Slowly the tape player whirred, the crackle of static all that was left as the audio faded away. A click echoed as the play button returned to its idle point, leaving the two listeners to the sounds of the fire they sat by. The listener adjusted their hood, drawing it farther up their face against the biting wind as it blew past.

"And that's all? That's it, is it?" They asked, shivering in the cold despite the fire beside them. The interloper nodded slowly, taking up the player and setting it back in their bag, zipping the pouch closed. "I honestly kind of expected a tad more from it." They said, staring off into space. "I mean... we barely got passed the first salvos and it ended? We were just getting to the good bit!"

"History is hard work - far harder if you're trying to piece together something from that time." The interloper replied, leaning back into a more comfortable position. "Needless to say it became quite the mess shortly thereafter. Not much that I could say that you probably don't already know."

The listener's eyes slowly drifted back towards the pack - more specifically the lump in the bag. "Is that the-?"

"No." The interloper replied simply, cutting the question short. The listener nodded, still staring at the bulge in the pack the player created, a thousand thoughts whirring in their mind. "The tape neither." The interloper said to kill another question. "It's a patchwork of the pieces. That's why its my voice on the tape instead of the ponies that were there."

"Oh... right." The listener nodded. "Its true though; right? That's... that's the long and short of it? Well... mostly the long of it, I suppose." They said, chucking a stick onto the fire.

"Yes, as far as it could be found." The interloper said, swinging the pack onto their back while still sitting. "So what are your thoughts? Care to join me now that I've shared it all with you?" The interloper extended a hand out to the listener. The listener blinked a few times, letting all they had heard echo in their mind for a few more moments. The breeze seemed still to the interloper in the moment of truth, even as gales of snow were thrown across the darkened fields behind the listener.

The listener sighed and shook their head. "No." They said, not looking at the interloper. The word hung for a short moment, the silence coming crashing in so quickly the interloper almost wasn't sure if it had actually happened. "No, I don't think I will. I got enough left here to keep me." They looked up at the interloper after a long moment. "I'd suggest you stop following this trail too. Surely you still have somepony in your life that needs you. Somepony that cares for you. Something." A pointed look was directed towards the silent follower of this interloper, who sat still to one side - the sound of something scratching across the surface of paper emanating from their huddled form.

"No." The interloper said with the most certain form of finality as they stood, hefting their bag onto their shoulders. The follower perked up at this, stowing their book away before hefting their pack up as well. "Stay warm." They intoned as the two odd ponies walked off into the gloom beyond the fire.

"Yeah, you too." The listener replied absentmindedly, but the interloper and their companion were already gone into the icy winds. The listener stared into the fire, a part of them tugging at their feet to follow the strange travelers. Perhaps it was the good part of them, perhaps the part that believe the interloper's words and their strange tape - the sliver of them that thought this all could be put right somehow. Perhaps it was the foolish part.

Certainly the foolish part. To think that there was a chance to undo what had been done. The world had died; killing no number more of the remaining entities certainly wouldn't resurrect the rest of it. Not even the death of those in the shining city. Not even their ruler had so much tied to their mortality. Even the victor of the Artifact War wasn't that much of a lynchpin.

The listener grabbed a wad of snow and set it in the pot above the fire, letting it heat up to bring out the water inside. They sighed again. The lot of them were like the fluffy stuff - here now and gone the next moment. The interloper was a fine storyteller, or perhaps historian, but that didn't mean much - not when in the face of such opposition. Then again, maybe that's why the interloper had to stay the course. Maybe it was just the opposition that caused each foot fall. The listener chuckled at that. Maybe in the end, even if the world didn't return, it could at least be that much better if the interloper succeeded. Maybe.

~ÞE END~

Author's Note

Thus ends this, the first book in the Artifact Saga! I hope you all enjoyed it! The next entry will be coming out... soon... ish. I have some other projects, as I have mentioned. Also I have NaNoWriMo coming up - look it up. See you folks later!