Laments of the Dimension-Stranded

Chapters

I – Rainbow Dash
II – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
III – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
IV – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
V – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
VII – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
VIII – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
IX – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
X – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
XI – Vincent – Nowhere
XII – Vincent – Nowhere
XIII – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere
XIV – Vincent – Nowhere
Epilogue – Rainbow Dash
VI – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

I – Rainbow Dash

Off. On. Off. On.

The orange light being projected from the caged lightbulb hanging from a hook in the ceiling winked off, then on again in a split second.

Rainbow Dash groaned softly, reaching a hoof up to rub at her throbbing head in a futile attempt to eliminate the pain. The headache, she suspected, was because she had hit her head on something hard when she crash-landed.

The last memory she recalled was flying peacefully through the cheerful blue skies of Equestria, preparing to execute a new stunt she had been practicing. Then, her wings had mysteriously stopped producing lift when she flapped them. Rapidly losing control, she had attempted to control her descent as she spiraled down towards the hard, unforgiving ground.

Before the collision, she was met with suffocating darkness. Then she woke up here.

At first, Rainbow was hopeful. She thought she had been rescued by somepony and they had transported her to somewhere safe where she could recover from her injuries. It wouldn't have been the first time Rainbow had awoken in Ponyville General Hospital or somewhere similar.

Rainbow rolled until she was lying supine, careful not to squash her wings beneath her body, continuing to massage her aching forehead with a hoof. She moaned in discomfort.

She observed the malfunctioning lightbulb winking above her. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled, smelling the musty, metallic tinge of corroded metal and the nauseating stench of lubrication oil.

Her ears swiveled as they detected pings and clinks as unknown metal bits rubbed against each other and were dropped against a hard surface.

Rainbow stood up and sat back on her haunches, wincing in discomfort as the cold, harsh stainless steel of the table made contact with the sensitive hocks and fetlocks of her rear legs. She looked around, examining her surroundings.

The room was massive with an abnormally-high ceiling. One wall of the room was entirely dedicated to windows, which had been reinforced with nails and wooden boards. The dying light of twilight was feebly leaking through the cracks in the boards.

Two gigantic machines were packed tightly against a wall. Considering how dark the room appeared at this time of day, Rainbow wasn't close enough to properly examine them. Weirdly, they had wheels, like they were constructed with the intent to move at any time.

Several wide doorway-shaped machines were situated side-by-side against the back wall. They had four metal "arms" which lied in deactivated positions near the floor.

Above countertops littered with junk and tools, some of the grey concrete walls were adorned with hooks where lights and larger, more specialized tools hung. Were some of those tools actually parts of machines as opposed to tools? It was impossible to tell.

Rainbow's eyes flicked in the direction of movement she noticed. An unidentified creature was standing beneath a large machine suspended in midair by one of the machines with the arms.

The creature was lanky—tall with elongated arms with thick, corded muscle that ended with surprisingly small and delicate hands, a distinguishing feature which made it vaguely resemble a diamond dog or minotaur. Its torso was bare of any hair. The exposed, light-brown skin of its muscley back flexed as it reached upwards and tinkered with the machine in some way.

It had long, tangled black hair that draped down from its head, obscuring the rear of its neck.

It looked filthy. Dark splotches of mud or oil coated the exposed skin of its back and arms.

Terrified, Rainbow squeaked and tried to silently lift herself into the air with her wings. She stood up and balanced her weight onto all four hooves, jumped into the air, flapped her wings several times and... failed to lift herself higher. She landed hard on the edge of the table, her momentum causing the wheeled table to roll a few feet to the left.

Rainbow faceplanted onto the concrete floor, groaning. When she managed to lift herself onto her hooves again, she noticed the creature had abandoned whatever it had been working on and was now gazing at her with a facial expression of absolute consternation.

Rainbow spread her wings, glancing back over her shoulders to examine them. Her primary, larger feathers she used to fly and manipulate objects were far shorter than normal. Her flight feathers had been mutilated!

She quickly glanced the creature up and down, noticing it was wearing a pair of trousers and holding a wrench. Obviously, judging by those facts and its facial expression, it was intelligent.

"A - alright, you... whatever you are!" Rainbow shot up onto her rear legs, balancing as she waved her forelegs in a display of aggression. "You think I'm afraid of you? No way! Where am I, and what did you do to my wings‽ Did you abduct me‽"

The creature's mouth dropped agape slightly in what appeared to be shock. At least, Rainbow thought that was its mouth. If so, its mouth was partially obscured by a thick, black beard that extended up the sides of its face towards its tiny, stubby ears and down its neck halfway.

"Wait, you can... talk?" Its voice was gruff and sounded rusty with disuse. It was male, Rainbow concluded. Whatever it was, though, she wanted answers—no, demanded them.

"You gonna start talking? Huh? Or do I have to force the answers out of you‽" Rainbow cantered forward, closing the distance between the two rapidly until she was only a few feet away. He was... tall. He was one of the tallest intelligent creatures she had ever interacted with, disregarding dragons. Even Princess Celestia, she thought, was shorter than he was!

Rainbow fluttered her wings instinctively, prepared to fly upwards and hover in front of him at eye level, before remembering that she couldn't fly.

She resorted to tilting her head back to gaze up at him, which felt incredibly awkward and demeaning.

"Hey! Back up!" The creature took a few steps backwards and extended the hand that was holding the wrench like he might use it as a blunt weapon in self defense. "I found you outside in the dirt earlier today! You were passed out, figured you were easy pickings. I..." He looked Rainbow up and down, eying her hooves and bright, multicolored mane. Something inside him clearly clicked and he blinked, looking away. "Holy shit, I've really gone off my rocker this time."

Rainbow watched as the creature set his wrench down onto a little metal wheeled cart nearby and turned his back on her, walking a few steps away. He wiped his hands on a rag, cleaning them of oil and persperation, then grabbed a shirt bundled up in a little pile and dabbed at his eyes.

Rainbow was no longer afraid of the creature. In fact, he looked harmless. His movements were slow and uncoordinated. His gait implied he had a high center of gravity and was prone to toppling over. Sure, his muscles implied he was strong—far stronger than her, easily—but she knew she was faster and more nimble, even without her wings to give her extra mobility.

He looked over his shoulder quickly as if to confirm she hadn't escaped when he wasn't looking. "Are you real?" He turned, gazing at her strangely.

"What?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow, taking offense. "'Course I'm real! Look at me! Don't you know who I am? Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, official Wonderbolt, inspiration to ponies all across Equestria!" Not receiving a reaction from the creature, Rainbow persisted, changing her approach. "Sole pony to create a Sonic Rainboom for centuries? Friends with princess Twilight Sparkle...?"

The creature scratched his beard in thought.

"You're... a little talking horse."

Rainbow rolled her eyes at the gross oversimplication.

"Jesus! I know they taught me not to eat weird mushrooms in boy scouts, but I figured if I screwed up it'd just give me the shits for a few days, not make me go on a weird trip and talk to a... whatever you are, ghost in my head."

"This isn't a dream!" Rainbow protested. "This is real! At least, I..." She frowned, sitting back on her haunches. "I think it's real. This is... really weird," Rainbow commented aloud, rubbing at the concrete floor with a hoof. She was primarily talking to herself.

"Look, Skittles, you're a talking mini-horse. With wings! And you're more rainbow than liberals at the start of June!" The creature shrugged his wide shoulders, twisting his wrists so the palms of his hands were facing upwards as he did so. "It don't get much weirder than that, my friend. Well, it does, but we don't need to get into that right now."

Rainbow scowled, incredulous. She considered responsing with a harsh protest in response to the new, terrible nickname, but bit her tongue. There was no point in trying.

She looked away for a moment, avoiding eye contact. She sighed, seriously considering her pradiciment. Either the creature who stood before her was passionate about pranking and merely pretended to be completely ignorant about Equestria and its residents and their culture, or...

Or...

"Where are we?" Rainbow tried again.

By the time Rainbow was done pondering, the creature had turned around and started wandering away. He rotated, looking back at her. He frowned, scratching at one of his small, lumpy, seashell-shaped ears. He was staring at her silently now with a facial expression of bewilderment.

Rainbow wasn't heartless. She knew when to draw a line and act seriously, especially when dealing with sensitive creatures like Fluttershy or her various animal friends. The creature who stood before her now, despite appearing to have a flippant and silly side, was also showing signs of genuine distress. He clearly had never witnessed a pony with his own eyes. He didn't even know what ponies were.

"You've really never seen a pony before?"

"Nope." The creature sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers in frustration. "I thought I was dreaming a minute ago. Apparently not. I'm still seriously wondering if this whole thing is a dream, or some kind of government experiment, maybe? Why me? What the hell did I do to wind up out here? And why is no one else out here except for me?"

The creature grabbed one of the caged lightbulbs hanging from its hook on the wall and rotated a dial on the side, brightening the light it was producing. He walked forward carefully, stopping once he was a mere foot away from Rainbow. He crouched, squatting, and looked her square in the eyes. "You're sure you're real? Flesh and blood? You're not some kinda ghost or something? Maybe all in my head?"

"Yeah, I'm real! Last time I checked, anyway. Now can you get that light out of my face?" Rainbow squinted, looking the creature square in the eyes right back. His eyes were tiny, yet expressive. It was difficult to determine what color they were, but they appeared to be green or blue.

When he didn't relent immediately, Rainbow tilted her head to a side to avoid the brightness. She was seeing spots, afterimages. Some strings of her rainbow-colored mane fell into her eyes, which she promptly brushed aside with a hoof.

"Huh. Okay." The creature stood, dialing down the intensity of the light and hanging it in the hook where he had retrieved it from. "Okay. Here's the deal. I'm going to try to get some sleep, and if I wake up and you're still here, we... talk like this shit is normal, I guess." He shrugged.

"But I have so many questions!" Rainbow hopped up onto all four hooves. "You still haven't answered any of them!"

"You wanna know where we are?" The creature spread his arms, gesturing widely. "Albuquerque. Fürstenfeldbruck. Timbuktu. Or, as I lovingly call this inhospitable nightmare alien reality: Fuck All Nowhere.

"'You unlock this door with a key of imagination. You've just crossed over into... The Twilight Zone.'" The creature chuckled, apparently amused by the look of "what the fuck" Rainbow was expressing.

"What the flying feather are you talking about?"

The creature sighed, releasing a final chuckle. "Ah, whatever. Sorry for teasing you so much, Skittles, I just haven't—"

Rainbow lifted one of her hooves into the air to interrupt the creature. He stopped, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed, struggling to keep her cool. The creature so casually and effortlessly bounced between multiple different topics at any given moment. It was exhausting trying to keep pace, especially because she was still attempting to comprehend his words and find any sort of sense hidden within. So far, she wasn't having any luck.

She changed her approach, acting less direct and more curious with her questions.

"What's your name?"

"What?" The creature blinked, clearly having not anticipated the question. He pursed his dry lips. "Vincent. My name is Vincent. Vinny J. Mills of Arizona, USA. Human, homo sapien, from Earth. I'm not from Fuck All Nowhere. Not a native."

Rainbow nodded, acknowledging the name he had provided. It was a start. She didn't quite understand the definition of most of the other words he had mentioned, but she figured he would eventually explain. Like when speaking with Pinkie Pie, she needed to try to keep her cool and be patient.

It wasn't simple. She could feel frustration bubbling inside her like a pot of water heating up.

Speaking of Pinkie Pie, the creature who stood before her apparently valued humor, even in situations where it wasn't typically appropriate. He undoubtedly had a heart beneath his tough, somewhat insensitive exterior. Maybe she could attempt to find it in the future.

Vincent looked away for a moment, scratching his beard. "Y'know, I've seen some weird shit in this here world. Creatures that used to be alive but are long-extinct back on Earth. Stuff I can only describe as 'monsters'. Nothing quite like you, though. Everything alive here either wants to kill me or is so brainwashed they wander aimlessly in the Migrations and pay me no mind. But you aren't doing either. It's... not what I'm used to. I haven't had company in... a long time.

"Anyway, that's why I don't want you going outside tonight when I leave you alone. Do you understand me?" Vincent squinted his eyes in a manner that indicated he wasn't joking. "There's some serious shit out there that'll fuck up your day."

Stubbornly, Rainbow crossed her forelegs. She desperately wanted to go outside and orient herself using the sun, moon or constellations. Anything.

But without her flight feathers, she was temporarily crippled. She possibly wouldn't be able to outrun any dangerous creatures if they attacked her.

"You still haven't explained what you did to my wings!" Rainbow demanded, huffing.

When Vincent opened his mouth, she held a hoof up, interrupting him. "And don't spout any of your stupid jokes, okay? I'm not in the mood right now."

Vincent visably winced. "Look, I'm sorry about your wings. You weren't moving when I found you. Honestly, I figured you were dead or close to it. Thought you were, like I said, easy pickings. So I brought you back here and cut your large feathers at the base to prevent ya from flyin' 'round like crazy if you woke up, just to be safe. Was tryin' to decide whether to... eat you or not. Maybe keep ya as a pet?"

Noticing Rainbow's growing anger suddenly be accompanied by shock and disgust, Vincent quickly continued. "I said I was sorry! They'll grow back eventually, you just gotta give 'em a couple weeks or months. I don't know, I'm not a veterinarian."

"A few months‽" What was she supposed to do while she waited for her primary flight feathers to molt and regrow?

Awkwardly, Vincent brushed his hands against his jeans, sticking them into the side pockets for a moment. He retrieved his t-shirt and slipped it on. "Sorry, Skittles."

Rainbow sighed sadly, her ears drooping downwards. She was unspeakably disappointed, but... the damage was done. It was irreversible, at least without unicorn magic.

"One time I spent a couple days in the hospital in Ponyville healing a broken wing, but I haven't ever dealt with anything like this."

Vincent nodded solemnly. Silently, he managed to slip away, approaching one of the machines in the corner of the workshop. He opened a door on the side of one of the machines and slipped inside, shutting the door behind him.

Rainbow almost neglected to notice. The creature—no, human—was surprisingly stealthy despite his large size and weight.

She frowned. Now that her cowardly human companion had slipped away in the middle of their conversation, what was she supposed to do?

Rainbow noticed through a wide glass window on the front of the machine that he was lounging on a seat, head tilted low. She could follow him and attempt to revive their conversation, but she honestly didn't want to try. She wanted time alone to ruminate and gather her thoughts.

She could obediently remain in place and attempt to get some sleep or explore.

Which option she chose was obvious.

Now, how was she going to get onto the roof of this establishment? Without wings, it would be tricky. She couldn't simply find a window and leap out of it.

Rainbow circled the perimeter of the room she was in, looking around carefully for any windows or doors that might lead outside. All of the windows she found were secured tightly with wooden boards or blocked behind improvised barricades. Or both, simultaneously.

The rest of the first floor of the building that Rainbow explored consisted of rooms containing unidentifiable machines and junk, along with a few posters and signs with text that, surprisingly, looked legible.

Rainbow stopped trotting through a corridor to read some of the posters, curious. They all sported gaudy, colorful depictions of machines and machine parts in a cartoon-like style.

New Italian Liscio tires! Buy two, get up to 10% off your order!

Buy now and our skilled auto technicians will give your vehicle a free diagnosis!

Despite only understanding the definition of half of the words on the posters, Rainbow could deduce they were all advertisements.

Her attention no longer captured, she moved on.

Finally, Rainbow discovered an obvious exit. It was a tall human-sized door made of metal. Above was a glass sign labeled "exit" in red-colored letters. The neon sign was no longer glowing, but was still legible despite the low-light conditions.

Briefly, Rainbow studied the door, trying to identify how to open it. It looked reinforced, with two thick, stacked metal bars extending across the middle of it horizonally.

Rainbow tried pushing the door with a foreleg, but it resisted, not budging an inch. She changed her approach, rearing up onto her rear legs and placing both forelegs onto the metal bars. She leaned all of her weight into her push and shoved them, hard.

There was a loud click. The mechanical door pushed outwards slowly, struggling against its speed-regulating door closer.

Satisfied that she had managed to solve the little puzzle, Rainbow happily trotted outside, passing the threshold.

Unbeknownst to her, the door slowly withdrew inwards by its mechanical automatic door closer, clicking shut behind her and locking tightly.

Rainbow stepped onto the concrete, looking around. What she saw was... strange. She was standing before some type of artifical precipice. Immediately outside of the mechanical door was a little concrete square which yielded to an elongated flat strip of black material. Then, it dropped away abruptly. She saw the tops of trees beyond the precipice. How high up was she?

Rainbow cautiously approached the edge of the black strip, peering out over the edge.

She gasped. She was high up in the air, standing on an artificial plateau. The natural ground of grass and trees was approximately 100 or 200 feet below. It wasn't a height she could survive falling.

Without her flight feathers and the ability to fly, Rainbow backed away from the edge quickly, sensing a slight twinge of fear. She wasn't afraid of heights, but it had suddenly occurred to her that if she fell she would have no method of slowing herself down during the descent.

Rainbow turned around and examined the building from the rear. It was obviously the rear—the wall was flat with no windows. Pipes and other unrecognizable metal objects protruded from the wall. Trash bins were lined up in an organized fashon. One had been toppled over, spilling its contents onto the ground.

Rainbow circled around the building, exploring.

The black platform at the front of the building sported multiple white painted, parallel lines spaced at regular intervals. They crossed occasionally, forming shapes that made them resemble wide-toothed combs.

Situated between the white lines were machines that closely resembled the one Vincent had been tinkering with. They sported four circular shapes, two on each side, which resembled wheels like those of a carriage. They were composed almost entirely of metal and painted various colors. Their shells of metal were broken up by the occasional little square of glass which were probably windows. There was one large window at the front and another in the rear.

It was bizarre to witness. Were they arranged for a ceremonial purpose? Why were they situated within the white lines at seemingly random intervals?

Rainbow moved on.

Large letters made of red-colored glass were arranged above the primary entrance to the building, which had been boarded up. Probably by Vincent. Predictably, the letters were no longer glowing. Some had been shattered to pieces, obfuscating the original sentence. Rainbow had to guess how it had been arranged originally.

_ _ _ ' S A _ T O R _ _ A I R

"Something... 'auto repair'?" Rainbow wondered aloud.

Noticing no obvious stairs leading up to the roof, Rainbow decided to improvise. Painstakingly, she dragged two of the waste bins to the front of the auto repair shop where the roof sloped downwards at its lowest point. Using the smaller waste bin, she climbed onto the larger bin and launched herself upwards, kicking off the large waste bin to give herself a boost.

She landed with a thud on the metal roof, managing to scramble onto her hooves before she slid off. Proud of herself for improvising and successfully finding a solution to her problem, Rainbow trotted forward towards the center of the roof, which was the highest point.

Her hooves made unsubtle clanking noises with each step she took on the corrugated tin. She winced, hoping that Vincent wouldn't hear her making excessive noise and come investigate. She wanted to be alone for the time being.

Finally reaching the peak of the roof, Rainbow slowly spun in a circle, examining her surroundings.

The plateau wasn't suspended from the side of a hill or mountain like Rainbow had suspected. It was... floating. The black platform the auto repair shop was built upon was floating above the ground below. She knew there was ground below—she could see trees, grass and other vegetation.

Thrown for a loop, Rainbow blinked. She had witnessed floating objects before, it wasn't an impossibility, but the only instances she could recall of objects randomly floating were all associated with Discord.

She scowled, stamping a hoof against the tin roof.

"Discord!" Rainbow raised her voice, bellowing out into the red-colored sky during twilight. The last vestiges of the evening sun were slipping beneath sloping hills in the far distance.

The sky gradually descended through the color spectrum, glowing purple, then blue and finally navy-blue as night arrived.

Frustrated, Rainbow pawed at the roof with a forehoof. She hated being ignored and feeling insignificant.

A tiny moon slowly began to rise. It was perhaps twice as small as Equestria's moon and reflected far less moonlight.

It wasn't Princess Luna's moon, and the stars weren't Luna's statrs. Rainbow had been studying the stars for many years; she could immediately recognize what was or wasn't Equestria's night sky.

Rainbow felt insignificant. She couldn't resist the urge to submit to despair. Discord enjoyed a good prank from time to time, same as Rainbow, but teleporting her to another world was...

It would be so cruel and unprecedented. He wasn't even nearby to observe her reaction!

What could one pony do without her friends and everypony she had grown to depend on over years of bonding?

"Anypony...?" Rainbow's tone was soft this time. She sat back on her haunches, looking around. Again, there was no reply. The evening was quiet and still.

She gazed up at the tiny moon. Some unruly clouds drifted between her and the little satellite. Translucent as they were, the clouds merely cast a soft shadow, not obscuring her view.

Rainbow wanted so desperately to fly into the evening sky, buck a few clouds to vent her frustrations and create a cloud nest to sleep. Without her flight feathers, though, she couldn't even fly. The greatest—a title that was self-appointed—Wonderbolt to have ever lived was now flightless. It was terribly ironic.

Everything had been stolen from her in one short evening. Something had ripped the carpet right out from under her. It felt so unfair.

Rainbow sighed sadly. She laid down and curled into a little ball on top of the tin roof.

She was familiar with loneliness. She embraced it, even, as a necessary break from stardom. But there had never been a moment in her life where she was truly alone, unable to contact anypony she knew or trusted or even remotely cared about.

Intent on sleeping alone and isolated on the roof in the spot she had laid down, Rainbow closed her eyes, struggling to relax.

Tomorrow was a new day. She could search for answers then.

II – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

Rainbow Dash awoke with the sensation that her fur and the entire roof around her were being consumed by fire.

Rainbow leapt up onto her hooves with a yelp like a flame had been spontaneously lit beneath her flanks. The morning sunlight rays had been beating down relentlessly, heating the thin, tin sheet roof to the point where Rainbow felt like the curvature of the corrugated metal had been branded into her side atop her ribs like some sort of ritual tattoo.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Rainbow yelped, her cadence resembling that of a ballerina with two broken fetlocks as she hopped across the roof in an effort to escape the hot surface as quickly as physically possible.

Rainbow leapt off of the sheet metal roof, landing onto the solid black pavement hard with a grunt. There was a brief second where she felt relieved she had escaped the heat, before, with a start, she realized the pavement had absorbed much of the heat from the sunlight as well.

Rainbow shot up and immediately dashed towards the emergency exit she had used to exit the auto repair shop the prior evening, but was horrified to discover it was sealed securely. She shoved on the metal door, then tried tugging. The locking mechanism remained intact.

"Vincent!" Rainbow leaned her head back and wailed, prancing in place and lifting her hooves off of the ground one at a time in rapid succession to assure none were scalded by the hot ground. "It's so hot out here! Let me in!"

There was the sound of heavy work boots tapping against the concrete floor inside as Vincent jogged towards the emergency exit, pushing the horizontal metal bar outwards and disengaging the locking mechanism.

Immediately, Rainbow burst inside and flopped onto the floor, letting the heat absorbed by her body soak out into the cold concrete with a satisfied moan. Her clipped wings buzzed happily, and for a brief moment she considered kissing the ground. She resisted the urge.

Rainbow glanced upwards to investigate a suspicious noise. Indeed, her suspicions were correct: her human acquaintence was laughing at her.

Vincent's small chuckles advanced to guffawing. He was bent over, bracing himself by clutching his knees with both hands.

"H - hey!" Rainbow protested, angry.

"Your face...!" Vincent grinned. Much to Rainbow's irritation, he was mocking her predictament.

"You ain't ever touched metal or pavement in direct sunlight in the middle of a summer afternoon? Shit's hot!"

"I know now." Rainbow scrambled onto her hooves and assumed a sitting position. She grumbled, looking away and avoiding eye contact.

"What's wrong?" Vincent wondered aloud. Despite not gazing at him, Rainbow could practically visualize the dopey frown he was sporting.

"I'm still angry at you for cutting my feathers off."

"Never gonna let that go, huh? You hold grudges? You sound like my ex. Besides, I didn't cut your feathers off, I cut some inches off the first row." Rainbow glanced back at her companion to witness him gesticulate, raising a finger into the air in an unknown gesture.

"So what? You said you were gonna eat me. I don't trust you! You're not one of my friends. Stop acting like one!"

Shocked, Vincent withdrew his finger and lowered his arm. "I said I was sorry."

"So what?" Rainbow repeated, crossing her forelegs stubbornly. She glared. "How does that help me now?"

Vincent remained quiet. He didn't reply with a quick-witted, snappy response she had anticipating. Instead, his face contorted into a remorseful frown.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't... know you'd be this way. Nothing else here has been able to talk, so I guess I just started seeing everything as food or an obstacle to avoid." He lowered his head shamefully, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

Distressed and unsure how to remedy the situation, Rainbow stood and rotated 180 degrees, intent on leaving.

"Hey, wait!"

Rainbow looked over her shoulder in time to see Vincent reach out as if he were going to attempt to physically stop her from leaving. She jerked away instinctively, then released the tension from her body.

"Look, I just need space, okay?" Stressed, Rainbow lowered her ears flat against her head.

Vincent clearly got the memo. He backed away, thrusting his hands skyward in mock surrender. "Fine, Dash."

Rainbow's facial expression softened when she realized he had remembered her name. He had been listening to her the previous evening.

Rainbow turned and reared up onto her rear legs, placing her forehooves onto the metal bar of the emergency exit door. She shoved it and stepped outside, passing the threshold.

She wanted time alone to think. A walk outside in nature would help ease her mind and allow thoughts to flow. She didn't need an imitation Pinkie Pie babbling incessantly in her ear.

"When you want to come back inside, just knock, okay? I'll be here." Vincent held the emergency exit door open with his body and stood, leaning, in the doorframe.

Rainbow glanced back, waving with a hoof to acknowledge what he had said.

"How do I get down?" Rainbow considered their predicament momentarily. "How do you normally get down from here?"

"Built a ramp that-a-way." Vincent gestured to indicate a direction. North

Rainbow adjusted her course, bearing in mind the directions she had been provided, and began trotting across the hot black pavement. She approached the northern edge of the auto repair shop's parking lot, peeking over the edge. Indeed, there was a ramp that connected flush with the edge of the pavement, sloping downwards towards a tall hill. Vincent had made an intelligent decision by selecting a hill as the starting point to construct the ramp; the length from the apex of the hill to the auto repair shop's parking lot was shorter than from the ground.

The ramp was the result of a disorganized fusion between scrap metal, wood, rope and an extensive supply of nails. It was wider than six broad-shouldered stallions standing side-by-side. Supported by a multitude of weight-bearing pillars from beneath, it looked solid enough, but Rainbow still didn't trust it. Sure, she didn't anticipate the entire thing to crumble to dust as soon as she laid a hoof on it, but maybe she could get a splinter up the sensitive parts of her hooves. Or a nail.

Rainbow stepped carefully onto the ramp, eventually accelerating to a cautious trot.

When she finally reached her destination, she glanced back over one shoulder. The auto repair shop's parking lot suddenly appeared so distant.

The chunk of earth the auto shop was constructed upon was, in fact, not floating in midair. It hadn't ripped from the ground and began floating randomly, it appeared that it had been willed into existence in this world arbitrarily and had descended due to gravity, colliding with and burying itself into the dirt.

Any number of possibilities existed for how the giant mound of earth could have settled in this location. Discord was entirely capable of summoning random objects from thin air using his chaos magic, for example. She didn't trouble herself with worrying about unimportant details, though. She looked forward, examining her surroundings.

The world stretched before her. It much resembled Equestria. Flat plains, gently-sloping hills, green-leaved trees and green-bladed grass.

The air temperature was ever increasing. Rainbow reached with a hoof and brushed a lock of her mane out of her eyes. She was already sweating. She squinted her eyes until they were nearly closed and gazed upwards towards the blue sky.

The sun in the morning sky was probably smaller than Celestia's sun in Equestria, although Rainbow couldn't say for certain. It also appeared orange instead of a pleasant yellow. The greatest difference between Equestria and Fuck All Nowhere was that Nowhere was a planet in a binary star system. It was orbiting two identical suns! Well, it may have only been orbiting one and not the other, but at the moment there were two stars in the sky.

It was fascinating. For a moment, Rainbow considered how excited Twilight would be to behold a dual-star system, then felt a twinge of sadness as she was reminded of the friends in Equestria she had left behind.

Rainbow sighed sadly, returning her gaze to the ground on her level. Her eyes were burning from gazing at the suns and she was seeing splotches, afterimages. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, then returned them to the dirt.

Flora was sparse in the area around the auto repair shop. Vincent may have harvested most of the flowers to eat, although some remained. Peckish, Rainbow considered sampling the flowers, but resisted the urge. Poisoning herself was not something she ever wanted if she were capable of avoiding it.

Vincent would probably know which plants were safe to eat and which weren't. Rainbow entertained herself with the idea as she began trotting south on a whim, departing from the improvised ramp.

He had been living in Nowhere for an indeterminate amount of time and had presumably constructed the makeshift ramp without unicorn magic using his own two hands. Surely the man knew what plants were safe to eat.

What was he even eating, anyway? A creature of his mass would require more food than a standard pony. Also, he was bulging with muscular biceps and triceps.

Rainbow recalled when Vincent admitted he had considered eating her. She shivered, disconcerted. Maybe he wasn't vegetarian like her after all.

There was a local forest to the south of the auto repair shop. The trees provided sufficient shade no longer, as many had been felled. Rainbow hopped up onto a stump and back down again as she passed by.

Beavers or pony technology hadn't produced the stumps Rainbow was witnessing. The stumps were flat and unnaturally smooth where the trunk had been cut and separated. If a unicorn desired, they could likely utilize magic to slice a tree's trunk so cleanly as to leave such smooth stumps, but most unicorns didn't work in the lumber industry. No, the stumps were probably left by Vincent when he had gathered wood to construct the large ramp.

Beyond the sparse trees of the small forest and a squat hill, the land stretched outwards widely. A lake had formed in a large depression in the earth that had likely resulted from volcanic activity a very long time ago. Pointy rock formations ringed the lake, jutting out from the ground awkwardly.

Rainbow descended downhill towards the lake, cantering. It was an opportunity to go swimming! The morning was too hot for her to lazily sunbathe, so she could do the next best thing.

Momentarily, Rainbow looked around, observing her surroundings. The crater lake was completely deserted of any creatures. Vincent had implied hostile creatures were everywhere and being attacked was imminent if she left the safety of the auto repair shop. That didn't appear to be the case. Maybe the hostile creatures of Nowhere were primarily contained in an exclusion zone, like how most dangerous magical flora and fauna near Ponyville resided in the Everfree Forest.

The crater lake's water was a gorgeous teal, though murky. Its shores were sandy, but it wasn't the type of pure, yellow sand ideal for constructing sand sculptures. Rainbow's hooves crunching on the lake's shore flung up grains of sand and bits of gravel.

Rainbow curiously observed as some large bubbles arose from the depths of the lake and popped once they reached the surface.

She waded into the cool water until her chest and wings were almost submerged and bowed her head, drinking eagerly to replace the water in her body that had been lost in sweat.

Rainbow flung her head backwards to sweep her multicolored mane out of her eyes. She grimaced, resisting the urge to gag. The water didn't quite satisfy her in the way she wanted. It had an off-putting aftertaste of how rotten eggs smelled. Still, it was water, and she was thirsty.

Rainbow began to wade deeper into the lake, intending to swim and wash herself, when a gigantic wave caught her by surprise and swept her underwater.

Rainbow paddled to the surface, coughing as she spat out the foul water. Whatever contaminants polluted the lake water were burning her eyes. She blinked rapidly, attempting to clear her blurry vision.

From the depths of the crater lake had emerged a giant crustacean. It resembled a lobster, with a tiny head and shiny black eyes. It was armored with slate grey-colored plates of chiton and possessed black antennae that dripped with lake water. It had far too many arms ending in sharp claws that snapped in the air threateningly like oversized scissors. Its primary claws were wide enough to cleave a pony in half with one powerful snap.

The monster reared up, revealing a mouth with countless jagged mandibles that quivered hungrily. For a brief moment, Rainbow saw inside the monster's black pit of a mouth. There were rows of tiny, razer-sharp teeth all the way down its throat.

It emitted a series of watery gurgling sounds at her, then began to move. It was almost as large as a train car, and it was scuttling towards her with its countless crab legs fast.

Rainbow cried out in fear, backpedaling in an attempt to escape. She tumbled, somersaulting underwater once before washing onto the shore in a soaked heap. She had a moment to observe another crustacean emerge from the depths before she scrambled onto her hooves and darted away. She dashed quicker than the first monster could snap at her with one of its primary claws. She heard its claw snap shut behind her with a loud clicking sound.

Rainbow galloped uphill towards the line of trees, weaving between them expertly. Unfortunately, probably due to Vincent cutting most of them down, the tiny forest was insufficient at impeding the creatures pursuing her. The closest one had enough mass and momentum to demolish one of the trees with a huge crash and snapping of wood. The creature stumbled, a victim of its own persistence and stupidity, but continued pursuing Rainbow nonetheless, seemingly uninjured.

Rainbow reached the giant chunk of earth below the auto repair shop and attempted to dart to the right and circle around to head for the ramp, but one of the monsters moved to physically block her path.

Trapped between a flat rock wall and two huge armored monsters, Rainbow abandoned her own dignity. The situation was beginning to feel hopeless.

"VINCENT! HELP!"

Rainbow tilted her head back and screamed as loudly as she could into the sky. Having delivered her distress call, she focused on the beasts directly in front of her. Without the ability to fly, she would have to fight to survive. She widened the placement of her hooves and assumed a stance reserved for combat.

Rainbow saw nowhere to buck nor anywhere vulnerable to bite with her teeth. The way the creature's biology worked rendered it surprisingly defensive. Its armor plating looked thick and tough.

Rainbow fluttered her clipped wings uselessly and leapt backwards, expertly dodging a primary claw that came sailing towards her. It snapped directly in front of her face, missing her by mere feet.

Panting gently from exertion, she glanced quickly at the other monster. It tilted one of its primary claws, prepared to snap at her.

A deafening sound like the cracking of a whip erupted dramatically. Rainbow winced, crying out as her sensitive ears rang.

One of the tiny heads of the crustaceans burst in a dramatic explosion of gore. Its body slumped onto the ground with a cacophony of joints snapping and armor plating squelching under their own weight as the entire creature went limp. Rainbow's already-wet mane and torso was splattered with blue blood. Horrified, she blinked several times, motionless. Her sensitive ears lied back against her head from the stress.

The other crustacean hesitated. This gave Rainbow enough time to dash around the first monster's corpse and gallop towards the ramp faster than she ever had before. She was acting almost entirely on instinct.

Rainbow climbed the hill and began ascending the long ramp rapidly, barely registering that Vincent was waiting for her at the top.

"Get behind me!"

Rainbow obeyed his order by instinct, not choice. She slowed to a canter when she reached the relative safety of the auto repair shop's parking lot, then a trot. Finally, she sat back on her haunches behind Vincent and hung her head, panting. Rainbow wasn't physically exhausted from the galloping or the combat—she had experience with both. It was the stress.

Vincent planted one foot in front of the other and crouched on one knee, bracing the buttstock of a long hunting rifle against his shoulder. At the apex of the hill, the crustacean had began scuttling up the ramp. It was traveling slower, utilizing only a portion of its legs to navigate the relatively-narrow platform.

Vincent patiently held his fire until the creature grew nearer, then nearer still. He aligned the rifle's iron sights with the creature's head, positioned his finger over the trigger and squeezed.

Rainbow was struck violently with another explosion of sound as the bullet Vincent fired sailed through the air and connected squarely with the monster's head. No longer balancing itself, its lifeless corpse toppled over the edge of the ramp. It fell for three seconds before colliding with the earth below with a ghastly CRUNCH as all of its joints snapped simultaneously.

"Whoooooo!" Vincent cheered, leaping up onto his feet. He pumped a fist into the air, gripping the rifle around the narrow section of the stock in his other hand. "How do ya like that, ya oversized crab-looking fucks?"

Rainbow didn't participate in the celebration. She gently hyperventilated, rubbing her ears with her hooves. She was partially deafened by an aggressive ringing.

"Ah, shit." The triumphant grin on Vincent's face vanished as he noticed Rainbow sitting dejectedly on the pavement, her eyes downcast. Concern flooded his face as he set the rifle down onto the ground carefully and jogged over.

"Dash, you okay...?" He squatted, placing a hand onto one of her hooves as she rubbed at her ears.

Rainbow avoided his eye contact, turning her head away. She opened her mouth agape to speak, but no words emerged. She sniffled, tears forming in her eyes. Emotion was welling inside of her, threatening to imminently burst.

"I - I'm sorry, I..." She wanted to apologize, but she wasn't sure how, or even why she wanted to in the first place.

Vincent placed a hand on the side of her head, getting blue monster blood between his fingers. If he objected, he didn't visibly react. "I should be the one apologizing. I'm sorry I clipped your feathers off. Almost got you killed. And I'm sorry I've been..." he sighed, frowning. "...a little insensitive. Well, a lot insensitive."

Hearing a voice normally so gruff and flippant transform into one soft and caring for her sake was too much for Rainbow to bear. She abandoned trying to make eye contact with Vincent and clenched her eyes shut, tensing up as she cried softly. Fat tears leaked from her eyes and streaked through the sky blue fur on her face, mixing with the disgusting monster blood.

Sympathetic, Vincent quickly stripped out of his shirt and balled it up, using it as a rag to dab Rainbow's eyes to clean off some of the blood. "Get that shit off you," he murmured softly.

The gentle care and attention made Rainbow sob harder. Her body trembled.

Vincent sighed sadly, patting Rainbow gently on one of her shoulders. "I'm sorry. First few weeks here were tough for me too."

"Y - you told me not to go outside..." Rainbow sputtered, managing to control her breathing enough to speak. "I didn't listen..."

Vincent licked his dry lips, hesitating as he considered what to say to make her feel better. "Well, look... you had no way of knowing those things were in that lake. You did try to swim in that crater lake down south, right?"

Receiving a tiny nod from Rainbow, Vincent continued. "Yeah. I don't blame you for thinkin' that place looked like a nice swimmin' hole. I tried swimmin' there once—them things were snappin' at my pale ass more eagerly than a dog at a mailman." Vincent chuckled as he recalled the memory.

The joke got a weak chuckle out of Rainbow, despite herself. She sighed, blinking. Her eyes were stinging from irritation from crying. After a full day of not eating and a life-threatening encounter with a couple dangerous monsters, Rainbow was deprived of energy and exhausted.

Noticing Rainbow was feeling a little better, Vincent gave her a final pat on the shoulder and slowly stood, his knees popping. He stretched, groaning, then slipped his white shirt back on, now stained with blue monster blood. "Alright Skittles, how 'bout I show you the best swimming hole this side of Nowhere? Get'cha cleaned up a bit. You look like hell."

Rainbow stood up onto all four hooves and reached, brushing a lock of wet and filthy mane away from her eyes. She got a dab of blue blood onto her hoof, which she tried to scrape off onto the pavement.

She seriously considered the prospect of scrubbing herself down, possibly with soap, and removing the sticky, horrible blood and grime. She nodded. "I... could use a break."

"You said it."

III – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

"Need more stuff before we can head out, Dash. Wait here or follow me if you want. I'm only gonna be a minute."

Vincent retrieved the hunting rifle where he had placed it onto the pavement and slung it over his back, suspending it by its sling from one shoulder. Then, he began jogging towards the auto repair shop.

Rainbow Dash observed as he shouldered the strange object. There was a central tube composed of metal, but the tube was mounted atop an unidentifiable, black material covered in tiny bumps.

Was it a magical staff? If so, what it apparently lacked in ergonomics it compensated with raw power. What Vincent had done to those crustaceans... She held up one of her blood-splattered forelegs. She shivered, uncomfortable. She didn't want to imagine being caught at the receiving end of that thing.

She stood up and began to trot, following Vincent. She watched him ascend a metal ladder that had been aligned with the side of the building, hopping in through a high open window.

Vincent turned and glanced back outside, sticking his head out of the open window. He eyed Rainbow, grinning, noticing an opportunity to crack a joke that he could exploit. "Das tut mir leid, prince. We, Rapunzel, and our golden stair be unfit for thou with thy hooves. We pity thee and thou horse thy rode in on."

Rainbow resisted the urge to release a sigh of annoyance. Still, Vincent had a point. Ladders simply weren't built bearing pony anatomy in mind. "Please just... head around and open the door for me."

Noting his companion was in a dark, unresponsive mood, Vincent frowned, not replying with whatever humorous statement he had been preparing. He disappeared from the window.

Rainbow trotted around to the opposite side of the building where the emergency exit lied and waited for the door to be opened. She leaned, occasionally shifting her weight from her two left hooves to her two right hooves. The sunlight cast by the dual suns was beating down relentlessly. Despite still being soaked with lake water, Rainbow began to sweat, which only exasperated her discomfort.

Vincent pressed the emergency exit door's metal bar outwards and disengaged the locking mechanism, pushing the door. He watched a thick blob of blue blood drip down Rainbow's muzzle and onto the pavement below. He nodded sagely.

"Yup, that's terrible."

"Don't remind me." Rainbow's ears laid back against her head stressfully. "Be quick. Please."

Vincent beckoned her to enter with a wave of his hand and jogged down the hallway, passing the machine held aloft by the lift with the arms and heading through an open door at the very rear of the workshop.

Rainbow followed, careful not to brush her body against any doors or doorframes. The last thing she wanted to do was recklessly wander through the building and accidentally smear surfaces with gross blood and create stains which would need to be cleaned.

The room they entered was a claustrophobic unisex bathroom. There was one toilet, one sink and one tiny mirror too high off of the ground for Rainbow to use properly. She didn't want to see herself anyway. It would probably trigger her gag reflex.

Vincent bent at the waist and unzipped a few duffel bags in the corner of the room, digging around inside and withdrawing a bayonet in a sheath. He reached around and blindly clipped the sheath's plastic clip onto the waistband of his jeans, continuing to sift through the contents of the bag.

Rainbow shifted her weight unconsciously, clopping her hooves lightly against the tiled floor.

Vincent didn't look back, completely aware of the source of the sound. "Whatever you're doing, can you stop?"

Rainbow blinked. She set her hooves firmly against the floor and attempted to resist the urge to fidget. She hadn't even realized her body had been moving. She was feeling extremely uncomfortable. "Sorry."

"Look, Dash..." Vincent withdrew a pair of black-tinted sunglasses from one of the duffel bags and flipped them open with one hand, hanging them precariously from the collar of his shirt. He took a few steps towards Rainbow and knelt on one knee so their eyes were on the same level. "I'm gonna tell you something I wish someone had told me a long time ago. Okay?"

Feeling embarrassed from when she had burst into tears earlier, Rainbow looked away awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. She shied away, placing one foreleg over the other. Her attempt at disappearing into her own shadow had failed. She wanted desperately to fly away and create a bed of clouds to rest on and be alone.

"Everything's... going to be okay." Vincent smiled, extending a hand and patting Rainbow on the shoulder. "I know you gotta have a million thoughts flying through your head right now, and trust me, I completely understand."

He released his breath in a long, gentle sigh, withdrawing the hand. "You don't have to tell me what you're thinking if you don't want to. You don't have to tell me anything. Not a single thought, not one.

"Don't worry 'bout a thing..." Vincent stood, retrieving his sunglasses where he had suspended them and fitting them over his eyes. "...'cause every little thing gonna be alright!" He grinned, assuming an odd accent as he briefly spoke in a sing-songy tone. "We're going to the beach! Sort of. Hope ya brought your sunscreen and towels."

Rainbow considered what had been said for a moment. She gently smiled, reassured. For the moment, things were okay. She wasn't completely alone—she had at least one friend, and, despite his occasionally-inappropriate jokes, he had a restrained gentler side, one which she wanted to become acquainted with.

Vincent returned to searching through the duffel bags. "Ain't got any shades that'd fit your weirdly-shaped head, but I got my old boonie hat. That'll keep the sun outta your eyes, if it fits." He lifted one of the bags and slipped the strap over a shoulder.

Rainbow followed Vincent as he led the way through the auto repair shop's workshop and down the hallway to the emergency exit. He thrusted the exit's metal bar with his hip, shoving the door open and stepping outside.

Outside on the concrete landing, Rainbow glanced up into the sky, attempting to estimate the time. She noted how the dual suns were beginning to drift farther apart as they traveled across the sky. Was it noon...?

"Don't go lookin' for anything specific up there, Skittles. Sky makes no sense in Nowhere. Never has."

Rainbow accelerated to catch up with Vincent as he walked across the parking lot, heading towards the ramp. She trotted side-by-side with him. "How do the suns work here? Do they rotate around us by themselves?"

Vincent raised an eyebrow, comprehending what she had said. "What do you mean? We're rotating around them, Aristotle. Did you not pay attention in school?"

Rainbow got defensive. "I paid attention in school! Mostly! Where I come from, Celestia rotates the sun around Equus once a day like clockwork, then Luna raises the moon."

"So you're also not from Nowhere, huh? Well, I have no idea who Celestia or Luna are—I'm assuming they're gods to you—but back home Earth rotates around its sun and Earth's moon rotates around Earth. Took philosophers and scientists an embarrassing amount of time to figure that one out."

Vincent turned northwest and began descending the hill at the base of the ramp. Rainbow followed beside him, occasionally reaching with a hoof to catch droplets of sweat or blood that beaded and began trailing down her face.

"You see the moon last night?"

"I think so." Rainbow recalled the relatively-miniature white speck in the sky. Too large to be a distant star but smaller than Luna's moon.

"Nowhere didn't even have a moon until a year ago or so. Was about to head to sleep one night and it was just up there in the night sky. It was drifting through space and got tangled up in one of the suns' gravitational pulls somehow, then started orbiting Nowhere, I reckon. Don't ask me how. I'm a jack of all trades, but astronomy? Celestial mechanics? Nah, not my forte."

Rainbow pondered the mystery for a few moments. She looked around, observing their surroundings. No dangerous creatures were in sight, though she did spot a small herd of pronghorn wandering through the open plains, munching on flowers and grass. Seeing creatures who weren't trying to kill her was reassuring.

"Does stuff have a habit of randomly popping up here? It looks like the place you're staying in just kinda... fell right outta the sky."

Vincent stopped walking for a moment, shocked. "Son-of-a-bitch. You're suggestin' a moon just randomly appeared above Nowhere one day?"

Rainbow shrugged. "If that's how things work around here, maybe."

"No, you're absolutely right, Dash. Shit does have a tendency to pop in outta thin air around here. But a whole-ass moon?"

He pursed his lips in thought. Eventually, he continued walking, settling on an answer.

"Nah. Nowhere's moon couldn't have just appeared out of thin air. If it did, it would have, well... just floated there. Or, worse, it would have came crashing down onto the surface of the planet and killed absolutely everything living down here. That's probably how the physics would work. Gravity's a harsh mistress."

Rainbow shuttered at the idea.

"Yup, a lunar 'pocolypse. Another K–T Extinction event, if you will, just with a way bigger rock. Good thing that's not our reality, huh? Otherwise we'd be dead as dinosaurs."

Vincent's eyes widened as he spotted something in the distance. He swore, dropped the duffel bag onto the ground and unslung his rifle, planting one hand on the handguard and another around the stock near the trigger. His finger rested lightly on the trigger guard.

If something nearby had managed to spook Vincent, that meant it was a real threat. Rainbow's body tensed as she attempted to follow her companion's unwavering gaze.

"Get down!" In one smooth motion, Vincent kicked out his legs and lied down on his belly, concealing himself within the tall, wild grass. He placed his strong right hand on Rainbow's back and physically forced her down. She complied, lying on her side to get as low as possible.

"What was it? What did you see?"

"I... don't know. It almost looked like..."

Rainbow locked eyes with Vincent. His facial expression was stern and deadly serious.

"Listen to me very carefully: no more walks outside alone. Got it? I'll come with you if you really want to go outside for whatever reason, but we really shouldn't unless we absolutely have to."

"Why?" Frustrated that her questions weren't being answered, Rainbow narrowed her eyes stubbornly, determined to get an answer. "What did you see?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it looked like..." Vincent frowned. "...a man. With a gun. And he might not be alone."

"What if he's friendly?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "You're not even gonna give him a chance? But—"

"He could shoot you, Dash." Vincent uttered the sentence with finality, snapping his lips together tightly.

Rainbow didn't like being bossed around and receiving orders from ponies—or people in this case—she didn't respect, but unfortunately Vincent was more experienced than her with how Nowhere functioned.

She wasn't about to admit it aloud, but she felt a pang of fear after witnessing her companion's reaction. Her earlier woes were temporarily forgotten as the new emotion took priority.

Vincent looked over both shoulders to check their flanks, then peeked out of the tall grass slowly, lifting his rifle. He scanned the distant trees meticulously. Spotting something, he nodded. "Whatever that was, it's headed east. Probably didn't see us. We're clear for now."

Rainbow only rose from her hiding spot in the tall grass when Vincent motioned for her to.

Her fur and hair had been rendered sticky by the monster blood earlier, so now she was also covered with dirt.

"Nice camo, Skittles. You're really blending in."

"Shut up." Rainbow grumbled, uncomfortable.

"I'll make you my spotter yet." He chuckled.

When they finally arrived at the spot Vincent had been alluding to, Rainbow felt a little excitement course through her. The small isolated pond was gorgeous.

The pond was only a few dozen feet wide, but the water looked clearer than the water of the southern crater lake. It was a healthy blue as opposed to an opaque teal.

The pond was nestled beneath a crescent moon-shaped rock wall and sheltered within a dense forest. A small waterfall steadily flowed down from atop the rock wall, splashing into the pool below.

Vegetation was growing in the pond. Rainbow spotted water lily pads with blooming white and pink flowers. Were they edible? She didn't want to risk it.

"This is actually pretty nice." Rainbow nodded approvingly as she examined her surroundings.

Vincent glanced over his shoulders occasionally, assuring they weren't being followed. He placed his duffel bag onto the ground near the pond's shore, gripping his rifle in one hand near the rear iron sights in a trail-carry position.

"Relax," Rainbow ordered. "This place is an actual oasis! You're being paranoid, Vinny. There's probably no one following us."

Unconvinced, Vincent gripped his rifle for a moment longer, scanning the surrounding trees carefully.

Receiving no response, Rainbow shrugged. She happily waded into the pond and immediately headed for the waterfall to clean the blue monster blood and grime from her mane.

She clenched her eyes shut preemptively and waded beneath the waterfall, rearing up onto her rear legs so she could use both forelegs to scrub at her hair. It was like washing beneath a natural cloud shower.

When she stepped out from beneath the waterfall and blinked rapidly to clear her vision, she noticed Vincent had stripped down entirely and waded in as well. He was so tall that while the water was touching Rainbow's chin, it only reached up to Vincent's midsection, near the navel.

Respectfully, Rainbow kept her eyes above his waist. The human seemed very self-conscious about nudity and preferred wearing clothes as frequently as possible, even during extremely hot days when unnecessary layers would lead to sweating. He seemed so shy about the concept of nudity that she noticed his eyes hadn't ever wandered near her waist, flanks or cutiemarks.

They didn't talk about it or acknowledge it in any way. She preferred that.

"Here, catch."

Vincent tossed her a bar of soap underhand, which she effortlessly snapped out of midair using her teeth. He blinked. "Y'know, I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but not that.

"Doesn't that taste horrible?"

Incapable of speaking, Rainbow snorted in response. She backed up and stepped beneath the waterfall, rearing up onto her rear legs. Balancing effortlessly, she held the bar of soap in a hoof and created lather, spreading it across her colorful mane and sky blue fur on her face and chest. Then, she focused on her wings, lathering and fluttering them to assure the feathers were clean.

She couldn't be certain without a mirror, but she suspected most of the blood and dirt had been washed away. The sensation was liberating.

When she stepped out from beneath the waterfall, she sighed happily, throwing her head back to sling her wet mane out of her eyes. When she looked for Vincent, she noticed he was rooted in one place, his eyes locked onto her. She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Vincent's eyes widened and he immediately jerked his head in a different direction, flustered. "I'm not starin' at you like that! It's just... how do you do that thing with your hooves?"

"What? This?" Rainbow stood up onto her rear legs for demonstration purposes and transferred the bar of soap to one of her forehooves.

"Yeah, that. It's fuckin' weird."

"Magic." Rainbow settled down onto all four hooves again and shrugged casually. She transferred the bar of soap to her mouth and flung it in Vincent's direction. He automatically caught it with ease, staring at her weirdly.

"You don't have to be sarcastic. It's a genuine question."

Rainbow shrugged defensively. "I'm not lying! It's magic. Like how pegasi can manipulate weather."

This only made Vincent's confused frown deepen. "Okay, whatever. Give me a sec'."

While Rainbow waited for her companion to bathe, she waded out of the pond and shook wildly to dry herself off, then began digging through the duffel bag Vincent had brought with them.

"Jackpot!" Rainbow grinned, withdrawing a plastic comb and brush from the bag.

She combed her mane and tail straight of any tangles, then gave them a good brushing. Pleased, she smiled, her clipped wings buzzing happily. She was finally clean. She laid down on her side comfortably, crossing one rear leg over the other as she waited.

She observed as her human companion drifted through the waist-high water effortlessly, hiking up his legs in a surprisingly delicate and precise fashion. He resembled a stork hunting for fish. She smirked at the humorous mental image.

Vincent washed his clothes quickly and immediately began getting dressed. Rainbow raised her voice, interrupting him partway through.

"What's... that?" She pointed with a hoof, indicting a wide patch of dark, rippled skin on Vincent's torso that she had mistaken for a patch of oil or mud before. It trailed down his ribs and waist.

In fact, Vincent was covered with injuries. Old faded scars, little cuts or scrapes and burn marks.

Vincent stepped out of the pair of blue jeans he was about to slip on. "This?" He trailed two fingers along the darkened patch of skin atop his ribs. "Is it still noticeable? You're probably not gonna believe me if I told you, but... fire. Fire-spitting lizard thing. Nearly cooked me alive. Gave me blisters. Hurt for weeks. Here..." Vincent lifted his fingers and placed them on a burn mark on his thigh. "...here..." he lifted his fingers a final time and placed them against his thick beard. "...and under here."

Rainbow shook her head sympathically. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Weren't your fault. 'Sides, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"

"That's a pretty negative way of lookin' at it."

"It's the truth. Cold hard truth sucks sometimes." Vincent continued dressing, slipping both legs through the holes of his blue jeans. He snapped the metal waist button and zipped the zipper, digging his toes into the pond's sandy shore. No wonder he wore boots; his feet looked as sensitive and as vulnerable as his fingers, if more so.

Rainbow offered him the comb using a hoof, which he accepted with a little hesitance, eying her hoof with suspicion. He combed out the tangles in his long, black hair carefully, wincing when one tangle snagged between the comb's plastic teeth.

"So, how'd you get those?"

Rainbow blinked. She followed where Vincent was pointing, looking back at her cutiemark. "My cutiemarks?"

"Your lightning bolt butt tattoos are called cutiemarks?" Vincent chuckled. "Wowie. That's the most gay shit I've ever heard. Let me guess, it's for a sexual reason, isn't it?"

"It's not sexual." Rainbow's cheeks flamed red with a blush. She glared at him. "It's representative of my special talent. Got it when I was a filly for performing a sonic rainboom for the first time."

Vincent made an O-shape with his pointer finger and thumb and extended his other three fingers, making an OK gesture. "Gotcha, Rainbowbutt. Don't wanna talk about your tramp stamps, huh?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Y'know what? I'm not even gonna dignify that with a response."

"Fair enough." Vincent sat down cross-legged on the shore and drew the bayonet from its sheath. He began to shave, slicing off facial hair blindly. He guided the sharp blade along his neck carefully using his delicate fingers. "So, tell me what a 'sonic rainboom' is, Dash. I'm in for a penny, in for a pound at this point."

"It'd be a lot easier for me to shave for you..." Rainbow offered, gesturing with a hoof.

Vincent's eyes widened. "Oh no, no way! Keep your magic hooves away from my face. You'll slit my carotid arteries and I'll bleed out and die."

Rainbow rolled her eyes at the exaggeration. "Suit yourself.

"A sonic rainboom is a rainbow-colored shockwave that explodes outward from a pegasus under specific conditions once they hit a certain speed. You just have to... feel it, basically."

"That explains nothing. You expect me to believe you're fast enough with those tiny wings to break the sound barrier?"

"My wings aren't tiny! They're an average size for my weight and height!" Rainbow huffed, offended.

Seeing an opportunity he could exploit, Vincent grinned slyly. "That's what she said!"

"Give me the knife, I'll actually slit your throat."

"Not gonna happen, Skittles."

When Vincent finished shaving and set the bayonet down onto his knee, he looked less mysterious and surprisingly normal. He had an actual face concealed beneath his thick beard. Rainbow was pleasantly surprised.

Vincent yawned casually, sheathing the bayonet. He scratched at his stubble-covered chin, then stood up and grabbed his white shirt where he had dropped it. He lifted both arms skyward and slipped the shirt on, tugging at the hem around the neck and waist. It was stained black with motor oil and blue with crustacean blood and torn in several spots, but it fit him, somehow.

"Alright. Next question: you all actually call yourselves pegasi? Like Pegasus, the horse?"

"Yes and no."

"Mmmkay. So, what did you mean when you said "weather manipulation" earlier?"

"Pegasi can manipulate clouds. I'd demonstrate, but..." Rainbow buzzed her clipped wings, giving Vincent a flat look. He winced.

"I have no idea what you mean by that, but what I'm thinkin' sounds pretty cool. Sorry again for clipping your wings, Dash."

"I won't forgive you for this until I grow all new feathers, however long that takes. So, possibly never."

"Now who's being negative?" Vincent smirked. "Only Siths deal in absolutes, Dash. And mad girlfriends."

"Yeah, well you're about as annoying as coltfriends come, too."

"All in good fun, Skittles. All in good fun." Vincent paused, considering. "Well, now you've just made me curious about your sex life. How does that work—"

Without hesitation, Rainbow hopped up onto her hooves and contorted her body smoothly, delivering a lightning-fast buck with one rear hoof directly into Vincent's shoulder. It wasn't full strength, but she assured it was powerful enough to hurt.

"Ow! Shit." Vincent hissed as he rubbed his new, red bruise. "Okay, I guess I deserved that."

Rainbow nodded sagely.

"So, are you actually gay, Dash? You a butch? You give off a lesbian vibe."

She hesitated. "Why?"

"The way you act, obviously. But your hair, too. It's rainbow. You know, like the flag?"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "What flag? You know what, nevermind. My hair's naturally rainbow. Always has been. Isn't dye.

"I don't have many male friends except a few Wonderbolts I know, so I guess... I don't know." She shrugged. "I honestly never considered it seriously. I'm married to my work. You're lookin' at the best Wonderbolt in Equestria."

"Yeah? And how's bein' lonely workin' out for you?"

Rainbow grimaced, sighing. "Why do you have to be so mean, Vince? I will hit you again. Harder. You have no idea how hard I can do it."

Vincent leaned back and cupped his hands around his mouth. "That's what she saiddddd!"

"I hate you." Rainbow gently chuckled despite herself, glancing away and into the treeline surrounding the isolated pond.

Vincent cackled evily, slapping his knee.

"What was your love life like? You keep mentioning this marefriend."

"Well, uh..." Clearly caught off guard, Vincent awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck below his long black hair. "I used to know this German girl, and... Mach dir keine Sorgen. I don't want to talk about der Engel right now." He sighed sadly, gazing down forlornly at the sandy shore.

"You, uh..." Rainbow awkwardly looked away. "You miss her?"

"This isn't a war, Dash. I'm not heading home back to the States in a few years where my loving girlfriend is waiting for me with a kiss and a case of beer. This is either a government experiment or I died back on Earth and went to Hell. Fuck All Nowhere certainly fits the bill of a barren hellscape—less fire and lava and demons than the Christians believed there'd be here, though."

Vincent clasped his hands together and interweaved his fingers. "Anyway... it's been a long time. Of course I miss her. I've missed her for years. But I'm over her, now. I'm over her and she's probably over me. And that's that."

Rainbow noted his reaction. He looked stressed and uncomfortable answering the question without preparation. In the future, she could possibly repeat the same question when he was feeling more receptive.

Vincent glanced over at Rainbow and made eye contact. She looked back into his eyes, nodding gently in acknowledgement. "I don't know what it's like to lose somepony like that. I'm sorry."

Vincent sighed, looking away. He smiled a tiny bit. "That means a lot, Dash. Really. Thanks."

Rainbow returned the smile. She looked away into the ring of trees surrounding the isolated pond, thinking. "I... feel a little better."

"I noticed," Vincent replied. He tugged on his socks and slipped into his work boots, bending at both knees to fasten the laces. "Things'll get easier, I promise. Don't worry about having a panic attack trying to figure out what the hell to do. You can stay with me as long as you want. Managing to slip into a daily routine might be the hardest part for you."

"Daily routine...?" Rainbow frowned, her ears laying back as she considered the prospect of living in Nowhere for however long her feathers took to regrow. Weeks? But what would come after?

"How long have you been in Nowhere?"

Vincent whistled. "I came here three years ago, maybe four. I stopped counting a while back."

"Four... years?" Rainbow gently hyperventilated, not immediately comprehending the sheer length of time that four years was. "I - I can't live here for four years."

Vincent frowned. Something in his facial expression indicated he regretted being honest about how long he had been trapped on Nowhere.

Rainbow shook her head, making eye contact with Vincent. "I'm not staying in one place for a few weeks until my feathers regrow. I need to explore and find answers for how I got here. Don't you want to, too?"

Vincent sighed, tucking his hands into the side pockets of his jeans. "When I first got here, I drove my car until I was almost outta gas. Managed to crash it into a ditch. Walked some more afterwards. Unless new shit's recently started appearing in Nowhere, there's nothin' out here, Dash. Trust me. That auto repair shop's the only piece'a human tech in all of Nowhere. This place is just empty plains and weird fantasy shit straight from a DnD Dungeon Master's handbook.

"But..." He pursed his lips, considering. "I have been trying to fix up the new truck recently. I guess if I manage to get that baby runnin' we could go for a test drive together some time."

"Truck?" Rainbow echoed the unfamiliar word. "What's that?"

"I'll gladly introduce you two ladies later today." Vincent grinned. "Let's just say she's my new ride and leave it at that for now. She just needs a handful of spare parts and a few thingamajigs."

Rainbow blinked, baffled. As usual, she hadn't comprehended a single new word he had spoken. "Whatever you say."

Vincent retrieved his rifle where he had set it down near the shore and raised it in both hands, flipping the safety switch to the off position. "Was a good chat, Dash, but we shouldn't loiter outside for too long. Bad habit. Things have a tendency to sneak up on ya when you do."

Rainbow quickly glanced over both her shoulders, examining the surrounding forest. As predicted, she and her companion were completely alone. "Unless this pond is secretly infested with cragadiles, I think we're fine."

"Could be. If it was, they'd go for you first, guaranteed. You got a target painted on your rainbow-colored behind."

Before Rainbow could retort, Vincent adjusted his grip on the rifle so he was clamping it in a trail-carry position and reached into the duffel bag with his opposite hand. He withdrew a flop hat and plopped it onto Rainbow's head recklessly, despite her objections.

"Hey! Watch the ears!" Rainbow took a step backwards and decided to try fitting the hat herself. She tucked both her ears downwards, slipped the brim over and then relaxed her ears, allowing them to naturally rise upwards within the hat.

The brim wasn't as wide as Rainbow would have preferred, but it was serviceable. She tilted her head back further than usual and gazed up into the eyes of her human companion. "How do I look?"

"'Bout as dumb as a kid playin' dress-up, honestly. I'm sure it'll work, though."

"You could have at least lied to make me feel better."

"Naw. Where's the fun in that?" Vincent grinned.

IV – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

Rainbow Dash frowned, fluttering her clipped wings nervously as she paced back and forth across the hot pavement of the auto repair shop's parking lot. "You're gonna fall and die."

"Naw, I do this all the time."

"You don't have wings! Stop acting like you do! I couldn't save you if you fell."

"Rainbow, there's something you gotta know..." Vincent was seated on the edge of the parking lot where the black pavement crumbled away into the void, kicking his boots out over the edge. The ground was dozens of feet below. If he fell, hitting the ground from such a height would be fatal many times over.

Vincent raised his arms over his head and leaned, stretching casually and yawning. "In Nowhere you gotta make your own fun. And right now I'm having a lotta fun dickin' with ya."

Agitated, Rainbow struggled to lay her ears back against her head. Due to the fact her ears were tucked within the boonie hat Vincent had given her, the hat impeded their movement.

She felt slighted. Vincent probably knew she hated being teased, and she knew he knew, and he knew she knew that he knew.

In conclusion, Rainbow found him annoying at times. She was stuck with him, though. Stranded in a foreign, turbulent world without her flight feathers, her chances of survival were slim without assistance.

"Pretty good view from up here, though, huh?"

Rainbow stopped pacing for a moment and stepped beside Vincent, sitting back on her haunches alongside him. Nowhere outstretched before them. Vincent was correct when he had mentioned it was mostly wide-open, deserted grasslands.

In the distance, Rainbow spotted the line of trees that concealed the pond they had bathed in earlier that day.

Far in the distance to the southwest, black smoke billowed into the air. The origin of the smoke was distant and concealed behind rows of trees. Despite how insignificant the detail was, it inspired Rainbow. Black smoke typically wasn't natural, it was usually created as a byproduct of fire burning. Fires didn't typically start themselves.

There were so many places and directions Rainbow wanted to go. She wanted desperately to explore.

"When'd you say we could leave?"

Vincent shrugged. "Need parts for my truck, otherwise it won't go. Ain't got the specifics in the workshop. I need to find—"

A subtle popping noise made Vincent jolt upright like he had been shocked by electricity. He immediately leapt up onto his feet and darted across the parking lot to the eastern half.

Rainbow followed, curious what had perturbed Vincent so.

He stood motionless, tilting his head as he listened carefully.

An identical popping noise echoed again. This time, it was obvious the noise originated somewhere in the east. Rainbow associated the unknown noise with the distinct report of a distant firecracker exploding, despite the fact that probably wasn't what it was.

"There's someone out there," Vincent concluded.

"How can you tell?" Rainbow wondered aloud.

"Gunshots." Vincent pursed his lips. "Loud. From a rifle. Gotta be a couple miles away."

"The human you saw earlier...?"

Vincent nodded slowly. "I didn't want to accept the reality earlier, but... there's definitely someone out there."

Rainbow frowned. She opened her mouth to comment on the situation, but was interrupted by a noisy growl erupting from her stomach. She grimaced in discomfort and sat back on her haunches, placing a hoof against her belly.

"That's the third time today your stomach has bitched about being empty since we walked back here," Vincent noted, gesturing with a hand.

Rainbow relented, nodding. "Well, I guess even Daring Do can't go on heart-palpitating, adrenaline-filled adventures on an empty stomach."

"Who's Daring Do? Popular action hero?" Vincent wondered aloud, estimating.

"Action hero, treasure-hunter, ruins-explorer, villain-defeater and my friend!" Rainbow announced proudly, grinning.

Vincent chuckled gently. "So, you're conceited because you're friends with a hero, huh? Your own Indiana Jones? Got balls'a steel 'cause you got a few friends in high places?"

"And because of my own skills! But having awesome friends helps." Rainbow fluttered her wings, testing them. As predicted, without her flight feathers, her wings still weren't capable of lifting her off of the ground. "I'll show you how good of a flyer I am when my feathers grow back! That's a promise."

"Maybe your feathers will grow faster if you eat something, dumbass. Whole world ain't gonna vanish into smoke if you, personally, aren't out there constantly exploring it." Vincent leaned down and snatched the flop hat off of Rainbow's head, patting her on top of the head between the ears. She growled irritably, hating how her companion had just degraded her.

"Give me that back!"

"No offense, Dash, but you have the patience of a child."

"Yeah, well... you have the maturity of one!"

Vincent grinned. "Keep your shirt on, Skittles. Only joshin' ya."

Rainbow had endured enough teasing for one day.

She darted forwards quicker than lightning could strike, a rainbow-colored wake trailing behind her as she snatched the hat out of Vincent's hands faster than he could react.

He jerked away frightfully, making an audible noise like "gah!" in shock. "What the hell was that?"

Rainbow smirked, flaunting her spoils ostentatiously. She planted the flop hat onto her head proudly, adjusting the fit. "Vinny, I'm an admired Wonderbolt. I competed neck-and-neck with the best flyers in the academy without even breaking a sweat. I make lightning look like a joke! My name isn't Rainbow Dash for no reason!"

Rainbow's series of brash declarations culminated with her striking an intentionally-asinine pose. She reared up onto her rear legs and spread her clipped wings widely, her hooves clopping audibly on the hard pavement as she rapidly shifted her weight. "What do ya say to that?"

Rainbow was so amused by her humorous display of fake arrogance that she was involuntarily giggling despite herself.

Vincent was silent for a moment, stunned by the scene he had just witnessed. He slowly began to grin. "I'm startin' to like you, Dash. You remind me of myself in my 20's. You got spunk, and you're catchin' on to my type of humor quick. Come to test my mettle, huh? Well lemmie tell ya, this old man's still got some fight left in 'em."

"You're in your 30's?" Rainbow gently panted, out of breath from laughing.

"Yeah, I..." Vincent gently chuckled from Rainbow's display of horseplay. "I turned 30 in Nowhere. Weren't much of a celebration, though."

Rainbow released her breath in a final sigh, her amused smile fading as she looked around the deserted parking lot. Despite having engaged in an amusing act of horseplay with her human companion, she was still in Nowhere. Reality still gripped her tightly.

Back to business. Back to survival—her first priority.

"Well, on that note, I could really go for something to eat."

Vincent motioned with a wave of his hand, offering that she follow him. He grabbed the duffel bag of supplies and his rifle where he had temporarily left them on the hood of an abandoned car. "Yeah. Let's get you fed, come on."

Numerous expectations began forming in Rainbow's head as Vincent led her through the auto repair shop. Nothing, though, could have prepared her for what she laid her eyes upon when she entered one of the back rooms.

"N - no..." Rainbow stuttered, shaking her head. "No, no."

Vincent placed the duffel bag near the entrance to the room and leaned his rifle against the wall safely, assuring its safety lever was toggled to the "on" position.

He approached a few tall, handcrafted stands used for smoking meat. The embers of once-blazing fires were winking beneath metal racks, above which were hung generous chunks of mystery meat from sharpened metal hooks.

"I - I'm not going to eat that." Rainbow shook her head fiercely, gazing down at her hooves stubbornly. She refused to even grace the revolting practice with her eye contact.

Rainbow knew what meat was, unfortunately. She had witnessed Fluttershy feed her animal companions fish or worms occasionally. Never, though, had ponies consumed meat before. Rainbow refused to be a trailblazer in that province.

Vincent shrugged. "Suit yourself, Dash. Meat has salt, though. Healthy for ya."

Rainbow tuned out Vincent's voice, looking away. "...No. What else do you have?"

Disregarding Rainbow's objections, Vincent happily sauntered forward and plucked a chunk of skewered dried meat from one of the meat hooks for himself. "Well, I ain't exactly got a green thumb, but I have been trying my hand at gardening. Next room over, near the bathroom."

When she was excused, Rainbow gladly left the appointed smokehouse of the auto repair shop. The scent of drying meat was nauseating. She trotted around the corner and headed for the bathroom at the rear of the workshop, pushing open the nearby half-ajar door with her nose.

Whatever the room had once been originally, it was now entirely dedicated to housing potted plants. Most looked magical in nature, with colorful stems and leaves and unidentified protuberances.

Rainbow curiously brushed a hoof against the teal, heart-shaped leaves of what appeared to be a root vegetable plant, though it was challenging to know for certain based purely on physical appearance. The plant was flowering with groups of tiny, yellow-colored blossoms.

"That grows starchy tubers like potatoes," Vincent explained, stepping beside Rainbow. "And that..." he extended a finger, pointing, "grows a very spicy pepper. I call it a 'Death Pepper'. Also, the leaves are tangy, almost like an herb."

Rainbow brushed a hoof against the leaves of the plant Vincent had motioned to. Its leaves and thick stalk were coated with red-and-orange splotches, resembling burning flames. The plant was sporting both innocent-looking pink flowers and spherical scarlet peppers growing from pedicels.

"I like spicy stuff," Rainbow absently mentioned.

"Used to not be a fan of capsaicin. It grew on me over the years here in Nowhere." Vincent knelt on one knee and lovingly stroked the leaves of a hardy Death Pepper plant he had nurtured from a mere seed.

"For someone without earth pony magic, these plants you grew look pretty healthy," Rainbow commented. She eyed a tall plant in the very rear of the room whose massive, elephant ear-like leaves gently caressed the ceiling. The fruits it bore were a deep violet color, almost black. Rainbow wondered if they were aubergines.

"I only planted that absolute behemoth of a weed back there a few weeks ago. It's been growing so fast!"

She gazed up at the singular, wide rectangular window in the room. Despite the room only having one window, the plants appeared to be receiving enough sunlight.

"Big experiment," Rainbow noted. "That plant looks like something that grows in the jungle."

"Nowhere's a jungle, Dash. Can be 'bout as chaotic as one."

Vincent paused, pondering something silently for a few moments.

"It's a jungle out there," he repeated, speaking in a sing-songy tone. "Poison in the air we breathe!"

"Well that's an exaggeration if I've ever heard one."

"People think I'm crazy, that I worry all the time!" Vincent continued in the odd tone of voice.

Rainbow opened her mouth to retort with a humorous insult, but was interrupted.

"This world we love so much... Might. Just. Kill. You!" Vincent concluded his little song with a flourish of his hands, grinning.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, chuckling despite herself. Vincent's antics were so silly, yet humorous sometimes.

"If either of us is gonna die, it's gonna be you, dummy."

"You just wait and see, Dash. Remember: it's a jungle out there."

Vincent clutched a small, unassuming scarlet pepper between his pointer, middle finger and thumb. "Are you sure you're up for this, Dash?"

Rainbow used her fork to stab a collection of leaves and veggies from her metal bowl of freshly-mixed, organic salad containing every vegan ingredient available. She popped the leaves and slices of veggies and fruit into her mouth, happily munching. When she was finished eating, she placed the empty bowl onto the hood of an abandoned car next to the boonie hat.

The bowl wasn't entirely empty, though. One fruit had been intentionally untouched.

Rainbow retrieved the pepper from her bowl and held it in a hoof. She firmly planted all three of her hooves onto the black pavement of the auto repair shop's parking lot, standing to attention. She stood straight and rigidly, steeling her nerves. "Born ready! Trust me, Vinny, I've eaten plenty of spicy things before."

"Wunderbar! In that case, the bet is on. Here's the rules, Dash: no crying, no whining, no bitching. Beklagen nicht. Be a man. Or... horse. Whatever. Eat that entire pepper without complaining and you win." Vincent began the countdown. "On three. One..."

"Two..." Rainbow participated in the countdown.

"Three!" They both announced in unison, eating their Death Peppers.

Rainbow popped the entire scarlet pepper into her mouth and bit down forcefully. For a few seconds, the only sensation she perceived was cool juice pouring over her tongue. For those first few seconds, she had the audacity to believe she could easily maintain her composure.

Then the capsaicin began rapidly kicking into gear.

Rainbow exhaled sharply, snorting, and managed to chew the mouthful of pepper and swallow it.

Her first mistake was having the evil pepper anywhere near her mouth. Her final mistake was swallowing it.

Rainbow had consumed spicy peppers earlier in her life in Equestria. She had eaten many an exotic and spicy dish back home. Nothing, though, could have ever prepared her for the unholy demon that was the Fuck All Nowhere Death Pepper.

Her entire mouth and throat were on fire.

Rainbow's eyes began to gush with a tsunami of tears. Despite blinking rapidly, the flood overwhelmed her dams and exploded out. Blinded by tears, she cried out in repentant agony and flopped onto her side, curling her legs inwards. She was struggling merely to breath. Her throat was filled with fire. She could feel the crackling of the flames as they lashed at her esophagus, wrestling to find purchase and burst through from beneath her skin.

"Gah! AAGGHH!"

The tears were no longer involuntary. Rainbow was sobbing, fearful she had been irreversibly deprived of her sensation of taste. She felt like her life would eternally be consumed by an almighty sensation of pure, unadulterated suffering.

She finally remembered to breathe, inhaling and exhaling great volumes of oxygen in bouts that made her lungs ache. Each exhalation of breath was the stale air from a bellows fanning the flames within her and coaxing them to intensify.

Maybe Rainbow's fur and skin itself turned as scarlet as the pepper she had eaten. It certainly felt like it.

Minutes passed. It wasn't quite an eternity like Rainbow thought it was, but the time crawled slower than any length of time she had ever experienced in her entire life. Assuming her position at the very rear of the gargantuan line of ponies all waiting to receive a mugful of the Apple Family's famous cider on Cider Day had felt like waiting for an eternity. All of that waiting, however, may as well have passed in the span of a blink of an eye in comparison to the absolute degree Rainbow was currently suffering.

She sniffled, miserable. Rainbow swallowed repeatedly, but the capsaicin was clinging stubbornly in her mouth and throat, causing the intense burning sensation. It had lessoned slightly, but hadn't yet relented entirely.

Rainbow reached with a hoof and rubbed at her irritated red eyes, brushing away teardrops. She could feel the blue fur on her face was streaked and matted with tears.

She glanced over at Vincent. At some point during the ordeal he had sat down cross-legged on the pavement. Her ears swiveled in his direction, and she noticed for the first time that he was laughing. He was slapping his knee with the palm of his hand, giggling madly.

"Celestia," Rainbow muttered, cursing. All of the energy had been drained from her body. Rainbow Dash, one of the most athletic pegasi in all of Equestria, had been decisively vanquished by a small, unassuming scarlet pepper.

"Tastes like suffering, huh!" Vincent giggled, wiping tears from his eyes with the waist hem of his shirt. "Jesus Christ! Gets me every time."

"What was that thing?"

"I call it a Death Pepper because it makes ya feel like ya wanna die!" Vincent grinned, panting lightly. "Harvested fresh from the hellfire-and-black-bramble-infested profane abyss of Satan's butthole."

Rainbow couldn't help but chuckle a little in reaction to Vincent's colorful language. Panting, she coughed, gagging. The sensation of crackling flames was still lingering in her throat. It was a sensation she would never forget.

"I - I surrender, okay? You win, Vinny. I said I could take it, but... I wasn't expecting it to be this hard." Rainbow felt like crying anew.

"That's..." Vincent panted lightly, pausing between each word, "what she said!"

Rainbow groaned, rolling her eyes.

Vincent grinned. "How does it feel being humbled, Dash?" He stood, turned away and hawked noisily.

Rainbow slowly stood onto all four hooves. She hung her head, panting lightly. "I need a nap or something. Celestia! All of my energy is just gone."

Vincent plunged his hands into his jeans pockets. "How 'bout we go hit up the new dive down the street? I heard they're selling this rad new slushie flavor."

Rainbow blinked. She was so disoriented, she had almost accepted Vincent's ludicrous suggestion as realistic. "I would kill somepony for a slushie right now."

"Me too, Skittles, me too." Vincent sighed wistfully, dabbing at his eyes with his white t-shirt.

A boom of thunder made Rainbow jump. She blinked rapidly to clear her irritated, weeping eyes and gazed up into the overcast afternoon sky. "Is it going to rain?"

"Nope." Vincent scratched his stubble-covered chin absently. "That's the Migration thunder. Wasn't expecting it today..."

"The what?"

"Thunder always comes before the Migrations," Vincent clarified. "Always."

Another boom of thunder erupted loudly. This time, Rainbow was prepared and she didn't flinch.

"Just watch," Vincent ordered. He jogged over to the western edge of the parking lot and pointed down at the ground. "See those pronghorn all the way down there?"

Rainbow trotted over to where Vincent was standing and followed where he was pointing, spotting the herd of pronghorn. They were animals native to Equestria. She recognized them effortlessly. "Yeah?"

A third boom of thunder echoed across the flat plains of Nowhere. Slowly, like zombies, the pronghorn raised their horned heads and began to march in unison southward.

Rainbow blinked, shocked. "B - but... how? How did you know they would—"

Then it struck her. A vague sensation. It was like Rainbow had suddenly remembered something critical and impactful. It felt like the gentle, cool embrace of levitation magic, except it was within her body. It was internal. She felt...

"It's down there. It's south. I don't know what, but..."

Alarmed, Vincent's eyes widened. "What do you mean? What's south?"

"You don't feel it too?" Rainbow felt mildly dizzy, as if she had just recovered from a wild midair barrel roll and her brain was all topsy-turvy. "There's something down there. There's something... there. We need to go there."

"Where?" Vincent frowned. "Why are you being so vague?"

Animals were jerking their heads up from eating or snapping awake from resting. They abandoned their activities, no matter how urgent, and began to march.

It was the Migrations, it was in full effect. Creatures Rainbow had never seen before emerged from hiding in the nearby forests, creatures big and small.

Rainbow resisted the vague urge to begin trotting south. She shook her head, attempting to focus. What was south? What was... calling her?

A boom of thunder erupted, distantly this time. The thunder was fading rapidly, and with it Rainbow's concentration.

Whatever had been tempting her had been abruptly silenced.

Frustrated, Rainbow pounded a hoof against the pavement. "Agh! For the love of Celestia...!"

Vincent attempted again to capture her attention. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Rainbow finally heard Vincent's words and comprehended their meaning. She tilted her head backwards, looking up at him. "There's something south from here. I need to go there as soon as possible. I just have a weird feeling... I think it has something to do with why I'm here."

Vincent blinked, shocked. "I've never felt anything like that. You're sure you weren't just imagining it in the heat of the moment? I mean, I know the Migrations appeared bizarre to me when I first saw them, but it never occurred to me to try to..."

Vincent's eyes widened. It looked like he had finally figured it out.

"...follow the animals."

Vincent grinned widely. He cackled madly like Doctor Victor Frankenstein after animating his monster following countless failures. "You think if we follow the animals, we can find out why we both came here‽"

Rainbow's ears perked up happily. "It's the only lead we have, right?"

"You're goddamn right it's the only lead we have! I - I haven't realistically thought about leaving Nowhere for years!

"I need to fix up my truck and get it running. And then," Vincent paused, grinning ever wider, "and then, my fine feathered friend, we're goin' straight south!"

Rainbow smiled. Vincent's raw excitement was infectious. It was rare to witness someone so full of hope. She felt the sensation beating in her chest like drumsticks against drums—hope. However vague the hope was, however inconsequential their plan may be, hope existed for both of them.

"What do we do next?" Rainbow asked enthusiastically.

V – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

"One! Two! Three! Four! Hoo! Haa! Augh!"

Rainbow Dash counted and grunted in tune with the rhythm of her exercises. Her heart thrummed as she skipped, hopped, twisted and jumped. Her hooves were being seared by the scorching black pavement of the auto repair shop's parking lot under the early-morning dual suns of Nowhere, but she didn't care.

Rainbow was energized. Excitement coursed through her at the realization that she was about to participate in an epic adventure, one that she could recount to her friends in exaggerated detail when she returned home to Equestria.

Sure, her feathers hadn't regrown yet and she still couldn't fly, but Rainbow was still determined to have a real work out. She needed to discharge all of the energy she inherently received from being so excited.

Panting rhythmically in tune with her exercises, Rainbow began to deccelerate, trotting in place. She gradually came to a stop, beaming with gratification. Nothing quite brightened her mood like a session of intense exercise.

Rainbow pursed her lips as she pondered, new thoughts flowing into her dopamine-swamped brain. When was the last time she had spoken to Vincent?

It had been less than 24 hours since she and Vincent had come to the conclusion they should pursue the animals during the next Migration. They had whiled away the remainder of the evening together and Rainbow had slept curled up on the passenger seat of a 1995 Mazda MX-5.

Now, she was awake early the next morning galvanizing herself.

Rainbow stretched, humming a little tune happily as she trotted across the parking lot to the auto repair shop's emergency exit. The door was propped open with a stack of two heavy cinderblocks.

She reached a hoof up to her forehead and tossed her mane out of her eyes. It was cool beneath the shade provided by the auto repair shop's roof, but she was still sweating.

"Vinny! You awake yet?"

Rainbow peeked into various rooms of the auto repair shop before searching the workshop.

She found Vincent seated motionless in the driver's seat of a 1991 Chevrolet Lumina Z34, gazing up at the car's white metal roof as if studying the spots of rust for patterns.

"You still sleepin', lazy butt?" Rainbow peeked around the half-ajar car door.

Vincent yawned widely. "Nope. Just psychin' myself up." He groaned, slipping his legs out of the vehicle and standing.

Rainbow moved aside, stepping backwards. She tilted her head back, gazing up into the eyes of her tall companion. "You said all you need are parts, right? For what? What are you building? Why can't we just leave now?"

"'What am I building?'" Vincent repeated, chuckling. He extended a finger, pointing to the machine held aloft in midair by the lift with the arms. "That little number right over there: my Magnum Opus, Ein schrecklicher Fluch auf dieser Erde, Das Unerbittlich."

Rainbow blinked. "I still don't know that language." She opened her mouth to continue, but was interrupted.

Vincent jogged over to the lift and motioned with a hand to the truck suspended in midair. "Here's all ya need to know: twinspark v8 engine with 16 sparkplugs. No turbocharger, unfortunately, but this baby still has enough horsepower to tow several tons with no negligible impact on performance. Wide all-terrain tires, and the shocks are—"

"Alright, I get it!" Despite feeling overwhelmed, Rainbow couldn't help but smile slightly. She was feeling giddy, and it appeared her feelings were reciprocated.

"She's an purebred American monster born for off-road driving, Dash. She eats dirt for breakfast, and she's got enough chutzpah for both of us! All I need are more sparkplugs and a new battery and possibly a new alternator because the old one might have crapped out. I can't test the fuel system without starting the damn engine, so there could be even more underlying problems I'm not aware of yet, but let's just pray she'll run smooth once I fix the electrics."

Rainbow slowly shook her head, stunned. "I don't understand any of the words that just came outta your mouth.

"I can't believe you're an engineer! I honestly never would have guessed. You don't give off that kinda vibe..."

"Mechanic," Vincent corrected, pointing a finger upwards, "not engineer."

"What's the difference?"

Vincent chuckled. "One's paid thrice as much. I thought I was smart enough to shoot for the stars and study engineering. You can probably guess how that went. Quit, got stuck with student loans, had a brief stint in the military. My girlfriend helped support me when I came back to the States."

Rainbow thought it was an appropriate occasion to ask, now that Vincent had mentioned her again naturally.

"What's her name?"

Vincent pursed his lips. He stuffed his hands into the side pockets of his blue jeans. "Anna." He pronounced the first A in the name long-wise, like "ah".

Vincent scratched at his chin absently, taking the opportunity to change the conversation's topic. "So. Today's the day. We're gonna go pay our new neighbors a visit."

"You said we should steer clear of them."

"I did say that," Vincent admitted. "But then this morning I realized they probably have supplies. Or a car. And where there's a running car, there's working components."

"You're going to steal from them?" Rainbow frowned.

"Trade," Vincent suggested, briefly removing a hand from one of his pockets to gesticulate.

Rainbow voiced a question she had been intending to ask Vincent for a while. "Why don't you just use the parts from those?" She gestured with a hoof, motioning to the Mazda and Chevrolet stationed in the corner of the workshop.

Vincent scoffed. "The Mazda's a Japanese piece'a crap. So's the Chevy. Well, Chevrolet's American, but that's still a tiny car. Engines are too small and efficient, ain't got the plugs I need. Parts aren't universal, Dash.

"Those things are junk anyway. Parts were picked clean by whoever used to work here before this place ended up in Nowhere. Siphoned the gas too. Probably were gonna get them towed, but they never got around to it."

Rainbow shrugged, acknowledging she was outmatched by Vincent's knowledge and intellect. "Guess we're gonna go talk to those guys, then?"

"I'm going. You're staying here."

"No way!" Rainbow immediately protested.

Vincent sighed, shaking his head with disapproval. He kneeled on one knee, looking Rainbow directly in the eyes. "Look, I know you can veto this immediately, but I think you should stay here where it's safe. If something happens to me, well... whole place'll be just for you! You'll be like a kid home alone without his parents!" Vincent briefly chuckled at the idea. "Don't think you could get the Inexorable up 'n runnin', though, not without me. So no joyrides, Dash. Sorry."

"Nope," Rainbow insisted. "Not staying here. Comin' with ya. You need backup."

"Can you shoot?"

Rainbow blinked, not anticipating the unfamiliar term. "Can I... what?"

Vincent nodded sagely. "Exactly. You'd just get in the way. Trust me, Dash, I used to know someone just like you who thought he was hot shit, and, well... then he ate it. Didn't make it back to the States alive."

"Ate what? His words?"

"A bullet." Vincent frowned.

"A—" Rainbow blinked, making the connection. She deflated. "Oh... Sorry."

"Don't be. Weren't your fault. Wasn't mine, either. He made a stupid decision. Don't need to think about it anymore." Vincent stood up with a groan, stretching his legs until his joints released pops. "I'm just saying, Dash: don't be a hero. Ever. It's dangerous. You only got one life, y'know? Savor it."

Rainbow frowned stubbornly, but remained silent and resisted the urge to speak her mind. She wanted to help, but she wasn't sure how. She hated receiving orders and being bossed around. She wanted to be proactive.

Vincent walked to the opposite side of the workshop and began gathering equipment. He lifted his rifle where it had been leaning against the concrete wall.

Rainbow trotted closer, observing as Vincent detached the 5-round magazine and inserted new rounds until it was full to its maximum capacity. He placed the full magazine onto the counter and unzipped a compartment in a nearby backpack, withdrawing a single live round. Holding it delicately between his pointer and middle finger, he effortlessly used the palm and remaining fingers of his right hand to rotate the bolt of his rifle and reveal the chamber. He inserted the round and closed the bolt. Finally, he attached the magazine and assured the safety was enabled before placing the rifle onto the counter.

Vincent noticed Rainbow watching. He smirked. "Yeah, I was taught not to pull that special brand'a bullshit 'cause of safety. Sixth round constantly being chambered isn't safe, y'know. They really drill it into ya so you don't shoot your buddies by accident. I'm not taking any chances today, though."

Rainbow blinked, marveling simultaneously at the dexterity of Vincent's hands and also the sheer complexity of human technology. The artistry required to produce machines with so many moving parts was incomprehensible.

"So I don't qualify to be one of your buddies, huh?"

"Don't worry, not gonna shoot ya. I'm not a jackass like a few other guys I remember from boot camp who didn't know their asses from holes in the ground."

Vincent unzipped one of the deeper compartments of the bag, withdrawing a metal canteen which he tossed in Rainbow's direction. She snapped it out of midair using her teeth and then transferred it to one of her hooves to examine it.

Shiny metal shell. The small screw cap was attached to two thin metal bars designed to alleviate the user's stress about potentially losing such a tiny cap.

Rainbow expertly unscrewed the cap using her mouth and cautiously sniffed the canteen's contents.

Confirming it was water, she happily drank from the canteen's contents, taking long gulps. She shook the flask when it was empty, listening to the attached cap jangle against the metal shell. "Got any more?"

Vincent chuckled at her enthusiam. "When we come back, yeah. Give it here."

Rainbow tossed the canteen in Vincent's direction, which he effortlessly caught and transferred into the backpack. "Ain't got any bags that'd fit your weird body shape, Dash. Could probably make you one. I ain't much of a seamster, but there's tools here. Could probably rig somethin' together for ya. I'll make you my packmule yet."

Vincent slipped the backpack's straps over his shoulders and tightened their fit so the straps hugged him securely. He suspended his rifle over one shoulder by its sling.

"You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Rainbow saluted sloppily with one hoof, ignoring the hostile glare Vincent was suddenly sporting.

"Hey!" Vincent pointed a finger accusingly. "Don't pull that kinda shit. It's disrespectful."

Rainbow frowned, pausing momentarily as she pondered. She recalled how it was considered disrespectful for civilians to salute EUP Royal Guards, especially if said civilian performed the salute incorrectly.

Rainbow straightened her posture. She placed her hooves the signified length apart, firmly planting them against the concrete floor with an audible clop, then raised her hoof to her forehead in a singular smooth, sharp motion.

Vincent shrugged, unimpressed. "Better, I guess. At least your posture is straight. Can't take you seriously with that hair, though. Or the lack of fingers."

Rainbow relaxed her posture and lowered her hoof to the ground. She remembered in ancient Equestria when the EUP was first devised, the EUP Royal Guard recruited war veterans. Equestria hadn't experienced war for at least a millennia, so all recent Royal Guards in Rainbow's lifetime were civilian recruits who experienced basic training.

"So you learned how to salute when you were a soldier?"

Vincent released a gentle, contemplative sigh. "Among other things, yeah. They set me straight. That was years ago, though. Quickly learned it wasn't my thing. Did what I had to do, made my dad proud and split when I could."

"When?" Rainbow's interest was immediately captured.

"2003. Didn't return to the States until years later."

"Do you wanna talk—"

"No." Vincent shook his head.

Disappointed, Rainbow hung her head. "Okay, whatever."

Rainbow mourned the loss of her ability to fly, but she also yearned for the convenience of using her wings for various tasks. Under normal circumstances in order to brush sweat from her forehead, Rainbow would use one of her wings. Now in Nowhere with her flight feathers clipped, she had to resort to using her hooves. She was using her hooves for everything. She wasn't accustomed to it.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Rainbow voiced her concerns. Vincent had been walking in a straight line east for at least 30 minutes or upwards of an hour.

Vincent adjusted his grip on his rifle, clamping it in a trail-carry position. "Nope. Figure our neighbors are camping somewhere in these fields, and that's the best I got to go by."

Rainbow sighed, frustrated. "If I could fly, I could get a view from above and easily spot them. Down here there's too many hills and trees."

It was true. Rolling hills and the occasional patch of trees obscured vision. Rainbow's line of sight only extended about 1/4th of a mile at a time before meeting the base of a hill. Nowhere was composed entirely of wild, untamed wilderness without flat roads.

Vincent slung his rifle over a shoulder and reached into one of the pockets of his jeans, withdrawing a little cardboard box. He plucked a small, white-and-orange cylinder from the box before slipping the box back into his pocket. He wielded a lighter and rolled his thumb over the wheel, summoning sparks. He cradled the cigarette and lighter with both hands to shelter them from wind and assure the tip of the cigarette had ignited. Satisfied with the orange glow being emitted from the tip of the cigarette, Vincent slipped the lighter back into one of his pockets and puffed liberally, exhaling a small volume of smoke.

"I won't turn us in circles, Dash. Trust my sense of direction. If we go too far and find nothing, we'll just have to head back and wait for them to come to us."

"What's that?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Cigarette."

"Why are you choosing this exact moment to get high when we're in the middle of nowhere?"

Incredulous, Vincent reached one of his hands up and clutched the cigarette between two fingers, plucking it out from between his lips. "What? Tobacco don't make you high, it—" He blinked. "Are you fucking with me?"

"No, I'm not messing with you! Psychedelics are a big part of traditional Zebra culture, I just assumed you... y'know." Rainbow shrugged.

Vincent chuckled, inserting the cigarette between his lips once again. "Yeah? Okay. Anyway, I haven't had Mary Jane since college. Tobacco just eases your nerves. You should try it sometime."

Rainbow shook her head. The conversation naturally concluded as she grew silent, dwelling on something. She changed the topic.

"If you've been here for four years, how do you still have some left? You space 'em out that well?"

"Funny story actually!" Vincent smiled, reminiscing. "Found a car nose-down half sucked up in the Acid Swamp down south a few months ago. There was a lot of useful shit in the trunk. It was worth the blisters I got trying to search the damn thing.

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Whoa, wait! You said acid... swamp? Like, actual acid?"

"We can head down there sometime if ya want. Yeah, it's literally a giant pool of—" Vincent paused, cutting himself off and shooting a hand into the air in a "halt" motion. He quickly spat out the cigarette, stomping on it a few times to extinguish it.

Rainbow obediently stopped, her eyes widening as she spotted what lied before them.

It was a small assemblage of outbuildings and a strip of black pavement. A road. The unknown force that had ripped the circular disk of earth and pavement and placed it onto the surface of Nowhere had done so sloppily. The pavement was floating a few feet above the ground.

"Ain't ever seen something like that," Vincent commented. "Only human building I've ever seen here is the auto shop." He unslung his rifle and planted one hand on the underbarrel grip, curling his opposite hand around the stock with his pointer finger hovering near the trigger. "This is probably where our friends are hiding out. Let's go greet our new neighbors, shall we? Ain't got any homemade baked goods to offer, though."

Rainbow eyed the weapon Vincent was brandishing. "You aren't gonna hurt them, are you?"

"Don't intend to. Said I wouldn't." Vincent narrowed his eyes, scanning the windows and rooftops of the distant buildings meticulously, searching for movement. "But I'd be a fool walkin' straight into what could be an ambush without protection."

"Why does it have to be an ambush? Do you trust anyone?"

Vincent licked his dry lips absent-mindedly. "Trust me, Dash, everyone's automatically guilty. Take every interaction with a grain of salt. Ask my dad and he'd tell you the same thing: you choose to trust the wrong person and they pull out a gun and shoot you in the back as soon as you turn around." Vincent's facial expression was hard and serious.

Rainbow frowned, unconvinced. "Aren't gonna make friends with that attitude."

"Trust me, we're not here to make friends, Dash. As far as I'm concerned, it's you and me against the world, the jungle. Vincent flexed the fingers of his left hand, clutching the underbarrel grip tightly. "Funny, 'cause my dad was in Vietnam. Could probably tell ya a couple stories later he shared with me when I was younger, 'fore he died.

"He was fighting guerillas. Thing about fightin' guerillas is that they usually arm civilians and almost never wear military clothes. You never know who's innocent," Vincent reinstated.

Rainbow considered the knowledge he had shared with her. It was surprisingly wise. Vincent's outlook on war and their overall situation was bleak, yet realistic and rational. Apparently, his family had an intimate relationship with warfare. If his native nation in the world he had come from considered it necessary for members of multiple successive generations to serve in their armed forces, then it was a nation familiar with the concept of war. Perhaps it was a nation that preferred war as its primary method of resolving political strife. That idea was terrifying.

"Are you sure about this...?" Rainbow was suddenly stricken with anxiety, fearful she or Vincent would be hurt. She was quickly realizing that humans as a species seemed inherently hostile.

"Just gonna talk with 'em, Dash," Vincent reassured her. Before she could reply, he began navigating down the hill and towards the elevated road.

Rainbow trotted to keep pace with her companion, fluttering her wings nervously. Something didn't feel right about the deserted group of buildings. It was too quiet.

A car was lying on its side in the tall grass. Vincent eyed the abandoned vehicle curiously as he approached. "Someone probably tried to drive it straight off'a that raised bit'a road. Weren't goin' fast enough, managed to nearly flip the thing," he mused.

He utilized the abandoned car by climbing on top of it to give himself a boost. He tossed his rifle onto the raised plateau and leapt off of the vehicle, catching the edge of the pavement with both hands. He bent his elbows and pulled himself up. Again, Rainbow marveled at his sheer strength.

Rainbow hopped up onto the abandoned car and effortlessly launched herself into the air and onto the elevated pavement using her muscular rear legs.

Vincent nodded approvingly, impressed. He retrieved his rifle from where he had tossed it and gripped it securely in both hands, beginning to creep down the street cautiously.

Rainbow swept her gaze across windows, open doors and rooftops, searching for movement or signs of recent habitation. The group of unidentified buildings looked decrepit and entirely abandoned. They were small, no larger than sheds.

A colorful poster caught her attention. It was a poster designed to caution readers of local hazards judging by the red-and-black warning symbol. The text was composed of foreign, illegible letters. They resembled the modern Equestrian alphabet vaguely, but with reversed, upside down or otherwise warped characters.

A voice spoke in a foreign tongue, with guttural, trilling pronounciations of unrecognizable words. It started Rainbow, making her jump.

"Just want to talk," Vincent called out, raising his voice. He hesitated, waiting for a response that never came. "Sprichst du Deutsch?" He attempted, changing his approach and gesturing with the buttstock of the hunting rifle he clutched.

The unseen man kneeling atop the roof uttered another string of foreign words. They sounded aggressive, threatening.

From her current position, Rainbow couldn't see who was crouching on top of the roof. She turned her head briefly and glanced at Vincent, unsure if she should speak up and attempt to communicate.

A deafening eruption of sound made her flinch and cry out. She watched as Vincent clutched his right shoulder with a grunt and dove left for cover behind one of the buildings.

Rainbow froze for a second, her heart thrumming in fright. She stumbled, tripping over her own hooves as she darted right. She heard the distinct report of a bullet zipping past her head, missing her narrowly and ricocheting off of the pavement with a dramatic ZING!

Rainbow sat back on her haunches, leaning back against the cold concrete wall of the building she was sheltered by. She clenched her eyes shut and clamped her hooves over her ears, cowering. Alarmingly, gunfire was being exchanged. Despite her hooves enveloping her ears completely, her hearing was still sensitive enough that the muffled bangs and rapid successive pops made her flinch.

She dared to slowly raise her head and gaze around when the dramatic cracks of gunfire concluded. She saw Vincent across the street clenching a hand over the wound in his right shoulder. He waved at her with his left hand, signaling he was okay. Rainbow returned the wave feebly, disorientated. A headache throbbing in her temples and above her eyebrows made her wince.

Vincent sat leaning against the wall inert for a few moments longer, tilting his head as he listened.

The world was still. The wind breathed, blowing a lock of Rainbow's mane into her eyes.

Vincent groaned, propping himself with the arm of his uninjured shoulder. He shakily stood onto his two feet and jogged across the street, kneeling in front of Rainbow. He planted the stock of his hunting rifle against the concrete ground, pointing it skyward. He gripped the underbarrel grip, leaning some of his weight against the rifle like it were a cane. "Weren't hit, were you?"

Her ears laid back against her head stressfully. "N - no, I don't think so." She frowned. "You're bleeding..."

Vincent grunted in acknowledgement. He winced, his hand twitching as he resisted the urge to grasp his shouldler. "Oh yeah. They got me really bad..."

He stood with a groan, clutching his hunting rifle in both hands. "I'll survive. Come on."

Rainbow stood onto all four hooves, stretching and flapping her wings lightly before following Vincent. She sighed, depressed. It wasn't the first scrap she had been in, but it had been the first gunfight she had survived. To make matters worse, she had no authority over her current plight. She thought she would be spontaneous and help Vincent by bucking whoever challeged him. She simply wasn't able to do that, though. The current circumstances were out of her control. It was disheartening.

Rainbow internally warned herself to keep her eyes off of the corpses, knowing it would make her sick. There were three which had fallen from the roof. Pale yellow-green clothing and helmets. Brown boots. Rifles. Faces. Real, expressive faces.

Rainbow caught a brief glimpse of the glassy-eyed stare of a corpse lying supine before forcing herself to look away, nauseaous. Bile seethed in her throat. She swallowed, grimacing at the bitter taste.

"Law enforcement? Paramilitary? Counterterrorism?" Vincent wondered aloud, setting his hunting rifle down onto the pavement and kneeling before one of the corpses. He placed his pointer and middle finger firmly beneath the man's jaw, near the windpipe. Not sensing a pulse, Vincent removed his fingers, frowning.

Vincent used his fingers to delicately seperate a metal chain from the man's neck. Attached around the metal chain were two flat ovoid sheets of metal displaying stamped text. "Ahh, shit. Dog tags."

"Dog tags?" Rainbow echoed, confused. She stared directly at Vincent, avoiding looking elsewhere.

"These guys were military," Vincent clarified. "What they were speaking sounded slavic. Could be Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Russian... Didn't want to shoot these assholes either way." He sighed.

Rainbow bowed her head low in a solemn, respectful gesture as she mourned. She closed her eyes for a few long, comtemplative minutes.

When she raised her head, she noticed Vincent had been unsystematically rummaging through the soldier's pockets and pouches and had located some first aid equipment. He was in the process of nursing the gunshot wound in his right shoulder, bandaging a sterile dressing over the extent of the injury.

"Ain't got the bells and whistles of an American IFAK," Vincent commented, grunting with effort as he flexed his now-swathed shoulder, "but it does the job."

Rainbow tried to resist the urge to hang her head low and look depressed, but they were unconscious gestures.

"You look 'bout as sad as a dog who knows he's goin' to the vet," Vincent commented. "Buck up, Dash. This wasn't completely worthless. Got some supplies."

"Yeah... Whatever." Rainbow turned and walked a short distance away, kicking a little chunk of dislodged pavement down the asphalt road with a hoof. "If you need help carrying stuff, just tell me."

"Won't need to carry jack if there's a car around we can use." Vincent stood, retrieving one of the Kalashnikov-rifle derivatives the soldiers had wielded. He ejected the curved plastic magazine and shook it to estimate how full it was, then reinserted it. "Would suggest you stay outside, but you'll be safer with me. Come on. There's a few rooms we gotta check."

Reluctantly, Rainbow flanked Vincent, guarding his rear as he meticulously cleared each outbuilding. Finding no one hiding within the shadows, Vincent frowned. "Only three," he mused.

They did, however, locate a car parked behind a concrete wall. Vincent withdrew a key from one of the pockets of his jeans and inserted it into a keyhole adjacent to the car's door handle, successfully rotating the lock.

"How did you...?" Rainbow cut herself off immediately once the realization came to her.

"It's not stealing if they're dead," Vincent protested.

Disturbed by how Vincent so casually spoke about such a macabre subject, Rainbow sighed, not arguing.

Vincent sat in the drivers seat and inserted the key into the car's ignition keyhole, twisting it.

The vehicle's engine sputtered several times before eventually roaring to life with a low rumbling noise.

Vincent smirked. "We're in business, now!" He disengaged the key from the ignition. The car's engine abruptly ceased rumbling. "Alright, we got a place to pack our junk. Help me move stuff."

Rainbow kept her eyes glued to the asphalt and concrete ground, avoiding gazing at the deceased soldiers as she transferred supplies to the trunk of the old 1988 Volga GAZ-24. Two unloaded Kalashnikov rifles, magazines, plate carriers, combat helmets, medical provisions, field rations, firearm cleaning kits and small entrenching tools.

Rainbow was relieved to be on her hooves and moving. The physical exercise helped distract her. Some of the items were particularly heavy, but there was nothing she couldn't handle.

Vincent wielded one of the entrenching tools, pointing with a finger to the trunk of the old GAZ-24 where they had stored the other spades. "Grab an E-tool and help me dig a grave. Ain't right to leave 'em out here in the street... you know?"

Rainbow didn't audibly protest. While it wasn't exactly her specialty, digging was physical exercise. She didn't assist with transferring the corpses over the edge of the plateau to the ground below, but she did help excavate and fill the grave. With Vincent's injured right shoulder, progress was slow.

Internally, Rainbow noted how the human corpses didn't decompose into dust like all magical creatures did.

Vincent stacked the soldiers' boots, their dog tags, two of their helmets and two of their entrenching tools over the filled grave.

"Ain't quite a full cross. Sorry, boys—need your rifles."

They stood alongside one another for several long moments, gazing at the memorial they had erected.

"Ain't no use in leavin' too many valuable supplies here." Vincent adjusted his grip on one of the soldiers' helmets, fitting it over his head. "Would give you one too, Dash. They're made of kevlar. Strong. But I know they wouldn't fit your head shape.

"Well..." Vincent stretched his wrists, flexing his fingers. "That's enough fun and games for a Tuesday. Come on, let's head back to the car, Dash. Get out of here."

Together, they circled around to the opposite side of the plateau and mounted the abandoned car, climbing to the top of the plateau. Vincent tossed the car key underhand with his good arm. Rainbow leapt into the air and caught it expertly in her mouth, trotting around to the rear of the old Volga GAZ-24. She slammed the trunk shut to assure their spoils remained secure.

Rainbow unlocked the passenger door using her mouth and leapt up onto the passenger's seat, sitting back on her haunches. She managed to reach with a foreleg and shut her door without losing her balance and toppling over, though barely. The vehicle simply wasn't designed to accommodate pony occupants.

While waiting for Vincent, she eyed a little potted flower secured near the parking brake. Lime stem, lime heart-shaped leaves and heart-shaped little pink and magenta petals.

Vincent slipped into the drivers seat and slammed his door shut firmly to assure it closed completely. He accepted the car key offered to him and turned it in the ignition. He listened to the rumbling engine, quiet. He glanced over at her. "You sure you don't want a smoke? You're lookin' a little stressed."

Rainbow immediately shook her head. "Just get us outta here, Vinny."

"Roger." He depressed the parking brake lever to disengage it, then pressed the clutch and put the car into first gear.

Despite feeling aloof and distant, Rainbow couldn't help but marvel at how smoothly the vehicle propelled itself. It was like they were gliding across the pavement on iceskates.

Vincent rotated the steering wheel to its limit and oriented the vehicle 180 degrees in the opposite direction. He aligned himself in the center of the asphalt road. It was a straight shot to where the pavement crumbled away and yielded to grass and dirt several feet below. The vehicle's headlights illuminated the dilapidated street in a yellow glow. The suns of Nowhere were beginning to set over the horizon.

"Hold onto somethin', Dash," Vincent cautioned her, "and make sure you don't bite your tongue. Gonna be a hard landing."

Rainbow braced herself, pressing herself firmly against the back of the passenger's seat. She yelped as Vincent slammed the accelerator and the car shot forward. He managed to switch gears twice before the car careered over the edge and landed onto the ground below with a hard thump. The momentum threw Rainbow upwards against the car's solid metal roof, but aside from a minor aching in her head, it wasn't a particularly violent landing.

Vincent jerked the wheel to stabilize their trajectory and assure they didn't crash into any trees before pumping a fist into the air in victory. "Whoooo! 'Hard landing' my ass!"

He chuckled as he expertly weaved the car between trees and switched gears a final time, cruising at a mild 30mph.

Rainbow straightened her back and tilted her head upwards, barely managing to see over the dashboard. She was far shorter than a standard passenger. She saw the yellow beams emitted by the headlights illuminate foliage as they passed.

"At this rate we'll be home in maybe 10 minutes. Sure beats walkin'." Vincent clutched the wheel with his left hand and rested his injured right shoulder, holding the arm still.

Rainbow ceased trying to gaze through the windshield and instead slumped in her seat, staring gloomily up at the GAZ-24's rusty metal roof.

She recalled how when Vincent finished off the remaining Slavic soldiers, he had jogged over to assure she wasn't injured. She couldn't allow the thoughtful gesture to remain unacknowledged.

"You wanted to know if I was okay," Rainbow raised her voice, speaking up. "It was one of the first thoughts in your mind when the shooting stopped. Thanks. That... means something."

"Did they even shoot at you?" Vincent kept his eyes where he was driving, occasionally swerving to avoid a tree or other obstacle.

"I dunno. Couldn't tell," she admitted, sighing. "Maybe."

"Huh." Vincent frowned. "Well, you and I gotta watch out for each other. That's why. Didn't even think too much 'bout it."

When one of the car's wheels dipped low in a depression in the ground, its inferior suspension made the vehicle lurch sharply. Rainbow jumped, then looked over at Vincent. His relaxed expression assured her the jolt wasn't abnormal.

"And," Vincent continued, sighing, "don't wanna admit this so readily, but... I care about your safety. I'm not too good with emotions, Dash, so when I say we're buddies... I mean it."

Rainbow smiled slightly. It was reassuring to hear those words being spoken. "You'd annoy the flying feather out of my friends back home, but I do kinda like you. You're annoying sometimes, though."

Vincent snorted. "Yeah? How?"

"The bad jokes."

He chuckled, nodding affirmingly. "Yeah, I know. Teasing comes with the job, Dash. They're called your 'battle buds' for a reason—I bet most of the guys I used to serve with didn't actually like each other, but it's a sort of forced-bonding kinda thing through combat. Shared trauma, y'know. Humor helps with the stress. You get used to it after a while, and it just becomes second nature."

Rainbow pondered what had been said for a few moments. She recalled how, when she was first recruited into the Wonderbolts, she had struggled to shake her terrible nickname 'Rainbow Crash' after wiping out in front of her fellow peers. She hadn't realized it at the time, but it was undoubtedly teasing for the sake of bonding. While not entirely relevant to what Vincent had mentioned, she still thought it was a valid point to mention.

"When I joined the Wonderbolts academy for the first time, I managed to screw up and wipe out. Did a risky move to try to impress everypony. Got stuck with the nickname 'Rainbow Crash' for a while. Felt targeted before I realized it was just their way of welcoming me to the academy."

Vincent grinned. "Wowie. That's a great pun. And you earned that how, by flying and crashing on your first day?"

"On my first day," Rainbow repeated, confirming.

"Funny. The self-appointed 'greatest Wonderbolt' crashed on her first day."

"It was an accident!"

Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. The car bounced up and down. None of the shock from each bump on the unstable terrain was absorbed by the rocky suspension.

Rainbow sighed, tired. She was feeling mentally exhausted from the stress. "I... feel bad for those guys."

Vincent adjusted his grip on the wheel, clutching it at 12-o-clock. The car rocked aggressively as he guided it up the hill near the auto repair shop. The ride smoothened out significantly as they began ascending the ramp slowly and steadily towards the parking lot. "Look, Dash... They were scared out of their minds. Made a stupid decision to attack us. I didn't ask to be here. You didn't ask to be here. That's just... the way it is. Wrong place and wrong time for all of us."

Rainbow frowned, pursing her lips. "Yeah, well... Thanks for not making me feel better."

Vincent parked the GAZ-24 in the auto repair shop's parking lot. He yanked the parking brake lever upwards to engage the brake. The car's yellow headlights illuminated the front of the shop and all of its corners and odd angles, casting eerie shadows.

Vincent sighed, resting his left hand on the steering wheel. "C'mon. We can take inventory in the morning, and I'll try to get the truck up and runnin'."

Suddenly, Rainbow's ultimate goal of exploring Nowhere and discovering a way home seemed childish, hinging on too many assumptions and unknowns.

Disspirited, Rainbow hung her head, closing her eyes in thought. She thought of the glassy stare of the lifeless corpse that had once been an individual.

"Fuck." She attempted to correctly enunciate the new, unfamiliar curse word. Its harshness felt sensible given the situation.

Vincent rolled the GAZ-24's window down and reached into one of the pockets of his blue jeans, retrieiving the carton of cigarettes. He ignited one with his lighter, dangling his left arm carelessly out of the GAZ-24's window as he held the cigarette between his lips and puffed liberally. "Ach du lieber Himmel..."

Rainbow felt the car rumbling beneath her hooves. The gentle vibrations felt vaguely relaxing. She much preferred the sensation compared to the cold, motionless Mazda she slept in the night prior.

Vincent clutched the cigarette between his index finger and thumb, suspending the cigarette outside of the driver's window for a moment as he tapped it to discard some of the embers. He extended his left arm over his body and reached, offering the cigarette to Rainbow.

She recalled the specific words Vincent had used to describe how they worked, affirming the substance "eased nerves".

There was no hesitation this time. She accepted the offered cigarette using a hoof and inserted the filter between her lips, inhaling gently.

The vile smoke invading her lungs overwhelmed her, triggering a rapid series of coughs. Rainbow heaved, gladly returning the cigarette to Vincent. "Yeah, no. Keep it. I can't do that." She shuddered.

Vincent chuckled dryly, plucking the cigarette from her hoof and inserting it between his lips once again. "Don't worry about it, Dash. It's an acquired taste."

"'Acquired taste' my flank." Rainbow grimaced.

VII – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

The cave was dry and freezing. Rainbow Dash wrapped the brown scarf tighter around her neck, tucking her multicolored tail between her rear legs as she shivered.

Residual twilight from outside spilled through the cave mouth, pooling on the ground. Rainbow intentionally raised her foreleg and clopped her hoof against the grey stone. The sound echoed off of the rock walls, bouncing ceaselessly before being absorbed by the black void.

"You must be freezing, Dash." Vincent began walking forwards into the cave, shining his flashlight's white beam around.

Rainbow snorted sharply. She transferred the flashlight she had been clutching in her teeth to her hoof. "I am, just a little. Thanks for the scarf."

"Keine Ursache.

"Stop." Vincent approached the precipice of a vertical drop. He gazed down over the edge, whistling. "Ach du heilige Scheiße!"

Rainbow approached the precipice and gazed down into the black abyss. Despite shining her flashlight down into the void, the darkness was impenetrable. She couldn't see the bottom.

They circumnavigated the hole, descending deeper through a tunnel.

"Do you have extras of these things?" Rainbow glanced at the flashlight attachment mounted to the rail on the side of the handguard of Vincent's Kalashnikov rifle.

"Got two extra nine-volts for your flashlight. We'll be fine.

"Slav who used to own this rifle was a rich boy... it's not every day you see an AK with rails."

Rainbow inserted her flashlight between her teeth again and began sweeping it across the cave's walls as she walked, highlighting the blank, featureless rock walls.

A wave of chilly air made her pause as it washed over her. She shivered, her body trembling involuntarily.

"You need a coat or somethin', Dash." Vincent paused, chuckling to himself. "You're gonna need a bigger boat, Roy Scheider."

They walked in utter silence for a few moments, descending.

"Celestia, it's dark." Rainbow paused to sweep her flashlight around the surrounding area before inserting it between her teeth once again, training it at the ground where she was walking. The pathway they were following was gradually broadening. Rainbow accidentally kicked a rock, causing it to bounce and clatter noisily against the rock floor.

"What, you afraid of the dark or something?"

"No!" Rainbow immediately defended herself, spitting out the flashlight. "It's just... it sounds like..."

A wave of cold air washed over her. "It sounds like its breathing."

"The cave is alive!" Vincent mocked her, grinning.

Rainbow's flashlight winking out made her jump. She squeaked, retreating away from the oppressive, crushing black and closer to Vincent.

"Well, that's one battery gone. Guess these things are old." Vincent reached into a pocket in his pants and tossed Rainbow a nine-volt battery. She clumsily struggled to unscrew the plastic cap near the grip of the flashlight with her teeth, withdrawing the dead nine-volt and inserting the new one. She flipped the switch on her flashlight, relieved when the white beam of light returned anew.

"What would you do if our lights died right now?"

Rainbow stopped walking, genuinely pondering the prospect. "W - we could probably feel our way out. The hole's near the entrance, we might be able to see it if our eyes adjusted."

Rainbow kicked some small stones with a hoof in an attempt to distract herself from her fright.

"Ch - ch - ch, ah - ah - ah..." Vincent made six odd noises with his lips and throat. It sounded like chanting.

"What?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow, frowning confusedly.

Vincent looked disappointed. "Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn't know who Jason Voorhees is, huh?"

"Who?"

"He's a horror movie villain. Murders teenage campers with a machete." Vincent sighed in a bittersweet fashion. "Hey, Dash, if we ever make it out of Nowhere alive, we gotta watch Friday the 13th and drink beer together. That movie's a classic. It'd be a blast."

"I'm not gettin' drunk anywhere near you, Vinny. You seem like the kinda type to either get really flirty or really angry. Either way, doesn't sound like a fun time to me."

"In my defense, you can't get drunk on Budweiser—I've tried." Vincent raised his left hand to gesticulate, temporarily releasing the underbarrel grip of his Kalashnikov rifle.

Rainbow clutched her flashlight in her teeth and continued walking.

The tunnel they had been following eventually broadened into a cavern. The ground was encrusted with a flat sheet of opaque teal ice, occasionally interrupted by spikes of rock protruding from the ground.

Their white beams of light reflected brilliantly off of the teal ice, casting blue-greenish light onto the rock walls of the cave.

"Whaa—!" Rainbow's hooves lost traction on the slippery ice and she fell onto her butt, rotating in circles several times. Her plastic flashlight clattered noisily onto the hard ice and skidded away a few feet.

Vincent laughed aloud at Rainbow's predicament. "Nice going, jackass!"

"Shut up!" Rainbow stood onto all four hooves cautiously to avoid slipping and carefully approached her flashlight, extending her wings to maintain her balance. She walked with long, precise strides.

She bowed her neck and plucked the flashlight off of the ice with her teeth. She folded her wings against her back, her body quivering as she shivered. Her flanks were freezing.

Vincent stepped onto the ice cautiously. He swept the barrel of his rifle across the wide chamber, scanning for pathways.

Rainbow smiled dreamily, reminded of Pinkie Pie who used to ice-skate to divide the ice of frozen lakes into cubes during Winter Wrap-up in Ponyville.

Rainbow clutched her flashlight securely between her teeth to assure she wouldn't drop it and accelerated rapidly, flapping her wings powerfully to propel herself as she skillfully slid across the ice. She alternated her weight between her left hooves to her right hooves. It wasn't ice-skating so much as it was sliding, but it was fun.

Rainbow leapt over a rock, spinning in midair. She giggled. "C'mon, Vincent! Try it! This is fun!"

"If I tried that, I'd fall on my ass and look like an idiot." Vincent chuckled. "Don't go too far, Dash. It's dark over there!"

Rainbow had unintentionally skated to one of the corners of the underground chamber shrouded in darkness. It was an angle the beam from Vincent's flashlight failed to illuminate.

Rainbow attempted to cancel her momentum by planting all of her hooves firmly against the ice and unfurling her wings, spreading them. Unfortunately, her momentum was impossible to halt on the slippery ice. She was sent hurtling over the edge down into the pitch-black void. She screamed briefly in fright before her body struck a hard surface. Her weight compressed her chest, forcing a sharp squawk from her mouth as oxygen evacuated her lungs.

Rainbow tumbled for several seconds before collapsing onto a flat rock surface. She groaned, disoriented.

"Rainbow!"

Rainbow could hear Vincent shouting her name.

"I - I'm okay! M - mostly..." Rainbow moaned in pain, managing to stand onto her hooves. Dizzy, she swayed, struggling to maintain her balance. It was too dark to see. She could feel sharp stabs of pain in her chest and legs. It felt like she had been punctured repeatedly. She tasted the unmistakable tang of blood. She had probably bit her own tongue.

Rainbow rotated to face the correct direction and gazed up into the tunnel she had fallen through. It was a tunnel that curved downwards in a sharp diagonal decline. If it had been a sheer vertical fall, she probably would have died on impact.

A gentle glow of light behind her attracted Rainbow's attention. She turned to investigate.

The blue glow brightened as the nearby creature uttered a quiet clicking sound. It uncoiled its massive serpentine body and opened one gigantic colorless eye, examining Rainbow with the contempt one might feel when being pestered by an annoying insect. Sharp black spikes and spines protruded from its body. Rainbow couldn't tell if the creature was emaciated and bony or simply had no skin. Bands surrounded its serpentine body, emitting vivid artic-blue luminescence that illuminated the entire chamber and made Rainbow squint.

A blast of freezing air struck Rainbow as the colossal drake snorted.

"Vincent! RUN!" Rainbow's warning was drowned out as the drake opened its gigantic maw and roared resoundingly, discharging a cloud of tiny water particles that descended and clung to every surface, including Rainbow's coat and mane, where they immediately began to freeze and form ice crystals. Chilled to the bone, Rainbow shook the ice crystals off of herself and scurried away, beginning to climb the diagonal tunnel as quickly as she could. Her hooves skidded occasionally off of the slippery, icy rocks.

"What the hell's going on down there‽" Vincent shined his flashlight into the pit. Rainbow forced herself to continue climbing, focusing on the white, artificial flashlight beam.

"Oh fuck!" Vincent fired several shots at the drake pursuing Rainbow, which, in the tight, confined cave, deafened her. The bullets ricocheted audibly off of the drake's impenetrable armor, failing to impede it.

Vincent knelt on one knee and extended a hand, grasping Rainbow's hoof and firmly dragging her to her hooves. She began galloping towards the exit the moment her hooves touched the ground, slipping on the ice sheet occasionally. Her dizziness triggered her to lose her balance more than she would have otherwise.

Vincent was right behind her, attempting to hold his rifle steady and shine the flashlight beam in the direction they were recklessly sprinting. It was their only source of light in the otherwise pitch-black cave.

Rainbow could hear the drake pursuing them, roaring threateningly and scraping its spines against the rock walls.

"The hole!"

Rainbow comprehended Vincent's warning too late to evade the hole. She leapt over the pit, flapping her clipped wings several times to give herself a meager boost.

When Rainbow finally emerged from the cave beneath the dim light of Nowhere's moon, she noticed Vincent pause, glancing at the Inexorable.

"Forget the fucking car! Come on! Shine the light so I can see!" She galloped north through the forest with Vincent close behind, shoving aside branches and bushes.

The drake was still relentlessly pursuing them. It demolished trees with its enormous mass, snapping them like mere dead twigs.

A blast of freezing air struck Rainbow as the drake roared furiously, coating the entire forest with a mist of magical ice crystals.

"Where the hell are we going‽"

"I..." Rainbow paused, panting irregularly. She winced in pain. "I don't know!"

Rainbow heard her hooves clopping on stone, which made her frown in confusion briefly. It was only when she gazed down that it occured to her the stone was jet-black stone.

"It's the swamp! GET BACK!" Rainbow planted her hooves firmly against the rock ground and unfurled her wings, spreading them widely to utilize them as an improvised parachute. She managed to decelerate before she sent herself careering over the precipice into the effervescing goo below.

She heard the drake crashing through the forest behind her and had enough time to rotate and face it before it pounced like a cat directly at her. Rainbow's heart stopped beating. She gulped, terrified.

The drake sailed through the air, spreading its clawed legs and swiping at her as it soared over her head and landed directly into the Acid Swamp. It had fatally miscalculated its jump.

The drake convulsed its serpentine form helplessly, thrashing and wailing in agony as the boiling-hot, green acidic sludge clung to its body and began to dissolve it.

The drake's internal arctic flame extinguished as it died. The vivid blue glow emanating from the bands encircling its body ceased forever.

Rainbow observed the drake's corpse wither like a dying flower, decomposing into ash that was caught and swept away by wind or absorbed by the Acid Swamp voraciously.

Stressed and injured, Rainbow panted, sitting back on her haunches and gazing into the thoughtless, insatiable green tide. The drake was dead. Its remains had been scattered and disintegrated. She suspected she should have felt relieved, but all she felt was sorrow and guilt.

"You're bleeding," Vincent observed. He knelt alongside her and pressed a finger gingerly against an abrasion on her shoulder where blue fur and skin had worn away. Rainbow winced, jerking her body away instinctively.

She sighed, her ears drooping sadly. She adjusted her brown scarf, tightening it. "I caused this. We shouldn't have gone down there."

"Weren't your fault." Vincent reached with his fingers and jangled his dog tags. "That thing probably just had a bad case of the munchies, and you and I were the closest munchees."

"I woke it up. It was angry." Rainbow frowned. "I..." She winced, holding up one of her forelegs. As the adrenaline gradually faded from her system, she became keenly aware of a stabbing pain in one of her hooves. A drop of blood tricked through her fur, trailing downwards. She resisted the urge to gaze down at herself, fearful of what she would witness.

"You don't look so good, Dash." Vincent frowned, concerned. "I think that's ice. It's buried in you like shrapnel, everywhere."

Rainbow was too exhausted to properly communicate. "Help me... please."

Vincent wordlessly stood and retrieved his rifle where he had deposited it onto the ground, slinging it over a shoulder. "I'm guessin' ya don't want me to carry you."

"I can walk. Or limp, at least." Rainbow felt another stabbing pain shoot through her hoof. She grimaced in discomfort.

Rainbow laid down on her side, resting her body weight on Vincent's crossed legs as he sat on the ground and delicately plucked tiny bits and larger chunks of ice from her flesh.

It was supremely uncomfortable. Every chunk of ice withdrawn from her body triggered a small jolt of pain, and the Inexorable's bright headlight beams were shining directly into her eyes.

"Show me the hoof," Vincent ordered. Rainbow obediently rolled onto her back and presented her forelegs, too exhausted to speak.

She cried out when Vincent used his delicate fingers to pluck a thin spike of ice from the sensitive section of her hoof. He hissed, wincing in sympathy. "I think that's all of it. Sorry."

Rainbow sighed, relaxing her body and resting her head on Vincent's crossed legs near his crotch. If not for the fact they were in the position because he had kindly assisted and healed her, it would have been considered awkward and immodest. The thoughts didn't cross her mind.

Vincent brushed a finger against her chest, holding it aloft in the light provided by the Inexorable's headlights. It was coated in fresh, red blood. "IFAK had small plasters. Those'd be perfect," he noted aloud.

Gently, Vincent shoved Rainbow off of his lap. She understood the memo and sat up onto her haunches, swaying slightly. Her head continued to ache with dizziness, and she was still feeling disoriented.

Vincent opened the Inexorable's door to access the back seat and began digging through their belongings. He returned with the Slavic IFAK pouch, sitting crosslegged on the ground. He waved with a hand invitingly.

Rainbow crawled into his lap, lying on her side and relaxing her body with a sigh.

Vincent dabbed the numerous cuts and scrapes adorning her body with antibacterial wipes and covered them with small plasters. The plasters were attached directly to her fur and would likely hurt when removed, but for the moment Rainbow didn't care.

"My dad was a medic." Vincent spoke softly as he treated Rainbow's wounds. "He told me..." He paused, considering. "'Wasn't supposed to fight. I wasn't ordered to. But they stuck a rifle in my hands and ordered me to rush under fire towards the wounded. I felt angry. I became a combat soldier in those moments, too, like everyone else.'"

Rainbow rolled onto her other side to allow Vincent to access the cuts on the opposite side of her body. She unfurled her wing partly to permit him access beneath it momentarily.

"He... sounds like a hero."

Vincent smiled slightly. "He was, based on what he told me. He was a hell of a man.

"Where you came from..." Vincent paused temporarily as he considered how to phrase his question. "Equestria? Does it see war?"

"Not for a very long time." When Vincent finished treating her injuries, Rainbow remained lying in his lap, gazing up at him. "There hasn't been a major conflict in Equestria for at least 1000 years. Princess Celestia and the Elements of Harmony have kept evil in check. My friends and I, too.

"I, um... have never told anypony this... I haven't even told my friends this." Rainbow hesitated. Feeling uncomfortable, she looked away, avoiding eye contact.

Vincent remained silent, patiently waiting for her to continue. He frowned seriously.

"I had a dream years ago. There was a war in the Frozen North near the Crystal Empire. King Sombra returned and imprisoned Princess Cadence and her family and led an army against Celestia. I served with the Wonderbolts on the frontlines. There was blood on snow... and..." Rainbow clenched her eyes shut tightly momentarily as she recalled the terrible memory. "I lost my left wing to a magical blast."

Vincent winced sympathically. "It was just a dream."

"It felt... real. It felt like it really happened." Rainbow paused. "Twilight and Spike retrieved the Crystal Heart and stopped Sombra when he came back. But if they had failed, then... Maybe my world really would have turned that ugly."

"You sound pretty smart, Dash." Vincent pursed his lips. His voice was soft and gentle. "I was doubtful before. Thought you had a hero complex. You do, to an extent.

"Promise me you'll never go to war. I know you, kid. I know you think you're invincible and you think you can be a hero or a soldier. You're not. No one can. Heroism isn't a title you earn, it's a title thrust upon you unwillingly."

Rainbow wanted to protest how Vincent had addressed her as "kid", but she was too exhausted to argue.

"War is a neutralizer. It claims the innocent, the brave, the stupid and the heroic and it bends them.

When I left Afghanistan, I felt like a weapon without a purpose. I spent time hunting alone. I felt like no one understood me. I thought my girlfriend was gaslighting me. That hurt the most because I loved her... and I still do. I could feel myself splitting and going insane."

Vincent brushed his fingers against his dog tags, jangling them. He looked away, avoiding eye contact.

For once, Rainbow observed Vincent withdraw and act reserved. She laid in his lap, listening to the sounds of the forest and nature surrounding them. The rumbling of the Inexorable's engine drowned much of it out.

"You haven't promised."

Rainbow nodded slowly. "I promise.

"I'll never forget these conversations we've had."

"Ah." Vincent made a soft noise. A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "Good kid. You're young. You're gonna live a good life. I'm gonna make sure of it by workin' to get you off of Nowhere."

"What about you?"

Vincent licked his dry lips. "You know what I'm gonna say."

Rainbow did know. She didn't want to accept it as truth. "Your life isn't over."

"It's not over, but... my girlfriend's probably moved on. My old man died. My friend Jacob killed himself a few months before I came to Nowhere. He didn't even call me. He didn't even email me. He just gave up."

"Why?"

"He just got... tired of living, one day. That's the curse of being a soldier. People carry the weight with them for years."

Rainbow sighed, her ears drooping sadly. "I'm... getting in the car, now." She stood onto her hooves and tightened the brown scarf around her throat, plodding heavily towards the Inexorable. She circled around to the right side and leapt up into the passenger's seat, sitting back on her haunches.

Vincent unloaded and stored his rifle into the back seat of the Inexorable before climbing into the driver's seat of the truck. He closed his door and reached a hand beneath the steering wheel, rotating the car key in the ignition. The engine shut off abruptly.

"It's late. Didn't think we'd be down there for so long." Vincent yawned. He adjusted his car seat so the back was positioned diagonally and leaned back, tilting his head low and resting his hands over his waist. He clasped his fingers together.

Rainbow thought he had fallen asleep before he spoke again. "Get some sleep while you can, Dash. Suns'll rise in a couple hours."

Rainbow obediently curled into a little ball on the passenger's seat, resting her multicolored tail over her muzzle. She sighed, relaxing the tension from her body. She lied still, feeling the subtle sensations of pain flicker at the sites of her many bandaged cuts and scrapes.

VIII – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

Rainbow Dash awoke with a headache throbbing above her eyebrows. She moaned in discomfort, shifting her body weight. Everywhere hurt. She was marred by scratches, cuts and bruises covered with plasters. Subtle shocks of pain throbbed in her legs and torso as her heart beat.

The dulcet tones of Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" were faintly emitting from the Inexorable's sound system.

Rainbow opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear her blurry vision. She squinted, attempting to focus. Vincent was hunched over at the waist, resting his arms and residual body weight on the steering wheel. His head was hung low. His long black hair dangled, partially obscuring his face. Suspended from one of his hands was a chain threading two rectangular sheets of metal displaying text. He rubbed one repeatedly with a thumb. Morning sunlight reflected off of the thin sheet of metal, illuminating the stamped text.

PATTERSON

JACOB M

5550859627

O POS

AGNOSTIC

Rainbow listened to the music silently for a moment in an attempt to relax the tension from her body. She breathed audibly.

Vincent tilted his head partially and gazed in her direction, inhaling sharply as he sniffled. "Go back to sleep." His voice was huskier than normal.

When Rainbow realized he was on the verge of tears, she frowned sympathetically. "Are you okay?"

Receiving no answer, she silently listened to the gentle guitar strumming and male vocalists, hearing and truly comprehending. It was a song about understanding, it was a song about reflection and, most importantly, it was a song about tragic loss.

"I'm never gonna get married." Vincent lied inert atop the steering wheel, crestfallen. He gazed remotely down at his own legs. "Hundreds of generations and thousands of years of human evolution and my family line persisting throughout it all, and it dies here... like this. What would my dad think...?"

She made an attempt to speak and distract him from his misery. "Loving somepony isn't all you can do in life. I've never thought about getting married."

The heart-rending song concluded abruptly. The lyrics were decisive.

"I know I have to go away," Vincent echoed, gripping the steering wheel tightly. His knuckles flexed. "I have to go."

Rainbow's ears laid back sadly. She stood up and sat onto her haunches, leaning against the back of the passenger's seat.

Vincent sniffled and brushed the sleeve of his blouse against his eyes. He tenderly clasped the two dog tags and stuffed them into one of the pockets in his combat pants.

He rotated the car key in the Inexorable's ignition and started the engine. He shifted into reverse, withdrew the truck from its position nestled beneath the pine tree and shifted into drive.

Vincent silently drove northwest for hours. The dual suns of Nowhere steadily rose through the sky, reflecting harsh sunlight off of the truck's polished lemon hood. Rainbow unraveled the scarf from around her neck and tossed it into the back seat.

Vincent engaged the truck's air conditioning system, rotating a knob.

"I could have given up years ago. I should have."

"You said you did," Rainbow pointed out.

"Really give up. Really surrender. But I didn't, I kept going." Vincent clasped the steering wheel tightly. "Maybe I was supposed to meet you.

"'You're still young. There's so much you have to go through,'" He quoted. "I don't got kids, but... maybe I can teach you. Transfer this knowledge I got, make sure it goes somewhere.

"I got memories I wanna share. My dad's stories need tellin'. I'm..." Vincent paused. He frowned, pursing his lips. "I'm not gonna hold back. Not anymore.

"If you do settle down, is it gonna be with a girl? Be honest."

Rainbow hesitated to speak, fully aware that her companion was in a precarious mental state prone to sudden, unanticipated outbursts. She shrugged. "Maybe. I've thought about it. I guess I'd wait for somepony else to make the first move."

"My relationship with Anna was anything but normal, but... first few dates we went on, I knew she was the one. She knew how to listen, and when to.

"Don't wait on someone else. You know what happens when you do?" Vincent raised his right arm into the air, flattened his hand and shot it directly forward in an unfamiliar gesture. He winced from the pain the movement triggered in his wounded shoulder. "They fly right past you," he clarified. "Life has a tendency to do that, too. One minute you're a wide-eyed book-protagonist-seemin' kid and the next you're a 30-somethin'-year-old washout."

Rainbow was silent as she pondered, sensing the Inexorable's powerful engine vibrating the car seat beneath her sensitive hocks and fetlocks. "Your time isn't over yet. You're not gonna die."

"I'd throw myself under a bus for you, Dash. Er, well, the claws of a giant dragon in this case."

Rainbow was predictably flattered, yet confused. "Why...?"

"Because, I have to go." Vincent adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, clutching it at 12 o' clock. He sighed. "I'm tired of this. My dad got tired. Jake got tired. I gave all I had... for nothing. I'm done trying, now. I'm spent. My time for being spontaneous and having fun is over. It was over back then, I just didn't know it at the time back in Jamaica."

"Your dad, um..." Rainbow hesitated to use the macabre vocabulary. It felt wrong.

Vincent understood what she was referencing regardless. "No, he didn't kill himself. He died of age. But his old soul still left his body and flew up all the same."

Vincent steered left and navigated the Inexorable through a ravine. He had finally located a gap leading through the nigh on infinite southern rock wall. The truck's superior suspension effortlessly absorbed the shock as the vehicle bounced over the rocky terrain.

"Your heart's got a reason to keep beating. More than one, actually. I'll make sure it keeps going."

Rainbow considered replying, but was unsure how to. Instead of fabricating her reply around Vincent's statement, she instead began to describe who she was in reference to her destiny. Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, bearer of an Element of Harmony and sworn guardian of Equestria from evil.

Trees and hills flew by as Vincent guided the Inexorable across Nowhere. Rainbow had the impression Nowhere was an infinite stretch of grassy plains and forests. Eventually, she stopped gazing out of the passenger-side window altogether.

"Loyalty," Vincent mused. "Blind loyalty's a trap."

"Loyalty to the right cause," Rainbow clarified. "Loyalty to my friends and Equestria. Got this awesome red lightning-bolt-shaped gem on a necklace. Looked like my Cutiemark. Couldn't wear it all the time 'cause, y'know, security and all that."

A ghost of a smile crossed Vincent's face. "You're tellin' me the self-appointed 'greatest Wonderbolt' and bearer of an Element of Harmony is an ADHD nightmare who can't be trusted with keeping the most powerful fucking object on the planet around her own neck at all times?"

"Shut up, Vinny."

Rainbow glanced absently out of the Inexorable's passenger window and gasped aloud when she spotted something in the distance. "Stop the car!"

Vincent tapped the brake pedal, decelerating the Inexorable until it drew to a standstill. "What happened? What's going on?"

"Back there...!" Rainbow opened the passenger side door and hopped out of the vehicle. She turned right and began to trot, nearing the cliff the Inexorable had sped by mere moments ago.

She approached the precipice and gazed over the edge. Far below was a purple-dyed sandy shore ringing a violet-colored ocean.

What had attracted Rainbow's attention was how the ocean interacted with the surrounding land. The ocean was a sphere of water approximately several miles wide that had undoubtedly appeared in Nowhere artificially. Where the outer boundaries of the circle of purple ocean connected with land to the west was a crescent moon-shaped slit of...

Rainbow rubbed her eyes with a hoof, confounded. She gazed at Vincent who had predictably parked the vehicle and followed her. "Are you... seeing that?"

"Seeing what? It's just—" Vincent's mouth dropped agape in shock. "Holy shit!"

Separating the violet sea from the land was a thin slit of obscuration. It resembled heat haze, but what Rainbow was witnessing wasn't a mirage. It was as if the very constituent materials of time and space were unraveling like frayed wire or yarn. The shimmering haze resembled shards of broken glass winking from reflected light. It simply couldn't be described with mere words.

"So, uh..." Vincent nervously rubbed the rear of his neck. "Guess we're heading down to Grape Soda beach?"

"'Grape Soda?' That's what the lake is called?

"Made it up on the spot. Ain't never been here. Also, I think that's an ocean. It has a beach. Ain't never seen a beach quite like it, though."

Rainbow flapped her wings and was delighted to discover they were capable of partially lifting her into the air. Some of her feathers had molted and regrown. She still wasn't capable of taking flight, however.

"Your feathers are starting to regrow already," Vincent observed. He knelt on one knee and plucked a loose clipped feather from one of her wings, much to Rainbow's incredulity.

"H - hey! Hands off the wings!" Rainbow flinched and jerked away, holding one of her rear legs aloft as she scowled and assumed a defensive stance.

"Easy!" Realizing he had crossed the threshold beyond what was considered courteous and polite, Vincent frowned and apologized. "Er... sorry, Dash."

Rainbow set her hoof against the ground and relaxed her body, fluttering her wings anxiously. A solitary clipped feather detached from one of her wings and floated off of the precipice, caught by a gentle breeze. "No problem. Just don't go picking my feathers. How would you like it?"

"Probably not at all." Vincent shrugged. "Then again, have never flown.

"So, do you guys actually fly or is it more of a glide?"

Rainbow responded to the proposed question by backing up a few feet and galloping forward towards the cliff, launching herself off of the edge of the precipice. She unfurled her wings and spread them to their maximum length. Predictably, she was capable of gliding downwards safely from any height.

She could hear Vincent calling her name and yelling expletives from the apex of the cliff. She smiled, amused.

Rainbow landed onto Grape Soda beach heavily, cantering. She slowed to a trot and eventually a walk as she decelerated her momentum. It hadn't been a graceful glide nor descent, but it had felt gratifying to fly again nonetheless.

The rich purple sand crunched beneath her hooves and body weight, compacting and leaving hoof prints. Rainbow rotated 180 degrees to examine the trail she had created through the wet sand before it was eliminated by a wave crashing against the shore. The violet water crashed against Rainbow's legs, flowing between them as the violet waves withdrew to the comparatively-larger ocean.

The water was surprisingly warmer than she had anticipated. The dual suns of Nowhere were baking the ocean's surface. The water was only mildly chilly and would be refreshing to swim in if Rainbow weren't injured and required relaxation to heal.

She trotted to where the deep-violet sand was driest, distant from the crashing waves of the sea, and laid down beneath the shade generously provided by a palm tree. Rainbow laid on her side and crossed her rear legs, holding a foreleg aloft. She nibbled absentmindedly at a plaster attached to her fur with her teeth as she waited for Vincent to locate a path where he could navigate downwards to her level. Some of her scrapes and cuts where she had been impaled by shards of sharp ice were beginning to itch.

"Get up and shake yourself off. Got a towel here."

Rainbow observed as Vincent approached. He was carrying a crate and a towel efficiently furled into a thin roll.

Obediently, she stood and shook herself off, fluttering her wings to cleanse them of sand.

"You could have fallen and died, idiot." Vincent deposited the crate nearby and unslung his Kalashnikov rifle, carefully balancing it atop the crate to keep it away from the sand. He unrolled the towel, shaking it several times to smoothen most of the wrinkles. He positioned the long, rectangular towel over the sand and delicately sat down atop it with an unceremonious grunt of exertion, unlacing his boots and slipping them and the socks off before crossing his legs.

Rainbow once again laid down and assumed her previous position, crossing her rear legs. She faced Vincent, eying his right shoulder. She knew dressings and bandages were concealed beneath the sleeve of his scavenged Slavic military blouse.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, Vince. I've been flying since I was a foal. I attended flight school in Cloudsdale when I was a filly. I know when my wings can and can't support my weight." Predicting she wouldn't receive a response, Rainbow changed the topic. "How's the shoulder?"

"Fine. Managed not to rip my stitches out prematurely when I was escaping that dragon with you last night, but it still hurts like a son-of-a-bitch." Vincent tenderly massaged his wounded shoulder with his fingers. "You?"

"Feels like I'm constantly being stabbed by needles... I'm not doin' too bad. I think we need time off."

"My thoughts exactly, Dash. Which is why I brought the MREs and other goodies. You and I are gonna have an actual beach vacation for a day." He stretched his uninjured shoulder and rotated his waist with a grunt, standing. Vincent withdrew his old boonie hat from the plastic crate and tossed it in Rainbow's direction, which she caught midair and gratefully planted atop her head to shield herself from the unyielding sunrays.

Vincent returned to the towel carrying a random assemblage of food products. Rainbow recognized them—she had packed the plastic pouches into the Volga GAZ-24 before they had departed. They were scavenged Slavic MREs.

Vincent opened one of the plastic MRE pouches with his bayonet, tossing various assorted cans and bags in her direction.

Rainbow sat up onto her haunches and juggled the food briefly, overwhelmed. She decided to begin with the rectangular bar. The label was written in an illegible Slavic language, but one side of the rectangle displayed a picture of fruit and nuts.

Rainbow snapped the thin plastic barrier apart using her teeth and peered within. The shell of plastic was protecting a rectangular energy bar composed of cereal, dates, nuts and other bits of fruit.

"Whatcha got there?" Vincent wondered aloud.

Rainbow grinned, delighted. "A fruity snack!"

Vincent chuckled, amused by her excitement. "Imagine most of these are meat products. You see any, give 'em to me. I'll save the vegetarian stuff for you."

Rainbow happily munched a big bite of the healthy energy bar before replying, proposing a question. "Can ya read any of this text?"

"Nope. Only other language I can speak is German for my girlfriend. I have no idea what all this crap is." Vincent was occupied with opening a metal tin. When he succeeded and broke the seal, he dipped a plastic spoon inside and lifted a spoonful of the beef stew contained within.

After Rainbow devoured the small energy bar, her stomach released an impatient growl. She hadn't realized how hungry she had felt prior to their picnic. Rainbow examined the remaining cans and plastic bags she had been given, determining most weren't vegetarian and therefore edible. There was, however, a plastic package of salty crackers, which she opened using her teeth to access the crackers within. "Got anything else over there?"

"Maybe." Vincent clutched a small, unassuming cardboard pack in a hand, examining it from all angles. "Some kinda drink here. Could be shelf-stable milk."

Balancing the open tin of beef stew in his lap, Vincent used both hands to rip open the pack's seal. He cautiously sniffed the pack's contents before taking a tiny, experimental sip. His eyes bulged wide and he took a long gulp, lowering the pack. "This is... juice!"

"Really? Gimmie!" Rainbow grabbed the offered pack of juice in a hoof and drank from the spout. The taste was overwhelmingly sweet and tangy. It was unmistakable—she was holding a rectangular cardboard box of reconstituted pineapple juice.

Rainbow gulped the remaining juice from the cardboard pack greedily, releasing a sigh of satisfaction. "Wow!"

"Yeah," Vincent scratched at his chin absently. "Got a feeling this was the rich boy's MRE. Juice isn't standard. Real juice wasn't standard years ago for me, anyway."

Vincent released a small noise of shocked realization as he withdrew an elongated thin rectangle wrapped lovingly in a layer of foil. The label depicted the puffy-cheeked, blue-eyed face of a female human infant assuming a neutral expression. The young girl had thin eyebrows and wore a colorful bonnet tied beneath the neck.

"I - is that...?" Rainbow stuttered, her mouth dropping agape.

"Chocolate," Vincent breathed the forbidden word, grinning. He tore and peeled the foil, unwrapping the chocolate rectangle hidden within. He bit into the chocolate bar and munched happily, offering the snack to Rainbow.

She transferred the chocolate bar to one of her hooves, caressing the little bundle of love delicately as if it were her own foal. Rainbow didn't so much eat the semi-melted chocolate as she did absorb it. She tossed aside the foil when she was finished and licked her chops in satisfaction. "Oh my gosh. Not as good as Pinkie Pie's baking, but it's chocolate."

"Who's Pinkie Pie, again?" Vincent ate the last spoonful of his beef stew and tossed the empty metal tin away.

Rainbow smiled distantly. "Picture this: bright pink coat. Big wild, curly pink mane. Cutiemark of three balloons. She's a big, bouncing lovable goofball. She's one of my friends, and another Element of Harmony. She's a heck of a baker."

"Right. So, she's sporting, like, an 80s perm? Can't really visualize that." Despite his attempt at a joke, Vincent sighed. He clasped his hands together, interlocking his fingers. He frowned as he pondered, considering something. "Dash, I..." He released a sigh. "I think I'm jealous of you."

"Really?" Rainbow pursed her lips. "Why?"

"Because you have a purpose. You have a purpose to exist. You're a hero. Not in the same way as my dad used to be, but you still are." Vincent adjusted his fingers, interlocking them in an alternative way in an unconscious nervous gesture. "You choose to be a hero and serve your country and people in a meaningful way I never had the opportunity to do. You're... magical. You're above me. In more ways than one." Vincent twisted his thumb. He grunted, gently stretching his injured right shoulder as he adjusted his weight so he was directly facing her. "I'm like a war criminal awaiting death delivered by a firing squad. I'm biding my time. Tomorrow could be my last day alive, and... ergh. I don't care.

"Why...?" Rainbow frowned. "Why are you thinking these thoughts?"

"Because it's true. C'mon, kid. You're young. You have so much time left. And you have how many good friends? Five?" Vincent chuckled dryly, breaking eye contact and looking away with a sigh. He stood and walked a few feet away, pacing. Rainbow observed for a few moments before hopping up onto her hooves and trotting forward to physically block and interrupt his repetitive movements.

"We're cut from different cloth, Dash." Vincent gazed down at her. "My world just isn't... it's Limbo. I live in Limbo. Humans are the most morally-grey creatures in the universe. Some are the most evil sons-of-bitches and some live just to help others. But most of us... most of 'em are like me, just coasting through life without a care." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers in frustration.

Rainbow considered carefully how to respond to her emotionally-volatile friend. "Have I told you who Princess Luna is?"

"Barely. Not enough."

"She's the younger of the Royal Sisters. Luna controls the moon and stars. I don't know her very well personally, but I've heard she's intimately familiar with each star in Equestria's night sky. Maybe..." Rainbow dared to smile. "Maybe I could convince her to name one after you. A big, bright one."

A smile of awe and wonder briefly graced Vincent's lips. "Really...? You told me a little before, but I guess that never came to mind. Is that legal?"

Rainbow chuckled, rolling her eyes. "She's a princess, Vince. She leads the country. Everypony reports to her and her sister.

"What would you have it named? A star?"

Vincent hesitated, considering carefully. "My old DoD ID? Would a 10-digit number sequence work?"

"It'd be unique," Rainbow relented, "but who gives a flying feather about your country? What about you? What about the real Vince?"

Vincent smiled distantly. "This old man's no fun, Dash. Just have it be my name or somethin'."

"Nothing exciting? The soldiers you worked with never gave you a nickname?"

Vincent shook his head dismissively. "Naw. I got an idea, anyway. How about my and my girlfriend's initials and my DoD ID? 'VJM-APW-5557386361'."

Rainbow nodded firmly. "Got it. Now I just gotta commit that to memory. I promise if I ever make it home I'll let Luna know personally."

When she extended a hoof and gesticulated invitingly, Vincent frowned, eying her in a perplexed fashion. "What are you doing?"

"Offering to hug you, grump. C'mon." Rainbow smiled encouragingly.

"I, er..." Vincent gazed aside as if visually searching for a nearby excuse. Either finding nothing or simply surrendering, Vincent knelt in the sand and rested his weight onto both shinbones simultaneously.

Rainbow approached and reared up onto her rear legs, wrapping her forelegs around his neck and resting her comparatively-light body weight against him.

Vincent reciprocated without hesitation, resting his arms over her back. He splayed his fingers apart and dug them slightly into her fur.

Rainbow was gentle when she drew away from the hug. She gazed into her companion's small squinting eyes, witnessing the compassionate side of him continue to bloom like the vivid petals of a gorgeous flower. She smiled.

Vincent smiled a tiny smile. "Has anyone ever told you your eyes are gorgeous? I've never seen anyone with red-pink eyes."

"I have my mom's eyes. She told me the color's called 'cerise'." Flattered, Rainbow's ears perked up happily. "Thanks."

"When you get home and you tell everyone about me, Dash, promise me you won't cut anything out. I'm a lotta things, but I'm not a liar. Your friends deserve to know the truth about me, my dad, and everything else I've told you. I have a feeling you'd sugarcoat it."

Rainbow would have sugarcoated the story significantly. He was correct. Modifying Vincent's story so humans appeared more empathetic and having less unorthodox morals would make the story more digestible.

"Okay, I promise. You're right. I and everypony else deserve to know the truth."

Vincent stood with a groan, brushing violet sand from his clothes. "Speaking of truth, I gotta story for you right now."

"What's it about?"

Vincent began by briefly explaining the geography of Earth. Rainbow was stunned to hear how absolutely massive his home planet was compared to Equestria. She laid down on her side on the towel and assumed a comfortable position as she listened.

"Few years ago when I was still in the army, had leave for a few weeks. Went on a vacation to the Caribbean Islands. Jamaica specifically. I and a few other buddies stayed in a hotel in Montego Bay. Jacob and I shared a room near the floor where the hotel staff cooked breakfast every morning. I was lying in bed and could sense the smell of food from the buffet wafting through the halls and my room."

"Was it a tropical island?"

"Yep. Jamaican weather was usually above 80 degrees at all times and extremely humid when I was there."

"So..." Rainbow dreaded how Vincent would respond to her question. "Was it mostly seafood at the buffet?"

"They served everything, Dash." Vincent released a sigh of nostalgic delight. "Waffles. Bagels. Bacon. Maple syrup. Cream cheese. Salmon spread. Omelets. Jamaican coffee. Bowls of fresh fruit, booze—and that's just for breakfast! Stuffed shells. Manicotti. Parmesan. Shish kebabs. Shrimp. Lobster. Blue-claw crabs, snow-leg crabs. Flounder. Bluefish. Salmon. Cod. Clams. Oysters. Snails. Cocktail dip. Ranch. Catalina. All of the seafood was fresh. Salads. Cheesecake. Cherry pie. Blueberry pie. Peach pie. Coconut cream pie. Ice cream in big vats. Peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies..." Vincent smiled distantly. "Had a view of the beach from the hotel. Could sit and watch the tourists in the ocean and on the sand from a window while eating. At night, armed police would patrol the beach to ward off vagabonds and troublemakers."

"So no nighttime swimming in the ocean?"

Vincent chuckled. "Naw. No nighttime skinny-dipping."

"I wasn't joking."

"Well, that's just the way things are, Dash. Vandals are everywhere. Mostly teenagers and adrenaline junkies like you. Cops kept the beaches clean and unpolluted."

"Hey!" Rainbow immediately protested. "I'm not a trouble-maker! ...Mostly!"

"First opportunity I got, I decided to get my feet wet. The Caribbean ocean is stunning. Golden sand and crystal-clear water. Waded a few miles from the coastline and the water was still only up to my waist. No waves, smooth as glass. Could still see the sand beneath me from the surface. There were tropical fish and rays everywhere sporting every color of the rainbow. Kinda like your hair.

"Beach I went to was a topless beach, and, y'know, had a lotta girls." Vincent smirked and extended one of his hands and twisted the wrist so the palm was facing upwards in an unknown gesture.

Rainbow hesitated for a few moments before understanding struck her. She grimaced. "That's really gross. Why did ya have to make it sexual?"

"I was a 20-something-year-old on vacation in a foreign country on an island in the middle of a tropical archipelago. You wouldn't take the opportunity to have a little fun, too? C'mon."

Imagining herself in the same idealistic situation and how she might realistically react, Rainbow subtly blushed and looked away, avoiding eye contact due to sudden embarrassment. "Keep tellin' the story, Vince."

"Jacob rented a catamaran so we could go swimming past the coral reefs. I had a close encounter with a reef shark."

"Did it bite you?" Rainbow's eyes widened slightly in mild alarm.

"Nope. Just bumped against me. Thing to do when you're in that situation is to stay completely still until it grows bored and leaves. Like a bully, y'know? They want attention, and they'll leave you alone if they don't get that attention.

"Visited a bar down near the beach. Got sloshed on Bahama mamas. Rum, pineapple juice and orange juice. 'Bout yea big." Vincent paused and extended both hands, flattening them. He held one above the other to indicate the height of the glasses of booze. Rainbow's eyes widened.

"Went horseback riding. Rode a black-and-white Appaloosan. Aside from its beaches, Jamaica is pretty hilly inland and has a lot of dense, tropical forests. It's a damn fine country, at least based on what I've seen."

Rainbow internally questioned the morality of riding horses for entertainment, but didn't voice her concerns.

"When I got back to the hotel room, I drank some rosé and watched Jacob practice playing guitar." Realizing he had neglected to communicate the story correctly, Vincent blinked. "Forget to mention Montego Bay is a port city brimming with tourist attractions and resorts. Jacob bought an acoustic guitar from a music shop. His favorite song was 'Father and Son'. He... never learned to play the whole song, as far as I know."

"I would have liked to hear him play." Rainbow frowned.

Vincent nodded. "Yeah. Me too." He pursed his lips as he pondered longingly. "'Take your time, think a lot,' Dash, because 'you'll still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.'"

IX – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

A muted thump was produced from the three-dimensional, crescent-moon-shaped slit of obscuration as the rock Vincent had thrown collided with it.

"How do ya like that?" Vincent extended his left arm and flexed the muscles. "Used to play baseball. Even with my left arm, I can still hurl balls quick as a whip."

Rainbow Dash smirked, sensing an arisen opportunity to crack a joke.

"That's what she said!

"Step off the plate, pitcher. Lemmie try." Rainbow clutched a rock in her hoof and reared onto her rear legs, leaping into the air and executing an energetic midair flip that contributed additional momentum to her throw.

The rock whizzed through the air and collided with the colorless, shimmering obscuration ringing the northern boundary of Grape Soda ocean, ricocheting and careering over Rainbow and Vincent's heads towards a nearby field.

Vincent ducked preemptively, dodging the fastball. "Holy shit! How'd you do that?"

"Practice." Rainbow grinned proudly. "But, hey, you can toss pretty good for someone without magic, Vince. You're fit as a fiddle, too. We both are."

"Speak for yourself. I'm more of a bass." Vincent bent at the waist and plucked more rocks from the ground, tossing one to Rainbow. She caught it in her teeth and transferred it to a hoof.

"How does magic... work?"

Before responding, Rainbow propelled another fastball at the tremulous anomaly, bucking the rock with one of her rear legs.

"That's a long story. It's different for everypony. Basically, magic exists in Equestria and different creatures can interact with it in unique ways. I was born a pegasus, so I can manipulate weather passively.

"Twilight's a unicorn. Unicorns can manipulate magic actively. Active magic manipulation is so complicated most professionals call it 'spell-casting' and call magical effects 'spells'."

Vincent frowned, confounded. "You've already lost me. What's the difference between passive and active magic manipulation?"

Rainbow rotated to face Vincent, focused entirely on her explanation of magic and how it functioned. "Some creatures can use magic actively and others use it passively. 'Passive' means they have no control over which magical effects they can create. I can manipulate weather, and that's my passive ability. But, on the other hoof, Twilight can shoot magic blasts, summon fire or send stuff back in time. Earth ponies have passive magic where they can manipulate plants and help them grow."

"So you could just..." Vincent paused, blinking confusedly, "...summon lightning right now?"

"No way! But that'd be awesome." Rainbow grinned. "No, when I say 'weather manipulation' I mean if I touch clouds I can influence them. Make them rain or shoot lightning. Form them into shapes. Make rainbows with water drops."

"Would love to see you do that, Dash. Not sure I'll fully believe you until you do.

"Sorry I clipped your wings."

"You don't gotta keep apologizing. They'll grow back soon." Rainbow fluttered her wings, unfurling one and extending it before herself. Some of the clipped feathers had yet to molt, but new feathers were beginning to grow where others had already fallen.

Vincent shrugged both shoulders, stretching. "So, step four of the scientific method: complete. Steps five and six: we've identified the weird glassy haze is solid and immune to all abuse we're willing to inflict upon it. 'Side from rammin' it with the truck."

"Have you tried verbal abuse?" Rainbow grinned.

"Can't say I have! Just don't say anything mean to the truck—you'll hurt her feelings." Vincent smirked and motioned to the nearby Inexorable he had circumnavigated around to the northern side of Grape Soda ocean.

Rainbow was interrupted from her fabrication of a humorous reply by a peal of thunder. She gazed up into the sky, noticing clouds forming. They weren't the standard cheerful, puffy white clouds or grey thunder clouds; they were black with malice and magic.

"Get in the truck, Dash," Vincent cautioned.

Rainbow didn't need to be ordered twice. She trotted to the passenger's side of the Inexorable and hopped up into the passenger's seat, closing the car door on her side.

Vincent climbed into the driver's seat and slammed the car door on his side of the vehicle tightly. He rested both hands on the truck's steering wheel, gripping his fingers around the wheel. "Migrations usually don't happen this frequentl—"

Vincent's statement was interrupted by another loud peal of thunder that echoed across the desolate plains and hills of Nowhere. Rainbow heard the raindrops thrumming rhythmically against the Inexorable's lemon metal roof. She released a sigh, resting her head against the back of the car seat in an attempt to relax. She heard Vincent speaking, but he wasn't uttering comprehensible words. An indistinct noise prickled her mind, something that almost resembled speech. She blinked.

She blinked again. Rainwater was seeping into her eyes.

Rainbow gasped, retreating from the precipice. A few feet below were the depths of Grape Soda ocean. She had unconsciously exited the Inexorable and navigated outside towards the ocean. She hadn't even felt the grass beneath her hooves or the rain pattering against her fur.

Vincent grasped one of her legs tightly and physically halted her. "What the hell are you doing‽"

Rainbow lowered her ears shamefully. "I - I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me!"

Fear struck her briefly as a small bipedal drake scampered close, but the sensation faded as she acknowledged it was Migrating. It circumnavigated Grape Soda ocean in its pursuit to travel south.

Rainbow observed an abnormally-large snake slither across the grass. She was experiencing dizziness and weightlessness. Muffling and drowning out Vincent's concerns was an indistinct whisper that penetrated Rainbow's head and dwelled within her mind.

Her eyes focused and she heeded Vincent addressing her. "What? S - sorry, it's just... I thought I heard someone speaking. It's coming in and out."

"Is it saying anything?" Vincent knelt on one knee and clutched one of Rainbow's hooves tightly to assure she wouldn't successfully wander away again.

"Nothing I can make heads or tails of." Rainbow's ears drooped from embarrassment. "I... don't know what's happening to me..."

"This isn't gonna get worse, is it?" Vincent's facial expression was firm and flooded with concern. "Is the desire to move that strong?"

"Didn't even notice I left the car," Rainbow admitted.

"Might have to restrain you next time," Vincent mused. "We can talk about it when I start drivin'."

"That's not... ideal, but I trust you to keep me safe." Rainbow's worries were alleviated slightly by the comforting thought of a friend guarding her in her crisis.

The rainfall concluded as the Migration ceased. The magical clouds dispersed at an artificially-enhanced pace that rivaled Rainbow's own maximum velocity while flying.

"I didn't like that look in your eye when you were just starin' off into spac—" Vincent interrupted himself and froze.

Concern struck Rainbow as she immediately detected something was wrong. She gazed at Vincent's face and attempted to follow where his eyes were directed.

Lurking nearby was a large, carnivorous creature. It vaguely resembled a pegasus pony, with hooved legs and wings with tattered feathers. Its disheveled black fur was mottled with patches of grey and ridged where thick muscle lied concealed beneath. Its jaws were long and thin like the jaws of a canine or crocodile. Two piercing black eyes gazed directly at Rainbow. They were sharp and intelligent. They were the eyes of a hunter. It was a bird of prey.

The creature released a low-pitched, inquisitive hiss, poised in a precise, deliberate fashion.

Vincent moved slowly so as to not provoke the beast to attack, adjusting his body weight and hooking his arm around Rainbow's leg.

The bird of prey released a louder, cautionary hiss and rotated, plodding away. It spread its massive, blemished wings and took flight, departing.

"Why are you holdin' me like this, Vince?"

"Was gonna jump into the ocean and drag you with me at the first sign of that thing attacking us." Vincent released his grip on Rainbow's leg and stood. "Guess it wasn't hungry."

Rainbow stretched and released a yawn, shaking her body in an attempt to cleanse herself of the rain water clinging stubbornly to her blue fur. "I'm soaking wet."

Vincent copied her, shaking his arms and flicking his wrists in an effort to cleanse himself of rainwater clinging to the fabric of his Slavic military dress. "Dry off first, then we get movin'?"

"Humans didn't build that," Vincent determined.

"It's from Equestria! It has to be!" Rainbow opened the Inexorable's passenger-side door and hopped down to the ground below, bouncing excitedly.

Vincent had parked the Inexorable adjacent to the decrepit ruins of what had once been a building. The materials used to construct the building were brightly-colored and contrasted sharply with the surrounding terrain. They were undoubtedly materials originating from somewhere that wasn't Nowhere or Earth—likely Equestria.

It had perhaps been a stone tower originally constructed to serve as a temporary or permanent home, though it was impossible to determine from a distance. The ruins were overgrown by interloping vines and other plants. Years of exposure to harsh weather had marred the stone exterior walls and interior wood. The tower had long-since collapsed and felled a tree on the way down. It laid neglected atop the dirt, hugged by tall grass.

Rainbow cantered towards the ruins and leapt over the exterior stone wall, flapping her wings in midair to give herself a boost. Curiously, she explored the ruins, her hooves padding on torn, expensive red carpet. She searched for recent signs of occupancy by ponies or, alternatively, valuables to loot.

"Don't think anyone's lived here in a long time, Dash. What makes you so confident this place is from your home world, anyway?"

"This could be stone from the granite quarry in Rockville..." Rainbow mused, brushing her hoof against one of the weathered stone walls. Several loose chunks of rock detached and clattered against the wood floor.

"Excellent work, detective. You've deduced the stone walls are made of stone." Vincent snickered. "So how can you prove this is stone from your world, again? Was it the iconic grey color that gave it away?"

Rainbow disregarded her companion's teasing and continued exploring. She picked over the corpses of destroyed furniture and used her nose to gently flip the top cover of what appeared to be a spell tome. The dusty and weathered tome contained illegible text and unrecognizable symbols and diagrams.

She kicked aside the remains of a broken porcelain mug, moving on.

"Why do you even know what granite from 'Rockville' looks like? Thought you were an athlete, not a miner."

"Well... I don't," Rainbow conceded, raising a hoof to gesticulate, "but Rockville supplies stone for construction to towns all across Equestria. It'd be bound to come from there.

"I haven't been there personally, but Pinkie Pie has family from Rockville."

"Fascinating," Vincent mocked. "Place called 'Rockville' sure sounds excitin'."

Rainbow chuckled, reminded of Pinkie Pie's parents and sisters. "You don't know the half of it."

Rainbow circled a statue at the rear of the ruins, examining it from every angle. The statue depicted the form of a gorgeous, thin unicorn mare with a curved horn. No Cutiemark. Her delicate features had been forever preserved in marble. The chiseled white stone was blemished from exposure to the unrelenting dual suns of Nowhere, tinting the ornate stone with a tinge of beige. Vines had long since overgrown the statue and obfuscated the original words that had been painstakingly chiseled into the base. The language was foreign and the characters were completely illegible.

Adjacent to the statue led a flight of winding stone stairs down into dark depths incapable of being penetrated by the evening sunlight.

"Tacky. Who commissions statues of themselves?" Rainbow scoffed.

"Rich people," Vincent suggested. "Or this isn't who used to live here."

"So, guess we're goin' down there, huh?" Rainbow gazed into the black abyss. She gulped. "Something about that hole gives me the heebie-jeebies. You don't feel it too?"

"Naw." Vincent tossed Rainbow a flashlight, which she snapped from midair with her teeth. "Are you afraid of the dark or something?"

She transferred the flashlight to one of her hooves. "What if this is a grave, and this is somepony's memorial? It's not right to invade burial grounds."

"It's not a grave, Dash. Who has graves inside their house? And what graves have stairs leading below ground? We're not in Giza. This isn't The Great Pyramid." Vincent activated the flashlight attachment mounted to the side of his Kalashnikov rifle to assure it was functional, then immediately deactivated it. "Why are you scared? You afraid of ghosts?"

"I'm not scared." Rainbow waved her hoof dismissively. "What if it's a mausoleum or something?"

"Inside a house? That someone lived in?" Vincent repeated. He withdrew his rifle's charging handle with a finger and slipped the finger off of the handle, allowing it to fly forward with an audible clacking of metal against metal. "Get behind me, I'm going in first."

"Vince, if we see a ghost I don't think they'll respect your courage."

"It'll respect a 7.62." Vincent delved into the jet-black crevice that led beneath the surface, pointing his flashlight directly where he was descending. Rainbow had no choice but to follow him.

The flight of stairs spiraled gradually as they descended. Rainbow activated her flashlight and clutched it between her teeth securely as she walked, prepared to illuminate Vincent's path if his light malfunctioned.

"For how much you complained before we went in, there's nothin' down here so far. Except cobwebs—euck." Vincent made an audible noise of disgust as he released the underbarrel grip of his rifle and chopped his left hand through the strands of cobwebs impeding their descent.

"But—"

"Dash." Vincent paused. Rainbow could sense he was rolling his eyes. "Stand still and listen."

She obeyed his order, stopping. Her ears swiveled as she listened carefully. She detected nothing but the sound of Vincent's breaths. "It's eerily quiet.

"If the ghosts come for us, I'm lettin' them take you and bookin' it outta here first chance I get."

Vincent continued descending without replying.

The flight of stairs led to a wide stone chamber. Rainbow detached from Vincent and spread out, sweeping her flashlight's beam across the dusty, intricate stone walls of the decrepit underground chamber. Pillars and artwork were engraved into the walls, obscured by cobwebs, clusters of unlit candles and antique pottery.

"Apart from the spiders, I think this place is completely empty." Rainbow weakly attempted to crack a joke to disguise her fear.

"There's another room straight ahead."

"Really? Huh. Didn't see it." Rainbow glanced in the direction of the doorframe illuminated by Vincent's flashlight.

"Let's go claim our treasure."

"Treasure?" Rainbow repeated. "I don't think the spiders are stashing treasure down here."

"Could be treasure," Vincent reinstated. "Wealth, valuables. Bounty. Loot. Plunder. Booty!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Booty?" She repeated flatly.

Vincent's smirk rapidly vanished, substituted by a look of shock and pain as Rainbow shined her flashlight beam directly into his eyes. "Agh! Sorry."

Vincent approached the doorway and stepped beyond the threshold, sweeping his flashlight beam across the second chamber.

Rainbow trailed close behind, shining her flashlight beam to aid the vision of Vincent and herself.

They probably spotted the creature simultaneously. Rainbow released a soft gasp.

Atop an flat-topped altar at the rear of the chamber lied a creature inert in a confining position with its form curled in an unnatural way. Its body was composed of shimmering, scintillating golden light. When Rainbow blinked and tilted her head, its ethereal form swirled and wavered. Its body was regularly pulsating, emitting a soft glow that illuminated the altar it lied imprisoned atop.

The creature's anatomy resembled that of a pony. It looked like a unicorn with a thin, lithe form and long legs. Its spiraling horn curved subtly. It was bound by thin lengths of opaque blackness enveloping its limbs and horn.

Rainbow was instinctively scared, but something internally assured her the creature was harmless.

"Be not afraid." The creature raised its head and gazed directly at Rainbow. It bore two small, white orbs where eyes would have been positioned normally.

"W - wha—" Rainbow's eyes widened. "Did you say that, Vince?"

"Say what?" Vincent raised an eyebrow, confused.

"I think they... said something to me. They told me to not be afraid."

Vincent pursed his lips. "It say anything about Mary or Zechariah?"

"What? No."

"Okay, good."

When Rainbow began to slowly walk forward, Vincent reached with a hand to physically halt her. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"They..." Rainbow hesitated. She glanced at the creature. Pity welled within her. "They need help."

Before Vincent could interject, Rainbow returned her flashlight to him and trotted forwards. She ascended a flight of stairs and stepped onto the stone altar. She stood before the creature. "Can I help you? How do I help?"

The creature stared directly into her eyes. Its small white orbs were intelligent and piercing, yet emotionless. Despite earnestly attempting to determine what emotions the creature was feeling, Rainbow proposed no conclusions.

Cautiously, Rainbow reached a hoof forward and brushed one of the black tendrils binding the creature. Immediately, in a fashion so rapid it startled Rainbow, the tendrils evaporated into smoke.

The creature uncurled its form and slowly rose. It stood taller than Rainbow and gazed down at her in a position that almost resembled a bow.

"Courageous one," the voice within Rainbow's head purred contentedly. "Charitable one. Thou art impaired," it acknowledged.

A mystical golden glow emitted from the creature's horn and enveloped Rainbow's entire body. The glow glittered briefly before fading.

"Wha—?" She uttered a noise of confusion. Rainbow examined her legs, then unfurled her wings and extended them to their maximum length, gazing over her shoulders as she examined them.

Her wounds had been healed, and her clipped feathers had been mended. Her wings had been restored to their original state. "My wings!" Rainbow cheered, fluttering her wings with joy.

"T - thank you! Thank you!" Rainbow beamed, bowing her head respectfully for a moment.

The creature stood motionless, observing her reaction.

"Can you heal Vincent, please?"

It hesitated. Perhaps it was considering Rainbow's request.

"Was shot," Vincent clarified, stepping onto the altar. "Shoulder ain't doin' too good, weird... ghost thing."

The creature silently cast a restoration spell, briefly enveloping Vincent's right arm in a golden glow. He flexed his muscles when the spell concluded, stretching his shoulder freely. "Wow! Thanks."

"Are you a god?" Rainbow assumed a somber facial expression as she referenced the serious topic. "I know one. His name is Discord, he's native to my home world. Do you know him?"

Silence.

"Can you take me and Vincent home? Please?" Rainbow sighed, frowning. "We're not... from here. This isn't right."

"Our debt hath been abolished."

Rainbow was disappointed to witness the creature vanish. The ethereal glow emanating from its body faded, but its disappearance coincided with all of the candles scattered across the chamber igniting simultaneously.

"That... looked like a ghost." Vincent deactivated the flashlight attachment on his rifle and suspended it over one shoulder by its sling. "How'd you free it?"

"The black stuff just seemed to melt right off them when I touched it," Rainbow admitted. "They were so polite! They healed us!"

Vincent shrugged. "Could have at least said 'no' to the 'returning us home' thing."

"They healed my wings!" Rainbow repeated, still ecstatic. "I think I did a good thing helping them, Vince. I feel... happy."

"Well, la-di-do-da-dah." Vincent yawned casually, stretching his healed right shoulder.

Rainbow ripped the now-obsolete plasters off of her fur, discarding them.

Upon further inspection, Rainbow discovered there now lied a brilliant sapphire pendant suspended from a gold chain where the angelic creature had vanished.

She handled the object with care, rotating the pendant with a hoof as she examined the gemstone. Observing the immaculate sapphire reflect candlelight and shine, she detected the familiar sensation of magic within her outstretching and interweaving with the magic contained inside of the artifact. By second-nature, she wielded the artifact in a hoof and...

The enchanted pendant glowed. One of the lit candles positioned on a corner of the stone altar levitated into the air.

Vincent's eyes bulged. "Wha—? How are you doing that?"

"This is an enchanted gem, Vince!" Rainbow ceased levitating the candle and placed it onto the altar where it had originally stood. "It's enchanted with unicorn magic! Now anypony can use this gem to cast whatever spells were enchanted into it."

"What are 'spells', again? This whole 'magic' shit is really confusing." Confounded, Vincent frowned.

"Spells are how unicorn magic interact with the world. Unicorn magic is inside this gem, so me levitating that candle—that was one of the spells it's capable of casting."

"Can... I try?" Vincent extended a hand.

"Be my guest." Rainbow offered the necklace to her companion with a hoof.

Vincent cautiously grasped the necklace by its chain as if the metal were searing hot and might scald him. He clutched the pendant like it were a magician's wand and waved it in the direction of a candle resting atop the altar. He waited patiently for something to occur. Nothing happened. "I, er... don't think I'm doing this right."

"Magic takes time," Rainbow assured him. "Most foals can't use magic. It takes a lot of practice. Years, usually."

"Thought you said I had no magic."

Rainbow shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe you're just a late bloomer! Fluttershy was. She could barely fly when we were in flight school, and she's a couple years older than me."

Vincent seemed unconvinced and dissatisfied. He offered the necklace to Rainbow, which she accepted with a hoof.

She raised the pendant over her head and slipped it over her ears using her wings, suspending the necklace from her neck.

"That sapphire looks nice on you." Vincent nodded approvingly. "Chain isn't too loose, either. Fits perfectly."

"Right where it belongs." Rainbow smiled. "I'll keep it safe and use it in emergencies. I think she'd want that."

"I don't think it cares anymore about its lost property, Dash. Ghosts can't wear jewelry. Ghost, angel or whatever that was."

Rainbow opened her mouth to voice a lengthy theory she had been conceiving since witnessing the creature, but Vincent raised his finger and interjected. "I know what you're gonna say, and no, it ain't worth guessin' what that thing was or what this place was built for."

"C'mon, this is a real mystery! How did they get trapped like that? Ritual gone wrong? Spell gone wrong? Betrayed by somepony else?"

Vincent shook his head, firmly expressing his disinterest. "We have a job to do. If this feeling you keep getting during the Migrations turns out to be nothing, we can drive back here and play detective, okay?"

Rainbow sighed, reluctantly nodding. "You got a point. Guess I should just be grateful they were nice."

Vincent nodded. "That isn't standard 'round here."

It was twilight when the pair emerged from the secret basement. During the return trip to the Inexorable, Rainbow harvested as many damaged books from the ruins as Vincent allowed her to store in the truck—which weren't many. When Vincent wondered aloud why she was fascinated with damaged, "useless" books, Rainbow shared her thought that Twilight would believe spell tomes from another world were highly valuable, regardless of how little material was actually salvageable.

Rainbow flew as frequently as possible when outside, stretching and exercising her newly-healed wings.

"Ain't tiring?" Vincent wondered, eying Rainbow as she hovered above the Inexorable.

"Nope! I'm a Wonderbolt, and I've trained for stamina!" Rainbow announced proudly, landing on the Inexorable's lemon roof. Her hooves made subtle clanking noises against the thin steel roof as she adjusted her weight and laid down, observing Vincent as he stored the spell tomes he had agreed to help transport in the truck's back seat. The gold setting of Rainbow's sapphire pendant swung on its chain and clattered against the roof.

"You're gonna scratch the paint job."

"We're adventurers, Vinny, not catwalk models. Don't think a few scratches on the paint matter."

"'Catwalk models'?" Vincent repeated, chuckling. "Don'tcha mean game show models?"

"'Game show'?" Rainbow repeated, raising an eyebrow confusedly.

"Y'know, like The Price is Right? Became popular on television 'bout 30 years ago?" Vincent rotated 90 degrees and spread his arms, waving them as if motioning to a nearby object. "'Congratulations, you've just won a brand new car! It's a 2004 Toyota Corolla worth $20000!'"

"I don't think you understand what I meant.

"There's a cinema in Ponyville, are you talkin' about a movie?" Rainbow cocked her head to a side.

"Television," Vincent repeated. "It's a device. Has a screen. Accepts signals delivered from antenna, cable or satellite that tell it what to display, basically."

"Satellite...? Like, a moon?" Rainbow's face scrunched in confusion and annoyance. She hated others knowing when she was ignorant on a topic.

"Artificial satellite orbiting Earth," Vincent clarified. "Small. Made of metal." He extended one finger vertically into the air and spun it in a small circle to imitate the action of orbiting.

"Without magic? H - how? How do the signals know where to go?"

"Uh..." Vincent shrugged. "No idea. It's got something to do with electromagnetic waves and receivers. I'm a mechanic, not a physicist."

Rainbow's ears perked up with curiosity. "'Waves'? I've heard Twilight talk about magical waves before, but I wasn't really listening."

"'I wasn't really listening'," Vincent repeated, grinning. "Wow. I'm sure she loved that."

"There's a reason Twilight has never tried talkin' to me about magic after I did that." Rainbow grinned. She stood and leapt into the air, taking flight. She hovered a few feet above the ground, skillfully orbiting Vincent while maintaining her hover by flapping her wings with a specific rhythm. She circumnavigated him and began to hover in front of him at eye level. "There's also a reason why I returned all the books she gave me on magic without finishin' any of 'em. Unless it's Daring Do, reading just ain't my thing."

"If all I had to do to learn how to use magic was read a book..." Vincent trailed off, smiling distantly. "I'd love to learn how to float stuff or whatever."

"You can commission unicorns to enchant stuff for you that can do just about anything! But you need to pay them if they ask for Bits, and then you need to learn how to actually cast the spell yourself, blah-blah-blah..." Rainbow made an exaggerated facial expression of annoyance by rolling her eyes and poking her tongue out of her mouth. "It's a whole process. Most ponies just don't wanna take the time to do all that! Myself included."

"So how do you know how to make stuff float with your necklace there?"

Rainbow grinned proudly. "Figured it out on the spot! Cool, huh? Twilight says it's easy for some ponies to do spells if they visualize 'em. I guess that method works for me.

"A lot of passive and active magic is just... feeling it. It's probably different for everypony."

"Still jealous of ya," Vincent admitted. "Now a little proud."

"Thanks." Rainbow smiled. She hesitated, pondering a potential proposal before voicing it. "Hey, y'know, if humans do have magic in them and can use it, it might be unique. Every creature in Equestria interacts with magic in different ways, but that's Equestrian magic. Maybe you have Earth magic in you...? Twilight'd probably be blown away if you let her study you!"

Vincent immediately shook his head. "Trust me, Dash, humans have tried summoning magical powers since... the beginning of human history, probably. Real long time. If magic actually existed, someone would have discovered it by now."

Rainbow hung her head, disappointed. "It's cool teaching somepony about something, but... I don't wanna make you feel left out."

Vincent didn't reply. He silently observed Rainbow hover in midair before him. He smiled slightly. "Y'know, I miss when you weren't at my eye level."

"I can go higher! Don't try me!" Rainbow grinned. She landed onto the ground and folded her wings, tilting her head back to gaze up at her companion.

"Anyway, I'm gonna show you my moves tomorrow. Just you wait!"

"Am excited for that," Vincent conceded. "Also excited 'bout gettin' some shuteye. We were down there longer than I thought we'd be."

Rainbow hovered above the ground and effortlessly opened the Inexorable's passenger-side door using a hoof. She marveled at how easy accomplishing tasks were using her wings.

Within the shelter provided by the vehicle, Rainbow closed the car door on her side of the truck and leaned back in her seat.

Vincent stepped into the vehicle and assumed his position before the steering wheel, slamming the driver's side door shut. He released a sigh as he reclined in his seat and relaxed his body, closing his eyes.

Rainbow curled into a little ball, nuzzling her nose against the sapphire pendant as it was shifted near her face when she laid down.

"Hey, Vince, I, uh... I really wish you could come home with me." Rainbow gazed into the depths of the polished blue crystal lying directly in front of her nose. "Everypony'd be fascinated by you, especially Twilight and other scholarly unicorns. You probably wouldn't want the attention, but... at least it would be an easy way for you to make new friends, so there's that."

"You're my friend, Dash, but I wouldn't choose some alien magical pony land over Earth if I could choose."

"We're friends? You really mean that?" Rainbow's ears perked to attention. She raised her head and looked over at her companion.

"'Course."

Rainbow smiled, reassured. "Thanks. It's been great gettin' to know ya, Vince."

"We're not at the end. Yet. Still got stories left to tell ya."

"Lookin' forward to hearin' 'em."

X – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

Rainbow Dash ascended high into the sky in preparation of performing perhaps her most prodigious concatenation of stunts ever. She hovered momentarily in midair and contorted her body so she was leaning diagonally. Her legs were spread in a casual, eased way, as they weren't necessary to support her weight while midair. Rainbow gazed down at the ground where Vincent sat atop the roof of the Inexorable, observing her. She waved a hoof to assure his attention was captured before she executed her tricks.

She began by accelerating rapidly and extending her forelegs before herself, punching holes though clouds and configuring them into specific shapes as she passed.

Water originating in the clouds adhered to her feathers, mane and fur. Excess water droplets streamed in her wake, trailing her as she performed convoluted twists, dives, horizonal rolls and loops.

When Rainbow reached the apex of her ascent, she spread her wings to their maximum length to decelerate rapidly. The water droplets streaming in her wake finally caught up to her, splashing against her feathers and coalescing to form a picturesque rainbow arc that gleamed brilliantly in the morning sunlight.

Rainbow struck an elegant pose beneath the rainbow arc, pumping one of her forelegs away from her body. She glanced over her shoulder at the clouds she had rapidly punched holes through and molded. She knew how they appeared from the perspective of a grounded spectator.

<3 RD

Rainbow angled herself so she was facing directly downwards and began rapidly descending, pointing her forelegs forward and folding her wings against her back to achieve maximum velocity.

White streaks flanked her as the air molecules before her forelegs compressed, incapable of dodging her hooves as she rocketed through the air, continuing to accelerate. Her soaked mane and tail flapped in the turbulence like streamers on a windy day.

At the climax of Rainbow's spectacle, an opaque rainbow ring exploded outwards from her body and dilated rapidly. The Sonic Rainboom momentarily coated the entire sky before dissipating. Rainbow whooped and hollered, cheering.

She performed a celebratory corkscrew thrice before decelerating and landing onto the ground before the Inexorable. She grinned, her wings erect with enthusiasm and gratification. "Did ya see that‽"

Rainbow panted, out of breath. She sagged with fatigue, swiping a foreleg against her forehead to wipe away sweat. "Water, please!"

Vincent hopped down to the ground from atop the Inexorable's roof and tossed her a full canteen, which she gratefully accepted, catching from midair using a hoof. He grinned proudly. "That was... awesome! Never seen anything like it. Guess you really did earn that mark!"

"Sure did! Find me a storm cloud and I'll show ya lightning too!" Rainbow spoke between gulps of water. She emptied the canteen in mere seconds and juggled it between her wings. Once again having the ability to manipulate objects using her flight feathers was gratifying.

After returning the canteen, she glanced down at her sapphire pendant. The gold chain remained taut around her neck, neither excessively loose nor excessively tight. She used the primary feathers of her right wing to cant the gold setting, provoking the polished sapphire to gleam brilliantly in the morning sunlight.

"Doubles as a magic thing and a directed-energy weapon," Vincent joked, holding a hand aloft to obstruct the reflected sunlight beam shining into his eyes.

"Huh?"

Vincent shrugged. "Yeah, sorry. I dunno. Sounded funnier in my head."

"'Directed-energy'?" Rainbow repeated, raising an eyebrow. "I thought humans didn't have magic."

"We don't. The government and CCDCAC are working on weaponizing electromagnetic waves, lasers and sound waves and stuff to kill electronics like the ones used in guided missiles. I bet that tech'll be used in Afghanistan by..." Vincent rubbed his chin absently as he carefully pondered. "2011? 2014 at the absolute latest, assuming the war isn't over by then. Judging by how things were looking in 2007, it just might last that long."

"What year did you come to Nowhere?"

"It's about 2011 now. Came here about four years ago. Not sure, haven't been counting."

Rainbow gazed down at her sapphire pendant, avoiding eye contact for a moment. "Do humans... enjoy war? Is it part of their culture? Why do you have so many weapons?"

"Enjoy? Ergh... No. Most don't.

"Humans don't have one single culture, Dash. There's six-and-a-half billion of us, and that number increases by 100 million every year. There's 200 nations in the world—" Vincent paused, considering. "250? A lot. Modern humans have been around for thousands of years. The world's a big place. Everyone doesn't get along. Millions of people have died in war. Maybe billions."

"Why...?"

"Get in the truck. We'll talk." Vincent approached the driver's side of the Inexorable and ascended the shelf mounted beneath the door to climb into the vehicle.

Rainbow circled the truck and took flight, hovering adjacent to the passenger's side door and opening it, assuming a sitting position atop the car seat on her side of the truck.

Vincent inserted the key into the Inexorable's ignition and rotated it, starting the engine.

Rainbow hung her head in solemn contemplation, gazing down at her rear hooves folded beneath her as she sat back on her haunches. She felt the Inexorable reverse as Vincent guided the truck, directing it south. It began to move.

"Were any wars ever fought for a good purpose...?"

Vincent gripped the steering wheel with his left hand at 12 o' clock and relaxed his right hand as he leaned against the back of his car seat. "Rarely. Like stopping Hitler back in the '40s in World War II."

"Who was that?"

"Ergh..." Vincent shrugged. "Bad guy. Ordered a lot of people to be imprisoned because they were a race he hated or did stuff he hated. Killed them, sometimes did even worse things to them."

"What else did he hate?"

"Communists. Socialists. Homosexuals. A lot of people."

"Homosexuals?" Rainbow's ears laid back sadly. "How could you imprison someone based on who they choose to love?" Receiving no answer, she changed the topic. "Who let him be in charge?"

"No one. He exploited the terrible state of his home nation and manipulated everyone with his charisma.

"He wasn't the first bad person in human history, though, not by a long shot."

"You talk like you aren't human."

Vincent reached below his chin using his right hand and rubbed one of his dog tags with a thumb. He sighed. "I'm human. We all are. But there isn't just one definition for 'being human'."

He glanced over at Rainbow. "You can't identify flaws in your own society from an outside perspective?"

She carefully considered. "No. Ponies work and are paid for their own needs and talents. I'm a Wonderbolt, I'm a really good flyer. It's something I love doing. Pinkie Pie sells baked goods, and she learned how to bake because it's a practical skill related to her special talent. Equestria has a currency but it isn't hoarded by anypony. I guess the royalty in Canterlot do somewhat, but that's money coming in and out constantly. It's constantly in circulation funding schools, health care and a bunch of other public policies."

"Sounds like Karl Marx's theory of communism. Individuals are divided by their talents and rewarded based on their performance. As far as I know, there's never been a truly successful communist nation on Earth. All of them have either been twisted or corrupted."

Rainbow frowned. "Humans... suck. No offense. They're selfish. They have all this technology, culture and power and they choose to do the worst things."

"Yeah. I know. Not everyone's terrible, though. Humans have done some good stuff. Art, literature, music. Some people are very charitable. Humanitarian groups travel overseas to countries during wartime to help feed or evacuate the civilians. Africans. And Afghans.

"Anyway, I guess you could say humans are morally grey, and the choices they make depend on the cards they're dealt. They improvise and adapt. For years I never thought I'd join the military, then I looked at the benefits... and I knew what I had to do. You live your life and things happen to you, you make choices of your own and that molds you and determines where you fit in after enough time passes."

"You act like everything is uncontrollable. It's not. You're in control of your own life."

"You can't change the world, Dash. People have been trying since forever."

"Do you want terrible stuff to happen?" Rainbow persisted, changing her approach. "You think kicking the can down the road and justifying it by saying everything is out of your hooves is okay?"

Vincent didn't reply. He decelerated the Inexorable and stopped the vehicle, then booted up the iPod and began scrolling through the list of available tracks. "One of my professors in college... older guy. Professor Campbell, his name was. You know why I respected Campbell? He was a Vietnam vet, same as my dad. Campbell loved Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire'. So did my dad. So did I." Successfully locating the relevant track, Vincent nodded in affirmation, tapping his thumb against the iPod's screen as he selected the 'play' button.

Vincent depressed the Inexorable's accelerator and drove the vehicle speechlessly as Rainbow listened to the song.

The Korean War. The first h-bomb. The communist Eastern Bloc. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest. Rosa Parks' Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Suez Crisis. The Soviet Union's Sputnik 1. Operation Blue Bat. The North American Mafia. Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro. Ernest Hemingway's suicide. The Berlin Wall. The 1962 Ole Miss riot. US president John F. Kennedy's assassination. The Vietnam War. Apollo 11. Woodstock counter-culture. Land Day. The Soviet–Afghan War. The maltreatment of Vietnam veterans. The Syringe Tide. The Tiananmen Square massacre.

"I didn't understand any of that," Rainbow admitted. "But... I'm guessing most of it's bad.

"What's an h-bomb?"

"You don't wanna know." Vincent gripped the truck's steering wheel tightly with both hands, watching where he was driving. "Point is, life's a game of dirty poker and you're always dealt a losing hand. People make choices based on the cards they're dealt, sure, but the whole deck's garbage, all of it. Living's hard when the whole deck's stacked against you."

"So you're just gonna fold and... give up?"

"Not yet. But y'know, Dash, the only way to win a rigged game is to cut your losses and quit."

Vincent released the grip of his right hand on the truck's steering wheel and rested it atop the gearshift stick.

Rainbow sat up straight and gazed through the Inexorable's windshield. The surrounding environment was transitioning from lush, green grass and healthy trees to rocky terrain interspersed with thin patches of weeds. Vincent decelerated and drove slower over the uneven terrain. The vehicle's superior suspension effortlessly absorbed each bump and jolt.

"Tell me one of your father's stories from when he was a soldier."

"When my dad was in Vietnam?" Vincent hesitated briefly, steeling himself. "There's some things I have to explain first..."

Vincent briefly provided context about the United States and the USSR prior to its dissolution in 1991.

He described the story in excessive detail. His father was one of the few survivors of a skirmish with communist forces. It was an open field. 9 men dead and an officer down.

Despite Vincent relaying excerpts originating directly from his father, Rainbow still failed to comprehend the sheer chaos that inevitably would have surrounded the battle. Vincent's descriptions and terminology incited terrible memories of her vivid lucid dream where she was fighting Sombra's forces in the Frozen North and lost her wing to a magical blast.

She decided then that war was humanity and Equestrians at their absolute worst. It was something she never wanted to personally witness, and was something she personally wanted to assure would never happened.

To make matters worse, Vincent's relaying of the story had reminded Rainbow of the Slavic soldiers she had witnessed him shoot. It was an act of self-defense, but, nonetheless, it was an inexcusable act.

She gazed out of the Inexorable's passenger-side window, observing rocky terrain enter and leave her view as the Inexorable soared by. She sighed sadly.

Outside, the terrain had gradually transformed from grassy plains and smoothly-inclining hills to exposed rock and dramatic shifts in elevation. To the right rose a tall cliff that cast a long shadow, partially obscuring the light provided by the dual suns. Shards of rock jutted from the ground like exposed bone from a compound fracture poking through the skin. Occasionally, Vincent had to decelerate the Inexorable and circumnavigate a few of the larger spikes.

She hoped the Inexorable's tires could withstand driving over the rough terrain without slashing or popping.

Far in the distance directly south lied a colossal rock formation that reached to the heavens like a skyscraper. It consisted of several thick rings positioned adjacent to one another.

"I don't like this place. It's creepy. Don't these rocks look like... bones?"

Vincent glanced briefly out of the driver's side window on his side of the vehicle. "A little. Pretty sure those aren't actual ribs ahead of us, though. Nothing that big could ever exist. Blue dragon that chased us a few days ago was the biggest monster I've ever seen in Nowhere, and that thing was only 'bout twice as big as the truck. Maybe thrice as big."

Rainbow shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She tapped her hooves nervously against the pleather material. "I know you said you don't wanna talk about when you were in your country's military, so I'm not gonna beg ya. Just wanna tell you I'm sorry. You're right, it's... a burden. Has to be. You promised not to sugarcoat. I believe everything you've told me, being a soldier sounds like a nightmare."

"Weren't the worst thing in the world. If I never signed up for the army, I never woulda met Jacob. And besides, I—"

A thump on the Inexorable's metal roof startled Rainbow, making her jump. "What the heck was that?" She gazed through the window on her side of the vehicle, seeing nothing but the weathered stone wall of the cliff.

An unidentified black ball landing onto the Inexorable's lemon hood with a heavy thump made Vincent curse. His grip on the steering wheel loosened and the vehicle swerved briefly before he could reassume control.

He slammed the brakes and the truck decelerated responsively. The black ball was sent careering off of the hood from momentum and rolled a few feet ahead of the vehicle.

"Heck was that?"

"You think I know? I've never been this far south before. Didn't think this place'd see raining..." he paused, blinking, "...Fuzzies."

"Fuzzies?" Rainbow repeated the unfamiliar name, raising an eyebrow.

Vincent jerked the gearshift lever and shifted into park. He opened the door on the driver's side of the vehicle and hopped down to the ground, immediately peeling left to withdraw one of the Kalashnikov rifles from the back seat of the vehicle.

Rainbow exited the Inexorable, flying over the truck's lemon metal roof to regroup with Vincent.

He chambered a round in his Kalashnikov rifle, clutching it securely in both hands. They went together to investigate the unidentified black lump that had struck the vehicle.

Rainbow hovered in midair, slowing the flapping of her wings and adjusting her altitude slightly to examine the black ball closer.

The sphere was no larger than the shape she could assume when curling up to rest. It was covered in a layer of black fur or feathers that waved visibly in a gentle breeze.

A head emerged from the sphere. Then legs. Then tiny wings. It vaguely resembled a pegasus pony, with four hooves and black feathered wings, but its snout was elongated like the snout of a crocodile. It opened its jaws and released a soft hiss, locking its black, expressionless eyes directly onto Rainbow.

"It's a fledgling." She cocked her head to a side.

"It seems okay, considering it fell so far onto my truck's hood. Probably made a dent, too."

"Maybe it was trying to fly?" Rainbow posited.

"Little shit."

Rainbow was about to reply, but the words caught in her throat and she made an unintelligible choking noise as she spotted the creature poised atop the cliff ahead. It was positioned with its hooves planted close together as it balanced on the edge of the precipice. Its massive feathered wings were spread as it prepared to leap. It released a low, gravely hiss. "Vince!"

Vincent had enough time to follow Rainbow's gaze, react to the creature and fire a shot with his rifle before the adult leapt off of the cliff, propelling itself downwards using its muscular rear legs.

"Shit—!" Vincent dove out of the way, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of the bird of prey as it soared through the position he had been occupying mere moments prior.

Rainbow had sufficient time to fall to the ground and duck, but, fortunately, she hadn't served as the creature's target. She rose to her hooves and observed the bird of prey land nearby. It bounced nimbly and rotated in midair to face her and Vincent, spreading its legs as it assumed a tactical stance. It unfurled its massive black wings, obscuring sunlight and casting dense shadows.

Rainbow copied its position, prepared to react to its impeding attack. She didn't dare glance in Vincent's direction, focused entirely on the threat before her.

Vincent fired a shot. This time, it managed to strike the creature, but it failed to impede it. It released a loud roar of pain and rage, fresh red blood slicking its black feathers as it launched forwards to attack.

Rainbow was prepared. She launched into the air and counterattacked to protect Vincent, landing a kick with one of her rear legs into the creature's neck. It was sloppy and poorly-timed, only serving to infuriate the creature further. She recovered quickly from the momentum of her own kick and hovered in midair, retreating as she led the creature away from Vincent.

Vincent fired a few shots, but they narrowly missed as the bird of prey rocketed forwards towards Rainbow, snapping its jaws. She dodged effortlessly backwards and looped around for a counterattack, landing a kick squarely into the creature's forehead, then another into its neck. The bird of prey was larger than the Inexorable, had thick bones and was mad. Rainbow's attacks did little more than piss it off further. Its wings were weak spots, however...

She dodged its snapping jaws once again and counterattacked, looping around and exploiting the creature's own huge mass and momentum against it as she bucked it powerfully in the side. Her target had been the base of its wing and she had failed to strike it, but she had succeeded in causing the bird of prey to crash headfirst into the cliff wall, releasing an avalanche of loose rocks that fell to the ground. It roared angrily, hovering in midair as it reoriented itself.

Rainbow retreated backwards a few feet, glancing downwards at Vincent as he attempted to line up a shot. "Now would be a good time to start shooting!"

"I'm trying, jackass! It won't stop moving!" Vincent fired a three-round burst of shots, then three more. The bullets whizzed past the monster and collided with the cliff wall, ricocheting off of the hard, flat rock with audible zinging sounds. He depressed the trigger once again, and the rifle clicked in an indication that the magazine was empty. He yelled expletives and ejected the empty magazine, reaching to his chest rig to retrieve a loaded magazine. His hands were shaking.

Rainbow heard the growl behind her and had enough time to instinctively duck as another bird of prey came careering over her head, its snapping jaws narrowly avoiding decapitating her.

Both monsters were now eying her warily, slowly encircling her from either side. Rainbow hovered in midair, twisting as she kept both monsters in sight simultaneously. She had no more options—she had to resort to utilizing the environment to her advantage.

Rainbow soared directly upwards and twisted, looped and corkscrewed to evade the monsters pursuing her.

It wasn't long before she broke through the clouds and emerged into the pure, unadulterated blue sky above. Nearby were fluffy white clouds, lacking lightning to be used offensively.

"Rain cloud!" Rainbow shouted triumphantly as she spotted a herd of rain clouds. They were light grey and not saturated with rain, merely lightly soggy, but they would suffice.

Rainbow encircled the rain clouds and consolidated them into a single giant cloud. When the second bird of prey pursuing her drew close, she bucked the giant cloud and zapped the creature with enough lightning to cause its muscles to lock up. It fell, roaring, to the ground far below.

Rainbow attempted to zap the first bird of prey and give it the same treatment, but the clouds lacked enough energy for another powerful jolt. The creature was stunned by the mild zap, but wasn't entirely impeded. It fluffed its bloodied feathers, roaring at her threateningly.

Rainbow yelped in surprise as the creature swiped a wing at her and a sharp claw raked her chest.

Rainbow was forced to retreat. She dodged the second attack by the creature and began descending in a sheer nose dive. She nimbly twirled and performed a barrel roll to evade the creature's attacks as it pursued her, leading it towards Vincent who, she assumed, was waiting patiently with a loaded gun.

He was.

Before the bullets exited the barrel of the rifle, Rainbow peeled left and made a precise 90 degree turn to evade the path of the rounds. Vincent fired rapidly in fully-automatic, burying seven bullets squarely into the creature's chest. Its wings fell limp and it dropped from the sky, its momentum causing its corpse to scrape along the rock ground for several moments until it eventually drew to a standstill due to friction.

Rainbow panted, out of breath. She regrouped with Vincent, landing onto the ground in front of him. Shocks of pain were coursing though her, which she assumed were her tense muscles aching.

"Nice flyin', ace. They ate your dust. And that second one sure ate some lightning!" Vincent ejected his rifle's magazine and shook it gently to estimate how full it was, then reinserted it. "That was a lotta ammo wasted," he grumbled.

"At least we're still alive." Rainbow breathed deeply, attempting to catch her breath.

"Believe it or not, they didn't train me to shoot shit zippin' around in the air 50 feet off the ground like a mad bat with rabies. Still, I got 'em."

Rainbow hung her head sadly, gazing at the corpses of the birds they had laid to waste. "I feel guilty. They were just defending their home. I hope they didn't have babies."

"Just the one, it looks like." Vincent glanced at the black fledgling left abandoned near the base of the cliff wall. "Figure if there were more, they'd have also tried to fly. It's probably old enough to take care of itself by now.

"We didn't do anything wrong," Vincent insisted. He depressed his rifle's safety lever and suspended the rifle over his shoulder by its sling. "Was self-defense," he clarified.

Rainbow clutched a hoof against her chest, grimacing. When she released the hoof and held it aloft, she realized it was covered in fresh red blood. The pace of her heartbeats quickened as alarm struck her.

"That's your blood?" Vincent knelt on one knee, frowning with concern. "Shit. What happened?"

"I - I don't know..." She panted, collapsing onto her haunches. She glanced downwards, witnessing the laceration that marred her blue-furred chest. For a moment, panic and overwhelming dizziness swelled within her.

"Last thing I need right now is for you to pass out." Vincent extended a hand in a 'stop' motion. He stood. "Just stay right there. Focus on breathing. I got more meds in the truck."

And so, for the second time in her life, Rainbow found herself lying in the lap of a friend during an intimate wound-dressing session.

Vincent advised her to divert her attention elsewhere by thinking pleasant or otherwise distracting thoughts. That was easier said than done.

"Does this bother you?"

"What?" Vincent's voice ushered Rainbow back to reality. She blinked, focusing and gazing up at him.

"You were frownin' and starin' off into space. Figured you were annoyed by something I'm doin'."

"Really? Wasn't tryin' to. Nah, I'm just tryin' to focus on other stuff like you told me." She sighed, gazing up into the sky, observing invisible air currents herd clouds east. She winced as shocks of pain coursed through her by means of Vincent routinely poked her with a needle.

"Tell me something about your life. Anything."

Contrary to her expectations, the prospect actually successfully distracted her. "I used to hate doing chores. Thought they were a waste of time. But, ponyfeathers, what I wouldn't do to fluff up my cloud bed or feed Tank right now. Bake some treats with Pinkie. Read books with Twilight. Heck, I'd even help model for Rarity. I used to hate being her pincushion—she always managed to poke me with the safety pins." She chuckled briefly, triggering Vincent to immediately rebuke.

"Stay still.

"Certainly are my pincushion right now. But, yeah. I know what you mean. Normal life felt mundane until I came here. Used to hate fixin' up my old piece-of-crap car only for something else to break weeks later."

There was a moment of silence.

Vincent pursed his lips in concentration. He applied some tape to secure the dense swathe of bandages newly wrapped around Rainbow's barrel. "Looky. Done now."

"Already?" Rainbow dared to stretch her extremities in an attempt to relieve cramping. The white bandages were stiff and impeded the range of motion of her forelegs.

"Resist the urge to stretch too often. New stitches are right between your two front legs—they'll easily rip out. Give 'em a week or so."

Rainbow considered this prospect as she attempted to stand. Immediately, her front legs buckled and she collapsed onto her side. Frustrated, she huffed and lifted herself off of the ground using her wings. She circumnavigated the Inexorable and, hovering in midair, used a hoof to yank open the passenger's side door. She landed atop the passenger seat and laid down with a grunt of exertion, folding her wings against her back.

Vincent deposited his rifle in the rear seat of the Inexorable before opening the driver's side door and ascending the shelf mounted to the side of the Inexorable, climbing into the driver seat. "So, story time?" He stretched with his arms raised above his head, relaxing his body. He turned his head, gazing in her direction.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, inordinately unamused. She trusted Vincent to ensure the laceration marring her chest was disinfected, closed and securely fastened with bandages, but, nonetheless, her body protested with consistent shocks of pain. "Not in the mood."

Vincent shrugged. He broke eye contact and lifted the iPod, pressing the power button and scrolling through the list of songs. He made a selection by tapping it with a thumb.

Rainbow listened to Pearl Jam's 'Yellow Ledbetter' until the five-minute mark when the gentle guitar strums gradually faded to a singular soft humming. She pondered before voicing her conclusion. "Why do these songs have lyrics you can't understand?"

"Doesn't matter." Vincent held his left arm out of the window on his side of the Inexorable and tapped his ignited cigarette with an index finger, discarding ashes. "What matters is how it makes you feel."

"I feel like..." Rainbow hesitated, favoring one reply over another, less-desirable one. "I feel like you and I aren't gonna make it out of here."

"Everyone dies," Vincent replied matter-of-factly. He exhaled, expelling smoke from his lungs.

"Stop! Stop saying this stuff!" Rainbow narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows dipping low as she frowned. "You're wrong! Things don't have to be this way, and by thinking this way you're contributing to the problem!"

"I've met people like you who thought they could change the world. But..." Vincent paused. He scrolled through the list of music stored within the iPod and selected 'Black' by Pearl Jam. "...things are already too far gone. You're seeing a tree you want to cut down, but you don't see the miles of roots extending far below the dirt. Human culture has been evolving for thousands of years, you can't just flip it off like a light switch."

Rainbow sighed, stubbornly gazing down into the depths of the blue reflections within her pendant's sapphire.

They avoided eye contact until the song concluded.

"You're all fucked."

"Watch your colorful language."

"Stubborn... fucks."

"Wow, real creative there." Vincent chuckled. "C'mon, I've taught you other curse words."

"Shut up."

"Well now, pardon me all to hell!" He extended his index finger and thumb and mimed removing an invisible Stetson hat. He smiled briefly. "My dad loved John Wayne. Old bastard, rest his soul."

Rainbow blinked. She opened her mouth to voice her confusion, then closed it, eliminating the question she had been considering asking from her mind.

"To enjoy living, you have to make the most of the little moments. There is no destiny or fate. Time will go down one specific path. Things rarely go your way. So don't expect to celebrate many victories."

"You're stubborn too. You always—" Rainbow cut herself off when she noticed Vincent grasp the iPod and begin browsing the available tracks. "Stop it!" She unfurled one of her wings and extended it, slapping his wrist. Vincent dropped the music player and rapidly withdrew his hand, his gaze snapping to hers as he frowned.

Rainbow didn't hesitate to mirror the facial expression, her eyes narrowing and ears folding flat against her head as she visually expressed her disapproval. "Are you even listening to me? Forget the stupid music."

Vincent shrugged. He raised a hand and rotated the wrist, revealing an open palm as he gestured in an unknown fashion.

"What's that supposed to mean? Look—" Rainbow winced as a shock of pain struck her. She sighed, lowering her head sadly. "Do you even care about me or yourself, or do you genuinely believe everything is supposed to happen one way, so why even try? You're afraid to rock the boat. You're a coward."

Vincent flicked the cigarette butt out of the open window on the driver's side of the vehicle, discarding it. He sighed, dragging his palm across his eyes and down his nose.

Rainbow hesitated, giving Vincent ample time to finish the statement he had started. When she attempted to speak, he raised a finger on his opposite hand in a halting gesture. "I figure I might as well be honest with you. I got nothing to lose. Said I would be anyway. I, ergh... Yeah. I know I'm a goddamn coward. I went on long hunting trips every weekend. Sometimes with my friends, sometimes not. That's how I ended up here—was driving my car and takin' my CZ 527 up to Woolsey Park. I avoided my girlfriend. I was afraid of her. I was afraid of committing." Vincent belched cigarette smoke in a husky cough. He sighed. "Am I making sense, here? Do you understand me? She was the most important person in my life and I fucked our relationship up."

"Maybe. I'm not gonna judge you. I don't know what being with someone like that is like." Rainbow bowed her head, nuzzling her nose against the sapphire mounted within the gold setting of her pendant. She rested her cheek against the crystal, lowering her head and relaxing for a moment as she considered what Vincent had revealed. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Everything. Also, I think I maybe offended you. Said you were stubborn and cowardly."

"Well, it's true." Vincent shrugged, tilting his head aside in acknowledgement. "I'm not denying that. You're spot on. But," Vincent raised a finger, "before you say anything, no, I'm not gonna change my attitude. We escape Nowhere and survive in the meantime, then worry about changing our life philosophies. 'Sides, usually when a guy wants to try that, he smokes a lotta weed beforehand. Ain't got any handy."

XI – Vincent – Nowhere

— Four years earlier —

Vincent shifted his weight and spun, gazing upwards, his eyes unfocused in the dark room. He withdrew from beneath the bedsheets and sat on the edge of the bed, groaning as he stretched his toned arms overhead.

"Come back to bed..."

"Anna." Vincent released a gentle sigh. He smiled briefly. The familiar accent of his girlfriend as she whispered lulled him into a soothing state of tranquility.

He lowered the tone of his voice to a soft whisper. "No. You know I have a long upcoming week. Need to get a head start. It's an hour drive to Woolsey Park."

"Don't go. You always waste your vacation days on you. Let's do something together." Anna tugged the bedsheets closer to her chin, more snugly lodging herself against the plush mattress.

Vincent breathed, inhaling the subtle scent of lavender emanating from the clean bedsheets. "Maybe next time. I made plans with friends, they're kind of expecting me to show up."

"You always have a convenient excuse."

"Yeah, maybe." Vincent hung his head, sighing. He rested his hands over his thighs for a moment, then twisted 180 degrees and leaned downwards, planting a kiss on his girlfriend's lips.

"Ich liebe dich." She smiled.

"Du bist mein ein und alles, Engel." Vincent exhaled gently, not wishing to ruin the moment.

Vivid blue eyes, luscious brown hair that spilled over the shoulders and a thin, subtly-square jawline—they were distinctive facial features of his girlfriend that Vincent's brain accurately recalled, despite the years that had passed since his departure from Earth.

He stood, stretched and retrieved the potted plant from where it had been displayed atop the nightstand. He had plucked it from the soil mere days after he had began dating Anna, and despite thorough internet and word-of-mouth research, the mysterious flower remained unidentified. Maybe his hunting buddies could share some new knowledge.

Departure checklist: CZ 527 carbine, tools and enough food rations to last a few days. Fill the car's tank with gas. Take the weird pink heart flower. Remember the cellphone to stay in contact Anna—more specifically, for Anna to stay in contact with him.

Respectfully, Vincent stealthily crept through his house so as to not disturb his girlfriend while she slept. He went about his standard morning routine where he washed his face and combed the hair aside that blanketed his forehead. His skin appeared pale in the bathroom mirror. His eyes looked sunken.

Vincent sighed, resting his palms on the stone bathroom counter. He maintained eye contact with himself, scrutinizing his unsightly facial features. "Hey, good looking. Well, she's stopped begging you to stay. She just looks tired, now. Guess you finally got what you wanted, huh?"

Beyond the abandoned car and atop the crumbling concrete slab thrust into the otherwise-unremarkable forest lied neglected concrete outbuildings. Collectively, they were one of the few human structures on Nowhere. It was the burial grounds of the Slavic soldiers Vincent had killed.

A concealed figure crouching atop the metal roof yelled in a guttural, trilling language.

"Did you hear that?" Vincent glanced at Rainbow before rotating to face the outbuilding atop which the unidentified man crouched. The fingers of his right hand curled tighter around the grip of his CZ 527 carbine. "Something don't feel right about this."

"Somethin' feels wrong about this?" Rainbow chuckled, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, don't be stupid. I coulda told ya that. Actually—"

The distinct crack of a rifle firing startled Vincent and triggered him to instinctively jump. He didn't detect the report of a bullet whizzing past his head, but, ever so briefly, he dared to hope he and his companion were unscathed. That was before he heard the dull, deadened thump of bullet striking flesh. Blood splattered against the asphalt. Rainbow tottered to a side, stumbled over her own hooves and collapsed from the recoil imparted into her body by the large rifle-caliber round.

Vincent froze. "Dash!" His hunting rifle clattered noisily to the ground as he tossed it haphazardly aside and darted forward, planting one of his hands against his companion's furred chest. Rainbow thrashed as she moaned in pain, kicking at his body with her hooves weakly in a futile struggle to find purchase and stand. She was disoriented, her mind wasn't functioning correctly. The bullet had struck her throat and punched through her trachea, shattering bone and ripping open a gash that steadily gushed blood.

Nauseated, Vincent swore, his words being caught in his throat as he hyperventilated. In the moment of gripping horror yet intense clarity, the ringing in his ears triggered by the loud gunshot and the sensation of his heart beating erratically in his chest faded. The world vanished then, for as little as it mattered. He helplessly watched Rainbow choke as she attempted to speak, spitting blood that dribbled down her chin and marred her untainted blue fur. Her blood dripped down, seeping into the cold, uncaring black asphalt. Her pleading cerise eyes briefly locked with his, expressing heartrending terror, before focusing somewhere far away over his shoulder and glazing over. The brightness, animation and lifeforce was rapidly draining from her body.

His only friend was dying, and it had happened because he was oblivious to their surroundings. She was dying on a decrepit, crumbling slab of asphalt and concrete in a turbulent world unversed with the invaluable concepts of sympathy or mercy. Their relationship had abruptly concluded, and he would never be able to bring her back.

Never.

Never...

Vincent awoke with a start and gasped, clutching his chest. He inhaled rhythmically in an attempt to stabilize his rapid heartrate, gazing up at the Inexorable's metal roof listlessly.

What he had experienced was nothing more than an intense nightmare, but he couldn't deny his suspicion that Rainbow had been killed.

To confirm her safety, he glanced at the passenger's seat. As anticipated, Rainbow Dash lied next to him, sleeping peacefully while curled up in a ball. She mumbled incoherent words and shifted, the movements occasionally accompanied by a wing or ear twitch. Hopefully she wasn't drooling onto her sapphire pendant.

To save his friend, he had killed those three Slavic soldiers. Vincent knew three was too few—he had eliminated the remnants of a larger fireteam or squad. He had unwittingly killed the unfortunate survivors of an unknown incident which had claimed the lives of their other late buddies. He was a slaughterer.

Despite his actions being an excusable act of self-defense, he nonetheless felt guilt. He could, after all, sympathize with those experiencing grief. He had witnessed acquaintances and friends die before his very eyes.

He hadn't thought about that for a long time. The terrible nightmare had awoken ancient memories long since suppressed.

"Ergh..." Vincent sighed, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his yellow-green military blouse. A potent amalgamation of exhaustion and sorrow bound him as if by dense rope around the extremities. Struggling to persist and move on was as challenging as fighting to free himself from a noose biting into his neck. And, indeed, he did feel like he was being led, shambling, to the gallows.

Movement in the fringes of his peripheral vision attracted Vincent's attention. He glanced to the right, observing Rainbow make a concerted effort to stand before eventually surrendering and collapsing onto her side. She grunted in frustration, exhaling sharply.

"Hey." To brighten the ill-lit vehicle interior, Vincent extended an arm and depressed a button mounted in the Inexorable's roof to activate its overhead interior lighting.

Rainbow blinked, immediately suspicious. "Your tone's too flat. Something's up."

"I'm fine. I'm, ergh..." Vincent sighed. "I'm fine. How are you feeling? Did a good job patchin' ya up, didn't I?" He raised a hand, gesturing to the swathe of bandages that enveloped Rainbow's barrel. "You look like a newly-stuffed teddy bear."

"I... guess, yeah. You did a good job." Rainbow eyed him knowingly for a few moments.

"Give it a day or two. You'll heal real quick. Your feathers started regrowing in, what, a week? Less?"

"Something like that." Rainbow hung her head, releasing a sharp exhalation in reaction to a sudden assault of pain. She clutched a hoof against her bandaged chest. "You don't have anything to help with the pain?"

"Patched you up with an IFAK. Most are just designed to keep you alive until a medivac arrives for exfil. No extra bells and whistles, including painkillers in this one. Unfortunately, seems we're AWOL and shit-outta-luck. Flying ambulances ain't comin' for you or me anytime soon."

Vincent reclined in his seat, folding his hands in his lap. He observed Rainbow frown, nervously rubbing her sapphire pendant with a hoof as she fidgeted. "Vince, what's wrong? You normally don't avoid talking to me."

Vincent lifted the iPod and offered it to Rainbow, which she accepted with hesitance. "Why don't you try choosing a song this time?"

Rainbow cradled the foreign device in a hoof delicately, tilting it curiously and observing the reflections in the cracked screen. "But you always choose the music—"

Vincent intentionally exited the vehicle while Rainbow was speaking, forcing her to act independently. He opened the driver's side door and hopped down to the rock floor below to the Inexorable.

Bits of gravel crunched under Vincent's combat boots as his weight pressed onto the rock floor. The cave was gigantic and flat in key areas, which were excellent attributes for encampment. Unfortunately, the mouth of the cave was wide and offered little protection from the outside world. Additionally, the flat sections of the cave were either elevated near the mouth or at the bottom of the cave. The natural formation was vaguely bowl-shaped, with several flat shelves of rock at various heights. The trail descending downwards was rocky and insufficiently level as to navigate the Inexorable's wide chassis across. As such, they had parked near the cave entrance.

Vincent descended the shelves of rock by nimbly leaping and planting his feet carefully when he landed to counteract the pull of gravity and resist toppling over. The deepest section of the cave was only a few dozen feet below ground, and featured the widest expanse of flatness. It was the ideal position for lounging.

When he approached the Inexorable's position near the cave entrance by climbing, Vincent paused momentarily, listening to the gentle acoustic and electric guitar strums of Coldplay's 'Don't Panic' emitting from the truck's sound system. He jogged to the driver's side of the vehicle and hopped up onto the shelf beneath the open door, peeking inside the cab.

"Hey, how's it comin', DJ?"

Rainbow had cleverly utilized her sensitive nose to precisely manipulate the controls of the iPod. "Harder than you made it look, but I think I got it." She glanced up from the screen she had been studying.

"Try 'Yellow' next. Coldplay's a bit too modern for me, but it's not bad."

"A'ight." Rainbow opened her mouth as if she were prepared to begin a new sentence, but hesitated, electing to remain silent.

"C'mon down when you're ready." Vincent leapt off of the shelf beneath the driver's side door and hopped onto the floor below. He gathered supplies before descending into the deepest section of the cave. Unfortunately, among towels, a plastic crate and his Kalashnikov rifle, only one could be conveniently suspended over a shoulder by its attached sling.

Within the pit at the deepest point of the cave, Vincent spread towels across the cold rock floor, set the plastic crate nearby and rested his rifle atop, assuring it was pointed in a safe direction. He sat atop one of the towels and occupied himself by rummaging through the plastic crate while waiting for Rainbow to join him and participate in the basic picnic he was arranging.

Within the crate were various foods. There was another unopened MRE package alongside the remaining tins and miscellaneous components of the MRE package he had previous ripped open. Vincent helped himself to one specific item—a generous serving of potatoes and meat.

Rainbow glided down into the pit and landed gracefully on her hooves, sitting back on her haunches atop one of the towels. She eyed the food Vincent was handling curiously, communicating non-verbally that she was starving.

Vincent tossed her a couple packages of crackers and a small tin of cheese. She happily dug into the crackers immediately, munching one before even attempting to open the tin. When she did, however, she witnessed the viscous yellow substance within and raised an eyebrow. "Is this... cheese? Urgh." She grimaced. "Your army food is so gross. It's like... rubber."

"What do you know about pony army food? Is it much better?"

"I don't know anything." Rainbow shook her head. "Equestrian military tradition is never talked about. The Wonderbolts have traditional food they can prepare for long journeys, but there hasn't been any need for that in a hundred years. They're very rarely mobilized, and never across long distances."

Rainbow plunged a cracker into the processed cheese and gulped it down. When she was finished, she cocked her head to the side in thought. "I just realized—the Wonderbolts will never need to prepare their own food. They could just purchase food from local friendly villages wherever they traveled."

"What if they were at war with one another?"

Rainbow frowned. "I don't want to think about fighting another friendly species with the Wonderbolts."

When the final Coldplay song concluded, Rainbow maintained eye contact, tossing aside the empty cracker wrapper. "C'mon, Vince. I can see you're just going through the motions today. I can see it all over your face. You think I don't know what it's like to have a day where you're acting automatically? Spill the beans."

Vincent deposited his plastic fork into the tin of diced potatoes and meat he had been eating. Determined to delay the inevitable, he gazed sidelong at his rifle resting atop the plastic crate. When Rainbow stubbornly refused to surrender and cease demanding to know what was wrong, he sighed and reluctantly began to speak. "Last night... I saw you get shot by those soldiers."

Rainbow's concerned expression advanced from mere concern to shock. "Oh... Well, it was just a dream. That didn't happen. You saved me back there. I'm here talking to you about this because of what you did." To compensate for Vincent's silence, she continued. "I know we don't always see eye to eye on stuff, but I do actually enjoy talking with you. It's nice hearing a different perspective about stuff and learning more about humans. Twilight'd say 'knowledge is power'."

Vincent sighed, glancing downwards. Recalling the horrific sights he had seen in his nightmare, he clasped his hands together and interweaved his fingers, flexing them. "Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?"

"I've been doing a pretty good job staying alive so far, right? I wouldn't leave you even if I weren't the Element of Loyalty." Rainbow chuckled nervously, apprehensive. "Why are you staring at me like that? Why do you have that look in your eyes?"

XII – Vincent – Nowhere

Vincent clicked his tongue in disapproval as he observed a third complication. Excessive wear had deteriorated the Inexorable's tires, and needle-thin rock fragments had punched holes through the rubber. The tire was partially deflated. He had immediately repaired it using a can of emergency tire sealant, but it wasn't a permanent solution.

The truck was critically low on oil, a problem he couldn't remedy because he lacked spare oil. Critical components of the engine could potentially seize without proper lubrication.

To make matters worse, the vehicle was critically low on coolant, and, once again, Vincent lacked spare antifreeze. Without ample quantities of coolant, the engine was at risk of overheating.

To make matters even worse, a lack of sufficient oil and coolant would lead to a cascade of independent component failures which would, in turn, contribute to an eventual total engine failure. It was inevitable.

Vincent sighed sadly. He deactivated the flashlight he clutched and slammed the truck's hood. He understood the Inexorable wasn't a living creature, but, regardless, he felt a touch of grief knowing his magnum opus would soon cease functioning. He had dedicated years to repair the vehicle, and now, after mere weeks of use, it was beginning to expire.

The Inexorable had been destined to fail before its very creation, of course. He knew that. Vincent wasn't delusional. Vehicles required too many specific components to function; long-term continuance was impossible without a generous stockpile of spare parts. Though, he hadn't predicted total failure to occur so soon.

"Vince...? Why did the car shake?" Rainbow Dash raised her head and rubbed her sleepy eyes with her hooves, gazing through the windshield.

Vincent brushed his hand against the Inexorable's magnificent lemon body as he circled the vehicle and deposited his tools into the rear seat. He mounted the shelf beneath the driver's side door, climbing into the cab.

"Was checking the engine. Gave it more gas, but the engine ain't looking good, Dash. It's stop workin' soon. Don't have enough liquid to keep it cool and lubricated, and all those parts rubbing against each other without lube are gonna cause some major friction that'll—"

"'Parts rubbing each other without lube'," Rainbow repeated, giggling. "That's what she said!"

Vincent smiled. "Not even five minutes awake and you're already mocking me. I'm so proud of you. I've turned you into such a disrespectful potty-mouth."

"You're proud of me? Thanks, mom and dad." Rainbow chuckled, rising in her seat and splaying her limbs to stretch.

When their amusing exchange concluded, Vincent reached for the iPod to play a song, but paused with his hand hovering in midair. He sighed, withdrawing his hand. "Hey Dash, I'm, uh... I'm sorry about last night. I—"

Rainbow smiled encouragingly and gently interrupted him. "Forget about it, okay? Everyone feels emotions. It's not a big deal. I promise not to talk about it if you don't. Just focus on driving."

"We're leaving today? I figured we were staying in this cave until you started feeling better."

"Hey Vince, there's somethin' you gotta know about me—" Rainbow swept her multicolored mane away from her eyes and smirked. "I never surrender if I have the strength to keep going! You know why I excelled in the academy with flying colors? Because I wiped out hard, rolled a couple times and got back on my hooves and kept flying. I won that race. Anypony else in my place would have given up. I'm ready to give it 110 percent."

Vincent hesitated, not expecting to hear a motivational speech. Even more unexpectedly—it was working. She was correct, now wasn't time to act despondent. He had to keep advancing forward against opposition. He'd keep pushing until his body finally broke.

"You really think that? Alright, Dash." He snickered. "Let's prove it. Wanna hear why they call me Mister Fahrenheit?"

Rainbow blinked. "Huh?"

Vincent rotated the key in the Inexorable's ignition, triggering the engine to start with a voracious roar. "Let's do this thing! One more time." He activated the iPod and inputted 'Queen', selecting 'Don't Stop Me Now' from the list of relevant tracks that appeared.

Soft piano murmured in the background of the song's intro. Vincent planted his hands on the steering wheel at positions 2 o' clock and 10 o' clock, depressing the accelerator gently as he carefully navigated the Inexorable out of the cave mouth. He aligned the hood of the truck with the hill they had to scale to escape the bottom of the ravine they were currently positioned in.

When the drums began to kick in and the words of the first verse were uttered, Vincent nodded his head to the beat and sang along. He gripped the steering wheel securely. "'Don't stop me, 'cause..." He slammed the accelerator and the Inexorable roared forward responsively, continuing to accelerate as it gradually gained elevation while ascending the hill.

"...I'm havin' a good time!'"

The Inexorable launched off of the hill as if it were a ramp, sailing through the air. Rainbow howled.

Together, they attempted to sing along with the main vocalist. They were both unfavorably disadvantaged; Rainbow had never heard the song before and Vincent had forgotten most of the lyrics on account of the fact he hadn't listened to the track for years. Regardless, they gave it 110 percent.

"'I'm a satellite outta control!'"

"'I'm a sex machine!'" Rainbow sang along, giggling at the bawdy lyrics.

The Inexorable soared across the rocky landscape as if bestowed magnificent wings. The speedometer hand continued to advance higher and higher. Energetic drums and guitar blared from the truck's superior sound system.

"'Don't stop me, don't stop me!'" Vincent chanted.

"'Heyyy!'"

CRASH! The Inexorable struck the ground hard and began to skid, spinning donuts on the slippery gravel. Vincent jerked the wheel in the opposite direction of the spin to compensate. The truck's rear end whipped back and forth chaotically like the tail of a landed fish.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" Rainbow cheered, stomping her hooves against her seat.

When the song began to subside and fade, Vincent grinned, reflecting on the crazy stunt he had just performed. "That song'd make anyone feel like a renegade. Makes me feel like a teen again."

He glanced to his right. Rainbow looked supremely gratified. She truly was a daredevil at heart—a free spirit, a maverick. It was inspiring. Nothing could hold them down. "Oh my gosh, if I laugh more I think I'm gonna hurt myself!"

Vincent reached with his right hand and clutched the iPod, raising it to eye level so he could scroll through its contents and watch where he was driving simultaneously. Utilizing only his peripheral vision, he effortlessly swerved around a boulder obstructing their path.

"My dad used to tell me 'if you're drivin' around places past 11pm, you ain't up to no good.' Well, ya know what? He was right! I was always up to the craziest shit. I started drivin' when I was just 16! They should've never given me a license." He selected 'As Long As You Love Me' by Backstreet Boys and set the iPod down. "Used to have like three dudes in the car with me. Wasn't legal, but I never got pulled over. Just drove for hours listening to the radio. BSB were on 24/7 when I was a kid."

Vincent sang along to the lyrics flawlessly with few mistakes. It felt right. For once, he felt at home. He wasn't reunited with his old childhood friends, but the companionship he shared with Rainbow was special.

"Hey Dash?"

"Yeah?"

Vincent timed his words perfectly and synchronized with the vocalists. "'Don't care who you are or where you're from, as long as you love me.'"

Rainbow pretended to act flustered and flirty, waving a hoof in front of her muzzle in an fake attempt to cool and suppress a nonexistent blush. "I never thought you'd admit your true feelings for me!"

"That looked so gay." Vincent chuckled.

She giggled. "I haven't heard somepony say they loved me since I went to Scootaloo's fan club dedicated to me."

"You have fans?" Vincent steered with one hand and snapped his fingers to the tempo of the song with his other spare hand.

"Totally! Mostly colts and fillies in Ponyville and Cloudsdale, but since I became an official Wonderbolt, more ponies started recognizing me in public! I wouldn't call myself a celebrity exactly, buttttt..." Rainbow struck a dramatic posture, posing for the nonexistent lens and flash of an invisible camera.

"Attention-whore."

"Hey! I earned it fairly!"

Vincent selected a new track and set the iPod down, resting both of his hands on the steering wheel. It was 'Dancing Queen' by Abba, an ancient pop classic that featured energetic piano and rattles maintaining the rhythm. It was relaxing and reminded him of the bygone rollerblading era.

Beyond the relative safety of the Inexorable's interior, the landscape was hostile. Conditions were harsh. The rocky terrain was littered with boulders, spikes and, most significantly, wide chasms that dotted the land like lacerations across skin.

"I miss the grass and trees. And animals." Rainbow pursed her lips.

"Are we getting close?"

Rainbow held her breath and remained as still as possible, focusing. "I can't tell. The humming has been in the back of my mind for so long I kinda got used to it and forgot it was there. We're probably going in the right direction."

"We'll know when there's another Migration, I guess. So, are you just gonna go stiff as a board and aim like a pointer dog from a cartoon when we get close, or? Would probably help if we knew what we were lookin' for..."

Vincent fell silent, focusing on driving and navigating the Inexorable around obstacles. "Hey, Dash."

"Yeah?"

"I know I already said I'm bad at expressing how I feel, so I won't repeat myself. But... you've been a really good friend to me. Thanks."

"I didn't do it because I thought I had to, I stuck by you because it's just you and me. It's you and me against the world, right? That's what you said."

"Yeah, I did." Vincent smiled. "With a friend like you, I think anything could be possible. I really wish you could come back with me, but... I know that's not gonna happen. Still, I—" Realizing he had steered the Inexorable directly toward a massive ravine, he slammed the brake pedal and tugged the steering wheel to the left in an attempt to decelerate quicker. The Inexorable's tires skidded across the slippery gravel before eventually finding purchase and drawing to a halt.

"Whoa! Try not to drive straight off the edge, dude." Rainbow opened the passenger's side door and hopped down to the ground, trotting toward the precipice.

Vincent descended the shelf mounted beneath the driver's side door. He retrieved his Kalashnikov rifle and a backpack with numerous dangling straps from the back seat of the vehicle before jogging forward to meet his companion.

The chasm was massive, dozens of feet across. Rainbow could easily fly over the deep gash in the land, but neither Vincent nor his glorious lemon truck could manage such a feat.

"Not gonna be able to get across this giant canyon with the truck. Damn..." Vincent kicked a pebble and observed it descend into the dark depths where even the sunlight failed to illuminate. "It was a good run while it lasted, alter Freund. Danke für ihre Dienstleistung."

"Can't even see the bottom." Rainbow peered over the edge, her wings unfurled and rigidly straight to precisely maintain her balance.

"Please don't stand so close." Vincent groaned, nervous. He was aware his winged companion could fly and easily maneuver in midair, but, regardless, witnessing her stand mere inches from falling off of a cliff terrified him.

"Why? What's gonna happen, am I gonna fall?" Rainbow mocked Vincent's deterrent. She intentionally attempted to irritate him by positioning herself leaning over the edge of the chasm with her rear legs crossed and forelegs supporting the rear of her head. She effortlessly flapped her wings in such a manner that she resisted the pull of gravity and appeared to be levitating over the empty air. She closed her eyes as if tanning on a beach bench.

"Oh my God." Vincent narrowed his eyes. "You have to be doing this on purpose, now."

"C'mon Vince. You're not scared of heights, are ya?" Rainbow opened one eye and peeked in her companion's direction.

"I'm not scared of heights. I'm scared of you doing something stupid and falling and hitting your head on something. Or worse."

"Yeah sure, spoilsport, like I totally haven't done this before."

A big clap of thunder startled Rainbow, causing her to miscalculate the flaps of her wings. The equilibrium of her wing flaps disturbed, she twirled and somersaulted midair and fell for a few seconds before regaining control and hovering. "Whoa!"

Vincent raised his head and gazed up into the sky. Black magic stormclouds were rolling in, blotting out the brilliant sunlight emitted by Nowhere's dual suns. A big heavy pit of dread formed in Vincent's stomach, encumbering him.

"Rainbow! You need to get up here now! Now! Double time!"

Fat raindrops hammered the ground diagonally, canted by a gale. Thunderbolts rained from the sky and struck the ground, detonating like mortar shells. Two far away that ignited the sky in a blue flash. One struck the ground nearby, exploding a giant boulder and showering the surrounding area in a big plume of dust and a cascade of needle-thin rock shrapnel.

Vincent collapsed onto his knees and cowered, crossing his arms over his face in a defensive gesture. It was more instinctual than intentional. A few shards of rock struck his helmet at high velocities and ricocheted off of the hard kevlar with audible plinks.

Despite his warning, Rainbow didn't escape the chasm fast enough. She had enough time to land onto the chasm precipice and fold her wings against her back before...

A clap of thunder boomed, accompanied by a lightning bolt that descended through the air faster than a speeding bullet. Vincent leapt in fright from the explosion that occurred, clenching his eyes shut. He briefly witnessed a blinding flash of blue light, blinked, and then noticed the circle of blackened, seared rock surrounding Rainbow as she lied prone.

"Holy shit!"

"I'm fine—lightning can't hurt me!" Rainbow stood up, brushing dust and rock fragments out of her fur. She looked dazed, rubbing a hoof against the side of her head near her ear where shrapnel had bitten into her and drawn blood.

"You sure you're okay?" Vincent retrieved his rifle from where he had dropped it to assure it didn't blow away in the prodigious wind. When he raised his head and swept his gaze around the surrounding area, he spotted Rainbow and observed as she froze and stiffened. He blinked. "Dash...?"

Rainbow slowly rotated 180 degrees and teetered toward the cliff like a zombie, throwing herself off of the edge into the chasm.

"Dash!" Vincent leapt forward in an attempt to grasp one of her legs or wings to capture her, but he was too late. "Shit!" Without a moment of hesitation, he slipped the backpack on, fastened the buckles and tightened the straps around the unnatural curvature of his plate carrier. He hugged his rifle tightly, held his breath to quell the fear within him and sprinted forward, leaping off of the precipice.

The wind roared in his ears as he rapidly accelerated, descending faster and faster to the bottom of the massive chasm where spikes and needle-sharp shards of rock unquestionably waited to shred him to pieces the moment he inevitably landed. Most men were given months or years to gradually accept the truth they were going to die. In that moment of panic, he sincerely believed he had mere seconds.

Then he tugged the parachute release.

The high-visibility orange parachute exploded out from the pack and immediately began dilating, slowing his descent. No longer panicking, Vincent locked his eyes on Rainbow, keenly tracking her every move. She spread her wings in a clumsy, inexperienced way and failed to decelerate enough for the landing to be considered soft. She landed hard on her hooves, bending her knees to absorb the force of the impact. Before he knew it, she had darted into a nearby cave system.

"Dash, come back! What the fuck?" His rifle clattered against the rock floor as he dropped it before landing. Vincent hit the ground hard with a grunt, rolling and ensnaring himself in the high tensive strength paracord. Without hesitation, he sacrificed the parachute to pursue Rainbow faster. He drew his bayonet from its sheath and sawed through the paracord cables and harness, permanently destroying the delicate equipment.

Vincent retrieved his rifle and activated the rail-mounted flashlight to illuminate his path. He attempted to hold the rifle and attached flashlight steady as he dashed through the cave mouth to pursue Rainbow's fleeing form.

XIII – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

Rainbow Dash galloped through the cave, whipping to the right as she changed direction. She leapt over a stalagmite, landed hard on a sharp rock and yelped in pain when it penetrated deep into the soft part of her hoof. Her body kept galloping persistently despite her objections. She had no control over her legs or wings. She tried utilizing her sapphire pendant to levitate her own body to physically stop herself, but it didn't work. When she attempted to establish a magical connection with the enchanted gemstone, it didn't reciprocate. It was if her voice had been silenced.

"Goddamn it, Dash! Stop!"

Rainbow could hear Vincent's desperate shouts echoing through the gigantic cave system. It was as convoluted as a changeling hive and equally as dark. The only light sources were sparse groups of mystical crystals growing from the walls that emitted a faint blue glow.

She passed forking path after forking path, swinging left and right rapidly. Rainbow wasn't unfamiliar with arduous exercise, but she was always able to pause if an unforeseen problem were to arise. She was hungry, thirsty and injured. Her heart was pounding in her chest like drumsticks against drums. Despite being an undeniably athletic pony, Rainbow had reached the furthest extent of her physical capabilities. Yet despite her brain screaming warnings to stop, her body disobeyed, moving at maximum speed.

Her hooves scraped against the rock floor, generating sparks as Rainbow's body came to a screeching halt. She flipped and did a somersault, landing onto her side and slamming her head against the hard rock floor with a grunt. She panted uncontrollably, her tongue suspended wearily from her mouth. "Vincent! Help..." Her pleas for help were feeble and muted. She splayed her limbs and attempted to lie as still as possible to recover from the exhausting sprint. Blood beaded and gradually trickled down the side of her head near her ear where shards of rock had pierced her skin. Her stitches had loosened and were poking into her skin.

Her opportunity to recover her energy wasn't prolonged. An invisible force commanded her body to rise. She was forced to grimly march forward, guided like a lifeless puppet suspended by strings. Terrified, her eyes darted across the room, searching for what or who had so effortlessly ensnared and dragged her body.

Subdued, blue-tinted light radiating from magical crystals suspended from the ceiling illuminated the innumerable skeletons blanketing the macabre chamber she now resided in. The blue light reflected off of the smooth white bones. Bones once belonging to creatures large and small. Horned skulls once belonging to unicorn ponies or creatures that once resembled unicorn ponies.

In the center of the mountain of corpses arose another stone altar. Beyond the intimidating altar was a gigantic creature suspended from the back wall of the chamber. It was undeniably a living creature, judging by how its form gently pulsated and quivered like a beating heart. The center of the creature was heart-shaped, while its long limbs—that which anchored it to the stone wall—resembled thick tree roots. It was covered in irregular, gnarled tree-root-like "skin". Tiny black antennae that resembled hairs protruding from the Heart jiggled as Rainbow's legs continued to unwillingly move, plodding her body forward toward the Heart.

She swallowed fearfully, her eyes darting between the corpses that lied at the very base of the altar. A small bipedal dragon. A werewolf-like creature. A pegasus-like juvenile bird of prey. More. Their bodies hadn't been bludgeoned, pierced or otherwise marred. They were perfectly preserved, as if they had all simultaneously fallen asleep and never woken up.

The Heart had no method of locomotion. It was purely a parasitic creature through and through. It drained creatures of their magic and abandoned their useless, lifeless bodies. Rainbow finally understood. It hadn't been a voice tempting her. It wasn't her destiny to discover the creature. She had stupidly fallen right into its trap, like a clueless fly in a spider's web.

"Dash?! I— Whoa... holy shit." Rainbow could hear Vincent's voice behind her, outside of her field of view. She wanted desperately to communicate in some way, or to bellow a yell of frustration, but she no longer had control of her mouth, tongue or throat. She could do nothing but continue to grimly march forward, unconsciously kicking aside the bones of the deceased. She was wholly paralyzed, imprisoned in her own body.

Desperate, she again attempted to establish a magical connection with her sapphire pendant, but to no avail. She could almost visualize her magical energy being drained from her body like sap being tapped from a sugar maple tree.

She was becoming lightheaded from oxygen deprivation. She was gradually fading, her perception of the world surrounding her slipping away. An oppressive darkness swirled around her, swooping in like hungry, eager vultures. Rainbow teetered over the edge and fell down into the dark, insatiable void, passing out entirely as her limp body collapsed onto the cold, uncaring stone ground and the bones of the tragically misled. Her assimilation was almost complete.

XIV – Vincent – Nowhere

Vincent took a step forward, raising his Kalashnikov rifle as he scanned his surroundings. He waved the beam cast from the flashlight attachment on his rifle in a wide sweeping motion, passing it over the sea of skeletons. "Jesus."

When he spotted Rainbow Dash's unconscious form at the base of the altar, he hugged his rifle and sprinted forward, prepared to grab one of her legs or wings in case she attempted to escape again.

The Heart pulsed, vibrating. Its antennae jiggled. An explosive clap of thunder shook the cave system, triggering dust and loose pebbles to rain from the ceiling, creating a cacophony of clattering stone against bone.

Before Vincent could reach Rainbow, a swirling mass of obscuration appeared to physically impede him. He recoiled backwards, not accustomed to witnessing the obscuration move or appear from thin air.

The shiny, colorless haze transformed into the shape of a small bipedal dragon that launched forward and attempted to chomp its jaws around Vincent's ankle. A tall, werewolf-like bipedal creature formed and roared threateningly, brandishing its claws in preparation to strike.

Vincent retaliated quickly, maintaining his composure. He fired three shots, and the creatures burst apart violently like broken glass, shattering into shards that rained onto the rock ground and melted into nothingness.

More clones of creatures spawned from thin air. The Heart's antennae hummed and vibrated as it defended itself by summoning fragile duplicates of the creatures it had fed upon.

Vincent fired rounds and destroyed the haze clones until the firing pin of his rifle clicked, indicating he had depleted what remained of his ammunition. He resorted to using the rifle as a bat, tightly clutching the handguard and receiver with both hands and clubbing creatures with the heavy buttstock.

When the tide of clones composed of obscuration subsided, Vincent dared to feel a fleeting sensation of hope. He clutched the rifle's pistol grip in his right hand and reached for a new magazine in his chest rig. He tapped the magazine release lever with the new magazine, permitted the empty magazine to fall onto the ground and inserted the full magazine, chambering a round. His hands were shaking with anxiety.

"Dash, are you...?" Vincent took a few steps forward and placed a hand on Rainbow's shoulder, shaking her. She was unresponsive. There was a brief pause, as if the Heart had finally calculated that the human interloper was a true threat to its sustained survival.

Vincent raised his rifle and fired a shot at the monstrosity, but neglected to aim properly. The bullet whizzed past the Heart and impacted the rock wall behind it, missing it by mere inches. He began aligning the rifle's iron sights to execute a well-aimed second shot, but was interrupted by a powerful buck in the chest that threw him backwards forcefully before he could depress the trigger. Vincent somersaulted once and slid along the rock floor, slamming against the rock wall of the cave with a grunt. He groaned, disoriented.

A haze clone of Rainbow Dash herself had bucked him in the thorax. Fortunately, it had struck his steel armor plate and not his unprotected abdomen. Its colorless mane and tail composed of obscuration glistened and wavered like a heat mirage, yet failed to sway like real hair. It resembled an animated statue.

"Dash...?" Vincent dared to raise his voice and address the haze clone that currently hovered before him, flapping its wings stiffly. It vaguely resembled his friend, but its eyes and facial expression were nightmarishly emotionless.

The clone responded by accelerating rapidly and shooting forward, intent on bucking his head clean off of his shoulders. Vincent hugged his rifle and leapt aside, raising his head in time to witness the clone's rear leg smash into the rock wall he had been resting against mere seconds prior. The force of the impact cracked the soft rock, causing it to crumble slightly.

Vincent rolled onto his back and aimed his rifle in the general direction of the haze clone, entirely aware if he didn't react fast enough to the incoming threat, he would probably be decapitated. He fired a spray of bullets in the clone's direction as it soared toward him at maximum speed. One hit home and struck the clone as it sped toward him, while the rest of the rounds ricocheted uselessly off of the rock ceiling. The obscuration shattered into pieces and melted.

Vincent lied still for a moment, panting. For a brief moment, he wondered if by destroying the clone he had killed his only friend. He glanced at Rainbow's limp body lying before the altar. She was still and looked as lifeless as a statue.

Vincent rose to his feet and aligned his rifle's iron sights with the Heart beyond the altar at the rear of the chamber. He squeezed the trigger.

A swirling mass of obscuration appeared midair to physically obstruct the burst of bullets he had fired. Frustrated, Vincent huffed. He quickly glanced over his shoulders to assure no surprise attacks came from the rear.

The obscuration descended, touching the rock floor delicately. It finally coalesced. Vincent's eyes widened.

The haze clone of Vincent himself stretched its fingers and bent its joints, unaccustomed to its new, unfamiliar form. Its body was naked and mannequin-like. It raised its head and gazed at Vincent with a dull, blank facial expression.

Vincent gritted his teeth and raised his rifle, firing bursts of shots until his gun clicked empty. The bullets punched through the obscuration, but the clone persisted, its lazy amble forward transforming into a speedy sprint. Vincent clutched his rifle by the handguard and receiver like a baseball bat and patiently waited for the opportune moment to strike.

"Arrggh!" Vincent swung his rifle like he was on the home plate batting for an American baseball team. The haze clone jerked downwards, ducking beneath the swung buttstock, and counterattacked with a swift uppercut into Vincent's chin that threw him off balance. He staggered momentarily, shocked by the speed of the blow.

The clone dashed forward without hesitation and spread its arms wide in an attempt to disarm him. Vincent leapt backwards and counterattacked, butting the rifle stock forcefully against the clone's chest. It staggered briefly, providing Vincent enough time to raise the rifle overhead and cleave its heavy buttstock downwards directly into the haze clone's nape. For any normal human, that would have been a lethal blow.

The haze clone wasn't hampered in the slightest. It raised its arm and prepared to strike Vincent with a hook of a punch. He clutched his rifle with both hands around the barrel and stock, utilizing it as a shield. While it did protect him, the blow was so powerful it warped the barrel where the clone's fist had stuck, creating a u-shaped dent. Vincent lost his grip and teetered, almost losing his balance. The destroyed rifle hit the ground and skidded several feet away. "Shit!"

Vincent took a few steps backward, unsheathing his bayonet. He clutched it tightly in his right hand and curled his left hand into a fist, assuming a tactical combat stance. While he was professionally trained for close quarters combat with a blade, in truth, he had no actual experience in real fights. Regardless, the training wasn't entirely useless. He knew a few dirty tricks. Unfortunately, most were rendered ineffective when fighting a being with incomprehensible magical powers.

The haze clone was fast and utilized unnaturally-powerful force, but lacked technique. Vincent was capable of employing a few tricks and dodging its slow, predictable attacks, but he couldn't fight forever. The clone was seemingly invincible. He needed to devise a plan.

The haze clone charged at Vincent like a furious bull.

He utilized his left arm to deflect an incoming fist and jabbed his blade several times into the clone's torso, but to no avail. It was like stabbing water. The clone failed to react in any perceptible way.

They traded blows, deflecting and blocking. Vincent panted, growing weary. He was losing energy fast.

A weak, rapid blow directly into Vincent's gut made him cough and forcefully evacuate his lungs of air. He choked, leaping backwards to dodge the clone's second attack.

In the disorienting frenzy of the battle, Vincent had unintentionally navigated beside Rainbow's unconscious form. He glanced downwards at the sapphire pendant suspended from her neck by its gold chain. He recalled how she explained the necklace was somehow powerful, that it possessed magical energy. He certainly wanted any strength he could get to help him resist for just a few moments longer.

He knelt and grasped the sapphire pendant with his left hand, ripping the chain forcefully off of Rainbow's neck. He backed away to avoid a punch the haze clone threw and held the pendant aloft like a holy string of rosary beads designed to ward off evil. He attempted to use the magical artifact as Rainbow had instructed, but despite his best efforts, nothing happened. "Piece of shit!" Frustrated, Vincent swore. "Why won't you fucking work?!"

He tossed the pendant away to free his left hand and reassumed his combat stance, ready to receive the charging clone. It threw a flurry of rapid blows that Vincent couldn't compete with. He blocked or deflected most, dodging backwards occasionally as he ascended the steps leading to the top platform of the altar, apart from two. One struck him hard in his armored thorax, cracking the plastic shells of the two remaining full magazines in his chest rig, and the final uppercut struck him powerfully in the chin.

Vincent staggered backwards onto the top platform the altar, dizzy. He grunted, shaking his head in an attempt to clear his blurry vision. He choked, tasting blood. He had probably bitten his tongue. "Fuck!"

The haze clone dashed forward and leapt, tackling Vincent and sending him hurtling off of the altar to the bed of skeletons and bones far below.

His head struck the rock ground hard, and even with his kevlar helmet strapped on, the force of the vibration was still painful. A sharp bone pierced through his clothes and into his thigh from the force of his impact with the ground. Vincent yelped.

The haze clone was on top of him, straddling him immediately. It curled the fingers of one hand around his throat and raising its other hand into the air in preparation to deliver a punch. Vincent used both arms and his uninjured leg to firmly shove the clone off of him. He rolled to a side and rose, clutching his bayonet securely. His boots slipped on lose bones and he nearly lost his balance, but he persisted, struggling desperately to resist the urge to limp. His injured leg was screaming in defiance.

When the clone charged forward and raised its fist, Vincent kicked the clone hard in the stomach with his uninjured leg, sending it careering backwards. Finally, he had knocked the clone down onto the ground. While on the ground, however, it had located a sharp bone sufficient to use as a weapon. Vincent's eyes widened as he noticed the clone clutching the improvised blade. He sensed impending danger.

The haze clone performed a move Vincent didn't predict. It slapped him across the face and threw a punch directly into his nose.

Vincent dropped his bayonet and staggered backwards, cupping his broken nose with both hands. He managed to grasp the wrist of the haze clone's right hand when it attempted to drive the improvised blade directly into his neck, but the clone had predicted such a maneuver. It effortlessly threw the sharp bone into the air, caught it in its left hand and thrusted the blade forward, jamming the sharp weapon into Vincent's unprotected stomach twice below his plate carrier.

Vincent swayed on his feet, wobbling. He fell backwards against the rock wall of the cave, sliding down until he was sitting. He instinctively clutched his hands over the puncture wounds in his stomach, releasing a moan of pain. His fingers were becoming slippery with fresh blood.

He managed to jerk aside and dodge a fist that came flying at his face, then a knee. He hyperventilated, his eyes darting around the chamber. To his left he saw Rainbow's unconscious body, and to the right was the Heart, the unsympathetic monstrosity that perceived Vincent as nothing more than an irritating pest that needed to be eradicated.

He gazed downwards. Nestled among the bones carpeting the rock floor was the sapphire pendant he had tossed aside earlier. Vincent hesitated, failing at first to comprehend the significance of the magical artifact in his daze of overwhelming pain and fear. He reached for the pendant and grasped the scratched gold setting, presenting it like it were a shield. He prayed to all of the Earth gods that he knew. He chanted Psalms and other Bible verses he knew in the vain, desperate hope for a miracle. He clenched his eyes shut, refusing to stare at the sharp bone that came flying toward his neck. He inhaled a final gasping breath that he suspected would be his last.

"'I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart—I have overcome the world.'"

The sharpened bone that came soaring toward his neck was swiftly halted with a muted thump.

Vincent dared to crack open his eyes.

A wide magical forcefield had been summoned between Vincent and the haze clone. He gasped aloud, his eyes widening in shock. "Holy shit...!" He wielded the sapphire pendant in a hand and raised it aloft, communicating with it and sending an order: for the Heart to be totally, wholly annihilated.

The human haze clone was shattered into shards of obscuration that melted into nothingness as a magical blast exploded the Heart, showering the surrounding area in a mist of blood. No longer capable of supporting the Heart after it had exploded, the roots once anchoring it to the rock wall hung limply like noodles.

Vincent wheezed, releasing the pendant and causing it to fall and rest against his armored chest rig. He clasped his right hand over the puncture wounds in his abdomen, but despite his best efforts to the contrary, his blood leaked from his body, irreparably staining his clothes and dripping down onto the rock floor.

In his peripheral vision, he noticed movement. His eyes flicked in the direction of the stone altar, observing Rainbow Dash twitch as she finally regained control of her body. She inhaled great bouts of air to compensate for her earlier state of asphyxiation and choked, overwhelmed. "Vince...?"

Vincent groaned in pain. He relaxed his body and gazed up at the ceiling where the mystical crystals emitted their faint blue glow, struggling merely to remain conscious.

"Vincent!" Rainbow sprinted forward, leapt over piles of bones and came to a screeching halt before her companion. She placed a hoof on his chest atop his steel armor plate. "What happened? Are you okay? You—"

Vincent focused on her huge bright cerise eyes. He spoke, interrupting her mid-speech. "Dash. I - I'm a... believer. Jacob was wrong. I never thought..." He trailed off, leaving his sentence incomplete. He was breathing short, shallow breaths and was barely capable of enunciating each individual word he uttered. "It was a miracle."

"What? Believer in what?"

"Listen. One - one more thing I... want you to do."

When Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, he firmly shook his head. She understood the message and remained silent, gazing into his eyes with a concerned frown. She brushed her hoof against his face along the scrapes and contusions he had received during the fight.

Vincent reached with his right hand and grasped the chain securing his dog tags to his neck. With a grunt of exertion, he ripped the chain and placed the twin dog tags against the hoof Rainbow had used to touch his chest. They simultaneously cradled the dog tags together as one for a moment, gazing into each other's eyes. Vincent released his hand and returned it to his abdomen as he clutched his wounds.

The final symbolic gesture was so touching, Rainbow's ears folded sadly and lied flat against her head. "N - no... keep them. Take them."

"No." Vincent stubbornly shook his head, shoving aside Rainbow's hoof when she attempted to return his dog tags. "You're gonna need 'em as proof. Tell your friends what happened here. Tell 'em what happened to you. Tell 'em what you did." He released the breath in his lungs with a soft exhalation, managing to offer a weak smile. "All this t - time... we've had together... You made me really happy while it lasted."

He had promised to keep advancing forward against opposition. He'd promised to keep pushing until his body finally broke. Well, he sure as hell pushed.

Vincent's body felt weightless. The world was swirling and spinning despite the fact he lied completely still. His eyelids fluttered and closed. For a brief moment before he lost consciousness, he thought he sensed the familiar parching heat of the Arizona desert and heard the inherent growls of motor vehicle engines and indistinct chatter of the residents of his home city.

Darkness collapsed upon him and deluged him. Unexpectedly, it felt warm and comforting.

Epilogue – Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash groaned. She attempted to move her body, but it felt stiff and unresponsive. Her limbs were folded beneath herself. Blinded by a bright white light, she unfurled one of her wings and rested her feathers over her eyes to protect her vision. Gingerly, her eyelids fluttered open.

She was partially buried in a small crater of dirt and pebbles. High above beyond the clouds in the blue sky was a large yellow sun. One singular sun.

Rainbow groaned as she rose to her hooves, raising her head and examining her surroundings. She saw luscious green grass and gorgeous flowers flourishing in an open field. Healthy elm trees stretching upwards, leaning toward Princess Celestia's warm, benevolent sun.

Had everything she had just experienced been a dream? Was she still dreaming?

It was when she rotated 180 degrees and examined the shallow grave she had been previously lying in that she spotted them—her pendant with its cracked sapphire, scratched gold setting and ripped gold chain and a ripped metal chain threading two dog tags. Final gifts bestowed to her by a lost friend stranded between dimensions and forgotten by time, someone she would always bear in mind and vow to never, ever forget.

Rainbow retrieved the gifts and climbed out of the crater once again. She allowed her wings to unfurl and drag along the ground as she plodded away from the crater and across the open field, traveling south past the northern border of the Everfree Forest. She was exhausted, but she clutched the pendant and dog tags in her mouth securely, refusing to let go.

The crystal-clear water of the nearby river reflected an appearance of Rainbow that she didn't recognize. Her cerise eyes were pale and exuded sadness. She was battered and exhausted. She had a cut on the side of her head beneath the ear. Her hooves were covered in blood that wasn't her own.

She followed the river until it led her to Fluttershy's cottage, as anticipated. Normally, if she were feeling energetic and up to par, she would leap over the fence encompassing Fluttershy's property, but this time Rainbow slowly circumnavigated the fence and shoved the wooden gate open with a hoof, navigating across the small bridge constructed over the river and ascending the winding path leading to the cottage's front door.

As she walked, birds, rabbits, chipmunks and other small critters hid in their respective burrows and birdhouses, fearing the sad aura and terrible smell Rainbow exuded.

She reached with a hoof and rapped lethargically against the cottage's front door, returning her hoof to the dirt path.

Fluttershy opened the front door a few inches and peeked her head through the opening, peering outside. Her mane and coat were disheveled. Individual long pink and yellow hairs curled in the opposite direction of how they naturally were supposed to. She looked severely depressed. "Hello? How can I help—" Her words caught in her throat as she identified the pony standing before her front door. "Rainbow Dash...?" Her ears perked up happily, her wings unfurled and spread excitedly and a smile surged across her face as she leapt forward, immediately grasping Rainbow in a tight hug. "Oh my gosh! I was so worried about you! Everypony was! What happened? Why are your hooves covered in blood?"

Witnessing the eyes of one of her dearest friends illuminate upon seeing her was more than her broken heart could bear in her vulnerable state. Rainbow managed to free her forelegs from the constrictive bear-hug Fluttershy was entrapping her in and return the hug, squeezing her friend tightly. Tears leaked from her eyes as she silently wept.

"Rainbow Dash?"

Fluttershy released Rainbow and they rotated 180 degrees in synchrony to investigate the voice.

Discord contorted in midair as he hovered nonsensically. "It is you! What a pleasant surprise. I thought you were dead!"

"Discord!" Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, glaring in disapproval.

"What?" Discord shrugged his shoulders, raising one lion's paw and one eagle claw in an innocent gesture. "That's what we were all thinking! Don't lie to her. She's been through a lot."

"Oh my gosh, why didn't anypony tell me Dashie would stop being missing today? I could have had a 'welcome home' cake prepared ahead of time!" Pinkie Pie bounced across the living area of Fluttershy's cottage excitedly, hopping up onto Fluttershy's sofa where Rainbow was currently reclining. "You look so much better now that you've had a bath, Dashie!" She curiously eyed the polished sapphire pendant Rainbow was handing. "Oohh! Shiny! What'cha got there?"

Rainbow delicately held her pendant using the tips of her flight feathers, rotating it to examine the setting and crystal from various angles. The gold setting was scratched and chipped due to being thrown and mishandled. The sapphire was cracked. "It's an enchanted sapphire. Found it in a... well... It's a long and weird story."

"What kinda story? I love long stories—'specially if I'm the one telling them!"

"A hovering golden ghost dropped it after I freed her from a nest of black tentacles on top of a weird stone altar inside a secret underground chamber. Like I said, weird story."

"Sounds like a normal Tuesday afternoon for Daring Doo!" Pinkie giggled. "You should tell her all about your adventure. She might even write about it!"

"Yeah, maybe, Pinkie." Rainbow sighed, disheartened. She observed Pinkie Pie bounce off of the sofa and return to the center of the room to mingle with the rest of her friends.

"Rainbow?" Twilight Sparkle climbed onto Fluttershy's sofa and sat back on her haunches beside her friend. "Are you feeling better?"

"No."

"I can't help you if you won't talk to me and tell me what's wrong."

"I know. Maybe later, okay?"

Twilight frowned, concerned. "Alright. I understand. So, what are you holding?"

"It's an enchanted necklace." Rainbow smiled briefly. "Y'know, you were always on my mind these past few weeks, Twi. I knew you'd be interested in all the stuff I saw. The world I went to had two suns. I talked to a weird gold unicorn ghost—she was the one who dropped this necklace. I found books I wanted to bring home, but I never got the chance to. They looked like spell books."

"You were in a different world?!" Twilight's jaw fell agape in shock. "Oh my gosh! What was it like? What happened?"

"It was..." Rainbow paused, considering all of the outlandish sights she had witnessed. Vincent's crazy human contraptions. The Acid Swamp. The ice-breathing serpentine drake. The purple-water lake. The Obscuration. The severe Migration storms. The Heart, the parasitic monstrosity that had almost drained all of her magic and lifeforce. "...lonely. I missed home and all of my friends. I wasn't totally alone, though. There was someone with me."

"Who?"

Rainbow glanced at Vincent's dog tags resting beside her on the sofa. Her ears laid back against her head sadly. "A friend. An important friend to me. Maybe I'll introduce everypony to him later, but it'll have to be in a big open field on a clear night."

When she was alone again, Rainbow reclined against the back of Fluttershy's sofa, examining the sapphire pendant. Truthfully, however, her mind was focused on other thoughts. She recalled distinct memories of her adventures in Nowhere with Vincent by her side.

She was so immersed that she failed to notice Discord's slender, serpentine body curl around Fluttershy's couch.

"Her name was Illustria." Discord contorted his neck, stretching it far enough from his body so that his head could comfortably face Rainbow as he spoke.

Rainbow blinked, glancing over her shoulders to confirm Discord was indeed addressing her and not somepony else. "What?"

Discord uncoiled himself from around Fluttershy's sofa and assumed his neutral pose as he hovered nonsensically in midair before her. He gestured to the blemished sapphire pendant with his lion's paw. "The unicorn mare you rescued—her name was Illustria. She was trapped underground for... quite some time. Needless to say, she appreciated your generosity. That, if I'm not mistaken, is her ancient pendant in your wings."

"How do you—?" Stunned, Rainbow's jaw fell agape. She dropped the sapphire as if it had ignited ablaze and burned her feathers. She gazed between it and Discord, attempting desperately to read his facial expression and determine if he was merely joking. "How do you know about that?!"

"I know what you're thinking, and no, while she may be a unicorn, she isn't a unicorn pony. And, yes, I do mean is, not was. Her physical form expired long before you rescued her, but she persisted nonetheless. She isn't a 'ghost' as you so impolitely described.

"You witnessed more than a mere pony ever should, Rainbow Dash." Discord's eyes narrowed. His neutral facial expression vanished, warping into an expression that was stern and intimidating. "Unintentionally, of course. This wasn't your fault. Consider this a learning opportunity—never try to meddle with forces beyond your comprehension. Do you understand?"

"I - I don't... get it." Terrified, Rainbow stood and retreated hastily, pressing herself against the back of Fluttershy's sofa in a futile attempt to retreat further.

"Good!" Discord smiled. "You were never supposed to, anyway. Let's just forget all about this, shall we?

"Oh, yes, that's right. That scratch below your ear..." He raised his lion's paw and snapped two digits together. Instantaneously, the scratch beneath Rainbow's ear was healed. "There we are. Good as new!"

Surprised, Rainbow raised a hoof and touched the location where the nick has previously been, only to discover it had, indeed, vanished.

"The only reason you were able to fly again so soon was because of Illustria's knowledge of healing magic. She's a very scholarly student, you know." Discord giggled mischievously.

Rainbow landed onto the ivory platform softly. When her hooves touched the ground, she folded one of her wings against her back and dropped the dog tags she clutched in her teeth, catching them with the flight feathers of her opposite wing. Her hoofsteps were quiet as she approached Princess Luna's elegant form from the rear. She observed the princess stargaze for a moment before raising her voice and drawing attention to herself.

"How do you do, princess?"

Luna glanced over her shoulder to investigate the unexpected voice behind her. When she identified who Rainbow was, she relaxed, rotating 180 degrees to address her unanticipated visitor. "Rainbow Dash! Twilight Sparkle informed me of your return earlier today. It's excellent to see you're alive and healthy. My sister and I were very concerned for your well-being.

"Rarely do I receive visitors in the night, and rarer still are they ponies such as yourself. How do you fare? Was the evening train ride from Ponyville to Canterlot relaxing? What brings you to Canterlot Castle?"

"I... flew here, Luna." Rainbow chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the rear of her neck with a hoof.

"Goodness! You flew here from Ponyville?" Luna's eyes widened. "That is a very long flight."

"I know. I came all this way specifically to talk to you."

"How may I assist you, Rainbow Dash?"

"I need to ask for a favor. You are familiar with all of the stars, right?"

"Certainly. You could say I'm not quite on a first-name basis with all of them yet, but," Luna paused, chuckling softly at her own little joke, "I'm familiar with the precise position of every star in my night sky. Why do you ask?"

"I need to ask for a favor," Rainbow repeated. "It's a sensitive personal thing." She raised her wing and presented Vincent's dog tags. "These tags are all I have left of a... lost friend. I promised I would try to have a star named after him. Can you do that?"

"Oh..." Luna frowned. She levitated the dog tags before her muzzle, examining them. "I see. Yes, Rainbow Dash, I most certainly can fulfill that wish. I'm... sorry for what happened."

"Don't be. It's a long story. I've explained it to all of my friends a lot today, but if you're interested in listening, I guess I could repeat it again later."

"Whether sharing your story or meditating, you are always welcome on my balcony, Rainbow."

"Meditating? I thought you were stargazing."

"Are they not the same?"

Rainbow stepped forward beside the princess and sat back on her haunches, gazing up into the night sky. She scoured the sky carefully, scrutinizing each star. She selected multiple options as a precaution in case Luna denied her request to select the first or second choice.

"That star, the one that looks like it's the top point of a triangle shape?" Rainbow pointed using one of her wings. It was a bright star, yet not the brightest. It was perceptible only to those who specifically sought it. It was a modest selection, one Vincent would be honored to receive.

"Yes, I see it. What would you like it to be named from now on, Rainbow Dash?"

"'VJM-APW-5557386361'."

Luna's eyes widened in surprise. "Goodness. That's quite verbose. Would you like it to have a nickname?"

Rainbow already had a proper nickname in mind. She smiled. "'Phoenix'."

As a phoenix combusted and rose, renewed, from its ashes at the very end of its lifecycle, so too did Vincent. From his mistakes he learned, and from his ashes he rose, renewed. He rose again and again against fierce opposition, refusing to surrender and remaining Loyal until the very end.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading 'Laments of the Dimension-Stranded' and seeing it through to the very end. This is one of my few projects that I was actually capable of completing. It feels so gratifying witnessing that yellow 'Incomplete' sticker transform into the green 'Complete' sticker.

This story took months of planning, dedication and hard work to complete. Hundreds of hours. I constantly doubted my skills and loyalty to the project the entire way through. I considered abandoning it and officially Canceling the project many times. My inspiration, however, helped a lot with keeping me on track.

I'd like to thank DustTraveler for inspiring me with his 'Quantum Castaways', a story I read many years ago that inspired me to begin writing. Dear DustTraveler: thanks, dude. You're awesome. I'm sorry about the complications that arose in your life, and I hope you can find the strength to overcome them and perhaps find time to continue writing again. I will be there to support you.

If you enjoyed my story, please post a comment explaining why. I would greatly appreciate it. It would mean a lot if you did. However, if you did NOT like my story, please post a comment explaining why. I would love receiving criticism. I could use it to help fix my mistakes and improve my work in the future.

VI – Rainbow Dash – Nowhere

"That's... absurd." Rainbow Dash couldn't conceive a more accurate word to describe her feelings.

Vincent had partially refueled one of the abandoned vehicles in the parking lot of the auto repair shop and had jump started it by connecting its battery and the Volga GAZ-24's battery with crocodile clips. Now that the abandoned car in the parking lot was running, Vincent had connected its battery to the Inexorable's battery after transferring the GAZ-24's spark plugs to his truck.

Rainbow had helped shove the titanic vehicle out of the auto repair shop. The truck was exceptionally heavy and difficult to move, even when it was in neutral.

Vincent's plan to get the Inexorable running was ridiculous, imprudent... ingenious. Vincent was anything but incompetent. The man knew how to improvise.

Vincent depressed the abandoned car's accelerator, revving the engine. It was in park, so the car lied immobile throughout the entire process. "If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid!

"Key's in the ignition, Dash! Go try to start the truck."

Obediently, Rainbow trotted to the rear of the Inexorable, circling around to the left side. She reared onto her rear legs and leapt up onto the driver's seat, sitting back on her haunches.

Rainbow had thought normal vehicles weren't conventionally-sized. The Inexorable was an entirely unique breed. Its proportions were ludicrous. The step for climbing into the driver's seat was so high off of the ground, Rainbow preferred jumping into the seat itself.

Rainbow reached with a hoof beneath the Inexorable's steering wheel and rotated the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered unresponsively momentarily before erupting with a furious roar that made Rainbow jump. "Celestia...!" The truck's engine was vibrating so aggressively she could feel her body gently quivering. The vehicle's barely-restrained power was blatent.

Vincent cackled, jumping out of the abandoned car and pumping his left arm into the air in victory. "It's alive!"

Rainbow grinned at Vincent's enthusiasm, leaping out of the Inexorable's driver's seat and onto the pavement below. "What now?"

"Few more examinations I gotta do, then we kiss this place goodbye, that's what! Hope you got your bags packed, Dash, 'cause we're goin' on a road trip."

While Vincent performed maintenance on the Inexorable, Rainbow trotted around inside the auto repair shop one final time. She considered if there was anything she had forgotten to pack. Not coming to any conclusions, she shrugged.

When Vincent emerged from beneath the Inexorable, his white shirt and hands were splattered with black oil and possibly gasoline. Rainbow shuddered. "What the heck were you doing under there?"

"Good news! Fuel lines are fine. Pressure regulator's A-OK, too. Checked earlier." He made an "OK" sign with one hand.

Not understanding, Rainbow shrugged. "So, are we good? Can we go?"

"Dash, as a professional, I say this with the upmost confidence: no fucking idea. There's a million parts that go into making a car run. Cross your fingers and hope nothing fails."

Vincent wiped his hands off on a rag and unclamped the crocodile clips from the Inexorable's car battery, tossing them haphazardly away, their purpose fulfilled. He slammed the hood shut and jogged towards the auto repair shop's emergency exit.

Rainbow approached the Inexorable's right side, viewing the vehicle for a moment. The massive truck was truly a sight to behold. Vincent had polished its gorgeous lemon yellow body. The wide all-terrain tires had a special, complicated pattern of grooves. Scarlet shocks were plainly visible.

The truck was packed with supplies to sustain them on their long journey. Vincent and Rainbow had crammed the vehicle with practically everything that hadn't been nailed down in the auto repair shop like eager kleptomaniacs.

Rainbow reared onto her rear legs and leapt up into the Inexorable's passenger seat, sitting back on her haunches and shutting her door. She waited patiently for Vincent, tapping her hooves against the dashboard and creating a little rhythm.

When Vincent returned and climbed into the Inexorable's driver's seat, she noticed he wore new clothes. His wiry frame made the scavenged yellow-greenish military uniform and combat helmet he donned appear heavy, slightly baggy and uncomfortable, not to mention it was macabre to wear the clothes of a soldier he had killed. The clothing had more pockets and was tougher, providing more protection, though. That was indisputable.

Rainbow didn't comment.

She exchanged a giddy glance with Vincent. She shared his excitement. The very concept of making progress towards escaping Nowhere and returning home was exhilarating.

Her gaze drifted low to his neck, and she spotted two rectangular flat sheets of metal displaying stamped text.

"Are those your...?"

Vincent reached with his left hand, brushing his fingers against his dog tags. "Yep. These are my ol' tags when I was still in the military. Kept 'em. Wearin' this gear is givin' me flashbacks. Used to wanna forget about that time of my life, but... I wanna make my old man proud, y'know?"

Rainbow considered what had been said. "You said your dad passed away when you were younger. Do you... think he's watching you?"

Vincent sighed dreamily. "Maybe. I ain't into religion, Dash. Never was. I don't know what you think happens after death, but I wanna believe they're backing me up, y'know? My old man. People I used to serve with. Everyone."

Rainbow smiled, leaning back in her seat and gazing out through the windshield. Fortunately, unlike the old Volga, the Inexorable had adjustable seats. After adjusting the passenger seat to its maximum elevation, she could comfortably see through the windshield to the ground below.

"How's your shoulder?"

"Pulled the bullet out and stitched myself up rightly last night after you fell asleep. Honestly? Aches like a fucker. Will for a while. Bullet only grazed the bone, didn't penetrate—I'll survive, Dash. Can still drive."

Rainbow changed the subject a final time. "Why'd you bring the plant?" She was referencing the small potted flower near the gearshift. Heart-shaped leaves, heart-shaped petals. It had originally been in the Volga GAZ-24.

"It's... weird. I used to have one in my car years ago when I first came to Nowhere. Found another one on the counter in the workshop, and we found another one in that car yesterday." Vincent pointed to the GAZ-24. "Figure I'm lucky to have found three in my life. They're a pretty rare Earth plant."

Rainbow shifted her weight in the carseat. "Are you sure this thing will have enough traction in the grass? There's no roads."

"Oh, McFly," Vincent grinned, "where we're going, we don't need roads.

"Anyway, we gotta get movin' before the battery runs outta juice." Vincent withdrew an unrecognizable device from one of the pockets of his pants and presented it.

Rainbow accepted the offered device with a hoof, frowning in uncertainty. The intricate device was small, approximately the size of a large apple, and was rectangular with tiny buttons and a flat, smooth black screen. "What... is this?"

"Whoever used to own that iPod spared no expense to play music at work. That thing has a helluva memory, it's got a few hundred songs. Haven't been able to charge it for years, but now with the truck..." Vincent plucked the iPod from Rainbow's hoof and inserted a cord into the device's receiving port, then inserted the opposite end of the cord into a port in the Inexorable's dashboard.

Vincent tapped his fingers impatiently. When the iPod had charged enough to begin functioning normally, its screen lit up white and displayed a list of colorful boxes and lines of small—yet legible—text.

Vincent scrolled through the list rapidly as if he knew precisely what he was searching for before selecting an option by tapping the small square with his thumb.

Rainbow once again marveled at the complexity and ingenuity of human technology. The device was apparently designed to receive input from the tapping of human fingers on the sensitive screen and translate it to movement on the display. It was truly fascinating and incomprehensible.

Rainbow squinted, struggling to read what option Vincent had selected from the list displayed on the iPod's screen. "What's 'Thin Lizzy'?"

"Shh," Vincent ordered her, extending a hand and pointing a finger upwards. He returned his left hand to the steering wheel, placing his right hand on the gearshift and shifting the Inexorable into reverse. He rotated the steering wheel and reversed the Inexorable so its magnificent lemon hood was pointing directly north. He shifted into drive.

A riff of harsh, grating electric guitars sounded loudly through the Inexorable's sound system, making Rainbow wince. "Celestia, that's loud...!"

For the first few seconds, the noise was tolorable. Then the rhythmic drums kicked into gear. A squealing high note on the electric guitars made Rainbow's ears lie back.

"Felt a chill on my backbone," Vincent sung along with the male vocalist, resting his boot lightly over the truck's accelerator pedal. "Hung up the telephone."

Vincent slammed the gas and the Inexorable's tires screeched harshly against the pavement before eventually catching and launching the truck across the parking lot at a ludicrous speed.

Rainbow yelped and clutched her seat in horror. "Vincent! Too fast! Too fast!"

The truck rocketed off of the pavement and landed onto the ramp with a thump, accelerating the entire way down like they were descending the apex of the world's fastest roller coaster.

Vincent whooped and hollered insanely, tilting his head back. "Stone cold sweat runnin' down the back of my neck!" He sang along happily.

When the Inexorable struck the hill at the base of the ramp, it launched upwards, sailing through the air before colliding with the ground with a deafening crash. The truck rattled loudly, but the superior suspension absorbed the force of the impact effortlessly. Rainbow was launched upwards and struck her head hard against the Inexorable's solid metal roof. She groaned in pain.

"Cold, cold sweat!" Vincent chanted, flicking the steering wheel right briefly before clamping the wheel at 5 o'clock and whipping it to the left as far as it could rotate. He performed an effortless 180 degree turn, flicking the steering wheel to the right immediately to straighten their trajectory and assure the truck didn't fishtail.

Rainbow was flung against the passenger's door by centrifugal force, her muzzle mashing against the glass of the window. She groaned, disoriented.

They tore south, going hell-for-leather at a sheer velocity that would make a professional Formula One racer faint. A massive cloud of dust billowed behind them. The truck's wide tires flung up dirt and pebbles, practically creating grooves in the earth like carriage wheels in fresh mud.

"Cold, cold sweat!"

A meritorious electric guitar solo consisting of incomprehensibly-rapid pitch shifts blared from the Inexorable's sound system. It sounded like it was building up to something...

The Inexorable's powerful V8 engine growled in tune with the legendary solo as Vincent tapped the accelerator. The truck zoomed over another hill and sailed through the air as electric guitars wailed high notes that screeched magnificently. Vincent howled.

"Stone cold crazy, place another bet!"

The song concluded with a rhymic pounding of drums. Vincent cackled madly.

Rainbow panted gently, out of breath. "Slow down! Please!"

Vincent grinned, tapping lightly on the brake. The Inexorable decelerated responsively until they were crusing at about 40 mph.

Gentle chuckles originating from Rainbow evolved into laughs. The adrenaline swamping her system caused by the stressful situation was invigorating. That song had been incredible, despite her initial terror. Rainbow was a daredevil. Now that her expectations had been calculated, she wanted Vincent to accelerate and push the truck to its absolute limits.

"That was awesome!"

"'One Night Only' is a great album." Vincent effortlessly steered with one hand and swiped through the list of songs on the iPod with the other. He made a selection and set the music player down.

Guitars screeched briefly in the intro before the main melody quickly faded in.

"Told me don't go walkin' slow, devil's on the loose!" Vincent sang along. "Better run through the jungle!"

Vincent expertly weaved the truck between trees and over humps in the earth. They passed a jagged spike of rock protruding from the ground. Rainbow looked out through the passenger window at the crater lake as they passed.

She winced slightly as she heard the line "two hundred million guns". She wondered if the singer was exaggerating. With her current understanding of humans, Rainbow estimated he wasn't.

"Satan cries 'take aim!' Better run through the jungle!" Vincent chanted, tapping his hand against the steering wheel.

The song grew fainter as it concluded. Vincent sighed, chuckling. He gazed through the windshield, focused where he was driving.

"My dad listened to CCR when he was in Vietnam."

"Is that... a place? Country?" Rainbow estimated.

"Country," Vincent clarifed. "Beaches. Rivers. Mountains. Jungle.

"Wanna visit the Acid Swamp? It's a bit of a detour to the west, but it's basically on the way."

Rainbow nodded enthusiastically.

"So, what other songs you got on there?"

"Dunno." Vincent lifted the iPod where it was resting near the gearshift and swiped through the song list. Taking notice of a particular title, he smirked, making the selection and setting the iPod down again.

An electric guitar was gently strummed six times, followed by two taps of drum sticks on cymbols, followed by the main melody.

"Back in black, I hit the sack!" Vincent sang along, tapping his left hand against the steering wheel. "Forget the hearse 'cause I'll never die!"

The male vocalist had an abnormally raspy voice that Vincent couldn't hope to match, but he compensated with enthusiasm.

"'Cause I'm back! Yes I'm back! Baa - aa - aa - aa - aack, baa - aa - aa - aa - aack!"

Finally getting into the swing of things, Rainbow joined in with Vincent for the final "back in black" before the brief respite.

The song featured another guitar solo. It wasn't quite as legendary as the first song, but it was undeniably catchy. Rainbow tapped her hooves against her seat to the beat. Vincent nodded his head energetically with the rhythm.

When the song concluded, irrepressible laugher filled the driver's compartment of the truck. Rainbow giggled uproariously, brushing a lock of rainbow mane away from her eyes. "I can't breathe...!"

Vincent grinned, tapping lightly on the brake pedal as they approached their destination. With a harsh grinding of wheels against earth, the Inexorable decelerated and came to a stop near a cliff. "We're here. Just don't get too close to the edge, alright?"

"Already? Wow, felt like that was just a couple minutes..." Rainbow beamed. "That was fun. Almost felt like I was flying again for a minute." She opened the passenger side door and shoved it outwards, leaping out of the truck to the ground below.

The first abnormal quality of the surrounding area Rainbow noticed was the jet-black rock ringing the cliff edge.

She approached the precipice cautiously to assure she didn't slip, her mouth dropping agape when she saw beyond the edge.

It was an enormous effervescent ocean of opaque, vivid-green sludge extending as far and wide as Rainbow could see. Large bubbles inflated, engorged and burst on the surface, belching toxic black gas into the atmosphere.

"So that's where the smoke was coming from."

Curious, Rainbow proposed and immediately sought to prove a theory. She grabbed a nearby rock in a hoof and tossed it over the edge.

The infernal guck absorbed the rock hungrily, belching black smoke. It spat furiously, emitting small bursts of hot green glop like hissing bacon frying on a pan.

"Can't say anything like this exists in Equestria..."

Vincent slammed the driver's-side door of the Inexorable, approaching Rainbow from the rear. "Nothing like this on Earth, neither. It's fuckin' gross, huh?"

"It's... almost alive." Rainbow shivered. For a moment she wondered if it was a gigantic single organism. "I hate the way it foams like boiling water over pasta."

"Imagine falling into that on your back and just being absorbed into the goo." Vincent grinned.

Rainbow shuddered, horrified.

She noted how the jet-black rock ringed the edge of the Acid Swamp. Rainbow wasn't a geological expert like Pinkie Pie's family, but even she could recognize the rock wasn't Equestrian. It was capable of resisting the corrosive properties of the sludge and containing it.

The Acid Swamp was therefore, by extension, a titanic glob of sludge contained by a massive bowl of obsidian-like rock. It was, perhaps, the universe's largest and most revolting bowl of Jell-O gelatin dessert.

Rainbow felt the urge to stretch her wings and take flight to witness the Acid Swamp from above and other, alternative angles. She was curious how large it truly was. Seeing it from the ground didn't truly represent it fairly.

Her clipped wings still weren't capable of lifting her off of the ground, though. Frustrated, Rainbow extended her wings and flapped them powerfully, rousing gusts of air. A single clipped blue feather released from one of her wings and floated on a gentle breeze off of the precipice and into the Acid Swamp below. The delicate feather was absorbed by the tide and disintegrated instantly.

"It's got a taste for you now." Vincent chuckled. "Better watch out. Some tentacles are gonna wrap around ya in the night and drag you back to the ooze."

Rainbow grimaced. "Don't even suggest it. If that thing started sprouting tentacles, I'd... cry." She chuckled at her own exaggeration.

"Trust me, I've seen enough hentai and manga to know exactly how that goes."

Rainbow blinked, considering what had been said. Her face wrinkled in disgust and she raised an eyebrow, tilting her head backwards to gaze up at her companion. "Does that mean what I think it means...?"

"Jein..." Vincent held his arms skyward in a mock-surrender gesture.

Vincent drove his magnificent lemon truck southward until they hit a literal and metaphorical wall.

It was a giant mountain, a steep wall of rock that blocked their path. Rainbow could easily fly over such an obstacle, but, tragically, without wings, she was forced to resort to remain seated in the Inexorable as Vincent guided it slowly northwest in an attempt to circumvent the giant hill. They drove for hours, searching for a break in the infinite rock wall until the dual suns of Nowhere began dipping below the horizon. Finding no valley or natural path upwards, Vincent had called it a day and parked the truck beneath an old pine tree.

"I wish I had a camera. I don't know if my friends will believe me when I tell them all the crazy stuff that's happened to me here."

Vincent chuckled dryly. "Think about it, Dash. If someone approached you and told you everything that's happened to you, would you believe them? Or would you think they were crazy and dismiss it?

"I don't wanna burst your bubble, but I'm startin' to think this is less of an escape attempt from Nowhere and more of an excuse for you and me to have an adventure."

Rainbow remained silent, not responding. She shivered, scooting closer to their improvised firepit. It was no more than a bundle of twigs set alight, but it emitted pleasant warmth. "It's cold tonight, isn't it?"

Vincent leaned against the pine tree, puffing a cigarette and exhaling smoke. "Little bit. I'm wearing two layers of clothes, though. You're completely naked. Maybe put on some pants or something?"

"I mean... you're right," Rainbow relented. "But it's summer, isn't it? It was so hot earlier today. Something's wrong."

Vincent withdrew the cigarette from his mouth and tapped it lightly with his index finger, discarding ashes. "Fuck All Nowhere's wrong, Dash. Whole place is wrong. It could start snowing right now and I wouldn't bat an eye. Logic and reasoning just don't apply here."

Rainbow considered responding before realizing Vincent had spoken wisely. She huddled near the fire and rubbed her extremities, fluttering her wings as she shivered.

"You look like a dying butterfly." Vincent chuckled.

"Shut up! It's not funny."

"I got blankets in the truck if you—"

A gust of chilling air suddenly blew over Rainbow's body and extinguished their fire. She blinked, shocked. "What the heck was that?"

Vincent looked equally disturbed. The cherry of his cigarette had been extinguished. He rolled his thumb over his lighter's metal wheel to summon sparks and ignited his cigarette once again, puffing.

Several seconds passed. The air was still. Rainbow stood up, crushing dead pine needles beneath her hooves on the forest floor. She had the audacity to believe the weather had subsided.

Another blast of chilly air struck her. Strands of her multicolored mane blew into her face. She grunted in frustration, reaching with a hoof to clear the strands of hair from her face.

The air was coming from the south. That didn't make sense. She and Vincent had specifically chosen their current spot to camp because it was beneath the southern rock wall. Vincent had explicitly stated the wall would serve as a natural wind break.

Rainbow began to walk, then accelerated to a trot.

"Hey, wait!" Vincent immediately moved to physically stop her, but Rainbow jerked away from the hand he had extended, trotting. She had a suspicion within her that something wasn't right.

"Where are you going?" Vincent demanded, withdrawing a flashlight from one of the pockets in his pants and flicking it on, pointing the beam of light in Rainbow's direction.

That's when she saw it. They both saw it simultaneously. Nestled beneath the tall, flat southern rock wall was the wide, jet-black mouth of a cave with teeth of jagged, pointed rock. Another wave of chilly air confirmed Rainbow's suspicions: there was something magical inside of the cave that was expelling the cold air.

"There's something in there," Rainbow affirmed.

Vincent was silent for a moment. He stepped alongside Rainbow and shined the white beam of light from the flashlight around the rim of the cave mouth. It was so dark beneath the shelter of the southern rock wall that the cave was barely visible. "Is it the same feeling you felt during the last Migration?"

Rainbow immediately shook her head. "No, that was more... I dunno, palpable. We're not as far south as we need to go, yet. Something living inside this cave is just a gut feeling I have. I think it's magical."

"'Magical'?" Vincent echoed, raising an eyebrow. He deactivated the flashlight to preserve its battery life. "Dash, I dunno how to tell you this without breakin' your heart, but we're not gonna find Frosty the Snowman in there."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Get me a scarf or something! We're going in there. Got anything smart to say 'bout that?"

"Roger! No ma'am!" Vincent snapped a quick, elegant salute and jogged over to where he had parked the Inexorable.