After two weeks, Rainbow Dash found herself out in the open in the light of the day.

At last, she was out of Everfree and back in the countryside outside of Cantermost. Her particular farm was a few more miles away to the north, but she didn’t even think about going back there. She couldn’t think about going back into the city either.

Either way she would be alone.

Nopony really knew her in the city, so it would be like starting all over again.

She didn’t want to have to explain things to her family, or to Tank’s.

She walked along a dirt path. It was so good to feel well worn path under her hooves again. It meant that the ground was packed and firm, yes, but it was better than not knowing where her hooves were stepping, whether it be on wild animals or corpses.

She liked the assurance that everything was normal, though, her hooves began to feel pain as they hit up against some rocky areas.

She found herself coming up to a barn.

It was a no nonsense sort of place. She could clearly see the land around it was organized and labored in. A few ponies were scattered around the field working.

Rainbow Dash looked back at herself. She wasn’t the strongest. But maybe she could go back to farm life with what she knew and rebuild, eventually finding it in herself to just go back home and still never explaining what she had done to get here.

Her sore hooves trotted as healthily as they could look to the front door of a nearby cottage. It seemed like just the place for the owners to be living in.

With a moment of hesitation, she knocked.

An old fussy green pony opened the door.

“What do you want?”

Rainbow felt the rudeness emanating from the pony, but she sort of expected that she’d be greeted that way. She wasn’t looking her best and she was a complete stranger.

“I know winter is coming up soon and I was hoping that maybe you all had room for one more workpony?”

The green pony looked her up and down.

“You don’t look like much...”

“I can help! I know what it is like to work on a farm and I’ve done it before. I lived up north a bit from here.”

“Well then you can go back there; we have no room or need for new workponies.”

And with that she shut the door.

Rainbow walked off, but instead of leaving entirely, she peered around the barn. It seemed like it was well stocked with supplies. Sheep wool scraps had been everywhere but they were cleaned up to nearly nothing.

The quick thought came to her mind that maybe she could steal something or find a way to hide on the land, but she wasn’t that desperate. There wasn’t much she could do begging in the city. She mentally upbraided herself for leaving Luna. She could have just died on the battlefield and then she wouldn’t have to worry about her starving belly or where she would spend the winter.

If she could just keep traveling a little further, she’d make it to Cantermost and see if the home and work she and Tank had been trying to make were still there.

***

Fluttershy found herself on the bare ground next to an empty wooden cage.

She didn’t remember how she got there. Her head had seemed clear when she woke, but her vision and thoughts seemed to dim as she continued looking around her surroundings. It looked like a prison underground, with just a small light near the roof from a hole to the sky.

Her wings swept against the dirt as she tried lifting herself onto her hooves. It seemed sluggish and painful.

Then she remembered.

She had been walking with her friends in one of the small gardens in Cantermost when she had fallen down a well. Looking up, she couldn’t see where the well could have connected to here.

There wasn’t even any water nearby. Everything was dusty and dry. Every breath she took was filled with the offensive emptiness and she almost wanted to stop breathing.

Am I even alive?

She never even gave much thought to the afterlife. She didn’t know what to expect of it and what it would have expected of her, but she knew she fell from a decent height before she lost consciousness.

Somewhere, there should have been an echo, but everywhere was still silence.

Everywhere on her body was unmarked and undamaged except for the soreness and weakness.

But would I have still felt sore if I had died?

She continued slowly walking toward one end of the cavern until she started seeing a light from the outside just at her height.

Then she began her best to run. Just as she was nearing the mouth, she yelped and hung back. The light was so bright and there was no way of knowing what was waiting for her at the other side.

She had to tiptoe, she had to try to blend in with the surroundings and hide, even though she was a bright yellow pegasus.

Maybe she would be able to fly away once she got out, and just fly away from whatever danger was out there.

She looked back at the cave. There was nothing for her there.

She still didn’t know why she was in there or what the cage was for. Maybe some wild monster was kept locked there and maybe it ran away, too. Maybe it was waiting outside or behind a corner in the cave. Maybe the cage was for her, but then why was she freed with nopony around?

She shut her eyes before the light could blind her. Her hooves began aching to feel the warmth of the perceived sun outdoors. She could feel her wings begin small flaps, preparing to fly in case of danger. She let her hooves walk even softer onto the ground.

She took a step into the light.

And she sneezed.

Author's Note

After Publishing Edits: I went back and changed the bear in chapter 3 to a Manticore and I changed the direction of Everfree in chapter 5 to the east. It was always to the east, but for some odd reason I wrote west.

That's just so anyone reading won't think they lost their minds and imagined it was different; it was. ^-^'