what to say. Looking at Vinyl, all the platitudes that came to mind felt meaningless.

“You know I almost had a new album finished and ready to drop? It was gonna be bucking awesome.”

“Well, then I guess there is that much, at least.”

“Huh?”

“The Empire has been temporarily spared another musical travesty.” Vinyl did not so much launch the stone as gently lob it with her magic, but it still proved quite difficult to catch. “Please, Vinyl. Do not damage the magical relic simply because you cannot handle the truth. It is not my fault you did not bother learning a real instrument.”

“Don’t gimme that, lil’ miss fancy pony.” She grinned broadly and continued, “I remember you bobbing along to Neon’s tracks. Kinda puts your impeccable taste into question.”

“I am not convinced.” Octavia glanced at her cello case thoughtfully. She had been slacking, and the chance to decompress and organize her thoughts sounded nice. “Would you like to hear some real music? If you listen long enough, perhaps you will actually learn something.”

Vinyl faux yawned. “I dunno. Kinda worn out from explaining all that magic stuff to you. You’d probably put me to sleep.”

“Well, I can always go play in one of the other cabins and leave this one all to you.” She actually felt a little guilty when she saw Vinyl twitch nervously, the continued tease taking her a moment to register.

“Nah, that’s fine. It’s fine. I’ll find some way to survive watching you saw at a hunk of wood.” Still, she smiled as she laid down, watching Octavia situate herself.

Octavia smiled back as she began to play.

~~~~~

Lyra stretched out on her bed, clenching her eyes tightly as a defense against the brilliant station light streaming through her window. A pleased noise escaped from her as she twisted and contorted, stretching muscles she hadn’t even realized were stiff. For the first time in what seemed like years, she actually felt rested.

Despite Sombra’s lunch invitation being on the later side, she craned her neck in an effort to glance at the wall clock just outside the doorway. For all she knew, she had already slept most of the day away. The idea didn’t bother her as much as she would have suspected. To Tartarus with this entire mess. She had done enough for Shimmer.

In fact, Lyra had probably done too much for her. Letting herself believe, even for a moment, that Shimmer was anything other than the same self-centered mare she had always been had been a mistake. It was good that Octavia was off the station without Shimmer’s pet guard watching over her. Shimmer was a tool in both senses of the word, and Lyra had taken her further than she deserved to go. Maybe she’d finally take the fall she deserved.

She finally caught sight of the clock: about two hours left. Good. While she was fairly sure she had no interest in working with Sombra either, telling him that to his face and standing him up were two very different things that would undoubtedly have unique consequence. Unlike Shimmer, maybe he could be reasonable if she was.

Lyra washed and groomed herself lazily, relishing the lightness that permeated her body. All she had really needed to do was rethink the situation.

Before setting out, she gathered a few of the books scattered about the apartment. While she wasn’t ready to actually work with Sombra, she could at least give him a few of her preferred titles. It would make a good impression and, even if he really was a danger to the Elements, then it wouldn’t be anything he couldn’t have eventually gotten himself.

The walk to Le Grand’s proved pleasant enough, the station’s lunch traffic already waning and the environmental systems producing a gentle breeze that swept through the tier, bringing with it the scent of fresh flowers. The ponies at the door offered to take her bag from her, but she declined, allowing herself to be escorted to one of the more isolated, private tables on the second floor.

Sombra sat against the wall at a corner table, staring thoughtfully into space. His eyes focused on her after a moment and he nodded, indicating the maître d' could leave them as he stood up. “Good afternoon, Lyra.”

“You too.”

His horn glowed, the crimson magic surrounding the chair opposite him and pulling it away from the table. “Please, have a seat. It may be a bit forward, but I’ve taken the liberty of ordering for us. The chef is quite prone to running out of ingredients for the daily special, and I would hate to miss out. His ratatouille is absolutely wonderous.”

“Oh! No, that’s fine! I just, um...” Lyra mumbled before trailing off, finding simultaneously answering him and seating herself to be surprisingly difficult. She had wanted the chance to speak first. ”Before we start, I just wanted to say—”

“Let me guess: You still aren’t sure if you want to work with me, right?” Sombra had a very handsome smile, with brilliant white teeth that shone brightly against his dark coat. Before she could answer, he continued, “Don’t worry. While I had hoped for a different answer, I’m not really surprised. Between our past relationship and the rumors that you’ve undoubtedly heard, I can’t blame you for being careful.” He laughed. “It does, ironically, make me want you working with me all the more. I appreciate caution and intelligence. Too many ponies seem to lack both.”

“I am sorry. I just… need more time to think. It’s been a very rough week and I’ve had a lot on my mind.” Levitating the bag towards him, she snapped the latches on it. “Since you said you preferred books to files, I thought I could at least bring you a few that I had on loan from the Stacks. A token of goodwill, I suppose.”

His magic overtook hers as he emptied the bag neatly on the corner of the table, leaving enough room for the waiter to silently provide them with sparkling water. “I certainly appreciate that. I must say, it has been fairly difficult to do my own research considering they had apparently already loaned you every single book I wanted.”

A nervous chuckle escaped from Lyra.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

She shook her head.

“While we spoke about the Elements at length yesterday, I never did ask you the most important question: do you actually believe in them?”

“What?” She cocked her head as she stared at the unicorn.

“I was just curious what you thought of the Elements.” To her surprise, he sighed. “While I have managed to convince most of the Council to support my efforts to find them, I feel very few of them have any real belief in the Elements. They think they are simply relics of a bygone age, magical trinkets made by primitive ponies. They believe in them the same way they believe in Alicorns: a part of our past created by those who didn’t know any better. Stories. Reality twisted and turned and retold until it had been contorted into mythology.” His smile thinned slightly. “I suspect they are simply humoring me in exchange for my future support on their little projects.”

For once Lyra wished that it had been a phantasmal memory that floated to the surface instead of a real one. If she didn’t believe, what she had done to Vinyl and Octavia had been unimaginably cruel. “I do believe in them.” After a moment, she smiled and added, “I believe in Alicorns, too.”

“Truly?”

She thought back to her visions. She had never really not believed, per se, but the answer had seemed so much less obvious back then. “Yes, I think so.”

He laughed, a surprisingly deep and rich sound. “It’s rare and welcome treat to meet somepony who can say that with a straight face. The belief that we understand everything, that the Empire is the greatest power in the universe, will be our downfall. The Empire needs ponies like us.”

“Apparently not,” Lyra said, the words slipping out of her. She regretted them instantly as silence descended over the table, sustained uncomfortably by the arrival of the waiter with a pair of steaming plates. The wondrous scent of spiced vegetables helped ease the tension, but not by as much as she hoped.

“Once again, I am sorry about what happened to you.”

The apology he’d offered to her yesterday floated to the surface of her thoughts. She wanted to keep hating him, but he’d raised so many good points. The council had never been her priority. Maybe it really did make sense that she had been the one replaced. She speared a slice of zucchini with a fork and took an experimental bite.

“Times do change, though, and I find adversity makes us stronger.” He took a bite from his own plate and savored it for a long moment. “While I do miss food from the Crystal Station, Le Grand quite makes up for it. What do you think?”

“It’s really good,” she said, taking a larger, less cautious bite. The stallion certainly had good taste.

The smile broadened a little. “I know it is probably precious little comfort, but I think your hardships have served you well. You seem stronger. Smarter. You know what you want. You’re interested in the well-being of the Empire and worry about what threatens it. You’d make a good councilor now.”

“What?” Lyra gasped.

“Just what I said. Were there a seat free, I think the Empire would benefit from you returning to the Council.” He drained the last of his water while Lyra sputtered. “That isn’t to say there’s a seat opening anytime soon, but it’s something worth thinking about.”

She tried to think of an appropriate response as she chugged her own water, struggling to clear her throat.

“Are you all right?”

“Just a little food went the wrong way is all,” she finally managed, taking a deep breath. He had surprised her. For just a moment she had suspected he was actually offering her a seat.

“Please be careful. Not only would it be a true shame to lose a mind as sharp as yours, but I can hardly bear to imagine the sort of rumors that would begin to circulate were you to die at a meal with me.”

Lyra couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Assassination of a former rival, the elimination of another competitor for the Elements, thinning out your enemies, and probably everypony here ready to cover it up with you.”

“Please, don’t,” he moaned theatrically, bowing his head to her. “It is already hard enough to deal with what the newsponies come up with. Did you know that I apparently have absolute control over both the Council and their Guard? And that, once I’ve secured my position, I plan to dissolve the Council and install myself as the ruler of the Empire?” He gestured for the waiter to come over to the table. “If only things were actually that simple. I would probably get quite a bit more done.”

For just a moment Sombra seemed like a very tired pony – a rival for how Lyra had felt this past week – but it vanished as the waiter approached, vanishing behind a confident smile. “Lyra, would you be willing to share a glass of wine with me? Something sweet to soothe the bite of Le Grand’s ratatouille sounds nice and I would hate to drink alone.”

She nodded. It did sound like a nice way to end the meal.

“Two glasses of Saturnes, please.” After a moment of thought, he added, “And two eclairs.”

“That might be a little much for me at lunch.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I only offered you a glass of wine, Lyra.”

She laughed. “Fair. Fair, Sombra. I suppose that is all you did.” The laughter slowly died away as she stared at him. “Could I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you want the Elements?”

“To conquer the Empire, drive my enemies before me, and hear the lamentations of their mares, of course. At least, that’s what I hear ponies saying.” The exhaustion broke through his mask again. “I want to protect the Empire, Lyra. So many ponies believe we’re the strongest, most terrifying force in the universe. But we aren’t. Just ten years ago ponies believed that the Changelings were nothing more than stories, and my people paid the price for it.”

She found herself nodding along with him.

“I worry about what other ‘myths’ might be out there, lurking just beyond the edge of civilization.” He shook his head. “It is said that the Elements will appear when ponies need them. Did you know that?”

“I did.”

“Then you understand my concern.”

“I do. I don’t think just having the Elements is enough, though.”

For the first time in their conversation, Sombra was the one taken aback. “Why? Do you doubt their power?”

“No, no, nothing like that. I think that the Elements are more than the stones, though. Those are simply magical conduits. Powerful, but nothing much more than what we already have. The real Elements, the true power, are their bearers.” It took her a moment to realize what she’d said, but she felt surprisingly little regret at having said it. She wasn’t really telling him anything dangerous, and maybe learning about her theories would do some good. “I think only certain ponies can wield the Elements at their full power.”

Sombra studied her silently as their dishes were cleared and the desserts placed in front of them. “What makes you say that?” he finally asked, his crimson magic pushing one of the two plates the waiter had brought closer to her. “Would you like to try one of the eclairs?”

Shaking her head, she settled for the wine, allowing the wonderfully cool sweetness to flow through her. This all felt so normal. So wonderful. So reassuring. She was at lunch with another pony, talking about her work and her studies. She hadn’t even hallucinated once this whole meal. Even if it did turn out Sombra was a masterful villain playing her for the fool, this glimmer of normalcy was a welcome relief. “It’s just a theory, of course, but I think it’s sound. You’re familiar with the stories that don’t involve the Two Sisters, right? The ones with regular ponies who found the Elements and used them to defend Equestria?”

He nodded, savoring one of the sweet pastries as he listened.

“Well, if you compare their feats to those of the Two Sisters, the Alicorns honestly come up a little short. Nightmare Moon is the most egregious case: with the backing of Alicorn magic, Celestia was only able to banish Nightmare Moon. Six random ponies, however? They were able to purge her completely. Even when they fought Discord, they were able to achieve the exact same effect as Celestia and Luna.”

“I never considered that,” he mumbled. “It is quite strange that a ragtag assortment of ponies could trump an Alicorn. Still, it may just be the prerogative of the storytellers, no? Something about the strength of the equine spirit and how it is able to surpass all?”

“It could, but it would be an unusual choice. I can’t think of any mythologies that treat the Alicorns as anything other than the ultimate representation of ponykind. Further, consider the very fact that the stones are not only separate pieces, but assigned individual qualities. If we consider the nature of magic—”

“Then it would follow that individual Elements would be best suited for use by individual ponies. Interesting.” He ate the second eclair slowly, staring somewhere beyond Lyra. “Very interesting. But how would you find the right ponies?”

Another long drink helped Lyra form her thoughts. “I suspect that, given time, they’ll find each other. In the end, they are six parts of singular whole. They want to be together.”

Sombra nodded. “That’s certainly an intriguing idea. One I would certainly love to discuss further.” He drained his own glass and sighed. “Unfortunately, the Council beckons. There are probably a hundred messages waiting for me that I will have to find time to answer before I drown in meetings. Would you like to join me again tomorrow? Meeting with you is an excellent way to put off other, much less pleasant, obligations.”

Lyra barely hesitated. “I think I’d like that.”

Chapter 11 - Ponyville

Vinyl sighed, staring at the tiny plastic tiles in front of her as the other two mares chatted, laughed, and, continued winning this stupid game. Unfortunately, while she considered a lot of things better than sitting here, eating fake oats, and staring at these stupid tiles with their baffling rules, moping alone in the cabin wasn’t one of them.

“Your turn, Vinyl!” Octavia said, smiling brightly.

Her magic flickered as she wrapped it around one of the tiles and stood it up in front of her, struggling to remember the multitude of different hooves the two of them had tried to tell her she could build. Something about amassing flower tiles sounded familiar, so she discarded one of her rock tiles to the central stack.

“Yay!” Ditzy chirped, collecting the tile before it had settled on the table. “That is exactly what I needed!” She shuffled her tiles enthusiastically for a moment before returning one to the central pile and smiling. “You’ve really never played before, have you?”

“Wonderful,” Vinyl grumbled, not bothering to try and conceal her annoyance.

“You should never discard the Six of Stones unless it’s a final play,” Octavia offered. “It is the core of some of the strongest hooves you can make.”

“Great. Glad to know.” She prodded at the tiny – and quickly shrinking – stack of cookies sitting next to her tiles with a hoof. The only edible thing on the entire ship and Tavi and Ditzy had decided they wanted to use them for this stupid game.

“So, Ditzy, you were saying that they actually kicked you out of the Wonderbolts Academy?” Octavia asked, resuming their previous conversation.

“Well, not literally kicked. More just politely told that I might want to consider other professions. Or trade schools. Or stations to live on. Or empires to be a citizen of.” Ditzy grinned as she pushed a tile to the center of the table. “It worked out, though! I don’t think I would’ve liked being part of the Wonderbolts. As an independent, I get to make my own hours, choose my own jobs, and Drifter here gets to be my home.”

Vinyl’s stomach lurched as her chair wobbled slightly in response to Ditzy’s enthusiastic stomp on the floor.

“You actually live here? On the ship?” Octavia asked.

“Yeah. Pretty great, isn’t it?”

“Well, it certainly compares quite favorably to my unit in Manehattan.” Octavia smiled, quickly drawing and discarding a tile. “Your turn again, Vinyl.”

“Yeah, yeah, I figured that much out at least.” Vinyl wanted to just fold, go back to the cabin, and do something besides play this stupid game or listen to their pilot gleefully describe exactly how many accidents she’d had in flight school, but, if she did, she’d probably be doing it alone. While the last two days hadn’t been pleasant, they’d at least been bearable when it was just her and Tavi chatting or musicing or watching the tablet.

“Don’t get me wrong. I had to do a lot of work to poor Drifter here to get him up to speed and make him livable, but I enjoyed every minute of it. He’s not perfect or anything, but, well, neither am I! Besides, how many ponies get to combine the joys of travel with all the comforts of home?”

“I am a little jealous of you, Ditzy. I always liked the idea of travelling the Empire, bringing my music from station to station, absorbing the serene beauty of space between shows… The view from the cockpit really is incredible. Hundreds and thousands of lights painted over a perfect black.”

“I wish there were a nebula or something along the way to show you. If you like the stars, that’d totally wow you.”

Flattening her ears to muffle the conversation, Vinyl tried to focus on her turn instead of the endless emptiness that was only a few sheets of metal away. “Yes, great, wonderful stuff out in the vacuum of space,” she mumbled, drawing and then discarding a tile at random.

“Still feeling a little spacesick, huh?” Ditzy asked.

“Among other things.” She didn’t need to look to feel the sympathetic look from Tavi. The fact that she seemed to have humiliated herself time and time again since they first met was not making her feel better.

Ditzy tipped her tiles over, grinning broadly as she arranged them. “I’ll call here. Six stone with a full garden.”

Octavia shook her head and then pushed her tiles to the center. “Damnation. I would have had that one if you hadn’t gotten the Six of Stones.” After passing a trio of cookies to Ditzy, Tavi nudged Vinyl in the side. “I need to teach you to play. Or, at least, make you sit on the other side of me.”

Before Vinyl could snap something back, the lights flashed red and wailing siren sounded, flooding the room with noise and causing her heart to skip as panic seized her, her body going rigid and her mind going blank as she struggled to breathe.

“Ah! We’re almost to Ponyville, it sounds like!” Ditzy yelled, hopping out of her seat. “Sorry! The intercom’s been a bit broken lately, so I re-routed the auto-pilot announcements through the alarm system!”

Vinyl managed something like a real breath.

“Though, I guess that doesn’t actually preclude it being a real emergency! Pretty sure it’s just letting us know we’re like an hour out of Ponyville, but I should really check on that.” The sheepish grin she offered as she rushed out of the room did nothing to help.

Avoiding passing out was the important thing. All she had to do was breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, focus on the rhythm and ignore—

“I’m sure everything really is fine,” Tavi said, putting a leg around her.

The next breath came a little easier. “Y-Yeah.” The pounding of her heart in her ears was still nearly drowning out the siren, but she could at least make out individual beats. Tavi was right. They were supposed to get to Ponyville soon and the idiot probably would link her systems like that. Focus on the rhythm. Breathe in, breathe out.

After a moment, the lights went white and the wailing siren was replaced by the crackling and half-garbled sound of Ditzy on the speakers, “Yep! Just like I thought! We’re nearly—” The speaker’s shriek was earsplitting and nearly sent Vinyl into another panic attack, “And yeah, intercom is still messed up. We’ll have to finish our game later. Need to take us in manually!”

A few more deep breaths and the panic was nearly gone.

“Feeling better?” Octavia asked.

Vinyl nodded, her face warming as embarrassment cut through the last of the fear. “Thanks,” she mumbled as Tavi pulled her leg back.

“Well, it at least makes me feel a little less guilty for forcing you to suffer through several hands of Marejong with barely any idea of how to play,” Tavi teased. “Do you have it in you to call Mister Rich? We should let him know we will be arriving shortly.”

It took a moment for the statement to register as a request. “Huh? Oh, yeah, definitely, I can call him. You got the tablet?”

She nodded, placing it in front of Vinyl.

It took a few moments for Filthy to answer, but he managed right before she hung up. “Hello?” He grunted, barely even looking at the screen as he fixed his tie.

“Yo, Filthy.”

His grimace faded. “Ah, Vinyl. And Miss Melody. My apologies. I thought you were Flim or Flam.” His sigh said all it needed to. “Sorry I haven’t had the opportunity to call. We’ve been dealing with some big shipments to Las Pegasus Station, renegotiating contracts in Manehattan, and few other big things, so those two have been really cracking the whip.”

“No prob, no prob. Just wanted to let you know we’re like an hour out from Ponyville.”

“You are?” He looked down for a second, then shook his head. “That’s unfortunate. I mean, I would still be more than happy to meet with you and Miss Octavia, but I forgot a storm week was starting. It’s why we’ve been running around like mad trying to make sure we got this shipment out.”

Vinyl frowned. “Storm week?”

“It happens every few months on the agricultural stations,” Octavia answered. “Cloudsdale exports some of their fiercest storms and lets them run wild on the station for a few days. The station, in turn, collects the excess water and electricity to supplement the station’s systems and make it easier and cheaper to maintain.”

“So what’s that got to do with anything?”

Octavia shook her head. “It will be raining nonstop the entire week.”

“And? Afraid to get your mane wet or something, Tavi? It rains on Manehattan too, you know.”

“Not like this it doesn’t,” Filthy said. “I am really sorry. Completely forgot about it between everything else that was going on. You’re still welcome to come by and we can talk to a few potentials and dig through some records together, but you’d have to walk. They take the trains offline while the storms are loose.”

Vinyl shrugged and glanced at Octavia. “I’m cool hoofing it. Beats just waiting around here, right?”

Octavia stayed silent for a long moment. “As much as I loathe the idea,” she finally said, “I really cannot afford to waste time. Could you please send us a map of the station, Mister Rich?”

“Of course, Octavia. Just a little tip: you’ll want to cut through the greendome. I’m pretty much on the opposite end of the station from the docks. Have you made lodging arrangements?”

Vinyl stared blankly at the tablet. “Uh… you know, didn’t really think about that one.”

“I assumed we would simply stay on the Drifter with Ditzy,” Octavia said.

“That won’t do. I can’t have one of my biggest buyers and her friend stuck trudging back across the station during a storm to sleep in a ship. Why don’t you stay with me? It isn’t much, but I could certainly put both of you up for a night or two.”

“We’ll take you up on that, Filthy!” Vinyl said before Octavia could get a polite word in edgewise. The more time off the ship, the better.

Filthy shook his head, but managed a small smile at Octavia. “I will see to it that things are ready for you. Is there anything else you’ll need?”

“Dinner’d be good!” Vinyl interjected.

“We are fine,” Octavia said. “You are already doing more than enough for us.“

Filthy suddenly jerked his head back towards a noise, then rolled his eyes. “Looks like I need to get back to work. I will try to wrap up quickly so that I can greet you properly. Otherwise, I’ll make sure the door is unlocked and the two of you can just make yourselves at home.”

“Awesome! Thanks a million, Filthy!” She shut the tablet off and grinned at Octavia, who had a look prepared for her. “Oh come on. Both of you were complaining about the rain, so it just makes sense to crash with him.”

“There’s a difference between worrying about a storm and imposing on somepony who’s already doing us a favor.”

Vinyl snorted. “He owes me. I’ve probably spent more Bits with him than anypony else in the Empire. The least he could do is give us a bed for a couple nights.”

“And you are really not worried about endangering him?” Octavia asked, causing Vinyl to hesitate. “Even if we are not listed as the Empire’s most wanted, I cannot imagine the Council Guard being particularly gentle with anyone they suspect has seen us, let alone harbored us.”

“You really think they’d arrest him or something?”

She shrugged. “I honestly do not know, but I do worry about it. Ditzy at least understands the situation, but we are basically blindsiding Mister Rich.” Leaning back on her seat, she sighed. “But I will admit, I also don’t like the idea of having to make the same trip twice in one day. I suppose it should be fine, so long as we keep our heads down and don’t overstay our welcome.”

“Yeah,” Vinyl agreed hesitantly. “You think they’d be able to find us that quickly, though?”

“I hope not. But running to a station at the far edge of the Empire also seems like something they might predict.” She lapsed into silence, suddenly intent on cleaning up the game on the table.

“We could tell him, if you want. He’s a good pony.” Vinyl levitated a bunch of the tiles into a stack near Octavia. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t turn us over. I mean, absolute worst case, we let him know at the first sign of trouble and tell him to just sell us out, right? We’d have time to run ‘cause we knew it was coming and Sombra would probably give him a medal or something.”

“Possibly.” She pushed the little tower Vinyl had made into the game’s case, then returned it to the drawer Ditzy had pulled it from. “Come on. We should make sure we’re ready to leave as soon as we dock.”

~~~~~

Frowning as she stared out from under the dock’s alcove, Vinyl had come to understand why both Filthy and Tavi had been total foals about the whole storm week thing. “This is not rain.”

“This is what it looks like before the pegasi bring those nice, tired clouds to the larger stations.”

While Vinyl had been quite happy to finally set hoof on a station again, that joy had faded pretty fast the instant she saw that the area inside the dome seemed to consist of nothing more than an endless sheet of water down from thick, black clouds. Even after removing her shades, she could barely make out the dark, squat shapes of what must have been buildings and the faint – and depressingly distant – glow of the smaller dome that apparently housed all the plants and stuff.

“It too late to change my mind and say we should wait on the ship until this finishes?”

“Yes. Besides, it is called storm week for a reason. We would be waiting for quite a while.” Octavia still hesitated as she stared out into the station proper, watching the thick clouds churning above them. “I don’t suppose you are able to make a magical umbrella or something similar?”

Vinyl grinned. “That I can. A totally awesome one.” Concentrating, she manifested a thin, slightly curved sheet of magical energy above her, then ran a much more complicated spell through the magical energy. After checking to make sure the secondary spell was complete, she stepped out into the rain, turning back to watch Tavi’s expression as the rain hit the surface of the magical energy. Each of the dozens upon dozens of drops that hit it caused ripples of brilliant, multicolor light to course through it, transforming the world around her into something resembling a kaleidoscope.

Right as Octavia started to open her mouth, the second part of the spell kicked in, silencing her as the rhythmic pounding of the rain melded with a series of harmonic thrums that synced perfectly to the frantic light.

Vinyl beamed as Tavi just stood and stared at the spectacle. “So? Most awesome umbrella you’ve ever seen, right?”

“Yes. It’s beautiful,” Tavi said. “I didn’t know you could do something like that.”

The weeks she spent working on that spell felt totally worth it in that moment. “I told you when you asked about magic: I’m a pro with light and sound.”

“Apparently.” Octavia offered her a smile as she continued, “You might want to tone it down a little, though. We are trying to lay low.”

“Heh. Right. Gotcha.” Vinyl pulled the sound element completely, then simplified the light, leaving the magical sheer glowing just enough to pierce the misty darkness around them. “Better?”

“Much. Could you make it a bit bigger though?”

Viny laughed uncomfortably. “Nope. That’s about as big as it goes.”

“You can make it musical, you can make it glow, but you can’t make it big enough for two ponies to stand comfortably under?” Octavia asked, her amazement apparently fading.

Sidestepping, Vinyl waved a hoof in the empty space next to her. “Check it! There’s totally enough room for two ponies!”

Tavi sighed and shook her head. “I suppose we should be glad Ditzy preferred to stay on the ship while we took care of our business.”

Actually walking proved much harder than Vinyl had expected, since “room for two ponies” proved kinda exact, forcing the two of them to lean into each other to stay mostly dry. Unfortunately, that also meant they spent a lot of time stumbling over each other’s hooves, accidentally bumping each other, and struggling to match pace. Worse, after just a couple minutes of walking through the cramped, maze-like alleys between the short, squat buildings that made up Ponyville, Vinyl’d completely lost track of where they were.

Octavia seemed to have some idea of where she was going, at least, but even she had to stop every few moments, look around, and occasionally completely change direction.

“Are you absolutely sure you cannot make the umbrella any larger, Vinyl?” she grumbled after the third reversal, her wet tail slapping against Vinyl’s legs as the two bumped into each other again. Despite Vinyl’s best efforts, between the water running off the edges of the magical umbrella and the puddles collecting on the ground, they were still getting soaked.

“Yes, I’m sure! I go any bigger, I’m likely to drop the whole spell on accident.”

“Seriously, Vinyl. How is it possible that you can transform it into a musical light show, but not make it just a little bit bigger?”

“Look, do you want to try making the magical umbrella, Tavi?” Vinyl snapped. Even making it this big was straining her abilities and making her regret how many classes she’d skipped, slept through, or just plain ignored. “I’m just not good at this sorta magic, ‘kay?”

A look of annoyance briefly crossed her face before she simply sighed and leaned further into Vinyl, trying to keep as much of herself out of the rain as possible. “Then could you at least try to keep pace with me? It is hard to keep adjusting my speed to match you.”

“I’m trying! It’s hard to conjure this stupid thing, keep up with you, and watch where I’m going, okay?” Vinyl shuddered as her hoof went straight into a puddle of icy water, drenching her chest and belly. “Seriously, buck this! Can’t bucking see, the walkways are a bucking maze, it’s bucking freezing out, and we’re basically bucking swimming! How do these ponies deal with this bull?”

“We usually just took the week off, stayed inside, piled on the blankets, and hoped we didn’t need to leave the unit.”

It took a moment to pierce Vinyl’s growing frustration, but she she eventually glanced over at Tavi, the little clues clicking into place. “You from here?”

Octavia shook her head gently, cringing as her bangs plastered themselves to her face with a wet smack. “No, but I am from an agriculture station. Trottingham. I only moved to Manehattan a few years ago.”

“Huh. I wouldn’t have guessed. You don’t seem like it.” She hesitated, the words not sounding quite right in her head. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being from one of the little stations way out on the edges. Just, you know, it’s all farm ponies and stuff out here, ain’t it?” The stare Octavia was giving her indicated that that had not really been a better clarification. “I just mean that you’re pretty damn classy and—”

“Your ability to continue speaking with your hoof inserted so deeply in your mouth is impressive.”

“Okay. Look. I just think of the snobs as coming from the big stations. Nothing says you can’t be a snob all the way out here too. Just didn’t think about it, that’s all.” As she spoke, she slowly shifted the umbrella to her side, giving Octavia less and less room to avoid getting wet. To Vinyl’s surprise, the mare simply shoulder-checked her, almost sending her sprawling and certainly sending her out into the rain. “Oh buck you, Tavi!” she shouted, as she threw herself back under the cover, her coat and mane already drenched from the few seconds of exposure.

“I believe you were asking for it, Vinyl,” Octavia said, her quiet chuckle barely audible over the pouring rain. “Anyhow, how would you know what ponies outside of Manehattan are like? Have you even left the station before?”

“Hey, I’ve been off Manehattan!” Even if she couldn’t see Tavi’s face, she could feel the mare’s disbelieving look. “A couple times when I was a filly, okay? My folks took me. I like it in Manehattan, and, in case you didn’t notice, me and shuttles don’t get along too well.”

“Be careful about the assumptions you make, then. The Empire is a very big place with a lot of different ponies, many of whom I imagine will not be as understanding of your particular quirks and idiosyncrasies as I am.”

Vinyl ran a foreleg across her face, trying to clear the water from her eyes while she considered dropping the umbrella completely. There’d be Tartarus to pay after, but it’d almost be worth it to wipe that smug – if kinda cute – smile off Tavi’s face. “You know, I sorta figured you’d be in a worse mood ‘cause of the rain.”

“I did too.” Tavi stopped walking, staring up at the rain. “There is something pleasantly nostalgic about all this, though. The smell of storms and mulch, the biting chill in the air, the rhythm of the falling rain…” She took a deep breath, her smile widening. “It really does make me think about home. I—”

“You…?” Vinyl asked. For the briefest moment she was sure she saw Tavi’s eyes flash violet, then the mare collapsed, hitting the floor with all the grace of a drunk who’d long since passed their limit.

Chapter 12 - Instability

Doctor Hooves trotted through Eons Square, basking in the flashing neon lights that illuminated the tier. Massive screens built into the sides of the buildings allowed ENN to silently entertain the ponies who still found themselves out at these hours, and, of course, encourage them to stay out just a bit later and keep spending their Bits. It would be nice if things were so easy for everypony in the Empire.

Hooves allowed the thought to linger as he sat against a railing, rubbing his eyes tiredly. It had already been a long day , and he still had quite a bit to do before it could end.

Like making sure Lyra was still in good health.

He was sure her request for help had been related to the same plot that Octavia had gotten tangled in. Unfortunately, she had completely ignored his replies to her request, which, combined with rumors of unicorns brawling in the upper tier, concerned him. But too much speculation was a waste of time.

The best thing he could do is make sure she had been back to her apartment recently. If she had, he could force a direct meeting to figure out what had been happening, and if she hadn’t… Well, there were other ponies he would have to talk to. Then he could decide what to do.

Stifling a yawn and adjusting his cap, he got up and continued across the plaza. This new maintenance uniform was stuffy and meant for a smaller stallion, but the discomfort more than paid for the relative invisibility the outfit provided. Why bother with the danger of getting caught sneaking around when the right outfit and a hacked BitCard could get him almost anywhere?

Like most of the apartment complexes in the upper tier, Lyra’s featured was a service entrance hidden behind the greenery of the tiny gardens they insisted on maintaining. He’d planned on getting in that way, but hesitated as he trotted past a pair of unicorns sitting on a bench, chatting loudly. It was the slightest thing, but he was sure that, for just a moment, their conversation had hitched as they watched him.

That didn’t make sense. A pair of stallions chatting hoofball late at night shouldn’t have cared about an earth pony laborer coming by to fix some thing or another. He couldn’t be sure, of course, but experience tended to refine instinct.

Hooves whistled cheerfully as he pushed the trellis aside to reveal the door, fishing a ring of key fobs out his pocket at the same time, only to drop them on the grass. He sighed heavily as he bent down to retrieve them, using the movement to glance at the building’s darkly mirrored surface.

Despite the continued sound of conversation behind him, the two ponies were indeed watching him with interest.

He groaned as he stood back up, waving the ring dramatically at the door. One of the many devices on it was a magitech skeleton key, but he ignored the gentle click of the lock disengaging, instead waving the ring in front of the lock a few more times. Finally, he hit the door with his hoof. “Celestia damn it! Is this stupid thing busted too?” he growled, turning quickly.

It really cheered him when the two unicorns snapped back to facing each other at record speed.

“Hey, ‘scuse me gents. So sorry to bother you, but this is the Nebulae Building, right?” Hooves asked, adding a little bass to his voice.

“What?” one of the stallions asked, taken aback at the sudden address.

The other sighed and shook his head. “No. This is Equestria Gardens. You’re on the wrong side of the station. Stupid groundling.” He barely put any effort into lowering his voice for the last part, garnering a laugh from his friend.

“Seriously? Damn. Thanks, gents!” Hooves said, smiling tiredly and giving the pair a polite little bow before he trotted off. He should have known better than to let his guard down where Sombra was concerned. Lyra had gotten involved, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she’d be put under watch. And now that he knew to look for it, it was patently obvious that a number of the ponies around the building were plainclothes guards.

They might not have been the best or brightest Manehattan had to offer, but they had him at a severe disadvantage. Getting inside would be no trouble, but he doubted he’d be able to get near Lyra’s unit without incident.

Plan B, then. If he couldn’t talk to Lyra about the current situation, then he would just ask somepony else.

On the off-chance that somepony had taken the initiative to follow him, he wasted an hour doubling back and hopping a few trains, before finally taking the long way around to the backside of the Heights. The emergency lift was hidden down an alley and behind a false wall, but easy to access as long as you knew it was there. The real difficulty would be if too many of the passcodes he knew had been purged.

He let out his breath as the console accepted his third entry and started to move. Thank Celestia for the stupid, the lazy, and the overconfident. He’d have have had the passcodes purged weekly. Or, at the least, installed cameras.

Hooves strolled confidently down the nearly deserted roadways. Councilor Shimmer’s home was only a few buildings away from the lift, but he made a point of stopping to inspect a few circuit boards along the way. The chances of running into anypony – let alone a guard – up here this late was slim, but it wouldn’t hurt to look like he was here for a reason. An ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure, after all.

His hoof pressed the intercom at the gate to Shimmer’s home.

“What is it?” she growled after a moment.

“Excuse me, Councilor Shimmer. I’m sorry to bother you this late, but I was running some routine checks and noticed that the the flow of magic to your home seems to be low. Were you having any problems?”

The speaker crackled for a moment. “Is that you, Hooves?”

“If you are having any trouble, I’d be happy to come in and see what I could do to fix it.”

The intercom went silent for a moment before the door unlocked.

He found the councilor sitting at a table in her main room. She reminded him a little of the other ponies he had met recently, looking ragged, worn, and like the station was imploding around her. “Good evening, Councilor Shimmer.”

“Why in Tartarus are you here, Hooves?” she snarled. “I thought you were done once you delivered the groundling to us.”

“Miss Heartstrings asked—” He cringed as her hooves slammed into the table, adding to the scratches and scuffs that already adorned it, but he continued, undeterred by her glare, “She asked me for a little help. Unfortunately, I’ve had trouble getting in contact with her and, when I went to visit her, I found that the entire building was being watched. I was hoping you might be able to tell me what was happening.”

For a moment it looked like she might throw him out, but she deflated, her annoyance giving way to tired resignation. “Fine. What’s the worst that could happen at this point?”

The story she told him was a little hard to believe, but it had the general shape of the truth. At the very least, it matched with the sequence of events as he’d seen them and the logic all followed. Sombra had never seemed like the pony to waste effort chasing something he wasn’t sure of, and, while Trixie was little more than a hammer he could easily swing in the direction of anything that annoyed him, using her just to disturb the peace and hunt down a random earth pony didn’t seem like something he would do, even as a distraction.

“You really believe that stone was one of the Elements of Harmony?”

Shimmer shrugged. “I don’t know, but Sombra seems to believe so, and that’s enough for me. I really can’t imagine this is all some clever ruse. The only thing it’d achieve is getting rid of me or Fancy or anypony else we could convince that were the better bet, and he has much more efficient ways of doing that. He has to believe in the stones.” Something between a sigh and a growl escaped her. “Besides, he’s apparently recruited Lyra to his side now, and, as of right this second, she probably knows more about the damn things than anypony in the Empire.”

Hooves nodded. His understanding of the current council situation supported that as well. Of the thirteen councilors, at least eight were decidedly aligned with Sombra. Which left two against him in the form of Shimmer and Fancy Pants, and three unaccounted for. Any real opposition wouldn’t be too hard for him to silence and, eventually, remove. “It sounds like you’ve gotten yourself into quite an awkward situation.”

With her horn flaring, Shimmer glared. “If you are not going to be helpful, then you can get out of my home, Hooves.”

Even under the heat of her anger, his expression remained serene. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help. I am just trying to assess the situation. Are you sure she’s joined him? I heard he’d asked to meet with her, but—”

“No, I’m not. But she’s not answering any of my calls or messages either. Either she’s really upset with me or she’s not getting them.”

“Given her building is under surveillance, I wouldn’t be shocked if her network connection was being filtered too. She hasn’t answered any of my messages either.”

“Makes sense,” Shimmer said, snorting bitterly. “Everything’s going perfectly for that bastard right now. I’m losing Lyra, Fancy’s second-guessing himself, and I doubt that groundling’ll last long without Flash watching out for her.”

Hooves frowned. “What happened to Flash?”

“Oh, right. I didn’t mention that part, did I? Trixie jumped them on their way to the docks. Flash took the worst of it straight on.” She shook her head. “She blasted him through a railing and off a tier. He got lucky and managed to stabilize well enough to hit the next ramp down. Two broken legs, some fractured ribs, a concussion, and a shattered wing, but, hey, he’s alive. And completely out of commission.”

“Did you report it?”

“Of course not!” she snapped. “What am I supposed to say? He attacked the commander of the Council Guard to stop her from arresting some groundling? I barely have any support left in the council as is! I can’t afford to lose any more of it.”

He watched the magic gathering around her horn carefully. “Easy, Shimmer.”

“How am I supposed to take it easy, Hooves? The one pony I could count on in this damned station is hospitalized, the pony who knows the most about the Elements is schmoozing with Sombra, and the groundling I stupidly entrusted that Celestia-forsaken rock to is now on the far edges of the Empire without anypony watching her.” Magic continued to gather around her horn as she raged, her hoof slamming into the floor with a thunderous crack.

Hooves edged back slightly. While he doubted she’d lash out magically because she was angry, the gap between “doubt” and “certainty” was large enough to warrant caution. “This isn’t like you, Shimmer.”

“Of course it isn’t like me, you insufferable ass. I’m not having a very good time right now.” The magic around her horn faded into the air as she breathed out. “I underestimated Sombra, every bucking step of the way. I never should have supported his rise to the council.”

“There are a lot of things you shouldn’t have done, Shimmer. Sombra may be a conniving snake, but you must admit, he is a lot better at making friends than you.”

“Thank you for that,” Shimmer growled with narrowed eyes. “Are you done, Hooves? Or did you want to see how far you could push me before I report that you’re still on the station, contrary to the terms of your dismissal?”

“I would like to help if I’m able.”

“I thought the reason you left the guard was because you were sick of doing the Council’s dirty work.”

“This is not for the Council. This is about protecting the Empire and helping the unfortunate ponies who’ve gotten tangled in your games.” He finally took his cap off, setting it on the table. “You should stop acting like you’re in this alone. Miss Melody seems to be quite an admirable pony. She refused to abandon her companion, she faced your challenge down without flinching, and she even accepted the burden of the Element knowing what it meant. That ‘groundling’ might be the strongest ally you have right now, Shimmer.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but shut it quickly. “Maybe you’re right. It’s not like I can count on anypony else right now.” With her anger diminished, exhaustion seemed to finally be catching up with her. Rubbing her eyes, she continued, “Will you work with me too then, Hooves? I realize I’m only a marginal improvement over Sombra, but let’s agree I am at least that, and, moreover, that without help, Octavia is done.”

“I think you’re underestimating her, Shimmer, but I do suppose there’s something to be said for a single pony facing everything the Council has to offer alone.”

“That it’s a terrible idea? Yeah. And things are going to get really bad if Lyra talks. She knows where Octavia is right now, and I doubt she told me everything she knew about the Elements. We’re pretty much adrift if she sells us out.”

Hooves nodded. “Let’s figure out what we can do, then. I’ll make coffee?”

~~~~~

Lyra sat uncomfortably in the corner of the room, a half-full glass of wine levitating in front of her mouth, watching as ponies grouped around the hall, chatting, eating, and drinking. A few society ponies, a few celebrities, and the majority of the council were all here for Councilor Crumble’s daughter’s recital-slash-cuteceañera.

Sighing, she downed the rest of the glass. At least the wine was good.

“Are you doing okay, Lyra?” Sombra asked, collecting his own glass from the bartender before taking a seat next to her.

“More or less.”

His little laugh captured his doubt, but he didn’t question her. “I appreciate you accepting my invitation. I have very little interest in affairs like this, but sometimes we must make sacrifices for the greater good, and when those times come, it is best to share the burden,” he said, flashing a smile at her before he took a deep drink.

“I suppose that’s true.” She sighed and let the glass settle on the table. “Still, it’s so strange to see them again and have them...” she trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence.

“Act like nothing happened?”

“Yeah.”

“That, Lyra, is the nature of politics in the Empire. One moment you have a boon companion, the next a traitor stabbing you in the back, and then, finally, somepony who has never met you and would gladly step over you on the way to their next payday. ” He drained the last of his glass, before he continued quietly, “A bunch of self-serving hypocrites who flaunt their power and position while doing nothing with it. The council in a nutshell.”

Lyra stared at him as he shook his head, as if just realizing what he said.

“I think, perhaps, I’ve had a little too much wine this evening,” he said with a slight smile, setting the glass on the table. “I trust you can keep that little breach of etiquette between us?”

“Of course. Though I definitely think I agree with that assessment.” She smiled at him, before changing the subject. “Cookie’s daughter has a very lovely voice, doesn’t she? She already has so much stage presence and vocal control. She’ll probably be quite the starlet in a couple years.”

The councilor snorted. “One would certainly hope. Cookie has done nothing at recent meetings but brag about the amount of money she’s been spending on coaches and instructors for her daughter. That filly is no doubt spoiled rotten.”

“Yeah. You’d think she would have gotten it out of her system with her first foal.”

Sombra tilted his head at her. “Cookie had a foal before Sweetie Belle?”

“Yes...?” Lyra said, the statement becoming a question as Sombra’s questioning gaze penetrated her. “I… she did, right? Sweetie was her second. Her first was… Her name was…” The name had been on the tip of her tongue, but now it was gone, and, with it, the very last of her confidence. “No. No, that’s wrong. She only had one.”

“Are you quite all right?”

Lyra forced a laugh and a smile. “Yes. I must have just been mixing ponies up in my head. I think you aren’t the only one who’s had a little too much to drink.” That had to be it. She did feel a little lightheaded, after all, and Sombra had been insisting on having her glass refilled whenever it emptied.

The look Sombra offered said that he didn’t believe her, but there was no chance for him to follow-up as one of Cookie’s guests interrupted.

“Sombra, my friend! Oh, and is that Lyra Heartstrings as well?” Blueblood said, smiling that infuriatingly insincere smile of his. “What a wonderful surprise! I don’t think I ever expected to see you at an event like this again!”

“I invited her to join me,” Sombra said before she could speak.

“Ah,” the stallion mumbled, offering a tiny bow as his smile faltered. “Well, it is good to see you again, Lyra.”

“You too, Blueblood,” she said without much grace.

His curt nod and subtle shift towards Sombra indicated she was no longer part of the conversation. “Could we talk? Privately?”

“Blueblood. Lyra is my guest and a former member of the Council. I’m sure we can trust her to exercise some discretion, yes?”

“Don’t worry,” she said, smiling at Blueblood’s discomfort, “you can trust me.”

Rolling his eyes, the stallion dropped his voice, “I believe I might finally be winning Fancy Pants over. He’ll still need a little convincing, but I think as long as we’re willing to work with him on a few fine points, we should be able to count on his support soon enough.”

“I didn’t expect him to change his mind so quickly,” Sombra said. “I mean, I’m glad to hear that he’s starting to come around, but has something happened?”

The prince shook his head. “I’m sure he’s just starting to understand that…” He hesitated, his eyes flicking over to Lyra for a moment before he continued, “That there are some ponies who are quite difficult to work with.”

Sombra sighed. “You mean that he’s realizing that Shimmer is a self-absorbed and conniving mare who’s more interested in securing her own position in the Empire than ensuring its safety? I’m sure Lyra would appreciate it if you didn’t treat her like she was an idiot, Blueblood.”

“Indeed. It isn’t like I’m completely unaware of what’s going on in the Empire,” she said, choosing to ignore the fact that, until the start of this week, she had been. Some combination of alcohol and bravado goaded her into continuing, “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I know a lot more than you think, Prince Blueblood.”

Both stallions stared silently at her for a long moment, slowly cutting through her swell of confidence. Had she gone too far?

The prince started to say something, but Sombra cut him off, “If you would excuse us, Blueblood? Please let Fancy Pants know that my door is always open for him.” Without another word, he nudged Lyra towards the door, speaking quietly, “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Lyra frowned. “Yes. Why?”

“Prince Blueblood?”

“Yes? He might annoy me, but I can’t very well ignore the fact that he’s still Princess Celestia’s nephew, isn’t…” she trailed off slowly, her mouth going dry as she realized what she had been saying. He couldn’t be Princess Celestia’s nephew. Princess Celestia, had she even existed, had vanished thousands of years ago. She had met Blueblood’s family on several occasions. They were most definitely not Alicorns, or royalty, or anything of the sort, but, for just a moment, she was sure about what she’d said.

Her breathing quickened as she became aware of the pounding of her heart in her chest.

Maybe the memories – the visions, the hallucinations, the whatever they were – hadn’t stopped. Maybe she’d just stopped noticing them. She felt faint, like the world was quickly pulling away from her. How many times had her own thoughts betrayed her? “I… I think I need to go home.”

Sombra nodded. “Come then, let me walk you back.”

She shook her head violently and tried to step away, but a restraining hoof stopped her.

“I insist, Lyra. It would be quite inappropriate for me to abandon my guest, particularly in such a state of distress. Let’s go.”

~~~~~

Octavia cringed as she opened her eyes, the dim light cutting through them and straight into her brain.

“What happened?” she mumbled, struggling to get her hooves under her as her eyes adjusted and the pain faded. Just moving her half-numb legs proved difficult, but she still managed to stand and even take a tentative step forward. Aside from the pain in her head and a not insignificant bit of queasiness, she seemed to be in one piece.

The air still smelled like rain, but the station itself had vanished, replaced by dirt, grass, and trees that eventually disappeared into a thick, dark mist. Between the trees she thought she could see pony-like shapes trotting from tree to tree, but they were faint and ephemeral, barely more than ripples in the air.

After a moment of staring, she was convinced she must have simply imagined them.

She was alone.

A wave of nausea overtook her, the world spinning violently around her. She clenched her eyes shut, holding back bile that threatened to rise as everything around her twisted and turned. The sensation passed after a moment, leaving her standing in exactly the same place she had been when it started. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she shouted, “Vinyl? Are you here?”

Her words died away without so much as an echo. Unsurprising, but unfortunate.

Dropping to her haunches, she took another deep breath as she tried to think. What had happened? Where was she right now? This place reminded her of—

An idea struck her. “Rainbow Dash?”

A gale tore through the world around Octavia, the trees nearly bending double as the winds passed through her, blowing wildly in every direction. Somehow, despite its intensity, the wind seemed to simply course around her, barely even disturbing her mane and tail.

The grey clouds above broke apart, a shimmering ring of rainbow light tearing through, bathing Octavia in a brilliant light that burned away the worst of the queasiness and disorientation that had threatened to overwhelm her just a moment ago. It may not have been her friend, but the azure blur that landed heavily beside her was still a welcome sight.

“Well, it ain’t Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash said as the windstorm died away, “but it’s something!” Stretching her wings, she grinned. “What’d ya think? Do I know how to make an entrance or what?”

“I had already been in Ponyville,” Octavia said, annoyance managing to overtake relief. Dreams had been one thing, but she did not appreciate being dragged here – wherever here was – while she was awake. “Where am I now?”

“Sweet Apple Acres! Sorta. The orchard at least.” She sighed as she stared out into the misty distance, shadows passing over her as the clouds filled the hole her entrance had left. “Looks like we’re still pretty stuck, though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ever since whatever happened, I’ve been stuck up in that patch of sky. This is the first time I’ve been able to leave and I dunno if it’s just wishful thinking or some weird element thing, but I’m sure AJ’s somewhere nearby.”

Octavia’s eyes flicked to the side as she was sure something had moved, but there was still nothing there except for the trees and the distant mist. “And what does all that mean?”

“I dunno. But she’s the Element of Honesty, so maybe it means that’s somewhere near you?”

Octavia stood up, wavering slightly. She hadn’t noticed it before, but her ears were ringing. “Well, thank you very much for the update. It is nice to know we may not have wasted our time coming all the way out here. Could you send me back now? I really do not think I was sleeping this time.”

“Huh? I don’t bring you here, Octy.”

Octavia frowned. “What?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “You just show up and leave on your own. I thought, like, Luna was helping you get here or something.”

“Luna? As in… no, nevermind. That is not what is important right now.” She started walking across the orchard, hoping movement would help her think. “I need to find a way to leave.”

Rainbow Dash trotted alongside her. “What’s wrong?”

“Aside from the fact that I might be facedown and unconscious in a freezing puddle somewhere right now? This is different than the other times I spoke with you. I feel sick, and I keep thinking I see other ponies out there in the trees.”

“I doubt it,” she said, glancing out at the trees. “I haven’t seen another pony in… forever.”

Octavia gritted her teeth as she increased her pace. The nausea was already coming back, and the ringing in her ears was not helping her head feel better. “You said this isn’t Ponyville, but that it was something. Does that mean Ponyville is somewhere near here?”

“Yeah! You’re walking right towards it right now.” She actually took to the air to keep up with Octavia. “But we’re going to get stuck before we can actually reach it, you know? That fog? Impossible to get through. Same bull that kept me stuck up in the clouds.”

“We will see when we get there.”

Chapter 13 - A Little Fall of Rain

Vinyl gently shook Tavi with her hoof. “Tavi. Hey, Tavi. Octavia come on,” she said.

Her friend didn’t answer.

She lifted Octavia’s head and patted her cheek, as she tried again, “Tavi! Hey! You okay? Seriously, you just faint or something? Come on, wake up!”

Still no answer.

Vinyl bit her lip as she looked around. The walkway was basically a giant puddle at this point and while she didn’t know why Octavia had collapsed, she was pretty sure getting soaked by all that nasty, freezing water wasn’t gonna help. Too bad the umbrella spell and a levitation spell would be too much magic to manage at once. Getting her off the ground wouldn’t matter if they just got rained on instead.

“Please, Tavi, come on! I really need you to help me out here!” Her heart hammered in her chest as she tried to think. Had Octavia been sick? She’d never mentioned a medical condition or anything, right? But would she have? But what the buck would cause her to just drop like that? And what in Tartarus was she supposed to do now? Octavia had been the one who’d worked out how they were getting to Filthy’s, and Vinyl didn’t remember how to get back to the docks.

She paused in the middle of patting Tavi’s cheek again, frowning as she finally noticed the surprising warmth and the tiniest tingle whenever her hoof met the fur.

A thought crossed Vinyl’s mind. She’d thought Tavi’s eyes had looked funny right before she’d collapsed, but had just passed it off as a trick of the light. If it wasn’t, that was something. Fever, flashing eyes, and basically oozing raw magic happened when a Unicorn’s magic got blocked up because they were sick or something.

Of course, it didn’t make sense for something like that to happen to an earth pony, but...

Locking the umbrella in place so she didn’t have to focus on maintaining its position, Vinyl cast her magic tracing spell. Two energy intensive spells might been too much, but she could manage a bunch of low impact things at once.

As she focused on Octavia through the electric blue haze of her own spell, her stomach dropped.

Tavi shone brighter than Vinyl’s gear in the middle of a show, a rainbow of magical energy churning and coursing inside her. The only thing brighter than Tavi was her saddlebag, shining like a little rainbow star.

The same saddlebag Octavia had stuck the Element of Harmony in.

The rock. It had to be the rock doing it.

“Oh buck, oh buck, oh buck,” she said as she rushed to open the bag, her shaking hooves making the latches impossible, right up until she remembered she could manage with telekinesis. Internalizing raw magic was really bad for unicorns, so she was pretty damn sure it was bucking terrible for an earth pony to do it.

Once she pulled the rock out, she didn’t even need her tracing spell anymore. Raw magic arced across its surface, sending an unpleasant tingle up Vinyl’s foreleg. Whatever this thing was doing, it wasn’t just leaking magic, it was was pouring it straight into Tavi.

Vinyl took a few deep breaths, forcing herself to relax. She didn’t need to panic. Even if she didn’t know why the rock was acting up, fixing this problem was pretty basic magic: cut the connection between the source and the subject and magic stopped flowing. She’d still have to worry about the magic Tavi’d already been exposed to, but she could at least stop it from getting worse.

The scale was larger than she was used to, but she just needed to treat is like the capacitor on a magic circuit. Focusing on the rock, she began to build a shell around it, keeping her magic from touching the rock’s. If she just tried to cut it directly, it’d just arc back around. The cut needed to be one-hundred percent complete. So, enclose most of the capacitor like so, and then she could just block the f—

It felt like forever had passed before Vinyl could do anything more than lay in the icy rain, biting back tears and wondering if the backlash had shattered her horn. “Buck me,” she whimpered, cringing as she watched magical energy arc violently across the surface of the stone, the water around it hissing.

After another moment, she forced herself unsteadily to her hooves, wincing as pain ran from the tip of her horn all the to the tip of her tail. She’d been whacked by magical backlashes before, but that had been on another level. Getting hit by Trixie again would’ve been better.

“Stupid rock,” she snarled, wincing as the effort of being angry made her head throb, “Stupid bucking rock!”

Taking a ragged breath, she looked at the still unconscious Octavia. Despite being as drenched and probably as cold Vinyl, she wasn’t shivering a bit.

Okay. Plan B then. Get out of the rain, then figure out what to do about Tavi and the rock. That sounded good. She could still make out the faint glow of the greendome through the rain and clouds. If that’s where they kept the plants, it’d be warm and drier than out here, right?

Besides, it was probably the only place on the station she had a chance of finding right now.

Scooping the rock back into Tavi’s saddlebags, she tried to get her bearings and figure out which stupidly narrow and inconvenient alley might actually get them to the dome. Hopefully they’d get lucky wouldn’t run into too many more dead ends.

Without thinking she started to lift Tavi with magic. The pain hit her like a ship, the world spinning around her as she struggled to stay on her hooves and not vomit. The sound of the raindrops reverberated in her head as she squeezed her eyes shut and just waited for everything to feel okay again.

After a moment or two, she just settled for not absolutely terrible. “Okay. B-bad idea. M-magic ain’t happening right now.”

If that were the case, she’d have to move her friend the hard way.

“Sweet Luna,” she grunted struggling to scoop Tavi onto her back. “You’re bucking heavy, you know that? I’m glad you left your cello on the ship, ‘cause there’s no way both it and you’d be coming with me.” Vinyl forced a smile as she glanced back at the unconscious mare, making sure she wouldn’t fall off. Testing it with a few cautious steps, she added, “Bet you’d get super pissed at me for leaving it, too.”

As she walked down what looked like a real walkway instead of a back alley, light flashed somewhere deep in the clouds ahead and thunder roared, shaking everything around her. She nearly slipped as she started, her heart surging in her chest. “That was thunder,” she muttered to herself, forcing a nervous laugh despite the pain the rush of adrenaline brought. “Just thunder. Not the station busting or anything. Didn’t know it could get so loud.”

Shaking her head, she raised her voice as she said, “You seriously used to put up with this kinda bull, Tavi? ‘Cause I gotta say, this is really bucking miserable.” She whipped her bangs out of her face, hoping they’d stay that way for at least a few seconds. “Seriously, if your homestation was anything like this, you made the right call moving to a real station. This place sucks.”

Things really were bad. Octavia weighed a lot more than she’d expected. It was only a few moments before the combination of the biting cold, the pain from her horn, and the weight on her back had her legs shaking. She really might not have the energy to make it to the greendome, let along Filthy’s place.

No. They were gonna get to Filthy’s place. What else was she gonna do, tuck Octavia in a corner somewhere where she might get abducted? Curl up under an awning together and hope they didn’t freeze to death before the rock killed her?

Nuh uh. Tavi dragged Vinyl’s sorry flank all the way to Hooves’, so she could damn well do the same for her. She was Vinyl Scratch, the best DJ in the Empire and a unicorn who could do anything she put her mind to.

Ignoring the aches, pains, worries, and biting cold, she focused on the sounds of the station around her. The rain might have sucked to be walking in, but the rhythm of it hitting the metal and plastic all around her sounded nice. Even the roar of thunder, now that she expected it, contributed to the melody of the storm.

It’d be awesome to listen to from the comfort of her apartment, laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

She wondered if Octavia had ever done that. Seemed like something she’d do: relax, listen, and be inspired to compose some beautiful piece or something. Maybe they could do it together sometime. Maybe she’d do a track about a storm, or use the sound of rain in a track, or something.

Lotta cool bull she could do with that concept. Buck it. She could do a an EP all about the sound outside Manehattan. Maybe even have Tavi collaborate with her on a track or two.

That’d be pretty awesome.

How’d Manehattan not recognized Octavia’s talent? Vinyl wouldn’t say it to her, but she was jealous. She could spend weeks at her console and come out with a whole lot of nothing, but every time Tavi touched bow to strings, it was amazing. That mare should’ve been playing all the fancy concert halls on the top tier, not on the walkways for whatever Bits ponies would donate.

Vinyl didn’t care if her scene wasn’t Tavi’s scene, she’d damn well find a way to get her music out there.

Plus it’d be a pretty good excuse to keep hanging out after all this was over.

By the time Vinyl finally pushed through the greendome’s gate and into the welcome, rainless warmth, half-frozen and barely even aware of what she was doing, the flood of relief nearly floored her. “Thank Celestia,” she gasped, sagging against the inner edge of the gate’s frame, her teeth chattering.

As she basked in the warmth and tried to catch her breath, Vinyl looked around her. She might as well have stepped through a portal to another world. The lights in here shined as bright as midday in Manehattan. No clouds, no rain, just little trees as far as she could see, all jammed so close together it was hard to tell where one tree started and another ended. There must’ve been thousands of the things. Glancing up, she changed that number to tens or hundreds of thousands; unlike the rest of the station, the greendome was tiered, and every single level she could see was packed to bursting with plants.

Even Central Park didn’t have half this much green.

To her immense disappointment, none of the trees seemed to actually have any fruit or anything on them. She hadn’t realized it, but she was starving. Just another reason to make it to Filthy’s, as if she didn’t have enough already.

She glanced back at Octavia. Still unconscious. Still breathing. Still not shivering or anything. Still pretty warm despite being absolutely soaked. Overall, probably not great on the whole.

She needed to get to Filthy’s. The question was how. About the only thing she remembered was that Filthy lived on the back of the Flim Flam Fields building, and that they’d been planning to cut through the Greendome to get there.

Pushing off the gate, she started walking again. At least this dome had an open path cut right through the middle of it. As long as she came in on the right side, it should be a straight shot to at least get near Filthy’s. She could work out the next step while she walked.

“Come on, Vinyl. You gotta figure this out.”

~~~~~

Octavia shivered as she trotted through the misty orchard with Rainbow Dash, struggling to ignore the incessant, high-pitched ringing in her ears. She didn’t know when it had started, but it was starting to drive her to distraction. Between it and the glimpses of movement out of the corner of her eyes, she could barely focus.

She cringed as a wave of nausea washed over her, forcing her to stop for a moment. That was not helping matters either. Was it this place making her feel sick in her head, or was it wherever her body was actually making her sick?

As that thought flitted through her mind, she frowned. What was happening with her body?

Had she just been walking and then collapsed out of nowhere? Did she look asleep? Unconscious? Dead? Was Vinyl trying to find help, or was the fool unicorn doing something stupid to try and wake her?

Maybe it was Vinyl’s fault she felt so sick. Maybe it was her fault she was stuck here. Maybe Vinyl had simply abandoned her on the walkway in the rain and freezing cold.

She shook her head violently. No. Vinyl would not do that to her. Vinyl was her friend.

Of course, she’d thought that about other ponies before too.

The inner monologue stopped when she finally noticed Rainbow Dash looking at her expectantly. “Yes?”

“You been listening to me at all?” Rainbow Dash asked. Octavia’s blank stare apparently answered the question well enough as the pegasus continued, “Guess not. I’ve been trying to tell you that…”

Octavia nodded vaguely as she listened. On top of everything else, she still could not shake the feeling that she had been here, in this very orchard, before. Which was impossible. This place wasn’t real. It was an dream created by the Elements. It was Rainbow Dash’s world. “That sounds good,” she said, lacking anything better to contribute.

“Hitting a solid wall of clouds sounds good?”

“Huh? Oh. No. What?” Pressing a hoof to her head, she tried to ignore the rinigng and focus on what Rainbow Dash was trying to tell her. “No. I… Sorry. I’m fine. I am just having a bit of trouble concentrating right now. What did you say?”

The pegasus rolled her eyes. “For the last time: I said I was right and we’re not going to be able to get much further if this keeps up.” The fog clung to Rainbow Dash as she pushed some of it away with a wing. “Haven’t you noticed how obnoxious this stuff is getting?”

”No,” Octavia said, her tail cutting through it with ease. “Besides, it does not matter. We have to keep going until we reach your Ponyville. If there really is an impassable wall of clouds, we will find a way through.”

“Well, I can definitely appreciate that kinda confidence,” the pegasus said with a smile. “You got any ideas about what we’re gonna do if we manage to get there?”

“No.” Sighing, Octavia sat down. “I barely know anything about magic or the Elements or what this place even is. And, unfortunately for me, you seem to know even less.”

“Sorry. I’m a pony of action, not an egghead,” she offered unapologetically.

Octavia lacked the energy to glare. “All I can do is guess at the best course of action, and my best guess is still that the your Ponyville, the one here, and Ponyville Station are connected somehow. I mean, it cannot just be coincidence that they have the same name, right?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Makes sense to me. Still not sure we’re gonna be able to make it, though.”

After taking a few deep breaths to try and quell her nausea, Octavia pushed herself to her hooves and started walking again. “There is only one way to find out. Besides, what sort of ‘pony of action’ would let a few clouds stop her?”

“Hah! Okay, you got me there!” She dropped a wing over Octavia’s back and grinned. “You keep surprising me, you know? I really thought you were gonna be a totally prissy pony.”

“And why would you think that?” Octavia asked idly, focusing on the middle distance. If she stared hard enough, she could almost convince herself that, despite the thickening fog, there was something glinting in the distance, that she was not simply wandering across some endless dreamscape, slowly being driven mad by that obnoxious noise in her ears.

“Dunno. Guess you just remind me of somepony I used to know.”

~~~~~

As Vinyl trudged along the path, the welcome warmth having already transformed into an unpleasant, chafing, stickiness, she wracked her brain for ideas. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember exactly where they were going. She could even see the stupid bucking map on the stupid bucking tablet sitting on the stupid bucking dining area table, but she couldn’t remember anything about it.

Besides, at this point, she wasn’t even sure she could’ve gotten to Filthy’s with the map.

Who in Tartarus built stations like this? Docks to the greendome should’ve been a straight shot, not a bucking maze. But no, walkways just straight-up ended when two buildings apparently got built into each other or whatever. Bunch of idiots put this station together out of scrap and junk.

You couldn’t go wrong in Manehattan as long as you stuck to the edge of a block. She’d only gotten lost like, what, once or twice on her first trips down the the lower parts of the station? Here, everypony probably got lost just trying to get back home.

If they even went outside. Would certainly explain why she couldn’t find anypony.

Still, asking somepony for directions would’ve been nice, but the whole station seemed empty. Not a single pony out on the walks besides them, and damned if Vinyl had figured out how to get into any of the apartment blocks or houses or whatever the buildings around here were before they got to the greendome. All of ‘em had been locked up tight, and nopony seemed eager to open up.

She sighed. Finding Filthy’s and getting Tavi there really was completely up to her. Not exactly a moment of heroism she’d brag about in the club, but one she certainly wasn’t gonna totally buck up either.

Her mind wandered as she walked, idly staring at the trees and their glistening leaves, searching for anything to keep her distracted. Eventually her eyes fell on the shimmer purple of the dome’s surface and the blackness beyond. Was Ponyville always this dark outside the greendome?

It wasn’t just the rain, either. No neon signs on the buildings, no network screens shining out over everything, the walks’ running lights had barely been on...

Maybe they always shut themselves up inside during these storms? Especially if they lasted a whole week or whatever. Vinyl’d done it a few times for Manehattan’s little showers, so she couldn’t blame ‘em. That’d explain why the station seemed so lifeless, too. If nopony wanted to be outside, then they could just run everything outside the apartments at a minimum.

Which gave her an idea.

She could try casting a seriously ultra large magic tracing spell and see what places were using a bunch of power. If the station really was running low, there should only be a few bright spots, and one of them ought to be a big, fancy building, like Flim and Flam’s offices.

The thought of casting a spell made her horn throb, but what other choice did she have? Wander around with Tavi on her back and hope she found the place before she fell over? A twinge in her back – and legs, and neck, and pretty much everywhere else – told her that’d be a pretty damn short trip.

Besides, the spell barely took any effort anyway. Shouldn’t be too tough to do one that was only like, a hundred times stronger than she usually did. No big deal.

“Okay, Tavi. I’m gonna get things done,” Vinyl said as the edge of the dome and the gate back out into the station came into view. She grinned back at her unconscious friend as she trotted towards the gate, trying not to think about what awaited her on the other side. More rain, more cold, and a very, very bad headache was not something she was looking forward to. “Just a bit further and we’ll get you help, I promise. So I need you to keep hanging in there, ‘kay?”

Pushing through the dome’s gate, the returning storm wiped away her warmth in an instant, the rain hitting her like a smack in the face. She wanted to turn around, go back into the greendome and just lay down, but she resisted the urge.

Trying to cast the spell hurt, daggers of pain lancing through her head as she gathered the necessary magic, but it hurt a lot less than she’d expected. It still took a few false starts, but soon she managed a haze of magic right in front of her eyes, and through it, the flow of nearby magic.

Bracing herself, Vinyl poured even more of her magic into the spell, her view of the station dulling as the flow of magic swallowed it. Soon she couldn’t see anything but the magic all around her.

She felt sick for a moment, lurching as she tried to keep balance on a surface that no longer seemed to exist underhoof. The spell nearly broke as panic seized her, but, with a few deep breaths and the rain reminding her that she really was still standing in the middle of Ponyville Station, she managed to hang onto it.

She hadn’t really considered how totally overwhelming the flow of magic in a whole station might be compared to just a couple devices.

After a few moments of staring though, she started to pick out the basic shapes of things, like the dull and sluggish magic of the walkway lights, the brilliant brightness of station generators way below the walks, the mish-mashes of color and intensity that must have been buildings...

Too much stuff to sort through, though. She didn’t care about the super low power stuff, so she adjusted the spell, filtering out the weakest sources and leaving the stronger ones intact. Shivering as the rain poured down around her, she also tried to filter the strongest stuff too, leaving her with the absolutely minimum amount of visible magic to deal with. Then all she had to do was ignore flows that weren’t the right shape to be power moving through a building and focus on the biggest of those and she’d find the Flim Flam Fields building.

Unless her guess was totally wrong, in which case they were screwed, but best to not focus on that one.

Her horn throbbed and her head ached as she struggled to maintain the spell and understand the mess of color and movement that looked for all the universe like Crazy Horse’s dancefloor on a bad night after a few drinks. In the end, she had to guess. There was something in what she was pretty sure was the right direction that looked like a pretty large building that had a pretty good amount of magic flowing through it, so that met all her requirements.

Might as well see if she was gonna be the awesome heroine or she’d bucked up bad. Hopefully her genius plan didn’t actually turn out to be stupid.

Releasing the spell, she took a shaky breath as the station slowly settled back into place. She didn’t even wait for her eyes to adjust back to looking at real things before she started walking. Not like she could see real clearly out here anyway.

The trek somehow managed to be even worse than before, the strain of carrying Tavi and the water and the biting cold all sapping what little energy she had left, but she walked steadily forward, running through old episodes of Power Ponies, working out new basslines, considering what sort of synths to build around a cello piece, wondering how she was gonna rub this act of heroism in Tavi’s face, and whatever else she could think of to keep herself distracted until the tallest building she’d seen in Ponyville emerged from the mist.

She let out her breath as the rain sizzled and crackled on the lights above the sign: Flim Flam Fields.

She wanted to run and jump with unstable giddiness, but she settled for continuing to trudge around the back of the building until she found a door with a call panel and the name she was looking for on the directory. She slammed her hoof against the button, shivering as she waited for it to respond. “Come on, answer, answer, answer...”

It rang. And rang. And rang. And—

“Hello?” Filthy’s voice crackled through the speaker.

“Oh sweet Luna, thank you. Filthy, it’s Vinyl! Open the damn door.” Leaning against the wall for support as relief drained the last bit of her strength, she laughed and looked back at Octavia. “We made it.”

Chapter 14 - Problems

Lyra woke up staring at the ceiling, clusters of unfamiliar inset crystals barely illuminating the room. Nothing looked remotely familiar.

Where was she?

In a bed. On a bed, rather. The silken sheets felt soft and cool beneath her body. The room was chilly too. And, she realized as she stared into the dim light, large too. Much bigger than her own room.

She grunted as she tried to sit up. She felt… bad. Not quite hungover, but something related, like coming out the other side of a cold. Just a cloud of minor unpleasantness that permeated the entirety of her being.

She swallowed, trying to ease the dryness in her throat, and felt something squeeze around her neck. Lifting a hoof to it, she felt a segmented metal band with something set into the front of it.

“What happened?” she groaned into the darkness. A longer look confirmed this definitely wasn’t her room: besides being too big, it was too nice, neat, and had too many flat surfaces not occupied by books. It also clearly wasn’t a hospital or anything. It looked like somepony’s bedroom room. The question was whose?

She looked around, searching in vain for an answer that the room refused to give. The room had a pair of shelves built into the walls with various history and magic theory books, a clean, black plastic desk with a powered down console, a fine chair by the bed with a nearby lamp… all useful things, but nothing that offered much clue to the owner’s identity.

It might as well have been a hotel room. A nice and very expensive hotel room, admittedly, but a hotel room nevertheless.

Clambering out of the bed, she wavered, a mild vertigo causing the world to spin in an unpleasantly familiar way.

That’d been it. She had been at Cookie’s daughter’s cuteceañera, then she’d had another episode and…ended up here, somehow.

She started as the door opened and memories began to reassert themselves as Sombra entered.

His stern expression warmed as he saw her, then nodded his head vaguely towards the bed and chair. “Excellent. You’re finally awake. Though, I am not sure you should be standing. Please, sit.”

“What happened?” Lyra asked.

“Sit,” Sombra commanded, advancing on her.

Lyra’s legs folded under her as she backed into the chair.

“Good,” he said, his almost teeth shining in the crystals’ dim light as he smiled. “How are you feeling?”

“Unpleasant, but not terrible. What happened? Where are we?”

“Do you know who I am?” Sombra asked, ignoring her question.

“Yes?”

He stared at her.

“Sombra,” she snapped, “Former leader of the Crystal Station. Now a councilor for the Grand Equestrian Empire. Now—”

“And where are we?”

“I’m not actually sure.” Seeing his expression change, she amended, “Manehattan Station. I meant I don’t know where this,” she gestured at the room around her, “Is.”

“My home. Do you know who you are?”

She bit her lip. “What is this about?”

“Who are you?”

“Sombra, what is going on?”

“Who are you?” he repeated.

“I’m Lyra Heartstrings! Now would you tell me what in Tartarus is going on? What is this all about?”

Sombra waved his hoof dismissively. “Perhaps I should be the one asking you that question? I thought your reticence was a result of your nervousness around me, but now... You had some very interesting things to say before you passed out, Lyra.”

She stared at the floor, her stomach churning. “What happened?”

“Well, we left the cuteceañera after you started talking about Cookie having two fillies and Blueblood being a prince.” Sombra’s horn glowed as he continued to talk, the steady chill of his crimson magic passing over as he spoke, “As I attempted to escort you back to your building, you began speaking about the Elements’ past bearers and the dangers they faced. Your rambling became increasingly erratic and incoherent until you eventually passed out and nearly pitched over the edge of a catwalk.”

Lyra’s chest grew tight, her breath coming in shorter gasps as she struggled to control herself.

“Since we were closer to my home than yours, I brought you back here so that I could examine you and decide whether you needed medical attention.”

Everything had been going so well...

“Has this happened often?”

“I…” Lyra started, before trailing off. Had it? It had seemed like things had improved. But now, as her confusion at the cuteceañera came back to her, she wondered once more if she just hadn’t realized how bad it really was.

She had to leave. Escape. And do what? Did it matter at this point?

“Lyra.” Sombra’s voice cut through her thoughts. “I believe I can help you, but it can’t happen unless you are willing to talk to me.”

“A few weeks,” she eventually mumbled. What did it matter? One of the most powerful ponies in the Empire knew she was nuts, now. “I don’t know exactly when it started. I thought it had been getting better lately, but apparently I was mistaken.”

“Do you know what’s causing it?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Would you like to?”

Her head shot up. “What?”

“I believe I may have identified the cause of your sudden psychosis, and the fact that you seem coherent now certainly serves to support my theory.” Sombra leaned forward, reaching a hoof out to her and touching the choker fastened around her neck. “This crystal is helping regulate the flow of magic in your body right now. While I was examining you, I found that there was an irregularity in your magic – a foreign strain, as it were.”

Her heart pounded in her chest. That could explain it, with the added advantage of proving that she wasn’t insane. Her hooves reached up and touched the crystal gingerly. If she focused, she could feel faint traces of magic emanating from it, magic that matched perfectly with Sombra’s. “Did you make this?”

His smile widened. “Excellent deduction, Lyra. Yes. It is a variation of the magic of my home station. You know of the Crystal Heart, yes?”

Lyra nodded. Any magical scholar worth their salt knew about the Crystal Station’s core, an ancient relic that drew upon the love and joy of the station’s inhabitants to power the entirety of the station – including the nigh impenetrable barrier that surrounded it.

“Think of this as something like your own, personal, Crystal Heart. It resonates with your magic and, in turn, acts to shield you from aberrant influences. For example, the spark of magic that seems to have been causing your…” Sombra paused for a moment, searching her downturned face for the right word, “...delusions? Hallucinations?”

“I don’t know, really.”

“Well, regardless, for the moment at least, it appears to be doing its job. Though I suspect we won’t know for sure until you have had some time.”

Lyra nodded.

“Will you tell me about what’s been happening to you?”

Sinking further into the chair, Lyra tried to avoid Sombra’s gaze. “I…”

“You don’t have to, of course. But I believe, if you talk to me, I can do more to help. Besides, I have no doubt that speaking openly with me will help alleviate the weight on your shoulders.” He smiled at her. “We are friends, are we not, Lyra?”

She wanted a friend. “Like I said, I don’t know exactly when or why it started. I was just in the library’s stacks one evening and everything suddenly seemed strange. Not right. History books didn’t make sense. Texts I’d read a thousand times looked different. Have you ever just walked into a room and been sure something had moved while you were gone?” Lyra didn’t give him a chance to respond as she continued, “Imagine that, but about everything. I thought maybe I was just overtired or something.” The weight and tension of the past weeks pouring out of her as she continued to speak, unable to stop herself anymore, “But it kept happening, and then things got worse. I’d be looking at something and then suddenly I’d be somewhere else entirely.”

“Where?”

“Old Equestria, I think? Not a station. A planet, with fresh air and wild greens and ponies living in perfect harmony. I saw the past Bearers, but it wasn’t like seeing heroes of legend, it was like seeing old friends. Nostalgic. Everything felt so real, so vivid, so clear.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I know it sounds crazy, but I don’t think they’re hallucinations. I think… I think...” She finally faltered, her eyes dropping to the floor. Nothing sound good preceeded by the words “it sounds crazy.”

“Do you think they’re visions of the past?” Sombra asked, his voice soft.

Lyra’s head shot up again. “Y-yeah,” she stammered.

“Don’t be surprised. I believe I mentioned that you said some interesting things?” The reassuring smile remained as he locked eyes with her. “You are not crazy, Lyra. Afflicted, perhaps, but that is certainly not your fault.” He chuckled to himself as he continued, “Well, technically not your fault. Would you like to hear my theory?”

“Sure. Yes. Please.” Lyra said, hoping the desperation wasn’t too obvious. “But how—”

“You are a very intelligent pony, Lyra. Had this happened to any other pony, I am sure you would have figured it by now. Unfortunately, I believe I have identified a blind spot in the way you think, and it is keeping you from seeing what I see.”

“What?”

All traces of humor fled from Sombra’s face. “If you want to know, you must promise not to take what I have to say beyond these walls.”

Lyra nodded, waiting for all of this to end. “I understand.”

“Promise, Lyra. I want to help you, but I must be able to trust you to do that.”

“I promise! I swear! Just tell me what you think!” Lyra almost shouted. She needed an answer. Any answer.

“If you insist.” Sombra smiled again. “Lyra, based on our combined knowledge of the situation, I believe it is likely that you are one of the Elements.”

Lyra stared, mouth agape, unable to form a response.

“I suspect it hadn’t crossed your mind?”

“Of course not!” Lyra snapped. “Because that’s… that’s patently absurd!”

“Is it?” he mused, looking at her. “Perhaps if we only consider what you know. But let us combine that with some of what I know. For example, did you hear about the incident at… where was it?” His eyes jumped towards the crystals on the ceiling for a moment as he thought. “Club Crazy Horse, I believe.”

A chill ran down Lyra’s spine.

“Well, an earth pony who may have managed to get her hooves on one of the Elements was there that night. The incident began when the Council Guard attempted to detain her, but the proprietor of the club – Vinyl Scratch, if I recall correctly? – interfered and it became a rather unfortunate affair. She disappeared during the confusion, appeared again a week later, publicly apologized after a rather thorough round of questioning by the Station Guard, and then took a leave of absence from her club to apparently vanish, despite records indicating she has not left Manehattan in some time. I suspect she is involved with the mare who has the Element, somehow.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Lyra asked weakly.

“She was a school friend of yours, no?” Sombra didn’t even wait for the nod before he continued, “Well, a friend until a couple years ago at least, if the rumor mill is to be believed. Don’t you find that oddly coincidental?”

“Well, yes. But… Well… Coincidences are coincidences.”

“Of course. At the same time, however, you told me yourself that the Elements will draw towards each other, correct? You begin experiencing odd visions just as what I believe to be one of the Elements is found. You suddenly go from a pony forgotten and abandoned by the Council to having the interest of both myself and Sunset Shimmer. A former friend of yours is suddenly involved with an earth pony who may have simply lucked into one of the most powerful magical items in the universe.” Sombra’s eyes didn’t leave her as he spoke. “That is quite a series of coincidences, no?”

“I…”

“Moreover, consider the nature of the Elements as you yourself have described them. Conduits, not reservoirs, meant to interact with chosen ponies. An item tied so closely to the user would no doubt leave an imprint.” He raise a hoof and pressed it gently against the crystal fastened around her neck. “That is a basic fact of crystal magic. The caster leaves much of themselves behind, because the magic pulls from their heart, their mind, and their soul. Would it not make sense for the past Bearers to have left something of themselves behind too? If the Elements truly want to be found, perhaps it’s trying to reach out to you.” Sombra stretched his neck as the speech drew to a close. “It explains everything quite neatly. Your unusual involvement in this affair, the foreign magic within you, the nature of your hallucinations... ”

Lyra tried to form a response, but her mouth couldn’t keep up with her mind. The entire idea was absolutely ridiculous. Preposterous. And she was an idiot for having never considered it herself. An absolute, unforgivable, idiot. Sweet Celestia, his reasoning was even less spurious than hers had been for declaring Octavia a bearer. Or Vinyl.

“I told you that I believed you had a blind spot,” Sombra said, interpreting her look perfectly. “You do not consider your role in the world. You act as an observer without ever thinking about what part you could play. I saw it when you were part of the Council, and I could still see it now.”

That much was true. But something he’d said didn’t add up. “Okay. But even assuming all that were true, why would one of the Elements be reaching out to me now?”

“I will admit that this is a bit of leap,” Sombra said, his confident tenor giving way to a chuckle, “But I wonder if you may have already come into contact with the Element you are meant to carry. You said these strange thoughts began in the Manehattan Library, correct? Then perhaps the stacks conceal another hidden treasure.”

Lyra wanted to tell him that the whole idea was ridiculous. That even considering it was a total waste of time. That the idea wasn’t worth entertaining. But some other part of her spoke up first, a surge of pride that cut through the doubt: why couldn’t she be one of the Elements? Why should some random earth pony out of the lower tiers or that idiot Vinyl be the only ones deserving of something this incredible. Why not her? “Then we should go see. See if we can find it.”

“I thought you might see it that way,” Sombra said, laying a restraining hoof on her shoulder, “But no, not tonight. It will do no good for the two of us to raid the Manehattan Library stacks alone in the middle of the night.”

“But—”

“I will ask them to stay closed tomorrow and assemble a small group of trusted guards to assist you in your search. It will no doubt still draw some attention, but less than if we were to storm the place tonight.” He stood up, offering her one last smile of encouragement. “I believe it would also be best if you were to stay here tonight. I still do not know how effective my crystal is, so I would like to keep you close to monitor it.”

Her hoof touched the multi-faceted surface of the stone. “Of course.”

~~~~~

Ditzy stretched her wings as she paced the width of the cockpit, the dull drone of ENN’s evening report filling the room. Nothing exciting, as usual. Upcoming concerts and shows, hoofball scores, highlights from the day’s council meeting, a few odd crimes there and there, and still absolutely nothing regarding a pair of runaways wanted by the council guard.

On one hoof, it certainly made getting around easier to know everypony wasn’t looking for your passengers. On the other hoof, she wondered when that horseshoe was finally going to drop.

Circling back around the edge of the cockpit, she kicked a large panel on the wall and hopped back, letting the cot fall out and lock into position. No sense worrying about it right now. She’d already done everything she could. The best she could do now was watch for any weird ships docking and be ready to bail at a moment’s notice.

Moving back to the console, she initiated her nightly system scan, but decided to leave ENN up, even if it would hog resources to run it alongside the scan.

The last couple days of chatter and laughter and bickering had been a welcome break she hadn’t known she’d needed. Even a few hours without that pair had left Drifter’s normally pleasant silence feeling just a little lonely.

She leapt into the air and landed lightly on the cot.

Tomorrow was gonna be busy. There were about a dozen different things on Drifter that she hadn’t realized weren’t working until Vinyl or Octavia had tried to use them. She smiled as she stretched out, running down the mental checklist she’d made: some loose panels in the passenger rooms, a few flickering lights, the port side shower had no hot water, that cabinet door that fell off its hinges and smacked Vinyl in the face…

Ditzy’s ears pricked as the console beeped, the sound repeating every few seconds. A serious error?

She slipped off the cot and trotted towards the flashing console, frowning. These checks were mostly tradition at this point, a holdover from when Drifter had been a junker with about four dozen failing parts, burnt out magic circuits, completely outdated systems, and more than a few star spider nests jamming critical machinery.

Lift Thruster Status: Disconnected - Error: Magic Circuit Link Inoperable

Her frown deepened as she stared at the message. They’d landed no problem, so the thrusters had been working, and the landing had been easy, so nothing should’ve gotten jarred loose. Maybe that magic circuit had burned out?

No lift thrusters would definitely hamper departure attempts, though.

She slipped out of the ship and onto the docking platform, shivering as she stepped into the frigid station air, stopping for a moment to stare at the streams of water pouring down beyond the protected cover of the dock.

In retrospect, maybe she should’ve offered Vinyl and Octavia her rain slicker before they’d left. She only had one, but it probably beat nothing.

Whoops.

It didn’t take long to find the problem once she got under Drifter’s body: one of the panels near the thruster had been torn off, leaving the magic circuit and what looked like about two dozen wires dangling out of it.

She glanced around, squinting as she looked into the deep shadows cast by the dock’s lights. “Oh, geeze!” she mumbled, laughing without feeling a trace of humor, “I didn’t know I let get so bad down here!” Scooching further forward, she rolled onto her back, trying to get a better look at the mess.

It was worse than she’d thought. The circuit had been pulled out, leaving the wiring all around it torn, disconnected, and trashed, while the circuit itself had nearly been snapped in two. You only got that kind of damage when a little asteroid punched through your barrier and smacked the hull.

Or when somepony was looking for something they could damage pretty easily with about ten minutes and a set of basic maintenance tools.

She stared back up in the gaping hole where the circuit had been situated.

It was also gonna be a pain in the flank to fix, if she could even do it herself. The circuit might just need to be replaced, and she had no idea what parts they’d stock on the edge of the Empire. Especially if somepony wanted to keep them from getting off-station

Pulling the relay free of the tangle without much concern for whatever other wires tore, she crawled out from under the landing strut, wincing as she stood a little too fast, catching the base of her spine on the edge of the ship.

“Guess I’m gonna have to order a new one of these,” she said after fully getting out from under the ship, once more glancing around the docks. “I wonder if the station techies even work during storm weeks…”

She trotted back towards Drifter’s boarding ramp, ascending quickly and shutting the door behind her. Once she made it back to the cockpit, she closed ENN and activated the proximity sensors.

Looks like she wasn’t getting much sleep tonight. She needed to call Octavia and Vinyl and warn them, then see what she could do with a couple dozen ruined connections and a magic circuit that somepony hit with a hammer a few times. She kept a bunch of odd spare parts laying around, but lift thrusters only ranked slightly below jump drives and nav systems for raw complexity. Even if the circuit still worked, she wasn’t sure this was something she could fix tape and putty.

And they weren’t going anywhere until it got fixed.

~~~~~

Vinyl nestled into the blankets laid out in the narrow space between the bed and the wall of Filthy’s tiny guest room. She wanted to sleep. She really wanted to sleep.

Too bad she couldn’t.

Between the adrenaline and the aches and the worry, Vinyl felt completely wired. She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep until she literally passed out, and, even then, she still shouldn’t. Tavi needed her right now. Maybe she couldn’t do anything, but she also couldn’t just sleep while the Element kept poisoning her friend.

Not that she knew what to do at this point. Filthy was already asking around for a unicorn doc. She’d already nearly busted her horn trying to stop the rock. That left staying out of the way, keeping Tavi company, sending her good vibes, and maybe praying to Luna and Celestia both for a bit of luck.

Her head jerked up as somepony opened the door, but settled back into the pillow as Bon Bon entered, dumping another pile of blankets in front of Vinyl.

That had been another awkward surprise.

“Okay, Vines. With that, I think we’ve got you and your friend tucked away the best we can for the moment and Rich is seeing who’s still awake and might know where to find a unicorn doctor on station.” Her voice flattened as she continued, “Don’t think he’ll have much luck, though. Ponyville Station’s got maybe a dozen unicorns on it? And that’s counting you.”

“What?” Vinyl shouted.

“It’s an agriculture station, Vines. Not many self-respecting unicorns want to live on a trashy station on the edge of the Empire.” She snorted. “Even Flim and Flam spend as little time here as possible, and they basically own the place.”

“Come on, Bon Bon. This place isn’t that small. You gotta have at least one doc here.”

Bon Bon gave her a look she hadn’t gotten in quite a while. “Yes, Vines. We have doctors. A few of them, in fact. Earth ponies can be doctors too, you know. Redheart, for example, is an excellent physician and takes quite good care of everypony here. But she’s not a unicorn, so she’s not going to be much help with magic poisoning or whatever’s wrong with your friend, is she?”

Vinyl bit her lip. Buck. She hadn’t thought about that.

“Rich will do his best, of course, and if there is one anywhere on the station right now? I’m sure he’ll find them.” She sat down, her expression softening a little as she watched Vinyl fret. “You should start working on a Plan B, though. Call somepony you know, pay them to come out here, take your friend over to Fillydelphia Station, whatever. But, right now, you should probably just go ahead and let Rich do his thing. Clean yourself up. Take a nap. You still look like something an ursa dragged in.”

“There anything here to eat? And maybe an energy drink or some coffee?” Vinyl shifted, cringing as pain lanced through her everything. Definitely hit up a gym when they got back to Manehattan.

“I can get you something to eat, but I don’t think Filthy’s got anything but water here.”

Vinyl sighed. If she had to be awake and wired, she might as well be really awake. “Any place to get any?”

She offered Vinyl an exasperated look. “Pretty much all the shops take the week off. Nopony sane wants to be out in that.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. Just something to munch on is fine then.” Vinyl hesitated for a long moment before she added, “And um… it’s cool to see you again. Sorry for being kinda all over the place and not super friendly right now.”

“Nothing to worry about.”

“Didn’t even know you were out here. How’d you end up as Filthy’s assistant?”

“Well, that’s thanks to you, I suppose. You introduced me to him when he came out to Manehattan. I just reached out after I left Manehattan, and he apparently liked me well enough to put me up and offer me some work until I got my hooves back under me. It worked out.”

“Yeah.” Vinyl hesitated for a moment, then decided buck it and pushed forward with another line of thought, “Um. Hey, before I came out here I saw Ly—”

“I don’t want to hear about it, Vines,” she interrupted.

Vinyl started. “Huh?”

“I’m not interested.”

“Gotcha, gotcha,” Vinyl mumbled, caught off-guard by the brush-off.

“I will say, I am surprised that you actually got off Manehattan,” Bon Bon said, changing the subject. “I figured you’d never set hoof on a shuttle again.”

Vinyl shook her head. “Well, it still totally freaks me out, but...” Vinyl trailed off, her gaze drifting over to the unconscious mare on the bed, “Just didn’t have a choice but to deal with it this time, you know?”

That caused Bon Bon to raise an eyebrow. “Are you two together?”

“Huh?”

“A couple? Sleeping together? Having sex?”

“Friends!” Vinyl snapped, face reddening. “Why in Tartarus would you even ask that?”

“Just curious. I didn’t think you’d go this far out of the way for ‘just’ a friend.”

“What the buck, Bon Bon? Seriously? I helped you girls out all the time!”

“When it was convenient, sure.”

Vinyl bit her lip and took a deep breath, holding back her retort. Much as she hated to admit it, that kinda was how it’d gone down in the end. “Look. It’s been a long time and I don’t want everything to be the same as back then, okay?”

“Fair.” Bon Bon sighed. “Probably not the right time for that sort of thing anyway. Sorry. That was mean.” She smiled as she continued, “I think I am happy to see you again, even if the circumstances suck.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when the door to the room pushed open, a somewhat concerned looking Filthy stepping through, a pink filly trailing behind him. “Hey, Vinyl. Bon Bon here get you and Miss Melody settled in?” He glanced around the room and frowned, probably realizing how poorly the four of them fit in it. “Should’ve told you there wasn’t a lot of space.”

“It’s cool,” Viny said, not even trying to pretend she cared. “You find anypony who could help out?”

“Not yet.” He smiled reassuringly as her expression dropped. “Don’t forget, it is quite late already. We are not out of options yet. I’ve left a few messages, but, still… Are you sure you need a unicorn to help you? I do not doubt that Bon Bon has informed you that we are not exactly overburdened with a large population of them here.”

Looking at her friend, Vinyl nodded. “I’m totally sure. It’s a magic problem and all, you know?”

“Yes,” Filthy said, drawing the word out a little, “A magic problem. Is it something contagious?”

Vinyl cocked her head. “Huh?”

“Could it be passed on to another pony? If so, wouldn’t it be safest for us to move her to Bon Bon’s, provided she could spare the room, of course.”

Bon Bon nodded. “It’d be fine.”

“Oh.” Resisting the urge to glance back at the bag with the Element in it, Vinyl shook her head. “No. I really doubt it matters. Uh... I think it might’ve been something back on the ship, like some busted shielding around the engines or whatever. Not a problem for any of you.”

“Well then, there are still a few ponies I can try calling. In the meanwhile, please, rest and make yourself at home.”

“Thanks. I seriously appreciate it. I’m sure Tavi will too.” She had one last option to resort to try and help herself. “Um, you got a console or a tablet I could borrow?”

Filthy nodded. “Diamond Tiara, dear, would you get yours?”

The little filly at his heels stared at Vinyl for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay, daddy,” she said, running off.

“Thanks for that, too,” Vinyl said, offered a sheepish grin. “Sorry this whole meeting kinda blew up.”

A loud ring sounded from down the hall, drawing Filthy’s attention before he could respond. “Well. Hopefully that is the sound of good news and we can get things back on track. Please excuse me for a moment.”

“Hopefully,” Vinyl agreed, failing to not get her hopes up as Filthy trotted off.

“I should get back to work as well,” Bon Bon said, “After I get you something to eat. If you need anything after that, I’ll be in the office just down the hall.

“Thanks.”

Vinyl laid her head on the edge of the bed as Bon Bon walked away, watching Octavia’s shallow breaths. What was she supposed to do? What could she do? How long could she wait? How long should she wait? Her only idea at this point hinged on somepony not totally insane having written a guide on what to do when your friend was being assaulted by a magical relic somewhere on the network.

“Vinyl,” Filthy’s voice came from down the hall, “Your ship’s pilot is on the line. She says she needs to speak with you.”

Chapter 15 - Flim Flam

Vinyl sat near the edge of the bed, tapping her hoof on the tablet and biting her lip as she struggled to focus on the screen, unable to keep from looking up every few seconds to make sure Octavia was still breathing.

Of course the ship was busted. Things had already been going so well. At this rate, she fully expected either Tavi or herself to get struck by lightning.

She wasn’t so sure about Ditzy’s sabotage claim, though. That sounded seriously paranoid. Somepony would’ve needed to know they were here – despite Ditzy’s insistence to Tavi they couldn’t be tracked because of programs she had in the ship’s systems or whatever – within an hour or two of them landing.

Besides, having spent three days on that damned ship, she didn’t have any trouble believing the thing broke just because it felt like it.

Not that that made her feel better. Either way, it meant leaving the station just got a lot harder.

Shaking her head, she refocused on the tablet and sighed. She’d been hoping maybe the net would turn up some tricks for dealing with being overloaded with magic, but the sites she found didn’t really help.

Magic poisoning. Caused by illness in unicorns or, in rare circumstances, exposure to large amounts of raw magic for extended periods of time. Effects included fever, delirium, muscle weakness, magical discharge, fatigue, fainting, uncontrollable spellcasting, coma, hallucinations, magical flux, psychosis, systematic organ failure, and, in rare circumstances, death.

Treatment was easy for a unicorn: expel the excess magical energy through controlled spellcasting. If the patient had trouble, they could be be assisted in the casting by doctors.

Vinyl took a deep breath and pressed her muzzle into the edge of the bed. “Why the buck don’t any of these cover what you do when it’s an earth pony with the problem?”

“Because the unicorns studying it don’t care?”

Vinyl didn’t bother to look at the doorway. “What’s up, Bon Bon?”

“Diamond Tiara’s in bed and Rich is about to do the same, so I was on my way out. I wanted to talk with you a little more first, though.”

Vinyl glanced at the tablet’s clock and was surprised to find it was well after midnight. “Oh. It’s way later than I thought. Geeze.” Slumping back onto her haunches, she started stretching her neck. “What’d you want to chat about? I’m sorta trying to figure something out right now.”

“That’s what I wanted to chat with you about, Vines.” She stepped towards Vinyl, locking eyes with her. “What is really going on with you two?”

Vinyl shifted and looked away. “I already told you: nothing.”

“You really haven’t gotten any better at lying.”

“I’m kinda outta ways to tell you it’s nothing, Bon Bon. Seriously, could you lay off it?”

“Let me put it another way then: what sort of trouble did you bring here?”

Vinyl’s heart pounded in her chest as she struggled to meet Bon Bon’s gaze. Buck her, she couldn’t deal with this right now. “Nothing! I’m like, ninety-nine percent there’s no trouble.”

“And the other one percent?” Bon Bon asked.

Vinyl shook her head, pulling back from her old friend. “Look, Bon Bon, please, just let it go, okay? It’s better for everypony if I don’t talk about it.” To her surprise, her old friend stepped forward, cornering her.

“I know you, Vinyl. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t do something you thought would get a bunch of ponies hurt, but you might do something so completely stupid and thoughtless that that’s exactly what’ll happen. What are you hiding?”

“I can’t tell—”

Bon Bon pressed her hoof against Vinyl’s chest, nearly knocking her over “I’m not letting you cause trouble for Rich or Diamond Tiara,” she said flatly, “And I’m not dealing with this ‘it’s better if I don’t talk about it’ bull. It never is. So, start talking or I will throw your sorry flank out into the storm.”

There’d only been a couple times Vinyl had seen Bon Bon mad, and, while Tavi could be kinda cute when she was annoyed, Bon Bon legit scared her. A lot of ponies blustered when they were mad, but she’d never once seen Bon Bon not follow through just the way she’d promised.

“Okay, look. Tavi got into a bit of trouble on Manehattan Station, and I helped her out, so we’re both kinda in it now, so we’re just trying to lay low. She does seriously have business here, just like she said. There’re no big wanted ads for us anywhere, so it’s not like you’re harboring known fugitives or anything.” Vinyl leaned back and gently pushed Bon Bon’s hoof down. “If anypony asks about us, you can just tell ‘em we’re here and you’ll be cool.”

“What sort of trouble?”

“Can you cut me some slack here, Bon Bon?” Vinyl let out an annoyed sigh when she received silence as an answer. “Fine. The Council Guard wants to arrest Tavi because some big important package got dropped on her head by accident and now she’s all mixed up in some stupid political game between councillors. Do you see why I don’t want to bucking talk about this? Knowing this stuff is what’s gonna cause—”

“And you’re helping her because?”

“Because that’s what friends do!” Vinyl snapped.

The corners of her lips twitched a little. “So what actually caused the magic poisoning?”

Vinyl shut her mouth and looked away. Why didn’t Bon Bon get how this worked? You let people in on the secrets, they get all tied up in it, and then the bad things happened.

Bon Bon sighed. “Does it have to do with those rocks she asked Rich to find?”

“Why… why would you say that?”

“I may not have gotten the chance to fail out of a fancy unicorn school, but I’m not stupid, Vines.” Rolling her eyes at Vinyl’s confused expression, she continued, “She’s trying to lay low because the Council Guard is trying to arrest her, but she still cared enough about some rocks to ask Rich to look into them. You didn’t try to feed me the engine shielding line again. Seemed like a good enough guess to me.”

Vinyl sighed, giving up. Nothing she could say at this point would sound convincing. “Fine. Fine, fine, fine. Yes, it has to do with the rocks. They’re magical rocks from Old Equestria, and the one Tavi has right now is filling her with tons of magic. It’s completely directed at her, though, and that’s why I’m pretty bucking sure she’s the only one in any danger from that. I’ve been hanging around her for days and I haven’t had any problems.” Finally managing to meet Bon Bon’s eyes, Vinyl continued, “If you want, I’ll go back to the ship and take the rock with me, but look. Right now? I’m seriously afraid that Tavi is gonna die before she gets help, so could you maybe lay the buck off just a little bit?”

To her surprise, Bon Bon chuckled, her sternness melting away.

“What? What’s funny?”

“It’s just nice to know that you really can get mad, too.” Before Vinyl could speak, Bon Bon kissed her cheek. “Thank you for being mostly honest. You of all ponies should know it’s a lot easier to help when you actually share what the problem is. We’ll do what we can for Octavia. Worst case, I’m sure Rich can manage to charter a shuttle for you two.” As an afterthought, she added, “Oh, I left some wraps warming up in the kitchen for you now. Eat them while you do whatever you’re doing, then try and get some sleep.”

“Sure,” Vinyl grumbled, letting out an aggravated breath as her old friend trotted back towards the door.

“I’m serious. You won’t be any good to anypony if you waste all night trying to find the answers you want to find.”

“I got it, Bons. Really.” Despite herself, a smile spread across Vinyl’s muzzle.

“And let Rich sleep,” Bon Bon said, stopping in the doorway. “He’s done what he can for tonight. If you need anything, I’m just two units over, three floors up.”

“Gotcha,” Vinyl said, levitating the tablet off the bed as she stood up. “The kitchen’s down the hall?”

“Yes. This place isn’t that big. You won’t miss it.”

~~~~~

Octavia’s breath came in ragged, heavy gasps as she pushed through the fog, each step taken towards the crystal spire in the distance sapping her of what little strength she had left. She struggled forward, though, placing all her hopes on that dim shine that still seemed so far away.

She knew if she looked away, she would lose it. If she stopped, she would not start again. If she wavered for even a split-second, she would fail.

Why was this happening to her?

Phantasmal voices surrounded her, threatening to drown out even that terrible, skull-splitting ring in her ears with their unintelligible, cacophonous droning. Words that sounded so familiar, but, at the same time, completely without form. Echoes of echoes of echoes of echoes of echoes...

Octavia rubbed her eyes with a foreleg. She couldn’t think straight. Her stomach churned. Her legs felt numb. Her mind wandered.

She’d been here before, right? She’d helped harvest these apples. She’d never done that. She’d built a barn. When? She’d come here for cider and never gotten it. Yes? No.

“Equestria to Octavia!”

The sound pierced the haze of thoughts, forcing her to remember that another pony was here with her. “Huh?”

“You keep spacing out. And you’re not looking too good.”

“M’fine,” Octavia mumbled.

“Well I’m not,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’m totally lost. Sweet Apple Acres wasn’t this big. We should’ve already been in Ponyville.”

“Prolly ‘cause…” Octavia shook her head and tried again, “Probably because this place isn’t real. It’s a dream or something like that.”

“More like a nightmare,” the pegasus grumbled. “Trust me, this place? Not going away when you wake up. Speaking of, you got any more ideas on that yet?”

“Just be quiet and lemme— let me think.” She resisted the urge to sit, despite thinking and walking together being a real challenge. Where was this place? Why was it familiar? How did she leave? This all had to do with the Element’s magic, right?

But what did that actually mean?

She forced herself to breathe slower, just like before she played. Concentrate and focus. Vinyl had told her about magic.

Vinyl. Her friend. The only friend she still had. A friend she badly missed right now.

She wanted to see her friends again. She wanted to race Applejack again. She wanted to talk Daring Do with Twilight again. She wanted to go to another of Pinkie’s parties again. She wanted to just hang with Fluttershy again. She’d even put up with Rarity dressing her up again.

Who?

This place was driving her crazy. Thoughts that weren’t hers, memories that weren’t hers, voices from all around. Why? Why would the magic that she had been told belonged to her do this?

A distant memory of a voice she knew pierced the din filling her head. “What’d my tutor always say... ‘A unicorn’s magic is a perfect expression of themselves’ or something?”

Rainbow Dash had been the Element of Loyalty. The Element of Loyalty was Rainbow Dash.

“You’re doing this to me,” Octavia groaned, her legs finally giving out on her, forcing her to the ground.

“Huh?”

“You need to let me wake up.”

Rainbow Dash whirled on her. “What? How’m I supposed to do that?”

“I dunno,” Octavia mumbled, “But—”

“Then don’t ask me to do things I can’t do!” The pegasus bristled with sudden anger. “I’d love to do something, but I can’t! All I can do is hang around with you when you show up here. I can’t do bull here! You’ve got to get up and do this!”

Octavia cringed, trying to push herself to her hooves as the wind whipped around her, joining the cacophony of sound that threatened to smother her thoughts. “Please, calm down,” she begged.

“And how am I supposed to do that, huh? I don’t know how long I’ve been here, I don’t know how I got here, I don’t know where my friends are, I can’t do anything about it, and I’m sick of it! You think you need out of here? I need out of here!”

The fog whirled and spun around them, buffeted by the growing winds, now thickening and darkening of its own accord.

“They need me and I… I can’t help them!”

The world around her shook and vibrated under the force of the discordance and the wind tore the grass and trees free of the ground, yet none of that terrified her more than the choking, cloying wave of sights and sounds that buffeted her.

Racing over Equestria. Hanging with the Wonderbolts. Sweet Apple Acres’ cider. The sonic rainboom. The places she’d seen. The challenges she’d faced to protect Equestria. The friends she’d made.

She wanted out.

She needed out.

She had to get out.

But she couldn’t.

She’d messed up.

~~~~~~

Vinyl rested her head on the edge of Tavi’s bed, staring blearily at the tablet out of the corner of her eyes, its clock letting her know that morning fast approached. Was Octavia breathing harder? She couldn’t really tell. At some point she’d given up browsing the network and just started spacing out, staring into nothing as insomnia got its way.

Her stomach rumbled unhappily.

Not that it mattered. Even if she’d been able to sleep, those stupid rolls and their stupid bucking SynthHay would’ve probably kept her up. How do you live on a station with all that fresh food and still end up keeping that bull around your place?

Hours of browsing the net hadn’t changed the answer: the sufferer either needed to expel the excess magic themselves or get the assistance of a unicorn to remove it, which, by all accounts, was a super difficult, delicate process. It was like powering a magic circuit yourself.

Vinyl had personally blown out more than a few light boards and sound systems doing that.

Thinking about doing the same to Tavi didn’t help her stomach.

Her ears pricked and her heart jumped as the front door buzzed.

Bon Bon probably had a keycard, and, even for a pony like Filthy, it seemed way too bucking early for business visits. Plus, nopony else in the unit besides her was awake. So, not a normal visitor? Maybe a visitor in a hurry because it was an emergency?

The door buzzed again.

Pushing herself to her hooves, she stretched, blinking away her drowsiness, trying once again to keep her hopes from getting the better of her. After all, it could be somepony here to arrest them, then they’d both be royally bucked.

As she stepped out of the room and into the hall, she almost crashed into a drowsy Filthy, also headed for the door. “Whoah, sorry, FIlthy! Is it a doct—”

“I don’t know,” he growled, not even waiting for her to finish. “And I would think that most ponies of any intelligence would call ahead to confirm the situation. Regardless, I have no idea who else would be here this early. It isn’t as if we have door-to-door sales ponies here!”

Clearly a pony who needed coffee to start the day.

She followed him down the short hall, keeping a bit of distance between them. Might not have anything to do with her and Tavi. Plenty of ponies probably came out to Filthy’s place during rain week without announcing themselves.

Vinyl bit her lip and fell a little further back, unable to forget Ditzy’s claims of sabotage. Even if this did involve them, it didn’t have to be good. As the door slid open, she tensed, immediately recognizing the heads of Ponyville Station and the owners of Flim Flam Industries: the brothers Flim and Flam.

“Flim, Flam… what a surprise,” Filthy managed, apparently as surprised as she was to see the pair. After a moment, he stepped aside so the two could actually come in instead of standing out under the eave. “What brings the two of you out here on such a terrible day?”

“Why, we heard you were in desperate need of a little help, Rich! A catastrophic emergency!” the brother with the mustache – Vinyl had never bothered to learn which was which – said.

“And who would we be if we weren’t helping out?” the other added.

Filthy hesitated a moment, but nodded. “Well, while I certainly appreciate it, Flam, Flim,” he said, addressing each in turn, “What I was looking for was—”

“A doctor, yes!” Flam said. “Somepony familiar with magic poisoning, right?”

“That is exactly why we’re here! We’ve put a call to our very own personal physician and he’ll be here quick as he can. Unfortunately, he’s off station right now.”

“We’ve got him a spot on Fillydelphia’s fastest shuttle serves. However, since this is apparently an emergency, we wanted to see if we could lend a bit of a helping hoof ourselves.”

Flim’s eyes finally caught Vinyl and he smiled, stepping forward. “Ah! A most unexpected guest, Rich! Is that you, Vinyl Scratch?” Stepping forward, he continued, “You should have let us know you were coming to Ponyville Station! You are one customer we would be more than happy to welcome personally!”

“I do hope it isn’t you who’s ill, Miss Scratch! Please say it isn’t so, Rich.” Flam said, also stepping past Filthy. “It would be a devastating blow to the Empire’s music scene, not to mention our own business.”

Vinyl didn’t exactly smile back. Working only through Filthy had been the best choice she ever made. “Nah. I’m fine. It’s a friend of mine I came to the station with. She’s in a pretty bad way, so if we could get on with it?”

The two brothers exchanged glances and nodded before Flam spoke up. “Well, you are definitely quite lucky then! The Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic is one-hundred percent guaranteed to help with problems stemming from magical exposure, or your money back!”

The name sounded familiar. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d seen something named that back in Manehattan’s drugstores, right next to allergy meds and all the junk that got advertised on the network.

Clearing his throat, Flim nudged his brother.

“Not that we will be charging, of course. Consider this an investment in our continued relationship with a valued partner.”

“Look, I really don’t care,” Vinyl said, jerking her head towards the room where Tavi was and ignoring the dirty look Filthy gave her. “Charge, don’t, whatever. If that stuff’ll help, then just hurry up and give it to her, okay?”

“Please excuse Vinyl’s brusqueness,” Filthy said. “She is obviously quite concerned about her friend.”

The two brothers smiled, speaking at almost the exact time, “Of course.”

Flim continued, “Let’s go see what we can do, eh?”

They all piled into the room, with the exception of Filthy who excused himself to check on his daughter and not overcrowd the room. As it was, the three of them barely fit, so long as they spaced themselves out around the bed.

Vinyl tapped her hoof impatiently, her eyes darting between the brothers and her friend, irritation giving way to concern as she saw Tavi’s chest rise and fall. She really was breathing harder. “Is that stuff going to cure her?”

“Well, our special Miracle Curative Tonic will certainly help treat the symptoms,” Flam said as his brother produced a greenish bottle from his saddlebags. “Laboratory testing has shown one of its many, many beneficial effects is the treatment of mild magic poisoning, but it has yet to be tested with more severe cases. We may well be seeing a first here!”

“And you’ve got your doctor on the way? When do you think he’ll be here?”

“As soon as he can!”

“I’ll pay you two back,” Vinyl said, her gaze bouncing between her friend and the bottle. “With interest.”

“Think nothing of it! Well, perhaps an autograph or two? We are both quite big fans of yours.”

“Speaking of, have you been with her since before this started, Vinyl?” Flim asked as cracked the bottle open with his magic.

“Yeah.”

“Then I think you should have some as well.”

Vinyl shook her head. “I’m fine. I’m sure. Let’s just worry about Tavi, okay?”

“Nonsense!” Flam protested, his magic snatching the bottle from Flim. “You are a valued customer and a musical treasure. We absolutely must insist that you, as a precaution—”

Without even waiting for him to finish, Vinyl took the bottle. She didn’t have time for this. “Fine! Just drink some of it, yeah?” As the brothers nodded, she took a deep swig, cringing as the nauseatingly minty liquid filled her mouth. It took an awful lot of control not to spit it out. “Sweet Luna that’s awful.”

“Really?” Flim said, accepting the bottle back and passing it over to his brother. “Nine-out-of-ten ponies agree that the flavor is stellar” Apparently seeing Vinyl’s glare, he cleared his throat. “More importantly, we could use your help for a moment. Could you lift your friend slightly? We need to make her drink.”

“Sure. No problem.” She felt lightheaded she wrapped Tavi in magic, exhaustion making it hard to even just lift her up enough that they’d be able to pour liquid down her throat. “You sure this is the right way to do this?”

“Of course, Miss Scratch!” Flim said.

“This patented formula was created by us, after all.” Flam added.

“Could you hurry it up then?” Vinyl asked, blinking as she swayed unsteadily. Levitation had never been her strong suit, and Tavi was not light.

“In a moment. We wouldn’t want her to choke, would we?”

Shaking her head, Vinyl refocused, trying to not drop her friend. What the buck were they were waiting for? Her magic faltered for a moment, forcing her to redouble her efforts. This wasn’t her first sleepless night by any count. Why the buck was it suddenly kicking her flank so hard?

“Are you alright, Miss Scratch?”

“Just didn’t sleep super great,” she mumbled, the words slurring. Her tongue felt numb.

Both Flim and Flam watched her. Neither paid any attention to Octavia.

“The buck did you...” Vinyl mumbled, leaning back against the wall for support as she release Tavi and tried to gather magic for another spell as the brothers became quadruplets. “You drugged me.”

Flim shoved the door shut behind him. “Correct, Vinyl! I suppose a club pony would know all about the various substances one can put in a drink. This one is quite effective on unicorns. It only kicks in once they try a bit of magic, but it works quite fast once triggered, don’t you agree?”

Vinyl glared as she struggled to hold onto the little magic she managed to gather.

“Oh my! Vinyl has very scary eyes, doesn’t she, brother?”

“That she does! But you really should sit down, otherwise you might hurt yourself.”

“Indeed. We’d hate for something to happen to you.”

“Buck off, asses,” Vinyl managed, the magic slipping away.

“If you aren’t careful, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Their voices sounded so far away. By the time Vinyl realized she was falling, she’d already hit the floor.

Somepony sighed. “We warned her, didn’t we brother?”

“That we did.”

Vinyl’s limbs felt completely detached from her as the world darkened and pulled away. Her mind swam, but one thought centered itself. Flailing weakly, her hoof caught Tavi’s saddlebag and managed to wedge it under the bed.

“Flim! Flam! What in Celestia’s name going on here?”

The voices sounded so faint.

“Ah, Rich. Relax. Sorry we couldn’t let you know, but we wanted to protect you from the heap of trouble that...”

Chapter 1 - The Cellist and the City

The Manehattan Station shone like an amethyst star suspended in the depths of space.

It was the greatest of the twelve stations that formed the core of the Grand Equestrian Empire, and the number of ships orbiting it and waiting for their turn to dock and unload travellers and goods from all across the galaxy only served to reinforce that fact.

Anypony who was anypony wanted to come to Manehattan.

The city contained within it was a wonder among wonders, a marvel of modern magic. The towering, metallic buildings of the city rose to incredible heights, the tops of the very tallest almost scraping the magical dome that kept the city habitable. Networked between them were thousands of walkways, ramps, bridges, and trains that crossed countless times, creating a pattern more complex than even a hundred star spider webs.

Octavia Melody made them her stage.

The slate earth pony leaned heavily on her cello, guiding the bow over its strings with a delicacy that mere hooves should not have allowed. Unfortunately, the crowds simply continued to trot by, their hoofsteps drowning out each and every melancholy note.

Redoubling her efforts as she entered the piece’s final movement, Octavia concluded it with a ridiculous animato allegro and a tacky flourish. The act left a bad taste in her mouth, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides, flair did not necessarily have to preclude artistry.

She offered a grateful smile as a unicorn tapped her BitCard and it chimed – the sound of bits being transferred to her account. “Thank you,” she managed between heaving breaths. The smile fell away when the unicorn just shrugged and continued on his way.

It took substantial restraint not to bring her instrument down on her “benefactor’s” head.

She hated this. She hated the endless and uncaring crowds. She loathed playing in the streets for bits like this. She couldn’t stand the way they made her feel like just another poor earth pony, begging for her daily bread.

But, in the end, that was what she was.

The city’s upper tiers belonged to the pegasi and unicorns. She might look like one of the socialites from the upper tiers, but they could see right through her. The faded color and fraying edges of her pink bow-tie. A mane growing beyond her ability to keep it styled. Bags under her eyes from too many sleepless nights. The scuffs and scratches that her instrument bore. Every part of it added up to a pony pretending she was still part of high society.

Octavia sighed and glanced up at the dome. Night was starting. The amethyst shell above would dim until it was nearly black, the dull, fluorescent light of day would give way to night’s garish neons, and the walkways would finally start to empty.

She often wondered why they bothered with night and day. To honor some Alicorn princesses that only existed in stories? In memory of a planet that ponies had abandoned centuries ago?

The growling of her stomach brought her back to the present. She had more immediate problems to concern herself with. “Thank you, fillies and gentlecolts,” she announced to the crowd. “I shall be here again tomorrow if you would like to hear more.”

Nopony begged for an encore. Nopony cheered. Nopony applauded.

Nopony even looked at her.

After depositing her cello into its case and easily flipping it onto her back, she checked her BitCard. Even with the grim specter of rent looming over her, she could at least still afford some of the luxuries she treasured. Like dinner.

~~~~~

By the time Octavia reached the depths of Manehatten, night was almost in full effect. All around her signs flickered into life, their worn and battered magic circuits barely producing the power needed to keep them operational.

A cold breeze caused her to shiver. The weather schedule had listed the temperature as moderate, but she should have known better than to trust it; the climate systems below Tier 40 had been malfunctioning for weeks and maintenance pegasi still had not done a thing about it.

Trotting to stay warm struck her as a good idea, right up until she stepped in something squishy, slipped, and nearly lost her instrument over the walkway’s rail. She barely suppressed a growl while scraping the mystery mess – the endless array of revolting possibilities did not merit consideration – off her hoof.

The middle tiers of Manehattan were well maintained, but the lower tiers? Not so much. Nopony cared how they looked. It didn’t matter if the sign above your business sparked, if trash piled up in front of your door, or if the walkway was stained with things she would rather not think about. Down here, there were more important things to consider. More immediate things. Food. Running water. Magic. A place to sleep.

It chafed, but what could be done? The unicorns made life in the Empire possible and ruled it accordingly. The pegasi controlled the climate systems, served as the Empire’s police and military forces, and were naturals when it came to spaceflight. Earth ponies… earth ponies just labored on the agricultural stations or did menial labor in the cities. They were just second class—

She shook her head violently. No.

She was letting her stomach get the best of her. Everypony had their part to play. They all had something special to contribute. There was some value in everypony’s life. Her cutie mark told her that and she believed it. If she didn’t, then why even bother trying?

She finally trotted up to her destination, a narrow storefront wedged between two housing blocks. An unlit sign hanging over the door read “Hay! Burger.” The interior didn’t look any better: it was tight, dimly lit, and featured only a hoofful of tables and small cushions. It did not make for a comfortable dining experience, but it was clean, it was close to home, and, most importantly, it was cheap.

“Hey,” the pony behind the counter grunted as she entered.

“Good evening, Line.” She removed her cello case and leaned it against the counter before clambering onto one of the cushions, grateful for the chance to finally rest her aching hind legs. “Something good, please. I don’t care what.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You came to the wrong place if you want something good, Octavia.”

“Filling is good.”

“That I can do,” he said. “Coming right up.” A few minutes later Line dropped a dish off at her table. “There you go. House special.”

“Thank you,” Octavia said. He also cooked quickly – another definite benefit. Ignoring the fact that the hay burger somehow managed to look both under- and over-cooked at the same time, she took a giant bite. Etiquette be damned: the diner was empty, the food was there, and she was hungry.

Once she finished, a cup of water washed away the worst of the aftertaste. She missed real hay and greens. Synthetic foods might meet all her dietary requirements, but saying they tasted like plastic would have been a very generous understatement. Besides, eating them made her feel poor. Which, while the truth, wasn’t exactly a feeling she liked to foster.

Still, Line could at least get something resembling actual flavor out of SyntHay. That, and she owed him for letting her eat on credit every now and then.

Octavia briefly considered ordering another burger, but better sense prevailed. She needed to save the bits for a rainy day: another burger now could be the difference between life and death later. She let Line charge her BitCard, thanked him for the meal, and stepped back out onto the walkways.

Even if night and day looked nearly identical this deep in Manehattan, the ponies still acknowledged the change. She watched idly as the crowds thinned, the shops closed, the bars and clubs opened, and the street ponies started to hunker down and find places to sleep for a few hours.

Octavia had that going for her, at least. She wasn’t sleeping in the streets. Yet.

Not that she considered her home that much of an improvement. Stepping through the building’s main entry, she walked past dozens of identical doors. Even having lived here for a few years, she still needed to read unit numbers to make it through the maze of indistinguishable hallways.

She nodded silently at her neighbors as she passed them, receiving nothing more than an occasional grunt in return. These housing complexes did not exactly make for friendly communities. She imagined most ponies lived in them for the exact same reason she did: it was the cheapest housing in the station.

A quick swipe from her BitCard unlocked her door – she didn't know why she bothered locking it; it wasn't like the cheap, magic lock could actually keep anypony out.

A light switched on as she entered, bathing the windowless room in anemic light. Not that Octavia needed it. She’d managed to memorize the layout of the room, a minor accomplishment considering herself and her cello occupied most of the available space.

Despite knowing some of that filth lingered on her hoof, dealing with the shower stall just felt like too much effort for her right now. The hay burger sat heavily on her stomach, and the low, narrow bed that occupied one of the walls looked uncharacteristically inviting. The thought of laying down in this state disgusted a small part of her, but the parts that just wanted to crawl into those scratchy blankets and bring an end to today outvoted it.

She could start fresh tomorrow.

~~~~~

The shaking of her room tore Octavia from sleep as she half fell out of her bed.

Images of disaster consumed her immediate thoughts. Was the building collapsing? Could the station be falling apart? Meteor shower? A changeling assault?

Her sleep-addled brain took a moment to work out that the shaking of her room was the not a sign of imminent disaster, but rather the result of a thunderous bassline. She snarled as she struggled to push herself back into bed.

I might kill somepony, she thought. As her cello case fell over and managed, against all odds, to smack her square in the muzzle before making it to the floor, she amended that thought to, I am definitely going to kill somepony.

Octavia’s startled thrashing had tangled the sheets around her legs, forcing some complicated maneuvers to free herself from the hundred thread count shackles. Death would be too good for whatever pony was responsible for this racket.

Once outside, it only took her a moment to find the source of the infernal sound: the corner unit she shared a wall with. Of course it would be a neighbor. Her life would be too simple if it were somepony she didn’t risk running into over and over again.

She pounded on the door, surprised to find that it was a reinforced model, rather than the standard plastic shell. Between that and the infernal racket, she doubted the pony inside could hear her. While the idea of screaming at the door appealed viscerally, she knew adding to the cacophony would probably only come back to bite her in the flank. Instead, she just resigned herself to hammering impotently on the door for a few minutes in the vain hope that she would be heard.

As Octavia hit the door with everything she had, the lock panel caught her eye. It did not look like one of the cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel models the units came with. The panel had a number of options displayed… including a buzzer so guests would not have to pound on your door like savages.

Dropping back to all fours, she spent a moment composing herself before she tapped – quite a bit harder than necessary – the panel. She waited a few seconds and felt a rush of satisfaction as the noise quieted to a dull roar and the door finally opened. “Yeah, what’s u—”

“There are ponies that are trying to sleep right now,” Octavia snarled, “And they do not appreciate it when some idiot starts blasting noise at whatever bloody hour this is. If you do not put an end to this insufferable racket, I will personally throttle you and I doubt a single pony on this block will report me for it! Is that understood?” She took a deep breath as her tirade ended. Blood rushed to her face as a sense of decorum crept past the rage, but she couldn’t back down now.

The pony who had answered the door just stared back at her, mouth hanging slightly open. At least Octavia presumed she was staring back; the opaque glasses she wore made it impossible to see her eyes. She started to comment on it, but then she noticed the horn.

A unicorn. She lived next to a unicorn. She lived next to a unicorn who she just finished threatening to choke. That definitely seemed to fit the day’s pattern.

To her surprise, the unicorn set a hoof on her shoulder. “Sorry ‘bout that! My sound dampening spell must have worn off. Hard to notice if I’m not paying attention to it. Totally my bad.” The unicorn offered a broad grin. “I’ll fix it right now, no worries. Cool?”

Octavia bit back a “No.” She might still be mad, but that didn’t excuse being rude... especially if this idiot unicorn wanted to be so bloody nice about it. Besides, picking a fight with a unicorn rarely ended well. Now seemed like a good time for grace. "Thank you," she forced. After a second she added, "And sorry for yelling. I'm just very, very tired."

"No prob, I totally get it. I'd be pissed too. Tell you what! Let me offer you a real apology for wrecking your night! Hang here a sec, okay?"

"It’s fine, don’t worry—" Octavia started, but the unicorn was gone before she could finish, leaving her standing in front of the open door. The half-open door hid most of the unit from view – it would be rude to snoop on somepony else’s home without being invited in anyway – but she could not help but notice the custom console and the giant speakers attached to it. Something like that probably cost a small fortune, and this unicorn just left the door open? How stupid.

Retrospectively, Octavia hadn’t demonstrated much better judgement herself. Pounding on some strange pony's door in the middle of the night and threatening to throttle them? This situation could be playing out quite differently right now, and very few of the scenarios she imagined ended well for her. Why in Tartarus would a unicorn with the bits to burn on a console with a top-end sound system live this low in the city anyway? That console probably cost more than she had made in the last three years!

"Here you go!" the unicorn said as she returned, levitating a piece of paper over to Octavia. "Consider this a full and thorough apology!"

Octavia stared at the paper, squinting as she tried to make it out through the electric blue haze of the unicorn's magic. It read – in rather atrocious form for someone who didn’t need to use their mouth to write – "This pony is to be given the VIP treatment tonight. Got it? -Vinyl".

Octavia raised an eyebrow.

"There’s a club a few tiers up: Crazy Horse. Info's on the back." The unicorn flipped the paper over, revealing an ad that Octavia remembered seeing plastered all over a wall near Line’s place; that combination of neon blues, greens, and reds splattered haphazardly over the paper and topped with the club’s name and location in brilliant yellow worked in concert to burn themselves into her eyes and mind alike. "I play there. Just drop by whenever you want and I guarantee a good time! Food, drink, whatever you want, on the house!"

"Thank you," she mumbled, taking the paper with her teeth. With her anger spent, all she wanted to do now was go back to sleep.

"No prob! Just show that to one of the ponies at the door when you come by!”

Octavia walked slowly back towards her own home, clutching the paper in her mouth. She restrained a yawn and shook her head. She expected tomorrow to be bloody awful after that interruption, but, for some reason, she didn’t care.

~~~~~

Lyra Heartstrings sat alone in the depths of the Manehattan Library's stacks, surrounded by thousands and thousands of ancient books. This place represented the greatest treasure trove in the entire Empire, and not a single pony shared the cavernous room with her. She levitated a few carefully selected books off several shelves, coughing as Celestia-knew-how-many years worth of dust poured down around her and filled the air.

"Excuse me, Madam Heartstrings?" The librarian spoke quietly, like he didn't want to be heard. “I was wondering when—”

"Soon. Now leave me alone. I will let you know when I’m finished." She didn't even bother to turn and face him.

"O-of course. I will check on you later.”

If he kept bothering her, she might just tell him to go home and then worry about closing the library herself. Lyra might have lost her position on the council, but the name “Heartstrings” still carried some weight.

She returned to the tables, adding the new books to the already massive collection she had accumulated. Using the consoles upstairs might have been more efficient, but she preferred the books. She could feel them. She could put her hooves on them. She could trust them.

At least she thought she could.

Lyra pulled two books towards her. Both were histories of the Grand Equestrian Empire. Both told the exact same story. Yet there was something bothering her. Their stories didn’t add up. They made sense as she read them, but whenever she went back to analyze them? There were contradictions. Gaps. Inconsistencies.

Pony civilization often seemed to jump forward by leaps and bounds without explanation or cause. Very little record of life before the stations existed, despite clearly possessing quite advanced magic. The three tribes apparently decided to desert Equestria for no apparent reason. The stations, magic that must have required hundreds of thousands of hours of work to even conceptualize, apparently appeared overnight.

Why were these histories not rife with speculation? They seemed to gloss right over the fact that entire patches of the Empire’s history did not seem to exist.

What had started as simple research for her book on the history of the Unicorn Council – the entire thousand year legacy, from its founding by King Bullion to the modern installation – had transformed into a maddening endeavor. Questions that had never occurred to her before, but seemed blindingly obvious now, kept leaping out of books. More worrying, though, was the fact that whenever she started to really dig into it, without fail, an answer would present itself... sometimes even in books she knew she had already combed through every page of.

Which shouldn't be possible. Books were static. Unchanging. But here she sat, long after most ponies would be asleep, tearing through book after book, unable to shake a feeling that they were hiding something from her.

Lyra sighed and pushed those books away. This wasn’t getting her anywhere. She pulled a book from one of the stacks at random, using her golden magic to keep that literary tower from collapsing. She did not envy the reshelving staff. Tomorrow would not be fun for them.

Noticing what book she’d grabbed, she chuckled. The Two Sisters. Now there was a classic. It contained at least a dozen different stories about the Alicorn Princesses who held dominion over the sun and moon and used their powers to rule over Equestria. All fiction and myth, of course, but she'd loved it as a filly. She might still have an actual, physical copy somewhere at home too.

She flipped idly through the book until she hit a chapter entitled "The Elements of Harmony." That...

Six ponies sat at the cafe, laughing and joking beneath the brilliant sun. Lyra slouched on the bench – everypony teased her for it, but she found the position comfortable – staring at them. She could scarcely believe that those ponies found the Elements of Harmony, defeated Nightmare Moon, and even saved Princess Celestia…

Lyra blinked. As quickly as it had appeared, the scene vanished, leaving her alone in the library with an open book. That had been… a memory? She wanted to call it a daydream, but something about that felt wrong. That had to have been magic. But how? And, perhaps more importantly, why?

It looked like this night was far from over. She set The Two Sisters aside and started digging for more books that mentioned the Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 16 - The Element of Magic

Lyra stood before the doors of the Manehattan Station library, pacing as she stared up through the gaps in the walkways towards the pale blue dawn the dome simulated above her.

Getting inside and putting Sombra’s theory about her being one of the Elements to rest – one way or another – was the only thing she wanted to do, but he’d very clearly asked her to not do it alone.

She wanted him here helping her. It was his theory after all. He’d been against it, though, claiming the stir from the two of them digging through the library together would have been entirely too much. Unfortunately, she knew he was right. Just the two of them being seen in public over the last few days had started an endless and unpleasant stream of rumors.

Sitting against the wall, she raised a hoof and touched the choker around her neck again. Despite her lingering doubts, she had left it on. And she really did feel better.

Which scared her. She didn’t want Sombra to be right.

Well, no. Part of her didn’t want Sombra to be right. The rest of her was thrilled. If she was right about the Elements… the kinds of things she could learn. The kinds of things she could do!

Without question, she’d become one of the most powerful unicorns in the Empire.

Lyra shook her head, looking down at the scuffed and scratched metal plating that made up the catwalk. Of all the unicorns to be capable of handling that, she ranked herself near the bottom of the list. Just being on council had been a struggle. One she’d failed at, no less.

Still—

“Good morning, Lyra.”

The voice of Trixie – no, Commander Lulamoon – caused her head to snap up.

The unicorn looked amused. “Daydreaming, Lyra?”

“Thinking,” she said, suppressing a frown. Of course Sombra would send her. She was basically his right hoof. That didn’t make the thought of spending the day with her any more palatable. Trixie was no small part of why she’d gotten wrapped up in this whole mess. “You’re here to—?”

“Yes, Trixie is stuck foalsitting you,” Trixie grumbled. “But the request came directly from a Council member, so Trixie will do it without complaint. Though she would appreciate it if you finished quickly. No doubt problems will just pile up in Trixie’s absence.”

Biting back as much of her annoyance and disdain as she could, Lyra nodded. “Of course, Trixie. I wouldn’t want to keep you from your no doubt very important duties.”

Frowning, Trixie flicked her tail and started towards the door. “Then let’s go. Trixie has already called ahead and informed management that the stacks are off-limits to everypony but her and anypony with her.”

How had an arrogant, talentless braggart who’d barely edged Vinyl out in school ended up occupying one of the Empire’s most important positions?

The head librarian greeted them almost the instant the instant they entered the grand entryway. “Miss Heartstrings. Commander Lulamoon. It is a pleasure to welcome you both to the Manehattan Library. As requested, I have limited access—”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Trixie said, cutting her off with an absent hoof wave.

“I, uh, is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No,” Lyra jumped in. “But thank you, Jade. We’ll be sure to ask if we need anything.”

The librarian offered Lyra a thankful smile and Trixie a polite nod before walking off.

“How do you plan on finding the item?” Trixie asked as they trotted past the guarded desk that barred entry to the lift that would take them to the stacks.

“What?”

“Trixie is simply here to observe and make sure you don’t get into trouble, Lyra. She certainly does not plan on helping you look through every musty, dusty old book and box in this place.”

Lyra made a noncommittal noise as she hit the lift’s descent button harder than strictly necessary. Of course it was too much to expect actual help from Trixie. What did Sombra see in her? If Lyra were still on the Council, she’d have turned that contrary, thuggish, untalented unicorn out ages ago.

She shook her head, banishing those thoughts. She wasn’t on the Council anymore. Besides, Trixie probably served some useful function. Sometimes you needed kind words, sometimes you needed a bludgeon, right?

It just disgusted her to think about the sort of damage Trixie could have done to two other Elements.

“So?” Trixie asked again as the lift jerked to a stop, reminding Lyra that a question still needed answering.

“Well, we should probably start looking in storage. Had it been somewhere in the stacks themselves, I would have already found it, and if it had been stored in restorations, I imagine Sombra would have already found it.” Not that that really narrowed things down much. The library storage – home to all the books that were not worth putting out, but also not worth disposing of – took up nearly the entirety of the building’s basement.

“Really. Digging through the library’s junk is the best thing you can come up with?”

“No,” Lyra snapped. “It is just the best thing I’ve come up with so far. If you aren’t going to contribute anything helpful, would you do me a favor and keep your mouth shut, Trixie?”

The unicorn snorted. “Perhaps you should be more careful with what you say. Unlike some ponies, Trixie actually made something of herself.”

Taking a deep breath, Lyra pushed her irritation aside and refocused on the problem at hoof. “If the Element is actually influencing me, then it must have formed some sort of magical link with me. If that really is the case, all I have to do is identify it and trace it back to the source.”

“And how do you intended to do that? Tracing magic in an unshielded area is already a serious pain in the flank, and that’s when you know what you’re looking for.”

“Yes Trixie, I know. I graduated from the Celestial School with honors.”

“Then how were you planning to do it? Ask them to turn everything in the building off?”

Shutting her eyes, Lyra dug back through all the spells she knew. She had to know something that could make this work. “Well, I do know one that allows me to visualize latent magical energy. As long as I focus it right around me—”

“That stupid spell Vinyl came up with?” Trixie interrupted. “You do know that thing is next to useless, yes? She taught it to Trixie back in school. You can’t see anything with it because you’re stuck seeing everything.”

Lyra bit back her response. It wasn’t worth the effort to explain that it worked fine if you managed the spell properly. “I thought I was supposed to be the one coming up with the plan to find the Element.”

“Suit yourself. Trixie won’t stop you from whatever stupid plan you want to try.” As if punctuating her point, Trixie seated herself at one of the tables and levitated a few books off a nearby shelf.

How had she ever been friends with these ponies?

Lyra closed her eyes and started the spell, shivering as she felt the magic wash over her eyes. She let it seep into her, giving the magic a chance to stabilize as she braced herself for the inevitable vertigo that would come with opening her eyes.

As expected, her stomach lurched as her brain struggled to process the vast emptiness beneath her hooves. The physical world was nothing more than a suggestion beneath the overwhelming amounts of magic all around her, the effort of thousands of unicorns’ creating an impenetrable nebula of color.

She swallowed her nausea as she pressed her forehooves down, reassuring herself that the floor still existed somewhere among the kaleidoscopic panoply surrounding her.

It took nearly fifteen minutes of adjusting the spell’s power to minimize sensory overload before she could start processing anything. The lights, the library’s security systems, Trixie and her gear, the choker Sombra had given her, even the muddied, distant glow of magic from beyond the library’s walls…

How’d Vinyl never have problems with this spell?

“You almost done?”

“Almost, Trixie,” she muttered, modifying the spell again and again until she finally reduced the effective range to a small sphere around her. And that’s when she saw it: a narrow thread of fuchsia magic that stretched from her to somewhere beyond the current range of the spell. “I think I found the trail!” she said, her heart pounding in her chest. What else could it be?

“About time,” Trixie said as she stood. “Where is the Element?”

“Not sure yet. I had to narrow the spell’s effective range to almost nothing.” Lyra took a cautious step and almost immediately bumped her chest into a chair. “Could you help me? It’s hard to see like this.”

Trixie made an irritated noise, but Lyra could feel her take up a spot next to her. “And I suppose Trixie shall also have to reason out where it is we should go when you try to take us through a wall?”

“That would help, yes.”

The labyrinthine structure of the stacks made following the thread more difficult than Lyra had thought, partly because the thread twisted and turned with no apparent rhyme or reason, partly because Trixie kept letting her run into the occasional shelf and table, and partly because the lower stacks housed multiple storage rooms, all filled from top to bottom with magically sealed boxes of books that interfered with her examination.

“Is it possible you could hurry this up? Trixie really does have other things to do today.”

“Sombra told you to help me, right?”

“Yes, Councilor Sombra ordered Trixie to assist you.”

“Then quit complaining and just do your job,” Lyra demanded as they arrived at what she hoped was the right storeroom. After a moment of squeezing past stacked crates and circling the room, she was convinced: the magical trail ended here. The Element was in this room.

She ended the spell without closing her eyes, her stomach turning as the world shifted around her.

“That spell is utterly impractical,” Trixie said.

“Well, it worked well enough,” Lyra countered, leaning against the wall to steady herself. “I think it’s in one of these crates. Would you mind heading upstairs and getting the codes to open—”

The thick plastic of one of the crate’s lids snapped as Trixie’s magic forcefully tore it open. The lock stayed in place, holding whatever jagged slivers of plastic could hold on behind. “Trixie believes this works.”

“These are filled with relics from Old Equestria, Trixie!” Lyra snapped, staring in horror. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re going to ruin them!”

“No, they are filled with the junk not worth putting out in the museum or library. Frankly, Trixie suspects she’d be doing them a favor if she were to destroy some of it.” Her magic reached into the box and began pulling tomes out and tossing them into the corner.

Lyra glared at her.

“Trixie is sure that Councilor Sombra will see to it that they are reimbursed for the broken boxes.”

Lyra stood up and joined her in front of the crate, grabbing some of the books with her own magic and stacking them – neatly – to one side. “Just be gentle with the books. I don’t care if the library didn’t think they were worth putting out: they’re irreplaceable.”

“Fine,” Trixie huffed, placing the next book down with exaggerated care.

The first box proved completely devoid of anything but books. As was the second. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth.

“This is a waste of Trixie’s time!” Trixie snarled, slamming another book onto the pile.

“You can leave anytime you want,” Lyra said, straightening out the stack. “I doubt anypony will bother me down here.” Except for you, she added in the privacy of her own head.

“You know Trixie can’t do that. So hurry up and find the stupid rock!”

Lyra’s magic tightened around the book she held as she considered whether she could find it in her heart to justify hitting Trixie with it. Before she figured it out, she felt a surge of power rush that set her fur standing.

The book hit the floor with a snap.

“Did you forget how telekinesis works?”

Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide the book’s title read. It couldn’t be. It really couldn’t be. But the book was quite large. Pointlessly large. And thick.

Her hoof shook as she touched the cover, and tried to open it. The binding creaked and resisted her effort, but a little effort popped it open, revealing both that the cover was actually a lid, and that, rather than pages, the inside of the book contained a hollow. A hollow with a grey stone resting inside, the stone’s starburst pattern staring back at her.

“It really is here,” she mumbled, unable to take her eyes off it. The magic coming off the stone felt palpable. It drew Lyra towards it, beckoning for her to claim it as her—

“Don’t touch it!” Trixie snapped, her crimson magic grabbing Lyra’s hoof and pushing it away from the stone. Before she could respond, Trixie continued, “That is a direct command from Councilor Sombra. You are not to touch the Element.”

“Why would he…?” Lyra started, but trailed off, watching as Trixie slammed the book shut and carefully placed it into her saddlebag. Even with Sombra’s amulet around her neck, she could feel the Element’s magic pressing against her mind. Considering it had been powerful enough to affect her at a distance without any direct connection, who knew what might happen when she touched it. “Just let me see it for just a moment. I won’t—”

“No,” Trixie ordered. “Commander Trixie Lulamoon will not disobey Councilor Sombra’s orders, and she will put you down if you try to so much as look at that rock without his approval.”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the unicorn, wondering how their magic compared, but the urge passed in a flash. Even if she thought of herself as the better spellcaster, that didn’t make her the better magical duelist. “Then what do we do now?”

“We return to Councilor Sombra’s home, contact him, and wait for his next order.”

Looking at the mess they’d left behind, Lyra hesitated. She knew they should clean all this up, but her urge to get her hooves on the stone persevered. “Okay. Let’s go.”

~~~~~

Hooves covered his eyes with a pillow as the station’s day lights pierced his eyelids, grunting as he then rolled over to further conceal his face from the brightness. Shimmer’s couch was more comfortable than his bed, and he wanted to take advantage of that just a bit longer. Eat your meals when they’re there, sleep when you can, because you never know when things will go wrong.

For the time being, he had nothing to do. Shimmer had departed for a Council meeting, and most of their plans hinged on what she could do. The best he could offer at the moment was to reach out to a few contacts and see if he could learn more about the comings and goings of Lyra. Even then, most of them probably wouldn’t be available until later in the day.

Which worked fine for him. Sleepless days and nights were fine when necessary, but best avoided when possible. Tiredness led to carelessness, and carelessness led to blown jobs and dead ponies.

He took a deep breath and relaxed, willing sleep to envelop him again.

Hooves’ eyes snapped open as Shimmer’s console chimed, warning of an incoming call.

He hopped off the couch, shaking dreams of sleep out of his head as he trotted to the desk that took up nearly half the room. That particular chime matched the one Shimmer had told him was associated with the tablet she’d given Octavia, which meant, in her absence, he had a duty to answer it.

“Hello,” he said, after tapping the screen the screen to answer the call. His eyes widened for the barest moment as an unfamiliar face appeared on the screen, but he maintained his composure, just smiling at the unexpected pegasus on the other end. “How may I help you?”

“Uh…” she managed, one eye flicking awkwardly away from him, while the other seemed to move of its own accord. She wiped a foreleg across her face, staining her grey fur black with grease or oil. “Maybe I got the wrong number here…” she mumbled, looking somewhere to the side of the tablet, snapping back into frame a moment later, her broad grin the perfect picture of incompetent idiocy. “Um, does this console belong to Councilor Shimmer? I apologize for bothering you, but I had some really, really important news for her about a package she contracted me to deliver.”

“This is,” Hooves confirmed, continuing to smile even as he studied the pegasus. “Unfortunately she is not available to receive calls at the moment. May I take a message?”

The pegasus hesitated, looking away again. “Uh… well, there was a problem with the delivery.”

Hooves stiffened. “What happened?”

“The package got, uh… banged up. Not sure if it’s okay. And my ship is busted and they don’t have the right model parts here, so I can’t bring it back to her either.”

“What happened to Octavia?” Hooves said, breaking the facade.

“What? I—”

He didn’t let her finish. “My name is Hooves. I am working with Councilor Shimmer. I know about Octavia and the Element of Harmony. I know they were taken to Ponyville. Now, what happened?”

She hesitated for a moment, her good eye focusing on him. “Well, even if you were lying, I guess I can’t really tell you anything important you didn’t already know.” She sat back and shrugged, extending her wings in a helpless manner. “I don’t really know, to be honest. Octavia collapsed and Vinyl thinks it’s magic poisoning or something? She’s trying to find a doctor now, but I guess she needs a unicorn doctor and there aren’t many on Ponyville Station?”

Hooves frowned and seated himself at the desk as he listened.

“I’d take them somewhere else, but my lift boosters are broken, which means taking off again is gonna be a big, big problem. And I’m kinda worried it wasn’t an accident. I mean, I guess it’s possible maybe something broke when I left Manehattan, but I really don’t think that happened.”

“Sabotage?”

“Dunno? I mean, nopony should’ve known we were here, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed my lift booster not working when we docked, and it definitely didn’t just fall out by itself.”

Tapping a hoof on the desk, Hooves tried to digest the information. “How sick is Octavia?”

The pegasus spread her wings and shrugged. “Vinyl freaked out when I said Drifter couldn’t fly, so I guess she thinks it’s pretty bad? All I really know is she passed out and hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Yes, that’s generally bad.” Hooves closed his eyes and took a deep breath, rearranging the plans he and Shimmer had made. Most of them had been contingent on Octavia being mobile. And alive. “Keep the tablet with you at all times. Call if anything changes. In the meanwhile, I’m going to see what I can do for you.”

The pegasus offered a mock salute and a lopsided smile. “Yes, sir, Hooves, sir!”

Hooves ended the call and immediately punched in another number.

“Night Glider’s Shuttle Service: We’ll get you anywhere. How can... “ the pegasus on the other end of the screen stopped, her face breaking into a grin as she slicked her wild mane out of her face. “Sweet Celestia! Hooves! I thought you were dead! How are you doing?”

“Good. Better if you could get me from Manehattan to Ponyville.”

The mare’s expression faltered. “That’s kind of a hard trip to manage on a short notice.”

Hooves nodded. “That’s why I called you, Night Glider.”

She snorted, shaking her head. “Of course. You can’t ever just call me to say hi or anything. When do you need it?”

“Right now.” He and Shimmer had been debating the merits of him staying on the station to help her until Flash healed or joining Octavia on Ponyville Station to keep an eye on them. This settled that.

“That ain’t happening, Hooves.” She tapped another part of the screen and began scrolling. “Yeah, all my pilots are committed right now, and none of them are going anywhere near Ponyville.”

Life could never be easy, could it? “I’m sure you can do better than that.”

“You would be,” she said, sighing as she sat back. “I can maybe get you on something in three days?”

“Not soon enough.” Magic poisoning severe enough to induce a coma would be fatal without treatment within days. If their ship really had been sabotaged, that would be the least of their worries.

“You’re killing me, Hooves.” She ran her hooves through her mane, staring at the desk. “I can make a few calls, collect on a couple favors. I don’t think there’s any chance of getting you a ship today, but maybe tomorrow?”

That wasn’t soon enough either, but it really was probably the best Night Glider could manage. Very few ponies wanted to fly to the agriculture stations. “I owe you one.”

“You really don’t,” she laughed. “Even with this, I’m pretty sure I still owe you, like, half-a-dozen. Can I reach you on that account?”

For the first time, Hooves hesitated. Stupid and careless. He’d lucked out that Shimmer didn’t keep any identifying information on this console’s account. “Yes, but I would appreciate it if you lost the account ID when we finished. It’s borrowed.”

“Gotcha. Consider it purged.” She grinned and continued, “We’ll call it nine favors owed after that.”

“I truly appreciate this, Night Glider.” He bowed his head.

“It’s no problem, Hooves. Just don’t be such a stranger, okay? I’m serious. I really thought you were dead.”

He offered her one final smile, then ended the connection and allowed himself to sag and sigh. There were a few more ponies he could call, but he doubted he’d get better results. Still, best to try everything he could before Shimmer got back.

She was going to love this news.

~~~~~

Lyra sat at the short table in Sombra’s living area, her eyes moving from Sombra to the Element that sat nestled inside its faux book. It took most of her willpower to keep from trying to pull it closer.

“Incredible,” he said, leaning forward. “It really does look just as the fables and stories all say.”

“Trixie found it in the library, just as you suspected,” Trixie said.

“We found it,” Lyra corrected.

He nodded, using his hoof to shift the stone’s container and examine it from different angles. “Where was it?”

“A storage room in the stacks,” Lyra said, ignoring the unicorn’s glare as she answered first. “It was just near the bottom of one of the crates.”

Sombra frowned. “It was in storage?”

“Yeah. All I can guess is that somepony must have just stored the book without actually cataloguing it,” Lyra offered, guessing that he’d arrived at the same question she had during the long and silent trip back from the station’s library: why hadn’t the Element been found before now? Each and every book should have been looked over before being put out or stored, but it was possible that somepony had shirked their job and just tossed it in a crate.

“Do you believe that?”

“It’s possible,” she reiterated, not sounding completely convinced. The odds of this specific book being one to slip through the cracks and get stored without anypony setting eyes on it felt too coincidental. “Stranger things have happened.”

“How did you find it?” Sombra’s attention had shifted from the Element to its container as he worked the lid and studied the false cover.

Lyra swallowed hard, hesitating. “You were right: the Element was… there was a trail of magic between me and it. I don’t know what sort of spell it was or what it was doing, but it… it definitely connected me to the Element.”

The stallion smiled, but didn’t offer further commentary on that subject. “Our next order of business should be to try and confirm whether this truly is one of the Elements, as well as what kind of power it possesses.”

“How?” Lyra asked.

“We attempt to use it, of course.” Sombra turned towards Trixie. “Commander Lulamoon. Have one of the Council Guard’s training rooms cleared. Once that is completed, declare it off-limits, call me, and then return to duty. Lyra and I will be using it until further notice.”

“But I thought I—” Trixie started.

“You have your orders, Commander Lulamoon. Do not make me repeat them.”

The mare grimaced, but stood and bowed her head deeply. “Of course, Councilor Sombra.”

After she had left the room, Lyra shook her head. “How has she managed to get so much more irritating over the years?” she grumbled, her face reddening as she caught Sombra’s eyes. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “I… I’m so sorry.”

His smile grew as he shook his head. “No need to apologize. Commander Lulamoon is a decidedly unpleasant mare. She is arrogant, condescending, brash, thoughtless, cantankerous, grating… and that is only my experience working with her professionally. Unfortunately, the Council Guard often needs hammers, and Commander Lulamoon generally fills that role quite effectively.”

Lyra nodded without really believing it. If the Empire needed somepony like her, something really was wrong.

“How is my little charm holding up?” Sombra asked, taking her by surprise.

“Huh?” she asked. It was only after he gestured towards her neck that the pieces fell into place. “Oh.” Shrugging, she touched the cool, metal choker and stone. “It seems to be working fine. I’ve felt better since I started wearing it. I guess if it really was the Element’s magic messing with my head, then it’s blocking it.” She thought back to the moment when she had opened the book. “Well, no. That’s not completely true. When I found it, I could feel something… I don’t know, calling to me?”

“What did it want?”

“For me to take up the Element.” She knew that the way her eyes darted back to the book didn’t go unnoticed.

“It appears I underestimated the the Element’s magic.” He snapped the book shut, resting a hoof on the cover. “You did well to resist its call.”

Lyra nodded, leaving Trixie’s involvement in that success unspoken.

“Don’t worry,” he said, offering her a broad and warm smile. “You shall have your chance to test the Element soon enough. In a safe, controlled setting.”

Pulling her eyes away from the book, Lyra forced herself to meet Sombra’s eyes. “It isn’t like that. I just… I just...” She trailed off, trying to figure out how exactly it wasn’t like that and how she could explain it.

“It is nothing to be ashamed of, Lyra. This is a historic moment for the Empire. Truth be told, I am as giddy as a foal right now.”

She smiled. The very idea of Sombra bouncing around like a foal on Hearth's Warming just refused to mesh with reality.

“Still, we both know that experiments with new magic should not be taken lightly.” His gestured towards the choker. “For example, none of the stories ever mentioned the Elements inducing hallucinations. What else ponies may have failed to write about them?”

“True,” Lyra said, failing to contain her sigh as reality pierced her and the last of her excitement drained away. “I assume that’s why you’re having the training room cleared, then?”

“You make things so easy, Lyra.” The stallion stretched his neck, turning away from the table. “However, as I suspect it will take some time, I was thinking of having lunch delivered. Something from the Tasty Treat, I believe. Would you care to join me?”

“I think I would.”

~~~~~

Several hours and one of the best curries she had ever eaten later, Lyra found herself standing in a rather large room comprised almost entirely of small, reinforced metal plates. Several burned, battered, and dismembered pony mannequins occupied posts at the far end of the room, while a whole herd of pristine, undamaged ones occupied the corner near the door.

Sombra stood behind her, also surveying the room. “I believe this will be sufficient, once the shell is activated.”

Lyra glanced back at him. “This room has magical reinforcement too?”

“It is a training area for members of the Council Guard.” His teeth shone as he smiled. “When training with lethal magic, it is best not to take any chances.” He pressed a button on the wall, causing a dark purple glow to cover the surface of the plates.

“Incredible,” Lyra said, eyeing the magical shielding. “Is this the same as… no. It’s similar, but it’s not quite the same. This is a variant on the spell used to create the dome, right?”

Sombra stared at her. “To my understanding, yes. I’ve been told that this is a lesser version of Starswirl’s spell. How did you recognize it so easily?”

“There were times I used to just stare up at the dome and wonder how it worked. Then I got some books and figured it out.”

“Practical,” Sombra said, laughing. “Most ponies would have just gone on wondering. I must admit a little curiosity though: what makes this particular spell different?”

Reaching a hoof out, she pressed it against the barrier. It tingled, but passed through with little effort. “This version forgoes the physical protection and, as a result, requires much less energy to sustain.”

Sombra reached out with his own hoof and performed the same experiment. “Sensible.”

“So, were we going to test the Element?” she asked, not bothering to disguise her excitement.

“Yes,” he said, taking care as he deposited his saddlebag on the floor and extracted the book from it. “Let’s not rush headlong into it, however. I am still worried about the nature of the stone’s connection to you.”

Lyra bit back a surge of irritation and nodded. He was right, of course. “You’re worried the Element’s magic might overwhelm me, right?”

“That is a concern, yes,” he said as he levitated the book to a spot on the floor. “I am more worried that it may try to take control of you. The effect the Element has had on you has made me question some of my most basic assumptions regarding their nature.”

Lyra tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“You yourself ascribed a will to them, yes? That they choose their wielder based on compatibility. That they are a conduit by which the wielder can draw on an even greater power?”

“Right,” Lyra nodded.

“What if the Elements are not tools to be used by ponies, but we ponies are the tools to be used by the Elements?”

“That’s ridiculous!” Lyra snapped, the sound of her hoof hitting the floor echoing in the room.

“Is it?” Sombra replied without changing his tone. “You told me yourself that the stone was influencing your mind. That it caused you to hallucinate. That it filled your thoughts with memories that weren’t yours.”

“I…” Lyra started, trailing off as she realized she didn’t have a way to end that thought.

Sombra seated himself near the door, waiting for her to finish her thought.

Sighing, she looked at the floor even as she felt the blood rush to her face. The fact that she had thrown that out without reason didn’t do much to disprove his point. Maybe the Element really was messing with her head in ways she hadn’t considered. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I know that things have been difficult for you.” Sombra stood and crossed the distance between them, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “But you are not alone. We shall discover the secrets of the Element together.”

She nodded, a smile playing across her muzzle. That’s right. She wasn’t alone. She didn’t have to suffer in silence. She didn’t have to be afraid that she was losing her mind. “Then how shall we do it?”

“You shall attempt to seize the Element’s magic, while I shall reinforce the power of the charm I gave you. Should I feel something pierce the spell, I shall cut your connection to the Element.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Sombra grinned, his horn glowing crimson. “No. But I shall trust that you will sense trouble and release the Element before my intervention becomes necessary.”

The choker around her neck began to glow, the once subtle spell now strong enough to make her skin prickle beneath her fur. The cold and unyielding power – the magic of a master unicorn – gave her confidence.

“I will. You can trust me.”

“I know I can.”

Closing her eyes, Lyra steeled herself as she reached out towards the Element. She needed to think of it like a magic circuit. If everything she believed was right, then she should be able to draw power from it – and from beyond – once she established a connection. As her magic met it, she felt the Element’s magic surge towards her and—

Unfamiliar voices rang dully in her head, their words muffled. Fuzzy images of strange places and ponies swamped her vision. Her body tingled. Her nostrils filled with distant scents. Even hints of forgotten tastes filled her mouth.

But she still had control.

The Element’s magic swirled around her, violet power chasing her own golden energy.

She had control.

The pressure was incredible, reminding her of what it felt like when she had stood in front of the generator array that powered Manehattan Station. Yet, somehow, the power continued to build, magic spilling forth from the stone like air through a ruptured bulkhead, scorching the air as tendrils of magic lashed and struggled against her lead.

Her body burned as the power flowed through her, more than she had ever felt in her entire life. She felt like she might burst at any moment.

I can’t lose… I carry the most powerful magic of all within me...

Lyra’s eyes went wide as the voice pierced the whispers around her, cutting through Sombra’s defenses like they didn’t exist.

How could I fail?

The choker’s gem shattered.

Sombra shouted something as the magic collapsed inward, but she couldn’t hear him, her ears already filled by shouts and screams and sounds she couldn’t begin to comprehend. Ponies running and screaming.

Panic. Fear. Terror. Regret. Anguish.

An empty, grey world spread out before her. A world without ponies, a world without life, a barren, lonely, silent world that threatened to pull her into it.

“No!” Lyra screamed, throwing all of her magic into a simple blast of raw energy.

Metal screamed and the room shook as the violet energy poured away from her.

Lyra panted, her chest heaving as the last of the Element’s energy crackled away into the air. Into the training room, where the clink of metal filled the air. Which existed on Manehattan Station, where tens of thousands of ponies lived.

A hoof touched her shoulder, Sombra’s voice breaking the silence, “Are you okay?”

“It… I…” Her legs buckled, forcing her to sit as she tried to gather her scattered wits.

“Easy. Take your time.”

Her breathing slow as she reassured herself that everything she had seen had been an illusion or a vision or a hallucination or whatever. Just not real.

“I am impressed. You triumphed over it, Lyra. The Element obeyed you.”

She whipped her head around, almost toppling over. “Are you insane? It tried to… it nearly… I don’t even know what that was!”

Sombra placed a hoof beneath her muzzle and lifted her gaze towards the wall. “But you used the magic.”

She stared. A deep gouge had burned into the steel plates, molten slag pooling and cooling against the flickering, shredded magical barrier. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t manage a sound.

Those plates were thicker than most ship hulls. That basic self-defense spell she’d learned to stun ponies had carved through it. She had just rivaled a ship’s magic cannon. What could she have done had she tried something more complicated? More dangerous?

Behind her, she could feel the Element, waiting for her to reach out again.

“We need to take you to a medic,” Sombra said, the gentle concern bringing her back.

“What?” Lyra asked.

“Your neck,” Sombra said, tracing his hoof along the side of her neck, pain blossoming in its wake. “You were cut when the gem shattered.”

Her own hoof shot to her neck, feeling the slickness that coated her fur. She felt faint as she held her hoof in front of her eyes, looking at the red blood that stained it. Her heart thudded. Could it have cut her carotid artery?

“It doesn’t look deep,” he said, his confidence helping reassure her, “But it should still be examined.” He kicked at the broken band near her hooves and shook his head. “I severely underestimated the strength of the Element.”

“So did I.” Lyra shut her eyes, suppressing a shudder. “I thought the power was going to tear me apart, or that the Element was going to draw me into it, or…”

“Calm down,” Sombra ordered. “What might have happened is irrelevant. We will take what we’ve learned, then apply it to the future. But first, let’s assure we reach that future first.” Taking one of the towels from the wall, he wrapped it around her neck and pressed it painfully against the wound. “Hold this in place.”

Lyra tried to nod, but the towel and pain stopped her.

Using the book, Sombra scooped the stone back into its hollow and snapped the container shut and slid it back into his saddlebag. “Now. Let’s get you to a medic.”

As they walked and Lyra’s adrenaline faded, new aches and pains made themselves present, her head and horn throbbing and her muscles refusing to work right. She barely had enough magic left to hold the towel in place. Even she hadn’t expected the Element to be that powerful. If she had tried to continue and hold that magic, it might have done real damage to her.

Which brought a question to mind: how would the Element interact with an earth pony?

Octavia had already made a connection to it. She said that one of the past bearers had spoken to her. Had it been messing with her memories too? Could she even draw its magic out? What would happen if she did?

The Element was dangerous. Octavia could be in danger, without anypony who could help her. Vinyl, if she had even listened and gone with Octavia, wouldn’t know what to do. Shimmer wouldn’t care. All she had wanted was to keep the Element away from Sombra so that he didn’t use them to take over the Empire. Octavia dying would probably be just fine to her.

Trusting Shimmer had been a mistake. The instant she’d gotten the information she wanted, she’d stopped talking to Lyra.

Lyra’s neck throbbed in time with the pounding of her heart as her mind went back to the moment where the power had been at its peak. What could an earth pony do?

“Sombra?”

The stallion stopped and glanced back at her. “Yes? Are you feeling alright?”

“What… what do you plan on doing with the Elements when you find them?”

“Are you worried?”

“A little,” she responded, taking refuge in the half-truth. “It would be nice to know if you planned on killing me and taking the Element for yourself.”

Sombra laughed, nodding down the hallway to indicate they should keep walking. “And here I thought I’d been winning you over with my charm! You have expertly pierced my sinister plan, Lyra.”

Despite the pain and unease, a smile broke through her sour expression.

“My only goal is protecting the peace and stability of the Empire,” he said, all humor dropping from his voice as he met her eyes. “I intend to find the Elements and their bearers, then ask them to assist me in doing just that. If the Elements chose as well as they did with you, then I suspect there will be no trouble.”

Could she trust him? If she was wrong, wouldn’t he have already just taken the Element from her and been done with it?

“However, I won’t lie to you, Lyra: I will not allow any pony to use the Elements against the Empire. If I believe one of the bearers is a threat, I will do whatever it takes to stop them.”

“I understand,” Lyra said. Her throat tightened as she swallowed, but she ignored the pain. She had to do this. She had been wrong. She could trust Sombra. She had to trust him. “I… I know where to find another one of the Elements.”

Chapter 17 - Rude Awakenings

Vinyl’s head throbbed as the rhythmic thud of her heart filled her ears and pounded behind her eyes. With a groan, she tried to open them, but the searing light that waited on the other side of her eyelids put a quick stop to that.

“It appears Vinyl’s finally waking up.”

“Good morning!”

She cringed as the Flim Flam brothers’ voices thundered in her skull. “Shut up,” she grunted as she cracked an eye open just enough to make out the blurry forms seated across from her.

“She seems to be a little angry,” Flam said.

“That she does,” Flim agreed.

She tried to sit up, but her legs felt like wet noodles. “What the buck did you two do to me?”

“Nothing serious, we assure you. The effects will wear off shortly.”

“Indeed! You looked quite tired, so we thought you might enjoy a little nap.”

The memory of them making her drink their stupid meds surfaced. “That’s some bull,” Vinyl grumbled, trying to form a spell. Unfortunately, her horn didn’t seem to be working right either. Whatever they’d spiked the meds with had done a real number on her. “Where’m I? And where’s Tavi?”

“Relax, Miss Scratch,” Flim said, raising a hoof. “You are both in our home and your friend is being tended by our personal physician. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?” she snapped, ignoring the pain it caused. “You drugged me!”

“Only a little.”

“That’s right,” Flim nodded, “just enough to put you out for a bit.”

“Real bucking reassuring.” With her eyes adjusting, she could make out the room. It put her in mind of the waiting rooms at the fancy clinics on Manehattan Station. Couches, a table, and a whole lot of empty surfaces. The bottle of water on the table looked promising though. “No wonder nopony comes to this station.”

“Well, it isn’t like we drug everypony who comes here. Right, brother?”

“Right you are, Flam! You and your friend are special guests! After all, it isn’t every day that two of the Empire’s most wanted come to your station.”

Silence filled the room, Vinyl’s breath catching in her chest. “Huh?”

“Please don’t play dumb, Miss Scratch,” Flam said.

Flim sighed. “Indeed. We’d appreciate it if you didn’t waste too much of our time and just told us what criminal enterprise has brought you to our station. Even secret news gets around... provided you know who to ask, of course.”

“I seriously have no bucking clue what you’re talking about,” Vinyl lied and hoped it sounded okay. “The Council Guard thing? You do know I fixed that already, right? Totally cleared it up. Made a public apology. It aired on network sites and everything. I could find a VOD if you want.”

The brothers exchanged glances and sighed.

“Vinyl,” Flim pleaded, “could you please show us a little common courtesy? We aren’t that stupid.”

“Or that gullible,” Flam added.

“Dunno what to tell you, then.” She tried to levitate the water towards herself, but the spell broke apart the instant she tried to cast it.

A magic dampening spell. The kind they stuck on ponies that were entering important places to keep them from casting.

They’d gone all out on abducting her, apparently.

“Look, Vinyl, we could go on and on about our suspicions and our evidence,” Flim said.

“And we do have some very good things we could share,” Flam added.

“But we really think you’re smart enough to understand that we wouldn’t have done all this unless we were very sure about what we’re doing.”

“Where is Tavi?” Vinyl growled, pushing herself up all the way.

Flim sighed and shook his head. “We already told you: she’s being treated by our personal physician.”

“She is in quite capable hooves.”

“Trust us. We really do want her to recover from whatever it is that ails her.”

“If you are lying, I’m gonna kick both your flanks,” Vinyl growled. Of course, she knew that probably wouldn’t be what happened, but it wasn’t gonna stop her from pushing back at the brothers.

“Very scary, Vinyl,” Flim mocked. “Very, very scary. Thankfully, we have one of our station’s guards posted just outside to protect us.”

Flam nodded. “So, with that in mind, is there anything you’d like to tell us?”

Vinyl’s heart pounded in her chest. What did they actually know? They hadn’t mentioned the rock, so they probably didn’t know about it, right? On the other hoof, they’d drugged her, stuck her in a room, and blocked her magic, so clearly they thought they knew something big enough to risk that getting spread all over the Empire. Or did they think she’d not take that right to the networks?

How long would they keep trying to talk to her? Long enough for her to come up with a plan? She’d have to hope. Despite the worry that filled her, Vinyl forced a smile. “Yeah. You can go buck yourselves.”

The brothers exchanged sidelong glances.

“I suppose we should have expected that, right Flam?”

“Right you are, brother.”

“Well, we do have other things we have to deal with today. So why don’t you have a little water and really think about your situation and whether you really think it’s worth it to keep playing dumb.”

“The water drugged too?” Vinyl asked.

Flam ignored her. “We’ll be back in a few hours to see if you’ve come to your senses. Just knock on the door if you need more water or anything. You don’t need to kick it.”

As the pair moved toward the door, Vinyl slid off the couch and started to take a step forward, but Flim and Flam both responded way faster than she’d expected, their horns glowing green as they turned on her.

“Chill,” she managed in a completely unconvincing attempt at easygoing and relaxed. Apparently they were a bit more ready than she thought. If she planned on getting Tavi out of here, she was gonna have to be smart about it. “I just wanted to walk around a bit. Or are you two afraid the dampening spell is wearing off and I was gonna take you both out?”

The brothers didn’t answer, just stepping out and shutting the door behind them.

~~~~~~

Bon Bon stared at Rich, trying to process everything he said, her jaw tightening as the story drew to a close.

“...and since both Vinyl and Octavia were wanted for questioning back on Manehattan Station, they would take care of it from here.” His delivery of the news was calm and matter of fact. Almost detached. The voice of somepony disappointed they didn’t try and oppose the pair of asses that ran the station.

“Trying to stop them would have been stupid,” she offered. “You couldn’t have done anything anyway.”

Rich continued to stare at his coffee. “No, I couldn’t have.”

“You and Diamond are okay?” she asked, controlling the tone of her voice with practiced ease.

“We’re fine. She slept through it.” He gulped down the last of the coffee. “I should have been more careful when I was asking around about a doctor. I didn’t think they were caught up in anything to warrant the brothers’ attention.”

“You couldn’t have known. Vines should have told us why they were here and what they were dealing with. It was stupid to hide it. There’s a difference between keeping business quiet and being in active trouble.”

He nodded along.

“And I should have been smart enough to realize exactly how much trouble they were in last night, damn me.” She cursed her own stupidity, replaying last night’s conversation over in her head. “The rocks they’re looking for apparently aren’t just antiques. They’re supposed to be the actual, honest to Celestia Elements of Harmony. Octavia has one.”

That got Rich to look her in the eye. “Really?”

“So Vines claims.”

“Some ponies take their old mare’s tales seriously.” He shook his head, laughing without a trace of humor. “But if they are real, I suppose it wouldn’t do for an earth pony to get her hooves on one of the legendary treasures of the Alicorns, would it?”

Bon Bon returned an equally humorless smile. “No, it wouldn’t.”

That was just what the Empire needed: the Council possessing even more power.

“Bad luck for Octavia and Vinyl,” Rich said, sighing.

Standing, she took a deep breath. “No. I’ve had enough of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances and all that other bull. I refuse let Flim and Flam get away with this. I refuse to let the Council get away with this.”

Watching her, Rich shook his head, but didn’t voice a protest. He must have recognized the expression on her face. “I can’t help with this one.”

“Even if you could, I wouldn’t ask you to, Rich. Diamond needs you. Ponyville gets by better with you doing most of the work.” She sighed. “That’s always been the problem. It’s hard to do stupid and necessary things like kicking the Flam Flam brothers’ heads in, because most ponies still have a lot to lose.”

The stallion looked back towards Diamond Tiara’s room. “You’re not actually going to try and do that, right?”

“No.” After all, who’s to say the Flim Flam brothers wouldn’t try to punish her by taking it out on the station’s inhabitants? The other workers? Rich and Diamond? “But I am going to have words.”

“Do you think that will really make a difference?”

She allowed herself to smile. “Maybe. Depends on how much of a pain Vines is being. If she’s being difficult, I might be able to get her to be less stupid.”

Rich frowned. “You’re going to try and convince her to cooperate with Flim and Flam?”

Bon Bon shrugged. “For the moment, at least. If they think there’s a profit to be made in letting the two of them go, they’ll do it.”

There was a long pause before Rich spoke up again. “If this really does go as far as the Council, it’s going to be very risky to get anymore involved.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll leave you out of it.”

“That’s not what I meant, Bon Bon.”

“I know.” Bon Bon offered him a smile, but nothing more. “I’ll need to take my tablet. There aren’t any reports or invoices you were waiting on from me, were there?”

The stallion stared at his empty mug for a long moment, before finally standing up and walking over to her. “No.”

Damn Vinyl, damn her friend, damn the Council, and damn Flim and Flam. “Wish me luck?”

“Good luck, Bons,” Rich offered, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Come back safe. And make sure Vinyl understands how much she owes us for this mess.”

That got a smile out of her. “That’s the one thing I can’t promise. She doesn’t count favors. She just does whatever she wants. Easy enough for her, not so easy for everypony else.”

He nodded. “Let me know what’s going on as soon as you can.”

She nodded and trotted off, grabbing her tablet off the table with her mouth. Braving the storm for a moment, she headed up the couple flights to her own place and sat on her couch before she made the call. Even with an urgent tag, it still took three tries to get one of them to answer.

“Filthy Rich, this had best be—” Flim started as his image flicked on the screen, but he stopped, offering a terse smile. “Oh. Bon Bon.” His eyes flicked to the corner of his console screen, confirming what he thought the caller’s ID had been. “How may I help you? Is something the matter with—”

“You ‘arrested’ Vinyl Scratch and her friend.” She made no effort to conceal her disgust, letting the scare quotes clang around the word as hard as they could.

Flim’s eyebrow barely twitched. “Oh. Well, yes. I would hope Filthy Rich explained the matter to you, just as we did to him. They are fugitives wanted by authorities in Manehattan, and it’s quite bad business to let such things go, as I’m sure you understand.”

“Do you know why they’re wanted?”

“Does it matter? As loyal citizens of the Grand Equestrian Empire—”

Having no patience for Flim’s nonsense, she pushed on, “Let me talk to Vinyl.”

“And why, exactly, should I do that?” Flim dropped the pretense of politeness.

“Because I think I can get her to talk to you. And if she talks to you, I think you’ll think twice about giving them back.”

Flim tilted his head, frowning. “And why do you think that?”

“Would you believe anything I told you?”

His smile warmed again. “You really are a very smart pony. I always thought Filthy Rich made the right choice hiring you. Hold on for just a moment while I discuss your offer with my brother.”

Bon Bon nodded to an empty screen, Flim departing without waiting for an answer. “Take your time, Flim,” she muttered under her breath. She already knew what the answer was going to be. He already knew what the answer was going to be. This was just part of their little power play.

His face reappeared on the screen. “It is your lucky day, Bon Bon. My brother and I agree: we are willing to hear you out. If you would come to our home as soon as you could, then?”

Which meant now. “I can leave in a minute.”

~~~~~~

Silence surrounded her. A void that smothered her with its infinite vastness.

She had messed up.

In the distance, there was a faint noise.

She was lost.

The sound grew louder, taking on familiar forms that wormed into her mind, forcing unknown memories to the surface.

She was alone.

The hum of a bow across her cello’s strings. The crack of the air as a rainbow boomed in her wake. The churn of cloud machines. The clatter of a thousand hooves pounding the catwalks around her.

Rainbow Dash’s memories. Octavia’s memories. A discordant cacophony of sound and thoughts and feelings buffeted her in the emptiness.

The roar of a crowd. The gentle applause of the audience. The crash of thunder. The unending rattle of rain pouring down.

She tried to hold onto any of them, but they slipped away from her as quickly as they came to mind, leaving her at the mercy of the next and the next and the next and the next, an endless barrage that hammered at her entire existence.

The bone-shaking thud of bass. The click and clack of the train. The voice of her friend. The voices of her friends.

She had just wanted ponies to acknowledge her. To be a hero. To matter. To be important.

The chirrup of night birds. The soft breath of the pony beside her. The songs of crickets. The town bursting into song.

Who was she?

The sounds grew indistinct, each melting into the next, the rush of memories replaced by a singular deafening roar of sound, not so much any noise as every noise, from every place, all at once. A sound she couldn’t understand. A sound that drowned out everything, including her thoughts.

~~~~~

Vinyl wanted to die as she strained to summon up a spell for the millionth bucking time. Sweat matted her coat as she felt the spell take form for just a sec, then totally fall apart.

Her head ached. Even at the best of times, she was what many would consider a magical lightweight. She didn’t have the raw power for cool stuff like massive death beams and stuff. Even if she did, she’d be able to do like, one, at best, before she dropped.

Even a little spell, over and over and over, would tire her out. Especially since being drugged apparently didn’t count as sleep. But this was the only thing she could do. If she wanted to save Tavi, she needed her magic. If she wanted her magic, she had to figure out how the bucking blocking spell worked.

“Really wish I’d paid more attention when my tutor talked about anti-magic,” she mumbled, casting another spell in the hope that she’d suddenly discover she had some sort of hidden super magical ability.

Sure, it wasn’t much of a plan, but it beat nothing. If she did break the dampening spell, she could catch the brothers by surprise when they came to chat again, then she could grab Tavi, get out of here, and… well, the next part after that.

The spell fizzled.

“Buck this,” Vinyl snapped as she kicked the table. She regretted it as the half-full water bottle tipped, fell, and spilled the rest of its contents out onto the floor before she could save it. “And buck me.” Some good she was turning out to be.
Tavi was the star here. She had the fancy magic rock. She was the object of everypony’s attention. She was the hero in peril.

Vinyl was just some groupie who’d gotten in way over her head. She was basically Humdrum from the Power Pony serials.

Closing her eyes, she sat back and took a deep breath. And now, instead of doing anything useful, she was getting upset and moping. Totally awesome use of her time.

Gathering the magic for another spell, Vinyl hesitated, then let the energy go. She needed to think, not just keep banging her head against the wall.

Dampening spells didn’t actually suppress magic, right? That had to be right, because she could still gather and release magic. It was just the spells she tried to cast weren’t happening. So… what? It didn’t stop magic, it stopped spells? How?

Vinyl’s horn glowed electric blue as she gathered energy one more time and cast a tiny, simple light spell right at the very tip of her horn. To her surprise, it worked. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the spell outward as slowly as she could manage and that’s when she felt it: a sudden twisting of her spell and then it was gone.

So, it was basically a field around her horn that disrupted spells.

She grinned. “Aw’right. That’s something at least. Now—”

The room’s lights crackled and sparked for a moment, then the room went dark.

~~~~~~

The rain poured over Bon Bon as she walked through Ponyville’s narrow pathways, freezing drops finding their way inside her slicker and filling her boots. Storm weeks disgusted her. They ground life to a halt for everypony, transforming active stations into veritable ghost ship, just to save a few bits.

Yes, it let them collect the rainwater, supplement the magic systems, and then export the nice, calm clouds to Manehatten or Las Pegasus or Fillydelphia or wherever. Yes, it made sense. Yes, it helped the Empire. Yes, it was absolute bull that the only stations they did it on were those that mostly housed earth pony populations.

A flash of lightning illuminated the squat, industrial buildings around her.

She shifted Octavia’s saddlebag on her back. The rock inside had been warm to the touch when she’d left, but now she could feel it through the bag. Maybe bringing the so-called Element had been a bad idea, but she suspected they’d need it for what came next.

Another loud crack sounded, but this time it wasn’t lightning. Ahead of her a building suddenly went dark as its lights burst, the rain scattering and swallowing the sparks of light.

Bon Bon started to run, her booted hooves scattering water as she ducked between buildings and leapt through narrow gaps in construction. Between the rain and clouds she couldn’t be sure, but that had certainly looked a lot like the building that Flim and Flam kept for themselves.

Sliding as she rounded a corner, Bon Bon kept her hooves under her and continued moving as fast as she dared. She wanted to believe that a blowout like that was just the result of bad wiring or a magic circuit malfunction, but her gut told her otherwise. It’d be trouble. She was sure of it.

Despite her clothes, she was drenched with freezing water by the time she reached the front of the building. A smattering of reserve lights glowed above the door, but, for the moment, the usually bright home of Flim and Flam barely stood out from the hunched and darkened buildings that most of the earth ponies lived on Ponyville Station called home.

She hoped whatever had messed with Flim and Flam’s home wouldn’t go any further.

The doorpad didn’t work, so she instead resorted to hitting the reinforced metal door with her hoof, hoping the thud sounded over the rain and thunder. After a moment or two, she repeated the hammering. If she tried, she might manage to kick the door open, but that would probably set the wrong tone for the conversation.

After a moment the door twitched and, over a the course of a dozen jerking movements, was pulled open, revealing the brothers. They wore smiles, but it didn’t take a genius to see that they were forced.

“Ah, Bon Bon!” Flim said, an edge of fear in his voice. “Just the pony we wanted to see!”

“What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing, nothing! Only a minor thing!” Flam answered, waving a hoof in the air. “But I do believe we would like to hear what Vinyl has to say. Now.”