The early mornings were never easy for travelers about to make a long journey. Deadlines had to be met, and schedules had to be kept. Most would end up skipping on the unimportant things such as "good rest" and "breakfast" to make sure they were on the road on time. For the members of Overland Train #3421-23, they had extra incentive to get the hell outta dodge before the sun got too high. As the clock slowly passed the 8 AM mark, ANATA was busy making the final pre-drive checks while Gino and the boss were in the bait car, checking the electrical systems.

"How about now?"

"Still nothing boss."

Friggin perfect. With a grunt, the boss began to wiggle his way back into the maintenance hatch and into the maze of wires and circuit boards. Most of it was covered in dust, a result of a faulty ventilation system they had yet to fix, so regular cleaning of these areas was the norm for the past few months. He began to regret putting the main transfer point for the car this far in, but soon enough, the device was in front of him, covered in a light coating of dust. A few quick whacks knocked off a bit more dust, and a low hum began to echo throughout the car. The boss made his way back out of the hatch onto the bait car's floor.

"We got power boss!"

"Friggin finally, come on Gino, we're getting close to the departure time." With a huff the boss and Gino began to make their way to the front of the train, Gino up top, effortlessly weaving between vents and leaping across the cars, while the boss made his way through the cars and coupling tunnels keeping them together. Needless to say, Gino was already in the bubble turret making final checks as the boss wheezed his way up into the cab.

"How are we -gasp- looking ANATA?"

"CHECKS COMPLETE. READY FOR START-UP."

"Alright -wheeze-, Gino you ready?"

"Always boss." With that the boss's hands began to dance over the controls, switching knobs, pushing buttons, and helped to wake up the train. A low rumble could be felt as the reactor came online.

"ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL."

"Alright, let's get outta here."

Fortunately there wasn't any traffic this early in the morning, so reaching the gates was a relative snap. The train ground to a halt and the boss made his way to the entrance station carrying all the papers needed to get out. In contrast to the previous day, the streets and shops were empty of their usual denizens. The barricades were unmanned, and not even the buzz of the drones could be heard. The boss made sure to pick up the pace. The station itself was a conglomeration of transport containers welded together. Right before the entrance was a massive fan that blasted the boss with warm scented air and nearly blew off his cap. The inside was a small room. A few chairs scattered about surrounding old coffee tables. Posters of the Eternal Emperor and a few of his more memorable quotes hung on the walls, and on the far end was a desk with a simple bell. Ringing it brought out a clerk from one of the back rooms, wiping his hands clean.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, got some release papers here for you guys." Replied the boss as he handed over the not inconsiderable stack. The clerk took them and immediately stashed them away in some unseen desk.

"Your papers are in order. If you have any questions, please see the help desk on level 2." He said pointing to a non-existent staircase.

"...Uhm-"

"I'm sorry, but any questions must be directed to the help desk on level 2. We apologize for the inconv-" He was interrupted by muffled groaning from the back. "Excuse me, but I have some business that needs to be taken care of." With that, he made his way to the door that led to a back room. As the boss made his way out, he overheard the clerk calling from the back.

"Mr. Inglas expects his -grunt- traders soon, don't be late -snap!- again."

"Eh-heh, don't worry! Soon he'll be drowning in the water!" The boss huffed and puffed his way back into the cab. The train roared and lurched its way out of the gates. As an hour passed, they made good progress away from the city and were hugging the Dead Spine as the clock marked 9:32.

"Fireworks's startin' up boss!"

The boss climbed back through the cab and to one of the coupling tunnels before taking a ladder up top to get a better view. The opening salvos of the revolution were multiple missile strikes originating from the Base to fortified towers and bunkers on top. These were soon joined by las-beams, plasma-bolts, and heavy cannon. Taken by surprise, most of the defenses were already being blown sky-high, while the few left intact hap-hazardly threw whatever they could down below. The radio was chattering up quite a storm, mostly with security forces trying to figure out what the hell was going on and why none of their more advanced equipment seemed to be working. It was quit a spectacle, visible for miles around, and all the colors, explosions, and flames made for an almost beautiful scene. From a safe distance of course.

"Nick of time eh?"

"No, nick of time is having to blast our way out of that mess and get hounded by some unsavory folks for a few days at the very least. We left on time, and can enjoy the show in peace. Now, feel free to keep watching, I'm going to be in the cab for a bit, catch up on some reading." The boss made his way back into the cab and fished out the book in the door compartment. All in all, a job well done.

In the middle of the chaos back at the mesa, within the wires, circuits, and programs of the city's bureaucratic systems, a program activated. A small thing, it's only purpose was to change a few numbers here, delete a letter or two there...

Within seconds of activation, the program deleted itself, its work now complete. Empy's Transport; its name, employees, equipment, and a thousand other details altered just so, too little to arouse any immediate suspicion, but just enough to give them time to disappear back into the shifting sands.

As He looked upon His creation, He saw much villainy,
And he knew there was much to be done...

It's first thoughts were slow, and took time to be brought to the forefront of its mind, and even longer to make any decisions. One of its first thoughts was how cold it was. The chill was far worse than any it had previously experienced, and trying not to pass out again was taking up most of its mind.

Cold, cold, so cold, why so cold, sweet tartarus why? These thoughts repeated themselves as it attempted to pull itself together, as its form was now scattered across the void. It was forced to dip into its reserves of magical energy to slowly grasp the pieces of itself. It was also hampered by the near total lack of air, vapor, or dust to provide anchoring points and direct the pieces back. This process took an agonizingly long time and about the only other thing it noticed about it's surroundings was the color orange directly beneath it. Minutes, hours, it wasn't sure, passed before it had at least collected itself back into a shadowy form of an equine.

Even worse, its connection to the Endless Dream was severed. No matter how hard it tried, she could not feel the familiar tug that it could feel everywhere, even if it couldn't get into the dreamscape for over a thousand years. This really started to worry the creature, as even in its darkest moments, there was always that familiar tug to remind it of where it was, and who it is. Without the connection, it was...lost.

About the only respite it had was the extreme cold was gradually lessening, allowing it to get some bearing on its surroundings. Mainly, the gargantuan orange orb taking up most of its view. It briefly thought it was Ucon, but it could find no familiar features on the surface. The blues, greens, and whites was replaced by an almost uniform light brown. Here and there mountain ranges surrounded veritable seas of sand, while a few canyons wound their way through the dunes and off into the horizon. Splotches of grey indicated a few settlements dotted across the desert, clinging to small oasis es.

It's thoughts were now joined by a sensation of heat that had been steadily growing from noticeable to uncomfortable levels. A simple shield spell managed to ward off most of the heat, but it knew that it was about to get a lot worse.

And lo, did the angels join Him in joyous song, beginning a great crusade against the evils-

"Boss!"

"What is it Gino?"

"6 o'clock, we got a sandstorm brewing." Checking his side-view mirrors and cameras, all the boss could see was the Dead Spine stretching out to the horizon surrounded by the open expanse of desert. By this point Mesa was a small point above the horizon, wisps of smoke trailing away. There was not a cloud in the sky.

"You sure about that Gino? Could've been a mirage, lots of those out here."

"Negative boss, it's there. The sky above the horizon's been getting browner for the past 10 minutes." It was probably a mirage. Heck, the boss was convinced that there was a herd of dancing tacos just beyond the horizon a few hours ago. But, it was always considered foolhardiness to doubt the eyes of a scale dog, so the boss got out of his seat to get a closer look at his mirrors, the cameras already at their maximum magnification. Opening the side window let in an uncomfortably dry breeze, but allowed him to take a look out back. There was still a few wisps of smoke from Mesa barely above the horizon, but was now joined by the sky gradually taking on a browner tint. With that much already visible, then...

"Alright, we're stopping here." The train slowly ground to a halt alongside one of the major skeleton rings. "Gino, we need everything sealed up tight alright? Check the cars, I'll take care of the cab." The proceeding half-hour was a rush of bolting, securing, and cursing as the duo made sure nothing could get blown off or shaken loose.

"ANATA, we need the overpressure system up and running and seal all entryways. Shutoff the ventilation for the bait car as well."

"CONFIRMED, OVERPRESSURE SYSTEM ONLINE. ENTRANCES SEALED. NO LEAKAGES DETECTED. VENTILATION FOR BAIT CAR DISABLED."

He then scanned across the dashboard looking for a certain switch...

There's the bugger. "Recommend you hang on to something Gino." When the switch was flipped, motors on the train's wheel joints began to chug, and slowly lowered the cars onto the dusty surface. Once contact was made, the motors went into overdrive trying to drive the cars into the ground. A pointless endeavor, had the seismic engines not started their work as well. Each seismic engine sent out vibrations through the hull and into the ground, forcing the dust and gravel loose and letting the train, bit by bit, sink into the dirt. The boss was currently thanking his lucky stars for the reinforced driving seat that prevented the worst of the vibration from rattling his spine. By the time the process was over, the train was nearly half buried in the sand with the wheels now reaching over the car tops.

"Had fun up there?"

"...bit my tongue boss."

"Hehe~y, not a bad welcome from the engines! My first time got me a broken hip bone. Don't worry, you learn quick. Now, we need to make sure the seals are good, especially in the bait car. Storm should be on us by the time we finish."

"So do we just wait it out?"

"Yup. Don't worry, I've got some board games to help relax and pass the time." Even after the walkie talkie was turned off, Gino's hiss of frustration could still be easily heard from the cab.

Relaxing was now the very last thing on the creature's mind as it desperately tried to keep its shields up as it made a hard descent toward the surface below. Only twice before it had encountered such high energies, and never for this long. Almost as soon as it got a shield working, the intense heat and friction would melt the whole thing away, forcing it to repeat the process again and again. This was unfortunately putting a serious dent on it's magical reserves. All the while, the creature cursed it's predicament, the ponies who sent it here, and most of all, the alicorn who stabbed it in the back.

"RAAAAAAAAAARGH! DAMN HER DAMN HER DAMN HER! I HELP HER! I GIVE HER POWERS BEYOND HER WILDEST DREAMS! AND WHAT DOES SHE BUCKING DO!? SEND ME TO BURN IN THE MIDDLE OF BUTTBUCK NOWHERE!! THAT WHORSE! THAT BI-"

Its ranting was interrupted by an extreme jump in temperature. Another shield just went down and the heat started to vaporize its outer layer.

"Focus." The sudden thought managed to calm it down long enough to set up a layered shield that would hopefully give it some time. The sudden clarity allowed it to take stock of its situation.

1. It was nowhere it had even thought to exist.
   
2. It was falling. Fast.
   
3. The heat was rapidly becoming unbearable even for its form.
   
4. It couldn't keep up going through shields at this rate.
   
5. Buck that stupid blue alicorn.

The only chance it had to not have its remains smeared across the upper atmosphere was a change in tactics. It's only hope, it realized, was to somehow slow down enough to at least survive entry. It immediately discarded levitation spells, as it required a connection between both the object levitating and the surface. The shielding that was keeping it alive also prevented anything from reaching out. Now regretting the effectiveness of its own shields, it had to somehow slow itself down while inside the protective bubble, but how?

The flames currently surrounding it began to dredge up memories of somewhere long ago. Trade negotiations were occurring between the Equestrian tribes and the strange people of the Diode. The successful talks were concluded with a massive display of flame and color by something the diodes called "fireworks". They were tubes filled with combustible materials that, when lit, would shoot straight up into the sky before exploding into a rainbow of different colors. Odd little devices, they worked entirely without magic! The speed and noise they made when they shot up must've required plenty of force. If it could be replicated...

Quickly, a plan began to take shape. Some of its reserves went to form a simple cone of hardened shielding, hopefully enough to take the beating that it was about to receive. Its thought processes, memories, and everything else that made up what could only generously be called a "soul" was embedded into the the outside of the cone. All remaining reserves went on to form a highly unstable form of magical energy, waiting to be released. It had to take pieces from over a dozen other spells to form what it had in mind and had no idea if it would even work, but as the last layer of the shielding began to fail, it used a simple ignition spell, and hoped.

Here goes nothing...

"Swarm to C8." The little ball of cloth was moved to the boss's rook with near glee by Gino who looked up expectantly at the old man's face. The boss simply stared back, waiting.

"Er, boss? That's a loss right?"

"Maybe, you need to roll the dice first."

"C'mon boss! The hit's practically guaranteed!"

"Roll the dice."

With a low hiss, Gino grabbed his dice and made a roll, scattering the dice across the board, and nearly knocking over one of his War Engines. After they came to rest, the numbers were tabulated. 5, 3, 2, and 6. With a grin, Gino removed the boss's swarm and added it to his growing pile of trophies, dwarfed only slightly by the boss's pile. They were in the entrance room, huddled around the single table. The routine noises of the cab were joined by the low rumbling of the storm outside.

"Told you it would hit."

"There was a chance it could miss, and the Rook gets two counter attacks in a row. You might not have won."

"But I only had a 4.6% chance of rolling all ones!"

"A small chance yes, but can still happen. Now, I believe it's my turn." The process continued as their piles grew. ANATA was now back to her normal self and softly singing opera in binary. It was times like these that everyone could forget about the outside world and just relax.

It didn't want to be in this body again. Really didn't. Too many memories. Too much pain. The physical form always felt...wrong somehow, but after casting the spell and blacking out from the resulting strain, it woke up to find itself in that stupid Nightmare Moon getup. What was worse, it had completely tapped out its magical reserves trying to stay alive and had no energy left to turn into a more comfortable ethereal form. Even thinking was putting a massive strain on its body, and barely paid attention to its surroundings. More specifically, the seemingly unending tide of wind and dust tossing its body about like a discarded rag doll and the constant roaring in its ears.

Thankfully, the exhaustion brought about by the less than stellar entry now caught up with it, and drifted off into a fitful slumber, still taking a beating from the surrounding storm.

With the game long since concluded, and the storm still raging outside, the two employees of Empy's Transport were currently busying themselves with ways of passing the time. Gino was spending more time in the turret, performing "calibrations" on the weapon systems. The boss meanwhile was dozing in the driver's seat, an old book in one hand and some lukewarm coffee on the opposite armrest. In the train's systems, AMATA was running through the implications of sudden immortality on a command economy while observing for breaches in the train cars.

It was a violent lurch that sent the employees rocketing out of their routines. Gino was quite violently introduced to the gun's control panel while the Boss got a face full of coffee with accompanying smashed mug. AMATA, while having no physical form, was still violently torn from her train of thought and into the unpleasantness of reality. All three began cursing in their own special ways but it was the Boss' voice that first called out over the walkie-talkie.

"...Gino? You might want to see this."

Cursing his way down to the front of the cab, Gino nursed some heavy bruising on his forehead, and initially didn't notice what the Boss was pointing at. Finally lowering his hand, Gino's first reaction was a startled step back. There, on the window, was...

"...what's that Boss?"

"...Dinner."

Author's Note

...In my defense it's still September 2015 on my calendar. In any case, here's a video for your troubles.