EVERFREE: A Post-Skaian Story

Delta was ranting about the Donner Party.

"And that's when the cannibalism started!" She declared, mimicking one of her favorite podcasters.
"So - you weren't lying! If things got bad enough, you did actually eat each other?!" Sunset asked.
"Not a bluff, girl! Humans are BRUTAL creatures!"
"Oh, PLEASE." Bon Bon interrupted. "We've had cases of cannibalism in our own society. Knowledge of it is restricted, but ponies can be brutal."
"Oh, yeah? Does this country have capital punishment?"
"What?"
"The death penalty. Execution. The ultimate punishment for the most heinous of crimes."
Lyra whistled low. "Sweet Celestia, I'm not sure which would be worse. Being cursed into a living statue and staying there for the foreseeable future, or just straight up death."
"Okay - I'll give you that, that's pretty brutal." Delta conceded. "But I still think the actual methods of execution we had take the cake. You ever hear of the electric chair?"

Before they could continue, a loud screech stopped everyone in their tracks. They were inside a sort of mini-valley, where sharply angled walls surrounded them on either side, almost a tunnel but not quite.
The crew looked up to see rusted, jagged metal jut out from the wall up ahead, It twisted and gnarled into a series of knotted patterns, and then stopped.
"It just made a fence." Sunset observed. "Why did it make a fence?" She gingerly approached the rusted iron and tapped it with a protected hoof. "It's really barbed too. Climbing it would be difficult, and leave openings in our gear.."

Then, another fence exploded from behind the group, locking them in against the sheer face cliffsides. That's when a rumble came from the far end of the valley, as rancid sludge spilled its way down straight towards the crew.
"It's a TRAP!" CD shouted.
Bon Bon wasted no time throwing up her grappling hook to the top of the cliff face, only for the end of the rope to be too high up above her to reach when it successfully hooked. She hissed a little swear, and then looked around for any other ideas.

That's when CD hoisted her round the barrel.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Bon Bon shouted.
"Getting you to safety! Grab it!" before CD hurled Bon Bon upwards towards the rope.
Reacting just in time, Bon Bon latched onto the rope and scrambled up, and then she saw that both Lyra and Sunset had been thrown up, too, and had managed to grab hold of the rope. However, they were unable to climb, so Bon Bon took advantage of her innate strength to pull the two mares up along with the rope itself.
That left CD alone in the trap.

=> CD: Time to put your sick combat skills to the test. Figure out a way out of here.

The both of you look around for any semblance of cover, but years of cruel winter wind had made these walls relatively smooth. There weren't any obvious footholds, so climbing was out of the question. You wouldn't have the time either way.
You slip a bit on the sloped ice while darting your head around a little.
Sloped ice.

You look back to the fence at the entry and realize that it's lower than the one up top. A high enough jump would clear it relatively easy.

"Hardcore parkour! Hardcore parkour!" You both begin to chant to yourselves, hyping and pumping up the adrenaline.
The mares above you peer over the edge, and watch as you sprint down the path and jump, and scramble along the side wall to jump over the fence. You manage to mostly clear it, the tip of your boot catching on a piece of rebar and bowling you over forwards. You tumble onto the ground, and hear a sickening crunch sound as you continue to fall a ways down the slope. Thankfully, your tumble comes to an end a few meters away from where the sludge is cascading down the mountain.

Your acrobatic fucking pirouette was a minor success. You test your limbs to see what, if anything, broke, only to taste blood pooling in your mouth. On instinct and impulse, you try to stick your finger in there to assess the damage, only for it to bump up against your respirator. As a secondary measure, you swirl your tongue around. One of your incisors has chipped something fierce it seems. You swallow the blood, and the loose chunk of tooth, and suppress the urge to constantly lick it like you did with your wisdom tooth surgery. No choice but to tough it out for now. You start to climb back up the mountainside.

=>

"THE PRESTIGE!" CD shouted as she regrouped with the mares, raising her arms up in victory.
Bon Bon didn't really give much in terms of celebration. She was busy studying the path, trying to figure out how and why the Dark Heart attacked so swiftly.
"..." Delta gritted her teeth. "You're WELCOME, by the way. For getting you out of danger."
"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Sunset held up a hoofbump. "That was some quick thinking."

The hazmat gear made it slightly awkward.

"It's our job to think fast, as a Seer. So thanks."
"A Seer? Any chance you can tell the future?" Sunset asked jokingly.
CD shook her head. "We're a Seer of Blood - it doesn't work like that." Delta replied.
"Well, do you see any blood?" Lyra joked.
"Not yet. We'll keep you posted."
Bon Bon snorted. "Alright, is there anything you can 'see' from where you're standing?"

=> Seer: Portend.

⚄⚃

It's not like how most Seers - at least, the documented instances - portend. Rose Lalonde had vision in her eyes as a Seer of Light. Terezi Pyrope could see multiple possibilities through her Mind's eye. You have vision, where else, but in your Blood.
You call it Shivers, named after the skill in Disco Elysium. Because of course you would call it that. And it works for you to treat it like that, because you're taking word from the narrative itself, in a sense, finding specific truths and knowledge that others would ignore, if only because they were already established long before. It's useful for looking into other past timelines, other "narratives" as you call them.
You attempt to explain your abilities to your companions, but they don't seem to get it for the most part. What with it being a Skaian ability, it would probably make more sense in the environment it was actually built for.

Gut feelings, chills down your spine, hunches and aches in your bones. You breathe, and your lungs take on the filtered air, warmth somewhat clouding up your eyesight. Not your vision.
Three other beats of warm breath drum along next to you, and you reach out further.
And there, you feel it. Another breath, haggard, heavy, desperate, resides deeper in the mountains.

"Someone else is on the mountain."

=>

"Weird question." C-Side finally asked after a good few minutes of her in blissfully quiet contemplation. Bon Bon's ear twitched. "How long has it been since Twilight's ascension to Princess status?"
"Uhm.. why?" Bon Bon asked.
"I'm just trying to find a point of reference for where we are in the timeline."
"Timeline???"
"Just humor me."
"Well, it's been a month or so now." She finally answered.
"..Okay, cool, cool. How long since... Cranky Doodle Dandy's wedding?"
"That's really specific."
"It's a landmark event, alright? I'm just trying to figure something out."
"Does it pertain to the mission?"
"Yes! Actually!" C-Side gave a small shout. "If somepony else is, and this is noteworthy, higher up on the mountain, then it'll mean one of two things. One: somepony is dying up there. Or two: somepony is trying to control that Heart, and that's why we fell into that trap."
"And how would you know that?"

"A few weeks before Doodle and Matilda's wedding, Twilight and company ventured out into the northeast part of Equestria and found an isolated village that celebrated absolute conformity - by magical removal of each pony's cutie mark."
Bon Bon stopped. "That. Is classified information." She growled.
Delta sneered. "Okay, well, we're a Seer. We just know shit, okay? Get used to it."
They stared at one another, one suspicious, one challenging.
"The point being," C-side continued, forcing Delta to surrender the contest for now, "Chances are, if she's been traveling alone this whole time... I think we know who's up there."

=>

The peak of the mountain had been carved into some sort of grand arena, almost. Twisted rebar and thick chunks of rusted metal were pressed up against the surrounding stone walls, ensuring that there was only one way in, and one way out. The wind howled above the opening above them all, and Bon Bon felt at least somewhat happy to be out of the bitter gale.

There, in the center of the room, being held aloft by stilts of slick goo, was Starlight Glimmer, looking worse for wear. Her fur was matted and burnt from contact with the acidic goo, with the Heart of Lead attached to her chest, wrapping vines of disgusting substance around it. Her face snapped up with an unnatural sound, passively observing the team as they kept their distance.

"Aight, you two stay outside." Delta said, and Lyra tilted her head. "What? Why?" She asked.
"Because you have your orders to not help us, duh." Delta replied.
"Oh, thank Celestia." Bon Bon half-sincerely said, as she lay down in a relatively safe spot.
"Oh, come ON!" Lyra exclaimed. "It's total roadapples that we can't help you with this stupid thing! I'm going in there to help!" She immediately started to trot into the center of the arena.
"Hey, wait-!!" Sunset and CD shouted at the same time.

b-THUMP, beat the heart.
Suddenly, the area around Lyra's horn fell into darkness as she collapsed to the ground and gasped in shock, her suit being the one thing protecting her from the ooze. Bon Bon instantly snapped back onto her hooves and threw her grappling hook towards her partner, who weakly caught onto it.
The Heart of Lead beat faster against Starlight's chest. Slick tendrils ripped out underling monsters from CD's session up from the snow. The crimson red monsters surrounded Lyra and the hook, preventing her from leaving the area. Sunset and CD had no choice but to fight.

"Aight Sunset.. Anti magic. Your specialty." C-Side said.
"Shit!" She shouted.
"Good observation, Shimmer!" Delta jeered.
"Shut up and let me think!" Sunset yelped, before dodging out of the way of a freshly spawned tentacle. "Okay! The heart started beating faster after it took Heartstrings's magic, and then spawned monsters from under the snow - which means that if anypony approaches it and has their magic taken, it grows stronger!"
"Shit!" Delta concurred. "We just thought they negated the magic - not take it!"
"You'll thank me later! Get that heart! I'll get Heartstrings!"

The duo charged in, and Delta brandished more bottles of flammable liquids. She quickly stuffed a rag into one, and lit it up. Grinning and roaring with the might of a physical instrument, Delta chucked it hard at one of the tendrils, which exploded into a brilliant oil slick flame. The fires quickly spread, only for the tentacle to purposefully amputate itself and burn away while the rest of the entity remained untouched. Regardless, Delta cackled in delight at the fire. She quickly got to producing more bottles and prepping them to throw, shouting, "I AM THE MILKMAN! MY MILK IS DELICIOUS! SPECIAL DELIVERY TODAY!"

Sunset quickly dove into a fracas with the underlings, still able to kick flank with the best of them despite her limitation. She took care to not let herself be bit, lest a tear in her suit cause severe chemical burns. She acted primarily as a distraction for Lyra and Bon Bon to regroup, taunting the monsters and leading them away from CD's section of the fight.
But when she was able to get a kick in, she reveled in it, making sure the monster didn't get back up - which apparently was easy to tell, because these monsters exploded into novelty sized pieces of candy when defeated.

Bon Bon reeled Lyra back to safety and checked her vitals, before silently chastising her partner for recklessly entering the fray. The heavy breaths fogged up against Lyra's suit, indicating that she was breathing, if nothing else. She looked up at Sunset, who was definitely not winning, but not losing either - yet. She grimaced, and knew that if she walked in, she'd fall victim to the anti-magic.
Her orders were to not help. Don't interfere, don't move out of line.
She was paralyzed.

Each tentacle exploded in flame after flame, the noxious fumes coating the arena in a smog that was hard to see in, but at the same time, each one meant that Starlight was losing ground. She gasped some sort of whickering swears at the human, wailing whatever tentacles she had left, before suddenly swinging one at Sunset, who was unable to see it due to the smog - knocking her against the ground and killing some of the remaining monsters, before it exploded, leaving Starlight standing in the snow by herself. The Heart on her was racing now, as she lit up her horn, and grabbed CD in it, who suddenly found themselves unable to move. And then she brought CD up close to her deranged face, and growled, "Spar....kle....." before grabbing hold of CD's mask.

=>

Starlight is ripping your mask off.
Your heart is pumping. You feel the toxic gas sting your lungs as her grip on your limbs tightens. You can't move anything but your mouth.

Oh, hey, your mouth. It's still bleeding!
You spit blood into Starlight's eyes. She screams, and loses her grip on you as she tries to wipe out the ichor from her vision. It's the chance you needed, and by Dolores Dei, are you gonna take it. You sweep your leg under her hooves, knocking her prone, and claw at her exposed chest to rip the heart out. It makes a horrid schlick noise at it struggles to stay attached to its host, but when you pull it out far enough, you simply captchalogue it to cut it off from the world. You can feel it try to break free from its prison, but nothing stops quantum code.
Nothing could hope to beat quantum code in a containment-off. It is simply the best there is.

The toxic fumes finally begin to dissipate, sludge vanishing into the aether upon your collection of the heart. The mountain is clean again, and you stretch your limbs and pop your spinal bones in celebration.
You hold the card aloft, and shout a victory cry.

=>

C-Side: Check on Starlight.

You return to your senses after Delta's victory roar. You have a sneaking suspicion as to why exactly Starlight took that heart, and you move to test your theory. You wipe the blood from her eyes and press your fingers against her nose, checking for signs of breath.
She's not breathing. You gasp, and decide there's only one course of action to take. You get down on your knees, roll her onto her back, and try to perform CPR.
You're not certified, of course not. The only thing even approaching knowledge was watching a shitty training video your job at a retail store made you watch. You remember one thing about it, and that was to use a song with a beat of with a BPM of roughly 103.
Like Stayin' Alive. You hate irony sometimes.

Your headmate emerges from your body, now that it's safe to walk around without gear. This is a mistake she'll probably regret, because you're still up on a snow smothered mountain, and you're the one wearing a jacket. But she's putting on her usual tough girl facade. Or maybe it's the facade of the white boy who walks out into freezing temperatures in shirt and shorts and claims it's "Not that cold."
Maybe she's just actually not bothered by the cold? Either way, she's confused by your own actions.

"Why are you giving her CPR?"
You don't respond, mostly because you don't really hear her question. She shrugs, and moves to collect the grist and materials that the underlings dropped.

You try to remember everything you can about CPR, though you're not sure how you personally feel about mouth-to-mouth with three other mares watching. In other scenarios it may be scintillating, but you're pretty sure they wouldn't care for that sight right now.
Luckily for you, she jolts upright, and starts coughing something fierce. You tap her on the back to help her dislodge whatever's in her throat, which results in a toxic looking glob of.. something.. to fly from her mouth. She pants, and you move to her front side. She yelps, and her horn lights up.
"Hey, hey, easy, easy. I'm just checking up on you. How many fingers am I holding up?" You flex them out, she blinks, and stares at you and your weird ass hands.
"..Uhm.. sssiiix?"
"Okay! Cool. Could you just follow this one with your eyes for me?" You move one finger back and forth, to make sure her vision isn't horribly impaired. Her pupils track along, albeit slightly slowly, and once you're satisfied, she frowns at you.
"What was.. what was that for?" Starlight asks.
"I'm checking to see if you're okay." You answer.

Delta tilts her head in confusion. "What? She just attacked us, why are you helping her?"
"Cuz I'm not a bastard that believes in the death penalty, Delta."
Starlight's eyes dart from you to the agents, who are inspecting the area post-disinfection. Lyra in particular is ensuring her magic was rightfully returned, visibly relieved to see it back, but still repeatedly testing it to make sure.
Starlight blanches, realizing that the only exit is right behind them, clearly aware that she's a wanted mare sitting in front of two royal agents.
And before she can formulate an escape plan, they spot her. She looks devastated.

"Hey, so," you begin. She looks back at you. "Were you gonna use that Heart to fight Twilight and her friends?"
You didn't think she was capable of getting even more pale than she already was. "Easy, easy," you assure her, "You weren't in your rightest of minds. It's all good."
She shivers and looks at Sunset Shimmer, who's shaking snow off her coat.
"I'm probably going to be thrown in a dungeon for this..!" Starlight grieves, and hides her head in her hooves.
"Well, Sunset and I are all kinda in the same boat as you. Wanna join our team?" You ask.

=>

The crew began to trudge back down the mountain, taking their pace relatively slow as they were all exhausted by the ordeal. Funnily enough, it seemed that C-Side and Delta could walk for longer distances than the mares, which they used to their advantage to scout ahead whenever the ponies needed to rest for a break.

"She was clearly overtaken by the rotting power of the Heart of Lead. She wasn't in control of her actions, and so I feel like she should't be culpable." C-Side argued.
"Isn't this the cultist bitch?" Delta objected. "Are you sure we want her to just walk free?"
"And what does that make Sunset? The other 'cultist bitch'?" C-Side retorted.

The two continued to bicker back and forth as they continued to travel down the mountain, Sunset keeping an eye on Starlight, who looked exhausted and traumatized.
"So... you too, huh?" Sunset opened.
"What do you mean, me too?" Starlight asked.
"Well, we both tried to make a huge grasp at control. Apparently you're the cultist bitch." she joked.
"I am not-! Okay, well-! Maybe! But-"
"Nah, I get it. Don't worry."

Starlight looked away for a moment, then back at Sunset. "What did you do...?"
"So, you know that magic school in Canterlot? I.. failed the entry exam, and wasn't let in. In my rage, I studied obscure anti-magic enchantments in the Manehattan school of magic, and, well.. When the elements were in town, I stole Twilight's crown and tried to take her and her friends on in a bid for power, and kinda.. used corrupting magic to have some of the students under my control."
"Huh. That sounds like would've made for a solid plan."
"Yeah, well, it failed. I didn't account for anti-magic spells also knocking all of the magic out of me. Which made me lose control of my own thralls, left me in a six-on-one brawl, and, well," She tapped the anti-magic device on her horn, "My own creation was used against me."
Starlight was silent for a bit.

"They're probably not gonna let me go free, huh?"
"Probably not. Buuuut.. if C-Side over there wants you on the team, arguing your case for you.. it could probably earn you your freedom."
"...Why? Why would she want me around? She doesn't know me at all!"
"Beats me. She just.. knows shit. It's weird, but she does."
Starlight squinted at the two humans walking next to each other. "...Wait. Which is C-Side?"
"The one with the.. uhm.." Sunset snickered. "Kinda wimpier voice? She's slightly shorter than Delta, and her hair curls up tighter."
"Aaand.. why are you helping them again?"
"If I help them, the anti-magic ring comes off. They're the ones who let that weird statue loose on Equestria; there's three more of them, too, and if they're not dealt with, the world will end. Apparently. I wasn't really given much briefing, which, pfft. Of course I didn't."

Bon Bon sidled up next to them, and began to whisper. "Not to speak out of line, but no, I'm in the same boat as you all. Almost nopony really told me or my partner what was going on. I'm just trying to keep a straight face with these humans because they're - well, they're confusing! I want at least one of them to tell me their entire story, but I feel like they keep purposefully holding back information!"
Delta's eye twitched. Lyra joined in on the whispering. "Maybe it's because she feels like she can't trust us?"
"Maaaaybe." Sunset scrunched her nose a little. "Maybe it's because of where she came from?"

"Sunset, do you know what a Skaia session is?" Bon Bon asked. "It's technically classified information, but apparently discretion has gone out the window with Delta and C-Side."
"I studied a small amount of it. More or less whatever dissertations from Starswirl the Bearded were available in the Manehattan Library's restricted archives. Something about the end of the world, right?"
"Right. Not even the usual threat that most villains promise, we're talking absolute endgame. It's almost a formality, according to what I was told by Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia?" Sunset and Starlight asked at the same time.
"Oh, yeah, she was all sorts of mad." Lyra gave a nervous grin. "Like you couldn't see it if you weren't trained for picking up on emotional tells, but she was furious."

"So.. do you think, maybe, just maybe, the world actually will end because of her actions? And that she's not telling you all everything because.. she thinks we'll be dead soon?" Starlight shuddered.
The group looked up at the humans, who'd merged back into one body, and was now eerily quiet.
"Well.. I hope not." Sunset replied. "..I know you said you're not gonna help us, Agent Drops, but.."
"Ugh, no, those were just orders that she's still trying to abide by." Lyra rolled her eyes. "I think you're gonna need all the help you can get. You can count me in on trying to stop this Skaia thing."
"Thanks, Agent Heartstrings."
"Ah, just call me Lyra."

=> CD: Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

It takes a lot of fucking effort not to cry. You have a tendency to just dissociate entirely when both of you are stressed out and neither side can front. You know that vaguely, the group booked a few hotel rooms to rest and recuperate from the fight.

You remember something about Lyra calling into HQ to report Starlight Glimmer's apprehension, and her proposal to add you to the team of outlaws tasked with this mission. You think they said they'd have a verdict in the morning.

There's some food on the table. You don't remember ordering food, but it's there. You're not even really aware of what time it is. A part of you was mentally gearing up to play Hobocop and sleep in the nearest dumpster.
Your body shivers.
STUCK ALL NIGHT ON BLINK AND BREATHE AND SWALLOW. KEEP IT UP UNTIL I AWAKE.

=>

The crew gathered up at the Crystal Empire train station. Lyra and CD were using a combination of Intel and Shivers to triangulate the location of the next dark heart. They opted to try for the one in the western parts of Equestria. They set their sights on Las Pegasus.

Bon Bon approached the still-apprehensive Starlight and took off her glasses to make direct eye contact with the new convict.
"Well, congratulations, Miss Glimmer." Bon Bon began, we just received word of your verdict, and thanks to CD's suggestion, you're now part of the team. Welcome aboard. You can call me Agent Sweetie Drops, you already know Lyra and Sunset."
"..Okay, but why?! Why did this come about?" Starlight exclaimed, and then pointed at CD. "You, in particular! You had the idea!"
"We can't explain why, but, you're kind of important..? And for reasons we can't say, you being on our side is good..?" C-Side began, but then she suddenly clutched at her mane and yanked on it, before Delta emerged from C-Side's form performing the same gesture.
"RRRGHH! WE SOUND LIKE FUCKING MANIACS! DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF RIGHT NOW?!" Delta whirled around to scream at C-Side, who was shocked.

"THE MORE YOU KEEP UP THAT PLEDGE OF WITHHOLDING THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL THIS SHIT, THE WORSE IT'S GONNA GET! I'M SICK OF IT! I'M SICK OF BEING SCRUTINIZED BY FEDS AND ROYALTY AND WHATEVER ELSE THEY HAVE HERE! SICK OF IT!"

"Delta-" C-Side tried to appease, but a sharply pointed finger and bared teeth stopped her effort, as Delta screamed, "SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN TIRED OF THIS? OF EVERYTHING?! ALL I WANTED WAS TO FIND AN ISLAND AND DRINK BOOZE AND SMOKE WEED UNTIL MY LIVER GAVE OUT AND EXPLODED FROM THE POISONING. BECAUSE I'M TIRED OF LIVING, AND ESPECIALLY, I'M TIRED OF LIVING WITH YOU!"

C-Side was shaking, and began to tear up.
"OHHHH, DON'T. DON'T FUCKING START. DON'T CRY AND SOB AND WAIL ABOUT HOW LIFE'S SO MISERABLE FOR YOU. I WAS FINE WITH HELPING YOU BACK THEN, WHEN I FIRST STARTED TALKING IN YOUR HEAD, BUT AS THE YEARS WENT ON, I JUST HAD TO BEAR WITNESS TO EVERY STUPID MOVE YOU PULLED, CLEANING UP THE MESSES YOU MADE, AND COMING TO THIS UNIVERSE WAS THE LATEST AND GREATEST OF ALL YOUR FUCKUPS! YOU- YOU- YOU FUCKING HORSE!!"
The surrounding mares gasped. Delta didn't care. She kicked C-Side in the shin, and stormed aboard the train, roaring to herself.

Starlight tried to readjust herself, and whispered to Sunset, "What in the ten layers of Tartarus is wrong with her?"
"I don't really know. She's just all sorts of messed up, I guess." Sunset replied.
The agents weren't really sure what to do about the situation. Emotional support was not their strong suit. C-Side silently boarded the train, before dissipating into Disco II, leaving the group with only an enraged Delta, who pulled out another can of booze from her inventory and chugged it.

It was gonna be a long ride.